Month: July 2017

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. Galatians 5:7-8

“What…are…those?” This was the question I was asked as we were unpacking groceries and supplies I bought yesterday morning. Once the question was asked, everyone gathered around to see the apparently odd specimen that was sitting on the table. I never gave my family’s reaction a thought when I innocently purchased foam rollers for my hair. Why in the world were they causing such a stir?

My hubby, with big eyes, informed me those were for grandmas. What in the world was he talking about? Well, apparently his grandma used to walk around with rollers in her hair every Saturday. After I informed him I bought them to wear to bed not walk around in all day, his expression went from stunned, to one of horror. The boys were just as bad! You would’ve thought they just found out I’d robbed a store.

I didn’t understand any of these reactions I was receiving! You know, it’s the most innocent of things that I do that tend to get the biggest reactions. I live with guys; they could care less about how I fix my hair. How are there strong opinions all of a sudden about by beauty regimen? I wasn’t asking them to put rollers in their hair!

“Mom you can’t do that,” I was told.

“You’re going to wear those to bed?!” asked my hubby in an odd kind of panic.

What was with these guys? I was trying something new for a wedding we were going to without using a curling iron. The humidity has been playing havoc with my hair when I use a flat iron lately. Even so…what do they care? Apparently a whole lot!

It actually was a hilarious experience that I’m still chuckling over today, but other people’s reactions aren’t always so funny when they make you question your beliefs, your thoughts, and even your worth. There is one thing that I can guarantee you, every person you know is going to have opinions of what you’re doing and how you should be doing it.

The important part is knowing how to sift through all their opinions in order to hear God’s opinion. Sometimes He’ll use people to confirm what you’ve been hearing from Him or give you sound advice, but sometimes the devil will use people to confuse you and get you to step out of the will of God.

There’s only one way to know for sure how to sift through those opinions correctly, and that’s to go directly to the One who knows the best for you. This is where we need to carefully weigh all the advice so it doesn’t steal our joy and confidence that we receive through Jesus. We need to figure out which ones to respectfully let go and which ones to line up with.

Are you letting people’s opinions influence the way you’re living your life? Are they helping you run the race for the Lord or are you letting them steer you off course? Be careful that your eyes stay focused on the One at the end and not allowing the distractions from opinions make you lose your way. Go to God to open your eyes and ears for the path to Him.

 

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. Titus 3:1-2

I’m sitting on my new front porch sipping some nice, cold lemonade without a care in the world. I’ve left the grass behind and all the lawn care that goes with it. Sand and shells have replaced those weeds that we so lovingly called grass. There are no more lawn mowers that don’t work, clumps of grass, and sweaty bodies from the hard work…just ice cold lemonade and a hand fan to blow around the breeze in front of my face. Just living the life.

Ha! Back to reality. We haven’t learned enough from the grass to move forward just yet. It’s amazing how God chooses to use our yard to teach me life lessons. He’s filling me up with wisdom every time I mow the grass. It just came to me…when I need God’s wisdom, I’ll go start up a lawn mower. Bam! A life lesson will appear.

I was push mowing (since we said, “Au revoir” to the riding one) during the heat of the day yesterday when my hubby came home. I was drenched with sweat and a little out of breath when he may have suggested I was doing it wrong. Hypothetically speaking the condescending tone may not have been too nice. Was I or was I not helping out? Was I or was I not doing it just like HE told me to do it? Hypothetically speaking of course.

If we say this happened, my tongue was ready to unleash some potentially harmful poison with my words. However, it was as if I had an electric collar on that they make for dogs that give off a warning beep before the shock is transmitted. That warning was sure beeping loudly and I was a kid in elementary school with my hand waving in the air begging the teacher to call on me because I learned this lesson and knew the answer!

My teacher had taught me to say, “Honey…” Now let me screech to a halt right there. This hurts a little bit the first time you respond to a perceived offense, and I know you’re thinking that there is no way that you’re going to call your loved one “honey” after you feel they’ve wronged you. This is where I need to remind you about that Proverb that tells us what a gentle word does and what a harsh word does. Ooooh, I felt like a harsh word, but was taught what I was supposed to say.  At that moment I got to choose the outcome.

I just learned this lesson. It was time to say this without stumbling over my words. “Honey, are you intending to sound mean right now?” This can’t be done in a sarcastic way either! You aren’t storming off, you aren’t belittling, you aren’t snapping, and you aren’t tearing anyone down. You are choosing gentleness in a moment when steam might be coming out of your ears. You are speaking calmly and lovingly.

He looked at me a little strangely and said, “No.” He wasn’t as tense or defensive than if I would’ve let him have it, but it wasn’t a Hallmark moment either. I’ll tell you what didn’t happen though…the situation didn’t escalate into anger and words that would’ve been regretted later…hypothetically of course. What did happen? Calmness. He looked a little dazed and it wasn’t exactly the reaction I was going for, but I felt like I got the answer right after being called on.

Sometimes we just have to be patient because the subject was brought up again later, and not by me.  This is when the calm and loving conversation took place. Life was good and emotions didn’t need to take over with bitter consequences resulting.  You don’t always need sand and shells to be just living the life.

Max Lucado said, “I choose gentleness… Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself. ”

I won yesterday without force, but so did my hubby. You know the devil loves those moments when he can use us for his gain. He loves to create division and he loves us to use harsh words on one another. He wants to only steal, kill, and destroy any good thing possible.

Are you going to let the devil get his way today and speak harshly, or are you going to be peaceable, considerate, and gentle? I sure hope you hear a little beeping sound going off in warning when you get ready to let someone have it. Please, just try it a few times and I really believe you’ll not only keep from getting the negative consequences, but you’ll soon start to see positive rewards.

 

 

 

For we live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

I really wanted to write something today, but I’ve been going through some sort of confidence issue. Have you ever been sailing along when you start to question if you can do something that you’ve already been doing? Is the devil attacking, trying to steal God’s glory? Is someone’s voice drowning out God’s? Could it be recognizing that we really don’t have what it takes to produce something meaningful all on our own?

I found out that it could be any of those things plus so many more, but we just need to battle it with one thing. The solution to all our issues…faith. Ideas, dreams, or jobs may seem impossible in our eyes, but I’ve found that when I have some faith (even a teeny, tiny bit) in believing what I think God has told me and I take a step in that faith, He makes the rest happen.

When we talk about doing something that seems impossible to human eyes, let’s take a little look at me. My children accuse me of having a magnetic field around me that messes up all electronics within a certain radius. Seriously, I gave up trying to watch television because the buttons on the remote do not work for me! Yet, I have a blog.

My best friend used to joke that she couldn’t sit too close to me or my spelling might rub off on her. I’m writing and people are able to read it? Just don’t look too closely!

My mind gets so fuzzy from being bit by a crazy tick that when I’m writing, it doesn’t even make sense to me. It doesn’t seem possible that I would write and put it out into the digital world. I do. I’m even told there are people who’ll read it. Guess what…it makes sense to them. Makes me wonder about you people.

Let me tell you what it looks like when we decide to step out in faith to do something within God’s will. I made up my mind that I was going to sit down at the computer even if nothing came out. I might not have any idea (like most times I should add) what I could write about, but I’d let God figure that one out. I was determined to take the pup out for a walk, pray about it, and sit down at the computer.

The leash was in my hand, the pup at my side, and we were ready to go. It’s tradition to stop at his potty area for him to do his business before we start out. His area is in the woods. It’s a nice shady spot with lots of trees. I’ll admit to being on guard for a snake curled up or a bear lingering around, but never have I been worried about a bird.

As we stepped under those trees, a bird took off while attacking me with some business of his own. I found myself in disbelief at the perfect precision the white slime had when it smacked me right in the middle of my forehead and continued to run down my nose. After the pup was finished, we headed back in for a quick wipe off before taking our journey down the road.

I was back on track and ready to listen to God in case he wanted to clue me in on what I was going to write about when it dawned on me that He had just given me what I needed. Do these types of things happen just so I have something to write about? Well, all I had to do was get into agreement with what He wanted me to do and have a little faith that He’d take care of the rest when He gave me what to write about.

I was trying to figure out how I was supposed to go with this story. Did I talk about how we need to be alert and never complacent about what’s going on around us? I had a bit of a revelation that all my issues have occurred from the small, harmless things and never from the “dangerous” ones in my life. So, I really could talk about how we have our guard down around things that don’t seem like a big deal, yet those are the ones we end up getting hit by.

What I think I need to say is simple though. Stop worrying about how things look and start living by faith. Remember that mustard seed. All it takes is a simple step showing you’re believing and trusting God to do what you could never do on your own.

When something happens and you want to complain about it, recognize the situation might’ve been from GOD for you, instead of against you. Even if it was done by the devil, remember that it can be taken and used as a stepping stone by God for you to get to the next level.

I’ll even throw in an extra word of wisdom…when you look up, keep your mouth closed. That could’ve been really bad.

Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up. These events will bring great honor to the LORD’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.” Isaiah 55:13 (New Living Translation)

Finally, the spring flowers are in planters on my porch! You can go ahead and check the date, but you’ll find that it most certainly is no longer spring, but mid-July. No judging here! What happened to the time? We’re getting ready to start school back up, but I’m just planting my wave petunias. I may have even suggested to my hubby that I might as well wait and get mums instead.

The planters that I have on my porch I got a couple years ago, and I love to see them bringing cheer to the house. The thing is, the planters are just plain, plastic boxes that aren’t all that pretty. They’re really just the shells to the wonderful, live plants that grow from the inside. It’s awesome to see the plants overflow and grow abundantly from those planters.

During the winter, we planted ground pine in the planters and placed pinecones between the pretty greens. It was great! The ground pine started to yellow and looked not so fresh anymore in the early spring, so we pulled those out to prepare for our spring flowers. Except the spring flowers never came!

Do you think the planters stayed empty when they weren’t being filled with something pleasing to the eye? Nope! I was growing weeds. The planters looked horrible and neglected. They apparently decided to fill themselves up when I wasn’t doing the job for them.

Well, the flowers are now in and growing beautifully. They bring a smile to my face to see the improvement from weeds to flowers. Also, the great part is that they’ll get bigger and get even more blooms on them as they are tended to!

I realized that it’s easy for us to all go through a season of not producing anything beautiful, just like my planters. It really becomes dangerous when we get it in our head to just wait a while longer before doing anything about it. Can you imagine what those weeds would’ve looked like if I waited to plant mums? Would I have put that off too?

Remember that we’re just a shell on the outside like those planters. The growth that spills out to make us beautiful and bring smiles is what is planted and nurtured on the inside. When we let our insides go empty for a while, we tend to grow some weeds.

Make sure to fill your planters with God’s things before Satan’s weeds start growing without you meaning for them to. Start by clearing out the weeds and begin planting new life to let his power and love overflow!

 

Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me and teach me your law. Psalm 119:29

I was counting the many things I was thankful for on a walk last week and the weirdest things were coming to mind. Not having a bunch of bugs in the house and having to sleep under a net…grateful. Not getting rodents in the house very often…thankful. The appreciation was pouring out of me by the time I got home.

Living in joy and peace, I made my way downstairs to get a few chores down when I saw a black rope on the floor. As I got closer to find out why it was there, I realized that rope wasn’t a rope! I had a snake in my basement! I was by myself with nobody around to help me. Was I brave enough to get it out of my house? I asked that question over and over. I knew I had to keep it from getting away and hiding . No way was I knowingly going to live with a snake in my house.

I found a bucket and covered it up, then promptly had the thought that apparently God felt the need to remind me that I should be thankful for not having snakes in my house too! I notice that I tend to be more grateful for things that I don’t have to deal with today that I’ve had to deal with in the past. Now I can add snakes to that list. I still had a problem though. I had a snake trapped (I hoped) under a bucket in my basement.

Timing was everything in this situation. I remembered my cousin was in the area for just a couple days and he’d be coming over in an hour for us to go to lunch. I gave him a call, and he was willing to come over a bit early and help me get it outside. He did feel the need though to inform me that my hubby would hear about this from him. Fine, I’d tell him my scaredy-cat ways myself.

My cousin carefully lifted up a side of the bucket and put it back down saying, “I thought you told me it was little.” Well, it was little! Apparently it was big for that type of snake…who knew. He had me get him some cardboard and carefully slid it under the bucket before turning the bucket back over. The snake wasn’t too happy at this point, but neither was I!

We (meaning I helped…you know held the door, gave advice…that type of thing) got it taken care of and took it outside to let it go. It was out of my house! My cousin was my hero that day.

Sometimes things that are unwanted tend to show up in our houses that we never meant to be there. A sin can show up and make itself right at home in us as that snake did. Be aware that it can happen and quickly get it out, even if that means asking for help. We need to be open today in allowing the Lord to show us any deceitful ways that have been hidden inside.

There was a lot I was grateful for with my little adventure the other day. My problem was in clear view, it didn’t try to get away and hide, I had someone ready to help, and it was dealt with quickly. May your sins be dealt with just as neatly.  If you wouldn’t knowingly live with a snake in your house, why would you live knowingly with a sin in God’s house?

 

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Luke 18:27

The key went flying through the air, I dusted my hands off, and I said, “This has happened for the last time.” My youngest was outside staring at me with a bewildered expression on his face. It was a cross between shock and amusement.

I did what any logical mother would do, I told him he’d have to help me look for that key if I couldn’t find it. Since I decided to toss it where that broken down lawn mower had managed to get a row mowed, I calmly went over and picked it back up. Without my hubby being aware of my revelation, I figured it would be too hard to explain why we no longer had a key to the lawn mower. Plus, I had to set a good example for my wide-eyed son. Well, maybe I had blown that already, but I was teaching him how to get himself back under control quickly!

I really wasn’t all that upset at the lawn mower because by now we’re used to it. I haven’t mowed the lawn this year without it breaking down due to belt issues. We’ve actually gotten to the point where we could find humor in the old thing and my hubby became a record setting, belt-changing machine! It had crossed the line though for the last time when it almost kept me from doing something nice for my hubby…again! No sir, it wasn’t going to stop me from moving forward. It was just a minor stumbling block. We had a perfectly good push mower that actually helped us move ahead rather than hold us back.

I let the hubby know that I had a surprise for him when he called before leaving work. I told him I broke the lawn mower, which he chuckled and said, “What’s new?” He thinks he’s so clever. Lucky for him the real surprise was that the lawn was mowed, huh?

When he got home and I let him know that although we’ve grown in character from that lawn mower, I felt it was time to let it go. I really wasn’t sure if he’d give the ok on this idea of mine. To my surprise, he never even blinked before he came into complete agreement with me. I got the impression he was just a little bit relieved when he knew he wouldn’t have to carry that burden any more. He tried all he knew how to do, but he was bandaging the problem because he couldn’t get to the root of it. We should’ve turned it over to the company that sold us it when the belt broke the first time it was used.

How many times have we spent way longer trying to “help” someone that only left us drained and the person having the same issues over and over than we should have? How many times has God been waiting for us to get out of the way so that He could get to work? We aren’t giving up on that lawn mower, but we finally had our eyes opened to see that it was time to hand it over to someone who has more ability than we do in that area.

Let me make it clear that we never, ever, ever give up on someone…period. Please listen to this though: there does come a time when we need to hand those keys over to God in order for that person to get the help only He can give. Do you know that just might free us up to move forward too? We can move from being the fixer (responsible for something we can’t quite handle) to the supporter (where we pray and encourage).

Is there an area where you need to be moving from the fixer to the supporter? I challenge you to think about that today because what is impossible with man is possible with God. Do you need to get out of His way so that the best Fixer out there can do what only He can do?