Month: April 2019

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

This Easter season had my brain going off on a strange trip today. Many would say that isn’t too unusual but wait until you hear where it’s taken me this time. Wildfires. I think I can connect this for you if you stick with me. My thoughts aren’t as random as my hubby might think. They make sense to me anyway!

I was thinking back to 2016 when a wildfire took place in Virginia. I remember hearing about the thousands of acres that were burning from the Shenandoah forest fire. It took me back to the visits with the beautiful hills and turns of Skyline Drive. I’ve been there with my parents, with my hubby, and with my own boys. Thinking the beauty of that area was being lost really bothered me.

My dad needed to put things into perspective for me. Even though it looked bad, not all forest fires are bad. Actually, they can be incredibly beneficial for our ecosystem and quite natural. I had to do some looking into this. I suppose I knew about controlled burns, but did I know why they were even used?

Time for me to do some digging to find out how beauty could be made from ashes. The article “How does a forest fire benefit living things?” by Laurie Dove answered many of my questions. Here’s some positives I learned.

• Nutrients return to the soil.
• Underbrush and invasive species are cleared.
• Sunlight can get to the forest floor.
• Native species can return.
• Diseases and damaging insects are eliminated.
• Wildflowers bloom abundantly.
• More diverse species in animals and plants can be seen.

Easter is all about rebirth and new beginnings. Jesus showed us mercy in such a magnificent way when we didn’t get the punishment we deserved by taking it on Himself. He extended such grace to us when He blessed us with that direct relationship with God by no work on our part. He died so we’d receive a new life. It was ugly, painful, and horrific. Yet, if we keep looking at the cross, we miss the beauty of the resurrection. Accept the wildflowers!

As more land is being developed, not only are animals and vegetation being harmed, but property and people are too. That’s the heartbreaking part. I hate to see the suffering and pain families are dealing with after a wildfire has swept through their neighborhoods. I pray that anyone who’s been caught in this situation remained optimistic that there is new life after fires. Not only for the land but for them too. If this was you, turn your eyes from the scorched, hot places and see promises of the future.

We can receive the Easter gift anytime and anywhere. We can go back to it during each difficulty we face. When we see nothing alive and good, we’re looking at the destruction from what happened and not the resurrection of what’s to come. Wildflowers are coming. Greater and more diverse blessings will be upon you even if things look dead, dark, and dismal. Accept what can happen in this season of your life with the hope of a new chapter. Your greatest chapters aren’t behind you.

What’s happening during your own personal wildfire? Nutrients are returning to your heart as the decay turns into ashes. All the bad weeds that took over are being cleared away for healthy seeds to sprout that were lying dormant or even being choked out by the invasive species. God’s light can now reach you! Halleluiah! The diseases and damaging things that have been in your life are being eliminated. The blessings, the beauty, the wildflowers are coming. A greater and more diverse world is being prepared for you!  Let the wildfire be beneficial to you.

Oh, one more thing I learned. Most animals can smell the fire from miles away, even if it’s small. Pay attention to your nose today. Sometimes we can tell there’s trouble coming. Don’t freeze from the destruction, rather run to the reconstruction. Get out of the way so you aren’t trapped by the wildfire while waiting for the wildflowers!  It’s your Easter gift…He has risen!

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21

We had that white stuff falling from the sky again yesterday. You know, the cold stuff that’s supposed to be gone by now and replaced with sunshine. I wracked my brain trying to come up with a good reason not to be annoyed. Aha! I was reaching but found it. The cicadas. My heart did a little tap-dance in my chest when I saw that this was the spring they’ll emerge after their last party seventeen years ago. The cold temperature was keeping them away a little longer.

Hate is too strong of a word to use for cicadas. They’re just out there doing their thing unlike the ticks that I’d like to see decimated.  A small, personal opinion. I do hold a teensy grudge from their last bash. They were only out for a good time and being completely harmless when things got a bit out of control.

The swarm of noisy partiers decided to move into our yard. I acknowledge they didn’t intentionally set out to make me nuts but the chaos that ensued left a lasting impression. They were buzzing around, enthusiastically greeting one another without a care in the world. The level of excitement made things quite noisy. If you’ve never experienced one of their get-togethers, just picture Black Friday right as a store opens that has the best deals with the most amazing items.

I made the mistake of trying to get to my front door in the midst of the madness. The thing is, I was huge, they were not. I was waddling up the sidewalk with my big belly leading and one of those overly energetic bugs crashed right into me. The rest are jabbering away all around me and I’m in crisis mode. Not that it was overly painful, but it went right down my shirt.

Who was more surprised and damaged by the incident? I’m not sure, but I do know that it was trapped. Inside. My. Shirt. There wasn’t a whole lot of room in there to maneuver, and it was too noisy for me to think. In the midst of my dilemma, I did have the grand revelation that it needed to get out! The only way I could think of freeing it was to get the barrier off between it and God’s world.

With my hubby’s mouth hanging open, that’s just what I did. I didn’t think it through; I instinctively needed to provide some self-preservation. I didn’t have time to go through all the pros and cons when I knew that if I dealt with it much longer, the crisis would create a catastrophic meltdown from this very pregnant lady. Thank God we didn’t live in the city and there weren’t any airplanes flying overhead.

Later that night, one of them decided to bring the party into the house. It was jamming out to its own song, when my hubby saw something that must’ve frightened him. I believe my eyes got huge while darting from one corner of the room to the other. He recognized that it would be in his best interest to find and escort the intruder out of our home, maybe for his self-preservation.

What did I learn? When in the midst of a crisis, don’t ignore my own well-being. If I did that day, the cicada could’ve died in there and I could’ve dropped from exhaustion or had a panic attack by the time everything was dealt with. That wouldn’t have helped the situation. What if my hubby didn’t understand what was going on? I’d have stayed in crisis mode while dragging him right in there with me.

This is a bit of a silly (even though true) story to recognize a very serious issue. We all face times of crisis in our lives, and it’s better to know how we’re going to handle them before they come along. When we don’t give ourselves a break from a crisis, we will break from it.

Have you tried to play superman or superwoman while in crisis mode? How did that work out for you? Were you the one who needed treatment at the end of it all? How were your other relationships by then? Were you exhausted and snapping but refusing to step outside of the crisis for a moment? Don’t play the martyr as it’s referred to these days (a self-imposed victim or self-possessed champion) because it takes God out of the crisis. Isn’t that who we want smack-dab in the center?

Take a second to throw your shirt up…oh whoa…uh yeah…that didn’t come out right. Let’s try that again. Take a breather during a crisis to receive that peace from Jesus. As God sent Jesus, He knows just where to send us to maximize our effectiveness. That one decision to let Him send us will provide the exact prescription needed in the crisis we face.

Maybe before I went rushing into the swarm of cicadas, if I’d have prepared better, I wouldn’t have contributed to the chaos. I’d have the instructions to bring peace through the entire trip from the beginning to the destination without trapping others along the way. At least, I took that moment to deal with my own issue before continuing on.

I challenge you to take time out for a consultation from the One who can better prepare you to face the chaos in peace, while increasing your effectiveness. Won’t that allow you to lift others instead of being drug into the chaos? When that peace starts slipping, it doesn’t mean to keep going as you are, it means to get back to the Peacemaker. Let God define the best way for you to contribute during a crisis. I know it will be peace instead of more chaos.

Remember to give yourself a break from a crisis, so you don’t break from it.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. Hebrews 10:35-36 (ESV)

When we receive new products, they come with a manual. They’re repeated in several languages with the hope that one of them with allow us to get the most out of the product. Most come with warnings and dangers too. When we leave the hospital with the most complicated, new item on earth, we get a congratulations and good luck while we think someone muttered, “they’ll need it.”

This isn’t exactly true, but I hear many people complaining about babies coming without a manual. I know I received quite a bit of information, but the fact is, nothing can truly be written with all the precise details to help us raise children. Information is certainly out there; we just need to search. We wouldn’t be able to fit the manual in the vehicle if all the information was combined into one book or even a volume of books.

I do know there is one manual out there that is a guide that has lasted generations and has stayed relevant on the fundamentals of having a successful life. The Bible. It may not contain illustrations on how to change a diaper, but it has guidelines to life. Often, it’s the best place to begin and end when trying to figure out a problem. A concordance to the Bible is especially helpful.

Many times, I’ve tried to look up verses on self-confidence without a whole lot of success. Surely with all the talk about self-confidence, it must be in that life manual! Come on…I need a foundation before hitting YouTube. What about some mantras or visualizations? Oh, how about breathing techniques? Don’t forget about standing up straight with our shoulders back (but don’t stick out the belly!) and head held high. Fake it until you make it?

I’ve reached a conclusion. There’s no self when joining our lives with God. Take the self out of self-confidence and we’ll be on the right track. Mantras and visualizations? Fantastic! They’re a great tool when you don’t actually believe you’re getting confidence from words or pictures just because you’re putting them out there. Your confidence goes back to being aligned with God’s will for your life and His promises of a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Look at that! A “c” word that begins with self.

Let’s have self-control in putting our confidence in the right person without letting our fears overtake us. The power to be brave will be there. We don’t have to look at our shortcomings anymore because it’s God’s ability that our confidence will be in, not our own. That should allow us to breathe easier! If nerves are still high, do some of that square breathing to calm the anxiety.  Also, be sure to look confident in your stance because of whose you are.

Go ahead and pull out that concordance to look up scriptures on confidence, fear, and courage. Let them sink in and remember that when we’re in front of people, about to express a difficult opinion, or with a crowd that makes us unsure, use it for God’s glory. Do we really think we have more power than Him?  If we’re following His word and being His representatives in life, we won’t screw it up more than He can cover.  Endure for Him.

I challenge you to take your focus off yourself in stressful, nerve-wracking situations, and put it on the only One we can be fully confident in. Always fall back on being kind, even if it’s just through facial expressions. It transcends language barriers, cultural differences, age gaps, and whatever else you can think of.

So, put on some stress response deodorant and remember that being brave is simply being scared and doing it anyway. Don’t let fear win. That’s feeding into the devil’s plans. Robin Sharma said, “The fears we don’t face become our limits.” Don’t limit what God can do through you!

At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. Daniel 4:34

As my boys and I were sitting around our dining room table beginning our school day, I caught a whiff of something quite pungent in the air. I chalked it up to my imagination until I realized it was getting stronger and wasn’t going away. Since the occasional nasty smell permeates my home (two teenage boys), my tolerance for stinky odor might be a little higher than some. I’m pretty quick at figuring out the source, but this time was an exception. There was no need for reminders of manners because no way this was coming from them. Besides there not being any smirks, grins, giggles, or outright guffaws, it smelled of bleach or chlorine mixed with plastic. I was clueless.

I asked the boys if they noticed it because if they could smell it, I knew we had a problem. Frankly, their nose sensitivity went out the door a long time ago! I think that’s for survival. Anyhow, they agreed it was starting to stink like crazy. The search was on for the origin of our problem. When my oldest said it reminded him of the smoldering house that recently was on fire near us, I kicked it into high gear.

We were like bloodhounds as we walked around nose first trying to determine if it was coming from the vents, appliances, downstairs, or even outside. When we met back at the dining table, we agreed it was definitely coming from that specific area, and it wasn’t getting any better. My oldest asked if it could be coming from the lightbulb above the table. Seriously? How did we forget that it was just flashing? We said it was burning out within the past half-hour. Yet, it had stayed on; we didn’t expect that.

When I got to studying them, the bulbs looked like they had brown tar melted on them. If we wouldn’t have taken time to really look down in the coils, could there have been a fire? After getting the lights shut off, I called my hubby to see if this could be a bulb issue or an electric issue. It ended up not being the electric that was the problem, and I finally got matching bulbs throughout my house the next day! Woo hoo!

Fine, maybe it seems a little weird that matching lightbulbs would make me do a jig. Sure, not everyone would see having lights where three out of the four bulbs were different and very noticeable would care. Me? I was thrilled with our new purchase. I swear the guys never noticed, but that was to me what wearing Realtree and Mossy Oak together would be to them. Now that might make them say, “How uncivilized.” Never mind, they probably actually do that too.

This would’ve been solved way quicker if we started right there where we were sitting. Instead, we had to search everywhere else and question each other before realizing the answer was above us. Sound familiar? Ever do that? I’m guessing many of us do. We recognize something stinks a bit. We don’t trust that little nudge and try to ignore it until it gets too bad to be ignored. Then, we start questioning everyone around us; we’re trying to see if others agree with what we’re “smelling.” Next, we search all over for an answer to our problem. If we have the right people, we’ll probably be led towards a positive solution. If not, your house could burn down!

Three lessons I learned from our smelly adventure would be to not ignore the stink, choose Godly council, and most importantly…start by looking up. I challenge you to raise your eyes! Your solution might be much simpler than you think.