She’s Having A Moment

We were at the mall one day before my daughter started Kindergarten. It was time to eat and she wanted to choose the lunch destination. I was busy trying to explain to her that she got new earrings so her brother got to choose where we would eat lunch. As you can imagine, that wasn’t going over so well. As I crouched down in the middle of the mall trying to work through the tears and drama – some men passed by. I politely said, “Please excuse us – we are having a moment.” My son speaks up and yells above the crying, “YEAH! She is having a moment!

Later that evening, when I actually had time to think . . . I had to laugh.
I wonder how many times God says about me? “Oh, she is having a moment!”

“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” James 1:5

I often find myself caught up in a situation, problem or concern that I am “having a moment about” and realize that I haven’t taken it to God. I have to remind myself to stop and go to God in prayer to seek His wisdom, peace, and guidance. I would love to be able to say I always realize this right away, but sometimes it is days before I remember to give it to God. The BIG stuff is easier to remember. You know things like job loss, finances, health concerns, etc. The big issues of life are always on the surface. It is the small things that can get pushed to the back of my mind, but constantly nagging away at my thoughts.

God cares about all things. The request may seem small or of little concern compared to the long list of major prayer requests you have, but as long as it is important to us – it is important to God. We can take the smallest concern or petition and place it at His feet.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 1 John 5:14-15

The next time you find yourself “having a moment”, stop and give it to God. Pray boldly and confidently.
Trust God to hear your prayers. Take time to be still and listen for His answer!

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
Psalms 145:18

One more thought – Saver

In my last post, I told the story of how my son wiped away a tear when I was crying and told me not to worry – that he would be my “saver.” I realized there was another lesson in this story.
So many times I think we try to make a friend, spouse, parent or family member our “saver” instead of our one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. We are setting a course for disaster when we do this.

First, it is a sin to put any other before our Lord and Savior. It is the first of the ten commandments even before thou shall not murder, steal or commit adultery. “You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3 The fact that God put this commandment above all the others should speak volumes to us. I believe if we would just follow this first commandment all the others would never be a problem because as we move closer to Christ we desire to live more as He did.

Secondly, no one has the ability to give us unconditional love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, cleanse us of our sins and promise us eternal life except our heavenly father. He alone can give us those things.

Thirdly, we are setting ourselves and those in our lives we have placed in the “saver” role up for a tremendous failure and disappointment. It can also cause great hardship in the relationship and often times will end it.

Let me be clear, I don’t think we elevate people to this level on purpose or with intention. I think it just happens over time. We begin to rely on the individual more than we do God and this allows sin into our lives.
The great news is that we can repent of this sin and start over with God. He is always there. Nothing can separate us from Him. We only need to claim His promises and accept His love.

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

Saver

It had been a particularly tough day. As I was saying prayers with the kids before bed my eyes welled up with tears. I had to pause for a moment to collect myself. My son looked up at me and wiped a tear off my cheek. He said, “Don’t worry Mommy, I’ll be your saver.” What a great little super hero!

I wonder how many times my Father in Heaven whispered to me “I’ll be your SAVIOR” as He counted the tears that fell from my face, walked beside me during a time of sin or difficulty. I’m so thankful He never gave up on me and kept nudging my heart back to Him.
He chased after my heart for many years before I was finally able to understand what it really meant to have Him in my life and accept all He was offering me. For so long, it was hard to comprehend how I could was worthy of His unconditional love, total forgiveness, grace, acceptance and mercy. The truth is I’m not worthy of it! None of us are, but God gives it to us anyway.

Kay Arthur recapped Ephesians this way in one of her books, “When we are saved, each of us becomes a member of Christ’s body, forged with resurrection power, and seated with Him in heavenly places above all rule, power, and authority. Nothing can alter our position. It is set forever in heaven. But position is one thing; living accordingly is another.”

For so many years of my life I held the position, but was not living like I did! I am learning to own my mistakes and my past. I don’t need to be ashamed, but instead ask forgiveness and move forward to living a life that is pleasing to God. Giving up my “old self” and walking in the light.

“for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” Ephesians 5:8 & 10

I thank God that He allows me a fresh start everyday! Another chance to do the right thing because there are many days when it feels I have failed miserably at pleasing Him. I praise Him for His abundant love, forgiveness and grace.

Gnats!

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” – Isaiah 26:3

Yes, gnats!! Those pesky little flies who love to hang around in the summer time. I was soaking in some morning sunshine and savoring a little quiet time to work on my bible study. Sitting right on the beach overlooking the water – the setting could not have been more perfect – except for the gnats!!!!

They were swarming around me. In my hair, my ears, my mouth. It was horrible. I knew this wasn’t an accident. The deceiver would love nothing more than for me to stop studying God’s Word. He will even use the smallest of insects to accomplish his goal. Well, I gave up on the perfect scenery and went inside, but kept studying!

I couldn’t help but think of all the others little things in my life that distract me and keep me from studying God’s Word, taking time to pray and listen for God’s whisper. There are certainly more things to distract me from God than there are things that lead me closer to Him. Especially in the world we live in.

A few years ago, “fitting” God in was a challenge, but the more I did it – the more I noticed all the time I had. Granted, I had been spending it in other ways and I have learned to fill it with God – not TV, not talking on the phone, not reading People while getting a pedicure – but spending it with God.

A little like spending all that time untangling my son’s Spiderman fishing pole. Not what I wanted to do at first and VERY challenging, but after seeing his face light up when I fixed it – that was worth all the time in the world. We need to get untangled and stop wasting our time on things of this world!

We need to sort through the things that take up more time than God.

I believe that this is one of those skills we will never master. We will always need God’s help to stay focused on Him and not the things of this world. I certainly have no power or discipline to do this on my own.

It all comes from Him!

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” – Isaiah 26:3

May I Take Your Order

It had been a long morning and I just wanted to go home and take a nap. I told my daughter on the way home from running errands that I would like to order a thunderstorm for the afternoon because that would be great “nap taking weather”. She replies, “but Mommy, it’s not a restaurant you can order from – it’s God’s thunderstorm. He will send it if He wants to.”

I am certainly guilty of “placing my order” with God instead of prayerfully seeking Him, giving Him control and trusting in His perfect plan. I have learned the hard way more times than I would like to admit. Although I still falter, I am so much better at listening and learning from God. I have a strong desire to seek God’s path for my life. I don’t always understand it, I don’t always like it, and sometimes He certainly thinks more highly of me than I do of myself. It takes a lot of trust and a lot of faith.

It is so difficult to fathom that God has had a plan, His perfect plan, for me since before he knit me in my mother’s womb. In reality, He knows me better than I will ever know myself. Read a little bit of Psalm 139.

¹ O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Once again, God spoke to me through my children. The little ones He knit into my womb. I am always amazed at how small children can make such a simple statement and have such a great impact on me. I pray that one day my children will read these stories and understand what an impact they have made on me and my walk with God.

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1

Forgiveness

During a rushed Monday morning trying to get everyone out the door, I lost my patience with the kids and yelled at them to please hurry and put their shoes – for the 4^th time.

Later that morning, before we went into the grocery store, I asked my son to crawl in my lap. As I hugged him I

told him I was sorry I had lost my temper. I explained that I was in a hurry and frustrated, but that I still should not have yelled at him. He embraced me and said, “I love it when you say that mommy.”

After this moment, we climbed out of the car and a man who had been sweeping in front of his store said, “Excuse me, but I just have to tell you that was a Kodak moment. I don’t know what you two were talking about, but I have never seen a look of such contentment on a little boys face as I just did on your sons.”

Wow! What a powerful confirmation that asking forgiveness and being forgiven is such an important part of our existence. Our happy existence. Can you imagine God’s look of total contentment with us when accoknowledge our sin and we ask him for forgiveness?

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. Micah 7:18

Why is it so difficult for us to ask for forgiveness? Why is it so difficult to forgive others after they have hurt us so deeply? It is pride, disappointment, anger, bitterness?

Oh, how I wish I could say I had perfected these skills. I know I can only do these things because of the strength, courage, and love that Christ has given me. I pray we all learn how to love more, forgive quickly and extend grace freely like children are quick to do and our Father in Heaven has and always will with perfection!

All the Money in the World

My son turns 4 this month. I can’t believe how fast time moves when you are watching your kids grow up. It brought to mind one of my favorite things he said when he was just 2 years old.

It was just another day of running errands and trying to get everything checked off the “to do” list. As we pulled into the parking lot of the bank, my son asked, “Mommy, where are we?” My then 4 year old daughter interrupts up before I can answer and says, “This is where we put all our money so we can give save it to give to God to pay for our sins.”

Oh, I had to chuckle. How adorable, I thought! Then, I realized how scary that would be. I’m not sure how much money I would need to pay for my sins, but I am quite sure that we have no where near enough in our bank account!! In fact, all the money in the world probably would not cover it!
I stopped at that moment and said a prayer of Thanksgiving. How grateful I am that God sent His only son to die for me. How grateful and how unbelievable!

No money, no kind deed, no donation, no gift or speech needed! Just a confession of our sins to our Father in heaven. It almost sounds to easy doesn’t it? I think that is why it takes longer to forgive ourselves. Why we all feel the guilt linger. It can linger for days, weeks, months or even years. It is why some turn to drugs, alcohol, shopping, or other distractions. Sometimes it is difficult to trust that we are forgiven.

Waters of Life

We just spend the most amazing week in the mountains of NC. It was such a welcome treat to get away from the heat, hussle and house building in Raleigh. The cabin we stayed in was on 25 beautiful acres. Big Horse Creek ran right through the property. The sound of the water rushing through the rocks was mesmerizing. I would wade out to the center of the creek to sit on this huge rock. It was so big that it had created a fork in the creek and water rushed by it on both sides. It is amazing how the years of water have molded, shaped and changed the rocks in the creek. They are all so unique. Unique in color, shape, texture and size.

It reminded me of how we all start out as one person and as we go through the waters (many times – rapids) of life we are molded and changed just like the rocks. I just turned 36 and would like to think that I am a much better person than I was 15 years ago. I have experienced so many joyful times, but have also felt the crushing blow losing a friend to cancer and other very difficult times. Times when the waters of life seem they might carry me away, but I held firm in my trust of the Lord. Although, I don’t pretend to understand the Lord’s plan! There are so many things that don’t make sense to me and I can’t comprehend how they could be part of God’s plan. I just remain faithful and know that God keeps all His promises and His plan is perfect.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

I kept a small stone from the creek to remind me that being molded, shaped and refined through the waters of life can make me a more beautiful woman, wife, mother, and follower of Jesus Christ.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight

Proverbs 3:5-6