Thursday, May 31, 2012

Things I Don't Understand

Certainly there are a number of things I don't understand.  Computers.  Automobile engines. Electricity.  I'm sure that if I studied any of those subjects in depth, I would come to some level of understanding.  But I haven't done that.  So, I just accept that they work!

There are many other less complicated things I don't understand.  I don't understand why so many college-educated people seem to have so much trouble understanding the difference between it's and its.  (One is a possessive pronoun; the other a contraction.  If you don't know which is which, look it up!).  Similarly, there seems to be a great confusion between there, they're, and their.  I can't understand it!  I know that social media and auto-correct features on phones probably contribute to this confusion, but it still makes no sense to me.

I'm frustrated when I hear people say things like "I just got my hair did".  It makes me crazy.  I don't understand why they don't understand that is incorrect!

I don't understand why people make so much noise when they turn the pages of a book or a magazine.  OK, I know that really isn't a big deal, but it makes me nuts, so I just threw it in!

I'm sure you're thinking that none of this really matters.  And, in terms of eternity, you're right.  It doesn't.  So let's consider some things I don't understand that do matter.

I don't understand why so many Christians treat the Christian life as for "Sunday morning only".  Why they act as if life from about noon on Sunday until the following Sunday morning is completely unrelated to what they said/did/heard while they were at church on Sunday morning.

Or what about all those people who call themselves Christian yet never seem able to fit church attendance into their weekly schedule.  All those people who are "too busy".

One thing I really can't understand is people who call themselves Christian but who never spend time in God's Word.  How can someone claim to believe the Bible but have no idea what it says?  Never read the Bible.  Never study the Bible.  I just can't understand it.

What if the only physical nourishment you gave your body was one meal per week on a Sunday morning?  How healthy do you think you would be?

What if you only communicated with your spouse or your children once a week?  How healthy would the relationship be?

The answer, of course, is not very healthy.  How then can we expect our relationship with God to be healthy if we neglect it? 

The Christian life is not meant to be kept in a "Sunday morning box" or to be treated as an insurance policy that we pull out only when we need it. 

I don't understand it.  It saddens me to know that so many people call themselves Christian, yet they neglect their relationship with the Lord and His Word. 

We find time for all kinds of other things that are important to us......work, sports, the mall, the gym, the beach.  But we're too busy for God.

It grieves my heart.  And I'm sure it grieves the heart of God as well.

"Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."  (1 Timothy 4:7b-8 NASB)

Friday, May 25, 2012

Seasoned with Grace

Have you ever sat down to a meal, looking forward to indulging in some delicious food, only to find that the food had not been seasoned, or that it had been improperly seasoned?  What a disappointment!  Recently when we were out to dinner, I was served a steak that looked beautiful.  Imagine my disappointment when I bit into it and discovered that it had not been seasoned at all and had also been improperly cooked.......dry and tasteless instead of juicy and yummy!  Lack of proper seasoning made a big difference.

Or imagine an improperly seasoned plate of food......like spaghetti for example, loaded with cumin instead of the appropriate spices.  Yuck!  Or what about a bowl of chili seasoned with the appropriate spices but with too heavy a hand.  Appropriate seasoning but inappropriate amounts.  The result will be just as distasteful.

The way our food is seasoned (or not!) makes a difference in how we react to what we put into our mouths.  A similar effect occurs with the words that come out of our mouths.

"Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person."  (Colossians 4:6 NASB)

Have you ever thought about it that way?  About seasoning your speech with grace?

I think I may have become more aware of this in these weeks of caring for mother-in-law.  Because of her medical issues, it's important not only what we say to her, but how we say it.  But isn't that really true for all of us, whether we have dementia or not?

Think about how often your own feelings have been hurt by something someone said to you.  And quite often they did not intend hurt at all.  But just as Indian or Mexican spices are not appropriate for Italian cuisine and do not give the desired flavor, often the words we say and the words said to us have an other-than-intended result.

Often it's just because we speak too hastily, having our mouths in motion before our brains are in gear, as the old saying goes.

More often, however, I'm afraid the problem boils down to our own selfishness.  Too often we're only concerned with our own interests, our own needs, our own concerns, and fail to give any thought at all to the needs or concerns of the other person.  We fail to consider how what we say might affect someone else.

So, the challenge for all of us is to think before we speak.  To follow the exhortation of Colossians, to season our speech with grace, "so that you (we) will know how you (we) should respond to each person."

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver."  (Proverbs 25:11 ESV)

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Celebrating a Milestone

Today is a big day!  We're celebrating a milestone.  One of our grandsons is graduating from kindergarten.

It hardly seems possible that this day has come already.  It seems like just yesterday that I held him in my arms for the first time.  Now he's such a "big boy"......growing taller and stronger, loving baseball and chicken nuggets and all sorts of other "little boy things".  Loving his family and friends.  And loving Jesus!

We'll celebrate at school this evening as we watch boys and girls in caps and gowns cross a stage and receive a kindergarten "diploma".  The celebration will continue later with cake and presents.

Through it all I'll be remembering other significant events - milestones - in the lives of my sons and my grandsons.  And in my heart I'll be celebrating not just this milestone, but celebrating a faithful Heavenly Father who has blessed my life with these special blessings.  I'll be giving thanks for the joy and blessing of motherhood, and for the privilege and responsibility of being part of their lives.

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."  (Proverbs 22:6 NASB)

"O God, You have taught me from my youth, and I still declare Your wondrous deeds.  And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who -are to come."  (Psalm 71:17-18 NASB)

Monday, May 14, 2012

Times of Refreshing

We all need those times, don't we?  Times of refreshing.  I love that phrase.....it comes from the Book of Acts.....and that's what I'm experiencing today.

These past few weeks have been challenging, wearying weeks.  But yesterday we left those circumstances behind for a couple of days, and we're spending a couple of days with our younger son and his family.

Today, everybody has gone to work or to school.  Everybody but me.  I'm spending a lovely quiet day home alone.......just me and the dogs! 

I slept late.  I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and some extra coffee.  I caught up with e-mail.  I'm listening to the rain.  I had a long, uninterrupted time reading my Bible.  I have had time to ponder some of the truths I read.  I'm really enjoying this quiet time. I'm feeling refreshed.

I'm looking forward to seeing everybody later today when they get home from school and from work.  I'll enjoy hearing about their day.  I'm thinking we may miss baseball practice this afternoon if this rain continues.  That will give extra time for just being together!  Either way, I know I'll enjoy the evening.

But right now, I'm enjoying the quiet.  The sound of rain.  The extra cup of coffee.  The time of refreshing.


"Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."  (Acts 3:19 NASB)

Friday, May 11, 2012

Some Thoughts about Mother's Day

Today I'm thinking about Mother's Day......thinking about my mother and about her mother, two of the women I admired most in all the world!  How I miss them both!  Each time I think of them, some verses from Proverbs 31 come to mind......

"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future.  She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.  She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.  Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her."  (Proverbs 31:25-28 NASB)

I'm sharing with you a portion of a Mother's Day post from a couple of years ago.  If your mother is still with you, tell her that you love her.  If your mother, like mine, has left this world, then pause to give thanks for the time you had with her!

Here's a portion of that post, first published in 2010:

Today I'm celebrating! I'm remembering my mother and my grandmother and celebrating wonderful memories. I'm celebrating the joy of being a mother and a grandmother. I'm so thankful for the blessing of my sons.....the sons God gave me, the ones the doctors said I would never have. I'm loving my role as Nana, being grandmother to two precious little boys that bring me so much joy! I'm celebrating the mothers of those little boys.......the "daughters" who came into my life because they are the women my sons chose.....the women who love my sons. I celebrate the joy they each bring to our family, their unique personalities and gifts, and the blessing they are to all of us.

Mostly I celebrate that my mother and my grandmother, and the countless grandmothers before them that I never knew, as well as those "daughters" who are now part of my life, all love the Lord and His Word, and I celebrate the commitment of each of those women to teach His Word and His ways diligently. I celebrate our commitment to have families who love Jesus. I celebrate our desire to honor Him in all we do and say.

My prayer for us today is that we be found faithful. There's a song called "Find Us Faithful" that talks about this concept......that all who come behind us find us faithful........that the fire of our devotion light their way......that the footprints that we leave lead them to believe. I'm thankful today for the women who went before me who were found faithful, who left those kind of footprints. I'm prayerful today that I will be found faithful, that the fire of my devotion will light the way for those who come behind me. I'm prayerful that I will love the Lord with ALL my heart and soul and mind.....that my love will be evidenced in my behavior.....that I will leave for my sons and my "daughters" and my grandsons and all who follow behind me a legacy of that kind of devotion......that I will teach that diligently to my children and my grandchildren.....that my sons and "daughters" will teach those things diligently to their children. I'm celebrating today what God will do in and through us when we commit ourselves completely to Him.

And I am so thankful that I had a Mother and a Grandmother who modeled that kind of love and devotion.

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised."  (Proverbs 31:30 NASB)

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

When I'm Overwhelmed.....

Have you ever felt that way?  Overwhelmed......

Sometimes that's a good thing.  As in being overwhelmed by the goodness of God.  Overwhelmed by His faithfulness.  Overwhelmed by the beauty of the world He created.  Overwhelmed by answers to prayer.  Just overwhelmed.  Completely in awe of God.  Overwhelmed.

But.....

There's another sense in which we use that word.  Overwhelmed.  And that's what I have been experiencing a lot of these past couple of weeks.

Overwhelmed by stress.  By the pressures of our current situation.  My father-in-law had knee replacement surgery a couple of weeks ago.  He's 87 years old.  My husband and I are "temporarily" living with his mom and caring for her.  She has some health issues of her own that mean she can't live alone.  She needs constant caring for.  It's a bit......make that a lot.....overwhelming.

Additional overwhelmedness comes because we have no idea how long this will go on......how long Al's dad will be in rehab.  He's doing pretty well for an 87 year old.  But.....he's 87.  That means a longer recovery time than might be expected for a younger, more fit patient. 

So, we're living out of suitcases and tote bags.  Setting up an "office" on the end of the kitchen table.  Trying to keep everybody (including ourselves!) calm and on an even keel.  And I confess to you, there are times when it is both exhausting and overwhelming!

You may be experiencing your own sense of overwhelmedness.  You may know someone.....a friend, a neighbor, a family member.....who is going through a tough time.  There are all sorts of reasons in our world to feel overwhelmed.  Financial stress.  Unemployment.  Relationships gone wrong.  Sickness.  Bereavement.  There are all kinds of stresses in our world these days.

So, how do we deal with it.  What do we do?  Where do we turn?  When life gets overwhelming.....and it sometimes does....how do we handle it?

I came across this verse a few days ago in my Bible reading.  Coincidence, some would say.  I think not!

I'm finding myself repeating this verse over and over.  Maybe you will too.

"When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."  (Psalm 61:2)