Fin or Feet

I live on a lake so my granddaughters have been spent a lot of summers as mermaids. The youngest was here Sunday and Monday this week and is the one who would likely sleep in the water, if allowed. For a while she was a dolphin and would follow a command and be rewarded with a chunk of watermelon. But, mostly, she was a mermaid. Her imagination was full of fantasy as she explained that sometimes she had fins and other times, like when doing a hand stand in the water, her tail would morph to appear that she had feet so that people wouldn't know she was truly a mermaid. It is so fun to watch her play, hour after hour, sometimes finding her feet and other times sporting her fins. 

All this fantasy brought me back to Chris's sermon on Sunday... fake FAITH. It is quite normal for an 8 year old child to pretend to be something they are not, but when we do it as adults, it isn't beneficial or attractive. And nobody sees it more than those who live under our roof. I assume that most of you who read this blog consider yourselves followers of Christ. Some days you follow Him more closely than others. Some days your faith is strong and your fear is small. Other days... not so much. 

During these perilous times of the COVID pandemic, where do YOU stand? It is the perfect time to exhibit your faith in God to your kids and teach them that bad experiences do not equal bad God. He is not asleep to what is happening on planet earth. He is fully aware and He is the CREATOR and is always creating good from what appears to be evil, in our eyes. 

I would like to challenge all who read this to allow God to do His work in your heart, strengthening it through the struggles and make your faith real. 

...Too much togetherness has caused relationships to be strained so make the faith you profess real by asking God to strengthen the bonds of your  marriage and morph those fins of fake faith into feet ready to go the extra mile as love demands.

...So much fear of the unknown has caused high anxiety which lowers our tolerance for just about everything and our patience ebbs away like a mermaid in the mist, never to be seen again. It doesn't have to be so. Call on the God who made you to reflect His love and let the tail of fake faith go and find the feet you need to stand up to the evil sea monster. Reclaim the loving kindness that marks you as a follower to your kids. 

...Perhaps your income has not been impacted, but people all around you are struggling to pay their rent or feed their family due to the pandemic. Are you using the strength of the mermaids tail to swim off into the sunset, or showing your kids what true compassion looks like and putting real feet to your faith, reaching out in love and making sacrifices in order to help others?

Don't be fake in your faith. Your kids will see that a mile away and, well, if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for them. If you want them to have a faith that is real and follow Jesus all the way to heaven, be real. Act out the faith you profess and when you mess up and fall short, humble yourself before them and confess that you have been less than God intended. Admit that you have been trying to do life on your own and that isn't how you want to live. It's really okay to tell them that we are all on a journey. We are discovering the power of God daily and learning that we have a choice to use His strength or our own. Sometimes we don't get it right. Wouldn't you rather your kids know that you messed up than end up failing because they have perceived your failures to be the right path for them?

Think About It

Experts estimate that we think 2,100 to 3,300 thoughts every hour. It's no wonder I can't remember anything! The things I need to remember get buried under all the senseless things that scroll through my mind. Many of them need to keep on running and not take up residence there.

I have worked with many people through the years that carried wounds from the thoughts they allow to live in their mind and some whose marriages are in jeopardy because those thoughts were carelessly spoken without taking the time to assess if they would wound or scar. Or perhaps the issue is listening. Offense is often taken when our partner doesn't know what we just finished saying or has to continually ask us to repeat what we said because they were distracted with 3,000 thoughts spinning around in their heads.

If an adult thinks that many thoughts in a day, how many do you suppose a child with a developing mind, who is observing the world around them with awe and wonder, might have? I can't even venture a guess! Perhaps that is the reason they fail to follow through on so many of the tasks assigned to them. 

With all these thoughts rolling around in our heads, how is one to determine which ones are worthy of seeing the light of day? What thoughts are worth speaking? Ed Haines, in his message Sunday shared this acronym...

T TRUE.      Is what you are thinking true? Is it a perception that you carry from childhood that needs to be surrendered? Is it a falsehood that Satan is using to sway you into unhealthy thoughts and actions? Does it align with God's thoughts and the truth that we find in scripture? Do your thoughts stand in opposition to who God says you are? If it does, write it down on a piece of paper so that you can rip it up and toss it in the trash. 

H HELPFUL. Can your thoughts help someone learn what they need to know? Can they strengthen and unify? Can they assist others in rising to their full potential? And, above all, can you share them in a helpful, not a judgmental manner? Are you willing to walk alongside and be a helper rather than a hater? Remember, even Jesus didn't heal every single sick person. Be discerning about who it is that God is calling you to help. Sometimes He may have that person assigned to another, so don't rush in without consulting Him first.

I INSPIRING.    Are your thoughts going to have the power to help anyone have a richer life? Are they helping you to see that you are who God says you are? Are they empowering? Encouraging? Enlightening? If not, toss them out with the rubbish. Think thoughts that will inspire and connect your heart to the heart of others. You won't impress many people with your knowledge, but you can inspire them with the wisdom God provides.

N NECESSARY.  Many of our 3,000 thoughts each hour may well be true, helpful and even inspiring to some, but they may be completely unnecessary. Every truth is not meant to be spoken. A three year old doesn't know not to tell the 400 pound person at the buffet that they are fat and shouldn't eat a third helping. True? Probably. Necessary? Nope! Often times people know that they have issues they need to deal with. It is better to pray for them to seek the Lord than to take His place and do the "helping" yourself. 

K KIND. We have all expressed ourselves in ways that have landed wrong. We know it, but it is too late to retract it. What would this world be like if we stopped to consider how our words might be received before speaking them? What if our primary objective was to be kind and consider the feelings of others before we speak a single word? That sounds like heaven! There would be less wounds to heal, less apologies to make and stronger, healthier relationships transforming our homes and our culture.

THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK.

...make the world a better place.

Beauty for the Journey

Giving and receiving grace is a beautiful thing. It strengthens marriages, builds relationships and makes the world a better place. However, it is an expensive commodity and often very rare. The cost is a forfeiture of our pride and a willingness to love a little bit deeper. Sometimes we feel like we don't have the resources to afford this extravagant grace, but there is a link where discounts can be found to make it affordable. 

Here is the link:  Thankfulness. You see, with every offering of gratitude, with every utterance of praise, with every expression of thanksgiving, we find that we receive tokens that are good for offering and receiving grace. I can't explain how this works, but I know that it does. You see, when we are truly thankful for all we have, for all who have loved us and have helped to grow us and even those who challenge us regularly, we find that we begin to let go of the pride that made grace seem so expensive. 

Here is my analogy. I don't like to spend money. I like to save it and enjoy the security of a savings account. I also don't like to have sore feet or back aches, but when I found a shoe that would take care of my feet and my back, it seemed like way too much to spend. For years I continued to suffer because I didn't want to take money from the bank to make the purchase that seemed like far too much to spend on shoes. It wasn't until I had to see a specialist and spend a boatload of money on inserts and therapy, that I decided to bite the bullet and buy good shoes. I had to give up what made me feel secure to acquire what made me feel my best. 

Perhaps you don't want to extend grace because your pride account is important to you. It makes you feel secure. Those deposits were hard earned. They came from a betrayal, a disappointment, a loss, an injustice, a fear of showing your needs or insecurities, a lot of personal investment. You may be guarding your pride bank like it is Fort Knox, but you will just have to trust me when I say that taking some pride out of your account and replacing it with gratitude will take away the pain that is just short of crippling. It will leave you prepared to extend the grace that will lighten your load and make your journey more beautiful.

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances;

 for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:!6-!8