Fresh Beginnings

Spring is a beautiful time of year when we see things that have been dead begin to show signs of life. The grass is green. The daffodils are beginning to bloom. The robins have returned and the children are playing outside, even though the temperatures are still a bit chilly. Spring cleaning has begun everywhere, inside and outside.

What does spring look like at your house? Are there things that need new life breathed into them? I have tackled a pile of clothes that needed to be mended. Dana is working on building in the new (1982ish) oven that is replacing the old one that finally died (1944ish). The craft corner has turned into a pile of rubble that prevents any creativity from taking place, so it is next on the radar.

New beginnings are a beautiful thing. In many areas of our lives we need to get rid of the things that are not providing value, not inspiring growth, not serving the purpose for you that they could for someone else. Likewise there are things we cling to that have lost value because they are not working as they were intended to work. Hanging on to things “just because” leads to the kind of clutter that keeps us from having the things that we truly need.

This is not just true of material things, but it also happens in our hearts.  Our relationships often suffer because we hold on to the old when we need to get rid of it. Old grievances; old memories of being hurt; old failures we still cling to.  As long as we harbor these things, we will not make room for the beautiful new life that God desires to bring into our homes.  Maybe it's time for a new beginning in your heart that will bring hope of a brighter future.

I would encourage you to take a good look in two areas of your world to do some housekeeping. One, your time... how is it being spent? I recently heard a young mother say that she was fasting from social media and when she would normally have picked up her phone to see what's happening in the lives of her friends, instead she would pick up her Bible or read a devotional. In the course of a week she was amazed at how much she had time to read and how much better and closer to God she felt. Take a look at what you can eliminate in order to find the time to know God better.

Two, your thoughts. The things we think... that we dwell on... often begin to create the feelings that drag us down and eventually end up as actions. When we are hurt, we tend to wallow around in self-pity. When we are offended, we put up walls. When we are falsely accused we harbor hatred. When we are envious, we sulk and stew. When we are confronted, we strike back.  When we think we are right, we stop listening to other ideas.

What if we would let go of the things that have been said about us or against us? What if we stopped thinking as the world thinks and instead allowed God to transform us by changing the way we think? What if we let things roll off our back and maybe even chuckle about the silliness of what would have angered us, back in the day? What if we just "let it go?"

My parents just celebrated their 63^rd wedding anniversary. If you ask my dad the secret to a long marriage, he will tell you, “You have to have a good forgetter. If something is said to you or about you that is negative, forget it! You are not really that bad.  If someone flatters you, forget that too, because you aren’t really that good. Just forget the things that pump you up or tear you down and be content to be the best person you can be today and a little bit better tomorrow.”

I would say that is pretty good advice for making a fresh new life this spring. Have your “forgetter” overhauled so that you can focus on being the new creation God wants you to be. Give your schedule a fresh coat of paint and push aside whatever is distracting you from growing closer to God and watch your family benefit from the change in you!

Happy April!  Even if it is snowing... 

The Greatest Love

As one who has been ministering to children for a number of years I have grown accustom to breaking down scripture into nuggets of truth that a child can grasp and then find ways to apply those truths to their lives. When it comes to the story of Easter, I struggle to even grasp it myself. I have heard the story all my life. I know about the Passover and the palm branches. I know about Judas and Gethsemane. I know about Pilate and Herod. I know about the beatings and the betrayals. I can explain what a child needs to know about these things so they understand, in their own childish way.

Here is where I struggle. The entire basis of the Christian faith is the Cross. The sacrifice of God incarnate (God in flesh) is our saving grace. I can tell about it just like the Bible records it. I can even sound a bit pastoral. The problem is, I don’t understand it. I cannot comprehend a love so great that such a sacrifice would be made. It’s not that I don’t understand sacrifice. I know giving up the carpet you need so that your kid can have braces or giving up a good job to be a stay at home mom. I can relate to sacrificing a nice car so that you can find your way out of debt. I know the sacrifice of giving up your vacation to help those in need. All of that makes sense to me. What I don’t get is that the God of the universe…. the One who holds the power to create and destroy all things… willingly allowing mere humans to disregard and disrespect His deity to the point of perpetrating His excruciating and demoralizing murder. He allowed Himself to be the victim after He willingly left heaven to take on flesh so He could reconcile God and humanity…. I just can’t wrap my mind around that.

Would we not break off a relationship with those who do so much less against us? Wouldn’t we walk away and think well of ourselves for not allowing someone to walk all over us? Here is our Creator and our Redeemer, who had the power to change the whole plan of salvation, yet he stayed the course and brought about the plan that was always in place to purchase our pardon. Why? Well, the only reason anyone would submit themselves to such cruelty for the sake of all is LOVE… but not just a love that we feel for our kids or our sweetheart… a love that we cannot begin to grasp.

Why would He do that for me? Why not just change it up a bit, sprinkle everyone with forgiveness dust and call it square? Because of LOVE. Love was never intended to take the easy way out. LOVE requires a sacrifice. In your marriage, if you truly love… you make sacrifices for your spouse. As a parent, your love causes you to make sacrifices for your children. As our parents age, we make sacrifices for them.

This Easter, take a good look at the Story of God’s inexplicable love for you. Draw closer to the One who didn’t have to give anything, but chose to give everything. Let that unfathomable love overtake you. Allow it to seep in to your mind and spirit and accept what is impossible to understand in your finite mind. Grab hold of the love that reconciles you to your Savior and commit to walking in His love until He takes you home.

Compelled to Obey

Have you ever been frustrated by the energy you spend trying to direct the behavior of your children? At different ages there are different  issues, but we never stop giving direction and it seems they never stop challenging us. If only our children could measure the love we have for them and see how boundless it is, they would surely begin to grasp that all of our instructions are for their good.  It is our life’s work to mold and shape them and make them new.

In order to be a success as a parent we have to get our kids to leave their childish ways behind and realize that being a productive adult involves walking away from the ego-centric life of their infancy. That behavior has to be left behind forever.

Next we must help them to see that first-time obedience is imperative.  Often they will take the time to ponder the outcome and weigh the consequences before they decide to respond positively to our directives. If we are to help them grasp the critical nature of immediate obedience to our instructions, we have to be consistent with our discipline. Failure on our part to follow through teaches them that our words are not trustworthy.

After we have laid out the path away from their inbred self-centeredness and taught them to obey consistently, their actions and attitudes begin to reflect the goodness that God intends for all of us. They will begin to notice the needs of others and become a good citizen, contributing positive thoughts and actions to those around them.

Interestingly, these are the very steps Paul shares with the new followers in 2 Corinthians 5.

Vs. 14  tells us that it is Christ’s love that compels us to follow Him. We realize that His death shows us His boundless love and His resurrection shows us His power to transform us.  Our love must also be transformative in the lives of our children. Our love gives them the desire to follow. Rules without love and grace will push them away. Love them enough to change their focus and show them the right attitudes and behaviors. You are their #1 teacher in life.

Vs. 15 teaches us that we must walk away from our own selfish desires and allow him to guide our way… our thoughts… our attitudes… our actions. The same thing we are working on with our children, God is working on in His children.

Vs. 17 explains that being IN CHRIST causes us to be made new. We are no longer obedient to the desires that trip us up, but belonging to Jesus, we obey Him without question.

Vs. 20 describes us as Christ’s ambassadors, making the appeal to the world to follow the God who made them, loves them and designed a plan for their lives. The world will see God in us and follow because He is love, mercy and grace.  Isn’t that what you want your kids to see?

I challenge you today to let God transform you so that you can become His ambassador to your children. Grow with them. Learn and teach. Accept love and give love. You will not do anything more important… EVER!

The Standard

As parents, we all want the best for our kids. Nothing at all wrong with that. But, think for a moment about who has set the bar for what is “the best” in your home. There are only 2 sources for setting that standard. The WORLD or The WORD.  Often the two are at odds with each other.

Last week we had the pleasure of spending a day with an Amish family I had come to know on one of Dana’s hospital stays. There is something about their lifestyle that has always intrigued me and I wasn’t afraid to ask a lot of questions and began to learn how their standard for family life differed from ours, such as…

Several of the teen children were absent because they were at a volleyball tournament. I had shared with them that our grandson had recently competed at the state level in swimming and we had gone to watch him. They shared with me that, for them, sports are important for the children as a source of exercise and recreation, but the parents are never involved in that. Drivers are hired and parents tend to their daily responsibilities so there isn’t the strain on the home. Then when the children grow up they have adult responsibilities and the sports are all left behind.  

At mealtime they all sat around the table (not the television) – there were 3 generations present- and they silently bowed and asked God’s blessing on the food at the direction of the patriarch of the family, who ended the time of prayer with an “amen.” During the meal, there was laughter and conversation and a great deal of joy (and delicious food, of course). There were 17 of us around their ample table from age 3 to 73 and all remained seated until the grandfather said, “Let’s thank God for what we have eaten.”  And all bowed and silently thanked God and quietly left the table as they finished.

For entertainment, of course there was no TV or video games, but we listened to the children sing and do their rhythmic hand clap routines, while the older boys went out to shoot baskets. The sound of their harmony, at age 11, gave me goosebumps. It was beautiful. They showed us their home, which other than the gas lights, was more modern and lovely than our home, by far! They spoke of the children and their church families and how they take care of one another. When we told them how our church had gathered and prepared the food and roofed our home last fall, they were amazed. They didn’t know that the English  did things like that. We were thrilled to tell them about the great people of Mill Creek Church.

There was some discussion about the upcoming presidential election. A great deal of concern was expressed because of what they had read about the front-runners in the paper, but that concern was punctuated with the comment, “God is our president and we answer to Him.” 

We English may look upon the Amish as backward and stubborn, refusing to accept “progress.”  However, I quickly learned they have progressed when I noted the indoor plumbing and hot water and all the furnishings and pictures on the walls of their warm and comfortable home, heated with hot water under their ceramic tiled floors. The difference is that the church leaders are the ones to guide them in that progress… not society.  They determine what will be best for the families they serve based on their interpretation of Scripture and time spent in prayer.

I just keep thinking about that. At what point do we take a stand, as they have, and say we will not conform to society, but will look to God’s Word for the direction we will take with our children in our homes?

I hope I never have to make all the clothing for my family members or live through a summer with gas lights and no central air, but I am ready to take good look at ways in which I have conformed to the standards of a very sick society and get back to placing my hope and faith in the Lord and the Truth I find in His Word.

Until That Day, You Are Their Light

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father,

may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation

so that you may know him better.

Ephesians 1:17

Do you want to know God better? Ask for wisdom and revelation. That’s how Paul prayed for the new converts in Ephesus. Paul was one of the most learned men in the Jewish community. He knew the laws of God inside and out…but until Jesus revealed himself to Paul, he was actually going the wrong way, believing the wrong things, listening to the wrong voice and getting everything completely wrong in the obedience department. In fact, Paul was doing the direct opposite of what God wanted him to do. Rather than building up the Church, by telling the story of God’s Son and his death and resurrection in order to be the atoning sacrifice for all our sin, he worked tirelessly to destroy the Church and everyone that believed that Jesus was the Son of God.

For Paul it took a Light so bright that he was blinded for 3 days. I think of this experience as God taking away our own vision… our own agenda… our own mission… our preconceived notions… our thoughts that we cling to that are way off base. Sometimes we need to be reprogramed in order to have space to store the real truth. For some of us, it may take a whole lot more than 3 days for that to happen.

As parents, we are often the ones to provide the wisdom and revelation of the reality of Christ to our children. They come to us with a weak ability to comprehend… anything. They know hunger and discomfort and self-centeredness. Their only concern is their own well-being. If that were not the case, they may not survive. We know to feed them and change them and comfort them because they let us know something needs to happen. Loudly.

As they grow, we must take very seriously the responsibility to help them know their most critical need…Jesus. I believe that He will reveal Himself to them. We can’t force them to see Him, but we can describe Him and know Him better and better ourselves. Our parental responsibility is to share our knowledge and insight with them so that when He reveals Himself to them, they will recognize Him. They will know that He longs to be their Master, to give them wisdom and guidance for the rest of their life. Perhaps, if they have been exposed to His light through you, He won’t have quite as much reprogramming to do.

Until God reveals Himself more fully to your children, YOU be that LIGHT. You be the one to expose the self-centeredness and teach them to see others and their needs. You be the light that exposes their sinful behaviors. You be the light that shows them the way to go. You be the light that helps them see that we all need a Savior. You be that voice that directs them on the right path. You be that voice that corrects them when they do not behave well. You be that authority that helps them learn the joy of obedience. You be the grace that provides love in all situations.

Take some time to think about what your children are hearing and seeing. What they are being exposed to on a regular basis. Listen to the lyrics of the songs on the radio. Take a look at the themes of their favorite programs. Open the eyes of your heart to see what sin may have found a resting place in your life that they are seeing as a normal and acceptable way to live. Prepare them for an encounter with Jesus Christ that will change their eternity in a miraculous way.