In a Fleeting Moment

Man life goes by so fast.  The sad thing is that even when it isn’t going by fast on it’s own, I am wishing it away.  “I will be glad when summer gets here”, “I can’t wait for Friday”.  I can’t think of a single person that I know that doesn’t feel the exact same way and do the same thing.  One thing that we are forgetting is that we are not promised tomorrow.  In God’s word he says “^{13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. ? (James 4: 13-17)}

So if it is stated plainly that we are not even promised the next breath, why then do we keep on putting off important things for another day?  Why then do we just mull about aimlessly?  Is there nothing important for us to be doing?  You would think with all the people who have never heart about Jesus, and those that have not accepted Him as their savior that there is SOMETHING we could be doing. 

My prayer is this.  Lord, please let me always be present in each breath.  Let me never again wish my life away.  Please give me boldness to use whatever gifts you have blessed me with to reach out to people.  I don’t know exactly what all Your will is for me but I pray that I am always in the center of Your will. 

I ask these things in Jesus’ Name,

Amen

A Word From God

I watch a show on ABC called “What would you do” every Friday.  It is a hidden camera show that shows scenarios devised to capture peoples reactions to various social situations.  Everything from breastfeeding in public to spousal abuse has been covered.  Every time I watch that show I think to myself, “What would I do?”.  Would I react in the correct way, would I just pass by and ignore, would I call out the injustice?  Funny how God delivers a message to you huh?

This morning during service at Watts Chapel Baptist, Brother Dan Gutenson was delivering to us a message about promises or vows that we make to God.  He gave us some reasons that we generally make promises to God such as being in the midst of a crisis (God if you will _____ I will _______ for you).  He also spoke about a promise we make when we accept Jesus as our Savior.  We vow to God to share His word with others.  To be a witness for Him and bring others to Him.  He also said that often times when we can witness to people and don’t, we justify it to ourselves by saying “Someone else will do it”. (That is also the main reason on the TV show that people give when they ignore the situation)  When Brother Dan said that it was like a bolt of lightening went off in my head.  God told me WWYD.  When I am presented with an opportunity to witness to others about God what DO I do?  Generally nothing.  I am too nervous.  I am not embarrassed about my faith, but when I am in a potentially confrontational situation I literally break out in hives.  Even if it is arguing about my bill over the phone, I still get nervous.

I wrote exactly what God said to me on my arm that moment.  I knew if I wrote it anywhere else I would forget about it.  Then during our evening service, Brother Dan talked about hearing from God.  He asked when was the last time you heard from God.    That reaffirmed to me that I had heard from God.  Brother Dan reminded me of something Henry Blackaby says “God’s not into idle chit chat”.  Meaning when He says something, you need to remember it.

(Picture says WWYD Someone else will witness)

So as the show says at the end… What would you do?  Will you speak up for God?  You promised  Him you would.  Pray for me that I always have the courage to speak up when offered the opportunity. 

Life Lessons from a 3 Year old

Is it possible for a 30 year old woman to learn anything from a toddler?  Well thanks for asking…yes there is.  And yes I did.  Today while doing my Bible Study and my homework for a class I am taking about prayer, my 3 year old (who was playing a computer game) kept asking me to help him beat the game.  When I would come and help him out, he would then tell me “No do it this way”.  I thought to myself why ask for help if you are not going to like what I offer.  WOWWIE WOW WOW (as Junie B. Jones would say) like a bolt of lightening it hit me.  How many times have I asked for help from God and then when He gives it to me I say “Not like that”. 
Sometimes we ask for help from God (and rightly so) but when He delivers us in a way we were not expecting we get frustrated.  Why is that?  We are asking help from GOD.  From He who has always been.  The creator of all life.  Yet we decide sometimes that He gave us something wrong. 
Do you see my life lesson now.  God delivers messages in strange (and very cute) ways sometimes.

Take a stand and Shut your mouth.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Brainy Quotes.com)

Have you ever been in a situation where you hear a child say something that you KNOW they did not decide on their own.  Something that had been instilled in them by friends or family?  Now when it is a good thing that they child says, fine (like Jesus loves me), but when a child is spouting hate, that burns me up!

I have raised my children to not ever discriminate against someone because of their color, economic status, odor, abilities or different abilities.  I have only told them, if they are nice to you, be nice to them, if no one will play with them you should be the first.  I cannot understand why parents would want to create hate in their child.  For that matter I cannot understand why people in this day and age hate someone (or whole races) just because of their color, sexual orientation, religion or any one of the myriad of reasons people hate.

One of my children came home from school one day and told me that the President (Barack Obama) shouldn’t be president.  When I asked him why he said well (I won’t name the child’s name) said that because he was African he shouldn’t be our president.   I was flabbergasted.  We don’t have a large population of other colors/religions/ethnicities in my community.  I think the last time I remember it was 1% Black, 1% Hispanic and the rest are white.  But I explained to my child that our president is an American, therefore he should be the president.  I also told him not to repeat things that he hears other children say because that is not how we live.  My husband is Hispanic, so I used the  scenario of how would you like it if someone was mean to daddy because he wasn’t white.  My son said he would be mad.  I said well, if a child that is a different color heard someone say that about them, what do you think they would feel?

I also told my son and daughter that when they hear something being said that doesn’t sound like what I’ve taught them, they should stand up and say that it is wrong.  Tell someone.  I can only hope that they will always do that.

Going Green!

After much thought and nervous thinking I’ve decided to make some lifestyle changes.  My kitchen is almost a plastic wonderland.  That’s crazy.  I have known about the presence of BPA for quite some time.  I just haven’t found the right way to approach it to my husband that I wanted to get rid of most of our dishes.  Today was that day.  I asked him would he mind if I made a few changes to our dinnerware, because I’d leaned that plastic-ware was not great for our health.  To my utter amazement he told me that HE HATED PLASTIC!!!  SAY WHAT??? I said he told me that he hated plastic.  He says he hates the way it smells.  Ok I’m running with it.  That is all the reason that I needed to then tell him that our budget was gonna get stretched just a bit week by week until we (or rather I) had purchased all the required items for a family of 5.

Thanks to some wonderful help from a far advanced greenie (my friend Stephanie Proffitt), I will embark on this adventure this coming week.  We will be acquiring new dinner ware, glass ware, and I am even of thinking getting some 17 dollar sippy cups for Aiden.  It is expensive I know, but it is my child. 

Prayers are welcome (mostly for my husband and his wallet) as I embark on this very new, very exciting journey.  Thank you again Stephanie for all your help.

It's all about perspective

Commonly we as people categorize ourselves into two categories when it comes to optimism.  You're either a glass half empty person, or a glass half full.  But aside from how optimistic we are, how do we categorize how we view things that are "have to's" in life?  Like laundry, like work, dishes, the one hour commute?  When we look at those things as "have to's" instead of "get to's" then it is kind of like we are always a "glass half empty" person.

Yesterday as I was sweeping up the dried mud my husband had left with his work boots, I started to grumble inwardly.  No sooner had I started, than God had whispered to be "Be thankful that he is working, and that is able to work".  Wow.  When you think about it like that, the perspective is a WHOLE lot different.  Anything we do in life can be looked at as "I have to".  Or we can look at it as "I get to".  It is all in the way we choose to view life.

Let's all try this for just one day.  Let's be thankful for all the chores we do.  Let's be thankful for things that seem like work.  If you are working you are alive.  Be thankful to be alive, to get to spend one more day with your family, your friends.