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Sorry doesn’t cut it …


Ever said those words? I have heard it in my store, in the grocery store, today at a park … everywhere. Families interacting … the hectic pace of the holidays … the short tempers … selfishness … stubbornness … both in children and adults.  When the offender is called to task for their behavior they utter a meager ‘sorry’.  To which the other responds, “sorry doesn’t cut it”.  How many times do you hear your child say they are sorry and know they do not mean it?  How many times do you utter the word ‘sorry’ because it is expected? Worse, how many times do you tell the Lord sorry for the same repeated offense?

Children are watching.  They see you tell God you are sorry and tell others you are sorry. They watch you tell your spouse you are sorry and hopefully they hear you tell them you are sorry when you should.   How you say you are sorry is more than likely the same way they will grow up telling others they are sorry.

An apology should equal in fervency the intensity of the insult, accusation or ‘crime’.   Did you get that?  Think about what it means.  Sometimes sorry does not cut it … you need to really apologize in equal proportion to how much you hurt them.  NOT how much you think you would have been hurt in their place, but, listening carefully to them express their pain, you respond in kind with your words and actions.

However, that being said, do not hold your breath for someone to apologize.  God has to deal with some people a long time before they learn how to apologize and mean what they say.  You must learn to let go, and teach your children how to ‘let it go’.  The Bible says:

Ephesians 4:26 “don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry…”

We should keep short accounts and not hold grudges.  NEVER go to bed mad.  That was one of my rules when the girls were home.  No tears or pain will be remembered as deeply as the knowledge that you let someone slip away without settling accounts.  I often have said how glad I was that my middle brother and I talked early in the morning and were on good accounts when the plane crash took him away that day.

Start today with telling God how sorry you really are and do not repeat patterned prayers.  Talk to Him.  Let your children hear apologies and make sure you include an apology to them. when needed.   Always make sure you go to whom God places on your conscience through the Holy Spirit and make real apologies that fall in line with the real pain inflicted.  Keep tabs of your accounts and keep them short.


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“A Baby Changes Everything”


A Baby Changes EVERYTHING

Faith Hill sings the song “A Baby Changes Everything*”, the story of Jesus’ who came to Earth and changed the world.   If you have not seen the video or heard the song, click on the title above.

I have just returned from Montana.  God has perfect timing in our lives.  I am in retail and could only get away for a few days.  My youngest daughter was due to give birth Christmas Eve.  However, as I landed on the 10th she was already in the hospital in labor.  I was able to be there for the birth of her first child and our first grandson.  I was able to be there for my oldest at the birth of her oldest daughter, our first grandchild.  God knew my grandmother’s heart and has allowed me to be at the hospital for my daughters.

I often say that God provides minuscule pictures on earth of the ‘big picture’.  Both of my daughters lives have been changed forever by the birth of their children, as mine was with each of their births.  Nothing is the same, everything is different.  Circumstances, challenges, life … day by day a mother handles what is handed her.  What a difference a child makes.

As we come together to celebrate Christmas, let us not forget that a Baby changed everything.  Circumstances, challenges, life … day by day each of us handle what is handed to us … either WITH or withOUT the difference the CHILD of God made when He came to earth as a new-born child, to a mother who had no mother to be there for her.  What a sacrifice He made in leaving Heaven to come to a stable.  What a difference He made.

We often get frazzled by the season’s hustle and bustle, plans, and traveling.  Let us not forget that Jesus is the Reason for the Season and YOU may be the only witness that person sees that “A Baby Changes Everything”.

Will He make a difference in your CHRISTmas celebrations this year?

Have a BLESSED CHRISTMAS! ~ Renee’

*A Baby Changes Everything Warner-tamerlane Publishing Corp

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The TRUTH; the Whole Truth …


… and nothing but

The Whole Truth

the truth, so help you God.  What is a lie?  It is the opposite of the truth.  Webster defines a lie as anything other than the truth.  It is like walking into a dark room and turning on the light.  Light and dark are exact opposites.

Teaching children about telling the truth is easy when you are only using words.  But, we know that kids watch all our actions and learn far more from our actions then our words.  Your children, your family, your friends, are watching you for the truth.  When you do not speak the truth, when you are silent and keep the truth from being known, you are lying.   Silence is not always golden, sometimes it is a lie.  It is withholding the truth.

I have already blogged about keeping Christ in Christmas, but I would like to take the next step and challenge you to not be silent.  Tell the truth.  Speak up and let your children see you taking a stand for the truth.  Exercise your ‘voice’ and make a difference.  Greet people with Merry Christmas.  Be ACTIVE and write companies that are leaving Christmas out of the holidays.  Oreo’s Christmas cookie is now a ‘winter’ cookie.  Starbucks put the Christmas Blend back on the market after complaints.  Have you found any CHRISTMAS paper and bags or is all you see ‘holiday’ wrappings.  No stars, no Bethlehem, wise men, or angels on wrapping this year.  You can find all kinds of cartoon paper though.

Stand up, use your voice.  Teach your children that silence is not always golden.  INaction IS an action!

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Life is a rose garden …


We gather together ...

Thanksgiving – what a wonderful day to take time and reflect on all the Lord has blessed us with in our lives.  Right now with all the hardships in our life it is hard to be thankful for the circumstances we have found ourselves in through no fault of our own.  However, the scriptures tell us to be thankful in all things:

1 Thessalonians 5:18 –  “…give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 5:20 “…always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is hard to give thanks for the circumstances, that is true, but we can always be thankful to God for what we have and all His blessings. And if we can see beyond our current problems and accept the circumstances as God’s tool for something good in our life, then the blessings are even better. We have all heard, “what doesn’t hurt or kill you will make you stronger.”

T.V. has many shows telling you to come to Christ and your life will be a rose garden.  Everything is all upbeat and happy.  I think it is important that we raise our children with a realistic picture of our life in Christ. The truth is, Life In Christ IS a rose garden!

Life IS A Rose Garden

 

In the 70’s and 80’s I was a member of the Atlanta Rose Society with my father.  We entered rose shows and I even tested for Jackson Perkins Roses.  Rose gardens are HARD to maintain.   There is so much to making the rose the beautiful flower it is when you cut it and put it on your table.

Consider:

black spot – a fungus that causes the leaves to drop and weakens the plant  ~ the black spot in a Christian’s life is sin and causes weakening in our daily walk, crippling us until we are of no use to Him.

Aphids – suck the sap out and inject their saliva which passes disease from one plant to another, weakening the plant and keeping it from proper photosynthesis.  ~ when we allow ‘aphids’ in our life (parasitical non-Christian plans and life styles) to contaminate us with the ways of the world, we cannot grow in Him as He has planned.  This is where we need to learn to be “IN” the world and not “OF” the world.

Root rot – roses do not like their ‘feet wet’.  They need proper drainage so the soil mixture needs to be correct.  The plant depends on its roots and if they are rotten the plant dies.  ~ As Christians we too can get root rot.  The ‘soil’ we are planted in and the ‘soil’ we plant in, must be properly conditioned by the Holy Spirit.  If we are filling our ‘soil’ with more junk and ‘rocks’ then we will get root rot which will cause us to be unfruitful, and we will wither up and die.  What we read, watch, and hear … what we allow our children to read, watch and hear, conditions our ‘soil’.

Pruning – you must cut a rose off the bush correctly if you want it to grow another flower.  If it is cut wrong it will not produce correctly.  ~ we must not shun the ‘pruning’ of the Holy Spirit.  If we allow the Lord to ‘prune’ us correctly, we will produce fruit, many times over.

Thorns – ever notice that when you get a dozen roses from a floral shop that the thorns have been removed?  That is because they do not want you to get stuck or scratched.  They want the rose to be nothing but beauty, no thorns attached.  The florist wants the rose to represent the store as a true beauty. ~ We must remove our ‘thorns’ daily as we walk among our family, friends and the world.  We must be a true beauty, representing our Savior.

God promises us a rose garden.  We will have black spot all around us to ward off.  Aphids will try to devour us and we will constantly have to be on watch to prevent root rot.  There will be pruning and it will hurt, but when we allow the Lord to prune us correctly, we will produce even more beautiful fruit.  And finally, we must walk with Him daily removing all the thorns of our lives that would hurt others and be a true beauty to the world of God’s love for us.

Have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving and be thankful for the real ‘roses’ in your life, not things and possessions.

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Celebrate Life (*IMHO)


Life Is Precious - Treat with Awe

We are celebrating our victorious child’s 34th birthday this week. She truly was a victory.  After five very difficult pregnancies she was born.  We first found out we were expecting her because I was being treated for bronchial pneumonia.  Due to the meds I was on that ‘could’ leave her brain-damaged, the other bad pregnancies and health risk to me and the fact Phil had lost his job, the doctor advised abortion. 

I was not new to this advice.  I received it with my second pregnancy while in the hospital during a miscarriage.  I actually lost a twin, but still had one baby.  I had lost my first child at age 24. Now at 27 I was finally expecting again. The doctor cautioned and suggested I go ahead and abort the remaining twin. After all, she had about a 10% chance of living, probably was brain-damaged and was a high risk to my health in my current condition.  I did die on the operating table with our oldest, but God had other plans.  After 10 days in the hospital I went home with a 9 pound normal and healthy baby girl.

Both of my girls are gifts from God and He knew when the doctors did not.  God IS the master physician. Neither was brain damaged, in fact just the opposite.  Both are college grads, married and are mothers.

I named our oldest Rebekah Kristen, rebirth in Christ, as both of us were given a second chance at life.  I named our youngest Victoria Paige, victorious child, as she truly was a victory against all odds.  Naming your children is very important.  Naming is important to God. God gives so many examples of why people were named what they were in the Bible.  For example:

Gen 35:10 “God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.‘ So He called him Israel.“
Gen 5:29 “And he named him Noah, saying, ‘This one will give us comfort from our work and from the hard labor of our hands caused by the ground which the Lord has cursed.‘”

Equally important is raising them knowing WHY they were given their name.  It builds character and purpose.

When Victoria was in high school, she had to write a persuasive essay for English.  Since abortion was controversial many students wrote on that subject.  The teacher had already read them so she knew Victoria had taken the narrow path and had her present her’s last.  Her’s was the only pro-life paper. Not only did she state the facts about how it is used as birth control and that the statistics of its need for mothers at risk, rape, and incest (which are extremely rare – less than 1%); she told them about my decisions with her sister and her births.  Most of them did not know the facts and most of them were just parroting the popular voice.  Some argued we would have felt differently if she HAD been born deformed or brain-damaged.   She was able to tell them that we refused the amniocentesis test that would have shown such conditions as our resolve in accepting God’s will no matter the outcome.

So how did the world get to this state about human life?  When did we lose the awe over creation?  In my opinion it has been subtle.  I believe we as Christians are as much to blame as anyone.  We have treated motherhood as common and become flippant in our approach.  Why should the world treat life sacred and with awe when we have joined their ranks in the treatment of motherhood? 

I truly believe that if we want the public to treat an unborn baby as a baby then we need to be the first to do so.  I firmly believe that if we as Christians do not change our treatment of motherhood and birth to align with God’s word and then raise our children with the same teachings, then we can see life treated with less and less respect.

Birth is about a living soul, created by God.  God knows us from before we were born.

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

He does not label us as a ‘pea’, a ‘kidney bean’, a ‘peanut’ or a ‘bump’.  He would never treat us so trivial.  He would not focus on the mom and her physique and draw attention away from the awe of birth.

1 Peter 3:3 “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”

I believe the Bible means we are not to be worldly and take on the worlds displays of dressing and that includes motherhood.  We have become flippant and tolerant of the world’s views on life.  Women are drawing attention to themselves and referring to their ‘bumps’ instead of their child given by God.  I am sadden by some Christian women who believe God’s Word yet do not follow Proverbs 31:30 and 1 Timothy 2:9-10. Motherhood has become about them instead of their testimony to God’s love and graciousness. They place photos of exposed stomachs on their social media and show off in public.

Birth is NOT a celebration about a woman’s body, but a celebration of a new life.  How sad that we have misplaced the focus and missed all these opportunities to testify to God’s wonder and miracle of birth to the masses.

So the next time you defend Pro-life and anti-abortion views, make sure your actions are not treating the unborn lives flippantly and worldly.  The world watches actions. That child is not a bump, it is a baby, a miracle created by God.  Handle with care.

*In My Humble Opinion – I know this is not going to be a popular post but, I believe that we as Christians need to check our actions against our words and views and His word.  How do we as Christians expect the world to view life with reverence if we treat it worldly ourselves?

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