children

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IF I knew then …


How many times have you said (or heard), “If I only knew then what I know now?”  Sometimes we say to our children “you’ll understand when you’re older”.  We use all kinds of sayings to convey a truth that we ‘know’ … yet we do not live like we know.

IF I Only Knew ????

WHAT IF instead we said,  “IF I KNEW NOW … WHAT I WILL KNOW THEN?”  The waiting game … not knowing … worrying, fretting, stressing.  We all do it … yet, over and over we have to come back to the truth.  The truth is WE KNOW WHO DOES KNOW.   But, in our frail little human minds, we continually go back to pick it up and worry over things we have no control over.  God KNOWS … HE knows.  Our worries of the second, the hour, the day, the week, the month, the year(s) … HE KNOWS.

Time … He created time for us … the seconds, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, the years … all so we could ‘manage’ and not be overwhelmed by life.  Our life is broken down into manageable increments of time for our benefit.  GOD does not need time to manage His plan.  We impose our need for time on God.

So we need to take a deep breath and trust and wait while He unfolds His plan for our life in time … time we need (not Him).  Remember, time means nothing to God … what seems loooooooong to us … is less than a blink to Him … not even one of our ‘seconds’.

No matter what you are going through … remember, you will KNOW someday so trust TODAY in Him that KNOWS today what will be THEN.  Also, remember that sometimes you may never know why but, you KNOW Him that knows ALL.

Jeremiah 29:11

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Amplified Bible (AMP)

5Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

    6In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

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Bless Your Pea-Pickin’ Heart


Bless Your Heart (otherwise know in the South as “you poor stupid thang”).   Now in the South when we say that, it can mean a myriad of things. If one is trying to be sarcastic … they’re telling you that you are being stupid.  If one is replying to your circumstances … they’re probably still telling you you’re being stupid.  Basically they are telling you to focus … you’re blessed and you don’t know it!  You are concentrating on circumstances.  Of course telling someone to focus on the good in their life  will cause them to call you a Pollyanna … but, that is okay, there are worse things to be called.

Are you blessed and don’t know it?  More likely you are blessed and you are too busy focusing on the ‘wrongs’ to see all that is RIGHT in you life.  COUNT your blessings, LITERALLY … out loud if you have to …WRITE them down … name them ONE BY ONE  <~ click (George Beverly Shaw is 102 and still counting his blessings).

Play “I Spy God” with your family.  It is fun and rewarding … and you cannot play it without realizing all God has done for you.  It will make you focus on what counts in life.  “Spy” God in creation, in circumstances … everywhere.  Make yourself SEE how involved He really is in your life.   Every day you are blessed but you are so busy you seldom see the blessings.  You take ‘good days’ for granted and forget to thank Him for all He’s doing.  Yet, the minute something goes wrong … “Where was God?” …. “Why God?”   Did you ask Him where He was on your good day?  Did you ask Him ‘why?’ on your good days?

Count your blessings … one by one … spy God in all that He has done.  “I spy God …

….in my daughters and their families

… in my grandchildren’s laughter and smiles

… in my husband’s smile even though he cannot find a job (he’s counting his blessings)

… in the music He has given me

… in His word that He reveals His truths to me

… in the butterfly that flitted by

… the blue sky

… the close parking space I asked for

… the crystal blue ocean

You are blessed … do you choose to believe and recognize your blessings?

1 Thessalonians 5:18“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”(NASB)

Above all, thank Him for your salvation, for if you are “Soul Safe” … saved … have eternal life in Heaven with Him, you are truly blessed, regardless of circumstances here on earth.

2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!”

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You a Talker or a Walker?


More and more I have people around me ‘talking’.

Talking or Walking?

Many are what I refer to as ‘surface thinkers’, looking for answers.  “Do you have a book on….?” Or, did such and such (their fav author) write on ….?”  Sometimes one person will start talking to another in the store about theology or a translation and others near by jump in …. everyone’s “talking” .  I wish they could stand back and see themselves as the world sees them and hear the comments I hear.

The young girl in her booty shorts, expensive designer top and purse … bare middle with ‘button ring’ dangling wants a book on finding a godly man.   The young mother asks for a parenting book for her younger sister who is expecting her first child,  while her own three children are running unattended in the store destroying merchandise.  The middle age guy who reeks of smoke, impatiently demands attention and wants help to select a Bible for his graduating high school son whom he fears is going down the wrong path … he utters an expletive over the price of a leather-bound.  One of my favorites was the grandmother who was in buying VBS materials because she was ‘in charge once again this year’.  She had two grandchildren with her she could not control and in a few weeks she would be in charge of 50?

God gave us His manual, His Word, the Holy Bible.   Everything that I write and all the books, Bible Studies and resources are tools He provides through His children to help.  Sometimes I just want to scream, “have you read the Manual first?”  Daily, if you read His word then your talk will become your walk.  If you are going to talk the talk, read the Manual first:

Isaiah 55:11(NASB)
“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
 

The world, your children, other Christians (weaker and stronger) see your walk which can negate your talk.  If you are not seeing the results you want in your job, your children, your friends … maybe your walk is not in alignment with your talk.  Go back to the Manual, searching out other tools is fine but, not if they replace the manual.  Take a serious look at yourself (maybe even in the mirror), what do others see … hear?   What is the reality of your talk?  If you dare, ask a close Christian friend, a spouse, a parent … does your walk match your talk?

Psalm 19:14(NASB)
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”
 
Philippians 4:8(ESV)
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
 
Matthew 9:16(KJV)                                                                                                                                                                            “No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.”
 
Ephesians 4:22-24(HCSB)
“you took off your former way of life, the old man that is corrupted by deceitful desires; 23 you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; 24 you put on the new man, the one created according to God’s [likeness] in righteousness and purity of the truth.”

 

If your walk is not matching your talk, then you are holding   the ‘old man’.

Walker or Talker?

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R U A Fixer-Upper?


“I CAN’T FIX IT” … ever feel frustrated with your life … your family … your job?  Do you feel helpless to help? I hate that feeling.  I like to make things better.

Face it: You Can't Fix It

R. U. A Fixer-upper?  Do you try to solve all your own problems?  (Fix your children’s lives to make them smooth?)  Of course we are to be helpful, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us; loving and caring.  But, sometimes you can’t ‘fix it’, and you were not meant to fix people’s lives.

I admit that I have often said to the Lord in my prayer time, “Lord, if you’d let me I could” or “Lord, you know if this happened then …”.  I like to fix it.  Right now, if I could, I would give my husband his dream job, we would have all the money we need come in to fix our financial woes, I would save our house from the bank … I would fly to my daughter to help take care of my sick granddaughter.  Yet, as ‘noble’ as all those plans are, they are not God’s plan.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
What if we truly believed God’s word?  What if we fully understood that our soul is safe … that He is taking care of it and that our HOPE and FUTURE are in Him? Yes, sometimes we will not prosper and we will fall in harms way … but, that’s here … on earth.  And sometimes we will prosper and have everything going our way here on earth.  But God’s plan is that we all find His son and live with Him in prosperity in the future … in Heaven.  This life on earth is preparing us for that time.
So many times when we try to ‘fix’ things we break them … we make them worse.  God gives discernment to you through His Holy Spirit… if we would only listen.
God does not teach or guide you through doubt.  He gives HOPE.  HOPE is an action verb.  You stand before choices and ask God to guide you.  If you have doubts about a choice, you wait.  You make choices that He shows you.  When you read His word and pray each day, you are in tune with Him and the Holy Spirit.  As odd as it sounds, you have peace over even making a hard decision.
Why do we try to repair our broken lives when we not only know the best “fixer-upper”, but He is also the creator of what needs fixing?

Yield Your ALL to Him and He Will Direct Your Path

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“I’m Becoming My Mom >:-O!”


~ or your dad … or you’re “just like Aunt …’ or maybe you “act like uncle …”

"OMG! You're just like ...."

We all hear it sometime.  I worked in a mall while in college.  During my lunch break I would go out to eat at the Chic-Fil-A.  There were these three ladies that came out every week to eat there.  One was 20ish, one was 40ish and one 60ish.  They looked, dressed and acted like the same woman in three different decades.  The youngest was fast on her way to becoming her mother (and grandmother).

That is not a bad thing, to be like one’s mom or dad … grandmother, etc.  My girls like to tease me about becoming ‘grandmother’.    Many  would love to be 1/2 the person we might be ‘likened’ to by others.  On the flip side though is the negative.  When we’re young we see things in others and say, “I will never do that.”  Yet, the liar begets a liar, the thief a thief, the verbal abuser … the yeller … the drunk … the angry … the impatient … the stubborn ….

Why?  Because it is generational and someone has to break the chain.  As parents we want to set patterns and behaviors, lifestyles and habits that children need to become.  Unfortunately, kids zero in on the negative.  It’s the nature of them?  It’s satan’s* dirty little tricks in life?  It really doesn’t matter, it happens.  Look at toddlers that have picked up cuss words … why one bad word when so many good ones are spoken?  Or pinching, hitting, etc.  The negative sticks out more?  Whatever it is we have to focus on teaching them the positive.  If a child emulates you, if they become you, hopefully it is all the positive and none of the negative.  I know I had negative times I am not proud of that I hope my kids never become.  Frustration, anger, hard times … they come out and those moments stick out in memories and outweigh the good sometimes.

So it is two fold … you work on making positive memories and they work on remembering only the positive when they are older.  The scriptures says in Philippians 4:8 , “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

We guard their ears, eyes and minds from what the world throws at them through the various mediums, yet our own mouths sometimes does more damage.   Ephesians 4: 29 “When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need—words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you.” (NCV)  You know yourself that in your memory the harsh words spoken stand out more.  ALWAYS, go and undo what you say in anger or frustration … when you’re too tired, etc.  Don’t let that apology and that ‘rebuilding’ go undone.

Passing on the bad from generation to generation will happen if someone does not make an effort to stop the chain.  If you have  alcoholics, liars … suicides, etc.  Don’t pass it on … stop the cycle.  It is not a heritage you want.  When children are old enough to know about what was in their family’s history is when they are grounded in why it is wrong.  I cannot tell you the number of young people I have counseled that say, “well what can I do, I’m just like … and you know I was always told they did ….”.  Your kids do not need to know the details of your past until they are young adults (if ever).   We had a youth pastor come through once that told of his wild and sinful days … laughingly … almost with … “yeah it was fun … but, then I had to settled down so I got saved.”  This teaches that you can have your fun and repent later.  No one has a ‘later’ promised to them.

You have no later … work on what needs changing today.  Teach your children the positive part of you they need to become and forget the negative part of your own past that your parents were … forget and forgive.  Decide today that you want to be the good part of that person and pass along only the good part of them and the good part of you.

Always go back to the Beatitudes … attitudes to be.  Then you are passing on a heritage of being Christ like.

“I’m becoming ….the good part of…”

*satan – I know people capitalize the “S” but, I don’t.  I refuse to give him any status of importance.  He’s a snake, so satan, devil, etc. are lower case, as he is one.