Christian parenting

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Does the Donkey Need to Talk?


What's He Saying?

Delores, my mother’s BFF of 85 years, was at her funeral.  They were maid/matron of honor at each others’ weddings.  Delores’ daughters and mom’s five grew up like cousins and in fact attended each others family events.  We have a lot of memories.  One of my favorite memories is from my bridal shower that Delores hosted at her home.  She invited about 60 women from our church.  At that time they had been BFF’s for over 50 years and Delores could not resist a good tongue in cheek joke on my mom.  As an ice breaker every woman had a Bible character’s name placed on their back as they came in the door.  Once everyone was in the door we were instructed to go up to people and ask questions to try to figure out whose name was on our back.  The women would look at the sticker on your back and answer ‘yes/no’  questions to help you figure out who you were.   Delores had put Balaam’s uhm … ‘donkey’ on my mom’s back.  Okay, think the GASP at the end of the horse race scene from My Fair Lady.

God has a sense of humor too.  In tough times, in our rebellious times, He gets our attention one way or another.  Numbers 22 tells the story of Balaam, a greedy man who the King of Moab asked to curse the Israelites because they were afraid of them.   On the trip to curse the Israelites God blocked the path of the donkey and when Balaam could not get the donkey to move he beat the donkey each time.   Then God had the donkey speak to Balaam and opened his eyes to the angel that blocked the path.

God blocks our paths and sometimes we try to bulldozer our way through in our own strength.  Got a toddler?  A teenager?  They just won’t listen … you know how God feels with you then.  Sometimes we forge ahead through all obstacles, standing on the belief that God is going to get us through.  But, you’re not on God’s path if you have to make your own way, if you have to beat the messenger.  God’s word says:

James 1:5-7(HCSB)5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

When you are in God’s path there will be obstacles, but there will also be ways around those obstacles made clear.  Beating your way through is not His way.

Does God need to make the Donkey talk to you today?

Renee’ Green copyright 2011

 RBGreenDesigns.com 2020

 

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It’s All About The Fishin’


I love a sunrise or sunset walk along the beach; sun creeping up over the horizon or setting in the west.  The lap of the waves, the call of birds, the peace and beauty of God’s creation is all there at the beach.  I stroll, pickin’ up little treasures along the way; thinking, praying, singing.  At the beach my world is peaceful.  People smile and greet me, sometimes wanting to know what I have found.

A fisherman greets me with, “Find anything good?”  I smile, “not yet … just started … and you?  Catch anything yet?”   He smiles, “No, but it’s not about the catchin’, it’s about the fishin’.”   I continue to walk and think.  Raising kids, working, day-to-day living … it’s about the fishin’ not the catchin’.   God places each of us here for His purpose … the fishin’.  Sometimes we cast nets to get bait.  Other times we  re-bait a simple hook.  Fishin’ takes patience and time.  Sometimes you catch nothin’, sometimes you catch a lot.   Some days are beautiful and others stormy.   Life is a lot like fishin’ and we need to remember it is not about the catchin’.

Some days it seems you are always fishin’ and never catchin’.  Sometimes it seems like stormy days will never end.   Days turn into weeks, weeks to months and months to years.  It is so hard to focus on the fishin’ at these times.  It does not matter if it is struggles with raising kids, working at a job you dread, struggling in a marriage or whatever other difficulty you may be facing.  You have to face the day and focus on the fishin’.

When my husband takes our grandchildren fishing, he knows there will be little catching.  Mainly it will be re-hooking and untangling.  He has to focus on the time he has with them and not the results of the catch.  It’s about the fishin’ … being with them.                                                                                        

In our day-to-day life with others we need to focus on the time we are spending with others.  It may be our children, our spouse or other family members.  The phrase ‘quality time’ is over used, however, it is the best way to describe what God sent Jesus to do. He spent 33 short years on this earth, yet the quality of His time with those He came in contact with, and the effect on their lives, resulted in touching all mankind for all eternity.

Today, you are fishin’.  As a parent, spouse, employee, etc., your daily fishing touches others.  Make sure you spend time in the Word and in prayer (proper preparation for fishin’).  My husband takes our grandchildren through the steps of preparing to fish knowing it may be a long while before they are able to fish on their own, and even longer before they may catch anything.  We also must show others around us by the way we “fish” how to prepare for life.  Maintain your fishin’ equipment so that you are ever ready for the day-to-day fishin’ at home, work, school, the mall…everywhere.  Having dull hooks, broken lines, and a messy tackle box will keep you from being ready to fish.

Jesus never said you were to go out and catch.  Leave the catching to Him.  He simply says to prepare yourself.

Matthew 4:19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

Renee’ Green Copyright 2011

RBGreenDesigns.com 2020

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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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In-Action = Action


Have you ever thought about your actions?  Sure you do.  You tell your children, employees … discuss it in Sunday School – “Your actions speak louder than your words”.

What about your “IN”actions? When you do nothing … nothing at all.  Life is inaction or action.  You arrive with a blank slate … lights, camera, action.  When you are sitting there doing nothing … the ‘camera’ (life) is still rolling.

When you come to a scene change (a fork in the road if you will), you make choices.  As Christians we pray about our choices.  Sometimes we have many choices for one road … many doors.  We pray that God closes all but the right door. What if there are no doors, no forks in the road?  You’re standing still, waiting on Him and His timing to open a door …show you the forks in the road … (as opposed to throwing up your hands and saying ‘woe is me’).  When you’ve done all you can and are waiting on Him, this is not ‘inaction’ … this IS action.

Inaction is when you sit back and say, “God you’re going to have to do it all”, and you do nothing.  Action is when you acknowledge you are at a dead-end or in a room with no doors, so you pray, you read His word and you wait on Him.  This is ACTION at its most intense, its most suspenseful, …tension packed if you will.  Trusting in the unknown next step because you know the final chapter is already written and you’ve won because you are linked with Him that won 2,000+ years ago (which in eternity time zone is probably like 2 minutes).

Take your blank slate today and as life rolls make sure that any “IN”action is action.  Apathy towards life is ungodly.   There is no room for despair, discouragement and gloom.

1 Thessalonians 2:12

James 1:2

1 Peter 4:19

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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!”