Seeing God's Path

In the last week and half, I have been so busy I haven't had time to do anything. I have been subbing everyday, when I get done subbing I go to work at Sylvan and then go home, help with supper, settle down from the day's activities and then go to bed and start all over the next day.

 While Sunday's are suppose to be a day of rest, most often they end up being the day to get the house cleaned and laundry done. This Sunday we have 5 inches of snow with high winds so it is blowing and church was canceled. I did some laundry yesterday so I have a "day off" however a woman's day off and a man's day off seem to be totally different.

Even with the 5 inches of snow, I have cleaned the keurig machine, swept the kitchen floors, and gathered even more laundry to do later on today and later will scoop the snow so that I can get out of the driveway tomorrow and not get stuck. This on my day off. What's my husband doing you ask...he is still asleep and will be for several more hours I am sure.

I am not complaining...really. I love my house being cleaned and find it very therapeutic to clean so I don't mind doing that. I really don't like scooping snow but that is part of living in Nebraska :) I opened up my devotional book and this verse stood out to me...

Show me the right path, O Lord, point out the road for me to follow. Psalm 25:4 NLT

Sometimes we just need to be still and listen and look to see and hear what God is saying to us. He leads our paths and He will point it out to us, we just need to be willing to see and listen to what He has laid before us. With this said I leave you with this pretty picture from our porch taken this morning.

If at first you don't succeed

When at first you don't succeed...sit down and eat ice cream! Then try it again :)

So here it goes:

I have tried to have a blog before. I have promised that I would write at least once a week. I want to make a difference. I want to feel like my life has meaning.  Sometimes I feel like I don't matter at all. Sometimes I think that my words don't matter... nobody is going to read or care what I say. This may be true, it may not be true but the point is that hopefully someday I can look back on what I said and where I was and hopefully see growth. If I can help someone along the way awesome!

I feel like a failure in a lot of different areas in my life. I know that this is untrue. True I make a lot of mistakes...sometimes I make the same mistake over and over again. But one thing I know, at least in my head, I don't always feel it in my heart is that I am right where God wants me to be and he has given me everything I need to accomplish his plan in my life, even when his plan is very different than what I have planned. His plan is always better than my own. I just need to remember that.

New Year...

So we are 3 days into the new year...How is your resolution(s) going? I made several this year.

1. I want to blog more...I want to pick at least one day a week and blog on that day. Honestly
    it will probably be on Saturday or Sunday as that is when I have the most free time. (so far so
    good)

2. I want to read the Bible every day. Even if it is just a chapter or so I want to be in God's word 
    everyday.

3. I want to be healthier...I want to eat more fruits and vegetables and a lot of less processed foods
    and I don't want to eat out as much. It seems convenient and honestly in a lot of ways it is
     however it comes at a cost that is much more than the initial $4-$7 per meal.

I want to leave you with this verse.

"Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong and do everything with love."            1 Corinthians 16:13-14 NLT

taking a closer look at Advent

Wow...it has been a little while.  As much as I love Christmas it always seems to be such a busy time of year with all the hustle and bustle of going here, going there, making cookies, visiting family, and the list goes on as we didn't even mention cleaning the house, or doing our everyday jobs. With that being said, let's get a little encouragement...

As you know, we are in the season of Advent in the church year. I would like to take a little time and reflect on what that means. The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival". Our whole focus at this time of the church year is the anticipated 1st coming of Christ as a little baby. But it is more than that also.

Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, anticipation, preparation, and longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of this world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin, yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed slaves and brought deliverance!

It is that hope, however faint at times, that God, however distant He sometimes seems, will bring to the world the anticipation of a King who will rule with truth, justice, and righteousness over His people and His creation. It is in that hope  with the once anticipated, and now we anticipate anew, the reign of an Anointed One, a Messiah, who will bring peace and justice and righteousness to the world.

eggs, potatoes, and coffee

This world is a fallen world. There is sin in the world and bad things happen to good people and there really is no explanation for it most of the time other than this...SIN. With this being said unfortunately, at one point in time, something bad will happen to you or your loved ones, the question to ask isn't why did this happen, the question to ask is what am I going to do about it. The way I see it, we can react in one of three ways, we can be an egg, a potato, or coffee. Let me take a minute and explain:

The egg:
when you take an egg out of the refrigerator, it is a very fragile item. It has a little bit of a shell to help protect the liquid interior but that shell cracks easily and once cracked it doesn't take long for the whole shell to fall apart and break and your left with a big mess.

A Potato:
A strong sturdy item. Hard and not very giving in shape when dropped. It remains the same. It is unrelenting.

Coffee: Coffee beans smell wonderful. May even make someone smile just by the scent of them. Kind of bitter if you try to eat them by themselves.

I know I know...your thinking you have not given very good analogies. Let me finish. What happens to that said egg, potato, and coffee when introduced to hot boiling water for about 20 minutes?

The egg still has that hard outer shell. It has become a hard boiled egg with not only a somewhat protective outer shell but it has become hardened now on the inside. I have known several people who when bad things happen, they become even more angry at the world and become hard toward their surroundings.

The potato goes in and it is strong and hard but when faced with the same adversity, 20 minutes of boiling water, it becomes soft and mushy. I have known several people who go in and act like they are kings or queens of the world and nothing will bring them down. however when faced with adversity, they become soft and mushy just like the potato.

The coffee goes in and is very unique. When faced with the boiling water, they changed it into something completely different. I have known a few people like this but not as many. They are people who will take the bad thing that happens and make the best of their circumstances. Is it what they would have chosen? More than likely not but they take what they have and make the best of the situation.

So now my question is...Which one are you?

You Break It, You Buy It

When I was little, mom would tell me at least 1,249 times not to touch anything in the store and that was just before we got into the store. She would tell me another 547 times while in the store not to “touch the pretties” and “keep your hands to yourself” because all of these things are “breakable.” If you break something you must buy it. For whatever reason unknown to my mom I did not want to stay by her side, nor did I want to stay in her sight and even more so, I did not want to refrain from touching the pretties! At one point as I was wondering away looking at all the pretties, I saw the most beautiful crystal angel and I picked her up and held her in my hand. I wanted to find my mom and show her just how beautiful this angel was and maybe even beg her to buy it. As I found mom and was walking up to her with this prized possession, I am sure my mom's mommy brain immediately was thinking, must retrieve the angel. breakable. must retrieve the angel. In her feeble attempt to retrieve the angel from me I interpreted this as “play time!” Crystal angels don’t bounce. I found out crystal angels, when thrown onto the floor, just break. Now, if mom were a cartoon character her face would have turned bright red (I think it actually did) and steam would have come blowing out of her ears. As I watched my very upset mom “You break it, you buy it,” was all I could hear in my head, over and over again. In embarrassment and anger mom collected the pieces of the angel (and her pride) and approached the cash register. She purchased broken pieces of glass. She paid valuable money for something that immediately lost its value the moment it fell to the floor. I in turn, true to her word had to pay her back with my allowance money. I learned a valuable lesson that day as to a six yr. old child, crystal angels take a lot of allowance money.

Take a look around you. Do you see something broken? I see brokenness everywhere. I see it in disease and sickness. I see it in the hate and the hurting. I see it in the relationship between family members and friends. I see it in the churches. I see it in the children I teach, and then, I see it in me. Everything is broken. Everything is tainted. Just as the angel fell and broke, we too are fallen and broken beings. Our world is a fallen and broken world. Lacking value and ability in ourselves we lie helpless on the ground. The old mantra, “you break it, you buy it” won’t solve this problem. Adam couldn’t “buy” his way out of brokenness. Even faithful and righteous Abraham couldn’t buy his way out of brokenness. David was a man after God’s own heart and yet he too lacked and could not pay the price. So what are we to do? We have no currency that will pay the price for the brokenness that man has incurred on all of creation. You see, we are the broken pieces lying on the ground and we can do nothing. However, Christ has come along and picked us up in our broken state. He carried our brokenness on his back as he carried the cross to Calvary. His blood that poured from his body is the only currency that can buy our broken selves.

I still have that broken angel. It’s not on display, but every now and then when I’m cleaning off a shelf or cleaning out a closet I come across that angel and I remember that afternoon. I had intentions of gluing it back together, but I never got around to it and it wouldn’t look the same anyway. Not only does Christ gather and pay for the broken, he unlike me is fixing the broken and we will be completely restored when he comes back and we will live with him forever.  He didn’t break it, but he bought it. He bought it because we couldn’t.

 

Psalm 13

Psalm 13

Some days things just don’t go well. Some days it feels like everyone is picking on you and nothing is going right. Have you ever felt that way? On those days it can be hard to talk to God.
Take a look at what Psalm 13:1-2 says:

¹ How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
   How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
   and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
   How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Did you know stuff like that was in the Bible? The writer of this psalm is pouring out his heart to God. He actually dares to question God. Have you ever felt that way? Maybe some days you wonder if God is around. Some days it might seem that God has forgotten you. Some days you wonder how long you’ll have to feel this way.
Now read what Psalm 13:3-4 says:

³ Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
   Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
   and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

Wow! Again the writer is saying how bad his life is. His enemies are winning, and he is losing—and his enemies are happy that he’s losing!.
So things seem pretty bad. Where does the writer go from there? Read Psalm 13:5-6:

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
   my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing the Lord’s praise,
   for he has been good to me.

That’s quite a change from the beginning of the psalm. Even though the writer is feeling like God has forgotten him, he realizes that he still trusts God. Plus, he is going to sing praise to God because he realizes that God has been good to him. That’s pretty great. I wonder if we can do that too?

This is by far one of my favorite chapters in the bible that I have ever encountered and go back to it quite frequently. Life is not always easy. In fact, it  seems as though there are more bad days than good...especially true for me at this point and time. I look at my current situation or situations and can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the end, God is the one who is in control and I am just along for the ride. I have encountered many difficult situations in my life and have made it through them all because God is good...All the time and All the time...God is good.