Eat your veggies- My political rant

With all the political hoopla, a verse from my Bible study struck me this morning and I felt like God was giving me a parental talk.

I have found myself in this place of not caring at all about politics and government because it seems to get hateful.

I know it's wrong.

People gave up a lot so I could have a voice and I need to take better advantage of it but it just gets exhausting.

But I think God wants more from me.

1 Peter 2:17(msg) "Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government."

I felt God whispering to me this morning, "Treat everyone you meet with dignity- even those who don't feel as you do. Love your spiritual family(ALL of them) and be completely unselfish. Revere me and nothing else or no one else. Respect the government even if you don't like it. Be a good steward of the freedoms you have been given."

I felt a little bit like a child at the dinner table.

This verse seems to me like a parent telling their kid to eat their vegetables.

It might not taste good and it might not be fun- but you'll be better in the long run for it.

-It takes work to treat everyone with dignity if we strongly disagree with them.

-Loving our spiritual family is easy as long as we never have a different opinion.

-Revering God seems simple until someone or in my case something(s) get in the way.

-Respecting the government sounds nice until you watch the political adds...... or go to the DMV.

Can someone pass the broccoli?

David asks God for a "do-over"

Have you ever needed a "do-over"?

I have recently started using a BIble Reading plan on my phone and today the passage was Psalm 51:1-19. In this passage, David had just made some really bad choices with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed. The devotional thought mentioned that we see what repentance(or asking God for a do-over) should look like. David first recognizes what he did wrong, then asks for forgiveness and for God to renew him.

How often should we have the following attitude and ask God for a do-over in our interactions with our spouse, kids, co-workers? I love how vulnerable David is with God, I think that is where the healing of broken things starts.

I love how David asks for a do-over in these verses from the Message version:

1Generous in love-God, give me grace! Huge in mercy-wipe out my bad record. 2 Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry. 3 I know how bad I’ve been; my sins are staring me down.

4 You’re the one I’ve violated, and you’ve seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair. 5 I’ve been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. 6 What you’re after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

7 Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow white life. 8 Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. 9 Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. 10 God make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos in my life. 11 Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. 12 Bring me back from a gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! 13 Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home. 14 Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. 15 Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise.

16 Going through the motions doesn’t please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. 17 I learned God worship when my heart was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.

wow.

Football and the Brady Bunch

Yesterday my friend/preacher/boss taught out of James on Taming the Tongue.

ouch.

It's a priority for me to attend service & I also want my volunteers to make it a priority. It's pretty basic, to feed we need fed. It was a particularly busy morning so I thought that I could skip just this once. I checked and chatted with most of my teachers and then decided to go into service.

I heard the sermon title and thought, "maaaan". It occurred to me yesterday that as men struggle with things like lust, pornography etc., women struggle with gossip, slander etc. It is tricky though, because we don't have accountability computer software that pops up when we are gossiping.

We can wrap up our gossip with the label of "trying to solve a problem", "seeking advice" or maybe even a "prayer request".

I am sooo guilty. I was talking with a very close friend of mine during the sermon. Yeah, I said during, shame on me. She and I tend to "try and solve problems" a lot.

Here is where I pretend to know football...

It is my understanding that when someone does something wrong in the game, the ref can throw a penalty flag. This let's everyone know a penalty has been committed and they can't do that again.

I told my friend that her and I needed a flag for our conversations. Every time we were sharing things not applying to each other or saying something that is "next door to not nice" then we need to say FLAG!

Try this today and see how many penalty flags you throw...

Of course Andy didn't leave us all sitting in a puddle of guilt, he supplied us with some ways to help tame our tongue. One of the things he mentioned was to encourage people.

That seems easy enough but in reality, we do make that weird. Just this morning, I was complimenting someone online. He already had a few compliments and I thought to myself, "Yeah, Andy tells us to encourage and we all go Brady Bunch".

Don't judge me.

Have you sincerely encouraged anyone lately? If you haven't, try encouraging your children's church volunteers. They work so hard for your kids and yes, I am biased.

It's A Privilege...

I think I really struggle with being ungrateful. I don't really like saying that out loud but it is true. As an American, I have been blessed with so much but I tend to focus on what I don't have more. While focusing on what I don't have, I am blinded to the wonderful things I do have. Most of the time this applies to stuff. Stupid stuff. Lately, I think it has applied to my ministry.

I have really been trying to focus on being a better leader. I learned early on that scripture is full of top notch advice on this. I took a look at 1 Timothy. The apostle Paul is writing to Timothy and encouraging him on ministerial leadership. Timothy was raised by Godly people but he was young and new to ministry. The book of full of leadership gold but something stuck with me this morning...

"Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith and by integrity. Stay at your post reading scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed- keep that dusted off and in use. "

...that special gift of ministry...

I do not remember that enough. I dwell on the headaches of scheduling or not having a children's facility to call our own. I become easily discouraged when stressful situations arise. I struggle to understand that not everyone has a compelling conviction to invest in the lives of the amazing kids that God gave us.

This morning God reminded me that I have been given a high privilege. I need to celebrate that more. I have been given an amazing gift.

The families I serve at WellSpring are a precious gift. Serving with the best group of staff that I know is a precious gift. Leading a team of amazing volunteers is privilege and I am grateful that God granted it to me. Every week I receive love and affection for God's beautiful children...what a gift.

One final thought came to my mind. "Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities" - Luke 12:48 MSG

Learning more about Grandma via Grandpa

My Grandma passed away this week and it has been hard on my heart. I am blessed though, because my sadness of her not being here is cradled by the peace of saving grace. I know my Grandma is truly experiencing amazing grace.

I have enjoyed seeing all my family. There have been some funny moments and some tough moments. The funeral is Monday and every time I think about it, I cry.

Instead of focusing on sorrow, I am going to write about a few things I learned while spending time with Grandpa.

1) He knows what G-Strings look like: My grandpa is a jokester. I think making people laugh is medicine for him. I asked him what he was wearing to the services and he said, "My G-string, backwards". I know that visual is awkward but funny coming from a man in a wheel cheer with an eating bib on. Good thing I didn't inherit his sense of humor(not!)...

2.)How him and Grandma met: They were at a bowling alley. Grandma didn't bowl, she just watched. Grandpa told her that is he made a strike he was going to come back and kiss her. Sadly, he only knocked down 9 pins. He started to walk away and she yelled to him and told him the last one fell down.

She was 17 and he was 19 and a year later they were married.

3.)She enjoyed Lilacs: In honor of my Grandma, Grandpa had a Lilac tree planted in front of the assisted living home. We had a small "ceremony" to honor Grandma. A plaque will read, "In loving memory of Phyllis Lou Drummond, beloved wife and mother. You will be missed"

Next year around this time the tree will bloom and the whole front garden will have a sweet aroma. My grandpa can see this tree perfectly from where he eats his meals everyday. He did issue a fair warning, "If any dog pees on that tree, it's dead!" =)

I am sure there will be more to come but I just felt like I needed to write this down.

I am blessed girl...

More Than Birds

Matthew 6:25-27

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life...Look at the birds of the air; Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

I worry a lot. I call anxiety they "a word". This is probably my biggest struggle. Sunday, Andy taught on worry and fear. You can listen to it at: http://www.WellSpringChristian.org/resources/sermons/?sermon_id=126

Andy suggested that when we are overwhelmed with "What If" we trade that in for "What Is" and who God is...

and then we talked a lot about birds...

I never thought about the comparison to the birds. God made a natural order in creation that provides for the birds. God does not leave our lives up to natural order. I believe he is active in our lives. I have to believe that he is eager to help just like a parent.

I am so glad God loves me more than the birds.

So when you are dwelling on "what if", maybe you should give worry the bird?

Is That God?

I have been reflecting on Matthew 18:5 lately,"Whoever welcomes these children in my name, welcomes me".

So, when this little boy came by my office today, I figured I would capitalize on the time. I had some children's church music videos on my computer and I turned them on and we started singing.

Some of the videos had different cartoon guys. On the first one that was about Noah, my little friend asked, "Is that God?" and I told him it wasn't. The next video played, "Is that God?" said Si.

What things in life make you ask the question, "Is that God?" or are you even looking for him at all?