Bottle Feeding Lessons

First I just have to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful and amazing mother who gave birth to four kiddos, raised 5 teenagers (plus several extras here and there!) and still takes cares of even as adults. She checks in, loves us, worries about us, helps us and is always, always there for us with a hug, a smile, and a listening ear. Happy Birthday Mama, thanks for being the best mom ever!
And it's fitting it's her birthday today since she and Dad were the first two people to teach me to make allegories about my faith from my everyday life. This one's dedicated to you Mom!

While I was in Texas I was helping take care of a 3 month old precious baby boy. One day as I was feeding Jr. I noticed that he had a habit of pushing the bottle away. It wasn’t that he didn’t want it. It was actually the opposite, he wanted to hold it himself but his hands weren’t big enough and he didn’t have enough coordination to be able to handle it. He needed help.

It got me thinking about our interactions with God. Our Heavenly Father will try to feed us spiritual truth in a loving way but we push against His efforts, wanting to do it ourselves but we’re not strong enough to handle the tasks. We may want to take care of it on our own but we can’t. Patiently the Lord tries and tries again to teach us until finally, like I had to do with Jr., He sometimes has to hold down our hands. This way He can get the bottle into our mouths so we can eat and be nourished without us getting in the way.

Another thing I noticed with Jr. was that when he would get hungry he would, like all babies do, cry. Nothing new there but then I’d have to make him his bottle. He didn’t understand the process so he would cry harder and harder until when the bottle was finally ready he was crying too hard to eat. He was hungry and I had the bottle he craved but he couldn’t enjoy it until he calmed down a little.

It got me thinking how when we’re asking God for something and we don’t get it right away we get upset. We start complaining, screaming and crying so by the time we finally do get it our attention is so focused on our tantrum that we don’t realize He’s answered our prayer. Or we do realize but we’re not as grateful as we should be. Instead of thanking God for what He’s been doing, preparing us to receive His gift, we’ve been complaining and we’ve let the devil steal our joy.

The best way to combat this is to thank God for what He’s doing even when we can’t see it. So when I’m praying “Lord, please let me find a way to pay the bills.” and I get an extra $5 I need to say, “Thank you Lord for this $5 to put towards the bills!” instead of saying, “Lord, this isn’t enough!”. Or when I’m praying, “Lord, please work in Sally’s life.” And then I see Sally making horrible decisions I can say, “Thank you, for the work that you’re doing in Sally’s life that I can’t see.” And it will keep my joy, and my faith alive so when I do see changes in Sally’s life I’m that much more joyful about it.

One more observation I had was how distracted Jr. would get when he was supposed to be eating. So I’d give him the bottle and he’d eat for a moment but then something would catch his attention and he’d stop. Now if I took the bottle away he’d start to cry. He wanted to eat but he also wanted to be distracted.

Doesn’t that make you think of how we are with God? We want to call ourselves a Christian but we also want to do our own thing. Yet God says He wants us 100% of us not 41% or 72% , 13% or even 99.9%. He’s only satisfied with 100% of our hearts, attention, actions, thoughts, and soul.

So there it is! Lessons I’ve learned from feeding an infant. As I write this I’m hoping and praying that someone actually finds this useful and it’s not just the result of not enough caffeine and a different schedule that makes this relatively simple task seem faith testing and though provoking to me.

If you like this post, or any other post, or just have something to say I’d love to hear from you. Please leave me a comment. One tip, if you get this blog through your email you can’t just hit reply. You will need to follow the link in order to post the comment but I hope you do, it would be great to hear what you think!

Moses?

A couple of weeks ago I got to spend the week at my Grandpa's cabin with my mom's extended family. It's a beautiful location set in the mountains, right on a lake, surrounded by forest where you can really dwell in God's presence, surrounded by His creation.

Of course when you put twenty some people together for a week things are bound to happen and there's a few funny stories I just have to share.

The first is about my niece Addy.

All the kids are out playing and I believe I was working on a puzzle when we suddenly realized that Addy was missing. We start looking around, calling her name and one of the kids says "I think she's downstairs" at which point we're a little concerned since she's not allowed to be downstairs on her own.
I ran downstairs to the daylight basement only to find that she had locked the door so I started knocking, "Addy, it's auntie, unlock the door sweetie." Thankfully she listened and a moment later I open the door and ask her what on earth she's doing down there on her own.
"The girls left me here!"
Now it's time to go back upstairs and ask the 7 year old and the two 5 year olds why Addy had been left downstairs. That's when we learned that the oldest girl had needed to go downstairs for a moment and she'd been given permission, the two 5 year olds followed her because... well that's what you do with your older cousins, you follow them, and of course, Addy, who's only 2 followed right along. Now why the girls came out and left her? Well, that's something that we never did quite figure out but it was only for a moment before we found her again. Still it's enough to give this auntie a serious heart attack!

Next up was losing Michael. My eight month old nephew was in his little raft in the lake and always had an adult with him until we heard Ella, his 5 year old sister, say something and turned around and saw her holding her brothers raft.
Apparently there was a miscommunication and everyone thought that someone else was with him and he had started to float away when Ella caught him. Of course they were right next to the dock so it's not like he was in any danger but it was still a bit scary. Which is when we considered changing his name to Moses, you know the baby that floated down the river in the Bible as his sister Mirriam kept watch? Just sayin'.

There were other moments, like taking kids on a hike and trying to convince them to stay on the path so they don't get to close to the edge and fall. Or one child on the swings when another walks behind them.

The fact is that things happen. Kids do things that scare you to death. Adults glance away for a second and suddenly the kid has found a whole new way to get into trouble. But we still love them, they are some of God's greatest treasures and I'm blessed to have such wonderful kiddos in my life.

Prayers for Texas

As so many in Texas and Lousiana are facing fear and devastation due to Hurricane Harvey I just want to say quick prayer over them.

Lord,
Please be with those who are in the midst of this tragedy. I ask your protection and peace as they endure this storm and deal with its aftermath. Please reunite separated families and give strength and endurance to rescue workers. Let Your light shine in the midst of this tragedy as neighbors and strangers alike reach out to help each other.
I ask for protection over lives as well as over propety. As bad as this storm is we know Your hand keeps it from being worse when we thank You for that.
Please just raise up people who can help clean up after this tragedy and let your glory and goodness shine through the devastation.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.

Accepting Compliments

I have this awesome friend who used to have a very time accepting compliments. I would say "Hey, you did a really good job at that." and she'd be just brush it off or explain it away. We ended up having lots of conversation on why you should just say thank you. 

1. Brushing off a compliment can unintentionally offend the other person.

2. Ignoring or explaining away a compliment can give the impression of false modesty and reflect badly on you.

3. Someone is trying to be nice, let them.

4. God's given you gifts and made you who you are, accepting a compliment on using those gifts well can give Him praise.

Recently I was reading a wonderful book, "The Brides of Chance" a collection by Kelly Eileen Hake, Cathy Marie Hake and Tracey V. Bateman. Within that collection is the story "Chance Adventure" by Kelly Eileen Hake and there I found this wonderful nugget of wisdom. 

"I know yore modest, but it does no justice to you nor gives glory to the Lord to dismiss earned praise."

Isn't that interesting? There's a difference between being modest and accepting a compliment. Can you accept a compliment modestly? Sure.

"Hey, you look really pretty today."

"Thank you."

Instead of...

"Hey you look really pretty today."

"Oh, I know! Right? I got this dress the other day and it was practically tailor made for me and I just look awesome in it!"

Yeah, that's not modesty. 

But this lovely quote also says that denying earned praise "does no justice to you nor gives glory to the Lord". 

Have you thought about that before? I hadn't. You’re not only insulting the other person and yourself when you ignore a sincere compliment but accepting a compliment graciously and modesty gives glory to the Lord.

Next time someone gives you a compliment think about your response in relation to this quote before you reply.

God's Will

When I was younger I'd hear a lot about God's will for your life but no one ever told me how to find it.

I got a little older and started reading devotional books and would get excited when an author said they could tell me what it was. But then they'd say something like "God's will is for you to glorify Him in all that you do". Well, that's true but that doesn't give me a lot of specifics now does it?

This was a real struggle for me and I wanted a magical equation that would tell me a+c*x/4= God's will for my life. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) God doesn't give us that. And it's probably a good thing. If you'd told me when I was sixteen how my life would look at twenty-one I would've been furious. If you'd told me at twenty-four how my life would look just a couple of years later I would've been confused and upset.

I have a great life but by the grace of God it's not the one I'd planned. He didn't show me a road map of my life (maybe because I can't read a map 😃) instead He protected me by just giving me the grace to get through the next stage before He revealed the trials around the corner.

So how do you find God's will?

Well as much as I didn't like it back then all those authors and preachers and speakers were right. God's will is for us to glorify and worship Him in all we do. Here's the part that took me a little while to understand. We should glorify and worship Him in everything we do.

Joni Eareckson Tada has a great way of putting it in her 365 Daily Devotional Readings "Pearls of Great Price"

"God has saved some to open medical clinics, run shelters for homeless people, work in Africa, write books, and speak from platforms. These constitute "good works". But for more God has saved us to wipe the nose, prepare the dinner, run an errand for a sick neighbor, clean the toilet, drive a relative to a hospital, hold the Bible for, or even play chess with, a lonely friend. Look around your church or neighborhood today- Jesus saved you to be excited about helping others."

So what's God's will? For us to praise and glorify Him in the good works that we do with a grateful and rejoicing heart. In every action we take if we praise Him then we are doing His will. For some that will mean being a stay-at-home mom, for others, working two jobs to make ends meet and for others moving across the world to be a missionary where God has called them. Wherever's He's called you, whatever's He's called you to do be excited about it, praise Him, glorify Him, point others to Him, and you'll do God's will.

A Word From the Lord

If you grew up in conservative baptist churches like I did then every time you hear someone say "I have a word from the Lord" you get really concerned. If you grew up in more charismatic churches then you stay pretty calm and just wait to hear them out. However that's not what we're talking about today.

I want to to talk about those time that you know, deep in your heart, God is prompting you to say something to someone. How do you handle it?

For example, I remember this time that I was in the car with a friend of mine. I was sitting in the front seat outside her house and although I don't remember the details of our conversation now I remember that as I replied to something she said I knew that the words weren't my own and I told her so. I said something like, "I don't know why I was supposed to say that but God wanted me to."

To other people that might have seemed like a strange statement but she's used to hearing things like that from me so she accepted it and we went inside. It wasn't too long later that something happened in her life that suddenly those words that had come out of my mouth had a very real application for her.

Another time, I was at dinner with a friend and I knew there was something I needed to say to her but I didn't want to. I wanted to just let it go because I was so afraid that it would make our precious little time together awkward. And you know what? It did. For a few moments. But God is good and He didn't leave it that way. He then gave me the words to explain my position and gave her the heart to accept what I had said, to agree to pray about it, and to not be offended.

In that case I didn't tell her that I felt like this was something that God wanted me to say. Why? I don't know. It just didn't come up. I was scared that she would be upset but I couldn't let that risk stop me. My job was to be obedient in passing on this "word from the Lord". Once I completed my job and we talked it through all I could do was take a step back and let Him do the work. Now whatever happens is between her and God. I did my part so now I can walk away, pray for her, and not regret that I disobeyed God.

Trust me friends, I've lived with that regret. I've stayed quiet when I should've spoken and spoken when I should've stayed silent. The hard part is having wisdom in what to do or say. When you're having a tough discussion you don't want to just jump in with your own words that might do more harm then good. Take a moment to pray and ask God for words to speak, if He doesn't give you any then maybe it's better to take some advice from James 1 "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak..."

Which leads us to my third example. I was visiting a friend and she was sharing some concerns. I wanted to speak. I didn't believe that everything she was saying what theologically correct and I wanted to say something to her but as I prayed for words none came. Instead a peace about staying quiet was what God gave me and that wasn't easy to accept but it was what was needed in the moment.

God has called us to be bold. Sometimes that's being bold in speaking the words He's given us and sometimes it's being bold in staying quiet, listening and letting God do the work.

If God is laying on your heart today something that you need to say or do for someone then take that leap. It's scary and they may not appreciate it. They could get angry, or ignore you, yell and scream or just shake their head and walk away but their reaction is between them and God. Your job is to be obedient.

Guard Your Heart

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23 

Think about that verse for a minute. Everything you do flows from the heart. Your attitude, your thoughts, your actions and especially your words. It all comes from what’s in your heart. Imagine filling up a glass so it overflows, the overflow will be whatever you’ve put into the glass. If you put root beer in the glass then milk won’t come out, root beer will. By the same token what you put into your heart will be what comes out.

If all you’re putting in cynicism from your friends, curse words from movies and complaining from your co-workers then cynicism, curses and complaining is going to be what come out. On the other hand if you’re balancing the complaining from co-workers with encouragement and uplifting attitudes from your friends, and wisdom from Scripture, combined with worship at church then it will be far easier to block the complaining from entering your heart and making sure that the encouragement is what’s coming out.

So step one to applying this verse is to guard your heart. Be careful who you’re surrounding yourself with, what you’re looking to for entertainment, whose advice you’re taking and even what people you’re allowing to speak wisdom into your life.

See friends someone can be very wise and have great advice but if all of their advice is tainted with criticism it might be best not to let them get too close. You shouldn’t ignore their advice completely though, after all it’s good advice. So what do you do? Well, you can take what they say, decide what you want to keep (i.e. the advice) and throw the rest (the attitude) away! Get rid of it before it has a chance to sink too deeply into your heart and become part of the river flowing out into your life.

Step two is to watch your outflow. Of course the first step to this is to watch what you take in but sometimes bad things filter through our guards. So before you open your mouth to speak, or start to take an action take a moment to think and pray about what you’re going to say or do. That way you’re controlling your outflow before you cause too much damage or regret.

Make an effort this week to remember Proverbs 4:23 and guard your heart.