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.

Take a Time Out!

"Go to your room!"
"You need a time out!"
"Take a walk, you can come back when your attitude adjusts."

Do you remember hearing things like that when you were a kid? Or do you remember saying something like that to your kids? Maybe it's even been recently but how many times have you wished someone would say that to you?

I've been there more times then I care to count.

Life's been crazy lately. Sometimes I get so tired I just want to curl up in bed and sleep the day away but real life invades and I have customers to help or events to plan, appointments to keep and people that I need to talk to. Being polite when I'm tired, hungry, run down, exhausted or all of the above isn't always easy.

So what do you do?

You make an executive decision to give yourself an adult time out!

This isn't being selfish or spoiled or anything else. It's actually the opposite. Giving yourself a break assures that you have the physical, mental and emotional energy to take care of your family, friends and mark things off your checklist!

Next time you're feeling overwhelmed, give yourself an adult time out. You don't need to feel guilty about it, you need to remember that taking care of yourself is the first step in taking care of everyone else.

Mojo

I was talking with a friend of mine when she said "I think accomplishing X has given me my mojo back! I've gotten this, this and that done!" Okay that's not exactly what she said but it's the right idea.

Have you ever been in a slump? You feel like you can't quite break out of that rut you've fallen into? Things just aren't going right and you keep trying but you just can't quite figure out how to set things back right? Trust me, we've all been there! When you get to that point there's a few things you should try to remember-

1. You are not alone!

     -Everyone, and I do mean everyone, goes through this at some point or another. I have never met a person who hasn't had these moments. (And if you're reading this and you've never had this kind of thing happen than it's probably going to happen sooner rather than later. Sorry friend, it's a part of life.) This kind of feeling is normal so don't let yourself think that there's something wrong with you or that you're the only one in the world who this happens to. That's a lie from Satan, don't believe him!

2. Stop trying to solve all your big problems right away!

     -So often what happens to either cause or exasperate this problem is when you're trying so hard to solve all of your big problems so when little ones come up it overwhelms you and you can't handle anything. Take a deep breath, prioritize your problems and maybe even make a list to decide what needs to be done first but let me just give you a head's up here, the fastest way to get things done is one step at a time. Otherwise you'll be running around like crazy and at the end of the day you won't feel accomplished because you've only done bits and pieces of lots of different things but haven't finished anything! That only adds to the frustration, it doesn't solve it. 

3. Accomplish a small task.

     -One of the things that I always thinks helps when I'm in this mood is to accomplish some small tasks. Do the dishes. Fold and put away the laundry. Clean my desk. Vacuum the floor. Check the oil in my car. Get in a workout. Whatever it is completing that small task can often give you that sense of accomplishment you need to get you out of your funk!

4. Do something creative.

     -Now this isn't for everyone but it might be worth a shot. Do something creative, particularly something outside your comfort zone. (This advice came from a different friend a while back.) Change up your scenery! If you like to paint with oils, use watercolor, if you prefer to draw with charcoal, try colored pencils. Maybe you're a writer like me so if you write non-fiction try your hand at flash fiction instead or visa versa. Whatever it is just try being creative and mixing things up a bit.

5. Pray.

     -As always this is the best advice that I can give you no matter the situation. Pray about it. Ask friends to pray with you. Leave me a comment and I'll pray for you! But take your situation to the Lord, He'll always be the one you can turn to for help.