God loves the World

John 3:16

 For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This is the verse in the Bible that even Christian children know by heart.  I have for a long time believed that we forget that this means that God loves the WHOLE WORLD. You know everyone! Not just those of us who believe in him. This may surprise a lot of people but God’s word is the truth so I am taking him at his word on this.  While I know how important it is to have people of faith as friends.  It is time we went out and made friends with those sinners.

Not just the sin we are more comfortable with.  All those nasty sins, that make us uncomfortable.  You know the homeless that remind us that we are all just a few bad choices or set of circumstances away from being in their shoes. The drunk and the prostitutes and strippers should be hearing the good news not the hell and damnation we heap upon them. How about those that are part of the LGBT community?  Or those ladies who are having abortions?

There are a couple of verses that maybe we have forgotten.

Matthew 7:3-5

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

John 8:7

 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

God isn’t calling us to judge one another, he is calling us to love one another.  So maybe instead of standing out side of an abortion clinic with signs of unborn babies and telling people they have murdered their baby, maybe the sign should say “Jesus loves You.”  Maybe instead of signs that tell homosexuals they are going to hell, we should be letting them know about God the redeemer.  Here is what I know, no one judging me has ever changed the way I behave but God working in my heart has.  We should be letting them know about God and letting Jesus take on their sin.  Maybe we should be feeding the homeless and giving them a place to stay instead of keeping them out of sight and out of mind.

What are you doing to love one another?  Do you need to do more?

Trust, you say?

The definition of trust is a Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.

Seems like trust should be so easy. For this disrespectful wife it seems to be the central issue.  The question I have been asking myself for a while is; Do I trust that God gave me my spouse? Really it is a series of questions. The next question quickly follows, If I trust that God has chosen my husband for me, why am I not trusting in him? I have found honor, respect and submission are all a result of trust. Meaning, if I trust my husband, it is easy to esteem and respect him. When I have trust and respect for him it is much easier to submit than if I do not.
In the past, I have focused on submission. I have read a number of books about biblical submission. They have run the gamete. While I do believe that God gave me the set of skills I have and he wants me to use them, I  can’t do use them to usurp my man! So if I am to take the word trust and break down the definition, maybe I can find good reason to trust. This might seem like an odd exercise but follow me. Does Dan have integrity, ability and character that should lead me to have a firm reliance on him?

Let us start with his integrity. Although, I know he has lied about things in the past, It is very rare. He is a pretty open book.  He is honest in his dealings. He is polite to most people. He has a good heart. He trusts in God. He leans on God. He doesn’t steal, he abhors porn, hasn’t cheated, puts God first and thinks of his family as he makes decisions. While there are a few things like sarcasm as a mask for pain, and joking as a way to get out his feeling in a ha ha not so funny way. The great preponderance of the evidence shows that his integrity is GOOD and I should be able to have a firm reliance on his integrity.

So what about his ability? I think he has it is spades. He is well liked and respected at work. Not just at his office but across the state. People ask to work with him on complex problems. You may be asking how does this apply to the house? He has great problem solving abilities. When he runs up to a problem at work he works until it is solved. This sometimes means he has to be creative, which to be fair is needed when you have a wife like he has.  He makes enough money for me to stay home with the children. This makes him a great provider. He pays our bills on time. The children mostly like him but always love him. He is a GREAT dad. He took on being a parent when Abby was already 7. Which by all accounts is a strange place to start. Honestly, I can’t find anything lacking in his abilities. He is constantly amazing me with the things he can do!

So what about his character? Well aside from his sometimes hurtful humor, he has exceptional character. Although, I wish he apologized more, there isn’t a lacking in his character. I can depend on him 99 times out of 1oo. He calls when he says he will call. He shows up when he says he will. He is honest, and forthcoming. He is loyal to friends and family. He always speaks well of me to others. So overall his character seems to lead me to believe that I can have a firm reliance on him.

One of the things that I learned while in a group for my anxiety, was that you have to dissect a thought. When something makes you anxious, you have to break the thought down. What you do is you say this is my thought, it makes me feel a certain way, is this a reasonable thought? So as I am looking at the thought that I can’t trust Dan, I need to dissect the thought. Is it reasonable to believe that Dan is untrustworthy? Well as you can see….Dan is trustworthy. I can have a firm reliance on his integrity, ability and character. If I can have a firm reliance on his attributes I can have a firm reliance on him.

So while this doesn’t guarantee that Dan will be 100% reliable. It does mean that I am doing more harm to our relationship worrying about the tiny amount of times he will let me down.  The fact is that most days, I feel loved and understood by Dan. Why am I treating him with such distrust? This disrespectful wife really needs to take a leap of faith and trust that God did indeed plan to have Dan and I together. I need to believe that Dan is deserving of my trust! Maybe I will just start with a very granola, Washingtonian thing and make it my daily affirmation. I might just start off each day saying, I will trust Dan. I will trust Dan.

Feeble and Severely Broken

It has been crazy in our house as of late.  Abby has been out of school and Guin is well two and quite a Houdini. I am always listening for my door to open with that one. I am shocked the neighbors haven’t called the cops to report my two-year old roaming the neighborhood unsupervised! On top of having children and starting to get some of the schedule kinks worked out for teaching Abby and getting her to want to do work outside of the school type setting, we have been getting the house ready to sell. On top of that we had Grandpa come to fix one of the cars. That took longer than expected in part because Dan is at his new job and may I say doing an absolutely great job but can’t take leave till it is all in order. (I am pretty sure that the last sentence wasn’t grammatically correct but not sure how to change it.) With Dan having longer days a lot of extra work has been put on my plate including painting each room in the house and prepping and painting the exterior. The house is a horrible yellow. I have been over loaded with things.

As the weeks have gone on I was feeling stressed.  So I knew what I needed to do. Put God at the center and the rest would fall into place. So when I get up in the morning with Dan so I can make him his coffee and talk a little to him, I take time to read the Bible a little when the kids are still asleep. I have also started taking a run a couple days a week to help me focus better and relieve some of the stress. All that being said, my husband, loves Psalm 37. It gives him courage, hope and comfort. So I read it myself but I kept going onto Psalm 38. When I got to this passage:

Psalm 38:8 I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.

That from the man after God’s own heart? This has made me decide it was time to do a thorough study on King David. That verse has given me such comfort when I feel like a failure because I am not doing enough. Or when I feel like a failure because there are days that I don’t make enough progress or days when kids have me taking a step or two back. God loved David. He chose David over Saul. I know that I am feeble and severely broken, but God used David when he was feeble and severely broken.  I know that my God can see past the broken person I am and use me as well.

Well I hope you all have a blessed day and I am glad to start getting back into the writing habit again!

Speaking the Truth in Love

Ephesians 4:15

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

Alright fellow Christians, just because you stand on a truth doesn’t give you the right to say it any way you want.  The way we talk about things certainly has a lot of people turned off. Why would anyone want to join a church that spoke so harshly and venomously as some of us Christians do. Since I talked about some lies I have believed, I want to talk about truth a little.

There are two places in today’s political climate that I just see us Christians failing to speak the truth in love. Abortion and Gay marriage are all over the headlines.  I also see a church who holds signs that say God hates you and little old ladies with pictures of aborted babies outside abortion clinics and planned parenthood. I don’t know about you but that isn’t speaking the truth with love. While yes if you read the Bible both are sins, but so is lying, cheating, stealing and adultery. God also isn’t a fan of divorce. So why are we so cruel when it comes to these things.

Abortion

Yes abortion is murder.  Last time I checked though we should not be the judge of others.  While I am saddened by the choice people make to kill their own children, The fact is that in judging these women we are saying that all we care about is the baby and no one cares about your soul. They do need to hear that it is wrong but is shouting murderer at them going to help them find Jesus? Is telling them they are going to hell going to make them receptive to God’s word?

Matthew 7:1-5

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Let us not forget as Christians that “God so loved the WORLD.” Good thing that he said WORLD and not spotless and sinless or we would all be spending a long time in hell! I have always found the door into someones heart isn’t through judgement and condemnation but love.  So have some compassion,  Why not talk to the women and invite them to lunch. Hear their problems and reasons. Help them solve the real problems that have gotten them where they are. Maybe they just need support. Maybe they are homeless, give them a home! My point is that love will go a long way in saving the mother and the baby.

Another small point I would like to point out that is lacking in our fight again infanticide, is that we talk women out of an abortion and then we leave them hanging.  We don’t do anything to save the souls of the baby and mother.  What good was saving a babies life if we don’t care to save their soul. Just saying!

Gay Marriage

This one is a much more touchy subject to me. I have met some wonderful people who are gay. I would never treat them any different than anyone else. I have had co-workers that were gay. The fact is that we all deal with sin in our life. For me the sins are relational with my husband and living in that relationship in a way that pleases God. I want to be in control and at times try to usurp my wonderful man.

Do I think as a church we should be condoning and permitting marriage that is outside of what God had planned take place in our walls? No. At the same time, I don’t think we should be making a whole group of people be treated as they are second class citizens. The fact is that our nation was founded on freedom principles. In our country, people have the right to divorce easily, have sex outside of marriage and look at porn. These are all different types of sexual sin and the Bible speaks firmly on these. So why is homosexual behavior treated as a worse sin.

My point is that the way we are treating this group of sinners is so much worse than people who look at porn or have extramarital affairs. I don’t completely understand the hate speech and venom that comes out of Christians mouths when it comes to homosexuals. The fact is that me telling them they are going to hell isn’t going to change anything but make Christ look like he isn’t the God who loved the WORLD. I can say that I don’t agree with the behavior and leave it at that. It is much more loving than taking the Bible and hitting someone with it. The only thing we can do is love on them and be honest and kind when asked about our beliefs in this.

I would just like to remind all the Christians out there that the Bible tells us to speak the truth with love.  We need to remember that how we deliver the message as important as the message.  We just need to remember that we are trying to be Christ like. So as corny as this may sound think about what Jesus might say and how he might say it!

Permission to comfort

Yesterday and today, I have been faced with a clingy and sick two year old.  She has whatever virus that is going around and has a temperature and has thrown up some.  After traveling all weekend, I have piles of laundry and things to get put away.  I, however, have been cuddling and comforting my sweet two-year-old. she is whiny and just needs her mom. She wants to be held all of the time. 

I am giving myself permission to let the rest wait. I am giving myself permission to let my life become about her and her misery.  I am giving myself permission to comfort her. I am going to take this time and realize that pretty soon she won’t need me the way she does today. I am going to enjoy cuddling and even watching some Dora and Super Why!

I find that sometimes all the other pressures of the world won’t let us slow down when we need to.  I find that sometimes I am asking for silence when I should be stopping to listen.  I am so concerned about being perfect and doing it all right that I get it all wrong.  So next time your little one is sick, just stop and comfort them.  Enjoy the time and don’t worry about that laundry for today anyway.