Jesus- our "star pitcher"

Confidence: firm belief or trust

This morning at breakfast we were reading from book called Created for Work.  The chapter was called "Confidence".  In this chapter the author told about his experience playing baseball as a kid.  Most of the time he had a hard time hitting the ball, but one day, when they were playing against on of the best teams, he hit every ball like a pro!  His coach asked, "What's happened to you?"  Why, when they were up against the best, could he hit every ball?  Confidence!  He realized that when their star pitcher threw the ball, he wasn't afraid the ball was going to hit him.  The pitcher was so good, that the ball always came straight across the plate.  With every other team they played against, he feared getting hit by the ball, and therefore couldn't focus on batting.  Because of the confidence he had in the star pitcher, he was able to performed at his best!

What do we put our confidence in?  Often times, as a mother, I will put my confidence in myself, thinking that if I do enough things right my children will grow up to serve the Lord.  But it isn't long before I loose confidence in myself!  I get angry, lazy, tired, and fail to be a good example to my children.  Then I get discouraged and think, "If only I could do more things right!".  But even if I did everything perfectly, I don't have the power or ability to make that decision for my children.  Only God can change their heart!  My confidence must be in Him!  When it is, I am free from fear and can perform at my best! :)

"All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God." 

Anonymous

"For the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep they foot from being taken." 

 (Proverbs 3:26)

Read and Follow!

I had the weirdest dream last night.  There was this woman who was going around exposing herself to the public.  As I approached her, I covered her and found out from talking to her that she called herself a Christian.  Then I asked her, as my blood started to boil,  "Do you know what it means to be a Christian?"  I said it again to her only louder the second time.  As I spoke all these inquisitive people started to gather around.  Then I shouted it again, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CHRISTIAN?!"  The woman just sat there staring at me.  The people that had gathered around were all wide-eyed, prodding me to tell them.  Then I said, "If you are a Christian, you read God's Word and follow it!  It's that simple...You read God's Word and do what it says!"  Then I asked the woman, "Do you know what it means when the Bible says, "Let not your nakedness be made known?"  She kinda rolled her eyes at me and said of course she knew what it meant.  Then I started lecturing her again and telling her that she needed to do what God's Word said.

Suddenly I was awakened by a bad storm.  The wind hit the window and both Mike and I jumped up in bed.  As the wind howled, I lie there thinking about my dream.  You know, there are many people who think that because they go to church, they are a Christian.  Others believe that since they are nice people, who do what is right, they are Christians.  And some think that all Americans are Christians...like we are all going to heaven together on some wide happy road....WRONG!

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

There are men and women who stand in the pulpits of churches, calling themselves Christians and yet will tell you that the Bible is not true...or parts of the Bible are not true!  Those people are worshipping a god that they have made up in their mind.  They are not followers of the God of the Bible.

I am sorry, but if you do not read God's Word and follow it, you are not a Christian.  Plain and simple!

Now, to help you understand the heart of what I am saying here, I must add that reading your Bible doesn't make you a Christian in and of itself.   You must be born again, as you will read in God's Word.  For more information on that see my page titled "Are You Good Enough to go to Heaven?"

Is Anyone Speaking Evil About You?

"If I were fruitless, it mattered not who commended me, but if I were fruitful, I cared not who condemned."

John Bunyan

Critics are like toothaches, most of us have had one or two in our life.  They can help us to see our blind spots in life, which can be a real blessing, but if we are not careful, they can be used by the enemy to breed self-pity, hopelessness and an ungodly sorrow.  True conviction from the Lord will bring godly sorrow, which leads to repentance, but worldly sorrow brings death. 

  

We think to ourselves, "This is terrible, here I call myself a Christian and there are people who don't like me!  I am such a bad testimony!  EVERYONE should think I am wonderful...how else will I draw people to the Lord?  Boy, I have really let the Lord down, and the Christian community!  I should just stop professing Christ so I don't cause people to stumble!"  Hold on a minute!!  Jesus said, "Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake."  The key word here is FALSELY!  If the mean things people say about you are FALSE, then you are blessed!

When someone criticizes us, we need to ask the Lord to show us the truth in it, and then deal with making things right...like asking for forgiveness.  If there is no truth in it, then we should not hang on to guilt or condemnation!  Let it go!  If you have a clear conscience and there is nothing between you and the Savior, rejoice!

 

Something to think about...If you think you are following the Lord with your whole heart, and nobody is speaking any evil against you, falsely, then you may want to check your walk!  The righteousness and holiness of the Lord IS offensive to the devil and his children!  Jesus was constantly offending the ungodly, yet He lived a SINLESS life....HELLO!  If we would really meditate on that fact, we would not be so heartbroken when people speak bad about us for doing what is RIGHT!  Jesus was perfect and they hated Him!!!

Do not let the condemnation that brings death distract you from the work the Lord has for you!  Keep doing what He has shown you to do and don't second guess yourself!  You are blessed!  Rejoice! :)

Journaling With Your Children

About ten years ago, I started a journal with Emily where we would write notes back and forth to each other.  I would write to her and leave the journal on her bed and then she would write back and leave the journal on my bed.  We didn't write every day, just when we had something on our heart to say to the other person.

Sometimes there would be a scripture verse that I wanted to share with her, other times it was just something that she did during the day that blessed me that I wanted her to know about.  We wrote many thank you notes to each other and even drew some pictures. :)

Just last night, I found our journal sitting on my bed.  Emily had written me a sweet note about how something I had done during the day had really blessed and encourage her.  After I read her note, I started paging through the journal.  The first thing I noticed was that we only had one page left!  Time for a new journal! :) Tears filled my eyes as I read the rest of the notes in it and remembered all the special times that we have had together.  Even years later, the notes are still such a blessing to read!

Over the years Emily and I have filled several journals.  I just bought another journal today.  They are such treasures!! 

Emily has even started writing journals with her brothers.  They are great relationship builders and they really do not require that much time...in other words, doable for busy moms! :)  We all need encouragement...and it's nice to be appreciated too! :) 

Start a journal today! :)

Thought for the Day - August 9th

"Don't worry be happy!" ...remember that song?  As Christian women we should be happy, not worried!  Why?  Because God is in control!  If we trust in worldly wisdom, we are not trusting God.  When we are in submission to God, we are able to acknowledge that all things are under His divine control. 

Where there is worry, there is no trust! 

Trust Him today!

Romans 8:28

The Lock

This morning Ben and I left the house around 7am to go on a "coffee date". :)  Ben had some shopping he wanted to do, so we stopped at Walmart before we went out for coffee.  There he found a padlock that he wanted; one that has a reset button to change the code for the lock.  So he bought it.  I warned him that the only downside to a lock like that was that he was going to have to remember what the code was every time he changed it.  I suggested that he should make sure he writes it down.

After we got home, Ben went around showing everyone his new lock.  When he showed it to Mike, Mike told him that he better be careful to write down his combinations or he would forget them.

Not long after that, Ben decide to change the code on the lock and then went outside to work. When he came in later, he grabbed his lock, set the numbers for the new code, and it wouldn't open!  What!  He tried again.  And again!  Ben was totally discouraged!  Here he had spent his hard earned money on a nice lock, that he now had no use for.  It was locked and it was going to stay that way! :(

At lunch, He told Mike his dilemma. They tried a bunch of combinations that were similar to what Ben thought the code was, but none of them worked.  Ben was sure the lock had malfunctioned!  He thought maybe we should return it. :)  Then Mike told him that there were only 10,000 different combinations to that lock, and that it would only take him about 5 hours to break the code. :)  Ben was more discouraged than ever!  He went back outside, but all he could think about all day was his lock.

That evening, after supper, everyone went out to do chores and Ben stayed in with me to help clean up.  As I was clearing the table, I noticed Ben wasn't helping.  He was sitting at the table, trying to open his lock.  So I went over and sat down with him.  I said, "Ben, do you know what we need to do?  We need to pray."  I said, "The Bible says that if we ask for wisdom, God will give it to us, and we need wisdom to figure out how to crack this code."  So we prayed.

About two minuets later, the lock popped open! :)  I figured out the code!  I was so excited!  I put my fist in the air and shouted triumphantly, "See Ben, God is ALWAYS the answer!"  He said, "Oh, thanks so much, Mom!".  I said, "Don't thank me!" :)

A few minutes later, Mike walked into the kitchen, and Ben and I were both grinning from ear to ear.  We told Mike the story.  So we concluded that there were two lessons to learn.

1.  Write down the combination!!
2.  Pray more!!

In my heart I quietly thanked the Lord for showing Himself strong to Ben.  Ben will NEVER forget that...and I doubt that he will forget to write down the combination either!! :)

Ministry

When I was about eight years old, my parents bought a motor home.  I have many great memories of camping with my family!  We'd often spend weekends at my grandparents lake camping and boating.  And there were other longer trips, seeing the states and the beauty of our country.

After Mike and I were married, my parents were looking to sell their camper.  They didn't use it much anymore and were tired of it sitting in the driveway.  So Mike and I decided to buy it!  I can't tell you how excited I was to get the camper!  Now my kids were going to get to experience what I did as a kid!  As I knew it, camping was GREAT FUN!!

I was so excited for our first trip!!  We were going to have a great time!  Well, it didn't take long for me to realize that camping was work!  I remember getting home from our first trip and calling my mom.  I was so curious to find out if she EVER had any FUN all those years that we went camping!  I had no idea the sacrifices that she had made for us kids!  She had to work really hard on EVERY camping trip that we took!  Wow!  That was a real eye opener for me.  I had to suck it up and tell myself that it was now my turn to work hard for my children.  (Not that camping isn't fun, it is!  But it is also a lot of work for moms.)  Now I had to learn to enjoy laying down my life for someone else....ahhhh MOTHERHOOD 101!!  That reminds me of my favorite quote..."Motherhood is a journey out of self-centeredness. " 

Motherhood = Ministry!

My family is my ministry!  I have to look at it that way because serving them is what God has called me to do.  I am to be a keeper at home (according to Titus 2:5).  I cook, clean, do laundry, educate my children, go camping :), and a hundred other things...Why?  Because it is my ministry! :)  I don't always want to get up every morning and make my family a nice breakfast, but I do it, every day, because it is how I need to serve my family. (Romans12:1)  A wife and mother has many opportunities to learn to enjoy hard work and servanthood! :)  There are lots of scriptures that teach us that it is our duty before the Lord, and we must do it well.  We can look to our own homes and families to find our calling in Christ.

The problem is that those mundane tasks that us mothers do over and over again, day after day, run the risk of becoming meaningless, without faith in God.  And after years of doing the same things over again, we can grow weary and start wondering if there are other things we should be doing instead...other ministries.  Am I missing out on something?  Isn't there something more exciting that God wants me to do for Him?  We need to trust that God has our best interests in mind when He tell us to be keepers at home; to serve our families. 

Sometimes all we need is a little adjustment in our view of things.  If we view our ministry to our families as drudgery, that is what it will be, but it becomes a joy and a delight when we are doing it for the Lord.

We need hearts that are committed to work...hard work!  The Bible teaches that there is profit in ALL labor!   And with the Lord's blessing on your work, you can trust that it WILL BE fruitful!  Our labor is not in vain! (Col. 3: 23-24)

Our ministries may look a little different depending on our husbands occupation, how many children we have, and where we live, but no matter what, as wives and mothers, we can find the Lord's work within our own homes....and lots of it!!  Let's keep encouraging one another to continue to fight the fight of faith, to not grow weary in well doing, to press on in a culture that looks down upon homemakers.  Don't change with every wind of doctrine!  Keep on pressin' on! :)

"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.  Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates."   Proverbs 31:30-31