To Wave or Not to Wave?

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:1-2

On my way to do school pick up I pass a couple crossing guards as I pass I wave at each of them. One of them waves enthusiastically back and the other does everything she can to not look towards me. She seems almost afraid to wave.

The art of waving to others seems to be fading. There used to be a time when waving and smiling at others was common. A train would go by and we'd wave at the conductor or at the amusement park when the tram or train would go by we'd wave. Someone standing on the corner a simple wave. What has happened to this art?

Are we to busy to notice others? Are we scared to make a connection? Would a smile and wave hurt that much?

Showing hospitality to others, seems like a simple thing. All it takes to begin is a wave and a smile. Sure driving in my van seems like a safe place to wave from, it doesn't involve talking just a wave as I go by. Would I have the courage to wave and smile as I walked by? Or would I do everything I could to avoid making a connection?

Sometimes my shy side gets the better of me I turn into the one who does everything I can to avoid looking at others. Sometimes it's easier to not connect rather than showing that brotherly love. My prayer is that I am able to open up and show God's love to everyone I meet.

No More Excuses

What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation...1 Corinthians 14:26

Believe it or not there was a time in my life when I didn't spend so much time at church. I would chose to sleep in on a Sunday morning instead of getting up to go to worship. My schedule was pretty crazy.

My husband and I each worked full time plus we delivered newspapers in the middle of the night seven days a week so that we could help make ends meet. So on Sundays we would get all the extra sleep we could. It was a tough schedule and we thought it would be alright not to worship.

There are always excuses we can come up with to not do something:

It's my only day off
I don't have money to give
It's my only day to sleep in
We have company
I need to clean my house
We have a sporting competition

You get the idea.

What if Jesus made excuses?
I'm not going out in the crowds today, it's my only day off.
Forget about going to the temple, I used my last denari on groceries.
No miracles today, just need to sleep in.
My company won't understand that I need to teach on the mount today, so I'm just going to stay home with them.
I can't possibly raise Lazarus today, I need to clean my tent.
No being sacrificed today, I need to be there for the team.
Good thing, the king of kings didn't make excuses.

The time we missed away from worshiping with other believers made our life difficult. This was the time of our lives the money got so bad that we almost lost our house. I barely prayed, I would say "God is Great" and "Now I lay me" but hardly a conversation with God.  Of course my choice in things I did were not the greatest. Good thing I fell on my knees and got back to where I belong with fellow brothers and sisters praising and learning about God! No more excuses.

Expect the Unexpected

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

It was a good plan, a plan to eliminate the rest of our debt. After that I would save up to buy a new vehicle.  Unfortunately, about a month ago my van began to act up. Of course, I believed that my mechanics, my husband and sons, would be able to figure out how to fix it.

They worked on it and replaced this and that, but the problem was deeper it was an internal problem in the engine. Then came the hard decision about what to do. Do we invest thousands of dollars into fixing this van or was it time to replace it?

The praying began, I prayed for my usual sign to know God's plan for us. Before the week was up God had confirmed that it was time to replace the van. So the searching began. I looked for used vans in our area and of course the right price range for us. Little did I know what God had in store for us.

There were not a lot of used vans for the type of van I needed, the only problem was the closest used vans were 120 miles away. If God wanted us to go that far we would because we trusted him and we would go where He sent us.  After narrowing it down to two different makes of van, I was lead to see how they compared to each other. Of course one did significantly better than the other.

The van I felt lead to was even harder to find as a used van, so the choice was now do we buy this type of van new? More praying and hoping that this was what God had planned for us even though it meant more money. Would we even get approved for a loan? What would the payments be?

The plan to go to the bank wasn't even going to happen until this week, but God even changed that to having me go last Friday. Approval came and then we went to look at it Sunday and came home with more than expected. God orchestrated out the details and gave us so much more then we even expected. Sure now I have a payment to make, but I know God will provide. He has good plans for us even when we weren't expecting it.

Don't Lose Sight

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1-2

Busyness tends to consume me especially in the month of December. There are events at church, times with family, and of course all those presents to buy. Lately, my Wednesdays have been very busy. The day can easily get away from me and before I know it, I had no time for my devotions and prayer time.

Now that January and a new year is here, my busyness has slowed down to just my regular schedule. I tried to make a commitment to get back to blogging and somehow seventeen days has gone by. I really wanted to get back to writing a devotion once a week. When I can manage to work it into my schedule it helps me to keep my eyes on Jesus.

Sure I have my daily devotion and prayer time, but there is just something about being able to write and share what I am going through. There are times though when I want to take a nap or watch one of the series on Netflix instead of writing. I guess in those times I maybe getting entangled.

I let things get in the way of what I really want to be doing which is getting back to not losing sight of what's important to me. It is important that I not let the busyness take away my focus on the one who makes my faith stronger.

If Only it Were That Easy

And he said, "Truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  Matthew 18:3

Oh, to be a child again! When life was not to complicated. When the most difficult decision of the day would be which color crayon to use. When you trusted what was told to you especially if your parents told you.

For most of my life I believed what my dad told me: after I was born in the army hospital I had green formula and green diapers. It seemed like a true enough story, the fatigues he owned were green and the army had a lot of green.  So why wouldn't I believe him.

Most of us are told about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy. It seemed like a pretty true story after all presents arrived on Christmas, eggs were hidden at Easter along with a basket full of goodies, and the tooth fairy would leave a quarter under my pillow. Even after knowing the truth, my first Christmas as a married woman I expected somehow Santa would show up and bring me a gift.

One of the most important things I learned as a child was about God and Jesus. I trusted what I was told and learned that I needed to claim Jesus for myself which I did at the back of a small sanctuary. Jesus became my Savior. Somehow I knew the difference between the stories I was told and the truth about God. I believe we are all given a knowledge that there is something more to this life.

So why is it the older we get and the busier we get the harder it is to keep that childlike trust? Why do we question our belief? Why do we try to fit God into our way of thinking instead of His truth?

Could it be we've lost that connection?

When life doesn't go our way, we would rather turn away then turn back to the One we know can make it all better. It really is that easy: we need to take a break, step back into that childlike trust, and talk with our heavenly Father. He's waiting to embrace each of us in His protective arms and make the chaos less chaotic, the stresses into blessings, and the uncertainties into certainties.

Who Do You Let Win?

"He makes my lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff, they comfort me." Psalm 23:2-4

How do you go about making big decisions? Do you go to your friends? Do you make a list of pros and cons? Do you pray about it?

Several years ago my husband had an opportunity to change his job. His rate of pay was going to be higher per hour and he would be closer to home. We thought it was a great opportunity, but we wanted to be sure. After praying about it, we made a list of pros and cons. One of the things we discovered even though his pay rate was higher the amount to be taken out for health insurance was more. He would have brought home a much smaller paycheck, so we decided this was not for him. A few years later it turns out that other job had a lot of lay offs. We were very grateful for the decision we made. We knew God had his hand in this and He won!

There are times though when we've made a decision based on what everyone else was doing. We decided to not do something because we might see someone we were mad at. Maybe we didn't go because we were scared. Turns out we missed out on a wonderful opportunity a God ordained blessing we didn't get. After hearing about the event from others we were disappointed we didn't go, we felt like we had let God down. Letting Him down made us feel like we let the devil win.

Everyday we have choices to make, sometimes we chose God and we receive a blessing. Other times we chose not to follow Him and we miss out on the blessing. When we chose God's path, He will guide us on the right path and then God wins every time!

In The Darkness

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5

When spending the night in a new place, I always make sure I know where the bathroom is. On Friday night I did just that, and set up my air mattress. Then I got ready for bed.

After much tossing and turning and debating if I really needed to go to the bathroom, I decided to get up and go. You know how it is, the more you think about not having to go, the more you need to go. So I found my glasses and made my way to the bathroom.

I entered to a little bit of light, which was very helpful until that little bit of light left. The bathroom didn't have a night light, in fact there was no light at all! Once the little bit of light left I was in total darkness. I couldn't even see my hand.

I managed to flush the toilet and made my way to the sink to wash my hands. Then I needed to find my way to the door. My arms flailed in front of me, hoping to find my way out I cautiously stepped forward all while praying, "Lord, get me out of here."

I touched the other stall's door and continued my way forward. I felt the tile wall, and the little sign that I had read earlier "Be sure to turn off the light when leaving." Surely that meant the light switch should be near by. I felt up and down the wall with no luck.

I managed to find the door and pushed, it would push open right? No, I needed to find the door knob. I felt and felt until as luck would have it, a doorknob! I turned it and pushed, the door wouldn't open! Panic seized me, should I scream out for help and who would hear me? I tried again this time pulling the door toward me and relief when I was on the other side back in the light!

Funny, as I thought more about this experience my life the last few weeks has been like this.

I have felt stuck in a dark bathroom when it began with hearing from someone that I am being blamed for something beyond my control. In fact, the incident that happened, happened when we were on vacation in another state. So how could I be blamed?

I was able to pray at the altar and left it there for God to deal with it. I realized that maybe even though I'm not to blame, this person wants me to do something that isn't God's intentions. I try to treat people with the love God has shown me, sure I'm not perfect at it but I do try.

Then a week later after being blamed another incident happened, this time in my presence so between my husband, daughter, and me, we addressed the issue.

I feel like I'm in the dark with this whole situation. I feel like screaming out for help! I have prayed, "Lord get me out of this."

With each new day, I know He is. I know God loves each person involved. God gives us all a glimpse of his light and He will help me drive out the darkness that is trying to consume me. Because God is greater than all!