Sunday, July 31, 2011
Having confidence in who God created us to be can help us through those "first day of school" moments, even as adults.
Even at 32 years old I remember my first day of elementary school. I’m surprised at how many details I am able to recall from the morning my mom walked me into Mrs. Lott’s 1st grade classroom. I remember the school feeling like a different world compared to anything I had experienced before. It was massive, filled with new faces, new atmosphere and a new feeling of independence (sort of, anyway). While thinking about the fact that so many kids and teens are gearing up to head back to school, I realized the impact my first day at Westside Elementary School must have had on me to be able to remember it so vividly. There are obvious reasons why that day would stand out in my mind and others that might not be so apparent. While it may have …
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Discover a new way to let your problems go.
Have you ever had a day, or perhaps days, in which your thoughts can't seem to see the light? Sometimes our situation can look rather dark and out of our control. That's precisely when we must realize the more we try to control, the less we are able to relax and let God take the reigns. It is easy to think there is no way out of a situation or if you do see a way it may look like a very long road to get there. Didn't Jesus take the idea of "time" out of the equation? Wasn't he able to make things happen instantly? He didn't require certain material laws and situations to change before he could perform the miracles. When Jesus' disciple Simon Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's slave, Malchus (John 18:10), Jesus reprimanded Simon …
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Find comfort in the darkest of hours.
We have all had times in our lives when we experience extreme heartache. It could be the loss of a parent, the death of a best friend, divorce, and so forth. During such times our heart can seem to cry a million tears and still be grief stricken. When you know someone in that situation, there is rarely anything you can say to make it better. The times when it’s you and people are struggling for words, you sometimes wish they could say the right thing and your world would will instantly be better. At other times, you simply long for silence. It is too easy to go down the road of self doubt, self criticism, resentment, anger and all the other non-productive thought patterns. As we are all aware, this doesn’t get us anywhere. Not anywhere …
Sunday, June 5, 2011
With quietness we are able to hear the still, small voice.
Do you ever have those moments when you are suddenly overcome with a thought or feeling and know it was perhaps a message from our maker? Sometimes people start to wonder why they don’t seem to hear God giving them direction, answers, or healing. If you are driving in your car and the radio is up loud and you are joyfully singing along, it is completely possible for you to not hear the ambulance coming up behind you. It’s siren alerts you to get over but you can’t hear it over your radio. It wasn’t that the siren wasn’t blaring, you simply were not able to hear it. How could you have fixed the problem? Just reach over and turn down the volume. You would have then been in a position to hear what you needed to hear. In our lives we …
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Overcome the undue limitations we place on ourselves.
A melody, a symphony or maybe just a note. I like to think we have a constant stream of music within us. The sounds can change by the minute. Sometimes soft and soothing and at other times crashing like the waves amidst a storm. I began piano lessons at about age ten. Playing by ear was never my thing and I was being classically trained. It seemed that others around me had more faith in my abilities than I did. At about age 12 I was asked to play the organ at church on Wednesday evenings. I reluctantly agreed and gave a list of the 12 hymns I knew how to play. Each week I was asked to play only one of the hymns from my list and two additional hymns I had never played before. The first time this happened I was really upset. I thought “didn’…
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Our past does not define who we really are.
We are not our past. End of story. Each one of us has probably endured situations that were life-changing and seemingly earth shattering. And, we each had a choice on how to handle those situations. At first, we may feel anger, fear, frustration, hurt, physical pain, grief, depression, etc. Those feelings try to take hold of us and claim we have every right to feel that way. I like to think back to a story in the book of John in the Bible. “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in …
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1:20 pm on Monday, August 1, 2011
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