BLOGS
If you live in a life like mine, you understand what I call domestic craziness. Ladies, stick with me here, I really do think you will be able to relate to this. Domestic craziness is the normal “hum” of our home lives. It is not negative, just busy and active with a certain noise level that is normal for our families. I call it craziness because no matter how “normal” we think our lives should be it always seems slightly crazy. Or slightly “not normal”, which is more normal than our idea of normal is. So being “not normal” is truly normal for today’s families, which means we usually live in slightly crazy homes. I have either lost you or you are nodding your head saying this doesn’t make any sense but I totally understand what she is saying!
Some days the normal craziness spikes up a few notches and things can get hectic. The normal hum of your home starts to sound more like a freight train. In my house it could look something like this: the boys are wild with one screaming “Woo hoo!” while trying to lasso the dog like a cowboy, the other is dancing around the house with a red popsicle, my teenage son is running late, looking for his misplaced work boots again, the phone keeps ringing, the place is a mess (despite me picking it up all day), I’m stepping on Legos that are scattered on the floor while trying to catch the one with the red popsicle and my husband walks in asking where supper is. Feel your stress level rising yet? Can you relate? I’m guessing you can. I used to really let times like this get to me. I would get angry and ask, “Why me!?” The stress would build until I was upset and frustrated with everyone in my family and a dark cloud settled over my head. I would yell at the kids to behave and have snide comments for my husband. Yeah, I was a real treat. So what changed? Did I finally gain control and shape up my house, husband, and kids? Haha, that’s a good one! No… I changed. I have learned that when I have problems (with a situation or a person) I need to look at myself first to see if I am the one who needs to shape up. Now, I’m not able to change my own heart, but when I give it over to God, he can. The Bible tells us when we receive Christ we are a new creation and that we need to look and act more like Jesus. Ephesians 4:31 - 5:1-2 tells us: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” What a great reminder that I can forgive anything since Christ has forgiven me so very much! I want to be tenderhearted and kind towards others (including my family) not filled with the ugliness of anger and bitterness. What a beautiful mind picture when told to “walk in love as Christ loved us,” even sacrificing himself for us. It puts it all into perspective now. We need to imitate Jesus. How do I do this when placed in a situation like described above? I breathe in Jesus. That is what I call it when I take a deep breath and remind myself of the scripture above and so many more like it. I dwell on Jesus and all he has done for me and that my true life is with him. He brings peace beyond understanding (Philippians 4:7) and fills me with forgiveness and patience. This makes me sound pretty holy! I can assure you it has only come from experience and practice (19 years as a mother) and I still fail often. Praise God that he is faithful and patient with us! So the next time you find yourself in a moment of extreme domestic craziness remember to breathe in Jesus. Take a deep breath and calm yourself in Christ’s love and the forgiveness found in his Word. Remind yourself to imitate Jesus and let his peace envelop you. This life is so very temporary; don’t allow moments like this to bring that dark cloud over your head. Clear it away with the powerful Words of God. I encourage you to always be prepared with a memorized piece of scripture. That is the only true way to do battle! Need help finding one? Message me, I would love to help! I recently took my two young boys, ages 7 and 9, to Eagle Point Park in Dubuque. It is a beautiful, historical park with overlooks of the Mississippi River, Lock and Dam #11, and the tri-state river valley. The nice views were not the reason for our visit this day, however, but the Fish Pond. More specifically the limestone rock walls all around that pond.
My two boys, like many others, love adventure and the feeling of accomplishment. Neither is what I would call “fearless”; they never jumped into a pool before they knew how to swim as toddlers or hopped on a bike without training wheels without first being encouraged and held up by an adult. They have a healthy fear of risk and potential injury (I am thankful for this). This being said, God still made them boys, and God made boys to be inquisitive, brave and eager for a challenge. I want to encourage this as their mother, physically and more importantly, spiritually. So on this day at the park after shoes were tied and bug spray applied I let them loose with instructions to work on their bravery - to climb walls, jump over crevasses, and discover new trails. I watched as they started out cautiously and little by little gained courage to try something new: scaling a higher wall, jumping off a rock to a nearby tree, walking down a path that was dark and crowded with greenery. I held myself back from calling out too many reminders to “be careful” or to hold out a hand to help them do something they should do on their own. I prayed as I watched them; yes, I prayed for their safety but also so much more. I prayed that God would transfer this learning over to their walk with him and make them increasingly bold for sharing his Gospel and proclaiming Christ in their lives. We need to do this same thing in our walk with Christ. We need to continually push ourselves to be more like him. We need to be intentional in our continued growth. This comes by giving ourselves spiritual challenges. If we do the same things over and over, year after year, like attend church, go to an occasional Bible study, attend a special event here and there, we can’t expect spiritual growth like we need. We have to push ourselves further; we need to dig deeper. If you are a follower of Christ, this should be a fairly intense and natural internal desire. You should feel a need to learn more about Christ and to do more to bring him honor. It is a byproduct of a close relationship with your Savior. As Christians we often pray for courage to share the message of Christ; we ask for boldness to proclaim the Good News to the lost around us. Why do we feel the need to pray this? Because we lack it in our daily lives, many times we are riddled with fear and keep our faith hidden away. Boldness is the antidote to fear and praying for boldness is Biblical. In Acts chapter 4, Peter and John had just been released from prison and joined the other believers in prayer. Verse 29, “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.” Despite the real threats all around them they desired to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. God answers their prayer just a few verses later in a powerful way. Paul also prayed for boldness despite how “naturally” bold he seemed to be on the outside. He was often beaten, sometimes to the point of death and yet he got back up and went straight back to preaching the Gospel. Ephesians 6:19-20, “and [pray] also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” Paul needed courage and boldness just as we do today. He prayed for “words to be given to me in opening my mouth”. Many times that’s the hardest task simply opening our mouths to share Christ with someone else. So what does it look like to give yourself “spiritual challenges” to help you grow more courageous in Christ? It will take different forms for each person depending on where you are at in your walk, but here are a number of possibilities: inviting someone to attend church with you, attending church regularly yourself, offering to pray for someone, praying out loud before a group, starting a Bible study in your home, going on a mission trip, reading a chapter of the Bible every day, reading the entire Bible in a years’ time, inviting friends from church to your home for dinner, asking another lady for coffee to talk about Jesus, witnessing to a friend or coworker, sharing your testimony, saying grace before a meal in public, praying with your spouse, or praying over you children. The list goes on and on, but to be sure it will be something that throws you out of your comfort zone and into a position of trusting God. Someday I hope to take my sons rock climbing and repelling, but if I had led them to a steep mountain to begin their learning on the fear may have been overwhelming and the challenge too discouraging. So I introduce them to challenges that push them farther than they have gone before. It is okay to begin small in your journey of courage, but the key is to make continual progress toward Jesus. So begin to flex your courage muscles and allow God to bring larger and larger challenges into your life to grow you. After all, it is truly God doing this work, not us, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13. Take that leap over the crevasse to get closer to Christ today. Ladies, as I grow older (and wiser, I hope) I realize how much we have in common with each other. Oh, we like to think our lives are vastly different than that of those around us. But let’s face it, I bet each of us did at least a few of the following already today: groaned when the alarm went off, flinched when you looked in the mirror, rolled your eyes when you saw your husband’s dirty socks on the floor next to the hamper, washed dishes and laundry, reminded the kids to brush their teeth, told your kids to wipe the toothpaste off the sink and walls, made a to do list and a shopping list, thought of a dozen areas of your house and life that need better organization, told your fighting children to knock it off, wished you had listened to your husband and stopped at two children, okay you get the point. I think you can agree we have a lot in common.
One other item every single one of us has in common is sin, we all struggle with it. It may take on different shapes in each of our lives, but it is still there. It could be in the form of envy, lust, gluttony, dishonesty, idolatry or any other type. Often it is not visible for others to see; sin loves the darkness and hates the light. We keep it hidden due to shame and a sense of self-righteousness. We don’t want others to know about it; we don’t want to be judged by anyone! We would rather keep on letting others think that everything is great and that our lives are sparkly clean, or at least as clean as our friends’ lives are. The Bible puts it this way: “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” John 3:19-21 I used to be very touchy when asked about sin in my life for all the reasons above. However today, if you sat down with me and asked me about my sins, I can readily admit to the ugliness that is in my life. I can promise you it wouldn’t be pretty, especially if I confessed all the thoughts that run through my head in 24 hours. You may have to finally ask me to stop talking. Why is this? When you get to know Christ more deeply and recognize how holy he is, the sin in your life becomes much more apparent. You begin to see the darkness much easier and you hate it. Those I worry about are the ones who have a hard time recognizing sin in their lives and often rationalize it as being a “normal” part of the American life. My primary concern is that their view of God as Lord is less than it should be and that their value of his holiness is diminished. If I sat down with you today and asked you about your sin, what would you have to say to me? Would you confess it and ask for prayer or try to make excuses as to why you do what you do? Do you hate your sin or is it something you are fairly comfortable with? Can you recognize it easily? These are serious questions each of us should be asking ourselves. God hates sin and God is 100% without sin. We can only be in his presence if we are also without sin, completely without a single blemish. This means only those who are perfectly righteous can go to Heaven and live there for eternity with God, everyone else is sent to Hell. Whoa, wait a minute…I said above that all of us have sin in our lives so is there no hope? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25) God has given us a way through the one who lived on Earth and was (and is) completely perfect and without sin; Jesus Christ. He took our sin upon himself and bore the wrath of his Father as he died on that cross for those who will receive the gift of life he offers. For those who accept Christ, our sin was killed on that cross over 2,000 years ago…all of it. Perfectly righteous and holy Jesus stands in our place when we are before God and allows us to enter into his glorious home of Heaven. What a gift it is and how anyone can reject it is beyond me. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14 We need to hate sin as much as God does. We need to bring it out of darkness and expose it to light so it can die. Don’t go easy on yourself and explain it away or try to justify it. There won’t be others around you to make you look better on judgment day, only you before God. Unless you accept Jesus as the savior of your soul and make him Lord over your life. If you do, he will be right there, saying, “I died for this one and took away all her sins, she belongs with me.” |
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