Thoughts and Quotes to Ponder

Wherever there is a mountain, there is a life giving river running through it, and ultimately the river is stronger, so do not fear the mountains you face.

"Beauty is created with purpose....Beauty is created. It's intentional." - Lisa Wingate 

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"It's funny how what you are used to seems right even when it's really bad."  

That quote by a 12-year-old river gypsy spoken to her friend as she is helping her flee a very abusive home she is reluctant to leave in the book "Before We Were Yours" is profound. It explains how so much evil has overtaken cultures throughout history. Even God-fearing freedom fighters like George Washington who accomplished so much good for others could not see slavery for the evil that it is because slavery had been common practice around the world for thousands of years.

It explains how Hitler used propaganda and of the natural human longing to belong to a group to brainwash his people and build the cult of Nazism.

It's why Americans allowed the sexual revolution of the 1960's to take over our culture, destroying marriages and families.

It helps us understand how our nation can courageously stand for freedom, spending billions of dollars and sending our most courageous heroes into battle to rescue the oppressed while at the same time allowing and even funding via tax dollars the brutal dismemberment and brain sucking slaughter of millions of unborn babies. Instead of calling abortion the most evil form of genocide throughout all of human history, we call it a woman's right worth defending because evil seems good if you hear it, belong to those who support it, and are around it enough.

Open our eyes, Lord; give us spiritually discerning sight. Just because something is familiar doesn't make it right. Just because our people say it, do it, or defend it doesn't make it legit or good, nor does it mend it. Anchor us in Your word which shows us right from wrong. Help us stand on the Rock, upright, steady, and strong. (Isaiah 5:20, ESV)

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If we can't post the 10 Commandments on or near government buildings anymore, could we post this convicting verse instead to help temper our political discourse?

"The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." (Luke 6:45)

Throw Pillows

After I asked my literal, logical child to stop tossing my decorative pillows around the room and to place them back on the sectional where they belong, he replied, "They are called throw pillows after all."

 Mom: 0, Kid: 1

What Love Is

This list by Paul Tripp is my belated Valentine's Day challenge and provides 23 more reasons why I need God's power and grace in my life:

1. LOVE IS being willing to have your life complicated by the needs and struggles of others without impatience or anger.
2. LOVE IS actively fighting the temptation to be critical and judgmental toward another while looking for ways to encourage and praise
3. LOVE IS making a daily commitment to resist the needless moments of conflict that come from pointing out and responding to minor offenses.
4. LOVE IS being lovingly honest and humbly approachable in times of misunderstanding.
5. LOVE IS being more committed to unity and understanding than you are to winning, accusing, or being right.
6. LOVE IS a making a daily commitment to admit your sin, weakness, and failure and to resist the temptation to offer an excuse or shift the blame.
7. LOVE IS being willing, when confronted by another, to examine your heart rather than rising to your defense or shifting the focus.
8. LOVE IS making a daily commitment to grow in love so that the love you offer to another is increasingly selfless, mature, and patient.
9. LOVE IS being unwilling to do what is wrong when you have been wronged, but looking for concrete and specific ways to overcome evil with good.
10. LOVE IS being a good student of another, looking for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs so that in some way you can remove the burden, support them as they carry it, or encourage them along the way.
11. LOVE IS being willing to invest the time necessary to discuss, examine, and understand the relational problems you face, staying on task until the problem is removed or you have agreed upon a strategy of response.
12. LOVE IS being willing to always ask for forgiveness and always being committed to grant forgiveness when it is requested.
13. LOVE IS recognizing the high value of trust in a relationship and being faithful to your promises and true to your word.
14. LOVE IS speaking kindly and gently, even in moments of disagreement, refusing to attack the other person’s character or assault their intelligence.
15. LOVE IS being unwilling to flatter, lie, manipulate, or deceive in any way in order to co-opt the other person into giving you what you want or doing something your way.
16. LOVE IS being unwilling to ask another person to be the source of your identity, meaning, and purpose, or inner sense of well-being, while refusing to be the source of theirs.
17. LOVE IS the willingness to have less free time, less sleep, and a busier schedule in order to be faithful to what God has called you to be and to do as a spouse, parent, neighbor, etc.
18. LOVE IS a commitment to say no to selfish instincts and to do everything that is within your ability to promote real unity, functional understanding, and active love in your relationships.
19. LOVE IS staying faithful to your commitment to treat another with appreciation, respect, and grace, even in moments when the other person doesn’t seem deserving or is unwilling to reciprocate.
20. LOVE IS the willingness to make regular and costly sacrifices for the sake of a relationship without asking for anything in return or using your sacrifices to place the other person in your debt.
21. LOVE IS being unwilling to make any personal decision or choice that would harm a relationship, hurt the other person, or weaken the bond of trust between you.
22. LOVE IS refusing to be self-focused or demanding, but instead looking for specific ways to serve, support, and encourage, even when you are busy or tired.
23. LOVE IS daily admitting to yourself, the other person, and God that you are unable to be driven by a cruciform love without God’s protecting, providing, forgiving, rescuing, and delivering grace.

-List by Paul David Tripp

Back to School Milestones

This is a big year of change for my children.  My son is moving upstairs to the Upper School to start 6th grade, and my daughter is entering Rhetoric (high) school as a 9th grader.

Today was Meet the Teacher Day, which is like an orientation or prep day for the first day of school tomorrow. This day was quite different today from what it was like when our kids first started attending this school. When the kids were in the lower (elementary) school, they stayed close by my side as I introduced them to their new teachers. They gladly posed for lots of cute pictures in front of their new cubbie lockers, and I made full scrapbook layouts chronicling this special day. When they moved up to the upper school for 6th grade, they kept a few feet away from me throughout the orientation. My daughter would only allow a picture in front of her locker when no one else was looking, and my son refused pictures entirely.

This year is my daughter's first year in Rhetoric (high) school. As soon as we stepped out of the van today, she completely dissed me until it was time to return home. I took no pictures, introduced my kids to no one, and barely met any of their new teachers.

It's all good, though, because we relish new adventures, and I enjoy watching them embrace exciting changes on their own. If I were to consume myself with sentimental longings to keep them tiny, I might miss those moments that make them mighty.

Bring it on, middle school and high school!

Identity Confusion

I keep seeing all this news about identity struggles. People are so confused over how to define themselves in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, family connections, natural abilities, and life purpose, as if any of those attributes adequately define us. Our society has identity confusion alright, but that's because they fail to acknowledge the true source of their identity. The new social order seeks to deny we are first and foremost created beings, made in the image of God. As Paul David Tripp wrote: "You and I aren’t the authors of our own stories. We are God’s idea, we reflect his design, we exist for his purpose, and we have been commissioned to do his will. We didn’t think ourselves up, and we didn’t emerge by chance out of primordial soup." Every aspect of our being, including our gender, ethnicity, heritage and life experiences are all according to His will and purpose, not our own. As long as we reject this truth, we will never fully understand or find peace in who or whose we are.

Just as a cake cannot tell its baker it is a prime rib, a biological male cannot pronounce to his Creator that he is female, wave a surgical wand, and magically become a female. Similarly, Rachel Doležal cannot become African American simply through cosmetic pretending.

We can choose unbelief, rejecting God's design and plan for our lives, but our beliefs can't change our biology in the slightest or cause us to no longer be created beings who are ultimately accountable to our sovereign, true, loving, and good Creator. When we look to Him for our identity and purpose and accept His Lordship over our lives, the truth becomes clear, and we find perfect fulfillment in our identity as children of God.

Thoughts while Spinning on the Potter's Wheel

Do you ever feel like you are spinning around and around, never getting anywhere and pressed in on every side? I was thinking about how that feeling in life is a picture of clay on a potter's wheel when our life class teacher just happened to teach on Isaiah 64:8 this morning.

"But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand."

Whether the constant spinning in circles or striving but going nowhere is the result of our own stubborn independence and unwillingness to receive direction from God or because our loving Father is intentionally taking us through a season of profound change, God is still our sovereign potter who is in the process of molding us from a lump of clay into something beautiful, fashioned for a significant, eternal purpose. We get to choose whether we will resist His work in us and continue pretending we are in control while utterly lost and helpless, or we can rest in Him, finding perfect peace in His sovereignty, goodness, and love as we let Him have his perfect way with us.

Come for Help

It can be heartbreaking when your strong-willed, independent child refuses to come to you for help, no matter how long it takes that child to figure things out on her own and no matter how many mistakes he/she may make in the process. Why won't she let me help? But I have learned that when things get bad enough, that child will come to the parents she loves and trusts for help, and once she realizes how much easier and more enjoyable life is with you there to guide her, she keeps coming back day after day, grateful for the help and support.

That realization gives me a much greater appreciation for God's love for each of His children, for the trials in life that bring us to the end of ourselves and lead us back to Him, and for the joy our Abba has when we come to Him for help and guidance. It's hard to fathom how the God of the universe could take such delight in such sinful creatures fashioned out of dust, but He calls us His children, and I know it thrills this parent when an independent, strong-willed child comes to me for help at last.

While I can help my child with math, logic, science, civics, and issues of life I have navigated myself through the wisdom of hindsight and God's word, there is so much more that I cannot teach her, for she is gifted in so many ways I am definitely NOT. But God is not weak in any area. He possess ALL wisdom, ALL knowledge, ALL authority, ALL power. He is sovereign over all, and He is all we ever need.

All of us have at some point chosen our own path and stubbornly tried to do life our way, on our own strength, without seeking our heavenly Father's input or direction. And whenever we do, we eventually come to the end of ourselves, overwhelmed and utterly hopeless apart from Him. When/if we turn back to Him, He enthusiastically welcomes us, guides us, and lavishes His infinite love upon us. There is no greater joy or security than abiding in Him in the center of His will. We need only come to Him, trust Him, and receive.

Fighting the Holiday Battles, both Big and Small

The Christmas season seems to get busier and more frustrating every year...as family needs increase and as retailers, merchants, service providers, and shoppers all grow more stressed and irritable - causing them to make mistakes or become negligent creating havoc for everyone. I've vented about my own frustrating experiences on here way too much. While I may feel the need to vent all the emotions out first so my heart and mind are open to receive the lesson or a word from the Lord, I cannot leave the venting out there without sharing the lesson or message that followed.

I have found that I have a much better attitude about frustrating circumstances, unfair treatment, or persecution, when it's obvious persecution for Christ (Matthew 5:9). If it's spiritual warfare before a mission trip, I'm usually ready and armored up. (Ephesians 6: 10-18) If I'm being ridiculed, targeted, and treated unfairly by haters of God and His word because of my faith, then I'm not surprised and know to draw my strength from Him to bear it gladly. When facing gut-wrenching pain or grief, we believers know we are powerless on our own to get through it, so we trust only in our gracious God who possesses all power, authority, and sovereignty.

But the enemy knows our weaknesses. He knows how to distract us and when we are more likely to trust in our own strength instead of looking up to God. He also knows that he is more likely to lead us astray if he chips away at us, little by little, with small irritations and frustrations. Rude drivers, no-shows for costly appointments, miserable customer service, broken promises, wasted hours waiting, last minute cancellations, flight delays, weather changes, traffic jams.....all are so tiny taken by themselves, but when compounded on top of sleepless nights, endless to-do lists, unrealistic expectations, incessant demands....it can all combine to pull our eyes away from the one focus of our entire life - the One lover of our soul - the Creator and Lord over all the universe who spoke it all into existence with his spoken word and then sent His son to die for all our transgressions against Him. When we stop looking up at how big God is, suddenly all the frustrations of the holidays seem enormous. And they all seem somehow unspiritual (yes, I made up that word)...as if we should fight them with human "weapons" instead of donning the armor of God and resisting them with God's word and with prayer.

I enjoy resistance training, but I can't expect to sit on my bum for a month, and then bench press 300#s when the big attacks come. I get the best results when I consistently train each and every muscle group, little by little, every single week. I have to resist the weight, however. I can't just lie under a barbell, defeated. I have to press against it. The little efforts to oppose that weight consistently over time make me stronger and less prone to injury than if I only sporadically lifted weights when I thought I needed strength the most.

 

So all that to say the trivial inconveniences and annoyances in this life have value - eternal value. Disrespect, offense, mistakes, lies, mistreatment, and failures are a given in this life. And while God does not tempt us or make us suffer, He sometimes allows attacks or suffering into our lives, whether big or small, to strengthen us and make us holy and for whatever greater purposes He may have which we cannot see with our finite minds. He wants to redeem that which is broken, worldly, or unjust in our lives, whether it seems spiritual or not. We have a choice, though. We can whine and complain and refuse to draw on God's power to resist it, or we can push back evil with good. We can resist hatred with love, rude behavior with kindness, greed with charity, abuse with compassion, and Satan's lies with God's truth. By relying on God and choosing to respond according to His word, we become stronger in every area of our lives and more like our heavenly Father.

While I often feel like all these irritations waste so much of my limited time on earth, I must remember that nothing is wasted with God. (1 Corinthians 15:58) May we bear it all, both the the little frustrations and the big, awful challenges or extreme persecutions life may bring us, with faith, courage, and hope, resting in His power, presence, and promises, looking not to our own interests but

only to Him.

Keeping Youth Athletics in Perspective

It's very tempting in our society, which has made youth sports out to be some sort of religious cult requiring the most extreme devotion,  to lose sight of the true value of sports activities for our kids. Hopefully we did not get them involved so we could live vicariously through them or with the expectation that they will always win and go pro. It's common to get so caught up in winning, gaining elite skills, and pursuing athletic scholarships (which become a huge burden and a full-time job for the student, often taking priority over studying or attending classes), that we forget that the greatest benefit and reason for putting our kids in sports is for their personal character development.  Sports may shape our kids' lives, but they must not consume their lives. 

Sports activities teach kids to work as a team, putting the interests of the whole above one's own interests. They teach patience, dedication, discipline, and perseverance. They teach respect for authority, respect for one's peers, and respect for the limits of one's own physical body. Sports give young people practice overcoming adversities and expose them to important realities about life such as: life isn't fair; things don't always go your way; you are not the best, and you are not the worst, so stop comparing and just be all that God created you to be!

A few weeks ago, my daughter and a few other 8th graders ran a relay together at their first ever high-school polar bear track meet. It was a new experience, and it was cold! It was humbling running against the older, more experienced high school girls (3 out of 4 girls on her relay team had never run track before at all, and our daughter had only run middle school track one short season). It was a great chance for them to develop courage.

Our daughter ran the anchor leg, and by the time she got the baton for the last lap, at least one high school team had finished, which is not surprising given her team's age and experience. Based on the video her coach sent me, she was at least 200-300 meters behind the next-to-last runner. In real life, when most people see no chance of winning or when they see the large gap between where they are now and where they want to be, they give up. Our girl had already run 3 events, and she certainly couldn't win this one, so why strive to eek out more effort when she was already spent simply to lose anyway? That's a typical response for the "entitled" generations. But youth sports instill a different attitude. They teach kids that giving their very best effort is what matters. Sports inspire the determination to never give up. So my girl took that baton, prayed, and gave it her best effort. And you know what? She didn't finish 200-300 meters behind the next to last runner. In fact, she passed the high schooler who probably never expected our team to come close.

 

You just never know what might happen if you simply give your best, not for the purpose of bringing yourself glory, but only for the glory of God. Those are the types of life lessons that we want our children to gain through their sports activities, and I'm thankful for every single one.

Our Cat's Life

This cat has it made. He lives the "purr"fect life.
He always wins by stirring up strife.

He knows how to get whatever he wants.
With furniture scratching and relentless taunts.

Each day he comes and goes as he pleases,
Every carnal desire he gladly seizes.

Whether exploring and playing with friends outside
Or taking long snoozes on the buffets inside,

He enjoys each moment without any stress,
While we work like slaves cleaning up his mess.

He pays no bills and never files taxes.
He misses no meals and simply relaxes.

When he visits his family at our homestead
He is massaged, groomed, cuddled, and fed.