Are You Awake?

Yesterday I was reading Matthew chapter 24. It's all about the "end of the age," 

and teaches what will happen in the "end". Mostly though, it warns us to be ready 

for the return of Jesus Christ. After reading this, I thought about whether I am living

my life as though He may return tomorrow. I like to think I am, but apathy is an area

I struggle with. As I mentioned in my last post, there are days when I feel like I'm 

too busy to sit down and read the Bible or pray. It's not that I must do this every 

day to have God's acceptance or approval, it's that I should have an inner hunger

and desire to spend as much time in His word and with Him in prayer as possible.

God is concerned with the condition of our hearts, and not that we are checking off

a spiritual checklist every day. So, do we have that hunger to know God more and 

more every day, to follow Him wherever He leads us, to love Him more than our 

own lives? Would we be ready if He returned today?

Of course, no one knows when Jesus will return, but whether it is next month or in 

a hundred years, we need to be living every day as though Jesus may return at any 

time. This means not becoming lazy in our walk with God. I feel like this is a real 

problem for American Christians. As a culture, we are so comfortable in our lives. 

Maybe a little too comfortable? We need to be sure we are consistently walking 

out our faith. 

To me, walking out my faith means loving God with all my being and loving all

those around me by being gracious, patient, kind and so on. Practically speaking, 

praying a blessing over someone when they cut you off in traffic. Many times this prayer 

ends up being, "Lord, protect that person from themselves and protect everyone

who is driving around them!" 

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."   1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 ESV

Back to the topic of our American culture, we have been so blessed with religious

freedom that I think we sometimes take it for granted. We tend to go through the 

motions while caught up in our day to day lives, not to mention all the mass 

information distractions. 

Would you be ready if Jesus returned today? Or would it catch you by surprise? 

Would you be overjoyed to see Him, or would you be nervous about whether

you had been living the way you should? Let's not be caught "sleeping" in our faith. 

Let's be wide awake in our faith every day, always living expectantly for His return.

"Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."  Matthew 24: 42-44, ESV

Low Blood Sugar

I am one of those people who have to have frequent meals/snacks with protein 
to maintain a normal blood sugar. If I go too long with out eating, my blood 
sugar plummets, and I become irritable, shaky, faint, and start to not make
much sense when talking. I find it more difficult to remember my snacks now
that I have two children. I get so busy taking care of them, I forget to eat or 
put eating lower on my prioritized list than I should. After a while, it catches 
up to me. Watch out! It's cranky mommy! My husband can testify to the horrible
metamorphosis that occurs when my blood sugar gets too low. Not a pretty sight.
Then, it hits me. Why did I let it happen again? I frantically devour a scoop of 
peanut butter (a nearly perfect food) to rectify the problem. I then return to 
the person my husband and children know, and I apologize. It is a reminder that
to take care of my family properly, I have to take care of myself. 


God has been showing me lately that this scenario is a good example of what
happens to us spiritually when we go too long with out prayer and reading 
the Bible. To keep one's blood sugar stable, one needs both protein and
carbohydrates in the appropriate proportions. The same applies to our spiritual
lives. I guess I could say the Bible is our protein source and prayer our carbs. 
I'm usually pretty good about praying every day (good carb intake), but there are 
times I can go a few days or more without getting into God's Word (protein). 
After a while, it'll catch up to me, and I wonder what is wrong with me. Then it
hits me, of course, I need to read my Bible. 


Too often we get caught up with our daily routine and chores. It's easy to be 
busy. But God has been reminding me not to leave protein out of my spiritual
diet. Yeah, life is super busy, but we do need to make sure we our taking care
of ourselves, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, so we can then take care
of our families and others around us. 


If you don't have time for a "big meal" of God's Word, then just read a few choice
verses or 1 chapter and at least get a "snack." You can read a few verses a few 
times a day instead of sitting down and reading for a half hour. We need to make
God our #1 priority. Read the Bible and be in prayer every day and watch how 
much God will be able to use you to minister to your children, spouse, friends, 
coworkers, and others. And that is why we want to walk this Christian life anyway,
to affect others for God. To show the love of Christ Jesus through us and point 
others towards Him. 


"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." James 4:8, ESV

De-stress, Smalley Style

My husband and I were able to attend the Gary Smalley Love and Laughter Seminar 
at our church this last Saturday. It was life changing. Having had gone to the last
seminar he did while here in '06, I thought I would get a good review of what I
had learned the last time. I couldn't have been more wrong. 


I learned so much this time around, mostly that I have so much work to do on 
myself. One of these areas is irritability. There are many times I become 
irritated that my husband isn't doing things right or not helping out as much as 
he could around the house, and whether or not that is the case, my irritation 
is my own problem. It means that there are things in myself I need to deal with. 


The last couple years I have noticed myself becoming more easily frustrated, 
stressed and irritable, not at all the person I was when I was younger. I blamed
it on now being a mother of two; changes in hormones (maybe); and having 
seemingly ton more work to do with less time to do it, and once I get it done,
it doesn't stay done very long. Add on top of that working outside the home.


This last weekend showed me that all this irritation and stress is my own 
fault and not my circumstances or surroundings. Gary Smalley said something
that really opened my eyes in the area of stress. "Stress is the gap between what
you expect in every area of your life and what you have." If I have the expectation
that I will be able to accomplish certain things throughout my day, week, or 
year and in reality it is not coming about, it causes stress. 


If I have the expectation that my son will in fact eat what I have prepared
for dinner, and he instead spits it out - that produces stress. What do we 
then do in these times? Mr. Smalley's solution is giving thanks (a grateful
heart). So instead of becoming frustrated, I can try all my mom tricks for 
getting my son to eat while being so thankful that this is the biggest struggle
of the evening and that my son is healthy and destined for great things. 
When you think this way, dinner challenges seem very small. 


I do have so much to be grateful for. Not only do I have a home to live in
and a beautiful, wonderful family, I have eternal life through Jesus Christ. 
I have a wonderful destiny in Him and will spend eternity with Him after I die.
All the day to day stuff I let get to me isn't worth it. 


This week when something or someone is really irritating you, remember, 
it's not that thing or that person, it's you who has the problem. And when 
you get stressed out, think of as many things as you can to be grateful for. 
One of Mr Smalley's examples was running late to go somewhere and being 
stuck in traffic. Instead of being upset at the situation, be thankful for the patience 
it can produce in you. We all could do with more patience in our lives. :) 


I learned so many other valuable lessons this last weekend, but it would be an
exceptionally lengthy post if I wrote about it all. If you would like to visit Mr. 
Smalley's website, I have attached a link where you can check out the awesome, 
common sense books he's written on great topics such as marriage, relationships, 
and parenting. 


For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.   Galations 5:13-15, ESV


http://smalley.cc/

God's Timing

How many times have you found yourself saying to God, "When?!" We have all
had to wait on God for His timing on one thing or another many times through our lives, 
but seem to have to learn this lesson over and over again. Whether it is waiting on a 
promotion, or becoming pregnant (for the first time or again). We all have our own idea 
about how things should go. How often do we pray for that something to happen instead 
of praying for God's will and timing in the matter? God is omniscient. He knows 
everything, including the deepest desires of our hearts. We can believe God for those precious dreams and see them come to pass if we will be patient. 


Patience is such a difficult virtue to have in this current culture we live in when we can
have almost anything we want when we want it. However, we must trust God and believe
that He has our best interest at heart. God loves us. He wants us to have the desires of 
our hearts (providing those desires are Godly).  He is our heavenly Father, and we are 
His children. Matthew 7:7-11 addresses this,


“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"


Another key in this process is believing. "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24 


So, we have to ask and believe. Sounds so easy, but in practical terms, dealing with
doubt can be difficult. The "what ifs" creep in, or worse, the idea that God loves other
people more than you. You are God's child. He loves you and wants to bless you. 


Will God answer every prayer how or when we think it should be answered? No. 
He sees a bigger picture than we do. We need to trust that He has everything under 
control. Waiting can be tough, but it's well worth it. Whether you are believing for
financial breakthrough or the expansion of your family, remember that God is
good and desires to give us good gifts. All we need to do is believe and wait. 
Easier said than done, believe me, I know. 


"And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." Matthew 21:22.
What happens if we don't have faith? Do we then not receive? If you struggle with
the concept of faith and what that really means, think of it this way. When my three 
year old asks me for a hug, she has no doubt that I will embrace her with a huge bear
hug. My child is secure in knowing that she is my child, and that I love her and would
never reject her. This is how we should approach God, secure in the knowledge 
that we are His children and that His love for us is unfathomable and unconditional. 


If you need to build up your faith a bit, I suggest reading passages of scripture that 
speak on God's love for us. John chapter 14 - 15 and 1 John chapter 4 are great 
passages. Know God's love, be confident in His love for you, ask God for the 
desires of your heart, believe for it and wait on His perfect timing for it to come 
to pass.