Sunflowers

Sunflowers.

Always with their face toward the sun.

As my husband and I walk a hiking trail each morning, we see hundreds of sunflowers, among the many other colorful flowers along the way. I can’t help notice that the sunflowers always have their face toward the sun. That’s where they derive their strength!

In the garden of life, we’re like sunflowers.

We are the “Son-flowers” – that bloom where we’re planted; bringing great delight to our Father.

Son-flowers.

Always with our face toward the Son.

As Satan roams this realm, let him observe the Son-flowers and notice that our face is always toward the Son of God, where we derive our strength.

Jesus is our righteousness. He’s our redemption, our salvation, 

our right-now healing, He’s our joy, He’s our peace.

Why would we ever turn our face from His?

We pout. We have pity-parties. We get angry at God when we blame Him for things we don’t understand and the things that don’t go according to our plans, especially if we thought our plans were His plans.

But, in the midst of our pouting and rebelling, no one notices our beauty; no one can see it. Our beauty comes from always looking to Jesus, in good times and when we’re frustrated or sad or angry or scared.

Son-flowers – recognize your Source, and don’t turn away; especially now.

 

Shake It Off

(photo from walesonline.co.uk)

“God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.” – 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

I personalize this by receiving the good news that, God has not given me a spirit of fear (another scripture points out that perfect love casts out all fear). But, God HAS given me His spirit of power, His spirit of Love and the spirit of a sound mind.

Fear has reigned in my heart for a good deal of my life, even when I thought I’d tackled it. But, yesterday it jumped out at me, that the word for fear in this verse is also translated timidity.

God has not given us the spirit of timidity.

Timid – lacking in self-assurance, courage, or bravery; easily alarmed; timorous; shy. Characterized by or indicating fear. (dictionary.com)

(photo from onepeterfive.com)

I immediately recognized that I’ve allowed a spirit of timidity to overcome me and my daily actions and conversations. It dawned on me that I’ve allowed the opinions of others to cloud or overshadow my own thoughts and convictions. Not so much to the changing of my thoughts and convictions, but, limiting and inhibiting my expression of these beliefs. Since these are beliefs that I hold dear, I now challenge myself; why? And how have I let this self-doubt or apprehension creep into my thinking?

Are my thoughts and beliefs any less valid than the thoughts and beliefs of those around me? No.

Have I fallen prey to the notions of political correctness that would intimidate me into silence for fear that I’ll offend someone? Perhaps.

Am I so concerned with what others might think of me, that I’m hiding the very core of who I am? Is my ego that shallow? I think so. What a crushing blow!

I choose to live my life as I believe God leads me.

I’ve chosen to surrender my life to the God of the universe, the God that created us all and everything we see, as well as plenty we don’t see.

I believe that all life is sacred, that God loves us all, with His love that knows no limits and cannot be removed from us. Whether we want His love, or feel we deserve His love or not – He loves us, without end and without conditions.

I believe that to live in peace with God, we must go through Jesus Christ, His Son, Whom He sent to redeem us from a fallen state.

I believe what God says in His Word, I receive His promises to me, knowing that most of them are conditional upon submission to Him. I choose that submission.

(picture from maulshri.com)

Today, I choose to shake off that spirit of timidity; it’s not from God.

Today, I choose to take up that spirit of power, God’s spirit of Love and the spirit of a sound, confident mind and wear them boldly.

Might I fumble? You bet.

Might I fall flat on my face, and even get angry with myself for doubting my relationship with God or for doubting the power of the spirit of Love that wants only the best for me? Of course.

Continuously, life is choice after choice. Most of the daily choices we make, we make subconsciously, not even recognizing that a choice has been made. Whether we give in to old patterns, or whether we step out into new boldness; whether we see why we do the things we do or not, choices are being made.

(picture from pinterest.com)

Today, I choose boldness.

Today, I choose to trust God with all my heart.

Today, I choose God’s generous, rewarding will over my own selfish, limiting will.

Check back with me tomorrow. The spirit of fear is sneaky, I’ll likely need your prayers.

I'm All Thumbs

(photo from howcast.com)

Watching the man beside me in church type so quickly with his thumbs amazed me as much as it does my grandson to watch me use all of my fingers to fly through words without looking, almost as quickly as I can talk. No wonder they don’t bother to offer classes in keyboarding to grade school and middle school children anymore. If they’re going to use their thumbs, it’s just a matter of practice to gain speed.

Is this a “bad” thing?

Well, to me, it’s not a good thing, but I’m still learning that my way isn’t always the only good way to do things! Others may actually come up with better ways of doing what needs to be done, in an even timelier manner. Ouch!

Just because something looks new or different to me doesn’t mean I should assume it’s inferior to what I consider normal.

Having just spent some time “back home”, accompanying my mother to mass every day, I repeatedly prayed the Lord’s prayer using the word “trespass” instead of “debt”. This brought to my remembrance the story of a young boy, who, in complete innocence prayed, “…forgive us our trash passing as we forgive those who pass trash against us…”

Ponder that.

This little boy’s understanding of his prayer could be “corrected” – but, he wasn’t “wrong”.

Who has “passed trash” our way; often piling it up quickly?

Better yet; who are we burying with the “trash” we pass along?  

(picture from barbarakoob.com)

1 John 1:9 assures us that: “God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness” – in other words, He’s faithful to forgive us of all that we do to offend Him and to clean all that “trash” off of us.

But, the people around us, whether strangers or friends, can’t always see our heart, especially if we’re busy at the work of building safety walls around it. They many find it difficult or even impossible to forgive us for all the trash we pass their way.

It’s just as hard for us to see their hidden hearts, often making it unthinkable for us to forgive them for all the trash they pile up at the door of our heart, begging us to ask, “Why are they doing this to me??”

(photo from orangemuscle.com)

Recall the Lord’s prayer says, “…forgive us as we forgive…”

That line could make this a scary prayer if we don’t have a very forgiving heart.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” – Psalm 139:23-24 (KJV)

Notice, we’re not led to pray, “Lord, search my neighbor’s heart and point out their wicked ways….”

What does this have to do with typing with our thumbs?

Simply to say that for my heart to be set free and be healed of the piles of damage it’s sustained over the years, and in order for my life to change course, I may need to do some things differently. I may need to look at what’s going on around me from a different point of view; I may need to ask myself, “What is God’s take on this?” – and I may have to face the fact that His point of view may be quite different than mine, or even than what I think His should be. I want to line up with Him and do things the way He wants me to, even when it costs me; I may feel embarrassed, I will be humbled…. 

But, if I want to heal and grown I need to change my thinking. I need to get out of the rut of thinking that the way I’ve always seen things is the only way they can possibly be…..

What a startling revelation!

(Meme from alanon.actionboard.com)

Pastor recently quoted a paraphrase of the Serenity Prayer, I loved it! It went something like this:

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change

The courage to change the one I can

And the wisdom to know – it’s me

Selah!

(Meme from whatwillmatter.com)

Who Are You Feeding?

(photo courtesy of analyticalarmadillo.co.uk)

We feed our children.

We feed the birds that frequent our birdfeeders.

We feed the homeless through soup kitchens and outreach ministries.

We feed our minds. (Remember this: garbage in – garbage out!)

But, do we feed our doubts?

Our pastor tells us that when we feed our faith, we’ll starve our doubts to death.

Yes, we can feed our faith, but sometimes we’re too busy feeding our doubts.

This reminds me of the old Indian story about two wolves. I’ll paraphrase:

An old Indian chief taught his grandson, telling him of two wolves that fight for his soul. One is mean and greedy; the other is kind and gracious.  When the boy asked which would win, the grandfather wisely told him, “The one you feed the most.”

So, how do we feed our doubts?

We feed our doubts by rehearsing our fears over and over again, allowing them to paralyze us. We feed our doubts by worrying and complaining, by watching movies, videos and televisions shows that paint immorality, corruption, and sin in general, as acceptable, numbing our brains. We feed our doubts by reading that same type of material. We feed our doubts by hanging around people of little or no faith, people who applaud the things our God abhors.

One of our favorite ways to feed doubts and fears is through negative self-talk, which becomes so commonplace we fail to see it. Too often, we beat ourselves down with critical and condemning thoughts and wallowing in guilt and shame until we convince ourselves we’re worthless. We reinforce the lies of the enemy, the great deceiver, the one who hates us for nothing we’ve done, but simply because God loves us. Before long, we doubt that we’re loveable, then eventually, the doubt becomes the false-truth we believe about ourselves.

What a subtle enemy. What a patient enemy.

We become what we believe we are. Our god becomes small and helpless, even pathetic, as we believe one lie after another, feeding our doubts their favorite junk food.

But, remember the other wolf.

We can also feed our faith. By reading and studying God’s Word, our faith grows. When we praise God, when we refuse to gossip or curse, when we pray and think on the good things (Philippians 4:8) our faith gets stronger. We also feed our faith by hanging around faith-filled people who search out the Bible for every treasure hidden there for them.

Which plate will you fill today?

“…whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,

think on these things.”

~Philippians 4:8 (KJV)