Jesus has always showed me what I am made of. When my mom left me with our farm for the first time when I was 19, and was away for almost a month and a half to visit my dad at a work related thing in the NWT I was looking forward to trying to see if I could do it all myself. With so much land to keep up with the grass cutting, my Poppa deciding to redo the back fences and hay season baring down on us my enthusiasm waned. Oh ya, and summer is dust and mud season so the house needed work, often. It felt like as soon as I found my groove, the tornado hit. It took down 30 something trees. So my late 80s Poppa and I got to work. Hauling trees, cutting them into moveable sizes, repairing buildings, tending to my beloved horse who had a minor injury from it. In all of it I looked around and saw how God had protected us. Now I look back and see how it made me grow. No matter what I face, if I have my Jesus I can take it on and do my best. All I have to so is be willing to rise to the challenge. I would prefer a life without tornados, but now whenever I look at a large task at hand and have someone say,
‘Do you think you can handle this?’ I always respond.
‘Of course! It can’t be as bad as the year of the tornado.’
If I could rise to that, God can help me rise to anything. Besides. Sleep is over rated.
Tag: growing
Easier would be nice God, just saying
Some days….most days, I wish that God would make things easy. You know? Today I drove into an unassuming ditch. It looked like I would skim the edge of a very small divot leading to a field. The divot was a ditch so deep and so full of snow that suddenly not all four wheels were on the ground anymore. Worse it wasn’t my property. Worse still I was in the middle of no where so CAA would be a pain to try to get out to my trouble spot. So I prayed. Of course. Then tried for about 15mins to get out. Now, in my mind I would pray and walk my truck right out of the hole. Nope. I prayed and then tried and tried and tried until finally my little Holy Spirit nudge said, “call your DAD!” Dad face timed with me. We prayed together and he helped me figure out how to get the truck out. It took almost an hour. A lot of shoving bear claws under tires, backing up as far as it would go and repeating. A bit of shoveling, more prayer, and a 3 point basket cheer when we finally got out.
Was God not there as I struggled? Of course He was.
Why wasn’t He making it easy?
Good question.
I think that sometimes God gives us things that He helps us through. Instead of fixing the problem for us, He helps us fix the problem ourselves, then we learn and grow from our issues and mistakes.
Kind of like my Poppa. I can do so many things that most people probably can’t simply because instead of doing it for me my Poppa always showed me how to do it and had me do it myself. Actually so does my dad. He hands me the skill saw and says ‘cut here, follow this line.’ Saw gets pinched. ‘Here, this is how you get it unstuck without breaking the blade, now you do it.’ That’s how I know how to do things. I believe that God does that too.
“Here, listen to what I am saying and try it this way. Okay, good job, now try again.”
That way, we learn.
Thank God for teaching me, even if that sometimes means making me do things the hard way.
Spiraling or climbing?
Downward spiral .vs. upward climb
Have you ever noticed how it is a spiral? Spiral indicates fast, generally out of control and of course spinning.
It sounds like a bad ride at an amusement park, you know, the one your friends dare you to go on and then you feel too sick to do anything else for the next 2 days. 10 years later you have the confidence to laugh about it with someone. Spiral.
And upward CLIMB. With this one I visualize a mountain. I love hiking and exploring. If you let me go with my dog and spend the day someplace hiking and exploring, there is a chance we will be gone that whole day. Generally the moment we feel like…..I am sorry, I feel like, he could go on forever……when I feel like turning around is the moment I hit a steep incline. Usually it is my powerhouse Jack Russell who keeps me moving, he is probably 1/6th of my weight and yet he is the one who pulls me to the top and we stand (and I gasp for air) and he starts to head down the next trail, dragging me behind and I feel this wave of achievement. We made it to the top! Oh Ya! And look! Another hill…… I wonder what the top of that one looks like?
To hit rock bottom takes a simple ‘yes’ or a small give in your normal perspective. It happens fast, it is generally a little sickening and it takes a long time to recover.
To hit the summit takes a lot of hard work, motivation, and sometimes someone else pulling on your lead to keep you going, and you find acheivement in the end.
To climb back up from the bottom is a massive struggle and you can NOT do it without God, but you CAN do it.
Breathe in peace, Breathe out problems
The ASL sign for complain is a hand motion of a cup that pounds on your chest. Isn’t that exactly what complaining feels like? A pounding of grief, anger, pain, pounding on your heart until it overflows from your mouth in the form of a complaint.
Everytime someone in the Bible complained something either went wrong or got worse. So what is the lesson? Don’t complain.Ya right. It is so very hard to not complain, even if the verbal sensation steals our joy and causes us greater destruction. We complain because we need relief and feel like spouting our problems will help. I have a solution. Don’t complain to people, instead beg mercy from God. Tell Him what you are going through and ask Him to help.
This way you accomplish three things.
A. You set your problems in the hands of the one who can actually help
B. You talk about your grief and get it off your chest
C. You fellowship with the All Mighty.
All of these things cause you to feel better, and best of all, actually make a difference in your situation.
God wants to help us, but He also wants us to bring these things to Him. Sometimes we won’t see a change until we ask God. Cry to God. Tell our Father that we need Him. Then He reaches out His hand and helps us back to where we are meant to be .
MOM!!!
I have no experience being a mother to a person, I do however have a dog that I got at 8 weeks old, and my mom’s constant statement was,
‘Now you see what motherhood is all about.’
There were….and sometimes still are..long sleepless nights, the pain of having to punish this small one whom I cherished, the fear of him getting hurt, the times we would break the rules together, and the times when said rules no longer applied because I just can’t say no to that face. The poop in my shoe, the mud on my floors, the totally destroyed whatever he could fit in his mouth, all led to this point; Almost 7 and a half years of absolute love, not always joy, but always love.
Guess what? I miss those growing up years. I long to go back because I know that I won’t always have him.
Any mothers of human babies nodding their heads and remembering those years with your kids? Or perhaps looking toward them?
Jesus gave us mothers for 3 distinct reasons. (This is my opinion by the way)
1. To be our caretaker
2. To be our friend
3. To show us Jesus
The word ‘Caretaker’ has many limbs to it.
Protector, provider, on call doctor and sometimes surgeon, warrior against the big bad wolf; you get my point. Without our moms, or sometimes a dad or grandparent filling that role, we would die. We need that nurture and care because we are living. We feel, we need, so God gave us someone to help Him take care of us.
‘Friend’ is always that.
Someone to laugh with, cry with, argue with; and someone you can trust has got your back. Sometimes that friend points out flaws that only a friend can, other times they are the only one who understands you, but they are always there for you.
Jesus knew we would need someone we could rely on for more than just provision and care so He made our mothers our friends.
Lastly..yes you can sigh a breath of relief….lastly and most importantly, mothers are here to show us Jesus.
Because our mothers care for us we know they have our needs in mind.
Because they are our friends we know we can trust them.
That is why they are ideal for telling us about Jesus. We know they teach us of Jesus because they know we need Him and He is essential.
We know all they say about Him is true because we trust them. We need our mothers to show us Jesus, we need to learn from this person we love and trust. If they do not show us Jesus then who will? And how can we trust a stranger or know that we actually need what they are trying to sell us? Without our mothers guidance we can easily be lost. Whether we are being that mother or have that mother, or in some cases both, this world needs mothers. These mother cheracter traits can be applied to everyone we take care of. If we care for people, befriend people and show them Jesus, then we can help Him make this world what it should be.
God knew what He was doing when He made moms undercover heros. Hopefully women of prayer who fight along side God. My mom is and so was her mom. My mom’s mom was an adopted war baby, my mom is one of three sisters who are not adopted. Becoming a mom can look very different from person to person, but that does not change the MOM dynamic. Because this world needs us ladies. Do not think the title MOM makes us week, it is the opposite, because we are MOM we are powerful. Warriors on the frontlines all over this world, no matter your race, beliefs, social status; no matter how you ended up a mom, or if you are instead gifted with being mom to those around you that you see need you, you are special and amazing, God blessed with the right traits to make this world a right place.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
Do you love me?
How many people here love the play fiddler on the roof?
Okay. How many of you remember the song ‘do you love me’?
Tevye asks his wife if she loves him and she responds-
Golde: Do I love you? For twenty-five years, I’ve washed your clothes, Cooked your meals, cleaned your house, Given you children, milked the cow.
Tevye: But do you love me?
How often do we work for God, suffer for God, take great strains to please God but don’t actually love Him? When we think about it if God set us on a perverbial mountain top with everything we ever begged for, searched for and longed for and then He just left, would we miss Him? Would we miss our times talking with Him? Worshiping Him? Being His friend?
Jesus wants a relationship, not a dictatorship. We can’t sit on our throne and tell our king what we want from Him, then complain when He isn’t fast enough or doesn’t do exactly what we wanted and not exspect Him to begin to feel unloved. We need to give the throne back to Jesus and sit at His feet just loving His presence.
So, do we love Jesus or do we love what He offers? Heaven, blessings, so on. If He left today would you miss Him? Would we notice He was gone?
In a time when we need to be remembering love remember to love the one who loves you more than anyone else ever can.
Credit to owner for artwork
A caring touch
Why would the king, who has the finest flowers in His royal garden, care enough to climb through the forest to find a back woods rose like me and carry me home? He puts me in a crystal vase on His dresser and sets me in a place of honor among His royal flowers. He finds delight in me even though I am prickly and plain. He gives me special care because He sees my petals wilting and He makes sure that I always have enough of all I need. Why would a royal king dirty His hands to pack my roots with fresh soil? As He labours over all the flowers around me I see His sweat stained brow, I notice the mud smeared on His face and I see His hands bleeding from the thorns of the plants He loves. I feel unworthy to be sitting on His dresser as He works hard, but what can I do? I am simply a flower. He caresses my leaves as He walks by and smiles. What more is there for a flower to do but to bring joy to her master?
Perhaps sometimes that is all Jesus wants from us; for us to see all He is and to bring Him joy by honoring Him with all we can do. As a simple flower I can make someone smile with my sweet scent, as a common herb perhaps you can add flavour to a dish or become a healing medicine.
This is a fanciful way of saying we are all individuals, different and unique. Jesus loves us all for who we are and is brought joy when we use what we can do to honor Him.
It’s time to duel
I’m going to go nerdy for a minute.
Does anyone remember the old Yugiohs? I mean the original? Well I found a bunch of my old dvds the other day and had decided to watch a couple. The ones I watched were the Capsule monsters movies. Yugi enters a board game and gets armor which when activated allows him to merge with his favorite monsters; then he gains their different powers and is able to use them to fight evil. Cool right? In the same way when we become children of God we put on the armor of God and when we ‘activate it’ by praying and reading our bible and devotionals and such we gain God’s power and can use it to fight against the devil. In the movie when Yugi uses the armor it drains his strength, but when We as Christians use the armor of God it gives us more strength and energy. We are filled with new vitality as We face our day and We always have God with us. We never need to remove our armor and rest from it, yes sometimes the armor of God is heavy and feels a little like a burden but the more We work at wearing it everyday the lighter it becomes. The power of God vanquishes all other things even weariness. We are never defenseless or powerless when we have God because He is always taking care of us and He is the one true ultimate power.
Open handed combat
When I was in high school I took basic karate. One of the main things drilled into the class was the fact that karate means open handed combat, which means that our combat is self defense it is not meant as a form of attack. If we apply this technique to life we get a person entering their day open minded to the people around them and empty handed of judgments. When we go out into this world we are stepping onto the mat and as Christians the way we respond to daily jabs and kicks need to be censored according to our teachings. In martial arts your fight technique reflects that of your teacher, in the same way our daily response to life needs to reflect Jesus. We enter the arena holding nothing against the people we will face, we come in open minded to their situation. Picture this. Bright blinding lights, a roaring crowd and a tall battle scarred warrior faces you down as your toe touches the mat, there’s no turning back now. You see that angry face, the deep creases of old battles lost and you gain your opinion of the warrior. They step closer and you step up to them, you don’t yet know what will happen next all you know is this person has been hurt too many times and it is your turn now to decide, do you attack or do you help? Do you reign judgement and add to their scars or do you give compassion and help the scars heal? Your mind open and clear so you can hear from the Holy Spirit and see this person’s needs and you realize all they need is a comforting hand. As the vision fades away; the crowds and the lights dim, you see the warrior in a new way, the way Jesus sees them. We shouldn’t enter the arena to fight we should enter to help; but sometimes in this daily life we Christians forget that we are not here to judge and attack the people around us, we are here to help them and in doing so show them Jesus. That’s the point to open handed combat, coming without prejudices and without judgements so you can help heal this world just as Jesus came without a sword or armor as a gentle baby in a manger.
Great Expectations
We have all heard the great expectations sermon; it’s a really great sermon, but do we come truly come with great expectations? Today I had a miracle that actually shocked me. After having the vet out to diagnose my horse’s unexplainable lump as just that an unexplainable lump I started to get serious about my praying for him. To be honest before I found out that the vet had no idea what it was I just figured if God healed him that was fine but if he didn’t the vet would just treat it and it would still be fine, but unlike God the vet doesn’t know all. Today I checked my horse’s lump and it was GONE! There wasn’t even a trace it had been there! If you want to shout a Hallelujah go right ahead because I am still amazed! Oh and did I mention the lump had been there for nearly 4 months? It wasn’t something that was just going to go away. In this life we have so much that we can take care of ourselves because of modern medicine, modern technology, modern this, modern that that we sometimes don’t even bother to seriously pray about things, because if God doesn’t fix them that’s fine we know someone who can. That is the wrong way to think. I can say this because I go there too. I like to think that I seek God first and just go with Him on things but I (as many people do) fall into the solving it myself rut. God can do EVERYTHING! We just need to give Him the chance to take care of things for us, and to truly believe that He can. We don’t want to leave off asking for help until we reach something we truly can not do ourselves, because if we see God taking care of the little things we will most likely have more faith when we need to give Him the bigger things. Another thing I love about God is that I didn’t have to do anything to make this or any other miracle happen. All I did was pray and believe and I saw the unbelievable. I fail constantly and hurt God probably daily, as hard as I try not to my human nature gets in the way of my Christianity at times. I am also a major failure when it comes to being a public witness, my words stick in my throat and I end up saying nothing. Yet despite all these negative qualities of just being me God steps in and holds me when I cry. He still listens when I pray and blesses me with amazing miracles. It is so nice to know that no matter how bad we screw up, No matter how constantly we sin and fail Jesus still loves us. He wants us to do better that’s true and He will help us do better, but He’s still loving us everyday no matter who we are or what we’ve done. Isn’t that the most amazing miracle of all? because it’s that constant, undying, faithful love and ridiculous grace that led our Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, and to rise again three days later. What a miracle!
God I come with great expectations for this and everyday! Thank you for being our constant friend and greatest miracle. Amen.
Carried in the cross 