Month: November 2018

I don’t know about you, but the pressure and rush of the holidays leaves me feeling a bit depleted and often inadequate. I allow myself to get caught up in what Ms. So-and-So is doing…her beautiful decorations, her picture-perfect meals, and her charming family photographs. I see them all and I tell myself that I cannot compare or measure up to Ms. So-and-So!

Frankly, social media does not help with these feelings of inadequacy and self-condemnation.  You know what I’m talking about!  Ms. So-and-So is on all the current social media sights posting her sublime life for everyone to see.  (I’ve been guilty of this myself!)    Wanting to seem like we have it all together with our pefect children and adoring husbands is quite the temptation.  Honestly, who wants to post pictures of dirty floors, a sink full of dishes, the kids bickering over the last piece of fruit, or the perpetually late husband coming in the door two hours after he was due home??  I’ll raise my hand first…not me!

How do we overcome this need to impress and compete with Ms. So-and-So?  How do we live authentically among the mess and noise and chaos that constantly presses in on us?  How do we overcome that staggering, self-imposed obligation to please?

Well, first we have to understand who we are trying to please!  Who am I trying to impress and why?  I posit that it is not the Lord, but those millions of people on social media, who may or may not know me.  Why do I do this to myself?  Probably because I want to be liked, thought well of, and respected.  Oh, the conviction I feel for trying to set myself up on the pedestal of popularity!

I sought the Lord — I asked Him to help me change this desire to please others and not Him.  He swiftly turned me back to His Word…chastising, correcting, and then restoring me to Himself.

The Apostle Paul challenges me to be an imitator of him, just as he also is of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 11:1 NASB)    Over in Ephesians, Paul exhorts: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 NASB)  A “fragrant aroma” to the Lord.  Oh, yes, please Lord!  Help me to set aside myself so that my life can be an offering and a sacrifice to You as a fragrant aroma.

Remember this:  Ms. So-and-So is trying to please self and the unknown  masses herself.  Ask God how you can encourage her to be still and allow her life to be fragrant to Him.  I encourage you also, beloved…don’t get so caught up in the aromas of Gingerbread Houses and Hot Apple Cider that you have lost who you are in Christ Jesus.  Make your home this Christmas season warm with love…let the Gingerbread and Apple Cider be a beautiful reminder that you are His…your family is His…that is a fragrant aroma to Him!

It’s so easy to go along not realizing the danger you are in or about to face.  Often life will give us subtle warning signs…other times there are glaring warnings…DO NOT ENTER, DANGER, or DO NOT GO BEYOND THIS BARRIER.  Those are the easier ones to avoid, but what of the ones we never saw coming?

When I lived in Virginia there were times I had to drive to work or the store after a hard snow or ice storm.  I would go slowly and keep a good distance between my car and those around me.   However, there was a time or two that I would hit a patch of ice — you really could not even see it — your car would slide — it really wasn’t that difficult to panic and over correct.  Well, usually the only place you would wind up then is in the ditch!  I tried very hard to anticipate the thin patches of ice, but there were times it would sneak up on me and catch me off guard.

Life is that way, too!  We putz along taking care of the endless details that need our attention.  There are bills to pay, kids to feed, letters to answer, laundry to wash, and all of the other busy-ness of the day-to-day grind.  I don’t know about you, but I can get so caught up in all there is to get done in the time allotted me that I will not pay attention to the catastrophe I am about to encounter.  Before I know it…I’m flat on my face and stunned by the impact!  I cry out to the Lord, “How did I miss it?  How did I not see this coming directly toward me??”

I am learning to prepare for these thin patches of ice by surrendering my busy-ness to Him.  I’m not much unlike dear Martha running around with all the preparations of putting supper on the table and not realizing the importance of sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to Him.

Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42 NASB)

When I am distracted with all that is going on around me and not keeping my eyes on Him, I’m bound to hit those thin patches of ice…I’m bound to be planted on my face…I’m bound to find myself grumbling as Martha did about Mary.  It is imperative that I not distract myself with busy-ness — I must be like Mary and choose the good part…Jesus said, “[It] shall not be taken away.”

Yes, there will still be times that things catch me off guard and throw me for a loop!  However, when my focus is on Him, those times will be less traumatic…there will certainly be a lot less time in the ditch!

My prayer for you during this season of busy-ness is that you will take time to be still and meditate on Him.

Along about this time of year — when joy and goodwill exude from the masses…shopping carts are filled, Christmas cards are written, Menus are planned, Christmas Trees are dressed in their finest, and packages wrapped with love are placed under them — my heart “catches.”

Oh, I do get lost in the magic of Christmas — I adore the reasons we celebrate in the first place ~Jesus~ and I love to watch my son get caught up in the decorating and lights.  His requests for favorite dishes never escape my notice and well, the glimmer in his eye captures my heart!

However, a tsunami of grief breaks over my soul and a deep longing settles within me.  I became a bit more acutely aware of that grief today when I was messaging with my friend, Shelby, in Virginia.  We were sharing our Thanksgiving plans and the putting up of Christmas Trees — admittedly what is supposed to be a joyful conversation — but for both of us it turned into tears.

For Shelby and me, our parents have passed away.  We reminisced on how our Momma’s would put into our stocking an Orange, an Apple, some Walnuts, and for me a big Candy Cane….there were other little things, but that’s what Shelby and I have in common…two Virginia girls whose Momma’s loved a similar way.  The specialness of what was is now gone and we are grown and we have our own children and grandchildren to share all that love with during this Season of rejoicing over family.

How, though, do we package the grief — the loss?  As the tears flood in, I must confess that I haven’t quite figured that part out.  God sewed into my life such sweet and kindred relationship with my parents — a tenderness not found in another soul or relationship.  He wove a lifetime of memories and experiences that cannot be replaced — mimicked, yes — not replaced.  Parents are afforded a unique relationship with their children — it is honestly irreplaceable.

Shelby said, “Oh, I didn’t mean to make you cry!”  Oh, she didn’t make me cry at all  — the truth is that I was on the precipice of tears for days.  She only identified with my soul — God allows people to do that — so we have Christ-like relationships in good friends…sisters — we reflected what was in our hearts —- grief, joy, and Jesus!

I think we can both say, with the same assurance of Job:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21 NASB)

It’s not easy to say goodbye — its difficult to journey on without those familiar, kindred spirits when the aromas and sounds and laughter invade the home — but we must — for our good and for His glory!

~Soli Deo Gloria 

I can almost smell my Momma’s Turkey roasting in the oven for Thanksgiving.  I remember Momma putting it in around mid-night on Thanksgiving Eve…it would roast all night, as she would get up every two hours and baste it.  There was really nothing better than waking up on a cold, Thanksgiving morning as it permeated the house.

Momma and Daddy (and all of my grandparents) have passed on and I’m left with just the memory of those days.  I miss the smells and laughter and joy that those days brought to our family.  I miss the coming together and how the love melted away the stresses of the year.  I find my heart longing for what was…playing with cousins…laughing as Pappaw would try and chew our ears off…safety.

Our President has a tradition each year of symbolically pardoning a Turkey…the Turkey probably was unaware of his fate in the first place…but in a gesture of good-will he is pardoned none-the-less.  He gets to gobble back to his abode and live his worry-free life and hope that next year he will be as fortunate.  How ridiculous, right??

Well, it could be considered ridiculous to pardon a Turkey — save him from the roaster — give him a second chance!  However, as I thought more about this gesture, God reminded me of His pardon.

We are all like that Turkey — headed for a certain death and the all consuming, punishing fires of hell.  However, God, in His great goodness, compassion, and mercy through the abundance of His Son’s shed blood on Calvary pardoned us!  To the glory of God!  Scripture tells us in Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.” (Titus 2:11 NASB)  His love for us reaching down into the depths of wretched hearts and saving us!

Unlike that old Tom Turkey, we are pardoned once and for all!

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
(1 Peter 3:18 NASB)

I am grateful and thankful that God loved me so!  My prayer for you, this Thanksgiving season, is that you will surrender everything and make Jesus Lord of your life.  Repent and Believe on Him.

Happy Thanksgiving!