Month: October 2013

The Robertsons

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Robertson hay bail

As I was traveling down Milledge Avenue yesterday I was taken by surprise by eight hay bales decorated for Halloween. It’s part of the Cattleman Association’s Halloween Havoc contest. Various groups buy the bales and decorate them for a chance to win a prize. My family looks forward to seeing  them every year because they are so creative and usually hysterical. There was a Batman this year as well as a pig from Angry Birds. One year someone depicted the swine flu. There are always some expected ones and always at least one or two unexpected ones. This year Willie Robertson caught my eye.

The Robertsons are everywhere. When I’m working at the school, kids are wearing the shirts. When I go to Wal-Mart, the merchandise is all over the store. There are Halloween costumes of the bearded family. Last Friday night, my hubby and I were watching Last Man Standing, and there were Willie and Si on network television. Not only were they guest starring on the show, Willie was actually quoting scripture to one of the characters. Quite scandalous these days!

Personally, I’m not a fan of reality television, but my entire family loves Duck Dynasty. Why is it that we are so captivated by the Robertson family? Their season premier in August broke all cable records with 11.8 million viewers. Everyone has their own opinion about the reason for the show’s success and it has its critics as well, but I think the heart of the show is it’s about family and faith and it’s funny.

In the eighties, we had Cosby and Family Ties. My mom grew up with Leave it to Beaver. We also had shows like Happy Days and The Brady Bunch. These were all clean, family shows where we were able to laugh at the mundane. The children respected their parents. The dads weren’t depicted as idiots. People went to church. These shows were not life changing or provocative, but they were fun. They depicted family as a good, solid force.

I know times change and vampires and werewolves apparently draw ratings and that’s okay. But it seems to me, that television executives might want to take notice. A Gallup poll in 2012 found that 77% of Americans consider themselves Christian. An ABC poll found the number to be 83%. That’s  a lot of Americans. Maybe Duck Dynasty’s success is these Christians saying that we would like to see more family friendly programming. Maybe these Christians are saying that we are perfectly fine with family sitting around a table at dinner and saying a prayer of thanks. Maybe these Christians are thrilled with being depicted as smart, funny and well-educated.

I certainly can’t speak for everyone who watches the show, but I love that the Robertsons love each other and they love Jesus. They have strong faith and a strong family and they have fun. In the end, what else matters? What do you think?

Have an awesome day and Happy Halloween!

Wendy 🙂

 

Jesus Doesn’t Throw Any Back.

Posted on by Wendy
I always loved this sign.
I always loved this sign.

My parents used to take me and my brother and sister fishing every summer in Florida. They had a little place on the Suwannee  River and I learned to fish in the shallows of the Gulf of Mexico. Ocean fishing is always exciting because you really never know what you will catch. It may be a crab, or a small shark or a stingray or it may be the perfect speckled trout. My daddy was very particular about what we were allowed to keep. We had to throw back lady fish, cat-fish, gar fish and any trout that wasn’t the specified length. That was Florida law, not daddy’s, but I remember holding my breath and watching him measure each trout I caught, hoping it was a keeper. Daddy was a stickler for the rules.

It’s funny how fishing can run hand-in-hand with faith. It takes patience to sit for a long time on a dock or a bank and wait on a fish to bite. It takes faith to believe there really is something under that water you are fishing in. The best fishermen will insist on silence as they wait for a nibble. You have to know exactly what bait to use to get the kind of fish you are after. Great fishing requires skill.

We know that at least four of Jesus’ disciples were fisherman by trade. Two sets of brothers, Andrew and Peter and James and John were fishermen. Three of those four men were also part of the inner-circle, Jesus’ besties if you will. They were also the first called. I wonder why that was. We know Jesus had a good sense of humor. Fishermen are known for wild and fun stories. Fishermen by trade, are also tireless workers, staying out all night if needed to bring in the catch. Maybe Jesus was looking for men with that kind of strong work ethic and commitment. Fishermen, like farmers, also have to have a certain faith and belief in something larger than themselves to do what they do day-in and day-out because so much of their bounty is out of their control.

The scripture doesn’t tell us why Jesus picked fishermen. We can only guess. The amazing thing is he told them from the moment he met them, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Mark 1:17. He spoke to them in terminology they could understand and they dropped everything and went. They had no clue what evangelism meant. They hadn’t attended an accredited seminary, but these men would help to change the history of all humanity with the telling of their stories.

Over two thousand years later, I am so glad Jesus chose those fishermen, those Everyday Joes. I can relate to them. Of course he goes on to choose a tax collector and one of them was a political zealot. We don’t know the occupations of the rest, but all of them were fabulously ordinary and he didn’t throw any of them back, not even the one who would later betray him. Jesus doesn’t throw anyone back. For all of our faults and shortcomings, we are all keepers to him. No one is ever just short of being good enough. Grace guarantees our place at the table and that is something to be thankful for everyday.

So as I think of my charge to be a fisher of men, I have to ask myself, “What kind of bait am I using?” “Am I being patient enough?” “Am I being quiet enough and listening?” “Am I careful to remember that Jesus wants every single soul and that there are no throwbacks?” These are questions that I think are important to consider. Maybe I’ll grab a cane pole and ponder. What about you? How’s your fishing going?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Weddings and Marriage

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My family attended a wedding this past weekend. It was an outdoor wedding at a horse farm. The simplicity  was spectacular. There were mason jars with candles in them scattered along fences. There were lights strung up in the trees. There was a small cabin on the property that was built in 1804. The ceremony itself was conducted in front of an oak tree that was at least 100 years old. I truly felt like I was in God’s very own cathedral.

The bride and her father laughed and chatted as they walked down the aisle to bluegrass music. The bride and the groom wrote their own vows. The bride said in hers, that she remembered when she was a little girl, she asked her mom who her best friend was and her mom replied, “your dad.” She remembered being surprised that her mom could have a boy as her best friend. She said that as she stood there with her husband-to-be, that she understood what her mom had meant. Now at this point, there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd.

What is it about a wedding that moves us to tears? Is it the promise of something brand new and beautiful? Is it the leap of faith that a couple takes when they commit to love each other until their last breath? Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding in Cana. I think it’s relevant to note that it was a celebration. While life is full of troubles; it also has many events worth celebrating and a wedding is one of those events. Jesus loves to celebrate our victories with us as well as holding our hands in tragedy. While most of us wholeheartedly invite him into the tragic events of our lives; how do we do with inviting him into the good times in our lives?

We love to celebrate weddings. We buy new clothes. We purchase a gift for the happy couple. We arrive to the wedding early enough to get a good seat and we open our hearts to the message and the hope. How do we celebrate the actual marriage? When the guests are gone and married life begins, how do we celebrate? Well, some people like the bride’s parents, become best friends and grow in their faith and love for one another, so much so, that it’s imprinted upon their offspring. Others don’t do so well and fight often and insist on their own way. How do we achieve a beautiful, inspirational marriage instead of an unfulfilling, tumultuous one?

Let’s go back to the wedding at Cana for a minute. First of all, Jesus was invited. He couldn’t have performed the miracle if he hadn’t been invited. We often invite him to our weddings, but not into our marriages. How can he perform miracles if he’s not there? Secondly, when we do invite him, we have to do what he tells us to do. John 2:5 says, “But, his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” The servants did and the rest is beautiful, Biblical history.

So what can we learn from this? Good, strong marriages are a form of worship. They are a testimony to God. Christian marriages are a lifelong ministry between husband and wife first and then it spills on to children. They are to be nurtured and treasured and if we want them to be inspirational and beautiful, we have to not only invite Jesus; we have to obey him and that I think, is worth the lifelong pursuit. What do you think?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Getting Past the Tough Parts

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Climbing a mountain can be tough! But, the view is worth it.
Climbing a mountain can be tough! But, the view is worth it.

Our heater just came on for the first time of the season. You know what that means, that disgusting, burning smell fills up the house. As I was driving my daughter to school today, they even had a radio call-in segment where everyone was complaining about that heater smell. Now, as much as we hate that smell, we sure do love the heat that comes with it. If you had to go without heat to get rid of the odor, wouldn’t you choose to keep the odor? The heat only has to run a couple of cycles and then the smell is forgotten until the following fall, but we enjoy the toasty heat all through the winter and into early spring.

There are a lot of life experiences like the first heat cycle of fall. At the very beginning, it may be misery, but if we keep going, it’s so much more comfortable and rewarding. Exercise is a perfect example of this. When you haven’t exercised in a while, you feel out of breath and out of shape. The next morning, everything aches and you wonder if it’s worth it. But, if you keep exercising, you begin to feel better and the soreness goes away. You feel stronger and you sleep better. You even look better and you are definitely healthier. But, you have to be willing to get past the beginning, uncomfortable phase.

Our faith walk can be uncomfortable in the beginning too. If you are searching for a new church home, walking into a new place full of people you don’t know may be intimidating. Walking into a Sunday school class where everyone is chatting like they have known each other forever can be uncomfortable. Attending a Bible study, when you have never read an entire chapter of the Bible much less a book, can be daunting. Learning to pray about everything can make us feel kind of foolish. We ask ourselves, “Does God really care about my little problems?” The answer is yes. He knows what you need before you know.

The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.” We know what thanksgiving means, but what exactly does supplication mean? The dictionary defines supplication as, to ask humbly. Uhoh, we’re not big on humility these days. Humility is defined as: the quality or state of thinking that you are not better than other people.

Okay, so we’re supposed to pray about everything, (especially the big stuff, but including the seemingly trivial stuff), and we are supposed to be thankful every time we pray, which is not always easy because sometimes we wait until we are in a bind or facing some kind of tragedy before we pray in the first place. It’s difficult at that point to be thankful. Finally, we are supposed to pray with humility, which means we accept we don’t deserve what we ask for, but we ask it anyway. That requires faith.

This prayer discipline, this attitude, takes lots of practice and can be uncomfortable at first because it’s contrary to our human nature, but if we are diligent, our entire lives can be transformed. As I sit here enjoying the toasty heat (with no burning smell), coming from my vent, I think this faith journey and prayer life is worth the work. What do you think?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Who are Your cheerleaders?

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I was a cheerleader in high school. It wasn’t because that was what the popular kids did or anything as shallow as that. I was a cheerleader because it was what I was good at doing. I tried basketball and probably played a total of two minutes the entire season. I was terrible at it. I tried running track and pulled a hamstring like the second or third practice and was out for the season. I even attempted to play tennis, but my hand-eye coordination wasn’t very good. Turns out that I liked jumping up and down and cheering others on.

As much as we love to make fun of the cheerleader type, you know what I mean, the popular, snotty girls, when I look back over my life, I am really grateful for my cheerleaders. Think about the people who have always encouraged you to keep going or who believed in you or in an idea you had. Those are your cheerleaders. My mom has always been my loudest cheerleader. She has always been ready to cheer me on to victory whether it was for cheering tryouts in high school or deciding to go away to college. She has always read just about everything I have written and has always encouraged me to keep going.

That’s really what cheerleading is; it’s encouraging. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” I think we are supposed to encourage one another to help each other reach our full, God-given potential. I had a high school English teacher, Nancy Kennedy, who always encouraged me to write and I think of her every time I sit at a keyboard. I have had many encouragers along the way and I try to be an encourager myself.

I try to go out of my way to tell my kids that I am proud of them or the kids that I’m subbing for that their work looks good. Children will bloom right before your eyes with the right encouragement, but adults will too. I once interviewed this woman for an industrial type job and I asked her why she had never considered office work; she looked at me without hesitation and told me that she never thought she was “good enough” for office work. While I was stunned at her revelation, I told her  I disagreed with her. You wouldn’t believe how much taller she sat up in her chair. A little encouragement can go a long way.

I think Jesus, was the best example of encouragement that we will ever have. I love the story of him walking on water. Peter sees him and I picture him bouncing up and down in the boat like a child, “let me walk on water too!” Jesus tells him to come. Now you know Jesus knows, he’s going to get scared and sink, which of course he does, but he encourages him to come anyway; just like we encourage our own kids to ride their bikes without training wheels, even though we know they will likely fall. Why do we do that? We do it for the same reason Jesus did it; riding a bike takes practice, just like fearless faith takes practice. Even though Jesus knew Peter’s faith would fail him, he encouraged him to try, and then reached out for him and saved him as he started to sink. Jesus’ belief in Peter’s faith did pay off in the end.

Today, I am going to think of some of the people in my life who have offered me much-needed encouragement on my way, my journey cheerleaders of sorts. I’m going to say a special prayer of thanks for them and then I am going to try to thank at least a few of them with an e-mail or a call. Next, I’m going to find at least one person who I can cheer for today. What about you? Care to join me? Feel free to comment.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I Learned All I Need to Know About Faith at VBS

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Jesus Loves Me.

Worship takes many forms including singing and dancing.

There’s a time for everything; a time to listen, a time to share, a time to pray, a time to create, a time to snack, a time to sing and dance and a time for worship. 

Community is important.

Friendships are to be treasured.

God is creative and He made me to be creative too.

We are all beautiful and unique just like the tie dye shirts we make every year.

My art is beautiful.

My singing voice is beautiful to God.

Jesus died for my sins, but God brought him back to life and He always forgives me if I ask.

The Bible is God’s book and we are supposed to read it daily.

I can talk to God anytime I want to through prayer.

I should watch for God everywhere I go because He is everywhere.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

It All Came From a Tree.

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This is the tree that inspired me to create!
This is the tree that inspired me to create!

My brother-in-law died very suddenly last year. We got a call in the middle of the night from my nephew telling us he had a massive heart attack. We were stunned. It was the last thing we ever expected. Tim was larger than life and had survived so much trauma in his life. He seemed invincible to me.

My husband and I have not been involved in an adult Sunday school class in several years because we have been teaching a middle school class. This can sometimes leave us a little lonely for adult companionship at church. But, when we got to the funeral home and were looking at the flowers there was a tree sent from our Sunday school class. They had come together and not only sent something; it was a four-feet tall tree. I was so moved at the gesture. While we weren’t communing with them regularly, they still considered us family. The outpouring of cards and letters from church members of all ages, was unbelievably uplifting. There’s nothing more comforting in times of great pain than being a part of a loving community of believers. I still thank God for their support and I try to remember it when others experience the same kind of loss.

When we got ready to leave the funeral home, my sister-in-law insisted that we take the tree with us. There were so many plants and flowers; she said she had nowhere to put them all. So, we took the tree along with a few other plants. I moved the tree to several rooms to try to find the perfect spot for it and didn’t have much luck. It needed space and a lot of light. Then I found the perfect pot. After that, I actually rearranged an entire room so it could sit in front of the windows. Next, I decided the room needed to be painted the same shade as the pot, a kind of blue-green color. Then, I found myself a memo board where I put up pictures that truly inspire me like the Gulf of Mexico and the Mission Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine. There’s also a picture on it of a statue of Jesus with open arms. I didn’t know why I was putting all of these things together; I just felt inspired to do so. It was a kind of nesting.

On my desk underneath the memo board, there is a cross made from olive trees from Gethsemane in the Holy Land that my friend Anne brought me. On the desk, is my laptop where I conceived the idea of my blog. All of this creativity, all of the painting and reorganizing and putting pictures together that I have taken over many years, the notes that I take, the words that I write, all were triggered by a tree. A tree that was a heartfelt gift from those who cared about my family in our time of sorrow. Who would have thought that gift would have triggered so much?

We never know what a simple act of kindness can lead to, but lately I have become very diligent in extending kindness whenever or wherever I can, because even as I write this, I sit in awe if what it can lead to. The Bible tells us in Galatians 6:10, “Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone-especially to those in the family of faith.”  I am so thankful that the Discovery Sunday School Class sent that tree and the creativity that got switched on in me because of it. What can I do today to extend kindness to someone who needs it? What can you do? If we pray about it, I have no doubt, God will tell us.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

It’s time to write the Christmas play.

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It’s time to write the Christmas play. I know, you may be rolling your eyes thinking it’s not even Halloween yet, but we have to start practicing in November and October is quickly coming to an end. For the past five years, I have been involved in writing my church’s Christmas play. My husband and I helped with the play for several years and then we became concerned that the true story of the birth of Christ has somehow gotten lost. While the yearly plays were entertaining, they seemed to revolve around the music and a child star and not around the scripture. After discussing this with our children’s pastor, I went in search of a traditional Christmas play. I couldn’t find one.

I remembered all of the church plays from my childhood. They weren’t some big musical extravaganza. They were simple with shepherds wearing robes and other homemade costumes. We sang Silent Night and Away in a Manger. These humble church plays have stayed with me throughout my life and when I mention them to other people my age, they feel the same way. They were simply children telling the story of the birth of Jesus.

After an exhaustive internet search, I decided to write my own. I mean, the majority of the work was done for me in the Book of Luke. It was a lot of fun and we got a good response. The only negative comments were, “It wasn’t long enough”. The next year we added a modern scene where the grandmother was telling her grandchildren the Christmas story and we would flashback to the Bible scenes still remaining true to the Christmas story found in the Bible. The next year, we had travelers stranded in a hotel on Christmas Eve and a missionary told the Christmas story. My daughter co-wrote that one and last year, she wrote it on her own.

The question we seem to get year after year from a select few is, “Is it the same play as last year?” This really troubles my daughter because she has put so much work in putting it together. The answer of course is “yes”. While we change-up some modern scenes each year, the story remains the same. A virgin named Mary is visited by and angel and told she will give birth to the son of God. Her husband to be, is visited by an angel and told to stand by her. They go to Bethlehem and have to give birth to their baby in a stable. There are shepherds who are visited by angels and told of the miraculous birth. There are wise men who follow a star and bring gifts to the Baby Jesus.

The core of the play doesn’t change because the story doesn’t change. We are teaching our children to pay respects to their savior in a way that is unique to children, in a way that I was taught as a child, in a way that my mother was taught as a child and that never has to change. Every year as I see the little angels sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” to the shepherds, I get teary and I thank God for the birth of his son and for the ability to tell the story through little ones.

I am simply passing on what was passed to me. New and improved is not necessarily better. What about you? What beautiful gifts and traditions would you like to pass on to the little ones in your life?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Sunday morning chaos

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One of my dear friends came to church yesterday with just one of her two girls with her. She was late and I could tell from across the parking lot, not happy. I said a little prayer for her sense of peace. I know she has close to never-ending battles with her middle child and if that “said child” wasn’t in church with her mom, then this morning’s battle must have been epic. To top it off, my friend is in charge of the children’s Sunday school program so it wasn’t like she could just go sit somewhere and zone out for an hour.

It seems like in many if not most families, this Sunday morning scenario is familiar. We try to get up on Sunday mornings, get or children and ourselves dressed and fed and get to church on time. But inevitably, there is chaos. From shoes that fit last week that for some unknown reason won’t fit this week, to lost socks, to the inevitable whining about being too tired to go; the assault on our ability to get to a worship service on time and in peace is an ongoing struggle from the baby years to the teen years. The reasons for all of the morning rushing, fighting and chaos may change, but the chaos itself never seems to end. I had the same conversation with another friend of mine when we were raising two and four-year olds as I had today with my friend who has pre-teens. Children who can get to school five days a week with no problem at all, can’t get out the door on Sunday morning without causing mommy to have a migraine.

I have to ask myself, why it is always this way? I remember Sunday mornings being the same way at my house when I was growing up. If we are trying to raise our children to know and love God and trying to get to a weekly worship service, why does it have to be so difficult? The answer is of course, that we are fighting a battle against evil and evil doesn’t like to lose.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:10-12, “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you may be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities in the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

What is he talking about? He’s telling us that as Christians, we are in an ongoing war with Satan. When you are in a war, you have to fight and you have to expect to be attacked. Satan may know that he can’t have our souls, but if he can get us as rattled and angry as possible before we get to church, maybe he can keep us from opening our hearts up to what God is trying to tell us or keep us closed off to the Holy Spirit’s nudging. You can’t really hear the message when you’re seething about something  that happened thirty minutes before you arrived. Of course his true goal would be for us to give up altogether and just stop taking our children to church period. Who wins then?

I think it’s really important for us to be aware that we are under assault. I don’t think we need to dwell on it, but if we can keep it in mind on Sunday mornings, maybe we can take some deep breaths, and refuse to give into the anger that the chaos causes. In the end, as I am standing before my heavenly father will it matter that my daughter didn’t have her hair washed or that my son wore flip-flops in December or will it matter that I took them to church, (in peace)? I need to spend some time pondering and praying about this. How about you?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

God is Always Full of Surprises.

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IMG_3798 I was working on dinner yesterday when a big bird flying across the backyard caught my eye. Quite certain it was a hawk, I ran and got my camera and eased outside. While hawks are fairly common in my area, they are rather tricky to capture in pictures. They don’t stay in one place for very long and they don’t allow you to get very close. There was a time when I would have just kept on cooking, believing dinner had to be on the table at 6:00 no matter what. But, lately I have tried diligently to “watch for God” in all my surroundings and I thought just maybe I could get a glimpse of this majestic bird and possibly some photos. Imagine my surprise as I zoomed in and started clicking.

It wasn’t a hawk. It was an owl! This really was a special treat. Owls like hawks are very common in our area. We often hear them, but since they are nocturnal, we never get to see them; yet there he was in broad daylight. I would snap pictures and edge a little closer and snap some more and edge a little closer. He didn’t seem the least bit nervous about my presence and I got some great shots.

I was struck by the wonder and surprise that always come with following God when we trust and obey him. Think of the surprise the Israelites must have had when the Red Sea miraculously parted. Think of the wonder Joshua and company must have had when they followed God’s directions, marched around the city and simply blew their horns and shouted and the walls of a mighty city crumbled. What about the surprise Jairus must have experienced when Jesus touched his daughter and resurrected her from the dead? Think about the wonder and joy that Mary Magdalene and friends must have felt that first Easter morning when a risen Jesus stood before them.

The Bible is full of these stories; stories of wonders, surprises and miracles that come from following God as closely as possible. How do we do that? I think we can sum it up in three easy steps: read, pray, obey. Read the Bible to figure out where we came from and where we are supposed to go. It’s like a road map of sorts. Pray about God’s will for our lives. The more we read, the more we want to pray and the louder his voice becomes telling us which way to go. It’s like a spiritual GPS. Then we obey and hold on tight and wait expectantly for the surprises. Because life with God is never boring. Just ask the wise old owl!

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂