Month: October 2013

These stickers usually amuse me; I admit to having a couple myself. But, I started wondering, why do we feel the need to advertise to everyone on the road what our hobbies are or where we like to vacation. I suppose it’s the same force that has some folks putting on Facebook or Twitter every fleeting thought they have or telling the entire cyber world that they are going to the grocery store or are standing in line at the DMV. Some people even feel the need to post pictures of the dinner that they just made. While all of this seems perfectly harmless, it makes me wonder why do we so desperately want the world to take notice of us? Are we that lacking in attention from our immediate family and our friends and loved ones or have we become that narcissistic?

We seem to have the constant need to compare ourselves to others. This bad habit usually begins in early childhood and never really entirely goes away. We can tame it with lots of work and a change of focus from self to God, but it takes a lot of discipline.  Social media has put this innate need to compete and compare on steroids. Who has the bigger house? Whose kids are the smartest or most athletic or most attractive? Who goes on the nicest vacations? Who is running the most marathons? Who has the best life? The car stickers are another advertisement for our fantastic existence. But is it really fantastic?

The very first two commandments are “You shall have no other gods before me and worship only me.” While no one is running around worshiping a golden calf, how are we doing with “the having the no other gods deal?” Do we wake up every morning and thank God for one more day on this planet to help spread his message? Do we read the Bible as enthusiastically as a People Magazine at the doctor’s office? Do we proudly place a Jesus fish on that back window among all of the vacation and 5k stickers?

I once heard Joyce Meyer say that “God knows our hearts, but people see our actions.” She also said that we should be walking billboards for Christ. People should know who we belong to by our actions. While I totally agree with her, I’m going to throw in that I think our words go a long way too. What are we saying to others and about others and if I’m going to put my entire life story on my car window should I include a sticker for my Maker? I’m not saying we should all run out and buy a cross sticker for our cars. All I’m saying is if we try to objectively back up and look at our public image, cars, social media, how we talk to people at work, how we talk to our families and friends, etc… What would the casual observer see? Are we billboards for Jesus or billboards for self?

I’m going to spend some time praying about this one. I don’t think anyone means to put Jesus in the backseat, but sometimes that’s exactly where we put him and personally, I think he needs to not only be in the front seat with me, but he needs to be doing the driving. What do you think? Feel free to comment.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I sometimes wonder if the reason that the Bible Belt is located in the south is because our roots here are tied so closely to agriculture. I am just one generation removed from farming. My dad grew up in a farming family. Most of the Southerners I know, still grow at the very least, their own tomatoes and many grow peppers and squash too. I know some people who still grow serious gardens that give them enough food to put away for the winter months.

There’s something about having to depend on nature for food that makes one humble himself/herself before God. After all, it doesn’t matter how hard the farmer works in the planting; it eventually comes down to the weather. Are there enough hours of sunlight? Does it get too cold at night? Is there a late frost? Is there drought? Is there too much rain? Any seasoned farmer will tell you that watering from a hose just doesn’t seem to produce the same results as rain. I wonder how many prayers have gone heavenward over crops and weather. I’ll bet it’s close to infinity.

For the past fifty years or so, we have drifted away from growing our own food and relied on grocery stores. This has likely been mostly for convenience and the lack of time. Growing your own food takes a ton of time and work. Still, many of us like to grow something for food each summer. We may do it because our parents did it or our grandparents did it or maybe we have learned the cold hard fact that nothing tastes as good as something you grew yourself.

Jesus often found himself addressing crowds of farmers and he usually chose to relay his message to them using topics they could understand. He was really awesome that way. He could quote all of the law and have heated debates with all of the Jewish spiritual leaders of the day, but he could just as easily use stories that were meaningful to the everyday Joe to get his message across. One of my favorite parables is the one of the farmer who scatters seed. It’s found in Matthew, Mark and Luke. He talks about a farmer who spread his seeds all over a field. Some fell on a footpath and were stepped on or eaten by birds. Some fell among rocks and grew at first, but died because of lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns and grew, but got choked out. Some grew on fertile land and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted.

Without going into what each situation represents, I think the takeaway should be to scatter the seeds of the love and truth of Jesus every time we get the chance. Talk to your kids and grandkids about grace. Invite people to church. Take someone a meal. Pass on an inspirational e-mail. Send a card to a shut-in. Take a meal to someone recovering from something. Volunteer to help at Vacation Bible School. Share. Share. Share.

Sometimes when we share our faith with others, the seed won’t take for whatever reason, but while that is true, that shouldn’t factor in our decision to continue to share. Sometimes, when we share, we won’t see any results, but we are preparing the soil for the next farmer who will have better luck. But sometimes our seeds will hit fertile ground and the results will be more abundant than we can possibly imagine. Our fallen world needs hope and as Christians, we are just the ones to provide it. So let’s go out and sew some seeds of peace, hope, love and faith today and see what we can produce. The result may more abundance than we can imagine.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My mom used to try without much success, to get my sister and me to play the Quiet Game. I must confess, I usually lost. I have always been a talker. I blame it on my dad’s side of the family. I come from a long line of talkers. My sister and I are only fifteen months apart, and looking back, I know my poor mom would have probably given just about anything for a few precious minutes of quiet when we were little. There’s wisdom in a well placed Quiet Game.

Some people seem to thrive on noise and chaos and some instinctively know that we all need some quiet time whether we want it or not. We are surrounded by noise just about every waking moment. We wake up to an alarm or radio or ipod. Many of us have the television on while we get ready for the day. Our time in the car involves talking with our kids or listening to the radio, audio books, ipods, etc… If we ever get a free moment during the day, we are likely to check Facebook or post or follow something on Twitter. We might use our smart phones to check sports scores, e-mail or the weather forecast.

After work is not much better. There’s usually helping with homework, kids’ sports practices or games. We have to make dinner and often watch television or talk to kids while we are accomplishing that task. Then there’s cleaning up dishes, working on laundry, ironing and maybe sitting down to watch Duck Dynasty. We may get out our smart phones again to check in with the cyber world before falling asleep in front of the television, dragging ourselves to bed and starting over again the next day. Does this routine sound familiar?

If it does, where in this typical day do we find time for God? I once asked my middle school Sunday school class to draw a pie chart of what percentage of time they spent at school a week. Next, I asked them to put in slices for homework, sports and other extracurricular activities. Lastly, I asked them to draw in how much time a week they spent with God. As you might expect, it was a puny slice. To be fair, I did my own pie chart and it didn’t look too good either. If you really want an introspective experience, try teaching middle schoolers. There’s no winging it. You have to do your homework and you have to be authentic.

As we discussed our individual pie charts, we all agreed that if you only spend and hour or two a week with God by going to church, you’re not spending enough time with God. We asked the kids how they would do at baseball or soccer if they practiced one day a week. Keep in mind, some of these kids are hard-core and are on travel teams. They all readily agreed they wouldn’t be very good players. Then, can we be good Christians if we only spend a couple of hours on Sunday with God? The answer from the kids was a resounding, “no.” We talked about possible solutions.

The first and foremost answers were time management and less noise. (From the mouths of babes!) God often speaks to me through my Sunday school kids, so I began examining my own time management and noise level. It turned out to be pretty loud. How could I hear God, if I was never quiet? Was it possible that what I perceived as God not answering my prayers was my inability to get quiet and listen?

One of my favorite Biblical illustrations of this is Elijah. In 1 Kings 19:11-13, God tells him to go to a mountain. There was a terrible wind that busted up rocks, but God was not in the wind. There was an earthquake, but God was not in that either. Then there was a fire, but God was not in the fire. At last, there was a gentle whisper and that’s where Elijah found God. What does that tell us?

I think maybe we need to be more intentional about carving out a few quiet moments for God each day. Find a quiet spot in the early morning or after dinner or after the kids go to bed; the time doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is we consistently seek some quiet time with God, time for spiritual things like: praying, reading the Bible, writing in a prayer journal, listening. No cell phones, televisions, ipads or laptops allowed. If we ever actually get quiet, we may be surprised at what we hear. What do you think about quiet time?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I was able to visit with my parents last weekend. I haven’t seen them since the summer, so I was really looking forward to the visit. After dinner, we lingered around the table as we often do and caught each other up on the recent happenings in our lives. My daddy, like most southern men, is a gifted storyteller, so when he launched into one of his tales, I had no idea what was coming.

He was heading home from work a couple of weeks earlier and came upon a horrible car accident. He stopped his truck, turned on the emergency flashers and got out to see if he could help. There was a SUV and a small Honda involved. He had actually seen the Honda a few minutes earlier. There was a man in the driver’s seat of the Honda who wasn’t moving. His window was shattered and Dad reached in to check his pulse. He was deceased. The woman from the other car told him there was someone else in the car. Dad had her sit on the curb and went to check. Sure enough, there was a child in the passenger seat. His foot was hung on something and he was in silent shock. Dad dialed 911.

The following happened in minutes. A man appeared and asked if he could help. Dad told him yes, that he needed to turn traffic around in one direction. This was a very busy, well-traveled street; if someone came barreling down the highway, these cars could be hit again before he could get the child out. A second man appeared asking if he needed help and dad asked him to stop traffic in the other direction. These civilian men literally helped to create a safety zone so that this child could be rescued. They turned all types of vehicles around including a bus.

When Dad was able to get to the child, the window was jammed and the boy couldn’t get it down. A third stranger appeared asking if he could help. Dad told him they had to get the window out and get the child’s foot loose so they could get him out. He tried to pull the window out of the door frame and it miraculously came out in one piece. At this point in the story, my dad stopped. He was a mechanic for many years; car windows don’t come out in one piece. They shatter. If it had shattered, the child would have been covered in glass. It didn’t. It came out in one piece. The man standing beside him reached into the car and freed the child’s foot and Dad was able to lift him out safely. A fire truck arrived shortly after followed by the police.

After it was all over, Dad was plagued with the thoughts that always follow a tragedy. If he would have been five minutes earlier, he would have missed the entire scene. If  he would have been two minutes earlier, he would have been in the accident. Who were these men who came out of nowhere at exactly the right moment to help in this rescue? Why did the window come out like it did? The answer to all of these questions is of course, God’s timing. All of these pieces didn’t simply come together by chance.  Dad and the other men, were there in that place at that moment for that purpose. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 NIV Notice, God prepared in advance. And as for the window, we know, nothing is impossible with God.

As Christians, we are supposed to do good as often as we can. The Bible tells us, “Let us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9  God is all around us. His footprints are everywhere. I wanted to share Dad’s story because I think we need to hear more about regular people doing good. As I’ve said before, with God’s help, one person can make a difference. What good can you do today?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Did your parents ever give you a time out? Did you ever give your kids a time out? Although we often use it for various reasons to control a child’s behavior, the original idea behind a time out was to remove a child from a situation where he/she was acting out and allow them a few minutes to regain control of themselves. Even today, when my teenager has had a sleepover where there was little sleeping (remember those days?), I usually have her spend some time in her room alone, resting and getting herself back together. I know other moms who do the same.

What about adults? Can we or should we use a time out? Think about the last time you were truly frustrated with your spouse, your boss, your kids, a friend (you fill in the blank). When tensions start to run high and the volume gets raised and you find yourself getting angry, is it ever really constructive to continue? Don’t we usually do better if we take some kind of break and gather our thoughts before we say something we will regret later? We can always apologize for things said in the heat of the moment, but we can never really take them back once they are out there. A cleansing deep breath always does wonders.

I think God knows that humans need to rest. I think he knows we are often apt to let our passions run away with us. These include passions for work, sports, social media, the people in our lives and any other thing we allow to consume us. That’s why he gave us the Sabbath, a kind of holy time out.

God rested after creation. He created for six days and then he rested. Genesis 2:3 says, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because he rested from the work of creating he had done.” He thought the day of rest was so important, it made the Ten Commandments. When the Israelites were in the desert, they weren’t even allowed to gather manna on the Sabbath.

I was recently watching an Andy Griffith re-run and was reminded that for many years, modern-day Christians observed the Sabbath. Andy, Aunt Bea and Opie were sitting on the front porch visiting with neighbors. There was nothing else for them to do. Everything was closed. I remember everything being closed on Sundays. I remember it being inconvenient. Ah, inconvenience, that’s not a word we like at all in our modern living. Like toddlers, we want it all and we want it now.

There are a few large businesses who have bucked the Sunday trend. Chic-fil-A has never been opened on Sundays even if they were forced to leave the mall over it. Hobby Lobby has a sign on the door saying they are closed on Sundays so their employees can spend time with their families. These organizations seem to do just fine without operating on Sundays even if it does cause some inconvenience to customers.

What about us as individuals? How do we do with Sabbath rest? I’m not talking about going to church on Sundays. Yes, we are supposed to do that, but what about the rest part? What about the time out? I confess, I do laundry and ironing on Sundays. I have to get ready for the week ahead. There ere even sporting events on Sundays which never was the case twenty years ago. I often go grocery shopping on Sundays. Many times Sunday turns out to be a running day from early church to bed time, but should it be? Could I change that?

I read a great book this summer called Wonder Struck, by Margaret Feinberg and she had a chapter called the Wonder of the Sabbath. She talked about how it took a lot of planning ahead, like lunch and dinner in the crock pot, but she was able to find a lot of peace in observing a day of rest. I know we are busy. Taking an entire day of rest while trying to raise kids seems next to impossible, but maybe I could start with an hour. Maybe I could take that hour and read the Bible or an inspirational book and have a cup of coffee out on the porch alone. Maybe I could take that time to talk to God or to write in a prayer journal. Maybe  I could cook dinner ahead. Maybe I could iron ahead. Taking a little time to rest shouldn’t be impossible especially since God says it’s necessary. Maybe I should take some steps to make this a priority.

I’m going to spend some time praying about this one. I think I could use a holy time out. What about you? How do you observe the Sabbath?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy  🙂