Month: August 2017

Blessed Relationships

Posted on by Wendy
Relationships built on Christ will always find a way to bless us.

I have a dear friend, Bill, who always says that relationships that are built in Christ are different from any other relationships. He says that they tend to grow stronger over time and can weather distance and separation simply because they are blessed by God.

Last Sunday morning, I was saying a prayer for my daughter. She’s away at school and this mama was missing her terribly. I prayed that God would bless her and her roommates and that she would have a productive and happy day.

Right before my church service started, I received a text that she and her roommates were attending a church service. I can’t say how happy that made me. I knew that they are all a little homesick at this point and there are few ways to find peace better than worshiping God.

I said a prayer of thanks.

When I was leaving church, a friend of mine who was also my daughter’s Sunday school teacher at one point, asked me for her address. She wanted to send her a treat to school. My heart was once again, filled with gratitude.

When I returned home and sat down at my computer, I had received a message on Facebook, from a sweet lady who we used to attend church with. She and her hubby had retired and moved away. My kids always loved seeing them at church each week. We were sad to see them go. She just wanted me to know that they had relocated to the same town where my daughter is attending college. She wanted to me to give her, her cell phone number in case she ever needs anything.

I read the message with tears in my eyes.

I had been feeling low. I decided to pray about it. Not only did God respond, He did so in a way that used people He had planted in our lives all along our faith journey.

He did so in a way that I couldn’t possibly miss. He reminded me that He’s always there, no matter how far away He may seem. He reminded me that He’s always in control. He reminded me that my friend Bill is right.

The relationships that God plants, will always find a way to bless us.

Perhaps you needed reminding today.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Wisdom from Paul

Posted on by Wendy
Our Christian walk is a life long journey.

My pastor is doing a series over the next few months on the Paul’s letters to the Romans. Apparently, this single book has inspired many Christian leaders to do great things, including John Wesley and Martin Luther.

He started this week’s sermon on how the church during Paul’s day was divided up into two groups. One group was the Legalists who believed if they followed God’s law to the letter, they would be counted righteous and be saved.

The other group was the Fatalists. They believed there was no way they could possibly follow God’s law so they didn’t even bother to try.

Of course, they were both wrong. No one is perfect or can be perfect. But, does that mean we shouldn’t even try?
It amazes me how thousands of years later, humankind has changed very little. Don’t we still tend to fall into groups with those attitudes?

There are those who go to church on Sundays and follow the rules, who are convinced that they need to do nothing more. They have earned their salvation. Then there are those who believe they have done so much wrong in their lives that they can’t possibly get it right. They think that salvation will always be out of reach just because of their nature.

Both groups are as wrong today as they were in Paul’s day. Both groups discount the gift of grace. Since grace cannot be earned, the Legalists have it wrong. Since grace is an undeserved gift, the Fatalists have it wrong.

With that in mind, where does that leave those of us who just hope to stick close to Jesus on our journey here?

Hopefully, it just reminds us some truths we should all hold close. Grace is a gift freely given that we should give thanks for everyday. Our walk with Jesus is an everyday deal not a one time shot. We will wander. We will stumble. We sometimes get completely lost. Even so, we can be forgiven.

Our Christian faith is not a hampster wheel faith that calls us to check boxes and do certain tasks every single day or year, until we are called home. We aren’t saved by our own striving. We are saved by grace and grace alone.

We are saved by the cross.

There are times for many of us, where we may feel more closely aligned with one group or the other, Paul’s message reminds us not to fall into either trap and to stay focused on Jesus.

Perhaps you needed reminding today.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

A Call to Church

Posted on by Wendy
If Jesus loves the church, shouldn’t Christians do the same?

My pastor was recently recounting a conversation with someone who said she believed in God, but just didn’t go to church. Turns out that she had been to a church where there had been a lot of ugliness and she had left with her feelings hurt.

This, unfortunately, is not a new story. Just about anyone who has been a faithful churchgoer, long enough, has witnessed some bad behavior from people who are members. People are broken and broken items tend to have sharp edges. Sharp edges can cut you whether intentionally or not.

But, we have to remember that Jesus loves the Church. If Jesus loves the church, then who hates the church? Who has the most motivation to destroy it?

Yep, the answer is Satan. Each time a Christian walks away from church, there’s no doubt, demonic celebration.

And for our part, how can we write off every church because of the behavior of the people in one particular church? If a dog were to bite you, would you automatically assume that all dogs are evil? Nope, not if you are over the age of five. You might be more careful around certain dogs, but a rational person would never write off all dogs.

Yet, a bad experience in one church, often has us deciding all churches are bad.

The Bible tells us, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17

As people of faith, we are called to sharpen and encourage one another. We are called to bring our collective gifts and serve God and one another. We are called to join together.

How does not participating in church help to grow us? How does not participating in church help us grow others?

It seems to me that our country and its people are divided now more than ever. It seems to me that the only way to reconcile differences, heal, and move forward, is through the love of Christ.

The best way to share that love and light is through the Church. My prayer is that as Christians, we make it our business to keep the pews full.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

The Smaller Stories

Posted on by Wendy
We could learn a lot from college freshmen.

There’s been a lot in the news lately about racial tensions in the United States. Every time I turn on the news, there’s some headline about race. There’s constant debate on all of the talk shows about all of the violence that transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The same questions have been asked and argued over and over. Who was more at fault? What did the President say? What should he have said? What will authorities do?

I barely looked at Facebook last week because I was so tired of hearing about it. Hate is ugly. I don’t care what your skin color is and I’ve heard enough about it.

It seems that dark forces are working over time these days to keep our country in turmoil. Make no mistake, hate comes from one source and that source is not God.

As I was pondering all of the ugliness in the headlines, my daughter, who I just dropped off at college, sent me a picture of her and two of her classmates. All freshmen are required to take a First Year Experience class, (FYE).

On this particular day, the wise teacher of her class, broke all of these strangers up into random small groups of three or four and sent them out on a scavenger hunt.

There are few ways to build teamwork more quickly than an scavenger hunt. You simply have to communicate and work together in order to complete your task. There’s just no way around it.

The scavenger hunt eventually led them to the Office of Admissions where a man working there decided to take their picture and post it on Instagram. And why wouldn’t he? There were three freshmen taking a required course and clearly having a ball.

Oh, yeah, did I mention that her group was her and two boys? One of the boys was black and one was white. Guess what? No one cared. They all worked together and got their task completed and had fun doing it.

The entire ordeal was such a stark comparison to the headlines that it really stuck with me. These eighteen year old, college freshmen weren’t debating race or monuments or anything else. They simply joined together and completed their assignment.

It’s not a huge news story to say the least. You won’t hear about it on Facebook or Twitter. Yet, it seemed to me to be a small story that needed to be told, a lesson for all of us.

Perhaps if we all shared more of the small stories of people working together, the bigger ones with the opposite results would never happen in the first place. It could be worth a try.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Eclipse Musings

Posted on by Wendy
God is light.

Working at a local elementary school, I have been completely covered with eclipse mania. We are dismissing our students thirty minutes late today so they can view the entire eclipse with their classes, wearing safety glasses purchased from NASA.

Our phones have steadily rung with eclipse questions from parents. Many children are staying home for the day and many others are checking out early.

One report said millions of people are traveling by the thousands to get a better view of the eclipse. Blairsville, Georgia, a mountain town with total population of 23,000 is expecting anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 visitors.

The event has been dubbed the Great American Eclipse and these people are being called Eclipse Chasers.

Personally, I really can’t understand the hype. Several prominent preachers have come out and said that the eclipse is not a good sign for the United States. They believe it’s a warning from God. Some say it’s a sign of end times drawing close.

When I looked in the Bible, I couldn’t find a single instance of God blotting out the sun, being interpreted as a good thing. The Bible says that He is light. “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5

Where does that leave Christians? How do we interpret this eclipse? Should we even try?

As I pondered the significance of it, the answer I kept coming up with was prayer. We can certainly pray for wisdom regarding the entire ordeal. We can pray for the safety of the throngs of people who are determined to travel to see it. We can pray for the safety of the millions of people who have decided to look directly at the sun without the correct protective equipment.

But, perhaps most importantly, we can pray that God uses this enormous celestial event to turn our hearts and minds back to Him. Think of the impact that could be made if every one of those Eclipse Chasers were to pray collectively for peace in our nation. Think of the impact on the entire world if everyone prayed for revival.

Only time will tell what this day means, if anything significant at all. But, prayer is a weapon that we are always equipped with, no matter the circumstances. I plan on using it a lot today. Perhaps you’d like to join me.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy

Seeking the Easter Eggs

Posted on by Wendy
We can be just as delighted about finding life’s Easter eggs today, as we were when we looked for them as kids.

My son is always talking about finding, Easter eggs, in his favorite movies and video games. When he first began talking to me about them, I had no idea what he was talking about. Then he explained.

Easter eggs are intentional inside jokes or inside messages hidden within a game or movie. For example, Pixar likes to place a Pizza Planet truck in almost every one of their movies. The casual observer would miss it. But, those watchers who know to look for it, can almost always spot it.

I am told that the Easter eggs, appear in tons of movies, but most of the time, the audience doesn’t even know it. We don’t see them because we don’t look.

As I was scrolling through the pictures on my phone the other day, I came across a hydrangea. On the day that I took it, I had make like fifty trips to a dumpster, throwing in old shingles, rotten wood and anything else that needed to be trashed. I was hot. There were lots of bugs swarming around and fire ant beds to dodge.

But every time I walked past that hydrangea, it made me smile. It was almost like a little breath of fresh air. At some point, I stopped and snapped a picture of it, simply because I enjoyed seeing it so much that day.

It was grace and beauty in the midst of ugliness.

As I saw the picture again, I smiled and thought of my son’s quest to find Easter eggs. God had sent me an Easter egg, a hidden message that He was there. He placed it there for me to find and appreciate, if I was willing to look.

When I think about it, He places them in my path all of the time and I probably miss them more often than not. But, I’m determined to become a better seeker.

I want to learn to truly appreciate the unexpected beauty of a sunrise on the way to work, and the little brightly colored yellow weed that pops up on my walking path, and the mama who drops off cookies at the office just because. More importantly, I want to acknowledge and give thanks to the One who sent them.

It think when we truly seek Jesus, we find Him everywhere. A hydrangea reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂

Finding Peace Where We Are

Posted on by Wendy
We are called to walk with Jesus, not to run ahead.

This past summer, my family attended a mission trip. We helped to repair houses for some people who desperately needed help. We spent an entire week with other Christians.

We ate every meal with other Christians and publicly prayed before we ate. We openly talked about Jesus throughout all of our days. We wore crosses around our necks. We visited different churches for our meals and those people shared Christ with us.

We sang about Jesus each night and talked about seeing Him during the day. It was definitely a mountaintop week.

Then, we returned home. My hubby and I returned to work. Our lives got back to normal. Don’t get me wrong; our normal is perfectly fine, but when you spend a week doing God’s work alongside God’s people, normal just seems, I don’t know, kind of pointless. Shouldn’t I be doing more?

I was walking and praying about my frustration when I heard a hawk calling out. He was very close, but I couldn’t see him. I had been running and walking at a very fast pace as I looked for him. I slowed down and I heard him again. This time he was behind me.

When I turned around and slowly walked past a place I had already been, there he sat in a tree at my eye level. I stopped and He just sat there looking at me as if he had waited for me to find him. We stared at each other for a few minutes before he finally flew away.

I marveled at my encounter as I walked, not ran, home, and a thought formed deep inside my heart.

God has put me in this place at this moment for a specific reason. I don’t have to know or understand the what or the why of it. If I live my days focused on Jesus, nothing I do is pointless. When I try to run ahead, I miss seeing Him, just like I missed that hawk. But, when I slow down and seek Him, I mean really seek Him, He will always show Himself and let me know where I need to be.

I might feel like I’m more productive on the mountain top than I am simply walking along the beaten path, but if I trust Him and obey His call, I realize that in the end, that’s not for me to determine. That realization brings me great peace.

Perhaps you needed some peace today too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

God Was There

Posted on by Wendy
Well before the girls posed for a picture on this couch, God was there.

Last weekend, my hubby and I drove our daughter to college. Just like the day she was born, it was exciting and painful. Just like the day she was born, a new chapter began as another one came to a close, and just like the day she was born, God was there.

It was a tough week leading up to it, bittersweet in so many ways. But, God has given me so much comfort in this journey. He led her to three roommates who are strong in their faith and He made a way for her to get to know them and become friends with them before they moved in.

And as an extra blessing to this mama, He allowed me to spend some time with their mamas, who happen to be very strong, Godly women. I’ve always believed that you can tell a lot about a girl from meeting her mama.

As moving day progressed, I received texts of prayers an encouragement from some of the people I work with. I’ve only been at my job for a little over a year, and two of the people who sent prayers have only been there a couple of months. Yes, God was there.

All day long, we received well wishes on Facebook. We even got some from our Salkehatchie mission family. But, on the way home, one of those women, who means the world to my daughter, messaged me privately to tell me that she was covering me in prayer too and reminded me that when you raise a child to love the Lord; you can’t ask for anything better, as you send her out on her own. Yes, God was there, just as He has always been, especially for loving mamas.

He was there when Moses’ mama placed her baby in a basket and into His hands. He was there when Hannah dedicated Samuel to Him to raise. He was there with Mary in a stable in Bethlehem and He was there again when she stood at the cross.

The entire experience has reminded me that there are seasons in our lives that are just plain hard, for whatever reason, but when we really look around us, those of us with faith, can see God everywhere. While He doesn’t remove the season, He sends us help and extra blessings in countless ways. I am reminded that I never walk alone and neither does my daughter. You never walk alone either.

Perhaps you needed reminding today.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂

The Walls of Alexandria

Posted on by Wendy
These walls mean a lot to people who know what they represent.

My family just took a tour of some of the places used in the filming of the television show, “The Walking Dead.” Personally, I’m not a fan of the show. In fact, I’ve never even seen an episode. My hubby swears that there are all kinds of deeper meaning in all that transpires. But, I can’t past the zombies and the gore.

However, my hubby and daughter just love it and the tour was a gift for my daughter’s birthday, so my son and I went along for the ride.

When we arrived in the darling little town of Senoia, which is the town of Woodbury on the show, the man who checked us in informed us that they had actually been filming in town for the past several nights before, and that if we walked to the edge of town, we could see the Walls of Alexandria.

My daughter lit up like a candle and we headed that way. When we got there she and my hubby were very impressed. There were tourists and tour groups everywhere taking pictures of the Walls of Alexandria.

I too, took pictures, but quite frankly, I didn’t get what all of the fuss was about. They were tall metal walls. There was nothing at all aesthetically appealing about them. What was the big deal?

My hubby explained later that those walls protected everyone within them. There was a self-sustaining city inside those walls and they also kept the zombies out.

The walls were a big deal to the people who followed the show.

As I was later looking through my pictures, I came across those walls. I thought about how there are times when we work very hard to create something that people on the outside just don’t get.

Maybe it’s creating a family life that brings us joy or carving out a time of quiet to talk to God. Maybe it’s a scheduled date night with our spouse or maybe it’s losing a little weight or eating a little better. Maybe it’s learning to trust that God has a plan for us. It could be just about anything.

To those on the outside, our hard work may not look like much. Like me with the Walls of Alexandria, they don’t know our story. But, we have a God who does. Jesus follows our story with all of our struggles and triumphs and He cheers for us when we make progress in our journey towards Him.

He always looks past the gore of the messes we make. He gets us and He loves us.

The Walls of Alexandria reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂

The Light Changes Everything

Posted on by Wendy
The light of Christ changes our perception of everything.

My hubby and my daughter recently visited a local restaurant. We were thinking of having her birthday dinner celebration there. It looks so cool at night. It’s very tropical. There’s sand, palm trees and string lights. We thought it might be the ideal place for some fun birthday pictures.

But, when they visited the place in the daylight, it wasn’t nearly as glamorous. The boat fountain on the property was full of water and mosquitoes. It was hot and kind of shabby. The daylight completely changed their perception of the place.

The light changed everything.

As my hubby was relaying their experience to me, I was reminded of a time when I visited our local fair during the day time.

The fair used to come to town every fall. The air was crisp and there were lots of lights and music. It was always the highlight of the fall.

One year, a friend of mine and I, went on a Saturday afternoon. I had never been during the day. It wasn’t nearly as enticing or exciting. When we got on the haunted house ride, it was downright pitiful.

Under normal circumstances, at night, I would nervously get into one of those little cars and hear the scary music as the car would ride jerkily on the track. At each turn something would jump out. It would be something like a ghost or a skeleton, nothing seriously gory, but it would always startle me causing me to at least jump, if not to scream.

But, in the light of day, the sun shown through all of the cracks and lit up the entire inside of the ride. I could see all of the mechanical ghosts, well before my little car reached them. They weren’t the least bit scary.

The light changed everything.

I thought about our conversation in the following days. I thought about how the light of Christ can completely change our perception of the world around us.

I thought about how things that once appeared exciting and glamorous to us can become completely uninviting. I thought about how situations and places that once frightened us can lose all of their power to affect us in any significant way.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Light of the world. I have learned on my journey that the Light changes everything. Perhaps you needed reminding today.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂