Author: Wendy

Honoring God with Sick Days

Posted on by Wendy
We all get sick sometimes. How we handle sickness makes all of the difference.
We all get sick sometimes. How we handle sickness, makes all of the difference.

I was sick a couple of weeks ago and finally gave in and went to see my doctor. It was a sinus infection. I knew it was. I knew I needed an antibiotic. I had known for a couple of days, but I kept putting it off. I just didn’t have time to be sick. I felt so bad by the time I went, I had to come home and crash on the couch where I lamented about my physical human weakness.

Why did I have to be sick? I was just so busy. If I were a stronger person, I could just power through it. As I was beating myself up, I felt like God whispered to me. “You are rarely sick. You have been blessed with very good health. For you to expect to never be sick, would be for you to expect to be greater than human. You are not.”

He was right of course. I’m ashamed to admit that I can throw a “not fair” tantrum that rivals a toddler’s when my to-do list gets piled up and I’m out of commission. I act as if there’s ever a really good time to get sick, maybe the Tuesday after my kids leave home? Let’s face it; there is no good time.

When our bodies get sick, and they will from time-to-time, on this side of heaven, we really are honoring God, when we slow down to heal. Our physical bodies are a gift, a temple, so to speak, and when we take care of ourselves when we are sick, we are thanking God for the gift of our physical bodies and doing our part to restore them to full capacity.

When we just keep going on a fraction of our best physically, we can’t possibly do our very best to serve. I think we owe it to ourselves and to our Maker to make the best effort to heal. This may involve a doctor visit and a nap. While a nap may seem the complete opposite of true worship, perhaps in certain seasons, it’s one and the same.

My son was sick last week. This kid normally gets perfect attendance at school every year. After I gave him several over the counter medications and some coffee and he still couldn’t get off the couch, I knew he was sick. When I told him he would have to see the doctor, he told me that was fine and went back to sleep.

This is one of those times when kids instinctively, get it right. When they are sick, they rest. They don’t feel a deep desire to go to school and get it done. They realize that life will go on, even if they check out for a day. They lose this wisdom by high school, but they do seem to be born with it.

The Bible tells us that when we get to heaven that, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Until then, we will have some sick days. I’m going to try to be more patient with my humanity the next time I get sick and honor God by taking time to rest and heal. What about you? How do you do with sick days? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Divinely Given Human Wisdom aka Common Sense

Posted on by Wendy
Proverbs is one of the Books of Wisdom in the Bible.
Proverbs is one of the Books of Wisdom in the Bible.

I was recently reading the introduction in my Bible to the book of Proverbs. I came across a sentence in the summary that really caused me to pause and ponder. ” The book of Proverbs teaches that God gives people a divine wisdom, but there is also a divinely given human wisdom, or common sense, and both must play a part in daily life.”

If common sense is a divinely given human wisdom, what is going on with our society? I mean, let’s face it, common sense seems to be in short supply these days. How has that happened? The answer is anyone’s guess, but perhaps the further away we have drifted from God, the further away we get from God inspired wisdom.

We know God is just, right? I can’t imagine Him sanctioning a jury verdict where a homeowner gets sued when a would be burglar falls through a sky light while trying to rob him or a corporation getting sued because their coffee was hot. Isn’t coffee supposed to be hot? The list of our innate desire to obtain things we didn’t rightfully earn, is close to limitless.

If we dig a little deeper into the common sense issue, perhaps it comes from the human belief that we are entitled. The word entitlement is the complete opposite of the teachings of Christianity. The definition of entitlement is: the fact of having a right to something.

As Christians, we openly accept and proclaim that we don’t deserve anything. We don’t deserve forgiveness or material things for that matter. Our sinful nature earns us death. However, and this is a BIG one, Jesus’ willingness to die for us gives us a reprieve. We are covered in grace and therefore forgiven.

Through grace and only through grace, are we able to approach God and ask for what we need and even what we want.

Because of Jesus, we have access to the amazing Holy Spirit and all of his gifts and fruits. He gives gifts like, the message of wisdom, special knowledge, great faith, the gift of healing, the power to perform miracles, the ability to prophesy, the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit, the ability to speak in unknown languages and the ability to interpret what is being said. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

Then there are the fruits of the Holy Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

These gifts and virtues seem to go hand-in-hand with Godly wisdom and divinely given human wisdom. So maybe, if we would like to see a return of  “common sense,” to our culture, we should return to God. Like the story of the Prodigal Son, he’s always thrilled when the lost come home. Perhaps it’s time to stop “leaning on our own understanding,” and leaning into God.

I mean, the attempt to live without God at our center doesn’t seem to be working out so well, but hey, that’s just my opinion. I’d love to hear yours.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

 

It’s in Your DNA

Posted on by Wendy
My son sketched this last Sunday while riding in the back of a mini-van.
My son sketched this last Sunday while riding in the back of our mini-van.

My son presented me with this drawing on Mother’s Day, right before we arrived at my parents’ house. He’s twelve years old and has never had an art lesson. We don’t have a dog like this one. He just created it. His daddy draws and paints and his sister can draw too. My sister can draw and paint. I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler. Seriously, their talent amazes me.

My son can also sit at the piano and bang out a tune he has heard in band. He plays the drums and has never had a piano lesson. At Christmas, I heard him tapping out “Joy to the World.” I have an uncle on my daddy’s side, who plays guitar and harmonica by ear. I have a great-aunt on my mama’s side who recently told my mom that her daddy could play piano by ear.

My son has a similar gift to his great-granddaddy. Isn’t that amazing? There are some things that seem to be genetically wired into our DNA. They are sometimes really cool things like artistic talent that we can nurture. They are sometimes bad things like cancer and alcoholism that we have to really watch out for.

Everyone’s DNA is unique to them. So everyone’s talents and weaknesses are unique to them as well. God made us that way.

We are all wired for worship. The desire to worship is in the DNA of every single human on the planet. How we worship may look very different from our friends or neighbors which makes sense. Some people would definitely prefer quiet and meditative worship over energetic praise worship. By the same token, some people are completely at home worshiping with a thousand other people, while others would be too overwhelmed for words in a huge crowd like that.

Although our worship naturally varies from person to person, our desire to worship is innate. Our children will worship everything from their friends, to their sport of choice, to their GPA if we aren’t very careful to guide them down the right path. Self-worship is another huge issue these days with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the ever-present, “selfie shot.”

As adults, we sometimes need to take a selfie of our own from time to time, a self- inventory. We know who we are supposed to worship, but who are we worshiping? Can our children tell, by the example we are setting? If they were to be quizzed about it, what would they say?  Keep in mind, kids are usually brutally honest.

The first two commandments of the ten are: 1)You must not have any other God but me. and 2)You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind. I’m guessing since those two made the top of the top ten, they are important to God, and therefore should be important to us.

God knows our nature. He knows we are wired to worship because He wired us. It’s in our DNA. I think the first two commandments are there to remind us to take notice and watch ourselves and our choices. We have been given free will. The commandments remind us to choose wisely.

It’s always good to take a moment to reflect on where we are and where we are going,  just to be sure we are on the path we want to be on. If we’re not, maybe it’s time to change course. God will be happy to meet us along the way.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

What God Plants

Posted on by Wendy
This pretty purple plant blooms year after year reminding me of the beauty in God's plan.
This pretty purple plant blooms year after year reminding me of the beauty in God’s plan.

Every year about this time, this plant with dainty little purple flowers blooms underneath my oak tree. My hubby asks me every year what it is. I mean it’s always so lush and bushy and it fills in a blank space. It’s hard to believe that I didn’t plant it or in no way do I tend to it.

I have the same answer for him every year. “I have no idea.” I haven’t even tried to look it up. I just let it serve as a reminder to me every spring, that God has a plan and I am usually clueless about what it is, but it’s beautiful like this little plant. It grows in complete shade, yet blooms anyway. I can’t tell you the countless dollars I’ve spent on every variety of hydrangea trying to get them to bloom under those trees. There’s just not enough sun. But this little guy, blooms faithfully with little light and no care.

This moss is thriving on a rock.
This moss is thriving on a rock.

This moss is thriving on a rock. How does it get its nutrients? Rocks aren’t living things; yet this moss is almost covering it. Now, I’m sure some geologist could explain the scientific reasons behind the growth, but here’s the deal; if you have ever tried to get something to grow, you know it takes work and nurture, water and fertilizer. When something grows and thrives completely on its own and it’s beautiful, that makes me take notice.

Sometimes God plants situations and people in our lives that simply thrive for no good reason. We don’t necessarily try to make them work. They just do.

Have you ever had a co-worker that is your complete opposite? I mean you may disagree on everything from politics to pizza toppings, but somehow you work beautifully together. Sometimes, you may even forge a strong friendship with this person which would normally be against all odds.

Sometimes neighbors can be like that. You wouldn’t choose them as friends. Maybe there’s an age difference or lifestyle difference, but yet, you somehow become friends.

There are times in my life when I have found the people who annoy me the most have been put in my path to teach me some kind of lesson about myself. They are sometimes not comfortable lessons and I may not have chosen to learn them on my own, but when confronted, I had to sink or swim. In the end, something beautiful came out of it.

God’s ways are mysterious and very different from ours. The Bible says, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,”says the Lord. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” Isaiah 55:8

If we are able to accept and maybe even embrace, (I know this is much easier said than done.), that He has a plan and it’s good, then maybe we can take a second look at the annoying co-worker, the strange new neighbor or anyone that we wouldn’t normally choose to hang out with and ask ourselves what this person may be trying to teach us about ourselves or what should we be teaching them?

Who knows, maybe something beautiful will take root and bloom. I think it’s worth a try. What do you think about what God plants? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Life’s Doors

Posted on by Wendy
Sometimes in life, doors close permanently and sometimes they stay cracked.
Sometimes in life, doors close permanently and sometimes they stay cracked.

It’s that time of year again, graduation. I live in a college town, so I’m really immersed. All of the stores have graduation cards and gift ideas. The invitations start arriving in the mail and it makes me remember my own high school graduation. It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty-six years, when in so many ways, it seems like yesterday.

High school graduation is one of those surreal life moments that’s hard to explain. They walk onto the stage as high schoolers and walk off the stage as graduates. As each student receives their diploma and steps off of the stage, a door silently closes behind them and everything is somehow different.

There’s a wide world out there and even if they want to go back, that particular door is closed forever.

We walk through many doors in our lives, high school, college, first job, marriage, parenthood and sometimes divorce. We have dreams that we sometimes realize and sometimes we leave them firmly locked behind a door.

There are times when we have closed certain doors and should leave them closed, but we are tempted to take a peek at what lies behind them. Think of things like unhealthy relationships or addiction.

Sometimes we leave doors cracked a little, so we can check out what’s on the other side at a later date. These can be things like dreams and aspirations that we haven’t realized yet, but don’t want to give up on. It may be something like going back to school or starting a new career or learning to paint. Everyone’s doors are different.

There are times when God closes a door. In the Bible, when Noah and his family boarded the ark, the scripture says, “A male and female of each kind entered, just as God commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.”

Why did God close the door? Was He trying to deprive them of something? Nope, He closed the door to keep them safe. They had no way of knowing how bad the flood would be. God told Noah that He would flood the earth and that it would rain for forty days and forty nights, but do you really think Noah and his family could truly conceptualize this? God closed the door to keep them safe.

So what can we learn from this story? When we pass through doors like high school graduation, we know they can’t be re-opened. But, when we are faced with doors that we are uncertain about, we really need to take the time to pray about going forward.

Is this particular door one that God would want closed or is this something I should pursue? Anything that’s harmful or doesn’t line up with scripture, is a pretty safe bet that we should leave shut tight. But, what about old dreams or plans? Well, sometimes God may have said, “Not now” instead of “Not ever.” Sometimes we are supposed to pursue those things.

God has plans to prosper you and not harm you. The Bible says so. So as you are walking along life’s road and encounter a door, ask God whether you should go through it or turn around and head up another path. If you are patient, He will tell you. That’s a promise.

What do you think about life’s doors. I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Dirty Dish Moments

Posted on by Wendy
The breakfast mess on Mother's Day is one of the memories I will treasure the most.
The breakfast mess on Mother’s Day is one of the memories I will treasure the most.

I spent a lot of time Saturday working out in the yard. Spring has been a long time coming this year and there’s always much to be done when the earth finally wakes up from its winter slumber. One of my tasks was doing some serious cleaning on my back porch. Besides the regular crud that accumulates during the winter months, those of us who live in Georgia, have this fabulous yellow-green pollen that blankets everything like a layer of snow.

I got the hose and some Comet and got on my hands and knees and scrubbed. Then I swapped out winter plants for summer ones. Finally, I put down my new rug I purchased, and my porch was Pinterest-worthy. I couldn’t wait to get up the next morning (which happened to be Mother’s Day) and have a cup of coffee on my newly cleaned porch and enjoy my new rug and my new plants.

I mean, I was like a kid on Christmas Eve, so excited to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I did get up Sunday morning and have that cup of coffee on the porch. I listened to the birds as I watched nature come alive. I read my Bible and wrote in my journal. I stroked my dog, who snuggled next to me. I prayed and thanked God for this glorious morning. I felt completely at peace.

Then, my hubby, joined by our daughter, came out carrying a huge tray of food with a card on it. We talked and enjoyed our breakfast. Next, my son came stumbling in with his breakfast. We all sat and talked for quite a while, soaking up the morning and basking in each other’s company.

As we reluctantly, got up to start our day, I ran and got my camera. My son grabbed a plate when he saw me aiming at the table full of dishes. I told him to put it back down. He looked very puzzled as he complied. I told him I had a post idea. My family is used to this by now. They don’t even ask what in the world I must be thinking anymore.

The table full of dishes told a much more beautiful story than the Pinterest-worthy porch ever could. The dishes were evidence of a family coming together for a meal. The dishes represented a family communing together out of desire, not duty. Everyone is expected to come to the dinner table every night. But, breakfast is looser. It’s optional on the weekends.

They didn’t have to come to the porch. They could have eaten in the kitchen like they do every morning. My kids and my husband, chose togetherness. Those dishes were like trophies to me.

Life is so short and the one thing we all wish we had more of, is time. It’s the one thing that is finite. The people in our lives are gifts from God. A meal and time with those people we hold dear, is something to treasure and the dirty dishes, well they are just a reminder of time well spent.

I’m going to try to embrace all of the dirty dish moments in my life. Care to join me? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Mother Love

Posted on by Wendy
Happy Mother's Day.
Happy Mother’s Day.

This weekend is Mother’s Day. As I think of this day set aside to honor all the world’s mamas, I think about the unique gift of mother love. Mothers and fathers love their children in entirely different ways. Both are equally important, but they are different.

I kind of think of the Old and New Testament in the Bible, as father love and mother love. The Old Testament has rules, punishment, wars and justice. We get a picture of the nature of God. He loves His children dearly, but there is punishment for disobedience. Think about Jonah. God forgives, but the Old Testament is the tougher side of God.

The New Testament is about Jesus and grace. It’s still a part of God, but a loving, softer side. It’s more representative of mother love. You can’t read one part without the other and get the entire picture. You need both.

Mother love isn’t a gift just given by a mother to her biological children. There are many women out there who have loved those who God has put in their path, with the love of a mother for a child. There are many grown women who could readily give you the names of mother figures in their lives, who have nurtured them along the way.

I have an awesome mother, but I also had several surrogate grandmothers that I cherish. I have had teachers who have mothered me as well as some church mamas. Take a moment and say a prayer of thanks for all of  those women God has sent into your life, whether they share your blood or not.

Then ask yourself, who all have you played a mother to? Where are they today and how are they doing? Take a moment to thank God for those people He sent you, to give some mother love. Ask Him if there’s someone who might need you today.

Ask yourself if you know any mamas out there today who may be missing their children or children who may be missing their mamas. (You never outgrow the need for your mother.) Maybe you could give that person a call or send a note or invite him/her for lunch.

Mother’s Day is really a celebration of all women. We are all mothers in some way, whether we ever actually give birth or not. God made us that way. We are different from our male counterparts. God made us different and that’s a good thing.

So, Happy Mother’s Day to all the ladies reading this, and to all the men, be sure to tell the women in your life how much you love and appreciate them. I hope you have a fabulous day.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

What is Your Song?

Posted on by Wendy

 

If you had to pick a song to describe your life, what would it be?
If you had to pick a song to describe your life, what would it be?

I love music. I suppose I always have. I don’t play an instrument, but I have great appreciation for those who do. When my hubby and I first wed, we played music all of the time. We liked all genres. We were never getting cable. (Okay, so we changed our minds about that.) I was raised on Country and Western; think way back like Conway Twitty and the Statler brothers. I hated it as a kid, but I love it now.

I’m an eighties’ child, so I still love Michael Jackson and Madonna, (her early stuff.) Of course, being raised in rural Georgia, Southern Rock is also one of my favorite types of music.

Being raised in the Deep South also means going to church every Sunday, so I have a deep love for the old hymns like Amazing Grace and I’ll Fly Away.

Music has the unique ability to transform us back to another time. Certain songs are like time machines that can stop us in our tracks and remind us of a particular vacation or place or person. There are some songs that I always link with specific people in my memories.

Then, some songs always bring comfort. Hymns like Amazing Grace, always soothe my soul when it’s troubled.

Music has the ability to calm a crying baby and most moms seem to instinctively know to hum or sing while trying to quiet a fussy infant.

Human beings seem to be born to appreciate and create music. There are records of musical instruments in Egypt as early as 3,000 B.C. There are records of music throughout the Bible especially in the Book of Psalms. David played a harp to soothe an evil spirit that tormented King Saul. The Hebrews sang to praise God.

I think music is a gift to us from God. It can make us laugh and it can make us cry. It can be a form of praise. It can be a form of protest. Remember the sixties? Music has the ability to move us.

If your life had a soundtrack, what would it sound like? Would it be upbeat and happy? Would there be a lot of love songs? Would it be dark and angry? Would there be a lot of sad songs?

As you ponder those questions, ask yourself, if you had to pick one song to describe your life today, at this moment, what would it be? What about one song to describe your relationship with your spouse or your kids? What song would you choose to describe your relationship with God?

After thinking about your song choices, are you happy with your soundtrack? If so, that’s awesome. Rock on! If not, you have the ability to change it. Life is ever-changing and God will meet us wherever we are. We can’t hit rewind like on a cassette tape, but we can hit the search button and create an entirely new song. After all, the beat goes on!

At the moment, I love the Happy song. Care to share your soundtrack choices? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

The Psychology of the Promposal

Posted on by Wendy
The promposal has become more important than the dance.
The promposal has become more important than the dance.

What in the world is a promposal, you may ask? It’s the craze that has swept high schools across the country where a boy comes up with some elaborate, very public gesture to ask a girl to prom. In my daughter’s high school, it has filtered down to the homecoming dance as well.

Think about the guy who has an airplane fly a banner around a crowded football stadium with a marriage proposal. While we might have an initial, “Oh how sweet!” thought. My next thought is always, “I hope she really wants to marry this guy, because with this proposal, he really left her no choice.”

Back in the late 80’s when I was a teen and the dinosaurs roamed the earth, asking a girl to prom was a more intimate affair. Dating couples always went together. Who else would you go with besides your boyfriend/girlfriend? There were kids who had “liked” each other for awhile and they would get the courage to quietly inquire about each other’s feelings. (Note quietly, usually through a trusted friend, not on Instagram for the entire student body to see.) They would often end up at prom together. Then there were teens that would go as friends, no romance involved at all. The system seemed to work out beautifully.

Now, there’s a competition among all boys to see who can come up with the grandest gesture. I Googled the word promposal and go thirteen million hits. You Tube has forty-six thousand videos of promposals. Now I may be a little old-fashioned here, but it seems to me the shift has gone from the girl to the boy. It’s become about his gesture, not about her answer and it’s certainly not about going together to the dance. They all desperately want to make it on You Tube.

What has happened? We can definitely blame it on social media along with reality television. The entire world wants their fifteen minutes and like the bratty girl in Willy Wonka, “They want it now!” But, I think there’s something deeper going on here. These kids are no longer engaged in true face-to-face relationship.

They are hyper-focused on how things look and competition. There was even one school who had a contest for the best promposal. Do these kids really need more pressure to be self-focused?

I’m all for romance. But, if you think about some of the most romantic moments in your life, were they in front of hundreds of people? I think true romance is between two people. Today’s teens are boasting two hundred Instagram friends and Twitter followers, but they are lonely. Even the kids who are going as friends are pressured to do the huge gesture.

Why? I think maybe we need to talk to our boys about what teen girls really seek. Don’t the girls really just want to feel special and appreciated? Don’t they still appreciate hand-holding, having doors opened for them, dinner and a movie or flowers? Isn’t there some highly technical way to make a mixed tape for that special girl?

Maybe we really need to encourage our teens to get out of the wide wide world of cyberspace and into the three-dimensional world of actual people and real world dating. If they can’t learn to talk face-to-face and problem solve in their relationships, what will their future marriages look like?

I think the answer is relationship. We need to treasure relationship with each other, with our spouses and with our kids. We need to teach them the importance of relationship and encourage them to pursue it. We were not meant to sit alone in a room while we shine in cyberspace. School dances weren’t designed around who has the greatest promposal. It’s all about relationship. It always has been.

What do you think about promposals and relationship? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Infinite Blessings

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God's blessings are infinite.
God’s blessings are infinite.

My daughter has been playing guitar for five years now. She’s become pretty good at it. While she likes to perform, and happily plays any time she is asked, every time I try to get her to enter any sort of talent contest, she flat-out refuses. When I kept asking her why, she told me that she loves playing, but wanted to know why I expected her to compete for some sort of prize or recognition. She wanted to know why she couldn’t just play for pure enjoyment.

I was speechless. (a rarity for me) She posed a good question. Why did I expect her to compete? If there’s an activity that she enjoys doing and it fills her soul and she can use it to serve God as well, isn’t that enough? Does she have to perform for some sort of human accolade or recognition?

I quickly reversed myself and told her that she should play whenever she wants and only then. She has experienced a similar situation with her grades at school. She does well because she works hard. She makes A’s through her own sweat and work ethic, not because school is easy for her. But, inevitably after every test, there’s one girl who just has to know what her grade is. Why does it matter? The girl finally told another student that my daughter always made one point higher than she did and she just couldn’t stand it.

Again, I ask why? What difference does it make? Is there a limited amount of A’s available? Furthermore, she’s not going for valedictorian or anything like that. Why does the other girl feel the need to compete?

I’m all for competition in sports. There really has to be a winner. Why else would you play? There is legitimate competition for class valedictorian and Star Student and things like that, but why do we want to compete over every little aspect of our lives? It’s as if we believe that there are a finite number of people who can have talent or a finite number of people who can be honor students or a finite number of people who can have nice houses or good marriages.

We sometimes act as if God has a finite number of blessings available. But, if we dig deeper, we have to know that the word finite can never be used to refer to God. If we know that truth, then why do we insist on competing with one another relentlessly?

I think maybe it’s our focus. I think when we focus on ourselves or on other people, we are not focusing on God. When we focus on God, we use our talents to the best of our abilities to honor Him with our lives. That may look like winning a soccer game, but it may look like playing, “Jesus Loves Me” at children’s church. It looks a little bit different for everyone.

What God focus never looks like, is fretting that someone else has nicer clothes or a newer car. The focus should be using our talent to serve God and fellow Christians with it. It doesn’t look like always seeking the spotlight or obsession with winning.

Jesus said, “The last will be first and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16 The Kingdom of God is full of infinite blessings. They simply don’t run out. I think we should keep our eyes on Him and off of ourselves and our neighbors and count our blessings. They really are infinite. What do you think about infinite blessings?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy