Author: Wendy

My daughter and I have been talking a lot about her college plans. She has one more year of high school. Should she dual enroll at a local college? Should she take all rigorous classes? Should she participate in work based learning? Should she create a schedule that allows herself some breathing room, in order to actually enjoy her last year of high school?

I have made these her decisions to make, not mine, and needless to say, the entire ordeal has her incredibly stressed. As we were talking about it over the weekend, she shared that she had a gut feeling about a decision she should make. I asked her if she had prayed about it and she admitted she hadn’t.

I told her that I felt like God gives us all an inner voice that helps to lead us in the direction that He wants us to go, but that we have to spend time in quiet prayer to hear that voice. I also warned her that Christians are never called to make decisions based on fear. The Bible tells us repeatedly to fear not.

On Sunday, we had to combine my daughter’s Sunday school class with ours. She is in the older class and was not thrilled, but she reluctantly attended. The lesson was from Mark 5, where Jesus cast out many demons from a man and cast them in to 2,000 pigs.

After we went over the study questions about the Scripture, we moved on to some life application questions. One of the questions was, “We’ve seen how demons controlled the man in this story. What other things-besides demons-can take control of a person’s life?” The answer was to accept all reasonable answers and then listed drugs, alcohol, sports, relationships, fear, depression, anxiety, trying to be popular, the Internet, shopping, etc.

After they all shared, I read the answers printed. My daughter looked at me and told me she felt like I was “re-tweeting her.”

For those of you not familiar with Twitter, that’s just teen age slang for calling her out. I assured her I wasn’t making it up and even showed her the text. Her eyes got a little wide.

My hubby, sitting at the other end of the table, quietly commented, “Looks like there was a reason for you to be in here today.”

Boom! There the Holy Spirit was at work. It’s always so fabulously amazing to watch God step in when it comes to my kids’ faith. I pray and then I often worry needlessly. It’s sometimes hard to remember that He loves my children more than I do and when it comes to growing their faith, He’s always working a step ahead of me.

Last Sunday, I was reminded and I sometimes need reminding. Perhaps you do too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

In the movie, “The War Room,” the character, Elizabeth, goes to visit Miss Clara, about learning to fight for her marriage. She begins by gushing about all of the bad things he has done to her. Miss Clara cuts her off and tells her that, that kind of talk isn’t helpful for saving her marriage, but that prayer is.

I have thought about those words for the past week. Thanks to Sigmund Freud and the idea of catharsis, we have come to believe that the best way of dealing with every little thing that irritates us in any sort of way, is to vent about it, or quite simply, complain to anyone who is willing to listen about everything from bad service at the McDonald’s drive thru, to more serious family and marital issues.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly situations where talking it out, helps. I also believe that there are wonderful therapists out there who can help us get to the core of problems we may be having.

But, as is the usual course of humanity, we have taken something that is appropriate in certain situations, and made it a daily lifestyle choice and social media has aided in our constant desire to vent about the wrongdoings that the world heaps on us.

If someone cuts us off in traffic, we tweet about it. If we are irritated by something our spouse has done, we post it on Facebook. Anything that causes the smallest annoyance, makes our social feed.

But, does sharing our problems in cyberspace, help us in any way, or is it possible that typing it out makes something small into something bigger? And what about the people reading our negative thoughts and posts? Do our words stir up more negative emotions for them?

I think venting about our spouses can be particularly destructive to our marriages. When we put them down and constantly talk negatively about them to others, we begin to regularly think more negatively about them. How can that be helpful in preserving a marriage?

And what about the people we are venting to? Does it make them look for cracks in their own marriages or family lives?

The Bible says, “He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.” Proverbs 13:3

Could that also mean the things we constantly talk negatively about, like our jobs or relationships, could be damaged somehow by our words? Don’t negative words and thoughts often lead to action?

I think the key is prayer. When someone cuts us off in traffic, we can always say a prayer for our own peace and safety. When someone says something to hurt our feelings, we can pray for patience and understanding and we can also pray for that person. God can take care of it, without us venting to five friends or taking it to Twitter. And when things get tough with our marriages, prayer can give us patience and understanding and God can give us grace.

It’s not about not being able to be angry; it just turns out that God wants us to share our pain and disappointment with Him. He’s truly the only one that can give us peace.

Miss Clara reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I live one town over from Athens, Georgia, home of the Georgia Bulldogs and the University of Georgia. Like most SEC schools, football is king here. We also have a new coach, so that’s a regular topic of conversation too. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Bulldogs as much as any other alum, but college football for some folks is almost a religion.

I recently read a very interesting interview with Peyton Manning. He openly talks about his Christian faith, when asked, but he says he prefers to share his faith in the way that he lives. He also says that he doesn’t pray about winning football games. He says he prays that there are no injuries, but that he doesn’t think God cares either way who wins the game.

Gasp! Could it be true? God doesn’t have a favorite college football team? Does He even love the Florida Gators?

We all seem to be born with the desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. I understand that. I’m all for cheering on my college team. I’m all for the shirts, car tags and bumper stickers. But, at what point does all of it define us?

If you were to die today and be buried in a t-shirt with words that defined your life, what would they say? Would they be your favorite sports team, or perhaps that you were a good spouse, or a good mom or dad, or maybe a good friend, or maybe that you made a lot of money?

Would they say that you followed Jesus with all of your heart? Would there be a cross somewhere on it?

If God doesn’t care about sports, what does He care about? Oh, yeah He cares about the broken and the lost, the sick and the poor, and the friendless. How much time do we spend caring about these people? Do we spend enough of our time and energy on the things that are close to God’s heart, for it to help shape and define us?

What if Christians spent more time on becoming a unified Jesus Nation? What if we put the things that are closest to God’s heart, first? What would our churches look like? What would our towns look like? What would our country look like?

I’ll bet it would be amazing. It might even be worth a try. What do you think?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

The ladies of my church watched the movie, “The War Room,” last night. It was one of those movies that truly is life changing because you can take the specific situation represented and transfer it to all areas of Christian life. The focus of the movie was prayer. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

The questions that it asks all Christians to ponder is, not only, “Do you believe in prayer,”but “How hot is your prayer life?”

When the elderly, Ms. Clara asked her new young real estate agent, Elizabeth, that question, she answered that she was busy with work and family and that her prayer life wasn’t cold or hot, but somewhere in the middle. That seems like a viable answer. The middle is usually good. Right? Middle class, moderation and warm, are things that many of us aspire to.

But, Ms. Clara then handed her a lukewarm cup of coffee that almost made Elizabeth gag. Point taken. There’s nothing good about lukewarm coffee or for that matter, lukewarm faith.

Jesus even talks about a lukewarm church in Revelation. He says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold- I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16

In the spiritual realm, where we really grow and use our faith, lukewarm is useless. Jesus says as much.

Reading the Bible and prayer is how we grow our faith. It’s how we get strong. It’s how we become the warriors that we are called to be.

In the movie, Elizabeth, learns to pray effectively, give her heart fully to God, and with His intervention, saves her faltering marriage.

Christians hold an enormous power through prayer, that we so often, barely tap. We wait until life gets scary and then we pray, not realizing, if our prayer life was hot, like it should be, life would never get scary. The things of the world would be unable to scare us, if we were intently focused on trusting and obeying God.

We have an election coming up. The mudslinging has already become fierce. There may even be a Supreme Court seat in the balance. What can we do?

All Christians can get off of the bench and get into the game. We can pray, pray without ceasing, for God’s guidance in choosing our next president and for His intervention in our country’s politics. We can pray that He will raise up Godly men and women to lead our country.

We have to do something, because doing nothing, is simply being lukewarm. We are called to do more. We are called to pray, listen and act.

“If my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:13-14

Those are powerful words. The next move is ours.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Valentine’s Day is on Sunday and it’s hard to set foot in any retail establishment without being reminded of it. The grocery store has flowers and chocolates. Clothing stores have red and pink items plastered in their windows. Restaurants are running specials for couples.

Just out of mere curiosity, I did a Google search on St. Valentine and turned up some interesting information. First of all, little is definitely known about him. There’s lots of legend and there may have even been two stories that got molded into one.

But, here’s one that I found that grabbed my attention. Valentine was a Roman priest during the time of an unfriendly emperor, Claudius, who persecuted the Christian church. Claudius had decided to forbid marriage because, unattached soldiers were better fighters. They didn’t have families or loved ones at home to think about.

The culture at the time was very sexually permissive. Several wives were okay, but the one man and one woman deal wasn’t very popular. But, for whatever reason, there were those who were drawn to the Christian faith. Does any of this sound in any way familiar?

Of course, the Christian church, always encouraged one woman and one man, Christian marriage, so there was a priest, Valentine, who married couples in secret.

He was eventually caught and imprisoned. There are legends about his time in prison. The story goes that one of the men who was to judge him, Asterius, had a young daughter who was blind. Valentine prayed over her and healed her. Supposedly, Asterius became a baptized Christian and one account has 44 other members in his household converting as well.

One story has Valentine released, but then arrested again for continuing to stand by his faith. In 269 AD, he was sentenced to a brutal death of beating, stoning and decapitation. The Romans were always kind of blood thirsty. Supposedly, the last words he wrote were to the young girl he healed and were signed, “Your Valentine.”

Not all romance, chocolate and roses, huh? You have to hand it to good old American commercialism. But, Valentine has a different kind of love to teach us, a deeper love, one that spans the centuries.

Valentine decided what he believed in. His faith, surely bolstered through the Holy Spirit, made him willing to die for what God called him to do. He gave up his earthly life, knowing that he would spend eternity with Jesus.

I think it’s fitting that Valentine’s day comes during Lent, when Christians are taking some time to reflect on the sacrifice that Christ made for all of us. It’s a great reminder of the greatest love of all. It’s also a great reminder for us to all take stock as we walk towards Calvary.

What is it that we believe? What does our faith teach us to stand up for, to fight for?

So, as we encounter all of those hearts and flowers, over the weekend, let’s stop and take a minute to give thanks for all of those people who have stood up for their faith along the way, and most of all for Jesus, who represents eternal love, that never fades.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Today is the first day of Lent. It comes early this year, because Easter comes early this year and Easter is on March, 27th. Christians look at Lent in many different ways. Some religiously give up something that they love until Easter Sunday, like wine, or coffee, or social media.

I did that one year. I gave up chocolate. At the time, I was a huge chocoholic. A day rarely went by when I didn’t have at least a bite. It was tough to give it up. Interestingly, I’m no longer a huge fan. I like chocolate; but I’m no longer obsessed with it.

There are Christians who pick something up, like reading the Bible everyday, or take a set amount of quiet time, or attend a Bible study. I’ve done that too. I actually did a Lent study here on Graceful Gaines one year, on the Gospel of John. You can access it, if you are interested in reading through one of the Gospels for Lent.

There are also Christians who don’t observe Lent at all. My church never talked about Lent when I was growing up. It’s not in the Bible. It’s more of a “Church Universal,” doctrine. I’ll have to admit that there have been years that I haven’t given Lent much thought. There have been years where I was just too consumed with other things, or too tired, or really just couldn’t wrap my head around Lent.

I couldn’t think of anything to give up or pick up. I just couldn’t think of anything to do.

I’ve come to understand that therein lies my problem. When I kept asking myself what I could do, I kept coming up empty. I’ve learned over time, that when I don’t know what to do, is when I need to spend more time in prayer. Those are also usually the times when I’m feeling the most overwhelmed by life in general.

At some point, our wise Father, revealed to me that Lent isn’t about doing something for God. The idea of giving something up or doing something extra because Jesus died for us, is kind of ridiculous. We can’t do anything to earn grace. Think about it. I’m going to give up chocolate, because Jesus gave up His life?

Lent is a gift from God to us, an invitation to draw closer to Him. It’s a relatively short period of time for Christians to be intentional about our walk with Christ. It’s about putting our faith first and leaning into Jesus and into grace. It’s a special time. It’s a sacred time.

However Christians decide to observe it, the important thing is that we observe it, because when we really make Lent a priority, Easter Sunday has a brand new meaning and truly embracing the miracle of Easter, is what we are all about. Don’t let Lent pass you by.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

P.S. This song is such a beautiful reminder of Jesus’ love for us. Enjoy!