Category: Building Christian Character

Today is Friday. Most of us jubilantly celebrate Friday. Many of us start looking forward to Friday the minute our alarm clocks sound on Monday, signaling the beginning of our week. We also love Saturdays, often a day of absolutely no expectations on our time, depending of course, on the season of life we are in.

But, how many of us count the days til Sunday, til the Sabbath? Quite often, that’s a day where we wrestle ourselves and/or our kids, out of bed and drag ourselves to church, often turning into the parking lot on two wheels. It doesn’t take much to talk ourselves out of going to church either. It’s too cold. It’s raining. I don’t have anything to wear. I’m not feeling well. The kids don’t want to go. Does any of this sound familiar?

In Exodus, where we find the Ten Commandments, God said, “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God…” Exodus 20:8-10 NLT

I began to give some thought to ordinary work. What is our ordinary work? Well, if we have a job, that’s ordinary work. I suppose cleaning house and cutting grass is ordinary work. What else would qualify as ordinary work? What about all of the anxieties, fears and stress we  carry around? Is that our ordinary work? Is it Holy?

As I contemplated the idea further, I came across some words that Jesus spoke about he Sabbath. He was once again, defending himself to the “know it all,” Pharisees. These guys always thought they had all the answers. You know the type, right? “Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of the people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27 NLT

He was specifically talking about all of the cumbersome requirements that Jewish tradition had come to require. But, I think his words are super relevant to today’s Christians as well.

God created the Sabbath for us. It’s a gift, not a burden of things we have to do, but a gift. It’s a gift of rest and while many of us get that part as we rush off to the golf course or lake or choose to sleep in, let’s not miss the second part, which is keeping it holy and dedicating it to God.

That too, is part of the gift. Here’s why, humanity tends to be self-focused. I know that’s a shocker, but it’s true. We spend our days chasing money to buy stuff that many of us don’t need. We spend our days worrying about the future, or about family members, or about our jobs, or about our diagnosis, or about….. You get the picture. We spend our days focusing on our insecurities and shortcomings. We spend our days carrying anger and grudges. We spend our days focusing on all that is wrong in our lives and the world at large.

The Sabbath is meant for rest from all of those things and emotions that weigh us down. We are to put those down for an entire day as we focus on our Creator and His love for us and His plan for us. His plan doesn’t include all of those burdens. His plan includes words like, “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 Jesus said, “Come to me all who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 12:28

Do those words sound like they come from someone who wants to make our lives harder?

The Sabbath is meant for rest from ourselves. It’s meant for rest from being human as we focus on being Godly. That rest may lead to brand new insight and instruction. That rest may lead to a brand new peace. It could lead to fulfilling a dream that God planted within us long ago.

But, for any of those things to come to pass, we have to embrace the Sabbath, not as a burden, but as a gift.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

The Gospels are full of accounts of Jesus healing people. Most often, they sought him out and asked for healing. Sometimes friends or family would seek him out and ask for healing for a sick family member or friend. Jesus usually told them that their faith had healed them.

Over and over we find that faith produces miracles, but miracles don’t produce faith. You have to believe first.

In the Gospel of John, chapter five, there’s a healing story that’s a little different from the others. There was a pool  where many sick people, blind, lame and paralyzed would lie around. The story went, that when the water was stirred, the first one in would be healed.

Jesus went up to the pool and came across a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. It doesn’t appear that the man had any idea who Jesus was. Jesus simply asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

That’s a powerful question from the Son of God. The man told him he had no one to help him into the water and someone always got there ahead of him.

He gave Jesus an excuse, albeit a good one, if he couldn’t walk, how could he make it to the pool? But, it was still and excuse. Of course he was thinking of the healing power of the water, not of the Messiah standing in front of him.

How often do we make the same mistake? Jesus seeks us out everyday with the same question, “Do you want to get well?” We offer excuses.

Much of the anger and bitterness we carry around comes from old hurts, places deep in our hearts that need to heal. We sometimes carry around pain, guilt or shame for years and years because we aren’t willing to answer Jesus’ question.

“Do you want to get well?” Do we? Do we want to live in joy and abundance? Do we want peace? Do we want to pick up that mat that we have been glued to and walk? If the answer is yes, then we have to say yes to Jesus. We have to give him the anger, hurt, and disappointments of the past. We have to forgive.

It’s not easy. Healing can be grueling work. Think about it. If you are healing from the flu, you have to rest a lot. You have to take medicine. You have to drink lots of fluids. It’s work. But, then you heal and it feels so good to feel good.

Healing the heart is the same. We have to say yes to Jesus. Then we have to give him all of that baggage that we no longer need. We have to pray. We have to trust and listen and obey. We have to read God’s word and wait for His direction.

Too often, we have become comfortable on our mats and we may find it easier to leave well enough alone. But, if we truly want to get well and be well, then we have to answer yes and do the work and then we can throw down our mats and walk or dance and skip, the choice is ours.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My church is beginning a Bible study this week on the Gospel of Mark. I casually asked my pastor how many chapters I needed to have read before the first meeting. I like to be prepared. My mama raised me that way. He told me with a straight face that it would be good if I could go ahead and read the entire book.

“Seriously?” I asked. He just smiled and told me I could find it in my Bible. He’s a funny guy, my pastor, but being the nerd that I am, (just ask any of my former high school teachers), I started reading. I always do my homework.

Mark gets right to business. There’s very little background in his gospel. In chapter one, he talks about the calling of the disciples. One day Jesus is walking along the Sea of Galilee and he sees Simon and his brother Andrew throwing out a net into the water because they fished for a living. “He called out to them, ‘Come follow me and I will show you how to fish for people!’ And they left their nets at once and followed him.” Mark 1:17

Notice it doesn’t say they were sitting around with nothing to do. They were at work. They were busy working.

The text goes onto say that, “A little farther up the shore, Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father Zebedee, in the boat with hired men.” Mark  1:19-20

Once again, Jesus called men who were busy working. They were repairing nets for their business. They weren’t on a coffee break. They weren’t resting or jobless. They weren’t looking for something to do. They were busy.

Finally, in chapter two, Jesus walked along and saw “Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.” Mark 2:14

I think I see a pattern here. Levi was busy working too. The other guys were doing more honest, blue-collar work, while Levi was engaged in very profitable and likely dishonest, white-collar work, but he was working.

I suppose these five men could have told Jesus that they were busy. They didn’t have time to follow him and be disciples and fishers of men. They had businesses to run and families to feed. They could have told him that maybe later, when the kids were bigger, or the business was running itself, or the teens weren’t so busy playing sports.

They could have told Jesus “no, not now.” But, they didn’t. They somehow knew the importance of the call and were rewarded with a front row seat of the most important story ever told. They got to witness God in flesh and all of His glory. They decided they weren’t too busy for Jesus.

What about us today? While it’s rare for us to feel called to drop everything and follow Jesus. We may be called to teach a Sunday school class, or volunteer at a soup kitchen, or youth group, or attend a new small group, or attend a Bible study, or serve on a church committee. There are so many ways we are called to follow Jesus and to serve. Are we usually willing like Simon, Andrew, James, John and Levi, or are we too busy?

What excuses do we give for not saying, “yes”? These men are huge reminders that we are all busy. They were too. Humanity has always been busy and always will be, but we can choose to say to say, “yes,” when Jesus calls, just like they did and we too, may get to see God do some amazing work.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My hubby and I were sitting at the kitchen table on Saturday morning drinking coffee and chatting. I had been watching out the window at a greedy squirrel raid our bird feeder. He would lose his balance from time to time and then the birds would rush in for a few minutes. But, then something else caught my eye. It was a dove.

I was enchanted. I don’t know what it is about doves, but seeing them always makes me smile. The Holy Spirit is often depicted as a dove and they show up quite often in the Bible. When one showed up with an olive branch for Noah, he knew that the flood was at long last over. We often think of them as symbols of peace and love as well.

Imagine my delight, when I spotted the second one sitting on the branch next to its mate. I wondered out loud if I could capture them in a photo. I sincerely doubted it because I find that birds rarely sit still for long and getting a picture of them is usually difficult, (for me anyway). But, something told me to try.

I’ve come to a point in my journey with God, when I obey the gentle nudges. I often find that He has something to communicate with me through them. I find myself taking pictures of everything from rocks to dirty dishes sometimes with absolutely no idea why. Eventually, though, I know. They are meant to tie in with some post that I haven’t even begun to conceive of yet. His ways continually amaze me.

This nudge proved to be no different. I went upstairs and stood in my bathtub and took close to fifty shots. Most were unusable and completely out of focus. I was zoomed in so closely, that I would often lose sight of the birds altogether and I would have to zoom back out and find them in the big picture, in order to focus on them again.

The entire process got me to thinking about how often we get so hyper-focused on a problem or issue in our lives, that it becomes all we can think about, but we just can’t seem to find the right answers. Perhaps, if we zoom out and try to look at the bigger picture, things will become clearer. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves will this issue even matter ten years from now? Sometimes we need to discuss it with a trusted friend.

Often times, we need to pray about it and then give it to God. And that’s often the hardest part isn’t it? We can talk to friends about our troubles. We can even pray about them. But, where we really find ourselves struggling, is with the concept of giving it to God and waiting for His guidance on how or when we should move. We don’t like to give up control of our worries and anxieties. We want to fix it ourselves. We allow ourselves to be consumed with them. This human tendency does not come from God.

God’s way is quite the contrary. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

What do you know? The word peace has appeared again. I think I may be on the right track. I’m going to try to do a better job at zooming out on the problems and conflicts in my life. I can always use a little more peace. Care to join me?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

The miracle of the fish and loaves is the only one, besides the resurrection, that appears in all four Gospels. It’s a familiar story to most Christians. Jesus had been teaching the crowds for hours. It was getting late and everyone was getting hungry. Jesus was well aware of human needs and he was about to provide in a huge way.

While the disciples were hoping he would send the crowd on their way, Jesus had a different plan. That concept alone, is something we should always keep in mind when walking with Jesus.

There was a young boy in the crowd with two fish and five barley loaves. I have often wondered what his take on the story was. Did his mama pack him a meal to take with him? Did his parents know where he was? Did he willingly give his small meal to Jesus or was he reluctant? The Bible doesn’t tell us the child’s story and to the disciple’s eyes, his tiny offering made no difference anyway. But, they would soon learn, that Jesus can do a lot, even when we only have a little to give him.

There were five thousand men there; that didn’t even count women and children. I imagine Andrew scratching his head as he looked at Jesus and tells him, “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But, what good is that with this huge crowd?” John 6:9

Jesus doesn’t address Andrew’s lack of faith at that moment. He simply tells the disciples to have the crowds sit down. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke say that Jesus, “looked toward heaven and gave thanks.” John’s Gospel says, “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish and they all ate as much as they wanted.” John 6:11

I wonder what our lives would look like if we followed Jesus’ example and always gave thanks to God whether we have what we think is enough or not. We give thanks for plenty, but do we give thanks when we don’t have what we believe is enough? What would God do with all of that thanks and praise? What would He do with that faith? In this instance, He provided way more than they could ever eat, way more than they could imagine.

The wording in John’s Gospel of what came next, really intrigues me. “After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” John 6:12

They did as they were told and there were twelve baskets with scraps. I would love to know what Jesus did with the scraps. Did he feed any nearby animals? Did the disciples eat them later? There were no soup kitchens at the time. What happened to the scraps?

But, perhaps there’s a deeper meaning here, a second story as is so often the case with Jesus. Maybe the point is that nothing in life is wasted when we give it to Jesus. In this case, it was physical food. For us, we have lots of baggage and many mistakes that we carry around over our lifetime. There are times when we wonder if our situations, our giant blunders can ever be redeemed. We are often tempted to believe that we have wasted our time or our lives on foolish decisions.

But, with Jesus, nothing is wasted. When we take our messes and give them to him, he can create something beautiful. He has the ability to use it all for good. He’s the great recycler. All we have to do, is find the courage to get on our knees, let the mistakes go and give them to him, giving thanks for grace.

Then we stand back and watch him create a masterpiece. I think that sounds like a pretty good plan. What do you think?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I love music and I become very impatient when I’m driving down the road and the deejays on the radio insist on talking or commercials are playing. I just want to hear music and I’ll punch one preset after another until I hear some tunes. I like all kinds of music. There’s a button programmed for classic rock, several country stations, adult contemporary and even the stuff my teens like. I’m a child of the eighties; I can appreciate the beat. 🙂

I also have a contemporary Christian station programmed and I hit its button along with the rest of them. As I was madly searching for music one morning, and every station was talking, I came across a song called “Losing” and it’s by a band called Tenth Avenue North.

I really love words, which is probably why I like to write, and the words to this song really grabbed me. I’ve attached a link if you would like to hear the song yourself.

It begins by talking about gossip, he said, she said stuff. Then it says, “This is love. This is hate. We all have a choice to make.” Wise words, indeed. Love and hate are choices that we have to make when we are faced with hurtful actions from others. How do we make that choice and which is the right one?

The singer then says, “Father, give me grace to forgive them because I feel like I’m losing.” Isn’t that the truth? When we carry around anger for a period of time, it takes up space in our hearts. It grows bitterness. Love isn’t the only emotion that grows and takes on a life of its own. Anger can do the same and anger has the ability turn into hate.

Hate is a very dangerous thing to carry around. It’s contrary to Jesus’ teachings. It’s contrary to God’s plan. Nowhere in the Bible are we called to hate others and if anyone had a reason to hate, it would have been Jesus himself, but he chose another way and we are called to do the same.

The next lyrics are the ones that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. “Truth be told, it doesn’t matter whether they are sorry or not.” Therein lies the rub, right? We find it difficult to forgive those people who have admitted wrong and apologized, but the people who aren’t even sorry? Do those people deserve our forgiveness? The answer, whether we like it or not, is yes.

The Bible tells us, “And don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.” Ephesians 4:26-27  So, if we carry anger around, who wins? It’s not God. It’s not the good guys.

Forgiveness can be so hard and often not something we can do without the Holy Spirit. But, if we earnestly seek help with forgiveness, God will help us. There’s another Bible promise that’s helpful here, “But with God everything is possible.” Matthew 19:26b

Finally, as Christians, “We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 That means we’re not supposed to react solely on the circumstances right in front of us. We are called to remember that we have greater purpose and serve a God that is bigger than anything we can possibly face.

As we remember all of that, perhaps it’s a little easier to let go of any anger that we are carrying around. Quite frankly, our hearts need the space for other more fruitful things like love, grace, patience and kindness. A new year is an ideal time to deal with any unresolved anger. Maybe it’s time to let it go.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

It can be awfully easy to judge others. When we meet someone for the first time and they are rude or snippy, it’s easy to write them off as, not a nice person. It’s an easy mistake for adults to make and super easy for kids.

We tend to judge people by what we see on the surface. My daughter will come home sometimes and talk about how some girl at school was really mean to someone or said something very inappropriate. It doesn’t take too long in the conversation to figure out that life in that child’s home is often in total chaos. I’m not excusing the behavior, but trying to make an effort to help her to understand.

First impressions are everything to us and changing our minds about someone after they have snubbed us or treated us poorly, often takes some serious thought and more importantly, prayer. Forgiveness is not in our nature. It’s a gift from the Holy Spirit and one most of us, including myself, could use more of.

I recently read in John 7:24, “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” Those words came from Jesus, himself and he was arguing with the Pharisees about Jewish law. The Pharisees were never ones to look beneath the surface. Laws were laws and everything was black and white. Grace didn’t have a place in their picture of God.

How often do we take the time to look beneath the surface in a situation where we have been wronged somehow or when we perceive that someone has treated us badly? Is there a chance that the person in question, is fighting a battle that we know nothing about? Is it possible that God is offering us the unique opportunity to extend grace to a fellow human being, like He extends daily grace to us?

I can appreciate the need to be right and when we are wronged, we feel that someone should pay. We want justice when we have been injured or slighted. But, do we want justice when we were the ones who were doing the slighting? Ouch! Surely, we can all think of an example when we were in the wrong and hurt someone’s feelings unintentionally due to our own circumstances at the time.

Perhaps we should begin each day with a desire to look beneath the surface in the people around us. We can pray for God to help us in this quest. We may very surprised at what we find.

We may find that the world is full of hurting people who lash out because they simply don’t know any other way to deal with their circumstances. We may find the opportunity to extend forgiveness and grace and maybe even a helping hand.

If we all tried a little harder to look beneath the surface before we rush to judgement, I wonder what our world would look like. We might be pleasantly surprised. What do you think?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂