Category: Building Christian Character

John Wesley was the co-founder of the Methodist Church. He was an active participant in the Church of England in the 1700’s. He became disenchanted with the “religiousness” of church. He felt like there was more focus on how worship took place over who was being worshiped. He felt like Christians should be reaching outside the walls of their churches and ministering to prisoners and the poor and others who weren’t welcome in the church of the day.

He was active in the idea of “tent revival” and his ideas spread like wildfire. Many of the people who heard him speak were new to Christianity. Once they became Christians, they were eager to know how to live a Christ-like life. Keep in mind, that there wasn’t a Barnes and Noble on the corner where someone could purchase a Bible. There were no Kindles or iPhones to look up scripture. For that matter, most people couldn’t read.

So, how could he explain in simple terms how to live like Jesus? He came up with three simple rules. We tried these in an  adult Sunday School class one time. The simplicity can be deceptive!

The first rule is: Do no harm. Seems easy enough, right? Just don’t hurt anyone in any way. That doesn’t just mean, don’t go and punch them. That means, don’t gossip about the mom you think is drinking too much or about the neighbor who you think is getting a divorce or your child’s classmate who is making bad choices. What about our environment? Weren’t we supposed to be stewards of our environment? What kind of harm are we doing there?  It’s kind of like the doctor’s oath, but trickier.

The second rule is : Do good. Does this one seem easier? As we go about our day, how much good are we doing? Sure, we may not be doing harm per se, but are we doing good? Are we truly helping others? Are we striving to make a difference? Are we using the talents that we have been gifted with to further God’s plan or are we using them for our own needs and desires?

The third rule is: Stay in love with God. Oh, thank goodness, the last one is a piece of cake. Not so fast! We can all say we love God; that’s easy enough. But, when you tell your spouse or your family members that you love them, but do absolutely nothing to show it. How do they know? I can tell God all day that I love Him. Do I read His word? Do I share His word? Do I pray like I should? Do I worship like I should? Do I do His will or focus on mine?

The church in Wesley’s time was in decline and he helped to start a revival that eventually spread across continents. I think Wesley was brilliant. Try out the rules and see how you do. They are harder than they appear, but definitely worth trying. The beautiful thing about grace is there’s plenty of room for failure. We get an unlimited number of do overs. Thank the Good Lord! Right?

Let me know how you do. I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

When I was growing up, we visited the beach every summer. We loved to walk on the beach at night. All of the condominiums had bright lights that shined onto the beach. It was almost as well-lit at night as it was during the daytime.

Times have changed and scientists have found that the lights confuse baby sea turtles and have them swimming into shore instead of out to sea. So, when I take my children to the beach, there are no bright lights from the land to light the shore.

Amazingly, though, the moon seems much brighter than when I was a kid and so do the stars. We still take our kids to walk on the beach at night and the moon is enough.

How often in our lives to we seek the light of praise and acceptance from others? It starts when we are kids, but it never really ends. Most of us are constantly aware of what others think of us. For some, acceptance becomes a type of idol. We develop a need to be praised and emulated by friends and co-workers.

God knew this was a problem for His people. He told them early on when He led them out of Egypt that they were not to intermarry or make treatise with the people who were in Canaan. Was He trying to keep them from expanding their horizons and making new friends?

Nope. He was trying to keep them safe. He knew their nature. He knew their tendencies. Their tendencies were to turn away from Him and towards what wasn’t good for them. Don’t we have the same tendencies?

Is it easy for us to worship God and nothing else? Is it easy for us not to care about money, new clothes or new cars? Is it easy for us to offer hospitality to someone who really needs it and not care what our house looks like? Is it easy for us to go to church and seek to serve instead of seeking to be served?

Ouch. How many times have we made the statement, “I just don’t get anything out of the worship service.”? But, isn’t worship service about worshiping God and not about us. Are we there for what we can get?

I think if we begin to focus on the one true light we need in our lives, a lot of this other spiritual light pollution will start to fall away. I mean things like caring what others think and say. I mean things like focusing on material things. I mean things like feeling like our church isn’t serving us or perhaps God isn’t serving us.

I think we need to think of Jesus like the old Uncle Sam poster, that stated “I want you.” He was pointing and had a very stern look. I picture Jesus with His arms outstretched calling to us in a gentler way, but the message is the same. He wants us and when we focus on that light, the only one that matters, it becomes more than enough.

What do you think about spiritual light pollution? Feel free to comment.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I have granite counter tops in my kitchen. I love them because they are varied and unique. The area by the sink looks different from the area by the stove. No two slabs of granite are ever exactly alike because they come from nature and nature just doesn’t work that way.

We are a lot like granite. We are all unique. We may have similarities to each other, but we are all unique creations. No two people are exactly alike.

What I don’t like about my granite is that it hides crumbs. I can wipe and clean and then when the sunlight lands on it, I have a mess. I have missed so much. I never even know the crumbs are there unless the light is on them.

As I was cleaning the kitchen the other day, (again) with the help of the sun, it struck me that our lives are like the granite before the sun shines on it. We carry all kinds of crumbs around like guilt over our past, I’m not good enough attitudes, unresolved pain and anger, the list goes on; you can fill in your blank here:________. Try as we might, we just can’t remove them alone.

When Jesus comes into our lives, he shines a dazzling light on the crumbs that have been left behind and need to be swept away. Sometimes the light can be a little blinding and painful as we work to sweep away destructive behaviors or attitudes that we have come to hold close. Sometimes the light is incredibly liberating as we learn to accept that we are unique and loved, “fearfully and wonderfully made,” just as we are.

Either way, with Jesus, we are wiped clean, free to start fresh with a new path and a new plan. We have to keep in mind that crumbs can easily re-gather and to keep them away, we have to walk closely with him, listen to his voice, pray and obey.  When we do, we can be  shiny and crumb free and that, I think, is something worth smiling about.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Yesterday was New Year’s Day and it proved to be quite a lazy day for my family. We were up really late celebrating and we were running on half-charged batteries. We all napped at some point, including the dogs. The TNT Network was running the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy back-to-back. Now, if you ever have the desire to veg in front of the television for a day, there’s your perfect excuse.

Those movies have always captivated my attention along with a million others. Evil forces try to take over the world and a very unlikely underdog, a Hobbit, sets out to save it along with nine others to help him, but in the end, his best friend is the one who stays by his side to complete the quest. It’s a beautiful story of friendship. Good wins over evil and the scenery is stunning. It makes me want to visit New Zealand even though it’s like a twenty hour flight.

One of my favorite scenes of all time occurs in the first movie. They are in a cave and are being pursued by evil forces. The little Hobbit, Frodo, says: “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf, the wizard, replies,” So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it and that is an encouraging thought.”

Those are timeless words which hold timeless truth. We often wish we weren’t living during these times, during a recession, during terrorist plots, during wars… But, that is not for us to decide. We must decide what to do with the time we are given. We can decide to trust that God put us here in this moment at this time for a reason and like Frodo, do our very best to see good win.

The writer of the trilogy was a man named J.R.R. Tolkein. He was born in 1892 and was a devout Christian. He was also a professor at Oxford in England with another man named C.S. Lewis. Lewis was an atheist when they met, but in time, Tolkein’s faith rubbed off on Lewis and he became a Christian. He went on to write, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” another wildly popular, Christian based, good always wins in the end, book.

You never know what may happen when you share your faith. Sometimes, it may be nothing. Sometimes, you may get to witness a small change in someone. Sometimes, incredible things can happen and the world is changed forever. Like Frodo, the choice of what to do with our time is ours to make. What will we do? Feel free to comment.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Americans struggle with commitment. About half of our marriages end in divorce. We also have trouble committing to a healthy diet or lifestyle because around two-thirds of our population are overweight or obese. We aren’t very committed to our churches either. We church hop when something about our church doesn’t suit us anymore. We look for something better.

Whether it’s church hopping, job hopping or spouse hopping, the grass is always greener on the other side. We are always able to find greener pastures, for a time. But, after a little time goes by, we usually find that every person, every workplace, every place of worship has its drawbacks. The perfection we thought we had at last found, was a mirage of sorts. So what do we do? We usually look elsewhere.

We have become a type of nomadic culture, seeking perfection in an imperfect world. We want the perfect house, car, job, church, kids and spouse. We want the perfect body, but we’d really rather just take a pill instead of sweat and count calories. We want the Norman Rockwell painting and the Currier and Ives Christmas card. We want perfection and we will break every commitment we make along the way on our great quest.

Unfortunately, what we seek, we will not find on this side of Heaven. Life is not perfect and people, are certainly not perfect. We have perfect moments from time to time and that’s what brilliant artists like Rockwell are able to capture, but a life of perfection is a myth.

So, what are we to do? Are we to live miserable, unfulfilled lives? Absolutely not! However, I think a good start is to take a look at our current commitments. Do they line up with who we are and who we want to be? Are we over committed? It’s hard to have any sort of exercise plan if we have meetings lined up every night of the week. It’s hard to become a part of a church if we travel every weekend or are involved in some sort of sport every Sunday. It’s hard to devote time to our marriages if we line up commitments that keep us away from our spouses.

Next, we need to take a look at our faith walk. If we are committed to God first, these other commitments will fall into place or fall away, whichever needs to happen. We need to learn to say no to things that don’t line up with Biblical principles.

I think a faith mentor can be super helpful too. Pick out someone you know who seems to be walking the walk you would like to walk, someone who is living in close relationship with God. Ask them for help and advice. I’ll bet they will gladly help you.

Finally, we need to let go of the perfection fairytale. It simply doesn’t exist. We need to make a list of five commitments we are serious about and go to God in prayer and ask for help. If we turn back to Him, He will help us. Commitment is hard work, but the results are so worth it. Little by little we can become the nation of committed people that we once were. Who’s with me?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I was a big fan of the television show Dallas, back in the eighties. There were beautiful, rich  people and a ton of drama. When J.R. got, shot, the entire nation was abuzz. I even remember seeing bumper stickers that read, “Who shot J.R.?”

That was a lot of attention for one television show. I’m not sure why we were so captivated by the Ewing family, but as I look back on it, I remember that there was a good son, Bobby and a bad son J.R., who lived at their family ranch called Southfork with their parents Miss Ellie and Jock. Their wives and kids lived there as well, adding to the drama.

The Ewings all sat down to breakfast together every morning and discussed the coming day. Jock was not some far away father who got an occasional visit or phone call from his children. His kids didn’t only visit him on the holidays. They didn’t wait until their lives were in a bind to talk to him. They didn’t wait until they were sick or in trouble to ask him for advice or help.

They started every single day with him at the breakfast table. Now, those Ewings are certainly not a family that I think anyone would want to emulate, but the practice of starting their day with their father made me think about starting the day with my Heavenly Father.

I think that so often, we save the last for God. At the end of the day when we are exhausted, we say our prayers or we wait until we are in crises to seek God’s help. I think we may have it wrong.

In the Cain and Abel story in Genesis, Chapter Four, Cain was a farmer and Abel kept flocks. They both brought sacrifices to God. He accepted Abel’s, but not Cain’s. The fact that God picked a favorite always troubled me until I understand why.

Abel brought, “the best of his firstborn lambs from his flock.” Cain brought, “some of his crops as a gift.” Do you see the difference? Abel brought the best of what he had. Cain brought some of what he had. It wasn’t about the quantity of what they brought or the gift itself. God didn’t prefer the lamb over the crops. He wanted the best.

Cain didn’t like God’s requirement, so in a jealous rage, he killed his brother.

What in the world do Cain and Abel and Jock Ewing have to do with us today? Well, I think, like Bobby and J.R., we should begin our day with our father, with our Heavenly Father. We should start our day giving thanks, asking for guidance and handing over burdens we can’t possibly handle alone.

Like Abel, we should give Him our best, not what we have left over after a busy, stressful day of living. If we try this practice, we may find that our lives are more enriched than we could possibly imagine. I think I’ll try it. Care to join me? Feel free to share.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂