My family and I like to snuggle up and watch movies together. One of the girls will pop the popcorn, the other will slice and ready the apples, my husband prepares the movie to be viewed, while my son and I grab the blankets. It’s one of our favorite times to spend as a family but every so often a movie may catch me off guard when the Lord uses it to convict me in my spirit and give me a wake-up call.
Lord I thank you that you have my heart and you hold me safe when trouble comes. You shelter me and calm the storms in my life. If you were not surrounding me, holding me up, my heart would faint and I would fall. Oh keep me safe, hold me tight. I need you. Every breath I take comes from you, I fix my eyes on you. Oh how I long for your courts, take me to the river; the river of life that flows from your throne. Let the wind of your Spirit blow over me. Oh Lord, heal my brokenness, wash over me with the water of your word.
Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.
C. S. Lewis
We live in a world that sees failure as a negative and something determining who you are as a person and our self-worth. Failure lurks everywhere and we strive as business professionals, parents, and teach our children to avoid it at all costs. We stunt their growth when we take over their lives, over-protect them, leap tall buildings adverting any struggle along their path so they never feel the pain or disappointment of failure all out of fear. Inevitably we set them up to fail in ways we never imagined and I have to ask is failure as bad as it seems?
This morning started out peacefully as I enjoyed time in The Word and a cup of coffee. One by one sounds from kids’ alarm clocks went off alerting me the house was waking. I giggled as each sound from their clocks directly reflected who they are as a child. The morning going well, I sat and continued writing in my journal while waiting for the kids to finish up. The peaceful and flowing morning came to an abrupt stop within a few minutes of leaving for the bus. Oh how things change in just the mere matter of a second!
One of my children came up in a panic looking for an article of clothing I had not seen since several months before. When I explained where it was last seen voices raised and the quietness became chaos in just a matter of seconds. All focus redirected to emotions and the missing piece of clothing. The peacefulness of the morning now gone and thrown out the window with accusatory tones shouted at each other across the room.
13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.
February is full of activities for both family and school schedules! We will post articles and links as we can.
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In the works currently is an article titled “Masks” for And I hope to have it out sometime this week.
Hope this finds your week off to a great start! Thank you for all your support!
As I reflect over the past year, one of my most special moments was when my son shared a devotion with me on conditioning my spirit. I was so thankful that he shared what God laid on his heart for me. At that time, I didn’t know God would use this devotion throughout that week and as a lesson for life.
I started reading the information introducing the book of Ruth and as I read the Meaning and Message section in my NLT Study Bible, the words, “God usually works in the ordinary events of everyday life. Miracles do happen, but God regularly accomplishes his purposes and blesses his people through routine occurrences. If we learn faithfulness in the every day, we are equipped to be faithful when crisis come” popped off the page.
How does this connect to Mathew 26:1-35,57-27:66 regarding the death of Christ on the cross and to life today? We are no different from those who lived during Jesus time. Jesus performed countless miracles, rose people from the dead, turned water into wine and healed lepers and yet they could not see as Matthew 27:42-43 says, “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the king of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe him! He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, “I am the Son of God.’ ”
They wanted something big and showy to make them finally believe and counted the other miracles as loss. They needed more proof and sadly we scream and yell the same things. Today, we continue to question God’s very existence when we don’t have to look far to see him. He is in the ordinary things of life. He’s in the things we call mundane in our routines. He is in the very air we breathe, wind on our faces, and in clear view of everything we see, and yet, we take them for granted quickly discarding them for something bigger, more showy, a miracle beyond miracles to truly know and believe He is real.
The world teaches us that seeing is believing. I always giggle a little when I hear, “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes!” I know that I have said that myself too, but what I find telling, is even though we see, just as in Jesus’ time, we still don’t believe and want something more, something bigger to really believe!
I was not there when Jesus was sacrificed on the cross for my sins. I was not there when He rose from the dead. I was not there when He ascended into heaven, and yet, I believe! This does not mean that I should discount what is written because I did not see with my own eyes! Jesus is the gift, the miracle given! While we were yet sinners He died to redeem us and give us life in the eternal! No one is good enough to get there on their own, no acts of righteousness, nor every good deed, but only by His Son!
Instead of seeing to believe, what if believing is seeing? When we seek Him in our everyday, our ordinary, our mundane, we see him revealing Himself in an extraordinary way. When we believe to see, our vision is changed from big and showy to subtle hints and reminders. He reveals Himself walking with and beside us, accomplishing things we can’t on our own. We lift Him up making Him the center of our lives, the primary focus of all things. Doing this, we see His hand, His workings, and all things clearly. He lets us see Him, believing, preparing us for the big and showy miracle of His return that every eye will see. What He reveals in our ordinary becomes our foundation and truth to the extraordinary having breathtaking eternal results.
Life Unfolded 