Do you have room?

 I had an idea early on this week for my column.  One morning we drove to school in dense fog with low visibility.  (I sound like a weather girl.)  I utilized the defrost several times and my wipers to seemingly wipe away some of the moisture.  After we made the curve by the high school, my daughter asked if I would please hit the wipers again.  She says I make her nervous on that corner. Whatever!   

I tapped the wipers again.  We immediately had a clear view, and I had a lightbulb moment.  My kids were barely awake, but they got a lesson anyway.  I said “SEE, that foggy, unclear, obstructed view was like your life without Jesus.  Our perfectly clear view now is like your life with Jesus Christ.”  I got a yawn or two, not an Amen, but I was okay with that and quite accustomed to it at this point. 

Another possible theme hit me yesterday when we pruned the rose bushes.  You gardening experts please do not judge me if it is not time yet.  I think we skipped it last year and the bushes were becoming trees and threatening to take over the house.  My husband trimmed, manicured, cut them back…really he butchered them. 

He also worked on my lavender bush.  It was massive, probably a world record winner.  He said everything needed to be cut back and to have some room to breathe and grow.  I had my next “AH-HA” moment.

I thought about all of the things that have been “cut” back or cut out of my life.   I mean taken out in a positive way.  Maybe we are more able to breathe too, just like the plants, when allow some pruning and cut some of the junk, worries, attitudes, habits, and useless activities.  John 15:2 says “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  You see, cutting and pruning is good! 

Today though I had to let these topics move into the background of my mind because something else took center stage.  When I heard the familiar Christmas story presented through an amazing drama at church, it seemed new.  Luke 2:7 says “And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” 

I pondered the fact that there was no room for HIM at the inn.  It is so easy for us to hear the story and think that they must have had a room, a better place than the barn for the young expectant mother?  I mean really…couldn’t they make room for Jesus, couldn’t they make room for any mom about to give birth?  Duh! I silently sat in my pew with a row full of kids and applied that thought to my life as our Pastor seemingly perfectly stressed the fact that there was NO ROOM! 

I have invited Jesus into the “room” so to speak of my heart, but do I really have room for Jesus day in and day out in my own life?  Can I make MORE room for Jesus?  What is in the way, what crowds Him out?  If there anything more important than HIM, I am missing out on so much. 

Before the first gift is unwrapped, take some time and reflect about what you make room for in life.  If there is not room in your life for Jesus and if He is not first, you very well may have a day marked on your calendar as Christmas, but you may be missing out on CHRISTmas.   

 

 

 

 

I Surrender ALL?

I remember the exact day I heard a strong and Godly woman say that she refused to sing the hymn “I Surrender All.”   I looked up to her so much and just could not imagine why she couldn’t proclaim in song that she was giving it all to the LORD.  I asked her why.  She said that she had given her heart to Jesus and surrendered so much in life, but if she was honest, she had not given HIM it ALL.  Therefore, to sing that song would be a lie.  I gave it some thought and since have found myself humming to it, but holding back. 

However, there is a song that I do not hold back on one bit.  I will belt it out!  I did today, and I do often.  It is “I need Thee every hour.”  The chorus says “I need thee, O I need thee; every hour I need thee; O bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.” 

In the past few weeks, I celebrated my 16^th wedding anniversary, my son turned 13, and my daughter I is now one year away from driving and holding strong at 15.  My hubby had a birthday thrown in the middle too, but we are at the point that I will omit the details of his age.  I reflected on each event and especially on my daughter’s birthday because she was my first born.

I was so clueless when I had her, as we all are!  No matter how many nights you have been hired out to babysit or even if your whole entire profession and college degree has been dedicated to children, you are equally awestruck and incompetent at the moment the doctor places in your arms YOUR newborn, your flesh and blood.  No book, no experience, NO nothing prepares you for that moment. 

Wow, it nearly makes me tear up just thinking about it because I was so scared.  Part of the fear came from the fact that God, knowing the mess that I quite often made of my own life, would trust me with another one.  From that moment on, I began changing.  I was in need.     

When my nurse Pat wheeled me down to the parking lot at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, I truly knew that from that moment on, it was not just about me.  I was in need. 

I tried for a few more years on my own to do it on my own and even added a second child into the mix.  I knew something was missing in my life.  It was my salvation.  I believed, had been raised in church, and prayed often, but I had never invited Jesus into my heart. 

At first, I am embarrassed to say that I thought of Christ as my personal Genie in a bottle and that was the depth of our relationship.  I needed Him and asked Him to help.  HE often DID.   Like in the song, “O bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.”  I had kids running around, a job, and a husband not happy with his own job, bills to pay, and a house to keep clean. 

On my daughter’s birthday though last week, it occurred to me that a lot about my relationship with Jesus has changed.  The change is not due to my hard work or will power.  (I have none.)  The change is because instead of needing a Genie, I have learned that I need a LORD.  My needs have disappeared and my desire to know Jesus more has grown.  It has less and less to do with what He can do for me and more about who He is.  He is peace, love, joy, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, my Rock, my Redeemer, my BFF, my Father, my Savior, my Counselor, my King, He is Christmas.  Do you need Him?

 

Silence

Thanksgiving Break is upon us.  Last night we had a rare evening where all six of us were in the same house and in the same room.  We watched the Dallas Cowboy game, flipped to other uneventful shows during the commercials and took breaks to get up and get a few things done. 

At one point on a break, I got up to do the dishes.  I was talking across the room while I did them, probably about the most amazing catch I had ever seen by Odell Beckman Jr.  There were two other conversations going on at the same time about deer hunting, Christmas lists, and what we were going to do this week.  My husband, who has to work, just sat in his chair with a puzzled look on his face.  I caught his eye when I looked up at my daughter to focus on what she was saying to me back across the room. 

At that point, my husband in a quiet voice, so quiet and calm that it was a miracle we even heard him, said “Everyone in this house is talking at once….I think I am going to bed.”  He did not leave us, but sure did make us laugh as usual because it was true. I am fully accustomed to the noise. It is normal to me; however, it was borderline too much for him. 

Last week I had to administer a benchmark STARR test.  Our campus tries to assimilate the “real” test so it really is a super duper silent environment.  I wonder if the silence is a distraction really.  It is so oddly quiet and so different from anything that we are used to.

I journaled about it later.  I wrote “Silence…it is really an odd thing.  It is even really possible in the year of 2014…with technology?  How often are we really silent? I mean not just from noise, but also from any handheld device that we are reading and scrolling through just for fun?  Maybe silence today needs to be defined and include both the ears not hearing anything and the brain not doing anything.  The Lord is sometimes silent too.  Silence is really odd, but OKAY.”

Silence is contrary to how most of us live today, but I think it matters because of the verse that says “Be still and know that I am God” from Psalms 46:10. That verse tells me that silence is a MUST!  It is an absolute.  How can we hear from the quiet, still voice of the Holy Spirit living in us if we never allow ourselves to be quiet and still? (I bet the devil loves the distracting world we live in)   

Maybe when we make our to-do list for the holiday season, silence and quiet time should be on the list and at the top of everyday!  How else can we navigate through this crazy life without knowing and hearing the voice of the Lord?  He speaks through His Word, prayer, in nature, and sometimes He even speaks to us in silence.

I once heard a statement made by a preacher that I have never forgotten.  He said that a teacher is silent during a test and that the Lord too can sometimes be silent during a test with his students, meaning us!  If you are quiet and ready to hear from the Lord during this season and you feel like He is silent, that is OK.  Hold onto what you know is true! He is there.  He is your teacher.

Christmas season for me does not begin with Black Friday, it begins with a celebration in the quietness of my own heart because I have been given a gift.  The gift is the greatest relationship I will ever have. It began with the birth of Jesus and knowing that daily I can be STILL AND KNOW that He is God.   You have been given the gift too.  Have you accepted it?  

 

SMH

I use a few abbreviations that have been created since the world of texting.  I like the ring of LOL, laugh out loud.   I have also been known to say SMH, which stands for shaking my head, but I have never used it as a text because I am way too old for that! 

Oh Man, I do shake my head often with my family.  I shook it so hard last week that I thought it might fall off when my youngest daughter asked if Angelina Jolie was the one who sang “Jolene.”  For those of you who did not follow country music, in 1973 “Jolene” was a song written and performed that year by Dolly Parton.  Yes, SMH at her question!  I could see her connection, but had to break it to her that Angelina Jolie was not the singer of that song.      

SMH came up too this week when my oldest daughter had me turn around on the way home to go back and see the biggest hog she had ever seen. She had her brothers so excited that they were hanging out of the windows.  We creeped up on it.  I turned on the hazards and bright lights at this point because we were in the ditch.  She even said she did not know for sure if it was alive or dead, just BIG, that that dialed up the anticipation a notch.  When we got right up on it, it was a SMH moment because the massive black hog she had spotted was a massive black trash bag left on the side of FM 488. 

I had one more SMH moment, in a whole different manner, when I started on Life Principle #16 in my Bible Study by Charles Stanley last week.  It began with a verse from Ezekiel 25: 6-7 “Whatever you acquire outside of God’s will eventually turns to ashes.”  I honestly did not want to read on because they title was so convicting, but I did.  

Two pages later, the lesson ended with two of my favorite verses.  Dr. Stanley used Psalms 37:4.  It says “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”  The other one that I love and that he closed with was Psalms 16:11 “You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence.” 

I was SMH…How can desires of your heart, JOY, the presence of the LORD, and stuff turning into ashes all tie in?  I reread the lesson and was blown away with a depth found in my two favorite verses that I had never discovered before. 

When we delight ourselves in the LORD, we spend time with Him and we know Him.  When we are in His presence, we talk to Him and become more like Him.  As a result of a closer relationship with Him, we change what we pray for and what we ask for.  Our thoughts and desires line up more with His Kingdom work than with this temporary earth and with our own desires of the flesh. 

This earth will all fade one day and turn to ashes.  It all did make sense.  I stopped shaking my head and was thankful that I know when I delight myself in the LORD, He will give me the desires of my heart because my desires will line up with HIS.  This week make time to get in the presence of the LORD.  He will join you in your classroom, in your car, in your living room, in the deer stand, and anywhere else that you invite Him. 

REDO

This week wrapped up October. November blew in and the start of deer season began. I can scan my living room as we speak and spot piles of camo.  The “walkie talkies” are lined up on the bar like they are ready to spring into action at any moment when someone ventures out into the woods and needs a communication device.  I have one that stays here.  I guess I am the base station.   

It was also a week of “redos” here in our home because Friday happened to be the end of the six week.  My boys got lax about week four of the six weeks.  I checked Parent Portal, the online system for FISD teachers to post grades and parents to check them, on a regular basis like it was on speed dial in my cell phone.  The overall conclusion at the beginning of last week was that they had turned in some sloppy work, needed to seriously review before six weeks test began, and hopefully get a few grades up! 

In everyday language, they both just needed a “redo” in a few areas.  This “redo” session was not voluntary.  It was mandatory session mandated by none other than me.   Session one with Monico #3 was at the bar rewriting a book summary and using the rubric to make sure he had covered the required information.  It also included a math lesson on the importance of lining up numbers exactly as they should be and writing them neat enough so that none of the digits disguised themselves as other numbers.  You know 7 and 9 are closely related in the hands of a little boy who would rather hold a football than a pencil.  It is amazing how much more successful you can be when math is done neat and there is a difference in your grade when a teacher asks for four sentences and you actually give her four.  It was a successful “redo.”

The same night I had a “redo” session with Monico kiddo #2 to work step by step through a math review.  We had to rework a few problems and make sure that he understood everything that would probably make its way on the six weeks test.  We also had to “redo” a few papers for a higher grade. 

I was thankful as the grade monitoring mother that they both received a second chance.  I was also glad they had a chance to “redo” the work so that this time they could fully grasp the concepts and get it right!  Right about the time I poured an early evening cup of coffee to keep me going, I realized that I too was thankful for “redos” in life…I mean more than with homework too. 

If we are all honest, every day is a “redo.”  We all fail.  We all sin.  We let down those around us and most of the time we let ourselves down.  God sees it all, and offers us a plan of forgiveness. Jesus Christ came to earth, lived, and died to give us a “redo.”  He is the author of second chances.  It is called grace.  There will be consequences along the way, but the desire of our Father is that we will get it right and live without the burden of sin weighing us down. 

I love Paul’s words in Acts 3:19 when he wrote “Repent then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”  All we have to do is repent and turn to God.  He will wipe out our sins and gladly give us a “redo” because He wants us to get it right!  I will start off my list of things I am thankful for this month with the word “redo” and then I will write the word GRACE. 

Trucking

I had an interesting ride on the way home from Dallas last week.  I looked normal, wore the same sunglasses, listened to the same station, and kept the same speed as usual using my cruise to help me manage my heavy foot. However, my mind was not normal because it was totally going “somewhere.”

Where was my mind?  It was on 18 wheelers.  My brother in law is in the process of buying one, so I had to check out what was on the market for him.  I am sure his research was complete some time ago on what make and model to buy, but I was on a mission to find the best looking rig on the road.  My Dad trained me early about big trucks and I used to watch for them all the time.  I must admit it had been a while. My conclusion was that there are some nice rigs, Smokey and the Bandit will live on forever, and maybe life with CB radios was better than life with cell phones. 

On that trip, I looked intently for something and I found it.  That can happen with a whole lot more than big trucks on I-45 too.   Last week when I was cleaning up the house for the week, I looked for my blessings, for the things I was thankful for instead of the obvious mess!  I was grateful for the shoes my son lined up on his floor in the middle of his room.  I was grateful for the wadded up math problem that should have been appropriately placed in the trashcan.  I smiled when I sucked up a fake nail or two, or three in the vacuum.  I was even thankful for the dustpans of dirt and bottle of 409 I had to squirt in large quantities on my kitchen counters.  Why the sudden burst of enthusiasm for cleaning?  It came because before I began I decided to look for the joy and blessings in the mess!  I looked, I found, and I gave thanks!

This week many in Fairfield are also looking to take care of some “Unfinished Business” on the football field.  The band wants to march longer, cheerleaders cheer, and coaches coach!  I can still do a few cheers and do so often just to impress my kids, but I am not skilled in football by any means. I will not offer any insight into plays or positions. I will say that if though that if you are looking for a victory, your chances of finding it are way better than if you are not looking for one at all.  Look high, dig deep, be intentional on and off of the field, and give thanks along the way! 

I don’t know what you need to find this week.  If it is a better attitude or a win, then look for the opportunity to have one.  If you are looking for more family time, you will probably find it.  If you are looking for better food choices, your chances of finding it are way better than if you are looking for the next Snickers.  If you are looking for an “A” or a project to get completed, you will most likely end up with that accomplished if you are looking.  Remember to give thanks along the way. 

If you are looking for a closer relationship with the LORD, you will find it because you will look for Him in all of the little things throughout your day.  Never stop talking to Him and looking for Him.  Keep communication open at all times!  Jesus is with you at the meeting, in the car, and when you lay your head down at night.   Start and end your day with this from 1 Chronicles 16:34 “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”  It is a guarantee:  Look for the LORD and you will find Him.