Teach Them

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)

Over Thanksgiving, we had a lot of family around. We gathered one evening for a meal and were called together to pray. I was holding my great-niece (that makes me a great aunt!). As we stood in a circle and bowed our heads, I looked at her out of the corner of my eye.

She was tilting her head, straining to see around me and was looking at all the adults praying. She was so curious to see what everyone was doing. Now, I know she’s seen people pray before and I know she is being taught to pray but can you imagine what she was learning from watching this?

Was she looking at her extended family giving thanks to God and filing it away? Was she curious that everyone was joining in on this activity? Was she somewhere in her mind filing away that we bow before our Creator God and give thanks? Was she becoming aware that her family believes in giving thanks to Jesus?

As I pondered this, I remembered the today’s Bible verse and one other.

18 “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. Deuteronomy 11:18-21 (NLT)

Teach them in with your words but more importantly, in your actions and in every single thing you do. Teach them. They watch everything we do and will learn more from our actions than from anything else.

For Everything

Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (HCSB)

This morning, I woke up feeling a little overwhelmed by a “thing” that is in my life. I decided, since it was Thanksgiving, I was going to sit down and write a list of everything I was thankful for. As I started to write, I quickly realized, there was no way I could get this list done in one sitting. There were too many people, too many events, too many ways God speaks. It was an amazing moment.

Then, I decided that since I wasn’t going to be able to write it down, I would say it. Today, I am going to tell everyone I see that I am thankful for them.

You try it. What are you thankful for today? Even if there is a trouble in your life, there are still things to be thankful for. Write it down. And then, share the love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Different Day - Different Mercy

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3;22-23 (ESV)

As we enter into the Thanksgiving season, I’ve been thinking of things I am thankful for. One of them is relayed in this text.

Think about it. God’s mercies are new every morning. This word chadash is defined as new, new thing, fresh. I personally am really happy about this. Some mornings, I need mercies because I am grumpy and not being considerate of other people. Some mornings, I am way too busy and distracted and don’t do what God is asking me to do. Other days, I am worrying and not trusting God for things I know he is going to handle (because he promises he will.)

Each day when I open my eyes, I will need a new, fresh, different mercy than I did the day before. Each day, I will need to be forgiven differently than previous days (or even hours.) Great is his faithfulness.

Every moment of every day we receive his mercy. We receive his unconditional love and his grace. We don’t deserve it. We can’t earn it. It is a gift.  

This stretches my mind and leans heavily into my heart. It produces gratitude and love. This is definitely something for which I give thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Readjusting My Worship

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?” Matthew 6:24-25 (NLT)

You know sometimes I can be a little slow in reading the Bible and tying together what God is telling me but the other day, as I listened to these verses, I had a revelation. It’s always made sense to me that you can’t serve money and God. Money will almost always win. Money is not bad but we have a really hard time with our love of money and the life we can live if we have it.

I get that. But this time I heard the connection between worrying about things and the connection to money. Jesus says “You can’t have two masters. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” Then he goes on to say “That is why I tell you not to worry.” Wait. What?

What do the two have to do with each other? Then this tiny little thought started forming in my brain (Thank you, Holy Spirit). If I am worried about everyday life, about how the bills are going to be paid, how the car will be fixed, what is going to happen if I lose my job, I am worrying about money.

My focus suddenly shifts from God will provide to I must provide. I must have enough money to answer all of these questions. I must figure out how I am going to get the money to take care of life.

Notice two things. First, the primary person in charge in these sentences is me, not God. Second, I have shifted my concerns from living my life in a way that glorifies God to living my life to take care of me (not others). One usurps the other.

When we worry about these things, we are basically not trusting God to do what he said he would do, provide. Our complete focus needs to be on trusting that he is there and he will take care of it. It is super easy to slip into worry mode. I know it is for me. But when I go down that path, I need to stop, remember who God is and how much he loves me. I need to readjust my worship.

A Minute In It - Only One Thing

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the text below and then answer the questions at the bottom of the post.

17 As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. 19 But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’”

20 “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

21 Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22 At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Mark 10:17-27 (NLT)

What was the man looking for when he came to Jesus?
Why did Jesus ask him to sell everything?
What did Jesus see in the man that the man did not see about himself?
What in your life would be hard to give up to go all in for Jesus?

Hard Is Good

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NLT)

I know a woman. We’ll call her Kate for anonymity purposes. A couple of years ago, she had a stroke. As you can imagine, this turned her world upside down. The stroke was pretty bad and she’s spent considerable time recovering and getting her life back on track.

Recently, we had a huge event at our church. During the event, we feed somewhere between 150 and 200 people. Kate was in charge of the food. She’s held this role before and she’s really good at it. This time, I was in the facility kitchen trying to be helpful (hospitality is not one of my gifts so I am not kidding when I say I was trying to be helpful). As I was watching the chaos in the kitchen, I noticed Kate.

The stroke impacted her walking a little bit. She’s worked really hard to get things to function exactly as they did before but there is still a tiny hint that there is more healing to be done. As she moved about the kitchen, I noticed this. And then, I noticed that it didn’t slow her down one bit. She kept moving.

You see, Kate’s desire is to serve God. She wants to be used by him for his glory. And while she would have every reason to say “Sorry, I can’t help with that”, she doesn’t. She signs up and digs in and trusts that God is going to help her get the job done.

My respect for Kate grew immensely that day. We are so quick to make excuses for why we can’t do what God calls us to do. We look at things and think they are hard so that gives us an out. I think that should inspire us to push on that hard to open door and run through it!

It’s through the really hard stuff that God is glorified the most. When we can do it on our own, we are glorifying ourselves. When we can’t, we are glorifying God.

I want to be more like Kate. I want to face the hard stuff head on and say “God, you’ve got this. Let’s do this thing!” How about you? What really hard thing are you facing today that needs God in the middle of it?

Silence Can Be Golden

For God does speak—now one way, now another— though no one perceives it. Job 33:14 (NIV)

It’s been some time since I’ve written in Thought for the Day. You see a long time ago when I started this, I promised myself that if God didn’t give me something to write, I wasn’t going to post. I never wanted this ministry to be about what I thought. I wanted the Holy Spirit to be the one leading, not me. I knew that if God wasn’t leading, the thoughts would become watered down with my human thoughts.

Back toward the end of September, the thoughts starting coming less frequently. There were days I got an idea of something to write about but, I was not impressed to post it.

As I’ve looked back on this time and prayed about it, a few ideas struck me.

First, God has still been talking. He’s been talking about a journey we are walking right now. He is talking to me on a regular basis about some personal things. As I prayed about the fact that I have not been feeling called to write each day, I’ve asked God “What’s up? Am I too distracted? Is there something messed up in my hearing? My motivation?” After lots of praying about this, I don’t think so.

Last night, as I lay in bed and talked to God about it some more, one thought did cross my mind. The fact that God is silent where my writing is concerned and that we are still talking, just about different subjects, is very much a relationship.

Sometimes, even when you are very close to someone, you don’t always talk about everything that needs to be said. You don’t always talk about everything that is on your mind. Sometimes, there is silence. And let’s face it. God is God. He can talk when and where he wants.

It would be really dangerous for me to assume that he is always going to react and speak exactly how I want him to. Just like I should never expect that from my husband or any other close friend, I certainly should never assume with God.

What I will do though, is acknowledge that he is the leader in this relationship and that if he wants to be silent, so be it. I will follow in that silence and wait. Because when he speaks, it will definitely be worth it.

How Much?

17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:17-19 (NLT)

The other day I got to spend time with my grandsons. This is my favorite thing to do! Some of the family had gathered for breakfast. As we were leaving, I was carrying my oldest grandson and I said “Do you know how much I love you?”

He got this big, huge smile on his face and threw his arms out wide! I hugged him tight and said “That’s right! I love you so very much!”

It made me think of God. He is saying to us all the time “Do you know how much I love you?”

Our response should be to get a big, huge smile on our faces and throw our arms open as wide as we can and say with assurance “Why yes! Yes, I do!”