Gentleness  

Tuesday




"power under control"






Now I know what Gentleness is. What in the world is this power I am trying to control? Christ understood the power that was in him. Do we, as modern day Christians, understand the power we claim to be inheritors of (Hebrews 9:14-15)?


Unfortunately, I know very few people that truly live powerful lives. I wonder if our faith has been so watered down that we no longer understand what it all means for us. Early in my belief, I knew I needed Christ to live my life to its full potential. I knew that without Him, my life didn't have purpose. I still know why I have Christ in my life but I don't think I live it to all of the full potential intended by God.


Now, I don't think I am suppose to be going around trying to do super-spiritual things everyday. I believe God uses my everyday life to be one of His examples in our world. I do question some of my intent. I can't say that I spend each day going out making a difference for the Kingdom. I certainly don't go about sharing the power that lives inside me. I wonder how life would change for me and the people around me if I could boldly go through my routines with the power of Christ guiding my intentions, WOW....What if through gentleness with my children, spouse and friends people saw the power I have in my life? What if I truly started to understand that the power in me is the same as the power that rose Christ from the dead?


Romans 8:9-11(msg) But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

Just Peachy (Family challenge)

Teaching Gentleness to children can be extremely difficult. Especially if you have toddlers. Peaches are one of the yummiest fruits out there but they bruise with the slightest mishandling. Buy a few peaches this week and share them with your kids, maybe hand one to your youngest child to see if they are gentle with it or not.

While eating your peaches over some ice cream or covered in cream, talk to your kids about the importance of gentleness. Explain how people we love are a little like peaches and that our words and our actions can bruise them much easier than we expect them to.

The entire point of these family challenges is to get you talking with your children. Regardless of where your conversations will lead, you are leading your family in the ways of our Father. Teaching His values in simple situations will create a desire in your children to mimic those behaviors.

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Posted in , by Angela |

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Faithfulness  

Monday

Have a little Faith in me.

I don't know if you need it but I do. I need to know someone believes in me. I need to know someone will stand by me. I need to know that wherever I go and whatever mistakes I make that someone has faith in me.

Believe I can do it when I don't believe I can.

Believe I am worth it when I don't see my value.

Believe I deserve love when I can't earn it.

Believe I can do right when all I do is wrong.

Believe I have strength when I only feel weak.

Believe I have courage when all I feel is fear.

Believe I am forgivable when I can't forgive.

Believe I am worth the sacrifice He made when I can't find the faith to believe I am.






On more than one occasion I have had conversations with people that were in the process of finding faith. Many have more in common than you may think. Most have the same insecurities. More than you realize don't believe they are worth the love God wants to give them. Too many are trying to make up for what they have done by attempting to earn their salvation.


Grace is a hard gift to grasp if you don't believe anyone should love you.


What does this all have to do with Faithfulness? As a believer in the Savior Jesus Christ, I know the sacrifice (John 3:16-17) that was made for me. I know my God is faithful (Psalm 100) and even when I am weak (Romans 7:14-25) He will pick me up. I have faith and in response to God's grace, I am faithful. Not just faithful to Him but to all of His creation.


Let me be honest here, I like your bumper stickers and your Jesus pins but how is your faith being lived out in your life. People need you, a follower of Christ, to step out and be faithful to all of humanity. No matter how much it may hurt. People need you to believe in them before they can believe in themselves or have faith in a God that they can't see. We all need someone to tell us we are worthy of the sacrifice before we believe it ourselves.


It wasn't that long ago that someone was faithful to me. Loved me, believed in me and took all the hurt I could throw at them. I disappointed and fell short of every expectation. I wasn't there when I should have been and I couldn't love back the way they deserved to be loved. Still, they believed in me. This was one of the first Christians I knew and they saved my life.


Be willing to give of yourself, faithfully, to someone that may reject you. In God's eyes they are just as worthy of His love as you are. This means stepping out of your boundaries, be vulnerable and be prepared for sacrifice.


Hard Shell (Family Challange)


Keeping with the whole fruit thing, this week pick out something with a hard shell on it to eat while discussing faithfulness. Maybe a coconut or pineapple. This will make a good example about how sometimes it is hard to keep our promises to people, but when we do we get to enjoy the fruit of our hard work.


Faithfulness starts with learning to keep our promises. Talk to your children about their promises. If they have siblings remind them that by being a brother or sister that they promise love and kindness to each other every day. If they have pets; talk about the responsibility they have to feed and care for their animal. Their pet relies on their faithfulness to survive. Talk about the importance of good friendship and being an honest and trustworthy person.


Don't forget to talk about the promises God keeps to us........


And remember that you are the example of Faithfulness to your children. Do you keep your promises? Do you believe in them when the rest of the world doesn't?



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Goodness  

Tuesday

It wasn't that long ago that I thought Ted and I were living a good life. We were good people. We didn't break the law or hurt other people. We had a decent marriage and a beautiful baby girl. Good friends to spend time with. Middle class, keeping up with the Jones', going with the motions of the everyday. Ted wasn't a Christian. I was somewhere between having accepted my salvation and not truly living in the freedom I had been given.


Nick was right when he said that good people are the hardest to reach. If you would have asked me then if I though I needed to live a "better" life, I probably would have thought you were silly. Ted would have been insulted and listed off the myriad of accomplishments that make him a wonderful provider. We were very intentional in our goodness. Making sure our families and friends knew we were living right.


Just a few short months after Madi had celebrated her second birthday, there was a terrible accident in Ted's family. His cousin lost her little girl in a terrible accident. She was on life support for a few days as the family had to decide the best care for her. She passed away on Christmas day, about 3 months before her 4th birthday.


K's death hit me like a ton of bricks. We use to take our girls to tea together. Being a young mother myself I just wanted to hold Madi that much closer and protect her from everything. Some things in this life don't have explanations. Some things happen for reasons we don't understand. It was difficult to comfort J. I felt even worse bringing Madi with me as a reminder of what was missing in her life.


I have been to a few memorial services in my life but I have never, even to this day, seen anything like little K's funeral. There were so many people that the large Lutheran church was full out to the foyer. People that all knew K. It was amazing. Everyone shared stories of her life, of her joy. Ted and I were sitting towards the back and watching how everyone was interacting and comforting J and her family. This was their home church. Their family. Closer to them than Ted and I were.


One person after another spoke about how K had done something to bring them joy. They talked about her faith. They shared her struggles. A young lady from her dance class came and performed K's favorite dance, to her favorite song. In a room that should have truly been filled with sorrow, there was a light. People just seemed to know that K was an amazing little girl and had changed peoples lives.


She changed my life that day. After seeing what God could do in a few short years of a child life, I wondered what He could do with mine. There had to be more to the everyday "goodness" I was living because I wasn't doing anything to change anything. I had no purpose to my goodness other then to (let me be honest here) be better than everyone else.


We started taking an Introduction to Christianity class at a local church and ended up with some serious reevaluating to do. I realized that God didn't see me and all my goodness any different then he saw the thief at the local jail. All of my good works were going to get me nothing.


Learning to live right for the right reasons. It is a hard lesson to swallow. Especially when you think you already have the good life figured out.


Luke 6: 42-45 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
"For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.
"For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.
"The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

Pomegranate Goodness (Family Challenge)

On Sunday, Nick talked about how healthy fruit bears seeds so that the plant can reproduce. One of the greatest seed bearing fruits is the Pomegranate. An average fruit has over 600 seeds in it. It is also the only part of the Pomegranate that most people eat.

Okay, so go to the store and get yourself a Pomegranate. It makes a great visual. Talk to your family about how the good fruit from one good tree can produce up to 600 more good trees. Talk about ways that each of those "good" seeds can be planted. Be sure to talk to your children about the source of their Goodness, our Savior Jesus. He is the only source of food, light and living water for our fruit.

Have fun.

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Kindness  



John 15:1,4,5
1"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
4"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
5"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

If I am not connected to Jesus, I am not connected to our Father. If I am not connected to Jesus, there is no fruit. As a society we like to make a list of all we should, would and could do. We even restrict the Fruit in our lives to acts. Paul tells us in Galatians 5 that our fruit comes from a response of walking with the Spirit in our lives. I don't know when kindness became a to-do list. Kindness is a part of who we are.
Our Savior died so that we all may be saved. Every man, women and child that you get mad at, frustrated with and look down on deserves a relationship with Christ. Can you look them in the face and tell them they don't deserve your kindness? If you and I abide in our Savior, we will bare fruit. Our identity now lies with Christ. Kindness is now part of my Character. It is who I am. It is who you are. You are kind. Do not deny those that need the fruit of our Savior the most. Give it freely as it is freely given to you. Be intentional in your kindness and give it away.



Fruit Salad (Family Challenge)
Have your oldest child write a list of the Fruit of the Spirit. If they need help have them look up Galatians 5.
Now, load up your car full of children and go to the local grocery story. In the produce section, take your list of "Fruit" and have your children alternate picking out the "Fruit". (ie say love, child picks out strawberries). Don't tell your children which fruit to pick unless someone has allergies.
This part requires more family participation and discussion: Have everyone help prepare a fruit salad. Find out why they chose the fruit they did. Show them how some need to be peeled, cut an apple in half, sideways, and show them the star in the middle. Make this a memory that will remind them of how beautiful the fruit of our lives can be.
Enjoy a great salad with your family. May the Fruit of your lives be abundant.

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Patience  

Thursday

































I can be a bit of a control freak. When things don't seem to be going exactly as I have envisioned, I can get a little temperamental. I have been known to be a little like Simon Peter, cut off the ear ask questions later. Unfortunately by not taking time to listen and be patient I end up apologizing a lot, especially to my children.

Sometimes when life is in the middle of its hectic schedules and responsibilities it is hard to see all of the options. It is easy to get tunnel vision and try to control everything to fit that picture. The ability to slow down or even stop becomes so much of an effort that it isn't part of the plan. There isn't time for patience. Before you know it, everything is out of control. Your schedule is so crammed with your to-do lists that even your daily planner is going to revolt. When did a 15 minute delay in our lives become long suffering?

Thank God that He is patient with us. When we are in the middle of all of the craziness and don't know what to do and finally call on His Name, He is listening.

Psalm 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. 3He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the LORD.

When I read this Psalm I picture God picking me up out of the chaos. Chaos that I created. In life I seem to be throwing punches, screaming at the world and then I finally break down. When He pulls me out of my own pit, I see things more clearly. I see Him more clearly. Patience is knowing it will happen (God's promises) and giving it time to. I struggle with the time part. When we wait God can work. When we fill our time with our deeds and our control issues, there isn't space for God to do his work.

Planting seeds of patience. (Family Challenge)
Get your family involved in learning about patience. Find out what you can do in your lives to learn to rely first on God, resting in Him, and then making choices for your family. I challenge you to list the top 5 time stealer's in your home, replace one of them with God.

Get a little creative with you kids and teach them and yourself the beauty of patience.
You need:

  • Dixie cups
  • potting soil
  • seeds (pick five or six different kinds) If you look at the back of the seed packet it will tell you how long it will be before you see a plant. Try and find things that are fast and slow.

Plant your seeds in the Dixie cups and water them occasionally. Wait and watch them grow. Learn to appreciate that God's amazing creativity can make something as simple as a seed, truly beautiful with nourishment and time.

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