Good

We all know how to be good...but do we choose to be good all the time? If you're like me, I'd admit a big, fat "NO" to that question. Thinking of my kids, they were good most of the time, but other times, not so much. My youngest boy would tattle on himself when he was in elementary school. He used to feel guilty, I guess, and confess every little detail about his day. He knew he wasn't good and wanted us to know before we found out some other way. This "phase" didn't last long. Haha.

It's impossible to be good all the time. We are sinners.....rotten to the core. Even when we know Jesus....we are still sinners....just forgiven ones. Our sin nature never leaves us. However.....if you're  born again....we do become more aware of it and don't fall into the temptations as easily as we used to. We now have a new nature that makes us want to please God above self. Repentance of our sin needs to be an ongoing thing in our walk with our God.

Romans 8:28 has been a "go to" verse for me over the past few years. I've had some struggles and this verse is comforting to me. It tells us that....we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
All things......my job, my family, my relationships, my church, my Bible reading, my book choices, my tv shows, the music I like, my frustrations, the people I interact with who aren't so lovely, my temptations, my bad choices, the accident I had a few months ago, my kids moving away and coming back, my son graduating this year.......I could go on and on.....But all these things work for good.

Here's the kicker. Things we go through may not seem good to us, but our God IS good. He determines what is good.....not us. Since he is good and allows us to go through things.....we have to trust it's all in his good sovereign will. He determines what we need to go through to sanctify us, or to make us more like Jesus. It's funny how we have no problem acknowledging God when things are "good" in our human way of thinking. However when things aren't so good in our way of thinking, we lose hope and our trust goes out the window. God wants us to trust Him through it all. It's like he's saying "I got this".....just give me glory anyway. We have to.....he's God. He's our creator, he's our deliverer, he's our savior, he's our EVERYTHiNG! All he wants from us is His glory and if he doesn't get lifted up by us.....he will be recognized by His creation for how awesome He is. He is that GOOD.....all the time!

Christmas

With Christmas on a Sunday this year.....and I have off this year as well....it will be special. The day will start with worship with my church family. Then to my parents for family time with my biological family. What a blessing to have so many to spend such a special day with!

I know the day will be full of love and gift giving......but i feel there is a lot we miss. When my kids were small we would read the Christmas story from Luke 2 before the any presents were opened. Our kids were so good. They sat patiently as my husband read the story to them. They all payed attention and showed respect for God. Looking back it was beautiful to watch and know my family had unity in Jesus at those moments. We would then all pray and sing "happy birthday" to Jesus. Makes my choke up now just thinking about it......but we can't stay in the past. My kids needed to grow up. They needed to move on with their own lives......but it's nice to be able to remember.

Last year (2015) was a year of big changes for us. My husbands health isn't the best and has ongoing things he's dealing with physically. With no extra money to spend on anyone.....I decided to write heart felt letters to my brother and my parents. The reaction of all of them wasn't what I expected. The whole room was in tears......oh my. I felt so bad. This year I've done something else for all 10 people in my family. Im hoping they all like it. I'm hoping that even though I have no money to spend, they will know they are loved and appreciated.

I've learned over the past 2 years that material things aren't "all that". We've owned houses and cars and motorcycles. After losing all those things, it's not upsetting, but a blessing. I've learned that we don't need any of those things. We don't need to go through this short life saying we were a homeowner or had many cars that were paid off.......we need to be humble people who appreciate what God lets us use while we live here. I've also made it a mission to let people know how I feel about them. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed.....neither is the next 5 minutes. I want people to always know how I feel about them.....just incase it's our last conversation or encounter. I write a lot down, I blog, and keep tons of notes. I'm preparing for my kids one day to take my legacy and use it well for Jesus. My prayer is that one day they will take all I leave them and use it all......and add to it, all for Gods glory.

Christmases at our house are always special.....with or without a bunch of gifts. How could they not be when your family is alive and well and full of love for one another? My prayer for everyone  this Christmas is that if you don't know who the baby was that laid in the manger......and later hung on a cross.....ask a pastor, or another Christian, or me......it's that important. In fact it's the only decision in this life that will affect the next.

Diagnosis

A few weeks ago I went for a test. The results of that test led to further tests....which resulted in removing things from my body that shouldn't have been there. I needed a procedure to remove them. As I lay in the table to get these things removed, I had to be real still. I couldn't move anything for at least 20 minutes. Let me tell you that I am usually one to have a book or my phone in my hand. I read a lot of articles and my Bible time is precious, but this particular time I couldn't have any of that.

So....my options were for this short period of time (that felt like hours) was to either close my eyes or stare at a white wall. Actually I did both.....on and off. But, while I was laying there it was just me and God. I had an opportune time to just rest in him as I was being cut and poked. I was able to tell him all kinds of things and ask for protection. I was able to just be still and recognize He is my God. I was able to just fully rely on His soverignety. I didn't need anyone but Him in that moment.

As I left after the procedure, I began to replay all this in my head. I was alone......in my mind and even though other people were working on me, I was by myself. No one was on the table with me......no one working there was able to feel what I was feeling at that moment. But, the realization of God allowing all these series of events to come into action in my life just blew me away. The way he taught me in that moment on that table to be still ( literally cause I did move my hand and got in trouble) was something I may not have got to learn had all this not taken place. I wouldn't have that that opportunity to sense His presence with me as they did what needed done. Yes, I can spend time with God at my home or church or work, but this was different. It was a blessing I wouldn't have been able to get had I been "healthy".

Waiting on the diagnosis......wasn't too difficult. I have grown to learn that the body we have on this earth is Gods. Everything belongs to Him. If he is letting me use this body for my short time on earth and it's His.....why get all wound up? If it belongs to Him he can do with it what he sees fit. That's my perspective. If he chooses to allow things to grow there that don't belong, thats his perogative. In this instance.....he allowed me to get a negative diagnosis.....which is wonderful. Down the road, it may be different, and I know whatever comes my way will have to be ok. I'm not saying I will always handle things properly or with acceptance right off the bat.....but only He knows what lies before us and how He will be glorified through it.

We all have a terminal diagnosis...... It's called sin. We all are destined for Hell unless we repent of our sin and ask Jesus to save us. We will all die....our temporary earthly bodies will decay, but our soul will live on in heaven with Him. We will get a new resurrected body one day!

Trying to look for Jesus in all aspects of our life can be difficult. We are selfish beings and want things our way the easiest way possible. It's our nature. We can always ask Him for more of Himself to be revealed to us through prayer and study. He will listen and gladly show us. We just have to ask.

December 13, 1993

What a cold night. I woke up in my little bedroom to pain.....off and on pain. It was 1:00 am on December 13, 1993. My baby was due in 2 days, but I guess she decided to come a little early. I didn't know I was going to have a girl....in fact everything in my being was telling me she was a boy, but my instinct was way off. So I lay in my bed for the next 2 hours and time the contractions. Not sure how I even knew how to time contractions, but they were coming regular about every 10 minutes. I went to wake my mom and we started our journey to the hospital.

I was at home with my parents. The situation I found myself in as a single mom was less than ideal, but my family supported me and my new child. They were more than glad to be there for us. I don't know what I would have done had they not been there.

Anyway....my mom starts up the old Taurus and we didn't even make it out of the development before the car stalled.....in the intersection. She did get it stated again and we made our way to the hospital. Last Sunday I relayed all this story to my daughter..... With much greater detail. She wasn't too thrilled with the series of events that took place once we left the house, but it is what it is. Giving birth is not all sunshine and rainbows. We finally got to the hospital and the ER personnel told us to head to the 4th floor. My mom is deathly afraid of elevators and was upset no one escorted a laboring young girl to the maternity floor. Her worst fear, at that time, was that we would be stuck in the elevator and I had to push and she have to deliver the baby.....oh my she worries too much. She got calm when the doors opened to our destination. The nurses helped get me settled.

Looking back on all that happened......the car, the pain, the labor room, the delivery room, the recovery room, the blood, the pushing (for 2 hours), the anxiety, and the relief of 14 hours later getting to see and meet this little life that was nurtured inside of me......what a time of emotion. All that feeling dissipates when you hold that little helpless life in your arms for the first time. This little girl was totally dependent on me. I was responsible for her well being and it wasn't about me anymore. She had to be my priority. I knew when I held her the first time I would go to the lengths of the earth to make sure she was safe and secure. I would do what I needed to to support us. I would take care of her the best I could. I would need help of course and with my family, I had plenty of support.

As soon as she was born and cleaned up, I got to hold her. I counted all her fingers and toes. All 20 were there. She had black hair and was 7lb 15oz. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen and she was mine. Yes.....all I went through was worth it just to hold her and cuddle her (which as she grew she didn't like to do too often), but as a baby she would lay with me and I could cuddle her all I
wanted. She didn't know any better. She enjoyed being with me and I with her.

Truth be known I was scared. Scared of everything......would I be a good mom? Would I love her enough? Would she like me? Would I have enough to support her on my own? Would she be proud of me as her mom? Would she question what I did? Would she wonder about life? Would I be able to answer her questions? These things ran through my head......but one thing I did learn. I had to take one day at a time and each situation as it came. That's how I still live today. I don't get to carried away with what will happen tomorrow. I trust that God knows how to get me through today. My only regret is that back when I felt so alone with this little baby of mine, I didn't have Jesus. Had I had him, I would have been much better. My fears would have been nonsense......but we can't go back. I can only look forward and know that all things work for the good for those who love Him. I am thankful our God chose to give me this little girl that cold December day. She has taught me so much over the years. She truly is a blessing and will always be loved and cherished as long as I live. I love you Ashley......even though it took 2 days to name you......I love you more than you could ever imagine. Happy 23rd birthday to you! ❤️❤️

Advice

I took the advice from one of the leaders in my church as far as how and what to study in the Bible. I have learned that the Old Testament doesn't go in chronological order. This is a whole other discussion, but I had a question one day on Nehemiah. I don't know much about this guy except he was a prophet and was wanting to rebuild the walls so the exiled Israelites could return. So I called my friend and asked my questions about this book. He told me I would benefit from the chronological Bible. This Bible does not go in the traditional order of the Bible, but takes the Word and puts it in order by dates.
So here's what I learned so far......

- Genesis 1:29.....Let US make man in OUR image in OUR likeness......this is referring to the Trinity. (Emphasis mine) the Trinity is present here and is responsible for all creation, including man and woman.
- Genesis 1:31.....God saw ALL that he had made and it was very good......ALL (emphasis mine) is referring to all. Everything God made is from Him. We can take no credit for anything done or used on this earth. Trace back the vocation of any item and you will see man can take no credit for making anything. Man is incapable of making anything from nothing. Only God can do that.....and he did. 👍🏼
- Genesis 3:15.......this is the very first prophecy of Jesus.
- God chose Noah in chapter 6:8. Noah was obedient in building the ark regardless of what other people said. There had been no rain on the earth up until this time......yet since God chose Noah, he obeyed in 6:22.
- The ark is a forshadow of Christ. The ark save Noah......Jesus saves us.
- the first 3 Patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- the most interesting thing I've found is this......Noah had 3 sons. Once the ark landed they (all 8 people who were in the ark) had to repopulate the earth. His son Shem had the bloodline to Abraham who later down the line came Jesus! There are many many others in the line, but I found this fascinating that we can go back and trace Jesus to the rebuilding of the human race......which all came from Adam, of course.

This Bible is really nice in that it gives a lot of historical facts with the scriptures. I'm taking my time
with it all so I can ponder it for awhile. I am glad my leader encouraged me to read this way.

Entitlement

What is entitlement? Basically, it's the idea that because of who someone is or what status they possess in society they have a right to something.  That they are deserving of privileges or special treatment.

Some examples.......good and not so good......

I am entitled to my paycheck because I worked and put the time in to get it. One time, years ago, my paycheck was severely messed up. I was shorted a big chunk of money. Turns out there was a misunderstanding, but I had to wait until next paytime to get the money I was shorted. That wasn't fun. I had bills and not enough to pay that week......I was entitled to MY money, yet it wasn't available.

My husband and my kids are entitled to my time and energy......they deserve this because of who they are in my life. Not everyone in my life is entitled to me this way. When they have something to talk about, I make myself available to listen. They know they have access to me whenever they need me. They are entitled. They are allowed. 

I work in a busy ER.....most people come to the ER because they have pain in some part of their body. I hear it all.....but when it comes to entitlement......chest pain is more severe and deserving of attention before dental pain. Pain in the lower right quadrant of your abdomen is more important than pain on your ear. You get the idea, but people will yell and cuss because they wait too long with a toothache or an ear ache. They feel entitled because they have pain. They feel they were there  first and the pain they have is worthy of first class treatment. I'm not saying their pain needs to be dismissed, I'm saying the location and severity of pain or illness takes presidance over other pains and illnesses. This is hard to explain in the moment to someone. When we have pain normal reasoning goes out thr window.

When a loved one passes away, usually there is someone or some people they leave their belongings to. This makes them an heir to the estate of the loved one. This status makes them entitled. I guess where this could have a bad outcome is when someone who thought they were an heir, ended up not being one. It could cause a problem with the ones involved and left behind.

I guess what bothers me at times is when the entitlement becomes arrogance. I don't like arrogance in people. It's a trait that needs to be worked on. The opposite of arrogance is humility. When we claim to be Christians, our sense of entitlement to Jesus and eternity should never be looked at with arrogance. We need to be humble in realizing all our savior did for us and even though we are entitled, we still have to be good witnesses for Him while we live.

How are we entitled to Jesus?
Since we are His child......
We are entitled to talk to Him 24/7. We can call on Him at anytime. He will hear His children.
One day we will sit at His feet and worship Him in heaven.
One day we will be judged and given rewards for our treasures we stored in heaven just to return them to Him.
One day we will walk the streets of gold.
One day we won't feel pain or cry.
One day we will meet our Savior face to face.
One day we will see His nail scarred hands and feet.
One day we will live in a new earth.
All these things Christians are entitled to if we have come to Jesus for our salvation. Since we love Him more than anyone or anything else, we are entitled. That we can say with confidence.......not arrogance. Keep telling others thr gospel. Repent of wrongs. Get right with God and this entitlement is yours too!

Events

Ever notice we go through our life referring to events as milestones. "I did that before I was married......I had this before my daughter was born.....we owned that car before we bought this house......we did that before so and so died". You get the idea. All our big events in this life revolve around a timeline of bigger events. A big event for our family was when all 9 of us went to Disneyworld!

I'm 2009, my parents, husband, kids, brother, niece, and I all went to Disney. This was a gift from my parents to us kids and grandkids. We planned for months. We decided to go for a whole week to this magical place. We planned to stay at a reasort verses a hotel.....get the meal plan verses cooking or eating off site......get the resort transportation verses renting a car......flew in a plane for 2 hours  verses driving for 2 days. We planned and planned. Finally the day arrived to catch the plane and gooooooo! We were all so excited. I won't go into crazy details as when all our family gets together we just joke and laugh and have a great time. That week went so quick and we weren't ready to leave. When we got home all us kids and grandkids made a scrapbook of the trip for our parents as a "thank you". It's funny that this scrapbook holds a special place to me. Every time we visit them I look at it or bring it home to look at. My family knows I'm wacky so it's ok....haha.

While we were at Disney, my husband had symptoms of diabetes. We would sit down for a meal together and he would drink and drink and drink some more. His thirst couldn't get quenched and he was nauseous most of the time. (This is a red flag of high blood sugar) When we returned home from the trip he had testing done and found out that sure enough he had diabetes. When anyone asks when he was diagnosed with the disease, we can remember 2009 because of that trip and know just when he got his diagnosis. Big events help us remember things.

This got me thinking......the biggest most important event in our life should be the day we accepted Jesus. This is more important than a marriage, a birth, a trip, a death.....or whatever. Yes, these events are very important to us and we remember other things in our life based on them. The event of accepting Jesus has eternal benefits. While getting married is a major event and worthy to be remembered forever, it's not the same as our decision for Christ. We should look at life as "I did this before I knew Jesus".......or...."once I knew Jesus we did this or that". This should be the defining moment of any event in the timeline of our life. No other event can measure up. I think about Disney and how it's so amazing there.....and one day my husband and I intend to go back, but Disney doesn't compare at all to heaven.  Disney fun is temporary.....heaven is for ETERNITY!!

Actions

It's been said that "actions speak louder than words". We've all heard these words a time or two in our life. I can think of countless examples of this. We tell people we love them all the time, but if the actions don't back it up, then we are a liar. Ouch.......ok, this isn't usually the intention, we don't intend to be a liar, but if we are honest, it's the truth.

I have had numerous people in my life tell me they loved me. I am a person who gives people the benefit of the doubt and tend to trust what they say. It's been said that I am too trusting of people at times. However, I've grown a lot, and realize things about people that I didn't want to admit before. That maybe when they tell you words like "I love you", they may really love you in their own way, but their actions say different. I could go into lots of details about this, but I'm going to let it go as we all have had people portray one thing and act another.

In my family we would all get together on Christmas Day. About 20 or so would gather In a little living room at my grandma and grandpas house. We would all eat and of course have presents. When we would leave....everybody would hug and kiss each other on thr cheek. My family said the reason for doing this was because we didn't all get together that often, so when we did it may have been the last time we saw one another. We needed to make the goodbye special and share love cause you didn't know if you would see them again. This action among all of us showed love more than words could have. I still hug and kiss my parents when we leave one another. No words need to be spoken as the actions speak for themselves. I'm not saying we should never tell anyone we love them, I'm saying if actions don't back it up, there may be a problem.

Yesterday my pastor gave an amazing message from 1 Corinthians 5. He had a good line in his sermon. "Every action has social implications in a faith community". This line got me thinking. "Every action".......so every thing we say, do, act, has an effect on others in our life. Our words and actions can either encourage or destruct. They can build unity or divide.

For example.....I am active in my church and people know me pretty well. If I show up on a Sunday morning and go to each person and tell them I love them, but later go and spread horrible rumors about a few to everyone else......that's bad actions. I am now a liar. My words don't match my actions. I've hurt people and have made Jesus look bad. I've destroyed my character as a Christian. I would hope someone would love me enough to point this mess out to me. If not, this action will divide the whole.

Another example.....I love to be with people. I love to write notes and cards of encouragement. What my goal is is to be loving with my words and show it through my actions. Do I always succeed in
this? No, but I try. This can have a positive affect on those in our church family. This type of love will
unify and hold us together.

My pastor is very wise in his knowledge of the Bible and lets us know what the truth of the Word is.....even if it hurts. This is how he shows love to us. This is how he wants us to learn and grow in our God. We all have different gifts and talents to use for our God within the church. Just remember
though that actions always speak louder and words not spoken can sometimes speak volumes. We need to make sure our words and actions build up and not tear down.

Cassettes

Back in the day I had quite a collection of cassette tapes. Heavy metal was my favorite. 😊 Right out of high school I got an amazing job. You must know that once I graduated I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. I had a seasonal job that lasted 3 months.....then I got a job for 1 month and quit cause it was not a good fit for me. My mom was upset. She thought I was going to not work....so one day I went out and didn't come home until I found a job.

This job was a dream! It was In a music store. With my love of songs and music at the time, it was ideal for me. I loved that job so much that it never felt like work. I got along well with my coworkers too. We all hung out outside of work and my boss and I looked so much alike that people thought we were sisters. Every paycheck I got I let myself buy a few tapes for my collection with a discount! (Even better when you can save money getting your favorite things....right?)

Remembering back to 1991.....I worked with a guy who loved heavy metal music more than me. Ozzy Osborne was his favorite. In the evenings, after the boss left for the day, he would put Ozzy CDs on for us as background music in the store. I found out he went to Christian school all his life. I remember asking him about religion. I asked how Christianity is right and all other religions were wrong. His answer had me perplexed......he said.."Christians are right, just because they are". He had no reason....no explaination for my wondering mind. And I found it strange that he knew about Jesus yet had a  love for Ozzy. This was confusing to me.....but then I thought if Christians can still listen to heavy metal, maybe it's worth checking in to. I needed more information. It wasn't this coworker's fault he didn't know the answer to my question. Maybe he wasn't sure himself and didn't know how to respond to me.

Truth be told.....I worked that fun job for 3 years. I learned a lot of music, genres, and lyrics. I have knowledge of these things still today. Music and songs are locked in my mind. I can put a song with an event or a memory. That's fun, but it can be painful too. Some songs are not so good in my memory. They are associated with a painful time or a bad memory. I try to stay away from them, but
if I'm in a store and it plays overhead......I'm stuck. On the flip side.....many, many songs have a good effect on my memory. Pleasant things come to mind as I hear the familiar tune. It's all a matter of
perspective, I guess.

Some of the cassettes I bought way back then are still in my possession. They weren't replaced by CDs....and they may not even work anymore. They are still there in my basement reminding me of a life I once knew. A life of youth and parties and friends. A time of fun and no responsibility. One thing I've come to realize.....the songs of that time can remind me of times in my life that I didn't know Jesus. This makes me smile now because Even though I'm not where I need to be, I'm not where I once was either. Our God saw fit to pursue me and draw me to himself. This fact alone still boggles my mind.....but it's God and who can argue with Him or His ways?

A question was raised.....can we still be a Christian and love music that doesn't have godly lyrics? I feel this is a question of individual conviction. For me....I don't listen to much of it anymore. For me, the songs don't have the emotional effects or cause me to stumble as they once did. However, this decision is after much prayer, study, and personal conviction. What I stumble on isn't the same as other people stumble on.

Also.....for my coworker who didn't know how to answer my curiosity......it's ok. I found what I needed to know. I feel God used him in my life. He used him to teach me that in order to find answers about God we have to keep searching and asking. For that lesson, I'll forever be grateful to him.

Cook

I got to talking today about Thanksgiving and how I cook the meal for my whole family. Some years we have 9 people .....some years we had more. I have to work this year on the holiday so we will celebrate together a few days later. This is not a big deal as everyone was flexible in changing the day. I feel honored that they all still wanted me to cook it and host the meal at our house. I told everyone they could just do their own things with each other, but they said they would wait for me. Wow.....they must love me a whole bunch. Haha.

Tradition in our house before we eat is for each of us to say what we are thankful for this past year. My husband started this tradition years ago and it stuck. After we say our thanks, we all gather hands in our circle, and my husband prays and thanks God for everything. One year we decided to try a new thing. This took quite some time so we waited until after we ate to do it. Each of us got a notecard and put our own name on the top. We passed the card so everyone could write one thing we are thankful for the person for in their life. We kept passing until we all wrote on everyone's card. Like I said it was timely, but the memory and the keepsake we all have was well worth it. I still have mine and at the time we wrote them, some of my kids were in elementary school. It's such a treasure to see how they have grown and to have the card is so beautiful. My family wrote such nice messages to me.....like I said they must love me a whole bunch. Haha. It truly is a keepsake for years to come.

We tend to focus on "things" at thanksgiving. Thanking God for what we have. I've learned we just need to thank Him for who He is. He doesn't owe us anything. Yes, he loves us and gives us blessings, but he wouldn't have to. We shouldn't expect him to just give us things because we feel entitled somehow, but praise Him though all things and all circumstances. The Bible tells us to give thanks in all circumstances. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Thanks in ALL circumstances......this is not easy, but it will prove our trust of our Father if we thank Him for it all.

When my daughter was about 7-8.....my husband called me at work stating he was taking her to the doctor as she may have broke her wrist. She and her brother were wrestling or whatever and she injured her wrist. Our doc said to bring her in.....so I left work and met him at the doctor. He sent us to thr hospital for the X-ray and found out she did fracture it. We got a temporary splint and went home for the night. That night as she lay in her bed.....I walked past her room. She was praying and thanking God for the accident and the pain in her wrist. I almost fell on the floor. What kid is thankful for pain? But I heard it with my own ears. She knows I tell this story often to show her humbleness and trust of a good God. That night will forever ring in my ears as a blessing from our God. That night was proof that our God is good and we need to thank Him in all circumstances.

This year I'm not sure how our meal will turn out.....I'm trying some new recipes and I'll admit I'm not the best cook known around town.....but I have a family who appreciates it and I'll do it for them. The fellowship and love is worth all the time it takes to prepare it all. This year we will all give thanks to our good God who loves us more than we could ever imagine. We will thank Our God who saved us from ourself and our sin as He hung on that cross. We will thank Our God who chose us out of the world to be His children since before creation ever began. This is what we should do everyday......not just on Thanksguving, but always. After all praising God will be a full time affair in heaven.....we might as well get used to it here! ❤️

Right Truth

We are all born with a "knowing" of right and wrong. When I was a kid we had a long staircase leading to the second floor. It was a typical house of living space on the first floor and bedrooms and bathroom on the second floor. When I was about 4 years old and my brother about 2  years old, he stood at the top of the staircase and I pushed him down all the steps. Why I did this terrible thing I can't remember....other than I had a moment of delirium or something. What I do remember is running to hide after I pushed him. I knew I did wrong. Did I realize I could have hurt him permanently, I doubt it.....I was real small. My mom rushed to pick him up after the fall, but she never knew I did that until years later. I ended up confessing my terrible secret.

When we know right from wrong we can make good choices. As we grow we get more sneaky. We always have a bent to do the wrong thing and have to fight not to do it. I've done a lot of sneaky things in my time. I have struggles like anyone else.....but the Bible tells us that Paul did what he didn't want to do instead of what he knew was right. Even the Apostle Paul had struggles like me? That's good to know.

One way we can do more right than wrong things is to spend time in the Word. When we study doctrine we are studying about God Himself. (Doctrine = right truths about God). We study about Him so we can love Him. However our love for God is limited to our knowledge of Him. We can only love God as we know Him...... And if we don't know much about him we can't love him deeply.

When I first met my husband.....I didn't love him on the first date. We had to date more and spend time together before a love would grow. We would talk and learn about each other and as we did...my love for him grew. Getting to know people through relationships makes us love them even more. Tomorrow I'll go to work and meet a brand new person....or several. I will show them love and kindness  but to love them deeply won't happen until I spend more time with them. Loving someone in a deep way isn't instant.....it takes time and effort. It is the same with our God. We can say we love Him, but If we don't know much about Him, how can we love Him deeply? How could I love my husband deeply of I didn't know much about him? It is wrong of us not to know more about our Creator. Just as we are born with an instinct of right and wrong......we can know what's right and wrong about our view of God, by what we learn of Him, through His Word.

As our knowledge of God grows so does our love for others. This knowledge will change how you think and feel about God and people in general. We will be able to love people better as a result. Doctrine has truths that will lead us to deep love and fellowship with our God. If we are breathing,
we should desire to learn more about God......as we learn we will grow......as we grow, our love for
God will get deeper......and our love for people will be better and more Christlike.

Right doctrine leads to Right living.

1 John 4:8......whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Growth

Yesterday in our morning worship service we had our annual Thanksgiving sharing time. This is an opportunity for people to let everyone know what they are thankful for over the past year. I had been thinking of what to say for over a week. I have a lot to be thankful for, but this year I am especially thankful for my growth in God. Let me explain.......

Our former Pastor Ben would challenge us as a congregation now and then. He would say...."if you are the same person spiritually today that you were a year ago, something is wrong". This statement made me think of myself. If we aren't any different spiritually from one year to the next, we aren't growing. We are stagnant. We can't be stagnant when we call ourselves Christians. We need to be constantly growing and learning in our God. So yesterday I stood up front and told everyone that this year I can say "no", I'm not the same person spiritually that I was a year ago, and for that I am truly thankful.

 I have come to realize over this past year that I don't know as much as I thought I did. To remedy this, I read....and read some more.....and study....and take notes....and ask questions when I don't understand. I have people that I go to for help. Yesterday I made a joke that I have one particular person on speed dial......but that's me. I want to understand God better. I want to love Him and people better than I used to. I made mention that we have wonderful teachers within our church and I intend to take full advantage of that. To have teachers readily available is only a gift from God. I had a new friend tell me a few weeks ago that when God creates a hunger in us For Himself, he won't leave us out in the cold. He will provide people and ways to learn about Him. He's definitely doing that in my life. I look for opportunities to learn and I look for people to teach me truths. I find that even if people don't know Jesus I can still learn from them. I can listen and offer compassion.....I can be comforting if they need it.....I can listen and help them toward God......I can learn how things work in their life and understand them better as a person and how they live day to day. All these things take time to master. We don't wake up one day with all Gods qualities......it takes time and discipline. I am in the
process of learning all these things.

I finished up my little speech with telling my church family how much I love to read. I told them I read a real good book recently entitled, "Knowledge of the Holy". One line in the book spoke to me.
"Answers about God do not lie on the surface. The answers must be sought by long meditation on thr Word, prayer, and well disciplined labor. The brightly shone light of God can only be seen by those spiritually prepared to receive it."        (Matthew 5:8; Proverbs 4:23)
For this....I am truly grateful. I've got a long way to go, but I can now be spiritually prepared to receive Gods light and understanding through His Word. That I can ask and get answers because He made me ready to receive it. To God be the glory!!

Hear

I went to the Christian bookstore a few days ago. I tried to get a job there once, but God knows that would be a mistake for me to be there......I would spend my paycheck on books. A few months ago I got one on sale called "Visual Theology" by Tim Challies. I don't know much about the author, other than I love his articles on his blogs. Also,with me being a visual learner and really loving theology.....it was a perfect mesh for me. There are a lot of pictures and charts.....it's a great book so far. 

I'm only about 1/3 the way through. There was this line that struck me......

"A healthy Christian loves to hear from God through the Bible. He is constantly taking in God's word - Reading it alone, reading it with friends, reading it with family, reading it as it is woven into good books, hearing it read aloud and worship services, pondering it as he remembers it - consuming it in anyway he can." 

This made me stop in my tracks. Notice the word "healthy"? This isn't something we always think of when we think of a Christian. When I hear someone call themself or someone else a Christian, the word healthy isn't in my thought. But......this line makes me think. It makes me think of what a healthy Christian should be desiring to do. It makes me think of what I should be doing and aren't. 

My son laughed at me once. I told him I take my Bible to work, but I'm scared someone will steal it. He said..." Mom, who would want to steal a Bible?" See....my Bible has notes and all kinds of things in it I would never be able to replace. If I lost it I wouldn't know what to do. It's my most prized possession. However....hearing this word "healthy" makes me realize I've got a lot more work to do if I want to please my God better. 

The amazing thing about God is that he's patient. He knows my desire is to be healthy. Not only with my physical life, but my spiritual one as well. So.....he will let me continue on and learn at my pace. He will continue to put people in my path to help me grow.....he will continue to provide books.....he will continue to have people pray for my healthiness.......he will continue to guide me as I study from His Word......he will continue to protect me from what I don't need to know. 

I had someone a few years that wanted me to read Something other than the Bible to expand my knowledge......I said "no I can't do that because I have to watch what I put in my little mind. I can't fill it up with nonsense." He wasn't understanding me at the time, but now he realizes I did the right thing. He has gotten back to being a healthy Christian and now reads and attends his church a few days a week. He's a leader in his church and even preaches now and then. Our God is amazing!! 

I ask myself......do I long to hear from God through His word and His people through a worship service? Do I hear from him in books and in family settings? Do I long for that intimacy that's only found in Him.? I would love to answer "yes" to all these things, all of the time, but the reality is I get selfish. I get me focused and being healthy is thrown out the window. Then repentance is needed and I can get back on track.....back to desiring to hear from a holy God once again.  All I can say is AMEN! What an amazing God we have!

Laugh

Last night I was able to spend time with my parents. I called my mom and said..."can I come over"? She said..."of course, did you eat"?  Naturally, I hadn't eaten yet. This was part of the plan for my visit, meatloaf, Mac and cheese, corn, and good company.

They have this little cute dog that goes wild when people visit. She is so cute but she rolls and jumps and runs around. It's funny because she is so little yet so full of energy. My dad tries to yell at her...."Ellie Mae....come here, calm down, knock it off". Its hilarious cause she don't listen. The more he tells her to quit, the more wound up she gets. I was laughing at my dad and the dog most of the night.

It never fails that when we get together as a family, the laughs come out. Last night we got to talking about when my dad brought my brother and I a kitten home after work one night. My dad hates cats, yet thought we would like one. I would have liked it had it been "normal". It was wild. He found it on his job site and said it looked pitiful, so he brought it home. The night he got it, we had to go for food and a litter box and all the stuff you need for a cat. My mom was not to thrilled about going out for cat supplies after she was all cozy in the house for the night....but she had to. This little nightmare needed stuff. And a nightmare this cat was. It destroyed curtains, it hissed a lot, bit me, scratched me, bit my dad when he tried to give it a flea bath, it was crazy. We only had it 3 months before it died. Something was wrong with it the vet had told my mom.....I was 11 so I don't know the technical term for it. Anyway, the cat scratched me and I got real sick. I had to go to the doctor and he said I had cat scratch disease. The symptoms were bad, so I won't go into detail, but who would have thought cat scratch disease was a legit thing? But I had it.....and it wasn't pleasant. The doctor who diagnosed me was about 85 years old as my doctor wasn't in the office. My family never went to the ER so we got a grand pappy doctor in my doctor's place. What a mess. But....retelling this story last night had all of us laughing so hard my belly hurt and I was crying. Each of us kept adding to it. My grandma was there and never knew any of this, so she laughed just as hard as we did. As we grow.....so do the details of stories at times. Our family is good at telling stories and we can laugh good together.

We talked of other things that were more serious.....but the crazy cat story came up out of nowhere. I guess God knew we needed a good laugh together. I guess God uses things in our life over and over to remind us we are human and need to live through craziness so we can get a chuckle from it later in life. I don't know if this is why we had that cat at all, but last night was a good reminder of how laughing is good for us. I am thankful my family is fun and we can joke and pick and be there to laugh at each other.....without fear of being offended. That's a blessing today and that's something I don't ever want to take for granted.

Message

I find that I need to write things down to remember. All things. Dates and notes take up a lot of space on my desk. I wonder if one day I'll have writers cramp from all the note taking I do? Haha. I crack myself up.

So yesterday I'm sitting in church.....trying to pay attention. I helped tend to a situation and came back in the middle of the sermon. I try to take notes when I hear sermons......but I was behind in the message already. Then I was distracted some more with nail polish. Oh my....I had a sweet little girl paint my nails and it was flaking off. I couldn't take it. I had to pick it and pick it some more. The girl next to me whispered "what are you doing Tammy"? I told her since I clean the church it'll be my mess to clean up anyway. I had a nice amount of flaked, pink polish on the floor. Ok, back to the point.

Once I got back to reality and could pay attention better, I made some notes. The biggest thing I pulled out of the great message I heard is this.....
There are 3 things required to be a complete Christian.
1. Christians need doctrinal truths. We have to know God through His Word and have right truths about Him. We need right theology (which I am loving the more I study) about God.
2.  Christians need a character that matches what we know about God. We can't claim to know God and live in ways that are opposite to Scripture.
3. We are motivated by God to DO for Him what we learn about Him. Our character matches the doing. For example.....we are to pray for those who offended us and treat us not so nice. The Word tells us we need to do this and if our character matches what we know about God we will do what we are supposed to whether we feel like it or not. (That was a mouthful....haha...but truth)

We can not read the Bible all we want but in the end how can we be called Christians if we don't know what the Word says? And if our whole character and being rests on the knowledge of what's in the Word, how can we not want to know all we can? I am just as guilty as the next person. I read And study but never feel like it's enough. Like some of my time is spent doing stupid things rather than important things for God. Ive got a lot to learn.

All this came at the end of the message from 1 Corinthians 4:14-21
Verse 20 tells us that the kingdom of God does not consist of talk but of power. My pastor told us that real power of God is found in human weakness. That we cannot do anything of our own accord, but only through God, and we find strength when we are weak. This should make us find humility in Gods power.

Once I could not focus on nail polish or my sons eating or how often I heard talk of Timothy and wondering if he liked to be called Tim instead.....I could pick out good points. I am thankful for good teaching and right truths for our growth as a body of believers. God is good......always good. ❤️

One day

You ever wish you could go one day and not say the wrong thing? That everything you said in a days time was in the right tone and with encouragement? That the words were thought of through and through before they came to the end of your tongue? To not be sarsactic or rude or yell about what you are trying to get across? I have days like that.......

The reality is that no matter how you try to address something or a situation the person on the receiving end may take it all wrong. Communication is so hard. This is why we need relationships with people. We can learn their quirks and how they react to words and tones. We can learn how to avoid conflictive conversations once you know where they stand on an issue that's not that important. We can learn their personality. Different personalities require different things and people are not all wired the same.

So what happens when you are questioning someone and they take offense to your words? When all you were trying to do is figure out what they are thinking or feeling? I met a man once that told me he wishes he was a mute. That way he would never hurt anyone with his words again. Apparently he had a harsh way of speaking and realized this. He felt instead of controlling his mouth, being a mute would be a better option. This is nonsense......we are all called to watch how we speak and what we say to others. We need our voices but we need to choose our words wisely before we speak them.

What about when we pray? I believe prayer should be real and not sugarcoated. God knows what's in our heart and if our prayers  aren't reflecting what's in your heart we are fooling ourselves with Him.  He knows the difference. Same as your best friend knows when something is wrong. I had a BFF once that when one of us was sick the other one felt it too. We were inseparable. We knew the other ones thoughts and how each of us would react to life. We knew each other that well.......and our God knows us better than that. He made us. He knows us better than anyone so we can talk to Him freely about anything and he will know where we are coming from.

A few weeks ago I was struggling. I laid it all on the table for God. I knew he already knew my struggle but I told him anyway. He likes that. He wants us to confide in Him and let Him work our the details of how to help us. After my conversation......I felt better. Like a weight came off and I didn't have to struggle at that moment with my issues. That I could rest and let my DAD take care of it all. What an amazing God we have. He's personal.....relational.....for our community......and loves
us all unconditionally. One day we will be at His feet and talk with our Savior all we want in person! One day....wow....Makes me smile just to know that. 😀

Memories

My memory isn't the best at times......other times it's great. But I had a thought. What if God allows memories in our minds to help us remember good times? What if he allows memories for us to remember the bad times, so we can reflect and know he was there even when we didn't think He was?

I'm learning that sometimes the memories we have are all we can hold onto for the time being. Maybe a struggle is going on and all you can focus on is what used to be.....until things get back to normal. What if things never get back to normal? I'm told things happen in seasons. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes that everything has a time and a season. This was a song also made popular back in the day too...... my point is we all go through seasons and have to endure things. We have to presevere.


I think of the most happiest times in my life......
meeting my husband,
getting married,
giving birth to 3 healthy babies,
going to Disney world with my whole family

But the most joyous time is when I sat with my mentor in 1999, at my kitchen table and asked my Savior to be Lord of my life .....only after I asked Him to forgive my sins and wayward ways. Repentance is wonderful. Repentance restores....and my God will work out all the details whether we remember it all or not.

I'm not going to go over the "bad" memeories of my life as I don't like to dwell on the negative, but one thing I do know. Our God allowed me to experience these things too...so I would be pointed to His perfectness and love for me for His own glory. Had he not allowed me to go through what I did, I wouldn't be where I am today. All those things were weaved into what I am working toward now as an adult.....a Jesus lover.....haha.

Memeories are good in that they allow is ways of staying connected with out past. We can learn a lot from them and use them to guide our future. That's how I see it. ☺️☺️

Box

I had some interaction with a fascinating lady today who was speaking of her husband. She spoke of him like he was right with her. When I didn't see him, I asked, "where is he?" She said, "he's right here". Turns out he was in a chair below my view. Something was blocking my view of this man she loved. I felt like I was in a box and I wasn't looking outside of it. By staying in my box I missed out on interacting with a wonderful man.....but once I looked around, I had the opportunity. Move the box and thinks look very different.

How many times do we get stuck in our view of things and get into our "box"? It's real hard to think outside the box when you are accustomed to things a certain way. Our boxes grow as big as we need them to.

 I feel at times....when I study about God....I tend to think way outside the box. One time in ladies group we were talking about God parting the Red Sea. I asked the group if the Israelite people got thirsty walking through onto the dry land? And if they did, could they put their hand into the water that was stacked beside them, as they walked, and get a drink? Well...this was a funny question and we all had to laugh at it. Imagining the Israelites getting thirsty and grabbing a drink on the long journey seemed silly.....but that's how my crazy mind seems to work.

If we are Christians called to be like Jesus....we can't stay in our box. We can't keep all that we know of him and His saving grace all to ourself in our own little box. That's just not how it goes when we love God. We have to keep pressing forward and continually look outside our comfy box for new opportunities to show others what our Savior is like.

We can't put God in a box either. I've heard people say this over the years. I think what they mean is that God cannot be trapped or looked at in a certain small way. He's BIG and he's bigger than our little minds can ever fathom. The God of all creation is nothing like we could imagine or ever fully
know. Putting him in a box is unacceptable.  By keeping Him out of a box and when we think outside the box, we will then be able to spread His love and make more and more disciples.

Mathew 28:16-20

All knowing

We all know people who claim to "know it all" or act like they know it all. These people tend to drive others nuts. These people aren't particularly well liked, yet they seem to think they are. I've found that people who think they know a lot want to feel important. I've met parents who defend their kids "know it all" attitude and say that other kids are just jealous of them. Unfortunately, sometimes this attitude carries into adulthood. This is not a good trait to have as a human. It means we aren't humble. Being humble is the opposite of pride. When we have pride.....God is not shining in our life like He should be.

Well.....there is someone who does know it all. Nothing has to be taught to Him. He has never had to learn or will have to ever learn anything. He is all knowing of  everything......past, present, and future. An all knowing God is also called omniscient.

In reading "Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W.Tozer, he tells of all the things God has orchestrated and knows 100% without teaching or learning on His part. He has created all these things and needs no instruction. He is all knowing.
These include......
- matter
- minds
- creatures
- mysteries
- causes
- thoughts
- desires
- dominions
- personalities
- visible
- invisible
- time
- life
- death
- heaven
- hell

Our God knows all things equally well and perfectly. He is never surprised or amazed by anything that happens or will happen to any of us. He knows why we sin, so he doesn't accept our lame excuses for why we do what we do. We think we can fool Him, but we cannot. We can be totally honest with him. Even when we tell the truth, He still listens and is slow to anger against us. We are shown grace. We are one of His creations and a great mystery of Himself is that no creature will ever know everything about Him.

The amazing thing about our God is that He knew all the things we would do to go against Him, yet called us, to Himself, before we ever knew about Him. He did this before He created anything. This makes my brain hurt yet, this makes me love Him all the more. After all I've done and will do to go against my God, yet He will keep me close and keep me as His own? Wow.
One more point from the author......."God knows us and cares for us like no one else can". Keep that
in your mind when hard times come. There is purpose in it all......for our God's glory. 😄

Further verses.....
Psalm 139:1-4
Psalm 147:4
Psalm 44:21
Matthew 10:30
Acts 1:24
Hebrews 4:13
1 John 3:20

Quiet

It's different......when it seems like yesterday you had a house full of kids.....some not even yours, but they were there. Now, today..... not so much.

Our house was always hopping with kids. Our own, their friends, youth group kids, neighbor kids, family, a dog two.....our house was the hang out for everyone. Our house was loud and at times could be a circus. Wrestling matches, tickle wars, games, fights, chasing around the house, running, falling, yelling, fire pits, jumping in leaf piles.....such crazy times we all had. One time we cut boxes and the kids and my husband and I slid down our stairs in the boxes. Another time, my husband took an office chair and he and our boys took turns riding down the hill of our quiet street in it. My daughter had a big SUV that my husband and boys high jacked in the snow to do donuts and left her behind. (She was so mad ☺️)

Today....our house is quiet. Our kids are grown and the crazy loud times of our past are right there......in the past. In our memories and pictures. I'm not getting all emotional and sappy about this, I just saying life takes us on journeys and I love how everything is in its own season. We raise our kids and treasure them when they are small wondering who they will become or what they will be. We are thankful to be alive long enough to witness it all......at least I am. Watching my kids grow into adulthood is my greatest reward on this earth. Being able to be their mom for as long as I have has been such a blessing.

My point to all this is I do love the quiet. When I'm home alone, I miss all the crazy loud times of my family years ago, but just sitting in the quiet with my Bible (and a book or two) with God is such a powerful time. When It's quiet, I can pray, focus, read and learn more about my God. This is all still new to me.....but I'm adjusting well. Oh, and don't forget the cup of coffee too! That is always a given in my day at some point. 👍🏻

What about you? How do you unwind and find God in your day?

Right Now

Right now I am sitting and thinking about a study I will teach tonight.
Right now I wonder if I will speak the words to the women how they are intended to be spoken.
Right now I'm asking God for help.
Right now I am wondering what I will eat for dinner.
Right now I am listening to my husband and son talk to each other.
Right now I am not feeling too chipper....the sun is not out today. I'm happier when the sun is out. ☺️
Right now I think of my work day and how I left early.
Right now I Wonder if I filled out that document the right way.
Right now I pray for my friend who has pain.
Right now I'm thinking of temptations I would like to avoid.
Right now I'm wondering why my God chooses to use me for anything.
Right now I love my God.

Our minds go in a lot of different directions at once. I know mine does. At my work I multitask all day. I have to watch and hear and assess and know what's "normal" and what's not when it comes to patient care. Then we have to interact with 3+ people at once.....and keep it all straight. Then someone asks me for reports or what's going on with a person.....I have to answer quick as there isn't a lot of time for chit chat in that situation. Sometimes it's hard to turn this all off.
I read a lot too and if I don't write down or ask my questions right away I will forget. I'm not sure if it's my age or I just got too much on my mind to focus on one thing totally? Or maybe God is using my busy Brain for much bigger things than I can ever imagine.

The great thing about "right now" is that we don't have to wait. God is right here, right now. He is on top of what we got going on in our brain and in our actions. He knows what we will say, do, and how we will act. He's there for us and he's not waiting for us to figure it all out then come to Him. He's got
this.....all. We can count on Him and when we count on Him He gets the glory. So.....right now in the midst of our questions, drama, joy, temptations, sadness, peace, and love our God is right there. Never forget that.

My days

I had a thought yesterday......
Where else can I go in a days time and get.....
Hit on
Spit on
Praised
Cussed at
Be a saint
And a liar?
I can only laugh at all of it.

This is amazing to me in that of all the stuff I get to have happen to me in a days time is all part of a puzzle.A BiG picture where I only get to see bits and pieces. It's All part of Gods divine plan for His glory through my life. It's not easy to go through some of the difficult situations, but trying to keep a Godly perspective is key. Knowing I don't have to figure it all out is comforting. Knowing it's already been in the works, so to speak, for an unknown amount of time leaves me with a whole peaceful outcome.

It's no secret that I love to meet new people. The other day I was with my husband at the Burger King. An older gentleman was in front of us in line and I asked him how his day was. My husband just shook his head. This is funny because my husband used to be the one to talk to everyone. He has the kind of personality that when he talks to even a stranger it's like he's known the person all his life....he's that comfortable. He's taught me well over the years. Haha.
Yesterday, I had to get a rental car. I was waiting for the car at the shop where I dropped my vehicle off. When the rental car man got there he said he had to take me back to the office to fill out papers and the car would be given to me there. This wasn't communicated to me at all.... (Another problem with society.....communication is very bad) anyway, this poor man was an introvert......I could tell right away. He seemed shy and nervous and older than me. I felt bad that he had to come so far just to take me back to the office. So....I talked the whole ride back. He was probably wanting me to shut up.....but that didn't happen. I talked of the accident I was in (why I needed the rental in the first place), my job, his job, etc....

However, what I failed to do was talk about Jesus. I had a prime opportunity to talk about how our Savior is awesome and loves us.....and I blew it. I'll be the first to admit I struggle with this part of being a Christian. I'm sure I'm not alone, but it's not easy to talk of Him right off the bat. At least not for me. I am good at establishing a relationship with someone and then getting to what needs said, once we know one another better. This is an area I really need to work on and need Gods help with.

So my days are filled with people from all walks of life. Some hate me.....some love me.....some want to strangle me.....some want to hug me. Whatever the case, I am ok with it. I am ok with being that person just so I keep the perspective that it's all meant for good. Once we lose our perspective on life and how God does things, we can get lost. People are people. God made us all in His time and His ways. We are to love Him first and His people second.
Jesus said that himself......Matthew 22:36-40.

Image

All my life I've been told I look just like my mother. This is a compliment to me because my mom is a wonderful, beautiful lady. Her image and mine are similar. It's a good thing I look like her because after I was born, the nurse brought my mom the wrong baby. My mom had to tell the nurse she had the wrong kid. If I didn't have her image, I may have ended up in another family......thank God she noticed this and they took the other baby back to the nursery and brought me back to her. :) Good thing I got my mom back that day too, cause I was such a "momma's baby" it was awful. I hung on her a lot and couldn't be out of her sight as a child, because I was too scared to be.....but that's another story. However, a few weeks ago, someone my dad knows told me he knew I was his kid cause I had the image of him. This man that told me this is only the second one all my life that said that....so I take that as a compliment as well cause my dad is an awesome guy!

Then, when my second baby was born, Zachary, he came out looking just like my husband. I had nothing to do with his appearance. I have laughed all these years at how he doesn't look anything like me, he's all his dad. Whenever you tell him that, he gets the biggest smile on his face. He is so proud to look like his dad. He and his dad share an incredible bond.....maybe it's because they share the same features? One time, a lady that knew my husband saw me and my kids out shopping once. Zach was about 7 years old. She raved at how much he looked like his dad. When we got to the car, my youngest boy, Nick, was sad. He wanted people to say that he looked like his dad as well, but that's just not the case with him. I felt bad for him because he was so little and didn't understand. I told him he would be alright......God made him to look like he was supposed to.....same as he did his brother.

This got me thinking. We may resemble one of our parents looks over the other, but what about personality traits or emotional traits? These we can share a likeness with one parent over the other as well. One parent may be really outgoing while the other is more reserved. A child may share in the likeness of that trait. God tells us in His Word that all of us are made in His image. What does this mean exactly? Well....to be an "exact" image of God is impossible. We can't be exactly 100% like our God, or He wouldn't be God.....if that makes sense.

While we don't look like God does, we share the image of our God in different ways....
- Of all of His creation, mankind is the only one with intelligence. Our God has magnificent intelligence and we could never share that kind of intelligence, but He has chosen to give us this ability and share in His image that way.
- We are also created as emotional people. We can love and we can hate. We can be angry and we can be happy. We can be mean and we can be kind. God gave us this ability to have emotions.
- We share the likeness of our God when we love others, have peace, can use good reasoning when making decisions for the kingdom, have joy, and holiness.
- We have a will to choose. God gives us His commandments. We can choose to follow them, or not. We have the will to choose to eat a steak dinner or a candy bar for supper. We have the will to choose where we will live. We have to choose to share Jesus with others or not.

We have a great God to follow. His image is ingrained in each of us and what an amazing blessing that is. To share these things with the God of the universe?  By sharing in His image, we can give Him the glory He so deserves. Living a holy life and being a representation of Jesus to a lost world is quite an honor, if you think about it. That ability isn't given to any other creation, only the one made in God's own image. WOW!!

Rightly

Ive been reading a book called "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer. It's a small book but jam packed with good information. The just of this book is to learn more about God. I am into learning all I can about God and all I read helps me do that.

I was talking with my mom last week and she wondered where all this reading comes from now. She knows as a kid I hated reading and didn't care for school much.....so this is foreign to her to know how much I like learning. I shared with her in the conversation that I would love to go to Bible college just to learn......I wouldn't care if I got a degree....I just want to know all I can. She just chuckled a little. I know it's strange.....but it's how i am. 

Anyway the first chapter tells the reader that we must think rightly of God. If we don't have the right mindset when it comes to God we will get off track really quick. Our worship of a holy God will be affected by how we view God. Our thoughts of him can be high and low.....and our worship of Him will reflect that. Think of Sunday services. First of all worship is never about us, but all about God. It's very difficult at times to keep God high and focus during the worship time. There are lots of times I'm distracted during the worship service. Two of my kids don't live with us so I only see them at church. It makes me happy to see them and sit next to them....but it is a distraction. When I get distracted, my view of God goes from high to low and my worship of him takes a toll. Or I think about my week and what i should have done.....or I have let my mind wander to places it shouldn't. I'm not proud to admit that, but it's truth. I want to keep God high, but life and the world creeps in. This is a constant battle. This is why we need the church. We are all in the same boat when it comes to worshipping our God and keeping him held high. We need each other to help us do just that. 

The author goes on to say that idolatry is most hateful to God. When we have idols in our heart, we can not give God our full attention or the glory He deserves. Idols can range from anything like a cell phone, music, TV, friends, reading....it's anything we put before our God. This is a human condition of the heart. We are constantly chasing things that don't satisfy and when we have idols, we are telling God he's not enough for us. We think the temporary pleasure we get from whatever our idol is will be better for us. We are prideful when it comes to our idols. We want what we rant when we want it.

However, the gospel of Jesus points us to a right thinking about God. Only the gospel will help us rid the idols we carry. My pastor tells us we need to preach the gospel daily to ourself to keep it fresh. This way we will humble ourself and repent so we can have a right relationship with our God once again. Thinking rightly about God will empower us to live rightly for Him. We have an obligation to God If we call ourselves a Christian. We are obligated to obey.....no ifs, ands, or buts. Obedience is not an option. My friend Luis challenged me on that point one day. He asked me if obeying God and his word is an option. I said yes it is......but He told me if you are a follower of Jesus, obedience is not  an option. We must live in obedience to His word......period. I am thankful for the strong Christian leaders that are in my life to help me grow and learn. 

We need to, as Christians, we need to lift God on high. We need to put him back to first place in our hearts. We need to give Him his glory both now and in eternity!

Close

I had the privilege to meet some fascinating women recently. Their love for God and His Word is beyond words and being in their presence is truly a blessing to me.....in more ways than one. One of them gave a talk about joy and I learned something interesting.

First of all she mentioned a word.....intimacy. This word to me is connected with married people in committed relationships, but when I looked it up, it means "close familiarity or friendship; a cozy atmosphere; or an intimate act"
We are intimate with our spouses in that they know us better than anyone. Our spouse is the one person we should be able to tell anything to and be as close to the other person as we can be. We need intimacy with our God. We can only have this when we get into His Word to learn more about Him. The more we know, the more we love Him. Just think of when you first met your spouse....if you are married. If you are like me, in the beginning you wanted to know all you could about them. You spent your days waiting to spend time with him. You thought about him constantly. The more you learn about your spouse, the more you love him/her. The same is true with God. We need to know Him to love Him and then we have intimacy with Him. We are to be as close to Him as we can be.....so close that when people interact with you, they see God first, then you. The same can happen when you get married. After I was married, I became known as "Dustin's wife" to those who knew him.....I am still recognized as such with some people. We had that intimate bond and I am recognized with him. Being intimate with God is not an overnight task. We gain understanding about Him through intimacy with him. This takes persistence. This takes effort even when we are tired.....same as a marriage.

The next word she mentioned is understanding. We gain understanding from God's Word about who He is. When we understand things, we can feel better about what we are trying to learn. Years ago I worked in a school cafeteria. I cooked for my family every night, but that was small in comparison to cooking for a whole school. I am not so good at math, but....when I got that cooking job, it was constant math. I had to count and figure and measure for all the kids. One wrong count or answer to a math equation left dozens of kids without lunch. I had to be on my game. Then throw in the time crunch factor and it turns into a more stressful day than you want. We had to have the food ready at a certain time.....and some menus were difficult to have done on time. Too much food wasn't good either as the budget was tight. My point in all this is that I had to gain understanding. I had to know what I was doing and act accordingly. I got all this understanding from my boss and co-workers who had more experience than me, and we all worked as a team. Those kitchen days were some of the best days of my life......even though math was involved. :) We gain understanding in this life when we are willing to learn. We must be willing to learn from God and what He puts in front of us. Having a humble attitude can make all the difference.

The last word she mentioned is joy. I've talked of joy before in other blogs, but when she talked of it, I had to listen and write this down.

"Intimacy comes from Understanding;
Understanding comes from God's Word;
God's Word leads to joy"

Psalm 119:103 tells us that..."How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth"
Did you catch that? God's word is sweeter than honey. I like honey on bread and when my kids were small they would ask for it too....with butter. This verse is telling us that God's Word is better and sweeter than honey.
Psalm 19:8....."The precepts (Word of God)  of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart"
Here the psalmist is telling us that total joy is found in God's right words. Joy isn't found in anything on this earth. It's only found in the eternal being of God and that is the only thing that will stand the test of time.....forever.

Knowledge

I've had this word knowledge on my mind for some time. Knowledge is acts or skills learned through experience or education. We all HAVE knowledge of different things. We all learn at different levels. We all WANT to know different things. That's what makes us unique.

I don't like football......however my husband and my kids LoVE football.....especially EAGLES football. They have great knowledge in football. I don't and have really no desire to learn about it. I'm being honest when I say I love spending time with my family but spending time with them watching football isn't a good time for me. You get the point I'm making. We all have things we want to learn. On the flip side.....I love my ER job. However when I talk of bloody messes or not so pleasant things or use medical terms......my family tells me to stop talking. They don't have as much knowledge of these things and don't want to hear about them at the dinner table. I understand that.

I was reading Proverbs 1 the other day. Verse 7 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Now when it talks of the fear of the Lord....it means respect. We respect God and His Word and when we do this we begin to have knowledge about Him. We gain knowledge of Him so we can be sanctified ( become more like Jesus). My study Bible has a great progression of this idea in the notes.
1. We are taught about God.
Who first taught you about God?  My mom told me about God when I was little. She took me to VBS when I was young to be taught about Him. Think of Sunday school teachers, pastors, elders, mentors, etc. that teach us about God. Being taught about God should never stop no matter our age or maturity in Christ.
2. We learn about God.
Once we get teaching we can learn about God. We learn in different ways. I am a visual learner. I have to see things and look at them for myself for it to make sense. Some are audible learners and can learn well by hearing. We should need both to learn. The Bible tells those that have ears to let them hear. We need to be open to God and what we can learn about Him from others.
3. We fear (respect) God.
We respect a holy God because He is God. We shouldn't need any reason to respect our creator. He's God and that should be enough.....but He wants us to have knowledge about Him, His creation, His son, His ways.....so we can love Him more And serve Him better.
4. We know God.
We won't fully know God until we get to heaven. In the meantime He's left His Word for us to know Him. He expects us to know what it says. He wants us to know it and tell others about Him and the gospel of Jesus. If we never open His Word or read and grow...how can we teach others or tell them about God?
5. We imitate Gods wisdom.
The second part of this verse tells us fools despise wisdom and instruction. Being a fool is the opposite of God and how He expects us to be. We should want to know all we can about our God. I have found that I love to learn about God. I read anything I can get my hands on so I can learn more. I have sought out people who can help me learn and grow. I have made new friends recently to show me and help me in my walk to have more knowledge. Having wisdom like God is that we put the knowledge we have to good use. We gain knowledge to help others learn. We in turn can be wise and not fools.

" The fear of the Lord is a state of mind in which one's own attitudes, will, feelings, deeds, and goals are exchanged for God's" ~~John MacArthur
This quote is beautiful. It sums up everything and it comes full circle yet again. We get knowledge and can fear our God all for His glory. Everything we do is for His glory. And to think he left His book for us to know Him in an intimate way.....that he gave us great teachers and leaders to teach us.....and people to encourage us while we pray and ask him for guidance! How can you not want to learn all you can? What an amazing God we serve!

Grace And Discipline

I Am a note taker. I'm finding that as I get older I have to write things down.....everything down.....to make me remember. I heard a message about grace and discipline......and took a page of notes.

Grace is getting what we don't deserve. I've drilled this into the heads of the kids we taught in youth group for years. I'm hoping that now that they are in their 20s they still remember my voice and the definition of this word. Think about all the things you have that you don't deserve. Well....I don't deserve a lot, but God sees fit for me to have it anyway.....that's grace. Think about breathing, or a heart beating and staying in rhythm? Just the fact I can get up out of bed without pain, or remember my son needed a stick of deodorant from the store is full of grace from God. These are little things we take for granted, but we shouldn't. We all know everything can change in a heartbeat. Life as we know it can be totally turned upside down in a split second, so we should know not to take anything for granted, but we always do. We are human. We look for routine and some adjust easier to change than others. We can find grace in all of this, if we look for it.

I heard this quote yesterday...."grace is not a license to do nothing". This hit me in that how many times do we not do anything because we need to pray awhile.....or wait for God to move.....or let God lead me? I'm not saying all these things are bad to practice, but when we are sitting stagnant "waiting" for God to give a sign or move our feet for us, we have a problem. Yes, we are given grace, but that doesn't mean we can be lazy. Yes, I believe everything happens in Gods timing, but we can't just sit idly by and do nothing in the meantime.

This is where discipline comes in. We all struggle with something. I've written a few things about temptations.....so I'm aware of struggles in my own life. We were encouraged yesterday to find the things in our life that are hindering our walk with God or what we could be doing for Him. If we struggle reading our Bible and praying, set a goal to wake up 10 minutes earlier in the morning to use the extra time for study......or if you aren't very outgoing, practice speaking the gospel to a friend before you try on someone else, to build your confidence. If You struggle with prayer, pray more today than you did yesterday. Set small goals and once you meet them, increase the goal a little more. This is discipline. When the motivation is there and we have enough of it, we can do anything for our
God. As time goes on we will be able to do more and more for our God and His kingdom without as much effort. We will have disciplined ourselves to a new way of life.

So....grace should humble us in making us love our God so much we want to live for Him and tell everyone about His love and mercy toward us. All God ever wants is for His children to love Him and give Him his due glory. That's why we praise Him. All for Him......all for His glory.

My Dad

My dad has always been a constant in my life and he's been a man I could always count on to have my best interest at heart. He's always had my back and knows what's good for me. He knows when to talk and when to listen. 

Growing up I was somewhat of a whiner. I knew how to get my brother in trouble just by whining about this or that. This is not a good thing to admit, but I could get all the attention I wanted just by being a brat. My dad is very close to my brother, but when we were little he would take my word on how my brother would beat me up or hit me......and would take care of it. We would ride around in the car and fight in the back seat. One time my dad threatened to pull the car over and we both stopped right away. We knew what would happen if had he have to pull over. 

My dad has always worked hard. He would put in long hours....especially in the summer. He would get home just to grab a quick bite to eat and go right to bed. Then get up and do it all again the next day. He never complained or called in sick. He went to work sick and tired a lot of days, but you'd never know it. I learned how to work hard from him.....well both my parents work hard so I have to credit my mom too on that one. ☺️

My dad worked extra to take us all to Disney when I was 16. That was a great trip and we all had such fun for the week. In 2008.....my dad took all of us to Disney again. This time we had 9 people to go instead of 4. He wanted the grandkids to experience that place with him and my mom before everyone grew up and moved on with their adult lives. He and my mom were always looking for ways to keep our family tight.  

Camping......beach trips.....railroad museum trips....sleepovers......parties.....movie nights.....dinner.....coming to visit, just because......you get the idea. All of us always laugh and have a good time together. Camping was so fun too. We would sit around the fire and talk and joke and make fun of each other. Over the years the kids friends would  come and go.....but our family time would stay the same. 

When I look in the Bible about how a husband is to treat his wife and how a father is to treat his kids......my dad is doing his roles well. He is the husband of one wife and even though they had their share of issues....they remained together for all these years. As a father to my brother and me....he practiced Ephesians 6:1-2 in making sure we obeyed honored him and my mom. God chooses which kid goes with which parents long before we are even thought of. How He decides who goes with who is a mystery, but I trust and know my God gave me my dad to be MY dad. He knows what He's doing and puts us right where we need to be for His glory. My dad has and always will be an inspritation to me. The lessons he taught me are with me and I'm sure my brother could say the same. Thank you God for what you continue to do in my life and giving me a dad to love, honor, and respect. ❤️ 

I love you Daddy! Don't ever forget that. 

Temptations #2

I was awake at 2am again this morning. Instead of getting frustrated that I was awoken (is that a word?).....I simply have learned to use that time to pray. The other day as I was awake at 3am.... I told God of my struggles and I know he knew them already......but to say them felt good. To tell Him what was on my heart at that moment and be able to tell Him things no one else knows was really nice. And so I did the same this morning.....very early. I also thought about my post yesterday about temptations. I have a few things to add.

When I read my Bible, there are plenty of examples of people who were tempted and failed. The first ones were Eve and Adam. Notice I placed Eve ahead of him in the list? Haha.....but In reality she was the one tempted by the snake to eat the fruit and Adam followed. Long story short from Genesis.....Eve was alone in the garden. This was Adam's first mistake because he was to be protecting her. He was no where around when the snake came and tempted her to eat the fruit. She knew she wasn't to eat it as God told her and her husband NOT to.....but the snake (satan) convinced her and she fell. When I say fell....I mean she fell into the temptation and ended up sinning. She could have asked her husband before she ate it.....(which would have been the smart thing to do) and she could have asked God (which would have been an even smarter thing to do) but she felt she knew best and ate anyway. When Adam came back on scene, he asked what she was doing and she got him to eat it too. I'm sorry, but he had a choice right then and there.....but instead of asking God, he disobeyed too. Each one of these two blamed others for their fall. They didn't take responsibility for their own actions. We still do this today. We pass the buck and blame everyone else for our mess. These two taught us well.
Now God wasn't happy with them, but guess what? He did punish them for their sin yet He still in all His grace and mercy loved and protected them. Yes they had to work now and the consequences of their sin affected all mankind, but God never left them. This is an amazing example for us. He still protects His children.....even when we mess up.

Skip ahead to Joseph and his brothers. Joseph was the son of Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons, but Joseph was the "favorite" son of Jacob. This is sometimes hard to grasp for me because being a parent, we aren't to have favorites when it comes to our kids, but maybe Jacob doesn't understand this? It's not important as God had a plan for it all.  So because of Joseph's status with his father, his brothers hated him. They wanted him dead so their dad would love them more.......so they plotted and planned. They  were tempted to kill him, but decided that placing him in a well and lying to their father was a much better idea. What they didn't realize when they left him in that well, is that what they wanted for evil.....God used for good. In the end.....Joseph was brought out of the well.....adopted by Egyptians......sent to prison without just cause......interpreted pharaoh's dreams..... And became a great leader in Egypt. Eventually he made amends with his brothers and was reunited with his father. He became very powerful and was able to help the family who ditched him for dead in their time of need during the famine. Only God can have this type of grace and mercy and pass it to His children.

Jesus was tempted 3 times by satan. Now I used to wonder how Jesus could be tempted, but the Bible tells us he was so I believe he really was. Jesus on earth was fully human and fully God. He experienced what we experience on this earth. What's so amazing is when we pray and go to him with our troubles and struggles, he can relate because he's been there.....he knows what it's like. Satan tried to tempt Jesus, but it didn't work. The Bible tells us that when we are tempted God will provide a way out for us to stand up under it. (1 Corinthians 10:13). We don't have to give in. We can follow his leading and take the way out like Jesus did. (You can read of Jesus temptations in Matther chapter 4). This is the example we need to follow. Jesus was perfect and never sinned. We can never say that. We will sin until the day we die and get to heaven. However.....we can pray and think before we act. We can go to our Father and ask for help.....unlike Adam and Eve. The reality is though....we will be tempted and we will fall. We need to repent and get back up. Satan wants nothing more than to keep us down and not have us serving and loving our God....but we need to choose to get up and keep going. Then we will be stronger and more like Jesus as we live for Him!

Temptation

When my husband and I taught the youth at church......we talked a lot of temptation. Teens can relate to temptation each day because of all they face at school, jobs, extra curricular activities, studies, and peer pressure. However......just because one day you wake up and are no longer a teen, that does not mean temptation leaves too. It is always there......it never leaves us. 

First of all.....temptation in itself is not a sin. Once we give into it, then it becomes a sin. We as humans love sin. We are born that way, but once we accept Christ the desire to sin is less. We get a new way of thinking and want to please God so we think before we act, so to speak. We are always tempted to do wrong......but that doesn't mean we have to fall into it.

A few years ago I was struggling with my relationship with God. I chose to listen to music that wasn't Christian and as a result, I was distancing my self from Him. Let's be clear.....I'm not blaming the music for my distance, but I was choosing to listen to what didn't honor God and as a result I started to fall into old habits. Music and I go way back. I can hear a song and remember an event or a situation or a relationship just by hearing it. Song lyrics don't ever seem to leave my brain. The way I feel when I hear the song doesn't leave my brain either.....so I get wrapped up in a mess I don't need to be in just because I choose to listen to what I shouldn't. This series of events becomes a stumbling block for me. No one knows what makes me stumble but me....so I am my own worst enemy. 

When I was 18, I loved hanging out with my friends and drinking. Jack Daniels was my favorite. I had friends over 21 that would buy my whatever I wanted. Back then, I lied, cheated, and broke my parents trust just to get a good buzz on. I am not proud of this, but the temptation was so great, I could not say "no". Today.....I don't drink at all. I am afraid of what would happen to me as a result. I had a real problem back in the day, but even though it's been years and years, the "feeling" of it all may be too much for me. It would create another stumbling block for me so I avoid it. I have come to a place where I want to please my God and this is a way I can do that without sacrificing anything. I can say "no" now and I do. The temptation to party and be drunk isn't there like it used to be. I don't hold anything against people who want to drink. Just for me.....I choose not to. 

I get tempted everyday....as we all do. The thing is we have a choice. We can run or we can give in, But once we give in, we have stumbled. The thing that is so great about our God is that we can follow 1 John 1:9.....confess and repent and be forgiven. That means we can get back up and keep going. We don't have to be stuck in our sin and shame. We can get back to what we need to do for Jesus without guilt. This is not a green light to do what we want when we want......it's a way of restoring fellowship with our God despite ourselves. 

God knows we will fall and slip. He has made a way for us to be restored to Himself through Jesus and the cross. He died for us to be forgiven. So each time we give in to our temptations we have a way out from under it. We don't have to be stuck in our shame and misery of sin. Let Jesus love.....let him heal.....he will if we ask. ☺️

Choices

We all have choices to make. We have to choose everyday what we will wear.....eat....drink.....which roads to take to work.....if we will get out of bed.....
Some choices don't require much effort. Some things in our life are so routine we don't have to think about choosing.....we just do it.

When we first got married we rented a home. We knew we wanted to own a home so in less than a year we, (my husband and I) chose to purchase a mobile home from his mother. It wasn't much, but it would be ours and we would own it one day when it was paid off. Before we signed the contract we had to sit down and figure out our budget......compare that to what we paid monthly......and chose what was best for us as a family. It was an easy choice. We packed our stuff and moved in a few weeks. We were so happy back then to be in that little place. Like I said it wasn't much, but some of the best years of our married life were spent in that trailer. At that time, we only had 2 kids and they were real small. In time we had our third and they all began to grow......grow to where this little trailer was too small for us.😔 So......back to where we were 7 years earlier. We had a choice to make.

Once someone wanted to buy our home we were on a quest to find a new one......looking all over....but finally finding one that would work for our family. This time, our kids were big enough to have input in the choice we had to make. We took them house hunting with us and they helped choose our next place to live. These examples of choices are big ones and thankfully ones that don't come along too frequently in our lives. It's the small choices we tend to struggle with....at least I do.

Small choices In whether I should have my afternoon coffee.....or get gas when the needle is 1/4 full......or eat a salad or cheeseburger.......pay electric bill or buy food......say what's on my mind or keep quiet......fall into the temption I want so badly.......be nice or not......have someone over for dinner or go to their house......spend time with people or read alone in my room.......
All these things I have to choose, same as anyone else. We all have to choose all day long. This is part of our free will. We can choose one thing or one way over another.

Our God gives us free will to make choices.......however the biggest and most important choice we will ever make is for Him or against Him. We all have to choose to follow Jesus or not. We cannot avoid this decision. One day we will all give an account for our life on this earth. One day we will bow before a holy God and have to answer for our choices we made in this life. I didn't make the choice for Jesus until I was 26 years old. Don't be like me in living for self and sin for too many years before realizing how great and merciful our God is. We all deserve punishment for our rebellion against Him, but in His grace he will forgive us and come into our life. Jesus died so we wouldn't have to. He died and make us righteous with a holy God. He died to live and give us eternal life with Him. There is no better choice we can make.....especailly when our eternal life is at stake.

Disciplines #12

Humility is a strong word. We are called to be humble by God.  Humility is choosing love over power. It's thinking of oneself less and others needs more. The opposite of humility is pride. We have to be careful not to cross over into pride.....ever. Humility is lovely......pride is not.

The other day I was talking with a couple. They recently became homeless and just wanted something to eat. This was not easy for them to talk of their situation as I could tell it was hard for them. They had to be humble and ask for help. The girl was pregnant and their situation broke my heart. I know there are people out there who take advantage......and I know people who would say these two were doing that to me. This may be the case, but it's not for me to figure out or try to fix for them. I know God put them in my path that day to humble me. To show me my priorities get mixed up sometimes.....that people need others to help them, same as we all need God to help us.

We can also be humble in our learning. God places people in our life to teach us. I am fortunate to work with some very educated people. If I want to learn a procedure or how certain medicines affect the body, I can ask anyone and they will help me understand. I ask because I don't know and they do. There are always people in our life who know more than we do. When we realize we don't know everything and can ask others that know much more than us, that is being humble.
Now....if I go to one of my coworkers and tell them they are wrong about how they are doing a procedure just because I read an article on it and it's different than they are doing it......that makes me prideful. That makes me think I know more than they do.....and they been doing it for years and have a degree.....and I don't know what I'm talking about, yet I think I do. I am not only not being humble, I'm being arrogant  to them. I try to look at my teachers and respect what they have to teach me....even if I don't understand right away. I listen and if I need to look up or research further what they tell me, then so be it, but trying to be "all that" is wrong. There is no room for arrogance in healthcare because someone's life is usually on the line. That has to be priority.

What about being humble before God? This is the most important. God does not tolerate pride or arrogance. Jesus was never proud. He despised the pride of the Pharisees. We can't let Jesus light shine if we aren't humble. When we are humble to God we recognize we are wrong and have sinned against Him. We need to confess and repent so our fellowship can be restored with Him. If we let our sin consume us, our communications with our God is stifled. He hears our prayers but can't act on them because our sin is in the way. We have to acknowledge we hurt him and repent so we can restore the relationship. This is humility. We realize we have offended a holy God and take action because the fellowship with Him is the most important thing in our life. We humbly come before that cross and let our God know we messed up. He will forgive us....according to 1 john 1:9.....he forgives us every time we confess. Prideful people don't think they need to confess anything. Humble people know they need to confess and know God is the ultimate authority in their life. Pleasing him is above all else in this life is how they live.

So....we need to be humble, teachable, and help others along the way to see these traits are important.