Always Steadfast

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
~ Psalm 51:10

One of my prayers for my children is that they would have a pure heart, pure motives and minds and hearts transformed and conformed by God. To be honest, this type of prayer never entered my mind for my children until they became school aged and were no longer under my constant care. I became terrified when I realized that Samuel was no longer going to be with me and my direction every minute of the day. I became insanely anxious when I realized others where going to be able to speak into him and at him all day without me being there to filter things, or guide him through all the white noise like talking that would swirl around him on a daily basis....so I started praying. Lord, please let my son know when it's you and when it's not; help him to keep a clean heart, spirit and mind in a world that is often composed of hidden agendas and unclear motives. One day while I was praying for my children in regards to the specific request of purity, it came to my mind that I should also keep praying for that for my husband and I. I was taken by surprise, but than I thought about it. In a world of selfish ambition, we adults also need to make sure we have pure hearts and motives. I feel like I do a good job at this already and I don't see anything glaring at me in the horizon that is impure, but it never hurts to be on guard, especially if I want to teach my children about purity. Impurity doesn't just come in sexual form, or uncleanliness either for that matter, but it can come in the form of lust, greed and even popularity. I need to make sure that I am making the right moral choices for me and my family even if it's unpopular; which is just another way of keeping our home pure. Lord, I pray that you would cleanse whatever you desire and make my home a pure one for you. Always and steadfast. ~

Very Alone

Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always; to the very end of the age. ~ Matthew 28:19-20

These are the last two verses of the book of Matthew given to us straight from Jesus' mouth and even though the whole of the two equals a part of the Great Commission, what really speaks to me is the very last sentence....'and surely I am with you always; to the very end of the age.' Therefore, you and I have nothing to fear not only as we walk this earth trying to make disciples of all the nations but also when we are doing our daily, sometimes mundane chores; or getting persecuted for following what we feel like we've been called to do; we are never alone even through horrific circumstances and situations. I have come to realize this in my own journey. I have come to know that I don't and won't understand everything, but we humans are able to endure the unimaginable when we are accompanied by friends, family and especially when we realize Jesus is with us even though we don't understand. Why? Because we were never meant to be, designed to be, or intended to be....alone. In fact, we never are. You may feel it, but you never are. NEVER. We have what some would say their conscious (I call it the Holy Spirit) and we have a father who loves us unconditionally if we would only let him....he's just waiting for you and I to turn to him. He waits patiently. He will not force a relationship with anyone; that's part of his love, you have to initiate that, but he will always be waiting for you to take that step. My personal spiritual journey has been rather intense in a good way these last two years and I am so thankful that I am never alone. There are circumstances and situations that I felt COMPLETELY alone without direction and in total confusion. We all have them. It's how you chose to REACT to them that can really affect your life. I have learned that without those sometimes dark and deafening silent times I would not have the relationship I have with Jesus now. May I suggest that sometimes he leaves us alone and backs off a little just so he can show himself again to us when we are at the end of our rope and finally turn to him again. He uses us in our weakness to show himself strong and when I don't think I can go on anymore he always shows me that I'm never alone......to the very end of the age. ~

Some Improving

Rejoice with those who rejoice....Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty....never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. ~ Romans 12:15-18

Whew! This scripture is loaded with what seems like impossible rules. I mean who can follow these all the time? No one. We are imperfect human beings, but we can try to live up to these measures everyday with brand new mercies from above. We are to be joyful and rejoice with those who have reason to rejoice; no matter how we feel. We are to rejoice with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ when they have something to rejoice about. We are to live in harmony with one another and sometimes that means learning how to control our tongues, at least for me, and learning when to keep my big mouth shut. We are not to be haughty; we are not to be full of ourselves; which goes against the grain of this narcissistic/selfish society we live in today. God did not design us to be by ourselves, but we are to fellowship with each other and love each other without judgement in part by leaving our selfishness at the door. It's not all about me. God forgive me those times when I have inflated myself with conceit and a self induced ego; only in my humbleness can I show the true character of God with servant hood and not expectation. And who in the world knows how to live with everyone peaceably all the time? May I suggest that no one has been able to do that; even Jesus stirred controversy, but we are to try our hardest to live in peace. When someone rubs us wrong, or wrongs us, we need to be quick to take the high road and give them the benefit of the doubt instead of playing the victim role all the time, or seeking revenge. After all, once again, it's not all about me and if I continuously play the victim card I am also playing the "about me" card constantly. So everyday I need to pray that God would make me more Christlike and less worldly so that I may live according to his word. Without him and his mercies I will never come close to becoming what he wants me to become. Thank him that we can go to him and ask him to help us to become more like him; after all, he knows you - ask him to help you and watch your world grow. I know I could use some improving. ~

Mind Blowing

"The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." ~ Zephaniah 3:17

I love the thought that someone exults over me with loud singing all the time; do you realize that the Lord rejoices over you? Whew! Sometimes I feel so unworthy of that, actually, most of the time I feel unworthy of that; after all, I am just me, but not to God; I am special to him. The one who created this universe, this world, and every little detail of it actually exults over...me! Spring time is a special time of the year for many reasons ~ it's a fresh start, the days get longer, new growth is seen outside, but when I really think about it and let my mind wonder about how everything comes back to life and lives fresh again, I am in awe of how that all works. This is not science and it didn't happen in a BIG bang, it happened by divine creation and when I think about the inter workings of how plants, animals and the world works, I get overwhelmed to think that the one who made all of this is more concerned with me and with the human race than with any other thing. Talk about having a full plate...he's got one! And yet, he still makes time for me...he rejoices over me with gladness when he has a ton of other things I'm sure he could be doing. I am the lover of the one and true God who not only holds all things in his hands, but still fights for me, loves me, rejoices over me and sings over me. Boy, than I must be pretty special...and so are you! Rejoice in that this spring. Rejoice in that this Mother's Day. God has given us this beautiful world to enjoy and you are his crowning creation. Mind blowing! ~

Will Continue

SHORTY'S IS OPEN! FRIDAY - TUESDAY 4:00 - 9:00 P.M.! WHAT A RIDE! My husband got his restaurant open and people are flocking in; what a wonderful thing it is to witness your spouses dream come true! There are, of course, kinks that need to be worked out, but I believe that is with any new venture and especially any new venture that has to do with customer service. There are no words to exactly tell him how proud I am of him, but I have tried; part of the amazement comes from the fact that I would be lying if I said I thought this was all going to come together. I had my doubts and I had to eat crow in the end, but, in this case, crow that I am more than happy to dine on. Our life has been a whirl wind of events in the last six months; one day we are thinking about moving back home and then two weeks later, BANG, God gives us the wisdom to know it's time....so we move, we start a restaurant, I get a full time job in the school district that I left eight years prior, and we start getting together with the other churches in this area to help out the youth here; WHEW! When we first moved home I missed Denver and my home there terribly; felt like I went into a bit of a funk, but in the last two months, I can now look at pictures of our life down there with happiness and thankfulness for that chapter in our lives instead of regretting the move. After all, Denver was home. It was our boys' home. It was the place Cody and I started our family new. Denver was good to us. However, God has been great here also and I believe he will continue to be. ~

Acceptance Action

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. ~ Romans 15:7

Have you ever felt like an outsider? Has it been hard for you to accept others for who they are? One of my many weaknesses is that sometimes it's hard for me to accept how other people think, or how they view things; which let's face it, is a form of superiority on my part; SHAME ON ME! This is a characteristic of mine that I am learning to trust into God's hands and change because the truth of the matter is that I have felt VERY inferior when I hang out with certain people and I absolutely loathe that feeling...I don't want to make anyone else feel that way and it saddens me that I may. We are to accept each other, always. Is that a hard pill for you to swallow? The way you can gauge how you are with acceptance is to take evaluation of your friendships...have you had a few, a couple, or maybe even a handful go by the wayside? Even though I am tremendously blessed with many good friends, I can look back and see a few friendships that have slipped away that I thought would last forever? Why? If I'm honest, it wasn't all them, I probably was not as accepting as I could have been....whew, that was hard and sad to admit. Over the weekend we got to hang out with some dear friends of ours from Broomfield and over dinner on Saturday night we got into the conversation of relationships. My dear friend said, "We don't have the right to write people off. We just don't. That's not ours. We need to learn to get over our pettiness sometimes. Only God would have that right and he never has done that to any of us. Who do we think we are?" WOW! She's right. Only God would have that right and he never has. It struck a cord with me. Acceptance is dearly needed in our families, among siblings, among children, among parents, among friends, among coworkers, among spouses, in every relationship. Then I ran across this scripture this morning and I once again thought of my dear friends; she has every right in my mind to write certain people off in her life and she never did either. Incredible. Let me just tell all my friends and family, I'm not perfect and never will be, and neither will you, but I will love you always and continue my quest of complete acceptance. Remind me if you need to! Nothing should separate good friends. Nothing....because here's the revelation I had, if we are unwilling to accept someone, or if we are willing to write someone off for their wrongs, then how good are we at forgiveness? In effect, you are unforgiving if you write someone off because the reason you most likely wrote them off was because they hurt you. Maybe they didn't think like you and you couldn't accept that. How petty! Not at all like the Jesus we supposedly than honor and follow and call our Lord. Oh! Ouch! That revelation hurts me. I am so sorry. I don't want to be that way. Let's start with acceptance and love each other the way Christ loves us. Christ could have written me off time and time again, but he never has....who am I to say that I can then? Acceptance! What a statement of faith we could be to this world with that one word and action. ~

There Waiting

The father of the prodigal son said, "Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." So they began to celebrate. ~ Luke 15:23-24

Do you know that God celebrates you? You know that God celebrates when people come to him and find his salvation, but can you fathom that he does that no matter where you've been, or what you've done? It's true. I once heard a friend of mine say, "You can not do anything bad enough for God not to love you." Blew me away! I have always had the head knowledge that God loves me, but to hear it like that, "there's nothing I can do bad enough for God to quit loving me" hit my heart. He made us in his image, he will always love his crown creation. Think of the biggest violation against you, or your family....do you know that if the person who did that to you comes to know God, he is forgiven? Hard to imagine, uh? Do you know that God even loves them? That's not to say that we have a "get out of jail free" card, but it's to say, "Hey, we all make mistakes. Some bigger than others, but I will ALWAYS love you." Everyone has been a prodigal son or daughter in their own way; whether it be huge, or in a small turn of the back, we all have. No matter where we've been, or what we do, when we come back to God there is a huge celebration in heaven and the angels rejoice with him in the loudest concert you can even imagine. You see, there is complete hope when someone either comes back, or just starts out their journey; there is light at the end of the dark worldly tunnel at that very moment. It's a time to celebrate! Think of a promotion you've gotten at work, an accomplishment you received at school, think of a loved one coming home from serving overseas...now times that celebration by thousands! Can you see his face beaming? He loves you, he wants to celebrate your return. God wants to give everything to us and as long as we come back he will always be there waiting....for you. ~

Give Best

Encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. ~
1 Thessalonians 5:11

How often do you feel encouraged? How often do you encourage others? I know I myself need help in the area of giving encouragement; especially to those closest to me; I'm not always the builder. Encourage, according to Webster, means to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope. Unfortunately, my mouth runs amok sometimes and spills out every kind of discouragement. One of my goals this year is to become a more supportive and encouraging wife in not only my actions, but also in my words. There are times I am far from inspiring and if I'm not inspiring then I must be expiring. Expire, according to Webster, means to emit the breath of. How sad is that?! Courage is a huge part of encouragement and according to Webster, the definition of courage is mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. If I'm not encouraging people to be strong with courage then I am discouraging and supplying no strength, or support system for those who may really need it. Lastly, to be encouraging means to give hope and according to Webster, hope is to expect with confidence. If I take that hope away, or never give that hope than I am giving hopelessness, which also according to Webster is having no expectation of good or success; another word for despair. So...if I'm not encouraging I am expiring, discouraging, and despairing to those around me and am a life sucking, unsupportive and complete doubter of all good. Is that you? I know I personally steer clear of those people because, and hang on to your seats, they are all to often selfish takers from me than givers. It's always about them. However, that's me somedays....OH how I want to be an encourager! I want to breath life into peoples situations! I want to help them persevere and strengthen them! I want to expect only good for them and I want them to expect only good for themselves! What a different world we would live in if we would all make a conscious effort to build up instead of tear down. Our marriages, our children, our other family relationships, our friendships, our work places, our very beings would be transformed! Oh how I want that for me and mine. I want to leave that to my children. In the movie Bambi, Thumper's mother had good advice, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." I say if you can't be encouraging, than don't say anything at all. Now if I could only live by my own words....I'm going to give it my best. ~

Parent Wants

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. ~ James 3:16

"What happened?" I ask my four year old as I run out into the yard to find my six year old crying and Isaac standing over him with somewhat of a sly look on his face.
"Well, I wanted to see Sam's new Spiderman bat and he wouldn't let me...so I hit him," Isaac answers nonchalantly.
"Isaac, if Sam had it first, you can't take it out of his hand. Plus, you should not have hit your brother. You needed to wait until he was done playing with it instead of ripping it out of his hand." I reach for Samuel and rub the top of his head where there is sure to be a small welt.

Everywhere you look in this world today people are trying to get what they want when they want it. I know the story of my boys is small and maybe even trite, but the point is that envy and selfishness start at an early age. I've said it before, this world is full of narcissistic people who care more about themselves and what they want than anything else. There's the Ponzi scheme, the murdered spouse for money, the thief, the man who covets his neighbors wife, and even me...who sometimes envies her friends' possessions when mine are more than enough. I wish I could spend my tax return on a big screen flat panel t.v., but no, we have to owe instead. We wonder why the world is so messed up sometimes and I suggest that it's partly because of the envy and selfish ambitions of a fallen world. After all, if we didn't have envy we would all be content with what we have and there would be no room for jealousy. For some, if we didn't envy we would not have the evil thoughts that then invade our minds and cause the turmoil in our lives. Our lives would not be polluted with thoughts of how to keep up with, or even beat the Jones' and we'd have more time and space for selfless acts and thoughts. If we were not selfish, we would put others first most of the time and we would not be in constant pursuit of our own happiness. Don't get me wrong, we need to be in pursuit of our dreams and desires, but sometimes we get our own dreams and desires confused with the ones God has placed in our hearts. Without envy and selfishness we would be more concerned with what GOD wants us to do and not with what WE want to do. In turn, peace and love would prevail and disorder and evil would dissipate.

Later that night Sam did get a small welt, but his little brother asked him to forgive him and they went on their happy way. It starts young, but if we could teach our children how God would want them to deal with envy and selfishness we would be giving our children and their future a healthy start and I know that's what every parent wants. ~

Beautiful Park

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. ~ Colossians 3:21

"Remember? We are not to exasperate our children, honey." This has become one of my many sayings lately as I watch my two sons and their father wrestle sometimes to the brink of someone getting upset. They all wrestle frequently and most of the time it is innocent, out of love and they are just having a good time. I've learned to back off, but sometimes one of them (usually one of the boys; not my knight) will get upset and the other two have a slight tendency to push them a little, or "egg" them on. Anytime it's one brother to another I say, "Quit it!" but if it's my husband, my newest moto comes flying out of my mouth. Then it happened. The day I was told the same thing by my heavenly groom...."I didn't mean that only for fathers, Janine." What? My son had been bouncing off of the walls all morning long and had come to me with strange requests all morning long also. "Can I fill dad's rubber gloves up with water to see how much they can hold?" NO! "Can we make cookies this morning?" NO! "Can I give my stuffed animals a bath?" NO! Then here he came again and, of course, while I was busy! Inevitably he always asks me things when I'm in the middle of doing something that I think is important. "Can we go to the park?" N - wait a minute, I'm getting something "YOU'RE DISCOURAGING YOUR SON!" What happened? In just a few seconds my perspective changed and I heard it, "It's not just for fathers, Janine. You are embittering and discouraging your son also when you don't take the opportunity to play with him; which is part of serving me." You see, I had always read that scripture to mean that we are not to make our children unnecessarily angered. Well, yeah! HELLO! That's exactly what I was doing. That's exactly what I do a lot of the time. I make them UNNECESSARILY angered because I don't feel like I have the time for their requests. At that moment I realized that needed to change in me and I prayed that it would. One of my New Years goals is to be more of a spontaneous mother and here I was saying no to everything when really, what does it hurt to stop and bake cookies with my four year old? What's the difference between frustrating my children with my Noes when they could be Yeses as opposed to frustrating them any other way? Let's face it, sometimes I'm going to discourage them because there are indisputable NO answers, but if it can be a YES, then why not? So, moms, let's be a little more spontaneous and stop discouraging our children by not giving them the attention they deserve. Granted, it's not always going to be possible, or easy, but it can be so rewarding! When we can we need to be more encouraging instead of discouraging to our children. By the way, it was a beautiful day at the park! ~

Move Forward

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God." ~
Luke 9:23-27

In order to completely accept Jesus and everything He did for us on the cross, we are also commanded to follow Him daily. This is the harder part; to everyday sacrifice our humanly and worldly wants so that we can become more Christ like. Everyday we make choices to either live selfishly, or for Him in sometimes a sacrificial way; giving up something we want to further His kingdom. The truth of the matter is that whatever choice we make also helps shape where we will spend eternity. You can not proclaim to follow Christ and have the narcissistic mentality that much of this world holds today. It is not ALL about YOU....in fact, very little of it is about you. To continually seek out worldly happiness and pleasures will only lead you to hurt and hard feelings. The true source of joy comes from resting in Him and in His truths, promises and complete will for our lives. He is in control. The sooner we come to realize that we are not in as much control as we think we are and as soon as we learn to be content where we are and with what we have the sooner joy will enter our hearts and souls....our very beings. It's like being pulled behind a boat on a tube, or water skis - if we stay in the wake of the boat we have much smoother water. On the other hand, if you venture outside of the wake you start to get into choppy territory; water that only experienced water skiers can navigate. The same is true with Christ. If you stay behind His lead and take up your cross daily the smoother life seems to be no matter what is going on around you, but as soon as you leave his lead you enter into areas that are harder to navigate and you are more likely to falter. All I know for sure is that I don't want Him to be ashamed of me when I meet him face to face as the scriptures indicate will happen to some...so I'll pick up my cross and move forward. ~