But I don't WANT to!

Colossians 3:23 (ESV)  "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men"

It's that time of year again. The leaves are starting to turn, there is a chill in the air, and all of the stores smell of paper and pencils.
 
Well, that's what it was like back when old folks like me started school.

Now, it's still VERY hot outside, and the only reason the leaves have turned brown is either too little water or too much sun. School supplies do run rampant around here though.

Everyone better look out, because Boo starts school this year.

With Bug, it was easy. She was so excited to go to school. It was all she talked about the summer before she started. She even loved to play school at home.

Have I ever mentioned how different Bug and Boo are?  Don't get me wrong, my Boo is a very good girl. She also enjoys to learn, but does not enjoy sitting still nearly as much as her sister does, at least not right now.  Bug wants to be the teacher and have Boo be the student. Needless to say, that only lasts for a little while before the small one gets tired of the big one bossing her around and stomps off to sit alone in her room.

I've tried to get Boo excited for this new phase in her life. The conversation I remember most went like this:

"Hey, Boo, don't you want to go to school so you can meet some new friends? That will be good, right?"

"Mom, when I was born, I had friends, and that is all the friends I need."

Okay, so it's easy to pick on my kids, especially the one that is too little to be embarrassed about things I might write about her. I can see this scenario working out for me and other adults as well. How often do we have to start something new, and either do not want to or are apathetic to the idea and process?

Is there something that God wants you to do that you are running from, or trying to get out of doing?

One of the best things I did this summer was take a study on the book Radical by David Platt.  It was challenging, to say the very least. Sometimes we really do not know what all we do have until we see others that are lacking some of the very things that we consider necessities.

Of all of the many things I learned while reading (ok, skimming) this book, two stood out the most, and were so simple that I felt crazy for not realizing them before:

1. There are some things that we should do for God, that we do not for whatever reason or excuse we may come up with. Whether it is something as simple as not wanting to, or more complex like worrying about ridicule or losing our job. When the end is God, should anything else REALLY matter?

2. There are things that we do or want to have and claim that it is for God as justification of our very own selfishness.  How many times have we done something "for God", but it was really "for me"?  Do we volunteer to be good stewards of our time and serve God, or for the recognition of being a good and helpful person? Do we want bigger, larger, and better facilities in our churches to help host more people to hear about God or just so we can keep up or out do the Jones' church? If we have all of these bigger and better buildings, are we actually doing anything to bring in the lost people of our communities? Even better, are we going out of our way and comfort zone to reach the people around us for Christ at all? 

The church is not a restaurant or a baseball field. We can build it, but that does not mean that they will come.

Make an effort this week to do at least one thing that you are not quite comfortable with for God. It could be something simple. Sometimes the easiest things are the hardest to do. It could be a lot easier for some people to go around the world on a mission trip than to walk across the street and talk to their neighbor about God.

Pray this week. Pray that God will show you an opportunity to speak his word into someone's life. And when the opportunity arises, take it. Do not be scared. The worst thing that will usually happen in America is that the person will look at you weird or talk back to you in a condescending way.  Is that really such a price to pay? There is a chance that even if you get this outcome you may have planted a seed in that person's heart.

 You have kept count of my tossings;
  put my tears in your bottle.
  Are they not in your book?
 Then my enemies will turn back
  in the day when I call.
  This I know, that God is for me.
 In God, whose word I praise,
  in the LORD, whose word I praise,
 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
  What can man do to me?
 I must perform my vows to you, O God;
  I will render thank offerings to you.
 For you have delivered my soul from death,
  yes, my feet from falling,
 that I may walk before God
  in the light of life.
(Psalm 56:8-13 ESV)

Robin Hood... is he really Good?

Robin Hood… Is he really Good?

Romans 2:21 (ESV) “…you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?  While you preach against stealing, do you steal?”

Sometimes my kids ask me things and I am just totally caught off guard.

Later I will fill you in on the questions Bug had while reading Genesis…. that is a story for another time.  (Be afraid!)

For those of you playing along at home, Bug is now 8 ½ going on 30, and Boo is 4 ½ going on Princess and CEO of the entire world while being a Ninja Spy. Yeah, something like that.

One day last week we were just sitting in the truck and Bug was excited because she was able to ride in the front. We will just try to overlook the fact that she was in the front because I had too much junk in the back seat for both Boo and Bug to sit back there. It made her happy and I didn’t have to move my stuff, so it was a win-win.

A few miles down the road she asks one of her random “what you think I will ask and what I really want to know are different things” questions. She has had a multitude of these lately.

“Mom, if Robin Hood steals from the rich, and gives it to the poor; when the rich stole it first, is he a good person, or a bad person?”

At 8 years old she is old enough to understand the difference between right and wrong. However, sometimes even we adults get confused when we start trying to blur the lines and rationalize behaviors because they are done for the good of other people.

It is still wrong.

My answer was this:  Robin Hood had a good idea, and possibly a good heart to try to help the poor people. However, the way he went about it was not right. A better option would have been if he tried to find a different way to help them, or a way to stop them from being robbed in the first place. It did not make him a bad person. He had a good idea, but he chose a bad way to accomplish his goal, however noble the goal was.

If Robin Hood had a little Robin Hood Jr., how would he have been able to justify his actions? How can he say that “stealing is wrong!” when everyone watches him steal from others? 

In case you don't know, people watch us every single day. Our kids, coworkers, everyone. The people around us know what morals we claim to have, and sit back to see if we actually choose to live them out in our daily lives.

It is one of the hardest things to do as a follower of Christ, but he does command that we not retaliate against others.  We are to stand up for ourselves, but not to seek revenge.

Matthew 5: 43-48 (ESV) “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

After all of that explaining, what was the response I received? Usually this kid is full of debate, question after question.

All she said was, “Oh, ok.”

Really? 

If you have any questions or ideas, please feel free to leave a comment!

Kris    

Louise's Christmas Story

This is actually from a story I am writing and posting online. However, this chapter also works as a stand alone because it is a flashback.

Please forgive me if the formatting is off because I copied and pasted it from my other site!

Merry Christmas everyone! KPL







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Louise, an inquisitive five year old, examines the living room for all things Christmas related. The room is full of items; candlesticks on every table, strings of garland around all the windows, Santa and snowman figurines on any extra spot on a flat surface, it was quite a wonderful Christmas sight. The small Christmas tree sat in the corner by the fireplace and was covered in handmade ornaments, a tin foil star on top, and an old sheet underneath for a skirt. Above Louise’s stocking on the mantel was her mom’s most cherished Christmas piece, a large Nativity scene. Louise pushed a dining table chair over to the mantel and stood on it to get a better look.

The set looked like dolls that someone had made out of hard concrete instead of something soft. All of the people were wearing what looked like different colored sheets wrapped around themselves instead of real clothes. Louise found baby Jesus in what her mom called a manger. She reached in to pick him up.

“Hold it right there!” came her mom’s voice from the kitchen. “You are not supposed to climb on chairs, and you are not supposed to touch the Nativity.”

“Aw, Mom, I wasn’t going to break it. I just wanted to see the baby.” Louise climbed down from the chair and gave her mom her best please-do-not-spank-me look that she could muster up.

Evelyn laughed and wiped her hands on a dish towel. Laying the towel on the counter in the kitchen she came into the living room with Louise. “Honey, if you want to see Jesus, I can tell you about him.” She picked up the baby out of the manger. “But honey, just remember, this figurine is just that, a decoration. It reminds us of Jesus and that is good, but Jesus doesn’t live in this figurine, he lives in the hearts of those who love him and in heaven with God, his Father.”

Evelyn sat on the couch and Louise climbed into her lap. “So is he like Santa, Momma? Some kids at school told me Santa is only real to the kids who believe he is real.”

“Oh, no baby, not like that at all,” replied her mom, with a concerned look on her face. “You see, where those kids think they have to believe in Santa to make him real, Jesus is always real whether we believe in him or not. But he is also a gentleman, and he will not come to live in our hearts unless we let him. He knocks on our door, but we have to let him in.”

“Oh, ok,” said Louise, but she still had a very confused look on her small features.

“I’ll tell you what,” said Evelyn as she wrapped her arms around Louise, “why don’t I tell you the Nativity story?”

“I already know that, Mom,” replied Louise. “Jesus was born in a barn and slept in the hay. Boring!” She concluded her little spell with a fake yawn to drive home the point.

“Honey, if you think that Jesus was just another human baby, then yes, his birth would not be the most impressive story you have ever heard. But do you know why he was special? Why him? Who is his dad? Why his mom? Why he had to be born in Bethlehem and no where else?”

“No, I don’t guess I know that part. Why was he so special, Momma?”

Evelyn curled her daughter up snug in her arms. The soup she was preparing for supper would have to wait on the stove. This subject was just too important.

“I’ll tell it to you, just like it says in the Bible, because I’ve read the story so much I feel like I know it by heart,” began Evelyn, twirling her daughter’s hair around her finger. “Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve?”

“Yes, Momma,” giggled Louise, “but I’m pretty sure that Mary and Joseph were Jesus’ parents, not Adam and Eve!”

“That is true, Louise. Adam and Eve were not Jesus’ parents, but that is where and when everything began. You see, God made Adam and Eve and made a perfect garden for them to live in forever. There was only one rule; they were not allowed to eat from just one of the trees in the garden. One day the serpent, who was really Satan in disguise, tricked Eve into eating from the tree, and she got Adam to eat from it too! It was awful; this was the very first sin.”

“What is a sin, Momma?”

“Well, sin is when you do something that you know God does not want you to do, and you do it anyway. Kind of like when you know you aren’t supposed to climb on chairs and you do it anyway…..” Louise looked up with a sheepish grin. Her mother continued, “Adam and Eve hid from God because they knew they had done something wrong. As punishment God told them that they had to leave the garden and make their own home and find their own food. But the worst part about it was that sin entered into the human race. From that day on, every person would sin, and God is so Holy that he can not tolerate sin. It totally separated us from Him, even though he wanted to have a relationship with us, and we need to have one with Him. To fix this, God came up with a wonderful plan. A way that we could fellowship with God again and something that could take our sins away from us. God would send his Son, and his son would never ever sin, and his son would help us get back to God.”

“God’s son, that’s what they call Jesus!” exclaimed Louise. Then her face scrunched up, like she was deep in thought. “Momma, I thought that Joseph was his daddy? That just doesn’t make sense. You can’t have two dads.”

“You’re getting ahead of me, you little jitterbug,” laughed her mom. “Now that I told you WHY Jesus had to come, to bring us back to God, let me tell you HOW.” She pulled a blanket off the floor beside the couch and wrapped it around both of them.

“Everyone waited for what seemed like forever for God to send the person to save his people. Even though God told prophets for years where and how to find the savior most of them misunderstood and were looking in the wrong places, or for the wrong person.

“Mary was a young lady, but the Bible says that she loved the Lord. God sent Gabriel, an angel, to tell her that even though she was not married, she would have a son and that she should name him Jesus because he would be God’s son, and the Savior everyone had been waiting for! Gabriel told her that God would be the baby’s daddy, but that he still wanted Joseph to help raise Jesus so that he would have a daddy on earth also. This is why you were confused about who Jesus’ daddy was.”

Louise just smiled and listened.

“Anyway, all of the prophesies God told said Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. Right before Mary had Jesus they had to travel to Bethlehem to be counted for the Roman government. There were so many people staying in Bethlehem that by the time Mary and Joseph got there no hotels had any rooms left for anyone. Traveling for so many days on a donkey was not easy and Mary was about to have the baby! The best place they could find for her to have a little privacy was a stable, and after Jesus was born Mary wrapped him and placed him in a manger, which is really just a fancy word for a feeding trough.”

“Momma,” Louise piped up, “that doesn’t sound like where God’s son should be born. Why didn’t she go to the hospital? It would be all icky in a barn, er, uh, I mean in a stable.”

“Well, baby, back then they didn’t really have hospitals like they do today. Everything happened exactly like God told them all it would, many years before it actually happened.’

“Is that it?” Louise inquired.

“Not exactly, and I think you’ll like this next part. Suddenly, an angel appeared to some shepherds and told them where to find Jesus, and that this little baby would be the Savior they had been waiting for! Then a lot of other angels joined him and began praising God. Don’t you think that would be an exciting thing to see?”

“Yeah, it would be nice. But? Well, nevermind,” Louise turned to get down out of her mom’s lap.

“What is it, Louise?”

“Well, Mom, how do we know it’s true? If we didn’t see it, how do we know? It sounds like a fairy tale.”

“Louise, it isn’t true because we believe it, we believe it because it is true. When Jesus knocks on your heart, you’ll know. Until then all you can do is learn everything you can so that when the time comes, you will know what to do.” Silently her mom sent up a prayer for her daughter. Watching her struggle and waver between accepting Jesus or rejecting him was the hardest thing she had ever done.

Trying to change the subject, her mother remembered her soup. “Come on there kiddo, we need to finish our soup and if we have enough time left we can make Christmas cookies!”

“Alright!” shouted Louise as she ran off into the kitchen.

Evelyn placed baby Jesus back into the manger.

Do We Come With Spare Parts?

Here's a little quiz for you....

What functions do the following do for our bodies: tonsils and adenoids?

Do you know the answer? If not, let me help you. After many hours of exhaustive research, many antibiotics, and sleepless nights, not to mention missed days of work and school, this is the conclusion I have come to:

The sole purpose of tonsils and/or adenoids is to irritate the body they are in to death, catch every airborne/mucus born infection, and hold on to it until the body must ultimately rid itself of these burdens by having them taken out and donating a nice chunk of change to some surgeon's vacation home account.

Yep, I am pretty sure that is correct.   :o)

So, in case my bitterness has not made it apparent, the Taterbug had to have her tonsils taken out last week. We did it during Fall Break, so she wouldn't miss too much school. But the poor thing felt awful this weekend, didn't go today, and I am not sure she will be able to return tomorrow just yet. However, the offensive golf balls formerly known as tonsils are safely out of her throat.

They must have been huge. The other day she told me her throat felt empty. I thought she meant she was thirsty. She said, "no, mom. Where my tonsils used to be, my throat feels so EMPTY.".  Wow.

Another "wow" moment.... 3 days after the surgery she tells me she is sick of eating ice cream. We were eating chicken at the table and she stood over me, looking at it, drooling worse than any dog I have ever seen. I have taken to eating only foods I know she despises when she is around... It was unsettling the way she was watching my nuggets.

I mentioned getting pizza Sunday because we were all tired, to which she glared at me and replied, " I would have been jealous".  Needless to say, no pizza that night.

There are a few good parts to this though. First of all, this should severely cut down on her strep infections... hopefully, anyway. That's the goal! The second is that we have all spent more time together lately. It has been great having more time with my daughters and my lovely hubby. I thank God every day for all the blessings he has given me, even the ones that come with spare parts and hospital bills.

Carrots vs Shells and Cheese

Bug hates vegetables. That is the 5 year old. Luckily so far the baby will eat anything that gets remotely close to her mouth and does not move. But Bug hates veggies. And she hates most fruit also. We have expanded her culinary horizon greatly compared to a year ago, but it is still like waging war to even mention what veggies are going to be on her plate at dinner time. She can have a plate full of shells and cheese - her absolute favorite - but all she sees and talks about and WHINES about are those few spoonfuls of carrots beside it that she must eat also. You would think I was making her go on a strict vegetarian diet with absolutely no chicken nuggets in sight to hear the way she acts when a few measly little veggies find their way onto her plate. It's like she doesn't even see the food she likes, she is too busy focusing on what she does NOT like.

As adults, I have noticed that we tend to act this same way about things in our life to our heavenly Father. He puts a few things in our path for us to go through to either grow, strengthen our character, or just to simply learn to rely on him instead of ourselves while we get through the mess. When these things happen we seem to instantly forget about all the great and wonderful things he has done and is continuing to do in our lives, and only see the horrible big bad obstacle that is now before us. Why are we so short sighted? We want our shells and cheese, but can't seem bear down and struggle through something we don't like long enough to eat our carrots.

Do you ever have one of those days? You know--you wake up late, all the shaving cream is gone, work is awful, the kids are in a bad mood, your spouse is having a bad day also, no one seems to care, you realize you forgot to mail a payment, you find out they are having layoffs at your work, and then the very last straw is when you burn dinner to a crisp! Ever have one of those days, or those weeks? The little things chip away at us slowly and if we do not notice and take action, when a big obstacle comes up it will tear a giant chunk of us off.

Lately a lot of things have been going on in the lives of people I know, and my personal life, that can bring on worry, doubt, and even discouragement. Fortunately, the new series our church is doing right now is on HOPE. This has been very timely for me! I am also reading a book Having a Mary heart in a Martha world, that speaks a lot about worry and discouragement.

What are we to do when it feels as if everything, and sometimes everyone, in our lives has turned against us? Should we lie down and give up, get mad and pitch a 2-year-old type tantrum, go shopping (sometimes even if we have no money), go out to eat and try to drown our problems in food? Or, worse yet, I have several people I know that just seem to "check out" of life when everything goes wrong. Their bodies are here, but their minds are not and they have no joy about anything, they just go through the motions of life.

Matthew 6:25 Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy about your life (Amplified Bible)

Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

God knows that things bad will happen in our lives. Jesus tells us that bad things WILL happen. He also tells us that we should not dwell on them. Not that we should not be concerned and do what we can, but in the end we are to realize that everything is from God. Therefore we should turn all things over to God and let him work them out and spend our time focusing on God, instead of focusing on our problems. Think through your difficulties, then prayerfully turn them and your thoughts over to God.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. (NIV)

When we spend all of our time dwelling on our problems we magnify them in our mind. Whatever we continually think about will be our perception of the world. God wants us to think constantly about the good things he has done and will do for us instead of any troubles we may be going through that will depress us. Remember, even if nothing else is going right: God sent his son to die for YOU. That is right - YOU. So that you may be redeemed. How could we let anything overshadow that simple truth?

In short, if all you see are carrots, then that is all you feel the world is. If you can hunker down long enough to eat the carrots, you can get on to the creamy shells and cheese of life.

So, eat your veggies. God wants you to have the cheese.