Doing The Math

You do the math!!! I’m sure all of us have heard that when things don’t seem to add up. Bills to pay monthly and then you throw in an added unexpected cost like a trip to the ER or maybe the car broke down or needs new tires. Many of us live pay check to pay check. We sit down to look over the bills and we re-add and redo as much as we can and then we sit and scratch our heads and wonder how we can make the math come out right.

Maybe it’s not bills but something has come along that’s happened in your life and things are just not adding up right. Worries, concerns, loss of loved ones or other issues crowd in and we can’t get things to come out right. We just want to throw up our hands at times and wonder how we can make it through.

God does a different kind of math. I could tell you many ways He has taken care of things in my life when I didn’t think there was a way at all. I get worried, I have bills to pay, I have concerns and sometimes can’t get things to add up, however I trust God and let Him help me to take care of things. Now don’t get me wrong and think He’s a big magic lamp to rub when I need things. I know I might still have to work to get an extra cake order, but out of the blue one comes in that I didn’t expect to get. He comes through for us in so many ways and times when we didn’t think there was any way it could happen.

I trust Him. I trust Him with my bills and that means I don’t over spend when I know I don’t have the extra money. I trust Him when I am worried, afraid, concerned. I know He will make a way when there seems to be no other way. Because I have a RELATIONSHIP with Him. He takes care of things and sometimes in ways I wasn’t expecting, but He took care of it.
Believe me, in my mind when things don’t seem to add up….I let God do His “Divine Math” and takes care of it or gives me the peace in knowing it’s getting taken care of. I thank Him daily for always being there with me and I know His math always adds up.

“God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him.” (1 Peter 5:7 CEV)

Ice Berg Analogy

You ever find yourself in a room full of people and you’re expected to share a little bit about yourself in like 20 words or so? You may be the type that doesn’t like sharing in front of others in the first place and now you have to tell them all who you are in less than a minute. We might say who we are married to, our age (maybe not), what we do for a living or did do for a living, hobbies, achievements, or our interests? For some of us, we feel we don’t measure up when others are sharing things that sound so cool or neat. We may begin to feel even more awkward that we are just plain old plain old. We live in a performance-driven world….people are interested in status, titles or positions. And for many…we feel we don’t fit in.

What’s really under your surface is more important. Not what others think….but what God thinks of you. That’s more important than status. It’s like an ice-berg. What is seen above the water is only 10% and is what most people see of us….but what is beneath the water (around 90%) is what we really are in God’s eyes.

God doesn’t care about titles, how many jobs you’ve had, talents, trophies you’ve earned or degrees. God looks at our substance (heart) not our status. God loves a humble, contrite heart over any of those other things. He’s more interested in “what we are becoming” over what we have accomplished.

It’s easy to look at others and make a quick judgment about them by their present or past but we are only seeing 10% of that person and may not know all the tears and aches someone has in the 90% that is not showing. What we show to others is just the tip of the ice-berg and we keep the other part hidden at times. We all have the deep lines, cracks and scars that hit our very soul. Those are emotions that we carry, the hurts, insecurities and pains that others don’t see, but God does. He’s ready to help you live beyond just a status issue. He helps heal the 90% of things we don’t always share with others…..because He loves the one and only you, 100%!

“There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before his eyes. And it is to him that we must all give an account of ourselves.” (Hebrews 4:13 GNT)

FOLLOW DIRECTIONS

I have heard many complain they have used a GPS before and still didn’t follow the directions it gave.  Now I’ve been there and done that before and most of the times….the GPS is right.  I said most of the time.  I know one time my husband and I used one in Southern Arkansas, believe me, it ended up taking us all the way to just a dirt one lane road with tall grass on both sides and my husband finally said….THIS ISN’T RIGHT.  I was beginning to hear the banjo music from the “Deliverance” movie in my head.  He got the right coordinates in and we got to the right highway.  But most of us will admit, we may think we know better than a GPS device or instruction manuals or expert advice and then we hate to admit we were wrong.

Same with God’s Word.  If we are honest….most of us don’t like rules and regulations, but they are for our own good.  It saves us from doing wrong and making a mess out of our life.  God doesn’t intend to ruin your fun but some things we think are fun end up messing our lives up big time.  There are plenty of times I don’t always pay attention to His Words either….or follow what it says….but His Word is there to help me have a full and meaningful life.  So sometimes I need to stop and check my directions and I might need to just recalculate my route and make sure I am doing what God wants me to.

“I pondered the direction of my life, and I turned to follow your laws. I will hurry, without delay,
 to obey your commands.”  (Psalm 119:59-60 NLT)

Paint Brush Masterpiece

As a sat looking at all my paint brushes the other day, I realized I had so many different types. Some are used for thin lines, some for wide filling strokes, some special ones for leaves and tall grass, some for techniques to get certain designs. However, none of them can do what they are supposed to do unless I pick one of them up and begin to paint. A paint brush can’t paint a painting as long as the brush isn’t used. Until the artist’s hand picks up the brush to use it, it’s just an inanimate object. It needs the artist hand to do the job.

We are all a paint brush in God’s hands. He is the Master Artist. He has a plan to paint your life into a beautiful painting. His plan is a masterpiece. He sees the potential, the beauty in every one of us. He doesn’t always see the imperfections but the beauty of what we can and are to be. If we let the Master Artist work in our lives, just like that paintbrush, it does the job it was intended to do. You are a Masterpiece to God. You are worthy to hang in His Art Gallery.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)

FORK IN THE ROAD

FORK IN THE ROAD

We wrestle with challenges in different season of our lives.  We all will come to that fork in the road and a choice has to be made to stay one way or go another.  I’ve even heard some say they just couldn’t decide and quitting was too easy and so there they were stuck at the fork in the road.

Do we quit because we just want to give up or we think the next road will be more difficult?  I know it’s much easier to quit at times than shovel on through the problem.  I head an older pastor say one time that the more God wants to use you, the more likely you’ll be tempted to just quit.  I know it’s true as at times I have felt that way….it was just easier to quit.

As I’ve gotten older, maybe not any wiser, but older, sometimes God has helped me to see that the reward is to pray and chose the next step.  It may look harder but the reward has been just around the next curve.  And sometimes I have gotten a little glimpse of one road and opened my eyes to trek back a bit and take the other road which ended up being the best road at the time.  Sometimes the reward is just staying the course and not going down another road until you get a clear picture of which one you are to take.  You’re not quitting but waiting.

It may not always be easy and we may be tempted to give up, but stop and ask God for the best direction and road to take.  I always include talking to God first and I don’t always take other people’s advice on what your road I should be on in my life.  God has allowed me in the past to catch a glimpse of the outcome had I stayed on that road.

If you’re tempted to give up, give in or quit at times….seek God out and don’t do it.  Listen to Him and for Him.  Sometimes he just wants you to keep on keeping on.

^“So let us not become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest.”   (Galatians 6:9 GNT)

Red Rose on Mother's Day

Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday. A special time we remember our Mothers who are still with us and those who have passed.  I shared this before and thought I’d put it out there again for you all to read. 

As a kid growing up there was one special HONOR that I remember and not sure many churches still do this or not.....but it was the one time of the year my Mother would get a small old Valentine box down from her closet and she had small red silk roses that she pinned on me and my brother. I was always in awe of the one WHITE rose that was in with all the red roses. My Mother would always pin that one on herself. I was a little envious at first, until she explained to me what it meant. You wore red in HONOR of your Mother if she was still alive.....and white in REMEMBRANCE if she had passed on. Well....believe me.....I was glad I was wearing the red rose instead of the white one.....because I wanted my Mom to still be alive. I was proud to sit in church and be a part of the many red roses in the congregation those many Sundays when Mother's Day rolled around. Each year I would look around and spot more white roses....a constant reminder that someone had lost their own Mother and was now forced to never more wear the red rose on Mother's Day.

Many don’t know when this old tradition was started.  Some say it was when Anna Jarvis got Mother's Day started....she wore a white carnation in honor of her mother.....but not sure who actually started the whole red/white flower tradition. And lots more say it came from the south....Appalachian tradition.....but I just remember churches, or at least our church did this every year....up until the late 70’s.

By the time my own Mother passed away in 1990, no one was wearing the small flowers anymore and not sure if very many churches still do this timely old honor? But I do know that if I had to pin on the white rose this time, I could understand so much better now why my Mom would tear up as she put on her flower. Bless our Mothers with us still and those who have passed on.

Tootsie Pop Dissection

I used Tootsie Roll Pops as an object lesson one time with the teens in a youth group.  We called it “Dissection of a Tootsie Roll Pop.   Sounded cool and kept their attention anyways to get a message across.  I had seen some other ways to us a Tootsie Roll Pop in teaching about the layers of the earth to using it in a graduation speech on getting through High School.  The one I used was on how we have different layers to us and how much we let some people in our lives.

Each one got to choose what their favorite flavor was.  A choice they got to make.  For some, there weren’t any certain flavors left, so they had whatever was left. I explained that none of us really got to choose who we were when we were born, but we choose in how we become in our life.   That colorful wrapper on the outside is what we look like to others around us.  We may try to impress others with our outer show and we let them get to know us just to that level.    We don’t always trust everyone, so some just get to look at our wrapper.

 

The hard candy shell is where we stick to most of the time with our friends and family.  Our flavor shows to others that it’s who we are, get to know us and come a little closer but we are guarded as this layer is kept  hard to not hurt that special soft Tootsie Roll center that is inside of us.  That’s the best part of us and we try to keep it all to ourselves….never letting others in.

We think at times no one knows the real core of us and we want it that way…..but just like the factory that makes the Tootsie Roll Pop….the maker of the candy knew and placed that soft center there for a purpose.  It’s the heart of the Tootsie Roll Pop….or it would be called something else.  God is our maker and He knows your inner core, your heart, the real you.  He made you who are and he knows all about your inner being.  Many of us are like a Tootsie Roll Pop to God….we will let him look at the wrapper but we make sure we stay hard toward Him and not let him be a part of our inner soul…..but we only fool ourselves because He is the Master who made us, wrapper, hard shell and center.   He just wants to be there in your soft center….your heart.  What does he see in your heart?

^“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  (1Samuel 16:7 NLT)