Five Minute Friday: Choose

 

Ready for a little Five Minute Friday???  I am.  So glad and blessed to be participating today.  Today’s word to write about is CHOOSE.  Will you choose to read on? I hope so.

Ready?

Set.

GO!

So there was this conversation at lunch yesterday about a local coach who was dogged by his live in girlfriend for a choice that he had made. A coworker made the comment that she felt bad for him, the fact that the girlfriend did this public mockery of him on Facebook.  Another coworker thought she was crazy for feeling that way because she too had been cheated on and basically said that anyone who had been hurt in that way would want the same “revenge” (my words, not hers).

 

But here is my thought.

We have all been hurt. Maybe not cheated on by a spouse or lover, but we have all been hurt. By friends, family, coworkers, strangers. 

We have a choice in how we react to that hurt.

We can be bitter. We can seek revenge. We can let that hurt rage in our hearts for the rest of our lives.

Or we can choose to live. 

The bitterness we harbor can make us miserable people.  Why choose that?  Why choose to hate and rage and just be miserable?

I don’t want that in my life.   I choose joy. I choose life. I choose to live like Jesus would have me live.  I know that those who do wrong will be judged. They will be dealt with. 

Me too.

I will be judged based on how I treated those who hurt me.  God’s word talks about that.  I have to realize that I am no better than anyone else. I am a sinner just like everyone else.  But I choose love. I choose life. I choose joy. I choose Jesus.

 

STOP

In honor of today’s word, here’s a little George Jones and his song of living with the choices we make.

What a week! Oh, it's only Wednesday!

I totally had this moment in my class Monday.....

Yesterday brought this moment......

Today, I didn't realize a student was absent until 2 p.m.

I read somewhere that dancing can ease your stress.  So, I may try this.....

 I really want to walk away like this on Friday.....

Five Minute Friday: Small - Let Them Be Little

It is time for a little Five Minute Friday on Saturday.  This week's word....small.  Here you go!

We don’t want small. We want big. The bigger the better. Right?

What about our kids? 

I remember when our first son was born, my husband made the comment, “I can’t wait until he starts walking.”  Boy, did he ever eat those words. 

We rush our kids into activities.  We busy their lives and push them.  I once heard a conversation about some parents telling their pee wee baseball child that if he didn’t get his act together, he would never get a baseball scholarship.

Grow up kids.

That’s what we tell them. Maybe not in those words, but in other ways.

But we need to let them be little. 

We need to let them stay small.  Growing up comes too fast these days for many children. They aren’t allowed to be children. They don’t know what it is to play, to pretend, to be a kid. 

Children have so many things adding pressure and anxiety to their lives.  We owe it to them as their parents to let them be little. We should take this small amount of time we have with them and let them live as children, not miniature versions of ourselves or what we wish we were.

let them be little from Natasha Grimes on Vimeo.

Five Minute Friday Confession: I have been working on this post since last night.  After I wrote for five minutes, I was inspired to create the video. Well, it wouldn't download. I tried and retried, deleted and recreated.  Whew!  It became a quest, but was a great trip down memory lane!  The boys were so funny watching it.

The Mission Field

 "And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." Mark 16:15

There is a lot of talk about missions, foreign missions specifically.  There are people for it. There are people against it. 

As our church is about to send a team of missionaries to Haiti, I am reminded that we are all called to spread the gospel.

 

At our church, there is a sign above the door.  As you exit through that door, you read, “You are now entering your mission field.” That is our reminder that we are not to leave the story of Jesus at the church door.  We are to take him with us wherever we go. 

One of the things I distinctively remember is a comment made by someone when the church was contemplating expanding the building. The comment went something like this, “I like my little church the way it is.” 

Folks, that is frightening.  What if everyone felt that way?  We would cease to spread the love of Jesus to others.  His kingdom would stop growing.  How many of us would not know Jesus today if someone felt that their church was just fine the way it is?

I remember well a day many years ago, when I was invited to our church.  Jeff and I were at his parent’s house. Mr. George Crabtree visited them.  There we were painting the pool deck, and  Mr. Crabtree invited us to church.  Shortly after he left, the phone rang. It was my mom telling me that my grandfather had just passed away.  Now, you may see no connection here.  But for me, I see God coming into my life at this point.  A man I didn’t know invited me to church.  God calls my grandfather home.  I didn’t know Christ as my savior.  I see God working in all this. George is now our family’s deacon.  I thank God each day that he invited us to church.

Then there is Wanda Hale.  She is a retired teacher who was working in my school.  She would rave about this interim preacher and tell about how the church wanted him to be their next preacher, and we really must come hear him preach one Sunday. She didn’t nag me about it. She invited me again and again.  I thank God each day that she invited us to church. 

There is this friend of mine from high school, Amy Jo, that went to church all the time. I didn’t.  She had her Sunday school class pray for me.  I was furious with her because I didn’t think there was anything wrong with me.  There was. I was a sinner who didn’t have a relationship with Jesus.  Years later, I sent this friend a letter telling her, “Thank you for praying for me.” 

There are countless others that have shown me Jesus in one way or another. Holly invited us to revival.  Glenda started a Sunday school class for young families just starting to get involved in church.  There are those that have led Bible studies, said prayers, and offered words of encouragement. There are those Gideon’s who handed out tiny New Testaments in school and on the street corner at college.  I am thankful for all of those people who were following their Christian calling:

"For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”" Romans 10:13-15

Those people were being missionaries in their own backyards.  But I honestly believe in my heart that people are called to be missionaries in foreign lands.  God’s word says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."(Matthew 28:19) God has called people to be foreign missionaries to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

Not all of us are called to do that.  Some of us are called to teach Sunday school or lead Bible studies.  Some of us are called to be worship leaders by singing or playing instruments. We are all called to do something. Somewhere. 

It is so important that we support those who are called to be foreign missionaries.  We can support them with money and prayer.  God has called them according to His purpose.

If you are not called to be a foreign missionary, you can do so many things in your own community.  Find a way to volunteer. Get involved with your church.  Do something that is going to spread the love of Jesus. 

 

If you don't support foreign missions, let me ask you this. What are you doing for local missions? 

 

 

 

I would like for you to pray for our Haiti mission team.  Each night at 8PM join in prayer with our church as we ask for their protection, guidance, and that soul's will be saved, lives will be changed.

 

The Uniform

I simply love my man in uniform.  I love him. I respect his uniform. 

 

When my husband reminisces about his childhood, he tells stories of playing army with his friends. When other boys his age were shopping for the latest toys at the toy store, he was shopping for the ultimate army gear at Major Weatherby’s.  Anybody from South Central Kentucky remember that place?

 When Jeff and I met as teenagers, he often talked about joining the military.  After we married, he still talked about it.  When he finally decided to follow that calling, I said, “It’s about time!” 

 There’s something I need you to know about my husband.  He is a humble man, a man that cares for others.  He has this amazing personality that draws people to him.  I think he is pretty awesome. 

 Because of his love for others, I think God has called him to the right position, Chaplain in the US Army.  It is an amazing job.  When people first asked us about this job, the best way to explain it was by saying, “He is like a preacher for the Army.”  But honestly, it is so much more than that.  I see him as a friend to his fellow soldiers.  When a relative passes away, he stays with the soldier through the night.  When the soldier is hurting, brokenhearted, he spends his time listening, giving words of comfort and encouragement.  If he can’t help, he finds those that can.  He preaches God’s Word and has had the privilege of leading soldiers to Christ and then later performing their baptisms to show their obedience to Christ. Being a Chaplain is one of the many amazing jobs held by our soldiers. 

Regardless of position, rank, or branch of service, there is something about that uniform.  To me, it is almost sacred.  It takes a special person to honorably wear the uniform.

There are men and women who put on the uniform every day because they have earned the right to wear it.  They have worked hard to earn that right.  I am able to sit back as the wife of a soldier and simply see things from my perspective.  I could try to tell you what it takes for a man or woman to earn that right to call themselves United States Soldiers, but I can’t.  Not even from “knowing” what my husband has gone through.  There is a personal sacrifice they make that none of us could ever imagine.

The first time I saw my husband in uniform, I was so proud of him.  I felt like it was an amazing accomplishment.  Each time I see him in uniform, serving God and Country, I feel so blessed to have a man in my life that would follow God’s calling.  That isn’t always easy to do.

 

I do love the way my husband looks in his uniform, but again, I respect his uniform.  As I am doing laundry today, folding and putting away his things from three weeks of training at Ft. Dix, I am reminded of the sacrifices that soldiers make to be able to wear the uniform with pride. 

 I am bothered by the people who sport the uniform because they like the way it looks. I am bothered by the people who play in the uniform, pretending they are in a warzone.  I am bothered by the local organizations that dress their law enforcement officers in the uniform. I am bothered by the people who are in love with the uniform, not knowing what it ultimately takes to be able to wear it with honor.

It is the uniform of the United States Soldier.  We should respect it and those who wear it. 

For the Brokenhearted

Yesterday in Sunday school, we talked a lot about how some things just aren't fair and how sometimes God just seems so far away from us. We were led into a conversation about choices and how those choices pull us away from God. 

It is hard to admit sometimes that we make choices that get us into a pit. We wonder how we got there and wonder why God allowed it to happen. 

If there is one thing I have learned, it is that God does not force himself on us.  He has blessed us with having a choice. 

However, recent events remind me that not everything that happens occurs because of something we did.  It is a matter of God and his timing and purpose.

We will never fully understand God's ways. We aren't meant to. There comes a time in our lives when we will be the brokenhearted.  For me, one of those times was losing my fourth child due to miscarriage.

I don't know why I (or any woman for that matter) was "allowed" to go through a miscarriage. As much as it still hurts, I believe, I must believe, that there was a purpose.  God uses everything for a higher purpose. 

Was it to teach me to pray more and follow God's plan before deciding on my own it was time to expand my family, to wait for Him for those big decisions?  Was it to teach me the frailty of life?  Was it to get me to slow down and grow closer to Him?  Was it to be able to be there for other women who go through the same thing, or open the hearts of those that have experienced it in the past so they may be willing to share their experience?

I simply don't know.

I do know that months later, it still hurts.  It sneaks up on you.  You see your pregnant friends walking, more like waddling around, awaiting the joy of the birth of their first child.  It dawns on you that you won't be having that moment.  You are driving in the car with your three boys and the instant replay of moment you truly lost that child fills your mind, and you fight back tears.  It is the sickening feeling you get when you pray, "God, what am I supposed to do? Do I try for another child or is my family complete the way it is?"  Sometimes I don't want to know the answer. It hurts too bad to think that my body will never nurture a new life, that my arms will never hold that newborn.  It hurts to think that my youngest son will never know the joy of seeing his baby brother or sister for the first times after months of wondering why mommy is getting so fat. 

That is one of my brokenhearted trials. 

But I know that there is good news in this hurt. 

God loves me and is there for me. 

That is enough.

Regardless of how badly I missed my husband and prayed for his safe return home from a war zone, God was enough.

Regardless of how scared I was as my middle child lay lethargic in my arms countless nights because he couldn't breath, God was enough.

Regardless of how I feared the word Cancer when I had my first mammogram, God was enough.

Regardless of how the unknown pains that could be caused by leukemia in my child, God was enough.

Regardless....God is enough.

Psalm 34:18 says that The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.   In whatever dark moment I was in, I felt God near me.  I felt Him calm me as I held a sick child. I felt His peace when I knew my husband's compound was under attack at that moment. I felt His love and comfort as my weakened body lost a baby.   God got me through those moments. He provided everything I needed.

He did that for me.  He can do that for you. 

I know there are so many people that are broken in so many ways. I have friends that are going through their own personal hell. I lift them in prayer, so they will know that God is enough. 

If my words sound simple or easy, that knowing God is enough comes easily, let me be clear on one thing: It isn't easy.  I have spent a lot of time with the Lord.  I have spend time with Him through praise and worship at church and in the privacy of my home, car, or classroom. I have spent time in Christian fellowship with those who have lifted me in prayer. I have spent time in prayer, not only letting Him know my requests, but also in prayers of thanksgiving and listening to Him.  I have spent time in His Word.  I have asked for His guidance while reading and worked hard to understand scripture.  I am not claiming to be perfect in all of these things, but I am saying that the time I have spent with Him when things are blue skies and sunshine, have paved the way for Him to reveal himself to me in times of heartache and sorrow. 

Time spent with the Lord is not time wasted.  All to often we say we don't have time to pray, we don't have time to study scripture.  But we do.  We turn off the TV. We put down the cell phones. We turn away from the Internet. We spend that time on and with the Lord.  Those few moments that we dedicate to Him each day will have an eternal impact on our lives and the lives of others.

We will all experience a broken heart. Spending time with God now will help us through the difficult times that await us.

Five Minute Friday - Encouragement

There is this little thing called Five Minute Friday that I love.  Lisa-Jo presents to the world of writers a word, and we write.  Five minutes. No overthinking.  Just let the words flow.  So today, our word is encouragement.  Are you ready? Go...

Some people have the gift of being an encourager.  Some people have to really work at it. 

Regardless, being an encourager is a blessing to so many people.  I am a receiver of encouragement.

Last year when my husband was deployed to Afghanistan, those that encouraged me did so in many ways.  It was the former marine wife that spoke up for me when someone asked if my husband was in a safe place.  It was the grandmother from church who showed up at my doorstep with Happy Meals. It was my sister in Christ who did my hair just in time for our Welcome Home the airport. It was the countless others who said a prayer for me and just loved me and my family.

I was blessed by these and so many others who took the time to send a little encouragement my way.  I know their thoughts and deeds made God smile as they did me.

When I have tried to encourage someone, I have felt that little tingle in my innermost being.  That encouraged me to do it again.  The smile that my deed did, that encouraged me to do it again.  Encouragement is so contagious. It is so meaningful.  We don’t know the depths of a little encouragement!

If you would like to participate in Five Minute Friday, just head over to Lisa-Jo's.  You won't regret it!

Music for Your Soul

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Scripture reminds us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are a gift, and we must take care of them.  This is easier said than done for folks like me.  Too often, I don't eat healthy. Fast food becomes my escape in the business of life.  Exercise comes when I am chasing my kids around trying to get them to do what I want them to do.  I'll be the first to admit that I don't always take care of my body. 

At the beginning of each new year, many of us make the resolution to eat right and get in shape.  All too often we burn out too quickly. The reasons are many, but we can pray about it.  Are we burned out because we are putting too much pressure on ourselves?  What is the reason we are trying to get fit?  Too look great in our swimsuit?  Because we are unsatisfied with our bodies and want them to change?  Just to be healthier?  Ultimately, shouldn't our goal be to have healthy bodies so we may better serve Christ?

I say, "yes." 

But perseverance is sometime a problem.  We get down on ourselves if we miss a workout session or if we give in and eat something not so healthy. We feel like we have failed and give up.  But don't. Don't give up. 

God's Word is so encouraging in times like this when we feel like we've lost it, there's no use, we are failures.  Satan would love for us to continue to believe that, but we don't have too.  My suggestion is to work out to songs of praise.  Yes, focus on God instead of yourself while you work out. 

I remember reading God Strong and feeling like Sara Horn.  I wanted to get in shape and look fabulous when my husband returned from deployment.  What woman doesn't want to look and feel sexy for her husband.  Sara went and loaded her iPod with songs she felt would make the workouts more intense. Sara said she needed "fast and loud and tough and strong." She left off the songs that reminded her of God's goodness and love. She later realized what a mistake that was when she saw she was doing this workout thing "alone."  She needed to get her strength from God. 

I learned so much from that one paragraph in her book.  I am a music lover.  Kiss. Matchbox Twenty. Keith Urban.  Lynyrd Skynyrd.  The Beach Boys.  You name it, I probably love it.  But the older I get, and maybe the closer to God I become, the music I consume has changed.  Now don't get me wrong, I still love a good country love song or some good dancing in the kitchen with my kids music, but the songs of God's love, grace, and mercy touch me. 

I am a lover of words.  Words have such power in them and can do awesome things if we use them correctly.  These songs that we call Christian music have such power.  When I haven't had the words to say, a little David Crowder helped me cry out to the Lord.  When I ached over losing my baby due to miscarriage, Blessings helped me realize there is a bigger picture, a future I can't fathom.  God's Word put to music is simply amazing. Imagine what it can do to our self image.

As you are continuing to become a better you through diet and exercise, I want to encourage you to surround yourself with Christian music.  Just try it and see how your attitude changes, how your soul changes.  I'd like to leave you with a few songs that encourage me while I am walking those endless miles on the treadmill.  If you have any you would like to share, let me know in the comments section. I'd love to hear about them.

Big Daddy Weave - Yours Will Be (The Only Name)


Steven Curtis Chapman - Do Everything and Love Take Me Over




Mandisa - Overcomer


Matthew West - Hello My Name Is


Chris Tomlin - Whom Shall I Fear

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

Romans 12:1

See (Five Minute Friday)

So glad to be joining in Five Minute Friday again this week.  It's pretty simple if you would like to join.  Just write for 5 minutes.  Don't worry about messing up.  Life is messy after all, so shouldn't our writing be too?  Anyway, it's lots of fun. Just click on the button above to join in.  Set a timer and let the words flow!  Here I go.....

I thank God for conviction.  It is difficult. It is ugly. It hurts.  But, Oh!  It is so awesome.  God sees me.  He knows me.  And sometimes I think I am better than what I am.  I get on my high horse. I show my authority.  I lose myself in sin.  Anger, gossip, gluttony.  I get caught up in things like that, but God sees me and he opens my eyes up to what I’ve become, the road I’m heading down. He gives me the opportunity to stop dead in my tracks and get right.  Get right with him and what he expects out of me.

Thank you God for seeing the real me.  Often I don’t. I get caught up in the going ons, the ins and outs of life that I slip and forget that you have plans for me.  Those plans include doing things that bring you honor and glory and I thank you for showing me that I do things that just don’t. I am thankful for second chances to make it right with you. 

Do you see?  Do you see what God is showing you?  He is showing you a better way. A much better way.  You won’t be perfect, but you will be better because of him.  He will give you the eyes to see what he sees.

Friends in Low Places

Throughout our lives, we make friends, and we lose friends.  Friends we think we will be with us forever, we lose them.  Strangers become friends for life. Friendship. It is a funny thing. Those of us on Facebook have lots of friends.  People we work with, family members, long lost classmates, people of people of people of people we know. We call them friends. "Friend" is a term we use so loosely, too loosely.

If you've been hurt, you can become weary of friendships.  In Proverbs 12:26, we are told to choose our friends carefully. We all know that the wrong friends can encourage us to go down the wrong path.  I'm sure most of us have had those sketchy friends, or we may have been that friend ourselves.

But what about real friends? True friends? Proverbs 17:17 says, "A friend loves at all times." Does that type of friend really exist? At all times? 

This past year has shown me what true friends look like.

While everyone else says, "Just let me know if you need anything," a true friend doesn't wait to be told.  A meal is cooked or bought and brought over.

While everyone else says, "I'll pray for you," and forgets, a true friend actually does it and then let's you know, "Hey, you are on my mind and in my prayers. I love you."

A true friend, one who has been there and done that, speaks up for you when someone asks, "Is your husband in a safe place?" That friend knows that for a soldier, no place is safe.

A true friend hugs you and cries with you (she's usually the one who cries, but she lets you lead this time).

A true friend sends you a note, a text, an email, just a short message that says, "I love you," "Thank you," or "You are great," because that friend knows what you need to hear.

 A true friend takes care of you in amazing ways, whether by bringing you flowers, cookies, Happy Meals for your kids, pays for your lunch, or has your flat tire fixed.  This friend doesn't ask for recognition, no payback.  They do it out of  love.

A true friend is one that you've never met face to face, one who has become your life long survival sister because God connected you online, and you know that your life wouldn't be the same without her.

A true friend meets you for lunch, coffee and donuts, ice cream, or Chuck E. Cheese with the kids because she knows that moms need adult conversation.

A true friend meets you for lunch because she wants to tell you personally what she's been going through. It's important to her because she loves you that much, and she knows you love her.

A true friend stays with you through the ugly, when you are experiencing the most horrific thing imaginable, that friend stays by your side, holds your hand, and cries with you.

True friendship can and does exist.  It's those friends in low places that are true.  Sure they are there during the fun times, the easy times.  But they are also there through those ugly times, ugly beautiful is what Ann Voskamp calls it. Aren't those the times we need someone the most? 

When I surrendered my life to Christ, my circle of friends changed. Partly my choice, partly the choice of others.  I think some people considered my husband and I as not fun any more.  I'll tell you though, the Christian friendships I have made since then have been amazing, much more meaningful than those I lost.  The best times I've had have been with those who share the same faith as me.  Our joy is found in Christ instead of parties and alcohol.  Let's just say that at our church staff dinner, we had the best.time.ever! Pastor and his wife, associate pastors and wives, music minister and husband, and youth minister and wife. There was laughter like you wouldn't believe.  And hanging out with our church friends, those last minute invitations because we are all busy and can't plan (sometimes intentional doesn't work). I have even maintained a friendship with a college friend; we share a love of Jesus and that has kept us close. 

Those are the friendships that last, that are meaningful. The ones created and wrapped in the love of Jesus.  Because you know what? He is the greatest friend of all.  Yes.  The greatest friend of all.  Jesus laid down his life for me. For you.  And you know what John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one but this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." And that is just what Jesus did.  Those that stay with us in those ugly moments, those dirty moments of life, that's what they are doing in a sense.  Honestly, no one really wants to go there. No one wants to hold on to a friend as she is losing a baby, a marriage, or a job. No one wants to hold on to a friend who is lost, lonely, and in a low place.  Be we do it. We do it because friends in low places mean the most.