365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 309

In the morning, I try to get in a ten minute indoor walk. Do a loop through my kitchen, living room and front office. During this walking time, I like to pray but I find that I am easily distracted by the stuff I am seeing on my walls, tables and counters. I end up thinking about other things rather than having my conversation with the Lord. So, this morning as I was going through this same thing, I chided myself for doing it again, going off to thinking about other things. So, I got myself back on track and was walking with my head down just looking at the floor in front of me. That’s when God gave me a beautiful light bulb moment! If we are truly going to focus on the Lord we have to be looking down at the footsteps He puts before us. It is like when you are out hiking in the forest, you have to keep your eye on the ground before you otherwise if you are looking ahead or looking back, you will find yourself tripping over a rock. I love the visual of the footprints in sand or snow when you are trying to step exactly in the footprints in front of you, one step at a time. Lord, thank you for this moment of clarity and giving me a visual to help that sink deep into my heart. Follow you, you ask and I will follow one step at a time in your footsteps. Lead the way Lord. Amen.

Isaiah 58:11 The Lord will guide you always.

 

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 157

The other day at work I had to listen to a phone conversation that got very heated. The Assistant Manager was trying to get information on the new program that I have to use to import. I ended up with an error message and got the word on what to do to avoid that and than came to a screen that I was at a loss on what to do. The training I had with our manager never went this far in the process because of a program issue. The conversation was mostly done in a foreign language but there were a few English words in there and the tone, frustration and anger made it obvious that she wasn’t getting the info she needed but an apparently rude and disrespectful brick wall. This person apparently has a reputation for acting this way. There have always been some thing I will not tolerate and one of those is disrespect. My immediate thought was I had better avoid having to ever talk with this person because I may loose it. But later after letting it sit in my mind for a while, I started to think of how would have Jesus responded to such a person. Gentleness and compassion were the words that came forward. He would treat any person regardless of the rudeness or disrespect as a valuable person who is loved by God. It will definitely take the power of the Holy Spirit within me to do what Jesus would do in this kind of situation.

Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 11

Today I am looking at the love being “kind”. At first I thought I wasn’t really going to get much about this little word but my expectations were wrong again. Kindness is the act or state of being kind, being marked by good and charitable behavior, pleasant disposition and concern for others. It is considered one of the seven virtues in the bible that counteract the seven deadly sins. Kindness counteracts envy. I think the core part of being kind to others is being selfless, is taking yourself out of the equation and looking only at the person/people in front of you. Have you ever done an act of kindness for someone just because? This is a selfless demonstration of love. These acts of kindness don’t have to be about spending money on someone. It can be that a friend could use some of your time on the phone to talk or a co-worker could use a little sounding board to get off some steam. I am working on the more and more at my job. I am a focus-driven worker so I can go and go and not come up for air until my bladder says time to get up and move it to the bathroom quick. I have been lately taking the time to talk a little more with my co-workers when I encounter them in the break room rather than just barreling off back to my desk and my work. Taking the time to talk with one another not only gives kindness to the person but gives you a sense of peace as well. So look at your day and take the time to smile and start a conversation with the grocery clerk, smile and say some kind words to the telemarketer who is calling you right in the middle of dinner, smile and do something your husband normally does like take out the trash.

1 Peter 4:8
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge

I got a follow-up sermon letter in my inbox yesterday. Hmmm… that’s something new. Pastor John Goodale had preached on Sunday regarding love within the church family. He specifically wanted to follow up on the things he challenged us to do and told us of a visitor at the church on Sunday who emailed him telling him that when he got out of service and was waiting for his wife he had three people come up and engage him in conversation. In looking over the action items that the pastor challenged us to do, I could see the main component to doing these is time. Our lives are busy and we want to use our time as wisely as possible but we have to remember that the people and relationships in our lives need some of that time. Most days I find myself at my desk at lunchtime reading a book but yesterday I was engaged in a conversation with a co-worker in the breakroom as my lunch was heating up and instead of leaving when it was done to go back to my desk, I sat down and continued talking with her. Taking those few extra minutes with her, I found out she is worried greatly about her financial situation after having her surgery on her wrist. With a $5000 deductible to pay and out of work with no pay for 3 weeks, the worry of how to cope with this put tears in her eyes and choked her up. While I certainly don’t have extra money floating around and have my own surgery and days off without pay coming up here next week, I can take the time to pray for her and request my church family to pray for her as well. So part knowing you are filled with love by the Holy Spirit, is being able to slow down, become aware of the people around you and take the time to just see how they are doing.

Try these action items:

          1. Learn 5 new names—and use them.
          2. Ask how others in your church family are doing—and listen to their response.
          3. Pray for church family needs we become aware of.
          4. Combat the toll our busyness takes on church family life by building more time into our  Sunday routine for conversations or to help someone along our path.

1 John 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 284

This weekend I had the opportunity to connect with my father-in-law. They had driven down in my brother-in-law's new GrandAm so hubbie and son wanted to go for a ride. We opted to drive to church in two cars so my father-in-law got to go with me and my daughter. I have to say I did not look at it as an opportunity to connect but more negatively like I have to be in conversation with this man for a 20 minute drive. I have never really had this situation come up before when my hubbie wasn't there to steer the conversation. How do you connect with someone when you know they aren't interested in your stuff and you aren't interested in there stuff? I ended up starting by digging, digging for something that we could connect with beside the weather, the road conditions and other trivial conversations. I asked him if he could tell us about Nathan as a kid. I found a connection through the past! They used to go hiking. Now that was something we had in common. I was feeling good about how the conversation was going and the thought came to me to ask about how often he was able to read the bible. There was Satan on one of my shoulders telling me that might not be the best converstaion to get in and there was the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, "Don't be afraid". So, I pushed Satan off my shoulder, took a deep breath and asked him how often he had a chance to read the bible. It was an answer that I am sure a lot of people would say..."not as often as I probably should". He said reading always puts him to sleep after 20 mintues or so. I suggested he try a read the bible in a year plan because it breaks up the reading and he could do the reading in that 20 minutes each day. I told him how much I learned from reading the bible in this way. I was very happy the holy spirit had helped me by giving me the courage to speak up to someone about God. You never know what your words and actions will bring. I am not going to say I am there yet but I am working on being able to be fearless for the Lord. Baby steps....

1 Peter 4:11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 24

Last night I was in the new spa with my daughter. It's not like we don't get plenty of opportunity to spend time together. That is her love language, quality time, so I make sure she is getting her love tank filled but there is something about relaxing in a hot tub at night with the dark sky and twinkling stars that just made it a very opportune time to really connect with her and see how things are going. So, she opens it up with 'let's talk' so I asked her how things are going at school with teacher, class and friends. Everything is good until we get to the friends part. She tells me one of her friends is hurting her. By this she meant she is getting hit, kicked and scratched by this 'friend'. Unfortunatley, this is not the first time with this 'friend'. They had this same issue back in either Kindergarten or 1st grade and I had to conquer my fears of confrontation and approach the mom at the bus stop and pull her aside to let her know what was going on. It seemed to have stopped but is now rearing it's ugly head. It may be because they are in the same class again but it apparently only happens at the lunch line in school, on the bus or at her house. Hmmmm... sounds like she's only doing this when she knows she can get away with it. Faith is a gentle and very-kind hearted person and says she doesn't want to hurt her feelings but also says she is afraid too because she doesn't want to hurt her more. Oh my... so for the first time probably ever, LOL, I told her I was going to pray about it and talk with Dad about it to see how to proceed. So, that next morning I was taking work off because my shoulder so I walked her over to the bus stop and afterwards walked the mom to her house telling her about the conversation I had with Faith. Of course, the protective defensive nature in a parent came up but we just discussed and decided to give the girls a break from playing with each other and she would talk with their teacher and her daughter. So, although I am not sure she is feeling like this is an issue with her daughter, as Nathan puts it, you have planted the seed and made her aware and that's all you can do at this point. So, I am thanking God for the opportunity to learn more about my daughter and her life and thankful for his guidance in how to deal with it.
Psalm 73:24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.