We Are Hardest on Ourselves

Encouragement came when I needed it and I didn't even know that is what I needed. As I was reading the chapter about Prayer of Tears in Richard J Foster's book Prayer-Finding the Heart's True Home, I found  myself in tears from the words he wrote. Here is a little excerpt:
Be encouraged by the observation of Thomas a Kempis that "habit overcomes habit." You are building new habits of prayer, and patient, kind, firm persistence is what you need with yourself.
Tears came as I read these words. I had been disillusioned and down on myself for my seeming inability to stop and prayer, to go to Him, to rely completely on Him. I was being too critical of myself, not forgiving myself for my humanity but these words brought a peace to my soul. It's okay. I am a sinner, I am human, I am not perfect but I can overcome because I have Jesus on my side. But, that is a life-long pursuit that will not be fully achieved. I can only keep striving to overcome the bad habits with the good ones, to rely and trust in my Father. It is with patience and kindness towards myself that I can continue to be persistent and keep moving forward and growing into being more Christ-like.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 307

I have found a three part sermon series on the fruit of the spirit that is very well written. The first part of the first sermon is setting straight that it is not fruits of the Spirit but fruit of the spirit. The nine character traits that are in Galatians 5:22: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are a parts of what we can have with the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. And like all fruit(s) these character traits ripen and grow over time with the guiding of the Holy Spirit and our daily walk with God. Here are two statements from this first sermon that state in a clear way what that “Fruit of the Spirit” is:

Fruit of the Spirit is a physical manifestation of a Christian’s transformed life.

Fruit of the Spirit is the visible growth in Jesus Christ.

Take some time to meditate on this today and let the Holy Spirit speak to you about your character traits and how the ripening process is going.

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 147

I am so proud of my husband. He took action and drove up to Sterling to talk with his brother and mother. Someone needed to see first-hand how things were going in that house. He came home early the next morning because he couldn’t sleep there. The smoke and televisions on all night long were just too much. He was so thankful to be home and for the blessings of his family. It was tough to go into a hard place but it needed to be done. He was encouraged about his brother but did not anticipate how bad off his mother has gotten. She is an alcoholic and is spiraling into a very dark place. We need prayers for her that the Lord will lead her out of this darkness.  Sometimes the only action we can take is prayer. That is the place I am in with this situation so I ask everyone of you who read this to pray for Susan that God will bring her out of the pit she has made for herself. Our kindness for others can be in the form of prayer for someone we don’t even know. It doesn’t matter that we don’t know them. Every human being is loved and valued by God. We have to have that attitude of love in our hearts as well. Take a moment and pray for a human being whom God loves who is hurting and needs help. http://www.christianprayercenter.com/

Hebrews 13:1 Keep on loving each other as brothers.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 146

I have been absorbing the chapter on kindness in Gary Chapman’s book Love As a Way of Life. One of the things he said which I learned from my first Basic Christian Counseling is about needs; “Kindness means noticing someone else and recognizing his/her needs.” Our office admin assistant was out on Monday this week due to what we were told was a migraine. On Tuesday and Wednesday, she was very non-responsive to “good morning” and seemed very down in the dumps. On Thursday, I felt there was something going on with her and wanted to see if I could help. I sat down at her desk and she ended up opening up to me about her boyfriend who had decided he wasn’t her boyfriend anymore nor ever was. She had gone into a rejection depression and wasn’t eating or drinking and ended up fainting on Sunday and was taken to the ER. I hope the words I said to her were encouraging and helpful. I left her desk with a final remark, “you are loved”. She yelled back Thank You Janine and was transformed back to her more cheerful self.  Sometimes, it is difficult to recognize what the need is but communicating words of kindness can be the start to finding out and really lifting someone up. Taking the time to sit down with her was the act and sacrifice of my time that I technically should have been at my desk working but in the end it was such a great feeling that I had done it. The next day I headed to work early and stopped at Chick-fil-A for some breakfast. Waiting in the drive-thru, it came to me to pay the bill for the car behind me. We have all heard of this being done but I had never done it. I went back and forth in deciding to do it. I worried about how much longer it might take and I really needed to get to work. I feared what the cashier might think or say. I thought I don’t have the money to be doing this right now. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, I conquered all of these fears and worries that Satan thrives on and did it. The cashier responded like people do it everyday. It didn’t make any difference in my getting to work and although I am still broke until Monday I was not charged the co-pay for my annual exam at my doctor visit. But the greatest blessing was just the smile it put on my face and imagining the reaction of the two people in the car behind me. It energized me all day. Just do it is my new motto. Thank you Lord for helping me recognize the needs of others and being kind no matter what. With You all things are possible.

1John 4:9-10 This is how God showed his love among us; he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 141

I can’t begin to think of the number of times I have thought to do something in my head but the action did not follow. When it comes to expressing love, my lack of action is pathetic. I now understand that it is the way God made me. I have a very high need for love to be expressed to me but have a low need to express love to others. It is due to my high fear of rejection that is also part of how God made me. You might be thinking why would God make you with these negative things but they aren’t negative if you have the help of the Holy Spirit within you. If you have chosen to believe in Jesus, the God-void within each of us is filled up with the Holy Spirit. With God all things are possible. So, yes, a person like me who does not feel the need to express love can do it and have the attitude of love. In Gary Chapman’s book Love As a Way of Life, he explains how kindness is the first key to making loving a way of life. Kindness is a fruit of the Spirit. It is an action part of loving. A thing he proposed to do, in order to become more aware of kindness in your life, is to write down every kindness that is done by others. In becoming more aware of the kindness of others, you will become appreciative and will be motivated to act in kindness as well. Kindness begets kindness. It is like a smile. It is contagious. We just have to smile and act. I am starting Project Kindness this week and will become more aware of all the kind acts around me and cultivate the desire to be kind and show it.

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

365 Days of Spirt-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 137

I think everyone is aware that people are unique and complex but I am not sure people really understand how unique each of us are. As I was studying temperaments the other night at the library, I thought, God could have created us all with the same temperament. My next thought was the answer; we would all be the same, like robots. God made each of us unique and special and put us in a special part of his grand plan for the world that only we can fill. All this uniqueness is complex which is part of the reason we find it hard to love one another. We have to figure out ourselves, which some people never do. The more you understand how God created you, the more you will be able to let the Holy Spirit within you, guide each of your steps, decide each of your words and give you all that you need. With the patience and kindness only the Holy Spirit can give, you will be able to truly love. And love is what it is all about.

Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 122

My daughter got a Janome sewing machine for her birthday along with a pattern to make several stuffed animals. We went to the fabric store and she picked out the fabrics and got a couple more patterns since they were on sale. We spent the afternoon of her birthday working together to de-code the instructions, cut out the pattern and start the sewing. We got to the ear part and started having issues with the instructions and with the machine. I think I finally figured out how the ears were to go on with a little help from my objective husband but the machine kept getting stuck. I searched the troubleshooting section and tried re-threading, etc. but nothing was working. I finally had to cave into the frustration and told my daughter I would have to research the machine on-line and see what I could find out. I didn’t find out anything. Ugh. So, yesterday after work I took the machine back to the store I bought it at and asked the first lady who was going to help me but she didn’t know anything about the machine. She asked another lady who was cutting fabric for a man in a wheel chair and his wife but she didn’t know anything. The man in the wheel chair says “I have that same machine and it gave me 2 weeks of frustration when I first got it but I have had it for over a year and I love it.” I hurried over to him and he proceeded to show me some tips about the machine and told me the problem lies in the bobbin placement. He showed me how to do it and patiently let me do it myself afterwards just to make sure I got it right. The kindness of this stranger has stayed with me. It turns out another lady in the store over-heard us and said she had the same machine and put it aside because she couldn’t figure it out and hearing all the man said she would pull it back out and give it another try. This man’s kindness spread beyond just to me. Even the manager of the store was super thankful to this man because they were busy at this time and she didn’t have the time to help me. This man’s act of kindness to a total stranger was such a wonderful example of how we are to help and serve others. I will never forget this experience and will pray that God bless this man and his wife.

2Peter 1: 5-8 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, persevereance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 121

My heart was angry yesterday at the words of my co-workers who told me of what happened on Monday when I was out. Micro-managed doesn’t even fully describe it. Being managed in such a way, with only negative comments is very degrading to a person. They have no trust in us and our work. All of us are busting our butts doing the best we can with what we are given. They made it even worse by condemning our team lead saying she doesn’t even know what her team is doing. No, she trusts that we know our job and can see that we are working away all day long. I had to call on the Holy Spirit to hold my tongue and just respond with gentleness and kindness with what happened to my co-worker and team lead. Something went down last week with the same co-worker and team lead through an email. They responded saying they wished to discuss the issue. Our office manager didn’t respond so they are really upset about the so-called open door policy that is not showing. All I can do is encourage them to communicate with her without anger whether it is in an email or catching her in the hallway. You can’t put someone down and not let them defend themselves. I find this all very disconcerting because of the injustice of it. It is only with the Holy Spirit’s guidance I can navigate this in a way that will bring glory to God.

1Corinthians 2:14-16 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 87

I love this idea of putting on fruits of the spirit like clothes. It really is a reminder that these fruits are not something we just have within. We aren’t born with patience. Think of how a baby cries when it is hungry. The baby wants that milk NOW! We don’t  have kindness naturally. Think of the kids in the school yard calling each other names. We are just lumps of clay when we are born. God takes that lump of clay and molds it into a bowl and we ask the Holy Spirit to fill that bowl with fruit or to go with the clothes analogy, we put on our shirt of kindness, our pants of patience, our sweater of humility and so on; dressing in spiritual layers everyday no matter what the weather calls for. I am often hot at work as you know because the thermostat is up so high for the others near the windows who are cold but I have been putting on my spiritual layers of clothes and have been patient and kind regardless of my over-heated body. I am going to give names of the fruits to my clothes as I started above and think of those as I dress each morning.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 87

Forgiveness is one of the biggest battles we all face. Our anger and bitterness are the easy way but to walk in the light of Christ means we forgive as Christ forgave us. How can we show kindness to others if we have anger against them? Anger is a wall that you build up between you and that person just as a wall was built up when Adam and Eve committed that first sin. Forgiveness is the hammer that can break down that wall and Jesus is the one to do the hammering. He has hammered down the wall between us and God but we have to ask him to do the work for us. Don’t let your anger and bitterness reign in your heart, release it to Christ and have him take down the wall that will enable you to forgive and show the kindness and compassion that Jesus showed us.

Ephesians 4:31-32 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 365

It has been exactly one whole year I have been writing up my praises. This has been a tremendous blessing to me and I hope to you who have read them. I am thankful to God for the use of this blog to be able to praise Him for all he is, does and gives us. It just wouldn’t be the same writing it in a private journal. It has been an honor to share these praises with you this last year. So, what is up for the year to come? There are a few different options I have been thinking about but I keep coming back to this one so here it comes:  365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge.  The Holy Spirit is within us but we need to call on His power to work in us everyday. My favorite scripture is Galations 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  So, this coming year will be devoted to praying about these fruits, seeing these fruits in my life and striving to be Spirit-Filled everyday. I hope you will continue on this journey with me and will be Spirit-filled with all these fruits each day in the year to come.

Galations 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 318

Our sermon yesterday was the beginning of our Stewardship Season. It is the time of year when the church focuses on giving. It can be a challenging topic considering the state of our economy but it is a part of our church and living as the body of Christ that we do need to be reminded of. Rather than focus on money, the sermon was about all the various ways we can be giving back based on our gifts. I was especially tickled by our pastor’s challenge to give for 365 days. Hmmm….. sounds familiar. The truth is that when we focus on one aspect of giving each day it can be a huge blessing to not only yourself but countless others. So, our challenge in the days ahead before commitment Sunday is to figure out what our challenge will focus on. What will I give each day for the next year? It could be just doing a kindness for someone everyday, an encouraging word shared everyday or forgiving others everyday. Take a look at your gifts and decide how you can be giving using your gifts everyday in the year to come.

Romans 12:6-8 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it s contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy let him do it cheerfully.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 179

Have you heard of the concept of 'paying it forward'? There is a good movie by that same name that shows the concept in action. Recently, I heard of a friend who was in the drive-in line at some fast food place. When she got to the window to pay, she was told the car in front of her paid for her meal. She expressed her surprise and briefly learned that it started ten cars ago. She nor any of the 9 in between her will know who started this kindness but they will have taken that kindness into their day and passed more blessings on to others. One act of kindness can reap so many blessings. The person who started it all is smiling in his or her heart just thinking of the surprised smiles he/she created by this thoughtful act. We have the opportunity everyday to express our kindness and to act thoughtfully towards others but how intentional have you been about it.  I know I haven't but I will start a prayer card to use as my reminder to pray everyday for my heart to open up to acting out in kindness towards someone in ways they don't expect.
Ephesians 2:7 ...in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 174

As I was driving home yesterday in heavy traffic, I was thinking about the voice mail that a man from an alarm company left. Lets just say he was not very happy. Because of the way we are doing things now, an alarm company can't just call and directly talk to anyone. It's voice mail or email.  This in itself is frustrating to many. But I thought about all the people I have called back who have left not so nice voice mails or emails in all CAPS and realized that when they are confronted with a real live person that genuinely wants to figure out what's going on and help them out, their frustrations and anger are stored away inside rather than being directed at me for the most part. Not everyone has a filter on their anger and frustration. It's just not nice to take your anger and frustration out on an innocent person that is stuck in the middle. I wonder how well I have been with my angers and frustrations. Am I letting them spew out to innocent people or am I calmly talking my anger and frustrations out to the appropriate person? Self-control is probably one of the toughest things to master.  For some of us, it's the self-control with our emotions; for others it's the self-control of eating, drinking, smoking or some other physical thing that ultimately hurts us. The Holy Spirit can give us all we need, including this self-control but because each day is a new day, we need to ask for the Holy Spirit to fill us with all we need to face the challenges of our day ahead. Let's say a prayer: Father, we thank you for this gift of the Holy Spirit to be with us until the time when Jesus will return. Holy Spirit, fill our hearts and souls today with all the fruits of the spirit and especially that of self-control. Help us to look at each new challenge we face today through your eyes and ears and face them with fruits you alone can give us. Amen.
Galations 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 167

Yesterday at my job, I had the challenge of talking to an alarm company that thought they knew the law. The man was pretty adamant that he did not need to be paying just because, in his mind, no other alarm company was paying. I had to lead him to the truth in the kindest but firmest way I knew by simply stating over and over again, it's part of the ordinance. What I really wanted to do was yell at him and say look it's the law so just pay it. However, I need to keep my job... So, I kept on with kindness and firmness and ultimately the guy said can I pay with a credit card. I just chuckle about it now but in the moment, I was sweating it out dealing with this adversity to the truth. It makes me think of how difficult people probably are towards hearing the truth of the gospel. Their walls are up and their life experiences have cemented in their beliefs but we need to be persistent like God is with us. Never give up, never, ever. I think we can take down those walls people build up around themselves brick by brick with our kindness, our example, our conviction and commitment. Do you have someone who doesn't want to believe in Jesus? Doesn't want to hear the truth? Keep at them and let God work through you to take down the wall so they can see the light.
1 Timothy 2: 3-4 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 96

A few friends were over yesterday to make cards for my monthly Project Playground. It's always a delight to just spend time with them talking as we create our projects. As I walked out a lovely lady, she quietly said, I love coming to your house because it's nice to see that it's okay that things don't have to be perfect or something to that affect, you know my memory! It's always refreshing to hear this kind of comment about my house. I have always had the philosophy that I was not going to be a cleaning machine mom and let the time with my family slip away as I vaccumed. I want my family to feel they are the priority. So although Faith's stuffed animals, school papers and whatnot seem to be everywhere to me, it's only for a season and we are slowly but surely working on her being more responsible with her things. So, a spotlessly clean house may come in the future when the kids are moved out but for now I am happy to just keep things real. Thanks to my friend for opening her heart and sharing her feelings that in the end validated my own.
Ecclesistes 8:6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 92

One of my new responsibilities at my job is to call back alarm companies that call in with questions, etc. Most people that know me, already are aware I am not a phone person. It may be because of what I think is an audiotory processing issue I have that is fairly common. I have always had a fear of the phone. But I have been steadily gaining more confidence especially at my job because I have been there for almost 3 years and pretty much know my stuff and if I don't, I know where to get it. Yesterday morning I had to call a man who had a very thick accent, possibly French who seemed very frustrated so I wasn't so sure how this phone call was going to go. So, I started off the phone call with a casual easy-going what can I do to help you out? That set the tone very well as he said later in the phone call that he felt like he was talking with a real person rather than a robot. It turns out the guy was not very good with computer stuff and just needed someone to listen to him and to give him a little guidance on what he should do. Although I was initially a little wary of what this phone call was going to end up being like especially because of the thick accent, I was happily delighted with the outcome. The man was very happy and professing today is turning into a great day. I am really thankful to God for giving me a sense of peace in doing this phone call, patience, understanding and compassion which really ended up helping this man out. Is there a frustrated or angry person in your life that could use a showering of kindness?
Romans 11:22 Consider therefore the kindness and sterness of God: sterness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 88

Have you ever felt like a person was an angel? Of course you have. We have all experienced at one time or another a person who is in our life at the right time, right moment and gives you exactly what you needed. I encountered an angel the other night when I went shopping for a specific kind of shoe my foot doctor recommended. This angel was previously in the medical profession and could tell me the name of my foot problem which I could not remember. He was perplexed at why the doctor would recommend this particular shoe and showed me how it worked and how it would not be good for my foot issue which is called Morton's Neroma. It's a swelling at the nerve between the 3rd and 4th toes and is caused by consistently putting too much weight onto the ball of your foot or in other words, high heels. It can also be caused and aggravated by shoes that are too narrow in the area around the toes. This particular shoe the doctor recommended actually rocks forward onto the ball of your foot. "You don't want to do that", the angel told me. He showed me more of what kind of shoe I should get and recommended I be my own best doctor. So, I went home without buying anything and did some research. Sure enough, all the sites I have visited about this say you just need some comfortable shoes with a wide-box toe. So, I am thankful for this angel who helped me avoid buying something that wasn't going to work and guiding me. God was definitely working through this kind man. We can be that angel to someone everyday if we look beyond ourselves and focus on serving others. Who can you be an angel to today?
2Peter 1:7 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perservereance; and to perserverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 67

A smile. It's something so simple and yet so profundly effective in helping change someone's day for the better. I learned that lesson a long time ago when I was a server at Applebee's. "Mr Grumpy" came in with his downcast family and got to sit in my section. My first initial face to face with Mr Grumpy wasn't so great. I went back to the kitchen to put in the order and something just clicked in me. Maybe I just need to be as cheerful as possible, maybe smiling and disregarding his grumpy face would make some kind of difference? It did! He actually smiled back! I have always held that memory with me and recall it everytime I hear about what it says in the bible to, in my words, killem' with kindness. I was reminded about this last night as I got into my hot tub to let the days stresses float away. I looked up into the clear night sky and there was the moon. It was a crescent moon with the light shinning from the sun on it from the bottom giving it the look of a smile. There was God smiling down at me and my grumpy mood was gone and I smiled right back. Thank you Lord for this wonderful reminder of something so simple and yet so effective in helping make someone's day better. Challenge yourself this week to smile more and know that every smile is a little bit of God's love shinning outward to others.
Psalm 80:3 Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.