I hate it when I mess up & the bigger that I mess up, the more sick I get to my stomach. I hate it when I blow it & I’ve had my share of shortcomings & mistakes. I’ve been disrespectful to my husband (and repented), I’ve been insensitive w my words & hurt my friends, I’ve made selfish decisions & been called on the carpet for being selfish, and there are many more areas where I’ve messed up.
But here’s my encouragement for us: when Lot had messed up & was living in Sodom & having a conversations w God’s angels, they took him by the hand & let him away from destruction. There have been innumerable times when God has taken me by my hand & let me out of destruction. When this happens, I’m always humbled, grateful & my relationship w God always gets deeper & stronger. Be encouraged that when you mess up, God can take you by your hand & lead you out of destruction 
Posts Tagged 'grace'
I messed up :(
Published December 22, 2011 enemies to intimacy , family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual 1 CommentTags: failure, grace, humility, love
ever feel impatient?
Published November 28, 2011 enemies to intimacy , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual Leave a CommentTags: compassion, endurance, forgiveness, generosity, grace, help!, impatience, kind, kindness, patience, relationships, wisdom
Recently, I’ve been somewhat frustrated with one of my friends because they’ve made some very silly decisions that have had some fairly negative consequences. I find myself being impatient with my friend & wanting them to change. I’m trying to watch the words that I say to my friend, so that I don’t hurt their feelings due to my impatience. So far, here’s my impatience insights:
- if impatience is left unchecked, it can be very destructive
- impatience isn’t only related to our words, but it also can affect our attitudes & actions, so that even if we don’t say anything, we must still remain vigilant against even its subtle expression
- sometimes it helps to talk about how we feel, but its important to be responsible for our own feelings & not give someone else control of how we may feel or act
- sometimes the best antidote to impatience is a slow, intentional & methodical application of patience
- James 1:4 – let patience have her perfect work so that you may be mature & complete. Give patience permission to work in your life
a beauty pageant w a murderous sub-plot
Published November 2, 2011 Holy Spirit , living , prayer , spiritual 1 CommentTags: difficulty, grace, hardship, honor, integrity, poise, redemption, reversal
One of movies that always makes me laugh is Miss Congeniality – there are some parts that are obviously cheesy & sketchy, but the whole tom-girl, secret agent competing in a beauty pageant plot makes me laugh ALOT!!!! And back in the Bible days, there was also a beauty pageant that had lots of drama, danger & suspense – the story of Esther.
Over the last few days I’ve been reading Esther & I’m always impressed with Mordecai, Esther’s surrogate parent. I admire his integrity, honor, courage & character in the face of great anger, animosity & even violent intent from Hamaan, the evil villain. But here’s what has caught my eye this time: despite Hamaan’s best efforts, Mordecai was given honor even at the expense of Hamaan’s position. There’s one point where Hamaan was conspiring to hang Mordecai & when he came to express his desire to the king, the king asked Hamaan’s opinion on how to best honor someone. After giving the king all of the ways that Hamaan wanted to be honored, the king told Hamaan to go out & implement Hamaan’s ideas with Mordecai. Hamaan wound up leading the horse that Mordecai rode on, crying out that Mordecai was an example of how the king honored those whom the king favored.
Don’t you know that Hamaan was more than humiliated by having to publicly honor Mordecai, whom he hated with murderous intent?!
So here’s my take away: maintain your integrity, grace & poise regardless of your enemies & God can take something very evil & dangerous & make it into a blessing in your life
courageous conversations
Published September 6, 2011 Holy Spirit , living , spiritual , Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: bravery, conversation, courage, courageous, dialogue, diplomacy, discussion, grace, wisdom
Wow! This is certainly a theme in my life right now! A courageous conversation is a discussion that requires courage – it can require courage for a variety of reasons. As such, let’s look at Joseph (in Genesis 37-42) to look at 1 of his courageous conversations:
Maybe Joseph’s first courageous conversation required bravery because of his convictions. Consider his dialogue with Potipher’s wife, who wanted to make out w Joseph. When you read what Joseph said in Gen 39:8-9, you can see that he needed courage to say what he said: “But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?’”
Convictions require courage & when we are asked to do something that violates our convictions, we must draw on God’s strength & wisdom to share with diplomacy & bravery that we will not violate those convictions. Let’s be brave & gracious in our conversations, with God’s wisdom, strength & love
i love people
Published August 5, 2011 family , Holy Spirit , living , saving moses , spiritual Leave a CommentTags: forgiveness, grace, love, patience, people, power
If you’re like me, you probably like people to varying degrees based on what’s happening in your life. But here are some reasons why I love people. I love people because:
- I see God’s creative genius that is never-ending. People are a great reflection of God’s vivid imagination
- I sense joys & pains in them that far exceed my own experiences
- I feel God’s love through people, at various times, that is nothing short of breathtaking
- I sense God loving people through me & this experience cuts me to the core – so humbling
- I see strength, courage, valor & sacrifice – such grace & nobility
- I see the same struggle in others that I experience with choices between shortcuts & long-term investments
- Many times God works on me, using people, to grow patience, grace, humor, discipline, gentleness and other things
- I’m continually amazed at people’s patience & grace toward me as I strive to grow & mature
cavities, consequences & grace
Published June 30, 2011 family , living , prayer , saving moses 1 CommentTags: cavities, frustration, grace, kids
I took my kids to the dentist today for the lovely Summer check-up. Let me say up front, that I like our current dentist for my kids even though the last one was shady, but that’s a different story. So today’s report from their check up wasn’t very whippy. One of my kids (who will remain nameless) has more than 3 cavities – which gives evidence to them tuning out my daily reminders to brush their teeth (maybe God has some similar thoughts when I blow Him off).
When the hygienist called me in to give me the report, I felt like I was being scolded for my kid’s negligence, just compounding my frustration level. Grrrrrrr
So here are my take-aways from today’s dentist adventure:
- even though I’m their mom, if they don’t cooperate with my instructions they will increase the probability of negative consequences, despite my best efforts
- the point of grace isn’t to get away with something but rather to change our behaviors
- even though I may be frustrated with my kids, this doesn’t give me license to be mean or insensitive to everyone around me
- obedience is better than cavities ,)
my gracious family
Published June 27, 2011 cooking , family , living , spiritual 5 CommentsTags: cooking, failures, fish, flounder, forgiveness, grace
No seriously, you’ve gotta read this one I recently had a cooking fiasco & I want to brag on my family. Lately, I’ve been trying to get more fish into our diet as a means for low fat protein consumption. The honest truth is that I can’t cook fish to save my life, but that doesn’t stop me from trying – hence the fiasco. So here’s how it went down: I went to the fish part of the store & was looking for the cheapest & freshest fish they had, which was flounder. Flounder is a really weird looking fish – it’s skinny and flat with the eyes on the top of its body. Because it’s so skinny, its hard for a fish monger to de-bone (which I discovered after their kind attempt to honor my de-boned request). So I bring home these thin strips of fish & try to cook them – it was AWFUL!!!! But here’s the beauty of this disaster, my family ate the fish with absolutely NO COMPLAINING! No one said a word – we all suffered in silence I will not be cooking flounder again, unless Jesus visits our home personally & has a nice chat with all of our family on this topic.
So here’s a thought for your consideration & application: my family was EXTREMELY gracious with me, I think mostly because they love me. Perhaps a really effective way to express love is to refrain from complaining or pointing out failures and weakspots when they are so glaringly obvious. Being gracious is a really inexpensive way to be loving
managing transition
Published June 14, 2011 family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , Uncategorized 3 CommentsTags: grace, help!, transition
Transition is the space between constants – its the “in between” time from a position of stability & constant to another position of stability & constant. Presently, my family is in a transition season. Today, was the kids last day of school so we are transitioning from the school schedule to the Summer schedule & everything isn’t just smoothy / groovy. I forgot, until this morning, that the kids had a half day of school & suddenly everything became really complicated because both Reece & I had a relatively full work day. I’m sure that everyone else manages transitions better than I do, but for anyone that may have some challenges managing transition, here are a few suggestions:
- be patient: time usually helps to smooth things out. As such, I’ve found that it helps to throw in a bit of extra time for events and schedules during a transition season.
- be gracious: usually there are some rough spots that can occur in transition seasons. My personal experience is that grace can really help to smooth out these rough spots – giving yourself & others grace helps to deflate some of the emotional stress that can go with transitions
- be flexible: transitions usually will have a few unexpected surprises. Consequently, I find it to be super helpful if I can pause on being rigid and inflexible
- trust God: maybe this is one of the most important lessons / outcomes from seasons of transition. If we make the decision to trust God, then during a transition time, we will be better equipped to keep our eyes on Him. Ultimately, we are the most healthy in our mindsets when we keep our eyes and confidence on God.
Please feel free to chime in with more suggestions, as I always want to be eager to learn, grow & improve
be gentle
Published June 11, 2011 enemies to intimacy , family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , spiritual 1 CommentTags: actions, friendships, gentle, grace, growing, patience, words
Here’s a quickie thought about our relationships – be gentle. I’m reminded to be gentle on many occasions – most frequently when someone says something to me that is sharp or insensitive. When this happens, I find that it’s most helpful to give others the benefit of the doubt & not automatically assume that they’re trying to hurt me or have malicious intents. I honestly think that if others understood some of our sensitivities, they probably wouldn’t say some of the things that we find to be hurtful. So with this in mind, I want to be a gentle person & tread lightly. I figure that if I’ll be gentle, others won’t find the need to forgive me as frequently and perhaps this is a practical way to express Jesus’ love.
I’m also reminded that Jesus wants me to be gentle with myself – to intentionally lose the lists of failures, shame & shortcomings, since these items have already received His forgiveness. I can also be gentle with myself by being less impatient with my maturation.
Gentle words, gentle actions, gentle thoughts, . . . . . be gentle
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