All in Obedience
A deadline was quickly approaching, so I set aside today to complete the task. A couple of more pressing circumstances intervened taking center stage. My muscles tightened and my countenance fell as my stress level rose. How am I going to finish now? I wondered.
“Just Do It” is a phrase Nike coined in 1988. It’s a slogan to inspire athletes to out run, out train, and out move. The apostle James used similar words to inspire Christians hundreds of years earlier.
Mean words. Potty-talk. Critical comments. It was the beginning of a long summer, and I purposed to tackle the issue of the ugly mouth I heard coming from my children. For that summer, my children and I focused on the verse above. We memorized it. We talked about it. We defined words and explained concepts within it. We looked for it lived out in others. We noticed the opposite qualities lived out in others. And most importantly, we asked God to help us walk out this verse in our family relationships. That was hard for a big sister with a huge vocabulary that could slice and dice, and a little brother who had strong, fast arms, fists and feet!
Living in a new area, I was excited when a lady from a church we had visited calledand asked me to attend an event there that night. At first I had some excuses why I should not go, but then I thought, why not, and off I went.
“Excuse me. May I ask you guys a question? I noticed you praying before your meal.”
My husband was meeting with a friend over lunch at a local restaurant when the young man interrupted them. The man and his wife had recently moved and were looking for a church home. My husband and his friend had a nice conversation with the man, inviting him and his wife to church and welcoming them to town.
A much younger friend works out with me to help me improve my health. She regularly reminds me that I “pace myself” when I’m doing any given physical challenge. While she would like for me to exert myself fully throughout, instead I start slowly and gradually increase my effort. She says I hold back.
I’d patched it twice—a dab of spackling and a dollop of paint. I noticed it again while dusting the mantle. That small crack in the wall had returned. As I poked around, I discovered additional soft spots surrounding the crack. This could not be good! Bob-the-handy-man agreed. It could be water damage, dry rot or, even worse, termite damage.
Have you noticed the ads on social media for t-shirts expressing thoughts about kindness? The shirts may have pictures or other words on them, but they all end up saying, “Choose Kind”.
Normally I keep my Bible right by my bed. I know it does not have magical power, but I like having it near. Having it right there certainly does make it easier to grab and jump right in to reading the wisdom filling it.
It was one of those days. You know what I mean. Nothing seemed to be going right. I was irritated that certain situations weren’t progressing as fast as I wanted. How long is this going to take?
Last year was one of the most difficult years of my life while enduring ongoing and worsening health issues surrounding my beloved husband and brother. Several months before the medical journeys began, God led me to a Bible study on spiritual warfare. I tried to wiggle my way out of it, but my Savior knew I was on the threshold of experiencing new types of brokenness and vulnerability—new enemy territory.
In 1961 the Broadway show Carnival opened, its theme song, Love Makes the World go ’Round by Bob Merrill, an immediate hit. Such legends of my day as Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, Bing Crosby, and Johnny Mathis included it in their repertoires. Of course it was about romantic love: “a silver song, making the earth whirl softly”.
I still remember that sweltering sunny day. As a child, picking strawberries was one of my favorite summer outings. I loved walking the aisles, eyeing the perfect berry and plucking it off the bush. As we began, I distinctly remember my mother’s instructions.No tasting the berries before we pay. That’s stealing.
Mean words. Potty-talk. Critical comments. It was the beginning of a long summer, and I purposed to tackle the issue of the ugly mouth I heard coming from my children. For that summer, my children and I focused on the verse above. We memorized it. We talked about it. We defined words and explained concepts within it. We looked for it lived out in others. We noticed the opposite qualities lived out in others. And most importantly, we asked God to help us walk out this verse in our family relationships.
A first grade girl on the playground startled me by her loud yell. She screamed at the top of her lungs while running toward me, “Get it off! Get it off!”
Sundays are busy busy days for me! Getting my family dressed, fed and out the door with any smidgen of civility AND getting to church early enough for me to be ready for the downbeat as I play in the orchedstra is nothing short of a miracle from God!
When I looked up I found myself on the wrong side of the road, in the wrong lane. It scared me half to death.
After teaching all day, I would come home famished. I would snack and snack to try and find just the right food to ease my hunger and tiredness. Moving from one food to the next, nothing seemed to help.
Tucked in the middle of the book of Jeremiah is a marvelous story of faith. Jeremiah repeatedly preached God’s word: Judah’s rejection of God would lead to their defeat by the nation of Babylon. He proclaimed Zedekiah, Judah’s king, would be taken captive, and Jerusalem would be destroyed.
God calls people in every generation to proclaim His truth. Noah preached righteousness. Moses proclaimed God’s laws. Paul carried the gospel to the Gentiles. Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and Billy Graham have boldly proclaimed the truth of Jesus to recent generations.
