A Suggested Resolve

By Jarrod Spencer –

2013 is upon us. Did you resolve to do anything this year? How is that going? Of course, we’re only a few days into the year, so hopefully you haven’t lost any “battles” with your resolve thus far.

I didn’t make a resolution, just a goal to read through the Bible with a “One Year Bible.” It has been going well.

I came across this quote at the end of last year and thought it may be a good “resolve” for some to think about in 2013. It focuses on how to have a happy year and also how to create one for others.
With that said, let’s look at this poem from Edgar Guest…

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I’ve played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
– Edgar Guest

So often we think about how we can create a New Year’s resolution that will benefit ourselves. This poem suggests that when we go about the year let’s not just think of ourselves, but think of others.

How will you benefit others?

PRAYER: Dear God, Show me how to touch Your world in 2013.

The Refresh Button

By Kim Stokely –

In the words of the classic Judith Viorst children’s book, it was a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”

The mild temperatures of the day before were gone and the thermometer had plunged some 40 degrees overnight. I spilled coffee on my shirt and had to change again before I left for work. The shoes I’d ordered from the internet were too big but I didn’t realize this until I tried walking farther than ten feet. I think Richard Simmons could make a new exercise video out of the gyrations I performed as I tried to keep them on my feet and make it through the day without them flying off and hitting some unsuspecting person in the head.

The annoyances kept piling up. The office computer froze, the low gas light in my car started blinking, and the grocery store was out of the chips I like. While I unloaded the car, a plastic bag broke and the fruit I’d bought splatted onto the garage floor. As I struggled to carry my food into the house, I whacked my funny bone on the car’s side view mirror. Not only did I see stars but all the planets as well.

Ugh. It was a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” And it wasn’t even a Monday.

I threw my bags onto the counter in the kitchen and screamed a few choice words into the air. Unfortunately, my husband and daughter got to hear them.

Sigh.

My daughter picked up the pineapple that landed by her feet. “Mom, I think you need to press the ‘refresh’ button.”

Out of the mouths of babes. Well, teenagers anyway.

While my family put away the groceries, I lay down, rubbed my aching elbow, and prayed. Just like when a computer freezes and can’t load a new page, I’d let myself get stuck in a rut of I’m having a horrible day. I had to press my own “refresh” button so I could “reboot” my mindset and remember everything God had blessed me with throughout the day. So my shoes didn’t fit right, I had another pair I could wear. I had money to buy groceries and gas. I had a family willing to extend forgiveness when I fall (or hit my funny bone and toss fruit around the kitchen.) And I know a God who is bigger than all of it put together.

It’s amazing what pressing the refresh button can do for one’s perspective. Soon, I joined my family in the kitchen (now sans flung pineapples) and enjoyed a meal and even laughter recounting my earlier trials. I hope if you’re having a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day,” you’ll think of pressing it too.

A New Year’s Resolution

By Susan Dollyhigh –

The young woman’s body shook and her tears flowed. Kathy* had just moved into the homeless shelter, and she was in the early stages of drug and alcohol withdrawal. When Kathy learned we were having Bible study, she ran from the room, came right back, Bible in hand and tears still flowing.

Having just celebrated the New Year, we talked about resolutions and how they are changes we want to make in our lives. We talked about the Potter and the clay, and how our Father is in the continual process of molding and changing our lives to shape us into the beautiful vessels that He wants us to become.

As we made a list of our resolutions for the New Year, Kathy shared that she had already made hers. She had been saved through faith in Christ just a month earlier. Ever since that time, Kathy had planned for the next day to be her last day to drink and get high. Kathy had truly encountered Christ, but she was afraid of being sober. Yet over the past month, while praying and studying God’s Word, He had given her the power to finally say “no more.”

Another resident then encouraged Kathy as she shared how God had helped her survive a similar experience. This woman was so very kind and loving and supportive and she assured Kathy she would be there to help her. She then closed her eyes, lifted her face toward heaven and sang “What a Day That Will Be.” As she sang to her Lord, all of her worries seemed to melt from her face.

This woman laid aside her own problems to minister to Kathy. Are we able to and put aside our problems and minister to others in need? Do we truly encounter our Father when we close our eyes and lift our faces toward heaven? We will if only we have faith as great as this precious homeless woman.

*Name changed.

Prayer: Father, please help us to be flexible, soft, clay. Help us to allow You to mold us into the beautiful vessels that You want us to become.

“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8 NIV).

The Wrath of Dad

By Jane Thornton –

My father’s wrath frightened my siblings and me. We’d hear friends boast about smart aleck retorts made to their dads and shudder at the very thought. Whether by nature or Marine Corps indoctrination, he developed an authoritative style that intimidated the socks off our feet. His tour of duty as a drill instructor perfected his ability to bark an order with justified expectation of immediate obedience. He didn’t require salutes, but “yes, sir” better be the only verbal response he heard.

One evening, most of our family had been away from the house attending some function now relegated to obscurity by the events that followed. Wade, my youngest sibling, in his teens at the time, remained at home. When five of us trooped through the door loudly rehashing some fine point of contention, we interrupted Wade’s TV program. As Daddy summarized his argument, Wade growled with teenage ire, “Shut up!”

Mark, Nancy, and I froze. Wade’s audacity stunned us. We’d heard of siblings who intentionally got each other in trouble, but none of us would throw a brother or sister onto Dad’s lack of mercy.

I held my breath. Anticipation of the coming furor stiffened my bones.

Daddy kept talking.

I looked at Nan. Had I misheard? She was gazing in disbelief at our father. We all shared furtive glances, waiting for the coming disaster.

Daddy wrapped up, and threw a mild scowl toward the couch. “By the way, Wade, don’t ever tell me to shut up again.” Up the stairs he went.

Our chins dropped. By the way? Our world tilted off kilter. On the heels of relief that our brother still lived, resentment crowded into our collective brains. That’s all?

Almost thirty years later, we still can’t let go of our incomprehension, and we never let Wade forget it either.

Have we lost our incredulity at God’s mercy toward us? I’ve been reading Francine Rivers’ rendition of the Exodus in The Priest, the story of Aaron helping Moses lead the Israelites. God’s wrath is fearsome. His people stir the Lord’s fury and suffer for it.

My father never hurt me. I never doubted his love. Yet, his anger could make me cringe.

God’s purity and jealousy led Him to strike some of his beloved but rebellious children with leprosy and death. His awesome Presence caused the Israelites to tremble and run in fear. “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled…The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder… Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” (Exodus 19:16,18 and 20:20 NIV).

God’s wrath didn’t disappear with the birth of His Son. Although Jesus took God’s anger upon Himself, sin is still unacceptable. James is speaking to Christians when he says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?” (James 4:4a NIV).

Let us keep in mind that the God who adores us is a vast and fearsome Being, not to be taken lightly or for granted.

Comment prompt: How do you balance God’s mercy and wrath?

The Speech of Our Actions

By Charlotte Riegel –

As soon as I entered my son’s house, I knew he was distraught. His actions of frustration and his angry words immediately sent me into default mode of ‘run and hide/get out of here quick.’

I grew up with an angry father who raged often and always left something broken in the wake of his fury. Sometimes it was furniture or some other inanimate object left in pieces. Always, the nerves and peace of mind of everyone within earshot of his outburst were shattered. Even in my older age, that childhood fear subtly threatens to paralyze me and subconsciously controls my actions whenever I am near anyone in a rage.

I quickly completed my predetermined business at his house while he slouched in a chair texting on his cell phone, ignoring me. Then I left with a muffled ‘bye.’

An email from my son awaited me at home. It’s message surprised me. He felt as if I had pushed him away, rejected him, when I was responding to his body language that told me he wanted to be left alone.

It was apparent both of us had misunderstood the body language of the other person. I had jumped into my default ‘get out of here quick’ mode when in fact he was emotionally distressed and needed a hug from me as well as an ear to help him process some challenges he was facing.

QUOTE: “I know you think you know what I said. I’m not sure you realize what you heard is not what I meant.”
Anonymous

PRAYER: Dear God, Thank You for the relationships in our lives. Give us the words, actions and heart so that we may love as You do.

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