P.S.

By Makenzie Allen –

To: The one I’m waiting for
Love: Kenzie

Last December, on a cold winter night, my dad and I ran from the car into an auditorium. It was alive with all kinds of colored lights. My dad had decided to surprise me with a ticket to go see The Nutcracker and have a night out with him. We sat and watched as the ballerinas twirled around and the Nutcracker fought valiantly against the Rat King. Afterwards, my dad took me to a coffee shop where I was given something that reminds me, almost daily, of you.

It was my purity ring. It means more to me than just being pure. The ring means that while I wait for you, I can learn to love in a Godly way. In a way that will last.

Something that I’ve learned through my teen years may come as a shock considering all the movies, books, and songs teaching us the key to happiness is a significant other. What I’ve learned is this—teen years are some of the most crucial years of life to find who God made you to be and to grow as your own person. The only thing is, you can’t grow as your own person when your whole goal in life is to keep someone’s attention. We cannot compromise our identity for love. I’m praying you won’t.

Right now, as I press through my junior year, my goal will not be to find a boyfriend. My goal will not be to seek a guy’s attention. My goal will not be to sway from my identity for a chance at synthetic love. My goal will be to give God my life, my love, and my devotion. Then someday, when I meet you, I’ll be able to give you a love worth waiting for.

Please wait for me.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV).

One of my prayers for you is that you would be a man after God’s heart, and that you would love Him above all else. Even more than me.

I don’t know when I’ll meet you, or if I already have, or if I ever will. It doesn’t matter though. You and I can be content, loving God and living fully immersed in His presence. My greatest fear is that I’ll miss the gifts God has given me in the here and now because I’m too busy craving the future.

Let’s not crave the future, okay? I want so badly for us to not miss daily blessings. Pray for me, as I pray for you.

To the one I’m waiting for.

P.S. Hope to see you in a few years. Wait for me.

Words, Words, Words

By DiAne Gates –

Words surround us. Heaped in our ears and piled in stacks under our feet. From hands-free devices, to flat screens TVs. Phones. And books. Zillions of them. A constant barrage of words. All day, every day, and into the night.

But who listens? Does anyone really hear? Anything?

If you’re a parent, you’ve asked these questions concerning your children, your spouse, and probably your friends. So why waste the time and energy to speak?

Because the Lord Jesus Christ gave us the ability to speak and the command to go and tell.

“So Lord, what are we supposed to tell them? And how are we supposed to say it?”
Jesus instructed, “Go and make disciples.”

Preachers go to seminary to learn apologetics—how to present God’s Word to their congregations. I don’t have all those degrees. I’m just a normal person. I don’t know what to say.

How did those first century Christians make disciples? They didn’t have the written word. Yet their numbers multiplied. All they had to share were their experiences. The joy and peace of knowing Jesus after centuries of enduring a bloody altar that didn’t fix sin. The joy of suffering persecution on account of His name, and finally, death in the arena. And the account of their lives and deaths are still an incredible model for us in this twenty-first century.

Perhaps that’s the problem. We have the words but lack the experiences. Maybe, but I think we have the words and different experiences. I think pride and churchiness are the problems that prevent us from sharing our heart.

Fear and pride are the boogers-in-the-woodwork. Fear of what others would think if they really knew what we had done, what had been done to us, or what we really think in the dark recesses of our minds.

So we retreat behind the walls of the church and become clones of one another. Using fancy words. Words without power. Words that do not affect or change the life of another, much less our own.

The cure comes when we recognize the depth of our deception, acknowledge our need for repentance, then share with others how God transformed our life. Sounds easy doesn’t it? It’s not. Being transparent can be painful.

I’m here to use my words today to share a troublesome affliction with you. Not with flowery words that loose us in their trail of sweet sounding emptiness. Just the sorrow of my heart and the love of my Savior.

This Christmas Season has been the most difficult one of my life. Family issues, changing relationships, grief, and coming uncertainties for America, brought about a spiritual battle in me that loomed larger with each passing day. ‘Til I admitted and confessed that terrible word—depression—and fell on my face, crying to my Lord Jesus for help. He answered the groaning of my heart immediately. I’m His child. He picked me up, wrapped me in His comfort and refocused my eyes and heart on His love for me.
The formula is simple but always sure:

My plight + His love and power = His mercy, grace and healing = forgiveness and restoration.

No sin is beyond His ability to forgive. How long has it been since your words have been honest with God? How long has it been since He rescued you? How long has it been since you’ve used your words to tell someone else what God has done for you?

The Wisdom of Benches and Balls

By Hally Franz –

There are lots of lessons that become regular sound-bites in the rearing of children. We encourage them to “treat others as you’d like to be treated”, “always do your best”, and “learn from your mistakes.” I believe few things in life are due to chance. So, with those thoughts in mind, I tried to make sense of my recent bare, right-foot collision with the unyielding incline bench in our basement.

It occurred as I packed away holiday decorations, and the encounter left me with three very sore middle toes and bruising from those toes to my instep. I watched the bruising evolve through black, blue, purple and yellow tones, reminding my family that I never bruise easily. The wound, while apparently without fractures, was worthy.

Here’s my list of possible insights to be gained by my foot-versus-bench battle:

• I am clumsy. Redundant. I’ve been made painfully aware of that truth on many prior occasions.
• I should slow down. Not likely; that was a lazy January day, and I was completing this task with ease.
• I should look where I am going. Possibly valid, if taken in a broader, less literal sense.
• I need to get rid of some clutter. I agree and am working on it!
• I need to exercise. I’d love to, if I didn’t have an injured foot!
• I should wear shoes around the house. Perhaps, my old-souled son is wise traipsing around the house interminably in steel-toed boots. My grandfather always thought it horrible to walk around shoeless in the winter.
• I need a bigger house. Useless information. My husband swears he’ll die in this house.

In the final days before Christmas 2012, my old-souled son added a couple of items to his Christmas list. He wanted a Magic 8-Ball and a metal slinky. When questioned about the ball, he told me he might use it for making decisions. I “encouraged” him that God would greatly prefer He be consulted on any important choices he faces. Ivan assured me he’d apply this method only to small, insignificant quandaries.

In reality, I can’t glean much meaning from my injury. Nor, will my son ever get worthwhile advice from his vintage toy. We can, however, seek and expect real answers regarding routine and life-changing questions. Our Heavenly Father is there to listen and counsel us when we pray and study His word, without mysteries to solve or magic to work.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, remind me always to bring my concerns and questions to You. Help me to remember that the world holds no inspired answers, and I am too simple to make decisions without the wisdom that You alone provide.

“I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness” (Ecclesiastes 7:25 KJV).

The Cone of Shame

By Kim Stokely –

There’s nothing quite so pathetic as a dog who has to wear “the cone of shame.” If you’ve seen the movie “Up” you know what I’m talking about. It’s that huge, Elizabethan collar device meant to keep a pet from licking or scratching at some medical anomaly – could be a rash, could be stitches.

Our older dog, Cali, is presently wearing the “cone of shame” because of recent eye surgery. Believe me, she knows she looks stupid. She keeps glaring at me with a “You did this to me,” stare. I tried to explain that I didn’t know the cone would be a necessary part of her recovery, but she doesn’t seem to believe me. She thinks I planned with the vet to humiliate her.

The first night home she’d obviously not worked out all the anesthesia and spent the evening walking into walls. Not only walking into them, but then standing in front of them as if she could miraculously move them with her doggy brain. Spatial relations seemed to be a foreign concept to her as well. Used to walking through doorways without any problem, she’d start through only to have the cone catch on the threshold. She’d stop in her tracks for several minutes again trying to move the threshold instead of her head. I won’t even try to describe her walking outside in the snow, other than to comment that the cone makes an excellent scoop.

Now that the anesthesia has worn off, she’s back to her ornery self. Instead of stopping when the cone gets stuck on something, she shifts her head and pushes through whatever obstacle is in her way. She’s always been fond of sleeping under our nightstand. I would have thought it impossible to get a two foot “head” into a foot wide space, but she keeps shoving her head around until the cone collapses enough for her to get through. This is done with much scraping, grunting and bumping- often in the middle of the night. 2:00 a.m. seems to be a favorite time.

I’ve been thinking how she and I are alike. You see, when she first came home with the cone, she got frustrated with bumping into things and so waited until I stood in front of her and led her into the next room or through the door to the outside. She was glad to keep her eyes on me so she wouldn’t get hurt. In my own life, I know things are easier when I choose to follow God’s voice and daily seek His will. But just like my dog, I get stubborn and want to go back to old habits or follow my own path.

Several verses in Proverbs 16 warn us about trying to do things our own way and the blessings that come when we follow God’s way. In the big scheme of things, I’d rather wear a “cone of shame,” than follow a path that “leads to death” (Proverbs 16:25). Sometimes a little humiliation is just what we need to keep us on the right track.

The Invisible Man

By Cheri Cowell –

A few days ago some friends and I went out to eat at a counter service restaurant. When we entered we noticed a table full of older men enjoying their afternoon out with the guys and a group of women in the far corner near the kitchen. The restaurant was busy so when no one acknowledged our arrival we figured they just didn’t see us. We waited what seemed like five minutes without anyone saying anything to us. We almost left when a man came through the back door, but even he didn’t acknowledge us. We asked if anyone was going to help us and a waitress finally said, “I’ll be right with you.” I’m sure glad she said something. I was beginning to wonder if we had become invisible. God must feel the same way with us sometime.

God has great plans for us. He desires to give us more than we can ever imagine and all He asks in return is to be loved by us. He longs for us to acknowledge His presence, to see His love painted in the sky each day, to feel His breath in the breeze, and to love Him in response. When we acknowledge His name as the name above all names, we are saying to Him, “I see, I believe and I love you in return.”

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name” (Psalm 91:14 NIV).

PRAYER: God, I praise You today for all of the ways in which You show Your love. Thank You for being there even when I treat You as the invisible man. Help me see You more clearly, believe in You more fully, and love You more dearly today and everyday.

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