Pleasure Please

By Rosemary Flaaten –

What brings you pleasure?

As I pondered this question, I started a list of pleasurable activities: spending a leisurely day by a tranquil lake with a dear friend, accomplishing a task, put off for too long, and watching my child excel at a newly discovered skill. Enjoyment and delight come from a variety of sources. They are God-given feelings and should be savored for the blessings to which they attest.

What brings God pleasure? A righteous heart, honesty and delighting in the things of God bring delight to our Holy Father. Paul, the writer of Ephesians, clearly and repeatedly states that making the plans to create us and bring us unto Himself before the foundations of the world, gave God great pleasure.

This picture made me reminisce about what it was like being pregnant. I remember the delight I experienced feeling the baby move inside of me. I would lie awake in the early morning dreaming about whether I would birth a boy or girl, what he or she would be like and what great things he or she would accomplish in this world. It brought satisfaction to decorate the baby’s room as I enjoyed the anticipation and wonder.

Now as I see my teenage children moving into adulthood I revel in what I see. They have become so much more than I had ever dreamed for them. Their abilities exceed what I could have wished for. I relax in the deeply held belief that God loves them more than I do and that He has a plan for their lives that exceeds what I could orchestrate for them. Delight comes from seeing my children embrace His plan for their lives. If this gives me such pleasure, imagine how God feels when He sees us living out His will for our lives.

Having experienced the joy of watching my children, I have a renewed desire to bring pleasure to my Father.  Living with an undivided heart that pants after Him brings a smile of approval from my Father. Searching out His will for my life brings enjoyment to God. I want to be like Jesus, whose purpose was to do things on this earth for God’s good pleasure.

What brings me pleasure? I think pleasing God should be at the top of the list.

PRAYER: Father, Thank You that You had Your eyes on me before the beginning of the earth. Help me to live out Your plan in my life for Your pleasure and glory.

BIBLE VERSE:“And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ” (Ephesians 1:9 NIV).

Better Than A GPS

By Cheri Cowell –

I was only twenty when Randy and I married and moved to Orlando from Ft Pierce. Two weeks later, we began school at UCF. That first day of school Randy arrived home before me. He sat there waiting for his new bride to come through the door so he could hear all about my day. What came through the door was anything but the girl he married. I was a crying mess. Through tears, I told him about getting lost on campus, not finding anything I needed at the library, and how it took me an hour to get home because of all the traffic. I said to him, “I just want to go home.” To which he replied, “But honey, you are home.” I felt like I was in a foreign land, and in some ways, I was. I didn’t know where I was or where I was going. I was lost and confused.

How many times do we feel that way? God has an answer for our reluctant steps.

Trusting is a difficult thing for many of us. At one time, all of us were trusting, but some have had that trust betrayed. It then becomes difficult to relate to the words, “Trust God with your whole heart.” But God dangles a carrot in front of us to entice us to trust Him. He promises to direct our paths. He wants us to trust Him, so He can prove His trustworthiness. He wants us to trust Him so He can fulfill His promise. He says, “Don’t try to figure everything out, just listen for My voice and follow Me” Don’t think about it, and don’t try to reason and rationalize. Simply trust, and He will show you the way.

PRAYER God, I praise You for being trustworthy. Help me learn to trust You more fully. I am often lost in certain areas of my life, so enter into those areas and give me the direction I need.

BIBLE VERSE: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6  NIV).

Family Buyback

By Art Fulks –

At age 16, I went to court for my first traffic ticket. The officer said I did not come to a complete stop. I had no defense. The scene is foggy today, but I remember the judge saying, “Son, I hear you are going to college.” A few minutes later, I walked out with a warning and no fines. I was clueless until my father said, “That was the last time I get you out of a ticket.” Then it was clear that someone contacted the judge, on my behalf, as a favor to my father. I never forgot those words, though he never brought it up again.

It may sound minor, but my father was teaching me the principle of grace without enablement. As a pastor, I deal with families and marriages where this is much more serious. Parents often do not know how to deal with wayward or drug addicted child. Husbands or wives do not know how to deal with an unfaithful spouse.

As believers, we are called to reconciliation, if possible. Yet we live in a society that seems to quickly look for a way out of marriage when we are hurt or betrayed. Conversely, some believers find it difficult to set appropriate boundaries. But the biblical model requires both for effective reconciliation and to accurately reflect God’s character.

Compared to my situation, the example of Hosea and Gomer was certainly an extreme case. His wife was a prostitute. No one would have blamed him for quitting. But God called him to not only take her back, He called Hosea to buy her back. What a picture of God’s grace and redemption! Gomar did nothing to earn favor or freedom. But Hosea also set clear boundaries for his relationship with his wayward wife. Likewise, In Luke 15, in the story of the Prodigal Son, the father forgave his wayward son, but did not give him another inheritance to sqander.

God loved us enough to sacrifice all in buying us out of sin’s slavery. We did not deserve it, and could not obtain it on our own. But His calling on our lives is to pursue righteousness. His love is endless, but the enjoyment of fellowship has boundaries. He will not enable us or help us to break fellowship and to destroy our lives. That is the balance to which He has called us. Listening to God through His Word and prayer will help us learn how to display His grace and not become enablers in our own family buyback situations.

BIBLE VERSE: “So I bought her for myself for fifteen sheckels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. Then I said to her, ‘You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you’” (Hosea 3:2 – 3 NASB).

Striking a Balance

By Hally Franz –

Have you been accused of being a “helicopter mom”? I have – by my husband. I am not sure whether to feel complimented or assaulted. Since I like to look on the positive side of things, I am going with the idea that he was totally admiring my parenting style.

In caring for our kids, we moms often move handily through the roles of body guard, private investigator, personal tutor, fashion police, counselor and cop. Sometimes, we manage several of those in a single conversation!

Dads approach things a little differently. Most moms have horror stories about what’s happened when children have been left in dad’s charge. Children have been seen in public looking disheveled and in frightening wardrobe combinations. Homework folders have been left unchecked and schedules have gone awry. Scary scenarios! When I have challenged my husband’s level of supervision, he has shamelessly responded that “no one died.” He was right, of course, but that wasn’t exactly the standard I was hoping for.

Dads and moms have different perspectives on child-rearing. We protect and nurture our children differently. While moms may hold too tightly, dads may fail to attend to what their children are saying and doing. Perhaps that’s one reason children need two parents; we do parenting better when moms and dads balance and compliment one another.

Our Heavenly Father knows just how much guidance we need at any given time. He alone provides the perfect balance of protection over us, along with the freedom that allows us to respond or not to His desires for us. And, He will help us do the same as parents when we seek His counsel in prayer.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank You for being the best parent. Thank You for knowing precisely how to protect, comfort, advise and convict us when needed. We pray that You will help parents as we seek to do likewise for the children You have blessed us with.

“But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you” (Psalm5:11NIV).

Finding Where We Don’t Belong

By Janet Morris Grimes –

Have you ever played the game of Sudoku?

It’s a logic puzzle that asks you to place the numbers 1 – 9 in each column and box without repeating any number.  It’s challenging, intriguing and rewarding all at the same time.

The funny thing is that in order to find out where the numbers belong, you must first determine where they don’t.  Then, and only then, do you find the correct answers.

Sometimes I think God works with us like that as well.  We ask Him for guidance, but then it seems like we get a bunch of “no – that’s not it” answers.  But, my guess is that God understands that we are just human enough that it takes something like closing a few doors to nudge us out of our comfort zone; to force us to take a different step; to bring us out into the open, where the only choice we have is to depend on Him, and Him alone.

I can’t help but think that God is playing this game of Sudoku with us as He is creating our future. I jokingly told my boss the other day that I had given him a “two year notice,” because we believed we were getting transferred to another state (for my husband’s job with Ford) for the past two years.  For the first year, we thought we were headed to Louisville.  Then there were a few months of Chicago rumors, which even led us to take a trip up there to search for housing.  Then there was Kansas City, and now Dearborn, Michigan.

All of these locations have one thing in common.  They are far away from everyone and every thing we have known and loved for our entire lives.

So what does this mean for my family?

It means that as He is gently showing us where we don’t belong, He is also preparing us for whatever comes next.  And little by little, step by step, as one door after another is closing, God is slowly leading us out into the open, where we have no choice but to depend on Him, and Him alone.

And I’m okay with that.

I suspect that it will be challenging, intriguing and rewarding all at the same time.

PRAYER: Lord, we want nothing apart from Your plan for our lives.  Please reveal that to us clearly, and put obstacles in our path if that path is not from You.  Show us where we belong, even if it means You must first show us where we do not.  We lay our future in your hands. Please give us the strength, and trust, to leave it there.

BIBLE VERSE: “Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths” (Psalms 25:4 NIV).

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