Skip the Wipe Warmers

By Hally Franz –

Recently Natalie Portman accepted the Oscar for Lead Actress in a Motion Picture for her performance in Black Swan. She looked gorgeous in her designer gown and jewelry—a stunning mother-to-be on the red carpet. Pregnancy is very stylish for women today, including those who aren’t celebrities. Maternity clothes are now available in a range of colors, rather than plain pastels with bows, and they have shape, unlike the old-fashioned smock.

Not only are future mommies donning trendy clothes, their infants are living in style upon arrival too. In my circle there has been a run on babies lately. Consequently, I’ve attended several baby showers in the last few months. These precious little ones have it made.

There was a time when baby shower gifts included basics like diapers, sleepers, pacifiers, lotions, baby blankets, rattles and bottles. Now, newborns are welcomed home to private baby-sized bathing spas, state-of-the-art music and security systems, nurseries decorated with the most soothing and, simultaneously, the most stimulating walls, mobiles, and playthings, and environmentally-friendly and organically-inspired diapers. My favorite of the modern baby necessities are the wipe warmers, designed specifically to prevent the little love morsels from experiencing the traumatizing chill of a straight-from-the-box wet wipe. Wow!

At the risk of sounding terribly old school, could we be taking things a little far when it comes to pampering (pardon the pun) our children? I remember my sister and me begging Dad to turn on the air conditioning by the time July rolled around, and wearing layers all winter. My children dwell in a temperature-controlled environment. When I was a child a Saturday evening treat meant a ride to town and an ice cream cone, but today meals at McDonald’s are standard operating procedure. My summers were long and boring; my children’s are busy with camp and pool visits, the county fair and family vacation.

Honestly, I would probably use the wipe warmers if I had a baby in my home too. The truth is most children are blessed and comfortable, more entertained and worldly-wise than they need to be. Parents naturally tend to do and give more where our children are concerned. So our real challenge is to instill in them a grateful and giving spirit, a sense of appreciation for the blessings they’ve been given and of responsibility to serve and give back to others.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, how You have blessed us in America! Please help me to always be grateful for those blessings, to be giving to others, and to raise children who are appreciative and generous Christians.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7 NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Hally Franz. Hally is a former high school guidance counselor, turned homemaker. Hally sees each day as a new exercise, where routines change and weights vary. Her goal is to maintain all-around fitness for service, while training her children to be competitive, compassionate and Christ-like in the world in which we live.

Pure

By Heather Allen –

On this sanctification journey there are moments where I reflect on where I have been.  Sometimes I travel pretty far back, to the spot where it began: on my knees, next to my bed, at the age of six. Even as a little one I felt an internal conflict when I was asked to do something I did not want to do.  At times I disobeyed, and other times I lied. I fought with my brothers when they provoked me. For the most part I was a happy kid in a happy home.

And my world grew as I grew, and I found myself struggling with other types of sin.  The root was pretty much the same, selfishness and conceit. I think I loved God since I was a wee tot, but verbalizing that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead gave life to my heart.

A few nights ago I was reading the news headlines, our world has been set on fire.  Sexual sin is everywhere. Theft, dishonesty, and dishonorable behavior are the new norm.  At one point I closed my computer and laid flat on my face.  This is an age of deception and I am fighting to keep from being deceived.  I feel the weight of contending with sin every single day. And it is tiresome.  But then I think about all of the changes in me.  There are thousands of small, daily victories where I have not given into my wants and feelings.  And learning to deny myself has led to character change.

A friend of mine said, “We will not be pure on accident, it will be something we fight hard for.”  I think she is right.  The point of purity is not so I can look shiny and clean and it isn’t just a nice thing to say because I am a Christ follower.  It is a down and dirty all out battle against my flesh.  It shows up everywhere, even in the grocery checkout where I am assaulted by magazine cover stories featuring infidelity, selfishness, and greed.  All presented in such a photo-shopped way, that the average girl cannot help but wonder what went wrong in her genetic pool.  It is a mind game. And as a whole, one I do not see being won.

So, how do I raise my kids in this culture?  How do I raise two Daniels and one Deborah?  My solution is not youth group, or Sunday school classes.  It is not counseling or involving them in good activities. This is battle. And being involved in good things is not the same as being armed.

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:9-11 NIV).

At some point, they will, like all of us, have to choose. They will decide. But while my babies are still home, I will teach them to hide the word in their hearts. I write this knowing that hiding His word in my heart will provide the only map that keeps me from stumbling head long into the apostasy minefield that Jude spoke of. The truth is I need to be cleaned and changed and the only source I know is the Word.  It is, after all, what endures.

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8 NIV).

Heather Allen spends most of her time caring for her hubby and 3 kids.  Check out her blog: http://www.theknottedapron.blogspot.com/

It’s a Wrap—168 Hour Film Project

By Dianne E. Butts –

Well, the film production week I talked about in my last two articles came and went in a whirlwind. We put our film in the overnight mail fifteen minutes before the deadline on February 24th, had a wrap party that evening, and the last of the film crew left the next day. It was an exhausting, exhilarating experience.

The Bible verses we were assigned that we were to illuminate in our movie were Genesis 9:8-10, which talk about God making a covenant with Noah never to destroy the earth by flood again. Following verses speak of the sign of the covenant—the rainbow. It seemed a very challenging verse to portray in a story about motorcyclists and Colorado mountains, but then I’d bet every 168 Team thought their verse was challenging too.

We got some awesome locations, including a ranch with Colorado’s beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountain range in the background. We gave God credit for that set design.

Unfortunately, for all our planning and praying, things did not go off without a hitch. The wind blew for most of our outdoor scenes which made for big challenges with the sound. I learned they can do a lot of magic in post production, but they can’t fix everything.

We had a team of writers which became a challenge. I learned not all writers have the same priorities! My focus was creating a story that illuminated our Bible verse. I felt the Sangre de Cristo (“Blood of Christ”) mountains were our rainbow rising in the sky. But others were concerned about my overt Christianity coming off cheesy. Still others were concerned with story tension and character motivation. With the pressure of the time constraints of 168 hours, I never felt we had a great script, but others felt we had a strong story.

We also had different perspectives on filming, with different things being important to different people. The director focused on how the movie would look—the use of color and light. In the opening shot, our character walks from darkness into light—very symbolic. No bright colors showed in the film until the final scene to depict life.

I imagine challenges aren’t unique to our film experience, and even learning that is profitable.

With the problems we experienced I doubt we’ll be in the running for any awards, but was that really the point? Of course you always want to come out with an awesome finished product, but when that doesn’t happen, what then?

Well, I learned a ton doing this project: about the production side of film making, about working with other people, and about how I need to stand strong for what is important to me. (I had to fight to keep the scenes and dialog lines about the Sangre de Cristos and the flood.)

At least one crew member wondered why things weren’t going well. After all, she said, we’re doing this for God. Well, don’t we tend to think just because we set out to do something great for God that we’re not going to run into difficulties? Jesus set out to do something great for God. He did everything right. And He ended up nailed to a cross.

In the end, it was a good experience. We touched many lives as we set out to make this Christian film based on God’s Word. Many people got opportunities they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, and I met people I otherwise never would have met. I hope we made a good impression that glorified God. For me, that’s what it was all about in the first place.

Dianne’s 168 Hour Film Project, titled “Steel City,” premiered at the 168 Film Festival in Los Angeles March 31 – April 2. Dianne is the author of the newly released book, Deliver Me: Hope, Help, & Healing through True Stories of Unplanned Pregnancy (www.DeliverMeBook.com). When she’s not writing, she enjoys riding her motorcycle with her husband, Hal, and gardening with her cat, P.C. in Colorado. www.DianneEButts.com

Distractions Versus Intensity Workouts

By Don Otis –

The 30-something-year-old woman on the elliptical trainer next to me was reading a magazine. Just down the row, another woman was having a loud cell phone conversation with a friend.  Still another was signing loudly to the song on her iPod. Fortunately, she had a beautiful voice but she was oblivious. The use of technology to divert our attention from the rigors of exercise, or to at least make it more palatable, is now fully entrenched. My informal survey tells me that better than half the people in the gym are listening to something. For women, perhaps it is a good way to keep men from hitting on them.

If you use music or books on tape to get you through an indoor workout, enjoy the diversion. If you exercise outside, I encourage you to leave the distractions at home. I don’t even take my cell phone unless I am going on a long run or ride. My observation is that people with distractions put in less effort than those who have none. It is about focus. You cannot get the full benefit of an aerobic workout and read a magazine at the same time. We are geared to multi-task, to extract the most benefit out of our scarce time, but it doesn’t work. I have tried.

I am for finding any creative way to motivate people. Yet in our fast-paced culture, try to see your exercise time as an opportunity to let go of the distractions. Think of it as a time where the Holy Spirit can speak to you. Think of it as a time to focus on your physical needs. Think of it as a time when the oxygen rich blood reaching your brain can result in a new idea or a creative thought.

Pushing It
In this column, I push the concept of high-intensity exercise. I have always been a believer in shorter but more intense workouts. It was only while training for a marathon that I had to revise my short and intense philosophy and adopt a long and slow approach. But if you aren’t training for a long-distance event, take the short and intense approach because the benefits of a vigorous thirty minute workout will outweigh that of a slow and methodical sixty minute session. In other words, more isn’t necessarily better; it’s just more. As we’ll see in a moment, rest is also a factor to our success.

Increasingly, those who study the benefits of serious exercise are finding there is a better way. While these principles are geared toward serious competitors, they apply equally to you and me. First, recognize that with age we change. Our heart rate declines (which impacts our aerobic capacity), muscles shrink (leading to more injury and soreness), and flexibility decreases (which has a direct bearing on connective tissue and extension).

Second, a unique training program established by a couple of brothers is proving to work well. It is a minimalist training regimen which combines intensity with rest. Yes, our Creator had a reason for suggesting a day of rest! The Hanson brothers encourage us to let the body recover without the mind losing confidence. In other words, don’t feel guilty for resting your weary body. They also say that we cannot “bank time.” Simply put, it’s better to start slow and end strong. Human nature and solid training make us want to do too much too early and this is a recipe for disaster. In fitness, as in life, pacing yourself is an essential ingredient in your success.

Don S. Otis (don@veritasincorporated.com) is a certified personal trainer, runner, climber, and author of five books. He runs Veritas Communications, a publicity agency based in Canon City, Colorado.

STOP the Merry-Go-Round

By Cheri Cowell –

Do you ever find you’re talking to yourself? The saying goes, that it’s okay as long as you don’t answer. Well, I think you should answer, and sometimes with a big and resounding STOP! I’m sure you are familiar with the times when that negative voice within just won’t shut up. It seems you’re on a merry-go-round of negative thoughts and don’t know how to get off. The thoughts just keep coming and you are becoming more and more discouraged and despondent. This is when you need to not just talk to yourself, but instead shout, “STOP, I’m getting off this thing.” That will break the cycle, but then you need to follow with steps in a new direction. If you don’t, you’ll end up back on that thing. Begin talking to yourself and take your mind to a new place. Sounds like pop-psychology and not sound biblical counsel?

King David was battling the feelings of depression when he wrote these words. He fought those feelings by reminding himself to be hopeful. David knew God was faithful and He was bigger than any problem David faced. Yet, those overwhelming feelings of depression and discouragement still enveloped him. David fought back by talking to himself. He told himself to look up; though things were bad he had reason to hold onto hope. He told himself to hold onto that hope by looking expectantly for God to do something, and to praise Him while he was waiting. Doesn’t sound like pop-psychology to me, does it to you?

PRAYER: Thank You for being with me in even the darkest of days. Help me to stop the merry-go-round by clinging to the hope I have in You.

“My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long,  “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:3-5 NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Cheri Cowell, who writes and speaks on the deep questions of faith. You can learn about her speaking ministry and sign up to receive her daily devotional at http://www.CheriCowell.com

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