The Chronicles of Biscuit - "School Needs"

(I found this picture on my phone that Biscuit had taken of himself to send his siblings.  I thought it fit the story!)
The Chronicles of Biscuit - Stories about our youngest son whose nickname is Biscuit.

Yesterday I drove to Oklahoma City really early in the morning for an appointment. I called our two younger boys to talk to them. I told Biscuit to have a good day. He responded by saying, "If they're gonna force us to go to school, the least they could do is make it comfortable by having padded and heated seats!" I told him I was going to post it on Facebook and that he would have to endure the consequences of teachers who saw it! Ha ha!  I also said that they were welcome to straighten them out on the real budget needs of the educational system in Oklahoma (which are many).

After that conversation I got to thinking about how the people written about in the Bible would have worshipped compared to how we do.  They would have sat on the floor or perhaps just stood.  Maybe they had some benches or seats, but they definitely wouldn't have been padded and heated as Biscuit suggested for the school!  And our worship is different, too.  Most places of worship have padded seating, comfortable climate controlled air systems, and even more.

Biscuit thinks the comfort level at school should be "upped" to enhance the "burden" of school he feels he has.  Comfort was added to worship to please our desires and preferences.  And it's nice.  It's much more comfortable to sit on a padded pew or seat than it is to sit on something hard...like a bench at a basketball game. But does it enhance our worship?  Not at all.

My favorite place to worship God is at camp - especially outside.  When outside it's on a hard bench or even a rock on the side of a mountain, but it's my favorite place.  Why?  Because it's surrounded by the nature that was created by the Heavenly Father that we are worshipping at the time.  It's not inside a building that has been designed by man with materials made by God.  It is strictly and completely made by him.  There's nothing better.

When Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, she asked about where was the best place to worship.  He answered, “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24

It's really easy to get caught up in worship as being what's external.  The building, the surroundings, the large or small crowd...but what truly matters is our internal worship between us and God.  It's about our hearts and minds.  Sure we encourage each other through our worship together - that is part of it - but to worship in spirit and in truth makes it very personal.

We aren't "forced" to worship as Biscuit says he is "forced" to go to school (which at this time, I guess he is!), but God expects His children to worship Him.  And why wouldn't we?

A teacher made the comment on that post yesterday that if the school seats were too comfortable, the students might fall asleep and not be learning.  There's a spiritual application to that, as well.  If our comfort is more important to us than our worship, perhaps we will "fall asleep" as well and not be worshiping as we should.

Thanks for the conversation, Biscuit!  About the time I think he's outgrown these Biscuit stories, he says something funny!  That's okay. They make me laugh, but also make me think :).

Making the Most of Your Mistakes

Even though we don't like to think about it, God often gives us our trials, mistakes, and painful times to teach us something or to grow us in some fruit.  Maybe you're lacking in love.  God will give you an opportunity to grow in that area.  Maybe you're lacking in patience or self-control. God will give you plenty of growth opportunities.  Other times He allows us to go through the storms and process of the mistake instead of taking away the pain.

Some of the storms in our lives are simply out of our control, but others of them we have caused ourselves.  What we do with those hard times is how we can learn to make the most of our mistakes/trials/troubles.  What we do with them can become our ministry.

In my Wednesday night ladies' class, we have been studying how our mistakes can be used to minister to others.  Although I had written last week and studied the lesson both last week and this week, it wasn't until looking at it for the final time yesterday that this verse seemed to jump out at me. I've enlarged the part that jumped.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 

Do you see that?!  God comforts us in our troubles SO THAT we can comfort others in the same way.  There's another reason for the trials we go through!  It is so that we can help others!  It's so that we can share His love with others!  It's to bring us closer to someone!

Yet, often times we're afraid to use our trials for good.  Sometimes we don't want to bring up those painful times because...well, they're painful.  Maybe we still feel guilty about them. Maybe we don't want to think of the rough times.  Maybe we're content just in our own little world where we don't have to acknowledge the past.  But sometimes God wants us to get out of our comfort zone. Sometimes someone else needs us to share.  Sometimes we are missing out on an opportunity to share Jesus with others because we're afraid.  Let's get bold! Let's get brave!  Let's comfort others with the same comfort we, ourselves, received!

God wants us to make the most of our mistakes.  That's the end goal - to learn from them, to grow because of them, and to help others.  In doing so, our mistakes will become our ministry.  That's how we make the very most of those mistakes, troubles, and trials....using them to help others.