Watch What You Practice

How interesting that what I was thinking about driving home from a golf tournament yesterday was exactly what our devotional thought dealt with last night!  Coincidence?  I think not!  Perhaps God is trying to tell me to listen and learn?  I think so!

I'm very independent.  I suppose that's a good thing in some ways.  If I need to go somewhere - I go.  I don't have to have my husband drive me or wait until he can drive me.  I know I can figure it out, eventually, and get where I need to go.  (Remember mine and my daughter's motto:  We'll get there!  It may not be the easiest way or the the smartest way - but we'll get there!)  I don't rely on others to do what I need to do.  Now house-wise there are lots of things my husband does that I don't even want to try to do, but I mean other responsibilities.  We don't expect help from others. I/we try to teach our children to take care of their things on their own and not look for special favors, such as extending deadlines for over-due projects or expecting other to pick up slack if they haven't done their part....just basic "being responsible" lessons.

But sometimes being independent causes problems.  Sometimes, if I'm used to relying too much on "me", I may find myself leaving God out of parts of my life.  It's not a conscious thing at all, but just a bad habit that's really hard to break!

Our devotional last night was from the children's version of "Jesus Calling".  It was called, "Don't Practice Your Problems", with the key scripture Exodus 33:14, "The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

Here's a thought from the book:

Sometimes, though, when you aren't really focusing on Me (God), you start to rehearse and practice your problems - going over them again and agin in your mind.....Then you try to fix it yourself.

But you are never alone, because My Presence goes with you wherever you go. There is no need to worry, and you don't have to fix anything by yourself. Bring your problems to Me. In My Presence, many problems simply vanish, and others become much easier to handle.

Don't practice your problems; practice bringing your problems to Me.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

The Chronicles of Biscuit - "Get a Gun!"

The Chronicles of Biscuit:  Stories about our youngest son, Tyler, whose nickname is Biscuit

Last week I went to get the mail.  When I came back in the door, Biscuit was standing there.  Here's the conversation that followed:
Biscuit:  "What's that bug?" 
Me:  "It's a wasp." 
Biscuit: "Do you have a gun?" 
Me (shocked and amused): "We don't need a gun for a wasp."
Me (looking for the wasp):  "Where did it go?"
Biscuit: "Up there!"
Me (with my wad of junk mail): SWWWAAATTT!  (wasp is dead)
Biscuit:  "AWWWWW!!!!" (Biscuit impressed with my wasp-killing ninja skills!)

It was funny that Biscuit thought we needed a gun to kill a wasp.  In his 8-year-old mind, he was thinking that the wasp was going to sting him - hurt him....and all he knew was that he wanted it DEAD.  He wanted to use a big, powerful object to squash a little, tiny problem.  A wasp can sting and hurt, but in reality it's a small problem.

How many times do we do the same thing Biscuit did?  How many times do you and I find ourselves with a tiny, little problem, but in our human minds we blow it up to some big, bad threat?  Sometimes we worry and "stew" about the small stuff so much that it just keeps getting bigger and bigger in our minds.  But, just like the small amount of junk mail killed the little wasp, our little problems can usually be handled with very little effort.  How?  By prayer and by thinking things through.  If we will pray to God for wisdom and think about our problems realistically, we will usually find that there is a simple solution that is easily fixed - or something that we can totally let go.

Today, on this first day of the week, and as we look to the rest of this brand new week, let's look at our problems as small and strive to keep them that way....just tiny little "bugs" that prayer can help us overcome.  Let's try not to let the small inconveniences worry our minds and make us feel like we need to break out the military warfare.

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Psalm 28:7

Mice and Mold

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GRATITUESDAY

Hosted by Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers

For this Gratituesday, I am thankful for mice and mold. Yes, I know. It sounds strange, but, it's true!

Each year when school begins, I start cleaning out closets and cabinets that have been neglected for many months. This year my goal was to clean out our pantry. It really hadn't been too long since I had cleaned it out because we had a mouse in there as I mentioned here. But, after cleaning it out then, I didn't have the time to go through and organize it like I should have, so the first full week of school was the designated time to take on that task.

Our pantry closet was next to a shower and in the laundry room. It sounds strange to a lot of people to have a shower in the laundry room, but not to me because two houses I grew up in had showers in the laundry rooms. I think it's a "farmer" thing...so they can come in and take of their dirty clothes and shower there...not having to go through the house. Anyway, we knew the shower had some leaks and my husband had recently sealed it, but apparently, it didn't work.

While cleaning out the pantry I found a few mouse droppings, which was very un-nerving since we never caught the mouse before and hadn't seen any trace of one being around. But, I figured they were just some that I had missed before (or at least I hoped so!). The mouse droppings were bad enough, but then, as I was taking out boxes of snacks from the pantry, I found a box of Cheez-Its STUCK to the wall against the shower wall. It was MOLDED to it!! YUCK!! Well, after my inital shock, I became angry and then I resorted to tears. Yep. I just stood there and cried for a minute. Then, realizing I had an even bigger task before me and realizing it wasn't going to clean up by itself, I dried up the tears and began throwing boxes and boxes of food away. For someone who doesn't like to waste, this was very hard, but extremely necessary.

So, this picture shows why I can be grateful for mice and mold. This picture is my NEW PANTRY, except it's not yet framed and doesn't have a door/curtain, yet. This new pantry was the leaky shower! My husband worked for two weeks after work and on weekends tearing out the old shower and making this new, larger pantry for me. I'm sooooooo excited! The old pantry, which is actually to the left, is a closet for the vacuum, brooms, mops, tablecloths, my husband's running gear, etc. Eventually the whole laundry room is going to be part of the kitchen and I'll have a new laundry room, but that will have to wait for a while.

I had wanted a bigger pantry, but wasn't expecting the mold problem to become the reason I got one. Something bad ended up being something good. This is a minor example of situations that happen in our lives all of the time. Something bad happens, but later on something good comes of the bad thing.

Thinking of this in a spiritual sense, we don't see the big picture that God sees, so sometimes it's hard to understand why bad things happen. It's sometimes hard not to become discouraged. In the Bible there are several examples of something bad turning into something good. One of those examples is Joseph. Joseph was sold by his brothers and later they were sorry for what they had done. But, look at what Joseph says in Genesis 50:20. "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
The brothers meant to harm Joseph by getting rid of him because of their jealousy, but God's big picture of "why" it happened was so that Joseph could save the lives of many people.

In reality, mice problems and mold problems aren't that big of a deal, but at the time on that Monday morning, they were to me. But, something good came from that problem. You may be facing some problem right now...maybe a big problem or maybe a little problem. You and I can have faith that God sees and knows the big picture, even when we don't understand. Someday we may find out what that big picture is, but it's possible that we may never know for sure. We can put our faith, hope, and trust in God because He is the only one who can truly give us the strength we need to get through the problems in life.