Hasn’t this fall been beautiful? To me, it seems that this has been one of the most beautiful falls I’ve experienced in recent years. The weather has been spectacular–full of sunny, warm days with mild breezes and the gorgeous colors of fall—the reds, yellows and oranges.
As we are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, these are some of the few things for which I’m thankful.
On the flip side of gratitude, I’ve found myself getting irritated with others, more than I usually do. And I thought I would share some things that the Lord has shared with me for dealing with these irritations—things besides complaining to my husband.
The Lord has shown me to: Offer these annoyances up to Him, and to pray for the person. Almost immediately, I experience the Lord’s presence and the Lord’s peace and the Lord’s pleasure. So instead of allowing irritations to fester in my heart, I am giving it to HIm.
It is really simple–I know. But sometimes the simplest things can be the most profound and bring the most comfort.
So—I hope that if you face circumstances that annoy you, or people that annoy you—-you will remember the simple prayer the Lord gave me: (You don’t have to use my words–just share your heart with the Lord) I sometimes pray, “Father, thank you for this irritating situation, as it gives me a reason to stop focusing on this, and turn my eyes to You. I offer this situation up to You, and I pray for this person. You know this person’s needs. You know this person’s situation. Please help this person with their needs and their situation. Please help them to know that You are always with them. Please help them to know that You love them. Help them to see You in their life. I pray these things in Your name.
Have you ever escaped from the pain of life? I have. My favorite way to escape is by reading books. I think that if we are honest, we will admit that we can escape in a variety of different ways—working really hard can be an escape. Watching movies and TV and playing video games can be an escape.
Drinking, eating, and sex—are all escapes that involve our body. These are all gifts of God– but taken outside of the boundaries He has set up—they will damage us and possibly kill us.
I have a theory about why we escape—because we are afraid. We have been beaten up by life, and we are trying to dull the pain, to comfort ourselves, and hide from any oncoming storms.
There is a song, that has ministered to my heart recently, and I hope it will minister to yours as well.
It is called Peace Be Still. The first line to the song is:
I don’t want to be afraid, every time I face the waves, I don’t want to be afraid, I don’t want to be afraid:
Listen to the song yourself, and read the words to the song, following the blog.
Have you ever taken a ride on an airplane and looked down
and everything seems so small? — Small houses, cars, buildings, trees. I love looking down and seeing the world get
small. I feel such a peace when I am
looking at life from that angle. Why? Because it reminds me that it is all a matter
of perspective.
Often, when I focus on a problem—the problem can seem so big, so huge, so unsolvable. For example, in marriage, my husband and I often have differing opinions from one another. That is to be expected, we are two different people, we had different backgrounds, he is from the East Coast, I am from the Mid-West, (I don’t have to explain any further than that—the cultural differences alone, explain most of our differences.) There have been a few times in our marriage, where our differences were so extreme, that I wondered if they could be overcome.
It’s all a matter of perspective. It’s all in how I look at the
situation. Often, reading the Bible will
help me find perspective. I find God’s
point of view—His eternal view, and that makes everything else seem small in
comparison to His view, and I have that same sense of peace.
When I was in college, I began my relationship with the Lord. One of the verses that I read over and over again was, Philippians 4:6,7: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer, supplication and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Our Lord.
I heard a great talk by Josh McDowell, on this verse. The
talk was about taking every concern to the Lord in prayer and the result will
be—peace. Not that I will necessarily
have what I ask, but that when I put things in God’s hands, with an attitude of
thankfulness and respect, God gives His peace.
Peace is a gift. It
is not being anxious but being calm. It
is realizing that “it”, (whatever “it” is) is all in God’s Hands, and He is
motivated by love. He can be trusted
with the “it”.
Every time, I have lost someone I loved, I have been forced
to look at God and look at that belief that He does love me. He is in charge. He can be trusted. How do I deal with finding my way back to
God when my heart is torn, battered and my soul is reeling?
I look at what I know—I know that Jesus did live, and He did die, and He did rise again. (I am not going to go into all the apologetics of how I know this, but I will give you a link, so you can start doing research yourself into these topics.) Click here for apologetic videos.
I know prophesy in scripture has been fulfilled, showing me that God knows what is going to happen, and He is Sovereign, He has a plan, His will—will be done. Click here for video on fulfilled prophesies.
The Holy Spirit continues to speak in my heart, reassuring me that I am God’s child, that I am loved, that I belong. (Romans 8:16)
There was a song that I learned when I was in college, (I was on summer break, working up north with the children of migrant workers, and attending a little tiny church—where this song was sung), the words to the song are: “Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand, but I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know Who holds my hand.” I loved that song. I would sing it, over and over again. Click here to listen to song.
That was a time in my life, when I was coming to the end of
college, and my future was full of question marks. This song, helped to remind me of God, the One
Who holds my hand, and the One Who holds the future. The song helped me to focus on God and He
helped me to gain perspective and peace.
God holds your hand and He holds your future too. God loves you with an everlasting love. When we doubt that, our peace is destroyed, as it is difficult to trust and follow God if we doubt His love for us. So, remember—all He has done to demonstrate His love to you, all the Evidence He has provided so you can know what you believe is true and Be at Peace and
This week I saw a video of Ellen DeGeneres explaining why
she was sitting next to President George Bush at a Cowboys football game. She was funny and humorous explaining how
this happened and her key point was we should be kind to everyone, not just to
people we agree with and who agree with us.
(A timely and important message—by the way.)
Ellen DeGeneres also explained that she wasn’t really cheering for the Cowboys, but for the other team, the Packers, whose quarterback was her friend. She had to hide her Cheese hat, while sitting in the box.
That reminded me of something that happened to our boys when
they were 9 and 11. They had been invited
to the local college coach’s box, as their good friend was the college coach’s
son. The home team was playing Boston
College. Boston College is their
grandfather’s alma mater. So- my boys
wore Boston College sweatshirts to sit in the box. Fortunately, their friend’s mom had a great
sense of humor and was a wise woman. According to my sons, she laughed at the
sweatshirts they were wearing and then she gave my sons two oversized t-shirts displaying
the local colleges’ logo to wear during the game.
We still laugh about this incident. It illustrates the point of this blog—laughter
can bring us together and diffuse tense situations. It can restore perspective.
Here’s another situation where laughter saved the
moment: Just yesterday, my daughter was looking
for an apple corer. She had left this
implement out –dirty on the counter. She asked me if I knew where it was. I told her, I had taken care of it, my exact
words were, “I probably washed it and put it away, because that’s just the kind
of mom I am.” Instead, we found the
corer in the sink, under a plate. I laughed
and said, “Yup, that’s just the kind of mom I am.” My daughter laughed, and repeated, “That’s
just the kind of mom you are.” We
dissolved in laughter, and it was a bright moment for us.
I could have gotten upset with her for leaving the apple
corer out on the counter– (we have rules about these things—rules that are
ignored frequently.) She could have
gotten upset when she wasn’t finding it – (oh wait she did get upset) J But laughter—diffused the situation and even
made it a bonding moment for the two of us.
Often, my husband and
I can be disagreeing with each other, and then one of us will change the tone
of the conversation, just by bringing humor into it. We
laugh and wonder what we were really getting so upset over.
After we lost our son Sean, I thought about that a great deal. I would look back and wonder why I was getting so upset over so many stupid things. The things I thought were so important, were not important at all. In fact, most of the things I got upset over, were rather trivial in the grand scheme of things. Jesus talked about this with Martha and Mary, (this story is found in Luke 10:38-42)—he said to Martha that she was worried and bothered about so many things, but Mary had chosen the better part, and that would not be taken away from her. Mary had chosen to spend time with Jesus. Mary wanted to sit at His feet and listen to His stories and treasure the time she had with Him. I want to do the same thing—I want to treasure Jesus, the One who loves me and gave Himself for me. The One who died to give me an eternal relationship with Him.
I am going to say something at the risk of people thinking I’m a little cuckoo – God and I have laughed together. I talk with Him in my mind throughout the day, just as I would talk to a friend, and He talks back to me—in my mind, and often, we laugh.
My hope for you is that your life will be filled with laughter— So Be Encouraged!!
Encouragement for you!! 