"This too shall pass".....but.....

"This too shall pass".... but .....

        "I just need to make it through Monday, then hopefully like will slow down and I can just focus on getting ready for Thanksgiving."  I found myself saying something like this to a friend at church a few weeks ago.  But Monday came and went, and a new set of responsibilities came in the following days.  I found myself frustrated and feeling overwhelmed by all I needed to do. I realized that with my current mindset of "wait till the next big thing is over", Thanksgiving would come and go, and I would miss the enjoyment of the Thanksgiving season while I waited for life to slow down. 

        There is a lot of truth to that old saying, "This too shall pass".  Whatever hard thing I am facing in life is not likely to last forever.  But if I live by that motto, the days will quickly pass by as I wait for the next hard or challenging thing to be over.  If I keep telling myself that I can relax a little or find contentment after this next thing, it will never happen.  Because once this commitment at church ends, there will be an event at school that needs my attention.  And after the baby finally sleeps through the night, she will need to be potty trained.  And once this child learns to do his chores cheerfully, he will need to learn to speak Kindly to his siblings.  Once I get done making food for this next big event, there will be a holiday dinner to prepare. And I will find myself frustrated, overwhelmed, and discontent, because every time that one hard thing does pass, there will be another challenge before me. 

       During the hard times, it's easy to tell myself that I will be ok once this challenge has passed.  What God has been showing me is that I can be ok while I'm in the middle of a challenging situation. I can experience His joy and peace even when life is hard, and I'm feeling pressured by all I need to do. Instead of telling myself that "This too shall pass" and then I can go on with life and be ok again, I believe God wants me to look to Him and let Him fill me with His joy and strength for the hard days, and for the easier ones. 

        I know that the hardships I have faced come nowhere near the ones that Paul faced, but I have been so challenged lately by his perspective on difficulties. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 he writes, "We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.  For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.... on Him we have set our hope."  That is what I want to learn in the hard times - to rely on God and not on myself. 

Things Are Not Always as They Seem - or How They Look on Facebook :)

For a long time, I've resisted being on Facebook, mainly because I know that it's something that I could end up wasting a lot of time on. Finally, I decided to take the plunge and do a better job of keeping in touch with my siblings and be able to see pictures of all my sweet nieces and nephews. I miss my family and friends in PA, and I'm glad to be able to see all of their smiling faces more often – if only through the internet.

One of the other reasons I've resisted Facebook is because I feel like it's far too easy to put a good “face” on and hide all the stuff I don't want everyone to see or know about. It's easy to just appear to be how I want everyone else to see me. And truth be told, I don't think that Facebook is the place for me to “air my dirty laundry” or to share all my struggles and hard things. Those things are best kept between me and God and a few trusted friends.

But I want you to know that when you see our smiling faces on Facebook, things aren't always as they appear. Oh, the truth is that Dan and I are just as happy with each other as we look on Facebook . :) But that doesn't mean that everything is always perfect. And we love and enjoy our kids just as much as it looks like we do, but that doesn't mean everything is perfect either.

Looking at my Facebook gives you such an incomplete look at my life. For example, when you saw that picture of our nice new kitchen, I didn't have to show you a picture of the school room (which was a disaster zone at the time). And when you saw those pictures from the birthday party, I didn't have to show you a picture of my face when I almost started crying because the noise and chaos were just a bit too much after a long week. And the first time we walked to that pretty spot in the place my kids call “The Valley” - well, the first time we walked there, I decided to take the kids there because my stomach was in knots and my heart was so sad because someone I love needs Jesus so much. We all just needed to go for a walk and get our minds off of a hard situation.

 Now of course, I'm not going to put all those things into my Facebook posts! Sure, sometimes I might share some difficult thing that is happening in our family, or something that's not just happy. But most pictures that you see on my Facebook will be of the fun things our family does together, the happy times, the moments full of joy. Just remember that you're seeing an incomplete picture of our lives. Some days are really hard. We don't always get along. We have difficult situations in our lives, just like you do. So just remember – things are not always how they look on Facebook. :)  

Lessons from the Garden - Part 3

The Lesson of Strawberries and Over Crowding:

            Perhaps you too love the taste of fresh, vine-ripened strawberries.  We love our berries, though not many varieties grow well in northeast Montana (strawberries, raspberries, and juneberries).  About six years ago we planted a new strawberry patch here and began to simply let it grow.  The first year we got a modest picking.  The second year we expected much better, but still only got modest pickings (It should be noted that ever-bearing strawberries do not produce as many berries at once, though they yield a wonderful second crop that lasts for weeks and weeks). We were able to do alright with the berries we got, but were disappointed.  By the third year, half of the patch was hardly producing a thing, though it was lush and green with foot tall plants.  What I learned was that if you allow strawberry plants to multiply unchecked, they choke each other out, making the entire patch unproductive.  Too much of a good thing is apparently not good.  Instead, strawberry runners have to be trimmed, limited numbers allowed, and old plants removed regularly.  Otherwise the patch overcrowds itself and produces nothing.

            Let us draw another spiritual and even a general life lesson.  How many of us have found ourselves so busy that we do not do anything well, and in the end our lives are crowded full and unproductive, both spiritually and from a natural perspective.  I am a person very prone to this.  I have a fair number of hobbies, and passions for service in the church, and I enjoy being busy immensely.  I love a full schedule.  However, when my plate becomes too full, I end up not doing things as well, cutting time short, taking short-cuts, forgetting “small” responsibilities, and neglecting the people whom I ought most care about (like my family).  In short, if I fill all of my time, I do not have time to pray, to be in scripture, or to care for my wife and children, all of which I am called to do. 

            So consider the lesson of the strawberry patch.  Keep your life focused without excess and you will find your yield to be good and full.  Also remember that some things (like old strawberry plants) may cease to be fruitful.  They may need re-evaluation, or even to be let go of because God has moved you to a new season.  There may be a new work that He wants you to do and you must let go of a calling that He had given you that you were passionate about in order to embrace this new work.

            Back to the strawberry patch, I dug out a bunch of plants and transplanted them into new patches, kept them in thin rows and got better production.  Now I am tearing out the old patch completely, tilling it up and starting again, keeping it in the thin rows, only allowing some runners, and then I will cut out and cover up old, non-producing plants each year.  This should result in a better yield.  May I learn to do likewise in my life as I serve God.

As Newborn Infants.....

           These past few days, God has been working in my heart, and showing me some deep-rooted issues that I need to change. He is so patient and gentle with me, as He deals with the sin in my heart, but it is painful to realize just how sinful I really am. At the same time, I am so glad that He shows me things in my life that need to change so that I can become more like Him.

          This morning I read 1 Peter 2: 1-3: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

           Having had five children, I could really relate to the word picture of a newborn infant desiring milk! Our first child nursed about every four hours as a newborn, but I soon learned that that was pretty unusual. In the first weeks of their lives, most of our other children nursed very often – sometimes every hour! I sometimes struggled to know why it seemed like they were nursing constantly, until I found out that a newborn baby's stomach is the size of a cherry!! No wonder they seemed to be constantly hungry!

           

         
           Our desire for the Word of God should be like a newborn baby's longing for milk. In order to get rid of ugly sins in our lives – things like malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander – we need to have a steady, constant diet of God's word. Just like it's not enough for a newborn to eat three meals a day, it's not enough for me to read God's word once in a day, and then forget about it. I need to continually be reminded of His words, His truth. Some days I might need to read a verse every hour or two, to keep my mind focused on God – to keep my heart filled with truth. Just as a newborn infant needs to eat every hour or two, to keep its tiny stomach filled.

Beautiful: "My Hands are His"

        I have been privileged to have some very beautiful women in my life. Many of these women have gone through very difficult things as they have journeyed through life. I have watched them walk through these things with grace and a steadfast trust in God. And as they have surrendered their lives to Him, they become radiantly beautiful. I'd like to share some of their stories here, so here's the first one.

        “I'm glad you can play this song, since I'm not able to do it,” she said to me after the practice.

        She plays piano beautifully, but because her hands have been affected by arthritis, she's not able to reach the octaves anymore.

        “I'm just glad that I can play by ear, so that I can just fill in with other notes when I can't reach some of them,” she continued. As she spoke I wondered if it had been hard for her to accept this.

        “Has this been hard for you?” I asked, “has it been hard to not be able to play piano like you used to?”

        She smiled softly as she answered simply, “My hands are His.”

        I nodded, not sure exactly how to respond, but I thought about that a lot the following week. “My hands are His.” Yes. I belong to Jesus. What He chooses to use me for should not be a concern to me. I am simply a vessel in His hands. If He asks me to be a stay at home mom, than I should rejoice in that calling and privilege. If He calls me to work in a dangerous place, I should not worry. I am His and He is more than able to protect me, wherever He calls me to be. If He asks me to lay in a hospital bed, and be an example of joy in a difficult situation, I am His, and I should trust Him in that difficulty. If He asks me to serve in a seemingly small, unnoticed place, I should do it with all my heart, because I am His.  Whatever my situation, I must learn to trust that God can use me in the way that He knows is best. I think I often struggle with thinking that I know how God wants to use me and I know what things I feel passionately about, and how I can best serve Him. But if He asks me to serve Him in a way that I don't expect, or to bring glory to Him through a difficult situations, I should be eager to serve Him in the way that He asks me to.

        I see today. God sees the whole picture. I can trust Him to place me just where He wants me to be to fulfill His purposes for my life. I can trust Him to use whatever difficulty He might bring into my life to bring glory to Himself. I am His. My life is His. Lord, use me as You see fit.