Trees Planted

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD.  For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

These verses have been very special to me through the years.  When I was in my twenties I spent a year in Costa Rica to attend a language institute for missionaries to learn the Spanish language and Latin culture.  The Costa Rican family I lived with were awesome Christians and they daily spoke into my life…or just listened to me speak in my budding Spanish accent.  One day my “Tica” mom gave me these verses to help me through the crazy journey I was on – the journey of Life. 

A decade later I would hear my mother-in-law teach these verses to her foster kids – no matter what their ages – so they would have this truth embedded in their brains for life.  And now, I get to teach it to my children. 

Just a few mornings ago, Jeremiah 17:7-8 popped up in my devotional book and so I shared it with my kids – especially to the one we’ve been having some hard moments with.  The Holy Spirit gave me a great analogy using a tree we have growing near our canal out back.  It was a tangible way to teach about how we need to be firmly planted and rely on our water source, the Bible.

(However, after I thought we were really connecting in our conversation, one of my kids said something so far off, like about the pretty colors that are on the other bushes… Well, maybe some good nuggets sunk into their sweet brains so we can revisit the conversation again another day.  As Zerby Derby says, we can just “try, try again”!)

Out of Gas

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 (NIV)

Ice cold water: it was the only thing coming out of my tap. It had been one of those days with the kids when I thought to myself, “If I can just make it to bedtime, then I can…(you fill in the blank: clean the house, veg out on the couch, read something just for fun, talk to my husband in complete sentences—completely uninterrupted by children).” Yet it was bedtime, and my husband had just announced that we had no hot water…not even a little bit. So the thought occurred to me, I’ll go old school…I will heat the water on the stove and mix it with the freezing water from the tap, and wholla: warm water. Except, I turned on the stove and the pilot clicked and clicked and clicked, but it produced no flames. 

Well, it quickly dawned on me that our gas tank was empty. Needless to say, bedtime was going to be delayed a bit as we all headed to grandma and papa’s house for hot showers. On top of that, the gas company politely informed me that it would be 5-7 business days before they could come fill our underground gas tank. It appears I was not the only one who had run out of gas.

The truth is I knew better. God had been so gracious to remind me in His still, small voice many times before to go outside and check the gas gauge. But I had politely told God, “Thank you for the reminder. I will be sure to do that as soon as I finish (you fill in the blank again: wiping up this mess, putting away these clothes, feeding my hungry baby, etc.). Well, he had shown me grace time and time again, and we had hot water for many days…until the tank was completely dry.

How often are we like that in our spiritual lives? We run around wearing our many hats (wife, mom, sister, daughter, friend, etc.) and we let the busyness of this life drown out our quiet time with the Lord. We have all heard the saying, “Miss a devotional one day and you can tell the difference. Miss your devotional for a few days and everyone else can too.” By all means, this quiet time with the Lord was never meant to be legalistic-- another check on our everlasting to-do list. Rather God beckons us to spend time with him because he loves us ; because he knows we need him. Because he knows that this life without Him is just too hard and we will find ourselves feeling empty. Ever have one of those days when you just feel like you have nothing else to give? I have! When those times come, I hear God’s still, small voice beckoning me to come away with him and be his love. To remember that he is my first love, and without him I will be like the gas tank in my yard…empty.

The remedy is so simple. Let’s commit this day to run away with God daily. Instead of letting busyness consume us, let us intentionally drown out the noise of this life. You see? I needed much more than hot water, I needed living water, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14 (NIV)

Dear God, thank you for loving me so much and for desiring to spend time with me. Help me to remember that you are my first love and that you hold all things together in my life. With you I can do all things, but without you, I will continue to be frustrated, overwhelmed, and empty. Please still the voices of distraction that seek to draw me away from you and help me make the time to run away with you each day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Application:

How often do we think we need other things more than time with Jesus, only to find out that we traded our peace for something temporal? Consider the course of your day. What are some things that tend to distract you from having a quiet time (TV, housework, fifteen more minutes of sleep, Facebook, smart phones, etc.)? How can you trade in those things for a truly relaxing and refreshing quiet time?

Verses to consider:

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men; for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107: 8-9 (NIV)

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Psalm 42:1-2 (NIV)

This is a repost of my very first blog with Parakaleo. However, as I study the book of Revelation with the youth girls at my church, I feel the Lord beckoning me to spend more time with HIM....to allow him to be my first love...all over again. :)

Silence Please!

The other day, my sons and I were doing a devotional together during breakfast. It was the story about Zechariah in the temple. The angel appeared and told him that he and his wife were going to have a baby. Zechariah didn't believe God, so God took away his voice for a season. He was forced to be quiet and contemplate what God was doing in his life. I won't rehash the whole devotional, but there was one point that stood out in this devotional for little boys: "It's very hard to hear God speak, or anyone else for that matter, if you are always making noise." 

SO...we went outside. We were very quiet and listened carefully to all the sounds around us. We heard a car drive by, a motorcyle zoom past, a squirrel running up a tree, and a helicopter flying over head. But there was one more sound...a very quiet sound---a family of birds singing really quietly, but very beautifully. If we had been making a lot of noise--running around being preoccupied with ourselves--we would have missed this soft melody completely.

The above story actually segways into this next story : My husband was outdoors pressure washing our patio furniture. Even though it was a brutally hot day, he suited up in a long sleeve shirt and long pants to avoid being carried off by mosquitoes. He worked hard for hours, but he seemed to be consoled by the fact that he was able to listen to his IPod nano--a gift he received from us for his birthday.

Well, little did I know, but he mistakingly left his treasured birthday gift in the pocket of his pants... and I threw it in the wash with his clothes. Needless to say, it came out squeaky clean, but it no longer worked. I expected him to be upset... Not with me, but just a general frustration for not having his iPod anymore. However, upon me gently breaking the news to him he said the oddest thing--or at least the last thing I had expected him to say.

He said that he felt the Lord telling him that he was too preoccupied--he needed more times of silence. I must say that my husband mainly uses his iPod for listening to contemporary worship, Christian hip hop, scripture podcasts, and 3dm devotionals--all good things. BUT, these good things were blocking out ALL of his quiet time to listen and hear the Lord's still, small voice. Although my husband felt this in his heart, he was having trouble implementing it...so the Lord lovingly helped him out.

Are you having the same struggle? Is your time too preoccupied with stuff (electronic or otherwise)? Determine today to put the Lord at the center of all you do. Be diligent about making quiet time with him, and be blessed by the peace you receive from time well spent with Him..

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being so patient with us. Thank you for creating us to need you. Please help us to take the time to quiet our hearts and minds and spend much needed quality time with you.
In Jesus' name, Amen.

"But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him." Habbakkuk 2:20

This is a repost from last year, but I pray that you will be still long enough to hear HIS still, small voice today. :)

15 Minutes to Change Your Life

 

 

This blog was written by my beautiful friend, Misty Krasawski. You can follow her mommy journey (she is a young, hip, momma of eight) on www.encouragingbeautifulmotherhood.com

 

 

 

If you’re a woman trying to keep up with a home, you’ve probably heard of Flylady. Marla Cilly has developed a fun online persona, a book, and a wonderful website that encourages women to change the way they think about housecleaning. One of her major mantras is, “You can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes!” And right she is. During my last few pregnancies I took her advice to heart and tried to spend just 15 minutes at the top of every hour doing *something* to straighten my house (or “bless” it, as she would say!) even during my bad season of morning sickness. And it worked! I still set a timer for cleaning sessions and find it makes a huge difference in how much work I can accomplish. Something about the idea of it being “only fifteen minutes” is very powerful.
I was thinking about that during one of those speed clean sessions last week, and suddenly thought …

If 15 minutes can transform a room, what might it do to change a life?

Tackling my home 15 minutes at a time gets two things going for me: it gives me a solid goal as I work on a particular project, and it lets me know that project isn’t going to take forever. Those are the two things that are at the heart of life management, aren’t they? Knowing something is being accomplished, and knowing there’s an end to the time I have to work on it.

Isn’t that a chunk of why it can be so difficult to make a quiet time happen?

Everyone knows we’re supposed to be studying our Bibles and praying. And we also have a sense that the more time we spend at it, the better. We want to be changed. We want to become more like Jesus. We want to grow.
But how on earth do you measure that? How do you know when you’re *done*? I suppose the answer is when you stand before Jesus. And that’s an awful long time away. What sort of motivation do you really have to even get started on a process you don’t really expect to see the end of? I think the nebulous quality of “sanctification” makes it pretty difficult to grasp, and certainly removes a chunk of the inspiration to begin.
When I hear tales of someone spending hours on their knees in prayer, I have to admit I’m impressed. And then feel guilty. Because I *don’t* ever pull off hours on my knees! My mind is going 80 directions after 5 minutes, plus my knees would hurt and I don’t even have any carpet in this house. We’re all incredibly busy. If there are little ones around your home, minutes are precious–and just finding a few is a tricky thing! If you got on your knees, someone would probably take it as an invitation to climb up on your back, right?
Think about it for just a moment, though. Here’s the truth: the God of the universe waits for you. He waits for you to wake up so He can talk to you. He wants to encourage you, teach you, strengthen you for the day ahead. He wants to whisper in your ear, highlight a scripture, give you the answer to that difficult problem you’re facing.

Could you start with fifteen minutes, mama? Could you block out just a quarter of an hour and ask Him to fill it?

Could you sit with your Bible and perhaps a notebook and pen … light a candle, pour your first cup of coffee or tea … and consider it a “date”?
I’ve seen “miracles” occur around my house when I block out fifteen minutes to focus on it–and my house is just a thing. What if you took fifteen minutes and focused on your heart, with God?

My guess is that it would change your life.

And who doesn’t need a little of that?