My sweet 9 year boy said to me this morning with tears rolling down his cheeks, "Why don't I just forget about all my dreams. I always change my mind. I said I wanted to be a Ninja and now I want to be a Spy. I said I want to be a ghost hunter, but now I'm not. " In his deep desire to have a real crystal he continued amidst his tears, "I just want something that can be special to me, mom. Something that I can cherish. All I have are toys. All my friends have crystals, but I don't have any..."
I wonder if there is anyone reading this that feels the same way about their desires and dreams. Are there desires that you are passionate about, but feel hopeless in? Do you feel like no one cares?
Towards the end of this past summer we had a lot of neighborhood kids that would come to our house and play outside. There was this one little girl in particular that caught my heart. She was probably 4. One day as the weather was getting colder, all the kids were playing in our backyard. I was in the kitchen and took a look outside to see how things were going. As I took a scan of the backyard I saw the little girl sitting on our lounge chair. She looked cold in her little tank top, shorts, and no shoes. So I went outside to ask her if she was alright. Her hair was tangled and her face, hands and feet were dirty, but she still looked so cute and precious to me.
She told me that her foot hurt from jumping off the swingset. So I picked her up and said, "why don't we go inside and I'll take a look at it". I carried her right into the bathroom and set her down by the sink. "Let's wash up these little feet first," I said. I lovingly cleaned with soap between each little toe and around every part of her foot. I then moved on to her hands as well. I wanted to give her the best that I had, so I grabbed a new soft fluffy towel and gently began drying off her feet and hands. As I did this, she looked at me with her sweet little eyes and a soft smile and said, "Oh...that feels good." I also took the wash cloth and cleaned off the dirt from her face. "Now I can see your pretty face," I said. And prompted her to look in the mirror.
God's love in my heart wanted to give her the best of everything I had. I would have given her a bath and washed her hair, bought her awesome cuddly pajamas, and wrapped her in the softest blanket and held her on my lap if I could have.
The point I want to make is that there is no one that is insignificant to God. God sees the heart of my little boy and his dreams and desires, he sees the little girl in my backyard, and He SEES you! He cares. Even if you feel like you are insignificant, alone, and no one sees you...GOD SEES! He saw the little girl in my backyard, and He sent me out to her to pour His love on her. The world may have seen her as an insignificant dirty unkept little girl, but I saw her as precious, valuable, and beautiful. It doesn't matter how the world sees you. God sees you as precious, valuable, and the apple of His eye!
Did you notice how I was gentle with this little girl and paying attention to every detail, wanting to lavish my love on her? That is how God takes care of you, but even better in ways we sometimes can't even understand!!!!!!!!!
That day I was filled with more joy than I can express! God is also filled with an even more immense joy when He pours His love out on you and me in our great need!
Our greatest desire is to be loved, and our greatest need is to be saved from our sins and God's wrath that we deserve. God fulfills both of those through sending His only Son, Jesus Christ, to take our place and take on our punishment. What greater love is there? Really?... Think of it in these terms, if you did something that warranted the death penalty, and there was definitely no changing your sentence, but someone stepped in and said "no, no...I love you and I will gladly take the punishment onto myself. You are free now."
God loves you so much He sent Jesus to do just that for you! The bible says in Romans 5:8, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Doesn't that touch your heart! It does mine! I'm so glad God Sees me!
I pray for you that God will give you an awareness of His love for you and you will know that HE SEES you!
Don't forget when you leave this page that God cares about your life!
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Saturday, January 18, 2014
DRILL A MAN
WORDS...they come together on page. Right?
Alone... they don't mean as much, but put them together with each other and they become more meaningful. Such are the things of life.
Have you ever entertained the thought..."What if I am just a fool... A Dreamer living in a dream world? What if all that I've been believing isn't even true? What if the hope I've been clinging to is silly?"
I have. Those thoughts have came knocking at my door, and unfortunately I let them in. I know they're lies, but somehow they grabbed hold of me and began to affect my emotions. They became real to me. As I let them seep into my reality I began to feel even more depressed. In that depressed feeling I began realizing with even more clarity that my hope in God and the work of Jesus is solely what has kept me going amidst trials and hardships year after year. Without a hope that God has a bigger plan and purpose for me, what's the point? There is no point. We'd all be living life aimlessly, but not REALLY living at all.
Think about it...if there is no God, no bigger plan, and nothing after you die...what are you doing here on this earth? To love my family and do good for others, you might reply. But for what?... Why? So they can be loved to just die and it all be meaningless?
In the movie "Moneyball", based on the true story of Billy Beane and changing the game of baseball he said this:
Billy Beane: It's hard not to be romantic about baseball. This kind of thing, it's fun for the fans. It sells tickets and hot dogs. Doesn't mean anything.
Peter Brand: Billy, we just won twenty games in a row.
Billy Beane: And what's the point?
Peter Brand: We just got the record.
Billy Beane: I've been in this game a long time. I'm not in it for a record, I'll tell you that. I'm not in it for a ring. That's when people get hurt. If we don't win the last game of the Series, they'll dismiss us. I know these guys. I know the way they think, and they will erase us. And everything we've done here, none of it'll matter. Any other team wins the World Series, good for them. They're drinking champagne, they get a ring. But if we win, on our budget, with this team... we'll have changed the game. And that's what I want. I want it to mean something.
Just as Billy wanted meaning for what they were doing for people in baseball...Our reason for existence has to mean something. Or otherwise we are just living here to be erased and as Billy Beane said, "NONE OF IT WILL MATTER".
As I wrestled through getting the lies out of my mind I remembered something someone once said:
When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He’s about.
- Anonymous
This really helped me to get my focus back, kicking those lies out and jump-starting my believing again that all the trials and hard things my husband and I keep going through have distinct purpose and meaning for our good and God's Kingdom plan for people. There is a point. It's not just a big waste of time. God is always about the people. Our pain and trials will be used to bring comfort to someone else going through similar pain and God will use it to build our character as well and bring Him glory.
When I'm going through sufferings and hard times I always like to know that there is at least one person who can relate and understand how I'm feeling. It always comforts me to remember that Jesus, my Savior, walked the road of suffering. He knows what it feels like to be betrayed. He knows what it feels like to step forward in love to love people, and have them spit in your face, mock you, and walk all over you. He knows how it feels to be rejected and under-appreciated. When He came in the form of a human, to set us who are captive to our sinful nature free, He wants us to know that he knows the pain and how it feels.
If you are struggling right now or have been for quite some time through hard times...I understand. Let's press on together asking God to show us the meaning of our pain and trials.
If you are struggling with believing if God is real...open up a Bible and sincerely ask God to show you who He is. He will show you. It may not be when or how you expect, but if you seek Him He will answer.
What's your hope that keeps you going through hardships and trials?
I hope that you find your Hope in God's bigger plan. His great love for you and Jesus Christ's redemptive work on the cross.
Just like words, if you take seasons and moments of your life and separate them to stand alone, they may seem meaningless. But put them all together and you will begin to see them forming into a meaningful story with purpose if you walk with God and salvation in Christ.
Are you desiring for just one person to love you unconditionally and not make fun of you? Someone to lead you and have your best interests at heart? One who can, most importantly, free you from the wages of your sin which will only lead to eternal death? One who wants to have an intimate relationship with you and who cares for you so deeply that He watches over you all the time...never sleeping? I did!! And still do!! I've walked the road of feeling like I don't belong, being stuck behind the prison bars of insecurity and feeling like you don't matter, and frequently feeling overlooked. But not anymore! If you feel like that, I want you to know that God did NOT overlook me! And He does NOT overlook you! There is love and freedom for you through Jesus!
Jesus is that ONE. God is waiting for you to accept His free gift of love to you through salvation in Jesus if you haven't.
I believe that you can't speak into people's lives about things you haven't experienced yourself. So I want you to know that I speak all these words and anything I write on this blog from personal experience. Let's walk together!
Alone... they don't mean as much, but put them together with each other and they become more meaningful. Such are the things of life.
Have you ever entertained the thought..."What if I am just a fool... A Dreamer living in a dream world? What if all that I've been believing isn't even true? What if the hope I've been clinging to is silly?"
I have. Those thoughts have came knocking at my door, and unfortunately I let them in. I know they're lies, but somehow they grabbed hold of me and began to affect my emotions. They became real to me. As I let them seep into my reality I began to feel even more depressed. In that depressed feeling I began realizing with even more clarity that my hope in God and the work of Jesus is solely what has kept me going amidst trials and hardships year after year. Without a hope that God has a bigger plan and purpose for me, what's the point? There is no point. We'd all be living life aimlessly, but not REALLY living at all.
Think about it...if there is no God, no bigger plan, and nothing after you die...what are you doing here on this earth? To love my family and do good for others, you might reply. But for what?... Why? So they can be loved to just die and it all be meaningless?
In the movie "Moneyball", based on the true story of Billy Beane and changing the game of baseball he said this:
Billy Beane: It's hard not to be romantic about baseball. This kind of thing, it's fun for the fans. It sells tickets and hot dogs. Doesn't mean anything.
Peter Brand: Billy, we just won twenty games in a row.
Billy Beane: And what's the point?
Peter Brand: We just got the record.
Billy Beane: I've been in this game a long time. I'm not in it for a record, I'll tell you that. I'm not in it for a ring. That's when people get hurt. If we don't win the last game of the Series, they'll dismiss us. I know these guys. I know the way they think, and they will erase us. And everything we've done here, none of it'll matter. Any other team wins the World Series, good for them. They're drinking champagne, they get a ring. But if we win, on our budget, with this team... we'll have changed the game. And that's what I want. I want it to mean something.
Just as Billy wanted meaning for what they were doing for people in baseball...Our reason for existence has to mean something. Or otherwise we are just living here to be erased and as Billy Beane said, "NONE OF IT WILL MATTER".
As I wrestled through getting the lies out of my mind I remembered something someone once said:
When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He’s about.
- Anonymous
This really helped me to get my focus back, kicking those lies out and jump-starting my believing again that all the trials and hard things my husband and I keep going through have distinct purpose and meaning for our good and God's Kingdom plan for people. There is a point. It's not just a big waste of time. God is always about the people. Our pain and trials will be used to bring comfort to someone else going through similar pain and God will use it to build our character as well and bring Him glory.
When I'm going through sufferings and hard times I always like to know that there is at least one person who can relate and understand how I'm feeling. It always comforts me to remember that Jesus, my Savior, walked the road of suffering. He knows what it feels like to be betrayed. He knows what it feels like to step forward in love to love people, and have them spit in your face, mock you, and walk all over you. He knows how it feels to be rejected and under-appreciated. When He came in the form of a human, to set us who are captive to our sinful nature free, He wants us to know that he knows the pain and how it feels.
If you are struggling right now or have been for quite some time through hard times...I understand. Let's press on together asking God to show us the meaning of our pain and trials.
If you are struggling with believing if God is real...open up a Bible and sincerely ask God to show you who He is. He will show you. It may not be when or how you expect, but if you seek Him He will answer.
What's your hope that keeps you going through hardships and trials?
I hope that you find your Hope in God's bigger plan. His great love for you and Jesus Christ's redemptive work on the cross.
Just like words, if you take seasons and moments of your life and separate them to stand alone, they may seem meaningless. But put them all together and you will begin to see them forming into a meaningful story with purpose if you walk with God and salvation in Christ.
Are you desiring for just one person to love you unconditionally and not make fun of you? Someone to lead you and have your best interests at heart? One who can, most importantly, free you from the wages of your sin which will only lead to eternal death? One who wants to have an intimate relationship with you and who cares for you so deeply that He watches over you all the time...never sleeping? I did!! And still do!! I've walked the road of feeling like I don't belong, being stuck behind the prison bars of insecurity and feeling like you don't matter, and frequently feeling overlooked. But not anymore! If you feel like that, I want you to know that God did NOT overlook me! And He does NOT overlook you! There is love and freedom for you through Jesus!
Jesus is that ONE. God is waiting for you to accept His free gift of love to you through salvation in Jesus if you haven't.
I believe that you can't speak into people's lives about things you haven't experienced yourself. So I want you to know that I speak all these words and anything I write on this blog from personal experience. Let's walk together!
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