Friday, March 13, 2015
Mentoring Woman: "SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN DENMARK"
Mentoring Woman: "SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN DENMARK": You know the old saying "Confession is good for the soul?" Well, I was prompted to share a not too pleasant experience I had last...
"SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN DENMARK"
You know the old saying "Confession is good for the soul?" Well, I was prompted to share a not too pleasant experience I had last week. I was beginning to notice a smell permeating from the refrigerator. At first I told myself, "It is your imagination!" Funny how I love to do that! I think that perhaps if I ignore it, it will simply go away. Then it became ever stronger the next day and the next, until my husband finally said, "I think something smells in this refrigerator!"
I knew it was time to put off the inevitable and clean the beast out. I dumped all the out-of-date milk, leftovers, wiped the shelves, and did a surface clean and thought I had taken care of the problem...WRONG! The night our small group was coming over, I still knew I had not discovered the culprit. I did not want our company to think we had a dead animal decomposing somewhere in our home, so once again "I went in". There behind one of the pickle jars was some broccoli leftovers. Now, if you have never smelled bad broccoli, it has a pungent smell of its own. I handed the offensive container to my husband to take out to the trash with the instructions that unless he had a gas mask handy, he should not remove the lid! It wasn't two minutes after it was removed from the the house that the smell was gone.
Now begins my analogy. Sin is like that in our lives isn't it? We know that something is just not right but we choose to ignore it thinking perhaps it will go away, until one day there it is, a smelly stinky mess! In the Psalms, David had some of the same issues. Listen to what he says:
"Blessed is he whose transgression are forgiven whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man (or
woman) whose sin the Lord does not count against him in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept
silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was
heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin
to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and
you forgave the guilt of my sin." Psalms 32:1-5 (NIV)
Isn't that a beautiful picture of God's forgiveness and grace? I'm not sure why God put this on my heart this week, but if you find yourself suffering from bad choices and there are leftovers that you need to be rid of, God is willing to clean the mess up and let you begin again, All you have to do is ask Him!
Here is a poem I wrote last year about this whole refrigerator experience:
I knew it was time to put off the inevitable and clean the beast out. I dumped all the out-of-date milk, leftovers, wiped the shelves, and did a surface clean and thought I had taken care of the problem...WRONG! The night our small group was coming over, I still knew I had not discovered the culprit. I did not want our company to think we had a dead animal decomposing somewhere in our home, so once again "I went in". There behind one of the pickle jars was some broccoli leftovers. Now, if you have never smelled bad broccoli, it has a pungent smell of its own. I handed the offensive container to my husband to take out to the trash with the instructions that unless he had a gas mask handy, he should not remove the lid! It wasn't two minutes after it was removed from the the house that the smell was gone.
Now begins my analogy. Sin is like that in our lives isn't it? We know that something is just not right but we choose to ignore it thinking perhaps it will go away, until one day there it is, a smelly stinky mess! In the Psalms, David had some of the same issues. Listen to what he says:
"Blessed is he whose transgression are forgiven whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man (or
woman) whose sin the Lord does not count against him in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept
silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was
heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin
to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and
you forgave the guilt of my sin." Psalms 32:1-5 (NIV)
Isn't that a beautiful picture of God's forgiveness and grace? I'm not sure why God put this on my heart this week, but if you find yourself suffering from bad choices and there are leftovers that you need to be rid of, God is willing to clean the mess up and let you begin again, All you have to do is ask Him!
Here is a poem I wrote last year about this whole refrigerator experience:
Friday, March 6, 2015
Mentoring Woman: SAPPY CAN BE HAPPY!
Mentoring Woman: SAPPY CAN BE HAPPY!: Webster's Dictionary defines "sappy" as embarrassingly sentimental. Yep, that's the way I felt this week, but there are s...
SAPPY CAN BE HAPPY!
Webster's Dictionary defines "sappy" as embarrassingly sentimental. Yep, that's the way I felt this week, but there are several reasons for it! First I had two sons with birthdays. Now this always throws me back in my mind to the day they were born. I know....I know....men just don't understand this in us. But I always use the biblical example that Mary, the mother of our Lord, "pondered these things in her heart" so why shouldn't I?
Another reason I'm sappy, I got out my scrapbooks and was looking at old pictures. This always starts me down memory lane. My granddaughter was wanting to look at some of the pictures of her father, so being the good grandma that I am, I pulled them out. However, it did not end with her visit for I continued to pour over each picture. Suddenly I found myself caught up like the old woman in the movie "Titanic" who looks at the seaweed covered chandelier and is suddenly transported back in time. That is exactly how I was! I remember as a young mom, I used to chuckle when my mom and grandma did this sappiness. But now I understand perfectly. As grandma said, "All chickens come home to roost!" (I feel that analogy applies here).
Yet another reason I was sappy was because I discovered some long lost relatives. They weren't literally lost, it is just that I hadn't found them! On a Facebook Page, administered by the small town I grew up in, someone was wanting information on relatives on my mother's side. They had some names and information so I knew them to be legit. Thanks to the pictures and information my grandma kept and that mom passed on to me, I discovered they are long lost cousins! Who says nothing ever good comes from Facebook? My mom, who is now 84, is so excited to discover this for she had often wondered whatever happened to that branch of the family. I hope to bring the cousins together this Spring. Can you tell I am beaming? My grandma would be so proud of me!
I am so thankful to have these keepsakes, pictures, and records of the past, even though it does make me sappy! I think we women need to mindful that we are the guardians to pass these memories down to the next generation. It helps to look back when this crazy, fast paced world, gets us caught up in its spinning and it gives us some firm ground to stand on. It also helps us realize where we came from, the sacrifices made to get us where we are, of how God worked then and He is working now, and it helps us to count our blessings for God's faithfulness to us down through the ages.
Just some sappy thoughts on this Friday! Here is a picture of a scrapbook page to be passed down to the next generation.
Another reason I'm sappy, I got out my scrapbooks and was looking at old pictures. This always starts me down memory lane. My granddaughter was wanting to look at some of the pictures of her father, so being the good grandma that I am, I pulled them out. However, it did not end with her visit for I continued to pour over each picture. Suddenly I found myself caught up like the old woman in the movie "Titanic" who looks at the seaweed covered chandelier and is suddenly transported back in time. That is exactly how I was! I remember as a young mom, I used to chuckle when my mom and grandma did this sappiness. But now I understand perfectly. As grandma said, "All chickens come home to roost!" (I feel that analogy applies here).
Yet another reason I was sappy was because I discovered some long lost relatives. They weren't literally lost, it is just that I hadn't found them! On a Facebook Page, administered by the small town I grew up in, someone was wanting information on relatives on my mother's side. They had some names and information so I knew them to be legit. Thanks to the pictures and information my grandma kept and that mom passed on to me, I discovered they are long lost cousins! Who says nothing ever good comes from Facebook? My mom, who is now 84, is so excited to discover this for she had often wondered whatever happened to that branch of the family. I hope to bring the cousins together this Spring. Can you tell I am beaming? My grandma would be so proud of me!
I am so thankful to have these keepsakes, pictures, and records of the past, even though it does make me sappy! I think we women need to mindful that we are the guardians to pass these memories down to the next generation. It helps to look back when this crazy, fast paced world, gets us caught up in its spinning and it gives us some firm ground to stand on. It also helps us realize where we came from, the sacrifices made to get us where we are, of how God worked then and He is working now, and it helps us to count our blessings for God's faithfulness to us down through the ages.
Just some sappy thoughts on this Friday! Here is a picture of a scrapbook page to be passed down to the next generation.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Mentoring Woman: "THE TRACKS OF MY TEARS"
Mentoring Woman: "THE TRACKS OF MY TEARS": Tears! Funny subject for today, huh? I have been thinking about how important our tears are to God. Psalms 56:8 in the NIV Bible says of...
"THE TRACKS OF MY TEARS"
Tears! Funny subject for today, huh? I have been thinking about how important our tears are to God.
Psalms 56:8 in the NIV Bible says of David's sorrow: "Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll--are they not in your record?" The New American Standard Bible puts it another way by saying: "You have taken account of my wandering; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?
David realized that when we have intense sorrow over our sin, God sees and cares about it.
"Back in the day" Smokey Robinson had a popular song called "The Tracks Of My Tears". It had to do with a breakup of a boy and girl, but some of the words are truly thought provoking:
"People say I'm the life of the party because I tell a joke or two.
Although I may be laughing loud and hearty, deep inside I'm blue.
So take a good look at my face, you'll see my smile looks out of place.
If you look closer, it's easy to trace the tracks of my tears!"
Sin is a great stress receiver. It can affect our health, our countenance and our attitudes. But the good news is, confession of that sin, is a great sin reliever! "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1;9, NIV)
My mentoring challenge for us is this: How many people do we know who we see on Sunday in our church, perhaps sitting in the pew right beside us, and we ask them "How are you?" 99 times out of 100 their answer is "Fine"! It is the answer we expect, so we go on our way. But I wonder, if we really took some time to listen, and were sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading, we would see otherwise. They may be laughing on the outside, but crying for help on the inside. Perhaps they are going through a trial and need a friend to listen, maybe they need someone to pray about something with them, or maybe they are dealing with a sin issue and just need to be reminded that God is faithful to forgive.
The first part of Proverbs 14:13 (NASB) says: "Even in laughter the heart may be in pain." All I am saying is take some time, slow down, and "Take a good look at their face"!
Here is a card I made for just such a person: I took a picture from a coloring book and transferred the image to paper with graphite paper and colored it with pencils. I wanted to keep it very personal and used my own handwriting for the verse. This is just a sample so you could do it as professional as you wish. The inside is very simple as well and leaves plenty of room to write your own personal message to the person receiving it.
Psalms 56:8 in the NIV Bible says of David's sorrow: "Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll--are they not in your record?" The New American Standard Bible puts it another way by saying: "You have taken account of my wandering; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?
David realized that when we have intense sorrow over our sin, God sees and cares about it.
"Back in the day" Smokey Robinson had a popular song called "The Tracks Of My Tears". It had to do with a breakup of a boy and girl, but some of the words are truly thought provoking:
"People say I'm the life of the party because I tell a joke or two.
Although I may be laughing loud and hearty, deep inside I'm blue.
So take a good look at my face, you'll see my smile looks out of place.
If you look closer, it's easy to trace the tracks of my tears!"
Sin is a great stress receiver. It can affect our health, our countenance and our attitudes. But the good news is, confession of that sin, is a great sin reliever! "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1;9, NIV)
My mentoring challenge for us is this: How many people do we know who we see on Sunday in our church, perhaps sitting in the pew right beside us, and we ask them "How are you?" 99 times out of 100 their answer is "Fine"! It is the answer we expect, so we go on our way. But I wonder, if we really took some time to listen, and were sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading, we would see otherwise. They may be laughing on the outside, but crying for help on the inside. Perhaps they are going through a trial and need a friend to listen, maybe they need someone to pray about something with them, or maybe they are dealing with a sin issue and just need to be reminded that God is faithful to forgive.
The first part of Proverbs 14:13 (NASB) says: "Even in laughter the heart may be in pain." All I am saying is take some time, slow down, and "Take a good look at their face"!
Here is a card I made for just such a person: I took a picture from a coloring book and transferred the image to paper with graphite paper and colored it with pencils. I wanted to keep it very personal and used my own handwriting for the verse. This is just a sample so you could do it as professional as you wish. The inside is very simple as well and leaves plenty of room to write your own personal message to the person receiving it.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Mentoring Woman: SOAK IT UP!
Mentoring Woman: SOAK IT UP!: Are some of you sick of winter yet? I know that we in the Mid West are! With 8 degree weather outside, I can't help but image this summ...
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