I help out a lot with the Sunday School program at my new church called, “Treehouse.”   I help lead the songs and lead into the main story for their large group time.  Then I often go in and am a helper in one of the classrooms when they divide into their age groups. I have helped out in all the different age groups, but I usually put myself in the third through fifth grade classroom.  They have big personalities, which is really fun, but also can be a bit overwhelming with just a few leaders.  I have gotten to know them fairly well, and I hope I can get to know them even better in the future.  This week, it was all about the crucifixion of Jesus.  It is very interesting because we are also learning our holiday song at the beginning of our time together.  Then we move on to the beginning of the Easter story during Bible reading.  

During class time, the third through fifth grade boys really made me smile.  We re-read the story in our classroom of Jesus going to the cross and dying for our sins, and then there were a few boys who raised their hands and said that they know the rest of the story already.  They proudly said, “Jesus is then raised from the dead three days later!”  In their words, they spoiled the ending, and I do suppose that is a perfectly good ending to spoil.  They were quite proud of themselves, and I was very happy with them as well.  

However, then they made the statement, “We already know this story.”  Almost like they felt they didn’t need to hear it again.  (They also asked why we were learning this story during the Christmas season, which was a fair enough question.) I realized that we can often easily take this story for granted.  We can think about the crucifixion and the resurrection and believe that we already have heard and studied this story, so we know everything that we need to know.  The students also were really good about answering questions that have to do with grace and mercy that we gained through Christ’s death and resurrection.    

This is not the story to just push aside.  This story is the only reason we can be Christians, the only reason we can read God’s Word, go to church, pray to a God who loves us, have fellowship with other believers, and live with a mission in our lives, only because of the crucifixion and resurrection of God. When we get so acquainted with our Christian walk and our day to day lives in Christianity, we can forget our base, but our base or our foundation is so vital for how we handle the rest of our Christian walk.  

There are sometimes when I quickly forget the main reason for my relationship with Jesus.  There are many times I get in too much of the habit of legalism and start running through the motions of my Christian walk.  I can read the Bible because I do love to read the Bible, but I also do it because it is part of my regular routine.  I spend time in prayer every morning and I make sure to write down my prayer requests as well as what I am thankful for, but again, I also do this habitually.  I really notice this when it comes to practicing my Bible verses I set to memorization.  I love to run through them, so I don’t forget them, and I know that it is good to practice, but I also find that I get very monotonous about my memorization in verses.  However, being reminded of the importance of the Christian story, helps me remember to care about these simple discipline practices with the love and dedication to a God who loves me and saved me.   

In the MSG version of the Bible, there is a great truth found in Hebrews 13:16, “Make sure you don’t take things for granted or go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others.”   This is very important to remember.  Sometimes we can go slack and forget what the common good is.  The common good is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then defeated death by raising from the dead and continues to forgive us for every future sin and mistake.  We have a glorious Father to serve, and we must remember to keep this fresh in our hearts.

My challenge for you this week is to review the Gospel.  This can be in any of the four Gospel chapters and books, as long as you are reviewing the Greatest story that was ever told that happened so long ago.  Read through it, highlight the important parts and the parts filled with intense love, and thank God for his sovereignty, and his mercy.  It is a good week as ever to review the story that we should be the most thankful for, as it is Thanksgiving week.  

I love the book of Esther.  It has always been one of my favorite books of the Bible, and I have read it many times.  One thing I paid attention to this time reading was King Ahasuerus after he divorced and sent off his first wife.  I had always read over that scene fairly quickly.  Esther wasn’t even a part of the story yet.  The interesting parts hadn’t begun.  However, God is so good about taking the seemingly boring parts of a story and giving us a great lesson out of it.  

Before I highlight the verse I want to, I am going to give a bit of context on the beginning of the book of Esther.  This book starts out with a huge banquet.  This is to honor the King, Ahasuerus and his wife, Vashti.  However, the majority of the time they are not together but rather enjoying themselves in their own separate rooms.  Vashti with the women in the court and Ahasuerus with his male servants and officials.  It was not until Ahasuerus called out Vashti to show off her beauty, they really spoke or acknowledged each other’s presence, at least as far as the reader can see.  

Now, it is hard to know exactly the reasons why Vashti denies her husband, the king, when he asks to have her show off her beauty.  Maybe, she really didn’t want to be harassed and ogled at by her husband’s workers and friends.  Maybe she didn’t really want to see her husband with a lot of liquor in his system.  Or maybe she was having a really good time with the other women in the court and she didn’t want to be distracted from their conversation.  Either way, she did not go to the king.  Instead of talking to her and solving this spat, the king did have a different plan in mind for how to deal with this situation.  His solution, send Queen Vashti out.  She was no longer going to be the queen or his wife.  

The verse I want to highlight from this story is Esther 2:1, “Later when King Ahasuerus’ fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti (first wife) and what she had done and what he had decreed about her.” I noticed this verse because it really shows King Ahasuerus was incredibly drunk and furious when he decided to be rid of his first wife Vashti.  It was like he realized after he had calmed down that he had made some bad choices. He doesn’t have a wife now, and his country doesn’t have a queen.  He was realizing in those moments, his actions had consequences.  King Ahasuerus was given the opportunity to have his staff create a contest where the single women come to the palace, and they are in a competition to become his next wife.  

This made me realize we can often make bad choices when it comes to being really angry, emotional, tired, hungry, etc, essentially when we are not in the best frame of mind. We can then hurt people, quit something we were originally passionate about, and fall into temptation.  There are so many bad decisions we can make and not realize our consequences until it is too late.  And…most of us don’t have a staff working to fix our problems. We need to make things right on our own.  We may have to swallow our pride and apologize, we may have to put in extra hours to fix a past mistake, and sometimes we may not fully be forgiven.  

One thing to learn is that it is important to remember when our emotions may be compromised.  For example, King Ahasuerus became really angry after he was incredibly drunk.  I think realizing how we can act when we are in any way inebriated is important.  Realizing we can make worse choices when we put ourselves in a particular position is something we need to be reflective over.  This can even include when we are extremely under slept or undernourished in other ways.   However, the next day, we are going to have to reap the consequences of our actions.  Using an excuse of being drunk or being out late will only work so far.  

I have learned through the years that whenever I start to get upset, I need to step away and reevaluate my emotions.  I may need to cry.  I may need to talk it through with someone else.  I may need to simply give myself space from other people.  I may just need a break from seeing people in general, even the ones who had nothing to do with the situation at hand.  It is important to avoid getting too emotional and too angry too quickly before I do something I regret.  

I also have definitely learned to pray over these situations.  I know that God is the only one who can help me when my emotions are about to spill over.  I definitely noticed this in high situations when I was teaching.  There were times I would become so frustrated with a class.  At nights and in the mornings, I would spend time in prayer, asking the Lord to help me with the patience to do my best for these particular students and class.  He helped me so much, and I know he saved a lot of relationships with my students.  

I am not necessarily going to have a challenge for this week because I am hopeful that this week there won’t be a moment that will upset you either in anger or in sadness.  However, hopefully when there will be future moments, you will know how to best handle your emotions.  I am hoping that maybe you find the few strategies that best process your emotions, so you don’t make a decision where you will wake up and regret something you had done in an emotional state. 

I just finished about a year or so of therapy.  This was quite the year to do it.  Since starting therapy, I thought about changing careers, then I actually did change careers and moved to a new town and got acquainted there.  My therapist really got to see me through a lot of highs and lows of this last year, and I am so grateful that she was with me every step on that journey.  I would often get very excited to tell her about a new job offer or an interview.  I would be proud of when I could better evaluate and control my emotions, so I could tell her how I was growing in that.  I even told her when I went on a few dates because she wanted me to get out there more when it came to the dating world.  There will definitely be sometimes when I will miss telling her this news. 

I have two main reasons for ending therapy.  One, I can’t personally afford it right now.  It has increased in pricing every month and while I could actually afford it, the extra money that I will have from choosing to end this service sounds like the better option.  My current therapist also told me that she would say I am in a healthy place to go off without her anymore. It was both so encouraging and sad to hear her say this.  I was encouraged because she has seen the growth that I have made in this past year, both in my mental health as well as where I was in my life and she is now excited to see me off.  It is sad, though, because I will miss giving her these life updates.  

I know that I have grown in this experience.  I struggled a lot with jealousy and feeling hurt by not feeling included, and even struggling with bitterness from time to time with either friends or with trying to find a relationship.  My therapist was amazing at catching hints of bitterness starting to form in my heart and telling me so.  She would always say that bitterness is not something I want to start growing in my heart.  It is easier to get rid of in the beginning, and It would be much harder to get rid of when it has really hardened in the heart.  

Through this year of therapy, I have realized that it is so important to spend time working on oneself.  I know that one needs to work on oneself because we can definitely get into our own lives and our own rhythms that we can easily lose sight in possibly bad habits we have fallen into or our emotions that can often get in our way.  I know one bad habit I got into was not genuinely having faith.  My therapist knew that I was a Christian believer, and she knew this was a big piece of my life.  She knew I loved to center my life on Jesus. However, there were many times when I would lack faith in what God was doing in my life.  She would be good to point out when my thoughts were always going towards the negative and not believing that anything positive could come out of my life.  I have been reminded of just how important faith really can be. 

There is a Bible verse that while harsh, can be a good verse in regards to this topic of self-reflection.  Matthew 7:5, “First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” We can sometimes struggle as people to be judgmental with others around us before we really take the time to look at ourselves. I am not saying it is good to judge someone by looking at them, but we really shouldn’t do that when we come from a place of superiority and judgment looking down on them.  There are a lot of emotions and sins and problems that every person is struggling through and growing through, and being able to be reflective on that is highly important.  

I also know that I spend a good deal of time trying to be helpful to others just in regard to my role at my job, and my volunteering experiences at church.  While it is important to care about others, I do realize that I need to be very good about trying to grow in myself.  While I am taking a break from therapy, mostly because of financial reasons, I do know that I need to be willing to talk to someone, either a therapist I can find for once a month or someone who can disciple me and my walk with Christ.  

My challenge for you this week is to find one discipline or item that you want to personally grow in this week. If that is spending more time in prayer, make a goal to pray at least once a day this next week.  If it is reading the Bible, set a goal to read one chapter of the Bible every day this week.  If it is just taking time to sit and relax from anxiety, my goal is that you set aside some hours to do that.  We can’t fully take care of others or be good stewards of the Christian faith if we also don’t put time and care into ourselves.   I pray you have a good week in whatever area you have chosen to grow in.  

Time management is something I am both very good at, and it is also something I struggle with.  I struggle with it in the sense that I overwork myself and try to spend time with more people than I probably should at one time in one day.  It is hard because I want to say yes to everything. I think I feel the need to be busy because it is when I feel the most important. I gain a sense of purpose and belonging when I have many appointments and meetings.   

I am definitely not saying it is bad to be busy.  There are people like me who are a bit more type A and they really want to spend time doing things, seeing people, and working towards a cause.  This is a great place to be.  However, it is important that we don’t overwork ourselves to the point where we can’t really truly enjoy the moments or the time with those we love.  I also have found I can’t spend time really getting to know the people around me, and really showing my care for them when I am overworked. I also can’t do my work to the best of my ability when I am squeezed for time.  Essentially, it is perfectly fine to be busy, but in moderation.  

At church we have been talking a lot about relationships.  We talked a lot about how we interact with others.  This can even be making sure that we are really focused on the conversations that are happening.  This is making sure we are listening and asking good questions of the people around us and caring about their responses.  I love to talk to people.  However, I only love listening and talking to people when I have time.  When I am rushing around from place to place, I find I do not take the time to really inquire or care about how someone else is doing.  I may want to talk more, but then I am constantly checking my watch and trying to hurry myself along.  

Then also when I am running around, I can’t really enjoy what I am doing.  When I am doing well on time, I genuinely enjoy where I am at.  I enjoy working out when I am not in a hurry, I love work when I am not thinking about the other things that I need to be doing, and I love reading when I have the extra time to sit and enjoy a book.  I even know that when I am not super stressed, I can enjoy driving to and from places, listening to music or podcasts.  It is the stress of extreme busyness that sucks joy out of a lot of my activities.  

There is a verse that captures this thought and it is from Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 which says, “I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.”  It is important for people to find joy in God and in everything they do, because these moments and the people that we have in our lives are a gift from Him.  I need to remember to have enough time to truly enjoy what God has given me and what He has done for me.  

I also have found I am not as good at any of the tasks I usually do when I am rushing them.  I like to work hard on each item I am doing.  Whether this be my exercising, tasks at work, singing at choir practice, or even spending time writing for this blog.  When I am rushing around and trying to fit in everything, I am not really spending time thinking about what I am doing or how to work on things.  I hate when I don’t do a good job on anything I have been tasked with or I assign myself.  

Because of this, I need to do a better job of planning out my week.  There are certain things that I have definitely committed to at least every week or every other week, such as work, choir, Bible study, and volunteering at church.  I also know that I care about exercising, reading, writing for this blog, and doing my devotionals, so I do need to make sure I have time to do this on a daily basis.  Then besides those things, I may need to be better about only saying yes to one or two events throughout the week.  This includes the weekends.  Obviously, the weekends are more convenient to say yes to things, but at the same time, I will need time to relax after going from working and activities throughout the week. 

My challenge for you this week is to reflect on your own schedule.  Do you personally feel tired and overworked?  If so, it may be important to spend time reevaluating your calendar and schedule like I am planning on doing this next week.  It is always important to make sure you have enough time to sit back and appreciate life and God’s gifts, so please also make sure you put enough time in to do that as well.  Then it will fill your days up, even when they are busier.  

This weekend is my 200th blog! I am very happy I have achieved this milestone in regards to my writing career.  I am so blessed I have had many people read my blogs and follow it on a regular basis.  I can not believe there have been so many people who have been willing to read the words I have written and have hopefully gotten some good advice or wisdom out of them.   I am very filled with joy for those who have been through the journey of my blog, even if it was just for a portion of it.  

Looking back, I have written about my finding of God’s messages through nature, different hobbies, church sermons, and the messages found in many devotional books.  I have had a lot of different changes through my life while writing my blog such as a few years of teaching, COVID and the pandemic, grief through death of family members, changing of careers, and moving back to Cedar Falls.  I am glad that I have been able to write all these parts of my journey in the past years through this blog.  

This blog has definitely taught me to be reflective. One of my greatest blessings of my page is the time for me to be reflective and evaluative over what I am learning in church or through devotionals and through my time with the Lord.  I am very happy with the opportunity to be reflective in my everyday life and learning opportunities.  I have been able to learn and gain so much more wisdom through all life has given me. It has taught me to be more aware of my heart in all situations.  Do I have bitterness in my heart, or do I need to show gratitude and thankfulness? Am I staying humble and not committing myself to the world’s successes or praises?  How can I find God in nature, in interactions with those around me, or in my quiet times?  I love being able to find and evaluate these answers.  

I know that I have a long way to go. I have a lot of learning and growing, and becoming more committed to God.  I still struggle a lot with my patience, caring about what others think more than I should at times, my inappropriate language or swearing, and my jealousy of others.  I have a lot more topics to expand on in the years to come, and I hope that my blog will be a great way to showcase my journey as well as help any others on theirs.  

My particular goal for this next year is to try to grow pieces of my blog.  I changed my logo which does capture a bit more of what I am trying to show throughout my posts.  Then one of my goals is to grow my blog post range.  I am trying to remember that I need to do this in a heart that is wanting to serve God and not just because I want to have blogs and my writings really popular for my own glory.  I need to remember to have the humbling strive to do my best and grow my outreach.  

I want to again say thank you for reading any blogs.  Thank you to those who have followed my blog or helped me grow my page.  I greatly appreciate all the support and the love from my followers and friends of this dream of mine. I hope that I have been able to help someone through lessons I have learned in the past. 

My challenge for you this week is to think about a particular dream you have.  One of my dreams was to have a blog and to share my thoughts on a weekly basis.  However, one of my other goals was to work more on writing another draft of a book.  Sometimes I avoid working on my book draft because I know it takes a lot of brain power and work, but at the same time I have great dreams about working on another book and having a book published, so I do need to keep striving towards that dream, God-willing. I think it is important to think about one’s dreams.  I know I have written about that before, but I think that it is important to remember that we can achieve a lot of our dreams through Jesus Christ.

I want to end this blog, my 200th blog with a verse of praise.  God is the only reason I have been able to write as much as I have been, and I am so grateful for his guidance and his help all along the way.  “I praise you, God, because “who is like you, LORD God Almighty? You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you” (Psalm 89:8).  

I was at church today, and we were talking about sacrifice.  My pastor told a very funny story about his oldest son, and while I believe the story is humorous, I found it an important story to reflect on how this relates to sacrifices.  One night, his family was eating supper and his son asked for a piece of candy.  However, the pastor knew that they were going to an event after supper where they would be serving Scratch Cupcakes.  (Scratch is a really nice bakery chain in Iowa.)  

Because of this, the pastor told his son that he could have a choice.  He could have the one piece of candy that was left, which was a pink starburst, or he could wait and have a cupcake in just a little while.  Because he was a little kid, he chose the little starburst in the jar over the big and nice cupcake.  He didn’t want to wait for a treat later.  He wanted the treat that he saw right in front of him.  It is not good for his health to have both candy sugar and then cupcake sugar.  It would most likely leave him with a stomachache, so therefore, he had to settle for his choice of a pink starburst and would miss out on the nice cupcake.   

While this is a story of a little kid and their small appetites, it is important to remember that we can do this when it comes to looking at the things of this world over the heavenly things to come.  We can choose to not sacrifice because we want the items in this world and don’t look ahead to the future God promises us. Obviously we are older now, so we know to wait for a cupcake or for a better treat as opposed to the first smaller option, but now we have other temptations that we may want to choose over the heavenly choices.  

How often do we choose the lesser thing over the greater thing?  I believe there are many times when we choose to be super loved and admired in this world, as opposed to caring about our relationship in heaven.  There are many times when we can care too much about the money and success we have in this world as opposed to how well we understand the Bible and how much we spend in prayer.  We may not be thinking about our relationship with God as a success when instead we look at the money and the rewards in this world. 

I believe I care about the little starburst when I am overly concerned with how liked I am by everyone.  I want to be loved and, in some ways, admired by the people in my life.  I want to be noticed and I want to feel like I have made an impact in the world.  It is a great feeling of contentment for a bit until I go home, and those compliments don’t follow me.  However, I need to remember that when I spend a significant time with Jesus in the morning, the good feeling lasts for the whole day.  I need to find the contentment and the happiness from God, as opposed to people’s praise.  

Romans 8:23 describes the struggle that many people have with waiting for eternity or not being tempted by the items of this world.  This says, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” We wait and wait and struggle with the sins of the world and waiting to be true sons or daughters of Christ.  It is hard.  Temptations can take a lot to fight against.  Jesus and all his followers written in the Bible had the same struggle.  

 However, that verse is later followed by Romans 8:25 which says, “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. ”  This is the reminder that we do need to wait for our hopes and our future.  It is coming soon, but we do have to wait for it with patience and persistence.  However, just like a growing child probably should not have both candy and a big cupcake, we are not able to fully enjoy or have both the items of this world and the heavenly one. We are going to have to give away our few starbursts that are in this world, but then we will have the big cupcake of Christ and our everlasting future.

The challenge of this week is to think about what the starbursts in your life are as opposed to the bigger and better desserts.  I would say that my starburst is thinking more about success and achievements in my life rather than the achievement and the victory that I have in Christ.  I want to wait for compliments and constant encouragement, which can be nice, but I need to remember that I don’t need the compliments that come from the average man, but rather from God himself. 

I really love to run.  I love to do races, and I love to get a good mile run outside.  I also really love to exercise in general, though, and as I have grown older and older, I do enjoy general exercise more and more.  I enjoy going to work out classes and getting to build a community within that space.  I have been very encouraged in the last few years that I have grown both more confident as well as faster in my running.  This last weekend, I finished my fourth half marathon, and it was the fastest time I had ever had when competing in a half marathon.  

I do definitely think one of the main reasons I am running faster is because I have been better at cross training.  I enjoy spending time lifting weights and getting stronger, not just in my legs but all over my body.  I have added more workouts to my arms and to my abs.  I also do just general cardio.  I am not pounding my body with running day after day.  I am not saying it is wrong to do this, but I have found I have grown through this cross-training regimen.  Orthoinfo online discussed the main positives of cross training which is that it gives one’s muscles a chance to adapt quicker to different exercises, and it prevents injury because one is working different muscle groups while the other muscle groups have the chance to rest.  

I believe this can relate to our Christian walk as well.  There are many different ways and “exercises” if you will, to grow closer to God and show love and worship to him.  There are many spiritual disciplines that help strengthen us.  There is prayer as a way to find community and conversation with God.  Prayer is a reminder we are in a relationship with God.  This is the chance to talk to him and go to him about our concerns and our joys and our gratefulness.   Then there is Bible reading which is getting to understand God’s law and therefore his Gospel. There is spending time listening and speaking with other believers in fellowship, so iron can sharpen iron.  Then there is meditating and memorizing verses in order to focus on key passages in the Bible.  Through the Christian walk, there is a surplus of opportunity to get to know God and to grow in our personal righteousness through him.  

It is a good reminder to focus on all the different spiritual disciplines because it is a way to strengthen us in all the different ways there are.  If a person just prays, then they won’t get the chance to read the words God has written to his people long ago. If a person just reads the Bible, and never studies or memorizes it, then they may not understand God’s Word intimately.  If a person on the opposite side is studious in reading the Bible, but never spends time praying, then they may never get a good conversation with God.  If someone never spends time with another believer in fellowship, how will that person get the chance to love like our Father in heaven to one’s brothers and sisters in Christ as well as learn different thoughts and perspectives. Each discipline has its reasons and importance.  (Christian authors are another one.  It is good to hear perspectives from different Christian authors.  I really enjoy certain Christian authors such as Lisa Terkeurst and John Piper.  However, I have recently been reading books from other Christian authors, so I can receive a different message from a different fellow believer.)  

Timothy brings this up in his letter in 1 Timothy.  He writes about the requirements of being a good servant of Jesus Christ.  This is stated in chapter 4, verses 6-8 

“If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching you have followed. But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths.  Rather, train yourself in godliness.  For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”  

Timothy wanted the followers he was speaking with, to be well versed from their teachings and their readings, so they could easier teach others.  Through this training, it would help these people get more prepared for the future world.  This required all kinds of training.  These leaders were going to face many trials, so they had to be strong in every area of the Christian faith.  

My challenge for you this week is to think of the spiritual discipline in your life that has been lacking. Then think about how you can best start to include it in your life the following week. I definitely believe I could grow in talking with others about Jesus as well as spending time in worship.  I enjoy spending time growing my personal relationship with God, minus spending time in worship.  When I say worship here, I am personally referring to spending time listening to holy music and singing God praises.  Then while, again, I do really enjoy spending time growing closer to God, I do not always do the best job speaking to others about God and how much love he has for them.  

In church we are starting a new campaign.  We are thinking more and more about our “ones.”  These are the people who we really want to befriend and show God’s love to on a regular basis.  These are the people who we want to share God’s message of truth with and hopefully encourage them to start following Jesus. It is not necessarily supposed to be someone we pick out, but someone we already love from our regular lives that we want to start investing more and more time and love into.  This is also someone who we know is not regularly going to church or is not in a committed relationship with Christ.  

Today both our message in church as well as what I was teaching in Sunday school, was trying to find and build a friendship of trust.  I spent time in prayer with the kids I was teaching about the importance of praying for good friendships, so this way we can better teach these people about Jesus and his love for them.  This gives them a chance to realize God will do a great job of putting people into your lives, so that way you can put the love of Jesus into theirs.

Jesus really does showcase the importance of friendship.  In our story, we learned about Jesus and his relationship with Peter.  He didn’t necessarily start this relationship getting Peter to be a disciple.  He eventually would call Peter to be a major part of his ministry, but this was after first getting to know him as well as spending time loving him. Jesus found Peter on his boat, so this gave him a chance to know his work life as well as a passion of his.  He would then show Peter how he ministers when he started ministering near Peter’s boat.  Jesus would also go to Peter when he was upset, such as after the death of a family member. Through all of this, Peter was then willing to follow Jesus to become a fisher of man.  Jesus had put in the initial work of developing a friendship of trust, and then it turned into a ministry calling.  

This makes me wonder if I ever spend time praying for good friendships, so I can spread God’s love to them.  I definitely have spent time in prayer for friends, but it is mostly for a selfish reason.  I am not really praying to have friends because my core desire is to share God’s Gospel with them.  I am usually praying for friends because I am lonely or because I want to build more community for my own heart and my own joy.  It is good to have friends, and it can help our mental and spiritual health, but it is also important to realize how good a friendship can be in spreading God’s Gospel.  

I just moved to a new area, and I really need to think about what friendships I want to develop.  Who is someone I can start to reach out to and talk to, build a relationship, and then initiate good conversations with them about God?  Of course, I will need to figure out where they are in their relationship with God originally, but if I do meet someone along the way who is not walking or has stepped away from Jesus, then I have a very good opportunity to share God’s love and God’s Gospel.  Being in this new community with these new groups and organizations is very much an open opportunity for me.  

I’m glad my church group focused this time with the kids praying for developing these relationships.   I loved that we are teaching a young group of kids how we can best pray to God about our relationships and that we teach them to have good thoughts on the relationships we have with others.   It is only through God these relationships will really prosper and will come into fruition.  It is only through God we are able to really have good spiritual conversations with others.  

I want to say what my church has been very good about saying it is not a project.  We are not trying to be good friends with people, so we can look good in front of the rest of the church.  It is because a person genuinely knows someone or meets someone they really care about and then they want to tell them about the love and care of Jesus.  There is another important verse I believe showcases this really well and that is John 15:13.  This says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  We should be willing to lay down our lives for our loved ones and we will be willing to also offer up other things like time and energy and eventually, hopefully, spiritual leadership.   

I want to end this time with talking to the Lord. I think it is important we practice what we preach and therefore, I need to spend this time in prayer for those who are maybe going to be my ones or the person I am going to invest time in.  This way when I talk to the children in my church groups, I can teach them some examples of how to best to pray over those who we want to serve, and love, and teach Jesus to.   

Dear Lord, 

Thank you for the relationships you have given me.  Thank you for the chance to make new relationships and develop good friendships.  I pray you use me for the best of your ability to make your words known in all areas.  Please help me to be a good steward of your word but more importantly a good demonstrator of your love through my actions and through my words.  

In Jesus’ name, 

Amen

At my mom’s church as well as a recent study of Philippians, I have gotten to learn about a woman that was highlighted named Lydia.  I personally have never learned much about Lydia, but she was actually a very prominent member of the opening and creation of the church in Philippi.  We meet Lydia in Acts chapter 16, and this will be a very fundamental exchange of the mission work for Paul and Timothy.   

We only know a few key descriptions of Lydia. We can gather that she is wealthy, and we can also assume that she is a business woman because we meet Lydia selling purple fabric.  Purple fabric is not the easiest to make because the strong purple dye is not easy to find and create.  Therefore, if she has the ability to possess and sell purple fabric, she most likely is financially secure.  She is also described as a worshiper of God.  However, even when she was a worshiper, we see that God was going to use her in more ways than through her individual worship of Him.   God opened up her ears and her heart to listen to Paul, so she decided to get baptized by them.    

Then she decided to open up her home to the followers of Jesus who also want to share the Gospel with others.  We see this beautifully described in Acts 16:15, “And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.”  She used that wealth by opening up her home to those who wanted to discuss and grow the Gospel.  She had hardly known these early church members, but she had a calling of God’s that she wanted to follow.  

Being willing to open up your home to other believers is a great way to serve God.  Some of the best times that I personally have with friends is when I am going to one of their houses and we are just hanging out and watching a movie, crafting, eating supper together, and just having long conversations in a comfortable setting.  I definitely feel closer to a friend or a church member once I am invited into their homes.  I know I am not the only one.  There is something comfortable and inviting about a home.  

I have a friend named Shelly, and she and her husband own a beautiful home. It also takes place on land for their cattle.  It is so attractive that her three sons all wanted to have their weddings take place there.  (I keep telling her that she really needs to make this a wedding reception for a future career on the side.  I don’t know if that will happen though).  One time she said that one of her favorite things to do is to open her home.  She would open up her home for her son’s sports teams and would give them a meal.  She would open up her home to church groups or to those she works with at a Christian nonprofit.  She used her home very wonderfully for God’s work, and that was something that brought her great joy.  

This is also a good reminder and encouragement that God can really truly use people in many different ways.  Some people may offer their home up to church groups all the time, but feels as though they are not doing enough.  I hope that after learning Lydia’s story, that it is not something you are thinking anymore.  Lydia opening up her home was the only reason why the church of Philippi began as well as it did, and it ended up being a big movement of sharing the Gospel.  Lydia used what she had for the good of God, and it became a great movement.  Never feel that what you have to offer God is too small.  

Now, I don’t think that I will necessarily open up my one bedroom apartment to major church groups, but this is a good reminder that I can definitely open up my home to serve others in a meal or could host a small bible study.  I don’t have a lot of space, but I have the ability to bring a few others over to enjoy some time with me in the comfort of my place.  I still have the ability to bring people in, even with the smaller surface area.  

I think that the challenge for the near future is to think of someone who would be good to bring over to your home.  Who is someone that you could make dinner for?  Who is someone that you could have a deep conversation within the comfort of your own home or place?  How could you make your personal place an inviting one?  I think this is a good reflection if we want to be used by God for big things, and the everyday small things such as opening up your home to a neighbor.  

I love singing.  I have always loved singing and being a part of a choir.  I was in a choir all in school, and then I joined a choir in college.  I am so happy I decided to be a part of a choir in college where I was able to do a lot of fun concerts and even went to Germany for a small tour.  I didn’t get the chance to sing the last few years, and I didn’t realize how much that really hurt my heart.  I missed singing on a regular basis, yes, but I also just missed the opportunity to be in a community with others who also enjoy singing and making music together.  

This past Monday was finally the chance where I could join the local chorale choir.  I was finally given the chance to sing in a group for the first time in years, (minus of course, worship time at church.) I was filled with joy.  I am so excited to be able to listen to choir music and spend time with that group. I know there were times where I was a bit rusty with the notes, and the sight reading was not at its best, and I did not have the breath support for some of the longer notes like I once had, but I know I will gain that back in time.  I am just happy with the opportunity to sing and to learn the skills again.  I couldn’t wait to tell most people about how my first rehearsal went, and I am already looking forward to the next one.  

There were many takeaways I got from this experience of singing in a choir.  In this instance of great joy, I was able to reflect on key pieces of this choir experience.  I just had to write about this journey back to choir with everyone. The first reflection that I had is to remember that one needs to include a youth filled love for the things of this world.  Then the second is that we can always remember to praise God with the hobbies that we are involved in.  

The first takeaway I have from this experience is to remember to get involved in the things that we have loved in our younger life.  Our youth is often filled with being involved in community and being able to try sports, music clubs, and experiences, but then many people lose the ability to do those hobbies once we get a bit older.  I have definitely realized through this experience that it is important to get involved in this choir because it was something that I enjoyed a lot as a child and I needed to have some of that child-like joy in this hobby back in my life.  Adults can definitely try something new, but I often hear stories about something that someone once loved and then they lost the time for it and now it is just a distant memory of a hobby they did in the past.  

The second main takeaway was the reminder to focus on God’s goodness while singing.  In this particular semester, the community choir is getting ready for the Christmas concert, so there were Christian themes in a lot of the songs that we were singing.   It was a good reminder that God wants us to sing words and praises to him.  Psalm 105:1-2 says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!” The Lord loves to hear his people sing.  One of the pictures we get of the future of heaven is God’s people singing praises to him.  Isn’t it great when we can also have some of that vision on earth in the present.  

One of my favorite choir songs is, “How can I keep from singing?”  I have sung it a handful of times for many different choirs.  This made me realize that God has made the world and loves us and our story should really make us want to keep singing.  How can I keep from singing?  How can I not sing God’s praises?  I have said many times that I am not the best at listening to praise music or spending time in worshiping God, but I do think it is important that one who is a Christian, spend time in worshiping our holy God on a regular basis.

I realized that God has blessed us in a lot of different ways.  He has even blessed us with hobbies and activities that make us enjoy the world.  We have the opportunity to exercise outdoors, craft and be creative, write down our words and thoughts, and even sing or play music.  We don’t just work and then go home, but we have opportunities to express ourselves and give our passions to him.  I need to remember that now I need to use this time in a choir for God.  

I have two different challenges for you this week.  The first one is to spend time in praise to God.  I know that everyone isn’t a musician and isn’t interested in singing, but I know that we can all find ways to praise God and give him holy praise.  The second one is to think about something that you could do to praise God and to show him love with the hobbies in this world.  There are many ways to praise God and my goal for you this week is to find that thing, it could maybe be an old hobby that can bring praise to God.