For those who know me, they know my favorite band is Switchfoot.  Switchfoot is a contemporary band.  Their songs talk a lot about love and hope, and it is very apparent that they are believers, but they are not necessarily singing worship songs.  I love their song lyrics.  Listening and trying to fully understand the song lyrics is my favorite part about listening to them.  There have been many times where I have been struck by a comment or a lyric.  It makes me sit back and really try to process everything it could mean. One of their songs is “Saltwater Heart,” with the lyrics “All my landlocked dreams, maybe I can believe.”   

I love the illusion of landlocked dreams.  Being landlocked as a country means the country does not have access to a large body of water.  Being close to a body of water is good because it would give access to travel, and it would also really give the country access to trading partners. With the addition of air travel, landlocked countries are not as limited, but they still do have limits compared to countries with water surrounding them.  When those countries were landlocked, it would be hard to think of achievements beyond what their eyes could behold.  

Sometimes I think we can have landlocked dreams.  Our dreams are always limited, and they will only reach a small distance.  I can only see so far ahead, so I don’t have big dreams for the future.  I keep my dreams to something that seems practical.  I don’t let myself dream for something bigger than I had originally expected.   While being realistic, practical, and responsible is necessary, it is also important to remember that God is a big God who can make some pretty big things happen.  God is a God who wants us to have good dreams through him.  He wants us to believe in him.  That is why the second part of this lyric in this song is “maybe I can believe.”  There is a prayer for belief.  It is a prayer of hope to believe in what could be achieved through God.  

Remember there were many times that Jesus would tell his disciples to believe in him as a bigger God. Jesus often had to remind the disciples that they had little faith.  The disciples needed to know how important it is to have faith in God.  Jesus often completed miracles while the disciples were awestruck by the amazing things Jesus could do.  Some examples of these miracles include Jesus sleeping on a boat while there was a huge storm.  Jesus was awoken by scared disciples until he finally calmed the waters. (Mat.8:23-27), Another time was when Peter went to walk on water (Mat.14:22-33), and when Jesus raised a man’s daughter back to life (Mark 5).  

The story I really want to highlight is when Jesus helped teach the disciples how to complete a miracle.  There was a man who had a son with epilepsy.  He was suffering a lot.  The father first went to the disciples, but the disciples were not able to cure the son.  Because of this, the father then went to Jesus himself.  He knelt and prayed to Jesus to cure his son of the disease, and Jesus did just that.  Jesus was a bit upset though.  He was upset that the disciples did not have enough faith in order to cure the boy’s epilepsy.  

The disciples asked why they were not able to cure the boy, and Jesus said it was because they did not have enough faith.  They didn’t believe in the power from God that was going through them.  This is when Jesus would remind the people that believers just need to have faith as small as a mustard seed.  “He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’”  Then Jesus cured the young son, and there was great joy.

Again, I am not saying this means that you have to go out and do something irresponsible.  But it does give us reason to dream bigger than sometimes we as practical, unbelieving humans may want to. I know for me that I am currently pursuing a job in some other place.  I am highly considering a different career path and now I am taking the necessary steps of applying to different jobs.  I am fearful that I will not get anything.  However, that is not me dreaming big. I also have a dream to be able to write books.  I want to be a published author where I will have many others who want to read my books and my words and learn from them.  I want to get my life lessons that I have learned out there to many others who are in the world.  

My challenge for you this week is to think about your dreams.  What is the maybe slightly crazy idea that you have had, that you never really thought could happen?  What are the dreams that seem too far off, across the ocean, not attached to the land?  Do you think there is a way these dreams could be achieved through faith and prayer?  The second part of my challenge, after reflecting on your dreams, is to pray to the Lord our God for that faith to complete all that he has put in front of you and all the dreams that are in your heart.  

At church, we have been going through the book of Genesis.  I will be completely honest to say that this was not a desire of mine.  I am not always the biggest fan of the book of Genesis as far as Bible Studies go.  Because of going through this book so many times, I believed I understood all that I could from the book of Genesis that I needed to.  Boy was this wrong!  I have had a lot of insight and connections to my own life that I have been able to make recently as we have been going through Genesis at church.   I never would have imagined that there is so much of Genesis that can connect to my life today.  

We were reading through Genesis 13, where Lot and Abram separate.  This was after Abram, (who will eventually be Abraham) had learned a lot of life lessons.  He learned that lying is not beneficial.  He learned this when he lied about who his wife was to a king.  He was starting to grow in his faith and dependence on God from this experience.   When Lot and Abram choose to separate because of their personal prosperities and starting to quarrel, Abram gave Lot the first choice of the land.  This would be incredibly selfless, while we see Lot has no problem becoming selfish in this decision. This can be found in Genesis 13:10-12, 

“Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.”

The story of Lot will take downward slides after this point.  The text even directly states that Sodom and Gomorrah will be destroyed by the Lord.  The people would start to fall so far away from the Lord and become so wicked, that there was no other option but to destroy these cities.  Why would Lot want to go to this area?  Well, we see that first, Lot looks towards Jordan and that would hold the town of Sodom.   As Lot looks this way, all he sees are the good things, he doesn’t see any of the bad.   Then as we see in the text next, Lot pitched his tent outside of Sodom.  He didn’t fully go inside the city, but he was very close and nearby.  Then lastly, what I do not have in this text particularly, Lot will eventually move into Sodom.  Later on in the book of Genesis, Abraham will have to pray to God in order to save Lot from becoming one of the people who would be destroyed and taken off the face of the earth.  

The speaker at my church, Scott, connected this to our life with sin.  We often don’t wake up one day and start an addiction or start a sin that keeps coming up.  It is a lot of decisions that ultimately wind up leaving us in the place where we don’t want to be.   We may just start out looking at a potential sin, but then that turns into entertaining the idea of sinning, and then finally we are knee deep in sins and choices that we would never have made in the months previously.  It is those little, day by day decisions that leave us in the position of destruction.  Originally Lot would not have thought about moving into a city that he knew was so wicked.  He just saw the good things of the area.  It was tempting.  Slowly he became entrenched in the city and all of its destruction.  He was in the city, completely.  Maybe, he was not as wicked as others in the city, we do not get that description, but he was fully surrounded by the sin and the wickedness.   

This reminds me also of the song, “Slow Fade,” by Casting Crowns.   Some of the lyrics are, “It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away.  It’s a slow fade when black and white turn to gray.  And thoughts invade, choices made.  A price will be paid when you give yourself away.  People never crumble in a day.”   This is so true.  There are a few small choices that are made and then that keeps people enclosed in a particular sin.  People do not crumble in a day.  It may seem that way on the outside, but really there is a slow fade that starts to tear people apart, day by day, small choice by small choice.  

I think I am personally struggling with this in the way I am struggling with my anger.  I have had a rough year when it comes to teaching.   There have been a few problem behaviors that I have not had in the years prior, and this has led me to have a great deal of discouragement.  I don’t want to be filled with bitterness.  I don’t want to be filled with discouragement and anger at others around me.   Because I have been hurt, have felt rejection, and have been personally feeling as though whatever I do is wrong, I have started to let that anger build and build and build.  This is not healthy, and I know there needs to be something that changes inside of me.  Because of this, I have started to talk with others about my struggle with anger.    I know that I need to stop the constant chain of bad thoughts that keep the anger from popping up again and again.  I have been working on becoming more and more transparent with the people who are in my life as well as my therapist about my downward slide into anger.  They have been encouraging and helpful as I seek to fight this slow fade into bitterness.  

I know this is a hard topic of discussion, but I do believe it is an honest one that we all need to have with ourselves.  Is there a sin or a desire that we are entertaining more than we have in the past?  Is there something that is becoming more and more tempting, even when we know we should look away from it?  Is there a slow fade happening in our hearts that we need to start reflecting upon?  I would recommend taking some time to process this in prayer.  The Lord will reveal the struggles that you feel in your heart.  You don’t have to be afraid of our mighty counselor we have in God.  He will be there for you.  

I have just finished this book called, “Misquoted,” by Russell Muilenburg.  This book gave insight to phrases we often associate with the Bible and are often said by Christians, when they are not actually used in the Bible, or they are not used in the same context as is often used by the world.   These are not phrases that are written in the Bible and some do not even have necessarily Biblical truth to them.  Some of these phrases include “God helps those who help themselves,” “Let Go and Let God,” “Charity begins at home,” “God will not give you more than you can handle,” and “Everything happens for a reason.”  There were a few others, but these are the ones that really stuck out to me.  

A majority of the phrases mentioned do start with a general Biblical idea.  However, then they were taken and changed to be something different than their original or desired significance.  They have been spun out of control for the negative.  For example, the first one, “God helps those who help themselves,” is not always a great saying to preach to Christians when they should be seeking to help all the people that are around them.  If we really truly believe that God only helps those who help themselves then any person who is struggling with poverty or with a disease or some kind of emergency needs to really help themselves.  We can’t do anything.  We don’t have the answers.  It puts way too much focus on working for everything in life.  Yes, work is God-ordained and created, but that does not mean we are to be people who base our whole identity on work-ethic.  Similarly, we can not expect others to do everything for themselves.  We are called to be servants.  

The main idea from this book was to make sure that we as people and as Chrsitians are always being perceptive and discerning of the information we receive.  We need to make sure that we don’t hear something and then instantly think that item is true.  Just because something sounds correct, and maybe even sounds like it would be good or even Godly advice, doesn’t mean we should take it without some backing and without some checking of source material.  This can apply to more areas than just in our Christian world.  It is important that when we hear a statistic from someone, that we don’t instantly start spreading that statistic without looking at research.  

As a teacher and someone who works with youth, this is something I try really hard to teach my students to instill in their own lives.  I have heard my students tell me pretty crazy things that they have heard.  They could have seen this on social media, on the news (or fake news) or from their friends in school.  This does not mean they are true.  They may not be true or factual in the slightest.  Because of this, these students would be very unwise to start spreading this information to more and more people.  I make sure to tell students to fact-check the information they are receiving and processing.  I want them to double-check their work and make sure they are looking at good sources. 

It is very important that we as Christians do the same thing.  This is especially true when we are trying to spread God’s word with others.  What is the place where we should do our fact-checking and information processing? This is, of course, God’s Word.  John 17:17 describes this perfectly when it says, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”  The Lord has provided us with truth.  With a quick google search, I discovered that there are over 31, 000 verses in the Bible.  This gives us as believers a lot of chances to find great advice and great pieces of wisdom that we can spread to others.  This gives us a lot to memorize and to consider.  With that great amount, there isn’t really a reason to include sayings that are not in the Bible.  This means that we shouldn’t make up pieces of what God has said when he hasn’t.  He has told us enough-31, 000 verses to be exact.  

It is also important that we read things in the correct context.  This does mean that we should read verses just by themselves but in their larger chapters and larger stories.  The verses will provide great truth, but some of them will be a bit strange until we look at it in the larger story.  Majority of the phrases that come from the book I was reading came about because they are from the Bible, but they are not from the larger context.  These verses and wisdom from the Bible become misconstrued and become used not in the correct way it was intended for.  These phrases then become unhelpful and sometimes, even unkind, advice.  

My challenge for both myself and for all of you reading is to spend time thinking about the phrases and the pieces of advice we give to others, especially the ones we use because we believe they are from the Bible. When our friends are hurting, and they are seeking comfort, what are the common words we speak to them? When someone asks us wisdom, specifically from the Bible, we need to make sure we have the full context and the complete words from the Bible.  This is one of the reasons I am a big fan of scripture memorization.  When the verses are memorized word for word, then there is less chance that we are going to not use these holy scriptures inaccurately.  Let us go out this week and pay more attention to the wisdom we are speaking from our mouths. 

I have said it before, and I will say it again; I hate cleaning.  I have definitely grown better at cleaning as I have started to live on my own.  Not that I necessarily enjoy it, but I am now aware that I will not be able to pawn it off on someone else. I would actually say that I am fairly good at cleaning today.  I regularly put everything away, and I will usually take the time to dust, vacuum, sweep, etc.  

However, I can keep some places incredibly unclean.  One of those places is the fridge.  I stuff my fridge full and forget to remove the food that is in the fridge until way after the expiration date and when they can sometimes get really gross.  I also will often have very cluttered cupboards or closets.  I often develop a mindset of “as long as it is put away-it is pretty much clean!”  Never mind that the closets pretty much explode everytime I try to open them.

There are a few negative side effects to having ugly and dirty areas, even when most of my apartment is clean.  For one, I sometimes can’t find something.  When I tend to put a lot of materials in one closet, there are a few items that really get lost and unfindable.  One time I even found my glasses, (after I had already bought a new pair) in one of these closets.  It was incredibly important, and it was something that I needed for necessary and daily life, but I couldn’t find it because I was unorganized.   I also know that in some instances this can actually be unhealthy.  When it came to the fridge, there were a few foods, especially like the orange juice and the strawberries that were either horrendously old or moldy by the time they were put in the garbage.  It is not good to have these disgusting foods next to the healthy foods.   

I started to think that there may be areas like this in my heart.  Maybe, I can put out a persona that my heart is completely clean, but if you give closer inspection, I have some very unclean places deep inside.  These may be sins I am trying to cover up and hide and pretend as though they are not there.  This may be a shame I don’t want anyone else to see.  This could be a burden I want to forget that I have to carry.  This may be the unforgiveness or the anger towards another when I am the one left in pain.

I was struck again while in church as we continue to go through the book of Genesis.  Genesis chapter 4 brings us amazing insight to what can happen when we do not take good care of our hearts and look deep into what is happening in there.  Genesis 4 shows us the story of Cain and Abel.  To give a short run down, Cain does not give God his best when it comes to his sacrifice, while Abel finds his best meat from his best animals to give to God.  Obviously the better gift is one where someone actually cares about the gift, so Abel’s gift is accepted while Cain’s is rejected.  

Cain becomes angry and jealous.  God comes to Cain to talk to him.  “Why are you angry?”  With this question, God is not only showing his love and care for Cain, but he is also giving a warning.  He is warning Cain to think about his anger and his jealousy.  He is giving him a chance to evaluate his heart before he makes a mistake.  Cain does not heed God’s warning, and will end up murdering his brother in the garden.  His unclean heart led to complete destruction of a person and would ultimately lead to a lot of downfalls for his future family members.  

This is all a good reminder that we need to get a handle on what is lurking in the shadows of our hearts.  These are the things we would rather keep in the shadows.  The places we do not want to clean, like a messy drawer, a full closet, or a stuffed refrigerator.  God provides some wonderful ways we can try to keep our hearts clean, but it does require us to have a deep level of vulnerability.  First, he provides us with the ability to pray.  He is not a God who wants to ignore his people.  He is a God who loves us and wants to hear all of our deep thoughts and our unyielding pain.  He allows us to come to him with everything, so we can have the opportunity to get rid of any grievances we may have had previously.  

Second, God has instructed us to invest in the lives of others and have them invest in us.  The beauty of fellowship is often highlighted in the Bible for the productivity of the followers who participate in it.  I have recently started going to therapy with a Christian therapist.  The reason I started to go was I realized that my anxiety and my negative self-talk was getting to the point that I could no longer ignore.  It was causing me incredible pain, and my heart was not well.  It has been good to talk about the items that give me hurt and make me insecure.  It has been incredibly helpful to talk through how to better talk to myself and to think about the relationships around me.  

Lastly, God also gives us his word, which is the giver of all encouragement.  The word will be a beacon of light when our hearts are feeling dark and unclean.  One verse that I want to highlight is Psalm 51:10 which says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  The Lord wants us to have a clean heart, and a whole heart.  A complete, whole, clean heart does not include those dark crevices.  We often learn that the heart is a big decider of what we will do and where we will go.  When we have the impure or the ugly, dirty things that are left behind in our hearts, more often than not, they will show up somewhere in our life.  Good news for us shown in this verse is that God wants to help us renew and create our clean hearts.  

Another year has gone by, so therefore I have another reflection from this year of 2022.  Just like every year, there were incredibly high moments and low moments.  There were things that went incredibly well and some things that didn’t.  There were exciting times and there were things that I definitely learned.   If I had to narrow it down to the main ways I have grown, this would be through exercising and coaching, my writing goals, and overcoming my mental health struggles.  

One big highlight was running.  I know that I write a lot about my love of running, but this year I have really developed a deeper appreciation.  I didn’t set a mileage goal, but I ran more miles than last year. My goal this last year was to gain speed and to have better times than I did in previous years.  This was going to be shown in running a 10k in under an hour and to run a half marathon faster than I did last year.  Both of these happened.  I trained for both of these events with a lot of ambition.  I really put the mileage in before my half marathon, so I was able to run my half marathon 20 minutes less than the previous year. 

This last year was also good when it came to coaching cross country.  I talked about this a lot with so many people in my life as well as continuously on my social media.  This includes my blog, but my cross country girls team made it to state this last year.  They worked so hard, and I am so glad that their hard work really paid off.  I am so proud of them.  It was also an amazing opportunity to run with them as often as I did at practice.  I was so happy to run next to them and offer them advice and communication.  The girls and I really became close, and it was an uplifting part of a job (job being coaching and teaching) that can be really difficult at times.  

I have also grown in my writing.  This last year I have written more than I ever have in my entire life.  I spend time thinking about how to polish my writing to make it the best it can be.  I even joined a writing group in order to receive constructive criticism for my writing.  I have the opportunity to read through their entries, so I can give them helpful pointers on their particular pieces.  I have grown as a reflective writer through this process, and I am so glad that I have these other God-fearing women in my life who are also aspiring writers for the Lord to instill wisdom into myself through their writing and constructive criticism.  I am not only learning how to be a better writer through this environment, but I also am learning more wisdom through their individual entries.  They write about the life lessons they have learned and the wisdom they have received from God, which will forever be helpful to me.

One of the main downsides of this year has been my mental health and anxiety struggles.  This last year my mental health has taken a bit of a downward slide.  I can’t say that it is completely because of this particular year, but it has most likely been a culmination of the past few years.  I have always been honest that I have struggled with anxiety.  I come from a family where anxiety and depression run rampant.  I know my family is not the only one.  There are more and more individual people as well as families who are coming out and speaking about their respective mental health struggles, which I do find incredibly helpful to those who do struggle.  I say this all in respect and encouragement to anyone else reading who is in a downward slide of anxiety and depression.  

This year, though, I am trying to find more and more helpful ways to overcome my anxiety.  I have started to go to therapy, where I am able to talk through my emotions and my ever-present and spinning thoughts.  The ability to talk to someone who is there for me, without the personal connection has been really helpful.  She doesn’t know me in real life, but she listens to me, and lets me talk through my thoughts. She wants me to succeed and to see my overall mental health become better and stronger.  I have also walked away from Snapchat.  This is a very new item in my life.  I found that the social media app, Snapchat, was becoming incredibly toxic in my life.  It was starting to only negatively affect my thinking patterns.  It did not provide many positives.  I wanted to hold on to it for the few positives or the potential positives, but I found I could not hold out for the potential positives when there were so many negative side-effects.  

The Lord never promised this world would be easy.  He said there would be trials, but we have him to constantly look to for comfort and support.  Psalm 46:1-3 describes this perfectly: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” As I am about to embark on the year of 2023, I am hoping to make even better strides in all areas and walks of life.  I definitely need to continue on the pattern of growth when it comes to overcoming my mental health struggles, but I also want to grow financially and speak about my love of Christ to others.  My challenge for you is to spend some time this week reflecting on what God has done and taught you through 2022 and what you hope to accomplish and grow in for 2023.  

I have mentioned a couple of times that I teach Sunday school at church every week.  This is for preschoolers.  It is a bit of a change of pace because I teach high schoolers during the week.  It has been a really great experience, and I have learned a lot about how to be a better teacher, even if it is for an age that is significantly younger than my usual demographic.  I have also learned from observing and reflecting on certain items that happen in preschool that I can apply to my own life.  

I do really love my kids and they are really kind and helpful, and they want to be good friends.  However, they are kids, so there are times things go awry.  For example, there was a time when two kids were fighting over a small toy of grapes.  Yes, you heard me, grapes.  It was a part of the new food toys and both of them wanted to “cook” with these grapes.  I had to talk to them about sharing and how we can make a compromise work in very basic terms.  After a few minutes, they were fine, and they had stopped fighting. They even learned to share and play together, even with the coveted grapes.  

I couldn’t help thinking, “Why in the world, would you fight over that?  Of all things, you would fight over toy grapes.” I wasn’t trying to think too harshly or badly of my kids, but really, what in the world? Grapes!  This made me realize that there are times in life that we can be like the kids fighting over grapes.  There are times when we as adults and people who have fully developed brains become incredibly upset for a long period of time for things that ultimately don’t matter. One example is the time I got really angry about breaking the mirror off of my car door.  Now, this is not necessarily great.  I obviously had to call someone, so that I could get it fixed. It did cost money, but really at the end of the day, it was not that big of a deal.  It was not something that I needed to throw a temper tantrum over, yet that was the exact thing that I did.  

I imagine there are times when God wants to look down and say the exact same thing that I wanted to when my preschoolers were fighting over grapes.  I have even looked back at the items in my life and been a bit perplexed and a bit embarrassed by the items I have been majorly upset over. One caveat I do want to mention is that it is good to feel emotions.  I am a person who experiences a lot of emotions and will definitely voice them.  I know what it is like to have a complete range of things to be upset over.  I would much rather feel the emotions and get past them than stuff in those emotions.  I think God would too, as it is much healthier. But do I always take these thoughts and emotions to God in a healthy way, or do I just let myself feel the emotions and feel sorry for myself? Sometimes we can choose to stew over these thoughts and emotions rather than bring them to the one who can fix everything, and that is not healthy or helpful at all.  

Getting back to the example in preschool Sunday school, instead of fighting and running after each other for the same toy, they could have come to a compromise amongst one another.  They could have talked it out and come to me, their teacher, for help in this situation.  Obviously, I know they are preschoolers, so this is a bit of a high expectation for them.  However, this can be a good example of what we should do with our Lord, our heavenly father.  When we start to look at the things in this world as more important than the Lord, we need to go to the Lord in prayer and even our emotions.  He wants to help us and work through everything.  Don’t hide away in anger or shame.  Bring them to the Lord, so they can be rectified.   

Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  It is important to take those items in the world and realize that they will not last forever.  That trophy may break, the titles may be forgotten, the expensive items may be stolen or lose their value.  However, the Lord and the items that he has in heaven will never get old or broken.  This will always be there.  

In conclusion, we can learn a lot from kids.  They can be so innocent, forgiving, loving, and kind.  They also can be very reflective of our lives.  When they make mistakes that we may find ridiculous, it can be something good to reflect on for ourselves.  This may show us that we can act a certain way at certain times as well.  My goal for you this week is if you find yourself ever getting upset, whether this be with a co-worker disagreement, the copier breaking down at work, or hitting every stop light, to even the bigger items, to take those angers immediately to God.  He doesn’t want you to stew over those emotions.  He wants you to grow and to learn from them. 

I have recently had to go to the dentist a lot.  I have not had the best year when it comes to getting cavities, so it has not necessarily been the highlight of the year.  I don’t particularly like going and getting numb, having a bad taste in my mouth (literally), and people stuffing my face with appliances.  I don’t know a lot of people who necessarily love this sensation. Sometimes it would be easier to think about not going to the dentist and just ignoring my cavities, or leave it for a longer amount of time.  

However, there is a really important reason for why we need to go to the dentist.  We can get really ill if we leave the cavities in our mouths.  It is decay and infection in our mouth that eventually can lead to large amounts of pain as well as decay going to other parts of our body.  So therefore, I went to the dentist, received a shot of numbing solution, continuous drilling on my tooth, and had a new filling put in.  Now I don’t have that decay in my body, and my teeth will no longer hurt.  Even though going to the dentist isn’t necessarily fun, I now am significantly healthier than I was before.  

This made me realize a few things.  Sometimes we have to have something taken out of our lives.  There are some things that are toxic and not good for our overall health, whether this health be emotional, physical, or of course our relational health with God and others.  This could be a sin, a shame that we are trying to hide or even another relationship that is taking us farther away from God.  This could be something we are putting in place of God as a god in our lives.  None of these items are good, and yet sometimes they creep into our lives and become so a part of them, that we don’t want to let them go.  

Going to the dentist can be painful and invasive.  Your teeth are strong and hard (which is a good thing, so we can use them to eat food), so to have to take out something in those teeth, we need to have a tool drilling and grinding out the toxics on something incredibly hard.  Before people become Chrisitans, we have a hard heart filled with a lot of sin and hatred from the world.  But God goes in and starts to work on that hard heart.  Sometimes this is through hard realizations.  Some of these hard realizations are that we are imperfect, we have been born with sin, and we can not depend on ourselves to get to heaven.  That is hard to hear and to comprehend.  There are positives coming up that I am going to mention, but this is similar to the pain of drilling on teeth at the dentist.  

The good news is that there is a numbing solution.  Now, I don’t particularly like getting numb.  I don’t like that it feels tingly for hours on end after I leave the dentist.  I don’t like eating the first full meal while my mouth still is partially numb.  It always feels a bit strange.  However, I would not prefer going through the drilling on bone in my mouth without being numbed.  Can you imagine?  That would be so much worse. Even though I don’t like being numbed, I would much rather have that over anything else.  This reminds me that God helps us when it comes to removing these sins and toxins in our lives.  It is not that he will allow no pain because we will have pain in this world, but he will always be present.  He will be the numbing component to whatever trial or tribulation we are experiencing.  The Lord, unlike any human person, never leaves our sides.  He is a God of peace, a God of grace, and a God of love.  All of these items are items that he will provide to us throughout any circumstance.  

Then there is the filling.  God replaces whatever was taken out with something even better.  Ephesians 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”  When we become Christians, we get a whole heart.  This heart is not hard, but it is filled with grace and everlasting love.  Again, I will not say that there is no pain in having a heart taken out of your body, but it is worth so much more than leaving the hardened heart.  When we have that brand new heart, sealed with God’s love put in, we will feel brand new.  

This shows that God can use any experience to remind you of his love.  Because sin entered the world, there is a worldly heart each one of us was created with.  Through his love and his sacrifice on the cross, we can be given a new heart that is lighter and even more Christ-like.  This can be hard and painful, but the Lord will be with his people every step of the way.  This is just like a dentist drilling out the decay in our teeth, replacing it with a filling that is clean and durable, all the while being numbed from the excruciating pain of a drill.  The world is full of God’s love.  My challenge for you this week is to, like me, find an ordinary experience and see how you can see God’s love shown through it. 

I just recently finished the book, “Good Boundaries and Goodbyes,” by Lysa Terkeurst.  I loved this book.  I had never thought much about boundaries being something holy and good, but Lysa through the help of her Christian counselor discussed ways that we can even look at boundaries as a holy and good thing for ourselves and others.   This blog post will showcase a few of the lessons I learned from this book.  I recommend this book for any readers or for those who have ever felt and struggled with the idea of setting boundaries.  

Relationships are hard.  Everyone in the world has had some moments throughout various relationships where they can be tricky, hard, and hurtful.  However, those same relationships can also be filled with joy, fun, and love.  It is important to realize when those relationships swing a bit more to the negative, than for the positive.  When those relationships are starting to impact our mental or even physical health, then we may need to reflect on our certain boundaries that we have in those relationships.  There also may be times when we do need to walk away from a relationship.  God never approves of violence and abuse within a relationship, so it is best to walk away when that is present.  

Setting boundaries with those in our lives have always been something I have struggled with.  I never like to say no, and I don’t like conflict.  Setting boundaries is sometimes both of those things.  When setting boundaries, a person will often have to say no, and that may upset others who then will want to start a conflict.  I also didn’t know there was a way to set boundaries in a Christian manner.  Setting boundaries sounds as though it would be selfish.  However, when there are people in our lives that are affecting our mental health and maybe even our walk with Jesus, then we need to set boundaries.  This also can help the other person too.  If they become reliant on you, they are not looking to God as a main source.  Setting boundaries with them is a way to make them reflective on their own actions, (if they choose to look at it that way).  

The moment that I enjoyed the most when it came to this book was when we were asked what exactly we were afraid of when it came to setting boundaries.  We can be afraid of disappointing others or making them think differently of us.  This comes back to a huge desire to people-please. “People pleasing isn’t just about keeping others happy.  It’s about getting from them what we think we must have in order to feel okay in the world.” (“Good Boundaries and Goodbyes, Lysa Terkeurst, page 157) Why are we so afraid of losing a part of this relationship?  Sometimes we could be afraid of losing a friendship or any other kind of relationship because we receive a certain amount of validation from them.  Maybe there is a friend who depends on you for everything, and even if it is taking a lot out of you, you still enjoy the validation or the appreciation that comes from this arrangement.  You are looked upon as the Savior or the person who has such a kind, helpful heart.  

I personally struggle with this. I do love being a people pleaser.  I enjoy being the person others can depend on.  I enjoy that others can look at me and see a friend who can always help them, who is always thoughtful, and always encouraging.  I enjoy receiving validation and appreciation from my friends as that person.  This goes to the point that when I can’t help, because I am either gone or I’m too overwhelmed, I feel guilty.  Now, luckily, I don’t know many friends in my life currently who are pushing boundaries, and they are always understanding when I can’t do something.  However, it is still a good reflection for me to realize that I do often seek validation from others and that can open me up to relationships with those who will abuse their boundaries.  It is also important for me to realize that I should only seek validation from one source, and that is Jesus Christ.

Obviously, this is not just unhealthy for us as we are always looking to people who can be emotional and fickle for validation, but this can also be hard on others in this relationship.  Depending on another person for our validation isn’t fair to them.  They should not be responsible for the way that we see ourselves.  The main thing here is that we need people of Christ who want to be filled with grace, peace, and love in our lives, and to help each other reach that point.  We should not be each other’s saviors.  It is more important that we point others to Jesus.  

In general, I would highly recommend reading this new book by Lysa Terkeurst.  It is important to realize our own personal boundaries.  We are called to be loving and to be as Christ-like as we can.  However, sometimes that can get confused with allowing any bad behavior to happen to us.  We are not called to be condoning bad or inappropriate behavior.  We are not called to condone manipulation or abuse.  We are not called to be consistently hurt for the sake of a relationship, when this said relationship is not bringing us towards Christ.  We can set a boundary in a loving manner that still can point many others to Christ.   

A photo of the book cover:

I like to be busy, and I don’t always appreciate the silence. I am usually at work, at sporting events supporting my students, or enjoying time in hobbies.  I enjoy being with people and listening to them speak. Not to say that I don’t appreciate spending time by myself, but when I am by myself I am either reading, watching t.v. or listening to music.  I am hardly just sitting or lying down, not doing anything at all.  As I have gotten older, I have tried to appreciate the silence, especially in the presence of nature. I have become more and more aware of God’s nature being a way of growing closer to God. 

Verse John 1:3 captures this perfectly with “…through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”  While spending those moments quietly in nature, I have discovered that God is as powerful as the wind, as clear as the light shining through the sun, and as sustaining as nectar in the flowers. I am not consistent in this yet. I still grumble about the cold in the winter, and I still complain about the rain when it ruins my plans. However, if I can try to find something remarkable in God’s created nature once a day, I know that I will grow in joy despite any circumstances.  

It is enjoyable to be busy. It is incredible to check off items from our to-do list. However, we need to make sure to spend that quiet time Beholding God’s Greatness, Intaking God’s Holiness, and Reflecting God’s Beauty.  I gave myself a challenge a few summers ago, as well as others that were a part of my summer team. The challenge was to sit for fifteen minutes in complete silence. I did not allow myself to listen to music, read my book, or sit next to anyone. I stared out at the lake and thought. I engaged all my senses- seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling all that was around me.  It was a humbling experience, and I instantly felt refreshed. 

The last couple of years have been stressful. We have had a pandemic, significant job losses, and political outrage. We are tired. The only way to really get over this fatigue is through spending time with God. This is through his word and through his creation. Sometimes spending time with God does not have to be reading a whole book in the Bible or meeting for an hour with your Bible Study girls. It can be spending 15 minutes in prayer while seeing, listening, and smelling God’s nature. I pray that we can all find something new and rmarkable about God’s heart through this nature today.  

*Note-This was a submission for the Encouragement for Today Devotional challenge. While I was not one of the 13 out of 400 selected, I have put this here for my personal blog. I always can appreciate the opportunity to submit my work, even when it is not chosen. I have grown as a writer through these competitions. I hope you all enjoy what I have written here and have found it encouraging. I also pray that you will find encouragement in the nature that is around us.

As a teacher, I often see many students who will shift blame to someone else, or even openly deny the wrongdoing.  I find this incredibly frustrating.  I imagine that many others who are either parents or work with a lot of children, can also find this incredibly frustrating and tiring.  (Or those who have adult relationships that shift blame to others.) I will usually tell my students that I would rather they do something wrong and own up to it, as opposed to lying or shifting blame.  I would be considerably less angry if they own up to the mistakes.  I will be much more willing to extend the gift of grace when they can admit what they did was wrong and apologize.  It is overall less cowardly and wrong.  

I was thinking about this, not because of a certain moment of teaching.  Although I could honestly pick many moments from my teaching experiences. But I started to process this while in church as we have been going through the beginning of Genesis, and today we learned about man’s fall and being caught by God.  The first man and woman created by God were not to eat from the tree of knowledge.  They disobeyed God and ate.  The man and woman, after eating from the fruit of knowledge, knew they were naked and were ashamed.  The man and woman hid, and God went looking for them.  Soon, God asked them how they knew they were naked, and the man and woman instantly started shifting the blame to others and to their situations. 

The first one is the man who blames the woman in Genesis 3:12, “The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’”  The man, Adam, instantly blames the woman, Eve, as the one who first found the fruit, and then gave it to him.  He did admit that he ate the fruit but he gave many different reasons as opposed to taking ownership.  We can also see here that Adam blames God.  God is the one who gave this woman to him.  Adam takes the gift from God and turns it back on him as his main downfall. He never openly acknowledges what he has done wrong and he never openly apologizes.  (At least not in this scene).  

The woman, Eve, is not much better.  She doesn’t blame God, but she doesn’t openly acknowledge her open wrong doing either.  In the second part of Genesis 3:13, “The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”  Eve says that the only reason she ate was because of the serpent.  While this may be true, she still openly denied God’s command, and then she openly persuaded her husband to also fall.  Shifting of the blame would not stop the punishment.  Adam and Eve did not help their situation by denying their involvement, but an instant admission of guilt and ownership would have at least been them throwing themselves as imperfect before a Holy God, asking for forgiveness.  

I think there are many times, when we don’t want to admit, that we can shift the blame to others and situations.  I know that I certainly blame my impatience, for example, on lack of sleep or because of other situations that happened throughout the day.   It is important that I acknowledge I am not perfect, nor will I ever be, but I also shouldn’t shift the blame on other situations as the reason I can lose impatience with someone or be unkind.  That is just my inability to completely control my patience and my behavior.  

The Lord is completely aware that we are imperfect.  He is not surprised when we make mistakes.  He doesn’t want us to sin or get distracted from the good and holy things in life, but he is also going to openly forgive us when things do happen.  In fact from the moment sin first entered the world, we see God instantly start creating a way for man to still be with him, even if they were never going to be completely perfect or holy.  He does punish them, and there will be a physical death, but he still makes a place for them to stay, gives them clothing, and gives them an ability to continuously grow in number.  After that, he will introduce sacrifices for the people to make in order for sins to be forgiven.  Then of course, there was the ultimate sacrifice of giving his son to die on the cross for our sins.  

My challenge this week is to spend time thinking about times when we may want to blame others and/or our life situations when we should be owning our own mistakes.  The Lord loves when we willingly bow down to his feet and admit our wrongdoing.  He doesn’t want us to carry any of the guilt or the shame, but he wants us to admit our sins and grow in love and acceptance from him.