I have been doing a lot of learning recently when it comes to my new job at the Job (Jobe) Foundation.  It is a nonprofit that works with youth and families living in poverty.  I have had a lot of learning and adjusting to do.  Through this job, it has definitely cemented my feelings of needing to make anything, including a job and even a relationship with Christ, your own. 

I have contemplated this a lot for two reasons.  One, it is summertime.  The Job Foundation where I now work does not do regular programming during the summer.  Therefore, there are not as many appointments or lessons or families coming through as a whole.  There is still plenty of work to be done and there is still information to be gained, but it is not at the fastest pace. Second, My new coworkers have been really good about not wanting to overwhelm me with information or tasks.  They know that I just moved and am getting settled in.  Because of these two reasons, I have not been given a super long list of items to complete. Time has been given to me to use how I best see fit.  

This being said, I have had a lot of time to create and brainstorm.  What are ways that I can make this work that I do here the best that I can?  What are some ways that I can contribute to this new organization?  What are some new things I can bring to the table?  There have been times when I have sat at my desk and contemplated, but then there are other times when creativity and ideas are just coming to the brain and I have a list of projects I am starting on.  I know there are skills and ideas I can bring to the table and to the position.  I just have to remember the training and the education that I have been blessed with to make it happen. 

When kids first get a job or even when they are in school, it becomes all about what other people want them to do.  They need to complete this worksheet with this many problems at this time.  At usual first jobs, it is stacking shelves or serving customers, or watching over kids.  There are tasks involved. Follow the orders that are given to you. There is a straight level of obedience.  There are some opportunities for creativity when completing a project or how you choose to answer questions, but otherwise the person’s work will look very similar to other people’s work.  

However, as you make it into your career, it becomes all about making decisions and designing things that are for the betterment of the company without necessarily being told what to do.  It is important that a person thinks about the ways they can make their career and what they by their own skills and training can bring to the job.  

This is true in all areas of life.  I think we can easily fall into the trap of listening to what everyone else wants us to do when it comes to following God.  Yes, I believe there is great advice and wisdom that can be shared through the many other of God’s followers, but ultimately every single person’s relationship and walk with God is going to be different than the person standing next to them.  

It is important that when we start to think about our relationship with God, we go through the same thinking process that we did when it came to the job reflection.  What are some things that we can bring to the table?  What is the influence that I personally have that I can then use to spread the Gospel?  What are the ways that I can grow and prosper to be as close to God as possible? 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” 

I have two challenges for you this week.  The first one is for you to think about your particular job or career.  This could even be if you are a stay-at-home mother or a student.  Those are both roles that you are fulfilling.  What is something that you can bring to the table of your job?  What are the skills that you are good at and can really center on? Then I would like you to focus on growth to be the best at the position that you have been given.  Remember that God has called you to the job that you are at, and he expects you to give him the best of the time that you are there. 

Then the second part is what can you do to grow your relationship with Christ.  What is the way that you can grow closer to God?  Who are the people that you can see and serve in your day-to-day life?  How can you help the vision and the mission of Christ grow daily? Devoting time to God is a personal relationship and so it is important that we make this relationship very special, unique and beautiful. 

I am going to be candid with you all.  I am a huge people pleaser.  I like to be liked by others.  I like to know that others enjoy talking to me and getting to know me.  Quite frankly, I also enjoy the praises of people on a pretty regular basis.  I know that is not the thing that I should be seeking anymore as a Christian, but it is sometimes so hard to fight the good feeling of praise from others that are around me.  

Recently, I have been burned again by a particular friend group. I have been hurt by people, again. Did they mean to hurt me? I would imagine they may not have, but here I am, hurting.  I tried so hard to be accepted by this friend group.  I found myself working hard, like extra hard, at relationships that maybe just weren’t meant to be as close as I wanted them to be. In the end, even though I found some individual good friendships, I maybe wasn’t meant to hang out with them in a big group.  

One of the biggest reasons I felt as though I was not as accepted was because a few of my values were definitely different from those in this group.  They enjoyed items that I was not as interested in and had quite a few values that were different from mine. I never fell into temptation to lower my morals, but I was putting myself often in uncomfortable situations because of these relationships.  It is unfortunate, but this has helped me learn that it is not their acceptance that is really important.  It is not their acceptance that matters at all in the end. 

I am sure that everyone has been there, where there is that group of people who you just want to be loved by, even if sometimes their values and their morals seem different from your own.  It can even be easy to find yourself blurring the lines of some of those morals and values that you have so earnestly tried to uphold.  We as social creatures want to be liked and want to build relationships.  This is a very positive thing.  It is just when we start to become too focused on their acceptance and their love that we run into problems.  

There is only one opinion that should mean a lot to me, and that is how Jesus perceives me.  His acceptance is the only one that I should seek.  It can be hard in this tempting world of others but it is something that we should also remember and resiliently try to fight through.  There is a verse that really captures this teaching and it is in Galatians 1:10, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” This is a good reminder that if I am so very focused on the relationships of other people, I am not really a full hearted servant to Christ.  

This is a very hard temptation to fight for many people.  Again, we are social creatures and meant to be surrounded by others.  We are meant to live amongst and grow in a community.  However, we are also fallen creatures.  We easily make mistakes and do wrong things.  We also then can start to fall prey to becoming too committed or too focused on the people around us as opposed to the one who put the people there in the first place.  It is the hard line we have to always fight between finding the good things in the blessings that God has given us while also not becoming too attached to them.

My challenge for you this week is the same challenge that I have given myself recently.  I had to think through the relationships where I was caring too much about a person’s opinion.  My challenge then for you is to think through the relationships where you care a bit too much about others’ opinion of you. This can even be the people you go to for issues before you originally bring your issues to God, or this can be the person who you are always trying to impress, that it is taking over a bit too much of your thoughts.  

The second challenge then is very similar to the first challenge.  My challenge after you have thought through the people who you seem to care too much about is to pray to God about those very people.  I would like you to pray over their hearts.  Don’t become bitter with them even if they haven’t always been impressed by you.  Pray for their future and their standing with God.  It is important to spend time in prayer to pray for God to fight your temptation against pleasing people.  It is good to love people.  It is good to love people with all that you can, and to be as Christ-like as possible to them.  However, it is again not as important as fighting for God and fighting to be the best version of yourself you can be for him.  

As I have often talked and written about, I have recently started a new job in Cedar Falls, Iowa called the Job Foundation.(Job is pronounced like Jobe or Job from the Bible, the name as opposed to a job that you work everyday.)  This job is already awesome, and it has already taken a piece of my heart.  I always knew that I was going to be teaching kids in low-income or poverty families lessons about financial literacy and how to do a better job with their money.  I didn’t know all the ins and outs of this program.  I am so happy to say that we have a program that I truly believe will set up a lot of kids for success. 

We are the only conditional cash transfer organization for youth in the United States.  The students have the opportunity to make money in our program as well as save money till shortly after their graduation for achievement in school and completion of our financial literacy lessons. This is giving the students a chance to work for their money and their earnings and it is giving them the financial ability to break the cycle of poverty.  They can achieve so much money for attendance at school as well as attendance at the program.  They also can achieve money for good grades.

Through teaching the financial literacy lessons (Now my particular role) we cover a lot of topics to ensure that our students can achieve in the world outside of the Job Foundation as well as outside their respective schools upon graduation.  In elementary school, some of the topics that are covered are how to balance a checkbook, budgeting and spending plans, and conflict resolution.  Middle school is the big heart of the financial literacy lessons and their particular program covers leadership skills, critical thinking skills, renting and owning a home, volunteerism, credit cards and loans, taxes, saving, internet safety, impact of addiction/healthy behavior, and banking/checkbooks.  We meet with middle schoolers every week, so they can cover this broad range of financial literacy lessons.  Then in high school, there is a focus on college/career preparation, work and school culture, and credit and debt.  

For the seniors, we also provide them with a lot of opportunities to get money for their future.  They have a certain checklist they need to achieve within six months of their graduation, but all of these items are for their betterment and for their future achievements.  Some of the items on this checklist are voter registration, getting a driver’s license, having at least 3,400 dollars in savings, volunteering for at least 20 hours, completing the FAFSA, and completing all of their financial literacy lessons and an end of the year test.  With all that completed, they are able to access those funds that they have worked so hard and so long to save up.  

I have heard of many success stories that have come from The Job Foundation.  Again, our goal is to make all the students in this program as well as their families to be financially stable and empowered.  One example is of a kid who was in our program during the middle school years before he moved away.  (He was still able to access the money that he had raised during those years he was in the program).  He took his creativity and created a new business that sells handmade greeting cards.  There is also most recently a young girl who is going to be graduating from ISU completely debt free.  This is absolutely incredible.  I do truly believe that these are items that would not be possible without the help and the support of The Job Foundation. 

I also love that they include charitable giving and volunteering into their program.  Teaching kids that giving to charities and giving back to the community is a very powerful thing.  In their annual reports it showed that through 2019-2020, the kids gave about 913 dollars and in 2020-2021 year, there was over a 1,000 dollars that were given to organizations like St. Jude Research Hospital, Cedar Bend Humane society, Boys and Girls Club, local churches, Salvation Army, Red Cross, and local food banks.  

Last but not least, there are a few events that we get to do with the kids.  There is an emphasis on connection and building relationships with the kids.  We get to have celebrations for students reaching milestones in their education that will take place at local restaurants.  There is also a bowling night, recreational play night, and even a Turkey Day where we give Thanksgiving meals to the families of The Job Foundation.  There is also a mentor program, so kids have the chance to be paired with a local community member, so they can know they are cared for.  

 One thing I learned through my various other jobs of working at nonprofits and at a school is in order to make an impact, one needs to care about the people being served and empowering community members.  This is through caring about the whole person, not just a part of the person.  This is through thinking about their emotional, spiritual, mental, physical, and even their financial self.  While the Job Foundation focuses a lot of their energy on the financial, there is an emphasis that is put on the other factors in a person’s life as well.  I can tell the Job Foundations really does this through caring and engaging with their community, but they also show this through their commitment to the families.  It is a family organization where they do care about the whole family members.  They invite family members to some of the events and make sure they have their parental support and backing 100% before working with their child.  

I am already so happy with this organization.  I know this foundation and the people who have worked for it have made a positive impact on so many young people’s and adult’s lives.  I am glad that we are helping to build up a community of financially literate citizens.
This all in all reminds me of a calling from the Bible in Romans 12:13 which says, “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” If you as my dear readers would like to know more, I am including the website to this organization: https://www.thejobfoundation.org/

Have you ever seen blood-related family members who don’t look anything alike?  Sometimes there are brothers that you look at, and you wonder, “How can you two be brothers?  You have none of the same features?!”  Similar even with family members and their internal characteristics.  Sometimes people who have been brought up pretty much the same way do not act the same or they do not have the same hobbies.  Sometimes it can not be very obvious who are related to each other without looking into family history. 

In many ways we are like that with God.  Think about it, he is all-knowing, all-powerful, 100% good, and has been around for all of time. Yet, who does he call his children?  Us.  Followers of him, he calls his children.  When we are not all good, not all powerful, only know our small section of the universe.  We are, in so many ways, nothing like our great God, so then why does he call us his children? Why does he want to make us so close to him?  Why does he care about us so much?

I was reading the book, “Mere Christianity” by C.S Lewis and I saw one of the best quotes I have ever seen in regards to our relationship with God.  To give you better context, C.S Lewis spends some time talking about pretending.  We can easily think that pretending is a bad thing, and it can be.  However, there are times when pretending can benefit both us and many others in the world.  For example, there are times when we don’t want to be kind, and we want to instead be mean to the people around us, but we pretend that we want to be kind and all of a sudden we find it much easier to act kind. 

Lewis also tells us that God is a great pretender.  He does a great job pretending that we as his people are more than we actually are. “But He says, ‘Let us pretend that this is not a mere creature, but our Son. (child).’”  We are now not just his created beings.  We are now not just another mammal, but we are invited to spend eternity with him if we so choose it.  That is pretty amazing.  This all is what brings us to my favorite quote I have ever seen when it comes to my personal and others relationship with Christ, and that is “God looks at you as if you were a little Christ: Christ stands beside you to turn you into one.”

One of my other favorite parts of this quote is the second part.  Even though we are looked at as creations of God, we are not easily able to act the way that God has called us to act.  We are still going to struggle with our flesh desires and sin.  But then God says that he is going to help us become more and more like himself.  This is just what is said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself up for me.”  

How do we best become our own better pretender?  How do we become more the little Christs that God has believed us capable of?  The best way is to allow Christ to come into our lives.  We need to die to ourselves.  Ok, but what does this mean?   I think the first step is to accept that we are never going to measure up by our own actions and thoughts.  We are never going to be perfect or as filled with grace, peace, joy, faith, patience, perseverance, wisdom, or love without someone coming in our place and living amidst us.  Being willing to submit ourselves and admit that we need Christ for our daily needs is the first step that we can take when it comes to being a true son or daughter of Christ.  

Then the second is to spend time with God.  The only way that we can really learn about someone is through spending time with them.  When spending time with someone we learn about their likes and dislikes, what characteristics they possess, and what they really appreciate out of relationships with others.  Similarly, we need to spend time with God.   This is through prayer and through reading of His Word. 

Prayer is important because that is literally talking to God.  It is being willing to tell God what thoughts or concerns are in your mind and your heart, thanking God for all that he has done, and being willing to listen to what God has to say and what he believes that you should do or what you need for your Chrisitan walk.  Then when we read his Word, we get more insight into the people who were a part of God’s life and his followers.  The Bible is filled with commands from God that give us direction of where we should go.  It is also filled with followers or examples of people who have followed God or even examples of people who learned lessons of being God followers.  

How amazing is it that God has decided to make us sons and daughters.  How awesome that he decided to “pretend” that we are more than we actually are. How indescribable that he at first created us as a creature like he did with animals and the plants and the rest of the earth, but then he decided that we get to have a special relationship with God.  Every person has the opportunity to have this special relationship. Every person has the opportunity to “pretend” that they are little Christs.   

I am just about to leave from my four years of teaching Spanish at North Iowa to pursue a new career of working at a Non-profit in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  I am very excited for this move, but I am also sad to leave.  There are definitely going to be people and moments that I am going to miss.  I am definitely going to miss the students.  There have been a few that I have really grown close to over the years.  Because of the move, I am spending time reflecting on some of my best moments from my teaching career at North Iowa.  I have created a top ten list of my most treasured moments at North Iowa School District, and here they are:

10.All of my Spanish classes as part of their curriculum work through a site called, “Señor Wooly.” This is a music based program, where the students learn songs through various exercises and videos.  These songs are in Spanish, and they help the students get a grasp on the Spanish language.  While some of my students are not huge fans of these activities, there are some who really enjoy them.  One of my classes in particular who really enjoys Señor Wooly is my Spanish III and IV students.  There were two days throughout this last semester we dedicated in class to watching every single one of the Señor Wooly song videos.  It was such a treat.  We laughed a lot at the different videos and then I let them pick which song was their favorite.  It was interesting to see the variety of choices in their favorite songs. 

9.There have been celebrations I have been able to have with my classes and my students.   One time, I had students in both of my Spanish II sections have no missing homework.  This is actually a very hard thing to do, believe it or not, for my non-teaching friends.  There are usually at least a few missing assignments per student.  To have all my students have no work missing, hardly ever happens.  Because of this, I decided to give them a pizza party.  It was a very nice thing to see how excited they were about their accomplishment and achievement in my class, plus how excited they were to be able to have some pizza as a class.

8.Field trips are always fun to do with students.  I always enjoyed doing field trips as a student myself, so it is a good opportunity to provide that time for students.  While planning and chaperoning a field trip can be stressful, it is also the events you know that your students will really remember.  For the past two years, I have gotten to be the second chaperone to the Top of Iowa Conference art show.  This art show is not my field trip, but I have gotten to help my friend who is the Art teacher out.  I loved it because I was able to see the different pieces of art my students created as well as see the other creativity from students all around our district.  Plus, I got to see them win awards for their art, and learn a few tips from professional artists.  I have always appreciated artistic abilities, so it is wonderful to get to learn from some of the best in our area.  

7.I always enjoyed teaching my Spanish IV and sometimes Spanish III students how to make pinatas.  It was always a fun project, and I personally really enjoy making piñatas.  This past year I taught both my Spanish III and IV students how to make piñatas, and it was a really fun time.  I loved watching how hard my students worked on these projects.  I was so proud of them.  In fact, one of them included his piñata in that Top of Iowa art show and he did receive an honorable mention at the event.  This was another reason I really enjoyed going to the art show this past year.  I was able to see one of my student’s projects from my class.  

6.I really like to go and support my students in the different activities that they are a part of at the school, whether this be volleyball, basketball, track, football, cross country (the best) and fine arts.  I really liked the game my first year of teaching where the boys played till the third overtime.  We ended up winning, but it was very stressful.  I had been sitting by Mr. Potter, the high school social studies teacher, most of the time, and we were both enjoying watching this very close game.  I felt really a part of the community in that first year that night.   Not every game, especially not every game I have watched over my years has resulted in victory, but I am glad that this nailbiter of a game did result in a win. 

5.I have been a chaperone at prom for the past three years because I really enjoy it, but the year I enjoyed the most was the one I first chaperoned at.  There were a few of my friends who were chaperoning with me, and so we were able to chat and laugh a lot.  Two of my guy friends, Nate and Garrett were dishing out the sodas at the old-fashioned soda fountain that was set up at the prom.  They even dressed the part.  My other friend, Rylie and I enjoyed time chatting and helping out with cake and serving the students attending the prom.  It was really fun when the song, Cotton Eye Joe came on and Rylie and I both danced along with the students.  

4.For the past four years of homecoming festivities, there are various competitions the students compete in throughout the day.  There are actually two with one being a he-man volleyball tournament between each of the grades.  The boys from each class battle it out to see who He-man champions will be.  I love to watch the guys figure out how to play volleyball.  It is a sight, that is for sure.  They usually can make some impressive hits and saves, but it is also like they are floundering after each ball because they don’t know what to do.  However, the best part of this whole day is when the teacher staff play volleyball against the champion He-Man volleyball team.  The year of 2021, I remember being a particularly good and funny year.  (Also, I was really on my A-game that day-I mean the teachers still lost, but I was playing some of my best volleyball).  It was a really fun time.  I love playing volleyball, so any excuse to spend time doing that with the kids is a treasure.  

3.In my second year of teaching, I had an interesting 7th hour class.  They were really just a group of characters.  There wasn’t a single person who was too much like the others.  I had this class when the game, Among Us, was pretty popular.  I decided to get the app and there were a few days when we got done early with all our classwork, then we would play the game together.  It was such a fun experience to do with them.  It sounds simple, but I also know that this is the way that teachers best build relationships with their students.  It is a way to have fun and be silly but still getting to know my students and letting them know that I cared about them.  Being a teacher is about teaching content, but it is also about getting to know students and building lasting relationships.   

2.I love having my students go down to the elementary rooms to give lessons.  It is one of my favorite things as a Spanish teacher.  I love giving my students the opportunity to teach other kids about Spanish. I have done this every year, but I do have to say that I was very impressed with my Spanish II class this last year.  There are a lot of boys who are in the 10th grade who worked really hard and well with the young kids.  Those boys sometimes made poorer choices when it came to being appropriate when they were in school, so it was nice to see them take this particular project seriously.  

1.The girls’ team made it to state cross country in the fall of 2022.  That was such a memorable moment.  I was so happy to watch them compete.  I was so excited to have people come up to me and tell me congratulations for them.  I was so excited because I knew that they had worked so hard, and they really had earned this spot.  Really the whole season was a good one.  It was unexpected.  I knew that we were going to have a talented team.  We were going to have some good times achieved this year.  However, I had no idea how successful we could be at the beginning of the season.  It was so awesome to see the girls start winning or getting second, only to big teams.  It was also really fun to have other teams start to recognize us.  It was exhilarating to have other coaches come up to me, and say, “Your girls are doing good, huh.”  The district meet was no exception.  I will never forget that there was one coach who walked up to me and jokingly said, “I thought we agreed that the North Iowa girls weren’t going to be coming.  It’s going to threaten our chances of making it to state.”  I, smiling, said, no, we wouldn’t miss this race for the world.  

The actual state meet was good too.  I really enjoyed how many people came from our school to support, and I loved that my mom was there with her boys team and one girl, while we were there with our one boy and girls team.  Cheering on the team and everyone feeling their complete pride in their school was a memorable experience.  

The Lord has given me four beautiful years.  I have learned so much, and I have grown as a person.  I’m glad he has put me in the spot that he did for the past four years.  This is also a good reminder for me to be grateful to God for the experiences he has given me.  I am so happy he has chosen to bless me.  I can now only pray for him to be with me in my future career. 

Kids often want to be in the NFL,NBA, NHL when they are younger or maybe the best guitar player in a rock and roll band.   What sometimes kids don’t want to do is learn the basics of how to be the best.  I have definitely been in that position.  When I was a kid, I loved to sing.  I still do, but I don’t have as many opportunities as I did as a kid.  If you would have asked me when I was growing up, what I would end up doing as an adult, I would have told you that I was going to be a pop star and in musical-based movies.  I was going to sing, all the time, and I was going to be known for singing.  

When I was in upper elementary/middle school, I was blessed with the opportunity to start singing lessons.  I was so excited! I could not wait to start learning songs and performing.  Then my teachers had me do the craziest things.  They had me sing scales.  I had to sing scales, after scales.  La-la-la, mo-mo-mo, me-me-me.  Up and down the piano.  At first, I didn’t like it.  I didn’t enjoy going up and down the scales so many times. Now, I can look back and realize how much those scales helped me when it came to my singing career.  A singer learns scales in order to learn the notes and practice pitch and tone. A singer will not be good at their performances if they don’t have those two fundamental pieces.  

This concept of learning the basics applies to all areas of life.  For example, we send our kids to preschool, elementary school, secondary, and then maybe students eventually go to university and start studying the items that really interests them or what they really want to learn.  A person cannot just start studying doctorate level science without learning the basics of being a student. I am reflecting on this currently as I am going to many graduation parties and celebrating with the students who have made it through an initial part of their walk of life.  There are so many good things that are on their way, but this major life step had to be achieved first.  

 This also applies to our Christian life and our Christian walk.  We can not become good Christians without learning the very basics. There is a passage in the Bible about this very concept.  In Hebrews 5:13-14, it says, “For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.” A new believer needs to slowly start learning about what it means to be a Christian and what it means to love and to follow God.  As they continue to learn, the harder theological concepts will start to click into place.  

The basic concept of Christianity is this.  God loves you.  Not just an impersonal love where he loves the general idea of people, but God loves you for who you are.  You are not perfect because no one is, but he loves you amidst those mistakes and those sins.  However, there was a problem.  That sin, even though God loves us even with it, does create a barrier between us and God.  God can’t be that close to sin.  He is too perfect for that, but he still wanted to be with us, his creation, his people.  He still wanted us with him.  

So, God created a solution to this huge problem.  He sent his son to die on the cross for our sins.  Jesus, our Savior Son, who was completely perfect came down and lived a human life with all the dirt, blood, and temptations, but he conquered it all.  He lived a completely perfect life and still became accused like a prisoner who then was sentenced to die on a cross for the sins of every person in the world who has lived a sinful life and fallen under temptation (i.e., everyone).  We are able to become Christians when we accept Jesus into our hearts, when we accept, we are imperfect without him, and we need him for our daily life and eternal salvation.   

After we make our relationship with God, we should be filled with a big desire to learn more and more about Him.  There is a lot to understand when it comes to Christianity.  There is a really long Bible.  No one will completely understand everything.  It is also sometimes very difficult to be as Christ-like as possible.  We live in a world filled with sin and temptations.  It is hard to fight against our flesh.  However, as believers a person can slowly start to learn more and more about God in order to become believers who are living a more fulfilled, less sin-filled life.  But a new believer doesn’t have to understand it all at the beginning, a new believer should just have a desire to grow from the fundamentals.    

My challenge for you this week is very basic, some may say fundamental.  I want you to spend time thinking about the reason you are Christian.  Why do you want to spend time with God?  Do you do it because you have a calling to be close to God?  Do you follow God because of your parents? When you start to remember the basics of your personal faith, the desire to know God and learn the more difficult pieces and aspects of Christianity will start to all make more and more sense.

I love the dogs in my life!  My parents own three dogs.  One of the dogs in my life is  Rollins, which is a Vizsla.  This dog loves to do a lot of things-run, play, snuggle, and look out the window.  He loves to sit in front of the windows and watch the outdoors.  It is amazing how long he can just sit there watching the same scene.  We often don’t know what he is looking at.  We, as humans, don’t see the exciting events that are on the outside.  I know that Rollins is focused on the small things that we as humans will often overlook.  Watching that dog stare out the window made me realize that we often don’t take the time to look around us and be watchful.  I don’t always take the time to take in the world around me, whether this be with the people I am with that day or with the way God has been working around and through me. 

I believe that as Christians, we should be watchful.  It is important that we take the time to be like my good ole watchdog, Rollins.  I believe there are two ways that we as Christians should be watchful:  

• The first is to focus our energy on the positive and the work that is being done by the Lord, not as focused on the negative items that are happening in our lives. The energy and thoughts should be significantly shifted more towards the positive than the negative. 

• Then the second is to be watchful of the distractions and the temptations that we are letting into our lives.  The distractions and the temptations can ultimately harm us in this life and take us farther away from the Lord.

I have heard many times that it is so much easier for our brains to focus on the negative.  Our brains are sadly wired to remember our traumatic experiences and to struggle through forgiveness.  I was recently reading a book called, “Get out of your head,” by Jennie Allen.  This whole book talked about anxiety and the toxic thoughts that we as humans can often fall into and how we can, through Jesus Christ, overcome those thoughts.  One quote from this novel that she found through her research is “The average person has more than thirty thousand thoughts per day.  Of those, so many are negative that, ‘according to researchers, the vast majority of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of a toxic thought life.’”  How sad is that?!  Our thoughts are literally, not just figuratively making us sick.  

So how do we as simple humans start to focus our minds more on the positive.  I will say again that the book, “Get out of your Head,” really gave some ideas on how to best focus our minds on the positive.  This book talked about the importance of changing our minds once they start.  I know that may sound simple, but deciding to stop the bad thoughts once they start coming through your mind, can be easier to control than later.  Once we let a negative or a toxic thought start and fester, it can continue to make our mind spiral.  The goal is to stop the thoughts before the spiral begins.  

The next way that I try to focus my mind on the positive is through my joy journal.  I love keeping a joy/gratitude journal.    These are not just items that I am grateful for, while that is a part, but it is actual moments that bring me joy.  Some examples that have been in my joy journal are “My Spanish II students doing really well on their verbal presentations,” or “seeing a mom and son playing basketball together at the gym” to even “It was so sunny outside today, and I enjoyed the way I felt on my run this morning.”  I highly recommend starting your own joy journal.  I do believe that it is a very healthy step on a way to becoming aware of all the good things that are around and in your life.  

The second reason we should be watchful is because of the temptations that can plague our world.  Satan is like a thief, constantly hunting for someone to hurt.  This is probably why negative thoughts plague our society so easily. I know that sounds intense, but that is even how he is described in the Bible.  John 10:10a says this perfectly, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;” That is the evil one.  This is the one that we are constantly going up against.  He is a thief who wants to steal our joy, kill our faith, and destroy our relationship with God.  We must constantly be aware of the temptations that are plaguing our life. It is not easy to go up against our temptations.  Every single person in the Bible had moments where they struggled through their particular temptation.  Even Jesus himself went through temptations.  Jesus is the only one who didn’t falter, but it was definitely not described as a walk in the park.  

I think it is important that we first acknowledge what our biggest temptations could be.  What are the things that make you, in particular, stutter or fall? I will be honest that some of my biggest temptations usually fall with my mouth.  My words can get me into trouble, especially when I am frustrated by someone or something.  Acknowledging those items, definitely can make it easier to fight against.  Then the second piece of advice I have is to have some memorized verses ready to go when it comes to fighting those very same temptations.  Being able to combat the temptations with God’s Word, will definitely save you amidst the fight.  

A good memory verse to start with, is John 10:10.  While the beginning was not the most positive and happy, there is a wonderful and loving second piece in John 10:10 that says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  This is the relationship that we have with God.  Through God, we are able to see life and all the joy and the goodness that it is supposed to bring us.  Through him, we can be aware of the harms that come from the enemy.  Through him, we can have complete love forever. Just as my dog longs to look out the window, I want each of us to long to look towards Jesus Christ and his love for us.

Today as I am writing, I just got done helping a friend move into her new house.  She was moving 15 miles away, but she was moving into the town where she currently works.  She was also moving in with her sister, so this was all in all going to be a great set-up. This day definitely included crazy moments, but all in all, it was definitely a memorable and wonderful one.  It was a great time to help a friend move into her new space and get organized.  Plus, this offered a great opportunity to spend time talking to my friend as we went from one town to the other and laughed a lot as we attempted to move the really heavy boxes and furniture.  

This is a good reminder for me that there is something magical about those pieces of helping a friend and being a part of that kind of friendship.  It is odd to say, but I felt closer to this particular friend after hours of helping her move than I have in the past few months.  It was in this moment where I felt the friendship grow deeper.  We had an opportunity to talk about what is really going on in our lives, I was able to help her become less stressed, and we spent a significant amount of time with each other.  It wasn’t in any way a superficial thing, but a deeper connection.  

Friendship is not always pretty.  Friendship is not necessarily always filled with highs.  They are going to be times not filled with laughs and smiles.  There are going to be times where friendship is hard.  Friends are going to lose family members, going to be stressed out and maybe even lash out here and there, and are going to need other people for help.  This help could be mental, could be spiritual, or even physical in the sense of physically moving heavy boxes from one house to the other.  (There were some HEAVY boxes!) Yes, there are positives to friendships, but in order to experience the really good parts, one has to be ready to deal with the hard.  

There are a lot of verses from the Bible that center around community, fellowship, and friendship.  One that recently struck me was from Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 10 which says, “If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”  I have had so many friends who have been there for me in the rough moments.  I have been stuck crying over something insignificant, and I know I have a friend’s house that I can run to or a phone number I can call.  I have been blessed with many friends who don’t let me down and keep me upright.  

However, I do think it can be easy to want to put on a facade around people, even our friends.  We have grown up in a culture where we often will answer the question of, “How are you doing,” with an “I’m good or I’m fine,” even when the truth of the matter is we are not good or are not fine.  There are times when we can be struggling, but we may be too fearful to let others know our true honest opinion of how we are doing.  Being vulnerable, even with our friends and our loved ones can be scary.  I believe our friends find themselves in the same boat.  They too are afraid to be vulnerable.  They too have been conditioned to always answer, “I’m fine,” even when they are not.   They may also want to avoid getting a lot of people involved in their life problems, with the fear that they will be ruining other people’s days or causing a distraction/chaos.  

With this, there are a few challenges that I want to give you this week.  The first is to be more vulnerable yourself.  We have been blessed with friends and it is important that we feel we can share our lives with them, even the not so pleasant parts. It is important that we be willing to tell our friends how we really feel without being too overwhelming.  We don’t want to be always complaining or always arguing or always crying.  However, we should be willing to share our thoughts, opinions, and emotions.  

My second challenge is to be willing to look out for your friends.  Not just in the simple asking of how they are, but asking about things that you know may make them stressed or may make them upset.  (not necessarily to upset them, but to see how they are feeling about it).  Offer to help them even when it is not convenient or even when they didn’t necessarily ask for it.  Sometimes being willing to point out the thing that your friend may need help with will be the encouragement to get them to ask for that help.  They may decide they do need help or they do need comfort or support.  Being willing to say that you will stand by them and help or be there for them is a way to open the door for them to accept your help. 

I want to end this blog post with one of my favorite verses from the Bible, and that is Proverbs 17:17 which says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” This is a good reminder for everyone.  It won’t always be easy, but a good friend and a good brother or sister in Christ loves at all times.  This is not just the emotional response of love, but the actions that are associated with loving someone else.  It is the thinking of ways to serve them or to gift them encouragement or support or to even pray for them.  I pray you grow in the friendships that you have around this next week. 

I am a teacher currently, and I am finishing my fourth year of school.  There is something that I have learned when it comes to being in a school building in the last quarter, and that it is HARD.  It is so hard this time of year.   It is not easy to get the students to focus, or to quiet down.  The weather is getting nice, which means the last thing that people want to do is to stay in a room and study books. 

 We even have a term for this called, senioritis.  This is another term that really shows up for me as a teacher who does teach seniors in high school.  When a person is so close to getting out of high school, it can be very easy for them to want to just scrape by.  Why put in the extra work, if this is going to be the last few months that you will ever see this place?  The grades are pretty much decided, the colleges have given out acceptance letters if they are choosing to go to college, and the scholarships have been given out and accepted.  There is not a lot more that can be done at this time of year to do.  Yet there are still a few weeks left of learning.  There are still a few more weeks of knowledge to be gained, and we still have connections and life lessons to learn before the goodbyes are said. 

It has been a good show to me that I need to remember to see this year through to the end. Because I am so close to the end, it would feel much easier to just give in and put up the towel.  Not spend as much time lesson planning, hardly grade, not really help the students who are struggling to desire knowledge.  I will be honest that I can really feel that way this year in particular as I am leaving this profession at the end of the year.  It would be much easier to allow this to be their problem next year after I am gone.   

However, then I need to remember that we need to work hard and be diligent even when we are approaching the end, the end of a season, the end of the year, the end of a relationship.  We should have the same approach and love as we did in the beginning.  Sometimes journeys, jobs, relationships, can all be exciting in the beginning, but it is the middle and the end where the times get tough.  How can we still keep our character and our diligence and our God-fearing ness during those times?  

Jesus definitely did.  He really perseveres even at the end.  Can you imagine?  He knew that he was going to die.  He knew that the end of his life was coming.  He could have taken that time to enjoy himself.  He could have taken that time to fish or to hangout with his friends, but he decided he wanted to focus his energy on saving as many people as he could and then still be sent to the cross for the good of the Lord, His father.  He still knew that he had a role he needed to fulfill before he left this earth. He did it with gladness, even when it must have been difficult.    

This is also the challenge that God gives us for the end times.  He reminds us that at some point, Jesus is going to be coming back.  Jesus never planned on leaving his people here on earth forever.  Yes, we have the opportunity to go to heaven after we die, but there is also going to be a day when Jesus will come back and will bring all believers up to heaven.  He is going to get rid of Satan, once and for all.  He reminded us many times throughout the Bible to be ready because the end times would be coming.   The verse, Matthew 24:44 is just one example of the Bible bringing up ways we as Christ followers need to be prepared for the end times.  This says, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”   

I do want to spend this time encouraging anyone who is like me and will be going through a change of season.  I want to encourage any senior that is reading this who may be struggling with the idea of branching out on their own, or seeking to find a path that isn’t just going to classes.  I hope that everyone who is choosing to move to a new town or join a new group of friends is excited about this grand adventure.  I pray that you can continue to grow as close to the Lord throughout the rest of the days of your life.   My challenge for you this week is to spend time in prayer for strength, diligence, and encouragement as you close a particular chapter.

If you have been reading along with my blog, this may sound repetitive, but at church today we were learning about Abraham and his mighty story.  He definitely had a lot of ups and downs with a lot of temptations where he sometimes showed great faith and sometimes showed complete fear.  The story that wraps up Abraham’s tale in the book of Genesis is when he was being tested by God through being asked to dedicate his son, Isaac.  

This is not my favorite story from the Bible.  I don’t know what I would do if I was in the position that Abraham was.  I don’t think I could even start the process of walking up to the temple with my son, or even a human being with the intent to give him as a sacrifice.  Abraham shows great faith through this whole interaction.  He faithfully and obediently goes up to the temple with the intention to do what the Lord has asked.  We even see that Abramham really believed in his heart that God was going to provide.  He believed before he went up with Isaac that God would provide the sacrifice that was necessary which was why he didn’t have to bring one along.  We absolutely see great faith, and from the moments of his lack of trust, this is a high moment for Abraham to have.  

The good news, for anyone who knows the story, is that God does provide a ram that is found in the thicket.  This was the perfect provision that Abraham had been hoping for.  This was the replacement.  This also serves as a wholesome and beautiful metaphor to Jesus as our perfect replacement when he died on the cross.  We don’t need to give sacrifices anymore because we have been given the perfect sacrifice who has the ability to forgive all of our sins and will allow us to spend forever with him and his father in heaven if we so choose.  

However, my pastor was able to provide me with something new to think about when it comes to this passage.  There are so many take-aways, but this is a new one that I have never thought about before, and one that I think is important for everyone to think about.  God wants our best and our worst. He wants us to come to him about our hard times, but he also wants us to come to him when we are excited.  He desires a complete relationship, and just like every good and healthy relationship, the two people share their highs and their lows.  

It is actually in some ways harder to give God our best.  However, I am not going to say that it is easy to give God our worst.  There are many temptations and sins that are hard to give over to God.  There is shame that we don’t always want to present before the Lord.  We can have fear.  However, have you thought about how hard it can be to give God our best or our good things?  It can be incredibly difficult to give God our dreams, our passions, and our relationships.  We want to think that because they are our best and most sacred things, they should be kept sealed to our hearts where we are completely in control of them.  We would rather be the ones in charge of the decisions surrounding those things.  

We see this is what Abraham had done.  A great chunk of his story from the book of Genesis was about the promise to be a father of a nation.  Even though he and his wife had struggled to father a child, after desperately wanting one, Abraham and Sarah were promised they would have a child.  They tried to take this into their own hands through Hagar and Ishmael, but still God promised they would have a biological child of their own by each other, not through anyone else.  Then even with the laughter through their age and lack of faith, they finally had their baby, Isaac.  A good part of Abraham’s personality was now matched in with having this child of Isaac and being his father.  Yet, as we see in this story, Abraham was getting ready to sacrifice the child they had been waiting years for to the Lord.  Abraham was willing to give the absolute best part of him and his son’s life to God.  Luckily because God saw that Abraham was faithful, he did decide to bless his two sons with a Ram and a replacement. God provided the future to Abraham and it was completely good.    

We do see that there are many verses that speak to giving sacrifices throughout the Bible. The first one I am going to highlight is from the Old Testament and that is Psalm 66:15, “I will sacrifice fat animals to you, and an offering of rams; I will offer bulls and goats.” We see that God does care about good meat as a gift to him.  Then the second one is Luke 12: 33-34 which says, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  This is a reminder not to care about worldly possessions.  We are not to care about the items in this world that sparkle or twinkle.  We are to be more focused on the future world, or the one that we are headed towards and the treasures that will be there.  

How does this really work in our day to day life? What are some ways that we can always give God our best moments and the exciting parts of our life?  How can we avoid just giving him our bad, but commit to giving him our good as well?  The way I best seek to give God my best is through prayer before all my big events.  Every time I am about to seek doing something related to a dream or a desire, I am trying to give more and more attention to talking to God about it.  It is important that I let him know where my heart is with this particular desire.  I need to let him know where my heart is taking me, and where my heart is leading me.   I don’t just try to talk to God when I am sad or I am mad, but also the moments when I am happy and when I am feeling more at peace.  

My challenge this week for everyone reading is to think of one desire or dream that you can put into God’s hands.  What is something that you would like to see in your life?  What is something that you have been afraid to give up to God because you secretly want all the control over it?  I pray that whatever you desire, the Lord will showcase the best possible option for you with that dream or desire.  I pray that you see God’s promise in this dream and in your future.