Minimizing Stress at the Holidays

Every year for many, we go through the same thing.  “I have to spend $X on such and such.”  “I have to throw this Christmas get together and have a big meal, and it is all homemade.”  “So and so will expect us to be at their Christmas party, even though I don’t even like them.”  “We have to put up this elaborate Christmas display both outside and inside.”  Why do we do this to ourselves?  Where is Christ in all this?

A few years ago, I made some changes for the holidays that I thought I’d share.  I was in a job working 60+ hours a week during December and was on the verge of a stroke by the time Christmas came each year.  So some changes were made and continue to be made to make Christmas time more Christ centered, honoring to Him, and less about me and the worldliness of it all.

Keep the focus on Him.  After all, it’s His birthday.  How would he want us to celebrate?

Do we really think He would want light displays like that of Clark Griswald?  Piles and piles of gifts that either break the bank or put us in debt until next Christmas?  Parties to show off our home or culinary skills?  To me, that sounds like we are celebrating us, not Him.  Read the Christmas Story.  To me, that sounds pretty simple…three gifts, and the party was in a cave.

Simplify.  Don’t worry about keeping up with the Joneses because they are in debt up to their eyeballs and on the verge of heart failure from stress.  Is that the price you really want to pay to have all they have?  Probably not. 

Don’t get me wrong – I’m all about festive!  There are people I know that just LOVE Christmas and all that goes with it.   Our neighbor two doors down gets out the day after Thanksgiving and puts up this wonderful display with lights and a sleigh – the works!  He has turned this into a tradition that he does with his kids – family time!  You can tell that he loves Christmas!  He’d probably help others hang lights if we asked him because he just loves it!  That’s great!  However, don’t feel like you HAVE to go all out if you don’t want to decorate.  We have Christmastimes in our home where we are very festive and decorate inside and out.  Other seasons where all we have out is the nativity.  The thing is to get to the point where that is okay.  Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t feel very festive or have time for festive.  The important part of Christmas is the first five letters – CHRIST.  Sometimes not getting wrapped up in the festivities allows more time for reflection, prayer, and worship of our Savior.  I have found many times that is the best present I can give myself so that I can give of myself with full fervor in the new year.

Another area where you can simplify is around the party and cooking area.  Simplify the parties!  A few years ago I hosted a Christmas party for my team at the time at our home.  Mind you, this was when I was putting in the 60+ hours a week.  I got to the place where I said “forget it!” and made a trip to Sam’s Club the day before the party.  That night we served a meat & cheese tray with croissants, nacho dip and chips, a veggie tray, a fruit tray, and meatballs.  The only thing I cooked for the main meal was the ground beef to put in the nacho dip.  Now, I LOVE to bake, so I did do sugar cookies and gingerbread men for dessert.  They ate up almost every scrap we had and had a blast!  It was extremely wonderful to have the ability for all of us to fellowship together outside of work, and I think they loved it that we opened our home to them.  By simplifying the prep for the party, it took pressure off my husband and me and allowed us to enjoy our guests.

I also have limited the number of gifts we give.  With not having children, we would go all out for our parents.  It would be a stress because we would end up spending really too much and plus trying to figure out what to get them.  By our age, our parents already have everything anyway.  So we limited it to three gifts.  Christ only had three gifts, and if it's good enough for Christ, it most certainly is good enough for us.  It makes shopping much easier.

Lastly, don’t stress out over cleaning.  People should not be over to your house to perform the white glove test, and if they are, you don’t need to invite them.  You want to focus on keeping your home somewhat tidy always, and there are tons of ideas out there on how to easily do that, but then also remember:

Start planning early.  In Dave Ramsey’s videos, he says something that most laugh at but at the same time is so true.  He talks about how Christmas is December 25^th every year!  There is no variation.  Most laugh at that statement, but how many of us wait until the last minute to buy gifts, save for gifts, etc.?  At our home, we buy Christmas supplies (wrapping paper, ribbons, gift tags, perhaps even cards) the day after Christmas.  This saves money because everything is half off at least, and then you’re fully stocked and ready to go for next year when the time comes around again.  We also start looking for gifts come about August.  This gives us plenty of time to collect them, and we store them in a closet until when we need to wrap them.  It also gives you time to keep an eye out for good sales without having to fight the Black Friday crowd.  The remainder of gifts we buy online.  Most places offer free shipping deals by Thanksgiving, and if you shop through a site such as Ebates, you can earn money back on your online purchases.  Every little bit helps!

Focus on the true meaning of hospitality.  According to dictionary.com, hospitality is "the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers."  It also gives “the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.”  So I read that to say that hospitality is about how you treat your guests.  You don’t have to feel the pressure to serve a five course dinner or clean and deck your halls to rival those of the Biltmore Estate.  You simply show them warmth and kindness while they are in your home.  A great example of this is several years ago a friend invited me over to visit.  I do not get to see her very often at all, so was honored for the time she put aside for me because she also had 4 young children at the time.  I arrived around 10 a.m…enough time that the children had been up for a while and active…did I mention 3 of them were boys under the age of 5?  They are like little tornadoes.  They remind me of this meme:

Regardless of her children’s agenda that day, she welcomed me in with warmth and friendliness.  We had a wonderful visit and even were able to enjoy lunch with her children.  That is hospitality.  She is a great example of hospitality!

Because of this, when I have others over, I try to keep this story in mind.  My house does not have to be perfect.  What will stay in their mind is the time with you.  I had to learn this the hard way these past years…it’s people that matter, not perfection.

Therefore, as you finish up this holiday season and gear up for parties, keep these tips in mind.  It makes for a much easier and less stressful holiday time where you can better keep your focus on Christ and enjoy your family and friends!

Complete Abandonment

It seems God has been speaking to my heart here lately, convincing me to work more on fully abandoning my life to Him.  This really has been evident the past couple months.  First, He led me to the book, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.  You can download it for free on your Kindle from Amazon or on iBooks.  This book is amazing!  It really challenges you to view your relationship with Christ outside the box to which most churches confine us.  Tozer talks about abandoning your life to build a rock solid relationship with Christ…that this is first and foremost of importance even above doing good works, church attendance, “being a good Christian”.  He ascertains that those things should be a result only of your cohesiveness with Christ, not a cause or a substitute.

So then last week I went to visit my sister, Dawn, and her family in North Carolina.  Here we go again with more on this lesson of complete abandonment!  First, she and her friends take me with them to an incredible Bible study program called “Morning Grace”.  It is hosted by a local church there.  This Bible study gave me a glimpse of what can happen when we focus on Him and not on denominational doctrine.  This study is attended by around 150 ladies from all different churches in the area.  Their only common bond is their love for Christ.  It was wonderful to worship God and learn more about Him with women from all denominations.  The program is growing too!  Thursday mornings of every week they meet, and now they have a meeting on Thursday evenings for ladies that work during the day.  While I was there I couldn’t help but think about what could be accomplished for His Kingdom if we could only all put away our differences like these ladies do each week!  It would be incredible!

Then Sunday we attended church at my sister’s home church, Crossways Community Church…abandonment again!  The pastor preached on Hebrews 11, the faith chapter.  He taught us how important faith is and that it witnesses, worships, and walks.  He spoke of Abel, Enoch and Noah and their extreme faith.  In particular, how Enoch was so close to the Lord that eventually he simply went home with him.  Wow!  Wouldn't that be amazing!  Also, that God gave Noah instructions to start building the ark 120 years prior to the flood!  Now that is extreme faith – abandoning your life for God!  Can you imagine building a boat somewhere where it never rains and telling the inhabitants there that you are building this boat because there is going to be a flood?  They would think you were an idiot!  I’m fairly certain that is what the people thought of Noah.  However, his life was so completely committed to God that he pressed on anyway.  What faith!

After visiting my sister’s home, I always feel renewed and refreshed.  It is so wonderful and a blessing to know she is not only my blood sister here, but my fellow sister in Christ as well, and this is evident in how she lives out her life each and every day.  I love worshiping with her and her family at their church and cherish our talks about God’s Word and trying to live a successful Christian life.  So, after this trip, my new mantra is “Complete Abandonment”.  Not an easy task to say the least, but for sure an end goal.  First step, continually emptying of self…let’s go.

“It is only the penitent soul that God will accept, the heart that is broken, not the head that is bowed down like a bulrush only for a day, David’s repentance, not Ahab’s.” 

Matthew Henry

Flying

October 8th I flew to Charlotte, NC, to visit my sister and her family.  Had a wonderful time, which I will blog on later.  Today, I wanted to share some amazing photos I was able to take from the airplane on the way there.  It was an early morning flight, so I had the privilege of watching the sun rise from 30,000 feet - an amazing view!

The fact that I took these photos from the window of an airplane is evidence that God works in people's hearts and minds every day.  I used to be very frightened to fly, and for sure would have never voluntarily chosen the window seat (which I do now on any opportunity).  While I worked for a home decor importer several years ago, I had to fly at least twice a year for my job...hated it!  However, on one flight, it was as if God spoke straight to me.  That still small voice said, "Why are you so afraid?  In this airplane, you are physically closer to God than anywhere else on earth.  Besides that, didn't I tell you, 'And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world' (Matt. 28:20 KJV)?"  Since that day, I have not feared flying one bit, and now I even sit by the window when presented the opportunity so I can enjoy all of God's creation from up that high!

So here are some shots from that flight.  Quality isn't great since it is through the airplane window, and I took them only with my iPhone; however, they still do a good job of showing off God's wonderful heavens!  A couple of these verses came to mind when I took these photos.  The beauty of them all inspired me to study more on what The Word says about the heavens.  Enjoy!

 

You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all.  The host of heaven worships You.  Nehemiah 9:6

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.  Genesis 1:14-15

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.  Psalm 19:1

Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.  Psalm 36:5

For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the East is from the West, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.  

Psalm 103:11-12

Praise the Lord!

Perhaps I'm a little off (well, I know that to be the case, but you know what I mean), but when I hear a chorus of birds in the morning or a symphony of cicadas and tree frogs in the evening, I can imagine them lifting their little voices in praise to their Creator.  That was the case with this little video.   One evening while walking, the cicadas were going quite strong - con anima!  It made me wonder what hymns they sing..."Great is Thy Faithfulness", the Doxology?  I wish we could know, but it's one of those mysteries of life...perhaps some day we'll know.

It did also make me think of a couple verses I'll share with you.  Hopefully they will bless you on this Tuesday as they blessed me on that Thursday evening.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!  Psalm 150:6

This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:24

 

 

In the Cleft of the Rock

I took this video a few months ago while sitting in the chapel at the St. Vincent Carmel Hospital where I have worked for the past year.  It started storming, and while I was watching the rain pour down on the windows above me, it made me think of a sermon I had heard by Bro. Bud Culbertson a few years back and the old hymn "He Hideth My Soul".  It was such a revelation to me as well as an extremely peaceful moment.

A few years ago Bud Culbertson came to our church to hold a revival.  He preached on a little animal called a coney.  When I Google this little creature, I guess it looks something like this:

This little animal lives in mountain gorges and rocky land around Israel.  It makes its abode in the cleft of the rocks and also finds its hiding place there.  When a predator is chasing it, it can run and hide in small clefts of the rock to find protection from the one trying to harm it.  Bud correlated this with how we as Christians are in Christ.  When we are being chased by life's troubles, we can run to the Rock and find protection...always.  Just as the rocks of the hillside don't move, they're always there for that little coney; Christ is always there for us as well.

The window above me made me feel like that little coney.  The storm was raging outside, but I was safe in the cleft.  I could still see the storm, hear the storm, but I was safe.  Wow!  Isn't that how Christ is for us?  Life's troubles can bear full on us, but with Him as our Comforter, we can be safe.  Many times He doesn't necessarily make the storm go away, but what peace we can feel while we're waiting for it to pass.  It is truly amazing!

It was then that I realized that God had put me at Carmel for this past year to keep me safe and allow me to heal in preparation for whatever He has in store for me next.  I had taken two pretty serious emotional blows last year that knocked me down hard.  It was like He picked me up and, like the coney, put me in this cleft so I could heal from these wounds and prepare for life once again.  Now, He must feel I'm healed because I begin a new chapter in my life next week.  We'll see what He has in store.

I had said that this time also made me think of the song by Fanny Crosby called "He Hideth My Soul", which is where the title of this post came from.  It speaks of being in the safe cleft of The Rock of Christ.

The chorus goes:

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,

That shadows a dry, thirsty land;

He hideth my life in the depths of his love,  

And covers me there with his hand,

And covers me there with his hand.

I think that sums it up!  God bless you today!

The God of Second Chances

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)  Our problem is we often have a hard time forgiving ourselves.  Let’s look at one of God’s most wonderful qualities – how when we mess up, he forgives, forgets, and gives us another chance to try to get it right. 

This is demonstrated in the Bible again and again.  Let’s look at three people who God gave at least a second chance.

Jonah

The story of Jonah is a very familiar one.  God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach to the people there and try to convert them to Judaism.  Jonah did not like that plan because he did not much care for the people of Nineveh, so he caught a boat and went the opposite way.

Because of how Jonah reacted to God’s request, God reacted in a way that is often times the way he reacts when we do not obey.  God sent a great storm.  In our lives He can allow financial troubles, health problems, or family problems to come our way to get our attention.  He also can withhold that inner joy and peace we have when we are in His will.  This is not a good situation to be in, and Jonah realized that as well.  He had the men in the boat cast him overboard because he knew he was the cause of the storm.

We all know about the great fish swallowing Jonah.  It is that time while he was in the fish, though, that two great things happened.  First, Jonah’s will finally broke.  He repented of not doing what God asked him to do, and agreed to finally do it.  Second, Jonah did actually die in the fish’s belly. J. Vernon McGee says this would not be a miraculous event had Jonah not died.  Jonah experienced a resurrection both physically and spiritually.  God forgave him of his disobedience and gave him a second chance to do what God had called him to do.

David

Actually David had more than two chances, but we’ll focus on one sin in particular – David numbering the people (2 Samuel 24).  This was a direct disobedience of what God told him not to do.  According to God, David was to feel blessed by the number of citizens God permitted him to have and not be prideful thinking that he built such a great kingdom himself.  What did David do?  He numbered the people or, in other words, took a census.  God did execute a punishment for David’s sin, but He let David choose the punishment.  He also forgave David and had mercy on David and the people of Israel.

This shows us that sometimes sin takes us to a point where there are repercussions for our sin.  David had to be punished for his outright disobedience.  This is the same way with us.  We are God’s children, and just like our own children, disobedience can lead to punishment to show us the seriousness of the offense so we will not continue with it.  If we continue in the sin, the punishment can end up being eternal.  We want to avoid this at all cost by knowing Christ as Lord and Savior of our life and striving to know Him and keep His commandments.

Peter

Peter’s story in Matthew 26 is a great example of how we can become arrogant in our own faith.  We are never too good to fall, so are always in need of Christ’s mercy and goodness.  Peter was so prideful in his faith that he thought he would never deny Christ; however, Christ prophesied differently.  He told Peter that before the rooster crowed that next morning, Peter would deny him three times.  Christ’s prophesy came to pass, and when Peter heard the rooster crow, it reminded him of what Jesus had said.  He wept and repented…the one condition for God’s mercy.  Repentance (sincere confession and asking of forgiveness to God)…it will find us God’s renewed mercy, grace, and love. 

What happened to Peter?  He went on to be a great apostle for Jesus, and even ended up dying for His cause.  This initial failure made Peter stronger, and that’s what can happen to us if we just learn from our mistakes.

God’s mercies are new every day.  We need just repent and ask for them.  As time passes, it will draw us closer to Him and stronger in Him.

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations.  Psalm 89:1

Everything I Needed to Know About Leading I Learned from Being a Nanny

There are countless books out there that talk about how to manage and lead people.  All of them have good points; however, I have found that where I learned most about managing people was in the trenches of being a full time nanny for four years while finishing school.  I still have yet to hold a better, more rewarding job and 12 years later am still gleaning lessons learned from my time with those precious children.

Make the expectations clear and be consistent with your expectations

I was only 22 going into this nanny job, didn’t have any children of my own, and did not have a lot of experience dealing with kids.  Believe me, babysitting for a couple hours while parents go out is nothing compared to raising children for ten hours a day, five days a week for four years.  Those of you with children know.  No comparison. 

So I think, “How in the world do I get these kids to do what I want them to do without putting the fear of God in them like my mom used to do?”  They were almost four and eight months old.  What did I do?  I sat down and talked with the four year old boy very soon after I started.  We talked about all the fun we could have every day.  We talked about going to the park, the swimming pool, playing outside, inside, and having the neighbor kids over to play too.  We then talked about the only expectation I had from him was that if I needed for him to do something – break for lunch, clean up before the parents came home, help with his sister for a minute – he needed to do it for me with minimal complaining and without me having to be nasty to get him to do it.  Therefore, every day could be a party if he just did what I asked when I asked it.  If not, then no party.  This was my expectation, and I was consistent with it.

You know what?  It worked!  Of the four years I spent with Nathan, 99.9% of the time he met my expectations.  Because of that, I held up my end of the bargain.  We had fun playing, swimming, having up to 10 neighbor kids playing inside the house at once (while maintaining my sanity even), and going to the park.  He even taught me how to throw a football and kick a soccer ball.  Once I obtained my degree and went into a “real world” profession, I tried applying this technique to the adults I managed.  It worked with them as well most of the time.  Meet the expectations and the workplace can be fun and friendly and enjoyable too!  We had birthday parties, joked with each other, and even had fun with a fart machine one day…and they were productive in their jobs!

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty – part 1

Being a perfectionist and clean freak, I had to learn this early on during my tenure as nanny.  My biggest teacher of this lesson, though, was not the boy but the girl.  She started early as she had a daily issue with spit up.  Almost daily I left work with spit up down the front of my shirt.  There was then the time she decided to put on “make up” with Crayola marker.  There was also the stint of about three days where she evidently thought it would be fun to stick her hands in her poopy diaper after she awoke from her nap and smear it over almost every square inch of her crib and herself.  Fun times!

Fact of the matter is stuff happens, sometimes literally!  Unless someone’s life is threatened, there really is no need to freak out about it.  However, as managers, we do need to roll up our sleeves and help our employees clean up the mess, learn from it in a positive way, and problem solve on what can be done differently so the mess does not happen again.  Luckily Kristin stopped the poop trick on her own because duct tape around the top of the diaper prior to nap time was seriously being considered.  Many times problems, though, don’t just stop themselves.  We have to review processes to see where things can be changed or done differently to avoid the mistake or mess the next time.  Most of the time, this involves direct interaction with us, their managers.  We need to not be so proud as to get down and get our hands dirty with our employees, learn their processes, and help them clean up the mess.  They appreciate it more than we realize and value the interaction.

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty – part 2

We also cannot be afraid to get in there and do the job with them.  This is very important because it accomplishes two things.

1.      It shows your employees that you do not look at yourself any better than them – aka humility.  When the going gets tough, get right in there with them to get the job done.  Stay late with them and work alongside them.  It shows them that it must not be that bad if you’re willing to do it too.  Nathan when he was four was afraid to gut a pumpkin.  It was way too slimy for him.  However, once he saw that I was willing to stick my hand in there to do the job, then after a minute he was willing as well.  From that point on, every Halloween he helped to gut the pumpkin.  When you do get in the thick of it with your employees, they value it more than they’ll ever admit and will greatly respect you for it.

2.      It gives you the opportunity to review processes.  How can you know if your employee is doing a task the most efficient way if you’ve never done it yourself or even watched it directly being done?  So often we leave the processes the same although we have implemented new software or provided our employees with new tools.  Should the process stay the same?  Have they changed it and not told you?  If so, it should be documented so the next person trained on the task is trained in the most efficient manner.

Love them like your own

This sounds a little odd, I know, but really, do love them like your own family.  After all, you spend more waking hours with these people than you do your own family.  I learned this from spending most of my waking hours with others’ children for four years.  Even to this day, if I knew either of those children needed my help or protection, I would be there.  I most certainly would even risk my own life to save theirs.  They are not my children, but through opening my heart to them and the blessings they gave to me, I in turn learned to love them as much as I could my own children.

This does something too, when you open your heart in this way.  You then have a vested interest in protecting them from harm.  You carefully consider before adding another person to the team because you never want to be forced to lay them off.  You more carefully consider if a person would be a great fit for a position before hiring them because you never want to have to discipline them or, heaven forbid, fire them for poor performance.  Could you still make a bad hiring decision – yes.  Could an employee take advantage of you because of opening yourself up – sure.  However, the benefits far outweigh the negatives with this thought process.  You end up with a team that really is like your family.  You end up with employees that stand up for you the same way you stand up for them, and support and care for you the same way you support and care for them.

Know there will always be problem children…and love them anyway

Sometimes you come across “problem children”.  You may inherit them from other managers or you may make your own bad hiring decision.  Regardless we have to try to find a way to make it work before cutting them loose.  They are people after all, and they need appreciated and cared for too…in fact, that might just be part of their problem.

While being a nanny, we had a little neighbor boy that liked to come over to play with the little girl.  Although his family was well to do, he was the youngest so was frequently “put out” to get out of the mom’s hair, even at only four years old.  Seeing this, I often took him in and grew to love him too regardless of the “problems”.  You see, James broke toys.  I’m not sure what exactly he did, but every time he was over to play inside, some poor toy ended up being a victim.  Eventually we got to where he could only play outside with us because the toy casualties were becoming too high.  We were able to find a work around to make it work with having him over.

Managing problem children in the work place is often this way as well.  Do they just need appreciated?  Is there a work around in this process so they can be successful in their job?  We should look at all possible ways to make it work with them before cutting the ties.  Often we’ll find that it only takes a small change in something to help someone excel.  Sometimes we do actually have employees with which we have to cut ties, but this should only come after trying to make it work.

Look for what you can learn from them

I went into my job as a nanny thinking of everything I was going to teach these children.  They needed to learn their numbers, the alphabet, how to read and write, etc.  What I didn’t consider was everything they would teach me.  They taught me that the people that drive trash trucks are rock stars!  Seriously!  Every week when the trash truck would come, the neighborhood children would go running to watch the guys get the trash and head down to the next house.  As small children, they were as enamored with those guys and their truck as teens are with the latest celebrity heart throb.  It solidified in me truly that everyone is important and to be admired for the hard work they do.

The children also taught me to look for the beauty in everything…to be fascinated with life.  Somehow as adults, we tend to lose this over time…the beauty in a dandelion bloom, the fascination with a fire fly or a small frog, the excitement in making cookies.  Life is a gift after all, so perhaps living it would be more fulfilling if we lived it as such?

Your employees can offer the same learning opportunities.  They may have a life experience that may help you with a problem if we would take the time to get to know them.  They may view a process differently and have a suggestion in improving it, if we would only listen.  Our employees have a wealth of life experiences and knowledge from which we can glean if we only take the time.

Summary

With these take aways from my days being a nanny, I was able to not only lead others in the work place, but also make friends of them.  I have had the privilege of being a part of some great teams and led them mostly with skills that I learned while being a nanny.

Bearing One Another's Burdens

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  Galatians 6:2

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to return to my hometown for the annual Glass Festival.  Being from a small town, this annual festival ends up being a town reunion of sorts.  Many that no longer live there return to see everyone they have not seen all year or perhaps longer.  It is a wonderful time of catching up and enjoying beautiful Indiana summer days.

This year was the same but also very different.  There were three different occasions where God really spoke to my heart.  On these occurrences, this verse from Galatians kept coming to mind.  The first was while speaking to a relative that is on several committees to develop and bring commerce to the area.  You see, while I was growing up, this area was booming with manufacturing jobs but this is no longer the case.  Now it is rampant with unemployment and poverty.  It is such a sad situation because there are not many jobs close anymore.  I was able to talk to him about this somewhat and how different organizations are working to try to entice companies to locate there.  It makes your heart hurt for the people and want to do something to help.  Not being sure of what I could actually do, this verse came to mind...I can at least bear their burdens and lift this area in prayer.

The second time this verse came to mind was during the community church service that Sunday morning.  The local ministerial association hosts a community church service in the park during this festival.  It is such a blessing to attend because you are able to see many churches put away their denominational differences to come together and worship Christ - the way it should be.  Also during this service, they spoke about the local food pantry** that again all the churches come together to support.  The offering collected that morning was to go toward it.  It was awe inspiring to hear how this little town comes together to provide food, clothing, and money for utility bills for the poor.  Again, bearing one another's burdens to fulfill the law of Christ.

The final time this verse was repeated was a little later that day.  We had just purchased a wreath from a local vendor and was walking down the main aisle of the festival when another vendor came out to ask about the wreath.  She then noticed my husband and I had on our shirts with our church logo on them.  She requested prayer for her step-son that at only 32 was in stage 4 cancer with it in multiple locations throughout his body.  She was obviously distressed over the situation.  Telling us about him and how sorrowful his father was, we asked her if she would like for us to not only pray for them but with her right then.  She was very pleased with this gesture so we prayed with her and left her with a big hug as well.  Again, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

So as I go on my week this week, I now have a new perspective.  How can I fulfill Christ's law?  He really does not expect me to lead hundreds of people to him like Billy Graham did in his crusades.  He may never call me to be a well known singer whose songs bless the hearts of thousands.  However, he does call me and all of us to bear one another's burdens to fulfill His law...pray for others, give to others, and be a little more free in handing out compassion, grace and hugs.  Try it!  It blesses all involved, and I'm fairly certain it makes God smile.

**The local food pantry is the George Morrisett Center.  If you'd like to donate to this wonderful resource for the poor of Elwood and the surrounding area, call (765) 552-5570.

The Desires of Our Heart

This morning as I was enjoying my quiet time reading my devotional, something came to me regarding Psalm 37:4 which reads:

 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

If I am delighting in the Lord, won't the desires of my heart be what His will is and not my own?  They should be...should being the key word here.  That is easier said than done, though!  With still being in this world and human, we too often desire what we want instead of what He wants for our life.

This makes me think of our struggle with infertility...what is His will for our life?  Sure most couples wish and desire for children that are a blend of their own DNA and to experience the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth.  We did...and still do from time to time.  However, we do also delight in the Lord, so our ultimate desire of our heart should be His desire for our life which sometimes differs from our own desires.  What we need to keep in mind, though, when it does differ is that God's plan is ALWAYS better than our plan because He knows the Big Plan - eternity.  Which is why here lately I've also been trying to keep my focus Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."  Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think...that is truly amazing and mind boggling to think about!

So today as we continue on our day, let's work on making our desires His desires.  What are His desires for our life?  They are exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think!  That is surely worthy of our continual delight!