The Power of a Smile

In 2011 when I started working at the Women’s Health Boutique, a provider of post-mastectomy products and wigs for women going through cancer treatment, I quickly learned that, although a person may look like nothing is going on in their life, you never know.  I met ladies that were enduring their 2^nd or 3^rd time battling cancer, met family members that had lost numerous family members in a short amount of time, and fit ladies with wigs which looked so closely like their hair that you would never know they were in the middle of enduring chemotherapy. 

Because of this revelation, I made a conscience decision.  If I passed someone, anywhere, and made eye contact with them, I would smile at them at a minimum, if not also say “hi”.  I also made a decision to keep my face up to intentionally make eye contact with others.  You see, before, I was a keep-your-head-down-and-plow-along kind of person.  No more!  If my countenance is going to reflect Christ’s love to others, how can I do that by keeping my nose to the grindstone all the time?  I couldn’t, so I don’t any longer.

What happens when you do this?  It opens up the opportunity to meet and even pray with amazing people.  People start talking to you.  They share their stories.  They will ask you to pray for them.  They will grant you the privilege to pray with them.  You see, a smile is an amazingly powerful, yet simple tool we possess.  It shows a person that we acknowledge them as a fellow human…they are not alone in this world.  Also, I believe, that lifting our face to smile must also somehow reveal something deeper than only our smile to them.  If not, then how do they “just know” to ask for prayer?

So as you go along with your day today, smile!  You never know whose day you will bless! 

Seeking

Have you ever lost something and couldn’t find it?  We all have.  When we look for it, do we earnestly seek it out or are we already sure that someone else has done something with it or thrown it away?  If we already have set in our mind that someone put it somewhere else or threw it away, we aren’t truly seeking for it because we have already decided we’re not going to find it.  We go through the motions of searching without sincerely seeking to find it…and we frequently then don’t find it.  When we search for it then later with a clear head and intent on seeking it out, that is when we find what we’ve been looking for before.  It was there the whole time!

Isn’t it the same with our relationship with God?  So often we find ourselves going through the motions but not earnestly seeking Him in our daily lives.  Perhaps we think He is too busy for us or that He moved where we can’t find Him.  It could even be that we really don’t believe what we say we believe.  If we’re just going through the motions then we are not truly looking to see Him.  If we ultimately don’t believe what we say, then we cannot see until we believe.

With regards to the believing, I heard a great quote this week that made me look at this whole topic from a completely different perspective.  I went to a renewal day where I work, and they showed us a short video called “Celebrate What’s Right with the World”.  It was about this man named DeWitt Jones who was a photographer for National Geographic.  I don’t know much else about him, but he said something in this video that made a lot of sense.  “You have to believe to see.” 

For so long, I thought, “Why can’t people see God in nature?”  He gave the answer!  Christ also did in Matthew 7:7-8.  He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone that asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”  If we believe (ask God for forgiveness of our sins and to be Lord of our life) we will receive.  We can then seek and find as well as knock and have opened spiritual blessings to us.  It all starts with believing!

So I believe, now what?  How do I seek to find?  We seek to find by earnestly and continually looking for Him everywhere.  You can call it seeking with full intent on finding what you’re looking for.  Believe me, I know there are times in your life that it is hard.  I went through a time almost two years ago that was very dark.  I never stopped believing, but I really had to seek to find Him at all because the valley I was travelling through was so dark.  However, with time and some help, I made it through the valley into the marvelous light!  That is why this seeking topic hit a cord with my heartstrings because when you are so intent on seeking in the dark and that level of intensity continues when you finally emerge from the dark – oh my goodness!  You then can see God everywhere!  It is amazing and can at times be overwhelming!  When watching the miracle of everyday nature can bring tears to your eyes, you know you’ve found Him!  Grab Him and don’t let go! 

Jeremiah 29:13 tells us, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

What happens when we seek Him with all our heart?  Jeremiah says we find Him.  Finding Him is a glorious experience.  When you truly find Him, you feel Him and see Him in everything and everywhere!  Spiritual blinders are removed to see Him:

In the design of a Hosta leaf

In the miracle of a bumble bee in flight

In the nest building process of the birds

In the amusement of a baby as they discover their own hands

In the design of a cat’s tongue to lap water and groom them

In the ability of a human liver to auto-repair

In the dilation of a pupil when there is not enough light

In the sun rise

We really cannot see until we seek.  Once we seek and find, my, what a glorious world we find He has created for us!

Glory in His Holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!  Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!

1 Chronicles 16:10-11

Observations

I enjoy learning through observation.  Hope these are helpful to you today!

·       You can be nice & compassionate and strong at the same time.  This makes for a very good working relationship between you and your associates because they know you will be supportive of them and kind, but that you also expect the work to get done.

·       Plan, Plan, Plan.  A few minutes of planning can save hours of re-working.  Planning at the beginning and end of each day can also mean the difference between a good day and a bad day.  This quote from Albert Einstein sums it up:

·       Plan Specifically.  Task sheets & project lists with specific priorities and time lines make the difference between making gains and not.

·       What is the root cause?  Don’t be satisfied with putting a band aid on the problem.  Look for the root cause so that you can find a solution.  This is not only important in solving work related problems, but can be used with any situation.

·       Don’t be afraid to learn new things and expand your horizons.  As you continue to be open to learn new things, doors will open that you never imagined.  Fifteen years ago when I took a job of Office Assistant, I would have never imagined that I would learn to do the things I have done and do

.

·       Implement office hours and enforce them.  I can so tell a difference when I enforce my office hours and when I do not.  It works, though.  It gives you time to focus and really get stuff done.

·       Don’t wait too long to fire someone.  The situation just drags down morale and productivity in the department and wipes you out as well.

·       When you don’t feel like praying for someone at all, pray for them the most.  God works in wonderful and mighty ways!

·       Find the peace in the middle of your storm.  Don’t just wait out the storm, but learn to dance in the rain.  This can be really hard to do, but if we listen closely enough, we can hear a sweet song playing.

Emma Hope

Emma Hope was born on March 3, 2005 by emergency caesarian section.  If her doctor check up had been one day later, she would have died.  God was right on time to make sure that did not happen.

At birth, she was diagnosed with fetal hydrops, which would heal on its own.  She was also diagnosed with both atrial and ventricular septal defects that were surgically repaired at 12 weeks and Down Syndrome.

To be quite honest, my first thoughts when finding this out were, “Down Syndrome!  Dear Lord, why are you doing this to my sister and her husband!  They are both young.  This is not supposed to happen!”

The awesome thing about God is that He can speak Truth straight into your heart:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways my ways”, says the Lord.  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9

He also said, “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield for all who trust in Him.”  2 Samuel 22:31

These thoughts rung in my head as I entered my prayer closet to repent for my doubting and earnestly pray for Emma, my sister, and her husband.  Then…grace and peace.  The most overflowing peace enveloped me.  The feeling of merciful love was so overwhelming that all I could do was sob.  God is in control and Emma is in God’s hands.  God’s will is perfect, and He has a perfect plan for Emma…

 Today Emma celebrates her 10^th birthday!  I can honestly say she is the best event to have happened to our family (Those that know Emma know that meeting her is an event!  She has a gift of making you feel welcome!).  She has drawn my sister and me closer for which I praise God.  She has also taught us that God alone is in control of our lives and the importance of trusting completely in Him.  Emma exudes joy and Christ-like love!  She is an example for all of us, and I praise God for allowing us to have her in our lives.  I don’t know what all God has in store for Emma, but I know surely it is something great to bring Him glory.  These first 10 years have been such a blessing that it is exciting to see what He has in store going forward!  Love you and bless you, Girlie!

            For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace

            and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me

            and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  And you will seek Me and

            find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

            Jeremiah 29:11-13

Why I Have Dedicated Devotional Time

A few years ago I read a book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss called

A Place of Quiet Rest: Finding Intimacy with God Through a Daily Devotional Life.  It completely changed the way I viewed my time alone with God, and showed me why I don’t have time to not take time to spend with God daily.  Here is a short summary of what I took away from that book, and I encourage you to read it for yourself as well!

First off, I had a misconception that the quality of my daily alone time was a function of the quantity of that time.  That is simply not true and quite honestly unattainable.  The quality of time spent with God is directly correlated to the condition of my heart during that time.  Am I open to sincerely receive instruction from the Lord or are you performing out of duty?  If my heart is sincerely open, it can receive more in a few minutes than if when I perform out of duty can receive in hours, so I now always search my heart prior to entering into time with Him.

This time is to have intimate union and communion with God.  Communion can also be seen as face to face friendship with God.  If I earnestly seek Him, I desire that friendship with Him. Searching my heart to see if I am earnestly seeking Him is the litmus test I can perform to see if I am in communion with someone or not.  If there is trouble in any relationship, face to face communication is not desired.  It is the same with my relationship with God, so I then pray for reconciliation in order to pursue communion with Him.  Psalm 139:23-24 tells us:

            Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties;

            And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

My dedicated time with God each day allows for a time of purification and restoration.  The Word cleans up my heart and life and can restore me as well.  We all come across hard times, and digging into God’s Word can restore our strength and faith.  We should want to be like Peter ultimately was when Jesus washed his feet, he wanted him to wash his hands and face too (John 13:9).  Just give me a complete wash because Psalm 19:12 tells us that I have secret faults – things about my own life I don’t even see!  It makes me think of a car wash here in town.  I don’t want the express, Lord, give me the ultimate.  I need your mercies daily, and God’s Word tells us we have it!  Lamentations 3:22-23 says:

            Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions

            they fail not.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Wow!  That should make our hearts leap for joy!  Mine sure did!

Dedicated devotional time also allows God to instruct me and direct my life.  God loves one-on-one time with us!  It allows me to learn to listen to God and discover the different ways He speaks to me.  Let’s take a look at Psalm 25:4-5

            Show me Your ways O Lord; teach me your paths.  Lead me in Your

            truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You

            I wait all the day.

Giving time daily shows submission to God.  It allows me to regularly relinquish control because it is my tendency sometimes to want to take it back or do it myself.  Bringing myself to God daily reminds me that He is the One that is in control.  My need for God to take the wheel of my life reminds me of Psalm 63:1

            O God, you are my God; early will I seek you; my soul thirsts for you;

            my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

This life has no water to quench my thirst, but He is the water that will cause me to never thirst! (John 4:13-15)

Time with God allows for a dedicated time for intercessory prayer.  Have I really prayed about it?  Who do I need to pray for today?  Who is lost and needs found?  Who is hurting and needs His strength right now?  This time allows me not only to focus on God and me, but God and others.

And finally, as I linger in His presence, I am transformed into His likeness.  This is also a litmus test for the condition of my heart toward God.  In my life, am I seeing a metamorphosis or a masquerade?  I should be seeing a metamorphosis.  If not, I start back at step one and search my heart again.  This process is continual.  We all hit stale spots or challenges in our lives that really test our faith to the point where we are masquerading.  The greatness of God, though, is that He is always willing to start the transformation process again.  We need only ask.

As I am transformed into his likeness, others should see this in my life.  I should be like Moses when he came down from Mount Sinai after spending time there with the Lord.  He did not notice it, but others noticed that his face shone with the presence of the Lord!  (Exodus 34:29) 

So, as we strive daily to spend time with Him, take also this little poem with you.  It was written by William D. Longstaff in the 1800’s but is still pertinent today.

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;

Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word…

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;

Much time spend in secret with Jesus alone;

By looking to Jesus, like Him thou wilt be;

Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

-William D. Longstaff (1822 – 1894)

Happy New Year!

Well, I fully intended on posting weekly following the new year.  Now here it is the 8th, and I have yet to publish.  My struggle has been on what to say.  As an introvert, I always have plenty in my head to write about, but have not had a chance to organize those thoughts into topics as of yet.  So today, I'm only going to post on how very good and faithful God is.

This will not be a long post because quite honestly if I think too long on the goodness, awesomeness, faithfulness of God, my brain short circuits!  My simple mind cannot comprehend the magnitude of it!

The past year and a half, we have had our fair share of struggles in life; however, God really blessed us this Christmastime.  Due to giving us the wisdom to lower expectations of ourselves, our little church deciding not to have an actual Christmas program this year, my new job that allows me to work from home some days, and changing my husband's PTO to "use it or lose it", we had, I would say, the most relaxing, rejuvenating holiday season we have ever had in our 17 years of marriage.  It really was wonderful, and I praise God for it!  It was truly amazing!

Then on to the new year!  Already we have seen answered prayer in a couple different areas.  Most recently in someone that I have been praying diligently for them to find Christ.  We're still a ways a way, but to see little baby steps forward is so encouraging!  I'm looking forward to what God has in store for 2015.  I hope you are too!

Do you have prayer requests for your life in 2015?  I'd love to hear about them and pray for them with you.  Please feel free to leave them in the comments below.  Prayer works, my friends, so I'll leave you with a couple verses to hide in your heart for 2015:

But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of your mercy, Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
Psalm 69:13

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4:6 

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!