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!

What We Should Have Learned From Joseph & Pharaoh

Many people today want to take the Bible and throw it out the window. They don’t want to hear anything about it. The problem with this is that there is a lot of non-religious everyday wisdom that is to be learned from reading it that is not being learned because of people wanting to avoid it entirely.

One of these stories that we can glean from is the story of Joseph and Pharaoh. The abridged version is as follows:

Pharaoh had a dream that troubled him deeply about seven

fat cows and seven skinny cows. He tried to find someone to

interpret his dream with no success. Finally he had Joseph to

interpret his dream. Joseph told him that it meant the land

was about to go through seven years of plenty followed by

seven years of famine. Joseph then told Pharaoh that he should

store up food and water during the seven years of plenty so

that there would be enough food and water for everyone during

the seven years of famine. Pharaoh was so impressed by this idea

that he put Joseph in charge of this “storing up” process during the

seven years of plenty. During the seven years of famine, they

ended up having plenty for all of Pharaoh’s people and the

surrounding people as well.

This small story has a lesson that many have missed and because of this are paying the price today. The story teaches the lesson of the importance of the storehouse for when times are bad.

DON’T BECOME TOO FAT

During the good times, both individuals and corporations in America have become too fat. We as individuals have bought, bought, bought to have the best and latest and greatest of everything. We have also spoiled ourselves on rich foods at home as well as eating out in excess because we could. We had the money, why not spend it? Let’s enjoy it because it will always be here. Right? Wrong.

American corporations became fat with ballooned wages, benefits, and too many full-time employees. We have the money, so let’s have two or three people to do one person’s job. Let’s dull out most of our profit in bonuses and pay everyone way more than the job is worth. Let’s not be concerned with the cost our vendors are charging us or how much the annual sales convention is going to cost. Let’s live it up because it will always be here. Right? Wrong.

BEWARE OF THE CREDITOR

Again, both individuals and businesses alike have become overcome with debt. Individuals have racked up credit card bills, car loans, and high mortgages with the thought that interest rates would never increase and jobs would always be around.

Even companies have jumped in the creditor band wagon. Each year profits are spent instead of reinvesting in the company. Because of this, large expenditures often are financed to expand the company or even replace aging equipment. Take advantage of the banks money because high profits will always be here.

PLAN FOR SKINNY TIMES

What Joseph & Pharaoh did that we have not done is plan for the skinny times. We have been blessed with many years of “fat times”, but we should know that “skinny times” do come sooner or later. What shape would we be in now if both individuals and the business community had only planned for skinny times?

We needed to have kept ourselves lean. This can be achieved by asking ourselves “Do I NEED this?” before every purchase. So what if your neighbor has it and you want one too? Is your neighbor going to pay your bills if you would lose your job? Does your child who is either going to grow out of their clothes in three months or rip them on the playground need $80 jeans? Businesses can continually monitor their full-time employees’ work loads to ensure that they do not have employees that are under utilized. They can also continually monitor expenses and keep a conservative lid on wages and benefits.

We needed to avoid the creditor. Most people have to finance their homes, but if you can only afford an $80,000 home, only buy an $80,000 home. Throw the credit cards away. If you can’t pay cash, you don’t need it. This forces people to save and makes you more critically preview your purchases. Businesses should be reinvesting their profits into the business and saving for the lean times. This prevents the need for lines of credit. Lines of credit is not “taking advantage of the bank’s money”, but it is like playing Russian Roulette. One day you will lose.

REAP THE BENEFITS

Planning for the skinny times will allow you to reap the benefits during the skinny times. If you have saved up enough money to pay 2 years of your expenses, you would not need to worry if you lost your job tomorrow. Your mortgage would still get paid, your children would still be fed. What peace of mind would that bring to you?

If businesses curtailed spending and reinvested their profits, they would have enough to cover their expenses during lean times. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to increase marketing spending during lean times to gain market share during a time when your competitors are struggling because they did not plan? What peace would everyone in the organization have to know there was enough to pay expenses and payroll to get the company through the tough time?

Don’t forget the story of Joseph & Pharaoh. It is a very important lesson that many have learned too late.