I Don’t Need Your Help, I Want It.

 

Recently, I had to “encourage” one of my kids to help me with a work project. I tried to explain it this way:

“ I don’t NEED your help. I’m perfectly capable of doing all of this myself. I WANT your help.”

There is a camaraderie, or fellowship, created through working with others that just isn’t built any other way. People in the military experience this, athletes on a team understand it, and members of a family should know it better than anyone. When you work together, it bonds you together in incredible ways. 

And maybe this is why it makes me angry when they shun work.  It’s like they are turning their back on a closer relationship with me, not just the project at hand.

It occurred to me that God invites us into His work too. He certainly doesn’t NEED our help, but he WANTS it.

 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 

And for this very same reason.

“Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:15

I know that work is good for my kids. Not just good for their character, or to enhance their general knowledge, although those are true.  It’s good for our relationship. It creates belonging, a sense of purpose, and immense satisfaction when a job is well done. 

So, maybe the next time our Heavenly Father asks me to do something, I will try to throw myself into it with a glad heart, expecting that it will enhance my relationship with Him - and that is surely reward enough. 

My parents and my kids (again)

                        

After a fast, fun and furious weekend with my folks in town, I'm linking back to a  Previous post that sums up some of what I'm feeling today.

http://mrsdings.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-parents-and-my-kids.html

Lost and Found

                     

This is the ring my husband bought me for our sixth wedding anniversary. It has been lost for about two years now. I've looked through every suitcase and purse and pocket I could think of, searching for it. 

When we moved last November, I thought for sure we would find it. When we didn't, I gave up all hope. I figured it had been given away with one of the old purses I donated to Goodwill, and just prayed it would be a blessing to whoever ended up with it. 

So imagine my surprise this weekend when I felt inside the left front pocket of a work shirt I was wearing to camp in!  I was looking for a ponytail holder and instead, felt a circular hard thing about the size of a ring. 

"It can't be!" I thought as I scrambled to unbutton the pocket. 

Of course, it was!

Yay!

I ran over to my husband and showed him the ring and we both celebrated its return. 

It's amazing how much joy can come from finding something you thought was lost forever. 

Of course, it was never really lost. It had been in my possession the whole time.  I'd worn the shirt several times between putting the ring in that pocket and discovering it again. I just couldn't use it because I didn't realize I had it. 

I lost another thing when we moved last November. I didn't realize it for several weeks after we moved, because of all the hubbub and busyness that surrounds moving. But a few weeks later I went to draw upon it, and I simply couldn't find it. 

It was my joy. 

I could give you all kinds of reasons why. But the simple truth is, I was looking for it in the wrong place.

I had found happiness in time with friends, in my house that had become a home filled with 15 years of memories, in raising my kids surrounded by other families who looked just like mine and shared similar values. I even found it in a state where I knew most every nook and cranny and had people I called friends in most of them. 

All of a sudden that was all gone, and with it, I thought, went my joy. 

Unlike the ring, I didn't give up hope of finding it. No, the one thing I've learned in my years as a Christian, is to run, don't walk, to God and His Word when you are in need. So that's what I did. 

I began reading each chapter in the Bible where the word joy occurred to try and find mine again. I cried and read and took notes. I'm happy to say I'm not done yet. (There are THAT many occurrences of the word joy!)

Over time, it started creeping back in. The more time I spent with God, learning to trust Him all over again, soaking in His love for me, and His control over all things, the more joy seemed possible to me.

The day I found my ring, I realized that not only was the ring back, but so was my joy. It wasn't the same sudden discovery, but a slow steady progression. 

It too, had been with me all the time. 

"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." Psalm 126:5

"But the fruit of the Spirt is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22

Working with God

There was a fun "artsy-fartsy" event here in Loveland recently. I took the kids and they were each able to paint panda pictures. There was a lady up front who gave us, and the other 20 or so children, step by step instructions on how to do it. 

Both of my children followed the step by step instructions. One allowed me to help and one insisted on doing it independently. 

It reminded me of those times when I try to accomplish the things in the Bible all by myself. Yes, I have the step by step instructions, (Praise The Lord!) but even still, I am unable to accomplish what it asks me to do if I insist upon doing things independently, without God. 

Now, these two pictures are both hanging up in our house and both are loved and it is almost with pride that I tell you the one child insisted on doing the work without any help. The paintings are fun, but inconsequential. 

When the painting is your marriage, or the raising of your children, or your relationship with your neighbor, or ministering to widows and orphans, the consequences of not doing it well become greater. 

But it's never too late to ask for God's help. Jesus did an amazing thing to make Himself available to us. To walk with us, to work through us to do the good works which God created in advance for us to do. 

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Ephesians 2:10

"For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." Phillipians 2:13

Beautify beyond your bounds

This picture does not do justice to the pleasant little surprise that this rock lined patch of flowers was the day that I saw it. 

The kids and I were walking our dog along the "green belt". Which in our neighborhood is really an alley, that happens to grow grass. It's sort of a shared yard, or an excuse not to give people their own large yards, but evidently was a cool trend in the 80's when this neighborhood went in. 

They get very little use. Unlike alleys, you can't actually drive on them, so they don't provide access to the back of your property. Most people do have a little walking gate in their fence, that would allow them to access it, but most rarely do. 

So, basically, you walk in this great meadow, beautiful enough in the eyes of this NM girl, (although, I did think several times what a waste it was not to have cattle on it, or at least a tethered goat) and look at the backside of a bunch of houses. 

Imagine my surprise when I came across this little jewel. Someone has taken the trouble to plant a few flowers and put some rocks in a semicircle. For the pure pleasure of it. Hardly anyone sees it. It isn't even, technically, their own property. 

It could be a child. Or someone childlike. I love it. 

It made me ask myself the question. "Am I beautifying anywhere outside my boundaries?"

I think we all get comfortable with our areas of responsibility. My house. My yard. My job. My family. My kids. And many of us do a good job beautifying those areas. 

As women, I believe that is something innate within us that God gave us, the desire to make things more beautiful. 

But do we ever go outside our borders and beautify someone else's house? Someone else's yard, job, family, kids?

Now, maybe you are, like I have been lately, adjusting to a big change in your life and just hanging on for dear life, barely able to keep up with the basic necessities, forget beautifying anything. 

This is not a guilt trip. 

Just consider giving yourself permission to beautify something today. Neglect your chores if you must. I bet this beautifying will nourish your soul. 

And might inspire someone else. 

"Blessed be The Lord God of our fathers which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of The Lord which is in Jerusalem. " Ezra 7:27

That time I asked God for Dolly Parton and He gave me Handel

This past Easter morning, I woke up humming a song I remembered Dolly Parton singing - He's Alive. 

Of course, living in this high tech world of ours, I pulled up a performance of hers on Youtube and cried my way through that glorious song. The kids came down for the day and I shared it with them. I could not get it out of my mind and decided to purchase it on iTunes. 

I listened to it on repeat that morning as I got ready for church and thought to myself in the shower, "Wouldn't it be great if they performed this song at second service today?" The worship music in second service is contemporary, so it was a possibility. But a longshot. 

My husband and I usually attend second service after a Bible Study we enjoy during first service. However, I realized just as quickly that since there was no Bible study that day, we'd be attending first service. 

They have beautiful, amazing music in first service. There's a great big choir that makes me feel as if I am truly surrounded by the praise of God. It's wonderful. But they don't, to my knowledge, do Dolly Parton. 

Still, I was looking forward to worshiping Christ our risen Savior on that beautiful Easter morning no matter what they sang. 

Later, standing in the sanctuary, surrounded by the praise of God, tears started streaming down my face as the choir performed, and we all sang along with, Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. 

If more beautiful music has been written, I don't know it. 

And all I had asked for was Dolly Parton. 

Isn't that just like God?

It is. 

In Acts Chapter 3, we get a story about a crippled beggar who just wants a handout. The Bible says he was crippled from birth. 

     

When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!"  So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 

      Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." Acts 3:3-6

Of course, he walked. 

He had been looking for a little change, maybe enough for a meal, or even enough to get him through til the next day. What He received was a MIRACLE. 

So is a church choir playing Handel on Easter a MIRACLE?  Hardly. 

But it sure did remind me that God loves us and wants to give us more than we could ever ask or imagine.  (See Ephesians 3:20)

That he loves me at all is a MIRACLE. 

That he further wants to give me more than I ask for is a MIRACLE. 

The good news is, He loves you too. And He wants to give you more than you ask for. Let Him. 

Serving joyfully

http://shop.paperfinger.com/products/joy-calligraphy-wall-decal

I've been doing a word study on joy. That is, I looked up every time the word joy occurs in the Bible, and then I am studying that passage to see what is happening and try to learn from it.

It has been so good. I am by nature a glass is half full kind of person, so any help I can get with joy I'll take!

One of the most powerful lessons I learned came from 1 Chronicles 15:16. "Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise sounds of joy."

Here, David is bringing the ark of the covenant to the city of David. They tried this once before and failed. 

David puts it this way in verse 13 of the same chapter "because you did not carry it at the first, The Lord our God made an outburst on us, for we did not seek him according to the ordinances."

They hadn't done it God's way, and so they were punished. 

Now, they were doing it God's way. And a part of that doing it God's way was joy. 

Notice, doing it the right way didn't produce the joy; joy was a key ingredient in doing it the right way. 

Paradigm shift. I shouldn't think of joy as a result, but an element. In other words joy is an ingredient in the recipe of godly living. 

I've had it backwards. I've been serving, serving waiting for the joy to come as a result instead of serving joyfully, all along. 

Here is another verse that emphasizes the importance of serving God joyfully. 

"Because thou servesdt not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which The Lord shall send against thee in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he have destroyed thee." Deuteronomy 28:47-48