Tag: Encouragement

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Taste and See

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Taste and See

 

When our youngest son was in preschool, my husband would take him and drop him off at school on his way to work. On this particular morning, our little one was four years old and having a rough morning. His attitude was less than great. Kam, being the fun parent for sure, would often if not every Tuesday and Thursday morning stop on the way to the school to get him a donut.

 

On this morning our youngest knew his behavior did not warrant a sweet treat and was ready for the drive to land him directly at school. Kam made that extra turn and stopped in the parking lot of the donut shop. He looked our littlest in the eyes and said, “I am not getting you a donut because you are good, I am getting it for you because I am.” It was a huge moment for both of them. Our son realized that our love for him was not based on his behavior. Kam’s goodness for him was always available.

 

Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

This verse reminds me of this moment. Because it is about donuts? No. Well maybe. God’s goodness is not dependent on our good behavior. His goodness just is. Period.

 

It is a simple message and yet hard to metabolize, just like that sugar filled donut. But oh how good it is.

 

 

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Family Time Expectations

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I know Easter weekend has come and gone, but there is so much value in learning from our experiences. As you all know, Easter in this season of quarantine was very different in every way. As that weekend approached my mind was spinning with ideas (or expectations) of what I thought our Easter at home would look like.

 

Like many moms, I had thoughts of our family still wearing our ‘Sunday best.’ I gave that expectation up real quick. It wasn’t a battle I cared to fight. I didn’t even have the discussion. Honestly, I didn’t want to dress up either. I was holding someone else’s expectation on that one.

 

It is amazing to me how many other expectations I had for the day that were 100% living in my head without me even knowing it. I wanted to have brunch, watch the service, have communion as a family, watch The Passion, do an egg hunt and color eggs. We color eggs every year.

 

I have been married 20 years and have learned a thing or two. I knew all of those activities were only in MY head. I would have to communicate each piece in detail with my husband and hope I had buy-in from him. I shared with him my thoughts for Easter and he was on board. The only piece I did not communicate was coloring eggs. We have had that tradition for years. Surely it didn’t need to be said.

 

Our morning started late as we had a late brunch and watched the service. We had a little bit of technically difficulty but my husband, Kam is always our IT help and he got it going. We then had communion as a family and watched The Passion. After the movie, we set up the egg hunt (which with teenagers included a little bit of cash mixed in with some chocolatey goodness.) It had been a great day with hours of family time. Even with the day seeming so perfect, my head knew we had not colored eggs. My teens were now officially checked out. They had spent over half the day together and were ready to disperse.

 

I was a little sad. I quietly mentioned the eggs the rest of the day, but no one was interested. I had a few errands to run the next day, so I was out of the house for a number of hours. I came back to a dozen eggs that had been drawn on with sharpies. They hadn’t been colored but they really were cute. My husband drew each of us in the family on four of the eggs. He then proceeded to make each of our eggs talk. He even did little skits for the next few days with those silly eggs. It was soooo much fun. He would have his egg and my egg kissing and send the video on our family text while we were all at our make-shift desks focused on either school or work. It was hilarious!!

 

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The moral of the story is:

 

  1. Communicate your expectations. This means you will have to identify them first in your own mind. Come to your family with the attitude that these are your desires, not your demands.
  2. Let the creativity of your family allow you to be flexible with traditions and memories. They can often turn out to be more meaningful moment, simply because they contributed to the idea.

 

 

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What I Have Learned From The Corona Virus

 

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Living in a state of mandated quarantine has allowed me more time for jogging. Today I was jogging uphill (that is only important because, ouch!) on a narrow sidewalk. I could see a man jogging in my direction, and I was making a plan to move off the sidewalk, provided there were no cars coming. As I stepped off into the road, the man gave me a look that looked less than kind. He kept eye contact until I was completely past him.

 

I was not being mean or cruel. I was simply putting the mandatory 6 feet of distance between him and I. My heart in moving away was protection, not rejection.

 

Sometimes we feel that way with God. He allows or disallows things in our lives that feel like rejection when in reality, He sees the bigger picture and is truly offering protection.

 

…When we do not get that promotion, when we don’t get the job, when that close friend now seems distant, when we don’t get invited to that social gathering, when that seemingly perfect guy is not interested, when someone else gets credit.

 

God is not moved by our emotions. He knows the end from the beginning, and He is our protector.

 

He will protect us from unhealthy friendships that will corrupt our hearts, wealth or notoriety that our character cannot handle, settling on a position when a better one is right around the corner, authority and power that we do not have discipline to wield, and decisions in the present that will harm our future.

 

The enemy will hand you the facts.

“You did not get the promotion.”

“You did not get the position.”

“Those girls do not want to be your friend.”

“You were not invited to that event.”

“He is not that into you.”

“You should have gotten the credit.”

 

The enemy will NEVER present the TRUTH! The truth is God is GOOD!

 

There is protection in His “No”, and in His “Not yet”.

 

Just like I was trying to protect the man on the sidewalk because I knew more than him, God knows more than we ever could and is working all things for our good.

 

Psalm 32:11

So celebrate the goodness of God! He shows his kindness to everyone who is his. Go ahead—shout for joy, all you upright ones who want to please him!