Child's Play

By Sarah (Living Between the Lines)

This Christmas, I got—um, shall we say, drafted—to assist with a children’s Christmas program. This particular church only has about 15 children and they’re all below the age of six. A single, childless lady in her twenties volunteered to direct the program and found a play that was age-appropriate for these children. And she has spent the last several weeks herding cats attempting to direct this play. She got all of the parents to agree to help direct traffic to the stage, and on the stage. And she recruited another young childless friend of hers to help with the sets and costumes. And then, because nobody else would, she began learning lines so that she could also—in addition to directing—be the narrator of the play.

This woman was quite possibly the bravest—or most naïve—woman I have ever met.

Because I don’t regularly attend this church, I missed all of this pre-program fun. I missed the practices and the costume-making and the set-building. I just knew I needed to be there at 10:00 on that Sunday morning, to assist. By 10:03, I was ready to jump ship!

When I walked into the dressing room at 10:00, there were 15 children and at least as many adults. The oldest boy—wearing his costume—was standing on one side of the room bellowing, “WEE! WEE! WEE! WEE! WEE! WEE! WEE! WEE! WEE!” When I finally left the room twenty-five minutes later, he still hadn’t stopped. Both of his parents had been in the room and neither said anything to him.

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What Example?

By Pat

I often speak of my granddaughter, Kendra, who lives with us. She is six years old now, and is the source of many lessons. God uses her to reveal things to me about myself. Kendra follows me everywhere I go most of the time she's home, and in many little ways, she is like me, just by watching and imitating me. When she gets out of the shower, she slathers on body lotion, just like me. She uses brown mustard-just like me, and she likes to put potato chips on her sandwiches-just like me. There are many more examples...and as much as it delights me to see this, it also scares me.

Just as Kendra picks up these harmless little habits and rituals to imitate me, I have to wonder what characteristics I have that I DON'T want her to imitate. Do I exhibit patience when I am pressured? Not always. Am I calm when I have many things to get done? Not always. Do I listen without interruption when someone is talking in order to hear the whole story? Do I speak gently, show kindness and consideration for the feelings of others? Think before I speak? Not always. Do I show Kendra what Jesus looks like in every aspect of my day-to-day life? Sad to say, but no, not always.

I want Kendra to see and hear Jesus when she's with me. As she grows up, I want her to read her Bible daily, just like me. I want her to pray diligently, just like me. I want her to love, and give, and listen and care. I want her to think before she speaks, look before she leaps, and put other people first. I need to be the example that will make God proud, but I can't do it without His help. And so, I will continue to pray every day that God will help me to show her every day, in every way, what it means to follow Jesus, so that someday she will say, "God is the most important thing in my life"... just like me.

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." (Proverbs 22:6)

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.

Living For Today

By Pat

With all the crazy weather the world has been experiencing lately, much has been said about "the end" getting closer. Earthquakes which seem to be increasing in frequency, hurricanes, flooding, record-breaking seasons of tornados and droughts...hmm. People are talking. Could it be true? Could the end really be getting close? Wow! I hope so!

But wait...didn't Jesus clearly state, after telling us the signs to watch for, that we won't really know when it will happen? "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matthew 24:36). Yep. he sure did say that, and I believe it.

Therefore, instead of anxiously awaiting our departure from this world and arrival into the one to come, shouldn't we be making wise use of our time? I admit, with the current struggles my family and I have been undergoing for what seems to be a VERY long time now, nothing would make me happier than a swift and final exit. Goodbye, troubles! Goodbye, sadness! Goodbye, heartaches and pain and worries! I'm outta here! But also goodbye, unsaved friends and family. Goodbye, opportunities to discover more fully how God wants me to use my gifts and talents. Goodbye, chances to make the world a little better.

As tempting as it is to focus on the coming of Jesus, we can't allow ourselves to become so wrapped up in looking for signs that we fail to focus fully on the present, and therefore neglect the things we need to be doing here. We have to live more fully, serve more joyfully, seek more diligently, and witness more urgently. We must focus on today and live it to the best of our ability and allow God to use our current difficulites to mold and strengthen us. If we live with the "get me outta here" mentality, we fail to become the very best we can be for God.

And so, no matter how tough things get, there is still work to be done, more souls to be won, so I pray that God will adjust my focus, correct my mindset, and use me to be the best servant I can be!

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.

God Says... "Nothing is impossible for me. "

By Jason V (Ponderings of a Pilgrim Pastor)

"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

I have a friend who has now been cancer-free for five years, but five years ago, things did not look very good for her.  She was in intensive chemotherapy and was not given a good prognosis.  She was suffering such terrible side-effects from the chemo that she elected to stop the treatment.  The cancer went away and has not come back in five years.

I've also been praying for a little girl who has brain cancer.  She was showing remarkable signs of progress and was in remission until a few months ago, when the cancer came back.  Her parents are trusting Jesus for a situation that just seems impossible from a human perspective.

Life often seems impossible.  It's not just cancer.  I lead a men's recovery group on Wednesday afternoons.  The bondage of addiction and the side-effects of sin are devastating beyond description. 

Impossible.

Such a word seems so heavy, so all-encompassing, so utterly and devastatingly absolute.  For God, it is ultimately meaningless.  Impossible is simply impossible for God.  Of course, that doesn't mean He always does what we want Him to do.  His actions don't always make sense to us, but God never runs into a problem or situation and says, "Wow!  I didn't see that coming.  What am I going to do?  This just seems impossible!"

If anything were to be impossible for God, these things would certainly have to be near the top of the list:

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God Says... "I have not given you a spirit of fear."

By Dusty (Reflections on the Life of a Christian)

I have been afraid of a lot of things in my life. They range from the common to the unusual. Some fears cripple while others nag. Every one of them has kept me from doing or enjoying something in my life.

I believe most everyone has suffered from such fears. While some may deny it or hide it, everyone is afraid of something. Here is a list of common fears:

• Disappointment
• Failure
• Ridicule
• Rejection
• Injury/Death
• Unknown
• Abandonment

None of those have ever applied to you? Are you sure?

Well then, maybe I am the oddball (but I think not!) because I can think of a lot of instances where I suffered from one or more of those. For a guy, a lot of them might come into play when seeing a girl we like and wanting to ask them out. For a child, they may surface in their desire to please their parents or other authority figures. But fear is not limited to gender relations or age.

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