In this life I have messed up, fallen down, and allowed sin to get a grip on my life. I say things I shouldn’t to others, then kick my self around with regret and guilt. I will have a whole conversation in my head about how I should apologize, what I should or shouldn’t say, and how they will respond.
A few things I never expect is for that person to hug me or throw me a party. Yet, as we look at the prodigal son this is exactly what his father did when he returned home. (Luke 15:17-24)
The world beyond the prodigal’s home beckoned for him to come take a look around. Much like today, the world paints a beautiful picture of ‘fun’. It doesn’t show us the reality behind the scenes – the pigpens or the plan the enemy has to wrap us up so tightly in the bondage of sin that freedom feels impossible.
As we look further into the life of the prodigal son, we find him broke and in a pigpen. While feeding the pigs he thinks about how he would gladly eat the same things they were eating. During this time he came to his senses and thought about how even his fathers servants ate better than this. He starts home with many thoughts about what he would say to his father, never imagining his father would still be waiting and watching for him to return. His father saw him while he was still a long ways off, and runs to his son – hugging him even though he was dirty with the smell of pigpen still on him. The son had taken the money his father had given him, spent it on all sorts of wasteful ways, living it up with friends he thought he had, until he was broke.
Not only did his father hug him, he had the very best robe brought out to put on him. Then he had the servants kill a calf and not just any calf, but the best calf in honor of the return of his son.
I am so thankful that we also have a Father that never gives up on us – no matter how many times we fall. He is always there to pick us up, hug us, and dust us off. Just like the prodigal son’s father, He allows us to make our own choices – even the bad ones – and yet He is always waiting with arms open wide because He loves us so much more than we can imagine.
The prodigal son left to pursue the best the world had to offer only to find the world’s best was lacking. Our best life will always be found in the arms of our loving Father.
I come from a family that loves sports almost as much as they love me.
Maybe more.
Just joking.
In my younger years we were heavy into softball. I can vividly remember my dad, and my big sister, telling me to keep my eye on the ball.
Because let’s be honest – I am easily distracted. I have a creative spirit. I’m a dreamer. Focusing on one thing is hard for me.
Since I’m focusing on how to focus this year, I’m working my way through Philippians 4:8. I had a huge a-ha moment while digging deep into “whatever is just”. Just comes from the Greek word dikaios which means deemed righteous by God. When we relate our lives back to this scripture the question is: Are we focusing on what’s deemed righteous by God, or are we focused on what’s deemed righteous by the world?
My dad and my big sister knew that for me to be successful I couldn’t let my eye wander. They knew that I could easily be distracted by shiny things, butterflies, or friends eating french fries in the bleachers. I had to have unwavering focus.
God knows that, too.
Today, I challenge you [and me] to be unwavering in your faith and your focus. If Godly success can be attributed by focusing on what’s deemed righteous by God, then that’s what I want to do. That’s what I need to do. And if that’s what I need to do, don’t you know the devil’s gonna be slanging all kinds of glitter my way.
Don’t take your eye off of God, y’all. And rest assured that He never takes His eye off of you.
Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 1 Peter 1:13
As Christians we spend a considerable amount of time wondering about the will of God for our lives, or at least I have in the past. In the last year or so God has been showing it to me in black and white.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells me His will is for me to rejoice, pray, and give thanks in all things. 1 Peter 2:15 tells me His will is for me to do what is right, to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Seriously, if I just work on those I’m going to be pretty busy.
In order to follow His will in these things I’m going to have to battle my flesh and keep it crucified. My flesh wants to stress out, discuss the problem with whoever will listen, and gripe when things don’t go as planned. To win the battle I have to stay in the Word and fill my mind with His truth. I have to obey Colossians 3:2 and set my mind on things above.
Things just look different from there y’all. God knows all the things. Things I can’t even fathom. He knows about pandemics ✔️, elections ✔️, and all the general craziness that swirls around in our personal lives✔️✔️. He has it all in the palms of His hands and that allows me to rejoice, pray, and give thanks. It allows me to continue to do what is right and not say or do things that would prove the foolish men right.
When we are obedient, when we focus on Jesus and strive to stay in His will in the small things then the big things will follow. (I think our host Daisy is a great example of that. ❤️.) We don’t do for the blessing, we do out of gratitude and love, but there are so many promises that say blessings follow obedience ( Psalm 91, Psalm 128, 1 John 2:17, James 1:25 ………) and God is faithful to His promises.
So today go forth, rejoice, pray, give thanks, do right, repeat.
As a Christian since the age of 7, I have been blessed to experience many Christmases knowing the story of Jesus and how he came to this earth to be my Savior. I have done the “Hanging of the Green” and participated in candlelight services and Christmas pageants. And I have believed. But, it wasn’t until the Christmas of my 30th year on this earth that I truly and irrevocably understood the true “reason for the season.”
It was a Christmas like none I’d ever before experienced. As a new mom, I had a cranky 9-month old baby, crying like he did nearly every minute of every day. What I now know was severe inner ear issues were–at the time–evidence of my failing as a mom. As he dug into all of my christmas decorations with his food-sticky hands and shoved glitter-covered decorations into his mouth, I fought to put the tree up and adorn it with ornaments. I was frazzled, hair in a knot on top of my head, picking up and putting down a crying child, fighting the urge to cry. I wanted this Christmas to be the best of all for my son, but I couldn’t get it all done. What kind of mother couldn’t even get her Christmas tree up for her baby? I had seen all the fabulous Facebook pictures of fabulous moms and their fabulous Christmas decorations in their fabulous matching Christmas outfits. Surely, I wasn’t cut out for motherhood. It was hard. Too hard. The postpartum depression consumed me to the point I almost couldn’t breath. I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t strong enough.
And that’s when it happened.
Hanging another glass ornament (Don’t worry…I’ve learned my lesson and long since abandoned the glass ornaments!), the background Christmas music filtered through my anxiety-ridden thoughts. “Mary, Did You Know?,” a song I was hearing for what must have been the millionth time, and yet it felt like the first time. I remember staring into the lighted tree as the words began to pour over me and tears began to fall.
And I began to understand.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you’ve delivered, will soon deliver you.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will calm the storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God.
I turned my gaze to my messy baby, crawled over to him, and cried as I scooped him into my lap. And in that moment, my heart was Mary’s heart. For the first time, I truly understood the love and faith in her heart. And the fear she must have felt. She had been given the greatest gift and greatest responsibility of any person in this world–she would give birth to and raise the Messiah, the Savior. She would deliver a child who would deliver nations through his sacrifice——an earthly mother carrying the Son of God. God had entrusted her with his greatest gift. In Luke 2:19, after the shepherds went far and wide to spread the word of God’s promise made truth in the birth of Christ, we are given a small glimpse of Mary as a new mother. God’s Word tells us, “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” In another version of the same verse, it says, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Mary pondered what it would mean to be a mother to Christ. She treasured it. And I imagine she worried like any mother would. She knew she would struggle. And that she would fail. Often. And yet, even with knowing how many hard days were coming and what sacrifices she would have to make, even in times when she wondered about her adequacy as a parent and as a human, she had faith that her Father’s promises would carry her through. Because she had the unconditional love of the Father. A Father who “so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
As I sat clinging to my 9-month old, sticky-fingered baby in front of the Christmas tree that day, I saw the truth of Christmas. It wasn’t in the beautifully-decorated tree or the cute outfits or even in the candlelight services at church; it was in the heart of a mother. Like Mary, even with knowing how hard motherhood would be, how many sacrifices that would need to be made, how many tough days there were on the horizon, I had never known a love like I felt for my baby boy. The same love Mary had felt for her baby boy. But even more than the love of the mother, was the love of our Father who sent his Son to save us all.
I’ve seen a quote floating around the internet that states, “I wish I could raise my children in the world in which I grew up.” When this sentiment is posted, it always seems to get a lot of likes and comments. I always scratch my head as I do not quite agree with this statement. I want to say, “You can!”
The power is ours. The world can rage on outside of our homes, but we hold the power to raise our children how we see fit. No matter which political party is in the White House or what the media portrays as normal, we have the control. We create the world in which our children are raised.
It’s our choice to teach our children to serve others, to love Jesus, to obey God’s word, to worship, and to give selflessly. It’s our choice to love their other parent and show them a healthy relationship. It’s our choice to show them to respect their elders as we honor our parents. And in so doing, they will take those things into adulthood and pass that on to their children. Eph 6:1-4
We tend to look at the past with rose-colored glasses, as if in the 1950s -1990s the world was perfect and only in the past generation has it become godless. The reason we believe that is because our parents usually did a pretty good job of creating a world in which we felt safe and taught us those things we hold dear. The world was not perfect then, it was filled with sin. We just see it more now because of the constant media coverage and access to it at our fingertips. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 1:9
Not everyone has had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home. If you fall into that category, you now have the opportunity to create it for your children. How? We have the perfect recipe laid out in God’s word and we have a generation of women to look to for advice. “Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children,” – Titus 2:4.
Rays of Sunshine inc 