Don't Be A Do Gooder

Reality Check:

Day 9

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 1 Corinthians 13: 3

The title today is actually a little misleading. We do want to do good, we want to be kind and considerate and look out for others. After all, all of those things are part of true love.

In and of themselves, those things are worthless. Being good is just, well just being good. It doesn’t get you to Heaven and it doesn’t necessarily show love. If you truly love someone then it matters to you if they go to hell, it should bother and grieve you greatly! It should also motivate you to do good out of love, not out of obligation.

Let me give you an example, one variation of doing good but not having love. Say someone is trying to get over into my car lane. I wave them over, annoyed, and mumble, “Come on idiot, hurry up!”

Later that day my eldest says to his little brother, “Come on let me get your drink for you, hurry up idiot.”

Do I need to explain?

Good without love profits nothing. It may seem like it helps in a moment and certainly God could use it.  But it definitely won’t profit you and probably not your family either.

Practice: It’s hard sometimes having the right attitude. Think about how often we remind our children to have a better attitude. Is it possible that we are rubbing off? Think about your motives when you are about to do something, and say an SOS prayer if your motives are not coming from a place of love.

Family Activity: Talk about some situations that needed a dose of love. Discuss how it affects people when you don’t have love…like a medicine for the wrong symptoms. Find an old spoon, cut out the words love and paste them onto the spoon. Tie a ribbon around the spoon and hang it somewhere as a reminder. Challenge each other to gently and respectfully remind one another when they need a dose of love.

Minions Are Loyal and So is Love

Reality Check:

Day 8

Love is loyal.

“So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (NASB) John 8:31-32

Minion:  noun /min∙yen/

1. a servant or follower

2. highly favored one

3. an official

Today I was blessed with two sleeping children, at the same time! That’s rare. Since Timmi was at work with his daddy, I thought I would get a jump start on the sample bags, for our homeschool group’s Valentine’s Day party. One of the sample bags (for their mailboxes) was a minion. It got me thinking; as God’s children we have some similarities to minions.

1.        We are God’s followers; he is our king, our master, our God!

Matthew 16:24
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (KJV)
John 8:12
“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ” (NIV)
1 Corinthians 11:1
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”
John 8:31-32
“So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (NASB)

Mathew 6:24

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (NASB)

2.      God favors us, he loves us, we are very good!

Romans 5:8

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Psalm 5:12

For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield.

Psalm 30:5

For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

1 Peter 5:6-7 

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,  casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Genesis 1: 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

    3.     We are sent to be God’s officials, His ambassadors, rulers of His creation!

Mathew 20:25-28

²⁵ But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. ²⁶ It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His ^[a]life a ransom for many.”

Matthew 5:16
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (NIV)
Philippians 3:20
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (NKJV)
2 Corinthians 5:19-20
“That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (NKJV)

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Practice: Minions are extremely loyal. How loyal are we to God? Read through these verses again. What does God expect of us? To give him time if we have it, to pray when we’re in trouble? To read His Word if we’re well rested? I don’t know about you but I often fail miserably in many of these areas, and I am ever grateful of God’s infinite grace and mercy. BUT that doesn’t make it okay to continue to allow it. Challenge yourself with mee to pray that God would reveal the areas of your life that you have loyalty issues. Then earnestly wait on the Lord, and continue to seek Him until it is revealed…and then DO something about it. Search His Word, pray and meditate for help and how you can change! And if you have time after all that, let me know how you’re doing on that journey! I love to hear from you!

Family Activity: Make a minion bag, talk about what it is. Fill your bag with scriptures and pictures that remind you of Christ and following Him. Maybe write the scriptures from this post and read one each day. If you’ve seen Despicable Me, talk about the similarities we have with them (and the stark differences).

Bundle Up, We're Headed Inside...

Reality Check:

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. 2 Samuel 22:31

⁴ And we have such trust through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 2 Corinthians 3:4-5

True love always trusts.

Today’s post is a little longer but bear with me…

It’s ironic that I am writing about this today. (Of course by ironic, I mean Holy Spirit inspired- he knew what we would have to endure today!) This morning my heater was only blowing out warmish air. My first thought, “Oh great!”

 I was quietly reminded of a payment I just made. “You can trust me.”

The last trial payment for a modification, which is supposed to save our house. Thank God I have a home! Even with no heat, it’s still warmer than outside.  So I called my hubby, told him the predicament and bundled everybody up.

Then the heater stopped working completely. “Dang it!” I took a deep breath and sighed. I posted a request on facebook for space heaters; we weren’t in a position to purchase one.

I was desperately trying not to get discouraged-after all, it wasn’t freezing and we were all ok. The thought of the cost and time to fix the heater was stressful. And the only way I could keep myself from worrying was to not think about it. A small whisper, “You can trust me.”

A few hours went by and the temp dropped quite a bit. Another sigh; I turned on the oven and opened its door. I also made a comfy spot in the kitchen to hang out to make sure no one got hurt from the open oven. (Side note- every time Zeke walked by it, he’d say “hot”, and push it closed.) Thankfully we have a pretty comfy and spacious kitchen.  However, I agonized over the purchase of space heaters and bill for fixing the real heater. Does God do healing miracles on heaters? I seriously was wondering that.

Like it often happens, my sister came to my rescue, and her father-in-law brought us a space heater. It was one of those nice rotating ones-perfect! “You can trust me.”

Then a friend offered one, so I called my father-in-law to see if he could pick it up. He decided to come by instead.

I had already checked the breakers, reset the system, changed the batteries in the thermostat and turned everything off and then back on- I figured it couldn’t hurt that’s what I do with my computer. None of it worked.

He came by, checked the breakers, reset the system, changed the batteries in the thermostat and turned everything off and then back on. But this time it worked. Does God do healing miracles on heaters? Hmmm….I think he does!

The point is, today I had to remind myself constantly that it was okay, despite the job loss, despite the heater going out- I can trust God.

For the last few years we have been battling saving our home. For almost 1 ½ years, I lived in agony. I wanted to trust God, but the fear and worry consumed me. I finally let it go, and I mean I actually let it go. (Unlike the year leading up to this, I would state that God could have it- but I didn’t actually release it.).

What was different? I trusted God. I accepted the fact that we might lose our home, and that was ok. I trusted that what God had in store for provisions, would be good. I realized that whether I lived in a small cramped apartment, a rental, a trailer, my Grams, or in the wonderful home we are currently blessed with- that God would provide and that I could TRUST him. It didn’t matter if it was my fault or not that we were in this position, because God cleanses us through the blood (forgiveness) and we have no reason not to trust him. (Although I don’t think it was our fault, or at least not something we did “wrong”.)

You’re probably thinking that I must have been able to save my home and that’s why everything is ok. But I don’t actually know yet. We just made our last trial payment and technically that should mean we are good…but we did this once before. We made all of our trial payments, on time and exactly how we were supposed to do it and then they said, oops sorry, we can’t help you. So we will see.

We don’t know what God has in store for my husband’s job/ future career, but we know we can trust him.

We don’t know if we will keep this house or have to move on, but we know we can trust him.

We don’t know if ___________________, but we know that true love always trusts and we can ALWAYS trust God!

Practice: Today is the same as yesterday’s family activity, because knowing our God allows us to know that we can trust him. You wouldn’t trust a stranger…so don’t let God be a stranger!

Family Practice: Have your child stand in front of you (arms crossed, with their back to you). Ask them if they think you would let them fall. Hopefully the answer is no. Let them experience trusting you by catching them when they fall back. Explain that this is like God, his plans are perfect for us and if we trust him, he will not fail us! Psalm 9:10

What do you struggle trusting God on? If you share, I will be sure to join you in prayer! (And maybe my visitors will too! -hint, hint ;) )

Professional Poop Cleaner

Day 6

Reality Check:

…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7

Ponder this story: As she scrubbed fecal matter off the wall she thought, "How did I get myself into this mess?" This job was not what you'd call a glamorous job. In fact, it didn't even pay the bills- but it provided. If you would have asked Elizabeth what she would be doing in twenty years, cleaning up poop with a sauce stained shirt, hand feeding Sara, would not have been her answer. Today she had scrubbed the floor- twice, wiped several rear ends, and done four loads of laundry and that was just the beginning of the list. Why did she do these things, was scrubbing poop her dream job? I seriously doubt it, but she loved her _______. Fill in the blank. You could put children there, you could put a parent or grandparent or other relative, maybe a friend.

You probably couldn’t pay me to clean up fecal matter everyday (Although God has given some the ability to handle this kind of job.) But I wipe butts for free! Why? Because love endures all things. There are a lot of things we will sacrifice, a lot of things we will do, for someone we love. But sometimes I don't endure ALL things...

 Just the other day, when I started writing this blog series, I was having a difficult day. I had no patience for dealing with my kiddos, I lacked self-control, and I was losing it. When I say losing it, I mean losing it. I felt like a volcano must, right before it's about to explode and burn down a village. I say that lightly but that's really what happens when we forget about love. We can literally burn things down. We burn out hope, joy, fun, playfulness, learning, the sparkle in the eye...and that my friend is a horrible place to be. But I was there. As I snapped at one of my boys, I saw the sparkle leave...guess what replaced it? Fear.

 In a moment I burned out the sparkle, and in a moment I was crushed.

 That's not what I want to instill in my children or anyone else. I doubt that you do either.

 Why was it that I could not endure all things? What was different today? Not enough sleep?  Low blood sugar? Stress? Maybe.

 A few minutes later, my sister editor called. She was telling me about a typo on day 2 of this series. I read it, "did you start with God today..." Oops. I hadn't. I stopped what I was doing, I said a little prayer. I thanked my sister for the inadvertent reminder and I got my Bible out.

 You’re probably saying, "I have x amount of kids, I can't just stop the day and read my Bible." Or, "I have to get this x done before x happens."

 Trust me, I've been there. Here's what I'm learning to do. I stop and do it anyways. Now this particular day, I read with my kids. I grabbed my Bible; I grabbed the kids and sat them down. I opened it up and started reading. Stryder sat and listened the entire time. Zeke listened for about 1 1/2 minutes, Elisha cried the whole time.

 Was there some miraculous change in our day, were things suddenly going smoothly? Hardly.  Elisha cried the entire time we read; Zeke spilt his water and the list of chaos continued through the day.  But every time something came up, I had a little more patience to handle it, my spirit's whisper was a little louder in my ear, and I had the peace to remind myself to take a breath before I burned down my village.

 

Practice: Go back to day 1, where is that sticky note? Did you read the post, get excited and then fall back into old routines? God has to be priority! If he is not number 1 on your our to do lists, then it will be easy to forget, easy to say, “in a minute”, easy to say, “before I go to bed”, or, “I’m too tired.” Don’t let it be easy to make excuses, make Him your priority!

Family Activity: Make it your goal to read your Bible with (even if they’re young) your kids every day this week! In order to know true love (and to be able to teach it), you have to know the author…and the only way to do that is through relationship-prayer, His word and the Holy Spirit!

Fist Bump

Reality Check

(Day 5)

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

1 Corinthians 13:6

Today we are featuring a special guest post from Cassandra Finkes. She is well known for being an encourager! Read, enjoy and be encouraged!

I was thinking about a study I read in Dr. Dobson’s book, Bringing Up Girls; the top ten reasons for depression in women. More than 50% of women listed self-esteem of some sort as their number one issue. At least 80% listed it in the top five. (Check out the book for more specific details).

This really made me think that we should make a dedicated effort to help tear down the lies that each of us ladies has brewing in our heads. It lead me to believe that most of us are struggling with some self-esteem issue on a daily basis. That something is the enemy and our flesh lying to us and holding us in bondage. Jesus calls us to be confident and bold in Jesus Christ! As my pastor said in one of his sermons; we have all the power in the world to break through these bondages but we let a tiny chain hold us down. (This was referring to an illustration about how elephants as infants are held by a chain and that same chain keeps them in check even as adults, despite them being more than able to break the chain. But their life has convinced them that the chain is able to keep them from going beyond it.) Not only does God give us more than what we need to break through all of this bondage; He gave us each other to, “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Heb 3:13). It’s our job to build each other up so that we are not held in bondage by the lies in our heads. SO.... let’s actually do that for one another!!!
God has searched us and knows the innermost parts of our beings... we were fearfully and wonderfully made! His thoughts are precious toward us even though He sees the deepest parts of our souls and searches every part of us! Why then do we tear apart ourselves with hurtful words and thoughts? It's like we are spiting on God’s creation and saying, “What you made was not enough.” Let's find joy and comfort in knowing that our God made us and made us with His perfect hand. We can be sure that Jesus has made us new in Him. So even when we think; “We’ve messed up Gods creation,” we can be reminded, that we aren’t big enough to void out what Jesus did for us on the cross!

Practice: Have you ever been at a store and watched a child throw a tantrum and toss their stuff to the floor? Then lean over to your friend and whisper how the mother should…. Mothers this can be especially true of us, but many are guilty. If you are a mother, how many times have you seen or heard someone whisper about your parenting and suddenly felt like a failure. Or a past comment makes you feel like a failure the next time it happens? Let’s kick this habit of putting others down (regardless of what we think of the situation). Chances are, we don’t even know the whole story. Instead let’s jump in and help! When little Tommy throws a fit and throws his mom’s purse to the floor. Instead of whispers (that encourage those lies and bad self-esteem), grab the purse and say, “It’s tough being a mom.” Or “Not every mommy (or daddy) moment is glamorous, keep up the good work!” Be an encourager, seek out ways to break our flesh and satan’s lies! While you’re at it, today set a time aside and read Psalm 139:1-18

Family Activity: Discuss what being an encourager looks like (and what delighting in evil looks like). Help your kids point out opportunities to encourage others. Maybe think of a friend or family member to make an uplifting and encouraging card for.
Share ideas on how you can give a "fist bump" of encouragement!

The Beauty of The Cross

Day 4
Reality Check

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10

When you read 1 Corinthians 13, what do you think? Does your mind wonder to various weddings or songs? Does it bring feelings of guilt? Do you see it as unattainable, or ignite thoughts of failure? Satan wants us to feel like a failure, but the spirit reminds us of that reset button. The spirit reminds us that through forgiveness, we are clean; we are not failures but rather are made perfectly righteous through Christ. The beauty of the cross. This is true love. Conviction is not the same thing as despair and feelings of failure. Conviction is like inspiration, it makes you want to be with God. When Christ died, there was clearly pain-because sin is horrible! But it was temporary, He didn’t dwell there! He didn’t stay there and neither should we! When the spirit convicts us, there may be momentary grief because sin hurts, but forgiveness hits the reset button! Satan would like you to wallow there; he would like to help you dig that pit. One of the beauties of love is that it keeps no records of wrong! 1 Corinthians should inspire you; it should lift you up and encourage you. If you are convicted, thank God for pointing it out and move forward to bathing in God’s word and asking for the ability to change. Don’t dwell on the negative because true love doesn’t want you there!

Practice: Don’t allow yourself to dwell in feelings of defeat, instead remind yourself that true love has the fruit of joy. Sorrow for sin should fade away as you seek forgiveness and be replaced with inspiration.
Activity: Write (or draw) lightly with a pencil something you’ve done that didn’t show true love. Using paint or markers to draw a beautiful picture completely covering the sin. Talk about how the cross shows us how true love covers our sins completely through forgiveness.

AND THE WINNER IS.....

If this is you, use the contact me, or personal FB message, so you can claim your prize!

Does Your Love Measure Up?

Day 3

Reality Check

 ^“ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11

Love one another. This seems like such an easy task. But how successful are we really? What standards are we using to measure our love for each other? Check out 1 John 4: 4-6 and Romans 8:5

1 John 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Romans 8:5For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

 What measurement for love are we using? God’s or the world’s? God makes a clear distinction between the world (and our flesh) and those who abide in Christ and live by the spirit. We should be living by the spirit of truth and our measurement of love should come from there as well. Go back to 1 Corinthians 13. Use your concordance or do a Google search on all the scriptures of love. Is this the love you are referring to when you “love one another”

Practice: I've often wondered what meditating meant when it came to God's Word.  It can't really mean putting my fingers together and humming.  Meditate on the verses you found in your search. Write down the verses in a journal.  What comes to your mind?  Where does the Holy Spirit lead you?  Does He convict you?  Does He prompt you to work on a specific area of your life or perhaps convict you to show true love to someone you haven't been?  Is He prodding you to memorize a verse?  Listen to the Holy Spirit and where He leads you; that's what it means to "meditate" on God's Word.  Read, wait on God, listen, talk to, think about and immerse yourself in God's Word! 

Family Activity: Create a ruler (see picture). Instead of numbers, use the definition from  1 Corinthians 13 as markers. Throughout this month when someone seems to be acting without love, ask them to measure themselves. Maybe you even want to post this on the fridge or wall somewhere as a reminder.

Did you use the family activity? How did it go, what experiences did you have? (And what ages are your kids?)

*Last day to comment and be entered into the Valentine Day Card GiveAway. You can make comments on day 1-3 and Like our post and/or FB page*