Set Your Sights On Things Above
We so quickly get our eyes off God. Let's get back into
perspective.
perspective.
7/4/2014
Guest Post Time!My daughter, Colleen, wanted to write this post. She's very passionate about many things, and this is straight from her heart. After having a not-so-good day in my social life, seeing this image (above) in my newsfeed really got me thinking. I crave social interaction. Often times too much. I’ll find myself rearranging my priorities to just fit someone else's wants which isn't particularly healthy. I am a people pleaser to the max. If I can make someone happy or help them, I will try my best to do so. Whether it be dropping whatever I'm doing at the moment to give someone a ride, offering comfort over the phone to a long distance friend or spending many weekends planning a wedding. Honestly, I enjoy being there for my friends.
I am blessed to have more than one or two best friends. A couple of them are long distance but the rest are here in town. Having more than one best friend brings some complications into life. Sometimes I have to choose between them who I'm going to hang out with that night. The decision isn’t always easy. I love them all but I can’t be in two places at once. I cannot make each one of them first priority all the time. The one problem I have with this quote is making someone a priority in your life shouldn’t be so that they’ll make you one in theirs. If you really love someone you should do it because you love them not for what they’ll give you in return. A true friend will stick beside you even if you are the one pushing them away. They’ll be there for you no matter what. This doesn’t mean you should let someone walk all over you. You have boundaries that should be respected. If someone is treating you wrong, remove yourself from the situation. You do not have to let them treat you like a door mat. Putting a loved one's needs above yourself should be your main goal though. A friend is there for support. Be the best friend you can possibly be and eventually you will gain good friends. As Christians, we should be putting other people before ourselves anyways. We don’t treat other people with kindness and love just so we get the same in return. We do it because it’s the right thing to do. Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity knowing full well that thousands of millions of people would curse His name and reject Him. He made us first priority even though we often times make Him a mere option. You shouldn’t live your life as a door mat, letting whoever comes along treat you however they want. But you shouldn’t live your life making yourself your first and only priority. The biggest blessing anyone can receive is by being the greatest blessing to someone else.
1/9/2014
The Weeping WillowThe weeping willow has got to be one of my favorite trees of all time. They are so distinctive, so unusual that they stand out everywhere they grow. They are graceful, and attractive - you just want to stare at them for some reason. A friend of mine wrote this next piece awhile ago, and I thought I'd share it here. Her thoughts spoke to me - it's something that I think God wants us all to be like. I left it exactly as she wrote it, the links to her books and blog are below. When I couldn’t sleep at 3:30 this morning, I began to talk to God. I began praying for me to be better in some areas as the Spirit led me. He told me to study the Weeping Willow tree and find out all about it as He wanted me to be like it. I thought this was odd. I thought maybe He wanted me to be depressed? But that didn’t really seem right, so I just did my study, and here are some facts about the trees: They are fast growing, they have a distinctive shape, they aren’t fussy about their soil type, and they’re very adaptive. Taken straight from wiki, word for word, “While they prefer moist, cool conditions, they can tolerate some drought.” Thank you, Lord! What are we without right now at our house? That’s right, water! Another neat thing I learned about the tree is that the first aspirin was invented from its sap. Many people take one aspirin a day for heart health. The Weeping Willow has helped many hearts. Does this line up with me being a counselor? This is no coincidence. I am now considering myself to be a Weeping Willow. Most people would think that’s depressing, but I think it fits me perfectly. Look at the branches on the tree and see how they bend, but don’t break. They are so flexible that they look double jointed. Lord, make me this flexible. Allow me to enjoy my time of drought with no complaint. Help me help many hearts! Help me to grow quickly so I might provide shade for a person who feels like they are burning up inside! What a revelation. If you’ve read this, maybe you should try talking to God and asking what kind of tree He wants you to be. Thank you, Lord! ................ In the Bible the first mention I found of a willow tree was Psalms 2: "We hanged our harps on the willow tree in the midst thereof ..." this scripture is referring to the Babylonian captives who retired their instruments of praise when they were in a crisis situation. HOW IRONIC THAT THEY HUNG THEIR HARPS ON A WILLOW TREE!. Praising God in our storms is the key to victory and we must be like weeping willow trees and not only survive but thrive! Thank you Lord for your revelation to Cindee this morning! Cynthia P. Willow 's website
Isn't that a wonderful article? She is right - and I think in many ways the willow tree embodies how God wants us all to grow. It's almost always found right on the edge of a water source - a tree planted by the rivers of water. It's usually leaning over the water, too - as if it's roots can't quite get enough, and it has to bend over to see that river it stands next to. It's hardy, as well. It's able to handle drought situations better than some other trees. And as Christians, aren't we supposed to stand out from the rest? Aren't we supposed to be someone other people watch and want to watch? I think I've got some more thinking to do on this myself. How about you?
11/21/2013
Jesus knowsReading in Mark 7 today, I’ve always wondered why Jesus spoke so seemingly harshly to the Syrophenician woman who asked Jesus to cast a devil out of her young daughter. Jesus dealt with each person as an individual. When specific people came to Him with questions, He answered them the way THEY needed to be answered. When the rich man came and asked how He could be saved, Jesus addressed more than just salvation – He addressed the one thing that rich man needed to take off the throne of his heart. He didn’t deal in platitudes, He didn’t sugarcoat. He said what that particular person needed to hear. So Jesus’ response to this Greek woman has always baffled me. It seems so harsh, so unprecedented anywhere else in Jesus’ dealings with anyone else. I mean, look at the woman at the well. She wasn’t fully Jewish, she was what the Jews then called a half-breed, someone the rest of them despised. Yet Jesus treated her with respect, and didn’t act as if she wasn’t worthy. The Greek woman He seems to treat differently, as if she really doesn’t deserve any respect. Frankly, nowhere else in the Gospels does Jesus treat someone this way – whether Jew or Greek. So, I have to wonder. Was something going on in this woman’s life that needed to be addressed? I mean, that IS how Jesus dealt with people, and the Bible doesn’t always tell us what that other person needed. It’s just something Jesus dealt with, in a public way, and yet kept her business private at the same time. There’s a hidden exchange going on in this passage between Jesus and this woman. I’ve always thought it, always wondered at it. Greeks often held themselves superior to other peoples. They had slaves, they saw Jews as inferior, and probably other people, too. So I wonder if this woman had called other people ‘dogs’, had degraded her slaves, treated people so badly that she called them unworthy to eat at her table. What if she was the bigot, and Jesus was pointing this out to her? What if she hated Jews, and now was coming to a Jew for help as if she could hide the darkness and bitterness in her heart towards Jews? What if Jesus’ words rang in her heart like a foghorn, cutting away the cloudy fog of hatred, and opening up to her mind exactly how mean she’d become? In verse 27 of Mark 7, Jesus says something that to me seems particularly pointed. He says, “Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto dogs.” I wonder if Jesus said this because it was a quote from her. I wonder if this woman said something similar, or even exactly the same, about someone else dining at her table. I wonder if this was how she was treating her slaves, or a ward under her care, or the poor in her city. It was this quote of Jesus’ that seems to be pointed directly to her, and it was this quote of His that she reacts to. She is humbled by it. In verse 28 of Mark 7, the woman seems to acquiesce to whatever message Jesus is directing at her, and only her. She says that the dogs under the table eat the crumbs that the children leave. She seems to be placing herself in with the dogs under the table now, instead of assuming she’s a child of the household – or even the mistress of the table. In verse 29 of Mark 7, Jesus cites her saying from verse 28 as the reason He will heal her daughter. It was her finally coming to humility that did it. Her finally admitting she wasn’t superior to others, that she wasn’t better than the Jews – than Jesus Himself. She considered herself going to an inferior to help, but she wasn’t helped until Jesus made her see the darkness in her heart and helped her overcome it. So, while Jesus in this passage seems uncharacteristically harsh, I wonder if it isn’t exactly what the Greek woman needed to hear. I understand the passage doesn’t go into specifics on this woman, this is all conjecture on my part, and I certainly wouldn’t draw any doctrines out of this speculation. But from other instances, it does seem to make sense. (Yes, I know - my writer-senses are tingling. I sense a Biblical fiction story coming out of this.) And it speaks to me, too. Jesus always dealt with people as individuals, giving them what they needed to hear. So often we think of Jesus as saving the world, and He did. But Jesus also deals with me as an individual. He deals with me on a personal level, He will address things to me, things that apply to me in a special and personal way. Things that perhaps the rest of the world doesn’t know, but Jesus knows, and Jesus won’t let them remain in me just because other people don’t know. Jesus addresses them, and expects me to come clean, and expects me to just submit to Him. And Jesus loves me. It’s safe to do that. It’s safe to let Jesus be a personal savior, knowing the ins and outs of my mind and heart. Same for you, too. I might not know the ins and outs of your personal walk, but Jesus does. And you can bet that while His way may seem harsh for the moment, it’s for your good, for your best. Let Jesus be your personal Savior, not just a name on the page.
8/23/2013
Being Under God's FeetAwww! Isn't she cute? Yes, true, she's adorable. This is Dixie, the Schnauzer/Poodle mix, or Schnoodle. She's also known as 'Ditzy' because she's a little...ditzy... sometimes. We're talking walk-into-walls, forget-where-you're-going, sometimes-caught-staring-into-space type of adorableness. And this is Buddy. He is also known as 'The Best Male Dog Ever' in our house, the wonderful Beagle/Jack Russell mix - Jackabee - that has found his forever home here. We once thought that if these two had puppies, the result would be called Schnackaboodles, but that's a different story. By the way, they aren't being bred, it was a funny story because of the puppy names, that's all...so put your torches and pitchforks down. *grin*
8/6/2013
I'm nine and I'm fine!So, this last weekend the boys in the family all went to a Men and Boy's Campout with our church. The boys in our family consist of my husband Rich, and our two sons, James and John. James is 15 years old, John is 9 years old - and a bundle of nearly unstoppable energy.
Well my husband was having to keep a close eye on John for those three days in the mountains. After all, there's bears in them there hills - seriously, real bears. Not the fluffy teddy bear kind, the big-clawed, don't-feed-the-bears kind. Mostly everyone stayed together, but at some point John was rarin' to take off, and my husband turned to him and said, "Where are you going, son?" John turned to his father, and said, "It's ok, Dad. I'm nine years old now. I'll be fine." It was funny, really, how my husband is so much bigger than him, and knows the dangers waiting in the woods far better than our son does, and can keep my son safe. Yet in John's nine year old brain, he was grown up and fully capable of taking care of himself. As I thought about this, I realized something. Don't we do that with God? We look at God and say, "It's ok, Father. I've been saved (however long). I've got this. I'm fine. I can take care of myself now." You know, in the Christian life we're supposed to mature, yes. But we never will get to the point where we're as grown up as God is. Sure, John is more mature than he was as a one year old, but he isn't grown fully, and he can't meet the challenges we know he'll face if he goes off on his own. God knows that about me too. I can't go off on my own, expecting to be able to meet and conquer the challenges I'll face, without having God's help. While someday, Lord willing, John will grow to be a 40 year old man, and be as mature as my husband is now. But as a Christian, I will never accomplish the feat of being as 'mature' as God - none of us will. We never grow to the point where we don't need God's help any longer. Today, let's let God be in charge. |
AuthorI'm Sherry Chamblee, aspiring author of Christian fiction, mom of six, wife to a cool dude, and caregiver to his granny. Besides that, I am just little old me - it's just a phrase, I'm not really old, honest. Check out my new release!
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