Keep your yeast out of my dough.

Something's missing from all my photos this summer. Oh, yes. I neglected to take a single photo of my children complaining, fighting, arguing with me, whining, etc. You know, the stuff that was going on directly before and after I snapped the pic. Fortunately this photo required no actual smiles from anyone.  In fact, frowning was encouraged.  I think it works for us.

Don't get me wrong. There were many, many good times. Soooooo many! But how do you know sweet if you don't have sour to compare it to?? Oh, we know sour around here.

As the boys get older I notice the challenges that come with parenting are shifting. And this summer the challenge was discontent. When you have four kids you know you can't make everyone happy all the time, but when the boys were a bit younger I felt like we managed that a good bit of the time. Ice cream? We're all in! Extra TV? Sure! Swimming? No one says no. But I'm not sure I pulled off a single event this summer that everyone was happy about. There was always at least one kid with a frown on his face, arms crossed in front of him. 

In doing church and volunteer work (or life in general!) there are plenty of happy, supportive voices, but it's the one or two disgruntled ones that tend to stand out at the end of the day.  Why do we always get hung up there?  Why do we give the negative voices the better part of our ears?  Galatians 5:7-10 says,

"You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.  'A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.' I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view.  The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be."

The right thing isn't always going to make everyone happy and the enemy is out there, knowing this, seeing this, and using this to tempt our focus away from Christ.  But do not be discouraged, because those voices do not come from the One who calls you. 

I've learned from multitudes of unhappy feedback at work, at home, at school to listen, learn, extend grace.  And sometimes to politely just say, "Please keep your yeast out of my dough."

XOXO....Kelly

When it's time to stock up on glue sticks....

And let everything be lost in the shadows
Of the light of your face.
From "Captivate Us" by Charlie Hall, Christy Nockels, Nathan Nockels

I work for our church, which is all at once a most rewarding and most challenging endeavor.  I'm surrounded by some of the most creative, intelligent, intuitive and inspirational people, truly gifted in many ways.  I love it!  But sometimes we tend to lose ourselves in all that creativity and intelligence and inspiration.  Sometimes we miss the point.  Driving to church one Sunday morning I found my mind wandering to craft supplies and snack cups when the song above came on the radio.  I've heard it a million times before, but this line spoke to me (nay....SCREAMED at me) for the first time ever.  I wanted the morning's curriculum to be successful, but I was focusing on the wrong way of going about that.  Sure, it's nice to come into a classroom of perfectly stocked glue sticks and construction paper, but if I'm doing my job the right way what I should really want those kiddos to experience has nothing to do with the supplies at all. 

It's not just in church work that we lose the forest for the trees.  We live in a Pinterest-board society that celebrates the details all over the place.  Themed birthday parties, accessorized clothing, culinary presentations.  Once I fussed at my own sister for bringing the wrong color of cupcakes to a baby shower.  (I've apologized, but she still brings it up sometimes.)  And while the details can be fun sometimes, they are never the point. 

When I make it about the details, I am in fact making it about me.  My success at pulling something off or my failure when it doesn't go right.  I am making WHAT I'm doing more important than WHY I'm doing it and I am leaving God out of it.  I am forgetting that the most rewarding part of any endeavor is what I allow Him to do through me, which doesn't have anything to do with me at all.  Or my glue sticks.

Lord, let the WHY drive me, not the WHAT.  Let the details of what I'm doing hardly stand out at all next to the glory of who You are and what You're doing.  And when details must be tended and to-do lists must be checked off, help me to do it joyfully, with patience and kindness.  Amen.  

XOXO...Kelly

They pee on you because they love you....

Our sweet Parker (almost 4) often comes down to our room in the middle of the night when something has woken him up.  I assume this is just a phase that he'll eventually grow out of and most nights I barely wake up when he climbs in between Kevin and I.  Last night he came down in his usual way and, snuggled and safe right where he wanted to be, he quickly fell back asleep.  He slept so deeply in fact that I woke up a short time later wet with urine.  And not my own.

I'd like to say this is the first time I've been peed on by a small child, but it's not.  Might not be the last.  There's also been vomit, poop, snot, ear wax and blood.  Not very glamorous, but I like to remind myself that to be so close to someone's grossness means you must also be in place of great importance to that person.  Because you don't just pee on anyone, you know.  You save that kind of stuff for the people you truly love and trust, the people you know will still love you in the morning.  (And also maybe ER personnel.)

Mark Klein spoke at our church this weekend about his near-death experiences surrounding his heart transplant a few years ago.  During his time in the hospital Mark says the Lord revealed glimpses of heaven to him on several occasions.  The most compelling, to me, was a glimpse of God himself from whom flowed "total and absolute acceptance".  Can you imagine that?  To be in the presence of someone who totally accepts you, loves you, takes pleasure in you just as you are?  It'd be enough to make me lose my bladder control all together.

Do you feel as confident in God's acceptance as that?  Because you should and so should the people around you.  If we're not witnessing in the kind of way that leads someone to anything but God's total and absolute acceptance and sovereignty then we are doing it wrong.  And if that's the message you're struggling to hear yourself, join me in prayer.  That God would continue to reveal His love for you, make His power known to you and His grace real for you.  And that you, being confident in all these things, would be changed forever. 

Love you, Parker.  Just the way you are.
   

XOXO....Kelly

The Wilderness

See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.  Each will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.  Isaiah 32:1-2

This is "the wilderness"..... 

And during the lush season, mind you. 

This is the land through which David fled Saul, through which Christ fought temptation, the place where prophets trod.  This is where shepherd guard and lead their sheep. 

Do you know what the number one cause of death in the wilderness is?  Drowning from a flash flood.  The waters, when they come, rise and flow so quickly that if you don't know how to get up and out of the valley quick enough you drown.  That's if something doesn't eat you first.  It is a brutal, amazing thing to behold, the wilderness.

When I read these words from Isaiah last week I had a new appreciation for just what shelter, refuge, water and shadow meant to the prophet.  To endure in the reality of this landscape...these sort of things are like salvation.  It's no wonder this imagery is used so often in scripture.  Because when you round the top of a hill, the city behind you, and face this....

  

....you can imagine how good shelter would feel, how quenching water would be, how welcome would be the shade of a mighty rock.

But the words of Isaiah speak to more than just the terrain.  They speak so much to our calling as God's people. 

The world is a wilderness and the devil is everywhere.  Do you provide shelter?  Do your actions quench thirst?  Do your words provide shade?  In the glory and with the power of Christ in you, are you a refuge for His people?   

I think this is the point.  That the love of Christ dwells so deeply and fully within us that we, like a city on a hill, can not be unseen in it.  That the way we reach out to other people in His name is like a haven in the wilderness.  That we would stand out against the roughness instead of blend in as part of it. 

Let this be my prayer, Lord, that you would work in me and through me.  That I would help and not hinder.  Build up and not tear down.  Let me provide good things in your name and with the power of your Holy Spirit for those who need it most.  Remind me that we are in this wilderness together, God.  But with your power it will not overcome us. 

XOXO....Kelly

 

   

Life is like a chicken sandwich.....

When I drive by Chik-Fil-A on Sunday mornings I think, Way to go, Chik-Fil-A!  I'm proud of you.  A hugely successful and popular restaurant with delicious food.  No one would think twice about you being open on a Sunday, but someone did.  Putting people first, you put profits second.  Kudos!! 

And then I start to think about all the other things I like about Chik-Fil-A.  Like their sauces and sandwiches.  Well, that just makes me hungry and then a little resentful that I can't have Chik-Fil-A until tomorrow 'cause it's Sunday.  Am I now annoyed with Chik-Fil-A?  A little bit. 

So I guess it's a love-hate relationship.  Mostly love, of course.  The good way outweighs the bad, which, by the way, is all about me being selfish.  And yet, that's how the evil one works his way in, isn't it?  By finding a tiny crack in the logic of what is overwhelmingly good.  And once there's a crack....

Depending on my mood on any given morning I could stew about lack of a chicken sandwich all the way to dinnertime.  Or I can repent immediately and go back to being appreciative.  Option  B, of course, is almost always the best route.   

What's your chicken sandwich issue today?  Are you overlooking the good in a situation because something else is trying to worm its way in? 

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.  Philippians 4:8

Our lives become a reflection of the good we allow to live within us.  Like the story of the two dogs that are constantly fighting within you...the one that wins is the one you feed.  So feed the good one. 

(But not at Chik-Fil-A on a Sunday.  You'll get no help there.) 

XOXO...Kelly

You can take all this world.....

Sweet mother of mercy, one of my children needs new shoes.  This has caused a whole slew of problems in my household.  One kid's mad because the other kid is getting something new.  We've had to have the "life isn't fair" talk about a dozen times in the last several days.  Also none of the shoes in our size and price range have pleased us.  Where are the children who require $70 Nikes in 3rd grade???  Are their feet made of gold?  I'd like to meet them so I can understand this better.  Mostly this is just yet another reminder to me of how much stuff there is out there in the world and how little of it we really need.  (I'm starting to dread Christmas already.....)

The truth is some days it's really a struggle.  I want to give my kids the world, to delight and surprise them and treat them, but deep down I know that's not really giving them much at all.  For what do you benefit to gain the whole world but lose your soul?  I want them to know generosity and welcome love from others, but at the same time I want to post a sign outside our house that says "Please stop giving us stuff".  Where is the balance?  Somewhere along the aisles of Famous Footwear I was beginning to lose it. 

There are lots of reasons to give in to the world, especially when it comes to our children.  Fear of rejection, pride, a total lack of energy.  Standing in the sun, looking over Cesarea Philippi at the southwestern base of Mount Hermon, the words to Jeremy Camp's song came into my heart....

In the morning when I rise

Give me Jesus

You can take all this world

But give me Jesus

The area is an ancient Roman city alongside a spring which feeds the Jordan River.  The site paid tribute to the Greek god, Pan, and it was here that Jesus declared He would build His church. 

"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it"  Matthew 16:18

And overcome it, it has not.  Christ's Kingdom has outlasted it all.  Those shrines, though preserved and amazing to look at, are empty now. 

That time has come and gone, but my Lord has not, neither in spirit or in word.  "Do you not know?  Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth!"  Isaiah 40:28  How to explain to my sweet boys that this time too shall pass?  These things that seem so big now are but specks of dust?  Little by little, I guess.  Shoe by shoe.

Yeah, this world, you can have it.  Give me Jesus.

XOXO....Kelly


 
 

 

 




 

Blessed are you....but not off the hook.

Just beyond the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, near Tabgha, sits a beautiful church surrounded by gardens and mosaics, a rememberance of the Mount of Beatitudes.  The hillside overlooks the Sea, the valley and mountains around it.  While it's not likely that this was the exact location of Jesus' teachings, standing atop it you get a sense of what His view would have been, how full His words would have been against the backdrop of scenery around Him. 

 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I had never made the connection before I stood on that hilltop, reading through Jesus' words at Matthew 5, that the passage directly following this one is about being salt and light.  You know the one..."You are the salt of earth...you are the light of world."  I had always regarded the two passages as separate teachings.  First the Beatitudes, then the salt and light.  I had never read them together. 

At this point in Jesus' ministry the realities of what lies ahead are very clear to Him, and what lies ahead for His followers.  Here He invites those who will listen to embrace their lives in a new sort of way.  He is offering them something more than just what this world has to offer, something beyond the sorrows and struggles of earth.  He is blessing them in their humanness in a way that Rome does not. 

But He does not just leave it there.  Because blessed as we may be, we are not off the hook.

You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  Despite your spirit, your mourning, your meekness.  Despite hunger and persecution.  With all the mercy, peace and purity of your soul.  You have a job to do.

Just imagine that!  In the cradle of the valley, in the heartland of God's promised people, hearing that God's purpose for you extends beyond the limitations this world puts on us.  That the life He truly wants most for you not only blesses you beyond these limitations, but sets you up to be a blessing to others as well.  It's a message as pertinent today as it was then.

As I picture Jesus seated on the mountain, teaching those who stood around Him, I know that these passages were not meant to stand on their own.  As much as we need to know that God is in control, that we do not struggle in vain, we also need to know how important our lives are in His Kingdom.  May you feel His blessings today, friends.  And may others feel Him through you. 

XOXO...Kelly