Ungrateful

I hate to admit it, but I am ungrateful. Often I do not appreciate how hard my husband works, nor do I thank my children when they are kind to each other or pick up after themselves. No, I expect those behaviors. I expect as part of our marriage contract that my husband works outside the home so that I can work inside the home. I expect my children to do what I tell them, but I do not give them an incentive nor show appreciation when they try hard. I often look over the things done well to the next thing we need to tackle. It is as if I have a check-list in my head, now that we are not bickering, check, lets move on to picking up after ourselves. Instead of basking in the glory that is an hour or two without fighting or arguing among the siblings in my house. When it comes to my husband I may think, “Wow, he is doing a great job taking out the trash. Now if only I could get him to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Check.” I say, to myself, “Yes he did a great job, but there is still work to do.” I miss out on honoring and praising my family, in the midst of my check-list, my schedule, my plans.

I do it to God as well. Sure Jesus died on the cross to save me. Yes, I was a hopeless, helpless sinner and He made a way for me to live forever with God. So He died when I was His enemy and He calls me to draw me near to Him. God made a way for me to have an eternal hope. Yeah, but… It is so crazy that I am not on my face, beating my chest, every day saying, “Thank you for dying for a wretch like me.” Instead I have myself convinced that I am doing God a favor. I am writing this blog to spread His word, I am teaching Sunday School to fifth and sixth graders, I am teaching my kids about God. I pray and read God’s word. Oh, but I miss being grateful that God sent His Son to die for a wretched, blind, bull-headed woman like me.

1 Peter 1:6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice…” The “this” is the living hope we have in Jesus. It includes the “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance” we have in heaven AND the “power of God” that is currently protecting those who know Jesus as their personal Savior. We have a future hope and a present protection even if we are currently facing storms in our lives. So my question is, “Am I GREATLY rejoicing in my hope of heaven and the protection God is giving me?” Or am I ungrateful for the work Jesus did on the cross? Am I satisfied with thinking I can do favors for God or am I rejoicing that He uses me in His eternal plan?

Father God forgive me for being ungrateful. Forgive me for taking the cross for granted. Forgive me for thinking that I can do You a favor. Please fill my heart with wonder and rejoicing at what Jesus did for me on the cross. May my life be an outpouring of humble gratitude for Jesus’ sacrifice. Thank You for Jesus. Amen.

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It Isn’t Fair…

If I had a penny for the number of times I have said, “It isn’t fair,” I would be a rich woman. Then if I add in the times I have heard it from my kids, my friends, my family, even some of my patients (back in my nursing days) I would probably be richer than Bill Gates. Life isn’t fair. People who try hard to get ahead, scrimp and save do not always get ahead. Cancer attacks young, old, mommies, daddies, and babies alike. I often want justice, but most of the time there is no black and white, fair and unfair. I have seen it with my kids.
“Mooooommmmm! He kicked me,” she bellows reverberating through the house.

NOT FAIR!

“What did you do to him?” I investigate.

“Well…”

You get the point. Even though “he” shouldn’t have kicked “her” there is a back story and the back story is often soiled gray. Both have some culpability and most of the time there isn’t someone who is innocent.

However there are the inexplicable things that come in life. The young child who has cancer, the older woman fighting her third battle with the dreaded disease, the freak accident, or a tsunami that devastates a region. It isn’t fair. So we call out to God. We tell Him, it isn’t fair. Why me, them, or why this situation? God, You are all-powerful so why? Often God doesn’t answer why. So what do we do with our whys? We can hang onto our sense of justice and shake our fist at God or doctors or anyone in our paths. We can allow our whys to turn us into bitter people. People who feel wronged and robbed of something we deserve. However, there is an “or” option. We can let our whys turn our thoughts to heaven.

We have to remember sin has tainted this world. In this world, very few things are fair. That sense of injustice should increase our longing for our true home. For those of us who know Jesus as our personal Savior Earth is not our home, heaven is. Heaven, where God lives, where there is no pain, no tears, no night (Revelation 21:4, 23). Heaven, where we will know fully, our whys will be answered (1Cor 13:12). Heaven, glorious wonderful heaven, where I get to feast with God in eternity (Rev 19:9). Heaven, my true home!

So the next time we ask why, let’s use it as a reminder of what is to come. Heaven. Let us not focus only on this Earth. Let us become more heavenly minded and rest in God’s faithfulness, even when we cannot understand the why.

Oh Heavenly Father, there are so many things we do not understand and that do not seem fair. Lord we lay those things at Your feet and we pray that those reminders will help us long for heaven more. That the whys and the injustice of this world will drive us towards keeping an eternal worldview and help us to rest in Your faithfulness and loving-kindness. In Jesus’ powerful and precious name we pray. Amen.

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Healthy Fear…

I have mentioned in the past that I have been writing things down for YEARS. In fact I have some thing I wrote in grade school squirreled away in a notebook. For grins I started reading some of the things I wrote back when. Unfortunately I rarely wrote a date on things. However the fact that I have not only a pencil and paper version, but also a dot-matrix printed version of this article, dates it to high school or early college. I will attempt to edit it some, but for the most part this is exactly what I wrote.

Remember how scared you were of your dad when you were little? Let’s face it, he could spank harder than mom and he was BIG!!! The thing was that the fear you had for your father never stopped him from loving you nor you from loving him. He was the guy that showed you how to play basketball or softball, who would read you bedtime stories, and who would give you a hug and a kiss before he tucked you into bed. He often frightened away the monsters in your dreams. He was wonderfully scary. You respected him because you understood that when you did something wrong he would spank you. At the same time you knew he loved you and would never let you down. So why do we often forget that fear is part of the whole father package? Look at how we as Christians treat God. We are often lackadaisical towards sin and how we treat Him. Sometimes we forget that God can spank harder than even our dads and that He is MUCH, MUCH bigger than our dads ever could have been. So why should we are about fearing God? God is the author and pure picture of love. Without God there would be no you or me. Nothingness would reign. We forget that God gives us air to breathe, families, and friends to love and most importantly His son to die for our sins. God not only loves, He also disciplines. God is perfect and holy and He is not beyond disciplining His children. Since God has everything under His control His discipline can hurt much more and cut much deeper than our own earthly father’s spankings. So in fear of God lies complete love and trust. Without the fear of God no one can get to know God. You must come to Him in fear and trembling!! Understanding why you should fear God brings you one step closer to knowing and understanding Him. If we fear our earthly fathers, how much more should we fear God, our Father, the Father of the universe?

Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

So I ask you, do you have a healthy fear of God?