Monday Morning Memo – Not Today Satan

If you are a Facebook friend of my daughter or me, you may have seen her big announcement that we are going to be blessed with another grandchild next March.  Their son is 16 months old and I’m sure he will be ready to be a big brother by then!

We were blessed with three children, and I will never, ever forget the moment that each of them were born.  I can remember that whenever I would complain during my pregnancies, my mom would always say that this was only for a season and that when the precious bundle would be placed in my arms, all the pain and discomfort would be worth it.  As was the case many times…my mom was right.

The problem is that not everything in life is that way.  Not every discomfort, not every pain, and not every time of suffering ends with a joyous moment.  The trials we face aren’t always contained in a nine-month period where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel from the beginning.  In fact, I have witnessed people who have had to face times of testing that have lasted for years.  How unfair is that?  Why do some people seem to skate through life without pain and suffering, while others seem to face misery at every turn?

If I had the answers to these questions…I just might be a very wealthy woman.  God never promised that we would always know the “whys” of life.  As I have written before, He only promised that we could know the “Who” of life.  Without exception, those who I have met who have faced adversities with grace, have demonstrated that their “Who”…Jesus Christ…has remained their constant focus.

Let’s face it.  It would be much easier to keep our focus on Christ if we didn’t have someone else who is working overtime to keep us distracted.  Satan’s full time job is to make sure we don’t keep our eyes on Christ, so that we will easily become discouraged, frustrated and want to give up.  He wants nothing more than for us to dwell on our adversities so that others won’t see Christ’s image in us.

I may have shared this phrase with you before, but I think it is a good reminder of what our thoughts should be as we begin each day.  It says, “Be the kind of woman (or man) who, when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil says, ‘Oh no, she (or he) is up!’”  To be successful in combatting Satan’s forces, we must be intentional in putting our complete faith and trust, even during the adversities, in our Lord Jesus Christ.  We must stand firm in making sure that Satan knows that we have no intention on giving him any of our allegiance today, tomorrow or in any day to come. 

I have no idea what you are going through today.  You may be experiencing physical, mental or emotional pain that has lasted far longer than you ever dreamed it would.  I want to encourage you to not give in to Satan’s taunts that this life is futile.  Today is the Lord’s day… not Satan’s… and in Him you can find the strength, wisdom and courage it will take to handle this time with grace.  Remember, no matter how long this “season” of life is for you, there will be a great reward someday when we see Jesus face to face.  Oh what a day that will be!

“Put on the whole armor of God,

that you may be able to stand

against the schemes of the devil.”

Ephesians 6:11

 “Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

James 4:7

Monday Morning Memo: In His Hands

I may have told you once or twice before that I happen to have the most adorable, smartest and talented grandson. At 16 months old, he has completely stolen my heart and every precious moment I have with him is such a wonderful gift from God.

One of my favorite things to do with him (sometime to the chagrin of my daughter) is to see what he will attempt to repeat after me.  He was in our home a few days ago, and I was thrilled when he began to say “Peek boo”….which of course was a shorter version of my saying peek-a-boo.  Yes, I happen to think he is a genius.

Of course I’m hoping that he only picks up the positive things I say and do…and not the negative.  His eyes and ears aren’t able to filter out those attributes of mine that aren’t pleasing to the Lord.  It is so important for me to remember that how I behave and how I respond to life’s “happenings” will help mold him either positively or negatively.  God has entrusted me with a huge responsibility by allowing me the role of “grandma” in this cherished boy’s life.

This reminds me of a sign I read while on vacation last spring.  It said, “Live in such a way that those who know you but don’t know God, will come to know God because they know you.”  

I remember getting tears in my eyes when I first read those powerful words and they have returned now as I type, because I fall so short in living out this reminder.   Oh it’s not too hard when I’m all cleaned up and have my Christian friends surrounding me.  But in the day-to-day grind of living…I’m afraid others don’t always see Him in me.  They see someone who has so many rough edges and often allows my responses to be “human” instead of godly.  Unfortunately, I’m sure at these moments, I don’t reflect God’s image but reflect someone whose life needs to be much more “moldable” in God’s hands.

In God’s hands is where my life needs to be…whether my grandson is watching or those I come in contact with every day.  Only His hands are capable of filing off those rough edges of mine and softening my heart to make it much more pliable.  I so desperately desire to reflect His image but that isn’t possible as long as I allow my hands to take control. 

Oh how I look forward to those moments when my grandson crawls up in my lap and I get to hold him in my hands.  How much more God must enjoy it when I crawl up into His lap and allow Him to hold me in His hands.  That’s a place I need to be every moment of every day so that others will want to know Him because they know me.

“For the life of every living thing is in his hand,

and the breath of every human being.”

Job 12:10

Monday Morning Memo: Who is At The Center of Your Schedule?

I was thinking this past weekend about what we are willing to do to participate in earthly events.  If we are having company over for dinner or maybe even for a few days, most of us will spend hours and hours making sure our home looks like one in which we have never lived.  If we have a high school reunion coming up, some of us will go on crash diets and run to the gym to make it appear that we’ve never eaten a dessert or missed a day working out since we left those hallowed halls.

If we have a strong desire to move up the corporate ladder, we will sacrifice just about anything to reach our goals.  Long boring meetings during the day, hours spent during the evening pouring over sales records and weekends steal our thoughts as we strategize for the coming week.

If we are members of the football, baseball or gymnastics teams…we are willing to spend hours and hours and hours practicing the same thing over and over again.  Then we are willing to travel all over the state, sometimes taking us away from our families, friends and even church services to display what we have achieved as a result of our hard work.

Why is it then that we often balk when we hear that we should be spending time with the Lord each day?  Why is it when the Lord impresses on us that we need to work on certain areas of our life so that we will look more like Him, we immediately spew out excuses? 

This past weekend I had the privilege of sitting with a sister in Christ as she spent seven hours giving her past to her Savior.  These hours were emotionally draining and difficult as she faced issues head on that she knew were hindering her walk with her Lord.  She knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but she willingly put herself in that position because of how much her walk with Him means to her.  Her strong desire to be all she can be for her Lord is pushing her to do whatever it takes to look more like Him.

What a wonderful example of what our walk with Christ should look like.  All of us need to learn from this young woman and have her same desire to make sure we are free of those things that are holding us captive in chains.   Many of us have excess baggage that is weighing us down and hindering us from being sold out for Christ.  But we have to be willing to put in the hard work to break free from those chains and dispose of our baggage so that we can begin to move forward.

Once we are moving in the right direction, we need to be willing to stay connected to Christ each and ever day so that our relationship with Him stays fresh.  We can’t know what He wants us to do and how He wants us to live if we aren’t reading His Word and listening for His voice.  I am confident that whatever sacrifices we need to make to ensure we are following Christ’s will, will be well worth it.  As Joyce Meyer has said, “Spending time with God is the key to our strength and success in all areas of life.  Be sure that you never try to work God into your schedule, but always work your schedule around Him.” 

What a great reminder as we begin a new week.  I’m guessing that if we plan this week working our schedule around God…everything else will fall into place.   And remember, the reward will be much greater than any earthly event we can imagine!

“O my people, trust in him at all times.

    Pour out your heart to him,

    for God is our refuge.”

Psalm 62:8

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.

Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers

for all believers everywhere.”

Ephesians 6:18

A God-Happening...Just Because!

Sometimes things happen that I feel are a “God-happening”, where He steps in and does something for me that may not have any religious connotations…but just makes my life easier and reminds me of His love for me.  One of these just occurred last night…so I wanted to share it with you.

I am in need of a certain type of blood work and in checking things out yesterday, my doctor’s office told me that my insurance might not cover it.  I then made a call to my insurance company and they confirmed that the test would go towards my deductible…which meant I was going to be responsible to pay for all of it.  This particular test isn’t what I would consider to be cheap, so I really hated to pay the entire bill.

That’s when I felt God made my life easier.  My doctor’s office told me that if I wanted to, I could go to the Bluffton Regional Medical Center (Bluffton, IN) where they offer what they call “Direct Access Testing”.  This service allows anyone interested in managing their health to request certain lab tests (15 in all) without a doctor's order.   I was told I would just go in and tell them which test I needed done, pay for the test (they do not submit it to my insurance company) and then I would go directly to the lab and have the blood drawn.  Since it is not run through my insurance company, the cost is considerably less than I would have to pay if it did go through my insurance.  Results are then sent directly to me and then it is my responsibility to get them to my doctor.

Then I found out something that made this even easier for me…they are open 24/7!  So I could go whenever it was convenient for me!  I just couldn’t believe it could be as easy as they made it sound.

So last evening we were in Bluffton for a meeting and after it was over, at about 8:45 pm, we walked in the hospital.  I went to the registration desk, told the woman what I was there for and she got the necessary paperwork ready.  I then paid for the test and she directed me to the lab.  Two very friendly nurses were there and within minutes the needle was in my arm…red blood was filling the tube…and I was soon done and on my way home.  For once…something was as easy as it sounded!

I know this isn’t a service that everyone would use, but for people like us who have to pay for all of our insurance and have a high deductible, this is a great deal.  So a BIG shout out to Bluffton Regional Medical Center for offering this great service to the community and for making my life just a little easier!

Monday Morning Memo: The Best Laid Plans Part 2

I hadn’t planned on having a “Part 2” to my Monday Morning Memo from last week…but once again…God had different plans.

As I shared last week, we were supposed to leave on vacation on August 29th, but due to both Dan and I injuring our backs, we were unable to leave for the first “leg” of our trip.  We actually had three “legs” planned so we decided it was best to wait until this past Tuesday to head to our second destination.

At least that was the plan.  Once again, everything was changed when we received a phone call Monday afternoon, informing us that Dan’s mom had been found in her bed and couldn’t be woke.  Long story short…she was in a diabetic coma, her sugar count was 26 and had been in her bed since the night before.

EMS was called and she was taken to an area hospital, which was overloaded with patients.  She spent her first 26 hours in the ER since there were no beds available.   Patients lined the halls of the ER waiting for a more private area.  We felt blessed that she at least had a cubicle!

We are thrilled to say that mom is now doing much better and is back in the Skilled Care area of her retirement home until she regains her strength.  As I have shared, she just had a knee replacement six weeks ago, so she has endured a lot of stress on her body recently and just needs to recuperate for a while longer.

At this point, we were so thankful that we hadn’t been out of state when this happened.  We had no idea this was in our future…but fortunately God knew.

The third destination we had planned didn’t begin until Friday so we were fairly confident that we would at least be able to leave at that point.  This was to be the highlight of our vacation, spending time with relatives in Iowa, so we were more than willing to give up the other locations to be able to make it to this last stop.

Wouldn’t you know it…Wednesday morning I woke up and from the moment I opened my eyes, I felt the Lord telling me that we were not supposed to go to Iowa either.  Dan’s back was much better but mine was still far from healed and I knew that riding in a car for an entire day probably wasn’t going to speed my recovery.  Oh how I dreaded telling our cousins that we couldn’t visit and to be honest, I really struggled with having to give up our final arrangements. 

I just couldn’t understand why the Lord would stop us from something we had so looked forward to doing.  So before you begin to think that I graciously accepted all the detours we faced these past days, I have to say that I did not.  I was a guest at my own pity parties several times.  I know that really is ridiculous when in the scheme of things, my calendar changes were not that critical, but I allowed my humanness to take over and skew my thinking. My least favorite part of vacation has always been the unpacking when we arrive home.  Unfortunately, I have found something even less pleasant…having to unpack when you haven’t gone anywhere!  It just didn’t make sense to me and I couldn’t figure out why we were being kept from leaving.

That is until Saturday morning.  Soon after we woke, Dan received a text from one of our employees saying that he was very ill and couldn’t work.  With two others of our staff also out of town, it was imperative that Dan be at work.  We had no idea that this would take place…but fortunately God knew.

I sure hope that you are stronger than I am…and that you aren’t the guest at your own pity party.  But if you are…remember that God still loves you and all He asks is that you trust Him with the plans for your day.  If your day seems to be filled with detours…you can rest in the fact that God knows what is just beyond the horizon and will make sure and direct you on the journey that is best for you.  It may not make sense and it may not be what you would choose, but knowing that He is in control and wants the very best for you…makes it a little easier.  Remember, He just may be keeping you from something far worse, by diverting your steps in another direction.  You can’t see around the corner…but fortunately God can!

 “We can make our plans,

    but the Lord determines our steps.”

Proverbs 16:9

 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.

“They are plans for good and not for disaster,

to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11