Walk Boldly With Jesus

With My God I Can Scale a Wall

2 Samuel 22:26-30 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.”

I was only going to use the last part of this verse because I like how it talked about what we can do with God.  However, I thought reading the verses before that part would be a good idea also.  The first part of this verse shows us who God show’s Himself to be.  If you are faithful you will see a faithful God.  If you are blameless you will see a blameless God, and if you are pure you will see a pure God.  I think there is something to be said for this.  I think this is kind of a universal truth.  Stephen R. Covey says, “We don’t see the world as it is, we see the world as we are.”  This means that we all experience the world through a filter.  Our filter is made up of all of our experiences as well as all the things we have been taught up until that point.  This is why two people can go through the same event and yet view it very differently.  They both have had different experiences.  For instance, two people can be sitting at the airport waiting for a plane and there is a screaming baby.  The person who has had a lot of experiences with screaming babies, will react differently than someone who hasn’t had any experience with them.  

We see the world through this filter and sometimes that filter is adjusted by our emotions.  If we are in a really bad mood we will look at a situation very differently than if we are in a good mood.  Why do you think kids are always offering to help out before they ask for something?  They know we are more likely to say yes when we are in a good mood.  Our filter is also adjusted according to our habits and personalities.  If we are typically someone who judges others or is cynical, then we will view situations differently.  We will most like be looking for something to judge.  We will be waiting for someone to mess up or something to go wrong instead of enjoying the situation we are in.  On the contrary, if we are usually someone that goes with the flow and enjoys where they are in that moment, then we will have a very different view.

This verse is saying if we are faithful God will show himself as faithful.  If we are pure God will show Himself as pure. It is not saying God is sometimes one way and sometimes another way.  As it says in Hebrews 13:8, “God is the same yesterday, today and forever.”  I think what is meant in this verse is if we are faithful we are able to see God as faithful.  Meaning we can see clearly and nothing is getting in our way.  Almost like our eyes are wide open.  When we are blameless we are free to see God as blameless.  There is nothing clouding our judgement.  Think about when you give your child a consequence because they did something wrong.  How do they react afterwards?  Are they able to see you are giving them the consequence so they learn a lesson and do better next time?  Most of the time I would say no.  They just know that you gave them a consequence and they probably don’t like you very much at the moment.  However, the sibling that is not in trouble because they didn’t do anything wrong, can see you are not to blame.  Does that make sense, the blameless child can see you as blameless.  

The very next part of the verse says, “ but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.”  To the devious God appears shrewd.  When I looked that word up it said, “showing sharp powers of judgement.”  Again I go back to the child analogy.  Of course God would look judgmental to someone who is devious. God teaches us a certain way to live and being devious is not a part of the way He is teaching us to live.  When  people know they are doing something wrong they feel judged by those who are not doing what they are doing.  Then it says, “You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.  Do you know what haughty means?  It means arrogantly superior or disdainful.  God is calling us to a life of humility.  I heard someone say the other day, humility doesn’t mean you think less of yourself, it means you think of yourself less.  God is calling us to put him first in our lives.  He is calling us to think of Him more than we think of ourselves.  So, can you see why he would be watching those that are arrogant and why He would be trying to bring them back down to earth?  

Now we get to my favorite part of the verse.  It says, “You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.” First, I love anytime scripture talks about God turning our darkness into light.  There is so much darkness in the world and I like to picture God just flipping a big light switch and all the darkness leaving our world.  I know that is not how it usually happens, but isn’t it a great visual?  I like how this verse is illustrating for us how much we can do with God on our side.  It says we can advance against a troop. Scripture is full of victory stories where God’s people went up against great armies, where they were far out numbered and yet they still one the battle or they one the war.  Every time the leader of God’s people stopped and turned to the Lord for direction He protected them.  Sometimes God told them to go to war and He would hand their enemies over to them. Sometimes God told them not to go to war and if they listened He protected them.  

Are we turning to God when we have to fight our enemies?  Did you know you didn’t have to attend every fight you were invited to?  Sometimes God wants to go before you into battle and defeat your enemies for you and sometimes He wants you to avoid the war altogether.  The only way to know which you are being called to do is to spend time with God and ask Him.  Every time someone was defeated in the Bible it was because they didn’t turn to the Lord.  Or they did turn to Him and then didn’t listen to what He told them to do.  Let’s not make the same mistake.  Let’s turn to the Lord and ask what He wants us to do?  Wouldn’t it be great if you knew God was charging into battle before you?  Wouldn’t it be great to know before you even entered the battle that God was going to turn your enemies over to you?  You can have this information.  All you need to so is spend time with the Lord and listen to what He wants you to do.  The verse also says with God I can scale a wall.  This reminds me of a vision someone at the conference gave me.  She said she saw me looking over a wall.  The wall was tall, but I could see over it.  I was looking out at everything on the other side and God was right next to me.  He was bent over with His hands clasped ready to boost me over the wall.  I recalled the memory of the vision just after reading this verse this morning.  God will help you scale the walls in your life too.  Words of prophecy and visions are meant to build up the church.  God was not just giving this vision to me personally.  He will help any one of us scale a wall.  The only catch is that we need to trust enough to step into his hands.  Can you trust God enough to take that step?  When someone is boosting you over a fence you are putting your full weigh into their hands.  Are you finally ready to step into God’s hands and give hime the full weight of your life?  

Dear heavenly father I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord we ask you to help us be blameless and pure and faithful. We ask that you help keep us from being haughty and shrewd.  Lord help direct us. Help us to take the time and sit down with you and ask you where you want us to go in our lives. Help us to ask which battles you want us in and which ones you want us to stay out of. Lord we want you to go before us and defeat our enemies. We want you to help us scale a wall. Lord help us trust you enough to put the full weight of our lives in your hands knowing you will lift us up and get us over that wall we have built.  Lord you are the Light of the world.  Your light brightens our darkness.  We are so graetful for your love and for your light.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I am not sure who the witness will be this Wednesday but I assure you we will have one.  I look forward to sharing that with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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No Condemnation

Romans 8:1-2 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,  because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

Here we are talking about condemnation again.  I think God keeps talking to us about it because we keep judging others.  We look at something someone else is doing and we think about how wrong they are for doing it.  Or worse, we talk to someone else about how wrong they are for doing it.  I was at a retreat once and the priest was talking about how awful the sin of gossip is, Especially in a church.  He was talking about how it is like a sickness and once people at church start gossiping it spreads like a virus and things are never the same.  We can look at a situation, and so easily judge it.  Unless you are directly involved in the situation, you don’t have all the facts.  Even if you are directly involved you don’t have all the facts because you don’t know what the other person is thinking or feeling.  I wonder why we judge others so easily.  When I was wondering this I feel as though the Holy Spirit reminded me of a book I read several years ago.  It is titled Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis.  If you have not read this book, you honestly should make it one of the next books you read.  It was truly eye opening into the mind of the enemy.  

The premise of the Screwtape Letters is a series of Letters from an Uncle, Screwtape, to his nephew Wormwood.  Wormwood is a junior demon and his uncle is a high level demon.  The nephew writes to his uncle about his “patient” i.e. the man who’s soul he is trying to win for the devil and the book is comprised of his uncle’s replies.  It can be a bit confusing because when they talk about the enemy in this letter they are talking about God.  When they talk about the father below they are talking about satan.  The book discloses tactics the enemy uses to win our souls for Satan.  I said earlier it was eye opening but when I really thing about it the word the comes to mind is sobering.  We don’t think twice about spreading a little gossip.  Sometimes it even feels good to be the one to get to share something about someone else that no-one else knew.  What’s the harm, right?  This letter right here, it talks about the harm.  Listen carefully as it can be hard to follow just listening to it.  If you can follow along in the show notes, that is ever better.  I will also put a link to the website where I got the text so you re-read it later. I also shortened it by one paragraph to make it a bit shorter. (Click Here for Article)   Here is the letter.  

II

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties; indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly even wish to do so. In the meantime we must make the best of the situation.

There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the Enemy's camp and are now with us. All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favour.

One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do mean the Church as we see her spread but through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather in oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like "the body of Christ" and the actual faces in the next pew. It matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains. You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy's side. No matter. Your patient, thanks to Our Father below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous. At his present stage, you see, he has an idea of "Christians" in his mind which he supposes to be spiritual but which, in fact, is largely pictorial. His mind is full of togas and sandals and armour and bare legs and the mere fact that the other people in church wear modern clothes is a real-though of course an unconscious-difficulty to him. Never let it come to the surface; never let him ask what he expected them to look like. Keep everything hazy in his mind now, and you will have all eternity wherein to amuse yourself by producing in him the peculiar kind of clarity which Hell affords.

I have been writing hitherto on the assumption that the people in the next pew afford no rational ground for disappointment. Of course if they do-if the patient knows that the woman with the absurd hat is a fanatical bridge-player or the man with squeaky boots a miser and an extortioner-then your task is so much the easier. All you then have to do is to keep out of his mind the question "If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?" You may ask whether it is possible to keep such an obvious thought from occurring even to a human mind. It is, Wormwood, it is! Handle him properly and it simply won't come into his head. He has not been anything long enough with the Enemy to have any real humility yet. What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favourable credit-balance in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these "smug", commonplace neighbours at all. Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can.

Your affectionate uncle    
SCREWTAPE

Don’t you see, the enemy wants us to keep gossiping.  He wants to keep us focused on anything except for our Heavenly Father.  If you are in church, thinking about the dress the person in front you is wearing then you are taking your eyes off the Lord.  The line that really got me was the one question the uncle said to never let the patient ask,

"If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?" Let’s not make the enemy happy.  Let’s not do his work for him.  From now on, every time you want to gossip about someone ask yourself that question.  If I am Christian, with all my flaws, why do I doubt they are with all their flaws.  There verse above says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,  because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” It does not say there is now no condemnation because we are all perfect people who never sin.  We are not saved because of anything we did.  We are saved because Jesus gave His life for us.  

I know this episode is long already, but I want to end with the daily devotional from the book “Jesus Calling” about this very topic.  The woman who wrote this book felt these messages were for our Lord, and this is one I think we should all hear.

“My children make a pastime of judging one another – and themselves. But I am the only capable judge, and I have acquitted you through my own blood. Your acquittal came at the price of my unparalleled sacrifice. That is why I am highly offended when I hear my children judge one another or indulge in self-hatred. If you live close to me and absorb my word, the Holy Spirit will guide and correct you as needed. There is no condemnation for those who belong to Me.”

Dear heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord we are so sorry we judge. We don't want to do anything that offends you. Help us repent Lord. Help us to turn away from gossiping and to do it no more. Lord you gave the ultimate sacrifice so our sins could be forgiven. The least we could do is accept that grace and not engage in gossip or self hatred.  You are our creator, you made us in your likeness and image, how could we hate anything you created? You are so amazing God. We are so grateful and we know there is nothing we could do to compare to your great sacrifice. We promise to try and stop judging others and ourselves. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name Amen.

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Salt & Light of the Earth

Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lamp stand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

When we look at what this verse means, we need to look at the purpose of salt.  Today we use salt for everything. We use it to flavor our food, as a preservative, it is also used in the manufacturing of soap.  We use salt to melt the ice in the winder and it is used for making chemicals like baking soda.  Back in the day salt was mainly used as an instrument to reduce the corruption of meat and other food so they would last longer.  I believe this is the way in which Jesus is comparing us to salt.  Just as salt was used to slow the corruption of the meat, we can slow the corruption of society.  However, we can only do this if we are living by God’s laws and spreading His word to others.  If we want to help slow the corruption of this world we need to be aware of our behavior and how we are living.  Are we living in a way that others will want to replicate?  Are we spreading the word of God through our actions?

The verse also says that we are the light of the world.  A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lamp stand, where it gives light to all in the house.  There is no need to hide our light.  I think we all hide our light at times.  We don’t mean to, we just assess our situation and decide whether we think the person we are talking to would be open to hearing what we have to say or not.  If we judge that they wouldn’t then we don’t say it.  I know I have done this before.  I wish I could say that I openly and freely talked about God all the time.  However, there are times when I hold back, times when I want to say something and I don’t.  When we do this, we are hiding our light under a bushel.  

This is not what God is calling us to do.  Jesus is telling us in this verse that our light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.  We need to shine the light of Christ before all those we meet.  Not just those that we think want to hear about God, but to all those we meet.  However, God isn’t saying that we need to hit people over the head with the word of God.  He isn’t saying that we need to make them sit down and listen to every word we have to say about the Lord.  The verse says that they may see our good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father.  If you feel like someone might not be open to hearing about the Lord then you can show them the Gospel with your actions.  You can go out of your way to be nice to them.  You can show them love or forgiveness even when they don’t deserve it.  You can be open when you meet them and not judge them, just accept them for who they are.  This will shine the light of Christ on them without having to say anything.

When I read the part of the verse that said, “That they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father,” I thought that sounded harder than I thought.  Doing good deeds can be difficult at times.  I am sure we all struggle from time to time with doing the right thing.  However, the part that really got me was when it said glorify your heavenly Father.  I wondered if I do this when I am around others.  I definitely do it when I prayed for something and I got what I prayed for.  However, do I always give the glory to God?  I am thinking about times when I am with those that I know don’t believe in God.  Do I still say “Praise God?”  Do I still give God the glory, or do I say it was a coincidence, do I say it was luck or do I not say anything?  I know what I would like to do.  I would like to always give God the glory, even in the presence of those that don’t believe.  However, I am not sure that I do.  After reading this verse I will now pay more attention to this.  I will be more intentional about letting my light shine and giving God the glory.

I have prayed for radical boldness over the years and God has increased my boldness.  I wouldn’t have thought even just a few years ago that I would be doing a podcast that is spreading God’s Word.  I wouldn’t have thought that I could get up in front of my prayer group and give a talk about God.  I can now pray over strangers that I don’t really know.  I still struggle with this one, but God is not done with me.  He is still working on me, just as He is still working on you.  If you are having trouble letting your light shine, just ask God for help. Ask Him to give you the boldness you need to talk about God in all situations.  He is longing for us to ask Him for help.  He is longing for us to help Him spread His light and His love.  I am getting better at giving God the Glory and that is all thanks to Him and His blessings on me.  

Be the salt of the earth.  Live in a way that slows the decay of morality in society today.  Live in a way that others want to imitate.  Preserve God’s ways and others will follow.  Also be the Light of the world.  Let your light shine so brightly that it can be seen by all you meet.  Let your words and actions spread the light and love of God.  Live in a way that inspires people to want what you have.  Then, give God all the Glory!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to be the salt of the earth.  Help us to live in a way that slows the decay of our world.  Help us to be the light of the world.  Help us to live in a way that lets your light shine through us on all those we meet.  Lord, you are so amazing and we are so grateful for all you do.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no.

James 5:12 "Above all, my beloved, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

What caught my attention about this verse was the part where it says, “let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no.”  I talked on Monday about trusting in the Lord and how it is difficult to trust others because they will let us down.  Today this verse is teaching us the importance of keeping our word.  It starts off by telling us not to swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath.  When the verse is talking about not swearing, it is not talking about using bad language or cussing.  Although, you probably shouldn’t do that either.  Have you ever said something like, “I swear on my… that I am telling the truth?  We all have filled those… in with various words.  We do this to convince the other person that we are telling the truth.  However, this verse is telling us that we shouldn’t have to do that.  If you were a person that always told the truth, you would not have to swear by anything.  

God is calling us to be men and women of our word.  He is telling us in this verse that if we say something we should do it.  Also if we say no to something we should be true to that as well.  I don’t know about you, but I have trouble with both of these.  I think we live in a busy world these days and many of us are doing more than we should be doing.  We say we will do something even though we don’t really have time to do it and then we are surprised when it doesn’t get done.  We also live in a distracted world, so even if we do have time to do it, we get distracted so easily we forget to do it and it doesn’t get done.  Does this sound familiar to anyone, or is it just me?  The thing is, it isn’t just God that wants us to keep our word.  We want to be someone people can trust as well.  We don’t feel good when we say we will do something and then we don’t do it.  

Do you know the person we tend to let down the most?  Ourselves, we tend to do things for other people more than we do them for ourselves.  Working out is really good for me and yet, I don’t show up for myself in that area.  For instance, I am running a half marathon with my sister for her birthday.  I know I need to train.  I told myself that I would run Thursday and Saturday this week.  I didn’t, even though I didn’t have any reason not to run.  Yet, I wasn’t feeling well this morning and I still showed up for workout because I didn’t want to leave my friend hanging.  Do you have areas in your life where you do this too?  You will show up and do what you said if other people are involved, your kids, your spouse, your parents, but if it is just for you, you don’t show up.  I know I can’t be the only person that does this.

Why is it important to realize if you are keeping your word or not?  There are a few reasons.  First, God is telling us right here is this scripture to keep our word.  To let our “yes” be a yes and “no” be no.  One reason it is so important to keep our word is because if we start to think of ourselves as someone that doesn’t keep our word we might not think it is as important to tell the truth.  We may start to tell little white lies to cover up for the fact that we did’t do what we said we would do.  For instance, you might say, “I was sick and couldn’t get it done,” when really you just forgot.  Or maybe you say that you emailed it to them and it must have gotten lost  or sent to their junk mail folder.  You didn’t intentionally mean to let them down, you just forgot to do the thing and now you don’t want them to be upset with you so you are covering up for it.  I am willing to bet that we have all been on one end of this type of situation.  Either you have been the one telling the little white lie to get out of trouble for forgetting to do something, or you have been the one let down and you knew they were lying to get out of it.  Why do we do that?  Why do we instinctively make up a story sometimes when we feel like we might be in trouble or we might hurt someone’s feelings?

I am not sure why we do it, or why I do it.  I am guessing it is because we don’t want to admit that we messed up.  I don’t want to feel like I let someone down again, I feel vulnerable, and so I make up a lie to protect myself.  

Did you know when we consistently let ourselves down, we stop believing in ourselves.  We start to tell ourselves, consciously or subconsciously that we can’t do things.  We start to believe that we are not someone that keeps his or her word because we haven’t been keeping our word to ourselves.  Then we stop making commitments to ourselves because we assume we will just break them.  We might stop making commitments to others too.  Say you decide you want to say the rosary every day to grow closer to God.  If you have consistently been blowing yourself off, then you may decide not to even try to say the rosary because you tell yourself you will just quit anyway.  This can happen in all areas of our life.  We may talk ourselves our of volunteering at church because we tell ourselves we will not show up and then will let someone down.  Do you see how this can spread and start to limit you in your life?  

Besides giving up on believing in yourself, telling these white lies can also spread to you telling  bigger lies.  Luke 16:10 says, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”  If we are dishonest in the little things in our lives, we will start to get comfortable telling these little lies and then we might start to tell bigger lies.  This verse is telling us that if we lie in little ways, we will also lie in big ways.  Lying is one of those things that can snowball.  You can start off telling a small lie with the best of intentions and before you know it the lie has gotten out of control.  Even if this has never happened to you, I am sure you have seen this in enough movies.  The guys makes up a little lie about having a dog to get the girl to go on a date with him.  What could it hurt?  Then they hit it off and start dating and she wants to meet this dog.  So he borrows his neighbors dog and says that it is his dog.  And then they get serious and she is spending more time at his house and wondering where the dog is but now he is afraid to tell her the truth because too much time has gone by and I am sure you can tell the rest of that story.  Even if we don’t know exactly how it ends, we know it doesn’t end well.  Lying doesn’t get us anywhere.  The truth always comes out in the end.  We should all save ourselves time and pain and learn from this wise verse.  “Above all, my beloved, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

Just real quick, I want to address the you may not fall under condemnation part.  Sometimes this condemnation comes from the person that you lied to.  When they find out you lied, they will not be happy and you will feel their condemnation. Other times the condemnation will come from yourself.  You know when you are being honest and when you are not.  When you are lying, even if you don’t get caught you will feel awful.  You know that you deceived someone and you will feel it inside.  And finally, God knows when you are being truthful and when you aren’t.  You may be able to hide it from others, you may even be able to justify it to yourself, but you cannot hide the truth from the Lord.  We are not perfect, we will all make mistakes.  However, let us try to be men and women of our word.  Let’s be different from the rest of the world.  God set us apart, let’s act like it and be a people who take our word very seriously.  Take time and answer questions intentionally.  If you don’t have time, be honest and say no.  If you say no, make sure to do it.  Try not to tell a lie, even if it seems little and harmless and like no one will get hurt.  You never know the unintended consequences.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to be men and women of honor.  Help us to keep our word and do as we say we will.  Help us to pause and consider what is being asked and then help us to discern if it is right for us.  Lord, we want to be truthful people, help us.  Help us also keep our word to ourselves.  Help us to show up even when we feel like no one is counting on us but ourselves.  Help us see our worth and that we are worthy of the same consideration we give others.  We love you so much Lord.  You are amazing and we ask all of this in accordance of your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

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The Chinese Bamboo Tree

Psalm 40:1-2 "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”

I have been doing a study on patience lately.  When I heard this verse I thought it was a great one to remind us that when we wait patiently for the Lord He hears our cries.  I thought the imagery in this verse was so good.  Have you ever felt like you have been in a desolate pit?  Maybe you feel like you are in one right now.  I know when a friend of mine got Covid, that is exactly how she felt.  She felt like she was all alone in a pit and she was never going to get out of it.  It can be so easy to feel this way.  Having patience and trusting the Lord is easier when you know how long you have to be patient for.  For instance, being patient at the red light until the light turns green is easier because you know it won’t be long until it turns green.  Being patient while you are pregnant is not easy, however, you know the pregnancy part will be over in 9 months.  If you have an end date, being patient is easier.  You can at least count down and you know how long you need to endure whatever you are going through.  

What about when you don’t know.  What about when you are in a situation that feels like you are stuck in a miry bog and you have no idea when you will get out of it. I honestly have no idea what a miry bog is, but when I picture it I picture being stuck in the mud.  Has that ever happened to you?  You are walking in the woods, or somewhere, and you step in mud and your foot gets stuck.  Then every step you take requires a great deal of effort, especially if you want to keep your shoes on and not lose them in the mud.  If you have never been in this situation I am sure you can still picture it.  This type of situation would be easier to handle if you could see the end of the mud.  If this mud was just a small puddle and the end was in sight.  You could figure out in your head how many more steps until you are out of the mud.  Being able to see the end of the mud doesn’t make your steps easier, but it does make it easier for you to keep taking steps.  

When I am doing a workout, I do much better, push much harder if the person lets me know how much long I have to do.  If we have been doing an exercise for awhile and it is difficult, sometimes I will take a break.  I struggle with pushing my self with exercise at times.  However, if the person leading says something like, “ok, just 8 more, or 10 more seconds,” then I will keep pushing because I know I can do it for that much longer.  However, if they do not let me know then I am more likely to take a break.  Is this you too?  Do you find it easier to make it though difficult times if there is an end in sight, if you know how long you will be suffering for?  Have you ever been going through something that seemed to be lasting forever with no end in sight?  How did you handle it?  Were you able to keep trusting in the Lord?

The reason I think this verse is a great reminder to us is because it says the Lord hears our cries.  Even when we don’t think He is listening, He is.  The Lord will pick you up out of that desolate pit and that miry bog and He will put you upon rock.  He will make your steps secure.  How many of you could use that right about now?  How many of you would love to just feel like you were on solid ground, like you footing was secure.  So much in this world seems unsteady right now.  There is so much around us that is changing, so good and some bad.  When a lot of things change all at once it can make us feel unsteady.  We are creatures of habit, we don’t tend to like change very much.  So, if there is so much in the world that feels unsteady right now, how do we continue to wait patiently for the Lord?

Patience is something that we need to continually work on.  It is not something that you will wake up with one day.  It would be great if we could go to bed one day not being a patient person at all and then wake up one more with the patience of a Saint.  However, that is not how patience works.  We have to work at patience, we have to practice being patient, we have to nurture this virtue and it will grow, slowly.  Have you ever heard about the Chinese Bamboo tree?  The following is an excerpt from my study on Peace, written by Robert Strand.  

The Chinese plant the seed; water and fertilize it, but the first year nothing happens.  The second year they water and fertilizer, and still nothing happens. No sign of life bursting through the earth. The third and fourth year they water and fertilize it… And sometime during the course of the fifth year in a period of about six weeks, this bamboo tree grows to a height of approximately 90 feet! The question is: did it grow 90 feet in six weeks or did it grow 90 feet in five years? The obvious answer is that it took all of the five years because without the nurture and care of the preceding period of time, there would be no tree.

Patience is like this Bamboo tree.  It can seem like we are working hard to develop patience and we are getting no where and then one day we realize that someone cut us off in traffic and we didn’t yell at them, or our child broke something and we didn’t fly off the handle.  If you have been trying to grow in patience for a long time and you have seen no growth I ask you, have you invited God into your process?  Have you asked God to help you?  We can’t do anything on our own and yet we always try.   This is why I want to give you this friendly reminder that if you have been trying to increase your patience on your own, you should stop now and invite the Lord in.  I know we hesitate to ask the Lord for help because we think we can do it all on our own.  Or, maybe we didn’t ask because we think He is too busy to bother Him with such a small request.  Whatever the reason for not inviting the Lord in, I urge you to reconsider.  You will be trying in vain to grow in patience on your own.  Why do we always want to take the long way around instead of stopping, asking God for help and letting Him show us the short cut?  

Being patient is beneficial is so many ways.  However, the best way is because it helps improve your relationships.  Whether that relationship is with you and your family, your friends, your coworkers, or the cashier at the local coffee shop.  All your relationships will improve as your ability to be patient improves.  I have been told I have the patience of a Saint.  I think some of those patience I came by naturally as my mother is the oldest of 10 children and she and my dad had 11 children of their own.  She has passed some of her patience down to me.  However, a lot of the patience I have was forged through years of struggling.  I was not always this patient but life kept throwing me into circumstances where if I wasn’t patient the situation would have gotten so much worse.  I was constantly being put into situations with people that were very impatient.  If I was also impatient, we would have gotten no where.  We would have never left the house.  I had to learn to be patient out of a necessity and I did.  I asked God for help because I know I can do nothing without Him.  I am not telling you this to brag about my patience, I am telling you this because if I did it, you can too.  Is it easy?  No, but nothing worth having is ever easy.  You can grow in patience.  Just ask the Lord to help you and then take small, intentional steps in the right direction.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to grow in patience.  Help us to wait patiently for you and your timing.  We are grateful you hear our cry when we are struggling and you lift us out of our pit and put us back on steady ground.  We can’t thank you enough Lord.  Please help us to not tire of trying to grow in patience.  Please encourage us to keep going when we want to give up.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me in this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow’s guest speaker is Deborah G.  She is going to witness about how God walked with her through the most difficult time of her life.  She was in the perfect marriage, her kids had just left the house and her and her husband had just built there dream home together.  Deborah thought everything was going great when she was blindsided by the news that her husband was having an emotional affair with someone else.  She now knows God in a way she never did before.  She feels so close to Him and although life is still really hard, she can see how He is with her every step of the way. Deborah gives a powerful example of how she felt the real presence of the Holy Spirit.  You will not want to miss this witness.  I look forward to sharing it with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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It Would Have Been Enough…

Psalm 40:4-5 “Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.”

Happy are those who make the Lord their trust.  Do you know why this is?  Do you know why if you trust in the Lord you are happy?  Because the Lord always come through in a way that the rest of the world doesn’t.  The Lord doesn’t let you down.  He doesn’t say He will do something and then forget to do it.  Have you ever been let down by someone in your life?  Have you ever had someone say they would do something and then they didn’t.  I am willing to bet you have.  I think we all have.  Personally I have had people let me down.  They didn’t mean to, but they did.  I have also let people down.  I said I would do something and then I didn’t.  Not because I was trying to hurt them, but because I forgot.  I know that saying I forgot isn’t an excuse, or a good reason, I am just explaining how sometimes we can let people down without meaning to.  

God doesn’t do this though.  God has never forgotten a promise.  He has never forgotten to show up when we needed Him.  He has never not been there for us.  This is why we are happy when we make the Lord our trust.  However, if we place our trust in the things of this world, those that go astray after false gods, we will be let down.  We want to believe we can trust those that are proud.  They tell us how strong they are and how they can take care of everything and then they let us down.  Humans are fickle.  We are there for each other when it is convenient for us.  We are there for each other until something better comes along.  The divorce rate in America is about 44 %.  That is just less than half of all married couples.  When you get married you put your trust in your spouse.  Your trust them to be faithful and to uphold the marriage vows.  You trust that you will be with them forever.  That is not the case for a lot of people these days.

I think if we are honest and we look around at the world today there are lots of people that we should be able to trust and yet we can’t.  We elect politicians expecting that they will uphold their word and do what they said they would do before they got elected, however, we can’t always trust they will do that. We should be able to trust police officer’s to be fair and just and that is not always the case.  We should be able to trust priests and that is not always the case either.  Children should be able to trust that their parents will always protect them, but sometimes they don’t.  There are untrustworthy people in all walks of life.  Poor or rich, it doesn’t matter, you can find people that abuse trust no matter where you look.  However, God will never abuse your trust.  He will always be there for you and will protect you always.  

The second half of this verse says, “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.” How great is it that God multiplies his wondrous deeds and his thoughts towards us.   It is so true that none can compare to God.  It’s interesting that we turn to other things before God and yet when we think of what God has done for us vs. what the other things we are turning to have done, there is no comparison.  I like how it says, if I were to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.  Have you ever done this?  Have you ever tried to count your blessings?  I heard of this Jewish tradition of singing a song about the Exodus during passover.  Dayenu (“It Would Have Been Enough”) is a song that lists a series of kindnesses God performed for the Jewish people during and after the Exodus and concludes each with the word dayenu — “it would have been enough.”  Here are the words:

If He had taken us out of Egypt and not made judgements on them; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had made judgments on them and had not made [them] on their gods; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had made [them] on their gods and had not killed their firstborn; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had killed their firstborn and had not given us their money; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had given us their money and had not split the Sea for us; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had split the Sea for us and had not taken us through it on dry land; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had taken us through it on dry land and had not pushed down our enemies in [the Sea]; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had pushed down our enemies in [the Sea] and had not supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years and had not fed us the manna; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had fed us the manna and had not given us the Shabbat; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had given us the Shabbat and had not brought us close to Mount Sinai; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had brought us close to Mount Sinai and had not given us the Torah; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had given us the Torah and had not brought us into the land of Israel; [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had brought us into the land of Israel and had not built us the ‘Chosen House’ [the Temple; it would have been] enough for us.

I remember when I first learned of this tradition the author was talking about how this is a great tradition for us to adopt to show our gratitude.  Although, instead of recounting the story of Exodus, we could recount the story of our lives.  You would make stanzas full of all the amazing things God has done for you.  For example:

If God had helped me get my Master’s degree and not given me such amazing friends, it would have been enough for me.

If God had given me such amazing friends and not introduced me to my husband, it would have been enough.

If God had introduced me to my husband and not moved us to incredible places to live, it would have been enough for me.  

If God had moved us to incredible places and not showed us beautiful places to travel, it would have been enough.

If God sent us on beautiful vacations and not give us beautiful children, it would have been enough.

If God gave us beautiful children and not moved us back close to family, it would have been enough.

Hopefully you get the point.  I am sure I did not do that perfectly and I would definitely like to spend some more time on it to really come up with some great examples of how much God has blessed me and my family.  God has blessed all of us.  If you really sit down and think about it I bet you can come up with all sorts of blessings that God has given to you or brought into your life.  I am sure if you really think about it you will see that God has multiplied His wondrous deeds just as it say in this verse.  Putting our trust in the Lord will make you happy.  Thinking about all your blessing will make you and God happy.  What if you took a few minutes out of your day today and came up with a Dayenu song of your own.  What a great way to thank God for all He has done.  I have been told when you sing, you are praying twice.  Let's all create this Dayenu song and sing it to the Lord today!  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are amazing and we are so grateful for all you have done for us.  Lord, we want to trust you.  Please point out any ways we are placing are trust in others.  Help us to trust you first and foremost Lord.  You are our trust.  Lord, help us to each write a Dayenu song to you.  Help us to remember all your wondrous deeds in our lives.  We know you have done so much, help us to recall it all.  Lord you are so special.  You are the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.  We are grateful to be your sons and daughters, your prince and princesses.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Words Can Wound

James 3:2-5 “ For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies.  Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!”

This verse is so good because it shows us how important our words are.  The verse begins by telling us a very important thing many of us overlook.  It says, “for all of us make many mistakes.”  That in itself could be a whole episode.  How many of us jump at someone for making a mistake?  How many of us get really annoyed when they mess up our order at the restaurant, or ever worse at the coffee shop?  Imagine you haven’t had your coffee yet in the morning and then you go to take a sip of the newly made coffee as you are driving away from Dunkin Donuts and there person at drive through messed up your order.  How would you respond in a situation like this?  I know a lot of people that would not respond well.  I called the pharmacy to check on my prescription today and the guy said that he was not sure what happened but it never got ordered.  He just placed the order and it can get here by tomorrow.  He was nice and apologized and said he could call around to other local pharmacies if I needed it today.  It is face wash, so I didn’t need it right away, but you could tell by his voice that he was surprised when I wasn’t angry with them.  Anger seems to be the norm these days.

However, I wonder if that would change if we were to remember what it says in this verse.  I wonder how we would act towards people when they made a mistake if the fact that we all make many mistakes was always at the forefront of our mind.  I can get so upset with my husband for forgetting to do something I asked him to do and yet I sometimes forget to do what he asks me to do as well.  I can be frustrated when someone forgets to call me back and yet I forget to call people back as well.  Do you see where I am going with this?  We all make mistakes and maybe remembering this will help us be more compassionate to others when they mess up?  

The next line says, “Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle.”  This is an interesting sentence.  If you are able to speak perfectly, you are able to keep your whole body in check.  I love the two analogies it gives.  The first one talks about how if we put a bit into the mouth of a horse we can guide their whole body.  The second one is comparing us to a ship.  It talks about how large ships are and how it takes strong winds to drive them, but yet a small rudder guides them.  The verse is saying that our tongue is like this.  We must be careful about what we say because our words can guide our whole body.  There is a saying that my friend had up outside of her door at work and I have loved it since the moment I read it.  I feel this is similar to what this verse is trying to tell us.  The quote is from Lao Tzu and it says, “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

Sometimes we take our words lightly.  We don’t pay a lot of attention to what we say because we all learned that nursery rhyme when we were kids and we believed it.  You know the one I am talking about, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  I think that came straight from the enemy, because it is a lie.  Words can hurt people far more than sticks and stones ever could.  I am not saying sticks and stones don’t hurt, however, your bruises usually heal.  Some things we say to people can leave a scar on them forever.  There is a story I heard a long time ago that explains how much words can hurt better than I can.  I am not sure who wrote this original story.  

“There once was a little boy who had a very bad temper. His father decided to hand him a bag of nails and said that every time the boy lost his temper, he had to hammer a nail into the fence. On the first day, the boy hammered 37 nails into that fence. The boy gradually began to control his temper over the next few weeks, and the number of nails he was hammering into the fence slowly decreased. He discovered it was easier to control his temper than to hammer those nails into the fence. Finally, the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father the news and the father suggested that the boy should now pull out a nail every day he kept his temper under control. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. ‘You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.’”

I believe this story is a powerful reminder of how important it is to choose your words carefully.  When you are angry, walk away, take a breather, try not to say anything to anyone while you are still angry.  Sometimes we say horrible things to people because we are hurting and we want others to hurt to.  I get it, it doesn’t feel good when we are hurting.  However, what good are we doing if we pass that hurt on to others.  Then we both feel like crap in the moment and you will feel even worse when you have time to calm down and think about how bad you made someone feel.  If you struggle with saying unkind things when you are angry, and I think most of us are, pray about this.  Ask God to help change you.  He is great at that.  

The last sentence says, “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!”  You can say some small thing that you think is no big deal and yet it sets the fire ablaze.  We don’t know everyone’s story.  We don’t know what they have been through.  You may have a cashier who messes up your order and you think she is just incompetent.  What you don’t know is she just lost her mother three days ago.  You might be annoyed because someone is driving too fast, but what you don’t know is that their wife is in the ICU and they want to get there before she dies.  We don’t know peoples story.  What if we treated everyone like they were going through a really hard time.  What if the next time you want to say something unkind to someone you imagined they had just gone through something awful and you cut them some slack?  How different would this world be if we all started treating each other with the compassion we show those who have just lost a loved one? There are two other sayings that I love and they may sound cheesy, but I love them and so I am going to share them anyway.  The first is, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”  This is so true.  Let’s just all try to be kinder to everyone we meet.  The second is “Sprinkle love like confetti.”  I love the picture I get in my mind when I picture myself sprinkling confetti.  Our words matter.  Our words have the power to lift someone up or to keep them down.  Use your words to lift someone up today, you won’t be sorry!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to see how important our words are.  Help us to understand their power and to only use them for good.  Help us to remember we all make many mistakes and to be more compassionate when others make mistakes.  Lord help us to choose our words carefully so we do not inflict wounds with our words.  You are amazing Lord and we love you.  We are grateful for your love.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name Amen.  

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Our Children

Deuteronomy 6:20-25 “ When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?” then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.  The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household.  He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.”

This is something that has been on my heart a lot lately.  This whole verse is about sharing our religion and the reason behind it with our children.  I was much better about this when the kids were younger.  When my kids were little they gave me a run for my money, but they were usually pretty well behaved at church.  We would put veggie tales on for them when we would go on car rides.  As they got older I feel we tried to share the faith with them but they didn’t want to hear it and we had so many other issues going on that we didn’t have the energy to fight about our faith.  We did bring them to church every week and have them make their sacraments so I am glad about that.  As they got older, brining them to church got more and more difficult.  I would let them take books and the younger two would just read books the whole time.  However, they weren’t old enough to leave at home and they would refuse to come if they couldn’t bring books.  So, if I wanted to make it to church, this was how I was able to get there.  

I talked about this in confession and the priest told me that at least they were there and that we aren’t in charge of making sure they get something out of it.  We never know how much they are actually taking in, even if they are reading something else.  He told me not to stress about it, just to hand it over to God in prayer.  Which now that I am thinking of it is what we should always do when we feel stuck and something is weighing on us.  However, we all need to be reminded of that every now and then.  We brought our children to church every week until our boys were in 10th, 8th & 6th grade.  Why did we stop?  The pandemic happened.  When everyone stopped going to church so did we.  My husband, Tony and I watched church on TV, but we did not make the kids watch with us.  Then when we started going again, we started going at 7 on Sunday morning.  I wasn’t going to wake my kids up at 7 on a Sunday morning to go as they were staying up late at night.  

So, here we are 2 years after churches opened back up and my kids aren’t going to church with us.  I was talking with the priest on Friday because they had confession at the conference and he told me not to worry.  He said confirmation is about the person making a decision on their own to become a member of the Catholic Church and it wasn’t something I needed to make them do.  He did suggest we have more conversations about church.  Instead of making the kids go, inviting them to go.  Maybe going at a time they are more likely to be awake for and asking them if they want to come along.  He said let them know the option for confirmation is still open and ask if they are interested.  I know I am not the only mom out there that feels like I am failing in the area of passing our faith down to our children.  

I liked this passage because it talked about how when our kids ask why they need to follow the commandments we should tell them about all God has done for us.  That seems like a much better answer than because I said so, or because God said so.  I think when we think about all that God has done for us, it makes it easier to want to follow His way.  I love to hear stories about the signs and wonders in the Bible.  When I read the Old Testament about how many amazing things God did for His people, it just reinforces how much He loves us.  Then when we read about Jesus in the New Testament, it amazing.  It truly amazes me how much God loves His people, how much He loves you and I.  When I think about all that God asks us to do, it seems so small in comparison to all He has done for us.  I know our children may not feel this way.  They may not get it and I think that is ok. God gave them free will and so who are we to take that away from them.  God knows that it is not true love if it is not freely given.  We can force our children to go to mass, but we can’t force them to love God.  Our job is not to convince our children of what is right, it is to point them in the right direction.  Our job is to be a witness and an example of Christ to them.  If we are doing our best to live like Christ, then hopefully when our children see us, they will see Christ.  

One of the speakers at the conference this weekend said something I really liked.  I don’t remember their exact words but the idea was that we should live our lives with such love and joy that people just look at us and say, “I want what you have.”  Are you doing this?  Are you living a life so filled with the Spirit that people say, “I want what you have?”  I think sometimes we don’t go about living our faith with joy.  For instance, I had a friend who told me that when she was younger she would fast one day a week.  However, when she was fasting she would be so hungry that she would be grumpy with her family.  This is not going to make anyone else want to fast.  Whatever we do for God we should do with love and joy.  If our children see us obeying the commandments, not because we have to, but because we want to, they may be more likely to follow in our footsteps.  If they see that we are able to handle all life throws at us because we rely on God, they are more likely to want that.  Our kids are more likely to listen to our actions than to our words.  We don’t have to lecture them about how great God is and how important it is that they follow His ways.  If we live in God’s ways and they see how much joy and love we are filled with, they will follow.  

I have been hesitant to talk with my boys about God.  I mean I bring it up wherever it can naturally fit into a conversation but that is about it.  I am going to try to talk to them about it more intentionally.  Maybe start with inviting them to mass once a month with going out to lunch afterwards.  Or, maybe just inviting each week, even if they aren’t coming.  I will pray for the Holy Spirit to show me any ways in which I could be more of an example to our boys.  I will make sure when I am talking about God or our religion I am doing it in a way that shows my love and joy for all of it. Like this verse says, I will talk about how many amazing things God has done for us.  How many signs and wonders He has done, not just back in the days when the Bible was written, but also in our family.  Ultimately, it is God who will bring our children back to the faith.  He loves our children more than we do and He will ensure they are taken care of.  However, we can do our part by sharing our faith with them in the form of stories and with our actions.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to teach our children about your goodness.  Help us to relay all the ways you have helped us in the past.  Help us to tell our children about all the amazing signs and wonders you have given to your people.  Lord, we know that when we spread those amazing stories people can’t help but believe because you are so amazing.  You make impossible things happen and we are so very grateful.  Lord, we entrust our children to you.  We ask that you make up for all of our flaws and mistakes we made while raising them.  We did the best we could Lord, we leave the rest up to you.  We ask that if you want us to do more, then you have the Holy Spirit put that on our hearts.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day.  

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

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