Eyes Fixed On Jesus

“This is such a nice, cozy little car. I love how it drives. We should drive it more often. Maybe this will be my car someday.”

That’s what I was thinking as I was driving to the bank with my dad a few Saturdays ago. We were driving our little Escort, which we don’t drive very often.

As we were gliding along the highway and I was thinking these sweet thoughts, I suddenly noticed a creepy, furry, gray, gross ball on our windshield wiper. That couldn’t be… Was it…. Oh no. A MOUSE!

The next few minutes are rather blurry in my recollection. I clasped one hand over my mouth and held onto the wheel in my other hand. I started screaming and crying. Then Dad was yelling at me. “Hold onto the wheel! What’s the matter? Stop screaming!” I couldn’t speak. All I could do was scream.

“JENNY!” Dad yelled at the top of his lungs. “THE ROAD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE MOUSE!!”

I swerved off the road and pulled over into a parking lot. I jumped out of the car, nearly choking myself in the tangled seat belt. I hurried over to the other side of the parking lot and watched as Dad shooed the mouse away with an umbrella.

After the mouse ran into a bush, Dad mercifully examined the entire car for any more rodents, trying to assure me that a mouse couldn’t get inside the car from outside (is that really true?). Finally I mustered up my courage and slid into the passenger seat. Dad drove the rest of the way.


Okay, in retrospect I’ll admit that a mouse can’t hurt me (maybe). Certainly rushing, oncoming cars are more dangerous. But at the time all I could see and think about was that little mouse.

This reminds me of our spiritual lives. How easy it is to take our eyes off of God’s bigger picture, eternity! How easily we are distracted by earthly things which will tomorrow be gone (Matthew 6:30).

I wonder what God thinks when He looks down on us, as He watches us fret and fuss over such silly things (i.e., man’s admiration, pleasure, money, mice on the windshield). He sees the whole picture- He sees eternity- He is eternity.

“Oh, My child,” He says. “Come to Me, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

I was reading this verse the other day and asked myself, “Am I willing to be lowly, as Jesus was? Am I really willing to take His yoke and yield myself totally to Him?”

And yet His yoke is easy and light. He has overcome the world (1 John 4:4).

What a good God we serve! He is faithful to us when so often we fail Him. How can we ever take our eyes off of Him, who has done so very much for us?

I want to say along with Paul, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (I Corinthians 2:2). Is He really all we think about? Is He our first and only love? Does our passion for Him consume every detail of our lives?

I want everything I do to count for eternity. Before every activity I want to ask myself, “Will this further the kingdom of God? Is this what Jesus would do?” Truly, nothing can be more important than the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It is the only thing we can’t do in heaven!

God, I love You and I want to love You more. Make me “meet for the Master’s use.” Keep my eyes on You.


“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

The Confessions of a Procrastinator

Procrastination : The act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying or deferring an action to a later time. I admit it. I am a procrastinator. I hate to confess the truth, but it is the truth nonetheless and lately I have been forced to face the fact. Consider the following scenario…


On a sunny Monday afternoon, I took a break from the confusing web of elements and calorimetry called Chemistry to step outside and get the mail. The air felt so refreshing and I took my time walking down the driveway, relishing in the freedom of the outdoors. Opening the mailbox, I pulled out a big stack of envelopes. Catalogs, bills, more catalogs, oh no! Three letters addressed me? In my mind’s eye, I saw these three envelopes being added to the large pile of unanswered letters on my desk. With a resigned sigh, I try to erase this disturbing image from my mind and head back inside where duty always awaits…

One day it is letters I need to reply to, another day it is my room that dearly needs to be cleaned or my journal that hasn’t been written in for three months. Time flies by so quickly; projects pile up even faster There always seems to be something that needs to be done and yet always gets put off. I usually have good intentions. Oftentimes I have lain in bed making a mental list of everything I want (and need) to get done the next day. Unfortunately, my resolution wanes by morning and I go to bed this day frustrated at myself.

It is so easy to get discouraged and feel like giving up when the mounds of projects-yet-to-be-accomplished threaten to suffocate us.

Lately, I have felt my imperfections acutely. Sometimes it seems that other people can get things done much faster and better than I can. The other day I was feeling particularly down. I had such a long list of things that needed to be done. Why couldn’t I simply get them done? It was then that I felt convicted. I felt like God was saying to me, “Stop struggling on your own. Yield your imperfections to me, I want to show Myself strong through them.” I had been so short-sighted, so focused on the present that I had forgotten that there is One Who is much stronger than I and Who is always there so I don’t have to go through life on my own. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

When it seems like the feelings of defeat and doubt are going to bog you down, remember that you are God’s workmanship. We cannot do it on our own. We have to give our entire selves to God, who desires to do great things in our lives “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

A song that has come to mean much to me says this:
“I know it won’t be easy,
I never said it would.
But my strength will always be there,
My plans for you are good.
Remember that your weaknesses
Are perfect in my sight.
Only when you yield them to Me,
Can I turn them into might.”

It is a wonderful thing to know that God is completing a work in our lives. And He won’t put it off.

~ From Becky

Hope

You can see my garden straight through our kitchen windows, which has been the cause of much pain and humiliation for me. Ugh, my garden. My square little garden! What happened to you?

It started out rather beautifully this past spring. I weeded it, mulched it, trimmed it, planted it, sprayed it and watered it. I got several lovely little flowers to put in it. I tried my best to especially trim and water and mulch the two rose bushes- one yellow and one red- in hopes for beautiful blooms in June.

June came and the blooms came. But before I could even so much as glance at those rose buds they were covered in Japanese beetles! Gross. I sprayed them. I sprayed them again and again. But the beetles didn’t leave and I didn’t get one rose out of the several buds.

UGH. Soon weeds came. More bugs came. Bunnies and groundhogs. My garden became hopeless and slowly I began to give up on it. Now it is a huge mess with millions of weeds, all of them taller than I.

So you see why looking out the kitchen window at my flower garden- ahem, weed garden- always pains me.

But this morning as I sat down to breakfast I saw a flash of red out there. What was that?

It couldn’t be. Could it? Of course not, its October, not June.

Then I saw a flash of yellow. What was going on out there?

A short time later I trooped out to see. To my utter shock, there, beneath the grass and weeds and mess, was a beautiful red rose! The most beautiful red rose I had ever seen! It was big and full. It was deliciously and sweetly fragrant. Not one bug was on it.

On the bush beside it I saw four little yellow roses! How beautiful they were! Beautiful little rosebuds, deep golden with crimson tinges.

I walked back from my flower garden with a triumphant vase full of roses. “This is bizarre!” I said. “I’ve mulched, watered, and weeded that garden. Now that I finally leave it alone, it gives me beautiful flowers!”

“That sounds like a Bright Lights story,” Elizabeth said.

“There has to be a message in that,” said Mom. “Don’t give up hope! Maybe that’s what God is saying here!”

God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. Don’t give up hope!

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 43:5).

“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it” (Romans 8:24-25).

~From Jenny

The Wonderful Rewards Of Giving Praise

“Hi, Colin, come on in. Did you practice this week?”

“Not really.”

“Oh, well…. Let’s turn to page 35 in your piano book… ‘The Cowboy Song.’”

So Colin plays the Cowboy Song. He might get the notes and the rhythm wrong, but there is one thing he will always get right- dynamics. This goes back to an incident several months ago....

“Alright, let’s turn to page 15. Can you play ‘Willie and Tillie’ for me?”

And so he plays.

“Wow! That was great! The best thing you did in that song was dynamics! You played softly when you were supposed to, and when you got to the loud part you woke me back up! Great job on dynamics.”

Ever since that day dynamics has been Colin’s specialty. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but that little bit of praise- which he rightly deserved- certainly inspired him. Now he even corrects ME with dynamics!

Praise is a wonderful tool to motivate and encourage others. When you praise someone, they make that their “specialty” and strive to do even better in that area. For example, if you praise your sister for her joyfulness, she will try to be even more joyful!

The Bible tells us many times to speak words which edify and build others up.

“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do” (I Thessalonians 5:11).

“Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another” (Romans 14:19).

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

Praise vs. Criticism
As you probably know, it is far easier to criticize than it is to praise. We naturally criticize others but it takes extra effort to praise.

Often we will criticize others when we are feeling irritated. “Can’t you just be nice for once?” “You are so rude.” “You are so lazy.” You get the idea. Certainly there is a place for gentle, loving criticism (Matthew 18:15). But it must be done very carefully and humbly (see Matthew 7:1-6).

If we criticize in an unloving way (which is how we do it most of the time!) we are tearing others down. We must build them up! We must inspire them to seek the Lord and His character. We must let them know how we appreciate them and how we are thankful for them. Otherwise they will grow weary and downtrodden.

Praising others requires alertness and attentiveness on our part. We often take for granted or simply overlook the times when those around us do do well. We must be watching eagerly for opportunities to praise or else we will lose them.

Praising others also requires humility. We need to be willing to admit when they do well, especially when they do even better than we do. Praising others is also a great way to end or prevent arguments. It especially requires humility to admit their good points when you are irritated with their bad ones!

Aim to praise ten times more than you criticize.

Praise vs. Flattery
We certainly don’t want to give any place to flattery, which the Bible very often condemns (Psalm 5:9, Proverbs 6:24, Job 17:5). Sometimes we hold back from praising others because we don’t want to flatter them or puff them up. But praise is very different from flattery.

First, praise is sincere. Flattery is often given with an ulterior motive other than encouraging the other person. When we praise someone, we really mean it and our own purpose in telling them so is because we want to encourage them in the Lord.

Secondly, flattery is aimed at the outward appearance- “You are so gorgeous!” This really doesn’t encourage the other person in the Lord, and in fact, it’s hardly even a compliment. We can not do anything about our outward appearance, but we can work to develop inward beauty. Praise is directed to inward, Christlike character qualities- “I really appreciate your patience with your little brother” or “That was very compassionate of you to do that.”

How Can I Praise?
Some examples for praising would be:

“Wow, you did a great job sweeping the floor! That was very diligent work.”

“Thank you for your kind hospitality!”

“That was so thoughtful of you to say that.”

“You were so patient with that difficult situation.”

When you praise others, be enthusiastic. Show them that you are pleased and excited! Tell them specifically how you appreciated them.

It is also a wonderful idea to deflect praise when you are praised. For example, when someone compliments you for baking a special dish, you could say “Thank you! My mother taught me how to do that” or “I couldn’t have done it without so-and-so.”

What If I Can’t Think Of Anything To Praise?!

Sometimes certain people are harder to praise than others. :) We must be especially attentive with these people!

Every negative trait is a positive trait misused. For example, someone we would consider too gushy and sentimental is misusing the character quality of compassion. Someone who is possessive would be misusing the character quality of loyalty. Someone who is blunt would be misusing the quality of honesty. Someone who is stubborn would be misusing the quality of resourcefulness.

We need to learn to discern the positive qualities disguised in negative traits.

God bless you as you seek to build up those around you!

~posted by Jenny

Apple Picking

"I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God; Incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech.... Keep me as the apple of Your eye."
Psalm 17:6, 8a

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver."
Proverbs 25:11

"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night Shall not cease."
Genesis 8:22