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They’re playing our song!

23 Nov

Don’t you love it when you hear one of your “songs”? You know, those special tunes that move your soul and remind you of your deepest dreams and convictions. What are the songs that you hear in your car, the grocery store or your office, and that immediately stir your emotions, and transport you in to a distant memory or moment from the past?

What’s your special song between you and the Lord? Do you have one? In Hosea 2:14-15 God reveals His heart where your “song” is concerned. He says: “Behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak kindly to her. Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor (trouble) as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth.” What songs did you sing “in your youth”? Can you still remember them? Has life made you forget the words? Or have you heard the words so often that they’ve lost some of their magic? God wants you to “sing as in the days of your youth,” and if your youth was a terrible, shameful place, He wants to “restore your youth” (Psalm 103:5) and put “a new song” in your mouth (Psalm 40:3). Go there with Him this holiday season—He wants to give you a new and special song to carry in to a New Year!

The perfect teachers my daughters never wanted

6 Jul
Children in a Japanese elementary school or &q...

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We all cried a few weeks ago at the end of this school year as we said goodbye to Mr. Remedios and Mrs. Colinco (Amber and Maddie’s 6th and 3rd grade teachers). They were AWESOME teachers. They taught the girls well, they were sensitive to the uniqueness of the girls’ personalities, they were challenging, and they were fun. They were a large part of why both of the girls said they had a fantastic year in school.

The funny thing is that we didn’t want them as our teachers. Amber and Maddie each had their heart set on different teachers, and they even prayed in multiple family times that God would give them the teachers they were hoping for.

As most parents do, Jessica and I added our own desperate prayers, pleading with God to provide what the girls were hoping for. I remember how our hearts sank when He didn’t. We drove to the school late one night at the end of our summer vacation to see the posted classroom assignments, and we felt deep disappointment upon discovering that neither girl got the teacher they were hoping for.

What we didn’t know at the time was that He was giving them something better. At the end of the year, we were thanking God that He didn’t give us what we asked for—we were thanking Him for knowing best.

I realize that life is rarely as simple as elementary school teacher assignments, but the principle is still true: God knows, and can ultimately be trusted with what matters most.

A blank page

22 Dec

You should see her. Her blue eyes twinkle, her lips part in a mischievous smile, and she turns her body slightly so I can’t quite see what she’s drawing. She’s cleared the table and given herself plenty of room to spread out her crayons, markers, and pencil sharpener. I ask her what she’s going to draw, and her only response is a knowing smirk–I’m not sure she’s decided yet. She’s just glorying in all of the potential of a clean, unspoiled, blank page.

Madelyn’s paper is a lot like a new year–a chance to start over and allow God to begin writing out His goals and aspirations for our lives. I wonder what He will do with us this year? I wonder whom we’ll meet? I wonder if this will be the year that some of our dreams come true? Perhaps answers to some of our deepest prayers have been post-marked for 2011! We can’t control what God will write on the pages of this New Year, but we can decide several things:

  1. We can decide to give Him the pen
  2. We can commit to follow whatever marching orders He writes out for us
  3. And we can choose to look away from the wrinkly, smudged pages of last year, and start hoping and believing for His good plans to be accomplished in 2o11!

God bless you in this New Year!

Love’s guarantee

15 Dec
Love for Arts

Image via Wikipedia

Before his death, Jessica’s grandfather was known to frequently say, “Whatever is not conceived and carried out in love will surely fail.” Aren’t those profound words? It reminds me of when the Proverb writer said to his son, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:3) He was saying essentially the same thing as Jessica’s grandfather: keep loving, remain faithful, and success will take care of itself. The Apostle Paul said it this way, “Love never fails.” If love never fails, then victory must be guaranteed whenever we conceive and carry out our plans from a place of authentic love.

To live up to these words would probably be a good New Year’s resolution for most of us (it certainly would be for me). And it should be a doable resolution since love is the natural byproduct of a genuine, Christian life. Even as we reflect on Christ’s amazing love for us this Christmas season, let’s commit to funneling that same love in to the world around us in 2011 and beyond.

Training wheels

22 Sep

We were having the perfect day, you know the ones where you want to freeze time and enjoy the moment forever. Madelyn and I were on our way to the park pursuing our ongoing quest to get her off of her training wheels, and she was stealing more of my heart with every passing second—that is until she asked the question: “You’re not going to let me fall are you, Dad?” I tried explaining to her that not even an earthquake could get me to loosen my grip on her handlebars, but it only worked for a few minutes before she asked it again: “You’re not going to let me fall are you?” My emotions yo-yoed from mild annoyance to grief that she really thought I might let her fall, to conviction as I realized that I do the same thing to God. “You’re not going to let me fall are you, Father?” I wonder how often He looks down on us from heaven grieved that we need to keep asking. He might reply: “I gave my Son to rescue you—I’m not about to waste His sacrifice and effort. I love you and if you will just trust me and obey me, you will see that eventually, all things will have worked together for your good.” (Romans 8:28)

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