Don't Miss The Blessings of the Season

This morning, I'd like to welcome guest blogger, Gayla Grace. Enjoy!

Photo Copyright Alycia W. Morales 2010

“It’s all about the baby.” Our pastor repeated those words several times in his recent sermon. “It’s all about the baby.”

How easily we forget the reason we celebrate Christmas: baby Jesus. How distracted we become as we search for the perfect gift and attend every Christmas program or play we find offered. How ungrateful we must appear to our precious Savior, whose birth we are celebrating, when He finds himself pushed aside amidst the chaos of the season.

How do we stay focused on the reason for the season and cherish the blessings that come with it?  We can start by honoring our faith through prayer and Bible study. It’s easy to skip our daily time with the Lord during a harried holiday schedule, but if we want to stay focused on the reason we celebrate, we must begin each day with a special time of concentrated focus on the Lord.

We also need to evaluate our schedule and determine what activities we can let go during the holiday season to allow for a less-harried routine. Although I love attending the symphony and other musical presentations during the holidays, I forego those activities right now to allow time to attend our children’s Christmas programs and carry out special family traditions. I’m also careful not to commit to every volunteer activity that comes my way. I’ve learned that, especially during the holiday season, the easiest way to take control of my time is to learn to say no, which allows me the opportunity to say yes to what’s more important.

We can experience extra blessings of the season if we allow ourselves to be “other-focused.” When we look for ways to meet the needs of someone hurting, or volunteer to help serve others less fortunate than ourselves, we experience our own blessing. During the Christmas season, our family likes to ring bells for the Salvation Army and help collect coins for their ministry. It reminds us the importance of giving.

Another way to experience the blessings of the season is to give the gift of grace to those around us. In our e-book, “Thriving at the Holidays: A Stepparent’s Guide to Success,” co-author Heather Hetchler and I talk about the importance of offering grace when tensions are high and emotions are heightened. Stress-filled days create difficult interactions, but a grace-filled attitude diffuses anger and glosses over criticism. It’s the perfect gift for every difficult encounter a loved one presents.    

The most cherished Christian holiday is in full motion. It’s easy to become distracted with the busyness of the season and lose focus of the blessings that accompany it. But when we intentionally focus on the beauty of the season and allow God’s sustaining hand to uphold us, we experience peace and joy throughout the season.

As you celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ - the baby - this month, don’t miss the blessings of the season.

 

Gayla Grace is a wife and mother to five children in her blended family. She and her husband, Randy, have been married 16 years and Gayla is passionate about helping others on the stepparenting journey due to the struggles she has walked through.  She has a Master’s degree in Psychology/Counseling and offers support through her blog and website at: www.stepparentingwithgrace.com.

She is co-author of a holiday e-book published in November, 2011 titled, “A Stepparent’s Guide to Success, Thriving at the Holidays- Unwrapping the Gift of Peace.” It can be purchased at www.stepparentingsuccess.com or on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes.

Deep Roots by Edie Melson

A man will not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will not be moved. Proverbs 12:3

Last weekend our family traveled to Mississippi. For those of you living in Mississippi or Louisiana, you know that the Labor Day Holidays were spent watching Tropical Storm Lee come onshore.

We were fortunate enough to be in Jackson, so all we experienced was a soggy weekend. It began raining thirty minutes after we arrived and didn’t end until after we left. The drive back to South Carolina wasn’t much fun, either.

Driving back along the interstate I couldn’t help but notice numerous trees down on the sides of the road. Although they were huge trees, it was obvious the damage hadn’t come from high winds. But there were enough toppled to make me curious about the cause.

As I considered the soggy chaos, I realized the prolonged soaking rain had been the culprit. These particular trees, although still attached to seemingly large root-balls, hadn’t developed the extended root system necessary to anchor them in near flood conditions. Simply put, the rain had loosened the dirt, and without the root depth to anchor them, they’d fallen to their deaths.

Studying the unfolding scene outside the car window led me to wonder about my own root system. These tall trees had appeared strong and stable, but they lacked the strength to survive when calamity struck. I had become confident in my own ability to cope as of late, but truthfully, would I be able to weather disaster in my own life if it appeared?

God used this scene to remind me that only when I dig deep into a relationship with God will I find the strong foundation necessary to weather the inevitable storms of life. So how deep are your roots? Join me as I take time and dig in, anchoring myself to the only one able to provide security.

Edie is a freelance writer and editor with over 16 years experience in the publishing industry. She's a prolific writer, publishing over 700 articles in 2010. She also has a popular writing blog www.thewriteconversation.blogspot.com and is a frequent contributor to many others. As a sought after writing instructor, her heart to help others define and reach their dreams has connected her with writers all over the country. In keeping up with the leading edge of all things digital Edie has become known as one of the go-to experts on Twitter, Facebook, and social media for writers wanting to learn how to plug in. Fighting Fear, Winning the War at Home, is one Edie's latest projects. This devotional book for those with family members in the military is now available. She's a member of numerous professional writing organizations, including The Christian Pen, The Christian Writer's View I and ACFW, where she serves as the Editor for the Southeast Zone Newsletter and staff reviewer for Afictionado Magazine. She's also an assistant proofer/editor for the Voices E-zine, a publication of My Book Therapy and a part of the My Book Therapy Special Teams Blog. Married 30 years to husband, Kirk, they have raised three sons.

When You're Weary, Feelin' Small... by Lori Stanley Roeleveld

My guest today is fellow blogger, Lori Stanley Roeleveld. We met at the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, and Lori's blog, Deeper With Jesus in Rhode Island, won second place in the 2011 blog contest at conference. I love Lori's gentle and encouraging spirit. She blogs about the issues of a Christian's life with humility, honesty, and a heart to encourage others to meet the challenges of everyday life as a Christian. She inspires me, to say the least. I wish I could be so bold and yet so gentle... I hope you'll be inspired by her post, When You're Weary, Feelin' Small. I was.

What if God means for most of us to work small?

There’s something about the nature of humans that draws us to think that bigger is better. Big sky. Big ocean. Big dreams. Big sales. Big business. Big ministries.

In our thinking, if we can do something well, it makes sense that we should do it in front of or to more people. We are always seeking a larger audience, a greater stage, a wider reach, a broader scope. But what if, like so many other things, we’ve got that twisted up and backward from God’s plan for us?

God could have chosen to send His son into the world at any time in our human development. Don’t you just wonder why He chose such a low-tech era in which to deliver the biggest news in all of history? Doesn’t it seem a clumsy way to spread the gospel – entrusting it person-to-person along dusty, sandal-trod camel-dunged roads in an age well before cell phones, tweets and instant messages? Does anyone else wonder if He was also throwing in a lesson about mass-marketing?

I’ve often wondered about this but hesitated to write about it because it seems so self-serving. I’m pretty small potatoes. I’ve had some publishing success but it’s definitely small time. I live in the smallest state in the union, attended a small Christian college, worship in a small church and have raised a small family. I’ve taught teen Sunday school class and women’s Bible studies for nearly thirty years but each group was always small. Only a small number of people will read this post.

So, maybe I’m meant to be small potatoes and writing this just makes me feel good.

But I’m not alone.
The people who’ve had the greatest influence on my life will most likely never be famous. There are ministers and Sunday school teachers around the world who are creative, engaging and Godly but who will never publish best-selling books or have video ministries on You Tube. There are individuals gifted musically who bless those around them but will never win American Idol or see their CD win a Grammy. There are artists whose works hang, not in museums but on the walls of their children’s bedrooms or as murals in church nurseries. There are magnificently gifted teachers who will not win any greater rewards than seeing the lights go on in their students’ minds. You could say they’re all small time and you’d be right but by saying they are small time you are saying nothing about their quality, their excellence or God’s blessing on the influence of their work.

Often we measure God’s blessing on a work or ministry by the number of people it reaches. We live in an age of unprecedented technological ability to reach great numbers of people but is bigger always better and more blessed?

It feels like it is. And big IS good. God is big. The world is big and we need to be willing to think big and take big risks to reach everyone with the message of Jesus but is big everything? Is it the best or only measure of God’s blessing on a work? I don’t think so.

I’m finally encouraged to write about this because of an interview in Leadership magazine this month with Rob Bell. Rob is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He’s authored books but is most famous for his NOOMA video teaching series. In the interview, Rob shares his concern that video ministry may have a dark side. Powerful and capable of reaching a wide-audience, on the one hand, but Bell is concerned about the future of disciples produced through mass videos. Practicing and applying a Christ-like life requires relationships that are up close and personal – not generally what we develop sitting in the dark before a video screen.

This Christian life still comes down to one-on-one discipleship.

It’s telling that with the power of Google earth at our fingertips, capable of letting us view anywhere on the planet, most of us are only interested in locating the satellite view of our own homes.

What if we were meant to work small?

What if not every beautiful voice was intended to be enjoyed by a world-wide audience? What if every magnificent story was not planned to be a best-seller? What if every Holy Spirit powered sermon was not meant to be preached to thousands? What if every work of art was not designed for the masses?

If you put a brown hard-shelled centipede from your garden under a microscope, you will see that there are actually intricate multi-colored designs on its back. We are created in the image of an artist who creates for the pleasure of creating. How much of His work is done on a small scale and yet it bears His mark, His excellence, His loving fingerprint, His best?

Do you worry because your work is small? I do, sometimes. But when I settle my mind before God, He reminds me that I often fret about the wrong things. I should be concerned that my work is for Him. I should be concerned that my work is faithful, true, excellent and inspired by a life powered by the Holy Spirit. I should be less concerned about the size of my audience and more concerned about the size of my heart and the scope of my faith.

I only seek for MORE because I fail to appreciate the inestimable value of ONE soul.

I love these lines from a poem by Richard Wilbur called Two Voices in a Meadow: A Milkweed “Anonymous as cherubs over the crib of God, White seeds are floating out of my burst pod. What power had I before I learned to yield? Shatter me, great wind: I shall possess the field.”

Some of us are called to world-wide audiences and others of us are called to smaller numbers but certainly not lesser ministries, not lesser souls.

For me, the guiding lights of scripture are Paul’s admonition to do nothing from selfish ambition and Jesus’ words in John 12: “Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”

We should not measure God’s blessing or the value of a single work by its size or scope but by its faithfulness to Jesus and by the purity of its truth. Some are called to work big and others are called to work small and all are called to work for Christ. 

Thank you for joining us today, Lori!

Lori Stanley Roeleveld is author of the award-winning blog, Deeper with Jesus in Rhode Island. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines including Thriving Family, Discipleship Journal, Today’s Christian Woman, The Christian Reader, Celebrate Life and The Providence Sunday Journal. She has won awards for her short stories, has published two plays, and hopes to publish a novel. Lori accepted Jesus as a child, responding to an altar call given during a televised Billy Graham crusade and has never looked back. She lives deeply in Rhode Island with her husband, Rob, and two adult children, Zack and Hannah. You can find her at http://loristanleyroeleveld.blogspot.com/

Life on the High Bars by Alicia Bruxvoort

My guest today is Alicia Bruxvoort. I met Alicia online through a writers group, and she is like a kindred spirit to me. She's a fellow Christian, writer, mom, and friend who obviously loves her children. She's got far more creativity than me when it comes to activities to do with our children in order to teach them more about Jesus and life with Him. I admire her for that, among other things. I hope you enjoy her post, Life on the High Bars. You can find her blogging from The Overflow! Where Souls are Filled and Faith is Spilled.

From my spot near the baby swings I spied her legs dangling mid-air. White–knuckled Hannah was hanging high above the playground. Before I could reach my aspiring gymnast, she lost her grip on the playground's tallest monkey bar and slipped clumsily to the ground. Woodchips flew as my six–year–old fell with a SPLAT.

“Honey, are you okay?” I asked as I raced to my daughter’s side. She wiped the spikey woodchips off of her backside, wiped a few tears from her eyes, and jutted her chin in determination. Without a word, Hannah began to climb the ladder that led back to the monkey bar that she’d just failed to cross.

“Are you sure you want to try that one again?” I asked surprised. “There’s another bar over there.” I pointed to a shorter bar in hopes of enticing Hannah to safer ground. I hadn’t packed band–aids and I wasn’t in the mood for a spontaneous E.R. visit.

“Mom,” Hannah replied with a sigh of exasperation, “I don’t want to miss the chance to do something great today!”

Humbled, I wondered how many opportunities I've bypassed this week to “do something great."  As I watched my brave daughter struggle across the high bars once again, I prayed that God would infuse me with similar resilience and courage. I'm not sure why, but motherhood has muted my desire to take risks.  Perhaps I spend so much of my day trying to keep my children safe- Put on your bike helmet!  Don't hang over that ledge!  Don't swing your sister around like that- you'll pull her arms right out of their socket.  Don't jump off that ladder! Look both ways! Watch out for your little brother. Hold my hand- that I've settled for safety over greatness. Don't get me wrong. I don't want foolish progeny. No doubt, I want to raise children who wisely heed danger. But I don't want to raise children who settle for the low bars if God is beckoning them to the tallest tower on the playground.


If I don't want my children to settle for mediocrity, then why should I? By the grace of God, I want to do GREAT THINGS in the eyes of my Maker and discover, in the end, that it was well worth the risk!

Perhaps this excerpt from the personal journal of Pete Greg echoes my heart best:

It would be easy to miss my life a day at a time. It’s all become too easy, too predictable, too safe. . . But that was never what I wanted. What I wanted— what I want—is you. To know beyond a doubt that I am seizing the moment, sucking the marrow from each day, right at the center of your plan...
                                                                                                Red Moon Rising, p26

Today's Treasure

from Matthew 25: 14-30, The Message

The kingdom of Heaven is. . .  "also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master's investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master's money.

"After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: 'Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.'

 

"The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master's investment. His master commended him: 'Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.'
 

"The servant given one thousand said, 'Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.'
 

"The master was furious. 'That's a terrible way to live! It's criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
 

"'Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this "play-it-safe" who won't go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.' 

 

Thank you for joining us today, Alicia!

 

 Alicia is a lover of Jesus Christ, a seeker of abundant life, and a freelance writer and speaker. She's got a handful of children, a home full of laughter and a life full of noise. She's the frequent hostess of kitchen-floor dance contests, meal time talk-a-thons and dirty diaper campaigns. She loves the sound of her children’s laughter, the feeling of her husband’s hand in hers, and the smell of fresh-brewed coffee. She makes her home in the Midwest where tulips bloom and neighbors smile. While her laundry baskets are NEVER empty, her soul sometimes is. When all is said and done, she doesn’t want her minivan to be the only thing crammed to capacity. She wants a soul that’s filled to the brim, too. She wants to live the life Jesus dreamed for her when he declared, "I have come that (you) may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). As she does, she hopes to splatter her world with joy and leave puddles of faith in her wake.

Future Fears by Lynn Huggins Blackburn

My first guest blogger is a sweetheart. Her name is Lynn Huggins Blackburn, and it's my honor to call her one of my writing friends. She blogs at Out of the Boat about everyday life infused with incredible humor. I love reading her posts, because I know I'll find a lesson but walk away laughing in its midst. Following is one of her recent posts, Future Fears, which blessed me with an encouraging word right when I needed it.

Image via wikipedia

 Deuteronomy 31:8 ~ It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. (ESV)

Some people wish they could know the future.

Not me.

If I spent too much time thinking about my future, I’d lose my mind.

For one thing, there’s so much cancer in my family, I’m a statistic waiting to happen.

Then there's the fact that my husband is a financial advisor. Yes, you read that right. So don't even get me started on the stock market.

And while you may fret over your empty nest—either current or future—I don’t expect my nest to ever be empty. Instead, I prepare to care and provide for a child for many years after my own passing.

And those are just a couple of my “biggies”. You have your own.

I try not to dwell on what my life will look like twenty years from now, but I recently heard about a situation that terrified me. It's one of those things where the consequences of other’s actions could have a significant impact on my life.

My stomach clenched into a knot that I couldn’t shake. I spent an embarrassing amount of time allowing my mind to wander into the future. I imagined one wretched scenario after another. (This is a problem with being a writer—I spend a lot of time making things worse and worse for my characters. When I start doing it to myself, it’s scary).

I eventually gave up and started praying about it. (Yes, I realize I should have started there. And yes, I should know better by now).

As I prayed, these words flew through my mind.

"It is the LORD who goes before you."

I clung to this truth and as I focused on Him, anxiety lost its grip. The potential calamity didn’t change but my fear of it lessened.

In Deuteronomy, God didn’t say the conquering of Canaan would be easy. He didn’t say the Israelites would never face difficulty. He said He would go before them and never leave them. And after He said that, He said, “Do not fear or be dismayed.”

I don’t know what’s looming in your life.

It may be scary. You may be terrified.

But you are not alone.

It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

Thank you for joining us today, Lynn!

Lynn Huggins Blackburn has been telling herself stories since she was five and finally started writing them down. On her blog Out of the Boat she writes about faith and family while her blog Perpetual Motion documents the joys and challenges of loving and rearing a child with special needs. A graduate of Clemson University, Lynn lives in South Carolina where she writes, reads, knits, takes care of three amazing children, one fabulous man and one spoiled rotten Boston Terrier.

Follow Lynn on Twitter @lynnhblackburn