Toughtful Words - Parental Words

"I wish you'd never been born."

"Peter wasn't part of our plan."

"Shut up!"

"Go away!"

Have your parents ever said these words to you? To a sibling? Are they ingrained in your heart? Do they resound in your head?

Do you say them to your own kids?

These are words that wound a child for life. Tender hearts can't filter ambiguous meaning. They don't understand that Mommy is tired and doesn't want to hear the same list of what they want for their birthday ten times a day. They don't understand that "wasn't part of our plan" translates to "blessed surprise." No parent should ever tell a child they wish they'd never been born.

As a parent, I must select my words with wisdom. I constantly have to remind myself that my tongue holds the power of blessing and cursing. 

Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things out not to be so. - James 3:10

I've found that with my oldest son, I can't tell him he did something stupid, because he automatically translates that to mean I am stupid.

My middle son, Caleb, is like my German Shorthaired Pointer. He needs to be occupied and active, or something inside of him snaps, and he turns into a mischief maker. Many times I've caught myself saying something along the lines of, "Quit being a pain." Or, when talking with another adult, "Caleb's my difficult one." Notice the curse? Every time I speak those negative words over my son, I am pulling down a curse over him. He will become a pain, difficult, trouble.

On the other hand, when I think about my words before they fall out of my mouth, I can bless my children. "You're smart." "You're talented." "You are such a princess." "You are so handsome in that suit." "You can do anything you set your mind and heart to do."

Or, to say it biblically:

The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace. - Numbers 6:24-26

After all, we are raising children of God. Who are His before they were ours.

If you've ever had curses spoken over your life by your own parents, please know that God loves you. He created you in His image. He gave you life. He wants you. He loves you.

Here are a few things He says about you:

He formed your inward parts. He covered you in your mother's womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. His works (you) are marvelous. - Psalm 139:13-14

You are the apple of His eye. - Psalm 17:8

He knows the thoughts He thinks toward you. Thoughts of peace, not of evil. To give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29:11

The Scriptures are filled with plenty more. Go on a treasure hunt. If you're a mother, do it with your kids. Find out what God says about His children. Mine the gold. Seek the precious. And find words of blessing to speak over yourself and your children.

The Blessings of God Part Three

“Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Your blessing is upon Your people.”

- Psalm 3:8

Our current residence is on a major highway in Georgia. With factories and a nuclear facility nearby, traffic is constant. Trucks carry fresh-cut logs to the paper mill. Half the city travels to work at the plant each morning and evening. People pull in and out of local gas stations and convenient stores. At any time during the day, one may or may not safely travel this particular highway.

Recently, a local newspaper covered the accident rate on local roads. This highway ranks as the worst for deadly accidents. More than four people have died on this road within the last two years. The main cause of these deadly crashes? People who aren’t paying attention and pull out in front of another driver who is traveling sixty miles per hour or more.

Two days ago, I traveled the highway, taking my children to day camp at our church. Driving sixty miles per hour, I approached a side road. A man in a large, white car sat at the end of the road, looking as if he was paying attention. However, as I neared, I slowed just a bit, because I noticed him looking in the opposite direction and beginning to pull out. I wouldn’t have enough time to stop before broadsiding him if he did pull out. What do you know? He did it anyway. He whipped his car out in front of me, never bothering to look in my direction. I slammed on my brakes and laid my hand across my horn. Fool.

I had just finished telling my children the importance of wearing their seat belts. The night before, I’d read of a woman who started a beauty pageant in memory of her daughter, who died in a car accident because she wasn’t wearing her seat belt. Two of my own children “forget” to put on their seat belts 98% of the time. As my daughter listened to my explanation of what happens when we forget to do important things, she clicked her seat belt into its buckle and asked if I would miss her and cry if she died. Absolutely! My son also made certain his seat belt was properly buckled. Not two miles down the road, the man pulled in front of me.

God is gracious and knew I would have this experience. I managed to turn my vehicle just enough to get around the back end of the man’s boat of a car. We missed him. God saved us from a nasty accident.

I thanked God for His protection, His salvation, and His blessing that day. I held gratitude in my heart for Him as He watched over my children and me in our travels down a deadly highway.

God’s blessing is upon His people. You. Me. Our children. Salvation belongs to Him. What blessing have you received from Him lately? How has God saved you or a family member or a friend? Remember to thank Him for those things today.

I’m going to go write mine in my Thankful Journal today, so I’m not quick to forget just how blessed I am.

The Blessings of God Part Two

Photo Copyright 2011 Alycia W. Morales

“You have given him his heart’s desire,
And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah

For You meet him with the blessings of goodness;
You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.

He asked life from You, and You gave it to him—
Length of days forever and ever.”

~ Psalm 21:2-4

Do you remember the day you accepted Jesus into your heart and placed Him as King of your life? I do.

In the summer of 1994, I visited home after going through some trauma at college. At twenty years old, I’d made poor choices and realized I couldn’t do life alone, my way. I desperately needed Jesus.

I sat with my brother and some of his new friends (all younger than me) as they listened to my friend, Dean, play Christian songs on his guitar. Rock songs. I had no idea Christians could be so cool. I’d only known those who stood up and sat down and played old pipe organs while some grey-haired woman screeched out a solemn hymn.

As Dean continued to play, my curiosity about this “saving” concept grew. When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I blurted out, “Dean, can you save me?”

He looked at me and said, “Uh. No. I can’t. But Jesus can.”

I repeated after him and said the prayer of salvation on the spot. And asked to be baptized.

The pastor of my family’s new church heard of my salvation story and requested I give a brief testimony and recite the prayer again in front of his congregation on Sunday. I eagerly agreed. He told me he’d baptize me in the river after church. I couldn’t wait for Sunday!

Although the slight breeze blew chilly, and the mountain river water was early summer warm, I didn’t notice. The only thing I recognized was the joy and excitement bubbling up from somewhere deep inside of me.

“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the name of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” I plugged my nose, closed my eyes tight, and Whoosh! Under. Dead to my old spirit. Up and above. Alive to the new spirit. The new me. Me in Christ. I’d never felt cleaner in my life! And trust me, I hate swimming in fishy river water. But I didn’t feel covered in slime or nastiness. I felt sparkling, shiny, new clean!

Like I had a crown of pure gold on my head. Daughter of the Risen King.

Like I’d received length of days and a second chance to get it right. Forever. Eternity.

God met me with the blessings of His goodness that August afternoon. His mercy began following me for the rest of my days. Into eternity.

The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He’d love to have our lives in his hand. But when we ask God, when we truly cry out from the valley depths within us for newness of life with Jesus as our Savior, we find the true desires of our hearts met. We find life in Christ, and it comes with an abundance of God’s goodness we could never fathom.

Take the time today to reflect on the moment you cried out to God for His salvation. That moment you realized you were sinking in your own sinful self and couldn’t do life without Him for another nanosecond. Smile. Praise the Lord for His blessings poured out over you in that moment.

And have a blessed day!

Giving When Abundance is Drained & Poverty Reigns

A simple scripture caught my thought this morning.

"for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."
~ Mark 12:44

The widow, giving her mites. Out of her poverty. The little she had.

I know this scripture refers to financial giving, but I dove deeper this morning, looking beyond the surface.

I considered my personal giving. Giving of myself. My heart. My time. My listening ear. My service. My love. My cup of sugar. My encouragement. My counsel. My good word.

We all have days when we feel stretched beyond ourselves. We feel like an empty vessel with nothing more to pour out. We wrestle with the poverty of our personal lives. We feel we have nothing left to give of ourselves. Drained. Dry. No abundance today.

Yet the widow gave out of her poverty. Can we do the same? Can we face our deficiency and trust God to pour into us what He's requiring us to pour out into another? Can we gather up vessels and set them out for God to pour His anointing oil into? It's His anointing, after all. It all belongs to Him before it ever becomes ours. Can we put Him in first place and allow Him to work through us and our poverty?

It's when we are weak that He is strong. Can we give Him our entire livelihood today, despite what we feel inside? Can we go to Him, confessing our deficit, allowing Him to fill us up and bring us back to abundance? We certainly need to try.

Through putting our trust in Him, we will persevere through the trying times of life and pursue His abundance. His abundant grace. His abundant mercy. His abundant love. His abundant blessing. His abundant favor.

Because if He noticed a poor widow giving out of her poverty, her entire livelihood, He's certain to notice us giving our all, too.  

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Psalm 103:1-5 reads:
"Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."

There is a lot in our life that we can complain about. Our bills are past due. Our boss is demanding that we have to work overtime. We can't find our keys this morning. The coffee pot quit. Our kids are whining non-stop.  Someone at church offended us.

However, complaining gets us nowhere but in a tizzy. Complaining adds bitterness and strife to our day. It has a domino affect and we start to pick out every little thing that goes wrong throughout the day. We tell anyone who will listen about the slacker at work whose responsibilities get thrown to our desk. We tell anyone who will listen about our obnoxious kids and their refusal to do things our way. We forget that these words are not life-giving and bring no glory to God.

This morning, I will choose to praise the Lord. I will bless His holy name for all that He has done for me.

The Lord has many benefits. He has forgiven me of many iniquities, including (but not limited to) selfishness, rebellion, disrespect of my parents, murder, hatred, strife, fornication, and more. He has healed all of my diseases, both physically and mentally. He has healed me of depression, anxiety, and injury. He redeemed my life from destruction. I was on the highway to hell, and he set me free from bondage and death! He crowns me with His lovingkindness and tender mercies. He satisfies my mouth with good things. I partake of His table every day. My youth is renewed as the eagle's. When I read His word and pray, I hear from the Lord. I receive a joy inexplicable, even in the midst of my circumstances and in dealing with my issues. Jesus is King in my life!

What has God done for you and in your life? Bless His name today! Don't let the enemy have his way...