Category Archives: Encouragement

Children, Encouragement

The Best MultipurposeToy Ever

Did you know there is a National Toy Hall of fame in Rochester, NY?  I didn’t.  Every year a new member is inducted into this toy hall of fame.  In 2005, the cardboard box was inducted.  What kid doesn’t love to play in a cardboard box?  But, one of my favorites was the toy that was inducted in 2008 – a plain old stick.  The stick was picked because of its “all-purpose, no-cost, recreational qualities.”  It is portable and versatile and “fosters learning creativity through play and imagination.”  It’s the perfect price; it’s all-natural; there are no rules or complicated instructions for use.  It can be a horse, a gun, a sword, a slingshot, a fishing rod or a snowman’s arms.

Many years ago when my two sons were very young, daily they brought home sticks.  With the many toy options they had, sticks were one of their favorites.  Most times, while playing outside, they each had a stick in hand.  All around the world I have observed children playing with this universal toy.  A single stick and a little boy or girls imagination can provide hours of incredible fun.  From my own childhood, I remember playing ice hockey with a stick and a smashed can for a puck.

I do not suspect your children want you to wrap up a stick for Christmas.  I could only imagine the disappointment on their faces.  There is, however, one Gift (the Creator of those sticks) that is greater than any other, our Heavenly Father’s Gift of gifts – His Son, Jesus.  It’s what Christmas is all about.

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Encouragement, Small Groups

Remember

I love God’s word and the many principles we can derive from it.  I could not live life without this book, the Bible.  It is an amazing, wonderful, up to date and, as well, revealing the future kind of book.  There is no other earthly volume like it.  To have the privilege and freedom to take time with this book on a daily basis is so life-giving and life-altering.  Such was the case from a passage I read recently.  It was actually, of all things, Levitical guidelines that were so striking to me and answered a long-term question concerning enabling the poor among us.

God told Israel that when they were harvesting a field and they “overlook a sheaf,” they were not to go back to harvest it.  When they beat the olives from their trees, they were told to not go back over the tree a second time.  They were to do the same with the grape harvest. Why?  God said to, “…leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.”  (Deuteronomy 24: 19-22)  Again, why?  Was it a welfare program?  Weren’t they enabling the poor and needy to continue to be poor and needy?  Actually, quite the opposite was true.  It was done as a reminder that they were once slaves in Egypt.

Why help the immigrant, the fatherless or the widow in your community?  Don’t some of them choose not to work?  God desires to remind us that we were once a “slave” to foreign beliefs and systems.  We once walked in darkness, were also poor and needy (at least spiritually) and resided as foreigners outside God’s kingdom.  As the Lord calls us to serve someone or give money to help them, remember this verse so that we are reminded of where we came from.

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Encouragement, Leadership, Singles, Small Groups

True Success

Some years ago I wrote the words “True success” in my Bible beside Jeremiah 9: 23 & 24 which reads, “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord.”  Does God give us wisdom, strength and riches?  Yes He does, but He does not delight in them and neither does He desires us to boast in them.  What then does our heavenly Father “delight” in?

He delights in the one who knows and understands Him.  He delights in the one who knows that their Father is the One who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth today.  Success is not found in a higher degree of education, in business or profession, in money, in the number of Facebook friends we have amassed or in how we perceive others perceive us.  Success is knowing and obeying God.  Mother Teresa once commented to the American press that she was never trying to be successful by this worlds standards, only obedient to her Savior’s call.  Powerful words from someone who impacted thousands; someone who was truly “successful.”

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Encouragement

Thankful

Thankfulness is easily caught; it’s contagious. Spend a few minutes around someone who speaks from a thankful heart about what God is doing in their life and you’ll find yourself feeling thankful as well. Spend that same amount of time around someone caught up in themselves and speaking disappointment with what God hasn’t done and you’ll find feelings of disappointment and despair.

Thankfulness is less stressful. Having a thankful heart is experiencing a lighter heart. Being thankful resonates with our souls and brings relief to our physical beings. If laughter is a “good medicine” think about what medicine thankfulness provides to your spirit.

Thankfulness is an absence of contention. It’s hard to be angry and causing friction when you are practicing a spirit of thankfulness. Expressing thankfulness for the normal everyday things of life is seeing those things as important too. For those who are involved in generating those “normal, everyday and routine” acts of service that effect you, it is amazing what a word of thanks will do to encourage them. Who cleans your office at work? Thank them. Who does your wash each week? Thank them. Who washes and maintains your car? Thank them. Thankfulness is the spirit of Christ Himself. When we are thankful, we are actually worshipping God. “…Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably…” (Hebrews 12: 28)

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace…his peace will guard your hearts and minds…” (Philippians 4:6)

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