Father Knows Best

Being girls, and teenage girls for that matter, we often lose sight of who we are and where we’re headed. Some days, we think big. We’re going to be a lawyer or the next inventor of some awesome invention.  Other days we sit home thinking we’ll never make it out of the house. Let me say this, we’re always going to have those days, it’s all part of being a girl. But the thing we can never forget is that we should never give up on ourselves, God has a plan for everyone and we are set to live it out.

It’s good to plan ahead and it’s good to have dreams. Having goals and achieving them is one of the best feelings in the world. But don’t think that because you didn’t get to achieve something means you are a failure. IT DOES NOT! You aren’t a failure. You just have to really have faith in God and yourself. Things don’t work out for hundreds of reasons. Whatever the reason, God has another opportunity awaiting you.

Maybe you lost the talent show or choked on your big audition for a school play. Maybe you’re supposed to win the next talent show or maybe you didn’t get the part in the school play because you’re going to be part of the next HUGE show. Whatever it is, God has it set out for you already. So never give up, never think that the universe is against you. Your time to shine is coming. Leave it all in God’s hands, and I promise you, he’ll do many wonders for you.

Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”  Proverbs 3:5-6

Susan

Encore Sundays

Rock Bottom posted by Kristen Bouchillon on April 5, 2011

I couldn’t believe it was actually happening. Yeah, she had been talking about it for months, but I halfway thought  it would never to happen. It was three days after Christmas and there was a moving truck parked outside the house. All of our clothes and furniture were being loaded into the truck, about to be moved 10 miles down the road where our “new home” awaited us.

As we pulled out, I looked back at the house I had lived in with my family for the past 16 years and broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. Betrayed. Bitter. Deserted. Hopeless. Worthless. Abandoned. I had never felt so hurt and upset in my entire life. Why my family? Why God, why? All these questions and no answers. (more…)

Fathers and Daughters

By far the most painful of all losses is a lost or damaged relationship. People we care about and love betray or hurt us. Our natural reaction is to draw a line in the sand and push back.  Divorce damages relationships. The relationship I want to speak to is the Father/Daughter relationship.

No matter if you’re estranged from your father or he is estranged from you, please know God can restore your relationship. I hear a lot of young ladies say they have a love/hate relationship with their dad. Understood. Every family relationship experiences wide spectrums of emotion but the resolution isn’t to end the relationship. Let’s drill down a little further.

Scenario number one:  If your Father is non-existent in your life please don’t give up on this relationship. You have a voice. I don’t care how old you are. Our technology leaves no excuse for non-communication. The old fashioned way still works, too. Write a letter to your dad and write out of love and adoration (no matter what his problems are), because he’s your father. You absolutely cannot do this by yourself and Jesus doesn’t expect you to. He’s waiting to help you through this painful ordeal. (more…)

Radical Grace

I watched from my seat near the back of the classroom as students straggled into class one by one. Some carried remainders of their lunches that they hadn’t been able to finish in the fifteen minute gap between class periods. As the students took their seats, they immediately unzipped their backpacks to find their reading notes. Everyone was getting some last-minute studying in before the big quiz.

After a little while, the professor strolled cheerfully into the classroom. “Did you all have a good weekend?” he asked sincerely while readying his PowerPoint slides. A few heads nodded politely in the midst of their cramming session. “I decided to make a change on the quiz today.” That got our attention. “We have a lot of material to cover from the lesson, so I went ahead and gave you all 100% on the quiz. That way I have more time to teach.”

It took a moment for us to believe what we were hearing. As the news sunk in, students began to cheer and clap. Relief permeated the atmosphere with new perspective.

Have you ever had something like this happen to you? Colossians 2:14 reveals another area where we have received greater mercy than just being released from a quiz. Colossians says that God freed us “…by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

This news should awake thankful joy in our hearts that far exceeds the clapping and cheers in my class! It is unimaginable mercy that God showed in punishing his own son for our sins instead of letting us bear his wrath. As if this wasn’t enough, God also credits us with Jesus’ perfect life. We were not only pardoned from taking the test, but were given a 100% that we never would have been able to earn on our own!

This is radical love. And it is something that we can imitate every day in our relationships with other people. Is there anyone who you have been reluctant to forgive because the debt that they owe you is just so huge?  Maybe it is one of your parents, or a stepparent, or someone you think should have intervened in your parents’ decision. Imitate God’s mercy by releasing them from that debt. Love them anyway.

When have you been blessed by someone’s grace in your life?

Intruder Alert!

A young family walked past our window, the parents laughing while their son rolled along the sidewalk on his tricycle.

Zoom! A streak of black fur whizzed past my feet. My dog, Cheerio, reached the wall and jumped up onto the chair beside the window. He barked furiously at the small family that had dared to walk on his sidewalk. They turned to look for the source of the noise, smiled at the puppy face in the window, and continued walking unconcerned.

Cheerio has proclaimed himself as the guardian of our house. He takes his job very seriously. Wherever I am in the house, he parks himself next to the closest window, sticks his nose against the glass, and scrutinizes the front yard for movement.

Today as I was watching Cheerio, I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 16:13 which says, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” Cheerio has got the “be on your guard” part down pretty well.

One of the most damaging things to a Christian, depression, can also be most stealthy in entering our lives. That is why we need to be especially watchful in looking out for it. As soon as we catch it, we can sound the alarm in prayer to God just like Cheerio does when he barks at an unwanted visitor. When we catch unhelpful and untrue thoughts in our minds, we can combat them with the armor of God that is talked about in Ephesians 6.

Cheerio does a great job of keeping watch from far away. However, if he finds an insect in our house, he leaps a few feet back in surprise and fear before venturing forward to investigate. Even though he is thousands of times larger than the tiny insect, he treats it as though it were enormous. Problems like depression can also seem insurmountable. But with God, we have all the strength and truth to defeat the lies of depression.

Be like Cheerio in keeping watch over your life. What prayers or verses do you find helpful to combat depression?