Happy Wednesday Friends!
We’ve been out of town at an amazing conference… coming home today. I’m planning to describe our beautiful encounter with Reinhart Bonnke tonight at DFC, seven pm! Hey, if you cant make it in person, catch the LIVE webcast.
It was so nice meeting hundreds of Pastors who are facing obstacles similar to my own… and to see that I am not alone. It was nice realizing how badly this world NEEDS Emily and I to KEEP INSPIRING others no matter how challenging this can be at times.
It was sad to see how many Pastors are so bruised up inside due to the unprecedented attacks they’re undergoing these days. I was smitten with their pain… it overwhelmed me at times. So every time the opportunity arose, Emily and I gave away some hefty encouragement, while receiving a whole lot of the same back from these great people!
Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth…”
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world…”
We are beautiful people, even at our worse. Jesus said that we are the SALT OF THE EARTH… we are the LIGHT OF THE WORLD. And far too often, we fall into the habit of BEATING OURSELVES and EACH OTHER UP, when we should be appreciating the SALT AND LIGHT we are bringing to a dark, sick world.
When I was a kid… my parents grounded me for drinking alcohol, vandalizing the community, or getting kicked out of school for fighting in the halls or cussing out a teacher. I was a mess and I needed help… I needed correction… lots and lots of correction!
Now that Emily and I have an 18 year old and a 16 year old, we find ourselves grounding them for far lesser things. Sometimes, when we are talking to them about their behavior, I feel like we scold them aggressively just because that’s what parents are supposed to do. Since we cant find anything BIG to ground them over, we look until we find SOMETHING… ANYTHING… and we keep the same pressure on them our parents had to keep on us! They are FAR BETTER kids than Emily and I were at their age and yet, they are disciplined just as frequently.
I think this is what we do to ourselves as well! We forget where we came from and how amazing we have become in Christ… and we keep on grounding ourselves for the littlest things. If we can’t find anything BIG, we just keep on looking until we find something to BEAT OURSELVES UP OVER.
Im not downplaying the humility that drives us to continual repentance and a desire to be more Christlike EVERY SINGLE DAY! I’m just wondering when we are going to APPRECIATE THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD ALREADY BEAMING FROM OUR BORN AGAIN LIVES!
What if started to celebrate our progress a HUNDRED TIMES MORE than we have been? Would we backslide if we stopped whaling on ourselves five times a day? I don’t think so! In fact, I believe that spending more of our lives in RIGHTEOUSNESS CONSCIOUSNESS rather than SIN CONSCIOUSNESS… we will find ourselves FAR MORE CHRISTLIKE!
Face it you guys… you needed this encouragement! Face it you guys… you are way too hard on yourselves… and way to non-celebratory over the beautiful work God has already done in your lives! So, think about this today… appreciate your progress… because you are the SALT OF THIS EARTH!
Leave your comments… see you tonight!
Thank you Pastor that was an excellent revelation of life!! It does make me realize too how we sometimes keep the “tight reign” on our own kids because we think about all things that they COULD POSSIBLY get into when in reality knowing we have raised them thus far and taught them values and principles that we expect and they also honor and live by so why is it then when faced with “can I go to such and such’s house for their birthday party??????” we are quick to say NO!!! We should be trusting our own kids judgment if they are age appropriate in given situations to now live out what they have been taught.
The rules in our family have always been if we do not know the parents and know them well our kids do not spend time at their house. That means we have kids at our house all the time and thats good and ok. Now our kids are a little older they actually prefer it this way.
Thank you for this. I will have to get a copy of tonight’s service. Bo and I are up in the youth tonight.
Sounds like we are very similar in the way we’re raising our kids… and I think it’s working well for us both. I’m only suggesting here that we empower our kids more by applauding their amazing progress. Sometimes I am so hard on my kids and I wonder if they really know how proud of them I really am! They need to be disciplined and they need to be coached and taught… and a big part of successful coaching is BUILDING UP the player. I encourage you today Vickie… YOU AND BO IMPRESS EMILY AND I SO VERY MUCH!! WAY TO GO!!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!! YEAH Bo & VICKIE!! =) =) =)
I THINK WE LOOK FOR THE LITTLE THINGS BECAUSE WE KNOW WHAT WE DID AS KIDS AND ARE TERRIFIED THEY ARE GOING TO DO THE SAME THINGS WE DID. ONLY IN TODAYS SOCIETY THE THINGS WE DID ARE SO LITTLE IN COMPARISON TO WHAT THE KIDS (NOT NECESSARILY OUR KIDS) CONSIDER ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR TODAY. THE PEER PRESSURE TODAY IS THE SAME, IT’S WHAT THEY ARE BEING PRESSURED INTO DOING IS BECOMING WORSE.
OUR GOD HOWEVER IS THE SAME TODAY, YESTERDAY, AND ALWAYS. SO AS LONG AS WE KEEP HIM FIRST AND BRING IT ALL TO HIM, HE WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP US SAFE. AND OUR KIDS WILL COME OUT OK.
beautiful. thank you.
When we don't celebrate the changes that have taken place in our lives we are not giving God the Glory!!!