living the 'enchanted' life
My students are taking the CRCT. It is very stressful for the students and for the teachers.
Every morning at 9 am we say a prayer together. This week the kids pray like this, "help me to pass the CRCT", "make us smart to pass the CRCT". This week I prayed "open our eyes Lord to the wondrous creatures that we are, that we may know and believe that we are glorious because God made us and he made us in his image".
This is, of course, an attempt to boost their self esteem. Being in the middle of a test is bad for the self confidence, (mark those words). Once its over it's a different story.
So,
This morning, after having spent a delightful evening with my very handsome boyfriend, I was feeling old, older by the minute and wondering, "How much longer till he finds a younger, prettier model" when a sermon came on the radio.
Can you already sense God at work here?
In the sermon was a story of a man who listened to Satan talk down to him. The man, fortified by the Holy Spirit, told Satan, "let me tell you what o got" and began listing his blessings.
Can you feel God at work now?
I, listening in my car while driving to work, began naming my blessings out loud too.
I have two and a half amazing youngins. I have a job I love. I have students who try so hard to please me. I have a boyfriend who takes me to fabulous restaurants, sends me flowers and tells me he loves me. I am blessed! I am so blessed!
You are too! We just can't see our blessings for all our fussing and complaining.
God is at work here and in your life too.
What blessings have you got that you need to stop fussing over and simply rejoice in?
And there is one more blessing. In John 6, many of the believers walked away from Jesus because they were unable to accept hard teachings. Peter makes a magnificent declaration when Jesus asks if the twelve were going to also leave Him. Peter said "where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
Like Peter, I often ask "where would I go?" Over the last several years, I've lost practically everything I love. Everything I held precious - gifts Christ Himself gave me - have faded away. I have lost hope, I have lost faith, I have felt like Elijah in the cave. I have wanted to run away from Jesus to the grass is always greener. But I always come back to that question-- "Where would I go? Jesus is the Word Of Eternal Life, the Son of the Living God, the Alpha and Omega, my Beginning and my End. Where would I go."
Praise the Lord. (Comment this)
I have been without food or shelter or friend, alone in troubled times but its not "where would you go" for me it was "why would I go" No matter what trouble I'm facing it will be better with God than without him. God is God, why would you go anywhere else, it would be pointless.
Whatever trouble you’re facing God is with you, even though you doubt he is there he is still there, he is the only thing you can count on and to me that means I have something, someone I can count on, that means a lot to me, I’m not alone and I have someone I can count on. God, himself, being able to have a personal relationship with him, being able to free ourselves from the bondage of sins, is the biggest and best blessing we’ll ever have.
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Today, I can have compassion for my neighbor without sharing in his pain.
Or more so, feeling any modicum of responsibility for that pain.
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Hey, this thing put your name in automatically when I hit "comment this" on post 5. No, this is not another slam at Christians. It was simply an observation. And I believe it is often, though not always, legit. Christians aren't perfect. Half of them aren't even Christians.
I think most Christians talk when they could listen. I think they go into a default answer mode like someone on a Tech Support Help Desk. They give the standard answer to the problem. If you ask them to go deeper than the surface many of them get all uncomfortable because they haven't prayed enough or learned enough to find out how.
That sure sounds judgemental, don't it? I don't mean it to. (Comment this)
I'm not sure I understand what you mean "hurt with them" in your post #6. I can't see how you can hurt "with" someone without feeling their pain.
As for self imposed burdens, that's a dynamite phrase in my opinion. If someone divorces and suffers because of it, would that be a self-imposed burden?
And no, I don't think we should flog ourselves when someone else is hurting. I was talking more about sacrificing our natural desire to "have the perfect answer," "say the right thing," "straighten them out," "lay down the law." Kind of like what Job's friends did to him. Kind of like how the disciples treated Bartimaeus. They (Job's friends and the disciples) thought they were doing the right thing but they were completely wrong. How often do people ask God if it's right to tell someone "Count it all joy" once a large or small tragedy just happened?
Are self imposed burdens meant to be borne by others? NEVER have I heard that someone should be told that they should't hurt. Compassion doesn't mean that we have to hurt with them. We can be compassionate, empathitic and even sympathetic without hurting with them. It's not necessary. As Christians, we all hurt. Like it or not, we do share pain with those we love. Jesus felt very real pain. However, it doesn't mean that I have to flog myself when my next door neigbor makes foolish financial decisions or his wife drinks up the mortgage payment does it?
Today, I can have compassion for my neighbor without sharing in his pain.
Or more so, feeling any modicum of responsibility for that pain. (Comment this)
I don't mean to say there is not a time for not listening. And no matter how bad a time we are going through, we are commanded to be content. The reconciliation of such paradoxes is a magnificent mystery that keeps me returning to the write track.
I believe God gives us spiritual gifts such as mercy, toughness, business sense, teaching sense, etc. Those gifts make us see things though narrow eyes sometimes. There is much compassion in the people of Christ. There is also much insensitivity.
As for responsibility, we are all guilty sinners saved by grace. (Comment this)
so why are you so angry with me and all Christians in general, is it our fault that you and your friends are going through hard times, do I even know you, sounds like your mad at God but its easier to yell at me cause I'm right here in front of you,
So darling how’s that working out for ya, do feel better yet?????
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