Matt 6:1-4 (NIV)
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."
"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
I witnessed someone tonight act in such a way that just blew me away. They are not saved, so I know they do not have a relationship with Christ, but I did expect that they would behave in such a way that would not go against what these verses talk about. I guess I was proved wrong.
This person was going to out of the goodness of their heart, give some money to an organization to help them out because he felt it would be a good thing to do. I got up to give them an envelope and showed them the box in which to drop it into. On the envelope I wrote donation, and what the donation was for, nothing else. this person said, " NO, I want to give it to so and so to show them I am giving it to them" I tried to point out in a nice way, it would be better to just put in in the envelope marked with what it was for. They said " NO, get away, I am doing it my way........" They got all offended at me and they were angry that I would even interrupt what they were doing and they were threatening to not even give because I was asking them to not bring attention to what they were doing.......
I came home and began to think about this and felt like I needed to reaffirm what God has to say about this issue, I found it! God tells us to not bring attention to what we are doing when we are giving, to just give and let it be a secret, only the Father needs to know what we did, and He does see what we did. He will reward us when we get to heaven. I need to remember when I see this kind of behavior in the world, especially with a person who does not know Christ, that they are not giving to God; they are giving to get the recognition they are giving.
It was also brought to my attention by someone else whom I was talking to about this situation, that the reason this person was so upset was because they felt guilty that they were being called upon something that they knew was wrong and felt bad about it. Unfortunately they decided to take it out on me instead of realize what was right and acknowledge that.
Pray for this person with me that they may be compelled by God to realize their mistakes and come to terms with it with HIM, and maybe even they will come to know our Lord Jesus through this situation.
Thank you Lord for always showing us how to live our lives better for you in your Word.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Bad Attitude!
" Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus" Philipians 2:3-5 (NIV).
Today I think I over slept, then I got going on chores, kids and the what not and forgot to eat. By noon, all I had was a small glass of OJ. Then I had a headache....so my attitude was not the best. I got wrapped up in something on the computer and ignored the time. Finally all at once I realized the time was 10min to having to leave to take one child to a class, the other two were fighting and one of them had made the other one cry, loud peircing cries, right next to my beating headache. Then someone was trying to get my attention on the computer about something semi immportant, the cell phone rang, and the child who had a class in 15 min was not dressed. No one had eaten lunch.....So my attitude was really bad and I exploded. I started yelling and screaming at everyone and freaking out. They all started leaving the room and ignoring me because I was acting crazy.
At the end of a day when I have behaved this way I always feel really bad and wish I could take it back. I have never liked yelling at my kids or husband, it is just something that is part of my personality that I have had to spend a lot of time asking God to help me get it under control. Over time with much maturity I have learned to get it under control for the most part, but sometimes things like today happen and I don't realize I am behaving like a lunitic until it is too late.
I could have gotten up earlier and made sure one of the first things I did was eat, so I am not so famished and can care for my family better if I am feeling ok. I could have put off the phone call and text on the computer until I got my boys tantrums under control and delt with them. I could have taken 5 min to myself to get myself calmed down before handling other people's problems....These are all things I know how to do and I do most of the time. Keeping an attitude that is that of Jesus is not as easy as it seems.
I have learned from trial and error that the more time I give to being in his word and taking time to ask God for grace and patience, the better my day goes, and or my ability to handle life's trials are better. I am not as cranky.
So the take home note from today's lesson is to pray, read Gods Word, and take time for yourself or else you will not be able to handle the children's issues properly. This is something most parents do not always do because they want to make sure they are meeting their kids needs. Parents, you can not be the parent God wants to you be without caring for yourself and turning to God for all issues in your life. This will lead to a parent with more patience and love.
Thank you Lord for this gentle reminder today and please help me to remember to turn to you with all of my issues, even the little daily ones.
Today I think I over slept, then I got going on chores, kids and the what not and forgot to eat. By noon, all I had was a small glass of OJ. Then I had a headache....so my attitude was not the best. I got wrapped up in something on the computer and ignored the time. Finally all at once I realized the time was 10min to having to leave to take one child to a class, the other two were fighting and one of them had made the other one cry, loud peircing cries, right next to my beating headache. Then someone was trying to get my attention on the computer about something semi immportant, the cell phone rang, and the child who had a class in 15 min was not dressed. No one had eaten lunch.....So my attitude was really bad and I exploded. I started yelling and screaming at everyone and freaking out. They all started leaving the room and ignoring me because I was acting crazy.
At the end of a day when I have behaved this way I always feel really bad and wish I could take it back. I have never liked yelling at my kids or husband, it is just something that is part of my personality that I have had to spend a lot of time asking God to help me get it under control. Over time with much maturity I have learned to get it under control for the most part, but sometimes things like today happen and I don't realize I am behaving like a lunitic until it is too late.
I could have gotten up earlier and made sure one of the first things I did was eat, so I am not so famished and can care for my family better if I am feeling ok. I could have put off the phone call and text on the computer until I got my boys tantrums under control and delt with them. I could have taken 5 min to myself to get myself calmed down before handling other people's problems....These are all things I know how to do and I do most of the time. Keeping an attitude that is that of Jesus is not as easy as it seems.
I have learned from trial and error that the more time I give to being in his word and taking time to ask God for grace and patience, the better my day goes, and or my ability to handle life's trials are better. I am not as cranky.
So the take home note from today's lesson is to pray, read Gods Word, and take time for yourself or else you will not be able to handle the children's issues properly. This is something most parents do not always do because they want to make sure they are meeting their kids needs. Parents, you can not be the parent God wants to you be without caring for yourself and turning to God for all issues in your life. This will lead to a parent with more patience and love.
Thank you Lord for this gentle reminder today and please help me to remember to turn to you with all of my issues, even the little daily ones.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Learning to Treat others as you want o be treated
Today I had the opportunity to talk with all three of my kids about the saying, "treat others as you want to be treated". This is of course an ongoing battle in this house, but today it was getting to me that it has been continueing for a few days and getting worse. None of the kids were treating eachother kindly, harse words were being used, name calling, and nasty tones.
So I was given the grace and patience to sit them all down, talk with them about how they need to be nice, how much their words were hurting others. Something hit home that one of the kids said, " ..........deserves to be treated that way because they treat me that way". So I took this opportunity to bring up that God tells us in the bible to treat others the way we want to be treated. Love our Neighbors. I had each of my children examine their hearts on whether or not they really felt like their sibling deserved to be treated the way they were treating others.
Leviticus 19:18 (New International Version)" 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."
Galatians 5:14 (New International Version) "The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
This is a hard concept for us to grasp as humans, we all feel at times the because someone treats us poorly they deserve the same back. What needs to be done is we need to take it to God and ask Him to help us realize the we need to treat everyone with love, no matter the circumstances. We need to ask God to help us to control our feelings when we are feeling really angry or hurt and show the love for those offending us just like God shows us when we offend him.
Thank you Lord for helping me be reminded of this very important lesson in life and giving me the patience to teach this to my children in a calm, Loving manner.
So I was given the grace and patience to sit them all down, talk with them about how they need to be nice, how much their words were hurting others. Something hit home that one of the kids said, " ..........deserves to be treated that way because they treat me that way". So I took this opportunity to bring up that God tells us in the bible to treat others the way we want to be treated. Love our Neighbors. I had each of my children examine their hearts on whether or not they really felt like their sibling deserved to be treated the way they were treating others.
Leviticus 19:18 (New International Version)" 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."
Galatians 5:14 (New International Version) "The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
This is a hard concept for us to grasp as humans, we all feel at times the because someone treats us poorly they deserve the same back. What needs to be done is we need to take it to God and ask Him to help us realize the we need to treat everyone with love, no matter the circumstances. We need to ask God to help us to control our feelings when we are feeling really angry or hurt and show the love for those offending us just like God shows us when we offend him.
Thank you Lord for helping me be reminded of this very important lesson in life and giving me the patience to teach this to my children in a calm, Loving manner.
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