We live a life of fear.
It's true.
Fear is not something that is instilled in us. God did not create us with a spirit of fear. It is a learned emotion. If you don't believe me, watch a baby that has learned to crawl. They will pull themselves up onto a couch and jump off as if they expect themselves to magically float to the floor with the greatest of ease. No, instead they crash hard with a resounding thud followed my a mouth locked in a silent cry before the wails of the banshee escape into the air. They then know that falling equals pain, therefore they will not try that again (usually). They grow fearful of the pain that comes as a consequence to the jump.
Children also learn fear, not only from actions, but from their influential people - namely their parents. A baby sits and plays with his blocks and once a spider slowly creeps up his leg, you don't see him screaming for someone to kill it until it is nothing more than a black speck (ok, that may or may not be referring to me). No, they look at it with wonder and amusement. Their little brows furrow in a questionable gaze at this weird thing that doesn't inflict any harm on them but tickles their skin. It isn't until the mother comes in and screeches like a howler monkey before jerking the baby up and running from the room as if the spider is going to attack and kill in one swift motion. The baby then learns that the strange little creature is something to be feared. Why....? Well, because mommy fears it. The one that the baby puts all his trust in is fearful and therefore he must be, right?
We fear so many things; some outlandish and some not so much. I will not go into the weird phobias I have because to many they seem ridiculous but to me they are quite real. Fear. Fear that has been instilled inside me at an impressionable age.
Fear is an emotion that effects us in so many ways. Physically it causes our heart to race, causes an outbreak of perspiration, nausea, shaking, immobilization, enlarged pupils, dry mouth, etc. Mentally it causes anxiety, depression, feeling of inadequacy and just an over all feeling that we are controlled by our fear.
The biggest thing that fear does, in my opinion, is keeps us from reaching our fullest potential. The majority of us share one common fear - the fear of rejection.
Whether it be rejection by a family member, an employer, a teacher, a mentor or someone we have romantic feelings for - the fear is the same no matter of race or gender. It creates missed opportunities and crumbled relationships. What God has possibly sent for good will turn sour as our fear consumes us like a poison.
In the NIV version of the Bible there are over 300 verses based on fear. Here are a few of my favorites....
"For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline."-2 Timothy 1:7
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." -John 14:27
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." -Joshua 1:9
"In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?" -Psalm 56:4
"I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears" -Psalm 34:4
"the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days." -Luke 1:73-75
God doesn't say that we will never have fear. We live in a world that is full of some pretty scary stuff. However, He tells us we have no reason to fear because He is watching over us.
Like the old saying, don't let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. Don't fear taking a step out of your comfortable little box you have created for yourself. Do something daring! You want to go back to school even though you think you are "too old"? Do it! You want to start a new ministry or Bible study? Give it a try! You have wanted to tell someone how you really feel about them for awhile now? Take a deep breath and blurt it out! You want to take on a project that seems impossible? I remember reading somewhere that ALL things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26).
If you live in fear, the enemy has a foothold on you. You will constantly be afraid of failing therefore you will never try anything. The enemy will use the fear to keep you from reaching a potential that you never knew you had but was planted in you before you were even born. Don't listen to the "I can't", the "what if", or the "I don't know..." God wants you to prosper and wants the best for you. He wants you to strive farther than you ever thought possible.
It will be frightening, perhaps even down-right terrifying....but all it takes is one step. One step and God promises to meet you there. Peter - he took one step out of the boat when the other disciples were cowering in the corner, freaked out not knowing what they were going to do amidst the storm. Jesus called out to Peter and he took that first step out of the boat. It was when his focus became cloudy and his fear set in that he began to sink and even though the fear consumed him just as the waves threatened to do, Jesus still reached into the darkness and pulled him out. Peter did not cower in the boat. He knew that if he reached out to his King that all would be okay..that he could do anything - even the impossible, walking on water!!
It only takes a few seconds of courage to create a path of greatness. Just take the step and Jesus promises to meet you there.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Inside a father's heart....
Our dad wrote for numerous magazines, newspaper columns and wrote a book that was a 6 week study for a middle school in Florida. I was reading through them and laminating them a couple years ago and came across one that touched me and brought back memories. I felt compelled to post it :)
10/27/1986
"Isn't it remarkable how different things become when your children trot off to begin another school year? They cram all their supplies into tote bags or backpacks, yell "bye" on their way out, and unfailingly slam the door as a symbolic exclamation point that proclaims that summer and all its noises are all but over. It leaves in its wake a stillness that is almost uncomfortable.
After the bus picks them up and rumbles away, you begin your annual re-adjustment phases. You look at the black television screen and realize you'll have to get used to not hearing some yoyo yelling, "Cretina Moroni, come on down!" Well, no sweat here. However, it might take a bit more effort getting used to a telephone that doesn't ring a dozen times a day, youngsters honking their car horns in my driveway or pounding on the door, or spending a great deal of time trying to explain why chickens don't have teeth to my daughter. After all, who wouldn't miss that?
As the first day wears on, you begin to dwell on the changes that transpired over the summer. There were a few at my house. My 16 year old son (Misty note--this would be Jeff), besides discovering that girls are something he shouldn't have spent so much time ignoring, had his first summer job. That allowed him to buy his school clothes and supplies, and provide him with funds which were used to convince girls that his previous lack of interest in them was directly related to partial blindness and temporary insanity.
My daughter (Misty note--this would be me), on the other hand, spent a large portion of the summer mastering the fine art of riding a boys bike and raising 40 frying chickens. Both projects weren't without their problems. When she wasn't dismounting her bike by way of flying headfirst over the handlebars and giving our dog a phobia by running into him so often, she somehow caught a chicken's head in the door of the chicken house and had to nurse another back to health that came up lame. To her credit, though, she accepted her injuries and those of her chickens with equal concern. The abrasions on her elbows and knees were no more important than her chicken's sore head. Somewhere, I suppose, there's a child psychologist who can explain all that.
Eventually, you get up and address your time and energies to projects that were too difficult or impossible to tackle when the kids were home all day. I pulled up to my typewriter and quickly discovered that I was unable to put black on white. I drew a blank. Words, sentences and paragraphs were miles beyond my grasp. All the light bulbs inside my head were turned off.
Then it hit me right between the eyes! Nobody was interrupting me. I was concentrating more on when and how I'd be interrupted than on my planned project. I'd spent all summer being sidetracked by such annoyances as fixing bike tires, putting band aides on scrapes and abrasions, inspecting one chicken with a headache and another with a limp, dispensing postage stamps to my son in order for him to send letters to girls who were once nondescript objects in his life, and settling perfectly silly disputes. Suddenly, I was being forced to adjust again to uninterrupted silence. To be honest, that took awhile.
Finally,. all the summer noises and aggravations notwithstanding, you realize that the house seems terribly lonely. You actually miss your children and their methods of getting in your hair. You know they'll be home again in a few hours, yet things don't seem exactly right without them being around to monopolize your time and attention. The bike stands beside the porch like something disappointed because there's nobody upon whom it can inflict injuries, the "jambox" in my son's room isn't blasting out songs so wild and indecipherable they sound as though they were recorded inside a lunatic asylum, and the telephone hangs limply as though thankful for the rest. What should be perfect peace is an awkward peace. It's almost like weathering one storm and waiting for the next one to hit.
After some though, you realize that the attention-getting devices employed by your children, be they negative or positive, are vital ingredients that form the bond of love between parents and children. They seek your attention and involvement in their lives in a variety of both pleasant and unpleasant ways, and you strive to consciously and instinctively to meet their needs. Most children will not allow their parents to drift too far away from them. They'll find ways to pull them back. When parents recognize and accept those tactics, a happy relationship is kept intact. Actually, that's what family is really about. Where closeness abounds, there is little room for negatives to invade and destroy.
Having said that, I have but a couple more thing to say.
Hurry home, kids, I'm sitting here waiting for you.
I've missed you."
Most articles my dad wrote were very political and about various government rights. He would throw a few here and there about his family
Reading this let me have a piece of him that I didn't get to see much growing up. The side of him that shows he loved his kids. Don't get me wrong, he was our dad and I know he loved us but as a southern man, he had a hard time showing it. Plus, when you are sick all the time you tend to take it out on those closest to you. I get that now. This article is hanging on my computer room wall as a reminder. A reminder of the love of a father and a reminder of who is waiting for me in heaven.
And as I read this article, I read that last couple lines again and again "Hurry home, kids, I'm sitting here waiting for you. I've missed you." ...and I can't help but believe he is in heaven saying those exact same words.
10/27/1986
"Isn't it remarkable how different things become when your children trot off to begin another school year? They cram all their supplies into tote bags or backpacks, yell "bye" on their way out, and unfailingly slam the door as a symbolic exclamation point that proclaims that summer and all its noises are all but over. It leaves in its wake a stillness that is almost uncomfortable.
After the bus picks them up and rumbles away, you begin your annual re-adjustment phases. You look at the black television screen and realize you'll have to get used to not hearing some yoyo yelling, "Cretina Moroni, come on down!" Well, no sweat here. However, it might take a bit more effort getting used to a telephone that doesn't ring a dozen times a day, youngsters honking their car horns in my driveway or pounding on the door, or spending a great deal of time trying to explain why chickens don't have teeth to my daughter. After all, who wouldn't miss that?
As the first day wears on, you begin to dwell on the changes that transpired over the summer. There were a few at my house. My 16 year old son (Misty note--this would be Jeff), besides discovering that girls are something he shouldn't have spent so much time ignoring, had his first summer job. That allowed him to buy his school clothes and supplies, and provide him with funds which were used to convince girls that his previous lack of interest in them was directly related to partial blindness and temporary insanity.
My daughter (Misty note--this would be me), on the other hand, spent a large portion of the summer mastering the fine art of riding a boys bike and raising 40 frying chickens. Both projects weren't without their problems. When she wasn't dismounting her bike by way of flying headfirst over the handlebars and giving our dog a phobia by running into him so often, she somehow caught a chicken's head in the door of the chicken house and had to nurse another back to health that came up lame. To her credit, though, she accepted her injuries and those of her chickens with equal concern. The abrasions on her elbows and knees were no more important than her chicken's sore head. Somewhere, I suppose, there's a child psychologist who can explain all that.
Eventually, you get up and address your time and energies to projects that were too difficult or impossible to tackle when the kids were home all day. I pulled up to my typewriter and quickly discovered that I was unable to put black on white. I drew a blank. Words, sentences and paragraphs were miles beyond my grasp. All the light bulbs inside my head were turned off.
Then it hit me right between the eyes! Nobody was interrupting me. I was concentrating more on when and how I'd be interrupted than on my planned project. I'd spent all summer being sidetracked by such annoyances as fixing bike tires, putting band aides on scrapes and abrasions, inspecting one chicken with a headache and another with a limp, dispensing postage stamps to my son in order for him to send letters to girls who were once nondescript objects in his life, and settling perfectly silly disputes. Suddenly, I was being forced to adjust again to uninterrupted silence. To be honest, that took awhile.
Finally,. all the summer noises and aggravations notwithstanding, you realize that the house seems terribly lonely. You actually miss your children and their methods of getting in your hair. You know they'll be home again in a few hours, yet things don't seem exactly right without them being around to monopolize your time and attention. The bike stands beside the porch like something disappointed because there's nobody upon whom it can inflict injuries, the "jambox" in my son's room isn't blasting out songs so wild and indecipherable they sound as though they were recorded inside a lunatic asylum, and the telephone hangs limply as though thankful for the rest. What should be perfect peace is an awkward peace. It's almost like weathering one storm and waiting for the next one to hit.
After some though, you realize that the attention-getting devices employed by your children, be they negative or positive, are vital ingredients that form the bond of love between parents and children. They seek your attention and involvement in their lives in a variety of both pleasant and unpleasant ways, and you strive to consciously and instinctively to meet their needs. Most children will not allow their parents to drift too far away from them. They'll find ways to pull them back. When parents recognize and accept those tactics, a happy relationship is kept intact. Actually, that's what family is really about. Where closeness abounds, there is little room for negatives to invade and destroy.
Having said that, I have but a couple more thing to say.
Hurry home, kids, I'm sitting here waiting for you.
I've missed you."
Most articles my dad wrote were very political and about various government rights. He would throw a few here and there about his family
Reading this let me have a piece of him that I didn't get to see much growing up. The side of him that shows he loved his kids. Don't get me wrong, he was our dad and I know he loved us but as a southern man, he had a hard time showing it. Plus, when you are sick all the time you tend to take it out on those closest to you. I get that now. This article is hanging on my computer room wall as a reminder. A reminder of the love of a father and a reminder of who is waiting for me in heaven.
And as I read this article, I read that last couple lines again and again "Hurry home, kids, I'm sitting here waiting for you. I've missed you." ...and I can't help but believe he is in heaven saying those exact same words.
 |
| Dad and I on my first day of 1st grade. |
Sunday, January 1, 2012
In like a lion, out like a lamb....
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
That is my confetti for ringing in the new year! Another year has gone and a new year has begun. Many people look at the new year as a new beginning, a fresh start. Many people make resolutions, many people set goals and take on the new year with a vengeance - determined to make it better than the previous year.
I guess I do those things too. I am determined to get in shape this year. I am determined to be healthier. Yes, I have said this before and yes I have succeeded (only to fail again). However, there are some points in your life where you have to look around and ask yourself "what the heck am I doing?" God has given us one life and one life that is precious and in the grand scheme of things, not that long.
So, I reflect on the previous year and take a heavy sigh. A sigh of gratitude that it is over and a sigh of disappointment that it seems wasted. This year has been one of the roughest I have had in awhile. It has been rough emotionally and physically. I have had a roller coaster of "ups" and "downs". I have had hateful slander spewed about me like rancid vomit. I have had relationships that I cherished gone in a moment's snap. I have been hated even though the ones involved claimed to love God and it got to the point that I doubted everything. I doubted my ministry, I doubted my marriage, I doubted my God and life in general.
*gasp*
I am not ashamed to admit my short comings. I am not going to hide behind a mask that I am floating on butterflies and skipping through the meadows with a puppy....that's not reality. This world is a hard world to live in. It began since the fall of man in the Garden. This rock we live on is NOT our home. It was never intended to be once sin corrupted it. At that moment it was destined to die.
If you came to my house and I treated you like royalty. If I gave you the best of what I had and never came against you in controversy or anger. If everything about my house was perfect with no pain or sorrow - you would never want to leave. You would never long for something better. There would be no reason to. However, if you came to my home and I never offered you a meal or water....if I yelled at you or ignored you all together. If I hit you or mistreated you, you would want to go home, right? That is how this world is. We suffer and we go through tribulation so we can long for Home, for something BETTER. If we had a perfect life, we would never desire more.
But this world is not a desolate wasteland. I think we look at this place like there is no hope and we pray for Jesus' return and we see the signs of His coming. In my opinion, that is a selfish mentality. In all reality, when Jesus ascended to be with the Father in the gospels of the New Testament...the moment He was no longer in sight, we have been anticipating His return. Some people get so wrapped up in the fact that Jesus is coming back (and He *is* coming back, FYI), that they miss living. They miss the smell of rain in the air, they miss the newly fallen snow that glistens in the sunlight, they miss the smell of lilac in the air, they miss the child's laughter, they miss the awesome force in a summer's night storm, they miss the colors of a velvet sky, they miss the complexity of the body and how awesome it truly is......they miss IT.
So, while I have had a pretty crappy year (for lack of a better word), I let out a sigh of gratitude. While I am miserable at times while in the moment or am wanting to throw in the towel saying it isn't worth it.....I know that Jesus said these times would come. He told us to remember that when they come against us and hate us to remember that they hated Him first. I then look around and instead of looking back at the hard times of this past year, I look at the times I smiled. The times I got to spend with friends, the times I got to laugh and be stupid with my brother and his family, the times my kids and Matt and I shared, the moments that just made my heart swell with love and gratitude to the point that I thought it would burst from my chest. I look back at my church family that through it all were there for me. I cannot even fathom how I would have made it through without them. I thank God for them often. I reflect back on the youth group. While there are changes constantly taking place, I know that it is all for the Kingdom. Some changes are uncomfortable but with those moments of being in an uncomfortable place, I know that something beautiful will emerge. The group makes me laugh, makes me feel loved, and I know that I have been there when they had no one else and that kind of relationship cannot be devalued.
2012 is going to be the year of change. That isn't my resolution because resolutions are broken. That is my statement - loud and clear. So I am anticipating this year to come in like a lion - the Lion of Judah!
That is my confetti for ringing in the new year! Another year has gone and a new year has begun. Many people look at the new year as a new beginning, a fresh start. Many people make resolutions, many people set goals and take on the new year with a vengeance - determined to make it better than the previous year.
I guess I do those things too. I am determined to get in shape this year. I am determined to be healthier. Yes, I have said this before and yes I have succeeded (only to fail again). However, there are some points in your life where you have to look around and ask yourself "what the heck am I doing?" God has given us one life and one life that is precious and in the grand scheme of things, not that long.
So, I reflect on the previous year and take a heavy sigh. A sigh of gratitude that it is over and a sigh of disappointment that it seems wasted. This year has been one of the roughest I have had in awhile. It has been rough emotionally and physically. I have had a roller coaster of "ups" and "downs". I have had hateful slander spewed about me like rancid vomit. I have had relationships that I cherished gone in a moment's snap. I have been hated even though the ones involved claimed to love God and it got to the point that I doubted everything. I doubted my ministry, I doubted my marriage, I doubted my God and life in general.
*gasp*
I am not ashamed to admit my short comings. I am not going to hide behind a mask that I am floating on butterflies and skipping through the meadows with a puppy....that's not reality. This world is a hard world to live in. It began since the fall of man in the Garden. This rock we live on is NOT our home. It was never intended to be once sin corrupted it. At that moment it was destined to die.
If you came to my house and I treated you like royalty. If I gave you the best of what I had and never came against you in controversy or anger. If everything about my house was perfect with no pain or sorrow - you would never want to leave. You would never long for something better. There would be no reason to. However, if you came to my home and I never offered you a meal or water....if I yelled at you or ignored you all together. If I hit you or mistreated you, you would want to go home, right? That is how this world is. We suffer and we go through tribulation so we can long for Home, for something BETTER. If we had a perfect life, we would never desire more.
But this world is not a desolate wasteland. I think we look at this place like there is no hope and we pray for Jesus' return and we see the signs of His coming. In my opinion, that is a selfish mentality. In all reality, when Jesus ascended to be with the Father in the gospels of the New Testament...the moment He was no longer in sight, we have been anticipating His return. Some people get so wrapped up in the fact that Jesus is coming back (and He *is* coming back, FYI), that they miss living. They miss the smell of rain in the air, they miss the newly fallen snow that glistens in the sunlight, they miss the smell of lilac in the air, they miss the child's laughter, they miss the awesome force in a summer's night storm, they miss the colors of a velvet sky, they miss the complexity of the body and how awesome it truly is......they miss IT.
So, while I have had a pretty crappy year (for lack of a better word), I let out a sigh of gratitude. While I am miserable at times while in the moment or am wanting to throw in the towel saying it isn't worth it.....I know that Jesus said these times would come. He told us to remember that when they come against us and hate us to remember that they hated Him first. I then look around and instead of looking back at the hard times of this past year, I look at the times I smiled. The times I got to spend with friends, the times I got to laugh and be stupid with my brother and his family, the times my kids and Matt and I shared, the moments that just made my heart swell with love and gratitude to the point that I thought it would burst from my chest. I look back at my church family that through it all were there for me. I cannot even fathom how I would have made it through without them. I thank God for them often. I reflect back on the youth group. While there are changes constantly taking place, I know that it is all for the Kingdom. Some changes are uncomfortable but with those moments of being in an uncomfortable place, I know that something beautiful will emerge. The group makes me laugh, makes me feel loved, and I know that I have been there when they had no one else and that kind of relationship cannot be devalued.
2012 is going to be the year of change. That isn't my resolution because resolutions are broken. That is my statement - loud and clear. So I am anticipating this year to come in like a lion - the Lion of Judah!
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