Six Word Saturday

Sun Smiles Silliness and Special Friends

Heading out to see friends I have not spent time with in close to 30 years!  So excited to reunite, hangout, laugh, giggle, and catch-up!  Yea for FB and it's magical powers to reconnect!

Blessings to all of you 'six word' Saturday'ers!

Be Perfect?

 

Today's five minute challenge from Lisa Jo over at the Gypsy Mama, is to set our timer and write for five minutes on the word "Whole." We are to publish it as is - so no editing!

Here is my take on the word "Whole"

Go...

Perfection is a word that to me holds a connotation, or rather a feeling, of an unattainable list of expectations that I am to strive towards, and when I miss that mark, if I fail to complete anything on this list, then I have failed to be perfect.

There's a verse in scripture that has always scared me. It is the verse where Jesus tells us to be perfect, as He is perfect - Where He tells me I must conquer an unattainable, and sometimes unknowable list of things that I must do or say or think or feel to be perfect. And that I am required, commanded even to do this. And that verse has always causeds me to feel fear, intimidation, and to feel doomed to complete, utter, failure.

But perfect, in the sense of unattainable, is not the true connotation of that word. The word is really a calling to be complete, as He is complete - to be whole.

To be whole in my mind, in my body, in my spirit, in my emotions, in my love, in my actions, in my soul...to be whole means to be complete. To be complete means to live in health and fullness of life!

Jesus does not call us to an unattainable set of regulations and rules, but to wholeness, to completeness, to health! What a loving thing to desire for me...

This verse no longer scares me, but frees me! Jesus wants me to be whole! I love that about my God, don't you?

Stop...

Take 327

I wish living life were like making a movie. I wish we could read our lines, rehearse what needs to happen- change it up a bit, do it over and over again until it's right and then allow our editor to pick the best parts and let that play out to the world.

But that isn't our life. We do not get to rehearse, or practice, or try out several ways of doing something and then let the director tell us which take to use. We don't have script writers, or make-up artists or lighting crews that always make us look our best. We don't have people feeding us the right words, putting us in the best locations or designing the perfect clothes to represent our personalities.


Life is more raw than that. There are no 'take 2s' or 'take 22's,' there are no do overs. It is what it is.

But that does not make us victims of chance or randomness. We are not helpless fish tossed about by the waves of life. We have choice, and power and opportunity to make the best of what we are given. We have a God who loves us, who died for us and who desires nothing less than to reveal Himself to us.

As we read His word, as we meditate on the scriptures, as we pray, fellowship, worship and commune with Him, He reveals His love, His care, and His presence in our lives. And as we move through the chaos of our world, He shows us how to live. Sometimes we follow Him and sometimes we don't, but whether we do or don't, He is still working with us, revealing Himself to us, walking with us, and giving us the power we need every step of the way.

But as I write these words that I know are true, my heart is aching and I am grieved becasue I know it is not always a simple process.  As I sit in the comfort of my home, scripting out this blog, a very dear and close friend of ours, a mother of 4 children under the age of 10, is fighting stage 3 cancer. Her treatments are wrecking havoc on her body and she cannot be the wife and mother she longs to be.  Her husband was recently laid off and so in addition to fighting her cancer, they must also fight their insurance company, and deal with the ramifications of the loss of both of their incomes. I do not understand this and - I wonder why. I wonder why God in His sovereignty allows all of this to fall on them. I know God can heal. I know God walks with them - but my heart doesn't want this script for them. My heart does not want this difficult road to be their path. I desperately want God to say "Cut, stop, let's change the script." I want this  to be left on the cutting room floor - never to be seen.  But that is not how it works.

Life is not edited for our enjoyment, it is lived for God's glory, and in His glory is His love, His compassion and His presence. I know God has not abandoned this family - or any other family that has a painful journey like theirs - we all know familes who struggle with illnesses, and divorces, and trauma.  But as I watch this family walk this path, even though I know God walks with them, my heart still grieves, my soul still aches and I long to see joy and peace and health restored to them in a miraculous way.

Linking up with The Way I see it Wednesday

Bad Connection

There is something wrong with my phone. 

Recently I was having a conversation on my phone and what I said was not what was heard.  For some reason, by the time my words reached the listener's ears, the words were all jumbled up and distorted, and the listener did not understand me at all. 

Maybe, I need a new phone because what I said was

• "You need to think about the consequences"
• But what was heard was - you never make right choices
• What I said was, "I don't like it when you push things to the end"
• But what was heard was - you are lazy and procrastinate
• What I said was "I don't think you should do this "
• But what was heard was - you disappoint

I hung up the phone and cried- I did not understand how my words, words meant for caution and admonition were heard as judgment and failure.  I was devastated, crushed and I ached to make things right.  How could this beautiful passionate person hear those kinds of words from me?  Is that what my actions communicate?  I do not think those things about this person- why would they think I do?  And then I realized, I was so preoccupied with wanting to cross something off of a 'to do' list that I wasn't listening to what was being heard until it was too late - and the conversation had already spun out of control.  How many times had I done that before?  Not listened, shoved my own agenda, spoken too harshly?  Obviously, too many times.

Oh God, help me to choose words that are full of grace and love - with no agenda than the other's best interest.  Teach me to use words to bless and to encourage; words that listen to the heart of the one to whom I am speaking.  Teach me to listen and speak only when needed.  Forgive me for not hearing the heart of the one you entrusted to me.

"A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even-tempered." - Proverbs 17:27 NLT