WRESTLING WITH GOD

According to a Montana cowboy, the secret to being a good bull rider is that "You've just gotta want to hang on more than the bull wants to throw you off."  

Have you ever found yourself wrestling with God?  I have.  In this latest match, after musing over my year anniversary working as an art instructor for the Michaels Store in town, I began to hear God's instructions telling me it is time to let go.  Although I heard it loud and clear, I tried to chuck it off as maybe it's just a suggestion.  Over and over, my situation with the store worsened.  I could not possibly justify that God was asking me to let go of something He himself offered to me a year ago.  After all, it wasn't the $200/month I was making, it was my students I didn't want to give up on.  To make a long story short, an event happened which pushed me to my limit and forced me to cut ties.

That same night, I received a Facebook message from a Principal of a school in Napa, offering me a part time job teaching children from K-5.  Praise God, what a gift!  

A few days later, I received another message from a company in New York asking me to submit 3 photos of my artwork to be given consideration to exhibit my art in their gallery in San Francisco!  Only God can bring blessings like that!

There are two ways we wrestle with God.  One way is to turn back to Him and our backs to our sins.  The other is after we become Christians and we resist His blessings which are always bigger and better than the ones we refuse to let go of.  

Resist the urge to fight.  Let God be the boss of you!  You will find that your life will be a much happier and fulfilled one.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

LOVE OUT OF THIS WORLD

Love takes on different forms.  There is the love of a child to a parent and vice versa, there is a love for friends and family.  But those types of love pales in comparison to a love that your heart seeks throughout life.  That is romantic love.  Love for another person seems to trump all other types of love.  This type of love is something majority of us work for.  It is the one that also breaks our hearts when the love is unrequited.  Weaker people become obsessed and some even weaker feel their world is ending when a spouse of a lover leaves.  It is the most hurtful type of love or betrayal of that love.  

Most of these types of love is conditional.  We expect the other person to love us the way we want to be loved but more often than not, we are disappointed with what we get instead.  Some people are difficult to love perhaps because they don’t really know how to love in return.  

Everything in the media will revert back to love.  Love makes people create movies, write songs, in relation to their own individual experiences that may be no different than what millions of others have been through.  Generation to generation, it stays the same.  Humans like us will always disappoint other humans no matter how careful we are.  

There is but one type of love that never ceases, it is the easiest love to acquire.  People who are so imperfect have many conditions.  The one and only love that is unconditional is God’s love.

How is that even possible?  God, the most powerful being in the entire universe and beyond loves so unconditional and what boggles my mind even more is that it is US that He loves!  Some people are selfish enough to require love 24/7 without giving the same in return but God loves us whether we love Him back or not.

God asks for so little.  A mustard seed-sized faith.  That’s it!  Do you know that a mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds?  He asks for no more than that.  But a mustard seed, as long as it is alive and well in our hearts can’t help but grow bigger and bigger until it consumes our imperfect hearts!  If God can love one person who has a mustard seed sized love and faith for Him, how much bigger can that love from God be for a person who loves Him back with all of their heart and how favored are they?

With this type of love, if given to one another, drama and heartbreak songs would cease to exist and matter less and less.  The Love for God is the most awesome love story you will ever encounter or experience.

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them.  “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move.  Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:20 NLT 

SELF-DISCIPLINE - A Dying Trait

Our parents were ordained by God to guide and care for us.  In turn, we do the same for our own kids.  We mirror our parents' teachings to our children which is why most of us stay within the character traits of our family as a whole.

In the beginning, God set the rules of humanity and how we ought to treat each other.  Those rules are good today as they were in biblical times.  When Jesus came to walk the earth and died for us, some of the guidelines changed.  Jesus had one guideline, one rule, one commandment and that is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.  Loving one another encompasses all of the other commandments before Him.  

Today, discipline has been lost in the translation of humanity.  People became afraid to discipline lest the violation of someone's rights.  Concern for those rights became paramount over our children's future and that is worrisome.

The Lord disciplines us because He loves us.  He slows the granting of prayer to teach us patience.  He teaches this to us so we can teach it to our children as well and so they can pass it on to their own.  In doing so, we show our children that we care.  Children will impose their own wills on us.  If we give in, the chain will keep going until we can no longer control it as parents.  When that happens, the responsibility will unfortunately be passed on to non-parents such as teachers and educators.  As parents, we must embrace and accept this responsibility.  Teachers, neighbors, educators, etc. are just part of the support team.  Good discipline starts at home.

Enforce discipline by establishing structure at home, setting boundaries for your kids.  When boundaries are crossed, have a specific plan of action and have them suffer the consequences.  Make sure that they understand that the consequences go hand in hand with the punishment which are a direct result of their behavior and not your behavior.  This will teach them to develop a sense of responsibility.  It also helps enforce your own continued self-discipline for everyday situations.

If these things are held in place, the future generation will be a more responsible and loving one.  God has to have His place in all parenting and in all households.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!