The Most Important of all Decisions

As I look around me I see many different people groups from all different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles. Sometimes it is so easy to get lost and forget who you are and where you came from. Especially living in a large city! What really matters is what are you doing right now. I have this favorite saying I read once, Where you are today is a result of the decisions you've made in the past. Our life is made up of an abundance of decisions that were once made which bring us to the present day and the ones not yet made that will carry us on to the uncertain abyss of the future.

 I strongly dislike making decisions myself, maybe because the previous saying is always running around up there in my scattered brain, but even little things are hard for me to decide on. When Brandon and I were first dating I remember he would take me out to a restaurant and I would never try anything new. I would stay steadfast and firm with my choice of the grilled chicken salad with honey mustard dressing, which I tried my first week in college, liked it and decided to stick with it, because I knew it was safe. The reason for my madness was due to my lack of restaurant experience.  I was uncertain of everything because it was all so new to me! In my little home town of Linneus, Maine, we had one stop light and one restaurant that was almost always fully occupied. The next town with anything at all to offer was Houlton, a little town right off the end of I 95, If you missed this exit driving North, you would find yourself at the Canadian border only 5 minutes up the road! Houlton acquired a couple of fast food restaurants as well as The Asian Palace, and the Elm Tree Diner. Those were what we had to choose from, which pretty much sums up my inadequacies with new foods, and the choosing thereof!  Brandon was the first one to give me an education in "Eating Out 101" and with time, I began to branch out and try new things while on my magical dates with him. To this day, I am still the last one to decide what I want, but have come a long ways since our dating days at Liberty University.

To get back on the subject of my premise for writing, "Where we are today is a result of the decisions we've made.".....How do I implement this obvious truth into the little delicate minds of my three beloved children?  Our kids have heard us say many times, "Make good choices", but do they really know the importance and depth of this simple command? You have to live with the consequence of your choice no matter what, there is no escaping it, and there is no going back.

Today I was able to teach this lesson to my 5 year old who had to learn the hard way that when you spend your allowance one day, you can't get it back days later even though you find something better that you would presently rather have. Ava, (middle child age 7) is probably the most wise with her money. She's always careful in picking something out at the store on her birthday, where the other two will throw there items in the basket in a matter of minutes, Ava strolls through the aisles pensively, looking and hesitantly deciding. Today Ava still had the money I had given her last week for doing the dishes and folding my laundry. As she lurked around the shop looking for things within her quaint price range, younger sister Ainsley began to search and find things she that she wanted that were out of both her price range (0.00) and Ava's price range! I had to explain to Ainsley that she had spent her money the day she earned it, on a one month Animal Jam subscription for her Chrome book. I explained to her at the time that this would take up all of her allowance and that her piggy bank would be at a zero balance now. She seemed to understand, but really I think she was just living in the moment and she wanted that game!

Makes me think....How many times do we live in the moment thinking it really won't matter much in the future?  I'm guilty of thinking that maybe the consequence monster will some how miss me and forget to punish me and my fat cells for that double fudge chewy brownie desert that just had to have the ice-cream to go with it. That bowl of delish that climbed right into my belly after a dinner that was entirely and completely satisfying with no need of a sinful desert, broke my three day fast from sugar. It opened the door to invite anything lovely tasting back into my life wherever and whenever. I paid for all of that brownie and everything that followed it a week later costing me a gaining of 5lbs that could have been a loss but wasn't,  all because I decided to give into the craving in that very moment.. Oops!.. bad decision.

 Consequences just don't seem fair, there not always the same for everyone either.  Not everyone would receive the same consequence as I did for cheating on my diet and eating that brownie and ice cream. For example, Austin also used his money to purchase a month subscription to Animal Jam on his Chrome book, but was he upset that he had spent his money and wasn't able to shop like Ainsley? No, he could care less. He was very happy with the purchase he made, and has enjoyed every moment of his Animal Jam playing and had no regrets. Ainsley also  enjoyed her purchase but really badly wanted to partake in the fun moment Ava was presently enjoying as she chose what she wanted to spend her allowance on.

I don't want this blog to be an attack on my baby Ainsley since she was spoken of in a negative light, and the other two positive, but just a memory to be recorded for when the moments of their childhood slip our minds and even pictures can't tell these stories of the past. To Ainsley's credit, she is really young compared to the other two who have 23 and 45 months of life learning lessons on her.  I can only hope that she learned a lesson about being wise with her money or at least that her disgruntlement on this very day was a result of the decision she made prior.

What a beautiful picture life is when we are given that peace in knowing the results of our past decisions are turning out precisely to our benefit. My husband gets up in front of crowds of people on a weekly basis to talk about life principles, and eternal things but really everything that he talks about always comes full circle back to one thing. That one thing being, the most important decision we could ever make, one that our eternal destination rides on and no one is exempt from. We will make many mistakes here on earth and have to pay the consequences for them, like Ainsley's allowance story and my craving mishap-but really all of that pales in comparison to the most important decision that we each have to make for ourselves on this side of eternity and that is to die to self and live for Christ. Where you will be in eternity will be the result of the decision you made in the past. 

May His Face Shine Upon You

The past year has been a whirlwind of glorious events. A tad bit complicated to put into human words, but the end result always makes enormous sense. What a beautiful picture life is - as the greatest artist known to man -- the one who holds creation in His hands, is the one painting ours.

Like an artist knows the picture he has in mind before the first stroke of the brush, only God knows what the future holds in the picture He is painting of our life. 

I recently gave a devotional to a group I was leading and I felt I had so much more to say to them but only a small amount of time to convey the point that God was trying to make as I shared with them James 1:2 (“Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials….”) so I just had to put it all into writing.

It’s commonly said that you are either heading into a storm, you’re in the middle of a storm, or you’re coming out of a storm. That’s life and it’s true for everyone who’s ever lived it. Whether we can detect any of those three segments or not, right now it is certain that we are all living in one of these events! I think I can speak for most people if I were to say that “coming out of the storm” would be the number one choice of where we would all like to be, but you can’t deny the beauty of a storm and all of its Glory!

My close friend and I had been going through separate storms together. These storms, although extremely different in nature, had one standard ground that kept us from drifting apart in the strong winds – one common denominator that reminded us of why we were there.  The solid Rock that never moved, was never shaken, and girded us with strength as the enemy tried to destroy – was none other than our Lord and Savior. 

I find it amazing how God places people, things, and situations perfectly into our lives. We can’t clearly see or understand the foreshadowing of it but always smile when we realize the end result. I love how God does that. He has a way of leaving us with a smile on our face after His mission is accomplished and that is the true joy of a believer.

Last Sunday, my husband spoke on seeking God’s face, not just His hand in our lives.

We are always asking for God’s hand in every situation, for his mercy, for his blessing, but one thing we lack as a society especially in American culture is seeking God’s face.  Truly seeking Him on our knees in prayer is really something that can’t be found in the calming sweetness of life. Seeking Him is not something we naturally do as human beings.  We are fleshly, and we personally have free will, but God has the final say and controls all of our surroundings.  It is He who gives the enemy permission to attack us and it is He who gives us the strength and power to pull through anything and it can only be done in His name. It all belongs to Him! He is the Artist, He is the great Creator – the One who tells the seas to part, waters to fall, winds and storms to arise! The mountains in our life tremble when his presence is near.

As my friend and I journeyed through our separate storms together – we cried tears, shared laughter, prayed many prayers, and dissected scripture – all of which were so pertinent in getting us through. We likened our learning experience to a diamond with many facets, rich with so much beauty to bestow.  Isn’t that just how God is? We told each other time and time again that nothing in life could match up with this great intimacy with God. He was teaching us so much and we were seeing Him in every single thing that we experienced. He was holding our hands as we were seeking His face. In the midst of this storm the most precious times of the day were found filling up on the Word of God and giving the Holy Spirit full reign in our lives. We would joke that we had an addiction. Yes, an addiction to God and our time spent with Him. I remember my 6 year old making the comment, “Mom, all you talk about all the time is God!” She seemed frustrated but I smiled knowing she really didn’t know Him yet, but her time would come. One thing was for sure, she knew He was a friend of mine and very important to me.

Here in the present I long for that again. I still seek Him, I still digest His word, but the storm has past, and the calming has now come. I remember feeling that my storm was almost over and I expressed to my friend how it kind of made me sad that the journey was coming to an end for me, she agreed and empathized with this deviating feeling. It wasn’t the ugly storm I was going to miss, obviously. It was knowing that the precise closeness to God and daily dwelling in His presence may not quite be the same in the days to come. This made me sad and lonesome for heaven.

I love how God held my hand through the storm. I love how He continued to reveal Himself to me.  But most of all I love how He did it all to get me to the next step I needed to take.  Just as a parent eventually lets go of the back of their child’s bike so he can take off on two wheels all by himself – our Heavenly Father gives us the training wheels we need until its time to let go and send us on.  He doesn’t go anywhere – His presence is still hovering over us – the only difference is that now, He has given His child the ability to spread His wings just a little further than before. God is allowing us to see the world in an entirely different way, with different set of eyes, with much more wisdom and understanding.

We experience a unique closeness to our Creator that can only be experienced in the midst of a storm.  He revealed Himself to me in a way that was so powerful that the very memory of it is embedded into my mind, soul, and spirit – never to be forgotten. This left me with more faith, more power and more strength to make it through the next storm whatever it may be. So consider it all joy my friend… and when those storms in life come….May His Face Shine Upon You!