Is the Family Freak Flag Flying Today?

 A young married couple came to me with a problem in their marriage. The wife blamed the husband and the husband blamed the wife. The children were present to witness all the hostility and verbal diarrhea from both of their parents. In other words, their family freak flag was flying high that day! They wanted my ears more than my advice but if I had to hear their mess then they had to hear my sermon. (their punishment for such poor behavior) They really didn't want my advice on how to help their situation but instead each hoping I would point the finger at the other and give them all the blame.

One thing I have learned about marriage and that is when you are more interested in who is to blame it's a huge red flag. Who cares who is to blame because there is enough of that to go around in every marriage. How exhausting is it to destroy the ones we are supposed to love? What kind of example are we leaving our children when we fight like adult toddlers with each other? These are the moments that I get why God flooded the earth because of all the evil in the hearts of the people. I am also grateful for his mercy and grace because of His promise in the following verses to not destroy us all when there is still so much more evil in all of us today.      
                                  
  Genesis 8:21-22  And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

 This was taken inside Bethesda by the Sea church May 5, 2012.

Weakness

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor. 12:10

There was a time in my life that I used to cover up how I felt because I didn't want to appear weak or discouraging. The wonderful thing about being over 50 is that you learn that weakness isn't something that needs to be hidden. Everyone has weaknesses and everyone has strengths. The wonderful thing about being weak is being able to understand others with weaknesses. When we lay aside our worries about what others may think and begin to be authentic with others, God can use us. 

We need to value and believe in others in spite of their weaknesses like Jesus does. God doesn't see us like we see ourselves. He can see our potential. We have to trust God with our strengths and our weaknesses. When we give God our weaknesses He is able to do something that we never dreamed possible.

When we begin to be authentic about ourselves we risk losing family and friends who may have difficulty with our weaknesses. Don't let the way you feel about you be determined by others. I believe God can use us more because of our weaknesses. Our life is not about our popularity but it is about God's Kingdom. Our weaknesses are sometimes more useful for God's Kingdom.

My prayer: Lord, help me to see myself as you see me and help me to see others as you do.

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works... Heb. 10:24 

  This picture was taken, at night, by my niece Theresa in Delaware during a snow storm. Her photography has always been such an inspiration to me personally!

We Forget About God

 The prophet Samuel reminds his people about how their ancestors forgot about God much the same way they were doing at that present time. I Samuel 12:9-10 And when they forgot the Lord their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them.  Then they cried out to the Lord, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and Ashtoreths; but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.’

They were no longer grateful for the protection and provisions of God. Recently I was speaking to a young father who was complaining about his circumstances because he felt unappreciated. It was easy for me to see that he lived a blessed life if the only complaint he had was not feeling appreciated. God had given this young man a beautiful life, a home, a job, friends, etc. but his complaint was that he was not appreciated enough. How often do we ourselves not see God's blessings because of a feeling? 

We forget about God when we are complaining to ourselves or to others about our feelings when they outweigh our gratefulness. Let's have an attitude of gratefulness no matter the circumstances and let God know how grateful we are for all He has provided each day!

This is a picture of my husband with our niece's dog when we were visiting in Delaware. I thought the dogs frisbee had a great message.