March 17, 2014 by Our Father's Daughters

Serve Him 2014 – #1

I had the privilege of sharing at the Women’s
Retreat – Serve Him 2014 – this past weekend.
It was a special time of fellowship with a varied group of women aged 70+ to 22. I was so blessed by the sense of unity and the desire of those of us present to grow in our understanding of what it means to serve God.

Several people told me that they were unable attend – so I thought I would share a brief summary of three of the four sessions – one each for the next three weeks.

Session 2 – Serve with All Your Heart

We started by reading the scripture from I Samuel 25:1-38. This passage tells the story of Abigail, an “intelligent and beautiful woman”. She was married to a man known for being stubborn and foolish. David has been anointed to be the next king, but Saul is putting forth an attempt to maintain the throne. David is hiding from Saul and his troops, even though it is well known that Samuel anointed David to be the next king.

David asks his servants to request supplies of food from Nabal, Abigail’s husband. The servants do as they are told, but Nabel treats them rudely and refuses to give them any supplies. David decides he will lead his men and take the supplies they need as well as teach Nabal a lesson.

But, one of Nabal’s servants tells Abigail what has happened. I Samuel 25:14-

14 One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. 17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

So, Abigail responds to the servant with wisdom to save the lives of her household. Abigail knew that David was God’s anointed. David recognizes the wisdom of what Abigail says –

32 David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.

In that time and culture – women were only as important as the man they were married to. Her position as Nabal’s wife was significant.

Abigail was willing to put that secure postion aside for the more important goal of serving God.
We can learn some very important principles about serving God from Abigail’s story:

1) Abigail recognized God’s will – she was not doing something she just thought up
a.God wanted David to be king
b.She realized that Nabal’s insults put her and her family in danger
2) Abigail used her influence to save her family
a.She listened to wise counsel – v. 17 – “consider what you will do”
b.She was courageous
c.She acted quickly – “made haste”
3) Abigail bowed before David – symbol of God’s anointed – God’s will a.She submitted to God’s will
b.She used kind, wise words to ask for mercy for her husband
4) Abigail told Nabel – but waited for the RIGHT time
a. There is a right time to do the right thing
b. There is a wrong time to do the right thing
c. There is a wrong time to do the wrong thing
5) Abigail obeyed – God was responsible for the consequences

When our heart is set to serve the Lord – He will orchestrate the circumstances – and He will bring it to His desired outcome. Verse 31 – “And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then earnestly remember your handmaid.”

Abigail is an example to us of a woman who desired to honor God. God protected her and later blessed her by causing David to marry her after her husband died.

When we trust God to show us how to serve Him, we can trust God with the consequences.

March 10, 2014 by Our Father's Daughters

Never Too Young

“How can I give this to God?”

Our daughter told me that she was amazed by her son’s question as they sat in church yesterday. She thought her son (almost five) wasn’t even paying attention. The pastor was sharing about the importance of offering ourselves and all we do to God. Our grandson was drawing on the children’s bulletin not appearing to be listening at all. Then he asked how he could give the picture he had drawn as his offering to God.

He was responding to the pastor’s message.

We should never underestimate the depth of little children’s understanding.

The disciples tried to “protect” Jesus from the distraction of children as he was teaching and healing those people who followed.

There were no nurseries or children’s ministries then. In fact, women and children were generally left out of religious gatherings during that time. Young boys were allowed to join their fathers when they were around 12 years old – as Jesus did when he went to the temple (Luke 2:42). Yet we know from various accounts in the gospels that many women followed Jesus – and so probably brought their children along as well.

Jesus valued the children and gathered them to himself despite the disciples’ efforts to turn the children away.

Luke 18: 15-16

15 One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him.

16 Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.

I think children’s ministries and nurseries are important. I feel that those who care for and teach the children are such a blessing and are serving God. I look back on my earliest memories of attending church and I remember Sunday School teachers who taught me Biblical truth through their lessons AND their lives. I am so thankful for their willingness to put up with me, one of those wiggly, talkative children. (one teacher even put me out in the hall for talking too much!)

I also feel that there are times when children benefit from participating in the service with their parents. We can learn so much from a child’s response to Biblical teaching and when we experience the service with our children or grandchildren we can talk about the shared worship time. I remember seeing scripture through new eyes when our children shared their understanding of a particular passage. Our example of praying, worshipping through singing, and attentively listening are all examples to our little ones as well.

If Jesus said we needed to be like children to be part of the Kingdom of heaven, then we have much we can learn from these little ones.

March 4, 2014 by Our Father's Daughters

Laugh At the Days to Come

Don’t laugh now!

Our son told me years ago – and in fact reminded me of this recently – that before I tell a joke, I needed to run it by him to make sure it was really funny.

I don’t think so.

First of all, I am a 62 year old female. I don’t expect the things I find funny to be funny to young men.

Secondly, I do not find it funny when people are physically hurt. Males tend to LAUGH when someone falls down. I feel their pain and want to help them up. I am not sure I always trust my son’s evaluation of my humor.

Finally, what a person finds funny changes over time. I now find it so funny when small children say things really loud in quiet places. When my own children did this – it wasn’t funny.

I also think it is funny to tell my students that organic shapes (as opposed to geometric shapes) are shapes that have no preservatives or additives.

One student actually laughed, so I felt good about my effort to use humor in class.

Laughter is important. It lightens our mood, refreshes our outlook, and it can be contagious.

Solomon gives this wise council when describing a Godly woman.

Proverbs 31:25-26 NLT

25 She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future.
26 When she speaks, her words are wise,
and she gives instructions with kindness.

Why is she able to laugh at the future? Because she has strength and dignity. I believe it also means that she doesn’t take herself too seriously.

She doesn’t know what her future holds, but she knows God holds her future.

Let’s laugh together with our children.

Let’s laugh together with our grandchildren.

Let’s laugh together with our friends.

Let’s laugh at the days to come because we trust in our Father’s faithfulness.