Tag Archives: facing suffering

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Testing

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I spoke to the students of Smoky Mountain High School’s chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes last Friday. I was so blessed to see these young people and their willingness to get up early and come to school on Friday morning at 7:30 am!

They did not know I was going to talk to them about testing.

“How many of you have a test today?” I started by asking.

I went on to share the following message because I know God is dealing with me about this issue and I know some of you are facing life challenges as well.

Ok, to be honest, if we are alive, we are facing challenges, some good, some not so good, and some outright devastating.

What is the purpose of a test?

Good tests have a very important purpose – that is to show you as a student what you have learned – what you know – and what you still need to study or work on.

Tests are not effective when used as a “gotcha” strategy, to catch the students who did not read the assigned passage, or when used as a punishment. They are not effective when they are too easy and everyone gets an “A”, or when they are too hard and no one passes.

A test that covers what a class has recently learned gives both the students AND the teacher a good picture of what has already been learned and what still needs more instruction or practice.

I am participating in the Community Woman’s Bible study and we are studying I and II Thessalonians. When the following verses came up, I began thinking about testing from a teachers point of view, like I just mentioned.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-4 (NIV)

2 You know, brothers and sisters that our visit to you was not without results. 2 We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4 On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.

I asked myself – why does God test us? If He knows everything like the Bible says He does – He knows our very thoughts and the intents of our hearts –

He already knows what I know. God does not need to test me to see how I will do. I believe God tests us so that WE realize where we are in our journey with Him.

If we go through a hard time – do we whine and fuss and think God has turned His back on us? Do we give in to fear?

When we do, we fail the test. The failure shows us what we need to work on.

So do we give up when we fail a test?

NO!

We need to ask forgiveness and examine ourselves. I need to read God’s Word and see what He has to say about what I am facing. I need to get with my friends who are Christians and we need to pray for each other in this area.

James 1:2-4

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

The test for me right now is trusting God to show me what He wants me to do with my time. I’ve retired from teaching – but there is no retirement from being a Christian. All of us have a purpose to fulfill in the Body of Christ.

So – we need to thank God for each test,  and just as James says, allow each trial to finish its work.

 

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Proportion

100_0171” “You have blown this all out of proportion!”

How many times have you heard this, or said this yourself? We use it to refer to a situation where we feel someone is making too big a deal out of a situation.

This often occurs because a spouse, child, or in-law thinks something is more important than it is….

or to be fair – than WE think it is.

In art, proportion is defined as the relationship between objects with respect to size, number, etc. including the relation between parts of a whole.

Artists sense that things are in proportion by comparing the elements within the piece of art. We don’t just look at one flower in a still life and judge if it is in proportion. It must be looked at in comparison to the whole picture.

As parents we need to view the situations our family members face in proportion to the wellbeing of the whole family.

It may not be a big deal to me if my child’s soccer socks match his or her shorts, but it may mean THE SUCCESS OF THE WHOLE SEASON to my child. Refusing to wear other socks could also affect siblings getting to their game on time.

How do we help our child keep things in proportion?

  • be an example of proper proportion ourselves  – don’t blow up about every little thing, save the blow ups for BIG things 😉
  • uncombed hair is not the end of the world, unless it is picture day. Then that picture will be the one you laugh at together when they are seniors in high school!
  • if your child tends to be a drama queen, intervene BEFORE the drama starts. Example – “Dear, I told you yesterday that Nana was going to take you to see MINIONS today. She just called and she can’t come because Pop is sick. Let’s make a get well card for Pop.” This shifts the child’s perspective from himself to another person and hopefully avoids an outburst.
  • in life we will constantly face change, so helping our child see situations through others’ viewpoints is an important life lesson.

When we are on a mountain top, we see all the surrounding area and it puts things in proper proportion. We realize how small we are and we often see things we have never seen before, or we see them in a new way.

Just as we want to help our children to have a healthy outlook on their situations, God wants us, His children, to have the correct view of our lives. We need to see the situations we face in light of God’s desire to help us grow as Christians.

In The New Testament, James is writing to Christians and encouraging them to face difficult situations in life.

James 1:2-4 says –

Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete.

Finding joy in our trials will certainly help us keep things in proportion, won’t it?

May we learn to trust that God is at work in our lives through joys as well as trials and may we teach this trust to our children and grandchildren as well.

 

 

 

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How Are You Doing?

Caleb
“How’s it going?” “How ya doin’?”

A common phrase we often greet one another with – but do we mean it?

If you are like my husband, you ask yourself – does this stranger really want to know how I am?

What would this person in the waiting room do if I told them that “my car is making a strange noise and I am planning a trip to see my mother and father – my father is 90 and they live in Wheaton, Illinois and it looks like they might have snow up there so I a bit concerned about driving all that way and especially if the car is making a strange noise…”

Get the picture?

It would be “random”, as my students say, if I told each person my life story. We have a phrase for that in our family – “like Aunt Cil”.

Phil’s Aunt Priscilla lived to be 90 and lived alone many of those years either in High Point, North Carolina or Moravian Falls, North Carolina. If people talked to her – she had a LOT to say in return. In any store, restaurant, or ANYPLACE we went where there were people – if anyone asked Aunt Cil “How are you?” she would tell them. Not only would she tell them how she was, she would also tell them about her family members that were with her. “This is my nephew, Phillip and his wife Gayle. They live in Cullowhee and have four children, two are in college, …”

Get the picture?

We certainly do NOT need to tell total strangers our life story. When most people say “How’s it going?” they are being congenial, they are not expecting more than “fine, or doing well.”

But what if things are not well? Should I lie?

In II Kings 4:25-26 a woman deals with just this issue. She has a LOT going on. Her precious son – her only child – has just died.

She had been promised this son, without asking – by the prophet Elisha. (see II Kings 4: 8-17)-NKJV

Now that son had died after a severe headache – possibly an aneurism – we don’t know – but we are told that the pain came on suddenly and the child died in her arms.

18 And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. 19 And he said to his father, “My head, my head!”

So he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. 21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. 22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.”

23 So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.”

And she said, “It is well.” 24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.” 25 And so she departed, and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

So it was, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, the Shunammite woman! 26 Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’”

And she answered, “It is well.” 27 Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”

IT IS WELL? What?

Her son has just DIED!!!

“Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child?” Gehazi, Elisha’s servant asks in verse 26.

And she answered, “It is well.”

How could she say this? This woman of faith only wanted to talk to Elisha, the man of God who by his request to God had enabled her to have a son in the first place.

This Shunammite woman (we don’t know her name) could say “It is well” because her faith was in the God of Elisha.

II Kings 4:32-37 relates the healing of her son. She answered “It is well” BEFORE her son was healed. That is the attitude I should have – God is in control – it is well. No matter what happens – it is well.

She could TRUTHFULLY say “It is well” because she trusted God. If our faith and trust are in the God of the universe, no matter what we are facing OR the outcome, we say – because God is God –

“It is well”