Tag Archives: faith

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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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Floating

Approaching Sweden

Approaching Sweden

I have spent the past two weeks floating – figuratively and actually. We were able to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine to visit Sweden, the home of my maternal grandmother. I was floating in a dream come true that ended up exceeding my expectations. We also visited other counties bordering the Baltic Sea which was the actual floating bit, moving from one port to the next.

We had been planning and saving for this trip for a long time. Phil did almost all the work of making reservations, flight plans, and tours of the various cities. The past several years our vacations have included major league baseball games. This year – it was art museums, palaces, and cathedrals. Phil did a great job. Everything went smoothly except that his suitcase didn’t arrive until the 3rd day, which was fine because he doesn’t mind wearing the same shirt over again!

Like planning any big event – a wedding, a family reunion, an anniversary celebration – it takes some hard work and careful planning to carry it off. Even then, the unexpected often happens. That is when it is best to float – just go with the current. We can’t change the unexpected circumstances – but we can choose our response.

There is a good example of this challenge, let’s call it the “floating challenge” in the Bible. In Genesis God tells Noah to build an ark to save himself and his family from the judgement that God was going to shower on mankind. Get it – “shower”?

Back to Genesis, God tells Noah to build an ark and he gives Noah very specific instructions. So, Noah and his sons become the laughing-stock of their community because they dedicate themselves to building a very large boat – on dry land. They ignore the trash talk and stay focused on their goal – building the ark. The rains come and Noah and his family are ready. They had made preparations according to God’s directions and the ark held Noah and his family and lots of animals. (more that just two of some species – see Genesis 7:2)

It rains for 40 days and 40 nights and then….

they float.

They float for about 10 months. You can imagine that it takes quite a while for the water to recede and the ground to dry out enough for all to leave the ark.

Genesis 8:1-8

8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

But that is not all – you can read the rest of the waiting period in the verses that follow in Genesis 8.

God gives directions to Noah about building the ark and about gathering his family and the animals. God also gives directions to Noah upon leaving the ark.

But nothing is said about floating. That is the time they had to wait and trust until God showed them what was next. That was the floating challenge.

That is so much like parenting, isn’t it? We plan, prepare, train, teach, feed and cloth our children. We do our best to instill strong moral character and Godly principles in their lives. Yet after all the preparations, the “floating” comes. The time when we must wait and trust God with the outcome.

There doesn’t appear to be any navigational system on the ark. Noah had to believe that it would float where it should. Or more accurately, that where the ark floated was exactly where God wanted it to float. In the end, God had it covered. He is faithful.

That is the faith I need to have in God. Faith that God will use my attempts to follow His plan for parenting. Then in the times of floating, the times when I have no control, God will once again prove Himself faithful.

Some floating may be calm.

Some floating may be on rough seas, even tempests.

Do I believe that God is in control of the floating?

Yes, God is faithful.

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Are We Ready?

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I had ONE more day of school left. There were 10 days left until my due date. After that last day of school I would …

  • paint the crib
  • wash the baby clothes given as gifts
  • decorate the baby’s room
  • pack my bag for the hospital
  • clean house so that all was ready for my return with the new baby

My water broke that night and I delivered our first-born – Benjamin Baruch Woody – on June 9th – the last day of school.

I was NOT ready. The “stuff” was NOT ready.

Benjamin was ready – God was ready.

Our pastor touched on this very issue Sunday during the sermon. We make plans and prepare according to those plans. Yet we are often surprised by the timing of events and the way things happen. God is NOT surprised.

I was SURE I would have 10 days to prepare for the birth of our first child after I finished that year of teaching.

Thankfully my mother was already here and was able to deliver the report cards to my kindergarten students at Almond School. She and Phil got everything else ready the two days I was in the hospital.

This is such a clear picture of how we often view our lives. We make plans and then difficulties in life happen. Those trials can turn our world upside down. Situations occur that we have NO plans for like;

  • a house burning down
  • the death of a loved one
  • cancer of other illness
  • an accident

God is not surprised by any of these situations – these situations are opportunities for God to demonstrate His faithfulness and great love for us.

Demonstrate His love? By the death of a loved one?

God wants us to be ready to face all of life that comes our way. We do that by being ready to trust God no matter what happens. Just as in natural birth, a baby comes when it is ready, we must be ready to respond in faith to the circumstances of our lives.

Is that easy? No. Birth is not easy either, but the end result is WORTH the pain and suffering. So is trusting God. In John 16 Jesus is preparing His disciples for the time when He will leave them. Jesus says –

“21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

Jesus goes on to say –

31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus’s disciples were about to watch Him be beaten and crucified. Their world would be shattered!

But Jesus reminds them that He has overcome the world – take heart! He is saying that same thing to you and me.

Are we ready?