Tag Archives: God

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 I haven’t always loved my name.  I can remember being in middle school hanging out during basketball tournaments or participating in UIL and using an opportunity to change my name.  “Hey! I’m Courtney” I’d lie.  My friends and I would change our names as we introduced ourselves to kids from other schools.  It was fun going incognito and it gave me a chance to be whoever I wanted to be, if just for a moment.

     Though I may not have always loved my name, I LOVE seeing my name.  Nothing thrills me more than seeing my name on envelopes (unless it’s a bill), in the newspaper, on a birthday cake, and I especially love seeing my name on presents wrapped and topped off with a bow.  Who’s with me?  I remember one really cool gift my mom gave me when I was around the age of nine.  She gave me a box full of brightly-colored pencils with the name Kristi Fowler engraved on each one.  I felt so special. 

      Your name was especially thought-out and was probably called out before you were even born.  Names identify who you are.  When I am downstairs at home I can call out, “Hey youngest child wearing the strawberry shirt, come down here.”  Or I could just say “Rylie, come down”.   Names have been used throughout history to show to whom someone belongs.  Jason’s Papa had the last name of Knudson.  It showed that Jason’s Papa was the “son” of Knud.  As I used my name-labeled pencils at school, there was no mistaking who these pencils belonged to.   So what does your name show about who you are?  More importantly, what does your name say about “whose” you are? 

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck,

 write them on the tablet of your heart.

Then you will win favor and a good name.  Proverbs 3:3-4

     Have you ever had your teacher send an important note home attached to your shirt or rolled up and made into a bracelet bound around your wrist?  Teachers often will do this when they have an important message that they want to make sure is noticed.  Read verse three again.  How can you bind love and faithfulness around your neck so that it never leaves you?  I can only think of one way.  If I, with all of the goodness within me, try to love and try to be faithful I may do pretty well some of the time.  But only Jesus is truly love.  And only He is always faithful.  Jesus IS Love.  Jesus IS Faithfulness.  When it says write them on the tablet of your heart, we need to remember that the only way to be love and to be faithful is by having Jesus in your heart.  Not just in the corner.  Let him fill your heart.  Allow Jesus to be on every page and on every line of your heart-tablet spilling over to the margins.  Remember that learning who Jesus is and spending time with him is how we come to be more like him.  When Jesus is written in our hearts, I believe he graces our neck and adorns our wrist. Then people on the outside can see him too.

     With Jesus in our hearts and on our sleeve we assuredly have a good name.  A name better than Kristi or Courtney.  Verse four also tells us that with Jesus we have won favor.  The one who has known my name since the beginning of time has approved me as a daughter of the King and an ambassador to the world. And I have a message.  My name is Kristi, but I must tell you.  I belong to Jesus.

 

*FYI-The picture is a name jumble from wordle with the names of the girls in our GG's group.

Thanks to Josette Hughes for making the word jumble.

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 Well, yesterday I went to the dentist.  Even the word dentist makes me nervous.  I’m not exactly sure why I have such a dislike for going to the dentist because it usually ends up not being as bad as I imagined.  In fact, most visits I’ve made were pretty much pain-free.  The dentist who checked my teeth and the lady who cleaned my teeth were super friendly.  I thought they could tell I was one of those patients that needed some calm reassurance.  I’ve wondered before if the folder they have with my name and dental record has a brightly colored sticker on front warning- “special (hard to work with) patient”!  Am I the only one who feels this way?

     I brushed my teeth twice as long and flossed extra good in the morning.  I wanted to make sure my teeth looked dazzling.  I also wanted to ensure that there wasn’t much work that they would have to do.  I ‘m a pretty good girl.  I brush and floss daily though I doubt I’d get an “A+” on my teeth care report card.  Truth be known, I don’t brush after every meal.  And even though I make sure and brush the front and back, down low and every gum line, it doesn’t make up for the times that I don’t brush.  I should also mention that I didn’t go to the dentist for six years.   So, in some ways I’m doing great, in other ways-UTTER FAILURE!

      While I was lying back in the dentist chair I tried to distract myself.  I could see the giant metal hook scraping my teeth moving back and forth.  (It’s easy to notice when it’s right between your eyes!).  So I tried closing my eyes, but the sound has got to be just as bad.  It equals nails scratching a chalkboard.  I had decided at this time I should try and think about how even this moment was in God’s hands.  And immediately I began to think about sin.  Yes, sin.  You see plaque, the sticky film that forms on our teeth naturally, is bad for our teeth.  It can harden and cause tooth decay and gum disease.  While we can brush and floss, it is necessary to go the dentist regularly to have it removed.  And like sin, plaque can be hidden in places where we don’t see it.  It often takes a professional to see the “plaque” and remove it.  Though my mouth is often tender after having my teeth cleaned, I know that my hygienist is preventing bigger problems in the future.  Likewise, when God is helping us rid ourselves of some sin in our life it may be uncomfortable.  I can think of a particular time growing up I was caught in a lie.  My cousin and I were cleaning my aunt’s living room with a friend.  While vacuuming I stepped on a lamp cord and my aunt’s beautiful glass lamp hit the floor shattering into pieces.  My friend saw what happened, but blamed my cousin.  That lie worked in my favor so I went along with the story that it was my cousin’s fault.  My aunt knew we were lying and sent us home.  That was so embarrassing!  Looking back, I know that it was a good thing that I was caught in that lie. It hurt my aunt and my cousin and maybe even my friend who knew I was a Christian. Would I have even thought twice about that lie had my aunt not revealed it?   Even more sad are the hidden sins I’ve committed; sins I’ve held onto with an exhausting grip.  Like plaque that hides beneath the surface, sin quietly grows and eats away at our peace.  God wants us to have peace. And though sometimes the process is uncomfortable he offers to clean up our “sticky” situations.

  Even as a child you know the rules.  Don’t lie.  Be kind.  Don’t be jealous.  And most of the time I bet you follow the rules pretty well.  Does it seem like the one time you break a rule there is an adult there to catch you?  You heard me say catch right?  When you’ve done something wrong it’s easy to feel like an animal caught in a net with nowhere to run.  I want you to picture getting caught differently.  Picture someone falling from a height with nowhere to go but down.  That person wants to be caught.  God has put our parents and other adults in our life as our safety net.  They are in our life and in our business to help us rid ourselves of what isn’t good for us.  You’re fighting with your sister and your parents get on to you?  Just maybe they’re thinking of what’s best for you. (Thank you mom and dad!). Next time I go to the dentist and they’re in my face and in my space I intend to grin and bear it.  And when I have a beautiful smile to show for it, I will remember the ones who patiently worked with me and be thankful. 

1.Can you remember a time when you were caught doing wrong?

How did it make you feel?  Angry?  Guilty?  Sad?  Disappointed?  Mistreated?

 

2. Who are some people God has placed in your life to guide you and correct you?

 

Listen to this prayer and say amen if you agree.

 

Dear God,

We know that we are not perfect.  And we know that there is no perfect adult.  But we know that you have placed adults in our lives to guide us.  Help our moms and dads, grandparents and teachers, coaches and other adults to listen and trust you so they will be able to lead us to you.  Even when adults seem unfair, help us to be obedient.  Help us to know that you will bless our faithfulness to obey.  And help us to always remember that you want every part of us; good and bad.  There is nothing that we should hide from our parents.  And there is nothing we could hide from you.  Most of all, help us remember that by knowing you “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of (you) God”

 (Romans 8:39)

Amen.

 

 

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I read The Legend of the Bluebonnets for the first time in school at about the age of ten.   Talk about a hero.  She-Who-Is-Alone is a young Indian girl who has lost her family in a terrible drought.  The only reminder of her family is a much beloved doll made by her grandmother.  The Great Spirits have called for a sacrifice from the people; an offering which in turn would cause the drought to end.  It is the young girl in the story who selflessly gives all that she has for the good of her people.  While others dance and “ask for help” she goes it alone.  She knows what she has to do and she does it.  She sacrifices her precious doll; the one thing she has left of her family. As she casts her doll into the fire, she waits in darkness as the fire cools.  Then spreading the ashes and waiting through the night, she awakes to a blanket of blue.  In place of withered grass and death, the land is now covered in bluebonnets. Because of She-Who-Dearly-Loves-Her-People  new life has sprung. 

      Does a hero like this exist?  Sure.   From a child offering the last cookie to a friend to a firefighter or soldier giving his very life to save another’s; sacrifices great and small are made every day.  But no sacrifice ever made in history compared to the sacrifice our God made two thousand years ago. 

     The world we live in (like the world two thousand years ago) was much like the land in this story.  People were sick, just as we are sick in sin. We have not been perfect and holy, we sin every day.   In all the land there was a thirst that brought about death because there was no water to carry on life. A great sacrifice was needed to bring about a rain from heaven.   Because we have each sinned we don’t have a forever life.  In my mind, this is like the picture of the grass which was fading in the story.  There must have been hungry bellies with such little food.  Likewise, each of us has a heart which is made to hunger for God.  In each of us is a hunger all the good of the world could never fill.

      He-Who-Is God-Alone  is the hero of our story. He alone is perfect. He wants to share holy heaven with us.  We can’t be a part of something perfect with our sin attached to us.  God alone could make a way for death to die; a way to take our sin from us.  Because He doesn’t wish for us to waste away he gave his most prized possession over to death; his very son.  Yes.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish (die) but have eternal (forever) life.  John 3:16 NIV

      He-Who-Dearly-Loves-His-People allowed his only son to die. And as his perfect son died, our sin died with him as we believe in him.  I think sometimes we mindlessly think our forever lives with God start when we die and go to heaven.  Not so!   In the story new life was bright in bloom as the bluebonnets covered the land the next morning. Remember that Jesus didn’t stay on the cross.  He rose again.  The moment you give your life to Jesus, that old sin life dies.  You are a new creation.  Your forever life has begun!  It’s the season of the bluebonnets.  Be bright and beautiful as you display God’s love and sacrifice to a dry and thirsty land.

 

*If you have never given your life to Jesus.  Answer these questions:

1.Do you know and believe that God is perfect?

2. Do you know and believe that you are not?

3. Do you trust that Jesus died on the cross and came back to life three days later?

4.Do you believe that your sin (all your imperfect ways/the things that you have and will do wrong) were put to death on the cross with him?

5. Just as Jesus rose again, do you believe that your forever life in Christ has begun and he lives in you?

If you believe these things, he already knows you do.  Thank him and share with others what he has done for you.  

Click on the link to read The Legend of the Bluebonnets.

http://www.coedu.usf.edu/culture/story/story_texas.htm