This Thanksgiving my focus is not on what I’m thankful for

"Put the knife down nice and slow…now turn and walk away…"

Hello, friends! Happy Thanksgiving!

In church last week, we saw a video on Thanksgiving that mentioned something that I want to share with you today.

The video said during Thanksgiving we ask the question, “What are we thankful for?” when perhaps we should be asking, “Who are we thankful to?”

Every year the focus seems to be on what we are thankful for, and that is good. Yet, while we are rattling off a hundred item list of what we are thankful for, we can easily take God out of the picture. I’m pretty sure every story of the Pilgrims I’ve heard has included that they thanked God. Today, people talk about what they are thankful for in general, but don’t necessarily acknowledge their Source.

Let’s shift our focus.

God, I’m thankful to YOU…for all my many blessings. I thank You for my family, friends, and dear readers. I thank You for my house, vehicles, necessities and food.

And I thank You for the sweet potato casserole we get to chow down on today, even though it cost me more than $26.00 to make a double batch. Wow, those pecans are highway robbery.

So, this Thanksgiving, my focus is not on what I’m thankful for, but to Whom I’m thankful to.

Who’s with me? Are you in?

P. S. After your Thanksgiving feast, you may need to read this post on fasting and watch this video. Hahaha

Image via Creative Commons: Kevin

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Removing Clutter and Kicking Devil Tooshie

It’s 20 minutes until my Chick Flicks small group arrives (yes, it’s pretty awesome), and I’m starting to break a sweat as I race around and throw…I mean set…items back into their proper place. If I didn’t get my exercise in that morning, no problem. Killing two birds with one stone is my forte.

Clutter is my enemy. The goal is to have the house ready at least an hour before the guests arrive, but you know how it is with checking all those last minute to do items off your list. Like triple checking Twitter and Facebook to see if you received any new messages because, after all, that is way more fun than…doing the dishes…for example.

When the girls enter my front door all is as it should be: my face is smiling, the food is properly laid out, the atmosphere is cozy, and my house is neat. The chicks believe I might just have it all together, and my family is the only one that knows my stealthy secret. Booyah!

What is my stealthy secret? A set of ninja skills unveiled by… stashing clutter behind closed doors. Presto! The rooms occupied by the company are clean and neat!

Then there’s the box (or two) that’s been sitting in my office for over a year, unpacked. It’s justifiably untouched, you know. Just in case we have to move…suddenly…it’d save time.  Yeah.

I guess the motivation to unpack every box after we moved into our house slipped into oblivion after a few months. Either that, or my husband and I are losing our touch. In our first house after we got married we moved in, unpacked, decorated, hung pictures and threw a Christmas party in two weeks. Okay, so we didn’t have kids then…and we were younger…and we didn’t touch the basement in that two weeks. It was our ninja cave.

Even though this has been the adopted pattern, the Lord laid on my heart that there is a better way. A spirit of excellence has been sorely lacking and I know I can do better. I’ve got to stop being lazy.

Also, clutter is distracting. It makes me lose my train of thought when I see books, papers, clothes, etc. out of place. Kids help me lose my train of thought all day, too. With the added clutter it’s a wonder that I haven’t lost my mind altogether.

Which reminds me of a joke I read the other day:

Sorry to hear about the whole “losing your mind thing.” But I know you pretty well, and I don’t think you’ll miss it.

Wait…what were we talking about?

Right. Clutter. And so dear friends, you will be happy to know that for the last few weeks I have been removing clutter from my house. Half a dozen boxes of stuff have been donated, and the going away party was complete when I did a happy jig.

Removing clutter in the natural is a lot like removing clutter out of your spiritual life. Junk in your walk with God will slow you down and cause you to lose your focus. A mentor told me once that clutter in our natural life reflects the clutter in our spiritual life. Food for thought, anyway.

I like removing clutter. It’s a lot like kicking devil tushie.

If you are in need of encouragement or even to be challenged with making your goals reality, may I suggest my friend Ashley’s 3 in 30 Challenge? From the website, “Join the 3in30 Challenge and learn how to check those tasks, projects, and dreams off your list one at a time!” You choose 3 goals and knock them out in the space of a month, one piece at a time.

What are your tips for removing clutter?

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Image via Creative Commons: Jeyhun85

Carried by God’s Comfort

May I begin with a joke?

Room 532*

A woman, calling a local hospital, said, “Hello, I’d like to talk with the person who gives information regarding your patients.”

The voice at the other end of the line said, “What is the patient’s name and room number?”

She said, “Mary Hall in Room 532.”

“OK, let me connect you with the nursing station.”

“This is nursing station 5-A. How can I help you?”

“I would like to know the condition of Mary Hall in Room 532.”

“Just a moment. Let me find her records. Oh, yes, Mrs. Hall is doing very well. In fact, she’s had two full meals, her blood pressure is fine, her blood work just came back as normal, she’s going to be taken off the heart monitor in a couple of hours, and if she continues this improvement, the doctor is going to send her home Tuesday at twelve o’clock.”

The woman said, “Thank God! That’s wonderful! What a relief!”

The nurse said, “It sounds like you must be a family member or a very close friend!”

“Well, not exactly. I’m Mary Hall in 532, and nobody here tells me anything!”

Life is difficult sometimes. And it’s not been easy for me this month, dear reader. My prayer to God today was:

Lord, this month has been filled with adversity, bad news and trouble. Please help me learn everything you want me to do in responding properly to these things by the last day of the month. I can relate to Job. Really. I would like October to be a good month filled with fantastic news!

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. Psalm 34:17 NKJV

The Bible states that the righteous have troubles and afflictions. The sinner does too, but the righteous have the Lord’s promise that He will deliver us out of them all. Yet, we seem to forget that God is there to comfort us. Or maybe we don’t believe that He wants to help us.

Have you ever experienced the Domino Effect? Like “It’s just one thing after another…” The first thing we look for is comfort. Comfort can be found in many things, and certain people who have brought comfort to us in the past. Sometimes when we find ourselves entangled in a hardship, we find it easy to run to our closest friends for consolation.

One day I put my rings on the counter to give the boys a bath and forgot about them for awhile. When I went to get them, my wedding band was missing out of the pile. I screamed and my boys came running, “What’s the matter, Mommy?”

“Did you take my ring?”

And my sheepish-faced-five-year-old says, “Yes, Mommy, it’s in my pocket.”

I told him he could not touch my rings ever again and he says, “But, Mommy, I’ll be careful with them!”

The first thing I did was call my friend.

We might call on our friends first, and forget to believe that God is our God of all Comfort. Perhaps we take a circumstance as a punishment from Him and then subconsciously refuse to allow Him to comfort and help us. Sometimes we have allowed our relationship with the Lord be the most uncomfortable part of our lives. Perhaps we see Father God as the unrelenting judge. He is Judge, yes, but He is also balanced with being the God of all Comfort.

Perhaps we subconsciously question why God would allow suffering to come into our lives. If we look at the question honestly, though, we would see that we have someone who is always with us to show us where we have made a mistake. Then His forgiveness, strength and grace are abundantly provided for us through His loving kindness. God is perpetually with us. The knowledge of that is very comforting.

What are your sources of comfort? Do you allow God to be a primary source of comfort?

Photo © justindbaker. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

*Joke from Let’s Laugh, by C. Peter Wagner, copyright 2007. Used by permission of Destiny Image Publishers, 167 Walnut Bottom Road, Shippensburg, PA 17257. http://www.destinyimage.com

Attack of the Killer Kitchen

It was an ordinary day. I innocently entered my kitchen not knowing that it was going to attack me. Before my son helps me with the dishes I take the sharp knives out of the dishwasher and put them up high like a good mommy does. The home of the sharp knives, a plastic cylinder shaped bowl, was snuggled in its normal place in the upper cupboard. Instead of the knives landing in the bowl in the normal fashion, when I dropped them into place, they bounced out and performed a summersault toward my face. I quickly stepped back away from the flying knives. Stunned. Grateful that my face didn’t look like I was related to Edward Scissorhands.

Unsettled, I decided to make a cup of my green tea. Comfort food. My son began to silently unload the dishwasher. I reached for one of my favorite china mugs in an upper cabinet just beside the open dishwasher. With cup in hand I turned around, tripped on my son and fell into the upper rack of the dishwasher beside me, bounced down to the lower rack, and finally to the floor. My sole thought was that I couldn’t break that china mug in my hand. It didn’t receive a scratch. I, on the other hand, received three bruises. One was scary enough to win a lawsuit against my appliance, which has nothing against dishes, only people.

I went to my office chair to sulk and nurse my wounds. I thought my husband would come to investigate the outrageous crash that was the result of my fall. He later informed me that he just thought it was the boys. I was too humiliated to talk about being a victim attacked by a bully dishwasher anyway.

Why was this happening to me? I didn’t do anything wrong, God. I wondered. Sometimes I tease my husband when “things” happen, “You know God allowed that to happen to you as a test to see how you would respond.” I didn’t get mad. Check. Hmm… My kitchen is haunted.

After dinner I hadn’t forgotten about the kitchen events of the day, but I had to put the remaining white chicken chili in the freezer. I grabbed a freezer baggie like a good granddaughter does, since my grandma put everything “in a baggie” after Thanksgiving Dinner one year. Spooning the soup into the bag, I was lost in thought when suddenly the bag slipped from my hand and half the contents raced out onto the edge of the countertop, down the side, and splatted on the floor. I. Was. Angry! It also made its way into the drawer under the countertop and into the cabinet below that. I was really mad now.

You know God allowed that to happen to you as a test to see how you would respond… Oh, shut up!

After solemn reflection, and counseling mixed with a little therapy, I’m not so traumatized every time I go in the kitchen now. Since I have to be in that particular room many times in a given day, I have a strategy. If my nerves become the least bit edgy I will purchase a football uniform complete with padding to wear under my apron.

What I want to know is, why did my guardian angel go on break?

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Photo by dougbelshaw (Creative Commons)

Waving the White Flag

From Kelly: Last week was one of the most challenging weeks of my entire life. You’ve heard about the earthquake and the hurricane that many of us had to endure, but at the same time there has been similar shaking and swirling going on in other areas of my life. I’m truly glad this week is vacation, even though are plans have been changed repeatedly. Would you pray for me? I appreciate you! Before I begin my vacation week I want to leave you with an amazing opportunity. My friend Brooke is hear to tell you more.

Are you the mother of boys who often finds herself ready to wave the white flag in defeat?

Do they drain you, overwhelm you, steal your heart, break your heart and cause you more anxiety than you ever dreamed possible?

Maybe you only have one boy amongst a sea of estrogen and you just can’t figure out how to respond to him in a way that affirms all that is good about his masculinity.

You’re not alone.

Last May, over 1300 women and a few dads in SEVEN different countries joined together to pray purposefully and passionately for the hearts of their sons in a challenge called 21 Days of Prayer for Sons. 21 Days is based on the best-selling eBook Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need it Most.

Even our best parenting efforts don’t come with a guarantee. As much as we might wish we could change their hearts of stone to hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), we can’t. But we serve a God who can. Knowing this, it becomes quite clear that there is only one thing we can do…

Plead with God.

Pray.

“The fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:17.

It’s our hope.

The next 21 Days of Prayer for Sons challenge starts September 6 and ends September 26, 2011. How can you participate? Easy!

1. Purchase your own copy of Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need it Most (just $5.97 as a PDF download or on Amazon Kindle!) You could, in theory, participate in the challenge without a personal copy, but your experience will be much deeper and richer with it.
2. Commit to praying for your son(s) or grandsons 10 times a day for 21 days straight. This is a huge commitment, so if you feel God leading you to participate, pray and ask Him to give you the strength and endurance you need.
3. Consider leading your own group on your blog or in your community!
4. Sign-up HERE!

Get inspired by recent participants!

“This challenge…has given me my joy back in mothering” ~LaToya

“Thank you for giving me a tangible method for transformation in my family!!” ~Anne

“Thanks, Brooke for your help. I’ve always known that God was listening; I just didn’t know what to say!” ~Laurel

“So many heart changes are going on in our home and I’m just so thankful…” ~Ashley

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Brooke is a mom of two young boys who leave her desperate for God’s grace. Her pursuit of being a better mom has left her at the foot of the cross, knowing that if God doesn’t show up … nothing happens. This dependence upon God to turn hearts of stone to hearts of flesh leads her to her knees in prayer. She’s the author of the best-selling eBook Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need it Most, creator of the 21 Days of Prayer for Sons challenge and co-founder of the well-loved online community for mothers of boys, the M.O.B. Society. She offers hope for change to the hearts of women at her main blog, A Life in Need of Change.