Entitlement

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” 
-Revelation 4:11

As imperfect human beings, many times we cling to entitlements.  We feel entitled to a paycheck because we have worked a day’s wages.  We feel entitled to good healthcare because we pay for our insurance each month.  We feel entitled to a good meal because we gave a restaurant our business.  The list goes on.  This self-entitlement can even carry over to our relationship with Christ.  Because our life on earth is constantly measured by this give and take mentality and the idea that if you work for something, you are due your reward, we can even begin to feel like God owes us something.  

Talking Too Much

 

“A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much." 

Proverbs 20:19

This verse caught my attention today as I was reading my Bible.  Yes, I know it is a sin to gossip and I work hard not to do this, but what about talking too much?  Talking too much is what leads to gossip in the first place, so just maybe if I worked on this part, I wouldn't struggle with gossip in the first place.   

I thrive off of people.  It seems like a lot of women are this way.  We love friendships and we love sharing our experiences with others as well as learning from the experiences of others.  While this is a good thing and these conversations can provide encouragement and affirmation, conversations can get us into trouble too.  When we are busy talking away and/or when we don't have a purpose with our words, we begin to talk about things that we should keep to ourselves.  

I am all too guilty of this.  When I look back at the conversations that have gotten me into trouble, many times it's because I did not keep a tight reign over my tongue and I just kept talking and talking and talking without first thinking about the words that are coming out of my month. Here are some questions I'm learning to ask myself before I enjoy the conversation of others:

My Daily Battle

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:26

We just returned from an amazing few days with our youth group.  We were able to attend summer camp at Orange Beach with about 50 of our youth.  We had such a challenging speaker and a wonderful worship band.  As we are all immersed in God's Word for five straight days, it was hard to imagine not living for Christ every moment of every day.  Nothing else competed with my time and attention.  It seemed like we all left there feeling empowered and motivated to live every moment for Christ. 


Now, less than 48 hours later, I can feel the inner struggle going on inside of my heart.  I want to follow Christ with all of my heart more than anything else, but I can feel the world and sin trying to choke out that desire. I can feel my sinful attitudes trying to take over and squelch the joy that lies within my heart. 

The Critical Wife

As women, I believe we have a tendency to be critical of life.  Because we analyze everything, many times we get hung up on the things that we don’t like instead of looking at the good things that surround us. 

In marriage, it can be a temptation for us to continually analyze our husbands.  Even when they are doing the best they can and/or trying to be a good husband and father, we can easily pick out their flaws.  And, many times, we are all too quick to point them out to them!

Today, as I was reading in 2 Samuel 6, I saw how Michal did this to her husband, David.  David had just done a wonderful thing by going to Judah to bring back the Ark of the Lord, which contained the Ten Commandments.  As he was returning home, he was leaping and dancing before the Lord. Instead of focusing on this great thing her husband had done and instead of seeing her husband’s actions as unto the Lord, she is embarrassed at the way he is seen in public: ^“But as the Ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him” (2 Samuel 6:16).

Making Our Children (and Ourselves) Aware

When I look around at the way our nation is raising its children, I see a lot of kids who are growing up thinking the world revolves around them. I see children who are led to believe that they can have everything they want and that they are all that matters in life.

While I want my children to know that they are loved, I want to do all that I can to keep them aware of the needs around them.  If all I ever do is give them what they want and if my top concern is keeping them happy, then chances are, they are not going to learn this. 

For Vacation Bible School this past week, I had the opportunity to teach about the persecution that goes on in North Korea.  I taught Kindergarten – Third Graders.  As I was preparing my materials, it hit me that I need to start teaching my children these important truths now.  It may seem a little overboard to think about teaching toddlers about our Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering as Christians around the world.  But I think this is where we get caught in the trap of not making it a priority. 

Doing Things My Way...or Not

"Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as he is and adjust our lives accordingly.  We insist on trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image."

-A.W. Tozer

 It can be so very frustrating, at times, to try to reason with a child.  Probably because they don't care what your reasons are, they just want what they want.  Tonight, as my family and I were taking a walk through our neighborhood, our three year old was begging us to let him get out of our double stroller so he could walk too.  Since we live in a low-traffic neighborhood, we decided to let him walk beside us.  First, however, we explained the importance of walking near the grass, looking for cars, staying right beside mom and dad, etc. We explained to him that if he disobeyed he would have to get back in the stroller.  At first he did pretty well, but then he began pushing the limits.  At one point, after looking back with a mischievous look, he darted right into the middle of the street.  We immediately scolded him and back in the stroller he went.  We tried to explain to him why he could not run in the middle of the street, but ultimately, he was just mad because he did not get to do what he wanted to do.  In my mind, I was thinking, "why can't you see that we are just trying to protect you?"  I wanted to open up his eyes to the reason why I wasn't allowing him to run in the middle of the street. 


As I was thinking these things, another thought occurred to me.  Is this how God feels when He's trying to get our attention?  I can think of so many times in my life when I didn't want to take the time to see what God was trying to teach me...I just wanted what I wanted and did not want to see things from God's perspective.  As women, I think we are more prone to take matters into our own hands when things aren't happening as quickly as we would like or the way we would like them to turn out.  

Managing My Emotions

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8

Running has become quite popular these days.  I guess people are realizing more and more how important exercise is to maintain good health.  Running is not my favorite way to work out, but I am beginning to see that it is a great form of exercise.  Recently, my husband, two of his brothers, my two brothers, my sister-in-law and my father-in-law all ran in a race in Arkansas.  To humor myself and to let my son participate, my sister-in-law and I did the one mile fun run, as I pushed one of our sons in our jogging stroller.  

As I watched some serious runners cross the finish line after running a half-marathon, I was impressed.  I mean, that takes a lot of self-discipline and training.  Many of the things that we do in life require discipline and devotion.  While it is not a bad thing to spend our time on these things, I wonder how much time we spend disciplining ourselves when it comes to managing our emotions?

Making Plans

"You can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail."  Proverbs 19:21

Ever notice how quickly we make plans without asking God first?  No wonder I take on too many things and become frazzled...most of the time I am not taking time to seek the Lord before I make a decision. 

Many times, my "people-pleasing" side comes out in me when someone asks me to do something.  I don't want to let anyone down, so immediately my response is "yes, I'll do it!"  Then, I come home feeling overwhelmed and tired. Then, who gets my leftovers and my not-so-pleasant attitude?  My family and God.  It seems I only come to God when a big decision needs to be made.  But, should we limit God by only coming to Him with the big things in life? 

Right now I am learning to say no to things that I should not take on in this season of my life.  More than that, though, I am learning to ask God first.  Instead of coming to God after I've over-committed, I am learning to come to God first.  It all starts with the little things.  How can we practice coming to God first before we make our plans?