Ordering Your World

I have not written in awhile. I know why. If you read my last post on "Making a Big Splash," I talked about having a denial list. I know that I work best when I am not allowing everything into my life.
This is what I am struggling with the past two weeks.  I allow so many things in my life, many of them actually good things.  I stay busy 24 hours a day...okay maybe I exaggerate a little. However, I have been dry in my writing because I have put no boundaries in my personal life lately. Also, I have put no boundaries in my eating.  I have a grip on that for now.
It brings me full circle to the topic that I started with in January. What is my life's vision? What are my goals?  What do I value? My top three are God, family and then ??? I need to decide what will come third, I guess.  It could be friends, job, ministry at church, health, etc. It goes without saying that I will have to put a top priority on my relationship with God, above all else, non-negotiable.  I want to place my relationship with Mark and my boys next.  They are my heart. Third place gets really tricky. Everything gets crammed into third, vying for my attention.
I love my ministry with young adults. They are like my kids, in a very real way. Mark and I talk about them and pray over them all the time.  They make me so proud. I love, love my job.  I have the most amazing job in the world.  I look forward to going to work everyday. I am keenly interested in my health. Five weeks ago, I started on a work out program with the YMCA and I am so proud.  I can do push ups now.  I do not want to ever miss.
My friends are amazing.  They are my pit crew.  They are there for me even when I drift away. They protect me. They pray for me and my family. I put them last place so often. I take them for granted many times.  But they stay with me.  Most of all, my parents and sisters are the most precious people on the planet. My nieces and nephew are part of my posterity. I want to impact their life. There are so many unwritten letters and unmailed birthday cards. I try to see them as often as possible. They definitely get the leftovers in my life and they deserve more.
So humor me and join me as we explore what is our life's vision and how can we order our world.
I will write more about this sometime this week.

The pictures above are from the young adult retreat.

The picture is of me and my precious students.

These are my sweet daughter-in-laws!

This is some of my family in Gulfshores, Alabama.

Do you want to make a big splash?

My pastor preached on the story of Daniel this morning. He touched on an important topic in my repertoire of life lessons. I have given this illustration to my 8th grade students and felt impressed to cover it in my blog. The lesson is this...if you do not have a denial list, you are not an impact player in the game of life. To make a big splash, you must have a small, focused stream of force.
It is easily illustrated in the world around us. I just read an article about how to increase the water pressure of your shower. Guess what one of the suggestions was? Plug up some of the holes with epoxy to increase the pressure! Less is more.
How does that relate to our lives. If we want to have a higher impact on the world, and I certainly do, I must decrease the water flow. Of course, I am not talking about water flow, but the amount of things I allow in my life. I must have a denial list as Daniel did. The story of Daniel is inspiring.
He was exiled from his home and taken to Babylon. The story begins when he was chosen, with a group of Jewish exiles to be trained for leadership in Babylon. All the young men were equally likely candidates who could rise quickly to the top. Only four men did. Here is the story:
^8-10" But Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king's food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet. The head of the palace staff, by God's grace, liked Daniel, but he warned him, "I'm afraid of what my master the king will do. He is the one who assigned this diet and if he sees that you are not as healthy as the rest, he'll have my head!"
^11-13 But Daniel appealed to a steward who had been assigned by the head of the palace staff to be in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: "Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water. Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see."
^14-16 The steward agreed to do it and fed them vegetables and water for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked better and more robust than all the others who had been eating from the royal menu. So the steward continued to exempt them from the royal menu of food and drink and served them only vegetables.
^17-19 God gave these four young men knowledge and skill in both books and life. In addition, Daniel was gifted in understanding all sorts of visions and dreams. At the end of the time set by the king for their training, the head of the royal staff brought them in to Nebuchadnezzar. When the king interviewed them, he found them far superior to all the other young men. None were a match for Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. "
Their secret...they had a defilement list. How many of us have a defilement list? A pre-decided list of things that would be exempted from our life. If everything and anything is allowed, then our "water flow" will be low pressure. If I purposefully deny myself from certain things, I believe I will be more of a force on my environment.
My list may not be the same as yours. I actually do not like TV. If I did, most TV shows would be on my denial list. They add no value to my life whatsoever. Most movies are off my list. For me(notice I said me, not you) alcohol is off my list. The Bible does not forbid alcohol. I just forbid it in my life. It serves no purpose for me and could cause harm if a student saw me drinking alcohol in public. These are just examples. I like the idea of doing without things that the world thinks are a necessary part of life. Many folks think they are non-conformists. In actually, they look just like the world. You can't tell them apart from anyone else. What is on your list?

Weary and Burdened

Matthew 11:28-30 states “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Wow, what a promise! Who would not want to have an easy yoke and a light burden? I have always imagined that I would like to trade my burdens and take on a more improved stack. I wanted that easy, light load...the one everyone else seemed to have.
I was out of town for 4 days recently.  Upon returning, I was facing a giant pile of work. I was weary and burdened. I wanted to rest, write on my blog, eat stuff, and relax. But that was impossible.  I even had to miss the Super Bowl party because I had about 6 hours of school work to complete.  Life did not seem fair. Seemed that every else had that "light" load and I had to walk around with a heavy load.
However, I was talking to Luke and he brought new insight to this familiar passage.  I wanted these verses to mean something else. I left out the middle, and most important, part of the passage.  Jesus did indeed invite me to take his yoke upon me.  But I conveniently skipped that part about learning from him.  What did he ask me to learn?  Jesus asked me to be gentle and humble in heart and then I would find rest for my soul.
That cast an entirely different light on the verse. Learn from Jesus. When I am gentle and humble in heart, I will find rest for my soul. He did not take long naps because he was worn out, demand his "rights," claim what he thought he "deserved," strive to be understood, envy the rich guy, want a better mission in life, or even get mad when we did not know how important he was. He was totally quiet when accused.  He was absolutely submissive to his father. He gave up riches and glory and came to live among us to show us The Way, not a Way. He is everything I am not.  He is gently asking me to learn from Him. 

Wise Spending and Budgeting

I am going to put nuggets of thought here. These are things I have observed and learned over the years about money. First of all, a non-negotiable would be to give 10% of all you have to God. I am so blessed to have an awesome dad who gave away more than 10% and believed all that he had came from the Lord. On top of that, I married a husband who believes the same so I have been protected my whole life by being under the umbrella of God’s protection. In Malachi 3:11, "I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. I have seen the evidence of that in my marriage. Giving provides a sense of stewardship rather than ownership. If you are not able to give, somehow money grips you and causes you to think that it is your money and not God’s.
Think of your money in terms of eternity spending. Matthew 6:19-20 states, "Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being." Try to invest in things that matter for the long haul. 

      Another thing that Mark and I have done is invest in a child from another country.  Compassion International feeds, clothes and educates children who would otherwise die of hunger.  We started this when Ben was born, almost 29 years ago.  Today we have added 4 sweet boys from India and Ecuador.  Compare the amount you could spend going out to eat and the amount you could spend supporting a starving child.  Literally, that is the amount it takes to save a life.That makes the decision a no-brainer.
     As far as budgeting, Mark and I went through a financial seminar when we were newly married. There are a lot of good books on this topic. Many of the budgeting principals from that class have stayed with us through the years. Find a Christian financial seminar and spend the time to set goals for your finances. At least once a year, sit down together as a couple and evaluate how you are doing with your spending and what changes need to be made.
I am about to say something controversial. For a period of time in our marriage, I was in charge of the money. For us, it was totally out of God’s will. We made a decision at some point that Mark would take over this area. I cannot tell you how wise a decision this was for us. We do not have separate checking accounts. Mark handles everything. Understand that I have a Masters Degree in Mathematics and I am fully capable of handling the money, but in my heart I knew that for us this was not good. I do not think I was being submissive as long as I had that role. God has blessed us in many ways since then and I have thanked God for convicting us in that area. Ask God to help you make the right decision.
    This is another area where Mark and I do not pretend to be experts...not even close.  Start small. If your heart is gripped by money and materialism, start giving it away.  That is the only known cure for greed.