Spiritual Blogs
Visualization Gone Wrong
Some people use visualization techniques to help them relax and not be anxious.
(Peaceful, new-age music is playing in the background): “Picture yourself standing in a field of vibrant green grass. In your mind’s eye, look up at the blue sky and billowy white clouds. Now cast your eyes below at the shimmering lake of water, mirroring the sky. Hear the burbles and gurgles of the nearby brook, etc.”
Let's Be Nice...To Ourselves!
Editor's note: Lori and her husband lived in Johannesburg, South Africa for many years working with the church. On her blog, she's interviewed several parents about their relationship with their grown children. This is her latest post.
Before we get started on this journey, can I tell you something that has hit me hard?
We need to be more kind to ourselves.
How to Practice Mercy and Mean It
The strength to forgive repeatedly is rooted in God’s powerful love for us. It’s the forgiveness that says, I forgive and still chose to love even when the offender has not recognized, apologized or atoned for his or her offense. When I truly lean into God’s grace and mercy for me, can I find my peace and self-worth in God and love the way Jesus did when he said, “Forgive them for they do not know what they do.”
Teaching Kids to Go the Extra Mile
Me: “Hey, {insert child’s name}, will you help me {set the table/carry the laundry/vacuum the floor}?”
Kid, with a dramatic groan: “But that’s not my chore this week!”
**Repeat variations of this conversation a dozen times, with all of my children, over several weeks.**
Me to myself:Time for a family talk.
With this attitude problem in mind, last week the kids and I held a quick devotion time before school. We turned to Matthew 5:41–42: “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
Kind of a strange passage, right? Not your usual “encourage the kids to help around the house with a good attitude” scripture.
Encounter Jesus
An incarnate God who was humble enough to leave heaven and dwell on earth--not to sit on a throne but to know poverty among his created beings. "He anointed us, set the seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (1 Corinthians 1:21 - 22)Then from within our own hearts his Spirit works prompting encouraging, comforting, enlightening and revealing to us the Lord's glory. Tune into that glory. Experience and delight in that glory! (1 Corinthians 3:17-18)
I’m a Big Kid, No Wait, I’m a Baby Syndrome
Don’t let the title fool you: this isn’t exactly a parenting post.
Two weeks ago, we got rid of pacifiers for the last time at our house. (Sniff sniff…I can’t believe we’re almost through the baby stage forever—it's killing me.) The first night went swimmingly—not a single cry or complaint, just an angelic “Night-night, Mommy!”—all thanks to Sawyer’s initial thrill at getting to sleep with a toy for the first time. She gave me her pacifiers, I gave her a giant stuffed Olaf to sleep with. That’s our rule, by the way: No toys or stuffed animals in the bed until you get rid of pacifiers. This simple policy has given us some leverage in convincing our little pacifier addicts to surrender their passies. But back to our story.
That first morning, two-year-old Sawyer woke up all smiles and bragging rights: “Me a big girl now! Me give up my passies!” The first nap also went beautifully—not a single cry. So for about 23 hours, we were like, “Whoopee! We got off so easy! What an angelic child! Lucky us!”
We spoke too soon.
The second night, I put my daughter in her bed and tried to tuck her in. She did not lie down.
Instead she handed me Olaf and said, “Here, Mommy, take Olaf. Me want my passies back.” When I attempted to explain in two-year-old terms that the pacifiers had a no-exchange, no-return policy, her little face melted. There was a long pause, the calm before the storm. And then the wailing started… and nine days of sleepless misery began. (To add to our joy, my husband’s back went out the same day, leaving him in excruciating, debilitating pain. Isn’t that just the way of it?!)
Jesus and Transitions
As I share about things I have learned in transitions, I look to see how Jesus dealt with transitions:
Preparing for Transition
In Luke 14:25, Jesus talks about the transition to become a disciple, which is probably one of the biggest transitions in a person’s life. It certainly was in mine. He uses the illustration of the planning and preparation it takes to build a tower.
Jesus speaks of being proactive with planning, preparation. While we will experience unexpected transitions that happen quickly in life (and we have to be ready to handle those), most transitions can be anticipated and prepared for.
Do I take the time to think, pray, take advice, and prepare myself spiritually as I face transitions in my life?
In Due Time
Three little words. Hard words. In. Due. Time.
I have been holding on to this scripture: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." -- 1 Peter 5:6-7, emphasis added.
Due time can feel so elusive. Isn’t it due time yet, God?
Taking Him at His Word
You know those days that are so bad they write songs about them. It was one of those. A day when I woke up just wrestling with God and myself. But I chose to fight and take my thoughts and emotions to God. I chose to filter my thoughts through God’s truth. And then these amazing series of events happened throughout the day, and in each, God drew me closer as if whispering in my ear, “Kasia, I am working. I am not done. There is a greater good. I am preparing you and using you, just hold on. I have you and I am not letting you go.”
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” - John 6:44-48
When Being a Grown-Up Means You're Still Growing Up
My daughter’s chocolate brown eyes are sparkling. “Mommy, I’m going to plant these apple seeds, and they’re going to grow into trees, and then we’re going to save money and eat free apples forever!” Cassidy holds out her hand. A dozen tiny seeds rest in her palm, plucked and saved from apple cores all week long.
“Okay, honey, let’s give it a try,” I say. My heart gives a painful squeeze, because I know she knows I’ve been worried about money, and she is trying to help.
I know nothing about planting apple seeds—I’ve always thought they wouldn’t grow until they’d passed through a bird’s digestive tract or something gross like that—but I figure, why not?
So we go outside and she pokes her seeds into a planter. For several weeks, she waters and watches. I mostly forget about the seeds, but Cassidy does not.
Then one shiny spring afternoon she comes running into the house, shrieking, “My trees are growing, my trees are growing!”
