Last night my 17 year-old son saw Dance Moms for the first time. I asked him his thoughts and he said “I feel like I need to report them to someone. But how do you report people who are on TV?” Between Dance Moms, Animal Hoarders and the finale of Kate Plus 8, we witnessed destructive parenting at its worst. And the disturbing reactions by the children, who witnessed the horrific and verbally abusive outbursts, is evidence that there will be long-lasting consequences. And the part that is most heartbreaking is that it’s all for the sake of selfish ambition, greed and pride, all of which are at a level that is hard to comprehend. We may never know the long-term impact that the adult’s behavior will have on their children. But what I do know is that many adult women have scars left behind by wounds, hurts and unspeakable acts that they experienced in childhood. Many times these unhealed scars are easily “reopened” and bleed into all areas of their lives. And in most instances the women seek healing in relationships, activities, food, positions that make them feel important or needed and in the worst cases, addictions. Unfortunately, these are only small bandaids for the gaping wounds that have been left. There is only one place to find true and lasting healing – in the arms of Jesus. If you are hurting and have scars that need healing once and for all, I encourage you to talk to someone about what that means. And if you have no one to ask, you can always ask me.
Real Joy Vs Shallow Happiness
Real Joy Vs Shallow Happiness.
Wanted to share this – it’s a good read 🙂
“I Need a Break!”
Have you ever said this? Is this something you may be shouting right now? If you are waiting for breakthrough in an area of your life (your marriage, finances, health, children, a broken relationship) and your faith and trust is in God and His abilities and not in your own or someone else’s, then your breakthrough will come. I can’t tell you when it will come or what it will look like, but I can promise you that breakthrough is on it’s way when you completely release your problems to God and let Him bring about the resolution instead of trying to fix it yourself. Letting go of our marriage, our children, health or finances and having the faith to believe God will take care of it is sometimes the hardest thing to do. But when you do and you get out of the way of God’s ability to move in your situation, then the change you so desperately desire can begin to take place. And when it does, it may not be as quickly as you would have liked and it may not be exactly in the way you had wanted, but it will happen. And God’s ways are always so much better than ours. So let go, and let God.
Obedience
I remember the first time I heard “delayed obedience is disobedience”. My first response was “ouch!”. Many times I knew the Holy Spirit was prompting me to do something but my first response was to make excuses or to put it off until later. These promptings by God can come in many differnt forms. Sometimes God places a thought or idea in our minds, He puts a person on our hearts, we see or hear about a situation (perhaps a cause or a crisis) and get a “gut feeling” we are supposed to get involved and sometimes He speaks very clearly to us through scripture, other people or through a quiet whisper. But we wait. We don’t feel like it, we’re too busy, it would be something uncomfortable for us to do or we surmise that we must have not heard right because it just doesn’t fit into our plans. When we don’t respond immediately to clear direction from God then we are walking in disobedience. Now before you go feeling all guilty like I did when I first heard that concept, keep reading. When you hear from God to take action, it doesn’t always mean that whatever God is telling you will happen immediately. He may tell us we are to move to another city, quit a job that we really enjoy, go on a mission trip, adopt a child, or even begin writing a blog. So you don’t have to run out and put a For Sale sign in your front yard or turn in your 2-week notice. You don’t always have to take immediate action, but you are to respond immediately. That may mean that you simply acknowledge God’s direction by beginning to pray about what your next step in the process will be. Many times God tells us to take action that He does expect us to act upon immediately (give of your time/resources to a cause like helping tornado victims, sign up to volunteer for an event or organization, send someone an email to let them know you’re thinking about them) but there are times when God calls us to action for something that will take time and there will be steps toward reaching the final destination. In those instances, simply respond right away. Let Him know that you will do what He’s calling you to do and you will trust in Him to guide your steps along the way. It’s that first step of obedience of saying “yes Lord” that will cause, in time, the next step to be revealed. Right now you may know that God has revealed to you something He wants you to do but you are feeling overwhelmed because you don’t know where to even begin. Obedience doesn’t always require immediate action but it does require an immediate response. And all He’s asking for right now is your willingness to take that first step of faith by responding. Simply say “yes, Lord” and you’ll be amazed at how He begins to orchestrate the plans He has for you!
Stepping Out of the Boat
In the words of a dear friend “here we go…….” and thus the adventure begins.
The Only Option 