Month: February 2020

Chocolate or flowers? Flowers or chocolate? This is the universal question for guys every year, as Valentine’s Day approaches. Let me answer that for you.

Chocolate.

You’re welcome.

Let me explain. You see, we can come up with an excuse to buy flowers for the table pretty easily. It will brighten the table, restaurants have them, they won’t blow the budget, Susie always has fresh flowers in her house, God created them for us to enjoy, I’m supporting local florists… and on and on.

But for chocolate? It’s not quite that easy. Oh, we have excuses, trust me. But there’s still the guilt that takes away from that moment of joy as we indulge. However, if someone else buys the chocolate for us… that’s when the true bliss begins. It actually becomes a luscious obligation, to show appreciation for the gift. The more we eat of the substance, the deeper our appreciation.

Years ago, my husband was still thinking flowers. However, the kind and generous soul had learned that I enjoyed them better when they were a living house plant, which I could then add to my collection. So a beautiful arrangement arrived for me, complete with African violets, blooming their cheery faces up at me. Oh, how I hoped that I wouldn’t kill them! They looked so trusting.

So I watered…. and they continued to bloom. Perfect, velvety flowers. Purple, if I remember correctly. And I watered some more. What a green thumb I was developing. I should be working in a greenhouse or nursery.

Then one day… I reached out to feel those beautiful purple petals…. and they were artificial! My green heart plummeted as I realized why I had been so incredibly successful! No need to apply at the local nursery…

In your life and mine, what really counts, is not what we look like on the surface, but whether we have been given life, through Jesus Christ. We can blend in, look pretty, appear to have it all together, be resilient and have people admiring us… and yet not have growth, depth or life through a spiritual relationship with our Creator.

God has so much more for us. So much.

One day, as Jesus walked the dusty roads near the Mount of Olives, he stopped to teach the people about why He had come. He said to them, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

He stands waiting… with a heart of love for you… longing for you to know what a full life is all about. A full life isn’t an easy life. I full life is one that is lived out by knowing Jesus personally, surrendering our will to His, allowing Him to direct us and trusting Him to carry us through the good times and the bad.

Don’t settle for the artificial instead of authentic….. the pseudo instead of the stunning …. the lifeless instead of the living.

Don’t settle.

Some of the best conversations in the world are with 3 and 4 year olds! Their innocence mixed with brutal honesty can leave the listener staggering under the weight of the message.

Three year old Christy and I were chatting after church one Sunday. The morning had been a busy one, and I just needed to catch up with her on how her time in Sunday school class had gone. I started out by asking who the helper was in her class that day.

Christy replied, “Oh, ya know… their was Aunt Sonia, and the lady that you have to touch her before she hears you.”

I just stared at my little girl in silence. I had just heard a powerful sermon… in one sentence. Christy had learned that the helper in her class, who was hearing impaired, would “hear” her if she touched her first. This alerted the woman to turn to look at the child, and then she could lip read what they were saying.

We have to touch them before they hear us.

Jesus showed us so perfectly how it’s done. As he walked the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea, He met the people right where they were, in their need…. touching them, healing them, feeding them, helping them, listening to them…. and then teaching them.

Sometimes we over complicate the simplicity that God calls us to. It was after Jesus had washed His disciples’ feet that He taught them about washing each other’s feet. They simply were ready to listen. He said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” John 13:15

If you have… brought a few cookies to your neighbor who’s been sick ….. stopped in the grocery store aisle to hear a lonely elderly shopper tell you their woes….. plowed a neighbor’s driveway on a snowy morning…. dropped a card in the mail to someone whose heart has been torn by grief…. called someone who has been going through a rough patch – just to cheer them up…. dropped off a coffee to a single mom, who’s struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel…. dragged your weary body out of bed for the ninth time that night to check your child’s fever, praying it will break…. placed an arm around a friend, as their tears fell heavy on a grave… held the hand of a stranger who had no place to call ‘home’….

…. then you have touched them. Maybe now they’ll hear you.