November 23, 2012- Gratitude…

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.” 1 Timothy 4:4

“Let the message of Christ dwell in your richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” Colossians 3:16

     Each day that we awake to the sun shining, the tides roaring, and to an island or home town full of family and friends to share it with is a day to rejoice and be glad, to be thankful we are alive and well.  The verses above are some of the many that popped up for me today when I decided to Google “Biblical verses about gratitude.”  The first one is a favorite for me simply because it is a verse I grew up singing in church with much enjoyment. When I sing or hum it, even in my head, it puts a spring in my step and reminds me of good times singing in the Youth Choir and hanging out with my friends at church camps and on mission trips. 

     The second verse is particularly poignant because it speaks to all of God’s creation, including you and me.  EVERYTHING God created is good! NOTHING is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.  Being thankful for who God has created you to be, flaws and all, and practicing gratitude in our daily lives with others and all that we have been given has great healing power! What we think about and how we react and view the various circumstances of our lives as they come along can make all the difference between allowing life to swallow you whole and keep you pinned inside the whale like Jonah, complaining and grumbling, until life decides to spit you out again and give you a breather, OR allowing life’s challenges and troubles to spring you forth into new adventures and give you the ability to enjoy the ride along the way, no matter what it brings. If we start each day with gladness, with gratitude, with positive and uplifting thoughts and the attitude of every day being a new day that will be as wonderful as we make it, we are better equipped to deal with what might usually cause us stress and lead us down a path of emotional turmoil, negativity, and the feeling that today is just a “terrible, awful, no good, very bad day,“ and there’s nothing that we can do to stop it.  No, we can’t control what happens to us just by thinking positively, but we can control what has been on our mind all day and how that will cause us to react when something negative does come our way. If you have been in a fearful, worrisome mode all morning, then when that big project you were working on accidently gets lost as your computer crashes, you are more likely to allow that anger, fear, and worry that was already stewing in your mind all morning to take over and make things worse. If you are in a good place in your heart and mind all morning, then the crash and loss of your work will be more of a minor frustration rather than a major catastrophe.  You will be able to look for the positives and move forward more quickly. 

     The third verse really builds upon the second, taking this “mind over matter” concept even deeper. If you start out each day not only with gratitude and a positive attitude, but also with prayer and the word of God, maybe even with some worship songs or whatever helps you feel closer to God, giving thanks for all He has done in your life, those verses or songs which help you cope and stay calm will immediately pop into your head when you need them most because you have been dwelling on them so much.  This is a practice I struggle to maintain each day, but I have found my days are more peaceful if I follow what I have learned through these verses and the many wonderful ministers of God who have taught me through their books, sermons, Bible studies, etc…so, being that Thanksgiving Day is almost over for us island folk, I’d like to end this blog entry with gratitude, listing the top ten things I am thankful for at this very moment in time, not necessarily in order of what’s most important:

1. My family and friends.

2. God’s word and saving Grace.

3. The wonderfully, decadent meal I enjoyed today at the chow hall on Roi-Namur. and all those who planned for it and prepared it.

4. The free range chickens on the island who make funny noises when we feed them potato chips and flaming hot Cheetos and who make me giggle as they run-fly to meet us when we arrive in our golf cart during our “post meal island tour.”

5. The warm sunshine on my skin and the roar of the ocean when I practice yoga by the sea.

6. Wireless Internet in my hotel room as I type this which allows me to upload precious photos to share with friends and connect quickly and effectively with the family I cannot be with today.

7. Being an American and the freedoms that come along with that.

8. The children I have the pleasure to work with every day as well as my own who fill my life with laughter and appreciation for the simple things, and make my life so much richer overall.

9. The roof over my head, the clothes on my back, and all the necessities of life which so many others are not afforded daily or at all.

10.  All the teachers in my department who shower their love and affection on the children they work with, who amaze me with their patience and ability to adapt to whatever situation they are presented with, and their enormous dedication to their jobs, even when it means they must rise up very early in the morning and travel to another island just to get to work, and then be away from their family until late in the evening when the boat they travel on daily finally arrives back home. 

     I am spoiled and blessed to live this life, and I have done nothing to deserve it. It is all because of God’s great grace. Thank you God for everything. I wish for you all God’s wonderful peace, love, and joy, all the days of your life.  Happy Thanksgiving 2012!! 

November 22, 2012 To Everything a Season…

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die,  a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

“Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him. Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? No man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the day of his death…” Ecclesiastes 8: 5-8    

     On a small island, everyone pretty much knows everyone, or everyone at least knows ABOUT everyone else in some way, shape, or form. This has its positives and negatives. The day before yesterday, one of the island residents passed away suddenly. He was young, in his early forties, and he left behind a wife and two very young children, one of which attends the preschool where I work, so the loss of this very family oriented man we knew along with the son we teach and see every day has hit our staff particularly hard.  Of course, no one has been hit as hard as his wife here and his family back in the states, and so, it got me to thinking. What kind of comfort does the Bible, God’s word, provide in such an unexplainable and tragic death?  I started with the index of my student Bible looking up the word “death,” but I really only found information about death itself, no comfort…wrong key word, I guess.  So, back to the drawing board, as my memory kept playing the song “Turn! Turn! Turn! (to everything there is a season)” made popular by the band, The Byrds, back in 1965. I figured I should follow up on that thought as I knew the song came from verses in the Bible.  I started to try and index the specific verse and then suddenly the book of Ecclesiastes popped into my mind as I noticed at the same time, all of the pink and green highlights this particular Bible contained. I knew if the verses were in that book, I would easily be able to reference them as they would be highlighted. Sure enough, they were, and I found them quickly. 

     Now, what do they mean?  They are not particularly comforting words as the whole book of Ecclesiastes is not necessary comforting.  Mostly, the author of the book repeats the refrain that life is meaningless. The man who wrote the book sought meaning in everything life had to offer, wealth (as it is commonly believed the author was a king), pleasure, work, wisdom, advancement, and he found that in the end, it is simply best for man to enjoy his life and his work, fulfilling the purpose that God has put him on this earth for, to fear God, and to keep His commandments as this is all that will matter in the end.  This may be a bit tough to swallow for those of us who are still trying to figure out the meaning of life and what our purpose is here on earth, but somehow the verses above are still comforting to me as I walk through challenges and difficulties because it tells me that God is in charge, that I am not alone, that I do not have to worry about controlling and/or understanding all of life and the things that happen in it. I just have to know that death and life, war and peace, mourning and laughing, there is a time for all of it in a lifetime. God does not say it will be easy. He does not say it will be ideal all the time. It just is. 

     I really like the second set of verses listed at the start of this entry because they do give me something specific to strive for, to remember when life gets tough. “Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise man will know the proper time and procedure…Since no man knows the future…No man has power over the day of his death.” These words release me from trying to control it all, to keep my life and my family’s life in perfect order. All I need to concern myself with is doing my job to the best of my ability, which includes obeying God’s directions and allowing Him to make me wise, so I can be guided by that wisdom. 

     Too often, I think when we start to talk about God and His purpose for our lives, people think that means they have to be doing something specifically for God, such as working in the ministry, but wherever God has you now is where you are needed most, fulfilling your purpose, and if we can find joy in that and continue each day not allowing life to overwhelm us with worry and fear, when difficult circumstances arise, we will be able to continue to breathe and allow sadness to come at its time.  There are really no words to comfort someone in the loss of a spouse or a parent, but when our life spins out of control because of such a tragic event, it is comforting to know that it’s not our responsibility to try and fix it or figure it out. It’s simply one of those times of life that will come and go, and the only thing we can really do is keep living and trust God.  My heart goes out to all those who are experiencing loss right now…when you feel no one else can understand your pain, and there’s no one else to talk to, talk to God. He knows….He understands. 

November 21, 2012- Lifting up a fallen Countenance…

“And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Genesis 4:6-7 (King James Version)

“Why are you so angry? The Lord asked him. “Why do you look so dejected?” You will be accepted if you respond in the right way. But if you refuse to respond correctly, then watch out! Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you, and you must subdue it.” Genesis 4:6-7 (New Living Translation)

    I started reading Genesis again last night because I’ve been teaching it in Sunday School the last couple of months to my 1^st-3^rd graders, and it’s mostly straightforward Biblical facts, at least for the first few chapters, but I wanted to see what would stand out to me beyond the stories I have taught the children. You know the ones I am speaking of: God creates the world in 6 days, resting on the 7^th. He creates man in His own image and then makes a helper for him out of one of Adam’s ribs, and they name the helper woman, and more specifically, Eve. Then, the serpent convinces Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, and then she convinces Adam to eat some too, and God banishes them both from the Garden of Eden and gives them a very clear set of consequences they will suffer for their fall into sin. 

     As I read through these first 3-4 chapters, it felt like recalling stories with an old friend.  They were so very familiar to me, and when I got to the verses above, Genesis 4:6-7, they were not only familiar, they also brought back an entire lesson in my life I had almost forgotten about.  This passage is one of the key verses in a lesson on how to deal with depression from the Biblical Counseling Foundation’s Self-Confrontation Bible study course, which I was involved in completing and eventually teaching back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s here on the island.  It was the most intensive and enlightening Bible study I have ever completed. The Genesis verses really stood out to me because if you just read the verses alone, or really even in the context of the story of Cain and Able, your mind doesn’t automatically go, “oh, this verse can help me deal with depression in my life,” but if you look at it more in depth, it really does provide real life help for those times in our lives when our “countenance” has fallen.  The thought behind it is that Cain’s sacrifice to the Lord was not accepted as Able’s was because his heart was not in the right place or in other words, he didn’t give to God with the right motive.

      This reminds me of my oldest son (the one who just turned 11) and the challenge of raising a “tween” with all his changing moods and the start of the “you don’t understand me” stage of his life. He is focused on himself right now and doesn’t seem to care all that much about helping out around the house or considering anyone else, really.  I hope it’s just a phase and from the other moms I’ve talked to, it is fairly normal, but the fact of the matter is, when we fight about him not wanting to be more a part of the family by doing things like voluntarily offering to help me carry in the groceries and put them away, I’m really fighting with him about his motives.  He will do his chores if I make him, but I want to develop in him a respect for others and consideration of his family before himself, and it’s clear when he’s only doing it because I asked him to and not because he genuinely wants to help out. I think Cain was probably the same way, only sacrificing the fruit of his labor because he had been taught that he was supposed to do so and not because he really wanted to do so.  Cain was upset when God didn’t accept his offering, but the Lord offered him a simple explanation. Will you not be accepted if you do what is best?

     When we are depressed, our countenance falls. I felt that way today…some days are just like that. So, how do I get out of that funk? I could sit in front of the TV, watching mindless shows and wasting away the hours, OR I could keep pushing forward and doing my best, no matter how I feel and how my face looks.  If your heart is in the right place, and you are doing the best you can with God at the head of your life and at the center of your heart, He will take care of the rest and lift your countenance.  It’s so hard for me to really believe God can and will change the most difficult circumstances in my life, but it certainly doesn’t help for me to sit around and worry about it or to allow it to bring me down. If I keep teaching my son about God and all the principles of the Bible that make us better and help us to not give in to our sinful selfish human nature, God will take care of the rest.  All I can do is my best. 

November 15th-November 20th, 2012 A new blogging challenge…

     I have been thinking the last few days about how to revive my blog. Part of this revival process for me is to get back into the writing groove. It’s like exercise for me. I can take a break for a little while, but gradually my body tells me that it needs the energy, strength, flexibility, and overall healthy effects exercise provides me with, so I start again. Lately, my brain has been telling me that it needs the cathartic experience, daily insight, and mental exercise writing provides me.  But this time, I want to provide something more to my readers than just a daily log of my life. I want to challenge myself to write for others as much as for my own good.  I figured a worthy exercise that might provide substance for others as well would be to write about reading through the Bible in 365 days.  This challenge was inspired by one of my many Bibles.

     I have several Bibles from my years growing up in church. My first Bible is very traditional looking, and it has my name etched in gold letters on the black letter cover, Susannah Gray, and it is inscribed on the inside as being a gift from the First Baptist Church of Huntsville, Al on October 4, 1981. I love this Bible. It is well worn and has many good memories for me.  I also have a leather Amethyst colored (my birthstone color) Student Bible, also inscribed with my name (although this time my full name, Susannah Elizabeth Gray) given to me by my mom on Christmas Day in the year 1988.  This one is also a bit worn, but not quite as much because it bears a well-worn flowered book cover with nice pockets to keep all kinds of notes from the sermon or whatever Bible study I was attending at the time I left the notes in there (some of which are still there to this day).  It also has lots and lots of pink and green highlights, particularly throughout the New Testament.  Speaking of the New Testament, I also have a small one of just that plus the Psalms and Proverbs that ended up with me although it is inscribed on the inside as being given to my best friend growing up, Aimee Britt, from her Christian school, Impact Academy, in March of 1988.  It’s one of the red Gideon Bibles you often find in hotel rooms.  All of these Bibles, by the way, are in different translations. The first one is the Revised Standard Version, the Student Bible is New International Version, and the small Gideon Bible is the Authorized King James version.  The next version I have is one that has no inscription, but it is well worn because it belonged to a good friend of my mom’s who is now in Heaven with her Creator, and her name was Jewel. My mom could tell you more about the importance of Jewel in her life, but what I can tell you is that she was truly a Zealous follower of God, spending her days, even while greeting people at Wal-Mart, blessing others and talking about the wonder of her Savior! I spent many an evening in her backyard swimming pool while my mom and other woman friends visited and ministered to each other.  She gave me a version of the Bible I had never heard of before, The Amplified Version, which really puts the old languages of the Bible into today’s English.  It is not leather or fancy in any way, but it speaks to me in ways the words in my other versions cannot always reach me. After this, I received a Bible, which I can’t find right now, and it’s actually upsetting me a bit, it is the Woman’s Bible with a pink leather cover inscribed by church friends who gave it to me as a high school graduation present in May of 1993.

     Next to last, as part of my growing fascination with the various versions of the Bible, I purchased a People’s Parallel Edition Bible, which has the King James Version and the New Living Translation side by side, so I don’t miss a thing between what was said in the original translation and how we say things now. J  Anyway, the idea for the new daily blog challenge in my life came from the last version I purchased myself, which is the Daily Bible I bought years ago in an attempt to read through the entire bible in 365 daily readings. It is the NIV (New International Version), but the big difference between this version and all the others is the way the 365 readings are laid out, more as a devotional than any other Bible, and of course, it breaks it down by date into small sections to be read every day along with some insightful background and historical information interspersed as deemed necessary.  There, that’s it. With all of these Bibles, you would think I’d read through them several times already, but that’s not the case, so this is my new writing, and I believe, possibly life-changing, challenge, to read through the Bible in 365 days, writing down what insights I gain from it each day.  Say a prayer for me that I can do it.  I wasn’t fully able to keep the first challenge to write every single day for a year, but I was still blessed by the experience, so if I can do this and meet the challenge this time too, I’m sure I’ll be doubly blessed and maybe God will bless someone else through it in the process!! Of course, I can’t officially start the 365 day Bible until January 1, but I am going to take the next month of so to practice by taking a verse or two from my devotional reading time and write about it when for this blog, so I can be more prepared for the challenge to begin on the first day of 2013!! Thanks for reading, and we’ll “talk” again soon.   

October 22nd-November 14, 2012 Life at Light Speed, Laser Tag, and Tacos!

     Remember how I was saying in the last blog entry that yoga often falls by the wayside for me when life speeds up? Well, right after the retreat life sped up to light speed levels.  My youngest son turned 9 on October 28, and then we had the PTO Mother-Son Laser Tag event, which I volunteered to coordinate on the 29th (with Halloween close on this event’s heels a couple of days later).  Next, I had a day or two to breathe before coordinating my boys’ combined laser tag and taco birthday party on November 4^th followed by selling my children’s books at the fall craft fair on the 5^th.  Busy, busy days….so this weekend, I chose to NOT schedule anything! J  In effect, I am forcing my life to slow down for a bit.  It was a good weekend to catch up, spending time at the snack bar where the internet is wireless and a bit faster for downloading all the snapshots taken from the wedding. I also was able to take the time to design our holiday cards for family and friends. It was nice not to have anything scheduled and to have a chance to enjoy watching both boys play at home over the weekend with their new Duncan Imperial and Butterfly Yo-Yo’s and practice on their new roller skates and rollerblades.  I love that yo-yo’s and roller skates are still as asked for as gifts for my boys as they were when I was their age. Even though life has its roller coaster lulls and light speed days, I have found what my mom has told me repeatedly since I had my children to be true…life seems to go by faster as we age.  I still don’t know how August-October occurred so quickly and now we are almost at Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and a whole new year.  My children are 9 and 11 now. Time stops for no man or woman or child, I suppose.  I simply hope to make the best of it and ensure I do the best I can by others in my family and within my life.  Next week being Thanksgiving, I am thankful another year with my babies and my first year of marriage with my honey.  I am thankful to be living in the same household and on the same island with him. I am thankful for a job, a home, good food to eat, and so many, many other things God has blessed me with today and every day of my life.  I hope all of you out there in blogging world can also find your blessings in life today and be thankful for them.  Sometimes they may be few and far between, but if you are willing to look, there’s always something to be grateful for.