Where Are You?

I loved playing hide and seek with my children when they were young. Who am I fooling? We still play the game and they are teenagers. Now that they are older it takes me a lot longer to locate them. They get impatient and tired of waiting on me and start yelling, "Mom you coming? Mom where are you?" It would seem that I should be yelling that to them since they are the ones hiding.

In life we can experience seasons when we just don't know where we are! I don't necessarily mean in a physical sense, although I'm sure that's possible. I'm referring to seasons of life when we don't know how we ended up in our current condition.

You didn't mean to get over your head in debt, but it happened. The frivolous spending and mis-managed budget resulted in consequences of lack. Or maybe it was your selfish need to win every argument with your spouse and now a few years into the marriage and the damage is done, communication is little to none and intimacy has disappeared altogether. Or perhaps you have drifted so far from your original goals of raising your children to love, respect, honor and worship God and instead you overbooked your weekends and substituted family devotions for ball games and ballet lessons. Now years later you don't understand why your teenagers want nothing to do with church.

How did we get here?

You may not know where you are, but God does! He has followed your every step watching as you continued to do it on your own. So many times He longed for you to recognize His prompting. With His still small voice He was urging you back. He's been waiting on you to get tired of hiding and for feeling ashamed because of the decisions you made.

He longs to be with you...

He loves you, unconditionally. He never walked away, you did.

Now matter how far gone you feel you have traveled away from Him, or how lost you think you may be, He would do anything to hear you say, "Father where are you? Please come find me!"

Matthew 18:12-14 "If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go in search of the one that went astray?  And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."

Vain Imaginations

The older woman and her electronic shopping cart quickly annoyed me. She seemed to purposefully drive it in the middle of the aisle so I couldn't pass her with my overloaded cart of groceries. Usually it wouldn't bother me, but today I was in a hurry. I had ten minutes before the first pitch of my son's baseball game and I still had to get home and unpack the groceries. I politely said, "Excuse me". Hoping she would move over to one side of the aisle so I could pass by her. She didn't respond, she didn't even acknowledge me.

Maybe she didn't hear me, I thought, so I said it again, this time a little louder, "Excuse me, could I move my cart past you please?" With that she jolted the brakes and quickly turned around to get a glimpse of me. I was a little taken off guard by the look on her face; it was a surprised look as if she didn't see me. I thought she was going to respond, but she didn't say a word. She just sat there, staring at me. I was still constricted behind her because the cart was directly centered in the middle of the aisle, I wondered what she was doing and the point she was trying to make. By now I was infuriated, surely this woman was intentionally blocking me from passing her and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why!

As she starred me down, I explained again that I wanted to pass her because I was running late for my son's baseball game. She paused for a few seconds and then used her hands to communicate with me. As she began to sign and point I then realized she was deaf and she hadn't noticed I was behind her the entire time. I was completely embarrassed and tried quickly to scoot around her as to not look any more ridiculous when she reached out to grab my arm and pointed to the top shelf. I asked her if there was something on the top she needed me to get for her, I think she was able to understand me because she intently watched my lips. She nodded her head yes. I began to aimlessly reach for items on the top shelf, she kept shaking her head no until my fingers reached the can of baking powder and she nodded yes. She held up two fingers so I grabbed for two cans of baking soda and then placed them in her cart. She gestured back in sign language "thank you" and smiled, giving me a wink as I finally made my way past her.

Life is all about perspective. Sometimes we "presume" something to be when really it isn't that way at all.  We drive past a co-worker in the neighborhood and we wave but they don't wave back. We jump to the conclusion they are really rude, but the truth could be they didn't know you drove that car. We pick up our child in the car rider line and wave to our child's teacher on duty. She doesn't wave back and we immediately begin to rationalize why she didn't. It could be she has too many little kids to watch and she didn't notice you from the glare on the car. Or maybe she wasn't even looking in your direction, sunglasses can be deceiving at times. A friend blogged about a certain subject or put an inspirational image quote on her FaceBook wall that just happened to be relating to an issue you were struggling with and immediately you presume her blog or post was directed specifically towards you.

Perspective is the way in which one regards situations, circumstances, reactions and makes a judgment based upon limited facts.  When we have limited information and make assumptions about a situation based upon our perspective we can sometimes be wrong about the entire situation. Sometimes (like in the example I encountered at the grocery store) we can create a problem when there really isn't one there.  This is what the bible refers to as "vain imaginations". Vain imaginations are any thoughts or reactions that are rooted in truth but perverted by imagination.

The truth is the only real power the enemy has over us is the power of deception. Most bondage to the enemy can be directly tied to some form of wrong thinking. It's important not to play into the enemies "mind games" and presume or make assumptions. We could find out that we were completely wrong in our thinking and suffer irrevocable consequences because we simply let our mind wander.

Live life without presumptions, assumptions or vain imaginations. Don't be so quick to analyze everyone around you and everything they did or didn't do. It's possible you are seeing into things more than you should, and if so, the enemy has you trapped in a place where he can wreck havoc.

II Corinthians 10:5

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought and make it obedient unto God.

Blessings, Polly

Don't Miss The Important Things

We were planning a 16th birthday party for her oldest daughter. I gladly offered my help since she had invited over sixty people. "What do you need me to do?" I asked her.

"Anything you want", my friend replied. So I offered to make the party favors, address the invitations and help with the food. Over the next few weeks we talked periodically going over the details and counting down the days before the big event.

Now I must paint a picture for your of my friend Karen; she lives for details. Tell her a story and she asks for more details. Give her directions to a certain location and she wants to know how long it will take to get there and what coffee shops are close by. So it didn't surprise me when she handed me the party planning book she had purchased for this special event. Being so specific in the details of her daughter's 16th party she even drew out a map of her backyard, locating where every chair would be placed and in case it rained, she rented several huge canopies to cover the event areas.

On the day of the party, guest began to arrive with gifts for the birthday girl, while perfect party tunes selected, could be heard in the background. The decorations of light blue, silver and hidden pops of glitter looked beautiful as if the moment was captured in a dream and recreated. Up until now, this day was nothing less than perfect. 

About an hour after the guest mingled and ate, it was time for the birthday song and cake according to the detailed list Karen had printed. So I motioned to the hired DJ to get ready with the "Happy Birthday" disk and headed back inside the house to get the candles and cake. I'd been to parties she hosted in the past so I assumed the cake would be kept in the refrigerator in the garage and I headed in that direction. When I turned the corner to the garage I could see my friend Karen already standing in front of the refrigerator with the door opened. Glancing at her facial expressions I could tell immediately something was wrong. In desperation she blurted out, "Oh no, I forgot to pick up the cake!" Tears streamed down her eyes and she clinched my arm with her fingernails. I attempted to console her, however the birthday song playing on que in the background was difficult to compete with.

In my friend's obsession to manage all the miniscule details she forgot the most important item, the birthday cake.

Sometimes in life we can be just as guilty. Obsessing over the little things and forgetting the more important.  Detailed obsessions over unnecessary items like a clean house, vegetables with every meal and over crowded schedules will drain our energy from more productive tasks and ultimately can distract us from doing God's significant work.

What parenting priorities should come first? Do you need to rearrange some things in your schedule? Are there more important items you should be doing that have been overlooked by less important things? I know I have been guilty of allowing the little details to consume my days, yet God has a way of getting our attention when we loose focus and in those moments it's critical to listen to Him. Don't miss the important things!

Prayer
Lord I acknowledge the importance of you in my life for direction, guidance and wisdom. Please give me specific insight on how to live my days pursuing the more important things.  My greatest desire is to fulfill your plan for my life.  Show me the areas where I am failing, give me clear direction to better guide me on this journey. May my life exemplify the importance of living a life consecrated to you, for you are most important. Lord, I need your help.