Life Rubric

For those who don`t know I recently started pursuing a Bachelors in Business Administration through Grand Canyon University online program. Today in "class" the instructor asked us what was our Life Rubric. That is to say what are the forces that drive our decision making and how do we know we are doing thing properly? I only intended to write a short answer to the question but 500 words later I was done.  I hope you enjoy my long answer to a simple question.

    What are the "life" rubrics I use? Each thing on the rubric ties to a person in my life. I want to be dedicated like my Grandpepe, He stayed married to the same woman for over 70 years. 40 years into his marriage, when he retired, he learned that the wife he thought he knew was a stranger to him. At some point in the first 40 years of marriage my Grandmeme started to drink a lot, she still does, but because my Grandpepe was never home during the day to see it he had no idea it was so bad. At one point my Grandpepe told my Meme (grandmother) that he was thinking about divorcing my Grandmeme. But he did not because he made a promise to her to stick with her till death do them part. This is only one of the characteristics that made Grandpepe so special.

  The next item on my rubric for life is I want to be generous like my Uncle John. Uncle John died six years ago this past June. The thing about Uncle John was he would give you the shirt off his back if you need it. When I was about six or seven years old my mom decided to take me and my four sisters on a trip to visit her sister in Kansas and my dad was not able to come. This trip happened only about a year after 9/11, my youngest sister was only about one year old. Uncle John dropped everything and took the trip with us. He helped my Mom get all of us to and from the planes in the airport, at one point we got on the wrong plane. If not for my Uncle the trip would have been a complete disaster. Everyone who knew him said the same thing, He would go out of his way to help others. That is want people to say of me.  

   Third item on the rubric is I want to be loving like my Meme. Meme after having six kids decided that she wanted to adopt. My Meme and Pepe (grandfather) adopted a total of six kids. They took kids at no one else wanted, kids labeled special needs. Some had previous adoptions be disrupted for some reason or another. Some of the kid’s birth parents were in jail for drugs and stealing. One of my Uncles was in 22 foster homes before he was seven years old. Meme loved them all, she still does. She gave them childhoods that they never would have had elsewhere. Meme would tell you that she is too loving, too trusting. But I think she has so much love in her from her father, Grandpepe, that it can not but help to spill over all over the place. I love you, Meme!

  Forth, I want to be a woman of faith like Mom. My mom has had some tough hand dealt her. But she never gave up on God or her family. When I feel discouraged, frustrated or upset Mom is the person I turn to. I have watched her as she has dealt with lack of finical resources so that she could stay home with us five. I have watched her as she dealt with the loss of her brother, Uncle John, and her grandfather, Grandpepe. I watched her support my father as he went through the loss of his mother, father and brother Uncle Doug. Through it all she just grew closer to God.

   I could go on and on but I have already taken to much of your time. Sorry for being so long winded and Thank you.

Thanksgiving

     Thanksgiving the time of year were we stop and think about what we are thankful for. Family, friends, and food are usually at the top of the list. But have you ever been thankful for the testings? Have you ever truly thanked God for the trials in your life?
     James 1:2-3 says "My brethren, count it all Joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience."  What does this look like? I mean in the middle off the trials I have read this verse and thought "How is this going to work patience?"  And "This! This is supposed to be for my good?" 
    Recently I heard a new song by We Are Messengers called Maybe It's Okay.  The chorus goes      
                     " Maybe it's ok if I'm not ok
        'Cause the One who holds the world is holding onto me
                    Maybe it's all right if I'm not all right
       'Cause the One who holds the stars is holding my whole life"
In a world today we are told "don't let anyone so you not at your best."  "Fake it till you make it."  But God tell us "Trust me." "Lean on me." " Let me carry you through."  When we understand that God uses things we don't understand to grow us we can thank him for the trials. Most often we thank him for the blessings that follow the trial, but not during the trial. (Guilty as charged)
      This year at Thanksgiving I am thankful for
         1. The hard things I have gone through trying to find my way in the "real" world. It lead me to being able to help my sister.
        2. My car having to go to the shop. It means I get to spend time with Abby and Ava!
        3. Long, hard days at work. I have money in my pocket, well money to help spend on those I love.
      

Identity

Identity, we all have one. Who we are and how we portray our selves. Upon first meeting me you see a young adult, early 20s, short and slightly round in figure. You see my dark hair and blue eyes and depending on the day a put together outfit. As you talk to me you learn things like my name, work place, college I graduated from, where I grew up and how big my family is.  The more we talk the more you learn about me. Maybe you learn that I love to bake, my favorite color is blue, that I love dogs more then cats, or any number of thing that make me who I am. One thing I hope it does not take you long to learn about me and my identity is that I am a Christian and that is where my identity starts and is rooted.
     In church since the beginning of the year the sermons have more or less focused on identity and what a gospel centered identity looks and acts like. Through these messages I have begun to see how God is using events in my life to fill out details about me. Each change, for good or not, has been a chance to learn and be molded into the image of his son.  Each lesson has allowed me the opportunity to grow closer to God, the source of my identity. With each step closer I find a greater sense of peace in trials and a great sense of confidence in every day life.
   Don't get me wrong there are mistakes that I wish I never made, things I wished happened differently, but I have found God faithful through it all. I can now look back on some of the hardest times in the last 22 (ish ) years and see that everything had a bit of good in it. Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." This verse is hard to swallow in the middle of the trial, but the promise is still there. Once we get far enough away that we can turn and look back and see God's hand, that is when we see the fulfillment of this promise.

Ripples

Last Sunday's theme in church was ripples. In Sunday school we talked about sin makes ripples but so does grace.  When you sin, lie lie or lose your temper, it makes ripples and has effects you could never see. I forget who frist said this but hurt people hurt people. But just as sin and hurt ripple through us grace and love cause ripples in our lives. To see this we only have to look at the pay it coward movement.  We all have moments that shape us, those ripples from others. Some we can trace others we can't.
      Let me give you an example. My salvation story starts before I was born.  My salvation ripples  from my moms salvation. My moms salvation ripples out from the influence of a person she met on her high school bus. A lady I may never met, but she influenced my life. This just goes to show how your actions can change the life of someone you may never met, for good or bad.

Fear and Love

     Fear and love,  Those ideas have been in the front of my mind the last few days. The more I thought about it the more I saw how they are connected. When we love there is no room for fear. 1 John 4:18 " There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."  When we love someone we trust them, leaving no room for fear, but fear destroys trust and smothers love. In the movie Star Wars episode 1: The Phantom Menace Yoda says to young Anakin Skywalker, in the evaluation if he should train as a Jedi, “Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.” This is a fact that we see every day. We fear those that are different, so we get angry. Then that anger grows and becomes hate. That hate festers and boils till it bubbles out of us and we hurt those we fear and sometimes those who are totally innocent. Which just breeds more fear, the the cycle counties. To stop the cycle we need love, perfect love. So what is "perfect love"? Perfect Love is everything 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says " Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." Perfect love is a sacrificial love, John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." From these two passages we see what perfect love is, I could go on all night, so I will close this post with this thought. The perfect example of this kind of love is found in Jesus Christ. He loved us so much at the cross, that 2000 years later fear still can't survive at the foot of the cross. 

brokenness

        Broken, defective, out of date and just plain wrong. Those are just a few of the reasons we give for not liking, returning and trowing out the material things in our lives. The sad thing is these are also the reasons we give for not loving, caring, and doing away with the people that come in to our lives. What a sad picture! This world is full of people hating others for being different, full of abortion of kids that might have a "defect", and full of humans being thrown to the side because we have deemed them to far broken.
        What if we could take the picture and flip it? Just like we can take the material things that get broken and fix them, might  I say restore them. What if we had a place where the heart of  the issues in this world could get fixed, restored?  You laugh and say "There is no place that all of the things we call defects and brokenness in a person could be fixed." I tell you there is. Now it might not be a place one can physically see, but a place of the soul. That place is at the feet of Jesus. We are told that one day God will make a new heaven and a new earth with no suffering, no tears, and no pain. So we need to sit and wait for this future day when God make all things new? NO! We don't. We cannot change the everything right now, but what if we changed the way we look at life? What if we look at others as God looks at us? What would happen if instead of broken we saw the healing God could do? Instead of defective we saw God's strength? How this world would change! The bible tells many many stores of how God took the weak and even the broken to accomplish great things. So I pose rather then looking at the world like men that we should look at men with Gods eyes. 

2018 looking forward

It is that time of year every makes new years resolutions. For me, I never remember them past March. So this year I am going to use songs that I hear on the radio to help me remember my 2018 goals. Here we go!

1. I desire to become a better prayer warrior. 

"You'll never stop me I'm a warrior

When I fall down I get stronger

Faith is my shield His love is the armor"

~Warrior by Hannah Kerr

2. Be true to who I am in Christ -no matter what. 

"When the sharpest words wanna cut me down

I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out

I am brave, I am bruised

I am who I'm meant to be, this is me

Look out 'cause here I come

And I'm marching on to the beat I drum

I'm not scared to be seen

I make no apologies, this is me" 

~ This is Me from The Greatest Showman

3. To praise God no matter what happens.

"When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul"

~It is Well With My Soul by Horatio G. Spafford, 

Above all everything make awesome memories with my family. That is probably the most important one of all! My prayer for you all (and myself) is that we would be sensitive to God`s will and leading in our lives.