October 2018 – Live the Crazy Life

October 21, 2018 No Comments

I used to think my love language was not words of affirmation. But when I think of things I have done with my kids to let them know they are special, loved, and valued it seems to always come back to giving them words of affirmation. Maybe I am more of a words of affirmation person more than I thought.

One of my biggest goals in raising my 3 kids is that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are loved, valued, special and have great purpose in this world. I want them to know that is what God thinks of them, but I also want them to know that is what their father and I think of them. I look for ways to tell them this outside of just my words.

Since it is almost the end of October, I am beginning to think of the Holiday Season (who am I kidding? I’ve been thinking about this since Hobby Lobby put up their Christmas decorations in August.) Anyway, I never am really sure how to approach the holiday season. On one hand it has all the family time and heartfelt meaning to it, and on the other it has all the craziness of making it perfect, special and memorable. I want my kids to look back on the holidays and think of the love and the joy that came from those times – not the stress.

So this year I have decided to express to them why I am thankful for them as three unique individuals. I have done things like this in the past by writing on hearts why I love them and hanging them around their rooms. One time I wrote on hearts why God loves them. We have done thankful leaves, too – writing down things we are thankful for. We have even done the 1000 gifts lists – writing down as many as we can think of that we are thankful for. And all of those are great and fun family activities to do. In fact, if you haven’t done things like that, I encourage you to try it this year.

For me I wanted to personalize the gratitude this fall. I wanted them to know specific reasons why I am thankful and grateful for them. So I went to Hobby Lobby and got fake fall colored leaves. Then everyday leading up to Thanksgiving I wrote down one thing I was thankful for about them on a leaf and taped that leaf to their doors. I did this for all 3 of them being specific to them. I have one child who makes me laugh all the time. So I told him I was thankful for the times he brings me great joy. I have one who has a servants heart so I told him I was thankful for the times he served me. I have one who likes to spend time with me, so I told her that I was thankful that she wanted to spend time with me. The list went on. Each day they would wake up and find a new leaf, and some days they would find it when they came home from school. The point wasn’t when it was place on their door; it was that for a few weeks they were reminded of why they were special and that someone was thankful for them.

It is one thing to be thankful for objects like houses, weather, food; but it is another to remind someone of the attributes in them that benefit others. It’s a wonderful feeling to know someone is thankful for you as a person.

So as the season of being grateful, thankful and blessed is almost upon us, I challenge you to not just look at the things around you but the people. Tell those you love why your are grateful for them. Tell them what character traits they posses that you are thankful for. And tell them why they are a blessing to you.

Letting others know they have qualities in them that are a blessing to others, and that others are thankful for those qualities, will go farther than you can imagine in creating an atmosphere of thankfulness.

A moment to reflect and pause

I am not Jewish, but I do believe that the Jewish festivals and activities can teach us a lot about our own relationship with God. Now that that is out of the way, I want to share with you a Jewish celebration or maybe tradition that I started doing this year. It is called Tashlikh. Tashlikh means to cast away. The celebration of Tashlikh is done during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Which I realize as you read this is already past; however, I am wanting to get at the heart of this celebration not focus on its actual time frame

Since I am not Jewish I am not going to attempt to tell you how they celebrated this, but I will share how I choose to celebrate Tashlikh. I asked the ladies from my Bible study to meet me at a pond near our church. A few weeks before we met at the pond, my co-leader and I gathered some rocks for this day. We left some blank and painted on a few of them. We painted words like “faith”, “worthy”, and “loved”.

The day we met at the park I explained to them that Tashlikh is a time when we reflect on what sin or habit or item in our lives the Lord would have us give up or, to use the Tashlikh wording, cast away. I read to the ladies Micah 7:19 which says “You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea.” I told the ladies to grab a blank rock and a marker, go find a place near the pond and ask God what they needed to cast off in their lives. After they were done discussing that with the Lord, I instructed them to write it on the rock and then throw the rock into the pond. So we all took our rocks, found our place to be quiet and pray, and then write on and release our rocks.

While I was sitting talking to God about the word on my rock, He said once we release the rock into the pond we can’t get it back. It would be next to impossible to find it in the pond. And even if we could find it by the time we did the words would be faded if not completely wiped away by the water and other items in the pond like sand and dirt and other rocks. Then God said, “This is how I forgive. I get rid of it – never to be able to get it back or find it again. So why can’t you let things go?” I sat there thinking about that. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Why do we hold onto things we should just let go of? And once they are gone, why do we live as though we are still holding on to them?

One of the points of Tashlikh is using your body to represent what is happening in the spiritual realm. On my rock, I wrote self-doubt and pride. I struggle with believing I am good enough – that I have something valuable to give to those around me. Or I think I am so great everyone should align their thinking with mine all the time. I never seem to find that balance of humility and obedience. I have spent hours in prayer on this. And then it became clear. It isn’t pride to share what God tells me, and it isn’t up to me to make people accept it. That part is on God. I am called to love others and point them to Jesus with my life. The end result is up to God. Whether I am accepted or not is not the issue. It becomes an issue of obedience to Christ and trusting Him with the outcome. When we write our issue or sin or word on the rock, we are acknowledging our wrong thinking or wrong actions. When we release them, we are giving them to God and asking him to wash over them. We are living out Micah 7:19 and Psalm 103:12. God really does remove our sins, and He says He will remember them no more according to Isaiah 43:25. It’s amazing how a physical action can help us understand something we know to be true but had a hard time fully understanding.

When the ladies were done with their rocks and had thrown them into the pond we all came back together. There is a second part to Tashlikh that is just as important as the first. Once we gave God our struggle we turn and look for the positive. I told the ladies to think of something God has done for them this year. Or think of something God has helped you to overcome. Basically, now that we got rid of one word, let’s focus on a new word. For me it was “worthy”. I have worth and value because God created me and gave His son to take my place so I can have a thriving eternal relationship with Him. That screams of value and worth. I also have worth because God has created me with a purpose according to Jeremiah 29:11.

Our words were not all the same and they were not supposed to be. We are all vastly different with different struggles and different strengths. We got rid of something that was bad, but we are to keep doing something that was good. We are not supposed to live focused on our sin, but rather live giving glory to God for the good.

So I challenge you to think of something you have been holding onto or a sin you have struggled with for too long. Write it on a rock then throw it into water (somewhere) and let it go. Give to God 100%. Then think of something good you are doing or an area of weakness you are overcoming – something amazing God has done in you or through you. Write that on a rock and put it somewhere you will see it often. Remind yourself, God is faithful. He will forgive our mistakes, and He is using us to make a difference for His glory. Go and celebrate Tashlikh.

Click Here for October’s memory verse

Creating an Atmosphere of Thankfulness

A moment to reflect and pause