patience – Live the Crazy Life

Advent, Bible, Christmas, community, Holiday, patience, Prayer, Trust, Trustworthy

The difficult ones

December 17, 2024 1 Comment

It’s the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The time when things either slow down as you are wrapping up your year, or speed way up and you are preparing for Christmas and trying to wrap up your year. Either way, it is a weird few weeks of time. So many parties, so much to do, snow and icy roads, the list of things you thought you’d get done this year and didn’t. Ahh the Holiday Season. I am a fickle holiday person. I am either all in and loving it, or I am not into much at all. This year I fall to the latter of those. It’s almost the middle of December and I just have my tree up, no ornaments, no tree skirt, no other decorations other than a few snowmen. I don’t really know why some years I could just skip November and December and jump right into the New Year in January. Sometimes it has to do with relationships. You know the ones that are awkward, or hard, or non-existent that this time of year just somehow seems to highlight.

I was preparing for my Advent study, and we were told to read Romans 15:4-13. This week’s word is Hope. This isn’t the traditional Advent where you look at Love, Hope, Peace, and Joy, but we do have a focus word each week. So, like I said, this week’s word is Hope. And at Christmas time, hope makes me think of the line from Joy to the World that says, “The thrill of hope the weary world rejoices.” Something about that wording gets me every time I hear it. This year, I feel weary for many reasons, mostly because I have been going warp speed, with no slowing down in sight. It’s not been a bad year, but it’s a busy one. And when I am weary, I am not at my best people-wise. I bet you feel the same way. It’s hard to deal with someone who isn’t the easiest person for you to get along with when you’re tired.

We all have people in our lives who, shall we say, test our patience. It might be a family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, your kid’s teacher, or whoever it is, we all have them. When I was reading Romans 4 for my Advent study a portion of that chapter hit me as the key to dealing with the person in your life that needs a little extra grace. Romans 4:5-7 reads, “Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice. Therefore, accept one another just as Christ has accepted you, to the glory of God.”

That verse has a whole lot going on. When I read it I thought of the person in my life that I have a difficult time with. God has convicted me many times over my negative thinking and judgmental thoughts of this person. I know that it’s ok to not be best friends with everyone, but when it is someone you are around alot, it’s always best if there is peace and not tension. Ok, so the truth is it isn’t about the other person, the one that makes me crazy, it’s about me. There is always going to be people who just rub you the wrong way, but God has a plan to help you get through and it is spelled out in Romans 15:4-7.

I looked into the meaning of a few words from these verses. It says, “Now may the God who gives….” The first thing to do when dealing with someone difficult is to stop doing it on your own. For me, that means praying when I know I am going to be around this person. The next part of the verse tells us what to pray for. Romans 4:5 says it’s God who gives you endurance and encouragement, and He grants you the ability to live in harmony with others. Why does He do this? So God will be glorified. It takes the pressure off to know that it is God’s job to give me endurance and encouragement to live in harmony with others. That is where we start, leaning in to God, trusting Him for endurance and encouragement.

Endurance in this verse means steadfastness, to remain under, to wait, to hope, to expect. It means steadfast endurance, particularly in the face of trials and difficulties, remaining faithful and patient under pressure. Encouragement means calling someone to your side for the purpose of offering comfort. It comes from the same word used in John 14:26 when the Holy Spirit is named the Comforter. Lastly the word harmony means being of the same mind. It often implies a deliberate choice of thought or attitude.

Here is the takeaway. It’s not the person who makes us nuts. It is how we deal with the person that matters. Do we stew over how frustrating they can be? Do we agonize and stress when we know we have to see them? No, we pray and ask God to give us hope that we will find common ground with this person. That the relationship won’t always be strained, awkward, or difficult. We ask God to comfort us when this person hurts our feelings for the thousandth time. We can’t change other people, but we can allow God to change us. So this holiday season, or whenever you are going to be around those people who are difficult for you for whatever reason, remember Romans 15:5-7. Write it down. Keep it somewhere where you can read it, and pray before you are around them.

Let’s choose to accept people for who they are while praying for God to give us endurance, encouragement and the ability to live in harmony with one another. Let’s glorify God in all of relationships – even the difficult ones.

Memorizing scripture, patience, Steadfast love, Uncategorized

The Necessary Unnecessary path

June 4, 2018 No Comments

God never ceases to amaze me. This month’s memory verse is one of those that you have to ponder on. If you allow the depth of truth hidden in this verse to be revealed, it will surely amaze you! Do you ever feel like sometimes God is saying two opposing things at the same time? This is one of those. Are you ready to be amazed?

2 Thessalonians 3:5 reads, “May the Lord direct your heart to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” A heart-warming good-to-pray verse. Who doesn’t want their heart directed to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ? This is one of those verses you could write in a birthday or graduation card. One that makes everyone feel good. And this is indeed a good thing to pray for yourself and others. But there is a great understanding that might change how you pray this verse.

To start, the words “direct your heart”. That “direct” word is kateuthunó, and it means “go straight down by the most direct, efficient route; to go in a direct course – avoiding all unnecessary delays, without any undue loss of time or achievement”. Ok, that makes perfect sense. I have to point out that I just love the “avoiding all unnecessary delays” part. But here comes the weird part of this verse. The word steadfastness isn’t the steadfast love concept I have been writing about this year. It has a different meaning. The word steadfastness is hupomoné and it means “remaining under, endurance; steadfastness, especially as God enables the believer to “remain (endure) under” the challenges He allots in life”. And there you have it. This verse is asking for our hearts to be directed to God’s love in the straightest path possible without unnecessary delays, and then ends the verse that on our way to God’s love we would go through the endurance to remain in hard places that God allows through Christ’s steadfastness. Those seem like opposites to me. A direct path with no delays to a place of remaining under trials? What?

I am reading this devotional book called Amazed and Confused by Heather Zempel. She does a great job explaining this concept. “Sometimes the best thing to propel us towards Jesus is the desperate determination: that potent combination of certain dispairs in your circumstances and humble confidence in Christ that draws His heart to you.” (page 41) Or I would say draws your heart towards His.

Think about it. God wants every man, woman, and child’s heart to turn toward Him – to seek Him, to want Him and Him only. Sometimes the only way to do that is to allow “trials” in our lives that bring us to a place where the only way to get through them is with the steadfastness of Christ. Maybe just maybe those hard, sometimes impossible to overcome on our own bumps in the road, are the straightest path for us to find Christ to help leads to the father’s heart.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? That God loves us so much that He would direct our hearts to places that are necessary to find Jesus even if we think they were completely unnecessary. It’s a love that leads only to what we need and stirs us – if we let it – away from things that are unnecessary in the process. The key is an open heart and a willing obedience to go where He leads and trust Him to give us the endurance to make it through the rough places to find Him.

The next time you are going through one of those hard places, ask God to open your eyes to the steadfastness of Jesus so you can know His love deeper in the end. Ask Him to lead you, and pray He will show you what you once saw as completely unnecessary you would see as necessary to know His love.

Click Here for June’s Memory Verse.

Parenting, patience

Cultivating the fruit of Patience

September 12, 2017 No Comments

The other day I began prepping my garden for the spring planting of peas and lettuces. (They grow better in cooler weather, and peas taste sweeter if they flower before the last snow fall.)
At the same time as prepping the garden for spring, my spring bible study has been on the fruit of the Spirit. God’s timing is always amazing. We have been studying one attribute of the fruit of the Spirit a week. This week is patience. Not something I am good at. I am a go, go, go type. I like to always have projects going while keeping up with life, ministry, work, 3 teenagers and a husband. Patient, I am not. But God really revealed some things to me through this study and the prepping of the garden.
To grow a successful harvest, you don’t just plant when the time is right. There is a lot of prep work to be done first. Actually to be a successful gardener you should be working the garden in every season. Fall: harvesting. Winter: tilling up old plants, mixing in compost to nourish the soil in the cold. Spring: weeding anything that grew over the winter time (how do weeds do that?) Aerating the soil and mixing in more compost to nourish the ground and replace vital nutrients lost in the winter. And then comes planting, continued weeding, watering and fertilizing, watching for pests, taking care of any that you find through the late spring and summer. So in the midst of me doing this, God began to ask me, ”How am I taking care of my own garden? My soul? How am I prepping my kids’ gardens (souls) to grow the best harvest of the fruit of the Spirit in their lives?” My answer – I was maintaining. A little weeding (very little for me, more for the kids in the form of discipline) and good watering (I enjoy reading the word, and studying.) And that was where I realized that I was off! A garden takes year-round work – work when there is not a harvest yet in sight and when there are no seeds to plant. The fun part is the harvest. The hard part is getting to the harvest – the work part. You know, good old fashion labor! To have a good garden takes work and patience mixed together. Was I doing work in my own soul mixed with patience? How about for my kids? By the way, how are you doing in these areas?
Like I said, this week’s bible study was the fruit of patience. There are two types of “patience” found in the bible. Hupomone: “To persevere, remain under, bearing up with.” It refers to that quality of character which does not allow one to surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial. Hupomone is endurance in relation to circumstances. The other type is Makrothumia: “Self-restraint before proceeding to action.” Hupomone is inspired by hope, and Makrothumia is inspired by mercy. Hupomone is one we can get on our own. We can endure something because we have a hope of the outcome. Every woman who has given birth understands this. We endure 9 months of pregnancy, then pain in labor, all for the bundle of joy – our precious child! Makrothumia is only from God. It is a fruit of the Spirit only given and moved into action by God and God alone.
Jesus says to pray for your enemies (Matthew 5:43-48 and Matthew 5:39 and Luke 6:29). I think I understand why for the first time. Because to be people who act righteously in difficult situations with difficult people, we need endurance fueled by hope and patience fueled by mercy.
In some seasons of my life when things are smooth sailing, I don’t have rough circumstances and really no close enemies that cause me to be asking God to fill me with hope – hope found in His word, and hope from Him. I need to be teaching my kids the hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27 & Ephesians 1:11-14). We need to be memorizing what and Who real hope is. Just like mixing in compost in the winter and spring I need to mix hope in my heart and my children’s hearts. Then I need to add a whole lot of mercy. Seeking God to understand the mercy He showed me and them. (see Daniel 9:9, Ephesians 2:4, Titus 3:4-6, 1 Peter 1:3-9, and Romans 5:8). I must teach these truths to my children and hide them in my heart so that when the time comes I have a harvest of mercy for my enemies, and a harvest of endurance for my circumstances.