When you're feeling empty …
I didn’t mean for it happen, the dates just all fell together. Four speaking engagements for me in just eight days. Sprinkled among these was the aftermath of our move, a funeral Jeff officiated (those things aren’t planned!), a baptism, a membership class, and a Sunday morning speaking engagement for Jeff. Truly, we don’t usually live like that, and now I’m reminded all over again why.
Something about milkshakes and straws.
It was all wonderful. And, especially the ministry done in the fold of our sweet WCC home. Those women give me life, I tell you. It is truly a joy to be with them.
But oh as I flew home from Bend I ached for all those arms, both little and big. Their two little faces, dirty, smiled wide as I climbed into the car. Heidi had on a pajama shirt and old sweatpants. Dutch asked me to never leave again. They love their daddy, that’s not it, it’s just that if we’re all really honest, everyone in the family thrives on Mama’s milkshake.
Everyone’s got a straw and they all want me.
And you know what? That’s perfect. I am the perfectly flavored milkshake for my family and I love that they all want a taste. I love that I can nourish their souls and care for their bodies. I love that God made me to feed these two little lambs and this one terrific man.
It only gets complicated when I start passing out straws to everyone else.
Good people. They deserve a straw, right? Maybe …
A friend recently read me this quote, from Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gifts from the Sea:
With our pitchers, we attempt sometimes to water a field, not a garden.
God has graciously given us a pitcher that is just the right size for all that He intends us to water. In truth, some of our pitchers are bigger or smaller than others. My friend with seven children has a bigger pitcher than me. Her milkshake is just much bigger than mine. But whatever the size of our pitcher, we just have to be careful we’re only watering our garden, not the field next door.
We were made a milkshake just the right size.
Who gets a straw?
We have to use discretion, don’t we? Must hand out those straws with caution that takes courage.
Whenever we say yes to someone we say no to someone else, true?
Looking back over our busy-season (which is over, by the way!), I don’t doubt that all our commitments were “of God.” I do believe He called us to each and gave us the strength for each one. But I also believe that part of His purpose was to remind me to be so careful about to whom I hand a straw.
Who is in your garden, the place you were meant to water?
And you, delicious milkshake that you are, who will get a straw today?
Might I suggest, to you and to myself, to hand them out with the caution that takes courage?
{Question for you: How do you remain disciplined and deliberate about who gets a straw in your life? Thanks for sharing your thoughts and wisdom, and as always, thanks for reading.}
Week's end with thanks
- Making it through the busy season! Today marks the completion, and with faces upturned we say thanks!
- Four little cousins four and under.
- Many chances to train.
- Holding my girl Jennika, sweet as a strawberry.
- Splashing in the pool.
- Watching high tide.
- Sliding down the dunes to the Peter Iredale shipwreck.
- Four seals slipping through the waves.
- Splashing in the freezing surf, little ones laughing, delirious joy, oblivious to the cold. Such a picture of the joy-filled life.
- Exploring the Battery Russell … remembering my last visit there, more than 20 years ago. Kids running, wide-eyed, peering in dark, concrete cave-like rooms.
- Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
- Crisp Fuji apples.
- Sticky fingers
- Sand in the car, in the rolled-up cuffs of jeans, between the toes.
- Getting dry.
- All sleeping in one room.
- My girl asleep, right here, by my side.
- Being the milkshake they all love to drink.
- Finally, my on-vacation treat: A historical novel. Thank you, Janae!
- Climbing inside, Dominican Republic 1960.
- Afternoons quiet.
- Driving back to teach Bible study, early morning drive along 101. The fog low over the water, the sky cloudless and blue, the sun coming up over the coastrange mountains, blanketed by the fog so thick I could stare straight at the sun. Perfect round, glowing. Sometimes our life’s fog is grace too, yes? So we can actually see His light more clear.
- All around the table.
- Dolce de leche in the coffee.
- Her face when she’s asleep. So perfect.
- Damp curls.
- Swimming with my boy. Holding his torso–trim and muscular. When did he leave toddlerhood behind?
- My nephew Korban, walking to his own beat at all times.
- Kids so brave.
- Making sense.
- Puzzles.
- Tillamook fields.
- Fort Clatsop. Perfect play place.
- Hike down to the water’s edge.
- Four tired cousins all carried back to the car.
- Three pairs of little stinky feet in the backseat.
- Piling in to one car.
- Nehalem Bay stretched out.
- Staying up half the night finishing In the Time of the Butterflies. My only chance to read a novel and I had to see it through!
- Lindt white chocolate.
- Coming home.
- Crackle of the fire.
- House warming up.
- Kids happy in bath.
- Feeling empty, struggling a bit. Long drive provides perfect time for good talk with my man on the way home.
- Coast range.
- Leftovers.
- Popcorn with butter.
- Evaluating.
- Too tired to care much.
- Slipping into sleep.
- Knowing He’s greater, stronger, risen. LORD.
F is for False Teachers. {Who's creeping into your house?}
“[The false teachers] make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.” Galatians 4:17 (emphasis mine)
Whether we know it or not, we’re preached at all day long. This week in Bible study, we studied this verse, and talked about how to be discerning women, who stand fast in the truth of God’s Word. The world preaches at us every single day. How so?
In Galatia the false teachers “made much of them.” The phrase translated “make much of” has idea of a man seeking a woman. They were pursuing them, almost lustfully. They fawned on them and fussed over them. That is, they flattered them. Why would the false teachers “make much of” the Galatians? So that the Galatians would “make much of” the false teachers.
Flattery is always a form of manipulation in order to draw people after yourself. To win their approval, popularity. To make them your fans. And this is huge:
One of the primary marks of a false teacher is that they try to draw converts to themselves away from others, and not to Christ or God’s Word. A true servant of Jesus Christ does not “use people” to build himself up or his work. He ministers in love to help people know Christ better.
Proverbs 27:6: “Profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”
False teachers always use kisses, flattery, smooth talk. Paul said in Romans 16:17-20,
“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery deceive the hearts of the naive.”
False teachers serve their own appetites, their own desires, their own egos. And they use smooth talk and flattery to deceive the hearts of the naïve. And Paul makes it clear that he writes these words because he wants us to be WISE. (“I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.”) That is, he wants us to be women who are discerning.
Consider: A “teacher” who names her show after herself, who names her magazine after herself, who builds an entire business empire based on exalting her own name and her own self: Those are the marks of a false teacher.
Some questions to consider:
Does this teacher draw people to him or herself? Do they promote their own name or Christ’s name? Do they insist that they alone have the secret knowledge or only path to God? Do they somehow elevate their status in such a way that people depend on them as their source of spiritual sustenance?
Sisters, it is hugely important that we are discerning women. And this is not meant as a knock on our gender, but women are, in general, more susceptible to false teachers than men. Paul warns in 2 Timothy 3:1-7.
1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
Women, hear my heart. I love women, but we are susceptible to deception. We tend to be more emotional, more subjective, we’re far more compassionate so we tend to be more warm and open. We aren’t as confrontational, and we’re WAY more easily swayed by relational temptation and flattery.
¾ of new converts to mormonism are stay-at-home moms.The front door isn’t the only place where people creep into your house. We have many portals! Every time we turn on a TV or “open” our home things are creeping into our household. We “let false teachers creep into our household” every time we “entertain” people who teach things that are contrary to the word of God. And, it’s worth noting, that not all “false teaching” is in the form of religious “-isms.” There are world systems of materialism, humanism, consumerism – everything preaches something and it flatters us in order to draw us after it.
Are we to live in fear and never open our homes to anything or anyone? No. Are we to be discerning women who are cautious about what we let creep into our households?
Absolutely.
{Thanks for reading.}
Who will call you fool?
And [Jesus] told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
The world (and most Christians) would look at the guyabove and say, “There’s a wise guy. That‘s the guy I should ask for financial wisdom from. He obviously is making all the wise decisions because God has blessed him so much.” We would praise such a man, call him a genius financial advisor. But you know what God calls Him?
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
A fool.
Fool.
Friends, that single word brings tears to my eyes. God called him a fool. Why? Because he “laid up treasures for himself and was not rich toward God.” A fool.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. (Jim Elliott)
Think of it this way.
You and I are going to be called a fool by someone.
We’ve had more than one person look at our recent financial decisions and shake their head at us: “Foolish.”
We can live by God’s economy, refuse the empty promises of materialism and wealth, and store up treasures in heaven. If we do this: The world will call us fools.
Or, we can save, hoard, aim for bigger and better, pad ourselves with insulated walls of wealth. The world will praise us for our financial savvy, the world will call us wise. But, someday God will call us fools.
Who, dear friends, will call you a fool?
I know one thing for sure: I do not want God to call me a fool.
Let’s desperately seek His ways and His wisdom. {Thanks for reading.}
Reminded afresh of this lesson from last year…