The Oklahoma kids are on their way home. All went smoothly at the airport for them. They are grateful with all of the delays that they hadn’t needed to deal with any of them (thus far). My oldest grandson who use to live with us for a couple of years, asked me last night if I was ready to have the house quiet again? I told him that answer is yes. He said, “I thought so. You use to tell me that.” This morning I am enjoying the quiet again.

No family is without their drama and mine is no exception. Taking this drama to God and leaving it with Him is one of the hardest things we have to do as parents or grandparents. I know He uses all things to His honor and glory as we live through the drama of daily living. However, it isn’t until we open the drama to Him and let Him lead us through it that He can use it to glorify Himself and then use it to help others. I sure know this first-hand from my own living of life. How quickly we try to retake control of things we need to keep surrendered. The “gift” of choice God gave man is used as a curse in the hands of Satan. Only when we leave this to God can we get Satan to flee. Our choice has to also include the many times in a day we need to surrender and choose to let God deal with our enemy.

Earlier this past week I used the phrase, Worship & Trust. Well, this is the key to watching God perform His miracles in His own time. Today, I surrender again.

Today we come to the last day for our family being all together. How quickly a week can slip by. It is packed with activities we save for the last day–bowling and pizza to follow. As our grandkids continue to grow and some of them enter into their early adult years, they can easily choose their own paths. However, thus far, each one seems to enjoy this week of being together. I am most grateful for this. Early tomorrow morning I’ll take the Oklahoma family to the airport. In the early evening our oldest grandson will fly back to the Air Force base where he is presently stationed. I am a fortunate grandpa and dad who has a family that comes together.

In spite of the weather, Christmas was beautiful. Church was cancelled due to icy roads and the entire day was one where no one felt safe being out on the roads. In spite of that, the day was wonderful. Christ was honored and our family was all together with the exception of one who was out of state. It was a joy.

There are times when it seems I’m doing so little for God and then I get the reminder that family comes right after my relationship with God. Taking a week to honor family and its importance is a right thing to do. Growing up, I use to live for the day to be away from my family, today I look forward to every minute we can be together. Then to realize our family of God is even bigger and better. It is amazing how God transforms us and turns the ugliness of past into a beautiful life where we can live for Him!

Today, the Word became flesh. Christ was born, not to rule the world (that time will come) but to save each one of us. How grateful I am!

Today the roads are a solid sheet of ice so church has been cancelled and I don’t know how the family members who are coming to share gifts will get here. We will simply play out the day and enjoy whatever takes place. All that man does on Christmas besides celebrate Christ’s birth itself is something which can wait anyway. So, today more than anything we rejoice in the TRUTH that Christ is born. Hallelujah!

It is Christmas Eve. All is calm and all is white. As daylight begins to show itself I can see the beauty of the snow covered world around me. God gave us His Son to give us a route to Him. That is why we call Jesus our Savior. He saves us! The ills of living life are not stopped because He saves us. However, they do not have to own us any longer. I was reminded of this truth once again as I had my devotions this morning. Again, I needed to Worship and Trust our Almighty God who so graciously gave us this pathway to Himself. “I worship you Almighty God–there is none like You!”

As I am nearing the end of the Psalms in my bible reading, I have found 15 of them which are given the title, “A Song of the Stairway”. Most of these are written by David. The footnote to this title states that these were songs to be sung as one climbed the 15 steps of the temple in Jerusalem. Each step took you one step closer to God’s temple for the purpose of worshiping Him. The author of this translation says that these 15 Psalms can also be used in our life’s journey. We have a choice to take whatever circumstances we encounter in life to God or we can choose to keep them within ourselves. These encounters can be great ones or crushing ones. As we take each step will we choose to worship God no matter what we are carrying up the steps?

The recent events of present are ones that can cause a person to question God and His truth that He is merciful and always a God of Grace. Will I choose to believe this or will I choose to stuff the event to see “just what God will do with it”. If it turns out OK, then I’ll believe God is a God of Grace and Mercy. I could easily put in this blog a number of events from my past where I chose to question God. Today, however, I am choosing to Worship and Trust.

God IS a God of Grace and Mercy. We all too often want to determine what Grace and Mercy look like. However, if we TRUST God in spite of our selfish wishes, we will eventually see a purer and far greater outcome than we could ever imagine. So, today I will continue to Worship & Trust my Almighty God!

Today feels like the day after. What I mean by this is that yesterday was a day where one is left wondering–God, what is next? It started with my brother-in-law notifying us that his wife had passed. We knew the time was close, but that never removes the grief one encounters when the time actually comes. A couple hours later I received a call from a new counselee needing help–“today”. I was able to meet with him and set a path for future meeting times and provide the truth of HOPE. Later in the day I was given more troubling news. The one needing to talk also used the term–Worship and Trust. These three words were given to him when he was contacted by one praying for him.

This morning I have been given the option of staying tuned only into the grief of man or I can choose to Worship and Trust while I see this grief. I can see the issues of yesterday clearly, but as I look at them and allow Christ to enter into the scenes I see outstretched arms which long to embrace. I can worship this Savior and Trust every move He makes. I don’t know the timing of these steps, but I do know He will take them and use all of this to His Honor and Glory. So, today I choose to Worship & Trust, not just now, but throughout the day.

Today’s devotional time began with this statement–“Exchange Your Thoughts”. What I didn’t realize was that these 3 words were going to be the entire lesson of this morning. When I began the 3 years of counseling 13 years ago, my mind was bombarded with continuous thoughts about who I am and what I should/shouldn’t be doing. Most of them were focused on why I wasn’t worthy to do what I was doing and why I should quit. I’m primarily talking about two things: leading Celebrate Recovery and doing the consulting with schools. I was believing lies and was trying without success to stuff those lies so I could move forward each day. So, as I began the counseling the counselor would take one of these thoughts and we would go deeply into them. The EMDR (therapy for PTSD) would assist in surfacing the abuse of my past which led to me believing these lies. This process started helping me exchange my thoughts for truth.

As I worked through my devotions, each part was focused on this same theme. I write all of this because this start of my counseling others has caused me to “fight the lies” all over again. I find myself using the process of taking one lie and helping the counselee go deeply into what has caused this lie to seem as though it were truth. In so doing this, I have my own thoughts such as–“good grief, aren’t you something–trying to help others when you are…………..”

II Corinthians 10:5 says: “We take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” Today, I understand this verse so much more clearly. I no longer have the hundreds of thoughts to take captive. There are only a very few these days, and I can do this and will do this–now that I have been clearly reminded. God is so patient and He wants me to use my learning to help others with theirs.

The joy, yet sadness of loss, is a paradox. The joy is that when we lose a family member who is a believer, we will see them upon our entrance to heaven. The sadness is they are no longer with us until that entrance. In less than a month I’ve lost a sister and a niece. Now, we are losing a sister-in-law. She is one of those where the “in-law” can be removed. You simply want her as your sis. All three of these are believers. Heaven has welcomed two and the other is very close. Yet, I rejoice and know that JOY is close by. I hurt for my brother-in-law (who is as close to me as a brother). He and Debbie have been an inspiration every since I married into their family.

Some of the JOY of today is flying in this morning. I will get them from the airport in a few hours. Sadness–yes, JOY, yes. These will be part of this Christmas and we will celebrate the truth that Jesus came for these very reasons. We can be confident that those we lose will only be ‘for a while”. I’m so grateful for this blessed Savior we are celebrating and the assurance He promises!

The Christmas tree is up, decorating is done, presents and stockings are wrapped, our oldest grandson has arrived as of last night and our Oklahoma family will be arriving tomorrow morning. Yes, the Christmas season’s celebrations can officially begin.

I can’t begin to outline just how much of my life’s enjoyment has been wrapped around my view of “man”. The joy in events and life itself was determined by the way “man” got along with others during the events. I was listening to my grandson last night and heard similar comments about his present life and how “man” determines enjoyment by his behavior. Then, I read this morning’s devotion about JOY. It reminds me that JOY is found in all circumstances of every day. The only way this can be done is when our eyes are off of man and onto Jesus. Our state of mind can be joyful when we live in the world of man but keep our eyes looking up to Jesus. We can only be responsible for our own behavior and response to life. Our heart can then be joyful when this is done.

Everyday I get lost in the day. I’m thinking I need to have devotions about 4 times a day so these reminders come often enough that I live by them more intentionally. Once each morning is usually a good start and then…. Well, here’s to a healthy start!