The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Every so often I discover some great invention that I can’t believe I never knew about. Some item that may have been around a while, but I never gave it try. Something that makes me think of the phrase “this is the best thing since sliced bread!” That happened to me last week in Lowes.

First I have to come clean…I am a serial painter. I paint rooms. In our old house I painted every room of the house, at least once. I’m working my way through the rooms of our current house, only have a few to go…then we will have to move I suppose.

Anyway, I was buying a gallon of Pink Whisper paint at the Lowes’s paint counter (I love Valspar signature paint!) and there next to the all the stirring sticks and rollers was a bucket of little plastic thingies that snap onto the paint can top and allow you to pour paint without trashing the top of the paint can! EUREKA! I can’t stand all that paint down in the lip of the paint can. I bought one! I picked white, although it came in a dozen great colors…but the white would go with all my future paint colors. (I realize it’s sad that I think about stuff like this.) I have used that little plastic spout now twice, once to paint the Pink Whisper in my daughter’s room and today to paint a wall in the basement (the color was called Bear Claw…who names these paints?) I LOVE this little plastic thingy! I’ve made a million messes cleaning up the top of my paint cans, why oh why didn’t I discover this thing sooner? I could have avoided all those messes.

When I think about my life, I think that same thing about getting to know Jesus. I think, if only I’d given my life to Him sooner, I wouldn’t have made all those mistakes. I would have treated people better, worried my mom less. And if only I could speed up my sanctification I could avoid more messes. But honestly, I can’t speed up the process. I just keep at it. Sort of like the painting, I won’t ever be done.

Who Is That Man?

I recently met a sweet and gentle lady named Darlene. She said that as a child she had a difficult home, maybe one that felt unsafe. She had a neighbor who would read her stories from an old Bible and one day she saw a picture in the Bible and asked “who is that man?” Darlene, a grandma herself now, actually has a soft gentle voice of an innocent child even now, and I could hear the child asking…”who is that man?” Her neighbor told her that was Jesus and he is her heavenly father who loves her. Darlene said she remembers folding her little hands and praying with all her heart “Daddy please hold me.” She knew she belonged to God from that day and she knows he will take care of her always.

Trusting like a child is not an easy thing. Jesus told us that’s pretty much the way to do it…think like a child (Matt 18:3). Maybe we all make it just too complicated. Really the Bible tells us in Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. That’s not a confession like “OK cuff me, I did it!” It’s a confession like…”Oh I get it…You’re God! My Father, I need you, I want you.” Or like, “Hold me Daddy.”

Whoa…the easy thing was the confession “Daddy hold me”…but what’s that next part about? “ … believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.” So all you have to do is believe that Jesus was crucified (easy that’s historical) and believe he was raised from the dead…(got that covered too because let’s face it all those disciples wouldn’t have suffered the nasty torture they did without cracking if they didn’t REALLY see him walking around after he had risen.) But wait a second…even satan knows that happened…and he isn’t saved. So that’s not what it means. It comes back to Darlene…she meant it with all her heart. She had the heart and trust of a child and put it all into her Daddy’s hands. It’s about a trusting relationship. So you believe in your heart the promise that God’s plan is perfect and He will take care of you now, today and always. God wants a relationship with you, like a friend. He COULD just force us all to do whatever he wants…this would give us the perfect world with no crime, disease or pain. But he gives us all a free will. That means than even if you chose Him, other people won’t…yeah so pretty much you will still live in a messed up world. BUT he will be there, your friend and comforter and he will never leave you.

And what I really love about God… (that I feel like some organized religions have messed up) is it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done, God doesn’t exclude people for any reason…we know that from the Bible too (John 3:16 doesn’t say anything about perfect people). He hung around with some shady characters and they loved him and were his friends. ….You can’t be too good or too bad for God you just need to have an open heart…like a child.

Who AM I And What Am I Doing Here?

Just thinking about how ironic it is to be a Mom of older kids. My oldest is off at Clemson making me proud. Yeah I saw him on national TV when they played NC State a couple weeks ago...he was all painted in purple and orange with a big C on his chest (which sunburned). Last summer I thought it would be our family's last summer together. But he went on a summer mission and so was not home. He called a few minutes ago as he was walking to class to tell me about the career fair at Clemson yesterday. He is really pumped about getting a summer internship for next summer. Seriously I'm thrilled for him. He's so smart and he works so hard I have no doubt he'll get one. And I should be patting my little self on the back....after all isn't this what I've worked for almost 20 years to accomplish? I have an amazing son who is spirtually grounded, brilliant, successful, fun and self reliant. Heck he even calls/texts me regularly! So why does all this make me want to spend the afternoon with an old photo album and box of tissues up in his room?