And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.
Romans 16:20

Let’s just think about those words for a moment.

Okay.

Are you wowed and amazed yet??

No?

What’s WRONG with you???

Okay, I’m gonna share some of what this verse means to me, and then, if you’re not wowed, then I give up! 😉

So, Paul wrote the book of Romans, and every verse in it. Why is this important? Because here is a man who knew a little something of pain…pain to the point that most of us would have just thrown in the towel.

Paul was a man with a HEAVY past. In addition to that, he was ridiculed, discouraged, shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, tortured, and imprisoned. ( I included “ridiculed” in that list because that’s about as far as our persecution ever goes as Americans, and often that’s all it takes for us to jump ship.)

Anyway, Paul knew pain personally. So, whatever he says about suffering, even if it’s just for our own sin, I am all ears!

We all carry our own unique battle with sin on a daily basis. Add to that cancer, MS, stroke, diabetes, and all of the many diseases which rob us of abilities, time, and sometimes, life. Add to THAT, the sins of others! Betrayal, adultery, murder, theft, and the list unfortunately goes on and on….

All together, those are quite a load of burdens. ALL ultimately caused by sin.

That’s enough to take the wind out of anyone’s sails.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.”

There will come a day, thankfully, that Satan will be conquered. Not only conquered, but under MY feet, and YOUR feet! Satan , who is crushing each of us in his own unique, demented way, will one day soon be CRUSHED under our feet!

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know about you, but this verse gives me such great hope!!

But we’re not even at my favorite part yet! Shall I continue? I’ll take that as a yes.

Shortly.

Satan will be crushed under my little size 8 feet shortly.

You remember as a kid, the day after Christmas? You went to the calendar, and saw all the MANY months until Christmas would come again. You would sulk and complain that it was sooo far away, and that it would NEVER get here!

But before you even finished drying your bathing suit in July, December would pop out of nowhere! And you would be amazed at how time flew.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:17

Whether it is in our lifetime or beyond it, we are told that it will be SHORTLY. So, hang on with me, just a little while longer! He will come and CRUSH that enemy under our very feet.

Shortly.

I really hate “catch 22’s”. Like: “The only way to get love is to love without expecting anything in return.” Huh? I mean, I know this is true, but it sounds CA-RAZY! In a conversation with a friend the other day, it was said that people often hide their honest and truest selves from people because people have proven time and time again that they will not or can not accept what they see when they are given a peek.

I have run it around in my head over and over since then. I just don’t like it!!

I recently stayed at a fancy hotel in Atlantic City with my husband and kids. I went to the front desk to ask a question, and was waiting for the manager. When you first walk up to the counter, it shines, like everything else in the place. It’s pretty, clean, and exactly what you’d expect from a very famous casino/hotel. But where they asked me to wait for a manager, which was in a corner of the lobby, it looked pretty different. The wallpaper was peeling away from the wall, little bits of plaster and paper littered the floor, and the wall was pretty dirty. Very different from the rest of the hotel. But still…a part of it. Do the guests not SEE this part of the hotel because hotel staff is partially hiding it? Or do they see it but forget about it in light of the “shiny side”? Or do they see it, and complain to the front desk that there is some shab in their midst?

The bottom line is we are all “hotels” and we are all “guests”. We all hide little bits of ourselves, even from those to whom we are closest. And we all behave badly at times when the raw truth about someone is revealed.

And even though all of that is true, why can’t we work at being “real”, even if it’s ugly? And why can’t we ask God to fill us with grace upon grace, so that when UGLY shows up, we can wash it up with love?

I mean, isn’t that what we’re SUPPOSED to do and be as the Church? We must be honest and pray that the Church will extend grace, as Jesus does. AND we must ask for grace and mercy to flow out of us daily, so that we are not damaging the people God loves!!

And as Forrest would say, “And that’s all I have to say about that.”

And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.

1 Thess. 3:12

My daughter, Macy, LOVES the story Llama Llama Red Pajama. An truthfully, I do, too. She even memorized it years ago, and copied the inflections from my voice and everything! She recently brought home a book order form from school. In it, there was another book in the series, Llama Llama And The Bully Goat. Macy and I got really excited! Another book we could read and memorize together! So, I was looking for cash, and couldn’t find any, and I couldn’t write a check because, well, I can’t write.

I was disappointed that I couldn’t get Macy that book, but I figured it might be in the next order form, and we move on from these tiny little setbacks, and I soon forgot about it.

Well, this afternoon, the mailman came. Someone had anonymously signed us up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, and we get a beautiful free book in the mail once a month. (Another thing I’m very thankful for!) My husband hands me one item from the mail. It was a book straight from Dolly Parton. It was Llama Llama And The Bully Goat!! I was so surprised and happy to see that THAT was the book we got!

You see, I pray for the big things in life. Like all of my many friends who have cancer, or people’s failing marriages…you know, the big stuff.

I would never THINK to pray that we would be given a Llama Llama book! It sounds ridiculous!

But the thing is that God cares about it ALL. There is no detail in my life that is too small or insignificant that He overlooks! And when He meets one of our tiny wants, maybe He’s doing it so we will ask and believe Him to deliver on the things which break our hearts.

I am always amazed at the love God has for me. That He looks at our lives through telescopes and microscopes, seeing the huge needs and heartaches, and also seeing the little things that are only thoughts, and never even make it to a prayer. Bottom line is we have the biggest AND smallest God there ever was!

Well, gotta run. I’ve got a book to read to a little girl. 🙂

And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

Luke 12:7

5 “So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable? Can you picture me without reducing me?”

Isaiah 46:5 (MSG)

I LOVE this translation! Picture Him without reducing Him. That is a feat NONE of us will ever be able to do! At least, not here on earth.

I was actually thinking the other day, “Wow. Because of all this stuff that’s happened, I am really starting to KNOW you.”

And it wasn’t like I was bragging, just noticing the difference between “before turmoil” and “after turmoil.” But in the very next moment, I began to sense that I would NEVER really know Him on this side of heaven. We all get glimpses, but that’s it.

We are so limited in our human minds and in our human experiences, that we can’t even fathom a God who is Incomparable! “Great” is a word that is fitting to describe humans ( the really “good” ones!)-not a word that describes who God is. But that’s kind of all we’ve got. It makes me a little sad that I can’t even adequately praise Him for His character, because we don’t have words for it, and because I have NO IDEA how amazing God is!!

When we use words to describe God that we also use to describe admirable people, it messes with our heads a little bit. I think sometimes it permits us to think of God as being comparable to people in some way. And He is NOTHING like the very best person who ever lived. He eats THAT person for breakfast! Well, not literally. 🙂

His love, His grace, His mercy, His wisdom, His holiness, His power, are truly limitless! That is probably the best word we have to describe Him.

Limitless.

Sometimes I wish He’d give me eyes to see how far and wide and deep His love, grace, mercy wisdom, holiness, and power truly goes. Because then, I think it would be easier to believe in His ability to do ANYTHING.

But that isn’t what He wants. He doesn’t want easy faith. He just wants us to trust that He is as vast as He says He is!

1 Corinthians 13 :11 says it better than I can:

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

I can’t wait for the day that my eyes can finally SEE Him. There will be no more guessing or supposing about who He is. I will KNOW! And that thought is what’s gonna keep me going for as long as necessary.

 

Last week, we talked about lowering our expectations for others, all the while keeping them high with God, in whom all our hopes are supposed to rest.

But there is another part of expectations we should probably talk about.

Expectations of ourselves.

Yikes. Sore subject for some of us, I know!

But I was thinking while in the shower the other day(I do my very best thinking there!)….Is it really about what WE think we should be? Or is it more of who we see OTHERS to be? I think our expectations of ourselves come largely out of comparing ourselves to EVERYBODY ELSE. Let’s face it. There are those in our lives who APPEAR to have it altogether. Their children are always clean, and they themselves look like they stepped out of a catalog. But we don’t really see what’s going on at home. We don’t see their fears and crazy habits, either. Because some people are just better at hiding it than others. So, it really isn’t fair to me to adopt a standard that is only a facade, right? And you know what? There are a few people in the world that DO have it all together. RIGHT NOW. They may have a seriously messed up story to tell you about their past. And if not, they WILL one day.

And maybe another part of our self-expectations comes from the feedback we receive from others, which just feeds our doubts. I’ll give you one example, but trust me- I have tons!:

A couple of the moms (most of them never do this!) that I pass in the daycare seem to be accusing me with their giant, judgey eyeballs, and spewing words like acid, “YOUR CHILD (some people have an unsettling ability to make those two words sound like a disease or something!) is running way down the hall! You’d better go get him!”, seemingly sending me into some kind of damnation for awful mamas because I can’t keep up with a kid who sprints and also watch out for one who grazes when she walks! When I walk out that door, I have begun to think that I’m a careless mother, who can’t keep track of her children.

So, what other things am I doing wrong?

This is sooo not the kind of life God wants for any of us! He doesn’t want us hanging our head in shame because success for us doesn’t look like it does for our next door neighbor.

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise

2Corinthians 10:12

Some of those work colleagues, or the moms at the playground, although they hide it with shallow smiles and neatly pressed suits, are just as insecure as the rest of us. But in that moment they bragged about their kid learning Mandarin at age five, or just had to mention that they have a lakehouse in Tahoe, they made YOU feel worse than THEY feel.

So, mission accomplished.

Let’s remember that there are no perfect people, no matter how much they might try to convince us! And EVERYONE is fighting a battle we know nothing about.

And the battle that comes from purely within? I have some verses for us, too!

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

Ephesians 1:7

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:8,9

GOD DOESN’T EXPECT PERFECTION FROM ANY OF US! He loved us before time began, knowing all the horrible mistakes we would make, and He will slowly work in us, if we let Him, to make us resemble Him more and more each day.

And that IS perfection! The process of “becoming more perfect”!

That is good enough for me!

 

Sidenote:

It was this theme that sort of “birthed” an idea to have a group of moms, committed to encourging one another to NOT strive for perfection! But instead to strive for “moments” that will matter to you and to your children, not because of their grandeur, but because of their simplicity! The group is called “The Mom of the Moment (M.O.M.)”, so please pray for us as we try to live this life with joy! Thank you!

 

My husband tells me all of the time that I have very high expectations of others. And he’s right. I know how I want to be loved, and get disappointed easily when the people in my life seem to “fail” at giving me that elusive “thing”. It’s sad. I don’t even know what I’m looking for, hence the calling it a “thing”. Yet I somehow expect others close to me to know what that is, and how to giftwrap it for me. It actually sounds kinda ridiculous!

I think most of us have holes we try to fill with family, friends, spouses and children.

Wanna know how I know we all have a “God-shaped hole” in our hearts? Because we are looking high and low for someone to love us PERFECTLY. To be PERFECTLY EVERYTHING we have longed for in our lives. Someone who always meets, and exceeds, our expectations.

Why do we have so many failed relationships in our lives? Because one or both of us is looking for perfection, and all they found was you, or me. We start to place the expectations of a perfect God on the very imperfect people that make up each of our lives.

Our hopes for how people will treat and love us certainly are GREAT. In fact, I’m sorry to say, most of them are unattainable for mere mortals to give.

As far as I know, the only perfect One is God Himself.

If you are looking for One who is always trustworthy, attentive, faithful, gentle, loving, strong, brave, protective…He is it!

I LOVE words like “immeasurably” and “imagine”. They both imply the idea that God can work beyond any limit that we can’t even measure, we can’t even imagine!!

If you think that means that now, you have an idea of what to expect from Him, you’d be wrong. Expecting MORE does not always mean BETTER. Not to the human mind, at least. I’ve learned this lesson first hand: He will never be what you expect. He will be so much more! He will exceed what you expect, because humanity is soooo small when compared to the VASTNESS that is God! The idea of “better” comes long after the lesson, unfortunately. We can’t see, in the midst of pain, the phenomenally GREAT things He is doing in you and for you, and THROUGH you!

But the key is to learn to EXPECT it.

Expect the greatness, and soon, you shall see it!

It was 450 against one. The “one” being Elijah. The 450 were prophets of the false god, Baal. 1 Kings 18 tells the epic story of one of the greatest miracles of the Bible! Most of you probably know the story, but for those who don’t I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes version. (But it would probably be best just to read it.)

Elijah wanted to prove to the people that Baal was a false god, and that GOD was real. So he challenged Baal’s prophets to prove that their god could deliver fire from heaven. Very long story very short, God was the only One able to bring fire from heaven, and He did it in the coolest way!

Elijah was kind of a rock star that day! He was courageous and faithful, and he seemed like a man of great stature in that story.

So.

Flip the page to chapter 19.

The Elijah we see now, just a couple of days later, is very, very different.

1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” 3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

Where is his zeal? Where is his hope? Where is his faith???

I don’t think this is very uncommon in scripture. Most great men of God have had at least one “off day.” Most of us have had our share, too.

I don’t really know what changed from one day to the next for Elijah to change his outlook so drastically. But to THIS Elijah, I can relate!

Some days, I am a courageous little stroke survivor, a generally supportive wife ( I hope so!), and days when I feel like “Mom of the Year.” (Well, actually it’s more like “Mom of the Minute.”)

Then, there are other days, when the last thing I want to be called is a “survivor”. Days when I feel like I cannot be supportive at all anymore. And also those days when I feel like my kids would do better in anyone else’s home but mine.

And I’m starting to think that’s normal!

That’s why I like Elijah so much. He is strong. He is weak. He is full of faith.

And full of fear.

But God loved him, whichever way he was on any given day. Look at the next few verses:

5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”

I LOVE these verses!

“Arise and eat.” At first I thought that was a little weird. Why wouldn’t God say “rest and eat”? Why “arise”?

Because more than anything else, he needed to get up. He was so very low. Maybe even at his lowest in his life. So God tells him to arise. Now, I just think it’s beautiful, and not weird at all.

I also love the very end of this passage. “The journey is too great for you.” No truer words have been said about any of our lives! This journey we are all on, as different as each of them might be, are ALL to great for any of us. Alone. God never asks us or even wants us to walk this road alone. He wants to journey with us, to walk with us, and often, carry us home.

I haven’t written much in the last two or three weeks. And that’s because I felt like a failure in most of the larger areas of my life. But God has given me some hope today.

He told Elijah to arise.

And He wants us to arise, too.

 

The other morning, I was getting breakfast for my two kiddos, and Micah apparently thought I wasn’t working nearly fast enough. How did I know what he was thinking? I think it was his shouting, “I WANT CEREAL!!!!”, that tipped me off. 🙂 So I said, “Micah, be patient!” Well, Micah looked at me as if I suddenly had three nostrils, which told me he had no idea what that word meant. And just like a typical older sister, Macy piped up. “Micah, being patient means waiting without screaming.”

Of course my first reaction was to bubble up with pride in my super insightful mental giant of a daughter! Then later, I realized that she just meant that literally. Wait without screaming. Makes sense!

I started thinking that’s a great definition of patience for ALL of us. Picture with me three lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. Nobody is moving. Nobody. Well, nobody, except the guy on your right, who is pounding his fists on the steering wheel, honking his horn, and screaming words I’m glad I can’t hear because my window is rolled up. 🙂

The woman on your left has begun reading a book, and kinda looks like she doesn’t want the traffic to let up any time soon. And the man behind you is rockin’ out to some song on the radio.

Okay, so it’s obvious that the screamer and fist-pounder is the one who needs a little extra patience.

This is a practical example of what happens when we have run out of the very valuable virtue of patience. But there are worse things than waiting on traffic.

Maybe you’re single, and you are weary from waiting for your future husband or wife to come and find you.

Or maybe you’re waiting for the day your fussy baby FINALLY sleeps through the night!

Or you are waiting for your prodigal child to come home again.

Maybe you are waiting, after you’ve done all you can, for a spouse to love you again, like they did in the beginning.

Maybe you’re waiting to finally hear from the doctor, “We got ALL of it.”

Or maybe you’re waiting for God to do something only HE can do!

Whatever it is we are waiting for, God knows we are waiting for it. The worst thing we could do is start screaming at the sky, “I want! I want! I want!” It’s possible he might want us to, I don’t know, pick up a Book, and begin to let it change who we are. It’s also possible He might want you, even though you don’t like where you’re at one bit, to maybe start singing a song. To Him.

I have to remind myself sometimes that God really DOES love me, and if I’m in a dark place, it’s because he must have very gently placed me there.

The end of a thing is better than its beginning; The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Romans 8:25

“We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
Numbers 11:5,6

and Joshua said to them: “Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”
Joshua 4:5-7

In the months following my first stroke, I felt nothing but gratitude! Gratitude for being alive, and for receiving that momentous kind of miracle. Gradually, however, I became much more focused on what I had lost than what I was spared. You see, the manna for me was survival. At first, that was totally enough! But I started to question why I couldn’t also have fish, cucumbers, and onions…or my memory and cognitive abilities.