Are you willing to make difficult choices to move forward into the New Year?

You often don’t see me doing this but I would like to share my notes from my husband’s sermon this past Sunday.  The points were excellent and things to ponder as we move into a New Year fresh and with a blank slate.

            I’ve been a church goer for years and lately I have been pondering lately how easy it is to just go to church, put in your hour or two and then live the rest of the week the way we want only to start all over again the next Sunday.  But there’s so much more to it than that.  I’ve known people that have “gone to church” for 20 or 30 years but never made the difficult choices to implement actually living their daily lives for Christ.  Oh what they are missing.  Maybe you’re missing the same?  It’s easy to do certain things but it difficult to do others.  Here’s the list:

                               EASY                                                  DIFFICULT

1.  To sit in church each Sunday         1. To actually BE the church

2. To be fed (God’s Word)                     2. To feed others (God’s Word)

3. To be served                                          3. To serve others-following Christ’s example

4. To be critical                                         4. To be encouraging

5. To hate                                                    5. To love like Jesus did (it’s a decision)

6. To hold a grudge                                  6. To forgive

7. To everything (or think you do)     7. To be teachable-talk less, listen more

8. To read the Bible                                 8. To DO the Bible

9. To pray by talking                               9. To pray by listening

10. To receive Jesus                                 10.  To actually follow Jesus

 

I have put this list on the mirror in my bedroom because this year I want to be reminded daily to be doing the things in the difficult column. I want to encourage you not to take the easy way out.  Don’t just go to church and sit there waiting to get, get, get.  Find out who Jesus is and what He did. Be ready to go out into the world and BE the church, BE Jesus, DO what He did.  

Using our different talents and gifts to work together in the body of Christ

        

Yesterday it was raining. And when I say raining, I don’t mean just a light sprinkle but it was really coming down.  Now why would I think that you would care what the weather is like in my area? Normally I wouldn’t but yesterday was the opening day of deer season.  There are men and women who were outside in this messy weather, giddy with excitement as they anticipated shooting a buck, you know, the big one; the biggest one; the one that will get them the county record.  Well, probably not, but they were excited non-the-less. And then there is me.

         Also yesterday, school just happened to be cancelled, not because of opening day, not because of a snow storm but because the heat went out in one of the school buildings.  So I sat under my cozy, fuzzy green blanket doing what I love. Writing.  I had no desire to dress up in several layers of clothing and go sit outside for who knows how long to wait for a buck crossing my path that I would probably miss if I shot at it anyway. But I did have a desire to sit in my pj’s, drink my coffee, write, and look out at the pouring rain and hear the sounds of it on my metal roof.  To me that is the epitome of relaxation and joy.

         Isn’t it amazing how we are all different? Some can’t wait to get up at 4 a.m. to gather all of their hunting gear and get out there. Other’s like me only get up at 4 a.m. to go to the bathroom and then I head straight back to bed!  Life would be boring if we were all the same and so our diversity makes life exciting.  I love going to school and hearing the adventures that the kids had hunting before they even got to school.  Funny thing is that on a normal day they can’t make it to school on time to save their lives but get them a deer license and they are bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4 or 5 a.m. 

Things I’ve learned from my dog

Sometimes I feel like my dog.  I mean I’m not hairy all over, well, maybe just a little on my legs in the winter—it’s Northern Michigan, it keeps me warm, don’t’ judge me. I don’t have a tail and I don’t, thankfully, have to run outside to use the bathroom. But some of the things that she does makes me think of some of the things I do (or want to do in my own life). 

1. She’s needy.  That sweet dog will sit with the cutest look on her face and the most darling puppy dog eyes that you ever did see just to get some attention. Her goal, I believe, is just to get us to look at her and fluff her ears or grab a toy and play for a moment.  There are times, like this morning, that she just sits in the middle of the floor and whines.  The only reason she does it is because she wants someone to recognize her existence and to pet her.  She doesn’t want to be pet just once and then to move on, but wants us to spend the remainder of our morning petting and massaging her neck.  Gee, wouldn’t we all like that type of attention?  I’m pretty confident I do the same things to get attention—well, almost the same things.  I don’t sit in the middle of the floor and whine (probably because I couldn’t get up easily if I did it). But I when I do need some extra attention I may mope around the house until someone recognizes that yes, Laurie has a need and asks me to which I begin spilling out whatever my need is.  Thankfully my dog can’t actually talk or else I’m sure we would hear an earful.  There are times that I too would like to just nuzzle up to someone and have my neck massaged, or to have all of the focus on me.  It seems often, unlike my dog, that I skirt around sharing my need and just continue on with life never sharing what it is that I actually need from a particular person.  Wouldn’t it be much easier if I, or I’m assuming many of you, would just sit in the middle of the floor and say, “I need a hug, I need to talk, I need just to feel loved and appreciated, etc….?”  I’m not encouraging you to sit in the middle of your living room floor and just whine like my dog because, quite honestly, it is annoying.  What I am suggesting is that you share your needs and your burdens with those that care about you and love you.  You may just get a neck massage out of it or at least a giant hug, which can melt away much of the yucky stuff that needs to be let out.

2.  She goes off on her own away from us.  When my dog has been playing hard with her toys, chewing on her bone or just hanging around us, she will oftentimes just get up, without warning and leave the room.  Of course we have to check to make sure she isn’t up to something, because, after all, aren’t ALL dogs always up to something?  But more times than not, she has left us to go to her crate where sits her big fluffy pillow.  She will go in and hunker down, not a care in the world and just leave us behind for a while.  Can you imagine if we all took the time to do that? What if we took ourselves away from the group, or family, or work for a while and went somewhere quiet and hunkered down for a while to just rest and get our thoughts in order?  I feel like that makes us a much better person in doing so.  I’m an advocate for naps.  I LOVE a good nap.  Much of my naptime is not sleeping but reading, thinking, praying, etc…. It’s a time that I do a regrouping of my thoughts and rest my oftentimes-weary bones.  Jesus did it a lot.  It says in Luke 5:16 that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.  Solitude and silence is good for the soul.

3. When we arrive home there is nothing but pure and unending joy that we are back.  When I get home from work and am walking up the sidewalk I can hear my husband tell the dog, “Laurie’s home.”  As soon as I open the door the dog has raced across the living room and is at my side.  She is shaking so much (she’s one of those little dogs that I think it’s in their DNA to shake like a goofball) that until I bend down and pet her she can barely contain herself.  She is so very happy to see me.  It’s like she hasn’t seen me in days and really it’s only been a few hours.  Talk about a great homecoming.  What if every time a family member came home we reacted with that type of excitement?  I’m not encouraging you to stand at the door and shake—your family member might call 911 thinking you are having a seizure.  Some dogs get so excited that they piddle on the floor when their person arrives home.  I’m certainly not encouraging you to do that! What I am suggesting is that we try having a bit more excitement as they walk in the door than just staying seated behind our computer or phone and saying just the minimal, “Hey.”  Get up out of the chair, go to the door, open it for them and greet them with a hug or a kiss.  At first you might hear comments like, “Okay, what did you do?” or “What do you want?” After a while when they know it’s sincere and you want nothing but to greet them with the same joy that your dog greets you, they will begin to look forward to that welcome home greeting as much as I do the greeting I receive from my dog. 

Silly how the simple things of a dog can teach us so much; Let people know your needs, take time to be alone, and greet a family member with a new sense of excitement.  

 

And this crazy dog is so popular that she has her own Instagram jessie.the.pupper so please like her if you want silly photos of her.  But I beg you please like my Instagram first laurielyost because if my dog gets more followers than me, I will never hear the end of it.