Week One - Memory Verse

New Year's Resolution

In third grade I was ahead of my class in our reading program.  Each new level had a color that coincided with it.  I was in the color “olive”.  How is that for a memory?   My teacher for some reason didn’t like me even though I was a good student, and didn’t cause any trouble.  She had her “pets” and everyone knew who they were.  If you weren’t on her “A” list you didn’t count in her class.

One day, she decided to make an example out of me. She told the class that I was sort of cheating and that is how I got to the higher reading level.  It was not true.  Why she didn’t come to me with her suspicions, I don’t know.  But here I was, a shy, fine student and this teacher embarrassed and humiliated me in front of the class.  She spoke death to me.

On the other hand, a doctor, a forensic psychiatrist, would play a big role in the success I have had in life.  I had been through many difficult circumstances and he never stopped believing in me.  There were times when I doubted myself, but because he believed in me, I believed in me.  He always had confidence in me. I wanted him to be right so I would try to live up to his expectations. He spoke life into me.

God’s word, what He says and thinks about each one of us, is clear in the Bible.  He loves us, He adores us, He forgives us, He gives us a new nature, He blesses us and sent His son to die for us. Those are just to name a few.  It is clear from Genesis to Revelation He speaks life into us.

Now there is one other person who speaks to you daily.  That is you.  What you tell yourself about yourself and your circumstances makes all the difference in the world.  It is a fact that you can’t control what other people do or say but you can control what you think and say.   To reinforce this, you must focus on what God says about you. You can then learn to speak His words into your life. 

We are given a choice in Deuteronomy 30:19 - “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”

I can’t imagine that anyone would knowingly choose death and curses but it happens all the time.  That negative self-talk and vengeful and unforgiving thinking does not and never will produce life in you.  The only way I know to stay on course is to stay in the Word and repeat, memorize, and meditate on what He says about me.  Pretty soon it becomes much more natural.  The more natural it becomes the more easily I breeze through my daily routine and better handle unforeseen circumstances.

You see, simply being saved is not enough.  Oh, being saved is good all right but there is more to this eternal life than just getting to Heaven.  Eternal life starts here and now and it is all about a road to recovery.  Recovering what has been stolen, maybe even your true purpose in life.

So the greatest New Year’s Resolution you can make is to learn to speak life into yourself.  It will likely come with opposition but it will be so worth the fight.  You have the potential to gain back what you have lost.  The difference between this and self-help is that you’re not doing it yourself but you are partnering with the Holy Spirit and He will guide you to new heights. 

                                                           B – Basic

                                                           I – Instructions

                                                           B – Before

                                                           L – Leaving

                                                           E – Earth

That might be a clever way to say what the Bible is but God gave us a manual for life.  A how-to manual and it’s not just filled with great advice but with the power of life itself.  Do what you want, you don’t have to study it. It’s your choice.  God gives the answer and He says in his word to choose “life”. 

Or you can go ahead, say you are going to lose weight, or quit smoking, or start working out, or get organized, etc.  Those are all good things.  But on what foundation are you building?  Based on past resolutions, by February will you see any lasting changes? 

Here’s how I will attempt to help: One week.  One Scripture.  You memorize it and speak it out loud over your life.  The first one I have embedded so deeply in my own life that it has become the foundation for every positive change I have ever made. 

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) - “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

If this is helpful to you please post in the comments to let me know I should continue through the month of January. 

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! 

Christmas 1989 - Silent Night

This was a very sad time for me.  I was incarcerated with a life sentence.  I did not know when or if I was going to ever be free.  My dad was diagnosed with melanoma cancer and was dying.  My husband wanted a divorce.  Not to mention, I had lost my only child two years before.  

I was incarcerated at the Wisconsin State Mental Hospital on a forensic (criminal) ward.  I was being treated for my mental illness and I was responding well to the medications they were giving me. I was allowed to work painting ceramics on a civil (non-criminal) ward.  I would go to another building and the ceramics I painted were sold to the public to help them fund their program. 

The civil ward had a Christmas pizza party and I was invited to it, as I had been helping their program all year.  It was nice and they tried to make it as festive as possible—considering that most of the patients would have preferred not to be there.  Then a strange thing happened that I will remember all my life.  They started a makeshift talent contest.  Some of the patients would tell jokes or dance or whatever their talent might be.  I sat back and watched, since I can’t sing or dance.  Out of the blue one lady started to sing “Silent Night”.  It was not her turn.  And she wouldn’t stop.  And it was so off key.  And she was pretty low functioning.  And I was mad.  What gave her the right to sing out of turn, and off key when I had so much more going for me that she would never have?  If she were released she would never have my potential.  I was prettier, smarter with so much more to offer.  Why was she singing like that?  Her actions would haunt me for many years to come.  How dare she sing when my daughter is dead, my father is dying, I’m looking at what, another 10 years locked up, and my husband will not be waiting for me.  Please shut her up. 

Well, fortunately for me I knew enough to keep my mouth shut.  But where was this coming from?  She had Christmas spirit and it came through her song.  I had Christmas bitterness and I could not see past it. 

As the years went by, 13 of them to be exact, I would bury my father, I would be released from the State Mental Hospital, my husband and I would get divorced.

But God would continue to seek me and knock at the door of my heart to break down the walls that I had built to keep him out.  In December of 2002, I sat in my first official church service, of my own free will, and I found my own “Silent Night”.  I know now how she could sing as she did. It made no difference how it sounded, whether it was on key or not, it was sung more beautifully than I had ever heard.  But I was just too hardened, stubborn and prideful to have the words come out from my heart.

But now, I wanted to sing it, too.  I learned that if I have Jesus in my heart all of the things in this life I hold dear can be stripped from me and I will have everything I really need. 

Won’t you make “Silent Night” your song this year?

Silent night, Holy night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon virgin, mother and child

Holy infant, tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace,

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Ask God to Open Your Eyes

I walked into a Food Pantry in my hometown on a Tuesday.  And I was overwhelmed.  I walked back into the same place a week later and I was, for lack of a better word, overwhelmed again.

The first time I was there looking for a family or someone for our church to help at Christmas.  They had a list waiting for me. “It must be a God thing”, I was told as a group who was going to purchase gifts was “falling apart” and could not do it.  The lady from the former group had been in the food pantry on Friday and tearfully explained their dilemma.  They had 19 families with 54 gifts for the children to purchase.  That was a bit more than I anticipated so we decided on taking about 20 children, which were the infant to 6 year olds.  We would pray about the rest.  

Thanks to being able to email church members to help spread the word, it worked out and there was a lot of enthusiasm at our church to support the project.  Either individually or in groups we shopped and purchased all gifts for all the children.   Some people donated money and we had enough funds left over to purchase gifts for the adults in the families as well.  We received donations of wrapping paper and provided tape for the pantry to wrap the gifts.  We ended up with an extra girl’s gift about the age of 8-12 and brought it to the pantry, too.

The reason I’m writing this is not to say how wonderful we are for doing this.  It is to confirm that it is more blessed to give than receive.  A week later, from the time I walked into the pantry, my husband and I, having borrowed my brother’s van, delivered the boxes and bags of gifts for the families. We had our agenda, keep it orderly and organized, explain the packaging, and labeling.

But I am at a loss for words, as I did not expect to have delivered joy.

 

In our shopping and planning, we prayed the gifts would be received with gratitude and not entitlement.  It sounds sort of cold I suppose, but you know you don’t want people taking advantage of the system or our generosity.  Those ideas are now completely erased from my thought process. I am the one who should be ashamed for having even gone there but I have been renewed.  We were met at the door by two of the adult recipients.   We met two adults—not even the children—and they were beaming, they glowed and they thanked us.  The more they carried on, the larger the lump in my throat grew and my tears were ruining my makeup.  I  don’t remember being that grateful for a gift in a long time.  And they did not know what gift “they” were getting personally. 

One lady did not even sign up for the gifts, but the founder of the program signed up her and her son.  So until that day when we arrived, she was unaware anyone had thought of her.  I saw need up close, the need not to be forgotten, and I witnessed true gratitude and appreciation not for a measly gift but to matter.  All lives do matter!

A few years ago I saw a video clip of people in China receiving a shipment of Bibles.  The entire room full of people were sobbing and were without words.  Mind you, they did not open the Bibles, they were simply overjoyed at having for themselves the reality of God’s word in print.  We weren’t delivering Bibles but we were privileged to show His love.  When we dropped off the gifts, we got so much more in return.  I got to pray with the lady who had not signed up for the gifts and received a hug that will pull at my heart into eternity.  They had a young girl who just happened to need the “extra” gift we purchased.  It was no mistake, God makes no mistakes!

Through this experience, I received the greatest gift – I was completely moved.   God gave me this opportunity, He opened my eyes again.  Go out and find someone who will be a living memory for you this Christmas.  The need is there, keep your eyes open for it.