Who Should I Serve First?

"To serve God is to serve people. 

To serve people is to serve purpose." 

These words from Beth Moore in her Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman study caused me to pause and ponder.  Immediately, these faces flashed through my mind:

And I had to ask myself, "How well am I serving them?"


Serve has several different meanings. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says to serve is “to work for; to bestow the labor of body and mind in the employment of another.” This I do, at least in part. I’m constantly working to clean, cook, and care for my three. However, while my body may be engaged my mind is often far removed. I’m guilty of only half-listening as my rascals rattle on, only to get caught when they ask me a question . . . and I don’t know how to answer. I’m serving in body, not in mind.

There were two other definitions that really hit home. “To act as the minister of; to perform official duties to; as, a minister serves his prince.” Hmmmm. I started to consider my King, and just how he might wish for me to act as an officer to the ones with which I’ve been entrusted. And this verse from 2 Corinthians 5:20 came to mind,

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors,

as though God were making his appeal through us.”

Am I serving my family in such a way that God is appealing to them? Do they truly recognize Him as He is? Or is my service a hindrance to them?

And here’s why I know I need to work on how I serve. The word serve also means “to wait on.” Waiting is not my natural gift; I’m not a patient person. Yet, I’m always waiting on someone

To finish her meal
To finish his seatwork
To clean up his mess
To complete his chores
To find her lambie
To decide which snack she wants
To get his shoes on . . .

It’s an endless list. And why am I impatient with the waiting?

Because this girl right here. Me:

I have things I want to do:

Read a book
Clean the house
Talk to a friend
Check my email
Get in a workout
Read a blog
Take some pictures
Take a shower (a nice long, hot one) . . .

The list is endless. The time is not. A servant must choose who she’s going to serve first.  The greatest gets the priority, and in God's kingdom, the least is the greatest. 

Today, I'm going to follow someone else's example.  It is the greatest we have.

"The Son of Man did not come to be served,

but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."  Matthew 20:28

Who Should I Serve First?

Pooped: In Need of Power

I was weary of doing good. Dog-tired, exhausted, beat, worn-out, bushed, pooped. I was tired of giving cheerfully, serving joyfully, loving whole-heartedly, forgiving endlessly. My best friend suggested it was the winter blah, and maybe that contributed to it, but I think something else was up.

It’s funny how God starts whispering messages through several sources when we need to hear something. I began to hear a word through my Bible study (Esther), through a book I’m reading (So Long Insecurity), and then a message from a friend of ours who is also a minister. God even put a song (by Rebecca St. James) in my head that I can’t get out:

Crazy to think

that Your holy hands made everything I see.

It’s so hard to believe

that You, the God of creation, say

I’ve got this power in me

Power. My minister friend posed these questions in a sermon recently, “What is your power? What is your source?” And it got me to thinking . . . .

I’m tired because my power source has run dry: me. I’ve been gassing up at an empty tank labeled “Self.” And it’s cost me much: joy, strength, peace, contentment . . . . there’s more, but I’m a little too tired to remember it all. I feel useless and used up – because I am. I need to remember to do what I know I should do – which is to rely on God’s power, so that I can be renewed.  Refreshed.  Refueled.  His supply is limitless.

So please remind me
when I feel useless
that my flesh and bone has more than meets the eye.
Because You burn
like fire within me
and there’s nothing out of reach when I
let Your Spirit loose and be alive.

In me
there is strength to move a mountain.
In me
there is faith to walk on water.
In me
if I just believe
the Way and the Truth and the Life . . .
is in me

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomperably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength . . .” Ephesians 1:18 &19

That’s my prayer for me today . . . and each of you. 

Get alone with God.  Power up.

Pooped: In Need of Power

I Want What She's Having

This is the state of my mother-in-law’s life right now:

She recently had surgery on her foot for the second time – on the same foot – within a year’s span. Apparently, it didn't "take" the first time. She is not allowed to put pressure on it for at least six weeks. (Again.)



And yet, this is the state of my mother-in-law:

Notice that beautiful smile. It could be because her favorite daughter-in-law (ahem, only daughter-in-law) was waiting on her hand-and-foot today and will be again soon. I overheard her say as much on the phone to her friend -- just how much fun she's having. Surely, there is a certain amount of glee that could be had in ordering around the woman who stole your baby boy.

But I know that’s not really it. She’s just a fun-loving, joyful (and not bossy) person to be around. I like that about her. A lot.

She’s having that “give thanks in all circumstances” attitude off of the 1 Thessalonians menu. I need a serving of that, and I'll bet she'll share.

I Want What She's Having

Do You Know What You Know?

I'm a geek. I know it. I really enjoy studying and learning, so with that background, you can understand my fascination with the Sunday School class my dad (a former theistic evolutionist and lover of science) has been teaching on creation and evolution. We've been learning that there are just piles of scientific evidence that support the theory of a Designer creating this amazing universe that we live in. We took a field trip this weekend to the Creation Museum in Kentucky -- a visual portfolio of the things we've learned over the months that we've been studying. I took my kiddos because I want them to understand that people interpret science based on their belief -- in a God or no God. Evolution is as much as a belief as creation is. It's as simple as that. The museum does a terrific job of walking people through the differences, and highlighting some of the vast evidence that supports a Designer.

For example, do you know . . .
evidence has been found to support that dinosaurs and people co-existed (and for a time, all dinosaurs were plant-eaters)? But after The Fall (in the Garden of Eden): Beware!

Do you know . . .
not one single missing link has ever been found? There have been times evolution-minded scientists thought they found something, but it was discovered later that either they were wrong or that they actually falsified their findings (ouch!). So, rest assured, your children really aren't monkeys.

Do you know . . .
there aren't several races? Just one. Acceptance of evolution only helped to perpetuate further division between people groups. And did you know all the genetic material we need to be totally human is present at conception? The acceptance of evolution and the false belief that we are only human once we are born has killed billions of babies through abortion.

Do you know . . .
evidence supports a catastrophic event of the earth, such as the biblical account of a world-wide flood?

Do you know . . .
that there are problems with radioisotopic dating methods? A rock that was known to be 11 years old (new lava) dated greater than 350,000 years.

Do you know . . .
lizards are surprisingly photogenic? (Sorry. He just looked awfully cute -- had to share. Besides, he's God's creation too.)

Do you know . . .
The Princess really wants a dinosaur? Too bad the flood killed off so many of them (and the extreme climate change afterwards did most of the rest of them in).

Do you know . . .
what you believe and why?

Do You Know What You Know?

High Walls, No Windows

I’ve often heard the phrase, “If God closes a door, He opens a window.” It’s an encouraging thought, and just today I prayed for friends that doors and windows would be wide open as they go through their adoption process. But what happens when doors and windows are sealed tighter than a tomb?

That’s the thought I was having when I sat down with my boys to read the sixth chapter of Joshua, and this was the first verse I encountered: “Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in." There is evidence that Jericho was a city with great double-walls. Not just one brick wall, but two. I can relate. Sometimes I reach a point where there seems to be wall after wall standing between me and where I want to be. But here's the kicker. The second verse reads, “Then the LORD said to Joshua, ‘See I have delivered Jericho into your hands. . .’” (Now, I’d be thinking, “Really, LORD? Cause it looks like it’s pretty much theirs.”)

This was the reminder I was in need of. Even a wall (or two, or ten) doesn’t stop God. I look at situations that to my own eyes seem impossible or just too difficult to conquer with my resources, but God is not intimidated or limited. And He’s promised already that He has everything taken care of – our salvation, our now, and our future home. He has already delivered us. We just need to pick up the tools He’s given and get marchin’. That wall – well, it’s just a wide doorway-in-waiting.

So I’ve decided to pray for my friends that the doors and windows will be open wide as they go through their adoption process to bring home a precious girl from China . . . . . and that any wall, no matter how Great, will come tumbling down as well.

High Walls, No Windows

Stumbling

I stumbled onto this blogging thing by accident . . . pretty much how many of the good things in my life have come about. Good recipes, two out of my three kids, homeschooling -- none of these things did I plan. And I've stumbled through much of it: missed ingredients, mistakes in parenting, bad curriculum choices. I have the feeling though that regardless of how many things I think have come my way "by accident," God has had His hand in much, if not all, of it. I may not have planned them. But He has a plan.

Stumbling