Small Victories

Ten years ago if you told me that I would cheer when someone told me that they slept in their own bed all night I probably would have called you a liar, but lately I have cheered on more than one morning when I have heard those words from Riley. I don’t cheer for Bridget when she sleeps in her bed all night (I have tried to convince her to sleep on the couch some nights so I can have the bed all to myself; it hasn’t worked), but when Riley sleeps in his bed we make it a big deal. It is funny having a little boy running around the house because there are so many things that we take for granted that are major accomplishments for him. Simple everyday tasks for normal adults are major victories for our children.

                This got me thinking about the small victories in all of our lives that we have taken for granted. It is really easy to get focused on all the bad things that are happening around us all the time, or to be haunted by some defeat or unfulfilled dream, and it only takes a moment to become dissatisfied with our present circumstances and to focus on something that seems better that is on the horizon. How many days have we wasted waiting for tomorrow to get here, hoping that it will be better than today?

                1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to give thanks in everything. There is always something for us to be thankful for, but many times those things get overshadowed by the giant things in our lives and we can’t see them.

I am not saying that we should all ignore the problems in our lives and dance around like princesses in a Disney movie, but I do want to encourage you to thank God for the little things. We shouldn’t wait until someone gets miraculously healed, or wait for some giant miracle to start thanking God. God is the source of all good and maybe we could be a little more grateful for all that He has given to us.

Thank you God for the sunrise this morning, for giving us arms so we can hug the people that we love. Thank you God for giving us water heaters so we can bathe and air conditioners that make it possible to stand Alabama in July. Thank you God for a new beginning, for giving us grace when we deserve wrath. Thank you for waking us up this morning and giving us food to eat and air to breathe and for giving us a purpose in this crazy world.

Let us take some time today to thank God for all He has done for us, for the amazing miracles and the small victories.

The best book that I have read this year

I am trying something new here today, I wanted to recommend a book to you. This is the best book that I have read this year. I will try to keep you posted of what I am reading week by week. Now, I am sure that I have some Theological differences with Jim Cymbala, but this book really inspired me to turn to God in prayer. I hope you will check it out.

Disturb Us

I read this poem by Sir Francis Drake last week and I wanted to give you a written copy also. I love this poem and hope that you will enjoy it too.

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

Bubble the Bear

Bedtime at the Cook house is a special time. As a child I never realized how precious those few minutes were to my parents. I am not talking about the gentle kisses or the good night hugs, I am talking about the quiet that only comes when the children are asleep. Bedtime has evolved over the past three years for Riley, it began with us holding him in our arms and rocking him to sleep, until he outgrew that. We have had several months when I had to exorcise his room to rid it of hobgoblins, spaghetti monsters and bed bugs, but he outgrew that too. But there is one constant that has remained; there is one necessary ingredient to bedtime that Riley has not outgrown: Bubble.

Bubble is a sad looking blanket bear, Bubble’s eyes and nose are gone, he is a sad looking bear, but Riley loves him more than any other toy in his room. Right now I am not too concerned with Riley’s attachment to Bubble, but if Bubble goes on Riley’s first date or if he is tucked under Riley’s arm when he graduates from High School I will be more than worried. I want Riley to grow up slowly so we can enjoy each stage of his life, but the reality of life is that he will grow up and one day Bubble will be put on a shelf. Riley will outgrow the things that he loves now and will move on to other things.

Sadly, this is something that man Christians are not good at. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” We are the children of God, and sometimes it seems that we are spiritual teenagers playing with toddler toys. There are things in all of our lives that God is trying to wean us from, not because He is mean, but because He wants us to grow into healthy, mature Christians.

We must each examine ourselves to identify the things that are not good for us, we should allow the Holy Spirit to direct us and purify us on a constant basis and we should search the Word of God so that we can see ourselves the same way that God sees us. I can’t tell you that in doing these things you will achieve perfection, but I can tell you that you will never place yourself in better hands than God’s. God wants to mold you into something special; His plans for you are more than you could ever dream.

Sometimes we have to let go of something good to become something better, so be careful to not let what you are holding on to hold you back from the plans that God has for you. Have a blessed week!

A Special Gift

Something amazing happened this week. This event was so huge that I decided to use my space in the bulletin to share it with you. I can feel your curiosity and excitement rising right now, as you wait for me to tell you about this amazing event.

This event made me feel special, appreciated and it gave me the strength to make it through another hot day of work. So what was this amazing event? A man gave me a watermelon from his garden when I pulled up to deliver a package to him.

You might think that I am silly for valuing this so highly and that I have just wasted your time by telling you about it, but this is more than a man giving me a watermelon. This man saw something that most people don’t see when the UPS truck pulls up in their yard, this man saw another human being. While most people grab their package and run away wondering what I have brought them, this man decided to use the fruits of his labor to bless me.

I don’t know if this man is a follower of Christ, but I do know that his action blessed my day and in our selfish world it caused me to wonder: What would happen if Christians intentionally and intensely began looking for ways to bless people in the name of Christ? The answer is obvious: people would want to know what our motivations were and would be pointed to Christ.

Now I am not writing this in order to guilt some gift from you, the watermelon was really not what inspired me. What amazed me was the fact that this man who did not know me thought that I was worthy of his watermelon. And as followers of Christ we possess something much more valuable than a watermelon, we possess the knowledge of God’s amazing grace. So why do we not share this knowledge? Is it because we don’t think some people are worthy enough? Because they are to God, He already paid the price for them on Calvary. Is it because we are afraid of rejection? I imagine that if I declined the watermelon, the man would have given it to someone else and written me off as a jerk because he was just trying to be nice. So we cannot find in our imagination a justifiable reason to horde God to ourselves.

This week each of us will have the opportunity to bless someone, let us seize that opportunity. We may never realize how much that small act of kindness means to that person or what it will inspire them to do. It may brighten their day and it might open the door to changing their eternity.