Balancing Truth and Grace

Recently I heard truth and grace explained this way.  Truth alone is legalism and grace alone is lawlessness.  I can't get this analogy out of my head.  Perhaps God is speaking to me?  As I face situations in each day as a disciple, wife, mother, friend etc. I am astonished at the opportunities that come up for me to practice truth and grace.  What is alarming is the times I automatically respond to situations without balance.
 I tend to lean to the side of truth.  I love truth the way it cuts through the chaotic confusion of emotions and worldly opinions.  I love that I can pick up the Bible and know truth, that I can pray and hear truth.  Truth is a beautiful boundary, solid, unmoving, unchangeable, like my God.  In my life it is so easy to concoct a rule and adhere to that than to have to patiently, gently, mercifully and graciously extend myself in times of trial.  Whether the trial be large or small I always tend to go for a rule, for a truth and stick to it.  This trait of mine has it's merits, but I believe the Lord is trying to increase the merits of it's counter balance, grace, in my life.  Grace is the example that Jesus gave us on the cross.  Grace is the tenderness that extends love when wrath is deserved.  Grace is the beauty of trial and the triumph of love.  If I adhere to the rules so closely I lose the opportunity to extend grace, to be truly alive in Christ.  The truth I love so dearly if not properly balanced will lead me down the same road as the Pharisees.  I too will miss the grace of a saviour.
Coming to this information has been thought provoking to say the least.  All the times I want to create a new rule to keep my little women in line I have now stopped to wonder if perhaps it is not a rule they need but a bit of grace and someone to help them sort out their heart's intentions.  As my husband makes decisions and my foolish independence seek to cram a rule in his face to prove I am right I have been convicted that it is grace that is needed not more of my truth.  Maybe that is where the crux of the problem is, that truth when it becomes our truth instead of His truth is dangerously out of balance. 
What about when grace is too heavily weighted.  Is that when I allow what I know I should be dealing with.  When I hear the children bickering but get a little lazy and let it go?  Is it when I choose to not be disciplined and sleep a little more, or do a little less and suddenly things are not going as smoothly as they should be?  I confess this is not generally my trial, but I have made friends with lawlessness and the results are not desired.
Either end of the extreme leaves something in want.  The best way is to live in balance.  To cry out to the Holy Spirit to speak to us so clearly each moment of the day that we know when to act in truth, when to extend grace and how to do both.  Jesus was such a wonderful example of both.  He kept the law but did not become legalistic.  He extended grace, but never became permissive in allowing sin to continue.  I've just begun to consciously think on this profound idea of balance between these two wonderful gifts of grace and truth.  It seems that the more I think on these and pray over them the more I realize that balance is not found in a moments realization but in a lifetime of following the master of both.  Even then at the end in this fallen state I think I will still be just as in awe of the perfect man and his balancing of grace and truth as I am at this moment.

Who's Your Saviour?

I am struck by how many saving influences we have at our beck and call in modern society.  What has been more striking to me in our 2nd week of a new year of school is how often I want to run to one of these worldly saviours.  I am feeling overwhelmed with the education of my children, I am ashamed to say the thought of sending them off on a golden chariot to school has crossed my mind.  My emotions seem ablaze and out of control, maybe I could call on a friend or someone to just listen to me.  I am exhausted physically, perhaps another cup of coffee will do the trick to perk me up.  Yikes!  This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my automatic reaction to life and my buckling under the tiniest amount of pressure.  Running to the world for comfort has been my all too immediate response lately.
What is more disappointing than my weakness and lack of faith is that I have passed it on to my children!  When school gets hard they fight the temptation to fuss.  When they have to work hard they cave into the temptation to sigh and whine about the work.  When relationships get difficult they often act in a selfish way.
  Years ago before all of the modern day comforts we enjoy I wonder if it was so easy to run to the world for relief from our everyday problems?  I recently watched just a snippet of a documentary on Theodore Roosevelt.  As a young man he lost his wife and then his mother.  In his grief he headed west to Dakota Territory where he lived a solitary and hard working life.  It was a time of healing not by escaping discomfort but working hard through it.  There were not many therapists and physcologists to run to when the trials of life got hard.  He and others at the time had to simply live through the trials and grief of life.  What a beautiful example of fortitude, one that we see less and less these days.
The temptation to run to pop-phsycology, medication and worldly interventions is overwhelming in our society.  We are promised a  cure for every ail.  When we run to the world's saviours will we ever find true healing?  Perhaps there is a place for what the world and science have discovered in the way of drugs and therapies, but dare I say in this politically correct world of words that first we must seek our true Saviour Jesus Christ?  I wonder how many times it even crosses the mind of a sufferer to run to Jesus?
We are not promised happiness or ease of life.  We are promised comfort, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.  We are not promised worldly wealth or riches, we are promised provision, "My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19.  We are not promised happiness in life, but we are promised peace, "I will listen to what god the Lord will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints." Psalm 85:8.  With all of these great promises in a true saviour why is it we continue to throw His ways away and try the world's?
Parenting is not easy.  Especially if you choose to take on the majority of the responsibility of caring for your children on your own.  The past two weeks have highlighted this fact in my life over and over again.  However, we have a saviour that will certainly be able to help us in each of our trials, but we must take the step to call on Him and accept the help He gives.  It is not usually in the form of a pill or a quick fix, but rather of a molding our character and soul into the likeness of Him.  This way runs so contrary to how the world deals with issues.  His way always has lasting satisfaction, even if we don't get to see the entire result until we enter eternity with Him!  In the mean time, "We say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?'" Hebrews 13:6

Happy Father's Day Dad!

When I was six years old one of my favorite things to do was to pop my head into my dad's wood shop and sniff the air and ask him what he was doing.  This was the one place I remember my dad being peaceful and really where he seemed  most at home.  He would patiently teach me how to use a wood burner and then let me make crazy plaques (he still has the one I made for over the cat's food dish!).  He was always working on something and didn't mind my hanging around his shop.  I thought, and still do that he was the most talented man in the world when it came to wood.

As I grew I didn't spend as much time in my dad's shop but learned to really treasure his opinion.  He didn't ever have a lot to say, but what he did was always spot on in wisdom and intellect.  I must confess that as an adult women I treasure my dad's opinion more and  more.  I know that he doesn't care to spend time shooting the breeze with just anyone so when he does with me I always feel honored to be in conversation with him.  The times he's expressed pride in the choices I've made  have been like wind to my wings.

This father's day I am so enjoying counting the ways that I value my father.  It reminds me of how the man I have married is accumulating ways that his girls love him.  Neither of these men are perfect, I rather like them better for their imperfections.  Were they to be great perfect men I could not relate or enjoy them!  As Father's Day approaches I want to send a loving note to my Father and the Father of my children and thank them for the great men that they are.  In my eyes they excel far above any other men and I send up thanks to God for allowing me to be in the company of these two.  So Pete and Dad I love you, thank you for all of the wonderful ways you make fathering a blessing to me and to my little women!

Check This Out........

I read about 10 ways to love on the Heart of Wisdom blog.  It was so good I couldn't help but share it.  To check it out go here.

Celebrating Marriage

(I can't find a picture of just Pete and I from the past year!!  A family pic will have to due.)

It's easy to remember to celebrate our marriages on holidays and anniversaries.  Given the state of marriage in our society it would seem prudent to celebrate and rejoice in our marriages more often.  This is the most important relationship outside of the relationship we have with God.  Do you we treat it as such on a daily basis?
Pete and I are in the process of planning a 10 year anniversary vacation.  As I plan I am wondering why I don't put more effort into celebrating each day?  It's so easy to let the ways of life get away from me and put my marriage on the back burner.  So I brain stormed a few ideas on how to celebrate my oneness with my man.

• Happy hour!  I love to surprise Pete with an appetizer and drinks (you could do tea or lemonade) when he gets home from work.
• If you can, have a bonfire after the children are in bed.  We have a second hand metal fire pit that serves the purpose.
• Have a movie night after the kids are in bed.
• Play some card games together.
• Listen to music and make a meal.
• Join your hubby in his work or a hobby he is doing.

There are so many ways we can take special time out to nurture the most important earthly relationship we have.  The time serves so many purposes.  We set an example of our heart's priorities to our families.  As women we have a time to refresh and step aside from our focus on serving in other areas.  Perhaps the most surprising benefit of taking time to enjoy my husband is the amount of refreshment I get from being with him.  That alone should spur me to set aside my daily duties and enjoy my man more!

With the crazy life I can be tempted to lead, it is so vitally important to make wise and well thought out decisions on how to spend the little bit of time I have on this earth.  I don't want to get to the end of my days and look back at the frazzled way I swung through life, but the special times I took to make certain God, marriage and family were were placed in proper priority.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Today our eldest daughter, Olivia would have turned 14.    She died 8 1/2 years ago from cancer.  It seems impossible for me to have a child that would be a teenager!  I love this day because I have such sweet memories of all of Olivia's 5 birthdays.  She was always well on her birthday.  There are not any shadows of suffering over birthday memories.  I am so thankful to the Lord for this one day that was always happy. I wonder if they celebrate birthdays in heaven?   We've celebrated Olivia's memory in some way or another every June 10th.  Sometimes it's just looking at her memory book, or maybe going through the chest of things that were hers.  Some years we have cake.  This year we don't have any plans, but it is such fun to share who she was in memory with her sisters. 

Power

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly I forget.  In Isaiah 40:30-31 I am reminded that,

"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. 

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall

mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary;

and they shall walk, and not faint."

Over the past week I have flexed my motherly muscle, strained my maternal voice chords and disciplined with parental consistency.  But I did not go to the Lord for my strength.  I kept trying to dig deeper, resolve more, seek some encouragement from my hubby.  However, these are all fruitless and leave me weary and falling all over the place.  Day by day, moment by moment I have to lean hard and renew my strength at feet of Jesus.  I cannot self-improve or motivate enough.  It is clear in Isaiah that my renewal and strength will not come by any other means than by the Lord.

So this afternoon I sat at the throne and asked yet again for the Lord to be in control.  The memory is slow.  The learning is painful.  Maybe this time I will remember for a bit longer?  If any good comes from forgetting it is that I am encouraged to continue to remind the little souls in my care over and over and over again as they inherited my memory!  They don't remember.  I am reminded that I must repeat, repeat, repeat to them just as I need to have things repeated to me.