Parenting vs. Shepherding, neither is easy!

Taking care of someone else can be exhausting! In less than TWO months, we will have a newborn baby girl. For really the first year of her life, she will completely rely upon Becca and I for everything she needs. We will feed her, change her, give her baths, dress her (probably in a pink tutu since we have those in our house now), hold her, and provide total care for her. There is going to be times we are completely exhausted and worn out. BUT, the next morning she is going to wake up and need us again. But each day, she will also learn more and need us a little less. That is the life-changing and rewarding life of a parent.

Sometimes parenting looks like this...ZONKED OUT!

Being a shepherd wouldn't have been an easy job either! The job of the shepherd was to watch the sheep. All the time. Eat with the sheep, sleep next to the sheep, always protecting the sheep. Wherever the sheep went, the shepherd would go also.

There is a major difference however between parenting and shepherding. The ultimate goal of parenting is to show love for your child, and ultimately raise them up in a way that they can be on their own when they are older. Shepherding though is almost the opposite. The sheep aren't being taught to be independent. The sheep are instead taught to rely MORE on the shepherd. So the job of the shepherd is constant and not getting ANY easier by the day.

As a parent, I sleep in a chair- the shepherd's resting place doesn't look as comfy

So now that you can maybe relate more with the shepherds, let's check out an amazing moment in Scripture with them. The verses are from Luke 2:8-12. The verses are in bold, my comments in italics:
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby (the shepherds LIVE in the fields. They don't have a home, their home is where the sheep are), keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.(you have to think- quiet field- quiet night- ALL of a sudden- BRIGHT LIGHT. They probably were also scared for the safety of their sheep) ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”(So THESE guys, these shepherds- get to be the FIRST people to see baby Jesus. Out of EVERYBODY!) 

These shepherds have lived a life of service and dedication to their animals. So imagine them now picking up their sheep, gathering them together, and bringing them towards the manger. I mean they aren't JUST going to leave the sheep in the field- they have to stay with them. So descending upon the newborn baby Jesus are these shepherds and this flock of sheep. 

Now continuing the Scripture from Luke 2:16-20- ¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.(they HURRIED. They were so excited, they are rushing to see Jesus carrying along their sheep) ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.(think about it- shepherds with a HUGE flock of sheep, taking the time to tell others about the miracle of Jesus) ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

THESE shepherds get to start spreading the BEST news ever. The savior that had been promised LONG ago had finally arrived. They were the ones chosen to share this message. And when you think about it, how appropriate is that? These shepherds who spent their lives taking care of sheep, always protecting, always watching- were now telling everyone the ULTIMATE protector and SAVIOR had come.  

The Good Shepherd (John 10:11- this is JESUS talking- ¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep) had come into the world to save all of us. AND, we are to be Jesus sheep. 

We aren't supposed to become independent of God! Our challenge is to be the sheep and learn to rely MORE on our shepherd- Jesus Christ. 

You'll Shoot Your EYE OUT.....and God will STILL forgive you!

Did you ever have a "red Ryder BB Gun?" I'm not asking if you actually owned a BB gun, but I'm asking if you ever had that ONE Christmas present you wanted more than anything else in the world? My family growing up had a tradition of watching "The Christmas Story" every year on Christmas eve. In that movie the main character, Ralphie, spends every waking moment of every day pursing that BB Gun. He does everything in his power to convince his parents to buy it, and finally even ASKS Santa for one. But of course, everyone tells him the same thing- "You'll SHOOT your eye out!." Here is my FAVORITE scene....especially Santa's boot....haha

If you never seen the movie, I'm about to ruin it so skip to the next paragraph- IF you have- you know what happens next. Ralphie DOES get the BB Gun for Christmas. He races outside to play with it. The first shot he takes ricochets back and hits him in the glasses. He then proceeds to stomp on his glasses- PULVERIZED! What EVERYONE told him would happen.....did.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar predicament? Despite the best advice from the people around you, you STILL move forward with a decision that you know in your heart might be bad one or a dangerous one?

We have all been guilty of something like this at one point or another. Why? Because we are sinful people! Sometimes our decision making gets blurred my our own selfishness and sinfulness.

One person in the Bible who fought this was Jacob from the Old Testament. Jacob was a twin with his brother Esau. The problem though with Jacob is he was the 2nd born. By custom or tradition then, Esau, the oldest son, would receive his parent's inheritance. Jacob would get basically nothing. WELL- Jacob tricked Esau, not once, but TWICE to steal his brother's inheritance! Jacob then ended up needing to flee his family and his brother in fear of his life. ALL because Jacob was completely focused on the material things he would receive. (Full Jacob and Esau Story Here- worth the read)

Jacob almost threw away his relationship with his twin brother over material things. Ralphie almost shot his eye out because he wanted a BB gun so bad but wasn't smart enough to NOT shoot at an aluminum sign. We all make sinful mistakes, we are human.

The important thing I wanted to focus on today is how we respond to life AFTER our mistakes. Even when we do something wrong, we are no further away from God then when we started. That's my favorite thing about God- God is always RIGHT there. God has already forgiven us for that mistake.

So don't dwell on your bad moments, your "I almost shot my own eye out moments." Remember you are a forgiven child of God. Move forward knowing YOU are forgiven and share that forgiveness with others.

You can't control the weather BUT a lot of time goes into PREDICTING it!

Weather......we do our best to predict it BUT in the end, we never truly know what's going to happen! Today in Minnesota we are under a Winter Storm Warning. This means our phones will flash red, the weather watcher is angry on WCCO, and our TVs will be filled with scrolling messages of cancellations and road conditions. We also get images like THIS of poor weather people being sent outside to SHOW us how bad it is and why we shouldn't go outside ourselves.

But in the end, no one has any idea of exactly how much snow we will get, when it will start, or when it will end. Then after the snow is done, the meteorologists will make their best guesses on the temperature. With all the high-tech, million dollar technology we have- we are still playing catch up with trying to figure out what's going to happen with weather.

Is that as amazing to YOU as it is me? I mean we live in an age of google. We can find out just about anything by searching for it on the internet. We can finds answers to questions we haven't even asked yet. But yet, there is still something that keeps ALL of us guessing....the weather.

I love that the only person who truly ever controlled the weather was Jesus. When Jesus was here on this earth, He was God, and every once in awhile used that power that He had. The best example was when the disciples were in a boat and trapped in a horrible storm. They couldn't get to shore, they couldn't save themselves. They woke Jesus up (he was napping), and Jesus instantly calmed the storm.(Full Story Here)

Just imaging that visual always gets me. To think of a raging storm, lightning, rain, thunder, winds...and to be on the water with waves crashing over the boat....to all of sudden seeing sunny skies and calm water.

That is the power God has.

In this world, we want to think we have control. We want to be able to accurately predict things like the weather so we can plan accordingly. OOO it's for SURE going to rain today? Ok, I'll pack my umbrella and cancel my plans at the park. But instead, it turns out to be a beautiful sunny day. We JUST lost our control over that day because of the weather.

But here's the awesome deal. Us NOT having control is a good thing! Here's the reason why- our perspective on life is sooooo limited. We can only see life through our own eyes. We only know the things we have experienced.

On the other hand, we have a God who knows everyone's perspective. God also knows our past, our present, and our future. God knows the path we have been on and the road we will soon take.

The point I am trying to make is just how much control should WE have anyways? Shouldn't we do our best daily to make sure God is the one in control of our lives?

So just like we don't have control over the weather, let's do our best this week to give up some of the control WE have over our decisions. Debating something important? Pray to God about it for an answer or for guidance. Struggling to give up a bad habit? Leave that habit at the foot of God- take it to Him in prayer and LEAVE it there. 

Here is some great Scripture verses to send you out into the blizzards of weather and life today:
Joshua 1:9- ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Isaiah 45:6-7-  ⁶ so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me I am the Lord, and there is no other. ⁷ I form the light and create darkness I bring prosperity and create disaster, I, the Lord, do all these things.

Isaiah 41:10-  ¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

When weather or life get out of control...that's ok....we have a God who can control the weather and help us!

Something great CAN come from Waiting

When was the last time you sat for 55 minutes and did nothing? I mean, really nothing. No TV, no reading, no falling asleep- just sitting still for 55 minutes. Most of the time I couldn't answer this question, I would have NO IDEA when the last time I sat that still and did nothing was..... EXCEPT for this week.

This last Saturday, I sat in my car trying to get out of a parking garage for 55 minutes. We didn't move even an inch, neither did ANY of other car around us. Time stood still; the only movement was the exhaust out of tailpipes of all the other non-moving cars.This was a very negative WAITING experience!

I participated in this madness because my family and I went to MONSTER JAM. Yah know where the Monster trucks race and smash and do stunts? It was a VERY cool show. My boys loved it, and yes I enjoyed it too! BUT you know what my favorite moment of the day was? THIS!:

You'll notice there are no monster trucks in this picture. In fact, we aren't even IN our seats. This picture was taken before the monster truck show when we were again waiting (this time in the lobby before we could get in our seats). I was holding Micah in a HUGE crowd of people, and we stood there for 25 minutes. In this waiting, Micah began playing with my hat. He thought is was HILARIOUS. He was giggling. Then he put on his hat and turned it around backwards. He was so proud of himself and this picture was the result.

Generally, we NEVER see waiting as a good thing. At the end of our Saturday night Monster jam experience, the LAST thing I wanted to do was wait in a parking garage for 55 minutes without moving. But that's just what happened. We didn't want to wait in the lobby either to sit down, BUT I would have missed out on this funny moment with my youngest son.

Sometimes when we are waiting for something we just might catch something incredible. We are currently in a TOTAL age of digital photography. People take pictures, if they don't like them, they delete them. No longer do we take pictures on our camera and THEN bring them into be processed to see what they look like. Photographers from the olden days didn't know what they got in their picture until they were processed. AND I bet every once in awhile, something amazing they didn't notice came through. Maybe a background image or a smile they didn't see. They got an incredible picture that they may have deleted in the digital age.

The point I'm trying to make is sometimes something great can come during our waiting. An incredible example of this in the Bible was Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest married to a woman named Elizabeth. One day while he was praying in the temple, Zechariah was visited by a angel. The angel told him that his wife would have a son. Zechariah has a moment of doubt with what the angel said. He was OLD, his wife was OLD, how could they have a baby? The angel again reassured Zechariah they would have a child. They would name the child John and John would prepare the way for Jesus. But NOW Zechariah would be silent...unable to speak...until the baby was born.

Imagine that waiting Zechariah went through....silent. BUT, in the waiting, something great would also happen. You see, a girl named Mary would also become pregnant too. Her child would be born after John and that child would be named Jesus.

So this Christmas season, when you find yourself waiting for something- start looking for something GREAT to happen. There could be a good reason for our waiting, so let's look for the positive in that!

And you THOUGHT the Grinch's heart was small....

This year marks the 50th anniversary of THE GRINCH! It's such a great story, a mean green guy stealing a whole city's presents THEN having a sudden and unexplained change of heart and returning all the presents. Then the whole city gets together for a community potluck.

The Grinch is a story that I think a lot of people appreciate because we see a character whose hurt and broken. We don't know his full history, but we can assume it's been pretty rough. We can relate b/c all of us have been hurt at some point. THEN we see the character undergo this amazing transformation. His heart grows, he realizes all that he did wrong, and he is forgiven. We all wish we could undergo such a positive life transformation. The story has the perfect happy ending.

We know though that life isn't a movie. A LOT of stories don't end with a nice happy ending. For a lot of families in the city of Bethlehem a few thousand years ago, their stories were effected in the most tragic way imaginable.

SEE the very first Grinch who tried to ruin Christmas was named King Herod. Herod was the king of Judea at the time of Jesus birth. His heart was probably 5 sizes smaller than the Grinch's. Herod was COMPLETELY paranoid that Jesus would take over and become the king. Well, Herod was ALREADY the king and wouldn't let anything like this happen.

Herod was visited by Wise men from the east (the same wise guys who would visit Jesus.) They shared the prophecy of a following a star and being led to a baby who would be the king of the Jews. King Herod tried to trick the Wisemen into returning to him after they saw the child to tell him exactly where the child was. The wise men though were told in a dream to not return to King Herod. So after they visited the baby Jesus, the wise men returned home a different route.

King Herod was FURIOUS! He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under. Mary and Joseph escaped to Egypt with baby Jesus but there was no happy ending for many of the other families in Bethlehem. They lost their sons at the hand of this evil king.

Definitely NOT a happy ending, BUT this is EXACTLY the reason why Jesus was saved. Jesus would live, die, and rise again. Jesus did this to take away and forgive all the sin and evil of our world. We would all be given a clean slate of sin because of what Jesus did. 
  
So while the Grinch is just a movie (even if it's a really good one), I want YOU to focus on the scene at the end of the Grinch. The Grinch has been totally forgiven by the Who's, he is given us a fresh start. THAT is YOU and ME everyday because of Jesus. We are forgiven. Anything bad we have done in the past has been taken away. AMEN and enjoy your roast beast!  

You have to commit to it

Lots of people HATE parallel parking. I remember back in high school everyone spent countless hours practicing it JUST in case they had to do it on their driver's test. NOW as an adult, I still see countless people avoid parallel parking spots OR struggle for 5 minutes to get their car just right. Well, I just have to brag for a minute but I AM AWESOME at parallel parking. I don't remember the last time I hit a curb OR even had to adjust. Last Thursday, Mocha Monkey- here's my effort-

Car behind me: IN the street- ME: 2 tires 6 inches from the curb!

I would never write a blog to brag about my parallel parking, that isn't ALL that exciting. BUT for those of you who struggle with it, I want to share my two keys to parallel parking. #1- you have to start in the right spot. Pull 3/4 of the way up in the car in front of you. #2- you have to COMMIT to it. Let the car move back with the wheel entirely one way and then once you are diagonal, turn the wheel ALL they way back the other direction.

Now that you are an AWESOME parallel parker, let me draw a parallel to your faith life. First, we have to make sure we are in the right spot. Too many times we begin to hear what the world says about us. We start to hear we aren't smart enough, or tall enough, or pretty enough, or good enough. We get in a spot that's ALL negative. But THAT'S not the spot God wants us in. We are children of God- it states this in Galatians- ²⁶ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. We aren't trash, we are children of God. 

Second, we have to make sure we are making the commitment to God. Have you ever tried a life jacket out in the bath tub first? Probably not, you jumped into the lake with the faith that the life jacket would work. My point is, we need to have faith every day that God is in control. A great Biblical example of this is the disciples in the boat. (FULL STORY) A BIG storm comes up and the disciples are terrified. What's Jesus doing? He's sleeping! They wake Jesus up and Jesus calms the storm. Now, this story is great because of it's deeper context. What was the occupation of many of the disciples before they followed Jesus? They were fishermen. So they were EXPERTS on the water! But yet, when the storm came, they panicked. And while they panicked- Jesus was right there the whole time. Jesus was still in control. 

The same is true now. God is still in control during any storms we may encounter in our lives whether it be a relationship ending, a stressful time with family, or the struggle that is parallel parking. 

Remember to make sure you are in the right spot remembering YOU are a child of God! Then make sure to daily commit to God. God is in control AND that person in control loves YOU a WHOLE LOT!