LWG DEVO: abandoned buildings

Today I have shared the following devo over at LACED WITH GRACE. I join a team of awesome writers sharing from our heart daily devo's. This devo comes straight from my heart as I turmoil over loss and abandonment in my own personal life:

You can drive thru any town, small or large, and find what I call "abandoned buildings." You know what I am talking about ... old, worn out buildings that have been tossed away, badly neglected and long forgotten about. The windows are boarded up, the entrance doors are barely hanging from their hinges and the inside is filled with dust, cobwebs and broken floor boards.

The street is usually deserted leading up to such a forgotten place. The light in the street is blinking on and off, and what was once a busy, active and fun place is no longer even a memory in anybodies mind. forgotten, lost, abandoned, given up on. It is hard to imagine that at one time someone loved this old building and filled it with many great things.

Sometimes, people are much like these abandoned buildings. Instead of being filled with good things such as love and acceptance ... the very ones that should (or could) love you - don't. They walk out. They turn away. They stop caring. They make bad choices. They abandon you.

When this happens it is so easy to pull yourself into that abandoned building, the place where you can board up the windows and seal the door and not let anybody care about you again. You feel tossed away and forgotten. You are left broken.

Some of you reading this today know exactly what I am talking about. You have been abandoned, forgotten and tossed aside. A parent left you, your spouse walked out, a friend forgot all about you, your kids don't call. You feel like you are living inside of a broken down, unusable, no-good-for-nothing abandoned building.

The good news is that just like any kind of real estate property, what one buyer sees as "unsalvageable", another sees as "potential". God has purchased that piece of property that you reside in, that broken down abandoned building, and He has applied a new shade of RED paint to it ... the shade is called "the Blood of the Lamb", He has washed down the inside with a special cleansing powder called the "Blood of the Lamb" and there hangs a new sign outside the door. It reads .... "REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!"

No matter what choice somebody has made that has left you feeling abandoned, remember that God made a choice long ago, that you are the most beautiful, precious and valuable thing He could purchase! And the price has already been paid...IN FULL!

PERSONAL NOTE: Many times I am reminded of the people who made choices that ultimately have forever altered my life. Many days, because of the emptiness of how their choices have made me feel - I find myself setting housekeeping up in my "abandoned building". But when I find myself dwelling in this broken down place, I remind myself that the choices of those that should love me but don't love me, and the choices of those that should stay by my side but walk right on out ... these choices do not define me! But it is the choice of Jesus Christ that matters. He loves me! He died for me! and He defines me! Isn't it time to do some redecorating in your dwelling place. Throw on a coat of RED paint!!

THANKFUL THURSDAY...exposure to the light

I use my camera for fun. A snapshot here, a snapshot there. Taking pictures of my kids, of my husband, and of fun trips we take. I don't know a whole lot about photography but one thing that I do know, if you expose the negatives to the light .... your photos will not turn out.

When the light is exposed, somehow it turns the pictures dark. I don't really understand how light can cause so much damage. But it does. As a photographer, this would be frustrating and humiliating, especially if you had taken pictures of a special moment that could never be re-captured. Like a wedding, or a birthday, or even a once in a lifetime vacation.

To achieve the finest quality in your photographs, you must avoid the light. However, if you avoid the light of God in your day to day walk, I am afraid you will remain in your own darkroom. One that is filled with misery, unhappiness and uncertainity. His light is not one that causes damage, instead it creates refreshing beauty like a perfectly developed photograph.

1 PETER 2:9 "Declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light."

Without the Light (God's Light)... we will never achieve the finest quality in life! Peace, love, joy, understanding, forgiveness, mercy Aren't you thankful for being called out of the dark and into His light?

IRIS is hosting THANKFUL THURSDAY this week. Click here to share your grateful heart. Come back here next week, I will be hosting TT for the month of March.

WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD...love is kind

Don't you just love it when someone says or does something that is genuinely an act of kindness. For no reason, just to be kind. Almost seems like a forgotten thing from the past, showing kindess that is.

It seems like you don't see many people opening doors for others anymore. Have you ever tried to get out in a busy lane of traffic - seems like very few people will let anybody merge into their lane anymore. When is the last time you were in the checkout lane and let someone go in front of you that only had one or two items?

KINDNESS... you know the phrase - "kindness goes a long way." It certainly does!

EPHESIANS 4:32 "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

Kindness is love in action. Kindness is very different from patience. Patience avoids a problem, kindness creates a blessing. One is preventive, the other is proactive. Having Godly love will cause us be kind to others, and others will desire to be around us.

But kindness just doesn't happen...look at the results of the YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL from last week. I polled the readers, "What is the last kind act someone did for you?" The top 3 answers were:

1. 53% of the readers said that someone gave them a kind compliment.
2. 33% of those polled said that someone opened the door for them.
3. 13% voted and said that someone gave them a present for no reason.

To be kind, it takes some initiative. Look at the poll results, all of these things took some action on someones part to make it happen and most likely someone thought ahead before doing these kind things. Sadly though, this poll revealed only 6% of those polled said that someone was kind to them by praying for them. Does this mean that we do not consider prayer a kind act? or does it mean that we are not taking the initiative to pray for others?

In Luke, Chapter 10, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. What a great example of the kindness of love that Jesus desires from us. You know the story...

A Jewish man is left for dead, after being beaten by robbers. Two respected, religious men walk by without noticing the injured man and ignoring him. They were either too busy or too important to stop and be kind. However, when a common Samaritan man comes by, he did the most shocking thing. Even though his race hated the Jews, he looked beyond the cultural boundaries and was moved with compassion to help this man in need. A simple act of kindness bridged years of racism that had caused strife and division.

The Good Samaritan took the initiative to show true kindness. What an act of love! If it is hard to love our enemies, possibly we need to look for ways to be kind to them. One of the best ways to show kindness to our enemies is to pray for them! Someone needs a Good Samaritan to stop and care, and show love with their kindness.

Can you be a Good Samaritan today?

A PIECE OF MY HEART...what is that loud buzzing noise?

Every morning at 6 a.m. my day begins with a loud buzzing noise. The noise comes from the side of my bed. It is my alarm buzzing. The next sound I hear is my hand slapping the snooze button. Again the buzzing goes off, and again my hand slaps. This time, I slowly crawl out of my warm, comfy bed.

Wouldn't it be great to sleep in as late as you wanted to each day?
Wouldn't it be great to not be awoken by that annoying buzzing noise?

I was thinking about this whole early morning routine that I go thru each day. The buzzing. The slapping. The buzzing again. The slapping again. The drudgery to get up out of my comfort area. The desire to just keep sleeping and ignore what lies ahead for me.

Wouldn't it be just awful if we looked at serving God like this?

• Instead of each morning seeing our new day filled with many blessings, we looked at it with drudgery.
•  Instead of looking for opportunities to share the love of Christ with others, we just stayed in our comfort area.
•  Instead of recognizing the noises of the battered, torn and bruised as our ministry, we just tune the lost and dying out.

Every morning is a new day, a new beginning and another day to choose to serve Him. That should be enough to make me want to JUMP out of bed!

PSALM 16:5 "My choice is You, God, first and only. And now I find I'm Your choice!" (MSG)

God has already chosen us ... so what are we going to do ~ Jump up or hit the snooze?

and that is a piece of my heart today;

Creepy and Crawly things

I really do not like creepy, crawly things. If it slithers in the swamp or comes out at night, most likely I will get the heebie-jeebies. I really don't know why things like this startle me or scare me, but they do. Especially if unexpected, seeing one of these creepy critters will almost cause me to jump out of my skin.

Fear can grip us at the most unusual times!

The other night, I was driving down a very dark and secluded road. Up ahead, I noticed something slithering very slowly across the road. It startled me so much that I jumped and actually slowed the car down. My husband, who was sitting in the passenger side, said "What are you doing?" and I said (in a very alarmed voice), "Don't you see that? What is that?". My daughter who was sitting in the back seat, looked and jumped and hollered, "ahh"!

Fear sometimes is very contagious!

As we slowly approached the creepy, crawly thing that was moving very slowly across the road, my husband burst out in laughter...the very thing that creeped me out was simply a crumpled up bag blowing across the road.

Fear can be misleading.

Many of us have creepy, crawly things in our lives that grip us with daily fear. Maybe it is the fear of losing your job, or losing a loved one to death. Possibly fear in your life is caused by depression, anxiety or lack of self confidence. Fear is not how God intends for the Christian to live their life...in fact He tells us to not fear or be dismayed for He is with us at all times.

JOSHUA 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest." (KJV)

How comforting is that? To know that even in those moments of darkness or when those creepy things happen, that God is right there with us. Just like that bag that tricked me in the middle of the night, don't let the enemy trick you with fear!

"Courage isn't the absence of fear; it's discovering the presence of God in the middle of fear."

Are you a BK Christian?

"Have it your way, Have it your way!"  Everybody just has to love Burger King ... the only place that you can have your burger how you like it.

"Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, Special orders don't upset us, All we ask is that you let us serve it your way, Have it your way; have it your way at Burger King!"

Sure, other fast food restuarants have caught onto this "have it your way" attitude but Burger King was the first one to believe in this concept, in fact, they believed in it so much, that they made this their promotional jingle.

I was thinking about the slogan that BK has commercialized on and realized that we really do live in a world where we want things to go OUR way. If things don't go our way, we get mad, we take our business elsewhere or worse ... we get even! For the christian, having things OUR way may not line up to be what God's way is.

After all, if we had it OUR way ... we would lavish in the love, the joy and the peace. But what about trials and tribulations? What about having obedience? Or sacrifice? I am certain if we had things OUR way, we would not want any of those things. But God's way is so much better than OUR way and in order to follow Him, we must accept the complete package. We cannot live by a "made to order" relationship with Him. It is all or nothing! We surrender or we don't.

JOHN 14:6 says that He is the Way, the Truth and the Light!

Are you seeking His way today or are you a Burger King Christian?

THANKFUL THURSDAY... my helmet

Recently, my sweet husband gave me a most unique gift. A helmet. Apparently he thought I was in need of one. He may have been a day or two late with it though. You see, a few days earlier I had a run in with a bucket, a mop and a mop handle. Mostly the mop handle.

We have had a week or two of some frigid cold temperatures mixed with some ice and snow. (A rare occasion here in the south.) On one of these freezing cold days, I had left my mop and bucket outside. Not thinking about the rain that my bucket was collecting. Apparently rain mixed with freezing temperatures creates ice? This created my mop to be frozen solid.

So, I did what every smart woman would do ... I took that bucket and smacked it against the ground to break the ice. I am so intelligent ... it worked, the ice broke and I dumped it out onto the ground. When I layed the bucket and mop down, apparently the mop itself was still frozen to the bottom of the bucket and instead of laying down on the ground, that mop did a 180 and flung right back up and smacked me right in the head! ouch. It was at this moment that I really wish I had had that helmet!

When you think about it...helmets are our friend, mop handles are not. Helmets can protect us from dangerous, life threatening things like mop handle attacks. and other things!

There is another kind of helmet that does that very thing ... protects against dangerous, life threatening things and that is the helmet of salvation:

1 THESSALONIANS 5:8 "put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation."

I was really surprised at how big of bump and bruise that my incident with the mop handle left on my forehead area. In time it will heal. Without the helmet of salvation, there is no way for our "bumps and brusies" in life to heal properly, not without His forgiveness and His grace.

I am thankful for helmets ...
either way you look at it, they are a neccesity in life!

Do you have your helmet on?

Today is THANKFUL THURSDAY and IRIS is our host this month. Share your grateful heart with us HERE!