The Rear-View Mirror

I had to go on a bit of a road trip today. The sun was bright and the leaves were absolutely beautiful. I had my praise and worship music in and I was singing along – totally enjoying the moment. All of a sudden this changed! I had entered into a section of road that was under construction and the bright sun hi-lighted all of the road makings making it impossible to identify which lane was which. I quickly found myself looking around for cars and fortunately the traffic was light. But...when I looked into my rear-view mirror something interesting caught my attention – the lines could be viewed perfectly! I glanced ahead again and they still looked all mixed up as the sun hi-lighted the areas where the workers had painted over the old markings, making them seem real again. As long as I glanced into my rear-view mirror I could keep my car in my lane of traffic – I could see the way.

After I drove out of the construction area I was thinking about what had just happened and was reminded about a book I have just finished, The Sacred Romance, by Brent Curtis and John Eldridge. This book describes the relationship God desires to have with each of us. The authors speak of life being a journey and referenced what we need to take on that journey. The three main things we need are faith, hope and love. The authors often quoted from Pilgrim’s Progress and, at one point, described when Pilgrim lay in despair because he had forgotten – forgotten how he had overcome pain, hardship, terror and loneliness. “Hopeful” urged Pilgrim to remember, both all he had been through as well as the assurance he has from God who called him on the journey. The authors suggest that “life on the road requires recollection of our Lord’s past deeds on our behalf and His promise of continued faithfulness to us. We will need courage and patience and those are strengthened by remembering. We will need memory, which is to say, we will need faith. Faith looks back and draws courage; hope looks ahead and keeps desire alive.” Faith looks back...Faith remembers! Romans 5:3-4 “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

So, on the road of life, when the way becomes blurred and not totally clear, we need to look in the rear-view mirror in faith, remembering all that God has brought us through and all of His precious promises to us. As we draw courage from that we can then look ahead again – to the often-times still blurred lines – and know where we are to go, trusting God all the while – for He IS trustworthy!

DISCIPLINE THE LORD APPROVES

I wanted to share with you a session from the Mom to Mom – growing together study that Linda Anderson wrote. In Linda’s devotion she addressed Eph. 6:1-4 and points out verse 4 which stood out in my mind:

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”. (NIV)

The Home and Christian Standard Bible puts it this way “Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”.

And the version in “The Message” says “Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master”.

Linda Anderson goes on to say that 1) we must be confident of our responsibility as parents, 2) careful in our discipline so to not provoke anger in our children. Colossians 3:21 says “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged”. 3) We have standards in training and instruction that comes from the Lord. Hebrews 12:1-13 speaks about God disciplining his sons. “The Lord disciplines those he loves”.

Discipline begins with teaching, training and modeling
Discipline grows out of love
Discipline is for the child’s good
Discipline should begin early
Discipline should inspire and motivate – not exasperate
Discipline requires courage and perseverance

These are positive biblical principles of discipline.

I have been disciplined so many times by my Lord, but it always inspires and motivates me, and I feel it is out of God’s deep love for me and not anger. It is also for my good and so I will pass this on to my children.

My son the other day was concerned about his sister and came down hard on her with his advice. She got upset and ran to the other room. I followed her and told her that her brother loves her soooo much that he wants so much for her to listen to him for her benefit, but unfortunately says it in a harsh way. Her brother came in and I told him “although your intentions are good, you need to say it in a more loving way or else your sister will not hear the good advice and will be exasperated”. He hugged his sister and apologized and she immediately perked up.

I think we all need to be careful in how we discipline. My prayer today for myself and for you all is that we be “courageous and persevere” in the loving discipline that our heavenly Father himself approves.

We Have a Winner for the Scripture Memory Challenge!!

Way to go Siestas on all the memorization fo God's Word over the summer.
Every time you entered a verse on the blog that you were memorizing, your name was put in on a slip of paper and put into a box. Today a random draw was made of all the entries, from June till September.
And the winner is...........




Drum roll..........







Fanfare............







Tammy Brophy !!!!!








Tammy wins a $20 gift card to Starbucks. Congratulations to everyone for hiding God's Word in your heart!!! We are still keeping up the scripture memory in step with Beth's LPM Blog, so don't let up. It goes till the end of December.

Scripture Memory Workout for October 1st

It's officially Fall. Today in Ontario, it's a crispy cold morning, the sky is blue and the trees are turning shades of gold and orange and red.

When Fall happens it makes us sit up and take notice.

My Scripture memory verses for this week remind me that everything in this big world points to God's compassion and love for His children.

Ps 103:12-14 "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgression from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He knows how we are formed and remembers that we are dust."

What is your memory verse? How does it remind you of God's love for you?