Under Pressure!

As we head into week 6, I would like to focus on looking at our self-esteem. This is a passionate topic for me as I believe that most women, I can't speak for the men, struggle in this area.

So how should you feel about yourself? If your self-esteem becomes inflated, you fall into the sin of pride and arrogance. If your self-esteem is inadequate, you diminish your value and potential. So exactly how are we to think of ourselves?

Don't you feel sometimes like you are living in a pressure cooker? You are under pressure to be more, have more, and do more continually!

Romans 12:3 states, For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

How you see yourself influences how you live, how you interact with others, and even how you relate to God. So self-esteem is HUGE!

The world recognizes physical beauty for the way we look from our weight, clothes, hair, make-up, and physical fitness level. We are pushed to have the right car, home, newest techno gadget, etc. We are told that we need to have big careers, positions, and power in the work place. Every which way we turn there is a pressure to have more, be more and do more. Lacking in any of the above areas, the world tells us we aren't good enough.

So how do we handle the pressures of the world?

Paul shares in Romans 12:1-2

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Not by ourselves, but with God!

Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. God wants it ALL, our everyday, ordinary life!

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
I love this part, because it causes us to really think about how routinely we go through our days.

Instead, fix your attention on God.

You'll be changed from the inside out. COOL!

Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. How do I recognize want He wants from me?

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Our world with put us into the pressure cooker to live up to it's standards. Living by God's standards will actually grow us more than living by the world's expectations.

When we look at ourselves through God's eyes and not the eye's of the world, our perspective can change and the pressures exerted on us by the world's standards slowly diminish. We are free to live a life of contentment with who we are, what we have, and where we are going.

Doesn't that sound so much better than living in a pressure cooker?

Blessings,

Jill

Green With Envy

'Not he who has little, but he who wishes for more is poor.' Envy hates others for perceived advantages.

Have you ever envied something another person has? I don't believe I have ever met a person who has not experienced this emotion. Speaking from a woman's point of view, I can easily get caught up in the comparison game. I have envied other's clothes, homes, careers, bodies, parenting skills, husbands, personalities, and I could continue to fill this entire blog with an endless list.

Webster defines envy as a feeling of discontent and ill will because of an other's advantages; a resentful dislike of another who has something that one desires.

Since the focus of envy is people; it is not unsual that others get hurt. If fact Galatians 5:19 - 21 gives a descriptive list of the result of envy.

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:

repetitive, loveless, cheap sex

a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage

frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness

trinket gods

magic-show religion

paranoid loneliness

cutthroat competition

all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants

a brutal temper

an impotence to love or be loved

divided homes and divided lives

small-minded and lopsided pursuits

the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival

uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions

ugly parodies of community

I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom

As I review that very pointed list the result of my envy is revealed. I think of times when I have envied other's husbands and what I 'see on the outside'. This in turn has caused me to set standards for my husband that when not met, I get angry and frustrated in the relationship to the point of thinking we should not be together. Fights took place and viscous words were spoken.

I have made material purchases in pursuit of frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness. This in turn had caused me to incur debt, which in turn put a financial hardship on our family.

I have envied other's bodies, becoming so dissatisfied with my own that that lack of confidence has been taken out in other forms of frustration on my children.

Envy is a continuous focus on what I perceive that I do not have and in turn will result in hurting others. Envy undermines any hope of contentment in your life. For our own stability in life and for the sake of others, we can not tolerate envy's lodging within us. It is a spiritual cancer that demands radical treatment.

I would ask that you reveal today what things you are envious of and how that has resulted in hurting another. Repent your sins and receive forgiveness and strive every day to pursue a life of contentment in what God has provided for you. He will always take care of everything that you need.

Blessings,

Jill

Where's The Shampoo!

This week we are talking about contentment and the opposite of contentment is lust, greed, and envy. Today our focus is on greed.

Greed means an excessive desire for getting or having something, especially wealth; a desire for more than one needs or deserves, wanting or taking all one can get with no thought of others.

If you have ever raised a toddler, you have heard the ever famous words, 'It's Mine!' My girls are now 9 and 12 and I still here arguments over 'borrowing things'. In fact, I would have to say I am just as guilty of the same behaviour. Being a mom of two girls, my bathroom tends to get raided several times a week, for curling irons, blow dryers, brushes, shampoo, razors, bobby pins, and the list goes on and on. Please note: they have a bathroom stocked with all of the above necessities. It just seems that MINE are a bit more attractive.

So I am standing naked in the shower and getting ready to wash my hair, I look down, and there is no shampoo! I more than a few times have I yelled at the top of my lungs, 'Where's MY stuff!' 'Why can't anyone put MY stuff away!'. 'Someday I will have all MY stuff in it's place!' Which is usually accompanied by the slamming of a door, as I stomp soaking wet from their bathroom back into MY shower!

Even the dog in the house gets protective of HER new chew bone not wanting any of us to come near her while she is enjoying her delectable treat!

No wonder in the Bible greed is mentioned as one of the all-encompassing sins we battle. Looking into our house, I can believe that is true! We have an innate selfishness nature that we have to continually battle. In fact it begins the minute we are born. In order to get fed or changed we have to fuss or cry. As we grew into our toddler years, we had to learn how to share. As adults we easily get caught up in the world's views of it's mine and I need more!

Jesus taught a great lesson on greed in Luke 12:13 - 21.

Someone out of the crowd said, "Teacher, order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance." He replied, "Mister, what makes you think it's any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?"

Speaking to the people, he went on, "Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot."

Then he told them this story: "The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: 'What can I do? My barn isn't big enough for this harvest.' Then he said, 'Here's what I'll do: I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll gather in all my grain and goods, and I'll say to myself, Self, you've done well! You've got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!'

Just then God showed up and said, 'Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?' "That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God."

Just the other day, Milo and I were talking about how we would react if we lost our home in a tornado or fire. Milo's reaction was 'It's just stuff.' I have to admit I was a bit more, "well, what about?" We both agreed you can not know your reaction to such a tradegy until you have experienced it and we sympathized with anyone who has suffered such a loss.

Jesus share such a profound statement in the above message when he said, 'Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.'

Unless we are vigilant, greed can easily exert it's influence in our lives. Once established, being driven by needing more and more can easily cause our lives to lose any sense of balance and harmony. We have to work harder, do more, go more, in order to keep accumulating things that only temporarily make us happy. Only God through His Holy Spirit can free us from the bonds of greed in our lives and help us to see that the most important thing is our relationship with Him and the relationships we have with those around us.

My prayer for you today is that you have contentment and satisfaction in your life based on your relationship Christ and not of the 'things' in this world

Blessings,

Jill

A Greener Hue

Yesterday we kicked off the week discussing contentment. Over the next three days our focus will be on three things opposite of contentment, lust, greed, and envy. Today we look at lust.

According to Websters, lust means a desire to gratify the senses or appetites; to feel an intense desire for something. In the bible lust denotes a strong desire for ANYTHING, usually with a negative connotation. When I think of lust what comes to mind is sexual impurity, however lust may be financial or material possessions.

A funny conversation got going a few weekends back when my family was here for a visit. We were talking about lawns and how your neighbors lawn tends to always look greener and thicker than yours. My sister had a great point when she said, 'Have you ever gone over to your neighbors lawn and looked at your lawn from their vantage point? You lawn will actually look greener and thicker.' When I tried it, she was right! When I am looking directly down on my lawn, I see the weeds, the dry patches, and the unevenness, however when I look at it from my neighbors perspective, it actually doesn't look too bad. Hence, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Isn't it interesting that money is green too?

I think that is a great way to describe lust. When we look to our neighbors, our co-workers, friends, family, even to material things such as a different car, food, clothes, homes, and the list goes on; we see it from a different perspective. However if we look at it from another vantage point, does it really look all that appealing. What if we looked at if from a biblical driven vantage point. What if we stepped into the shoes of another less fortunate person and then looked at our current living situation? Would the hue of our grass look greener?

In 1 Timothy 6:10 - 11 it states, 'But if it's only money these leaders are after, they'll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.
But you, Timothy, man of God: Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.

I highlighted the word money and I want you today to substitute whatever action, thought, or possession in it's place that you have been lusting after. Lust for food, a new home, new clothes, a new car, an other's husband/wife, etc....

Lust can allow us to lose our footing in faith completely. Even Christians can go astray and live to regret it.

Instead, we have been instructed to pursue a righteous life and to run hard and fast in our faith.

Once you had identified that strong desire ask God to replace it with a desire to know Him more in an intimate relationship. That your mind would be filled with love, faith, joy, endurance, and gentleness; as we take a moment and truly look at our current state from an other's vantage point. I think we will be surprised to see just how 'green' our situation is!

Blessings,

Jill

If You Are Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands!

May be you can remember the familiar children's song, "If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands, If you are happy and you know it clap your hands. If you are happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it, if you are happy and you know it, clap your hands." It then goes onto stomp your feet, shout 'AMEN', and finally do all three.

The theme for week 5 of my 10 week series on Living A Life of Balance and Harmony according to God's plan is on contentment. Wouldn't you agree that the world is driven by a restless desire called discontentment? The world tells us we are never good enough and we never have enough. We should always be striving for the next best thing to buy, promotion to earn, and the list can go on and on.

As I prepared for this blog today, I have to share that God has been working on me in a big way over the past 10 months on exactly this subject. I have struggled with identifying who I am in the career world, as a mom/wife, and as a woman in general. It has been a tough last year. I have had days of disappointment, anger and frustration. The major lesson I have learned through a lot of soul searching is contentment. I have never felt more content on who I am and where I am going then I do today! I still have many unanswered questions. I still don't know exactly what my plan is. I still have identified areas of continued personal growth.

However the last 10 months have taught me that contentment is knowing that God's plan is perfect. Contentment is realizing that I don't need to have all the answers by tomorrow. Contentment in knowing that I am right here in the present, living a life seeking God's heart and character, which is my number one mission in life. Contentment is realizing that when I leave this earth it will not be about the position in my career, how big my retirement fund was, what kind of house I lived in, but it will be about how I did growing my relationship to God and with those around me. All those 'extras' as I like to view them are just 'icing on the cake' if God blesses me with such.

In fact in the mist of my career/identity challenges, in April we found out that Milo's position at work was being eliminated. A friend asked me just the other day, how things were going and I very calmly stated, 'GREAT'. She indicated that perhaps the past few months have been extra stressful in our household and I could honestly say not one bit. Both Milo and I have been growing so strongly in our faith, that we both know that God has a plan and that plan is always perfect, whether for our good or to teach us a lesson that will mature and grow us.

Even the dictionary definition of contentment suggests a spiritual challenge to pursue; happy with what one has or is, not desiring some thing more or different.

As Paul was nearing the end of his life he wrote the book Philippians where in chapter 4:10 - 14 he shares on contentment.

"I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you're again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

Just last night, as Milo and I were drifting to sleep he rolled over and said, 'I LOVE MY LIFE.' We both smiled and knew that we could clap our hands, stomp our feet, and shout AMEN all at the same time!

Blessings,

Jill