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All I can say is, you better have rock-solid self esteem before you start to work with kids. I have taught piano for over 27 years now and have been a mother for almost 18. In that space of time I have been asked all sorts of questions that could have caused me to crawl under the nearest rock if I hadn’t had a healthy self image!

“Why is your nose that shape?”

“Why does your tummy stick out?” (This question was asked each of my 8 pregnancies.)

“Why do you wear glasses?”

And on and on the questions go. Children are not trying to be mean, they really are curious and extremely visual. I try to just let the questions roll off and give answers that gently close the subject!

I know that our appearances can be very sensitive subjects. Most women, and my understanding is even most men, are very aware of how they look. And most of us would like to change something about our looks.

It seems to hold true that people with straight hair wish they had curly, and people with curly hair wish theirs was straight. Tall people want to be shorter and the shorter of us wish we were taller. We dye our hair, go to the gym and buy new clothes. The truth is however, God does not make junk!

God designed each one of us. He decided before each of us was born exactly what we would look like. He sees each of us as beautiful, His creation. The world with all its advertising and social media tries to make us think we have to look a certain way to be loved and accepted. This is such a lie. You are most beautiful when you are being yourself, when you radiate the joy you have inside and when you share the love God has given you with others.

So if you also work with curious children, the next time you are asked a question about your appearance, I hope you can joyfully answer, “Because God made me this way, and He made you beautiful too!”

“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14

Do you ever feel like you are not much more important than a rock? Just an unglamorous, maybe even uncelebrated rock.

Sometimes just the day-in, day-out mundaneness of life can get us down. God doesn’t call us to one fabulous mountain top moment after another. Most of the time it is one step in front of another obedience, mostly in small things.

However, even rocks will cry out to God if nobody else does. In the book of Joshua in the Bible, Joshua set up a stone as a witness to his people that it had heard all the words God had spoken to them. Joshua said that it would be a witness against them if they were untrue to God. (Joshua 24:27) Also in Luke when Jesus’ followers were proclaiming that He was the king come in the name of the Lord and the Pharisees tried to quiet them, Jesus said that if the disciples stopped, the stones themselves would cry out the truth.

I think one of the hardest disciplines of all in life is to learn to just be, no matter where God might have us at the moment, even if we feel like a rock. Oswald Chambers asserts that, “So often we mar God’s designed influence through us by our self-conscious effort to be consistent and useful. Jesus says that there is only one way to develop spiritually, and that is by concentration on God.” This is so hard for me to believe. I am always fascinated by nature: rocks, trees and animals freely living out their God designed plan without worrying about if they are useful or not. I have such a difficult time relaxing into God’s plans for me and just learning to be.

The amazing thing is, that it is actually God’s plan for us to be living stones in His spiritual house. I Peter 2:4-5 says, “As you come to Him, the living Stone- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” I love this term, “living stone”, because it means that even if I feel like gravel or a diamond, God is using me in His kingdom, it is just in His way and in His time. The other thing I like about this verse is that it was written by Peter who knew all about going from feeling outcast and useless to actually having his name changed to “Rock” by Jesus Himself and becoming a part of His kingdom.

So even if today doesn’t feel that exciting, know that God is doing a great work in you. Lean into Jesus even if circumstances aren’t what you wish they were. Obey even when it seems boring. As Oswald Chambers also said, “if we keep concentrated on Him we will grow spiritually as the lilies.”–or rocks!

“‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples!’ ‘I tell you,’ He replied, ‘if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'” Luke 19:38-40

As you might guess from the title, this blog is about our money. It is really amazing how hard it is to trust God in this area. I almost feel as though I can more easily trust Him with my eternal salvation and destination, than I can trust Him to provide for my needs today! Since the founding fathers of our country chose to inscribe our currency with the term, “In God we trust,” I am guessing I am not the only one with this hang up.

I think money is especially difficult for followers of Jesus. We have all kinds of differing beliefs about wealth, from people deliberately living in poverty, to the prosperity gospel believers. I think the bottom line comes down to trust. Are we trusting that our God is a good God, able to supply all we need and to give us wisdom and discernment in how to use our resources?

As I mentioned, this is very hard to do. My personal goal is to get to a place of faith and trust where I don’t worry anymore about whether or not God will provide for me. I want to have unshakable faith that of course my heavenly Father is going to take care of me. Despite the fact that God has never let me down, I still doubt!

As many of you know, I really love “My Utmost For His Highest,” by Oswald Chambers. I recently read that he says that trusting God to provide for us is actually a habit and one of the first that we need to establish in our spiritual lives. The reason for this is that it is not just about our material provision, but the provision of His grace and power in our lives. If we say we are following Jesus, but are still just scraping by each day in our own strength, it doesn’t say much about the redemptive power of the cross!

My prayer for us as Jesus’ followers is that we will make it a habit to trust more and more in God’s abundant provision in every area of our lives. That we wouldn’t fall into bed at night with a feeling of having barely made it through the day, but with a sense of confidence and peace. That we would be able to look back through each day and see God providing over and over and to also look forward with expectancy to tomorrow when we know that He will do it all over again.

“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from You; You are the ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.” I Chronicles 29:11-12

(For any of you that would like more information about a Godly perspective on finances or how to get out of debt or manage money better, I would highly recommend Dave Ramsey. He has written many books on the subject, has a radio show and a very helpful website. You can find more at www.DaveRamsey.com)

Every now and then we all need a soft place to land. If you pay attention, that is actually what most of our sitcoms are about. “Cheers” spelled it out most clearly with their theme song titled “Where Everybody Knows Your Name.” Life can be tough and all of us long for a place to land, where everyone truly knows and accepts us–even at our worst.

From the bar of “Cheers,” sitcoms traveled to a coffee shop in New York on the show “Friends.” Once again the theme was really about being loved and accepted for who you are.

Some of us are blessed to have physical places we can go like this. I am extremely blessed with a few places that I can show up, as is, no questions asked. These places are more about the people than the place–precious people in my life who love me through the good, the bad and the ugly.

In our very disconnected society of social media and texting it is even more important to connect with people in person. I don’t think our longing for that connection has diminished at all, in fact if anything I believe it has increased. Once again, the Bible has it covered. Hebrews 10:25 says, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.”

I would encourage you, if you don’t feel like you have a soft place to land, become that place for others. Open up your heart, and maybe your home, to people who are hurting, (that is actually everyone) and you will be surprised to find that people will treat you the same in return.

The wonderful thing is that God knows us better than anyone else. Even when it feels as though the whole world has abandoned us and there is no one left, He will never leave us. He is always there with His arms open wide to receive us just as we are. And that is the very best place of all to land!

“The Lord will hold me close.” Psalm 27:10b