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This time of year the candy seems to pour into my house. No matter where my children go, they are blessed with treats and candy. As one holiday follows another, the “blessings” go on and on. Not that my children are complaining, (neither is their dentist!) One of my daughters in particular, is quite the confectionery gourmand. However, every now and then, there will be something that is even outside her expansive taste. My kids call it “weird candy.”

The trading becomes hilarious and sometimes fierce, as they try to persuade a sibling to take the unwanted candy. Surrounded by piles of candy that they do like, they can become very focused on the one piece they haven’t even tried, but are sure they will hate.

As always, my children’s escapades cause me to think about my own life. What is the “weird candy” that pops up unexpectedly? Things that are not necessarily bad or difficult, but just different and unexpected. My tendency is to view new things warily. It might turn out to be my favorite activity in the world, but like my kids being unwilling to eat something unfamiliar, I am also hesitant to try the unknown.

There is another side of this. Just as my children lose sight of the blessings surrounding them as they focus on the unusual, I too can get so wrapped up in worrying about a new opportunity that I forget that I am surrounded by blessings. I forget that God always gives us choices, that as long as I am putting Him first I am free to try new things or not try new things.

God gives us opportunities every day. There are opportunities for obedience, which by the way, He will never force us to do. Also, there are opportunities for growth. And then there are the “weird candy” opportunities, times when we can choose to step outside of our comfort zones and try something new!

“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Galatians 6:10

I know we hear a lot about the power of prayer, but it still takes me aback sometimes when I see it in action.

The other day I had a worry pop up in my mind. It wasn’t an earth-shattering problem, but it was still significant to me. Instead of worrying it to death and trying to problem solve it on my own, I took it to Jesus in prayer. Almost as soon as the name, “Jesus,” was formed in my brain, an answer to my problem came to mind. It was such a wonderful reminder of how intimately involved Jesus is in our lives and how He longs to be in relationship with us.

Not that I am saying that all He wants to do is tag along with my agenda for my day and help me, but He wants to be our true focus and source of strength and power. It seems like every devotional, scripture, or Christian book I am reading lately has had one theme: Jesus first, everything else second. This is comforting and difficult all at the same time.

This year has been enough to either cause people to take their eyes completely off Jesus because they view the circumstances as so difficult that there is no way a loving Savior could have allowed them, or the circumstances of this year have brought people to a place of realizing once again, the power of prayer. If we truly believe that God hears our prayers, we can feel comforted even in the midst of hardships.

Prayer is powerful. When we pray, we are literally speaking to the God of the universe Who holds all things together, (even frazzled mothers!) He knows the outcome of everything. He knows our hurts, sorrows and also our joys.

The question may then arise, why pray? If God already knows it all, why do I need to tell Him? It goes back to my first point: relationship. He wants to hear from us. He wants to talk to us. The reason we were created was to have fellowship with our Creator. Prayer also keeps us humble. When I realize that I can’t do it on my own and I bring my troubles to my loving Father, I am admitting my need and receiving His grace. Another really good reason to pray is because Jesus prayed. He modeled prayer in the Bible, in fact, He even prayed for us!

I know this has been an extremely rough, trying year. However, I hope that this reminder that Jesus is always a prayer away has been encouraging. I hope that as you and I learn to pray more, that we will find strength and comfort in the power of prayer.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

“I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see,” so begins a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson that I loved as a child. Shadows are tricky things. As the poem goes on to describe, they do not behave in usual ways. Sometimes they expand and sometimes they are hardly visible at all.

This time of year, shadows take on an ominous quality for children with big imaginations. Each one just might be a monster waiting to jump out and say, “Boo!” While children enjoy the fun of a good scare, I as an adult need to be a little more cautious in how I deal with the shadows in my life.

See, another interesting thing about shadows is how they can misrepresent the object. Shadows can end up looking distorted and scary, far different from how a room looks with the lights on. We are taught a lot about staying away from the dark things of life, evil things that would be detrimental to our relationship with Jesus. However, there is also danger when there is just a small amount of light on a situation, maybe just enough to distort the truth in our minds.

This is a lot like when my children use flashlights. They do not seem to understand that a flashlight works best when held steadily at the area that needs illumination. Instead, they bounce the beam all over, blinding me and creating a confusing array of shadows that move all over the place. If I don’t allow the Holy Spirit to be my light and I am not using the Bible as the lamp of God that it claims to be, I might end up in a shadow world of half truths and confusion.

Jesus is the Light of The World. He came to take away the darkness and bring everything into the light. I am so grateful that I can bring all of my darkness, problems and worries to Him to shed light on and show me the truth!

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

I need to share something humbling with you my readers…

When I read articles or blogs on the Internet or even in a magazine, I have a tendency to think of the author as an expert.  At the very least, I usually imagine them highly qualified.

This belief actually held me back from writing because I did not see myself as qualified to write about anything.  Then I read a quote from Justin McRoberts that said, “May the reality that I cannot know the whole truth never keep me from bearing witness to what I can and do see.”  This gave me courage to start sharing through writing.

Now the embarassing part.  There are so many times when I go back to edit or review one of my blogs and I realize I have not been remembering or living into one of God’s truths I had written about!  It is one of those, “Oh yeah,” moments.

As I am writing, I seem to be teaching myself and hopefully you, my readers, will glean something along the way too.  So while I am not an expert, I am continuing to learn and grow and to bravely share what I am learning.  I found a quote from Phil Collins that sums it up very well, “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”

I hope this will encourage you as well to share things you learn with others.  Even if you don’t have all the answers, or life all figured out, someone could use your wisdom and experience today.  You don’t need to be an expert or highly qualified in order to do something, you just need a little bit of courage and the willingness to allow God to use you and your unique gifts.

“Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”  Proverbs 27:17

As much of an oxymoron as this title might sound, I believe it is possible.

After the year we have had so far, I am sure I am not the only one feeling like I should just slap a big “F” in red letters on it and hope for a better grade next year! However, in that kind of thinking I am selling myself very short and also being short-sighted in all that I have actually learned in this extremely difficult time.

In fact, one of the things I have learned a lot about this year is called “re-framing.” This is when you change the way you think about an experience or even something as simple as an undesirable task. For instance, I could get really down about all the events we have missed this year that my family would have normally gone to. But re-framing would remind me of all of the opportunities we had at home doing family activities that we ordinarily would have been too busy to enjoy.

But back to the sense of failure that keeps trying to creep in. Just like re-framing is a mindset, failure and success, most of the time, live in our thoughts about ourselves and the attitude we have about those thoughts. If I view myself as a “failure,” or this entire year as a “failure,” I automatically discount anything good. Never mind that my kids have loved having me around more. Forget the fact that I have overhauled and cleaned out almost every square inch of my home. Completely overlook the extra time I have had in the evenings to read to my little ones and talk and listen to my teenagers.

I believe the reason we in our country have struggled so mightily with the restrictions that we have encountered, is due in part to this overwhelming drive for success. I find in my own life that I don’t even have a clear idea of what the success I am pushing for even looks like! We just push ourselves so hard that we don’t even have time to ask ourselves that question.

So recently, God began to teach me about successful failure. He had me camp out in Psalm 23 in the Bible, re-reading it every morning. This beautiful Psalm is all about Him being our shepherd. The part about the shepherd making the sheep lie down in green pastures resonated with me. I am very much like the somewhat dumb sheep that can’t even take a break by themselves, but have to be made to lie down. God engineered circumstances in my world to the point that I finally threw my hands up in the air and sat down and rested in my Heavenly Father’s loving arms. Which, of course, is exactly where He wants all of us to dwell. My successful failure right now looks like giving everything in my life to Jesus and trusting Him to lead me the next minute, the next hour, and on, trusting that even if I don’t accomplish the things that I thought were important that it is okay. He is teaching me that the only success there is in this life is to know Him and have a relationship with Him. All of the rest will some day fall by the wayside.

So the next time the thought comes into your mind that you have failed, check in with God. He can re-frame your thinking quickly and remind you that if you are right with Him and pursuing Him with all that you are that you are a great success! Also, remember that nothing is wasted with God and even things that we view as failures, He will use in His ultimate success story.

“And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

I want to get the most out of this difficult experience.  To suck the marrow out.  Go past the surface, past the heart of the matter even, to where the life blood is created.  For that is what I need, a transfusion.  The only way to change, Jesus’ blood for mine.  Oh God, don’t let me miss it, the change You are doing in me.  Don’t let me heal over too quickly, leaving something ugly festering underneath.

Down to the marrow, the root of my pain.  There is pain there, but also strength.  The marrow of a bone holds all the nourishment.  God are You going to nourish me on my pain?  Only You could do something like that, taking darkness and creating light out of it.

Can I be brave enough to ask You to take me all the way down, down to the scariest places of my soul?  To take me to a place of real healing.

I don’t know what’s in there, but You do God.  You know the anemia my faulty marrow has created in my life.  Me living a thin existence when all the while Jesus is waiting, holding out the rich cup of His blood of the covenant He made with me. 

Can I reach out with a shaky hand, take and drink?

“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you:  The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’  In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”  I Corinthians 11:23-26