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I teach piano to about 20 students of various levels of ability, from my little beginners to some fairly advanced students.  Inevitably though, at the end of my teaching day it is not the beautiful classical pieces playing themselves over in my head, but the very first plunked out melodies of “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” and “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat.”

Ear worms.  Such a gross term for those musical phrases that want to play in a loop in our minds.  I have no idea why they stick in our heads the way they do, but aside from being mildly irritating I suppose they don’t do any real harm.  There are some phrases that play through our heads that can cause us harm though.  Thoughts like, “I’m not good enough,” or “Why can’t I have it all together like so-and-so does?”  These kind of thoughts used to absolutely paralyze me.  For many years they held me back from doing a lot of things because I believed them to be true.

The only way to stop these thoughts from playing over and over in our minds is to confront them with the truth.  We have to acknowledge that they are actually lies.  True, we can never be “good” enough, but that is why Jesus came, to redeem us into His image.  Another way to get rid of these beasties is to learn to replace the lies with the truth of who we are: we have been made in the image of God!  Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  Even after we have banished these harmful thoughts we have to be on guard that they don’t sneak back into our minds, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You,”  Isaiah 26:3.

It took some work for me to learn how to “catch” those nasty little ear worms, and replace them with truth, but it has been so worthwhile.  I still have to be on my guard that they don’t creep back into my thoughts, but just like my piano students know, practice makes perfect!  This new way of thinking has provided freedom in my life to pursue things I never thought possible.  Will you join me?  Will you believe the truth about yourself and what God has planned for your life?  I can’t wait to see what you do with your new freedom and truth!

“Finally, brothers, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  Philippians 4:8

Why is it that when we think of eating something healthy we think of spinach?  It is the quintessential stereotype in any children’s story to have a parent telling their little one to eat their spinach.  Why do we also approach our relationship with God this way?  I better eat my spinach: read my Bible for so long each day, go to church every Sunday, put a certain amount of money in the offering plate, and the list goes on.  If we do all these things we will be spiritually healthy right?

I don’t think this is quite what God had in mind when He made humans.  Also, let’s be honest, just like kids kick up a fuss about eating their spinach, not many of us actually stick with a dry spiritual diet like that anyway.

I recently heard a worship song with the phrase, “grace upon grace” in it.  For some reason it made me think of whipped cream.  I believe that what God is really offering us is dessert, not spinach.  He has this wonderful gift of salvation and new life He offers us and then on top of that He gives us grace upon grace.  This is like getting a piece of pie and being offered whipped cream and then more whipped cream!  The best part of all, is that we don’t even have to eat all our spinach to get this dessert.  There is nothing we have to do to earn what Jesus wants to give us, in fact one definition of grace is, “unmerited favor.”

Don’t worry, I am definitely not advocating abandoning your Bible or your church.  When we have a real relationship with God those things change from things we feel like we have to do, to things we get to do.  Oddly enough, the most difficult thing in all of this is simply receiving what Jesus is offering.  Saying yes to a relationship with Him and then yes to the grace He wants to lavish on us can be extremely difficult.  However, once we get a taste of the life He is offering we will probably be okay living on dessert!

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  John 10:10

“How much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”  Romans 5:17

I have to admit, I don’t travel light.  Just for an overnight I will have quite a large bag with me.  Actually, even going to the grocery store I usually have a purse, all my own grocery bags and now a mask.  Sometimes I feel more like a pack horse than a person!

Unfortunately this extends to my emotional and spiritual sides as well.  Waking up in the morning I am far more likely to think about my long to-do list than my long list of blessings, and I end up feeling burdened.

Yesterday while I was sitting with my coffee and Bible, a verse that was printed in my journal caught my eye.  It said, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits,” Psalm 68:19.  Hold on, God is trying to load me with benefits, not more burdens?  I looked this same verse up in another version of the Bible that turned it around a little:  “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”  Wow.  Not only is God trying to pile blessings on me, He is also bearing my daily loads.

Now the question comes in, will I allow Him to bless me, will I allow Him to carry my anxieties?  A lot of the time my own answer is no.  My pride gets in the way and I think I can do it all by myself.  I also don’t take the time to acknowledge the blessings God gives me.  I end up worn out and frazzled while Jesus is patiently waiting.

However, there are times when I do give my burdens to God and it is amazing!  I am so much more calm and peaceful.  So now I will repeat the question I asked in the title of this post, “Who is carrying your burdens?  Are you ready to hand them over to Jesus?”  If you are, simply tell Him, He is ready and waiting to carry them for you.

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”  I Peter 5:7

“Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you;  He will never let the righteous fall.”  Psalm 55:22

I was recently having a conversation with a friend of mine, when she dropped a bombshell on me, “You know you are going to have teenagers for the next 14 years.”

SAY WHAT?!?

“Hold on,” I told her while frantically doing the math in my head. She was right. My youngest is five and the rest of them are spaced just perfectly to keep me in teenagers for a long time. I have already had teenagers for 6 years and I am adding another one in a couple weeks when my daughter turns 13.

Trying to wrap my head around this fact, I then realized that with 8 kids I will have a collective total of 56 YEARS of parenting teenagers! I am going to be navigating turbulent, hormonal, waters for a very long time.

I feel tired.

Up until my, (now former friend 😉 ) pointed this out to me, I thought I had done really well to survive the toddler years and to get all the kids mostly potty-trained! However, I just finished driver’s education with my 16 year-old and he successfully got his license, now my third born turns 15 1/2 September 12, so I can do it all over again! I don’t know how, but somehow this teenage thing had escaped my notice.

I am blessed to have pretty good kids though, and so far they seem to be on the right track. It is tricky to stay “Mom,” but also move into a more advisory role and let them stumble here and there. I try to remind them that they are actually young adults, and that this is a great time to learn about getting along in a big world while they still have a safety net under them.

As for me, well, I have to remind myself daily, sometimes minute by minute, that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” even raise teenagers for another 14 years!

P.S. For all my friends that might want to tell me about what comes after teenagers, no thank you! Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

A verse for the teenagers in your life: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.” I Timothy 4:12

A verse for the mothers of teenagers: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

For some reason at bedtime my living room turns into a triage unit similar to an Emergency Room. All of a sudden every child has a wound or an ailment. I, in turn, become a triage nurse inspecting, diagnosing and dispensing the appropriate cure. “Tummy” medicine, “leg” medicine, and bandaids stay at the ready for bedtime.

I have no idea why these things suddenly bother them as soon as their heads hit their pillows. Maybe that is when they finally slow down enough to become aware of their bodies, or maybe it is a last ditch effort to avoid going to sleep! Whatever the reasons, it does become rather irritating to have them continually parade back through after they are supposed to be in bed.

I really could learn something from my kids in this though. Most of the time I don’t bring my little hurts to God. I try to tough it out, or figure it out on my own. I don’t know why I don’t think He cares about my nicks and cuts, but it seems like I have to be gushing from a main artery before I’ll drag myself to Him and ask for help.

God loves to hear from us all the time. I am so thankful that He is much more patient with me than I tend to be with my children at 8:00 in the evening. He doesn’t care what time it is, and He never has anything more important going on. He is ready and willing to listen to all our pains, no matter how small. In fact, maybe if I brought my hurts to Him when they were still little they wouldn’t grow into large hurts.

I am going to begin doing this before I go to bed. Instead of laying down and allowing all the events of the day to swirl through my head, I am going to take them to Jesus and let Him put some healing balm on them. Will you join me in this? I pray that as we learn to lay our pain at Jesus’ feet, He will increase our peace, and out of that will flow patience and grace for others and their hurts.

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”  I Peter 5:7

“On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.  Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”  Psalm 63:6-8

We are told frequently that if we are struggling or in a hard place, that helping others can make ourselves feel better. This is very true in my experience. Just sending a little encouraging text or doing something nice for someone can lift my spirits. However, I never thought very much how the other person might have felt after my gesture of kindness! Not that my efforts were purely selfish, I just vaguely hoped that they made some sort of difference.

Well, the other day I got to be on the receiving end of a little act of kindness. I had been having a hard day, not necessarily a bad day, just the kind of hard day we all seem to be experiencing lately. My neighbor texted me that she had been thinking of me, would like to get together later in the week, (socially distanced of course!) and that she had bought me a product for my hair that I might like. This cheered me up so much, that I was actually surprised.

It also opened my eyes and got me thinking about the true impact of a simple act of kindness. Our world is DESPERATE right now for kindness and healing. We can feel overwhelmed by the needs surrounding us or the mounting difficulties and problems we are facing. However, there are around 330 million of us in this country. If we each just do one small act of kindness every day, that is 330 million smiles, encouraging texts or bottles of hair-product-gifts each day! What if we did 2 or 3 or 4? I believe we could change our world.

As things continue to change and new challenges arise, we need to pull together, especially those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus. In the book of Matthew in the Bible Jesus said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father…for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink…Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give you something to drink?’…The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.'”

So according to that passage, we are not even doing these kind things for each other, but for Jesus! That puts an even bigger perspective on this. Will you join me? Will you help me change the world with kindness?

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8