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I have heard the story my whole life, the very earliest performed for me by kind Sunday School teachers on flannel boards. We got a little deeper into the theology behind the tale by the time I was in Junior High and High School, learning about doing what was right even when it was hard and went against the crowd. I have even done an in-depth Bible study on the entire book of Daniel as an adult.

However, in all that time, it never, until about a week ago, occurred to me how I would behave if thrown into a lions’ den. I knew that Daniel had been totally full of faith. He had to have been because he had continued to pray with his windows open even after it became illegal. Even right there is where old Daniel and I might part ways. As faithful as I hope I am, would I really have kept my windows open? “Um, I’m praying on the inside God, you can hear my prayer thoughts…”

But if I were to be thrown into the den, I realized I would most definitely not be as calm as Daniel. I know this because of other experiences in my life. I will have God tell me in some way to trust Him, that He is going to take care of me and the circumstances I am in. Do I joyfully say, “Great God, glad I don’t have to think about that anymore!” No, I tend to continue to fret, thinking through every possible scenario and outcome with some anxiety thrown in for good measure.

And so that is the picture I have of myself in the lions’ den. Instead of cuddling up to a nice furry lion and peacefully sleeping, I would be huddled in the corner continually checking to see if the lions had changed their minds. But what I am really asking is if God has changed His mind.

I am so grateful that God does not change! He is always with us, no matter how sharp those lions’ teeth, how dark the night or how fierce the enemies. It is up to me to choose to believe Him, and even then He promises to help us believe. My goal is to get to the place where I can rest secure wherever I may be, whatever the circumstances of my life might be, even if it is sleeping in the den of lions.

“At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’ Daniel answered, ‘O king, live forever! My God sent His angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.'” Daniel 6:19-22

As many of you know, I am a piano teacher. I have been teaching a long time and one of the things I constantly have to remind my students is that they have to slow down to go fast. At this point I have taught hundreds of students of all levels, ages and abilities and I have yet to meet one who does not try to play a piece too fast right away.

I explain the process of muscle memory, how if you play slowly and deliberately, measure by measure, your muscles will “remember” the notes even while your mind is learning them. I tell them this might feel as though it takes more time, however it will actually take less because they will not have to unlearn the mistakes they allow their finger muscles to learn.

I know this is the same for pretty much all of us in other areas of life too though. I am not sure if it is just an American trait or a human one, but I have yet to meet the person who gets excited about going extremely slow through a learning process. Especially the painful ones.

For whatever reason, this is usually how God chooses to teach us or refine us. I know for myself, when I am going through a stretching and growing time, I get impatient and want to just jump to the end. I will question God about how long the experience or trial is going to last. I will come up with all kinds of ways that He could shorten it for me. But when I finally get through the time, I can usually look back and see some of what God was doing, how He was using the painful circumstances to sand off some of my rough edges and bring me closer to Himself. This has not made me any more excited about hard times, but it has increased my faith that God is faithful to bring me through and that He does work all things for our ultimate good.

And, true confession, I also play piano pieces too fast right away!

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12

Don’t you just love apples in the Fall? There are so many fun, yummy varieties. Sweet, mellow Golden Delicious; tart, crisp Granny Smiths; delightfully crunchy Honeycrisps. All are apples, yet they are quite distinct from each other. It would be hard for me to choose a favorite.

It is kind of like us people, we are all humans, yet we come in a wonderful variety of personalities and characters. And guess what? God has chosen a favorite–you! Did you know that you are the apple of His eye? In the book of Psalms in the Bible, the psalmist talks about God keeping us as the apple of His eye. This actually refers to the pupil of the eye, or what we see everything through, which means you are always in God’s sight.

Another thing about our eyes, is how we protect them. Our vision is very precious and we do everything we can to protect it. God also protects us this way. In another verse, in the book of Deuteronomy, it talks about God protecting His people as the apple of His eye, “He, (God) shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of His eye.” Deuteronomy 32:10.

It is so amazing, that even though there are billions of people in the world, we are each God’s favorite. It is like my children, one night at dinner a friendly argument broke out because each child was claiming that they were my favorite! (Must be doing something right I guess!) However, if you do have more than one child, you can understand a little how it is possible for each of us to be God’s favorite. Each of my children are my favorite, just in different ways.

So the next time you are feeling a little down, just remember how important you are to your Heavenly Father. He sees you and He loves you. He guards you and He protects you. After all, you are His favorite!

“Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” Psalm 17:8

If you ever found yourself stuck in an elevator, I am the person you would want to have with you. Not for my charming personality, but because we could live pretty comfortably for quite awhile on the things I carry in my purse. I live by the Scout motto of, “Be prepared.” Need a band-aid? A granola bar? A safety pin? I’ve got you covered.

Another way to look at it, is I carry a bag of what if’s. What if I need a snack? What if my kids get a scrape? What if I need to perform emergency CPR? (Yes, the emergency mask and instructions are in my purse too, even though evidently we are no longer supposed to do the breathing part of CPR!)

I am thinking maybe there is a fine line between being prepared and being worried. Yes, many things have come in handy, but do I really need to lug all this stuff around with me? I started to wonder if there are other “what if’s” I am carrying around. What if something happens to my kids? What if I get sick? What if my car breaks down?

These kinds of what if’s can get heavier and heavier the more I think about them. They also do something worse, they move me farther and farther away from trusting God. I am in essence saying, “I don’t trust that You are going to take care of me. I better carry all these things myself.”

Ouch. That is not how I want to live. Not only is it way more difficult, but I really do want to live in a place of peace and trust in God. I have to continually hand all of my worries and burdens over to my loving Heavenly Father. He gladly takes them and gives me rest in their place.

So maybe I will change my motto to, ” Be prepared for God to take care of everything.” And my “what if’s” into “what if everything works out according to God’s amazing plan?”

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.” I Peter 5:7

The other morning as I was listening to the radio, the D J’s asked an interesting question, “What would you pay $500 to have a lifetime supply of?” My first thought was Starbucks of course! Several people called in with their answers: one lady said she would pay that to have her hair done for the rest of her life; another caller said meals at his favorite restaurant. There are so many things we could come up with that would be worth a $500 upfront investment.

One of the things this question made me think of though, was the Samaritan woman at the well whom Jesus spoke with. She was somewhat of an outcast among outcasts. Not only was she a Samaritan, which Jews like Jesus usually looked down on, but she was also looked down on by her own community because of her personal history. In fact, the whole reason she was at the well in the middle of the day was probably to avoid the other women who usually came later.

If anyone could wish for a lifetime supply of something it was her, wishing to have all the water she needed right at home. Jesus knew all about it of course and engaged her in what turned out to be a life changing conversation. They discussed the physical water for a minute and then Jesus told her about the living water He could offer her. She was immediately interested, “Sir, give me this water…” The awesome and amazing thing that most of us still struggle with today, is that this living water that Jesus was offering her and us, is absolutely free. No need for a $500 investment or repayment of any kind. All Jesus asks is that we believe in Him.

That is the choice the woman at the well made. She knew the Messiah was coming and when Jesus declared to her that He Himself was that Messiah, she instantly believed and ran to tell everyone in her town. How exciting that Jesus is still offering this living water of eternal life! We can accept it and tell others too. There is no shortage, there is plenty for all.

So while it might be nice to have a lifetime supply of coffee, it is far better to have a lifetime of peace, forgiveness and joy in Jesus. In fact, it is more than a lifetime, it is eternal!

“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'” John 4:13-14

(You can find the entire account of Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 in the Bible.)

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