Udder Words~~~~~~~~Back Up Again

When we fall down, God is always there to pick us back up.

 

 

I heard once from someone that it isn’t what knocks us down that matters it’s whether we are willing to get back up on our feet. We can share our wounded stories all we want about what knocked us down but what really counts is whether we got back up or not.

 

Too often Satan makes that “knocked” down position appear good. Been there and done that. The situations in life I had been fighting had finally got me flat on my back. At the time it felt like a great position to be in. It felt like a great excuse to stay there and rest and catch a breather. It was a milestone available to give me a great excuse to quit trying to fight the situation, give up and let others deal with things.

 

Wrong! All it was was a false sense of getting some kind of a rest that wasn’t going to last long nor do me any good in the long run. If I had listened to Satan’s lie I would have quickly become not only dead weight to myself but dead weight to God. Think about it, have you ever tried to pick someone up that didn’t want to be picked up or was totally limp and unable to help in the process? It’s almost impossible. It can almost be a danger to yourself and the person you’re trying to pick up if it’s not properly done.

 

In spite of life’s difficulties we need to not become dead weight. Pit stops along life’s roads are there to help us to keep going. Quiet times with God, prayer, reading God’s words are where we find our true rest in life’s journeys and the ability to travel on. These needed pit stops don’t prevent us from falling occasionally but they do help us to get back up to where we need to be. They give us the strength to reach out to God and to take hold of Him as He reaches out to us with that same mighty hand and outstretched arm He used to get the Israelites out of Egypt in the Old Testament times.

 

For sure there are times in all our journeys that we need to stand still and take a breather before moving forward. Even the Israelites as they escaped Egypt were told to stand still at the banks of the Red Sea and the Lord would fight for them. Next thing God told Moses was, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.” At that moment in life is when the Red Sea parted in front of them and they had to get up and go before the Egyptian army caught up with them or stay there and be defeated.

 

The first statement was to reassure them that things were going to be okay. The later was to tell them they needed to get back up and get going again. God doesn’t guarantee us “No falls” in life. What He does promise is the fact that He will pick us back up when we do fall.

 

The stories we tell should be the stories of victories instead of defeats if we are willing to allow God to lift us back up on our feet. There is no timer we can hold in our hand to see how long it takes God to pick us back up. There are no trophies for the least amount of falls. Instead there is a traveling companion in Jesus Christ that cares enough to be there to prevent, pickup, and preserve us through life’s journeys. Our part is to take life’s licks standing up and forever be looking for the outstretched hand of God. It is the very hand that will lead us to eternal victories, smoother roads, and everlasting peace and rest.

 

 

In the meantime, stop and read the road signs along life’s ways, “Satan can make me trip but he can’t make me fall thanks to God.” “I may be beaten but never defeated as God gets me back up again.” Back up again, in Him, thru Him, because of Him. Praise the Lord!

 

 

© 2013 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing       In Udder Words Tuesday

 

 

Let the Children Come

“He who can reach a child’s heart can reach the world’s heart.” ~ Rudyard Kipling


This statement from Rudyard Kipling is not only true but it’s scary as well. Frightening because the secular world has figured out this formula for themselves. They know if they can get to the younger generation then they have a better shot at the world. You can see it in the television programs made, the type of teachings in the schools, and everywhere else you turn.

We as Christians need to step up to bat and go after that child’s heart that is so vulnerable and get it anchored in Jesus. We have the same orders the disciples did when Jesus told them to, “let the little children come to Me.” Once we bring the children to Jesus then the reward is reaching the world’s heart one child at a time.

In reading in the Bible about the incident where Jesus talked to the disciples about the children you almost wonder, ‘what in the world were the disciples thinking!’ “No, don’t bother Jesus with those little runny nose squirming tikes. He’s got more important things to do than to play with the local children.”

Wrong! Here is what Jesus had to say, “Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.” Mt 19:13-15 (NKJV)

Wow, what an honor to have Jesus look upon our children in such a way. The part we play is to look upon them in the same way. We need to gaze upon them as something of great importance, a priority, tender loving, a mold to form, and a lost soul needing to be found. Unfortunately we don’t always look at them that way, we see them as something we have the right to kill before they get to breath their first breath, to throw around and take our anger out on, to have and instantly turn lose with no instructions on how to deal with life all in the name of “freedom.”

Sorry…….I got distracted………all this talk about kids had me in tears and I went over to my karenskidskorner.blogspot.com site to add something there that is connected to all this we are talking about today.

Our kids, whether they are our own or ones belonging to those around us are something we have been entrusted with. Assigned to care for them and teach them as we reach their hearts before the world has a chance to influence them. We don’t have time to wait. We can’t do it later. We mustn’t wait until they grow up and choose for themselves because all it takes is one bad influence to set a child in the wrong direction. As unfair as that sounds it’s the truth.

Years ago when I was the Daily Vacation Bible School director for our church it gave me great joy to stand gazing upon that room full of kids anxious to learn about Jesus. There before me was a group of children temporarily assigned to me and my staff to carry out Jesus’ command of “Let the little ones come to Me.” We had our duty, the seeds to be sown, and the crop that needed to be planted long before we could even hope for a harvest.

We can’t let them down when they have such a long ways to be lifted up to towards the arms of Jesus, the love of His heart, the warmth of His comfort. Let’s go for it, one child at a time. Like the school program that was once started let us make sure that, NO CHILD IS LEFT BEHIND! Let the children come!

Amen? AMEN!!!!!

© 2010 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

When You're Reaching, Reach High

This catchy saying that found its way to my refrigerator door and bathroom mirror was there to remind me, of course, to “reach high. It was up to me to accept in my heart that I was worth something and deserved more. Staying where I was or barely reaching out was no longer acceptable. It was time to reach out as far as I possibly could with the Lord beside me to help.

The problem a lot of us have is we fail to reach out at all. We are too content to stay where we are, where little effort is needed to stay in that position. It’s up to us to find the balance between being too content and not reaching at all aiming high in our expectations and abilities.

Too frequently we stunt our own growth by not reaching for the best. We may never reach the expectations we were aiming for but it never hurts the journey to at least do our best. I had no idea at the time that I would successfully conqueror my stress seizures but I had to shoot for that mark in my life. The risk of a wasted trip was never an issue. Even the attempt of trying was more rewarding than literally going nowhere.

Reaching high for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the best move we could possibly make. Using the bumps along life’s road to climb on to get to Jesus. Learning to trust and rely on Him not ourselves to achieve our goals and to advance to places only He can take us.

A half extended arm doesn’t work. We need to be sure that our arm towards Jesus is fully extended. When we do, we soon notice that His arm too has always been and always will be fully outstretched to us. Praise the Lord!