WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Enjoy Christian words of encouragement from the Bible, inspirational Bible stories, Bible verses to live by, Bible teaching, homeschool tips and  resources, and healthy easy recipes.

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"  Matthew 5:43-44

This is one of the most difficult commands that Jesus gives us in His Sermon on the Mount.  When we have experienced unloving behaviors and attitudes from others, our gut instinct is retaliation and avoidance.  Love our enemies?  Impossible you might say. 

Jesus did it.  Remember His words on the cross:  "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."  Luke 23:34

Stephen did it with these words:  "And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Acts 7:60a

Paul believed it, for he preached it: 

* "Bless them which persecute you:  bless, and curse not." Romans 12:14 

* "Recompense to no man evil for evil." Romans 12:17a

* "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath:  for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.  Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink:  for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."  Romans 12:19-21

John believed it:  "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.  He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.  But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes."  1 John 2:9-11

David did it.  Remember how King Saul wanted to kill David?  He relentlessly pursued David.  During that time David had occasion where he could have killed Saul, but he didn't.  He refused to harm God's annointed.  Saul was David's enemy. 

It is difficult to pray for someone who has wounded you.  The words just won't come.  The mind rebels against speaking words of forgiveness until the heart is ready.  We must discipline ourselves to pray for our enemies, then as we pray, our heart and mind will be changed.  We will begin to feel forgiveness towards this enemy. 

Jesus put it this way:  "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:  but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."  Matthew 6:14-15

 If you choose to harbor unforgiveness, it will turn to rage and bitterness.  It will become such a heavy burden that you will become a hate filled and vengeful person.  You will have no peace, for your mind will be filled with a terrible anger that finds no release. 

Release this person who has wronged you by forgiving them.  It doesn't matter if they exhibit nice feelings toward you or if they repent of their sin against you.  Refuse to harbor ill will. 

Obedience to God's Word brings blessings and peace.

Fire!  Real Or False Alarm?

Several years ago, my husband and I had occasion to stay in a hotel while house hunting in another state.  Our trip had been rather uneventful until that night.   

Sound asleep for several hours, we were awakened by a crack of thunder and lightening.  All sound in our room stopped, as if the air conditioner on the roof had been struck.  We tried turning on the lights, with a strong sense that something was wrong, but the power was out.  Yet, looking outside our window, we couldn't see anything amiss.  

Then the fire alarm sounded.  Bong, bong, bong.  It was ear splitting, screaming emergency.  My heart dropped to my knees.  As a child I had always had a fear of fire, and now this terrible sound brought back a measure of that same fear, long forgotten.   

We scrambled to find our clothes, our keys—all the essentials you casually drop without thought.  I had to search for my shoes, which in an unfamiliar room with no lights was difficult. We decided to make our way quickly to the exit, but we were on the 2^nd floor, and hadn't bothered to look at the hotel map on the back of our door.  Now it was too dark to see it.  We were going to have to find the stairs.   

As we came out of our room, strobe lights were flashing, creating an eeriness that was disconcerting and confusing.  Only another man had come out of his room, the question in all of our minds registering in his eyes.  Is this an emergency or a drill?  Should we leave or wait to be evacuated?  We decided to take no chances and leave.  Just then the lady in the room across the hall came out, entering into our conversation.  She too decided to leave, but her elderly mother was waiting in the other room.  Her fear was that she wouldn't be able to get her mother down the stairs.   

My husband looked at me, and I knew he wanted to help.  I was okay with that.  It was the right thing to do.  However, I wasn't happy to hear him say to find the stairs and make my way out alone.  I didn't want to leave him.  But I could tell he wasn't going to take no for an answer.  I walked quickly ahead, looking for the stairs, but in the dim light I was having difficulty seeing.  The sound of the alarm suddenly quickened and seemed louder, the strobes flashed more intently, all causing me to feel a rise of panic.  Then the fire doors spaced throughout the hallway slammed shut.  I felt sure we were locked in.  

I couldn't find the stairs.  So I turned around and went back to my husband, relieved when I saw the small group he was helping, rounding the corner.  I had walked right past the door to the stairs, but he saw it, and calmly guided our group to the ground floor.   

Amazingly the hotel staff was still manning the desk, and had no idea what had happened.  We asked if there was a fire, but they didn't know.  The alarm had automatically alerted the fire department. Soon, fire trucks pulled in front of the hotel.  The alarm continued its frantic noise.  No one knew how to turn it off.  We walked into the cool night air to sit on the curb.  It felt good to be outside.  I could feel my nerves begin to quiet. 

As my eyes adjusted to the night, I could see only a few faces sitting with us.  It seemed that most of the hotel guests had decided there was no fire, and stayed in their rooms.  They had completely ignored the alarm, not even bothering to come to the lobby.  I felt foolish suddenly, embarrassed at my fear.  Then I realized if it had been real, a fire could have trapped us in our room while we waited to find out what to do.   

The firemen went through the hotel making sure there was no fire.  They determined that lightening had indeed struck a generator on the roof, setting off the alarms.  We all went back to our rooms to finish out the night, but I admit to being too uneasy to really sleep.  

In hindsight, we made a lot of mistakes that could have cost us our lives in a real emergency.  First of all, we didn't look at the hotel map on our door, or locate the stairs ahead of time.  We didn't have a flashlight.  All of our belongings were scattered around the room, making it difficult to find my purse, my shoes etc.  We didn't know the location of a fire extinguisher. 

Some things we did right.  Before leaving our room we felt the door to make sure it wasn't hot.  We encouraged the people around us who were looking for leadership to take no chances, and leave the building.  We helped those who needed assistance getting down.  Locating the stairs, we made our way carefully and slowly in the dark, rather than risk the still working elevator.  Since we didn't know the extent of the emergency, we chose to leave our belongings behind, rather than be encumbered with luggage. 

We didn't have a fire in our hotel, and things turned out okay, but I shudder to think about the loss of lives had it been real. 

From a spiritual standpoint, there was another lesson to learn.  Many of the people staying in the hotel ignored the alarm, refusing to believe their lives were at risk.  In truth their lives were not at risk, but at the time there was no way they could have known that.  The desk clerks didn't even know if there was a fire.  How sad.  There are many people in our world today, people we know, who refuse to believe the alarm sounded in God's Word of a coming judgment.  The Bible calls upon all to repent and turn from sin and to call upon the name of Jesus for salvation before it's too late.  Instead they go about their daily lives without a thought about where they will spend eternity.  With so many religions touting their way is the right way, many are so confused about the truth, they can't make a decision.  They reject the Word of God as the only guide to truth, thereby remaining in spiritual darkness.  The alarm bells are ringing, but no one is listening. 

With the strobe lights and alarm sounding, it was difficult to see.  Panic and fear caused haste and carelessness.  Confusion abounded.  Satan too likes to generate a lot of confusion to thwart God's purposes.  While God's people are paralyzed with fear to speak the truths of God's Word, the ungodly have seemingly won the day.  Change occurs when hearts are changed.  We must continue the work of spreading the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Let us refuse to allow the confusions of our world today to rob us of our will to follow Jesus.  Let us not panic at the rise of evil, but stand steadfast in the truths of God's Word.  

It is a mystery to me why the other guests didn't even look outside their rooms to see what was happening.  Maybe they were so soundly asleep they couldn't hear the alarm.  Shielded in their rooms, they had a measure of false security.  If there had been a real fire, the avenue of escape might have been blocked because they were lulled by the apparent safety of their rooms.  Let us remember that another tactic Satan uses to keep us from being effective is to desensitize us to spiritual attacks and to sin.  If you reject the way of escape when tempted to sin, you will soon learn to ignore the escape route.  Sin will overtake you.  We can become so comfortable around sin we don't even know we should escape.  Stay constant in the Word so that your worldview is not sullied and your hope remains in the living God.  Do not be lulled into a false security, but stay alert to the wiles of the enemy.

Being prepared and educated in basic fire safety is essential.  Acting quickly rather than taking a wait and see approach could be crucial in saving lives.  Let us pull out our training manual, the Word of God, so that we will be prepared and ready as good Christian soldiers.

"Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust:  cause me to know the way wherein I should walk ; for I lift up my soul unto thee.  Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies:  I flee unto thee to hide me.  Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God:  thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness."  Psalm 143:8-10

*From:  http://www.utmostchristianwriters.com/pd-poetry/pd-poetry-3.php

A Homeschooling Testimony...

Last spring about this time, I completed my homeschooling journey when my youngest son completed his high school education.  Our journey began in 1994 when I began to homeschool our sons.  Our oldest was beginning Kindergarten while the youngest was doing busy work to build up his pre-k skills.  It was a journey we began in ignorance, but with great expectations.  After fourteen years of homeschooling, I can tell you that it was worth it! 

What did we accomplish?

Besides completing the foundational education that we set out to accomplish, I learned how to persevere.  Homeschooling is not easy, but it is rewarding to see your children learn and grow in knowledge and understanding.  When difficulties arose, we persevered and overcame them with the help of our Lord.  There were times we wanted to quit, but we didn't.  We kept on to completion.

I learned that flexibility is important when dealing with others.  My way may seem best, but there are other ways that are also good.  It is a good thing to allow several good choices so children learn to choose wisely. 

No one wants to think about lessons in patience, but patience is a necessity.  There will be hours where you will sit and listen while your children read their lessons aloud, where you will discuss and demonstrate concepts until they "get it".  Patience is really an endurance test; you wait patiently until your child understands. 

Discipline is a necessity when homeschooling.  Some embrace the chaos of un-schooling, but I preferred the regimented learning of order and structure.  These served me well and kept us on tract, building precept upon precept. 

Prayer kept us focused on our Lord and fostered our trust that He would see us through all our issues.  He proved faithful.  We began each day with prayer, Bible reading, and the pledges to the Bible and to the American flag.  Teaching our children the principles of the Bible were foremost in our home education plan.

The joys of homeschooling...

There is nothing more satisfying that watching the light bulb go off in your child's mind!  There were many such moments:  when my oldest son mastered reading very quickly, and when my youngest mastered speech skills, overcoming a slight disability from birth.  What power there is in success!  Celebrate every success!

Watching your children grow and develop every day is a gift.  I am so thankful that we had those many days to strengthen our bonds as a family.  I am so thankful we chose not to trust our government schools with our young ones.  I have learned that young minds do not realize when they are being fed propaganda and do not have the courage to dispute with a teacher over a history lesson.  How grateful I am that we were empowered to teach them truth and righteousness at home in a safe environment. 

Then there were the days of craft projects, baking experiments, science projects, and field trips.  What fun we had!  The funniest story was when I used a plastic peanut butter jar to hold boiling water in preparation for a science experiment.  It never occurred to me that the water would melt the jar.  The boys thought that was the experiment!  Learning by doing is the best way of teaching and training.

Teaching is about exposing your children to many good things to help them understand how God's world works, how it was created, and how it can be used to benefit mankind.  I rejoice in the gifts and talents of others who wrote fine books, beautiful music, and artistic masterpieces.  All of us learned something new through homeschooling.

What would I change?

Like any good thing, sometimes we take it for granted.  If I could change anything, it would be to spend more time appreciating those special times with my sons.  They pass so quickly. 

While we spent many hours on book learning, we did not spend as much time on learning practical skills.  I would encourage today's homeschool families to also incorporate skill training that could lead to useful employment.  Learning how to make household repairs, basic carpentry, sewing, etc. can be a real money saver and aid in earning college money.

A Homeschool Prayer...

Dear Lord.

Thank you for our beloved sons.  Thank you for my beloved husband who supported and encouraged us each day so we had strength to continue the process.  Thank you Lord for the wonderful opportunity and responsibility you gave us to raise up our children in the way that they should go.  Thank you for providing for all our necessities throughout the years of our journey.  Thank you for your faithfulness to help in our times of need.  I thank you for your constant encouragement, strength, and love that kept me going when I wanted to stop.  Your mercy and grace were sufficient for me. 

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