Forgiving My Father

Many fathers don't deserve the honor that God calls his children to give them. However, consider this short story I found on another site this morning:

Every Father's Day, my husband and I attend church with my parents. During these services, the pastor always asks if anyone would like to stand and pay tribute to his or her father. One by one, people share their memories, and each year without fail, a frail little woman, looking weary from a hard life, stands.

Everyone patiently watches as she rises slowly and confesses in a tired trembling voice, "My daddy was a drinking man. He wasn't there much, but when he wasn't drinking, he was a good man…I loved my daddy." The tears well up in her eyes as she makes her way back down to the pew.

She never says much; there isn't much to say. But she faithfully and sincerely obeys the fifth commandment…even if her father didn't deserve it.      FamilyLife Today®

Who knows what abuse this little lady might have suffered growing up? Maybe she had gone through the pain of reconciling her own pain with a dad that didn't deserve being honored.

The fact is that even the best dad in the world is undeserving of the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. And even so is that true for all of humanity. Whether we have been good or bad parents.

True forgiveness towards a parent or for anyone for that matter

 is the first step in healing our own pain. Not forgiving someone doesn't hurt them so much as it does us. It leaves deep wounds and scars that never heals if we continue to let it fester inside of us.

It sometimes is never easy. It may take a long time to get to it. But in the long run, it is worth it if we can realize that I have no right to not forgive my father (or whoever) when Jesus forgave me. 

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Until next time, God bless!

A Lesson for us all

                      Father and son

A son took his old father to a restaurant for an evening dinner. Father being very old and weak, while eating, dropped food on his shirt and trousers. Other diners watched him in disgust while his son was calm. After he finished eating, his son who was not at all embarrassed, quietly took him to the washroom, wiped the food particles, removed the stains, combed his hair and fitted his spectacles firmly. When they came out, the entire restaurant was watching them in dead silence, not able to grasp how someone could embarrass themselves publicly like that. The son settled the bill and started walking out with his father. At that time, an old man amongst the diners called out to the son and asked him, “Don’t you think you have left something behind?”. The son replied, “No sir, I haven’t". The old man retorted, “Yes, you have! You left a lesson for every son and hope for every father”. The restaurant went silent.

 

Moral: To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors.   We all know, how our parents cared for us for every little thing.  Love them, respect them, and care for them.

(For this story and others like it, put its title in your search engine.)

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth Thee. Exodus 20:12

Honoring my father while he was alive was no problem for me. Oh yeah, he had his shortcomings, and I knew that. But haven't we all?

But because I knew he had those, I could look over them and just love him anyway.

However, many adult children today do not feel that their dad's deserve honor. And in many cases, deservedly so.

Still honoring our fathers is what the bible teaches. So how do we go about doing that, if our fathers really and probably don't deserve it?

Since this month if Father's Day (June 19th), I want to see what we can find out about this important subject. Starting tomorrow. (June 4th) I hope you will join me.

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a blessed day!

His Strength, Not Mine

Talk about going through something hard. One of the hardest things I ever had to do was to take care of my wonderful father in the last few months of his life.

And then bury him.

I felt so weak in those days because I loved him so much.  Even though I knew I would one day see him again.

Still, it was a tough time for me.

Of course, I hadn't gone through it alone. I had several family and church members that helped me be there at the times he was not supposed to be alone, and I couldn't be with him.

And after his funeral, they helped me clean out his home and get it ready to sell.

Yes, it had been a hard time. And I felt so weak at all that was involved.

Until one day, after it was all over with, and I was still grieving. Still crying at night when no one was listening. (except of course, God) Still asking for his to help me through this.

That day, I had shared with my cousin about how weak I felt and this is what she told me. "Beck, your dad told me one day that he knew you were the strongest one in the family. "

What? "He said, you have been through so much. And he knew God would continue to take care of you." she told me.

After all, I wasn't the only one in the family that had been through hard things. His life, my mom's life, their life together....and others in my extended family....

You have heard about someone speaking from the grave? It seemed as if dad-or maybe it was God, that had just spoken to me, that day.

I had been through some really tough times in my life, and my dad had thought I had been the strongest person because of it. Huh.

There had been a time, many years before that, that my sister had said about as much to me once. It was during the days when I had really been going through hard times and written a letter to her about feeling so weak. And probably complaining to her. In her letter back to me, she wrote out the following scripture:

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

It was what I needed at that time to get through what I was going through. And when my cousin had told me what dad had said to her all those years later and in another critical time in my life, I could actually thank God in my alone time with him, that yes, I could get through my dad's death and whatever else was ahead. Now I was stronger in my faith. Too much had passed to not be.

Because in my weakness God makes me strong. It is because I rely on his strength and not my own.

Well, it's been close to 17 years since dad has been gone. And yes, there have been times I have sure felt weak. But, I know when I do, I go to his Word and my strength is always renewed. And it doesn't hurt to remember what dad had said to my cousin that day. 

Of all the people that I would have loved to hear that from, it would have been him.

If you are feeling weak today, or if you feel that way tomorrow or next week, remember that you aren't alone. I am sure most of God's people feel that way at times. Go to his Word and find scriptures on his strength because that is where yours will come from when you seek his.

Thanks for coming today, Friends. Be blessed!

When God Created Woman

 

In the midst of the days unsettling news between good and evil, I felt like posting something more positive for us to ponder. Please pay attention to the very last line because we often forget it.

When God created woman he was working late on the 6th day…….

An angel came by and asked.” Why spend so much time on her”

The lord answered. “Have you seen all the specifications I have to meet to shape her”

She must function in all kinds of situations,

She must be able to embrace several kids at the same time,

Have a hug that can heal anything from a bruised knee to a broken heart,

She must do all this with only two hands,”

She cures herself when sick and can work 18 hours a day”

THE ANGEL was impressed”

Just two hands…..impossible!

And this is the standard model”

The Angel came closer and touched the woman”

“But you have made her so soft, Lord”.

“She is soft”, said the Lord,

“But I have made her strong. You can’t imagine what she can endure and overcome”

“Can she think” The Angel asked…

The Lord answered. “Not only can she think, she can reason and negotiate”

The Angel touched her cheeks….

“Lord, it seems this creation is leaking!

You have put too many burdens on her”

“She is not leaking…it is a tear” The Lord corrected the Angel…

“What’s it for?” Asked the Angel…..

The Lord said. “Tears are her way of expressing her grief, her doubts, her love, her loneliness, her suffering and her pride.”…

This made a big impression on the Angel,

“Lord, you are a genius. You thought of everything.

A woman is indeed marvelous”

Lord said.

“Indeed she is.

She has strength that amazes a man.

She can handle trouble and carry heavy burdens.

She holds happiness, love and opinions.

She smiles when she feels like screaming.

She sings when she feels like crying, cries when happy and laughs when afraid.

She fights for what she believes in.

Her love is unconditional.

Her heart is broken when a next-of-kin or a friend dies but she finds strength to get on with life”

The Angel asked: So she is a perfect being..

The Lord replied: No. She has just one drawback

“She often forgets what she is worth”.!

God Created Woman – Story .

💖💖💖

Never let anyone put you down for being this kind of woman. Some men especially would do this. But God made us to be different. To strike a balance between their sometimes harshness. Not all men are this way, of course. But there are those that do. 

However, it is God that give us incredible worth that we should let no one destroy.

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Til next time, may God richly bless you!

 

Freedom Isn't Free

 

                                        Memorial Day. 

A day to be thankful to be Americans or a day to be ashamed of our country? And how about those that hate our country?

God has given us this country and from its almost beginnings, groups of people have tried to tear it down. To make it socialist. To make it evil. 

To make it the exact opposite of what God created it to be.

I for one am proud to be an American. I am proud of those in my extended family that went to war against the enemies that would seek to take us over. To bring their socialist ideas into our country. To destroy us.

They are still doing it today. From Russia and in our own back yards. They are seeking to destroy us in our own government. 

It doesn't matter what kind of terrorism there is here. Maybe you don't think that when someone decides to take the innocent lives of people as in New York and Texas just recently, isn't real terrorism because after all it wasn't committed in another country.

If you have that belief, I ask you to think about how those victims and their families felt. Surely there was evil intent. Surely there was terror in their lives as a gunman turned his gun on them during a horrific rampage.

Oh God, that He would work on the behalf of all who love Him. Because He is our only hope. And thank God we have Him to turn to in our hours of need.

And as we wait on his divine judgement, which will indeed come to all evil, we can thank God for those that sand up against all the injustice of an ungodly society that seeks to destroy innocent lives. No matter what form it takes. 

MEMORIAL DAY

A day to be thankful to be an American

It is our God given right.

And we should not let it be taken

Without a fight

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 

2 Chronicles 7:14

Thanks for coming by today, Friends

God bless your day today and always!

Hurry Up God...

 

They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles: they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

Why is it that we think we should have what we want right now without having to wait on God to deliver it to us on a silver platter?

Have you ever gotten tired of waiting on him and decided just to go and take it for yourselves?

If you have, I ask you: How did that work out for you?

I know what that is. To get impatient on those things that I asked God for. And so, because of that, I have jumped headlong into some fires that went on for long periods of time before finally God in all his wisdom to let me make bad decisions for myself, put them out for me.

For you see, God doesn't make us do anything we don't want to do. If we don't want to wait on his timing, he lets us go off on our own way until we get to the place that we get so sick and tired of being sick and tired and will go running back to him. 

He has our futures planned out. And because of that, we don't always know why he doesn't just answer our prayers when we think he should. We get tired of waiting a lot times. We take our lives into our own hands. And eventually, we can become weak and tired if we have turned from him.

If we wait on him. Know that he is working in our lives despite the fact that it sometimes doesn't even feel like it, we become as eagles, strong and able to get where God wants us to be. 

This is then the song we should be singing everyday:

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be wear they shall walk and not faint

Teach me Lord,

Teach me Lord, to wait!

Thanks for stopping by today, Friends. God bless!

More Like A Million Times....

 

A thousand times I have failed, still your mercy remains.

Have you ever felt that way?

I do.

More than a million times though.

More like at least that many times per day

Yesterday was an especially one of those days.

Not that anything bad happened.

It was just an off day for me. 

And I failed God in so in so many ways.

But he didn't fail me.

For his mercy endures forever. 

Why? Because he is good. 

Psalm 136:1

If you are having an off day today. 

Or if you are having them on many days, 

take this to heart:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 

Lamentations 3:22-24

For there is hope for you. 

Thanks for coming by today, Friends.

God bless!