Skip to main content

The one with the Verse Of The Day/Random Thought

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”- 2 Timothy 1:7


This verse, brings a tear to my eye as I think about it.
2 years ago during the summer I took a trip down to a little town called Ajo.
Garlic Town.
My job: to build a childrens program at the baptist church and bring more kids in. Uh, sort of. So I down one week before the summer, just to see everything, check out the kids, yadda yadda. As I walked into church, I saw, well....
I see dead people....
It's easy to say that I was the youngest person there. It's easy to say my 40 year old roommate was the second youngest person there. The thrid youngest person there had been going to that church for oh, about 40 years.
I'm a little exaggerating. But I mean a VERY little.
There were no kids. I don't know why I would think there would be more kids. How can work on childrens ministry that doesn't exist?! Any takers?! No? I sat down as the preacher started preaching thinking to myself "How can I get out of this? What will I tell the pastor? What if I don't bring in any kids?"
And "Do I remember anything I learned in my CPR class? Ya know, just in case."
I was DONE. So, the preacher then said this verse. He had me at the word "timidity." Not that I've ever been "shy" or an "intorvert," very opposite in fact. I've just always been a "sheep." I do as I'm told, and it gets done. When something is too hard, I leave it up to the people that are good with being aggresive. 
Here's my take away: Power doesn't mean being blunt, and outspoken and having a game plan. It means, something inside of you is bigger than you. It means you CAN accomplish anything.
Yes you can! Gross, I can't believe I just said that.
Power means, God through you makes impossible things.....happen. Power comes through faith.
Love doesn't mean love those in your comfort zone. Love means reaching out to those who NEED a church. Not just reaching out to them so you get numbers in your church, but that they KNOW someone loves them and cares for them.
Self-discipline doesn't mean shutting yourself off from the world and being sheltered. It means being and example to the world by showing them that you put God first. 


Power. Love. Self-dicispline. Three things this world lacks. Three things I aspire to.


Now, on to my random thought: I see people "tell it like it is." Which is great, awesome, do what you want. However, there are PLENTY of people who tell it like it is. There are not enough people who tell it like it should be, and then live it. Like I said before, I've never been a super blunt person. I know when things will get me into trouble, so it's just and obvious reflex not to say it. However, I do know that I also don't tell it like it should be, and then live that. People are always "just sayin" about so many things. Well great, so what are you gunna do about it?! 
Disclaimer, I am guilty of this so don't think I'm throwing stones...or whatever that analogy is.
It's funny because the main place I see this is in the church. Gossip, and words are contagious. And could kill a church. Words are constantly thrown around saying "well if I was in charge," or "if I had it my way..." Here's what I have to say to that "GET OVER IT!" 
That's about as blunt as I get.
Bottom line I re-interate: There are PLENTY of people who tell it like it is. There are not enough people who tell it like it should be, and then live it.




BAM!

Popular posts from this blog

The one with eternity.

I’ve been shook recently on this idea of eternity. I’ve been a follower of Christ for probably around 20 years. I’m familiar with the biblical ideas and principals of eternity, but have I honestly lived like this here is my temporary home? I haven’t. How much energy, stress, and time do I spend on things that have no impact on eternity?  Oh you want examples? How about all that stress about baby sleep? Where he’s gonna sleep? How long should he be sleeping? Should he fall asleep while nursing? How about my house? We need a nicer kitchen. We need new and nicer barstools. Make sure the baby doesn’t mess with this thing or that thing because it can’t get ruined! How about my wardrobe? My last spending spree was long before I had my baby- so I need an update. Y’all. God never promised us nice things. He promised to provide for us. What if, every time we start to worry about something we ask: what’s the impact this has on eternity?  If the answer is a big fat “none,” then maybe sto...

The one with stuff I wanna do.

Basic list of stuff I wanna do. No I'm not trying to be like Buried Life. Except that I am. 1. Finish school. Yes it might seem like something that's "Eh," I have now concluded to the fact that school  is not working for me. I am not a good student. At all. So there ya go. 2. Put a ring on it. Or have him put a ring on it. I could go on for days about my wedding, and more impotantly being married. But, everytime I talk about it go wayyyyy overboard. So movin on. 3. Learn to be good with babies. Yes I can work with kids. Pretty much any age after 2, I got this. Babies....ahhhhhh. 4. Learn to be Susie Homemaker. I wanna knit, sew, cook, and what have you. I was going to say have a clean house... But who are we kidding. I just know be a super creative and awesome wife and mom. 5. Be a teacher. I've been super discouarged lately about my teaching and educating abilities based on the mere fact that I am such a horrible student. My logic is, how on earth can...

The one with the storm.

I'm a desert rat. Raised in Arizona, when it rains, it's a good day. Here at Lope town, we've been having good weather. Rain. Thunder. Lightining. Wind. Cool weather. Totally the soup eating, latte sipping, slipper wearing, curl up with a good book type of weather. So my obvious reaction is to take pictures. Duh: And then the nice rain, turned to hail. And then the hail turned to bigger hail. And the bigger hail + the strong winds = broken window for our apt and all over chaos here at GCU. Thankfully no one was hurt, or injured. It really made me think about storms and life. Uh-oh, Elisa has a moral to the story.... Things might seem okay. Seem managable. Maybe even see beautiful. But can you still see beauty in things when you have broken window? Can you still see the beauty when your car looks like a golf ball with all the dents? There's a reason why the Bible has so many analogies between storms and hard times in life. Storms cause physical d...