Word.

Words are incredibly powerful. The Bible tells us that the power of life and death are in the tongue. God gave us the power to produce either more life, or cause death just by speaking. This is because we are created in His image. When God created the entire universe he spoke it into existence. You and I, being lesser beings – cannot create mountain ranges or rivers, but we do have creative power in our words. If you don’t believe me, just talk to someone who has been bullied, or better yet keep reading.

When I was in middle school or ‘the awkward years’ as I like to call them, I got made fun of quite frequently. Kids have a way of calling each other out and being so cruel. Top that off with my sensitive personality, and you get a recipe for an extremely wounded heart. Things that were said to me in those few awkward years have still stuck with me into adulthood. I struggle with feeling accepted, fat, less than, etc. These are all things I’m bringing to the Lord and allowing him to heal so that I don’t pass those feelings and insecurities on to my future children. Because I’m walking through a period of healing right now, it’s caused me to think a lot about how we speak to one another.

Since we’ve all grown up and are no longer in middle school the outright name calling has mostly come to an end. Right? Here’s the thing – we still call each other names. We even call ourselves names! Men jokingly call each other rude slang words, or tell each other that they are less manly than they ought to be. Women cut each other down, analyzing facebook pictures to see if the other has gained more weight. Families poke fun at each other when other members fail or do something silly.

Here’s the thing – each time you speak you choose to foster life or death in every person within ear shot. Every word out of your mouth carries power. Whether you are ‘joking’ or being thoughtful in the words you choose, they pack a punch.

You may be thinking, “Well, I’m not as sensitive as you Lauren, words don’t really affect me that much”. Are you sure about that? Ladies, do you remember the first time someone called you fat, too skinny, ugly, loud, even annoying..? Men, do you remember the first time someone told you to man up, boys don’t cry, that you were too slow, or that you didn’t have what it took? My guess is that you do – you remember the coach that ragged on you all season long, or the kid in middle school who was mean to you, or when a family member made you feel unwanted. It may take some self-reflection and searching, but my guess is that you can see how those words have manifested themselves in your life.

So, what’s the point in all this? Can we, as Christians, start a movement? Can we begin to speak life over each other? Let’s build each other up, instead of tearing down. Let’s teach our kids to love their neighbor with their words. Let’s teach them that ‘ugly’ and ‘fat’ are cuss words we don’t use do describe a creation made in God’s image. Let’s stop poking fun at each other and pretending it doesn’t hurt. Let’s realize that being a real man and real woman of God doesn’t depend on your appearance, athleticism, or accomplishments, but simply on being an imperfect disciple of Jesus Christ.

I hope my daughter grows up, and never calls herself fat. I hope my son grows up knowing his masculinity is secure not because of his performance on a field. I hope the Lord tames my tongue and changes the way that I speak to my husband. I pray that God makes every mouth in my house a mouth that produces life so that when we leave we are fully equipped to battle the death and darkness out in the world.

Proverbs 18:21

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 26:18-19

Just as damaging as a madman shooting a deadly weapon is someone who lies to a friend and then says, “I was only joking”.

Matthew 12:33-37

A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.

He is after My Heart

I had a friend in college once talk about how there are two dichotomies of faith that permeate the majority of Christians’ belief systems. The first being the: ‘it’s all about grace’ path. When taken to the extreme this way of thinking says that it doesn’t really matter what you do because Jesus already died on the cross and forgave you for it. So you don’t really have to try to live righteously because, it’s all about His grace. This is false, small nuggets of truth are found in that large overarching statement, but the statement itself is false. The second belief system many Christians adopt is the ‘faith without works is dead so I have to work really hard’, or the ‘if I try really hard to be good then God will love me and I’ll go to heaven’. Again, both of these statements are false – nuggets of truth buried under a lie.

If you were to ask me which line of thinking I most often lean towards, it’s the works mentality. I don’t know where or when I began to buy into this lie, or if it’s just merely my type A personality, but thinking that I have to earn God’s love is so much easier for me to believe than the reality of His love being a free gift.

What’s weird, is that I am a fairly self-aware individual, and I realize that I have an incorrect view of God and His love for me. So what am I supposed to do about it? Well, obviously first one must TRY to change, right?! Ya’ll, I’ve tried. For a really long time. I don’t know if God’s been chuckling at me trying to understand His love on my own, or saddened by it, but I know either way He’s been waiting for me to ask Him about it.

That’s finally what I did. I asked the Lord to show me how he loves me, and what I’ve been realizing this past week or so, is that God doesn’t really care how hard I try. It’s not about my striving, He’s after my heart.

See when someone, or something, has your heart spending time with that someone or something isn’t hard. You like it. You want to do things with/for the person who has your heart. Things flow out of you naturally. If you like watching old seasons of Bones on Netflix, chances are you’re going to do that after work. (Just me?! Oh, bummer..) Or take Sean, my sweet husband, for example. I love Sean, he has my heart. So when I go to the store for groceries, I don’t think to myself “Oh shoot I’ve got to get food for Sean too, I almost forgot!” Nope, in fact, I typically fight through the overcrowded isles to grab him some of his favorite treats. Is it work to get the habanero almonds he likes? If you’ve been to the grocery store on a Sunday then you know the answer to this question is YES. But I don’t really see it as work, I see it as honoring and loving my husband. I just do it, and don’t really think much of it.

God is the best husband you’ll ever have, and he desperately wants your heart. Yes, He will require some work, or obedience, from you. However, I truly believe that His greatest desire is for your obedience to be out of the overflow of your heart, rather than a sense of duty. Yes, faith without works is dead, but our works to not prove that God has our hearts. You can strive, and work all your life, but never fall in love with the Lord. That would be the greatest tragedy of all.

Friends, if you’re like me at all please hear this from the Lord. “Put down your tools, sit with me a while. Take your eyes off of yourself, your accomplishments and failures - and look at me. Once you look at me, you will fall in love with me, for I AM love.”

He is Love. He is good, and He is after your heart.

Here I Go Again on My Own

I hope you read that title in your best 80’s hair rock band voice, because that’s what I think of.

Here I go again!

You may be thinking, Where ya been Lauren?! Is blogging too much of a chore for you?! You can’t handle the life of a TRUE blogger!!

Well, you’re probably right. But let me also explain why I haven’t written anything in a long time.

I didn’t have anything good to say. So I didn’t say anything at all. If you’ll let me I’d like to bare my soul to you a little and share with you what God’s teaching me right now.

For about a year I’ve been discontent with my job. Not because my job is all that bad, honestly I have it pretty good. I work for my dad from home. Sean also works for my dad from home. Which means I get to spend a lot of time with my husband and not get out of my PJs until I’m good well and ready! Which is awesome. Also, my boss is my dad. A man who loves me and always has my best interest at heart. I’d bet that most people can’t say that about their boss. However, with all these wonderful things about my job I was left still feeling discontent. See, like the majority of people who live in Texas – I grew up in church. I grew up in GREAT churches. Churches that believed in the prophetic and in investing in the next generation. So I, being a product of fantastic churches and youth groups, grew up believing that God had BIG plans for my life. This in of itself is awesome, but let me explain the trap of the enemy I fell into.

See, I’m 24 now. I’m married, I own (roughly 13% of) a home, and have a job. I’m an adult (sadly). So in my head I’m sitting here at my job day in and day out thinking, “Lord, this job isn’t BIG, and you have BIG things for me. This can’t be all you have for me right now. Let’s do something else.” Don’t you love it when you tell God what to do?!

I sat for a year (probably more) praying that prayer. Over, and over, and it bred a lot of hurt feelings and disappointment in my heart, because nothing changed. God didn’t give me a new job, He didn’t give me a huge idea for a book, He didn’t even give me an idea of how to make my current job more enjoyable. So here I am, face stained from disappointed tears, asking God why.

So many of my journeys with the Lord begin with me asking why. You’d think I’d learn to be more inquisitive all the time, might save myself some grief!

This is what I think He’s shown me the past week or so. BIG in the Kingdom of God is not measured the same way that BIG is measured on earth. As a Christian I have dual citizenship in the Kingdom of God and here on earth. I am a citizen of both worlds, but one world will pass away, along with all of its trappings. So if I’m wise, I’ll work towards successes in the world that will never end. My focus for so long has been on having big success here on earth. Wanting so badly to do BIG worldly things for God so everyone here on earth would recognize it. What God’s showing me right now, is that I need to switch my attitude and focus. I need to strive for the things He thinks are big. What are those things? Well, I think it could look different for each person, but since we’re talking about me I’ll tell you what I think those big things are.

• Learning to be a good wife – this will not only bless my husband but build a strong foundation for our future family. I can also share what I learn along the way to help others around me to be better wives, which will affect their families for generations to come. That’s BIG.
•  Learning to hear God more clearly. If I hear God better, I can speak life into my family, friends, coworkers, and who ever I come across. Living in constant communion with the Lord will make me a better image of Him, and therefore spread His word more.
• Be a better friend/daughter/sister – If I can’t cultivate good relationships and love the people that are immediately around me, why would God trust me with more people?
• Manage my ‘domain’ – where ever I am stand up for my convictions and be a FORCE of love and grace. In my home, my car, with my friends, my family, my blog.. all of it.

That’s all I’ve gotten so far, but it’s big. God has shown me that I need not scoff at things I find to be small, because its all of those ‘small’ things that add up to be a BIG life.

Matthew 5:19

So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God's laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

 Galatians 6:9

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

 Hebrews 6:9-12

Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers,^[b] as you still do. ¹¹ Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. ¹² Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.

 

 

Because the Dowager always has wisdom.