Grounded!

Grounded was a term that started sometime when I was a kid.  I don't remember being grounded.  I remember getting what we called a "whoopin", which we deserved most of the time.  "Whippings" got my attention and I believe that they filled the need of discipline in my life anyway.

Then we grounded our children.  There is nothing to do but go to your room and sulk.  Think about what you have done (in reality figure a way to do a better job of not getting caught next time ) and  consider what you did that made you have to enter that solitude and desolate place called your bedroom.  Parents then quickly forgot their children, and the children made sure that they would do better (yes, a better job of not getting caught.)

I am calling for making a change!  Let's do something that will make our children and grandchildren realize that when they do something wrong they are going to have to receive something that disciplines them into understanding that they don't ever what to do that again.  I don't know what that is but let me give you some thoughts on this.

First, when your children need discipline...just do it.  But what ever you do, don't make it something that they will quickly forget the ramification of.  It needs to be a memorable experience.  They need to know that certain behavior is not acceptable and will "cost" them something for behaving in an unacceptable way.

Second, love them through it.  You can discipline without your child thinking you hate them.  They are not even capable of understanding the amount of love you have for them when you are disciplining them.  I know I didn't, and I don't think my children did either.  But, I do know that my children, for the most part, understand that I loved them more than they knew at the time.  Why?  Because I made them understand there were repercussions to certain actions that caused them to think about what they were doing and why.

Finally, pray for them.  Pray with them and pray for them.  Let them hear you talk to God concerning them and their actions.  They will get it at some point if you are sincere in your prayer life concerning them.  They need to know that God is that important to you.  Never give up your faith and your faith will never give up on you.

Think about it!  What if God grounded you?

I'll see you later.

How Far Do We Go?

I have a question.  How far do we go before we reach the point that states our intentions where we get as far away from what we know is right before we are unable to realize it may be too far for us to come back?

That was a mouth full.

What I am thinking is this.  So many of us get out on our own, making our own decisions and we realize that we  may have overstepped the limit of where we feel comfortable with our past decision making guidelines.  Before, we had our parents and our church friends, but then we find there is a whole other world out there that doesn't hold us to those guidelines anymore and we can pretty much do what ever it is we want.  We don't have to really answer to anyone at all.  At least that can "make" us do something we don't want to do.  It starts off small with little resistance or even discipline if we do something out of the ordinary.  But then, after a while of doing those things without repercussion, we find ourselves venturing further and further away from what we thought were our limits.  We may even realize we are able to make our own decisions, but the repercussions are now upon us when we do something that could or does cause us to find ourselves away from what we have always known.

Moms and dads, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, friends and church family, we will find, aren't with us nor do they mean as much to us as the did in the past.  We have walked away from what we have known and away from the people who have known us.  We do make new friends,  but they are not really a part of who we have been.  Now, let me say, this is a freedom of choice that God has given us, but it is one that can lead us to loneliness, heartbreak, and a failure to be in the most important relationship we could ever have.  A relationship with God can be lost because we walk away from what we know into an unknown world that is accepting and easy.

Through this rambling my question still remains, "How far do we go?"

Don't let a funeral be the time to say, "I wish I had been strong enough to stay with God and His family", though difficult and burdensome.  Swallow some of the desires you have and never walk so far away that you can't see those you love and so far that you completely walk away from God.

I'll see you later!

City on a Hill

“I don’t know what to do,” she stated as she sat in my office crying and looking for answers. “I’ve tried praying, begging God to take the pain away.  Why is this happening to me?” Her life was falling apart.  Her husband had found someone else at work to spend his free time with.  He left her with their two children and a house payment along with the bills to pay and left his family to be with his new found friend.  Her children didn’t understand why daddy hadn’t been home in weeks. “What do I do?”

This story is so familiar to so many of us.  It has either happened to our family or to someone we know.  It may have even happened to you personally.  I personally know that the pain of that type of loss, separation,  and the feeling that there is no love to be found can be overwhelming.  I have lived through it as a child and was blessed enough to have my dad “find Jesus” and show us the way to a better place than where we were.  Through a man, who knocked at our door back in the mid 1970’s, named Buck Bloodworth my dad found salvation through Christ Jesus and brought the message he had heard back to my mom and ultimately to his entire family.  Many of those my dad shared that message with became born again Christians.  Some that he shared that message with decided to continue in the lives that they had chosen beforehand.  Not everyone accepts the message that I believe will help them cope and deal with the situations that seem to tear their families apart.

Yes, I believe that Jesus is the answer to our problems.  For the young lady whose husband had walked out on her, Jesus was the answer.  She was immersed into Christ and gave herself to becoming the child of God she is today. With this decision she remarried a great Christian man who had suffered the loss of his wife and has led her children to know Jesus as she does. I know of story after story of people who have turned their lives around by deciding to follow in the steps of Jesus.

There is a "City on a Hill" that shines as a beacon pointing the way to a better life.  I hope you will search it out and find it. Search it out and find the answers that you are looking for and that God is trying to show you.  Your story, once shared, can help others find the answers that they are looking for.  Don't let the bad things of life swallow you up and hide the wonderful story of Jesus from you.  Too many times we give up and take the easy route.  I pray you take the right route and work at your life to be who and whose you are supposed to be.

I'll see you later!