Don't judge a Louisville Cardinal by its color

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud."
1 Corinthians 13:4 NLT

As most of my friends and family know, I'm a huge sports fan, especially when it comes to my University of Kentucky basketball team. I look at it as a obsession healthy hobby, although I do tend to be a bit obnoxious and overwhelming during basketball season. I'm the one who on game day wears my team colors (blue) from head to toe, and explains to you exactly how and why my team is going to demolish  beat yours.

Now as a die-hard sports fan knows, you always have to be aware of the enemy; aka the rival team. You know, the one you absolutely love to cheer against. For a Kentucky Wildcat fan, that team is most definitely the Louisville Cardinals, regardless of the fact that they too are from the great state of Kentucky. In order to be a true UK fan, you must never, and I do mean never, ever like them. To do so, would be grounds for immediate dismissal from the fan club we like to call the Big Blue Nation.

As you might well guess, this has always been the policy I have lived by, and I must say I've lived it well; that is until the day I met a Louisville Cardinal fan, and suddenly my house of cards began tilting slightly to the left. I'm not entirely sure of the exact moment it happened. Perhaps, it was the fact that I had just watched this team battle through one of the most courageous events in NCAA tournament history, only to go on and win the 2013 championship, or maybe it was simply because this Cardinal fan was just too darn nice. Whatever the reason, I now have a new appreciation and respect for this team and its fans.

You can't judge a book by its cover 

I've always liked to live by the policy that you can't judge a book by its cover, and as an adult I've tried to expand this way of thinking into most areas of my life. Instead of judging, I try to rely on God for the discernment to know who and what to avoid. The problem with that, I wasn't allowing it to cover everything. I was blinded by the belief that I loved my team more than anyone could possibly love theirs. Surprised by this, I wondered if I was doing it with other things in my life. Was I allowing my arrogance to blind me to loving everyone with total abandonment?

We can spend our time believing we have it all together, that we love enough, and that we hold no prejudices, but until we shake off the chains of every single judgmental thought, and embrace the idea of loving unconditionally, we will never truly understand the love Jesus has for us."

"The gospel portrait of Jesus is that of a person who cherished life and especially other people as loving gifts from the Father's hand." (Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, pg. 62)

It may seem a tad silly to write about a couple of basketball teams, but together, they have taught me a lot about love and and the gift of friendship. I've learned that true love sees no color, (even red or blue), "it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs." (1 Corinthians 13:5 HCSB)

I want my life to be more about how I love than what I do or do not like. I want my life to show that I love unconditionally without stereotyping anyone, or putting conditions on what kind of love I show. Most of all, I want to be seen as someone who loves as much like Jesus as possible.

Please join me in prayer:
Father,
Thank You for always putting me in situations where I'm able to learn more about You and how to love. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know this dear friend of mine better and see that true friends can love unconditionally, even if they don't see eye to eye on everything.
As always, it's in Your name I pray,
Amen

Salina

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning, 1990, Multnomah Press, Portland, Oregon.
Linked to 1-Minute Bible Love Notes Thankful Thursday Winsome Wednesday

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A bleeding heart

"Crying is better than laughing. It blotches the face, but it scours the heart."

Ecclesiastes 7:3 MSG

I have great affection for anything that resembles a heart, so it should come as no surprise that a Bleeding Heart is one of my favorite flowers. As I reflect on the name, I think about what it means to have a bleeding heart. Webster-Merriam defines it as "a person who shows extravagant sympathy, especially for an object of alleged persecution."

As I turn on the TV, I realize it's rare to go a day without experiencing persecution, without seeing unbelievable acts and events that are deeply horrendous and hard to watch. We see so many hurting and tormented people that I can't help but cry for them. I cry for the children who are left orphaned and destitute, I cry for the mother, father, sister, or brother who have just lost their loved one from a senseless act, I cry for the unborn babies thrown away like trash, I cry for the lonely, the broken, the hurting, and I cry for all those who believe hope is no longer attainable.

These images swirl around and through my brain, over and over again, until I feel as though my heart might break in two from utter grief and empathy. But then I'm reminded of Lamentations 3:32 which says "though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love." (NLT)

I find that nothing comforts my heart more than those words. The thought of Christ showing compassion toward us makes the pain of life bearable. It lets us know that not only is He aware of our pain, but He's also aching alongside us.

"But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness."

Psalms 86:15 NLT

A friend recently reminded me that having a tender (bleeding) heart was nothing to be ashamed of. She said that one of her daddy's favorite sayings to her was "we were made in the image of God, so it's okay to cry; He gave us tears for a reason."

God did give us our tears. He created us to have caring, compassionate hearts; hearts just like His.  It's our job to use those hearts to give back. There are many ways to give your heart away. The only criteria is that we do it unselfishly and with God's help and guidance.

'The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation.'

Psalms 145:9 NLT

Please pray with me:

Father,

May we use the tears You bless us with to cleanse our hearts from all things self. Grow our hearts to become more like Yours, enlarge them so that we will never become immune to the injustices and hurts of this world.

In Your name I pray,

Amen

Salina

Images © S Gibson


 


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Always be full of joy

Laughter is medicine that's good for the body and soul

I love the pure unadulterated joy of God-given laughter. Nothing lightens my soul any better than laughing with my husband, friends, and family. You know those times when nothing else matters except for losing yourself in the moment and feeling as though all your cares and worries have melted away? In my opinion, a great dose of laughter does far more for me than anything medication could ever accomplish.

'A cheerful heart is good medicine.'

(Proverbs 17:22 NLT)

God presents laughter to us as a beautiful gift. It's given to us as a way to raise our spirits and bring joy to our lives. Sometimes though, we get distracted by life and allow our joy to be taken from us. These distractions are things I call "joy killers."

'Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.'

(Lamentations 5:15 NLT)

Joy killers come in many sizes and shapes. They manifest themselves as internal conflict, such as worry, fear, and anxiety, or they penetrate our lives from outside forces through other people. Regardless of how joy killers occur, we can always count on them to eat away at our happiness, bit by painful bit.

Sometimes joy killers come in without us even being aware of their presence, that is, not until we sense that a considerable amount of our joy has vanished. When this happens, we must take a time out. We need to stop and look for exactly what's draining our joy. Have we allowed something negative into our lives, or are we giving someone the power to steal it from us. 

No matter what the cause, God wants us to be happy. He wants to stop the joy leak we are experiencing by closing off the pain, replacing it with hope, and an even more abundance of joy.  He wants to give us life that is full and overflowing, so that our mourning will be turned into dancing, and joy will return to our hearts.

Find a reason to laugh today. Call a friend and share a memory with them. Start out slow if you have to, but give God the permission right now to completely heal your heart.

'Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!'

(Philippians 4:4 NLT)

Let's pray,

Father,

My heart soars with joy today. I'm in utter awe of the blessings You shower upon my life; I give You thanks for that. I ask that You touch each of my readers. May their hearts feel real joy, as they turn their faces up to You and bask in Your healing presence.  

In Your name I pray,

Amen

Salina
Image © S Gibson
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I always love to hear from my readers, so please leave a comment. You are also welcome to contact me privately if you need prayer.

Feel free to add the link to your website below. I would appreciate a link back to this page.

Identified through Christ

‘Either make the tree good and its fruits good, or else make the tree bad and its fruits bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.’

Matthew 12:33 NKJV

The moment I posted the photos to Facebook I realized I had messed up. You see I have this really fun hobby called finding and photographing wildflowers, one I’m quite addicted to. The only negative is that I don’t always know the names of the flowers I'm photographing. Yes, I have several flower books to help me with this, but I've found that nothing is better (or more fun) than having your own walking, talking, flesh and blood ID book.

My ID book is actually one of my best friends. She went to school to learn all this flower gobbledygook, and as long as I post the pictures online, she will look at them and tell me what they are. It's a great relationship, except for one tiny thing; I can never, ever (ever) remember to photograph the leaves. That may sound a bit silly to you, especially since it's just the flower I want identified, but wildflowers are tricky little boogers; a great many of them look just alike, and what we might call a flower isn't just the bloom, it includes the leaves too.

The trick to identifying a flower is that sometimes the only way to do so is by looking at the leaves. They might have the same color, size, and number of petals, but never the same leaves. Take identical twins for example; they may look exactly alike on the outside, but once you get to know them, their personality traits reveal which one is which. Making a little more sense now? I'm beginning to find that it does for me too.

Matthew 7:20  says "they will know us by our fruit." I can’t help but compare this verse to identifying a flower.  When meeting someone for the first time we usually observe several things about them. We identify how they look on the outside, but we also take notice of their personality traits. For example, we could meet someone who says they are a Christian, but with no way to physically examine their heart, we wouldn't be able to verify the truth. Only by their actions would their true heart be revealed, and their identity either corroborated or negated.

'You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.'

James 2:22 NLT

We should always strive to make sure we are correctly identified. As followers of Christ we want to be sure our speech, deeds, and actions line up with what we tell others. If we publicly profess to be a Christian, people should have no problem discovering we speak the truth. In fact, the evidence to support this truth shouldn't be hard to find at all.

We can't speak one thing, and then turn around and do the complete opposite. We need to be consistent in our actions. We need to stand up for what we believe and make sure that every area of our life is able to back up our beliefs, otherwise we take a risk of misleading others, and that's a risk we simply can't afford to take.

Let's pray

Father,

Through You we have Life, and once Life has been given, we need to do all we can to make sure we are portraying that Life as visibly as possible. May we be bold in our actions as we continue to share Your love.

In Your name I pray,
Amen

Salina

Image © S Gibson


________________________________________________________________

I always love to hear from my readers, so please leave a comment. You are also welcome to contact me privately if you need prayer

Feel free to add the link to your website below. I would appreciate a link back to this page.

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