Midas Touch?

One look in my fridge and we all realize I do NOT have the Midas touch. Gold? Um, no. It’s pretty clear from the blue-green glow coming from inside that fridge that most things I touch turn to fuzz. Fur-covered macaroni, spotted cheese and spaghetti that seems to have grown its own meatballs. Ew. I think I have something closer to the “Mold-us” touch.

            I admit it. Cleaning the fridge is generally way too far down the line on my list of priorities. I’ve brought more than one box of baking soda to its knees.

I hope I’ll never be casual, though, about how I touch others with my words, and how those words affect and influence people. Ephesians 4:15 refers to “speaking the truth in love.” Truth. Love. We really have to have both. Truth without love is harsh. But love without truth is fruitless.

It’s easy to say what we think others want to hear. Easy, but not fruitful. I want my words to touch lives in ways that will make a difference. That doesn’t always mean saying things that are warm and fuzzy (and by the way, that’s not a reference to that moldy kind of fuzzy). Sometimes helpful words are the kind that sting a little. 

Ecclesiastes 12:11 says, “The words of the wise are like cattle prods—painful but helpful. Their collected sayings are like a nail-studded stick with which a shepherd drives the sheep” NLT. Cattle-prodding words. I really get a charge out of that visual.

It goes both ways. I appreciate my closest friends who lovingly “herd” me in the right direction with caring words of wisdom. A painful poke instead of a tickle? I’m telling you, I’ll take the jab of truth any day. I’d rather head the right direction after a stinging prod than to continue down the wrong road, all the while hearing everything’s fine and I’m doing great things.

Value truthful words from a trusted friend. They’re more precious than the insincere, say-whatever-you-want-to-hear words of a flatterer. Give your faithful friends the freedom to tell you the truth even when it smarts. Those stinging truths are often the ones God can use to polish your character and make you more like Christ. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses” NIV. Another version puts it this way:  “You can trust a friend who corrects you, but kisses from an enemy are nothing but lies” CEV.

If you don’t have a friend who will speak the truth in love to you, be on the lookout for one. Ask God to provide that friend for you who can help add just the spit-shine you’re needing in your life.

Loving words of truth and wisdom. Now there’s something I don’t want to let slide down my list of priorities. Ever.

            The fridge-cleaning? Okay, a spit-shine could definitely stand to come up the priority list a notch or two. Especially after last week. Who knew a bag of lettuce could totally liquefy?


Rubber-gloved-ly yours,

Perfectly Packaged Peace

Don’t get me wrong. I love being a woman. Really I do. There’s no doubt we get the best shoes. Better jewelry, too, and (Mr. T excluded) more of it.

We get a host of other great accessories, too. Most guys would never consider carrying an adorable purse, for instance. They have to hang their cell phones on their clothes! How can they live like that?

But I must admit that all those great accessories and cuter shoes come in a rather complicated package. They’re packaged with hormones that go wacko and hair that requires about a 98% bigger time investment (and the bigger the hair, the bigger the investment—in more ways than one). Other items that sneak their way into the package? Higher priced clothing—hands down, over and under. A guy can buy three packages of underwear for what it costs for one girlie pair.

Even worse than higher priced drawers? Cellulite. I have a couple of thighs that positively refuse to let go of the evil stuff. And packaged right along with the cellulite comes an aversion to swim suit shopping that inspires every woman to ask at some time or another in her life, “How much do I really want to swim anyway?”

There’s no doubt in my mind that wacko hormones, stubborn cellulite and all the rest of the items on the dark side of the package came into the world when sin entered the picture. When Adam and Eve sinned, everything changed. Here’s a big indicator: The pre-fall verse in Genesis 2:25 says, “They were naked and unashamed.” That pretty much says it for me. This was obviously back in the days when, if you’ll forgive me, Victoria “didn’t need no secret.” It wasn’t until after the curse of sin that Eve had to ask, “Adam, do you think this fig leaf makes me look fat?”

How do we make peace with our thighs? How can we find peace in a world of volcanic hormones and vicious spandex-laden swim suits? Peace of every kind comes from Jesus. Adam and Eve’s sin and the resulting curse on the world didn’t catch God by surprise. He already had a plan in place to bring peace, to reconcile us to himself again.

His peace has nothing to do with chubby thighs. As a matter of fact, you can experience his true and lasting peace no matter what size is written on the tag of your swim suit. If your peace can be damaged or destroyed by any earthly challenge, then you’re not getting your peace from the right source. The only source of that real and lasting peace is our Heavenly Father. And we can only know the peace-giving Father through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (NIV).

Not only can we have peace with God through Christ because of the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, but we have available to us genuine peace for every aspect of life. It’s all because of a loving Father who will guard our hearts and minds with the unexplainable peace of Jesus. Now there’s a package!

So I figure, let Victoria KEEP her secret. I’m not going to waste energy carrying a grudge about that cellulite thing. The peace of Christ is so much bigger than my thighs will ever be.

Fry, Fry Again

A friend was telling me about going to a restaurant for...are you ready for this...chicken fried bacon. No kidding. Can you imagine looking at bacon and thinking, “Okay, just in case it’s not unhealthy enough, let’s just fry it again”? Chicken fried bacon! I think it comes with a side order of defibrillator.

Couldn’t their slogan be: “double your pleasure, double your heart disease”? Although I have to wonder if the extra fried stuff really does make it that much better or if you just end up losing the whole bacon-ness of it all--missing the best part.

It made me think of the privilege of prayer, and the double pleasure we can find there. Sometimes we do miss the best part of all. There is power in prayer and I believe our prayers can even influence God’s decisions. But doubled with that truth is the truth that prayer is not designed to force God to see things our way, to change his mind about what we want. Prayer is about helping us see things his way, to help us put on his mind.

Deuteronomy 4:29 says to “Seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul,” (NKJV).

So I’m asking the Lord to help me keep that heart-and-soul-seeking kind of prayer in mind. Every day.

And as far as that whole chicken fried bacon thing goes, maybe I should be a little more open minded. You know, maybe if before that second frying, they rolled it in LIPITOR....

Ready for Heart Day!

I went to buy a Valentine card for my Valentine. Last minute this year. That means I had to shove ten thousand guys over. All the women? Most of them did their Valentine’s Day shopping a couple of weeks ago. It was so embarrassing to be stuck in there with all those last-minute guy-shoppers.

The card rack told the story. All the cards for hubbies and boyfriends? Picked almost clean. Then there was the wife/girlfriend section. Fully stocked with hardly a card out of place.

Yeah, the last-minute life really can get embarrassing. That’s one reason I want to do what the Bible tells me and “be ready” when Jesus comes. I don’t want to be red-faced when we hear that trumpet solo and I know my One True Love has arrived. I want to get to say something like, “Knew he was coming. Bought the card weeks ago.” Yessiree, I want to be ready.

Hey, I’m shooting for being more ready next Valentine’s Day, too. This year, I bought two cards.