family – Page 14 – Ramblings of a Christian Father

Praying with sunglasses on…

I realized this weekend how distracted I get. Call it ADD, ADHD, stressed, etc. When I try to focus on one thing, my mind starts racing. I try to take the time every morning as I’m getting ready for work before the munchkin wakes up, to spend time with God. During this time I find my mind going to everything that I had to do yesterday and didn’t get to, everything that I need to take care of today, that song I was listening to yesterday, or the theme from Jem, (another story for another time). Even focusing to write this post has taken me a few days, every time I would start to write something would come up that needed to be done.

In a world where 25 hours a day still aren’t enough, we have to find time to spend in quite devotion with God. Even if it’s just a few moments sitting in the car on your lunch break, a quick walk around the parking lot, or even getting up 15 minutes early to find a quite spot to collect your thoughts and be alone with God. It is in these few minutes that we must make an effort to put the busyness of the world away for just a few minutes, and listen to God.

Sometimes just a few moments is all that God needs to water that seed that has been planted in your heart or mind. Even though it may not seem that God is there, it is in these small times that he will manifest himself in a great way.

At this point your probably wondering if the title will ever tie in to the message here, and it does. I’m sure many of us have seen, Big Daddy with Adam Sandler. The little boy is the movie is scared at times, so Adam Sandler’s character gives him a pair of sunglasses and tells him when he is scared to put them on and he becomes invisible. So yes I know it’s a stretch, but if it comes down to it and the only way that you can get a few minutes alone with God is to become invisible to everyone else, put on those sunglasses and spend time with God.

June 12, 2012June 12, 2012 by corymcglone

History doesn’t make the man, The man makes history…

2 Corinthians 5:16-19— ¹⁶Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. ¹⁷Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. ¹⁸Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

So many times in today’s world we hear about people’s past and that’s why they do the things that they do today. We get sometimes are trapped in the stigma that what our parents were, that’s what we will be. Or that one mistake in our past labels us for our entire future. We get so caught up in the past, and what we came from, that we let it become us. If someone comes from an abusive home, they will become an abuser, or always look for abusive relationships. If someone comes from a poverty-stricken family, they will never get out of that situation. But it is then that we have to overcome, we have to strive to do better, we have to reach for a better life

I was lucky growing up, unlike so many people of my generation, my parents are still together after all these years. I had great parents that always taught me the value of hard work, and the importance of family. So no I didn’t come from a broken home, I didn’t have an abusive father, I didn’t have to deal with a lot of things that many deal with today. So no I can’t talk first hand to these situations, maybe my outlook would be different on this subject, but I know that there are people who overcome the demons of their past.

No matter what is in your past, it is not your past that makes you. Take the things from your past and let them shape you. The things of your past should help you make decisions, they should help you teach others and try to lead them in a better way. Take your old mistakes and learn from them, take the dark things of your past and find ways to not go down those roads again, learn from others mistakes, and try not to repeat them.

Take the past, put it behind you, learn from it, don’t dwell in it, use it to teach others, and go forward making your own history not shaped by your past.

May 22, 2012 by corymcglone

Persistent stubborn dedication or Insanity

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
― Albert Einstein

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
–Garth Brooks Unanswered Prayers

Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; [m]but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.
— Matthew 15:21-27

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on passion. After really thinking about it, I started to see how your passion for something could get you called insane, or have people praise you for your dedication to whatever it is. This past week I really felt God leading me into this post about how we pray for things and how we display our faith, passion, and even our work ethic.

It’s been a few crazy weeks around the house with Easter, birthdays, work trips, vacation, and the many other things that are just part of daily life. So when I felt God placing this message on me I took some extra time to pray and look at my own faith and prayer life. As a family we pray EVERY night before the munchkin goes to sleep and then we will all say at least one thing that we are thankful for from the day we just had. But every night, as we are praying the munchkin will have to insert her request to Jesus, and it is the same every night, for her to have a baby brother or baby sister, and she will also pray for people that we had said were sick weeks ago, even if we have forgotten they were sick, she makes sure that we tell Jesus to be with them.

But the are things that we as Christians, find ourselves constantly asking God for: wisdom and guidance in career decisions and all decisions in general, healing, financial help/guidance. But at some point even the most dedicated Christians will fall victim to fear and doubt, but it is here that we must remember that God’s timing is not the same as ours. Just when we think that we have things all figured out, God shows us that he is still in control. So even when it seems like our prays are nor being heard, we know that God hears the voices of all of his children.

Along with the verse I have quoted above , another prime example of how God feels about us in found in Matthew 7:7-11—

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

It’s spelled out clearly, that when we go to God and just ask, if it is his will for us, he will grant that request. There are times, many times, that the things we ask for are not the best things for us. I mean honestly think about it as a parent, if you kid is asking for Ice cream for dinner, you are going to say no. In the same way, we may not see how our request will hurt us in the long run, but God will eventually give us something else and we forget about what we were originally looking for, or we see that is was actually a better alternative to what we had been praying so hard for.

So while many people will look at our faith as partial insanity, we pray for the same things all the time and get the same results, but we expect something different. This is where we must insure that our faith is strong enough to remember and trus that our heavenly father still knows what is best for us. God wants us to trust him, to pursue him daily, and to be devoted to him in our daily lives. It is this stubborn blind passionate devotion that sets us apart as Christians. While many do not understand why we believe what we do, we know what God can, will, and has done for each of us in our lives.

So take time to think about the way that you pray, what you have been praying for, and also the things that God has done for you in the past. Look for the other solution to your problems, because sometimes we are so focused on what we want, we don’t see the answer God is placing directly in front of us.

April 29, 2012April 29, 2012 by corymcglone

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