I'm going to practice being grateful for the next 21 days. The idea is to intentionally think on and be thankful for the things in my life right now. I'll try NOT to live a life of comparison by refraining from comparing my life to what was or what is not yet. Instead I will choose to experience the blessings in my life that I usually allow to go unnoticed. There are thousands of daily experiences like the way sun light shines through someone’s hair, children being silly, or the smell of freshly brewed coffee. These are all blessings that have been bestowed on us to make us happy and show Gods goodness and sovereignty, and yet we allow the joy to be stripped from them. I pray the Lord will bless me in enjoying His blessings.
I will look for 5 things everyday that are blessings and journal them. This will be a practice in choosing the see the blessings rather than complaining about things I perceive as curses. The truth is that most of these "curses" are not things the Lord has given me anyway. I tend to complain about things used to have or things I wish I had.
Ezekiel 34:25-31 25 "'I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. 26 I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. [a] I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28 They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29 I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 30 Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. 31 You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.'"
Last week I had a great time with the Lord. I got see the lesson He was teaching me while He was teaching me. I know, how crazy is that.
That morning I managed, through no small miracle, to get up before anyone else in the house. Normally the kids get up before I do. This time they slept in until almost 8:00. I sat down to spend some time in the word. I am currently reading through the psalms. This morning it was tough. I was having trouble relating to King David as he pled with God to protect him from his many enemies. As King David thanked God for keeping him strong under persecution, even though he remained righteous in the sight of the Lord, I could not relate. I don’t have a list of people who are bent on my demise. I’m not at war with anyone. If someone does accuse me, it’s normally because I deserve it. I’m not righteous of my own accord. I am not above reproach. Furthermore, the few times I have been falsely accused in my life, I’ve fought back ferociously defending myself. I actually had a conversation with the Lord letting him know that I could not relate. Then I stopped reading, made a to-do list for myself for the day and got ready for work.
At about 10:00 am my boss got a call from our largest vendor. Unbeknownst to us we had been accused by one of our largest customers of failing to support them. This customer had asked that we be removed as their reseller of record in order to have their account managed by another reseller. I was called out by name as playing a key role in the demise of the relationship. To say we were shocked is an understatement. As we learned more about the accusations we realized that they were being falsely raised. We had not done the things we were being accused of.
The source of our information was from a friend within a 3rd company who is interacting with all the parties involved. This means the information was confidential and we could not call up the accuser and defend ourselves. Nor could we call the person the accusation had been brought to. We were left with no options but to sit back and take it. At least in my case I could petition the Lord to intercede on my behave just as King David did in the psalms.
Because of my time with the Lord, I was able to see that the attack was not personal. It is based on the perfect storm of personal motivations, outside my ability to impact, coming together to form the situation. As it turns out there are several players involved. All of them have a personal agenda that actually has nothing to with me or my company. It just happens that our removal from this particular account would satisfy the desires of these individuals.
Since the Lord blessed me with the foreknowledge of the psalms, I was able to look pragmatically at the problem. I did not get righteously indignant. If I had, I would have shot myself in the foot by exasperating the situation. Instead I was able to keep a cool head and actually talk down my boss. The next morning he sent a very cordial email letting the notifying party know that we did the best we could and asking that our existing record be allowed to speak for us.
Today we were told that some other people who have a historic understanding of the situation have gone to bat for us and me personally. The Lord is moving to protect us, just like he said he would in the psalms.
As you can tell nothing has been done with this website for months (actually over a year). I think I’m going to use it as a prayer journal and web portal. I’ll be changing the front page to something static that shows our family a little, and then I’ll set up a blog. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll put on the blog. Today I have a story to tell about how the Lord made Psalms real and relevant. Then we’ll see what happens. For months I have wanted a place to catalog prayers and answers. Maybe this will be it.
This year was the 6th annual Ginger Bread House Decorating Party. It was the best one yet. The houses had great themes and the kids did a fantastic job of sticking with them. We have short videos of the kids describing there houses and the themes behind them, but they are stuck on the camera. We have an old camera and a new computer. One day I'll get them off and put them up here. This was Sam's first year decorating his own house and he did great. I helped him get the icing on each side but he put every piece of candy on himself.
