Children are always asking questions. Do you remember when you were little and you just had this thirst to know so many things? So you asked questions all the time. Or maybe you remember your own children asking you: “Why is the sky blue?” You gave the best answer you could. Mine was usually along the lines of, “Well, God made the sky and He decided that He wanted it to be blue.” Followed by the next question,
“Why are there white clouds?” Not being a scientist, I fell back on my old answer that always seemed to work, “Because God made the clouds and put them in the sky.” Do you remember the “how’ questions you were asked, “How does a light work?” My answers to the how questions were usually along the lines of confessing my ignorance and encouraging my child to come with me to our set of encyclopedias to look it up. (Yes, I actually had a set of World Book Encyclopedias that were well-used!). Now I am all grown up, and I am the one with questions. “Why, Lord, is there evil in the world?” “Why, Lord, must people suffer and die?” “How, Lord, does this whole living for You work?” And you know what? God always has an answer ready for me in His Word. He speaks to my softly, calling out to my heart that He is near and that He hears the cry of my heart. Everyone in the world is seeking answers, and we, the Christians of the world, have the answer. It is the seed that that Lord has planted in our hearts and in His Word that we have grown there.

Earlier this week, I was so sad because I had lost another friend to the fight against death. But her funeral was an affirmation of how much she loved the Lord and that she is with Him in Heaven now. The pastor and her daughter read from her journal and her diary, all about her close relationship to Jesus. So, I know for sure that she is at peace and that I can put my hope for my future in the Lord. My husband is very pragmatic about death; his answer is that we are getting older so we can expect to see more of our friends die. True statement, but not very comforting! Good thing that I have God’s Word to depend on, to take me over this hump.

But God does more than give me hope. He also calls me to tell others about the hope that I have in me. He has me reading in the Old Testament about God’s call to His people for repentance. God loves all the people in the world just as much as He loves you and me. He doesn’t want anyone to die without knowing Him. He created a Heaven and a Hell, but Hell was never meant for man. It was for the fallen angels, but if we go through life without accepting Him as our Savior, then we are choosing to go to Hell. I don’t want that for anyone I love, anyone I know, anyone I just speak to casually. Like my Lord and Savior, I want everyone to know Him, to have a relationship with Him that will give them the same hope that I have.

God is full of mercy and grace and love and calls out to His people to repent. I think that is why Jesus hasn’t returned yet. He wants as many people as possible to know Him and His resurrection power. God’s love will never end, it will never fail. He doesnt’ want to punish anyone. I remember when my children were small and did something that they knew they were not supposed to do, I felt compelled to punish them. Often, the punishment was a spanking with a paddle. (Yes, I believed in corporal punishment and still do.). Anyway, I spanked and then I cuddled and we talked about the bad choice that my child had made and how to make better choices. I discovered that as my children aged, they did not need to be disciplined by me as much because they were being trained to make good choices from the beginning. That’s what God’s discipline is like; it’s training to lead us down the road of making better choices, the road to life and hope for a future with Him. I hope that all of my readers have made that choice, but if you haven’t, I implore you to read the Book of John in the Holy Bible. Discover God’s love for you and accept Him as Your Savior. Blessings and prayers.

This is a really fascinating tag for me and I would like to thank Stu at Something to Stu Over for the nomination.  This tag was created by Everyday Magic with Jubilee and Mom Life with Chiari.  Please click on these links and check out these blogs.  Make sure to tag them in your posts so that they can read your letters of encouragaement to yourself.

RULES:

• Post the tag and image above.
• Mention the creators of the tag and link back to their blog.
• Thank whoever nominated you and link back to their blog.
• Nominate 5 other bloggers that you love and notify them by commenting on their latest blog post.

 

Oftentimes we may wish that we could go back in time and give our former selves advice and words of wisdom.  If you could go back in time, what advice or encouragement would you give to yourself?

Oh, my!  That would have been my sophomore year in high school.  Since then, I have lived over half a century and during that time I had a stroke and have lost a lot of my memories.  But I will attempt to give myself advice and encouragement.

Dear 15 year-old me,

1. Don’t forget to thank people.  Everyone is doing something for someone every day and the forgotten people need to be encouraged with a thank you and a smile.  I remember being more than a little self-centered when I was a teen.  I went into the “best” shops at the time with my mom and I was snotty.  I would tell myself to be kind.
2. Listen to what the pastor is saying in church.  I attended church with a friend when I was in my teens and I paid little or no attention to what the pastor was saying because I was talking to my friend.  This was way before the time of cell phones, so we just sat in the balcony and whispered to each other.  I look back on it and know that I could have learned a lot if I had only paid attention.
3. Have fun!  Don’t take everything so seriously!  When I was fifteen, I was determined to make all A’s all the time.  For one thing, it made my mom happy and or another, that was part of my identity.  I was a nerd, the girl who spent as much time as possible behind a book.  The fun that I had was with my sister or sometimes with a friend who had a sleepover.  I ended up almost having a nervous breakdown the following year, spending time in bed and not allowed to study until I was calmer.  So, I would tell myself to relax and enjoy my young life more and not be so concerned with my grades.
4. I would tell my young self that I was accepted just as I was by my Father in Heaven.  I never felt very loved or accepted in my teens.  You see, my mom told me from a very young age that she didn’t want me.  Then, in my teens, she told me almost daily how ugly I was.  My acne didn’t help my self-image, but that was just part of being a teen.  I worked about every blemish, fretted in front of the mirror and cried more than one time as I prepared to go to school.  My clothes were perfect.  My hair was as good as I could make it look.  But, still I felt that something was always wrong with me.  After all, my own mother didn’t like me.  Since then, I have discovered that it was probably herself that my mom didn’t like since as I aged, I have grown to look exactly like her.  Beauty is not everything; in fact, it is such a small part of life.  So, I would tell myself to accept myself, that I was indeed loved by my Heavenly Father.  (Just so you know, I was not a Christian at the time.  I attended church sporadically with my neighbor-friend.  But I would sing “Jesus Loves Me” to myself in the bathroom after being told once again how ugly I was.)
5. FInally, I would read my Bible more.  What young teen thinks that reading the Bible is important?  Let’s face it.  I was a child of the 60’s and I was more concerned with my face than my faith. But reading and studying the Bible would have helped my self-worth, kept me focused on the right things and repaired my hurting heart. I know that the Bible is worth more than gold and it holds the wisdom that I needed then and that I still depend on today.

 

My nominees are:

The Audacity of Faith

David Ettinger

Lisa Blair

Sue Love

Puzzles of the Soul