How to Grow Closer to God

No Potties

Megan Breedlove April 8, 2013 2 Comments

Recently Ellie (who’s almost 10) and I were going through a set of question cards designed to encourage conversation. Her answer to one of the cards let to a conversation that both confused me and made me laugh. Let me share it with you:

Me (reading from the card): “What would be the worst place to visit?”

Ellie: “Hawaii!”

Me: “Hawaii?? Why would that be the worst place??”

Ellie: “Because they don’t have any potties.”

Me (totally confused): “What?”

Ellie: “They don’t have any potties. You have to use the community outhouse.”

Me: “Sweetie, Hawaii is part of the United States. They have potties there.”

Ellie: “The Schmidtkes said they didn’t. They also said that when it was really cold and snowy, like when there was a blizzard, they had to use a bucket because they couldn’t even get to the outhouse.”

Me: “Hawaii doesn’t have blizzards. Were they talking about Alaska or somewhere?”

Ellie: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Hawaii is one of the United States. They have the same technology we have. They have potties there.”

Ellie: “Oh.”

Even typing this conversation makes me laugh. I found it pretty amusing, and I still do.

What’s not nearly so amusing is when we get confused about what God has said. He said one thing, and we think He said something else.

God says, “I poured out all my wrath over your sins on Jesus when He hung on the cross.” Yet we think He still gets really angry at us when we blow it.

God says, “Don’t sin,” and we think what He actually meant was, “If you sin, you are no longer acceptable to me, and I won’t love you.”

God says, “I so loved the world that I sent my only Son.” We think, “Okay, so He loves the world, but He doesn’t really love me.” We forget that He also said He exults over us.

It didn’t really matter much that Ellie mistook Hawaii for Alaska. It does matter when we misunderstand God.

It matters that we understand what makes God’s heart glad, and what breaks it. It matters that we understand why He considers certain things sin. It matters deeply and profoundly that we understand Who He is, as well as how much He loves us.

How do we make sure we get it right? How do we keep from getting misled into thinking that Hawaii has blizzards?

We have to know the Bible. Inside and out. Cover to cover. Every bit.

Why? Because, as John R. W. Stott says, “The Bible is God preaching.” It’s His Word to us. It’s His love letter to us. It’s what He wants us to know and one of the primary means He uses to reveal Himself to us. Therefore, it should be our primary go-to reference when we want to know what He says.

It’s great to listen to those who claim to teach the word, but what matters is not what they say, but what the Bible says. It’s fine to read books, but what matters is not what the author says, but what the Bible says. Hopefully, the speaker or author will indeed be teaching the Bible, but you have to know your Bible to be sure.

Do you know your Bible? Do you know what God says to you through it?

The Secret Service is the division of our government charged with dealing with counterfeiters and counterfeit money. In order to carry out their jobs, they have to know the difference between a fake bill and a real one. To learn the difference, they study not the fake bills, but the real ones. They study genuine bills over and over and over, so that when they see a bill that’s counterfeit, they will recognize it because it differs from the real thing.

That’s how we should study the Bible—so deeply and so well that we will recognize anything that differs from it.

Do you want to know what God says? Study your Bible. It’s fine to read or listen to what others have to say about the Bible, but you need to study it for yourself too. If you’re not sure how to do it, there are many great resources online or in print that will help you.

That way, you’ll know truth, and you’ll recognize anything that differs from it.

You’ll know that there are, indeed, potties in Hawaii.

2 Timothy 2:15—Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (NIV)

That’s Our Kenny

Megan Breedlove March 11, 2013 3 Comments

Recently, all of our family except Timmy went to see Kenny’s second grade program for school. (If you’ve been following this blog or FB author page lately, you will know why we chose to leave Timmy home with a babysitter.) We took our seats in the gym and waited for the program to start. Soon, the kids filed into the gym. “Look, there’s Kenny!” Ellie said.

Kenny didn’t see us right away, though he was obviously scanning the gym for us. When he saw us, his face lit up, and he smiled. Not a huge smile, just an “I’m really excited that you’re here, but I’ve gotta be cool” smile.

Once they stood in place on risers on the stage, the students sang several songs. I was proud of my son, of course. He looked great in his school uniform—handsome and way too grown up. I was also amused by him.

You see, Kenny is an enthusiastic kid. When he is excited about something, he participates wholeheartedly. And so it was that while the other students were standing quietly singing the songs, Kenny was busy doing accompanying hand motions, which he was making up on the spot.

It was obvious he was making them up, because no one else was doing any kind of motions at all. Everybody else just stood there doing the expected thing. Kenny, on the other hand, had to express his exuberance. “That’s our Kenny,” my husband and I agreed.

Here’s the point: in the Christian life, you and I are either all those other kids, or we’re Kenny.

Most of us are far too reserved when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. Instead of being crazy in love with Him, we settle for quietly appreciating Him from a distance. Instead of delighting in walking with Him, we do it out of a sense of duty.

Where’s our delight? Why do our emotions not get caught up in dancing with the Lover of our Souls? Why do we just stand there when we could instead be participating like crazy?

I’m talking about more than just whether or not your raise your hands during worship (both are fine) or whether you are an exuberant, outgoing person by nature. Even those of us who are naturally reserved can wholeheartedly delight in Jesus. What’s important is not the outward expression of that delight. God doesn’t care very much about that. What God cares about is what’s in our heart toward Him.

It’s possible that all those second graders were enjoying the program as much as Kenny was. God’s not any more pleased with Kenny than He is with any other student. He knows which students were participating wholeheartedly and which were only there because their parents made them go.

Likewise, He knows which of us Christians are participating enthusiastically because He can see into our hearts. He sees much deeper than however we do or don’t express our faith outwardly with physical gestures. He even sees deeper than however frequently we attend church services, read our Bibles, or give money to worthy causes.

None of those things matters a whit in comparison to what’s in our heart. That’s because God doesn’t need our service. He doesn’t even desire our service, if it comes from wrong motives. What He wants is our whole heart, and He will be content with nothing less.

How much of your heart does God have? How enthusiastically do you walk with Him?

If the answer isn’t good, go before Him right now, confess your sin, and ask Him to change your heart. Ask Him to help you dance in your soul with all your might before Him—whatever that may look like on the outside.

2 Samuel 6:14—And David danced before the LORD with all his might. (ESV)

The Cage

Megan Breedlove October 8, 2012 No Comments

It turns out that gardening isn’t as easy as it looks.

Seems like all you should have to do would be to get a pile of dirt, put some seeds in it, cover them up with the dirt, water them occasionally, and voila. Successful garden.

Apparently, there’s more to it than that. You have to have the right kind of seeds, the right kind of soil, and the proper amount of water. You have to plant at the right time of year, too.

Actually, there’s even more to it than that, though we didn’t know it for the first few years of our garden attempts. (When I say “our”, I mean “my husband’s only”. He did all the work. My part was going to be to eat the produce.) Each year, my husband would seemingly do everything right, and each year, critters would eat the produce before it could grow to maturity. My poor husband would come into the house discouraged from looking at his garden and say something like, “Looks like the critters got it again.”

I figured our gardening attempts were doomed. After all, if you take care of the soil, water, and seed aspects, which we (I mean, he) did faithfully, and your garden got eaten, you were just plain out of luck. Or so I thought.

This year, our garden is actually on its way to being pretty successful. Lettuce and carrots are sprouting, and various shoots from whatever my husband planted are poking up out of the raised bed. And this year, we’re confident that critters won’t eat the results. In fact, we’re positive.

How can we be so sure? Because my husband built a portable cage which rests over the garden (it’s a small plot). It can be tilted away from the garden for watering purposes, then easily tilted back into place.

Ingenious, right? Yet so simple. Protect the garden, and it won’t get eaten.

It’s a seemingly obvious principle we don’t always think about, but one that, when properly applied, will afford a much greater possibility for success. And it applies to our spiritual lives, too.

Too often, we see living a Christian life as a matter of “do the right thing, and it’ll work out.” So we read our Bibles, pray occasionally, attend church, and do all the “right” things. Then we wonder why our lives don’t bear fruit.

Often, it’s because we don’t protect ourselves. We forget that being a Christian is not merely a matter of doing, but of being, and the being has to be right in order for the doing to be right. Yet we get it backwards, concentrating on the “doing” and forgetting that both are matters of the heart, and that in order to function as it should, a heart must be protected.

You know, our ribs are amazing things. They are built like a cage (which is why, of course, they are called the “rib cage”) to protect our physical heart. God designed our bodies this way because He knew our heart needed extra protection.

He designed our spiritual heart to need extra protection, too, and He made that protection easily available. The only problem is that we don’t take advantage of it. Sure, we pray, but we pray for our neighbor’s aunt’s doctor’s dog. We don’t pray about the danger crouching right at our own door. We don’t pray for our heart to be protected because we don’t realize how desperately in need of protection we are.

Or we read our Bible, but we read in order to check something off on our to-do list rather than for information on how to guard our heart.

Our enemy Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone he can devour (1 Peter 5:8). Which do you think a hungry lion is more easily able to attack? Prey that is guarded and protected, or prey that is left out in the open, undefended and vulnerable?

Precious mom, are you leaving your heart unprotected? If so, you’re in spiritual danger. And if that’s you, don’t hesitate. Cry out to God right now for His protection. Do you want to have to “try again” at some point in the future because your garden didn’t work out this time?

I don’t. And neither do you. Both of us want to be successful now. And for that to happen, we must protect our heart.

Will you do it?

Proverbs 4:23—Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

When the Time Comes

Megan Breedlove August 6, 2012 No Comments

A couple months ago, my kids and I watched the Olympic Trials in gymnastics. This was the competition based upon which gymnasts would either earn a spot on Team USA for the London 2012 Olympics, or not.

One of the competitors was the then-reigning Olympic Women’s Individual All-Around champion, Nastia Liukin. As incredible a gymnast as her title would suggest, she intended to compete on the balance beam and uneven bars in hopes of winning a spot on the team for her second trip to the Olympics.

The only problem was that her decision to try out for the team had been made a mere few weeks before, and therefore, she had only trained seriously for about three weeks before the Trials. This left her unprepared to perform at the level of which she was capable, and it showed. She had repeated major errors on both apparatus, including a fall from the uneven bars. Her performances left me cringing in embarrassment for her.

Clearly, Nastia possesses the talent to do far better than she did. I remember watching her four years ago in Beijing, when she was at the peak of her performance ability. She was truly incredible. There was no other gymnast in the world like her. Everything she did was beautiful.

Not this time. This time, she wasn’t anywhere close to ready for the Olympics. When it came time to perform, she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t prepared, so she failed.

Obviously, things would have been different had she had more preparation time. But that was just the point. She didn’t, and there are some things in this life you just can’t do right without adequate preparation.

We all face trials in life. Some are small trials at which we could succeed with our eyes closed. But there are many that will be big enough—some will even be huge—that we won’t be able to pass without adequate preparation beforehand.

What are you doing to prepare for trials that might come?

Are you pursuing wisdom now so that when you need it, you’ll have it? Do you spend time not only reading God’s Word, but studying it? Do you attend worship services and really listen to the sermon? Do you read Christian books and think about what they teach, or talk about them with others?

Are you building an intimate relationship with God now so that when trials come, you’ll be close to Him? Do you spend time in prayer, which is simply talking with Him and listening to Him? Do you meditate on the spiritual truth? Do you record the things He tells you and bring them to mind periodically?

Are you building stamina now? Are you practicing hard work when the pressure’s off, so that when it’s on, you’ll have stamina built up?

Are you connecting with other believers now, so that when you need other people around you, you’ll have these relationships to fall back on?

If you don’t do these things now, then when a trial comes, you’ll be scrambling during the trial to catch up to where you could have been before it started. And you may not be able to do it.

God is always with us. But He expects us to diligently prepare for what might lie ahead. It’s not realistic for us to expect that we can fail to prepare for life and then have Him rescue us from the consequences of our lack of preparation. That makes about as much sense as it would if we were to show up at the Olympic Trials, never having practiced gymnastics, and expect Him to make us Olympic-caliber gymnasts.

Precious woman and mom, what are you doing to prepare? What are you doing now so that you will be ready when the time comes?

Proverbs 20:4—A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.

Cleaning House

Megan Breedlove October 24, 2011 No Comments

I can tell my kids are growing older.

It’s not just because before next Sunday, I have to buy Lindsey a bigger pair of “church shoes”. Nor is it because Kenny just turned seven, or because I’ve seen a new maturity in Ellie that the Holy Spirit is working in her.

No, it’s because the kids have finally figured out something I tried to keep secret for as long as I could: exactly what happens to their stuff when I clean their rooms. Previously, I don’t know whether they ever really thought about it. All they knew was that sometimes, Daddy took them places while Mommy stayed home to clean, and when they got back, their rooms were nice and straight. Apparently it never occurred to them to wonder where their stuff went—at least until this most recent round of cleaning.

Now, all too soon, they realize what you moms know: when Mommy has to clean their stuff, lots of it disappears. Sometimes permanently.

Two days ago, my husband took the kids on a day-long excursion to do various errands and visit fun places (the park, the library) while I stayed home to take care of the playroom and the girls’ room. For the first time ever, the kids were a little worried when they left. They had spent the morning lobbying for various of their favorite toys not to get given away, but I made few promises. Some of the stuff, I intended to put up in the attic. (“Just leave it up there for a few days until we forget about it and don’t want it anymore,” Ellie advised.) Other items, I planned on putting into the car for donation to one of our favorite charities.

I spent six hours working on the playroom/schoolroom and the girls’ room. Apparently I did so good a job that when Ellie returned and saw the playroom, she said, “Wow! It’s like living in a new house!” When Lindsey walked into her room and saw the now-almost-bare shelves, her mouth dropped open, and she stood there in amazement. Or maybe it was shock. My husband was pretty pleased, too, and considering the fact that he is far neater than I am, that was a significant compliment.

Turns out it’s kind of like when I clean house spiritually speaking. I realize that my spirit needs cleaning out, and I decide to do something about it. I pull out all the stuff that really doesn’t belong and dispose of it—at least temporarily. True, some of the things, I get rid of immediately. They’re gone, as they should be. But some of the things I shove into the “attic”, where they’ll still be accessible later. Maybe I even do such a good job that people compliment me. But remember that stuff in the attic? It’s still there. And that’s where the problem comes in.

My purpose in putting the kids’ stuff in the attic is to buy us some time in case I decide I want to bring it back out later. Unfortunately, sometimes I do the same thing with the spiritual stuff I should be getting rid of. Instead of really, truly getting it out of my house, I put it in reserve in case I decide to go back to it. It’s a temporary cleansing that can be undone if I decide I really wanted that stuff after all.

Maybe you can identify with me. Maybe there have been things in your life that you should have gotten out of the house, but instead, you stored in the attic because you couldn’t quite bear to part fully with them yet. And then later, you brought them back downstairs and they became part of your life again. I’ve done that too. And I’ve regretted it every time.

It would be pretty tough for me to take some of that material stuff that’s in my actual attic and give it away permanently. Why? Because my emotions and memories are involved. Likewise, it would be difficult to give away some of my spiritual stuff. Why? For the same reasons.

The solution to the problem is obvious—give it away in the first place, so I’m not tempted to take it out again. But it’s hard. Sometimes the pull of emotion is too strong.

So what can I do? What can you do, when you’re faced with needing to clean out a part of your life but aren’t emotionally ready to let it go?

We could do the same thing I could do with my kids’ material possessions: get someone to pick up a box as soon as I’ve filled it and cart it right out the door, heading for charity.

I’m not necessarily suggesting we have to do this with physical objects. But I’m definitely suggesting that we do the same thing spiritually. Let’s take what we need to get rid of, hand it over to the Person helping us clean, and let Him dispose of it before the emotional pull becomes too strong and we take it back.

The only way to be sure we won’t bring possessions back down from the attic is to make sure those possessions aren’t within our grasp anymore. The charities we frequent are always more than glad to take what we donate. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is always ready and willing to take our castoffs and put them far away from us.

Is there something in your life that you need to get rid of this week? Perhaps even right now? Let the Holy Spirit have it. Ask Him to take it away before you can grab it back. I guarantee that the temporary pain of its being gone is less than the pain of knowing it is still there, up in the attic. Or worse yet, the pain of knowing you’ve brought it back down.

Job 11:13-15—Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear.