1 Corinthians 13 Christmas Version

 
Sharon Jaynes
Celebrating a Christ Centered Christmas
used with permission of
Moody Publishers

 

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband. Love is kind, though harried and tired. Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way. Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.

Merry Christmas and lots of love to you and yours!

Lesson - Turning Evil to Good

This morning I was on my way to HEB to get some grapes to take to work for an afternoon snack.  I pulled out onto the highway and I noticed a small red car coming at a very fast speed right behind me staying right on my bumper. I must have either pulled out in front of her unintentionally or was driving too slow for her. It was a short distance to the HEB shopping center parking lot so I  pulled onto the medium to let her pass.  Instead, she pulled up right beside me and gave me a hateful glare. 

She then pulled in front of me onto the medium, turned into the same shopping center, and stopped in front of the tanning salon.  'All of that just because she needed to tan', I thought.  She yelled something inaudible to me as I passed by. I was steaming by this time because I felt her actions were totally uncalled for and rude. To be honest, I wanted to yell back at her, "Don't you know those things cause cancer!" Instead, I went on in to HEB with the whole scenario replaying in my mind. 

Then I thought, I am not going to let the devil have this moment.  He is enjoying the anger and the frustration we both have put into this. Change your thoughts, change your life.  So I began thinking, she probably had a rough morning, was running late and wanted to get into the tanning bed before work or something. She is young and those things are important to her.  I was young once too.  The older shall teach the younger women, the Bible tells us.....  

So, I bought a greeting card, wrote a note apologizing for causing her day to start off so badly and that lunch is on me today.  I put $20 inside and sealed the envelope. When I got to the tanning salon her car was gone. The attendant at the tanning salon told me she comes in every morning, so I left the card with the words "Red Car" on the front and asked the attendant to give it to her when she comes back. 

Although I will never know her reaction when she reads my card, I hope that it makes her smile and her anger subsides. I hope that her day got better. And maybe one day down the road she will remember this day as a not so bad day and be able make someone else's day better too.  

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 I am not posting this to bring glory to myself.  I admitted my own malicious thoughts that wanted to come out of my mouth.  I am sharing this because we all have a tendency to react to situations based on our feelings at the moment, instead of considering what the other person may be going through. We all make mistakes. It may have cost me $20.00 but if touches that young lady in the way I hope that it does, it will be worth far more in eternity. 

 Genesis 50:20  "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to bring life to many people.

Jealousy does not have its own emotion

Trying to change jealousy and anger once you are in the emotion is like trying to control a car skidding on ice.  You can handle the situation better if you can steer clear of it before you get there. 

Jealousy does not have its own emotion.  You cannot see jealousy in the face of a person....... like you can pain or sadness.  You have to look at the other emotions attached to it..... like anger and resentment.

Jealousy and anger are emotional reactions to believing something in your mind that is not true.  By changing what you believe in your mind you can control these destructive emotions.

We become jealous when we focus on what we want, what we don't have right now, or we fear that we will never have it. Deep jealousy can cause you to even want someone else to lose what they possess. Jealousy can even arise when you compare your abilities to someone else.  When you  focus on what other people have and what you don't have, you will continue to have these dark emotions. 

The most basic and long lasting remedy is to have gratitude and appreciation for what you do have in your life.  To get rid of jealousy you have to suppress all comparisons to others.  You can develop a habit of jealous thinking or you can change that habit.  

Envy is counting someone else's blessings instead of our own.....  
Jealousy is a choice.  

Make the choice to change.

Fertilize

Our experiences are the fertilizer in our life. Most fertilizer as you know, stinks. No one wants to share their stink with everyone. But when it is placed in soil that is ready for planting seed, it can grow the sweetest fruit.

Our experiences become our wisdom. What we share from experience cannot be disputed. It was a personal, is was real, and it was life changing.

Our greatest ministry is birthed from our deepest pain. Ministry does not have to be behind a pulpit. Just sharing your experience can be the most rewarding of all ministries because God turned your test into a testimony.

Why Do We Gossip?

I wish I could say I have never gossiped but I can't. I had a relative who was known for being a gossip who knew everything about everyone who passed by their house. I never wanted to be like that. Instead of judging that person, I should have been praying for them, because to my own shame, I found myself listening and repeating gossip just as they had done. After one such time when I was caught up in something I had no part of, I was so grieved with disappointment, that I isolated myself from friends and family because I did not want to be tempted to listen to or repeat any form of gossip. I felt the less I knew, the better off I would be.

We gossip because it makes us feel important, we feel we are in the thick of things that are going on. Or sometimes if I was offended by someone I would rehearse their flaws or failures because it made me feel justified. I have gossiped because of Jealousy, foolishly thinking someone else's blessing has lessened God's supply of blessings for us.

I never thought about why we gossip until someone was hurt by my tale bearing. It gave me an all too clear understanding of how our words can wound someone.

So, learn from my mistakes, if someone comes to you with any information that does not involve you personally, suggest that before they say anything, they go to the person that offended them. We are to cover and honor those around us whether or not we feel they deserve it, just as God's grace covers us.

Be blessed by being a blessing today.

A Time .... To Prune

There are times when you want to be free from where we are.  You are ready to move on.

But sometimes, you are grounded where you are because God has some pruning to do in your life. He has to expose some unhealthy emotions so that you can deal with them and learn to control them so they won't get you in trouble for the next season. 

We keep pushing on that door, begging God to open it and let us through, but God's time never expires, it is always perfect.

God has to fix the inside so that you won't be carrying around the baggage that would hinder you from doing what He has planned for you.  He protects us from ourselves and from others that we could possible hurt if we were allowed to do something premature.

Trust Him.  Know that He has your best interest at heart.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you, "says the Lord, plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope".

Some Things God Cannot Do

A parent never likes to see their child sad or hurting.  But sometimes life happens and we are helpless. 

My daughter has been struggling with being single.  Some days she really gets discouraged.  And lonely.  On these days I try to offer encouragement, but it doesn't give her what she is needing, which is a solution to her problem, so it is not well received.   I try to inspire her by reminding her of all the blessings in her life: her job, her church, her family, or relate how other people struggle in their relationships and it would be better to be single than to be in some relationship that is abusive or without love. None of these provide the answer she is looking for.

I thought about how we do that to God too.  We have a problem that we can't solve and we need an answer, so we call on God and when he does not give us the answer we are looking for, or no answer at all, we become inconsolable, sad and depressed.  God tries to remind us of all the good He has done in our life.  He brings to our mind all of the bad that He has kept us from.  Instead of being grateful, we stay depressed, worried or discouraged and fail to see all of the things he has blessed us with.  He must think, "How ungrateful my child is being".  I can imagine we hurt his feelings too.

I wanted to help my daughter. I wanted to give her the answer.  But there are some things I cannot do.

Just like God.

There are some things that God cannot do.

1. God can't break a promise.
   My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips.
   —Psalm 89:34
2. God can't remember sins he's chosen to forget.
   I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
   —Isaiah 43:25
3. God can't make a loser.
   Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.
   —2 Corinthians 2:14
4. God can't abandon you.
   Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.
   —Deuteronomy 31:6
5. God can't stop thinking about you.
   How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with you.
   —Psalm 139:17-18
6. God can't stop loving you.
   Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
   —Jeremiah 31:3