Seven Sacrifices to Joy

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Happy day to you and thanks so much for stopping by for our Coffee Hour! I don’t know about you but I’m learning that the more I give out, the more often I need to stop to refuel! This is a must for good communication! Grab your coffee and your red SOF (Strand of Faith) and let’s go tie what I hope to be the final knots in the Sacrifice of Communication!
Communication isn’t some new-fad, something that has evolved, per say. As a matter of fact, communication was/is one of the main building blocks to the early church. I mean, it’s not like the Bible was put together by a bunch of people spreading rumors! Think about it; God communicated through His Holy Spirit through every author of every book and thereafter it was translated. Without communication, how would the Bible have been translated as accurately as it has? How would we learn about the things of God, about His character, discover His promises without effective communication? Where would our relationship with our Keynote Speaker and Mediator be without this form of written, Holy-Spirit inspired, communication? Oops, I know; too many questions. Let me get back on track here. :)
So while it’s not a “new” thing, it seems the more technologically available we are, the less we use this gift/virtue; communication is fading into the backdrop of life! See, the faster we move through life, the less we stop to communicate. In many ways, the generations to follow will need to understand the value of communication even more than you or me because everything seems to be going automated and decreasing and demeaning the need for healthy communication; however, the value of good communication remains highly relevant.
I just thought of something that really hits this one home. My guy and I were out having dinner one night – although this has happened more than once – and he nudged me, indicating with his head which direction to look and there was a couple, both of them on their “smart” phones! Instead of taking the time to be with each other, they were available for others. Or maybe they were playing a game. Who knows? Any way you look at it, those smart phones interfere with communication. Or how about the single dad taking his kids to dinner; same thing, he’s on his phone and the kids are left to their own devices, i.e., running around the restaurant, picking a fight with the other sibling, or maybe they have phones too! Don’t get me wrong; I am on my phone just as much as the next person, if not more, but after a certain hour, my phone is off. When I go out with my guy, it’s at home or in the car. Smart phones cannot take the place of meaningful communication! That could be an entire week’s blog, but I’ll stay on track, here and get off my soap box! :)
I would be really missing the mark if I didn’t spend some time on some Biblical ingredients of good communication… and bad, because when we put all the ingredients that go into good, or bad, communication, our Keynote Speaker has definitely given us many ingredients as well as vivid how-to’s and explanatory don’t do’s. He used all kinds of personalities to make each example clear, people who succeeded as well as people who failed.
In other words, Jesus made a huge deal about communication!
In Proverbs 15:1 we read that a soft answer is a must in the recipe for good communication. Ouch! In other words, when someone bites our head off, do we bite back? Oh, how often I have been accused of having a “tone,” or speaking too loud, something that I am consistently working on, because let’s face it, our tone can truly be a camera into our hearts. You’ve heard it said before, “It is not what you say, but how you say it”? A soft answer decreases the fire. When someone says something to us that is hurtful, in other words, lights a match, do we throw water on the fire, or another log?
Oh, my goodness, I used to be such a yeller … and it would shut my guy down faster than pressing the off button on the television. To me, it was normal to yell; after all, I’d often wake from my sleep to screaming, yelling and fighting in the background. That was the way my biological family communicated … so hurtful. Now I know better. But just as speaking loudly can sound angry, I’ve also learned that being too intense is also detrimentally harmful to healthy communication.
I remember when our families first blended and I was trying desperately to have a relationship with my step-son and step-daughter. It wasn’t until I had been married for SEVEN years that I realized part of their problem with me was my problem with intensity! So I’ve learned to bring it down a notch – well several, actually! Oftentimes, our intensity is driven by a need to be heard and/or a need to be understood. So memorizing this verse in Proverbs, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh wound stirs up anger” is a must for it has a good ingredient and a what-not-to-do instruction!
Oh, to remember to speak sloooooowly, and softly … not matter how I’m spoken to!
Join me tomorrow for more on communication

Evinda

Faith Filled Fridays From Croley’s Corner of Chicklit Power

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

“While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18.
I’m thankful that you have joined me these last several weeks in “A call to Sow.” My prayer has been that as you’ve read each week’s blog, you gained new insight. We know that God’s Word can be read over and over again and we always find something that speaks into our lives, His Word never grows old! Grab your favorite drink, and don’t forget your journal in hopes that your heart will be ready to reap what He has planted in you…. a seed of promise. Genesis 17 -22 
When you see or hear the word “promise” what comes to mind? I know in my life promises have been made and kept and some promises, well….some certainly fall short of their assurances to me.
We read throughout history, God has been making "very great and precious promises" 2 Peter 1:4. I have always loved in God’s Word; The Seed Promise, of Abraham and Sarah being promised at 90: you’re going to have a child… and what a promise! Indeed, nothing’s too hard for God. It was part of God’s plan; "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” That seed promise was in Isaac. (Gen 22:18)
We also read in Genesis 22 that Abraham’s faith was deep-rooted in the promises of God.
Writing this last blog for this series, I had many thoughts that ran through my head yet I continued to come back to what I call “My promise,” my heart was moved to a time in my life where I too felt like Abraham in a spiritual sense. It was during this time that I felt life wasn’t fair and I reminded God of all the seeds planted in our years of ministry. Nevertheless I knew I had to release my selfish will and trust what He was doing was going to be far-reaching and far better than I ever imagined.
In 2004 our daughter and husband announced they were expecting their first child! What joy and excitement filled our hearts as doctors had told her in years past that she would never have children, yet by God’s plan she DID!!  Just before her 3rd trimester she went into labor. During this time, many, including myself, were praying over our daughter that this precious baby would live and not die. Let me tell you, my human heart pleaded one way because it was so broken and overwhelmed…yet my spiritual heart implored His will, even though I knew the outcome would mean total trust in Him, and soon our grandson, Josiah was born. 
His life here on earth was but for a few short moments yet at that instant God knew the effect this “faith seed” would accomplish for His Kingdom.
When we plant a garden, it’s by our faith in that seed that we believe what was planted will grow and produce. We can never see the visual effects as it’s germinating until that seed begins to grow.
God knew Abraham’s faith long before Isaac was born. When we follow the plans…procedures…the strategies of planting an earthly garden...we are promised a bountiful harvest. When we follow the plans that God has laid out for our lives, we will see a bountiful harvest...spiritually!
God can and often does work through ways that appear unlikely from a human perspective.  Abraham’s faith was tried, as ours was that day. The story doesn’t end in sorrow. Soon after God saw fit for our daughter and husband to adopt two beautiful children, Abbagail and Ricky; we call them another “seed of faith”.
 Had Abraham given into his flesh, God’s promises through Isaac would have not been fulfilled. We must trust that when it’s the right time to break up fallow ground -- when to plant, water, fertilize, and tend with tender care, and then wait until we see the seed of faith produce, -- soon a great bountiful fruitful harvest will be yielded.
We don’t always see what the seed is doing in the darkest depth of the ground yet in His word we are told by Paul, “And being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” Romans 4:21
Continue to sow into others; you may never see the fruit of your “seed planting” nonetheless that doesn’t mean that God’s not at work.  It’s in the unseen things we must trust and be faithful to...”A call to sow”.
Be blessed…and remember keep Him close to your heart!
Love,
 Debbie