Let's Talk Trash

 

Let's talk trash. Ok, don't get nervous. I'm going to present a real-life application, here. Early one morning on my way back from my early daily walk/jog up and down the main road that runs through our neighborhood, I reached our street again and was reminded it was trash pickup day. So of course, as I headed toward our house, I passed huge garbage bins and recycle containers, intentionally left at the curb for pickup day, in front of each home. Some of the plastic bins were overflowing with garbage, the lids looked like huge mouths that couldn’t gulp down any more garbage!  It happens at our house, too!

As I kept walking, I looked at each of the beautiful two-and three-story homes with manicured lawns and flowering plants, the garbage display blatantly stole the show. Hmmmm.

I began to think about how our own garbage sitting at the curb reveals a lot about us. We can’t hide it. We all produce it. Those huge bins are filled to the brim with strong hints of what we like to eat—pizza delivery boxes, cereal boxes, plastic gallon jugs that used to contain milk, lemonade, or sweet tea; wrappers from candy and protein bars, empty cupcake containers, countless plastic water bottles peering out of the recycle bins, multiple cans from our favorite beverages, and on and on.

Our trash also exposes what we like to do with our time; empty flat screen boxes, cardboard containers that housed DIY assembled furniture, broken bicycles, worn out barbecue grills, broken lawn furniture, broken toys, sports equipment the kids have worn out and outgrown anyway.

Just as our garbage reveals a peek of what happens inside our homes, the words that come out of our mouths expose what’s really going on inside of each one of us. I didn’t come up with this observation on my own. God says it, “For the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45).

Think about it. If we’re having a very bad attitude about something, there’s something that’s not right going on in our hearts. Jealousy? Envy? Impatience? Self-centeredness? Unforgiveness? Fear? What is it? We can’t hide it for too long. That’s the way God made us; Jesus taught this truth to His disciples, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will know them.” (Matthew 7:18-20).

Rediscover the wonder of all of God’s creatures. Think about this: happy dogs don’t bite. That is the outward fruit of a contented, grateful heart.  Over the years, our family dogs are always rescue dogs. When we bring them home, they are well loved and well cared for and they know it. They are contented, happy, (and usually very energetic), obedient dogs. They want to please us because they trust us to take good care of them. That’s an analogy of how God wants us to be with Him; fully trusting Him to tenderly and powerfully care for us, providing for our every need. So, our dogs are happy and do not bite people.

But people can “bite people’s heads off” in anger, and fear. When we have people growling at us in response to something, it’s obvious they are unhappy. Some people get so mad they bark out their responses to us. If we ever get to that rabid, vicious attitude of a stray dog, we should ask ourselves where our anger and impatience is coming from.

So, there it is: whatever is inside of us is going to eventually come out. It would be wise for us to stop hiding our garbage and bring it out in the open to be recycled by the Savior. Jesus saves. Jesus transforms lives. He can take what is old and depleted and turn it into a beautiful vessel fit for His glory. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Jesus, by His grace and mercy, turns trash into treasure for His glory and gives us purpose for our lives! “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It doesn’t get any better than this. When you are His, you are His treasure. Recycled, restored, now and forever!

💖Polly

The Fruit That Never Rots

Why as professing followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, do we believe we can't be influenced by worldliness? Why do we think we know better and can handle it when we read, watch, and spend considerable amount of precious time, consuming trashy influences? If you're answering, "I can handle it, then you're a stronger person than I am! 

I discovered I can be easily influenced in a negative way if I don't listen to the Holy Spirit warning me to stop listening, reading, watching, or spending time with who or whatever it is trying to negatively worm (sorry not sorry for the apple pun) its way into my heart and mind! Okay, so maybe that's just me. But I know what God says about it: 

"Above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free from perversity; keep corrupt talk from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil."

 Proverbs 4:23-26

It's the same as saying, "one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch." Let’s say one of your friends in your circle fits this description, but you’re letting it slide because it’s easier than dealing with it. The phrase is not the exact words of a Bible verse, but here is the actual verse: “Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals.” Here's the truth to back me up because God is all-wise and all-knowing and He shares His wisdom with everyone who seeks it. "Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm" (Proverbs 13:20).

Now take a closer look at creation and take a moment to rediscover the wonder of how God brilliantly created life in all forms; people, plants, flowers, trees, animals, sea creatures, birds of the air, and how all these forms of life grow and flourish in accordance with His good pleasure. Remember, it’s written in the book of Genesis, He first created all life, and He called everything He made, “Good.”

And He tells us in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” The fruit He’s talking about is found in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control,” Now who doesn’t want a whole lot of that? Well, then we should be wise about the company we keep. God didn’t make things spoil and rot, sin (bad choices) makes that happen.
Look at it this way. Ask any wise, loving, attentive parent what they do if they notice a change in their child's behavior, lying, foul language, becoming rude, and disrespectful. An attentive parent will discover who their child has been playing with, or what they've been watching or reading, and will put a stop to that ASAP. Right? They seek out who or what is influencing them.

We all will reveal the truth about ourselves, often unwittingly, because we can only fake it for so long. And I've learned this in my journey -- when someone shows us who they really are we need to believe them! Here’s the full quote from Author Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That’s why it’s important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are.”  Gossip. Lying. Jealousy. Fake. Unreliable. Controlling. Full of Self. Yep. Then, wisdom says, “Run, Forrest, Run!”

Yes, we have free will to choose the company we keep. No problem. The invitation to choose wisely is there for everyone. But not everyone will say, "Yes, Lord." But if we want to live a fruitful life filled with the kind of fruit that will last, we should seek Jesus as our Lord and the Master Gardner of our life! The fruit Jesus provides never rots! The fruit of the Spirit of God: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are really what our hearts are longing for, anyway.

We will never find ourselves in better Company than with Jesus as our Constant Companion who will lead us into a fruitful and everlasting life!

💖Polly

Psalm 34:3

Gloves Are Not the Weapons of our Warfare

 

Ever felt like you've been forced into a boxing ring with the devil himself? You know, it's like his arms are swinging at you like airplane propellers, his lies are being pounded into your mind with: "You don't matter. You can't make it. You've messed up too many times. They are all talking about you. You are a bad person. It's always going to be like this. It's all your fault. Don't even try, Loser. You can't be trusted. You're not even a good friend, or mother, sister, or daughter. You're nothing. Just give up!"

His strategy is to wear us out with the lies he's using to keep us deceived and separated from God. We become so distracted trying to survive such torment we eventually can't reach for God because we feel we are "down for the count."  That's when the emotional and physical pain of our life struggles are ongoing battles, and we begin swinging sucker punches at someone to blame. Just anyone nearby, making them our enemy by blaming them. But that's not God's way.

Take the gloves off, Sisters, if you really want to take a stand against what is attacking your life. Yes, those pink Everlast gloves are so cute, and fun, but it's not our punches or our power that help us "take our stand against the devil's schemes" (Ephesians 6:11) in our battles. 

 As women who follow Jesus, we should know it's not our power that overcomes evil, but it is the power of God in each one of us. Not the gloves, Sisters, our battles are clearly spiritual and we must fight spiritually. 

It was the Apostle Paul's grateful, faithful heart toward God which led him into strict training of the Holy Spirit power, to be self-controlled for the glory of God. He "overcame evil with good" (Romans 12:21) over and over fighting spiritually!

We must do the same! "Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against ... the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12). 

We shouldn't give people power over us in our battles because it's the devil working through them! We must always be thinking spiritually, keeping ourselves abiding in Jesus, His Way, His Truth, His Life, through His Word. Put on the full armor of God. It has been custom designed for each one of us by our Holy God. Jesus is our covering. He IS the Armor of God. He is our Salvation, our peace, truth, faith, righteousness, and sword of the Spirit. 

As women who follow Jesus, we will fight, oh yes, we will fight, but with our Holy Spirit Powered, Everlasting, One-Two Punches, which are FAITH & PRAYER.

For the glory of God,

Polly💖

Comfort Food for the Soul

Anybody hungry?  Are we really hungry for a meal or are we craving something else? What is it? What do we really want? Peace? Joy? Contentment? Love? Hope? We have this empty place in us and we want it filled. Right now! Right? And we're tired of being hungry, right? Where do we go to get what we really need? 

Think about a child who says, "Mom, I'm starving to death! There's nothing to eat here!" And the pantry and the refrigerator are full of food. In our culture that's how we seem to roll these days, we want something now, but we don't know exactly what it is. But we want it. Kind of sounds like discontentment and boredom, doesn't it?

The mother says, "I can make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a ham sandwich and a glass of milk. Or I'll pop some fresh popcorn for you." 

The child says, "No! I don't want that! I want something else, but I don't know what I want to eat...hmmmm."  Then she gives up and stomps out of the kitchen saying, "You're not giving me what I want! Why don't we ever have anything good to eat in this house?"

 Uh-oh. Is this us? The food is offered to her. Her mother is ready to prepare it.  And yet, even though the young girl has cravings, she angrily rejects the offer. Think about this: when she walks away from the offer to have her needs met, she walks away still hungry and discontented. Now she's really angry, too!

We're like that before Jesus changes our hearts and we gladly surrender our lives to Him. He offers Himself to a lost, hungry world as the Bread of Life saying, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry..." (John 6:35).  Then as we draw near to Him, He begins to feed us with the truth of His Word, His forgiveness, love and provision. He begins to fill up our hearts with love, joy, peace, and contentment as we follow Him.

...

Jesus also promises that those who come to Him in repentance and faith and believe in Him "will never be thirsty." (John 6:35). He says, "Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" (John 7:38) Jesus will give an abundance of life-giving blessings to us and even people around us will benefit! Imagine! He promises to abundantly provide!

All this feeding of the hungry warmly reminds me of a precious couple, George and Ginger Schmidt, who lived near us in our rural area of East Cherokee County. Our two young daughters and I visited them often years ago when we homeschooled, and I ended up writing a feature story about them in The Cherokee Tribune. George was an Air Force Sergeant and a firefighter for the Air Force crews. While still living in New Jersey he was a fire and police commissioner before they moved south to Roswell, GA. Then they moved into Cherokee County and bought a 20-acre farm.

They kept adopting animals and ended up with 60 dairy goats, four dogs, 15 guinea hens, three geese, 13 turkeys, two peacocks, eight varieties of chickens (I don't know how many ... a lot!), a horse named Trudy and 20 or so sheep. You get the picture.

When it was time to feed their beloved critters -- and George and Ginger lovingly cared for every single one -- George would walk out to the middle of the barnyard, clap his hands and loudly yell, "Anybody hungry?" Immediately, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and peacocks came running from every bush, barn, shed and pasture and flocked to his feet. It was loud and it was hilarious. Then George would slowly walk to one of the barns, pick up a bucket and dip it into a bin of corn and walk back out to the barnyard to scatter the food on the ground. I've watched him do this many times! It was always amazing. The flocks knew George. They trusted him. They came to him and they were loved and well fed.

George Schmidt  

George made his "Anybody Hungry" call loud and clear so as not to leave anyone out of the invitation! Sounds like the same sort of invitation Jesus makes to the world. He says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." (Matthew 5:6). But the world isn't hungry for the kind of food Jesus is offering. They don't know God. They don't realize they are actually starving for the supernatural, spiritual fruit of His Holy Spirit which He satisfy ravenous souls of His children: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). So, the world's cravings will continue.

Jesus will faithfully feed His children and satisfy our souls, but people have to have the hearts that want to go to Him when He calls. And He's always calling. 💖

The JOY of the LORD is my strength.

Polly 💖