Are you superstitious?

I have spent the last four months studying 1 and 2 Samuel and can't wait to share with you all that God has been teaching me (some good, some of it painful, some of it convicting...welcome to the party). You got a taste of it in the last post about Samuel and discipline...and this week will be about the Israelites and superstition. We live in a world that is extremely superstitious...heck, I am writing this post 2 days before the holiday that is about black cats, the day of the dead, and if kids don't share their candy something bad will happen to them (oh...is that just in our house?). The world of athletics has superstition draped all over it. You have the baseball player that takes 15 minutes between each swing because he has to go through his entire ritual. You have the football player that hasn't washed his socks the entire season because they are good luck (say extra prayers for that momma). You have the softball players that have to say the exact cheers at the exact time every single game. Right now the world series looks like it is made up of the entire cast of Duck Dynasty because the Red Sox players won't shave their face until after season. The world of sports does some crazy things in hopes that doing that one thing will help them win. Sound strange? What is stranger is we treat God as that pair of socks we don't wash so we can win or that rabbit foot we carry for that little extra luck. The Israelites did it then, and we still do it now. We see in 1 Samuel 4 that God's people (the Israelites) were at war with the Philistines. The Philistines had attacked the Israelites and won (vs. 2) and the Israelites started questioning why they had lost... "Why did the Lord allow us to be defeated by the Philistines?" Then they said, "Let's bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. If we carry it into battle with us, it will save us from our enemies." (vs. 3) They needed a win...they needed something good to happen to them so why not take God with them into battle this time. Yes! That will do it...if they do something for God he has to do something for them. Does this sound familiar? It should, we still do it all the time. We think if we do all the right things, all the time...nothing bad should happen. We keep track of how much we go to church, read the bible, do good things, all in hopes that God is keeping track to. All because one day you might need something and God will step in because we have done so much for him. Or maybe we don't spend one minute of the day with him and then something bad happens and then we think.."I am losing, I better start talking to him again." The crazy thing if I were to ask you, "Do you talk to God more during good times or bad?" I would guess your answer would be during bad times....and yet we asked God why bad things happen to us. Ummm... (I know! That one hit me hard) We are doing the same thing as the Israelites...we want something from God when we should just want God....Not what He can do for us but in us. We do those things to get closer to God not get something from God. Its not just what we do, but the heart behind why we do it. When we treat God as our Santa Clause to give us what we want or a rabbits foot to give us a little luck we will lose just like the Israelites. Yep...they lost the battle and the Ark of the Covenant. God is not something we need some times, He is a God that we need all the time! But when we honor and respect God as our Father, Jesus as our Savior, and the Holy Spirit is our leader we can't help but win...all the time. That's right win...all the time. This doesn't mean bad things wont happen or times will never be hard. It means we can still have joy during struggles because we have God. It means will can still have peace during the pain because we have God. It means we can still of hope in tough situations because we have God. There is hope in Jesus...not luck. There is peace in Jesus...not luck. There is strength in Jesus...not luck. I will take Jesus over luck any day...all day!

Hugs are not important, but necessary

I don't know about you but for me parenting is the hardest, most awesome, overwhelming, fulfilling, tiring. crazy, fun, discouraging, encouraging job there is. And when your husband is a football coach, you have more children with more struggles than you can count. Right now, we have a former OU softball player living with us and our other guest bedroom is occupied at an given night of the week with current or former football players. So you can say our house is a little crazy.  I want to introduce you to a man who took people in and taught them things of God, his name was Eli. Eli was the priest of Israel along with his two sons when a boy by the named of Samuel came to live with Eli and learn about God. Eli did some great things as a man in ministry, but failed as a parent in the home. You see, Eli's two sons stole, cheated, and seduced women all in the walls of the church. And Eli did nothing: "Eli was old, but he was aware of what his sons were doing to the people of Israel..." (1 Samuel 2:22)  Well Crap, God has got my attention. Because how often do people outside our home get our best: our best attitudes, our best attention, our best selves while those in our homes see the short tempered, tired, overwhelmed person. All because we are trying so hard to put on the "we have everything in order" face on. Anybody else? We know things arent great in our home, but everyone thinks It is so we are good. Oh, but we are not. Because although people don't see, God always does. "Then the Lord said to Samuel, 'I am about to do a shocking thing in Israel. I am going to carry out all the threats against Eli and his family, from beginning to end. I have warned him that judgment is coming upon his family forever because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn't disciplined them." (1 Samuel 3:11-13) There is it...did you catch it? Did you see the dirty word? The whole reason and area that Eli failed and if we don't learn from Eli....we will to: as parents and followers of Jesus. It's kinda like when I take my kids to get their shots. It's never pleasant, but it is necessary. Nobody likes shots and nobody likes discipline. Because like shots, we view discipline as something painful and negative situation. BUT DISCIPLINE is not just important it is NECESSARY in all aspects of life. But for the sake of not wanting to turn you off from the rest of this blog post because nobody wants to hear the word discipline, we are going to exchange "discipline" for "hugs"
There are 3 areas of "hugs" the bible teaches us about:

1) We must HUGS our children (To discipline a child produces wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child Proverbs 29:15). I am not here to debate how you hug your children but just to remind you that it is necessary. Why? Because it is from us they learn obedience, honesty, and respect and it is from us they need to learn that there are consequences when you don't show these things. And if we don't teach them that as our children, the world will teach them that as adults. And I don't know about you but I want my children to be respected in their professions, loved as someone's spouse for 50 years, and have a heart after God's.

2) God HUGS us. ("Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good." Deuteronomy 8:5) I tell my children all the time..."Because I have lived longer, experience more, and learned much...I know more." Well, God is the beginning and the end of time. He has experienced everything to everyone. And He knows all, is in all, and created all therefore he knows all. And when I get off on my own path because I think I know the way, He gently reminds me with a little HUGS that He is God and I am not so get back on the path....MY path.


3) We must have Spiritual HUGS
Just like athletes training for their sport we too are in training. Athletes have to be disciplined in their training. ("Athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize, but we do it for an eternal prize. 1 Corinthians 9:25) And we too, have to be disciplined in ours. Notice it doesn't say Prisoners. Athletes don't have to train and don't even have to play. There are some athletes who don't practice and just show up for the games. There are some athletes who are covered in all the right equipment, but never step foot on the field. Those athletes that train and are disciplined in their training do it out of love of the game. There are people all the time that don't want to "practice" Christianity and just show up for the big Heaven game. There are people who covered with the Christian lingo, but have never had a conversation with Jesus. We don't do Spiritual HUGS like reading the bible, going to church, and praying because we have to BUT for Love of Our God.

We learn from Eli, that HUGS is not only important in our lives, but necessary. And so is discipline:)