Silly Bandz

Ok...what did you get? Was it a dog... a crown... a car... or maybe it was a fish?? Regardless of what you got, you have to admit these silly bandz are pretty cool lookin! I'm a father of 4 and I've heard my share of arguments over these stretchy little creations.

"That frog was mine...."
"No, I said you could just hold it..."
" But I thought all trades were final!!"

You get the picture. As an adult there have been times in my life when I've wanted something I thought I just couldn't live without, only to find that it just wasted my time, energy, and money! In the bible, it is written that people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. 1 Tim 6:9. In this life we're all easily distracted by things we think we need, but truth be told, the only thing in life we really need is JESUS! When you put this silly band around your wrist you will notice it no longer resembles what it first did, in fact it looks nothing like it did! I know one thing for certain, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forevermore! Hebrews 13:8.

Don't you just love a good eraser?!  As a teacher, I find it utterly necessary that all kids have a great eraser when they do their work.  Even though erasers are on every one's back to school shopping list, and the kids start off on the first day of school with them, there are still different types of kids that use erasers in different ways.  They are all equipped with the erasers, but there are some kids who:  1) choose not to use the eraser at all and just cross out their faulty work and write the correct answer next to it, 2) kids that don't even bother to cross out their work and just simply write over the wrong letters and try to make it work somehow, 3) the light erasers - you know those that attempt to erase, but just fail to get it even remotely gone, and then 4) the kids that will put holes in their paper because they just can't get things erased enough no matter how hard they try.  There are so many times that I wish I could just pull out a big eraser and scrub as hard as I could to get rid of my sins, my wrongdoings.  There are times that I know that I thought if I just crossed it off in my head, that those sins would disappear.  There are times when a sin just didn't seem big enough to matter, so I just "wrote" over it and thought no one would notice.  There are times when I tried so hard to erase what I have done and then ended up making a bigger mess of things than I started off with.  The point of this is, that no matter how hard we all try to erase our past, our sins, our faults, WE CAN'T!!  But I do have some amazing news.........Jesus Christ is our eraser!!  Jesus came to this earth so that we could have our slates wiped clean.  He lived a perfect and holy life and became a sacrifice for our sins as He died on the cross.  His forgiveness is our eraser.  He has forgiven everything, as long as we accept Him and then FOLLOW Him!  It reminds me of my kids.  When my 7 year old accidentally writes on the wall, she apologizes, I get out the magic eraser and take care of it, and then I expect her to teacher her younger siblings not to do the same.  If she doesn't apologize and confess her sin to me, I won't be able to forgive her and erase it.  She could just leave the marks there or try to get rid of them herself, but they will never be gone.  Confessing what has happened is the only way that I will be able to get it off.  And then if she doesn't teach her siblings, then they will make the same mistakes eventually, and she will have not have learned that writing on the wall is unacceptable.  Asking for forgiveness is the best eraser you will ever get.  No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to erase the things you have done, but only through the blood of Jesus Christ can your sins be completely forgiven. 

Hebrews 9:14
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

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Paper Animal

I’m glad you found the origami animal that was left for you!  Isn’t it amazing these tiny creations made of paper.  Did you know that origami started in the 17^th century AD.  Origami is the art of taking a flat piece of paper and turning it into a sculpture through folding and bending the paper.  How crazy it is to think that a flat piece of paper can become such an amazing work of art.  This reminds me so much of exactly how God took my life and turned it into something beyond description.  Before I knew Christ, I felt like my life was a flat piece of paper, just boring, empty and lifeless.  Just like it took time and dedication to make the piece of origami you found, it took God time and dedication to prepare my life to accept Him as my Lord and Savior.  My life has been folded, bent, molded, and sculptured all by the mighty hands of God.  How great it is to know that God is in control of us and is there waiting to mold and shape us into an amazing work of art.  Before I knew Christ I used to fight so much when my life was changed, folded, and bent.  Now, I accept these changes with a different aspect, because I know it is God making the changes and teaching me to continuously depend and look to him for answers.  God tells us in Isaiah 64:8 “But now, O Jehovah, thou art our Father, we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of they hand.”  Enjoy your day and always know God loves you and is waiting for you to call upon Him to mold, shape, fold and bend you. 

BandAid Please!

I....need....a..........Band-Aid!! Now throw in a puddle of tears and a lot of sobbing and there you have a typical reaction to a boo-boo from my three year old. Sometimes the boo-boo is so small that one Band-Aid will do the job but then there are some that will take several Band-Aids and my patch working skills to cover. Ultimately she just wants the pain to go away so the Band-Aid serves as a quick fix. .....Until........ it's time to take the Band-Aid off! The stickiness of our "quick fix" has now created new, unwanted consequences. What can I say....it's hard to be three!

No matter how young or how old we are, we will all get physical boo-boos but what about our spiritual boo- boos, you know

the pains and hurts that we've caused and created because of our sin. God's word says that all have sinned and we all fall short of the glory of God. (Romans3:23). Too often we try to cover up our sins with a "quick fix" band-aid but eventually our sin gets sticky and messy and that Band-Aid has to be ripped off! It's time to throw away all the Band-Aids and all the excuses that we make to cover up our sin and take a daily dose of repentance. Ephesians 5:6-8,11 puts it this way,"Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them." Throughout history God has always called his people to repentance and it is still true today.