Social media. You either love it, or you hate it. I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I need social media for the work I do. Without social media, I wouldn’t be able to promote the books I write, both my Christian books and my fantasy books. So I love it for that.
The hate part of my relationship is the comparison that comes with it. I see everybody else’s books and how well they are doing, or how many reviews they have. Or I see the wins other people have that I don’t have, and so on…You know how it goes.
Comparison, the Enemy of Contentment
Comparison is the enemy of contentment. In real time, I can be looking at one of my books on Amazon and be pleased because it picked up a few more reviews. I literally scroll down one more book and see a sponsored book that has way more reviews, and I lose any contentment I had with my new reviews.
I don’t know how contentment works for you, but it’s like a slippery eel for me. I grasp hold of it one minute, and then it slips away from me in the next.
Gratitude
One of the best ways I have found to help keep myself on track with comparison is to simply choose to be thankful. Thankfulness is the antidote to comparison. I have found that you can’t be thankful and comparing at the same time. As soon as we start comparing ourselves, we are no longer thankful.
The best way to stay content is to choose to be thankful, always.
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
I Thessalonians 5:18 NLT
The way this works best for me is to start my morning by writing down what I’m grateful for in my Faithfully Stepping Journal. This daily habit helps me to stay grateful each and every day. It helps me keep the comparison trap from taking over for the day.
The next time you’re struggling with comparison, choose something to be thankful for instead!
Easter is only a few weeks away, and that means Easter baskets! We have a tradition in our home that we keep every Easter. It’s actually a tradition passed on from my childhood, and that is candy trails. Every Easter, Matt and I prepare four different candy trails, one for each of our kids. Each child lines up behind their starting point and follows their trail, picking up the candy along the way, until they reach the end of their trail. At the end of their trail, they find their Easter basket.
We’ve had lots of creative hiding places over the years—the trunk of the car, outside under the deck, inside a cabinet, in the dishwasher, in a closet, down in the basement, in the dryer, etc. It’s such a fun tradition and one the kids look forward to every year.
Kids’ Daily Journals
Each year, most of us feel the pressure of finding special things for our children’s Easter basket besides just candy. One of the things we recommend are our Kids’ Daily Journals.
The Kids’ Daily Journal is a tool to help your child learn to pray, read, and apply the Bible even at a young age. The Kids’ Daily Journal is perfect for ages 5 to 12 for both non-readers and readers.
Journal Features:
Section for daily prayer: your child will have a chance to write down something they’re thankful for, something they’re confessing, and what they’re praying for
Record daily Bible reading: your child will record what they read in the Bible
Daily application: you child will draw a picture of what they learned and/or write a few sentences about what they learned.
6 months of journal entry pages
Large spacing for young writers
Creative drawing space for non-writers
Designed for parent-guided journaling for the non-reader or self-guided journaling for the reader.
If you’re looking for a little something special to put in your kids’ baskets this year, be sure to check out our Kids’ Daily Journals!
What else to put in?
What else could go really well with a kids’ journal? You could add any of the products below and help your child build their own morning time basket.
I talked with a friend recently who was heartbroken about some things in her life. With tears in her eyes, she said, “I would have never thought I would have done this.” Matt and I listened as she poured her heart out; then we reminded her that God still loved her.
Matt asked her, “Have you confessed it to God and asked his forgiveness?” She nodded and then spoke these words, “But it’s so hard to forgive myself.”
We’ve been there; we’ve all blown it. We have all made mistakes and done things that we wish we wouldn’t have. Sometimes though, it seems impossible to come back from those mistakes.
Will God stop forgiving me?
A friend in our small group recently told us that he had a friend who had done something he didn’t believe God could possibly forgive him for. What do you do when you feel like you can’t come back from something? Is there any sin that’s too much for God to forgive?
David from the Psalms says, “But with you (God) is forgiveness…” (Psalm 130:4) We know God forgives, but does he forgive me? And will he forgive me this time? Will I wear out his forgiveness? What happens when God gives up on me and stops forgiving me?
How often does God forgive?
We get an idea of how Jesus felt about forgiveness when Peter asks him a question about forgiveness one day. Peter asks Jesus this question, “How often do we have to forgive people? About seven times?”
Peter thought he was being really generous in offering the number seven. Yet, Jesus responds with an answer that shocks Peter. Jesus says, “Not seven times. Seventy times seven.”
Is 490 the magic number then? No, Jesus was trying to get Peter to understand the point he was making. We are to forgive and forgive and then forgive some more. If Jesus wants us to forgive that often, how much more is he willing to forgive us?
God is still faithful.
I John 1:9 doesn’t change, no matter how many times we mess up and fall.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
I John 1:9
We have to choose to get back up again.
The tough part about falling is getting back up. We have to pick ourselves up off the ground, ask God’s forgiveness, tell him we were wrong, and then choose to move forward. It’s tempting to stay down, to wallow in the messiness of it all. True courage is to stand up, confess, ask God for forgiveness, and move forward.
The hardest part of all of that is to choose to accept God’s forgiveness. Once we’ve confessed it, it’s done. We don’t have to keep confessing or keep reliving it. It’s simply done. God removes that sin from us and thinks about it no longer.
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.
Psalm 103: 12, 14
To move forward, we have to accept God’s forgiveness.
We have to choose to let it go. God’s forgiven it; we have to accept that forgiveness and move forward. If we don’t choose to accept his forgiveness, we won’t be able to move forward in life towards all that God has for us.
Do you ever find yourself too busy to show compassion? I do. Often. And then God reminds me what’s really important.
Our Day Off
Wednesdays are our day off. We changed our day off to Wednesday last year when our small group started meeting at church because we had grown too large to meet in our home. The nights were getting later and later, and Wednesday’s were a mess at home the next day. The kids were tired and cranky after a late night, and it just wasn’t working. So we moved our day off to Wednesday. Because we homeschool the kids and Matt and I both work from home, it worked out.
It’s been really good for us, a much-needed change. There are a few problems that come with a Wednesday day-off, though. Matt has a meeting with pastors in the area that meets on the first Wednesday of the month, and Macey’s doctor’s appointments for her Type 1 Diabetes are always on Wednesdays. So we have to work around those events. Normally, we can make it all work and still get a day off on Wednesday, even on those weeks.
A Recent Day Off
Recently, Matt hosted the pastors at our church for the monthly meeting. We left the house early so we could grab the food and coffee and get everything set up. We had a great meeting. After the meeting was done, we picked up everything, packed up and met the kids and my mother-in-law for lunch. When we finally got home, we were ready to crash. It was still afternoon, so we had some time to just relax and enjoy down time.
Unexpected Visitors
That is, until a knock came at our door. We opened the door and found our neighbor, Art, at the door. We talked to him for a while and eventually invited him inside to continue talking. An hour or two later, he left, and I trudged upstairs to my room to get a little bit of down time and read. I grabbed the book I was currently reading, snagged a blanket, and settled against the pillows on my bed, ready to read. Before I even cracked the spine, the kids came running upstairs.
“Miss Tara’s here!”
Tara is another neighbor of ours. I took a deep breath and released it before getting to my feet and making my way downstairs once again. Tara ended up staying for awhile. We talked and even played several rounds of Uno. We had a good time, but in the back of my mind was this thought: this is supposed to be “my time.”
My Indictment
I was feeling really good about myself, patting myself on the back for being so “neighborly,” when God knocked me off my pedestal this week. For my morning time, I was reading in the book of Galatians. I read these verses:
Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
Galatians 6:2,3 NLT
Wow. I don’t think there’s any way to get past these verses, except to take responsibility and own up to them. If we think we are too important, what we are doing is too important to stop and help someone, we are simply fooling ourselves. We’re simply just not that important.
Jude reminds us in verse 22 of his short book that it’s compassion that makes the difference.
And of some have compassion, making a difference:
Jude 22 KJV
What’s Really Important
Those words smote me. How many times have I considered myself “too busy” to talk to somebody, to help somebody? How many times have I considered what I am doing too important to stop and go minister to somebody?
God used these verses to remind me of what’s most important— and that’s people, not my work. Ministering to people, loving on people will always trump whatever project I am currently working on. Compassion will always trump whatever work we are doing.
So the next time a knock comes at the door, my goal is to welcome the knock with a smile and compassion in my heart, not dread, because I get a chance to minister to somebody.
For More Encouragement
We just released a new devotional and study guide on the subject of compassion that goes hand-in-hand with this topic.
Created for Compassion: Answering the Call to Make a Differenceis a thirty-day devotional that focuses on making a difference in the lives of others through compassion. Each day has a story to read, verses to study, and questions for application that help push us towards compassion and making a difference in the lives of others.
Sometimes, it’s easy to get comfortable, to settle into how God is working in our lives. As soon as we do that, it’s inevitable that God will send something into our lives to shake us up. He will use that thing to develop and strengthen our faith and ultimately move us forward.
David’s Anointing
Samuel, the prophet, shows up one day to Jesse’s house. He skips over all of Jesse’s older sons and waits for David, the youngest of all of them. David leaves his sheep and comes to see Samuel. God tells Samuel to anoint David as the next king of Israel.
What’s interesting to note is that David does not actually become king for another fifteen years! That’s a long time to wait on God.
David’s New Job
It’s not long after David is anointed that the king sends for David to come to the palace. The king’s advisers have told him about David, that he is a talented musician. So Saul sends for David and asks him to come be his own personal musician.
Can you imagine David’s face or his father’s face when they get the summons? They were probably scared to death that the king had actually found out about David’s anointing. They probably thought that King Saul was going to kill David as soon as he got to the palace.
Amazingly enough, Jesse trusts God enough to send his youngest son to the king, even though he fears that Saul has already or will soon uncover the truth.
David’s Faith
Can you imagine the fear David must have felt when he arrived at the palace? If anybody learned his secret or if the king found out, he would immediately be killed. In spite of all this, David stays at the palace and serves Saul. He plays music for him when he’s distressed, he fights his battles for him, and leads his soldiers.
Standing Firm in Our Faith
Sometimes, God leads us to do things that don’t make sense, that make us fearful. When it comes to times like this, we can either trust God and move forward or let our fear keep us from accomplishing whatever it is God wants us to do.
I was reading in the book of Isaiah this week. God gives a message to his people through Isaiah the prophet. This is what he says:
Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.
Isaiah 7:9
When God’s ready to move, we have to be ready as well. We have to develop and strengthen our faith, so that when the time comes, God can help us stand firm in our faith.
