March is FULLLLLLL.
Would love for your participation in
parenting class on 3/9 (even if you didn’t sign-up, come on over)
newcomer lunch on 3/10
st. patricks day parade on 3/16
all the wonderful good friday + easter activities
a quick sorry leads to an uncluttered heart
managing apologies ends up being a core component of parenting pre-school + grade schoolers. when someone
throws a toy
takes the last cookie
wears his brothers sweatshirt without asking
the next step is always the same. reflect on the bad choice and try to make restitution. a big part of restitution is saying sorry, mending the relationship by acknowledging what i did was wrong.
kids are notorious for spitting out ‘i’m sorry’ with a look and tone anyone watching knows is insincere. kristen macdonald has said 1000s of times to the MacDonald boys, ‘say it like you mean it.’
as we age and mature, we make this same error in a different way. we let things get quiet and never cross the finish line of apology.
at work, it becomes blaming ‘mis-communications’ when we know we blew it.
at home, it becomes a circular argument about the mistakes someone else made.
at the game, it becomes what my coach or teammates did wrong.
i wonder, when was the last time you genuinely apologized to anyone?
Jesus doesn’t want your worship if you are unwilling to work towards solving issues with someone else.
mathew 5 "So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
i want to offer a more pragmatic reason for turning up the genuine ‘i’m sorry’ in your life: it makes me happy. when we diffuse frustration by taking responsibility, we are happier. when we don’t have people we want to avoid running into at the store, we are happier.
who do you need to apologize to?
not the stammering, equivocating pseudo apology little kids do,
i was wrong, i’m sorry.
a quick sorry leads to an uncluttered heart
(spring in the air has me looking forward to pool days soon-ish :)
One of my favorite places to visit in the summer is the local pool with my kids. This year feels especially sweet because all four of our children can swim without me getting into the water. (hallelujah!!!!) One of the days I was at the pool was a weekend when there were a ton of people at the pool but not a lot of regulars. As I sat in my pool chair I watched the lifeguards do their job but in a way that seemed more profound than it had before. You see, there was a family there that had put the little floatie devices that we used when I was a kid, if you aren’t familiar with them, they are the ones that you blew up and there was one on each arm. What they have discovered in the last few decades is that those floating devices haven’t proved to work every.single.time. We’ve all heard those stories of drowning that could have been prevented by something so simple; after all, it’s life or death in the balance. Because of that they have decided that every time someone comes to the pool and is wearing that type of floating device, the lifeguards that are stationed in the pool will radio to the head lifeguard to get a life jacket for the child and come over to the parent and say to them that their child can’t stay in the unless they use the life jacket provided.
As I sat there I was ministered to, I had tears streaming down my face. This is what Jesus did for me, this is what Jesus did for you. He saw your deep need for him because of the sin that was in your life and he made a way through a perfectly lived life that led to death on a cross and the resurrection of His life three days later. Not only that but He orchestrated an order of events in your and my life that allowed us to come to know that truth personally.
Even after we have come to know that truth and choose to live for him we can come to a moment when we succumb to our own devices. Usually before too long we recognize that they don’t work. But, we can often use that as an excuse to say that God is far away when really that is us allowing the noise and chaos in our world to crowd out the avenues we have heard him speak through in the past. I love the truth that God can see you in those moments of struggle before you’re even having difficulty and he wants you to know that he doesn’t just want you to have that figurative life vest of salvation on so that you don’t drown but so that you don’t struggle so much in the day in and day out of life.
Colossians 1:13-14 says it perfectly: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.“
This has me begging myself three questions. When did God rescue you? Who did he use in your life to show you this powerful truth? Secondly, Are there any faulty devices that you have been leaning on instead of God in your life? Lastly, who are we sharing the blessing of being rescued with? Some of these questions may be more difficult to answer than others, but sometimes sitting right there helps you to recognize where growth is needed in your life.
What God’s Teaching Me
check out what God has been teaching our outreach director, Kristian Murray
Soak Worship #5
worship vibes for calming moments w. Jesus. love having these on in the background during my day
Saturday Morning Book Review
the fund: ray dalio, bridgewater associates, and the unraveling of a wall street legend, by: rob copeland
this book should be required reading for any young ambitious person. it is the story of business dysfunction shielded by extreme wealth. it is the story of arrogance manifesting through a generation. it teaches anyone willing to absorb its lessons.
the myth of secret knowledge leads me to believe there are people who are successful because they know things i don’t know. that is almost never true. much more typically, really successful have been a combination of
lucky
hard working
willing to cut a corner or two to cut the line
i’m not even making a moral judgment, just an observation. the owner of the worlds largest hedge fund didn’t have absurdly unusual intellect, he
married into extreme family money
had a pessimistic view of the economy that was right at a few critical junctures
worked really to build a narrative of special insights no one else has
this was a fascinating book, couldn’t put it down.
this is good news,
luke + kristen