It Feels like Home

Five years ago this month I left a job where I had worked for 14 years as a dental hygienist, treating and caring for my patients as if they were my friends and family. During that time I also trained new employees, set up standard operating procedures for the hygiene department and worked on advertizing; basically doing whatever I could to help the practice grow.  In the 14 years I was there the practice went from three chairs to six chairs and three employees to six employees because we all worked together as a team. 

So why did I leave? The Dentist changed the vision of his practice. He wanted an upscale cosmetic practice instead of continuing with his thriving family practice.  I don’t think he was wrong in wanting to change his practice or that the methods he used to change it were wrong but after two years of struggling through the changes I realized I didn’t enjoy working in an upscale cosmetic practice. As much as I wanted to stay and buy into the new vision I just couldn’t. It wasn’t me. I was too practical and I missed the homey feeling of the family practice.

So, following the Lord’s leading I found a periodontal practice with the homey friendly  feeling I liked but it wasn’t without its difficulties. Those first few years after the “honeymoon” phase was over I had many doubts about whether or not I had made the right decision and if I had the vigor to learn a new job at a new office with a new employer and new employees. My new co-workers had worked together for about 10 years; they were all good friends and had their own way of doing things.  It took time to learn their systems and although they were "friendly" it took time for us to become friends; it took time for their patients to trust me and it took time for me to stop missing the way things use to be. I’m not sure when it started feeling like home but today I’m very thankful for their patience and encouragement and friendship and that “IT FEELS LIKE HOME!”

An Oasis

The sights and sounds I enjoy from my rocking chair…..

The Waterfalls

The Windchime

My Backyard Friends

My protection

And the healing that still needs to be done!

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made...... Rom 1:20

And my only comfort

in life and in death is….
 

That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven:
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.

The Heidelberg Catechism

Please Break The 40/60 Rule

When our wrongs are too obvious to ignore, we practice what I call the 40/60 Rule. It goes something like this: "Well, I know I'm not perfect, and I admit I am partially to blame for this problem. I'd say that about 40 percent of the fault is mine. That means 60 percent of the fault is hers. Since she is 20 percent more to blame than I am, she should be the one to ask for forgiveness." I never actually say or think these exact words, but I often catch myself resorting to this tactic in subtle ways. By believing that my sins have been more than cancelled by another's sins, I can divert attention from myself and avoid repentance and confession.

Food for Thought

Jesus tells the perfect "40/60 Rule" story in Luke 18:10-14. In this passage, Luke says that Jesus addresses the story to those "who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else." This is the story:
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Next time you're tempted to invoke the 40/60 Rule to minimize your part in a conflict, remember that few subjects raise more disdain in Jesus than moderated mercy or a "righteousness ranking" where we give ourselves an unequivocal first place vote.

Taken from  The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict
by Ken Sande, Updated Edition (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2003) p. 120.

Grace for the Holidays

Yesterday Pastor Scotty Smith tweeted

“There will be enough of God's grace for every family gathering you attend this holiday season. That's hope, not hype!”

As I have meditated on this truth this is my prayer….

Oh Father, this Christmas I long to be so rooted and grounded in your love for me, strengthened with power through your Spirit in my inner most being  (Eph 3:17) that my conversations are full of grace, seasoned with salt so that I may know how to answer everyone ( Cold 4:6) according to your will. I want to be completely undone by you mercy and compassion for me that I humbly bear with and build-up others, forgiving them as you have forgiven me.  Empty me of me that I might be filled with you so that I might be an instrument of grace at every family gathering this holiday season.

Dear Drama Queen

Really?  Must you really turn this into a major ordeal? Don’t you think you might be blowing this way out of proportion? Maybe if you would take a step back and take a deep breath you could calm down enough to see that the situation is not as bad as you think it is. Yes I know it’s not perfect and there are many things that need to be worked out but you’re only fueling the fire with your vain imaginations and “what ifs.”  You need to “fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure and lovely and admirable.  You need to think about the things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Eph 4:8) like Christ’s birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, reign and return.

I’m so sorry that you have to deal with these issues but rehashing the details with “all your closest friends” isn’t helping you and is only stirring up strife in the community.  You are dividing friends and tearing apart your family.  You need to take this to your one and only true friend who is also your Lord and Savior. The only one who has the power and wisdom to change the situation in His perfect timing but more importantly who can transform you from the impatient, selfish, self-righteous drama queen you are to a woman with a gentle and quite spirit who seeks to build-up and encourage others.

Excuse me! Did I hear you right? You have no idea why your children are drama kings and queens?  You really don’t know why they are making mountains out of mole hills, spassing out about the most ridiculously unimportant matters and unable to handle the normal irritations of living in this sinful and broken world?  Well, there are two reasons: one, they are a reflection of you and what they have learned from you and two, they are sinners just like the rest of us.  They need the saving and transforming power of the Gospel just like you and I do. 

As I take a deep breath and step back from the situation this is my prayer……..

Most graciously Heavenly Father, forgive me for being short and impatient with my friend; forgive me for seeing her as an interruption in my schedule; forgive me for being selfish and self-righteous with her. I lift my friend up to you and pray you would pour out your grace on her and calm her anxious heart. Give her faith to believe you are working in her situation; help her to trust you to take care of all the details for your glory and her good. Use this situation to bring her to the end of herself so that she might be filled with you.  And I pray you would pour out your grace on me and give me wisdom to know how to love and encourage her; how to be her Gospel friend.  Amen

The Gift of Gifts

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,

and enlarge my mind:

let me hear good tidings of great joy,

and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,

my conscience bathed in an ocean of trust,

my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father:

place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,

to look with them upon my redeemer’s face,

and in him account myself delivered from sin,

let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart,

embrace him with undying faith,

exulting that he is mine and I am his.

In him thou hast given so much that heaven can give no more.

From the Valley of Vision: Puritan Prayers