Sunday, February 27, 2011
I’m taking off today and will have a new post for tomorrow. For those who follow my sons lacrosse, they finished league play with a win so they are 9-1 and second in the state going into the playoffs this week. Go outlaws!!!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
A few years ago Carter came home from school and I asked him what he did at school. He responded that he had counseled 7 of his friends. I was dumbfounded and after picking my jaw off the floor, I asked another question about what he was counseling his friends about. He responded by saying, “Dad its confidential.” I guess there may be another counselor in the Gorton household. It is wonderful to have your son or daughter follow in your footsteps when those footsteps are good. I just got off the phone with my oldest daughter who is a psychologist in Virginia Beach, VA and she brings stimulating conversation each and every time that I interact with her. Her faith in God is an encouragement to my daily walk with the Savior
But unfortunately, children can as well begin to copy the negative things of our life as in the case of the passage of scripture I read in my quiet time this morning. Samuel who was a godly leader to the nation of Israel had two sons, Joel and Abijah. It was said of them that, “they turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.” (I Samuel 8:2) Now Samuel was a godly man so you might be asking the question, “How does this relate to your heading when they didn’t follow in their father’s footsteps.”
The answer lies in what Samuel saw growing up as he lived with Eli, the priest of Israel. The beginning of this terrible legacy is found in I Samuel 2:12+ where is says, “Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord. As you read on in the story, you find that Eli never disciplined his sons or punished them for their wrongs so they continued in their destructive behavior. Samuel grew up looking at the parenting of Eli with his sons, so when Samuel became an adult with sons, he parented the way he was taught.
How many of us grow us and say, ” I will never do what I experienced as a child,” or “I will never say the things that I heard from my parent as a child.” And yet in the stressful times we do the same things. I am guilty of that and want today to be mindful of those areas that need to be cut away so that my son and daughters don’t carry that baggage into their futures.
God I need strength and wisdom on this journey.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Parenting is a nonstop job. There are infinite areas where ones skills need to come into play in seeking to place a child on the right road and keep that child there. Yesterday I got a call from one of Carter’s teachers saying that he had a couple of unturned in assignments that she wanted me to be aware of. I made an assumption that he hadn’t taken care of it so when he got home we had a hard conversation. It took some time but we eventually got it worked out as he told me it was assignments that he had when he was sick and had turned them in that day. I hadn’t gotten all the facts and jumped to a conclusion that caused some tears in the process. It’s hard to parent. It’s a full-time profession. It’s especially hard when you don’t have all the facts.
He asked me the question after we worked out the problem that caused me some to step back and take a look at myself. His question was, “Dad, why did you jump on this issue when all the other grades of mine are B’s and A’s?” He had me. It was an excellent question and one I had no immediate answer. I did give him an answer about having a car with three tires that have air in them and one that is flat. You don’t focus on the three that are pumped up but you focus on fixing the flat tire. It seemed to give him an answer to his question, but it still lingers in my mind as to why in those situations I so quickly go to the negative.
I could say it was because it was what I heard when I was growing up with my father. I could say that it was a long day and I was saying it out of being tired. I could blame him for not getting in his work, and if he only had his work in I wouldnt have to get on his case. But the fact is all of those are excuses for my not working on being positive. If you have time read Ephesians 4:29 where Paul talks about using negative or unwholesome words versus using words that are positive and edifying or uplifting to the person you are talking about. In fact, Paul says that no negative words should ever come out of your mouth.
I have work to do on this journey.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tonight after supper, Carter and I had some father/son time by watching a movie I had never watched. He had an assignment for school to put advertisements into one of five categories so the students would begin to see how advertisements grab us and tempt us to buy their products. It was a good time of connecting, but the movie became a topic of conversation as well. The movie was entitled “Hancock” and was a story about a super human who was always drunk and rescued people, but also did all kinds of damage in the process. He wasn’t well liked and had 866 warrants for his arrest. He finally turned himself in through the influence of a marketing wannabee and began to change his perspective of the damage he had caused in jail. He turned his life around and began to save lives and endere the hearts of people to him.
Carter made a comment about wanting to be a super hero to help people, which got me to thinking why we are so enamored by shows like “Batman” and “Superman” and “Ironman.” I think there is a secret thought in us of wanting someone super to come and rid the planet of evil. So we go to these movies in the droves hoping someday that our rescuer will come.
This brings me to a passage in the bible that I was reminded about of super heroes. It is the story of Gideon in Judges 6-8. Gideon initially had 32,000 men to fight the Midianites with 120,000 warriors. God told Gideon that it was too many men, for when He gave them victory, they would think it was their own power that got the victory. So God said all who were fearful leave and 22,000 left leaving only 10,000. God said it was still too many and so those who lapped water like a dog (300) were the ones that God would use to destroy the Midianite troops.
What I see here is that God didn’t create super heroes on this earth because He wanted us to look to Him as our Power Source, our Defender, our Victor, our Savior. Isn’t it interesting that our world hungers for a super hero to come and yet He is here if only we would open our eyes and trust Him to do his work.
Thursday February 24, 2011
How would you like to hang around someone who in the course of a few years lost a husband and two sons and when asked her name, she called herself Mara which means bitter. I don’t know about you, but I have known some bitter people and it is truly a drain to be around them. They are negative all the time and the bitterness spews out on everything and everyone they come in contact with. I can only stand a negative bitter person so long and then I have to relieve myself to catch a breath of fresh air.
There is just such a story and most of us are drawn to the person in the story that the book of the bible is written about, namely Ruth. But as I read the book today, I was taken by Naomi who had lost her husband and her two only sons and was going back to her homeland. She encouraged her daughters in law to go back to their homeland because she could offer them nothing where she was going. The two initially said they wanted to go with her, but when she insisted that they go back, Orpah kissed Naomi and went back to her homeland, but Ruth clung to Naomi.
Naomi a third time tried to persuade Ruth to go backhand then we get the famous line, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Where you die I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me be it ever so severely, if even death separates you from me.” Ruth 1:16-17
I have looked at the commitment of Ruth to leave her family of origin to go to a foreign land, but as I was looking at Ruth 1, I began to think of the person of Naomi and what Ruth saw in her to make the commitment she did to Naomi. In the midst of all the pain and loss of Naomi, she exhibited a lifestyle and personality that caused Ruth to be willing to give up her total past life and embark on a new journey with a woman that was her mother-in-law. Now this is a different kind of mother-in-law story from the jokes we often hear. Ruth saw in Naomi a relationship with God that was so transforming in the midst of great loss that Ruth was willing to cling to Naomi even until death (a truly magnetic personality).
I ask myself if there are any people on this earth I would be willing to drop everything and follow that person. Is my life giving off a sweet aroma so that others would want to follow my God? Is my lifestyle one that causes others to drop their lifestyle and desire to experience the life I’m living? Naomi must have been a wonderful person and I would only hope that others are encouraged to follow Christ because of the positive things they see Him doing in my life. Things to ponder as we all are on this journey
Tuesday February 22, 2011
This jlog is a continuation of yesterday’s regarding the phrase “Everyone did what they saw fit.” in Part II I want to look at the effects of a society that has the mindset of doing whatever they want without regard to how their actions might effect others.
One of the first things I see in Judges of the effects of this mindset is that the gods of the society would become a snare to the people and cause them to be led astray (Judges 2:3). When there is no absolute ethic that tells us right from wrong, the natural outcome is to be swayed by various things that a society worships and causes our hearts and minds to wonder. There are various gods in our present day society that can be a snare for the best of Gods followers. Pornography is a multi-billion dollar business that pulls at our selfishness desires and rips apart marriages. The movie “The Devil Wears Prada” gave us a glimpse at the clothing industry and it’s desire to snatch would be hearts and pocket books to buy purses and shoes that are over priced because we need them. It is another god that tempts us to getting our focus off what is important. And what about those quads or hogs or spa days that we need to relax. Clothing or material stuff isn’t by itself wrong or bad. It’s when we divert our attention away from the creator of the universe and think that these things will bring us happiness that it becomes wrong.
Another effect of doing what is right in our own eyes happened in Judges 19 where a whole tribe if Israel was wiped out by the other tribes due to the infiltration of a societal culture creeping into the Benjamites. You can read about the story but all the brothers came on their brother and destroyed all but 400 of their own kin. They felt sorry afterwards and tried to fix their mistakes but when we get into the mindset of doing our own thing our priorities get out of whack.
This phrase rings in my ear today as I don’t want to live my life or any part of my life with this kind if mindset of doing what is right in my eyes. God give me a sensitive spirit to follow you wholly.
Monday February 21,2011
I have been reading in the book of Judges over the last few days and a phrase in the NIV came to my attention a couple of times that cause me to ponder it and look to see if in my life I was manifesting that quality. In Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25 the verses were the same, “There was no king in Israel, and everyone did as they saw fit.”. In other translations it says that everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. In other words whatever you wanted to do you did not thinking about others or what the Lord wanted you to do, but making judgments and decisions about what felt good for you and you alone.
We have a present day phrase for that kind of action and it is called situational ethics. It basically says that there are no absolutes in life so based on the circumstances of life you make ethical decisions for the actions you are going to manifest. If the situation calls for you to lie so that you won’t get reprimanded you lie. If you need something and you don’t have it but someone else does you steal it. If you have an emotional or physical need to connect with someone you do even though it may be an inappropriate relationship. You make decisions based on your internal system of what feels good for you.
In the next couple of days I want to look at Judges to see the impact that this kind of philosophy had on the nation of Israel and see how that philosophy can impact our decisions on our daily lives.
Stay with me as we journey together.
Saturday February 19, 2011
This j-log is going to be a bragging jlog plain and simple! The outlaw team that traveled down to Tucson this morning came away with a 15-5 victory and improved the lacrosse team record to 7-1 and a second place in the state of Arizona for junior high teams. Carter plays defense and sometimes defensive middy (it means he runs a lot). The team was up only 4-3 at the half but woke up and scored 5 points in less than four minutes.
The victory was capped off with a trip to In N Out Burger. The following pictures capture some of what I was privileged to experience with my son (99). By the way he played an outstanding game and saved a couple of goals with his aggressive defense. Enjoy the pictures.
Friiday February 18, 2011
I have thought about Jephthah the reject judge of Gilead who had a great victory over the Ammonites. But before he claimed victory he made a vow to the Lord before he went into battle in Judges 11:29-40. He vowed that if God would give him victory, he would come home and the first thing that came out of his house would be a sacrifice to the Lord. I don’t know what he was thinking about. Was it going to be a sheep? Or maybe a goat! Or a calf! Not in his wildest imagine did he think it was going to be what came out when he arrived home
Have you ever been a pinch and made a vow to the Lord saying, “If you get me out of this pickle I will _________________(fill in the blank).” After the Lord answers your prayer, do you find yourself backpedaling on what you vowed? In the new testament it says that we are to let our yes be yes and our no be no, and don’t vow what you can’t keep.
What is sad in this story is that Jephthah had only one child and when he came home she was the first to come out of the house. She and her father were devastated, and she asked to have two months to mourn what was going to happen. She went up into the mountains with her friends and grieved over her impending death. After the mourning process, she came down from the mountains and her father killed his only daughter and sacrificed her to the Lord, completing his vow. I don’t believe I could have done that. My only child. I have three wonderful children but I couldn’t do that to any of them
I guess the insight I get from this is that God takes us at our word so we need to be careful what we say and what we commit ourselves to. Let your yes be yes and let your no be no. Sometimes this journey is a hard one.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
How many of you have experienced rejection in your life? How about wanting a job and the answer was, “We have already filled that position with someone else.” How many of you have been turned down when you were dating and wanted to date someone and the response was, “I’m busy that night.” It was painful in the early stages of raising children when you wanted to hold your child and they wanted someone else to hold them, leaving you standing there feeling rejection from your child. Have you ever felt rejection from a friend when going to school and your friend wanted to play with someone else or go to somebody’s house over your house? It seems that throughout life we experience rejection, at least I do and when you put a few of these rejections together, you can start feeling like you have been rejected.
Well today I read a story in Judges 11 about Jephthah whose father was Gilead and his mother was a prostitute. Gilead had a wife who bore him sons, but he had an illegitimate son from a prostitute he never married. When the sons were older, they told Jephthah to leave the land because he was not going to get any inheritance of his father. How rejected can you get. He felt left out of the family. Later in life, the people of Gilead were at war with the Ammonites and went to Jephthah and ask him to lead the tribe to fight against the enemy. As you might expect, he asked all kinds of questions like, “You kicked me out of the land and why are you now wanting me to lead your army into battle? When I gain victory over your enemy, are you going to kick me out and reject me again? How will I know that you are telling me the truth to do me good?
When we experience rejection, we become wary of others motives when they want to be with us and use our gifts and abilities. One thing that hit me deeply is that rejection often is followed by success, but it is our choice to focus on the feelings of rejection or to focus on what God has in store for us after we experience rejection. As you read on you see Jephthah having tremendous victory over the enemy, but it was only because he didn’t dwell on the rejection he experienced but put it aside for God to use him in the future. Rejection is truly a means for building perseverance in our lives so that we can be equipped for the Master’s work (James 1: 2-4). Rejection in our lives can be an obstacle that takes us off the journey, or it can be an opportunity to develop qualities in our lives to grow closer to Him, my choice–your choice. So let’s persevere on this journey together.
relationallychallenged 