You weren’t there
the night He found me
You did not feel what I felt
when he wrapped
his love all around me
and you don’t know the cost
of the oil in my alabaster box

- Alabaster Box, CeCe Wynans -

My husband and I were reading Genesis tonight, more specifically – the story of Joseph and how his own brothers sold him out because of jealousy. I got to thinking about character again … more specifically, attacks on your character.

If it wasn’t bad enough that Joseph’s brothers sold him out as a slave, his lot got much worse. Joseph found favor with Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh, and according to the bible “…his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand” (Gen. 39: 3). In view of the excellent character of Joseph, Potiphar placed great confidence in Joseph and he excelled — even as a slave.

Then enters Potiphar’s wife. She wanted Joseph — and tempted him, but loyal not only to Potiphar – but to God Almighty, he showed amazing strength and character above approach, but what did he get for his efforts? He was accused of assaulting his master’s wife and thrown into prison.

I’m sure many of you have experienced this, I know I have. You do everything you know in your heart that is right, and yet the weight of the world slaps you in the face and you wonder….why God? Where did I go wrong this time? I wonder if Joseph thought the same, or if he was 100% confident in the decisions he made.

I have to admit…many people have called me different in the course of my life. I use to take offense at that in the beginning, but the longer I live – the more I appreciate that I am different. I don’t want to be a cookie-cutter image of somebody else, I just want to be me. I get weary of people trying to pour me into the mold of what they think I should be, or what society deems ‘acceptable’, because I know that it does not reflect who I truly am.

According to the World English Dictionary, character is the set of qualities that make somebody or something distinctive, especially somebodies qualities of mind and feeling. Going by that definition, when people attack your character – I think it implies that that they don’t want you to be distinctive, they want you to fit the mold and go with what society deems acceptable. Isn’t this the sand-pit of youth? Peer pressure? Is there ever an age where we outgrow the need to be one of the crowd? To be accepted as who we are?

Sometimes I feel I’ve kept my mouth shut for long enough. Yes world…I do have a backbone! I don’t want to be like you, and although I’m sorry you don’t understand that, I’m tired of wasting time on the trivial matters that you find so important – - because as far as I’m concerned, they aren’t really that big of a deal.

Where is your money now?
Where is your power?
Where is your freedom?

I have faith, extraordinary faith. God works all things toward good and I believe that, no matter how many fingers you want to point at my mistakes. I never claimed to be perfect – just basically good, and I believe that this is the humbleness that God desires.

Call me lofty, egotistical – whatever word you want to plug in there

- but as the world fails you,
- and judges you,
- and condemns you
- – you remember these words:

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

May God Bless CeCe Winans for this song! I just want to be me and love the Lord, I just want to be happy – and that’s okay – - so look in the mirror before you want to judge who I really am – because you don’t know the cost of my alabaster box!

I am no better than the woman at the well, but I know the power behind the throne – - worship whatever God you want, but I know for a fact that I am saved! Can you confidently say the same? Time is growing short, let the Lord fill your cup from a well that never will run dry!

Deuteronomy 4:29

But if from there you seek the LORD your God,
you will find him if you look for him
with all your heart and with all your soul.

You are the single most distracting obstacle between your own failure and success. Each day you make a series of immediate decisions that ultimately shape the course of your life. Failure and success are not immediate procurements; they are slow fades evolving from the good and bad decisions you make each and every moment of your life.

Don’t ever believe that God does not have a will and purpose for your life. Even if you feel lost in the gray area between black and white – remember that your position in life today, has been your choice and yours alone.

Nothing can stand between you and God’s will, except you.

Right now, simply by reading this – you are reaching to find that will. You are seeking.

Matthew 6:31-34

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. – James Dent

At my house, “Dust” is a noun, not a verb. – Anonymous

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. – Phyllis Diller

Housework can’t kill you, but why take a chance? – Phyllis Diller

I always thought a yard was three feet, then I started mowing the lawn. – C.E. Cowman

I buried a lot of my ironing in the back yard. – Phyllis Diller

I make no secret of the fact that I would rather lie on a sofa than sweep beneath it. But you have to be efficient if you’re going to be lazy. – Shirley Conran

I will clean house when Sears comes out with a riding vacuum cleaner. – Roseanne Barr

I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on. – Anonymous

My husband and I have figured out a really good system about the housework: neither one of us does it. – Dottie Archibald

My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance. – Anonymous

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. – Erma Bombeck

My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you? – Erma Bombeck

Nature abhors a vacuum. And so do I. – Anne Gibbons

One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duck tape to make them stop. – G.M. Weilacher

The obvious and fair solution to the housework problem is to let men do the housework for, say, the next six thousand years, to even things up. The trouble is that men, over the years, have developed an inflated notion of the importance of everything they do, so that before long they would turn housework into just as much of a charade as business is now. They would hire secretaries and buy computers and fly off to housework conferences in Bermuda, but they’d never clean anything. – Dave Barry

This is a honeydew day. That is when you get a day off and the wife says, “Honey, do this,” and “Honey, do that” around the house. – Jim Lemon

Three-fourths of the Earth’s surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn. – Chuck Clark

I woke up Sunday morning exhausted and mad. I found myself lying in bed arguing with my husband and he wasn’t even awake yet. We had spent all day Saturday out at the soccer fields with our 3 children . Beat by the sun I had collapsed into bed after haphazardly dumping some clothes into the washer and making a lame attempt to cook dinner. Still tired when I woke up the first thing that crossed my mind was I needed more help. I fumbled through making the coffee, glaring angrily at the dinner dishes that were still sitting in the sink and gleefully took the last clean coffee cup, thinking ’serves him right’. Walking outside I quickly sidestepped one of the kittens that had perched itself in front of the door demanding to be fed. You’re just going to have to wait, I told him, I can’t do everything. I sat there sipping my coffee watching the day dawn, getting angrier and angrier the more I thought of all the things that needed to be done. None of the kids had probably had a bath. I was sure the clothes were still sitting in the washer right where I left them. We still didn’t have anything to cook for the church pot luck picnic and it was highly unlikely we were going to make it to Sunday School…again. I heard my husband searching for a coffee cup in the kitchen and the guilt hit me. I looked back at the rising sun and started to pray. Dear Lord, I know there’s something wrong with me this morning – - I don’t want to take it out on my family. Please help me, I can’t do this alone, not today.

I peeked inside the window just in time to see my husband grabbing one of my collectible cat china cups then I fed the kittens so he didn’t blindly trip over them and break my china on the way out. With a smile on his face, he came out, gave me a kiss and asked if I was feeling better. All of the hostility I had felt for him all morning vanished. I sat there stunned for a minute – I have always believed in the power of prayer, but even so, I never stop being amazed when He answers them so efficiently.

My grandmother taught me when I was little to pray about everything, big and small. When I got a little older, I felt silly praying because none of them were ever answered. The boy I wanted to ask me out never did, the stylish clothes that would make me popular never appeared, my parents divorced, even though I prayed constantly that my family would stay together. My grandmother had fed me hogwash and I ate it up because I was a little girl stuck in a fantasy world where happily ever after still existed. As I continued to age, my prayer life became non-existent, and I got increasingly lost in a world that would never make sense. Bad things started to happen to me; drugs, alcohol, bad friends then eventually homelessness. That was the point that I decided to try the prayer thing again, after all it couldn’t hurt right? But these prayers were different than the prayers said by the little girl I had once been. They were angry prayers; I hate this, change this and give me, give me, give me. Did He answer? I didn’t think so at the time, but looking back after 15 + years, I can say absolutely, without a doubt. He took the hate and showed me how to love, He changed me, but not the things, and He gave and gave and gave, to this day He is still giving but I have learned now the importance of asking.

I come across so many people in today’s world that say religion makes no sense, Christianity is too hard and they are too busy to pray. These same people are also the first to complain about their lives, their circumstances and what they have in life. How is prayer hard? How can you be too busy to pray? You can lie in bed and mentally justify your actions because of what people have done to you. You can list all the ways you’ve been neglected, ignored and mistreated. You can have imaginary conversations where you put these evildoers in their place and plan ways to exact your revenge, but you don’t have time to pray?

You hear it over and over that there is power in prayer but have you ever truly allowed it to sink in. When you pray, the Lord gives you the power to accomplish the things that you can’t. When YOU pray, the Lord GIVES YOU THE POWER, but you must pray in order to be given that power. It doesn’t matter what you are praying about or what you are praying for, what matters is that you are praying. The Lord said, draw near to me and I will draw near to you. How much more simple can you get?

Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength

The eagle soars because it’s not afraid. Born with nothing but the sky to look at, its aspirations could be no higher. From a hatchling the eagle strives to grow, craving nourishment, attacking its own kind to survive, pushing itself and others to make way for the world it wishes to see. The eagle doesn’t fail because of high expectations. The drop from the nest is a long one, but the longer the fall – the more time the eagle has to learn how to fly. The young eagle has no direction, only the wide open blue sky. Where there is no sky, they learn not to fly. When eagles tire, they return to the shelter of the wings and rest. They won’t ever get discouraged of leaving the comfort of the nest because they know what lies beyond is much greater and more fulfilling. How could they not jump from the safety of their cliffs when they know the freedom that lies outside? Nobody told them they could fly; they simply tried and realized they could. Eagles deserve to soar because they believe they can fly before they can.

Matthew 5:14-16

You are the light of the world.
A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand,
and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before men,
that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

I constantly tell my 9 year old to FOCUS. He’s a smart boy, but sometimes his head is so far into his dreams that he can’t see reality. I have a tendency to try and recognize traits in my children that I possess and ‘head in the clouds’ is definitely one of them. Sometimes I focus so intently on the ultimate goal that I lose sight of all the little things that are necessary to accomplish it. On the flip side of this fault, some people focus so much on the little things that they can’t even begin to comprehend the ultimate goal. Neither of these traits is really wrong, they are simply unbalanced and ineffective.

I would almost guarantee that no matter who you are, you have more iron’s in the fire than you can count. I can’t really say there’s anything wrong with that, but if you go to bed each night frustrated with what you were unable to accomplish, focus might be just what you need.

Just an example of what focus can accomplish, let’s examine the concept of light. Light by itself illuminates, which is a wonderful thing BUT light focused can cut steel. In each person there are lights within that we label as gifts. Most people have many different gifts, little lights that illuminate the air around them in various ways. When all the lights are on at the same time, the true power is diminished and eventually, some if not all of these lights burn out.

Jesus was the most focused person that ever walked the earth. He had divine wisdom of all the things that needed to be accomplished and yet he rushed nothing. How in the world did he not wake up every morning and say how am I going to do all that needs to be done today? He did it by focusing on the only thing that could accomplish what He alone could not, His Father, Our Father, God Almighty. 2000 years later the impact that Jesus made still resounds across the nations. He was rejected, ridiculed, beaten and crucified and yet with His dying breath, his focus was still on God. That focused Light of the World will continue to cut steel long after we are gone.

I pray that each of you evaluate all that you are doing and come to the core of what it is you want to accomplish. Analyze your gifts, refine them and dedicate them to the Glory of God. The Lord has a specific purpose for your life and you are perfect for the position He has created for you. Unless you truly focus on His Will, the world may lose the light you were intended to give.

May God bless you as you discover the Light within.

John 1:3-5

Through Him all things were made;
without him nothing was made that has been made.
In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness has not overcome it.

Kids are pretty smart. A lot of people look at this new generation and shiver, but more and more I find myself admiring their way of learning and enjoying life. My sister for example is 22, and a lot of people shake their heads in wonder at her thinking process. She doesn’t want to go to college – period. I’ve had the opportunity to watch her grow, learn and educate herself over these past 4 years, and if you ask me, her logic makes perfect sense.

I think the problem with formal education is that it strives to produce what society needs. Society needs doctors, lawyers, politicians, teachers, nurses, soldiers, computer geeks, veterinarians, so formal education tries to steer people towards the advancement of our society. That’s a no-brainer and for the most part, it works. But what if you don’t exactly fit into what society ‘needs’, what then?

I think it’s very refreshing to see this particular brand of youth ‘finding themselves’ so early in life. My sister realized rather quickly that she didn’t ‘fit in” formal education. She tried, bless her heart, she tried, but there was nothing there she really wanted to do. She didn’t want to learn life, she wanted to experience it. So she moved out of her parent’s home, got her own apartment and got a job. We all shook our heads in grief and said “welcome to the real world baby girl”. But you know what? When you throw a fish out there in any kind of water, they only have two options, swim or die. Lesson number one in finding yourself.

Way to go girlfriend! I’m not saying it was easy for her. She struggled from one job to another, barely making ends meet. She learned about apartment leases, pet deposits and what happens when you don’t pay your electric bill on time. She got tired of fast food and learned to cook. She realized that late nights equal very long tomorrows, and above all – she learned that the dollar bill actually does have value. I know people well over the age of 40, still trying to learn these things.

The next thing she learned in life was that her parents were right; you really do need an education. I think this is where a lot of kids today get lost. They take a ride on this never-ending merry-go-round between who they are and who society says they need to be. College is the only place where you receive an education. This is such a false statement. Some fish simply won’t thrive in this environment and when they sputter for air and die – should you blame the fish or the water?

So my sister steered herself towards her heart’s desire, animals. She wasted very little time striving or pursuing occupations that didn’t meet the requirements of her heart. Even though that sometimes meant living without insurance, and the other benefits that define self-sufficiency, she shut her ears to the standards of society and did it her way. Standing up for who you are in this world can be a very hard thing to do, nobody will ever fully understand the way you do things and that’s okay. Lesson number two in finding yourself.

She is not finished with her education by any means. Lesson number three in finding yourself is giving up on the idea of perfection. This is not a perfect world and there is no such thing as a perfect person, so quit trying to be one. No matter how much you know, there is always more to learn. If you can open your mind and allow yourself to bloom where you’re planted you will eventually thrive, because the longer you follow your heart’s desire the faster you will learn. Desire is there for a reason, use it and be the best that you can be.

I know my sister’s not there yet, and sometimes I’m not even sure there is a ‘there’ to get. She may never go to college or she may find her way back some day, most of us do, but she will go wiser and more able to understand where she fits in. If you reflect on what she’s learned, as I have, you finally start getting it – no matter how old you are. I think this young and unique generation has plenty to teach us old-fogies, if we could just learn to listen.