The Bayou - by Brenda Freeman

I have a long front porch that faces Bayou Castille.  It is an amazing place.  You can come up the steps, walk the length, enter my house and think you’ve passed a totally still and quiet place, where nothing at all is going on.  From the quick, initial appearance, that’s true. But the reality is something quite different.  It is only when you are willing to give your time and yourself to the bayou that she will open herself up to you and give to you.

When you sit still and quiet before her looking, day after day, you learn exactly what her trees, far and near, look like.  Then, and only then, will your eyes quickly detect when something is different: there’s an Osprey in a Cyprus across the bayou, a Blue Heron stands perfectly still in the water waiting for breakfast to swim near, a limb blew off in last night’s rainstorm, the King birds are back nesting at the water’s edge, a gator glides silently by.

When you sit still and quiet before her listening, day after day, you begin to know her symphony of sounds: the rustle of tiny birds flitting about in the underbrush, the gentle plop……plop…..plop of a squirrel discarding the unwanted parts of his pine cone, the frantic scratches of a game of squirrel chase, the movement in the pathways of the trees that the animals regularly use, each bird’s unique song and alarm sound, frogs calling to each other, mullet splashes, two owls hooting back and forth at sunset.

Just as I thought the bayou was silent, you can believe God is silent unless you purposefully pursue Him.  To begin to hear God you must sit still and quiet before Him, where He is your sole focus.  Read His Word so you get to know what He looks like, what He sounds like.  Talk to Him.  Listen to Him.  Breathe Him.

The bayou was always making noise.  It was my inattention that let me miss it.  God is always speaking to you.  Not purposefully pursuing Him and His Word will let you miss it.  Just like it took time for me to know my bayou, it takes time to begin to hear with your heart the voice of God.  And, just like the bayou came alive when I gave myself to it, God will come alive to you when you give of yourself to Him.

I want to challenge you to make time each day where God is your sole focus.  When you are willing to come before the Lord, giving your time and yourself to Him, He will reveal Himself to you in personal, intimate ways.

He is speaking.  Sh-h-h-h-h.  Do you hear Him?

Be Mindful - by Keri Peresich

Read Psalm 8.*

What joy it brings to my soul when someone says that she/he has been thinking of me! Sometimes I wonder how “little ole me” could be taking up space in the mind of anyone. The really good news is that we can all be assured our awesome God always has us on His mind. Isn’t that an amazing thought? 

Psalm 8 reminds us that not only is God mindful of us, but He also has honored us with glory and made us caregivers of His beautiful creations.  In our role as caregivers, I feel that God is calling each of us to make more space in our minds to think of and care for others. In our busy lives, we can sometimes forget that caring for each other and our world is not just desired, but expected of us. I will admit that I am often guilty of falling asleep without having said my prayers or written in my thankful journal. I need to do better!  Maybe you would like to join me in trying harder to make sure my time for God and others doesn’t disappear in those hectic times of life.

Prayer:

Dear Lord,

Just as you are ever mindful of us, help us to be mindful of each other. Help us to share your never-ending love by our thoughts, words, and actions. May we be good caregivers of all of your creations. Thank you for all our many blessings!!  Amen

*In your quiet time, you may want to listen to Tom Fettke’s beautiful choral arrangement of Psalm 8, “The Majesty and Glory of Your Name.” (There are many options on YouTube.)  You will be blessed!

Baseball - by George Murphy

         

      

        The World Series of baseball is raging as I write. The Astros and the Dodgers are in quite a battle. They are both extraordinary teams.

I love Baseball. Players come in all sizes and from different backgrounds. The best player may be 5’5” tall or nearly 7’ or any size in between, overweight or painfully thin.  He may be well educated, or not at all.  He may come from an extremely privileged background, or a severely under privileged background.  He may be from a wide variety of nations and ethnicities. Each team member’s success depends on everyone doing their job and playing as a team.

Each player, in the Series, has to play both offense and defense.  Each defensive position has a unique job. Each offensive player has a similar job, i.e. batting and running the bases.  The team’s success depends on each player doing his job. Hitters are considered "great" if they only fail 70% of the time.  Success depends on the individual and the group playing in concert.  When both teams play to their potential the results can be riveting. This year’s Series is such.

The apostle Paul didn’t have the privilege of experiencing Baseball, but he was acutely aware of the need for teamwork. In First Corinthians Chapter 12, he likened members of the body of Christ to members of the human body. As members of Christ’s body, we are joined together, regardless of size, education, background or ethnicity. We may have different talents or functions, but together we are one. We owe it to God and to each other to work together to make His Kingdom come. 

How Jesus Personally Prayed - by Joan Simpson

Matthew 25:41 Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation:  the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.  

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, believed in prayer.  Christ showed Himself to be a person of persistant prayer.  Prayer was his mission.

JESUS LED THE WORLD IN PRAYER:

     At His baptism (Matthew 4)

     At the transfiguration (Matthew 17)

     The Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26)

     The Cross (Luke 23)

JESUS PRAYED BEFORE DAYBREAK:

Mark 1:35, And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

JESUS SPENT ENTIRE NIGHTS IN PRAYER:

Luke 6:12, And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

PRAYER WAS JESUS’ COMMUNION, INISPIRATION & STRENGTH:

Matthew 26:41, Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation:  the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Luke 18:1 .  . . men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

As Little Children - By Carrie Valentine

    

    Before saying bedtime prayers with my granddaughters one night, I mentioned the fruit of the spirit.  The youngest, who was nine at the time, said that she knew what they were and proceeded to name each one after pausing to get the last one.  Then she proudly asked me, “Grandmother, ask me how I knew!”  Was it from Sunday school, or from the lessons of her sister who goes to a Christian school?  “No! It was from your church, up front!”  Indeed, we have banners at the front of the chancel, one of which lists the fruit and they had visited our church a few weeks before.  As I sing in the choir, the banners are above my head and behind me.

      Of course, I know the fruit, but could I list them all promptly?  I discovered I had to refresh my memory.  Another day I was saying the list to these girls, and the granddaughter who goes to a Christian school interrupted saying “You forgot goodness” because I was saying them in a different order that was easier for me to remember.  So, back to the Bible to learn them in the correct order.  Now I can list them readily: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galations 5:22). 

     When two sisters get into an argument, I sometimes ask them to tell me the fruit of the spirit in the hopes that it will evoke better behavior.  But, I found that after memorizing the list, I was convicted when I was impatient or cross that I needed to exhibit better behavior.  Did not Jesus say somewhere that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven as little children?  (Matthew 18:3).

 Prayer:  Lord, thank you for your gracious mercy and your comforter the Holy Spirit, who fills me with your grace.  Empower me to receive this gift more fully!

God Is With Us - by Cindy Singleton

When my two older daughters were still in high school they taught swimming lessons during the summer.  Although they worked at the same community college pool, they never taught the same kids. 

Alyssa was a natural for toddlers and preschoolers. They clung to her right from the start, blew bubbles as soon as she asked them to, and kicked off the side of the pool just to please her. 

Jessica, on the other hand, preferred to teach older kids. She especially liked the ones who had already learned basic swimming strokes and simply needed to fine-tune them with the help of her instruction.

Because it was summer and she was a teenager, Jessica wanted both a job and a suntan.  She didn’t mind the agony of teaching six consecutive classes under a blazing hot sun because she considered the rewards to be so sweet.

At the beginning of each class my daughter greeted her students and then pointed them to the deep end of the college’s Olympic-sized pool. Then she positioned herself on the side of the pool and fixed her lifesaving device in her lap.  From her instruction/suntanning spot she eagerly gave commands, gestured, encouraged, and cheered on the five or six adolescents under her care. In other words, she enthusiastically taught and suntanned while they swam, floated, and treaded water.

One day Jessica returned home from her job totally exasperated.  The swimming director had told her to get in the water with her students.  No more sitting on the ledge working on her gorgeous suntan. He wanted her in the water where the kids would feel more secure in her presence.

Jessica was beyond frustrated. According to my daughter, the kids were learning to swim, and were swimming very well, thank you.

I smiled.  And I pondered this thought: God gets in the water with us.

God has never left me to navigate life on my own. He's always been there, whether I was mindful of Him or whether life was going great (meaning nothing was stressing me out) and I smugly began to feel like “I’ve got this." Those moments of confidence never lasted long. Inevitably out of nowhere a new wave of temptation…or fear…or anger…or even sorrow…took me by surprise.

In those times of crisis I’ve been most aware that God never leaves me. I never had to go find Him. I didn’t have to hope He would show up. He was always there, and His strong arm always reached down and held me or rescued me or prodded me onward.

In the Bible, Jesus is called Emmanuel, “God With Us.” “And behold, a virgin shall being forth a child, and shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted means, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). 

God came to Earth wrapped in the skin of a tiny baby so He could live with us and touch us and be with us. 

God didn’t sit on the sidelines.  He could have. But instead He got in this mess of a life with us. He came in the form of Jesus and sent His Holy Spirit to live with us forever. He is constantly guiding, holding, instructing, touching, reassuring, convicting, comforting, and leading us with hands that are gentle and sure and strong and righteous.

In the joys…in the sorrows…on the mountaintops…in the storms…in the car…in a business meeting…in the middle of a fight with a family member…in a doctor’s office…when we’re tossing and turning at night…God Is With Us.

We Are God's Hands and Feet - by Bill McLarty

A month or so ago I decided to take an additional part time job as a school bus driver for Ocean Springs. So far, in my short tenure, I have learned a couple of things.

1. Middle School and High School students are not nearly as happy about Monday mornings as I am. 

2.Elementary students have absolutely scary amounts of energy….. ALWAYS. 

I had the opportunity to replace a driver who was retiring after twenty or so years of service. Stepping in to fill Mrs. Jewel’s driver’s seat has been quite the undertaking. She is the only bus driver that my students have ever known, and in their eyes, the best bus driver that has ever existed. 

My first two weeks were mostly about learning the route and getting know the students. I made my fair share of mistakes, making wrong turns, missing stops, etc. I also had to set some ground rules for some unruly students and assign seats. To say the least, these things did not make me “awesome” to some of the students. 

After a week or so, a couple of my 5th & 6th graders were frustrated that I instituted these rules so they started a chant in the back of the bus....”We want Mrs. Jewel”...”We want Mrs. Jewel!” This was followed by some of the younger kiddos chanting “No! We want Mr. Bill.” 

It would be fair to say that I was a little frustrated. I drove through the route, and a couple of stops later I was letting students out and a little girl gave me a small note as she was getting off. On the note was a sketch of me driving and her sitting in a seat, with the caption “I  ❤️  Bus Driver!”

It absolutely made my day! The encouragement from that simple little note gave me what I needed to have a much better week.. 

As Christians, we are given plenty of encouragement in the Bible. My favorite is found in Hebrews. 

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”

Hebrews 10:35-36 NIV

While there are lots of words of encouragement in the scripture, let us remember that we are to be the hands and feet of Christ as well as the shoulder to lean on, the ears to hear and the mouth that speaks encouragement to those who are struggling this Christmas season.

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV