Sunny&80The Little Quarrels (#jammed daily devo, day 192)
Posted on July 11, 2018
July #jammed: Grace serves.
Day 192: One foot in.
“Give us a king to lead us.” 1 Samuel 8:6
God’s people never needed a king …they had God. They often failed to see how set a part they were always supposed to be. Samuel is fielding this request, and he tries his best to persuade the people otherwise. But, they would not be deterred. They really wanted a king like everyone else. They really wanted to be like everyone else.
A similar shortage of self-worth is played out on playgrounds every day. Childhood can be very much about who we fit in with unless we are on a mission to let it be otherwise. As parents, we can’t protect them from every setback and harsh word spoken, but helping them navigate through misunderstanding with kindness is key to keeping them set a part.
Just like Israel misconstrued, we shouldn’t assume that life within “that” group is so much easier. We don’t understand why they don’t ask us to play and try to change so that they will. It’s OK to admit. It’s human nature. In fact, that’s pride rearing it’s ugly head in warning.
When guiding kids through friendship, I believe with all of my heart that kindness and forgiveness come first …even if it leaves us feeling momentarily defenseless.
God is bigger. He tells us that He will defend us …fight our battles and be there for us. He hears our cries, and tells us to love above all else. Teaching children how loved they are for who they are, and how to hand friendship over to God in prayer, allows them the opportunity to trust their King, instead of looking for affirmation elsewhere.
Father, Praise You for parenthood. Thank You for leading and guiding us as parents, and as friends, ourselves. Forgive us for rising up in anger when we are wronged, and remind us to bring every situation to You first. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy Friend-ing
Megs
Get the #jammed Daily Devo sent straight to your inbox each morning, by subscribing to Sunny&80.
The Step Back. (#jammed daily devo, day 191)
Posted on July 10, 2018
July #jammed: Grace serves.
Day 191: Space to breathe.
better.” 1 Peter 1:13“Are you ready to go?!” I excitedly asked my toddlers.
“YAAAAYYYY!!!!” and off we went to meet up with friends for a day of fun in the sun.
Or, so we thought.
No replies all morning, I had a sneaking suspicion that we were being ignored. Ditched, even. Hoping the lack of reply on the other meant a silenced ringer or a dead phone, we headed off to the planned meeting spot anyway. Every suspicion I’d had was right, and then some.
“Mom, there they are! Right over there!”
I took a deep breath and walked over to join, where we all felt the sting I feared. Rejection. My daughter walked up to me with tears in her eyes, and we both cried all the way home. I somehow thought life would be different in the grown-up world …but I was wrong. And it stung.
Today’s verse is a stark reminder of what to do when we feel worldly pain like my daughter and I did that day. First, forgive. Without even thinking about it. And then, we ask God how to guard the hearts.
Walking with Jesus changes us, but it doesn’t drag everyone else along with us. There will be times when, no matter how much we want to be friends with everyone …and believe me, no one wants that more than me …we have to handle conflict and allow our hearts space to heal.
What I learned that day, and continue to learn from every reoccurring experience like it, is that rejection won’t crush me or kill me. In fact, it brings me closer to Jesus. We will often spend our whole lives looking for someone as dependable and reliable and loving and compassionate as He is. We will never find that person. He is it. The One that shouldered the cross is the only one capable of cradling our hearts.
So all of the coffee dates unhonored, dinners ditched out of, and unreturned messages are not in vain. Loving people is never wrong, and neither is forgiveness. But the hurt leaves a little bit of a scar after the wound heals. One to remind us to prayerfully guard our hearts.
Take the space to welcome other faces. Be friends with everyone, but know who your Friend is.
Father, Praise You for friendship. Thank You for the good and the hurt that comes from letting the guard of our hearts down. Forgive us for seeking solace in anyone other than You, and help us to know when we’ve earned some space. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy Friend-ing
Megs
Get the #jammed Daily Devo sent straight to your inbox each morning, by subscribing to Sunny&80.
The Dukes …Up. (#jammed daily devo, day 160)
Posted on June 9, 2018
June #jammed: Under the Blanket of Grace.
Day 160: Grace defends.
“She did it on purpose.” she whispered through fresh tears.
“I know,” I commiserated, as I put my arm around my girl.
But it didn’t make her feel any better. She was still stinging with shock and hurt, dukes-up and ready to defend herself. When we’re hurt unjustly, a flood of entitled emotion threatens to steal our peace. It’s never easy to see our girls collapse into our arms in tears, but when they do, we have to reassure them that God is for them.
Bullying is an epidemic, and backsliding insults dealt with a touch of laughter leave us to wonder if there’s even a line to cross anymore. For those raising daughters, it can be a battlefield of over-dramatic bullets out on that grade-school play ground. Stay off of it, and in conversation with your girls about how to be friends as Jesus would.
He associated with anyone, the very Son of God being privy to the good knit in all of us at birth. Jesus was kind to people despite their dysfunction, and didn’t exploit their personality traits for a laugh. Though He was friendly to all, Jesus had a special group of close friends, more trusted than most. He told the apostles all the Father had told Him. He held Mary and Martha in a special place in His heart. His cousin, John the Baptist, was especially dear to Him.
Today’s verse promises us that God will defend us. He will strengthen us to be strong when we need to be strong, and uphold us in defense when we have been wronged. Christians are called to forgive as we have been forgiven, but we need to guard our hearts. Authentic friendship is trustworthy, and we …and our girls …need to know that when that trust is broken, friendship beyond forgiveness is not an obligation.
When faced with tough situations, we can pray with our daughters …and remind ourselves …to pray hard into those uncomfortable, betraying, and “left out” moments.
The evil one is after our children, and he’ll mess with their relationships just like he messes with ours. We must be careful not to let our hearts be hooked into the middle of every conflict, and remember to pause and pray until there is a peace about moving forward.
Father, Praise You for defending us on life’s battlefield. Thank You for having our backs, and opening our eyes when we need to stand firm in Your Word. Forgive us for tolerating and accepting treatment that we know we are worth more than. Help us to operate in grace and embrace Your defense. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy Dukes-Up,
Megs
Get the #jammed Daily Devo sent straight to your inbox each morning, by subscribing to Sunny&80.
The Little Treasures (#jammed daily devo, day 158)
Posted on June 7, 2018
June #jammed: Under the Blanket of Grace.
Day 158: Grace’s Place.
“Mom!” my daughter warned, “you can’t look in this treasure box …you’ll just get mad.”
She’s right. I think collecting things off of the floor wherever we go is really gross. I’d probably get mad and start picking things out of there and throwing them away. But it’s her “treasure.”
It’s not all worthless, though, even through practical eyes. She has always found pennies on the ground where ever she goes. Even from the seat of her stroller she would yell, “WAIT!! MOMMY!!! PPPEEEENNNNNYYY!!!” And sure enough, a penny there always was. Maybe a piece of smashed gum once or twice ...oh, I better check that treasure box for that …
Today’s verse describes the thief’s malicious intent. Some thieves steel for the thrill or for the challenge, as a bi-product of addiction, or for survival …but not this thief. Satan seeks to steal what is precious to us, in order to destroy us.
malicious- intentionally harmful; spiteful.
Far worse than losing things that we can claim on our insurance policies, this idiot stirs up trouble in our relationships, our families, our parenting, our friendships, our marriages …our literal lives. We should be wary to pray into our relationships with the people that God has placed in our lives. Anytime there is conflict stirring, he is anxiously waiting to start picking things out …
God says, “It’s not good for man to be alone,” but he would love to leave us that way.
That’s not the way Jesus operates. When His hand is in a situation, he promises “life with joy and abundance.” I hold out hope that “abundance” means I can literally be friends with everyone, but ‘joy’ is the key word. It’s OK to extract ourselves from situations that the joy has been sucked out of. It’s, in fact, a good signal to pause and pray.
Pastor Steven Furtick puts it best, “enabling dysfunctional relationships is not the same as forgiveness,” and “forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation.” In our search for how to handle things, let’s not hand them right over to the one that wants to wreck us.
In a society that pushes for answers and litigates the ever-living-life out of everyone and everything …prayer is a powerful way to shut it all down. Guard those precious to you, but don’t squeeze every relationship into a box. Let them all breathe in and out to His joyful and abundant rhythm.
Father, Praise You for other people! Thank You for creating us to be social creatures instead of solitary beings. Forgive us for letting the thief stir up trouble in our lives, and help us to be wary and watchful to listen for Your guiding voice through the turmoil he attempts to cause in our lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy Treasuring,
Megs
Get the #jammed Daily Devo sent straight to your inbox each morning, by subscribing to Sunny&80.
The Lash Glue (#jammed daily devo, day 129)
Posted on May 9, 2018
May #jammed: Growing Grace.
Day 129: Invisible.
“Don’t eat with people who are stingy…” Proverbs 23:6(NLT)
The first lesson competition dance taught me, besides sticker shock, was fake eye-lash
application. It’s a lot more intimidating than it looks, and far easier than waving a mascara wand at a moving …flinching object. Still, the mistakes at the beginning were to be expected, and as I tried to slide those lashes into place I left a trail of gray glue.
A total new-bee to all things glued on …I picked up the gray glue instead of clear. Thank goodness for think, black eye-liner. I added a step because I didn’t pay enough attention to the first one …or get a little bit of an education on lash glue before I bought it. The gray stuff was probably cheaper. That’s what I get for being stingy.
Today’s verse defines a miser. A stingy person who says they are generous but isn’t heartfelt about sharing their wealth. The danger in this is dishonesty, and it’s bound to show up like a streak of gray lash-glue eventually.
“They are always thinking about how much it costs.
“Eat and drink,” they say, but they don’t mean it.” Proverbs 23:7 (NLT)
This not only addresses the whole issue of sharing wealth with each other in generosity, but I believe this can be applied to accumulating people in our lives. How often to we agree, or go along with, so not to make waves …or to be accepted? We do it way more often that we like to admit. We’re programmed to seek approval, and look for it from the wrong places.
“You’ll be sick and lose what little you did eat,
and you’ll waste your breath carrying on a pleasant conversation.” Proverbs 23:8 (VOICE)
Jesus was honest and generous. Generosity shouldn’t stem from dishonesty or legalism. It should come from the heart. If we’re just being generous with our money, our time, or our friendship to gain something in return, then we should check our heart’s intentions with His Word.
How many times do we walk away from friendship disappointed, but can honestly say we got what was coming to us? When we tell our feelings to follow Jesus’ feet, we can be wise in giving of ourselves.
Father, Praise You for the honesty of Your Word. Thank You for blessing us in this life, and forgive us for our lack of pure generosity. Bless us to give out of our heart for You, and not to our own agenda; and help us to be aware of frivolous attempts to redirect our gaze from Your eyes. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy Un-misering,
Megs
Get the #jammed Daily Devo sent straight to your inbox each morning, by subscribing to Sunny&80.
Sunny & 80 …by Meg!
Friends with Everyone Tween Study
The Friend Book, available on Amazon.
Contributing Writer at …
Sunny&80 