Attitude of Gratitude

I am all about peace, love, and joy– I’ve said before that I am definitely a child of the ‘70’s! When I was in high school, I cruised around in my parents’ old Pontiac with wire-rim glasses, long, straight hair, and hippy beads. “Peace” was our by-word. My bedroom door was filled with strings of beads, and when I was home, incense was burning in some weird jar on my dresser, and I was strumming the guitar. My airwaves were bouncing with John Denver, Bread, or The Beatles. I truly was a hippie-wanna-be! But I was never truly a hippie. Why? Goodness knows that countless others in my generation totally embraced the attitude and lifestyle of that culture that so changed America’s values and even our society’s vision of God.


I know what happened – or didn’t happen – to me. I didn’t cross over into hippiedom because I never fully embraced the defining, life-changing elements of that culture – drugs and the sexual revolution. Thirty-plus years of hindsight makes me so grateful that I didn’t because I see the evolution of our culture due to those troubled years. And, as you know, what we see is not all that good.

There are three reasons why I didn’t choose that path. One was availability. I grew up in a small town, the daughter of a preacher, who gave a daily devotional and prayer on the school’s PA system every morning. I didn’t run with the crowd that got into drinking and drugs – and no one was chasing me down to offer them to me. At the times, I thought I was not very cool, but I know God was protecting me. A second reason for not choosing that path was pure fear – of my parents! I loved life and sure didn’t want it to end prematurely. That might sound flippant, but I truly feared the anger of my parents, the disappointment in their eyes, and the alienation from them that it would bring. I knew it would kill them and they would kill me – not in the “dead” sense of “kill,” but in the parent-child type of “dead.” Lastly, there was something inside me that just knew  those choices were not right. That something was the Holy Spirit. I asked Jesus to be my savior when I was nine years old, and I was raised in an atmosphere of reverent respect for the Lord. Now don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t a perfect child and teenager. I have my share of wild stories, but I just never got comfortable even desiring those things that my generation was so quickly engulfing. I am so very thankful to the Father that the whispers and sometimes yells of the Holy Spirit were heard by my heart and mind.

So, here I am, thirty years later, still all about peace, love, and joy, knowing that those are part of the fruit of the Spirit that lives inside me. I have experienced them and enjoy them immensely. But I wonder sometimes why I have peace one day, then worry or fear the next. I enjoy love and joy for a while only to realize that they have slipped away – again. What is keeping me from living in those attributes everyday? Again, I find myself faced with a choice. That choice is found in Philippians 4:6-7 but can be easily overlooked if I am not careful. Look at those two verses, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

With thanksgiving…The attitude of gratitude! If I want peace to guard my heart and mind, to keep it from going into the overdrive of irrational thought that leads to fear, insecurity, low self-worth, etc., I must come to Him thankful for everything that comes my way. Now, it’s easy to be thankful for the all the good in my life, but giving thanks for the insignificant, the not-so-good, and the really awful circumstances and situations is a different thing! Sometimes unfair and or even tragic things happen to me or to those I care about. I find it very challenging to be thankful in the midst of despair. The Apostle Paul was human; he knew as he penned those words that they were impossible for him or any of us to do. That’s why, a few verses later, he also reminded us that, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength.” (4:13) – Meaning having an attitude of gratitude in the most difficult of circumstances. Yes, I can do that! The Father can help me see the good, the possibilities, even the blessings that He will bring out of the darkest situations.

Once, I was a “hippie-wanna-be” who chose NOT to fully embrace “hippiedom.” That was good. Now I find myself being a “Jesus-wanna-be” choosing TO fully embrace His Kingdom and all that it offers me in this life and throughout eternity. That is good. I choose to have an attitude of gratitude – even when it’s too difficult for me because I know He will give me the strength.

Indian Giver

I grew up in a time where it was still “cool” for little kids to play cowboys and Indians. I also grew up in a community filled with Indian lore; in fact, my town was named after Indian Chief Peta Nocona, the great Comanche Indian warrior who raided Fort Richardson and took young Cynthia Ann Parker hostage. Cynthia Ann eventually married Chief Nocona and fathered the famous Quanah Parker. My family, like probably half of the families in the state of Texas, claim some lineage to Cynthia Ann Parker although we have never been able to find that final link…


Anyway, I said all that to say that I grew up playing a make-believe cowboy fighting the make-believe Indians that continually attacked our small acreage in the country. Because we had such binding ties to all that Indian lore, I didn’t want to be known as an Indian-giver – one who gives then takes back whatever was given. While studying this past week, I realized that in God’s eyes, I am an Indian-giver – BIG TIME! What do I give God and then take back? Well, too many things to discuss in this post, but the obvious one that struck a note this week is my worries, i.e. anxieties, situations I ponder and fret about, things I need to fix.

Here’s how it plays out in my life. Something arises that gives me that “unsettled” feeling, I begin “pondering” it, and then I transform into Mrs. Fix-It. I don’t actually visit a phone booth or anything, but the wheels begin turning, trying to figure out what I can do to make this situation better or go away all together. Along the way, I am multi-tasking. You know, talking this over with the Lord until I finally give it over to Him. But, before long, I’ve taken it right back from Him and started pondering again. Thus, my Indian-giving…

This week we discussed taking the concept of praying to the next level, that of staying and obeying. Prayer is the antidote to worry. That’s why we claim and Phil. 4:6-7 as the undergirding principle of our study. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God… But for me, I pray about something and give it to God only to find myself worrying about it later in the day or the next day. I don’t have the staying power that He wants me to cultivate as I walk with Him. I am doing exactly what Satan wants me to do – changing my focus from the Lord back to being the fixer. Well, it is my choice to pray, and it is my choice to stay. Isaiah 26:3 says, He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord! (TLB) …thoughts turn often to the Lord… Basically, I have to make the choice to stay focused on Him and let Him work on my worry. So when I am tempted to take back my concern, which I will because I am human, I must choose to let it remain with Him, trusting Him to take care of it. Staying is trusting.

Staying focused on Him instead of the worry, trusting, naturally leads to obeying. As our trust grows, we will begin to live out 2 Cor. 10:5, …we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We begin to frame our thoughts by asking, “How does God want me to think about this?” Well, He wants us to take up the Sword of the Spirit and fight by thinking like He thinks. We learn that by learning His Word. When we learn to take a concern and counter it with scripture, we are learning to take our thoughts captive to obey God.

Prayer is, indeed, the antidote to worry, but only if we learn to extend the prayer into staying power and obedience. My personal challenge for the week ahead is to let Him keep me in that perfect peace by keeping my mind steadfast on Him. The more time I focus on Him, the less time I will have for worry. And that, my friends, will help me experience that peace that passes all understanding. And that will also help me to NOT be an Indian-giver to the Lord.

A Light Bulb Moment

Have you ever had one of those “light bulb” moments – an “A ha!” moment? As a classroom teacher, I lived for those moments – when, all of a sudden, some idea or concept that I was trying to get across to my students was suddenly understood by at least one of them. I remember one of those days when teaching grammar, and I could tell by the blank stares on their faces that they were not “getting” direct objects. The ship was sinking fast! It seemed so simple to me – why couldn’t they understand? A direct object is a noun or pronoun following the action verb that receives the action – how many times was I going to have to say that? Then it suddenly occurred to me to approach it a different way. So I used the simple sentence of “John hit the ball,” and asked “What did John hit?” Almost in unison, the students (at least those who had not completely abandoned our sinking ship) replied, “the ball.” I shouted, “That’s the direct object!!!” Smiles swept over their faces as they finally “got” it. From then on, they could usually find the direct object with little trouble. Those smiles were like light bulbs lighting up that classroom. They felt the excitement of figuring something out, and I felt the excitement of a teachable moment – for them and for me.


Well, I had one of those experiences this week as I was reading Chapter 2. I read through the entire chapter highlighting ideas that spoke to me. Then when I got the story of Rebekah, it happened, the light bulb came on. Rebekah was a “fixer” – just like me! The odd thing is I told you last week when we met that I am a fixer, and then God reminded me of that again. But here’s the real “A ha,” – being a fixer is being a worrier! I had already realized that being a fixer is not necessarily a good thing; it is basically seizing control from God. But what hit me so hard is the fact that the attitude and act of trying to fix something is a cover-up for worrying. If I am not worrying about that situation, I am not trying to fix it. Get it?

So, am I to sit back and let the world go on around me without doing anything? No, not for a minute. God calls us to be initiators but not fixers. What’s the difference? An initiator is one who gets the ball rolling; she sees a need or problem and takes action. Okay, I hear your minds working. If she takes action, isn’t she trying to “fix” the situation? If you are a “fixer,” you are taking matters into your own hands – helping God out, so to speak. That’s what Rebekah did. God had already told her that His plan would be fulfilled through Jacob, but when that didn’t seem to be working out (at least, in her time table), she took it upon herself to see that it was done. That insatiable desire to be in control and fix things led her to deception and eventually robbed her of the very joy she was working to protect – Jacob. She died not seeing Jacob for many years. Her intentions were good, but she acted on her own. The consequences of her actions have rippled through history into the very present by way of the conflicts between the peoples of the Middle East.

We need to strive to be an initiator – one who sees a need and takes action. However, the action of an initiator is tempered by the Lord Himself. He calls us to be initiators, to take action, but the action He calls us to take is to cast our worries and anxieties on Him, and let Him be the fixer! Wow! Is that freeing or what? I don’t have to fix things! He will – if I give it to Him and let Him be free to work. I just have to approach the situation in a spirit of prayer and thanksgiving and stand back and watch God handle it!

So, what have I learned this week? I want to be an initiator and not a “fixer.” When confronted with a difficult situation, I want to approach the Father with it and then take whatever action He calls me to take. He may call me to watch and wait as I pray, or He may call me to put feet to my prayers. I just need to be sure He’s in control of what I do.

Blessings to you this week as you study.
Debbie

What is Your Biggest Worry?

The thing I have found myself worrying about lately is my work. I am not enjoying my work as much as in the past. I guess I’m having kind of a pity party – with the change in leadership over the past couple of years, I don’t feel as needed or like what I do is understood and/or appreciated by the new folks. This, in turn, makes me less motivated and the cycle becomes vicious. I question whether I should continue with it until they tell me different. The thing is – I (we) depend on the money I bring in – even though it’s not a great deal. I was also hoping to make up some of that by teaching at HPU again or at Ranger – and both have fallen through.


In the back of my mind, I hear a small voice saying, “Trust Me.” But I like “sure deals,” if you know what I mean. I am thinking, “How are we going to pay certain bills?” “What will I do for that extra spending money?” “What would I do with my time if I’m not working?”

I also have to admit that I’ve always struggled with somewhat of an identity crisis. Truly, I am a child of the ‘70’s, whose mantra was, “Who am I?” Over the years, I have found self-worth in being “someone” – Debbie Eoff, school teacher, Debbie Eoff, Lacie and Carlie’s mom; Debbie Eoff, wife of Garry Eoff. Well, I am still married to Garry, but I’m really not a school teacher any more; Lacie and Carlie are not longer children…you get the picture…and the pity party.

So what do I do with the insecurity and fear that this worry brings? Even as I was writing these words, the Father kept whispering, “Learn to be content in whatever circumstances you find yourself…learn the secret of being filled…” Phil 4:11-12.

Who am I? I am a daughter of the King! A royal princess – not deserving but humbled to be part of what He is doing to redeem this world!

Now, that gives me purpose! I just have to let Him show me His plan and what I am to do…

Welcome!

I am so excited that you have decided to make this three month journey through the partly cloudy weather of life's experiences with us! Let me set the stage for our journey by borrowing some thoughts from the Prologue of our book.

Ask yourself this question - do you ever feel like a fog of fear and anxiety is swirling all around you, blocking out the ability to think clearly and trust God? That fog quickly fuels responses like complaining, grumbling, depression, or even making a quick decision that isn't led by God. There comes a certain point when thinking, wondering, being concerned, mulling, or being bothered becomes worry. At that point, we are not trusting the Father with our whole heart.

There is a difference between fear, careful thought, and worry. FEAR can be a legitimate emotion, serving as God's warning signal to do something - quickly. Fear can easily become worry unless we do something constructive with it - like pray. CAREFUL THOUGHT is what our mind does when faced with an uncertain situation or problem. Careful reasoning can easily slide into worry if we don't turn our attention to God, to ask for His input and trust Him. WORRY is when our thoughts are wrapped in a haze of anxiety that discounts God's ability to help us, when we focus on the situation to the point that it takes over our rational and spiritual reasoning.

It's interesting that the word worry carries the idea of choking or strangling, along with torment. Sometimes we turn to God, but we don't release the fear to Him. That's when worry can begin to strangle us, and yes, it can torment us. We continue to try to figure out the situation ourselves and not let our thoughts be centered in trust in God.

Worry and anxiety can truly be killers - both physically and spiritually. So, it's important that we take inventory of our "worry meter." Some people are chronic worriers; some hardly ever worry. Most of us are all over the scale depending on the weather - meaning the particular situation, who is involved, and most importantly, our own emotional and spiritual health.

As we begin this journey, I am asking myself and each one of you to commit to memory our journey verse, Philippians 4:6-7. We will study many other scriptures and individuals in God's Word, but our path to clear, worry-free skies begins with that verse. So learn it and hide it in your heart and mind so it will be there when the fog of worry begins clouding your thoughts.

Let the journey begin!
Blessings,
Debbie