Teach Me

My husband is a musician.  He gave Grande his first piano lesson last week.  He was all for it at first, excited to be able to play with his dad.  However after a while he grew bored and Mediano gladly took his place.  Mediano took right to the lesson, copying what his Papi was doing for quite a while.  And all the sudden, from the kitchen, I began to hear something beautiful.  Music.

I walked out to see Mediano playing the high notes while his Papi was playing the low notes.  And it sounded great!  But what did it take?  It took my husband taking the time to teach and it took my son’s willingness to learn. 

You see, the fact that their father is a musician does not automatically make my sons musicians.  For them to become like their father, he has to teach and they have to learn.

When we receive Christ, we are adopted into God’s family as His sons and daughters.  As His spiritual children we have the potential and opportunity to become like Christ, but it’s not automatic.  He is a good father.  He is always willing to teach.  How willing are we to learn?

Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.  Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
 
Psalm 25:4-5

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A Simple Lesson Taught By A Skunk

This was the first blog I ever wrote!  Originally published on November 17, 2009.

This is a picture my husband took a while ago.  He works in construction and found this poor guy wandering around the site one day.  We have laughed a lot because of this picture and my sweetheart always shows it to everyone.  It’s hard to believe it’s not a fake.  But I was thinking about this poor little skunk today and am hoping never to end up like him.  I’m sure that when he saw and smelled the yogurt he was looking for something sweet and satisfying.  How many of us can identify with that?  But I started to think that it’s the same with sin.  The Bible teaches that satan appears as an “angel of light”.  No one falls into sin because they want their freedom to be taken away.  They fall into sin because they want to preserve their freedom.  Therein lies the trap.  Because when you sin and continue in that sin, it becomes a way of life, or an addiction, and so you lose the freedom you once thought you were preserving.  The skunk was looking for something good but ended up being trapped and blinded by it.  Samuel says it was running into things left and right and when animal control came for it, it walked right into the cage.  Let’s not walk into any cages today.  

“Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’”

John 8:34-36

Seeking Mercy

This was originally posted on May 31, 2011

What started out as a Saturday morning drive with my boys turned in to a Saturday morning walk this weekend. A few blocks from the house the car died and wouldn’t start. I wasn’t going anywhere important. Just to check out some garage sales. So I pulled the stroller out of the trunk, got the kids out, and abandoned my nutella latte and my car.

So I drove my husband’s work van to get groceries yesterday. It’s big. It’s awkward. I don’t like driving it.

I don’t consider myself to be the best driver. I’m certainly not a dangerous driver. I’m more likely to be overly cautious, because I know my own weakness. So driving anything other than my car makes me especially nervous.

As I was pulling out of the store parking lot, I stopped at a stop sign. I lifted my foot off the break and inched forward when I saw a car coming. I wasn’t even anywhere near entering the road, but I instinctively said “oops, sorry” out loud. Not that the other driver could even hear me. But I said it.

As I drove home I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s as if by nature I sought out grace and forgiveness. The humanity inside me was crying out for something that could cover my weakness.

We do find ourselves on a desperate search for grace and forgiveness almost constantly. Why? Because we need it. Because we sin. Because we mess up. Because we make mistakes. Because we are seeking out what only a Savior can give.

When I look back and see all the mercy the Lord has poured out over my life I’m in awe. It’s immense! It’s everlasting. It’s new and fresh every time I need it. It’s incredible. It’s amazing.

How I long for my boys to experience that same grace. I want to be a source of it for them. I want them to see in me an example of how the Lord forgives. How the Lord loves. I want to have that kind of grace for my husband and for my friends. I want to forgive quickly and be slow to anger.

And I want to be forgiven time after time after time.

I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all-oh, how well I remember-the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left.

Lamentations 3:19-24

If you’re wondering about the picture, I thought that this pic of Matthew was much cuter than one of me driving the big work van. ;o)

How To Eat A Taco

Originally Posted April 29, 2011

For those of you who don’t know, my husband is Mexican.  Which in turn makes my children half Mexican.  So let’s just say I’ve learned a thing or two about tacos.  I thought I’d share my insight in true Devotion Mama style today.

Taco Tip #1  What you see in the picture above are NOT tacos!!!  They are an American fast food called tacos.  For the real thing you’ll have to go to Mexico or to a very select few taquerias here in the US owned by Mexicans where the cooks are Mexican.  Even then you run the risk of eating Tex-Mex which while it is not necessarily a bad thing isn’t Mexican either.  In Mexico there is no such thing as crunchy vs. soft tacos.  All tacos are soft and they are all made with corn tortillas.  A flour tortilla turns it into something completely different and could be called a burrito or a “gringa” (white girl).  

Taco Tip #2  A taco is generally served with just the meat inside.  This is usually NOT ground beef.  It can be made of a variety of meat including, but not limited to: steak, pork, tongue, and intestine.  Customers can typically garnish their tacos with lime, salt, salsa, onion, and cilantro.

Taco Tip #3  Regardless of what kind of taco you are eating, be it authentically Mexican, Tex-Mex, or Taco-Bell, do NOT eat it like Matthew in the above picture.  Doing so leaves you at risk of emptying the contents of said taco into your lap.  

We couldn’t help but laugh as we watched Matthew pick up his taco and bite into the bottom middle.  My first instinct was to correct him, to show him the correct way to eat a taco.  But I held my tongue.  I began to think.  Is there really a right way to eat a taco?  Sure there’s a cleaner way.  There’s certainly a more efficient way.  But is there a right way?  Is he really doing it wrong?  Isn’t the point to get the food in the tummy?  Isn’t the taco made to be enjoyed?  Can’t I let him be creative?  Maybe he’ll actually come up with a better way of eating tacos!

As I read through my taco tips I gain a fuller understanding of what a religious spirit does.   It takes something pure and good and adds unnecessary rules and regulations to it.  While I may be 100% correct in my taco tips in the end there is nothing wrong with enjoying an American style taco.  There’s nothing wrong with calling it a taco.  Regardless of whether or not you follow my taco tips the taco will still be a taco and you will enjoy it just as much.  

What unnecessary rules and regulations are we adding to God’s good, pure Word?  Can’t we be free to enjoy a relationship with Him without all the red tape we find so often connected to the word Christian?  Can we get back to His goodness and enjoy who He is?

Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ.  Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him.  When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.

Colossians 2:8-10