I have been thinking about this passage lately. God does not long for us to perform religious rituals if they are done out of obligation or duty. He wants our love and devotion. In Exodus 21:6-7 God gives instructions to His people as to what they should do if a Hebrew slave desires to remain with his master forever not accepting freedom after serving for six years.

"But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life."

As I read Psalm 40, I believe that David is saying, "I love You, I desire to do Your will, Lord. Your law is written on my heart. You have pierced my ear, I desire to serve you forever."

We know that David's servanthood was not free of sin. I am thankful that God chose to reveal to us the imperfections in this man that He declared to be, "a man after His own heart." As we look more closely at Jesus suffering, death, and glorious resurrection in the days and weeks ahead; may we be blessed with an ever increasing love for our Savior, may we be filled with the desire to obey Him and rejoice at the thought of serving Him forever.

The next time you put in or take out your pierced earrings, thank God for the gift of His loving grace and praise Him for filling you with a desire to serve Him forever.

I am convinced that the difference between living in victory and drowning in defeat is where we choose to put our focus. We are sinners who are saved by God's amazing grace. Are we focusing on who we are or on what Christ has done? I love the way Paul says it in Romans 8, one of my favorite books in the Bible:

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

No longer are we under condemnation. No longer are we bound by sin. Christ has set us free. And when we choose to focus on His amazing grace, we can live in His victory!

When we bought this house long-distance (after spending maybe 10 minutes in it) I thought the east/west thing would work out ok here though because there is so much more sunlight to begin with. What I didn’t take into account is between the porch overhang in the front and the patio in the back, there isn’t all that much natural light inside for most of the day. So here I am in a “sun-drenched” locale, with the lights on from breakfast to bedtime!

Even more strange though, is that the two rooms that should be the darkest are actually the brightest. The boys’ room and the spare room both face north. As far as I knew, that always meant they got the least amount of light. In fact, before we moved in I had those rooms painted yellow (one is called “Full Sun”) to make up for the external light I thought they’d be missing.

What I hadn’t noticed was that those rooms face the giant, new, two-story house on that side. And, it’s that house’s southern wall. And sand colored stucco is a great reflector of light. So all day long those two rooms bask in the reflected light from the house next door. Those are the only rooms that don’t need a lamp of some sort during the day; you can even see the glow all around the edges of the doors when they’re shut.

More than once I’ve felt like a Northern Exposure room. Unable to catch a ray of sunlight, needing artificial illumination all day long. Work pressures, friendships lost to distance or difference, family matters, financial troubles—all sorts of things can make me feel a bit internally gloomy.

It dawned on me (pardon the pun) that I need to be like north-facing rooms in my house. Even when my situation means I’m not getting a lot of direct sunlight; if I can reflect the Light that always shines on me, my otherwise dark passageways will be fully illuminated.

"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:18

My mom loves to shop. Now I know a lot of people love to shop but not like my mother. Shopping to my mother means finding the absolutely lowest price on the absolutely best product. If you meet someone in my family and compliment something they are wearing, they are likely to tell you the story of how they got it and what a bargain it was.

You must understand this about my mother to understand how her wildest dream came true. K-mart was going out of business. The store closest to my mom’s house was completely closing down. On the way home from dinner one night, my mom talked my dad into stopping. “Everything is 90% off,” she cajoled. “Fine,” he agreed, “but we can’t stay long.”

My mother took the fifteen-minute allotment my dad had given and ran with it. In fifteen minutes, she found quite of a few items at rock bottom prices. It was hard to leave, but she did. Seeing her disappointment at walking away, my dad told her she could come back if he could go home first. She gladly dropped him by the house and returned to shopper’s paradise. But she had no idea what was about to happen.

As she walked in the door the K-mart employee told her, “$25 for a cart.” “No thank you,” my mom drawled in her gracious southern accent, “I haven’t a need for a cart.”

“Not for the actual cart, m’am. It will cost $25 for whatever you can fit in a cart.”

As my mother’s eyebrows arched, somewhere the heavens opened up, and angels brought forth glad tidings. I’m sure Mother heard the trumpets. Picture if you will, my curly brown haired mom frolicking, almost skipping, behind the shopping cart as her arms stretched this way and that virtually raking in shelves of knicks and knacks.

When my math teacher mother had figured out the arithmetical formula for fitting the most items in her shopping cart, she arrived at the checkout – resplendent. She looked around in sheer confusion at the other shoppers whose carts were less than full.

Her arrival at home found my dad in his favorite spot, his easy chair. My mother waltzed in with a bag in each hand. She returned to the car and got two more. My dad watched as she went back and forth each time producing more and more bags. And in my mother’s words, “When I came in with all those bags, I just couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face.” It was a dream come true. “ I just kept looking for cameras,” she explained, “I knew I must be on one of those shopping spree shows.”

Friends, God wants us to have a “better than a blue light special” moment, too. He wants to give you the desire of your heart. God doesn’t want you to hurt. That doesn’t mean He won’t let you hurt. Sometimes, we have to grow from those experiences. Does my mom find a bargain every time she shops? No. Sometimes, she looks and looks and can’t find anything. But, there are days when she has a Paradise in K-mart moment.

God has those moments prepared for you, as well. Look beyond today, and find joy in what a loving God we have. Praise Him for loving you enough to provide you something better than a blue light special.

The toy was too easy to erase though; the touch of a button and my voice was gone. When I got back from my trip, my 5 year old asked “Mom, can you put your voice back on my phone?” He’s the same son who later asked when I was going to my conference again. “Do you want me to go again soon?” “No,” he said, “I want you to stay with us always.”

I may be all grown up, but sometimes I feel the same way, wanting to have a tangible reminder of God’s presence. I wish I could live in worship at church or the rich fellowship and teaching of a conference or immersed in the magnificence of mountains—anyplace His presence is so obvious and His voice seems so clear.

We have a loving Father who really does “stay with us always.” He never goes to a conference or takes a vacation and leaves me with Grandma. He's not even gone from me when He's "at work."

Instead of putting his voice on a toy that can be erased with the touch of a button, He’s given us his word that is filled with every word of encouragement, love, correction and instruction that we will ever need. When the days are long or the nights are scary, I can share my heart with Him through my prayers and hear His heart by opening my Bible.

I hope to share with my son the comfort that comes from knowing that no matter who else may come and go, God is always with us.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
Psalm 139:7-10

While I agree that we are very special to God, created in His image, and loved unconditionally by Him, I also think we have sometimes "messed up" on our ideas of self-esteem. Too many times I find myself too focused on myself, whether it is to think positively or negatively about myself, I find myself too self-absorbed. I find the same pattern in my children. They think very often about themselves. In fact, most of the children I've been around seem to be thinking an awful lot about themselves and how things will affect them and how they can get the best things for themselves. We are a very self-centered people.

But, if we follow the model of Christ, we do not see a focus on "self-esteem."

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross! Phil.2

Christ did not consider His own self-esteem at all. Instead He, Who was God, made Himself nothing. He became a man. And not only did He become a man, He chose to submit Himself to a very humiliating death on a Roman cross! He became a servant, so that I might become the child of the King.

Thank you, Lord, that You humbled Yourself for me. Help me to be more focused on You and on serving others than on myself.

The jeweler called about it when we left it to be sized. He put the diamond under his loupe and made a diagram of all the imperfections that make this stone unique. Someone else may have a ring that looks like mine, but like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two diamonds are exactly alike. I know what distinguishes mine from others.

In a diamond, the nature and quantity of inclusions can diminish the value of a stone, but in our modern age of lab-created colored gems, expert Walter Schumann explains, “Inclusions are common. They are not indicators of lower quality, but show the difference between a natural stone and a synthetic stone.”

I think we're a lot like diamonds. Our imperfections may not be visible to the naked eye, but the unique pattern of our lives is what sets us apart from one another.

I'm grateful that God sees me the way a jeweler sees a precious stone. My flaws or lack of maturity–bad attitudes, sharp tongue, overdeveloped sense of independence–don’t diminish my value to God. They show that I'm 'real' and leave room for Him to continue His work in me. But unlike gemstones, I am not in my final state. My 'feathers' can be filled and my 'inclusions' eliminated as the Master Jeweler continues his work in me.

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." Philippians 3:12

We love the location of our home. Although it is nestled in the middle of a large development, each home backs to wooded common grounds. I love the trees, but they are not my favorite part about living here. The best part is critter watching. We feed deer, raccoons, possum, birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. That's not counting the dog that lives inside.

I love the verse that reads:

You give them their food at the right time.

We try to faithfully get corn out each afternoon, but occasionally we run a bit behind schedule. Without fail, as the sun begins to set, the mother deer and her little ones show up and begin to look toward our windows. I do believe they would come up and knock to get out attention if they thought it would work.

I will never grow tired of gazing at God's beautiful creatures. Psalm 104 continues to resound with the believer's response to the majesty of the Lord's creation.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord find joy in what He has made. He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord throughout my life. I will make music to praise my God as long as I live. May my thoughts be pleasing to Him. I will find joy in the Lord. Psalm 104:31-34

As long as the Lord gives me breath, I pray to constantly praise Him for both creating and maintaining His creation. May His care and provision be a constant reminder of His mercy and grace, and may we forever respond with rejoicing.

The waters stirred as the dark haired gentleman followed the pastor into the baptismal pool. The pastor introduced himself and this gentleman to the congregation. Hundreds of eyes rested on these two as they readied to represent Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. "This man comes to us tonight to be baptized." Those were the last words I understood.

The pastor then spoke beautiful Spanish as fluid as the water in which he stood. The words were engaging but made no sense to me. I followed as closely as possible listening for chunks of words I understood comparing them to the words I knew and expected at a baptism.

Then I heard them. The most beautiful words. The names of our Lord. I recognized them. "En nombre de Padre, de Hijo, y de espiritu santo." In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. SWOOSH! He laid back in the watery grave but swiftly raised again in newness of life.

Something about not understanding the words but understanding the heart of what was said made me full of emotion. I saw a peek of heaven. How people from all over the world will meet and praise our Heavenly Father each in their native tongue but in ONE accord. Jesus transcends language. He transcends race. He transcends religion. He is the I AM. He is GOD.

Oh, thank you Father for being the Almighty. Thank you for being the God of everything and everyone. You are the Alpha and Omega. You are the I AM. I praise you "en nombre de Padre, de Hijo, y de espiritu santo." Amen.

After he left for school that day, I went to the store, got him a balloon as a surprise and a couple dozen donuts to share with his class.

When I showed up in his classroom, he beamed. His teacher helped him to clip the balloon to his desk and his classmates oohed and aahed at the donuts. I could tell he was surprised and happy.

About two hours later, as I was out running errands, I got an email on my phone from his teacher…

"Your son can't stop smiling. It's too cute," she wrote.

And it made me smile, too.

I loved making my son feel special, and it felt even better knowing my surprise had brought him so much joy.

It got me thinking, too.

Is that how I am with the gifts in my life?

Does a smile stay on my face long after I receive them?

Does my joy linger?

Or do I quickly move on, maybe even forgetting that so many of the people, events, and things in my life ARE gifts?

That moment of picturing my son still sitting at his desk, smiling proudly up at that birthday balloon, made me realize how much I want to appreciate the blessings in my life too.

I want God to see me smiling with gratitude…

and I want to be filled with a joy that stays,

long after the gifts are given.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17