Dear Children,
By addressing this letter as: Dear children, I mean a couple of things. I mean my children are dear to me. And by children, I mean my children and any person that I have had the honor of using my mom voice in your life at any point.
I have four words to share first, and four things all together that come from Life and knowing Him. These things are on my heart and make me speak from the heart to the ones close to it, dear Children. If I had a few last words that would help me help you this is the top four.
Love God Love People
This is gold. The rule/counsel/ advice that is above all the others because it came from the Most High. Four words that can be in front of you and your life plan at all ages and stages and it won’t change but it will change you.
The only way to truly love anyone is to show up for them. If you say you love God and you never show up for Him, never think or talk or give to him, you don’t love Him. You might have thoughts and feelings, but you don’t know Love. If you say you love people but you don’t love God, you don’t really love people with true love. God is love and fills us with it. He fills us with Love that is true and lasts forever.
If you say, or even feel, that you love your spouse or kids or friends, but you don’t love God first and most you don’t love them, at least not with true everlasting love. You might have big feelings and care deeply, but love comes from God and we can’t give others what we don’t have.
God is the source of love. He is love. We can’t give away that which we don’t have. Here’s an example of trying to give what you don’t have; say you want to give your child a car, but you don’t have a car to give, you can’t give them a car. You might have a bike or skateboard or a ride in your car, to give, but it’s not a car you are giving. Love is the same. That’s why the Bible says to love God and love people. In that order, that’s the way of love.
Be Church and Go
Plug in with people that are seeking God. That’s part of showing up. You will not find a perfect church. That is not the point. Church is called the body and I don’t see a perfect “body” or “body type” out there in church or in the world.
No matter how much time and money you spend working out or treating yourself to care, you won’t have a perfect body. The body of Christ is the same. Even the healthiest of “bodies” have areas to work on to be healthier.
Body parts must be connected to the rest of the body to function. You can have (be) an amazing bicep, but without a hand it’s just a nice bicep. You need people, and you need people in a body, connected by their love for God and love for people.
Friends are amazing and believing friends are even more amazing but nothing takes the place of a body that comes together for the purposes of God. Coming together to grow and know God as the center of your reason for gathering and connecting, not a side note to the gathering; this is how the body grows healthy. The church body puts God at the center, and the head of the group. Nothing replaces a body.
Being a foot wandering from this friend to that and this event to that to get what you want out of each moment is meaningless. No matter what, you need a leg and head and a bunch of other parts to get where you need to go, so go to church.
Yes, I know we are the church, but you are not the church alone and you are not the church at all, if you are not part of a body. You may be a believer, but you are not the church.
Pay Tithe, Start There
Be a giver and give generously. Give to God first and then anyone else he tells you to. Everything is God’s anyway and he’s a giver so you can use what he gives you like he would want it used. Give him back what He asks for to remind yourself of this, and remind yourself who it all belongs to. God doesn’t need your money, it’s not even yours to begin with. You can get all theological and smarter than me, but I said what He said.
We have been through the financial ringer and if we had not paid our tithe I don’t know where we would be. Let me explain. It wasn’t for God, it was for us. It was an act of trust in God to help us.
When things were rough, and I couldn’t figure it out, or make ends meet, I knew I had trusted the greatest financial adviser with all the best resources and trusted what He said to do with it, we trusted His plan. I had no choice, in those years, it was the only thing that made any sense. If I would have saved all my tithe and used it for bills or even a solid savings plan, we would have not been better off. We would have been on the street or kicked to the curb but instead we knew God was involved and we could trust Him to bring us what and where we needed to be even in the financial storm.
God has been faithful. He hasn’t taken all the pressure off, but he has shown us time and time again that he always provides no matter what our bank balance says. I don’t have to worry and stress about the economy, even though it effects me, it doesn’t control me. God is in control. He doesn’t depend on me, I have depended on Him, and He is 100% safe and secure.
Pray Always About Everything
Everyone is communicating all the time. We have these devices with all kinds of apps that help us communicate quickly and often. We pay people to listen to us even though we share, talk and influence, all day long. Communicating is essential to life. Talk to God. He is the source of life. God gets it, He is the best listener, and always has your best interest in mind. All Knowing God, knows it all anyway, but he wants to hear from you.
You know how we get offended if we are really close to someone and we find out a major life change on facebook along with everyone else. That must be how it feels to God, when he is not given the opportunity to hear from us and be considered important enough to give a personal call about our life. If I have a relationship and believe in someone, but never speak to them, we don’t have a real relationship. Talking to God, praying, doesn’t change Him, it changes us.
This saying is true, even concerning prayer: It’s not what you know it’s who you know. You can go before the One with all the power, all authority, to move on your behalf, or you can keep him like a friend of facebook. He can see your status, but is not invited into a personal relationship, is the opposite of prayer. Why would you forfeit the opportunity to communicate with the God of the universe?
Can you imagine if the son of Mr. Nike, was wearing walmart flip flops to an important race because he didn’t want to ask his dad for shoes or tell him what he is up to. Imagine if he posted on fb that he needed shoes, but wouldn’t first talk to his father? That’s how dumb it is to go through life, not asking the God of the universe for everything and inviting him into every situation. He owns it all, He knows it all, but He wants that relationship. He wants us to know Him, and go to Him with everything.
Life Is Coming For You
Tough times will come no matter who you love, if you are in a church body, pay tithe, pray or none of the above. It’s life, and it’s coming everyday in every way. If you are filled up, plugged in, paid up, and prayed up, you have nothing to fear but God and that is solid. Fear of God is the only fear that gives us goodness rather than anxiety. Fear of God gives wisdom and knowledge, and that is just the beginning.
Believe God! What He says is True. He shows us the Way of Life forever.
All this said in my serious mom-voice. It might sound a little like yelling with a tone that could be defined as lecturing but that’s not my heart. These things are said with eyes full of tears and a heart full of love that makes my voice crack and pour it all out.
