Courtesy

Love each other with genuine affection, 

and take delight in honoring each other.

Romans 12:10 (NLT)

If you watch television at all you’ve probably seen a lot of rude and discourteous behavior.  It seems that in this day and age in our culture people are actually taught the art of an insult. In a different era, people were taught about gracious speech, about politeness and consideration for others.  Today, in Asian culture, courteous and respectful behavior is taught and expected. 

 

Our words have a lot of power to effect how another person feels.  For example, I have noticed in the realm of customer service, when someone acknowledges my concern and expresses empathy for my problem, I feel better.  Even though I know these people have been trained and are getting paid to speak to me that way, I am amazed that it still has the desired effect of making me feel cared for.

 

Love can be expressed simply in courteous and respectful words.  Courtesy is important because it expresses regard for the feelings of others.  Courtesy in our speech honors the other person and says that we regard them as valuable enough to be spoken to with respect and consideration.  Love is always concerned with the well being of the other.  Our words have the power to either harm or heal, to build up or to tear down.  If we love, we don't want to hurt someone’s feelings or cause them unnecessary pain or distress. 

 

In this world we experience many harsh and unpleasant things.  Lord, I thank you for the beauty of your world where there is no ugliness, no rudeness.  May our lives be a reflection of your world with our mouths full of loving, courteous words that honor and build up. 

 

Love is not....rude. 

1 Cor 13:5

Dealing with Depression

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Psalms 139:11-12 (NIV)

Even in our times of darkness, discouragement and depression God faithfully stands by to help us through.  He never abandons or condemns us when we are suffering in low times.  This is what we need to keep in mind when dark and negative thoughts flood our minds.  As we mature and grow we realize that these moods are not the final state and these thoughts do not define the ultimate reality of who we are.  The more we can hold onto God's truth and his word the sooner we will rise from our despair and the more comfortable and accepting we will feel as we are going through it.

So many successful people have admitted that they were subject to down times of discouragement and doubt. (Picasso, Van Gogh, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill.) 

Amy Grant in her book, Mosaic, writes: 

Whenever I am in a bleak mental state, I think about these people whom I admire and realize that this condition is not unique to me.  

Probably my age and the circumstances of my life have softened the downward spirals for me, but winter is still a struggle every year.  Maybe subconsciously that is part of the reason I've made so much Christmas music - to focus on hope and joy and store up a lot of good thoughts for the dark months ahead.

What I've learned so far is that depression can be, but is not necessarily, about circumstances or about a particular event.  It is physical.  It is hereditary.  It is cyclical.  Its onset is like traveling down a road and suddenly hitting a patch of deep sand, wheels spinning and no visible forward motion.

The good news is, I've learned to recognize it and not be ashamed of it.  I know as surely as it comes, it will go.*

Perhaps, during this darkest time of the year, you are suffering with depression.  Don't be down on yourself.  Remember there is no end to God's faithfulness.  He never changes. The light of his love shines continually as bright as the sun no matter how cloudy your day may seem.  Encourage yourself.  Even if you feel discouraged and sad, put your hope in God.  He will lift you again and restore you to the joy of his presence. 

 

Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!

Psalms 42:11 (NLT)

So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord!

Psalms 31:24 (NLT)

Listen to Amy sing Breath of Heaven
http://youtu.be/6RVTZDgcpqM

*Grant, Amy, Mosaic:Pieces of My Life So Far (New York: Doubleday, 2007), pp.167-168.

Snow

Snow in Tonto Hills, Arizona

 “The rain and snow come down from the heavensand stay on the ground to water the earth.They cause the grain to grow,producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word.I send it out, and it always produces fruit.It will accomplish all I want it to,and it will prosper everywhere I send it."

Isaiah 55:10-11 (NLT)

God's ways are so much greater than ours; his plans so much higher.  He has things in mind for us that we can't even imagine.  He can bring good to every situation, no matter how evil.

Our pronouncements of what should happen or what should be done have little power and often have a negative effect bringing the opposite result of what we wanted.  But, God's word goes forth with great power and accomplishes exactly what he sends it forth to do.

Lord, expand our minds and our vision to see what is possible because we put you in charge.  As we make you Lord of every situation you bring new, creative and powerful ideas for solving every problem.  Let us wait on you and your word.  Give us words to speak that will accomplish your good purposes.

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)

Our snowy backyard.

Living Word

During that time the devil came and said to him,

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,
‘People do not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 

Matt 4:3-4 (NLT)

A word study of Psalms and especially Psalm 119 reveals the many benefits produced in our lives from hearing and receiving God’s living word.  The creative voice of his word heals and revives.  It brings encouragement and hope.  It is a lamp to guide our feet and gives light to our understanding.  The psalmist rejoiced in the word like someone who has just discovered great unexpected treasure. 

The word certainly is like a great treasure.  It is a book that is more than a book. It is a fathomless depth of life and knowledge that offers something fresh every day even from passages we have read many times.  It is not just a book of knowledge, but a book of life.  Just as bread gives sustenance to our bodies, so God’s word feeds our souls and illuminates our minds.  As we read, it works deep in our hearts at the core of our being.  

Here again are some words from Anne Rice about reading the Gospels:

Also something else has happened to me in the study of these documents.  I find them inexhaustible in a rather mysterious way.

I’m at a loss to explain the manner in which every new examination of the text produces some fresh insight, some new case of connections, some astonishing link to another part of the canon, or to the Old Testament backdrop which enfolds the whole. 

The interplay of simplicity and complexity seems at times to be beyond human control.

Picking up the Gospel on any given morning is picking up a brand-new book.

In sum, there’s no visible bottom to this well of meaning.  It’s unlike my experience with any other written text.*

For the word of God is alive and powerful.
It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword,
cutting between soul and spirit,
between joint and marrow.
It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 

Heb 4:12-13 (NLT)

Open my eyes, that I may see

Glimpses of truth you have for me;

Place in my hands the wonderful key

That shall unclasp and set me free.

Silently now I wait for Thee,

Ready, my God, your will to see;

Open my eyes - illumine me,

Spirit divine!

Clara H. Scott (1841-1897)

*Rice, Anne, Called Out of Darkness, a spiritual confession, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), pp. 221-222.