Jesus Gets It

"Square up your body. Pull the puck back. Shift your weight to your back leg. Push the puck forward as you shift your weight from one leg to the other. Point your stick in the direction you want the puck to go."

I don't know how many times I repeated those words to my youngest as we spent an hour practicing her hockey shooting on the driveway last night. It sure sounds like I know what I'm talking about, right?

But there's something you should know. I have never shot a hockey puck in a game in my life. I have absolutely no idea what that feels like. I had to have her coach demonstrate the mechanics of shooting to me at her last practice so I could help her improve.

Unlike many of the kids on her hockey team, my daughter has two parents who know very little about the mechanics of the game. I've been watching hockey my whole life. My brother played youth hockey. I've watched enough to understand the strategy and know where she should be on the ice at certain times. But I have no idea how to tell her to perform a hockey stop, how to shoot the puck, how to stickhandle or how to skate backwards. She's at a distinct disadvantage in that respect.

But, unlike my youngest, we are not at a disadvantage when it comes to Jesus knowing what we are going through. Because Jesus became a man, walked on the earth and died for us, He knows everything that we experience as humans. He understands the emotions, the frustrations and the joys of living in this world because He did it.  Hebrews 4:15 tells us "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin."

Jesus gets it. He understands what it's like to be tempted to sin. He understands what it's like to have a rotten week. He understands what it's like to have others talk behind your back. Because He lived it. He can understand and empathize with our situation.

Just like us, our kids need to know that Jesus understands their situation. They need to be reminded that Jesus was once a kid, too. We don't have a lot of information about Jesus as a child, but we do know that He had a mom and dad and brothers and sisters. He got left at the temple. He probably didn't always agree with His siblings. The difference between Jesus and a regular kid is that even as a child He never sinned. But He can understand everything that your kids are going through because He was once a child, too.

Help your kids understand the importance of Jesus being in human in how He can relate to us:

• Ask your kids to explain to you how to do something that they have never done before. Choose something outrageous like flying an airplane or cooking a turkey. See what they have to say. Then, talk about what that task really looks like. Talk about how difficult it is to tell someone how to do things we have never done ourselves. Remind them that Jesus lived on earth as a man, so He understands all the things that your kids do. He knew what it was like to obey your parents and get along with your siblings.
• Learn something new with your child. Make a new recipe or build a new Lego creation. Do something that requires following directions. Talk about how the person who wrote the directions had to have done the task before. Otherwise, that person would be giving directions about something they knew nothing about. The directions are much easier to follow because that person had done them before. Tell your child that Jesus is like the person who wrote the directions. He came to earth and lived as a man. That means He understands everything that we go through. He understands our emotions and our temptations. He knows what it's like to have your friends turn against you and what it's like to have others disapprove of your actions. He understands because He was here.

It's so important for our kids to realize the Jesus became a man. Yes, He was a perfect man, but He experienced all the trials and joys of being human. When we bring our troubles and tough situations to Him, He can relate because He has been there.

Jesus's death and resurrection offers us salvation and power, but His life as a man allows Him to offer us understanding and empathy.

Remember, there's no situation in your life or your kids' lives that Jesus can't understand. He's not stuck relying on someone else's knowledge to help us. He's been there and done that. And that's to our advantage.

Feeling a Bit Like Job

I've had plenty of opportunity to practice what I've been preaching this week. It seems that Satan has taken my first blog posts of the week as a personal challenge. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd have to rank yesterday as about a 0. If it could go wrong yesterday, it did. I was in tears by the end of the day.

I woke up to the wonderful present of dog puke on my family room floor -- and it wasn't even my dog. We're dog-sitting this week, and our visitng dog -- a beautiful and well-behaved golden retriever named Bunny -- ate our dog's food. Not an issue normally, but she's allergic to his food, so she threw it up.

While dealing with the dog puke, my oldest daughter got up. She had pink eyes with bags under them and had been up half the night because her ears hurt. She had already missed one day of school this week and been to the doctor, but it was pretty clear she would be staying home and we would be going to the doctor. This would normally not be a problem because I work from home. But, yesterday, I was supposed to teach Bible study in the morning and go into the office to work in the afternoon.

After her doctor's visit where we came home with eye drops and antibiotics, my wonderful mom volunteered to watch my oldest so I could go to work. There were a few other extremely trying moments in my morning that I promised my oldest I would not share in a public forum. Suffice it to say that by the time I went to work, I was feeling a bit like Job. I was afraid to even ask what could happen next for fear we'd end up in the emergency room.

Clearly, the things that I'd shared on this blog this week were hitting home and turning someone toward God. And just as clearly, Satan was working overtime in my life to make me throw up my hands and quit. You see, just like with Job, Satan wants us to be ineffective in our faith. When Satan asked to test Job, he asked "“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 1:9-11)


God didn't stretch out His hand and strike everything Job had, but He did allow Satan to test Job. Some of the things Job went through were horrific. He lost his family. He became ill. He lost his wealth. Satan's main goal for Job was the same goal he has for us -- if he can't make us turn away from God, then he wants us to be so busy questioning God and putting out fires that we don't want to turn to God for comfort.

I'll be honest, several times yesterday, I thought about what I had written this week and thought "Why did I do that?" It seems no matter what I write about, I quickly find an opportunity to practice it in my own life. Yesterday, I was struggling to find the feathers of faithfulness that I had written about early in the morning.

Yet, I had something that Job didn't have -- good friends who believe mightily in God's faithfulness. Job's friends told him to curse God and be done with it. Job not only had to fight his own doubts and frustrations to trust in God's faithfulness, he had to fight against his friends really bad advice.

When things continued to go badly after I got off from work last night, I called a good friend of mine. She listened to my frustrations, commiserated mightily and promised to pray. After I finally got the girls to bed, my next door neighbor and I went for a walk. Despite the late hour, she was willing to walk the neighborhood with me and the dogs, listen to my pathetic story and offer encouragement and laughter. I came home feeling better about my life and like I might be able to tackle another day tomorrow.

Without those two girls, I probably would have curled up in my bed and cried myself to sleep last night. As it turned out, I even managed to have a halfway decent conversation with my husband before we went to bed.

Because, sometimes, even for adults, God's faithfulness is hard to find. Some days, it's all you can do to survive, and you simply need someone else to remind you of God's promises. You need someone to be the arms of God, to offer you a tangible reminder. That's where our friends come in. God provides us with friends because He knows this life is too hard to do it by yourself.

Proverbs 27:10 says "Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away." Friends matter, and they make our lives a better place in the midst of a disastrous day. They become the tangible hands and feet of Jesus to remind us of God's presence in our lives when we can't seem to find it.

I'm thankful for those friends in my life, and I hope you'll take a minute and thank Him for those people you call friends in your life, too.

A Dryer Full of Feathers

I opened my dryer the other night, and this is what I found:

It wasn't quite what I was expecting. No, we didn't dry an owl. That's what is left of my daughter's feather pillow. I spent the next 45 minutes cleaning my dryer. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get feathers out of your dryer? They stick to everything.

To say I was surprised when I opened the dryer would be a gross understatement. For a minute, I wasn't sure what had even been in my dryer to cause such a mess.

Life is like that sometimes. We turn a corner or make a decision that we think is going to lead us one place, and instead we're suddenly staring at a dryer full of feathers, trying to figure out what to do. A kid gets sick, a job change doesn't work out as planned, a house won't sell or a marriage hits a trouble spot.

Those aren't the most fun times in our lives, but they are often the most character building. They also often bring us to a place where we have no place to go but up. We find ourselves on our knees crying out our hearts to God, pleading with Him for peace and deliverance.

And, if you're anything like me, those are the times you may look back on and find you were closest to God -- because you had no place to run but to Him.

As difficult as those times are for adults, they are even more difficult and confusing for our kids. As adults, when we're confronted with a dryer full of feathers, we have past experience with God's faithfulness to fall back on. We can remember other times when God has seen us through.

When kids run into the equivalent of a dryer full of feathers, they may not have the experience or the perspective to remember times when God has been faithful to them. Kids live mostly in the now. They need help remembering other experiences. They need to be reminded that God is faithful, and He keeps His promises.

• Help remind your kids of God's faithfulness by keeping a family prayer journal. Write down the date, the prayer request and the answer. When your kids are having a hard time remembering that God is faithful, pull out the prayer journal and look at all the answers God has given your family.
• Pull out a map of the world. Ask your kids to find a place far away from where you live and point to it. Remind your children that even though that place is far, far away from you, they can never go anywhere that God won't go with them. Matthew 28:20 says "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
• When your child is faced with a tough situation, when they are wondering where God is, point out the physical reminders of God's love and faithfulness. He gave them parents who love them and want to help them through the tough situation. He gave them friends who offer love and kindness. When kids can see God providing for them in the situation, God's presence becomes more tangible for them.

I have returned my laundry room to its non-feathered state, but every now and then I still find a feather floating around, a reminder of the mess that was in my dryer. Even after our lives return to "normal," the tough situations God leads us through leave feathers behind. And the next time we're faced with an unexpected situation, those "feathers" will remind us of God's faithfulness in every situation.

At the End of My Rope

I pray in the shower nearly every morning. Some days, it's the only time of my day that I get entirely to myself. Yesterday morning, my prayer went something like this:

"Dear God, I appreciate the confidence you have in my ability to handle things, but don't you think we've had enough? My hands are rope-burned from slipping down this rope, and it appears the knot at the bottom that is holding me up is beginning to fray. Could you please make my kids well, my deadlines met and make me be a nice person again?"

Perhaps not the most inspiring prayer, but it was honest. You see, I can't remember the last time both my kids went to school for an entire week. I think it was sometime before spring break. Amoxicillin has become the sixth food group around here. I haven't had a full night's sleep in a while. I'm behind on my deadlines for a freelance project. I'm not sure when the last time my kitchen floor got mopped was. And our family is dealing long-distance with all the emotions involved in moving my grandmother into a nursing home facility today.

Our Easter Sunday started with my husband and I going to church mad at each other. Despite the beautiful exterior of our family in their new Easter dresses, we were defnitely not in a joyful mood. The stress of the past few weeks has definitely caught up with me. Many evenings, I don't want to treasure the moments with my kids -- I just want them to go to bed.

None of the things that have happened in our family are huge or terrible, but the combined weight of all of them has turned this once loving and happy mom into something of a shrew. And you know what happens when mom's attitude is out of whack, right? Everyone's attitude begins to need an adjustment.

Now that I've shattered any illusions you might have had about what goes on in our house, I want to share with you the verse that I'm clinging to these days. It's a short verse, but a great reminder of from where our strength comes. Ephesians 6:10 says "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power."

You see, that rope I'm clinging to? It's going to fray and swing with the trials of life. No matter how many knots I tie in it, they're going to come undone. All the little burdens of life are going to eventually be too much weight for my grip to handle, and I'm going to fall. Unless I'm letting God put his hands over mine, and I'm using his power to give me strength.

So often, when trouble heads my way, the first thing I try to do is solve it myself. You know what these past weeks have taught me? I control very little, and I certainly don't have enough strength to keep from falling. I don't even have enough strength on my own to control my attitude. I need God. I need the power that He offers because on my own I will fail. Every. Single. Time.

So, when life has you feelling like your rope is fraying and you feel like you're headed over the cliff, tap into the only source of power that's going to keep you going. Join me in throwing up your hands and letting God take over. Because His power is more than enough to handle the accumulated weight of all those little things that are causing your rope to fray. It's His power that will allow you to once again find joy in your role, and your family will thank you.

Memory Monday: Growing Up

My oldest daughter turns 10 in a month. She is a beautiful girl who is turning into a lovely young lady. Lately, we've been having a few conversations about the changes her body will go through in the next few years. We had one the other day that I found especially revealing. It ended with her saying, "I don't want to grow up."

Changing bodies can be a scary time for kids. Some of the stuff that's heading their way sounds yucky and different. With growing up come more hygiene responsibilities and a whole host of new emotions. It's easy for kids to be scared.

Yet, all of the changes are part of God's amazing plan for us. No matter what stage our bodies are in -- whether it's pre-puberty, post-pregnancy or menopausal -- they are performing how God created them to perform. Those changes may be scary, and they may make us feel uncomfortable in our own skin, but they are still beautiful.

I know that eight years after having my last baby, I still have several pounds I'd like to shed. Ever since I hit the grand old age of 35, my metabolism doesn't work like it once did. I have pounds that have moved around to new places and clothes in my closet that most likely will never fit again. I have to work harder to keep weight off. What I'm experiencing is no different than what  my daughter is going through, facing the impending changes in her own body. And, there are days when I want to throw up my hands and announce "I don't want to grow up" too.

But the truth is that God made our bodies, and He thinks they're beautiful. Genesis 1:27 says "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Memorize this verse with your kids this week. Knowing from an early age that we are made in the image of a perfect God can help take away some of the fear associated with a changing body.

We need to remind our kids that their bodies are working just as God designed. And what He designed is beautiful. We can and should start this process when our kids are young, so that when they face changes in the design of their bodies, they have a sense of self-worth that is rooted in the fact that they are beautiful in God's eyes -- not in whether they look like an air-brushed model on the cover of a magazine.

• When your kids are young, make it a point to focus on the non-physical aspects of who they are. It's OK for kids to like to look nice, but it's not OK for that to become a focal point of who they are. Try to compliment them on character qualities like being nice to others, truthfulness and unselfishness more than you focus on their physical attributes.
• For older kids, buy a few of those fashion magazines. Lay them out on the table and ask them to flip through the magazines. Ask them what they think of the actors and models featured in the magazines. Ask them if they think that's how those people really look. Use a photo of a familiar person or animal and change it in a photo editing program. Show your kids how easy it is to change the appearance of someone with photo editing software. Emphasize that what they see on a magazine cover is rarely what a person looks like in real life. Comparing ourselves to those unrealistic images isn't healthy because it's not an achievable look without the help of some judicious editing.
• When you begin to have discussions with your children about how their bodies are changing, keep at the forefront of their minds that all of this is normal and designed by God. As you begin your discussions, get a pot, some dirt and a flower seed. Together over the course of a few weeks, watch the flower grow. Talk about how the flower changes as it grows. Remind your child that without those changes, the plant would never become a beautiful flower. Tell your child they are just like that flower -- going through changes that will result in beauty.
• Watch your words. Be careful how you talk about your own body. If you have girls, you are instilling in them an example of how they should think about their bodies. If you have boys, you are setting up expectations for how they should view the female body. What you say about your own physical image counts when it comes to your kids. Act like your body is designed in the image of God, so your children will believe you when you encourage them in how they view their bodies.

The change from little girl or little boy to young woman or young man brings with it some excitement and some fear. Knowing that God made their bodies to work this way, makes the whole process a whole lot less scary.

A Joyful Celebration

Have you ever had someone that you know die? It's a sad time, knowing that you will never get to talk to them or see them again until you see them again in heaven. Usually when someone dies, we cry and we miss them.

That's what happened when Jesus died. His friends missed him. They gathered together and talked about Him and how they were going to go on without Him. They were sad, and they were scared.

Then, the women who had gone to the tomb showed up at the door and gave them great news. "Jesus is alive," they said. What do you think the disciples' reaction was? What do you think your reaction would have been?

The disciples didn't believe the women. Even though Jesus had repeatedly told the disciples that He would rise from the dead, they didn't believe Him. After all, no one had ever risen from the dead.

Matthew 16:21 tells us "From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Yet, even though Jesus had told them what would happen, his disciples were still surprised when Jesus actually rose again.

Check out their reaction in Luke 24:36-39. "While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

Even though the disciples could see Jesus, they still had a hard time believing that He had risen from the dead. Can you imagine how their sadness turned to joy when they realized Jesus was actually standing there in front of them?


It's that joy that we celebrate at Easter. The joy of knowing that Jesus is alive. We don't worship a dead God. We don't worship a statue that was never alive. We worship a God who came to earth, sacrificed Himself for us and then beat death and rose again. That's a reason for joy.

It's that joy that makes being a Christ-follower different from any other religion in the world. If Jesus hadn't risen from the dead, being a Christ-follower would be no different from any other religion. Like we talked about yesterday, Jesus' death on the cross makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God. His sacrifice blots out our sins.

Yet, if Jesus had stayed dead, we would have nothing to celebrate. Jesus would not have been who He said He was. Jesus told His disciples over and over again that He would die but also that He would rise again. Because He rose again, because He defeated death, we can have confidence in God's promises that we, too, will have eternal (that means forever) life with God.

We celebrate Easter on the day that Jesus rose from the dead, not on the day that He died. His death is important, but without his resurrection Jesus just becomes another person who made some big claims then died. His resurrection means that we can believe in all of God's promises. Jesus did what He said He would do. And that makes Easter a reason for us to celebrate.



As you celebrate Easter this year, remember that Easter is about joy. Think about how it might have felt to be one of the disciples seeing Jesus again after His death.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

This week at Everyday Truth, we're celebrating Easter with a family devotional each day. Each one is designed to be used with your kids to take a look at a different aspect of the Easter story.


My oldest daughter made a sacrifice the other day. We had already scheduled her sister's birthday party for Sunday afternoon when we got an email saying my oldest had a soccer game at the same time. There was no changing the time on the party, and I really needed their dad and grandmother to help me out.

Instead of throwing a fit or being upset, my oldest said, "That's OK. You guys stay at the party. Granddaddy can take me." Not only was she giving up going to the party, but my oldest was giving up having one of us come to her game. And she did it without a fuss. She made a sacrifice so her sister could have something she wanted.

That's what sacrifice is. It's giving up something for someone else. Sacrifice is rarely ever easy. I know my oldest daughter would have preferred that we all go to her soccer game, but sacrifice nearly always results in something better. My oldest's sacrifice kept the peace in our family and made her sister very happy.

Easter is all about sacrifice. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for you and me. He chose to die on the cross so that we would no longer have to be separated from God.

Think of it this way. Take out a piece of paper and draw a picture of someone on one edge of the paper. Now, write the word "God" on the other edge. There should be almost the whole length of the paper between your person and God. That distance represents our sin -- the things we do that go against God's commands. Things like lying, saying things that aren't nice about people, not obeying our parents and stuff like that. We can never cross that distance on our own. We are stuck on one side of the paper while God is on the other.

Now, draw a cross between the person on your paper and God. The cross creates a bridge across the distance. Because Jesus chose to die, he closed the distance between us and God. He made it possible for us to have a relationship with God.

Jesus could have climbed down off that cross any time He wanted. He was, after all, the Son of God. Yet, he chose to stay on the cross and sacrifice His life so that we could be close to God. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice -- his life -- for you and me. He loved you enough to die for you.

Do you know what the Bible tells us happened when Jesus breathed His last breath? Check out Matthew 27:51: "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." The curtain of the temple separated the part of the temple where the regular people could go from the part where only the priests could go. The inner part of the temple was available only to a select few. The curtain separated most of the people from God. It was a physical representation of our separation from God. Yet, when Jesus died, that curtain ripped in half, signaling the end of that separation.

As you celebrate Easter this weekend, remember that it is Jesus' death that makes it possible for us to be close to God. Without His sacrifice, we would still separated from God. Thank Him today for His sacrifice that created a bridge between us and God.