Q is for Questions

 

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We all search for answers to the big questions.  Not everyone realizes that they are looking for the answers.  Many of us don’t really want the answers, not the true answers.  We search for them in all the wrong places.  We find or we create confusion.  We are left with questions.  But there are answers if we look for them in the right places, or rather with the right person. 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.   John 14:6

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M is for Mom Mantras

by Ginger Plowman

 “Go to what you know.” 


That’s one of my mom mantras.  

Another is,

“How do YOU think it’s spelled?”



You know what I am talking about, those truths and principles you repeat to inculcate them into your kids, to give them what you believe they need to overcome obstacles and become productive people, people who can figure things out and stand on their own two feet. These are Mom (and Dad) mantras.

We remember some that our parents spoke into our lives.

“I used to walk 10 miles to school, up hill and in the snow.”

“We never got to do that when I was growing up.” 

“Nothing good ever happens after midnight.”

“Chores first.”

Each of us has our own list, though some may be common to all if you are from similar cultures.  The mantras are meant to instill in us perseverance, strength of character, wisdom.  In my house, among the regular chanted mantras I used were messages about attitude. 

“Attitude ‘A’ every day.”

"Be a blessing and be blessed.”
“What you practice you become.”

"Hold on to the Lord."

Your mantras say something about what you value, about what you believe contributes to a good life, about what influences you.  Some of the mantras of our lives we don’t even realize are there.  They may be subconscious, repeated messages in the recesses of our mind, but shining through who we are none the less.  Sometimes others may hear what we don’t realize we repeat.  These can be dangerous mantras because they may be shaping us with something harmful to our character. 

It’s a good practice to occasionally do a mental check of the mantras we recite, to listen to that voice that speaks within us, the messages we let freely rerun on the screen of our minds.  Listen as well to the ones we speak into the big wide world of our children’s futures.  It wouldn’t hurt to check with loved ones.  Ask if there mantras we are missing that may be having an ill-effect on us or those around us.  We all have blind spots that we can use a little passenger assistance to see. 

  What mantras have been influential in making you who you are?

A to Z Challenge

L is for Luke

          We are reading through and discussing the Gospel of Luke in our care group.  A care group is a small group from church that meets in homes to care for one another and to learn more about what the Bible teaches.  Sometimes we will focus on a topic; other times a book of the Bible.  Sometimes we just get together to have some food and fellowship. 

          I was glad we picked the Gospel of Luke in the Bible to look at over the coming weeks.  It’s been on my heart to spend more time just focusing on Jesus especially as we lead up to Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Often times we get caught up in what we are supposed to do as Christians, what we are supposed to think, what experiences we are having.  Jesus can get lost in our lives.   He becomes the buzzword, the pat answer for the Sunday school class, “Jesus, God, the Bible.” 

“Oh Lord, forgive us that we would allow You to become routine in our lives.”

          I was determined to get to know my Jesus more fully, and the Gospel of Luke is just the place to go to do that.   Spending time with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is an eye opening, a heart opening experience.  I have been reminded over and over again, not only from the text, but from voices all around me that this Jesus is no ordinary man.  The text certainly bears witness that this is someone special.  Is it possible for Him to have been anyone but God?  I am trying to listen more closely and look more intently, remembering Who it is I am walking with in this narrative.  These are the words God wanted recorded that we would know the truth. 

          Learning is a good L word too.  The more I can learn, the more I know.  The more I know, the more I understand.  The more I understand the more I realize just how little I know and how much there is to learn.  You could study the book of Luke for a long time and not learn or know or understand all that’s there to be revealed about the person of Jesus.   One thing for sure:  He is not mundane in any way. 

                       Faith is based in knowledge and I want to know more. 

 ^“It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”  Luke 1:3-5 

A to Z Challenge

K is for to Know

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To know:  to be aware of through observation, inquiry, or information.  To have knowledge about, to have a relationship with, personal experience with, or familiarity with a person, place, thing, idea, or field.

How do we know things?  What do you know?  How do you know that’s true?  What makes you think you know?  What can we know for sure?  What can we know by examining the evidence and coming to a reasonable conclusion?  How many of the things that you know end up being false?  If we have to change our direction because what we thought we knew was wrong, does that mean we can’t know things at all?  

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People discuss and argue about these questions all the time.  They study knowledge, and the acquisition of it, truth and whether or not we can know it, what’s real and what’s not.  They have official sounding names for these studies and theories.  What it points out to me is that what is and what we think about what is may be different.  What is true and what we think is true may be different.  However, What is and what is true, doesn’t depend upon the knowing of it.  If something is true, it is true whether we know it or not.  The knowing of it just makes it mine.  

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.  Proverbs 1:7

 

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