Author: Rebecca Gilbreath

Whatsover Things

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Last year, I had set out to post once a week about the topic, “Think On These Things” based on Philippians 4:8. I had started this on my A Record of Graces Facebook page and had a good response. It was a great way to write a more personal post on good things that had happened during the week, and people always like to read positive posts. When I go by this ‘format’ of Philippians 4:8 to write about blessings, it does take some time and thinking to write specific praises with these specific six words. I only wrote a few posts last year this way, but I would like to get back into it as it helps me reflect on the week in a good light. This week’s “whatsoever things” were:

✔️ TRUE– There are people out there in place all over the world who shine a light on someone’s day. Monday evening, while my husband was in the ER waiting for answers, one of the nurses said to him, “God loves you!”. The other day while at a Dr appointment with my dad, Dr. L said, “God loves you!”. There are good people out there making a difference simply by sharing those three words.

✔️ HONEST – The sincerity in my son this week as he helped me take care of his dad fetching water and medication, washing blankets, and helping with meals. My husband is recovering from a thyroidectomy this week and has had a fever for several days. After a visit to the ER and some new antibiotics, he is starting to feel better.

✔️ JUST – We live in an unjust society and some days it is overwhelming the evil that seems to be taking over the world. But God is always just and someday all will be well and perfect and whole.

✔️ PURE – Friendship from those who personally sent messages on Facebook and e-mails asking how my husband was doing. They were asking if there was anything they could do to help even from thousands of miles away.

✔️ LOVELY– The compassionate messages and heartfelt prayers on our behalf from everyone who knew about my husband’s surgery and fever afterwards.

✔️ OF GOOD REPORT – We received a “NO CANCER” report for my husband today.

Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

To Be Yet Wiser

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 Teachable: adjective
1) capable of being instructed, as a person; docile; 2) capable of being taught, as a subject.

I can admit I do not know everything, but can I say that I am teachable? When I first set out to homeschool, I had a lot to learn even though I had taught children before. I asked a lot of questions from other homeschoolers, looked things up on the internet, and made phone calls to different curriculum distributors. If Jonathan wanted to know something about a particular subject, we went to the library and returned with stacks of books. It is one thing to look up information for my own curiosity, but how do I react when I am specifically given instructions? Do I seek to learn a few things or do I turn a deaf ear? Sometimes I would need to speak slower and enunciate just to make sure Jonathan heard and understood what I was asking him to do.  Do I listen to wise counsel and gain understanding or become ignorant– or as I have heard it said, “dumb on purpose”? Do I need God to speak slowly to me and enunciate because I just cannot seem to grasp what He wants? What value do I put on wise counsel from God or wise men/women?

Can I be taught to be more patient, kind, loving, giving? Am I content in my stubborn ways? Tough questions, the answers hard to admit.

I think of these things as my son is in college, being taught by others, and is readying for the future. Have I instilled in him respect for elders and for those who know more than he does? Have I helped him become a good listener and one who will receive instruction well? Have I been a good example?

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” -Albert Einstein

To accept, to follow, to grasp instruction is a hard thing due to pride. To master the art and grace of making wise decisions is a life long pursuit, but one well worth the effort as it brings glory and honor to God.

Open my heart, Lord. Help me to be open to wise instruction, available for godly understanding, and ready to increase learning about You.

“A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel.” Proverbs 1:5

“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase learning.” Proverbs 9:9

When God Restores Joy

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Psalm 51:12, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”

How freeing it is when God restores joy; the joy of His salvation, the joy of living, the joy of His presence. And always, when I am weak and in need of a joy restoration, He is upholding me with His Spirit willing me to recover and aiding me in the renewal. This Sunday, may something be said in the sermon to help mend a difficult week. Today, may someone be near to help rejuvenate strength and spirit. We have an Advocate, a Champion, and an Upholder in Christ who gives His Spirit freely. May our eyes be opened to see Him and our hearts be eager to receive.

“Copy and Paste”

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In the social media world, I see posts all the time that “If you love Christ, copy and paste this post, and tag ten people”. Or, “I think you’re wonderful. Send this post back to me and send it to ten other women”. In this ‘copy and paste’ society, there is pressure to ‘love back’ the way someone else expects you to. I have thought about this as Valentine’s Day came and went with no flowers from my husband. No chocolate. No fancy dinner just the two of us. Was I disappointed? No, and I will tell you why. My husband is not a ‘copy and paste’ kind of man and it took me YEARS to accept him and love him for it and years to stop comparing my marriage to others. When Valentine’s Day rolls around, it rolls right past most years. And I am at peace with it because he buys me flowers often. He brings home my favorite dark chocolate often. He takes me out to lunch or brings home food so I do not have to cook often. He unloads and loads the dishwasher every night (which is HUGE because that is the one job I do not like to do. I will clean bathrooms all day, but I do NOT like to unload the dishwasher.) And on one ordinary day last week, he told me I was amazing.

The point I am trying to make is that just because someone’s love and affection may look different than what others are demonstrating,  it does not mean that their love is insincere . Just because there were no flowery Valentine’s Day Card by my bedside, does it mean my husband forgot about me? My Mr. Steady-low key-quiet- kind- of- guy is not going to go all out with flowery anything and I wish I had realized that much earlier in my marriage. (He did wish me a Happy Valentine’s Day.) As the wife to this man who is not a ‘copy and paste’ kind of guy, I need to be the kind of wife to him that is not a ‘copy and paste’ kind of woman. It has been a long lesson for me to love him as is, in deed and in truth for who God created him to be. He is the kind of man who simply does not feel the pressure to be like anyone else, or to love (show love) like anyone else or when everyone else does. And I would imagine that it was no easy picnic for him while I worked through my comparison issues and expectations.

To ‘love in deed and in truth’ is a beautiful thing in any relationship. Each relationship has it’s own unique traits and just because it may not look like what ‘everyone’ else’s does, it doesn’t mean that it is wrong or weird. Some friendships are crazy funny and we laugh a lot. Others are more serious and deep. Relationships with parents are different for everyone. Marriages look different to everyone, and when we do not succumb to comparing and we embrace what is in front of us, there is peace. The only kind of love we need to ‘copy and paste’ is Christ’s in that He gave all so that we might live. When we show love with our actions and in sincerity, we give so that others may better live and we can make any day a brighter day.

This Kind of Love

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I. Corinthians 13:4, “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up”.

Wrapped up in blankets, a box of Kleenex by our side, we have been ‘out of commission’ with the nasty crud. One by one, we were knocked to our knees with aches, pains, coughs, sneezes, and all that this ailment can bring. Valentine’s Day commercials go by us on the television screen and we look at them with bleary eyes with nary a spark of interest. No one wants to think of flowers, chocolates, or diamonds right now. Can someone start the hot water kettle, please??? And while you’re up, could you pass me that other blanket? This kind of love we are passing around right now leans more on the practical side. With all of us sick at the same time, charity really does suffer long. To make it through the day, we each need to show kindness and not worry about who is doing the most for whom.

This kind of love has no bragging rights. It doesn’t matter who empties the dishwasher of clean dishes and loads it with the day’s soup bowls, coffee mugs, and juice glasses. When the whole family is sick with the crud, it especially is of no difference who empties the trashes of used Kleenex and washes the living room blankets we have all been wrapped up in for days on end. Love is being on the same playing field, whether you are sick or not. We do for each other to make the next day a better day for everyone. Love is doing one kind act after another without announcing the grand deed or waiting for applause. Love endures. Love is kind. Love isn’t envious when doing for another who cannot do for themselves and it isn’t boastful. Kind love isn’t swollen with anything other than love itself.

Restoration

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“Our distrust is very expensive.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do we trust God when He says to come to Him all who are weary? Or do we feel that if we rest and wait in Him, everything will fall apart? It is difficult to hold back from taking matters into our own hands. Deep down, we know God has a timing, and most times, it is not our timing.  Case and point, my husband is waiting for an Ear, Nose, and Throat appointment to discuss thyroid removal surgery. He was told by an endocrinologist last week that he needed surgery as soon as possible and a consult was sent to an ENT doc that day. And then silence. Days go by. Forever seems to pass by while waiting for action. My husband made some phone calls with concerns only to find out computer systems are down and no one can get in for an appointment. More waiting. Does God know the discomfort John has?  Does God see our concern that the thyroid seems to be more swollen?

I studied quite a bit on Sabbath Rest last year. The call to rest in God, to give Him our time, to restore our hearts and minds in Him is a learning process. In this technological day and age, information is at our fingertips at all times. We can purchase just about anything at any time, on any given day, at any given hour. But we cannot purchase the deep restorative Sabbath Rest. I am not talking about Sunday naps here, but of the deep rest which trusts God completely. To let go of one day, one thought, one action that takes us away from God-centeredness, takes determination.  In this fast paced world, waiting is a foreign concept- even in Christians. I will be sharing here and there more about this topic. It is one that is talked about quite a bit in our house. We let technology, worries, opinions of others rob us of needful peace of mind. Some answers simply cannot be found on the internet, we are learning. We have found that Google Search Engine cannot give you answers that only God alone wants to give.

 Psalm 23:3 -“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

For King David to pen that God restores his soul, he must have been in a stage in life that needed restoring. It seems to me that life is a “Rest, Renew, Repeat” cycle. Whether we are in need of restoration of strength, of sleep, of right heart, of faith, our Heavenly Father is where we need to run.

Distrust in God’s plan, His timing, leads down dark roads. When God created Sabbath Rest and exemplified it, He meant it for our good. He leads in paths of righteousness and courage to trust Him for His name’s sake. The process He takes us through to return us to a place of contented trust is meant to be a testimony, for our sake and for others’. And all is meant to glorify Him in some way. We have to be still long enough, though, to let Him lead and restore. To distrust and doubt God’s ways is costly. It costs us time, energy, faith, and even healing when we go about trying to work around Him.  God is the Creator of time, isn’t He? And when we give it back to Him willingly to make use of it in whatever way He sees fit, time is redeemed or claimed as effective for His glory.

Pausing, trusting, resting in God should not be our last resort. This weekend, may we be intentional about placing the worries, the doubts, the questions in His hands and voluntarily give Him our time to rest in Him.

 

 

 

 

No Matter How Things Turn Out

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“Faith is not about everything turning out okay, faith is about being okay no matter how things turn out.” -Author Unknown

It is interesting to me that this is the ‘Fixed on Faith’ post that comes up this week. I originally wrote a quick post about this months ago when I had a Facebook page and am now just getting around to blogging about it. Just recently, my husband was telling me how challenging it is to have faith that God does knows all, sees all, and has His own timing. And in that timing of His, He wants us to trust. “It is one thing to trust God with my salvation, my health, and my life,” he shared, “but to get down to the nitty gritty details about scheduling of doctor appointments, do I trust Him that much?” In the last year, he has been tested for skin cancer, and thankfully, any sign of cancer was removed in the early stage. Now he is battling thyroid problems. There have been signs for nearly two years, but it has been more apparent in recent months that something is definitely ‘off’. John is scheduled to see an endocrinologist next week and we have been waiting for the days to go by for this appointment. What could be wrong? How serious is this? What is the next step? If he had his way, the appointment would have been scheduled weeks ago before Christmas break was over. He is going back to college and a big question was if he should even start classes this semester. It could be a simple ‘fix’, sure. But since the word ‘cancer’ has been thrown out there, even a small chance, it is still a concern.  And trying to interpret blood work results can make your head spin! But the God who ensured that the doctors would see this through an MRI that was actually for shoulder pain, and the God who made it possible for him to go back to school, can He not oversee an appointment scheduled at the right time? We both agreed that, yes, He knew about the timing. We even tried to get an appointment sooner, but no openings were available. With His timing, His intention is always for us to trust Him. And we are going to be okay no matter what.

It seems as if life is full of detours. I had ideas of how I thought my life was going to turn out, and then reality hit and things changed. We have changed. Circumstances (health, of course, included) changed. But through everything, we can look back and say, “You know what? We are still okay.” And why can we be okay no matter how things turns out? Because..

“…we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39

In waiting with John for answers and praying for a time when he feels ‘decent’ (his words) again with health and energy, I have to take this personally as well -not just that we will be ok, but that I will be. Faith in Jesus Christ is personal after all.

Through Christ I can see clearly, live confidently, and be fixed on faith that not only we as a couple will be more than okay but that,

  • I am more than able to overcome new territory/changes in direction.
  • I am more than able to gain or acquire courageous faith, more strength.
  • I am more than able to master obstacles and oppositions that come my way.

Questions, doubts, illness, trials, ‘nor things present, nor things to come’ – none of these are the victors. Nothing has more power than the bond we have in Christ through His love. When we are fixed (established, unmovable, settled) in our victorious faith, it is much easier to  move forward with grace no matter how things turn out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing Through The Fog

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“Faith is like a radar that sees through the fog–the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see.” -Corrie ten Boom

Radar: definition-  “a device for determining the presence and location of an object by measuring the time for the echo of a radio wave to return from it and the direction from which it return;  a means or sense of awareness or perception”: synonyms- direction finding, tracking system, beacon, lighthouse, watchtower

Faith is the way to determine the presence and location of God no matter what the ‘weather’. It is a means or sense of awareness that He is always there, He always cares, and He always has a plan. When my confidence in His plan is being tested, where is my focus? When my hope that He will deliver, heal, and salvage wavers, do I walk away or do I trust in the ‘evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1b)?

  • True faith does not worry or fret.
  • True faith does not become preoccupied with problems in life.
  • True faith sees any opportunity to witness the power and grace of God at work.
  • True faith is not in a hurry and will wait on God.
  • True faith keeps vision on the Source of life as He leads down “paths of righteousness for His name’s sake”(Psalm 23:3).

A Step of Clarity

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My hand hovered over my cell phone as I was just about to sign up for another blog post series. I had just yesterday lamented over how many e-mails I had that needed to be deleted. I have several e-mail accounts, seemingly unable to just stick to one. I deleted well over three hundred messages yesterday on one of the accounts and I have just about that much on another one. What I was about to sign up for wasn’t bad, it was actually about organization and how to simplify in the new year. I already ‘follow’ this person on Instagram who updates simplification suggestions each day, so why do I need to see it in my inbox as well?

In 2016, I wrote a three part series on “Finding Your Even Place” on my former blog. Life gets out of control, papers pile up, e-mails multiply, leaving us depressed and unable to cope with even simple tasks anymore. And I am finding myself in this position yet again facing 2018, thus the update of the series on my new blog. I need it!

“My foot standeth in an even place” -Psalm 26:11.

An “even place”: Balanced, steady, continuous, unwavering.

“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us”, Hebrews 12:1

I am finding that, for me, it’s not where to START, but better yet, what to STOP or lay aside. It is in finding space to breathe, to think, and to restore. And the things that are taking up space that take my breath away due to frustration, I need to clear. This week’s focus will be to clear out old e-mails and to unsubscribe from sites I hardly ever read. They may be all well and good, but they are not needful.

Happy New Year! If you are seeking for clarity in 2018, maybe instead of looking to start something new, consider stopping something first; something that may be hindering your focus on what really matters in your life. Take a step back. Evaluate what is important. Clear some space. Breathe.

 

Let God Show Up

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Sometimes my faith falters, not in my salvation, but that God will provide, heal, salvage. In the next few years, our goal is to get out of debt, have a sizeable savings account, an emergency fund, cash to pay for things, and be able to give more to missions and to other causes we would love to help. We are dreaming big here. First things first, though, get out of debt. And with our truck in the shop needing repairs, it seems we just took two steps back! Frustrating. But I need to remember that God doesn’t work in ways we understand.  He works when we become available to let Him provide without expectations of how it is to be done. I need to pray, confide, trust, and be willing to let God show up in unexpected ways.

Proverbs 4:25, 26 “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.”