November 2019 – PJ's Monday Musings

Thanksgiving…holiday or habit?

I love Thanksgiving…

I love the food.

I love the family and friends.

I love the football.

I love it all.

(In fact, it may even be my favorite holiday, because I just love that combination of food, family & friends, and football all in one day.)

But, it’s just one day.

Imagine if we were only thankful one day a year.

Maybe that sounds crazy, but how often do we actually celebrate what we’re thankful for the other 364 days of the year?

Is thanksgiving more of a holiday or a habit for you?

Is it something that you celebrate every day or only on special occasions?

Do you need a reason to be thankful every day or do you choose to be thankful even on your worst of days?

Are you teaching and modeling every day thanksgiving to those around you, or do they see you living in a perpetual cycle of discontent?

Thanksgiving isn’t just a once-a-year holiday.

It’s an every day choice.

And, when we choose to be thankful every day, those choices turn into a habit.

Don’t let Thanksgiving be just a holiday for you this year. Let it become a habit that you celebrate every day.

Let it become a habit that keeps pointing you (and those who are watching you) to Jesus.

Let it become such a part of our every day lives that the generations that follow us think less of thanksgiving as a holiday and more as a way of life.

¹I will exalt you, my God and King,
    and praise your name forever and ever.
²I will praise you every day;
    yes, I will praise you forever.
³Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
    No one can measure his greatness.

⁴Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;

(Psalm 145:1-4)

¹⁶Always be joyful. ¹⁷Never stop praying. ¹⁸Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

The kids are watching you… always watching

Anyone who has seen the movie Monster’s Inc. knows the classic line spoken by Roz to Mike Wazowski…

“I’m watching you, Wazowski! Always watching…”

Mike doesn’t really like to hear that, because you get the impression from Roz’s character that she really is watching him ALL THE TIME.

And there’s some pressure and responsibility that go along with that. There’s a lot at stake for Mike knowing that Roz is always watching.

If you are a parent or youth worker, you have little “Rozs” watching you ALL THE TIME.

And, just like with Mike, there’s a lot at stake (for them and for you).

Because the kids are watching you to see what following Jesus really looks like in a Christian culture that makes a lot of things gray.

And, what we make gray today will only get grayer for the next generation.

Here’s what I mean…

Parents (and youth workers) remember… your kids are watching you, always watching.

And, the decisions you make about things like church, entertainment, alcohol, and social media are going to have an impact on your kids whether you realize it or not.

If church attendance/participation is optional or sporadic in your family now, your kids will take it another degree or two further, and will find more excuses/reasons not to go when they are older.

If your entertainment choices are dictated more by what the culture thinks is a “good” movie or album to listen to (and less about what the Bible says is “good”), where do you think your kids will look for what is “good” when they have more freedom to make those choices?

If your approach to alcohol is casual, don’t assume that your kids will know what “casual” means or that they will have the same ability/desire to make alcohol just another element of their social lives when they get older.

If social media is a place where you vent, rant, overshare, misrepresent yourself, or spend too much time on, know that your kids are taking cues from you on things like: where their value and identity comes from, how to communicate, and how to deal with conflict (not to mention how to manage their time).

The truth is our kids will generally take the things they see in us and take them one or two (or even three) degrees further.

The gray only gets more gray…not less.

And, believe me, they are watching you.

Always watching.

Failing is an earth thing…and why that should give you hope

We all want hope.

We all want a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

And so we go searching for it…

We go to work hoping that we’ll like our jobs and make enough money to be comfortable.

We go to school hoping that someday all those classes will lead to a job that we’ll like and make us enough money to be comfortable.

We play sports hoping that someday we’ll get paid to play a sport we love and make us more than enough money to be comfortable.

We make friends hoping that someday we’ll find the one that we’ll spend the rest of our comfortable lives with on this earth.

But, then things go sideways.

We don’t like our jobs, or we can never seem to make enough money.

We don’t like school.

We love the sports we play, but our bodies fail us.

And, we just can’t seem to find the one.

Deep down, we ask ourselves, where can I find hope?

Because failing seems to be a big part of this world that we live in.

But, here’s where it actually gets better.

Yes, failing is an earth thing. Failing is part of living in a broken world.

But God is not of this world.

And, because God is not of this world, He doesn’t fail. (Hebrews 13:5)

We live in a world where people are searching for hope in places that ultimately fail them…work, education, money, relationships, and the list goes on.

The good news is that real, lasting, get-out-of-bed-everyday hope doesn’t fail…and it’s found in a personal relationship with God.

This is the hope we all want.

This is the hope this failing world needs.

This is really good news.

The question is…are you ready to share it?

If someone asks you today what is it about believing in Jesus that gives you hope, what would you say?

“I will never forget this awful time…
²¹Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:

²²The faithful love of the Lord never ends!^[b]
    His mercies never cease.
²³Great is his faithfulness;
    his mercies begin afresh each morning.
²⁴I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
    therefore, I will hope in him!” (Lamentations 3:20-24)

“…if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.” (1 Peter 3:15b)