Taking Out the Trash.

I just took out the trash. When I took out the trash it was dark, so originally I didn't want to drag the cans out to the street. Although I didn't feel like taking out the trash I did it anyway because I knew it was necessary. You need to take trash out of your house because it smells, also there nothing uplifting and exciting about old banana peels. Plus when you miss trash day and you will have two weeks’ worth of trash pilling up in your trash cans, it takes up space and on the next trash day you have to do extra work to take all the trash to the curb. Therefore it makes a lot of sense to take out the trash on time, because it helps the house stay clean. Also when your trash cans are empty and friends come to visit, it shows them that you took time to clean up for them and make your home special and fresh.

I know you might be thinking, what is Selah talking about!! NO, I have not gotten a job at the dump or picking up trash. I was just thinking about this in relation to Christ and how it can be used as a teaching point.

Each of us has our homes (bodies). We are commanded to take care of our bodies and be good stewards of what we have been given. I was considering this while dragging cans to the front yard... We need to clean ourselves and take out our trash daily, from a spiritual standpoint. As Christians we can't just let our sin and trash pile up and hit the point where we ignore it and just live in filth. We should be observant in what we are letting into our hearts and minds and making sure that we are cleaning out the sin (taking out the trash). It's such an important part of our lives, to ask for forgiveness from Christ and strive to follow His pure example. Often times when it comes to dealing with trash in reality I want to say to my mom, "I'll take out the trash later", Sometimes when I say I'll do it later I forget about it. Therefore I bring myself to consider, have I forgotten to take out my inward trash and sin. If I don't make sure that I am clean inside, then why is it important to take out the garbage for my parents?

One of my points is that we take the trash to the curb every week so we don't have an overflow. It's the same idea with our sin and baggage that we hold onto. We need to make sure that we aren't holding onto jealousy, anger, and hate. Those things can really burden us and make taking out the inward trash hard. We need to make sure that we are reviewing ourselves so that we can strive to be a clean and good example of Christ!

It's the same idea for when you have special guests staying at your home, you take out the trash! You want your home to be presentable for others. If you're a Christian, Christ dwells in you! We take out the trash for our parents. Why can't we take out the trash for Christ?

These were just my thoughts one dark Wednesday night while hauling some garbage cans. I hope this post has challenged you to clean your heart and take out your trash! God bless you!

Unknown Blessings

The book titled “The Gift of the Blessing” is good for people who don’t understand how blessings are important. The first chapter is very important because it discusses the first kind of blessing that we come across in our life. A parent’s blessing is very important to a child. Missing out on the approval of parents can be heartbreaking for a child, and may cause issues for the child as they enter and experience adulthood. This book also speaks about how we are in search of our blessing. You will not always receive the blessing you are expecting, but God’s blessing is beyond what you could ever expect.

In the first chapter of the Book it has two stories, stories about Brian and Nancy. Brian was raised by a father who had been a career Marine Officer.  His father was very strict and was not sympathetic or loving towards his son. The way that Brian’s father raised him, was hard for Brian because he was brought up without any form of tenderness. In the end, when his father was on his deathbed he cried out for his father to say the words that he had been longing to hear, “I love you, son.” He never heard those words, because his father had already passed on. Nancy’s mother had two daughters. She favored the Nancy’s sister, because she thought that Nancy’s sister was better looking. The way that Nancy felt left out over the years struck her at the core. She faced all kinds of issues because of the low self esteem her mother had installed into her. Both of these people missed out on their parents’ blessing and it wasn’t by their own merit that this took place. This chapter helps remind parents how you must install confidence and encouragement and love into a child at a young age and continue to love them for as long as they live.

People often wonder if a blessing is really important in today’s day and time. The answer to that is yes, blessings are important! A blessing can be the way somebody loves you, teaches you a lesson, or just encourages you. There are all different kinds of ways to go about blessing. Parents should bless their children. Husbands should bless their wives as wives should bless their husbands. Everyone should bless and be blessed.

A blessing is created by the combination of meaningful touch, spoken message of high value, a special future, and active commitment. Meaningful touch is described as kissing, hugging, or laying hands on a person. Meaningful touch is giving proof to the person that you are trying to bless them by reaching out and laying your hands upon them as an act of love. A spoken message of high value is encouraging someone with words. It’s letting them know that they do have value and they are precious! Many times in our day and culture we forget to tell others how much we admire, value, and love them. While in some cases, we speak so freely and slightly of love that when you tell someone you love them, they might not believe you. We must have a good balance of the words that we say to others. A blessing can only be fully known when you speak it. God spoke the earth into its form. He said let there be light and there was light. It’s the same kind of idea; we should speak blessings over each other and let the blessings form. The only thing that silence conveys to a child is confusion. Therefore parents should speak encouraging words and bless your children often, so they may know how you are blessing them.  When attaching high value it is best to give a visual to your child to show them how special they are in your eyes. When attaching a visual to the blessing it helps the child see what they are to become and how they must strive towards improving. When picturing a special future, we must know that we do not have the ability to predict someone’s future. We can establish knowledge into the child that helps them to make future goals for their life. The child must know that they gifts they have been given were a gift to them from God. Therefore, they should dedicate their lives to serving Him. The fifth part of a blessing is an active commitment. Parents need to trust in God to provide them with the ability to help their child confirm their blessing. A child cannot be successful without their parents helping them. That’s the same idea that fits with a blessing, as parents you must stand by your child and help them to attain their blessing.

This book really goes into depth discussing the five different parts of a blessing. Each part of the blessing has a whole chapter dedicated to explaining in depth the parts of blessings. Physical touch is very important. The book discusses one woman who had severe pain, but wasn’t allowed to have pain medication because it would put her at further risk. The nurses had to ignore her cries for pain medication and it really hurt her soul. In the end, the nurses gave her pain hugs instead of pain medication. Those pain hugs meant a great deal to her because it showed that someone cared about her and wanted to help her.  It’s the same idea for children and human beings in general; we need to love each other through affections as well as verbally.

People need to hear words of acceptance and encouragement. We need to make sure that we speak words of kindness paired along with physical touch, when giving someone a blessing. Parents in our culture have shied away from blessing their children. Some parents realize this later in life and at that point it is hard for the parent to express their feelings. “For example a father trying to let his son know how he feels about him right before he goes to college, but his son is too busy getting ready to listen. Or a mother trying to impart to her daughter words of wisdom about life in the bridal room, but a photographer shoos her out, so they can get the perfect shot. Spoken words of blessings should start in the delivery room and continue throughout life.” Often times our excuses for not blessing one another is that we simply don’t have enough time. We say things like I’ll tell them tomorrow how I feel about them, but in reality tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Words are not enough in a blessing. You need to put a commitment behind it, show the person how you will stand by them until they see their goals fulfilled. You need to show them that you are willing to sacrifice time and efforts to help them succeed. We need to take action to help the person ensure their blessing, because mere words of encouragement alone are not enough.

Whenever giving a blessing we always want to link the blessing back to God. When you commit someone to the Lord it helps them realize that as much as we might care about them, God cares about them so much more! Whenever you introduce the Lord into your blessings it shows them that even though we can’t really control tomorrow, God can and we have opened their eyes to see how much more He wants to bless them.

Also we need to realize that blessings and discipline are cousins. If we really love someone we will not let him or her fall into sin or hurt themselves without trying to correct them in a loving manner.

Active listening is very important to a blessing. If we do not know what the person is interested in or anything about them in a deep manner then how can we expect to bless them properly? Active listening lets people know that we accept them and care about what they have to say. Just listening to somebody talk about their day can be a simple blessing of its own.

The blessing is not meant just for parents to bestow upon their children. A blessing is something that should be shared between siblings, close friends, people dating, married couples, and your church family.  Every blessing is different, but it is made up of the five same things: meaningful touch, spoken words, high value, picturing a special future, and an active commitment. This book has really encouraged and inspired me to bless others daily and in new creative ways. It has gone in depth and really strives to teach you how to bless others. A blessing isn’t just a onetime thing; it’s encouraging and providing small acts of love on a daily basis. Let’s bless people!