Quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…

Dear Lord; Good morning Father.  Well Lord, I didn’t exactly start the day on a stellar note.  As You well know, Shannon and I very seldom have any significant arguments.  We’re very much on-keel with each other, and any little disagreements we do have now and again are usually quickly and calmly worked out.

That wasn’t the case today however.

A simple misreading of a reaction to something I said led to tempers flaring on both sides, and a twenty minute excited exchange… Over basically nothing.

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. – 2 Timothy 2:23-24

Ouch!  Yep, that pretty much describes our fight… foolish and stupid.  I stand convicted Lord, and am deeply ashamed.  Instead of listening for Your Guidance in that moment, I allowed my temper to shut myself off from You and caused unnecessary pain to someone I love deeply.

Heavenly Father, please help me focus my heart and mind on Your Voice in times of stress.  Help me not be quick to anger, and instead bring a level head and calm influence to situations that arise.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. – James 1:19-20

Amen.

~Phather Phil

Focus on Acceptance…

Dear Lord; Happy Monday Father!  First off, I want to thank You for another lovely weekend with my family and friends.  Date night with my wonderful wife Shannon on Saturday night was a great way to end the week, and although I ended up “under the weather” on Sunday, I was Blessed in that my family made sure I had the quiet time I needed to rest and recuperate.  I certainly wasn’t as productive as I had originally planned on being, but the downtime did help us all to recharge our batteries for the week ahead.

Today Lord, I want to delve further into my Focus Word (Accept) for the year and how it’s already affected my thoughts and actions.  It’s amazing to me, but since You placed that word in my heart I find it jumping into my head quite regularly.  For example, I had a situation this weekend where I was extremely uncomfortable with the way someone was acting in a public situation.  They weren’t doing anything wrong per-se, but it made me feel awkward all the same.

“You need to Accept them for who they are” I heard in the back of my head.

Fair enough.  As I said, they weren’t doing anything wrong and they certainly weren’t hurting me in any way.  I realized I had just taken it upon myself to feel uncomfortable at the way they were behaving, and was letting it affect my disposition.

Therefore, today’s statement of focus from my experience this weekend is :

I need to Accept that God has made each of us an individual who is unique and special.

Now please understand Father, this doesn’t mean I won’t stand up against people doing something morally or ethically wrong, or not confront evil wherever I see it.  I simply need to have more flexibility when dealing with differences in how Your Children act and interact with others.  You’ve made us all wonderfully individual and unique, and I’m going to work on celebrating those differences more.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Faster than a speeding bullet…

Dear Lord; Well Father, it never ceases to amaze me where my thoughts are led when I’m communing with You.  For whatever reason, this morning on my drive into the office I was thinking about how the news lately seems to be filled with nothing but tragedy and heartache, and the general despair and discord of our citizens.  Senseless shootings, hateful protests, skyrocketing unemployment, financial hardships, a rising crime rate, natural disasters, and the list goes on and on.  What the world needs I decided, is a Superhero.  Someone who can swoop in and inspire hope, bring some righteous justice and order to things, and act as a beacon for people to rally around.

“I gave you one.” You whispered.

So You did!  You gave us the single most impressive “Superhero” that the world could possibly know; Your Son, Jesus Christ.

how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.  – Acts 10:38

Wow… Even the fictional “man of steel” himself didn’t wield the Power of God.  What an amazing Hero and Role Model You’ve given us!

Ok, so if we’ve been given the Ultimate Hero why are so many people in such despair??  Unfortunately, it’s because those folks just don’t know Him, and allow themselves to focus on earthly worries instead of allowing Him to lighten their burdens.  If all of us use the “Bat-Phone” of prayer to call Him into our lives, the day (as well as our eternal souls) would indeed be Saved.

So as Christians, here’s our chance to be Heroes as well.  If we live by His example, let God’s Light show through our words and actions, and share the Praises of His Good Works then we can bring that amazing power to more people.  We can change the world, through Him.

Now that’s power.

Amen.

~Phather Phil

And My Focus Word is…

Dear Lord; Good morning Father.  Today Lord, I want to follow up on a discussion we had earlier this week where we talked about finding my “One Word Focus” for this year.  You and I have been “chatting” a lot about this over the last few days, and my mind’s been flooded with so many words describing parts of myself that I know could use work.  Throughout all those deliberations and prayers however, I keep hearing one word in the midst of it all :

Accept.

Ok, message received… “Accept” it is.  I’ll admit, it’s not quite along the lines of what I had originally conceived when I started down this path but I’ll Accept Your Guidance :-).

So this morning, I started contemplating what the word Accept means in relation to my life, and the more I thought about it the bigger the scope grew.  There are so many things that I currently Accept (and possibly shouldn’t), and so many more that I need to work on.  For example, as we discussed yesterday I need to work on the fact that my nature is to try and fix everyone’s problems, when obviously that’s not a realistic perspective.

I need to Accept that I’m not in control and that I can’t fix everything.

Wow… So, I’m starting to understand why you put this word in my heart Lord.  I guess there are more things in my life that I haven’t fully Accepted than I had originally thought.  This is a truly powerful word, and I thank You for seeding me with it.

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for instilling this focus in my heart and mind.  As I contemplate and pray about this direction over the coming year, please lead me to recognize and Accept all Your Truths and proceed with them in Your Love.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Accepting my Limitations

Dear Lord; Good morning Father, and happy Wednesday.  Well, first off I want to thank You for limiting the snowfall in our neck of the woods.  What potentially could have been a huge mess ended up being limited to a 3 – 4” coating that simply covered everything with a pretty white blanket.  The kids still got a day off of school but everything else seems to be moving along as normal, for which I’m very much appreciative.

Today Father, I’d like to discuss one of my biggest challenges if I may.  I Lord, am a “fixer”; my nature is to try to fix things no matter what.  While in many cases that can be a positive character trait, in some situations it ends up causing more trouble than helping.  This morning was a case in point for the latter.

Shannon had a very rough night and didn’t sleep well due to some pain in her legs, and woke a little on the edgy side.  I tried talking with her about it and after several pointed questions to see what I could do to help, it became apparent that all I was doing was aggravating her further.  I completely misread the situation and in my efforts to “solve a problem” I missed the point and handled it poorly.  Thinking about it on my ride to work this morning, I realized that this part of my nature needs to be more carefully tempered going forward.  For that to happen, when my urge to “jump in” strikes I need to remember a couple truths :

I’m not in control.  I can’t fix everything.

While I actually do know this Father, my brain sometimes ignores these seemingly simple facts when I see something I feel that I can help with.  I need to know when to simply sit and listen, and when to realize that things are outside my scope and to leave them in Your Loving Care.

Heavenly Father, please steer and temper my yearning spirit.  Help me make good choices as to how I can best serve Your Will, and to be the best Child of God that I can.  Where I can be of help, may Your Presence be my Guide to a positive end.  However when my involvement is not warranted, please help me recognize my limitations and lift those situations to Your Care.  In You, all things are possible Lord.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

‘Cause I can’t do this alone

Dear Lord; Good morning Father!  Today Lord, I’d like to start out with an apology and to pray for your forgiveness.  Yesterday, things were a little crazy at the office and I ended up having to put aside my plans to run out on to a client site over an hour away to deal with an unreasonable customer.  The problem took all of five minutes to remedy on-site, and was absolutely something that could have been handled over the phone had we been allowed to.  And while I didn’t show my anger to the client, I certainly blew my top when I got back to the car.  Father, I said and thought some truly terrible things about that person that in retrospect I realize was sinful behavior on my part.  Please forgive my stress-induced outburst of malice, and help me retain my composure in the future.

Now, on to some positive thoughts for the day Lord.  As You know, I’ve been listening to a lot of Contemporary Christian music over the last couple of weeks, and it’s been a wonderfully uplifting change to my days.  One song however, really hit a chord with me and I’ve had the lyrics running through my head quite a bit.  The song is called “Lead Me” and is sung by the group Sanctus Real.

Sanctus Real – Lead Me (Official Music Video)
Uploaded by EMI_Music. – See the latest featured music videos.

As a father, it resonates with me at a very fundamental level.  The lyrics describe some of my deepest wishes and prayers beautifully.  The closing verses to the song are :

“So Father, give me the strength
To be everything I am called to be
Oh, Father, show me the way
To lead them
Won’t You lead me?

To lead them with strong hands
To stand up when they can’t
Don’t want to leave them hungry for love
Chasing dreams that I could give up

I’ll show them I’m willing to fight
And give them the best of my life
So we can call this our home
Lead me, ’cause I can’t do this alone

Father, lead me, ’cause I can’t do this alone”

This is my prayer every day Lord.  Please lead me to be the best husband, father and servant of Your Will that I can be, ’cause I can’t do this alone.  Amen.

~Phather Phil