Skylar's Blog & Podcast

I can remember a couple of lines I said a lot when I was a little kid. Can you remember any? Some were probably: "No" "MOM" or "Shotgun!" The one I was thinking of was, "That's not fair!" Now, this phrase can be used in a whole variety of situations. I would say it after being told I was grounded, or after one of my brothers received a nicer gift than I did, or even after my brother got the front seat for the FIFTH TIME IN A ROW!!! We all have this inherent belief that we should be treated fairly. Before I go on I just want to say that we should treat each other fairly. This is something God calls us to do. However, this idea of fair can be a bad thing. Let's look at these few verses:

No I am not going to talk about that spectacular reality show (did you catch the sarcasm?). Have any of you read Psalms 121:1-2? If not it goes like this:

Because Sarah Jackson was looking for it :-).

There is something peculiar about mirrors when you think about them. Their only purpose is to focus everything on you! You can be rushing around at a million miles an hour trying to serve everyone you can. However, the second you step in front of that mirror it becomes all about you. We drop whatever we were thinking and begin to think...: "Oh no, is that a hair out of place?" "What are those spots on my teeth?" "Why can't I look as good as Skylar?' "Holy cow! Is that a pimple or Mount St. Helens?" Windows on the other hand take the focus completely off of you and put it on whatever is outside or beyond the little room you're in. Sometimes people will stop in front of a window to watch a fight, or gawk at a beautiful sunset, or even to put their mouth on the window so it will leave a smudge (is that just me?) I
 really think as we continue living our lives we feel we are being transformed into one of two thing: a mirror or a window. What I mean by that is this: some of us feel like we need to be a window, and we will pursue serving others with all of our time and energy. We will continually seek to find out what other people need and how to get that for them. On the other hand, if serving isn't our thing we will view our lives as a mirror: we use our lives as an opportunity to grow ourselves. We might spend most of our time trying to figure out what we need and what we want and just how to attain these things. Are one of these  better than the other? Most of you church goers would probably say the life which represents the window, the life of service, and I think you are right. However, I don't think the answer is either/or. I think the answer is more of a both/and. If we were to just serve, and never pay any attention to what is going on inside of our own lives then eventually we will lose our heart. We will lose that fire, that passion we once had for doing God's work. The second GREATEST commandment was this: "Love your neighbor as YOURSELF (Matthew 22:39)." I am not saying to stop serving, and I am not saying it is good to be only concerned about yourself. What I am saying is we need to serve, but at the same time we need to be searching for what God is trying to tell us about us, and what He is trying to point out to us in our own lives. If we only focus on the lives' of others we will never experience true growth. Sometimes I think we serve so much because we're afraid of what God might say if we actually looked in the mirror and asked the scary question: "Who am I?" "Where do I fall short?" "What do I fear?" So, if you are a mirror, get over yourself! If you are a window, it's time to look in the mirror. If you are perfectly in the middle...please come talk to me because I sure need some help with this.

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Hello all! I don't know if any of you watched the Republican National Convention last week but it was very interesting. First thing I noticed was these people in pink shirts who would dart down through the stadium every fifteen minutes or so. You could feel their commitment to their cause by just watching them. Anyways, so as I heard John McCain finally speak he was interrupted every five minutes or so with the chant, "U.S.A." You didn't need to hear anymore to know these people were dedicated to their country...to their kingdom. This got me started thinking about how the country/kingdom we feel we belong to really does define us. These people were decked out in red, white, and blue. Some looked like Uncle Sam, there was even a man dressed up as Abraham Lincoln. I don't know about you but a lot of these people didn't look sane to me. However, they wanted to show their dedication and their commitment to their country...to their kingdom. How many of us get so caught up in this kingdom...in this life...that we think that we actually belong here? Hopwever, Paul says in Philippians 3:20 that our citizenship in heaven and Jesus spent a lot of time in his talks speaking about this Kingdom of God. Who do you belong to? It's not hard to tell. Think back to what all you did today...think back to your decisions, how you spent your time, what you spent most of your day thinking about, what you desire. This will be the greatest indicator of where our citizenship is. Are we stuck in this broken world, or are we searching for this kingdom Jesus spoke of and are we trying to enact it now? Where do your loyalties lie?

Everyone enjoys a good blanket. I don't know of many people who don't look forward to curling up in their blanket as the evening comes to a close. Some of you might even still use the blanket you had as a child, and you look to Linus from Charlie Brown as a modern day hero. When you jump into bed your normal first reaction is to take your blanket and completely wrap yourself in the blanket. The blanket is covering every inch of your body as you lay there, rested and comfortable. With that image in mind read this verse:

It's interesting how some simple things can impact us so deeply. One of these are words. What are words? Aren't they just letters from an alphabet we made up arranged in a way to make sense to us? But, they are more than that aren't they? A certain arrangement of words have the ability to make your day: "Gosh you look good today!" "I am so proud of you" "You should definitely keep the green hair, it brings out your eyes." However, words have an ability to tear you down for a lifetime: "Your stupid." "There is no WAY you can do this." "You're fat." "You're ugly." This last Sunday I talked about the word of God. Not the written word (The Bible) but His spoken word, and what that has to do with us. This spoken word is God bringing His written word to life through circumstances and decisions he throws into our life. However I left one thing out in our discussion...His word does one more thing. It gives life. It breathes into us and restores us.


God takes these words we created and He breathes life into them with His spirit. He encourages us with them: "I love you...I died for you (John 3:16)." He assures us with them: "Nothing can separate you from my love (Romans 8:38-39). He saves us with them: "It is finished (John 19:30). " Now, what does this have to do with us? We need to understand the power of words. We need to take a lesson out of God's book and learn to only encourage others with our words. We are the body of Christ, and now is the time to start acting like it.