Tradition and Gratitude

As I sit here in a hotel room in Raleigh, NC this Thanksgiving weekend, I am struck by my surroundings and how they are in stark contrast to what a "normal" Thanksgiving is to me. Normally, I cook for 2 or 3 days before Thanksgiving ever comes, spend the actual day cooking and baking, then watching my family consume all that goodness in what seems like the blink of an eye (although we do linger at the table, nibbling, long after the meal is finished). We generally spend the afternoon playing board games or hanging out around the TV watching football, sometimes going for a walk if the weather permits and just enjoying being home, and usually end the day with a movie together. And it feels "right" to me, like that's how Thanksgiving "should" be. And it seems that's how it "should" be because that's how it's been for 30 years in our family.

This year, instead of cooking and baking all morning, we were on the road, leaving at 6:30 AM to be in Raleigh with one of our sons and his wife for Thanksgiving. We spent the day with our son, his wife,  and his in-laws....and they did all the cooking.....so I visited with them, and took pictures, and reminisced with my kids, and, although I helped with dinner, I did not make dinner, did not plan the menu, was not responsible for making sure the potatoes did not get cold while the turkeys finished cooking, etc.

After a delightful dinner, we spent the afternoon visiting, eating pie, playing with their two new puppies and having a good time together. Instead of cleaning up one last time and filling the dishwasher for the 3rd time in a day, we left and went to a hotel, got checked in and settled for a quiet evening of hanging out together, making and receiving phone calls from all the other kids, texting back and forth with some of my kids and my sisters and catching up with our people via Facebook and email.

Not our traditional Thanksgiving by a long shot.

Traditionally, I spend the day after Thanksgiving putting up my Christmas village, covering my baby grand piano with "snow" and lighted houses and little businesses making up a town. This is a nearly all day event as it takes time to plan a village and put it together.

Today, we are spending the day going to museums with our son and daughter-in-law, then having dinner with them tonight in their apartment.

This is not our traditional day-after-Thanksgiving activity by a long shot.

But, it's oh, so sweet! And oh, so nice. And I'm thankful that while family traditions are nice, the holiday is no less special when tradition is thrown out the window and we get the opportunity to do something completely different and find that they are just as satisfying to our "traditional" sense.

The traditions of being together, of pausing in our busy lives to acknowledge the Source of all good and of giving to one another are traditions that can be carried out no matter our location. Whether I am in the kitchen or the front passenger seat, we are keeping our tradition of celebrating what we have to be thankful for. And we have a LOT to be thankful for. And we know that the Source is our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And I am grateful, not just this weekend that's been set aside for gratitude, but always, always grateful for the great things my God has done in my life and in my family.

Praise be.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
~Tricia

Content Overlap

This is one of those days when a couple of my blogs overlap in content. On my writer's blog, The Total Writer, I blogged briefly about writing truth and the importance of getting all the facts before we write. The story I blogged about was not originally given to much truth. The story was minimized, condensed and the facts grossly misrepresented. I remember the story when it happened and I never thought it added up. What I was hearing in the news didn't make sense. I simply didn't see why a court would award such a high payment if what we were hearing in the news was all there was to the story.

Have you ever been misrepresented? Have you ever been the victim of ugly gossip that portrayed you as a villian or liar and you had no avenue to defend yourself? I sure have and it's not easy. I've been ambushed by people who won't listen to my answers to their questions. I've had those same people spin every answer I gave. I've had people unwilling to listen to the truth about me.

Yeah. Not easy. Did you know that God, Himself, was misrepresented, lied about and no one would listen to the truth about Him, either? His birth was surrounded by controversy because everyone knew Mary had conceived Him before she and Joseph were married. The Pharisees, in John 8, held themselves up higher than Jesus declaring that they were not "born of fornication." They believed Jesus was.

In the book of Matthew, chapter 28, we read how the guards explained away Jesus' resurrection. They said that His disciples came by night and took Him away, stealing His body so as to fake His resurrection. And, without checking the facts, people believed them, as verse 15 points out, "this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."

Jesus endured many, many lies, false reports, people telling Him they didn't want to listen to Him, etc. He did this for us.

So, when you endure gossip, lies, and people not listening to the truth about you, remember that you are not alone in those sufferings.

~Tricia

Don't Believe Everything You Think

Never has Proverbs 3:5&6 been so alive than when I think of it as I read John 11. No, these passages are not cross-referenced, nor do they have anything to do with each other - other than the fact that they are both the Word of God.

Proverbs 3:5&6 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths."

You may recall that John 11 records the account of Lazarus dying, then Jesus raising him from the dead. Most of us know the story....Lazarus died, Jesus came, grieved with the family, then raised him from the dead. I want to look more closely at the dialog which takes place during this event. I hope you'll see the connection I see with Proverbs 3:5&6.

Lazarus got sick when Jesus was out of town. Jesus, Himself, said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God..." (verse 4)

But, Lazarus did die. And they buried him. And that was that. What did Jesus mean, then?

When Jesus made his way to the family, days later, they were upset. Martha met Him on the way and told him, "Lord, if you have been here, my brother would not have died." (verse 21) Jesus had a discussion about the resurrection with her. Was she listening?

When Mary made her way to Jesus, she also said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." (verse 32) Jesus saw her grief, and the grief of those around her and Martha and he was "troubled." He wept and grieved with the family.

People observing all this said, "Behold how he loved him!"

And some said, "Could not this man, having opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" (verse 36 & 37)

The way we understand it, death is the end. Dead. Buried. A permanent condition that cannot be undone. It did not occur to anyone on this scene that death was not the end. Their understanding, based, no doubt, on past experience with other people, made it very clear that death was the very end. No more hope. Dead. Buried. Leaving us devastated.

Jesus didn't understand things that way. He raised Lazarus right up from the dead. He came forth still wrapped in grave clothes, his face still covered. (verse 44)

Death?  Oh, that. Yeah. A temporary condition to Jesus Christ.

This outcome had not occurred to anyone who was there that day. It simply seemed impossible from a human understanding. While they thought He could have prevented him from dying in the first place, no one even so much as thought that He could raise him from the dead.

That's how they understood things.

I'm so glad they were wrong!

We are all wrong much of the time. Our understanding is off; we don't get it.

Do not lean on your own understanding, no matter what you face.
You can't believe everything you think.
~Tricia

Do You Love your Toothbrush?

"You own your spouse like you own your toothbrush." This is a quote from a sermon I once heard. This sermon was preached in a Regular Baptist Church by a pastor who serves on leading councils in his circles. His text was Ephesians 5:22, "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Based on this verse alone, this pastor went on to preach a one-sided sermon filled with heresy and falsehoods. He claimed that this applies to both men and women in that they "own" their spouse like they own their toothbrush.

Another statement made in the sermon was, "The word 'own' is emphasized in the Greek, making it the focus of this verse. God wants us to know we own our spouses!"

Friends, this is heresy and I have found that people who teach heresy are getting away with it right and left. We do not own our spouse like we own our toothbrush!

Toothbrushes are disposable........People are not disposable.

Toothbrushes can be bought and sold.....People are not to be bought and sold. 

The word "own" in this verse is the Greek word "idios" which literally means "peculiar, individually, privately."  It is not emphasized in the Greek as was taught. In the context of Ephesians 5:22, it is used to show that a woman's husband is peculiar to her as a husband, not owned like a toothbrush. She does not "own" him in the sense of owning a possession.

Heresy creeps in a little at a time. A pastor misuses a passage like this, then a few weeks later misuses another passage, and that goes on for a while and before you know it, the church has gone down the slippery slope of false teaching. In another sermon, I heard this same pastor say, "The wife is just the husband in another body." Heresy. Clear as a bell.

God's Word, and the preaching thereof, is never a little thing. It is how God manifests His Word in our hearts. It's how He has chosen to make Himself known to man. I never take the preaching of the Word lightly and I will fight false teaching with all my might, no matter what the cost. Be vigilant. Search the Scriptures to see if what you are being taught is true and right.

~Tricia

"A Particular Set of Skills"

In the movie, Taken, Liam Neisen's character tells his daughter's kidnappers, "I have a particular set of skills..." This is one of my favorite lines from the movie. It may surprise you to learn that I can relate to Liam's character, as I, too, have a particular set of skills.

Growing up, I did not know I had a particular set of skills. I was never anything special, just a little girl trying to survive my dad's horrid violence and abuse; trying to get through the day while I tried to anticipate what the next day held and how I would get through it. I honestly credit my sisters; they were my rock. I could always count on them.

My particular set of skills was activated one beautiful day in February of 1982. The day I became a mom. Suddenly, without warning, I was thrust into the full-time job of keeping another human being alive. I realize the pregnancy, itself, was the same thing, but that was easy enough since he was thoroughly protected within the uterine walls. Once outside that confinement, I was awestruck with the responsibility of his utter helplessness. Without intervention from another human being, he would die, even though he was strong and healthy. There was one human being particularly suited for the job: His mom. Me.

I took this seriously. A particular set of skills, that I didn't even know I had, was activated. Suddenly, I found myself fiercely protective of my little baby boy. In some ways, I was unprepared for the intensity of this set of skills. Later, a few incidents taught me that the intensity of a mother's love is not to be feared or disregarded.

This fierce mother-love has been a thing to be reckoned with over the years. I've never agreed with the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. That's too broad for me. I prefer to say that it takes committed parents to raise a child. In the case of single parenthood, it takes a committed parent. Did certain mission boards have a village mentality when the sexual abuse of missionary kids took place by several of their leaders? The parents, trapped by misleading leaders, fell into the trap of allowing others to see to what is best for their kids. This is a mistake. This is the exact reason I would never have made the grade with any of those types of mission boards. My kids would have always remained under my authority, which trumps all other authority. This would have been in conflict with the overriding methods and I'm quite sure I would have been deemed uncooperative and unfit for their purposes. I'd rather be deemed unfit than have my kids suffer abuse.

Fierce mother-love is condoned by our great God of the Bible. He knows no one does it better. He is the One Who gave moms this particular set of skills. Just read Isaiah 66.

My particular set of skills has been actively working for 31 years now and I have practiced the skills on all eight of my kids. This has given them security, confidence and power.

* It gives them security by teaching them that no matter what, Mom has their back. Security goes a long way for a child. Secure kids don't seek security in things of this world; they have no need to seek what they already have.

* It gives them confidence because, safe in the security of my defense of them, they are confident to defend themselves if need be. One of my sons was being approached by someone he felt was too aggressive for his comfort level. He said, "Do not approach me!" The man kept approaching him. My son said, "Do not approach me!" The man kept coming. My son, standing his ground, said for a third time, "Do not approach me!" And the man stopped and no longer approached him. When I heard about this later, I was incredibly proud of my son.

He was secure in his thinking that he did not have to tolerate aggressive approaches by an adult.

He was confident enough to demand the man stop and this enabled him to retain control of his own situation.

This leads to my third point:

* It has given them power. My son exhibited power over his own body, over his own situation and over his own outcome; and even over this adult who approached him. He did not want that man approaching him because he perceived him as aggressive. Whether the man was aggressive or not is completely irrelevant. If my son perceived aggression, he was right to treat the situation that way.

Young moms, be confident in your particular set of skills. Know that they are of God. Do not fall into the world's pattern of "it takes a village." It does not take a village. It takes YOU. Let no one, not even the most experienced people, not even leaders in your church, decide what is best for your kids.

~Tricia

The Priscilla Principle

For a long time, I've been working on putting my system of Bible study into an organized format that is easy to share with others. I call my system The Priscilla Principle. Since I developed this system more than 30 years ago, I have not used another. I learned the basic principles of Bible study in a college class while under the teaching of a wonderful professor who had patience and wisdom in leading his students. Dr. Wayne Knife was always above and beyond expectation in his teaching methods and he strongly impacted my life with his simple, yet effective Bible study methods.

Another man who has been very influential in my Bible study life is Pastor Lowell Spencer, the man who led me to Christ. He preached the Gospel the very first time I heard it and I never got over it. He showed me how to look things up in the Bible and also gave me the greatest piece of advice I've ever received in my entire life - to never take anyone's word for what the Bible says, but to look it up for myself. I still practice that to this day.

If I had to name one thing that has prevented spiritual abuse in my life, this would be that thing. I don't care who is preaching, I look up what they are saying and test it to see if it is in line with the Bible. If not, I confront it. If I'm not in a position to confront it, I simply don't listen to them ever again. This has saved me from spiritual abuse. I have removed my children from under the teaching of various people for this reason. I simply do not tolerate false teaching and to determine false teaching, I must test every teacher/preacher every single time they teach/preach.

The Priscilla Principle is designed to help people do just that. Last week, I finally took the plunge and bought the domain name ThePriscillaPrinciple.com so that I could go forward with the project and take it to the next level. The website gives a brief look into The Priscilla Principle, explains why I chose that name and gives an example on how to make observations of Scripture. I will be adding more and more information to the website in short order.

Also, my book, The Priscilla Principle, will be published on Amazon in the coming months!

My system is not the usual method of:

Observation > Interpretation > Application

My system is:

READ  >  OBSERVE  >  INTERPRET  >  PRAY

This method eliminates the application process of Bible study altogether. Misapplication of Scripture has been the main cause of spiritual abuse in churches all over the world. The Holy Spirit applies His Word to our lives; He's more than capable. 

The main premise of The Priscilla Principle is:

if I am focused on my own behavior, 

or the behavior of others, 

I am not focused on Jesus Christ, 

therefore, my focus is not where it should be.

In Acts 17:10 & 11, the saints in the church at Berea were commended for searching the Scriptures daily to see if the things they were being taught were true. They were called "noble" for doing so! You can do the same. You can search the Scriptures to see if what you are being taught is true. 

Priscilla was a woman grounded in Scripture and not afraid to use it. She and her husband, Aquila, were used mightily in the life of a great preacher, Apollos, when they took him aside after hearing him preach an incomplete message. Priscilla did not tolerate false or incomplete teaching. She confronted it immediately and her confrontation produced wonderful results. Read Acts 18 for the full story. This principle is named after her!

~Tricia

Elephants Don't Believe in Abortion

Fact: Elephants don't believe in abortion.

The birth of a new baby elephant in Indonesia this month made me realize this fact. I'm not a gambler, but I'm willing to bet money that you've never met an elephant that is a proponent of abortion. One could argue that elephants can't reason. They live by instinct, not reason, so naturally they don't "believe" in abortion because they don't "believe" in anything.

Okay.

The new baby elephant born in Indonesia has been born into the "Flying Elephant Squad." This little girl will be raised to protect villages from wild elephants that come in from the forest and, looking for food, do harm to the village farms and the villagers. The Flying Elephant Squad keeps these wild elephants at bay because they are protecting their own.

We can learn a lot from the elephants. Even their human handlers know that they need more elephants in this elite squad so that not only can the villages be protected, but the wild elephants causing the issues can also be protected.

And everyone knows that you won't get more elephants unless more elephants are born.

So, even reasonable men do not perform abortions on elephants.

According to this article, written in January of 2012, the number of abortions in the USA since 1973 was estimated at 54,559,615.

Fifty four MILLION, five hundred fifty nine THOUSAND, six HUNDRED fifteen. I'm sure there's a more recent estimate.

We have shrunk our own military potential......the ability to protect our own with our own.
We have shrunk our own progressive potential......we might think we're doing ok, but that's only because we will never know what potential we destroyed and thus won't know how much better we could be doing.
We have shrunk our own hopes for the future.....because a great, great portion of our future was snuffed out, never to be known.

Fact: Elephants don't believe in abortion because they were created with an instinct to live.

So was man. Sin destroys that instinct, covering it so that it sounds unreasonable.

I'm very glad that elephants don't believe in abortion. I wish mankind would be as smart.
~Tricia