Is your heart lying to you?

In class on Sunday we talk about Jerimiah 17:9  ”The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  We talked about how we can lie to others and ourselves.  The interesting thing is that when we lie to others, they know we are lying.  But when we lie to ourselves, we convince ourselves that it is not a lie.  Let me give you a few examples:  I was talking to a youth minister friend and wanting to get the youth group things they need.  One thing that I said they needed was a Wii.  My friend looked at me and said, do you really think the youth group needs a Wii.  I had to respond no, because the youth group doesn’t need a Wii.  I just want one.  I wanted a Wii, but so I didn’t sound conceited I came up with this lie that I was telling others, but it wasn’t the real reason.

Here is another example from the lesson.  A man is spending a lot of time with this woman who is not his wife.  He friend asks him why he is spending so much time with that woman.  He answers, she needs a friend.  Oh?  His friend says well what about Bertha, she needs a friend.  The man was telling himself and others a lie that he knew wasn’t true, but he convinced himself that it was true.  He wasn’t spending time with her because she needs a friend and everyone knew it.  And deep down so did he.

Jeremiah 17 tells us that our heart is deceitful.  We don’t want to tell people the real reason we do things.  The reason “because I want to” just doesn’t fly anymore since we are not kids.  So we reach into our excuse box and pull out something that sounds good.  It really doesn’t sound good, but we use it anyway.  We are lying to ourselves and we know it, but we continue because we want to.

It’s as simple as that.  We don’t want to tell people that because we sound selfish or greedy.  So we come up with some reason that really doesn’t apply to make ourselves feel better.  Its time we stop lying to ourselves and start living as God would want you to.

My Hot Wife!

Today, I thought I would blog about my wife.  She is absolutely amazing!  She is smart, funny, crazy, adorable, goofy, zany, awesome, beautiful, wonderful, and the greatest wife ever!  Lydia is always helping me and challenging me. She keeps me in check and helps me enjoy life.  Each day is a new adventure and I just love spending time with her.

Recently she became a full time photographer.  I love it.  We get to spend more time together.  It just doesn’t get better then that!  Anyway, she is an amazing photographer!  You can check out her website to see all her pictures at www.lydiashannon.com.   Here is a picture of the two of us that a photographer friend took.

Ephesians 5:25 says ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.  As a husband I need to love my wife like Jesus loved the church.  That means loving her more than myself and putting her first.  I want to impress upon husbands everywhere to start doing this.  So many husbands treat their wives poorly and I have had enough of it.

Frisbee Golf

On Monday, I went ot play frisbee golf or disc golf with some friends.  We have been playing a lot and since none of us are very good, we have lost some discs.  Frisbee golf is a really cheap sport, but you still hate losing your discs.  So we decided to look for some that other people have lost.  At this point I need to tell you that I have been playing at the Easterlin Course we were at for several years and I only found one disc in all that time.  That one disc was at the top of a tree and it took me 30 minutes to knock it out.

So as we are playing and looking for discs, we found one.  The disc had a name and number on it so we called.  The guy was very nice and we told him we would leave it at the front office. He said he would get it later today.  Then we found another disc with a name and number.  Called him and left it in the office.  We played the rest of the course, but didn’t find any more.

After the game, two of the guys deciced to wade in the water and look for discs.  They found one without a name and number so we got to keep that one.  And we found one more with a name and number.  This was my favorite call.  The disc belonged to a guy named Tim who is from Ohio and now lives in Florida.  Tim could not beleive that we had call him to give him his disc back.  He said people in Ohio do that all the time, but never down here.  Tim even invited me to play frisbee golf with him sometime.

What hit me about talking to Tim is that I did what God would want me to do.  Matthew 7:12 tell us to do to others as we would have them do to you.  The reason I was so quick to call Tim and the other guys is because people have called about discs that I lost.   When they call you feel so greatful and exited that they cared enough to call you.  So many times in our lives we forget that we should treat people the way we want to be treated.  Instead we want to be mean when we are upset or nasty if they do something to us.  God would tell you to stop and treat that person they way you want to be treated.  If someone offends you, we shouldn’t fly off the handle and let them have it.  We should think about how we would want to be treated in this situation, because there are times we have done that same thing.  When we say or do something that hurt’s someone we would want them to treat us as they would want to be treated. 

Imagine if you treated everyone the way you wanted to  be treated.  There would not be yelling and fighting because no one like to be yelled at.  No one likes to fight and be hurt.  So let us start to today to treat others how we want to be treated.  From opening a door to forgiving the person who cuts us off in traffic.