An open letter to people I love to hate...

Every single day, I just love to hate you. I feel that I have reason to. I don’t like your behavior. I don’t like your attitude. I don’t like the direction you combed their hair. I don't like your dog... or your friend's dog. Whatevs. I don’t need a particular reason, because you’ve stomped on my very last nerve until it is fried and frayed and hanging on by a teensy tiny thread.

Sometimes you stomp heavily on said nerve through your thoughtless and selfish antics. You open your mouth too much and say mean things… or you don’t say anything at all at times when politeness would be a blessing. Or you drive past my truck and don’t mention the scratch that you quite apathetically made on my already beat up bumper. And you saunter around as if your metaphorical car’s better than mine, because it isn’t as damaged. Or you place blame in the wrong direction. Or you post hatefulness instead of trying to lift peeps up. 

But then I'm reminded that I am just like you. 

I am apathetic to people's needs. 

I run my mouth when I shouldn't.  

I've judged when it's just not my place. 

I don't look at people like God does. 

And you present to me a choice each and every day. 

Allow the pain of your actions to hurt me… or not. 

Allow the damage already done on my heart to continue hurting me and others… or not. 

Treat you in a mean way, like the world would tell me to do… or not. 

Chose revenge... or not.

To be like Jesus and love you… or not. 

And I begin to understand love in a deeper manner. Loving someone doesn’t mean to love all of their actions. I don’t have to like or agree with you in order to love you. I can choose to try to understand why hitting my truck wasn’t worth an apology and love you because you had a bad day. I can choose to see that you hurt me, because maybe you thought I was the luckier one and you lashed out.  Or maybe it wasn’t about me at all, and I can chose to love you for that too. 

Instead of reveling in your misfortune, I’ll pray for your heart and keep trying to love you as a child of God.

I can choose to wake up and spend the day being more like my Creator that made my beautiful life… and gave me free will… and allowed me to make a mess of things. The One that picks me up and calls my His. And makes me beautifully broken. 

I can’t love you quite like that. 

But I can choose to try.  

Because you are worth it.

You are beautifully broken too.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

1 Peter 4:8 NIV

Take The Duct Tape Off Of Your Mouth And SHINE!

Yesterday we talked about how cutting our little tongues can be... BBs, God can always make something broken in us absolutely beautiful!!

Who did God choose to lead HIS people on one of the greatest missions of ALL time?  The great Exodus?  The period of learning to live WITH God that still applies today?  This was a doozy!  No cake walk for this chosen fella.  God chose MOSES peeps, MOSES!  He was a walking hot mess. The man that proclaimed that he was "slow of speech and tongue" in Exodus 4:10.  I wonder if God did this for a reason.  He knows how damning our tongue is.  Moses had to rely on God for this overwhelmingly important task... and God alone.

One more nugget of happy about this whole ripple effect...

So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  

Philippians 2:10-11 

We are back to the spiritual warfare thing again (mentioned yet again in James 3)!  Don't forget BBs, we are for God or against Him.  Hot or Cold.  God's will or our will.  Those demony nasties can make us say all kinds off things, and they can make us feel unworthy, stupid, hurt, anxious, etc. when people throw daggers our way.  But in the end, EVERY knee will bow... don't miss this... on heaven, earth, and UNDER earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord...  Our one and only beautifully broken Savior.

Dear Father, tame my tongue today.  I know that when I speak, I become open to a host of consequences... good or bad.  Allow me today, Father, to bear good fruits.  Help me sow a harvest of righteousness and peace.  Father, I want your will to be done... not mine... as hard as that is.  Help me remember that satan loves to make me feel inadequate and anxious, but all good things come from You.  You are greater.  Keep me strong in your name.  Amen

Ripple Effect of Our Big Fat Mouths

So BB's, I'm almost 30 years old...give or take a decade, and I want to go find the person that said, "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me," and punch them in the neck. 

Words.  Do.  Hurt.

After getting my feelings hurt, I quickly...or slowly because I had to sulk a little and pray and be a baby... turn to the Word.  And BBs, I'll be honest... I do the same thing when I've opened my big fat mouth and hurt someone.  I'm not quick enough to apologize and that's bad stuff.  I started reading about what the Word of God says about our tongue. He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity. Proverbs 21:23  

(I think this can be said for our hearts too.  Guard yourself, BBs.  There is a ripple effect to everything we lay out there.  Just read more about spiritual warfare!  We can open ourselves up for a lot of destruction... or set ourselves up for success).

Next ones a doozie.  Don't miss it because it's a lot of words.  Read it over and over!!  THIS is the ripple effect... both good and bad.  I want to duct tape my mouth... and yours too!    
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.  From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. 
Just part of James 3:4-18 (Read the WHOLE thing when you can!)

BBs, our tongue is a MAJOR weapon.  We'll look a little more about it all this week, so tune in.  Until then, I'm gonna duct tape my mouth shut so and try to stay out of trouble!!  The old sneaky snake sho nuff loves to use our big fat mouths for his shenanigans.  

Busy Bee BBs

So we started the week talking about the ripple effect of our actions. And then something happened... With me anyway...busy-ness.  I ran out of time to write. Other things got in my way and then I got in the way of making this blog happen. 

BBs, sometimes we are the busy-ness and stumbling block for others. It hurts my feelings to think that, but it's true.  Read these verses peeps, and understand that Jesus is telling the disciples about his death that is just around the corner.  They must have been shaking in their sandals over this one... 

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.  But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.  Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."  Matthew 16:22-24

Whoa Nelly!  Jesus just called his own BB, Peter, "Satan"!!  What up with that??  That makes me physially ILL to think about.  But aren't we?  When we obstruct, we become like Satan.  When we make choices and take the easier path, we are of the world.    If we are of the world, we are not of Christ.  We are of Satan.  That just stings like I hit ya on the funny bone with a hammer, huh? 

Referencing Luke Chapter 4, R. A. Torrey writes, "The fallen archangel is craving for worship still."  BBs, when we step in front of someone else that is doing the work of Christ, we are a stumbling block just like Peter.  We are an OBSTRUCTION!  Please, please, please let's not worship the wrong thing.  Only ONE God is worthy of worship.  Oh the thought of indirectly giving worship to that nasty liar makes me want to lock myself in my house and sing praise songs and read the Bible 24/7.  But I can't. 

I CAN pray continuously. 
I CAN give my thoughts to HIM. 
I CAN seek intimacy with him. 
I CAN follow the 10 commandments. 
I CAN love my neighbor as myself.  
I CAN choose to worship Him!
I CAN take up my cross!!!

The word cross in these verses is quite literally "the cross."  No trickery here. It means the very cruel way of punishing criminals and others to death by crucifixion.  But wait!  The root of this word means something quite different.  It means to stand... to make firm... to set or place in balance.  Isn't that what the cross does for us, BB's?

Put on your armor, stand strong, and take up your cross, cause BB's... we are in for a wild ride! 

Father, we are so, so sorry for ever giving satan worship through our actions.  You died for us on the cross and the very least we can do is take up our cross everyday in thanks for your grace and mercy.  When temptations are strong... when busy-ness is closing in so heavily... when life is just plain ole hard, Father, point us to the cross.  Wrap us up in your unfailing love.  Amen.

We GOTSTA Have Jesus Down Deep In Our Hearts So We Can Get Our SHINE! On!!

So this week on the BB blog, we are going to be talking about the ripple effect of our actions, and how it affects our SHINE!  Let's recap what we've looked at so far...

1. We are made to SHINE!
2. In order to SHINE! with God's light, you have to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
3. When you become a Christian the Kingdom of Light starts right here on earth. 
4. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light to try to trip a BB up. 

This week we are going to discuss the ripple effect of the decisions we make every single day.

First, i want to share with you one of my favorite BB quotes of all time.  We, BBs, were jogging and giggling and talking about all kind of silliness and our sweet blonde BB comes out with this little nugget... "BB, if we didn't have Jesus down deep in our hearts, we could do some real damage."

Is this not so true, BBs?  Like the song says, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.  Prone to leave the God I love."  We've talked before about not being created for this world, and our wandering hearts are a hot mess.  When we don't seek first the Kingdom, we are constantly searching and never truly fulfilled.  We are constantly hungry and never satisfied.  We leave a constant trail of destruction when we try to do things on our own accord.  We just rip though life like the Tasmanian devil. 

A few years ago I got a tattoo that has my mother's initials, my initials, and my little girl's initials to remind me that every decision I make, good or bad, has a ripple effect. Every decision my mother made had a ripple effect on generations of BBs to come. 

Mary even sang about it! How beautiful that must have been. 

His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. Luke 1:50

So this is where we need to start. What are some things that are having a positive ripple effect on your life, your family, your friends? What are some negative things?

What are some things that your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents did (good or bad) that has affected your family? This is where we start to peel the onion apart, BBs.. layer by layer.

Catch That Sneaky Snake By The Tail So You Can SHINE!

So as I began to post this, my formatting failed, Internet went down, and I almost gave up. Dang no legs wanted to keep us from our SHINE! So excuse the formatting mess.  We are just gonna go with it!! 

Today, BBs, we begin to peel away the layers of the stinky onion that is keeping you from the Kingdom of Lights.  But we have to recognize one thing first: There is gonna be some spiritual warfare, and as we've said in another post, "We wanna bop those dang devils over the head like we are Little Bunny Foo Foo and they are bunch ole flea bitten field mice." 

Anytime we BBs (that means YOU too) step out and do a big somethin’ that has God wobbling in the middle of it, we are going to get pounced by that ole no legged, temptation slinging, lying, teasing serpent.  And what do we do?  Fall for it most the stinkin’ time until that voice of reason that God slung in our hearts, called the Holy Spirit, shakes us by our fairy wings and says, “STOP!”  What we forget is that each and every day as we walk along in this yucky world, we are being teased and poked at by Satan and all his lowlife minions.  We are in the middle of spiritual warfare people…plain and simple.

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. 2 Corinthians 11:14-15

Does 2 Corinthians 4:4 make more sense now? The gods of this age are blinding unbelievers. And here we see that sneaky satan is all up in the mix disguising himself as an angel of light!! 

I tell ya, this mess can just scare the fire and brimstone out of ya, cause it’s REAL!!  Our prayer for you today is that you take this seriously.  Satan is just looking for a loophole in you…in us.  He is looking for a weakness.  He is ready to pounce and let the ripple effect of his nastiness run through your life little by little until it affects your family and friends for generations to come… let that sink in!!  For generations to come!

BUT.... As the Vegetales so eloquently put it, “God is bigger than the boogie man”!  AND HE IS!!!

So as you peel back the first layer of yuck (whether it's a little ole habit or big nasty layer of something seemingly unforgivable) and head into healing, be alert BBs. Satan is going to try to stop you. Make this year THE year that you say, "Nopers, not gonna happen ole sneaky snake."                                                                                                       

This Little Light of Mine...

So yesterday BBs, we looked at 2 Corinthians 4:4. Just a review...

The god of this age has blinded the mines of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

So here's the deal peeps... the gods of this world are all around the BB army.  Satan and the idols of this world (greed, envy, money, sex, power, our kids, our ideas... anything keeping us from God) are blinding those people that don't know God. 

If you are a Christian, you know how difficult it is every single day in this dark, yucky, sneaky snake-filled world.  Imagine how difficult every single day is for those peeps that do not know the bright, shiny goodness of Christ!?!

So step one... Have you asked Jesus to come deep down in your heart and forgive your messiness? If so, move to step two. If not, contact us, or a friend, or a church (even if that thought makes your  panties crawl into unforgivable places). You have to BBs. Your future depends on it! We can talk about all the sparkly joy in the world and make you feel fuzzy and warm inside, but you will be missing it. That hurts my BB heart!!

Step two... Start thinking about what your idol is. Mine is busy-ness. That's what the sneaky snake uses to lure me off the tiny bunny trail God planned for me. What's yours?

Tomorrow we will look a your destiny... The Kingdom of Lights!! Exciting stuff, BBs!!

Kingdom of Lights

So yesterday BB's, we looked at 2 Corinthians 4:4.  We talked about how important it was to have a big dose of Jesus as our Savior and SHINE! to others that do and don't have some Jesus. 

Now this, my friends, is why we must shine in the face of darkness.  Here is another verse that shows us just how lucky we are if we have Jesus down deep in our hearts!

Thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in the kingdom of lights. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  Colossians 1:12-14

BB's, if you are a Christian, you have it made! You are going to spend an eternity in the kingdom of light! Scripture tells us that the kingdom of lights starts right this second (the second you ask Christ down deep in your heart)...not when we die and go to heaven (although we are gonna get some mega sparkle when that happens)!! 

So how are you going to embrace the kingdom of lights... right here on earth? I challenge you to start peeling away the things of the world that are taking over your life and stealing your joy. Expect tears. You can't peel the layers of a stinky stank onion without some tears, BBs. 

Is it anger, fear, sadness, work, friendships?  Is it your kids?  Your significant other?  What is keeping your light from being a big ole strobe light for Jesus?

Tomorrow we will look a big ole closer look about how to muddle through the things holding back our sparkle.  

(And please peeps... Message or email us if you want more info on becoming a Christian and experiencing the kingdom of lights right this very second. It'll change your life.) 

Until then... start peeling. Layer by layer. It's gonna take a while BBs. Days. Months. Years. But it'll happen. Be patient and start praying over it. Until tomorrow... 

Dangling a BB Carrot...

So here's a little sneak peak at tomorrow's post. That ole sneaky snake is at it again!  More from 2 Corinthinans 4!  If you're just joining us in 2015, check out yesterday's post regarding our SHINE! campaign. Until tomorrow, check out this passage...

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV)

What's your "god," BB's?  Leave a comment below if you're a super hero, "I'm not afraid to be realz" kinda BB. AND sign up for blog updates in the box up at the top of the page. 

More chit chat about gettin' yo shine on tomorrow!!  Spoiler alert... We gotsta  tame ole "no legs" Satan in tomorrow's SHINE! chat. 

Shine BB's, SHINE!

Happy New Year BB's!!  The past few years, we have been talking about grace and beauty rising from ashes.  We've talked about being a brokendown hot mess and how God uses our mess to create something beautiful. 

This year our focus is going to be SHINE!  We will still be doing some longer blogs, but are going to try to do a couple of mini blogs per week.  We hope that you will join our newsletter on our blog site and use these as words of encouragement throughout your week and throughout 2015.

So here is a verse to get you started this week.

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of your darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.  2 Corinthians 4:6

BBs God made you to SHINE!  We are going to stop, drop, and roll around in 2 Corinthians 4 for a hot minute. Prepare to start shining peeps!  The same God that brought light out of darkness and gave us the moon and stars and sunlight, has put that same light in your heart!  Let that sink in a second. Think about how much light can shine out of you every single day.  Think about how much the Creator of the universe loves you and wants you to grow and SHINE!! 

How will you SHINE! this year?? How will you take your beautiful mess and let it shine to others? Let us know in the comment section!