Cry it Out

Something about teaching Judah to go to bed in his own bed has struck a chord within me. I wonder about how often we get into situations that God has to let us "cry it out"

The cry it out method is a method parents use when they've tried all the nice ways to put their kid down to bed (something he needs) and none of the easy ways worked. This method is generally a last resort for parents - its not what you want to do but your precious little one has just taxed the daylights out of your right mind. You don't know what else to try. He just has to cry it out and go to sleep.

As a parent of 3 children, I know this method works but its really a tough thing to do. In the process of teaching your child how to go to sleep, if you're like me, you turn the music up in the other room and put your head under a pillow, or you step outside just so you don't go and pick up the little one. He'll never learn to sleep on his own if he knows you'll come and get him if he cries hard and long enough.

Its not that you don't love your baby. Its not that you aren't worried about him, listening to make sure he isn't actually in need of something. In fact, part of the method involves making sure all his needs are met before you put him down. But there comes a time and a place that you just have to grind your teeth and suck it up and put that baby down.

God is illustrated as a Father again and again throughout the bible. And tonight, as I struggle to discipline my children in love, I wonder about how many times He has to let me cry it out.

War Heros

You have to fight alot of battles to be a war hero.

Think about it.

Seems obvious.


But we want to wake up one day and just be famous - be the guy that changed the world, be the woman on the cover of the NY Times for doing something spectacular for the kingdom. We want to change the world but we don't want to do the time in the war to earn the respect needed to make the changes we want to see.

"Be the change you want to see in the world" - Ghandi
"You are the light of the world." - Jesus

Remember this when life sucks. When its been 5 weeks without a car. When your boss won't fire the person you can't stand to work with. When you do the job someone else gets paid to do every day but they won't promote you. When you wake up a 3 o'clock in the morning with the kids screaming. When your broke and 3 months behind on your house payment. When your lonely at night wishing your spouse didn't work night shift. They're all little battles on the way to winning the war.

Steven Spielberg is an American film director. He has won several Academy Awards an ranks among the most successful filmmakers in history. Most of all, Steven was recognized as the financially most successful motion picture director of all time. During his childhood, Spielberg dropped out of junior high school. He was persuaded to come back and was placed in a learning-disabled class. He only lasted a month and then dropped out of school forever.

Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist widely regarded as the most important scientist of the 20th century. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 and "for his services to Theoretical Physics". However, when Einstein was young, his parents thought he was mentally retarded. His grades in school were so poor that a teacher asked him to quit, saying, "Einstein, you will never amount to anything!"

Isaac Newton was the greatest English mathematician of his generation. His work on optics and gravitation made him one of the greatest scientists the world has even known. Many thought that Isaac was born a genius, but he wasn't! When he was young, he did very poorly in grade school, so poor that his teachers became clueless in improving his grades.

In 1947, one year into her contract, Marilyn Monroe was dropped by 20th Century-Fox because her producer thought she was unattractive and cannot act. That didn't deter her at all! She kept on going and eventually she was recognized by the public as the 20th century's most famous movie star, sex symbol and pop icon.


"Your greatest anointing is usually where you'll fight the hardest." - Craig Cooper

3 Kinds of Kid

This morning at church I dropped my two boys off in the nursery for the sermon. As I left them playing happily, God spoke to me.

There are 3 kinds of kids in this world.


Child #1 is a kid who doesn't care that his parents has left them. They are independent, adventurous, and ready to take on whatever is coming. Its not that they don't need their parent, its that they trust their parent so completely that they believe wholeheartedly that if their Mommy chose to leave them somewhere then they must be safe. They get their hugs and kisses and then go play with the toys and the other children, happy as can be.



Child #2 is the less-adjusted child that screams at the top of his blessed lungs the entire time that their parent is absent. Usually this child is the visitor at church - he isn't familiar with the faces who are there to care for him. Sometimes they are people he knows but he'd rather be with his Daddy. This child cries so long and loud that you're pretty sure the preacher can even hear him. As soon as their parent returns and he is back in their arms, this child finds some peace and the storm calms to some whimpering.


Child #3 is the distracted one. For a moment, there is nothing in the world worse than the fact that Mommy or Daddy just left him in the nursery. But after about 3 or 4 minutes, he becomes preoccupied with the flashing lights or funny noises the toy given to him is making. He doesn't notice their absence at all until they re-appear and then he's ready to go back to them instantly.

In Romans (3:15-16) God talks about the church and makes it very clear that He favors extremes. He says "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!"

God does not want us to be distractable. He wants us to either be independent and trust the process and go and do what he wants us to do - or else cry and cling to him for dear life. Obviously the first is the preferable choice - but if you aren't in a place to just go do what He said to do, then cling for dear life because He wants us to be one or the other - not on the fence about it!

Place of Pain

Sometimes I feel like David (from the Bible). I do everything I can to do what I'm supposed to and even if I beat the giant, I've got other, bigger problems to deal with once that's over with. Its times that I get discouraged that I sit and read the Psalms. Today, Psalm 84 is what popped up on Google when I went looking for encouragement (funny how God uses things like Google!) Sometimes the old language throws off the meaning for me so I re-write it in the spirit of what he was getting at. I felt I should share today.


How beautiful is your home, Lord Almighty. My soul longs, even though I may be tired and weary, to be in your presence. My heart and my body cry out for the living God. Even something as insignificant as a sparrow has a place, a nest where she can protect her little babies - a place close to you, Lord Almighty, My King and my God.

Those who live in your house, they are blessed. They are always thanking you. Those who depend on you for their strength, they are also blessed. Their hearts are set on an adventure. As they walk through the place of great pain and crying, they transform it to a place of hope. The driest parts become lush pools of life. They continue to hold on to your strength, determined to make it until they reach God in the fullness of heaven. Listen to me pleading, Lord God, and hear me. Look on the things I have protecting me with favor, and give a shield to the ones you have chosen.

Its better to be with you for one day than live a thousand days apart from you. I'd rather be a slave doing the dirtiest jobs You have than live with those who don't know You. You are the light of the day and my protection at night. You give me favor and honor. You don't hold back any blessings from those who walk without fault.

Lord Almighty, blessed is anyone who puts their trust in You.



Did you catch that part about the valley of pain (Valley of Baca)? David says "As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools." He doesn't say that they just tough through the desert, or that God chooses to have mercy on their souls - it says THEY (as in the ones walking through it, the ones who turn to God for their strength) MAKE it a place of springs.

You -- not anyone else, not God, not your church leaders, not your spouse. YOU are the one who can make your place of greatest pain a place of life and hope.