Determination

[00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome back to seeing God in the everyday and we are back in the studio and so after a week of being out and about and dealing with rainstorms, we're now back in the comfy

[00:00:26] confines of the studio with lovely air conditioning in our 90 degree heat today. It was a brutal day today with the heat. I think that it got like 96. Yeah, actual tampia. It was hot today. Crazy for so early in the year but you know, it's Florida

[00:00:45] So I'd rather have this than you know 20 degrees in the winter time. Absolutely. But we are back and we are glad to be back and I hope you guys enjoyed our trip down memory lane

[00:00:59] for the last couple of weeks as we talked a little bit about our last 30 years of marriage and it was a lot of fun. It was. We did a lot of memory lane recently because after our 30th anniversary, we celebrated your 50th birthday

[00:01:13] Yeah, yeah. Talk about going through old pictures. Well, yeah, it's funny because you know now that I'm 50. Do you feel any different? No, I feel 50. I don't know. I don't know. What is 50 supposed to feel like? 49 plus a day or two.

[00:01:34] But you know, I don't feel any different. I still woke up the next day and felt the same way as whatever. Did we got to do?

[00:01:43] It was really nice to go back and look at some of the old pictures and go back and look at some of the old things. Especially after we just went through the whole marriage of the years and then go back and go, wow, you know,

[00:01:55] We really did a lot of stuff and it was just kind of cool. Yeah, it's it's good to look back everyone's to wow. I think so that you have perspective and looking forward. It does. It helps doesn't it?

[00:02:08] I remember in high school, what was our choir teachers name and high school speaking of looking back? What was her name? But she said I remember one time we were we were doing a piece and it was a brahms brahms.

[00:02:22] It's been a year. It's been a while but a composer. It was the composer. Brahms? Are you sure it was choir? Because I think I'm thinking the same thing you're thinking and it was a it was a symphonic band piece and it was absolutely by Brahms.

[00:02:37] It was maybe it was symphonic band. It was that was choir. But and they basically said that high school students or teenagers don't know how to play Brahms correctly because we haven't had enough tragedy in our life. It's right. Because we've only been there for a second.

[00:02:55] We've only been there for a second. We've only been there for a second. We've only been there for a second. So now that I'm 50, maybe I can play Brahms now. Maybe. But can you still play your trumpet? No. Can I play the trumpet at all?

[00:03:07] But it is good to look back and it's good to look at some of those things. But the last thing you want to do is live in the past. Right. The things that happen back then are great. They're awesome things. They're challenging things.

[00:03:19] But they are there to help us grow and to learn and move forward. So there's a touchstone to see faithfulness and growth. Yes. But yeah, it's dangerous to live back there. Right. You don't want to just get stagnant and be stuck back there.

[00:03:34] That was a cool thing. And we had also another cool thing that happened as we had one of our friends come and visit with us. And it was so awesome because she had a baby. Little 10 went though.

[00:03:47] It was so cool because we haven't had a baby in the house in 15 years. Right. And literally we've not had a baby really in the house since then. And it was so cool to watch her. Just that simple thing of just learning what's around her. Right.

[00:04:08] Learning what's going, you know, what are those noises? The dogs barking the eggs. What are the different noises in this house? What are the different things that she's seeing? But one of the coolest things for me was watching her try to stand.

[00:04:22] Well, she actually was standing very well. She was doing squat. We decided that the exercise program of the year was going to be following her around and just copy everything she does. Yeah. Because I mean, the girl could stand. That was not a problem. She could stay.

[00:04:38] But she would pull up on stuff and you would see the determination. She was like, I'm going to reach for the glass table. I'm going to reach her to the cup. And she would just kind of, and she couldn't move really well yet.

[00:04:52] I mean, she could kind of scoot along a little bit. Yeah, a little bit of cruise in the long the edges of the furniture. But not. Yeah, but she was like, not real solid yet. There was no like taking off and leaping and going for it.

[00:05:04] But to see the determination because she did it over and over and over and over and over here for just a couple days. But I bet you she tried to, I'm going to just use the glass table as an example of that. That was her favorite temptation.

[00:05:18] Wasn't it? To get to the cups on the glass table for, you know, hours, you know, and everything. She would just keep reaching for it. She'd keep scooting, she would try to go and it just made me think about some things.

[00:05:30] And especially, you know, seeing a baby and now that I'm 50. You know, you're ancient. Yeah, now that you're not at home. You know, it made me think about these things of that God has placed stuff in us. He's placed desire. She's placed thoughts.

[00:05:47] He's placed these things in us. Just like she had this thought, this desire. You know, she had this God given ability to stand and to want something. And you know, we have those same things.

[00:06:01] It was interesting to just watch her continually strive over and over and over and she would miss and sit down. You know, think, then she had the diaper. She would bite down on the floor. And but she just kept trying. She was so resilient about it.

[00:06:21] She just kept right back up. Yeah. And I wonder, so many times how we get in that situation where there's something we're striving for or something we're going after something we're trying to get. And we struggle. We try and then we flump. And we give up.

[00:06:39] And I wonder how many times we miss out on what God has for us. I wonder how many times we miss out a joy or a happiness or a learning experience because we just quit after the first or second try.

[00:06:56] Or we don't even try because it's too difficult. And, you know, to pull the illustration a little bit farther. How many times do we miss out something that God designed us for? Right. You know, this is this is a little one who she's designed to walk.

[00:07:12] She's designed, you know, she's got the bone structure. She's got the muscles. She's got the, you know, the want to move. She was designed to walk and run eventually. Yeah. And, you know, mom and dad. I'm sure it's a, yeah, it should be great.

[00:07:29] To climb too, but we just won't talk about that right now. Okay, shall we listen? But she was designed to do all these things. God gave her all the raw materials. Right. You know, but she's got to do that hard stuff to develop.

[00:07:45] She's got to do her squats to build up those little muscles and she's got to reach and she's got to try again. Yeah. And it's work. It is. And you could see.

[00:07:55] I mean, you could, I made the joke that I said she's going to be professional tennis player because she would, she would grunt every time she would. She was going around and stuff because she was trying so hard. She really wanted that table.

[00:08:12] You know, she really wanted to walk. She really wanted her. And but it was just, it was so neat. And we talk about this is how many times has got to open doors for us.

[00:08:25] And you know, looking back at our past, how many times has got to open doors for us. And we were too afraid to go through. Right. Or we only gave it half the effort. You know, I think that is one of the bigger problems.

[00:08:39] I think that is probably something that hinders Christians more. Is that okay, we see the opportunity. Right. And we just go, I tried once and I fell. Yeah. Or I'm not going to give it my all.

[00:08:56] Because because if I fail and then I'll end up landing on my butt. Right. You know, I'll end up flumping on my butt. Very ding. And, you know, and if I don't have a diaper, I'm not going to hurt a little bit. Right.

[00:09:10] But that's the thing is that with the failure, she was learning. Right. With the failure, she was learning. Oh, wait a second. I can't just reach without moving my foot. So if I move my foot, then I reach. Right.

[00:09:28] I can reach farther and I have a little more balance. You saw that was the next step that she was doing as the weekend progressed. Right. Is that you actually saw her, not just reach over and fall down.

[00:09:40] But you saw her start to turn her hips and start to turn. And we actually saw her a couple times actually put that foot out. Yeah. She did that pivot move a couple of times. She didn't get there. She was so close, but she didn't get there.

[00:09:58] She made that turn and she put that foot there and then she thought, she's something down. But you saw in her failure how she was processing how she was learning how she was now going. Okay. I need to change this a little bit. Right.

[00:10:15] Guys, it's the same way with us. This is the, this is just because we're not 10 months old. We're older and wiser. Doesn't mean we don't go through the same processes. And we do, we still have to fail. Fail. Oh, we learn something different. Okay. We change this. Fail.

[00:10:37] We change this a plan ourselves to continue. Yeah. And it's that thing of beating your body. You know, it's that thing of, you know, once you work out once you feel horrible. You know, you work out the second time.

[00:10:53] You feel horrible, but in different parts of your body. You work out a third time. Well, by the fourth or fifth time you're now starting to get it. My body's starting to adapt. You're now making changes. You know, you're not, you're not holding things wrong.

[00:11:09] You're now probably holding things a little different because you have better knowledge. And that's so much of what life is. Right. That little idea of watching this 10 month old reach and try to grab a table and come up with a lot of things that we can do.

[00:11:26] And try to grab at a table. In compasses so much of what we live and just our day-to-day. And what I believe, what we should be doing in our day-to-day is that understanding what God is called us to do and go for it. Right.

[00:11:40] And accept the fact that it's, yeah, he created us to do these things. But it's not just going to be this. Between, you know, there you go. You can do it now because I created you to do this.

[00:11:53] There's effort involved and there's learning involved and there's training involved. And it's great to have, you know, this little one had her mama here to help her and coach her. And we have those people in our lives that are helping us and coaching us.

[00:12:10] And the Holy Spirit helps us and coaches us. And yet we're the ones that have to do the thing. Right. We're the ones that have to absorb those lessons and then adjust to the more the ones that have to walk in the truths that we've discovered. Right.

[00:12:26] Yeah, because it wouldn't have done her any good if mama would have just walked her over there like, with her feet. She learns nothing, right? She wouldn't learn anything. She would learn if I just sit here and wine enough. Mama's going to just move me over there.

[00:12:40] So I'm what I've been taught now is to wine not to actually move her right now. It's the wrong one. It's a different one. I learned something just not something good. You know, but yeah, exactly that, you know, we've got to do it. Right.

[00:12:56] You've got to step out and, you know, as an encouragement, we need to take that and go, we need to do the things necessary to fulfill what God's calling is in our life. Right. You know, you've got to do it.

[00:13:11] You know, you're not going to lose weight by just thinking about it. Wouldn't that be nice though? You're not going to run that marathon by just going, boy, those marathon runners on TV. That looks like, looks like fun. I think I'll do that.

[00:13:27] I'm going to sign up and just show up, right? Yeah, that'd be a bad day. Yeah, that's a bad day. But, well, don't you have a scripture that we kind of were hitting on, and we want to talk about laws.

[00:13:37] We've kind of been dancing around all of it. Some of the same themes, you know, sometimes when you see these life lessons, you want to double check them and make sure that it's not just man's philosophy

[00:13:48] because a lot of times, you know, we can think some things that sound really good. But when you start pulling them apart and comparing them to what the scripture says that God thinks on the subject, it falls short. Right.

[00:14:02] So, so as we were talking about this and going, wow, we're seeing this and isn't this awesome. Once you guys think this is part of the seeing God in the everyday, we're not just looking for enlightening philosophies. Right.

[00:14:17] We're looking for scripture on truth that we can walk out because if it's not scripture on truth, it's going to fall short somewhere in failure. Because in the build on top of that, again, we don't want to have man's philosophy. Right.

[00:14:32] You know, the last thing we do is when we go is we're trying to interject our ideas how it should be. We want to make sure they're always bouncing stuff back off scripture. Right. So that we can come into agreement with that. Exactly.

[00:14:47] And it's that thing of understanding God's character also of who he is because then you can start seeing him and we through all. Right. Yeah, because when you start focusing on what you believe in what you think that's when you're going to go.

[00:15:04] Sometimes our observations go a mess. So we can have good intentions that lead to bad places. We can. So as we were talking through this, we were like, we want to double check and make sure that the scripture

[00:15:16] backs this, that what we're seeing is what we're really seeing and that what we're seeing is what we're seeing in context over in first Corinthians chapter nine. The scripture very clearly addresses what we've been talking about today.

[00:15:31] It says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize. So run that you may obtain it every athlete exercises self control in all things. We saw self control in this little one.

[00:15:51] They do it to receive a perishable breath, but we and imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one just beating the air, but I discipline my body and I keep it under control. Lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.

[00:16:12] And the context here is where Paul the apostle is speaking to the way he conducts himself as he's speaking to. He's been doing this for the next himself as he ministers among the churches and what he walks out in his day today.

[00:16:26] And it's this same example that we've been talking about that, you know, he didn't just do it aimlessly. He didn't just go, well, God gifted me to do this thing. So, put towing I can do this thing right? He disciplined himself. He disciplined his body.

[00:16:41] He disciplined his thoughts even as an athlete, even as a little baby. He taught me to walk, disciplines herself to keep getting back up, disciplines herself to keep exercising and strengthening those muscles. Disciplines herself to learn every time she falls down. You know.

[00:16:57] Yeah, and I love one pulsing. I don't just run aimlessly. Right. You know, I don't just go in any direction or I don't just beat the air. Right. There's a goal in a purpose. Yeah. There's a focus.

[00:17:11] There's a, if you want something, you need to go for that. And you need to do the things necessary to reach it. You know, if God's placed in something on your heart, you need to go for that. Focus on something.

[00:17:24] If you're going to go for something, if you're going to. If God's put something in you that you want to grow up into and you can't have an inkling of what that is. Right. You know? You've got to focus on the right things. Right.

[00:17:37] And you've got to stay true to the things that are going to lead you in the right direction. And, you know, like, going back to our little girl here. You know? She wanted to walk. She wanted to reach and grab that table. That cup.

[00:17:53] Whatever was on that table, she wanted. Right. And what she did is she positioned herself so that she could make a move for that. Right. And it was so neat to watch her crawl over.

[00:18:08] And she didn't just kind of crawl over to the thing, you know, crawl over to it. She would crawl nearby, you know? And then she would stand up on the, on the, the Ottoman or the chair because she wanted to reach out for it.

[00:18:22] She didn't just want to crawl it. So she positioned herself. She did different things. It was just, it was so neat to watch it. So it was a good day to really do it. It made me, you know, realize it's like, oh, I need to do a better.

[00:18:34] If I'm going to do this, I need to do a better job preparing myself for this. Right. But it goes right along with what Paul was saying, we're, we're trying to win the prize. Right. We're running the race to win.

[00:18:47] We need to position ourselves in that situation and do things. Clear some things out. Right. Do some things that are going to put us in the right position to reach our goals. Right. And, and it's a broader self discipline.

[00:19:04] You know, she did, she self disciplined herself and is going to have to continue self-disciplining in the exercise, the working out part. She's going to have to discipline in the, in the positioning and the learning adaptation part.

[00:19:21] But she also, we watched very clear examples of where she's having to discipline herself in resting to restore strength when she needs to. Man, she didn't want to do that sometimes. She was like, no, I am not going to take a nap.

[00:19:37] But the more exhausted she became, if she continued to try, she couldn't get up as easily. She tipped over faster. Well, when we don't rest and restore and get in the word and just sit on the father's lap and be renewed.

[00:19:57] We run out of strength to keep running, too. Right. You know, there was so much in just watching a little. And you know, that whole thing of rest, the thing that it was showing me is that when she was getting tired

[00:20:12] is that she was getting more and more upset. Yeah. The frustration overwhelmed her. Yeah. And it's the same thing with us. You know, I am not a car mechanic. Yeah. No, you're not. He's really not y'all. Two years ago, we had a van.

[00:20:29] And it was a simple thing. I was going to change something. And while I had the engine apart and was doing what I was doing, I was like, I'm going to change the spark plugs. Simple thing.

[00:20:40] Well, I broke one of the spark plugs in the head of the engine, which that's where you screw the spark plug. Again, there was no way to get it out. The ceramic was down inside the thing. I couldn't get it out. It sat there for a month.

[00:20:59] And I would try day after day after day after day, after day to get this thing out. And I would be out there in the dark swat and mosquitoes just angry. And I remember you telling me this, let's go. I'm just leaving it for tomorrow.

[00:21:14] It's already been done. It's already done. I'm going to put it on to you. And I was so irritated and so angry at this engine. And I wasn't resting on it. I was thinking about it always because our car was broken.

[00:21:29] We were down to one car and we needed to. It was adding stress and I get worked up talking about it. But it shows the importance of rest. Right. Because God does have things for us. He has things he's called us to do.

[00:21:47] And if we're going to start looking at things, understanding that we're going to try and fail, going to keep trying, going to keep trying and going to keep working, going to keep doing this is that we've got to rest in between there. Right.

[00:22:00] You know, an athlete will tell you one of the most important things that they do is rest. Right. We saw it with Jesus. One of the most important things Jesus would do would be to get away from everyone and rest. You know, we don't do that.

[00:22:15] We're really bad at that. And you know, that is something that as we're getting older, we're actually understanding more because you just can't keep going. Your body starts telling you you need to slow down.

[00:22:29] But it's the same thing in your 20s and in your 30s and even in your teens. There's times when your body says enough, you need to cut it back a little bit. You need to slow down. And that ties back to that scripture that says that, you know,

[00:22:42] every athlete exercises self control in all things. Yep. And I discipline my body and keep it under control so that after preaching to others, I don't get disqualified.

[00:22:54] If we're out there teaching and showing people what it looks like to become and accomplish the things that God has put in us. Only to just completely lose it because we've not disciplined ourselves in rest. We've not disciplined ourselves in spending time with the father to recharge. Right.

[00:23:18] You know, if we just keep doing the striving part without doing the renewing part, you know, we have to exercise control in all things. Yeah. And it's rest. It's in what we're studying, what we're learning, what we're going for. All of those things. It's all important. Right.

[00:23:38] And I think that's what we're going to do. So, you know, I love to tell you that the end of the story was, is that she got the table. And she actually did. She did. One time. She got to the table one time.

[00:23:49] But it was because we let our guard down for a second and she actually. But she, she did a good bit of adaptation too. She realized there was one area that was uncovered and she went around back behind the chair and got to it.

[00:24:03] Now, she didn't walk to it. No, she crawls in. And finally, actually get to the table. We just laughed with that was funny. Yeah, that was just, you know, it's so simple. Sometimes just to watch things and observe things and ask the question,

[00:24:20] what is God trying to show me in this? I think that's one of the biggest things that over the last two years, three years that this is kind of come about is that especially for you and I, on we really just kind of gone,

[00:24:34] God, what are you showing us in this? And whether it's a hard time, words, and easy time, whether it's something fun, whether it's something interesting, God, what are you trying to show me in this?

[00:24:47] Because we do believe that God's present, that God teaches us, that God is in the invisible things. Right. As, you know, it says in Romans, but he's just, he's willing to show you and to teach you and talk to you

[00:25:02] and pour things out to you as long as you're looking for it. You know, he's not hiding. No, it was interesting. I said something the other day just in jest. You know, I said, oh, God smack us upside the head.

[00:25:16] And the individual turned to me and she said, oh, don't ever say that. That's a false doctrine. And I was like, okay, she goes, God won't smack you upside the head. He's a loving God. He's going to show things to you. He's going to reveal things to you.

[00:25:33] He's going to guide you and direct you. And, you know, I never stopped to think about it, but that is true. God doesn't smack us upside the head. He does guide us and direct us and show things and, He's a good shepherd. Yes, reveal things to us.

[00:25:51] He might have to jerk us back from the edge, but he doesn't smack us around. So, that's a good thing to put in your cap also. We want to encourage you as you're listening to these and watching these.

[00:26:04] The idea is to spur and you the search for where God's moving. Right. Where do you see him in your everyday? We saw him through the actions of a child. Right. I mean, it was right there.

[00:26:20] It was so easy to make the connection between who God is and what he does with us and watching what he's doing with this little girl. Right. And that's what we want to do is we want to encourage you guys with that.

[00:26:33] So, this week, we are going to be much shorter than the last two weeks where we went a little bit long, but there was a lot of information that we wanted to give you guys. And thanks for hanging out down memory lane with us.

[00:26:45] That was a lot of fun for us anyway. That was, it was a lot of fun. We want to just encourage you to like and subscribe. If you're watching on YouTube, thank you so much. Yes. And continue to subscribe. Let people know about this podcast and video podcast.

[00:27:03] And then if you're listening on all of us, the podcast channels and stuff, please like it. Give it four stars, five stars, six stars, whatever they ask. I know some of them are four and some of them are five.

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[00:27:32] Again, like subscribe. If you want to check out the blog, you need to check out the blog and it is on our Facebook page. And it's Facebook. Seeing God in the everyday and every week, the blog is up there and Becky had an awesome blog this week.

[00:27:49] This week we had a runaway dog. It was a runaway dog blog so if you want to see the or you want to read the runaway dog blog. It is this week and seeing God in the everyday on our Facebook page. Guys, thank you so much.

[00:28:03] We love y'all so much and just continue to look for God everywhere all around you. And continue to see God in your everyday. Okay, love you guys. Bye.