Spiritual

After Being Wrong – 4 Attitudes To Soaring Again Now!

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
a bird is flying in the air with its wings spread

We all know that God is sometimes wrong, as definitively proven HERE. That’s obvious! Many of us intellectuals know that!

But I was amazed when I was wrong!

Many of you often trip up and fall and are wrong about many things. I, of course, can’t relate to this, but my editor says I must be honest, or she won’t publish my work anymore, so okay! I WAS wrong! (At least once)

In fact, this happened as recently as . . . (Do I HAVE to be THAT honest?) TODAY.

I know. Once your shock has subsided, I’ll fill you in on the startling details and give excellent advice with four subtle attitude shifts to get you back soaring into God’s plans and purposes!

So here’s what happened:

I thought God said something, but He didn’t.

The good news is that giants of the faith are losers like us, so we can learn from them!

For example, HERE we learn of someone who heard from God and assumed that the other guy SHOULDN’T travel because if he did, he would get hurt. It turned out that the one who heard from God was wrong because the guy WAS still supposed to travel.1

The point is that toddlers fall as they learn to walk, and we, by necessity, sometimes look like losers as we grow spiritually.

Are we willing to look and feel silly and be wrong sometimes BECAUSE WE ARE LEARNING to keep our ears attached to perhaps hear a muffled whisp of the hints on the wind of what God may be saying and not to leave our ears lying around on the floor again?

Are we willing to step out in faith and try something but be wrong?

The last time I admitted that I was wrong, my friend said, “The fact that you AREN’T sure whether God is speaking or not makes me more likely to believe that God DOES speak through people.”

I don’t quite understand how my humility drew him to that conclusion. However, it got me thinking that maybe humility IS helpful for something after all.2

The point is, we don’t always FULLY understand God because we AREN’T God!

As my husband kindly reminded me yesterday, and seems to remind me often lately, “You’re not God.” This reminder is always helpful, so I remind you of that, too!

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

One last random, deep thought to profoundly help you is to remember that when you are confused, good advice is to listen to your children! This advice works surprisingly frequently for me! My children are sometimes much more spiritually mature than I am, which is exasperating!

For example, about this current wrestling that I am facing over being wrong, my (annoying) child said, “God answers everything in His own way, Mom. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.

The Message

So, remember that it’s okay if we’re spiritually wrong sometimes! And as promised, here are four attitude shifts to start soaring again the next time we (must regretfully admit we) are wrong. Remember:

  1. You are learning!
  2. You are growing in humility! (This is necessary because we are wrong sometimes. But I’m learning that humility has some advantages!3)
  3. You are held in God’s hands even though we have no idea what is going on most of the time!
  4. You aren’t God, remember?

God, help us all to soar, and when we fall, to get back up and try again, we pray. Please keep our butts and hearts soft from all the falls and help us to get up and try again. Be the wind under our wings more and more often, we pray.

As the song below plays, how do you sense God pouring love into your heart and gently correcting you about some misconception you have about Him?

Photo credit – Bird soaring by Elize Bezuidenhout on Unsplash

1 (Related to this, as a general principle, my Pastor says we shouldn’t tell others what to do by using the language, “God said you should . . .” but I find that advice tedious.)

2 (Manipulating people to believe you . . . ? That’s a JOKE people! A JOKE!)

3 Ibid – Means same as the above footnote (I.e. STILL joking)

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!

Shatter Your Massive Ego – It’s Time To Be Amazing! (Like Me)

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
man in black tank top and gray shorts holding black smartphone

I went from being the biggest loser at the gym, doing exercises without ANY weights (Don’t judge me), to finding lighter weights than the lightest weights that they put out for the group class and using those.

But I was using ACTUAL five-pound weights by then!

“The ones who keep coming back are the ones who will get stronger!” I was told.

And I kept coming back.

Until one day, my instructor “had chills” when I did an exercise. This was because I did it with good form. Perhaps her chills were simply chills of relief that she didn’t have to spend five minutes out of every ten minutes re-showing me how to use the equipment in a class full of thirty other students so I wouldn’t hurt myself, her, or others nearby*, but they were chills nonetheless!

“She obviously truly cares about her students,” my husband commented, so he thinks she was surprised I did something right, too.

But I’m improving!

And the thing is that my friend didn’t want to come to the gym because she felt intimidated by all the people around her doing stuff right. That’s the dumbest reason not to go to the gym because EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was once a big loser at the gym, throwing around weights and hurting themselves and others. (Well, maybe some caught on faster than me, but you catch my point!)

Anyway, we often hear people say it’s those who go the gym a lot who have the big egos, right? Like they are the ones who will laugh at us? Wait – maybe they will laugh at us, but if you read this post, you won’t care about that either!

The point is that you are getting stronger.

And that looking like a bit of a loser is not a bad thing!

It means you’re learning.

And similarly, the next time you pray to God, and then open one eye and wonder why the Archangel Gabriel isn’t standing next to you in your bedroom giving you life instructions, maybe take off your head and replace it with a new one. (Replace it with a head with correct thoughts while you’re at it, of course!)

Maybe we’re SUPPOSED to feel like losers when we are in the process of growing spiritually or physically.

For example, every time I woke up early when I was in a season of trying to learn to pray, I felt like I was playing hide and seek with Jesus. “I can’t find you!” I would call out after 1.28 seconds of concerted prayer. But He was there, often (metaphorically) hiding behind a small rosebush in my backyard. The rosebush that hadn’t blossomed yet. He was in plain sight because my rosebush only reached his knees, but He was bent at the waist, laughing.

I was learning that He loves it when we seek Him.

And so, maybe feeling like we’re losers is even good for us sometimes.

It is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them.

Ancient Text

Realizing we’re losers is often part of the heart transformation we need to be able to run into His arms like a small child when He does reveal Himself to us one day, when we do experience his presence, when we do sense His love for us through the arms of His people who love us because they love Him.

And so all this jibber-jabber about people at the gym, for example, that they have huge egos?

Hogwash.

After all, I go to the gym!

I do subscribe, however, to the philosophy that it is wiser to FLAUNT one’s ego, so maybe the having-a-big-ego thing doesn’t apply to me?

My gym did recently install this mat, however.

I wonder why?

It’s probably because there’s someone at the gym, someone else, who has a big ego.

Whatever.

Anyway, I hope you follow my advice by knowing now, with absolute confidence, because I told you so, that you, like me, are, of course, VERY humble, the opposite of those with a big ego.

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

Photo credit: Fit guy by Total Shape on Unsplash

*Most days, note that it was only ONE of those three.

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!

The 1 Remarkable, Guaranteed* Way To Ensure Those Little Homeschoolers Tidy Up (*Sometimes)!

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
two toddler pillow fighting

This advice could make you feel like a Superhero Mama in Clark Kent clothes (OK – Clark Kent clothes with finger paint on them. Who’s looking THAT closely?) because this article is FILLED to the brim with advice about how to make your homeschooled kids clean up!

(Or at least there SHOULD BE AT LEAST ONE piece of advice in this article! I hope you find it! While you’re looking, have you seen any pencils? We lost all of ours, so it’s becoming harder to do math.)

Click HERE to continue reading.

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!

So Many Reasons To Consider Homeschooling – Top 9 Remarkable Hints

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
boy in orange crew neck t-shirt standing in front of white wooden table with cupcakes

When do we jump from a sinking ship, and when do we bail frantically to save our lives?

When do we decide that the public school system is broken enough that it can’t be fixed and jump ship to homeschooling? When do we stay in the school system, attend PTA meetings, and volunteer as playground supervisors? When do we put our kids in the public school system and do our best to bail out the ship?

Click HERE to continue reading.

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!

How To Be Mature Even When You Don’t Want To Be! 3 Helpful Tips (To Change The World)

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
selective focus photography of man using tobacco

I’ve already explained HERE how to be mature.

You’re welcome!

And since that covers everything I know about the topic, I don’t have much more to say, except that I found myself in a (very rare!) instance where I was tempted (but didn’t succumb!) to acting with less than total maturity – The usual way that I conduct myself.

As I travelled recently, I sauntered across the line into injustice, which roused my dormant immaturity. I don’t usually cross over to the side where injustice lives. I like to stand firmly planted where the power is. (For example, read my marriage advice here!)

This is what happened.

“Welcome to the USA!” the signs read, cheerful people reaching through the posters to greet us.

Then the signs directed “Foreigners”, like us Canadians, to a long line of about 500 people waiting to enter US Customs, but our line-up only had 1 (that’s “ONE”) Customs Agent.

And when we finally arrived at Customs, my teen daughter ADMITTED (“WHY OH WHY did I teach her to tell the TRUTH?” I lamented with agony!) to forgetting to throw away her banana peel. She ignored or was too intimidated by the guys with guns at the customs depot to obey me when my eyes tried every manner of saying, “DROP the banana peel confession!”

So this little truthful confession cast into a deeper level of airport hell with the other Felons.

And there were no bathrooms during that long line up OR in the extra hell section of the airport we were in waiting for the Banana Felony to be absolved. And there was no water fountain. The lady before us was faint and had to sit on the floor just before her turn at Customs.

I felt like an animal waiting in a cage, the justice for basic human needs rising within me.

Not long after this, 3 hours later, when my sing songs, manic video watching and dancing about could no longer contain the fact that “I would like to use the bathroom please”, I was finally, reluctantly, given a pass out of the “Banana Felony” section of the airport.

Then the toilet wouldn’t flush. (It wasn’t just a number one but something more significant).

“Take that LAX airport!” I thought with great satisfaction!

There is justice in the world, after all!

After washing my hands, I suddenly realized it would be the hardest working person in the airport, the immigrant without much English, the one who is a post-doc in Moldova and whose 8-year-old child will one day end the Ebola epidemic. It would be that person who would encounter my indignant attempt at injustice.

I found a way to flush the toilet. (As I reflect, it was surprising how EASY it was to flush the toilet when one REALLY wanted to do it!)

“Did I find myself rejoicing in what I think I was rejoicing in?” my more mature self asked my recently victorious self several minutes later.

Yes, BUT I rose to the occasion and ACTED MATURELY!

Here’s how!

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

Three Tips to acting maturely EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE IT:

1) Try to remember that there are other people in the world besides you.

2) It’s okay that you aren’t friends with Trump, or someone in high places who has “connections,” and can bail you out of deep water when you are in trouble. (In fact, this may be a very good thing!) Something good happens to our soul when we suffer a little and brush up against a tiny measure of the injustice that most people around the world experience daily. This small measure of injustice can build compassion for the less fortunate if we let it (See Point #1).

An estimated 5 billion people have unmet justice needs globally, including people who cannot obtain justice for everyday problems, people who are excluded from the opportunity the law provides, and people who live in extreme conditions of injustice.

Source: World Justice Project

3) Let’s let the small injustices we experience be fuel to help another who has no power and regularly experiences this.

As the song below plays, consider asking God, “Is there someone I know experiencing injustice I can help support?” Who comes to mind? How can you reach out to them this week?

Will you rise?

Photo credit: Wise looking man by Parker Johnson on Unsplash

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!

How To Make Homeschooled Kids Cool

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment

Photo credit: Blimey Cow

Yah! I know! My homeschooled kids had phases where they looked (a bit) nerdy.

And we all know that being cool MATTERS.

We know that our kids fitting in MATTERS!

Click HERE to continue reading this previously published post.*

*Let’s admit it! – You weren’t really listening the first time you read it!

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!

Agonizing Over A Homeschooling Decision? Advice: Think About 4 Cons

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
woman in blue sweater beside girl in blue sweater

For most of us, deciding whether to homeschool or not is an agonizing decision.

So, let’s say we choose to homeschool. What if we wake up one Saturday late because we are exhausted and realize with terror that we’ve ruined our kids? That they are irrevocably broken?

Click HERE to continue reading this previously published post.*

*Let’s admit it! – You weren’t really listening the first time you read it!

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!

We Travel For This One Hidden, Self-Deceived Reason

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment

I’m feeling sad because today is the last day of our holidays.

I’m surprised because I’m going home to an awesome life! I mean, I take great pains to portray an image of having a fantastic life for you! (Why else would you read this stuff?)

I tenderly opened the depths of my heart to my empathetic husband, and he said something along the lines of, “Well, of course, you’re not happy to be going home! You’re a nutcase there!”

Actually, on reflection, he phrased it closer to, “You’re more stressed out trying to get a million things done at home.”

After I yelled at him and sulked for a while, I had coffee with Jesus, and that’s when I realized my husband was right.

(Don’t you hate it when that happens? I still haven’t admitted it to him, though. He is living under my condemnation, which increases the power balance in my favor for a while. I’ll be less mad at him the next time I do something stupid, and the power shifts in his favor. There’s some more free marriage advice! You’re welcome! Good luck!)

But we’re not done talking about this end-of-the-vacation-sadness thing.

The insight I had today is that the reason why we travel is . . .

. . . to get away from OURSELVES.

I mean, away from that feeling of wanting to be Jesus, get everything done, help everyone around you, and learn how to live a better life and stuff like that.

Wait. We’re not supposed to want to BE Jesus. It’s hard to keep all of that theology straight!

I left my To-Do list at home for just a week while we were on holiday. I left my neurotic rambling to try to figure out how to live a purposeful life closed up in my journal. Instead of powering through these lists and creating more lists, I simply enjoyed drinking fresh coconut water by the beach and laughing with the people I love.

And so it’s not that we need to get away from a particular PLACE to relax.

I’ve realized with startling insight and uncharacteristic blindness to my motivations that what I need to get away from is actually just ME.

Do you have any Type B  friends? Type B people seem to be more relaxed and don’t seem to wind themselves up so tightly about whether their life has meaning and unimportant stuff like that. I don’t happen to hang around any Type B people.

We don’t get along.

But perhaps the point of this trip is that shifting ever so slightly into that place where we put the responsibility for the meaningfulness of our lives onto the broad shoulders of Jesus is one of the ways that the weights can fall off of our lives so we can rise and soar like we’re meant to.

worms eye view photography of eagle flying across the sky

He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles

The Message

So no, I am not saying that Type B people have something we can learn from because I’m definitely not humble enough to admit that yet!

However, admitting that I’m not God is a good start!

And we all start somewhere!

I hope this helps you!

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

As the lyrics of the song below sing, “It’s all I can do to get up in the morning . . . But where else can I go . . . but to you?” do you see Jesus holding out his arms to you like a father, bidding his small child to rest in his arms? As you quietly rest in his arms and take some deep breaths there, what do you sense him saying to you as the rest of the song plays?

God, we carry burdens and responsibilities that are too big for us. We finally, reluctantly, hand them over to you, and we receive the peace of knowing that holding your hand as we live our lives allows you to carry the responsibility for a life well-lived. Wake us up to how we try to carry what only you have strong enough shoulders to bear.

Photo credits – Dog in car window by Avi Richards on Unsplash, Eagle soaring by Rachel McDermott on Unsplash

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!

For A More Authentic Travel Experience, Embrace Your Inner Idiot!

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we, as a culture, travel lately. Our family is travelling this week in a middle-income country. I was amazed at the most popular tourist tour, which allows travellers to:  

(1) Be terrified tubing down a river with rapids and canyons,

(2) Horseback ride in the nearby wilderness, 

(3) Zip-line through a canyon inclusive of rock climbing and Tarzan swings 250 feet above the ground, and

(4) Experience mud baths in about 10 different pools of varying temperatures.

And this is all done in one day.

It got me thinking, “Really? Do we need to do that many things in one day to keep our high-revving ‘I’m bored’ switch turned off? Is there another way?”

I think there is another healthier way – To be willing to look like an idiot!

For example, we hired a guy to point out the types of birds lurking in the sidelines everywhere we travelled but that we didn’t have eyes to see.

Check out this bird!

We saw this greater-than-full-size likeness painted on a restaurant wall later that day, which I also wouldn’t have given more than a passing glimpse a few days prior. 

“That’s a Turquoise-Browed Motmot!” I exclaimed in delight, my neck twitching. I recently learned that this is a common side effect of birding. Here below is the bird in real life.

Can you imagine how incredible it would be to see this bird in real life, aided only by a telescope or binoculars?

It was thrilling.

And wasn’t even the bird tour itself that was the most thrilling – It was more the effect it had on waking us all up to an unseen reality. “What is that?” our 16-year-old daughter exclaimed two days after the bird tour, stopping mid-step on a mundane walk, her ears alert to an unusual bird call, one none of us would have noticed a few days before. Her ears became more sensitive.

When we slow down and notice the stuff around us that we can’t usually see because of the comfort we rely on of all our distractions to avoid thinking or feeling the thoughts that matter, life gets a little more fun.

Sometimes, Holy Spirit even breathes on the wind as we’re going about our day, and if our ears aren’t filled with noise, with luck, we may have picked our ears up off the floor and attached them to our heads long enough to maybe catch a word or two God utters to our hearts.

Got time to find your ears, friend, and attach them for a few minutes?

“You hear [the wind] rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”

Jesus, the guy one-third of the world claims to follow (He’s cool!)

And then we don’t need quite as many amphetamines or adrenaline or even indulging in the types of activities that go against the best versions of the very souls we were created to be.

“If you’re not going into the ocean, or you’re not going to the top of a mountain, or you’re not going into the woods or the rain forest, the only alternative is [an] assault on the senses.”

Paul Schulick, New Chapter*

It’s just you and a bird and nature and a little bit of humility to realize that you may also not know the difference between the call of a Pygmy owl and a White-Winged dove (True story- Don’t judge me!).

But there are also no hangovers, ego promotion or moments of regret.

Being a loser definitely has its advantages!

Try being an idiot, too, the next time you travel!

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

When the lyrics sing, “I don’t want to miss it”, consider asking God, “Would you heal my ears so I won’t miss the melody You are singing over my life?”

God, thank you that You delight in reattaching our ears that so quickly fall off in the distractions of life. Show us how to keep our ears near, that we can hear the sound that propels us into a life of adventure, with You, we pray.

Footnotes

*I actually read this quote in the book Ageless by Suzanne Somers, but I’m too embarrassed to admit to reading that book. (No offence, Suzanne – You are intelligent even if the TV personality you portrayed was not!) And besides, why would I be reading an anti-aging book? No reason! Of course I’m PERFECTLY accepting of the natural aging process – Thank you very much! 

Photo credits: Slow penguin crossing by Casey Horner on Unsplash, Turquoise- Browed Motmots by Bernal Fallas on Unsplash.

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!