Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

I remember reading this verse one day when it did the proverbial “jumping out at me”. I had never really thought of the prayers of my heart being something precious to God. They?re really sweet-smelling incense?

But the more I considered these words, the more the precious reality sunk in. Prayer is a form of worship, and is an intimate communion between God and man. Our prayers come to Him as a fragrance. That is an incredible thought to grasp! For myself, as a woman, I definitely enjoy and revel in the fragrance of flowers, the scent of candles and sweet perfumes. How much more does God bask in the aroma our prayers bring to Him?

Through prayer the body of Christ is unified. Is there possibly a better way to draw people together in unity than through prayer? In our horizontal aspect, there are so many things that divide, cut asunder and add confusion and variance among us. But when we band together and focus upon the One, Jesus Christ, those issues are no longer existent.

Dr. Charles Stanley made the simple though very profound statement, “Satan hates praying more than he hates preaching.” Think about it! Perhaps we don?t always feel like great spiritual giants making great strides in turning the world upside down, yet it is on our knees that battles are fought, mountains are climbed, hearts are strengthened and needs are met. We must never doubt the power of prayer in our lives and in the lives around us. Nor should we forget that our prayers are fragrant to God.

This is something every one of you can do.  So I’m expecting some degree of creativity!

Hide little love notes in the car, a coat pocket, or desk.

When I did this type of thing, I actually went out and got heart shaped sticky notes to place all throughout the house while my wife was away.  For days she was finding the notes and keeping a running tally– I would tell her how many were left for her to find.

One took her months to find!

This works well in the lunches that he takes to work, placing things in cars or under salt shakers– and works best if it’s a surprise.

So, get writing!

Our society gives us messages of “rights” and “freedom” when it comes to “what I do with my body”. Particularly if you are a woman, you know what I mean– we are inundated with messages that we should live to make ourselves happy- that we are free to dress how we want, live how we want, and anyone who has a problem with it needs to get over it.

But for the Christian, our bodies are not our own to do whatever we’d like with them. If you are married, there are two Scripture passages that talk about your body that are worth consideration:

• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says this: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

• In the next chapter, Paul has this to say to married believers: “For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” (1 Corinthians 7:4)

So what I want to talk about is this: how often do we do this, in practice?

When you get dressed in the morning, do you consider how you can honor God in your dress? Do you consider what your husband or wife would like to see you wear? Do you wear your hair and dress for God and for your spouse’s pleasure? Or are you clinging to modern language of “rights” and “individual expression” that would give you reason to dress and wear your hair for your own pleasure?

Many people have personal convictions about hair length or clothing styles that are appropriate for them, but that’s not really what I’m talking about here. In general, are you honoring God with your body? With the way you clothe and decorate your body? Are you purposefully aware that your body is not your own? That firstly, it belongs to God? And that after that, it belongs to your husband or wife?

Let’s ditch the modern attitude that says, “I can do whatever I want because I’m the one who has to live with it,” and instead, begin conforming our physical image to that which is honoring to God and enjoyable to our husband or wife. Maybe after you get the kids in bed tonight, you could take a few minutes to look your spouse in the eyes and ask outright: “I want to be attractive to you. Is there anything I’m doing that you wish I would do differently? Is there anything I’m not doing that would make me more attractive to you? I really want to know.”

Course, then we have to be humble enough to hear a genuine answer. Ladies, it may be that you have been wearing your hair in a way that he doesn’t like for YEARS, or that you’ll have to start taking a little more time to get ready in the morning. Men, it may be that you need to purchase a nose hair trimmer, or that you need to go to a store and pick out some new shirts in her favorite color. Let’s be humble enough to ask for honesty, AND humble enough to receive that honesty from our spouse. Remember, your body is not your own!

I would appreciate prayer for our oldest.  It’s been quite the past few days:

For the past few weeks he has complained of stomach cramping or needing to lie down.  On this past Thursday he had one of these episodes and my wife decided to take him to the doctor.  They gave him an X-Ray and it showed a big mass of gas.  At that time the doctors guessed that he had a partial blockage in his stomach.  They wanted us to come back Friday morning for an upper GI.

Friday morning he took the upper GI (with a fight because the barium tastes awful) and they said that there was no blockage, but they thought that he might have a mal-rotated abdomen.  At that point they said that it was practically an emergency, and we had to travel to a bigger hospital an hour away to see a pediatric surgeon.

Once there, we waited a while, and he got an IV– by someone that was in training.  So, our little trooper ended up getting stuck, having the person go through the vein, and then having to get stuck again.  Hearing your little one ask you why he has to go through this, and asking for help– man.

Fortunately, they ran another upper GI (this time running the barium through his nose (and my wife and I having to leave the room as four doctors had to do this)) and found that the abdomen is fine.

So, no answers, and yet he still acts lethargic at least once a day.  The only thing that we can think of is that it could be related to a milk intolerance– he used to throw up or have diarrhea every time he had it when he was younger but we thought he had grown out of it.

We were told to follow up with a Pediatric Gastro-Intestinal Doctor when they get in.  I don’t want him to have to have an IV again– don’t know if I could take it!– nor do I want him to have to have a scope down his stomach.  So, we’re keeping track of everything he’s eating in the hopes that we can figure out what it is.