- From Parables from the Diamond by P. Christopher & G. Dromgoole

Whether you are an avid baseball fan or just an occasional viewer, chances are you’ve seen the jubilant celebration of a player who crosses home plate after hitting the winning home run. It’s usually made even sweeter when teammates join in the celebration – making it, for that moment, a version of “home sweet home!”

In baseball, a successful journey begins and ends at “home.” The same could be said of life’s journey. We begin our life in a home, as did a young man Jesus spoke of in Luke 15: 11-32.

This young man had, by all accounts, a wonderful life at home – he had a family who loved him and he had all the advantages of a successful upbringing. But the young man decided he had “matured” to the point that he was smarter than his father. So the young man told his father that he wanted his inheritance money so he could go off to be on his own – that he could handle life more successfully on his own. His father loved the young son, so reluctantly gave him what he asked for.

The young son set off for what he thought were greener pastures, and he lived high on the hog, for a season. But the young son soon realized he had spent all his inheritance money and was forced to beg for work. He got a job on a pig farm – not living high on the hog any longer, but quite the opposite. The pigs he was tending were eating better than he was! His desperate situation got his attention. He realized the grass is not always greener on the other side.

The young son came to his senses, opened his eyes to his situation and decided, there’s no place like home! So the young son began his journey back home. It was a long journey, as he realized just how far away he had wandered. How would his father receive him?

The young son had a lot of time to think as he was returning home, so he began to develop what he would say to his father – including how he would apologize and admit his wrong. Little did the young son know that his father had never stopped hoping his young son would return. The father had kept watch every day, hoping to see his young son returning home. As the young son rounded the corner near his home, the father spotted him, and ran out to embrace him and welcome the young son back home! The young son began to confess to his father and ask his forgiveness. The father joyfully accepted him back and even had a huge celebration immediately prepared to welcome the young prodigal son back home!

We can each relate to the story of the prodigal son. Most of us have either walked some of it ourselves, or have raised a prodigal child. It is not a sin to have rebelled against our Heavenly Father – to have thought we knew better, that the grass was greener in other pastures. But it is sin – and just plain stupid – to realize you are living a life your Heavenly Father never intended you to live, and yet not return home to Him. Our Father is watching and waiting for your return with open arms. And if you were a prodigal in younger years (as I once was) and you have returned to our Heavenly Father, the best news is we still get one more great celebration when one day we each see our Heavenly Father in our eternal Home!

Then we will truly be safe at home!

“One raw winter night a man heard an irregular thumping sound against the kitchen storm door. He went to a window and watched as tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the evident warmth inside, beat in vain against the glass.

Touched, the farmer bundled up and trudged through fresh snow to open the barn for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights, tossed some hay in a corner, and sprinkled a trail of saltine crackers to direct them to the barn. But the sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from the house, still hid in the darkness, afraid of him.

He tried various tactics: circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing cracker crumbs in the air toward them, retreating to his house to see if they’d flutter into the barn on their own. Nothing worked. He, a huge alien creature, had terrified them; the birds could not understand that he actually desired to help.

He withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through a window. As he stared, a thought hit him like lightning from a clear blue sky: If only I could become a bird – one of them – just for a moment. Then I wouldn’t frighten them so. I could show them the way to warmth and safety. At the same moment, another thought dawned on him. He had grasped the whole principle of the Incarnation.

A man’s becoming a bird is nothing compared to God’s becoming a man. The concept of a sovereign being as big as the universe He created, confining Himself to a human body was – and is – too much for some people to believe.”

Are you frustrated by Christmas? Are you spending yet another year of ignoring the truth of Christmas? John wrote, “The Word (Christ) became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” (John 1:14). The same God Who created heaven and earth is the same God Who loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to provide the one and only way for you to enter heaven. No other way – only a perfect substitute for your (and my) imperfect life. The perfect Gift is waiting for you once again, this year at Christmas. Let this be the year you say yes to Jesus and accept the Truth of Christmas.

“A baby’s hands in Bethlehem
Were small and softly curled.
But held within their dimpled grasp
The hope of all the world.”

-Leslie Savage, quoted in Charles R. Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life

Merry Christmas!

Family and business priorities are important to establish, honor and protect. Your personal priorities are as important, though most women tend to downplay their personal priorities – especially to focus on their children. Still, our personal health and well-being need to be attended to on some priority basis if we are to be of help to others. You can’t run a car when the gas tank is on empty, and too often we women try to do just that in our personal lives. We must put ourselves on the schedule somewhere, and it can’t always be last.

While it does take some juggling and balancing to establish all the priorities in your life – family, job, business, self – there is one priority that will never change – God. He is your #1 priority.

Now, maybe you haven’t always thought about God that way. Maybe for you He is just for Sunday mornings, or for weddings, or for funerals. Maybe God hasn’t been on your schedule in a long time – maybe since your childhood, or maybe not really ever. Well, you’ve been on God’s schedule, even if He hasn’t been on yours. You’ve been on His schedule and on His heart and on His mind – every moment of every day that you have been alive, and even before. Awake or asleep, He is thinking of you, and acting on your behalf, because God never sleeps or slumbers. It doesn’t even matter if you believe in Him. He believes in you. He loves you more than anyone ever can, because He’s God. He thought of you. He made you. He breathed life in you. He planned your parents, your family, your life.

Then, He did the most amazing thing – after He gave you all that, He gave you free will. He gave you the ability and the freedom to make choices with your life. And you’ve been making choices with your life, all your life. So, how’s that working out for you so far?

Oh, don’t worry, God isn’t surprised by the choices you’ve made – some good, but some pretty bad. God planned for that, too – remember He loves you. He knew you would make mistakes – some accidently, some purposefully. All are called sin. God knew that because of your mistakes – your sins – you would need help, big-time help. You see, no sinner can enter God’s perfect heaven when they die. And by the way, you will die one day and then you will go to live for eternity – but you get to choose where – Heaven or hell. Again another choice you get to make. But this choice has eternal consequences so you’ll want to choose wisely.

Remember that “big-time help” I mentioned? It is Jesus, God’s Son. The only way you, a sinner, can get into God’s perfect Heaven is with Jesus Christ as your Savior. God sent His only Son Jesus to this earth as a baby, who grew to become a man – the only perfect, sinless person ever on earth. Jesus showed and taught that the only way to Heaven was to believe that He is God’s Son. Many people put their faith in Jesus and believed – but many did not believe. They got angry, trumped up false charges, and crucified Jesus on a cross. Here’s the “big-time help” part – three days after Jesus died, and was buried, He arose! Jesus arose from the grave, fully alive with the scars from His crucifixion to prove it. Hundreds saw Him, spoke with Him, learned from Him.

Then the time came for Jesus to go back to Heaven, to rejoin God, where He is to this day. You see, Jesus was never guilty of any sin nor mistake. He didn’t deserve death on the cross. Jesus went willingly to die on the cross because that was God’s plan – the only way to pay for your sins was by Jesus’ blood. He paid the price. He took your punishment. And if you believe that Jesus did this for you and if you accept Him as your personal Savior, that choice will see your eternity in Heaven one day. And when you realize that God loves you so much that He sent His son to die for you to pay for your sins, then you will make God your #1 priority.

How do I know this? Because I’ve made choices in my life, too. The most important one was when I accepted Jesus as my Savior. If you have made that choice in your life, praise God! If not, it’s decision time.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved… For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-10, 13

But walking away doesn’t develop muscles – it develops flab! You have to face the days of resistance in order to build the business muscle needed to make it through the tough times.

What can help as you face the days of resistance during these muscle months is some encouragement – a pep talk to keep you going as you make customer calls, schedule exposure events, coordinate book shows, organize fundraisers, plan training classes, interview recruit leads, host an open house, etc. Following are some of my favorite pep talks for these muscle months from my favorite “Coach!” How about you? Muscle up with these to fight the summer flab!

“Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” –Joshua 1:9

“…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 1:6

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” -Philippians 4:13

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” -2 Corinthians 9:8

“Trust Me in your times of trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give Me glory.” – Psalm 50:15

“…the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength.” -2 Timothy 4:17

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on You, because he trusts in You.” -Isaiah 26:3

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” -Ephesians 4:1

“I am still confident of this, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait on the Lord.” -Psalm 27:13-14

The flight was as normal as the corn fields we flew over that afternoon, until we were preparing to land. The pilot (Captain Betsy, I might add) announced that we would soon be landing and then added, “Out of respect, I would ask that everyone stay in your seats until our special airman has deplaned first.” Now, that announcement is not unusual – I’m sure you’ve been on flights with soldiers who are returning home and the pilot asks that they be given the opportunity to de-plane first. So when we landed, everyone remained seated while the young airman stood to deplane. I noticed the flight attendant help him retrieve his garment bag from the front closet and then as they waited for the plane door to be opened, the flight attendant lightly touched his upper arm in a “sisterly” encouraging way. I noticed it wasn’t a hearty slap to his bicep like you would expect, but more of a gentle tapping. That’s unusual, I thought. I also wondered why there wasn’t appreciative applause from the crew and passengers like I’ve seen before? No, the airman was out the door so quickly – it just felt different this time. Then I looked at the flight attendant – her eyes looked tear-filled. No, this wasn’t a usual flight at all. Just then, Captain Betsy announced to the rest of the passengers, “We have another special young airman who was also flying with us today. Out of respect, I would ask that you remain in your seats until he has de-planed. If you look out the right side of the plane, you will see the honor guard and family here to honor and receive him.” Oh, my heart sank as I understood. Out of respect, 93 passengers sat in absolute silence. Not even the babies who had serenaded us all the way from Denver made a sound. Out of respect, 93 passengers sat silently on a stuffy airplane for 20 minutes while the airman from first class joined the honor guard on the tarmac to pay final respects to his best friend with whom he had served, killed in battle a few days earlier in Afghanistan. He would have been 21 years old that very day. He was coming to home to his family for the last time. His parents had asked that the airman who had flown in first class be the one to accompany their son’s body home. Tears fell from more than just the flight attendant’s eyes as we waited silently on the plane. Once the honor guard had received the airman, and the hearse departed, Captain Betsy rang the de-plane bell and said, “Thank you. These are always difficult flights. Out of respect I would ask that you deplane quietly.” Out of respect, we all did. It was the very least we could do for one who gave his very young life for us.

When I got to the rental car counter, eyes still moist, lump still firmly in my throat, the attendant cheerily asked, “How was your flight?” Indeed. Out of respect, I smiled and softly answered, “It was fine.”

May God bless this airman, and all who serve so courageously and sacrificially.

“He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart … For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Psalm 91:4, 11