Right Actions Bring Heavenly Responses

I love catching my kids doing things right!  In fact, I like to reinforce their right actions by giving them words of encouragement when they do things right.  Don’t get me wrong, I also give them words of correction when they do wrong, but I get more excited when they do it right.  In fact, I have started to employ the 3:1 ratio of 3 words of encouragement to 1 word of correction.  It seems to be working…at least for now.  My three kids all play either softball or baseball.

Both softball and baseball are games of failure.  If you want to be considered for the Hall of Fame, if you hit .300+ for an average, you are incredible!  But what that means is that you either were put out or missed 7/10 times.  I believe that hitting a ball with a bat is an art!  It is also a discipline of constant tweaking and experimentation.  Hitting is the great equalizer.  One of my personal favorite hitters is Wade Boggs.

I tried to pattern my illustrious baseball career after Wade Boggs.  I learned to hit to the opposite field, I played third base, I was even #26 on my…uh…slow pitch softball jersey.  Of course, that was when the dream was over.  On the field, he did right things!  He hit .328 lifetime average and won 8 Silver Sluggers.  He was also the AL batting champion 5 times!  The dedication and right disciplines led Wade Boggs to becoming everything he dreamed of as a kid.  He entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.

Mark 1:10-11 says,

As Jesus came up out of the water, He saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on Him like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven and said, “this is my dearly loved Son, and You bring me great joy.”

Jesus, upon doing what was right by being baptized, saw heaven open up to him.  In this passage, we see all three persons of the Trinity in full force and on the scene.  God’s response to Jesus’ baptism is one of fatherly pride.  The Holy Spirit is celebrating the occasion by resting upon Jesus.  Here we have a clear example of the ultimate encouragement.  God is not only proud, but He voices His approval.  He voices His joy!

We need to realize that our actions bring one of two responses from God…joy or sorrow.  I want to give you 3 steps to bringing Heavenly Responses.

• Be Righteous! 

When you live a life that puts an emphasis on making righteousness the priority, it leads to right decisions and right decisions lead to right actions which bring joy to God.  The opposite of this is also true with the exception being sorrow felt in heaven.

• Be Vocal!

I have had to learn the value of being vocal with my praise to my kids.  By nature, for me, it was strange at first, but now I love to give encouragement.  I need to practice giving my kids and wife encouragement.  They need to know that they really do bring me joy.  Especially when they do things rightly.  I also need to do this in front of people.  My kids need public encouragement and the people who I am around need to hear me praise my kids if for no other reason…to be a vocal example!

• Be Present!

The Holy Spirit was on the scene.  He was silent in this passage, but He was there.  Whenever possible, we need to be present in our family’s lives but also when we are spending time in worship, prayer and devotion.  Our presence in a relationship brings joy to those we are spending time with.  That is what God wants.  He wants our attention.  He wants our relationship with Him.  Like the Holy Spirit, we need to be present!

My prayer for you today is to be righteous, be vocal and be present.  I pray that you would try to model this passage daily.  I pray that you would make holy decisions.  I pray that you would be a vocal rewarder of right actions and be present for the important things in the lives of those we love.

What actions do you need to employ to bring Heavenly Responses?

Who can you become an encourager to?

How can you become Righteous, Vocal & Present in the lives of those you love?

Where Never is Heard, a Discouraging Word…

Each Summer our family would load up the family station wagon and head out on vacation.  It is one of our family values that there are many lessons that can be learned while riding with your family in a car across this great land of ours!  There are lessons in tolerance, patience, kindness, anger, warfare tactics, medical preparedness, comedy, rest, roadside dining, Americana, respect, music, teamwork, and that is to just name a few.  We would ride down the road singing together…boy that was a choir performance that I was glad wasn’t recorded.

One trip in particular, we loaded up and headed out to the Rocky Mountains.  We sang Home on the Range until we were sick of that song.  But I loved it. My grandparents were with us on this trip and this is where I learned my love of fishing for rainbow trout.  My grandfather loved to fish.  He made it his mission to pass that down to me and my brother.  We would wake up, get dressed and go get the rods, a stringer and bottle of salmon eggs and head out to catch our dinner.  We would try to stay as close to my papaw as possible to learn what he knew about the rainbow trout.  He would encourage us to find our own hole and fish it.  While sitting on a log watching our lines, he would talk to me.  You know, things that were a variety of topics.  Just passing time together.  Fishing.  He taught me how to unhook a fish and then put it on a stringer.  He taught me how to clean the fish, bread it, and fry it up for the family dinner.  Those were the best fish I have ever eaten!  The greatest lesson I learned those days was the lesson of encouragement.

The Range

My grandfather was an encourager.  He would get frustrated at times while I was wearing out his nerves with questions.  However, he never once didn’t answer.  He never once seemed as if he didn’t enjoy the time fishing.  He never once told me to shut my pie hole!  What I saw modeled that day was someone who had the love of Christ in them that also was willing to endure incredible amounts of questions fired at a rapid pace when we were supposed to be quiet…and fish!  Paul said it this way in 1 Thessalonians 5:11,

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

He built me up.  I guess now, I have kind of taken this task to hand.  My youngest daughter plays softball.  She is on a team that plays some tournaments from time to time.  Depending upon the tournament, we can either be the best team or we could be the middle of the pack or the team that is two and out.  This past weekend, we were in a tournament and made it to the Final Four teams.  At that point, we made our exit.  We finished 4th Place and really did it with flair.  We played about as poorly as we could have.  Of course, the previous 5 games didn’t hurt our effort…they were tired and hot.  I was talking with another parent and this particular parent was telling me how they were kind of disappointed in their daughter’s play for the tournament.  Keep in mind that these girls are 7-8 year olds.  I made the statement,

We can take this down two roads with our girls.  One we can tell them we are disappointed in their play or, we can tell them that they should be proud they finished 4th place in a tournament with good teams.  We can crush their spirit after they just played 6 games and gave all they had or we can tell them how proud we are of them for doing their best at all times.  I am going to focus on the positives rather than the inconsistencies.

Fortunately, this parent agreed and I actually heard them saying some of the same things we had just talked about to their daughter.  It was a great moment and the smile on their daughter’s face was irreplaceable.

This same attitude of building up one another was on display on my son’s baseball team.  This is Cole’s first season of playing baseball.  While he has a great time playing, he still is learning the game.  Cole got an incredible hit the other night in his game.  It was a double to the gap and yes, this an unashamed bragging on my kid moment.  It was a hit so hard, that he won the honors of receiving a game ball at the end of the game.  Until this night, all he had been doing is striking out, walking or getting hit by a pitch…however, this night…it all clicked.  You be the judge as to what it did for him…

One for the Gapper

What would happen if we all would begin to build each other up in life rather than focus on the negative?  What would happen if our life song would be Home on the Range…where never is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day?  What would you feel like if someone had something nice to say to you?  How would someone else respond if you said something encouraging to them?  Will you make it a point to be an encourager today, this week, this month?  Will you give someone a Daniel 10:19 moment this week?

“Don’t be afraid,” he said, “for you are very precious to God. Peace! Be encouraged! Be strong!” As he spoke these words to me, I suddenly felt stronger and said to him, “Please speak to me, my lord, for you have strengthened me.”

I Need People!

I have come to the conclusion that I need people!  I realize that I was not created to live life alone…even when I ask those closest to me to leave me alone.  I want them in my life to have someone to tell to leave me alone!   This truth about me came to the forefront this past week when I began to realize a little dip in my discouragement meter.  Okay, it was more like the Royal Gorge depth on the discouragement meter.

See me down there by that rock?

See, I am right down there at the bottom by that rock.  That is how I felt this week.  It was like I was always at the bottom, looking up.  It seemed as if all factors of my life had conspired against me and ganged up on me to beat me into submission.  But just like the WWE wrestler that I have secretly always wanted to be that is seemingly down for the count, my arm didn’t quite hit the mat that third time the referee checked.  Why?  Because of what is known in the wrestling world as “outside interference”.

Outside interference is when there is a wrestling match that is taking place and one person is just getting whipped like a bad guy on an Indiana Jones movie.  At this point, the beaten wrestler’s allies come rushing into the ring and begin to clean house.  Sometimes, the other guy’s allies come rushing in and help out their friend and what ensues is just a good old fashioned, faked brawl.  I used to love it…okay, I am still in wrestling therapy sessions.  But the cool thing about this is that somedays, I feel like I am in a wrestling match and getting whipped.  One moment it is health issues or finances or schedules and the next minute it is job-related or family or car breaking down stuff.  Its moments like that when you need your teammates to come and provide a little “outside interference” for you.  Let me say this, I have some of the best friends in the world!  I am fortunate to have some people that I can call on at any time to talk about things or have them pull me, push me or slap me back in to reality when needed!  I am so glad that I have great teammates!

Its good to have teammates!

King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 4:12,

A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

This weekend I sat and watched my daughter’s softball team play in a tournament.  There were games that got out of hand pretty quickly and we knew that we had the other team outmatched, then there were moments of doubt that crept in to our team.  One game, the semi-final game, our girls were down to a good team, 3-0.  It seemed that they were able to scatter some hits and mix in a couple of walks, but could never break through and plate a run.  Then, in the bottom of the last inning, it all came together.  Our girls strung some hits together, had some breaks go their way and wound up scoring 5 runs to win the game on a double that was hit to the fence by one of the girls who had been struggling at the plate.  What I saw and heard stuck with me.  One of the girls that running and on first base, looked at the girl batting, called her by name and said,

Come on, you can do it, we believe in you!

Our team went on to lose in the Championship game 7-4 to a good team from Waco, TX, and got the Runner’s Up Award for the tournament.

I am writing this partly to brag on our girls, but also to bring home a lesson learned at a softball tournament…we need others who will look at us and tell us they believe in us!  I know I do!  I am fortunate enough to have those people in my life who when they say it, they mean it!

Do you have those people who are in your corner?

How can you develop those relationships that you can call on when needed?

Who is in your chord of three strands?

You were designed to live life in relationships with others, I pray that you will build those relationships that God has put in your life so that you don’t find yourself staying at the bottom of the Royal Gorge of Discouragement looking up for very long!