Tuesday Treasure

Christa Tietjen Photography

Christa Tietjen Photography

Psalm 65:9-11 (NRSV)

You visit the earth and water it,
    you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
    you provide the people with grain,
    for so you have prepared it.
 You water its furrows abundantly,
    settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
    and blessing its growth.
 You crown the year with your bounty;
    your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

Christa Tietjen Photography

The Art of Giving and Gleaning: Bonus Post!

Giving Your Time

(originally published here.)

After unpacking how to “give-as-you-go,” I realized there is another important quality we can practice from the book of Ruth: gleaning.

As I mentioned before, gleaning is the “gathering of extra.” One of the students in our college ministry pointed out that Ruth had an incredible attitude as she was gleaning. She was grateful, kind, confident, and unselfish. (Read Ruth 2 for more).

One way or another, we are all gleaning from someone. Have you ever received

         ▪        hand-me-down clothes/furniture?

         ▪        tips?

         ▪        free babysitting?

         ▪        someone paying for your meal or coffee?

         ▪        advice?

When someone tries to offer me this, I tend to be unreceptive. Depending on the gift, I end up in one of these 4 categories:

         Self-entitled: “well I deserved that anyway.” (I tend to do this with positive critiques on my hard work.)

         Reluctant: “I don’t want to impose.” (When someone offers to open the door, or help carry my groceries, I hesitate.)

         Prideful: “I don’t need your ‘charity’.” (My self-reliance rears its ugly head when it comes to someone else paying for my meal.)

         Snobbish: “that gift wasn’t all that super.” (If I don’t connect with a sermon, teaching, or study material, I tend to think, “I’ve heard better,” and dismiss the entire content.)

I am very ashamed to admit all of these. Sure, I can be good at giving my stuff, time, money, and space… but I also need to learn to receive well. Ruth was grateful, not demanding or pushy. She didn’t reject Boaz’s gift. Nor did she put it all aside for someone less fortunate (though she did save some for her mother-in-law).

My goal is to glean with the right heart. I want to have a teachable spirit when I listen to a sermon. I want to have a grateful heart when someone offers to take my kids for a playdate. I would like to be graceful and respectful when a person holds the door for me. My humility should shine, like Ruth’s, when God uses others to care for me.

I cannot think of a better way to describe Ruth’s heart, and the one I hope to have, than this quote (by former basketball player John Wooden):

Talent is God given. Be humble.

Fame is man-given. Be grateful.

Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

There you have it. Give-as-you-go, and glean-with-a-grateful-heart. That’s how I am asking God to grow me this season. How about you?

- Becky Rosty, MOPS Mom

Becky Rosty leads a college ministry with her husband in the shadow of the Big Horn mountains of Wyoming. She loves sunshine and s'mores and feels a personal responsibility to bring both to the people in her life.

Becky is also the future-mama to 3: twins due in July 2014, and a precious gift from South Africa, to arrive in 2015. For now she enjoys playing with her mini-golden doodle, Mr. Darcy.

She delights in her identity as a failure saved by Jesus' grace. She is also a singer/songwriter, hiker, home-maker, trip-taker, and scone-baker.

Becky has written several original Bible-studies and is passionate about speaking truth in love to young women. To book Becky for speaking engagements, contact via email: beckyrosty@gmail.com.

Thursday Thoughts with Theresa: The One Thing We Need in the Face of Defeat

Let us not become weary in doing good,

for at the proper time we will reap a harvest

if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

We’re reading around the breakfast table when defeat shows its face, before we even start our day. The youngest two can’t sit still, so I let them run off and play. They run circles, screaming past us and I can’t hear my own voice. I ask them to keep the volume down or play downstairs, as I finish our short devotion with the older two.

I ask a follow­up question to our reading and I hear grunts and whines and the older two are just as uninterested, so I just shut the book and send them downstairs to get dressed.

And I feel defeat wash over me at the start of our day of the new week.

I look around me and notice that we didn’t even clear our dishes or clean the kitchen before dispersing. We need to pull the house together before we start school–after a fun, long Easter weekend and house guests. And it’s always then–when there is just one more thing on our plate– that I'm faced with defeat that feels like despair, like we’re getting nowhere and like we’ll never get it right.

But that’s a lie. Because more good has come from redemptive moments than I can count. Even when all I can see is momentary defeat. And since giving up is not an option, I offer it back to the One who promises success when I commit these plans to Him.

Each moment is opportunity for a fresh start when we'll accept our own limitations and submit control to Christ.

So I breathe deep and head downstairs to see how they’re doing with getting dressed and ready for the day.

I have a talk with individual children and direct each one, keeping us on track. There’s more grumbling and whining over a certain morning chore and I want to throw a fit myself.

I feel how exhausting and unglamorous parenting really is.

Yet I choose not to take back the control I just offered up, nor grow weary in doing good. “I always have to fold laundry. I’m not folding laundry!” the oldest one demands.

I feel more defeat over his reluctance, but he has a choice and so I ask him to start with the chore he is willing to do.

He’s folding blankets and throwing them over the couch and chair and I’m pitching in, picking up random toys off the floor.

“I’d mop the floor, mom,” the reluctant one says.

“Okay, you can mop instead of folding clothes and it needs to be swept first. The stairs could be vacuumed, too.” I concede.

“Okay,” he says.

Soon the children are all working like a well­oiled machine. The house is coming together and I’m realizing, once again, that hope is not lost.

The day plays out peacefully, as the children play together, building a house, a trench and a dam on the dirt hill behind our house, after cleaning. They then come in for lunch, imaginations still active. One writes out the menu, takes orders, and delivers the food that I prepare. School work is accomplished in the afternoon this day and I can’t think of a better day we’ve had, even with our rough start.

And I realize that more rewarding than children cooperating all of the time, as I expect–like little robots–more beautiful than first­time obedience and perfect little children, is redemption in the lives of my children.

To watch reluctant hearts change. To watch them internally choose to do right. To witness what only Jesus can do in them that I cannot.

It’s the realization of who we are without Christ and who we become with him.

And when I see this happen in each of my children, as I have more over this past year, I recognize the blessing in the difficult moments.

I realize that they help us to see our limitations and that we really do need Jesus to succeed and live joyfully. They see it, too.

And what I need more than anything in the face of defeat is the faith to simply trust God with this exhausting and unglamorous work.

Because, although the work of parenting is less than glamorous, the redemptive work is stunningly beautiful. 

- Theresa Miller, MOPS Mom

Theresa is a wife and mother of four children (3, 5, 7, and 9), who are embarking on their first year of homeschooling. Theresa has been involved in Sheridan MOPS for the last 9 ½ years, serving in multiple leadership positions, including Day MOPS Coordinator in 2007-2008. She took one year off, then started the Sheridan Evening MOPS group in September 2009. Theresa has published an article with MOPS International MOMSnext Ezine, in addition to other on-line publications. You can find Theresa encouraging mothers on her blog, Heavenly Glimpses.

Meeting Today!

Good morning, ladies!

This wonderful Spring morning we have MOPS. 9:00 to 11:00 AM. Light, finger-food breakfast will be served.

Today is Coffee House Day. We have so much going on!: a little pampering, a little chit-chat time and a lot of thank yous. It will be a laid-back atmosphere, so feel free to come in comfortable clothing. Sheridan College massage therapy students are coming to provide 10 minute chair massages for y'all! Sign-ups will go around during breakfast for timeslots between 9:30 and 10:40.

See you all soon!

Tuesday Treasure

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (NRSV)

Christa Tietjen Photography

The Art of Giving and Gleaning: Part 4

The Art of Giving and Gleaning: Giving your Space

 by Becky Rosty

Well ladies, we made it to the final installation on learning to “give-as-you-go.” After wrestling with challenging topics like giving of our time and finances, we will end by learning to make space for the people around us. This post originally appeared on my blog here: http://beckyrosty.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/give-as-you-go-space/

Another way to give as we go is by making space. Not space in our schedules, we talked about that last time. I am talking about bursting our personal bubble to let others in. This is extra difficult for those of us “no-touchy” types.

After studying the book of Ruth further, I recognized that Boaz didn’t simply give Ruth some grain and move on. Rather, he noticed Ruth, a foreigner, and made space for her. (Ruth 2:14)

I know there are people in our community who feel like outsiders. I am trying to intentionally let go of “my space” and welcome them to be near me. Here are some practical ways to do so:

How to Intentionally make room for people to get close to you:

While sitting at the coffee shop or break room, feel free to put your phone down and invite someone new to sit with you.

Offer a hug to the “outsider” at your church. We all have that one annoying, smelly, awkward, person in our community. Be Jesus hands and feet and wrap love around them, even if only for a moment.

Offer a smile to that person of a different culture or language. A beautiful Muslim friend of mine won’t respond to a hand-shake, but she will definitely take a smile and genuinely look into your eyes as an offer of friendship.

Invite your child to bring home a new friend for a play date… encourage him to reach out to the lonely or “hard to love” kids at daycare.

Purposefully sit next to the “loner” at a social event, or even at your child’s school play. Ask questions and really listen. Or be a silent friend and encouraging presence.

On the airplane, be gracious about the arm rest for the person sitting next to you. Be conversational, if God gives you the opportunity. Or ask to pray for the person.

Have another way to create space? Share it! Leave a comment and feel free to push the “follow” button for more subjects like this.

Becky Rosty leads a college ministry with her husband in the shadow of the Big Horn mountains of Wyoming. She loves sunshine and s'mores and feels a personal responsibility to bring both to the people in her life.

Becky is also the future-mama to 3: twins due in July 2014, and a precious gift from South Africa, to arrive in 2015. For now she enjoys playing with her mini-golden doodle, Mr. Darcy.

She delights in her identity as a failure saved by Jesus' grace. She is also a singer/songwriter, hiker, home-maker, trip-taker, and scone-baker.

Becky has written several original Bible-studies and is passionate about speaking truth in love to young women. To book Becky for speaking engagements, contact via email: beckyrosty@gmail.com.