Focus Friday: Let's Focus on VBS

Every year I say I'll help with Vacation Bible School.

Every year I regret that decision as VBS week gets closer. I start getting stressed out about getting ready (or not getting ready, since I'm a big procrastinator). I start thinking that the hassle is not worth it and I wish I would have let someone else do it instead of me.

Every year I'm so glad I helped with VBS after the week is over. This year was no exception. I've helped with Bible Stories for the preschool VBS for the last several years. This year I agreed to do the Puppets/Bible Story.

I hadn't done puppets before, but it was so much fun. The kids had a blast as they got to make the puppets talk and help tell the Bible story each day. We had stories about Creation, Angels telling the Good News to the shepherds, the Israelites being freed from captivity, and Jesus making a blind man see. 

The kids loved it, as you can see. What always surprises me about VBS is how much I learn. Oh, I've heard all of the stories before. I know them well. But when I have to tell them to preschoolers, it makes me understand and appreciate them so much more. God's love for us, Jesus' miracles, the way the Bible helps us live and love God...all of those things are reinforced in my own heart. I hope I can pass that along to the children, too.

One of my favorite parts of this year was talking about Jesus setting the captives free. I brought a big paper chain and spread it out in a circle in front of the kids. I explained that sin can sometimes hold us captive, just like the chain. I had the kids put their hands through the links in front of them and pretend they were being held captive.

The children listened carefully as I talked about how sin sometimes looks ugly, like some of the links in our chain. Sometimes it looks kind of good to us, and I pointed out some links made of pretty patterned papers from my stash at home. 

No matter how it starts out, sin always ends up holding us captive and getting us stuck.

After a while, we all said "Jesus sets us free!" and broke those chains. 

I hope it made sense to the kids, but it sure convicted me of some things I had been doing mindlessly and reminded me that Jesus can set me free from any sin that is holding me captive.

I also did the opening and closing times this year, and one of the special parts of the morning was having a few preschoolers come stand by me and help close in prayer. 

I keep praying that their week at VBS will stick with them and help them grow in their faith in God.

With faces like these, how could I not want to help with VBS every year? I'm pretty sure I'll be back again next summer...ready to learn right along with all of those preschoolers.

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."  (2 Timothy 3:14-15 NIV)

Do you dread teaching or leading a group at church or in the community? How can focusing on God help you to enjoy it as you learn just as much (or even more) than the people you are teaching?

Focus Friday: Let's Focus on Hope

(I wrote the following article today for our church newsletter and decided it would work well for Focus Friday with just a few little changes)

Around this time last year, my life began to spin out of control. I was excited to start a new teaching job, but it didn’t take too long to see that something was wrong. I was doing a good job, but I got more and more nervous, focusing on the things that weren’t going well instead of the many things that were. I loved the students, but I worried too much about whether they liked me as a teacher and it crushed me when many of them didn’t like Spanish in spite of my best efforts.

I prayed, I read my Bible, I listened to encouraging songs on the way to school, but those negative thoughts swirled through my mind so much that I couldn’t keep ahead of them. I kept telling myself, “You just need to relax!” but that was easier said than done. I had trouble sleeping, I lost my appetite and felt sick to my stomach, I couldn’t concentrate to make lesson plans and that added to my stress. By the time I went to the doctor for my depression and anxiety, it had gone on too long. Seeing a counselor and taking medication was helpful, but those things take some time to work. One weekend I found that I had no hope left. I didn’t see how I could continue teaching and I didn’t know how I could stop. I was stuck in a very bad place and I wanted out. Thankfully, I talked to Gary about all of this and we decided to go to the hospital. Being admitted gave me time for the medicines to work and to get away from the stress. I felt so much love from our church family and other family members and friends as they all prayed for me and sent wonderful cards and notes. I decided to resign from the teaching position and when I got home I concentrated on getting well again.

When I went to the hospital I felt absolutely no hope. Of course, this added to my guilt because as a Christian I knew that I did have hope in Jesus. I just didn’t feel it. In the months since then, the hope has come back. Life is good again. It’s not perfect. It can’t ever be, but I’m learning to hold on to hope and keep choosing to stay well instead of sliding back down into depression. I am feeling so much better than I did last year.

One of the things that helped was talking with a friend who also deals with depression. She recommended a book by Brad Hoefs called “Fresh Hope: Living Well in Spite of a Mental Health Diagnosis” and she talked about her desire to start a Fresh Hope support group in Hampton (they did start one - it meets twice a month on Monday nights). As we talked more, I became interested as well. Fresh Hope is a peer to peer Christian support group for those who have a mental health diagnosis and their loved ones.

We’re starting a group here on Thursday, September 10. It will meet weekly at The Corner on Main Street in Allison, Iowa from 7 to 8:30 p.m.There is no need to register ahead of time, you can just come if you have had a mental health diagnosis or if you know and love someone who does. You don’t even have to commit to coming weekly, just come check it out and see if it would be helpful for you.

You can find out more about Fresh Hope at freshhope.us and also find out if there is a group that meets near you. Please email me (robyn mulder at hot mail dot com) if you have any questions or just need to talk. I don’t want anyone to get stuck in that dark, hopeless place. There is hope!

"I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:19-23 NIV)

Have you lost your hope? How can focusing on God help you to get hope back and live a fulfilling, exciting (not perfect) life?

                                                                       

                                            

Focus Friday: Let's Focus on Failure

It's Friday again. Time to focus...on failure? That doesn't seem very productive, does it? Stick with me. I think we'll all learn something if we focus on failure for a while and then move on.

That's the key, I think. Moving on. When I got home from the hospital I felt great for a couple of days and then I started to feel worse as I started to worry a little bit about people's reactions to letting my teaching job go. 

I felt much less stress because I didn't have the job to worry about anymore, but I also felt a different kind of mild anxiety because I had to admit to myself that I had failed at something. This is not a comfortable feeling for me. I've never liked to fail. Usually when I put my mind to doing something, I get it done and I do it quite well. Teaching was a big commitment and I didn't go into it flippantly. I fully intended to do a good job, be a great teacher, and succeed.

It didn't work out. I did the best I could at the time but finally decided that the job wasn't for me after it led to too much anxiety and depression.

Failing doesn't feel good. I can remember being with a group of people in a store once a long time ago and we were looking at those Magic Eye posters that have a 3D image hidden in the picture. I couldn't see it. Someone else in our group stared at the poster for a few seconds and announced with delight, "Oh, I can see it! That is so cool!" I felt extremely frustrated and upset because I considered myself smarter than this person and I couldn't figure out why she could see it and I couldn't. 

I realize how petty that sounds. I know it related to my pride and I still get in trouble with that when I compare myself with others. We can't do that! We have to stop judging others and just focus on the journey we are on as we go through life.

We are all going to fail at times. We will fail in big ways and we will fail in small ways. I think we get stuck emotionally when we focus on those failures and can't move on. 

How do we move on? By focusing on Grace. By forgiving ourselves for our failures - big and small. By learning from our failures and determining to do our best in the future. 

I was puttering around in my craft area one day and I had a CD playing in the background. I stopped and really listened as one song caught my attention: Daughter of Grace by Twila Paris. The second verse seemed to resonate deeply with me and I had to play the song again to let it soak in:

     She spent half her life working hard to be someone you had to admire
     Met the expectations and added something of her own
     So proud of all that she had done
     (Where was the glory?)
     So proud of all that she had not done
     'Til she knelt beneath a wall that will could never scale
     Broken and discovering that she could fail
     There she found the end of herself
     Heard her own voice crying for help
     And she was

     Carried in the arms of love and mercy
     Breathing in a second wind
     Shining with the light of each new morning
     Looking into hope again
     Unable to take another step
     Finally ready to begin
     Born for a second time in a brand new place
     Daughter of Grace

Grace is there for our failures. We can move on, secure in the knowledge that God loves us unconditionally and we can feel hope and joy and peace as we begin again after failure.

Do you have any failures that are holding you back right now? Do you see how focusing on God's Grace can get you "unstuck" and let you move on with hope? 

Focus Friday: Let's Focus on Faith

It's Friday again...and here I am. Another week has gone by and my emotions have been up and down. I love so much about teaching, but I have to admit that it's been very stressful at times. It's hard getting used to new things, new routines, new tasks. The computer is still giving me fits as I try to figure out how to give assignments, get assignments, give and grade quizzes. Hopefully the students will continue to be patient with me as I figure it out.

This week I received the CD by Jenny Simmons (lead singer of Addison Road) in the mail and I listened to it on the way to school, and I've been listening to it every day since then. It has so many good songs that seem to be hitting me right where I'm at. I think I'll leave you this week with the lyrics to one of my favorites and see if it might resonate with some of you, too. (You can also go to youtube.com and listen to it there.)

Let's keep praying for each other as we go through the joys and challenges of life. Let's keep our focus on God and the strength that He gives each of us. Let's never forget that God has great plans for us. It just takes courage to step into those plans and become who God has made us to be. That's what faith's about.

What Faith's About by Jenny Simmons

What if I what I have is not enough and all I hold You ask me to give up?
What if you require bravery but I'm clinging to the edge too scared to leave?

But what if I jump and I find I was always made to fly?
What if the days I'm walking into are the best of my whole life?
What if the things that I dreamed become my reality?
When it looks impossible but still works out
What if that's what faith's about?
What if that's what faith's about?

What if I'm not sure I heard You right and I found a thousand reasons not to try?
And what if I can't face the great unknown but there's no way back and nowhere left to go?

But what if I jump and I find I was always made to fly?
What if the days I'm walking into are the best of my whole life?
What if the things that I dreamed become my reality?
When it looks impossible but still works out
What if that's what faith's about?

So who am I not to be, not to be everything that You have called me?
And who am I not to speak, not to speak to every mountain that's before me?

But what if I try even when I'm scared and Your courage meets me there?
What if I hope against all hope and believe in every prayer

What if I jump and I find I was always made to fly?
What if the days I'm walking into are the best of my whole life?
What if the things that I dream become my reality?
When it looks impossible, but still works out
Oh, when it looks impossible, but still works out
What if that's what faith's about?


Do you have new challenges in life right now? Are you keeping your focus where it should be - on God - or are you focused too much on what you can or can't do? How can you make a conscious choice to get that focus back where it needs to be?