Who Are You?

Soooooo, who are you?  No, I'm not quoting the famous The Who song of the same title, I'm actually asking!  This question popped into my head about myself this morning while I was getting dressed.  Who am I?  I guess I could answer that question in any number of ways.  I'm a woman.  I'm a wife.  I'm a mom.  I'm a teacher.  More importantly, though, I'm a Christian.

I was reminded of that fact this morning when I put on my cross necklace.  The cross on this particular necklace is special to me because it belonged to my dad's mother.  She died when I was only ten months old, so I didn't get to know her.  The cross necklace makes me feel close to her.  I was reminded of something with even more significance than my grandmother's memory, though.  I was reminded of who I am.  I am His and He is mine.

I think we forget that from time to time.  We forget that other people are His.  No matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or whatever political party you align yourself with, you are a creation of God, and THAT is what defines who you are.  I guess this is technically a message we could have used during the election what with the mudslinging and all.  Now that the mud has ceased to fly and we're headed into the holiday season, I think it's a great reminder for all of us.

Yes, I am The Political Chicken.  No, I am not the Religious Chicken, although I do tend to veer towards stories from the Bible in hopes to encourage you in your faith.  I know I've been encouraged just by writing this.  Have a great rest of your holiday weekend and go into the holiday season with this reminder, "I am His and He is mine, and so are other people."

Invite Jesus Everyday

Hello, readers!  Welcome back to The Political Chicken!  If you notice the title, it doesn't look very political, and it isn't.  This is a place where my politics and faith sometimes meet and I share about both of them, because I am a Christian. 

Let me set the stage for this blog post:
My family and I attend Second Baptist Church and we love it there.   We were at church recently and one of the youth pastors was leading us in a prayer honoring our Veterans, which was quite nice.  He used the word, 'invite' in his prayer, as in he was 'inviting' the Holy Spirit to our worship and into the hearts and lives of the Veterans.

For some reason that word, 'invite' really got to me.  I mean, it really struck a chord with me and I wanted to write about it and teach it to my kids immediately.  I was really excited!  I started thinking about how an invite is intentional.  You don't normally hand out invitations to something important like a wedding or a birthday party by accident, do you?  No, you're intentional and you're selective about who you're going to ask to attend.

So, in order to demonstrate this, I wrote on three index cards the words, 'You're Invited'.  I handed them out to my three boys as a way to invite them to our nightly devotional time.  At first, they looked at me like I was crazy.  "You're inviting us to home devotional, Mom?"  The mystery was kind of fun, actually.  I couldn't wait to reveal what I had been contemplating all day to share with them.

After dinner, we gathered together, each one with their invitations.  I asked them how it felt to be invited?  How did they feel the last time a friend invited them to a party?  I got the following responses:
"Special"
"Included"
"Welcomed"
"Wanted"
"Loved"

Yes, yes, and yes.  I was so happy because I felt that they really had grasped the concept of the invitation.  I also explained to them that in order to become Christians, you have to invite Jesus into your heart to rule and reign for the rest of your life.   My oldest son has done that already, but the other two have not.  I have faith that they will make that decision very soon.

I went one step further and reminded them that not only do we invite Jesus into our hearts to be Lord of our lives, but we need to make a conscious effort to invite Jesus into our heart and into our day EVERYDAY.  We can all get busy and stressed; at least I do.  That's usually when I have to stop and think if I had prayed and asked God to guide my day.  If the answer is 'no', then I have made an unwise decision. 

Asking God into your day and praying daily is always important, but it's especially important to do now that we are in the "most wonderful time of the year".  Like the song says, "with Holiday greetings and gay, happy meetings when friends come to call."  I hope you and your family have a blessed and Merry Christmas!