Category: forgiveness

Bible, blessings, faith, faithful, forgiveness, freedom, God, God's love, God's grace, Jesus, religious, rucking, scripture, sin, spiritual, Uncategorized

Backpack Burdens

katietkennedy

My husband bought me a rucking backpack with a weight included. He will often do a rucking workout and thought it might be a good option for me.

I use the backpack on occasion during a workout. By the time I am finished, my shoulders are very sore no matter how tight I fasten the other buckles. I think it’s just a product of carrying additional weight on your back. When I remove the backpack there is a huge relief. My shoulders are delighted to have the surplus weight gone.

This reminds me of our faith journey. We often carry around burdens we are not meant to carry. We add weight that doesn’t need to be there. Where does this extra weight come from? Sin. Sin separates us from God. When we sin, we distance ourselves from God and add extra pounds to that backpack by feeling unworthy, ashamed, guilty, or too full of pride to admit our mistake. All these weights are added by Satan, not our Heavenly Father.

God has not meant for us to hold this unneeded load. When we come to God humbly, repent, and cast our burdens on Him, He receives them. He unloads them from our back. Jesus carries the weight of our sins, worries, or anything weighing us down. He knows we are not made to handle that heaviness. He loves us too much. This is why God sent Jesus down to die for our sins so we wouldn’t have to live afflicted with our burdens.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

Find peace in the words of Romans 8:38. “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Cast off those burdens and live in the freedom God intends for you.

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Zestful Zinnias

katietkennedy

I was discussing flowers one day with a friend who is more knowledgeable about floral care than I am. I was bemoaning how the deer had snipped off all my sunflowers, yet left the flowers immediately in from of them.

She asked me what kind they were. I showed her a picture and she told me they were zinnias. She said if I trim the flowers when they bloom, more will come, lots more. I thought this odd because in my experience that’s not how the other flowers had worked. I decided to try it and sure enough, she was right.

I cut flowers to enjoy in my home and more grew back. The best part about these flowers is the deer left them alone. Zinnias also attract beautiful butterflies.

This reminds me of our faith journey. When we trim the sin in our lives, it allows God to help us bloom in other areas. When we eliminate sin or idols we draw closer to Him. If we repent of the things we do wrong, He washes us clean and makes us new in Him.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

We are never going to be sinless, but the more we prune and trim sin from our lives, the more space we give God to help us grow. Sin infects our lives, using up valuable resources. If it stays there untouched, or worse continues to grow, it will wreak havoc. It will remain and grow bigger until we become aware and take action against it, with God’s help.

On our own, it’s very hard to eliminate a sinful habit or indulgence. Have you ever tried and failed? I have plenty of times. When I go humbly to my loving Father and ask for His help, that is when I am able to mortify the sin.

The result of trimming my zinnias leads to a colorful array in my kitchen. Whereas, defeating our sin guides us closer to the Lord, and the peace and joy that follow.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

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Puppy Passion

katietkennedy

We recently got a new puppy and named him Blue. Our three daughters adore him. My husband and I have also grown quite fond of him. Blue doesn’t deserve this love. In fact, he’s destructive and bites everyone non-stop. His actions don’t merit our unconditional love for him. Yet, we give it to him anyway.

Blue rips holes in our shirts, unties our shoes, and steals our sneakers. A few minutes after he is naughty we come to tell him how adorable he is. He can hardly do wrong in our eyes.

This reminds me of our faith journey. We can be like this puppy at times. We know what we are supposed to do but still choose to make poor decisions. We mess up all the time. We forget to praise the Lord. We don’t show gratitude and we lack trust and obedience. For all of our mess-ups, God is still waiting for us to come back to Him.

It’s amazing if you think about it. We sin over and over again. We only need to come humbly to our Father and ask for forgiveness. My family’s love for Blue doesn’t change based on his behavior. Neither does God’s love for us.

We hide from God embarrassed of our mistakes. God wants us to come to Him. Sin separates us from God when we let it. Don’t let pride or anything come in between you and our amazing Father. Repent and turn toward Him.

faith, faithful, Family, forgiveness, freedom, God, God's grace, God's will, Jesus, moms, parenting, religious, scripture, sin, spiritual, Uncategorized

Clean Slate

katietkennedy

One afternoon I was tinkering with my phone. For a long time, I haven’t been able to add my husband to any calendar events. With a new school year starting, I was determined to resolve the problem. After getting some help from someone way more technologically savvy than myself, the problem was fixed. The only downside was all of my calendar entries had been removed.

I had a clean slate. Literally, nothing was on there. I kept waiting for myself to freak out, but I never did. It was oddly freeing. I actually sat there and relished the brief moment. I wasn’t ready to load up the calendar again. I knew, that as soon as I entered the fall activities and the school schedule, my clean slate would be gone.

This reminds me of our faith journey. We get a clean slate every day, all we have to do is ask for it from our Heavenly Father. He washes us clean as we repent. Just like my calendar had a fresh start, we get that same new beginning, just by asking.

God wants us to bring our sin to Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

We are all in the same boat. We all mess up. God already knows what we’ve done. Thankfully we have an amazing Father who wants to free us of our burdens. Let Him.

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Savoring the Smile

katietkennedy

We’ve had a lot of dental work done lately. Lots of lost teeth, spacers being put in, molds being made, braces, etc. This is probably why teeth are on my mind.

My kid’s joke I should have been a dentist, or a dental hygenist. I find all teeth-related things fascinating, especially when my kids have an adult tooth trying to emerge into its new home. My kids get annoyed when I keep asking them to open their mouths so I can see how the new teeth are coming in. It’s amazing to me how one day you can see a tiny little white spec, then weeks or months later, an adult tooth or moler is in its resting place. How is that possible? How do they know where to go and how fast to travel down the path? Watching this process happen is enthralling. God is amazing in how he designed us.

How could teeth possibly remind me of our faith journey? Well, they arrive slowly yet surely. They move in such small increments we can’t visibility see them. We only see movement in days, weeks, and sometimes months. Isn’t that like our faith journey? God slowly works to sanctify us, one act of repentance and forgiveness at a time. He slowly molds and changes our hearts. He doesn’t work quickly, but rather over the long run. You can’t judge the changes in your heart daily, you need to look at the long view. Only then can you identify how He has been working in your life.

When you look at an x-ray, you can see the teeth that are not visible from a human eye, the ones coming down the track. You can’t rush them, they come in at their own pace. Even with modern medicine, a dentist or orthodontist doesn’t have a way to fast-track the process.

God does not rush our sanctification process. His timing is perfect and divine. We may wish He would hit the fast forward button but it’s to our benefit He doesn’t. He will teach us what we need to learn in His timing, not ours.

When He calls us home, hopefully we have a beautiful set of adult teeth all perfectly in their spot. Ok enough with the dental analogies. Our goal is to become more Christ-like on earth. To grow and develop in the areas He wants us to. We won’t ever achieve perfection like Jesus, but we can still grow and be strengthened in Him.

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Arriving Ahead

katietkennedy

One year we were on vacation with my family. My kids were having a blast spending time with their cousin. We were headed out to dinner and were a larger group, so some were going in the rental car, and the rest were riding in a shuttle van. The van showed up and was ready to load passengers. We were hustling around grabbing last-minute items before we left.

The kids (there were four of them) wanted to ride in the shuttle van so they jumped aboard. A few minutes later the van pulled away. We quickly realized there were no adults aboard the van. The kids spanned ages from thirteen to six and were a fairly responsible group (for children), but we never intended on sending them alone. The impressive (or scary) thing is how they convinced the van driver to leave without a parent. Once we realized the kids were on their way without us, we hustled into the car and hurried to meet them.

The kids, sure enough, were waiting for us at the restaurant. They were beaming with pride from their adventure and were surprised when we didn’t match their enthusiasm. We chatted with them about how we were glad they made it safely, but next time they are not to leave without an adult. We expressed our concern for their safety and explained why their decision to drive off without us was not safe.

This reminds me of our faith journey. Sometimes we like to forge ahead, we make our plans and ask God to bless our path. This usually turns out how the adventure with my kids went. We might reach the destination, but if it wasn’t God’s plan for us, something is usually missing. We rush ahead convinced we know what is best, forgetting to ask God to align our will with His will. When things don’t work out as we planned, we are disappointed.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

May we keep in step with the Spirit, for the steps of a man are established by the Lord. (Galatians 5:25 & Psalms 37:23)

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Diving In

katietkennedy

I recently took my kids for swim lessons. With summer approaching and swim team on the cusp, I figured it was the perfect time to refine their skills. It had been a while since they had been in the pool.

I looked up to see one of my kids diving in. The first dive of the season is always a little awkward. By the end of the season, she is a diving fool. The first dive is full of reluctance. It’s more like a jump with her head tucked and arms arched forward. She lands vertical, feet hitting the water first.

You can see by her form she’s intending to dive and after a few more practices, she enters the pool headfirst and exudes more confidence. The jumping dive is quickly replaced by a real dive.

This reminds me of our faith journey. When we ask Jesus into our lives and start reading our Bible, we nod our head at what it says. We agree with the words. We understand what to do, but when it comes to diving in, we are kinda like my daughter diving for the first time that season. We are awkward and not sure how.

We have our heads tucked and arms out, but we can’t plunge in headfirst. We do the same thing my daughter does, some kind of dive/jump. Or we don’t get in at all and just stand there reluctantly on the sideline wanting to get in, knowing we need to, but not able to take the plunge.

One dive at a time we get more comfortable. As we continue to seek God through prayer and Scripture, He continues to fill us with His plan, His courage, His will. Our first jumps are uncomfortable, but we do them anyway.

As we act in obedience, we see His presence with us. The dives become easier. We don’t stand on the sideline anymore; we dive in knowing He will take care of the rest.

The first time I sent out my first blog (in obedience to Him). I closed my eyes and cringed as I hit the publish button. It seemed so official. I hope I wouldn’t get rejected.

Now I hit submit, knowing if I mess up, I can go back and edit. If people don’t like what I wrote, they can delete it.

It’s not about me, it’s about Him. The more I practice obedience, the easier it becomes and the more I can be a vessel used by Him in this world.

Oh, our loving Father is so amazing.

Don’t stand on the sideline anymore. Take the dive! God won’t push you in, but He will show you the way once you take the plunge.

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Set Free from Sin

katietkennedy

Your childhood probably looked different from mine, yet most of us will agree that we made plenty of foolish decisions and experienced some sort of loss. Trust me I made a plethora of mistakes, just ask my high school and college friends. Better yet, don’t.

The great thing about our loving and forgiving Father is He does not hold our past against us. We can turn our sin over to God, say we are sorry and ask for His help going forward. That’s it. It’s that simple. His sacrifice on the cross made a way for our sins to be washed clean.

You and I have experienced much loss. My mom took her life when I was 20 and I denied myself from grieving for 17 years until the weight of it finally took me down. Thankfully, my loving God was there to catch me and help me turn over my pain to Him.

We all have sin and pain in this life. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t.

Here’s the good news. You don’t have to let it hold you back and keep you from moving forward.

The Lord’s transformative power freed me to share my story today. The heaviness of my sin and grief was preventing me from becoming who God made me to be. I thought I could handle everything in my own power. I was wrong.

As I learned to turn everything over to Him, He gave me freedom beyond words. I am free to write, to put myself out there, to take risk. I am motivated to be obedient to my Heavenly Father and trust that His plans are better than mine.

I am concerned with pleasing and praising God, not the world. I am thankful He loves me more than anyone on this earth, for His love is never fleeting.

Don’t let your past hold you back from the wonderful plans God has for you. Don’t deny yourself the freedom and peace that comes only from believing in Jesus.

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Lessons from the Lost

katietkennedy

I attended my grandmother’s funeral recently. She passed away 98 years of age.

We all have spiritual icons in our lives, and she was mine. As I came into my faith, I realized what a rich and deep spiritual life she led. She didn’t necessarily talk about her faith, she just lived it out.

My grandmother, Gerry loved like Jesus. I’m sure she was aware of her own sin, but as her granddaughter, she appeared unflawed. She loved others as I have never seen. She poured out her gifts and love on everyone she came in contact with. They became part of her family. She knew their stories and how she could pray for them. She gave generously to those that were struggling or gave them a ride to church if they didn’t have one.

Here’s the ironic part. Gerry didn’t have a smooth childhood. She lost her mom at a young age and was separated from her twin sister. Her past was filled with rejection, uncertainty, bribery, and instability. She had a lot of justification to be bitter and angry.

Instead, she asked God into her heart at eleven. He healed her wounds and taught her how to forgive and love. She learned to depend on her one true Heavenly Father, the one person who would never disappoint.

I remember having sleepovers at Nana’s house as a child. As we lay down for bed, she went on her knees saying her prayers (never forcing me to join her). I’m quite sure I can credit some of my faith to her prayers being answered.

What does this have to do with us? Well, it reminds me that we have a choice in life. We can choose bitterness, anger, and resentment. Some of us have good reason for all of those feelings. Or we can choose Christ. We can choose to put our faith in our Heavenly Father who can heal our wounds, comfort our tears, and mend our broken hearts.

I look to my Grandmother in awe of what she overcame. Her story is a testament to what God is capable of doing in someone’s life. He is a God of healing and never-ending love. Will you ask Him into your heart?

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Seeing Sin

katietkennedy

When we moved this past summer, my husband ordered a dumpster to the new house. This was an attempt to clear out and throw away the old and battered items we were carrying around. A new home was an opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to unclutter our lives.

A ginormous red dumpster stayed parked in front of our house for almost four months. A neighbor once asked me on a walk, “did you know you have a dumpster in front of your house.” I laughed and said yes, I was aware.

When the pest guy came to address our mosquito problem, he told me three things: 1. he had found no rodents in the traps, 2. we were eating way too much pizza, as evidenced by the boxes in the dumpster, 3. the dumpster was a breeding ground for mosquitos and needed to go.

When a massive truck began backing into our driveway (did I mention this was a commercial-sized dumpster?), I realized they had come for the dumpster. While having the dumpster there had proven convenient, it was time for it to go.

It’s funny how a massive bright red dumpster sitting out front can become part of the scenery, almost unnoticeable to us.

This story reminds me of sin in our life. It can be huge and red, but we might not see it, or choose to ignore it. We get comfortable with it. It sits there rotting in our soul, collecting mosquitos, unless we decide to turn it over to God and ask Him to clear it away.

Just like that massive truck hauled away the dumpster, God can clear out our sin. He can free us of whatever is holding us in bondage.

What sin needs to be cleared away in your soul? Is there a big red dumpster you might be ignoring?

With the start of a new year, take account of what’s sitting in your soul. If you find something that doesn’t belong there, get rid of it.