Focus Archives – Brewing Ground

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV

Paper and Pencils and Crayons – Oh My! Paper and Pencils and Crayons – Oh My! Paper and Pencils and Crayons – Oh My! Oh – back to school! It’s that time of year here in West Texas, in my neck of the woods. There is just something about new school supplies. I guess it’s really more about what they represent than the actual items themselves. They represent the idea of a new, clean start. It’s the excitement of new friends, a new teacher, and new opportunities. School supplies are almost like the harvest of the back to school season – ripe with possibilities and adventures just waiting to be picked.

Since the new school year is ripe with possibilities and adventures, some people can’t wait for school to start back. Others have not always had a great school experience and dread it. For me it is bittersweet. As a parent, what a blessing it is to have the privilege of watching your own children grow and develop. It is exciting to watch them grow into the beautiful masterpiece that God created them to be. However, it goes so fast. You wonder how your children somehow got this old so quickly. Where does the time go? I have yet to answer this question!

Back to school time is also bittersweet for me in another way. I am a teacher. The start of the school year also holds the excitement of a new year with new possibilities. Watching all your students grow and develop is such a joy. There is something almost magical when a child’s lightbulb goes off and they finally “get” a concept. However, starting the school year also means the end of the summer with my girls. As the school year begins though, the list of things that a teacher has to get done in order to be prepared for the upcoming year is so, so long. In fact, in most all cases, the list is so long it actually requires more time to complete than what is actually available. I know that every teacher can so easily get overwhelmed which leads to frustration which is amplified by exhaustion. But, teachers willingly power through, working many extra hours, knowing that all their hard work will be so worth it once they see all those students’ beautiful smiling faces back in school. As a teacher, you have the special task and privilege of making a difference in not only children’s lives but also the future. What a beautiful thing it is – and so worth it.

As our first day of school rolled around, it was actually raining that morning. This is a bit of a rare occasion in our area; it doesn’t rain here very often. I know what people were thinking as the day began – “Really! It has to rain on the first day of school?! What terrible weather to begin a new school year!” In fact, I teach at an early elementary campus and could hear my fellow teachers thoughts. “It’s the first day back and we can’t even take the kids outside for recess. They will need to go outside!” All early elementary teachers know exactly what I am talking about. But as teachers (and in life), we have to be flexible. The unexpected will happen; it is inevitable. So, we have or will come up with a plan B; sometimes plan C and even D. And…we will still have a great day! And all the teachers said “Amen”! OK – I’m moving on. So, my girls and I got ready and loaded everything in our vehicle and began the drive to school; and there it was. We saw something marvelous! Amongst the rain and dark grey clouds – a RAINBOW! Not just a slight ting of one either; but a bright, clear full rainbow which you could clearly see both ends of. Not only that, but then we saw that there was also a second rainbow! WOW! This is very rare in our area, we hardly ever see rainbows.

The girls and I looked at and talked about the rainbow on the way to our first day of school. As I was driving, God was whispering to me. He laid on my heart that just like a new school year is a new season with great possibilities in our life, there may also be seasons of storms. These stormy seasons are the trials on our battleground in life. These are the seasons in which He is refining us with his fire, and brewing something special in us. For these seasons, there may be storms, rain, and dark grey clouds; but, in the midst of these storms are rainbows of beautiful, bright colors – His promises.

^“12And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³I do set my (rain)bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.” Genesis 9:12-13 KJV

God has so many promises that we can hold onto in the stormy seasons, or everyday for that matter. However, the one that He kept laying on my heart is that He will never leave us or forsake us. He is always there to help us.

^“5Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. ⁶So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Hebrew 13:5-6 KJV

So, when we are in the midst of stormy seasons in our lives; and, sometimes it feels like our trials are winning the war – you have a choice. We can focus on the storm with the rain and dark clouds; OR, we can focus on the rainbow – God’s promises. Rainbow Focus will concentrate on the fact that He is with us always; He will use the stormy seasons for good as He is refining us and brewing something special in us. There are many more of God’s promises that we can also focus on; maybe He will whisper a certain promise to you for your situation. Either way, will you choose to focus on the rain or rainbow? I challenge you to choose Rainbow Focus with me.

Let’s Brew!

^“18In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV

Everyone knows one of those people that everything just seems to work in their favor. It seems like no matter what they do, it goes smoothly. They fly through things with ease and everything just always works. You know the people I am talking about. I happen to NOT be one of those people. It seems that everything for me is always more complicated than it should be. It also seems to take 10 times longer than it should because nothing ever works like it is suppose to. What should be easy, somehow never actually is.

Case in point, painting the door frames. Now you are all thinking “Painting the door frames? What is so complicated about that?” This is my point exactly. There is nothing at all complicated about painting door frames. This should be a very easy job that should not require a lot. For most individuals, this is the case; but, not for me.

We were very blessed that God allowed us the opportunity to purchase a house about 2 years ago. This is actually the third house we have been blessed to purchase. Each has needed different degrees of work done to it. The third, and current, house we purchased was in pretty good shape, a pervious owner had done a few things to it, but it needed more work. It is not a big, fancy house; however, we are so grateful because God blessed us with the perfect house to meet the needs of our family. So for 2 years now we have been working on this house bit by bit.

There were some major things we tackled before we could move in. The whole inside needed to be painted and we had to redo both bathrooms, completely. Including new sheetrock, retiling the showers, new toilets, refinishing the cabinets, new counters and sinks, new mirrors, all new fixtures, and new doors. Whew!! But, this did not take care of everything that needed to be fixed. All the doors in the house needed to be replaced and we haven’t even gotten to the outside of the house which also needs some serious attention.

Now, the problem with all this work is there was not enough money to pay someone to do it all. This meant, we either do it ourselves or it doesn’t get done. Well, not doing the renovations was definitely not an option; so, it was up to us. Let me also take a minute to say that we are not in the business of redoing houses; but, we are somewhat handy. As I mentioned, one of the things that needed to be done was paint the entire inside of the house, which includes the door frames. At the beginning of our renovations, we spent time researching paint and deciding on which would be the best kind to get for great results that would work the best with the time we had. We decided to get the more expensive kind that also has primer built right in it. This way we could get good coverage and have to paint less which would save time since we were on a deadline. Well, can you guess how this worked out for us? Terribly! The paint, which also included primer, was not covering well at all. We ended up having to put about 3 coats of paint on everything!! Can you believe it – 3 coats! Not only did we have to paint everything a million times (only a slight exaggeration), we had to keep going back to buy more and more paint! Then we came to the door frames; this happened to pose it’s own set of problems.

The door frames in the house came in 2 different forms. In one part of the house they were painted and in the other part of the house they were stained wood. We began working with the painted frames by sanding them in order to prep them to paint. Well, do you think it would be that simple? That is normally all you should have to do; but not for us. The old paint was actually chipping and peeling off. Well, you can’t paint over it like that so we began to scrape the paint. We have spent hours scraping and scraping and scraping some more. (We are still not even finished with this part.) In an effort to try and actually make some progress we decided to move on to the stained frames; after all, there was no paint to deal with on them. In preparation for painting these frames, we sanded the frames so the paint would adhere to the wood. As we began painting these, we saw that the paint was NOT sticking. It was peeling off despite having sanded first. So, to fix this problem we would have to remove the multiple coats of new paint, remember we can’t just use one coat, paint the wood with Kilz and then repaint. We just recently have been working on this. Even though we put Kilz on the wood first we still had to put on an additional 2 coats of paint. AHHHH!! See, I am not kidding when I say that we have had to paint everything a million times. We have yet to tackle the painted door frames. At this point we are researching what the best choice will be to remove the old paint. Plus, we still have to paint the new doors; we’ll see how this works. I am thinking positive – smooth sailing ahead.

This seems to be how everything works for me. A simple job, turned complicated and taking 10 times longer than it should. You could all probably tell me a story like this from your life. In the midst of situations like this it is just so easy to get discouraged and focus on the negative. It is so easy to feel sorry for yourself and want to throw a pity party. It is so easy to want to give up. It is so easy to lose sight of God and what He is doing. We get frustrated and set the tone to focus on the negative. After a lifetime of trials on my battlefield; I do try and find the positive; I am glad I have door frames to paint – I could be homeless. But, I am sorry to say that there have been times in my life, I have asked why everything has to be so hard, complicated, and take so long. I sometimes even find myself envying those people that everything is so easy for. I mean who else is going to have so many problems with paint, really? You see, we get so focused on what is going wrong and the mounting irritations and frustrations that we miss seeing the big picture. What is God doing in this situation?

God recently reminded me that I would miss so much if everything came easy. If everything was easy I would miss the opportunity to be thankful. I would miss the opportunity to learn to persevere. I would miss the opportunity to problem solve and try things different ways. I would miss the thrill of FINALLY completing the job, which happens to be so much sweeter. I wouldn’t be able to appreciate what it’s like when something actually goes right. Through these trials on life’s battleground, God is using these situations to brew and refine us. He is creating something more substantial in us with more depth and layers. He is using them for His good. I challenge you, and myself, to view things differently when things are not working as we think they should – because maybe they actually are. Instead of focusing on the negative and missing the bigger more important picture, focus on what you might be missing if things went smoothly. Focus on what God is brewing in you; He is refining you into a beautiful masterpiece. Focus on giving thanks in everything, even frustrating situations, because you know that God is at work in your life and He is there with you? He never leaves you!

^“13For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” Isaiah 41:13 KJV

Would you rather miss the frustration of things going wrong or miss seeing God moving in your life?

Let’s Brew!