Graduates forget doing big things, go do small things instead.

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I read a graduation sentiment advising the graduate to go do great big things, go change the world. A verse popped in my head from Zechariah 4:10. The context is different, so I’m not attempting to make scripture fit where it doesn’t. But the sentiment still rings true. “For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”

In the book of Zechariah, the Israelites had been back from exile in Babylon for 20 years and were discouraged. The beginning work of the temple rebuilding started strong but tapered off because of much opposition. In verse 10 of chapter 4, he is reminding the people that God is always at work even when we can’t see it. Often God’s “big” works are seen after many years of small acts of faithfulness and steadiness. Zechariah was reminding the people that though they despised their days of small works, they would soon rejoice when they witnessed the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel, the leader of God’s people at that time.

The plumb line could be considered a small thing, but it was crucial in the building of the temple. The plumb line guided the wall building, keeping them lined up properly in order that they last over time. The big work of the temple would have been impossible without countless small acts easily bypassed as unimportant.

Some graduates will go on to do “great” things like find a cure for cancer or invent the next technological advance. But those graduates are in the slim minority. We’d do better to encourage them to build a life doing small things with dedication and faithfulness. Small things aren’t applauded by the world. Small acts of faithfulness create a heart of humility, one who doesn’t seek attention and accolades. We need more of that.

Graduates, go do your small work well.

  • Wake early and make your bed daily.
  • Work with your hands. Scrub a toilet, take out the trash, pull the weeds, build something.
  • Notice your surroundings and fill that need. Even if it’s not your job.
  • Study hard even if you think you don’t need to.
  • Serve someone other than yourself every single day.
  • Smile at people everywhere you go.
  • Open the door for the person walking behind you.
  • Let the car out instead of jetting out first.
  • Bend down and pick up the trash in the parking lot.
  • Tell the person that nice thought you had about them.
  • Master your gift or talent. Practice until the boredom is too much to bear.
  • Listen even if you disagree.
  • Become a person who keeps your promise even to yourself.
  • Read books – they will change your life.
  • Find life work that brings you life.
  • Be kind to everyone. There’s never an excuse to be rude.
  • Look up. See the world around you. Screens offer counterfeit moments of life.
  • Show up on time.
  • Don’t quit because things get hard.
  • Do that thing you don’t feel like doing. Feelings don’t dictate your life.
  • Learn how to problem solve.
  • Love learning. More learning happens outside the education system.
  • Love God with your whole heart.
  • See, really see, the people around you.
  • Be confident in your small work even if culture sees it differently.
  • Tell the truth. Always.
  • Spend time with God daily. It’ll change your life too.
  • Pray.
  • Be a good friend.
  • Pick up the phone and call someone.
  • Whatever you do, do it unto God.

So this list isn’t really about what work one chooses to do, it’s about the person you are becoming as you do the work set before you. That’s what matters most. As you move about your day and your life, do every small thing faithfully, humbly, and steadfastly.

Who am I becoming? Who I am in the Lord sets me up for whatever work I do daily. Small or big, I can celebrate it.

Living an honest life in the Lord, doing small acts daily, will build into a life you simply can’t imagine today.

So, graduates, you are free to choose the path of small work. Your small work matters! The things that don’t bring recognition on stage and applause from the masses, God sees them all. One day you will stand before God and see how every small thing accumulated into a treasured life.

 

 

 

 

 

Life Update

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In the last year, I’ve only written eight times. That’s less than I’ve penned in the last 15 years of my life by a long shot. I’ve long accepted the seasonality of life – the opening and closing of time and talent. Despite my acceptance, I continue to wrestle with the want. I want to write more. In fact, I wish I wrote full time for a living. That would be my dream job. Writing often feels so impractical though. It’s a soul salve for me, so is it so impractical?

Now that summer has arrived, I hope to carve out time to sit with my thoughts held before God, allowing Him to sift them. That was how I actually began writing on the regular initially. After spending a full day with my little ones, I’d sit with God in the evenings and find I saw Him in all the crevices of moments. He was everywhere. And I wanted more of Him. The more I wrote, the more I saw Him.

I’ve been seeking God’s guidance in what’s next for me and writing. Do I keep writing christian encouragement? Maybe I spend more time developing my freelance writing. Travel writing would be exciting. Or an opinion column no one asked for could be fun. Or is it time to shift completely? I slightly did that last year. Since today’s post is a rambling of sorts, maybe it’s a good time to update you on the last year.

I went back to work part-time last year as the campus director for a hybrid homeschool, A Latere Academy. Two days a week my heart was filled by kindergartners through second graders and their hard-working, homeschooling parents. To come alongside these families has been a true gift. The highlight of my year was bringing Andrew to work with me. He completed his school day and simultaneously developed a love for these kids. Watching him connect and grow was a true joy.

I also completed my second year of teaching Logic to middle schoolers. The surprising thing that brought to my life is how it changed my own brain. I learned how to problem solve better. I learned how to think more critically and logically. I’ve actually considered packaging it somehow as a class for adults online.

I’m loving this stage of life with our boys. Here’s a quick update on each of them.

Jacob will be 20 in the fall. Insane to believe. He graduated a year ago and is working part-time while he’s launched his own lawn care business. His courage to go against the norms and expectations of our culture has inspired us. He’s always been mature beyond his age, and we continue to see that in him. He didn’t want to spend 4 years in college to come out in debt and potentially never need that degree. He’s entrepreneurial in spirit and desires to own businesses and real estate. Landscaping is a low risk way to learn to start and grow a business. He’s going for it and we couldn’t be prouder of him!

Zachary turns 18 in the fall and begins his senior year. He plans to start flying lessons this year and pursue a career as a private pilot. Like his brother, he is courageous and bold. He’s driven and is ready to become an adult. He is celebrating his one year anniversary with his girlfriend and has been working at Chick-fil-A for nearly 4 years.

Andrew begins his freshman year this fall. He started working at Chick-fil-A this summer, following in his brothers footsteps. He is wrapping up what will be his last season of baseball this summer. We’ve been with this team since he was in 3rd grade and will be so hard to say goodbye. It’s been a good run, but he’s ready to shift his focus to golf and work. He’s playing tons of golf and dreams of going Pro one day. He also has an entrepreneur spirit and continues to be as strong-willed at 14 as he was at 4. Pray for us.

Steve and I are treasuring up all the time we have with our boys. We’ve always parented toward the future and are soaking it all in. At the same time, we are realizing that before long, we will enter a new season again and continue to focus on our marriage and creating lives that don’t center on our children.

As I’ve written all of this, I realize I almost never update our personal lives here anymore. When I first started my blog, it was more personal in nature than anything else. As my children have aged, I’ve tried to keep private much of their lives. If you’ve read this long, bless you. And that probably means you’ve been here with me from the start. If you are new here, please stick around. This isn’t the content I publish typically.

On that note, I feel I need to connect with you all and see who all is reading and what you are hoping to read. The internet is so filled with noise. The last thing I want to do is add to the noise. If you are receiving this via email, hit reply and let me know what you enjoy reading and would like to read more of.

 

The secret to becoming younger inside despite aging outside

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On a recent ski trip with my family, I had one of those pivotal moment experiences. The kind that makes you look at your life and decide you will do whatever it takes to make a change. After only a short half day of skiing, my quads tapped out. To be fair to my screaming muscles, they did work harder than normal as I labored to help my son’s girlfriend down her first ever green run. It took us two hours, we were lapped about three times by the family, and I had multiple moments of helping her up and back into her skis while trying to keep myself from back skiing down the mountain.

The remainder of the trip, my muscles reminded me we are aging. I am forty-six years old, but I forget. I feel young at heart and in fairly good shape. The mountain proved to me it was time to make a change. When we returned from our trip, I found a personal trainer and committed to six months of training in the gym with her three days a week. I committed to a strict diet in conjunction with strength training to help me gain muscle mass. I went all in.

After my first training day, I stood on a scale that spit out all types of metrics I know nothing about. However, the one that made me most excited was my metabolic age. 31 years old. I knew it! I knew I felt young for a reason. Inside I feel younger than my outer body lives out on the daily.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” 1 Corinthians 4:16

We live in the physical world. We age, our body breaks down; however, if we are in Christ, our inner self is being renewed daily. Just as I work with my personal trainer to strengthen my outer body, when I spend time with God, spend time in His Word, choose to obey Him, spend time in prayer, meditate on scripture, and serve the body of Christ, I am putting my inner self through spiritual strength training.

My trainer coached me through chest presses I would have never done without the pressure of someone standing over me. She knew I could do what I was convinced I couldn’t do. I didn’t tell her, but inside I was telling myself it was impossible to do even one more press. Yet, I did five more simply because she stayed by my side telling me to keep going.

Christ stands at our side. We will not be shaken. We will not be moved. He knows that we are weak, but He is strong. He knows He will give us every bit of strength to walk out this life in a way that makes our inner self strong and lovely.

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 1 Corinthians 4:17-18

What light momentary affliction are you facing today? Is it a tantrum throwing toddler, a rebellious teenager, an aging parent, a marital struggle, loneliness, rejection, job loss, financial hardship? Sometimes the weight of our worry, anxiety, and struggle feels too much to bear. And it is. He never intended us to bear the weight alone or stand without our trainer at our side. He is there, assisting you, holding the weight for you.

But the training the Lord has us in is preparing us for eternity. What we walk through here on Earth is preparing us to carry an eternal weight of glory! Just stop and meditate on that for a moment. We will be entrusted in eternity to carry the weight of His glory. So we train now in godliness.

Give little attention to the physical world. Keep your eyes fixed on what is unseen and eternal. This life will be over in a nano-second.

“So we do not lose heart…..”

Lord, Thank you that you promise to renew us day by day as we stay close to you. Thank you for your Word that instructs us how to lift the weight of this world off of us and onto your shoulders. Thank you that your yoke is easy. Thank you that you are always near so we need never lose heart. Strengthen us on the inside so that we can walk in this physical world well. Prepare us to carry that eternal weight of glory. What you have for us, the mind has never conceived. Wow, Lord. You are too good to us. Forgive us for forgetting you so frequently. Keep our eyes fixed on you and the unseen. We love you. 

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

 

Why you can relax about politics, culture, and evil in the world

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After the 2008 election, we attended a church service where the pastor preached a sermon about how regardless of who wins elections, God remains on the throne. With our lips, we declare God is sovereign, but watch our actions and attitudes when our candidates lose elections. Our belief statements often misalign with our attitudes.

Fast forward to 2020, the year that traumatized souls at a deep level whether from pandemic living, political climate, or uprises in cities. Now we sit on the verge of 2023 and the anxiety has reached new heights.

I had a conversation recently with someone who was deeply upset about what we are seeing in the world. Culture is changing at a rapid pace and evil seems to have increased. Maybe it has, or maybe we simply see more through media, particularly social media, than at any other time in history. Regardless, it is creating traumatized souls.

I prayed for the person I’d had this conversation with, and later that day my radio station landed on religious talk radio. The pastor preached from Psalm 37. I went straight home and opened the Bible to see for myself. This Psalm has become a soul balm.

The verse literally begins by telling us not to worry about the wicked.

“Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither.” Psalm 37:1-2

We are far too worried about the wicked. We are much too weighed down by the evil. As humans we cannot possibly handle carrying the burden evil brings to our souls. It’s time to be done once and for all. God’s Word tells us the reason we don’t need to worry about the wicked, or envy the fact they seem to escape punishment, is they will soon be gone.

Whatever we get rid of, we must replace with something better. If you’ve ever fasted, you realize how important it is to fill what once took your time and attention with something different.

Psalm 37:3-4 tells us what to replace our worry over evil with. “Trust in the Lord, and do good: dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Practically speaking, replace giving your attention to the news and decide to do good. Live your life trusting God. Be faithful with what He’s given you. Go love on your family, serve in your church, talk to your neighbors, smile at strangers, sit for extended times with God in prayer and reading His Word. Delight in Him. Delight in living your life.

Verses 7-8 are key. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”

Don’t worry. Don’t be angry. Be patient. Trust God. Why? Because our anger will only lead to more evil and because wrath is for God not us. Their time is coming. Thankfully, we can simply live our lives doing good and leave the handling of evil to the only One capable of administering justice.

2020 damaged my soul. I allowed myself to fret over evil and to sit in my anger over all the media told me to be angry about. Three years later, I still feel the effects it had and am only now seeing the waste of time and energy it was.

I don’t watch the news. I lost all trust in their reports, which are not much more than fear-mongering and propaganda. All sides of the news. All sides have an agenda. They want our reaction and attention.

Psalm 37 tells us exactly how to handle living in a world of evil: Don’t worry. Live where you are. Dwell. Do good. Keep your focus on Jesus. Trust He will take care of everything in due time.

“In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.” Psalm 37:10-11

 

 

Where’s Your Focus Today?

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My dear friend and spiritual mentor sends a daily Bible verse to a group of people. It’s the one email I open every single day. This morning she sent a verse that is commonplace to anyone who has spent much time in God’s Word. The temptation when we read familiar verses is to pridefully skim. We may think to ourselves, “Oh, I know this one,” and move right on by. Or maybe it’s just me?

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

I memorized this verse years ago. I’ve prayed it back to the Lord. I’ve read it to my kids. I’ve written it on index cards and taped to my mirror. This verse is like a cozy blanket in the dead of winter to me. However, today, the Lord halted my prideful skim.

I am careful not to put words to God’s mouth by claiming “God said to me,” I feel this is highly overused when we want to put authority to our thoughts, plans, or actions. Not always, but at times. But as I read this verse today, I felt God hold up the stop sign. “Are your meditations pleasing to me?”

Meditation, according to dictionary.com, is continued, extended thought, contemplation, reflection.

What am I giving extended thought to? For me it is my worries. I have so many worries for my kids as all parents do. I want the very best for them. I spend countless hours contemplating their lives, futures, current choices, paths, etc.

Your meditations may be different. Maybe you spend extended thought on regret. Maybe it is on coddling your unforgiveness or bitter thoughts. Maybe it’s to the insane political climate. Maybe it’s to your pleasure and entertainment. Maybe it’s to envying what you see around you. Maybe it’s to your future and your path. Maybe it’s to good things, maybe it’s to bad things.

What I’m pondering in my heart, will eventually make its way out of my mouth.

Are the words coming out of my mouth pleasing to the Lord?

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45

What comes out is indicative of what is stored in our hearts. Be careful what comes into your heart.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

Wow, above all else. How important does God believe we should guard our hearts. It determines the course of our very lives.

Back to my original pondering today. What am I meditating on? Is it pleasing to the Lord? I may control, to a degree, what comes out of my mouth and feel that is pleasing to the Lord, but what am I tossing around in my heart. Is THAT pleasing to the Lord?

Lord, I confess my pride often when I approach your Word. You are limitless and full truth. Your Word is sharper than any two-edged sword. Thank you for your Word that convicts and guides. You are so good to us. Forgive me, Lord, for the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart that are not pleasing to You. Soften my heart and gentle my words. Create in me a new heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Help me place all my worries at your feet so I’m not tempted to meditate on my problems more than I meditate on the truth of your Word. Amen

P.S. One practical tool I’m using currently is to turn my worries into spoken prayers. I’m trying to retrain my brain to turn to God before myself. Each time I realize I’m fostering a worried thought, I whisper it back to God and pray about it. Worry won’t change my problems. God can. But even if He doesn’t change the circumstance, He will change my heart in the process.

 

Grab a free phone or watch for your kid or young teen!!

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I love when Gabb Wireless offers promotions, which they do quite often. However, I’ve never seen them offer one like they have available right now. A free phone or watch for new lines!!

  • When: July 27th at 12:01AM – July 29th at 11:59PM
  • What: Free Gabb Phones and Gabb Watches (excludes Gabb Phone Plus)
  • For Who: Every kid K-12 in need of a safe device this school year
  • Details:
    • $30 new line activation fee
    • Monthly service plan
    • Can only be used for new lines, no upgrades
    • Excludes the Gabb Phone Plus

Do you have a child or young teen you want to have the peace of mind a “smart” watch or a phone provides, but you aren’t ready to put a smart device in their hands and open them up to a world they aren’t quite ready for?

If so, Gabb Wireless is your company. They are the only company I’ve found to deliver what they promise in the quest to keep kids safely connected.

What I’ve found with my own kids is that offering them a device like Gabb prepares them well to transition to the smartphone world. If I had my choice, I’d keep smartphones forever away. However, we all know that isn’t possible today or in the future. So, we decided training devices are a great option.

Gabb Wireless offers GPS tracking, a smartphone look with zero internet, no social media or apps/games. I can rest knowing my son can text and call while being protected from the online world.

We’ve had both the watch and phone and highly recommend both!

Ends Friday so grab your device now!

www.gabbwireless.com/promo/RENEEROBINSON

PROMOCODE: RENEEROBINSON

 

 

 

 

 

The Lost Art of Fasting

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Fasting isn’t a popular topic. The moment the subject is broached you almost see people become physically uncomfortable. The conversation switches rather quickly.

We live in a world where we worship pleasure and entertainment. We are forever on the quest for what feels good, what we want to do, and what is fun for us. Enjoying life isn’t wrong. God loves a joyful spirit, but when our focus rests predominately on orienting our worlds around what we want, then we know we are out of line with the will of God.

Fasting reorients our will with God’s will.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

A follower of Jesus is instructed to deny himself before bearing the cross. We can’t pick up a cross while carrying our self-pleasing, flesh-serving desires. There is a proper order of operations. Deny first, pick up second.

To deny yourself is to humble yourself. To realize you don’t sit on the throne of your own life. To choose to put yourself behind your desires for the pursuit of pleasure and entertainment.

Only then, in this state of humility, can we possibly receive the strength to pick up the cross of Christ and follow Him. The cross is a symbol of sacrifice over selfishness. It’s a sign of humility over pride. It’s a sign of service of meism.

To pick up the cross is the ultimate act of humility. When we fast, we are laying down our pride and choosing a posture of humility. It’s a choice to deny ourselves of what we want.

My first fast was a 24 hour food fast. The closeness I experienced with the Lord, the mental clarity I received, and the restful soul I embraced caused me to extend my food fast another 24 hours. The Lord gave me a dream that night. I remember realizing how much I’d missed out on all the years I chose to disregard the gift of fasting.

I tried writing a list for you of the benefits of fasting. It was too long and I deleted the entire list. I decided I want you to discover the benefits for yourself. Each fast reveals a new reason to set regular seasons of fasting.

Instead of giving you all the reasons I find fasting of great value, I will share my top four.

4 Benefits of Fasting:

  1. Self-control. Choosing to go without something forces me to exercise self-control in an area I don’t normally. But what I’ve found with fasting is that like muscles that are exercised regularly, they strengthen with repetition. When I fast, I become more disciplined in all areas.
  2. Mental clarity. When I fast, I quickly realize how much I think about myself. All day long I’m thinking about what I want to enjoy, what I need to relax, what I want to do for fun. I would never have believed I thought about myself so much until I took things out of my life that took up mental space. When that mental space was cleared and I was released of the burden of thinking of myself so much, my thoughts became clearer. I began to think deeper rather than on the surface of my desires.
  3. Soul rest. Feeding our selfish desires is tiring. It wears a soul down more than we realize. It’s a beautiful gift to our soul to break from what we think we want and need. Inside a calmness settles in.
  4. Strength. We can do hard things. When we choose what is easy, we become weak people who can’t handle the bumps of life. Fasting is hard. Hard grows us stronger.

4 common types of fasts:

  1. Most obvious is food. This is also one of the hardest. When I fast from food, I enjoy a deeper, richer prayer life. I am face to face with my weakness all day long. When my stomach aches, I turn to God and pour my heart out to Him. It’s a beautiful way to connect with His tenderness and allow Him to actually be my bread of life and my living water.
  2. Social media. I do this a couple times a year. Each time I wonder why I don’t make it permanent.
  3. Alcohol. I just did an 8 week alcohol fast I plan to share about with you in more detail. If you are a christian who drinks alcohol, I think this one is an absolute must.
  4. Sugar. Incredibly hard if you have a sweet tooth, but so rewarding.

Challenge:

  1. Choose a type of fast. Be sure it’s not an easy one. Don’t fast from chocolate unless you are eating it A LOT! Choose something that is hard. It’s worth it.
  2. Choose a period of time. 24 hours, 7 days, 1 month.
  3. Set start and end date.
  4. Tell your spouse or an accountability partner so they can pray for you during your time of fasting.
  5. Dedicate your fast to the Lord. Pray without ceasing. Be open to what God reveals to you.