when in doubt, blame yourself
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Yesterday, I spent my whole day blaming others, not because this is how I live, but because I wanted to show people how ultimately silly we can be when we live our lives like that. It is always easier to blame someone else for our issues. It is always easier to blame my friends, spouse, former pastors, past relationships and you name it rather than to take responsibility for your own actions. So, today I am taking responsibility for my own actions.
When we take responsibility for our actions we humble ourselves and acknowledge that we make mistakes or have made mistakes, but we don't give the enemy grounds to attack us and condemn us, so this is kinda tricky for some. Taking responsibility means admitting that you didn't handle yourself the way you should have, even if the other person responded in a worse way than you did. Taking responsibility means admitting you haven't treated your spouse perfectly either. There are always two sides to every story and most times we just hear one, and the one we most like to tell is our side of the story and we conviniently leave out details of how we dropped the ball. When we take responsibility, we tell the whole story, and invite the other person to tell their side.
We take responsibility for our actions. We take responsibility when we waste money and then don't have it for the most important things. We take responsibility when we act in a way that takes Glory away from God and puts it on ourselves. We take responsibility when we act in the ungodliest ways because we are not "there" yet.
I am going to take responsibility today. I have been married for 2 1/2 years now and until the past few months didn't pray with my wife every night before bed. We started out doing devotions with each other every night before we went to bed when we were first married. After that book was done, we never started another one. Since just before Alora was born we pray most every night, and some nights we just don't and that is on me. I pray for my wife daily, but there is something special about praying together. So, I am taking responsibility for not doing that, and I am going to do my best and ask for God's help to be more diligent. If there is one thing I need outside of God it is my wife's love and companionship. She is supportive and loving. As the leader of my family, it's on me to wash her with the Word and pray for her and cause all of her affections to be set on God. God help me!
p.s. I promise tomorrow won't be as long :)
posted by Pastor Potter @ 10:52 AM,
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when in doubt, blame others often
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
All of this started with Adam and Eve. Blaming others is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but people continue to use it daily as a way of life. Today on my twitter account, I will be blaming others all day for why my life is how it is. It is always easier to blame someone else in almost every situation. You can blame your spouse for not being a good spouse whether you really are a good spouse yourself, because then you can always blame them for you being a bad spouse. People blame their job performance on others. This morning I was up at 5 because of my baby girl crying. Should I blame every problem I have today on her? No, yet people are blaming things that happened 20 years ago on why they do what they do today. Now I understand life experiences shape us and mold us, but they don't have to define who we are or where we want to go.
One of the biggest blame games is people who don't follow God, and the sad thing is, THE CHURCH HAS LET THEM. We let them off the hook because they had a bad experience when they were 5 at church. Now, you know me and you know that I know that the church has it's share of problems. I am a pastor for pete's sake. People blame God because people die, because of Sept 11th, because of divorce, you name it, people blame God for it. People say they won't go to church ever again because a person didn't say hi to them that day or call them when they didn't go to church for 2 months straight. Listen, I have been to McDonalds probably a few hundred times in my life. They have messed up on my order several times. That does not mean I am giving up on the fast food industry. Parents mess up from time to time, should we do away with our parents? Bosses mess up, should we do away with them? If you want to, you can find something wrong with everyone and everything, but that does not mean everyone and everything is bad or can be blamed for all your problems.
The world says the church is judgmental and hypocritical. Isn't that judging the church? Are they judging the church on some bad experiences they have had? So every church is that way now? Are they never hypocritical? They never pretend to be something they are not? They have never tried to make their job sound more important than it really is? They have never said one thing and done another?
I agree people in the church can be fake. I agree they can be judging. I agree they can be hypocritical. But it's not everyone in the church. Not even close. I know lots of Christians who live out God's Word. They are not perfect, but they love God and love people and God is working in their hearts to make them more like Christ.
So instead of us starting churches so we can be a perfect church who isn't like the church you grew up in that messed you up for the rest of your life, how about we preach the gospel, take responsibility, stop blaming everyone else and live out what God has called us to do? We can sit around blamestorming all day long, but how about setting out in action to live this thing out and teaching others to do the same, so that by our deeds people will praise (not blame) our Father in heaven.
Sorry so long, if you normally read this blog, you know I am not usually this long winded.
posted by Pastor Potter @ 9:16 AM,
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soothing comfort
Monday, November 09, 2009
Being a Dad has changed me. I look at things in such a different way and I am only 3 months into this. Here's what I love - When Alora wakes up or is a tussling around in bed if Melissa or I go and put our hand on her stomach or face or give her one of our fingers to hold, she almost immediately settles down. It is such an amazing thing to see and I am confident most of you have experienced this with your kids, but this is my blog so I am telling you about my experience. :) She also knows our voices. She can hear her mommy or daddy talking and she knows they are near and it brings comfort to her. You probably see where I am going don't you?
There is tremendous soothing comfort when I know my heavenly Father is near. It brings me great joy to have him with me. It is much the same for me as it is Alora. When I find myself in a situation or I am uneasy about something, I cry out to Him and He is there. I pray you find the same comfort in your life. There is nothing like it in the world. The same goes for Alora. We are her parents. God has entrusted us. I pray to God and I will wrestle with Him until her heart is fully captivated by Him.
posted by Pastor Potter @ 10:02 AM,
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one of those weeks
Friday, November 06, 2009
Have you ever had "one of those weeks"? It's not a fun week, it's a hard week. I think we all have them from time to time. We all go through different things. Every situation is unique to us because we all have unique experiences in our lives. So while I may go through the same situation or loss, it is different for me because I will process through it differently than someone else. This is difficult for us to understand because we just think people should respond the way we do or "get over it". It's not always this cut and dry. It's not always this easy. All of us have a past and a different way of dealing with things. This is shaped by life experiences, our parents, if we had both parents, or a single parent or had two parents, but one was pretty much absent. There are so many things that go into the things that we go through. So the next time we want to make a snap judgment on someone, let's step back and think before we do and realize that they may respond differently than we do and that's ok. Their life has been shaped in a different way than mine and it's ok. This will help us have more love and compassion for one another.
posted by Pastor Potter @ 10:43 AM,
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The Ultimate Affirmation
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Last night we were going through Colossians 1 in bible study and it talks about reconciliation and I just wanted to post this thought on here for my blog -
One day Christ will lead us to His Father and present us as Holy and Blameless. Can you imagine that scene. Christ the perfect sacrifice, leading us to His Father and saying, you see this guy or this girl, He/She is blameless, spotless, holy, pure, worthy to recieve eternal life, and then we hear "well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord".
One word sums this day up - AMAZING!!!!!
posted by Pastor Potter @ 10:08 AM,
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off to Dallas
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
On November 20th I will be heading off to Dallas for a few days. I am going to see a friend who went to the same college I did as well as see a Dallas Cowboy football game live. I have never been to a Cowboy game in Dallas and now that they have their new stadium I am especially excited. We will also be catching a Mavs game on Friday night and I am hoping to go to The Village Church in Austin to see Matt Chandler preach, but we will see. I am looking forward to it so much. It will be a nice break and a great trip with my brother. My friend is the asst. chaplain of the Cowboys and Mavs so we are getting hooked up with great seats and perks. We are driving so it should be a fun experience.
Melissa will be preaching that week. She will do a great job and I look forward to hearing what God does through her and her message. I am so thankful to God for making this all happen.
posted by Pastor Potter @ 11:17 AM,
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online funerals
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Would you ever attend a funeral online? When I read this article, I thought it was crazy, but it makes sense. For some people it is not an option to travel cross country to attend a funeral. There are two websites who make it easy - www.funeralrecording.com and www.funeralone.com.
Would you ever attend an online funeral?
Would you ever have an online funeral for your family member?
Is this morbid?
For me, at first glance it was crazy, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
posted by Pastor Potter @ 12:41 PM,
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