Heartbroken

This morning I walked my youngest daughter into school. I had to talk with her teacher about an issue that developed on the playground earlier in the week. On Monday, my daughter and the rest of her 3rd grade friends were playing on the playground. A boy came over and began pushing all the girls down and started calling them names. Sarah stood up and told the boy to stop. He would not, so she grabbed him by the arm and said "Stop". He then hit her and ran off. Yesterday afternoon, this boy told Sarah that he had told his teacher that she had grabbed him by the arm and that the teacher was going to yell at her. Sarah was terrified. She came home yesterday and balled her eyes out. She did not want to be get in trouble for doing the right thing. She asked me if I would go in and explain everything to the teacher. I asked her why she wanted me to tell her. I said, "Sarah, can't you tell your teacher what happened." She said, "Yes, but I would feel better if you were with me to help explain it." I said, "Ok, I will go." Suddenly my daughters expression changed. She was no longer in fear, but at peace. I began to think about my relationship with God, how sometimes just knowing that God is with me is enough to calm my fears and give me peace. So I went to the school this morning, and shared with the teacher all that had transpired. She said that she would take care of everything. Once I finished with the teacher, I walked over to Sarah to tell her bye, she began to cry. She was having a rough day. My heart began to break. I really could feel her pain. I told her that I loved her and gave her a big hug. She finally calmed down and smiled at me. She went back to her desk and began a new day at school. As I left the school, my mind was flooded with thoughts of how this same situation had played out in my own life many times. I began to get a clearer glimpse into the deep and intimate relationship that God wants to have with each of us. I am sure that when we are heartbroken over a event or situation in our lives that God feels our pain. All we need is a big hug, and to hear God say I love you. I hope this encounter encourages you as much as it did me. Just remember, we each are playing a vital role in the great, grand story of God, and he wants us to know him as much as he knows us. Have a great day.


Randy Brown

Success vs. Excellence

In society, success and excellence have come to mean the same thing. Many people can not distinguish between the two. If you were to ask 10 people to define these terms, many of the definitions would be the same or a variation of the same thought. Through my reading, I have determined that as Christians, we need to understand these terms in order to be all that God created us to be. Success is a term that is usually imposed upon us by society. It is a way for us to gauge the progress of an individual or a company. Many of the tools we use to evaluate success are subjective and biased. Success to one person may not necessarily be success to another. As believers, we strive for success in our faith. We tend to gauge our Christian walk by comparing ourselves to others, which only leaves us empty and defeated. We can not compare ourselves to someone else. God created each of us uniquely. There is no one like us. We need to strive for excellence rather than success.
Excellence is the process of becoming all that God created us to be. For example, if you have a brand new car, you would follow the manufacturers guide to servicing your car in order to maximize the effectiveness of the car. It was created to operate under certain conditions. If we want the car to be excellent, we need to operate and maintain it to the specifications that we were given. It is the same in our lives as we follow Christ.
Jesus came to show us the way to have an abundant “Excellent” life. We need to follow His guidelines to be able to operate at maximum efficiency. We need to follow Christ the best way we know how out of the unique way God has shaped us. When we do this, we will relieve the tension between success and excellence. We were made to live for more than just existence. We were made to be excellent.