Coptic Dad & Mom

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Starting November 12, I will no longer be posting new material on my blogger site. Instead, I will be posting on a new, self-hosted site. I am so excited and nervous that I am literally nauseous. This is one of those leap-of-faith moments for me. I have no idea what I'm doing. I just know that this is the next right step.

Isn't it crazy how God works that way in our lives? We only get light for a few more steps... We have to trust the rest of the path will open up in His way and in His time. And there are no shortcuts.

Oh, how we long for shortcuts. Too often we think if we just break this one little tiny commandment, if we just ignore this one little tiny precept, we'll get there faster and less painfully. Abraham and Sarah come to mind. Boy, did they love trying out shortcuts. "Just say you're my sister," Abraham says. "It'll be easier that way," he tells her. "Take Hagar," Sarah says. "Let's make it happen our way," she insists.

You can't take a step in God's way that is against God's commandments. He doesn't ask you to do that. For Joseph, it means he can't fulfill his dream by sleeping with Potiphar's wife. For David, it means he can't become king by stretching his hand out against God's anointed. For Peter, it meant he couldn't just slash Christ's attackers to save his Lord. You can't go against a commandment of God as a shortcut to God's path. He doesn't work that way. When you sin, when you take your own shortcut, you slow God's work in your life dramatically.

Think about the life decisions you face now. Joseph went to jail for years to avoid breaking a commandment of God. David wandered the countryside for years to avoid breaking a commandment of God. Susanna was almost put to death for avoiding breaking a commandment of God. St George was tortured by seven kings for seven years rather than renounce his Savior. What suffering are you prepared to endure for your Savior as He endured suffering for you? What leap of faith are you being asked to take? What situation do you need to entrust to God instead of trying to take your own shortcut through it?

Pray for me as I pray for you. God bless your week!

Remember you can reach me at bloggingtasoni AT gmail.com or by commenting below.

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I like to remind myself that I could die at anytime. Or that my loved ones could die at anytime. Yes, it's a scary and quite literally morbid thought.

I woke up this morning to find an article about a teenager who was dropped off with a friend on a sidewalk and moments later was struck by a hit-and-run driver. Life ended at 19. Below the article was a link to another about a single mom who died of health complications and whose one-year-old child unrelatedly choked on her food and also died. Wasn't there some TV show about all the strange ways people go? How bizzare.

Usually, our own death and the death of those around us is a thought we don't want to entertain. But our lives would take on a much different tone if we kept that in mind.

If our loved ones could die at any moment and under a myriad of circumstances, we can't waste time holding grudges--both for the sake of our relationships and for the sake of our salvation.

Our loved ones could die at anytime. If we can't be pleasant towards the people around us, at least we can train ourselves to think pleasant thoughts about them.

I have a friend who makes me so angry. Just does completely inappropriate things that annoy me. And I can't go more than a few days without saying something nice to this person. Because acting loving generates feelings of love, forgiveness, kindness. And now all my friends are checking their phones to see if I'm talking about them :D!

Is this double-minded? Not at all. I genuinely love my friends. I love everyone. My goal is to grow love between people. And my goal is to daily be a more loving person. If I train my thoughts to be loving, if I deliberately choose to act in love, I will achieve that goal.

I'm really counting on that verse that says, "Love will cover a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).

So let's stop it with the grudges already. Unless our life goal is to be bitter people, what's the point? Unless our life goal is to poison our own lives, what's the point?

When a begrudging thought comes to our minds, let's imagine it's a balloon that we release. Or picture the thought as a whisper going in one ear as we open the door to let it out of the other.

Then let's replace the begrudging thought with a positive one--about that person if we're able or just a generally positive thought. Let's think "Wow, that cloud looks so cool" or "Oooh, I really like the scarf I'm wearing today" or "Hey, self, remember when so-and-so made you laugh about this-and-that." Before we know it, this "release of the negative and lift of the positive" thought process will become a habit.

And in committing to that we become more Christ-like--which is the whole point of our faith anyway.

You could die at anytime. Pump as much love into the world as you can before you go.

I was going to just close the survey without telling anyone and then the most recent survey respondent just blew my mind. Now I feel guilty if I don't give everyone a fair chance to speak their mind.

So I am giving you all until 11 p.m. EST today (Tues. 10/6/15) if you want to take the survey then it will be CLOSED. Just ten questions [essays ;) optional] but trust me I read every word and pray for each one of you as I do.

Next post on this topic will give you an idea of some of the intriguing results :)!