Challenged To The Core - Kathi Brixey

Sometimes lessons come into your life in a way that you aren’t quite sure if God was awake, you know what I mean? For example, when our oldest daughter was in the fifth or sixth grade she encountered a classmate that selected our daughter to be her “whipping post” if you will. For reasons known only to this little girl she decided that our little girl was the object of her anger. She had a little “gang” of girls that did her biding so the playground belonged to her. Now I expected our son to get into scuffles with other boys but not our little girls. After many weeks of being shoved, knocked down, rumors being passed around, scraped knees, elbows and bruised egos things came to a head. I had been talking with teachers and vice principals but nothing was being done. Finally, after talking with our daughter and affirming that she had been turning the other check, we started talking about standing firm in her faith and what she felt God wanted her to do. (Mom was ready to take the little girl over her knee) We gave our daughter permission to settle the score so to speak if she was approached again by this little girl. I told the principle what we had said to our daughter and he informed us that she would be suspended for fighting if she responded. Hummm, what’s wrong with that picture? Well the inevitable happened; the little girl came up to our daughter and pushed her into the brick wall just out of sight of the playground monitors. Our daughter had never struck back because her classmate was so much smaller than herself, and she knew that God would want her settle this in a nicer way, however she was armed with the knowledge that as a Christian you don’t have to be a door mat and that you can and should stand up for your beliefs. She told her to leave her alone but was met with another push. To this last time she responded and let her classmate have it. That little girl left our daughter alone after that, but her mother tried to take me on (that’s another story for another time.) The little girl ran and told and our daughter was called into the office. We had told our daughter that no matter what happened that God knew the truth and He would take care of the end result. When I got to school the principal called me into his office and told us that the little girl had confessed when confronted and that our daughter would not be suspended. Our daughter learned a valuable lesson that day, to stand firm in her beliefs and that God had her back. Had this cycle of events not happened it might have taken years for our daughter to get this principle? Sometimes we have to be pushed to learn that we must lean on God.

Because of our human nature we often react to situations with anger rather than stopping and regrouping before responding in a more appropriate fashion. How many times in your life have you done or said something that later, with time for reflection you would have done it differently? I bet you don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all of them. Blaming our human nature is not an excuse, it is a crutch. Getting ourselves in check, waiting for how God wants us to respond and then doing it are things that have to be practiced. In the scripture it tells us that if we don’t stand firm in our faith, in other words being grounded in the Word and truly believing, then we might as well not even make the attempt. Who will listen to someone who doesn’t believe what they themselves are saying? Why would you follow someone who wasn’t sure themselves? When we first started our journey to move to the mountains we would come up on Sunday’s so we could attend church. We visited several churches in our community looking for a new church home. One of the most important things I was looking for was a pastor that was passionate about God’s word and that he was preaching from his heart. The second thing that was important to me was hearing that the church would not waiver on God’s truth and commandments; that the church would not compromise. There were other things that helped make our decision to join our church, and finally the Holy Spirit gave us the peace we were looking for when we joined. My point is that in order for me to make decisions regarding life choices I have to know who I am in Christ and ultimately what He expects of me. Practicing your faith means just that practicing. In order for you to stand firm you have to know that God has your back by practicing what His word says and then believing. I have a plaque that hangs in our foyer, it says “faith is not believing that God can, it’s knowing that He will.” I can not tell how many times I have taken comfort in that truth. God has proven Himself over and over to me so that I know that I know that I know who I believe in. God is faithful! Had our daughter not been grounded in her faith even at that young age she would not have taken the bullying as long as she did before letting us know what was going on. Nor would she have responded in a manner that was appropriate to the situation. What kind of impression did she leave on the young classmate, or the office staff? We may never know what they thought or what seeds were planted, but one thing is for sure, God does.

When we are pushed to learn something new most of us respond in one of three ways; kicking and screaming, docile reconciliation or with fear and trepidation. What happened to your inner child that was eager to explore and experience new things? Why not dig into the Word with that same childlike enthusiasm so that you become well grounded to stand firm in your faith. Learning from experience that God is always there and ready to reveal His plan for us builds our faith. We are learning to lean on God’s wisdom so we can stand firm in our faith. So often we have to be pushed to step outside our comfort zone. Once there, we realize it’s not as bad as we anticipated in fact it might be darn right enjoyable. Go figure!

However you respond or react to learning new ways of building your faith, be aware that if you choose not to grow you won’t be able to stand firm. All you really have is fire insurance. You’ll be in heaven but won’t hear from our Father “well done good and faithful servant.” I encourage you this week as you check your pulse to really explore why you haven’t or won’t dig deep into to God’s Word. Will you begin today to practice faithfully so you can learn how to lean on Him or will it take some more pushing? The answer to that six million dollar question lies at your feet, will you push it aside or lean on God for the wisdom and strength to stand firm in your faith?