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Published on March 20, 2017 06:49

The Lines Have Fallen to Me in Pleasant Places

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

When we bump up against life’s fences, do we greet them with acceptance, or do we cry out at their hindrance and resent their delays?

Sometimes those fences are raised for our comfort or protection.

Without boundaries, bridge-walkers could fall, cattle would stray, and lines of responsibility grow dim.

In the physical world, clear limits keep us on the right side of the protective yellow line.

In our emotional lives, boundaries allow us to say, “No, that is enough.”

Even the sea is prevented from surpassing the shore, and the sun and seasons know their limits.

May we too acknowledge the boundaries set before us, offering thanks to the One who knows just how much we can handle, and how to keep us safe.

Psalm 16:6

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Published on March 13, 2017 06:58

It’s Not Too Late

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

As spring approaches, I’m inclined to envy what I see happening in nature around me. Can people regenerate like the flowers and trees in their yards?

I believe the answer is yes, and these three steps can help:

* Forget about New Year’s resolutions and start a Spring Supplement, listing physical, spiritual and relational areas in which you’d like to see growth.

* Set aside a new time of day—morning, afternoon, or evening—for spending a few quiet moments alone with the Lord. A different time may result in a different perspective.

* Put feet on your focus. Get moving physically with a fresh walking route, an innovative exercise routine, or a new exercise partner. Music can be an inspiring companion.

Spring will soon be upon us—our annual reminder that life really does get a fresh start. It also reminds us of God’s promise of revival and redemption. What a great refresher course and another chance to hear Him say, “It’s not too late.”

A similar version of this post first appeared on the More to Life blog Feb. 27 under “Did You know?” Read what other authors had to say that day here.

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Published on March 06, 2017 06:46

Sometimes I Get Off Track

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

As a writer, it’s easy for me to digress into drama over everyday situations, and that’s exactly what I did recently.

Through circumstances beyond my control, I was ejected from an important relationship. I was also dejected about another tentative relationship, and finally rejected by the potential second half of a third and pending relationship with a publisher.

Yeah, rejection on three different levels.

I spent an entire day off track, licking my wounds, and feeling sorry for myself.

The next morning, I heard from the other half of my most important relationship. He left a note for me in Psalm 73:23-24, but it was written from my point of view so I’d really get the picture:

Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me to glory.

This tender reminder from the Author of my faith poured oil on my wounds and bound them securely in His love.

My focus shifted.

Comfort flooded all my sore places.

And I am beyond grateful.

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Published on February 27, 2017 06:50

Hiding From God?

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

My three-year-old granddaughter loves to play hide-and-seek. Without fail, her giggling or wiggling toes give her away. Mom and Dad can always find her.

It’s like that with God. We, His grown-up children, think we can hide from Him, that He can’t see us when guilt or embarrassment or pride send us running away. We try to cover up our hearts and our fears, forgetting that He knows where we are.

He waits for us to run to Him, not from Him.

The great singer of Israel wrote: “You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away” (Psalm 139:2 NLT).

If He knows our thoughts, I’m pretty sure He knows everything else, too.

If you’ve found yourself hiding from God lately, how’s that working out for you?

Try running to Him. He’s waiting with open arms.

“You are my hiding place;” Psalm 32:7 NIV

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Published on February 20, 2017 06:23

And They Lived Happily Ever …

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

Chocolate and flowers abound in February because it’s the love month and romance is in the air. Greeting-card companies, candy manufacturers, and florists attribute much of their business to this short-on-days, long-on-love month.

However, it takes more than candy and flowers to make a good romance.

As a romance writer, February isn’t the only month I have love on the brain. I watch the Hallmark Channel all year long because I know I can find a romantic story there with a happy ending.

Happy endings are what qualify romance as romance and not simply love stories like Romeo and Juliet and the 1970 tear-jerker, Love Story.

However, many real-life people think they have the happy-ending equation figured out, and they spend their lives (and several broken relationships) trying to make their equation work:

Perfect + Perfect = Happy

Even Cupid’s arrow wouldn’t hit the mark with this philosophy.

In a well-written romance, the hero and heroine are not perfect people. They are flawed and they spend the majority of the story discovering that they love each other in spite of those flaws.

News flash: There is not a “perfect” man anywhere who is not flawed. Husband, boyfriend, son, father, brother—every single one of them carries wounds.

Women deal with the same condition, regardless of how much makeup is applied. We’re wounded, flawed, imperfect people.

A couple thousand years ago, the only Perfect Person to walk the planet stepped out of unapproachable light with His arms opened wide, headed straight for us. Jesus loves us beyond what we can imagine, and He always will.

So here’s my Valentine’s Day advice: If you are looking for a perfect someone, focus on Jesus. He will help you find the flawed person who is perfect for you and your flaws.

If you already have a special someone who is anything but perfect, Jesus will help you love that person in spite of his or her flaws—and yours.

Because it’s the flaws and how we deal with them that make a good romance.

Psalm 73:26 NLT

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Published on February 13, 2017 07:06

It’s a Give-and-Take World

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

My first year as a sixth-grade teacher, I sprinkled my classroom walls with quotes, pinning them around the room at student-eye level. One of my favorites was taken from a desktop calendar:

“Some people find fault like there is a reward for it.”

Zig Ziglar is credited with this witty play on the word “find.” I wanted my students to know that I wasn’t there to find fault with them, but to help them find improvement. There is a difference.

As children (and adults) we often take what we find. Remember the old adage, “Finders keepers, losers weepers”?

We remember it because it rhymes, which is one of the many reasons millions of dollars flow into ad agencies. If companies can get a pithy phrase to stick in consumers’ minds, those consumers are more likely to buy/use/talk about the product.

Words are like that—they stick. Have you noticed? Sometimes they stick like lint or a kiss. Sometimes like Velcro.

Or a dart.

The pointed words usually have a barb on the end that keeps us from brushing them off.

Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to take offense when we walk away from a conversation feeling like a dart board.

I’ve always been intrigued by the construction of the phrase “take offense.” It’s right up there with “find fault.” Our language constructs both phrases in the active voice, making them something that someone does.

So is it possible to not do either one? To not find fault or take offense?

I believe it is, but not doing something is like going on a diet or giving up a bad habit—it creates a vacuum that wants to suck in everything in sight.

It’s easier to not do one thing if we can actively do something else.

God gave us a great escape from the vacuum of not taking offense. The approach follows Jesus’ teaching that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

The New Testament teacher, Paul, told believers to “Let your conversation be always full of grace …” (Colossians 4:6 NIV).

Be gracious in your speech, The Message says.

So I guess we have a choice in our give-and-take world. We can give grace or we can take offense.

Let’s be grace-givers this week.

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Published on February 06, 2017 07:12

The Potential of “Except”

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

No, you didn’t misread that title, nor did I use the wrong word—except rather than accept.

People frequently confuse these homophones (they sound alike). “Accept” means to receive; “except” means to exclude, make an exception. Everything except this or that.

An *Old Testament story tells of a widow facing serious debt and the loss of her sons. She went to the prophet Elisha for help, and he asked what she had in her house. “Nothing,” she said. “Nothing except a small jar of oil.”

Her “except” made all the difference. It was the catalyst to her obedience that resulted in changing her life and the lives of her children. In truth, all she had was the capacity to obey … and a little oil.

Aren’t we a lot like that widow when God asks what we have that He can work with?

“I have nothing,” we say. “Well … nothing except a little money. A little time. A little talent. A little extra food in the freezer. A few extra clothes in the closet …”

What do we really have when we say we have nothing? What is the “except” in our lives that God can use if we give it to Him?

*To find out what happened to the widow and her sons, read this story in 2 Kings 4.

2 Kings 4:2

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Published on January 30, 2017 06:35

Never Give Up

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

It had been several months—a season, in fact—since I’d bought coffee at our church’s in-house coffee shop, and I needed a cup of pumpkin-spice latte.

NEVER had I received an anti-splash sticker in the past. Maybe it was a new thing they’d started. But that Sunday morning, the sticker atop my black plastic lid said,

NEVER give up!

As an educator, I avoid the words “never” and “always” when teaching, for students will invariably come up with exceptions. It never fails. I mean … it seldom, if ever, fails.

But there it was, that word on my first sticker from the Connections Café, arriving at an iffy point in my life.

Coincidence?

I think not.

I think God was paying attention. The server could have given me a different sticker, one with a bird or a smiley face or whatever.

Rather than the one I needed.

I found a seat in the sanctuary, carefully removed the sticker, and applied it to the inside back cover of my Bible. And to my heart.

Thank you, God.

Have you ever received a surprising word or act of encouragement when you least expected it? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

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Published on January 23, 2017 06:53

A Light on My Path

By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

Last week my son posted a video of his drive to work in Cripple Creek, Colorado, along what is known as Shelf Road. (I shared it on my Facebook page.)

There is a very good reason this byway is called Shelf Road, or The Shelf, by those hearty souls who travel it day in and day out.

Or nights, as the case may be.

The Shelf was a stage route from Canon City to Cripple Creek in the 1890s and early 1900s. At either end, the road is just that—a road with gorgeous mountain vistas—until you get to what locals call the “High Shelf.”

Sans guardrails, pavement, pull-outs, or a second lane, the High Shelf snakes along sheer cliffs like, well, a shelf.

Once a driver makes it to the High Shelf, commitment comes quite naturally. There is no turning around. No pulling over to the side of the road because, quite frankly, there is no side of the road.

When driven at night, the adventure reminds me of navigating life by faith.

As the video and photo above show, a vehicle’s headlights shoot out only so far in the dark, less than two hundred feet, but that’s enough to light the way. As the driver progresses, so do the lights, revealing what lies just ahead, but not what’s around the next bend or a hairpin turn.

The driver has to trust that when he reaches the next bend or turn, his headlights will show him the way.

Isn’t that similar to our faith-walk with the Lord? We want to know our life’s route. We want to see around those shadowy turns up ahead, but the Lord says, “Trust Me. I’ll get you there.”

The Psalmist wrote, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” If we stop and think about it, that’s a pretty short beam, yet it shines onto the most critical part of our journey: where we are at the moment.

God’s word assures us of His presence, and His presence gives us peace and direction.

The next time we find ourselves navigating one of life’s High Shelf roads, let’s draw on His promises, remembering that Jesus is our Light. He’ll get us where we need to be if we trust Him.

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