Christmas Gifts

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [God with us].


Isaiah 7:14 (Amplified Bible)

Gift: something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient or without its being earned.


My favorite part of the Christmas season is hunting for the perfect gifts for family and friends, wrapping them brightly, and then watching each person unwrap the surprise inside. I enjoy the hunt to find just the thing to tell each person how much they mean to me. I don't always hit the mark, but that goal is always the same. The thing about special gifts, the ones that you remember, is that often they aren't the most expensive or the largest. They may not even attract a lot of attention at first, but the thought behind the gift will be remembered.

When I was a kid, my family would assemble on Christmas morning before I woke up so that they could see my reaction to the gifts that had mysteriously appeared overnight. I only remember most of these mornings thanks to fading photos, but I do remember waking during the Great Cabbage Patch Pandemonium of '83 to find not one but two kids under the tree, ready for adoption. My mother saved them for me and now I wonder at my practical parents accomplishing the impossible. I also have a very pretty jewelry box that my father picked out for me at Service Merchandise. I wish he were still around so that I could tell him how much the idea that he chose it for me means to me now. And I've stuck in one of the doors a bookmark, signed by my Me-ma, that says "Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love." It's a paper bookmark, but it says so much about a grandmother who changed the life of a young girl by being faithful to God. All three of these people are gone now, but when I see these gifts, I remember how they loved me.

God With Us...what an amazing gift! In this one event, we have living and daily proof of a great love. Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth, the gift of hope to this world, but it isn't without its worries: gift lists, grocery lists, scheduled appearances, last minute details, and the list of things you forgot. Some are struggling to find the money for basics like food and many of us will celebrate with a tinge of sadness. All those challenges make the promise of perfect joy made real with Jesus' birth that much more important.

Thanks to God With Us, there can be so very much more. There can be hope. While I will never execute the perfect Christmas feast, I know that someday, because of Immanuel, I will know the perfect love behind the most amazing gift the world's ever seen. I'm going to get to see the faces I miss every day again and we are going to celebrate. And that celebration will be perfect and last a lot longer than Christmas morning ever did when I was growing up. When I think about Jesus' birth, I think about how much love is behind the perfect gift, a gift that contains sacrifice, salvation, eternal life, peace, joy, love, and hope. And for a moment, even now in the busiest time of the year, I can pause and wonder in awe and humility over the perfection of that gift.

Take another minute out of the rush of the season to share this gift of God With Us and the love behind it with someone!

Cheryl

The Best Investment Advice--Mentoring??!

By Janie Myers

When you think the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 to “Go, Teach…” does mentoring come to mind? Maybe it should. Your first thought might be “I can’t do that”, or “I would like to mentor because there are some people out there that really need help and direction!” Or maybe it’s “I’ve got an idea of what God wants in my life and want to help others now.” Have you ever thought like that? Mentoring means coming alongside someone to encourage and teach values that will build worth. Now consider to whom does this worth lend value? What is it you want to accomplish for all eternity in the lives of others and in your own life? Christian mentoring involves praying/listening/instructing in God’s word.

My first formal mentoring landed in my lap when I watched a woman seeking to draw closer to the Lord through a study of God’s word. After the 4 week DVD discussion concluded, I found myself asking her if she would like to go through a workbook called “The Significant Woman”. This ten week course took us six months to complete with missed meetings, obstacles, etc., but now this woman is prepared for a brighter journey with a new career path that has not been shown to her as yet. God knows his plans for her! She is now confident God is leading her and is happily walking with Him on the journey daily.

Here are her comments on mentoring: “I cannot begin to tell you how much the time meant to me. I felt that you were God's messenger to get me back on track. You helped me open my eyes and see the world again thru God's eyes. I had never given up on my faith, but I was too busy to see. I am now getting stronger every day thanks to your mentoring starting last fall. I am still reading the Bible everyday and growing in knowledge.” This was the Lord’s work and it was truly joyous to participate in His plan for both our lives. Mentoring changes the life of both the mentor and the one being mentored.

In the second mentoring assignment God gave me, we chose the book “Mentoring 101”. This young lawyer bloomed and renewed her relationship with the living Lord as the most important aspect of her life. In an email back to me one day when I had to cancel our meeting, she wrote “I just looked up Roman 8:28 and already had it underlined from a Bible study I did 14 years ago. Great verse! And even though it’s tough, ‘faith is living as though the Bible is true regardless of current circumstances…’” She was encouraging me with this verse!

In both of these experiences, God showed up! I can’t sit on the sidelines when time invested in another individual is what I’m called to do. I’m praying for God to send me the next woman He plans for me to help on this journey. We all need encouragement and I think our Lord was speaking about it with his analogy of fruit in John 15. Check it out; pray about it….see to whom you may be called to serve as a mentor. Your life will never be the same!

October 23 Lunch and Learn

Janet Nkubana spent her childhood in a refugee camp in Uganda, where she became an expert basket weaver. After the devastating war and genocide, she returned to her native Rwanda, where she organized rural women into a basket weaving cooperative, Gahaya Links. Now, Gahaya Links is nearly 4,000 weavers strong, and the women in the cooperative are earning incomes and pulling themselves and their families out of crippling poverty. She has been interviewed by Oprah, CNN, etc. and is a 2008 Africa Prize laureate. She is visiting out country and coming to CityFest this weekend. She would like to meet with regular working people in the marketplace and simply share her story.


Come hear her tell her story and bring your lunch.

For more information email us at marketplaceconnection@comcast.net or visit our website http://www.marketplaceconnectionarkansas.com/

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, NOON to 1:00

15TH FLOOR TOWER CONFERENCE ROOM


METROPOLITAN NATIONAL BANK TOWER

Faith Is Not A Feeling

How do you define "faith"? The dictionary says it's a "belief that is not based on proof" or "confidence or trust in a person or thing." And in Hebrews 11:1, Paul writes that faith is "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." You may have committed that one to memory, somewhere in the dark recesses of the mind shaded by other important bits and pieces of the passwords to one million different accounts and the ever-important hits of the '80s (maybe that's just me).

Faith has always seemed to me to be something that you have to build, always reaching until someday you have it, you're sure and certain. And any lack of that certainty feels like weakness. I'll let you in on a little secret: I don't always feel sure or certain in this world. Don't tell anybody, OK? My sureness and certainty can change day by day, depending on where I am, what I'm doing, how I feel and how close I am to God.

Have you ever met a Christian superstar? You probably have. The superstar is the person in your church or circle of friends who faces overwhelming odds with grace, maturity, and unshakable faith. She appears to have no doubts or fears. The overachiever in me measures my faltering faith in mundane life against that person and comes up short. The feeling of faith is easy when life is easy or when you have those mountaintop experiences where you feel you can just reach out and touch heaven. I've been there and in those fleeting moments, I feel like my faith is enough. But in the everyday, that certain feeling of faith is harder to come by and I can be shaken and confused and come up short if I rely on emotions as my measuring stick. Over and over, I come up just a little short. And until now, I just knew that was a problem with me because I'm all about doing more, meeting goals, and crossing things off the list.

Whether you're an overachiever or not, struggle with doubt or have a permanent residence on the mountaintop, I have good news for you: faith is a choice, not a feeling. And you always have control over that choice. I've been lucky enough recently to work through a study called "Mentoring 101" and I was reminded again just what a blessing we have been given because our faith in Jesus Christ can be simple. I say "can be" because some of us (that would be me) make this Christian life so much harder than it has to be.

What if this is the definition of faith instead?

How does that impact your life? For me, it's a relief. Instead of being something that I build and lose or fall further behind, now I make a choice. Each situation, each day, I make a choice to live as though the Bible is true.

Faith is choosing to live as though the Bible is true regardless of
circumstances, emotions, or cultural trends.

I long ago accepted that this Christian life is based on a gift, salvation that comes through grace instead of works or checking off the list of rules and requirements. How then do I let myself get to the point of discouragement because I don't quite measure up? When I get to that point, Satan celebrates because when I am confused or fearful or critical of myself, I am less effective.

In Matthew 11, Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." So here's my paraphrase: don't make this faith thing hard or complicated when I've made it easy. And I understand that. And I believe it. Right here, right now, I'm on board. And in an hour or a day or a week, I'll probably be confused again. The world does that to us, right? Thank goodness being a Christian doesn't require us to always have it together and that Jesus already had a plan for that too. It's called community. It's your church and family and Christian friends and groups like Marketplace Connection. And for some lucky people, it's a special encourager called a "mentor." I've had a few in my life, people who were willing to spend the time to know me, counsel me, teach me, and support me. If you're one of those kinds of people, I'd like to say "Thanks. Keep up the good work."

How about you? Would you like to find a mentor? Or are you willing to invest in someone else to serve as a mentor? If you are willing to spend a little time, you can change lives. "Mentoring 101" is a simple study with profound impact. Send an email to marketplaceconnection@comcast.com and let us know you'd like to find a mentor or to be a mentor and we'll help you make the connection.

Box of Chocolates

"My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."-Forrest Gump

I don't know whether it's the diet or the looming holiday, but boxes of chocolates have been on my mind lately and I'm pretty sure Mrs. Gump got it right. Life really is like a box of chocolates, full of surprises. Some of them are good. And then some of them are coconut and, in my book, that's not so great.

Yes, I'm about to be philosophical about your heart-shaped chocolate sampler. I have done an exhaustive contemplation on the deeper meanings of square vs. round chocolates. My mind is a mysterious place so stay with me.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM A BOX OF CHOCOLATES
(it looks really important if you put it in ALL CAPS):
1. Know what you're looking for.
My chocolate sampler goals are simple: find the caramel, avoid the coconut. And I'm a planner, so here's my thoroughly scientific approach to devastating a box of chocolates: sample a few, find the happy chocolate, and try to repeat by choosing similar colors and shapes. It's difficult to argue with science, right? Sometimes I'll be right, sometimes I'll be wrong but still happy with what I discover, and sometimes I'll hit something I wasn't looking for. It's inevitable.
2. Have a strategy for when it all goes wrong.
What happens when you hit one of the surprises? You've planned carefully, chosen strategically, and still you end up with a raspberry filling instead of creamy caramel. In my world, even bad chocolate is better than no chocolate, so I soldier on, looking for caramel in the next one. I guess you could also throw that disappointment away or...even worse, just put it right back in the box. The surprises in life can be the same way: make it through and learn the lessons from that disappointment to make a better choice next time, suffer through and pretend it never happened, or maybe leave a mess for someone else to clean up...we have choices about what we do with the surprises that we never wanted.
3. When you have a map, use it!
Have you gotten those boxes with the little maps showing the shape and location of your heart's desire: that one chocolate you were looking for? I love those boxes, don't you? I don't have to rely on my sketchy scientific method or dumb luck. I can follow the map and trust the mapmaker to show me where what I want most sits. Thank goodness for the map. On the outside, so many of the choices look the same, but that map means I can find what I'm looking for.

With life, we don't really want a box of chocolates, a sampler made up of variety and surprise. We would rather just pick and choose the kinds of surprises we'd accept: winning the lottery would be a yes, but illness would be a definite no. But we don't have that option, do we? The thing about the life we lead is that we have a promise that, no matter how many surprises there are, that box of chocolates is going to be good. And we have a map that we can choose to follow. We have a promise from the one shaping our lives that His plans include a hope and a future. And in Romans 8:28, Paul wrote, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

So here's what I know: I want to follow the map. We've been given God's word, wisdom, and spirit to navigate this world. We'll find what we're looking for if we stick with the map. And, in the end, God's working out His plan. I'm really the only one surprised, and I can trust that something sweet is going to come out of it, coconut surprises and all.

Visit me at It's Not About Cheryl where I'm sure I'll analyze the philosophical meaning of other diet no-no's soon

Optimism

Are you a "glass half full" kind of person? The dictionary defines an optimist as "one who usually expects a favorable outcome." Although I'd really prefer to be an optimist, I'm usually caught in the struggle between the angel on one side who encourages me to believe the best and the devil on the other that makes it impossible to ignore the world as it really is. Around this time of year, I'm particularly interested in fresh starts, new beginnings, and the hope they bring. There's just something about looking at a blank calendar page that fills me with optimism. It's like everything is a possibility. All those blank squares, days that haven't been written yet, fill me with hope for 2009.

Since the world's a pretty cynical place right now, it's difficult to maintain that outlook. Listening to news anchors, political pundits, and economic experts can put a damper on any positive position. But I'm making the decision to expect a favorable outcome.

"Change" has been the buzz word of 2008 and it's an enticing thought, the idea that change is coming and it's something that we make. Of course, the world's an unpredictable place. Change for good or change for bad, nothing stays the same for long.

So how do those of us who aspire to optimism (even when we normally have "glass half empty" tendencies) manage that personal change in the world as it is? First, we have to know where hope comes from. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." If you know Christ, it's OK to be optimistic. In fact, you better be optimistic! No matter what today looks like, God already has tomorrow under control. You can trust in a favorable outcome.

After you've established your source of hope and know that God is already working out your favorable outcome, you just have to make the choice on who you will listen to: the angel on one side or the devil on the other, the Holy Spirit and the promises of God's word or the news stories and experts. The best way to see God at work is to believe in the favorable outcome.

So what will you choose? For 2009, I've made the decision that it's OK to be an optimist. Join me. I'm sure I'll need the support! I'm going to do my best to believe that positive change is coming, and I'm convinced that God is working out a favorable outcome. I place my trust in the hope and future He's preparing for me.

To see how the positive outlook works in my life (and how long I manage to hold on to it), visit It's Not About Cheryl. And for more encouragement, check out the upcoming Marketplace Connection events.

I LIke Lists

I like lists. I like to make them, but I really like to cross things off the list when they're successfully completed. And the bustle and busyness of Christmas means lots of planning: what to buy, wrap, cook, clean, call, visit, mail and return. Whether it's a grocery list or Saturday errands, marking things off the list means satisfaction and success. And after a day of waiting in line or sitting in traffic, I can look at that rumpled, marked-up paper and think to myself, "I did all that. I ... Am ... Awesome."

Those lists are really plans. Simple plans, the best kind! This time of year is the perfect opportunity to make another kind of list, a list of goals or maybe we'll call them "New Year's Resolutions." After jumping the hurdle to Christmas, I'm ready to slow down a little and think about what the new year should be like, or maybe more importantly, what I should be like in the new year. Of course, we could resolve to improve ourselves any day of the year, but there's just something about a fresh calendar that means a world of possibility.

If you're like me, your resolutions usually follow a few common themes: lose weight, pay off debt, exercise more, complain less (maybe that's just me). So this year, I will again make some resolutions, but I'd really like to reach the goals set. I'm not sure if there's a support group like List Makers Anonymous, but I should probably look into it. Still, here's what I'm calling:

A Few Resolutions Tips (yes, in list form)
1. Keep it simple
While I could easily build a list of 100 things to change, I won't. One thing just leads to another thing, and sometimes I'd really like to change the second thing, but all the work of the first wears me out. Of course, the idea of all the work to get to my real problem overwhelms me and I decide to eat ice cream instead. This year, I'm going to focus on beginning at the beginning with simple goals.

2. Be realistic
My confession: I want it all, and I want it now. Do you know anyone else like that? So, while I do desperately need to lose lots and lots of weight, I probably won't be able to do that in the approximately three weeks that I will stick with my new diet and exercise plan for the year. Unless I'm realistic about what I can accomplish, I'm just setting myself up for failure. Again.

3. Leave room for something new
A couple of years ago, I was a little tired of building goals that I could never reach and decided to add a fun goal: buy more shoes. Silly? Maybe, but I did it. I learned that improving me doesn't always have to mean giving something up. Maybe you've always been interested in photography (or cooking or ballroom dancing). Resolve to find the time for one class. Resolutions always seem so serious. Leave a little room for fun, too, in the new you.

4. Remember what's important.
Making resolutions is pretty "I" centered. You focused on things you'd like to change about you, but here's something else to remember: it's not about you. Sure, you need at be the best you possible, but never forget why you're here. Keep your eyes open. In Isaiah 43:19, the Lord says, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Maybe there's someone in your family or your church or your workplace who needs your time, encouragement, or just to know what's different about you. Is this the year to go on a mission trip or volunteer or lead a class? Watch to see where God is working and join him. Leave room on your list for God's goals, the work that HE's prepared for you.

Now I think I'm ready to make my list of resolutions. Are you? If you'd like to see how mine are coming along and whether I can follow my own tips, visit me at It's Not About Cheryl.