🎄Home Alone. I love this movie. The pictures above are from the last scene, “Old Man Marley” hugging his granddaughter and waiving to 8 year old Kevin, looking out his window
Earlier in the movie little Kevin had urged Mr Marley to reconcile with his family. Mr Marley took that advice and the family was reunited for Christmas.
Broken relationships need someone to take the initiative to be mended. At Christmas we remember that God took the initiative, coming as a baby, wrapped in clothes, lying in a manger, so we could have a relationship with Him.
One way we can be like Jesus this Christmas is to be quick to make things right with others. Be the first to reach out. The first to apologize. The first to forgive.
The character of Joseph in the Christmas story isn’t talked about much, and rightfully so. Faithful servants like he and Mary knew who the main character of the story was 👶 But if we look close, Joseph’s a great picture of godly man. The Bible says he was a “just man.” Not sure there’s a better thing to be said of a man. He was a man a few words. He let his actions speak for themselves. He lived a rugged life, working as a carpenter, he was what many would refer to as “a man’s man.” Before the angel of the Lord had said anything to Joseph, and it looked like Mary had been unfaithful, Joseph had decided to keep it quiet and not bring any shame on her. I believe that’s because he loved her. Just because someone hurts you doesn’t mean you can’t want good for them. That’s part of that whole “just man” thing. He was willing to absorb more hurt so that she could absorb less. We need more men like Joseph. I need to be more like Joseph. More like Jesus. Then, when the Angel told Joseph the insider info that the baby was from the Holy Spirit, and that he needed to keep his commitments to Mary, and name the baby “Jesus” (which means Savior), like a lot of stepdads, foster, and adoptive dads I know, he stepped into that responsibility with both feet. Joseph was obedient. Joseph wasn’t cloudy where God was clear. He wanted to do right by God and right by Mary and baby Jesus, regardless of how it reflected on him. Getting to name the savior of the world was a pretty early reward for faithful obedience. Guarantee you he never regretted being obedient to God. We won’t either. Joseph also proved to be a faithful protector. When the angel spoke to him again and told him the psycho, narcissistic Herod was trying to kill Jesus, Joseph up and moved his little family to Egypt. It was a foreign place for him and uncomfortable in many ways for all of them, but he wasn’t primarily concerned with familiarity and comfort. He was concerned being faithful to God and protecting his family. A man ought to seek to protect his family from all kinds of threats. Physical, moral, emotional, theological, and many other threats. I know lots of guys who have left behind what they’ve worked hard to build, and moved their wife and kids to a new, unfamiliar place for the betterment of their family. I respect that. It’s Joseph-like. It’s Christlike. And as men we need to keep that mindset. Our world, our flesh and the devil tell men, you need to live for YOU. Make it more comfortable for YOU. Acquire wealth for YOU. But the real adventure for a man is found in giving, sacrificing, and protecting. Every year at Christmas we get a fresh reminder of the truth that Jesus taught “It’s better to give than to recieve.” Joseph knew that truth and got to experience it. We can too. Imagine if Joseph had chosen a different path, a path with less responsibility and more “freedom.” ….Nah. No way. Give me Joseph. Give me Jesus. ✍️ Roy Layman
🎄📝 🎁 PARENTS – 5 things your kids REALLY want for Christmas: 1️⃣Your presence – without a phone in your hand or some other screen distracting you. 2️⃣Your time – not just quality, quantity. 3️⃣Your affection – a hug, a headlock, holding their hand. Whatever they’re up for. 4️⃣Your grace – yes they’ve screwed up. So have you. Give them the forgiveness and patience God’s given you. 5️⃣Your blessing – SAY IT TO THEM: I believe in you. I love you. God loves you. Jesus died for you. I’m here for you. I know it’s hard being young, but you’re not alone. You’ve got a bright future ahead, I can see it.
And none of these things cost a dime. You don’t have to buy the latest tech📱 that’s gonna give them even faster, better access to anxiety and loneliness. What your kids really want, is you!
**No high horse here. Writing all of this to myself as much as any of you.
🦃🎄😔 I hate that holidays hit some with sadness rather than gladness. If you’re in that’s place, please know God sees you! Your pain is 100% real but so is His love for you.
Heres 5 comforting and compelling realities from His Word:
1️⃣🐦⬛GOD’S PROVIDENCE — He’s got you! Look at the birds of the air…your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26)
2️⃣📖GOD’S PROMISES — He’s never gonna let you down! He will: •save you (Romans 10:9) •forgive you (1John 1:9) •lead you (Psalm 23:2-3) •fight for you (Exodus 14:14) •strengthen you (Isaiah 41:10) •listen to you (Jeremiah 29:12)
3️⃣🫂GOD’S PRESENCE — He’s with you! “The LORD himself…will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)
4️⃣🤲🏼GOD’S PURPOSES — He wants to use you to glorify Him and bless others! •love God (Matthew 22:37) •love others (Matthew 22:39) •serve (Mark 10:43-45) •share your life and the gospel (1 Thess 2:8)
5️⃣GOD’S PEOPLE — He’s put people in your life for a reason! Reach out to others and be ready for them to reach out to you! •bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2) •encourage one another (1 Thess 5:11) •pray for one another (James 5:16) •build one another up (Romans 14:19) •forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)
I genuinely hope these help. They’re not meant to minimize your hurt or make it look like there’s an easy way out of the darkness you’re facing. The intent is to bring the reality of God to bear on your very difficult circumstances during an especially tough time of year.
Hey, one day Jesus is gonna fix all this mess. He’ll wipe away every tear (Rev 21:4) and make all the sadness untrue. Keep holding on and keep lookin’ up!
PARENTING: 6 REMINDERS INJURED ATHLETES NEED TO HEAR FROM PARENTS 🏀 🏈 ⚾️ 🏐
Life’s bigger than sports
The most important things about you haven’t changed and won’t change
You’re still fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God
You’re still called, loved, and kept by the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Sports are a valuable thing you do, but they’re not what make you who you are.
I love you for who you are, not what you do
With the exception of #6, I got all these from a post I made about Dak Prescott 3 years ago. If I felt like Dak needed to hear it, I definitely need to be prepared to share this kind of thing with my own kids and other kid athletes I love.
Love God more than you love sports or being admired by others because of your kids success in sports | Matthew 22:37-39
Remember your greatest victory is in Jesus. And your greatest competition is against sin, worldliness and the devil | 2 Corinthians 2:14 | Romans 8:13
Keep a heavenly focus. Go into every sports season, game, and conversation knowing this is not your home and Heaven is | 2 Corinthians 4:18
If you feel it’s necessary to give critique (it’s usually not) focus on attitude and effect and reminding how to glorify God with their play | 1 Corinthians 10:31
Tell your kids how much love watching them play | Proverbs 16:24
Tell your kids you love them even when they don’t play | Pslam 127:3
Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry | James 1:19
Being hypercritical and negative doesn’t glorify God and gives us social body odor. Here’s 7 ways to help us quit being captain cranky pants 🦸♂️😖👖 :
🙌🏼 1. Praise God for the gospel — our past is forgiven and our future is secure. We are called, loved, and kept in Christ Jesus. We have A LOT to be joyful about.
🧂💡2. Re-commit to being salt and light. The light of love and the salt that brings flavor and preservation to those around us. Can’t do that if people are avoiding us like the plague because we’re saddy dumpington all the time.
🤔 3. Remember that the sources of chaos around us are also sources of great joy! Messes are a part of life that represent blessing. The mess in your living room? Comes from the blessing of wonderful children. The headache from work? Comes from the blessing of having a job that pays bills and provides. Conflict in marriage? You’re blessed to have someone worth fighting for and working toward reconciliation.
📝 4. Count blessings. Name all the things you have that you don’t deserve. Hint: it’s all of them.
🤯 5. Think eternal. Don’t let “right now” own you because there’s a lot more than right now ahead of you. Most of what we let tick us off won’t matter 5 or 10000 years from now.
📺 📱6. Turn off the news and social media and read the Bible. Start with Psalm 23.
🧐 7. Look for and point out the good in others. Chances are if you’re only committed to criticisms you won’t add much to the conversation because almost everybody is being negative and critical. Wanna stand out and be a blessing? Encourage someone. Say something nice. It will bless them and keep yourself out of the gutter of negativity.
Hope this helps! Here’s some supporting Bible references. Check ‘em out! 📖 Ephesians 4:29, Matthew 5:14, Proverbs 14:4, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Philippians 4:8, Proverbs 16:24, Psalm 27:7, Proverbs 17:22
As our culture trends more and more self-centered and less and less God-centered, personal desires and feelings rule the day. What makes me happiest in the moment is the new legalism — getting my way CAN NOT be compromised.
A strong indicator of a self-centered existence is being led by FEAR and COMFORT. The comfort piece is pretty obvious (whatever’s easiest, convenient and most pleasurable for me) but FEAR, can be a little more subtle. It’s not like fear of the boogie man, but rather fear of losing my place of significance, fear of what others think of me, fear of my kid(s) not getting attention or getting me attention, fear of being slighted, fear of my dreams not coming true. The Bible puts all these types of fears into a big bucket and calls it “the fear of man.” The fear of man lays a snare… Prov 29:25 We’ve taken the enemy’s bait when we’re ruled by fear and comfort.
An opposite, God-centered way of living, would be by FAITH and for GOD’S GLORY. Here, the trajectory of life is set by 2 things: 1. what’s most faithful to God? (prizing and praising the love of God and others as first priority) and 2. what’s most glorifying to God? What would magnify and make the most of Jesus? His name, not mine. His ways, not mine. We have His righteousness that comes to us through faith Jesus in mind and heart, rather than trying to maintain a righteousness of our own to look good for others.
What are we living for? Fear and comfort or faith and His glory? We can’t suppose it’s just the latter just because we know the right Christian answer. We’re fools if we think an increasingly non-believing world around us can’t distract, erode and derail our devotion.
We may need to repent, and that’s ok. Repentance is normal in the Christian life. Or at least it should be. God’s a God of forgiveness, mercy, and will help us change. He’s not like the world that keeps beating us up even after we’re grieved over our shortcomings. He still loves us and wants to use us. We’re still useful in His sight. He’s always saying “come home” no matter how far we’ve wondered. But what we can’t do is relabel fear and comfort and call it faith and glory. God’s full of grace, but He’s not dumb. At all.
The crazy twist in all this is that the satisfaction and soul level “happiness” everyone is frantically wasting their lives searching for and not finding is available for free and in unlimited supply in Jesus. He says “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”Matthew 11:28-30
Hey, thanks for reading. I know you’re probably just trying to enjoy the weekend and I’m throwing out all this trajectory of life stuff 😆. If you made it this far, I appreciate your time and my sincere hope is that these thoughts put to words made you think bigger thoughts about God that translate into heart level love for Him. For the BEST writing, go to His Word. Here’s some references I had in mind for this post:
📖 Proverbs 29:25 | Matthew 22:37-39 | 1st Corinthians 10:31 | Psalm 16:11 | Psalm 1 | John 12:25
Albert Einstein said LOVE is the most powerful force in all the Universe. Carabiners are a good illustration for love. Carabiners are used for lots of things but their main purpose is for mountains climbing or rapelling. Years ago I went through fire academy. We had climb down the side of walls hanging by a rope attached to a body harness. And the thing that held the rope and the harness together was a carabiner. I’ve leaned back with my feet on the side of a wall, my back to the ground 40-50 feet in the air, with my life depending on a carabiner. I never was a great rapeller but after a few times I knew that little carabiner clip was dependable. I could trust it. It would keep me from falling. I knew it wasn’t gonna break.
So what about you? Can the guys on your team count on you like that? Can they trust you with their life? Are you committed? Are you dependable? Or will you break when it get’s hard. Can the the guy next to you put his safety and wellbeing on your hands and knowing you’re gonna lock in go through pain for him. That’s love.
So what I’m really asking is: Do you love this team. Not the idea of a team or the idea of holding up a trophy, or personal recognition. And I’m not asking about how you feel. Real love is less about feelings and more about personal commitment. Real love can put personal feelings aside when it has to and put the needs of your brothers first.
If you love each other, commit to selfless sacrifice, commit to bleed for each other, I believe you’ll be unstoppable. But if it’s just 56 selfish guys wearing the same color, this season is gonna be really frustrating, and eventually, you’ll run into a team that does love each other. And selfishness is no match for love.
I’ve said before, football is the closest thing to combat without joining the military. This is an excerpt from Band of Brothers, a book about a remarkable group of WWII paratroopers.
“They found in combat the closest brotherhood they ever knew. They found selflessness. They found they could love the other guy in their foxhole more than themselves. They found that in war, men who loved life would give their lives for them.” Brotherhood. Selflessness. Love — That’s what life is really all about gentleman.
Einstein said love is the most powerful force in the Universe. He’s right. But do you know who created the Universe? God. And all real love flows from God. And if you’re gonna love sacrificially for any amount of time, you need love in your life that never runs out. That’s God’s love. God’s love isn’t just feelings. He proved it. God in human form in Jesus Christ displayed the ultimate expression of sacrificial love when he laid down his life for our sins on the cross.
In John 15:13 Jesus said — “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And then he did it. For us. And if you’ll put your trust in him, you’ll begin to truly understand love, and begin to love like he loved.
Today, in Chirst, commit to love this team in a sacrificial way. Be a carabiner, somebody others can count on. Don’t wait on everyone else. You make the commitment to put yourself on the line for your brothers right now. And let’s have some fun.
I’m no expert parent but I know this — Parenting teenagers is TOUGH. They’re growing, changing, confused, emotional and moody. And that’s putting it lightly. At times they’re downright disrespectful. Rebellious, rolling eyes, and all that. But here’s what ya gotta do — you just love the daylights out of ‘em no matter what. Forgive everything, quick. Never go to bed mad at a teenage kid. Hug ‘em even when they’re acting like turds. And even when you have to correct ’em make sure they know you’re doing it outta love. Because here’s what’s gonna happen — that cranky teen is gonna get seriously hurt, bad sick, or in a little car accident or something like that and all of sudden you’re gonna get perspective. Scared to death of the thought of life without them. And you’re gonna wonder why in the world you would ever let there be any unnecessary tension between you and that kiddo. Fact is you love that cantankerous kid more than anything on this planet. That’s why they drive you so crazy. And even when they don’t say it, they love you too. The key to parenting teens the right way (and y’all feel free to remind of this too) is keeping that hardship perspective without the hardship happening. Remembering that hormonal youngster was a 5 year old in footy pajamas at Christmas time just the other day. And they’ll be an adult soon enough. Parenting teens is a season of grace and relentless love, regardless of it’s received or reciprocated. Kinda like how God loves each of us!
Pastor Roy Layman 