VBSFAWTG&G 2023 Day 1
Happy Monday and many thanks for the kind birthday greetings and love sent my way. Much appreciated and deeply honored. But alas, we move into a new week and it is time for one of my favorite annual posts!
Welcome to the 2023 VBSFAWTG&G.
If you are new to the Journey, every summer I revisit my love for Vacation Bible School along with my aversion to the obligatory craft portion, and provide this week of Vacation Bible School For Adults Without the Glue and Glitter.
This year’s series flows from a page in my beloved Valley of Vision prayer book, page 209 and is part of a prayer for The Family.
The portion that generated this year’s VBSFAWTG&G is:
Help me to hate and forsake every false way,
to be attentive to my condition and character,
to bridle my tongue,
to keep my heart with all diligence,
to watch and pray against temptation ,
to mortify sin,
to be concerned for the salvation of others.
The Valley of Vision, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975 collected by Arthur Bennett, page 209
I had made a note in the margins many years ago with a list of my “temptations”; the things that draw me away from a deeper and purer faith. The things that occupy me and ruin by condition and character, cause my tongue and heart to sin, interfere with my prayers and eclipse my concern for the salvation of others.
As it turns out, there are five and that is exactly the number of days we have for VBS. So we will be tackling one each day, hopefully outlining what it looks like in real time, some Scriptures to speak into the temptation and some steps to practice fighting it.
I would guess I am not alone in these five temptations. The succumbing to them can manifest in a variety of sinful and selfish and “damage to self and others” ways, but the root issues are common to all people I believe.
The five temptations are:
Discouragement
Unbelief
Rejection
Unforgiveness
Bitterness
So for our first day, we will look at discouragement as a temptation that eats away at our hearts. This is VBS, not a college course, so I will be covering these things in abbreviated ways just to get you thinking and doing your own soul-searching.
For me, discouragement comes easily when something presents itself as a block to what I had hoped or planned to accomplish. It can be something someone says to me, too much clutter in my mind or physical surroundings, or a nagging voice in my head that is a mixture of all the times I tried and failed before
Currently, I can give you a classic example.
As I sat down to write this, I had to scoop a stack of neglected paperwork away so I could move my mouse around the 5” circle of space I managed to clear just beneath my tumbler of water and a post it note with some reminders jotted down. My hand is resting on the post it note and is irritating. To my left, I keep hitting another stack of notecards and a book that are precariously perched on the blank post it notepad.
On my lap is a copy of The Message and the small notebook holding the ideas for this post. They keep sliding off my crossed leg which is going to sleep and a small voice is reminding me that crossed legs will only enhance my already well mapped varicose vein issue.
And I am discouraged by all the extraneous noise in my head and around my desk.
The discouragement makes me irritable and saps away the joy I had planning this week for you. I want to quit and there is now a chorus of naysayers in my head telling me I should because no one is going to read it anyway and if they do, here are the things they will think. And believe me, none of what I imagine they are thinking is uplifting at all.
Discouragement.
A temptation to give in to the noise that is not God’s gentle voice.
God is no stranger to the discouragement that can overtake us each and every day.
God told Joshua repeatedly to not be discouraged in Joshua 1:9:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. NIV
God encouraged Moses in Deuteronomy 3:18:
Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you, He will be with you, He will never fail you nor abandon you. NLT
Jesus gave encouragement to His disciples in Luke 18:1:
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
In Galatians 6:9 is a key as well:
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Discouragement is a temptation because it takes my focus off of the nearness and support of God in my daily life. It whispers that He doesn’t care and I am on my own. Discouragement is a heavy blanket that weighs me down and makes me want to quit.
The temptation is not the sin.
The sin comes as I find other things to do that are easier and give me comfort instead of doing the hard work of faith in the face of discouragement.
The sin comes when I believe the lie that the mess around me is too big and instead of prayerfully seeking God for how to clean up the clutter, shut out the noise, bring in His light and life and the breath of His Spirit to show me the way, I let the negative thoughts win the day.
As I look over the few verses I shared and the many I looked at in making my selection, I see God is not only willing to help me fight the discouragement, He knew all along the battle would present itself.
He knows I struggle, He understands what I am made of, and He cares.
So some things we can do to fight the discouragement is make some changes in the things that we are allowing to discourage us.
This clutter around me didn’t accumulate in a day, but paper by paper, piece by piece, it can be dealt with. Prayer that attends the process will keep me focused upward instead of allowing the negative thoughts to drag me down.
Pressing on, reminding myself that things that discourage me will always be around, but don’t need my time to feed them will strengthen the faith muscles needed for the next time the temptation arises.
So here’s some questions/thoughts for you:
- When you feel discouraged, what is your trigger usually? Notice what gets you down and sucks your energy. My example of physical clutter may be one that gets you. Determine to deal with small areas each day. De-cluttering your living space, mind, spirit, social feed will help clean out places where the seeds of discouraging thoughts are sown!
- How do you typically respond to discouragement? Snacking, shopping, doing an unnecessary task to avoid doing the hard thing…what’s your diversion tactic that leads to further discouragement?
- Set your mind and heart to look for and notice patterns of discouragement in your day or week. For me being tired, having too many appointments/places to be without time to do regular maintenance is a set up for being discouraged!
- Are there people you are around regularly that leave you feeling discouraged? Maybe they are just encountered on social media! Pay attention and set boundaries for these people!!
- Practice giving yourself a pep talk periodically throughout the day, particularly the times that are hardest for you to push through. Is late afternoon a weary time? Start your pep talks after lunch! Get outside your head before you start listening to voices of discouragement! Determine to pray immediately as you sense yourself feeling discouraged or overwhelmed as you approach or are working on a task or project.
Well, it wouldn’t be VBS without the snack so here is a great treat the our Rachel and Sweet Caroline discovered and have mastered for family gatherings.
Enjoy, have a blessed day and keep your spirits up!
Laura
S’mores Bars
Fromhttps://www.delish.com by Rian Handler
3 TBSP butter, plus more for pan
1 (12 oz) package mini marshmallows
7 C. Golden Grahams cereal
3 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars, broken into pieces.
Grease 9×13 pan with butter.
Melt butter over medium low heat in large pan.
Add all but 1 cup of mini marshmallows and stir until melted and smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in cereal until evenly coated.
Press into pan, top with chocolate pieces and 1 cup mini marshmallows
Heat broiler and cook until marshmallows are toasted about 2 min
Let set at least 30 minutes (if you can wait that long) before slicing.