Brenda Rodgers

Category: surrender

  • The Secret to an Unbroken Life with God

    There is a quiet secret that sits snugly inside the pages of Ecclesiastes. It is the secret of having a life that is not easily conquered and broken by the trials of this world. Trials that can leave us feeling worthless and insecure and depressed.

    It is not much of a secret at all really, but these words often go unnoticed even though they tell us what we truly need. They are the words that explain a Triple Braided life.

    What is a Triple Braided life? Triple Braided is more than the name of this blog. It is the formula for a life that can stand up against all the craziness this world brings.

    Me + Community + God = The Triple Braided Life

    “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”
    Ecclesiastes 4:12 (NLT)

    In a Triple Braided life there are three cords.

    • Cord One: Each of us as individuals
    • Cord Two: The community of brothers and sisters in Christ
    • Cord Three: A relationship with God

    This verse shows us our need for community AND God. We can do o.k. when it’s just us and a community of Believers around us, but the braid is the strongest when we have a community of Believers AND a personal relationship with God.

    There is no doubt that this world is going to bring us dips and peaks. When the dips are a reality they are really, really deep.  We strain and pull just to have our eyes peak over the side.  And when the peaks are a reality they are really, really high.  We put one toe over the edge just knowing we can fly.  Through the dips and the peaks we want to conquer and remain unbroken. This is found in a Triple Braided life.

    My vision for this blog is 1.) to discuss what a Triple Braided life looks like for women in every season of life: single, married, widowed, with children, without children, empty nester, worker outside the home, homemaker, homeschooling, not homeschooling, and so on and so on, 2.) to encourage women to live in community with all of these groups of women, not just the group that best describes our stage of life, and 3.) to promote an intimate relationship with Jesus as the Third Braid in our lives. 

    To read more about a Triple Braided life, please read The Third Braid.

    What do you think about a Triple Braided life?

  • Older Body, New Mind

    Join me today for 5 Minute Friday with The Gypsy Mama where we write for five minutes on a given topic. No editing. No criticism. No worry. Today’s topic is: Older

    They felt like they were turning to sandpaper, in the beginning stages only twenty years in.  Hands that hadn’t touched too much yet were already showing signs of exhaustion while my mind was bouncing in and out of dreams making me who I was meant to be.

    Seven years later I inherited my first strand of silver.  Right there in front among all the dark brown hair where everybody could see.  If I was forty years down the road it would have been my trophy, but my mind was now digging roots, deep roots into those dreams of who I was supposed to be.

    The sun’s toll took over a short time later.  She kissed my forehead with her warmth, and now I will remember my days with her in my youth forever.  Time making its mark on this body while my mind releases me into who I was created to be.  

    Photo Credit: Creative Commons

  • The Word . . . A Revelation

    All I wanted that morning was to go to church, sing to the band jamming out, hear once again how much God loves me, and go home happy . . . and peaceful . . . and satisfied.

    Sitting there, waiting to get my feel good tune-up for the week, the word flashed on the screen.

    I looked at it, and then my heart started. No, no God! Not now! I’m not in the mood to be stretched. I’m not in the mood to be obedient. But the thumping continued. I knew what that meant.

    Over the next few weeks the word continued a subtle persistence – creeping into my mind as I brushed my teeth, tied my shoes, and walked to the mailbox.  Like a good Christian I rationalized it away and tried to convince myself that it probably wasn’t God’s voice. It was probably some subconscious desire to prove something or just to say I have been on a mission trip.

    But I know His voice. I knew what was coming.

    So I prayed. O.k., o.k, so I’ll send an email to get some more information. That’s all. Just an email. Then it will go away.

    Except that the word didn’t go away.

    A few weeks later I was running and listening to a sermon on my IPod. My husband was following along behind me on his bike. The words I was listening to were about fear and stepping out in faith and obeying God. As I went around the curve in the cul-de-sac my husband caught up next to me. Barely able to get the words out of my mouth I said to him, “God wants me to go to Africa.”

    I said it, and it hurt. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay here and be safe. Safe in my little neighborhood where every fourth house is the same and our problems are disguised as what new car we’re buying next or where we’re going on vacation.

    As I tried to keep the rhythm of my runner’s breath tears rolled down my cheeks. I was revealed – this heart that is still so far away from God’s heart.

    Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

    When has God given you a word that you didn’t want to hear?

  • Benefits of Becoming a Morning Person

    Right now you are in one of two places. Either the thought of becoming a morning person seems as impossible as becoming a world-class athlete or you’ve tried to become a morning person and your days are filled with so much tired haze that you can’t even see clearly enough to remember why you got up early in the first place!

    Remember . . .

    “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” Hebrews 12:11

    Let’s keep our eye on the peaceful harvest!

    There is one general benefit of getting up early no matter what your goal is for doing so. That is productivity in something you want to accomplish, but most likely wouldn’t get to during the day.

    However, I am going to talk about the benefits of being a morning person based on my two goals:
    Time with God and Exercise

    1. My relationship with God is stronger.

    • Surrender

    When I give God the first fruits of my day (Exodus 23:19, Job 1:5) I am able to lay everything out of the table for Him – my blessings, my family, my fears, my worries – and acknowledge that He is the God of the universe, and He is in control. The day I am about to go into is bigger than myself, it has been preordained, and I am His disciple, not the savior.

    • Peace

    Through surrendering my day to God, I am able to experience His peace. Throughout the day when things get hectic and tense and relationally out-of-control I have my morning to fall back on and remember that He is the same God He was a few hours prior.

    • Wisdom

    The more truth from God’s Word that I put into my brain, the less yuck from the outside stays in, and I gain understanding and wisdom about who God truly is. Building up a storehouse of God’s thoughts in my mind is definitely a slow process, but I have seen the benefits when I am able to recall something I read in scripture at the very moment I need it to help me.

    • Friendship

    In these quiet moments of prayer and scripture reading God becomes a person. He becomes a friend, and I experience Jesus. This is how I have come to know Jesus a person whom I have a relationship with – not just an abstract god whom I have no connection to. This is also how I experience the Cross. God shows Himself to me in these tiny, quiet moments and I am reminded that He is for me, not against me (Romans 8:31).

    2. I am healthier.

    • Physically

    Exercise obviously makes us healthier. But getting up early to exercise gives me energy for the rest of the day. It’s the lighter fluid that gets the my fire burning to accomplish all the tasks for the day!

    • Emotionally

    One time I told my primary care doctor that I just didn’t feel happy. I felt depressed. The first thing out of her mouth was “exercise”. This is the body’s escape!

    • Spiritually

    Yes, spiritually. Exercise reminds me of all that I am blessed with – a heart, lungs, legs, even toes. It reminds me that I am a steward of the body God gave me, and He wants me to use it for His glory and be grateful for it (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The best way for me to do this is to not take it for granted, but use it for what it is capable of doing.

    Photo Credit:  Creative Commons

    How could you benefit from becoming a morning person?

  • How I Became a Morning Person

    It’s hardest in the winter when just one elbow peaks out from under comforter and a ripple of shivers move throughout my body. And it’s even harder when my eyes open for the first time and the air is still as black as it was when I closed them. For a long time I would justify this by saying that we really weren’t made to get up before the sun comes up.
    As my life got more hectic, though, with work, social, ministry, and then a husband, it became almost impossible to accomplish all that I wanted to do in a day, and it seemed that the two most essential, but not pertinent, tasks were the first to go – time with God and exercise. Wise people have said that people find time to do whatever is important to them. Wise people have also said that something doesn’t become important until it becomes a problem. My goal was to make time with God and exercise important BEFORE they became problems.
    I realized that if I was going to accomplish these two tasks every day, I had to do them before the expectations of everyone else began. And that means I had to get up early, really early.

    At the time I had to be at work by 7:20. It takes me longer than most people (blushingly) to get dressed in the morning. (I just don’t like to be rushed, right?) So, if I was going to pray, read by Bible, AND exercise I had to get up at 4:00 AM. 4:00 AM?? Yes, 4:00 AM, and believe it or not it became easier to do than you think! Now that I work from home I am blessed with sleeping one hour later, so these day I get up at 5:00.

    I know this seems impossible at the moment, but trust me, you can do this, too, and the benefits (which I will address tomorrow) absolutely outweigh the few sacrifices!

    1. Decide on your goals.

    What do you want to get up early to do? Why do you want to get up early to accomplish these tasks? What are the benefits? I stated my goals above, but anything that you are passionate about accomplishing, but can’t seem to find the time to do during the day, can be your goal. (I do hope one of them is time with God because this one fuels productivity for the rest of the day.)

    2. Pray for discipline.

    It obviously takes discipline to get up earlier than you’re used to, and it also takes discipline to then do what you planned on doing after you get up. Discipline sometimes seems like a bad word, and of course we really, really dislike it, but in the Bible it says that after discipline there will be a “peaceful harvest of right living” (Hebrews 12:11 NLT)  Isn’t that what we’re seeking – peace from living the way we are shown is right? 

    3. Get a wake-up buddy.

    There was one time in my life when I paired up with a friend in my Bible study, and we decided to help each other with this by making a quick phone call to each other when we got up. We didn’t start talking.  We just told each other to have a good day and quickly got off the phone.

    4. Go to bed early.

    This one goes back to discipline. You will have to go to bed early or you will quickly find that either you won’t get up the next morning or you’ll be miserable the rest of the day. When I got up at 4:00 I tried to be in bed by 9:00 the night before. 

    5. Wake up early on the weekends.

    Now, I do not wake up at 5:00 on the weekends, but I do wake up earlier than I would normally. You will find that over time your body will naturally adjust to your new schedule, and it will become almost impossible to sleep late. On the weekends I do not set my clock (not even to get up to go to church on Sunday) because I naturally wake up at the very latest by 7:00, but most of the time around 6:00. For a while it might be a good idea to set a clock for about 7:00 just so you don’t have to completely start over on conditioning your body each week.

    Here are also some helpful Bible verses that address getting up early:
    * Mark 1:35
    * Luke 4:42
    * Psalm 5:3
    * Psalm 118:24
    * Psalm 127:2
    * Proverbs 31:15

    Photo Credit: Creative Commons

    Do you want to become a morning person to reach your goals?  What is the hardest thing about getting up early for you? 

  • My Shiny New Shoes

    Join me today for 5 Minute Friday with The Gypsy Mama where we write for five minutes on a given topic. No editing. No criticism. No worry. Today’s topic is: New
     

    I slid my feet in one at a time – into those polished, shiny new shoes, and my countenance became shiny, too.  So I walked around standing high and tall.  Those polished, shiny shoes made me new.

    My head got too heavy as I held it up high, so there it fell. I leaned forward, and trip, trip, trip my polished, shiny, new shoes splashed in a puddle now stained with the look of old.

    Now if only I get a new pair of polished, shiny shoes will all of these troubles fade away?

    So off I prance on my toes holding my stained, muddy, old shoes in my hand.  Off to find the next pair to make me new again.
    Photo Credit: Creative Commons