Episode 47: Enough for Everybody or The Scarcity Mindset
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Enough for Everybody Podcast Outline
Two Bird Observations
What Can We Learn from the Birds
Photo by Mukesh Mishra
Show Notes
Enough for Everybody
About a year ago, I was looking out of the
kitchen window, and I thought that what I was witnessing was a bird
fight. Instead of it being a fight, it was more like bullying.
Bullying among two birds. One robin decided that he wanted the other
robin to leave the grass. (Granted there was more than enough room for both of
them.) The second robin (victim) tried to stay there.
However, the first robin (bully), continued
to peck him. The second robin went over to the bird bath to relax
there. And what do you know? Mr. Bully came over there and pecked
him until he left that area. Eventually the second robin flew into the
happy face tree (someone literally drew a happy face on the tree itself) and
stayed there for a while. This made the bully very happy.
Reflection
on Enough
In the spring, I saw several birds in the
backyard after it rained. No one had the bullying and victim title.
They were all scavenging for food after it rained. They knew that there
was more than enough to go around.
God revealed something to me in that very
moment. Sometimes we are like the two birds from a year ago. We
feel that we are not satisfied until we are the only star. We feel that
there will not be enough of God’s grace, goodness, and mercy to go
around. We think we have to fight in order to get the blessings, or there
won’t be enough.
Other times, we are like the birds from the
spring, realizing that there is more than enough, God is the one who owns it
all, and is running it all.
The earth is the Lord‘s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalms
24:1, KJV)
Even with whatever talent it is that he has
blessed us with, he has to tell the door to open and to close. Some of us
will be blessed with a lot, and some of us will be blessed with little. However, when we realize that there is more
than enough for everybody, then we can look to God, rather than other people to
receive the blessing.
“O my people, listen as I speak. Here are my
charges against you, O Israel: I am God, your
God! I have no
complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt
offerings you constantly offer.
But I do not need
the bulls from your barns or the goats from
your pens. For all the
animals of the forest are mine, and I own the
cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird
on the mountains, and all the
animals of the field are mine. If I were hungry,
I would not tell you, for all the world
is mine and everything in it.
Do I
eat the meat of bulls? Do I drink the
blood of goats? Make thankfulness
your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows
you made to the Most High. Then call on me
when you are in trouble, and I will rescue
you, and you will give
me glory.†(Psalms 50:7-15, NLT)
Dear God,
We thank you for the gifts that you have blessed us
with. We pray that you will help us to realize that we don’t have to
worry about being threatened by anyone else, because you have blessed all of us
with different gifts/talents that are unique to us. Please help us not to
compete, but to work together for your glory.
Temptation
is one of those things that can sneak up on you out of nowhere. It helps us to
get a bigger sense of the difference between seeing and looking at something.
Back in the day when I was caught up in my shopping madness, I would see
something in the store after I had purchased everything I had already planned
on buying. Then, I had to go over to take a closer look, and then I ended up
back at the register, spending way more money than I planned. My time of escape
was right after seeing it, getting out of the store quick, fast, and in a
hurry. This is often how it is with temptation. We ignore that small window,
and then it’s too late.
God’s
word gives us example after example of this happening, while we are in our
minds going, “No that is not going to happen to me.” Even now,
because it was a stronghold in the past, I am constantly having to be on guard
when Satan tries to get me over to the looking side. All the feelings that were
back then come rushing back as a warning.
1
Corinthians 10:11-14 says:
These things happened to them as
examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the
culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing
firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
No temptation has overtaken you except
what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be
tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can endure it.
(NIV)
Researchers
state that it takes one “bad” person to ruin five good people.
Remember the figure of speech that you were lectured on as a kid when it came
time to picking your friends: “One bad apple ruins the whole bunch.”
We got tired of hearing our parents and other adults say it, but what they were
saying was basically synonymous with Galatians 5:9: “A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump.†(KJV) Whether we are kids or adults, we must be
careful of the company that we keep.
When
we hang out with our friends, coworkers, family members, etc, it just becomes
natural to start saying some of the things that they say. This is what happens
when we are in relationship with anyone. Just as when we are reading God’s
Word, and in relationship with him, our thoughts and behaviors will reflect
that relationship.
However, if you are like me, where everything
that is heard on tv, radio, and by mouth is internalized and leaks into your
emotional, mental, and spiritual space, then you’ll find that you must be extra
careful. Why? When we least expect it, words that are not our own start
entering our mind.
And if we’re not careful, they are coming out
of our mouths. I have found myself rebuking Satan many a day when this happens.
I will never forget when one of my friends said that
she told her son to be careful with what he
allows to come in from other people, because 1) it will go into our minds, 2)
it will go into our hearts, and 3) it will come out of our mouths.
Dear God,
Thank you for
giving us the gift of relationship. Please help us in using discernment in these
relationships, as well as being self-aware of how we operate, so that we don’t
fall prey to the devil.
In case you missed our last episode, Episode 27, Simply Grace, you can check that one out first. Click here. Today’s episode is entitled, “Bad Advice”.
Welcome to Healing Our Brokenness Episode 28, entitled, “Bad Adviceâ€.
Dissecting Decision-Making
When it comes to making decisions, some of us take way too long. Others of us make decisions too fast. We wish that we had thought things over well. A lot of times, bad decisions can’t be erased. The domino effect can be felt for years. When we make decisions, sometimes we include God and other times we leave him out. God also uses other wisdom-filled people filled with discernment to help us make decisions. Ultimately, we have to decide what we are going to do. Other people can’t make us decide to do what’s best.
Younger Adult Advice
It is good to gather advice from our younger friends. These friends are more than likely raising children younger than ours. They can cause us to have a come to Jesus moment about some of the crazy perfectionistic moments that we had with our kids when they were little, use this advice for our grandkids, and see how it is when younger adults are active in community. Some of our younger friends have been through a lot, and they have old souls. They can give as much advice as an older person.
Same Age Group Adult Advice
The next group of advice can be given from same age-group friends. These friends can give us a different view than we are currently using in raising children, making friends, and living in community. Since God hasn’t made any two people the same, our same-age group friends can help us to reframe what we are thinking regarding life, and vice versa. We tend to share parenting kids of the same age group, and thus we can share similarities and differences. If we are in community with safe friends, then they will go there and tell us what we need to hear.
Older Adult Advice
Our older friends have been there and done that. They have years of advice and experience to
give us. They can serve as mentors for
the younger and middle-aged adults. They
can tell us the lessons they have learned from their struggles in life. Older people are less into the comparison
trap and caring what other people think.
They have more of the you do you and let me do me. They help us to be more at ease. I praise God for my older friends who are
indeed old enough to be my mother. They
have helped me in parenting, living life, and being me.
What does scripture say about giving advice/training
different age groups?
2 You,
however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.2 Teach the older men to
be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in
faith, in love and in endurance.
3 Likewise,
teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be
slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the
younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be
self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be
subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
Bad Advice
We’ve all had times
when we’ve gotten bad advice. And this
is where we have to use discernment and proceed with caution. Healing advice from a person who has been
stuck in self-pity or blame for 15 to 20 years and is seeing no way out wouldn’t
be in our best interest.
Getting advice for how to deal with your spouse from a
person who hates all men or all women because they were wounded by one wouldn’t
be in our best interest as well.
Rehoboam got advice from the younger men in his age group. And it was the worst advice ever. Jeroboam had expressed to Rehoboam that his
father Solomon had a heavy labor load on them.
They wanted the load to be lightened.
The older men who advised Solomon said to lighten the load. The younger
men who were Rehoboam’s friends, said to increase the load. Not only did he deliver this awful news to
Jeroboam and the people, but he was filled with contempt and nasty with the
message’s deliverance:
12 Rehoboam
went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat
heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon),
he returned from[a]Egypt. 3 So they sent for Jeroboam,
and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 “Your father put a heavy
yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on
us, and we will serve you.â€
5 Rehoboam
answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.†So the people went
away.
6 Then King
Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his
lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?†he asked.
7 They
replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and
give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.â€
8 But
Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young
men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, “What is
your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke
your father put on us’?â€
10 The young
men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your
father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My
little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 My father laid on you a
heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I
will scourge you with scorpions.’â€
12 Three
days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had
said, “Come back to me in three days.†13 The king answered the
people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 14 he followed the advice of
the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even
heavier. My father scourgedyou with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.†15 So the king did not listen
to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of
Nebat through Ahijahthe Shilonite.
16 When all
Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:
“What
share do we have in David,
what part in
Jesse’s son?
To your tents, Israel!
Look after your
own house, David!â€
So the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites
who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
18 King
Rehoboam sent out Adoniram,[b] who
was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King
Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in
rebellion against the house of David to this day.
This one bad decision that king Rehoboam made caused a domino
effect.
So, the question is: how do
we combat bad advice?
Remember God’s advice is the best advice.
Pray!!!!
Don’t forsake the advice of our elders, especially when they have
proven that they possess wisdom and discernment.
Test the spirit as the scripture said. God often uses what we think he is telling us
by giving us confirmation through other people.
The question that I want to leave with you today is: “What bad
advice were you given that you are still paying the price for today?
Thank you for being a part of our listening audience for Healing
our Brokenness’ Episode 28: “Bad Adviceâ€. If this podcast is making a difference in your
life, please submit a review, tag a friend, subscribe on YouTube, iTunes, or wherever
your podcast medium is located.
I am often amazed at how we think we have our days all planned out down to the minute, and then, out of nowhere, things get shifted around. Oftentimes, it comes down to one phone call, a text, or an encounter with someone that changes our plans to God’s plans. Our focus shifts over from our plans to our backpack of burdens.
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. (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)
About a year and a half ago, I had a day of fighting with grief off and on. I decided that after not feeling any better, I needed to take a walk, get fresh air, and get out of my own thoughts. Walking to the beach to watch the sunset seemed like the perfect idea. After walking a few feet, I ran into my neighbor, and after our encounter, God pressed upon my heart to write this poem, dealing with our backpack of burdens.
