Daniel and the Veggies: Don't Settle for Low Standards

As I mentioned in the last post, I recently read the book of Daniel. I’m guessing that the word “Daniel”  immediately makes you think of the story of “Daniel and the Lions Den”. But the book of Daniel is actually filled up with many other little, lesser-known stories. Last week, I told you about Nebuchadnezzar. This week is--no, it’s not “Daniel and the Lions Den.” It is “Daniel and the Veggies.”

In chapter 1 of Daniel, we read that the king of Babylon takes over Jerusalem and assigns his chief eunuch, Ashpenaz, to gather up some “youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.” (Daniel 1:4, ESV.) This included Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (whom you probably know as Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego). Note that they were called “youths.” At that part of the story, they were young. I googled it, and different sources said different things, but they were probably somewhere in the range of 11-15 years old.

Anyways, in verse 5, we read, “The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.” Since all the kids would need to stand before the king later on, it was probably important to Ashpenaz that they were raised right.

But for some reason, little Daniel didn’t want the king’s food. We’re not completely sure why, but it could’ve been that their food was unclean and the grapes for their wine were not grown according to a Jewish rule in Leviticus 19:23-25. It could have also been that the food was dedicated to idols, making it way more unclean than normal unclean food. Whatever the reason, little Daniel was resolved not to defile himself, so he went straight to Ashpenaz, the chief eunuch.

Ashpenaz said, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” (Verse 10.) Note the lower caps when Ashpenaz said he was afraid of his “lord”. Unlike the chief eunuch, Daniel feared the Lord (upper caps), so he didn’t stop there. 

Next, he went to the steward who was in charge of him and his friends (Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego). Daniel requested this: “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” (Verses 12 and 13.) You can see that Daniel didn’t take up the challenge just to make himself look good because he roped in his friends too!

Well, the steward listened to them and agreed to the test. What happened then? Did they get sick of veggies after three days and beg the steward for their old food back? Did the king kick them out because they weren’t doing well in their studies?

Nope, they actually looked a lot better after switching to this unusual diet. After ten days, their steward decided that they didn’t need the king’s food, so he kept giving them veggies. Daniel and his friends were “better in appearance” than all the other youth! Not only that, but God gave those four kids “learning and skill in all literature and wisdom” and even gave Daniel “understanding in all visions and dreams” (verse 17)! 

How about their meeting with the king at the end of their time there? So, the king spoke with all the youth, and he decided that Daniel and his friends really stood out from the other kids. In fact, they stood out from the whole kingdom! “And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.” (Verse 20.)

Here’s what I got out of Daniel’s story:

• Daniel had a healthy conscience. He was completely resolved not to defile himself. A Christian teenager today might be tempted to settle for what all the other Christian teenagers were doing, but not Daniel. His conscience didn’t settle for the other Jewish youths’ standards. He felt the need to make a change.

• Daniel had some initiative. When the Holy Spirit stirred up something in his heart, he actually went and did it. He didn’t just wait for a vision or a dream or the voice of God to do what he thought was right. He did it. 
• Daniel was faithful. Even when he was so young, he wanted to serve God. He was willing to sacrifice comfort and risk doing what he thought was right, and his youth was no excuse for being unfaithful. Later on in life, he even intentionally broke a law (no praying) for God.
• Daniel was persistent. He didn’t stop when Ashpenaz turned down his request. Daniel wasn’t afraid of Ashpenaz or even the king. He feared the True King and was determined to not do what he felt was wrong. He didn’t give up! He went to his steward, and his steward listened!

How about you? Are you willing to go above and beyond the standards of Christians around you? Do you have what it takes to make the decisions for yourself? Will you settle for what everyone else is doing when the Holy Spirit stirs up your conscience? 

A new school year is coming, and with it comes challenges. Some of you might be homeschoolers or go to Christian schools, but still, I dare you to be ready to go above and beyond. Be ready to set your spiritual standard higher than the people around you. (But don’t be a Pharisee!) Daniel was surrounded by other Jewish youth eating defiled food, but he didn’t settle for the crowd’s standard. Will you?

Don't Forget God in the Midst of the Small Things -- a Thought

Disasters are the best for driving people to God. When something big, horrible, and life-changing happens, we analyze ourselves and (hopefully) go straight to the Word and prayer. Death, illness, loss, anything that shakes us causes us to desire solid ground. 

He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. - Psalm 62:6 (ESV)

Sometimes we don’t go to God. The disasters in our lives can drive us farther from God if we’re aren't careful. But if problems drive us farther instead of closer, we are forgetting the purpose of suffering. God doesn’t just give us trials and leave us in the pit. He gives us trials so that we can learn to depend on Him, our Rock.

I have a theory. What if the smaller trials are even more deadly, in a spiritual sense, than the big trials? What if the everyday struggles to not lose our patience are more likely to pull us away from God than the horrible things we can’t contemplate? What if the problems that cause us to stop reading our Bibles and praying to our Father are invisible?

You see, the smaller problems create the easiest traps to fall into. Rather than pits, they are more like sinking sands. They’re the kind of things that come in massive quantities, the everyday things. Messes, homework, projects, fusses, scheduling are all things that are so small that we think we can handle them on our own. The truth is we can’t.

As we sink into the sands of stress, we are sinking so slowly we think it isn’t a real problem. 

It’s just sand, we think. I can just step out myself. I don’t need God.

As we try to handle things ourselves, we run to things that can’t really help us. Little pleasures, entertainment, and food might make you feel better for a little bit, but they don’t make a difference in the long run.

We need God — just as we always have. We need to go to Him in prayer. We need to go to the Word and hear His voice and build our houses on the Rock. 

And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. - Matthew 7:25 (ESV)

With all the floods of problems in our lives, the sand isn’t a safe place to stand on. God is our only hope in the storms. We need to go to Him in everything — even in the tiniest problems. Especially in the tiniest problems. End of story.

What the Trees Teach Us

Last week I went to my first summer camp, and I learned a lot. I did a number of things — from archery to zip lining! But one of the things that really stuck with me was how much I have to learn from trees. The camp’s theme was being rooted.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:14-19 (ESV, emphasis added).

Well, we can learn from all of God’s creation. God gives many examples of His creation in the book of Job, and you can see how awesome He is through what He made.

“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” - Job 12:7-10 (ESV)

When you’re out in nature, smelling the flowers, feeling the breeze, listening to the frogs croak, and looking up into the sky, you can easily see there is a Great Creator behind it all. How could some random particles colliding in space make this?

All of nature shows us so much about our faith, but today I’m going to focus on the trees. Here are three things trees teach us that stood out to me at camp:

#1: Wind and fire can make us stronger.

If, as Christians, we are trees, the winds and fires of life strengthen us. Once, some scientists created a miniature sealed ecosystem. They called it Biosphere 2. It was created to sustain itself but, surprisingly, the trees didn’t survive. The trees grew faster, yet before they were completely mature, they fell! It turned out the lack of wind in Biosphere 2 actually made the trees weaker. In the wild, the wind’s stress upon the tree encourages roots to go deeper. It makes them stronger.

Fire is also good for trees. It promotes thicker bark, opens up the pine cones, and leaves good nutrients in the soil. When I was hiking last week, I noticed a lot of burnt trees. Looking up higher, I saw green growth, even on many of the trees with burnt lower trunks. I could see they survived the fires, and now they thrive off the nutrients the fire left in the soil.

We can do the same. Let’s remember that we would collapse without the winds of trials, and the fires in our lives can ultimately be good for us. We just have to persevere and grow deep roots in God’s love, and He will get us through the testings of our faith.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” - Isaiah 43:2 (ESV)

#2: The tallest trees can come from the smallest seeds.

As I hiked among the sequoia trees, the size of them overwhelmed me. I was amazed by how tall they were. My group went over to the biggest one. There were about a dozen of us, and we couldn’t get our arms around it, or even close, if we all tried! I just stared up in awe. It was a great sight.

Then our leader showed us a seed — a tiny little thing that would make your littlest toe look big. A seed that size was what the mightiest sequoia came from. How could something so little grow to become so lofty?

The sequoia reminds me of the parable of the mustard seed:

“And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” - Mark 40:30-32 (ESV)

We too have the potential to grow and become something so much more than we are now. The tallest trees can come from the tiniest seeds. It doesn’t matter where you are now. There is so much room to grow.

#3: Sequoias depend on each other.

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” - Thessalonians 5:11

Sequoias are very good at this! Where there are others, sequoias thrive. You see, as big as they are, sequoia trees have no taproots. The taproot of a tree is the root that go deep down and supports it, but the mighty sequoia lacks it. The trees are very hardy and can survive many fires, but many die just because they fall. How do they stand up then?

The sequoias intertwine their branch roots. The sequoia’s roots don’t go very deep, but they go far and wide and meet with many other sequoia roots. Their branch roots, the roots closer to the surface, can cover an acre! They all intertwine their roots with each other, and they stand together. They depend on each other.

As believers, we must grow deep roots to become healthy trees. We must be rooted and grounded in God’s love, and feed off his Word and prayer. But we must also support each other. Especially when we are young in the faith, we need other believers.

So let’s learn from the trees. Let’s reach out our roots deep and wide, let’s remember that the tallest trees come from the smallest seeds, and let’s be strengthened by wind and fire.

Today Is a Monday, BUT It Won’t Always Be!

(Short post today!) :)

It’s Monday. Another Monday. You know that. I know that. But at least for me, there’s something else in the air today — hope, potential, promise, and a little bit of sun.

Mondays can get us down. In some seasons, life feels like an endless chain of nothing but Mondays.

For students, it can feel like school will never end. But in reality, summer is just around the corner.

How do we know that summer is coming? Because it has always followed through. Year after year, summer always returns. We students know we can depend on it to come back again.

You know who is even more dependable? God. He has always kept his promises and always will.

In Micah 5:2, He promised that a ruler “whose coming forth is from of old” would be born would be born in Bethlehem. He kept that promise by sending Jesus.

And there are so many other examples. The temple’s destruction, His death, His resurrection, the list goes on and on.

God has never let us down. And you know what else he promises? He will never forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5-6.) And He’s coming back. (Revelations 22:20.) Soon.

Summer comes every year. It’s dependable. God is even more dependable. He’s fulfilled so many promises, and keeps the promise that He will be with you, every single day. So we can know for sure that He is coming back. Who knows? The time might just be around the corner!

It’s Monday today. But students, let’s not give up. Let’s keep persevering, finish strong, summer’s almost here!

Christians, do the same. ;)

What’s the Point?

“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” - Ecclesiastes 2:11

So often we can relate to the Preacher of Ecclesiastes. We feel that everything is vain. More than vain, it all seems like a vanity of vanities (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Oh, you did some cleaning yesterday? Well, sorry, but today everything’s just as messy as before you cleaned. You did as much good as striving after wind. Did you turned in your homework on time? That’s nice, now you get some more homework. Nothing to be gained.

Life just repeats. There will always be the pain of vain.

No. Listen. It is not all vain. There is more to life than the things you do that reset everyday. There is a purpose. There’s a sovereign plan beneath it all.

Of course you don’t know all the details of God’s plan for you. But you do know a few things.

1. Where it all ends (yet never ends)

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” - Matthew 6:19-20

This world isn’t permanent. Heaven is. Earth is vain, but Heaven doesn’t have even  a single moth that destroys. No rust, no thieves.

One day, Jesus will acknowledge every time you were patient with somebody rather than yelling, every time you chose to say a kind word rather than a hindering one. It will all be worth it.

2. That it is good

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11

If we trust what God tells us, we also trust Him when He says His plans are not for evil. We trust that, even when life seems really bad, there is a future and a hope.

“No pain, no gain,” right? “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” doesn’t it? As we experience God’s plan, we learn to trust Him, and as we trust Him more and more, He gives us more and endurance. More peace.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” - Isaiah 26:3

3. What our purpose is in it

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” - Ephesians 2:10

God made us for good works. That’s our purpose. Yes, we’ve got the Holy Spirit, but isn’t it daunting? Actually, we’ve been guaranteed to prevail over the grips of flesh. Pair that verse with this one and you know you can put your confidence in God.

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” - Job 42:2

If God’s plan is for you to conquer sin, no way is anything going to thwart His will. After trial after trial after trial, Job sure learned that. He found out the hard way that God is almighty and that whatever happens, you can trust Him. And this God has a plan for you. A good plan. And it is going to happen.

So keep persevering. Keep trusting, keep conquering, keep growing. Jesus is worth it.

Two Beautiful Truths Jesus’ Death and Resurrection Show Us

Easter time is here! Your first thoughts may be chocolate bunnies and colorful eggs, but we must remember what the original Easter was all about.

Our Messiah rose from the dead. Many see this as the most important part in the Bible. Not only is this a past event we should always remember, but also something that should impact our everyday lives. Jesus lives.

Today I’m going to share two truths the Cross shows me that still affect me today.

#1: Jesus Loves You.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8

Why did He die? Because He loved the unworthy sinner so much He gave up His life to save us.

Jesus’ death was a sacrifice for us. He died that each one of us who follow Him may live. He loved so much, so unconditionally, that rather than letting us face what we deserve, He opened Heaven to us.

We must never forget Jesus’ death because that is how He showed us His love.

#2: He Has Overcome Sin and Death.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” - 1 Peter 1:3

Why did He raise from the dead? To defeat death and give us a hope. Jesus doesn’t stay dead. Jesus conquers.

If Jesus didn’t rise from the grave, our hope would be dead. But He is not dead so we have a living hope in Him. By His amazing mercy, He has overcome death and sin, things we could not defeat on our own, to let us have eternal life with Him.

Jesus lived a stainless life. He conquered every sin by the way He lived. If He were just another sinner, His death wouldn’t matter so much. But He was perfect. He was patient to those who didn’t deserve it, He was kind to those who didn’t deserve it, He loved those who didn’t deserve it. He was and is our perfect example of how we should live. He conquered sin, and then conquered death — both physical and spiritual death.

We should never forget Jesus’ resurrection because it shows us He can overcome anything.

How Does This Matter Today?

Well, first of all, Jesus still loves you today. And He still overcomes. Do you know what this means? If you are following Jesus, He can and will help you overcome. He can because He’s an overcomer. And He will listen to your prayers because He wants what is best for you.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” - Romans 8:31

So the Cross shows us that you can do anything with Jesus on your side. You can love the most unworthy. You can conquer the most persistent sins. You can overcome.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” - Romans 8:37

How to Do a Big Project in a Big Family Part 4 - Bathing the littles

(See the introduction and other posts first if you haven’t!)

Like with House Bingo, if you do it right, jobs being uneven can be an advantage. But with simpler things, if people all want the same job, there will be a lot of quarreling. Sometimes it seems like taking the hardest job is all you can do. But it is not.

You can divide work well.

Twice a week (or more) the time comes when all four little ones who don’t bathe themselves need a bath. The other six bigger kids need to bathe them. Sometimes the bathroom can get really full and noisy. And wet. People all want to bathe the easiest to bathe kid (the biggest of the littles) and get out of the rest.

I spotted the problem and decided we needed an assembly line. I made a list of the jobs:

• finding clothing for afterwards
• getting kids into the bath and washing their hair
• bathing their bodies and getting them out
• drying them off plus odd jobs
• lotioning them
• clothing them

I added “odd jobs” to the drying job to even it up a bit, but everyone still wanted it. How would I decide to whom to give it? How could I do it in a way people wouldn’t argue? And how to make sure the younger big kids don’t get overly difficult jobs?

I distributed the jobs from youngest to oldest (to the big kids). Nobody argued because I was the oldest and the younger ones should get simpler jobs. Well, a few kids still wanted the drying job but I told them they were too big for it.

And this strategy can be applied to plenty of other things!

Like making breakfast burritos. Nobody wants to make the bacon. Everyone wants to cook the tortillas. I take the bacon-making to get rid of that quarrel. Then I tell them if they cook the tortillas, they also have to put together the breakfast burritos, serve them and clean up. That leaves one person who still wants to make them and the others are content with other jobs.

Now it is time to think about how you can encourage your family to cooperate and avoid social loafing. Let me know if this helps!

How to Do a Big Project in a Big Family Part 3 - The Shovel & Dark Vader of the Kitchen

See the introduction and other posts if you haven’t!)

People need motivation. And if you are one of those people who offer your kids/siblings candy (or money) every time they do something, no offense, but eventually you’ll run out of candy and your kids/siblings’ll have cavities.

My solution is to instead offer them power. Sugar-free.

When all the kids go outside to battle the weeds, they tend to get lazy. Fast. The sun beating down. The lack of prospect of victory against everlasting weeds. You get the idea.

I noticed this problem and another as well. I saw that it was very inefficient for everyone to have to get up regularly to put their weeds in the green waste. So I appointed someone (the first to come outside for weeding) to carry a shovel around and collect people’s weeds for them. A very easy job. Consequently, everyone wanted it.

So the shovel got passed to someone new every five minutes. But not just anyone. The person who — in the shovel carrier’s opinion — weeded the hardest or the most. Now, not only were they weeding to get the easy job, but also for the power of choosing the next person.

This solution:

- encourages people to come outside for weeding fast, because the first to come out got the first turn with the shovel

- added a helpful position where somebody collects what has been weeded

- compelled people to weed more

The kids wanted the shovel both:

- to have an easy job

- and for the power to choose the next shovel person

I use the same strategy when we clean the kitchen and pick up after dinner.

If a few siblings choose to join something called the “Darth Vader system,” they will take turns being “Darth Vader” each evening. “Darth Vader” gets to choose who in the “Darth Vader system” gets what job.

People join the system for the power of being Vader every once and a while and then put themselves subject to the other Vaders’ authority. Since Darth Vader’s job is to make sure the people of the system work efficiently, this strategy works pretty well.

The Darth Vader is in charge of dividing the work, and, especially with complicated tasks, “divide and conquer” is a big deal. More on dividing work next time.

How to Do a Big Project in a Big Family Part 2 - House Bingo

(See the introduction and first post if you haven’t!)

Competition is social loafing’s worst enemy. Social loafing is when everyone tries to the least possible, while competition is when everyone tries to do the most. If everyone keeps a competitive spirit, I can guarantee you won’t have social loafing.

So make it competitive.

Instead of the normal house-cleaning checklist, one day I made a chart. Columns for jobs — picking up, sweeping, mopping, etc. — and rows for rooms — living room, kitchen, hallway, etc.

Once I had came up with many rows and columns, I had many unique boxes. “Mop kitchen,” “Sweep hallway,” “Pick up in living room.” Each box you sign is a point, and each completed row or column you help with is three points.

The ingenuity of this was that not all tasks were equal. This created a race to do the easy things. Even the most slothful kids wanted to get the easy tasks, so they finished each one quickly to go to the next one. Thus, they weren’t slothful anymore!

When I saw which few bigger tasks people shied away from, I wrote a generous amount of points the doer of this chore would get. And hence, workers raced for the hard jobs!

At the same time they raced to complete rows of chores (e.g. sweeping every room) and with all the racing, everything got done! It was super competitive and efficient, and everyone was proud of the checked boxes at the end. Even the younger kids worked hard to get more points than each other. It was beautiful.

Applying competition to weeding also produces much efficiency, as you will see in an example next time.