Kathy Weckwerth

Everyday Encouragement

Kathy Weckwerth

Your World

by

By:  Kathy A. Weckwerth

It was 19 years ago that I picked up the phone and answered politely, “Hello, law office.”  The woman on the other end of the line was very snappy.  Actually, snappy doesn’t even begin to describe it.  She was downright unkind.

The voice began, “I want answers and I want them now!”  She continued and insisted that I would help her, I would do this and that, and yet, she was the opposing counsel.

Serving as a legal assistant in the office, I could help her with a few things, but because of her attitude, I cringed as she continued to lambast me with what our office was doing wrong.

Something hit me hard … a thought … that perhaps, just maybe she was having trouble.  I paused and asked her,  “Debra, are you okay today?” Not condescending, not unkind, just genuine.

“What?” she asked.

“Well, you just seem kind of upset and I’m wondering if you’re having a bad day, or maybe something is horribly wrong? “I questioned.

There was a quick few seconds of silence and she answered, “Well, actually, yes.  I fell and hurt my back and I just feel awful.  The days are so long at work and another lawyer just left for vacation so my work load doubled.”

On and on Debra went with her woes as I quietly listened.  When she finished I said to her, “Debra, let’s pray together.”  I didn’t know if Debra believed in Jesus, I didn’t know if she ever set foot inside of a church, but I knew that Debra was stressed, needed help, and felt no one cared.

As an assistant to the opposing counsel to Debra, I should have been mean, told her to jump in a river, and hung up the phone.  My boss accused me of being “too nice” to the other side whenever we were preparing a case.  But I needed to help someone that needed help.

From that moment on, Debra called regularly, even when she moved on to another office.  I would listen, chat and pray.

And then something interesting happened.  The more that our clients called and talked about their aches and pains from their accidents, the more I began to listen and to pray with them.  I created a great repore and felt that I was encouraging those who needed prayer and hope.

My point?  [callout]We never know what’s happening in other people’s worlds.  Perhaps they just had a bad car accident.  Maybe their spouse just passed away.  Or maybe they lost their job, lost their home, or lost their hope.[/callout]

So often, this can create a short fuse and bring out the worst in people.  If I would have responded to Debra as I felt she deserved, it wouldn’t have been my best version of myself.

I will never forget the lesson I learned from one crabby phone call.  And so today, when someone snapped at me, I just paused and said, “Hey, what’s going on in your world?  Are you doing okay?”

We never really know what’s going on in other people’s lives until we find out.  Right? 

Circle of Encouragement

by

Circle of Encouragement

By: Kathy A. Weckwerth

“What makes you do that?” the young girl looked at me with big eyes and asked almost apprehensively.

SONY DSC“What?”  I questioned.

“The encouragement thing.  You know, how you encourage people … why do you do it?” she continued.

“Because in this world, there aren’t enough people encouraging others.  There aren’t enough cheerleaders.  There aren’t enough people interested in others.  And quite frankly, people feel bad about themselves and need to be lifted up.” I answered matter of factly.

(photo by Christal Ruppert)

The truth is … no one makes time for encouragement.  No one takes time to build into others.  Why?  I believe it’s one of these three things:

  1. They don’t feel good about themselves, so they don’t feel confident to build someone else up.

When we feel confident in who we are and our own gifts, we have no problem lifting others up and making them aware of the good things they’re doing.

  1. They don’t know how to encourage someone.

Often, people think that they have to be a gifted communicator to be able to tell someone what a great job they’re doing, or how much they enjoyed their presentation, or how beautiful/handsome they look all dressed up.

  1. No one encourages them so they don’t think they should have to encourage someone else.

So often, our pride stops us from telling someone they are doing a great job or they are smart, kind, lovable, funny, a great blogger, a gifted writer, or a kind listener.  If we lift someone else up, doesn’t that mean that we’re less?  NO!!!  It means that you are doing exactly what Christ wants you to do … encourage one another!

Many years ago, I served at a large church. A man on my worship team was very competitive, egotistical and jealous.  So frequently he would criticize me as the leader and many on the team.  Although I would quickly try to combat and intercept his criticism, everyone knew that you could never measure up to whatever it was in life he was looking for and couldn’t find!

I often wondered why someone as gifted as he was would feel threatened by others and their giftedness.  And then I realized something, perhaps no one believed in him.  Or perhaps, he felt that he would become less if he lifted others up.

Scripture tells in James 4:10 that we are to “humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.”  We don’t need to be self-serving and look for compliments.  We need to focus on others and encourage them, believe in them, and cheer them on!

[callout]The blessing comes to us the moment we bless others.  Our focus is off of ourselves and onto someone else and God uses our words to help heal, encourage, and spur others on to good works.[/callout]

If you haven’t encouraged someone for a long time, today is the day to do it.  How can you encourage someone?

  1. Write an email or an old-fashioned note that you mail at the post office!
  2. Text message or facebook someone and tell them they’re doing great.
  3. Tell them how proud you are of them in front of others.
  4. Post little sticky notes all over their desk, locker, purse, wallet … life … and say “I’m so proud of you!”  And tell them why.

Encouragement is so important.  Building one another up is God’s plan.

It just makes life better.

Make it your best life. 

1 Thessalonians 5:11 “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” (NLT)

When Answers to Prayers Are Bigger & Better

by

When  Answers to Prayers Are Bigger & Better!  By Kathy A. Weckwerth

P1010530I walk up the familiar steps to the front door and pulled it open with a hard yank.  It’s sticking now, almost like it’s apprehensive for the day’s events.  As I step into the entry way, I say my familiar phrase that I recite each time I enter the building, “Good Morning, Frank Lake Church, Good Morning, God!”  I continue with, “It’s going to be a great day today!”

As I peruse the table settings, I look with ease at the red and white checkered table cloths, I review the sailboats, seashells, and candles.  Check.  Everything is in order.

I move into the sanctuary and observe that banners that say, “Sink, Swim, or Set Sail!” Bright blues and reds look stunning against the old cream colored tin.

In the kitchen, the Bible study friends have quietly entered the church and are now setting up the lovely tea rings, along with bran muffins, and I breathe in the delicious odor of deep rich coffee brewing.

Everything is set.  The music is playing softly and I have prayed over every pew.  I am ready for the Holy Spirit to reach hearts and minds, and excited as the women begin to enter the church. I hear laughter and small talk from the women as they pick up their folders and check in with Bernadette and Mary.

When the morning begins, I press down on the old white ivory keys of the piano, and hear the flood of voices filling the room and I begin to feel that overwhelming happiness that hits me whenever something is happening at the church.

Upon stepping behind the pulpit, I am totally aware that in 1900, someone stood in that same spot and looked out at the faces proclaiming the gospel.  At times, it makes me feel small, as though I’m no one, so why would God allow me to be doing this now, in this same spot?  At other times, I just feel an overwhelming gratitude for all that is happening and all that has happened.

Throughout the day, I catch glimpses of women laughing, tearing up, and nodding along to what is being taught.  I see the group of women, many from the surrounding communities, hugging one another, encouraging each other and praying together.  I am blessed.

But as we head to the Cashel Township building (the old schoolhouse) across the street, so that I can teach my workshop,  I feel in awe of God.

It was just two years ago that Farmer Dean (my husband) and I headed, hand in hand, to the schoolhouse to try to purchase it.  The board said they’d discuss it, but we knew it was a no.  It was actually okay because after we walked in, I remember that I didn’t feel God’s pleasure.  I felt God saying no to me.

And now, two years later, here I was standing in the center of the schoolhouse.  Blue gingham checkered curtains were at the little windows, while old sturdy oak pews were lined up with women waiting to hear what I had to say about the topic of prayer.

I stood there looking at them, fumbling for words since I’d just taught a one-hour lecture a few minutes before.  I launched in to what I knew … “I prayed right here in this schoolhouse,” I told them.  I prayed for a building to house our ministry and an office to work in.  God said no.  God said, “This isn’t it, Kathy.”  And God handed me a dream on a silver platter 6 weeks later.  Formally known as Frank Lake Covenant Church, we found something so much better than the tiny little schoolhouse.

[callout]God’s provision of an old rural church that had sat empty for 32 years, was nothing short of a miracle.[/callout]

After I felt booted out of my worship arts ministry position, I tried not to feel bitter.

If I had not stepped out with a resignation and walked towards full time nonprofit ministry, I would have missed the opportunity of purchasing a 1900’s church for $1.00 on Craigslist.

If my sweet farmer-neighbors had not suggested looking for “an old church” I would have never thought of it.

 If my sweet husband didn’t have a grove that nothing would grow in, exactly the size of the old church building, I wouldn’t have a place for it.

 If women weren’t coming to Best Life Ministries conferences, I wouldn’t have a need for a building.

BUT … God knew it all, saw it all, orchestrated it all, and loved me enough to bless me … and all of those who have the joy of walking through the sticky door of the old Frank Lake Covenant Church and entering The Church in the Grove, Headquarters for Best Life Ministries.

God is good.  He’s really, really good.

Good Friday

by

The story is a familiar one mixed with sadness and joy. My heart never grows weary of reading it and I often place myself in the setting, allowing myself to walk through the last days with the Savior, before His death.  There was no other way that it could go … in order for us to have freedom from our sins.  It was the only way. 

Campaign Photos 025We watch as He agonizes in the garden praying, all the while His friends are asleep. He faces Judas and the betrayal “kiss” while the disciples stand watching.  He goes before Pilate and endures a decree that He will be put to death. And He is crucified.  Alone  …  alone  …  alone. 

On the night of the crucifixion, all hope seemed lost. Darkness abounded. An innocent Savior was given up to selfish, sinful mankind, and pain and suffering was His, as He hung on a cross, deserted by His disciples and by His Heavenly Father.  It had to be that way.  For the sins of men to be covered, for God to have a bridge between us and Him,  Jesus had to pay the cost.

Luke 23:43 tells us it was 6:00 and darkness came over the whole land until 9:00, and the “sun stopped shining.” Perhaps you’re like many of us who are living in Minnesota’s dreadful winters. Days go by and the sun does not shine. Night passes its baton to the morning.   But without sun, and with snow, it seems dismal as weeks pass into months. During those hours, because a dark veil of blackness signifying death, sin, sorrow, torment and persecution, all hung heavy in the air, in the dark bleakness of something so far more dreary than winter.

Watching His Son die for us, God does not come to His Son’s rescue, for it must be done for us to have eternal life. But God does something wonderful by speaking to us through His beautiful actions regarding the veil in the Holy Temple.

The large blue, purple and scarlet curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, an inner room in the temple that symbolized God’s presence, was the barrier between God and man, and now God tore it from top to bottom (Mk. 15:38). Historians think that this veil was 60-80 feet high.

No man could say that a human had done this. This curtain separated man from God. Only once a year the High Priest was allowed to enter into God’s presence to make atonement for the sins of Israel.

[callout]God has unveiled Himself to allow His Son, Jesus Christ, to stand between us. No more curtains are needed.  Just a Lamb offered up on a cross to atone for our sins. [/callout]

For whatever reason, the words of Christ, before His crucifixion, didn’t seem to be retained in the memory banks of His followers. When He was still with them in Galilee, He told them He would be given up to sinful men to be crucified, and on the third day He would be raised up. They didn’t remember His words, and so they succumbed to the horrific grief of how death holds one captive. Darkness falls to night, and the darkness and nighttime continue for them. There is no hope … or so they believe.

But three days later, just after sunrise, Mary (the mother of Jesus), and Mary Magdalene take spices to anoint Jesus’  body, only to find an angel who tells them “He has risen!” 

Darkness is over. Death has been defeated. Hope is restored.

A vertical curtain has been torn and replaced with a horizontal bridge of

Jesus Christ the Risen Lord.

What amazing hope … what glorious victory … what wonderful encouragement that things may look bleak at night … but joy comes with the morning!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

When You Don’t Know What To Do

by

There have been times in my life when I just haven’t known what to do.  Can you relate?

DSCN3140There are days when someone’s waiting for an answer from me and I have no clue how to answer them.  Has this happened to you?

There are moments when someone needs me to pray for them and I don’t know what to say.  Are you with me?

Recently, Dean and I met with several people to discuss some big decisions that we needed to make about our ministry.  We prayed together and knew a basic path that God had set before us.

When we met, we sat across the table and listened to a different path.  It was a lovely path and one that was exciting, interesting, and offered another direction to serve God.

I looked at my husband seated next to me.  His arms rested on the big green table in our dining room.  And as we listened, I quietly and gently pulled back the corner of the tablecloth.  Sound crazy?  Not to me.

As the vision was cast before us, my mind raced back to the many days of life that I sat at this old green table.  I purposely put my husband at the end of the table, and I sat in my dad’s spot.  “Why?” you ask.  Because Daddy had wisdom.  He had it in huge doses.  I’ve never met anyone with wisdom like my father.  And as a small child, I began to take note as to how he answered the unanswerable.  I listened as to how he directed answers to the people needing help, hope, and healing.  Now, if my memory would serve me right, I would be able to open the file cabinets of my mind and pull out the answers that I learned so long ago.

[callout]My father told me that scripture was the basis for all answers.  He said that if we spend time in God’s word each day, we begin to absorb it, think it, believe it, become it. [/callout]

Daddy also told me that anyone can pray and ask God for wisdom.  And he told me that you never rush into any life-changing, course-altering avenues without much prayer, wise counsel, scripture reading, and thought.

The vision across the table continued to whirl in front of us but I had a steady pace in my thought process and I remembered where I sat … in my father’s spot at the table.

I recited in my mind what he taught me about decision making.  Here are the steps to making wise decisions about anything:

When You Don’t Know What To Do~

1.  Pray~ ask God for help and tell Him that you need wisdom. Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.”

2.  Seek Wise Counsel~ find several Godly people in your life who are smart and help you think through things. Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

3.  Read your Bible~ God’s word has the answers.  When it comes to wisdom, quote God’s word back to Him and say, Proverbs 8:34, “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.”

4.  Look at the pros and cons~ think about what’s happening and look thoroughly at the entire situation. Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

5.  Listen for the Holy Spirit~ God talks to us through His Word, through His Spirit, through others, through nature, through music … we must listen. Proverbs 8: 33, “Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.” 

When the vision was cast and Dean and I looked at each other, we gently said we’d discuss it and pray together.

Later that night, Dean and I knew some things after we ran them down the list of 5 things to do:  Pray, Seek Counsel, Read scripture, Look at pros and cons, and Listen for the Spirit.  We knew that this did not fit into the vision God had given us.  There was nothing wrong, it just wasn’t on our path for where God wanted us, our ministry, our church.

Sometimes it’s not that complicated.  Some days it’s deciding to return many phone calls and emails or what to fix for dinner.  But somedays, it’s life changing, course-determining steps and those are the days when you need help!

[callout]God wants us to live our best life and walk in His steps with the course He’s set for us.  He is a God of order and control.  No need to get frantic and cry … He’s got your best in mind. [/callout]

Today, release to Him the decisions you need to make.  Seek Him in a quiet corner of Your life, call smart friends, read your Bible, look at the details of the situation and then listen for the answer from God.

After all He says in Proverbs 14:15, “A simple man believes anything, but a prudent (cautious/wise) man gives thought to his steps.”

Blessings to you today on all your decisions!