Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally is a memory aid that helps us to remember the proper mathematical order of operations. It was designed with people like me in mind who are not naturally gifted in math. The last time I actually applied this concept was during a test on Venn Diagrams that I am pretty sure originated with Satan. Still, we could also apply the Order of Operations to our lives personally. Let’s take a look at what that looks like for each of us.

Parentheses – The stuff inside the parentheses are supposed to be done first. What is it in our lives that we would put inside parentheses? Where do we digress? Where have we deviated from God’s plan? Where are we putting ourselves first instead of Christ? If our lives are going to be in proper order of operation, then we have to deal with the stuff inside the parentheses before we can truly move forward to the next thing.

Exponents – something raised to the n-th power. What is it in our life that we need to raise to the n-th power? There is some area we need to increase our efforts. Where do we need to raise the bar? Christ gave his all for each of us & he expects nothing less from each of us. Where do we need to pick up the pace?

Multiplication – Whom are we sharing Christ with? Who are we inviting to church and our small groups? Who are we reaching out to in the love of Christ?

Division – Where do we need to be delegating? Where do boundaries need to be set?

Add – What needs to be added to our lives? What do we need to start doing? This could be exercise, a budget, daily quiet time, etc.

Subtract – What needs to go in our lives that is not honoring to Christ? What friends, jobs, majors, habits, addictions, girlfriends or boyfriends needs to go? What do we need to stop doing? Does something need to go so that we have time to do the things God is calling us to do?

Things I learned from a football game

I love college football. I am a total South Carolina Gamecocks fan. The Gamecocks played the Bulldogs this past Saturday night. When all is said and done, Carolina produces another loss. I’m totally emotionally disturbed that we could not convert in the end zone second half and in particular the final seconds of the game. We were in the RED ZONE and couldn’t convert. To say the very least I was not pleased. I was ready to stomp on my jersey and pull for another team. Can you say overreaction? But here’s the deal, as I was enjoying my temper tantrum, God really spoke to me. I remember when I didn’t expect the Gamecocks to be competitive. There was a time I would have been thrilled with a loss to UGA that was high scoring offensive game and only four points difference in the end. The thing is, that’s just not acceptable. Let’s face it, we don’t play competitive sports without winning being the priority. Yet, how many of us professing Christians are accumulating losses instead of victories. We think it’s acceptable just to show up on Sunday. We think it’s okay not to spend time in God’s Word. We expect our favorite teams to have done the work during the week in order to place them in the best possible position to win yet we don’t do the same with the most important “game” of all. If we are on God’s team so to speak then we should be doing everything we can to prepare ourselves and get in the game of spreading God’s Word through the example of our lives and dedication to service. We should be pumped for the game. We have the greatest stakes but we approach it so passively. We should be crazy hungry for a win every day. The definition of win is transformed lives!