Rec Min October 2023

Do you ever notice how easy it is to be offended? Some of us are passionate about how we spend our money and we have high expectations for customer service folks. Some of us are passionate about left-lane loafers and we have high expectations that they will move to the right lane. Some of us are passionate about our children and we have high expectations for others to see them as we see them.  Anytime we have high expectations, we are easily offended.

I’ve always worked to lower my expectations for others because the other person’s high expectations may not be the same as mine -- and vice versa. When I say “lower” I probably mean more to “balance” than lower. I’m a military brat where high expectations were beyond high; I tend to be perfectionistic and typically have really high expectations. I have learned over the years that taking the time to RESPOND instead quickly REACTING serves everyone much better. As Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” We must use our self-control to find the goodness in the situation and focus on that. Have the patience to put yourself in their shoes and try to see their side. Choose kindness and gentleness as a response instead of an explosive, negative reaction.

God compels us to be forgiving. Sometimes that means forgiving before being offended. If we focus on the fruit of the Spirit, a peaceful situation will come from what would have been an offensive ending. The joy of working it out will produce a love of each other and a balance in expectations that brings about peace going forward.

Blessings,

Marcia K. Gibney,
Director of Recreation Ministry

Rec Min September 2023

It is always good to look back and see the growth of our ministry. Many wonderful ministry moments have occurred and Steve Ellisor did a great thing when he recorded them in the “From the Rec Min” books. These are available at the rec desk, Vol. 1 – 7.

Reflection from Steve Ellisor’s From the Rec Min - September 2008

I’ve always felt it was important for coaches to encourage parents to participate, or at least be present, in the team devotions during each practice. The messages are for them, too! I want the coaches to include their own stories and add to the written materials; to personalize the experience as much as they feel led or feel comfortable doing. Let the children, and families, SEE the message as much as they HEAR it.

One of my favorite songs, and here I go getting teary eyed, is Some Things I Must Tell The Children by Gloria Gaither. I sang it to my kids at bed time when they were little. I’ve performed it at baptisms. The words remind us of the important things we must tell our children. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says, “Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up.” When you deliver the devotion, lead a prayer, or spiritually mentor children (with family members listening close by) you are planting seeds that you may never see bear fruit. This is our service to God. He does the rest. Our job is to first see that we, ourselves, are open and receptive to His Spirit and then to pray for His guidance as we deliver messages and interact with his people.

Prayer Partners are praying for you daily. I hope you are praying for your team and for this ministry as a whole. God is good and the Holy Spirit is at work because you committed to be His agent of love, grace, and instruction to your team. May He richly bless you for what you are doing for His kingdom!

Blessings,

Marcia K. Gibney,
Director of Recreation

Rec Min Aug 2023

We have A LOT of responsibilities in life. None of which are possible without the ability to wake up each day with a spiritual heart and a body ready to serve. We all agree that the most important responsibility of our daily life is to take care of our spiritual health. Without this, we decline and fail in our greatest responsibility to be the messengers we are called to be.

Health and fitness are also a huge responsibility. In fact, if we do not take care of the body we have been gifted with, we will fail in our spiritual health as well. Being fit calls us to be ready to serve others physically when it is time to help build a house for the poor, clear a yard of storm debris, run a race to raise funds for the local food pantry. Good nutrition supports the daily exercise so that we can be consistent in our efforts to be healthy.

Feeding the body healthy foods along with daily fitness changes our bodies not only physically but mentally as well. People who exercise regularly have better mental health and emotional well-being, and lower rates of mental illness. Studies have shown that exercise can reduce the risk of developing mental illness and help treat some mental health conditions, like depression and anxiety.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

– Romans 12:1

Just like our spiritual health, we need to make a point to take out some time for our physical health. Without good health fed by good nutrition, we risk the very purpose of getting up daily to be physically able and mentally ready to serve others. We are gifted this life and these bodies and we are meant to serve others with our minds, bodies, and spirit!

 Marcia K. Gibney,
Director of Recreation Ministry

Rec Min July 2023

This newsletter topic is brought to you this month by the experiences during our C-Sports Basketball Camp, which was held the week of June 19th.

Scripture is sometimes hard to understand for the younger ones. Being able to relate scripture to the things kids enjoy today can be the best translator of the way Jesus lived his life. There are many ways to apply being a teammate with scripture to daily life. Learning a new sport with new people and doing that for 3 hours for 4 days a week can really test them, especially if they haven’t had a good breakfast and plenty of fluids!  So, learning about being a good teammate was a topic we discussed many times during the camp.

Romans 12:19-21 says, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” The first part was easy to explain but the second part was a little difficult. They couldn’t figure out why the scripture tells them to put hot coals on another person’s head! Once it was explained to them that responding kindly to an unkind person makes that unkind person feel guilty or sorry for their own behavior it was easier for them to understand. Having the thought of hot coals placed on our heads for negative behavior would definitely have people rethinking how they should treat others. This was quite the picture for them to visualize otherwise!

This lesson is not just good for basketball camp kids; this is good for all of us. In a world where negativity gets more attention, we should focus on creating more positive actions in our daily life. If we expect our kids to learn it, we must live it and be an example.

Marcia K. Gibney,
Director of Recreation Ministry
Christ United Methodist Church

Rec Min June 2023

Many times we make quick decisions and we don’t always know immediately that it was the wrong decision. When we do find out it was the wrong decision, we know we should have involved a greater amount of time to that fleeting thought. However, sometimes we think so long on it that we get bogged down on too many factors that do not really pertain to the actual conflict anymore. As my dad used to say, “Study long, study wrong.”

Often you hear people say they “heard the voice of God” or they had a “gut” feeling when they’ve made a choice that produced the best outcome. This is true discernment, the very tool given to us by the Holy Spirit, and what enables us to have proper understanding to make wise judgements. This heightened level of critical thinking is a true spiritual gift that helps us to decipher right from wrong.

Every day is filled with conflict. Conflicts with people, schedules, as well as an internal battle we have with ourselves. We cannot avoid making decisions and if we do, that is also considered a choice by not deciding. Not all conflicts are negative. Sometimes it’s a matter of how you look at it and problem solve so that a conflict can become two good experiences. Look for the blessings, let the gift of discernment involve the Holy Spirit, and then move forward with confidence in your choices. Make the best of every situation for the glory of the Lord and be at peace.

Marcia K. Gibney,

Director of Recreation Ministry

Christ United Methodist Church

Rec Min May 2023

Many years ago, during some counseling, my pastor asked me if I was a control freak because that is who I was or was I control freak because I had to be. My answer was - both. It made me put in perspective what “my priorities” were versus what they and whose they truly should have been. This question was life changing for me and I began a journey of letting go of control over some incredibly difficult things. This involved taking inventory of lifelong relationships all the way down to how I made sure everyone folded towels the “right” (my) way.

I remembered the serenity prayer that was engraved on a wooden plaque that hung on my grandmother’s wall, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference” and this is where I began. With everything I felt a strong urge to control, I practiced taking a step back, praying this prayer, and making decisions to let that particular thing go. Sometimes I couldn’t so I committed to work towards handling it with more grace and eventually could let it go.

Over the next 6 months my whole life changed and I do mean CHANGED. I have never felt so much peace, enjoyed so much of the happiness around me, felt so free of burdens, and smiled. Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Countless people would stop me in my tracks and ask me what I was doing to change my looks, comment to me how much better I looked, they could see happiness all over my face, etc. They could not get over the transformation. Funny thing is, I never changed one physical characteristic about my appearance, I only changed the things in my mind that I thought I needed to control. That transformation was internal and it radiated through! It’s been 3 years and my life is better than ever and I am blessed to not be in control!

 Marcia K. Gibney,

Director of Recreation Ministry

Rec Min April 2023

One of the hardest and easiest things to do is to be selfless. It is hard when you’re not purposefully putting others first before you and it is easy to put your yourself first. It is can also be easy to not purposefully put others first before you and hard when you put your yourself first. Sometimes making that determination as to what is selfish is the hardest to figure out.

 Selflessness is loving other people, regardless. You have to be patient, kind, and understanding. You never know what kind of environment others have been exposed to, how they were taught love and kindness, or even if they were. If you know better – you do better. You have to INTENTIONAL to be selfless and you’re INTENTIONAL when you're selfish. It is up to you to choose. God gave us free will and he gave us Jesus to show us the way. Giving others the best of you will always bring out the best in them. It might take time but it is worth it in the end.

 13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

1 Corinthians 13

Marcia K. Gibney,

Director of Recreation Ministry

Rec Min March 2023

Blessings

This morning I woke earlier than normal. I made myself a cup of coffee and sat on the back porch. As I listened to the sounds of what seemed like 587,398 birds of all kinds chirping and squawking, I closed my eyes and breathed in the spirit of God. Truly, this was the sensation of overwhelming gratitude I was feeling for the beautiful life He has led me to in the last 3 years. The urge to speak to God at that moment about how thankful I was for my blessings - especially my biggest blessing, my husband, Ron. The life we have is blessed and he has given me a peace and happiness I never knew before. As I was thanking God for all of it, my husband walked out on the porch. Ron is NOT a morning person, much less this early of a morning person so it was a surprise to see him. For him to show up at this moment was to me, a sign that God hears me. We shared this quiet moment with God and the birds and felt our blessings deep in our soul as we sat and held hands for a while. For another hour I was walking on clouds and feeling the spirit until I got the phone call from my son that his car broke down in the tunnel on the way to school. Well, here’s to staying humble and to a dose of reality that gets you back to digging deep to find the blessings!

Psalm 104 speaks directly to me today. Appreciating God through his creation and his blessings and He is the source of my joy. As we approach spring in the next month, take the time to breathe in the spirit of God and all of His blessings and the joy that comes from that.

“I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Psalms 104:33

Marcia K. Gibney,

Director of Recreation Ministry

Rec Min February 2023

Every year, many of us make a resolution to do something new and different.  After a few weeks, we go back to the way we were.  The next year, we repeat the process. According to Webster, the word “resolution” is a noun and means the act of finding an answer or solution to a conflict, problem, etc.  Pay attention to the words, “the act of finding”.  Maybe resolution should be an action verb.

Most resolutions we make are to be healthier.  We find a gym, personal trainer, an extreme diet, etc.  We go to the first gym sessions and 24 hours later we discouraged by how sore and unfit we are and the foods we have limited ourselves to eating don’t give us the energy to get through the day. Being too sore, too tired, and too hungry for the short time are sometimes the only motivations we need to stop. 

Resolutions should be gradual. Don’t do the top tier, all-out high impact boot camp suited for extreme athletes and a restrictive diet all in the first month. Instead, try 3 days of walking for 30 minutes the first 2 weeks of January and time yourself.  Gradually change processed foods for more natural, fresh of what you’re eating. The next 2 weeks set a goal to reduce the amount of time it takes to walk 30 minutes. Find another healthier alternative to one of your not-so-healthy foods.

Doing things too quickly doesn’t always produce permanent results.  “A bonanza at the beginning is no guarantee of blessing at the end.” (Proverbs 20:21)

Make a resolution to continue to gradually your life.  Small changes have a greater, lasting impact over time than drastic ones which disappear as quickly as they were made.  Your body, mind and spirit will return to you more than you expected and you will not be disappointed this year-throughout the whole year and then some.

Rec Min January 2023

Happy New Year to all of you!   Don’t let the spirit of the holiday season leave you just because we are past that time of year. God’s gift to us was not a “one day” event. His message of hope, peace, love, and assurance is year-round!  This is a time to continue that message in our words and actions. In Hebrews 10:24-25, we are commanded to not neglect gathering together,

“And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.”

Make a commitment to continue taking the time to slow down and plan visits with close friends and family throughout the year! Start that weekly bible study on your lunch hour with your best friend! Start that Monday night football with the guys! Start that neighborhood kid’s day at the park! Plan to learn how to make Grandma’s favorite bread with her! Plan to sit with Grandpa and watch Jeopardy! So many opportunities to fellowship and share life!

Marcia K. Gibney,
Director of Recreation Ministry