Frog and Toad Together - COOKIES

1.     Describe a time you have felt like Frog and Toad, two discipline-challenged friends.

If you don’t know this story, then you are fired! Fine, you’re not fired, but you’re required to come to the library and check it out. Classic. How could you not know it? It’s a beginning reader by Arnold Lobel titled Frog and Toad Together and it won a Newbery Honor. The specific story is about cookies…

Frog has made some cookies and he and Toad sample them. They are so good that they cannot stop. If they do not stop, there will not be any left for after dinner. Frog decides that they must have “willpower.” “Willpower is trying very hard not to do something you want to do very much.”

They put the cookies in a box, but that won’t stop them because they can open it. They tie it shut with string, to no avail. They put them high in a tree, but the temptation still exists. Finally, Frog tosses them out the door for the birds to eat. Disgusted, Toad leaves to go bake a cake.

I’m feeling like them right now. There is something that my sinful self really wants to do, but that my “trying” to be Godly self abhors. I’ve made it more difficult for me to do, but I haven’t done the things that would make it impossible for me to do … Let’s pretend that my cookies are shopping. Not too far off really, but what I’m willing to put to paper.

I’ve put the store credit cards away so they’re not with me. I keep myself busy so I don’t have free time to “window shop”. I don’t look at catalogs and circulars. I don’t visit store websites or subscribe to their email offers. I don’t sign up for new cards.

But, you know, Von Maur can look up your card number for you and they don’t charge interest. I still receive Kohl’s 30% off flyers and even if you don’t need anything, it is really a shame to waste 30% off especially off of already marked down prices.

And sometimes, you really need a pick me up when you’re feeling down. And sometimes, you really need some instant gratification when all of your other goals seem way too far off and out of reach. And obstacles seem impassable.

And sometimes those stores still manage to contact you, come right to your doorstep. Tell you all the things you need to hear. You cannot live without the latest fad.

I try cold turkey. And I do really well, and then one moment of weakness and I make up for months of “being good”. Or I go bake a cake. I go for a big ticket item.

2.    One definition of spiritual discipline is “any activity that can help you gain power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled it.”

a.     Form a list of at least 20 examples of things you can do that will help you gain power to live the life Jesus intended.

                                         i.     Hang out with the outcasts

                                       ii.     Talk to God all the time

                                     iii.     Don’t be afraid to cry out to God

                                      iv.     Learn God’s Word intimately

                                        v.     Use God’s Word for answers

                                      vi.     Us God’s Word to combat temptation

                                    vii.     Be innocent as a child

                                  viii.     Be mature in your knowledge

                                      ix.     Be mature in using your knowledge

                                        x.     Have at least one ministry

                                      xi.     Be still

                                    xii.     Seek God in all things

                                  xiii.     Respect those in authority

                                  xiv.     Practice rest

                                    xv.     Practice fasting

                                  xvi.     Practice repentance

                                xvii.     Practice meditation

                              xviii.     Read the Bible

                                  xix.     Study the Bible

                                    xx.     Practice forgiveness

b.    Once you are out of ideas, try to come up with 3 more, thinking creatively and deeply.

                                         i.     Let go of anger

                                       ii.     Let go of anxiety

                                     iii.     Be joyful

c.     Identify one new spiritual discipline you want to develop in your life.

I want to learn to talk to God more, better. My prayer life is lacking. I’m getting better at praying out loud at least with little children – leading in prayer. But I need to learn to go to God when I’m alone. And when I attempt it, I’m very often distracted and easily. I never set aside time just to talk to Him and seek Him. I need to train in this discipline.

Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:6 (ESV)