Keep on Rolling

This weekend at church Pastor Chris talked about changes. God never changes...everything else does. This caused me to reflect on the past year.

In the last 15 months my mother died, my oldest boy graduated high school and started college and in my family my boys had 5 broken bones.

Pastor Chris gave a wonderful illustration of how we get through the changes in life that naturally happen. He mentioned the movie Twister where 2 people held on as tight as they could to water pipes that ran very deep underground. They tethered themselves to these pipes as the tornado raged all around them. That is how we should hold on to God as the storm rages around us. Hold tight to the truth that God never changes. Hold tight to His promises. He is always faithful and will work everything for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose.

If my mother were still here, I would be far too busy with doctor's appointments and would not be able to be as involved as I am at my church. I wouldn't be able to work in women's ministry. I miss my mother terribly but the truth is, the change happened and God used it for good. The same thing is true about my father's passing. Had he still been living I never would have agreed to move across the country so far away from him. I never would have found this amazing church or formed the fantastic friendships that I have, I'm not even sure I would be homeschooling my kids. The horrible change came, which I never would have wanted, and God used it for good.

Whatever changes you may be going through, tether yourself to God and His promises. He will be there and He will work it for good, even though it may seem like nothing good could possibly come from it.

I hate change! And yet, I thank God that He is the one in control of the changes.

Thought for the day

Today I was doing my daily reading in the book of John, specifically John chapter 6. This is where he talks about Jesus feeding 5,000 with 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread. He asked His disciples to feed the 5,000 followers that were gathered. One disciple says they would have to work for a month to feed the people and it still wouldn't be enough. Andrew brought a boy with 5 fish and 2 loaves to Jesus and says "this boy has 5 fish and 2 loaves but it isn't enough." I don't know why I never saw this before but today my thought was this. Why, if Andrew knew it wasn't enough, did he bring the boy with his food to Jesus? Answer: he brought him to Jesus in expectation and faith. It's as if he is saying to Jesus, "I found this boy and he's willing to sacrifice his food because we both believe you will do great things with it. " It's faith in action!

That's what God calls us to do. Bring Him the fish and loaves knowing it's not enough and ask Him to do the miraculous. Prayer, faith, action.

We often pray, especially in financial situations, and tell God that what we have isn't enough and we ask Him if He will do the impossible but we are filled with fear and unbelief. Sometimes we may have to pray in that unbelief until we can get out of His way and pray with faith that He will answer our prayers. He wants to give us the good gifts, but we must be faithful, we must do our part, we must truly trust Him.

Daily Rule

Recently, I was reading a book by Beth Moore titled "Breaking Free". It's been a great journey but one thing really jumped out at me and I thought I would share.

In one chapter she writes about how we need a daily walk with God and we need to allow him to lead us daily and she offers a very interesting illustration which I'll summarize. Imagine going to heaven and stand by God as he shows you what His plan for your life was. I begins with your birth and ends with your death and every day is outlined. You see footprints walking through each day. Most of those days you notice 2 sets of footprints sometimes going in different directions, sometimes intersecting. So you ask God, "are those my footprints every day and the second set of footprints are when you joined me?" God replies, "no the consistent footprints are mine and the second set are when YOU joined ME."

That really hit me. How often we go off thinking we know what is best for our life and we don't consult the one who gave us this life. Sometimes we look back at old hurts, resentments. Sometimes we get distracted and end up in a different direction. Sometimes, we just stop altogether because we can't let go of the past. But that wasn't God's plan for our lives. In the end we may turn out ok but God wants so much more for us. His plan is perfect, even though, to us, with our limited knowledge it may not seem perfect, it is. I want my footprints to intersect with my Father's. That can only be achieved with daily and constantly consulting with him. So my prayer for the new year is that I will have less days where you can see two set of footprints.

Quotes from the Cup

I looked at my starbucks cup this morning and i love the quotes they put on there so I read it. This one was rather profound so I thought I would share it.
Tim Russert from meet the press: "You can shower a child with presents or money, but what do they really mean, compared to the most valuable gift of all - your time? Vacations and special events are nice, but so often the best moments are the spontaneous ones. Being there. Every moment you spend with your child could be the one that really matters."

I asked a friend this past week when my teenage son was having a problem, what do i do to get him to open up to me. He just won't talk to me. He shared that the most wonderful talks he has with his kids are in the car. He has a captive audience. And it made me think about all the times that Ken and I share that are just "ours" and he opens up a good deal during those times. It's times when we "sneak" out at 10pm and get a milkshake or when we sit and "watch" our favorite tv show but do more talking than watching. It dawned on me that the reason that tv show is my favorite is because we talk so much and he really opens up during that time. Maybe that's why he likes it too?

My point here is that sometimes we try and make our time with our kids too complicated. We plan these grand events or take a pry bar and try and get them to talk to us when in reality we have so many moments that are so natural, we could miss them. Sometimes, a simple walk or a trip to the ice cream store, or a story time at bedtime is more important than any vacation or xbox could ever be.

Thanksgiving

In doing research for the kids school I found that the original Thanksgiving wasn't thanksgiving at all. That's the name we gave the holiday. The pilgrims actually would have referred to it as a Feast because a Thanksgiving was a religious day for them in which they would fast and pray and give thanks to God for the blessings in their life.

Today, asking people to fast and pray on Thanksgiving probably is not an option. But we should at least keep the tradition of thanking God for our blessings. The Bible is full of references of people giving thanks to God. We praise Him with thanksgiving.

As I make my food preparations for tomorrow I wanted to take a moment to just thank God for my blessings.
First of which obviously would be my family. I have a wonderful husband and kids. I am so thankful for my church family and all of my wonderful friends both near and far. I'm thankful for friends that I've recently found after a long absence. I'm thankful for the town i live in, the fact that I have a home and may food preparations instead of not having enough. I am thankful for so many other things, it would be impossible to list them all.

What are you thankful for? Happy Thanksgiving!

"...whatever you do for the least of these you do for me..."

end of a season

The season has ended. Since the beginning of september there has been a whirlwind of football practices three times a week and 2 games on Saturdays. We have spent every Saturday on the football field in the sun with the kids. It has been so much fun watching Chris as he learns more about the game and gets better with each practice and game. It has been amazing watching Ken coaching and growing with each passing week.

The season grew even busier for playoffs with several games throughout the week, practices whenever we could fit them in and four games this past Saturday. Our last game for Christopher's team was well fought today. He even caught what we were all sure would be the game winning touchdown in the last two minutes of the game. Unfortunately our quarterback finished the game in the last few seconds by throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown and we lost.
But the kids played great and I am so proud of both of the teams.

Now I am left with this feeling, unsure of what to do now. I know I have quite a bit to fill my schedule but without football to run me ragged, what will I do. I am all of a sudden filled with a sense that my schedule has just been opened up significantly. Then I realize, nope, I just won't have as many scheduling conflicts to work out.

Yep, that's my life in a nutshell, scheduling conflicts or not, I love it!

President Obama?

Ok, so it's November 5th and we officially have a 44th President. His name...President Barak Obama. This is not a day to to denounce your country because your guy didn't win. It's not a day to gloat that Obama won and I told you so. Let's leave the pettiness of party behind and celebrate that we have a new president. Today is the day to pray for the future of our country, the war, our economy and whatever issues are important to you. Let's lift up our nation in prayer and let's lift President Obama in prayer. I'll tell you my election night story and include my prayer at the end. Feel free to include one of your own.

My Story goes something like this. I took my son and his girlfriend to a Rise Against concert. Let me tell you, this was a fun night. I haven't felt so young in quite a while. The music literally coursing through my body. I could actually feel it. Looking around at all the kids who just are there to have fun and dance. Worry free and not a care in the world that night. The opening band is on stage and they announce, it's official, Barak Obama is the next president. It was then that I realized I was in a crammed room of nothing but Obama supporting democrats. I learned a lot last night. Those kids who had not a care in the world, were deeply concerned about this election and many were wearing their I Voted stickers. These are the next generation who care about politics and global warming and a host of other things. I also realized, I'm not as young as I used to be. The woman behind me screaming in my ear and killing me with her bouncing, weapon like breasts beating my in the back as she jumped up and down. The mosh pit! I still don't understand the mosh pit. The near riot that broke out when they discovered who had won the presidency just because they were excited. Oh to have that kind of excitement again. Then I thought, you know if some of these would put that kind of excitement into following Jesus. Wow! Imagine how much of the world we could change. I felt like breaking out in song of one of my favorite Christian bands and see if anyone would join along. I left there tired, exhausted really, my feel hurt, my back hurt, my head hurt and I smelled like the sweat of everyone around me. But it was worth it to have that insight into the lives of the next generation. It was rather eye opening. If I happen to go to one of these again, I'm getting a chair seat in the balcony, lovingly referred to as the old people section. Color me old.

My Prayer: Father in heaven, thank you so much that you hold this country in your hand. I thank you that you will take this presidential election and this country and create change in the coming four years. I trust that you will be in control. I ask that you forgive our country for our many sins and arrogances. my prayer is that this country will once again be a country of honor and integrity and I pray for our new leader(s). I pray that you will be first on their hearts and that they will be quick to listen to your guidance. I pray that they would have strength in the coming years to endure whatever may come, I pray that they would have integrity and honor, and I pray that you would protect our new president. I trust in your plans for our leaders and our country and I give it up to you. I ask that you would inspire each American to do their part in service around their community, in supporting our economy, and in continuing to pray not just today but for the next four years for this country and this administration. I pray that President Obama would seek you first in selecting his cabinet. I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen