Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Women of the Bible


Ok, so I am doing this amazing study of the women of the Bible by Ann Spangler with my dear sweet Whitney.
I highly recommend this book for any woman who wants to know that they are not alone. That God knows everything we are going through and that He will provide for us when we turn to Him. I also highly recommend that you do this study with someone you love.
We have just started and already we have laughed and cried and came to the important conclusion that the women of today are not any different from the women of the Bible.
The vulnerability and naivity of Eve. How easily we can all be deceived by the evil one and before we know it our lives can be turned upside down.
But then we have our amazing loving God that comes right along and clothes us and takes care of us and even in our punishment He still allows us the great privilidge of having children.
And then Sarah, to some she may not be easy to like. She is hard and abrasive. But think of her life, following Abraham who God is telling to move all over and not telling them where they are going. The uncertainty of ministry. It made her cold and made her laugh to herself when God said that she would have a baby at ninety.
God heard her, even though she tried to deny it. He still heard and He blessed her with Isaac, which means laughter and she proclaimed that "God has brought her laughter and EVERYONE who hears about this will laugh with me". She wasn't laughing by herself anymore, she was praising God and sharing her joy with others.
How quick we can all be to doubt, to laugh or to be afraid. But we continue to step out in faith and trust God and in His beauty and splendor He continues to bless us.
Trust, Hagar trusted God. She was a victim. A product of her circumstance with very little say in what happened in her life.
She was told to be with Abraham and she did.
She had a baby and the very ones who told her to do this turned on her and shut her out. Can you imagine the confusion and the fear that she felt?
All alone and cast out. But God spoke to her and told her to go back and she obeyed. God blessed that obedience. God took care of her and Ishmael.
Trust and obey.
For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus
but to trust and obey.

Friday, January 26, 2007

My Baby is Five Today


How can this possibly be true?

It seems like just yesterday you were just a tiny baby and Michael was three years old telling me to "put that baby down".

It seems like just yesterday I was holding a yellow ducky to get you to crawl across the floor and now you are running circles around me.

So fast.

Five years of laughter and craziness.

Five years of total unpredictibility.

You never know what you are going to get with Alex. It may be a 'snarl and a stop'.


or a "smile and a hug'



But under each of those is true love.


My dear sweet Alex, you follows so closely in your brothers footsteps, wanting to be "just like Michael, right mama" yet you definately march to the beat of your own drum.

Thank you Alex for your individuality, for your loudness, for your boldness and your honesty. I pray that you always use the power God gave you for good. (Proverbs 12:18)

Happy Birthday my sweet boy, I love you!!


Friday, January 19, 2007

Happy Birthday Cindy



Happy Birthday my dear sweet friend.

I am thankful for you and you are loved by many!!!

I hope you have a wonderfully blessed day.

Friday, January 12, 2007

The Box


I live inside the box.
Michael lives inside the box.
Alex DOES NOT live inside the box.
Alex lives so far outside the box that you can not even see the box anymore!
I like the box. I am comfortable with the box. I am used to trying to be silly and Michael looking at me and say "that is not funny mom".
I am not used to Alex standing at the door of my room with two completely different shoes on (so that his friends could see both of them at the same time) and his hoodie on backwards (so he has a mask whenever he wants).
God is growing me in this area.
I was deeply convicted one Saturday we stayed home all day and Michael came to me and said he was bored and didn't know what to do. I told him to use his imagination. He then informed me that he did not have an imagination. Alex had one, but he did not. He told me that when he closed his eyes all he saw was black and white.
Wow...he is seven.
We always say that we should not put God in a box. We say and know that God can do anything through us if we let him.
I do not believe that God likes my box.
I want to be everything God wants me to be and I am trying desperately to get out of the box and take Michael with me.
Little by little it is working.
Alex has a Power Ranger house in space. In order to get there you have to travel by monster truck. The monster truck does not just arrive at our house. You have to call it...I know. The other morning Alex was in need of the monster truck so he stood on our front porch and was yelling "Oh monster truck, come on, I am ready".
So cool.
Normally, my instinct would be not to yell because of neighbors, but on this day God was working and I said "yell louder" and I told Michael to call a vehicle. He picked a motorcycle.
They were standing on the front porch yelling they were ready.
God showed me that is how we should be for Him. That we should be so far outside the box that we can't even see it and we should be yelling "Oh God, come on, I am ready."

Friday, January 05, 2007

Life

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
James 1:2-3

I can truly in all honesty now say that I know what that means.

On Monday night my earthly daddy died. While I am extremely saddened and still crying, I have joy.

I have my Heavenly Daddy.

This passage means so much to me now because in the midst of a tradgedy I got to see God work. I got to see Him growing my faith and teaching me perserverance. I got to see His plans unfold and know that it was God doing it.

How comforting is that.

I got to see God use His Body to come around a mourning family and help them and witness to the lost.

God uses everybody and every opportunity to receive the glory due to Him and to further His Kingdom.

I know that my daddy loved God and I know that he trusted Jesus. He was never taught how the Body works and never lived his life abundantly.

God gave me the most wonderful experience and such peace and confidence about my daddy. I got to see my father on his last day in the ICU hooked up to every machine possible, unconscious and unresponsive. God gave me the opportunity to pray over my father and to tell him that Jesus loved him. At that moment while holding his hand, it shook...he was telling me that he heard me.

God is so amazing.

The way that God has ministered to my family members this week who do not know Him has been so comforting. They have been bathed in His Word and surrounded by His Church. They have seen the love of Christ being poured out on me.

They see what I have...they see WHO I have and I am praying they want HIM too.

Thank you to those who brought food...

Thank you to those who watched my kids and loved on them...

Thank you to those who sent cards...

Thank you to those who prayed for my family.

I love you all so much.