What satisfies you?

While reading Psalm 17 this morning, I came across some great little nuggets that I want to share with you:

vs. 1, the Psalmist says he's not going to pray with "feigned lips". Honestly, when we lie to God when we are praying that's probably one of the stupidest times we lie. Think about it . . . God already knows everything, including what's on our heart and here we are talking to him and lying right to his face! Have you ever had someone lie right to your face and while they are speaking you know they are lying! What goes through your head? Do you really listen to what they are saying? NO! you don't. You're probably aggravated at them for daring to lie to your face, yet we do it all the time in our prayers . . . don't lie to God, He knows when you are and I bet he doesn't even want to listen to your prayer after you start lying to Him!

vs. 3, the Psalmist says that he "purposed that my mouth shall not transgress". You know we have to purpose that too. Purpose here means to have a thought, plan or consider. You have to think before you speak. You also need to have a plan about what you are going to say so you won't sin. Consider before you speak. It would be much better to pause and look a little foolish than to blurt out everything on your mind. In Proverbs it tells us that a fool uttereth all his mind. Don't be a fool. Purpose to not sin with your mouth!

Then the last nugget, this is probably my favorite. vs. 15 says, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness." Romans 8:28, 29 tells us that God is doing a work in our life that is good for us as it conforms us to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:5 tells us to have the mind of Christ. We are to be like God, to walk in His presence. That truth eluded me for several years. . . partly because in my dreamer girl state of mind I complicated it. I thought walking in God's presence was close to something the ghostbusters must have experienced when they were in the presence of a ghost. But it's not anything like that. It's much easier, and yet a little harder than that. It is being completely right with God. That means the books I read, the music I listen to, the internet I browse, the movies/tv I watch, the places I go, the things and amount of things I eat, the words I say, etc. are right with God, are Christ honoring, are something I wouldn't mind doing with Jesus sitting right there next to me.  Now, that is hard. It really can be especially if you are attached that that series of books that doesn't honor God or if you really want to go see that movie that isn't the best, or if you desperately want to eat that 4th cupcake, etc. But I love that God gives us a promise in this verse, ". . .I shall be satisfied…" Are you satisfied? If not, you can be. Sure maybe you have to change some things but isn't it great that God not only tells us what to do, but he helps us do it! And we feel better afterwards. When you seriously consider it, do those books, those cupcakes, that music, that internet, that movie, etc. really bring satisfaction? Typically things of the world leave us empty and wanting more, but Jesus tells us that we can be filled when we come to Him. I would much rather give up the things I think I want to have the things I need and truly are desiring! Don't settle for less, choose God and you will be happy and satisfied every time!

How to Have a Good Christmas

So I heard this sermon last night, and no I'm not going to preach, but I am going to share! It was a great little sermon and so appropriate for this day right before all the Christmas festivities happen! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Bro. Lovens started off the sermon by saying that more suicides happen from Thanksgiving to New Year than any other time of the year. People get so depressed during this time. I didn't realize that. I have to admit it made me said that "at the most wonderful time of the year" people get depressed. Bro. Lovens went on to say that part of the reason is because people get caught up in materialism and Christmas has become about what you get out of it.

He went on to read a lot of Luke 2 and then he headed over to Matthew 1 and 2. He read verse 1-2 of Matthew 2 and paralleled how to have a good Christmas with the wise men. He said 1. To have a good Christmas, start out by looking for Jesus. He talked about how we live in a entitlement world where they expect things. At this point I started thinking about a commercial I say this year and this dopey looking dad is talking about how his kids are hard to impress at Christmas but he thought he had done well this time because he got his son a Nokia tablet and his daughter a phone. I pray I have thankful kids. This year, they are getting a lot. It doesn't happen that way every year, nor would I want it to, but I have been stressing for the last two months with them, the need to be thankful. Bro. Lovens warned us to not expect people to give you something. Work for a living. He said Christmas isn't about us anyways! It's about God!

Then Bro. Lovens went on a rabbit trail. He read verse 3-6 and talked about how Bethlehem was adding city at the time. The term "It all goes to Bedlam" was morphed from the term "It all goes to Bethlehem". There was no real industry in Bethlehem, yet we sings songs about it. He talked about how we need to get the gospel out there and share it with people because Jesus can change a life, a community, a nation! He said that when a nation begins to fail, it always begins with their moral system! At this point my heart cried out to God to please help America! And to help me to bring America back to God. To point them to Jesus!

2. After that interesting and necessary rabbit trail we made it back to his notes, and Bro. Lovens read Matt. 2:7-10. He said to have a good christmas we need to make it a day of rejoicing. Make it a rule that on Christmas no one can complain. He said, Don't be the brat of the holiday. Get up and read the bible to yourself as a parent before you read it to the kids. He also said before any presents are opened, open God's word and read Luke 2. Teach your children to remember what Christmas is really about! On Christmas, count your blessings and rejoice! I told my husband later that he said things in that sermon that if heeded will make other christmases go well for others. I loved the Don't be a brat of the holiday. How many times have I wanted to say that. Lol. We all know those brats that want a special day to be about them and them only.

3. He said the third thing to do to have a good christmas is to give (Matt. 2:11) He said give of your time and self. Be a servant on that day. Seek to be a blessing to those around you. Help out. He gave some practical ways to help out. He asked What can you give FOR others and not to them.

I think my favorite part of the sermon was when he went to verse 12 and said the last part to having a good christmas is to go home. After the wise men saw Jesus they went home. Know when to go home. Don't overstay your welcome. When the party is over, leave. Lol. So TRUE!

He said that Christmas is about a Savior that was born to save the souls of mankind! This year we set up our tree 2 days early I think because of that, all season we have thrown tradition to the wind. We went on vacation during December, we are not having Christmas at our house like we normally do, we are not going over family's house either, we are going to a church family's house. We won't hang out in our pjs all day. We will go seek to be a blessing to another family and the neat thing is they are having us over to be a blessing to us . . . I just bet we are going to have a good Christmas if each of us and serving the other in Christ's love. I loved this sermon right before Christmas. Bro. Lovens did a good job of drawing our focus onto what was needful for the time.

I hope each of you have a good Christmas and remember to make Christ the reason for the season! (Oh, that was another thing he said, Don't make trite statements like Jesus is the reason for the season . . . lol, Merry Christmas anyways!)

Thanksgiving Day Black Friday Shopping?!

One might ask themselves how our nation could get to this point?! What happened to a day of Thanks GIVING? How can whole families forget to have thanksgiving and instead rush to the stores to get the newest greatest deal? How could we get to this point in America? Well, there are several reasons why we are at this point but the main one is that Thanks GIVING is a time to GIVE thanks but that begs the questions to Who or is it Whom? (I have never been very good at English.) Think about it . . . if you don't have God in your life in a real and personal way, you might feel kind of silly sitting at the dinner table telling the table thank you for all the food. You might thank the person who prepared the food but more often that not that is the wait staff at Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel and mom just comes home and opens it up!  (We just don't know how to cook anymore! But that's another topic for another day!) We live in a nation where complaining abounds and thankfulness is very little. It would behoove us to remember when Thanksgiving Day was instituted. After the Pilgrims had come and nearly died because they tried a community garden and everyone working and everyone taking the same amount. Some worked more than others and some none at all, but all received the same from the storehouse. Pretty soon, the ones who were hard workers felt discouraged from carrying the load for those who weren't working and the store house didn't have quite as much in it. Yes the Wampanoag Indians came along and taught them how to better plant and better hunt but it was the leader of the compound who said that each family would get their own garden and be responsible for their own food. When that happened those who were hard workers again felt like their work wasn't in vain. Those who were not hard workers realized that they were going to starve unless they worked. That year they flourished. They were so grateful for God's provision that the Pilgrims decided to have a Feast and offer Thanksgiving to GOD! (The first "welfare" system in America failed miserably. Why do we think on a larger scale with a much more corrupt government it is going to work today? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping the poor, but not enabling the lazy. Again I digress, another topic for another day!) So these Pilgrims hold this feast for three days. After that in the New England States, several families had a time of thanksgiving but as our nation grew it started to fall away. The Southern states didn't remember the day and Thanksgiving was in danger of becoming a distant memory. A lady by the name of Sarah Hale recognized this and said, This can't be. She started petitioning congress and the sitting president to have a national day of thanksgiving. Several states got on board and had this holiday but Sarah Hale realized to make this permanent, a day where we give thanks to GOD, we needed to have it be a national holiday. She petitioned president after president and not just one time, thousands of letters, many visits and all to no avail. She worked for 38 years trying to get a national day of Thanksgiving and time after time, president after president, they all said no. Then something tragic happened. War broke out. We were not fighting an enemy across the sea, we weren't fighting for our freedom, or to expand our nation, we were fighting each other. Brother against brother, father against son, family against family. Civil War raged on. Sarah Hale decided in 1863 to try one last time to petition for a National Day of Thanksgiving. She wrote a christian man by the name of Abraham Lincoln. In the midst of this terrible war President Lincoln read her letter. I think if I was president I would say "I couldn't be bothered by some little woman and her silly ideas, I have a war to win", but President Lincoln didn't think that, he didn't say that. No He said that in such a time as this Thankfulness was exactly what we needed. WHAT?! At the lowest point in our nation's history President Lincoln said we need to take time and Thank God for what He has provided. I believe that when that happened God looked down and decided that was the turning point of the war. I can't prove that but I just bet it is true!

The Bible tells us that in the last days there is going to be a lot of wicked and horrible things. He actually gives a whole list and right smack in the middle of that list in II Timothy 3 He says in verse 2 that people were going to be disobedient to parents, and unthankful! I used to work in a day care about 5 years ago and I can tell you that is true, but now disobedience to parents ABOUNDS in our christian circles. People, get your children under control and teach them to be thankful!!!! To teach our children to be thankful we must be thankful. Stop complaining and start thanking God. I hear people say something they are thankful for and they qualify it with a complaint!!! THAT. DOES. NOT. BRING. GLORY. TO. GOD!!!!! I don't even think it makes him happy. I don't even think he sees what you are thankful for! Basically you wasted your time and breath being thankful and then qualifying it, and I bet you didn't feel all that much better afterwards either! I know when I am truly thankful and things are going bad it can totally change my attitude making the situation so much better! We need to offer thanksgiving to God. The bible has a LOT to say about being thankful, thanking, and thanksgiving. In Colossians 2:7 is says, "Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Chapter 3 and verse 15 of the same book says, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." And 4:2 says to "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;" Let's look at each of these verses.

Colossians 2:7 says, "Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Abounding in thanksgiving . . . do you abound with thankfulness? Do you thank God for the good and the bad realizing He has a plan for your life and it is always good? I don't know what abounding means here. I don't' know if it means 2 times a day or 2 times a minute you are thanking God and being thankful, but think about it . . . which is more prevalent in your speech? Thankfulness or complaining? Which abounds? If it is complaining do you realize that for every negative comment it takes 9 to 17 positive comments to overcome it!!!! WOW! Maybe that's what abounding means. In the Psalms it says that my mouth is filled with His praise. When your mouth is filled with something good like praising God you are not going to have room in there for complaints and such! We need to be thankful people and not complaining people. This is a CHOICE. It is something we have to daily and even minute by minute be thinking of.

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." ~ Colossians 3:15. WOW! This verse makes me stop and really examine myself. As a woman I am so filled with needless worry and that often leads to complaining out of fear of the unknown but God says to let, did you catch that LET, you have to allow the peace of God to rule your heart! Hmmmm. I bet if we do that we would be happier, more thankful people! We are commanded at the end of this verse to be thankful! YOU, be thankful. We don't need a calling, when it is a command. A command is also not based on our circumstances. It is based upon God's word . . . so yes, that means when bad things happen, when co-workers are jerks, when our children drive us crazy, when our husbands don't listen, when we feel slighted or wronged we are to thank God! Every day, every moment! Thanking God! Because we are commanded to! SOmetimes it is hard to do what we know is right to do, but just like exercise and eating right, the longer we do it, the easier it becomes!

Colossians 4:2 says to "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;" I love that this verse doesn't say to qualify our prayers and it also suggests that even before the prayer is answered we are thanking God! Praying in faith and thanking God in advance for 1. Bringing this into our life and 2. How He is going to work it for our good and His glory!

I heard Jack Trieber says today that 22,000 children die EVERY DAY because of starvation and yet we complain about the food we have abounding in our life. I'll tell you this, if we don't point people to Christ and teach them to be thankful then we are going to lose what God is providing. We need to be thanking God every day and abounding in that thanksgiving! Let's learn from our history . . . don't forget to give God thanks and result in Civil War. We need to remember to give thanks and WHO or Whom to give thanks to and that is God! Also don't get sidetracked by the fact that we are forgetting thanksgiving for Black Friday Shopping. Point people to Christ and actively seek to win souls to Christ. IF we teach them the Bible, they will learn the importance of being thankful and a lot of things that are wrong in our nation will be made right!

The Ministry is truly bitterSWEET . . .

I heard a preacher in Toledo, OH tell me two things that have always stuck with me. Pastor Rick Sowell from Hope Baptist Church said once that "the ministry is truly bitter sweet. Thankfully the sweet far outweighs the bitter!" He also said, "Being in the ministry is like juggling pineapples, whether you do it right or whether you make mistakes it still hurts." It's funny the things people say that seem to be emblazen on your mind for years to come. He is right you know. Juggling pineapples, while it may be fun and neat looking, does occasionally hurt. The ministry is also bitter - people are mean, they are hateful, they try to destroy what you are spending your life to accomplish, they reject you and the truth you are offering them, they backbite all the while to your face saying how great you are, they don't do what you want them to do, they don't get saved when you want them to, they don't grow as quick as you want them to, they try to purposefully hurt you, but you know, the ministry is also SO SWEET! People do get saved and boy is that exciting when they do! They do grow and make right choices, and whole families are changed because one person make a right decision! They become more like Christ, they accept the truth God laid on your heart and heed the warnings from the bible. I am thankful the sweet far outweighs the bitter! 

You see God working in miraculous ways. You see him doing amazing things! I am a optimistic kind of person, sure the glass is half empty but honestly aren't you glad there's something in the glass and that glass, isn't it pretty? Aren't you glad you have a glass? I could go on, but you get my point. Being in the ministry is fun! I wouldn't trade it for the world! I wouldn't trade it for nice vacations, a big house, designer clothes for my family! I wouldn't even trade it for those pairs of boots I really want from khols! 

This past week I was presented with a bitter part of the ministry. I won't go into the details because honestly they don't bear repeating but someone did something terrible to our church. Someone did something awful to our people! Someone who had once said they loved our church and had given their life to serve our church is now trying to destroy it. I was sad for my people. I was mad at this wicked person. I was angry that he was allowed to do this! I was indignant that he would treat the bride of Christ this way! I was scared that it might affect our church and cause people to become so discouraged they leave! I was terrified that the whole thing might fall apart. I had a lack of faith and Satan capitalized on that! He caused me to doubt and worry and be even more scared! Then in the midst of all these thoughts raging through my mind God asked me, in a still small voice if I was going to thank God for this horrible man and this wicked act he has done against our church. I was aghast! Me, thank God for THIS man!?! I quickly reminded God how terrible this man was and God reminded me of the verse that says "in everything give thanks". "EVEN FOR THIS?!?" I silently yelled to God. He quietly said Yes. Then God reminded me that I was able to thank him just moments after breaking my foot for breaking my foot even though I did not know how God was going to take care of it! And God reminded me how thankful I was after all was said and done and how He got great glory and I was changed to be more like Him for breaking my foot! I continued to wrestle with God and didn't really want to thank Him for this terribly horrible person and their wicked deed. Then I bowed my head and with tears streaming down my face I prayed and asked God to forgive me for my bad attitude. For not trusting Him. I thanked God for this person and their deed. I knew that when God got the victory I was going to thank God then so I knew I needed to start thanking God now. I was amazed when I felt such peace wash over me. I was shocked that I felt so much better. I knew in my heart that it was going to be ok. I was reminded that God is in control. He created this person, He didn't kill this person before they could commit this terrible act therefore He allowed this to happen and he was going to take care of this! Oh I still pray every day that God will remember this man and his wicked deed, but I don't have hate in my heart toward him. I feel sorry for him. I have peace because I know God is in control and He is always right and He is always good and He is going to do something great! For crying out loud, he has done amazing things in our church lately and He is going to continue to do that! I know that even though this wicked man may think he is in control, he is not. I am reminded that my God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all I ask or can even think! I know that God is going to work something out and I'm not scared. Now because I've thanked him and gotten right with God, I'm not scared anymore, I'm actually excited about what God is going to do and how He is going to work! 

So what are you going through? God is in control. Sometimes we have to know what we know, because what we feel isn't what we know. Know that God is in control. As hard as it is, genuinely thank Him for the problem He allowed in your life. Ask Him to help you and to teach you! Ask Him to keep you close to Him! Ask Him to use this problem to make you more like Him! You will be glad you started out that way, then waiting till it was all done. 

Relaxing . . .

I heard a podcast by some guy, I don't remember who, it was someone from Lancaster Baptist Church and probably was Cary Schmidt but I can't remember. It was a 1 1/2 hour long podcast and I listened to the whole thing and he said a lot of good things, I'm sure, but one thing, actually the only thing that stuck out to me is that no one can make you not take a day off except yourself, no one can make you neglect time with your family except yourself, no one can make you go too much except yourself. He said that even if you work for a pastor who requires you to work everyday that that is your choice. That is very true. He went on to say there is nothing spiritual in not taking a break. Think about it, even Jesus took a break, going out from the people into the wilderness and then coming back to the people. We have had a great month at Jackson Park Baptist Church, truly a harvest month in October! 20 people have gotten saved and several of them have gotten baptized and several of them are getting discipled! That is amazing! That is wonderful! But just as much as I need to take a break, the people need me to take a break! I wrote a post earlier about the amount of time I spend at church, photography, homeschooling, etc. But at the end of the day, I say to myself "She hath done what she could". I do what I can with what I have, but everyone needs a break. Don't get so spiritual that you won't take the time you need to relax, recharge, reenergize. If not for yourself, then for the precious people you have an opportunity to serve! Take some time for yourself. Get a hobby that enriches you as a person. Do something that is for just you! Take a walk or a run in God's creation, learn to sew, cook a new recipe, learn a new skill, listen to a new cd, get a massage, hair cut, nails done, etc. All of these things are good things. Now's the part where I'm to tell you not to go overboard. Things done in moderation, but you realize we usually say that about fun things, but rarely about work, serving in the church, etc. Have we forgotten that God ordained our walk with Him first, our relationship with our family second, our responsibility to our country third and our relationship/responsibility with our church last! Don't use this as an excuse to miss a regular service, but we need to maintain a balance in our life. This is going to help us a person trying to help other people. Balance is a tricky word. I heard a message that it is not balance but faith in God. When you think of the word balance in the idea of a tight rope walker you get the true picture of balance. A tightrope walker is constantly making adjustments as should we. This is not something that one schedule will fix. This is not something that one seminar is going to correct. This is daily living our lives asking God to lead us and sometimes, and as he did to Elijah after the victory on Mount Carmel he directs us to rest and that is NOT a bad thing! Even God rested on the 7th day! Hmmmmm . . . I think that tells us something about the importance of resting. Here God did this awesome, amazing, wonderful thing in creating the world and the last act of that was to rest?! I know that for about 3 weeks I was sleeping about 2 to 4 hours a night. The rest of the time my mind was racing so fast I couldn't slow down enough to sleep. Finally I crashed, over a period of 3 days it was a slow steady crash. After that I was able to get so much done. My body finally told my brain, "Fine, you're going to be stupid, we're not going to die with you." I have found the key to being able to sleep at night is to sleep at night! That may seem a little too simple but it is the truth. When I get 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night, I'm able to go to sleep the next night! Late nights and early mornings or late nights and late mornings don't get me the rest I need. Take care of your body. It is the temple of God! It was given to you by God to bring glory and pleasure to God but if it is in ill repair how much do you think you are going to be able to accomplish for Him? Every once in awhile it is ok to relax, take a day, half a day, and do something fun or nothing at all. Relax it'll be ok if you do!

Labels

I was with a dear lady in our church at our local hospital. They are always displaying art. Right now you see art displayed that represents different cultures. There is a piece of art for China, for India, for ASL, for Japan, and for many other different countries. Then there is a piece to represent the many different types of religion in our great city of Muncie! It represents, Christian, Muslims, Wicca, Jews, about 30 different religions. Then there is a piece of art with a great big rainbow balloon on it. Of course you know what that represents, LGBTIQ. That stands for Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersexual (whatever that means), and finally Queer and Questioning. For a country that wants equality and tolerance we sure have a lot of labels. What happened to just being people? I know we have different cultures but can we really call our "sexuality" a culture? Maybe I'm being too simple. People are people. People are sinners. Thankfully we had one Jesus who died for all of us, no matter our skin color, sexuality, how we pick our nose, what kind of food we eat, etc. You get the point, let's stop labeling people and just see them as God sees them, sinners in need of a Savior! We need to be telling people of this Jesus, no matter their culture, religion or sexuality. One thing that stuck with me from college all these years later is that we cannot tell the wrong person! Who have you told lately? Who can you tell? Write their name down and pray everyday that God will prepare their heart for the truth you want to share with them. Think about all the times we tell people things on purpose. Purpose to tell someone about Jesus today or this week! Pray about it and don't back down or get scared! You can do this! God will help you! Use a simple easy to remember plan of salvation. Make it your own, but keep it true. I use one taught in college with a few things picked up along the way. I no longer ask if they would like to know for sure if they died that they can go to heaven, because that is based on experience and who am I to tell you have or have not experienced something. I ask, "Has anyone ever taken God's word and shown you what it says about salvation?" I just introduced the bible as the authority, not my experience or theirs. Then I take them and show them God's word. I start with John 3:16 and show them how much God loves them. Then I take them Roman 3:23 and show them that there is a problem. We are all sinners and have come short of God's standard of holiness and glory. Then I take them to Romans 6:23 and show them that because of our sin, it has to be paid for with death. I tell them that we can pay for our sins . . . by dying and going to hell for eternity! I tell them that when I was younger I didn't want to pay that price. I tell them that I knew Romans 5:8 that God had died for my sins, but I had never accepted that free gift of salvation and a lady took me to Romans 10:9, 10, 13 and show me that if I prayed and accepted that gift of salvation God would save me! I bowed my head and asked Jesus to forgive me of my sin and accepted that I needed a Savior and asked Him to save me and boy did he! Now I have a new label, yeah I'm still a sinner, but I'm a sinner saved by grace! I think that's the best kind of label we can offer to anyone! This is so good we need to be telling people!!! Go offer some labels today! The kind that change lives for eternity!

Repercussions of Open House

One month to the date I'm writing again. I have know I need to write and then seeing that I only have 39 posts but over a 1,000 views, I realized I need to write more often but how do you write when you are so busy! God opened the windows of heaven and poured out a blessing!!!!! When Satan is working and you can see him working I am always encouraged. I know that's crazy sounding. When I was younger I read the book, by John Bunyan, Pilgrims Progress. I didn't understand the book at all the first 3 times I read it. Once in school and twice in college. It wasn't till I was in the ministry and read it a 4th and 5th time did I start to see people in the book for people in real life and then I was able to understand the book. I think it is worth reading and working to understand! I highly recommend the book for any christian but especially those preparing for or in the ministry. One of my favorite parts of the book was when they brought Christian into the house with the daughters. They showed him a fireplace. On one side of the fireplace was a fiend who was constantly pouring water on the fire but for some reason the fire wouldn't go out. Christian asked how these things could be so one of the daughters took him around to the other side and showed him another person. He was pouring oil on the fire. That word picture has always stood out in my mind and when the Devil seems to be working and sometimes seemingly winning, God is ALWAYS working! And God is always winning!

The day before Open House, I was preparing bread for the morning. I went and picked up a bowl and as I was trying to help a baby christian through a phone call, I told her that God was going to do something great because Satan was working so hard and Satan usually knows when the Lord is working so he starts working overtime to try and break our spirits, make us weary, and want to quit. As I was lifting this glass bowl down, and as I said those words, this bowl that was not around heat or anything sharp exploded in my hand. I had glass shards in my hair, on my clothes, everywhere! I had glass all over the counters, floor, stoves, etc.!

Sunday came, there was an excitement that had not been there before. We had several visitors. We had 30 Subway cards for every adult visitor. Through the course of the day we gave out 29. That doesn't include the children and teens. In the morning we saw a man and his cousin get saved. Oh, on my birthday I was able to lead a precious lady to the Lord! Best birthday gift EVER!!!! In the morning service I think we saw 3 people get saved. In the evening service we had just as many visitors! Two young men from our church had gotten saved the weeks previous and were getting baptized! They had brought a whole slew of people! It was great! We had one teen girl and a adult man get saved in the evening service!!!! That teen girl and her family kept coming, as did the man and his lovely wife! Through the last few weeks the entire family has come to know Jesus as their Savior and all of them are getting baptized this Sunday! One young man has brought another friend to church and he has gotten saved! The family is bringing people with them! The lady I had the privilege of leading to the Lord on my birthday was able to bring her boyfriend in and he got saved! It is very exciting! God is doing great things! I'm careful to remember to praise God during and for hard times, but I'm telling you what, this is a lot easier and so much more fun!

Since then Satan has fought. He has fought with people in the church. He has made misunderstandings turn from something innocent to something huge and out of proportion but he's angry. He knows he lost and he's not handling that very well! But despite his best efforts, God is ALWAYS working! And God is always winning! And I'm more excited for the future than ever before!

Getting Ready for Open House

So, our church's Open House is this Sunday! I have seen Satan really fighting, mostly with misunderstandings but I have also seen God working. I have read the book Pilgrims Progress 7 times. It wasn't till I was a youth pastors wife in Grand Rapids that I actually understood Dear Bro. John and his archaic writing. It was in the ministry reading it for the 5th time that I started to see, Hopeful, and Mr. talkative, etc. on of my favorite stories that has always stuck with me is the story when Christian goes into that house that teaches him different things with all the girls who lived their with their father. On of the girls takes Christian into a room with a fire place. He is shown this fireplace with the Devil pouring water on the fire, but the fire never seems to go out. Christian asks how this is happening so the girl takes Christian to the other side of the fire and there is the Holy Spirit pouring oil on the same fire. She explained that sometimes it may look like the Devil is winning the fight, but God is always working and winning! So as we approach Open House and as things sometimes get frustrating it is great to remember that God is working. We have seen several young people get saved in the last few weeks, discipleship is going really well! We have three people getting baptized Sunday night! It is just really exciting what God is doing! I'm more excited this year about Open House than I was last year!

Things that are different are not the same....

I recently read a poem by Shel Silverstein, I would like to share it with you here:

No Difference

Small a a peanut,
Big as a giant,
We're all the same size
When we turn off the light.

Rich as a sultan,
Poor as a mite,
We're worth all the same
When we turn off the light,

Red, black or orange,
Yellow or white,
We all look the same
When we turn off the light.

So, maybe the way
To make everything right
Is for God to just reach out
And turn off the light!

I don't consider myself one to the devil in the details, but . . . There are a few problems with this poem.

1. God is light, he is in the business of illuminating. He and his word show is how bad we are: "all our righteousness is as filthy rags..." But God and his word also show us how much we are worth: "For God so loved the world..." "I know the thoughts I think toward you saith The Lord, thoughts of peace..to give you an expected end..." "Are you not worth much more than many sparrows...." (I think I paraphrased that last one really badly!) to ask God to do something completely against who he is is ridiculous. God is light and then you ask Him to turn off the light so you can feel better about yourself. What's also really wrong with this is, these poems are what most of our children are learning and memorizing in government schools!

2. The next thing wrong with this poem is that things that are different are not the same. Just because you turn off the light doesn't make them the same. People want to go around blinding themselves to the truth. They walk around thinking if they ignore he problem it will somehow get better or go away. This very rarely happens.  If you are poor, not able to pay the bills, turning off the light is not going to make you the money you need. If we turn off the light it won't change if you are ugly, (although a good set of Mary Kay makeup might help!) turning off the light won't change your skin color, it won't make everything right, actually it might make things worse. Darkness is scary. Darkness brings with it all kinds of creepy sounds. Darkness makes you internalize and not be able to process things as well. Darkness makes the scarier more scary. Also the bible says men love darkness rather than light because their works are evil. Food, Christian, activities don't usually happen after night. People don't build houses in the dark, we don't do charitable acts after dark, typically. The bible also tells of the strange woman who comes out at tight light, as it was getting dark. Turning off the lights makes things bad.

As I read this poem I was sad for our young people. They are in government schools learning this and now you see grown people have problems so they walk in their houses, turn off the lights, curl up in bed and go into depression, they turn off the lights and hope everything will just go awa, but it doesn't. We need to deal with our problems. Actually God says, we need to cast, fling, chuck, our cares upon God. God wants to help us fix our problems and ourself. He wants to be there for us. He doesn't want us to turn off the lights, he wants us to go to his illuminating word and seek his face, trust his word and his way and our life will be so much better than we could ever imagine!

Disciplining 101

So I grew up in a family where honestly my mom was the disciplinarian. Dad did discipline us, but more than likely it was Mom who was gonna give it to us! One time I had smarted off to my Mom and she was too angry to spank me. She told my dad to, "take that child back in the room and spank her!"  I knew it was coming but I have a secret weapon, Big Brown Eyes. These beauties started in the minute we got in the room. They welled up with tears and blinked widely as just the right heart tugging moments. I expressed my sorrow at having smarted off to my dear sweet mother. My father bought it, but he also knew my mom would be irate if he didn't spank me. So he told me to cry loudly and he would spank the bed. I walked out of the room holding my daddy's hand my mother in her rage looked from sniffling child to man and back again and asked, "You didn't sank her?!" It was really more of a statement than a question and my dad just kinda grunted. We both knew we had been caught. To which I responded to my mom, "HA!"  We had a rule in the house that even though my mom might have been the disciplinarian, mom never went against him, at least not in front of the children. But my mom looked me dead in the eye and said, "Young lady, next time you need a spanking, I will never ask your dad again!"

Now I'm a parent. My husband also grew up in a home where corporal punishment was instated. But that's not why we spank our children. We spank them because the bible tells us that if we don't we literally hate our children. I am always amazed that after I get done spanking, the joy that returns to my children. Just now, I told my children to go clean their rooms. They were fighting and it was time. So we went into the room and took care of business. For the sake of some who might now know how to discipline I would like to share with you our most recent experience.

1. We talked about the offense. The child (which shall remain unnamed) was asked if what he/she had done was wrong. They admitted their guilt. They don't always admit their guilt at that point as their parent and as a picture of Christ to my child I have to tell them that whether they choose to see it as wrong or not it is still wrong.

2. Then the punishment is set, usually according to age, i.e. six years old gets six swats. They are controlled, even swats. If the child kicks, squirms, screams, etc, the spanking is stopped and we start over. At this point it really is up to the child how many swats they will receive.

3. After we get through the spanking the child is sat up and we ask them what they are supposed to say. We have trained them to say they are sorry, and not just sorry but what exactly they are sorry for, i.e. I'm sorry I hit my brother. Then they say to the one offended, if it was other than the parent I am sorry.

4. If there is a hint of a bad attitude they get another spanking, usually only three swats. Then they are up again and asked if they are going to change their attitude. If the answer is no, and sometimes it has been that, or the answer is I don't know, they get three more swats. We do this because there are three parts to obedience: right away, all the way and with. A good attitude! If even one part is missing, it was not obedience.

NOTE: the swats actually have to hurt, this little light pat thing doesn't cut it and doesn't change attitudes.

After this I am always amazed at the sweet spirit that permeates from the child. I am amazed and humbled when they willingly run up to me and hug or kiss me and for no reason at all and say I love you mom. It makes me think, when a God spanks me, do I make him keep going? Do I have a sweet spirit afterwards that brings such peace and joy? I hope I can be more like my children in this. I sometimes will put off dealing with my children becaus ei think, oh this is going to take forever. Just now, it took a little less than 5 minutes for two and there is sweet tones and joy returning as they sweetly clean their rooms.

Another thing I have noticed is that if I do put it off I end up yelling. I have to apologize afterwards because the look on my children's face when I yell at them is one of horror and then hate for me. It breaks me up inside. When we calmly spank, it is a world of difference. Honestly I wouldn't have set it up this way if I wrote the bible. I would have set up time out or something of a penance program, but God reminds us that Hos ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. I may not fully understand it, and maybe Even a little part of me disagrees with it (if I were to be truly honest), but this one thing I know, it works. When done right, with love from the parent to the child. I hate spanking my children, this why I will try other things first but that never ends the way I desire and doesn't being peace to our home. I will sometimes, with a tear in my eye look at my children and say, I love you, and I love God. I have to obey God and he tells me I have to spank you.

Good music vs. Godly music

We have started the Patch the Pirate club at our church. God gave me a passion for this and I didn't really know why because honestly I was trying to faze myself out of the children's ministry and more into the ladies' ministry. We had several wonderful people step up to the plate and pay the $30 for each child. I was amazed and then scared. Now it's real. Now I have a responsibility. I am captain and pianist. I'd really like to have a consistent co-captain and am praying God provides one. There were some bumps in the road, there was a little opposition to the price per child, but after last night, it was all worth it! I was praying for 15 children, God gave us 16!

I have been wondering if this program is the best, quite honestly it's not as fun as other programs. It has two main objectives, getting kids reading their bible every day and learning to minister to their church once a month through song and skits and memory verses. When my kids came home after church Wednesday and asked if we could read the bible to them I knew we had made the right choice. As the leader I have been singing the songs a lot. I knew that if we can get these kids singing in their homes that I might never know how great the results are this side of heaven! The kids were excited! For which I am thankful!

Godly music. That is something that is lacking in our homes. We listen to the oldies, boy bands, and often so much worse. I hope it goes without saying that country music and any kind of rock n roll is wrong, sinful, and very harmful to us but unfortunately I know it doesn'tgo without saying, so let me say it! Country music is sinful, there is nothing, pure, of good report, lovely, just, or honest in country music. We live in a world where we are bombarded with sadness and problems, tv used to be about making people laugh, now it's about drama and death and despair! Music used to be about happiness and love and good things, now it is about anger and broken hearts and lust. Country music falls in that category. Then there's rock, rap, pop, etc. that is its own huge demon. Rock n roll is about sex, plain and simple and anyone who says otherwise is deceiving their self. Why then would we take the world's music and try to put godly words to it? That's like saying there are Christian prostitutes,or Christian drugs (oh wait, there is, it's called pharmaceuticals!). It is ridiculous to take something so ungodly and try to wash it up and make it godly! While I'm on this, it's the same for country, why do we try to take country music and put pathetic godly second rate words to it? Isn't God worth more than that? Isn't God more holy than that? Why do we try to bring Him down to our level? Sure it's hard to sometimes want to be like Christ, and living the Holy Spirit filled life sometimes makes us do things we wouldn't normally do or really be comfortable doing, but it is worth it!

I'm excited about the Patch club because I am excited to raise up a generation of children who value good, godly, high quality Christian music. I'm excited to see our children fall in love with God's songs and learn to despise the world's songs. My prayer is that the parents of these dear children will get on board and really support godly Christian music, not just good music and certainly not bad music! I pray their lives will be enriched as they hear these songs from their children. I'm excited to see children in just a few short years growing up to be teenagers that love God, love His music, are involved in church, and telling others about Christ. I'm excited for the future of our great church, Jackson Park Baptist Church!

Week three - why I'm still homeschooling!

I'm about to get real honest here. Do you see the title of this blog, Pondering of a Preachers wife. I almost started another blog called confessions of a reluctant homeschooler but I LOVE being a preachers wife. I love helping ladies spiritually, emotionally, physically. I love being there when there are problems and trying to fix things. I love planning events. I LOVE discipleship. I love seeing baby Christians grow and become more like Christ. I love teaching. I like playing the piano (although someone if someone who is talented with a good Christlike attitude would join our church I would give that up in a heart beat!) my heart is in being a pastors wife. I love it. I love my children as well, but I was looking forward to sending them off to school and being that much more involved in the ministry. But God had other plans for our family. God led my husband down this homeschooling path. Now the work I would have spent in families in our church is being spent in my family. The time I would be teaching ladies is spent in teaching my dear sweet children. The time I would be preparing yummy things to serve to ladies is spent in throwing together a lunch for my cute little ones. And I hate it. I thought my want-to would have been here by this third week but it couldn't be farther away. I despise the extra work. I feel unprepared. I am always behind. (I need a printer here at my house!) my house seems worse than ever. But one thing keeps playing in my mind, my relationship with my children has never been this good. But then I squash that little ray of hope and give ten things that are going wrong instead. I have been very negative lately, (Hey, I told you I was fessing)! I have not really liked myself. Several times I go to my piano to play something to remind myself I'm still good at something and I see three pieces if music I am struggling to learn for church and walk away even more frustrated, stressed, and crunched for my lack of time! It all finally came pouring out of me this past Monday. It was like throwing up poison. It hurt, it stank, it was gross, and my poor husband had to bear it all. I told him I homeschool for only one reason, Love of God and that love spurs me to love and obey my husband. I may not want to homeschool but God has led my husband this direction and if I have learned one thing from counseling ladies it is to Not go against your husband when God is leading. For the past few weeks I have put on this happy exterior and I'm dying inside. I decided I could no longer love this way. I have 37 1/2 weeks to go, this is not a good place to be this early in the game. I started an assignment I've given to several ladies and seen great success with them. I think it is called the Stroke Method. Every day three times a day, you take a 3x5 card. On one side you write something you are thankful for in general, on the other you write something you are thankful for about the situation or person you are unhappy about, i.e. it could be about your job you hate, your spouse or child you don't get along with, etc. I got my 3x5 cards, I think God knew I was gonna need a little help because he provided a clearance gold sparkly one spiral bound set of 3x5 cards. I was really nervous and honestly not really looking forward to writing my first one. But I finally gave in and wrote my general thank you. And my specific about homeschooling thankful. When I get to a hundred I might share them on here. You know, something changed yesterday. It was a glimmer of hope that it might be ok. I finished school, took a nap, pulled out fall/winter clothes and fall decorations, made a wonderful dinner, made chocolate chip cookies, and was calmer than I have been in awhile.

When I broke my foot this past summer I immediately started praising God for breaking my foot. Days when the pain would be great, or my house seemed to fall apart, I was ok because I had spent so much time praising God for the very thing that was bad. I could see God working in my life and knew He had a plan for me. But with the homeschooling I started off asking God why, I had a bad attitude, I was critical, I was angry. I kept hearing my husband pleading with me to not let this get me bitter, and I kept hearing an old college professor, James Zinker asking me if this was what is finally going to be what it takes to make me stop loving and serving God. As I consciously spent time thanking God yesterday, I opened my heart to the possibility that God may have something great through this thing of homeschooling He has asked me to do and I felt peace, calm, and even hope. I had a great relaxing day. I even had time for a lady in our church who is sick. I had time to look at Patch stuff for the start tonight! I watched a Dick van Dyke show and even went out for ice cream! Isn't god so good to be so patient with us? Seriously, I mean he could have struck me dead for my bad attitude and as holy and righteous as He is no one would have thought Him bad for doing it, yet instead, He lovingly, and gently kept working with me. he gently kept calling me to himself reminding me despite my protests that indeed His burden was light and His yoke is easy. He reminded me that He has a plan and if I will only trust Him He is going to do great things in and through me. I don't deserve such a great God and I don't deserve to have a personal relationship with Him, but, boy am I thankful I do! You know, I think that just might be what I put on my thankful card today!

Confessions of a Reluctant Homeschooling Mom Post #1

Most people who find themselves homeschooling their children have a passion for it. They have high ideals. They have weird quirky mannerisms that get them dubbed as "homeschoolERS" as apposed to those who homeschool their children. Yes there is a difference, and there is a very educational video on youtube supporting this idea. I might post it on here one day. But not today. I'm too tired to post it today.

First I want to start off with a few of my credentials (as I LITERALLY tried three times to spell that word right and finally resorted to looking it up!). My CREDENTIALS are as follows. I went to college for 4 years, 4 different colleges, all consecutive years. I eventually got my teaching certificate in early ed (meaning I have been told I know how to teach through k-5, the only problem is I have a 1st grader!) I have taught children in various aspects for years, ever since I was old enough to. I was helping in a class when I was 12 and was very upset when our church started a youth group because that pulled me out of being a helper with children. I know how to tie balloon animals. ( I don't know why that is so impressive, but the people at my church seemed to be slightly impressed at my hidden talent, so I thought I'd list it here.) I have successfully potty trained two children! I take full credit for that (the first only took OVER a year and a trip to Hawaii and the second too about 6 failed attempts, a promise of a new bike, and a little talk about how I really didn't know what I was doing and when he was ready to get potty trained he knew where the bathroom was, but that I was done!) So maybe I don't get very much credit for those. The point is, I am comfortable around children and have been for awhile. I took the spiritual gifts test and scored highest in Administration and then scored a few points below with the same score in both encouragement and teaching. God has given me the gift of teaching. But and if I could make the font bigger it would be a great big BUT, I did NOT want to teach my own children. I did not want to homeschool.

Now, before you think I'm some horrible person or before you go away, hear me out, the name of this blog is Ponderings of a Preacher's Wife. My husband is a pastor. I am . . . . da, Da, da, DA, a PASTOR'S wife! I love being a pastor's wife. I am currently discipling 6 ladies, I run the ladies' ministry at our church, I am blessed to have the best Ladies' Bible Class IN THE WORLD! I HELP, yes only HELP with various children's ministries, but that is not where my passion is anymore. I love helping ladies and their families and I love helping ladies to help their families. I had a goal, this year, both kids were going off to school. Then that school took a turn we didn't quite agree with and whereas it is "OK" this year, it won't be if they continue down the road. The other school was too expensive and here's the real reason, my kids are pastor's kids. Pastor's kids, don't get a break. Saturday and Sunday are their mom and dad's BIGGEST days, (although contrary to popular belief the preacher AND his wife do work A LOT during the week. Wednesday is another BIG day, late night, like 11 pm or later. You know, I can send my kids to school, and then come home and take a nap . . . but they don't have that luxury if they are exhausted after a Wednesday. Throw in the mix we only have one vehicle so if 1 goes usually all 4 go for the entire time! This year I envisioned both children going to school, Me having ladies over for bible studies and serving muffins and coffee in the morning, me starting lots of other ministries, working at the church a couple days a week to do paper work and other things, I did not envision having a desk in our back room made school room surrounded by letters and numbers and art projects. You know, quite honestly it's hard when you have a dream and it gets KILLED, murdered, popped, destroyed.

My husband came to me and to be quite honest pulled the Command Man out and ordered me to homeschool and to like it and to not get bitter. That's a fine thing for him, he doesn't do much cleaning around the house, because he's a command man and I'm ok with that (most of the time). I told you, I'm really fessing here. Now I'm faced with homeschooling about 25 to 30 hours a week, housecleaning about 15 to 20. WOW! Wait on the LOW end we are already up to 40 hours a week, I quit! Then you throw church ministries into it. I play the piano, I teach piano, I have disciples I disciple and I . . .  and you have read some of the rest. I'm a busy pastor's wife. Please don't think I'm tooting my own horn, it's just the truth and I LOVE IT! Church ministries realistically add another 20 to 25 hours a week. Then there's cooking, I like to cook, that's a minimum of 3 hours a day, so because we do eat out once or twice a week, because of our crazy schedule we will say 20 hours a week. On the low end I am not up to 80 hours a week, more like 90 to 95 and when am I supposed to sleep? Actually if you want to know the real truth, I was asking myself "When am I supposed to have time for myself?"

I sat in our backyard about a month ago, give or take a week and I sat with a couple and she wanted to homeschool and he didn't. Here I am trying to advocate for homeschooling, not really wanting to do it myself. I believe homeschooling is a VERY good thing and I believe in CHRISTIAN education. He said No and I finally had to look at her and tell her that she HAD to give in to her husband. She did and he surprisingly said yes to Christian school! Praise the Lord! As I'm telling her this, I was thinking, Yeah and I have to give in to. I have bucked, I have squawked, I have pleaded, I have tried to work out another way and TODAY, I found myself doing what I was dreading. And you know what?! I had a great day. YES, there were struggles and there were tears of frustration but am I glad I did this? I don't know I have another 139 days to go, ask me on my 140th day.

I want to share with you some things we did for school today:

I wrote this message as an afterthought yesterday. 

This is my bulletin board. We will put projects to display up here. 

Pictures of the tops of their desks. 

Of course, Abby has already girlied hers up! 

My desk, typical me, how much can I put on one little desk. 

I am quite pleased with how these turned out. 

Our numbers and their chalk board. 

This car sits on my desk to remind me to not go on empty spiritually, but to fill up at God's pump every day . . . else I WON'T make it through this year! AKA a daily walk with God! 

He was so thrilled to be starting school today, he bounced around and was a general ham, which if you know him, is not usually him, He is generally a quiet serious kind of kid! 

She was thrilled when she found out she could wear flip-flops! 

Bad pic, sorry, the sun. 

She was tired of pictures by this time and wanted to get started! 

Remember my credentials, I was a preschool teacher for years. The fun of doing hands on, large motor activities has never quite left me. We learned the letter I and i today so of course we had to make a track for our cars to race around! He loved it. Of course, in the mood he was in I think I could have done just about anything and as long as I called it school he would have loved it! 

This was "reading group"

Drew was so funny. His was more about quantity than quality. As many papers as he could get done as quickly as he could. He did not care what color the elephant should be and he did not care how it looked, he accomplished it not what could he learn next. 

These next set of pictures were probably my favorite part of the day. Partly because I felt that true, fun learning happened today. We are reading about history and how can we know history, from historians, people who read documents, but what about people who didn't know how to write? We can learn from them by archeology. I painted stones with different things and hid them in the sand. Then the children used paint brushes to gently brush away the stuff so they could see and find the "artifacts" carefully. Then they took their "story stones" and told a story about what might have been with those stories. As I write this blog tonight, they are STILL in here playing with those stones, covering them up, uncovering them and telling a different story using the story stones they have uncovered. 

Being archeologist. 

Drew's discovery. A boy, a tree, a cat, a well (he begged to call a spider), a teepee (it was late when I was making these), a mountain, a chick, a basket. He told a story about a boy who liked to pet his cat, squash spiders, climb trees, and put his chick in a basket because he had to move because his village didn't have enough rain. 

Abby's "discovery". A girl, a horse and cart, rain, sunshine, night sky, rainbow (which she asked if it could be dishes), a pig, and a butterfly. Her story was about a girl, who had a "borrowed brother" from Drew, who liked to wash rainbow dishes. She liked to catch butterflies. She had to take care of the pig with her brother's help. The sun was shining really hard and everything was dying. They ordered the rain to come but it didn't. They went to sleep and the next day the rain still didn't come and they had to move away. 

So school was fun! We are all of us looking forward to tomorrow! I "interviewed" my children today as part of "their history". They both said the same thing they wanted to learn, About God. We have purpose statement for our school: To develop the mind of Christ, in the life of product and well educated students. I have this in the front my Lesson Plan book as a daily reminder of why I am doing what I am doing! 

How God Uses Mistakes

Today, I was reminded about how God uses us and all our mistakes if we allow Him to!  I ordered the last of the books to start homeschool, September 3rd and the card would not work. I was frustrated, upset, aggravated and just plain tired. Honestly, I'm scared of the time I don't have and now I'm using that "time" to ensure my children's education. The credit card wouldn't go through. I checked the error, AVS error, I had used the wrong billing address, I guess it has never been changed. What I didn't realize was I used the wrong card. It went through, though no money was in that account. Thankfully it was one of those fake debit holds that doesn't debit the account until they actually ship the stuff, so no fees for this bozo! But when we checked that account it said we had almost $1,500 that was being spent . . . HUH? No, we don't have that much and no I did not order that much. I kept thinking the AVS error was me putting in the wrong card number. Oops. It was me putting in the wrong billing address, so I kept retyping in the card number . . . 15 times! So I quick called the company, scared and nervous. As I was calling them, in my nervous state, my true heart was revealed. It was not pretty. I said, "This is why we shouldn't be homeschooling I'm too dumb to do this!" No one was around, so I felt pretty good about saying it audibly. A thought crossed my head. A thing a professor asked me in college once that has NEVER left me, "What is it gonna take to stop you from doing God's will?" My husband wants us to homeschool, that is God's will for our lives right now. Was I really gonna let this little thing stop me? Wow! I stopped and asked God to help me and to forgive me. Thankfully I was put on hold during this time. Then a man came on the phone and assured me that everything was going to be ok. Their system debits accounts and takes the money out when it ships but that I only had 1 order shipping, not 15. I figured since I had him on the phone I would ask some questions. I asked him if I had ordered the right stuff because instead of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. they name their stuff Primer, Alpha, Beta. I thought Primer was preschool and Beta was 1st, turns out Beta is 2nd. I had ordered the wrong stuff! He was able to quick change that for me. Now see, If I hadn't made the mistake, I would have gotten the wrong stuff, thought my child was stupid because I was trying to make her do stuff that was beyond her, and I would have really been in a mess, but God had other plans. When going through life and a mess comes up, look to see how God is going to use it for Him and for our good!

What do you do when things don't go as planned?

Wednesday I was excited to be going to the doctor. I was going to getting my final cast off and getting to go home and shave my hairy beast of a leg. I didn't take my shower and wore pants so I wouldn't have to see the hairy beast or have it accidently rub against my other leg. I was going to enjoy my shower and scrub and scrub and shave and shave. Took off the old cast. Took the X-rays. Everything is going as planned when the doctor comes in and says, "It's not healed." WHAT?!

"It's not healed," he repeated. I was sad.  I told him so. I was immediately was faced with a choice I have been faced with several times in the last month and a half. Am I going to praise God and thank Him for it not being healed? You know, that's a really hard thing to do. Because honestly what if it doesn't work out for good? What if I don't get healed? What if I have to have surgery? What if, what if, what if? All these thoughts and more flitted through my head and probably across my face as I sat there digesting the words, "It's not healed."

I then choose to remain calm, and praise The Lord in my heart. The doctor was examining my X-rays during this time and he said turned around and felt the leg promptly making my toes go numb and causing my foot to go paralyzed. He said, "Yeah, it's not healed. Another two weeks in a cast." I sat there trying to muster the words of praise to our gracious Heavenly Father. The doctor left the room for something and I quick called my husband so he could be for-warned when I came out with another cast. I didn't cry, I didn't over-spiritualize. I just told him the facts. That's sometimes hard too, because I am an emotional woman and it is easier to cry than to be factual.

The doctor came back in and had all the cast stuff. I was glad I was wearing pants because of the awkward position you end up being in as he is putting on the cast. I start asking him questions and being happy and just making the most of it. We talked about Charming Charlies and how he would be the coolest dad if he went there with his daughters. We talked about his other practice. We then got on the subject of having babies and how me and my husband were done. We talked about how I loved being involved in the ministry. No, I didn't get paid but I wouldn't trade it for the world! We talked about how my favorite part is discipleship. He had never heard of that so I had the opportunity to share the gospel with him and explain that discipleship is teaching new christians how to live the christian life and how that is not confined to a book. We use a curriculum but we also help that person with their target areas, i.e. teaching a wife to not spend her husband's entire paycheck in one weekend at Walmart and Meijer. He asked me if I was speaking from personal experience and did I spend my husband's entire paycheck like that. I told him I did not. I didn't tell him my husband would make me take everything back if that were the case. I told him that one thing that helped me was when Paul wrote in the New Testament that whether he abounded or whether he was abased, he had learned to be content. I told him if that meant we get pbj 7 times that week or we could afford spaghetti, steak, chicken and all the nice stuff I was going to content and happy.

At this point he stopped what he was doing and reached for my chart and jotted something down. I don't have insurance so all of this has been coming out of pocket. It was originally supposed to be $100 for the office visit, $50 for the x-rays, and $$$$ for the actual work done (fiberglass cast). The first visit as we were talking he found out my husband was a pastor and he said he was not going to charge us for the cast. That visit cost $100 because I didn't have to have x-rays. The last visit was supposed to be $150 but he told the receptionist that it was only $100. This week when I went to go check out, the price was only $50. That was so God because we had about $30 for groceries that week and honestly I had been praying for daily bread and God sent us our doctor to give us the extra we needed!

The doctor also told me that most of the time this break does not heal and requires surgery. He told me that the healing, although slow, was a miracle! I am so thankful I chose to praise the Lord before I knew all the good God was doing. When I got home I could tell my kids were really disappointed. This has been a long journey for them. I sat them down and told them Romans 8:28. I asked them how breaking your foot could be good. I went on to verse 29 and told them that if it made us just a little bit more like Jesus than it was a VERY good thing!

So what do you do when things don't go as planned? Do you pout, do you make things miserable for everyone else? Do you hole up in your room and pretend life doesn't exist? Or do you praise and thank God for the "trouble" He brought into your life? Do you determine with God's help you are going to have a good attitude? Do you decide to serve God and love Him not matter the outcome?

Daily in the Word Discipleship Program

I have had the honor and privilege of doing discipleship with eleven ladies this past year. Two have completed the program and of those two, one is starting discipleship with another! I am currently discipling eight ladies, three of which I  had the joy of leading to the Lord! I love this discipleship program. We are commanded to reach our generation for Christ. My life verse is Psalm 71:17, 18. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come. How are we going to tell everyone that is currently living about Christ? DISCIPLESHIP! In college I was told by a professor that if the current population were to stop dying and being born, and I was given one hour with ever single person to give them the gospel it would take me well over 6,000 years, and that is without sleeping, eating, etc. Only telling people. BUT, if I take just ONE person this year and lead them to the Lord and disciple them and that is ALL I do, I don't play the piano for church, I don't help in Children's Church, I don't plan ladies' activities I ONLY disciple that one person. Then next year, that person and I each lead another person to the Lord and disciple them for an entire year. The next year, us four lead four more to the Lord and disciple them, etc. etc. etc. It would only take us 35 years to reach the ENTIRE world for Christ! HMMMMMM . . . . sounds like a lifetime to me! Sounds like I could possibly reach my world for Christ! I am loving discipleship. I love having a church that loves and helps baby christians and follows the pastor in this! I have created some verse sheets to go along with Striving Together's Daily in the Word discipleship program. The link to their discipleship book is: HERE, Daily in the Word from Striving Together. We got the books, and they gave us an answer sheet. I filled in my blanks and plunged in! I made a lot of mistakes, but God is bigger than my mistakes and it is so exciting to see another lady starting discipleship and helping start this exponential growth process of soulwinning and discipleship!!!! I have created these verse sheets and 8 steps of discipleship sheets to help with the program. These are verse that are given to the disciple to learn. I print these verses on cardstock and cut them out. When it is time to learn the next verse we start on it! I also print out the steps of discipleship to give to them every time we learn a new step! I hope you can find use for them as well.  Click here: DITW verses and steps of discipleship to download the verses and steps of discipleship. I like when the book said that every person ought to have at least one disciple in their life time! Think about it. who comes to your church because of you? And not a family member! If you don't have a name or you only have a few names, what are you going to do about that? Soulwinning and discipleship can help with that! This book can help as well!

A Soul Winning Question . . .

I love to tell people about Jesus. I will admit that I get nervous but for the most part the change God has made in my life is so great. The peace I feel, the joy He gives, the strength I have, the stability God brings into my life, the knowledge that when I die I get to go to the most beautiful place ever created and live with my Savior forever is just amazing! I love it so much I want to tell as many people as I can. I am constantly looking for ways and times to tell people about Jesus. With my cast I get talked to a lot about it and I always try to say how good God has been and if possible bring the conversation over to salvation. This past week has been our Vacation Bible School. We had a young man who used to ride the buses of our church, Jackson Park Baptist. He brought his girlfriend with him. She was not saved. She was from the Seventh Day Adventist church. I prayed for her all last week to get saved. On friday God burdened me with her and I prayed all day and enlisted several others to help me pray for her. I told my husband I was going to talk to her. I was scared.
The night before on Thursday we had gone with another pastor and his family for icecream. We were talking about soul winning and how Bro. Gomaz told him to stop asking, "If you were to die today do you know where you would spend eternity?" and stop asking, "Do you know for sure you are saved?" These questions lead to debates. He told this young preacher to ask, "Has anyone ever shown you from the bible how to be saved?" "Has anyone ever shown you what the Bible says about salvation?" When I heard those words, I knew God had given me what I was to say to her.
I asked her and she said no. I asked her if I could show her and she said yes . . . and she got saved! I was also able to use this for the lady at the check out at Wal-mart! I used it for another lady who came to VBS. This is a powerful question! Think about it, Catholics have never had someone sit down with them and show them from God's words what God's word says about salvation! Most religions don't have that. They teach from a corporate level, not the one on one. And if they do have the one on one it probably isn't specifically about salvation, it might be to help them with a life lesson, or indoctrinate them about their belief system but not what the Bible says about salvation.
When I approached salvation like this it took the hurriedness out of the equation. At that point we were going to search the scriptures and not give a formula. We took our time, she read, I read and then I explained the scripture. I would even ask her after she read a verse out loud what the verse might mean. It was powerful, natural, and the best way I've ever led someone to the Lord! She had questions and we were already agreeing around the bible so I was able to show her what the bible said about her questions. She had concerns and I was able to refer back to the bible.
I want to challenge you to try this. Go and ask someone you know is not saved and ask them, "Has anyone ever shown you from God's word what it says about salvation?" If they say no, ask them if you can show them. If they say yes, ask them about that experience. Either way, you are going to have a chance to witness to them!

Time to Blog . . .

So I have time to blog now! That's just hilarious. Because a couple of weeks ago I had said, even though I wasn't blogging I was still going to keep this blog just because I love the name so much and one day when the "holey room" at church gets fixed and becomes my office (It might just keep the name holey room but drop an e!) I was going to continue to blog once a week or possibly more, depending on how many days a week I was in the office! Now, I have time! I just have to keep my computer charged!

Today I want to write about my awesome church family! The GREAT Jackson Park Baptist Church! I'm telling you what, we have a GREAT church family! When ever a person or a church goes through a trial what is really on the inside comes out. I have tried to my best, but honestly it has been God helping me to go through this foot breaking time right. One thing that motivates me to have the right attitude (at least for today) is that it is already going to be hard enough and I really don't need to complicate it with a bad attitude! The other thing that constrains me is the love of God for me and I realize that people are watching and because of that I have the chance to point others to Christ and I don't want to misuse that great opportunity I have been given! Our church has rallied around us and showered us with their love of God!

They are sending people to help clean. They are sending meals every day, even though I only asked for 2 days a week! They are organizing and helping. They have taken my name off of everything I am supposed to be doing and putting their name in its place! I have an amazing church family! I am still overwhelmed with the love of God in their life and their willingness to show it! They are a wonderful people! If you live in the Muncie/Anderson area you should seriously consider coming to Jackson Park Baptist Church located at 3611 S. Post Rd. Muncie, IN 47302!!!! I am so thankful for what God is doing! If it took breaking a foot to see the depth of character in the lives of these dear people, then it is worth it!

Enjoying the ride?

Yes, I did steal that title from a dear lady, Alicia Reagan. She was paralyzed several years ago. God has not only taught her so much, but He has also used her so much. She is my inspiration for this title. On friday I woke up like any other morning. My family was here and I had been running non stop. I had been so busy the whole time and actually had been less busy the week they were here than the week before. Too busy, now that I look back. I was also finding purpose in my busyness for Christ. But we will get to that. SO I took my daughter to school, practiced with her class, called my brother and came home. I made breakfast with my brother. I was so exhausted after the last three weeks that I went and laid down at 11 am for a nap. At one I woke up refreshed and ready to paint some nails but I didn't have a white or black polish with the long skinny brush that can make a the designs and my sister told me I could get some at Dollar Tree so a trip it was. My cute little dog, Katie was in my arms but we were using a rental car and I didn't want to disobey any rules and lose my brother's deposit so I took her back in. As I came down my steps I found unsure ground in a rock and I fell. I heard a loud pop. I just lay there hoping the pain would subside but it didn't. I then stood and was determined to get nail polish. The whole time I was thinking, I know I just broke my foot, but then a second thought, entered my head. If I have to wear a cast I REALLY have to go get the polish first because I don't want ugly toes poking out of my cast. (Yes, I realize how ridiculous that is, but if you are a woman reading this, you have probably had moments like that and if you are a man reading this, well, . . . I don't know what to tell you. My husband is fond of saying the Bible tells you to dwell with us according to all knowledge but even God didn't know what that knowledge was!) So on the way the pain became unbearable, and I've even had two babies without so much as a tylenol!!! Got to the Med Express. They rushed me in, it probably had something to do with the crying. They x-rayed the foot. The doctor came into my room with cast stuff and God helped me to hold back tears. I asked her if it was possible surgery. She said probably but it was up to orthopedic. I don't have insurance so that scares me. The whole while we were talking I noticed her accent and asked her where she was from. She was from Krakow, Poland and actually grew up on the same street my husband lived! When he came in they were able to talk in Polish. I was supposed to play for my daughter's graduation and I asked if I could still play but could she tell him I couldn't wash dishes! She laughed and said sure. When she told him that in Polish, he understood everything else except that! Lol! Needless to say, I didn't play, but I also haven't washed dishes! As I was checking out, I fell. The cast they put on was dripping wet and I slipped. Yes, Only me! They re x-rayed me. God gave me a wonderful opportunity. By this time I was getting used to the pain. He opened up the door for me to witness to the x-ray technician! She is already a christian but out of church! I was able to get her e-mail and am hoping to e-mail her this coming week. She knows she needs to be in church and was willing to come and visit us! How cool is that! You know, if that is the ONLY thing God lets happen as a result of this that's good! But I know that's not all that I'm going to learn and all I'm going to be able to see happen. I have already noticed that going in a wheelchair through stores people stare at you and then because they stare at you, they smile sheepishly when they notice you staring. I smile back and I am hoping to use this as an opportunity to witness! I am going to be meeting several doctors and nurses along the way and I am hoping to witness to them as well! I know God is going to provide. I have already seen Him do it! While at the urgent care my brother took out his card and paid for the doctor visit. I will have to pay for the cast - $200 bucks for a bit of foam and ace bandage! But I know that God is in control and has already provided a solution and I am excited to see how He is going to work! Until then I'll be enjoying my "short" ride!