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!