Thanks Dad!

Today I gave grace and mercy. Grace, being giving something that somebody didn't deserve. And mercy, being that certain somebody not getting what they DID deserve (a whippin'). Grace and Mercy. Big words. Even bigger in family relationships. Where would I be if I hadn't received the same undeserved loving kindness and pardons for all my shortcomings growing up in my families' home? Sure, we were rough and tumble. Lots of messes (and headaches for the adults, I'm sure). Never a dull moment raising a family! There is not much new under the sun. It still looks and feels pretty much the same as it did 30 years ago, when I was the 6 year old! Somehow, by an act of divine mercy and amazing grace, I am thrilled to be in this bit of time to love on my children and plant seeds of hope and big 'God-sized' dreams in their hearts! He created each one of us for this amazing purpose. And, God has continued to pour out his Grace and Mercy over this generation, and it's seeping into the next, praise God!
What are we doing right? Its gotta always be about Jesus! It is the Christ who holds us all together and gives us joy through our pains and hurts and worries. He give us help. He has given us each other! What a beautiful thing we have! A Family! And this is where authenticity takes off her overcoat and sits down to chat with us about the REAL DEAL. Its all about His grace! Sanctification, growing spiritually, Loving the body of Christ, pouring forth grace and mercy, and being glorified, looking forward to being competed and fully understanding the blessings of grace and mercy.
So many years ago when I was a little girl, I know that I would go about my business and feel that it was all important; I was self-focused and lost in the la-la land of finding the best guy to date in High School. Oh, and wasn't that the blessed roller coaster ride of a relationship? Awesome while it lasted, then done. And gone. No more relationship. Just pain. And I came Home to heal. Home to get help. Home to re-vamp, re-structure, re-plan, re-new. Home to be shown grace and given mercy. God uses people to give us His good stuff! Amazing God. (and Amazing Dad and Mom!!)

And then off to private Christian college, giving it one more try (Grace, mercy). Somehow I knew I could do it. I could overcome my grief and depression and come out with a passion and a purpose..........to share in the grace-giving and mercy-giving party of people who are bringing life to the world!!! I am here because many were praying for me. Family. Old friends. New friends. Concerned dorm leaders. Student ministry encouragement, God's grace and mercy. So now I look back and I am thankful. I am thankful for it all! Isn't that what it's supposed to be? "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will in Christ Jesus?"

There were many times when I needed to step back (in defeat, hurting, sad) and turn again to Jesus, to renew me and show me what His grace looks like in the real parameters of my life! And, you have been watching, Dad. I know you have seen it. You have had centerstage tickets, and some back-stage passes too, to see the real work of the Holy Spirit doing His transformation on my heart. I don't suppose it would be easy to let a young woman pass through the fire; no, I assume it takes amazing restraint and courage and trust, in order to wait for God's responses to her behavior and get in line with the Big Guy to know how to react, respond and relate in this relationship. I understand your Daddy role a little more every year. As I am now a mommy and I know what my life is like, I observe what it would have been like for you and I am empathetic! Raising a family is hard work. It means grace and mercy day in and day out. If it doesn't kill us first, it will sanctify us.
So, here's my clever thank you, an ode to fathers day, may you be blessed as you look this way!
Daddy said I am a princess
so I must stand pretty and tall
Daddy told me to read the good books
so I know this world and its people
Daddy told me to participate in church, youth group and young life
now I have many ministries of my own
Daddy prays for me and is still always looking for ways to bless our family (mercy).
Dad worked hard and was a wonderful example of how we ought to do our duties.
He also knew when it was down time and relaxed to the hilt!
He showed us some of the world, face to face, and put as many opportunities in front of us as we could take! Looking back, I don't think we did a lot wrong. It was just the road that we have all been on! It is strikingly fast-paced, and bombarded by other people's needs floating over into our pile of to-do lists. The daily grind, you called it. Good word for it. Just something you gotta do. Every day.
Oh, how I wanna embrace it. cherish it. savor it and eat it up! This day, today, is quickly coming upon tomorrow, and we can never get a minute back. We need to follow our fathers before us and get up and get the job done! We need to be on our mission of grace and mercy, pointing each downtrodden one to the cross.

Thank you for teaching me how to walk with Jesus. Thank you for helping me grow. Thank you for supporting and encouraging my dreams. Thank you for helping me when you can. Thank you for your kind words, and for taking pride in the work I do for the Lord. Taking pride in Jesus, thankful (and relieved, I'm sure) that He is working in me!
I can only hope as much. To have my child love me and praise me at the city gates, when I am older and have more time to sit at the city gates (hehehe), I would be beaming to hear my children rise and call me blessed. Maybe someday.
But today it's my turn! If there were a ribbon or a pin or even a trophy, I would give you bunches! Your unconditional love has been the foundation in my life that God has used to raise me up, change me, help me, make me new, and then use me for His kingdom purposes! For this, I am eternally grateful! Thanks for all of your hard work, grace, and mercy! I love you Dad! Happy Fathers Day!

Priorities

I found a cute work book called "A Mother's Manual for Summer Survival," by Kathy Peel and Joy Mahaffey. I am excited to use some of their ideas for planning our summer days. There are great monthly/weekly and daily organizers. My favorite is a planning sheet for 'summertime developmental objectives.' I will fill in objectives and a game plan for growth in 4 areas: intellectual, physical, spiritual and social-emotional.
I am also planning on making our own daily summer accountability record. I want to pick a few habits that we hope to establish as essentials to daily life. I am thinking of making it simple, so that it could stick! For example: devotional time, chores, reading. The summer is full of fun opportunities and possibilities, but I don't want to take advantage of all the great stuff to the detriment of the 'greater.'
Priorities. I guess they don't take a break in summertime!

Bowling Today

Where is your devotion?

Life comes at us fast. We make choices every day that reveal our heart's first love. How are we spending our time? What are we spending our money to buy? Who are we spending time with? Where are we going? What are we thinking about? What do we worry about?
All of those things are an indication of the object of our devotion. Are we living each day in a posture of devotion to God? Are we processing the events of our lives through the lens of God's word? Are we thinking of Him each day, as we plan our schedule and start checking off our to-do lists? Have we checked in with God and asked HIm what is on His agenda for us to do today?
And what is most important in our lives today? Are we keeping the main thing the main thing? So often we do get preoccupied with important things to the detriment of the most important thing!
For example, I relate this to our homeschooling adventure. I am striving to have a God-focused agenda for our school days. I am praying to see all of my kids love God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength. And to love others as they love themselves. And to become fishers of men. And to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with their God. To be a good friend. To help those who are hurting. To give to the poor. To serve the body of Christ. To reach out into the world and make a difference for the next generation in every land! These are lofty goals. And, I believe, godly goals. And along the way, as I teach them to follow Jesus, I hope they will learn to read, write and work math problems. I hope they will embrace all that we read of history as HIS story. I hope they capture the perspective of the Creator as we study all that He has made. And I hope they will appreciate all of the gifts that God has bestowed upon man as we appreciate art and music.
So often, the important things (learning to read) can drown out the more important things (learning to love). My desire is to see the atmosphere of our home, the routines of our daily life, and the relationships we have with one another, all come together to culminate in people who are truly Christ-followers.
Our worldly culture tells us otherwise. Weekly I have to drown out the opinions of the majority in order to hear the God who is near. He whispers the reminder, softly, gently, and with love: "Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you as well." And so I rest.

the Good News

Ok, so I realize this might not be real news to many of us. But it has been revealed to me slowly after many years of relationships and people-watching, analyzing, processing their 'stuff.' Nobody has it all together. No one has the perfect life. The perfect spouse, parents, siblings, children, in-laws. They don't have the perfect neighborhood (no matter how fun, and friendly and wonderful it looks; nope, it's not perfect.) They don't have the perfect relationships. Mommy and Daddy are not really Barbie and Ken in real life. They are mostly more like Fred and Wilma or Lucy and Ricky. But not edited for family television. Most people have interactions in their home that they would like to rewind every day! Don't you? I do. For sure. Take back that look. Change that tone of voice. Not say more than needed to be said. Not to have yelled, threatened, freaked out crazy-mom style........Yes, many opportunities present themselves daily in which we show our true colors. What we are really like when the Pastor isn't over for dinner or the church friends aren't watching you 'discipline' your unruly children........Many opportunities to fall into sin and selfishness in our relationship with our spouse. Forgetting that we are called to put the other first. Forgetting we are commanded to love in relationship like Christ loves the Church! Forgetting that God ordained this marriage and we are HIS chosen vessels that He wants to use to accomplish His purposes on this earth! That's big stuff! But that's the good stuff! The bad news is, nobody is perfect. The good news is..............(drumroll please~~~~~~~~~~) WE HAVE A SAVIOR! We know a guy who can change everything. He can change us into the people he has planned for us to be. Don't get me wrong, we still might not look or act or think perfectly, but we will be in the process of becoming the kind of person that God wants us to be! We can seek to honor God in all of the interactions throughout our wildly busy days. Waking up. Getting up. That can even be hard for some of us! Taking care of our loved ones. Loving them well. For this, we must get down on our knees and ask for that supernatural infusion of holy grace-love-kindness good-stuff that will enable us to 'spill' love, hope, peace, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, when life tips us forward and back or we get bumped real hard. What oozes out of you when Life hits you hard? It's good to know we have a friend that will always be there for us. He never leaves. He is always fateful. He loves us enough to inspire our hearts to WANT to change. To WANT to be holy. To WANT to be kind in the face of meanness, to WANT to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, take the worst spot or get to go last. He changes us when we stop looking at one another (and how perfectly perfect every piece of their life SEEMS to be) and LOOK TO JESUS for the picture of what perfect is! He is the goal. He is the prize. Why we live, laugh, love, work, play, learn, move, grow. He is all we need and he is all the inspiration we need to stop comparing ourselves and our lives to others and to commit to building up others in the body of Christ and loving them in their 'imperfections,' and also to keep hitting the ground with our knees, asking Jesus to change us, make us new, make us like Him so that we can do this LIFE His way! Because in the end, it's what HE thinks of our lives that matters!

The Real Deal

What does authenticity look like in our day and age?
What does it look like to live in abandon to Jesus Christ in May, 2011?
I think the real deal of life is finding out these answers. And we find freedom when we know what we are living for. Lets flesh this out a little bit. Jesus says to seek Him first. In all things. Not to worry. About anything. Not food. Not drink. Not clothes. Let alone laundry, vacation plans, relationships, sleep, money, weather. Nada. He wants us to bring it all to Him. And Seek Him first. Consider Him before we start to fret about whatever is on our plate today. Then, after we have put our problems in proper perspective, to go on with what we need to do, in freshness with renewed hope and joy. Because we can do anything by the power of His Sprit He gave us. As we seek to walk with Him in this relationship of faith, we grow daily through the exercise of depending on Him, submitting to Him, listening to Him, obeying Him. This is the abandon.
We leave self and our fleshly, worldly, temporal desires and we go to Jesus. We exchange our 'poor reflection' for the real deal. We are still being made into that beautiful person that God created us to be. We are changing from glory to glory to better reflect our Jesus to the world. But we cannot change if we are not submitting to God on a daily basis. We cannot change if we are living in our own strength, conquering our troubles with our own ingenuity. No, He has far better plans for us. When we depend on Him, we are free. We can enjoy whatever He brings our way, because we are with Him. We can do ANYTHING when He is with us. And we can't do anything (God-glorifying, of eternal worth) without Him. Let us seek Him today and ask Him to help us let go of our worries and instead, lean into Him, resting, trusting, knowing that nothing that comes our way is out of His control.

Tethered to Jesus

"Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." Psalm 124:8

Do you need help? I do. And I know many others that do right now. Healing from pain. Recovery from illness. Restoration of energy. Renewing of mind. Cleansing of heart. Newness of spirit. Hope for tomorrow. Rest for weary ones. Encouragement for the downtrodden. Patience for the ones at the end of their fuse. We need Jesus. Yes, Help is in His NAME. JESUS. Come and help us.
Jesus is with us through all of our days. He is our help. Why don't we remember to ask Him to meet us in our moments of need? Even if the solution is slow in coming, Jesus brings peace when He meets us in our moment. He gives us new courage to face the next moment. And that's all we have to do. Face the next moment, holding the hand of Jesus. We can face anything when we are tethered to Him! Can we not?
Each day can throw new things our way. Sometimes we are startled and unprepared. The best way to respond is to take it to the One who Knows. The One who is There. Jesus. He knew the moment would happen before it happened. He is always before us, every step of the way. He knows our need before we ask. What do you need to ask Him for today? He is already making a way.

Remember the old hymn, 'oh what needs we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer."

Don't carry your burden alone today. Jesus is offering His shoulder. Why would you refuse?