Unending Grace

The other day I saw a post on Facebook that a friend shared and it brought a smile to my face.  It was a status by a writer named Jen Hatmaker and she posted this:

Put three fighting children to bed early. 

Child #1: "It's still light outside!"
Me: "You may cry me a river and I will remain unmoved."
Child #2: "I wish I wasn't in this family! I wish I had no family!"
Me: "Get in line."
Child #3: "Oh, so I'm in trouble because ___ messed up MY fort???"
Me: "You are in trouble because you have made me insane. The yelling words coming out of your mouth turned me into a lunatic 20 minutes ago. You have now lost the privilege of being near me." 
Child #2: "I don't want to have a good heart anymore! I want to have an evil heart and be angry always and I will LOVE IT AND ENJOY IT!" 
Me: "Have that evil heart in your bedroom. Goodbye." 

*opens wine*

As I read this post I truly sat on my couch with a giggle and a smile.  Then I shared the post stating that this type of post is why I love Jen Hatmaker so much.  Jen is a writer who has a blog, several books and has participated in numerous women's events.  One of her goals is encouraging women and Moms.  What I love most about her is her transparency.  She loves to share about her family's life and does not pretty it up.  

The above post is so wonderful because I immediately thought of a similar conversation I had with my girls a few days before.  I sent them to their rooms because I knew that I needed the break more than they did.  Jen's post reminded me that as a Mom I will have good days, bad days and days I want to quit.  We all need to be reminded sometimes that we are not alone and parenting is hard.  

As a parent there are so many things I want for my girls.  I want them to love Jesus.  I want them to love each other.  I want them to know that life is full of mean people, but you can choose to not let them get you down.  I want them to know they can do anything they dream.  I want them to know I love them enough to say NO and give them boundaries.  I want them to have compassion and a true appreciation for all the Lord gives us.  Most of all I want them to have a heart for Jesus and ministry.

Fulfilling my list above is not an easy task and not one I can do on my own.  On my own I will fail and I will fail badly.  However, with the Lord's help and a whole lot of grace I know that God has great things in store for my girls.  It is posts like this one of Jen's that keep me grounded, help me remember that it is OK to take a break,  it is OK to cry uncle because your children have made you into a raving lunatic.  What Jen did not post but I can see in my mind is the resilience of our children.  I can have a horrible day and bedtime be awful but the next morning when my girls get up they are always full of love and smiles for me.  Will that always be the case, probably not but for now I use it as a reminder of the grace God gives us each day. 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

    his mercies never come to an end;

23 

they are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

-Lamentations 3:22-23

I want to encourage each of you Mom or not.  There will be days where you will do things right, there will be days we do things wrong and there will be days where we look back and just laugh at ourselves.  I want to encourage each of you that each day is a new day, God's grace is unending and there will be times where you just need to take a break and drink some wine. 

Reality Check

Yesterday morning I had the privilege to teach in my 4th grade Sunday School class.  We have a great group of kids and they always keep us on our toes.  One of the things I love the most is when they think they have the story down and then we surprise them.  Yesterday was one of those lessons.  We were doing a lesson out of Zephaniah and our memory verse was one of my favorites.

"The Lord your God is with you,

    the Mighty Warrior who saves.

He will take great delight in you;

    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,

    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

As the kids were watching the teaching video about the warning the children of Isreal were receiving and the reality of what slavery was, our kids took the stance of "oh yeah it was bad, but that was in the old testament it does not happen now."  I actually giggled because of the reality that is so easy for our children to have, that all the circumstances of people in the Bible were then...they don't happen now.  When we corrected their thinking letting them know that in countries today there are people who are taken into slavery, have to leave everything they have, keep only the clothes on their back and work in horrible circumstances for the rest of their lives really does happen today.  Oh the look on their faces.

As we talked about how hard the lives of the children of Isreal were and then applied it to people today, you could see real understanding come into their faces as we went back over the story and talked about the memory verse.  I love challenging my kids to think and to know that everything we read and learn from the Bible is applicable to today and their lives.

I had a moment to visit with our Children's Director and was sharing with her about our class that morning and we both agreed at how blessed, yet sheltered our children really are.  No matter how difficult our lives get her in the US we are so very blessed.  We get to choose our church, find jobs, have homes and we may not be rich or have fancy anything, but compared to most of the world we are all millionaires.  

I left church asking the Lord to help me raise my girls with a truly understanding of how blessed they are and hopefully with a heart for missions.  I have friends who are missionaries overseas and they are always in my daily prayers as they seek to take the love of Jesus to the lost.  It is easy for us to let ourselves and our children take for granted all we really have.  I encourage you today to pause and think about all you have compared to so many around the world, because compared to them we have nothing to complain about.

#Hastag

My past two weeks have been busy but I am excited to be back and can't wait to share with you over the next few posts all that the Lord has been teaching me. Last week I spent the week in South Carolina with my in-laws while my girls attended VBS down there.  It is not your normal VBS it is held in small river houses along the South Edisto River.  The kids get all the normal activities but they are all held outside and we throw in a picnic lunch and swimming in the river.  It is truly full of such great memories.  While I was there I would spend my evenings helping my friend Kemper with the youth.  The youth volunteer during the day and then have Bible study and activities each evening.  I was looking forward to the Bible study time but really had no clue for all the Lord had in store for me.

We opened the first night with a video from Kemper's church on change.  The Pastor Perry Noble spoke and it was apparent the Lord had a message for us.  Perry talked about how change is necessary for everyone but it is never easy.  In our lives many times change comes with labels whether we give them to ourselves, get them from other people or allow the world to label us.  Perry talked about how there are really only two types of people who can truly label items.

1. The Maker- the person who created the item, such as with companies who create new products they have the right to label those products.

2. The Buyer- the person who purchases something has the right to label it because it is now owned by them.  For example when a company is purchased many times they will have their name/logo changed to something new.

For many people today Twitter is incredibly popular.  When I think of Twitter I think of when any of the awards shows come on and if you get on Twitter you will see all these peoples opinions on the outfits, behavior, singing and awards on the shows.  Many times the posts are funny but to be honest many times the posts are mean and rude.  Our words whether said, typed or texted can be very powerful.

So, Perry Noble asked the question:  Who has the right to label or #hastag you?  The answer to the question is God.  God is our Maker, he made us in his own image and we are his treasure made for his glory.  The other person who can label us is our Buyer, Jesus is our buyer because through his death on the cross the Bible talks about how we were purchased with his blood.  That gives God and Jesus the right to label us, but how many times do we let other people and things label us.

Some labels might be:

#unattractive

#broken

#stupid

#unloved

So many times we #hastag or label ourselves or let others label us and we believe them.  Then we set up unrealistic expectations and when we fail we believe that we deserve the label #failure.  When we absorb all these incorrect labels and carry them with is it because harder and harder to let them go and they affect us later.  All these labels lock us in and lock God out. Anytime you run to anything or anyone other than Jesus, it will hurt and disappoint you every time. (Perry Noble)

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 

 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, 

and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

Perry talked about how the quickest way to lose sight on what God says about us is to focus on what other people say about us.  You see society and culture will always get it wrong.  They don't know you like our Creator does.  They don't love you like our Creator does.  

What if your labels were:

#accepted

#forgiven

#beautiful

#new

#treasured

As this session ended I began to ask myself, am I equipping myself to know the truth of how God labels me?  Am I speaking that truth daily?  Am I shutting out the labels the world  gives me and replacing them with the truth out of scripture.  You see I agree with Perry when he said that as you take these incorrect labels to God, they won't be removed instantly but over time God will change your perception and the labels that have been so ingrained into your mind. 

What made this session so wonderful was to see the youth relate to the message and talk about all that they see, hear and post on Twitter.  I have a Twitter account but will admit I am rarely on it and am horrible at #hastags.  However, as I sat and listened I was encouraged to make sure I am equipping myself to counter the lies and false labels I give myself and the world gives me. How you may ask?  The first way is my scripture book.  I have a little book that is about the size of a small calculator and it fits into all of my purses.  I carry it with me and it is full of scripture and quotes.  It's entire purpose is to help me speak and know God's truth at anytime and be easily accessible.  Another way is to post scripture around your house and especially for women in your bathroom.  We are all fearfully and wonderfully made, we need to make sure we are reminded of that.  Lastly, I encourage you to surround yourself with people who speak the truth of God's word.  When you are struggling you want to have someone who will point you back to Jesus not wallow with you in the pit you feel you are in.  This is where a good church and godly friends become invaluable.

If you enjoyed this post I truly encourage you to listen to the entire message.  You can listen or download it here.

Hanging out in the hallway

In January our Pastor gave our church a challenge.  He challenged us to find 5 people in our lives, in our neighborhood or at work that we could minister to.  The goal was to focus on these people and be the church to them, where they are.  Some people would end up with more than 5 and others might only have 2 or 3, but the goal was to get out and interact, build relationships with the people around us.  I loved this challenge and was so excited as I listened to the Pastor's plan.

As I began to pray then and now as I look back I will admit that some of the people I thought the Lord would have me minister to are were not on my first list.  However, at the same time I love being able to look back and see how through my willingness to step out the Lord has opened some wonderful doors for me.  At the same time I am being constantly challenged to step out of where I am comfortable and be willing to truly be real with those around me.

This morning the Lord took me to a passage in Lamentations that spoke to my heart.  I have read this passage many times before but I love how this morning he awakened my heart to His Spirit as I read.

I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,     the taste of ashes, 

the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all 

oh, how well I remember the feeling of hitting the bottom.

But there’s one other thing I remember,  and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

God’s loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up.

They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!

I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).  He’s all I've got left.

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,

 to the woman who diligently seeks.

It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.

It’s a good thing when you’re young to stick it out through the hard times.

When life is heavy and hard to take,    go off by yourself. Enter the silence.

Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:    Wait for hope to appear.

Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.    The “worst” is never the worst.

Why? Because the Master won’t ever    walk out and fail to return.

If he works severely, he also works tenderly.    His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.

Lamentations 3:19-32

I underlined my favorite verse in this passage.  I love it where the Bible tells us that God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits and the woman who diligently seeks. Both of these descriptions really spoke to me.  We all have periods in our lives where the Lord has us in a holding pattern.  We want to make a big decision but instead of getting direction from the Lord we know he wants us to wait.  Some people describe it as hanging out in the hallway until the Lord opens a door. For example,  Craig and I have wanted to move to South Carolina near family for 6 years and we have tried 3 times.  Every time we tried it did not work out and that last time we were so very close and thought it was all in place and it fell apart.  However, we both still have a heart and desire to move our family there, but we have learned that the Lord is not ready for us to do that yet.  We have learned that he is asking us to wait.  There is still work for us to do in Nashville.  

In this verse it says the man who passionately waits.  Now, I don't know what the formal meaning of that statement is but I know what I heard the Lord tell me.  Am I going to sit around doing nothing until God says "go" or am I going to be passionate about where God has me right now.  When Pastor gave us his challenge I gained a renewed sense that the Lord had work for me to do and he wanted me to be passionate about it.  Sometimes waiting on the Lord is not just sitting and doing nothing, but looking around because there might be something right in front of you the Lord needs your help with and it is the reason he is having you wait.

My other favorite part is the phrase that talks about a woman who diligently seeks.  As I read this I told the Lord I don't just want to spend time daily with him.  I want to be diligent in my study time.  The definition of diligent is: steady, earnest, energetic effort or painstaking.  When you think of your walk with the Lord whether in Bible study, prayer or personal ministry do any of those words describe your relationship?  What do you think your personal ministry for the Lord would look like if they did describe it?  I don't want to just do life, but I want to do life well.  I want what I say, what I do, how I raise my girls to be a direct reflection of the love of Jesus.  Don't just say you want people to see Jesus in you but be passionate and diligent about it, then you might just be surprised at all that you see the Lord doing around you.