Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the needs of people. I wish I could personally help everyone. In a church where there are too many needs for me to personally address, I have had to ask myself, “How do I know who to help?” I have recently realized that, if I will stay close to God and be sensitive to Him in my life, He will, as they say in the church world, “put someone on my heart.” I guess to me, that means that if I keep thinking about that person’s need over and over; and I can’t stop thinking about it, then I know that I need to personally do something to help.
January 12, 2009
Are you praying for something and you feel like God is just not on your timetable? He probably isn’t. He has His own timetable, and He will do things the way he wants to do them. Several years ago, Brian did a 40 day fast and prayed for many things, one of which was for God to “show us” the land for our church to build a building. As he prayed each day on a rock on a familiar piece of property, he had no idea that he was across the street from our future land. God had actually “shown him” the land as he was looking at it each day. The crazy thing is that he did not know this until 4 years later when the property became available for sale. I heard a great quote once, “God may delay, but He is never late.” We can trust Him, because His ways are higher than ours. He is at work now in His possible silence to bring about His best plan for you!
January 9, 2009
I wrote earlier about The Case For Faith For Kids. Here’s a little bit about another chapter. It is concerning doubts, and it asks if we can believe God and still sometimes have some doubts about things. It says, “One day a man came to Jesus with a son who needed healing. Jesus told the father that everything is possible for someone who believes. The man said, “I do believe! Help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Now there’s something–a man who says that he believes and he doesn’t believe. that’s kind of like…well, pretty much everybody. It’s not that people have no faith. They just want God to help them with those little unfaithful parts inside them.” Now remember that this book is for kids, but I think it explains things pretty well. Strobel goes on to explain that doubts can be like a “faith workout.” It can make us stronger as we seek to understand God more. He also says,” Faith is never blind. (it) is walking to the edge of all the light that you have and taking one more step.” Reading this book with the boys has certainly sparked interesting conversation in our house. I think kids can be pretty good thinkers.
Along these lines, I began to think about faith in my own life. I wasn’t there when Neil Armstrong arrived on the moon, but I am choosing to believe that the footage we see on TV is accurate. I can’t understand weather forecasting, but if the weather man calls for a 95% chance of rain, I will probably take my umbrella with me. I have never been to heaven or met anyone who’s been there, but in faith, considering all the evidence, I choose to believe there is a heaven and that Jesus is my way there. Maybe this children’s book is interesting to me because I worried and doubted things (mostly myself) as a child, growing up in a Christian home. I think it is great for our kids to have the freedom to share thoughts and doubts and for us to have the opportunity to guide them into growing faith that will one day strengthen them and give them boldness as adults.
January 5, 2009
What a great Christmas we had with family this year! We did Christmas with Brian’s family on Christmas Eve. We opened presents with the boys on Christmas morning and then drove 9 hours to Virginia to be with my family. We ate and ate and shopped and went ice skating! Did I say we ate?! On the way home we took the boys skiing in Boone, NC. The New Year’s Eve ceremonial Bloye family fondue was a highlight; and finishing up the holiday was the journey group feast at the Barfields! We feel blessed and ready to face a new year. (And clean out that basement!!)
December 24, 2008
I have found a great book–It’s called The Case For Faith For Kids. It is written by Lee Strobel, who wrote The Case For Faith. The boys and I are reading it. Even though we believe God, I think most of us have questions. This book answers some common questions kids have about faith. So I thought I would tackle a few of them in some upcoming posts. I love the chapter “Can other religions get you into heaven?” He explains that Jesus is THE Way and uses an example of an amusement park ticket. Someone could be selling fake tickets to a sold out amusement park. If you purchased the counterfeit ticket, you could not get into the park. There is only one true ticket, and Jesus is our ticket. The book says, “You’d have to agree that with amusement park tickets, it’s important to know the real ones from the fakes. The same can be applied to religion.” This book is a short, easy read. I am liking it so far and I am so glad that I am tackling these questions now, when I have their attention!! Check it out.
December 24, 2008
Oh my gosh! I so live in a house of boys! We were in the car yesterday and I said something about lace. Taylor asked me, “What is lace?” Neither of my boys knew what lace was. I had to describe it. Zach thought it was the stitching around a trampline, and Taylor thought it was used to tie shoes. You have got to be kidding me. Oh well, I love being a boy mom!
December 22, 2008
Tonight, we saw something amazing! West Ridge combined with four other churches and several ministries to bring all of the Paulding County Christmas assistance recipients together in one place. I have never been more proud of our church and the other churches and organizations that were a part of this!! 1500 families were helped. Did you get that? 1500 FAMILIES!! There was a huge room of Christmas gifts organized in bags with family names and numbers on them. Bags of food and a litteral truckload of turkeys!! Children had the opportunity to “shop” in a room FULL of gifts for the their parents. Toys, bikes and Christmas trees with all the trimmings were given away, and Santa was there in a wonderland room that looked like a mall, decorated with gorgeous trees! The Grinch made his appearances while children made crafts and ate sugar cookies and popcorn! All the families attended the Christmas program that our children’s ministry did. (Zach was a shepherd!!) What a night! I am not kidding you–this was way beyond what I expected! When church people begin to meet the needs of others, it eliminates a lot of complaining and helps people gain perspective. People do not care how much we know until they know how much we care!! I am just proud to be a part of a church that GETS IT!
December 18, 2008
We really enjoyed hosting the staff and elder Christmas party at our house on Monday night! We are blessed with such a great group of people. Our house was PACKED with people dropping in for dessert and fruit (with a little chocolate fountain!) from 6-8:00. Thanks to all of you who came, thanks to our great shuttle bus driver; and may you all have a very Merry Christmas!
December 14, 2008
I hoped no one would notice the tears in my eyes as I finally finished reading the end of The Shack on the plane this weekend!! The Shack is one of those books that you really like or really do not like. I happened to really like it! First of all, it is NOT a theology book. It does not claim to be perfectly accurate in all of its descriptions of the unknown, but I have to ask myself a question. “Am I better off having read it?” And the answer is definately YES. OK, I do not view God as a large African American woman, but I think that the way most people view God in inaccurate. The Shack is full of truths that I have not considered before, and it challenged my thinking. I think that one of Satan’s FAVORITE lies is that God is usually disappointed with us and somewhat angry at us. How sad! God is so loving –He is the best parent anyone could ever have. He wants to be our friend, and that was so portrayed in The Shack. He is not only interested in our soul–He is interested in US! And I bet Heaven is full of all the things we like to do the best–and Jesus has to be the coolest guy we’ve ever met! I’m interested. Have you read The Shack–and what did you think about it?
December 14, 2008
I got the chance to go to Virginia this weekend to see my mom and my neice, Katie in the Virginia Christmas Spectacular! It was wonderful, and they did a great job. Many years ago, as a student at Liberty University, I had wished my mom could be part of such a tremendous music community–she loves to sing and has always loved music. It was really cool after all these years to see HER singing in the living Christmas tree! I had a chance to see family, shop and talk with the girls and have lunch with my dad! So glad I made the choice to go–something I will never forget.
