Well, we have begun the home study/adoption process yet again. Everything was on hold for a few months as we have sought every viable possibility of us being able to adopt Oksana and Vitya. The lady doing our home study didn’t want to continue (I’m pretty sure she thinks that we’re crazy for being so psycho about these two kids) so we made calls, sent emails, and looked for any “connections” that could help us get those sweeties. Neither Jono nor I had felt a peace about their situation. Actually, I’ll be straight with you and admit that we still really don’t…but we want to. And that’s a step. There was a time when I was dead-set against feeling a peace about anyone being their mommy and daddy but us. But now I’m begging God to give it to me. He has taught me so much over the last few months about His holiness and sovereignty, and I can now fully apply that knowledge to this situation and trust Him to just do His thing. As I said, the peace isn’t there yet, but the trust is.
One of my Sunday School teachers when I was younger once told me that you just can’t wait until you know exactly what God wants you to do before you start moving. He said that it’s kinda like a boat…you can’t turn a boat that’s standing still. There has to be some forward momentum before the steering can begin (I am nautically ignorant, so I hope this analogy holds up.) And so sometimes you gotta just start moving on what you even kinda think God’s asking of you and then He has something to direct and guide. God reminded me of this lesson and was like, “Heather, quit trying to figure out all these details. Just start moving in general again.” Because, quite frankly, I was frozen. It felt like I was betraying O and V by moving on. And yet , doors were slamming in our faces left and right. So as we made the decision to get started again, Jono and I vowed that if EVER the time came when somehow we can get Oksana and/or Vitya, we will.
During all of this, Jono took some high school students on a mission trip to Curitiba, Brazil and met two little girls who melted his heart at an orphanage they visited. So as soon as he got home we started making calls to find out if their parents’ rights had been severed yet. It took a few months (Which is weird to me in the age of email and skype. I mean, we’re not sending telegrams here.), but we eventually found out that neither one was adoptable. Which put us in a very strange place. We had grown accustomed to pursuing children with whom we had a connection, and now we were out of connections. We didn’t know how to pick a country. Do you just look online and find where the cutest kids are? Or where it’s the cheapest or fastest to adopt from? Yeah, that all sounds pretty self-serving and disgusting, right?
Before we had found out that the little Brazilian girls were out of the question, we had discovered an adoption agency called One World Adoptions. After a few phone calls and emails, we fell in love with this agency and decided to get started on a home study. So when we were in that icky place of picking a program, a plan came to us. These people deal with a bunch of countries and orphanages, and they even go on mission trips to the various orphanages. So we decided that we would ask Susan, the director of OWA, where the worst conditions are and where the greatest need is. We felt like that left it open more to God’s preferences than to ours. Well, her answer was immediate and no questions about it…the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is a fairly new program because there has been a 5 year civil war in this country, and about 15 years of craziness. There are so many children who are “true orphans” where both parents are deceased due to war or disease (mainly HIV). There are a lot of prenatal and childbirth issues that lead to mommies dying and leaving newborns. Many are also considered “social orphans” and their parents have abandoned them because they are unable to care for them. There is an estimated 4.2 million orphans in DRC.
So we have buckled down and got to work on getting our baby that God has for us home. After we told One World that if the Congo is where the need is, then the Congo is where we would go, they informed us that the timeline is like 6 MONTHS! That’s super crazy after having followed several of our friends adoptions from the Ukraine, Russia, and Brazil that took over a year. That’s not even the length of a pregnancy! But it’s all cool with me because I get antsy when things are drawn out and long anyway. Those who know me know that I work best under pressure and time crunches.
Our home study is almost finished, which we have decided that everyone should experience every now and then whether you’re adopting or not. My sister is actually doing all of the requirements that we do just to get caught up on little things like getting the septic tank pumped. Did you know you should do that every 5 years? And, apparently, a family of 5 like ours should do it every 3 years. We have new batteries in our smoke detectors, our weapons cache is safely stored away from the ammunition that would make it useful in the event of a break in, our dog is now guarded against rabies, and in 2 days all my babies will be vaccinated, inspected, and cleared to be brother and sisters to their new sibling. Next up, dossier.
One thing that everyone asks and you may be wondering is, “How old of a child are you gonna get and do you want a boy or a girl?” Well, because of the tremendous amount of orphans there and this being a fairly new program, there are infants up to teenagers available…as opposed to some programs where it’s harder to get younger children because that’s what everyone wants. So right now we are looking at a girl under 4. We will actually probably pursue two children. Sibling groups are rare in this country because they are abandoned one at a time and there is not quite the system of keeping track of relatives there that other countries have. But you can still adopt 2 unrelated children.
I realize that this post is getting excruciatingly long, so I will save issues like “How we’re raising money” and “Promise 686 Rocks” and “The Long’s Summer Project of studying up on the Congo” for future posts. But I will ask that you talk to God on our behalf and our Congolese child’s behalf. The boat is moving and God has guided us in a direction that we never saw coming.!!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Day O' Moms!!
It's Mother's Day and I have just a few things to say...
1. I love my mom! She'll do just about anything for one of her kids or grandkids and I've relied on her many a time to run an errand, babysit, or return something to a store that I'm too scared to deal with (she may be known as "The Bulldog" at our local Kohl's, Walmart, Target, etc.)
2. I love my kids! I honestly have the best bunch! They're sweet and affectionate, super tender-hearted, spunky enough to keep life interesting, complicated enough to teach their momma something everyday, and they love learning about God and cuddling with their Mommy!! I'll be straight up with you and tell you that I never wanna stop having them. No worries...we have no plans to become the next Dugger family, but I just love every stage of their little lives and I know that I'll be so sad when it stops.
3. If you're a Mommy and are looking for any and every resource to make you a better Mommy, here's a few I've found...
And I also LOVE listening to "Focus on the Family" broadcasts on my iPhone. I have no idea how to get to them without that miracle device, but I'm sure you can figure it out! There's always tons of broadcasts on parenting topics to choose from! I have vowed to make better use of my time by learning while I do other things so I never drive, get ready, or feed Pax without listening to a good parenting or marriage podcast from FOTF or a sermon by the uh-mazing Craig Groeschel.
The last awesome resource is.......drum roll please........ YOUR LOCAL CHURCH!!! Autumn, our children's minister at Crossroads Church of Walton County, provides a blog for all parents where we can print out Godtime Cards and lots of other resources to help us disciple our kids. I'll take all the help that I can get, and I bet most of you mom's feel the same way. But I think this is an under-utilized resource. Hey, it's free!! Use it!
4. Our fam had an AWESOME time at Disney World! That will get a longer post when I am less tired!
5. I own a swagger wagon...do you?
1. I love my mom! She'll do just about anything for one of her kids or grandkids and I've relied on her many a time to run an errand, babysit, or return something to a store that I'm too scared to deal with (she may be known as "The Bulldog" at our local Kohl's, Walmart, Target, etc.)
2. I love my kids! I honestly have the best bunch! They're sweet and affectionate, super tender-hearted, spunky enough to keep life interesting, complicated enough to teach their momma something everyday, and they love learning about God and cuddling with their Mommy!! I'll be straight up with you and tell you that I never wanna stop having them. No worries...we have no plans to become the next Dugger family, but I just love every stage of their little lives and I know that I'll be so sad when it stops.
3. If you're a Mommy and are looking for any and every resource to make you a better Mommy, here's a few I've found...
And I also LOVE listening to "Focus on the Family" broadcasts on my iPhone. I have no idea how to get to them without that miracle device, but I'm sure you can figure it out! There's always tons of broadcasts on parenting topics to choose from! I have vowed to make better use of my time by learning while I do other things so I never drive, get ready, or feed Pax without listening to a good parenting or marriage podcast from FOTF or a sermon by the uh-mazing Craig Groeschel.
The last awesome resource is.......drum roll please........ YOUR LOCAL CHURCH!!! Autumn, our children's minister at Crossroads Church of Walton County, provides a blog for all parents where we can print out Godtime Cards and lots of other resources to help us disciple our kids. I'll take all the help that I can get, and I bet most of you mom's feel the same way. But I think this is an under-utilized resource. Hey, it's free!! Use it!
4. Our fam had an AWESOME time at Disney World! That will get a longer post when I am less tired!
5. I own a swagger wagon...do you?
Monday, April 26, 2010
A Call to Die
Today is just a quick book suggestion. I'm going to try and mention good books a lot as I come across them because I think they make good mentors. When I have times in my life when there's not someone there pouring into me and discipling me personally, I always turn to books. I love all kinds of genres, but I've had to pretty much nix all fiction books at this stage of my life because I have so little time to read I figure that I better make it something extremely useful. So fiction is reserved for laying on the beach, otherwise it's good books that teach me and grow me spiritually.
The book for today is actually a devotional created for students, but I recommend it for adults as well. It's called "A Call to Die" by David Nasser. I am currently going through it with my small group of 10th and 11th grade girls. It's my 3rd time through it and it's still wearing me out. It really is an awesome tool to step up your quiet times. It suggests carving out an hour a day for it, but if that sounds overwhelming you could cut out some of the journaling. I totally recommend actually doing all of the journaling because it really helps you focus on what God is specifically telling you, but I think the book is so good that I'd rather you skip the writing than not read it at all. Some of the applications are more student-focused, but overall it is really for anyone. If you have a teenager in your life (son or daughter, niece/nephew, a kid from church, neighbor), kill two birds with one stone and go through it together...you grow and they get discipled.
It's a 40 day journey of fasting from the world and feasting on God. I've haven't heard of anyone who's gone through it that didn't LOVE it. Click on the pic below to buy it!!!
The book for today is actually a devotional created for students, but I recommend it for adults as well. It's called "A Call to Die" by David Nasser. I am currently going through it with my small group of 10th and 11th grade girls. It's my 3rd time through it and it's still wearing me out. It really is an awesome tool to step up your quiet times. It suggests carving out an hour a day for it, but if that sounds overwhelming you could cut out some of the journaling. I totally recommend actually doing all of the journaling because it really helps you focus on what God is specifically telling you, but I think the book is so good that I'd rather you skip the writing than not read it at all. Some of the applications are more student-focused, but overall it is really for anyone. If you have a teenager in your life (son or daughter, niece/nephew, a kid from church, neighbor), kill two birds with one stone and go through it together...you grow and they get discipled.
It's a 40 day journey of fasting from the world and feasting on God. I've haven't heard of anyone who's gone through it that didn't LOVE it. Click on the pic below to buy it!!!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
What Do You Feel Called To Do?
Oh my. I confess right here and now that I am a terrible blogger. If I get really busy or in a funk, this blog is the first thing to drop out of my schedule. Hence the lead in from my last post promising more on a topic "tomorrow"...it's only been 4 weeks. But I'm still as fired up about the issue as I was then (and probably always will be), so here we go.
Here's what gets me. So, there's a need in the church. This body of believers that Jesus Himself is the head of has some holes that need to be filled. Maybe there's no one to invest into the lives of kindergartners or maybe 1 man is trying to disciple a group of 15 6th grade boys and REALLY needs to share the burden. Maybe the children's minister hasn't been in "big church" in 9 months or maybe a community group/sunday school class/ bible study is having trouble being effective because there's no one to keep the kiddos. There are a lot of "holes" that pop up in ministry all the time. But there's also a lot of people in our churches claiming to be Christ-followers. So, you'd think "Lots of Christ-followers. Lots of needs in Christ's body. Problem solved." But this is most definitely not the case, thanks to the wonderful and spiritual phrase, "I just don't feel like that's where I'm called to serve." You gotta admit that's pretty good. I mean, whose gonna argue with that? (Other than me, that is:)) If you're not feeling "called" to do it, who am I to beg and plead with you?
I, however, would like someone to show me in the Bible where that is a legit excuse. I'm pretty sure that by saying they don't "feel called" to it really means that it's not something that gives them the warm fuzzies. It's not glamorous. They pretty much just don't feel like doing it. But what I find in the Bible are lots of people doing things that they don't feel like doing. Jonah didn't "feel like" preaching to the people in Ninevah. I'm sure John the Baptist didn't get all giddy about the idea of confronting Herod knowing it could cost him his life (and did, in fact). And probably the best example is Jesus. He wasn't excited about dying on a cross. He even asked for a way out. But, ultimately, He did what He knew had to be done. So, bottom line, you can't assume that God is only going to lead you to do things that are fun or exciting or right up your alley. There is no promise in the Bible that says that you will hear a choir of angels and get an adrenaline rush when just the right opportunity arises and then you'll know that that is what you're "called" to do. Nope. You may hate the idea. You may sweat blood like Jesus (especially if it's the 6th grade boys' group). Maybe you'll even beg God to "take this cup from you". And that's fine. As long as, in the end, you suck it up and just do what needs to be done.
I do think that sometimes there is a second reason for using the "don't feel called" excuse. For instance, take the aforementioned middle school boys' group scenario. Or maybe leading a bible study. Or discipling a younger man or woman. A lot of times it's not just that it doesn't sound fun and perfect, but also that we don't feel the least bit qualified. We freak out and back out because we know that we will stink at it. And that just may be true. But I've found that that's usually God's point.
"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise."
-1 Cor. 1:27
Maybe you think, "I'm too foolish to lead that small group". Ummm...maybe that's a sign that God's choosing you to lead that small group.
Here's what gets me. So, there's a need in the church. This body of believers that Jesus Himself is the head of has some holes that need to be filled. Maybe there's no one to invest into the lives of kindergartners or maybe 1 man is trying to disciple a group of 15 6th grade boys and REALLY needs to share the burden. Maybe the children's minister hasn't been in "big church" in 9 months or maybe a community group/sunday school class/ bible study is having trouble being effective because there's no one to keep the kiddos. There are a lot of "holes" that pop up in ministry all the time. But there's also a lot of people in our churches claiming to be Christ-followers. So, you'd think "Lots of Christ-followers. Lots of needs in Christ's body. Problem solved." But this is most definitely not the case, thanks to the wonderful and spiritual phrase, "I just don't feel like that's where I'm called to serve." You gotta admit that's pretty good. I mean, whose gonna argue with that? (Other than me, that is:)) If you're not feeling "called" to do it, who am I to beg and plead with you?
I, however, would like someone to show me in the Bible where that is a legit excuse. I'm pretty sure that by saying they don't "feel called" to it really means that it's not something that gives them the warm fuzzies. It's not glamorous. They pretty much just don't feel like doing it. But what I find in the Bible are lots of people doing things that they don't feel like doing. Jonah didn't "feel like" preaching to the people in Ninevah. I'm sure John the Baptist didn't get all giddy about the idea of confronting Herod knowing it could cost him his life (and did, in fact). And probably the best example is Jesus. He wasn't excited about dying on a cross. He even asked for a way out. But, ultimately, He did what He knew had to be done. So, bottom line, you can't assume that God is only going to lead you to do things that are fun or exciting or right up your alley. There is no promise in the Bible that says that you will hear a choir of angels and get an adrenaline rush when just the right opportunity arises and then you'll know that that is what you're "called" to do. Nope. You may hate the idea. You may sweat blood like Jesus (especially if it's the 6th grade boys' group). Maybe you'll even beg God to "take this cup from you". And that's fine. As long as, in the end, you suck it up and just do what needs to be done.
I do think that sometimes there is a second reason for using the "don't feel called" excuse. For instance, take the aforementioned middle school boys' group scenario. Or maybe leading a bible study. Or discipling a younger man or woman. A lot of times it's not just that it doesn't sound fun and perfect, but also that we don't feel the least bit qualified. We freak out and back out because we know that we will stink at it. And that just may be true. But I've found that that's usually God's point.
"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise."
-1 Cor. 1:27
"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." -1 Cor. 2:4
Maybe you think, "But I'm not wise and persuasive enough." Well, apparently if you were there would be no way for the Holy Spirit to demonstrate His power."But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."
-2 Cor. 12:9
"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses..."
-2 Cor. 12:10
-2 Cor. 12:9
Maybe you use your weaknesses as an excuse to not do anything instead of boasting about them.
"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses..."
-2 Cor. 12:10
The problem is that lots of Christians, hugely including myself, have bought into the lie that their effectiveness depends on their ability (thank you to my dear hubby for giving me that quote last night at his AWESOME bible study). So when we hear that the kids' ministry or the student ministry or the adult ministry needs a new small group leader we immediately assess our abilities. If we don't feel like they measure up, then obviously we aren't "called" to do it. But God says, "Yeah, you don't measure up. In fact you never will. You will never be smart enough or cool enough or able enough to transform someone's life. So would you please just do something that you know you stink at and MAYBE My power will be enough to take up your slack?" It's one of the many paradoxes of the Christian faith...the weaker you are at it, the more of God's power gets revealed.
In summary, I would like to say that I do acknowledge that God does have different "callings" for different people. For instance, Jono and I know that we have been "called" to lifelong, full-time ministry. (Apparently I have an issue with the word "called" since I find myself putting quotations around it every time. It's just been abused.) So yes, I know that there are going to be specific things that God is going to want you to do with your life. But, in the words of my hubby again, "There are some things you just do because you're part of the family." I don't wait until I "feel" like doing the laundry because, I assure you, the day would never come. Jono doesn't wait until he "feels" like taking out the garbage. I don't let my kids just wait until they "feel" like cleaning their rooms.
If you're part of the family and something needs to be done, you do it.
And if you're still struggling with feelings of inadequacy read 1 & 2 Corinthians. Paul, who wrote most of the new testament and was like the ULTIMATE missionary goes on and on about how inadequate he was. You should also check out this book:
*I would like to point out that the examples given as areas of need in a church are just random scenarios that I pulled out of my head. None of them are necessarily needs within my AWESOME church, Crossroads. In fact, our 6th grade boys already have an AMAZING LEADER and they don't need to split. This post is not intended to guilt anyone and is not written as a public service announcement for Crossroads. It truly is something that God had to teach me through the many times I have tried to wiggle out of service because something didn't strike my fancy or I just plain out knew I couldn't pull it off. I apologize for any semblance of pointing my finger. Believe me, this has been and probably will be again a plank in my own eye. Just sharing something I've learned.
In summary, I would like to say that I do acknowledge that God does have different "callings" for different people. For instance, Jono and I know that we have been "called" to lifelong, full-time ministry. (Apparently I have an issue with the word "called" since I find myself putting quotations around it every time. It's just been abused.) So yes, I know that there are going to be specific things that God is going to want you to do with your life. But, in the words of my hubby again, "There are some things you just do because you're part of the family." I don't wait until I "feel" like doing the laundry because, I assure you, the day would never come. Jono doesn't wait until he "feels" like taking out the garbage. I don't let my kids just wait until they "feel" like cleaning their rooms.
If you're part of the family and something needs to be done, you do it.
And if you're still struggling with feelings of inadequacy read 1 & 2 Corinthians. Paul, who wrote most of the new testament and was like the ULTIMATE missionary goes on and on about how inadequate he was. You should also check out this book:
*I would like to point out that the examples given as areas of need in a church are just random scenarios that I pulled out of my head. None of them are necessarily needs within my AWESOME church, Crossroads. In fact, our 6th grade boys already have an AMAZING LEADER and they don't need to split. This post is not intended to guilt anyone and is not written as a public service announcement for Crossroads. It truly is something that God had to teach me through the many times I have tried to wiggle out of service because something didn't strike my fancy or I just plain out knew I couldn't pull it off. I apologize for any semblance of pointing my finger. Believe me, this has been and probably will be again a plank in my own eye. Just sharing something I've learned.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Bologna Sandwiches
Last Friday night we took a group of students to The Garden. It is a homeless shelter in Smyrna that houses about 50 women and children. We went to throw a birthday party for all of the children there, which I thought sounded super exciting. Balloons, cupcakes, a pinata, and lots of games and singing with some kiddos. That's right up my alley. I love throwing birthday parties. But we started the evening off by making sack lunches for the ministry there to pass out to homeless people today. So I volunteered for bologna sandwich making. It was just 150 sandwiches and there was about 5 of us working on it, so it wasn't that bad. Then a lady came in and asked us sandwich makers if we could help out and make a "few more" sandwiches. She said around 250, but I swear we must have made a couple thousand mechanically separated meat sandwiches. I would spread a loaf of bread out over the counter. Kevin O. would apply mustard (then "mustard sauce" after we ran out of regular mustard...ugh). I would oh-so-carefully place the bologna on, then both of us would put them together and pass them down to the bagging team. I'm gonna be straight with you and say...it was terrible. I hate monotonous work. Doing the same thing over and over for 3 hours is torture for me. I hate it. And what's worse, I didn't realize I was missing the birthday party until Jono came in the kitchen and said, "Alright. The party's over. Ya'll ready to go?" I was super bummed. Everyone else had bonded with a kid and ministered to them and taken lots of pictures. I had made bologna sandwiches. It was not my idea of a glorious night of ministry. (I must say here that Kevin O'Shields seemed to quite enjoy himself being "mustard man" which I couldn't quite understand except that he attributed it to having a Type A personality.)
Anyway, I say all that to say that sometimes ministry stinks (quite literally when we're talking about bologna). And I don't mean "THE ministry", like being married to a pastor, although that's a completely different post. I mean serving. Doing things for God's kingdom that need to be done. It's not all rainbows and butterflies and coming home with lots of cute pictures of you with a bunch of homeless kids who fell in love with you. Someone's gotta make the bologna sandwiches in God's kingdom.
And, no, it's not a matter of feeling "called" to do it (which I will blog about further tomorrow). Believe me, there was no feeling of "this is what I was made for" last night.
It was not fun.
But Saturday, there were a lot of people living under bridges in Atlanta who got to eat a yummy sandwich for lunch, and that makes me grateful that God stuck me in that kitchen.
I wonder what kind of things God wants you to make happen but you're waiting on it to "feel" right?? More on that rant tomorrow!!
Anyway, I say all that to say that sometimes ministry stinks (quite literally when we're talking about bologna). And I don't mean "THE ministry", like being married to a pastor, although that's a completely different post. I mean serving. Doing things for God's kingdom that need to be done. It's not all rainbows and butterflies and coming home with lots of cute pictures of you with a bunch of homeless kids who fell in love with you. Someone's gotta make the bologna sandwiches in God's kingdom.
And, no, it's not a matter of feeling "called" to do it (which I will blog about further tomorrow). Believe me, there was no feeling of "this is what I was made for" last night.
It was not fun.
But Saturday, there were a lot of people living under bridges in Atlanta who got to eat a yummy sandwich for lunch, and that makes me grateful that God stuck me in that kitchen.
I wonder what kind of things God wants you to make happen but you're waiting on it to "feel" right?? More on that rant tomorrow!!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Pass on the Blessing
Last night, a couple of hours after dinner, my family got the munchies. I intentionally do not keep many/any "munchies-satisfying-food" in the house. I always have the munchies so I would always be eating said food, nullifying all of my P90x-ing. So Jono began to scour the kitchen for something and finally decided to fix himself a peanut butter sandwich. Which only led to him having to fix 2 more peanut butter sandwiches for the bottomless pit girls. As he was finishing up Nevaeh's sandwich she requested that he cut the crust off. He then offered (possibly out of laziness) to cut the sandwich in half and then she could just "eat around the crust". No, Vaeh - shockingly - was not willing to compromise and started to beg/freak out. The whole time I was thinking "Really, Jono? You really think dealing with the tizzy that is about to ensue is going to take up less time and energy than CUTTING OFF THE CRUST?!" So, being the awesome wife that I am, I may have pointed out that he grew up with MEMAW and EVERY TIME she made him a sandwich she cut the crust off. How's that for forgetting to pass on the blessing? And Vaeh clearly got her dislike for crust from him soooo. I was just saying. Well, I guess he thought I had a point because, bless his heart, he served her a crustless sandwich.
Then as we plopped down to watch Criminal Minds, I had a thought/conviction. In the same way that I think it is ridiculous for a man who hates crust and has had it cut off his sandwich all his life to refuse the same service to his daughter, God finds it ridiculous when I --who have been forgiven of the unforgivable, loved when I was unlovable, and "beared with" (I think that would be correctly said "born with" but thought that sounded weird:)) when I was being unbearable by Him who has every right to hold all those things against me--refuse to "pass on the blessing" to others. I know you probably don't deal with that, but sometimes I find it hard to extend the very grace and forgiveness that I thank and praise God for giving to me.
Soo...even though I resisted the pb sandwich raid, I still got hit with a wave of guilt. Holy guilt, nonetheless. I leave you with an awesome quote that I stole from John Hall (The Mark Hall's father!):
"No one has ever done anything to me that's worse than what I have done to God."
and a verse:
"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." -Col.3:13
and a subnote:
Jono is an awesome father and this post is in no way meant to sound nagging...I can't help it God saw a teachable moment that involved him:).
Then as we plopped down to watch Criminal Minds, I had a thought/conviction. In the same way that I think it is ridiculous for a man who hates crust and has had it cut off his sandwich all his life to refuse the same service to his daughter, God finds it ridiculous when I --who have been forgiven of the unforgivable, loved when I was unlovable, and "beared with" (I think that would be correctly said "born with" but thought that sounded weird:)) when I was being unbearable by Him who has every right to hold all those things against me--refuse to "pass on the blessing" to others. I know you probably don't deal with that, but sometimes I find it hard to extend the very grace and forgiveness that I thank and praise God for giving to me.
Soo...even though I resisted the pb sandwich raid, I still got hit with a wave of guilt. Holy guilt, nonetheless. I leave you with an awesome quote that I stole from John Hall (The Mark Hall's father!):
"No one has ever done anything to me that's worse than what I have done to God."
and a verse:
"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." -Col.3:13
and a subnote:
Jono is an awesome father and this post is in no way meant to sound nagging...I can't help it God saw a teachable moment that involved him:).
Sunday, March 21, 2010
2 Random Thoughts...
This is a quicky, but I just thought of two neat things that I thought I would share.
The first one I learned about today. Well, correction. I'd heard of it before, but today was the first time I got to see it really work. Peroxide really does get blood out of clothes!! When Jono got home from church with all the kiddos (I didn't go because I was up all night with a yucky stomach bug), Pax had blood on his pants. I Googled what would work, saw the peroxide thing, and-wala (I'm not sure if that's really how you spell it, but it's how I pronounce it :))-the blood just bubbled right out. I'm probably the last person on earth to learn this, but if, by chance, you ever doubted...take my word for it!!
The second thing that I wanted to share is actually a gift idea. This book:
is pretty awesome!! It's called "The Story of a Lifetime" by Pamela Pavuk. It's a journal that asks a ton of questions to lead you to pretty much tell the story of your life. It has sections where you tell of your family background and childhood all the way to the golden years and ethnic heritage. We gave one to Memaw and to my grandmother a few years ago. It's so great to be able to read Memaw's thoughts and memories now that she's gone. I also gave Jono one for his 30th birthday. It's a really big book and Memaw didn't come close to finishing it so I thought I'd give him a little more time:)
Anyway, I'm really big on cool gift ideas so I thought I'd pass this one on. If your mom or dad or grandma or grandpa have a birthday coming up, check it out. Click here to see it on Half.com.
The first one I learned about today. Well, correction. I'd heard of it before, but today was the first time I got to see it really work. Peroxide really does get blood out of clothes!! When Jono got home from church with all the kiddos (I didn't go because I was up all night with a yucky stomach bug), Pax had blood on his pants. I Googled what would work, saw the peroxide thing, and-wala (I'm not sure if that's really how you spell it, but it's how I pronounce it :))-the blood just bubbled right out. I'm probably the last person on earth to learn this, but if, by chance, you ever doubted...take my word for it!!
The second thing that I wanted to share is actually a gift idea. This book:
is pretty awesome!! It's called "The Story of a Lifetime" by Pamela Pavuk. It's a journal that asks a ton of questions to lead you to pretty much tell the story of your life. It has sections where you tell of your family background and childhood all the way to the golden years and ethnic heritage. We gave one to Memaw and to my grandmother a few years ago. It's so great to be able to read Memaw's thoughts and memories now that she's gone. I also gave Jono one for his 30th birthday. It's a really big book and Memaw didn't come close to finishing it so I thought I'd give him a little more time:)
Anyway, I'm really big on cool gift ideas so I thought I'd pass this one on. If your mom or dad or grandma or grandpa have a birthday coming up, check it out. Click here to see it on Half.com.
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