Category: Faith

Faith in the Little Things

Posted on by Mary

Faith Forward

I think it all happens to the best of us.  It happened to me just now.

Today my son has an eye appointment.  He NEEDS new glasses…DESPERATELY and his school did something new this year.  The LIONS club came in with a pretty nifty machine and tok pictures of his eyes with his glasses on, from there they get a print out  with his eye pictures and they can tell numerous things. like….

1. how bad his lazy eye has gotten

2. his astigmatism  and the severity

3. and how much off his prescription is and what it now needs to be.

No reading charts. No covering eyes and for anybody with a little kid you know just how challenging this is and  add into it the fact this  particular little boy has special needs- YEAH it’s fun. Then they send home the print out so you can take it to your eye dr. Well this momma has been holing onto these papers for 3 months.  I knew EXACTLY where they were, that is until this morning! I went right to the spot.  an expandable file right inside my planning notebook…and they WERNT there!   AHHHH!

Panic ensued, my brain went ballistic, what on earth could I have done with them?  I looked every where.  Nothing I went back to the notebook 3 more  times. I prayed “Lord you know exactly where they are show me.”  All the while trying to keep that same little boy on task, looking for sneakers (I accidentally threw one of those in the washer…Ooops-no worries though it was now in the dryer…DRE|IED!)    after he left I methodically went through everything still muttering the above prayer, my spirit calmed and piece by piece I went through the papers on reserve for important things. and finally I came to the last little stack. The one that was in that expandable file.  The one I had already looked through 4 times. and there, just where I left it, where I knew it was , were the papers., RIGHT WHERE I LEFT THEM to be safe.

I could have complained and lost my cool.  I could have jumped to conclusions and accused any number of things on someone else but instead I turned to Jesus. It takes a lot of practice.  I used to be that person of blaming others  and truth be told that same person rears its old self every once in a while.

Why turn to Jesus in the little things?  Why is it that important to practice this?   Well 3 days ago I caught a glimpse of the answer.  or at least 1 of the answers…..My hubby and oldest son went out to the garage and found our barn cat Helix had died sometime within the last 12 hours. Now if you remember back in March we lost our faithful dog Daffy for some unknown reason and it devastated our family so this was quite a blow especially to our daughter who had a very unique relationship with him.  He would let her carry him around like a baby.

Continue reading “Faith in the Little Things” →

2015 Word of the Year

Posted on by Mary

GREETINGS……AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope all is well.

I must confess all is not well with our family. We have been holing in secrets. But alas I cannot share with you (YET). The heartache that has loomed over us for the last 3 months and will continue to do so for some time. But enough of this for now. I want to share with you a couple of things for the upcoming year.

As you know last year I picked the word PURPOSE for my word for the year along with the verse 1 Corinthians 10:31

Well this year as I have prayed about taking on some added responsibilities and working on a conference team God has repeatedly brought one word to mind……. Continue reading “2015 Word of the Year” →

Introducing Faith Forward

Posted on by Mary

image

Hello dear friends!

So as promised a little over a month ago…I plan to write a weekly post called FaithForward. The whole idea of these blog posts is to make us think deep within ourselves and to challenge us to move forward in our faith!  Does that mean these posts will be easy to read…I hope not, because they won’t be easy to write!

I’m very excited about this series.

I already have next week’s post written and ready for my blog to go live!

Out of all the posts schedules to happen each week this one has been the most difficult to think about as our family has quite literally fought through being crippled by a horrible circumstance…a circumstance rooted in sin, and we are slowly working our way out of the dark murky swamp we have found ourselves in.  All while holding Jesus’ hand and sometimes even being carried my Him we have deepened our faith far more than I ever expected!

I can’t wait to share some of this journey with you over the coming months!

Blessings,
Mary

Blogging Within My Mission

Posted on by Mary

Hi all,

So it’s been no secret that I have not been around much. Life has been busy and I wear so very many hats!  And sometimes I have to throw off all my other hats in order to take care of a hat that grows exceptionally heavy…..usually it’s the one with a husband, four kids and a house crammed inside of it.

And over the last year or so I have become increasingly uncomfortable with all the…”this is how you should blog”. And the “you aren’t doing things right”. Critics out there.   I also have a lot of personal critics in my life wondering “why do you waste your time doing that” and “How can you possibly have time for all that you do?”   And to be completely honest I think that Satan has used those critics to spread seeds of doubt, and frankly I have come to the realization that I was letting him!    

Did I whine and complain….maybe on the inside a little convincing myself that I had nothing anybody wanted to hear.   And everywhere you turn, people are oh so concerned about numbers……numbers!  Ugh, I’ve always hated Math! It’s a necessary evil in my mind!   Anyway, over the last 8 months I have spent A LOT of time reading and praying.   And while we were on vacation in July , I stole away a few times and focused on me.  Ways to better me.  And one of those things that I did was write my own personal mission statement.

Each year I write out goals but rarely if ever meet them.  I pick books based on areas of my life in which I desire to grow…..along with knowing I will review some as well. I choose them according to the areas that are focus points in my life.  I then also choose fiction that maybe I either missed out on in school or something that strikes my fancy! (No none of them are Romance novels….ICK)

So I wrote this Mission statement….

It is my mission to live my life with the sole purpose to give God the glory in everything I say and do-to abide in Christ, to grow in my daily walk with Him.

 It’s nothing fancy and I know it’s not short and sweet like five words or less BUT IT WORKS FOR ME.

I then added action statements for each of my main focus area in my life.  These areas include

  • My Daily walk with God…it’s a relationship and like any good fruitful relationship it takes nurturing.
  • My hubby….I love him dearly
  • The munchkins…yep four smiling, funny, keep me on my toes munchkins!
  • My home…..I want it to be a safe haven for all who cross it’s threshold .
  • My ministry….which is 2 fold, the people of our church, and my readers here on my blog!
Here is what my action statement under Ministry says
To intentionally challenge fellow women who love Jesus to grow deeper in their walk with God.  To speak truth in love and encourage women to be bold in their faith.

Reflecting Jesus

Posted on by Mary

Today, as I sit on my couch, just after sending my three older children off to school and the youngest watches Jake and the Neverland Pirates, I scroll through my Facebook newsfeed, I see lots of neat things, but in the midst my heart really breaks for a group of moms. In understand that the Nigerian culture may not celebrate Mother’s Day they may not even know it exists here in our comfy country, but I like them have something in common…..we ARE moms. We labored many hours bringing this children into the world. We have sacrificed greatly to provide our children the basic needs, and we entrust our children to a school to be educated.

Let me say this, it’s not the schools fault.
It’s not God’s fault.
It’s not the parents fault.

My heart breaks for these 200 moms who don’t know where their daughters are. BUT GOD DOES.

My prayer is that these moms will have their stolen daughters returned. My prayer is that God will be glorified through this unthinkable act. My prayer is that these girls will trust God, that they will not waiver from their faith and that lives will be changed. My prayer is that these wicked men will see Jesus through these girls and MOST of all my prayer is that these girls will be rescued quickly!

As I brushed my 7 year old daughters hair this morning……I felt blessed to not need to fear for the faith of my child. I have no idea what the future holds for her…or for any of them for that matter! I have been reminded constantly lately that being in constant prayer for my children is so necessary!

Be present
Be kind
Be loving be a good listener
Be ready
Be available
Be focused on them

I need constant reminders, God knows this. I’m easily distracted by all the noise of this world, by everyone’s opinions of me, but they are people too! What are their perceptions of me?

If I care for everyone else’s needs but forget theirs, the rest is in vain. I’ve failed them and God for they are great treasures given for me to take care of and to polish! So they reflect, not my image but that of Jesus.

So won’t you join me in not only praying for our own children but also for those 200 girls stolen. That they too may shine with the reflection of Jesus!?!