As we journey together “let us think of ways to motivate one another in acts of love and good works”(Hebrews 10:24 NLT)

Grace is giving someone something they don’t deserve…..not all too far removed but still very different than Mercy which is Not giving someone what they deserve. Do you see the difference?

Grace is something that Jesus exemplified right until his death when He uttered “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 (ESV)

Even the thief next to him on the cross received grace. He knew what he had done was sin, understood who Christ was asked for Grace and it was extended to him when jesus said “today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43

Did that mean that the robber would no longer suffer the consequences of his sin? Not a chance. He still died that horrible death on the cross. Far worse than anything I can even imagine.

There are so many instances of Grace exemplified by Jesus even before His death. There were tax Collectors, harlots, accusers, the mob, his disciples (yes they of all the rest seemed to need FAR. More grace than all the others).

I am no different and neither are my children. Let me start off by saying this, we could learn a lesson or two from kids, they are just chock full of grace! But we as parents (and even non-parents) can sometimes come down hard on those same grace filled kids! It really is very sad. I have found myself on more than one occasion set to discipline a child for something that had nothing more than the purest intentions. I have pretty sweet kids. But sometimes they just go about being thoughtful in the wrong way. So I have two choices, i can come down hard on them and say….”you broke a house rule, i don’t care why, you will have to do this……” Or before i get to crazy I can stop and listen. Just by stopping and listening shows an amazing amount of grace. Sometimes as parents hubby and I need to do just that. Does that mean by doing so that our kids get away with something though? NOPE. By slowing down though it gives us more opportunities to teach and train, and by doing so we are also teaching and training them how to handle others as well.

One of the hardest things to do is to try to understand the motives of your child. Only God truly understands ones motives but as parents we must become students of our children. Understanding every little thing about them and what drives them to do what they do (just another way we as parents depict Father God to our children). This is why children who have been abused by their parents have such a hard time picturing God as the loving Father that he is. This can be exceptionally hard in counseling sessions and church settings.

When you stop and listen you learn so much. A child’s heart is something that is so pure. Despite all of Jesus’ exhaustion He took time for the children. He saw the importance of time on a child’s life. He laid the groundwork for the grace they so desperately needed. I often wonder what kind of impact that moment had on the lives of those children.

There is a saying that is uttered in our house often, ” there isn’t anything you could say or do to ever make me stop loving you.” We want our children to know that our love is not dependent on their performance in life.” They will make wrong decisions and Will have to suffer the consequences. They will say hurtful things and will apologize. Trust will be broken. But no matter what I will love them…and they hopefully never question that (though I am human too)

God’s love isn’t dependent on me being good. i am obedient to God because I love Him. Love and grace though no the same go hand in hand. God is gracious because he loves me. I should be gracious to my children AND to all those around me because I love God. And i follow his commandments….and he commands me to love my neighbor and my enemy!
Its hard to do when someone hurts you but how else will they ever see the love of God? Grace is not synonymous with trust. Grace is giving someone what they don’t deserve, they might deserve what they did you in the first place. Grace is not giving it to them! Love them instead, give them kindness instead.
Live a grace filled life….it’s contagious!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sharing

by

Hi all,
Sorry for the absence but we took a week of vacation! It was wonderful!
And now that we are back and mostly recouped from our insanely long trip back. I am renewed and refreshed!

This was out first vacation in FOUR years. Over the last few years we have spent two weeks in spring in Michigan for hubby’s Th.M. program. Last may he graduated so we didn’t need to go out there! That was half school and half vacation!

The last full vacation we took was to Tennessee and Kentucky before my husband accepted the call to the church he now pastors back in February of 2009!

On this trip we got to spend time with my aunt and uncle in South Carolina and on the return trip we got to see my brother for a few minutes. While in Florida we got to spend time with hubby’s brother HT and sister -in -law L. And our new (and only) niece Ducky (that’s her nickname)

Isn’t she sweet! hubby and I fought over her and the kids all loved her to bits! We enjoyed the sun and warmth of southern Florida!

We as a family we rested…well that is until we headed home from South Carolina! What should have taken us 13 hours ended up taking us 26! The traffic we hit was unbelievable and we even avoided the DC /Baltimore area!

All in all it was a real blessing. We miss everyone!
I look forward to jumping in with both feet over the coming weeks!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sharing

by

This is the very first installment of a series i mentioned on Facebook a little while ago entitled Why we do what we do. We get many questions about why we choose certain things.

Today as i am nearing the end of my reading through the book of Philippians i was reminded of the reason we opt out of regular media.

It says :

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Everything thing we consume media wise is put into our minds we will recount them. We need to be sure not to put something in that does not fit these requirements. It is setting ourselves up for failure otherwise!

It’s far too easy for our kids to see something they aren’t supposed to. We let our kids watch movies and some TV shows that we pre-pick

We are called to be good stewards of all we have and that includes our children. We need to make sure their minds and hearts and eyes are protected at all costs. Let’s face it today’s media lacks in the pure quotient. Hubby and I also need to focus on these things as well because our hearts could become numb to sin, and that would affect our ministry!

Remember focusing on right things is a commandment of God…..garbage in garbage out fits perfectly into the Bible!

BLESSINGS,

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sharing

by

Chapter 9- when the World Presses in
Yet again another chapter that hits right at home!

I think at one time or another we have all experienced loss…..matter of fact I have experienced loss many times. A year ago our family experienced a year full of loss. In my adult years I have lost both grandmothers, many friends, and aunts and uncles, and church family.

But going back farther, as a teenager I experienced deep loss. Loss of what I initially believed defined who I was. At thirteen I was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration. I was told I was the youngest kid in the U.S. to have it at the time. At that moment in my life, I wasn’t really phased. I had that all too familiar invincible mentality. No worries I would have eye surgery and everything would be all good. Fast forward three years later. I was one month away from turning 16. I was so excited to get my driver’s license. My dad and I had even spotted car I really wanted….a little cobalt blue something. But then i started to notice things were changing, it was getting to the point where I couldn’t see notes on the board….I was terrified. But this time I wasn’t invincible, and everything began to unravel! There were eye doctor visits and at the end of one such the doctor asked me to really consider my options…..i could either have surgery and run the risk of making my eyes weaker, or possibly not being able to see at all, or not have the surgery, let the scar tissue become attached and have it stabilize. I prayed very hard and with peace that even I still don’t understand today, i chose no surgery. Everyone around me thought I was giving up. But what I was really chosing to do was to embrace what I still had. I thought it was a bad choice to risk what I still had.which coincidentally is quite a bit. I had people telling me i wasn’t trusting God enough. That He could heal me if I just believed enough. Here’s the thing what if God doesn’t want to heal you? What if by you having some sort of affliction brings Him more glory.

I won’t lie it was probably the darkest time in my life. Thoughts flashed through my head of not being good enough. Friends, I pretty much had none. They were ok as long as everything was going great but for the most part kids were cruel, and I was different. That usually makes for a bad mix!

Fast forward 17 years. I have been blind for over half of my life now. It hasn’t been all roses but I am married to an amazing guy. I have four amazing kids and a church family who loves us. I am living out my calling as a pastor’s wife. Those things are my bright spots but if you have been following my blog you know the last few months have been nothing short of a trial. And yet again It has been required of me to let some dreams go.

As our third child, our second son was diagnosed with Aspergers an autism spectrum disorder. There are some things I have had to let go of. I’ve had to come to the realization that we might be lifetime caregivers of our son. There is no guarantee that therapy or diet will work. We have seen that already as he gets worse instead of better. We also had to let go of the simple dream that he may never be able to read. There are many other dreams we have had to hand over to God. We have had to mourn the loss of relationships through this. It’s terribly difficult to have fair weather friends but you can tell who your true friends and cheerleaders are as you embark down a dark path with no idea where it would possibly lead.

Am I mad at God? No, no i’m not because i know what I deserve is far worse than this! I deserve the pit of hell. But through His grace and mercy I have a promise of HOPE, and I will gladly endure whatever for His Glory, for it is ONLY by his love that I can all ALL things!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sharing

by

I must confess that when my arm was in the splint it was too hard to type so i had to let blogging go for two weeks! So now i wanted to finish up!

Week 8- When you just Want To Give Up
Well I must have to say that this has been an encouraging chapter!
Have I felt this way? Most certainly, and it wasn’t all that long ago either!
Actually, there is a blog post entitled “Getting Ugly” that came out of that dark time. You see a battle has been waged in our home. That battle nearly consumed me. It is a battle that started in October of 2012, with no warning!

It brought to light my weaknesses and every area I felt as though I was failing in. God had been chipping away at some very deep scars. Ones I had been hiding deep in my heart…..ones that I will not share here. I was struggling. I felt as though there was absolutely no where to turn!

I felt so incredibly alone and as though I had to wage this battle alone. It involved our third child, our second son. Something obviously changed in October. We started seeing and hearing things we had never seen or heard before. I was so embarrassed and scared. Not necessarily for myself but for my husband! We are a pastor’s family…..what would people think if they heard the pastor’s son say that? He could loose his job. I was SOOOOO worried about appearances!

I had downloaded a free copy of Hope For A Weary Mom back when it was first released. I thought to myself, “i’ll just add it to the ever mounting collection on my kindle”. Well in January God really started moving my heart. I was thinking about this book quite a few times in a day so I began to read. I joined in on the reading club even though i was a month behind. I was caught up by week 5. As i read chapter 2 i was sobbing uncontrollably. That last chunk fell to the ground and shattered to the tiniest pieces. It was called “when Your Weakness Is all You Can See”. Boy oh boy did that fit little old me, you see I had convinced myself that I was unworthy to sit before my Heavenly Father because I wasn’t good enough. I was failing in EVERYTHING!

Since that day when I fell to my knees and gave it all over to God, and confessed my struggles with feeling inadequate in literally every area of my life, God has blessed! Mostly in my confidence! My confidence to share our struggles as a parent of a child on the autism spectrum. I have always believed that if God gives you a story, you need to share it! My life has been nothing short of one HUGE amazing story to share. And as that chunk of inadequacy fell to the ground, so did my fear of not being good enough. Because the only person I truly have to impress is God himself. By myself I am not enough, but because the blood of Christ cleansed me from all imperfections (though i am very much still imperfect) I AM ENOUGH!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sharing

by