30 minutes of Quiet

How often do we really just set and embrace our Creators creation? I know for me personally it doesn't happen near as often as it should. Yes, daily I spend time in prayer and devotion, but during that my mind is always running. I feel it is so easy to lose my focus. During my prayer time my mind can drift to my to do list, or to the needs that haven't been met yet in my life and my doubts of why, as well as drifting thoughts to others in my life. It can turn in to a vicious cycle at times.

Today however,  I was challenged to just sit and wait. Sit and listen. Sit and embrace. To go outside and enjoy His creation and revel in God's awesomeness. And let me tell you....boy, how I truly need to do this so much more. I want to share with you what God showed me in this time today.

As I walked outside I could feel the crisp air, however the warmth of the sun quickly warmed me up. God showed me that this is exactly what He can do and wants to do in our lives. He is the Son. We are called to rest in His everlasting arms. Trusting in His embrace, knowing He is in control. That nothing is outside of His influence and that the Almighty one is working out His awesome plan for our good. As we rest, wait, trust, and obey His loving arms hold us keeping us warm. And the warmth that feel from Him is the warmth we are to show to others around us.

I sat and listened to the different birds chirping and singing. What a glorious sound it really is when you just let your mind be still and listen. That sound is exactly what God wants from us. Daily He wants us sharing Him with others. He wants us to preach the gospel and sing praises to His name. To given Him all glory and honor.

I could feel the morning dew on my chair and quickly a smile came a cross my face. I have meditated many times over the past few years on Lamentations 3:22-23, and today God reminded me of that verse once again.
   
     The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every       morning; great is they faithfulness.

Daily new mercies are given from our awesome Creator. Daily we can fall at His feet and rest knowing that He forgives all. Nothing we do surprises Him and nothing we do changes His love for us. Daily we will fail and daily we will sin, but thankfully through His sacrifice that he paid for us we can pick up our cross and carry it for Him as we ask for new mercies.

Then, I heard what I know I am guilty of and so many others. I heard the honking of horns. OUCH. Really God? Did you need me to hear that? Yes, yes I did need that. Quickly this symbolized to me the busyness of our lives. God didn't truly plan our lives to be chaotic and crazy like they are. We are constantly running from one activity to another. One event to another. Our lives are consumed with church, school, work, sports, events, etc. It can be tiring, overwhelming, but surprisingly even through the busyness blessing can be found in disguise. My heart pounded with conviction as I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to SLOW DOWN. To seek God daily and see what it is that He would have us to do and to stop trying to make it all work myself or even do it all myself. He wants us sold out to Him 100%. Sadly this is so much harder than most of us want to admit because if your like me we have become accustomed to the daily chaos. We put God to the side quickly as we try and conquer the day without Him. Today in my time with no distractions I saw that I can not do that. Never will I be successful doing it alone. I need Him every minute, every hour, and every day of my life. No ifs, ands or buts about it. God needs me sold out to Him!

I mean, WOW! God, you truly are so majestic. You are so mighty and powerful. Your creation is breathtaking.  You love for us is mind-boggling. You are AWESOME! I challenge you today as well to find some time this week to just revel in His goodness! To be gripped my His greatness! He has something big He wants to show you!

                       Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on You. Through it all, through it all, it is
                        well. It is well, with my soul.

Thank you God for you grace and mercy!

New Mama of 5

I want to start this off by saying I serve an amazingly, AWESOME, mind-boggling, all-powerful, and all-knowing, limitless God!

I am now 2 weeks in to being a Mama of 5 kids! YIKES! I'm still not sure who really does this! Ha!

As most of you know we recently celebrated the birth of our 4th homegrown boy and have 1 beautiful princess through the gift of adoption! I want to tell you the past 2 weeks have truly been a blessing to all of us.  This new baby has brought more life and smiles in our home than we have seen or felt in months.

You see for months, I have been selfish. I have been depressed, overwhelmed, fearful, worried, and doubtful that God truly knew what He was doing with our family. Starting over was not what I wanted to do and many times I found myself in tears and overwhelmed with this idea. I love our kids, but the chaos that we live in is tiring and draining and in my heart and mind, I was DONE.

Sure, as a little girl I always had that fantasy of a big family. You know lots of talented kids performing and just having fun. Dinners each and every night together talking about our day and just enjoying life together. However, this fantasy in my mind died.

The sounds of that big family just became to much for me. I remember sitting in the doctors office 2 months before we found out we would be expecting yet another bundle of joy in tears because I felt I just couldn't be Super Mom anymore and raise these kids.

 The amazing thing about this is that what I didn't know is that God saw me differently. He knew exactly what His plan was about in unfold in our lives. He knew I could do way more than I ever imagined. For some crazy reason He knew one more baby boy was exactly what our family needed to be complete and made new. He knew that starting over was going to be more amazing than any of us ever imagined it to be. HE KNOWS IT ALL!!!

For the past 2 weeks as I have looked in to these deep baby blue eyes I have once again been mesmerized by our awesome Creator.
   
       Psalm 139:13-16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I        praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that          full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was            woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days                    ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Did you catch what that verse said? All our day's are ordained and written before they ever come to be! STUNNING! I've cried many tears of joy the past 2 weeks as I have looked at our precious Cash and seen just how amazing our kids are with him. I have asked for forgiveness over and over for my negativity and doubt in my awesome Creator. I know full well it will not always be an easy journey as a Mom of 5, but I am fully believing this truly was and is God's plan and He will remain in control. He will continue gluing this family together in ways we never imagined. We have to believe and have faith in Him and His plans.

I am not a mom that sits well. I am up and going at all times. My mind races just as fast as my legs run, but God has opened my eyes and helped me to see just how much I need to slow down. I need to embrace not just baby Cash, but each one of these kids. Our time really does go fast and although in different seasons we are ready to rush through it God takes moments like these to stop us and show us His blessings. If I could give one piece of advice that God has pressed upon me lately, it is to STOP, BREATHE, and ENJOY HIM! Enjoy all the many blessings He has given us. I will tell you something, once you truly stop and enjoy you will be overwhelmed by the Peace that God gives!

Time to Put Excuses Away...

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. Fro we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Being honest is much harder than telling a lie. Being something that we are not or placing blame on something else other than ourselves is much easier than facing reality that maybe it's not others, but indeed us that is failing in areas.

I know this sounds confusing and slightly crazy, but the past few months I have struggled with lots of negativity.  I have placed blame on others in my life instead of taking responsibility for my actions in what God has called me to do and where He has called me to serve. I have felt so convicted the past month and feel led to share my thoughts and my experience with what God has shown me about the Church and our responsibility as the Body of Christ.

Recently we started small groups at church and already I am seeing God revealing things I have needed to see for so long. Our study is on being Gripped by the Greatness of God! Do you or I even really comprehend just how big and how great our God truly is? I know for me I have minimized Him for way too long. I have doubted each and every part of His plan for my life and my family's life for many years. Yes, this is a hard thing to admit, but something I feel I have to do for myself and for others to see they are not alone. This past week this statement in our devotion gripped me and gripped me hard.

Allow God to grip your heart with this truth, His truth and you'll find you have NO more patience for your own lame excuses. 

Wow....Ouch...That hurts a lot, huh.

I don't know about you, but for me I have been willing and ready to throw in the towel in too many areas in my life over the past few years. I have been ready to quit the church, give up on my marriage, distance myself from my children, my friends and family. It's sad, but true. I have allowed excuses to rule my life.

Here's many I have allowed into my heart and that have ruled me....

I'm not good enough for my husband, I do everything myself, I can't do all that God is asking me to do nor do I want to, my kids overwhelm me daily, and the church is failing my marriage, my family and my kids. The list goes on and on.

Thankfully I have not acted upon any of these lies that so many of us woman believe about ourselves, our marriages, our family, and most importantly the church. Instead God has shown me some real hard realities. Some that aren't easy to swallow or admit to, but realities that in order for my life to be fruitful and pleasing to Him I have to swallow.

The church is not failing anyone in my family. I am the one failing my family. I am the one who has sat back waiting for the church to save my kids and my marriage. I am the one who has been critical of each and every program and service. I am the one thinking no one communicates or that no one is working to make anything better. I want things to change or be done, but I am NOT doing anything to change that. Instead I am placing all blame on everyone else.

Moms, dads, anyone reading this, God has called us to train our children up to love Him and know Him so they will not depart from Him. He has called us to be active in our church an in our family and to be serving Him not just at church, but in our homes as well. There will never be a perfect family. There will never be a perfect church service or a perfect church program. It will just never happen.

So I am done sitting back and watching the church decline because of my own lame excuses to not want to bring people in and my excuses to not want to serve. NO more. I pray that this hits you as well where ever you are and you too will take the stand to serve Him. And if you don't have a church home and are close join us as First Baptist in Aurora. There is amazing things happening there. The Holy Spirit is working in families and is calling individuals to serve where He needs us to be serving. We are coming together to further His kingdom and to show our kids the awesomeness of being Gripped by our God both in the church and out of the church.

Sure we will still stumble and fall, but we can rest assured He is working, He is alive, and He has big plans for each and every church and family. We have got to put our own selfishness aside and let God lead in each and every area of our lives. WE ARE THE CHURCH.  Our Pastors, Deacons, and church leadership cannot do it ALL. We have to stop expecting the church to please us, and we have to start pleasing our God with serving. It won't be easy, but from what God has shown me recently it will be worth it. Now is the time to stop the excuses, get involved, and raise our families to Love God, Love People, and Light the World!