Adventures Together

I am writing to you this week from the sunny state of Florida!! My parents have a house near the beach and our entire family is spending the week here. The kids are having a blast boogie boarding, building sand castles, swimming in the pool, and generally raising ruckus! The adults are all having a pretty great time too! We are so fortunate to be able to do this.




Last night, my parents and my sisters and I took all of the kids on a nature walk. My parents live on a nature preserve, so there is a lot of fun things to explore. Here are the kids getting ready to go.





They were so excited to go on adventure. Who knew what we would encounter... Frogs, alligators, rabbits, unidentifiable rodents??? It was all good though, because they had each other. Here is a picture of them setting out to see what they could see. (That's my mom trying to stay out of the picture:)





My favorite picture of the night is Caroline holding hands with her cousin Jackson. Caroline is not much of a nature girl, so this walk was a stretch for her. Towards the end of our adventure, she found comfort holding her oldest cousin's hand.




As humans, we find comfort from others, whether it is family or close friends. During our life adventures, remember that we have the ultimate comfort in Christ. He is there for us no matter what the situation. Remember to ask Him to come along for the ride!!

"Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afteward you will take me into glory." Psalm 73:23,24

My New Momma

It is so good to blog again. I was in Alabama for a week with the youth from my church (June 13-20), so I was out of touch with the internet world for a while. I spent the past week catching up on life and I have been waiting to write this post.

Our mission trip took us to Birmingham, Alabama with Mission Serve. Monday started out on the work site at 7:30 in the morning. I had met my squad the previous night (only 2 kids from my church). We were from 3 different states and 5 different churches. Our job for the week was to build a deck, rebuild a railing on some stairs, and help another crew with painting the house. We were pumped and ready to work, but I was nowhere near prepared for what God had in store for the week.

I got a new Momma!!!

I don't want to confuse anyone - my mom is perfectly wonderful and I love her dearly. Just bear with me for the remainder of this post and the title will make perfect sense.

Ok......I got a new Momma!!! Her name is Ms. Betty Taylor and she is 72. She was a total blessing from Jesus to my life and I am super glad I got to meet her and spend time with her. She is the owner of the home that we were working on. Mission Serve encourages us to meet the home-owners and talk with them. Well, in the south, you get invited in and given a tour of the house (at least we did)!

I spent lots of time with Ms. Betty, a.k.a. Momma, while we were working. She was on fire for Jesus and overjoyed by how God was blessing her and getting work done on her house. Each day she would come out and chat with us or invite myself and Courtney (another adult on my squad from Texas) to come in and talk. We all quickly became her "babies".

So, I now have a black Momma in Alabama. The coolest thing about this - God knew this would happen. He paved the way. He didn't just bless Momma, he overwhelmed me with this new relationship. He is so cool that way!

Here is a picture of Courtney, Momma (Ms. Betty), and me:

God Heals!

I have a pretty basic testimony: I was raised in the church, by two parents who were very involved in church, and great witnesses to me on what it looked like to live for Christ. Nothing super terrible has happened to me in my life, and for the most part I have consistently lived seeking God.

Although, a few times, my heart has been broken.

In the past 6 months, I have had a lot of transitions. A few of these have been painful for my family, close friends, and especially for me. One in particular has left my heart shattered. I am sorry that I am being slightly vague, I am trying very hard to be respectful of the situation.

I have tried to forgive and move on...I don't believe one can completely forget certain pains, and I don't think God wants us to. He brings us through certain things to be taught something, and forgetting the darkness He has rescued me from, could lead to me forgetting the lesson I have learned. One of my favorite Christian groups is Point of Grace, they sing a song called Heal The Wounds. It is a song asking God to heal the wounds of our hearts but leave a scar so we can remember the mercy and grace He has shown to us.

Psalm 147:3,5 says

He heals the brokenhearted

And binds up their wounds...Great is our Lord,

and mighty in power.

I know that God is bigger than my current sorrows, I know that He sees something in me that I can't even begin to comprehend, and I know that He will heal my heart. But the difficult truth in this is that I have to be willing to give Him all the pieces of my broken heart. But I don't want to, my human heart and mind wants to hold on to the pain. I want to feel justice on earth for what I have gone through. It seems ridiculous to me right now that I would say that but it's true. I am not done complaining about how terrible the situation was for me, I am still wanting to live in victim mentality.

The truth I am facing in this day is that God may never give me that moment of earthly validation, but what He can offer me is so much better. FREEDOM, from the pain, hurt, and negativity that has surrounded me.

Great Lord,

Would you heal me, please? I love you!

Ahmen

He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

As you know yesterday was my birthday! Had a great day! Got to eat out all three meals and had many well wishers!! I've been saying for a couple years that I'm 39 again, actually 15 years so yes, I am 54. Can't believe it!!

With that age comes some obvious issues, some good - some not so good. This past week I was sitting in the hospital with my mom and some of my siblings as we waited for my dad to get out of some day surgery which was follow up from some tests he had had. We talked about our kids and grand kids, work, the cooking shows we were watching, and then got to the subject of changes that my parents and my father especially would pro'bly need to be making in their lives. Not an easy subject. It is very strange thinking that your parents are getting to the point that they will be needing your constant help whether they want it or not.

Which leads me to my next thought, I don't know about you but at times, I worry abit about what really happens after we leave this world. I guess that is doubting and I work thru it. I think it is many times at night and my mind is playing tricks on me and I'm worried about many things...I just pray to God that He would give me a peace about all my worries, whatever they are and especially calm the storms in me. I remember Jesus' words when he told the disciples in John 14 : 1-6, "Let not your heart be troubled, You are trusting God, now trust in me. There are many homes up there where my Father lives, and I am going to prepare them for your coming, When everything is ready, then I will come and get you, so that you can always be with me where I am. If this weren't so, I would tell you plainly. And you know where I am going and how to get there." Thomas questioned and 'Jesus told him, "I am the Way --yes, and the Truth and the Life."

Jesus tells us not to be troubled and to keep our mind on him for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! When I think on that my mind can focus on what is important and I realize things will be alright in my day to day worries. Things are put in perspective and I know what I need to do or how to act or how to react. I am sometimes humbled and know that God is telling me what I need to change about me to do better. And also, I realize that this life is all for a reason and in the end when it is my time, Jesus will come for me and take me to heaven to live in the mansion he has prepared for me. That usually puts a calm in my spirit and a smile on my face, sometimes even tears in my eyes knowing that Jesus loves me that much. He has the words there for us to read so we can know what to do and what He will do! That's why it is so important to be constantly reading the Bible. We can trust Him and know His words are true!


Dear God, Help us here on earth when we are doubting and struggling. Show us in your Word. Help us to follow you for as long as we are here on this earth before you come for us to take us to our Heavenly home. Amen.


P.S. I read this saying one time something like 'when I get to heaven, I hope my mansion is right next to yours.' That's how I feel about you all!!! :)

Participation Wednesday

Hi Ladies!

Edited to add: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDY! We love you and are SO thankful for you, to have you as a part of our lives and this ministry. You are loving, helpful, giving, faithful and we CAN see Jesus in your life! Love your GLOW gals. :)

Summer is here in full swing... Shane's busy with camp, we are taking swimming lessons, enjoying the lake, and being outside. I'm so thankful for this time. I'm thankful for my family, for time together, for memories. I'm feeling particularly thankful in this time with so much turmoil in the world, economy, and in a life where you never know what's going to happen next. (I'm also thankful for central air and ice cream! ha!)

Let's make this participation Wednesday... What are you thankful for today? Leave a comment and share with us.

Let Jesus on the Boat!

Okay, my post today is not an original idea, but I loved the sermon my pastor gave yesterday. I have to share the gist of it with you. It is based on Mark 4:35-40, where Jesus calms the storm for the disciples. To paraphrase, Jesus and the disciples are on a boat, crossing the Sea of Galilee. During the night, a storm breaks out and the disciples wake a sleeping Jesus up, frantic for him to save them from drowning. Jesus gets up from his cozy cushion and tells the wind and waves to be quiet.... and they do, of course. He then asks his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" In other words, what is wrong with y'all? You have me, Jesus, here with you in the boat, and you are still afraid for your life?

Basically, my pastor's point is that we all have storms in our lives. Sometimes big, massive hurricanes that could overtake us, and sometimes little squalls that just get us off course briefly. God never promises that our lives will be storm-free. But He does promise to help calm the storm inside of us with his perfect peace, if we invite Him in the boat with us. God uses those storms in our lives to point out how helpless we are, and how mighty He is. Sometimes we have to sail through some pretty stormy seas to realize how much we need Him. He is mighty to save us from desperation, from drowning in our doubt, sorrow, anger... whatever it may be.

Our praise band sang a wonderful song that fit this story perfectly....the chorus goes like this:

You are my refuge, my shelter from the storm. You are the answer, Lord you are my home.

We all need Jesus in the boat with us. There is not one single person who can make it through life's storms intact, on their own. But He can get us through it. He can be our strength when we are weak.

Dear God, you are my refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. I will not fear though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the sea. I will be still and know that you are God. You will be exalted among nations. Amen

(based on Psalm 46)

Prayer Sisters!

Good afternoon blog world! I just wanted to make a quick post. The GLOW ministry blog team is meeting weekly to do a summer study by Kelly Minter, No Other Gods. So far we are being stretched and taught by each other and God's Word.

As we meet weekly we would like to pray for you more specifically than we already do. Individually we are all praying for our blog and the women who read it. We are blessed to know that you are reading and praying for us too! It would be our honor to lift you up in prayer, and be your prayer sisters! To post a prayer request you can either leave a comment or email the blog authors at theglowministry@gmail.com

I am obnoxiously excited about getting some prayer requests so send them our way! We know that God is with us and hears our prayers. Won't it be awesome to have commited Prayer Sisters! I know I am excited!

So to be fair, I'll start.

This weekend I would like as many people as possible praying for our earthly Fathers. After all their day is coming up!

I am so blessed by my Daddy!

Would you join me in praying that all dads would feel the love of God in their heart, would lead by example the way a Christian should live, would be surrounded by the love of their families, and would feel relaxed and blessed? God you are so good, thank you Lord for my dad!!

My dad in one of his best roles yet, Grandpa!