Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all a great Thanksgiving!! We have much to be thankful for this year. God has seen us through some pretty amazing things and today as I cook my first ever turkey, I wanted to give thanks to Him for the many blessings of this year. One of my favorite sayings is God doesn't want us to wait for the storms of life to pass, but He wants us to dance in the rain. Thank you Lord for shining up my dancin' shoes this year. I've learned quite a few new moves, ones I'll cherish always. Ones that when the time is right I can teach to others. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Shedding Condemnation....

This inadvertently came up at small group last night. It had nothing to do with our study, but came up nonetheless. Last night, I had very little to say, but today as I was reading, this stuck with me and I need to share it.

"Some of us have been carrying so much luggage, for so long, that we think it is normal to go through life weighted down. And the truth is that, apart from the cross, condemnation is normal. Without Jesus, we all deserve to be condemned and punished for sin. But in Romans 8:1 the Bible tells us There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. " CJ Mahaney

For many of us, we know our salvation is real and God loves us no matter what, but we have to truly believe it. That is where much of the problem lies. We've been taught or shown a system to keep our boxes check and our ducks in a row. When something gets out of line or we miss a box, we begin to think that He thinks less of us....but not so. It is we who think less, because we spend too much time listening to the wrong voice inside our heads. It's too hard to believe that even when we mess up our Father loves us anyway, and much easier to beat ourselves up for it. So it is time to lay down our luggage at the Cross and let the one who can deal with it.

1 Timothy 1:16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

Paul believed that this was him, but it is us too....we have been shown God's mercy and patience just as much as the next person. I am so glad that He has unlimited patience with us, now we need to show some to ourselves.

They Survived!!!

Sorry it has been awhile since my last post. But since we were having TV free week, it only seemed fair that I spent less time on my computer!! We have had a very enjoyable week. We've played games, and cooked, and played with friends....but mainly just spent time together. We talked and laughed and acted silly at times. =) We've decided that 3 days a week from now on are going to be TV free afternoons. They are actually excited about it and so am I!!

Upcoming TV free week....

Yesterday after school Taylor and Bradley fought over the TV for at least 45 minutes about who got to watch what and how she didn't want to watch waht he did and vice versa. I finally said, that next week, there would be no TV after school. I've been wanting to do this for a while, not really to punish them, because I know that is what it seems like now, but because I think they watch too much TV and they need to do something better with their time. This will also force me to have something planned for them to do because when they get bored, they will want to watch TV. I will keep you posted on how the week goes, and if we make it. If you have any suggestions on stuff we can do send them my way!!!

Are you a plate spinner???

So I am reading this new book this week and the author gave this great analogy about plate spinning and I just had to share. He started out with a story about the 1960's when he grew up and how Ed Sullivan used to have plate spinners on his show. Honestly, I wasn't alive in the 1960's and I've thought about it, and I am not sure if I've ever seen plate spinners, but I am sure somewhere i have...anyway...the plate spinners, they balance their plates and run around letting us, the viewer, think that a plate is going to fall, but he gets there just in time to keep it spinning. The author then turns toward us the Christian. What plates are we spinning; family, job, kids, friends, Bible study, church, looking good, pretending to be something we're not? What things are we doing that are getting in the way of our relationship with Him? We run from one thing to another trying to be that "perfect christian" and keep all of our plates spinning afraid to think about one falling and the consequences that might occur. In the process, we miss the most important thing: God. It's time to take some plates down. Don't worry, He loves you just as you are, no plates necessary. This one I'm still learing, one plate at a time.

A couple random things....

First, last week klove was having this "ultimate worship leader" contest going on. When I first heard it, I thought what a great idea, I would love to call in and give props to David our worship pastor, because he really prepares me to worship Him. It is not horizontal but so vertical and it is just so refreshing and honest worship of our Saviour. David is merely the facilitator. However, after I kept listening, it was a contest to call in and brag on your church and then get entered into a drawing to have Michael W. Smith come and lead worship at one of your church services. Needless to say, I didn't call in....I like things just the way they are.

Second, Bradley who is in kindergarten is learning how to read. I remember kindergarten there was a lot of playing, but very little work....times have changed but that is another post i think. Anyway, back to Bradley. He's reading along the other night the few words he know and he reads the word "but". To a 5 year old it was just about the funniest thing he had ever done. He was so excited that not only was it ok for him to say "but", but he didn't get in trouble either. He must have laughed for at least 5 minutes. It was infectious, and soon I was laughing too. I didn't have to heart to tell him that the "butt" he was laughing about was not the "but" he thought it was. It was just too cute!!!