God and Josh

This week I had some good conversations about God with our six year old Joshua. I shared about this on our FCC Women's Ministry blog. Click here to read about it.

Random Pictures

Josh and I are bored, so he decided we should post some random pictures on my blog. Here's our dead dog Sophie.
One day, our internet service was down. So Denny went over and sat on the neighbors porch and stole their internet...

Here's Denny going thru the Dairy Queen Drive thruHe wanted Dairy Queen, but I was thinking...

Here's Joshua with Gram and Grandpa's dog "Shadow".

Okay, that's all for now.

More News!!

I added to my side bar under "upcoming events" that Christy Sutherland will be singing a couple of songs in all three services at First Christian Church on Sunday, April 6th.

We are looking sooo forward to having Matt and Christy back with us! Christy will be on The Harvest Show on Friday, April 4th. Check your listings to see if it will be shown in your area, or you can watch it at www.harvest-tv.com

Find out more about Christy by clicking here

What Was I Thinking?

It's my Mom's fault. A couple of weeks ago, I found some curtains that I liked while shopping with my Mama. I had entertained the idea of changing the color in our dining room, and these curtains were on sale at Pier 1, so I bought them.

Then I picked out some paint to match. I actually REALLY enjoy painting. It's very relaxing to me. And very rewarding. However, I like to paint a room ONCE not three times!!

I started painting the stripes on Sunday. Then I couldn't decide if I really liked the color. So Monday night I painted one wall. Twice. Then I decided that I liked it, so I went ahead and painted the rest of the room. It ended up taking THREE coats. By Wednesday, I was so sore that I could barely raise my arms. Wah. I finally got it finished last night. The curtains still aren't done. There's actually more to them, we just kind of threw them up there. (They'll probably still be like that two months from now.) :-)

When I got on my blog tonight, I realized for the first time, that my blog colors are pretty much the same as my house colors. I must like those colors :-) I'll post a few pics so you can see the new room (reddish one) and notice the bloggy colors.

I just happend to catch the above room at a time when Joshua's army men were picked up. About 75% of the time the white couch looks like a battle zone.

I have one more paint project upstairs that I want to try to get done before spring...this time I'm going with a lighter color that won't take so many coats!

Maren

Today was "take your daughter to work day." Okay, it wasn't really "take your daughter to work day", but that's what I did. The kids were off today, but Denny and I were not. Will had plans, and Josh went to the sitter, but Maren wanted to go with me.

So we had fun cruisin' in the car listening to country music on her I-Pod. We mostly listened to Taylor Swift, LeAnn Rimes, and Carrie Underwood. Those are three of Maren's favorites. Sprinkled between was a little Hannah Montana music.

We ate at Olive Garden where Maren managed to run up a $20 bill just for herself. I should have been adding it up in my head, but I didn't. She said, I just want salad and breadsticks. I thought "great!" Then she asked, "If I just get salad and breadsticks, can I have black tie mousse cake for dessert?" I thought this is a special mom/daughter day so "sure". Then she asked, "can I have alfredo sauce for my breadsticks, again I said "sure." Then she got a cherry sprite to drink. To every refill, unbeknownst to me, they added 75 cents for the cherry flavoring. Great. So all together, seriously, Maren's bill was almost $20.00!! I feel sorry for her future boyfriend.

I Feel a Trip to Uganda Coming On...

Might as well face it you're addicted to blogs…That’s the song that I should sing to my husband. Blog reading has become his “down time”. Which shouldn’t come as any surprise to me, because he’s ALWAYS been a reader. He loves to read.

Reading blogs is kind of like watching reality TV shows. Except it’s more real, more personal. I tend to read only people I know. Like, for instance, if I glance at my side bar, each person that I have links to, I have a least talked to in person once. (telling about how I met them could actually make for another blog post) Anyway, Denny, however, reads a great assortment of Christian blogs, and has especially “connected” with Shaun Groves. Through Shaun he became acquainted with Compassion International. Through compassion international he gave money to help support a little boy named Felix. Since then, He has encouraged our kids to pray for Felix.

Tonight, Denny was reading the blogs of the people who are in Uganda right now. You can read these too by clicking “read” on the Uganda widget to the right. At one point while he was reading, he picked up his laptop, and took it to the bathroom. I knew what he was doing. He was crying, and he didn’t want me to see.

He came out of the bathroom, and I said lightheartedly, “have you been crying?” Trying to remain composed he said, “Yes.” But that was about the only word he got out before he lost his composure. His next words were through tears as he said, “these kids have nothing.” I watched him as he sat in a chair for about the next 15 minutes and just cried.

Of course, seeing him cry, made me tear up too. My tears were just as meaningful, but for a different reason. My tears were from seeing God work in the heart of my man. From seeing the compassion that He had for these kids. And thankful to God that Denny heard His call to help through giving, and help through praying, and help through crying.

“Those who plant in tears, will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest." Psalm 126:5,6

To see what Denny was reading click here, and read the post titled "Our Boy". To see the video he was watching look below…The video will mean a lot more and make much more sense to you if you read the post first.

Doing Life Together

I don't normally share devotions here that are written by other people, but yesterday's was so fitting for Valentine's Day, and today's I thought was SO good. Yesterday and today's devo's were taken from a daily devotional booklet called, "Our Journey". Today's devotion was written by James MacDonald. If you'd like to receive this devotional booklet at your house, go to www.ourjourneywitw.com Here's today's devo called "Doing Life Together"...

We have a commitment within our church family to "do life together." It's now a ninteen-year experiment which asks, is there a group of people who will love one another no matter what and keep on going together for God? That's the vision God has given to us...to love, forbear with, and forgive each other, growing together in Christ year after year. As you would expect, it takes a lot of sweat and tears.

Ephesians 4:1-3 hits the bull's-eye of how this commitment works. "Walk...with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (emphasis added). Eager to maintain means I am willing to work hard at unity...no matter what it costs me. This kind of sacrifice isn't about money or time; it drills down to your core. The strength behind this pledge is in the sacrifice of yourself.

My opinions. My entitlements. My injured feelings...these are what you give up for the sake of unity. This is how far you will go to do life with your brother and sister in Christ. Always trying to work it out. Because you like the person? Not always. You do it because you want to honor God.

This concept of sacrificing yourself for the good of your brother was so foreign to the Greek and Roman culture at the time Ephesians 4 was written that Paul had to coin a new word to describe it. He called this attitude humility....the choice to carry a weight rather than inflict a wrong. You may say, "But their opinion is wrong!" Perhaps. But if it's not a doctrinal issue or in conflict with what the Bible clearly teaches, swallow your argument and agree to disagree. What clearer evidence could there be that God is at work in you?

When someone disappoints you again after years of patience and love, you may say in frustration, Do I still have to put up with this? And the answer is, Yes, you do. God is watching how we treat each other, and He honors every time we roll up our sleeves to do the hard thing.

We need to work hard at unity. Why? Because our eyes are on Christ and we want the One who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death to get the greater glory.

Ephesians 4:1-7 "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Ask God to give you wisdom to know when your opinion would be helpful to the circumstance and when to keep silent for the good of unity. Surrender to the Lord the feelings of pride that rise up when you demand to be heard. The Lord hears you.

Love

This was my devotion this morning. Just thought I'd share...

John 4:7-12

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."

(Answer the following questions based on the above scripture)

1. What does loving each other prove about us?
2. What does not loving others prove about us?
3. How did God prove His love?
4. Where does our love for others come from?
5. What was God's proof of His love for us?
6. Bottom line: Why should we love others?
7. If no one can see God, how can the world know about His love?

Romans 5:5 (NIV)
5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Opposites Attract

I remember sitting on our front porch this past summer with my friend Jennifer. At the time, there was a huge, overgrown perennial sitting right in front of us. I said to Jennifer, "I hate that overgrown perennial and I want to cut it back. I can't see a thing when I'm sitting here because that plant blocks my view. Denny, however, loves the plant and he won't allow me to cut it because he can sit here and it hides him." Jennifer chuckled as she replied something to the effect of, "well, that pretty well sums up you and Denny doesn't it?" I think I must have looked at her as if she was brilliant, and said "yeah...it does." I tend to be outgoing, and want to see people and be with people, and Denny is much more of an introvert and is very satisfied spending time alone and out of the limelight.

Why is it that opposites attract?

We're both kind of neat freaks, but he's over the edge. For example, tonight before Bible study, I grabbed a handle full of "goldfish" to eat (yes, the kids have me hooked). Anyway, as I walked through the kitchen, I dropped one of the goldfish. Before I could turn around and pick it up off of the floor, he had picked it up. He does stuff like that all the time. He'll put things away before I'm even finished with them.

Today, I had lunch with him, and we were discussing how he likes practically no seasoning on his food... "bland". I like mine spicy.

When I'm in my car, I like to play the music LOUD...he, fortunately likes the same style of music, but he would prefer I play it a little softer.

He used to get mad at me every Sunday after church because I preferred to talk to people and he wanted to get home. We now drive separately.

However, as opposite as we seem to be, we seem to balance each other out. It seems like I see that a lot in relationships.

Even though we tend to annoy each other now and then, I think we've both come to appreciate, and even thank God that we're not exactly alike. But that his strengths are my weaknessess, and vice versa.

Anyway, this Valentine's Day I'm celebrating our differences. I'm thanking God that He made us that way, so that there's some order to our household! So that there's not a party every night with goldfish on the floor (me), or the other extreme of sitting alone every night reading books (Denny).

Having Compassion

My hubby just posted on his blog that we have recently sponsored a child through compassion international. You can read his post by clicking here.

We both have also placed "widgets" in our sidebar so that you can follow along with the daily adventures of some "bloggers" who are currently in Uganda with Compassion. Just click "read" on the "widget", and the bloggers names will appear.

I have to tell you that I was quite moved by a recent post made by Contemporary Christian Artist Shaun Groves. I SOOOO encourage you to read what Shaun had to say. Here's a quick link to that. The post is titled "Releasing".

Special Features

Last night we had a girls night out at our church and I was to lead a few worship songs by myself. I asked our 14 year old, Will, if he would go with me just to load the songs in the computer, and then he'd be free to go hang with some of his buddies at the Life House.

I think it took him all of ten minutes to load the songs. After he had input them, he nonchalantly made his way to the drum set. As I was running through the songs on the keyboard, Will started playing along. I didn't stop what I was doing, I just kept going...and we played. And it sounded really good. So good that I started to tear up. And I worshipped, thanking God for that moment in time.

You see, Will doesn't play the drums. Or does he? I'm not sure. He's never played before, but he played last night, and it was awesome!

So today, he asked if we could go back into the church and try that again...so we did. This time we also took Maren with us, and she sang. We actually played a song that the band is getting ready to learn called "Say So", and all things considered, they did GREAT on it, AND we had alot of fun just musically messin' around.

So anyway, I guess I'm still discovering all of the "special features" that God has designed our children with.

Update to Yesterday's Post

Hey There!

I thought I'd better stop here and give you an update on tickets to the Wabash Valley Ladies Unity Night. I believe Lisa is now out of her tickets. If you don't have tickets yet, I encourage you to call the event hotline at 812-460-0230. They will give you more information there. I believe you can also contact them through their website at http://www.wvluv.org/.

God is SOOOOOO Amazing!!

Two years ago, I sat in the "nose bleed" section at the Ladies Unity Night in Terre Haute. While sitting there, Debbie Cutshall (Our Pastor's wife) walked by me. She stopped and said in a very encouraging way, "you guys should lead worship here..." Shortly after that, the event started. I remember, that evening saying to God, "God, if it is Your will that we lead worship here, then let it be done."

Fast forward to this past December. While sitting at my desk one day, the thought crossed my mind to contact Lisa Lashbrook. Lisa serves on the planning committee for the Unity Night. However, I did NOT call her. Instead, I just decided to pray. So once again, I prayed, "Lord, if it is your will that we lead worship at that event, then let it be done."

Two weeks later, Lisa called me and asked if "Beyond Limits" (that's our new name) would be interested in leading worship at the 2008 event. My reply back was, "are you kidding? I've been praying about that for two years!" We did not get final approval to lead until the end of January. But I'm excited to say that we will be leading worship at the event!!

I'm also excited about what is happening right now. Let me explain.

First of all, if you don't know anything about this event, let me give you a little info. The date of the event is Friday, April 4th. The speaker is nationally known Christian comedian Anita Renfroe. The tickets are free, and they became available to the public on Monday at 10am. I went to pick up tickets for our church at 12pm. By the time I got there, they had already "sold out" the floor level, and the lower concourse! In two hours!

If you go to our church, and don't have tickets yet, please contact Lisa Lashbrook.

Please pray for us as we prepare for and serve at this event. God is SOOOOOOOO amazing.

For more information on the event, including the history of it, go to http://www.wvluv.org/