The Child He Embraces, He Also Corrects

Often times when I think of "discipline", I think of punishment.  When in fact, most often, discipline is "training".  Whether we are disciplining our children, or God is disciplining us.  It's teaching, instructing, training us up so we know how to live right and well and abundantly.

Hebrews 12:4-11 MSG

In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through-all that bloodshed! So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

In The Silence

This morning, in my quiet time, I read a devotion that reminded me of what a jealous God our God is.  How He wants us to put Him first above everyone and everything else.  How He longs to spend time with us. 

After reading it, and the Bible verse that came along with it, I closed my Bible, along with my eyes, and began to pray.

I prayed for a little while, and then my praying stopped.  Eyes still closed, I listened to the silence.

Complete silence.

I sat in the stillness for what seemed to be a long time...and then this verse came to mind:

Silence is praise to you, Zion-dwelling God, And also obedience.  You hear the prayer in it all. Psalm 65:1,2 The Message

Tears streamed down my face as I felt the nearness of God in that moment.

Under my tears I muttered to Him, "I understand why silence is praise to You."

That we would be willing to shut everyone, and everything else off, to find solitude with Jesus.

 "Only in much solitude can ye begin to sift away the chaff and come at last to the golden grains of truth"

"Silence will speak more to thee in a day than a world of voices can teach thee in a life time" from Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved

I loved the silence this morning, and how God met me there.  Can't wait for my next opportunity to find solitude.

How 'bout you?  When is the last time you shut everything off to talk to God?

1 Silence is praise to you, Zion-dwelling God, And also obedience. 2 You hear the prayer in it all. We all arrive at your doorstep sooner or later, loaded with guilt, 3 Our sins too much for us - but you get rid of them once and for all. 4 Blessed are the chosen! Blessed the guest at home in your place! We expect our fill of good things in your house, your heavenly manse. 5 All your salvation wonders are on display in your trophy room. Earth-Tamer, Ocean-Pourer, 6 Mountain-Maker, Hill-Dresser, 7 Muzzler of sea storm and wave crash, of mobs in noisy riot - 8 Far and wide they'll come to a stop, they'll stare in awe, in wonder. Dawn and dusk take turns calling, "Come and worship."
Psalm 65 The Message

He WILL help you.

Reading through the Word this morning and found so many good and comforting things in this passage of scripture. Sometimes I just like to let the Word speak for itself, knowing that it is alive and active and will not return void.  So, here ya go:

Matthew 6:25-34

The Message (MSG)

 ^25-26"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.


 ^27-29"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.


 ^30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.


 ³⁴"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

More. On. Mavis.

I just had to do another post on Mavis due to her loving kindness.


As most of you know, my grandmother passed away this past weekend.  We love her and will miss her dearly.  I especially can't imagine holidays without her. Anyway, back to Mavis.


A group of us (family) were in with grandma her last evening of life on this earth.  I want to be specific about that because I believe she's still alive in Heaven, in fact scripture says that "what is mortal was swallowed up by life".  Did you hear that?  not by death, but by life.   "For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." 1 Corinthians 5:4


Anyway, I say again.  ha.  While we were in the room that last evening with grandma, Mavis knocked on the door and came in.  She didn't say a word.  She just stepped inside the door, set her plastic container which was packed full of various kinds of candy,  reese cups, almond joy, suckers, you name it, she had it in there, on the floor, took the lid off, picked it back up and took it around to each one of us in the room.  Literally serving us.


About an hour later, she did it again.  She served us a second round of candy, and then went back to her room.


Not long after that, Grandma took her last breath.  The grandchildren that were there, myself included, stepped out into the hallway, to allow our parents time to be alone in the room.  Grandma had JUST passed away.  I don't know who told Mavis, or how she knew, but as we were standing in the hallway, Mavis came up, stood beside me, didn't say a thing, but spread her arms wide to hug me, still without saying anything.  She then went to each of us, one by one, with open arms, sharing sorrow and showing love.  Few words, but her actions said it all.


Interesting to me that it doesn't take much to show God's love.  To express loving kindness.  We often think, "well, I could never serve Jesus".  "I don't know how to be Jesus to someone."  


Sometimes just being there is all it takes.  Amazing how much love you can feel through a little candy and a few hugs.  


So, I learned from Mavis again.

Learning From Mavis

She's never "preached" to me, but what she "does" says so much.  I'm referring to Mavis Kile.  We've seen a lot more of Mavis since my Grandmother has been in the nursing home.  Mavis has a room right across the hallway.

She is always so happy to see us, and greets us each by name, and if one of us is missing she'll always ask about that member of the family.  Particularly "the Pester".  That's what she calls Josh.  She will often sit behind our family in church and watch as our nine year old "pesters" his sister...hence the name.  LOL

As I've come to know Mavis better, I have been so impressed by her witness for Christ.  She amazes me.  She had a white board put up outside her door so that she could leave messages for people.  This was her message a couple of weeks ago.  In case you can't read it, it says this,

"have you taken Jesus as your Savior?  That is the most important decision we make in this life!   Enjoy a whole new life in HIM!
Be saved today!!  Let the beauty of our Lord God be upon us.  Amen."

I love that at her age she is STILL witnessing for Christ!!

Just this morning, in worship, Jennifer was leading, the congregation was praising mightily, and you could feel the Spirit moving.  As things got a little softer between chorus and verse, I could hear Mavis, who on this day was sitting all the way across the church from me, say, "thank you Jesus."


My heart was moved by hearing this senior saint praise the God of all creation.  The God who has brought her through all the ups and downs and to this point in her life.  The God that she can't stop singing about and talking about.  The God that she walks with now, and will be with for all of eternity.  And I so hope that, like Mavis, I never stop singing about Him, talking about Him, and loving Him.

Thanks to Mavis for loving on all of us by giving us gum and candy, ha, and being such a great witness of Christ's love to us.

Here's a picture from Easter of Mavis with "the pester."  LOL

Sin Country - Grace Country

I don't think I have ever read Romans 6 in The Message prior to today.  I love how it explains baptism and living in the freedom of Christ instead of the freedom that we think sin brings.  Here it is:

Romans 6

When Death Becomes Life

 ^1-3So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

 ^3-5That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.

 ^6-11Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.

 ^12-14That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.

How Denny and I lost weight.

Believe me when I say that I understand the frustration of being heavier than you want to be, but not really knowing what to do about it.  I remember saying a couple of months ago, "if I just had a plan, I could be a more disciplined eater."  I know you may say, "yeah right", but it's true for me.  If I have a plan, I typically do a pretty good job of following it.  Not always, but most the time.

I typically gain weight over the winter and this winter was no exception.  Only difference was, I started gaining weight in October, when usually I don't gain 'til Jan/Feb.  But my work schedule, plus our home schedule kept us hopping this year.  I was ran crazy at work, and gone every night at home.  The only time I could have exercised would have been FIRST thing in the morning, or LAST thing at night.  To be honest, I spend time with Jesus first thing in the morning, and I did not want to give that up.  And, to be honest, by the time the end of the night would roll around, I would be exhausted!  To add to all of that, due to the craziness of our schedule, I found myself somewhat stressed out, and was finding comfort in food more than ever.  That's not good.

That's one thing that God is teaching me on this diet (which I think of as more of a fast) is that I should not find my comfort in anything, ANYTHING, but Him!

Denny and I are both doing this diet.  He has lost 20lbs in four weeks, and I've lost 14.  If you too are looking for a plan, click here to see the diet we are following.  We heard about this plan from our friend Linda Noel.  If you're local, then you may know Linda, or at least remember that her husband Jeff used to be our preacher at FCC Marshall.  They are also the couple responsible for leading me and Denny to FCC.  If I remember correctly, Linda lost 30 lbs in 40 days on this diet, and has kept it off for nearly a year.

Our drummer on the FCC praise team, Jerry Vickery, also has done this diet and he lost 48 lbs in 40 days.  So, if you're interested in trying it here is the link.  I recommend that you read EVERYTHING that is on the site, including Dr. Simeon's manual. The diet is very strict, and you won't want to miss a thing.

Feel free to ask me questions.

All I Had To Do Was Show Up

I have been so blessed this year by having the opportunity to lead worship at a variety of places.  I love leading worship.  I love Jesus.  I love music, and I love gathering with people and singing praises to God, pouring out our hearts to God, and meeting with Him with my Christian brothers and sisters corporately.


Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25


The more  I serve Him, the more He teaches me.  One of my favorite lessons this year has been the awareness of this, "All I had to do was show up."


I was invited to lead worship in Jacksonville, IL.  My friend Renee Swope had introduced me to them last year, and I led worship at their annual women's conference in 2010, and I was so excited when they asked me back to lead at this year's conference.  Last year, I led with music tracks, but this year they asked if I would lead with some of their musicians.  At first, I was a little apprehensive to commit to that.  It's sometimes hard just to "walk in" and lead with other musicians that you've never worked with.  But they assured me that their musicians could play anything, so I trusted them and agreed to lead in that manner.


I met, for practice, with their musicians the Friday night before the event.  Practice went pretty well considering the fact that we'd never played together before.  It wasn't what I would call excellent, but it certainly wasn't bad.  When you merge like that, most of the time even great musicians will play conservatively because you're trying to get the feel of each other's style, so that then you can play more freely.  And that's pretty much what happened at that practice, we got to know each other musically.


The next day was the event.  During our second song of worship, I remember noticing that the music was excellent, and in that moment, I felt God's presence immensely, and had this overwhelming, incredible awareness of "I am merely a vessel."  All I had to do was show up.  Do you "get" that?  Does that make sense?  


Often times when God calls us to something we try to figure it all out.  How are we going to make this work?  How is it all gonna come together properly?  And we stress out over the details of how to make things happen.  I'm not saying we don't need to prepare well in order to serve Him with excellence because we do!  However, we need to do our part of being responsible, and just let Him do was He does so well.  He just needs someone who is willing to serve Him.  Willing to be obedient to go where He calls you to go.  And He'll do the rest.  He'll enable you.  Empower you.  Equip you.  Give you everything you need to fulfill His purposes.  All I had to do was show up!!!


Fast forward from that event to the Unity Night Event.  This is an event that I/we had prepared for months for.  We form a team of women from various churches in the community to lead worship at this event, and God has given me the awesome responsibility/privilege of heading up that team.  I love these girls and we have become great friends.  Just prior to the Friday night Unity event, the Men's prayer team gathered around us to pray for us.  Then they anointed each of our heads with oil and said a prayer over each of us.  When Paul Boyer anointed my head with oil, he said these words, "Lord, Missy has the night off." 


Tears began to flow from my eyes the moment Paul spoke those words.  I was reminded of the event in Jacksonville and the thought of, "all I have to do is show up".  It was the same here.  I did have the night off.  Yes, I was on stage, yes I had a responsibility, but I could be "Free" because God had complete control of every part of what was about to happen.  All I had to do was be obedient to show up and do what He had called me to do.


What is God calling you to do?  Oh there is SUCH huge blessings in serving Him.  I have found that the greatest blessing and reward in being obedient to Him is that you get more of Him.  More of His presence.  

John 14:21 (Amplified Bible)

²¹The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]


Do you want to experience Jesus more?  Then listen to Him carefully, and go where He tells you to go.  Do what He encourages you to do.  All you have to do is be faithful and show up.  He'll do the rest.

So Much More Than an Event With a Great Speaker....

It just occurred to me, that my life changed, took on a different direction,  discovered a relationship like none I had ever known before or since, at an event much like I will be leading worship at this Friday and Saturday.


This weekend is the Wabash Valley Ladies Unity Night.  I don't know why I'd never thought of this before, but tonight I was reminded that I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior  at an event much like this one.


I was in junior high and my parents were going through a divorce.  My mom and aunt took me to a Dallas Holm concert.  Dallas sang and spoke to us.  As he sang the song "Rise Again", my heart began to fall in love with Jesus.  At a time when my family was shaken, Jesus got my attention and reached out for my hand.  I'm so glad I grabbed hold.  


My prayer for the women at this event is this:


"open their eyes to see what you do. To see your zealous love for your people."  Isaiah 26:11 The Message


Oh that each woman would know the amazing, unconditional love that Jesus has for each of us.  Regardless of where we've been, what we've done, how much of a mess we've gotten ourselves into...HE loves us. He loves you, and He's reaching out to you.  Chasing after you.


Take it from one who's life was changed and at event much like this....This is so much more than an event with a great speaker.  It's an event with a GREAT SAVIOR!!

Married to my High School Sweetheart

Due to the fact that I've been called to a ministry that serves "in front" of people, I sometimes get asked for a "bio".  Evidently, people want to know who that is standing up in front of them.  :)  It's a high honor to serve in the way that God has called me, but being in front of people didn't come naturally to me.  That's another story for another time. 

Anyway, recently I was asked for a short "bio" on myself, and as I typed these words, "...married to my highschool sweetheart..."  I stopped and thought, "what do people think when they read that?" 

Because God forbid it conjure up some idea in their minds that we live in some fairy tale land where we fell in love at 16, and have danced around with birds chirping love songs over our heads ever since.  Because God and these walls of our home as witnessess, know that's not the case.

God has blessed me with a Godly man, who now more than ever, desires to live out the life that God has called him to live and in the way that God has called him to live it.  And I do too.  But it hasn't always been that way for him, or for me.

We've struggled with God, and we've struggled with each other.  To paint the image that our life and relationship is perfect, would deny the truth of the times during intense arguments where I've muttered, "I hate you" under my breath.  ouch.  Of course I'm much more mature now, and no longer say I hate you, but something like, "I hate it when you act like that."

We are blessed in the fact that we don't argue much.  We really don't.  But oh when we do, it seems like the world is falling down around us.

We started dating when I was a junior in high school.  We broke up for several months sometime after my graduation.  (Denny's 18 mths older than me.) But when we got back together, we stayed together.

On the day of our wedding, I was 19, he was 21.  So young.  And yet, I am SOOOOOO thankful for God giving Him to me.  I think my favorite thing about being married to my highschool sweetheart is that we literally grew up together.  We've learned how to be grown ups, together.  (hold the jokes friends) ha.  We've learned to be responsible together.  We've learned that credit cards can get us in trouble.  We've wrestled through how to raise these kids of ours.  We've learned to fight...and make up.  But to give off any impression that we live in some fairytale land where we've done everything perfectly would be far from accurate.  :)

I am so glad that God chose us for each other.  I love my high school sweetheart more than words could ever express.  I can't imagine a more perfect match for me than Denny, nor would I have wanted to do all these years with anyone but him...and sometimes the birds do chirp over our heads, but other times they drop a load.  :)

Maren's Heart

We took Maren to see a pediatric cardiologist at Riley today.  Here's what we found out, she does have a heart.  ha.  (just kiddin' Maren)

She's now had three or four EKG'S, two chest x-rays and blood work testing several different things, and the doctor said from all the tests, the heart itself looks like it's in good shape.  Yay.  He wants her to come back in a couple of weeks for a stress test to make sure that there's not any "electrical shorts" happening outside her heart while she is exercising.

He also stated that if you look at a physicians manual for chest pains in a child Maren's age, typically the heart is the last cause, oddly enough.  He said most often, chest pains in someone Maren's age is caused by an onset of asthma, or something gastro-intestinal.

So, still checking things out.  Thank you SOOO much for your concern and for your prayers.

This is the Kind of Fast Day I'm After

To be honest, sometimes I post things before my thoughts are even complete on what I'm posting.  That's what I'm doing today, I'm sharing some thoughts that may not be tied up nicely by the end of what I'm writing here.

Going into the first of the year, I felt very strongly that I needed to fast.  Denny and I have started the year like that a couple of times in the past.  We would fast the first 21 days of the year.  So, I started out doing that again this year.  I actually started it on Monday, January 3rd.  On that day, I did not eat, and I prayerfully considered what God wanted this fast to "look" like.  You know, do I go without food for one day, three days, seven days, and then what do I do?  Do I then go into the "Daniel fast"?  Which you can google if you'd like to see what that is.  After one day of fasting, to be honest, I felt God's presence more than I had in a long time, but I still could not settle on a direction of what this fast should "look" like.  Because I couldn't "settle" on a direction, I went ahead and ate the 2nd day, but kept praying about the fast.  THEN, I had this thought, "maybe this isn't supposed to be a food fast at all, maybe this is supposed to be a complaining fast."  Meaning, for 21 days, I'm not going to complain.  At all.

So, I told my co-worker, Cathy, about that.  Later that day, I said something to her that one might consider a complaint and I quickly followed that up with "shoot!! I am not supposed to be complaining!!"  Then a little later I said something again, that one might consider a complaint, and I said to her again, with disgust, "ahhhh....I am NOT suppose to be complaining!!!"  Which she replied, "you suck at this fast!"  Her words exactly.  That TOTALLY cracked me up!!

So, all week I have been seeking God, and to be honest, I have been finding Him, just not regarding the fasting information...until this morning.  I sat up and took notice as I began to read what God says in Isaiah 58 (The Message):

Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after; a day to show off humility?  To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black?  Do you call THAT fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like?

This is the kind of fast day I'm after:  to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.  What I'm interested in seeing you do is:  sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.  Your righteousness will pave your way.  The God of glory will secure your passage.  Then when you pray, God will answer.  You'll call out for help and I'll say, Here I am.

If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down and out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.  I will always show you where to go.  I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places...

This is the kind of fasting he's after.  How well am I doing these things?  There are many that I'm not doing well.  So I go without food, but my heart is corrupt? What good does that do?  He is after life change.  Do I have a heart like His, am I concerned about the things that concern Him?  That's what I need to ponder.

 When we fast what we should be after is more of Jesus in our life.  More of Jesus in our circumstances.  And when we "get" more of Jesus, we "become" more like Jesus.  As He lays His heart over our heart, we become concerned over what concerns Him.  We reach out to people that He wants us to reach out to.  We lend a helping hand where He calls us to lend it.  We give where He directs us to give, we begin to move as one with Him in the direction that He calls us to go, within every area of our life including our marriages, finances, and relationships.

Maybe as you read this you feel that you too want more of Jesus.  That you want to be His hands and feet in this world.  There are so many ways that the Lord might direct you to give.  One way He has directed our family to help people in poverty is through Compassion International.  We, just last week, sponsored our 2nd child.  Her name is Patricia.  And the Holy Spirit has already begun to entangle our heart with her.

Denny is a children's advocate for Compassion.  So he gets information fairly frequently on children who need our help to be released from poverty.  Children who need us to be Jesus to them.  We recently received information on three children who need sponsors.  Children who are waiting on someone just like you to reach out and help.  Again, there are many ways you can help the poor, but if you feel like God is calling you to help one of these children, please leave a comment here with your contact information, or send me an email at melissa.milbourn@gmail.com.  Would you please prayerfully consider these children:

Pogiri from India

Birthday July 5, 2003

 Miriam from Peru

Birthday:  April 12, 2004

 Ocen from Uganda

Birthday November 26, 2001

You can change a child's life for just $38/mth.  If you're interested we will give you more information on the child, and how the program works.  And we would need to know by January 13th.

Or if you're the one who feels down and out right now email me and I will pray for you.

I Saved Two Lives Today

Home alone, I heard a LOUD KUR-THUD come from upstairs.  So loud that I seriously almost ran out of the house because I thought there had to be an intruder.  And then, for some reason, this thought came to mind, "I bet the crazy dog was trying to drink the goldfish water and knocked them off their stand."  So instead of fleeing the house, I ran upstairs, and that is exactly what had happened.  I ran into Maren's room (they are Maren's fish) and the bowl was on the floor.  Water and rock from the bowl were everywhere, and the dog was licking her chops. 

I thought, "If she ate those fish, I'm going to hurt her badly."  Ha, I totally forgot about the whole "don't repay evil for evil" concept in that moment.  After I tossed the dog out of Maren's room, I began to look for Cosmo and Wanda, and I found them...totally lifeless.  No flip flopping or nothing.  I couldn't believe how much I cared for these fish all of a sudden, when up to that point I couldn't have given a flip flop about them.  So I gave them mouth to mouth, and started yelling "stay with me!!"  kidding.  I hurried up and put them into the bowl, and RAN to the bathroom and began putting water back in, and as soon as the water hit them, they began to swim.  YAY!!!! So far, so good.  I hope they make it through the night and survive the stress of all that!

Right after that happened, and things calmed down, I was reminded of an analogy that I heard someone use just recently about how fish were made to swim, and when you take them out of the water they can't do anything.  And they related that to our God given gifts.  That's the way we are too.  When we operate within the realms of how God has gifted us, we swim beautifully, just as the fish do in water.  But when we operate outside the way God has gifted us, we tend to struggle within that, and often lose our joy.  I looked like the fish out of water the time I tried to teach the three year old class.  LOL.  I was not really operating within the realm of what I'm good at, or how God has gifted me.  And I'm pretty sure it wasn't good for the three year olds either!!

If you're struggling with knowing what your "gift" is, then send me a message.  We have "gift tests" at the church that I can hook you up with.