Standing On Our Own Faith

My oldest daughter will be baptized on Sunday. She accepted Christ at the tender age of four, and has been strong in her convictions and beliefs every day since. She truly loves God, and her incredible faith has been a witness to many.

My second oldest daughter, Kayanna, accepted Christ as her Savior as a result of hours spent talking to Kahlan about what a saving faith means. She told me that Kahlan showed her how to know when she was ready to make that personal commitment:

"You'll know when you're ready," Kahlan said, "When you know that if everyone you love suddenly told you they no longer trust in God, you'd still believe that He is the truth."

Wow.

There is such a lesson in that one statement. Think of the person who led you to Christ. What if that person told you right now that he/she had changed his/her mind; that the Bible is nothing more than a collection of fictional stories meant to keep society living to a set of moral standards?

Would your faith waver?

Would you, even for a moment, question the existence of God?

Would that be all it would take to plant a seed of doubt?

We can't profess Christ simply because someone told us to. It needs to be personal, it needs to be a commitment made because we truly believe. God wants us to be all in for Him.

If you looked around and suddenly realized you were the only Christian left, would you still raise your hands to Him?

"I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands." (Psalm 63:4)

True Thanks

There are so many things in my life that I am thankful for: my family, my children, my husband, my friends, the ability to stay home with my kids, my home...truly, there are too many to list.

But then I had a sobering thought. I am guaranteed none of these things tomorrow. They are blessings from God, but I do not have the right to them.

Would I still be thankful if I lost everything?

I think of Job, who lived the reality of the nightmare I can barely allow myself to glance at.

I hope my reaction would be the same as his. I hope that even if everything I am thankful for vanished in front of me, that I would still be thankful to God for His love for me, for His strength, and for His Son through whom I have been given the promise of eternity that will never be taken away.

So today I am thankful not only for everything I have, but for the blessing it is to have it all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

His Rest

A couple days ago a friend of mine came over to my house to visit. We were talking about how she dedicates an hour or two every morning to God, through Bible study and prayer.

"I know why everything seemed to go wrong for me this morning," she confided. "I wanted to sleep in for just a little bit, just until 6:30. But my bed was warm and comfortable, and though I meant to rest for just a few minutes, soon an hour had passed. By the time I got up, I only had fifteen minutes of Bible study before it was time to wake the kids. I just know that's why my day has been off!"

I've been there so many times before. Though I don't do a morning devotion time, I try to dedicate an hour over lunch after I have put my children to their nap time. Most of the time, this works perfectly. But there are definitely days when time slips away from me and I don't get in as much as I'd like.

It made me think of something, which I shared with her. I think that when we choose to rest in an earthly way, such as stretching out in bed or watching a television show on the couch, or talking with friends on the computer, we are granted rest for those moments. Doing those things is relaxing, and our bodies reap the reward of that rest while we are still. But soon, as life continues and we have to get moving on with our day, that rest fades away.

We need to make sure that our days include quiet time with God, because His rest lasts long after our time with Him. When we take part of our day and devote it solely to God, we get inner rest. Our hearts and bodies are calmed. Our mind is satisfied, and our spirit is refreshed.

A Post

This is my post. It's really about nothing, and I hate that. It means I am too busy. I did, however, get in a nice solid hour with the Lord this afternoon, studying Judges chapter 5. Excellent stuff, highly recommended.

So that's it. For now. Because I am a perfectionist (working on that, really I am) I will be coming here tomorrow and putting a real post in the place of this one.

For now, I'm off again...out the door for the many-th time. (For fun, this time, though!)

I hope you all have a blessed night. See you tomorrow!

Thankful for Friends

Tonight I had the rare opportunity to go out with two different friends. One is a close friend with whom I have shared a deep friendship with over the last three years, another a woman who I deeply admire and have gotten more of a chance to sit and talk to over the last few weeks.

God blessed me so much through both of these women tonight. I am so thankful for Christian friends who accompany me on this pre-eternal walk.

For any of my friends, new and old, those I have met and those who I have only "met," I am grateful for you.

All You Need is Love

I just finished playing a creative card game with my daughter, Aliegha.

The name of the game is Fluxx. It's probably the oddest card game I have ever played, as the rules and the goal of the game change every round. The object is to get to the point where you have the cards that match the current goal.

It's a lot like life, actually. There is a television card, a brain card, and a goal where you have to have the television, but no brain. There is a tank card, a tombstone card, and a goal where both war and death are necessary. Of course you can't forget about the chocolate card and the milk card, I know my life sometimes necessitates that combination.

But I held the secret weapon in my hand. A goal card that read, "All you need is love." And I had the love card.

Within two rounds, that love goal and card won me the game.

In the midst of real life, where temptation, death, war, and endless distractions assault us; love truly is all we need.

Not just love for our family, our children, and our neighbor. We need God's love. He is our strength, and His love and grace offer redemption from the sins of this world.

It was because of His love for us that He sent His Son to die so that we could enter heaven and feel His love eternally. What a perfect gift.

We hold the Love card in our hands. It's already been offered to us. All we have to do is accept Him. That's the only way to win.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Looking Up

"I want up."

I looked down at the little boy standing by my feet. He was looking at me earnestly, his arms reaching for mine.

"What do you want?" I asked, only partially paying attention as my eyes roamed around the church nursery to make sure that the chaos was organized.

"I want up," he repeated calmly.

"Oh, okay, sure," I said, picking him up into my arms.

"No, up!" he said as I started walking around the room with him.

"You are up, silly!" I tickled his belly, but he remained stoic.

"Up," he said, looking into my eyes and pointing his finger to the ceiling.

I looked up. There, fastened to the ceiling tiles, was a rainbow colored decoration. "Aha. You want to touch it?"

I smiled as he grinned at me. Lifting him up as high as I could, he stretched his little body and tapped a tiny finger at the design. As it started spinning, he clapped his hands.

Then he led me in the direction of the next one.

I hadn't even seen them. All these times of doing nursery duty, and I didn't even notice those decorations once. Yet this little boy, not even half my size, saw it right away.

Why? Because children are used to looking up.

Somewhere along the way, our world becomes less about what's above us and more about what is at our level.

But God wants us to look up. We are His children, and He wants us to reach our hands up to Him, opening ourselves to things we need His help to reach.

When, through Him, we see or learn something that is new, that child-like excitement comes rushing through us.

Delight in its truest form.

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)