Next Chapter

God has begun a new chapter in the life of my family. The story is still the same. We exist to bring Him glory and to make His name known. But God has brought about a lot of change in the everyday make-up of the life of our family.

All my children are now in school, and the wonderful days of pouring myself wholly into my home and my children have drawn to a close. Those precious years have been priceless and well worth the struggles and challenges we faced. I now pray God would honor that time and yield  strong holds for the roots that grew in the lives of my children. I pray they their faith would be sure and steadfast, and that it would be truly THEIRS. I firmly believe God has a special calling on each of my children. I rejoice that four of them have already heard that call to be His. I also believe that, because they are His, He has a purpose for them in the here and now---in their youth. I pray that they would be walking beacons of light in an increasingly dark culture. ~Father, give them strength.~

Because of this first change in our lives, I have felt compelled to go back into the workforce. I LOVED being home and making it a safe haven for family and friends, but as my children go out I must find others to pour into during the day. Most women today work outside the home. I personally believe there is TREMENDOUS value in being at home, but I found myself struggling to connect with working women. My call to them to devote time with God felt pushy. I could see in their eyes the thought: 'sure you have time...you don't work all day.' I pray that I will be a shinning beacon of light to an increasingly dark culture. ~Father, grant me favor. Please open doors of opportunity for me to boldly share You and Your life changing grace.~

In addition to those two rather significant changes in the life of our family, God has also done something else. He began first in the life of Luke to stir in him a desire to be more efficient in reaching the lost. He planted in him the desire to start a new work. We have been blessed in the last ten years of our marriage to pour of ourselves into the life of the already established church. We have been able to grow and work alongside other mature believers. First, Luke's, and eventually my desire has become to be more active in the first stages of the life of the believer. To see the lost come to Him. 

God has done many things over the last six month to bring about this change. Anyone who knows me, knows my love of the rain. The thought of living in the desert would have NEVER occurred to me on my own. Only God could convince me to do that! He has moved our family to Maricopa, Arizona. We are about 15 miles south of the Phoenix valley area. Maricopa has grown incredibly over the last five years and shows no signs of slowing down. For some perspective, there are roughly 2 million  people in the state of Oklahoma (where we just moved from,) and there are roughly 2,000 Baptist churches there. In Phoenix and the surrounding area there are aroung 6.5 million people and only 400,or so, Baptist churches. This means that you cold have up to 16,250 people per church! Of course that is not happening, but the need is great. 

We are so excited to see what God is going to do. 

Will you please pray for our family, and this new adventurous chapter God has begun in us? Please pray for courage, strength and wisdom. Please pray for favor in our encounters with the lost. Pray that we would all be beacons of light, that we would stand in stark contrast to the darkness of our culture and the sin that plagues us as a fallen people.~Father, please go before us.~

Prayer and Scriptures for our new home

I saw this idea a few years back and loved it. So, when we found out we would need to build our home here in Davis, I immediately began my search for Scriptures to write on the foundation.
This first one is in my laundry room. Everyone who knows me, knows I don't enjoy laundry. But I am grateful for my family. I am grateful we are blessed with clothes to wear. And I am grateful we are all healthy enough to dirty up our clothes. God is good.

OCTOBER 28th

For Thou didst form my inward parts;

Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb.

I will give thanks to Thee,

For I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Thy works,

And my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from Thee,

When I was made in secret

And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.

Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Thy book they were all written.

The days that were ordained for me

When as yet there was not one of them.

Psalm 139:13-16

October 28th...

March 3rd, 1979 to today = 11,917 days of life.

October 5th, 1985 to today = 9,883 days as a daughter of the King.

January 5th, 2000 to today = 4311 days as a wife.

June 29th, 2001 to today = 3,773 days as a mother.

October 28th, 2008 to today = 1,095 days of extended life.

October 28th, 2011 to tomorrow = ...

[I am] His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that [I] should walk in them. Blessed be the God and Father of [my] Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused [me] to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for [me] who [am] protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Ep 2:10; 1 Pet 1:3-5

Thank You Father!

Choosing the Meat

I know I do not write on here very much. I always wonder what people are really interested in. My daily routine stays pretty much the same and I don't even really bore Luke with all the details of that! There are the funny stories of my kids, but I worry sometimes that some of these will prove to be embarrassing to them as they get older and are able to freely read what I have shared about them with the whole world! They are entitled to some privacy, right? Then there are my thoughts. I struggle here too, because I have many thoughts. I am not sure when to share. When is God laying something on my heart, that He wants to change in me, am I supposed to share it? Does that take the heat off of me? Does God just want me to make changes and live them or to share them as if they were changes everyone needs to make?
A while back I changed the title of this blog from my name (it was created to keep people updated on my condition when I was in the hospital,) to 'Remember.' I did this because of one of the things God has laid on my heart very heavily for the past three years. I do believe that God puts us through things and allows us to experience circumstances that will either cause us to come to a point of surrender or defiance. In these moments, when we choose to surrender and let Him lead and take control, it always works to bring Him glory and often to change us in a way that makes us more like Him. And these are moments we are meant to remember, and NEVER forget. Not only are we to remember these moments, but we are to remember them correctly so that God is always the one being glorified. When we don't remember these things properly it can lead to pride and a false sense of accomplishment. And that is not a good place to be!!
When I came home from the hospital, fully aware of my second chance at life, I knew I wanted to live life focused on the eternal; on the things that really matter. One of the ways I decided to do this was to revamp my quiet time. I have always been a bit wishy washy in this area. I had never read straight through the Bible and although I had read most of it through out my life, I did not like the idea of just reading through. I enjoyed studying topically on the things that were affecting my life at the time. And for this reason, I was not very consistent. When I came home I was determined to read His whole letter to me, from begining to end. I found a 90 day challange and decided to try it. This was a big deal for me. I am not that fast a reader, and I am seldom left alone without interruption for more than ten minutes at a time. But I was determined. I would read even on the days I didn't 'feel it'.
I LOVED IT!!!! Reading straight through in such a short period of time meant I would still remember the beginnig when I came to the end. I have never had a problem believing in the inspiration and infalibility of the Word. I have never had a problem with so many authors and such a span of time being in one book, but to read it so quickly made it come alive in ways I had never seen before. The continuity throughout the whole book JUMPED of the page!!
I decided that for at least the next few years I would be relying soley on the Bible as the text of my quiet times. I do not have a problem with Christian books others have written. I think they are great, but I had decided that I needed to spend a considerable amount of time in JUST the Word. Eating of the meat He has provided for me. Trusting His Holy Spirit to highlight and teach me. And These three years have been a time of increadible amount of growth for me. I did slow down the tempo a bit. I have read in six month perionds for two years and plan to do it in a whole year next year. Each time It allows me a little more time to regurgitate, meditate, analize and study what I am reading. I LOVE IT!
It will never cease to amaze me that each time I see something new, something I never saw before, something deeper than I thought was there. His word is truly living, active and moving!!
I hope to always remember correctly and to never forget!