Category Archives: Family

The Saturday Assortment #5

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The Saturday Assortment

The Saturday Assortment is a collection of unrelated and random things that I find interesting, challenging, motivating and sometimes quite out of the ordinary. It’s an assortment of things that caught my attention throughout the week. I bet you will find them equally engaging.  Enjoy!

10 Resolutions for Mental Health  This is a wonderful and very encouraging post to read! John Piper is the author of  this article, based on a lecture given by one of his professors at Wheaton College. Here is a quote from #3 on the list:

I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities.

12 Essentials to Church Communications  The church is the hope of the world. As church leaders, we have the responsibility of communicating the greatest message known to mankind; the only message capable of changing a person’s entire eternity. The weight of that responsibility is both profound and incredible. It moves us to action, and demands we communicate it well.

A book to recommend:  Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centred Church, Matt Chandler, Josh Patterson and Eric Geiger

We want to remind people that Christ is the head of the Church, and everything about how our church functions and operates should reflect the new life we are given in Jesus. -Matt Chandler

creature-of-the-word

A quote from the book:

 “If mission engagement is in the culture of a church without continual gospel reminders, the tendency will be to drift towards mission as a way to cleanse the conscience rather than a response to God’s mission for us. If expressive worship is in the culture of a church without continual gospel awareness, the tendency will be to focus on what is done for God rather than remembering what he has done. If transparency and honesty are in the culture of a church without continual gospel encounters, the tendency will be to discuss the sinfulness without repentance.” (page 102-103)

Three Words About Family: The Bare Facts

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Linking up with everyone for Five Minute Friday, where a remarkably encouraging and loving  community gathers to write for five minutes. This week’s prompt is: BARE.

I’m writing about my family. I am writing about my church. Family life can be messy, especially when you know the bare facts about each other. Church life can be messy, especially when you know the bare facts about each other. I love my family no matter the bareness revealed in their mental, emotional and spiritual life. We are linked together. I hope my church will love my family no matter the bareness revealed in their mental, emotional and spiritual life. We are linked together. We are family.

Three Words About Family

We are functional. We are dysfunctional.

We experience God. We need God.

We have assurance. We have doubts.

We have peace. We are anxious.

We are content. We want more.

We do cry. We don’t cry.

We are strong. We are weak.

We don’t stop. We give up.

We are happy. We are angry.

We are praying. We don’t pray.

We are sure. We are confused.

We have hope. We are afraid.

God is near. God is far.

We are found. We are lost.

We are family. We are family.

Five Minute Friday

Afraid [no more]

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AFRAID

What are you afraid of? Do you remember the time when fear felt like a vise grip? You’ll never forget how you felt when the surge of anxiety and adrenalin flowed through your mind and body.

Sometimes that type of fear can happen at an amusement park after the ticket is purchased and you’re harnessed in a seat or cage for the gut wrenching joy ride or a plunging “death-drop” experience…and that fear can be quite awesome. Even though your throat is raw from screaming out your lungs, you’ll find yourself back in line to do it again. While you remember the fear, you are not afraid to purchase a ticket for another repeat. You push through the fear and you go for it.

There are experiences that I hope will never happen again as I remember how afraid I was…like the time a vicious dog charged and lunged at me or when I was in a bad car accident.  I had to break through that type of fear so that it would not consume me or prevent me from going on a leisure run through my neighborhood or driving a car again.  No one coaxed me  to put on my running shoes or to drive to the grocery store. I just did it…I got over the fear.

Yet, on a more personal level, I became very afraid after hearing the doctor say, “Possibly five or six months. The tumor is large and in the worst possible place.”  This type of fear did consume me to the point that I began to doubt God’s love, his goodness, kindness and sovereignty.  Life for me became a day-to-day survival just to keep my head up and try to push through the fear of impending death and loss…

However, I could not push through the fear and I could not get over it. I felt the grip of fear and doubt and it cast an ominous shadow over God’s love and grace. The more I doubted God, the tighter I felt the squeeze of fear.  The calendar was now at four months. Exhausted, depressed and fearful while the clock was ticking.

Thankfully, God did not abandon me, even though it seemed that I had abandoned Him. To get over this doubt, I needed to run to the One I doubted, the author of my story. I saturated my thoughts with words of truth, God’s word. I replaced anxious thoughts with prayers of praise. God helped me to believe the gospel again…to be assured that His love for us reaches beyond the grave. I imagined myself going to Jesus’ tomb and looking inside. It is empty. Jesus is alive.  The death of my loved one was the beginning of her new life. I am confident of that. I am not afraid. “Thank you, God, that your perfect love casts out fear.”

The Saturday Assortment #4

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The Saturday Assortment

The Saturday Assortment is a collection of unrelated and random things that I find interesting, challenging, motivating and sometimes quite out of the ordinary. It’s an assortment of things that caught my attention throughout the week. I bet you will find them equally engaging.  Enjoy!

This issue of The Saturday Assortment focuses on children with special needs and the families that love them. (so many children and so many families.) 

Watch this! You will be inspired! You will be proud. I am passionate about ministry to children with special needs. I wish every church would consider how they can become an inclusive church for all families, and in doing so, it will require children’s ministry to change and grow in a new-right direction. And you will not regret the effort. It is so worth it! Listen closely  to what Conner says. Perhaps his words will motivate you to consider how your church can become an inclusive church for children with special needs.

Speaking of an inclusive church, please check out this website to discover a plethora of information about ministry to children to with special needs.  The Inclusive Church blog is packed with resources, practical application, insightful solutions that will surely encourage and inspire.

A very personal journey about a family that thrives on God’s grace, is devoted to family, has ventured on the journey of adoption, passionate about special needs, and brings it home to all of us wanting to know more. Go to: Dinglefest.

Snappin’ Ministries is “a nationwide support network for parents of children with special needs. Their mission is to support and encourage those living with the daily challenge of parenting a special needs child, so that they may experience the genuine love and hope of Jesus in their everyday lives.”

Noah’s Dad writes about his son, Noah that has Down’s Syndrome. This is more than a personal life story, there is information helpful for families and ministry leaders.

Intercessory Prayer ❘ The Mat Carrier

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Grandaughter,Grandmother, Great-Grandmother

Intercessory Prayer Through the Generations.
Grandmother, Granddaughter, Great-Grandmother

“Intercessory prayer is less about changing God’s mind and more about participating in His mercy” shereadstruth.com

“It seems the secret to real success is not found in a public place of power but in a secret place of prayer.” Jesse D. Lane

Have you ever been asked to join a prayer team? I was asked. I signed up! This is what I learned from years of intercessory prayer.

Please, don’t take that request lightly. Don’t think that praying for other people is easy and your participation on the prayer team will be the “piece of cake” action that makes you feel better about yourself and your “service in the church.” Intercessory prayer is not easy. If you think praying for others is easy and random, then you aren’t really experiencing the work of intercessory prayer.

Making a commitment to pray for others is arming yourself to work hard for people whom you may never personally meet.  Intercessory prayer requires a discipline of time, discipline to show mercy, discipline of thought…put yourself into their story…to envision yourself as their “mat carrier.”

A mat carrier is one that helped to carry a friend to Jesus. Do you remember the story in the Bible about a man who couldn’t walk and was confined to life on a mat? I’m sure he was a real likable guy because he had four friends that would do just about anything for him. I imagine they may have carried him to the temple to worship or perhaps the market to buy food. Perhaps they took care of his physical needs at home. The four friends worked together to lift up the four corners of his mat and carry him  from place to place. I imagine them struggling to fight fatigue and being surprised that interceding for a friend would beckon them to work hard…to get messy in the process.

The four mat carriers interceded for their friend…they would do anything to help him receive peace, grace, healing…they carried him to Jesus. They believed Jesus was the answer to satisfy the needs of their friend. They hoped Jesus would heal him. They knew Jesus would take care of everything their friend needed. The friends brought the needs of this man to Jesus (literally) and left him there…in front of Jesus. And Jesus saw their faith.

Do you know how this amazing chapter in the life story for this paralyzed man ends? Jesus, is compassionate and kind and changes the man’s heart with speaking the only words of truth that will grant real forgiveness. And then Jesus tells the paralyzed man to get up and go…walk out of the house and show people that he was completely healed inside and out…and “don’t forget to carry your mat, too!” (I embellished this story in my own words. Please read the full bible text here.)

I find this act of service and love by the four friends amazing. Wherever Jesus was, a crowd was sure to gather. The homes were probably small and it was shoulder to shoulder “standing room only” inside.  I imagine the over-flow lot was full of people too. Pressing in close and tight to one another just to hear Jesus, to see Jesus, to try to touch him. It was hard enough for one person with healthy legs to manage the crowd…much more harder for four people carrying their friend on his mat.

I appreciate the friends were also creative problem solvers. Their friend needed to meet Jesus right then and now! So they devised a plan to hoist and carry their friend up to the roof of the house. Then they started digging their way through the roof of the house, creating an opening large enough to lower their friend safely down to where Jesus was. The “mat carriers” were willing to get dirty and messy and take a risk. There were persistent to help their friend.

In conclusion, this is what I learned about intercessory prayer:

  1. Don’t take prayer lightly
  2. Intercessory prayer is hard and it requires discipline
  3. Ask God to help you to show mercy and love through prayer
  4. Put yourself in their story
  5. Imagine their sorrow or anxiety or loss
  6. Talk to God about their needs.
  7. God is never annoyed by “debris”
  8. Trust God to do what God will do
  9. Celebrate the answers of prayer
  10. Be a mat carrier. Period.

The Saturday Assortment

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The Saturday Assortment

The Saturday Assortment is a collection of unrelated and random things that I find interesting, challenging, motivating and sometimes quite out of the ordinary. It’s an assortment of things that caught my attention this week on the web. I bet you will find them equally engaging. There are no affiliate links–if you click-through and buy a book that is referenced, I don’t earn a dime. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: the video or advertisements below this post are not from me but are built into the WordPress site. These ads are shown on mobile devices.

Doing Something Everyday Is Hard: What does everyday mean to you? It doesn’t mean, “If you have time” or “When you get around to it.” Everyday means every single day with fail or excuse. via Time Management Ninja

What’s the secret to longevity in leadership?   A challenge not to “flame out” as a leader. Here’s the truth: Only a few people in each generation become long-term leaders in their field of expertise. What is your story? Here are four ways to peak as a leader.

“My encouragement to you would simply be this. Be patient. The Lord has given you a gift for the building up of the body of Christ. He did not give it to you so that you would sit on it your entire life. Just be patient. When He’s ready, He’ll open the door.” ~The Village Church ❘  Titus, Part One

How to Guard Sabbath for Your Children: Because time is our most limited resource, how we allocate it reveals much about our hearts. A “Family Equipping” article at its best!

“Jesus loves me more-ther and I’m more alrighter than the sky is blue”

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I like it when my husband says to me, “I love you.”  When we were newlyweds, I frequently asked him, “How much do you love me?”  I still ask him that question and 39 years later, he answers me the same way, “I love you eleventy-times-seven.”   And then I always ask another question, “How much is eleventy-times-seven?” And his answer to that question has always been one word, “More.” There is no number that can measure his love for me.

I get it! I am loved. My husband will always love me more. But even as grand as the word ‘more’ is, it can never totally satisfy the love that I need. There is only one perfect love and only one love that is more than enough and that is God’s love for me. I will never comprehend the true meaning of love until I come to understand that love is the very essence of God, because, God is love.

My family has experienced a lot of change and some unrest recently with moving to a new city and home. Everything is new such as a new state, a new community, new friends, a new church, a new job. During this transition, I would often say a prayer asking God to overwhelm us with his love. The one thing I wanted my family to experience–to rest in, to be sure of in the midst of complex change and uncertainty is this:

God loves us more…and his love is enough. Be amazed and in awe by the vastness of God’s love for you!

This week I remembered the profound answer of a young boy when his mother asked him, “How much does God love us?” And his answer will fill your heart with a smile and a laugh, “God loves us more-ther than the house is big; more-ther than the city is wide.”

Psalm 36:5 says: Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.

Let’s praise the Lord for his great love! God’s love is wider than any continent, longer than any road, higher than any mountain, and deeper than any ocean.

I am continually overwhelmed by the love of God. If you ask me if I’m alright, I’ll simply answer the way that little boy did when he was asked that question, “I’m doing very alright! I’m more alrighter than the sky is blue!”

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song

The Love of God | Frederick M. Lehman

The Saturday Assortment

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The Saturday Assortment

The Saturday Assortment is a collection of unrelated and random things that I find interesting, challenging, motivating and sometimes quite out of the ordinary. It’s an assortment of things that caught my attention throughout the week. I bet you will find them equally engaging.  Enjoy!

The Power of Focus Most People Miss: “About a decade ago, a colleague said something to me that I haven’t been able to get our of my head. ‘What you focus on expands.‘”

Enough Time is a short story taken from the book, More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity by Jeff Shinabarger, founder of Plywood People. In More or Less, Jeff Shinabarger calls readers to create their own social experiments to answer the question, “What is enough?” Through more than 50 stories, readers will be challenged to change their worldview, change their habits and live a life of less, so others can have more.

Two books for families to read: 

Princes Poison Cup

The Prince’s Poison Cup Dr. R. C. Sproul continues his series of books designed to present deep biblical truths to children on their own level. In this work, he focuses in on the atonement to show that Jesus had to endure the curse of sin in order to redeem His people.

The Priest With Dirty Clothes

In this new edition of his classic story, The Priest with Dirty Clothes, Dr. R.C. Sproul continues his project of illustrating theological concepts for children. In this book, he teaches the concept of imputation, which lies at the heart of the important biblical doctrine of justification.