Happy Valentine's Day- God loves you!

How Great Thou Art

How Great Thou Art …Amen!   

This song has been in my church’s music ‘rotation’ lately,  when I turn the radio on I always seem to catch it being played, Jenny actually is in the office next to mine and recently I have heard it being played on her music station and when I just looked at a social media sight I saw this video.   I think I’m being told …SHARE THE NEWS!!!    

The words are so powerful - they bring me to tears.  Happy tears knowing one day I will see Him and will sing out “My God, how great Thou art!”

 

 

 

"How Great Thou Art" 

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed. 

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art! 

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think of God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Your Story- TRUTH!

This blog as you know is dedicated to share how God works in our lives and we want to glorify Him with all we say and do! We want to share "Your Story" and that is what these post will be titled. 

 

The following devotion was shared with me by my sweet friend Sherry and I begged her to be able to share it with you.  It is her personal story and we all know it is hard to share personal details, but when it glorifies our Lord then we really have no choice.  I just know you will be as blessed to read it as I was.  I laughed and cried and laughed again!  Enjoy!

 

Thank you, Sherry for sharing "your story"!

 



I am 53 years old.  I have been married for 28 years to my husband, Chip, and we have 3 children:  Corbin almost 26, Travis 23, and Morgan 20.    

Life is fast and hard!  With children come demands, hard work and a never ending cycle of mundane tasks like meals, laundry and homework, sports, music lessons and lots of taxi-ing!  From the moment a mother’s feet hit the floor in the morning until her head hits the pillow at bedtime she never stops!  Not only is a mother never stopping but along the way there are temper tantrums, money problems, sicknesses, unexpected deaths, and pain from all kinds of feelings being hurt.  It took me until I was in my 30’s to understand the whole love that God has for me!  I was born into a family that chose to raise me in the church.  I was married in the church, my husband and I attended church after we were married and we took our kids to church each week.  I have always been a very good girl.  J (please don’t ask anyone else )

Personally, I have dealt with children who suffered from ADHD, learning disabilities, anxiety disorders, broken bones, surgeries, as well as day to day life.  I also have someone who is an alcoholic and at times would drink until driven to call me and tell me what a terrible mother, wife and person I was.  And even though I knew in my mind that those things weren’t true, I STILL took them on as my own problem!  I suffered sleepless nights, reacting hatefully to my children when they were just being children, and I was stressed beyond belief! I was not very good at dealing with the day to day things that were coming up in my life.  So begins MY journey in learning that God is more than a God who created the world and His Word is alive and powerful and NEEDED to be the most important thing in my life.  Yes I was a good girl living a good life – but HE created me to be more than that.  I depended on other people to interpret what the Bible said – I never read it for myself because I just figured I couldn’t understand it so why bother.  Join me as I share with you 3 people that God placed in my life to show me a better way!

            The first person on my journey was my husband.  I was blessed with a Godly husband who has patiently, yet firmly encouraged me on my walk.  A husband who has stood by me through thick and thin!  For several years we home schooled our children.  Corbin, our oldest is now a medic in the Navy and heading to San Diego for this next steps of training.  Travis, our middle one, is somewhere between his 3^rd and 4^th year at Liberty – although most kids his age have graduated and moved on to the real adult world Travis is still working his way through school – he works at least 30 hours each week here in Charlottesville while going to school in Lynchburg!  Morgan, our youngest is a 2^nd year at Liberty and just been accepted into the Athletic Training program there.  With these three kids just over the last 6 months alone we have “lived through” some of the following:  having a young lady whom you thought you were going to marry decide you were not her type … but still continue to make your life miserable because she doesn’t want you happy; we have had mono, pneumonia, strep, speeding tickets, broken cars, laughed together, cried together, pouted at one another, dealt with bad relationships, good relationships, pain and possible surgery and watched as their parents, as the 3 of them loved one another fiercely as only a brother and sister could.  And guess what… life marches on!  Where are we going to place our trust?  I now know that Psalm 63 promises me that I can cling to God and know that He will work it all out - I don’t have to worry about any of these things. 

But before, I realized that God wanted to be a part of my life DAILY and wanted me to take all of my problems to him, I spent my time in a panic mode!  I would have tried to talk my son out of the Navy and certainly would not have been very happy about him being accepted into the RECON program as a medic – that’s front lines! I would have been in tears and unable to walk on as our daughter was in the hospital for a week in October and then missed 3 more weeks of school suffering vertigo – all right when the Athletic Training Dept was deciding which 20 kids (out of 200) were worthy to stay in the program!  And in the midst of all of this my husband suffered from a rare eye infection that took the sight in his left eye!  That’s enough to take down the strongest person!

 Before I learned about this God who was personal and wanted to be in my life I lived with so many doubts and fears that they consumed me.  Our middle child was born prematurely.  At the time of his birth I knew there was a God but I had no idea how much he cared about me!  I wish I had known then what I know now – as Psalm 63:3 “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”  What pain He could have saved me from at that time in my life had I only asked for His help!  We have grown in Christ together and are peaceful and happy because of it!  I am blessed to have a husband who has never wavered in his faith in Jesus Christ.  My husband and I are opposites in so many ways – he is calm – I am hyper; he is level-headed – I use every inch of my passion J; but we BOTH LOVE the Lord!  I am blessed by him in so many ways – although in case you are wondering he is WAAAAAYYYYY older than me!

            My second person is my best friend.  Have you ever met someone that was very different from you?  Someone that you were so captivated with that you wanted to know what their secret was?  I have been blessed with such a special friend.  Someone who was different – someone who wasn’t moved when the wind blew – whether it was hard or soft!  Someone that made such an impact on my life that it made me ask what was so different – it made me ask for the same thing!  She was calm with her children – she wasn’t stressed and in panic mode because they had problems.  I watched her with amazement and I needed whatever she had.  So I got on my knees and asked Him for whatever she had!  The journey the Lord has taken me on since then has been awesome!  From that time forward I learned to give everything to Him!  I wanted to know her “secret” and so I hung on to her for dear life.  And while doing that I found another way to live.  I learned to read His word for myself and to understand it – the more I read the more I needed.  I learned that in order to KNOW God I had to spend time each morning with Him – just like any other friend – it takes time and effort!  The more questions I had the more answers I learned to find!  Through the years she has been patient with me, laughed with me (but never at me), looked over my shortcomings and encouraged me to run this race with grace through Jesus!  She has taught me so many things that I could not even begin to list them.  I will be forever grateful for her!  She has a passion for all to know HIM in a real and personal way and she took the time to disciple me.  What an honor to walk with her and meet her Jesus and to now be able to know that her Jesus is my Jesus too!

            My third person is my grandmother.  I was blessed with a grandmother who was a Godly woman.  She passed away about 7 years ago.  She was a woman full of wisdom who loved the Lord and had a passion for her family and others to know HIM in a personal way.  She wrote her 16 grandchildren letters through their adult years with scripture and words of wisdom (whether we wanted them or not) for everything that we faced!  Our importance in her life was proven upon her death.  Even though she was 93 years old, her death was sudden and quite unexpected.  The morning before her death she walked ½ a mile to check on my great-aunt who was 3 years younger than her and then back home again.  She had a garden and canned and froze the food, quilted, crocheted, and knitted and made the best bread you ever tasted.  I will never forget that day after Christmas when my mother called to tell me that my grandmother had passed away.  So many people in our family were devastated and just unsure of what to do.  She was who everyone looked to when things needed to be solved.  In planning her funeral, my aunt took one of my grandmother’s Bibles with her to see the Pastor who was preaching for her funeral.  My aunt requested the Pastor use Buzzy’s Bible to read her favorite Scripture passages – but we were quite surprised when the Pastor began by telling us how special we were to my grandmother.  He began by citing entries in her Bible where she had prayed for us.  Her Bible was filled with prayers for her family over the years.  He suggested that she used her Bible more as a journal and that if we looked further we would likely find older Bibles with more info in them.  How touched I was to find where my grandmother had written in the margin of her Bible when she began praying for my future husband, Chip and then again as each of our children were born.  Everything that affected her family – big or small was in those margins.  The pastor suggested that we take turns looking through her Bible and we would begin to see our lives unfold through my grandmother’s prayers for each of us.  Praise God for the privilege of this disciple in my life!

            Each of these people opened their lives and showed me Christ in action!  Where would I be today without Jesus active and alive in my life!  When my husband and I faced having a child who needed counseling to get past some anxieties, when we made the choice to home school against the wishes of our parents and some close friends, when we have adult children who struggle to pass classes in college, when my husband lost his job and had to go back to school and our only income would be from a home based daycare!  The list goes on and on. 

But God had placed these 3 key people in my life for me to see how much He loves me.  Deuteronomy 7:7-8 says “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples….. but it was because the Lord LOVED YOU.”  These verses tell me that this is what will carry me through everything:  God set his affections on me and therefore I need to set my affection on Him!  My joy does not depend on my circumstances!  Satisfaction only comes from asking Him for it.  It is what I like to refer to with my children as your “Jesus Joy” – Joy no matter what!  There are so many things in this world to capture our attention: ipods and ipads, fashion, awesome travel near and far, great food, Facebook, texting – if we are not careful we will put them ahead of what really matters – our relationship with God!  He has to come first – by putting HIM first in our life we can’t go wrong.  We have too many needs for anyone else to supply – our need for affirmation and acceptance, our need for material things – and the list goes on and on.  If we don’t fill ourselves with Jesus then we will fill ourselves with something!  Psalm 90:14 “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”  If we begin every day by spending time with Him, then we won’t be in need of others to make us happy!  Our happiness will come from the only One that matters.

I would not change one thing in my journey!  I am blessed beyond belief!  I have learned from Kay Arthur that whatever we have learned, God intends for us to share.  I have made a “purposeful” decision to share what I have learned with children.  Some of you may ask why since as mother’s we sometimes find any excuse we can to get away – but the Lord has blessed me with a love for children and my intent is to teach them about Christ’s great love!  I enjoy my own children – I have enjoyed every phase of their life (although some phases have been easier than others) it has honestly been great to watch them grow .. to hear what they think… and to watch them grow into Christ followers.  They did not become Christ followers by themselves – my husband and I set out with a purpose and a passion.  And along the way God placed numerous people in their lives to help develop and mold them into those Christ followers.  Are they perfect at it?  No… in fact one of them doesn’t go to church at all!  But I know that God’s Word promises His love will not fail!  So I look forward to the day he realizes his need for the church!

I stand before you shaking in my shoes – partly because I am cold, but mostly because I am scared to death – but HE has called us to share our STORY and so that is what I will do!  I thank Jesus for each and every blessing that He sees to trust me with.  I am unworthy – but willing to learn and share what I have learned – as small and weak as it seems – it is important to my friend Jesus!  The things that I have learned I have learned from studying His word and learning who God is!  My prayer for everyone is that they too will have the same awesome experience of knowing God and trusting Him with everything!

Who are you sharing YOUR story with?  YOUR story is important to God and to His people!

Details

I posted a few weeks ago that I am reading my Bible daily.  I told you that it was good for my soul; which it is.  I will admit though certain chapters in certain books of the Old Testament can be difficult to read.  I am being very honest here. 

If you  have ever read the entire book of Exodus you know what I mean about certain chapters being difficult to read, and what I mean by difficult is boring.  Yikes, did I just call the Word of God boring?   Don't get me wrong the parts about God using Moses to lead His chosen out of Egypt is riveting stuff, but then we get to where God is settling the Israelites and the building of the Tabernacle.  You read about God being very specific to Moses about the number cubits of fabric, and rings of gold and brass and where the candelabra will be placed and then you go through the detailed repetition of that again when the Tabernacle is built.  I mean is it important to know how many cubits of fabric will flank the sides of the Tabernacle or how many rings will secure them or even what side the candle holders will be put on??

The answer to that question is YES; we do need to know!  And why?  Well the answer would come to me days after finishing Exodus, but I knew if God breathed these words then they were words worth reading and not skimming over.

A few days after I finished the book of Exodus I was brushing my teeth and I couldn't get out of my head why these seemingly trivial items were in a book of the Bible and why they were worth repeating?  That is when He placed on my heart the word DETAILS.  I felt Him say to me "Child the details are important.  The details of your life are important to me".  YES!  That is the answer! Our God is a detailed oriented God.  He is a God that cares about the little things.  You see God uses His word to teach us. Where do we find His word; well in His book, The Bible!  We won't know what He wants for us or how much He loves us unless we READ IT!

For me the book of Exodus was not just about God saving His people, but about confirming to me that God doesn't just care about the big stuff around us; He cares about every detail in our lives. You see when I started reading these chapters of Exodus I didn't know why they were important to God.   You see we often say why God?  Why am I going through this?  Why am I reading over and over about cubits of fabric?  Why is this important to you?  We ask why because we don't understand.  Asking Him why is okay because He wants to answer you and He will if you are listening to Him.  Sometimes He wants you to read the whole book or go through the whole storm before He answers you.  See He knows exactly what you need and He knows when you need it. 

The lesson for me in this is that every word of the Bible is significant and is important to take in.  God will explain it to me when and how it relates to my life when He knows I need it. 

If you don't believe our God cares about the details I challenge you to look at the things around you He created.  Tell me you don't find attention to detail in yourself?  The freckle on your face?  Your talents?

Happy reading! 

Matthew 10:30

^"And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

 

Grace to you!

 

Jenny

Mission Minded!

We are half way through our season with Upward.  I relish this time of year!  This is my family's  "main" mission if you will.  We work several months ahead to be ready for the season and when we start in January every weekend is consumed with Upward.

My whole family is involved somehow.  My husband coaches, refs and is a gym coordinator, I am the cheer "commissioner" and run the café.  My daughter who is too old to play is the assistant coach to my husband and my son plays and also assist with score keeping. The Upward ministry lead us to Christ and we will be forever grateful and decided this is the area we would serve our Lord.   

This mission works for our family because we can ALL be involved.  It is not only important for your children to see you and your spouse on mission and serving, but as they grow older it is important to find missions they can do with you and on their own.

We are currently praying for our daughter about a mission trip she feels lead to go on.  It will be out of the country, but our church has taken this trip many times.  We are very peaceful about her going, but are praying for God to just work out all the details.  We covet your prayers as well. 

I cannot tell you as a mother how big your heart swells when you hear your almost 15 year old daughter say "can I go on mission?"  She knows that is a week without her "comfortable" home life.  God is working in this girl's life like crazy!  She was baptized almost two years after us.  She made the decision on her own at 14 that she would be baptized.  My daughter has a heart for God and is constantly seeking His way. 

Being on mission can mean so many things.  We can be on mission daily.  Everyday when we come to work, go to the store, pick up the kids from school, serve a hotdog at the Upward Café; we can do these things with the love of Christ.  Many for various reasons cannot travel and you don't have to leave your hometown to be on mission. The lost are everywhere! 

I don't serve in the ministry of Upward for recognition; I serve for my Lord who I am so grateful for. I serve to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ which is what He ask of us.   I don't tell you about this service because I want to boast of what I am doing because this is such a little thing.  I tell you because there are opportunities everywhere!  I share because I hope it will clarify that we can all be missionaries in the Kingdom of God. 

Won't you consider your mission for God today?

Matthew 28:19-20

The Great Commission

¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

2013 Upward Season

 

My son working in the café

 

My husband refereeing

My daughter and husband with a friend coaching the Polar Bears!

 

My sister (Mandy) in Uganda on Mission 2/2013

Doesn't this picture capture LOVE!!

 

Grace to you!

 

Jenny