Looking-On-Us-Love: A Lesson From Elizabeth

Dear Molly (and anyone else who cares to join us), 

I’m excited to read through Luke again and to discuss together what we are learning about Christ’s birth.  I’ve decided to call these my “Dear Molly” entries since Luke is writing to his “most excellent Theophilus”! Silly, I know, but kinda fun!  If you want me to start addressing you that way we can discuss it at our next meeting! :)

Here are my thoughts thus far on Luke.  I can’t wait to get together and hear yours!

Day 1 – Luke 1:1 – 25

When I read this ancient story of infertility I can’t help but think of the hope it must bring to any couple that has struggled to have a child.  In Zechariah and Elizabeth’s case there was a purpose behind their years of heartache and waiting.  God had a very special child in mind for them, a cousin to Jesus who we know as John the Baptist.  And their years of waiting tilled the soil for their joy to be multiplied 100 fold to what it might have been had God answered their prayer for a child right away.  It also set the stage for this miracle that no one could deny, how else could an older man and woman conceive a child except by God’s design?  

I love how Elizabeth responds to her pregnancy in a very personal way with God.  She knows she is just a speck in the sea of humanity and this new life inside her is evidence that God has taken note of her.  Elizabeth acknowledges her lifetime of sorrow and praises God for personally answering her prayer when in her words, “He looked on me” (1:25).  She doesn’t just say “He heard me” implying that after years He finally relented.  She makes it more personal than that.  She knows that God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, looked at her!   God gave her His full attention, heard her heart’s cry and in His Perfect timing answered her greatest desire.

It reminds me of countless moments when my children ask for my attention throughout the day.  Almost every time I am busy doing something else.  So often I don’t even turn and look at them when they are talking to me.  I keep on doing my task and verbally acknowledge their request; but every once in a while I get it right.  I stop and stoop down and look them in the eye and give them my FULL attention.  I acknowledge their need, owie, request, frustration or whatever it is they are trying to tell me.  This is the picture I get when Elizabeth says that God “looked on (her).”  And it is the picture of God’s love that He has for you and me and the whole world that He wants to convey to us. 

As a Christian I believe everything has a purpose and God’s best plan is being unfolded, even if I can’t see it.  This story of infertility leading up to the miraculous birth of John the Baptist is a story of faith in God’s sovereign timing, His Looking-On-Us-Love and His amazing plan to rescue us all beginning to unfold. 

Adjusting My Grip

Ever since Heather died three years ago I have wrestled with fear.  Fear for the health and safety of my loved ones and myself.  Over  time God has gently revealed to me that behind that fear is an idol: something that I am holding onto more tightly than Him.  That idol is safety. 

 I know there is nothing wrong with enjoying this wonderful life that God has given to me, nor in praying for the health or recovery and well-being of my loved ones.  What kind of loving God would want to withhold those things?  But when I try to dictate the future, preferably that it will march on day in and day out for the next 60 years just as it has been up until now, I am not really letting God be in control and therein lays the problem. I wanted circumstantial happiness with my safety idol secure but God wanted to teach me how to have real happiness despite my circumstances. 

A couple weeks ago it looked like my near future as I knew it was about to take a turn with one scary phone call from my doctor.  Two days after that conversation I read, “Real happiness – that unshakeable sense of peace, contentment, and well-being – comes as we remind ourselves of the blessings we have in Christ and then respond with thankfulness,”  by Nancy Leigh De Moss in Choosing Gratitude.  This admonition became my lifeline in the following weeks as I did more tests and waited,  hoping for good news.  Whenever fearful thoughts crept in I would force myself to thank God for all I have in Christ which can never be taken away!  

During that time I contemplated my journey with fear.  I thought I had finally surrendered my safety idol and stopped living every day anxiously waiting for it to all come crumbling down around me.  And now it looked like what I had feared all along might be happening after all. Fear wrapped its fingers around my heart once again.  Had I really surrendered my safety idol or was I still stuck right where I was three years ago clinging to it more than to God?   

When everything is going along swell I am lulled into a false unconsciousness that it will all carry on like this forever.  Then a phone call awakens me to the frailty of it all I’m challenged once again to let God be God, even if I don’t always like the paths He chooses. The test comes in mastering my grip; my hands must be open enough to trust God with the unknown and yet firm enough to keep the precious moments from slipping through my fingers unappreciated. If I hold onto life too loosely I let the days fly by without stopping to enjoy and give thanks; I don’t remember how sacred they truly are.  Yet if I focus too much on the frailty of life I let fear steal the freedom to enjoy it. In holding on just right I can enjoy with gratitude the gift of life and loved ones while trusting His plans above my own for tomorrow and the next.

In the end all the medical tests came back the way we had hoped in case you are wondering!  I’m grateful for the lessons learned in gratitude no matter my circumstances, my faith grown and my relationships strengthened through the process of learning to adjust my grip. I by no means have these things mastered and I know there will be many more opportunities and lessons ahead on this journey called life!

Gobble. Gobble....Oink???

We recently had a marital disagreement over the main course for the upcoming holiday. One of us wants turkey, the correct and traditional centerpiece for Thanksgiving, and the other one of us wants ham.  To solve our stalemate we cast the votes wider including other loved ones who will be joining in the feast.  Since I lost the vote and I'm a sore loser and I'm the one cooking I might just make both anyways!  Even if some strange taste buds would turn down a tasty post holiday turkey sandwich, this is one turkey no one can turn away from.  I couldn't resist making them for my son's kindergarten class snack today.  And even though I hate to say it, I'm now one of those moms who bring in unhealthy treats to get get everyone else' kids all sugared up before heading home.  Sorry.  I didn't even splurge for the low-fat sandwich cookies...I know, I'm horrible.  But these little gobbler's aren't and I know you will love making them too!  

I got the idea out of my son's Clubhouse magazine from Focus on the Family.  And because I believe in giving credit where it is due, it was sent in from the Mickelson family in Washington state.  There are 20 sugared up and elated little 5 and 6 year olds at my son't elementary school today thanks to you Mickelson Family!  

To make them here are a few tips:

• Warm the cookies in the oven a bit to make the easier to separate
• Grab and extra jar of frosting for sticking the "feathers" and "face" on the turkeys
• Don't get distracted by putting your 3-yr-old to bed halfway through the process so you can just get-er-done in peace and let the giant pot of rice crispy, marshmallow and butter mixture cool too much and harden into one giant round glob.  This makes forming the little balls a lot more difficult but not impossible. 

Ingredients

• 4 Tbls butter
• 10 ounce bag marshmallows
• 6 cups rice crispy cereal
• chocolate frosting
• candy corn - different flavors/colors make it even more fun!
• chocolate sandwich cookies

Fall Picture Update

Harvesting Pumpkins from our garden.

Anniversary 3 day Getaway - Yay!

Our new little boy scout.

Remembering how fun boxes can be. 

The only girl kid we will ever have.  Ha ha!  JK  Visiting our good friend's acreage - their newest addition is a herd of goats!

Fall Conference was a blast!

These two spend LOTS of time together this semester!  Yay for Molly!!!

Thrift Store Prom at Fall Conf.

70 Students from SDSU, 450ish staff and students all together - a new record!

We enjoyed seeing our very own nephew at this years Fall Conf.  I didn't remember him being soooo tall!

Our first snow.  Thankfully it all melted!

Rocktoberfest Party at Molly, Morgan's etc.

Raking in the loot.

Battery Box Tears

Grief is so irrational sometimes.  I can walk past the rocking chair Heather and her husband gave us as a wedding gift a thousand times and not shed one tear.  And then today when I opened a cupboard to put something away I saw her name and address written on a box that holds our batteries and immediately burst into tears.  Even though with the passage of time I have gotten more used to her not being here my heart never stops missing her.  Upon further inspection of the box out of pure curiosity I see it was shipped to her at our old address in Madison that we shared years ago from her very best friend in CA. I wonder what treasure was inside.

Why would one little cardboard box that I can’t even remember acquiring somewhere along the way trigger such tears?  And yet as I fix my tea while writing this post and think of all the times Heather would pour herself a cup of plain hot water to warm up I just smile and laugh at her quirky ways?  Grief doesn’t make much sense to me.  But it does make the Gospel make more sense.  When I think of how God’s heart broke with the words, “What have you done? Why are you hiding?” upon discovering Adam and Eve had welcomed sin into His Perfect world, and with it death to everyone, I hear the agony behind those words deep in my heart.  I feel the pain of Heather’s loss – He felt the pain of every loss.   

It makes the Gospel that much more precious to me, knowing that not only does it bring new life and hope for the here and now through a restored relationship with my Creator – it brings forever life on the other side of heaven.  I can’t wait to see Heather’s smiling face again when I get there.  And in the meantime I’ll keep smiling over her funny ways and crying over her absence at unexpected moments.  And even though I would take her back a thousand times instead, I’ll embrace the lessons I’m given from her loss.  Understanding God’s heart in the Gospel a little bit more is one of them.  Thank you, sweet friend…I miss you.

Quick Prayer Request

I'm still here - just silent in the blog world lately, sorry about that!  This semester is just filling up with so many cool ministry opportunities outside of the home which is a change of pace for this mostly stay at home ministry mama.  So when I am home I need to focus on home and that doesn't leave much time/energy for writing.
But I can't let another day go by without asking you to please pray for our upcoming regional Fall Conference, The Weekender. Over 450 students, 70ish from our very own little university, will gather together this weekend for a great time of teaching, worship, fun and fellowship.  Yours truly will be co-teaching a 90min seminar on Real Relating and The Gospel.  Hubby will be doing one on the Media and how it impacts us.  Lots of other fun things in store.  Will you do me a precious favor and right now pray:
1) Safety for everyone traveling
2) Our main teacher, Fran, to be filled with God's Spirit
3) Students will come to Christ
4) Others who already know Him will be strengthened in their relationship with God
5) God will be glorified.

More fun updates to come soon....I hope!  :)

Downsized Mamma: Back to School!

 Even though this mamma felt a bit conflicted and sad over our decision to go back to public school I knew in my heart that this is the face I would see on Thing 2's first day of Kindergarten...and that makes me happy-sad!  You know, the happy my kid is so happy and growing up and spreading his wings but sad he isn't as little as he was yesterday. Yesterday he was home with me all the time and I knew all the ups and downs of his little world.  Yesterday he was sucking down popsicles on our back patio, creating Tye-die shirts at the kid's museum and sinking rocks in the ponds with me.  Yesterday we laughed and played and soaked up every last minute of summer because I knew "that day" was coming.  The day that we pulled up to the public school building and I had to RUN to keep up with him as he took off for the playground.  No lingering hugs or clinging to mom.  Sigh.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.
 I know he would learn just as much (or more) academically at home this year AND yet I can't duplicate the organized chaos of 20 kids that fill up my little man's extrovert tank each and every day at public school.  I also can't/won't practice self-control and following directions for 8 hours a day which is what we thought he would benefit the most from going to school.  And they take these lessons nice and slow in K whereas if we waited to send him in a few years we felt it would be a harder transition.
That all being said  we all enjoyed our homeschool time together and now I know that I COULD do it and survive should we need to do it again, which is a good feeling.  We will take it one year at a time deciding what each kid needs and doing our best to meet those needs.

You are stickin with me little man!  You CAN'T stay here!

Thing 2 he really missed seeing all his friends every day at public school.  Even though he also liked getting his work done in 2 hours instead of 8, he opted to go back with his brother.  That leaves this mamma downsized to one little Thing each day!  I'm bravely embracing the freedom this allows and jumping back into some familiar ministry roles I didn't have room for the past 8 years.   Fun! More on that soon!

A Dozen Reasons Why we Chose Public School...NOT

Some of you know that we decided to home school our kids last semester. If you want to know why (and why not) you can click on those links.  This year we decided to send our middle son to public school Kindergarten.  Our oldest son had the option and decided to return to public school.  Before I tell you why, here are a few reasons why not!

1) Because we don't really love our kids enough, if we did we would home school.

2) Because we didn't like the leisurely pace in the mornings, everyone getting enough rest and starting the day off nice and slow AFTER my second cup of coffee.

3)Because our home schooling was a terrible, torturous experience and we would never do it again.

4) Because we hated spending so much time reading together on the couch and all those pesky trips to the library.

5) Because we know that they really can't learn social skills they need to survive with home school.

6) Because they were starting to act so introverted, stopped speaking to anyone outside our family and started speaking in Latin.

7) Because they hated having so much free time to play legos and go on "adventures" in our house with their imaginations.

8) Because I really do believe the government should decide what my kids learn and when and how.

9) Because those taco snacks and chicken nuggets for hot lunch are so much more nutritious than my home cooked meals.

10) Because they were driving me crazy (okay, that one might have been slightly true some of the time).

11) Because all that time doing family devotions and scripture memory with them was such a drag.

12) Because I couldn't teach them as well as some total stranger could, and it isn't really school when you do it at home for just a few hours a day!

I'll post again soon with reasons why we went this route this year...and some first day of school pics.

The Most Important Day

One of the most important days of the school year for our ministry is today.  Today is the day we help move freshman into the dorms.  Our campus is so friendly and appreciative of our organized effort that they even supply lunch for our student friends. Awesome!   But the free lunch is the reason why today is so important. The real reason is that this is our first chance to meet the incoming class.  Every student leader in Navs wears our stand out (some may call them boring...ahem...) black and white t-shirts, and climbs countless flights of stairs carrying endless boxes, laptops and flat screens (umm, can I be a freshman again?) all in order to spread the Gospel.  Probably not one single verse is shared.  Many don't get beyond introductions and a maybe a brief invite to one of our many events happening in the next couple weeks. But we are jotting down names and numbers, making connections and will stop back by to talk to them more as the days pass.

This day and the few days ahead are so soo sooo important because in this short span of time the lonely wide-eyed freshman are going to decide who their friends will be for the next four or five years.  Seriously, in a matter of days!  This is a huge life changing decision depending on who they choose.  We aren't out for a popularity contest but we want them to choose us! We want to pull in as many students as we can not so we can report big numbers at our Nav Nites (though that is always fun) or pat ourselves on the back at how many new Bible studies we started. We want to catch them before they stray off onto the wrong paths that never quite satisfy. We want to build friendships that point them to the one Friend who will never fail them.

As I took a break today from harvesting the green beans and baking a peach pie for my hard working hubby (no, I wasn't among the movers today as hubby declined to take 3 energetic boys to help move things) I took a few minutes to pray for this most important day.  I couldn't help but picture casting out our nets wide and fighting against our enemy who is working his hardest to get them into his camp.  Please join me in praying for this important day.  Pray for success for all the ministries on campus that are working for His Kingdom.  Today's success dictates tomorrows and the next...and eventually what Kingdom these students will end up in.  Thanks for reading and praying! :)

Our T-shirt for those who haven't seen them.  Modeled by two of my favorite little rascals!

Who Are The Navigators?

Last night as we were driving home hubby sat next to me and every few seconds his phone would beep indicating a new text.  Why yes, ministry is picking up speed again as fall is just around the corner.  But that isn't the only reason the texts were flying in.  As I raised my eyebrows in question he explained that he was preparing a workshop for our leadership retreat later this week on "Who are The Navigators." He wanted to know what his audience thought before attempting to teach them so he asked them to text him their answers. I thought some responses were funny and others spot on.  All were encouraging.  Here are what some of the 34 sophomore, juniors and seniors who are on the leadership team this year had to say:

-Awesome

-The Navs are the coolest group of people you will ever meet on campus. They’re grounded, relatable, crazy people with a zest for God who are ready to be your friend and help you in any way they possibly can. J

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-We are a group of people seeking to know Christ and to share his love with the world, and to help others do the same.

-I would say we are a campus ministry who tries ‘To know Christ and make him known.”  Not only is Navs a place where you grow in your faith but it’s a place to challenge your faith and reach out to others to help them know the gospel of Jesus Christ.

-We are a super fun and amazing campus ministry!  Our mission is to know Christ and to make him known. We meet every Wednesday at 8pm for great messages and wonderful worship. Navigators is also a great way to surround yourself with Christian people and from friendships.

-Our t-shirts say it all.

-We are a group who seeks not to just ‘love’ Christ but to follow him.  We also seek to encourage others and show them Christ’s love in a genuine and sincere way.

-They’re a bunch of thugs who like to kick it old school.  It’s also a student led campus ministry who enjoy serving God. Evangelism, discipleship and Ultimate Frisbee!

-A nationwide ultimate Frisbee league.

-But for real I would say it is a worldwide Christian ministry that has one of its focuses on helping college students learn more about Jesus.

-We are a Christian organization with a campus ministry as one part. Our desire is to glorify God as we seek to know Him and share His love with others.

-I would say that Navs is a Christian campus organization that focuses on knowing Christ and making Him known- we live this statement out through building relationships/friendships with others modeled by how Christ lived and disciple

This years Oaks Leadership team along with a few that have graduated and left us :(  pictured above.