There will be a day....

On Monday night, while driving home from GNO, I was listening to Spirit 105.3 the radio station and the president of World Vision was speaking about the damage that has been done in Haiti.  Now, to be honest, I don't have cable and only explore email, Facebook and USMagazine.com online so I had no idea there was even an earthquake until at least a day after it had happened. Lame, I know. 

Normally when I learn of disasters of the sort I feel, like some of you may feel, very detatched from the situation. I can't fully wrap my brain around the devestation they are feeling because I have never experienced such a tramatic event. For that, I am grateful!   I have to feel it, experience it and go through it in order for my brain and heart to envelope the depth of their pain.  This time was different.

I heard "Some children were sleeping next to the courpses of their mother or father." and "Children were just walking around in the streets crying because they had lost their families and had no idea where to go and who to turn to."  When I heard both of these statements shared by the president of World Vision my heart broke. I cannot even imagine if my Patrick (3) and Jaden (1) were abandoned, crying, lost, scared and alone.  If Matt and I were plucked from their lives early and the world they knew was in rubble form, where would they turn?  Who would be there to protect them, to wipe their tears, meet their needs, shelter them from the pain of life?

After sharing a list of things that WV is doing to support such children as I mentioned above, he called all of God's people to pray;  to pray for those children (and all the others) devestated by this horrific event.  Prayer changes everything...he knows it, I know it and if you have layed your heart bare before Jesus and He has answered your prayers, you know it too!  We may not be able to pour out a financial abundance or even pack up our little family and travel into their pain and help them make a new way but we can pray, which opens up God's power and authority, love and provision upon HIS children.  "Send down manna from heaven for them! Meet their needs! Speak peace to those children! Give them hope!"  I have to trust He can, He will and He is!

Until we see it with our eyes we too can have hope that...."There will be a day..." by Jeremy Camp

I try to hold on to this world with everything I have



But I feel the weight of what it brings, and the hurt that trys to grab


The many trials that seem to never end, His word declares this truth,


that we will enter in this rest with wonders anew





But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings


That there will be a place with no more suffering





There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears


There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more, we’ll see Jesus face to face


But until that day, we’ll hold on to you always





I know the journey seems so long


You feel your walking on your own


But there has never been a step


Where you’ve walked out all alone





Troubled soul don’t lose your heart


Cause joy and peace he brings


And the beauty that’s in store


Outweighs the hurt of life’s sting





I can’t wait until that day where the very one I’ve lived for always will wipe away the sorrow that I’ve faced


To touch the scars that rescued me from a life of shame and misery this is why this is why I sing….





There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears


There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more, we’ll see Jesus face to face





There will be a day, He’ll wipe away the stains, He’ll wipe away the tears, He’ll wipe away the tears…..there will be a day.
 
Sara

You are beautiful!

http://operationbeautiful.com/


Hi Ladies -

I found this link this evening, and wanted to share it with you. How inspiring to encourage other women around our town anonymously, by silencing the "fat talk" that we all hear.
Love yourself and others today... because as we were reminded this morning "our outcomes are not determined by our intentions, but by our actions".
See you Thursday!!

Erin Morgan

"Mom"

Hello ladies!  I hope this note finds you well and that you thoroughly enjoyed celebrating the birth of Christ with your loved ones. 

This year my husband had to work on Christmas, so my 2 1/2 year old son Micah and I headed to Portland to spend a few days with my cousins and auntie.  Micah loved having lots of other kids to play with and had the time of his life...especially when his 7 year old cousin Sol broke out the light saber.  It was like he was in boy heaven.  Micah followed Sol around all day every day.  It was so much fun just to watch them together.

....until we got home and Micah started calling me "Mom".  Yes, I realize that I am a mom, but up until 2 days ago my son had called me "Mama" exclusively.  Ever since he learned how to talk I have been "Mama".  Yes, in Micahs efforts to emulate his wonderful cousin, he had begun to call me what Sol calls his mother, "Mom". 

Maybe it's just me, but this transition has hit me hard.  It's like Micah grew from toddler to boy overnight.  Calling me "Mom" is just another sign that he's growing up little by little everyday--and there's nothing I can do to stop it.  That is, besides reminding him each time he calls me "Mom" that my name is not "Mom", it's "Mama".
~Keli Douglass (MOPS mom)

Get Out of that Pit

As I was laying in my bubble bath reading Get Out of that Pit by Beth Moore, I was posed with a question.  The irony behind the asking of this question is that just the other day I was crying out to God, in the shower (me and God like WARM, secluded places) with my answer to the question before it was even asked.

What is the question, you may be asking your self?  Well, as Beth puts it...

"Is it any wonder that the first words of Christ recorded in the imcomparable Gospel of John are, "What do you want?"  Hear Him echo the same words to you today.  "What do you want, child?".

If I would have been asked this two years ago, it would have been a baby.  Then there was Jaden. If you would have asked me one year ago it would have been a house. Since then we have moved two times in two months and are in our home to stay...til God moves us. If you would have asked me six months ago I would have said to be in full-time ministry (writing and teaching) and going to school.  I am starting my second class in a few short weeks and I get the privilege of serving in MOPS.  But...just a few days ago, as I cried out to God for mercy in the shower, my heart had a need FAR exceeding that of the list provided above.
"God, if you could grant me one wish, as if you were a genie in a bottle, I would beg you to give me a heart of joy, peace and contentment about being a mom and being home and that my husband would OVERFLOW because of my love for him. That he would know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am WILD about him."

If you were present for our first MOPS meeting, you know that my heart is plagued with a thorn of something seemingly unnatural regarding my role as mom and homemaker. Praise God we have come SO far in the last six months and that thorn is no longer causing irritated, infected wounds in my flesh, however, it is still present and will be until God chooses to pull it out. You see he told me that I have this thorn for a reason...assuming so this broken mess can cast a beautiful rainbow before you when His light shines through.  A rainbow as a sign of His faithfulness to see all of us through this challenging life. Anyway...not the reason for writing.

Today, as I read Beth's question, as provided from the mouth of Jesus, my answer was the same as I stated above, with the addition of wealth. :) Oh if I had unending financial resources, everyone around me, near and far, would be showered! But..neither here nor there, it was a part of my answer.  I was just talking to God about my answer once again and it dawned on me...yes, in my truest of heart (which God knows my hearts desires and the motives of that desiring heart) I want to be the best mom and wife but from that I realized I have a deep-seeded need to have a 'failure-free' life. 

The book I am reading (see the title above) does not necessarily sum up the life I am living. I am not in a pit, praise God! BUT I have been in one, lots of them actually, which is part of the reason I have a need to be without error.  Once you have lived in error so long, knowingly, and have been rescued, you want NOTHING to do with the error...causing me to desire a life where I am not failing, or so it seems, in my heart as a mom and wife.

We are going to be introducing a bible study, which will be taught by Susan Anderson (mentor mom) on marriage relationships. This hits the core of my heart.  My error and redemption were birthed in my love relationship with my man.  I am sure I will share a little here or there as the study begins and carries us through the MOPS year, so I will leave it there for now.

(Please don't misunderstand, I am WILD about my husband and we have a great marriage, by God's grace, and I am a good mom and care tenderly for their inner and outer beings. My heart and mind, however, struggle immensely at times to find joy, peace and contentment in the midst of my role as mom and homemaker...my thorn, however,you can bet your life on it that joy, peace and contentment in this area of my life is mine...God said so and therefore it is so and I will live it until I feel it.) 

Point: What would you say if you were asked, by God of course, "My Beloved, what do you want?"

"God looks intently not only at what we've done and how, but also at why we did it.  The Bible tells us that, unlike people, God doesn't look on the outward appearance of things.  He looks upon the heart.  First Chronicles 28:9 says, "the LORD searches every heart and understand every motive behind the thoughts." (77) Don't be bashful in your answer, He already knows what you are thinking! :)

He has given me a realization that it is by grace I have been saved, not by works. So it is not necessary for me to try and live error-free but rather ... just free.  I am free, indeed, by God's power and grace!  (I could write for hours, but I dare not bore you and cause you to never return to our blog. :))

I have not been a pit-dweller for some time now and I need to walk in confidence, security and freedom knowing that he who began a good work in me WILL see it to completion...and that means that I will be joyful, peaceful and content in my role as mom and housewife and that my love for my husband will be evident and abundant. Amen!

Lovingly laying it all out there so you too can be free!
Love to you
Sara