What is the first thing you open up when you get the mail each day? Let me guess, the bills! Nah, those go on the desk and are opened last. If you are anything like me, you love to get real hand-written letters. I have always loved getting the mail. I would fight my roommates in college to get the mail. I know exactly what time my mail arrives each day because I stare out the window in anticipation of the U.S. Mail truck.
Last week, I challenged myself by being the initiator of the letter and put on my to-do list; write a letter a day.
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I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but somehow, we ended up with over four hundred seventy-five children in our church’s Vacation Bible School this year. I am directing the preschool, and over one hundred of those are my preschoolers! All I can say is “Wow!”
While I am definitely pleased to have an influence for Christ over so many little lives this week, I am also a little fearful. Directing a program of this size is not easy. So many things can go wrong. So many important things can be forgotten. As I was thinking about this, I began to feel a little panicked.
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“Can I sit in your lap?” Three and a half year old Boo came to the bathroom door while I took advantage of Hubs day off to be leisurely about lather and lotion.
As I let him climb onto my lap, he wrapped his arms around my neck, tucked up his legs and pulled himself tight to me.
“You just can’t get close enough, can you?” I smiled. Boo nuzzled his curly head into my neck and looked up from under his strawberry-blond lashes, “I just like you.”
Ok, whose mother-heart doesn’t melt at that? Once again my child gave me a glimpse of how I want to be as a child of God.
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Are there things on your prayer list that never get crossed off? There are times I pray for things so often that my prayers are out of habit and not out of belief – belief that He hears them and will answer. Have you ever been surprised when God has answered a prayer? I have! Then I wonder about my faith. If I didn’t believe He could answer, then why did I pray in the first place?
I’m reading an awesome book right now called Listening for God by Marilyn Hontz. I highly recommend it. It’s about the different ways we can hear God’s voice.
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I’m not in a boat ready to capsize and I’m not singing praises in jail or facing the terrifying glow of an angel, but I hear it. Some days it sounds like a whisper. Some days a bellowing command.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down.” Mark 6:51
When my parents call with the results of my dad’s lung CAT scan—Take courage. When I need to make a decision about how to handle the neighborhood bullies—Take courage. As I roll out of bed with a biting headache—Take courage.
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The past weekend didn’t turn out exactly the way I had planned. I was looking forward to celebrating the holiday with a little rest and relaxation. I had planned and prepared not to do a thing. I was in the middle of a good book. We had planned simple meals. I couldn’t wait!!
How are you when your plans don’t happen as you intended? I can have a variety of reactions, but most of them I would prefer not to share. Anyway, I knew that my laptop keyboard was frozen on Friday, but decided that any attention it needed could wait until this week.
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“Then he said to Him, “If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” Exodus 33:15
Though I remember little about the Experiencing God bible study by Henry and Richard Blackaby I did years ago, the thing that stuck with me was this… see where God is moving and join him.
What a revelation that was for someone like me a planner who usually rallied the troops to join me in working or doing things for God or others. But it makes sense. Why toil at my own plans that ultimately fail when God’s are best?
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…and has saved us and called us according to His holy calling, and not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. 1Tim. 1:9a
When the phone rings what do you do? Do you let it ring and ring and ring or do you answer it? Hopefully you answer it. Hearing a constant ringing can be extremely annoying. And trying to live and move around your home with a ringing phone in the background is almost impossible. Ridiculous even.
What about God? Has He ever called you? No, not on the telephone. But the example is the same.
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