DADS!

I saw the sweetest thing yesterday.  It was a dad taking his car full of kids to the crossing guard so they could cross the road to get to school.  Each child got out of the car, and they each one had some special form of interaction with their dad.  He was so sweet and took time to give them all what they needed from him.  You could tell that he paid special attention to make sure that each one felt that individual connection from their dad.  I watched with a smile in my heart because this is not a normal scene these days.

Somewhere along the way dad’s have missed the mark.  I am not sure if it has just been the pressures of the world or if they have just become dead beats as the world has proclaimed, but I want to say, what a shame I think it all is.

Today, television shows project “dad” as being some dumb character that just takes up space in the home.  This is such a contrast to the way television and the world used to perceive dad.  Such shows as “Father knows best” and “My three sons,”  or even “Leave it to Beaver,”  made dad to be the voice of the family, who always knew what to do and how to handle all of life’s problems.  This view has probably changed as more women have entered the work force and now have a big input to not only family matters, but financial contributions as well.   I am not really sure if this change has been worth the sacrifice that has been made, especially when our homes become somewhat out of order, especially at the expense of our husbands and children.

I know things can never go back to the way that they were, and we really should not want them too, but somehow we have got to find a balance.  I know that many women have to work nowadays and that is fine.  We all have to do what fits our needs the most.  However, the thing we have to do especially as women is bring back respect to our husbands and our children’s  fathers.   This comes with such a blessing.  In Malachi 4:6 b it says, “In that day He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.  Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.”  I know that this turning has to be a work of the Spirit, but I would like to propose to women (especially wives and mothers), that we could do a lot more in this area of our home.    This whole book of Malachi is such a great read.  This is the book where it talks about the tithe and says “Test me in this,”  I would also like to say maybe we should give God a try in this matter too.  After God says “Test me in this,”  He goes on to say, “And see if I will not open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing so great you won’t have room enough to take it in.”  I want God’s blessing!  Nothing else will do!  However, His blessing comes with an action, and that action is giving.  So whether in money, time, actions or words,  we have a responsibility as the people of God to live lives with Kingdom Agenda, not as the world lives or acts, but the way we live is opposite because we don’t take, we give.  We don’t hate, we love.  We don’t get even, we pray.  Not easily done this Kingdom way of life, but well worth the effort.

Too Busy To Blog

I am so sorry.  I have too busy to blog.  In the last week in a half, I have attended the National Day of Prayer Meeting, An Academic Banquet, Samantha had her prom which I did not attend, but it wore me out getting ready for it,  A Graduation for College of Charleston, A Graduation Party, Mother’s Day (2 Services this Day), 2 Ballgames, 2 Ball Practices, A Thursday Morning Class on Christlikeness, Had a Garage Sale, Attended 3 Services of Church on Sunday with a Ladies Planning Meeting squeezed in.  With all that being said, I just wanted to let everyone know that I still am here, but just been crazy busy.

I wanted to give a sidenote about my kids here.  Samantha has done so great in school.  She is getting ready to Graduate very soon.  Her grades have been incredible.  Kim graduated College of  Charleston in 3 years, even with transferring from Winthrop, just to be closer to Jonathon.  My kids were all very sweet to me on Mother’s Day.  I received beautiful flowers, a gift certificate for a Pedicure, and a gift card to Red Lobster, not to mention the cards.  I believe they were the sweetest cards I have ever received.  I also have to brag on my Husband.  He is such a sentimental card signer.  He always writes the sweetest notes when he signs his cards.  He is a wonderful Husband and Father.   Okay, I think I have brought you all up to speed.  I am going to try to do better.

God’s Heart!

I was thinking today about God and what was on his heart.  I thought again and thought souls was probably the number one issue of God’s heart.  He tells us time and time again, whenever Jesus is giving an analogy or a parable about how important the ‘Lost’ are to him.  We went over some of this in our Mother/Daughter banquet this past Saturday- in the Parable of the Lost Coin.  I thought about this parable since Saturday, and it came to me that God is constantly looking for the lost.  He never stops, he never grows tired of looking, he never looses hope when dealing with the lost either, like I sometimes do.  I have some children who are lost and let me tell you, it is very painful as a parent because the very thing that you believe in with all of your heart, they disregard as just being something that they can live without.  However, the Lord told me today that he wants me to be like the lady in this parable.  He wants me to shine the light of the Holy Spirit with my prayers and with my actions.  He wants me to take out the broom (his word) and begin to sweep (confess and believe) my house clean, until I find the coin (which means until my lost love ones are found), and to not stop until I see the manifestation of the coin (my loved ones come into the kingdom).   I believe that an end time harvest has begun.  I believe it is on the heart of God more than what we even realize.  I was startled today by the reality of God’s heart for souls, as sometimes I don’t think about all the world, like he does.  I get so caught up with my own house, until I forget about his.  I had to repent and ask him to soften my heart for souls and to give me a burden for the lost like I have never had.  He came to seek and save that which was lost.  He won’t stop until they are ALL found!

Kicking and Screaming!

I have been taking a class on Thursday mornings about Christlikeness.  I have been so challenged!  Every week we have a two session lesson, that just goes right to the heart of the matter.  Needless to say, I have felt a little undone.  What I learned this week is, that Christ is not wanting to change me, or for me to undergo some transformation, as I have ignorantly thought  in the past, but Christ is wanting to completely remove me.  I had this revelation this week, and it really messed with me.  All this time I have been wanting to be changed from glory to glory, but my flesh can have no part in his glory.  I actually seen my life pass before my eyes, as I knew the Lord’s ultimate goal is to get rid of me, and I have not really wanted to let go.    I wonder if this class is going to get any easier,  or if I am going to be kicking and screaming all the way through it?   We shall see.

Inquire of the Lord!

I was reading my Daily Bible reading today and read the story of Joshua and the Gibeonites.  These people with other nearby cities, came and deceived Joshua and the Israelite s by telling them that they were from a distant country, and  that they had heard of the Lord their God and wanted to ask to be their servants-instead of being killed, like all the surrounding cities were.  In other words, they wanted peace.  They were great deceivers.  They came with dry and moldy bread, worn and cracked wine skins, and clothing and shoes that were worn out.  It says that Joshua finally believed them.  They did not bother to ask of the Lord, but went ahead and signed a peace treaty.  Needless to say, three days later they found out these men were close neighbors.

You see, the problem with this was, that God told Joshua and the Israelites to completely get rid of all the neighboring cities.  God wanted to give them this land-it was to be theirs, and theirs alone because God knew one day this would come back to trouble them.  He was trying to make the way clear for them for the future.

It is the same with us.  We don’t ask of the Lord.  We go by what we see.  If it looks good we buy the whole lot.  I felt impressed that we are in a season now where we have to “Inquire of the Lord.”  There are always going to be those who have dry, moldy bread (stale word) and those that are going to have old wineskins of tradition, and even those whose clothing and shoes are worn from walking the wrong paths, that are going to be trying to deceive us, but all we have to do is ask of the Lord.  He wants to tell us.  The word even says, “He does nothing unless he first tells his prophets.”  So in saying all of that, I want to warn us to be very careful right now (not suspicious), but discerning because the enemy is very crafty, and unfortunately he uses the very things we would never expect to deceive us.

Easter Is Not Over!

I was thinking to myself today that Easter is over now what, to which I was surprised to hear a voice inside say “No it is not.”  That kind of surprised me.  We  as Christians though have to realize that Easter is not just a day, but a life style.  Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb and on the third day, he rose from the dead.  He was resurrected! We need to live a life of resurrection.  I know it is hard to be so alive everyday, but if Christ says it or did it, we can too.  If we couldn’t he would never expect any thing from us at all-but he does, and we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us.  So, Happy Resurrection to you!  May this be a season you will never forget.

Life at my house!

Oh my, so much has been going on since my last post.   We have been in the heat of high school softball, while Ronnie is coaching the recreation league.  So in saying all of that we have been very busy.  Spring break was this past week and all we really did was spend time at one ball field or another.  I am not complaining though because Veronica is in ninth grade and I know that there  will not be many more years that we will be so busy coaching and playing ball, although I am looking forward to going to the ball park to see Jackson play.

Today is  Easter.  It was a great day.  We went to church and my dad was there.  It is always so good to have my dad around.  Many do not know him, but he is awesome.  I have always been somewhat of a daddy’s girl, so I really enjoy his company.  The service was great and Pastor had an awesome message.  I also enjoyed our kids choir-they were adorable!

After service, we went over to Aron and Chris’ house for dinner.  We all brought food and had a great meal.  I am so blessed to have such a precious family.  From start to finish today was a pretty good day.  I am very thankful!

SCRUB FRUIT!

Not sure if you guys remember or not, but when my older kids were teenagers about 15 years ago actually (man, I am old!), there was a name that they would call anyone that maybe acted different or looked different, and that name was “SCRUB.”

I found out that even Jesus was familiar and used this term in my daily Bible reading.  I had to chuckle when I read this  in the Living Bible translation in Luke 6:43-44

A tree from good stock doesn’t produce scrub fruit nor do trees from poor stock produce choice fruit.  A tree is identified by the kind of fruit it produces.

I am not sure about you, but I do not want to produce ‘’scrub  fruit,” cause you can ask anyone who is 2o something or older, this is not a good thing.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day.  Many do not get into Saint Patrick’s day to much, and many get into it a little too much, if you know what I mean, with all the partying and carrying on.  This makes it hard to understand what Saint Patrick’s Day is and who Saint Patrick was.

Saint Patrick was born in Scotland and was kidnapped by Irish marauders and sold as a slave to a chieftan in Ireland.  While in the chieftan’s service, Saint Patrick became a tender of his master’s flocks.  He would be terribly lonely and afraid because he was only 16 years of age.  He stated in his own words:

“the love of God“, he added,

and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that whilst in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent within me.

God allowed Saint Patrick to be in captivity for six years, and during this time Patrick learned the Celtic language fluently and began to tell of the redemption of Christ.  He felt called to liberate the Irish race and therefore became an Apostle of Ireland.  He used the Shamrock (not the 4 leaf clover) but the clover with three leafs to explain to the Irish the mystery of the Trinity.  I wanted to close this post with the prayer of Saint Patrick, this prayer was composed to show victory over paganism.  A very powerful prayer:

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,
The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,
The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the love of seraphim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the hope of resurrection unto reward,
In prayers of Patriarchs,
In predictions of Prophets,
In preaching of Apostles,
In faith of Confessors,
In purity of holy Virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today
The power of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The brightness of the moon,
The splendour of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of sea,
The stability of earth,
The compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself today
God’s Power to guide me,
God’s Might to uphold me,
God’s Wisdom to teach me,
God’s Eye to watch over me,
God’s Ear to hear me,
God’s Word to give me speech,
God’s Hand to guide me,
God’s Way to lie before me,
God’s Shield to shelter me,
God’s Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues
Against every hostile merciless power
Which may assail my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

Christ, protect me today
Against every poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against death-wound,
That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ in the poop [deck],
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

P. S.  It is also fabled that Saint Patrick drove out all of the snakes in Ireland, with a prayer like that-no wonder!

Different Views!

I exercise at Curves, and have the pleasure of being around a different group of ladies on a daily basis.  Many who are Catholic or in a denomination that observes Lent, so I am privy to their conversations about this time of the year.  I do not observe Lent, but I am always listening to what they have to say, and how they feel about different things concerning the Lord, it would probably surprise you the way they talk and feel about the Lord, I know it did me.

Many of the ladies see Lent as the time to do ‘’spring cleaning” of the heart and soul.  Although I do not think there should be a certain time of the year that you reserve for this practice, I do like the concept of coming clean.  I just think you should try to live your life in this “soul cleansing” mode all the time.  I do agree though, that Easter and Passover (which ever you observe) is a time to dwell on the death of some things (Christ) and look toward the life or resurrection of other things.  I think that is appropriate,  even though I would not call it Lent- I would call it being conscious of Christ, and trying to live like him, it is funny because many of the women, no matter their denomination take this same stance.  I love the Body of Christ and I love my friends at Curves.