Summer Opportunities

 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

Do you see this summer as an opportunity?  Maybe this summer you could take an adult education class or have other moms come over your house for a mom’s prayer night.  Or maybe both! 

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, … For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

When you ask the Lord (of the harvest) to guide and direct your steps, He will!  Maybe sign up for a class to learn a new language, a new skill, or just to meet a new people group.  Ask God to show you how He wants to use your life to bring Him glory.  I learned sign language YEARS ago through adult ed classes, then college and then at church interpreting the worship for the Deaf community that attended – remember this is YEARS ago.  Well, a month or so ago I was at a park with my kids, pushing them on the swings and I tried to talk to a mom swinging her kid too.  She said she was Deaf, so I started up a conversation with her in my “broken” sign language.  It was almost like she came alive when I responded back to her in her language.  Can I tell you that IT WAS THE LORD giving me those signs!  As we talked, He used me to re-connect her to an interpreter we both know who would encourage her to come back to church!

Only God does stuff like that!

“Set your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth.” Colossians 3:2

Be a Life-giver

"The instruction of the wise is like a life giving fountain..." Proverbs 13:14

"The instructions of the LORD are perfect, reviving the soul.  The decrees of the LORD are trustworthy, make wise the simple." Psalm 19:7

Sometimes life is tough!  

Sometimes it is really tough!  

Yet, as children of the Lord we are call to stand firm in Him and see His faithful deliverance. We sit at His feet, bask in His presence,  and breathe in His rest... and then sometimes we need help from a friend! 

I have one of those friends.  She faithfully sends scripture when the Lord puts it on her heart. She is in the Eastern time zone and I am in the Pacific time zone, so sometimes after a night of wrestling in prayer, my thirsty soul wakes up to an encouraging, life-giving scripture that is spot on!  The Holy Spirit uses this friend to speak life and hope through His word.  My friend, Kate, is obedient and God gets the glory!  I want to encourage anyone reading this to be one of those friends.  Send a scripture, say a prayer, leave a voicemail... whatever you can.  

We need each other! 

Memories are Made

We just finished installing laminate flooring onto the bedroom floors.  The first floor we tackled was the kids’ room so they were displaced into another room in the house for sleeping for a couple days.  Matthew wasn’t too excited when the lights went out the first night so I stayed for a little while telling him stories from my childhood.  I realized that the memories I had were much attributed to all the pictures my mom took through the years of the activities we did.  She put them in albums that we frequently looked at and showed relatives when they visited.

In this day and age we take millions of pictures and post them to Facebook but are we stopping long enough to print them and stick them in albums?  When my kids were first born I made small albums online (in lieu of store-bought baby albums).  How do you preserve those memories of your family’s history?

As a mom, I can now look to my mom and thank her for capturing those snapshots of our family history and taking the time to create those albums that have become my memories from childhood.   I read 1 Thessalonians today and thought of my mom in this verse:

“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father;” 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 (underlining and italics mine)