Death, where is your sting??

My heart is heavy these last couple weeks as I mourn for a young family in our hometown.  She has been taken off of her radiation treatments and hospice is being called in for the last stretch of her battle with brain cancer.  She has a husband who loves her and two precious little girls.  I hate Cancer.  I hate pain and suffering.  I hate the frailty of our bodies here on earth.  I hate sin and how it effects our lives.  Cancer is straight from the devil, the father of lies and of sin.   

Paul says in scripture, "For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better." I wholeheartedly believe this.  I believe that our time our earth, at it's absolute best, is only a glimpse of the eternity that is to come for those who follow Christ.  I am excited about living in eternity with Jesus and about being reunited with all of my loved ones.  (Some I have never met!)

I have mentioned before that I really wrestled with the thought of death over the course of the last year.  I realized that I had been holding on to this life on earth with a very tight fist.  My biggest thing was that I couldn't imagine how my kids and husband could survive without me!  It's really kind of egotistical if you think about it.  It's as if we are the god of their lives and that the REAL God in Heaven isn't capable of providing for them all that they would need without us. I also can not imagine not watching them grow up and/or not being a significant part of their lives here on Earth because I love them so much BUT I'm not afraid of death anymore.  I am confident that if I were to pass, I wouldn't being in Heaven crying about it.  I think I would be excited for my family to join me! And I know God could and would take care of my family. 

I think our culture has such a warped view of so many things, and this is one of them.  Why are we so afraid of death?  Really to die is GAIN.  In Heaven, there will be no more suffering, no more pain, and we will be with Jesus.  It's like our time on the Earth is only a pitstop to our eternal destination and THAT is the place we REALLY want to be.  Our hearts were made to worship Jesus, we were made to worship the Creator, and one day we will do just that without the ugliness of this world.  No MORE DEATH, no more SUFFERING!  Our lives will be rich and complete.  We will be lacking NOTHING!

Scripture also says, "death, where is your sting?"  It's like a punch in Satan's face. "HA!  You thought you could destroy us by suffering through death, but Satan, we've got your number!!  We KNOW that through our salvation in Christ, we will be reunited in Heaven, and it will be a perfect Earth!  A NEW EARTH!  With all the things we love, but none of the things we hate!  No more tears."  

To me,  the hardest part of death is the actual suffering that leads to death,  it's often unfathomable the amount of suffering that goes on in this lifetime.  Pain and sickness is horrible.  And then the thought of continuing on without a loved one.  If I were to lose Jason or one of my kids, I can't even imagine the pain that it would entail.  I can't imagine the hole I would have in my heart.

But here is one thing I know, GOD IS BIGGER.  GOD IS BIG ENOUGH TO GUIDE US AND LOVE US AND TO HEAL THOSE HOLES IN OUR HEARTS, IF NOT ON THIS EARTH, IN HEAVEN ONE DAY.  Can we ever be the same after such a great loss?  I hope not.  I hope through our afflictions and pain, we become more and more defendant on our father in Heaven who wants to comfort us.  I hope we realize more and more that our time on Earth is short and that it matters if we trust the Lord with our eternal destination.  It matters if we decide TODAY whether or not we will go to Heaven or Hell when we die.  It matters if we decide that we truly are helpless without the love and hope of Jesus Christ in our lives.  For our eternal destination, and for the strength and hope to thrive in this broken world. 

So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.  For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Jesus, please be with my friends who are suffering so deeply right now.  Please comfort them.  Please give them strength and hope to continue on.  Please be with sweet, sweet Cara as she endures.  Please take away any pain.  Jesus, come quickly!!  We NEED YOU!  Please help us to tangibly feel your love for us.  This suffering is more than our finite minds can handle.  

To my mommy friends, I am vowing in honor of Cara, to be the best mommy and wife that I can be.  Because the simple fact that I am able to is a gift that isn't to be taken lightly.  Join me! 

Love, 
 

Highly recommended reads...

http://www.amazon.com/Grace-Disguised-Soul-Grows-through/dp/0310258952/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298077787&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Randy-Alcorn/dp/0842379428/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298077916&sr=1-1

 

 

Loving The Lord With Our Minds

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Mark 12:30

What does it mean to love the Lord with our minds?  I believe it means to nourish our minds and to use them for things that are of value.

In my own life, I have noticed seasons where I am filling my mind with basically just a bunch of junk!  I can get addicted to too much TV, Internet, and/or reading things that are of no use.  My mind starts to feed on things that are just keeping me busy.  Just occupying my time.

We can liken it to our diets.  God gave us a body and we are wise to take care of it.  We can take care of it by eating healthy, exercising, staying active, and by avoiding things that are harmful to our bodies.  Have you ever seen the movie "Wallie?"  The humans decide they would rather be scooted around in their lounge chairs rather than walk.  They also have their food brought to them, their attire is changed electronically, and the list goes on.  If you push one of them out of their chair, they can no longer walk.

Our brains are the same way.  We can feed them and exercise them, developing habits and always growing, or we can starve our brains.  With our brains and bodies alike, no care or bad care, both lead to malnutrition! 

So, one way to love God with our minds I believe,  would be to take good care of the gift He has given to us.  Feed it healthy food. Exercise it. Protect it. 

Again, I am excited about the new ways I have learned this week to engage the minds of my children.  I have also recently set some boundaries on myself to avoid too much JUNK food in my brain.  It takes a concentrated focus for me or else it's too easy to graze all day long feeling as though I learned/accomplished nothing at the end of the day!!

What will you read today?  What are you watching?  How are you exercising your God-given MIND? Let's get our minds into good shape! I think we will all feel significantly better and notice improvements in our life's.

Book Recommendations...

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force 

Your Mind Matters

Honor Your Parents

I'm wrestling with this whole "Fascinating Fridays," "Bible Trivia Fridays," etc. idea on my blog.  I guess it's sensitive to my particular week, but I still want to stick to the goal of sharing a biblical principle, or bible trivia weekly.  So anyways...

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 

Exodus 20:12

I've heard this verse all my life and didn't really know what to make of it.  Does it mean obey? What about when you become an adult and are trying to make your way that may be different from how your parents would like? How do you disagree and still honor? What if you are a kid who is being abused? What if your mom is a raging alcoholic? How do we honor our parents in the midst of turmoil, heartache, neglect, abuse, or any of the other horrible circumstances that some children are living in? How do they "honor their parents?" Honor your parents is mentioned all throughout scripture, so I knew it was important.


I wanted to honor my parents and I began asking God to show me how.  


Which is when I came across this book.  I'm not going to go into all that I learned from the book, because frankly, if you are reading this, and you are a child or adult who was abused, or who has issues forgiving your parents, you NEED to read this book.  It's too deep of a subject for me to pretend I have the answers, but I do have hope.  I have hope for those who walk around wounded from their pasts.  Honoring your parents in the midst of heartache will set you free from so many things.  It's a way to "let go, and let God." 


My parents have their tributes hung proudly in their room!  How cool is that? It makes me smile every time I see them, but I'm also considering doing an updated version in 10 years or so to honor them in the things I continue to recognize as I get older.  


So, here is my tribute for my dad, for all the internet to see:).  (For those who are interested, I will share my mom's tribute tomorrow)

To my Dad. Thank you for being my dad. Since I have become a parent, I have thought a lot about the things that I appreciate and respect about you. This is my feeble attempt to make them known.

I appreciate the way you worked hard and provided for our family. We never had a need unmet, at least not that I knew of. You are a hard worker and I am thankful for your work ethic. I would be proud if I could say I meet up to you.

I appreciate your loyalty to mom. I cannot think of one bad word that you ever said about her, besides calling her an “old lady!” That little phrase used to get me so upset! In all seriousness though, you have shown me time and time again that there is nothing that will make you stop being loyal to her first. You are committed to her and I appreciate that example. You and mom are the first ones in our family lineage to stay married. I am thankful that the generational tides are turning. Thank you for never leaving us. I never worried that you would. 

I am also thankful that you gave me a better childhood than you had.

I am thankful that you protected me from most of the stuff that you endured. I know it was out of your love for us. I remember you getting really angry when I was doing rebellious things and now as a parent, I realize where that anger came from. I understand that the height of your emotions was a reflection of the depth of your love for me. You wanted to protect me and for that I am very thankful.

You are dependable. Once I can tell if you are kidding or not, I know I can take you for your word! You will do what you say you are going to do at the time you said it would be done. 

There are a few things that I catch myself doing to the boys and I remember you doing them to me! Like popping my toes and wrestling or tickling! I now appreciate those little things as tokens of affection that you were giving to me. 

I loved our late night talks usually watching the Late Show. I liked it that it was our time to visit and chat. 

I will always be thankful for your willingness to take our family in when Jason was looking for a new job, and the compassion you had towards him. You helped me encourage him.

I am thankful for the trips to the beach, trips to the lake, the huge jar of beef jerky, the digital camera, passing on your sweet tooth to me; hence jolly ranchers, nerds, and sweet tarts! I am thankful for the sweet car when I turned 16 and I am just as thankful that you sold it a year later. I am thankful that you made me work hard to “earn” another car. 

They say that children study their parents. I have studied you a lot over the years. You don’t like to share your coke, you don’t like it when people double dip, you do the two finger wave every time! You love walks on the beach, hot baths, being outdoors, learning new things, and automobiles. You don’t like half way done jobs, excuses, or being in large groups of people. I don’t either! You get heartburn when you eat Nerds, you leave the strawberry ice cream behind in a tub of Neapolitan. You get woken up easily and watch tv until you cant hold your eyes open anymore. You like to do projects for the people you love. 

I like who you are. I think I picked up a lot from you. You are my dad and I am proud. 

I love you very much.
Mindy

Have a good weekend, and try to find a way to honor your parents! You will be blessed. 


Love,

 
 **Edited to Add...Just in case it came across as though my parents were abusive or anything of the sort, that wasn't my intention. They are great.  I know many people though who have lived in abusive situations.

Fascinating Friday

We cannot even begin to comprehend what Saul's life was like as he saught to live by the letter of the law because most of us do not have a Jewish background.  Daily rituals determined the first words out of Saul's mouth in the morning, the way he took off his nightclothes and out on his dayclothes, and how he sprinkled his hands before breakfast. He carefully avoided eating or drinking quickly and he never ate while standing. Saul pronounced numerous benedictions throughout the day. His entire day was filled with ritual, and at night he took off his shoes and garments in the prescribed order. For the sake of the heart and liver, he probably attempted to begin the night on the left side and end the night on the right. He purposely kept his turning to a minimum. Tossing and turning in the night is misery to us, but to Saul it could have been sin.

Excerpt from The Personal Reflections Series by Beth Moore. 90 Days on His Journey of Faith, Paul.

I've been thinking about legalism a lot lately. Above we can read about some of the laws that the Pharisees followed to get in good standing with God and it looks pretty ridiculous.  At least I think it does.  I understand, if you have good motives, why setting some rituals into play can be helpful in setting our minds on Christ, but come on.  Doesn't sleeping in a partcular way seem a little redundant. 


So I look at our Christian culture today and I wonder how many things we do because we think we HAVE to do them to be a "good Christians."  I wonder how many rules we try to follow and then become racked with guilt when we fall short.

I fall short all the time, and one thing that God has been telling me over and over lately is that I need to stop focusing on behavior so much.  Following Jesus isn't about getting it right all the time, it isn't about learning all the right things to say and do.  I am so thankful for this!!

What are some "laws" that you have bound yourself to?  What are some ways that you mess up and then you play that tape in your head again about how you just don't meet up??

Do you have any?

Here are some that God has exposed to me recently...

1. You MUST read your bible all the time and you really should be getting up BEFORE your little ones wake up. (and if you don't, feel guilty about it.)

2. You MUST be happy and nice. All. OF. THE. TIME.

3. You really should be doing this, this, and this with your kids.  Every day.

4. Life is all about sacrifice, you shouldn't enjoy anything(blogging, shopping, getting your hair done) and if you do, it's because you are selfish.

5.You should cook three meals a day, everyday.

6. Don't let others see you mess up or be weak.

I think we can have a tendency to take something that God intends to be GOOD for us, and then we twist it into something loveless that it was never meant to be.  OR we just make up things along the way because it's what we are hearing from our culture. Let's not do this!  One of my favorite quotes is, "Follow God and Walk in Freedom." 

It's really that simple.  Not easy, but simple.

Love,

Bible Trivia Fridays

A few years ago, I attempted to study the book of Isaiah on my own.  Its was great, I learned some amazing things, but by about chapter 15 or so, I realized I was in over my head. That book has sixty something chapters.  I'm glad I did it and one verse that I took to memory as I studied was this...

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.
Isaiah 40:8

The grass and flowers are us and the good things we do.  The are good and pretty for a time being, but they aren't eternal.  The only thing that is eternal is Jesus.  Think about it, how many famous people or good works do you know that have lasted the test of time?  Most good people and good works are forgotten almost as fast as they are buried in the ground.

I just love this verse and it puts things into perspective for me so often.  You might remember, I had Dylan memorize it when he was three...

So when I came across this scripture, and I saw this at Pine Cove family camp...

I just knew I HAD to decorate my daughter's room in a similar way.  So here is a picture of Sarah's room...

It's my prayer that she will write God's word on her heart, and that she will always know that beauty and things of the world are fleeting, but GOD remains true forever.  His truths and ways are timeless.

This is the scripture I picked for the boys' room.  I pray this for them...

(The writing is not perfect, but it only cost me $1.99 for the paint markers, and I think perfect is over rated!  Plus, it's the message that counts!)

This is a decal that I bought and I don't like it nearly as much.  But the verse does have special significance to me, so I couldn't pass it up!

Have a good weekend friends.

Love,

1000 Gifts

This list is a lot of fun.  It's getting a little harder as time goes on, but I am just asking God to continue to open my eyes to all the many gifts I have in my life.  It's a definitely a "mood booster,"  and it is helping me to slow down and enjoy life more.  I am finding myself in not so much of a hurry all of the time lately.  That's a really good thing for me.  I hate how I sometimes get in such a hurry to get everything done and I have no idea why.  Mealtime is a big one for me.  I sometimes rush, rush, rush to get everything on the table and then it takes all the joy out of it.  The other night the kids helped me make dinner, which we all know makes things go waayyy slower, but it was well worth it.   We had lots of fun, and we found a way to incorporate some schooling into it too! If you have a blog, I would encourage you to consider doing this, and if you don't, just write your 1000 gifts (or however many) on a notepad or something.

Here it goes...





95. watching Sarah's face when she taste's new, yummy things
96.  passing the formula at Costco and not having to buy it anymore
97. the agility of my kids
98. hearing from an old blog friend who has beat cancer
99. elderly folks who laugh and play with my kids when they are being loud at the grocery store:)
100.  good reports from the doctor
101.   Jason's flexible schedule that allows him to do things like help me unload groceries in the middle of the day, watch the kids if I have appointments, etc.
102.  women older than me who have poured into my life
103.  moments when my house is quiet because my kids are all playing contently
104.  encouraging phone calls with friends
105.  free long-distance
106.  our new desk in the schoolroom and our awesome Pop who made it
107.  watching Dylan's face when he is doing math problems
108.  daddy's day off
109.  hide-out team ninja ( the hide-out that my boys play in that is outside in the big trees!)
110.  the deer blind that showed up for team ninja and my awesome Dad who brought it over
111.  books and bookshelves
112.  the boys helping me cook
113.  Jason's loud, silly laugh
114.  creating outdoor chores for the boys (they are currently picking up all the rocks in our yard and putting them in a pile to help Jason.)
115.  having healthy, young parents
116.  the generosity of all the people and groups who are giving to The Crossing
117. cute baby girl clothes
118.  when Sarah rolls around on the ground and plays like a puppy!
119.  reports that I get from X3 watch that show me my husband wants to honor our marriage
120.  doing pre-marital counseling with engaged friends and the way it uplifts Jason and I possibly more than our young friends
121.  Costco
122.  watching Sarah eat Whip Cream
123.  timing the boys as they run laps around the house
124.  the imaginations of my boys
125.  Sarah's wet, slobbery kisses
126.  Drewby's squeaky voice
127.  superhero shows
128.  my mom's flexible work schedule that allows her to be a big part of our life
129.

And because I am so silly, and completely forgot to post bible trivia last Friday, this is what I wrote for last week...

I am going to start documenting some cool things about the bible that I am learning in my personal, study time here on Fridays!  I hope you will be blessed as I am...

I am about to turn thirty.

Did you know that Jesus was baptized at the age of thirty?  In the Jewish society, thirty was the age that one reached authority.  Also, John is the one who baptized Jesus at the Jordan River, which was a body of living water, meaning that it came from rainfall.  (Ie. rivers, lakes, seas or man made sources that were fed by rainfall.)

So, maybe I have some authority now?? Is thirty the magic age:)?  I'm pretty excited about my thirties!

I read about this in...
A Visual Guide To Gospel Events
By James C. Martin, John A.Beck, and David G. Hansen
pages 38-39

Love,



 

Fascinating Friday's

I am going to start documenting some cool things about the bible that I am learning in my personal, study time here on Fridays!  I hope you will be blessed as I am...

Some of you may have heard of John the Baptist.  He was the cousin of Jesus who had the honor of preparing the way for Jesus and he also baptized Jesus.  You can read about him in the gospels.  He was the son of Elizabeth,  who was barren for many years and become pregnant as a miraculous act of God.  (What pregnancy isn't a miraculous act of God?? But that's not the point...)

So, John lived in the wilderness and he ate locusts and wild honey that were provided to him by the Lord.  He was a social outcast.  People thought he was weird.  Anytime I have heard of him, I picture a weird, lowly looking man who might seem like a homeless man in modern times.

Well, what I learned about him this week is that the reason he lived in the wilderness is because he was disassociating himself from a corrupt priesthood. 

I don't know about you, but this makes all my assumptions about him being weird change a little.  This makes me think of him as more of a brave, bold man.  I think it's pretty darn admirable that he wanted to be so far away from corruption that he didn't care if it meant eating locusts and honey!  (Locusts and honey that were provided by the Lord no less.)  All he cared about was spreading the good news of the coming messiah.

Pretty Fascinating.

I read about this in...
A Visual Guide To Gospel Events
By James C. Martin, John A.Beck, and David G. Hansen
pages 36-37

Have a good weekend!  Happy New Year!