At our small group last night we shared God moments,  and I wept.  I told how Kati had been so faithful, seeking and trusting God as she waited patiently for her husband. She trusted in what she could not yet see and believed for what was to come, knowing that no matter what the outcome, God's plans were best. I wept because of God's faithfulness to her in bringing Shayne into her life. The man that will become her husband soon. The man who exceeds what she could ever ask or imagine. I wept because after years of praying for this man, we get to celebrate. Kati, thank you for teaching me about trusting God and waiting patiently for His plans. "Trust God from the bottom of your heart;  don't try to figure everything out on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go, he's the one who will keep you on track."  Proverbs 3:5-6 Message

Lessons Learned While Snowboarding

We just returned from a family snowboarding trip to Red River,  New Mexico. It was a Spring Break vacation/ 16th birthday present for our daughter, Maddie, who has always wanted to snowboard. I like those kind of presents-the ones that benefit everyone! We had fun snowboarding for the very first time. Needless to say, Maddie looked like a pro pretty much the first time she went down the slope. Me? Not so much, although I did have those moments when everything seemed to work just right. They usually occurred right before I fell on my bum; which leads me to the lessons I learned about life with God...

Lesson One: It's difficult to learn to snowboard without instruction! We arrived and got our gear but missed the snowboarding lesson time. We didn't want to waste a whole afternoon so we decided just to try it on our own. Hmmm... Thankfully, a nice man saw our inexperience and gave us some basic pointers. Snowboarding is hard. Life is even harder. I can't imagine trying to navigate life without instruction. God knew all this (Jesus said it in John 16:33, "...Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.") He gave us instruction, His Word, and an instructor, His Son and His Holy Spirit, so that we can know how to live this life victoriously (the last part of John 16:33 Jesus reminds us, "But take heart, because I have overcome the world.").
Lesson Two: When you are at the top of the slope, you just have to clip that foot into your board and go down. The first time we went onto the actual slope (yes, it was still a green bunny slope, but I'm a beginner remember), I looked at the incline and wondered what I had gotten myself into. I was doing this for Maddie? Did Jesus say that there is no greater love than to lay down one's life (on a snowboard) for one's friends (or daughter)? I took a breath and started down. What else do you do? I look at some of my Bible heroes like Ruth and Esther. These women found themselves in situations that were less than thrilling (that's an understatement), but they faced them with grace and courage, with trust and obedience to God. The outcome? God used them to greatly impact His Kingdom. We too can find ourselves in places we don't want to be (me at the top of that... umm... bunny slope), but if we can trust God and go through it with Him, He is going to use it to increase our faith and touch lives for His glory. I know that God is going to accomplish His purpose no matter what; I would rather be a part of what He is doing than to miss out on it.
Lesson three: I made it down the first time (it took some courage, but not a lot of grace was involved) and I went back up and did it again and again. Somewhere on the snowboarding journey, God gave me joy. He does that, you know. We act in obedience to Him and He gives us joy in the midst of it. He is so good.

There were more snowboarding lessons God taught me (things about falling and getting back up perhaps?), but I will stick with these three. I don't want to overwhelm myself with too many lessons to be learned. One step at a time...

Lent

I've been trying this year to make Lent about service. I've been inspired by various blogs and Pinterest pins to commit to more acts of service and random acts of kindness. By posting this, I hope to make myself more accountable for the rest of the season. Part of my reason for focusing on service is to show Max how important it is to serve others and to be kind, so I'm trying to do things that involve him as well. I made a list of ideas we could do, with the idea of doing one for every day of Lent but we definitely have not accomplished that. A few things we have done so far:

• We bought food with the intention of taking it to a local food pantry, but then our church had a food drive for that food pantry this week so that made it even easier. Max helped pick out the food. 
• We're taking a meal this week to some friends whose 3 year old son was in the hospital over the weekend with a staph infection. Thankfully he's doing much better and is home now. We also sent him a balloon and car while he was in the hospital. 
• Max picked out a present just from him for Matt's birthday.
• We just started a "responsibility" chart for Max. His jobs include feeding the dog and clearing his dishes from the table. I think this will teach him that we all serve each other within the family too and so far he's doing a great job with it.

I'm planning for Max to help me cut flowers and take them to his teachers at school this week. Hopefully over spring break we will do some others, like taking treats to the fire station just down the street and having Max help write a letter to the kids we sponsor through Compassion/World Vision.

I hope that by focusing on this over Lent it will become more of a habit. Service is something we value in our family, and by talking more about it and doing more that Max can participate in, I hope that he begins to see what it means to serve others and show kindness, even to those we don't know. 

Happily Ever After

 As a little girl, I loved the "happily ever after." You know...princesses, prince charming, the rescue, beautiful dresses, and castles. It just made my sweet little girl heart happy! As I have gotten older, I have still loved the "happily ever after" but it looks a little different these days. One of my most favorite things in the world is seeing people's dreams come true. It doesn't matter who you are- family, friend, or stranger- I love all happily ever afters. I love to see people overwhelmed with joy by the faithfulness of God. But I also think it's because I know how hard this life can be and the hope that springs from an answered prayer restores the deep places of my heart. It reminds me of the goodness and faithfulness of God. And to be honest, I need that hope in the depths of my soul. I need to be reminded that God is the Dream Giver.

I dream a lot of dreams these days. I pray a lot of prayers, too. I've seen dreams come true and I've begged God to bring others to pass. There are many things I hope for- for myself and for those I love. I know my God is faithful and I know He is at work, always for my good. I am His and with Him is where I want to be. I want what He wants because it is always infinitely better than what I imagined. He is my Dream Giver.

I'm a dreamer. I can't stop. I won't stop. But even if not another one of my dreams this side of heaven comes true, I know that my "happily ever after" awaits me. And that makes this girl's heart full of inexplicable joy!

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, be the glory forever and ever! Amen."  -Ephesians 3:20-21