Meditating

Yesterday I felt a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders! Lee and I both officially finished our 10 hour online training course!! yay!! Yes I know... it has taken us forever :) 
So where are we now? Well, officially everything has been turned in paperwork wise for our home study so we are praying that our homestudy will be finalized either this week or next!! Then, hopefully our Dossier can be submitted not too long after that. By "not too long"... I mean like a month or two. Hopefully not 3 :)

Don't forget about our garage sale coming up May 5th! We have already received a lot of donations and hope they continue to pour in. Please pray for us regarding this fundraiser. You can specifically pray for 1) spreading the gospel  2) beautiful weather  3) God's blessing and favor.

So why did I title this blog "meditating"? Well, I just returned home from Tuesday Morning Bible Study at the church. Let me just tell you.... I am so so very thankful for all the wise, wise women in that group and even more thankful for how the Spirit is faithful to move each week. I love it when God completely catches me off guard and shifts my thinking!
         This morning the discussion shifted towards parenting. It began with us talking about how important it is for us to teach our children about God (something the Israelites in Judges 1 & 2 failed to do and the results were devastating). All morning I kept feeling like there was more to it, there was more to what God was trying to reveal to me. Then, my Bible Study leader told this story:
        My Bible Study leader said she would never forget her friend telling this story of what they felt and prayed when God called her and her husband to step out in faith.  They felt the Lord calling them to move to Brandon and be on staff at Pinelake. However, they had children, one of which was a Junior in High School. You know.. we hate to disrupt our children's lives because they LOVE their life. They love their friends and their school and we hate to "disrupt" all that. But instead of feeling guilty over obeying the Lord and "disrupting" her children's lives, she saw this as one of the first opportunities for her children to exercise their faith. Both of her boys are believers, but up until this point they have never had to really rely on God. They had always just relied on their parents. She saw this as an opportunity for the boys to grow near to the Lord and trusted that God would be faithful to their obedience. The results.... amazing! The boys flourished.

As mamas we think that we are doing our kids a favor by protecting them from any form of pain. In essence, we teach them to seek "security" in the things around them. True security is found only in the Lord. When God calls us to step out in faith - He is really calling us to Himself! There is no greater reward than intimacy with the Lord, regardless of the circumstances. So the "take away" from today was to pray that our children are always "bent towards saying YES to the Lord", regardless of how scary the task may seem. However, how can our children learn that if they do not have parents that say YES to God, even when it means we have to disrupt our lives and our children's lives?

:))) Yes.... Meditating... that's all I can say about that!  I've got some mental re-adjusting to do regarding the way I see life!

To constantly attempt to "protect" my children from any form of pain, may actually mean that I am keeping them from doing the will of God. Then spiritually I leave them as "sitting ducks" just waiting to be devoured by the enemy because they have not learned how to WALK out their FAITH. They've only learned stories.

Again.... meditating :))  I am sure I will be slow to learn (as always!)