FOR MOM'S ON MOTHER'S DAY!

Luke 2:19 “… Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart”

Luke 2:51. . . his mother treasured all these things in her heart.”
As mothers, don’t we treasure up all kinds of things about our children in our heart?  The day they were born isn’t just the beginning!  We treasure up the moment we find out we are pregnant, the ultrasounds, the baby showers, then that marvelous day they are born!  First feedings, first poopy diapers, first night at home, first night to sleep through the night, first sitting up, first foods, first time crawling, walking, talking, first day at pre-school, first day at school, and it goes on and on and on!  Isn’t it comforting to know that Mary treasured up things about Jesus as well!  As much as he was the Messiah, he was also Mary’s son that she bore, that she cared for, and that she loved so much!    

In her heart and mind she was making a mental scrapbook of the promises that were made when she became pregnant with Jesus. She made note of the angel that told her she would become pregnant with the Son of God, she took note of Joseph’s reaction, and the reaction of everyone else. She placed in her heart the long journey to Bethlehem being so pregnant.  Few of us today would even think of getting on a donkey for 5 seconds especially not going to happen if we were 9 months pregnant!  Yet she made the journey.  And then to find no room in the inn and being a part of such a humble beginning for the Prince of Peace!  But none of that mattered when she held Baby Jesus in her arms for the very first time!  As mom’s we sometimes feel insecure by God having trusted us with a small person to guide through this life, but how many more doubts could Mary have about raising the Messiah! 

Then when Jesus was 12, Mary and Joseph could not find him upon coming back from a trip from Bethlehem! Think of the fright she must have had! Do you think she might have said something like this “Oh Dear God, I have lost your son!  Why did you ever chose me to be his Mother, I am so unfit!”  I felt that recently when I lost my son for 5 minutes in a large Spring Break crowd at an amusement park!  But I found him as Mary found her son and everything was alright!  

Then it was Mary who God used to jump-start Jesus into the ministry.  At a wedding when the party had run out of wine, Mary goes to Jesus and asks him to do something and Jesus’ reply is that it’s not his worry and his time has yet to come!  But Mary didn’t take that as an answer and instructed some servants to do whatever Jesus asked them to do!  Then what did Jesus do?  He made wine in a miraculous way like his mother asked and therefore started his ministry career after the prodding of his own mother!  Oh how we have to prod our children on a daily basis to do the things to get them going.  Waking up the kids in the morning is coming to mind as one of those prodding moments to get them going in the right direction! Getting them focused on homework, chores, time with the family and time with God is a lot of prodding!   Oh how God uses mothers to get His children motivated to do His work!  What a very important role God has chosen us to do!

And as much as Mary treasured up those things about Jesus, and we treasure up moments about our own children, we also treasure up the words Jesus spoke, the miracles He performed, the love he showed, and the sacrifices he made for us!  But oh how much more precious and heart breaking these things must have been to Mary!

On this Mother’s Day spend some time reflecting on the ultimate mom, Mary!  When you are feeling overwhelmed with all your duties of being a mom, take some comfort in knowing that at least you do not have to raise the Messiah!  Mary did that and she is the only one that could write a book on “Raising the Perfect Child” but it is interesting that although we may have thought it easy to raise Jesus, she did forget him in Bethlehem and took a few days to find him and she did have to  prod him into ministry!     So  take comfort in knowing that even if you believe your child to be perfect (even though he/she is not), you are not and will have some parenting difficulties based on you being imperfect! God uses mothers to help guide their children (even THE Perfect One, Jesus) and often will use us to set His plans in motion for our children!  Seek God out every day to see what it is He would have you do in the lives of your children!  How blessed we are to be called “Mom”!  

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

The Cherry Limeade!

At the start of the year, I decided to give up pop for a corporate fast with our church.  I was so addicted to pop that this would not be easy!  I NEEDED that Mountain Dew in the morning to get me going! I NEEDED that Moutain Dew after lunch to make it through the afternoon drive home and then I had to have another one while making dinner!  Those were just the times of day I NEEDED one. I may have wanted one in between those times and indulged then too!  I had a problem!  Well anyways at first I couldn't wait for the 30 days to be up so  I could have me some liquid-caffeine sweetness! But as it went on and February came up on me, I didn't need that pop anymore and by choice I decided to continue abstaining from soda!  All soda, diet or not, has zero appeal to me!  I replaced that mean green Mountain Dew in the morning with a Green Monster smoothie packed with the goodness of fruit and yes spinach too! (Don't knock it til you try it!)  I posted on around Day 50 on Facebook that I had broken that mean pop addiction and if I could do it so could others! 

For Spring Break, I got the kids a bottle of pop for them to drink and didn't have a slight inclination to have a drink myself.  I took the kids to the movies and begging not to pay the high price for a drink there I told them we'd go get a drink afterwards.  After the movies, Braums was the closest place and the kids both wanted a Cherry Limeade.  I ordered 3 from the drive-thru without thinking a thing about it!  I pulled up got my drinks stuck the straw in mine and enjoyed a nice Cherry Limeade!  I had no thought that it was wrong and that it was against my rule of no pop. I wasn't trying to be a rebel! I went back to school after Spring Break and a student asked if I was able to stay away from soda over break and I proudly said "Yes, I did!" I still hadn't realized that I had drinken pop!

With Easter approaching, I've been thinking of Peter and how God said that Peter would betray him 3 times before the rooster crowed and Peter said there was no way that would ever happen!  But when the rooster crowed, Peter realized he had indeed denied him 3 times! He then went and wept bitterly!  I think Peter had an idea in his head what "denying Jesus" looked like and I don't think what he did was computing as denying Jesus even though it's quite obvious to everyone else that's what it is!  I think all to often our own sins don't compute with us because we don't even see them as a sin until something happens and triggers us to really think about it.   

Well today for some reason, I was thinking of that Cherry Limeade I had last week and it hit me like a ton of bricks that a Cherry Limeade has SODA in it!  The very thing I've been avoiding  and in a moment, I had ordered a soda, drank the soda, and later believed I was telling the truth when I had said I hadn't drank any pop!  I lied and I didn't even know it!   I would have never ordered a Sprite (the main ingredient in that Cherry Limeade) but because it's true idenity is hidden with a fruity name, I didn't recognize it for what it was. . .pop!  I know most of you are thinking I am  a complete idiot! I knew that I wouldn't drink any pop and I know what's in a cherry limeade but yet I got one, drank it and didn't even think it was against my rule of no pop. Dang, if that's not a definition of a hypocrite, I don't know what is!  I really screwed up and didn't even realize it! I can't even try to think how Peter felt after he realized he had denied Jesus! Now instead of thinking Peter was kind of an idiot, as a fellow idiot, I sympathize with him. 

My cherry limeade opened up my eyes to the fact that I may be doing some things I know are wrong but don't even realize that what I am doing is wrong.  I may be lying to myself about some things and lying to others without even knowing it.  So I am asking God to open my eyes to what those things are and see if I can change those things.  It's a lot easier to see the "Christian Hypocrite" in others and not see it in ourselves. 



What is it God? What is it?

I felt led to share this poem. Maybe some of you are going through a time where you want so much to understand what is going on but don't really get it. Yet through the scary times you have a peace about you like you've never felt.  This poem just spilled on to the keyboard tonight.  I hope it helps someone.

What Is It God? What Is It?

by Kim Stone

Something is churning inside of my heart

Something like a huge storm is ripping me apart

The dreams, the themes, what does it all mean?
Why are my emotions so hidden so unseen?

Why does it take these nightly terrors
To show me what’s behind the barriers

Lord, why can’t you show me in words what you want me to know
Why does it have to come in fear in the night with pain and so much woe?

What is it God that you want me to see?
What is it God that you are calling me to be?

I know the themes are about rapid and permanent change
But the truth behind the dreams feel so far out of my range.

What is it God that has me scared as a I sleep?
But then when I awake I find a peace that is so deep?

What is it God that you are showing me?
What is it God that you are wanting me to be?

You say those that ask shall receive.
What is it God that you want me to believe?

What is it God that you are preparing me for?
What is it God that is rocking me to my core?

What is it God,
what is it?

Yeah I know Him!

 For those who don't know him, this is Kirk Cameron who in the mid to late 80's was a teenage heart throb for many young girls!  I know Kirk, we go way back.  His birthday is Oct 12 and I still think of him on his birthday!  He is 5'9inches tall and his grandparents back in the day had an inground trampoline!  Yeah that's pretty cool!  His little sis got into the acting business too.  She was on Full House.  His parents named him Kirk after Captain Kirk from Star Trek!  There was a time I knew everything about Kirk Cameron!  I knew his favorite color, favorite foods, and even his dislikes!  I knew what movies he was working on and what he liked to do when he wasn't working on the set.  I really followed him and would buy whatever magazine he was on the cover of because I wanted to know more and more about him.  I really don't think there wasn't much I didn't know about him.  The problem is I only knew about him!

See Kirk and I have never met.  Which will explain why we never got married.  I really thought we'd end up together.  I knew everything about him and hungered to learn more.  The problem is we just didn't know each other.  Today if Kirk Cameron showed up here, I would immediately recognize him and speak to him by name but in return, he would be clueless as to who I am.  And that's the problem with too many Christians!  We know Jesus just like we know Kirk Cameron(or insert another celebrity idol) . We know who HE is, we know what He has done, we may even be a huge fan and we even know what He is capable of but we don't have that relationship with Him for Him to know us like He so desires!  Of course God knows us all, He knows everything but He gives us free-will to seek Him to have that personal relationship that He wants with us.    To some the Bible is more like a biography of facts about Jesus' life more than it is the Living word. Read this verse and see if it doesn't shake you up a bit.

Matthew 7:22-23 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me."

Just like if I met Kirk Cameron tomorrow and he acted like he didn't know me and I tried to say "Well you and I went to school together everyday. Your picture was on my backpack.  I spoke of you often to all of my friends and declared my love for you to all who would listen! Sure you know me."  He would surely say he didn't!  He might appreciate me being a loyal fan but that in no way shape or form means that he knows me!  Same with God, if we are going to church, have the Bible app on our phone that we carry with us everywhere we go, and declare our love for Him to all who will listen, that does not equal that we know Him. We know of Him.  We know who He is.  But do we have the relationship with Him?  That's what matters! 

I strongly feel for 2012 a strong sense that many who know Him don't have a relationship with Him.  I'm not talking about just the ones that haven't been saved.  I am also talking about the ones that have been saved.  The ones who know what Jesus did on the cross and accepted his forgiveness and salvation yet still have never experienced a relationship with God.  There's just more to it folks than being saved.  Being saved is just a first step towards a relationship with God.  What we do after we are saved is just as important as the saving moment!  I know this may be controversial to some but I feel led by the spirit to share it.  If you want Jesus to know you, if you want God to accept you into his kingdom, the first step is to be saved and the second step is to get to know Him personally.  We are each unique and God speaks to us all differently but what I do know is that you have to spend time with Him to hear from Him.  Ask God to help you have a relationship with Him, and He will do just that!  God spoke this message to me this morning and even brought up my past love for Kirk Cameron as the example.  I thought about changing the message to fit another celebrity that could appeal to more folks but God used Kirk Cameron this morning and so Kirk Cameron it is!

By the way, I am glad things didn't work out between Kirk and I.  I am pretty blessed with the life I have with my husband and kids!  :)

Following Him

I had a dream about Jesus that I haven’t shared on this blog. But with 2011 coming to an end, it is one story that I have left untold but it needs to be told. Perhaps this is something someone needs to hear at the start of the New Year!  This dream occurred in February of 2011.

In my dream, I was climbing a red mountain and Jesus appeared to me! I was so surprised to see Him! He told me to follow Him but He was so fast, I couldn’t keep up no matter how fast I tried to run. Periodically, Jesus who was ahead of me would stop and pray. I seized this opportunity as a way to press on and run in hopes of being able to catch up with Him. But each time after he got up from prayer, I’d find myself even further behind unable to catch up! I kept calling for Him but he kept going! After I pleaded with Jesus to slow down and wait for me because I was unable to follow Him,  he finally said “You say you want to follow me but when I stop to pray, you keep going, if you want to follow me you must do as I do.” So I began to stop when Jesus stopped to pray and each time I did I got closer to Jesus when I raised my head and got off my knees, I was gaining ground and catching up! I began asking Jesus "What's on the other side of the mountain? Is it the answer I have been looking for?"  Jesus kept going without a reply. By the time we were near the top of the mountain but not where we could see over I was caught up with Him, Jesus said, “When you really follow me, it’s no longer about where you are going but just about following me!” I woke up and it all had felt so real to me!

At the time of this dream, we were waiting to hear if Chad got the head coaching job at Altus and if this meant if we were moving or not. It was an anxious time for us! I was so seeking confirmation that this indeed was an answer to my prayer. I had only prayed that the right door would open for us. I no longer wanted interviews for him, I just wanted the right interview for him. I had prayed to just shut the doors that wouldn’t be the right ones and just open the right one. I just wasn’t sure if God had answered that prayer and I was seeking to know what the outcome would be. My answer was it really doesn’t matter where you go as long as you are following Jesus and doing exactly what He asks you to do! That gave me so much comfort then and it still does now!  In looking deeper at the meaning of my dream, the picture above is a very close resemblance to the mountain in my dream.  When I clicked on the image to add it to my blog, I was surprised to see that it is a picture of the Quartz Mountains which are located very close to Altus!  I only found this out while setting up this blog post!   

Perhaps in beginning this new year, some of you are anxious about the future and where or what you will be doing.  Just know that it's no longer about where you are going but in just following Jesus!  Sometimes Jesus has you running the right path and up the rocky mountain that has your answer but you don't even realize it until it is over!  So just keep following Him, that is all that matters!

My Best Friend. . .

I can be so terrible to my best friend.  I hate to admit it but I take my best friend for granted.  My best friend is extremely loyal to me, offers the best advice and when I'm doing wrong he lets me know and tries to set me straight.  He's always there for me but sometimes, I am not always there for him.  I hate that about me.  Sometimes when he's told me something about me that needs to change, I get mad at him and can go days or weeks sometimes without even speaking to him.  It's real bad because I run into him ALL the time.  He lives with me so it's even worse when I am cold to him.  Then after awhile I'll speak to him again and acknowledge that he was right and I was wrong and that I am sorry.  I ask for his forgiveness and he gives it to me. 

Even though he lives with me, he does have his own place.  He invites me every week to go hang out at his place one day a week.  I usually go but have missed a few times.  I know I should go.  It's always a great time.  He invites a lot of people and I feel sorry because sometimes the people he really wants there don't show up but it's a good time anyway!  We crank that music up, sing some great songs,  talk to each other and listen when someone has something real important to say.  I always love going it's just sometimes I have other things I want to do. 

There are days I ignore my best friend.  I will say "Hi" in the morning and talk about how thankful I am for our relationship or skip that and just talk about what I would like help with throughout the day. At lunch we get back together and I am thankful for the lunch he provided but then I'm back to my day. Some days I sit and read a little bit of his book but not everyday. He wrote this book and although I've read it all the way through, I can't remember every detail.  Sometimes he'll say something and I know it's from his book and I'll act like I know what chapter it came from but I really don't.  He encourages me to read it every day so I can have some of his best advice memorized but I skip some days. 

Sometimes I have a very long list of things I want him to do for me.  Since he lives with me, I have some things I want him to do or pitch in.  Sometimes he does them but more times than not he has his own ideas of what needs to happen around here.  He'll give me a list of things he wants me to do!  Sometimes they don't make sense at all.  We've got our own bills to pay and he asks me to give money to help with his place!  Every time I have given money to help him with his place, he repays me back more than I ever gave.  But sometimes I just don't help him with his place.  I feel bad about it but things are sometimes just too tight.

Sometimes I let others and things take up the time I should be using with my bestie. Like sometimes I seem more excited at a basketball and football games and more happy with others than I am with him. Sometimes I spend way too much time watching tv, playing games, and hanging out with others, when I should be calling on my friend.  And when the kids came, I should have had my best friend help me more with the kids. My best friend had a son. He died a horrible death at the age of 32 but my friend is full of peace and love and still talks about his son lovingly! My husband and I tried to raise our kids on our own.   We'd take them once a week over to his place and he'd have an occasional meal with us that we thanked him for but I see now we could have done more to let him help us, he did have a son of his own he looked after.

My school doesn't like it when I talk about my best friend but I find ways to at least teach them some of the lessons I've learned from him.  I can't give him credit for those things at school but some of my students know him and have hung out at his house too so they kind of know where my influence is coming from. I kind of hope the students will invite their friends to meet him at his house. 

Just yesterday was my best friend's son's birthday!  Even though he died long ago, people still get together to remember him.  We exchange gifts on his birthday with family and friends and have a great feast of food.  It's not a sad thing remembering him.  It's a very happy celebration of life! 

I don't want to "name drop" here so if you don't know by my description who my best friend is, I'd love to introduce  you to him.  Just ask me and I'll get you acquainted with Him. 

His Presents!

Merry Christmas!  Christmas will be here before we know it and most of us have some presents already wrapped up in anticipation for the day!  Jesus's Birthday party is a highly anticipated event even to those who don't even know Him.  Everyone loves a party and so even those who don't know Jesus have been crashing his birthday party for years!  Leaving quite a few Christians concerned that we have lost the true meaning of Christmas.  Christians try to turn attention to "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" which is so true!  We start talking about "God's presence being more important than the presents under the tree."  But this morning I felt overwhelmed not with his presence but with His presents. 

God placed on my heart this morning that Christmas is Jesus's birthday and the presents are apart of this celebration.  We may over emphasize and over spend on gifts but presents have always been a part of Christmas!  Because God himself gave us Jesus on Christmas and the wise men so humbly followed the star and brought gifts to Jesus on the day He was born.  Presents and gifts are a part of the story but they are not the major emphasis of the story!  The main emphasis should be on Jesus, the life he lived, and how He died on the cross for our sins and rose agains! 

This morning I woke up a little tired and a little cranky.  I found myself feeling convicted to write.  I thought I'd write what I jotted down in a notebook yesterday but instead God led me to this passage in

James 2:4 " When troubles come your way consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is "fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing"

 and then I was directed to

Galations 5:22 "The holy spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." 

Immediately I began to think of these fruits as "His presents" that he has for me but I have to wait.  Just like my children see the presents under the tree but they must go through each day, finish school up and wait for Christmas Eve when they can open their presents.  There is great joy each day in the anticipation of opening those gifts despite not being able to open them now.  There is still pleading of "please can I just open one" but it is not yet time.  And I ask God the same thing!  I see the gifts of his fruit and I want nothing more to open that present but I have to wait and endure these hard times we are going through now.  No one but us and God knows what we are going through and it's hard and all I want to say is "Can I just have one present now. If you just give me one present now. I'll be good for the rest of the time."  And God said to me, "Through these trials my dear, there has been a present I have told you that you could have but you don't think it's useful until you get through all of this. But it is the one thing that will get you through.  Your troubles have given you an opportunity to open up the great gift of "Joy" but you have yet to open it up. If you want to open up one present now, it needs to be this one." 

And so I opened that present this morning and it's not a useless gift.  I feel such a joy in me today that I haven't had in a long time. I've had the gift of joy before but honestly, I think I lost it in the move!  However, I know there will be days where I have to make myself use this gift.  It won't come as easily as it does today but I won't let the new wear off this gift.  It's too great of a gift to just forget about or lose.  And I wait with great anticipation to open up not the presents under the Christmas tree but "His presents" that I know will come if I take the Joy He has given me and walk through these difficuties in His presence!