Are we really too busy???

I went to the ladies retreat at camp this past Friday night with Gayle because no one at my church had signed up to go and I didn’t want to go alone. I am so glad I went! The speaker was hilarious. She had the kind of sense of humor I wished more women of the church had, you know real humor about crazy things that happen in life. The theme this year was about coming back to heart of worship. As I sat there and looked around me I couldn’t help but notice I was one of the few “younger” ones there.  I am not saying anything is wrong with that by any means because I spend most of my time with my 60 “something”  friend but I couldn’t help but think about my generation of Christian women and what we are missing out on. I invited several women to attend and they were all busy with other stuff going on and trust me I understand about not being able to go to everything but we are missing out of all the great wisdom that these women have and that they really want to share with us. I feel like we constantly make excuses because we are “the wife, mother, and employee” and don’t have or make time for ourselves. If we don’t rise up and be the church then who will? 

 I am the first to say that I am FAR from perfect…I know you must have thought I was..haha …but these past few months have made me reflect on my life and what I want people to say about me when it’s my time to leave this earth. I think about something I read in James 4:14  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. What kind of legacy do I want to leave for my chidlren? The speaker last night was talking about this very thing and stepped on my toes for sure! 

 The bible tells us in Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”  That we are to fellowship with other believers and yet we get these great opportunities and we don’t take advantage of them. I am not trying to guilt anyone into going to these ladies retreats but I love going to them and using them to “recharge” myself. As a wife and mother my life needs lots of “recharging”!

Friendship

In my quiet time I was reading my devotion for today and the scripture was  “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” — Proverbs 18:24  Reading this scripture makes me think how blessed I am to have special friends that I can count on, but most of all it makes me think of someone who I would have never thought I would depend on everyday. Other than Christopher the person that I can always depend on is Gayle or Gaga as my children lovingly call her. I truly believe the Lord places people in our lives at just the right time. Friendships between Christians are especially sweet because of the bond of Christ.  After reading in Proverbs today I couldn’t help think about how lucky I am to have a friend like her. 

Soon after my mother in law passed away Gayle kind of stepped in and took her place. She is one of those people who just steps in and does what needs to be done. I can and have called her at 3am and she came running. The kind of friend that will pray for me and with me when I need it. The kind of friend who goes along with my crazy ideas. The kind of friend who is always listens to me and give me advise when it might not be what I want to hear. 

I am so thankful that the Lord placed it on her and Mr. Jerry’s heart to want to help us with our children. She will be quick to tell you that if they didn’t want to do it they wouldn’t.  I pray that the Lord gives me a servants heart like she has.

Christopher's sermon yesterday got me thinking.  He preached from Romans 8. He was talking about the present day suffering that we go thru and how we let it dictate our lives. He was comparing this life's sufferings to having kidney stones and going to heaven is like going thru childbirth.... You have to kind of know him to know where he was going with this but he was saying in childbirth you go thru the pain and get you get something great out of it. When you have a kidney stone all you get is a little stone after all that suffering. No one ever says Lord please let me have another kidney stone but often people say I would love to have another child. The other day I was listening to AFR in the van before I went back to work and  there was a story about parents that lose children and if their children remain the same age or if they age as time goes on. I think about this question a lot and in my mind I hope they are still babies.  All this made me think that maybe this life really is like child birth. If this life is like child birth I am one of the lucky ones that not only get to go to a place that is beyond comprehension but I also get the joys of childbirth again when I get to hold my precious Raegan again. How could I not strive to be a better Christian and grow in him knowing that these earthly “kidney stones” are going to pass.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

Submission….ohhh…that word. Never been a word that I really have fully understood when it comes to marriage and never I word I like to use around Christopher…sure don’t want to give him any ideas! We have been married for 9 years and dated since we were 16 and by no means has it been an easy road. When I married him I was in love with him but I think I was in love with the idea of marriage. After dating that long marriage was the next step and I think I pestered the “buhjesus”( not really a word but I use it a lot)  out of him until he thought if I ask her to marry me she will be quiet. Six weeks after we got married I got pregnant with our first child so our newlywed days were over pretty quick. Pierce came 5 weeks early so we had a baby within the first 11 months of our newlywed bliss.  

  

I have always loved Christopher but it wasn’t until I saw how much he was in love with God that I became even more in love with him. Don’t get me wrong he still drives me crazy. I think God designed men to do that to their wives. When I think of submission I kind of think of being a servant or doing anything they tell you to when they tell you to do it….Well I have been reading in Ephesians and trying to get a better understanding of what the bible really is trying to say to couples about submission.   Ephesians 5:21-28  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her  to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,  and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

After reading this passage I think submission means following my husband’s lead and serving him out of love, the kind of love that Christ has for his church. The kind of love that develops in a relationship with time and trust. My husband is to submit himself to me just like he is to submit himself to the church. Submission means putting God and each other first. Submission is not about doing whatever your husband tells you to do, it is about a mutual love and respect we should have for each other. Reading God’s word makes things in life so much clearer if we simply try to listen to what he is trying to say to us. 

Love and respect is all a couple really wants from each other and deserves from each other.

I always do a lot of writing and I read a lot of different blogs from a variety of people from a lot of different backgrounds. I always find it refreshing to know that other people around me have the same daily struggles that I have. I was talking to a friend Sunday at church about a blog I read and I told her I thought about doing one myself and she responded go for it…so here it goes!

You might wonder why I said we live in a fish bowl…well….being the youth ministers family it always seems everyone is watching as soon as we walk into the door of the church and everywhere we go for that matter. I grew up in a church were the ministers family always seemed to have it “all together”…and once my family became the ministers family I thought we were supposed to have it “all together”…haha..boy was I wrong. Anyone that knows me knows we do not have it all together and guess what I have finally realized it is alright. If you see me  pinching Palmer on his shoulder during church it is because he is begging for communion, if you see me talking thru my teeth at Pierce it is because he is whining about something and if you see Piper with us it is because I made her leave her precious Gaga’s house to be with us.

My only quiet time is during my lunch break which I come home to a quiet house most days and I have my conversations with God about regrouping my life so I like to call it. Today was one of them days at work that I wanted to hurt someone to be honest. My job at DSS is stressful at times and today was one of those days. Nothing was going like I thought it should. I came home in a foul mood at lunch. My devotion that is emailed to me daily had a couple of verses that spoke to me and I wanted to share. Philippians 2:4 “Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take others, too.”   The other verse was Acts 20:35 ^“ In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Every day I am amazed at how God uses different people and situations to clear speak to us and remind us… Rebecca you crazy self centered person it isn’t about you.