Tuesday's Takeaway -- Weird

I love reading. I'm actually doing a "book review" at a women's event at our church tonight. Asking me to talk about one book that's impacted me in the last year is like taking me to Sweet Cece's and telling me that I can pick one topping for my ice cream or taking me to a Mexican restaurant and telling me that I can eat just one chip. Difficult to say the least.

And so I'm talking about two books, but this isn't one of them although I love this book.

It's called Weird. Subtitle, "because normal isn't working". Sometimes I just click with an author. I enjoy how they write and it impacts my heart. Craig Groeschel is one of those authors. I've read two of his books and thoroughly enjoyed both of them.



Basically the book talks about time, money, relationships, sex and values and how if you try to view any of these with the lens of "normal", you'll fall short of God's standard.

Here are a few quotes from the book:
"The majority of people claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. And all this is normal. But normal isn't working."
"You have enough time to do everything God wants you to do."
"Normal people allow good things to become the enemy of the best things."
"We pray that our children will grow to not need us but instead need and intimately know God, then on their own --- in his grace and truth---have the strength to say no to dangerous influences and temptation and live with the grace to love those who don't live the truth they embrace."
"If you listen, God will show you something that makes your heart ache on behalf of his. He will bless you with a burden."
"If we want to be better than normal, we must move from good intentions to what I call God intentions."

And so, if "normal" isn't working for you, I'd encourage you to read Weird. It was definitely worth the read for me.

An Invitation Not An Alternative

I saw this on Facebook the other day, "Adoption is not an alternative, it is an invitation."

It really struck a chord with me because sometimes people think that if you're infertile, you should just adopt. That's the alternative to not being able to have biological children. But adoption is not an alternative. We could've remained "child free" and that's what it would've been...not childless, just child free. We'd have a lot more money, a lot more flexibility and a lot less grey hairs and wrinkles. We know people who have chosen to remain "child free" and have been able to do great things for God's kingdom. Things that might've been harder if they had children.

We just knew that we wanted children. Selfishly, I didn't want to grow old by myself and not be able to tangibly see God's truth being passed to the next generation. I know so much more now and I'm more educated in parenthood and adoption although I still have so much to learn. Parenting is hard work!! Oh goodness, I always say that if anyone really knew how hard it'd be ahead of time, they'd definitely reconsider becoming parents. But on the flip side of the hard work, children bring so much joy and blessing. They make me laugh. They make me smile. As much as the noise drives me crazy sometimes, I miss it when the house is quiet and they are away. To hear Elizabeth call me momma or to get one of Matthew's waist crunching hugs or to see Stephen showing kindness or compassion to someone else...it's just the best. They have childlike faith that truly believes God for the impossible. They continue to pray for sweet brother to come home from Africa on days when I just can't utter the words out of my mouth because my faith is weak.

Adoption is an invitation. It is an invitation from the Father to learn more about Him. It's an invitation for Him to reveal Himself through His children that aren't biologically yours. It's an invitation to learn how to love more sacrificially and unselfishly by opening your home to a child that needs a home. I'm so glad God invited us and I'm so glad that we said yes. Is He inviting you? If you'll accept the call and the invitation, I do believe that God will not disappoint you. It won't be easy, it will be hard, it will cost you lots of money that you may not even have, but God is faithful.

The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. I Thess. 5:24

I just can't imagine life without these three. I'm so thankful that God gave us the invitation.

Exemption or Companion?

This is the most recent book that I finished. It was a good read, but one chapter jumped off the pages at me.

The premise of this book is this statement in chapter 1 "We are constantly in the presence of God as He speaks to us through the everyday occurrences of life, and when He uses ordinary things to show us Himself, we see that we are always just one breath away from an encounter with Him." This book is about just that....recognizing those encounters...pressing into Him so that we clearly hear His voice and then do what He says. It's a collection of stories and personal experiences from Clayton King. It's not so much a "how to" book, but more of an introspective approach and recognizing how his stories are just like our stories and how we miss God so often because we're not looking for Him in the ordinary experiences of day to day life (or at least that was my takeaway on the book).

One chapter spoke volumes to me though...chapter 9 titled Exemption--or Companion.

Here are the quotes from this chapter that spoke to me:

Sometimes I think God just decides that we absolutely must have that encounter. So He aligns our circumstances in ways we can't predict and puts us in situations we can't escape.

When life gets hard, we want an exemption. We pray that God would miraculously swoop in and airlift us from the battle. What we hope for is to never experience the pain, the disappointments and the losses of this life....But God gives us something infinitely better than an exemption. He gives us a Companion. He Himself becomes our friend, a soldier in the foxhole beside us, a companion who's got our back in the heat of battle. He walks beside us in the darkest valley, and He sweats and suffers with us along the steepest and rockiest paths we walk. He never leaves us, never abandons us. He's always there, experiencing whatever loss or pain we feel.

At the end of the day, this is what the human soul craves. Not an easy road, but a friend on the hard road. Not an exemption, but a companion. If we got what we prayed for and God gave us an exemption from the harsh realities of life, we would be soft and spoiled and useless. And far worse, we would never need to lean on other people. We would never know the joy of a community of people who are there for us in grief. We would never know the warmth of a prayer or an embrace during seasons of brokenness. How pitiful and hopeless it would be to live an easy life and never need anything or anyone.

And it was worth the read just for that chapter. It made me once again so thankful for the prayers of friends, for the hugs when days are hard, for the sweet encouraging texts and emails. I'm thankful that God sends us companions instead of exemptions. It makes the journey of life that much more sweet!

Two Words for 2012

So in the spirit of authenticity (see previous post), God has already given me a second word for 2012 and it's only Jan. 11th. The second word is surrender. At this rate, I should have 24 words by the end of 2012.

Last fall God started stirring in my heart the word "authentic". I think I heard a sermon series or something and then I kept seeing it everywhere. Derek and I started talking about how we wanted to live authentic lives....lives that are real...honest....sometimes brutally honest. We all know that life is hard, so I don't know why we're afraid to admit when life gets hard.

And so my second word ties in with our adoption. Surrender. I want to fix this. I want to bring a little boy home. I want to fly to Africa and help file some paperwork myself. But God continues to tell me that I need to surrender this to Him. He reminds me that He will fight for me (Ex. 14:14)

Elizabeth said last night, "Do you think he is coming home in February?" I had to say, "No baby, he's not." Our children are learning some perseverance in prayer. They pray for their little brother every night. And honestly, I am having to learn that same perseverance. I pray and then pray again and days and weeks and months go by and nothing has happened.

And so I surrender our adoption to God. He is the only one who can make the impossible possible.

But it's not just our adoption...it's careers and parenting kids and new opportunities and new ministries and middle school hormones and sibling rivalry and busy schedules and friends in crisis. The thing is...I can't fix any of this. I can't make any of this successful. And so I just surrender and live by faith. His plan is so much better than mine anyway.

God always has and always will look for men and women who say to Him, 'I trust you so much, I'm all in. I want your way not mine. I am willing to live by faith!' Chip Ingram

One Word for 2012

I heard someone on the radio a few days ago talking about picking three words to describe your year or your year's goals instead of setting new year's resolutions. It made me start thinking about what word I would choose for 2012 that I wanted to represent my life. Immediately, the first word in my head was "authentic". That's what I want my life to be...not charades...not you thinking it's perfect or easy, because it is not. I sin. My kids sin. My husband sins. All of that combined makes for a dysfunctional family.

And then this blog post was in my email this morning and I knew...this was my word for 2012.

Live Authentically in 2012

And so here are a few glimpses into my "authentic life in 2012".

Here's what I definitely want to accomplish or God to accomplish in my life in 2012!

I want to yell at my kids less and hug them more.

I want to read through the Bible this year. I cannot do it in a year. I am not disciplined enough. I tried...several years...and by July...well, I'm just so far behind, I give up. And so I decided to try to read it in 90 days. I thought that maybe I could be disciplined for 90 days. It sounds easier than 365. We will see. I am only on day 2 of the reading plan.

I want to have a little African boy sitting at our dinner table in 2012.

But most of all, I just want to live an authentic life so that others don't see goodness or perfection or even me at all, they just see Christ. They see what God can do with a heart that's willing to serve Him completely. I need some love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Some of these fruit of the Spirit are stronger in my life than others. I'm hoping to stretch those weaker muscles this year.

I hope you'll consider living authentically in 2012. Living any other way is just...unauthentic.