Why Go?

Elizabeth asked why I had to go to Africa again.

I said, "Elizabeth, why does mommy go to Africa?"

E: "To tell people about Jesus"

Me: "Yes"

E: "You've already gone and told them about Jesus, why do you have to go again?"

My sweet and precious girl that doesn't like for her momma to leave. I go because we want ALL to hear the gospel. We go because God desires for ALL to come to know Him. We go because sometimes that seed falls on hard ground and we have to continue to go to soften the soil so that they'll be ready to receive the seed of God's Word.

Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Whether we're planting, watering or seeing the growth, to Him be the glory both now and forevermore.

Mentor Monday

Matthew, Stephen, Rob, Garri (missionary from Russia), Elizabeth

So sometimes you might gain a mentor through marriage. Rob is one of Derek's pre-Alicia friends and honestly I couldn't ask for a better friend. He is Uncle Rob or "Wob" as Matthew said for years.

We call Rob our "modern day Paul". He's a single guy who's given his life to the Gospel. He is a field representative for a Slavic organization called Slavic Missionary Services. He travels to Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet Union countries. He knows the Bible like no one else I know and he's also our "go to guy" when we need someone to pray without ceasing for us. Tough Bible question, he's the guy. If you need someone to be silly with your kids, he's the guy. He always comes with lots of fun stuff that this mom doesn't normally allow in her house....like paint and things that grow up to 600% when you soak them in water, etc.

So he was here for too short of a time this past week. He brought a Russian missionary with him. I loved having them in our house even though I am the very worst hostess alive. Garri spoke great English and so that was so much fun for all of us because Rob didn't have to translate the conversation for us.

For our friend Rob, we can truly say, "I thank God every time I remember you".

Training Tuesday

So, I know you're all dying to know. How's the marathon training going? I'd say it's not really going anywhere.

You see, I got a training partner and her name is Angela aka Big Nanny. Did you read my post yesterday? She's a Barnabus in my life. Sometimes she's a Paul because her kids are older and I bounce all kinds of parenting things off her, but for the most part, she's a Barnabus.

We've known each other for years, but it wasn't until she moved to our neighborhood years ago that we became great friends. She became a "walking partner" and we'd solve all the world's problems and our own as we'd walk.

Big Nanny decided she wanted to run the half marathon as well. And so, I got a training partner and she got one too. Problem is, we're both too soft-hearted for one another. As soon as one of us says, "That's all I've got", we stop running (which sometimes happens after a very short run). In defense of our lack of discipline and endurance, she came home from Africa with bronchitis and then I got bronchitis not too long after that. It's really hard to run if you can't breathe well. I agree that it's a pretty lame excuse, but it's pretty much all we have.

Let's face it. Neither one of us like early morning workout meetings. We don't like to sweat. We don't like pain. We don't like that everyone on the track passes us up because it seems that everyone can run for miles except for us.

And so, maybe we're walking the half marathon or maybe I just donated $100 to Music City. Either way, I'm so thankful for my Big Nanny Barnabus. We may not lose any weight training for this thing (I use the word training very loosely), but the bonds of friendship are deepening. We very well might have world peace by April 30th if we keep at this (I'm kidding, of course).

Mentor Monday

Have you read it? Titus 2:3-5 says "Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored."

I'm part of a Monday night Bible study and I encouraged the women a few weeks ago that we should all have a Paul, a Barnabus and a Timothy in our lives. A Paul is a mentor or someone who's one step ahead of you either spiritually or in stage of life (older kids, etc.). Barnabus means "son of encouragement" so of course this friend is just an encourager. Someone that you're doing life with and they're just a good friend. A Timothy is someone younger in the faith or a step behind you in life stage (they are younger than you). As I put out this challenge, I was just reminded of the goodness of God and how God has given me so many women in each of these categories. Some of these women come and go for various reasons and others I feel like will forever be part of my life.

And so, I thought I'd dedicate a couple of Mondays to those mentor women and while I do this, I'd explain why they're so important.

So today's Mentor Monday is Kathy Klassen who is my mother's age (still very young), but is dancing with Jesus today in heaven. Mrs. Klassen went to our church and she has a daughter the same age as me. Mrs. Klassen was our Pioneer Girls leader on Wednesday nights and I remember her helping in VBS as well. We went to a smaller church (100-200 people) and there were several families that did a lot together. The Klassens being one of those families. I remember Mrs. Klassen pouring into my life at an early age. She loved Jesus and she loved people...what more could you ask for? As I was reorganizing some things tonight, I found a graduation gift that she had given me. It's a frame with a mirror behind it (hard to explain), but it's pretty and I think of her whenever I see it. As I moved it on the dresser today, I thought about all the ways she's impacted my life. She may have been one of the reasons I ever was interested in Germany....her house always reflected Germany and her mother was "Oma" (grandma in German) to so many of us. I'm so thankful that she was part of my life.

Our "Pauls" come in so many different ways...mothers, friends, aunts, grandmothers, bosses, etc. Younger women have so much to learn from older women. And older women need to be willing to pour into the younger women. Listen, God didn't have it wrong when He inspired Paul's thoughts to put Titus 2 into place. Be sure that you're doing your part. Do you have a Paul, a Barnabus and a Timothy in your life? If not, start praying for God to put them in your path and then be ready, He answers prayer!

Character--It Matters

My latest book that I finally finished reading is Louder Than Words: The Power of Uncompromised Living by Andy Stanley.

The title comes from the phrase that "actions speak louder than words". Isn't that so true? The premise of the book is all about character. Character is something that is lacking in our society, so I found the book intriguing because of that. I want to be sure that my life has character. I want to be sure that my actions are lining up with my words.

Some of my favorite quotes:
We are all, like trees, subjected to the stormy elements of life. And when the storms come, we either snap or grow stronger. What makes the difference is not the ferocity of the storm but the depth of our character.

Our feelings are wonderful followers, but they are terrible leaders.

He's (God) not just interested in your destination. He's interested in your journey as well.

And this paragraph, wow, what a challenge to men:
This past summer a guest speaker came to our church with a message that challenged my whole way of thinking. He began with a simple question: "Are you a man of character?" Yet it was the way he defined character that especially convicted me. He explained, "When you look into the face of a man's wife, you will see just what he is as a man. Whatever he has invested in or withheld from her is reflected in her countenance."

And here's the challenge...Psalm 15...who gets an inside track with God?
Here's a description of a man/woman of character based on this Psalm:
Their walk is blameless.
They do what is right.
They tell the truth.
They don't gossip.
They don't mistreat people.
They side with those who are right.
They keep their word.
They lend money to those in need without interest.
They don't take advantage of people for financial gain.

My heart's desire is to raise children who have character and it begins with me. I need to work on those areas where I am weak. One area is my prayer life. I tend to pray very selfishly. I'll leave you with this last quote:
We fail to pray for the things that will benefit us for eternity. If God answered all of our prayers, our character would suffer. For in most cases, our prayers center around the removal of the very circumstances He is using to conform us to His image.

Email Hackers--You Are Not My Friend

If you've ever received an email from Derek or me, then you probably received an email last Saturday afternoon that was apparently not from us. (We are not selling prescription drugs on the side, seriously people!) We were sitting at Cracker Barrel having a nice family dinner when I noticed that there were a bunch of failure notices in my email. I knew immediately what this meant, that someone had hacked into our email. Our email had been compromised. So we had to get the Coca Cola Cake to go which is so unfortunate, because it's the entire reason we went to Cracker Barrel.

Derek and I were frustrated and angry...why? Well, first of all, because some of you might actually think that we're selling Viagra on the side, but more importantly we just felt violated. We came home and tried to email everyone in our address book to tell them not to click on the link. But our email doesn't allow us to do that as protection from hackers. You can only email 20 people at a time and we have over 700 contacts in our email, so it just didn't happen. Derek changed almost all of our passwords and made them so complicated that he has to sign in for me so that I can read my email because I just can't remember that complicated of a password. He informed me this morning that you're not supposed to write your password down anywhere, but if you're relying on my memory, seriously we're in trouble. I have two debit cards and I can barely remember both of the pins to two cards.

What's frustrating is that my husband works in IT (information technology aka computers). So, we have all kinds of safeguards on our computers (did you read the last paragraph about the new passwords?) And so, it is shocking that this would happen to us. Our kids don't have open access to the computer and we don't allow them to randomly sign up for things.

But there's almost always a spiritual lesson that can be learned with anything that happens in our lives and immediately God had me thinking about this. I thought about how we put up safeguards in our lives...safeguards to protect our marriages and to keep our computers free of nasty images. We have locks on our doors and smoke detectors in every room. We have a safe for important documents. Some of these are spiritual safeguards, some of them are just wise decisions. But Satan, the enemy, he looks for any spot of weakness. Somehow some person who has entirely too much time on his/her hands found a way into our email. Don't you think Satan is watching our every move looking for that weakness in our lives. The Bible tells us that he prowls about like a lion seeking someone to devour. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. I think we need to wake up and be aware. No marriage is safe. No friendship is safe. No parenting style is fool proof. Satan is looking to destroy relationships and Jesus' name in the process. We need to be on the offensive instead of the defensive. We need to be proactive instead of having to be reactive once our family is falling apart.

What steps do you need to take today to safeguard your marriage, your friendships, your relationships with family and friends? What things do you need to put in place so that you're always aware and reminded that the enemy is just around the corner ready to pounce and attack at any moment? The battle is waging...are you prepared to fight for your marriage and family?

Reevaluation

I read a recent blog recently about renewing your New Year's resolutions and ditching the ones that aren't worth keeping....at least for this year.
So here's an update for inquiring minds....

Still not on a diet...kept that resolution! :-)

Kind of training for the half marathon....at this point, it looks like Big Nanny and I will be walking/running/walking/running the half. That's more than we did last year and neither one of us like our 6 am dates in the morning!

I decided to drop the "read through the Bible in a year". I got about 20 days into it and other Bible study/devotional obligations made this a goal that probably isn't going to be attained this year.

Our family has only memorized 3 verses so far, so we're short of our once a week goal, but 3 is better than none.

We are working on manners and flushing the toilet. I wish this one was already complete, but it's not!

I have read a book at least every two weeks and I so wish that I had more time to read.

Still trying to slow down a bit although it seems that things are busier than ever. I am trying to be more sensitive to those "divine appointments" that God brings into my life.

Sabbath--I'm doing better....taking some down time on a Saturday or Sunday and disconnecting from my work email. I wish I could say every Sunday has been a huge success, but some have been work email free.

And of course, I am making small steps to deepen the consistency of my walk with the Lord. Some days are better than others.

Above all, I am thankful that His mercies are new each morning.