12/31/11 - Start the Year Off...

With Passion 2012!

On Monday 70,000...yes 70,000 college students will be descending upon the Georgia Dome to worship Jesus as King!

Maybe you're going!

But if you're not, you can watch the whole thing on a live stream: Passion 2012 Live Stream

Starting Monday night at 7 pm EST.

I'll be catching as much as I can (in between homeschooling, laundry, and being a mom!)

12/17/11 - Being Real

People crave real authentic people. We live in a world where our interactions are so one-dimensional...with blogs, facebook, twitter, and other social outlets. We often only allow people to see the side of us that we want them to see.

We often don't share the pain, the yuck, the junk, or the sad things in our life. I am not advocating that we use these social outlets as a chance to bear our souls for shock value or to just to vent.

But those people in our real life, are they seeing us for who we really are? Are we wearing masks to keep up the pretense that all is well?

You know, no one has it all together! No one has a perfect marriage, perfect life, perfect parents, perfect body, perfect anything! We live in an imperfect world. We're sinners...all of us!

I appreciate friendships where there is no "playing", no pretending, but authentic fellowship for the glory of God. May God allow all His people to be in community with others where there's no masks or pretending!

12/12/11 - What comes out...

When someone bumps into your selfishness, what comes spilling out?

Jesus? Grace? Patience?

Or Anger? Frustration? Critical words?

We live in a culture that is always looking to blame someone else. (let's face it, Adam blamed God and Eve way back in the very beginning!) No one wants to take personal responsibility for their our actions or responses.

My five year old's classic line is, "Miles made me do it mom!"

I have always remind him that he is in charge of his emotions, his attitude, and his response.

That lesson is one we all have to remember. When someone mistreats us, speaking mean to us, gossips about us, or intentionally hurts us...our response to them is still our response. We have a choice to let Jesus spill out or a sinful fleshly reaction.

I am not saying it's easy to let Jesus spill out...it's downright impossible without the aid and help of the Holy Spirit.

Next time your looking to blame the guy for cutting you off on the road that caused you to yell and scream...think again...that anger is already in there, he just bumped into it!

12/09/11 - Stuff, Christmas, and Gifts

In the last couple of weeks there's been a deep stirring in me about Christmas.

A couple of things have happened, but it's more of the overarching theme of this year. My heart wants simplicity, wants to honor God, wants to be Christ-centered, wants to be moment by moment walking in the Spirit.

As Christmas comes I have begun to search what can I do different? I am tired of stuff! I've spent this whole year getting rid of stuff, stuff that clutters my mind, my house, my ability to live fully for Christ.

John and I try to go small at Christmas. We don't spend more than about $100 to $125 on all three boys. We normally don't exchange gifts with each other. We don't exchange gifts with cousins on one side of the family. We try to keep it all under $250 (we do buy for our parents, renters, and secret Santa exchange)

But Christmas has nothing to do with us! However in our culture we've made it all about us, with wish lists, overspending, busyness, and buying toys for our kids who already have loads of stuff.

So what does this mean? No gifts at all?

No...but refocusing our gift giving. Read this blog post...it speaks so deeply to my heart and what I'd like to do next year: A Radical Christmas

12/8/11 - Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We chose to use our church, Christ Community Church, as the back drop for our Christmas card picture, because much of our year was intertwined with our involvement at church.

In February we had the privilege of hosting a marriage conference. That stirred in us a desire to do more marriage ministry and in September we began a class for newlyweds. God has also brought about some deeper ties to the body of Christ we serve and fellowship with at Christ Community Church!

We’ve also been blessed with a trip to Disney World with John’s parents and sister and Thanksgiving in the Dells with Heather’s family. What great memories we made this year with family!

We’ve continued home educating the boys and joined a local group of homeschoolers. The boys have enjoyed making new friends who, to their surprise, also have school at their homes!

Our prayer for the year to come is that we will be more God-honoring, Christ-Centered, and Holy Spirit filled, all for His glory!

John, Heather, Miles, Luke & Clark