It's Almost A New Day

The past couple of weeks have been an "in transition" phase of my life I suppose. I packed, left Auburn, and moved my stuff home. (Thanks for the help Mama!!) Tomorrow I'm headed out to Tuscaloosa to help with a Sports Camp VBS all week! I'm extremely excited. I will also get to team up with an organization in the evenings and help with clean-up and rebuilding! Dad is so very amazing!

Speaking of... I also just got to spend my (hopefully) last free weekend of the summer with my Auburn family. It has been an absolutely INCREDIBLE past few days. My love tank is full to the point of overflowing. For those of you who don't know what I'm referring to, you should read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I got to see a ridiculous amount of people that I adore this weekend throughout a series of amazing events. My Two Wings did a wonderful job at The Irish Bred Pub Friday night!! My jaw actually hurt when I left from smiling so much! Saturday was a day of nothing but hanging out with friends, and Sunday (today) was a day of worship!!! and lake fun! Thanks Dad!

I had lots of time to talk to Dad tonight on my way home, as my radio isn't functioning at the moment. My car apparently got so hot that it melted some of the plastic on my radio and now the faceplate has decided not to stay on. Super glue will fix it tomorrow. :) But the alone time with Dad made it so much more than worth it. While I'm excited to be stepping into a new direction, I also left Auburn concerned about some of my friends. I love each of them dearly (and tend to think of most of them as "my kids" at some point), and when things bother them, God has blessed me with the gift of being able to pick up on that easily. He's teaching me though, that I can't protect them and I can't let them lean on me. They need to find His arms first and foremost. And I need to trust Him in seeking out their hearts. The only way I'm able to leave Auburn behind is knowing that my Father, one who loves them even MORE than I do, is walking with each one of them.

I know huge things are in store for this week. I know that my prayers for Dad to prepare me for this opportunity have been consistently answered in ways I never even realized. These kids I'm going to work with- each of them has a passion, each has a dream, each is searching. If I can help them, or anyone that I come across, to find a deeper foundation for all of that, everything will be worth it. I trust His plans.

It's almost time to meet my new friends...

maybe a bit gross?

I absolutely love how God reveals things to you according to and dealing with whatever is taking place in your life at the moment! Tonight I was on the way back to Auburn and was listening to the song East to West by Casting Crowns. Have you ever had one of those moments when you really DO feel like if you make one more mistake God will have no choice but to turn His back on you disgusted?? Well, just a warning.. you may very well find yourself disgusted by this coming part.

My role right now is full-time childcare worker with 18-24 month old babies. They are incredible, and I absolutely adore them all, but something that comes with the territory is changing diapers. It just is. Even dirty smelly gosh-awful ones. But you never say to the child "oh you've made this mess and need my help cleaning it up, but it's just too gross. I'm just going to leave you in it." Well, guess what? God doesn't say that to us either.

He is undoubtedly grossed out and sickened by our sin ( I mean.. some of these diapers definitely make me want to puke... and when you clean them up and they have another one in the next 5 minutes?? Come on kid, give me a break.), but never doubt His faithfulness. He is not going to give up on you. God is not going to leave you on the changing table with no way to get down and no way to get clean. Just ask for His help and continue to TRUST.

I'm not saying that as an excuse for sin. Babies still want to potty train so that they can stay clean longer and longer, just as we should strive for. Just don't worry about your Dad giving up on you. Cuz He won't. Ever.

"stanley steamer gets carpets cleaner..."

I decided to make good use of my evening and clean our carpets tonight. Well, I borrowed my dad's steam cleaner, and when my mom left for work, I also got to work. It's so strange to me how God can use anything to teach us lessons. I had my evening all planned out, which probably was a bad sign to begin with (because that never works well for me), but I ignored that little fact and figured I could work this little task into about 10-30 minutes and move on to cleaning the rest of the house. Two hours and about 25 tanks of water/cleaner later, when I was still working on the same room, I decided that plan was officially out the window. :)

About that time, God put one word into my head: patience. A couple of days ago, I had a conversation with a friend about why patience is important. We know that "love is patient," and that "God is love," and that we are supposed to be "Christ-like." So all of it fits right? We shoud practice patience. But what is the main goal of patience? I've heard over and over that when I have children, I'll automatically understand, but what about those of us who don't have children (or even the guy.. so no kids in the relative future)?

Well God used the steam cleaner to teach me a few things about how He, as a Father, has patience with us. How many times does He work on us, in one spot, over and over, trying to make us clean, never giving up? How many times do we do that with others before we get angry at them and give up or bite their head off? Before I moved to the next room I tried something different.. just using water. Who knew that would work better?! How much do we try to mix our own solutions with God's, or give God a little time to work and then give up and try to fix things ourselves??

Proverbs 19:11
"A man's wisdom gives him patience;
it is to his glory to overlook an offense."

...

Bright Lights?

So I was on my way home last night and when I was getting in my car, I noticed how amazing the moon looked. It was huge and bright and definitely an eye catcher. Just one of those things that makes you sigh and think "oh wow. Thanks for the reminder of Your beauty Father!" So I pulled out of the parking lot at Hardee's where I had met my Dad to go to the TN line to take a load of logs, and as I headed this way, I started entering Heflin town limits and there were street lights scattered about. I had been trying to keep my eye on the moon occasionally, just because it was so ridiculously gorgeous, and I realized that when I passed these street lights, the moon seemed so dull in comparison.

And that got me thinking.. We know that the sun's light, even reflected off of the moon, is so so much brighter than the filaments in these little street lights. It has to be that much brighter, just to be possible for us to see it from so far away. And I thought, how often do we choose things that seem so much brighter in the here and now, when we KNOW that God's hand in our lives, HIS plans for us, are really so much better, so much brighter? We KNOW what's coming when we die, and yet so much of the time, we choose to live in the here and now, rather than for what's coming...

"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:1-4

Dad? or disrespectful?

I still remember (very vividly) one day that my heavenly Father became a lot more personal. When I was in Auburn, Liz McCollum introduced the idea to me, but that was a bit beyond my grasp. I mean, how could I justify calling the creator of the entire universe “Daddy”? And wasn’t that disrespectful?! But then… one day on the other side of the world, the day of my team Thanksgiving party, I was freaking out. I had let worry consume me. There are a number of times that I can remember absolutely falling apart from worry (I mean knock down drag out almost paralyzed me hyperventilating), usually because I was running late for something important. Well, this day was one of those days. I wanted to be at the hotel early because I was setting up an area with encouragement posters for people to sign. It was going to be close. I had come back to my sister’s apartment with what I thought was plenty of time to get ready. I didn’t leave a lot of spare room for things to happen, and unfortunately, that’s usually when everything tends to go wrong right?

Well, that day, I was also MC’ing, which I wasn’t overly thrilled about, but that meant I absolutely could NOT be late. (Somewhere in all of my falling-apartness I also forgot that I was in a different country, and all times are relative.) So anyway, I was at home, had gotten my shower, making a mental list in my head of what all I needed to happen before I left and once I got there. Well, I had to find an outfit, which took a little longer than planned because the perfect one, my zipper on my jeans wouldn’t work. It zipped up and down, it just didn’t attach the two sides together. And I just couldn’t find anything else (and I realize now just how childish that sounds). Granted, not many days before all of this, my suitcase had been left in the back of a taxi with half of my wardrobe in it, so it really was kinda slim pickens in my closet. Well, I postponed the zipper to try to do something with my hair, and it wouldn’t cooperate for the world. It wouldn’t do anything. Sigh. By that point I was ready to scream. I had to pause and help Abigail where she had had an accident in the floor. I still had to get online and print or write down directions to this place. It was nightmarish. On top of everything I was not at home (my Ranburne home, or even Auburn). I couldn’t find something familiar, curl up and catch my breath. And I lost it. Bawling, I sat on the edge of my bed and cried and cried, and finally asked God to help. Well, after a couple more tries and when I let God teach me how to breathe again, I finally got my zipper to work, and had this image pass through my head of what I could do with my hair. I have no doubt in my mind that it was from God. So, it worked, and was actually cute. (And I’ve never been able to get my hair to do that same thing since!) I got everything written down and was out the door. Daddy had taught me how to breathe again. He was even still there when I freaked out (just a little this time) at the fact that there were NO taxis going that far south. Lol. Figures, right? Well, miraculously, I made it on time, early in fact. But that day, He became my Dad, one who wanted me to cry out to Him for help. He was the one that didn’t run away from my breakdown, but helped me through it, giving me solutions that only He could. They might seem like simple things, but haha.. never tell someone who is hyperventilating that their problems are simple.

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

We are...

"For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh." Phil 3:3

So I've been studying this out recently. What does it mean to be "the circumcision"? The definition that I found that really stuck with me is "spiritual purification". But then again, what does it mean for us, as Christians, to be the spiritual purification of the world? In looking up other places where the words circumcision or uncircumcised are used, I found verses that talk about uncircumcised lips (Ex 6:12), ears (Jer 6:10), hearts (Lev 26:41), and the fruit of a tree (Lev 19:23). So then I had to explore what these passages told me.

When the Bible speaks of uncircumcised lips and ears, and even somewhat of the fruit of a new tree, it refers to them not working as they were designed to, or not to their full potential. It says Moses' lips were faltering, ears that were uncircumcised were not able to hear or understand the Word of God, and the tree planted in a new land had to go through a period of time before it was considered holy and before it could be eaten.

The passage that really stood out to me though, was Leviticus 26:41-42, about our hearts. It says "when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land." So in my mind, this meant that uncircumcised must be the opposite of humbled in a way. So what does humble mean? The answers I found: to lower in importance, to destroy the independence power or will of, and to make meek (i.e. submissive, compliant, unassuming, yielding, calm, patient, etc.). Haha this may be hard to follow, but here goes. So if humble is the opposite of uncircumcised, then being humble is almost the same as being circumcised right?

So, as we are called "the circumcision," we're called to lower ourselves in importance. We're called to destroy our independence, and become dependent on God. We're called to destroy our power or will, in trading it in for the power of Christ and His will. And we're called to be meek, or patient, yielding, and submissive to others.

I know I certainly can't say I've really been on course with all of those recently. And if that's what it takes to be the spiritual purification, I have some work to do...