Put On Your Grace Face

WOW! I just got back from a conference near Seattle, WA and it was amazzzing! I was blessed to see teens worship GOD with excited enthusiasm and an almost reckless abandon. The teens we brought with us were so touched and inspired to speak more about Jesus and HIS great grace. Jealous yet?

Here's the scoop - we were taught by a man who has prostitues and strippers at every service (his church is in Las Vegas) and guess what? THEY FEEL WELCOME THERE!! Why? - because Jesus is the embodiment of grace. HIS best friends were fishermen (and y'all know most anglers are great liars!) and tax collectors and sinners. HE was followed by protitutes too, and they loved HIM. The question to ask is not why Jesus hung out with them but why did they hang out with HIM?

Simply put, that's the grace of GOD.

GOD is a holy GOD. HE cannot be in the sight of sin and cannot even look on it. But Jesus, as a human, could. HE shows us the grace that balances the justice that gives us the complete picture of GOD.

As the church Jesus trained and left behind on earth, it's our job to continue showing that grace to every person who needs to see it (that's everyone, right?) Welcome them to church. Sit next to them, no matter how bad they smell. And when they inform that they still sin, you can tell them what the Bible says and love them through it all, even when you don't see them changing anything. It's NOT your job to make them quit sinning. GOD alone has that power.

So this weekend I learned a lot about GOD's grace. We judge so easily and mete out GOD's justice readily, but what we really need to hand out is the same thing we all need the most - HIS unending grace.

To Save A Life - Movie Review

We heard about the movie "To Save A Life" from our pastor who wanted us to check it out and see if it would be appropriate for our teenagers (it has a PG-13 rating that he was a little worried about). We read a lot of reviews about it online and decided we'd go for it. We invited our teenagers to it on a Saturday, and liked it so much we invited the entire church to go the following Wednesday.

I personally feel this movie is a must see for anyone who has anything to do with teenagers in any aspect of their lives. I think this will help in understanding what teens go through, the things they face every day at school, the issues they deal with, the way they think about things, and what they really want from us - it's not what you would probably think.

Aside from what we could learn from this movie, there's also the entertainment factor - this was a good movie to watch. It was engaging: I laughed, I cried, I felt the extreme emotions our teens face. It wasn't a cheesy movie and it wasn't preachy at all. Yes, there are scenes in which our characters have something to learn, but the script stays away from sounding like a Sunday morning sermon.

This is a movie I will definitely buy when it comes out on video.

Confession Time

It's time for me to admit something that is getting harder and harder to conceal.

I cry - A LOT!!!

This affliction seems laughable (which can also trigger the waterworks) but it has caused a lot of confusion in my family. My husband can say something hurtful or something uplifting and is really perplexed when he sees the same reaction running down my cheeks. My tender-hearted children walk into the living room just after a touching commercial and look around in confusion as they try to figure out what made Mom so sad.

It's getting a little easier for them as they understand me a little more. Watching one of those really heartfelt animated flicks, my son yelled across the room "you can quit crying now, Mom!" when the scene departed from the poignant. He's 8.

But the thing I find most interesting is the change that has come over my husband. When we married 13 years ago, he knew I was a softie (although the actual depth of my tenderness was still a mystery) and he was my warrior (which, interestingly enough, is what his name actually means). He's strong, inside and out, but lately, he's been crying even more than I have. (Okay, that was an exaggeration, but he has welled up much more frequently than our first year of marriage.)

This tells me a lot about tears.

• My strong man has only gotten stronger, and yet he cries more - there is strength in tears.
• Tears are a release and an outlet - crying can therefore be a time of cleansing.
• My husband cries more and has his guard up less - tears can be a sign of comfort and rest.
• Even laughter can cause the tears to fall - joy and pain can have a relationship in the depths of our hearts.

So I confess, I cry, I sob, I well-up, and I rest, cleanse, and strengthen my soul.

I cry.

Humor-us

I have three kids.

They bicker. They fight.
They also work together to accomplish amazing feats of fort construction.

But during one heated bicker-match, they got really mad.

Until...

My son looked his older sister in the eye and said, "If you're going to hit me, hit me in a GOD-ly way."

His sister was too busy giggling as she tried to figure that one out to actually hurt anyone.



Thank GOD for humor!

Safe Keeping

Never let it be said that a woman who has a way with words can't be speechless.

However, that woman is not me.

Matthew West recently requested that people submit their stories to inspire songs for his next album. He wants it to be all about our stories. I didn't submit a word. It wasn't because I didn't have anything to say, it was because it had a 500 word limit!

Okay, okay, that wasn't the reason (but it made you laugh, admit it!) I really didn't have a whole lot to say. GOD's main work in me has been quiet, and behind the scenes. I've never parted the Red Sea, never fed thousands, and never spoken to multitudes. I haven't overcome addiction, left an abusive relationship, nor have I even worked in a soup line. I applaud those who do. I celebrate them. I rejoice with their victories and weep with their sorrows. But my own story? It's a bit more mundane.

My husband loves my story. He says it is one of the most powerful stories about what GOD is capable of doing in a person's life. (I love my husband - he's wonderful!) This is a man who overcame an abusive childhood, struggled with drugs and alcohol, and still preaches about GOD's hope and saving power to teenagers every week. And he likes my story - a story about the keeping power of GOD.

I had a mom who taught me to pray before I even learned to read. I had neighbors who taught me faithfulness every week when they gave me rides to church. I had friends who thought drugs and alcohol were a waste of time. And I served a GOD who has always had big plans for me. I never had to overcome, I never struggled with self-forgiveness, and never strayed far from the straight and narrow. I knew GOD at such an early age and HE kept me from so many situations and temptations that my story is almost a little boring to me. But it's fascinating to my husband. He finds it beyond amazing that I have never been drunk. He loves that he is the only man I have ever given myself to. He laughs when I tell him I have no idea what 'weed' looks like. But that's the keeping power of GOD - HE kept me out of those situations that could prove to be traps or snares.

Not the making's of a great story, I'm the first to admit it. But it's pretty cool what our GOD can do - HE can make the way straight and remove stumbling blocks. HE can help us avoid the pitfalls and snares. HE made a plan an eternity ago and decided then that HE would rather die than live without us. HE makes a way, whether it's by keeping us out of trouble or scooping us out of trouble.

So I may not have a lot to say about my own story, nothing there to really write a song about (Matthew), but I can talk for ages about the keeping and saving power of GOD.

Small Steps, Big Steps

Okay so I've made a few plans to improve myself. (I am hearing laughter in the back of my mind already.) But seriously, I picked six main areas to improve, but that proved to be way too much to do all at once. So I broke it down into baby steps. My baby steps were simple: pray each night for the kiddos while they were still awake enough to hear it, write a budget and try to follow it (not expecting perfection right out of the gate here either) and to become a more organized person by making sure the dishes were done before bed every night. Ahhh...such good intentions! The minute I set these goals, they weren't enough. I needed to do something about my weight, take classes to better my mind (please!), join a group to help me stay on all these tasks (by adding more tasks...really?) and now even my family is adding a few suggestions. "Mom, you should make a menu for all the dinners we'll eat each month - maybe even give us choices every night!" "Let's have a bake sale! Mom, you want to make four hundred dozen cookies, right?" Are you kidding me! Sheesh!

I really don't need help finding the many areas I need to improve. Truly. I find them all by myself. That makes it so hard to stick with just the three I've chosen, especially on those days when I feel like I'm letting everyone else down. Such a curse, being a people-pleaser.

But I've learned (and am re-learning daily) that there is only One I need to please. And I love that HE knows me so well that HE is never disappointed in me. Disappointment comes from unmet expectations - since HE knows exactly what I am going to do, HE never expects anything other than what I am going to do, therefore there's no disappointment. HE loves me as I am right now and loves me too much to let me stay that way.

I like the example of a kid on the playground. You watch your child and love him dearly as he's going down the slide. You love him while he's swinging back and forth. You love him while he's playing in the sand. And when he puts the sand in his mouth, well, you still love him, but you never let him stay that way.

So I've stopped at my three little baby steps. Any more is too much right now. But I'm not staying at these three baby steps. Once I have managed to make them habits, then I will take another bite out of my self-improvement list - the steps will be bigger, maybe even try four instead of just three this time. The point is, I'm on my way. I'm not staying in place, but I am moving forward, small steps for now, but the potential for bigger steps is unlimited. And I will do this to please the only One that matters.