Posts Tagged 'growing'

I LOVE PROGRESS!!!!

Published May 17, 2012 Angola , living , missions , relationships , saving moses , travel 2 Comments
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Today has been quite incredible & Angola never ceases to amaze me. It is a country of immense potential not only in natural resources, but moreso with the incredible citizens of this beautiful nation. Today, we visited a malnutrition clinic & met more moms whose courage is nothing less than breathtaking. We were able to follow up with Belito, my little buddy who I met on my 1st visit to Angola. Two years ago, Belito was in a really bad state. His mom, Marcella, had brought him to the clinic with severe malnutrition. We helped her bring Belito home with some formula, food & feeding instructions. Last year, we were able to touch base with Belito again & saw that he was healthy & doing well. Today, I popped in again to say hello & check in with Marcella. We had a really nice visit & I even got to hold Belito who snuggled into me :)
After our chat with Marcella, we began to explore the idea of giving literacy lessons at the malnutrition clinic (the higher the level the education for the mom, the more that the infant mortality rate declines). So this is an EXTREMELY exciting possibility that we’re exploring & I’ll of course I’ll happily keep you posted on our progress.
If you haven’t already done this, please consider going to www.savingmoses.org to make a donation to help us buy malnutrition formula for these babies. Without this kind of special therapeutic milk, the chances for these babies to survive rapidly deteriorate. Let’s help to give them a fighting chance to survive & possibly be the next “Moses” for Angola!! Thanks HEAPS for your consideration :)

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I want to be close

Published March 19, 2012 enemies to intimacy , family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual 3 Comments
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I like to be around my kids in all kinds of ways. I like to cuddle in bed with them when they’re waking up. I like to cook w them in the kitchen. I like to watch them play sports & perform. I like sitting & reading or watching basketball w them. I just like being around my kids & think that this is even more true in how God likes to be around us.
Maybe a reason that God is omni-present is because He likes to be around us so much :)
So here’s an interesting challenge: to flip the truth that God is always w us, let’s endeavor to be w God throughout each day – not just on Sundays or at church, but in the entirety of each day & in every place that we go. Just to be close to God.

daily fellowship

Published February 28, 2012 family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual 3 Comments
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I always want my fellowship with Jesus to be getting deeper & more vibrant.  Some days my fellowship with Him seems to be deeper & more vibrant than others.  But I’m reminded about my relationships in my husband.  We most certainly have a good marriage, but there are lots of days where we just live together doing the daily routines and maintainence of family life.  We talk about the daily schedule for our family, our responsibilities, etc.  Just because every day in our marriage doesn’t have indescribable bliss and euphoria doesn’t mean that we’re not close or that we don’t have a good marriage.  Quite the contrary.

I think this is also true w our relationship with Jesus.  I think that some of the greatest fellowship & intimacy can come through including Him throughout the entirety of each day.  Jesus loves to be an integral part of our daily living – hence, daily fellowship :)

friends are cool :)

Published February 25, 2012 family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual 2 Comments
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God has put some amazing people in my life!!  As I’ve been thanking God for some of these individuals, I’ve observed a few things:

  • differences can be good when there’s mutual respect
  • friendships can take time to grow
  • a Joyce Meyer quote:  some relationships are for a season, some for a reason & a few for a lifetime
  • genuine friendships require mutuality
  • friendships require both listening and talking
  • a truly constructive friendship will support and encourage an ever deepening relationship w Jesus
  • a mentor isn’t the same thing as a friend

Let’s celebrate the friendships that God has put in our lives!

making course corrections :)

Published February 24, 2012 family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual 1 Comment
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 Very few of us like correction.  I hated getting corrected when I was a kid – so I tried to be pretty good, or at least sneaky enough not to get caught ,)

We all receive correction regardless of our age.  We get corrected at work through performance appraisals, at school through our grades, by the police when we are speeding, etc.  The real issue about getting corrected isn’t how we get corrected but rather how we receive correction.  Here are some ways to receive correction:

  • with gratitude or grumpiness
  • reflection or rejection
  • soft and tender or hard and brittle
  • receive or deflect
  • change or get callous

Let me suggest that we can maximize the correction that we receive by how we receive it.  Or, we can wash, lather, rinse and repeat until we make some adjustments :)

good things come to those who wait – really???

Published February 8, 2012 enemies to intimacy , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , saving moses , spiritual 4 Comments
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I’ve had an interesting few days and it’s been a bit challenging to keep a good attitude while waiting.  On Friday I had a few challenges – I was working on a really big project for Saving Moses and came to a place where I had to wait until Mon for the decision of another person.  Also on Friday, I was walking home in the snow from dinner at our neighbor’s house, slipped, fell & super messed up my ankle (nothing cool like I was snowboarding in a terrain park & messed up a jump or missed a rail).

So it was an interesting weekend – waiting and hoping for a good answer & an improved ankle and I’m thinking that Mon will be a great turning point for these brief, but important challenges.  When Mon rolled around, my ankle wasn’t better so  I decided to get it checked out.  The Dr said that if it was broken, that I probably wouldn’t be able to go to Cambodia for Saving Moses next month – grrrrrrrr.  Nevertheless, the xray results in the afternoon would let us know something more definite, which meant more waiting.  By 8pm Mon, I hadn’t heard anything from the Dr nor anything on the Saving Moses project.  Still waiting.  Grrrrrrr.

Tues morning rolls around & still no answers & now I’m getting jittery.  But when I would turn my heart to the Holy Spirit on these 2 topics, I felt peace.  Since this story has now been too long, here’s the short conclusion:  no broken ankle and the Saving Moses project has an affirmative answer!  And in all of this, I felt God tell me that if I will trust Him, He will meet the points of my needs with His provisions.  Luke 21:29 – in patience, possess your soul :)

what’s the right answer?

Published January 29, 2012 enemies to intimacy , family , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , spiritual Leave a Comment
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Lately I’ve been trying to coach my kids about how to properly respond when I ask them to do something. Instead of arguing with me, telling me why they can’t do something, why it’s not their fault, or the plethora of other answers (including the new family member I’ve yet to meet – Not Me Bowling), I’m trying to coach them to say, “yes mom” or “yes, dad”.
There are lots of great examples in the Bible on how to respond to God. Two of my favorites are:
Samuel: speak Lord, your servant is listening
Mary: let it be to me according to Your word
How we respond to the visible & tangible authorities in our lives can often reflect how we respond to God – just something for your consideration :)

the path of progress

Published December 31, 2011 Holy Spirit , living , prayer , relationships , saving moses , spiritual Leave a Comment
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As we finish up 2011, many of us will take a few minutes to reflect on the events of this year & possibly consider some plans / thoughts for 2012.  Sometimes its easy to get stuck on the past, but something that helps me to keep moving forward is to be thankful – thankful for the events that have helped me grow, thankful for the relationships that have encouraged me to love more genuinely, thankful for the achievements that couldn’t have happened without God’s help & more! 

Another thing that helps me to grow is to not always think of the massive projects that I want to accomplish, but to rather think of things in smaller sizes.  I most certainly have REALLY BIG DREAMS in my heart & if I’m not careful, the size of these dreams can be overwhelming.  But when I consider these dreams on a day-by-day basis, making little steps toward these dreams on a daily basis, they’re not so overpowering.  Indeed, perhaps the journey is equally as important to God as the destination.  Happy New Year!!

things that help relationships to grow

Published November 12, 2011 enemies to intimacy , family , living , prayer , spiritual Leave a Comment
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  Over the last few weeks, I have had some interesting conversations with various friends about different ways to improve relationships  One such way is by doing things together – so today, my husband & I are going to buy a dishwasher.  Of course we have different ways of approaching this project, but the point is that we work together to get something that will be reliable & helpful to our family for a reasonable price.  I’ll keep you posted on how this adventure turns out ,)

Some other ways to help a relationship grow include:

  • trust:  not only do we want to be able to trust the other person, but we, ourselves, must also be trustworthy
  • forgiveness – the deeper the friendship, the greater the quantity & deeper the quality of forgiveness;  shallow friendships can often reflect limited forgiveness
  • time:  listening, doing things together and other things / ways that require time
  • sacrifice:  preferring the other person’s desires & needs over our own is a good way to not only grow a relationship, but to also grow as an individual
  • communication:  honesty & diversity (through lots of different ways – written, non-verbal, dialogues, to name a few ideas)
  • affirmation:  looking for creative ways to say, “you is kind, you is wise & you is important” is always important to grow relationships
  • common purpose:  it’s important to understand that different relationships have different purposes (friendships can be for a reason, a season but only a few are for a lifetime)

Ultimately, I see my relationships as a means to express genuine love – letting God love through me.  This is the goal in which I want to always be improving.

The Help

Published October 24, 2011 family , Holy Spirit , living , spiritual 1 Comment
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 Ok, I just saw the movie,  The Help & I read the book a few weeks ago & I’m a convert – loved it!!!  There are so many great take-aways from both the book & the movie with such great life lessons :)

One thing that keeps getting repeated in my brain is the quote to a little two year old girl in the movie, “you is kind, you is smart, you is important.”  These are such powerful words & have such positive imagery, not only for a 2 year old but for all of us.  With this in mind, I think it’s super important to consider what we say to each other.  Words that affirm, encourage, support, compliment, refresh, strengthen & even give affection are so necessary in our lives.  I genuinely believe that the people who are in our lives in all of the many different contexts need such encouragement.  And who knows, words like, “you is kind, you is smart, you is important” just might change the world, one person at a time :)

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