A GREAT big hug

Our second son Chris has been going to speech therapy for over four years now, and during this time we have had a wide variety of scenarios play out in the waiting room as the other two kids and I wait for Chris to finish. There was the time when we sorted through a huge box of puzzle pieces for 10 different puzzles and organized them all - that was a brainteaser! Then there was Jacob's fascination with using the bathroom all by himself soon after he was potty trained, which led to an unfortunate incident when he locked the door from the inside and the poor therapist had to search for the key to open it! We've met lots of people and shared lots of times in that waiting room, but what happened yesterday was particularly noteworthy.

A darling 5 year girl has her therapy session before Chris, and she has been in the waiting room when we arrive the past few times where she and her mom wait for their ride to pick them up. It is obvious that this little girl has cognitive delays. She is very antsy and has a difficult time articulating any words. I always make a point to try to talk and connect with her, even if it is in small ways.

Yesterday I did not have Jacob with me, who usually occupies my lap in the waiting room. Matt had homework to work on, so I prayed and asked God to show me how I can demonstrate His love to this precious little one. As I talked with her, she started to look at the books, so I offered to read her one. As I read, she was jumping up and down and shouting - seemingly not paying a bit of attention to the book I was reading. I continued as if she was right there following along with me, excited to be reading with her.

As she prepared to leave I wondered if the brief time we shared had any impact on her. As the elevator doors opened, she turned around suddenly, ran right to me, and gave me the biggest, longest hug. She put her head in my lap and just rested there for a moment. Then as quickly as she came, she ran back, got on the elevator, and left.

And I wondered if I made any impact...

I was reminded once again that we don't always see the impact we're making while we're making it. We have to be careful that we do not attempt to evaluate our own effectiveness as we serve God. Sometimes we plant a seed. Sometimes we water it. But God always does the growing.
May you and I both be encouraged this day not to look for the evidences of our obedience but into the face of your Savior. The One who does the growing.

Are you sowing or reaping?

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Gal. 6:7-9).

Today on Abundance In Him we concluded a two part series on the reap and sow principle. I don't know about you, but I was both challenged and encouraged as God revealed His truth as we studied together.

We live in a culture where instant is more than a buzz word; it is seen as a right and necessity. We want instant communication, instant results, and immediate gratification. We have pills that promise to shed pounds from our bodies, cell phones that double as mini-computers, drive thru windows for food (and don’t even think of telling me I have to pull ahead for my order!) Instant messaging, instant replay, instant pudding - we want results and we want them now! Now I’m not saying any of the above is not good or beneficial, but I am suggesting that our mind set can be easily affected by the surrounding of these advances. We do not serve a God who will cater to our demands and desires for immediacy, and we must be careful that we do not have the gall to approach Him as if He should!

There is often quite a lapse in time that bridge the seasons of sowing and reaping, and it can be difficult to continue to sow and sow and sow with no hint of a reaping in sight. May Paul’s words that challenged the Galatians challenge you and me today to not become weary in doing good – “for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” We have to trust God with the results of our sowing. We will see results, and they will point to one of two things, blessing or destruction, according to what we have sown to - the sinful flesh or the Spirit.

We have so much to learn from each other and can be so encouraged by each other's life experiences on this subject. If you are in a season of reaping in your life now, would you share a brief testimony with us? How would you describe your season of sowing that preceded this season of reaping? Your experience can be from a season of sowing when you had young children in your home... Maybe a time of sowing to a particular relationship... Or maybe to an area of ministry... What encouragement do you have for those that may be in similar seasons of sowing today?

Let's encourage each other and spur one another onward as we run the race marked out for us!

Convicted Over The Crumbs

Our youngest son Jacob requested heart shaped cut-out cookies to take for his Valentine party treat for his class party this week, and so the two of us baked a batch of them tonight. Mostly heart shaped cookies, but there was an occasional helmet and football player cookie to interrupt the neat rows of hearts on each sheet. As I baked them I was reminded of something the Holy Spirit convicted me of some time ago.

It usually doesn't take long for my husband to gravitate to the kitchen when I'm baking cookies. He hovers like a blimp (not that I am comparing his physique to a blimp mind you, just making a hovering analogy here...) over the cooling racks and tries his best to swap a few cookies. I always anticipate his arrival, and I put a little pile of what we refer to as "the rejects" for him to eat. You know, those cookies that were a little overcooked, cracked in half, or not as nice looking... He always complained that he had to eat the rejects and that the nicest looking cookies were reserved for company. He even started to call me the cookie Nazi! I also found out that he actually vented to his high school students about having to eat from the reject pile when I bake and asked if any of them experienced the same predicament at home with their moms. Sure enough some of them did. A support group of sorts I guess... I still blew off his complaints.

I'm not exactly sure when this happened, or what I was baking, but the Holy Spirit convicted me that I offered my husband the rejects while presenting the nicer looking cookies for other people. This was conveying a message to him, and it was not the message that I wanted to convey! I sincerely apologized to Joe for offering him the rejects all the time, and my apology seemed to really be important to him. I told him that for now on, I would be sure to pick out the best cookie for him out of the entire bunch. I mean to tell you, the man's face beamed!

So today as I made my cut-outs, I made one extra big heart and smothered a bunch of pink frosting on it. I put it in the freezer with the rest of them and will present it to him on Valentine's Day. We still battle on how many cookies he gets to sample, but that's another issue all together!

We do convey a big message to our family in these little things we do. What little things do you do to communicate to your family how special they are to you?

Biscotti anyone?

Hi Everyone,

I just got home from recording another week of radio programs for Abundance In Him and I wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I will be at the Circle of Friends conference tomorrow at Malone College. I am so excited to meet some of you there I can hardly stand it! The first 200 people I meet will receive an individually wrapped piece of cranberry white chocolate biscotti that I baked myself - with love. (I always tell my family that love is my secret ingredient!)

While they were definitely baked with love, they were individually wrapped out of self-discipline! You see I am not a crafty person... While my dear friend assured me that tying a ribbon did not constitute as a craft project, my accelerated heart rate last night as we wrapped them begged to differ!

Please stop by and say hello. It is such an honor to serve you and I would love to connect with you on a more personal level. Joining me tomorrow will be Beverly Mirich, a member of our board of directors who serves as our prayer coordinator. (Or PC as we affectionately call her!) This dear woman is a prayer warrior if I ever met one and she oversees the prayer teams in place at AIH. You can also thank her for the pretty curly ribbon that encloses each biscotti... She wouldn't let me use my stapler despite my repeated requests to use it instead! Or my glue gun - she shot down that idea too!

I hope to meet many of you tomorrow!

Obey your...what?

I recently heard a commercial for a soda company whose slogan really struck me. The viewer was exhorted to "Obey your thirst!" These words echoed in my mind as I thought of the implications of that statement and my thoughts soon included lots of things other than soda! Imagine if you and I gave into every thirst we have... No desire unmet and no craving left unfilled. We cannot even begin to imagine the devastation this would invoke in our lives.

We can certainly thirst for lots of things... The approval of other people, the acquisition of "things", a particular position of influence, or a specific job title are only a few examples. We are wise to ask God to search our hearts and reveal to us whether our priorities, thoughts, and actions are obeying a thirst that originates from our own self that is motivated by selfish ambition.

I don't know about you, but I know from personal experience that my own thirsts are not to be obeyed! We need to be certain that we are striving to obey a person - Jesus Christ - and certainly not any thirst that originates from us.

Now all this talk about thirst has gone and made me downright thirsty! I'm off to crash on the couch with my man with a nice warm cup of hot cocoa.