Believing Like David

On page 87 in our Chase study Jennie Allen writes,
"The enormous promise of an eternal kingdom that God makes to David is a beautiful promise and we get to be a part of it through Christ.  We are blessed to be on this side of the cross, looking back on the redeeming work of Christ rather than waiting in expectation of it. The hope of the world has always been and always will be Jesus Christ."

God made a covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7: 1-17 that his kingdom would be eternal.  As I try to put myself in David's shoes, I just cannot imagine how I'd respond to that news...

"And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever" (verse 16)

Starting in verse 18 we get to see into the heart of a humble, servant-king as David responds to God and shows his belief in the promises unseen. Take a few minutes to read through 2 Samuel 7 to see how God points to a coming Christ, an eternal kingdom, and how David's belief shines through his response to God. 

This week in Mothers Together we're going to be looking at several Bible verses that reinforce this mighty act of belief.  Here is this week's handout on our Belief teaching by Frann Wohlers.  I am praying God brings about a stronger faith in you to truly believe His promises are for you, His daughter.  

Jena M.

Tend Your Garden

A few weeks ago I spent a while pulling weeds along the stone walkway leading to my backyard.  We frequently invite people over to enjoy our back patio, roasting marshmallows over the fire, listening to sporting events via the speakers, watching kids playing in the yard, or sharing a meal.  Many times we encourage our guests to come right on back, using the stone path.

Sadly, I had neglected the weed-pulling for a while.  The neglect, along with the recent rains meant that I had a jungle to work through. It took what seemed like forever to make the walkway navigable for anyone walking around to our yard. So long as I ignored the weeds, the path became more and more impassible.  If I left them alone long enough they would completely overwhelm the path, it would become unusable and we would miss out on fruitful visits from friends and neighbors.

My weed-choked pathway brought to mind the Parable of the Sower.  Jesus often used parables to teach people about the Kingdom of God.  In Matthew 13 we read of a farmer who went out to sow his seed.  One of the places the seeds fell was "among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants." (NIV Matthew 13:7)  He went on to say, "Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." (Mat. 13:8)  Our hearts are the fertile soil.  The things in our lives that distract from our walk with God and make us less fruitful are our weeds or thorns.

As I pulled weeds from between the stones on the path, marveling at the sheer volume of my waste pile, I felt God speaking into me about the weeds and thorns in my life.  I didn't have to do anything in particular to make these weeds grow on the path.  I hadn't intentionally placed weeds on the path.  I had merely left the path alone, without tending, and the weeds had invaded and started to overtake the path, choking out its purpose.

Our lives are the same.  We may feel like we lead pretty good lives, not exposing ourselves to bad influences, or pursuing paths that would lead us in the direction of things that go against the Kingdom.  However, it doesn't take any action on our part for weeds and thorns to begin to grow.  We live in a fallen world, which means that potentially corrupting influences are always present.  Weeds begin to grow whether we want them to or not.  It takes vigilance on our part to seek out the weeds and thorns and remove them.  In short, we must tend our garden.

We need to keep an eye out for the weeds in our lives.  Whether it is the little things throughout the day that add up to prevent us from spending time with God or bigger things that have a more recognizable negative influence on us or our relationship with God - we need to be watchful and diligent about tending our garden.  We need to be purposeful in removing the weeds or thorns that, if left untended, could diminish the crop yield God intends from our lives.

What can you do to ensure your heart is good soil that produces an abundant harvest for God's Kingdom?
- Katrina

How Should We Pray?

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When Jesus’s disciples asked him how to pray, Jesus gave them what is called, “The Lord’s prayer.”  We find it in the book of Matthew, chapter 6, right in the middle of "The Sermon on the Mount.”  

“Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
¹³ And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matt. 6:9-13)

So many times in my life, I do not find myself thinking this way.  It is something that I need to intentionally remember to come back to.  If I really want to get to know the Father, do I need to pray this way?  I can’t answer that…(I just figured that out).  However, I do know that after 9 years of my life REALLY laying before him, following him, and allowing him to love me, allowing him to change me, forming me into his image…allowing him into those ugly places that I can’t change (you know - the one only our kids and husband see and hear with a very quick apology, “I am sorry, mommy shouldn’t have yelled”), I know it is more than a word.  It is a relationship.  

If we base our conversation with him on this prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, we are stopping everything, and going to the Father.  Our Father, in heaven, you are holy.  Your kingdom come…seeking out what his kingdom is.  Your will be done...searching, what is his will?  On earth as it is in heaven...let heaven come to earth.  Let heaven come, where is heaven, and how can it come?  These are things that we cannot wrap our brains around, yet this is the guideline for how to pray.  For yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, and yours is the glory forever, amen.  To me, this prayer is going to God - my father, your father - and giving him praise.  Letting go of my will, my way, and asking him what to pray.  Humbling myself and seeking his kingdom first before my own.  

I implore you to go on a journey to re-direct your prayer life.  Start small, simple, and sweet - take a deep breath, and open your bible or laptop to Matthew chapter 6.  Let everything within you go there to the Sermon on the Mount.  If you have just 3 minutes in your bathroom as “quiet time,” he will take it. I used to utilize my daughter’s naptime for this.  Was it hard giving him that entire two hours?  Not after I began to know him.  Getting to know him, and his love, is life.  So many times, I will hear someone say, “live life to the fullest” - my life is Jesus.  If I am to live, I need to breathe - he is my breath, he is my everything.  Now, my children are in school and I have many more than 2 hours.  Those napping moments shaped me - formed me into the woman I am today.  

If you hung out with me, you would see flaws really quick.  I fail.  We all fall short. But, I get to choose what I do during alone time hours, and spending time with him is and has always been the best choice. 

- Jenn G.

On the Edge

I have this image of my oldest daughter forever seared in my mind.  There she was, four years old, standing on the edge of the swimming pool with goggles secure, arm floaties in place, and me three feet away waiting for her to join me in the pool.  To her, the ‘deep’ three feet of water was reason enough to question my authority as her mom to know what she was capable of accomplishing.  As I watched her teeter between courage and fear I knew it had to be her decision.  Could I force her to jump in?  Sure.  Could I scold her for being unnecessarily fearful?  Probably.  As her mom, though, I wanted the best for her in that moment because I knew little moments like these add up to big ones.  I wanted her to trust me; trust that I wouldn’t let her fall too far from my reach, trust that I could see a bigger picture of what might be best for her, and trust that I truly believed in her ability to accomplish what I was asking her to do.

I can imagine God standing in the deepest, murkiest, unknown waters of life just waiting for us to have the courage to jump in.  In His perfect love for his children he waits patiently while we teeter on the edge of fear and courage.  He already knows whether we’ll go back to our beach towels to analyze the situation a little longer, stand on the edge for what feels like forever fearing failure, or whether we’ll back up a few steps only get a good running start into the all-out, no turning back jump of a lifetime. 

So where are you?  Is that hard ground under your towel feeling less comfortable these days?  Have you taken a walk to the water’s edge to look out and get a glimpse of what God may have for you?  Every single step away from your comfort zone takes courage, you know.  Or are you running full speed gearing up for the biggest splash of your life? Sometimes I want to be both on the towel as far from the edge as possible and in the water, but I can’t be in two places at once.  God not only sees me where I am, but He is calling me out into the water with Him ever so patiently because He knows what’s best for me and living life out of the water gets less and less appealing the more I get to know Him.  I truly desire to obey the call to join Him in my unknown waters because obeying feels much more like a privilege and joy than a rule.  It takes courage and a hefty dose of faith that I’ll never be out of my Heavenly Father’s reach, but He promised and I trust Him.

Who else is with me?  Want to hold hands and all jump in together?  3…2…1…

Jena M.

Caught Up in God's Time

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I figure we have all been there as moms. Hectically trying to keep to a schedule. Time. The clock. In these moments, we get stuck in all we have to do. All we have to remember. There is not enough time, not enough sticky notes to remind us, not enough hands, not enough energy. Not enough. This anxiety, this worry, this fear of imperfection, captured my mind, heart and soul only a few weeks ago as I busily readied myself and my 8 month old son for our first Mother’s Together of this year. What to wear, what to dress him in, what to eat, what to pack things in, what to pack and more. All to accomplish within an hour or so, and would I remember it all? My mind was so intently focused on these things… as if they actually mattered. And do they? Really? It was only once I had everything in the car, including my son (don’t want to forget him) and was driving down the road, I realized the answer. These things didn’t matter. I took a deep breath and sighed. Phew!  

You see, as I took the gravel road on my lengthy drive to church, I was blown away by something I hadn’t seen yet this summer. Not sure how I missed it. I must not take this route as often as I thought. Sunflowers. Bright yellow faces pointing upward. Basking in the light that poured upon them from the sun. Not just a few but acres of them. Fields of them. Hundreds of thousands of sunflowers. My favorite flower. I was captivated by God in this moment. I stopped. I had to capture this moment with a picture. As I continued down the road and the hills continued to spill out yellow, I recognized God’s kairos timing. You see, I was caught up in chronos - clock time. In their book Building a Discipling Culture, Mike Breen and Steve Cockram discuss the difference between kairos time and chronos time (ch. 6). His breakthrough moments versus our constantly-counted minutes. 

Five minutes to do my hair (that is a joke), two minutes to pick out an outfit, fifteen minutes to feed my son, three minutes to pack the diaper bag, forty minutes to get to church etc.  But God’s timing, kairos, is not bound by the clock that my life is so devastatingly driven by. He interrupts our lives to speak to us. To help us grow. And if we hurry and worry and fret we will miss it. We will miss the opportunity to observe His beauty, His movement in our life, His work. We will miss the opportunity to reflect upon what he is saying and doing in our lives. We will miss the opportunity to look up to Him desperate for His love and grace and peace and allow Him to pour into us His word, His compassion, His will. Just as the sunflowers do with the sun. I almost missed it! 

Since this morning, I have seen this field a few more times and it is interesting how downtrodden they seem when the sun is not shining and contrastingly, how uplifted they are when it is. This observation led me to ask a metaphorical question; are we sunflowers with God? When we are not receiving His light are we downtrodden? When we are so busy with the details of the life this world thinks we should live and miss His voice, His touch, His plan do our faces seem to hang low? And yet, just like the sun, He is always there. Sometimes we allow things in our lives to become the clouds that keep us from receiving His light. We allow them to become the darkness that keeps our faces from Him. Keeps us from hearing His voice, feeling His touch, seeing His will. Yet He is always there. 

 “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (NIV, Hebrews 4:7). Soften our hearts then? Allow His voice to speak into us. His word to speak into us. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (NIV, Hebrews 4:12).  When God interrupts our lives, an opportunity presents itself for us to grow. Kairos. It can seem scary to open our hearts to God in these moments, especially when these moments evoke negative emotions. Scary to begin the learning process. Scary to find out what is deep in our hearts, that really, He already knows. We are just unaware. Yet in these kairos moments, we can observe, we can reflect. We can talk with others we trust and who are walking with God to learn more about what God is saying to us and then figure out what He wants us to do about it. Also scary.  

God is good though. He gave us the great Comforter. The holy spirit of Jesus. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin” (NIV, Hebrews 4:15). Jesus has gone before us. Jesus understands us. Jesus has been there too. Therefore we can fully rely on Him in our brokenness because He is without sin. So as we lift our faces like sunflowers to God, in these kairos moments, resting in Jesus, we can find confidence to approach God and soften our hearts to hear His voice. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (NIV, Hebrews 4:16). In our time of need. Approach Him. The sunflower needs the sun to grow. We need God to grow. It is in our time of need that we can grow the most. This chronos time of need, this time based on our clock, can become His time to shine. His grace upon our faces so we can be uplifted. Uplifted for His glory. It is my prayer to be caught up in His time. The kairos. To let go of my time. Chronos. To lift my eyes to Him in confidence of finding mercy and grace. And grow. Like the sunflower. 

- Tami I.

Breen, Mike, and Steve Cockram. Building a Discipling Culture. 

Pawleys Island, SC: 3 Dimension Ministries, 2009. Print.

Fall Fun

Fall is by far my absolute FAVORITE time of year.  I love everything about it, from the yummy fall foods to the crisp, cool weather (although we aren’t totally there yet…) to the beautiful colors of the foliage.  There are also so many creative, fun activities you can do with your children and as a family, just another one of my many reasons for loving this time of year!

In case it’s not your favorite time of year or you are stuck for ideas, here are a few to get you started:

*Rake leaves just for the sake of letting your children jump in the piles. It’s definitely more work for you (just consider it extra exercise!) but so much fun for the kids.  Who doesn’t remember jumping into a pile of leaves as a child and loving it?!

*Visit an apple orchard.  We really like Cider Hill Family Orchard, butthere are loads around the metro area.  I think there is something super cool and special about traipsing around an orchard, picking your own apples, tasting them along the way, and then bringing them home to make yummy treats with.  A few apple recipes we enjoy are apple crisp, homemade applesauce, apple muffins (I particularly like this one from Spark People http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=488687), and simply slicing them up for an afternoon snack.  You can also taste test different kinds of apples or do apple print making…the possibilities are endless!

*Go on a hayride

*Take a nature walk and collect different leaves from your neighborhood. Make leaf rubbings or a giant graph displaying the different kinds of leaves you found.  You can also make a collage by ironing the leaves in between two pieces of wax paper.  Sprinkle shaved crayon in and around the leaves before ironing for added fun!  

*Campout in your own backyard…or at least make smores over a campfire!  If you don’t want to, or have the means to campout, lay out a blanket, bundle up and stargaze while sipping hot cocoa or tea instead.

*Visit a pumpkin patch.  Again, just like apple picking, visiting a real pumpkin patch is a unique and entertaining activity the whole family can enjoy.  Once you’ve chosen pumpkins, head home to continue the fun. Pumpkins are math and science excitement waiting to happen…weigh, measure the circumference, count the lines, try a sink or float experiment, generate comparisons between each family member’s pumpkin.  Eachperson can make an estimate first, then actually find the correct answer.  What a fun, non-threatening way to be competitive as a family!  Don’t forget to buy a few extra pumpkins for the sheer pleasure of decorating.  Whether it’s carving, painting, glittering, or another option, it’s bound to get creative juices flowing and bring out lots of smiles too!  Go online to KCParent.com for the low down on all the area pumpkin patches.

*Since October is Fire Safety Month take the opportunity to develop, review, and discuss your own emergency plan at your house.  Visit your local fire station for a tour as well.  In fact, take them some of those apple muffins you’ve made by now, or a freshly and creatively decorated pumpkin!

I hope you’ll have some fun this fall and maybe try one new activity whether it be from this list or not.  I’d love to hear how you celebrate fall with your family too, so come and find me sometime!

Happy Fall!

Julie Collett

Faith Over Fear

Faith Over Fear

It takes some serious courage to live out your life in faith and not fear.  The author of Chase, Jennie Allen, brings up a great point, “Fear has so captivated our minds we don’t even recognize it anymore.  It’s just how we think.” 

In 1 Samuel 17: 36-37 we get a glimpse into a faith over fear moment in David’s life.  In Verse 37 David declares, “the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.”  David trusted God and trusted in who God created him to be when he stepped in the path of a blood-thirsty giant.  Imagine the many fears that could have kept David from acting on his faith. 

In what areas of your life is fear trumping faith? Imagine what those situations might look like if you were to seek God’s wisdom and obediently step out in faith on His promises. Start praying today and asking God to uncover those deep rooted fears and invite a friend to join along in praying for you. 

Psalm 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom Shall I fear?

Jena M.