DNow 2017–“Overwhelmed”

Our favorite youth thing of the year… DNow!  We had a great weekend with a great group.  We have never had such an awesome group of kids, ever.  They make us even more grateful our jobs.  We have such a sweet group of seniors that are so close to my heart…  I love them like my own and am going to be a puddle of the floor come Senior Sunday.

We watched a video series about being overwhelmed.  All of my girls have stressed to me how much they worry.  It is sad to think about the pressures they face these days. 

Going through these lessons with our youth… is always going through a lesson for myself also.  In our first session together he talked about signs of being overwhelmed.  Ask yourself these ten questions:  Are busy and tired words I use to describe myself?  Am I always in a hurry?  Does my schedule make me stressed and anxious?  How am I sleeping?  Do I blame other people for my feeling overwhelmed?  Do I say that this is only a “season” of life?  Do I show less compassion to others?  Am I losing hope?  Am I withdrawing from family and friends?  When was the last time I genuinely had fun?

At the time, I was experiencing most of these “signs”.  It was almost funny how spot on everything was…. almost.  I wasn’t even aware of these overwhelming tendencies in my life.  Compared to the people I love most, I thought I was super chill.  This weekend was God telling me not to let the enemy use these tendencies to push me off an emotional cliff.  I have to fight for peace in my life!

In Matthew 26:36-46 when Jesus goes to Gethsemane to pray before his crucifixion, He is understandably overwhelmed.  In fact, the Bible says He was crushed with grief…. overwhelmed with sorrow… swallowed up with sadness. 

We’ve all been to a deeply painful place where we feel like we’ll never recover, but even in the every day where we don’t even think we are overwhelmed the same lesson applies… Look at what Jesus did.  He prayed!  This is a small but mighty step that can not be ignored.  We desperately need prayer…. Deep conversations with God where we can be honest, get things off our chest, and let go.

Jesus also asked his close friends to pray for him.  He didn’t try to carry this heavy burden all alone.  Close Christian friends are so important in my life.  I hope you have those special people in your life.  Knowing that I have dear friends that pray for me daily is one of the greatest blessings of my life. 

This first crucial step to overcoming the overwhelming is simple: We must pray!

Next we have to acknowledge what we’re good at, and what we should let go.  Don’t put too much on your plate…. If we stack all our plates too high, eventually everything will come crashing down.  All our responsibilities accumulate to increase our stress level.  Sometimes we just need to say “no”.  Perfectionists and people-pleasers have a hard time with this.  When you’re both, like me, it’s especially exhausting.  When you finally learn how to prioritize and give only what you can of yourself, the freedom of letting go is amazing. 

Lastly, we have to deny our fears and transform our minds.  Fear always plays a part in my life… I learned a long time ago that I will always have them.  I just have to deny their power over me and give every worry to God.  Looking to Him first will always make things better.  He will carry you through whatever you are facing.  Then when you are ready… dig into His word and further transform your mind by learning about Him.

So are you overwhelmed?

PRAY… LET GO… DENY YOUR FEARS… TRANSFORM YOUR MIND

Boom!

Thank you God and thank you Disciple Now.

The Waiting Game

WAIT:  verb (used without object)

1. to remain inactive or in a state of repose, until something expected happens

2. to remain neglected for a time

3. to look forward to eagerly

When I hear the word WAIT, the first thing I thing I think is…. “story of my life.”  Then I quickly survey my life and realize there are certain, very important, things where I didn’t have to WAIT too long. Like meeting and falling in love with my wonderful husband in the 8th grade.  But in every instance…. the WAITing ones and the not…. I can see God’s provision in my life.  There are still some things that I don’t understand, but I know in time God will show me a huge life lesson…. case in point: the year 2010.

The above definitions for the word WAIT give me mixed emotions: 1. sad, 2. depressed, and 3. hopeful.  When WAITing on anything, for just a short time or for years, it seems, maybe, as if God has forgotten you… He’s not hearing the cries of my heart, people… Or maybe the situation gets the best of you and you just quit praying all together.  That’s where I get when the WAITing game seems like too much to bear, where I feel totally “neglected for a time” and ready to sleep/eat my worries away.  But then sweet little definition #3 comes…. and I can continue to “look forward to eagerly” the blessings that God is going to give me soon.  And, look at all the beautiful blessings that are right in front of my face.

WAITing on God is something that is commanded:

“But you much return to your God, Maintain love and justice, and WAIT for your God always”  Hosea 12:6

“WAIT for the Lord, Be strong and take heart and WAIT for the Lord” Psalm 27:14

“Be still before the Lord and WAIT patiently for Him” Psalm 37:7

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you.  Therefore He will rise up to show you compassion.  For the Lord is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who WAIT for Him!”  Isaiah 30:18

We WAIT for His providence, His salvation, and His blessings….. Especially these days, where we are privileged to live in an instant and selfish United States.  But there are some benefits to WAITing on God.  It leads to expectancy… It leads to hope… It leads to trust… And it leads to patience.

“In the morning, Lord, You hear my voice.  In the morning I lay my requests before You and WAIT expectantly.”  Psalm 5:3

“We WAIT in hope for the Lord.  He is our help and our shield”  Psalm 33:20

“I will WAIT for the Lord… I will put my trust in Him”  Isaiah 8:17

“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we WAIT for it patiently”  Romans 8:25

And, we can always know that we are not alone.  And that things can always get worse or be worse.  Everyone is WAITing on something.  What I do while I WAIT is what’s important.  I can’t let myself grow bitter and more selfish… only better and more reliant on The One who’s in charge. 

Thinking through the Bible… there are soooo many people that WAITed years for God’s promises to be fulfilled:  Abraham & Sarah, Zechariah & Elizabeth, Joseph, Daniel, David, Ruth, Esther, Moses, Jacob, Paul, and even Jesus Himself.  Everything happens in God’s timing and who am I to ask why something isn’t happening right when I want it.

As I am turning 30 in a few short weeks, I am grateful for the knowledge I have on this subject…. way more than the average lady my age, I know that.  It has made me into the woman I am today.  Though it has been a hard lesson to learn, it has helped me to be more grounded and more grateful.  Life is too short to worry about whatever I am WAITing on.  I have learned that it is so comforting and so beautiful to fully rely and trust God for the desires of my heart.  He knows my heart and I pray everyday that it would be pure and steadfast.  That’s the bottom line.  That’s the end of my WAITing game. 

(Some of this was taken from BibleGateway.com.  A great resource that’s always at your fingertips)

Nicaragua 2014

(This post is picture heavy.  Too many good ones.)

This trip challenged me in ways I didn’t know I could be challenged.  I knew from the beginning that I had to physically show God that I put my life, Nate’s life, and Mollie’s life in His hands.  It was a HUGE obstacle for me.  It sounds silly, because God is the one that gave us life, but for me handing all my worries and fears over to Him, in this way, was something new… Mostly because we have Mollie now.

I thought I had learned that lesson last year, when Nate went over there without me.  But with Mollie it was a whole new ballgame.  I had every irrational fear you could have…. the one about us dying on a plane and leaving Mollie without parents topped the list.

It was all totally insane, but God showed me how to fully rely on Him.  I knew I needed to go on this trip to teach myself a lesson.  Children are a gift from God and to not fully give them back to Him is selfish.  God even sacrificed His one and only Son for me, so what in the world was I doing?  When my friend Hollie was going to Nicaragua the first time, she was having a hard time leaving her son.  I remember telling her that if God and Jesus were in the same situation as humans here on earth, I thought God would totally leave Jesus with his grandparents so He could go share the good news.  It’s a funny thought, but it helped me to get over myself.

Anyways, back to our trip.

 

 We had a great group.  It was too much fun traveling and working with these wonderful peeps.

Nate preached at the first church we went to.  He always does a great time and makes me oh so proud to be his wife.  We didn’t go a day without face timing with Mollie and Grandma and Papa.  Thank goodness for technology these days.

 

When we went to churches, everyone was always so happy to see us.  The kids wanted to hug us and stare at us and definitely take pictures.  We also got to go into several schools.  It was amazing.  The teachers would happily invite us in and we would tell them all about Jesus.  In this class, at the first school we went to, all of the kids accepted Christ into their hearts.  There is nothing like hearing thirty second and third graders repeat the sinners prayer after you.  It was also a great experience for me to see our group go through something like this for the first time.  I love watching people experience overseas missions for the first time. 

These pictures are from one of our first fiestas.  Again at a school.  We played games and put on a funny skit.  Hollie and I reprised our rolls as the drunks and we were trying to get Lauren, aka Sinbox Sally, out of her sin.  Then we again shared the gospel and I got to take my picture with some of the girls.

 

Hollie, Me, Lauren and Emily….. ……………  ….Nate, Garrett, Zack, David, Kevin and Jerry.

Nate liked holding babies this year.  You could tell he was missing his little girl, but not as much as me.  I was having a super hard time being so far away from her.  If we were out and working, my mind was fixed on that.  But as soon as we were on the bus or back at the team house, I was a wreck inside.  But we all made it, and Nate also had a little too much fun being the Strong Man in the skit.

(Top Left) Nate and I with some kids at another school.  (Top Right)  Us with some of our fabulous translators.  (Bottom Center)  Hollie, Brandi, and I at one of the schools.  This moment was probably my favorite one of the trip.  Leading a whole class to Christ with two of my best friends!

 

We got to visit the ocean again.  So beautiful.  And Javi translated for me when I gave my testimony.  It was a little different this year because I shared about my struggle with fear.

(Above) More face timing with my girl.  And a little girl that held my hand for close to 30 minutes while we were inviting everyone to the fiestas.  She was sweet and would just look at me with the biggest smile.  I told her she was muy bonita and that she was my new amigo.

(Below) On our free day, we went ziplining.  That was super fun… and I saw a monkey!  We also ate some steak and went to the market (where there is a dormant volcano that looks like a huge lake).

    

March 16-21, 2014

Stand and Fight!

Last weekend, we got to go to the Oklahoma’s Ladies’ Retreat at Falls Creek.  It was a great weekend away with some great ladies!

We heard from some great speakers like Kelly Minter and Angela Thomas.  Had some great worship with Matt Roberson.  And the best entertainment ever with The Skit Guys.  (Click on their names for more information.)

 

In one of the sessions we went to, Cari Trotter talked about how we are spiritually asleep, and we are raising spiritually asleep children.  Even though I don’t have children of my own, I can think about the youth we have in our ministry right now, and I completely agree with her.  She went on to teach us how to fight.

“Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle. 
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty—
he is the King of glory.”

~Psalm 24:7-10

Have you ever heard of the movie Saving Private Ryan?  It is one of Nate’s favorites, but I can’t make it through the first five minutes.  Anyway, there is a great lesson in the middle of this movie.  They are in a battle… guns going off left and right… bullets flying in every direction.  One guy had one very important job, and that was to hand out the ammo.  Everyone else would do the shooting and killing, all he had to do was hand out the bullets.  So just picture this young man, in battle gear, covered with ammo to hand out so they could defeat their enemy.  All his fellow soldiers were screaming at him for help, but all he could do was sit there and cry.  He was frozen with fear.  He had all this ammo, but he wouldn’t get up.

This is a picture of our lives.  God gives us everything we need to get through whatever circumstance we may face, but we won’t get up and fight.  O don’t you want to stand up and fight?  Like the scared soldier, we don’t even have to do the work…. We just have to be willing to help defeat the enemy.  We have to release and surrender.  We have to understand that fear is intentional.  We have to define our areas of war, and not be afraid to go through the knots of our life.  We have to reject areas of darkness and run to our King! 

If we are daily in the Word and constantly in prayer we will be able to use the ammo God gives us.  We will be spiritually strong! We will be able to define the things we need to reject, and recognize the things in which we need to immerse ourselves.

O to be that mighty soldier… ready to stand and fight!

.

What do you think?  Are Hollie and I scary enough to fight the enemy ;)

 

 

Livin' on Love

Welp... If it's not one thing, it's another, right?  The family that was supposed to buy our house in Rogers.... they have been renting to own for the last 12 months.... lied to us.  They have been continually lying to us for all of these months and refuse to answer our calls/texts. 

We made the decision to kick them out last week and haven't looked back.  They should be out on the 31st and we will be there (with the police) to make sure that happens.  Then the cleaning up non stop for a couple days will comense and we will get our cute little house back to "selling shape." 

Surprisingly, Nate and I are at complete peace with this decision.  Even though paying two mortgages is as close to impossible as we can get, we are optimistic about the upcoming months.  We will totally be living on love... and Ramen noodles :)

This house brought us soooo much joy and will always be a happy memory for us, so it makes me really sad to think about it being such a head ache now.  But, God will provide and we will make it just fine.  We have some plans about how we are gonna make it.... I will work at a daycare after my job at church, we are canceling our cable and internet next week (after Project Runway is over), maybe set some tombstones for my dad on the weekends, sell some crafts, and if it comes down to it.... refinance or sell our vehicles.

It should be an adventure for the next few months.  Hopefully the house will sell super fast and we will have another story about how God provided just when we needed Him.  Like I explained in my last post, I can be brave... even in this situation... which has been a fear of mine for a year now. 

Fill in the blank with your fears....

IF ________________, then God!

No matter what happens.... No matter how you fill in the blank, God will get you through.



What has God been showing you lately?

For the last six weeks I have been going through Beth Moore's Esther Bible Study with about 25 ladies from church.  I have learned a lot in these weeks, and enjoyed every minute. It has been challenging, but great at the same time. I have come face to face with my insecurities…. and at the same time feel God’s comforting peace. A couple of my favorite things have been in the last two weeks.

Many of you know that I have lost two dear friends very suddenly. Back in June of 2008 when Courtney died, I can pin point the night that I let fear take over. Since then the enemy has been using this against me. I have been fearful of everything…. Sure there were times when I let my faith lead me through the valleys, but really… I was a scared little girl inside. In session four, Beth Moore said some things that really opened my eyes to this bondage. She encouraged us to be brave and courageous, saying we are only one decision away from the most important step. We don’t deny our fears, we just deny it’s power over us. She continued the idea of having freedom from fear, teaching us about conditional faith…. It’s not enough to believe that what we fear the most will never happen.

I needed to hear this lesson in the worst way. I have been praying constantly that God would increase my faith and decrease my fears. I want to make decisions out of wisdom, not fear. God offers us His very presence… so I can be convinced that I am brave and courageous. Courage is not the absence of fear… It’s knowing that there is something so much better! Take that! Take courage! Do not give in to vain imagination.

The second thing that I just loved and have been thinking about every minute since she said it on Monday is the concept of waiting on the Lord. I have heard this sooo many times… It was even read at my wedding… but it never clicked like this before. Session five was about the importance of knowing when it’s time. We all get impatient and things in our society just keep pushing immediate gratification, BUT if we cannot wait on the Lord, we will not fulfill our destinies.

Too many time we are waiting on the thing. Right now I am personally waiting on several huge things in my life. Our strength will just continue to expire if we continue to wait to the thing…. We wait on the Lord. The longer we wait on the Lord, the more our strength is renewed. Exalt God to the position to fight for you, humble yourself, and live a life full of passion and patience.

What has God shown you lately?  Please comment and let me know!
I have also shared this story at our women's ministry blog.