So, I am chatting with my brother, who by the way doesn't really care about religion, but thinks he should join the Catholic church because his wife and kids go there and he wants to participate. While I commend his desire to have their family all in one accord, he is coming from the wrong place. Don't you think you should want to go to church because you ah.....LOVE GOD, want to be OBEDIENT TO GOD, and maybe want to WORSHIP GOD? I didn't say that to him in those BIG LETTERS :) but we continued to chat.
So, and this is what he says next:
" I don't understand what the big deal is about wondering who is going to get into heaven and who isn't. Why don't we just live our lives and try to be the best people we can be. Who cares!"
.................any suggestions on how to answer that one?
Family is hard to convert! :)
XO
Monday, April 26, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Sweet Words
I love to cook, but even more so I love to sit around a full dinner table and chat with my family. I actually do the majority of the listening for a change as the kids always have something interesting to say.
This is a favorite time of mine. It is like a winding down of the day. Pretty much all things are done by 6:00 at our house. School is finished, chores are done, work is over. The time to relax is now. I try not to think about the clean up from dinner, which in my kitchen is ALWAYS big since I am a very messy cook! I relish the time we share while enjoying a good meal.
Easter Dinner was no exception. But this time my husband was asking specific questions and the person who answered was the last person I thought would know all that he knew.
Our 9 year old little boy, as most of you know, is adopted. Along with his sweet smile, easy laugh and impish personality came some big cognitive delays, amongst other things. Teaching him right from wrong has been a challenge to say the least. Trying to get him to understand abstract things has been near impossible.
But not tonight. Tonight our little man surprised, amazed and excited us all. He not only answered all the questions, he answered them so fast that the other three didn't have a chance to get a word in. The conversation went something like this:
Daddy: So, who can tell me why we celebrate this special day?
Isaac: Because Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday and rose on Easter Sunday
Daddy: Very good Isaac, why did he have to die?
Isaac: Because we are sinners Daddy and he rose so he could prepare a place for us in heaven. (I am not kidding, those were his exact words!! THANK YOU SWEET JESUS!)
Daddy: What would happen if He didn't die for us?
Isaac: Then we would go to hell and it isn't nice there, you would much rather be in heaven. You have to tell Jesus you love him and tell him you are sorry for your sins and then you get to go to heaven with him.
My heart was singing that night. It is still singing when I remember it all. I wish you could understand what I do about Isaac and his struggle to learn the simplest tasks. I wish you could see him struggle to read each word, to write his alphabet. I wish you could see how hard he works with such little gain.
But it doesn't matter does it? In the grand scheme of things my little boy is brilliant! He has heard the greatest mystery of all times and believes. He has taken in the wonder of Christ and has faith to believe.
how he gets it and what he understands is no matter to me. It is obvious that God has touched his heart. It is obvious in my mind that God has a plan for my little boy. It is obvious that God has begun a good work in him......................PRAISE THE LORD!
XO
This is a favorite time of mine. It is like a winding down of the day. Pretty much all things are done by 6:00 at our house. School is finished, chores are done, work is over. The time to relax is now. I try not to think about the clean up from dinner, which in my kitchen is ALWAYS big since I am a very messy cook! I relish the time we share while enjoying a good meal.
Easter Dinner was no exception. But this time my husband was asking specific questions and the person who answered was the last person I thought would know all that he knew.
Our 9 year old little boy, as most of you know, is adopted. Along with his sweet smile, easy laugh and impish personality came some big cognitive delays, amongst other things. Teaching him right from wrong has been a challenge to say the least. Trying to get him to understand abstract things has been near impossible.
But not tonight. Tonight our little man surprised, amazed and excited us all. He not only answered all the questions, he answered them so fast that the other three didn't have a chance to get a word in. The conversation went something like this:
Daddy: So, who can tell me why we celebrate this special day?
Isaac: Because Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday and rose on Easter Sunday
Daddy: Very good Isaac, why did he have to die?
Isaac: Because we are sinners Daddy and he rose so he could prepare a place for us in heaven. (I am not kidding, those were his exact words!! THANK YOU SWEET JESUS!)
Daddy: What would happen if He didn't die for us?
Isaac: Then we would go to hell and it isn't nice there, you would much rather be in heaven. You have to tell Jesus you love him and tell him you are sorry for your sins and then you get to go to heaven with him.
My heart was singing that night. It is still singing when I remember it all. I wish you could understand what I do about Isaac and his struggle to learn the simplest tasks. I wish you could see him struggle to read each word, to write his alphabet. I wish you could see how hard he works with such little gain.
But it doesn't matter does it? In the grand scheme of things my little boy is brilliant! He has heard the greatest mystery of all times and believes. He has taken in the wonder of Christ and has faith to believe.
how he gets it and what he understands is no matter to me. It is obvious that God has touched his heart. It is obvious in my mind that God has a plan for my little boy. It is obvious that God has begun a good work in him......................PRAISE THE LORD!
XO
Monday, April 5, 2010
witnessing to the reluctant........
I was just on facebook with a gal I knew in highschool. I am up in the night again and she sent me a message to chat. I didn't know her all that well, but I hung out with a friend of hers.
FB is a strange thing. People you barely knew come out of the wood work and become your friends. It is cool, and a bit disturbing all at the same time HA!
Anyway, we chatted about lots of stuff and then she just started dumping (for lack of a better word) all this stuff out. She never got married, her parents are both gone, she is an only child, she wants to have kids, she has frozen embryos, she isn't religious, she is spiritual, even though she grew up a Jew....................and so on.
So what makes people just come out and tell you their life history in a matter of 2 minutes? She sounded so depressed (and said as much). What is she missing?
:) I know you all know the answer to that.
From our perspective it is almost like a DAH!!!!!!!! thing isn't it? We all want to yell the answer! We want to give her the cheat sheet.
I agree, that everyone should have the cheat sheet! We should all be told the answer. But what if the person doesn't believe it? What if they are the kind of person you need to tread lightly with and not come out and scream the Gospel in their faces?
I believe that sometimes God needs to fight this battle alone. Well, not completely alone. He needs us to plant that seed, to mention things here and there, well actually He doesn't need us at all............ok, just go with me here for a moment.
Sometimes you just need to live your life, open and out there for people to know you are who you say you are. You need to mention the love of Christ in your life as often as you see fit with that person. You need to be privately praying for that person. BUT, God needs to do all the work. It is ultimately God who changes that persons heart. It is God who decides who is going to be in that book of life. Not us. It is God who should be leading US on how we should be with that person. Not what a book says or other people say.
So, I did just that. I let her know my point of view. I let her know how God saved me from myself. How much my life has changed because of Him. How pathetic I was before Him. But then I stepped back. I let her talk/type. I encouraged and loved and felt for her. Again, the answer was screaming at her. I can see it..............I know what she needed. It beckons her, but she doesn't see it. She doesn't want to see it.
But, I will keep trying. She said that I should call her and talk about it with her sometime. I was thrilled for the opportunity, but it is 2 AM and I would wake everyone up in this RV with a phone call. But I will make that call, because God beckons ME to do it. What I will say and how I will say it is up to Him. I know that He will give me the words that I need and the heart that I need to tell her why HE is all she needs!!!!!!!!!!!
XO
FB is a strange thing. People you barely knew come out of the wood work and become your friends. It is cool, and a bit disturbing all at the same time HA!
Anyway, we chatted about lots of stuff and then she just started dumping (for lack of a better word) all this stuff out. She never got married, her parents are both gone, she is an only child, she wants to have kids, she has frozen embryos, she isn't religious, she is spiritual, even though she grew up a Jew....................and so on.
So what makes people just come out and tell you their life history in a matter of 2 minutes? She sounded so depressed (and said as much). What is she missing?
:) I know you all know the answer to that.
From our perspective it is almost like a DAH!!!!!!!! thing isn't it? We all want to yell the answer! We want to give her the cheat sheet.
I agree, that everyone should have the cheat sheet! We should all be told the answer. But what if the person doesn't believe it? What if they are the kind of person you need to tread lightly with and not come out and scream the Gospel in their faces?
I believe that sometimes God needs to fight this battle alone. Well, not completely alone. He needs us to plant that seed, to mention things here and there, well actually He doesn't need us at all............ok, just go with me here for a moment.
Sometimes you just need to live your life, open and out there for people to know you are who you say you are. You need to mention the love of Christ in your life as often as you see fit with that person. You need to be privately praying for that person. BUT, God needs to do all the work. It is ultimately God who changes that persons heart. It is God who decides who is going to be in that book of life. Not us. It is God who should be leading US on how we should be with that person. Not what a book says or other people say.
So, I did just that. I let her know my point of view. I let her know how God saved me from myself. How much my life has changed because of Him. How pathetic I was before Him. But then I stepped back. I let her talk/type. I encouraged and loved and felt for her. Again, the answer was screaming at her. I can see it..............I know what she needed. It beckons her, but she doesn't see it. She doesn't want to see it.
But, I will keep trying. She said that I should call her and talk about it with her sometime. I was thrilled for the opportunity, but it is 2 AM and I would wake everyone up in this RV with a phone call. But I will make that call, because God beckons ME to do it. What I will say and how I will say it is up to Him. I know that He will give me the words that I need and the heart that I need to tell her why HE is all she needs!!!!!!!!!!!
XO
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