What I'm Learning (Part 1)

This is totally random, but it's something that has really been playing over and over in my mind today and I think it really fits a theme God has really been trying to hammer into my thick little skull lately.

I listen to lots of podcasts of preachers. I like to do this while the kids are napping and I'm cleaning or something like that. Weird, I know. I think I'm really a student at heart (as long as I enjoy the subject) and it's another way I can learn.

I'm pretty selective in who I listen to, and I don't always agree with everything they say, but all in all they are very solid, trustworthy teachers. However, today I was reminded by a teacher, not to leave my spiritual development solely up to teachers. Please read the following quote from a sermon by Matt Chandler on 9/13/09:

And then I think you live in a day and age where there’s great teaching available all over the place. So you never really learn to feed yourself. You’d rather live vicariously through other people’s studies. Which is kind of sad because you’ll never love the Lord like the people who studied that, found that and wrestled with that will love Him. Like if I started talking about all of the reasons I loved Lauren, it wouldn’t make you love Lauren. It would make you maybe go, “Oh, I wish I had that.” But it wouldn’t make you go, “You know, I love her too. She’s amazing. I love her with my whole heart right now.” That’s not how it works. In the same way, you hearing me or some other guy talk about the grandeur and might of God is not necessarily going to make you love Him. You need to read and let the Holy Spirit engage you, chisel at you, work you over. May we repent of our laziness.

This so hit home for me. I LOVE, LOVE studies by people. I LOVE Beth Moore. I LOVE Vicky Courtney, Priscilla Shirer, Anne Graham Lotz, the list goes on and on. And there is NOTHING WRONG WITH ANY OF THEIR STUDIES! God has used these specific women's insights to His scriptures to change my life! The problem is when we think they are all there is.

We MUST learn to feed ourselves! We can't simply rely on the preacher on Sunday or the Ladies' Bible Study on Monday mornings. And I mean we MUST learn to love the Bible itself, by itself. We must be in it, drinking it, breathing it, and living it. And like Matt said if we can't be in God's word ourselves we will simply be living vicariously through someone else's love relationship with God. I don't want that. I want to love Jesus myself and have the thrill of Him teaching me, training me, disciplining me, and loving me HIMSELF.

Does this mean we don't need teachers? Absolutely not! We need them desperately! We need good ones who really know their stuff! But the problem is when we sit in a pew and open our mouths like baby birds waiting to be fed when we've been in the nest for 5, 10, 30+ years.

Josie is about to turn 4 in just a matter of days. Sometimes at dinner she gets distracted and forgets to eat her food. When the rest of us are finished she begins to whine and ask for one of us to feed her. Yes, like a baby. Caleb hardly needs our help any more and he's just short of 2 years old. Anyway, we now refuse to feed her because she is old enough and skilled enough to do it herself. I still provide the opportunity for her to eat at this point because I make her food and put it on the plate for her. I even cut up the food for her so she won't choke, but in the end she is perfectly able to get the food from the plate to her mouth. Wesley and I get pretty frustrated when she whines because she wants us to feed her.

How frustrated do some teachers get with us when they provide opportunities for us to feed ourselves. They teach us not only what a lot of it means, but most of us are blessed enough that they have taught ways to study and know God ourselves. They have given us tools to help us read it and many times they might even break it down into smaller parts for us to digest better. Yet we (I'm guilty of this too!) whine because we don't want to feed ourselves and blame the teachers if we feel spiritually malnourished.

If you're worried you haven't been equipped, I have found a great method through Anne Graham Lotz's Bible Study called "A Vision of His Glory". The best part is that she give you chunks of passages and shows you how to go from reading it to applying it. It's great. It's just the Bible. There's nothing better.

OK, I'm done. I hope this was challenging, but also encouraging. Don't forget the more we know God the more we love Him. I might write more sometime on this topic, but I'll wait a while.

I hope you have an AMAZING THANKSGIVING! GOD IS GOOD!

Blessings.

S'more What?

A few weeks ago our adopted-college students Chantel and Travis came over to hang out with their little brother and sister (and their mom and dad). Anyway, after dinner we decided it would be fun to roast s'mores in our chiminea (how do you spell that?).

It went very well...at first. We were all having a great time--especially Caleb. We couldn't think of a time when we had let him stay up as late as we did (9ish) and play outside in the dark. At one point Caleb stood on the edge of the patio with his fists clenched and screamed at the top of his lungs in shear delight. He was like a little caveman or maybe a little Tarzan.

Whatever he was, he was overjoyed. A few moments later he threw up everywhere. He wasn't sick at all. We suspect it was a combination of his allergies/snotty nose, the s'mores and the excitement. We all worked together as a family to clean up the mess. I was so proud of my "big kids". Wesley took Caleb in for a bath, I hosed off the patio, Travis held the lantern for me, Chantel was in charge of the water spout (on the other side of the house), and Josie, well, she only walked through the mess once.

Overall, I'd say we all had a great evening! :-)

Baylor Homecoming

Despite the fact that our family is greatly divided by allegiances to different universities, I have come to get into the spirit of Baylor Homecoming. To my fellow Aggies, I apologize.

I wasn't about to pay $30 each for my kids to wear green and gold, so I got t-shirts at Hobby Lobby and painted them some.

They look like they love each other don't they?

It really is pretty fun. This year was the 100th Homecoming parade at Baylor. They have the largest Homecoming Parade in the nation and people come from all over the country for the festivities (but not necessarily the football game).

The floats are pretty elaborate. This float is from the fraternity our adopted college student Travis is in. Sorry, I can't remember which one it is. I get all those Greek letters mixed up. Maybe it's KOT. Anyway, their theme was "Jungle Book".

Paw-paw with the kids

Josie spotted one of her Wednesday night teachers from church. She says he's her boyfriend. (Deep Sigh)....it can't be starting already, can it?

After the parade, we enjoyed some wonderful time catching up with friends who we haven't seen in a long time. These are our friends Mary Margaret and "Big" Caleb. Josie was their flower girl.

These guys are buddies. We have a really sweet picture of "Big" Caleb holding "Little" Caleb on the day he was born.

Cute Kiddos

Here are pictures of the kids on Halloween at the "Trunk or Treat" at our church. The kids had so much fun! This was the first year I tried to make their costumes. I was trying to save some money and satisfy the creative monster in me. Well, I'm satisfied, but it was a lot of work. I think next year I might just buy some. We'll see.

Josie was Tinker Bell. She loved having sparkles on her cheeks and puffs on her shoes!

Caleb was Mack from the movie "Cars". His costume was too big for him to wear like I had envisioned. Thankfully, we had a push car thingy in the back yard and it worked perfectly! Thank you, Lord for providing!