26 Reasons I Love Her

This is to celebrate being married to my friend and wife Teresa for 29 years. I actually wrote this 3 years ago so that is why "26" reasons. She is certainly a patient woman even in waiting for a draft she never knew was written. It's all still true.

26 reasons I love her

Her heart is happy when she laughs
As she busies herself making me fat
She loves a trick if she is the “tricker”
And prefers to garden without the stickers
She’s journeyed long and winding roads
Ably carrying heavy loads
She’s all too easily entertained
A little reckless in keeping her aim
She aptly delivers CPR
For sure that one will leave a scar
A heart of gold that loves to give
Smallest pleasures make her live
To kids she is a special friend
Quick to nurture and defend
Not many more than she does care
She, her all, loves to share
Quick to have a tear filled eye
Even in happiness she will cry
To complete me, she does so well
A difficult task- Oh do tell
What a special friend and wife
God has given for this life
I pray that He will give me sight
In how to bring a little light
This gift of stewardship here on earth
I love her second and love Him first

I love you Teresa Dawn

THE CREAKY DOOR OF A HALF CENTURY

As I push up against the 50 years-on-the- planet door and ready myself to walk through it I am reminded of Moses' exhortation to "number your days that you might gain a heart of wisdom". Was he talking about the actual, exact number of our days, like knowing when your birthday is- I don't think he was since I met some pretty wise widows in Ethiopia who didn't even know the exact year they were born- or to know that are days are fleeting, learn from the days you've had, enjoy the day you are having and be ready when your days here are no  more? I think more of the latter.

So, after a half of a century one would hope that there was some pretty serious wisdom packed away; some wisdom to give back to others, some encouragement to bless others with and some humility and excitement to learn and grow more if God should bless us with more days.

What can I pass on to you that might be worth the time to read here?

ALL THE TIME
Mentioning Ethiopia reminds me of a saying they seem to say often as they sit in mud and grass huts with no health care plans, no running water, no steady income and no certainty of what tomorrow will bring except hardship and hard work. "God is good. All the time". 

We often look at the spring, summer and harvest times of our lives as the times when God is good, but God is good and faithful in winter as well. We have no idea how severe the winter will be but we know for sure that spring is coming and it makes us appreciate them all the more. If life were always a bountiful harvest then we would quickly grow proud and think we didn't need God to provide, but it's these times of lack that drive us to our knees as we acknowledge that we really DON'T have it all figured out.

WE NEED OTHERS
It's interesting how often people think that they are an island unto themselves and that they are fine that way. It's sad to think how many times I have thought this and the older I get the more thankful I am to have friends who have loved me for a long time; in spite of me.

Moving by yourself is hard. Fixing your wiring when you don't know what you're doing is risky. Working on your computer when you're not a computer guy is not wise. Changing your first flat alongside the road in the pouring rain is dangerous. Being in the hospital without people to come visit is lonely. God made us for relationships and friends who stick around are slow in coming and difficult to keep and precious to have.

OTHERS NEED OUR HELP
If you're an expert in one of the above categories, or any other category for that matter, there will always be others around you who welcome your expertise.

Teresa tells me that I have a tire changing ministry. I really don't know how many times I have stopped to help someone put on their spare; once a tire guy- always a tire guy. For me, it's easy. For someone's mom alongside the road, on Thanksgiving trying to get to see her grand-babies, well, not so much. 

I've been blessed to help others and have been blessed in return by having someone help me when I had no idea what to do. Sure, I could have figured it out if I took the next month off and read the manual everyday, but there's something about an expert that is comforting.

EVERYONE NEEDS ENCOURAGEMENT
This seems like a lost "art" and I believe it's lost because of self-focus rather than focusing on what others may be needing at any given moment. Whether it's a party where the kids are sitting at the table while the adults are looking for a chair and finally crinkle themselves to the floor so they have a table in their lap, or a word of encouragement as small as "You look nice today. Did you change your hair? Whatever you did, you look great". Those things, truthfully and selflessly done go a long way in making others day brighter. The crazy part is how little it costs on our part to give so much to others. Encouragement has a great ROI.

THINGS CHANGE
As one who would like the furniture to be moved once a week, a new hair color on my wife at about the same interval, new hair styles, plants in the garden, fresh flowers on the table, a different perfume for every day of the week and the list goes on and on, I find myself cherishing routine more these days. Maybe that's because I've had so much change the past few years. Will that change any time soon? Nope. The only thing that doesn't change is that there will be change.

It's hard for me to imagine still doing the same job as I did 15 years ago. It's hard for me to think that some people live in the same house for 50 years, or the same town their entire lives. But even for those people there is lots of change and change is good. It also makes us realize our dependency on God. Nothing will remain the exact same no matter how hard we try to hold it in place; we don't have that much control. Embrace the coming change.

YOU'RE NOT IN CONTROL
Not too many years ago I heard a graduating senior say that "I am going to go into the real estate business and retire at 30". As far as I know he never made it into that industry and he's well on his way to 30 and if he is going to retire he had better hurry because I don't even think he's had a fulltime job yet.

In our pride we think we can dial it all down, work hard and control our own destiny by being smarter, faster or better than the next person, when in actuality we could be in the right place at the right time and God could open our eyes to something really beneficial to society and we can make a fortune and then lose it all 2 years later. We can be smart with our money and lose it all and try to give it all away and never accomplish it because God keeps adding to it. Stop freaking out because we're not in control of really much of anything.

YOU'RE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT OTHER DO
Others are going to say mean things, do stupid or hurtful things, think about themselves before they think of you, spend their money on themselves first, be insensitive and often rude and act as if nothing happened. That's life. Get used to it early because it's going to happen.

But when it does happen that is not an open door for us to become cynical, return the "favor", pout for weeks, months or years, go around telling everyone what they have done to wreck our lives because frankly, not that many people really cares what others have done to us and no one wants to hang out with a whiney complainer.

People are going to let us down and it's going to happen often and that should not be the hinge on what makes our life enjoyable or not. It's not our deal and we will not have to answer for what others are doing.

WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OWN ACTIONS
Unmet expectations are the starting point of a nasty, downhill, slippery slope. As I just wrote, others are going to throw us under the proverbial bus pretty frequently and the best way to get over it is not to be bitter but rather to get better.

The sooner we can move along, be happy in what we are blessed with, know that in the end God will make all things right; the sooner that happens, the better our lives will be.

I had someone tell me that they had just wasted almost an entire year by dwelling on what someone else had done to them. The other person shouldn't have done it but who was the biggest loser here? The one who lost the year. The time is never coming back so move along, take the higher road, stay off the slippery path of spilled milk and be the person God called you to be in the moment. Easier to write than do, but it's what we are supposed to  do.

PEOPLE QUIT ALL THE TIME
"I can't do that", "It's too hard for me", "I can't talk to people", "I have to have sugar and bread with every meal", "I tried that once and it doesn't work", "I don't like to exercise" and a host of other "reasons" why whatever it is won't work for someone. The reality is it is often that it's not that the person can't do it but that they won't. They won't change even if they know that the change wil be hard and very good for THEM. 

The percentage of people who are paying for a gym membership who go just 1x per month is 11%. That means that 89% of the people in America are paying $20-60 a month for something they have really quit doing. Eating healthy would probably be close to the same number. Reading a good book, the same. Working on personal development in all sorts of ways is a scrapyard of wounded and broken-down dreams and goals. Be one of the 11% not a quitter.

THERE'S A HOLE
The statement has been made, "there is a God shaped hole in every one of us" and often the problem is people are trying to fill it with everything but Him. Much like if someone thought that I was called to be a computer programmer and they were trying to get me hired for a position to sit behind a computer 8 hours a day without talking and interacting with people would lead to a lot of frustration on my part, so to is the pursuit of trying to fill our lives with something to replace God.

Whether it's sports, cooking classes, kids or grand-kids, spouses, vacations, jobs or titles, friends or extended family; it doesn't matter what you put in the slot that God is supposed to go in- if it's not Him then we will feel empty.

WISE PEOPLE CHANGE THIER MINDS
I follow a doctor online and one of the things I really like about him is that he is not afraid to change his mind. What I mean by that is he will say things like "I used to think that a certain percentage of protein was best for a healthy diet but after further review and studying more facts I have changed it to this percentage." This shows humility, growth and wisdom.

We should be learning as we go and guess what; when I was 20 I didn't know nearly as much as I know now. I thought I had lots of things figured out and I have had to change my mind about lots of things and even people. People I thought were like XX turned out to be completely opposite of what I thought them to be. Wise people are willing to change their minds. Proud people won't. 


THE END OF THE MATTER
I'd like to add a few words from people much wiser than I.

My grand-son's namesake said "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

And a guy with a strange name said this- 
"Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me tread on my high places."

And the wisest man who ever lived said, "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil."

I hope this has been an encouragement to you; that this finds you loving where God has you right now, that you are not becoming bitter, that you are growing in all areas of your life, that you are being a friend to others and accepting help and encouragement from them, that you are not quitting what you need to finish, that you are not having lots of expectations for others and that you are filling your life with all that God intended to be there, especially Him.

Kids in the Worship Service

Recently I was involved in a discussion about kids in the worship service; should we have Sunday school classes, can small kids gain understanding more fully in the service with their parents than they could from having their own class of, let's say, 3-5 year olds?

Though I am not the expert, per se, I do feel like I missed a pretty good opportunity to make some observations that might have been helpful at the time.

So here they are-

Can kids hold still that long? While in Ethiopia, Teresa and I had the privilege of moving an entire small orphanage from Addis Abba out into a rural village area. We loaded all the beds and things on a flatbed and all the kids onto the bus. We had no idea that the trip would take us 10 hours. Yes, 10 hours on a bus with kids that barely spoken English.

There was much debate within the leadership as to what we should do for food and water. We Americans, there were 3 of us, thought that we should feed them breakfast, after all their last meal was last night, and then take some food and lots of water with us. the Ethiopian leaders were so "mean". They didn't want to give them breakfast and only thought that we should take a few bottles of water and a couple of sleeves of crackers. We

followed their lead.

10 hours on a old, beat up bus is a long time. Add to that kids who are throwing up and that makes it all the longer. No diapers, barely any water or food and 1 single "bathroom" break in a 10 hour trip.

Even the kids who were throwing up barely cried because that was not acceptable. I couldn't understand what they were saying but basically, "Buck up, sit down and don't fuss". Did I mention it was 10 hours? T held an 11 month old almost the entire time and I had an 18 month old. I actually was harder on me to sit still than it was for them.

Yes- when trained, kids can sit still for 1 hour.

Should kids even be in the service? Are they getting anything out of it? Would they be better off somewhere with a group of kids? Well, let's think about how Jesus did it- He's a good example of ways to do things.

When He was young the entire community went up to Jerusalem to worship. Jesus got left behind and it wasn't like He was trying to sneak around behind His parent's back. They were busy with other kids and family members and forgot Him- that must mean that the Jews thought that the entire family should worship together.

In the OT there was a sacrificial system that must have required people to stand in some sort of line to offer their sacrifices. When mom sinned did she leave her kids home or were they in line with her half the day? Were they getting anything out of standing in line, watching the graphic

killing of animals? God must have thought it was ok for them to be there as it doesn't seem like there was an Sunday school area for them there.

Oh, and Jesus, as a teacher, gathered 4000-5000 men together with their families and taught them for the better part of a day out on the hillside. Maybe it looked something like this. Notice- there are no restrooms, water fountains or jungle gyms.

Were the kids listening too? Did they send the kids to another area? It certainly doesn't seem like it since Jesus used the lunch of a "YOUNG BOY" to feed the entire group. How would that have been possible if the kids were separated off in another area that was more age appropriate? Kids were still kids back then, but maybe we have just let them have their way too much

Lastly, worship is supposed to draw us nearer to God. When Jesus was teaching and the disciples saw that the little children were "bothering" Jesus they were trying to push them away. Was that towards their area where they wouldn't distract the adults in their worship? Was that so they could be better taught by their moms or someone else?

How did Jesus respond to that pushing away? He said , "Bring the little children to me". Don't push them away but rather bring them closer.

If Jesus thought it was ok for the kids to get up and go to the bathroom in His long talk on the hillside, if He thought it was ok to have them closer to Him when He was teaching rather than farther away, then maybe there is something good about having them around. Maybe they can hold still and maybe they can really learn something valuable from that time.

Jesus did things with a purpose and perfectly and so it was no mistake that this is the way the system was set up. Maybe we are just trying to hard to make it comfortable for us to sit still and not be distracted and maybe the kids actually can sit still and learn if we get past our issues and teach them that going to the worship service is different than going to playland at McDonalds.

All this was just keeping up all night and I wish I would have said it in the moment, but maybe this is better. Love to hear your response.

The New Best- Whatever

I have a Cookbook and it looks just like the one on the left. I received it from a friend, as a gift, some years ago. I assume the reason they chose this particular one was very specific. Maybe it was the title. Maybe they read it from cover to cover, some 800 pages, and thought I would like it. Maybe they already have this one, they'd made 1 dessert that was amazing and said "Chuck will love this dessert, I'll get it for him". Maybe they think I am a proud person and only will look at something if it says "Best" on it.

I didn't prejudge their motive in giving it to me; I was/am thankful for the gift and enjoy many things about it.

What's in the Book Matters and so is What's Not.

There a many words in this book, a few pictures and literally thousands of recipes tested. There is NOT a recipe for everything that you might ever want to cook, but rather the book covers the basics of what we, as Americans, might want to cook and find difficult to cook really well. Every French, Italian and Chinese recipe is not listed here, but if you want to know about cooking the BEST Hamburger, Prime Rib or Thanksgiving Turkey, this is your book.

As I stated earlier, there are some 800 pages, in this book and there are really not that many foods selected for so many pages. I could be upset that for having such a large cookbook they could have given me at least 1200 recipes, but there are probably not even 600. That's not the point of this book.

Is it REALLY the BEST?

How can someone say that about anything, especially in America, where we have a better X for everything that hits the street?

Let's talk TURKEY!

I am going to use a turkey as an example for this post.

This Thanksgiving I decided to butcher my home-grown turkeys to eat; we named them "Thanksgiving" and "Christmas". Don't even start with me about, "How could you kill your own turkeys?" blah, blah, blah. Someone killed yours if you ate turkey and frankly, it was kind of fun, in a "fulfilling" sort of way- pun intended.

Naturally, since we went to the work and expense of raising and then butchering our own birds, I wanted to have the BEST way of cooking the birds. Yes, I said "BEST". In the cookbook they have literally experimented with 50-60 birds to wind up with their recipe. I generally cook 1 turkey in November and 1 in December each year and I want each one of those to be really good. I don't want to buy a bird and experiment with a different failed recipe each time to finally end up with a great turkey when I am 75. Enter the TEST KITCHEN chefs.

In the book they talk about fresh, frozen and home-grown and organic birds. They talk about brining, deep frying, tenting, stuffing, optimal bird weight, seasonings, internal temperature and even resting before carving. That's a lot of info just to cook a bird. They go through the myths that your grandma taught you and even the science of many parts of their process. As an aside- do you know why a hamburger gets fat on the grill and almost turns into a meatball? Do you know a simple way to combat this? I do-because they told me.

You just think you're so Smart!

When I read the recipes and the foundational info connected to each recipe I could think the above. I mean, I've cooked some turkeys and some of them have turned out pretty stinking good. In fact, I've cooked some frozen turkeys, because they are like $.25 per pound around Thanksgiving, and some of them were really good, so don't go telling me that a frozen turkey will never be as good as a home-grown, fresh bird. (Stomping my feet and acting all childish.)

Doesn't that sound sort of stupid? I can look through the cookbook, read all the background for each recipe, understand better what the chefs are trying to aim for and then disregard everything they have said because "my mom told me that this was the best way and her turkey was pretty good most of the time". Great- throw away the cookbook and do it your way. Haven't we missed the point of the book by this time?

Sometimes there is a BEST.

In America we seem to have this idea that everyone should get a ribbon for participation or that to say something is BEST means that everything else is C.R.A.P. There's BEST and all else is not 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th place, but 1st and "off the scale terrible". You win the Superbowl- OR you suck, even if it was a 35-34 double OT game. I'm not sure why we think that. There is a clear winner- they are BEST. There are clearly those in 2nd and 5th and they too are probably good or even great but not BEST; at least not that day. If you come in 2nd, try to do better tomorrow. If you come in first- the same applies.

Back to the cookbook. The turkeys we cooked this year were REALLY good. Were they the best ever? I think so. Did we follow EVERY letter of the "rules" of the recipe? Nope. The birds were bigger than they said were optimal- stupid birds ate too much:). Oh, does that mean that I can't use any of the principles outlined in the cookbook? Nope. If the turkey was frozen because I didn't want to wait until 2 days before Christmas to butcher the 2nd one, does that make it "less good" than the one on Thanksgiving. Maybe, but it's better than getting one that was frozen 10 months ago that was full of hormones. Make sense?

Throwing out Babies and Bathwater.

Hopefully you can see the point of the post thus far. As is my usual tendency- there is a spiritual point to this.

We have been talking a lot about liturgy in our worship lately. There is also some talk as to whether what is being said means that everyone else's worship is "bad". Can there really be a right way? God sees our hearts more than our actions, right? He sees both and there is some guidelines to our worship. Some foundation has been laid as to why we are doing things the way we are doing them; like the science and testing done by the chefs in the book.

If God has placed men in authority over a given church body, as leaders, and His Spirit is directing those men to introduce "new" things to us in the worship service, it seems there are a few ways to respond. I was going to add those responses but you can fill them in for yourself.

We should NOT ignore the "chefs" who have tried to help us understand why they believe this "recipe" will produce the best worship experience for this local body. If we do that then should we even have elders?

I don't have time, personally, to try out every form of worship combo that is being tried today, let alone in the past 2000 years, so I'd like to follow some people who have my best interest at heart, are taking their responsibilities seriously and are willing to step out an lead; not just stay stuck, in fear, that "we've always done it this way and we better not rock the boat".

Let's go and try to be the BEST worshippers we know how to be. Let's do that without saying that all others are in 7000th place, are heretics or all all going to Hell. Let's understand that there are ways to draw nearer to God in worship, which means there are things that cause us to move farther away. Let's follow the Book and the leaders given to our local portion of the Body. Let's do it with joy and make the loudest "BOOM" we are able, be pleased with the noise we are currently making but not satisfied that there is no way to make it louder.

Viewing Death

Words AND Works Make a Difference

We, in our churched circles, often hear about dying to self and while that is good to say- words- what does that really look like-works?

When someone says "Die to self"-DTS- what does that look like? Does it look the same to you today as it did last week? Since we have been going through a series on corporate worship I have been thinking about how that might look different to others on any given Sunday morning.

Dying is NOT comfortable.

One thing that "Die to Self" does not look like is sleeping in to whatever time you like and not going to church. DTS actually takes planning sometimes. Planning to get up early on Sunday so you and I can have our hearts ready to give to others. Staying up late on Saturday and being too tired on Sunday to give of ourselves is not DTS.

Dying looks Different.

For one person DTS might be that they need to talk more and to the person right next to them in the pew it might mean they need to talk less. Because DTS is not comfortable and God calls us to give of ourselves we may need to do what seems like the hardest thing for us to really know what it means to DTS.

Getting dressed up can be a form of DTS- not comfortable wearing a tie- wearing a tie is then dying to self. We all dress for comfort but whether it is for the comfort of ourselves or others is DTS.

Singing can be a form of DTS. Making a joyful and yet not so beautiful noise is DTS. The Bible does not tell us to make a beautiful noise but it tells us many places to sing, make melody in your hearts and make a joyful noise. Out of the overflow of our hearts to God comes songs of thanksgiving to Him and if we are too worried about not being able to sing beautifully so we don't sing at all, that is not DTS.

Sitting in a different place might be DTS. Maybe you aren't comfortable sitting towards the front. Move up anyway. Maybe you are moved to say "Amen" but that seems like a distraction- DTS. Maybe you are thinking about raising your hands in worship but no one else is doing it. Maybe many others want to do the same and so it wouldn't be a distraction at all next week.

Hopefully you are getting the point. DTS is not something we actual do well or often, but as we work through what it means to be One Body maybe this will help us understand that each person's DTS can look different but in DTS we give life to others and in the end to ourselves.

Jesus was our Example.

Jesus stayed up all night preparing to Die. Jesus came to earth, out of the comforts of Heaven to die. Jesus did the hardest thing for a perfect God-man to do- He took on our sin. Jesus died to bring us life and in His dying the Father exalted Him.

If Jesus would have just said "I love you" without showing His love for us in dying for us, it would not have been enough. Words do make a difference and those words lead us to works; works that God has perfectly planned for each one of us to do and then perfectly equipped each of us to do through the Spirit.

If we are walking in the Spirit we are ready to DTS, we're equipped and we have the grace to do it, now we just need to let go of our life and give it up for others. Easier to say, in words, than to do, with works.

A New Set of Tracks

What's your Deal?

For many years I have been thinking about the difference between sharing my faith by some program, like DE or EE, using a bunch of verses and a canned script, or by telling my own personal story of how God grabbed ahold of me and changed me. There are differences of opinion on this subject and some say that you need to give a chain of verses and get people to recite a prayer, while others say that this kind of thing should be much more relational and less Bible verses.

In reading Acts 22 this morning Paul asked to tell his conversion story and it wasn't well received. I don't see any verses in the passage, I know that now it is all verses, but no OT verses, and all he did was tell about who he was before, what he was doing and what happened that made him so different today; his story.

There was something different about Paul now that was very irritating to many around him, not because he was being a jerk, I mean he was killing people before and he was well received so maybe that's one clue, or because he was constantly reciting OT passages to them but because he was different than he was before. Paul was often in the Synagogue and in houses talking about Scripture, explaining to others what a certain passage meant, but when asked "What's your deal?" he gave his testimony instead of a long list of verses. Why do you suppose that is?

A Changed life is Hopeful

I don't have all the answers to all the questions that people have about the Bible; Paul was obviously in a much better place to refute objections than I am. I can't explain every question that the Bible raises, but I can tell of the hope that is in me. I can tell you that God did something in me and it's made me look at life much differently today than I did some years ago.

Everyone has something that they are looking forward to, maybe you want to call them goals and maybe you don't; some call it a "bucket list" and others are not that organized, but we all have something that causes us to get up in the morning and keeps us up later at night. God can change your bucket list and take everything that has no meaning and replace it with very meaningful things; things that have purpose. Paul understood this and so do I.

Who's the Hero?

In Paul's recounting of why he was different than before, there is only one "hero" in the story and it wasn't Paul. All Paul could say was that before God got ahold of his life, he was on one track and then, by no intention in himself, he was on a completely different track and the One who changed his course of direction was God.

It seems that people often want to point back to things that we have done in our conversion but if it were up to me, dependent on me, I would still be on the old track. God not only took me off that track but made it so that the new track is a much more enjoyable track to be on than was the old.

How does something like that happen? If my desires were the same as they were previously then everyday I would wake up and be miserable on the new tracks, but God changed my heart and that is why life is worth living and that is why life is full of hope. I no longer have my hope centered around things on earth and my hope is in what is to come.

Sure I have things I would like to accomplish today and tomorrow and this year, but if I don't see them accomplished my life in not wasted, because that is not why I live and breath any more. I don't know how that all happened but I know that God did something specific to and in me and HE changed my life and I never want to go back to the way it was before.

That's not a verse and I am not the "hero" of the story but God changed ME and I am glad He did even though I am not sure of all He did or even exactly when He did it all, but He did change me and that gives me hope, because if He can change me I know He can change you.

A Father's Care in View

As a dad it is my job to provide for the family that God has given me. As dads we should take that responsibility seriously while yet understanding clearly that it is God that gives the means for us to provide. Often we get these 2 things out of perspective and think it is us, the dads, who are doing the providing; that is until the means we are given to provide is diminished or taken away completely.

So as I sit here are write and pray for the kids who are all the way across the continent I am reminded that it is not I who am the sole provider, it is not Ian who is not in charge of what happens, it is not required of us to be able to keep vehicles running on a shoe string budget, but rather it is God Who keeps things running, or NOT, and it is He Who alone is the provider of all we need.

So what kind of lessons does God teach us in times when we are not really able to provide for ourselves? What kinds of things do He want us to get?

I think, first off, that He is interested in us getting this idea- like the children of Israel in the wilderness. They actually had money and yet God placed them where the money was useless to provide for their daily needs. The ONLY thing they could do was to follow God's plan and receive what He gave.

The second thing is that we should be watching for what He does. I want to help the kids but at this time I really don't have the menas to do that and it doesn't matter bc God does have the means. He not only has the means but He is eager to give and wants to be recognized and thanked for His provision.

So today, as I pray from the other side of the US, I am humbled that God can provide much better than I and that He WILL provide in His time and perfectly for the needs of those that I love so much.

What an awesome God we serve and it is amazing to watch Him work in ways that only He can. Wait but get ready to worship because He provides more than we can ask or imagine and I have a pretty big imagination.