6.24.2010

Back-Seat Snippets

Eeeeekkk.  I just realized that it has been 23 days since I last blogged.  I think that may be a record, even for me. :)  It's been a bit of a busy month, with wedding prep & the wedding, VBS prep, teaching a new Sunday School class, Peter starting youth activities, and then VBS this week.

I'm way overdue on some book reviews...I don't even want to think about how many!...and I have a list of blog posts half a mile long for "someday"....but for tonight, just a few quick "back seat snippets" until I can get back into the groove again. :)

It's always interesting to me how much the dynamics of things change when the two "big kids" are gone, and it's just the younger girls and mom.  Tonight was one of those nights...Dad, Peter, and Bayley went to help some friends paint, and the little girls and I had to make a quick run to Wal-Mart to pick up VBS pictures for tomorrow.

All of my children are...hmm, what word shall I use?...rather talkative.   Ammah Grace is not so talkative in a group, but get her one on one and she can talk non-stop for hours. (Trust me, I know from experience.  Hours.  Literally.)  Emlyn is the quietest of all our children...but while she seems quiet compared to her two older siblings, had she been a firstborn or only child I think she would definitely have been considered a talker. :)

So...it is always fun (and sometimes just plain sweet) to hear the conversations that occur when the more "aggressive" talkers are away.  Here are a few snippets from tonight...

***

Emlyn:  Mom, I love Peter and Bayley and all, but it would be a lot of fun if it was just Gracie and me.  We wouldn't ever fight or argue if Bayley and Peter were gone. 


Mom: Oh, really?


Emlyn:  Well, once a week.   That's all.  Once a week. See?  That would be MUCH better!


***

It looked like it was about to rain when we left, and we had seen a bit of lightning.   Ammah Grace was very afraid of being "struck".  Emlyn was trying to make her feel better...

"It's okay, Gracie...the worst thing that can happen if the lightning gets us is that we would die.  And if we are Christians and we die, we'll go to Heaven.  And Heaven is wonderful!  Besides, Mrs. Lucy is there, and Aaron, and Great-Papa, and Papaw.  So, see?  There's no reason to be afraid of the lightning!"

( I was glad I was in the front and they were in the back and it was beginning to get dark...that one made me teary.)

***

Ugh!  There was a third conversation...a really funny one...that I had planned to post...and I can't remember what it was!!  Maybe tomorrow.  How frustrating.  *Sigh*


6.01.2010

In "Other" Words...Ordinary Christians + Radical Dependence = Extraordinary Provision!


God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in His extraordinary provision. He stands ready to allocate His power to all who are radically dependent on Him and radically devoted to making much of Him.”
~ David Platt 


Thank you for joining us for today's In "Other" Words.  I'm excited to be hosting this week, and looking forward to seeing what others have shared on today's quote!   Please link directly to your IOW post (rather than your main blog page) in the Mr. Linky below...this will enable everyone to find your post more easily.  And be sure to visit the others who have shared today!

It's funny sometimes...not in a "haha funny" way, but an "interesting funny" way...how God works...and even funnier how much it still surprises me sometimes even though I have watched God work in strange and amazing ways for many years.  

When I chose this quote for today, I was in a bit of a rush...I keep a file of quotes for use in various ways, and I went through it and quickly thought, "Oh, I love that one, and that is one I really need to think on more deeply."  Plus, it's from one of my recent favorite reads, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream , by David Platt.  

I had no idea at the time that I would also be sharing from Radical in last week's IOW post, or that last week's post would be on the necessity of the Holy Spirit's power in our lives.  I also hadn't really given thought to the date I'd be posting...which was good, because if I had, I'm afraid it would have caused no end of anxiety!   I've looked toward this week ever since December with much excitement, but also with the awareness that it would be an incredibly challenging week.  Since that time, a few additional (exciting but challenging) opportunities have been added to the calendar as well....leaving me going in several directions at once, in a time when I don't multi-task as well as I used to!  In addition, God has been slowly drawing...pushing? :)...us toward the idea of a possible ministry opportunity that at this point seems to be on the far distant horizon, but yet seems to be becoming more clear every day.   

In the midst of it all, Satan bombards with doubts.  Doubts about physical abilities, schedule issues, financial issues, and just plain old fear of failure.  

Right now, physical abilities are a big concern.  That's been a huge area of struggle for the past few years.   This past week, I was hit hard there again.  I was heading into a weekend full of heavier responsibilites than I generally commit to these days, and already praying for strength to fulfill them, knowing that this week would be very demanding as well, and I wouldn't really have "down time" in between to recuperate.  Then mid-week, a major pain flare hit.  And then on Friday I woke up with numbness and spasming in my right hand.  I've had occasional issues with that before...usually when I am practicing the piano more than usual in preparation for a children's musical.  However, the last few weeks I'd barely touched a piano.  This was completely out of the blue.  By evening, my left hand was affected as well.  

And...the most important items on my list for that day and for the coming week all involved detail work with my hands.  

My initial response was panic.  My next was prayer.  Not just my own, but asking several people I knew would pray faithfully to pray as well.  As I did, I kept thinking "What on EARTH is going on?  Why does this always happen when I need my hands the most??  And what is up with this NOW of all times?  When I am having marathon piano practice sessions, I understand, but I haven't done anything to cause this now."  

And then I realized.  The other times that this has happened have been times...like this week...when I have desperately needed my hands.  They have been times when I have had to say, "Lord, you know the task ahead, the responsibilities I have, the need to fulfill them so as not to let others down.  These are your hands...you use them.  You are going to have to make them work, because I can't."  And He has.   And it has been obvious that it was "all God" and none of me accomplishing those things.  

There have been so many times over the last few years that God has used my physical abilities...or temporary lack of them...to remind me that I can...quite literally at those times!...do *nothing* without Him....that anything that is accomplished is *only* through His power.  I realized Friday, as I sat watching my fingers look like they were playing a non-existent keyboard on my desk (when I wasn't "moving" them at all...eek!), that this was going to be another one of those times.  

God has already, between Friday and today, shown His immeasurable power in my weakness.   A friend and I were talking last night about the fact that my physical issues always seem to be the worst right before periods of larger than usual responsibilities.   I said to her, "It's as though God is saying, 'I want you to know beyond ANY shadow of doubt that it is ME doing this...not you.'"   It's so easy to forget that, but in those times He makes it crystal clear.  

The "events" involved...then and now...are not earth-shattering ones.  Important, yes.  Exciting, yes.  World-changing, no. :)  But as I've pondered David Platt's quote, I have realized something.  Those events...things like children's choir musicals and this weekend's wedding...and the faithfulness and power God has shown and is showing through them...have been a training ground for other things.  

As I look toward more "serious" and long-term responsibilities and ministry opportunities...beginning to move into the jr. high/high school years of homeschooling, the youth girls' Sunday School class I begin teaching this week, and other ministry opportunities on the distant horizon...I realize that the same power that has gotten me through those events, the same power that is going to get me through the events of this week, is the power God offers for the "bigger" things as well.  

God has definitely brought me to a realization of my own limitations...and not just in physical ways, but in other issues as well...over the past few years.  But during those same years, He has taught me *so* much about who HE is...how big, and sovereign, and sufficient, and powerful, and the list goes on and on.  David Platt's quote sums up where He has brought me and where I want to be right now.  He has shown me my ordinary-ness, my limitations, has brought me often to "the end of my rope".   I want to be radically dependent and radically devoted, so that His glory can't help but shine as He demonstrates His provision and His power in my life...not only in the "small things" that often *seem* so big at the time, but in bigger things than we can dream or imagine.  


But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9

Thank you for joining us today!  I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's quote.  Post on your blog and add the link to Mr. Linky below, or feel free to share in the comments about what you are radically depending on God for today.  And be sure to visit the other In "Other" Words participants to see what they have shared as well!  







Tuesday's In "Other" Words...

I'm excited to be hosting today's In "Other" Words.  Please come back in just a bit and share your thoughts on this week's quote:

God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in His extraordinary provision. He stands ready to allocate His power to all who are radically dependent on Him and radically devoted to making much of Him.”
~ David Platt 

Today's IOW post with linky will be up in just a bit!  Looking forward to having you join us today!