Scared of me.

Meet Rosey.

She is a product of going to a beauty supply store. I know what you are thinking how did you get a dog at a beauty supply store right?

Well my daughter Brailey is six now and can read (which has it's good points and not so good points). I was pulling into the parking lot of the beauty supply store and Brailey reads a sign out front "PET ADOPTION TODAY ONLY". Her being the animal lover that she is lets out the biggest squeel asking me to please go and look at the pets.

We call daddy to tell him about the dog we just met, and I know you know the end of this story....We now have Rosseitta (aka Rosey)

Rosey is a great dog.

She is loving.

She is obedient.

She loves our kids.

Rosey was born and raised in a shelter. She has never had a family.

Ever since we had her she has been loosing weight. We were starting to grow concerned as to why.

My husband's aunt came in town for a few days. While she was at our house she watched Rosey with her shiny metal dog bowls. She asked if we had realized that Rosey was afraid of her bowls. We laughed it off thinking what dog would be afraid of her bowls? Then his aunt began to explain it isn't the bowls she is afraid of it is what she sees when she goes to eat from the bowls.

We look and realize that the bowls cast a reflection....She was scared of herself.

His aunt then put down food for her to eat on the floor and immediately she ate it all up. Rosey is putting on weight now.

All this time she had the thing she needed, but fear of herself had kept her out of a place of receiving it.

Isn't this how we are as people. We aren't afraid of success so much as we are afraid of our self....

What if I fail? What if I am not good enough? What if everything "they" said all my life is right? What if I don't make it? What if I don't have what it takes....

I have always said if you want to find your greatest enemy go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. That person staring back at you will talk you out of your greatest blessings and will back you into a place of feeling isolated. We will disqualify our self before anyone else gets a chance.

What is holding you back today from what you desire....Is it you?

It's Wednesday night...Got to cook for the family, feed the kids, clean the kids from feeding the kids and then it is off to make the kitchen look like something that didn't get hit by a Texas tornado. In the midst of cleaning the kitchen, wiping little faces and hands what was on their faces and in the kitchen somehow got all over my outfit. So it is off to change clothes only to realize that the jeans are still in the washer, because I stopped laundry to cook dinner. So now it is a wet washcloth and quick "spot" clean instead. Load the kids in the car and drive with the air on high pointed at my pants so the spots will dry before I walk into church.

Pull into church spots still on pants. So I flip the mirror on my visor down to see if maybe I can fix my hair because I don't remember looking in the mirror since I brushed my teeth this morning....or did I even brush my teeth this morning....In contemplating my teeth I realize part of my sons dinner got on my shoulder when I lifted him out of his high chair....GREAT! Now I have spotty wet pants and spaghetti all over my shirt...and teeth that well....Let's just all pretend they got brushed ok!

Go into church frazled from the day. Walk in to find a handful of teens (ok not a handful there was two) hanging out in the lobby. As I walk in I am thinking "Lord really how am I supposed to be cool and relevant to these kids when I can't even keep any part of me clean!"

Bryan would preach his heart out to 2 teenagers in a room with 50 chairs. Bryan had decided to put the 50 chairs out in the room to stir up their faith. To me though it just made our two seem even smaller in the sea of chairs. I would try to connect with them but neither one of the two liked me to much. I felt like I spoke Spanish and they spoke a language that the world didn't know or even knew existed. We would turn out the lights in our then youth room and I would look at the 50 chairs and ask myself "Lord I know you have me here for a reason but why? These kids don't even like me! I am not cool enough. I am not smart enough."

The Lord spoke to me in those moments and said this in my heart: "I am not calling you to be cool enough and I am not calling you to be smart enough....I am calling you to mother a generation."

Something happened in my heart that night....I determined that anyone the Lord sent us I would be their mom.

What is a mother?
A mother is one who brings forth life. They are protectors and the responders to the children's cries in the night. Comforter of any and all injuries. She reminds them why they are great. She cleans, cooks, drives, directs, nurtures, protects and listens.


Ever since that moment I am mom. I am mom to any and all kids. Not to take the place of their natural mom, but to rather mother them in the spiritual. I love them, comfort them, believe in them, stand by them, stick up for them and most of all never give up on them.

All of this is leading me to this last Tuesday. Our interns and staff surprised us with an amazing gift and a wonderful card. The card was each intern's little one liner of what we meant to them. Tonight....The night before conference....I am being mom....my counters are lined with baked goods for my student babies...I am up praying for them thinking about them...reading their card at the kitchen counter and crying.....and remembering back to wet spotted jeans and spaghetti stained shirts.....

My heart full of gratitude that I didn't quit when it looked like we were not making progress. Hundreds have come to our student ministry since then....There has been a lot of hard times, but there has been a lot of happy times to....Moments that will forever be written on my heart.....

Some only have children born out of their womb...I thankfully get the honor and the privilege of birthing hundreds out of my heart....I am thankful to be...mom.

Delivery for me please!

I love the book of Colossians. It is for sure in my top three books in the Bible along with Genesis and John. The other day I was reading Colossians in chapter one verses 12, 13:

Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God's holy people) in the Light. [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

What a powerful scripture this is right?!

What stood out to me in reading this the other day is simple the word delivered. How many of my girls out there after a long day at the office or the home love delivery pizza? Even better is delivery of an entire meal that gives an appearance that you made it yourself. When the truth is the delivery bag is in garage with loads of Styrofoam containers that are now emptied after contents were shoved onto elegant platters. Don't act like you have never done it!!

The thing I love about delivery is that I don't have to do anything. I call and then it comes ready to go. All I get to do now is enjoy what someone else had to work for.

Isaiah 30:18,19
The Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you......He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, He will answer you.

One of the greatest revelations we can have is that Jesus has done everything for us. There is no good works that we can ever do that will supersede the blood that was shed on the cross. We can spend all our life trying to make it on our own. However there is another way. Isaiah let's us know that this God that formed the Heavens and the Earth is waiting to do good to us. We are His hearts desire He is just waiting for us to call out to him.....

Think of this. I get in from the office from a long day. Guests are due to arrive anytime. I am breaking myself to go through the grocery store at 5p.m. while kids cry because they want to go home. I get home cook a dinner and quickly try to clean a kitchen to not look like a disaster zone. To now open the door and put on a smile to greet the people that just made me go through the last two hours of work.

Or you could just call for delivery as I described at the first of my blog.

So many times we are desperately trying to do it all on our own. So afraid to cry out to be delivered. So afraid to admit that in reality we can't do it on our own. While all this is happening in our life the truth still remains.....Christ has delivered us. All we have to do is accept what has been given.

Could it be that your joy, peace, prosperity, love, acceptance and dreams are all waiting for you? Jesus has paid for it...You have been delivered! You don't have to have one more day of measuring up and striving to keep your head above water! You just have to accept what He has already paid for.....