#Stickwithit - Saying Yes to God...

Giving up.....

I could give up this bible study because I am pulled in so many directions.  Work, kids going back to school, wedding in the family, etc...  Life is so busy.  But I am sticking with it.  

Someone said some nasty things about me on facebook the other day.    I could have given up  thinking why would God allow this person to say these things about me.  Instead I turned to God and the bible and searched for answers.  

I have been trying to find in my heart what volunteering activities  I want to help with at church.  God has been tugging at my heart to do something.  After the facebook incident, I felt like I wasn't good enough to be involved in anything.    But God wants me to do something,   Do I teach Sunday School?   Do I join the choir?  Then the opportunity of being on the leadership committee for the book club called "Grace Cafe"
I was overjoyed.   This is what I was waiting for....I know this will be tough.   It is beyond me but I am going to Stick with it.....

The fruits of the Spirit...

Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.

Radical Obedience

Wow!  Those 5 questions this week.   I have been struggling with volunteering my time.  I have so many ideas I want to do...teach Sunday School,  lead a small group at church, help with girl scouts and even organize a food drive at work.  I don't know where to begin.  I love to make craft things and have started making craft treats for kids at the my daughter's school.  She is in 4th grade and getting too old for these types of treats.  But I still want to make them, so I am giving them to other teachers to hand out.  I am struggling with time.  Time to prepare and organize each activity.  I already devote Monday nights working at the Sunshine supper.  I spend time with a elderly person once or more a month.  These activities that I mentioned above have been in my heart and on my mind for a few weeks for now.  I just have to get the courage to say "yes".

At our church, we have a ministry called "The Caring Ministry".  It is where a member of the church goes once a month to visit a person in a nursing home or home bound members.   I choose a woman that I knew from my newspaper carrying days.  She was a lady who was on my paper route.  She lives at home but can't drive.   So I wanted to do something nice for her.  So my boyfriend and I took her to church.  She hadn't been there in sometime.  When it was time for people to greet one another, it was nice to see people come up to her from across the church and hug her.  Tears came to my eyes for I knew I could see that she enjoyed going to church today. 

Then we took her to dinner where my daughter works as a waitress.   I could see that my friend was enjoying this outing.  She has stories to tell. like telling my daughter that she worked in this very same restaurant but she had to wear a poodle skirt when she had to waitress.  Next week is her birthday and I think I will surprise her with a cake.

Saying Yes to God!

It was May of 2002,  I was sitting at St. Mary's Hospital Chapel for the service of all the deaths that occurred the previous month with my family.  I was attending the service to honor my son who did on April 1.   My son who was born to early due to my appendix rupturing while pregnant.

The service just ended and something inside made me go over  to this woman who was crying.  I knew in my heart that she wasn't crying over a death of a grandma.  (Now I am not that type of person who would go up to people.)   So I went over to talk to her.  God must have known that we both needed someone to support each other.   This woman lost her daughter who was full term.  She lived in the same city as I did and she only lived a few blocks away.   We talked for awhile and we exchanged phone numbers and address.

A couple of days later, I called her and we started our journey of grief together.   To this day, we are friends.   We both  went on to have another child and our daughters are in the same grade together. 

But I realize now it was God telling me to do this.  God wanted me to meet this woman.  He wanted me become friends with her.