Chasing with a Reckless Abandon

It just amazes me how much my children can understand and share the Love of God . . . Weatherly our 4 year old has been showing God’s Love to others for as long as she could walk and talk.  Two Sunday’s ago we visited theVine for gathered worship with others – while there we saw a guy we later approached and learned his name is Kelly.  Short version . . . Kelly broke his leg while skate boarding – wanted to spent time with his kids doing things they like (Weatherly responded – you must not be very good).  After a few min. of her talking about the fact that curious george broke his leg once – she told Kelly he needed a present to make him feel better and asked if there was anything he wanted.  He assured her he didn’t need anything and she said I’ll think of something just perfect.  All week she talked about Kelly, prayed for Kelly and planned for Kelly.  Here are the results of a 4 year old who is Loving God through Loving Others . . .

Weatherly baked Kelly some cookies (she didn’t eat one and wouldn’t let Tennyson have any) . . . made him a card with a prayer on it and got him a get well balloon.  Even if we had not enjoyed theVine (which we really loved) . . . we had no choice but to go back – Weatherly had an appointment to Love God through Loving Kelly!

As we prepared to have children and knew we didn’t have a clue about what that meant . . . we sought the Word and found a profound teaching in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 - this passage teaches us to teach our kids through the way we live at all times while we are alive.  When we are talking, sitting, walking, lying down, or getting up . . . we are to always be teaching our kids!  Our lives are their models – whatever we would like to see in or out of our kids is what we should be doing ourselves.  

So it’s not really that hard after all – to raise a son or daughter who Loves God and Loves Others . . . I must Love God and Love Others!  Matt. 22:34-40

What traits do you desire for your children to have?

What’s NEXT . . . one thing is for sure - NOT FOLLOWING MY HEART!  

Jeremiah 17:9 - tells us that the heart is deceitful above all . . . it is not a good guide for our lives and our decisions.  When I posted What’s NEXT . .  . I wrote in point #3 – “Listening to the voice of the Spirit He placed in me as a believer”.  This is far from following my heart.  Following your heart is what Oprah tells us to do (and well meaning grandmothers who haven’t thought it out).

Think about this . . . why do we not let teenagers get married?  Because they follow their heart’s right into and out of relationships every other week.  See the heart is a poor guide for us.  Decisions made based on the heart are usually not wise decisions . . . Why?  Jeremiah 17:9

Can you think of a heart decision that has gone wrong (either yours or anonymous)?

Same thing as before . . . Some well meaning friend from Nikki’s work asked the other day, “how do you handle your husband quitting his job and not having another job?”  Through a long conversation and Nikki trying to help this friend understand I never really had a “job” – I have a life lived serving God . . . she said to her friend, “how could we stop trusting God after 10.5 year of Him showing His faithfulness!”  

What’s NEXT . . . the same thing as before – we will continue to TRUST His Faithfulness!

Jeremiah 17:5-8 . . . 

1.  I do NOT TRUST in man . . . (v. 5-6)

2.  I do TRUST in the LORD . . . (v. 7-8)

If you read yesterday’s post . . . you may think point # 1 is confusing since I am listening to trusted believers, but today I do NOT TRUST in man.  All though I am listening to trusted believers, I am NOT TRUSTING in the believers.  There is a difference.  By listening to trusted believers – I am referring to listening to believers who are listening to the Lord.  So when I hear from them, I am truly hearing from Him (the LORD) because I trust they are staying connected to the Father.

# 2 today is all I know to do . . . (John 6:60-68)  tells of a time when some followers of Christ were turning back from Christ and Jesus looked at the Twelve and asked are you going to leave also?  Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,” (v. 68) 

What are you TRUSTING in . . . man will die, jobs (you can be fired), health (fails) – the LORD – He is Faithful!

how to make decisions . . .

My friend Rebecca Moon (@rebeccamoon) shared a statement by Perry Noble recently where he said, “God isn’t going to reveal your NEXT step until you are obedient to your NOW step!” Well, this ROCKED my world and sent me running for the place of obedience for the NOW step so I can experience the glory of being in His will for the NEXT step.  I knew the NOW was to step out of my comfort zone from the place I was serving God and follow the leading He had placed in my spirit.

So the question I am continuing to get is What’s NEXT, what are you doing and how are you finding your NEXT ? ? ?  Simply . . . I roll the dice you see at the top of this blog – NO, NO!

LISTENING . . .

1.  Listening for the voice of the Lord . . . (Ps 143:8)

2.  Listening to the voice of trusted believers . . . (Prov 12:15)

3.  Listening to the voice of the Spirit He placed in me as a believer . . . (Jn 15:26)

WALKING . . . 

1.  Walking this thing out in faith . . . (2 Jn 1:4)