Wednesday, July 4, 2012
The Lord's Been Good - Part 2
During the beginning of May, Joel found a lump on his neck. With his history we were a bit concerned that it could be cancer again. Well, the day that we brought Ella home from the hospital the results of his CT Scan were in the mailbox and it confirmed that the lump is just a cyst. This was the best possible news we could have gotten. We will probably not have it surgically removed because it isn't bothering him, and we would like to try to get his body to dissolve it. We are extremely blessed, not just because Joel doesn't have cancer back, but because God is faithful to provide His peace even when our future is uncertain and our days are chaos.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The Lord's been good... Part 1
The Lord has blessed us with another baby girl! Ella Joy came into our lives on June 6, 2012. We are excited to get to know her. Here are a few photos of what going on around here.
Ella before leaving the hospital
Kids enjoying a snack at the hospital
She is going to be tough with 3 older siblings
Joel and I with Ella
These girls couldn't get any cuter!!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
God's Glory vs. My Usefulness
I recently read in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers that choosing to suffer means that there is something wrong with you, but choosing God's will- even if it means you will suffer- is something very different. He goes on to say that according to the world's judgement, God is incredibly wasteful with his saints. God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say, "God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him." Yet Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.
In this accomplishment driven culture, it is hard for me to separate the most useful, from the most glory to God. Yet when I think about Christ, his ministry was short, his disciples were few, dyeing on the cross didn't make sense to building a kingdom, yet His entire life brought glory to God in ways never imagined. So when I pray that God will glorify His name with our family, this thought adds an interesting twist to my thinking.
In this accomplishment driven culture, it is hard for me to separate the most useful, from the most glory to God. Yet when I think about Christ, his ministry was short, his disciples were few, dyeing on the cross didn't make sense to building a kingdom, yet His entire life brought glory to God in ways never imagined. So when I pray that God will glorify His name with our family, this thought adds an interesting twist to my thinking.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Knowing vs. Understanding
I am currently reading Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. These three paragraphs spoke to my heart today.
"As Christians, we need to learn to decide to believe. God often gives us faith (a product of the Spirit) for things that our minds just can't always seem to come into agreement with. The mind wants to understand everything - the why, the when and the how of it all. Often, when that understanding is not given by God, the mind refuses to believe what it cannot understand.
It frequently happens that a believer knows something in his heart, but his mind wars against it.
I decided long before to believe what the Word says, and to believe the rhema (the revealed Word) that God gave me (the things He spoke to me or the promises He gave me personally), even if I didn't understand why, when or how it would come to pass in my life."
I can feel the war between my mind, because it doesn't understand, and my heart, because it does. Faith does seem to be the one thing that quiets the war and yet through it all God's peace is here. I just needed to have this spoken to me today.
"As Christians, we need to learn to decide to believe. God often gives us faith (a product of the Spirit) for things that our minds just can't always seem to come into agreement with. The mind wants to understand everything - the why, the when and the how of it all. Often, when that understanding is not given by God, the mind refuses to believe what it cannot understand.
It frequently happens that a believer knows something in his heart, but his mind wars against it.
I decided long before to believe what the Word says, and to believe the rhema (the revealed Word) that God gave me (the things He spoke to me or the promises He gave me personally), even if I didn't understand why, when or how it would come to pass in my life."
I can feel the war between my mind, because it doesn't understand, and my heart, because it does. Faith does seem to be the one thing that quiets the war and yet through it all God's peace is here. I just needed to have this spoken to me today.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
To God be the Glory...
I am not really sure how to write this, so if it seems confusing I will apologize up front.
God has been working hard on Joel and I in the last couple years. It started with a discontentment in Joel's heart with the "normal life" he was living. He started praying that God would use him mightily for His Kingdom. After praying this for about 6 months, we discovered that he had cancer. Going through cancer treatment was different for both of us. Joel learned just how weak and nothing he really is of his own strength, and I learned about letting go. Letting go of dreams, people, stuff. We both grew closer to God in our personal relationship with Him, but in different ways.
A year after cancer treatment we took the Perspectives class because of the changes we saw in Allen and Susan's life. I was curious and skeptical that a class could change someone in ways that I didn't understand. God used Perspectives in a powerful way in our lives. It opened our eyes through the Bible that God's heart is that all men should come to know Him as a Savior, and he wants to use us. Am I willing? Just a quote from this weeks class that has stayed with me is "Across the street, and around the world". Here and There. We need to have both in our lives.
January 8, 2012 will probably be a day I won't forget. Both Joel and I missed the church announcements for miscellaneous reasons. So that afternoon, before he went out to chore he checked our email to read the announcements. That Sunday they announced at country the need for families to relocate from large churches to small ones. It hit him like a ton of bricks, and he knew that he needed to pursue this. So he comes upstairs and flops on the bed where I am trying to take a nap and asks, "So do you feel we should move?" I answer, "No, why?" When he tells me about the announcement, I get this pit in my stomach and the pieces begin to fall in place in my mind and heart. This is why God has been working on me in all these different areas. This is why last year when we tried to buy our place and prayed if it wasn't His will he would shut doors. That night we went to Joel's folks house just to hang out. We were sitting on the couch talking to Mom and she asks, "So what are you guys praying about this month?" We look at each other in disbelief and decide that since she asked, we will tell her. We started praying for an opportunity to tell my parents, which was going to be a little more complicated because we work on the farm with them. After about 2 weeks of praying for an opportunity, it came one when my Mom mentioned that the banker called and said that we could buy our house if we wanted. The whole house situation made the decision very real. After we told them about feeling led to relocate, they at least wanted us to pray about buying the house. After praying about it, Joel and I felt that we would be willing stepping out of God's will if we pursued the house. Because buying the house would have been one of the next steps in getting involved in the farm, by not pursuing that it made it clear to everyone that our family will not be involved in the future of the farm. I am not sure how getting out of the farm will look like or how long it will take, but we are moving that direction.
We are praying that God will open a God opportunity somewhere. We currently have no idea where He is leading us. Joel and I have a desire to be involved with people and even a out-reach ministry of some kind, but are waiting on Him to open doors. I asked Joel the other night, "Are we nuts for telling our family and friends what we are thinking?" He said, "With getting out of the farm, I am not sure how it could be any other way" So, I am going to let God be responsible for His own glory, and try to not worry about how it all turns out. And, if you feel led to pray for us and our families, we would appreciate it!
God has been working hard on Joel and I in the last couple years. It started with a discontentment in Joel's heart with the "normal life" he was living. He started praying that God would use him mightily for His Kingdom. After praying this for about 6 months, we discovered that he had cancer. Going through cancer treatment was different for both of us. Joel learned just how weak and nothing he really is of his own strength, and I learned about letting go. Letting go of dreams, people, stuff. We both grew closer to God in our personal relationship with Him, but in different ways.
A year after cancer treatment we took the Perspectives class because of the changes we saw in Allen and Susan's life. I was curious and skeptical that a class could change someone in ways that I didn't understand. God used Perspectives in a powerful way in our lives. It opened our eyes through the Bible that God's heart is that all men should come to know Him as a Savior, and he wants to use us. Am I willing? Just a quote from this weeks class that has stayed with me is "Across the street, and around the world". Here and There. We need to have both in our lives.
January 8, 2012 will probably be a day I won't forget. Both Joel and I missed the church announcements for miscellaneous reasons. So that afternoon, before he went out to chore he checked our email to read the announcements. That Sunday they announced at country the need for families to relocate from large churches to small ones. It hit him like a ton of bricks, and he knew that he needed to pursue this. So he comes upstairs and flops on the bed where I am trying to take a nap and asks, "So do you feel we should move?" I answer, "No, why?" When he tells me about the announcement, I get this pit in my stomach and the pieces begin to fall in place in my mind and heart. This is why God has been working on me in all these different areas. This is why last year when we tried to buy our place and prayed if it wasn't His will he would shut doors. That night we went to Joel's folks house just to hang out. We were sitting on the couch talking to Mom and she asks, "So what are you guys praying about this month?" We look at each other in disbelief and decide that since she asked, we will tell her. We started praying for an opportunity to tell my parents, which was going to be a little more complicated because we work on the farm with them. After about 2 weeks of praying for an opportunity, it came one when my Mom mentioned that the banker called and said that we could buy our house if we wanted. The whole house situation made the decision very real. After we told them about feeling led to relocate, they at least wanted us to pray about buying the house. After praying about it, Joel and I felt that we would be willing stepping out of God's will if we pursued the house. Because buying the house would have been one of the next steps in getting involved in the farm, by not pursuing that it made it clear to everyone that our family will not be involved in the future of the farm. I am not sure how getting out of the farm will look like or how long it will take, but we are moving that direction.
We are praying that God will open a God opportunity somewhere. We currently have no idea where He is leading us. Joel and I have a desire to be involved with people and even a out-reach ministry of some kind, but are waiting on Him to open doors. I asked Joel the other night, "Are we nuts for telling our family and friends what we are thinking?" He said, "With getting out of the farm, I am not sure how it could be any other way" So, I am going to let God be responsible for His own glory, and try to not worry about how it all turns out. And, if you feel led to pray for us and our families, we would appreciate it!
Friday, January 27, 2012
Who is 6?
Happy Birthday, Brett!
Here are a few pictures of how he has grown and what he has learned over the last year.
This was last winter, painting a model car.
doing school
If your feet are cold, one way to warm them up is to microwave your socks.
He would not recommend it.
little builder
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