When it rains, it pours...literally.

I just gotta say that I am so in awe of how big and caring and amazing our God is. We were huddled in the bathroom in the basement as the sirens went off tonight.  My oldest was having a panic attack and quite frankly scaring her little sisters. So we prayed and prayed and prayed until the sirens quit.

When we got the all clear and went into our bedroom we discovered inches of water on our bedroom floor.  We quickly went through every towel in the house and our mini shop vac was lasting all of 2 minutes before it was full. And our own personal waterfall just kept flowing. I was frustrated and angry and also a little anxiety ridden so I asked a couple of friends to pray.

As they were responding to my message with their prayers and encouragement my parents and another friend showed up with big shop vacs.  Apparently it was no easy task to get her due to all the flooded streets. But here they were, in my bedroom, sucking up our mess.

As they were working on my drenched carpet my oldest noticed more water in the storage room.  I wanted to cry. And then another friend walked through the door with a laundry basket of towels and started mopping up the mess too.

I had already started washing towels and as I went to throw them in the dryer I noticed it didn't sound quite right. I had my dad investigate and guess what? The belt broke on the dryer!  Now I was just mad. And I decided right then and there that Satan wasn't going to win this one.  I wasn't going to cry or scream or throw a pity party. I was going to stand in awe of what God was doing.

My mom and another friend quickly offered to wash and dry our towels and they were whisked away. My dad promised to fix the dryer tomorrow. The water (16 gallons worth) was sucked out of the carpet and fans and dehumidifiers set on high speed.  All the while  friends called and texted and asked how they could help too.

My girls were finally settled down for bed and here I sit, completely humbled and in incredible awe of our God.

I had no idea what God had in mind when I read today's Jesus Calling devotion:

I AM YOUR LORD!Seek Me as a Friend and Lover of your soul, but remember that I am also the Kind of kings-sovereign over all. You can make some plans as you gaze into the day that stretches out before you. But you need to hold those plans tentatively, anticipating that I may have other ideas. The most important thing to determine is what to do right now. Instead of scanning the horizon of your life, looking for things that need to be done, concentrate on the task before you and the One who never leaves your side. Let everything else fade into the background. This will unclutter your mind, allowing Me to occupy more and more of your consciousness.

Trust Me to show you what to do when you have finished what you are doing now. I will guide you step by step as you bend your will to Mine. Thus you stay close to Me on the path of Peace.

God cares when we're scared. And He cares about our messes. And He's big enough to handle a little water (or 4" in the span of 45 minutes).

To the moms...

On Friday my 2nd grader came home with a poem she had written me for Mother's Day at school. Quite honestly I had spaced that Mother's Day was even approaching so it was a fun surprise. Her poem went like this:

My mom is as pretty as a rose

when she is at church.

My mom is as kind as a new born puppy

when she is anywhere.

My mom is as caring as a daisy

when we are unhappy.

My mom is as loud as a lion 

when she is mad.

My mom is as gentle as a good mother

when we have boo-boos.

My mom is as goofy as a magic trick

when she is playing with us.

My mom is as wonderful as a sunset

when she cares for us.

My mom is as helpful as a nurse

when we have cuts.

My mom is as musical as a band

when she sings to my sisters in bed.

I will have memories of you!

After some good-natured chuckling I immediately thought, "Wow. I want to be the mom she's talking about."

It's all too easy to be hard on myself. To think I yell too much (and loudly apparently). Or to to feel too self conscious to sing, dance and act goofy with my kids. Or to compare my looks with the other moms, and when I do that I'll always fall short.  And while I'm comparing I might as well look at all the Pinterest crafts and elaborate outgoings other moms can do handle with such ease. And how clean their houses are, and how nice their cars are, and how they can afford a vacation...And pretty soon I'm feeling like a pretty lousy mom.

But then I realized I was missing the point. I am that mom to her. And I was created to be exactly the mom that my girls need. And you were created to be exactly the mother that your children need.

Our pastor spoke this morning on ways that God reveals himself. God comforts as a mother comforts. (Isaiah 66:13) God remembers.  We remember the things that are important to us, like birthdays and things that our children have said and done. But God remembers the number of hairs on your head! (Isaiah 49:15) God seeks. If we misplace something, like the car keys or our cell phone we turn the house upside down looking for it in the same way God seeks us out.  Our small things matter to him. (Luke 15:8) God protects. As moms we will do anything to protect our kids and will respond to injustice. How much greater of a protector our God is than us mama bears! (Hosea13:8) God longs. He longs to bring us together and create a peaceful community among us just we long to our have our children all together (playing peacefully of course). (Luke 13:34)

We are not perfect moms. But we are perfectly capable of being the loving mothers our children need.  Let's stop comparing ourselves and turning up inadequate. Instead let's celebrate who God made us to be.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Creator of the Universe.

Let's teach our kids about faith and not fear.  Let's separate identity from performance. And let's redefine failure.  Let's spur each other on and build each other up in love.  Let's let our God given talents shine for all to see. 

Happy Mother's Day.

You can view today's sermon here: https://vimeo.com/127409693

The Non-Comparison Penny...

A few weeks ago I began a new adventure.  A group of four of us headed to Indiana to a REFIT® training.  Two of us to become certified instructors and two already certified coming along because 1. they love REFIT® and 2. they believed in us. 

Now if your a friend of mine on Facebook this is old news since we blew up your news feeds with updates of our adventure but some of may still be saying "What in the world is REFIT®?"  It's a revolutionary fitness community. It's fitness with values and purpose. It's fitness for all. It's fun! And for me it's been life changing. Keep reading and I'll give you more.

So the four of set out with 10 hours of road ahead of us.  We all knew each other prior to our trip but some of our relationships didn't go beyond the instructor-participant and social media type friendships.  One of the ladies brought a "Chat Pack"; you know those cards with really random questions designed to get a group talking.  One of the cards asked something along the lines of "If you could take a pill that would cure anything (other than disease), what would it be for?"  One of the ladies said she wanted a pill so she would stop comparing herself to others, and well, no one else could top that.  We dubbed it the Non-Comparison Pill or NCP for short.  Well we didn't have pills to pass around but the Illinois tollways had us digging in our wallets quite often and pennies abounded. So when one of us would start feeling insecure or questioning ourselves, we'd pass them a penny. Our Non-Comparison Pills became Non-Comparison Pennies.

When we got home and my newly certified friend was going to teach her first song I gave her a stack of pennies. And when I was freaking out and questioning my ability to do this whole crazy overwhelming REFIT® thing, my friend told me, "Give yourself space. Don't burn yourself out before getting started. I believe in you and know you will figure out how this works for you. You do not need to try to make it work like me or anyone else. Just you...Grab a penny. Put it in your pocket and go think about something else for a while."

And it's funny when something so small and seemingly insignificant as a penny can have such a big impact on you. For weeks now I've been receiving the message about comparing myself to others everywhere I go. In my time with the Lord, in conversations with friends and this morning when someone shared a devotional called "No More Perfect Moms". It's so good and I urge you to click on the link and read it in it's entirety after you're done here.

The gist of it is this though: it's human nature to compare ourselves and it goes all the way back to Adam & Eve. They literally had the perfect life and yet they let Satan fill their head with lies and desire for more. And then they acted it on by eating the forbidden fruit and caused a domino effect that you can follow all through the Bible right into present day. We've been contaminated with the perfection infection.

How often we find ourselves wanting more. The perfect house, the perfect kids, the perfect spouse, the perfect job, the perfect body. And how easily we forget that perfect doesn't exist this side of heaven!It's so hard to be happy when we're always feeling discontent, envious and disappointed. Galatians 6:4 says "Let everyone be sure to do his very best, for then he will have the personal satisfaction of work done well and won't need to compare himself with someone else."

REFIT®'s theme for May is Modification. God says the way to rid yourself of envy is to modify your perspective.  REFIT® posted this on Facebook, "The ability to stand in someone else's shoes and understand their point of view isn't easy. Most of the time we navigate life through our own perspective, and our opinions, behaviors and decisions are based on what we believe, think and feel...Understanding someone else's perspective requires just that: looking at things from their point of view...or standing in their shoes to see what they see. Many people have a hard time doing this because, quite honestly, most of us live with a "me perspective". Here's a ‪#‎truthbomb‬ for ya: UNDERSTANDING someone else's position doesn't mean AGREEING with it. ‪#‎whoa‬ As we begin our ‪#‎ModifyMay‬ journey, we believe modifying our PERSPECTIVE is so very important. The next time you receive criticism or are in a heated conversation -- stop and put yourself in their shoes. Allow yourself to see things form their point of view and look for nuggets of truth. Want to know a secret? Most of life's conflicts can be resolved when understanding is the goal.."

My challenge to you is to stop comparing yourself! Put a penny in your pocket, modify your perspective and dance.  Our class motto is "It's about participation, not perfection."  

Find a REFIT® class near you here: http://refitrev.com/find-a-class/ or dance along with their YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ReFitRev.

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