What?!?! Two Posts In 2 days?

Yep. Had to share these cuter-than-cute Trick-Or-Treaters. :) Sare has come down with a nasty case of strep, so it wasn't exactly the Halloween we had in mind, but we survived. Everything's good. Working hard on Hermeneutics (oh my goodness, it's a tough course!) and trying to get and stay caught up with photography. (a great problem to have) Looking forward to my Monday with Rob + one, Sare's not cleared for school until at least Tuesday.

A Full Heart

Oh goodness. I think about my blog often, having random things to post but never time to actually stop and post it. Life moves full speed ahead. Oh, but it's so good. I want to stop and tell you, to document how very good it is.

We love our church. Wow. Seriously. CT is the San Antonio equivalent of MAG (our home church way back up in Iowa). The hearts of the people are so full. There is so much joy here. And we are so excited for what God is doing in and through us. I feel like Rob and I are really beginning to experience each personal revival, and already seeping into our family, into our little cozy condo and we are poised to reach our students and our church and eventually our world. It's crazy exciting. My quiet times have been so blessed lately. I keep having to cut myself off, to stop short because I cannot spend the time that I long to, each day goes a bit longer and seems to be a bit more intense.

But as that happens, my other responsibilities slide. Oh dear, you should see my house! (it's a good thing you can't) And I feel quite behind on my studies for credentialing, but it's only because I'm trying to work ahead to be set to take some time off for the holidays. I have completed and tested on three courses now, which means I'm officially a third of the way there through my first level of credentialing. A ninth of the way there towards my education for my final goal of ordination. woohoo!!

The weather has changed. (at least for the moment) We are enjoying a cool front, and let me tell you, ENJOYING!! It was 87 on Tuesday and I'm just over the heat. Today is the first day that really feels like fall, it got down to 47 last night and Rob and I snuggled close. Never a bad thing.

We went to the Apple Orchard last weekend with our church family. It was beautiful, the air was a bit cooler up in Hill Country. The more we explore the surrounding area, the more I love San Antonio.

In a few weeks we are taking vacation and going to explore Pedernales Falls, it's about an hour and a half from here. I can't hardly wait! Vacation sounds lovely, but exploring sounds fantastic!! We are prepping for Fall Fest here on Sunday. Sarah is going to be Pinkalicious and Eli wants to be an iPad, so I need to get cracking on his costume today. They are both pretty excited.

Starting next week we are challenging our students to carry their Bible with them every where they go for an entire month. It's part of the 1Month challenge and are pretty psyched about it. Should make for some interesting discussions and life applications.

Rob and I are doing great. More in love all the time; I think ministry keeps the spark in our marriage in a lot of ways. And working together too. It's been so fun working in the church office, serving our staff. They are all amazing people and I love being here with them three days a week.

Okay, gotta get back to my Hermeneutics book. It's kicking my tail. blessings!

Last Night's Message..

(I was so honored that Rob asked me to share my bible study techniques with the youth group. And I was greatly inspired last weekend by the singularly amazing Suzanne Cox. I really felt a freedom to speak last night, it was probably my favorite preaching experience to date!)

How to Read the Bible For All It’s Worth (props; toilet paper, Purpose Driven Life, Word for Today, deodorant, life savers)

A daily Bible study is like toilet paper. It’s necessary. Whatever you used yesterday isn’t going to do you one bit of good today.

1) Remove yourself from distractions. Have a special time and place that you meet with God. Keep this appointment. Consider how it feels when a friend stands you up.

2.) Come with the right attitude. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% the attitude you have. Prepare your heart to receive what God has for you.

3.) Have a plan of attack. Hunt and peck scriptures are great for getting a good nugget of truth, but it makes it hard to see the big picture. Explain my bible study method. Consider a One Year Bible Study plan. Or pick one book of the Bible and start there. Or you can find a good devotional book and use that as a source, but still refer to your Bible and read the passages of scripture pointed out in your text. I recommend “Purpose Driven Life”. Or you can do the daily devotional on the national youth department’s site, which is called Firestarters. If you don’t have access to a computer, you can use Word for Today, which is a free publication the church puts out. Also you can download uVersion from Lifechurch.tv to your phone or touch and there is a daily read button on that ap.

Another great aspect of bible study is scripture memorization.

4.) Ascertain truth for yourself. You may consider yourself a strong Christian; experiencing God in great altar times, receiving a lot from Sunday and Wednesday messages, loving times of corporate worship. But if you aren’t seeding your faith in the word, it will likely fall away. (read Luke 8:5-13, the story of the seeds) Your relationship with God cannot last if it’s based purely on emotion or other people’s connection with God rather than truth. The only way to gain truth for yourself is through the word of God. Also, reading God’s Word yourself will guard your heart and mind against heresy, or false teaching.

4.) Repetition breeds results. What you do over and over again equals who you become. Decide who you want to become and create a plan of action. Like working out; I don’t want to be normal weight obese. I’ve decided I want to be in shape, so I’m working towards it. I want to be a Holy Spirit filled, set apart for Jesus, scripture quoting Christian, so I’m taking steps towards that. Don’t miss your appointment. Yesterday’s Bible study is like yesterday’s deodorant. It was good and necessary for yesterday, but it simply isn’t going to cut it for today.

5.) Compounding Interest. Age is in your favor. Consider if you invested $100 a month from the time that you are 18, stopping at 28. Leave that money be, and you will be a millionaire by the time you retire. The same principle works with your quiet time now. You have an opportunity to make a greater investment now than any other time in your life. I guarantee that the spiritual investment you are making will have a far greater return than any financial investment you can ever make. Daily quiet times are the difference between serving God for a life time and serving God for a season.

I'm Here!!

I bet you were starting to wonder? :) I'm here and everything is going fabulously. A few hiccups with overwrought schedules, but mostly just blessed beyond belief and growing in leaps and bounds! Today I take my final for Relationships and Ethics in Ministry which has probably been my favorite course thus far in the credentialing process. The more I study, the more I realize how utterly dependant I am on God and the Holy Spirit to make it through these courses. Good Night! :) But it's been so healthy, coming face to face with my inadquacies only makes me lean harder on God and focus more on my relationship with Him.

Which leads me to 10/10/10, a program we've started with our students. Basically we are devoting ourselves to 10 minutes per day devoted to each; worship, prayer, and bible study. I've seen this work wonders in my life and I'm honestly at a point where it's difficult to limit myself to 30 minutes a day with God, so I don't unless my schedule is really jam packed. But I find other points in the day to remain in touch with Him; praying in the shower, while I'm doing my routine in the morning, jamming out to worship in the car to and from school and work. You have opportunities, seize them!!

Well, I'm off to work and then Women's Retreat tomorrow. I'll be in touch!

PS - the photo is from a random old church we found while taking a family convertible drive last week. I've been trying to be very intentional about unplugging from my 'tasks' and spending specific time with the Rob and the kids lately, otherwise I find I never give them my full attention. Not good!

Prezi!

heard about some very cool presenting software today at school of all places... This presentation is for a sermon I'm going to preach in about 10 days. Keep in mind, these are only my key points. :)

How to Read Your Bible For All It's Worth on Prezi

October/November CT Women's Magazine article..

This is my second article in our bi-monthly women's newsletter at church.

Can I take a moment and be real with you? It may hurt a bit, but it’s something worth reading. Sit down a moment, take a deep breath, and brace yourself for an uncomfortable truth.

Your student is likely not ever going to think you are cool. Yep, I said it. I hate that it’s true, but that doesn’t change the reality of it. You, and I, well, to a teenager, we aren’t cool. There’s probably not anything we can do in the way we style our hair, choose our clothes, the music we listen to, the way we speak; none of those things are going to heighten our ‘cool’ factor with our teenagers. And what’s more, the harder we try, the more obvious our efforts are, and the lamer we appear. Yes, I just used lamer in a sentence.

So you might be pretty discouraged right now, wondering the point of this article. Here you thought you were going to be encouraged in your relationship with your teenager and instead I point out the disarming truth about your lack of coolness. Don’t be embarrassed, it’s my lack of coolness, too! Let me salvage this situation and pick you back up off the floor with another important truth about your teenager.

Your teenager doesn’t want you to be cool; they need you to be authentic. They need you to be real. Teenagers are bombarded with fakeness on a daily basis. Every where they turn they see people trying to be something they aren’t. They are constantly told they aren’t good enough the way they are, but they can fake when necessary. They rarely have deep encounters with moral compasses such as truth and love. Seizing opportunities to be authentic will speak volumes into their lives at a critical season of growth.

How does a parent pursue authenticity?

Let them know you aren’t perfect. Exercise dependence on God and do so in a way that your teenager sees you test and grow that dependence. Let them see you defeated, and then show them how to apply the promises of God to your life and try again a second time. Explain to them that you can’t survive the pressures of this world outside of an intimate, personal relationship with the creator of this world. Let them experience love, disappointment, grace, frustration, elation, and encouragement in the safe confines of their relationship with you.

As much as it is important to be authentic with your own life with them, realize they need you to genuinely care about their life as well. When you speak to them, speak the truth in love. When you comfort them, have compassion for their situation and their depth of understanding. When they rejoice, share in their joy. When they walk in to a room and speak to you, stop what you are doing, make eye contact, and begin to genuinely listen. Treat them like they are the most important person in the world in that moment. And really, aren’t they?

Authenticity is a dying art. Students today are aching for truth, and if they don’t find it at home, and in you; they will look somewhere else. Stop trying to be cool with your teenager and focus instead on being real. They don’t need another friend, but they do need the parent that God has called you to be. Above all, pray and seek God’s grace to love your teenagers according to His perfect love. Until next issue…

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Galations 5:1-2