sweet!

After I finished praying with Jacob tonight, he said, "I want to help pay for Kate's trip to Scotland. Maybe I can sell ice cream sundaes OR hot chocolate! Yeah, I'll sell hot chocolate! I'll give the money to Katelyn." I had to savor that moment while I laid there next to him and we discussed how he could do that. What a sweet moment of unselfishness...only by God's grace!
So with snow in the forecast (AGAIN!!), I think hot chocolate will sell better than ice cream sundaes!
I also would like to do a coffee house to help raise money. We have one month to raise $1,000! If any of you want to contribute, just let me know! :)

my heart is full of praise!

I just have to write this down so I don't forget! Zechariah 3 is a vision of Joshua the High Priest in the presence of God. ( Tim Keller shared this thought in his sermon that I listened to yesterday.) The high priest went into the presence of God one day with a basin of blood one day of the year Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. He spent all week preparing, cleansing himself over and over, bathing, and putting on beautiful robes. In this passage Zechariah realizes that all that cleansing, bathing and beautiful robes are all for naught. They don't do the high priest any good. v. 3 says that his garments were filthy. v. 4 "The angel said to those who were standing before him, 'Remove the filthy garments from him". And to him he said "Behold I have taken your iniquity far away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments"....So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments.
This makes my heart sing! He has torn the curtain and clothed me in his robes of righteousness so that I can gaze upon his beauty and know him as my Father!
Happy Day!

thoughts runnin' through my head

What is the work that we are supposed to be doing as Christians when the Bible says "work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you..." ? It is to believe...faith. Faith is the power switch, the Holy Spirit is the cord, and we shine the light into a dark and broken world. None of this is from me, it's all "God working in me". I was talking to Jacob a few weeks ago about how he is doing in school. We usually have these talks while lying in the bed at night. The dark and quiet seem to bring out honesty and vulnerability from a child's heart because that is where I have had some of the best talks with my kids. Jacob was telling me he is a "bad kid" at school. I asked him why he thought he was a "bad kid". He said because he gets lots of tallies. I named another student in his class who never gets tallies and asked him if he thought this student was a "bad kid". He said, "NO!" I responded, "God tells us that we are all 'bad kids' even this other student and that we all need Jesus. No one is better than anyone else. We all need Jesus. Some people learn how to act in certain places so they don't get into trouble but this doesn't mean that their heart has been changed by God. God wants us to come to Him every day in repentance and trust Him." I was thinking to myself, "What does it mean to be a good boy?" God has shown me that there is nothing good in me. I have no light of my own...I'm just like the moon reflecting the light of the sun. I told Jacob, "to be a good boy is simply to trust, to believe". I pray for Jacob to see that he can't just TRY HARDER. I don't want him to think that if he doesn't get any tallies that he is okay. In fact, if getting a lot of tallies shows him how much he needs a Savior then bring it on! I don't want behavior modification. I pray for God to change his heart, to bind it His own, to change him so that He knows how wide, long and deep the Father's love is for him.
I listened to a Tim Keller sermon yesterday b/c I couldn't go to church. It was on
Ps. 27. David had learned how to face life (viewing all of life as a battle and not just a series of battlefields)...by gazing on the face of God, simply look to Jesus...being in His presence. He could face anything and not be afraid because he was looking to Jesus. God does the work, ALL the work. Jacob and I just need to remember to keep our gaze in the right place.

changes everywhere

Our school is probably going to be moving into a new building. A Christian school in our area is closing. It is connected to a church and has been in existence for 45 years. The church is voting tonight on whether or not to lease the building to our school. I remember when my school closed when I was finishing my eighth grade year. It was a hard time for many families. I remembered feeling very anxious and how my mom seemed so calm about it! We all scattered and went to different schools in the area. Our church opened a school in its basement, which is where we went. So I have thought about these families from New Castle a lot this week who are seeing the end of an era to their school and my heart goes out to them. I hope that we can welcome many of them into our school family and that it will be a safe place for them where they are embraced and loved by the body of Christ. I pray that this will help advance the kingdom for the glory of God.