9/11

10 years ago today. We all remember where we were and what we were doing and how we felt when saw our country come under attack. It was scary. I was sitting in my living room doing math with my two older children...homeschooling. My next door neighbor came over and told me to pray,pray pray! I turned on the TV and watched the horror with the rest of the country. Today while I was on facebook, by the providence of God, I noticed my status one year ago today and thought it is so appropriate and such a good reminder.

Life is not just a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then ...finally to heaven. Life is winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback...and God is not showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ. --John Piper

Bible study anyone?

I just want to do ministry with my husband again. I don't know what it will look like. My prayer is that God will bring the joy of ministry back into my husbands life sometime soon. I long for him to do what God has wired him to do and to work alongside with him. We just keep praying and waiting, praying and waiting...
Soooo maybe we just start where we have been for the past 4 1/2 years. Maybe we are supposed to stay here. Tonight I was wishing we had a Bible study, small group or something to go to... I miss doing something like that on Sunday nights. I think maybe we should just start a Bible study group right here and now. We minister everywhere we go...Chick fil A...who knows what God is doing. We are just broken vessels that want to be used by Him for His purposes.

PLEASE PASS THE BUTTER!!!

My sister, Melinda, tells the story of when I was a little girl sitting at the dinner table. I quietly said, "Please pass the butter, please pass the butter, please pass the butter." After not being heard, of course, I yelled, "PLEASE PASS THE BUTTER. I SAID IT THREE TIMES!" When you are the sixth of seven children sometimes you have to yell to be heard. Which is probably why I am a loud, outgoing person...kinda had to be that way. Sometimes, lately, I feel like yelling again (or screaming)...just want to be heard and understood.

life is good to a 10 year old

David and Jacob went to the store to get root beer for root beer floats. After they found the root beer, they spotted a good deal on frozen pizza. As they made their purchase, Jacob said to David, "We are livin' the good life!" :) I love that he is so easy to please. I guess that's why Jesus told us to have the faith of a child! We ARE livin' the good life! When we have Jesus we have everything we need!

community

Yesterday we were visiting friends and talking about how important it is to be in community. The purpose of community is to point us to Jesus--to help us keep looking to Him as the author and finisher of our faith. I have been in communities that did that and some that didn't. One community in particular started out that way and then began to idolize itself. When a community begins to love themselves and value their community more than the One who gave them to each other, it begins to destroy itself. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about this and can articulate much better than I). No one in that community is allowed to question them or say anything that might put them in a bad light. They are no longer resting in their Saviour but in their own "rightness". All their efforts are put into protecting their community and they will chastise anyone who dares to question them. It is heartbreaking to watch this happen. We must be careful as the body of Christ to love each other...to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. I might add, we must also to be quick to forgive. Don't let anyone hold anyone hold anything against you what Jesus has already forgiven.

what to write...hmm

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here....Kate's graduation. Well a new year is upon us and we are still wondering where we are supposed to "land". Sometimes God seems far away and I feel a little like I am shriveling up inside. Last night, He burst through my yuckiness in a big way. At least, it felt like a big way to me. Last week, I was feeling at an all time low. Not sure why...just get tired of waiting I guess. I also have been struggling with past hurt. It has definitely changed me, as does all suffering. I hope for the better in the long run. Back to my night...Saturday night. I just got off work. (oh yeah, I am now a Chick Fil A employee, woohoo!) I received a text from David that said,"you are going to get a phone call tonight from SC. Answer it and prepared to be blown away." So I waited about 45 min. (Mary Ellen was still working) in the food court at the mall. When my phone rang a vaguely familiar voice said, "Hi Emily, this is Karen. You taught my daughter Michelle." I immediately recognized her lovely voice and could picture her face with her sweet, kind smile as if I had seen it yesterday. (It has been 20 years since I taught at BLS). I told her where we were living and a little about us. Then she told me why she was calling. She said, "The reason I am calling is because I want you to know something before you get to heavean. Michelle has just given birth this month to twin girls. One is named Katherine and the other is named Emily after a certain middle school teacher whom God used to impact her life." I was floored. speechless. couldn't believe it. She went on to tell me how and gave an example of a specific time when I talked to Michelle. I can remember it like it was yesterday, but had no idea of the impact it had made on her. This call couldn't have come at a better time for me and God knew that. This may sound like no big deal to some of you teachers who have been teaching awhile and you have students coming back and thanking you. It happens, I know. For some reason, to me this was HUGE! It was like a billboard from God to me telling me how much he loves me. I belong to Him and He is not far away but close and acquainted with all my thoughts and struggles. I felt like I was in a pit and God picked me up, rescued me and set my feet back on the rock! If this call had come 2 months ago, it still would have been so wonderful to hear. But I felt like God's hand was all over this and he caused it to happen this week. God knows how I am made, he formed me and knows all my quirks. He is my Daddy and displays his love for me in big and small ways every day. I had begun to feel so crappy about everything...no other way to say it. God takes all the crappiness, cleans it off and makes us shine! :) It is amazing that in some way He helped me to shine the light of His gospel of grace into the life of someone else so many years ago and she still remembers! I am still blown away and it just brings tears. I stood there in the food court with tears streaming down my face just amazed that God used me for HIS purposes and is still going to use me and my family. It's not me. It's ALL for Jesus, by his power and for HIS glory. I can't wait to see Michelle and her family the next time we travel south...hopefully soon!

Some pictures

Kate's big day....happiness! She is in the middle, in case you couldn't tell.