J-term and a new semester

"You can go to God if you are weighed down by the demands and pressures of your life. Go to Jesus. He will give you rest from all your burdens, you must surrender all of it and believe Him to ‘work all things together for good’ for your sake, when have laid them at the altar of the Lord, let them alone to the Lord who will care for them and do not think about them anymore. In exchange, take on the yoke of Christ, which is easy and light. Be kingdom-minded: His Kingdom come and His will be done. Strive no more, your worries are futile, your own understanding and reasoning are meaningless when God’s hand is in your life (He does whatever He pleases for His glory and your sanctification), your thoughts are not higher than His. In His presence there is fullness of joy, at His right Hand are pleasures forevermore. That is where you need to go. Go to Jesus to empty yourself of worldly burdens and cares of this life and be filled with the simplicity of the joy and goodness and grace of the Lord. He will fill you up with Himself. In His presence, you will find rest and restoration for your weary souls. You will learn that joy and satisfaction and peace comes from His throne of grace and not the world nor the circumstances of your life and see that you are truly blessed beyond measure through the riches of God that is in Christ Jesus, His Son, being made available to us, His sons and daughters."

A good reminder as I push through the effects of j-term and the start of a new semester.  =)

The click of swords and bandaids

Yesterday at church I filled in for the 4th/5th grade small group teacher, and as usual, the kids probably taught me more than I taught them.

I didn't have my usual patience, and there was one boy in particular who I was really struggling to engage with patiently.

Our lesson was on self-control, specifically controlling your words, and this particular boy initially found the sword of hurting words much more appealing than the boring bandaids of healing words (who's idea was it to use a sword as an example of a bad thing with 5th grade boys?), and found each example of hurtful words  much more amusing than their opposite (mainly because he got to use such forbidden words in church of all places).

Then somewhere in the lesson, there was an obvious change in him; even his physical demeanor changed as he stopped his fidgeting for just a moment to comment: "Wait.  Maybe I really do need to change my words and be more careful of what I say."

Click!  Something within him allowed the boy to see past the distractions of the illustration to see God's truth. After seemingly missing the entire lesson, it's message clicked inside him and immediately resulted in change.  And this teacher couldn't have been more relieved.

I wonder how often God feels that same relief when dealing with us: He's constantly empowering us with our truth, and yet we habitually struggle to accept it; just like this boy, we miss His messages because of the distraction and draw of the things of this world; we get caught up in the flash of swords that we miss His truth.  And yet He patiently and graciously continues to teach us, continues to fill our lives with opportunities to know Him more, to know the truth of His creation and its purposes, until we move our attention from the draw of earthly swords to the sword of the Spirit.

Just call me auntie

My favorite Christmas present by far!

My precious nephew, Ezra Jackson.  Born Christmas night at 8:07.  A peanut at 6 lbs 3 oz and 19.75 in 

Dear Tank, get ready to get spoiled by your auntie!