Sour Patch Kids (Jesus loves them)

For the last 4.5 months I have been transporting 7 boys to an Alternate Education, similar to Juvenile/school.  They have been kicked out of school. The youngest was in 9th grade, the oldest in 11th.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.  They are with me an 1.25 hours each way.  I heard lots of discouraging things about these boys.  But I took the keys, and decided…if God brings me to it, God will see me thru it.

It took a short time for us to get a mutual understanding that this is what it is.  I explained to them I will respect them, they need to respect me.  They are capable of being sour little goofballs, and then just kids with sweet hearts.  So I named them “sour patch kids”.  

They are aware I call them that, and they like it! hahaha  On fridays, I throw them bags of Sour Patch Kids.  They call me “busdriver”, “sic”, “legit”….on most days they say good morning, and have a good day…thats alot for these boys.   I have not had any problems with them. I try to be intentional always, a smile, use their name, try to be a safe person to be with.  Funny, that is on my heart with them, when others see them as the unsafe.  Altho I can not speak of my belief system to them, I believe that kindness and repect will linger.  God’s kindness leads us to repentance.

Yummmmm sour patch kids…. Jesus loves them too.

Advertisement

Priorities, Changes, Oh My!

No walls this time, but definitely a fork in the road.  One is a little rocky, and not too pleasant to the eye, but the other is closed.  So I am taking the only road I can.  Maybe its just the “unknown” factor that makes this new road less appealing….

I have allergies.  They cripple my lifestyle to an extent.  I have to be careful how much time I spend outside, My AC runs constantly  to filter the allergens in my home. There is no medication that brings me 100% relief.  The medication I do take is the same as a car payment every month.  

God has blessed me with a job that works with all this. No weekends, and no summers, unless I feel up to a day here or there.

Why am I sharing this? I really don’t want to.  I keep it to myself and try to be as healthy as I can.  My allergies are getting worse.  They cause me to have sinus migranes, and literally make me sick. My symptoms are heart pounding, shortness of breath, head pounding, and stomach turning.  I have no warning when that will happen, and whatever plans I may have made come to an immediate halt.  Overall, when telling someone that I can not participate in an activity, I get the “look”.  I have become a person that many can not count on.  Its heart breaking, and disappointing to say the least. Tiring in trying to explain.

After struggling with all this means to my life, and having lots of conversations with God on this matter, I am believing that He wants something else from me. Outreach can come to my door, and He has shown me that.  I don’t know where all this is going…don’t know if I am supposed to return to writing.  But I do know that my family is a gift from God.  I want to use my energies in being a good wife, and a good mom, and the best Mimi I can be. 

I do love my church, and I get there as often as I can.  Opening a new chapter to my life….

Priorities, Changes, Oh my!   So glad God knows what He is doing, I am just going to rest in HIM.

Re-educated? yeah, maybe…

**Update** first and foremost, the Gospel of Christ is not ever compromised…No Not ever!

First, I am sorry for not blogging for so long….. *sigh* but I hope to be here much more.

I am recently partnering with Samaritans Purse in order to create “safe” church. Sounds funny doesn’t it? Shouldn’t church be safe? Altho many are very safe, the abused have a hard time feeling safe, even there.  Since statistics are showing a woman is abused every 3 minutes(that is reported), not including men, and children, its imperative for the church to not just close our eyes to this, and learn how to reach out to them. It’s not the old way of banging on a door and say “are you going to heaven or hell?”. Seriously!  As a overcomer in this area, I can tell you that just pushes an abused person farther from truth.

An abused person, already has trouble believing it’s not their fault.  When hearing of a God who loved so much HE died for them, it holds no water, only because the abused only see the pain they have been through, and wonder why? Why would a loving God who died for me, and knit me together, place and abandon me in the life I am in? That is not the kind of love an abused person can relate to.

We (the body) need to become more compassionate, more hopeful, less judgemental.

Jesus spoke to the woman in the temple, sitting in a corner, curled up…and HE extended HIS hand, and said “Woman, you are loosed!”   She was freed from whatever caused her to sit in a vegetative state, curled up, wondering if it was like the fetal position?  Ah, if you have been abused or hurt, you know what I am talking about.

We need to learn to teach more on what we are created for, and being beaten, raped or terrified is not what we the creation was made for.  We need to learn more ourselves the attributes of God, we need to get in our Old Testaments as well, to see stories like Joseph…he didn’t deserve what happened to him either, but God took the bad and HE made it good. HE is still the same as HE was then..today.  He still forgives, and changes lives.  He still touches the Lepers, or whatever you may call the unlovely today.  His mission is to set the captives free…. as the body we have captives who need freed, loosed…probably sitting near us on Sundays, maybe the stranger who walks in late, and sits in the back…Make no mistake…God is near to the broken-hearted…

Not sure where all this is going to take me. But this I know.  God set this captive free, and HE did it by himself, one on one, teaching me early in the mornings, holding me late at night, and showing me Him self.   He is about to take some bad and make it good!

Repost~Princess, Overcomer?..Stand in Awe

I don’t know if anyone else needs this today..but i do!

Princess, stand in Awe (previously posted in 2008 on my blogspot…before moving here..)

We leave the radio on in the kitchen always, I am not sure why we do that except maybe the dog needs company and is confined to the kitchen. 🙂 It is always on a Christian Contemporary Radio station, so this morning while in search for my coffee, it spoke to my heart. “Stand in Awe and worship, come adore, King of kings and Lord of lords”. Praying this morning for a heart that will constantly stand in Awe of my Awesome God. The world just pulls us in so many different directions, and the negative seems to out weigh the postive most days, but the focus is to stand in Awe and worship! Music ministers to my soul in great proportions, and I do thank HIM for giving me song in my heart, and praise on my lips. GOD is so very good to me and I am so undeserving of anything. I love that most about HIM this morning. God is happy with God, and therefore it pleases HIM to call me HIS own, to adopt me into HIS family, and to put my feet on solid ground.

I spoke of the out reach in earlier posts, and wanting to start with the children in my area. I have stressed over boards in the church, I have stressed over prayer support…and this morning I am repentant for unbelief. What I felt was the first step proved to be no step…hahaha God totally opened the door, and all we had to do was walk through it! Prayer support-God provided in my siesta sistas, dollas, diva princess’. I saw with my own eyes yesterday the power of your prayers, and I thank you for interceeding on our behalf. I love how the whole thing works, although I don’t understand it and don’t think I want to…I think I would rather stand in Awe and worship our Father of Unfailing Love, who does not send us with out HIS own plan in place. HE does not fail us!

My King, Yahweh, Abba,
It is a gift just to stand in Awe and worship You. In all your power and beauty, I am overwhelmed in the fact that You move Heaven and Earth on our behalf. “who is man that you would be mindful of him”…thank you that you are so very detailed in our lives. Forgive my foolishness and unbelief, if there is any pride in me, please bring it in my face and deal with it. I know that the road to You is not the easier of the two, but it is the blessed one, resulting in crossing the finish line and You are my great Reward! Thank you for my sisters in You, and how they encourage me, and for the prayer cover you have provided. Thank you for opening the door, and allowing us to see it and walk through. Thank you for the sunshine this moring that is such an awesome display of your faithfulness to me, and a constant reminder to walk in Your light. Jesus, again today I want more than anything to live for you, and to be a picture of YOU to someone else. Touch my lips with coal from your altar, and purify me to stand in your presence-the presence of my HOLY GOD, and stand in Awe and worship. Send me. Overwhelmed in your Goodness, Your Princess

Mission Field…

I see this sign five days a week…God knows i need lots of reminders!  This sign is posted at both entrance/exits of a church parking lot, where i pull my bus over to wait for about three minutes before heading back on the road for my elementary children.

I’ve been pondering this sign all school year, and each day it takes me by surprise! 😯  ya i know…

Usually when we hear the words “mission field” we think far away…we have fond thoughts of people we know who are also far away serving God, and most often we don’t think of home. Sometimes the mission field is when we step right outside our front door, sometimes leaving the church parking lot, sometimes leaving my bedroom…

i thought about  asking these people where i could get a sign like this…i thought maybe i would put it right inside my front door…but for real…i could use it inside my bedroom door!  a constant reminder that my family is also the mission…

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “mission field”?  Could you use a sign like this too?

gave a fortuneteller a ticket…

(this is a true story, happened about 7 years ago)

While in Baltimore, MD’s Inner Harbor, i was confronted with a very hard truth, and although i didn’t understand it, and have really beaten myself up over it, and similar events in my Christ-follower life…while reading Fran’s post..God really spoke to my heart. and this is the story of how it is possible to take a huge step forward…and in the same hour..allow the flesh to drag you back…

i was in Baltimore MD’s Inner Harbor for a Beth Moore conference, i had an extra ticket, and lots of extra time to kill before the conference. we (the two other women with me) decided it would be a good idea to walk around Inner Harbor, and maybe we would find someone who would like to go and i could give them the ticket.  You know i could not give that ticket away, and it was soon time for us to get to the arena.  My heart was so pulled to go back to the mall, and give the ticket to the fortune teller…i know crazy..but Jesus loved her too, and we did make eye contact…the other women laughed at me, but reluctantly went with me…i entered her little tent/booth, and she said..”i know the future”, I replied ” i do too”, i then gave her the ticket, and told her to “please try to come, i know that God wants you to be there, HE loves you so”. her eyes softened, she smiled, and put it in her purse.

As i turned around i found that i was totally alone, the women had not only moved closer to the door, but went outside the mall…instantly my flesh was in a tizzy!  they started to make fun of me for doing what i did, and it didn’t stop there…when we got into the arena, it was very crowded…one of the women with me yanked at my ticket and said “are you sure there isn’t some demon you’d like to give this too?”…my ticket fell and people were walking on it…i had to scramble to get my ticket, then catch back up to them.  I was so angry, i wouldn’t look at them, i wouldn’t talk to them, i was wishing i wasn’t even there, and thinking of where else i could go to sleep so i could be far from them!

i just experienced the power of God, and the love of Jesus in a most beautiful way…and i could not show love to the church women who were with me…my heart sank, at a time when i wanted to be overjoyed in Christ, i was grieved not only by thier actions but by my own.

The next day at the last conference…at the altar call..i am sure that i seen her (the fortune teller) walk to the front and in all those people, i was amazed to see her, and to be so sure in my spirit that it was her.  I never seen her again, never had another conversation with her, but i believe i will see her when we all get to heaven.

Outreach, street people, homeless, underprivileged, drug addicts…God has put on my heart, i find them beautiful, i know HE loves them. But with out fail…i experience the presence of God, and then soon after i experience my flesh and the need for it to die more…i experience the anger of the enemy, and wonder why i don’t stand stronger at that time…i don’t pretend to know the mind of God, but i do know, that with each experience…i am learning to look more like Jesus and less like me…there is no room in my life with Christ, for pride, and a huge place for being humble.

if you get a chance to check out my awesome sista Fran’s blog..leave her a comment, and whole lotta luv!