Faithful

It's not Friday. I'm not spending five minutes typing.
But, I'm here to share. God is good.
He is answering prayers.
I shared with my chapel students last week some entries from a prayer journal my girls and I began in December 2018. We stopped writing our prayers and answers after I went to Guatemala. God didn't stop answering our prayers, but I kept no record. We have begun to write again.
And? I am thankful. Oh how He loves to defeat cancer in the people around us! Hallelujah!
(and sometimes, He doesn't defeat it on Earth. He takes those people to Heaven where death has no reach. We have had those people around us as well.)
My challenge to you? Write your prayers. Keep a record of the conversations you have to our faithful God. Then, mark the answered ones.

God keeps using Scripture to confirm His voice to me. Most recently? Psalm 5:12. The word Shield was on my mind during worship. I was writing down thoughts and my pen took over and wrote that word. Then on the slides of the Pastor's Power Point? "Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous;
    you surround them with your favor as with a shield."

Then, at school reading through my "199 Promises of God" devotional book (which is not linked to any date or order), we read that exact verse as the verse of the day just after that morning. It took my breath away. I gave testimony of God using that exact verse. I shared it with all five of the classes I teach that day. 

Demo photo credit from Dayspring website. See the rainbow behind the date?
That's on EVERY page and I didn't even notice!!

Today, a similar occurrence. I had ordered a perpetual calendar, "Promises of God". I didn't even notice but the cover had a rainbow. Often this school year, friends send me pictures of rainbows via text message or tag me on social media. It happens on Monday nights often when I seem to be feeling low. Today, that calendar arrived and today's passage was the exact passage dealing with Rest that our Pastor preached on yesterday and there was a rainbow on the page (and my friend texted me two rainbows from West Florida). Just a couple days ago my friend in LA also texted me pictures of a rainbow.
God is really trying to reassure me that He's with me. The passage? Matthew 11:28-29.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
He spoke in service how rest is operating in Jesus' way. In His job, His marriage, His plans, His finances, His victories. Then you are working WITH Him and it really is easy and light! 

I was not applying this yesterday afternoon/evening. And I became weary and burdened quickly. My poor husband is away on business and he got the full load of my emotions last night and a little more this morning. (He's trying to help me fix something on the car from a distance and I'm underqualified and don't have my head around the concept. I'm totally capable but doubt my abilities.)
Anyway, that rainbow and that devotional really got my attention (finally, right?!) tonight. He's got this. I need to TRUST Him fully.
Whew.

Anyway, those are some of the ways God is at work and speaking to me. Is He speaking to you? I'd love to hear about it!!
Love,
Tammy

Distant: Five Minute Friday

Though intermittent, I'm trying to utilize my posts for when I have something worth reading.
I've been having a lot on my mind lately and am grateful for a chance to share.
This week's linkup on Five Minute Friday is titled "Distant". We set a timer for five minutes and don't take a break to edit or re-write. This is raw, unedited, heartfelt writing that we share and comment on with each other. It's the most uplifting, encouraging writing community and I love the people behind those screens. I was blessed to meet up with many of them in real life a few summers ago at an FMF Retreat.
What a joy to be walking on Earth at the same time as these friends!!

Go!
The thought on my mind is to do with parenting. How do we ensure our children are actually being raised to follow Christ? If we don't do the work ourselves, we are expecting others to usher our children into the kingdom of God. We watch from a distance as the Sunday school teacher or the AWANA leader once a week pours into our kids. Perhaps we pay the tuition to put them into a Christian school so they get five days a week of a spiritual environment, but our distant contributions will not ensure anything if we're not doing work as well.
I could pay a "nursery" to care for my plant five days a week, and then pick it up at the end of the day, hoping that it would flourish in that environment. It might make it okay, but on the weekends, in the evenings, what am I doing to make sure that plant is thriving?

If I don't have my child plugged into a consistent church community because I myself am not involved, how am I being fed to pour out into my kids??

This is a post of self-reflection because God is stirring my thoughts lately. I teach at a private Christian school, but I cannot depend on my children's teachers to do the work I am tasked to do.

I am not allowed to be a distant mother, hoping that my own faith will rub off on my kids. I'm even less prepared to teach them if I'm not being prayed for and held accountable and worshiping corporately with others.

Sure, churches are full of people and people have their own problems, but we need to try, my friends.
Our children are at risk of being drawn AWAY from the love of God and what is true and right and noble and pure, because we are living in a world that wants to destroy our faith.

How are we equipping our kids for shining in the darkness when they grow up and move out??

-Tammy

Opportunity: Five Minute Friday

I'm so excited to make my first FMF contribution of 2019.
I love this community and have been really living in a new year with my walk with Christ this school year.
My word transformed from "All" in November. We took a family trip to the coast and the word "Still" became my new word. That was confirmed in December.
Exodus 14:14 "The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still."

This week's prompt at Five Minute Friday is "Opportunity."
Here we go:

When God gives you a dream, it may start out as a small idea that you're not even sure you'd entertain again. When the dream continues to visit you, something begins to stir and the dream becomes a passion. When you get the opportunity to take that dream and turn it into a reality, that opportunity from God becomes a direct graft into the vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

In March I got the opportunity to go with our church to La Oscurana in Guatemala. I had a dream two years ago to bring instruments to the children so they would be able to worship even if the music in their heads wasn't the same as the sounds they produced when they sang. God helped me every step of the way, and His grace removed all barriers.

The children were in school when we visited and I was allowed to teach during their regular school day. I had 12 and 13 year old boys who in the afternoons ignored the soccer balls we brought and instead sat with me in the breezeway, hungry for more music instruction.
One student, even on my final day, ignored the pinata and the fresh watermelon, desperate to master the "Father I Adore You" round I had written on a notecard.

My five minutes is up, but my story is only beginning. What God allowed me to be a part of in that little village has made me feel a new spark of life in my heart. I was born to do this. I was born to worship God, and to share that worship with new faces, in a new language.
I have no greater joy than when I work with children and sing about our Jesus!