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Are You Ready for Some Joy?

09 Mar 2010 by sypace

Birthday Party!

Joy. What a sweet word.  So short, and yet, full of impact.  I got to experience pure and unadulterated joy this weekend.  It was our Mia’s Eighth birthday.  She wanted to have some friends go ice skating with her.  She had never been, but ever since the Olympics, that is what she plays constantly at our house.  She wears slick socks and fancy costumes and choreographs elaborate routines to “skate” around our kitchen and family room.  So, to get to go ice skating for real was her hearts desire for her birthday.  Now you know me. You know that things that are foreign to me make me anxious.  You know that when I am in a situation that is beyond the parameters of my control my palms sweat, my heart pounds and I really just want to throw up.  Yep, it’s that bad.  So you can imagine how things were going as we arrived with 4 girls ranging from 7 – 10 years old and then two 3 year olds to go skating.  It was not pretty to say the least.  I had not planned on skating.  My plan was to sit back and supervise.  But then I quickly realized that my husband just cannot ice skate.  Watching him weeble and wobble a couple of feet and hearing him tell Selah(our 3 year old) that Daddy really just couldn’t help her, gave me hives.  I could just see split skulls, broken arms and bloody lips.  So of course I had to march myself back down to the ticket window and rent myself some bee-you-tee-full hockey skates.  I got back up to the rink and proceeded to step out on the ice to try and keep chaos at bay.  Luckily, my sister was there to help the kids too.  We quickly realized that there were too few of us, who could actually stand up to be able to help our, shall we say, less graceful family members.  Luckily those smart people running the place provide these little red ice skating walkers that can be rented for an extra $5 and my Mom and Dad procured some of these broken-bone saving devices.  Those who needed the extra help got the extra help.  Those who wanted to try it on their own did.  And in the process of being on that rink in the gorgeous weather, (so hot we stripped off our coats and just wore our shirts) watching those girls skate and fall, get up and go again, making friends with those around them and the whole time laughing their fool heads off, I let go.  I let my big girl skate as fast as she could go and wipe out with a thud that made my Mama’s heart shudder.  I let my husband just be himself having fun with those kids.  I let my baby girl talk me into holding onto her and the walker and push her around that rink so fast our hair was blowing in the wind and she was yelling “Go faster, Mama, go faster” in between bursts of gut-wrenching giggles!  At the end of the session I even let that little bundle of joy take off on her own while I stood back and held her Daddy’s hand and we made fools of ourselves skating together. And along the way I felt joy rising inside of me and spilling out of my mouth.  It caught me off guard.  Finding that joy there on the ice was exhilarating and liberating and scary.

Joy is a word, that for me, usually conjures up a sense of sadness and loss.  I know that is the antithesis of the meaning of joy and yet, for me the connotations of the word are not so joyful most of the time.  I, like so many of you, am weathering some stormy times right now.   I’ve been taking some time to dig deep; ask myself difficult questions and pray for God’s answers to come.  God’s been after me for a while to just give it all up to Him.  I saw this weekend that He can give me a joy that is totally foreign to me if I will just let Him. My bible says this: “He will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.” I found this verse in Job of all places. Job, who had every right to be angry, sad, defeated, you name it and he had the source for all those negative emotions and yet in Job 8:21 the Word tells us in no uncertain terms that God will give us joy.  We all go through times of trial and struggle but I am clinging to the above verse and holding onto Psalm 30:5 “. . . weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” It’s time for me to let God give me some joy in my life.  I have robbed Him of that by “controlling” my life.  I’m ready for some joy.  Are you?

Heading out all by herself!

Going all by herself!!

Letting her go!

Letting Her Go!

Category: Reflection  Tags: , , , ,  One Comment

The Voice of God.

30 Oct 2009 by sypace

Just recently my daughter, Mia, said to me, “Mom, I wish God was human.”  I asked her why. She said, “well, I know he’s my best friend and I know he loves me, but it’s hard when you talk to Him and you can’t really hear what he says.”  Her response had the honestly that most of us feel but seldom express.  We want a God who’s almighty, but really one just like us so we are “comfortable.”  Two days ago, I found out first hand, that God doesn’t need to be human for us to be able to hear his voice, we just have to be quiet and listen.

I coach the local volleyball team and God put together an awesome group of young ladies.  I have struggled for the last almost eighteen months with family issues, health issues and have had to deal with some pretty tough stuff.  God knew that I needed to coach these girls to give me a place to serve and honor Him while getting my balance back.  Two mornings ago I was reading in my quiet time from a book titled, “When God Speaks to My Heart,” by Rosalie Willis, and there I read the following,

“Dear One,
Can you hear My voice?  Are you walking in My way? My way shines as a beacon of light.  Are you tottering on the borderline? Follow Me and hear My words of love. Lean on Me and My Word, and keep your heart full to overflowing.  Let your life become a beacon of light drawing others to Me.

I love you,
Your Father”

I sat there thinking about the team.  I had a dear friend also tell me recently that I had to let go of control of the team.  Our success couldn’t necessarily be measured by our wins and losses and I could neither take the blame nor the credit for that.  I also struggle with perfectionism and this friend shared with me that I needed to make sure I stepped aside and let God work and not try to do everything in my life, including coaching, my way.  The combination of the spoken and written words pierced my heart and made me want so desperately to hear God’s voice.  I opened my Bible, and I guess because I have been camped in Psalm 139 for almost two weeks now, thanks to our preacher, that’s where my Bible opened to.  There I read Psalm 139: 15 – 17 (NIV) My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are your thoughts O God! How vast is the sum of them.  Mia was sitting beside me in our chair and we talked about how awesome it is that God loves us enough to have all of our days ordained for us, even before we are born and that he cares enough to write about us.  As one who loves to write, but knows how much time it takes and how involved I get in my subject, I am overwhelmed by how much God is really “into” each one of us.

I sat in that chair and prayed that God would fill me with His spirit and let His voice be so evident to me that day.  I prayed that he would guide my every thought, word and deed.  I prayed that he would help me by-pass myself to get to Him and that more than anything His voice would fill my ear that day and that I would let go of control to hear Him.

Mia and I went upstairs, where she was to start packing for a visit to her MeeMaw’s.  When I went into her room, I was not a happy camper.  She was having some issues with the messiness of her room, in particular clothes everywhere.  At that point, all thoughts of honoring God fled, trying to hear His voice was the last thing on my mind.  I was just MAD.  So, of course I started the usual parenting thing. . . I started to fuss.  Mia is one of those kids that if you say anything negative to her she feels like you are screaming at her and falls to pieces.  After 3 – 4 minutes of giving her clear instructions on getting her room clean I went to get a shower so we could leave for the kids visit.

I stepped into the shower, started shampooing my hair and it hit me.  I started praying.  I knew I hadn’t even tried to hear God’s voice in my parenting of Mia.  I had just let my own desires for her to have a clean room take over.  I was not patient with her. I was not kind with her.  I was demanding and bossy.  I stood there and the thought hit me.  You know, the solution to this could be very simple.  I give her a certain amount of clothing items that she has to keep put away for a week and if she follows through she gets to add to her collection.  If she doesn’t she is limited to what she has.  This will teach her responsibility.  It will keep me from losing my patience.  It will give her positive rewards for a job well done and natural consequences if she fails.  That’s when it smacked me square in the face.  I could feel the presence of God and knew that that idea was not my own.  God had answered my prayer to hear His voice in a very evident way.  I started to laugh out loud and then began to cry.  I hit my knees in the shower and begged for forgiveness for not listening and thanking Him for being loud and clear.

About 30 minutes later, I went downstairs and saw on my phone that I had a new email and saw that it was from a someone helping the volleyball team we were supposed to play that night.  It was a playoff game and the person was responsible for putting together our opposing team’s programs.  She needed the roster from our team and earlier that morning I had sent it to her.  She was at this point responding to my information.  At first I just assumed it was going to be your standard “thank you for the information” kind of email.  But then I read the first lines and she was telling me that she needed the email from me on a personal level.  I have a signature on my email that has Romans 12:2 on it.  I also have the blog address posted.  She told me she needed the scripture that was at the end of my email and on the blog.  I sat there totally overwhelmed by God’s timing.  Within an hour and a half of praying to hear His voice he had spoken to me not once, but twice.  That wonderful lady may never know how much I needed her email and how God used her to speak to my heart.  I knew that we hadn’t met that team in the playoffs for a win or a loss, but to share His love and to hear His voice

I wonder today, how often do I miss His voice simply because I fail to listen.  How often do you?

Category: Reflection  Tags: , , , ,  One Comment

Hiding the Word…To Shepherd the Heart…

30 Nov 2008 by sypace

Right now my husband and I are leading a class where we are looking at the book, “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Tedd Tripp.  This book has caused me to re-examine many of my parenting practices with our two precious babies.  This book has challenged many of the popular and conventional approaches to child-rearing.  Some of the things the author says I agree with totally.  Others, not so much.  The one thing that I will say, is that it has really made me conscious of the fact that to parent in a Biblical manner and with God’s glorification in mind my own heart has to be following after God and I have to know my Bible.  Without the word of God to direct my parenting choices I am following the world and not God.  I am giving control of directing my children’s growth and development over to “the masses” and to popular cultural views.  We have examined many of the popular ways to discipline that are un-biblical and are getting ready to examine how to do it bibilically.  

For me it is boiling down to what Psalm 119:11 says: Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You. For me to be the very best parent I can be, when the going gets rough, when I don’t know the answers off the top of my head, there is a great place to look.  And when we find what we are looking for we need to bury those words deep into our very souls so that we can know the path to take.  When we “treasure” the word of God it allows us to make decisions with the right heart, a heart that holds scripture to be the ultimate guide and not let our “feelings” guide our direction.

Tripp tells us it is our job as parents to “shepherd” our children’s heart’s.  It is our job to help them love God and glorify Him.  We see in Luke 6:45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil thingsout of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.   If our intent is to help ourselves and our children have hearts that show our overflow in a positive and glorifying way we MUST follow the tenet of Psalm 119:11.

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