Can Jesus Be in My Heart?

Today was a good day. We went to the park to meet an old high school friend of mine and her two little boys. We tried to talk about how hard it was to be a mommy but we were too busy chasing our kids to really talk. ;) We spent two hours there, had a picnic, and I literally really did chase the kids. Okay, I chased Pea, let Princess try to fend for herself and tried to keep an eye on her even when I was chasing Pea. Pea found a football and pretty much hijacked it until we left the park. When we got home, he took a 3 1/2 hour nap.

It was such a beautiful awesome pretty day that I suggested that we see if we could meet our friends Freddy and Amanda for dinner, and luckily they were able to meet us. Unfortunately, dinner took forever and the kids went crazy, but fortunately we were outside. It was great to spend the beautiful evening outdoors with friends we don't often see. I love spring, if you cannot tell. :) (It is the season for birthdays. ;)

But the best thing happened tonight. I put Princess to bed, and we read about Jesus choosing his apostles, and the story talked about praying for friends that do not know Jesus. Well, Princess mentioned that she should pray for her friend CE to know Jesus because she said that CE does not know Him yet. Then I told her that she did not have Him in her heart yet, and she asked me more about it. I told her that one day she could ask Jesus to come into heart. Then she prayed to God and asked Him to come into her heart. (I don't know if it counts for a 3 year old!?) Anyhow, then she said that she does know God. I explained that Jesus was in my heart and that Jesus was in daddy's heart. So then she wanted to know if there was plenty of Jesus. I said yes, that He could be in anybody's heart who wanted Him there. She wanted Him to be in her heart. Then she wanted to know how big God's love for her was. She concluded that His love was like the sunshine and that His arms are big enough to hold her. She was very excited about our whole discussion and so was I. God is so good, and it is so neat to see how God works in our children's lives.

A New Bed

Pea has climbed out of his crib so many times that he is now in a "big boy" bed, or toddler bed. I'm not sure how naps will go, because we have had some other setbacks. We should find out tomorrow hopefully, but I'm not worried about it. I know he can do it. He does awesome and great at night time.

By the way, he is at this point in time, totally healthy. Praise God for that!

I Can Do ALL Things...

"I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." Phil 4:13

I wonder how many of you believe that you can do all things because of Christ? This sounds impossible, yet the God we follow and believe in is the same God who allowed David to defeat Goliath, protected Daniel in the den of lions, saved Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego from the fire, and has saved His chosen people, the Jews, from emanate destruction countless times. If you follow Christ whole-heartedly or half-heartedly, you serve an awesome, mighty, powerful God.

I have found myself saying, "I can't do it." Last week I called my sister, and I broke down in tears because I felt so overwhelmed by all that I had to accomplish. I just wanted someone to help me do the simplest of tasks that in my mind were a feat too big to accomplish with two small children. Little did she or I know yet that her car had been broken into and her purse stolen with all of her credit cards and identification! This taught me a lesson. My sister was, before she realized her own problems, going to come "save" me. When I found out her problem, I knew I could not allow her to come help me - she needed helping!! It was apparent that I had cried out to the wrong person - not that my sister isn't great, but God was wanting me to cry out to Him. He wanted to be my Rescuer and hers too!

When I give every task to Him and allow Him to organize my day, I will not be overwhelmed. I may have to realize that what appears to matter may not really matter at all to God. I can do ALL the things that God has allotted for me to do! He has to be the FIRST priority of every day - time spent praying & time spent reading His love letter to me and to you (the bible) have to be at the forefront of each day.

So whatever adventure He calls me to, I need not wonder if I can, I know I can because He alone will give me strength.

Providence

One thing I struggle with is prayer. In a culture where we often seek immediate results, I struggle when I don't see immediate results in my prayers, and maybe more often than I should, I stop praying when I should pray harder. Even when I do see results, I do not marvel at the results like I should. Father, forgive me for not glorifying You or falling on my face in awe for answered prayers.

I do not want to get real specific here, but I have a dream, a vision, and I have been biding my time waiting for God to give birth to the reality of the dream. This is a dream I believe He has given me, but instead of praying daily for fulfilment of the dream, I waiver in my hope for it to come to pass. I say to myself, "Self, your dream was just a dream. Maybe it was not from God afterall."

Last night was the opening of the WorldReach conference at my church. I was reminded yet again that this dream was not just a dream but something God wants to see come to pass. Vance Pittman spoke from Hope Baptist Church, NV, and again he mentioned that power of prayer that I wrote about here. This time I learned a new twist. Three years after he started his church in Las Vegas, he went to Egypt, and he formed a partnership with a fellow believer in governmental leadership in Egypt. The Egyptian man told him that he had been praying for Vance's church for 10 years, yet it was only 3 years old. That is the power of prayer.

I need to follow through with my prayers. Do you have something you long to see change? Assuming it is a godly desire, God is saying that it can be done through faith in Him.

Vance spoke to us about the fact that when God births a church, He does it with the nations on his heart. I think when God starts any new work in us, He has more than just us in mind. He sees something greater and more multifaceted than we often see. As I study Esther, one thing keeps coming to mind - If God uses ordinary individuals who do NOT know Him to advance His plans and purposes, how much more does He want to use us who do know Him? God has special, beautiful, wonderful plans to use YOU! Let Him! God already knows how you were designed (He's the designer), so don't let that be the excuse that stops you from being used mightily by Him.

How are you allowing God to use you to advance the kingdom of God?

Random updates

Well, Sunday was a snow day. I did not take a single picture of it. At first, the kids hated it. They hated the snow on their hands and their hands freezing over. I thought, man, they are just like me. But after church they warmed up to the idea and got cold for a while with daddy while I grilled some sandwiches and made some soup to warm them up. :) As I write today, there is still a snowman in a yard down the street, but otherwise, the snow melted on Sunday. I wish I had taken pictures, but by the time, lunch was over, the snow was gone. It was beautiful. We kept the kids at church and got to watch it coming down.

Pea does not appear to be getting better, but I am hoping for a surprise and that the antibiotic is doing something. Today I went to take some trash out to the can. Pea and I had just finished putting the can out by the road, and I went in to drop Pea off and get trash to take back out. I closed the front door behind me and went to the curb. Before I knew it, Pea opened the front door and walked out the glass door too onto the front porch. He was about to come down the steps to get me when I saw him. I was so surprised to see him outside!! He feels so badly today, he wanted to be right by my side at all times.

I was teaching Princess to read and write. The material we started with put Princess in a funk, so I stopped and looked for a different approach, so we've been doing a workbook approach. She is doing SO good, and now she looks forward to it each day, even the writing, which she hated before. Today we began to learn how to use scissors. I am so proud of her. We have been having so much fun lately. I guess we are in a good phase right now. :)