Making a Difference

I'm feeling a little nostalgic on the beautiful fall day so I thought I'd share an old post from old blog.  Hope you enjoy it.

"Making A Difference"

Ever since I was a little girl, I've wished to have an experience like the one in my all time favorite movie, "It's A Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart.  How lucky George Bailey was to get to see what a difference he made in this world.

Ok, so I don't really need to see what life would be like if I hadn't been born, but it would be so very nice to be able to see that I have made a difference in this world.  I mean isn't that why we are here in the first place?  To make a difference?  To be a light, God's light, to others?  To show love to each other?

I get those emails, you know the forwards, where it talks about a teacher and how they touched so many lives.  How they made a difference to someone or several someones.  Every time I get one of those emails, I have a few days of wondering what kind of difference I'm making... Am I touching people's lives in a positive way?  Am I doing a good job of shining God's light?  Am doing a good job with it right here in my home with my husband and kids?  Am I doing it at Kids Praise Choir?  Am I doing it out in the community?  

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God's Great Creation

I read somewhere that 7:29 this evening is the official start of Fall.  Fall is a beautiful time of the year.  The leaves are changing and the temperatures are cooling.  We start bringing out jackets and sweaters.  It’s a time of change in nature and can be for us too.  Time to regroup, refocus and notice God’s Great Creation.

Are you in Community?

 Community:

: a group of people who live in the same area (such as a city, town, or neighborhood)

: a group of people who have the same interests, religion, race, etc.

What communities are you apart of in your life?  Church? Your neighborhood?  School?  Work?  How do you share in this community?  What makes it a community?

That brings us to a sense of community - "the perception of similarity to others, an acknowledged interdependence with others, a willingness to maintain this interdependence by giving to or doing for others what one expects from them, and the feeling that one is part of a larger dependable and stable structure"

We all live in neighborhoods of sorts.  Do you know your neighbors?  Do you spend time with them?  Do you talk with them?  Do you help one another?

What about at church?  How is it a community for you?  You are obviously a group of people who have the same interests but what do you do to have a sense of community?  Do you know others?  Do you visit with one another?  Do you get together?  Do you take care of one another?

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

My uncle recently passed away and I went to my aunt’s home the evening before the funeral.  While we were there a group from her church came to bring dinner.  It was so thoughtful and greatly appreciated.  After taking her part of the meal to the kitchen, one woman came and sat down next to my aunt and visited with her.  She expressed her sympathy and then listened intently as my aunt told her about my uncle’s passing.  The woman held my aunt’s hand and whispered words of encouragement and love to her.  It was beautiful and moving.  It brought tears to my eyes.  I could see what a community there was surrounding my aunt.  I could see her church living out the scripture, living out the Great Commandments Jesus gives us in Matthew 5:13-16:

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

They were that light on a hill shinning brightly in Matthew 5:14-16:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

I think this is what community is all about.  I think it is what we are to be about in the world.  So where is your community?  How are you working to build it?  How are you letting your light shine?

Silence

I've been rather silent lately.  Honestly, I've been struggling some and I just don't know what to say right now.

I've been struggling with... what I should be doing, where I should be and with... well... how things are in a certain area of my life.  Things are not... great lately.

Oh, I'm fine and my family is as wonderful as ever but there are other places in my life that leave me feeling... sad, confused and uncertain.  I'm uncertain how to proceed.

I've been struggling with this for quite sometime.  It's a struggle that ebbs and flows.  Sometimes it is strong and other times, I feel like the struggle is over and just as soon as I do... I'm pushed and pulled back into this quagmire.  It often leaves me feeling lost and alone, which makes it hard to blog.

It's hard to write encouragingly and for others when you are discouraged and yes, that's what I have been.  I'm tired.  I'm tired of fighting a never ending fight.

If you have read here much you probably know that I really, really want to serve. I want to answer that calling on my life.  No, I'm not always sure what exactly that calling is but I know it's there because I'm not happy if I'm not actively seeking to answer it but I seem to always be hitting road bumps or detours or total road closures and it's so frustrating.

I feel myself pulling way, not from God or my faith but from where I think I am supposed/want to serve and answer the calling. I'm lost and not sure what to think or do.  I'm trying to just quiet myself and take a few steps back to see where He is leading me.  You know, letting go of the reins a bit.

Funny thing... as I was typing this I decided to do what I always do when I'm blogging, or struggling, or looking for guidance... I turned to my Bible and look what I found.

From the Message, Matthew 11:29-30

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me.  Get away with me and you'll recover your life.  I'll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."


Oh my... yes, I am tired and worn out and even a little burned out on religion!  Well organized religion anyway.  I love that he says he won't lay anything heavy on me.  Oh, things have been heavy on me, super heavy and I've been rethinking some of those things and starting to let them go because I'm not sure that that was really what He had planned for me and according to this... I feel like it's probably not because it has been heavy.

This just really spoke to me and relieved me and comforted me.  I love it.  I read it first in the NIV and it did the same but then I thought I'd see what The Message said and well, it was even better.  Glad I like to compare versions of the Bible.  It makes such a difference.

Summer update

It has been crazy busy here.  Mostly we've been living life and loving it!  We brought my darling son home from Infantry School one day and moved him (and his girlfriend) back into the dorms at college the next.  Literally.  DS will be contracting ROTC next week!

Here we all are after the graduation ceremony.

I've been trying to regroup and get back to homeschooling with my darling daughter.  She is amazing!  I also just started the Disciple 2 Bible study and am really enjoying it so far.  The last week or so I've been working on a sermon for this Sunday.  I'll be preaching at a two point charge around Kansas City and I'm really excited.

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog.  I've just been busy with my first ministry, my family.  I hope you all have had a wonderful summer!