"Just take me to the juice and nobody gets hurt!!" ;^)
So, yea-I crumble under pressure.
For example: Yesterday while grocery shopping (grocery shopping!??!!) I almost had a nervous break down! Seriously, grocery shopping has turned into an extreme sport requiring nerves of steel... which I, apparently, do not posses!? Oh yeah, after 20 minutes of going up-and-down every aisle of the (mid-remodel) Super Target; with a screaming 20 month old and incessantly whining 4 year old; I couldn't find the juice!! And, I was not leaving that store without the juice... I mean come-on, I'm a very capable human being... I should be able to go to the grocery store with my 2 kids and bring home some STINKING JUICE, for crying out loud!! :) You're probably thinking I'm as crazy as I must have looked; running up-and-down each aisle on the verge of full-on hysteria...(incidentally, I did eventually find the juice!)
Ha! Well, these 'moments' don't just make for good blog material they are rich with lessons! I won't bore you with all of the ones I 'learned' from my little fiasco. But, I did want to share a small one from a book I've been reading. I know it's a good book when it can bring me to tears at 7:00 in the morning. :^) I hope it's not too long and I hope you enjoy!
From: Loving God by Charles Colson
Colson goes on to add: "Taking the gospel to people wherever they are-death row, the ghetto, or next door-is frontline evangelism. Frontline love. It is our one hope for breaking down barriers and for restoring the sense of community, of caring for one another, that our decadent, impersonalized culture has sucked out of us. It is the most urgent challenge for the holy nation..."
My prayer today is this: Lord, help me to see my life through your eyes. Where I see a half-crazed, mother of two; practically going off the deep-end looking for juice...You see your daughter trying to 'provide' for her children in the best way she knows how. Help me to learn from my mistakes and move-on in your grace! And Lord, give me a love for my neighbor-as only you can give. Guide me as I attempt to "take the gospel to people wherever they are".
Loving and praying for you all today!
For example: Yesterday while grocery shopping (grocery shopping!??!!) I almost had a nervous break down! Seriously, grocery shopping has turned into an extreme sport requiring nerves of steel... which I, apparently, do not posses!? Oh yeah, after 20 minutes of going up-and-down every aisle of the (mid-remodel) Super Target; with a screaming 20 month old and incessantly whining 4 year old; I couldn't find the juice!! And, I was not leaving that store without the juice... I mean come-on, I'm a very capable human being... I should be able to go to the grocery store with my 2 kids and bring home some STINKING JUICE, for crying out loud!! :) You're probably thinking I'm as crazy as I must have looked; running up-and-down each aisle on the verge of full-on hysteria...(incidentally, I did eventually find the juice!)
Ha! Well, these 'moments' don't just make for good blog material they are rich with lessons! I won't bore you with all of the ones I 'learned' from my little fiasco. But, I did want to share a small one from a book I've been reading. I know it's a good book when it can bring me to tears at 7:00 in the morning. :^) I hope it's not too long and I hope you enjoy!
From: Loving God by Charles Colson
After speaking to more than two hundred inmates in the auditorium for a Prison Fellowship seminar, I asked the warden to let us visit death row. I knew things were tense there because Stephen Judy had just been executed (electrocuted)...The warden agreed and invited a group of our volunteers to come along as well. So about twenty of us made our way through the maze of concrete cellblocks to the double set of barred doors that led into the most despairing of all places-death row-the end of the line...The only way out is a new trial or death.
My schedule was extremely tight, so after we finished "Amazing Grace" we said our good-byes and began filling out. We were crowded into the caged area between the two massive gates when we noticed one volunteer had stayed back and was with James Brewer [one of the inmates on death row] in his cell. I went to get the man because the warden could not operate the gates until we had all cleared out.
"I'm sorry, we have to leave," I said, looking nervously at my watch, knowing a plane stood waiting at a nearby airstrip to fly me to Indianapolis to meet Governor Orr. The volunteer, a short white man in his early fifties, was standing shoulder to shoulder with Brewer. The prisoner was holding his Bible open while the older man appeared to be reading a verse.
"Oh, yes," the volunteer looked up. "Give us just a minute, please. This is important." he added softly.
"No, I'm sorry," I snapped. "I can't keep the governor waiting. We must go."
"I understand," the mad said, still speaking softly, "but this is important. You see, I'm judge Clement. I'm the man who sentenced James here to die. But now he's my brother and we want a minute to pray together."
I stood frozen in the cell doorway. It didn't matter who I kept waiting. Before me were two men: one was powerless, the other powerful; one was black, the other white; one had sentenced the other to death. Anywhere other than the kingdom of God, that inmate might have killed that judge with his bare hands-or wanted to anyway. Now they were one, their faces reflecting the indescribable expression of love as they prayed together.
Colson goes on to add: "Taking the gospel to people wherever they are-death row, the ghetto, or next door-is frontline evangelism. Frontline love. It is our one hope for breaking down barriers and for restoring the sense of community, of caring for one another, that our decadent, impersonalized culture has sucked out of us. It is the most urgent challenge for the holy nation..."
My prayer today is this: Lord, help me to see my life through your eyes. Where I see a half-crazed, mother of two; practically going off the deep-end looking for juice...You see your daughter trying to 'provide' for her children in the best way she knows how. Help me to learn from my mistakes and move-on in your grace! And Lord, give me a love for my neighbor-as only you can give. Guide me as I attempt to "take the gospel to people wherever they are".
Loving and praying for you all today!
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