Beautiful Colors

I hate the term "race" when it is used to refer to one's skin color.  Why can't we just say "skin color"? 

 

 I am not of the "white race", I am of the "human race".  Our Little Man is not of the "black race", but is also of the "human race"... same as me and you.

 

When I'm filling out a paper and am asked to give my race, I am SO tempted to just put "human" down and see what happens. 

 

Yesterday a little girl was telling our 2 year old that she was black.  I don't think it was meant to be mean or anything, she was just stating a fact.  And today our 4 year old told me he didn't want me to rub his lotion in, but let it stay on top of his skin so he could be "white, white, white".  I told him God made him beautiful brown because He knew he would look the most handsome that way.  But this little man insisted that he really wanted to be white.  So I told him about when I was little and prayed that God would turn me a beautiful brown, but God didn't answer that prayer because He created me just the color He wanted me to be.  We went on talking about all the other people we know who have beautiful colors on their skin and how many pretty colors God made us in and how God made every single color we see.  God didn't make any of these colors to be better or more beautiful than others.  All of us are beautiful colors!

 

Check out this perfect video for kids (and adults too *wink*)!

://www.answersingenesis.org/assets/scripts/kidsVideoPlayer.html?vidUrl=http://media.answersingenesis.org/video/ondemand/check-this-out/cto-3_races.flv&vidTitle=The Origin of Races&vidSku=30-9-381&TB_iframe=true&height=370&width=400

Illegal Truth

 

This is the film we made with some friends several years ago and entered into the San Antonio Independant Christian Film Festival where it placed as a finalist. 

 

My dear friend Samantha has worked a long time to get the rights to the beautiful song at the end so we could post it on YouTube... and we were finally able to!

 

This film is set in what might be future America.  If we continue to head the direction we are going, we will become like so many other countries where the Truth is illegal. 

 

 

 

We are so very spoiled here in America. We have so many Bibles, studies, radio stations, churches, books, apps, videos etc and yet we are probably some of the weakest Christians in the world. Believers who have to gather in secret are sometimes tortured and martyerd for Chirst. Are we willing to still follow our Lord when things get that bad?  Pray for our country!  And VOTE in the elections!!!  Be a voice.  Sometimes we step back and say, "God's will".  And yes, it IS His will that will be done, but He uses us to fullfill His perfect plan!

Where You Are



God showed me very recently that I really am needed right where I am.

  This probably isn't a huge shock to any of you, but was a great revelation to me.  Satan often whispers his lies to make us doubt and stray from where God wants us.  Sometimes I feel dumb and useless and in the way, but it's Satan distracting me from doing what I should be doing right here and right now.  The Evil One has used that for me to waste precious time and moments that I could have been using to build up my Lord's Kingdom.  Most women my age have graduated college, started careers or are raising their own families, but I have done none of that and to the world I'm sure my life looks very squandered.  But God has had a different plan for me.  One that I am still wondering what He has up His sleeve, but a beautiful one specifically for me!  When He created me, He knew all my days and I just need to be living for Him every moment of every day.  So instead of wanting a bigger and "more important" task, I should be faithful to work heartily at the one He has given me right now.

 

 

Our family has a ministry right here in our home.  I don't need to travel thousands of miles away and live in a third world country to serve His babies.  He has brought many orphans into my life to love and show Christ's love to HERE and right now.  I am so thankful for those He has called out!  I'm not saying He isn't calling me somewhere else someday, because I hope He will, but right now isn't the time.  I need to be faithful and use the life He has given me for His glory right now.  I squander so many of the opportunities He brings.  I neglect so many areas that I could be using to bring Him the honor and glory He deserves.  Maybe it's because I know myself too well.  I know my faults and short-comings and know that I can't do things they way they "should" be done and the way God deserves. 
 

When I think of missionaries, I tend to think of those people living in remote areas, right with the tribes and such.  God uses them mightily as they live and work where He has called them!  But they are not the only missionaries out there.  As Christians we should ALL be missionaries wherever God has us!  While some are called to live in far off lands, some are called to serve in their work place, with their extended family, in nursing homes or their very own children!  It's is all equally important and fullfills the Great Commission. 

 

 God has grown and stretched me as I wrestled with everything swirling in my head and heart.  I would do it all over again to have learned this lesson. 

Don't waste your life waiting for the right time or opportunity to serve the Lord.  We are where we are for a reason.  There are no surprises for Him!  He has placed each of us the place He wants us to serve Him.  We need to be sensitive to His leading if He is bringing us to another place, but that doesn't mean where we are now isn't important and useful to further His kingdom!

 

 

 

 

The Same Difference

I'm sure many of you have heard about and probably seen this short movie, but I post it here in hopes of even more seeing it.  I know I have an EXTREEMELY small audience, but if even 1 person could see this who hasn't, it's worth it.

I think most of us could agree to the fact that the Holocaust was a horrific, tragic and real event from our history.  I'd also like to think that we could all agree how horrific, tragic and real the current and unfortunately "legal" one is! 

 

Let us speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves!  Each precious baby who enters our home was miraculously crafted and designed by my Heavenly Father.  These children didn't suddenly become children at their first breath, but 9 or 10 months BEFORE their first breath!  God knows them before we do!

These children, I just can't say enough how amazing each one of them are!  I love them all so much, but they have a God who loves them even more than I can come close to imagining.  What are we doing America?  We stand by while millions die?  Are killed?  MURDERED?

Red, brown, yellow, black, white, handicaped, downsyndrom, wanted or not they are precious in His sight!

"Abortion"
Please replace the 'B' with a 'D' and the 'T' with a 'P' as an alternative!

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you...

 

Excellent Post

All I'm going to do is put this link up.  Bust she's hit the nail on the head!  May God be glorified in ALL (even the littlest things) we do!

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-weve-been-up-to.html

 

My Father

Every girl may say she has he best dad in the whole world... but I know mine is!

My dad has always been the best at basketball, BBQing, cards, decision making, gardening, softball, washing a car, marinades, his work, coffee making, telling jokes, shoe polishing and giving advice... I could go on and on, but you get the idea of how vast his talents are.

On top of all that, he remains humble and serves us, his family.  He's been a good example of a hard worker.  Not only at work, but also at home.  He comes home from a hard day and immediately will find something that needs doing.  He's never gone straight to the TV, computer or a book.  When he should be thinking toward the life of an empty nester, he has opened up his (used to be) calm and peaceful home to be a father to fatherless children and dances in the living room, wakes up for middle of the night feedings and reads 'The Big Red Tractor' countless times.  He's also probably the reason I am almost 27 and not married, because no one measures up to him! 

 I am so thankful to have been able to grow up to learn from and be taught by such a great leader.  When I look at the lives of the babies God brings into our home and see the lives of their parents, I am extra thankful!  I'll never know why God sees fit to put some children in loving, Christian homes and others not. 

This Father's Day I am extra thankful.  As a girl I always knew Daddy was strong and no one could beat him... and I assumed he would always be there for all of us.  But after his heart attack 3 months ago I realized how much I had taken for granted my wonderful Father.  So many children are without parents or perhaps are just without godly ones.  But I for some reason, have been blessed with the best one!

I love you Daddy!  Happy Father's Day!!

"My son,
keep your father'scommandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.  Bind them on your heart always, tie them around your neck.  When you walk they will lead you..."
Proverbs 6:20-22

Just for fun...

My brother performed this comedy routine at Family Camp a few years ago.

 My sister just found it again on You Tube and we had fun laughing and remembering the fun times we had there.  Hope you enjoy too!

Behind the Title

"Instead, when we sacrifice, give and even suffer, we can rejoice because we know that God rewards us.  We are always the recipients of His great and manifold gifts.  Not the givers.  Never the givers."

~Francis Chan, 'Crazy Love'

Why does it bother me and make me feel so uncomfortable when people say, "It takes a special family to do what you do." or "I could never do that.  I just couldn't give them back." when they hear we care for foster children?  I think it's because it brings the focus to our family and takes it off of God.  It brings "glory" to us and not the One who is really taking care of them!  We are just His hands and feet.

The only way we can love and care for these babies (and yes, usually have to give them back) is because Christ showed us what it means to truely love by giving His life!  I thank God for revealing that love to me and for saving me.  To think we care for His little ones on our own initiative is an arrogant attitude (and one that pops up in my evil heart all too often).  I am wretched and Christ adopted ME because, for some reason, He loves me!  How then can we not turn around and extend that same love to others?  We can do nothing if the Holy Spirit isn't the One doing it.  Everything sinful, selfish and ugly is me.  But anything good or praiseworthy is God in me.  I shudder to think what my life would be like apart from Him!

All it takes to care for the orphans is a Christian.  Someone who believes in God and in His Word.  If we are Christians and believe the Bible to be God's Word, how can we NOT help orphans when James 1:27 says that is true religion?

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to look after orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 1:27

I'm not saying everyone has to adopt, go into missions or care for foster children (although I highly suggest you pray about it!) I am saying that we are all supposed to care for them in some way.  Many families we know help out with clothing, babysitting, transportation, prayer etc, but aren't in a place to do so in their homes or family at present.

"But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

James 1:22

"So whoever knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

James 4:17

God has shown us great love and mercy.  He is the greatest example and we should all strive to be like Him.  So many people think it takes someone "extreme", but God asks ALL of His followers to love others the way He does.

Any yet another quote from Francis Chan book, 'Crazy Love' (can you tell I love his speaking and writing?)...

"Lukewarm people are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act. They assume such action is for "extreme" Christians, not average ones.  Lukewarm people call "radical" what Jesus expected of ALL His followers."

"It is not only what people do that matters; the good that they fail to do is equally important to God."

I'm not saying all this to give a guilt trip , but the American church does need a wake up call!  If the number of Christians there are in America would adopt, there would be NO orphans!  The numer of orphans, "143 million" is staggering and overhelming, yes.  But look at it in another light.  We Christians can and must help these children.  We are too comfortable.  If we believe God and His Word, then we should DO it.  Simple as that.  I'm speaking mainly to myself here!  This post and the reason I started this blog is a reminder to myself of why I'm here, why I'm still alive, why God saved me.  I only had a 30% chance of even being born and because of that I really feel like God has me here for a reason.  And because I know God's amazing love, I MUST show, serve and tell others.  And hopefully through loving others, they will be pointed to Christ and the love He has for them.  I write all this while holding a precious, sleeping 3 week old in my lap.  I can tell you that through the hard times and much heart ache, I have been the one most blessed and have learned so much!  I know this is where God has placed me right now (as an older single girl, in my parent's home) caring for these foster children.  But I can't help but wonder where God will lead me as I learn to trust Him more and more and say, "Not my will, but Thine be done".

And that, is why I named my blog, "By This I Know Love"

By This We Know Love by Soverign Grace Music

"God of all creation, Lord of heaven's light

Descended into evil's darkest night

Infinitely Holy, Your perfections know no end

Selflessly You died my rightful death

Forsaken man of sorrows, hated by all men

You willingly surrendered for my sin

Scornfully derided, yet in silence stumbling on

Bearing wrath for all that I've done wrong

By this we know love that He laid down His life

God's very own Son came from Heaven to die

Suspended He hung, as He shed His own blood

What grace in His pardon,

by this we know love!

New Blog

I've wanted to try blogging again for a while now.  Not because I have anything profound to say, but because I wanted a place to keep my thoughts and share a little of what I'm learning as God leads me along the path He has set before me.

I don't want this blog to take up much of my time... I'd rather be spending it with the babies, but I'll aim for a once a month posting!