Prayer changes things

I first started teaching Youth Sunday School maybe, 3 years ago. We started out with one student ; now we have between 15 to 19 students and I've been there through it all. I've taught some really great kids and some not so great kids but I have to say I've loved them all. Maybe two years ago a child started coming to class that was a HUGE challenge. Honestly, I almost gave up teaching because of some of those challenges. This child's mother is a drug addict. She has not been a very good parent to him and it really showed. He had a HUGE chip on his shoulder and was very disruptive. A family at our church took to this child and I slowly started seeing him loosen up. I will never forget the day I saw a true smile from this boy and it lit the room up! I really worked so hard to make him feel welcome but he was very disruptive and I was constantly having to get on to him. One Sunday it came to a head and he told me he thought I was prejudiced. He thought that I was getting after him because of the color of his skin and THAT had NOTHING to do with it!! I was so hurt and that's the day that I almost gave up teaching. I knew that I was not helping him, especially if he thought that the reason I was getting after him was racially motivated.

The family I spoke of earlier took him in and he lived with them for awhile. They are a GREAT family and the change I saw in him was significant. I finally saw him smile...and I couldn't help but exclaim, " You've lit the room up with your smile!" He was beautiful when he smiled. I couldn't believe the transformation that a simple smile had on him. It was amazing! His shoulder chip was cracking, he was loosening up and he was really taking a part in class. If I saw him start to get that "look", I would just ask him for a smile and he'd give it to me. It was great.

One day he came to class and he was like he originally was, withdrawn, sullen and cranky. Just biting everyone's head off. I quietly asked him if I'd done something to upset him and he just wouldn't answer. So after class, I went to the family , they spoke with him and then gave me an opportunity to speak to him. Then they asked him to give me a hug...that was a tense moment. I didn't want him to hug me if he wasn't comfortable! So I said, You don't have to... He hugged me and held on so tight, I thought I was going to cry. But I was also about to fall so I had to let him go...have you ever gone into a hug and your feet weren't right? I literally thought I was going to crash into him and knock him down...I hate that I had to end that hug!!

Eventually he went to live with his aunt and uncle. I heard reports that he was making the honor roll and looking at colleges! I marvelled at the change in this young man. At one time we were worried that he was going to be another statistic but he turned his life around and made a HUGE change in his future. He's recently moved back and it's such a joy to see him. There's no burden on his shoulders, he smiles all the time and he's....HAPPY. Wow.

I went to the grocery store today and as I was checking out, an elderly lady came up to me and asked if she could cut in line in front of me. She was very old and almost bent double because of her back. The lady had already started ringing me up , so I couldn't help her but as I was explaining it to her, the young man we 've been talking about came up to her and he said he'd seen her drop a $5 and he handed it to her. She took it but I never heard her thank him, maybe she did but I didn't hear her. As we were walking out of the store I looked and that same young man was at her car unloading her groceries into her car! Then he took her cart for her! What a gentlemen, how impressive. I was so pround in that moment, proud of him and the young man he's become. To see all those frantic prayers answered in him is amazing. I praise the Lord for the changes I see in him.

I told him, "That's awesome what you just did" He answered back, "I try"

He helped that lady, the way others have helped him and he even did it with his beautiful smile.

To God be the Glory!!

The Lesson Plan

This blog is mainly for Chele as we are partnering to teach a youth Sunday School class. Please feel free to comment and read it but it might be a tad boring to others. I apologize for that.

Okay, I've gone over the lesson and it's about Moses and the burning bush. I'm sticking mainly with the book. I like the suggestions they have this week.

After the role and the "fruit" readings/snacks, I'm going to have them close their eyes and I'm going to read to them the "guided imagery" that is under "Say What?" in the book. I'll ask them:

Where were you?
What did you see?
What did the voice sound like?
How did you feel?

I've reread about Moses life and I'll do some explainations about how he got to Midian and how this is really the first time that he's probably had any contact with the Lord. Actually, for what is in the bible, I wonder if he even knew of the Lord at all. But then again he did know that he was a Hebrew, so...anyway, after that we'll read the lesson straight through, I won't interrupt!! I promise :) Then I'll ask them:

How was your vision similar to what Moses experienced?
How was it different?

I think we'll do "Not just a Job" since that really shouldn't take much time. But since the Take-Away is "God calls all of us, regardless of age, to find our vocation." I think it's necessary.

After that we'll play Pictionary on the dry erase board. I would love to play it the way that they have it in the book but with only one dry erase board I'm not sure how we would do it. I've already written out the words. I guess we need to come up with the rules BEFORE we play it. I'm thinking they draw a word, we need a timer...I'll check my games for a sandtimer, and they'll keep drawing until they miss one. The other teams can NOT answer unless it's their turn. If the team doesn't guess it and the play switches, they can be given a chance to "steal" the point?

Also, I've looked at the lessons we are going to be doing this month and I think our new "fruit" needs to be patience. God shows patience with Moses this week when Moses asks God, Who am I that I should go to Pharoah...and we will be in Exodus for the whole month and I KNOW the Israelites didn't show patience while they were in the desert.

I really want to stress to them that they need to be praying for the fruit for their Prayer Pals. They should have been praying for peace for their Prayer Pals last month and patience for their Prayer Pals this months....I forgot about drawing the new Prayer Pals this week....I'll try to remember my watch this time and if I see we're running out of time I'll drop the "Not Just a Job"....not sure if we'll make it to the game or not...hmmm. I've got to do a better job of getting started!!!!

Anyway, that's what I've come up with...let me know what you think or what you don't like or whatever!! LOL

Here a cell, there a cell, Everywhere a cellphone!

Last night my son had youth group and he didn't want to go. My aunt and her family have decided to make our church their "home" and she has a daughter around my son's age. She wanted to go to youth but didn't feel comfortable going without my son there too. All that is sorta funny because they aren't close and barely know each other, so I was amazed that she called wanting to know if my son were going. He kept telling her no but I stepped in and said, "You need to do this for her. That's part of the Christian walk ; putting others before yourself. " He decided to go and when I dropped him off he was laughing with his friends.

I was so proud of him. He didn't complain about going, he didn't get mad, he really stepped up to the plate and did the right thing. I was also proud of him because he is a shy person, he isn't the type to put himself out there. He waits on others to come up to him and sometimes that means he's left sitting there by himself. But with his cousin there, he had to make some moves, he had to lead her to meet other people. Now, I wasn't there to see how he managed that but he told me when he got home that she had made two new friends and they weren't boys!! YAY! (She is a very pretty girl and the boys just went gaga over her the first time she went to a youth function)

So he gets home and he's telling me all about youth. He's glad he went (YAY) and he had a great time (YAY) but....then he starts the old argument that leaves me angry all over. I held my temper but inside I was seething. My son is 11 years old, he's always with me or adults, he's never unattended. He doesn't drive yet, he doesn't have his own job but he wants a cell phone. Now, I'm sorry if I step on any toes here but I HONESTLY don't understand why parents are giving their children cell phones. I just don't get it.

My daughter had a friend come over the other day ,the friend is 9, but she had a cell phone. Why does a 9 year old child need a cellphone?

One of the smartest ladies I know, so my son is telling me, has given her son, who's 12 at the most, a cellphone. He broke it yesterday and she REPLACED it!! It makes my blood boil.

Chele and I teach Youth Sunday School. These kids come to ss class with cellphone. Their parents are in another classroom not 20 feet away but they have to have a cellphone?

It is my opinion that parents have lost their minds. To a kid a cellphone is a status symbol. I hear it all the time. They are like the IZod shirts we used to have to wear to be cool, which my mom never would allow me to own because she thought they were so ugly.

They are incredibly rude with them. They are either talking on them or they are texting. They are not paying attention to the people around them or what is going on because they are too busy texting or talking to someone else who isn't there! It's ridiculous to me. I can only think of two parents right now that agree with me. One has a 15 year old and guess what?!?! He doesn't have a cellphone! Shocker!! AND he's one of the most well rounded individuals I know. He hasn't lost anything because of not having a cellphone. It's amazing! The other parent allowed her kids to get a cellphone when they had a job and their drivers license. That makes sense to me. That's when I, personally, can understand them having one.

What are we giving our children to look forward to? We give them everything so young now that they don't even understand what it means to wait and long for something. I remember that going to high school was awesome because we could go to the prom. Now they have proms in middle school. What's the big deal with the high school prom now? It's not the big deal anymore. They don't have to wait to have a cellphone, we give them one when they 5 and don't see a problem with it. It's so sad to me.

Okay, I'm sorry if I've stepped on your toes, I'm sorry if I've offended. We all have our opinions and I just had to spew mine all over you. :)

Peace and May God bless you always

Me and My Big Mouth

Lately I've been reading "Me and My Big Mouth" by Joyce Meyers. It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to "grow " in their spiritual walk. I bought it a few years ago and never finished reading it but one night while I was doing my bible study, the Lord placed it on my heart to start it again. So far I've "re-started" it about 3 times because it is so full of great information and I didn't notice a change in myself. Anyway, last night as I was reading it I discovered this:

Matthew 12:34-36
Jesus saying:
For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

Ouch! I'm not sure how I've missed this but that was the first time I had read those verses or at least truly HEARD them and FELT just how important our words are.

Every word we speak is so greatly important! The Lord is using this book to open my eyes to that. Those careless little words in anger that we speak, that really don't mean much to us, they are HUGE! How many times have my words changed a persons life, good or bad, that I didn't even know what I was saying? I can't tell you the number of times that in my anger or my temper tantrum mode that I've said things I didn't mean, only to have my children still asking me why I said that months later! Those words stayed with them long after I had forgotten them. That should have been evidence to the importance of words but still I didn't truly "get" it until last night.

One line in the book that I especially love is "Some people are trying to live in the blessings of the Lord while still talking like the devil." The funny thing to me is she hasn't even mentioned curse words yet, she's speaking of being negative in our speech. Since we are created in God's image we are supposed to act like Him AND speak like Him. We need to train our mouths to speak what is good and to always speak BLESSINGS over ourselves.

Every negative word we speak, even in joking is huge to our life. Every "I'm crazy", "I'm losing my mind" etc. , to us it's in jest but to our enemy it's an opening. According to Joyce :"We are reaching into the realm of the spirit and drawing our according to our words. We can reach into Satan's realm, the realm of curses, and draw out evil, negative things or we can reach into God's realm, the realm of blessings and draw out good, postive things. The choice is ours."

I choose this day whom I will serve with my mouth and as for me and My mouth, I will serve the Lord!

May God 's blessings rain on you,

All in the Name of Peace

Sometimes we get too comfy in our spiritual lives. We decide, wow, I've GOT this. This is no problem...

Once upon a time there was a lady who taught Youth Sunday School. She and her friend decided to teach their youth the Fruits of the Spirit. Every month they would pick a fruit and focus on it. Well, one month the word was joy. Well this lady had been taught about joy but she just couldn't say that she truly had experienced it. So she prayed that the Lord would show her in a mighty and powerful way the experience we call joy...He did and she marvelled at how wonderful true joy was.The next month the Fruit was peace. Now this lady had been a worrier all her life. She just couldn't figure out how to stop worrying but she knew that she couldn't have peace with worry. Because basically to worry means that we do not think that God can look after the details of our lives. If we worry, we don't trust the Lord. The lady knew that so she went to the Lord again and prayed that He would send His Spirit to show her what peace meant. He did. Almost immediately, her husband lost his job of 20 years, her son ended up in the hospital with an obsessed tonsil and her daughter got sick. But through it all the Lord gave her peace. She didn't worry how they would pay their bills. She didn't worry how they would do anything. She was truly trusting the Lord to take care of their needs and He did INDEED :)All was well but the lady got comfy in this feeling of peace. She thought she had it all figured out. Don't worry, trust and give it to the Lord. She did all this ...with the big stuff. She never even noticed the little areas where peace evaded her. She never noticed the moments of outbursts over bad school grades, the driver that didn't turn his turn signal on or the worse one, the person that didn't put their grocery cart away, grrrrr. The people in the grocery store that take over the whole aisle and don't seem to notice or care that you're standing RIGHT there!! Oh...I mean that SHE's standing right there.One night it happened. She had taken her son to a baseball game. This son who she watched the year before win games with his last minute catch and moments of hitting the ball so far it almost went over the fence...this same son was stepping out of the box, wouldn't even TRY to hit the ball, he was actually putting the bat down BEFORE the ball was past him!! She was so upset. She wanted this baseball thing for him for so many reasons! She was searching frantically for something that her son is good at that will keep him involved so that in the teenage years he'll have a focus. Something to put his all in, so maybe he won't be lead to girls or drugs or whatever. And those dreams of HERS were fading as she watched on that cold, hard, bleacher. On the ride home she and her husband talked to the boy to try and figure out why he had quit trying, what was wrong. He admitted that since he had been hit by a baseball he was afraid. He was afraid of being hit by that ball. The lady heard his words but inside she was angry and frantic. The exact opposite of peace BUT she didn't see it. All she saw were baseball dreams being dashed. All she saw was her son failing at something that she thought at one time he was so good at. All she thought was what am I going to do now?Well that night she did her evening devotion. Little Mrs. Comfy got a HUGE eye opener.

The verse was Matthew 6:25:"Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on."

The devotion revealed alot to her but here's the part that REALLY hit her square in the face...

"It is not only wrong to worry, it is infidelity. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in? The devil? NO, the cares of this world. It is the LITTLE worries always. I will not trust where I cannot see, that is where infidelity begins."

Wow, conviction just swept over her. The little worries were getting her and SHE DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE! The Lord had done HIS job but SHE was too comfortable in HER ability to have peace. She had stopped asking for the Lord's help with peace because she had it under control. We can do nothing apart from the Lord and we need to always remember to stay on our toes. Be diligent and keep our eyes open and peace is wonderful but don't forget the small stuff ;)

May God bless you and give You peace in ALL things.

My Journey with Jabez: Part 1

1 Chronicles 4:9-15 (New International Version)

9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, [a] saying, "I gave birth to him in pain." 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.

I recently did a bible study on the Jabez prayer. I decided to actually do what the book said; focus on the above prayer and that book for a month. WOW! The Lord has been amazing! First it started with joy, our Sunday School class is learning the fruits of the spirit and last month happened to be joy. I searched the bible for something on joy and found, what I thought, was the perfect prayer to close with. So every week our closing prayer was:

Psalm 51:11-12 (New International Version)

11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

A good friend came by with a book one day called "Thy Word". This book is full of prayers that the author obtained from the bible. I found the above prayer in the book and "restore to me the joy of your salvation" just wouldn't let me go! So, as I lay there trying to fall asleep I kept repeating that verse over and over in my head. I was immediately flooded with joy so great that I almost didn't stop myself from yelling out loud! It was amazing. That joy didn't leave me again through a hospital stay with my son or my husband being laid off at work. Which is completely amazing for me cause I can be a "woe is me" person on occasions.

When we got my son home from the hospital I was on the phone with a friend, telling her all that I've told you and how I felt the Lord was with me just keeping my spirits up. For the first time I was experiencing true joy....then I hung up with her walked into the hallway, there stood my daughter who says, "Mom, I think I have a fever..." I felt it leave me, the joy, it didn't slowly leave it was just gone, like that (snapping my fingers). I said a prayer, the Jabez prayer and immediately I knew what the problem was...I was running on empty. I needed some time with the Lord. You see we are live a car, we can fill up but "our gas" burns out the more we use it. We need to "refuel" on a daily basis in order to be full of the Lord's grace and joy.

So that's where I ran to. I prayed that day for him to make me crave His word, make me just WANT and desire studying His word, let me not to be able to get enough of it....Wow, has he EVER!! I haven't missed a devotion or time with the Lord in two weeks!! Last night I studied for my Sunday School lesson and was going to sleep. The lights were out; I was laying in bed....I HAD to get up, do my devotion, read my Jabez, do my Jabez journal and read my bible. It took about 30 minutes ,if that, but WOW, I'm so thankful to the Lord for His hand that never leaves me!

My Journey with Jabez: Part 2

"Oh, that you would bless me indeed"

When I read in "Jabez" that the Lord had blessed the author so much that he needed a break to take it all in, I thought, I could use some of THAT! I want to know what it's like to be so blessed by the Lord that those blessings just overwhelm you!! Where do I sign up for that?

The other night while doing my Jabez journal, I decided to write down all the blessings that I could recall which took about two pages to do basically 2 days worth. NOPE, I'm not kidding! And I didn't even add stuff like I made it to work safely or we have a roof over our heads. The only thing that made the list were "gifts" we had received from others. Gifts that were tangible, gifts that were truly given freely by others to my family. And NO it isn't any of our birthdays!!

This list included actual money (a tax return that came in when I was down to $100 in the checking account and the house payment was due) or love offerings (try $350) to our family when we needed it the most (my husband is currently unemployed for the first time in 20 years). I can't tell you the amount of free plants I've received while doing this (gardening is one of my favorite things to do :), we were actually given enough seeds and plants to plant our very first vegetable garden and are currently eating fresh radishes that WE grew :) and I haven't even mentioned the flowers we've received!! We were given a water pump so that now we can water our plants free of charge with a well in our back yard. Not only were we given the pump but the person who donated it to our family spent two days at our house helping my husband prepare this well. One of my other favorite things to do is read, I've received a total of 5 or 6 books since I started the prayer. I love playing games on the computer and I've received two free games and I'm not talking about the daily freebie from Gamehouse.com. Cooking is not something I enjoy doing, at all, so I've been blessed with people just bringing me meals (they were their leftovers but HEY I'm not picky). After helping clean up from a church function we went home with a HUGE pile of veggies, which we made stir fry with, and two pies. We now have health insurance for my children and with a hospital visit and a daughter that needs $200 meds for her asthma treatment, I'd say that's a HUGE blessing. I've even been blessed with a new friendship and work opportunity that just popped up recently. Whew! I just know I'm forgetting some too.

After looking over my list that night, I realized that the biggest blessing in all was the KNOWing that the Lord has it under control and HE loves us enough to take care of it. It's not the Jabez prayer that's brought me all these blessings, it's a loving God that's blessing us because we need it and because I'm asking Him. God sees the needs we have and provides them.

I have a certain friend whose husband was out of work for months and they have aLOT of kids ;) Her husband was getting down because he wasn't able to provide for his family. One of our mutual friends made the statement to me, "He's getting down because he's under the impression that it's his job to provide for his family but it's not. It's God's job to provide for us, He's the Great Provider!!" Those words of wisdom stuck with me and now God is proving them to me.

In "Jabez" the author tells this story (this is written in my words):

One day a man dies and goes to heaven where Saint Peter greets him, then takes him on a tour. He shows him the streets of gold and all the buildings made of precious stones but there's one building that Saint Peter doesn't take him in. That's the one the man wants to go in. Saint Peter says," I think we should go see this instead." "Can we please go in that building?" the man asks. With a sigh, Saint Peter takes him into the ten story high building. The man walks in and sees boxes upon boxes stacked from the floor to the ceiling. Upon closer examination, he notices they are in sections with names. Getting excited, he asks Saint Peter if he has a section. Saint Peter says , " Yes, but I don't think you really want to see it." " Oh please!!" the man says in his excitement. So Saint Peter shows him his section and the man gasps when he sees how high the boxes are stacked and how many rows he has. With excitement he grabs a box and opens it. Confusion spreads through him and he turns to Saint Peter and says, " I don't understand." Saint Peter sighs and says,"These are all the blessings God had for you but you never asked."

God wants to bless us, I believe that, He wants to bless us big. Have you asked God to bless you lately? Go spend time with Him, pray that he would bless you and while He's at why doesn't he bless you INDEED! Amen.