A sad goodbye

 My Bible reading this morning was in 2 Corinthians. Near the end of the book, Paul states, "We cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth."

 That was the confirmation I was needing to hear today.

 You see, for most of this country "The Truth" is debatable. Optional. Personal. Open to interpretation. But truth isn't any of those things. It is absolute. And one truth that many people like to ignore is that sin is sin.

 Unfortunately, (but at the same time, not!) God gave us brains that have the ability to reason. A favorite past-time is looking at the actions around us and making justification for them.

 In the old testament God set down laws to protect his people. Rules about cleanliness, and eating, marriage and worship. Lots and lots of rules. After Jesus came, died, rose and brought forgiveness his followers were unsure which of those rules still applied. They were trying to figure out how to wash their hands and what food was okay to eat. So God sent a vision to Peter: Animals of all kinds, and a voice commanding him to kill and eat. He resisted, of course, with many years of tradition ingrained in him, saying that he couldn't eat the "unclean". But the voice spoke again, "Do not call impure that which God has made clean." And just like that, many old testament laws were null and void.
 But not all of them.
 The letters of Paul, Peter and John all mention things that are impure and unacceptable. They all speak of the truth as an unshakable absolute.

 We have decided that we have to stand for the truth.

 Just a few weeks ago we joined a Cub Scout troop. We had talked about it for months, and finally got around to finding a local troop and getting involved.
 Then the Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, had to get political. Sex, which has nothing to do with being a scout, was brought front and center. Sexual orientation, which isn't even something a 15 year old needs to be thinking about, was made an open subject.

 It was decided that being openly homosexual was perfectly fine.

 And I just can't agree with that.

Scout Oath (or Promise)

On my honor I will do my best 

To do my duty to God and my country 

and to obey the Scout Law; 

To help other people at all times;

To keep myself physically strong, 

mentally awake, and morally straight.

Scout Law

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, 

courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty,

brave, clean, and reverent.

I really don't see anything in here about sex. Or sexual orientation. But there is a promise to obey God. And the Bible I read, which I believe to be the word of God, clearly says that homosexuality is a sin. It doesn't say hate, or even "stay away from", people who choose to sin. It says we are to love everyone. "If anyone says, 'I love God', yet hates his brother, he is a liar." 1 John 4:20
 Because everyone sins. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8
 There are so many sins that most of the populations watches occur every day and doesn't even blink. If I am understanding the statistics right, half of all marriages end in divorce. More then half of the population engages in premarital sex. People swear, in the name of God and celebrate when the cashier mistakenly hands them a $10 instead of a $5. (which is stealing!) Sin, which is what all of those things are, isn't even noticed.
 It is not my place to judge others. James 4:11-12 clearly states that only God has the right to judge. But I have to stand up for truth.

 1 Peter 5:8-9 says "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith."      

 Sin is sin.

 Working to justify it in your own mind doesn't change it.

 I know.

 When I was 18, and had my first serious boyfriend, I spent a lot of time talking to God trying to justify the relationship. You see, this boy didn't love Jesus. He was a pretty good kid. He had goals for his life, good manners, was super smart and was a great soccer player. But in his mind my BEST FRIEND, Jesus, was simply an idea that had become tradition.
 So I reminded God that "How will he hear the truth if I don't tell him?" choosing to ignore the very clear scripture that says, "Don't be unequally yoked".
 Eventually, the scriptures (and God) reigned in my life. But my trying to work around them let me get attached, and then heartbroken when I broke up with him. All because I tried to pretend that sin wasn't sin.

 I want to do my best to teach my children the truth - that sin is sin no matter how you try to justify it.

 BSA chose to say that God's word doesn't matter. That popular opinion and peer pressure are more important. That sin isn't sin.

 They have taken a stand, and I have to do the same. Even if it hurts.

 "For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth".  2 Cor 13:8                

Blessings my friends, 

If you want to read more about standing up for truth check out OnMyHonor.

My birthday repost

It has become a bit of a tradition for me to repost this for my birthday. It was originally written May 31, 2009.

A post from the road

We are somewhere in Louisianna, at a Comfort Inn. My parents and children are in the room next door. Two of my sisters and a friend are in the beds behind me. I should be sleeping, and preparing for another day on the road tomorrow.
But right this minute I am just so very full. Full of Joy. Full of Faith. Full of Hope.
I have to let some of it out before I can attempt to sleep.

A few days ago I was reading a devotional about Nehemiah. They basis of the reading was pointing out in the second chapter when the king asks him why he is sad, Nehemiah is terrified but his first reaction is to pray.
My absolute first thought when reading this was, "well duh!"

After reading through the encouraging devotional concerning this subject I was actually in some ways disheartened. I was so saddened by the thought that there are some people, God fearing Christian people who love Jesus with their whole heart, who would not have their first reaction be prayer. What a sad, sad, thing to focus on fear, or any emotion really. How very blessed I am that I was taught from my earliest memories to place absolutely everything at the feet of God.

So, I have been thinking about this scripture, and prayer, and my amazing family a lot over the last couple of days.
After spending a lot of hours in the van with my parents and Kelsey driving to TX, I have had plenty of opportunity to NOT like my family. But none of those little nitpicky things matter. Honestly, it may drive me a little batty the way my dad drives, or they way my mom fusses at the way he drives, but those things don't change what really matters.
We were raised right. That is just a wonderful thing to have!

Now, on the way back to GA, we have Mary and her roommate Lindsay with us, and a second car. The van is loaded down with all the girls stuff, my parents, and my kids. The car has the four of us girls. As we were driving down the road this evening a song came on about God being our healer, and our portion, and something about trust. For some reason I just lost it. I was suddenly tired of being sick, tired of asking for healing. Tired of waiting for my sister to be well, and have a baby. For most of my life my parents have taken me to healing services, had me prayed over by anyone with that gift, asked repeatedly for God to step in.

The answer has always been Not right now.

The healing has always been for my heart, and my attitude, and my ability to cheerfully be diabetic, willingly use my disease as a ministry. I have had plenty of healing, and I wouldn't trade it for physical healing - not for a minute.

But for some reason this new disorder, these blackouts, or atypical migraines, or whatever they are - they are sapping my ability to cheerfully "deal". Added to that my unbelievable hurt for my little sister's physical and emotional pain, and the fact that my hubby is gone and our adoption is still delayed...
I guess I was a walking timebomb full of tears.

But here is the amazing part. Kelsey reached over and grabbed one hand. Mary reached up from the back seat for another hand. And we poured out our tears to our Father. Fears and hurt. Hopes and dreams. Old and new. As a family, automatically.
We were missing one sister, but she was definitely included, and prayed for.

I am so very thankful for my family. I am so glad that our automatic response, to pain or joy, is to take it to Jesus.
Faith. Joy. Hope. Truth. That is what we have, as well as who we are.

 See those beautiful baby bumps? Direct answer to prayer. 

More beautiful then I could have even imagined 4 years ago. 

 And this day of joy... Mary's wedding. I had no idea that God was going to bring another red-head into the family. (and since one of those baby bumps turned out to be a red-head too, well, excitement all around!)

Emilee and I

Then Kelsey came along.

Mary was a bit of a surprise, but a great one! 

Oh, I love these women!

Quite a bit has changed in our lives since I first wrote this post. New family members. Changes in location, and job, and health for all of us. 

But many things remain the same also. Most importantly, we have faith in our Savior, and an unbreakable love for each other. 

I am eager to see what another year brings (even if I am not too excited to be getting another year older)! 

Blessings,  

The First Decade

 Canaan is 10 now.
 An entire decade old.
 Where did the time go?
 Wasn't it just yesterday when he was this size?

His "Birth" day.

Matching daddy, back when Andy had glasses, and fewer tattoos! 

 Before I knew it, his first birthday came...

and he was a curly headed little mess monster! 

 Then, one more blink, and he was turning five!

Sixth birthday was army. 

Seventh was last minute.

 At 8 he got to fly a plane.

 Last year we didn't have a party, but the theme of the birthday was still easy to spot...

LEGO! 

 This year, we had a blast of a birthday party.
 If you know my kids, you can guess what the theme was.

 LEGO... of course.

 Andy made a fabulous cake. I swear, that man has more talents then I can keep up with. 

 We played soccer. 

Daisy was included quite nicely.

 We built race cars.

 Had races.

 Played dress-up... 

although, only the 2 year old guest participated in that activity! 

 Ate pizza, 

and of course, cake.

Yum yum!

It has been an entire week, and I have adjusted to calling him 10. But still, it doesn't quite seem real. Before I know it he will be driving! 

But first, I get to have another birthday! 

34, here I come. 

Blessings,