The Dynamic Duo

This is my dynamic duo 🙂  They do everything together.  They love so passionately.  They are learning to love consistently.  God is showing me how to teach them to love.  This is my calling.  They are my sweet little disciples and nothing satisfies me more than teaching them about Jesus and showing them how to love by living the Christian life out before their sweet, little eyes.  It is by no means easy.  But, it is my greatest calling…and it is something, lately, that has been worked out in sweat and tears.

A sample day was yesterday…I tried to follow the Lord’s leading in directing my steps throughout the day, but things just didn’t flow as I hoped they would.  Unfortunately, buddy caught the sickness sissy had…and so it has been over a week full of sickness…so we tried to find a way to make the day a joyful one with as minimal stress as possible…and, for us, after a week mostly in the home, it meant getting out!  We tried to go to the pool, but alas, mommy always forgets something and this time, it was my bathing suit…so I tried to let the kiddies swim (buddy really wanted to swim!) while watching them sitting on the side.  Buddy wanted to jump off the diving board…the lifeguard said no…the lifeguard told me to take off the swimmy floaties (as my kids are accustomed to), and put on the designated lifeguard vests they have at the pool….Hannah wanted to swim, but the water was too cold for her…she began to run around the pool…the lifeguard changed his mind and said buddy could jump off one time.  Buddy was happy, jumped, swam over to the side (this was the beautiful moment of the day), and climbed out…sissy started climbing on the picnic tables, and then Buddy followed too…mommy tried to keep them safe, but it was too late and sissy fell face forward onto the ground, busting her lip…mommy was considering going home, so I told the kiddies if they didn’t want to swim, then we would have to go home…buddy jumped in and had a blast swimming…the lifevest was just right for him.  Sissy, seeing buddy, really wanted to go into the water now…crying as she slipped herself in, saying “too cold, too cold,” she went into the water.  A few seconds later, mommy realized that the small lifevest wasn’t working out for her and it was forcing her face into the water instead of helping her stay afloat!  Mommy waited another second to see if sissy needed a moment to change her position and stay afloat, but then sissy’s cry became desperate, and mommy plunged in to save her.  This scene was very familiar for me from last season of swim lessons with buddy 😦  Anyway, mommy decided it was time to go now, soaking wet and pretty cold, I made my way out of the pool with the kiddies…buddy was incredibly obedient, and sissy came kicking and screaming  and dragging after mommy had to run and find her.  It is moments like these where I really wonder how in the world we would manage any more children other than 2…

Very timely, the Lord gave me these devotions to read:

Taking the Next Step

“…in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses” (2 Corinthians 6:4)

When you have no vision from God, no enthusiasm left in your life, and no one watching and encouraging you, it requires the grace of the Almighty God to take the next step in your devotion to Him, in the reading and studying of His Word, in your family life, or in your duty to Him.  It takes much more of the grace of God, and, a much greater awareness of drawing upon Him, to take that next step, than it does to preach the Gospel.

Every Christian must experience the essence of the incarnation by bringing the next step down into flesh-and-blood reality and by working it out with his hands.  We lose interest and give up when we have no vision, no encouragement, and no improvement, but only experience our everyday life with its trivial tasks.  The thing that really testifies for God and for the people of God in the long run is steady perseverance even when the work cannot be seen by others.  And the only way to live an undefeated life is to live looking to God.  Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to discourage you.  Never allow yourself to think that some tasks are beneath your dignity or too insignificant for you to do, and remind yourself of the example of Christ in John 13:1-17.

–My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

Is He Really My Lord?:

“…so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus…” (Acts 20:24)

Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing.  The joy our Lord experienced came from doing what the Father sent Him to do.  And He says to us, “As the Father sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).  Have you received a ministry from the Lord? If so, you must be faithful to it–to consider your life valuable only for the purpose of fulfilling that ministry.  Knowing that you have done waht Jesus sent you to do, think how satisfrying it will be to hear Him say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).  We each have to find a niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive a ministry from the Lord.  To do this we must have close fellowship with Jesus and must know Him as more than our personal Savior.  And we must be willing to experience the full impact of Acts 9:16–“I wil show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

“Do you love Me?”  Then, “Feed My Sheep” (John 21:17).  He is not offering us a choice of how we can serve Him; He is asking for absolute loyalty to His commission, a faithfulness to what we discern when we are in the closest possible fellowship with God.  If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is not the same as the call–the need is the exercise of the call.  The call is to be faithful to the ministry you received when you were in true fellowship with Him.  This does not imply that there is a whole series of differing ministries marked out for you.  It does mean that you must be sensitive to what God has called you to do, and this may sometimes require ignoring demands for service in other areas.

–My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers