Sometimes when we look back on our past its painful, but other times it is an awesome reminder of God's faithfulness. This past week I was reminded of God's faithfulness in finding our church. while we lived in Colorado we had an amazing church, we felt at home, we were so blessed.
When we moved to Texas we were so excited to be closer to family and just to start over, with a new job, new friendships, new adventures, we were and still are so excited to see what God has in store for us while we are here in Texas.
This last Friday at playgroup one of my sweet new friends asked about how we had come to go to our church, First Baptist Arlington. We had visited a couple times with my grandparents and weren't that impressed so when we moved here my grandma kept persistently reminding me that we should go check out First Baptist. Finally one Sunday, Daniel reluctantly gave into my persistence and we decided to go ahead and give it another chance. I cannot describe to you how thankful I am that we listened to that. That Sunday we were blown away by FBC Arlington and the way they approached God's leading and direction in their church. We immediately wanted to join. We felt at home, we knew we were where we were supposed to be.
Our kiddos loved going to Sunday school and learning about Jesus, God is blessing us through this church every single day. I'm honored to say I serve alongside all these wonderful other believers who are out looking and searching for how they are being called to influence this world, and the people they come in contact with daily.
I was also reminded about how blessed I am to live where I live, not only do we have a great neighborhood, a great school, but our neighbors are literally the best. They have welcomed us since the days we first moved in. One of our neighbors blesses me and brings me joy each time I see her, she has ministered to me as a young mom of two boys in so many great and powerful ways over the last 19 months. I know there is a special place for her in heaven, and I'm so very thankful to know her, she is the reason we found our Sunday school class, she came over and watched the boys so I could study, or run errands, or she would just come over so I could have some adult conversation. Amazing.
Another God story in the midst of this one finding our church, our neighborhood, our neighbors, but we found the best Sunday school class ever. I only recently realized how special our Sunday school class was, and I'm thankful to be a part of something different. Our Sunday school class is full of the coolest people, they come from all walks of life, different countries, but we are all young, married and most of us have children. The greatest thing is we serve together, we praise Jesus together, and we just live life together. We are there to lift each other up in prayer, praise when there is an answer to prayers, weep when there is loss. We talk about our marriages, how to keep God the center of our marriage how to keep our families God focused. We are able to include our children in our service projects, but we are also able to serve our community as couples without wondering who is caring for our children or worrying about them getting into something. Our Sunday school class has enabled us to continue to be God's hands and feet even in the tough years of pre-school parenting.
I'm thankful for these reminders, its such a blessing to look over this past 19 months and see just a small glimpse of the blessing that God has brought to us.
Thank you for reading, I hope that today you are able to just soak up the greatness of a gift that may seem insignificant but can turn out to have a huge impact on your life.
Blessings until we meet again.
Angela
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Fear
Well it looks as though I will write a blog post once a month. oops :) Today I want to talk to you about fear. Fear plays such a huge role in my life, and I'm not sure why I let it get in the way of so many aspects of my life which is beyond frustrating to me. But sometimes fear/anxiety/worry is paralyzing, and that makes me want to scream. Because I know that God has my back, I KNOW that God has equipped me to overcome. Why doesn't that overcome my fear? I think the better question is Why wont I let it overcome my fear? because in fear I'm "comfortable" "safe" NOT TRUE. I have let those lies and whispers get way to close to me.
I have always looked at fear/anxiety/worry in such a negative light. I have felt that those butterflies in my stomach when I'm so close to pushing and stretching my boundaries go crazy and instead of embracing them. I all to often turn and RUN the other way. I flee from it, even though I know beyond a shadow of a doubt something great, amazing and beautiful is on the other side of it. I often wonder how much greatness I have missed out on because, it is so easy to just run instead of facing fear, uncomfortable, anxiety.
I really wish I could say that I have left this in my past, that in some miraculous way God has delivered me from it. Not so, but I have seen that God continues to work with me through this. I know that who I am today, is a direct result of becoming a wife, the blessing of becoming a mother, graduating college. Standing up for myself and my beliefs despite criticism and very hurtful words from those who were the closest to me.
One way I see God equipping me to not only face my fears, and confront my fears but to conquer them is with my two precious boys. J and C do things on a daily basis that stretch me out of my comfort zone. There is one day though that is still just a vivid in my memory as the day it happened. I was reminded of this awesome God Story yesterday when I went in my room to find J not only not sleeping, and not even in the same room I left him in to nap. He was going through my jewelry box, where I don't only keep jewelry but keepsakes. One thing you will find in there is three small red rocks.
We were living in Lakewood, CO with friends, in the transition between Colorado and Texas, I was 8 months pregnant with C and J was 19 months and very curious. J and I were home and I decided to take a shower, I left J in the bathroom with me thinking oh he will be fine,. When I looked out of the shower to check on him he was gone, again this was fairly normal, I figured he just went to find a different toy. a few minutes later J came back in the bathroom and gave me two small red rocks. I said, "Oh thank you." and he ran off at first I didn't think much about it then it hit me like a ton of bricks. OH MY GOSH where did he get those rocks. I grabbed a towel and ran out of the bathroom to find him. As I go down the hallway I look out the window in the living room and I see my precious baby boy running back to the house from outside, where he found his rocks. There was snow on the ground, he had a huge grin on his face he was so proud of himself. I had forgot to even check that the front door was locked, because surely he wont leave the house. I have seen my response to fear change since we welcomed our boys into the world, in some ways, some fears are easier to face. I can handle those because I know I have to. I know there are two little boys depending on me to do everything I can to save them, to protect them. They don't care, they depend on me.
My fears sometimes are debilitating, and paralyzing, but I know they are worth facing. I also know that I can face them because the Holy Sprit is living in me, he gives me courage, strength, peace, comfort,
Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand.
1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
May we all go in peace, May God be with you until we meet again!
I have always looked at fear/anxiety/worry in such a negative light. I have felt that those butterflies in my stomach when I'm so close to pushing and stretching my boundaries go crazy and instead of embracing them. I all to often turn and RUN the other way. I flee from it, even though I know beyond a shadow of a doubt something great, amazing and beautiful is on the other side of it. I often wonder how much greatness I have missed out on because, it is so easy to just run instead of facing fear, uncomfortable, anxiety.
I really wish I could say that I have left this in my past, that in some miraculous way God has delivered me from it. Not so, but I have seen that God continues to work with me through this. I know that who I am today, is a direct result of becoming a wife, the blessing of becoming a mother, graduating college. Standing up for myself and my beliefs despite criticism and very hurtful words from those who were the closest to me.
One way I see God equipping me to not only face my fears, and confront my fears but to conquer them is with my two precious boys. J and C do things on a daily basis that stretch me out of my comfort zone. There is one day though that is still just a vivid in my memory as the day it happened. I was reminded of this awesome God Story yesterday when I went in my room to find J not only not sleeping, and not even in the same room I left him in to nap. He was going through my jewelry box, where I don't only keep jewelry but keepsakes. One thing you will find in there is three small red rocks.
We were living in Lakewood, CO with friends, in the transition between Colorado and Texas, I was 8 months pregnant with C and J was 19 months and very curious. J and I were home and I decided to take a shower, I left J in the bathroom with me thinking oh he will be fine,. When I looked out of the shower to check on him he was gone, again this was fairly normal, I figured he just went to find a different toy. a few minutes later J came back in the bathroom and gave me two small red rocks. I said, "Oh thank you." and he ran off at first I didn't think much about it then it hit me like a ton of bricks. OH MY GOSH where did he get those rocks. I grabbed a towel and ran out of the bathroom to find him. As I go down the hallway I look out the window in the living room and I see my precious baby boy running back to the house from outside, where he found his rocks. There was snow on the ground, he had a huge grin on his face he was so proud of himself. I had forgot to even check that the front door was locked, because surely he wont leave the house. I have seen my response to fear change since we welcomed our boys into the world, in some ways, some fears are easier to face. I can handle those because I know I have to. I know there are two little boys depending on me to do everything I can to save them, to protect them. They don't care, they depend on me.
My fears sometimes are debilitating, and paralyzing, but I know they are worth facing. I also know that I can face them because the Holy Sprit is living in me, he gives me courage, strength, peace, comfort,
Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand.
1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
May we all go in peace, May God be with you until we meet again!
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