And so we wait...

<Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock>

Do you feel like you are always waiting?
Checkout line, gas pump, restaurant. Post office, carpool, tag office. Bathroom, ticket counter, roller coaster ride, even waiting for the new Fall shows to come out...is it September yet?  
They are all things in life we have to sometimes wait for...I admit to sometimes being impatient during those little things in life...but most of the time, they don't really bother me all that much. Well, unless I am in a hurry and I have two kids with me, then, dear Lord, help us all. :)

But, what if the directions you were given were simply to wait? I remember when David was little and I would say, wait right here. He obliged normally. But give Noah the same directions at the same age and that kid would bolt in the opposite direction. He dislikes waiting with a passion, so I have had to become creative in the ways I ask him to wait...which normally means I better have a device ready to go, or some candy, or make up a game because it's not going to end well if I don't. Let me say too, that Noah is 7, and his waiting skills are growing, and in the grand scheme of life, he hasn't waited for anything major yet. :)

All that made me ponder this - Am I so impatient at times or so wrapped up in my own little self that God feels the need to get creative with me?
Now, let's be clear, God is God, and Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, so He is already creative just by being God. But I often find myself saying things to my kids or to the youth I lead, the same things God says to me when it comes to waiting, being patient, and enduring...and I trust some of that is because He has lavishly loved me through some difficult times of waiting.

A quick search for passages in the Bible about waiting will produce about 125 verses, many of them in the Old Testament. Waiting for perfect timing, waiting for cleansing, waiting for someone's return, the king waits, the servants wait, the wicked lie in wait, they are waiting on salvation and waiting on the Lord. At times, the Lord says "Wait here for me" and other times He said "Go there and wait for me". The passages I love are some that say..."And they waited." It doesn't say they set up tent, although that may be likely...it also doesn't say how they entertained themselves, or what they did while they waited! RIGHT? We are supposed to be doing something while we wait, RIGHT? 

Sometimes.

I wrote earlier this year about how I felt like I was waiting on God, but really, He was actually waiting on me. When I first began processing that, it saddened me to know that God was actually waiting on me. I want to be a person that is prepared and ready for whatever God wants to do in and through me...but I was admittedly stuck in a place where I was so consumed with what I wanted God to do, instead of being consumed in whatever He was doing already. He had been writing a beautiful story in my life and I was so busy doing that life, but being frustrated through it, instead of embracing what He was writing. When my focus shifted, it became easier to wait and do what He was calling me to, even though the surrounding circumstances did not change. 

And so we wait.

We wait only for the Lord. We wait expectantly - anticipating His return to us, to heal the land, and reunite all whom believe in Him.
Psalm 27:14 - Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 33:20 - We wait in hope for the Lord, he is our help and our shield.
Isaiah 26:8 - Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desires of our hearts. (See www.268generation.com)

Be encouraged that whatever you are waiting on - whether it be graduation, the opportunity to date, waiting for Mr/Mrs right, the adoption of a child, the salvation of a loved one, a positive pregnancy test, or even to pay off your debt...the Lord is over it all. He has it all planned out and He is not surprised by the slightest bump in the road - all of those are reasons for His glory to shine bright. In waiting expectantly for Him, our hearts and minds will be in the right position for Him to guide and lead us in ways we never expected! Come Lord Jesus!

Until then...we wait.


Love,
Karen

Raising D

After my last post, I have spent a good portion of the summer time wrapping up the study of the True Love Project (#trueloveproject) with my sweet chicks, and now school has been in session for a week and we are juggling that new schedule. This is a transition year for our eldest son, who started 6th grade at the middle school. He also moved from the first floor Children's Ministry to the Third Floor Youth Ministry, known as the coveted cool spot of the youth at our church! I have been teaching on the Third Floor for three years. I am not considered a veteran but I am not the rookie either. So I guess that makes me in the Minor League... Always a baseball reference 

David could not be more thrilled about being on the Third Floor. He has heard enough about retreats and DNOW and fun games that he wants to experience them for himself. 

And Me?

I am ready for him to experience it! He has a good group of boys coming to the floor with him-boys that he has known since he was 2! What is to come is some of the best years of his life

We have had so many chats over the last year....about life, Jesus, the Bible, girls, school and more. I look at his precious face and cute freckles and I am immediately drawn into the days when he was little...

when he talked NON-STOP from the time he got up till the time he went to bed. He dropped a nap at an early age, and he was meticulous about his books on the bookshelf. His stuffed animals were all named, and his life revolved around the Disney channel and doing puzzles for hours! He would build it, destroy it, and build again. He was picky about his food but would eat a waffle and a banana every morning when he was 2 and we would leave for work at 6:30 AM. He would sing Bob the Builder songs all the live long day and every type of construction was Bob working on his house.

As I stare back at that same cute face, the present time shoots me back into a reality that leaves him in this house for only 7 more years. Seven years from now I will be dropping him off at COLLEGE.
I keep thinking it's not enough time. We have more things to do and not enough time to do it! I know I am not alone in my thoughts.

Over the last few years I have watched the youth in our ministry grow up and leave the nest and head to college. I have spent time with them and their parents and seen the tears - both joy and sadness - for the new journeys ahead. I admit, I may have shed a few over several of our students, as well. But, nothing, nothing in the world, gives me greater satisfaction than hearing them say..."I believe God wants me to be here on this campus." "I have watched God re-direct my steps to this place" "He opened every door we needed" and sometimes they took other routes to get to their place, but God had been faithful in leading and guiding those steps too. The friendships they share with the other youth in our group are strong. When they come home, if they come home, they come to visit and share their lives with us. That is what I want for David. I want to see him grow in length, but mostly depth. Depth is his faith, depth in his friendships, depth in just embracing a calling on his life. 

A handful of the girls have been my chicks, so when they come home, they sometimes babysit for me or we get to have coffee together and I enjoy every second of it. The boys though...some of those boys my sons have looking up to for years. We either watched them play soccer, football, basketball, baseball, run track, and my boys wanna be cool, funny, smart, and witty just like their role models: Jackson, Davis, Levi, Caden, and Jeremy. Now I am thankful that only 3 of them went away to school and the other two we still get to hang out with for the next year or two. I also want that for David. I want him to see how these guys invest in his life, and that one day David will invest in other kids' lives. I guess he already does that when he hangs out with all the little brothers/sisters from the ballpark and takes them to the swings and slides to give their momma's a break. :) He really is growing up to be quite the servant. Thank you, Lord!

Raising David has been a true blessing. I think as a young mom I struggled with the idea that I have no idea what I am doing, or if what I am doing is helping/hurting, and sometimes I am left with what seems like utter chaos...but then God...see, God has redeemed my failures and He can make new any wrongs I have written in that kid's life - He can do that in anyone's life. 

David, you are the one who first said Mommy to me. You will always be the beautiful ray of sunshine in my life. You are so much like me in attitude, but so much like your dad in how you think and process your life. I pray you always embrace life with the sweetest attitude and trust without a seed of doubt that you are Loved. You are loved by us, and by the Lord - creator of the Heavens and Earth, but also the the creator of YOU.

I love you.

-Mom


Karen

SEND 2015

#Send2015

The Send Conference was hosted in Nashville, TN just earlier this week. I was there with 13,499 of my closest friends. 14 of those people were from our own church! The hubs and I came up a day early and had a wonderful date at Burger Republic and also at a fabulous coffee shop, Barista Parlour, before meeting up with the rest of our team at the conference on Monday. 

The North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board collide to host this conference, which sold more tickets than they ever dreamed of this year. Both leaders - Kevin Ezell and David Platt - were there to open us and draw us in to the vision of calling and being on mission for Christ.

Breakout sessions led us to explore different areas of calling, often hearing stories of people who are living their life on mission, of ways we can be on mission and ways to reach the next generation.

It was 36 hours of worship, testimony, preaching, and networking. I have been to conferences before - Passion and Catalyst mainly - and each of those have played unique roles in shaping this girl and influencing my calling. 

My pastor husband has a calling. He is called to administrate the finances at our church. He does other things under that calling, but that's his main role. My role is to support him in that calling...and that continues to be my main role. I get other cool tasks like raising our children, being the primary care taker for them when they were little and now as they go to school, I am the one who picks them up each day and spends the afternoon with them. All under the umbrella of calling...
Over the last few years one of the things I have said to God is - Whatever. Whatever you want or ask of me, I will do. I have found out that sometimes He asks us to do some very crazy things...no surprise there. And sometimes...He asks us to step out and do something that isn't exactly what we had in mind. I thought my life would be completely different than it is now. I never dreamed I would be back at work 30 hours a week, juggling two kiddos at two different schools, keeping up with Jeremy's jam packed meeting schedule and late nights, being a baseball momma...wait, I did dream of that. :) But I think you get my drift. I also never dreamed that God would ordain those exact steps and moments to be used for His glory. Going back to work was easy when it was back to a family of people whom I so dearly love. It was even easier when God opened the door for me to return for more hours and days...and then, when Satan thought he was going to knock my boss out with cancer for a while, our office rallied and everyone took on more, and God was glorified with all of our obedience...and He healed my boss. No Cancer. No Evidence of Cancer. THAT is for His glory. 

While at the conference three of my chicks went with me to the If:Gathering breakout. I love the IF girls and they have fueled my fire for spending time with my chicks...more than they will ever know. Now, you gotta remember that my chicks are in high school. Their calling is to get up every day and go to school...they aren't particularly fond of that calling right now, but I do hope that something resonates with them about what their future looks like based on the things God lavishly calls them to right now. 

I attended a breakout session led by Thom Rainer with the majority of our youth about Reaching the Next Generation. Huge deal for Jeremy and I and that was one of the best talks I have heard. It's not surprising his statistics, the question is what do we do as a church and how do I participate in reaching them. It occurred to me that I am the only Gen X youth leader on the Third Floor...I mean, aside from our youth minister. Everyone else is in the Generation above mine - the Baby Boomers. So, it was eye opening to see and hear what our own youth had to say about the information.

I had such a fun few days in Nashville - any time I can spend with my husband and our youth at the same time is fun, in my eyes. Our whole group had dinner together at the Old Spaghetti Factory and that was yummy and lots of laughs were had. I am looking forward to processing all that was said there and what it means for the Church moving forward. 
No matter what, God will be glorified.

Love,

Karen