Lessons from a Dodger game

Dodger Game with the family!... always a fun time. It's funny how through even something so silly like a Dodger game, God can teach you the most wonderful lessons. I have been going through two books by Jerry Bridges called The Practice of Godliness and Respectable Sins. One with my HS dgroup and one with a girl I am mentoring. In both books this week the main topic was about ungodliness. Bridges says "ungodliness may be defined as living one's everyday life with little or not thought of God, or of God's will, or of God's glory, or of one's dependence on God."


In James 4:13-15 it says "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit' - yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." The everyday lives of these people were not bad, but in their planning they never acknowledged their dependence on God. We make plans all of the time but do we ever acknowledge God in our plans or depend on Him for the direction we should be going?


I was convicted by these studies and decided that I was going to ask the Lord more about what I should be doing and acknowledge Him and thank Him in the things He allows me to do. So when Jeff called me to see if I wanted to go to the Dodger game, after going back and forth trying to figure out if we should go or not, I asked him, "Maybe we should pray about what the Lord wants us to do?" Jeff decided he would pray and wait until after lunch to make a decision. As I hung up with him, I realized... maybe acknowledging God in whatever we are doing looks different all the time. This time maybe it looks like a prayer of thankfulness with the family before we went into the ballpark, thanking Him for the opportunity and the money to go. So that is what we did. We thought we were getting great seats but turns out they weren't the greatest (see pic below), although we saw a lot of home run balls coming straight for us! We had a great time just being together for the evening, doing something we love to do and recognizing God's blessing in it all.


Our seats hahaha

Oops I cut off Kailee!

After 6 tries we finally got a good picture!

Jake is such a goofball!

Fun with the Clantons

Yesterday we spent half of our day with some long time friends celebrating one of the kids birthdays. Being in ministry takes most of our time and there is not a lot of time for things outside of ministry. We had a great time just hanging out and catching up, can't say we did anything other than talking and eating. But what a reminder it was to take time to spend with those special people in your life. Carrie (and her family) is one of those special people in my life ... we grew up on the same block, went to high school together, and were also college roommates for a short time. It was great catching up on what the Lord is doing in each of our families. The only problem yesterday was the freezing cold weather at Lake Skinner, hence the large puffy jackets! ;)

Carrie and Me

Jeff and Danny (Carrie's brother)

Sydney, Jake, and Kailee

Nolan, Sydney, and Kailee

Ty reading us something off of a phone, not sure what he was reading but he was excited!

A little football with the kids! and Jake stealing the ball every time

Me, Jaime (Carrie's sister in law), and Carrie

I have been talking about adopting for many years now, I can remember when Jeff would say "I can't imagine loving another child like I love my own". Years went by and I just figured we would probably not move forward in adopting. Earlier in 2010 Jeff had told me that God had given him a verse (Matthew 25:44-45), the disciples are asking Jesus when did they see Him hungry, or sick, or a stranger, etc. and not minister to Him. And He replies "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me." After that life got busier and I went about my business doing other things and never took the first step to check into it. I kept asking around about the topic but never actually determined in my own heart that this was what we were going to do. Fast forward several months to March 1st, Jeff and I were going out on a date to dinner and to see Hillsong at the Staples Center and while we were at dinner Jeff says he was going to text me during the day but got too busy. He wanted to tell me he felt like the Lord was saying to move forward in the process of adoption. I just looked at him and knew that we had to move and soon, we couldn't keep putting off this step of faith God was calling us to take. So Wednesday, March 9th I called a Christian agency in Temecula to get information on what we should do. I talked for a while to the lady on the phone but the more the conversation went on the more nervous I would get. It is another life we are talking about and who knows what this little life would be like. The next day I had a post women's conference meeting at my house and one of the ladies brought a little girl she was babysitting. After the meeting I was cleaning up the table where the crumbled peanut butter and jelly sandwich was and immediately I had this thought "I don't want to do this anymore... cleaning up messes all the time". It was like a war in my mind, I couldn't believe how selfish the thought was. I never really realized I had such a selfish heart. I mean I have 2 kids already who make messes, why would I care about more messes? The thing that excited me the most, was starting to become anxiety in my heart. I forgot to mention Jeff was gone at the Shepherd's Conference until Friday of that week. That night I had horrible dreams, the ones that when you wake up make you look over your shoulder with every noise you hear. I kept thinking about the adoption and the fear that was in my heart was now beginning to take over my mind. I had text Jeff to ask for prayer and he reminded me to get in the Word, open my Bible and sit and dwell on the promises and truths of God. At that point I felt in a panic, so I did the old "Bible Roulette", you know where you just pick it up and flip to whatever opens first. Well it opened to Ephesians 1 and I started reading. This is what I read: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." I was so overwhelmed by God's love for me and the fact that at that moment He knew I needed to be reminded that I was also an adopted child of God. God is so faithful to meet us where we are at and gently lead us back to the place of peace.


Last Sunday as I sat in church listening to a great message in 1 Peter 4, our pastor asked us "Are you going to walk in faith or in fear?" The question was loud and clear and I knew that God was asking me the same thing. Tonight Jeff and I are going to finish filling out the packet and I am choosing to believe that my God will provide all that our family needs to walk in His will for us. Whether we will actually add another addition to our family or not, we will choose His ways over ours and rely on His Spirit to work in and through us, whatever the future holds.

Mom's Birthday Dinner

I went to dinner with my mom and her long time friend Judy for my mom's birthday. There is always lots of laughter when my mom and I are together. I love her! I realized after we left, when you have 2 grandma's together, they talk a lot about their grandkids! The days are gone when their kids are the topics of conversation. ;) 
It is such a great blessing to have a mom who loves her family and the Lord and sacrifices her time and energy to serve us when we need her. 

Debbie and Judy

We have so many things happening in our family right now my brain hurts. Here's just a few (which I will elaborate on in the future)... the Lord has led us into looking for another home, one that is bigger and can fit more children and that is closer to the freeway for Jeff's commute to Irvine. Did you catch the first point? Yes, we are praying about adopting. It has been on my heart for years and for the past couple years I have seen God open Jeff's eyes to the possibility (more on all that later). Those 2 things alone are enough to keep anyone busy but on top of that Jake is playing Spring baseball, Jeff is going to school, Kailee is starting gymnastics today, and we are involved in youth ministry and a home bible study through our church... just to name a few! Wow I am tired just typing all of that. But in the midst of our crazy adventures is our love for the Lord and the desire to seek His will for our lives above all else!

Well I have decided to give in and start a blog (what is blog? and where did it come from?). I have always loved the idea of journaling life (through my eyes) but cannot get in the habit of opening a book and writing in it, so here I am. Hopefully this will work. As my kids have grown I knew one day I would be really bummed I never wrote things down, 13 years later and here I go. Sorry Jake! Happy Reading all! 

And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. ~Isaiah 30:8