Spoon Fed

I had dinner with a sweet friend and as always we get on the topic of our kids! We hash out the why's, the what are they thinking, will they ever get it....and then we ask, "where is the manual"? When you bring your new baby home from the hospital, all is well. So you think! They go through a phase of having their days and nights mixed up, then you finally get them to sleep through the night...(please cue the Hallelujah Chorus)! They begin crawling, walking, forming little personalities; life is good. Then one morning you wake up and some teenager with attitude has taken over your child's body! All the while you are exhausted and have the thought, "will we ever make it through this stage"?

We go through their lives, praying for the next stage in hopes it will be easier than the previous. I can honestly remember the day when I thought, "well now; we have made it"! It is that stage when you can go through the drive thru of McDonalds, hand your children their happy meal and keep moving. They are beginning to be self sufficient. O WHAT A HAPPY DAY! I recall this as though it were yesterday, I didn't have to spoon feed them anymore.

As our children have grown, we as parents seem to struggle with letting go. For so long we have wanted them to be self sufficient and as long as it is the "Happy Meal" we are good, but when it comes to them becoming young adults, we want to continue spoon feeding!

Their whole life we have worked on preparing them for adulthood. We taught character through sharing their toys during play dates, faith through Bible stories and life circumstances, learning to pray for others, thanking God for blessing us with food, to care for the less fortunate and a work ethic through chores. They have been given the tools to become productive, God fearing individuals....BUT for some reason we expect perfection when they become young adults. Why? I still haven't perfected it!

When it comes down to it, we as parents must LET GO AND LET GOD! Okay, there I said it! They must feed themselves. I read once in Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson, "When we pray, we relieve ourselves of responsibility. We let go and let God. We take our hands off and put our concerns into  the hands of Almighty God. And trust me, He can handle whatever we put in His hands."(45) In Luke 11, Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray. He speaks of being persistent and praying with boldness. In verse 8 it says, "I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet BECAUSE OF THE MAN'S BOLDNESS, he will get up and give him as much as he needs." Persistent and bold prayers is what must be done...then LET IT, I mean "THEM" GO! If I were honest, this is SOOO hard for me, I find myself in prayer continually, which isn't that what scripture says...to "pray without ceasing"?

As I reflect on this day of Thanksgiving, I am thankful that God continually guides and teaches me through His scripture. I don't always learn the lesson the first time, but I am thankful for His PERSISTENCE AND BOLDNESS WITH ME!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Being Thankful

I cannot believe it is already Thanksgiving! Turkey, dressing, green beans, corn, greens, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, pecan pie..I feel pleasantly stuffed already! As I sit and reflect on this past year, I am blessed beyond measure. I am so thankful for God's grace and mercy, for salvation! There are those times that I didn't know exactly what God was doing, nor did I like what He was doing, but through it all He remained faithful. Gary and I completed our first year with college students, that in itself was a learning process, AND we survived! I started back to college and a new job all while, still homeschooling our 14 year old...God is faithful! Praying with expectation for 2015.

Be encouraged for another day, God is so faithful! Here is wishing you and your family a 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Be Blessed

With Lots of Love and Prayers,

Gary & Sherri Ard

2014

Psalms 100:1-5

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 

ENTER HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING AND HIS COURTS WITH PRAISE; GIVE THANKS TO HIM AND PRAISE HIS NAME.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

The Rest of the Story

Psalms 139:13-16 (MSG)
Oh, yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God--you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration--what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all stages of my life were spread out before you. The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.

Recently, I was asked to give a devotion at a bridal shower. I am a preparer with lots of notes, scripture references, examples and so forth. I had been working on this particular devotion for over a week. Like always, I prayed on the way up to the church and was trying to review what I had studied, but for some reason nothing was coming...I started to panic! I prayed again, asking God to give me a clear mind, empty me and fill me with you is what I asked. Sounds simple...well it wasn't!

My drive to the church is approximately 20 minutes, but it seemed like a drive you take with a 5 year old going to Disney World for the first time...IT WAS FOREVER! I continued to pray and rehearse...still nothing. I pulled into the church parking lot and I prayed again, in a begging manner; "GOD PLEASE HELP ME"! One thought kept coming up every time I would finish praying. "Tell her about the story I wrote for her". Are you kidding me! I just used those verses at a baby shower, I couldn't use them again.

I apologized to the group for what might take place, but I knew in my heart of hearts I needed to do what God had commanded me to do. I explained my ride to the church, sitting in the car arguing with God and how the whole devotion had completely changed in a matter of 10 minutes and I wasn't even sure what I was going to say. Let me tell you, I love how God uses this stubborn, broken vessel for His glory!

Psalms 139:13-18

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. 

ALL THE DAYS ORDAINED FOR ME WERE WRITTEN IN YOUR BOOK BEFORE ONE OF THEM CAME TO BE. 

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand, When I awake, I am still with you."

For many of us, our parents started praying for our mates before we were even born. And before conception, God already had our story written. He knew the color of our hair, the color of our eyes, what our personality would be, what our career would be, who our friends would be and yes, he already had that special mate written in our book. BUT, I must say...because of the free will that He has given us, we choose whether or not to step into our story. For many, we have detoured from that precious story, we have added pages that He did not intend on, but because of His mercy and grace, He allows us...even with added pages to step back into the book.

Grace was the bride we were celebrating with on this particular night. I have known Grace forever, and I can still see her running around church in her wrangler's and boots! Although I did not get the opportunity to teach her in youth, I was blessed to watch her grow up loving God with all of her heart. As I viewed from a slight distance, Grace developed and began to live out her own faith. You see she had parents that trusted God with everything...when times were good and when times were bad. They lived their faith out in front of Grace and she took notice!

Even before Grace was conceived, God knew she would go to school for agriculture and that she would meet the man of her dreams...Jacob. God had already written this marriage in Grace's Book, and because of her faithfulness to Him, she stepped right into the pages of the her Cinderella story! I cannot wait to see "The Rest of the Story"!

I know this is long, but would you allow me to provide one more way that God has used this scripture in my life? Recently, I share this same verse with an abortion-minded client. She cried, I cried...she left our center that day as an "intends to carry"client...I rejoiced! A few weeks went by, she did not show up for her next appointment, we tried calling, but because of life choices and situations we were unable to get in contact with her. Prayers were lifted up, she called the center on a Thursday claiming that she needed to go through with an abortion. She stated, "I cannot care for this child. I do not have a place to lay my head, much less this baby." She was told that there were other options, please come into the center so we can discuss them with you and do an ultrasound to confirm that there is a viable pregnancy. She didn't come. Prayers were lifted up, this time through a massive prayer text! It took two weeks, but she called the center wanting to hear the other options, she knew she could not go through with an abortion. Today she is on her way to making an adoption plan! She is not only stepping into the pages of this baby's God story, but for two parents that she doesn't know. When asked what changed her mind, she said one of the things she took from our very first meeting to confirm pregnancy was the verse Psalms 139:16. She stated, "I have marked that verse in the Bible that you guys gave me and I read it every day. It gives me hope and strength when I am having a bad day." In Spring....I hope to bring you "The Rest of the Story"!