Give them up to God

As Iv mentioned before my husband and I are working on writing a guideline for parenting counseling. Its something Iv always been passionate about and I enjoy with all my heart. In a book I was reading today a lady talked about how writing several blogs and articles on the subject is how she eventually compiled her book. So I figure my next few blogs will be on the subject of parenting. I'm very careful not to say Christian parenting because I don't want to dissuade people from reading the advise. To be honest the bible has wonderful principles for living life and if it can help you be a better parent then lets use it. I personally love Christ with all  my heart and know that He is the only way. And through His love I hope to help you love you children the way He wishes us to. Also I feel it necessary to mention although I write about these things with much confidence its not because I have accomplished it. (One of my favorite verses is Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.) The reason for my confidence is because I trust my God and I know it to be true and right. Just because we know something to be true and right doesn't mean we are able to complete it 100%. The key is to keep our eyes on Him and let him help us to keep or focus on the right track.

So today the topic is why should I give my children up God. The original topic which I had planned, was on giving them up,  but then I started thinking there may be some out there who would argue the why factor. I'm usually that person which is why I thought of it. So before I go into the how lets talk about why. 

First off a parents greatest concern is there child's future. How will he/she be when they are 20. Will they be successful, beautiful, handsome, be a great mother, father, teacher brother, sister, etc etc. This list could go on for ages, Ill stop now.  In Mathew 6:25-34 (below) Jesus talks about how we are not to worry. What I love about parents is they will actually tell you, well yeah that's talking about clothing and money, not my child. But in verse 25 it says YOUR LIFE. And almost any parent will agree that their children a huge part of their life. And really there is just no arguing with verse 27, how many minuets have you saved and how many problems have you solved in your life by worrying about your children. Worrying about their day, their week, their schooling, their future. Most often it just makes you physically sick or an emotional train wreck. I love how in vs 28 Jesus says they do not labor or spin. So often God has shown me myself in a vision laboring and spinning. Not long ago someone told me they saw that God was asking me to dance with him. I told God I do want to dance with you whats going on here. And he showed me my "dancing." Believe me a flower laboring and spinning is a much nicer way of putting it. In this he reminded me that he has and always will provide much more than what I need. And if I will just focus on dancing with him he will also dance with my girls. 

Worrying solves nothing and the only way to not worry is to check out vs 33. Seek him first. Don't seek the best collage, the most appropriate friends, the highest grades, again etc etc, you put your appropriate answer there. Sure some day you will have to help your child choose a collage, and guide them with their friends but the choosing is theirs. And if they are constantly pointed towards Christ and know to listen to the Spirit I promise you they will choose well. But how will they know to keep their eyes on Christ and to listen the Spirit if all they have ever seen you do is labor and spin. Children learn best by example and really its one of the few ways they learn for many years. Everything they learn in school can be forgotten but the emotional and spiritual lessons stay in the soul and spirit. If you don't believe me try helping a fifth grader with their math homework and see if you remember everything you learned in class. Then try and remember if you learned any life lessons in fifth grade. Ok so now it kind of sounds obvious that we are commanded to give our cares... our children up to God. Right?!?!?! Well if your not convinced I have more. 

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^e ?

28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Here I have added Philippians 4:4-9 which is another Spirit given command to us. Verse 4 is easily an answer to how to give you children up to God and the following are the why. Verse 6 doesn't say don't be anxious about anything, EXCEPT YOUR CHILDREN. Not only does it say about anything but it goes on to repeat and stress the point with, in every situation. If there is anything that can rack the nerves more than children I don't know what it is. But this verse says in every situation. That includes when your trying to work and the kids need help with homework and don't forget to mention your three days behind in laundry and your floor hasn't been mopped all week... oooppp and someone just puked in the middle of the kitchen floor. Yep even in that situation. So how are we suppose to respond to this scenario again. By praying (giving it up to Him) and giving Him thanks. Thanks for the job you have that brings in some cash, thanks that your children are learning something new and that's why they have questions, thanks that you are there and you can help them, thanks that your children have enough cloths to dirty up and continue having clean cloths to wear, thanks that you have a house and a floor to mop .... well to be honest I'm having trouble thinking of one for the vomit situation. And then let God know, I need you to take this, help please. Here's the thing He wont enter until you ask. But in that moment you will start to feel his presence. He is always there but he will not intervene if you don't want Him to. If your sure you have got it all under control and that you can do it on your own. He will allow you that space. But if you seek him, if you thank him, if you just open up your heart and say I need You... just read verse 7. Take a min to meditate on that. Let it sink in. Have you ever felt that peace. If you haven't just ask for it. I promise its what He wants you to feel. I also promise you that giving up your children to him on a daily basis is how you will feel that peace. Something that is beyond understanding. That means that most of the world will look at you like your crazy. And ask you why your are not a wreck. I have a good friend who's son deals with a fatal illness on a daily basis. He wasn't suppose to live through being a toddle and he is 17. They continue with constant doctor appointments and surgeries but he also continues to jump out of trees and play soccer. She, according to the world, should be an absolute mess. But shes not, she has learned how to give him up to God. She has learned to trust her Daddy with her baby and let him grow to be what God has him to be. She is a constant reminder to me of this peace and why I need to continue giving my girls up to God. Something else that comes with this peace is grace. If you screw it up you can always fall back on the fact that God is the one raising your children. Believe me if you truly let Him make the decisions then you can truly fall back on the fact that even if you mess up Hes got your back.  The last thing I want to mention about this verse is another how. Its mentioned in verse 8. Keep you focus on the positive, on your advances, on your kids advances. We all screw up  but if you let yourself dwell on your screw ups the devil will have a hay day with you. Keep your focus on what is admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. 

4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Well I could most likely go on but I try to keep my blogs short. I hope this helped you to understand the importance of giving your kidos up to God and letting go. In the next post I will look at some scriptures that will help in the how. 

Being well spoken and eloquent

Over the last eight years I have lived a journey I never knew I would experience. Learning a new language and living it is an experience which is ongoing and exciting. Although I can be very proud of my accomplishments to this point I certainly can not say that I am well spoken or eloquent when speaking in Spanish. This very idea has caused some slight issues over the last couple years . I am currently at an interesting point in my Spanish abilities. Where I can converse quiet fluently but there are still times that I may say something wrong which doesn't quite translate my feelings or emotions. Luckily most people I am in contact with know me well and know my heart and are able to "translate" my feelings and thought through what I have actually said. The problem comes in when the person I am speaking to doesn't know me well or wishes to use my words to their own personal use.
I am currently a teacher in a preschool/primary and a co-pastor at our church. My calling is to lead and instruct, to care and love, to guide and teach. Most of this calling is being done in Spanish. Many times the enemy has entered in and said, " How on earth do think you can do this. You are not even from here. You don't understand these people. They are saying things that you don't really get. You are only going to confuse them."  Etcetera, Etcetrea, I could go on for half a page with all the crap he tells me.
 I loved speech class in high school. It was one of the only classes I got good grades in. That and sciences. Even though I was a rebel child and was extremely disinterested in school, speech class was one of the highlights of my day. Any job I held since the age of 15 I was told I was a great communicator. That I was able to get my thoughts across and people could understand me well. As a nurse I worked a lot with the teaching aspect to instruct and teach and again I was often praised for a job well done.
All this to say that in my 30's God placed me in multiple positions of teaching and leading which I had to do in a second language. There have been times when I wanted to be like Moses in Exodus 4 and say.10Then Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." or  13But he said, "Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will." But any time I did start to slack off and let someone else speak for me a hunger rose up in me. I felt an urge to express the love or encouragement in the way God gave me to do it. Here is the thing, God can always find someone else, as he found Aaron for Moses, to do what he has asked you to do. But he has asked you to do it because he needs your stamp on  it. 
So when God speaks and says. 11The LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12"Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say."  Then I say ok Lord I will go. But how many times do I fail, and stumble. It is still such a struggle and a punch to my pride that I can not be well spoken and eloquent in my speech. OHHHH!!! There it is my friends. God uses the our weakest parts for his work so that all the glory can be his, as it should be.
I was recently reminded of the importance of this when listening to a well known prophet speak. His name is thrown around often in our church meetings and to be honest I had never really listened to one of his sermons. The other day a friend of mine sent me one because it was speaking about a word I had recently received. As I listen to it I realized that he was a horrible speaker. This makes me laugh out loud because he speaks in his native language (English). I tell you this not to say I was judging him but just that without meaning to I had my speech teachers checklist in my head and he was flunking. And this was when God steeped in and said, " Your right, but he impacts millions of lives every day, he reveals my love and intentions for people using his gifting and using it in the way I see fit. And even though you feel like you have been failing people in your manner of speaking in Spanish, you are reaching their souls in a way no other can." Yep I'm crying now even typing this. My Papi has such a beautiful way of speaking to me. And the point in writing this blog is so that any of you who doubt what you are called to do just because you were not trained or raised to do it, my hope is that i can encourage you to stay steady. Don't be like Moses in this aspect. Trust God to give you your words and speak through your mouth. Don't wait around until he sends an Aaron. 
It is true that if you wait for your Aaron he will still reach hearts just like he did with Moses but it wont be the same. He wants you, he wants your weakness, he wants your errors, he wants your relationship. God taught me a lot about pride in my 20's and when he brought me to Mexico my pride was broke into tiny little pieces because had I held onto it I would have been broken into a million pieces. And even though I let it go, it still tries to peak its ugly little head in from time to time and say, " How silly you look, How silly you sound." And this is when I lean back on my Papi and say, " Let my words be your words, let your feelings be represented and not mine. Speak through me and let your message be clearly received." 
So now it is time to continue another week, to go and minister, with a microphone in front of at least 60-70 people in our evening service, to let the Spirit of Christ himself speak through my mouth. To guide children and to love them, to speak life into my coworkers, and express His love. And most of all to do all of this with confidence. Confidence in part in my self because if God says I can I am doubting him by saying I cant. And confidence in the Holy Spirit that he will guide me in all knowledge. 
So if you are doubting your calling or your gifting that may be a good sign. But what action you take next is the real key. Are you going to do as Moses and argue with God about it or are you going to say, " If you say so, I will walk in that."