It's a little difficult to slow myself down when I'm a kids pastor, teach after school art 5 days a week, help my husband with pastoring the youth, have a toddler and am trying to maintain a house. Let's face it, there is always so much to do and little time to do it. I'm a firm believer in spending time with your children teaching them things and allowing the household stuff to wait. I'll never get this time back with my son and I want him to know I choose him over work. Some days are better than others with energy, but just the other day I was really struggling reading him a book with the energy that I usually put forth. I like to make sure I use lots of different tones when I'm reading. He loves that! That was difficult on Thursday. I find that towards the end of the week it gets harder because I have been going nonstop since Sunday. I truly understand why God said that it is so important we take a day off. I don't mean taking time off from your family. We need to walk away from work and things that honestly can wait. There needs to be one day a week that we can spend quality time with the ones we love and away from the things that cause us stress.
I'll tell you one thing that I enjoy doing every single day and that I absolutely have to do to maintain my sanity and create a peaceful atmosphere in our house. Every morning when Daniel goes to work, I put on worship music. I start out with some kids praise and Jadon and I clap and dance to it. Then I turn on the worship. I use pandora and I have created a Kim Walker Smith station. She is one of my favorite worship leaders and Hillsong, Jesus Culture and many others come on that station. Jadon always wants me to pick him up during that time. It is so precious to me. I put my hand out and he places his fingers in mine as we dance around the room and sing songs to Jesus. He enjoys that time just as much as me. I can see it in his eyes. Not only does it take me into a place of joy and peace, but it also teaches my son how to worship Jesus no matter how chaotic our life can get. I always thought that having a child would make it so much harder to have alone time with God. I found that to be true to an extent but instead of looking at it from that perspective, I try to bring Jadon along on the journey with me. What better way to teach your child about God than to be a living example to him?
For those of you out there who don't even understand what I'm talking about, don't worry. I'm not completely oblivious to the fact that some people just don't get why someone would worship someone they can't see. Let me just leave this post at this: when I was around 6 or 7 years old, I had a dream where I was in my own secret garden (The Secret Garden was my favorite movie as a little girl). In that garden I had tons of plants and flowers all around me. I looked out into the field and here came Jesus riding up on his white horse. I heard "Better is One Day" playing in the background. It was so vivid to me that I still remember it like it was yesterday. When I woke up, I had this overwhelming love for Jesus. I gave my heart to the Lord and got baptized in water. I grew up loving him but not understanding everything completely. A lot of things happened to me that I didn't understand because I honestly was obedient to him and to my parents. It wasn't until I was a junior in high school that I completely understood what a relationship with Jesus Christ meant. I felt that I wanted to work with orphans on the mission field when I was around 6 or 7. I can't remember the exact age but it was definitely around there. I had no clue what the meant but after exploring many other occupations in high school, when I went to Armenia the summer after my junior year, God brought me back there. He told me I would be going into the ministry full time. I knew I was right where I was supposed to be when I was overseas. It's amazing how God brought everything together at the perfect time because I had already been accepted into Penn State for early acceptance when God told me that wasn't his plan. I was obedient and went off to get my pastoral license. I don't regret any second of that decision.
My relationship with Jesus Christ is not boring or traditional. In fact, I hate mundane tradition. haha...I have to laugh because when people think of pastors they think...boring...perfect..hypocritical... the list goes on. I serve a God who not only cares about me, but he has created me unique just like he has created everyone in their own unique way. It amazes me everyday how much he cares about every detail of my life. I have experienced some AMAZING things, including healing of my left ear when I went partially deaf in it from a concert. I have witnessed amazing miracles and life transformations that NO ONE could ever take credit for because it is so evident that it was the hand of God. Those are the best! I love when God does something so profound that no human could ever take the credit for, like placing thousands of dollars into the hands of missionaries to pay off all debt to go on the mission field or placing a car in your lap when there is no way for your to afford a new one. I serve a God who is REAL, RELEVANT, POWERFUL, EXCITING, and just plain AWESOME! That is how I can stay so optimistic through my entire journey.
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| my son and his kitty looking out the window |
