Celebrating our Perfect Father

As we celebrated Poncho's Birthday tonight, I see how much he is loved by our kids. I am thankful that he has been the example he has been throughout their life. I am thankful that Peyton can look at her Daddy and see what kind of man she should marry and how they should treat her. I am thankful that Braden has the example of how to be a good husband and father to his children. 

And though not as much as he would have liked, he hopes to have passed some of these things to Josh along the way. Josh is a wonderful husband and Father and we are thankful that he will be the example he should be for our grand babies.

Unfortunately, not all kids have such a great example or any example at all. No matter how wonderful I think Poncho is, there are times when he like all of us has been led by our sinful nature and has somewhere along the way let us down. This is not a bash Poncho blog....it is a Praise Jesus blog! Praise Jesus that He NEVER lets us down. That those of us who aren't as fortunate to have a great earthly father to look up to, can look even higher to the PERFECT Heavenly Father who has adopted all of us as His very own children! He is the example we all should look at! He sets the standards that we should all strive towards! He shows us what "true love" really is by the example of His love for His church! 

If you have been let down by family or friends and this affects the way you live or your image of self worth, break the cycle by looking to the One who will never break your heart. The only Father, Friend, Savior who is the picture of perfection! The One who knows your worth because He is more than your Father...He is your creator! 

Be still and know that I am God Psalm 46:10

So the school year has started and the craziness of life has once again started taking it's toll on me and everyone else. This summer was blissful and I found myself growing closer to God. I painted the words "Be still and know that I am God" on multiple crosses that I sold this summer. I am realizing the importance of these words as my days get busier and busier. The busier I am, the further I stray from my walk with the Lord, The further  I stray from my walk, the worse my state of mind becomes, the worse my state of mind becomes, the darker my heart becomes, the darker my heart becomes, the darker my actions become. It is a vicious cycle all because I have not done what The Lord has commanded me....Be Still! 

How can we be still when life pulls us in so many different directions? I have a job (or 2 or 3), a family that needs me and opportunities that keep arising which I am so thankful for. How do we balance everything without losing what's important?  

The answer is simple, yet we make it so difficult. Be Still in the Lord's presence. We have to be refreshed by His presence. Once we learn to take the time to do this, our time will seem to stretch because we will be refreshed and more focused. Without a renewed spirit, we are running a rat race and getting nowhere. Trust Him to give you the time you need by giving Him the time He deserves.

Some of the greatest lessons I learn are from a child

The last couple of weeks I have been  trying to mentally and emotionally prepare myself to give my testimony.  I know this is God's plan and have prayed that He would lead me. He showed me something this past week and I wish so much that I would have recorded this moment to share with others. 

Last week, I went to Odenville Middle School to hear Braden give a speech as to why he should be elected as SGA Senator. There were round 35 children from 6th-8th grade who stood up and gave some of the most eloquently written speeches. I sat amazed at how brave these young boys and girls were to stand before their entire student body and speak. 

There was one speech that really stood out to me though. It was from a 6th grader, who was visibly nervous and had forgotten her notes. She stood there and told the audience how nervous she was and how she was the girl who sat in the back of the class and never raised her hand because she was afraid of the attention. Tears started coming from her eyes as she said she woke up and prayed that God would give her the words to say. It may not have been the wittiest or most eloquent speech ever spoken, but what she said and her humble attitude not only caused most of the adults to cry, but also caused a standing ovation from the entire student body. Whether she wins the race she was running for or not....she became a winner in many eyes that day. She taught me an important lesson. She taught me that when you speak from your heart with a humble attitude and ask God to lead you, no matter if you are an expert speaker or not....He will use you. 

My prayer is to be used, not to stand there and make an eloquent presentation, but to give God the glory He deserves with the most humble heart I can possibly have.  I want people to see God, not me. Because if He is not the center....there is no point in me standing there.

Thank you God for using a sweet 6th grader to teach me yet another lesson. 

Letting Go

This will be the hardest blog I have written thus far. Letting go...letting go of what? Letting go of the things or people we hold the closest. In my case, and I'm sure in most cases, this would be our children. I know I've already written about Peyton going to college and starting a new chapter in her life, but I want to share what God has shown me the last couple of weeks. 

 First off, I read a daily devotion called "Jesus Calling". Last week the devotion book was opened to the date August 23, which is this Friday. It was on the table beside where Poncho sits. Peyton curiously picked it up and read what it said. The 23rd was a week away, so why would he have opened it to see what it said on the 23rd? Because that is Peyton's move in day for college and Poncho is emotional about this as well. So first I want to share what the devotion said. This is absolutely amazing....and there is no way it is coincidental that this was written for this day. So here it is....

"Entrust your loved ones to Me; release them into My protective care. They are much safer with Me than in your clinging hands.  If you let a loved one become an idol in your heart, you endanger that one, as well as yourself. Remember the extreme measures I used with Abraham and Isaac. I took Isaac to the very point of death to free Abraham from son worship. Both Abraham and Isaac suffered terribly because of the father's undisciplined emotions. I detest idolatry , even in the form of parental love.

When you release loved ones to Me, you are free to cling to My hand. As you entrust others into My care, I am free to shower blessings on them. My presence will go with them wherever they go, and I will give them rest. This same presence stays with you, as you relax and place your trust in Me. Watch to see what I will do. "

Wow! Now I will be 100% honest....the story of Abraham and Isaac has always bothered me. I couldn't understand why God would ask Abraham to take his son whom he loved and ask him to sacrifice him. Even though God provided the ram to use as the sacrifice when He saw that Abraham was going to obey. As a Mom who loves her children with all her heart, it seemed mean to me. And my heart broke for Abraham, Isaac and Sarah who had longed for a child for so many years. The story ended well and God has revealed to me why He asked this of Abraham. 

I am guilty of being a child worshiper. I worship my children. They are my Idols. The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 1 27-28 "I prayed for this child , and The Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to The Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to The Lord."

Our Children are a gift from God and they belong to Him. They are loaned to us for a short time on earth and our job is to raise them by God's instruction. When we release them, they should have been raised to where they are able to stand firm on their relationship with God and find their purpose here on earth to further The Kingdom of God. We are to love them, nurture them physically, emotionally, and most importantly spiritually. We cannot carry out God's purpose for their lives or ours if we put them before God. We must teach them He comes first. Because we are not able to love them the way we should without knowing The love of God first. 

My heart is beating so fast right now as I type these words because I know there is no harder task than this. Letting go is not something that just happens one day....it is a choice we have to make each and every day. Entrust your children to The Lord. They are His and as hard as it is to imagine....He loves them more than we ever could and He knows what is best for them. This is a hard truth to accept but it is just that....the truth. 

A little follow up from yesterday....What I learned from my 18 year old daughter

I will not be blogging everyday...unless it is what God intends for me to do.  But the last few days so much has happened and I feel led to share.

The man that stole Peyton's wallet was caught today.  Since she is now considered an "adult" all contact from the Detective was made straight to her.  Any decisions made were to be made by her.  Today the Detective called and told her they had caught the man and wanted to know if she wanted to press charges.  I could see the uncertainty in her eyes as she struggled with her decision.  Her first question..."How much trouble will he be in?" (not much) second question...Does he have young children? (no).  Third question, can I talk to him? (no because we do not want any confrontation).  She said there would be no confrontation, she wanted the chance to share the gospel with this man.  Still the answer was no.  She did press charges because she felt since he would not do jail time and just a short time of probation, that maybe he would learn from this and think before he committed any larger crimes.  She asked if she could bring a letter for the detective to give to the man and the detective said He would love to give him the letter.  She stopped at the store, got the man a bible and stuck this letter in it.  I am not bragging or think I have perfect children...I think actions speak louder than words and nobody wants to hear me talk about how "great" I think they are.  But this had to be shared because it is the greatest example of what is truly important and what is not important.  To Peyton, his eternity was what was most important.  This is her letter....

First off I just wanted to tell you a little bit about myself. I am a young girl who is about to begin college in the fall. My dad has been out of work for the past 2 years due to foot surgeries from a previous car accident. My family has been struggling financially for the past two years. I worked all summer and was saving up to help buy the rest of my stuff for college. I have grown up in a small church my whole life and I depend on the Lord for everything. There isn’t a day that goes by that the Lord doesn’t bless me. I just want you to know that I am not angry at you, and I forgive you. You may not even be sorry or want my forgiveness, but I just feel like you should know that I do forgive you. I’m not sure about your spiritual beliefs or if you even have any. So I just want to take a minute and share with you the love of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that who ever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God sent his son to die on a cross so that my sin, your sin, and all of man’s sin can be forgiven. Because of His GREAT sacrifice that was made we are able to have a one on one relationship with God. Once we ask Jesus to come into our heart and be the master of our life our whole world will be turned around! We no longer have to face trials in life alone; we have a God that carries us through everything. When we have that relationship and pray and ask God for forgiveness the Bible says that He casts our sins “as far as the east is from the west”. The most rewarding part about the relationship with God is knowing that we get to spend an eternity in Heaven with our Savior. Three days after Jesus was crucified he ascended into Heaven and today he sits at the right hand of God. You may think it’s crazy that someone would write a letter saying they forgive you, but My God forgives me everyday for my sins. I don’t think you’re a bad person; I just think you made a bad choice. Next time you think about taking someone’s wallet, just remember it’s more than a wallet, there’s a person with a story behind the wallet. I wish you nothing but the best in life. God Bless!

I believe this says it all.....

Angels on Earth....PLEASE READ THIS!

Yesterday Peyton and I headed on an adventure to pick up the rest of her things needed for college.  We started out at the The Leeds Flea Market and ended up at the Moody and Leeds Police station.  Not exactly what we had planned.  Someone stole Peyton's wallet while we were at The Leeds Flea Market, which had two visa debit cards, her driver's license, Social Security Card, Student ID and $107.00 cash.  We went to Regions to close the account and the person had swiped the card for $66.00 and $74.50.  This may not seem like a lot, but to someone who is a soon to be college student it was everything.  Peyton sat in Regions and cried because she just couldn't understand how someone could be so mean.  After I called the person a few choice words...(sorry Dwayne and rest of the church and mostly God), I remembered what I had blogged about praying for our enemies.  We had to pray for this person, because obviously they needed it.  We also have to forgive.  So we had to put the walk to our talk.  Not easy....but doable. And we chalk this up as a lesson in life.  A lesson that I do not believe God put us through, but nonetheless was waiting to see our reaction.  I let him down with my anger, but slowly began to think about my words earlier in the week.  We forgive and will pray for this person.

Now, this is not a blog about "oh feel sorry for Peyton"....because we know God always provides! ALWAYS!  And when He shows out, it is a beautiful thing to watch! He sends kind people that I like to think of as angels on earth.  We have met our share of angels in the past 12 years.  It blesses my heart all the time!  I wish to be one of these kind people and will work harder at being a servant. So our angel today chose to remain anonymous.  Not looking for recognition, not looking for a personal thank you.

My mother in law works at the Odenville Utility Board.  Someone dropped off an envelope before they opened in the drop box.  It was addressed to Mrs. Brasher and read "Please call Kim and ask her to pick this up for Peyton Brasher.  You just have to love a small town.....where else could I live that I could "drop something off at the Water Board to be delivered?" Inside the envelope, was $107.00 cash and a pearl bracelet.  I believe the pearl bracelet was to be used for her in clown school, because she had mentioned she wanted her clown name to be "Pearl" because she always loves to wear pearls.  

Wow!!!! That's all I can say! As the tears fall, not from the $107.00 but from the heart behind the gift.  Thank you! Thank you for showing God' love and being an example I can share with my kids and anyone that may read this! You will NEVER know what this means to us!  You are truly an "Angel on Earth".  

Jesus Loves Me This I Know

As you look at the picture below, I know you can barely see it, but under where the  flowers are we had music notes and the words "Jesus Loves Me" inscribed on Blair's grave. We had those words put on there because we had this wonderful memory of her when she was 3 going up to the pulpit at church and getting on the microphone (which was turned off) and singing with every little piece of her soul...

"Jesus Loves Me".  It was such a sweet moment because as she sang it, you could see that she truly believed every word.  It was sang beautifully with a pure heart. 2 points I want to make by sharing this. First one.....Do we go to God with a child like faith. A faith where the world has not clouded us with doubts and distractions?  In Matthew chapter 19 Jesus said "Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven." What does this mean? It means that when we were children, we depended on our parents for everything. They had to feed us, clothe us, take care of our bumps and bruises, and mostly just love us. We needed all of these things. As we grow older, we become more "self sufficient". At times we feel that we don't need anyone. We got this right? Isn't that what our parent's job was? To make sure we were prepared for this world and ready to take it on by ourselves?  Sometimes as adults we can become too self-sufficient. And we forget our Heavenly Father supplies all of our needs. He provides our food, our clothes, he is The Great Physician that not only takes care of our physical "bumps and bruises" but also our broken hearts. He loves us... and He wants us to love and depend on Him with "childlike faith".

Second point is this....when Blair sang that day she knew without a doubt that Jesus loved her. Can we say the same about ourselves? When we sing praises to Our Lord are we really crying out to Him? Or are we just singing some words that are on a page or a screen? The next time we have the privilege to sing praises to Our Father....let's sing it like we believe EVERY word of it! The words may be simple in the song Jesus loves me....but the message is powerful! Thank God He loves me!!!!