Mike's Message

James 1:22- Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.

This week, our church hosted a ministry fair. Pastor Mike put together a 55 page book of all the ministry needs and opportunities in our church! They passed them out last weekend, asked us to thumb through it and pray about where we need to serve.

His message was short, but very good! He said that in most churches, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Yet, we're all given gifts, that means each of us. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says "Each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." This means that every person should be involved in some aspect of service. God has enabled YOU to fulfill a particular role! :) Service should permeate our lives! We're to always be growing, moving forward in our Spiritual walk and maturing.

I thought about my friend Chiara. Thursday nights, she and her husband lead our Thrive Marriage ministry at church. On Wednesday, she co-leads a Women's Bible Study table and every other Sunday she blesses Mommies of the church by watching the babies in the nursery! I think about Jen who teaches the 2's class on Saturdays and leads a table at Navigating Motherhood. Sarah also leads at Navigating Motherhood and leads a group with her husband at Thrive. There are a lot of other things these women are involved in at church too including accountability and leading women through the partners program.

I really started to evaluate what I do for the church and felt very convicted. I don't merely want to be a consumer. I bring the kids to church Sunday to "hear" but, I don't "do" anything for the church. I come on Wednesday mornings to Bible study to "hear" but I don't "do" anything.

Pastor Mike said that it's his job as Pastor to instruct the people of the church so they can be adequately prepared to do something. We're not supposed to be there to "get" something. Also, when we serve at church, it's the MOST important way we can spend our time here on earth because, when we're serving God's people, I'm serving God! The longer we've been attending church, the more prepared we should be to lead.

I really liked another thing Pastor Mike said regarding "Spiritual Gifts". So often we take the "spiritual gifts" test when, in the Bible there's no set list of gifts presented! We stumble over this "gift list" so much that we don't get involved cause, "it's not my gift". We need to have more of the "ATAPAT" attitude. That means "Any Thing, Any Place, Any Time", just be willing to "do"!

I liked too that it doesn't have to be a lifelong commitment to one ministry. We can try things out for a few months and see how we like it. Also, sometimes God may call us to different ministries. I LOVED serving in AWANA for years but our AWANA ministry at church meets the same night as our Thrive Marriage Ministry. I'd love to get involved in AWANA again someday but right now we're serving in Thrive! (and loving it by the way!)

This week, I started putting Christian in the nursery! That's probably why I was able to hear all of this weeks sermon! ;) Before he was born, Abby and I were serving in Navigating Motherhood kids ministry and doing Saturday night toddler ministry. It's time for me to get involved again! :)

I really enjoyed reading through the "Opportunities to Serve" booklet. It's amazing seeing how God is working in our church! I had a lot of fun running from table to table signing up for different ministries to help in!

If you're free on May 10th, we're having Compass Bible Church's 3rd Annual Spring Tea from 11:00am to 2:00pm and Pastor Mike's wife Carlynn will be speaking! I'll be hosting a table too! :) My Haviland China and Heisey Crystal will finally get some use! ;)

Something else to think about...
What church do you call home? Are you 100% committed to one church? How are we serving?

Remember, we're not supposed to jog our way through the Christian life. We're running the race to win the prize.

1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

Hebrews 12:1-3 Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

Good verse for me to remember

Philippians 2:14-15 says (New International Version)
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.

The Message Bible Translations says it this way:
Do everything readily and cheerfully- no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light0giving Message into the night so I'll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You'll be living proof that I didn't go to all this work for nothing.

Thinking about the last couple of posts I've done, I feel like I've complained in them. So, if you're wondering what happened to my posts, I deleted them! I'm sorry for grumbling. I really need to work on my attitude, my negativity and my responses. Friends, hold me accountable to this! :) Thanks for all the comments on my posts too! Keep em coming!

Happy Valentine's Day! (a day late!) ;)

Just thought I'd share some photos from this week!

Also, my Mom sent me a great Bible verse that spells out the word Valentine ;) I can't make it show up in a line when I type it out though! Basically it's John 3:16 but you highlight in red the letters that spell out VALENTINE. I can't do it justice on here!
For God so loVed the world,
That He gAve
His onLy
BegottEn
SoN
That whosoever
Believeth In Him
Should Not perish,
But have Everlasting life;

A HUGE thank you to Thrive for hosting a very Romantic Valentine's Dinner! Chiara did such a GREAT job making heart shaped cake centerpieces for each of the tables plus decorating! Thank you :)

For fun, we got to go play with some friends this week and decorate cards and cupcakes!

A few of these photos are of Abby making Valentine's for "friends"! She got to pass them out last night :) She carefully put stickers and foam hearts on each paper plus colored on each one very carefully :) Thanks Jen for the awesome clothes saver apron!

I also put some pics of the kids Dr's appointments! Abby's big enough now that she stands on the big person scale! They gave her a gown to wear in the hallway :) Too cute!

Growing up too fast :'-(

I took both kids to the Doctors today for their "well check ups". Christian is now 16 pounds, 4 ounces and is 25 1/2 inches long. Abigail is 26 pounds and is 34 1/4 inches tall! That puts her at 45% for her weight and 70% for her height. I told Abby's Dr. I'm a little concerned by her eating habits. She nibbles at food and then after a few days downs 3 plates full of whatever we're having! The dr. told me that kids are like gasoline tanks. When they are on empty, they refuel! That made me feel a lot better! I took pictures of the kids but can't find the cord to take the pictures off at the moment! Will update this post later ;)

AMAZING WEEK!!! :)

Ok, I'm too excited to go to sleep right now SO I thought I'd catch up on my blogging! Wow, it's been a while! A lot has been going on!

First off, I'll start with tonight! Our church marriage group (Thrive) hosted a FREE babysitting night! For 3 hours, these couples watched our kids at the church so other couples could go on a date night! Robby and I went to a movie for the first time since November 23rd! It's also been our 3rd date since Christian was born (he'll be four months old on Sunday!)! This was SUCH a fun night, getting out with Robby to see a romantic comedy :) Abby had a BLAST too! She did not want to leave her class when we came to pick her up!

In other news, last Saturday, (02/02) Robby and I celebrated our 6th year of being married! He made reservations at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse! We'd never been before and it was AWESOME! The steaks are served on a 500 degree plate so that each bite of your steak stays warm! The server makes sure that any extraneous dish or utensil you're finished using is removed from the table immediately. The person that seats us, greeted us by name! Robby made our reservation on Tuesday and the earliest dinner time slot available was 8:30! it was SO nice! They also gave us a complimentary dessert :) The cheesecake with fresh berries was so good, it made my mouth water! I had to close my eyes and saver EACH bite! I brought that dessert home and enjoyed it again!!!

My sister Rosemary has been in town visiting from Germany! We enjoyed getting together numerous times over the past few weeks! I planned a surprise dinner get together with some friends of ours from High School. It was fun reminiscing and being together again!

My brother Phil turned 20 this week! For the first time since last January, my entire family got together. All my siblings and both my parents were present. With my brother being away at school in Michigan and then my sister living in Germany, it's been difficult getting us all in the same place at the same time! Rose and Phil were both home in October but my Dad was still in the hospital. Then, Nathan and Rosemary were here in July but Phil was in school. I got a group picture of all of us.

The kids are still enjoying their new beds! I included some recent pics of them! Christian LOVES this glow worm toy! It sings and it's face lights up! He sleeps with it every night! Abby has to have her 2 bobo's (blankets)! It's neat cause each of these items came from a set of grandparents and our kids LOVE them! (Glow worm from Millsaps, blankets from Archibalds) Both kids go to the Dr's on Monday for their well check ups! Christian will be getting his 4 month shots :(

We have a busy month ahead of us :) Robby and I are leaving the kids with my Mom for 2 days to attend our Church Marriage Retreat! This will be the longest the two of us have ever been away from either of them! Also, my 27th birthday is coming up :) Stay tuned....

Abby is 2 :) (Note: 1 of 3 posts from today! Scroll down!)

We had a little party for Abby's 2nd birthday! The pics are long overdue :) We had a tough time planning this one since Abby knows so many friends from all her activities at church. These are pics of the 27 kids and 23 adults that were present!

We're so blessed to have such an awesome church family!

Thank you too to my parents, brother and sister who came and kept my 2 kids entertained! Christian slept on my Dad the entire time, my Mom made the mac and cheese, Phil entertained our dog, and Holly chased Abby around the house!

Abby loves the show "Blue's Clues"so we had a Blue themed party!

Her best bud Carter was out of town for her party so we had CarCar and Chiara over for a playdate and cupcakes!

Today :)

Today, my girlfriend Jamie drove down from Torrance to visit :) She and I have known each other since 8th grade. We met through AWANA at Community Baptist Church in Manhattan Beach. We went to AWANA Scholarship Camp together, competed in AWANA National Competitions together in Chicago, camping in Joshua Tree, I introduced her to her husband, we've been in each others weddings, I was at the hospital when she had her 1st child :)

I had a fun time today reminiscing :) I don't have a lot of friends that I can say I've known for oh my goodness, 13 years! We've been through good and bad times, high school boyfriends, parents having scary surgeries. It's neat to see how our relationship changes throughout the years, how we've gone from two 14 year olds to married adults with kids!

Here are some pictures of our 5 children! Shannon is 7, Jacob is 5, Kaitlyn is almost 2, Abby is now 2 and Christian 3 months!