Balance

I have balance issues.  There have been many times lately that Stina has come home very late at night.  She finds everyone in our house in bed asleep except for me. What am I doing? Working. Working. Working. Working. Give me a task and I am all about getting it done as quickly and efficiently as I can.  I make insane ‘to do” lists for myself. (I have an excel spreadsheet addiction in addition to the rest of my issues.) Each time my precious daughter catches me working late at night, she sits me down and lectures me. There is truly nothing worse than being lectured by your children when they are right.

But, she is doing more than lecturing me. Now, she is stinking holding me accountable. If she catches me up past 11:00 tonight, I have agreed to come under severe punishment from her. She is also concerned that I don’t drink enough water. If I fail to drink the agreed upon amount of water today, I have to go jogging with her on Wednesday. (FYI – It is now 1:00 in the afternoon and I have drank two times the agreed upon amount of water because I do NOT want to jog.)

I don’t understand why I just can’t let my tasks go. Why is this such a struggle for me? I love people. I love spending time with people, investing in people’s lives and playing with people. But all of these tasks really get in the way of all that. The world won’t end if I don’t do these things; I know that. Stina tells me that all the time. Why is this such a huge struggle for me? I can’t figure it out and I have really thought about it. It is not because I get my self worth from what I do. I do feel that the largest part of what I do is meaningful. I am very purpose driven. I just need to take control of it instead of it taking control of me.

Another Teenager!

Today, our family has just what every family needs . . . another teenager. Sarah turns thirteen today. Sarah is such an incredible person. I am so grateful for her.  I have had the privilege of watching God play an active role in her life. She has such a big, soft heart and she uses it to show love to so many people. She is always helping me with the little ones. I am so grateful that I can always depend on her.

She is a constant source of blessing to me, our family and her friends. I am very excited to watch and be part of all the things that God has in store for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!

JFC Castle Rock

I went to a campus church today. What’s a campus church? Our church, Jubilee Fellowship Church, has been doing some serious growing.  In fact, I think it even grows faster than my children do – which seems like an impossibility. So instead of building a bigger building, we start new campuses. Each campus has a pastoral staff, worship team and its own community. A DVD of the sermon that was preached at the main campus on Saturday night is played at each of the campuses. I really, really enjoyed the family fellowship atmosphere that this campus had to offer. I also really, really love the main campus to which we have been going. No matter how I look at it, I know that JFC has been a place where the life of God flows into our family. I am always filled, always challenged, always loved.

Today, Pastor DJ Smith, preached about what it means to be a worshiper. He taught that the value of what we worship is revealed by what we are willing to sacrifice for it. He gave the example of when Abraham was willing to offer his son as a sacrifice.  In fact, Abraham uses the words sacrifice and worship interchangeably. This reminded me of Romans 12:1, which says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” It made me stop and examine my life, asking the question, “Do I live a life of worship?”

But my favorite part of the sermon was when Pastor DJ contrasted two amazing facts. First he showed a photo taken by the Hubble Telescope (I know one of the guys who designed it, by the way) of the Whirpool Galaxy. I think he said that it was 31 million light years away.  The image in the center of this is clear.

Then he gave told us about laminin. Laminin is the substance in our cells that holds it all together. Without it, the cells that make our organs would not stay together. The image here is equally as clear.

God is present in the most distant, enormous far away place that we can fathom.  He is also present in the smallest parts of our lives. He holds it all together.