Yesterday was my first Sunday back at Harvard in about a month. I had been looking forward to it. I longed to be with my church family. I love my other church, my parents church/"kinda" my church in high school, but I was ready to be back.
It was my turn to work in the nursery. I get to play in the toddler room. When I first saw the reminder card on Thursday, I honestly wanted to pitch a fit. Praise the LORD He reminded me of the selfishness of such an action and redirected my heart. It is the longest hour and a half of every six weeks but it is still a blessing. I came in the door Sunday and a sweet wee one reached her arms up for me to hold her. Oh the bliss that enters a woman's heart when a small child is held close to the heart.
After church I got to see a friend I hadn't seen since August. We hugged each others necks and said lets hang out but it was good to see her face in person. Soon she and I will have a yang food date. It is what we do.
I work with the youth on Wednesdays. We had our semesterly meeting of youth workers after service. I enjoyed a Italian sub from Quiznos which took me longer to eat than usual because my table mates were cracking jokes that made me laugh- a lot. I was so encouraged by the meeting we had. We discussed some of the things we want to see happen in our student's lives and how we should be getting involved. My brain was firing off all kinds of different questions and solutions. Mostly questions. I do not just want to be a presence in their lives- I want to equip them in the Word. I want to challenge my girls to dig in. I want them to look at the root of their issues. To recognize those bad attitudes or short words are sin. To search their hearts for the root of that sin. To repent. To delight in the great love that the LORD has for His children for a "bruised reed He will not break." I want them to KNOW that they belong to Him because the Holy Spirit testifies to their hearts and they are able to see fruit! I keep finding that I am incredibly inadequate and have no idea how to go about addressing some of the sin problems (ones that they don't understand are sin) in their hearts. LORD, I need wisdom. It drives me to the WORD and yet, I am get overwhelmed.
The weather was uncharacteristically warm and beautiful. Strong winds but also strong rays of sun. I spent a few hours in my "cottage" enjoying The Discipline of Grace. It is such an encouraging book. If you haven't read it I do recommend it. It is a "pray as you read" book. Hopefully that makes up the bulk of your reading. To this point in my life I have only read *light* pray-as-you-read books. One of these I will pick up a Puritan.
Sunday evening Parables started back up. We are doing a Super Hero musical that includes the fruit of the Spirit. It should be fantabulous with just a smidgen of rewriting. I'll go to meet Ashlee this week to help work out some practical details as we gear up for the semester. We have what is called "Pod" time which is where the kids circle up for prayer with their pod leader. I have the upper elementary girls. We always go over in pod time. The girls have come to accept it and I honestly don't think they care. This semester I have started a new thing.I pray I am diligent in it for quite frankly it came to me during pod time Sunday. Together we pray for needs usually physical things like - the mean girl at school who needs Jesus, grandpa's cancer, tests this wk, etc. Privately I have decided to ask the girls what one thing they are struggling with that they want me to pray about. Some care- some don't. Maybe by the time we are done all will be Believers or at least know they aren't one. ok ok now the exciting part. I was asking one of my girls what she wanted me to pray about and she told me I AM A CHRISTIAN NOW and was going to continue on with her prayer request when I of course had to interrupt and ask for the story. AHHHHHHH I have been talking to and praying for her ever since I found out our first day last fall. BLESS THE LORD Oh You His people! She told m with tears she saw she needed Him. It is a faint and broken understanding but I am thankful it is there. I am doubly thankful she has faithful parents to have solid theology and will help her to grow in understanding. Btw, I did let her finish.
Sunday was such a blessed day. I went home Sunday morning full. Even more full when I left Sunday night. It is such a wonderful thing to be excited about digging into the Word even though it takes diligence and sometimes seems dry and it is work. It is supposed to be but it is a joyful work that delights the soul when it tastes that the LORD is good.
I worked in nursery on Sunday too...and even though I have little ones, I still didn't want to do it. I had to adjust my attitude also:) I've thought about you recently as well and wanted to stop by and tell you I've appreciate your faithful reading and support of my blog. I'm thankful for little connections around the country through this funny little blogging community. Although, I haven't been writing much lately, I'm hoping that will change.
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