Have you ever noticed that many times, it is the small things in life that cause us to slow down and take a deep breath. I had an occasion such as that last night.
It happened as I attempted to put Hannah, my 2 year-old daughter to bed. We took our bath, did all the stuff we normally do to prepare to go nite..nite. As I read to her, prayed with her and put her to bed, I felt as if she would do as she normally does and just go to sleep. Well... she didn't, after all it was just 8:10 pm. She get's up and begins to play. After another attempt to put her to bed, I gave in and let her stay up another 30 -40 minutes. She was very happy! After a while past I took her to her room and told her that she had to go to bed and there was no exceptions. As I was tucking her in, Hannah all of a sudden says, "pray" When I heard that, my heart just melted. Here was a 2 year-old that was asking to pray! I thought to myself that she is learning and catching on to what we have been teaching her. This truly made my day!
As I began to think about the instance that just happened, I was drawn to pause and see that many times when life seems busy and out of control, it is the little things in Life that come along to help us make it through. In this case it was my Little one to remind me that prayer is important and that we are never to young to develop and learn from it. As I once again prayed with Hannah, I thanked God for His never ending love and mercy and thanked Him for Hannah and asked God to continue to help Hannah as she learns much more about Him in the years to come.
Based on this event, I am convinced that many times in life it's the Little Things that turn out to speak biggest things to us!
David
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Encounter Retreat
This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking some of our students to a Retreat that was geared towards discipleship. While I was looking for it to ignite a deeper passion for God in the students that went (and I believe it did), I feel that i left the retreat touched and challenged as well.
One thing that particularly spoke to me was in a session where Stan Lester, a veteran youth pastor now lead pastor of a church in Dalton, GA, was speaking about Aiming High. His point was that many times in our relationship with God, the bar is set high and there are times we get discouraged and allow things come our way and we end up asking God to lower the goal so that we can make it and not have to endure as much pain or hardship. Basically, we choose to settle for mediocrity and never push ourselves to see God's full plan for our life. When we do this, we cheat ourself!
I admit, I am guilty! Even this past week I chose to take the easy way out to avoid pain. Boy... did this message give me a big KICK in the pants! As I have reflected on this message the last couple of days, I choose to lay aside discouraged and mediocrity in certain areas of my life and press toward the mark of the high calling in Jesus. I realize that this may be painful, but to move to the next level in God, it is a necessity! God help me to never settle for where I am in my relationship with you!
Let the new Journey begin!
Blessings,
David
One thing that particularly spoke to me was in a session where Stan Lester, a veteran youth pastor now lead pastor of a church in Dalton, GA, was speaking about Aiming High. His point was that many times in our relationship with God, the bar is set high and there are times we get discouraged and allow things come our way and we end up asking God to lower the goal so that we can make it and not have to endure as much pain or hardship. Basically, we choose to settle for mediocrity and never push ourselves to see God's full plan for our life. When we do this, we cheat ourself!
I admit, I am guilty! Even this past week I chose to take the easy way out to avoid pain. Boy... did this message give me a big KICK in the pants! As I have reflected on this message the last couple of days, I choose to lay aside discouraged and mediocrity in certain areas of my life and press toward the mark of the high calling in Jesus. I realize that this may be painful, but to move to the next level in God, it is a necessity! God help me to never settle for where I am in my relationship with you!
Let the new Journey begin!
Blessings,
David
Friday, January 23, 2009
First Blog
Today is a momentous occasion. This is my first blog post!
I am quite excited about blogging and view it as a way in some sense, to stretch me as an individual and most of all spiritually. So many times it is so easy to not challenge ourselves to go deeper in our walk with Christ when we have all the busy-ness of life going on around us and when we feel we are ok and we can make up for it later. Unfortunately, God will not seem to let me by with that! Doing it my way would result in a mess and my relationship with God becoming stale. That is not the way he intended it to be. As a result, I feel he is challenging me to Refresh, Renew & Revive my relationship with him and become a greater man of faith in 2009!
So here I am blogging my thoughts, my spiritual journey, the good things of life, the bad things of life, the fun times, my family, my students, and all the chatter and so forth. Enjoy!
Grace,
DC
I am quite excited about blogging and view it as a way in some sense, to stretch me as an individual and most of all spiritually. So many times it is so easy to not challenge ourselves to go deeper in our walk with Christ when we have all the busy-ness of life going on around us and when we feel we are ok and we can make up for it later. Unfortunately, God will not seem to let me by with that! Doing it my way would result in a mess and my relationship with God becoming stale. That is not the way he intended it to be. As a result, I feel he is challenging me to Refresh, Renew & Revive my relationship with him and become a greater man of faith in 2009!
So here I am blogging my thoughts, my spiritual journey, the good things of life, the bad things of life, the fun times, my family, my students, and all the chatter and so forth. Enjoy!
Grace,
DC
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