Open and honest

This past week in my bible study we were learning about pitfalls that get in the way of Christian women delighting in serving God and making that service feel more like a duty! I will admit that 90% of the time I delight in serving my Lord. I love to sing, I love the opportunity to work with my husband in the sound booth and I am so excited to work along side the ladies of the L.I.G.H.T. ministry. I have been blessed beyond words. During our study Tammie Head taught us a new way to look at Satan. She had a GPS that had a female voice that sounded Australian. Her and her husband lovingly named her Sheila. While on a trip to LA, Sheila steered them wrong quite a few times. Well, her GPS became our visual on how we allow Satan to steer us wrong. So, she taught us all to name him Sheila and work towards overcoming our Sheila's. Each of us wrote down a Sheila that has been plaguing us and shared that card with another lady in the study, so that they can pray over our Sheila with us. What a blessing it is to have others praying for your weak spots. This past weekend was such a blessing. Jason and I were able to be a part of the Inside/Out weekend at church. We had 5 boys and their mentor in our home for the whole weekend. Honestly, I pray that my children are as faithful to God as these young men are when they are the same age! I was on such a high all weekend. Unfortunately, my weekend did not end as high. Sheila stepped in and I allowed her to steal my joy! I prayed over the situation, but in my weakness, I allowed Sheila to kick me down. Needless to say, I have done a lot of praying since Sunday and I feel much better now, but I felt like such a failure for a few days because I allowed Satan to steal my joy! He knew I was weak and he walked all over me. I know my God stands right next to me in everything I do, but every now and than there are people that Satan uses to knock us down. I look forward to learning more tools through my bible study over the next few weeks to hopefully have fewer days like Sunday!

Letting God Lead!

I have been approached by the ladies of the L.I.G.H.T. ministry to become the Photo Journalism/Publicity Committee Head. I of course, willing accepted the possibility to get to know the ladies of the church. As a new member to First Baptist Church of Griffith, it gives me the opportunity to interact with more of the ladies, than had I just been a member. My first major task is to start interviews with approximately 5 ladies, hopefully more, for the ladies banquet on April 28th. The goal is to meet with all the ladies and interview them. I am a confident woman, but we shall see. After that, my priority is to advertise, advertise, advertise all of the ladies events! We hope to get more of the ladies in the church involved and to join in the fun that is L.I.G.H.T! I go where God leads! I love serving Him and watching Him work in my life! To God be the glory! May I just be a humble servant! I also learned this week what L.I.G.H.T. represents. Ladies Intentionally Going Helping Touching = L.I.G.H.T. AND Always remembering to do "Something for Him" and "Something for Us". Pretty awesome to be apart of a group that is focused on the Harvest as Pastor Scott is currently teaching us! Its amazing what happens when we let God lead us!

Mending

So after a week of illness in our home I think we are finally on the mend. Two weeks ago Jacoba started with a mild cough. Honestly, it seemed like her allergy cough she gets when her allergy meds are either not being taken or they are no longer working. This winter did not give her a cooling off period, since we have not had a traditional winter by Mid-West standards. The stuff that would normally die because of the deep freeze has not died because it really has not frozen! Great for those without allergies, not so great for those with allergies who look forward to the winter months and not having to suffer! So anyways, Jacoba started coughing back in December so we put her back on her cingulair to help get her back on track. All was good until about two weeks ago. Of course, the up and down of the temps does not help with her allergies either. It was not until she had the cough for a week that it became noticeable different. At that point she woke up last Sunday saying her belly was upset and of course that meant no church for mom. Later that day she started to run a fever. Monday I took her to the doctor because she still had the mild fever and the cough had gotten much worse. For those of you that may not no Jacoba had strep throat 5 times last year followed up with getting her tonsils out. The five times was in five months. She missed 32 days of school in all with all that sickness! So, when the nurse said, "Oh, well we will get a culture for strep and go from there." I laughed! I said well, I know its possible for her to still get strep, but we did get her tonsils taken out last year because of strep and she has not had any issues since. She smiled and walked out. Needless to say a culture later, we find out Jacoba has strep again! As Jacoba's doctor so lovingly put it, because of her allergies she has all those boogers in there and the drainage going on that just make her vulnerable to strep. So, he added yet another allergy med to her regiment, only to be given for a few weeks at a time when her cough seems to come back and than we can stop it once things mellow out. If the allergens are high than she has the added med, but try not to use all the time he suggest. Luckily she has spring break in a couple weeks and I can take her to get her allergy blood draw to see exactly what she is allergic too. Honestly, it would be nice to get her the allergy shots, but the kid is deathly afraid of needless, so I think we are a few years off from that.

Jacoba seemed to be on the mend and sure enough, I got sick. I did not get strep like her, but I think I would have preferred it. I had the whole body aches, cough, fever just leave me alone feeling! I was really lucky though. Thursday I felt the worst and Jason was actually asked if he wanted to go home since they had too many workers that day. He came home and I slept the day away. I obviously need the rest. Jacoba's cough is pretty much gone and mine is getting better. Thankfully God saw fit for me to be well enough to be in church yesterday. I missed all of my church family and being able to worship with them!