Most of you who frequently read my blog may be insulted by what I am about to say, but I feel it necessary to set the record straight. As you know, I am a mother, wife, entrepreneur, soccer mom, sometime girl scout leader, and I am fighting a very rare cancer. I am also, for those of you who do not know, a Christian. A devout Christian and I love worshipping the Lord. I am not a Saint, by no means, but I do try my very best to live up to His expectations. I am telling you all this now because my Pastor has issued a challenge to us. My pastor has asked us to start giving the first 15 minutes of every day to the Lord. Give our maker, our forgiver, the one who gave us His only son to deliver us from our sins, 15 minutes a day to just be still, pray, talk to Him, and truly listen. When my pastor first asked us to do this—to accept this challenge—I was a little taken aback. I did not fear the challenge itself, but I was afraid that I might not be able to sustain the challenge and let myself down, my church, my family, and Lord. Then I realized this…These 15 minutes are strictly between me and my Lord. No one else needs to know anything about my daily conversation with the Lord. So if I go a day or two without keeping this commitment, the only people I would be letting down are me and the Lord Himself. I would never intentionally do anything to let my Father down, that includes my father in the living flesh, and especially my Father up in the Heavens. With this in mind, I decided to accept this very important, yet slightly intimidating challenge.
I have “signed on” for quite a few challenges before (including weight loss challenges), but I never won. Part of the reason why I never won was because I could never follow through to the end. For one reason or another I would always drop out of the challenge. I made excuse after excuse for why I could not continue in the challenge because I was so ashamed of falling behind. It was not until I began thinking about this 15 minute challenge that I realized that the only person I ever let down was myself. I may have fooled a lot of people, but the only people I really hurt and really let down was myself and the Lord. He has always had faith in me even when others did not…even when I did not. This time will be different. I am telling you all this, because my blog will no longer be strictly limited to parenting success anymore. From this day forward, you will start to see some blog posts regarding my 15 minutes with the Lord. This include articles, excerpts from our conversation, quotes from the Bible, etc. If you are not a Christian or do not believe the Lord is our Saviour and that God gave his only son (Jesus) to us for forgiveness of our sins (past, present, and future), then you may not like my blog as much anymore. I hate to lose any readers but I do understand if you are offended by religious posts that you will no longer continue to read my blog. Hopefully there won’t be too many of you leaving. For those of you who are staying, please feel free to ask questions or make comments about anything you see or read. I promise to publish all comments or questions to the blog so that everyone will know what everybody else is thinking or feeling.
The blog posts that pertain to the Bible or the 15 minutes I spent with the Lord will start off with the subject line of, “Toni’s Interpretation of the Bible -------“ For example, my blog post today would read, “Toni’s interpretation of the Bible—Psalm 3:4 which reads “With my voice I cry to the Lord, and He hears and answers me out of His holy hill. In this portion of the Bible, King David is between a rock and a hard place. David has to decide between losing his kingdom AND his life, or he would lose his son. He seeks help and advice from the Lord. I have been in situations similar to the one King David is rustling with. They might not be as crushing as David’s, but in my heart I was torn between what to do. What I need to remember and never forget is that I should always seek guidance from the Lord. I should take my problems to the Lord and truly believe in my heart of hearts that He will tell me how to handle the situation. The trick here is , YOU MUST BELIEVE. You cannot have any doubt, you have to truly believe that once you take your problem to the Lord and lay it out on the table, you are done. The Lord will handle that problem or He will tell YOU how to handle that problem IF you believe in him.
Let Go And Let God
Have a Happy and Blessed Day, and Enjoy Your New Year. May all your wishes come through in 2010.
Sincerely,
Toni
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
My Daughter Taylor
Taylor is a well-rounded fifth grader at her Elementary School. There are a lot of great things that can be said about Taylor as she has a good heart, a loving spirit, and really does not have a mean bone in her body. She is an outstanding big sister to her baby brother and baby sister and can be found assisting with homework and household chores almost every day of the week. At her church she is a candle lighter, junior usher, and confirmation class attendee.
On Wednesday, November 18 she was formally inducted into the National Honor Society's Junior Beta Club at her school. Taylor is a straight A student and was recognized not only for her academic achievements but also for her character and citizenship and willingness to always go above and beyond in school. She is also a cheerleader at her school and attends a special program sponsored by LockHeed Martin for exceptional students called “LM Smarts”. On Friday, November 19 we received a Gold Sealed Invitation formally announcing Taylor's invitation to attend the annual "Junior National Young Leaders Conference" in Washington D.C. The nomination indicated that "As a result of your outstanding academic achievements and demonstrated leadership potential, you were selected to represent her school and the state of Georgia at the Junior National Young Leaders Conference to be held this spring 2010 in Washington, D.C.” She was nominated by her current fifth grade teacher, her fourth grade teacher as well as the Principal.
We are very proud of Taylor for her performances in school, in church, and even at home. You could not ask for a more caring child. We have been blessed with her and cannot wait to continue to see her grow into the wonderful and talented young lady she will become.
On Wednesday, November 18 she was formally inducted into the National Honor Society's Junior Beta Club at her school. Taylor is a straight A student and was recognized not only for her academic achievements but also for her character and citizenship and willingness to always go above and beyond in school. She is also a cheerleader at her school and attends a special program sponsored by LockHeed Martin for exceptional students called “LM Smarts”. On Friday, November 19 we received a Gold Sealed Invitation formally announcing Taylor's invitation to attend the annual "Junior National Young Leaders Conference" in Washington D.C. The nomination indicated that "As a result of your outstanding academic achievements and demonstrated leadership potential, you were selected to represent her school and the state of Georgia at the Junior National Young Leaders Conference to be held this spring 2010 in Washington, D.C.” She was nominated by her current fifth grade teacher, her fourth grade teacher as well as the Principal.
We are very proud of Taylor for her performances in school, in church, and even at home. You could not ask for a more caring child. We have been blessed with her and cannot wait to continue to see her grow into the wonderful and talented young lady she will become.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Will You Be Allowed into the Kingdom of Heaven
Will You Be Allowed Into the Kingdom of Heaven?
Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness".
A lot of Christians are under the mistaken belief that by going to church and doing a few good deeds here and there that they will automatically be allowed into the gates of Heaven. Getting saved and accepting Jesus Christ as your savior is also not a guarantee that you will be allowed into Heaven either. In the passage above, it indicates that many people who arrive at the gates of heaven w ho have prophesied, cast out demons and even done a lot of wonders in the name of Jesus may still be told that they are not worthy of entering into Heaven. This can be a little confusing to most of us because most of us grew up thinking from childhood that if we are good, accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and become saved that we will undoubtedly be allowed into heaven. Throw in a few good deeds here and that would definitely solidify our entrance. This may come as a shock to most people (including me).
In our lifetimes, God will ask us to do various things for Him and in His name. That little voice that whispers to you when to do the right thing could actually be God giving you a command. Volunteering your time, spreading the word of God to a lost soul, comforting a loved one or even helping a total stranger—all of these could be God asking you to carry out an act in His name. God is a forgiving God, but when he asks you to do something you have to carry out that act the way he asks you to do it and when he asks you to do it. If you carry out his will whenever he asks then when you do arrive at Heaven’s gate, you will not be castaway as someone who never knew the Lord.
There will be a lot of people arriving at the gates confident they have done good in this lifetime and will be allowed into the Kingdom of Heaven but will be turned away because they did not do the Lord’s will. Are you sure you will be accepted into the gates of Heaven? Have you done everything the Lord has asked you to do? On judgement day, we will all have to stand at the gates of Heaven and be judged individually. The worst thing in the world would be to be told by the Lord, “Depart from Me, I never knew you". As of this writing I myself am not quite sure I have done everything asked of me…wait, I take that back. I am pretty sure I have not done every single thing asked of me but that was before I developed my own personal relationship with the Lord. I was a believer, Saved, and worshipped the Lord but it was not until recently that I began to truly understand what is expected of me and how to hear the Lord speaking to me. From here on out I will listen closely to that inner voice and guess what, you can too. It is never too late to change and it is never too late to ask for forgiveness.
If you are a lost soul, if you do not have a strong personal relationship with the Lord, if you are not sure you will be allowed into the gates of Heaven—I encourage you to join a church no matter how big or how small. Church is where I was finally able to truly cultivate my relationship with the Lord. I love my church, and I am sure you will come to love yours too.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness".
A lot of Christians are under the mistaken belief that by going to church and doing a few good deeds here and there that they will automatically be allowed into the gates of Heaven. Getting saved and accepting Jesus Christ as your savior is also not a guarantee that you will be allowed into Heaven either. In the passage above, it indicates that many people who arrive at the gates of heaven w ho have prophesied, cast out demons and even done a lot of wonders in the name of Jesus may still be told that they are not worthy of entering into Heaven. This can be a little confusing to most of us because most of us grew up thinking from childhood that if we are good, accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and become saved that we will undoubtedly be allowed into heaven. Throw in a few good deeds here and that would definitely solidify our entrance. This may come as a shock to most people (including me).
In our lifetimes, God will ask us to do various things for Him and in His name. That little voice that whispers to you when to do the right thing could actually be God giving you a command. Volunteering your time, spreading the word of God to a lost soul, comforting a loved one or even helping a total stranger—all of these could be God asking you to carry out an act in His name. God is a forgiving God, but when he asks you to do something you have to carry out that act the way he asks you to do it and when he asks you to do it. If you carry out his will whenever he asks then when you do arrive at Heaven’s gate, you will not be castaway as someone who never knew the Lord.
There will be a lot of people arriving at the gates confident they have done good in this lifetime and will be allowed into the Kingdom of Heaven but will be turned away because they did not do the Lord’s will. Are you sure you will be accepted into the gates of Heaven? Have you done everything the Lord has asked you to do? On judgement day, we will all have to stand at the gates of Heaven and be judged individually. The worst thing in the world would be to be told by the Lord, “Depart from Me, I never knew you". As of this writing I myself am not quite sure I have done everything asked of me…wait, I take that back. I am pretty sure I have not done every single thing asked of me but that was before I developed my own personal relationship with the Lord. I was a believer, Saved, and worshipped the Lord but it was not until recently that I began to truly understand what is expected of me and how to hear the Lord speaking to me. From here on out I will listen closely to that inner voice and guess what, you can too. It is never too late to change and it is never too late to ask for forgiveness.
If you are a lost soul, if you do not have a strong personal relationship with the Lord, if you are not sure you will be allowed into the gates of Heaven—I encourage you to join a church no matter how big or how small. Church is where I was finally able to truly cultivate my relationship with the Lord. I love my church, and I am sure you will come to love yours too.
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