Showing posts with label Children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Children. Show all posts
Friday, May 10, 2013
To my children, what I want for mother's day
To My Children, What I want for Mother's day,
I want you to carry love in your hearts always… real love, true love, love for God. The kind of love that allows you to give love and receive love.
I want you to know with confidence that you are beautiful without anyone having to tell you that you are.
I want you to hear the wisdom that guides you. The wisdom of those that have gone ahead, and the wisdom that whispers to your soul.
I want you to feel life. The breath that has awakened your spirit to encompass this beautiful journey.
I want you to see beauty, real beauty. The twinkle of a billion stars found in the eyes of a beautiful person. The rustling wind found in the gasp of a newborn baby’s breath.
I want you to taste the success of the impossible being made deliciously possible through Jesus Christ.
I want you to understand how blessed I am for being able to hold a baby, comfort a child, discipline a teenager, invest in a future, and pray over another person like I have done for you.
Somewhere in the scheme of things, God’s grace and mercy was sufficient enough to pick me to be your mom/guardian/teacher/minister/family. I could have never on my own qualified to be that person for you. What I want the most for Mother’s day, is for you to know there is no greater gift on this earth I could receive. I want you to know your worth and that you ARE the perfect gift from God and I am eternally grateful for you.
For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 1 Samuel 1:27
With All My Love,
Mom
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Growing wishes...
Recently, My husband was outside with all of our children playing in the yard. Our 6 year old pointed a dandelion out to her dad and said, "Look dad, we're growing wishes". Oh how much this moment shows to us a childlike perspective. Full of excitement and purpose, she was ecstatic over a simple dandelion in the yard.
How can that leave fingerprints on us? The verse that comes to mind for me...
And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. Luke 17:6
Just like our 6 year old excited about "growing wishes", we can be that excited about growing faith. A mustard seed is oh so tiny. It just takes that small amount on our part and God will grow it and then we can plant it anywhere and every where we go. Like the dandelion that spreads and grows as children are blowing it's seeds into the wind, so can our faith and ultimately, the good news of the gospel be spread and grown.
Are you growing in faith and spreading the good news? Are you leaving fingerpints?
A Grateful Believer in Jesus Christ
~Johnna
<a href="http://womenlivingwell.org/category/women-living-well-wednesdays/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq297/courtneylivingwell/LivingWell.png"></a>
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
She's a Christian!!
Out of our 6 kids, three have been saved. As parents, we have explained salvation to them, what it means to be a Christian and held their hands as they have prayed the sinner prayer.
Bring in our daughter Kamryn, who is special needs. She has always been a very very spiritual child. She is my
little evangelist and tells everyone about Jesus. However, because of her special needs, she hasn't been through the process of being "saved". I have carefully explained to her before but she would just get this confused look. She understood praying and she loves to sing every prayer she says. She is in love with Jesus but the process... I had to pray over that. Would her learning capacity allow her to understand?
Today, Kamryn comes in my bedroom, lays directly on top of me and tells me she is going to miss me when I die. I told her I hoped I didn't die for a while. She said "you will die someday and so will I and we will meet each other in heaven, but I'm not a Christian mom". I told her that being a Christian means having Jesus in our heart. She said "mom, I have Jesus in my heart but I'm not a Christian and I need to be a Christian" Kamryn had gone from joyful to sad, upset, and insistent. I felt that her declaration of Jesus being in heart was probably proof of what I had expected, God got a hold of her a long time ago. She was adamant that something was missing, so I explained.
I told her that Christians say a prayer in which we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins, come into our heart and help us live like him. As soon as those words were out of my mouth, Kamryn started praying a very quick but very important prayer. When she was done she asked if she was a Christian now. I told her yes, and she jumped up and started shouting "I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian". She ran all through the house. As her daddy walked in the door she jumped in his arms and said "I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian and when I die, I'm going up to heaven and staring DOWN at the devil". Her dad hugged as we laughed and cried with her. Her sisters were all giggling as they explained to her that they were now sisters in Christ.
As I was talking to my husband about how I have always been kind of concerned how this moment would happen for Kamryn, I told him, it really is that simple. He added "and that exciting" as Kamryn is still dancing and twirling through the house shouting "I'm a Christian".
But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. (Mark 10:14-16 ESV)
A Grateful Believer in Jesus Christ
~Johnna
Bring in our daughter Kamryn, who is special needs. She has always been a very very spiritual child. She is my
little evangelist and tells everyone about Jesus. However, because of her special needs, she hasn't been through the process of being "saved". I have carefully explained to her before but she would just get this confused look. She understood praying and she loves to sing every prayer she says. She is in love with Jesus but the process... I had to pray over that. Would her learning capacity allow her to understand?
Today, Kamryn comes in my bedroom, lays directly on top of me and tells me she is going to miss me when I die. I told her I hoped I didn't die for a while. She said "you will die someday and so will I and we will meet each other in heaven, but I'm not a Christian mom". I told her that being a Christian means having Jesus in our heart. She said "mom, I have Jesus in my heart but I'm not a Christian and I need to be a Christian" Kamryn had gone from joyful to sad, upset, and insistent. I felt that her declaration of Jesus being in heart was probably proof of what I had expected, God got a hold of her a long time ago. She was adamant that something was missing, so I explained.
I told her that Christians say a prayer in which we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins, come into our heart and help us live like him. As soon as those words were out of my mouth, Kamryn started praying a very quick but very important prayer. When she was done she asked if she was a Christian now. I told her yes, and she jumped up and started shouting "I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian". She ran all through the house. As her daddy walked in the door she jumped in his arms and said "I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian and when I die, I'm going up to heaven and staring DOWN at the devil". Her dad hugged as we laughed and cried with her. Her sisters were all giggling as they explained to her that they were now sisters in Christ.
As I was talking to my husband about how I have always been kind of concerned how this moment would happen for Kamryn, I told him, it really is that simple. He added "and that exciting" as Kamryn is still dancing and twirling through the house shouting "I'm a Christian".
But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. (Mark 10:14-16 ESV)
A Grateful Believer in Jesus Christ
~Johnna
Friday, January 25, 2013
Cooperating with God
I'm reading the book "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas. In it, he discusses how one meaningful aspect of marriage is cooperating with God to bring a child into being. It put on my heart the need to share a very personal story. Like, I couldn't even continue reading because the words wouldn't make sense because I just needed to write this, so here goes.
We had been told we couldn't have children. We went through fertility treatments and eventually were able to have our son who was followed a short two years later by his sister. We both felt our family was complete at that point and my husband had scheduled "the procedure". Two days before it was to take place he cancelled it. He said he didn't feel right doing something so permanent after we had prayed so hard to have children.
Just a couple weeks later, we found out we were expecting our third child. It wasn't exactly planned but we were okay with it. A few more weeks later and my doctor told me I had lost the baby, that he couldn't find the heartbeat. He wanted to do a procedure. I couldn't imagine. I argued with him, asking what if this and maybe only... He said my HCG was down to a 7, there was no way. I still refused the procedure and went home and cried and prayed and cried and prayed. A week later, I still didn't have any symptoms of a miscarriage. I went back to the doctor so he could see if I was okay. My HCG was in the thousands and the sound of a fetal heartbeat echoed through the entire room, even the nurse cried.
I can't explain my Kamryn girl, you would just have to know her. Born with skin abnormalities that the doctors never could figure out, she has survived near complete kidney failure at the age of 4, and now age 8 has proved almost every specialist wrong on every diagnosis she has received.
Kamryn is also my little evangelist, she will ask everyone in line at Pizza Hut on Sunday if they go to church and if they know Jesus. Her answer to every thing is God centered. (Her sister has to pick up the dog poop outside because God expects his grass to be clean). She doesn't say her prayers, she sings them, almost everytime. She doesn't leave anything out either.
I could make an entire blog on Kamryn. She is one of our 6 examples of cooperating with God, and oh how blessed we are to have her.
For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. (2 Corinthians 2:9 ESV)
I don't know why I was led to share something so personal but if it helps just one, it's worth it to leave fingerprints.
A Grateful Believer in Jesus Christ
~Johnna
We had been told we couldn't have children. We went through fertility treatments and eventually were able to have our son who was followed a short two years later by his sister. We both felt our family was complete at that point and my husband had scheduled "the procedure". Two days before it was to take place he cancelled it. He said he didn't feel right doing something so permanent after we had prayed so hard to have children.
Just a couple weeks later, we found out we were expecting our third child. It wasn't exactly planned but we were okay with it. A few more weeks later and my doctor told me I had lost the baby, that he couldn't find the heartbeat. He wanted to do a procedure. I couldn't imagine. I argued with him, asking what if this and maybe only... He said my HCG was down to a 7, there was no way. I still refused the procedure and went home and cried and prayed and cried and prayed. A week later, I still didn't have any symptoms of a miscarriage. I went back to the doctor so he could see if I was okay. My HCG was in the thousands and the sound of a fetal heartbeat echoed through the entire room, even the nurse cried.
I can't explain my Kamryn girl, you would just have to know her. Born with skin abnormalities that the doctors never could figure out, she has survived near complete kidney failure at the age of 4, and now age 8 has proved almost every specialist wrong on every diagnosis she has received.
Kamryn is also my little evangelist, she will ask everyone in line at Pizza Hut on Sunday if they go to church and if they know Jesus. Her answer to every thing is God centered. (Her sister has to pick up the dog poop outside because God expects his grass to be clean). She doesn't say her prayers, she sings them, almost everytime. She doesn't leave anything out either.
I could make an entire blog on Kamryn. She is one of our 6 examples of cooperating with God, and oh how blessed we are to have her.
For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. (2 Corinthians 2:9 ESV)
I don't know why I was led to share something so personal but if it helps just one, it's worth it to leave fingerprints.
A Grateful Believer in Jesus Christ
~Johnna
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