Faith

I don't usually post my personal devotions and Scripture Study in this blog, but today, I really felt led to do so. Maybe the Lord can use this in some way! Our Pastor has so graciously given his congregations devotional books each month and this month is about FAITH. Hebrews chapter 11 is what he calls the "Hall of Faith" chapter. It is amazing to study! If we really, stop and think about ourselves, we have to admit that we all have "faith" in something! We may have faith in our money, and we have seen recently, that is not something very stable to have faith in. We may have faith in ourselves, family members, talents, promises (which can easily be broken). I say all that to say, where does your faith lie? Hebrews 11:7 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Our faith must lie in God! So many argue the existence of God because they cannot see him, touch him or hear him. May I ask you a question? Do you believe in the wind? You can't see it but you can feel it. You can watch it rustle your child hair as he walks across the grass. You can feel its coolness on your face on a warm day. You can watch it cause leaves to fall from a tree on a crisp fall day. I've never heard anyone deny the existence of the wind, but so many deny God. If you've never accepted him as your personal Savior, that empty, hollow feeling you have is proof that He is there. He's just waiting to fill that void. Look around you! Everything around you declares that a marvelous Creator created everything and put his own personal touches into this world. When I look at my children, I can't help but see the miracle of the Creator perfectly designing my children! Hebrews 11:7 says that we cannot come to God unless we first believe that he is (that he exists)! Do you believe? FAITH! Our pastor defines faith as taking God at his Word in spite of my feelings, circumstances or consequences. Let me just make it clear that I choose to put my faith in God! Our verse goes on to say the God rewards those who diligently seek HIM! I feel so rewarded. I've much to be thankful for. I want to seek Him, and He will reward me for doing so. I claim this promise. Do you feel rewarded today, or do you always feel "tough out of luck". Trust me, luck has nothing to do with it! The Bible says, that God rewards those that seek Him! Are you seeking Him? The Bible also promises that if you seek HIM, you shall find HIM. Trust me, God wants all to come to Him! I hope I've made you think some, but this was just too important to keep to myself!

Loving all of you!
Cathy

Hiding God's Word in My Heart!

Becoming parents has changed Zach and I so much in so many different ways! I'm so thankful for that though because it has made us desire to be closer to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! It has made us strive to raise our children for Him and Him alone. We cannot think about what people think of our parenting and how they may or may not agree with us. Our sole desire is to make our Lord happy with how we raise our children. So, how do we know that the Lord will be happy with our efforts? I'm glad you asked. He gave us a wonderful guide book call the Bible to show us the way. This BOOK is so amazing that it tells us everything we need to know about how to make it through this tough life, and most importantly, how to make into heaven for our life after this world! I love this BOOK! It challenges me to be the woman God wants me to be. It challenges me to be the parent God wants me to be. I think you would agree with me that our troubled world could use a GUIDE BOOK such as this. We can see from our troubled youth of today, that not many parents are using such a guide. God gave me two wonderful gifts in my children! I don't want to mess this up! I make mistakes of course, but I confess it and ask the Lord to help me do better. The Bible tells us to, "Hide God's Word in our hearts." meaning to memorize Scripture. Memorizing anything has always been a challenge for me, but not so with my little Ethan. He loves the Bible and truly enjoys memorizing Scripture! I'm so excited about his love for God's Word! I want to cultivate it! So we memorize Scripture so that one day Ethan will be completely filled with God's Word! Some parents choose to fill their children with movies, video games, and selfish desires. I'll ask you, which do you think is better? I pray that Ethan will one day love God's principles not because mom and dad say so, but because God says so. God has really challenged me lately to teach Ethan the Romans Road (thanks John and Tascha for this wonderful suggestion!) This is series of Scripture in the Bible, the book of Romans to be exact, that will show a person exactly how to get to heaven. Ethan has such a desire to tell others about this so the Lord laid it on my heart to give him the tools to do this! We've memorized four verses so far. There are more, but I would love to share with you the progress we have made! Here is a short video of my precious Ethan:

Please pray for us as we try to raise our children for the Lord. It can seem like a daunting task when we see such wickedness around us.

On a cute and funny note, I wanted to post a couple of pictures of Ayden right after his nap. His hair was so crazy!

I slept good!


Why are you looking at me like that?