The Bigger Family, Part 2

“Everyone’s a little off except you & me. And sometimes I wonder about you!”

That being said, I list here some of the things I appreciate about these men/ministries in the Bigger Family. I’ve heard at least one warning about every last one of them, even the Donut Man! I do not list the complaints here to avoid promoting fodder. Although I don’t agree 100% with any of them, I love each one & I’m sure if we had the time to sit & chat, they’d find things to disagree with me about & perhaps would, as iron sharpens iron, straighten me out on a few things I’m “sure” I’m right on. If you haven’t heard any their contravercies yet, you either will in time, or perhaps you’re in a crowd of folk that have a “whatever you believe is nice for you” attitude which is somewhere between unloving due to apathy & so far watered down they don’t amount to anything (no salt & light left). Go find some friends who will challenge you to dig a little deeper spiritually. Start chatting it up with your friends about spiritual things. The old saying about not talking politics or religion is for the birds. That’s where all the good conversations take place! That being said, here’s my list of brothers/sisters & things I appreciate about them…

Michael & Debbie Pearl – I love her book Created to Be His Help Meet. Their writings on parenthood have also given me the courage to do what I need to do at times when everywhere else, we hear tenderfooted parenting. They say some things out there that no one else has the courage to say. I like that.

Voddie Bauchum is another one of those who stir the church thinking pot a bit & it’s what I like about him.

Bill Gothard – Next to my parents, this man has had the most influence in my character, etc. I am so grateful my parents took the effort to get me to his conferences through the years! Those seven principles have had a huge impact in my life & in who I am today.

Doug Philips – His promotion of getting back to family & family based worship is wonderful. I appreciate his celebration of the genders, too. It’s great to be a woman & I want my daughter to embrace that early on. I want my boys to be all boy & love it! That’s been lost in the last generation & Doug’s reclaiming it. Thank you!

Ken Ham – Can I just say I LOVE teaching Genesis? I’ve loved it since before I heard Ken’s phrase “back to Genesis”.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss – Honestly, I haven’t heard one negative thing about her. I keep waiting. She’d be the first to say she’s not perfect, but usually someone who says the things she says can’t stay under the radar too long without someone getting their toes stepped on & dissing her. But when I do hear it, I will still respect her right up there at the top. She is showing us how to be a woman (single or married), Godly, under authority, serving the Family in so many ways. I just love her, can you tell?

Billy Graham – He has faithfully been sharing the Gospel message for decades. He has lived a God-honoring & long life, never once disgracing the Gospel with scandal. He has been used to reach Presidents when no one else could. I so admire & respect him for that!

James Dobson – Adventures in Odyssey, That the World May Know, Focus radio, The Truth Project are just a few of the many ways he has blessed my family. Thank you, Dr. Dobson, for doing the ministry God put before you.

Jerry Falwell – Keith & I wouldn’t have met, I wouldn’t have spent four years in Korea to name just two ways this man has probably more personally changed my life than anyone besides my own dear parents. Two of my three sisters-in-law are mine due to his ministry. My husband was discipled through his ministry. My life would look completely different if he hadn’t “taken that mountain”. I will be forever grateful!

Rick Warren – He’s kind of the Billy Graham of our generation. See above – same as for Billy G. Actually, Keith & I have discussed how similar Rick Warren & Jerry Falwell are. People wouldn’t normally say that, thinking Jerry was always wearing a suit & Rick always wears a Hawaiian shirt, but they both are willing to try great things for God, are reaching out to the lost with a smile, take a lot of hits from Christians & non alike, & dream big!

The Donut Man – My family has been so blessed by his ability to put God’s Word to music in a fun way. Music makes it stick! God definitely gave him a gift & I’m thankful he is using it.

Anyone have others to add to the list?

Be Sure & Get the Big Rocks In!

It’s February 2nd (Happy Groundhogs Day, by the way) & our family has successfully added the big rock for this year – better health habits – for one month!! Yeah!! Keith & I have been starting to bed at 10 o’clock & getting up to excercise together in the mornings. Boy, do I feel better! Now, I just need to cut back on the food intake & I’ll be all set.

I might as well take this opportunity to write out one of my most favorite sermons Dad preached, about the Big Rocks. He preached it the spring of 2005. Later, I saw the gist of it in our denominational quartly magazine – EFCA Today. If you want, you can read how they put it in the spring of 2006 issue. (Scroll down to the sixth page.)

Basically, it captures how my Dad lived his life here on this earth. Don’t just float through life & do the next thing. Spend a moment to think about how you really want to invest your life. You only get one! Sure, we get to spend forever in heaven or hell, depending on which you choose, but God gave us this special gift of life here on earth. He wants us to use it wisely.

The “Big Rocks” are the things you should put in first. They are the most important things in your life. If you just put in whatever comes along, those little rocks will hog up all the space in your jar & you won’t have any time left for the big rocks! If you put the big rocks in first, you’ll be suprised at how many little rocks fit in to your jar each day.

I’ve heard some say the old “JOY = Jesus, Others, Self”, saying Jesus should be first in your life, then others, & yourself last. I understand what they’re trying to say, but I don’t agree for a couple of reasons. I don’t see how you can really separate God out & put it first. For me, it overlaps all the other parts of my life (I’ll explain later). Secondly, I don’t believe people really put others before themselves. The Bible talks about “loving your neighbor as yourself”. I don’t see very many people really living that one out, loving other people as they love themselves, let alone loving others more than themselves!

The Big Rocks in my life are…

1) My God-given role as wife – For those of you who’ve never read “Created To Be His Help Meet”, read an exerpt of this life-challenging book here. I am created to be Keith’s help meet. This includes taking care of my health for him & our family, being his sounding board & idea person for his classroom, really listening to & encouraging him, grading his papers, etc. with a willing heart whenever needed, keeping our home organized & well stocked so he doesn’t have to think about it, just enjoy. This doesn’t include all my wifely duties, but this is a family blog, so we’ll leave it at that!

2) My God-given role as mother – This includes providing the best for our children mentally, physically, socially, & spiritually. I use Luke 2:52 as my guide on that. “And Jesus grew both in wisdom and in stature, gaining favor with both other people and with God.” This is a tall order including our children’s education, physical needs, discipline, manner training as well as providing opportunities to use them, and providing a strong Biblical foundation for them to build on as they grow.

3) My part in the Body of Christ – (1 Corinthians 12:27) This includes using the gift God gave me in shepherding & teaching young ones. The family verse Keith chose for our family this year is 2 Peter 1:5-7,

“…your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. Knowing God better leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone.”

I love that! That kind of encapsules what everyone’s role is in the family of God. (I’m supposed to be working on a flow chart for the kids to learn that. I really should be doing that right now instead of blogging! But this is to get more of our life in writing, right? I’ve got the pictures in my mind, just need to get into printshop & print them out!!)

4) My extended family – As I blogged yesterday, we don’t have a “Mayberry” around here, but we do have an abundance of extended family. We chose that & enjoy the benefits! This includes time spent, though, & well spent it is. There are lunches with Grandma & Great-Grandma, trips to the doctor or dentist if needed to care for those who need a ride, showers, birthday parties, pizza nights with cousins, Friday night get-togethers, etc. And just because some family doesn’t live close doesn’t mean they don’t get to share in the love! There’s bi-yearly trips to MN, phone calls & pictures to get on line, art gifts to make & send, sweet longer visits from Grandma,etc. This is an important rock not everyone is blessed with & I wouldn’t want our family to live without!

Those four rocks pretty much cover my life. If it doesn’t fit into one of these catagories, it goes. The trick is in balancing these four big ones, & making sure the projects I’ve started are the best ones to fit that big rock in! Speaking of all this, I better quit blogging for the day & get on with putting bigger & better rocks into my jar today! Until next time.