Ragtag Mama

This series at church has been really good. It is a hard series to do but Joe Boyd is doing great. He has talked about how the Elephant isn’t money but that it is God. This series is about how God has set up his economy and how fall into it. I read the book the Treasure Principal that was more about how we can pay our money forward. AKA the more we give away now the more that will be in heaven for us when we get there. Not  sure that it will work quite that way because I think that in heaven we will all be equal but you never know with God. I do know that I want to invest into people here as much as I can and I want to teach my kids to do so.

Part of that investment will be going to this up and coming weekend when we do Turkey Fest with church. This is an opportunity for us to provide a Turkey dinner to a family in need. The kids and I have already decorated our box now we just have to go get the food to go in it. I am taking them with me to the store on Wednesday to get everything that is needed. I don’t know how much they are getting out of what I am telling that but at least I know that they are getting influced to invest in the Kingdom of God and give.

Chris and I are working on getting ourselves to a better place in life to get rid of our debt and become better stewards with God’s money. We have paid off a few small bills and are hitting some big ones. I think that Chris said by Feb. we should have one big one paid off.  It will be great to get ourselves in a good situation and yet be able to give a lot away. I hope that we can eventually give more then 10% back to God. It will just take one step at a time.

This is a new series that we are doing at church to talk about money. Yeah I know everyone hates the money talk at church. This series though isn’t about guilting us into giving more or anything. Actually Moneys isn’t even the Elephant that we are talking about. The Elephant really is God. I didn’t get to go to church this Sunday with my family but I hope to watch tonight (Tuesday) what Joe Boyd has to say about it. I am sure that I will laugh a little too since I find Joe a very interesting speaker.

If you want to find out more about Tackling the Elephant check out the website for it at

www.tacklingtheelephant.com

I too will post more about it when I know more too.

Okay I was getting sick of the blandness of the old theme so I switched back to the 1st theme I used. Much more life in it. Maybe I will look and more themes and change it again. Maybe I will find a Christmas one since Christmas is quickly approaching. We will see what I can find.

Chris attended our small group for the first time last night (since it is 4:30 in the morning now) with out me. He said that he had a really great time with the group and that the kids took over the house since they out numbered the adults. He said that he wasn’t sure where the heck we were going to host that many kids in our house but I am sure that we will find away to do so. He said that he would love to attend the next meeting. I am looking forward to meeting everyone when we gather together again. It seemed like Chris really fit in. He didn’t seem to think that anyone person talked more then another. He felt like everyone had their fair chance to speak and be heard. We were glad that Kendra reconized Penny and was becoming buddies with her. Of course she will see her today at church. Well I have some things to wrap up hear at work but I just wanted our group to know that Chris liked y’all and that I am anxiously waiting meeting all of you. I am praying for all of you all the time and for whatever God puts in front of us to do life together (service, missions trips, outings, social interactions, ect.) For the Ultimate.

Okay so I have a struggle that I am trying to work on. I really dislike people who have a lot of money and do not share it with the world around them. Since I am one to give it all away I have a hard time watching people who have a lot spend it on themselves when there are so many other people in need. I know that there is enough money in the world to save lots of people and for no one to go hungry but due to our lack of sharing it there is always someone going hungry. I am trying hard to pray for these people that they may open their hearts but I am mostly praying for me that I would have an open heart for them and remember that not only the poor and homeless need Jesus in their lives. Rich people need to be looked out for too. I liked last year when we did wrap it up with our now church only I was saddened that people who really didn’t need the gift wrap took advantage of the service but again Jesus did not only reach out to the poor, sick, and homeless. He reached out to men and women who had money too. So please pray for my heart to open up more for those who have money and pray too for the rich to share their money with the poor. Thanks.

This is the last week in our 4ward study and I want to let you know that this is one of my favorites. Mainly because I love people and I want them to love Jesus. I hope that I can show them that just by their interactions with me. I know that I will not be relavent to all people because there are some groups of people that I don’t understand but I am trying to understand a bit more. I praying to become more like Paul and to learn lots about different groups of people and be able to teach them about Jesus from their perspective. I know that Chris is really good about doing this. He did all that he could to make Jesus real to his friend Ronnie and was sucessful in the end. Chris loves people too and we both want to do as much as we can for others. God has also shown us that we need to take care of ourselves too. That we need to pay most attention to our children and help them to learn more about Jesus in a very relavent way for them. Singing songs, reading simple stories, praying, and attending church where the church believes that they need to invest in the kids as much as the adults since they are our future.

 I am sad to see the forward series end today but I am hoping that I can get my feet a little more wet in the Bible now. We will see where God takes us now.