Fortune Cookie Devos: Intro

Fortune Cookies. In my house these little cookies (that really don't have much taste) are the highlight of Chinese Night. I find myself so excited to hand them out to everyone and see what funny little snippet is found inside. Even my boys get excited and they usually have no idea what that little piece of paper is good for. I have never entertained the idea that there is a "fortune" inside, but I have found several bits of encouragement or wisdom that I found to be relevant. In fact, I have one hanging on my refrigerator now that says, "Be an optimist. There does not seem too much use being anything else."

It never occurred to me to take them any further than that nights fun conversation starter or something cute to hang up somewhere, until a couple of weeks ago. One of the teachers at the school that I work a,t used fortune cookies as the journal prompt for that day. The kids wrote about what came to their head first when they read their "fortune". The teacher then took what they wrote and applied to how God could work in their heart and lives. I thought this was fun and a great idea for my small group of middle schoolers at church.

The more I thought about it, the more fun it sounded, so here I am today. I hope to take a "fortune" a week, match it up, or disprove it, with God's Word and then relate it to a spiritual truth needed to grow in a relationship with our Heavenly Father. I don't know about you, but I am excited about this little fortune cookie journey. I pray that you will join me on this adventure and find a new and exciting way to dig into God's "fortune cookie" to us.

New Blog Idea

So, I recently realized that I really missed sharing my thoughts here. The 6th grade teacher had the student write a journal entry with a fortune cookie as the prompt. I thought that was the coolest idea! So, I have decided that once a week over the summer I will get some sort of Chinese and use the fortune cookie as my blog prompt! I am going to try and make each fortune relate to God and use it as encouragement from His Word for the week. :) I am really excited about this new adventure in His Word. So, stay tuned for Fortune Cookie Devos.

Makes Me Wonder...

Tonight at youth group we are talking about the exodus and the passover. So, last night I settled into bed to begin studying and I actually took the time to pray that God would reveal what He wanted my girls to hear tonight during small group time. I am ashamed to admit it, but I often get hurried and forget to pray for that. So I began in Exodus chapter 4 when Moses packed up his family and headed for Egypt. I stumbled across verse 24-26 and got stuck. It says, " At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met {Moses} and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. So the LORD let him alone."

The Lord was about to kill Moses??!!?? Now, I have never claimed to be a Bible scholar, but I had never read that before. BUT, I know I have because I have read this story a hundred times. How did I miss that? I remembered the bloody husband thing, but I never connected to the verse before it, or to what happened apparently. I read in a commentary and it all made sense, but I could not (and still am not) get over that i missed this and how random it is in scripture. There is no explanation of prior disobedience, just mentions, by the way Moses you are in big trouble. Makes me laugh a little.

I finally was able to continue reading the rest of the story, but I didn't make it past the plague of flies before I went back to read it again. I also checked all of my other Bible versions to make sure it was in all of them...it was. I stopped there and went to bed a little baffled. I was also very disappointed because I still didn't have anything to talk to my girls about regarding the passover (partly b/c i didn't even make it that far in my reading). That, coupled with the spider I saw that I couldn't find to kill, made my night's sleep a little lacking.

I was sharing this new discover with a co-worker today. As I am telling the story to her, the scene is unfolding in my head. It became a very typical occurrence in many marriages today (minus the trowing of foreskin and all).

So, God shows up and Moses didn't so what he was supposed to b/c his wife really didn't want him to. Now, he is in BIG TIME trouble and she feels bad and takes care of it herself, obviously not with a very pleasant attitude. She bails him out and saves his tail. Does that sound familiar to anyone but me? But how can a relate this story to 8th grade girls? Could this be what God revealed to me for them and I missed it until today? Is that why I couldn't get it out of my head?

Moses obviously dropped the ball. His wife had to take care of something that wasn't her responsibility to do. God always accomplishes His will, but who has to suffer in because we didn't obey in the first place? Like Pharaoh's disobedience, all of Egypt suffered for his stubbornness. And in came the Passover.

Answered prayer and a valuable life lesson rolled into one for me. How am I dropping the ball and making others suffer? That is something to ponder.

Small Victories

Today one of Tyler's teachers stopped by my office on her way out. She wanted to let me know that Ty came into her class at lunch time and asked if he could eat with her. She said sure, and asked why. He said, "I don't want to get in trouble with my friends so I want to eat in here with you." What a great life lesson that he is starting to learn. Removing yourself from situations that you know you do not have the self control to handle the right way. Wow, I think we could all use a reminder of that sometimes! I know one young man who will be getting a piece of his Halloween candy tonight. :)

Simple Reminders

Luke 10:38-42
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Today I began a Bible Study, A Woman After God's Own Heart, via an online blog. This will be a new kind of accountability for me and I am praying it does the trick! I am not sure why I struggle so much with spending time with the Lord in prayer and in His Word. But, I do. It has been a struggle for my entire Christian walk. I cannot think of a time where I was consistently in His Word for longer than 2 or 3 months. For me, that is just not good enough.

So, on day one, I read the Words of Christ pointing out that Mary made the better choice. I relate with Martha so much! I am always doing, doing, doing, and much of it is for the Lord. I also find myself wondering why others aren't alongside of me...doing, doing, doing. Oh, how I wish I related to Martha, the one who made the better choice. Here is where I am struggling...How to be Mary & Martha in one body! Let's face it...all of the things that I do still have to be done. But I have a feeling that I could still get them done even if I stop to spend time with my Savior. He does say that it will not return void.

So, here I go on another Bible Study adventure....I can't wait to find out what the Lord has in store for me this time. It will be round 2 with this one, I plan on finishing it this time!

Excited For Life...

Thanks Dani for the title of this blog. I really am excited for life right now. I never thought that God would allow me to work in ministry after the choices I made right out of college. But, the AWESOME God that He is, He did. I have been able to dive in head first into all kinds of ministry opportunities and I am totally stoked about it. I just wanted to give a little shout out to my Heavenly Father for totally hookin' up my life! Thanks! :)

A Duh Moment!

So here I am at 5:30 this morning...awake. If you are close to me you know that this is very weird. I have had trouble sleeping past 5 or so lately. I have been blaming it on my husband who snores; I feel bad getting so frustrated with him because it really isn't his fault. Yet, morning after morning I lay in bed awake for an hour until the alarm goes off and then I am totally grumpy about all of the sleep I just lost. No wonder we have such rough mornings! LOL

Same story this morning accept I didn't stay in bed for that hour. I decided, well, I am not going to sleep anyway...I might as well get up and spend some time with the Lord. While I was sitting there praying and asking for a desire for Him and thanking Him for His gracious provision, it occurred to me. DUH! You have been asking for a desire to spend time with the Lord and wishing you were one of the people who got up early and here you are! Awake at 5:00am!!

I love how the Lord works sometimes. It makes me smile. I am praying that He will keep waking me up and reminding me why I am awake. I hope that everyone has a very blessed day today, I know that I will.