This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Women of Faith Conference in Dallas. I was so looking forward to this life changing event that all my girl friends have talked about in years past. The speakers and worship teams were phenomenal! There were times when we laughed and there were times when we sobbed. It was truly an inspiring time for every person under that roof.

This years conference was called “Believe God Can Do Anything.” I think the title was fitting given the background of every woman involved. One speaker was abandoned at birth with no name. She was sexually abused from the age of 3 well into her teenage years. Another speaker was discarded by her father and had an abortion. Another overcame the most impoverished situation growing up. The list of desperate circumstances goes on, but the point is the same for all… God CAN Do Anything! He certainly has done the impossible with these women- especially regarding the past from which they came.

Every single person on that stage probably never imagined that God could use them after all they had been through and yet there they were- sharing the good news and goodness of our God. Nothing proclaims “God is good” like a person set free from a painful past. What has God set you free from? Do you know you are not disqualified because of your past?
I’ve always felt like my long list of sins and brokenness meant my “resume” for being a Christian was invalid. But that’s just another lie the enemy wants us to believe.

I was greatly encouraged by one of the speakers who spoke about the miracle that Jesus performed when he fed five thousand with only five loaves of bread and two fish (John 6). You hear this story a lot when you’ve grown up in church. But she brought something new to my attention that I had never considered.

She preached about how the miracle of the food being multiplied didn’t occur until the bread was broken. Think about how that applies to us. How much more fruit do we bear when we’ve been broken? Now that’s not to say that God can’t use us when we aren’t broken… But how many times have people been touched by the broken past that you or someone else has overcome? Your faith in God carries much influence when your circumstances have been dark & desperate and yet you still cling to Him and cry “How Great is Our God?!”

I have to admit that I was extremely exhausted this weekend. Gideon is still waking up 3-4 times at night. And for some reason my daughter has been screaming for us around 2:30 am every morning. So needless to say when this weekend got here, I wasn’t looking forward to the conference on 4 hours of interrupted sleep. In fact I’m sad to say we left the conference early because I was just so worn out. But even though I left exhausted, I left encouraged.

Christine Cane is the speaker who spoke about Jesus feeding 5,000. At the end of her sermon she mentioned how Jesus asked the disciples to pick up what was left over and carry it with them. I’ve never thought about why He would have the disciples take the broken pieces with them other than to see there was an abundance. Christine stated, “I think Jesus had them carry the broken pieces with them as a reminder of the miracle God had done for them. After all, in the next few verses, the disciples were headed into a storm, and they would need that reminder.”

I’m not sure where you’re at right now. Maybe you’re in a storm or just coming out of one. Or perhaps your storm is just on the horizon. The broken pieces of our past we carry with us; not to weigh us down with guilt or sadness, but as a reminder of what God has done for us. When you look back at your broken pieces you should remember that He has been faithful and He will continue to be faithful, even through your worst storm.

Unfortunately the worst of my storm is yet to come. My sons diagnosis is death. When? No one really knows. But I do know this. God has faithfully carried me through every other storm of my life (I have a lot of broken pieces to prove it). So why would I doubt Him to do the same now? His track record is pretty prefect.

I know who goes before me
I know who stands behind
The God of angel armies
Is always by my side.
-Chris Tomlin, Whom Shall I Fear
(One of the many great songs we sang at WOF).

Thanks to everyone involved with Women Of Faith. Thanks for allowing God to use your broken pieces to multiply the masses. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. Tickets for 2014 are already on sale! God bless!

Hopefully we are all striving to make progress. No one ever wants to stay stagnant…we should all be moving towards a goal. But progress looks different for each person, so it’s unfair when we try to compare. I think  we all struggle with comparison from time to time…at least I know I do. Nevertheless, we reached some goals today that were big for us and I would like to share them with you all.

First of all, Gideon is making big progress. At 8 months old, he has finally done the simple task of clapping his hands when asked to do so. The first few times he did this was on Sunday; but since he became sick he hasn’t performed it again until today. I was thrilled!

Click Clap to watch him do it.

Cute right? Okay, maybe I am partial. I’m always hesitant though to announce how he’s progressing, mostly because he’s so far behind most kids his age. Believe it or not, I sometimes forget he has a good excuse.  Other times I feel guilty because Gideon is ahead of some kids who are facing the same genetic disorder. Either way, I’m learning to accept that my son’s life is going to look different than that of someone else his age, regardless of what they may be facing themselves.

So we did some big things today…big things for us. Beware, you may not find them all that exciting.

Today during physical therapy, along with clapping for his therapist, Gideon also signed “mama”… although it was probably an accident. Because he wouldn’t repeat the request, I’m going to go ahead and say he was  trying to suck his thumb (with an open fist) and missed….thus appearing to sign “mama.” Another achievement for G man was that he kept one of his hearing aids in the entire time we did therapy! ….big improvement, even though it was just the one. He also kept one hearing aid in while jumping in his bouncer and watching his video.

Don’t you just love his cheeks? I know, I’m biased. Anyways, Gideon also finally opened his mouth upon request while I was feeding him lunch today. Kids with this kind of genetic disorder sometimes have a feeding tube because they are not able to swallow (a reality we could face someday). But for now, we are extremely grateful that he can.

Don’t let this picture fool you, he loves bananas! (that’s the only food he loves). Usually I have to force the food in his mouth (as you can tell by his face, lol) because he doesn’t know how to open it. That all changed today though…because he opened his mouth when I asked him to do so. I got proof!

Click Here to watch him eat like a big boy!

And I can’t brag on my little man’s success without sharing some of Laynie’s achievements today also. Even though she has a virus, we did our pre-k homeschooling. She didn’t realize we were doing it, but we did. We played pet shop with real money. We discussed all the ways we could pay $0.26 for a pet giraffe! Great deal if you ask me!

She also painted some of her family around her memory verse. My favorite is that she attempted to draw her Aunt Traci and Chris (who are both in wheelchairs). Me and Mimi made it into the master piece as well. I labeled them so there’s no confusion about who is who. Precious right?

She also did her Spanish words for the day. Libro, puerta, ventana, silla, and mesa.

But the biggest goal reached (I think) for the day, is that we all three took an hour nap at the same time!! Even my little boy (who doesn’t nap longer than 30 minutes) took an hour nap! Okay, well honestly I took an hour nap before I realized he was up, so maybe it wasn’t an hour…since we will never know, I’m going to give him credit.

So that’s our big day. Doesn’t seem like much does  it? Most days I feel as though we don’t get much done. Heck, I consider the day a success if all I’ve done is showered and fed my kids! I know you moms out there feel me.

Do you have days where you feel like you didn’t make progress by the world’s standards? I do often.  And then I remember that song by Steven Curtis Chapman called Do Everything. Even if you’ve heard it a thousand times, listen to it again. Click HERE. Or read the lyrics below.

You’re picking up toys on the living room floor for the 15th time today 
Matching up socks 
Sweeping up lost cheerios that got away 

You put a baby on your hip 
Color on your lips and head out the door 

While I may not know you, 
I bet I know you 
Wonder sometimes, does it matter at all? 

Well let me remind you, it all matters just as long 
As you do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you, 
Cause he made you, 
To do 
Every little thing that you do 
To bring a smile to His face 
Tell the story of grace 
With every move that you make 
And every little thing you do 

If you’re like me and feel like your successes are not big or important by the world’s standards, that’s okay…honestly, they probably aren’t. But you know what? Every little thing you do matters as long as you do it for His glory. Isn’t that good news? That means we don’t have to please the world! Peoples opinions about our progress doesn’t matter! We can be content with our own pace and our own place.

So be encouraged with your own progress as you reach your goals. And if you’ve been at a stand still that’s okay, you can always push forward…Baby steps. Remember God and Gideon are clapping and cheering you on!

I was driving to my parents house this morning when I came to a stop light and found myself behind this white Ford truck. I noticed there was scripture on the back and decided to take a photo to send to my husband. The scripture is Romans 10:9 and the New King James Version is what you see on the truck. The English Standard Version says it this way- “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

As we drove our separate ways I began to think about how simplistic the Christian faith is. Think about it, all we have to do in order to be saved is confess with our mouths Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead! That’s it!!  As a child that was so easy for me to accept. However in college I began to question, could it be that simple???

By my early twenties I thought I had done so much wrong in my life, surely I would have to do something in order for God to forgive my sins and accept me, right? Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t murder anyone, but I had done other big things that I thought would have surely disqualified me from being called a “Christian.” And I certainly would not have confessed what I had done to anyone!!

I was 25 years old when I finally got it. That was when I truly understood and accepted that salvation is an undeserved, free gift. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” I had read that verse a hundred times growing up, but it finally made sense at age 25.

Why 25 you ask? That would be the age I was when I found out I was pregnant. If you watched our testimony, then you know my husband and I were not married at the time….heck, we were not even dating! I won’t get into details, but trust me when I say, it was ugly (don’t worry, it has a happy ending). But the point I want to make here is that at the ripe old age of 25, I realized that this unplanned pregnancy was not a sin that I could hide! Everyone was going to know that I was having sex before I was married. Every other sin I had ever committed…lying, stealing, coveting, cheating, I could go on….no one EVER had to know. But this time it was different. My pregnant belly and ring-less finger were to me as the scarlet letter was to Hester.

Facing all these unknowns, I began to question my salvation; but thankfully an amazing woman (Terri Wilkinson) took me under her wing and became my counselor, my mentor, and my friend. I met with her weekly for the duration of my pregnancy. It was because of people like her that I began to realize how messed up my view of God was. Even though my head knew what the Bible said about salvation, my heart hadn’t caught up.

Terri helped me realize that God was going to use that pregnancy for His glory, and that no matter what wrong I had done in my life, God still loved me and I was still a Christian. Have you ever felt that way? Have you felt as though you were too far gone to still be saved?? I love the stories in the Bible. With the exception of Jesus, almost everyone else in the Bible screwed up big time! A christian rap artist, Lecrae, recently posted this on his Facebook, “Noah got drunk, Jacob lied, Moses murdered, Rahab was a whore, David had an affair. God still used em. What’s your excuse?” Does that encourage you like it does me? No matter how far gone we think we are, God can still use us!

Have you ever accepted Jesus as your Savior? It really is as simple as Romans 10:9. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” If you’ve already made that decision to follow Him, maybe you’re like me and think you’ve screwed up too many times. You haven’t. He still wants us. He can still use us. He’s given you the choice…all you have to do is accept the undeserved, free gift of salvation.

It amazes me how simple God made it. You can’t pray enough, go to church enough, read your Bible enough, serve enough…there’s nothing you can do because salvation isn’t something you earn, it’s something you accept. No one can work their way to Heaven! Isn’t that great news? I don’t know about you, but I’m relieved. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t make it to Heaven if we had to work for it!

The person who drives that white truck will probably never know just how many people he has (and will continue to) reach. By simply posting a verse to his tailgate he is changing lives, one stop light at a time. I’m so glad our vehicles crossed paths. Seeing that verse was a great reminder of how simple salvation is.

Thanks for sharing the Truth white truck.