Live Out Loud - Adventures of a mom

I have yet to meet a parent that does not want or plan to send their kids to learn anything other than what they learn in school.  I send my kids to learn to swim, play the piano, do ballet, skate, play T-ball and tennis at different times of the year.  The rationale is that we want to give them opportunities to learn things - some are for enjoyment, some are for survival, some because we believe will be good for their development. Whatever our reasons, we consciously give them opportunities to learn because we want what is best for them. But, what IS best for them? As I see my 5 year old boy grow ever so rapidly, with my 3 year old daughter following behind, I wonder How much of my time have I spent consciously trying to train them to personalize God into their lives?     Have I 'sign them up' to the most important course in life? I may send my kids to learn to swim or skate, but at the end of the class I always try to be involved and ask questions at the very least.  I

I first heard of CRASH Japan  through facebook, after March 11, 2011, when the terrible earthquake followed by the tsunami hit Japan.   CRASH Japan , or Christian Relief Assistance Support Hope serves local churches in Japan by mobilizing the body of CHrist to bring help and hope to people affected by disasters.  Our church raised some money and sent it to assist as part of our response.  We also told everyone to pray. But I have to admit part of me assumed Japan would be 'fine'.  After all, Japan isn't Haiti.  They have money, I told myself.  They have technology.  Yes, this was terrible, but they will be fine.  The Japanese people are a very resilient people. And as other world news happened and took over the old news of Japan, so I also began to 'move on'.  I did wonder every now and then how Japan was coping, especially as CRASH Japan's facebook page reminded me every now and again that there was still work there.  But these were only fleeting moments.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matt. 5:4) As many of you know, I have been researching, reminiscing and blogging about my brother Andy's life.  He passed away to be with God 18 years ago.  That was a long time ago. And I am touched by many of your comments and emails as you share your sorrows and griefs.  Many of you have shared that you have bottled up grief and loss for years.  And I hear a recurrent question WHY are you doing this, Sandy? I am embracing grieving and loss .  I feel the need to.  A couple of months ago I began to think of my brother and realized I had began to forget his voice, his character, his mannerisms...even his face.  And it was not a good feeling.  It did not feel right.  I began to wished I had some of these memories written down so that I could remember and so that others could remember too, including my own children. As I embarked on a journey through memory lane I realized the journey was going to be tough .

Dear Andy, It would have been your 34th year on planet earth today.  I imagine you might be working downtown Toronto, at some financial institution, making good money.  I imagine you still single for some reason, but dating, and finally dating steadily with a lovely and godly lady.  It took you a while to figure things with God, but by God's grace, you do have a strong relationship with Him now. We probably would have had a phone conversation sometime last week to talk about how to celebrate today.  I might have made you a cake.  I wonder what kind of stuff you would be into at 34? Of course, you are having a much better party up in heaven today - celebrating with our Creator.  No worries, no tears, no pain.  And even though I still miss you - I am happy.  I am giving thanks to God that you are up there in heaven having a p-a-r-t-y with Jesus. But I still want to celebrate you today.  As I continue my journey into finding out more from you, I thought this from one of yo

Ever since our pastor started preaching on 'leaky buckets' the Lord has continued to speak to me in the same imagery through Scripture, chats with friends, and even in my reading.  I pray this encourages you as much as it continues to minister to me. Taken from "The Emotionally Healthy Church" - A strategy for discipleship that actually changes lives by Peter Scazzero, page 123 There once lived a water carrier in India.  He used two large pots for his task.  He suspended a pole across his neck and attached a pot at each end of the pole.  One of the pots had a big crack in it while the other pot was perfect.  The perfect pot always delivered a full portion of water from the stream to the master's house, while the cracked pot arrived only half full each day. For two years this water carrier made the same journey.  The perfect pot became proud of its accomplishments.  The cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish

Matthew  6:24  —  “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” It's that time of the year...again...the dreaded time where I am forced to look at numbers and money.  I have absolutely no chemistry with numbers.  I dread them.  They confuse me.  Numbers frustrate me.  The only times I feel free with numbers is when I find out I don't have to think about them. But as reality dictates, money and numbers are a fact of my life.   A VERY REAL FACT OF LIFE.  It's not about whether I like them or not.  I can run every year but I cannot hide - eventually (Febrary and March) - I have to face them. So as we sat in front of our financial planner a couple of weeks ago as she was giving us an overview of our 'portfolio  performances' I started thinking about God and Retirement Plans.  I wondered, "how does God view this?"  What is the balan

I was so happy to hear our church reached our goal to send out 500 plus shoeboxes this last November through Operation Christmas Child  (OCC).  Even though I had participated in OCC for more than 15 years this was the first year OCC really made an impact in MY life.  Here are three lessons I learned, and am still learning: Lesson #1:  Yes, He can...and Yes, we can. I still remember when we first determined we'd set the 500 box goal - part of me did NOT think we'd ever reach that goal.  After all, we had a congregation of about 280 people.  But while I doubted, another part of me knew God was calling me to witness the way HE moves and does HIS work.   It was so exciting when we realized, one week before our deadline, that we had ran out of boxes (we had ordered 500 boxes initially) and had to rush more boxes in! As I involved my kids in the packing of shoeboxes I also became much more conscious of the abundance of resources we have here.  Even though we were making ma