Crazy Rich

I just listened to an audiobook about the Johnson and Johnson family. Yep, the baby powder and band aids people. It was about the 3 brothers that started the company and their descendants.  Those people are crazy and rich. 

I'm not sure anyone in the family- past, present and future- came out for the better with ALL THAT MONEY. 

I'm talking unimaginable money. Billions. Many descendants. And NOBODY happy, content or unscathed. 

It made me think about how good I've got it. About what it means to have to work- and can't imagine a life without work, without purpose. 

The Bible in Ecclesiastes tells us it's good for man to be happy and content in his work- it's from God. 

I find it a happy life- the simple life. Marriage, taking care of my kids, my home, my yard- my work. 

It's good to take a day of rest. While the cold rain pours down outside- and take a long hot bath with a cup of hot tea and- for me- a running magazine. 

Oh the simple blessings of life. Joy. Contentment. 

Friends

I was out running in the COLD morning and I asked the Lord, "What would You speak into me today?"

He began to speak to me about this year and one of the things He has done for me:

Friends. He has brought more real and true friends in my life. He has renewed old friendships and made them new, since we are all new creations in Him, now. He has made friends out of a lot of my cousins. He has deepened friendships with my dearest friends.

These friends, I am so thankful for! For the fellowship, the laughter, the crying, the praying, the eating, the hiking, the running, the walking, the teaching, the being taught, the singing- all the moments of being together!

I have such sweet intimacy with these friends, because it is the fellowship of believers. The body, being- the body.

And then He said to be, "I didn't create you to be in a box."

So much of this fellowship has happened in so many places. Pizza Hut, hospital rooms, Dorman, my living room/dining room, church buildings, others living rooms/dining rooms, driving the car, sitting the car, while walking or running, while climbing hills, while rocking on the front porch swing, while trolling around in a boat, in an old chicken hatchery in Ireland-

do you see? Anywhere Christ is- there is sweet fellowship.

I am so thankful for all of you, my friends. So thankful for all the ways we have encouraged, loved, laughed and prayed for each other this year!

You are a true gift from God!

Families Where Grace Is In Place by Jeff VanVonderen

I highly recommend this book to all parents. Maybe you and your spouse or a friend- or a group of friends could read through this together? Maybe your children/youth pastor could go through this with the parents?

I know as a parent I want my children (no matter their age) to draw their inner life and worth from Jesus.

An excerpt:

"Jesus has promised to put a well inside of us, and from that inner well life will flow. Our simple task is to remember to drink from that well instead of from all the wells that promise to fill us but never can. Being good athletically, having lots of friends, being in a relationship with the opposite sex, achieving good grades, or being captain of the church quiz team cannot fill our children. We need the well on the inside and so do our children. We need to allow ourselves to be filled daily, minute by minute, with the Spirit, and so do our children. (To me, Starla, this is intimacy with Christ.)

Wouldn't you like to help your children lean how to recognize their thirst for Jesus Christ? Wouldn't you like to help them find that Jesus is the only one who can give them life, from the inside?"

http://www.amazon.com/Families-Where-Grace-Pl…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

Families Where Grace Is in Place: Building a Home Free of Manipulation, Legalism, and Shame

Now updated with discussion guides for families and small groups, Families Where Grace Is in Place continues to minister to couples and parents nearly twenty years...

AMAZON.COM

PTSD

Last night I went to a follow-up class to the Advanced Discipleship Training Class I took for 8 months recently.

We discussed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I had the misconception that PTSD was for men and women that had been in the military. It is not.

As I was reading over the symptoms I began to see ME- at 9 years old until I was about 38.

I had no idea a 9 year old could suffer PTSD. Or it just hadn't clicked with me- that I did. I was in the car, and remember the accident that my mother was killed in and my sister Karen, terribly injured. I remember it all. For years I had dreams of it. At that time there was no counseling for someone- a child or adult- in Casey County- that had suffered through trauma.

I just learned to cope and deal with everything the best I could. Which was pretty lousy. I am so thankful that Casey Co. now has Adanta to help those kids that went through some of the trauma my sisters and I did with our mothers death. I am thankful God saved my sister Karen Cleary Johnson, for she IS one of those counselors!

But most of ALL, I am thankful for THE HEALER. I do not deal with PTSD, trauma, or the like anymore. He healed me, before I even knew the name of it : )

I've been walking in His healing for several years now- and boy, what a weight has been taken from me- physically, emotionally and mentally.

And if He can heal me....He can...

you...or someone you know...or that 9 year old kid you know.....

What happens when you take Christ out of the Christian?

Sometimes I think Christians look at me and think,"Gee, I just wish she'd quit talking about Jesus all the time!"