Single Mom Story

Sunday was our annual Single Mom’s Spa Day. This has become a very special Cottonwood tradition. It is one way that we reach out to the local community to share the love of God in a tangible, practical way.

This year we had 26 single moms, less than the last few years, but still very good. The number was a bit more manageable. The women looked beautiful when they left, all fixed up, and happy and refreshed. They were so grateful for the special day.

I would like to share one woman’s story.

This woman’s daughter was killed in an accident 2 years ago, and she was given complete custody of her granddaughter. When her daughter died, she called 4 different churches in Alabama where she lived, looking for support; not money, just emotional and practical support to deal with the loss of her daughter and the reality of suddenly having a 2 year old. By every church, she was told that they could not help because she was not a member of their church. She has not been in a church since then. She was very moved by our care, and said that maybe she should give church another chance. That kind of story makes the effort worth it.

The Best Years

Today is my man’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Honey! (He won’t see this, he never reads this blog.) Anyway, he won’t mind if I tell you he is 62 years old (I am not anywhere near that old.) I admire him a lot. He is a man of great integrity, he is dependable and faithful. If you need something done, he would be the one to call. He would take care of it.

Two years ago, I asked if he would lead worship for Celebrate Recovery. Wow, did he ever take that job seriously. He is always listening for new songs that would be good for C.R, then he learns them, then teaches them to the C.R. praise team. Les and the team have been such a blessing. But that is not what I was going to write about.

About 7 years ago, Les started thinking about what the next years of his life would look like. He determined that life was not ending when he reached retirement, that these years are the “available years”, a time of life when we would have more free time to do greater things for God’s kingdom. When we were raising four children, he had to work a lot of extra hours to provide for us. Even after I started working full time 20 (what??) years ago, it took a lot to keep the household going.

This year, Les has decided to officially retire. That does not mean he will quit working. We aren’t set up for that yet. He will draw Social Security, but keep working to supplement our income. That leaves him more free time. Free time to work on music and to serve in new and creative ways. He is a very talented musician and has written several songs.  His dream is to write more songs. He dreams of having someone help him get them out to bless God's people.

Les is determined that the next years will be the best ones, that God would use the wisdom and experience he has gained to minister to other people, and that we would have new, exciting adventures.  I am pumped to see what God will do with us in the next season of our lives.

A Few of My Heroes

Our  new building is complete. God provided waaaay beyond our expectations to give us a beautiful, although certainly not extravagant building. We had excellent contractors, who we are very grateful for.

However, we would not have this building without a lot of extraordinary volunteers.

We have 2 men who volunteer to oversee our building and maintenance needs. Tim Parke and Ricky Salyer devote so many hours every week without any compensation, I am sure as many hours as many paid maintenance personel at other churches.

My true heroes are Ricky Salyers wife and daughters. Teresa, 13 year old Tamara and 11 year old Tara put in more hours of HARD physical labor than most men would be able to do (at least in my estimation).This picture is not very clear, but it is Ricky, his wife, and their 11 year old daughter. They are spreading concrete for a new sidewalk. 

Here is Teresa hard at work. After working hard all morning spreading concrete, Ricky, Teresa, and their girls had to go home and milk cows for the family dairy they own. I worked 2 days with Tamara at the new building. One Saturday, Tamara was given the job of scraping the grout of the concrete. She worked until she had blisters on her hands. I took over for her, but I did not last very long. When I stopped, she went right back to work. She worked until her mother made her quit. Those girls work without complaint, doing work that is hard. When I met with some women to wipe down chairs, I asked little Tori Salyer if she wanted to help. She was thrilled to stop riding her tricycle and have a job to do. So, my heroes today are the Salyer women; Teresa, Tamar, Tara, and Tory.  

…”They are Precious in His Sight”

God cares about orphans. He does. The Bible is clear that he cares about orphans, widows, and the needy.

Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place…He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord.  Jeremiah 22:3-4,16

God is very serious about the responsibility of His people to take care of those who are not able to take care of themselves. Here are a few more verses to back that up.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 82:3-4

"You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.  Exodus 22:21-24

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.  James 1:27

There are app. 163 million orphans in the world today. Children without parents, children on the streets in Mexico City, in the garbage dumps of Cairo, in orphanages in Romania. I can’t picture 163 million of anything. That number is too huge. 26,000 children die every day from preventable diseases related to lack of food and clean water.

God says we are supposed to do something about that. I know, you and I can’t adopt all of those children. But we can give money to worthy organizations that help them.  Cottonwood supports Kids Across Cultures. My family sponsors children through World Vision. Check out their websites for information, or pick another one.

Closer to home, in Texas, there are over 5000 children waiting to be adopted. Parental rights are already terminated, they are waiting to for a family. I checked out the internet site and looked at some of these children’s pictures. My heart broke. You can see them here; http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Adoption_and_Foster_Care/Child_Search/default.asp.

Maybe you can’t adopt, but maybe you can be a foster parent or help someone who is. I don’t have a lot of answers, just a deep sense that God cares about these children and we should too.

WAS THAT GOD SPEAKING TO ME?

I have such a great life. Really. I mean, I get paid to do things that I would want to do if I did not need to work. Is that not the best?

Last week, I spent Monday through Friday, all day each day at the Gateway Church Freedom Ministry Training. AMAZING. And, I attended with 4 close friendS, and 3 of us stayed at my daughter Katy’s house  and got to visit with her. We learned so much. So many tools that will be very help us lead people into more freedom.

One of the biggest tools we learned was to listen to God. God has not stopped speaking. I love the Bible and know that the Bible is the ultimate word of God. But, God is still speaking to His people.

Rom 10:17  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith comes by hearing. Faith does not come from us. We don’t work up faith.  That does not say, Faith came by having heard. Yes, we heard the Word of God and that produced faith, but we still hear God speak, and every time we hear, we grow in faith.

Luke 4:4 But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"

Living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, both the Bible and personal speaking from God. We have to tune in to hear God.

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

God speaks to us, He infuses us with spirit and life. That is His goal.       We go to God and ask, “Tell me what to do and where to go.” God wants to talk to you about what you believe and who you are. He does often want to tell us things He wants us to do, but God is concerned much more about your believing the truth about God, and about who you are. When we tune it to hear His voice but all we want to hear is direction, we will miss Him.

Hearing God’s voice is the primary way we disconnect from the old source and connect to God as our source. He gives much more than information and instruction. The word of God is living and active, and delivers what we need.  When God speaks “Peace” He brings peace. God calls things that are not into being. His word contains the very thing that makes us what we are. Peter told Jesus, where else would we go for words of life.

Recognize the voice of God.

It is a Spirit to spirit exchange. He communicates from His heart to our inside person. It may not be words, but a sense or a picture. Some people learn best by visual, some by words, some by doing. God speaks to our inner man in the way that we can understand; picture, words, or a sense.

Discerning the Voice of God.

So, how can you be sure that what you hear really is God?

1. Does it line up with scripture?                                                                             It may be that it agrees with scripture, but may not agree with your interpretation or your doctrine.

2. Does it line up with the nature of God revealed in the Bible?

3. Does it produce the fruit of the Spirit ((Gal 5:22-22 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control)? In you and in people you share it with.

4. Does it bring freedom? Not necessarily freedom from a circumstance, but from being controlled by the circumstance.

And sometimes, I just use the process of elimination. Like this. If I have a sense that I am supposed to give money to support a ministry, but I am not sure if it is God, I figure that Satan does not want me to support a ministry, and I figure that my flesh sure does not want to give my money away, so it must be God speaking. Same process if I feel I am supposed to start a conversation with a stranger, or offer to pray for a friend… Makes sense to me.

I suggest you try an exercise.

Be still, be quite, get comfortable. Close your eyes. Ask God a question, then wait quietly for Him to answer you. Be silent and wait, and just listen for God to speak. Give yourself enough time to work through the process, to sort through all the thoughts and voices in your head. Probably you will go through thoughts like this:

“This is stupid. I am embarrassed. What if I don’t hear anything? How long do I  just sit here? Was that God? No, probably just me. Wait, I heard it again, maybe it is God. I felt something, maybe that is God. No, just indigestion. No, I feel really good, comfortable. I think God is speaking. I see in my mind…could that be God?”

Lots of thoughts will float through your mind. Just ask God to clear your mind and help you to hear from Him.

Ask God:

1. What do You want to tell or show me about Yourself today?

 

2.What do You want to tell or show me about myself?

 

3.Is there anything in my heart that you want to talk to me about?

 

Leave a comment and let me know what you heard!