A Pearl of a Situation....

Morning all!
     Have you ever heard how an oyster makes a pearl?  I am sure you have, but please allow the homeschool mom in me to review it with you.  The oyster gets the tiniest bit of irritant in its "mouth" and it bugs the oyster.  I mean it bothers it and festers and in my mind drives the oyster crazy! Much like a splinter.  So the oyster produces a substance to cover the irritant in order to get some relief and try to protect itself.  It coats this irritant over and over until a gorgeous, beautiful pearl is formed.  It is funny to me that pearls can cost so much.  That they are worth so much all from what the oyster went through.
     Why the animal science lesson on this rainy Monday morning?  Well I feel like that oyster.  Things or people just bothering me, irritating me, bugging me, driving me crazy....do you get what I mean?  So much so that I have found myself on more than one occasion asking, even begging God to remove these people or things from my life.  Kind of like making them go "poof"  But the truth is God uses "testy" people and trials in our lives to act as an irritant to us.  That way, if we submit and allow the Holy Spirit to coat that area of our lives we will have something worthwhile in the end to offer up to a Holy God and something beautiful to attract a lost world.  And boy is it costly at times!  I am a confessed people pleaser.  I HATE conflict and really try to avoid it.  But the older I have gotten I realize all conflict can't be avoided and must persevere and let God work in me and through me.  Sometimes I have a tendency to shut down around those who rub me the wrong way.  I clam up! (Ha, I made a funny)  Avoiding or clamming up is not going to bring God glory.  Nor will it show these "testy" people God's grace and love.  I have been learning so much lately from God about Himself and now it seems I am in the middle of an exam.  Will I show others all I have learned and love more, give more, serve more?  "But Lord not them" I have said "They are much much to hard"  But He has replied over and over "Yes them, especially them"  I will be honest I have pouted and rolled my eyes and even growled at the Lord's response.  (Not a wise thing to do with the ruler of the Universe)  But in the end I must bow my knees and my heart to His authority and let Him turn these irritants into pearls in my life.  The only way to do this is to constantly be before HIm in prayer and in His word.  My prayer this week is that as the irritants come (and they always do) that we would let the Holy Spirit produce what is necessary to cover and coat the situation.  Then at the end of our week, months even at the end of our life produce one big beautiful necklace to toss at His feet.
     James 1:2-4  Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything...
From one oyster to another,
Carrie

Who can show us any good?

Oh why am I up?  I am tired, I had a long day and I have an even longer day laid out for me tomorrow.  Not bad long either days, long good days.  I should be in bed.  It could have something to do with the 2 diet cokes I drank this afternoon.  It seems the older I get the more sensitive I get to caffeine.  But it also may have something to do with all the stuff God is doing in and around me.  God is on the move here with me and my family, with you and your family, on this planet earth.  He is drawing me ever so closer everyday.  Revealing more sin to repent of, more goodness to be grateful for, I am overwhelmed.  It seems like every thing I am reading and hearing has to do with living more simply.  Living more on the edge for Him.  Trusting and waiting.  This morning in my shortened quiet time I found myself in my room in my chair asking Him to draw near to me.  I wanted to just press my face into His robe.  (I don't know if He wears a robe, but that is just how I picture Him, work with me)  I love Him.  More than I ever have.  As I was praying and reading the Scripture I was struck by this verse, Psalm 4:6-7 "There are many who say 'Who will show us any good?' Lord lift up the light of your face upon us!" I read it over and over.  Out loud and quietly.  The world is asking "who can show us any good?".  When their marriages are falling apart, finances are lacking, health is deteriorating.  The world shouts "Who can show us any good?"  And His people should shout back "We can"  "We can"  "The Lord is alive and at work in HIs people's lives".  He is on the move.  But sadly we are so busy, so stinking preoccupied with our own lives and our own dissappointments that we say nothing back.  Or maybe we have so limited the amount of God in our lives that we don't see any good either.  Oh how we have failed as His people.  God help us!  We are to be His billboards.  Living and breathing His glory to be displayed to all so that a lost and dying world may be drawn to Him.  Tonight or I guess I could say this morning my prayer is that we would trust Him and wait on Him.  And then when He works to shout it to all.  That is my goal.  So much of my life depends on Him coming through.  Terry and I have never been able to explain how we have made it on one income for so long.  It has been Him all the way.  All the healing that He has done in my life and in my marriage can not be attributed to any man.  It is Him.  It is not my power, grace, patience, knowledge that I homeschool these kids.  It is HIm.  It is not by my finances or wealth that we move forward to adopt.  It is HIm.  Miracles done every single day by Him and through Him.  There is no good in me, no nothing.  It is Him.  Dear Lord lift up the light of Your face upon us so that when they ask where is any good we can show them You!  May we lay aside any fear or possesion that weights us down in this life.  We are your people may we live like it.  Amen.
Love you
Carrie

Expecting #4??

Good Soggy Afternoon girls!!!  Hope you are nice and dry!  This is a 2 pots of coffee kind of day.  One in the morning and one to get you through the afternoon.  It has been quite busy around my house lately.  If you haven't heard the news the Smith's are proudly expecting their fourth child.  This one not of my womb but of our hearts.  There is a child waiting in Ethiopia for us.  We have officially begun the paper work to get to him or her.  It is a loooooooong process.  Longer than any of us could have imagined, but it is for a human life right!  We have prayed and prayed and prayed.  God gave us what we feel is a confirmation so we have taken the first couple of steps.  Met with the agency.  Went to our first adoptive group meeting. (Levi's Circle)  We have filled out line after line after line after line!  Told a few people and asked all to pray for us and with us.  I have had moments of elation and moments of being really overwhelmed.  I am almost 34, do I really want to start over?  Lord you know we are stretched financially how can WE do this?  Will my kids get to go to Disney World if I do this?  Will they resent me if they grow up and not have had the best name brands and best of recreational, athletic or educational opportunities?  All of these questions and more have flooded my mind.   I guess you could say I was counting the cost. God says in His word to count the cost to follow Him.  But as we stand on this rainy Ash Wednesday I have contemplated His cost for Me.  His life.  His life for mine.  The more I read the more I realize this life is not my own.  The only life I am convinced that is worth living is the one spent and poured out for the Savior.  The Lord opened my families eyes to those in need.  Proverbs 24:12 states that "once our eyes are opened He holds us responsible to act"  I can not go back now, and I wouldn't want to.  We are at the beginning of Lent.  I want to encourage you to look at this season leading up to our Savior's death and resurrection as a time to focus on Him.  Alot of people give up meat or even sodas or desserts for Him during this time.  But what good is that if He doesn't have your whole heart.  That is what He wants.  A people who will count the cost and do it anyway. 
     Dear God, please raise up a holy generation who desire You above all else.  Who are willing to pray and trust you to do Big things in our midst, for Your names sake!  May we reach out to the widows, the orphans, the weak, the naked, all for You!  Cause us to go the extra mile to dash the strongholds in our lives and the  lives of others.  May we pursue righteousness and purity.  All to shine Your light to a needy world! Amen!
Carrie

Danger of the Mundane

Mundane-  characterized by the practical, transitory, and ordinary.

I had to look up transitory then-  means temporary

Lately I have been knee deep in the mundane and the transitory.  I have been to the doctor's office more times than I care to ever go again.  I have handed out medicine way toooooooo many times.  I have washed and washed and washed dishes, laundry, carpet, bathtubs, noses, tables.  I have picked up, put up, broken up, clammed up.  Then I have read and taught and retaught.  Do you ever have one of those days, weeks, months, seasons?  Yesterday I was just so tired of it.  Did any of it really matter for anything worthwhile?  Was any of it not transitory?  The Lord, my daddy, replied with a resounding "YES!".  The truth is none of it really for a Christian is ever truly mundane.  It all matters.  My attitude matters.  The how and the why matters.  But more than that.  What God has been showing Terry and me is that with Him there is no mundane.  He meant for this life to be one great, long, fantastic adventure with Him, where time and time again we watch Him show up and show off in our lives over and over again.  If you read the Bible, His chosen ones never just muttle through life.  He parted waters, made weak ones great, healed the sick, called fire from heaven, the sun to stand still.  All by or through ordinary folk like me and you.  Monday, God confirmed to Terry and I, that what we were praying about, a certain miracle, was on the right track and that He was setting the stage for something great in our lives.  I felt like I was floating.  The God of the universe orchestrated certain events just for me!!!  Then came Tuesday, dishes and  supper.  Wednesday brought doctors appointments, grocery stores and more supper.  By Thursday I was  far away from being on the edge of my seat, waiting on Him to do something big.  I was down right depressed!  Dragging through my day.  Then His word, His people and His Spirit smacked me in the back of the head and heart.    Every act of my day is meant to be something big from Him or for Him.  I must prayerfully walk through my day as though the dishes I am washing are going to be on a table set for Him to eat off of.  When I am at the doctor, that it is meant to show that young nurse what a christian looks like, so that she might be drawn to Him and SAVED!  At Sam's (heaven help me) with 3 kids, that they would see me smile, laugh and love them even while trying to buy food for a family of 5 on a tight budget.  It's possible you know.  With God's help I've done it.  God so desires to be real to us in this life.  We must quit functioning out of our own strength, methods or finances.  Like Pastor Charlie preached the last two weeks, He is calling us out of the boat, to walk on the water.  He wants take your loaves and fishes to do something huge.  I don't want to miss it and I know you don't either.  What are your holy desires?  He has birthed them there for a reason.  My sincere prayer is that all of us get out of the boat.  That we would be a crazy loving, giving, sharing, trusting generation of women.  That we would live at the end ourselves where He can do His most awesome work, draw others to Him through our lives!
Love you girls!  Lets do this!
Carrie

Considering it pure joy??

I have been pondering over a conversation I had with someone earlier this week.  How can we continue our walk toward holiness and continue to grow when we don't feel good, really sick or really tired or really depressed or really_________ (fill in your own trial)  When I had three kids 4 and under I was tired.  Fatigued.  Worn out.  Not to mention emotional. Which could have been because I was tired.  So I would cry, scream, eat, cry, scream eat.  Just a vicious cycle.  Looking back I can see I was drowning in fear and shortsightedness.  You know when you keep telling yourself this is how it is going to be forever...blah blah blah.  Though my kids were small and hopefully won't remember their mom a wreck I grieve over bad decisions and moments lost by not sustaining myself on His word.  I think I could have enjoyed them more.  I would not have made such poor judgements.    In the last couple of years I have read biographies of women who endured much more than the baby blues, a small house in a bad neighborhood and squabbles with the hubby.  They didn't just endure.  They did what James 1 says they considered "it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything."  Trials here are sickness and persecutions.  The women I have read about changed their world and mine.  One of my favorites has been Elisabeth Elliot.  Alot of us know her as the wife of Jim Elliot, the one who was killed in a jungle by the ones he was trying to carry the gospel to.  Your husband killed now that is a real trial.  She lived in a jungle for a year as a single woman before marrying him.  Not knowing anyone she, followed God to South America.  She lived in a house where the walls did not meet the ceiling.  Where bugs, huge bugs and bats came into her room every night.  Now that is a trial.  Persevering through all for her Lord.  Amy Carmichael is one I am just now getting acquainted with.  So far I do know she lived in the slums of England to reach out to the lowly poverty stricken women of her day.  She didn't have to.  Her family had a decent place to live.  But she wanted to display that you could have joy in the midst of such darkness with Christ.  She endured terrible sickness from her conditions, bugs, rats all for the Lover of her soul.  Joy in the midst of trials.  These two women did not turn to the right or left when things got difficult.  They persevered in joy.  I could go on and on.  Gladys Aylward, a family favorite.  Again endured much heartache and sickness all for the name of her God.  She carried His love to the children of China.    Reading all these books has helped me to carry on in the midst of my own trials.  Truly, mine pale in comparison to theirs.  Who am I to complain?  Who am I to say I can't carry on another day?  There was nothing great about these women other than the God they served and followed.  The very same one I serve and follow.  The power they had is the same power offered to me everyday, that I choose to pick up and use or ignore.    Over the recent years I have chosen to imagine them as my cloud of witnesses, chanting on the sidelines of my life.  Encouraging me on in my race.  I want to run with all I have for Him.  The GREAT ONE who pulled me from my pit.  I share all this for a reason.  I have struggled with many things in my life and continue to.  I know you do to.  Some times He picks us up and carries us through, and you look back and know you couldn't have made it with out Him.  Other times we must make the effort to hold on and move forward, dig in.  I know this life in the times we live is hard.  Hard to stay faithful to your husband when so much is being offered otherwise.  Hard to serve others when the world says you deserve  more me time.  Hard to be pure, hard to love more, hard to quiet your soul before Him.  But we MUST and we CAN, cause He says so!  The Bible says "He gives strength to the weary"  That a godly woman's "arms are strong for her tasks"  If you sense urgency in this, there is.  The devil prowls around looking for another one to take down.  Hold fast!  When we lay our heads down for the final time, just before our eyes close to open on our eternity, we don't want to look back and see the rubble laying in heaps of the decisions we  have made and the loved ones left in the midst.  Don't quit!  Don't quit! 
Walking this road with you and Him,
Carrie

I LOVE COFFEE! (a confessional of sorts)

I LOVE coffee!  I love it anytime of day.  I love it when I wake up, right when I wake up and I love it right before bed.  At times this has made me feel like my Memaw (or grandmother to you formal people).  Terry says I have a problem.  That I might as well smoke a pack of cigarettes cause its the same thing.  I disagree!  It's not just the coffee, I love my cup.  It's just a plain black stoneware cup.  But it is my cup!  Everyone knows this is mom's cup.  When my cup is dirty, in the dishwasher, when I realize the next morning I forgot again to turn it on.  I can get bummed!  Crazy I know but I am just being for real!  This morning I slept late, missed quiet time, missed my time with Terry before he left.  I was bummed.  As I pulled out my black cup to console my self over my black brew (yes black is how I love it)  I thought I am like this cup.  When I have gotten up early, had my time with Him, I am clean and ready to go.  Ready to fulfill my purpose.  Ready to serve others.  Ready to pour out all He has poured in me.  Pour on my husband the love and respect he needs.  Pour on my children the time and attention they need.  Full of the word and His Spirit so I will be prepared for any situation.  This morning I was like my dirty unwashed unusable coffee cup sitting in my dirty dishwasher unable to be used.  Now the coffee is still there, waiting to be poured into my cup, but the cup wasn't ready.  The Lord was still there waiting on me, in my favorite chair in the living room.  Waiting to give me what I needed to get through this day successfully but I wasn't ready!  On my own I have nothing to fill it with.  There is no good in me to pull from.  I have no strength on my own, no wisdom, no talent, no, nothing good.   As His cup I grieve the time I missed with Him this morning, and offer up to Him the time I have now.  Not near as quiet or as long but all I have.  Tomorrow however when He opens the cupboard of my day I want to be sitting there, and I want Him to say "Oh my favorite!  She is here!  Come let me fill you, I have the perfect job for you to do today, and only you will do" 
     Father forgive us for rushing into our day unprepared!  Help us to take so seriously the job you have for us to do.  Even though I am just a plain black cup, I want to be used and filled and used and filled.  Fill us up today Lord so that we can pour on others your love and your guidance and wisdom and patience and thankfulness and mercy and grace.  God I need you.   Amen
Love you girls so much, prayed for each and everyone of you this morning.
Carrie

Link to the Ladies Weekend

Here is the link girls to the ladies retreat I mentioned.  Let me know if any of you are interested!

http://www.longhollow.com/events/details/244

Carrie