Oh Be Careful Little Ears: How Today's Women are Being Deceived

Remember that little song from when you were a kid?

Oh be careful little ears what you hear,
Oh be careful little ears what you hear,
For the Father up above is looking down in love,
So be careful little ears what you hear!

There has never been a more important time for us to be careful with our eyes and our ears and our hearts than right now. There is a war being waged against us, but it's not what we're expecting. Most of us aren't even in the battle.

I've never been real big on spiritual warfare - I've left that to the "fanatics" of Christianity for the most part. But I've noticed something lately that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. The war waged against us is absolutely not a struggle "against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)

Now hear me out...

I've always been a big fan of our Christian sub-culture. I love Christian music, Christian literature, Christian movies and Christian conferences. But here lately, I've noticed that there are a lot of influences in this Christian sub-culture that are leading us astray and most of us don't even recognize the subtly twisted truth we're being fed.

I was listening to a Christian radio station last week that played a little testimonial recorded by one of its listeners. The woman told a story of how she was an "overcomer" because she had been poor and destitute, driving a beat-up old car and headed for certain demise, when she met a couple of pastors who later ended up giving her $50,000 for a Mercedes. The DJs praised God for the way this woman "overcame" her circumstances with her new car. Check 1 John for specific references to Scripture that address being an overcomer. Each time you'll see that as believers we overcome sin and death and the evil one, not poverty and the lack of a car. It's a slight twist of Scripture. Indeed, we are overcomers. But if you aren't grounded in the truth of Scripture, if you don't know what the Bible says, you'll gain a terribly wrong perspective on this concept of overcoming.

Yesterday I watched a video posted on Facebook by a very prominent Christian author/speaker/blogger that many of my friends adore. It was a video taken at the "Belong" tour that just this year replaced the old "Women of Faith" conferences. What surprised me is that this video showed a band performing a decidedly secular song at this event. I really liked their sound, so I checked out their website to learn more. I was disappointed to see that (although they could be believers), there was no evidence on their website that the members of this group are followers of Jesus. Their music is secular and their message is secular. They claim to be very involved in volunteering in humanitarian causes, but never claim to be Jesus-followers.

That led me to wonder why a conference marketed to "Christian" women, following in the footsteps of "Women of Faith" would put a secular band on their main stage. (Please note here that I have absolutely no problem with secular bands in general and I have many on my own playlists.) Instead of choosing from all the many Christian bands with Scripturally sound lyrics, this conference chose to present a couple singing a catchy love song on the stage. I love catchy love songs. But on the stage of a "Christian" event? I was surprised they went that direction.

So I checked out the website for the "Belong" tour. I was super disappointed to find that the name of Jesus was only written on their website once that I could find (in Jen Hatmaker's bio). The mission stated on the website is for every woman to know that she is not alone and that she matters. Much is made of women being their "true selves", and there is no mention of the good news that Jesus offers to sinners. This message of mattering seems so good. And at the conference it is quite possible that they did point people to the message of Christ. (I don't know - I wasn't there!) But the definite message of Scripture in Luke 9:23 is that in order to follow Christ, the believer must deny herself, take up her cross and follow Jesus. As a Christ-follower there is no room for me to be true to myself. My self is full of sin. Instead of being true to myself, I need to deny myself and embrace the new creation that I am in Christ.

Here's the problem I see with the radio station and the conference I referenced. Many of us have slowly and without realizing it, replaced our personal relationship with Jesus for things that look like "good, Christian" things. We read blogs and books and attend churches and conferences and listen to radio stations and albums that are meant to encourage us in our walk with Christ, but were never supposed to replace our relationship with him. We've been satisfied with these replacements of Scripture for so long that we hardly even notice when these things become more and more un-Christlike.

I certainly am not trying to say that K-Love is evil or Jen Hatmaker is leading us all astray. But if we are taking everything that we hear from the Christian sub-culture and its representatives as gospel truth, we need to reevaluate our spiritual lives. And upon reevaluation of our spiritual lives, if we find that we have neglected our own personal relationships with Jesus due to our acceptance of all other things claiming to be "Christian", it is time to repent and change things.

2 Timothy 3 warns us that there are people who have the false appearance of godliness and will try to worm their way into the homes of weak women. Friend, don't be that weak woman. Open your Bible. Search the Scripture. Refuse to fall victim to the subtle twists of the truth that are popping up throughout our Christian sub-culture.

Oh be careful little ears what you hear.

Click here to read more from me about 2 Timothy 3 and Weak Women and Worms.

PS - If you did attend the Belong tour or plan to, PLEASE let me know if the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached there. I pray that it will be!

Abide.

Have you ever tried to produce fruit without abiding in the vine?

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Today's blog is going to focus on two things: producing and abiding.

PRODUCING.

Are you a Christ-follower? If you are, you should be producing fruit. The problem? Too many of us are producing fruit without abiding in the vine. That means we are producing spoiled, rotten, nasty fruit. It may look nice on the outside, but inside, the fruit is putrid. 

Think about fruit - not apples and oranges, but biblical fruit. Can you name them? Galatians 5:22 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Each one of the fruits listed in Galatians 5:22 is a character quality that an even an unbeliever can possess. We've all known good, loving, patient, gentle people who have no relationship with Jesus Christ. So what makes this fruit of the Spirit different than plain old good character? I'm so glad you asked!

ABIDING.

Your good character qualities are not the fruit of the Spirit unless you are abiding in the Vine. Your faithfulness is just your faithfulness without the power of the Holy Spirit. Your goodness is just your goodness. And you may look good and faithful for a while. The things you do and say may look like fruit, but if you're not abiding in the vine, your counterfeit-fruit will not last.

A few weeks ago, I decided to do what I thought was a really good thing. Let me tell you, I was about to produce some "beautiful" fruit. I just knew this fruit was going to really help a certain someone and it was going to give God some glory and it was going to just be really good fruit. Only it didn't work out that way. Despite my good intentions, this fruit that I produced, that I thought looked so beautiful when I produced it, was totally rotten on the inside. I hurt someone that I really love, completely unintentionally, all in the name of producing fruit! At first I didn't understand what had gone wrong. I thought I must've really misunderstood a prompting of the Holy Spirit because THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD FRUIT!

Then I opened my Bible.

I read,  "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me."

And just like that, I realized that I was producing my own fruit, completely apart from the vine, so it wasn't actually even fruit at all. I hadn't prayed, I hadn't read Scripture, I hadn't sought the Lord at all in this situation. I acted completely in my own flesh to produce imposter-fruit that looked sweet and fresh on the outside but was completely rotten on the inside because it had not grown on the Vine. Leave it to Scripture to show me my desperate need for a Savior!

Surely I'm not the only one. Have you ever done so much good that you thought "Surely God will be pleased with all of this good stuff I'm doing!" and then realized that it was all empty? That will happen when we produce our own fake-fruit. It fades so quickly. It leaves us empty. Sometimes it even hurts the ones we were hoping to help. 

Here's the good news: This person that I hurt came right to me and told me I'd done some damage and then, get this, offered me immediate forgiveness. This person knew somehow that I didn't mean to cause pain, but wanted to let me know I had so that it didn't permanently hurt our relationship. Oh, I am so grateful.

So of course that made me think of our Father, who offers us forgiveness and reconciliation when we come to Him, admitting that all these GOOD things we're doing without abiding in Him, are all for nothing. 

Make a quick mental list of all the good things you've done lately. I know most of my readers - you're all pretty good people! I bet those lists could go on for miles. But in Philippians 3:7-9, Paul tells us, 

"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith."

All that fruit-producing you're doing on your own is garbage because your righteousness will never come from you. Your righteousness can only be found in Christ. Only in the work that He did on the cross. So friend, check your heart. Are you abiding DAILY in the vine, allowing Him to produce His fruit in you or are you super busy producing your own fruit?  As painful as it can be, allow the Vinedresser to prune the branches in your life that aren't producing Holy Spirit Fruit. Decide now to abide in Him and just wait for His beautiful fruit to be produced in your life. 

Feeling Empty? Open Your Bible!

It's the time of year I dread the most. I went out to my garage this morning to do some laundry and was almost instantly drenched in sweat. My kids have been running wildly (and oh-so-very-loudly) through the house playing hide and seek and I don't have the heart to force them outside with a heat index of 114. By 9am, they were begging me for "something fun" to do and were sadly surprised to find that I am not their summer-entertainment-coordinator (which is actually what birthed the hide-and-go-seek game). Our calendar for June contained lots of fun things like Camp, Vacation Bible School and a trip to the beach, but July and August seem disturbingly empty, which only means many more slow days like this one are ahead. We'll be checking things off of our summer bucket list, but even a trip to get a snow cone takes a mere 30 minutes, leaving me approximately eleven and a half blessed hours of the day to get through. I love my children with every breath in me and I try so hard to enjoy these fleeting years, knowing one day I'll miss them. But I thrive on routines and schedules and the long, slow days of "nothing-to-do" really get to me. Honestly, I'm feeling pretty empty today.

So last week's Open Your Bible group time really struck a chord with me when I read this quote,

"Don't let your emptiness keep you from coming to the well. Come to the well to be filled."

The story of the woman at the well in John 4 is not a new one for most of us, but I don't think I'd ever read this one in this light before. If you haven't read it yet, go now! This Samaritan woman was at Jacob's well to draw water that would quench her thirst temporarily. Soon she would want more. But Jesus offered her his living water, a water that would satisfy forever.

The question was asked of us, "What would it be like to stop nourishing our lives with good intentions and empty wells?" Too many of us are looking for a drink of plain old tap water when the King of Kings is offering us his living water.

This week, make it a point to come straight to the source of God's Living Water by opening your Bible. Any other attempt to satisfy your thirsty soul will leave you thirsty for more. John 4 would be a pretty good place to start - Go ahead, open your Bible!

The Glorious Revealing of our Glorious God: Open Your Bible Week Two

As we are working through the Open Your Bible series, there's one topic that is covered in Week Two that I couldn't let pass by without stopping for a bit to explain. (If you're studying with us, check out page 20.)

I think that we'd all agree that God is pretty mysterious, right? You can live an entire lifetime growing closer to him and you'd only know just a small part of Him. He wants us to seek him and find him and know him more as he reveals himself to us.

First of all, a technical definition of the revelation of God is this:  an uncovering, a removal of the veil, a disclosure of what was previously unknown. More specifically, God’s manifestation of himself to humankind in such a way that men and women can know and have fellowship with him.

In real-life terms, God’s revelation is the way he shows himself to us in a way that we can know Him more and grow in our relationship with him. 

We’re going to go pretty deep for a few minutes, so brace yourselves! 

There are two generally accepted ways that God reveals himself to us. The first is through general revelation, also sometimes called natural revelation. This is when God reveals Himself to us through creation. Psalm 19:1 says “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” We stand in awe of God’s creation because it is tangible evidence of his existence and his care for us.  Romans 1:20 says “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” All of creation testifies and proclaims the glory of God.

The other type of revelation is called special revelation. While general revelation through creation is available to all people, God’s special revelation is a bit different. It is available to specific people at specific places and specific times. Let’s think of this type of revelation as having three stages.

The first is Jesus. God revealed himself to a specific group and number of people during a specific time period while Jesus walked the earth. This was very specific revelation. 

The second stage of revelation is Scripture. God has revealed himself through his written word, the Bible. Because Scripture is whole and complete and inerrant, we have everything that God intended to reveal to us at our fingertips on the pages of Scripture.

The third stage of revelation is the illumination brought by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us understand the written words that God has given us on the pages of Scripture. 

Not many of us would disagree with the idea that creation proclaims the glory of God or that Jesus is the perfect revelation of God or that God has revealed himself to us through his Word. It’s that third stage that we tend to have differing views on - the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Here’s what I believe this part of God’s special revelation boils down to.

For Non-Believers: The first thing the Holy Spirit does for the non-believer is bring about a conviction of sin. If you’ve never given your life to Jesus, gotten saved, asked Jesus into your heart…If you’ve never made Jesus your boss, there’s no time like the present. I’d love to talk to you more about that and start with you on your journey hearing God speak to you and following Him in obedience.

For Believers: Have you ever read a passage of Scripture that you’ve read a hundred times before, only to read it the 101^st time and learn something completely brand new? Have you ever had a teacher point out something from Scripture that you’d never realized before? The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truths of Scripture in new and fresh ways all the time. Sometimes you read something from Scripture that seems to apply exactly to the situation you are in at the time. This is the illumination that the Holy Spirit brings.

There will surely be those of you that disagree with me on this - and that’s ok! My beliefs line right up with the idea that God has revealed everything He is going to reveal in Scripture. The Holy Spirit illuminates and guides and confirms the Scripture but does not reveal anything new. It’s ok if you disagree as long as you can back it up with Scripture! 

John MacArthur teaches, “The orthodox teaching of Christianity has always affirmed that God’s special, saving revelation to mankind is restricted to the teachings of the Scriptures.” He also says, “Scripture is a closed system of truth, complete, sufficient, and not to be added to (Revelation 22:18–19). It contains all the spiritual truth God intended to reveal.”

I love the quote on page 22 of Open Your Bible by Kevin DeYoung. “You do not need another special revelation from God outside the Bible. You can listen to the voice of God every day. Christ still speaks, because the Spirit has already spoken. If you want to hear from God, go to the book that records only what he has said. Immerse yourself in the word of God. You will not find anything more sure.” 

I also love the Scripture referenced on page 27, 1 John 2:27. “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie - just as it has taught you, abide in him.” The question on page 27 says “Is it possible for a person to sit down by herself and be taught the truth from God’s Word?” I hope you answered with a FIRM YES. 

We (as believers) have every bit of God’s revelation at our disposal. We have his general revelation - all of creation. And we have his special revelation - Scripture illuminated by the Holy Spirit. We don’t need any other thing. We don’t need any book, blog, teacher, friend, pastor, article, prophecy or any other thing to help us understand who God is and what He wants us to know. We have everything we need at our fingertips in the complete, perfect Word of God. So I challenge you today to seek him and find him and know him more as he reveals himself to you!

The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ Jesus: Open Your Bible!

If you were to take stock of the number of Bibles in my home, I'm sure the number would be at least in the twenties. We've got the ESV, NIV, KJV, NASB, HCSB, The Message, children's Bibles, New Testaments, study Bibles and Bibles on every computer and mobile device. I am a Bible teacher and I am married to a Bible preacher. I was born and raised with a Bible in my hand and could hold my own in any Bible drill or Scripture memory contest. I truly, honestly, totally LOVE God's Word.

So WHY, oh WHY do I fail to read it every day?

Here's the answer I've come up with (and it hurts): I just really don't want to.

I have a feeling I'm not alone here. In fact, I know I'm not. I sat with two other precious, godly ladies in our Bible study group on Wednesday who confessed to the same sin. We don't read our Bibles daily. We had a bunch of reasons, most of which revolved around young children in our homes and busy-ness and exhaustion. One even confessed that she set up a notification on her phone's Bible app that reminds her each day to read her Bible, but she often swipes it away and heads to Facebook instead. She's not alone either. I can relate.

In the interest of full disclosure: I haven't read my Bible today. Right now cartoons are blaring from the tv and with four kids home for the summer, someone keeps needing something every few seconds. Kids. I usually fill my days with appointments and errands and mothering. Busy. I'll go to bed and honestly I'm not sure if I'll read before bed either. Tired.

When you sift through all of the lame excuses and get to the heart of this particular issue, you'll find that the reason I don't open my Bible every day actually has nothing to do with my kids or that I'm too busy or that I'm too tired. It's that I value other things over God's Word. Stupid things like social media and tv and chores and hobbies. Good things like my husband and children and church and home. Remember what Paul says about that?

Did you catch that? EVERYTHING is loss next to Jesus. The bad things and the good things - All are loss compared to knowing Jesus. That means those precious kids He has entrusted to me on this earth are LOSS compared with Jesus. The items on my to-do list are worthless next to Him. Every excuse I can come up with for not seeking to know Him more is absolutely stupid because none of them can explain away the fact that ultimately I just put everything else before Jesus. It kills me to type that out in black and white.

But as they say, the first step to healing is admitting you need help, right? So would you join me in this journey to open the Bible? I won't get it right 100% of the time and neither will you. But if we can begin to take steps that bring us closer to Jesus, we will discover the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. And just like Paul, I'm convinced that everything else is loss because of the worth of knowing Him.

So guess what I just did? I ignored the cartoons blaring and the steady stream of questions and needs from the kids. I put my to-do list aside for just a minute and I opened my Bible. Technically, I opened another window on my computer, but hey, it's the Bible! Are you on the computer right now? Your phone? Your tablet? I bet if you take just a minute, you can switch over to the Bible too! So, my friend, no more excuses. OPEN YOUR BIBLE!

I'll be blogging through our summer Bible study called "Open Your Bible" by Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams. You can get a book from me any time if you're local or you can order one to be shipped to your doorstep from this link right here! I'd love for you to check out the She Reads Truth page to read an excerpt from this week's group time. It's so so good. Find it here. 

Target Bathrooms, Coffee Cups and Cakes: How Should Christ-Followers Respond?

I have a theory about the Target boycott that has stemmed from their policy to allow shoppers to use the bathroom that has the gender sign on the door that they most identify with. As of today, 517,000 people have signed a petition stating that because of this policy, they will not shop at Target. Target has released a statement standing by their policy. So here's my theory:

Christ-followers ought to be far less concerned with where they shop and where they boycott and far more concerned with how to follow Christ in these days where situations like this become more commonplace.

Notice I said when, not if. It should come as no surprise to those of us who follow Christ that we are living in the end times. Technically, the end times include every day between the day of the ascension of Jesus until the day he returns. So yesterday, today, tomorrow - we are in the end times. The Bible has lots to say about these days and not one of those Scriptures implies that corporations will create their policies in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. Not one verse implies that the earthly government will honor Christ or that the USA will be one nation under God. Schools will not endorse prayer. Monuments displaying the Ten Commandments will not be on courthouse lawns. Coffee companies will not put jingle bells on their cups. Lawsuits will not be settled in favor of Christ-followers taking a stand on biblical principals.

Christ-follower, stop being surprised.

For some reason, many of us have fallen under the mistaken impression that people (and companies and governments) who have never claimed to follow Christ, should happily and willingly submit to the authority of God and His Word.

We're surprised when unbelievers act like unbelievers.

We're surprised when secular companies act like secular companies. We panic and post unloving statements on social media. We make promises to boycott companies (that most of the time we don't actually intend to keep). We have conversations over coffee and in Sunday School classes and through text messages that have no root in Scripture and every root in ignorance of the Scriptures.

Listen, I'm not going to tell you where to buy your groceries. That's between you and the Lord. But what I will say is that we are seeing something that God promised we would see.

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Not only will we see these behaviors in people and companies that are self-proclaimed secular to the core, Scripture says we will see these behaviors in people who have the appearance of godliness!

Christ-follower, stop being surprised! It's only going to get worse.

We are fast approaching the day when we will see a separation in the church. Kyle Idelman said it best in his book, Not a Fan:

The risks of following Christ will soon outweigh the worldly benefits in America. It's going to cost us something if we are going to follow Christ, not just call ourselves Christians. Many church leaders have tried so hard to make church an inviting, appealing place that is enjoyable to those who would call themselves Christians. Even today, those churches are growing in number while the number of those who actually follow Christ is dwindling. Many churches are comfortable places where friends gather, children play, motivational speeches are given and attenders walk out the doors boasting about what a great time they had. Many churches will continue to grow, full of people who call Him, "Lord, Lord" but who have no real relationship with Him. 

Slowly, almost silently a movement is taking place and real Christ-followers are beginning to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Him. They're not comfortable and they're not boasting about what a good time they're having. They're facing ridicule and slander. They're losing friends, losing jobs, losing business, losing income. The day is coming when American Christ-followers will face persecution, imprisonment and even the loss of life, similar to what Christ-followers in other nations have been experiencing for years. The bathrooms in Target and the decorations on the coffee cups and the lawsuits are just the tip of the iceberg.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 

Christ-follower, do not let this catch you by surprise.

When Threats Try to Steal Our Faith (and other hard parenting stuff!)

This parenting business is no joke.

This week alone I had what I would consider several parenting victories and several parenting defeats. And that's probably an understatement on both sides. On Wednesday, I overheard my eleven-year-old tell her best friend that she tells me everything. Victory! Every one of my kids has spent far too much time perched in front of a screen of one sort or another this week. Defeat. I could tell you a thousand more, but I bet you've got enough of your own examples that I don't need to reveal any more of my shortcomings! It seems that I'm constantly bouncing back and forth between getting it all right and getting it all wrong.

And of course not every parenting decision is as simple as allowing the tv to be on or off. This week we had to decide if we should send our kids to school after we were informed that someone had written a threat to "shoot up the school on Friday" on the bathroom wall at the high school. I wanted to hold all of my babies close and call it a day. I wanted to lock the doors, draw the blinds and hibernate with my kids. I'll be honest - I even thought about withdrawing them all and homeschooling! And then I remembered to pray.

(Disclaimer goes here: In no way do I intend to stand in judgment of any parent who chose to keep their child home from school on Friday. We all make the decisions we think are best for our kids at the time. I just want to share how we came to our own decision and how we hope to decide when it comes up again one day.)

We debated the choice, weighing all of our options, discussing the possibilities, talking about the ramifications of our decision. None of that mattered in the end. As I prayed, I was reminded that God is the one who carries my babies (and my not-so-babies) to school each day, whether there is a shooter-threat or not. I thought about how each one of them was created in their mother's womb and how He knew them in the secret place, even before I did. I remembered how much he cares for them and how He loves them more than I ever could.

But what if they are injured?

But what if they witness something horrific?

But what if they are scarred for life?

But what if I lose them?

This decision wasn't easy. None of these parenting decisions are easy. And I know there will be many, many more decisions on this road of parenting that will just be plain hard. I began to think about what kind of people I want my kids to be. If I could pick just ONE thing for my kids to be, just ONE lesson to teach them, just ONE way to define them, what would it be? 

My wish would not be health.

My wish would not be happiness. 

My wish would not be perfection.

My wish would not be a long life. 

If I had ONE wish for my kids, it would be this:

I want them to bring God glory as they grow more in love with Him. 

Because if they don't get that, none of the other things matter. 

Now the good news is that I don't get just one wish for my kids and neither do you. We get to dream lots of dreams and hope with all our hearts that our kids will be healthy and happy and perfect and will live long, beautiful lives. But this world is a scary place and things like terrorism and school shootings and human trafficking and poverty and violence are very real things. There is one who will threaten to take our hopes and our dreams for our kids and smash them to pieces. It's in those times that we must remember what our ONE wish is for our kids.

Somehow we've got to make our most important parenting decisions based on our ONE wish that they grow more and more in love with God each day, instead of all of the other wishes for their health and safety. This world is bound to get more and more dangerous, especially for those of us who follow Jesus. It isn't going to get easier or safer or better. There will be more threats and more tragedies and more awful, awful things. But if my kids know how to grow more in love with God through those dark places, I couldn't ask for more.

So on Friday morning, seven Irvings circled around our kitchen island and Chris prayed that the Lord would keep them safe and healthy and then we turned our children over to the hands of the Father and sent them off to school so that they could know what it is to walk with Him. It wasn't an easy decision. We certainly didn't make it lightly. We prayed throughout the day. And we'll continue to pray because we know that threats like these are always there (and most of the time they aren't advertised on bathroom walls beforehand.) 

The precious promise I'm claiming in this crazy journey called parenthood? 

God has amazing things prepared for those who love Him. I want my kids to love Him! My prayer is that this will be the driving force behind all of these tough parenting decisions and that their love for Him will bring Him honor and glory!