SMART Goals for Salvation ~ Guest Blogging Day

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Therefore, there is now no condemnation for 

those who are in Christ Jesus. 

Romans 8:1 NIV

As parents of children with special needs, we will often become familiar with the acronyms for so many educational "catch-phrases" or fads. One that I've been looking at lately: SMART Goals. While the term is attributed to a 1980's business writer, it's often also used in education to teach students how to set goals, both short and long term.

Here's how SMART works. When you're setting a goal, you want it to be:

S: Specific
M: Measurable
A: Attainable
R: Relevant
T: Timely

Okay. This looks great when you're talking about a goal like finishing a paper for a class, or losing weight by a certain point in time. But, what about our biggest goal? What about that ultimate goal we know is waiting for us at the end of our life?

Heaven.

How do we set the right goals in order to get to Heaven? What do we need to do?

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

The Audacity of Grace ~ Guest Blogging Day

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And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.  Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV

We are just closing in on the end of Mental Health Awareness Week, and I think this topic is very near and dear to the hearts of those who struggle with mental illness or who are the parent or relative or even close friend of someone who does.  

Can you be saved at one point...having received the Holy Spirit through accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior, but then, (perhaps while suffering from a mental illness), you commit some act which would be judged as a reason to LOSE your salvation? 

Let's face it...we all sin...repeatedly...even after being born again.

Let's face it...we CANNOT, while in these earthly bodies, do ENOUGH good to get into Heaven on our own.

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

I'm Sorry, Ma'am, Your Child is Broken~Guest Blogging Day

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  Romans 12: 1-2 ESV

Color inside the lines, brush your hair, don't let yourself start to smell bad, one scribble on the page is not artwork, and don't forget to smile nice for your picture! 

That's what the world wants, right?  

I shrink inside every time I hear my daughter say, "Finished" and I see the scribble of one color across the white paper.  Her artwork.   But it doesn't look like the artwork that MY CHILD should be creating...no, surely she'd be more creative and want it to look nicer, right?

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

The Importance of Being Fit ~ Guest Blogging Day

"Pilates Training" Courtesy of Marin/freedigitalphotos.net

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. 

Psalm 119:18 ESV

I could begin with a laundry list of the current fad diets.  I could begin with a diatribe of fitness regimens certain to contour and shape your body in under ninety days.  Or, I could just begin with a simple thought that I had the other day when some friends and I were discussing our difficulties with carving out time to dig into God's Word.

What's our damage?  (A.K.A. What's our problem.)

I manage to carve out time nearly EVERY day to do my workout.  Some days it's twenty minutes, and others it's forty.  I manage to do my volunteer work for the International WAGR Syndrome Association.  I even manage to carve out twenty-five minutes a night to watch How I Met Your Mother with my husband.  (I had never watched the show when it was on television, but now that it's on Netflix, I can watch it on MY time.)

So, why WOULDN'T I be able to carve out time for God?

Wait, let me re-phrase that...

Why DON'T I?

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

The Ultimate Ambulance Chaser ~ Guest Blogging Day

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Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.  2 Peter 3:9 MSG

Lawyers are often irreverently referred to as "ambulance chasers;" as though they go chasing down people who may have a reason to hire a lawyer and seek some sort of justice for whatever put them in the ambulance to begin with.  

But I think the true Ambulance Chaser; the Ultimate Ambulance, Chaser is God. 

Continue Reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

Born This Christmas Day...

This is a Christmas of newness for us,

A Christmas of change...

Coffee in front of a fire,

With stuffed stockings hanging just above,

Facetime two and three time zones away.

A quiet morning among the mountains,

A game of Life and maybe Sorry,

And perhaps we'll get a nap!

Dinner with new friends,

Those we didn't know three short months ago,

But our faith has made us family.

A new home, a new school, and new jobs...

But this Christmas, one thing has not changed,

We celebrate the King who came to Save.

Written in response to Sunday Scribbilings 2 writing prompt Born This Christmas Day

He Who Writes the Biographies of Strangers

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.  Matthew 10:30-31

In our little “happy” packet of papers that the hospital gave us when our daughter was born was the brochure to mail in for a life insurance plan for a newborn baby.  I innocently thought, “Great, I’m home for three months maternity leave, I have time, I’ll just fill out the paperwork and get three months of free life insurance.” 

I'm Worth It!!!

Four weeks after her birth, we got the “official” diagnosis for Evie; the diagnosis that she had a rare genetic condition called WAGR Syndrome.  A week after that, I got a phone call from the insurance company asking “routine” questions about our baby; how things were going and if she was healthy.  “You noted there was an issue with her eyes.  Is she otherwise healthy?”  I told them about WAGR Syndrome; what I could, and referred them to the www.wagr.org website.  They sent the application into review.

Consequently, it was in December of 2004, that we had the first indication that our daughter’s mortality was much more a threat than others as she was declined coverage for life insurance.  I cringed at the added disclaimer to this denial, as though it would ease the pain:

This by no means reflects on the future success and health of your child…we must ensure low premiums to our families.

(I still find a sense of joy in adding up the now ten-years worth of premiums that they have lost by not covering Evie under their plan.)

Truly, I realize that our little girl’s life came with no more guarantees than anyone else’s.  But, having it written on paper, from a company known for the “baby-face” on its food jars made me feel like the company was saying that our “baby’s face” wasn’t worth the risk. 

However, while one multi-million dollar company may say “not worth the risk,” the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who walked this earth over 2,000 years ago looked into the stars above, counted the hairs on her head; numbered her days in the Book of Life and said, “Her…I’ll die for her.  She’s worth it.”

He who writes the biographies of strangers, he who organizes the universe with his words, he who purposely weaves strands of DNA on a mystical loom of grace…He gives us the ONLY insurance policy that really matters.  It’s underwritten by a carpenter’s son and signed with the blood of a Lamb.

Questions to Ponder:

Have you had to face your child’s mortality in a very real way?

Have you thought about Jesus going to cross just for him or her?

Have you shared this Good News with your child?   

Christmas Eve: The Scariest Day of the Year

Oh no...it's Christmas Eve...that is one of the scariest days of the year...

 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

Marianne Williamson

Faith in God does not make life easy.  Faith in God does not ensure happiness. Faith in God does not free us from pain nor strife.

But faith in God makes us powerful beyond measure...

Our faith in God enlists us in the greatest war that has ever taken place on the face of the earth:  The Battle for our Souls.  Our faith means that we might be called upon to assemble an Ark, petition a Pharaoh, fight a Philistine, or christen a King.  Mere mortals that we are, in all our weakness, asked to do extraordinary things.

 

Our faith in God makes us powerful beyond measure...

 

Our faith makes us one of Satan's favorite targets at which to take aim.  He takes measure from all angles and determines the most brutal attack on each of us:

• I'll make them sick, and heap upon them death
• I'll make them lonely, and heap upon them disgrace
• I'll make them doubt, and heap upon them deception
• I'll make them distracted, and heap upon them false idols
• I'll make them disillusioned, and heap upon them pain

Yet, we have a power within us beyond measure...

We have power because God came down from Heaven to live among us on earth.  We have power because he left his throne to sleep in hay, his majestic glory to become the filth of our sins, and his eternity to die in Hell for us.  We have power because God wants us to love him, but he won't MAKE us love him.  We have all this power because the God who created the universe is waiting for us to turn to him, and while he waits, he shows the world HIS glory through our lives, our circumstances, and our weaknesses.

So, for all these reasons, Christmas Eve is one of the scariest days of the year.  It's the day that tells us God expects extraordinary things from his ordinary people.  It's the day that reminds us that we are not in control.  And, with each gift we open, we should remember that the greatest gift we've ever received wasn't wrapped in paper and topped with a bow, but was wrapped in thirty-nine searing lashes, and topped with a crown of thorns.

The Three Questions I Wish to have Answered

There are many things I'd like to know about how Evie processes things.  Often, when I need her to be honest about her feelings, she will start telling a totally fictional story-with characters who don't even exist. Today, my assignment for WEGO Health's National Health Blog Post is to write about the three questions that I would like to ask a patient with the syndrome by which our family is affected.  What I'm actually going to do, to put my own spin on things, is share the three questions I would like to ask Evie, but either I'm afraid to or I don't know if she would answer it truthfully.

First, I would like to ask Evie is she would rather see me cry over the things that break my heart, or if she'd rather I put on a brave face and not show her my fear.  I, obviously, balled when she was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor, when my grandma died, and when my dad died.  I know that seeing me cry heightens her anxiety, but I don't know if she'd rather I NOT cry in an attempt to help keep her calm.

When I had to tell Evie that my dad died, I just didn't know what to do.   Evie is a fixer.  She wants to make people happy.  I explained to her that Grandpa Dick had died and was in Heaven with Great-Grandma Ev; that we wouldn't have a chance to see him any more on earth here.  I recall her just saying, "Yes," and I said, "Can I give you a hug?"  Evie's reply was "No."  I said, "That's okay, but I am very sad that Grandpa Dick is gone, so I'm going to be crying quite a bit, and that's okay.  Auntie Jess and Grandma Jackie will be crying too.  It's just because we miss Grandpa Dick."  Then Evie said, "I know, I'll make a picture and that will make you happy." 

I know that seeing me cry makes Evie want to fix things, like she feels responsible for my moods.  I don't want her to feel that way, but I don't know how to communicate that to her, so I try to be as "happy" as possible around her, strong and unafraid.  I just don't know if that's the "right" thing to do. 

Another question I'd like to ask Evie is what she dreams about.  I don't know if she has good dreams, bad dreams; black and white dreams, or color dreams.  Her intense fear of blood draws makes me think that she would have nightmares about them.  Then, there was a time where she got locked out of school after all the kids had run in from recess.  Being that she's legally blind, and a little naive about going places independently, she wasn't sure quite what to do.  Thankfully, a student spotted her out the window and told the teacher, so they found Evie safe, but scared.  I wonder if she has dreams about scary situations like that now.  I don't ask her these kinds of questions, because I don't like to bring up scary topics if she doesn't bring them up, or if it's not necessary.  Her anxiety is such that when we aren't dealing with something that is frightening, I really would rather not bring it up and get her to start stewing over it again.

Praising with Skillet at
Rock the Lakes in Green Bay

The third question I would ask her is what her relationship with God is like.  A couple of years ago at Lifest, Evie accepted Christ into her heart.  It was dusk and Casting Crowns was coming up as the headlining band.  The speaker who preceded the concert had spoken about accepting Jesus as your Savior and had led a prayer of salvation.  When they asked those who had said the prayer and made a commitment to Christ to come forward, up popped Evie out of her lawn chair!  I ran after her because she was shoeless and she would be walking over gravel and surrounded by crowds!  They gave her a brand new Bible.  I'm so thankful to know that she did this, on her own, and that her relationship with God is hers to create and mold.  But I so want a piece of it.  Everyone does.  When you see Evie dancing and singing and praising; it's a little piece of Heaven right here on earth. 

Evie is unique, as are all kids; but with her speech delay, and her anxiety issues, it becomes very difficult to verbalize all of the things that a parent might be able to ask their "typically developing" kid.  I'm sure as the years pass and Evie gets older, we'll have more chats about these topics.  For now, though, I'll be thankful to share in her imaginary world, where she is 32, drives a pink Camry, and works at a coffee shop/church/school.