Happy Tuesday blog readers.  It’s been a while.

It’s getting close to Back to School time and I wanted to share some helpful resources with you.

My 9 year old has Aspergers (as most of you know).  If you or your kiddos fall anywhere on the Spectrum, I absolutely understand that this pandemic has been a very challenging time.

It’s been a challenging time for all of humanity, actually.

2020 – One star. I do not recommend.  (I saw that on a t-shirt and I want it.)

For us, the things that helps P the most, typically, with balancing his mind and body are…

1.  A schedule (that’s out the window)
2. people (that’s limited)
3. hard jobs – exercise, movement, biking, sensory input…  (It’s August in the south and it’s blazing hot, and our usual activities of roller coaters and trampoline parks are not working for us in Covid-days).

Also, the unexpected isn’t easy for anyone, but for our Autism Spectrum friends, it’s THE WORST (I almost typed literally the worst, but P would have corrected me, because it’s not LITERALLY the worst.  Being eaten alive by a shark would be worse).  Interrupted school, sports, social groups, church… nothing is, or can be, set in stone.  The plan is sort of always fluid.

Our school district has done an incredible job trying to stay one step ahead.  I give them all the kudos, and the blessing, and all the prayers.  THIS IS A BIG DEAL, and they are moving through the world with grace and care.  Bless you teachers!!!

Our incredible Speech Path gave me some resources that are helpful for navigating these changes with Kids on the Spectrum.  All kids can benefit from these social stories and resources.  Social stories have changed the world for P, and I love them too.  Social stories are basically stories of expectations in cartoon form.  Sometimes, I even draw them for P, and if you’ve ever seen me draw, you know it’s bad, but somehow he still likes them.

Check out http://www.autismlittlelearners.com

They have social stories related to “Greetings at School during COVID-19, Riding the bus during COVID-19, When can I stop wearing a mask, and on and on.  It’s a great resource!!

Check it out friends and good luck in your back to school plans whatever they may be!  Be kind.  Encourage a teacher.

Blessings –

Me

(If you are commenting or replying on Social Media, I’m trying to move out of that space during this current time, so I may not reply there…even though this blog will link.  Reply here or by email for correspondence.  Thanks for helping me with my new resolve to be “Less social media content oriented.” )

P’s Covid-19 Diary

Day 1: (March 17, 2020)

I’m really scared of the Coronavirus.  Will I get it? I feel really sad my birthday party is delayed and maybe even camp will be.  That stupid frickin’ virus!  If only it could be gone.  I’m wanting to find a cure to it.  Children if you read this and you are under the age of 8, do not look at the word frickin’.

Day 2: 

It’s Corona season still and it’s bugging me!  If it weren’t for it, we would still be in Colorado skiing.  Darn that Coronavirus!  It’s scaring the crap out of me!  I hate it so much! I wonder when it’s 2040 will there be a worldwide event like this? Children, once again, if you are under the age of 8, do not look at the word crap and if you are under the age of 5 do not look at the word hate.

Day 3:

Day 3 of Outbreak.  It’s almost my birthday – how am I going to celebrate it? God turned water into wine so could I use some junk as my birthday presents to myself? Or maybe my family does it? Children, there are no more bad words.  So sorry.  

*Note from mom.  P wanted Jesus to turn junk into birthday presents like he did water into wine. 

Day 4:

Yay!  We are getting a new trampoline!  I can’t believe this.  This is so exciting.  It’s going to be a heck of a time. I wonder what trampoline I will get my children? (Who are definitely reading this!)

Day 7 (Not 4)

It’s almost my birthday!!!  YAY!!  Mom told me to write somethings about God giving us gifts and even thought I don’t wasn’t to, Mom says I have to so here’s what I will write…I wonder what gifts God will give my children? (I’m saying this awkwardly) 

**Note from mom:  I think he meant “I’m saying this sarcastically”.

Day 8

It’s kind getting boring around here.  There is nothing to do.  I wish the Coronavirus gets cured at the beginning of summer but can it happen? I am excited to go to Disney World!  (In the Fall)

Day 10

It’s almost my birthday!  I’m excited! I wonder what I’ll get?  Maybe a game? I’m just really excited!!!!!!!  (100,000 more !!!!! to go… That is one of them.) 

Day 11

I’m so close to being 9.  I wanted a $60.00 Apple Gift card, but Reese says it’s too late now.  But throwing that off subject, I’m really excited.  I like trains!  (I got that off a you tube video)

Day 14

My birthday has passed and I am sad.  Summer is coming and I am really excited about it.  When the coronavirus is cured I am going to be so happy.

Day 15

We are in Bible time again, and I’m cool with it.  My dad told us a story about him going duck hunting and him getting on a boat and a really bad storm.  But, I’m glad God let dad live.  We read something similar about that, what I just said so…YAY (that he is still alive!)

Day 16

We talked about the heaven and earth and what it would look like when God slays Satan.  I think that is going to be cool and pretty.

Day 17

God has been talking to his disciples and they didn’t understand any of it! I don’t know why!  If I had a time machine I would go back in time and be God’s 13th  disciple. 

Day 20

We have to do school today and we were not sure how it would be. Well, we will find out in 1 minute and 24 seconds but for now I will tell you about my very top secret monopoly strategy..oops out of time. 

April 9, 2020

Day???

We thought about making a tree house.  I don’t know how long it will take.  But I hope it is awesome!  (Tree house drawing on back)

April 10, 2020

Day ???

We read Love Does for the 2nd time and when the kids said they were leaving home for the first time they stayed in the back yard?  They took a lot of non-healthy snacks and I bet it was all tons of junk! At least they got a lot of fruit snacks!  (After one day they returned)

April 11, 2020

We read in the Bible the story of Jesus getting killed and I like it/don’t!  We have to go on a run again and I would like to ask mom something about it. 

April 13, 2020

We read another Bob Golf story and yesterday we got Brova team!  It’s a game that is really fun! I hope this will end soon!  Coronavirus, not the Brova team.  

April 14, 2020

Nothing exciting is really happening right now.  It’s getting kinda lonely.  I miss my normal life.  I WANT IT BACK! Now for my strategy to winning Telestrations.  Oops out of time!  Even though there is really one minute left. Ha!

April 16, 2020

I don’t have much to say.  My reaper nerf gun in coming soon!  YAY!  Kanakuk is around the corner.  The virus has to be cured by then!  Nothing else to say.  Sorry.  Bye bye!  Yeeeeeeeee! 

April 27, 2020

Day 42!  Wow I knew that!!!  We are back home (from Carlton Landing) and I don’t like it!  I liked being on vacation, cuz I don’t have to run and type.  I wish this to be over tomorrow!

April 28, 2020

Mom told me K1 is going to be canceled.  Whaaaaaa????  This frickin’ crap virus is so STUPID!  Once again do not look at frickin’ if you are 8 and for stupid under 4.

**Mom note:  I said there is a chance it could be canceled. 

April 29, 2020

It’s morning and I have to run again and I don’t want to.  I wish I could run on the treadmill cuz I can listen to music.  And mom in this whole calendar (Mom note: not sure this word?) won’t let us once!  ONCE!!!!!!!  And here are three reasons why.  1.  I get to listen to music.  2.  No up hills or downhills, just straight.  3.  Oops, out of time. 

May 4, 2020

I am almost getting Midis!  (Mom note: not sure about this word but it’s a Fortnight character I think). Only 8 more tears left (of fortnight)!  I am so excited!  My reaper set came too!  It’s very cool.  I love you.  Bye. 

May 5, 2020

We got the Battle Pass and it is cool!  When my kids are reading this, tell me if Fortnite is still a good game? OK? Now I love you good nite!  (Or morning or afternoon)

May 8, 2020

We have saw friends for the first time!  YAY!  My family talked about Judas’s death and I think something funny about it.  (Check the back) 

Mom note:  he drew a gross picture of Judas’s skull cracking open because it was gross and shocking.

May 11, 2020

We are on the last week, weak, week,  of school and I love it!!!  Tonight I get the house to myself!  YAY!  (Mom note:  Not sure what he’s talking about).  Draw now to get 100,000 V bucks.  Oops, out of time. 

Well, here in Oklahoma we are open, but not normal. Still sifting through data and procedures. Knowing we can’t stay inside forever, and also knowing that the virus isn’t gone. A weird in-between that feels almost more exhausting to me. Decisions are unclear. There isn’t a right answer. Basically…we are storm tossed. I am storm tossed.

Today my kids and I were reading John 12. In the Message it says that Jesus said….”Right now I am storm tossed. And what am I going to say? Father get me out of this? No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, “father put your glory on display.”

These words CUT ME DEEP. I have prayed, “Father get us out of this” a million times over the past 7 weeks. I want to be done with Covid. To be not worried about my parents. To not second guess every decision I make. GET. ME. OUT. OF.THIS. Pretty please. And I know he hears that prayer.

But then, his words go deeper. Jesus got it. I struggle to know this in my person. I have to read his words and REMEMBER.

Remember that I was created for a DISTINCT purpose, not created for ease. And that purpose is to put God’s glory on display. It’s the reason I exist in the first place. It’s why I’m here. I’m not like Jesus, but we do have the same family purpose. PUT GOD’S GLORY ON DISPLAY.

Put him on display not after the storm. Or before the storm. But when you are STORM TOSSED. When I am second guessing. When I’m mad. And worried. And angry. And OH SO WEARY. I’m so weary y’all. This has been HARD. That is real. It’s hard. I am out of my wheelhouse. And full of lots of feelings and struggles.

I don’t write this to say, hey…cover over your feelings by glorifying God. That’s not what God wants. He wants us to pour out our feelings to each other and to him, and to see THE BIG PICTURE. We are storm tossed. He is being glorified.

Press on warriors. The word of God is ALIVE AND ACTIVE. It’s our weapon against defeat.

Hey there all you cool cats and quarantine-ers!

Well, here we are 6 weeks in to Covid season, and about to open up in Oklahoma.  I was hoping to blog every day during this time, but have been wearing too many other hats.  Teacher, chef, parole officer, deep cleaner, mask wearing grocery grabber – all the hats and masks you yourself have been wearing as well.  So, today I am ready to share with you some new, old, and previously viewed tales…

One thing I had planned on doing was looking back in our family memories for stories of my youngest son, who has Aspergers Syndrome.   He is quite a unique cross of Sheldon Cooper and George Costanza and keeps us thoroughly entertained.  While you are home, and moving slow, I thought you’d enjoy some portions of a little story I like to call

RAISING GEORGE COSTANZA

P: You know that tall boy?
Me: On your baseball team?
P: Yes, the one who’s sensitive.
Me: Sensitive?
P: Yes.
Me: Hmmm…tell me what you think sensitive means.
P: Honestly, mom…I have no idea. I just hear words, ya know.
Me: So, he’s not sensitive?
P: I told you…I don’t know what that means.
Me: Um, well, it means he has a lot of feelings, and maybe cries some.
P: Welp, he’s not sensitive. Just tall.

I’ve been thinking a lot about a balanced life in these weird days we are in.  Normally, I am so busy that I don’t have to deal much with my own feelings.  I can sort of ignore them and move along.  Busy little bee.  But, lately, my feeling are right in my face.  And, to be honest, I’m not really a fan.  Feelings can be sort of exhausting.  Anybody?

Today, I was on a WOG (that’s a walk/jog, which consisted mostly of walking).  And, I was thinking so much of Anne Frank.  I read her Diary of a Young Girl last year for the first time since high school.  Somehow reading it as an adult impacted me even more.  And, now in this weird time of quasi-quarantine, I can’t imagine how she did it.  How did she not go outside for almost 2 years?  How did she survive and not get to feel the sunshine?  How did she live in a tiny cramped attic with all those people?  How did she deal with the fear of her loved ones and even herself being shipped away to concentration camps, murdered, and killed?  I have to say that I honestly can’t imagine.

One thing that I took away from the book was the thought of “sharing your pain” in whatever season you are in.  Anne knew that there were others going thru much harder things than she was, (even though her pain was exceptionally hard) but she still journaled her pain.  She still felt that it was valid to share with her journal.  Often, as humans we quantify our pain and say it’s either “not big enough to share” or “too big to share”.

I have felt BOTH of those in my life.  Pain that feels too big to share.  Pain that feels too small to share.

But, I think mental health is often a box for me.  A 4 Square Life.  I’m not an artist, but it was good for me to draw out what I’m thinking/feeling/doing.

For me, God’s PROMISES are the base.  If the base doesn’t exist, I have no foundation.  The whole square crumbles.  I have to be sure God’s promises are readily in my mind.  Every day.

My Feelings are both sides of my box.

Positive feelings must be accompanied with thankfulness.  Positive feelings are also real and vulnerable.  My life is open to attack from the side if I don’t build my thankfulness wall (my positive feelings wall).

Negative feelings make up my other side.  They are also real and vulnerable.  And must be shared, journaled, and dealt with.  Otherwise my life is open to attack.  If I think my hard time is too small to share or feel, I open myself up a barrage of feelings maybe tomorrow, maybe a year from now.  I can open myself up to a flood of feelings I haven’t felt, or dealt with.  Negative feelings still exist even if we ignore them.  We must NAME them to manage them.  (Isn’t that what Mr. Rodgers said.)  If we are feelers…which we ALL are (We sometimes just ignore them)..we have to deal with both sides of the coin.  The positive AND the negative feelings.  You are allowed to feel that things are hard, even if your hard is way less than someone else’s hard.

But we (and I) have to be aware to build both of our walls.  Not only our positive wall, and not only our negative wall. But BOTH.

And, on top of my box is Data/Facts.  It is important to know what’s happening in our world.  Some data/facts are positive.  Some are negative.  Facts exist.  And are important to protect myself from living in the circle of DENIAL.  Which is not a part of the 4 square life.

Neither is ANGER or JUDGEMENT.  That is not a part of the 4 square life.  (Yes, there is justified anger.  I’m talking anger that roots from pride.)

And, lastly FEAR.  Fear is not a bubble that can co-exist in a 4 square life.  It’s an outlier.  It is not our friend.  It’s not my friend.

I’m blogging this not to say, “I have life figured out.”  I’m blogging this to say that I’m learning.  Learning to accept feelings.  To move through them.  To keep God’s Promises as my base.  And to try to throw off fear, denial, and pride.  Those so easily tangle me up.

We are all a work in progress.  And, these days are teaching us so many things.  I don’t want to forget what I’m learning.   How God is teaching me.  And how to become more balanced in conflict and crisis.

Hi everyone!

Happy Monday!

Our family devotional reading for today is John 6.

It’s one of my favorite stories: Jesus feeds the 5,000.

You may be very familiar with this story.  It’s a famous one.  We read it, and then had  a fun time imagining this story in our own personal terms.  You may want to try this too.

Here goes….

My youngest son goes to a very big elementary school.  They have over 1,000 students.  So we said this crowd was as big as his school five times.  That seems huge!

We also said, this is like Jesus seeing you and saying, “Excuse me, I need your lunch box to feed your elementary school times 5.”

He basically fed EVERYONE with one kids lunch box, and then had twelve baskets of leftovers.

THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE MIRACLE.

No wonder all the people were trying to make him be king.

But, instead of agreeing with them, he hid from them.

I asked my kids why Jesus did this.

My oldest said, “He wasn’t here to be King, he was here to die.”

Boom!

He gets it!

Jesus came to die for our sins.  He is King in heaven and will be King on earth, too, someday soon.

Miracles are amazing.  Keep praying for God to show us his miracles even today!

Hello there!  Well, today is going to look a bit different from our usual family devotional formats.

But, first, I want you to read John 5:1-18

This is a story of Jesus healing a man at a pool.

Read the story in the Bible first.

Then I want you to put on your imagination hat.  It’s fun to think through more details of Bible stories.  To imagine deeper.

I love to imagine!  It’s one of my favorite hobbies?  Do you enjoy it?

Ok.  Here is how I imagine in between the lines of John 5.  This story will be told form the perspective of the invalid man.  Let’s call him Jude.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

There is a public pool in Jerusalem by the sheep gate.  Some say the pool has magical healing powers.  I’m wasn’t sure if I believed that or not.  But, it was my last chance.  Somehow, when you have no other options, you start to believe in magic.

You see, I can’t walk.  I got trampled by a horse when I was 15. Now I’m 53.  You do the math. I have no family left.  My mother died a few days ago.  She was the only person that took care of me.  Now, I had no job.  No food.  Nothing.

I guess you’d say I was angry. Angry that she’s gone.  Angry that I am this way.  Reliant on others to help me, because you see – no one would help me.  Sometimes I wondered if I was invisible.

At this point, my only option was to make my way to this pool called Bethesda.  I’ve always been a realist.  I knew I was dead man.  But, somehow I had this tiny bit of hope that the pool could make me well.  Maybe it’s because hope was all I had.  I was desperate.

My mom had some money saved, not much, but enough for me to convince and pay a beggar to carry me to the pool.  He did as I asked. The pool was full, not even a space for him to set me in.  So, he put me on my mat next to the pool.

“When someone get’s out, ask them to put you in,” he said.

And, then he left me.

It had been two days, and no one had helped me in.  I’d been here a long time.  I told you I felt invisible. I was beginning to feel light headed.  But, I wasn’t going to ask anyone for help. That’s not what I did.

Suddenly, I heard someone say, “Do you want to be healed?”

“Are you talking to me?” I thought, “What a stupid question.  Of course I want to be healed.”

But, I didn’t say that.  I just laid on my mat.

“Take up your bed and walk.”

I tried to stand.  I don’t know why.  But, I tried.  And, then all of a sudden I was upright.  I forgot what the world looked like form this position.

I started screaming, “I’M HEALED!  I’M HEALED!”

Suddenly, I wasn’t invisible anymore.  A crowd of people rushed around me.  Everyone began talking at once.

“Where did the man go?  The man that healed me?” I kept asking.

But, no one knew where he went.

I didn’t even know who he was.

I was going to do EXACTLY what he told me.  I took my mat, and started walking.

Once I was outside of the pool, I saw a group of Pharisees.  They reprimanded me for carrying my mat on the sabbath.  Because, in Jewish tradition on the sabbath you are not allowed to carry anything.

I told them what happened, and what the man had asked me to do.  They wanted to know the man’s name, but I didn’t know.  All I knew was that I needed to do what he said, and also go worship God.

Somehow God had seen me, and had given me my life back.

I ran to the temple.

Yes, you read that right.  I RAN.  It felt so good.  I had forgotten what it felt like to have my heart beat hard, and for my lungs to burn.

Once I was inside the gates, I went into the temple courts.  I knelt to pray.

As I arose, I felt a hand on my shoulder.  “You look well!” he said.

It was the man that had healed me.  He said his name was Jesus.  I’ve heard people speaking of him.  That he’s the Messiah.  The one to save our people.

I never really believed that the public pool could heal me, but I certainly believed that the Messiah heals.  I’ve read all the prophesy.  I’ve studied the Torah.  This is what we have been waiting for.

I rushed to tell the Pharisees, feeling certain they’d want to know the amazing miracle that happened to me.  Feeling certain they’d want to talk with Jesus and move him into a position of power.

But, instead, they brushed me aside.  I heard them plotting to kill him.  Saying that he breaks the Sabbath and calls himself equal with God.

I didn’t care if I was in danger, I had to tell Jesus.  I ran back to the temple, desperately trying to find him.  To protect him from those plotting against his life.

I

Hey guys!  How are you hanging in there?  Have you started online school?

Today we are reading John 4…still…I know.  It’s a long chapter!

Read John 4:31-54

Jesus is talking a lot about the word harvest.  He says the fields are ripe for gathering fruit.

Do you know what a harvest is?

Have you ever gone to a blackberry farm, or a strawberry farm?  We have those in Oklahoma, and it’s really fun when it’s harvest time.  You can go out and pick a bunch of ripe fruit.  It’s exciting.  And tasty.

It’s fun to think that something so delicious came from a little seed that was planted and cared for.

Jesus is making a comparison for us.  Much like he always does.  He loves to make spiritual comparisons to physical things.  He must know that helps our brains get spiritual concepts.

So, Jesus is saying that we (and HE!) plant seeds in people’s lives.  Seed planting looks like – telling others about God, praying for them, serving them, making others dinner.  There are a million different ways to plant the seeds of God’s love in other’s lives.

Then, Jesus is describing how we care for the seeds.  We show others how to worship and spend time with God.  Jesus also speaks into their hearts.  This is caring for the seed..watering it, removing the weeds (pulling up sin by the roots).

Lastly, the fruit blooms!  This is the harvest.  The harvest can look so many ways, but the main fruit in the harvest is when someone gives their life to Jesus.

Does that make sense?

My 12 year old son, during our prayer time felt like God gave him a picture in his mind.  He wrote it down for me and told me I could share.  He said, “God gave him the example of popcorn.  It’s hard on the outside but when you add heat and light, it’s soft insides show outside and the hard shell is broken.”

I thought this was AMAZING!

Do you like to eat popcorn? This is a great way to see in the physical something that is spiritual!

Right now, we are going thru some HEAT.  We are having to stay at home.  Do school at home.  Cook at home.  Not see friends.   But, I think what God was talking to Reese about was that when you are in a hard time (the heat), and you let God come in (the light), he will crack your hard heart (the kernel) and your soft insides will show on the outside.

This is so beautiful.

I’m never looking at popcorn the same.

Maybe go make yourself some.  And pray that God will show your soft insides on the outside…with his light in the middle of the heat.

Hello friends.  Today we are reading John 4.

This is a very powerful story.

In Jesus’s day, Jews and Samaritans didn’t get a long.  They lived in the same area, but the two groups of people didn’t like each other very much.

You know how today, sometimes on TV you see Republican and Democrats getting REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY mad at each other, because they have different opinions?  Well, this was even bigger than that.  The Jews and Samaritans REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY didn’t like each other.

They didn’t eat together.

They didn’t talk.

Sheesh…that’s rough huh?

Anyway, Jesus was a Jew, but Jesus did not act this way.  Jesus saw a Samaritan women getting water at a well, and he went up to talk to her.

We don’t know all the specifics about this women or all the specific about her sins.  We don’t need to know that.  Sometimes our sins are “obvious”…like you can see what we are doing and see that we are sinning.  This is what this woman was doing.  She was an “obvious sinner”.  All of us sin.  Don’t we?? Sometimes we try to hide it and make it not obvious.   But, she eventually after talking with Jesus she was honest about her sin to Jesus.  And that’s really great.

Jesus didn’t care that this woman was an “obvious sinner”.

He cared about her heart.  He could see her pain.

My 8 year old asked why Jesus does this?  Why does he really want to be with sinners?

Well, it’s because when we realize how much we need him, we open our hearts to him.

My 8 year old said, “So it’s hard for a KNOW IT ALL to open his heart to Jesus?”

Exactly.

Jesus tell us that he is the only one that can satisfy our hearts.  He says he’s like LIVING water.

Does that feel confusing for your heart to be thirsty?

Let me explain.  Right now, while we are stuck at home, my heart is thirsty to have a BIG party.  I want to see all my friends and dress up and eat cake.  My heart is thirsty for that because I’m missing it.

Is your heart thirsty for anything?

Even when we follow Jesus, we will long for things.  But that party won’t make me happy forever.  Even if I got to have it.  I’d feel happy for a little bit, then I’d go back to feeling regular.  Jesus is the only thing that can fill the void in our hearts.

Imagine your heart has a cross shaped cut out in it.  I’ll see if I can attach a picture for you.  Not sure if I’m good enough at blogging to do that yet.

You might try to fill that hole in your heart with TV, or sports, or money, or friends.  But the only thing that will fill the cross shaped hole is Jesus.  Because his love is better than life.

Psalm 63:3 says, “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you”.

Wow.

His love is THE BEST.

Nothing can beat it.

Jesus is for you whether you are an obvious sinner, a secret sinner, a know it all, a tender heart, a cry baby, a tattle tail, a bully…he’s for ALL PEOPLE.

Does that make you feel happy?  It sure does for me.

When you get a glass of water today in the kitchen, use that time to talk to Jesus for a little bit.  Drink your water and then …

Let him help your thirsty heart.

Hello friends!

Today we are continuing to read John 3:22-36.

Basically what’s happening here is that John the Baptist has a group of people that follow him. And Jesus also has a group of people that follow him.

John’s guys all of a sudden got stressed out, that they were in a competition with Jesus’s guys. They said, “WAIT! Is Jesus now baptizing more people than you John?”

John had to remind them that he was not the Messiah. And that this WAS NOT a competition. He told them to imagine a wedding. He said, Jesus was like the groom and he was like the Best Man. He was so happy to stand beside Jesus. There was no room to be jealous.

That’s cool to think about.

Then John went on to talk about Jesus more. I love this line…he said, “this is the assigned moment for him to move to the center…”

Can I ask you a question?

Right now we are all at home. We are all trying to do some school and art. Probably having a lot of snacks and tv time. But, what if this VERY moment, while we are at home is another ASSIGNED TIME for Jesus to move to the center of our lives?

What does that mean for him to be IN THE CENTER?

It means he is top priority.

What can that look like in your house today?

It can look like you journaling prayers to God.

It can look like you asking Alexa to play worship music.

It can look like you coloring a picture and hanging it up to remind you of Jesus.

It can look like cleaning up and serving your parents.

It can look a million ways to put Jesus in the center.

John goes on to say that Jesus gives us a LAVISH DISTRIBUTION OF GIFTS.

When I read that to my kids, my 8 year old got really excited. But then my 12 year old told him these were spiritual gifts, not toys…and he wasn’t as excited anymore. 😂

But, maybe if I tell you about these lavish spiritual gifts you will be happier.

These gifts are wisdom, the Holy Spirit, power, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, faithfulness, love, joy…

Imagine them wrapped up for you. John also says that “He does not ration out the spirit in bits and pieces.”

You know how sometimes your mom only gives you one slice of cake? She rations it for you so you can be healthy.

God does not ration the gifts of his spirit. He lavishly pours a whole truckload of gifts out for you. Gifts that will get you thru times that you feel angry or sad or frustrated…especially ways you may be feeling right now stuck at home.

I’m thinking about wrapping up two boxes today to remind me that God has given me the gifts of PEACE and PATIENCE. I’m going to wrap up boxes and write those words inside so I can remember that he has given me those things.

Is there a gift from God you need today?

He’s already offered it!

You just have to open it up!

If you wrap up a box today, please send me a picture!