Teenagers and Legalism

I'm going to start this one off by saying, if you are easily offended...stop right now and don't read any more. To the rest of you, I will probably step on some toes and I'm sorry in advance.

We just spent a week at StudentLife Camp in Durango with some AMAZING teenagers! We took 16 teenagers and there were 4 of us adults all mingled with over 700 teenagers and adults. As I sat and just took all of it in, I was humbled and amazed at how God uses teenagers! For those of you that think teenagers are rude, horrible creatures, shame on you! You don't have to necessarily like them, but God tells us to love them. Matt. 22:39 (and many other places in His Word) They are God's creation and YOU were once a teenager. They are in their prime learning/growing time and it is the responsibility of the adults in their lives to be examples of how to live a Christian life. Unfortunately, a lot of adults think teenagers are no good, and they blame them for every bad thing that happens. As a youth leader, this really frustrates me. For example, I have heard several comments in our own church lobby about the teenagers using the sanctuary for youth group and that they spill drinks all the time. I have been helping with the YG for over 3 years now, and I have seen very few spills. AND, when it does happen, I see about 4 teenagers come to the rescue to help the one who does spill clean it up. On the FLIP (this was the theme of the camp) side, I have sat through bible studies in the sanctuary where women spill their coffee. I have seen other women tell that person their coffee just spilled and then just sit there and wait for that person to clean up their own coffee. When that person cleans it up, they just get a few paper towels and step on it and hope that's fine. (I know, because I have witnessed or been on both sides of the this...both spilling my coffee and being the one to tell the other they spilled).

I sat and watched the worship of these teenagers and lead a group of them during bible study time. All I have to say is...WOW! These teenagers are on fire for God! Yes, there are some that mess around and really aren't interested, but isn't that the case for some adults in church? These kids are the next generation of pastors, missionaries, youth pastors, leaders, etc. and I'm excited and proud of that fact! So next time you see a teenager walking around your church (even if it's a boy with long hair or his pants sit a little low on the hips, or a girl wearing jeans instead of a dress or has a piercing in a place that you think is wrong) please don't judge them, you don't see their hearts! God is their ONLY judge and He sees the amazing things they are doing to further His kingdom and He doesn't care what they are wearing or how they look! Jesus was not worried about what the Samaritan girl at the well looked like. John 4

That leads me to the second thing that I really took away from camp. One word, LEGALISM. This is where I may step on someone's toes. Don't get me wrong, I understand that God gives us each our own convictions, but please don't judge others if they aren't convicted in the same way. Our speaker this week was Ergun Caner. This is a man who does a church service for the "least of these". The "freaks" is what he calls them. The ones with tattoos, long hair, holes in their jeans, piercings, etc. If you've been to the mall or the county fair, you know the ones. These people need saved and loved too! They are all God's creation.

HOLY: Ergun explained this: A Christian should define holy as being more like Christ.

Legalists define this as wanting someone to be more like them. This really hit me! This is one of my biggest turn offs about Christian adults. Wear a dress to church, don't throw balls in the sanctuary, you are a sinner if you have a tattoo, you must kneel to pray, etc. I could go on and on, but you get the point. And maybe you've been convicted by one of these things. PLEASE, please, please, don't judge others if they aren't. Guess what, I wear jeans to church, I've thrown balls in the sanctuary, I have two tattoos and want another one, and I pray wherever I feel like talking to God...whether it's standing at the sink washing dishes, lying in bed before I nod off to sleep, or sitting in my car driving somewhere. (and I didn't close my eyes while driving either!)

I know that our youth pastor and probably every youth leader out there, gets criticism for how he/they do things. I can only speak for our Youth Pastor, he loves these kids and would do anything for them. He takes time out of his personal life to show them God's love. He takes them to camp and gets buckets of water poured on him, gets little sleep, and puts up with loud music and loud kids the whole week and still loves them and would do it all over in a heart beat...and does do it again and again! I'm not saying he's perfect, he may slip and say something he maybe shouldn't have, or run a yellow light while on one of those many road trips he takes with the youth, etc. But none of us are perfect. The kids see that he is real, and he slips up in life, just like they do/will. THANK YOU, Jesus, for shedding your blood to forgive us of our imperfections and sins!!!

So please, next time you see a youth pastor, thank him/her for his/her dedication and commitment to teach and love on those teenagers who will be our next pastors, leaders, missionaries, etc. Also, take a minute to thank the teenagers for what they do. You may not see what they are doing behind the scenes, but they are there. Setting up the chairs that you sit on during Sunday morning church, picking up trash at the skate park and sharing the gospel with the skaters, putting out the tables that you sit at during church potlucks, their committment to God and eachother as they "give up" their Wednesday nights to be at church to learn and grow in God, and being the encouragement and light in my life! I just want to say, that I love and respect every one in our youth group; our youth pastor, the teenagers, and the adult leaders! You are all amazing, wonderful people....God's chosen people! THANK YOU to all of you!

Gotta love sunburns

Went to the pool today. 2 hours in the sun. Now I'm bright red. Which is a little strange considering I had a pretty good base tan started already.
While at the pool, a friend and I were talking about how now they are saying that sunscreen causes cancer more than the sun. Hmmmm. Is this true? I have been struggling with the fact that I go to a tanning bed to start my tan in the summer. There is research saying this is a healthy way for your body to get the Vitamin D it needs. I have also heard that Hawaii has very little cases of skin cancer because the people there stay tanned all year long and don't get sun burnt. So, what do you do? Do you stay out of the sun and have a Vitamin D deficiency, go out in the sun and get sun burnt because you don't want to use sunscreen, or do you use sunscreen? Oh the options. Personally, I like the "healthy" look I have when I have a tan, so I will continue to go to a tanning bed and sit at the pool and NOT put on the sunscreen. If it gives me skin cancer....it's just my weird way of getting to heaven sooner! Go enjoy the sun...however you choose to expose yourself to it.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I haven't heard the official word on how many days in a row that we've received rain, but it's a lot. Every morning my son gets up and says, "can we go swimming today?" and my answer, "if it doesn't rain." How many days have we been to the pool? ONCE! We have had a few nice days that we didn't go to the pool because we were at friends' houses, church, out-of-town, etc, but the rain is really getting old.
Don't get me wrong. I love a great thunderstorm and the smell of rain. At the first sound of thunder or the first site of lightning, I immediately go around the house opening windows and doors. It reminds me of when I was a little girl we would go out on my Grandpa and Grandma's porch on the farm and watch the rain. My Grandpa would say, "More rain, more grass for the horses". Now, I usually stand at the open patio door or front door and watch as the rain comes. I watch the water as it gushes down both sides of the street and dream of floating paper boats, sticks, or anything we could find to float when I was a kid.
But, not this summer. The weather has been really strange. We've had hail a lot of days, and tornado watches and warnings. If not here, then one of the counties nearby. I've seen lots of great pictures of funnel clouds that friends have taken. (I'm really jealous, because I love tornadoes and love to go driving to find them) I've often wondered lately if we secretly moved to Seattle or somewhere in Oklahoma because this is just weird for Colorado.
Well, in all my thoughts (and frustrations) I've decided to make a Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Rain. So here goes:
1. Because it's one of my most favorite smells! (and if it doesn't rain, I don't smell it)
2. Because I've only had to water our lawn two or three times this summer...and it's more green than it has been since we moved here.
3. Because I love the sound of thunder and counting the seconds between when I see lightening to when I hear thunder.
4. Because it holds many memories for me and makes me smile.
5. Because it's a true excuse to not have to do yard work. (although I love yard work, I love the rain more)
6. Because I love the feeling of cold rain drops on a warm summer afternoon. (I'm usually the one in the parking lot walking slowly enjoying the rain, not the one running for my life to get into the store)
7. Because I haven't had to wash our vehicles once this summer.
8. Because it forces families to spend time together, either playing in the rain, or spending time inside together.
9. It remindes me that God is bigger than me and is in control, and my little plans that might have gotten changed due to rain aren't really that important.
10. It's God's creation, why shouldn't I like it?! Find the beauty in everything, instead of grumbling about the uncontrollable.

He Reigns!

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Psalm 97:1

Scrapebooking with friends (and crocheting)

I put together a scrappbooking night at church last night. We put a little insert in the bulletin, but it seems that the same few always come, along with a few new faces. We always have so much fun sharing our memories, both in photos and through memories in our minds. But we make memories during these nights also.
We laughed until we cried, talked about things that we would never talk about in front of men (you know, typical "girl" stuff), scary stuff, serious stuff, had a few bloopers, and just had a great time being together as sisters in Christ.
For those of you that don't scrapbook, don't let the title of the event scare you! Bring your crocheting, quilting, stamping, cross stitching, etc and join us for an amazing night with friends.
Thank you girls for such a great night.
BTW....Yes I meant to misspell Scrapebooking in the title. Love ya Willo!
Until next time....remember to laugh and not look at life so seriously that you forget how.

Failing

A wonderful friend of mine has reminded me that I have neglected this blog, and she's right. I just haven't felt inspired to write anything lately. I love summer and having the kids home, but I am a schedule person and need structure. There doesn't seem to be any structure in the house with EVERYONE home, including the hubby. Everyone is doing their own thing and I'm trying to go behind them all cleaning up. I really need some advice on how to get my kids to be motivated to help around the house. I'm one of those that thinks it's easier to just do it myself than to hear complaining the whole time and then to not have it done correctly anyway.
I have commited to lose weight though and have been doing a pretty good job getting up and doing my 2 mile workout most mornings. I have lost a little weight and hope to have lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks. (short term goal) I have started a new program and hope to stay committed. Wish me luck...and pray. I am totally leaning on God's stregnth with this, because I've tried it on my own and failed many times.
My next project is to paint our spare room/scrapbooking room. I just can't seem to decide what color to paint it and how to decorate it. Which, if you know me, is very unusual. I've always said I wanted to be an interior designer when I grow up.
Hubby is gone fishing with the guys, left this morning at 5am. I love him to pieces, but I
secretly jump for joy when I hear he is going to be gone a few days. It's nice to relax and do my own thing and not have to think about preparing meals, dealing with his schedule, etc. (the kids and I love cereal for dinner while he's gone, at our convenience). So, now I'm off to do my 2 miles, clean up the house, put a load of laundry in and pack up my scrapbooking things for tomorrow's scrapbooking night with the girls at church. I love my scrapbooking nights with my friends!!!

James 1:2 Joy in Troubles

I love God's WORD! I just had to share an example of how knowing and reading God's Word can help us all while going through life.
5pm on Friday~ we leave to do a 30 hour Fast for Compassion. Spent the night at church.
2pm on Saturday~ we all come back to our house after walking the neighborhood collecting cans for the task force. We had about 15-20 teenagers in our house so I sent a few of them downstairs to get some games. One of them came back upstairs saying,"Your basement is flooded". So we went downstairs, moved furniture, found the leak in the pipe in the crawl space (thank you, Brian), sucked up what we could with the carpet cleaner and left the rest for when we got home that night after finishing our fast. (oh, did I mention that we hadn't eaten in 25 hours when we found the leak).
9:30pm~ on our way home from church, Jason went to one friends' house, I went to another collecting fans, dehumidifiers, and shop vacs. Got home, unpacked air mattresses, food, sleeping bags, shop vacs, fans, etc. Then we went down to the dreaded basement! We had to rip up our carpet and tear out and throw away the carpet pad. It felt like a sponge. We put all the fans and dehumidifier in place and left the rest up to time.
Okay....this is where God's Word comes in. We could have been completely stressed by this situation and had it ruin our weekend. But, the whole time I was sucking up buckets of water James 1:2-4 kept running through my mind.
Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. NLT

I will admit, I was wondering what joy we were getting out of having water in our basement and having to do everything we needed to do to remedy that. But, remembering that verse kept me calm and focused on the task. Without having God's Word, I know I would have been very frustrated and angry and the many teenagers in the house would have seen a different side of Jenni! Thank you, God, for your Word and wisdom!

Psalm 119: 9 and 11 How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word and following its rules. I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

God sends angels

I just had to share this little story with you. It made me smile this morning and hopefully it will make you smile also.
I dropped Sam off at school this morning and then ran to KingSoopers for some coffee creamer since I was all out.
So, I'm standing in front of the cooler where all the creamers were. SO many decisions and flavors! Fat free, sugar free, vanilla, cinnamon vanilla, creme brulee, etc. The list goes on. I was in my own little world trying to decide when an older women (not too old though) walked by me and layed her hand on my arm and rubbed it and just smiled and said, "so many decisions huh?". She continued walking toward the back room as she walked by with a big smile on her face. (she also worked there, I think in the deli or bakery) I smiled back at her and said, "too many".
Such a simple gesture, but what an impact it had on me this morning. A smile and a soft touch with kind words. Don't you wish people could slow down and do that more. We are all in such a rush as we walk past people who could just use a smile or a simple touch on the arm with kind words. Jesus was definately visiting KingSoopers this morning! :-)
Hope this makes you smile...and slow down to smile at someone today.