saw this and had to share...

smelly, fluffy farm animals

Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.- John 10:7-10

i think we give sheep a bad rap... because we are humans, we seem to think that we, of course, are far smarter than a farm animal- i mean, we created the iphone and democracy for goodness' sake! but are we really? are we wiser than a sheep? if you read verses 1-6 you might understand what i am saying a bit more "but they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” they do not recognize a stranger's voice.


  i am little ADD, it is extremely difficult for me to sit in a restaurant (or any other place for that matter) and give my full attention to the people i am dining with if other conversations are happening... it is hard for me to focus for extended periods of time- it is hard for me to listen to the voices that are familiar. i was reminded this week that there is a bigger problem... it is not just the voices in a restaurant that distract me- i am listening to a voice far stranger. 

my friends and i talk a lot about being lied to and how to fight the lies. it is my husband's mission statement. it is our marriage mission statement: 'to find and destroy the lies that cause people to worship themselves so that they can know God and His intent for them'. (i promise the sheep thing will make sense soon, if it doesn't already..) 

i know this post seems a bit disjointed, but i promise there is a point. bear with me here. i want to talk about sheep again....

when i was in high school, a close friend of mine presented a sermon about farm animals; i think the title was 'are you a sheep or cow'. we all laughed, of course. it stuck with me; it is still with me 10 years later. did you know that a sheep can hear and recognize their shepherd's voice among many others and will run to him? if you, as a shepherd, were to stand behind one of your sheep and yell, that the sheep would immediately run to get behind you. this makes the parable in John 10 make so much more sense... the sheep know their shepherd's voice. they will never follow a stranger...because they do not recognize a stranger's voice

i want to be more like a sheep- not just figuratively. i am desperate for this, for the Bride of Christ to know no other voice than of her Love- the One who laid His life down for her. i want to be so focused and in-tune with my Savior so that i cannot be lied to- you can't be lied to if you don't listen to the voice of a stranger. 

if you are reading this, i want to encourage you to find His voice in the crowd. when you hear it, run to Him. i know there will be times when you are not sure- i had many of those times this week. seek out the voice of your Love and try to drown out the others. if you cannot do it yet, i will fight for you as I am sure Christ is. 

hold on to a truth that you know so that you can find the voice that is speaking it. my truth this week was the Christ was my perfection and my friends fought for me so that i could hear His voice speaking far more than that.

Lord Jesus, restore my focus on You alone. I pray that You would fight the lies in all of us and close our ears to strangers. Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice, protection, and love. Help us become more like sheep so that we can follow you without distraction."

the rebirth of a blog...

i'm not so sure that anyone reads this thing, but because i feel that i am supposed to be writing and working on my "craft" i am writing, and for now, this seems like as good a place as any...

i want to point out a few quick things before we move on since this will be the rebirth of my blogging/writing...

1. i don't like capital letters (if something is capitalized it is for emphasis or respect)
2. i like music, movies and television and will probably reference ones that i am particularly fond of as we go along in this journey
3. i am not very good at follow through- i plan on updating/writing this blog at least once a week, but i might slack off (i hope not)
4. some posts will be serious, others...not so much
5. i have a God-dream and this is part of it... 

to explain number 5... we (me, my husband and our church family) believe that each person is made with a specific purpose- many would call this a calling. my calling/God-dream is to minister to women- all women. since i am not great at public speaking and far better at sitting in front of a computer or piece of paper, i will need to do by writing- at least on a "large scale". 


i have to be honest with you, i am kind of freaked out by this calling. i mean, we are all called to minister to people and to show the love of Christ where ever we go, but my life's purpose is to minister/teach women as a whole- like joyce meyer. stop right there though, i don't want you to think or assume that i have some grandiose idea that i will be a world famous author and speaker who sells out stadiums- i don't think that. but i do think that God has placed a calling on my life to reach and teach all types of women- mothers, widows, orphans, business women, etc. 


i am almost 30 (ok, i'm almost 28, but 30 is breathing down my neck and i don't really like it), i have a full time job as a supervisor at an insurance company, i am married, my doctors tells me that i am infertile (please don't apologize, i have grieved for this and believe that God is larger than a diagnosis and that HE will do as HE pleases) do i do not have any children, and i am not very good in crowds... the odds of minstering to women on a large scale are kind of stacked against me (especially to mothers, how am i supposed to help mothers when i have no kids of my own), but i am confident that this is calling and i am not giving up...


this blog will be about my journey, good, bad or ugly. i will try to teach and love through this and hopefully, we can walk together. 


to quote Aaron Sorkin's Sportsnite, i will be using Napoleon's plan "first show up, then see what happens."


will you show up with me? maybe i will discover more about my calling and maybe you will discover yours.... 


who's with me?