Who am I?

Throughout my life and I am sure , yours too, I have placed my identity in many things. My accomplishments, my family, a college degree, my marriage, my children, etc. But, seldom have I rested in my true identity, my identity in Christ.

Being a stay-at-home-mom is a tremendous blessing. I have the privilege to teach and learn with my children how to be disciples of Christ. While this task is not always easy it is a high calling and I love it! But, I do have random days when I tend to crumble and my mind tricks me into thinking I am worthless and have no talents or skills or accomplishments that be helpful to anyone.

I recently had one of these mornings and after much prayer and reading my bible God reminded me once again of my true identity. In Galatians, Paul tells us that Christ was sent to redeem us from the law and provide adoption for us to become sons of God, and if we are sons then we are Heirs! We are God’s children! Nothing on this earth can top that! No degree, no title, no accomplishment, no house, no amount of perfect children will ever be better than being called ‘Sons of God.’

This identity problem isn’t a new thing. Paul was writing to the Galatians because of his concern for them in this exact area. In verse 9, he says: “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you wan to be once more?” This is exactly what we tend to do. We begin forgetting that we have been redeemed and we are sons of God and we begin believing the lies of this world. No matter how big your accomplishments are in the world’s eyes they are only going to leave you empty and a slave to the next big goal!

Christ was crucified on the cross so that we might be called sons of God! We no longer have to be a slave to the world’s standards of success! We have been redeemed from slavery and can rejoice in our inheritance! We are HEIRS OF GOD!

It has been confirmed…

….you are being talked about right in front of your face(or should I say feet)!

Since moving into the ‘hood’ I have been going to the local nail shop to begin forming relationships with the clients and manicurists. The manicurists are all from Vietnam and most are family. They are very sweet people. On Monday, while the kids were napping Tiffany and I snuck out to get a much needed mani and pedi. I usually have ‘Emily’ do my pedicures because I have talked with her the most and really like her work. Well this time Emily worked on Tiff’s feet and I was placed with a girl I had never met before. Instead of she and I talking, Tiff and and I were gabbing away in our own little world. Every once in a while I would stop and watch/listen to them talk in their own language.  And as usual the thought crossed my mind…I wonder if they are talking about us?? I didn’t give it a second thought and went on talking with Tiff. Later while the new girl (I hate to call her this but I have totally forgotten her name) was doing my nails she revealed that she was so shocked to hear I had 4 kids. I went on with the conversation for a while and then had to ask…how did you know all of this information about me? And she replied: “oh, Emily was telling me all about you while we were giving you girls your pedicures!” Now I have this strong urge to learn vietnamese (if that is what they are speaking??) and not tell anyone…Ladies, just think of how many times you have gotten a pedicure and the person working on your feet busted out laughing…not a good sign…chances are they were laughing at YOU!

Our Gracious Heavenly Father

Every night at the boys bedtime I am amazed at how quickly their little minds forget to simply obey 3 little rules: 1) Don’t talk or laugh. 2) Don’t play. 3)Don’t get out of bed. Even at the age of 3, I would assume one could accomplish this task fairly easily. But apparently I am wrong…DEAD WRONG! And for some reason this surprises me every night. A close friend of mine posted a blog recently that really got me thinking. She wrote how as believers we have the knowledge that man is born a sinner. Man is not perfect. He is flesh and is going to fail time and time again. Yet while raising our children we tend to be shocked, appalled, and at times angered by the fact that they would dare to disobey us. She went on to say that we should not be surprised by their disobedience but by their obedience! When I first read this I was amazed at thought. But its so true. In the beginning stages of learning disobedience most of our children are not believers so why do we expect them to act as if they were…and if they are believers are they not still sinners like ourselves?? Yet we expect them to act like tiny little soldiers! I am reminded every night at how gracious our heavenly father is with us. Time and time again we fail him and we disobey his word and He still chooses to love us with a never ending love. We are not accepted because we obey…we obey because we are accepted. His patience is astounding! My prayer tonight is that as my children disobey and I go in to discipline them that I would do it in a gracious, loving, and patient manner. I want my children to see the love of the father in me! I would love for you to join me in this prayer…every night at 8pm …haha! It gets that bad people!

Don’t Just Talk About It…

Just with the passing of my pawpaw have I begun to realize how temporary our life here on earth really is. My papaw was a man who gave his life to proclaim his love for Christ and until the day he passed never felt as though he could praise him enough! I feel lately as though I have been talking a lot about being on mission in my neighborhood and what that looks like but not actually making any changes and living this vision out. I want to serve my neighbors and I do in a practical way but, I also want them to know of the hope that lies within me. I have also been battling in my mind the importance of finding a way to retrain my brain to worship Christ throughout the day and not just at allotted times. I want to have a mindset of worship throughout the day so my children will see the joy of Christ in me even when I fail to speak of him!  And while these things are good to discuss and flesh out they are wasting my precious time if I don’t act on them. As Stephen says so often: ‘don’t talk about it be about’…I say that with hoodlike accent because he is ever so ‘ghetto.’ But seriously, we have such a short span of time to glorify our Saviour and proclaim His name and spread His good news and I find myself getting in so wrapped up in just thinking about it and planing for it and discussing it. I don’t want to waste my life! I want to love my God and my neighbor! I want to share the good news of a God who sent his only Son to be crucified on a cross for MY sins and rose again on the third day so that I could live in forgiveness and grace and death could not touch me. Death reminds me that one day I will spend eternity praising the name of the one who died for me…but until that day comes I want to spend my time here on earth doing the same and not just talking about it!

New to the Blog World!

Lately, I have found that journaling really helps me to clear my head and get  out how God is moving my heart and speaking to me! So I hope I don’t bore you but rather inspire you, motivate you, or just make you laugh at something silly my kids did! This blog is an outlet for me and possibly a connection for some of you whom I don’t always get to see or connect with! Hope you enjoy!

Brooke

Pawpaw Long

The past few weeks our family has watched the health of our Pawpaw take a turn for the worse.  Pawpaw is an incredible man of God. He is patient, caring, humble, gracious, loving, and so much more! He is the father of 6 children and the grandfather to 9 and great-grandfather of too many to count. After hearing his brother preach the Lord revealed himself to Pawpaw and he surrendered his life to be a follower of the one who died to save him! Pawpaw then went on to serve the Lord in ministry, first as a Pastor and then as an Evangelist. Many times I remember sitting under the preaching of my Pawpaw! The way he painted a glorious portrait of our Savior and of course the same jokes he would tell over and over…I loved every minute of it! Sometimes after services we would all go back to Pawpaw’s house and he would invite his preacher buddies. Mamaw would cook an amazing meal and they would sit around for hours talking and laughing, sometimes even crying. Oh how I loved to just be there listening! You could see the love of Christ all over them! What a great honor to be brought up in family that loved the Lord and wanted to serve him! Pawpaw is such a grateful believer. To this day every time we see him he is always reminding of us of how God has blessed us. He is amazing and he will be missed greatly!

Through tears of sadness, I have to say I am a bit jealous…he gets to see his Saviour’s face! What an awesome wonder he will behold! No more pain, no more disease, no more heartache, no more sadness…just forever praising his name! Wow! The one who created the world, came as a baby, lived a perfect sinless life, was mocked, persecuted, spit on, beaten, humiliated, crucified, died and rose again on the third day! The King who is worthy of all our praise…Pawpaw will be in his presence! I am AMAZED at the God we serve and how awesome he is to us even though we have done NOTHING and can do NOTHING to earn his love! He freely gives his love to us and ask for nothing in return! In the words of my little Noah: Our God is a GOOD God!

For GREAT is the LORD and GREATLY to be PRAISED!