Did That really Just Happen?

Did that really just happen, hours before we were scheduled to leave? Did we really just get the rug jerked out from underneath us? Did we just receive word that our little girl underwent a second open-heart surgery without us even knowing? Was it because they were worried she wouldn't pull through and didn't want to tell us until they knew for sure? YES! Yes it did!!

Did this take God by surprise? Was He taken off guard? Very clearly...NO!!!

Psalm 46:1 tells us " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble". 

For the past 7 months, since we began the process to adopt KatieJoy, God has shown me so much about Himself ....He has shown me the ugly in myself ..and my need for His grace each day.

As our agency broke the news to us just a few hours before we were scheduled to leave, the only thing I knew to say to them was that we knew this was the risk we took in adopting her and that we knew things wouldn't go as "planned".

As I replay that conversation over again in my head, I wonder why the Lord didn't tattoo the word "duh" on my head. If you know me personally then you know I am a planner...I plan out every meal, every school subject, everything I am going to do with my life. However, as I began processing everything that occurred yesterday the Lord reminded me of this truth:

• "The heart of manplans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." Prov.16:9
• I am thankful God loves me enough to establish my steps and to be the hope to which I can hold. An amazing thing is, He is the same God here in Texas as He is in Bulgaria!

Please continue to pray for KatieJoy as she has been in ICU since June 20th. Pray for healing for her little body and we will be able to meet her in a couple of weeks!

What You Were Created To Do..

There will be days when laundry piles up,
you wake up to chaos, you forgot to get milk for breakfast and
you don't get any schoolwork done.

You may be tired, overwhelmed and feel like you
have failed to be a good mommy.

Something To Ponder

Image: Dynamite Imagery

The greatest missionary force in America today

 sleeps in our bedrooms. May we lead,teach,

and equip them well.

 - Alvin Reed

What Is The Most Important Aspect Of A Child's Eduction?

As we kick off our first full week of homeschooling, I have been very convicted about my focus. In the past our school year has been academic and schedule lead but as I reflect on why God has entrusted me with my children, I am reminded of God's instructions to parents:

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Instead of focusing on grammer or math or history...my prayer this year is that our focus will be on the Father and on the grace that has been offered through His Son.  I pray that the Lord will draw my children unto Himself so that they can experience His fullness in joy. As a busy momma who has been given the task to school my children, I am daily reminded of how important it is that drink of the water of the Word so that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am enabled to be "Christ" to my children.

We must always remember to obey Matt. 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

This indeed is the most important aspect of every child's education. May the Lord give you the grace to teach your children about the the joy found only in Him.

Momma never said their would be days like "This"

I am sure that growing up that my "momma said there would be days like this", but days like this somehow cause you to forget all those things that "momma said". Today was one of those days that God really hammered home a point in my heart, you know ..."Hey, my child, remember that I am here and turn to me". Between a sick child, a child that likes to strip down to his birthday suit and tries to give his room a "make-over" with the contents of his diaper(oh, yea not once but three times), a little red head that fell out of the grocery cart( I'm feeling like mom of the year here) and oh wait did I mention that we are buying a house...yikes !!! So as I was in the bathroom scrubbing the unmentionable of a two year old little boy;fighting back tears the Lord reminded me that "Even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles;they shall run and not be weary;they shall walk and not faint" Isaiah 40:30-31 Praising God that my weariness shows fast the strength of the Lord!!!

-Crowned With Joy,
       LouAnn

Idolatry In The Christian Home

The title of this blog sounds like an oxymoron and it is as it sounds. But it is a struggle nonetheless. Through a variety of circumstances this week the Lord has opened my eyes to something very real that is often so prevalent in the Christian home. What a struggle it is to balance the life of who you are with what you are.

I am first and foremost a child of God, washed in the blood of the Lamb, reconciled to to the Father by the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. However, what I do, on a daily basis, is clean, cook, wash and fold clothes, teach grammar, phonics, and any other subject that a kindergartner and first grader might encounter.  I am a wife and a mom. The problem here is that sometimes I put the "what I do" before the "who I am." As wives and mothers it is so easy to worship those we serve instead of the One who we were created to serve. The difficult thing is that there is no compromise, there should be no balancing.

When we put our calling above the One who calls then we are no better than the idolatrous Israelites of the Old Testament that we are so quick to condemn . As homemakers with the demands of life all around us, how do we make Christ the center of our lives? How do we fix our eyes on Jesus without neglecting our calling as keepers of our homes? As fellow believers we are to encourage each other and lift one another up...please, as the Lord leads, I, as well as others that follow this blog, would appreciate any thoughts  that you may have in this area...

How do we combat this?  Is this something that you struggle with?  For too long I have suffered in silence, not wanting to admit with my mouth what I have known to be true in the depths of my heart. 

Sincerely, I would love feedback...how is this dealt with? 

"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17

For God's Glory!!!
LouAnn 

I Will Ever Love and Trust Him

When God calls you to surrender it all to Him you never know what He has in store for you. The following week God completely shook things up in the Rogers' home. Our week started out like usual, school at 9 am lunch at noon, little ones napped while the big kids had reading time. I specifically remember something in particular that week that I had noticed before but simply fluffed it off. My youngest son Micah usually liked to sit in the floor and rock, nothing unusual for him, but that week he didn't want to stop. Nothing I did would distract him. But in the hustle and bustle of the day I tucked it away .


Well to make a long story short I began to feel concern over this and a few other things concerning Micah. After several phone calls and an hour long consultation with a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor, my fears had become a reality as she diagnosed him with high-functioning autism.

I remember asking the Lord "Why?"...I remember asking "How?" (as in how did this happen) but what I had failed to ask the Lord was "What?" What was the Lord trying to teach me.....

Then Sunday rolls around and where do I find myself.. ..at the alter, of course, pleading with the Almighty to take it away from him. I would love to tell you that as I stood up and looked over at Micah he was healed...but I would be lying.What God did, and is still doing, is so much greater.  Now, don't get me wrong, I would LOVE for Micah to not have these issues but, more than anything, I want God to be glorified.

As I left church that day I realized that God was doing a great work in my life and in the life of my family. He was putting "a thorn in our flesh", so to speak, in order that we might grow in our walk with the Savior. Oh... but that is not all:

• He showed me that he is in control of EVERYTHING!
• That His grace is sufficient
• That His power is made strong in my weakness
• and that Micah and the rest of my beautiful children truly are "fearfully and wonderfully made" crafted and molded specifically how he planned and purposed each one of them to be
• and that each smile, each giggle, each tear, each spill and each boo-boo kissed are a gift that God gives me and that each of them are a JEWEL in my crown
• And that I am truly Crowned With Joy

Well as the weeks have passed and as we have learned that Micah has allergies to gluten,casein and soy and treatment for his autism has begun we have seen the amazing power of God even more...... our doctor believes that over the next couple of years that Micah will overcome autism and simply be a "little man" that simply can't eat ANYTHING....Just kidding!  But he will have to live on a very restricted diet! Isn't our God good?

I'll leave you with this...no matter what your going through our God is greater, no matter how alone you may feel our God is a strong tower, no matter how depressed you may feel in our God there is found joy and no matter how defeated you may feel you need to know that you can "Ever Love and Trust Him"!

I Surrender All

All to Jesus I surrender.... How many Sundays have we sung that familiar hymn at the close of service... wanting more to hurry home to lunch than to truly surrender all. Being a preacher's wife I have heard this played more times than I can remember and yet Sunday after Sunday the alter is empty. But this particular Sunday was different.

My husband was preaching on the Sovereignty of God and how we think we are in control but in reality the Lord is in control.  Toward the end of the service he asked the our faith family to examine our hearts and to surrender it ALL to the Sovereign Savior .... and as I searched my heart I realized that there was something in my life that I wanted complete control over and I just knew that God was asking me to surrender it to Him. I can just picture myself, internally, looking to God like one of my children when they are being pulled away from their movie to do schoolwork, they are more comfortable in a place where nothing is required of them...well that was me. God was pulling me to the altar and I wanted to stay "comfortable" just like one of my children in front of Bob and Larry.  But as the Spirit drew me I went to the altar and laid it all down at the feet of my Savior.

However, I soon realized I had an area in my life I was not willing to give over to the Lord  and I knew that this was a hindrance to my walk with the Lord. That day I Surrendered All... yes all four of my precious children to the Savior. The results of that were both joyous and challenging!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post as we learn about all the Lord has done since. But before I leave you...I want to encourage you to ask the Lord to reveal to you the areas in your life you haven't given to Him, so that you might say "I Surrender All".  You will be so glad that you did!!

Crowned With Joy!

LouAnn