Monday, December 11, 2006

Jan. Newsletter for church (the sneak preview)

Prayer and Childlike faith is an amazing thing. I want to share a couple of stories about my full of faith son named Spencer. You’ve probably seen him around church. He’s the cute kid with the most beautiful red hair you’ve ever seen. His hair is the treasure of our family. Before he came along I never thought much about red hair. When I was pregnant with Spencer I didn’t know if I was having a boy or a girl. I loved having the surprise of Randy telling me that Joey was a boy when he was born so we decided not to find out with our second child either. Well, one day when I was pregnant with him I was leaving Hobby Lobby and a cute, cute, cute little boy passed me with his mother and he had soft red hair that captivated me. I vividly remember rubbing my tummy and telling the Lord that I would like to have a red headed child. Spencer has been redheaded from the minute he was born! Our family fell in love with that hair and that boy from the minute we laid eyes on him!
Just like his red hair is special to our family and original to our family so is Spencer. He’s an all or nothing kid. Revelation 3:16 says, “So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Spencer does not have a problem with being lukewarm. He is either hot or cold. I know this is something that the Lord has put into him for a purpose. I know Spencer is already a great man of faith at 6 years old. I’ll give you a few examples.

Last year sometime on a Sunday our family got up in the morning and went to church as always. It was a normal day. It was really windy but we didn’t think much of it. Nothing too exciting happened before church. We had a great service, and on the way home we stopped to pick up some lunch to take home. When we drove up to our house we couldn’t believe our eyes. In our front yard our tree that had been there for more years than I had lived was blown over and lying down perfectly is our yard. It broke at the ground and spread out all over our yard. It covered corner to corner. We were amazed at how it did not go into our neighbor’s yard and hit their car. It did not block our driveway. It came inches from our house but did not touch it. The tree didn’t touch anything but our yard. I was thinking about how faithful the Lord was to protect our home and our neighbor’s home from the tree that was knocked over by the wind, but Spencer thought a whole different thing. He said, “God did it!!” Spencer ran over to the tree that was laying down in our yard and was climbing all over it. He kept yelling, “God did it! God did it!” We asked him what he meant and he explained the whole thing to us. He said that on the way to church he told God that he wanted Him to knock the tree over so he could climb on it because he was too small to climb the tree when it was standing. Mark 11:23 says, “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” I guess this scripture could have tree substituted for mountain. God heard a desire of a 5 year old boy and was pleased with his faith and request.

Here’s another thing that happened recently. We go to a ministry in Abilene called King David’s Kids about twice a month. It’s a group where parents get together that have special needs kids. It’s just nice sometimes to talk to people that really understand what you’re going through. This group is great for Randy and I because the other parents in the group love the Lord and we’re just trying to do the best we can to raise our children. Another great thing about going is that once a month we get a “Respite Night.” We get to take all five children to a local gymnastics gym for 3 hours and the kids get to play their heart out! They have a blast! Randy and I get to have dates on those days which we love. Anyway, King David’s Kid’s always provide Mr. Gatti’s pizza for the kids on the meeting nights and the respite nights. This is nice because I don’t have to worry about cooking. Well, remember what I was saying about Spencer not being lukewarm? He is not lukewarm about how he feels about Mr. Gatti’s pizza! He can’t stand it! Before every meeting and after every meeting I would hear about how much he disliked Mr. Gatti’s pizza! Now, he loves going to Mr. Gatti’s. He just doesn’t like the pizza. This was a big issue! I finally got to where I would try to remember to feed him before the meeting. Sometimes I would feed him after. Sometimes I just said, “Eat it. That’s your dinner.” I guess he had enough.
Recently at one of our meetings the director told us he had some good news and some bad news. The good news was that King David’s Kids was growing, growing and growing. The bad news was that pizza was costing them about $100 every meeting so they weren’t going to provide it anymore. They asked that we would bring the kids a sack lunch to eat.
Well, on the next respite night I was making the kids lunches when Spencer came in the kitchen. He saw me making lunches and he said, “You’re making me a lunch because you know I hate Mr. Gatti’s pizza?” He looked very pleased with me, but I had to admit to him that I wasn’t being so sweet. I explained that King David’s Kids were going to stop having pizza. That boy got a grin on his face from ear to ear and said, “You mean God answered my prayer?”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. I asked him if he had prayed that they would stop having Mr. Gatti’s pizza at King David’s Kids. His grin fell of his face and he looked at me a little concerned and asked, “Is that wrong?” I said, “Of course that’s not wrong. The Bible says to pray about everything.” He let out a sigh of relief and then admitted that he had prayed that they would stop having Mr. Gatti’s pizza there. Again, the Lord heard the prayer of a 6 year old and was pleased with his faith and request. Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, be prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

This little boy Spencer that can ask God to blow down trees and get rid of Mr. Gatti’s pizza is praying daily for his little brother Miles to walk. He just told me days ago that he can’t wait for Miles to walk. He said that he knows that he’s going to. As I was listening to him I wanted to be more like him so I asked him HOW he knows that Miles is going to walk. He said, “I just know.”

Matthew 18:3 says: And he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change, and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

God, I know that faith pleases you! I know your word says that we need to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. Make us more like children God!

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