Hiking, digging, deepening!

Today I went on a beautiful hike with about 30 of my jr. high and high school kids.
and one of my preschoolers. hehe she is so much more than one of my preschoolers.she is my best friend as she calls herself..
She is also the little daughter of some very good friends of mine, I had to win her affections at first but I know now that I can never lose them.
As we were hiking today, her dad and I were talking about ministry. plans for ministry actually.
I made a slightly sarcastic comment about not having plans short of my future with Christ.
This three year old put me in my place..she couldn't even help it. it was spilling out of her.
"Miss Malia" she said. "God is coming back for us." If you could see the joyful smile on her little face, or hear the excitement in her toddler voice.. "He's coming back because He's so big and we are going to get to see Him how big He is! And He's going to crush that sneaky snake!"

Aaaaaah! my heart was melted. Here was I so caught up in conversation that the hope of His return for me and His ultimate TRIUMPH for His glory was only a passing comment. and she stopped me, and helped to fix my heart on that hope and truly be hopeful in it.
so sweet and wonderful!


"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,"
(Titus 2:11-13 ESV)


check out this article on challenging the depths of your child's heart...

Don’t Let Children Ask Jesus Into Their Hearts | Becoming Saturated

Dream of mine

Today I am spending the day with two of my sweetest little girls while their daddy is out and about and mommy enjoys her first week at a new job.

This week I've been waiting all week to hear back from Gymboree play&music to see if I'll be their newest baby gym instructor.
The more that I've come to learn of their company and what they do exactly, the more excited I've been getting. And really, who doesn't love a group interview in socks teaching grown ups your favorite kid songs?!
Today is the deadline for them to give me a yes or no after calling my references and a very thorough second interview.
I feel so weird because knowing that it's a year commitment and they will reign in a new priority to my other commitments and my ability to freely help with anything whenever sort of freaks me out. But at the same time I have so much peace and I know that it's only because Jesus has spoken peace to my heart and brought me near by His precious blood.

You see, I love working. But I love to put my whole self into what I do. I've never had the work to survive or work to pay the bills mentality.( I've never wanted it either!)
I've been so privileged to work minimally while in college and really throw my time and efforts into the ministry the Lord has given me and the people the Lord has placed around me.
I love it.
I love that I can watch people's kids consistently and have relationships with my church family and my high school students simply because the Lord has made me available. Such a blessing.

As I enter the prospects of a new job, I wonder what the Lord will do in me and how or if He'll allow me to maintain that availability.
I've come to realize that I am not,in fact, lacking in ambition but that my dreams aren't like other peoples.
I want a family. I want to be a good woman, and friend, and servant of wherever/whoever/whatever the Lord places in front of me.

I pray that through whatever season the Lord takes me that I'll follow closely and submitted and always have time for His people.

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The collection continues..

Call me crazy, but children's book collection is growing and I love it. It really makes babysitting more than babysitting..a good book& a healthy perspective make all my time with children ministry and because of that I'm growing to love these books even more!
I really really must encourage all parents to go through "God's Names" by Sally Michael with their kids and indulge them in a thought provoking tale in Sproul's "The Prince's Poison Cup" :)
What wonder and bliss and truth!
What am I missing? Do you know of any God-honoring, Gospel-centered books for kids that I should add to my collection??

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The Jesus storybook Bible

Tonight I had the privilege of babysitting for one of my favorite families. It has been nearly a month since I last watched them and their growth never ceases to amaze me. The older of the brothers boasting 4 years of life experience now has the ability to even reach things right off the counter without any help! That was at the top of his priorities to point out to me tonight after I got the milk and cookies out....hehe
He is undoubtedly one of the most special kids I've known. We often talk about God when I watch him. He really has more and better questions about Jesus then some of my jr.high/hs kids. However, despite his recent involvement in cubbies, there isn't a single Bible in his home and church is nearly frowned upon by his parents.
Sovereignty is how we ended up in each other's lives! He has always expressed to me how badly he wanted a "Jesus book" after he navigated the map section of my ESV study Bible one day on the way to chik fil-a but to be honest, knowing well that his parents avoid all expressions of religion possible... I was hesitant to buy him his own Bible,especially if no one would read it to him.
Tonight, I brought the newest edition to my children's book collection- the Jesus storybook Bible so that we could read together and with more excitement than most, he grasp the "Jesus book" and said "Miss Malia, I've never ever had my own Jesus book and I've always wanted one but no stores ever have any for me. I'm so happy to be able to read about Jesus even when cubbies is over!" I may have started to tear and did I have any choice but to get out a sharpie and neatly pen his little name and a note to keep on reading? Not a chance.. He had me at his enthusiatic smile!
 Even as we finished watching Tangled, he excitedly flipped through the glossy color pages etched with the great stories of the Bible that so cleary point to Christ. I guess I'll have to get another copy. But with no regrets about the first copy, I pray the Lord continues to grab ahold of his little life and ever grow his excitement for the things of God. ( I also def recommend this Bible for all young readers! You can order it from Barnes and Noble for about $10!)

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

Godly Parenting

Of all people, I suppose I may be the least qualified to give parenting advice. I am 22 years old, have never really lived on my own, was/am sheltered by choice for a very, very long time now and have ZERO kids of my own. That is my disclaimer.
 And yet, I feel a GREAT burden for both parents and their children...of all ages.I am very privelged to work two very part time jobs..like if you could have a part-part time job- that would be the most accurate description of what I do in addition to college these days.
One is as a nanny for a family with a three year old and a 14 month old. I have been with them now for a year and a half and I love this family. Their faces and stories have graced this blog plenty of times. I love their children dearly and pray for them regularly.
The other position I am privelged to serve as is in Jr.High and High School ministry at my local church. I have been serving here in differing capacities for almost 2.5 years..The faces of these youth and the stories and lessons I've learned from being around them and being faithful to seek the Lord through serving them has certainly changed my life and is hinted at in more of my blog posts than I can name..
I say these things not to boast or brag, but to let you know where I am coming from and that I truly respect the role a parent serves to their children. In fact, I do not presume to rebuke any one person's parenting style or assert that I could do better, quite the opposite. I simply want to share with you the burden God has given me for your kids and challenge you with the Gospel truths He has been challenging me with as I seek to grow in the area of spiritual parenting and well, biblical womanhood in general. May God be glorified in this and provoke you to love and good works for His Name's sake.

One of the things I have looked forward to for as long as I can remember now is being a parent...I am still looking forward to it! Though now, I praise the Lord that He allows me the fortune of gaining spiritual children when kids of my own are no where on the map or plan right now! (If this sounds foreign to you or hits home for you check out this Piper sermon!)
In her book on a Titus 2 approach to Biblical womanhood, Carolyn Mahaney writes,

"We are to delight in our children. Let us not forget why. As we discovered in the first chapter, the promotion of the gospel is the impetus behind the commands in Titus 2. The mandate to love our children is no exception. This phileo kind of love is appealing to the observant audeience of our lives. It stands out in stark contrast to the strife and discord in families all around us and thus draws attention to the transforming effect of the gospel. May this extraordinary call to commend the gospel infuse our hearts with fresh vision and enthusiasm as we seek to love our children!" ( Pg 51, Feminine Appeal)

Parents, your privelge and responsibility is to communicate the clear calling of God on the lives of your children. Through prayer, your own consecrated lives, through the very love and delight that you show your kid-. You will either commend or discredit the Gospel of Christ. It is your job and chief aim to point your kids to Christ in all that you do and all that you teach them to do- sports, eating, sleeping, etc. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Do you see how beautiful that is? How precious, how delicate,and how incredibly powerful?! You're under 24 hour- a-day survelliance to walk the talk, to live by the Book, to love and enjoy your kids that they might have a saving knowledge of the Christ. I encourage you to evaluate how you're doing at this. I said that so lightly, and while I can not relate, I sympathize with you in this undertaking.
Does that seem like a lot of pressure? Does that seem bigger than you can handle, more readical and involved than you imagined? Is your heart heavy at this task? Make the joy of the Lord your strength, value the grace of God in each situation, draw from Him as your Supply and choose biblical greatness!
Again, Mahaney writes,

"As mothers ( or fathers I would add), we have a choice. We can either resent the challenges and demands that accompany motherhood (or any ministry for that matter) and persist in our selfishness, or we can draw from God's grace and receive His help to cheerfully lay down our lives for our children. Let's choose the latter. If we do, we are choosing biblical greatness. ( Matthew 20:26)" (pg 53, Feminine Appeal)

I just returned from a weekend of winter camp with some amazing High School girls. Some of whom, love and know Christ. Others who have certainly been exposed to the Gospel but haven't had any one show them Christ's genuine beauty or their desprate need for Him. This can be said to your shame and mine. This is where I join you in this task. As someone who loves the Gospel of Christ and enjoys daily the benefits of godliness and walking in the faith, I love your kids, your teens and your toddlers. And I am all in to present the Gospel to your kids, to seek to be above reproach that they would see Christ in me. That I could say as Paul did "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" ( 1 Cor 11:1) But one weekend at camp, won't reverse your day-in, day-out parenting or example. Don't get me wrong, I do not seek to minimize God's saving ability but rather to challenge your testimony amongst your children!

In Jeremiah 6, God is pronouncing judgement on His Children, Israel. In Jeremiah 6:10-19, we can gain a great insight to the wrath of God. He addresses His prophet Jeremiah regarding the ultimate downfall of His people saying, "Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold the Word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it."
The problem Identitified here is disregard for the Word of the Lord. From this root problem, God goes on to identify character flaws:

• greedy for unjust gain (v.13)
• false dealings (v. 13)
• no remorse or conviction for sin (v. 15)
• lack of humility (v. 15)

Because of this, the wrath of the Lord will be poured out on Israel and they would be conquered by the North. I am here to say that these flaws, this disregard for the Word of the Lord is rampant in this generation that, I too, share a part in. I beg you to consider your calling as parents to communicate the calling of the Lord on your kids, to commend the Gospel with your actions and tender love with a holy fear lest your kids stand one day to know the wrath of God as evidenced in Jeremiah. I beg you to consider and evaluate how you regard the Word of the Lord, how you present the Gospel daily to your children. I beg you to join me in ragaining this generation in the tender love of Christ and power of the Gospel.
I am praying for you!

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you,what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasureable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the workings of His great might.." Ephesians 1:17-19

the children

What do I miss most about Thailand?
Yes, the kids. My dad says kids are cute everywhere..I mostly agree..

But let me tell you about some very special children that God graciously blessed me through/with in Thailand.

One of the best decisions I ever made in Thailand was to walk home from work down the lovely trail through the rice paddie... Each day children would meet me on the trail to play and walk home with me. Everyday was different. Some days they chased, some days they hid and popped up, some days they just wanted to hold my hand and match my strides...every day they melted my heart and showed me love so beautifully.

Language barriers? What are those! If you can smile, laugh, jump, or high five..you're in. If you have a camera or are down to play freeze games..you have new best friends!

I was happy to have all of those experiences and let the hill-tribe children rub off on me. Some days even very literally, that is most certainly where I caught my cold and it was most certainly worth it...

Aren't they beautiful??

On New Year's Eve, we got to celebrate Christmas with the Karen people..It was a school festivity and outreach geared for all my favorite little people. and in the meeting no matter how hard I tried not to make eye contact with Steve...He called me out to share.I wasn't initially excited...microphones, translation, mis-speaking, fear...But then I thought, will I ever have such an opportunity to present the Gospel with all these kids ever again? Not that I could be guarenteed..It is one thing to play regardless of language barriers but another to present saving faith with a language barrier..

I ended up being very very blessed to share about "the greatest present I've ever gotten" and was also blessed to be reminded of God's deep love and faithfulness to His people.

But above and beyond that, I continued to learn from the night.

Each kid in the school received a pink fleece hoodie.. they adored them. Literally.

I saw kids in the act of cherishing! They cuddled their hoodies, stared at them in awe, had smiles from ear to ear and were even more excited to put them on and brave the cold in their new fleece ( and for some..only fleece,ever)I am almost certain they loved their fleece more than I've ever loved anything or maybe even anyone.

It still didn't stop. As children in pink hoodies flooded me to cuddle and play, I found myself surround by some very familir faces of kids from my village that had been meeting me on the road each day and teaching me all sorts of fun games. Two little girls in particular. They sat on my lap, another leaned against me, another playing with my filthy hair.

It was basically like heaven for me. Here I was thinking that I was gonna come love on some kids and be an example of Christ and I am sitting there with this precious little Karen girl looking into my eyes and singing a soft song while she gently, and with more care than I've known, stroked my hair and held my hand.

I pray God never lets me forget these faces, but more importantly their urgent need for the Gospel.

For information on how to sponosor a village child and ensure that every kid has an opportunity to be educated visit here!

Joy

I have three quick thoughts.
1. How blessed am I that my hardest final was to right an in class essay on the theological content within the Passion Week of Christ? I basically spent two hours writing about the foreshadowing and importance of the Gospel and praising God.
2. It's officially Christmas break! & I leave for Thailand in 11 days.
3. Last thought. I pray God allows more of this in my life:




I made the kids run some errand with me last week on the way to their house from day care and I come back to unbuckle Mason and he has my giant ESV study Bible spanning his lap and then some as he contently pretends he can read/understand the words:) He looks at me and says, "Miss Malia I like your Bible-book. Where is my house on this map of I...Is. rrr..Uh how come my friend Austin's Bible-book doesn't have a map in it?"

Thank you, Jesus for school, for Christmas, & for children. But most importantly, thank You for submitting to the Father in Gethsemane and fulfilling the law and the prophets perfectly on the cross that I might gain relationship at the cost of Your suffering.

Darndest Things

This morning when I woke up feeling all sorts of wonderful I made the painful decision to nanny instead of go out with friends tonight..who are consequently still out. It just seemed like the responsible thing to do and even when I wanted to change my mind later this afternoon, I was already committed.
BUT my kids absolutely made it worth while tonight. They are developing such amazing and hysterical personalities.. I'm so glad to get to hang out with these boys.
Mason is 3.5 years old and Tyler just turn one a month back. They are so precious to me. and soooo animated!
Tonight while Mason and I were being chased around the kitchen Island ( a favorite past time of ours), Tyler discovered our reflections in the refrigerator door. He pointed at them, babbled in his beautiful baby tongue and then gave me the look that says "I've figured this out and it's not fun anymore.next." I was so impressed.
Mason is getting more and more clever also.

Me: Mason, how old are you?
Mason: uh, i'm still just 3 and a half because my birthday hasn't shown up yet."
Me: "When is it gonna show up?"
Mason:"I don't know when it's coming but we're having a small party for it on December 8th"
Me: So is your birthday December 8th?
Mason: "Oh yeah, you're right it is December 8th! Did my mommy tell you that?"

SOOO cute.
and as I tucked him in...

Me: "So Mason, do you want to say a prayer to God before bed?"
Mason: (hesitant) "no."
Me: "why not?"
Mason: "We should just get a phone and call."

and now as I lay my head to rest, I thank God that He helped me make such a decision as would give me more precious times like these.

Rainy Days and Monday

-That's originally a song, also an adorable fabric that I'd like to purchase, but it was almost exactly TODAY!
I always say that God daily reminds me that He never give me more than I can handle. Today was another of that type. I realized though, that Mondays energize me because they contain so much of what I love and of what I'm called to that it's difficult to deny God's abundant grace on the day!

Today I bought a Francis Shaeffer book on evangelicalism for 10 cents. it almost seemed wrong, but I was/am very thankful for book sales!
I also got to teach m high school kids tonight on spiritual growth and sanctification. It was fun and I realized that I love it. I LOVE small group teaching. I dont know what to do with that, but I hope they were challenged. I was. I need to absolutely be in prayer for my kiddos!

However the real highlight of this rainy Monday is that my dear friend Callista had her precious baby girl today!10/04/2010 -- 9lbs, 13 ounces!
Welcome to the world Nahla Rose, we're sooooo excited you've finally come!

Nanny McPhee

ain't got nothing on me!

Today I skipped my one class and two meetings to kick it with my favorite Little boys! It dawned on me today that I have been watching them for almost a year now & mostly all the pictures on my phone are of them...so why not share the joys!


After a party portion of Disney clubhouse we loaded the Swagger Wagon (yes, I am posting the OG video at he end for your viewing pleasure...don't miss out!) and headed on our park adventure. Boy! it was a nice day outside.



Later we finger painted (perhaps one of my worst ideas, but soo fun!) and evryone took naps right on time for me to study for my Greek class..


I'm telling you, this is THE life!
sign me up.

Desert Monsoons

It had never occured to me, until today, that there was such a thing as a desert monsoon. Which is because I am spoiled by San Diego weather that is fairly cooperative and always pleasant.
I am toward the end of my week-long visit to Anthem, Arizona and today, I experienced God's gift of the desert monsoon.
Deep, dark thunder clouds rolled in about 530. It was quite the site toe see while eating dinner.
Warm gusts of wind blew about every tree, loose toy or small child and was followed by slow drops of quarter-sized warm rain. It was fun to stand in and catch on my tongue...until the rain became cold! and the drops quickened into a torrential downpour. Thunder and lightening rang out songs from sound of music to me as I gathered the three kids I was playing with into a tent made of towels and chairs and we pretended to be the Wilderness family forced to survive off of corn-on-cob and ice cream ( of the tastebuds of three year olds!).
It was fun. I did enjoy going back inside though :)
So I began to think.. if even a place so dry as Arizona's desert communities are gifted with such pleseant and beneficial showers ,why wouldn't the same great God that controls the weather pour out His Spirit afresh on those children who feel dry?
He will. Hope can be found in the desert monsoon! Refreshing times come by the hand and grace of God even to the middle of the desert.
When I did try to escape to covering or even better, inside the cozy house, the five year old asked me, "Miss Malia, what are you waiting for? Come into the rain...you're missing it!"
APPLICATION:
Do not be content to be unrefreshed in the desert. Don't miss out!
Pray to your gracious heavenly Father that controls monsoons in Arizona, to pour Himself out freshly on your dried or drying soul and when it comes- don't miss out.
What are you waiting for?