Lifelong Enjoyment

When I was young, I took piano lessons.  I asked and asked for lessons.  Then we moved and my friends were taking dance, so I wanted to take dance.  We didn't have much money, so I had to choose whether I wanted to take dance or continue piano lessons.  I chose piano.  We moved again and was too busy with band and sports that the idea of taking piano lessons didn't come up.  Did I want to take lessons?  Occasionally I wanted to take lessons again, but never asked, and truth be told, I was terrible about practicing.  I had other things I wanted to do.  When it comes to learning, I haven't had many instances where I had to try hard, and because of that, I don't think I have a strong work ethic. 

In college, I played at a friend's house occasionally, but I never play within earshot of others.  I didn't want others to hear me play for fear of being judged.  I've played for judges during yearly tests about memorization of a certain number of pieces and the ability to sight read music.  Some years I did better than others, but after I stopped taking lessons, I quit playing for people.  I played in the mall, for church, and recitals, but I don't like playing for people.

My mom took my grandmother's piano when she died and it was understood that it was my piano, but it took 6 years before we finally made an effort to get it to our house (and by effort I mean my parents rented a Uhaul trailer to bring us a couch and the piano).  The girls enjoy playing on it once in a while, and I have taught them the note names, where middle C is, etc,.  I went through all of our piano books (my old ones and my mom's old ones) and got the itch to play.  I played this morning for a while the kids were playing outside and Jeff was mowing.  I played more after lunch too, and finally let the kids hear me play.  Two of them ignored me and the other just said why are you playing that?  I think I'll be playing more often for enjoyment and not worry about what it sounds like.  

This year, we are going to be going through my old piano books and I'm going to try to teach them a few things and set aside time each day to practice what I want them to learn.  We are also going to be taking dance lessons, so this should be interesting.  I know nothing about dance.  I am an athlete, but I am in no way equipped to handle kids in dance.  This should be an interesting year, but I am looking forward to it. 

Frustration

Thankfully this is not going to be a soap box kind of frustration that I want to talk about today.  One of the reasons we chose our current church is because they have Adult Bible study classes on Wednesday nights.  During the summer they have 2 "terms" and 3 classes to choose from each term.  We enjoyed our classes last year, and even though we didn't go to the 1 class offered during the school year (alone time, baby recovery, exercise time, grocery store, etc), we took the opportunity to attend classes again this summer.  The first class we attended was about families being under attack and ways to help build our families up biblically by knowing each other and improving our relationship by making sure our relationship with God was good.

The second class helped us identify our spiritual gifts (if you don't know what your spiritual gift is, you can take one here) and figure out how our gifts can be utilized in the growing/building up of the church.  Servants find a place to serve, teachers to teach, administrators organize events, etc..

Sounds like a great thing to do in a new church right?  Well not if your gift is prophecy!!  I am an introvert who sees most things in black and white and because of that I can be somewhat legalistic.  I am old enough and have been aware enough to realize I need to be careful and tell people what is right and wrong based on grace and love and not just yell at people.  Mercy isn't exactly my strong suit.  Did I mention that not many people have this gift?  This gift is not like the prophets in the Bible where God told them a specific

So now what?

I am not where I want to be or should be in my relationship with the Lord.  If I were, I would better understand scripture, be able to call out others' sin in a loving way, deal with my family better, serve my church in a way that builds it up in unity and help to spur each other on as we become more Christ-like.  As it stands now, I'm a (relatively) young introverted female, not completely in tune with God, gifted with prophecy.

Don't get me wrong, I see people breaking laws, behaving sinfully and say something about it, but not to their face.  I'm either in my car or tell my poor (and loving) husband about it.  I thought because I had rebelled in my teenage years, I might have something to teach teenage girls.  We were in youth ministry for a few years, but I never had the opportunity to share any of my experiences.  I'm a terrible speaker, so I would never be able to talk to larger groups of girls.

As of now I am just someone who wants to use her gifts to spur the church into greatness by challenging current believers to question their actions as their witness in an unbelieving world.  If you know how this plays out in today's church, I'd really like to know.

In other news...

Nathan is WALKING!
Julia is now 3!!!
School starts in 1 week people, 1 week!

Nurse for a Day

In the past I have worked as a substitute school nurse as a way to get out of the house, earn some money, and use some of my nursing skills.  This year I did not work for a number of reasons:

1. moved far enough away from family to make it really difficult to have them babysit starting at 7:15
2. We added a fourth to our brood
3. Our oldest started Kindergarten and I was unsure of how that would go with a new baby in the house.

This week I got to volunteer with our old church as they serve the kids of East Plano.  Plano Bible Chapel has teamed up with other churches in the area to bring Pine Cove's Camp In The City to kids who might not otherwise get to go to camp.  It's a great program you can read about here.

I enjoyed getting to be a nurse for a change.  I enjoy being a nurse when I can.  Sadly, I don't get to work the whole week because of our schedule, but it would be fun.  It's really amazing to see the love of God shared with local children through multiple churches working as one.  It was also fun to see familiar faces.

Pine Cove is an excellent camp with many different kinds of programs for all ages.  Check it out if you get a chance.