A few years back, we went to the Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC to see Thomas the Train.  While there we found a full fledged train track that went nowhere, with a rail-car sitting at one end.  The boys knew in their minds, since the track was short and did not go beyond where they could see and since the rail-car was stationary with no engine, it was safe to lie across the tracks and take a picture.  So they did… but what they were not anticipating, while they were lying there, was another train (about 75 yards away) blowing its whistle to signal that it was taking off.  Their brains quickly shifted into ‘flight or fight’ mode and both boys shot straight up off the tracks and ran to me as fast as they could with fear in their eyes.  By the time they reached me, I was laughing and assuring them with outstretched arms they were safe and it was Thomas, on the other side of the parking lot, that was about to take off.  They calmed down and could then laugh with me.  It didn’t make their fear any less real…. no one wants to be stuck on a train track with a train headed for them… but it did ease their minds to know there was no real danger… that time.
     I have prayed Philippians 1:9-11 over all four of my children many times.  It says: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”  My husband and I have put in many, many hours teaching them about making WISE decisions.  We want them to have knowledge, insight and discernment… we also want them to have the best, to be pure and blameless and filled with integrity.  But we also know for them to have these things we have to be intentional about two very specific things.

1. They have to see us making wise decisions
2. They have to see us in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ; who through Him all of these are possible.

      As their parents, we can’t be off the rails making reckless and careless decisions.  We can’t fly by the seat of our pants hoping for the best.  We can’t be spendthrifts with what God has given us.  We can’t be inconsiderate of others.  We can’t be insensitive of those in need.  We can’t put ourselves or others in danger.  We have to be deliberate with our actions and words; otherwise we’re teaching them they don’t have to be.
     Jonathan and I have tried (and failed) to do these things on our own… but over time we learned our relationship with Jesus is the only way to be fruitful in all these areas.  Unfortunately we both have been on that track with a train barreling towards us that could easily end in disaster.  Thankfully we realized it before it was too late and jumped up and ran into the loving arms of our Savior who assured us He had us.  Not only did He have us safe in His arms, but He has gently taught us discernment of how to live our best lives with and through Him.
     On days that I’m struggling, scared and on the dangerous tracks with disaster heading for me, I pray my children watch me run as fast as I can into the arms of God and His word.  That’s where my love and wisdom will grow and flourish as I continue on the path set before me.
     Cultivate your relationship with Jesus today and everyday… discern what is best, grow in love and knowledge, be pure and blameless and filled with integrity.  That’s your sweet spot.  That’s where you will live your best life.

     I decided a long time ago I wanted to carry Jesus with me everywhere I went.  At age 6, I gave Jesus my heart and invited Him to live in and through me.  I didn’t know back then what all that meant, I just knew I wanted it.  But as I’ve grown and cultivated my relationship with Jesus, I understand a little more about what that means.  Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:7 says it best.  “We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure.  This shows that the great power is from God, not from us.”  This is saying we carry the gospel treasure, Jesus, where ever we go.  The important thing is not the container, but the contents.  Our containers are just cracked pots, but the contents of our damaged pots make all the difference.
     My sophomore year of high school, I walked into the last gym class I would have that semester before the Christmas break.  All the bleachers were pushed against the wall, but our gym teacher told us to climb up to the top and sit down.  A few intermittent bleachers on the way up were pulled out a couple of inches to allow us to get to the top.  He said that he was going to call us down one at a time and give us an exercise that we had to do in front of the whole class.  How well we performed that exercise would be our mid-term grade.  I was already very nervous about this because at 15 years of age, I never felt like I measured up to much in the athletic department.  I was overweight and not very agile at all.  I was also notorious for not tying my shoes.  The coach called my name to come down for my exercise performance and grade.  I stood up, at the top of the bleachers, and when I did, unbeknownst to me, I was standing on the shoestring of the foot that was trying to take a step down.  Needless to say, I tripped and fell 6 feet, face first, onto the hard, wooden gym floor in front of 3 high school gym classes.
     2 Corinthians 5:17 tell us “Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person.  The past is forgotten and everything is new.”  As a 15 year old girl, how was I going to be able to face my classmates without replaying this scene in my head and focusing on the new crack I just sustained in my clay jar?  I couldn’t really figure out back then that I needed to focus on what’s inside that jar; the contents, the power, the treasure that was within me.  I desperately needed a reminder in that moment, as I lay breathless on the cold floor.  I needed someone to tell me I could rebound because of the power that was inside me.  To remind me I had Jesus in my heart and therefore was a new person. My past had been forgotten.  But I was too embarrassed to move.
     “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.  We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.  We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.  I did not want to get up off the floor.  I just wanted to lay there and somehow sink into that floor and disappear forever.  But when the coach saw that I was breathing again, he yelled out very loudly for the whole gym to hear “Great job Ginger!  That was the most perfect swan dive I’ve ever seen!  You get an A plus!”  In that moment, as the coach smiled down at me, I decided I could persevere because the contents within me would be my power and strength to help me rebound, get up and face my peers. 
Listen to this resume of Paul’s.
“I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number and faced death again and again.  Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes.  Three times I was beaten with rods.  Once I was stoned.  Three times I was shipwrecked.  Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.  I have traveled on many long journeys.  I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers.  I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles.  I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas.  And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.  I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights.  I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food.  I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.  Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches.” 2 Corinthians 11:23-28.
     Tell me, why didn’t Paul just give up and go back home and start making tents again?  Paul knew he could rebound because of the power that was inside him.  He knew what he was doing by going on these missionary journeys’ and sharing the gospel of Christ, was bigger than he was.  What he was doing was life changing and lifesaving, so he persevered and tapped into the power of Christ.
     I really want you to think about how you’re going to rebound when you get discouraged.  Discouragement will happen.  How are you going to handle it?  Will you try on your own or will you tap into the power that is within your cracked pot?  For me, my flawed pot is just temporary, so I’m going to tap into the power of Christ that lives within me.  
     My coach reached down, grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet.  The whole gym applauded.  And I received an A plus in gym for the first time ever.
     Jesus, please remind my friends of your words and promises when they are feeling pressed on every side; when they are perplexed; when they get knocked down.  Show them how to rebound by tapping into Your power.
(*Note:  I remember my Pastor Bob preaching on this years ago.  Thank you for being a vessel for Christ.)

   There are many memories of time spent with my dad, but one that stands out to me is the day he took me to Emerald Pointe water park in Greensboro when I was 16 or 17 years old.  It was Labor Day weekend and the last weekend Emerald Pointe would be open until the next summer.  Dad and I were hanging out in the wave pool waiting on the next big wave to come through.  When the wave hit, we were tossed about… in and out of water like a rag doll.  My dad popped up and said “Ginger, my wedding band is gone!”  We knew that finding his ring in the very crowded wave pool would be about near impossible.  Before we could begin looking for it, a girl rose up out of the water and shouted “Did anyone lose their wedding band?”  And just like that, what was lost was found.
   A couple years after that, I went to the beach for spring break my senior year of college.  Two months earlier I had ordered and financed my college class ring.  I couldn’t afford to pay for it upfront, so I had financed it for 6 months and wore it on this trip to the beach.  We had spent the day riding jet skis and I had just gotten off the Jet Ski in Merrill’s Inlet.  I pulled my ring off to rinse the sand out from under it.  Somehow in just a split second, I had dropped my class ring and it was gone.  The ring I still had to pay on for four more months just vanished.  We searched the water, but was never able to find my ring.  And just like that, what was lost this time, remained lost.
   Two stories, two related people, two rings, and two different outcomes.  What do you want us to learn from this God?  Open our hearts and minds to receive the exact thing you want us to learn and understand.  My blogging buddies are here today for just that!
   There’s another story about being lost that we find in the bible.  Jesus’ parents thought they had lost him one time.  Every year Jesus’ family would travel to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.  When Jesus was 12 years old, they went to the festival as usual and on the way back home, they realized Jesus was not with them.  They frantically looked for him among their family and friends that were traveling with them, but when they couldn’t find him, they returned to Jerusalem to see if he was still there.  Sure enough, three days later, they discovered him in the temple.  He was sitting with the religious teachers listening to them and asking them questions.  Everyone in the temple was amazed by Jesus’ understanding.  Mary, his mother, didn’t know what to think so she asked him why he did this to them.  Didn’t he know they were worried?  Jesus simply told her “Why did you need to search for me?  Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business?”  The bible says Mary didn’t understand what Jesus meant, but that she stored all these things in her heart.
   Twenty-one years later, Mary thought she had lost Jesus again.  This time she was certain of it because she was there when the Roman soldiers hung him on the cross and then when they pierced his side.  She watched in agony as her son was brutally beaten and murdered.  She was there when Jesus called out in a loud voice “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”  “My God, My God, why have You abandoned me?”  She was there when Jesus was laid in the tomb.  More things to ponder in her heart.  Gone.  Lost.  No more. 
   But we know the rest of the story.  We know what happened three days later.  We know Jesus was raised from the dead and appeared again to his disciples and his family.  He wasn’t gone.  He wasn’t lost.  He was fulfilling scripture. 
   Luke 24:25-27 Jesus starts walking to the village of Emmaus with two of his followers that don’t realize it’s Jesus and says “You foolish people!  You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the scriptures.  Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?”  Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
   Jesus was not lost in either of these two scenarios.  He was right where he was supposed to be.  The first time being about his heavenly Father’s business learning in the temple.  The second time being about his heavenly Father’s business by taking on the weight of all the sins of the world, unwilling that any of us should perish in our sins.  Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice, covering us with the blood of reconciliation forever.  He did this so that none of us would ever experience being lost and separated from God.  Jesus paid the price for our sins.  He is our good shepherd.  We are his sheep.  He will go to any length to find even one lost sheep.  I lost my ring and still had to keep making monthly payments on it even though it was gone forever.  Jesus made that one crucial payment in full, so we could experience the richness of God’s glory and never have to make another payment on our own.  He sacrificed so that if we just confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior and invite him in our hearts, we are saved forever.  Never to be lost again. 
   If you’ve ever lost something precious to you; a sentimental item, a person, a commodity, a relationship; then you know the pain this loss causes.  You feel like you’re being punished, you’re miserable; you so desperately want this thing back.  You’d go to any length to be with it again; never separated from it again; you just want another chance.  Jesus knows this feeling too.  He was more than willing to go through misery, punishment, rejection and death to make sure we never had to be separated from Him.  He did what He was put here to do; to find the lost.  I’m so thankful He made the ultimate sacrifice to find me.  Now will you let Him find you?

   October of 2002, I lost my great paying job.  I was the only one working, so this was a blow to our lives.  During that time I decided to start researching adoption.  I so desperately wanted to be a mom.  It consumed my every thought, and since I didn’t work, I had plenty of time to let it do so.  I joined an online chat group that focused on domestic and open adoptions.  Somehow during that I developed a friendship with a woman about 10 years older than me whose 15 year old daughter was pregnant.  She had talked her daughter into putting the baby up for adoption so she could try and have a normal high school experience and finish her education.  The woman’s name was Dora and her daughter’s name was Bri.  Dora started calling me and reaching out to me on a daily basis.  Then she had Bri call me to meet me over the phone.  Finally they asked if Jonathan and I would adopt Bri’s baby.  I didn’t have to think about it much, I knew I wanted to.  Jonathan on the other hand was apprehensive because neither of us was working at the time.  How in the world were we going to afford a baby when we were struggling ourselves?  We shared our financial concerns with Dora, but she wasn’t worried about it at all.  They were not looking for any extra money, just wanted us to cover any adoption expenses.  So we agreed.  This was the summer of 2003 and by the middle of September; we were going to be parents.
   We knew we had to get on the ball of finding jobs and selling our house.  Our house was already on the market, but we had had zero interest.  I started applying for jobs in Burlington, NC in hopes of us moving back to our hometown.  We had been in Shelby, NC for 6 years at this point and we were ready to be near family again.  So we got busy with the job search and the legalities of adoption.  Bri was working with an adoption agency in her state of Colorado.  So they put us in contact with her case worker.  That’s when we found out how expensive an out of state adoption was going to be for us.  It was going to be more than we could handle, especially without jobs.
   Dora did her own research and found out that if we took over custody of Bri and she came to live with us, that would make it a local adoption and we could bypass a lot of the legal mumbo jumbo.  Bri was up for it too.  She agreed to move halfway across the US to live out her remainder 2 months of her pregnancy with us.  We would assume legal responsibility of her and then she was going to willingly give up her baby for adoption to us when she was born.  It seemed like a flawless plan.  It seemed like it was orchestrated beautifully…. Or was it?  I had forgotten to consult God throughout this whole process and I was forcing the pieces into place.  I desired this so much, that I became impervious to any ramifications or things that could go wrong.  Then something went wrong.  Bri went to a wellness baby checkup and they let her hear the baby’s heartbeat.  Later that afternoon I got a very long email from Dora explaining that Bri heard the heartbeat and no longer wished to adopt.  I was devastated.  The hurt and the pain ran so deep.  All I could do was go into the baby’s room we had started setting up and cry under the baby blankets, bibs and clothes.  My heart was wounded and I never thought it would heal.  I literally cried out to God.  He heard me, but He had already been working.  He showed me the most incredible thing that was so unimaginable to me.  He showed me His perfect plan for my life.  Not my whole life, but what was supposed to happen for us right then, in His timing.  A better plan than we ever had the courage to dream.
   As I’m lying across the bed crying the phone rings.  Jonathan answers it.  I hear him say “Yes, she’s here.  Please hold a minute.”  He calls me into the room.  I couldn’t figure out why in the world he would put me on the phone with someone knowing the pain I was in.  But I answered it anyway.  “Hello?” I said.  “Ginger, this is Lisa with Alamance County Human Resources Department.  I’m calling to offer you the position of IT Specialist with our MIS Department.  Do you accept?”  Flabbergasted, stunned and overjoyed were the feelings I immediately felt and I said “Yes!”  She asked me if I could start in exactly one week on August 1st.  She knew that was a Friday, but that was the only way I could get my first full months’ paycheck.  So I agreed to start then.  I hang up the phone and tell Jonathan the great news.  We had been trying to move back to Burlington for over 2 years at this point and it was finally going to happen.  But God did not stop there.  Remember, He heard me crying out to Him just moments earlier.  So as I’m finishing up giving my husband all the details about my new job, the phone rings again.
   “Hello?” I say.  “Hi.  We just rode by your house and saw the for sale by owner sign.  We were wondering if we could come take a look at your home later today?” the voice on the other end asks.  “Of course you can!” I respond.  We work out the house visit details and they show up a little later.  We show them around our home, explain we’re moving because we wanted to get back to our hometown and that I was getting ready to start a new job next week.  They gave us very positive feedback and said they’d call us the next day.  The next morning the couple called back and said they had already been pre-approved for a loan and they could give us what we were asking.  Then she said “I know this is a little soon, and I know it’s Saturday, but could y’all possibly be out by Tuesday?   We need this address for our kids to get into this school district.”  We were pleasantly shocked!  Who could orchestrate this?  Only God!  Only God knew what we were going to need when we needed it.  God kept us in Shelby for a reason and that reason was we were going to need a diversion to pull us out of our misery for our failed adoption attempt.  So to recap, they visited our house on Friday, bought it on Saturday and asked us to be out by Tuesday.  So we were!  Our parents came and helped us move.  We drove our U-Haul to Burlington on Tuesday, unpacked it into a storage unit on Wednesday, we took a breather day on Thursday and I started my new job on Friday.  And since the family who bought our house was pre-approved, there was no long drawn out process for us to go through.  We just had to sign a few papers then sit back and wait for the check to come.  And it came within a few days.  I never had time, throughout all this, to miss our "almost" adopted baby. 
   God created such a dynamic diversion to fill the place of what we had lost.  Not to mention, 2 years later, I became pregnant and we had our own baby.  Then the following year I became pregnant again and we had another.  I’ve since heard from Dora and have seen pictures of her granddaughter and she looks so happy and healthy.  Her mom and dad got married and have been doing an excellent job of raising her.  She is right where she needs to be.  Plus, 15 years later, we still got our adoption story when we adopted 2 baby girls.  We are now a family of 6!
  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 "Each time God said “My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.” That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses and in the insults, hardships, persecutions and troubles that I suffer for Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."
   God is going to work through my weaknesses and brokenness and use it for good.  God says to me “I know you are going through this thing right now, but you have no idea what I can do with it.”  So I challenge you when you are faced with some weakness or brokenness, don’t ask God to change your circumstances but rather ask Him to use your circumstance to shape your heart.