Master & Friend

As I shared on my post from Easter, every spring, I find myself looking back at what the Lord has done in me, thru me, and for me. The relationship we have with Jesus changes as we mature spiritually. When we are first walking with Him, we are the Clay and He is the Potter. And then as a Shepherd, He cares for and leads us as Sheep.

And then... another growth spurt:

MASTER/SERVANT
While sheep stay outside, servants at least live in the same household as the master and talk with him, as long as it is business. The servant enjoys a more intimate relationship. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and the parable of the ten minas (Luke 19:11-27) refer to this level of relationship. However, servants know little of what is happening with the master, other than what they are directly involved with. A servant’s value is derived from how well she can complete the master’s will. While it is important for us to serve God wholeheartedly and do His will, God still longs to have an even greater level of intimacy than this.

FRIEND/FRIEND
A servant’s relationship with her master rests on business and performance, while love and mutual concern form the basis of a friend’s relationship with a friend. Jesus spoke about this deeper level of intimacy that He shared with His disciples when He said, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s [personal] business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Jesus is saying, “I value you not just because of how you serve me, but because you share my heart.” A friend’s value lies not so much in what she does, but in who she is as a personal confidant.

God wants to be our friend, and He wants us to be His friends. We can experience this friendship level of intimacy. As James 2:23 tells us, “And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend.” Also, Proverbs 22:11 says, “[She] who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for [her] friend.”

Yet even as close as two friends can be, blood runs thicker than water.

The next two relationships are the most amazing... tomorrow...

Grandma's Fire - My sister sent pics!

I don't have the energy to retell the story this minute, but I will
insert the details... just not right now.

He is The Life -- Happy Easter!

Yay! It's the eve of Resurrection Sunday, Happy Easter -- He is Risen!

We'll be spending the day as a family, making resurrection cookies, planting tulips, playing with sidewalk chalk (no rain, please!) and just, well... rejoicing! The Lord is good to us. We are seeing His creativity, His sovereignty, His provision, His fingerprints in our lives and on our kids' hearts on so many levels. And we're grateful, thankful and even blown away by it all.

My friend Carmen and I both watched a "visual-Bible" DVD with our kids the other day, uh, Thursday. She and her kids watched the Gospel of John and we watched Matthew. She said that she'd come back into the living room after taking care of something and her 4 1/2-year-old daughter (Kennady's little bestie) was crying on the couch as the Crucifixion scene was unfolding. Carmen snatched her up and asked her why she was crying.

"I don't want the Son of God to diiiiiiiiie."

Oh, it just touched my heart! What's awesome is that we get to tell our kids that the Son of God didn't stay dead! We get to tell them that death had no power over Him. Jesus, the Son of God, the LAMB of GOD rose on the third day!

And that's why we celebrate Easter. His death gave us life. And that's a really big deal.

I re-dedicated my life to the Lord in October 2000 and I was washed & renewed in the Umpqua River on Easter Sunday 2001. So every spring, it's like an anniversary celebration for me and I guess I find myself looking back at what the Lord has done in me, thru me, and for me. And I'll tell ya. He is Faithful!

And since I've been thinking on these lately, you'll see below that I've copied and pasted two biblical pictures that we're given in Scripture about how one who gives their heart to the Lord may grow and change in relationship to Him. Check it out... I'll follow-up with the rest in the next few days. Ponder these, if you know the Lord, see if you can identify the Potter/Clay season and the Sheep/Shepherd season in your walk. And if you are someone who has yet to invite Christ to be Potter and Shepherd in your life, hey -- His arms are wide open (on the Cross!) -- He loves you that much! And He didn't "stay dead" -- He rose again, just to prove the Power of His love to you!

POTTER/CLAY
When we first come to Christ, our spiritual life has little shape or form. We submit ourselves to Jesus Christ as our Savior and ask God to begin shaping us into what He wants us to be.

“We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:4-6

As a piece of clay, we can allow the Potter to mold us, but we cannot express our love back to Him. When we comply and feel God using us, we feel good about ourselves. When we mess up or don’t have a clear sense of purpose, we feel distant from God. We often withdraw because we believe He is angry with us due to our poor performance.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

This affirms that it is important for us to submit to God and allow Him to shape our lives into something that brings Him honor. However, He doesn’t want our relationship to stop there. He wants it to become deeper and more intimate.

SHEPHERD/SHEEP
It may not be flattering to be compared to a sheep, but this metaphor illustrates how well God takes care of His people, just as a shepherd carefully tends his flock. God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel:

“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places
where they were scattered… They will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord." (34:11-12, 14-15; also see parable of the Good Shepherd in John 10:1-18)

Although sheep know the shepherd’s voice and will follow him, they have no idea what the heart of the shepherd feels for them. Sheep can’t share the shepherd’s dreams and hopes. They are merely concerned with their daily need for food and water. While it is important for us to follow and trust God as our Caretaker and Provider as a sheep follows a shepherd, God longs for us to have a more personal relationship with Him.

Pro-nunc-i-a-tion

Kev is now an expert little talker. We figured that once he started expressing himself verbally, we'd have a hard time getting him to be quiet.

Lately he's been correcting the older kids with their pronunciation of particular words.
One of which was Karsyn's name.

We had loaded up in the car. Bryson said, "What about Karsy? Is she coming?"
And Kev said, "It's CHawsee, Bysun. D-d-Chawsee, Bysun."

I said, "How do you say it, Kev?"
"Duh Duh Chawsee."

Me and the big kids grinned conspiratorally at his own brand of phonics.
Bryson whispered, "He thinks it's D-d Karsy! But we know it's K-k Karsy, huh, Mom."

I'm really starting to see that we have THREE big kids around. Leaps and bounds, people, leaps and bounds is how they grow.

Sigh.

Ballet Tuesday

Tuesdays are "Ballet Tuesdays". The kids know that Dad comes home right after lunch and Mom & Kenna zip into town for dance! We allllll look forward to Tuesday afternoons. The boys love having the Dad all to themselves and we girls enjoy our "own" time. Whether we spend it running errands or meeting a friend for coffee afterward, we love being together.

I have enjoyed watching Kennady grow this past year. She is both tentative and outgoing, shy and gregarious, reserved and adventurous. It just depends on the day! She loves dance and I love her class and her teachers. What is so neat about Celebration Street is that they acknowledge the Giver of all gifts. Each class begins with prayer and asking ea student her requests and then they learn skills and technique so that they can then use it as a form of creative worship of the Lord!

Love it.

A Spring Safari

this is our day at the Safari last friday. it was karsyn's first trip out of her front pack, out of the stroller. dad packed a picnic lunch and we ate at high noon. the sun was high in the sky and the air was crisp. yay, it's spring!

(we know baby's are NOT s'posed to have citrus, but Dad wanted to see if she'd like oranges and INDEED she did, she sucked the juice right out of it!)

her first time sticking her head in the lamb thingy. i told B he had to duck, but he said that this lamb had 2 heads.

gettin' a snuggle in while the big kids played on the play structure.

and bryson's crazy hair was a highlight for all of us, too.

She wants to GO! And DO!

then she fought Kev in a mock fist fight.

she had a good time.

even with mom! (yeah, there's proof that she has a mama, i have a lone photo to document it!) and while Dad was actually enjoying snapping some pics of us, our bigger kids were checking out the pond... and then there was a big SPLASH!

yep, kev fell in head-first as he was reaching into the water for a rock. we were a hop-skip and a jump away.

so that was the end of the Safari. he's been talking about it ever since. i'll post the interview we put on video. when he brings it up now, he recalls that he, "AWMOS DIE. Da'y SAFE. Me."