Get it? Got it. Good!

It was a nice, lazy day for my kids today while the teachers were in training. I think they thoroughly enjoyed it...and I'm pretty sure they all got a nap in.

I also took a nap today. Late nights and early mornings can only continue for so long.  We all need an earlier bedtime to be honest.

It was another good day regarding food.  Hunger did not dictate my mood at all.  Yay!

While at work this morning, I found out that my youngest daughter stepped forward last night at a big youth event to give her life to Christ.

Some people might question that. But she was baptized as a baby? Didn't she go through confirmation classes just a few years ago? Why would she feel the need to do that when she's already professed to be a Christian?

Well...sometimes it takes a while before we truly get it.

I will never forget the morning I was sitting in an adult Sunday School class in the small town in which we lived for a decade.  I think there were probably about 8 other people (average age of 65) and me.

The leader of the class that morning was talking about grace...and how we are saved by this wonderful, but free, gift from God.

And I got it.

In fact, I about came out of my chair.  "You mean, we aren't saved by our actions?!  God just gives us salvation as a free gift?!"  I asked those questions multiple times in multiple ways while everyone else at the table nodded their heads.  I was blown away.

How old was I? At least 30. What? Was this the first time you ever attended a church? No. I was raised in a church where I'm quite sure they explained this multiple times...but I never got it.

The same could be said for my call to ministry.  When God opened my heart and mind to His Truths, I was hooked.  In fact, over the last few years my life has changed in ways that have been simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating as I have worked to answer His call on my life.  But the lives of my husband and children have also necessarily changed as they have fully supported this journey...even through the required sacrifices.

And they have sacrificed.

Why does this happen? Well, I have a theory. I think that God reveals things to us in His time and not necessarily in our time.  Even when exposed, if God is not ready for us to develop an understanding, I believe that He blinds our eyes or hardens our hearts until the timing will be perfect.  His timing.

Better late than never, right? So, it took my baby girl a little longer to get it.

I'm just glad she did!

Undeserved

After church this morning we had lunch with friends.  From there on out it was a wonderfully lazy Sunday.

I think the whole family napped before my parents came over to visit late in the afternoon.  I'm glad my kids enjoy quiet, alone time.

It was another tough day with food, though.  I was really hungry today.  However, I found that I was better about turning to God for comfort and strength rather than just fighting the battle on my own.  Delicious food is simply a momentary pleasure, I was reminded many times today.  I wish I didn't miss those moments so much.

Tonight we watched "Saving Private Ryan" with our children.  They are all teens and they asked lots of questions.  It had been a while since I watched that one...in fact, we only have it on VCR tape.  Such a vivid portrayal of the horrors of World War II--specifically D Day and the immediate aftermath.

It was certainly a time of sacrifice in our country's history.  There were sacrifices by parents, brothers, and sisters, friends, but especially of the lives of those soldiers.  

Does my generation realize the depth of those sacrifices?  What about the generations younger than mine?  Is it possible for us to even comprehend the bravery it took to fight such evil?  Would we be willing to make the same sacrifices?  

There are countries with generations of people that only know life with war.  There is evil still out there.  

I'm thankful, so very thankful, for my safety and my freedom.  However, I can't help but think of those who don't know such security.  

Why was I blessed with the privilege of being born in the U.S.?  How did I have the great fortune to be raised in the Midwest?  By loving parents?  With the freedom and simple pleasures that come with living in a small, rural town?  Why?

Did I somehow deserve it?  Was I such a special soul that God looked on me with special favor?

Or could I have just as easily been born in a slum in a big city to a mother on crack?  Or in a desert in Africa to parents who would soon die of AIDS as I slowly starved?  

No.  I don't deserve any of it.  Neither do you.  Quite on the contrary...we have been given much and we have a great responsibility because of it.

The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:47-48 emphasis mine)

Do you know your Master's will?  Are you doing it?  Are we doing it?

It's much easier to sit back and think, "It's not my problem."

But we weren't asked to do what was easy.