Living 4 Jesus 4 Life: #23 February 4, 2012
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In this issue... Happy Valentines!
Prayer Requests
First Newsletter of the year
Birthdays
Extra!! on relating to siblings - by request
Our NEXT issue.... March 3, 2012
God's power in Creation :)
All requests welcome!
{Prayer Requests}
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." - Philippians 4:6
- Remember Harper Grigsby as she prepares for yet another heart surgery at less than a year old. After seeming to do well for the last few months this has been really hard on her parents, please bless them and the doctors as they go through this tough time! adgrigsby.blogspot.com. Thanks! - Autumn
- Pray for all the people who don't know Christ that they will come to know Him and be saved - Rachel
- Please pray for a lady in our church who has breast cancer. Erin has 3 kids: 4, 3, and 18 months. You can read about her at erinfray.blogspot.com. - Artiss
- Please continue to pray for Rebekah's cousin Karen, who has breast cancer. She has five children, and her husband is in the military! Thank you!
- Pray that God will show Himself to a girl in Elly's gym class and He will change her heart!
Please pray for a Chinese family who is under a lot of pressure. Thanks! -Loice
Don't forget to send us your prayer requests so we can publish them, or keep them a secret!
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18 Happy Birthday Taylar Chute!!! Taylar will be 18 on February 23rd. Her favorite song is Don't Worry, Be Happy. Her favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip!
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16 Happy Birthday Charis Sutterfield!!!
Charis will be 16 on February 26th. Her favorite kind of ice cream is triple chocolate cheesecake! Her hobbies are volleyball, rabbits, crafts, and wally-ball.
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Amazing Love
So I'm pretty excited about this year! I'm just gonna say that much to begin with. :) This is our first newsletter for 2012! Super exciting! We weren't always on time last year, but we are trying SO hard to keep on track this year! ;) as of right now we have 36 readers and still growing! Since this is the month of Valentines Day we decided we wanted the topic to be about love. Hey, don't get worried! I'm not talking about mushy love like husband/wife love. I'm talking about God's love and our parent's love. :)
I can't even begin to imagine how much God loves me. I mean, yeah, I know that He loves me enough to send His only Son to die for me, but He's done SO much more for me than that. He has blessed me with life. The breath I breathe. A wonderful family. Great friends. A country to worship Him freely in. His love is unfathomable. I could just sit and think for hours of how great He must love me. He loves me more than I could ever imagine. But its not just me that He loves that much. He also loves YOU that much. That's right. You sitting right there, reading this. Sure, He allows us to go through hard times, but its just so He can pick us up, dust us off, and say "I'm always here for you. This is going to make you stronger. I love you." 1 Peter 5:7 says- "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you."
Recently I was involved in a Bible Study. We were reading a book written by a woman named Shannon Etheridge. She went through a life changing experience when she was in high school. From that one experience alone she could have been emotionally crippled for the rest of her life. She could have let the guilt and grief of the situation consume her so that she couldn't think of anything else. But instead by God's great love and grace, her life was turned around and she got through it. Now she is serving the Lord in the ministry of helping women that have been down basically every path of life. She realized how great God's love was for her. The book, Completely His, has the theme "Loving Jesus Without Limits." It talks about how God's love for us is great, but are we just gonna sit by and bask in His love? Or are we going to give Him love back?
Our parent's love! My whole life I've grown up with both of my parents right here with me. They love each other so much. That's obvious. But they also love me. If you have at least one parent I'm pretty sure you've noticed how much they love you. I mean come on, your mom went through 9 months carrying you around in her belly! She's gotta love you! And your dad, well he does his very best to provide for you. But your parents' love goes way beyond that. Chances are your parents have invested a lot of time into you. In Isaiah 49:15 it talks about a mother who has a nursing child. Does she forget about that child? No! She loves that child. You are flesh of their flesh. You are a part of them and they love you. In Exodus 20:12 it says "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God give thee." We are to honour our parents. Realize that the ways that they are teaching you are for your good. They are gonna help you out later on in life. They are doing these things because they love you. :)
God is great, God is Good!
<3SarahElisabeth
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(Insert Title Here)... couldn't think of one :P
Happy Valentine's!!! It's ten more days and I KNOW ya'll are counting down! Hahaha no, I'm just kidding. Actually I hope not, just had to do the math myself ;) Most of us are not even close to that stage of our lives yet. But we're actually a lot closer than we sometimes realize. And no matter where we are in life, we still have a lot of love to be thankful for and a lot of love to give. :) 2012 has taken off at a rip-roaring start. One of my siblings is going through a really hard time right now, and I've had the chance this month to see exactly how much my parents care about him from a new perspective. Actually I've been surprised to see how much I cared, it's been pretty hard on me too! 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." God has a purpose in everything, and I know this struggle can either tear us away from Him or it can draw us soo much closer. To Him AND to each other. Depending on how we respond. As much love as I have seen in my mom and dad throughout the last few weeks, I know His love for each one of us is far greater. He loves His children even more. That's how I know to trust Him in everything. His ways are even more confusing than my parents' sometimes (which is saying a lot!) and just like I have to submit to them, I have to submit to Him and trust that He knows what He's doing. One day I'll know! Until then, I'll do my best to share His love with everyone I meet :)
keep smiling,
autumn clare
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Special thanks to Loice for letting us know what she would like to hear about this month! Feel free at any time to email us about what you would like to hear! :)
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Making my Brother my {Friend} by autumn clare
I had always shared a school room with my older brother and sister. So when they left, my little brother Caleb moved into the school room with me. From the very beginning we did not get along. But when Levi came home from ALERT my parents decided to move our desk to Caleb’s room and Levi would have his own bedroom, in our old schoolroom. This decision unleashed quite a learning experience for Caleb and me over the next several months. He really became my enemy.
I have always struggled with managing my time. I worked late –usually until bedtime– almost every night to finish my schoolwork. Although I had worked like that for the whole school year, it was a new problem when my desk and my books were moved to Caleb’s room. I was not welcome there. Before long he started demanding that my parents establish school hours. They decided that if I didn't finish school before five o’clock every afternoon, I would have to work somewhere else. My first response was making excuses, how I didn't choose to work there either, and my school was harder than his so I needed more time to finish after all. But God wanted me to look at myself. I knew I was't being responsible with my time and I probably caused a lot of our problems.
I knew exactly what he needed, and I had been taught all my life to bless my enemies. Matthew 5:44 says, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” I blessed Caleb with all the fruits of the spirit, and he still got angry at mevery often. He needed love. One day as I was learning about the Third Law of Motion, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” God seemed to tell me to be that third law of motion towards Caleb. (I guess since I never really got the scientific part of science God wanted me to learn something else!) It was like He told me this was the only way we could ever really win. Every time Caleb showed dislike for me, I would show him I loved him to the same extent. This was my new goal, but I didn't keep it very well.
With summer break, Caleb and I got jobs. We worked together for about two weeks, and I had decided he really hated me. Then we had a fight, and my dad happened to see. Needless to say, my dad told us we couldn't work anymore and we spent the rest of the summer at home. We didn't spend much time together after that and our relationship seemed to get better, but that's just what it looked like.
With the next school year our arguments were back. As always, I tried to work diligently but somehow ended up spending all my time on school. On the other hand, school seemed to come naturally to Caleb. He finished his work early everyday, and made perfect grades with no effort. Naturally, I was jealous. But... God makes it clear in Romans 2:4 that I should have rejoiced in His goodness: “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” I didn't rejoice in Caleb’s easy-learning, but if I had I would have been blessed.
Here was the real turning point. I had decided when school started that year to memorize I Corinthians 13. I went to bed every night meditating on the “love chapter” so that I could fight Satan’s desire for me to hate my brother. I believe I was able to continue blessing Caleb and to give him the encouragement he needed at a hard time in his life ONLY because of this. And... that's when we really started to get along with each other again! Our relationship was changed and strengthened; I quit making excuses. I learned the value of investing in my brother. I learned that God could bless my imperfect efforts to respond in His grace to my “enemies.”
I hope none of ya'll ever have to go through what I did to learn to get along, but when asked to write about "relating to siblings" this month, I had to share this - it made me a better person. I learned so much during those two years and became a better sister too, to ALL my brothers and sisters! <3
