* Where Are We Anyway?

Yesterday I received and email from my husband announcing that we now had a blog. In coming to OUR blog I read a post called intent. I was expecting to then read the intent of the blog in general because that was what I was asking. Why do we have a blog - who will read it anyway- do I have anything worth saying? I did not get the answer to the intent of the blog but a very good summary of where we have been the last few months. I say this now in order to explain the title - I am a very analytical person who likes things explained.

I like knowing the movie will end well - and feel free to ruin the ending for all poorly ending movies so I do not waste my time watching them. If I want to see something end poorly I can look around the city, country, world.

This blog is intended to allow those who are interested to know more about us and "where we are" in our thinking , in our daily walk with Christ, with our children, and whatever pops into our heads at the time. I read another blog this morning of a good friend and he talked a great deal about great things and then ended with the thought that the blog was mostly for him anyway - and that hit me perfectly in thinking about this new adventure of blogging for my family. It is mostly for us anyway.

So where am I anyway? Today I am at home with two adorable children, who at the moment are separated because like most siblings all together all the time does not always mean perfect behavior. I am in the middle of doing laundry which is a never ending task for most blessed people in the world. I am mentally making lists for half a dozen ideas floating around my head including food, scrapbooking, books, people to call, chores to be done.....Making lists is what I do, inherited from my parents, both of whom were, and still are, list makers. This is where I am at this moment, mentally multitasking and trying to live another generic, average, and hardly monumental day in a manner pleasing to The One who matters most.

Intent

I just finished a rather long teaching stent with the teens at Farragut. It started a few months ago when I taught a Sunday morning series on "Spiritual Disciplines". We covered the basics, such as, fasting, prayer, scripture reading, and then took a step further and looked at meditation, silence, etc. After this series, we taught a series on Practical Christianity. We tried to answer the overall question of, "how can I apply my christian beliefs in the 21st century?" After this, Michelle and I split the teens into two groups, boys and girls. We covered "gender specific issues" for a few weeks. I focused on maturity, chivalry, and leadership. Michelle looked at beauty, firendship, and purity. When we were done with that, I taught through a series I got from Andy Stanley entitled, "It Came from Within". In this, Andy talks about 4 main "monsters" that come out of our heart: guilt, jealousy, greed and anger. Each one of these affects our relationships around us. We must get rid of them, so that we can have a pure heart. Finally, the last few weeks I have been talking with the teens about intent. For example, when we do something, what is our real intent? Do we read our bible becuase God says so, or because we want to know God better? Why do we go see those kinds of movies? Why do we hang out with those kinds of people? Why do we take "long weekend" vacations and not make an effort to go to church (more on this topic later)?

I didn't recognize it before, but God led me through the last few months of teaching, showing how these topics are related. We need spiritual disciplines to be like Jesus. There are certain ways a man treats a woman, and vice versa. We need a pure heart, because God will not accept anything but purity. We are created in the image of God (Gen. 1: 27), and in short, we are spiritual beings. God is more concerned with the intent of our decisions, than our decisions on their own.

For years, I wasted a lot of energy on JUST following rules. I would go to church, but not really participate. I would read my bible, but not really listen to what God was saying. In other words, I would "clean the outside of my cup, but not focus on the inside" (Matt. 23:25). Recently, I have tried to change that. I have focused more on my intent of decisions that I make. In some instances, I have chosen not to do things, because of my original intent. What is interesting, is that because of this focus on my intent, I have found I have a lot more free time for more important things such as water gun fights in the backyard with the family....