Will you rejoice with me!

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funkmomma71
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:54 pm
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Re: Will you rejoice with me!

Post by funkmomma71 » Sat Oct 18, 2008 12:51 am

I pray you are feeling better. I'm sorry to hear your trip ended badly. :cry:

I read your post while I was at work last night and I had a hard time not crying. Thank-you for sharing the story of your son, what a wonderful accomplishment to have a child who loves the Lord with all his heart. I have step-daughters who my husband I have tried for years to reach with the message of Jesus, to no avail. It gives me such hope to hear of mom's who have reared their children with the Lord and fruit of such an upbringing. Your posts are a blessing to me. :D

May God continue to bless you!
Nancy
Mommy and teacher to
Dd 12 and DS 8
Doing MTMM & Preparing 2016-2017

MamaMary
Posts: 970
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:52 am
Contact:

Re: Will you rejoice with me!

Post by MamaMary » Sat Oct 18, 2008 7:57 am

funkmomma71 wrote:what a wonderful accomplishment to have a child who loves the Lord with all his heart. I have step-daughters who my husband I have tried for years to reach with the message of Jesus, to no avail. It gives me such hope to hear of mom's who have reared their children with the Lord and fruit of such an upbringing. Your posts are a blessing to me. :D
Thank you so much! I am enjoying your posts. (warm sincere mile) You are full of encouragement and excitement! It's fun walking this road together :D

I just wanted to say that I am a big believer that it was nothing my husband and I did that had Brandon accept Jesus and desire a relationship with him. I sincerely mean that. I could sit here and fill ten pages with the mistakes we made, things I wish we had done differently, things I still wish we were doing differently.

I have friends who have done, what I consider, a much better job than I. These women have often mentored me in my walk with the Lord who have children that have rebelled from God. It comes down to the fact that I cannot raise up and train salvation into my children's hearts. None of us can. We can point to the gift, we can model the lifestyle, we can pray for them, we can live a life pleasing to the Lord, but because of FREE WILL they have to walk over and unwrap the gift and receive it and we can't make them do that.

I hope this encourages you. It's never too late and at the end of the day we can't take credit when they choose salvation and we can't assume blame when they don't.

I attend Calvary Chapel Church. It is not your typical body. It was founded in the late 60's with a heart for hippies. It's not better or worse than any other church. But it's my home and I believe God plants each family to be in the enviorment that will work out best for them the purpose God has in their life. At our Calvary we have homeschooling families, dresses only, quiverfull, good people who don't know Jesus, (yet) homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes, you name it. You will see those dressed up and other in jeans and flip flops. It warms my heart when I look around during worship and see the body of Christ.

I am sharing this because I see many of those that others would have probably thought there was NO hope for, go up and give their life to Jesus. I cry every single time. As I watch them pray with a prayer counselor I can't help but think and wonder if they had a family member who prayed for them and had felt discouraged? I share this to say that it's never too late and I know you know that. Had you known me as a teen you would have kept your children from me. But God in his goodness called me out of the darkness and into His marvelous light when I was 19 years old.

However, when it's the people we love it can never happen fast enough. Your step daughters don't know Jesus yet, but I pray this morning that God would work out a situation that would put them in a place with a believer that CAN reach their hearts. I pray for you and your husband that God would give you His deep and abiding peace as you wait to watch him work it out.

"I will make a pathway through the wildness for my people to come home" Isaiah 43:19b
Mary, Mama to 4 amazing sons and wife to one incredible husband! Come check us out on the blog: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MamaMary/

funkmomma71
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:54 pm
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Re: Will you rejoice with me!

Post by funkmomma71 » Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:54 pm

Thank-you for your further encouragement! I know that I can't ever take the credit for bringing someone to a saving faith in Jesus, only the Lord has the power to call us to Him. But I do know that our obedience to Him does produce fruit, because He is able to work through us, His body.

It is funny that you talked about your church, we also attended a Calvary Chapel here, but the Lord called us out of there and into a home church. But it was through our attending Calvary that we met the people who would form the heart of our new church. Most of the members of this church were already homeschooling or were being drawn to it, so we are each other's supoort and encouragement. The Lord gave these people to my family for without them I don't believe we would be where we are now. My husband's heart was completely transformed in only a couple of months and he now wholeheartedly supports homeschooling when a year ago he was very much against it and really wouldn't discuss it with me. So YEAH GOD!!

Thank-you also for your prayers for my step-daughters. Our hearts break for them and their condition. They are "good" girls, but their hearts are hardened and we can't reach them. All things are possible with the Lord, HIs will be done.
Nancy
Mommy and teacher to
Dd 12 and DS 8
Doing MTMM & Preparing 2016-2017

MamaMary
Posts: 970
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:52 am
Contact:

Re: Will you rejoice with me!

Post by MamaMary » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:11 am

Your post was so humble and sweet. It is obvious that you love your Lord and serve Him passionately! I have a friend who is looking into home churching. I am so glad you found your place, your home. What a small world that you also went to Calvary :D
Mary, Mama to 4 amazing sons and wife to one incredible husband! Come check us out on the blog: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MamaMary/

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