“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

As we approach this Thanksgiving season, I pray we are intentional in our praise and thanksgiving to God. We should live every day of our lives in constant praise, so let’s begin with this season when our minds are turned toward thankful hearts. Let’s not be only thankful for the things God has given us but thank God for His LOVE which he lavishes on us.
Take a moment each day to speak out loud your thankfulness for God. Share it with strangers and friends. Our God is an awesome God and worthy of our praise.

“Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.” 1 Chronicles 29:13

If you want to know the truth, just ask a child. If you don’t believe this, come to class one night and listen when we ask our children for prayer requests; the children open their lives up to us and share the good, bad, and ugly. Now, when you ask adults for prayer requests in a room of people we are quick to pray for our friends and family who are sick and mybe having trouble, but how often do you hear someone stand up and say ‘I’m a mess and I need your prayers right now’ or ‘I have been secretly drinking and I need your prayers’? As adults we don’t air our own laundry to the room. Is it because we have to have the appearance of having it all together? Are we embarrassed or ashamed? Who are we hiding our sins and struggles from? God already knows them and His people should be there, not to judge, but to hold us up to the Lord in prayer.

A few years ago I was talking to Christy Pilkinton and she said she just wanted people to be “real”. I didn’t really understand the depth of what she was saying. I thought we were real. But we aren’t really. The problem when we aren’t “real” comes when we encounter people looking for the Lord. If they are seeking the Lord and we are the example they see, are we setting up unreal expectations for them? Are we showing them “unreal” Christians?

I definitely struggle with this. As someone who has grown up in this church I have a hard time sharing the muck and mire of my life. I am in CONSTANT fear of what you will think of me! What would you think of me?

Christ wants us to come to Him as children…unrestricted by fear, open and honest. My Bible doesn’t have scripture where Christ asks us to come to Him perfect and flawless.

– Angela Estes, Children’s Ministry Director –

I think most of us grew up with Halloween being a fun, innocent night where our one goal was to fill our bag with the most candy possible. We would walk up to total strangers’ houses, knock on their doors and beg for sweets. My fondest memories are the costumes my grandmother made for me and my brother and my grandmother’s and my great-aunt’s popcorn balls. We always made stops at my grand-parents’ house and at Bro. Hite’s. (one year Allen was a magician, I was a rabbit and dad had made a big hat that I wore like I was coming out of it)
Today I enjoy dressing the boys up and taking them out to the neighborhood, family and of course to our favorite place…Nonnie’s house. To this day we have never dressed scary or as a monster. I purpose-fully stay away from the dark side of Halloween and keep it fun and innocent, not dark and scary.
Friday October 30th our church is going to offer a safe fun place for kids and their families to come. We are having a Trunk-or-Treat (similar to trick-or-treat but instead of houses it’s cars). We need our church folks to participate in this. I need you and your car this night. Have your car trunk or truck trunk decorated anyway you want (preferably not scary) and hand out candy or treats to the kids who come through. Please help us give the kids a safe and fun choice this night. If you don’t want to decorate your car, there are plenty of other jobs to do this night. We need every able body… Come see me to sign up. Don’t miss out on the party.

We recently took a family trip up to Pennsylvania for a few days. One place we made sure we took the boys was to Lancaster County which has a very large and thriving Amish community. The boys and I took a tour of a previously Amish owned home where our guide educated us on various aspects of modern day Amish life. It was extremely fascinating. I have been enchanted by many aspects of the Amish since I was a young girl when FBCOH sent a mission group to PA for a VBS in an inner city church and my whole family went. One night we ate dinner in Lancaster County at an Amish farm house and I have been intrigued by these people ever since.
During our tour of the home our guide was showing us the different clothes and interesting details such as the older women do not wear buttons but the younger girls do. He showed us a woman’s dress which was all black and he explained that this is the dress a woman wears for one year after someone in her family dies. He then spoke of the tragic school shooting where 5 Amish girls were killed. The world was amazed when the media reported how the families of the slain girls showed no hatred. They even visited the murderer’s home and family to let them know they had forgiven the man. The mothers of the girls even attended the murderer’s funeral. Then he said something most of the world might not know. He told about the mothers as they told the man’s wife they forgave her husband but they did worry about the living. They did not want her to have to put her young children in day care and go to work to support them so their community paid her mortgage for one year. Paid her mortgage.
We are all called to forgive others without condition. We pray it in the Lord’s Prayer but do we live it? “When we consider the extent to which God forgives all our transgressions, we realize that we do not have the right to withhold this grace from others. We have sinned against God infinitely more than any person can sin against us. If God forgives us of so much, how can we refuse to forgive others of so little?” (quote from www.gotquestions.org) Is there anyone you need to forgive unconditionally?

We celebrated Scott’s 11th birthday last week with a few of his friends from school. The kids all dressed in their pajamas and went bowling. Isn’t it great to be a kid and wear your pajamas out and have a party!

What struck me was one boy was very reluctant to wear his pajamas. Not because he would be embarrassed to wear them to the bowling alley, but he was afraid we were playing a trick on him and that he would be the only one wearing pajamas. How sad that was to me that he didn’t have faith in his friends. They have never played a trick on him or knowingly embarrassed him before.

I began to ask, “what makes our children not trust”? Then it came to me, it is us. They see many of the adults around them being untrusting. We have conversations in front of our children about us not trusting the government, schools, elected officials, church, friends, family and maybe even our spouses. Do they even get a chance to see us in complete trust of our Heavenly Father? Do they get to see us submit in total obedience without holding on to some control of the situation?

Are we living our life trusting in God? Do we live a life trustworthy?

God has never embarrassed or disappointed us. He has never been unfaithful. What he says He does. So, why are we still untrusting?

Our cup runneth over Wednesday night! We had a great group of kids show up for class. (4 trips out on the van to get them all!) They were fed the wonderful word of God and got loved on for a little while. Even though it is a bit crazy on Wednesday nights the real truth is we are receiving blessings ourselves every time these children enter into our classrooms, because when they enter into our classroom they enter into our hearts. We have the awesome pleasure and responsibility, as a gift from God, to share His goodness with them in that magical hour.
– Angela Estes, Children’s Ministry Director –

I have been talking about prayer a lot this week. You might know Sarah Dotson’s, a former member of FBCOH and friend, cancer has metastasized. At this time (Thursday), the complete test results are not known but they do know the cancer has spread to her lungs. Our church family has a rich history in praying healing prayers. When I was a young girl, Johnny Galas had a catastrophic car wreck where he died and was resuscitated. His prognosis was bleak but we gathered at the church alter and prayed for healing. His recovery was astounding and I believe it was the power of God’s people praying with boldness.
I ask for us, as God’s people, to go before His throne again with confidence, boldness and expectancy to petition God for His healing for Sarah. Do not fall into the temptation of praying with doubt in your heart but pray with faith.

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Get Ready, Get Set…GO…. We have officially begun! We had about 30 children attended the first night back of our Wednesday night program. We have a good group of kids and a wonderful group of teachers. This session we are going to dig deep into the word of God and really in-still in the children the character of God and how to fol-low Him. The older kids will learn Bible skills as they search scriptures and they will be recognized for scripture memorization.
We ask for your prayers for our children’s hearts and minds to be open to the word we bring them. Pray for their salvation and spiritual growth. Pray for our ability to clearly present the lessons. Pray for their lives at home and school. Pray for the decisions they make when presented with difficult choices. Pray for the leaders and teachers to keep the goal in mind and for Satan to stay out.

There are a few people I love to hear pray. You know by their words the closeness of their relationship with their Heavenly Father. I have always feared praying in public. I have been ashamed of the lack of beautiful words that inadequately express the feelings in my heart. But I know the Holy Spirit takes my fumbling bumbling prayers to God and makes them beautiful.
I have seen the evidence of answered prayer. But I know I have missed many answers because I wasn’t looking. I have been thinking for a while now about having a prayer journal. I don’t want to miss anymore answers. I want to see every wonderful answer God is giving to me. I want to see with eyes wide open how God is in control of every aspect of my life.
My children can read the journal and see what God is doing in our lives. They will see how I pray for them and how God has us all in His hands. I want my prayer life to be something my children tell their children about. I want the evidence of our prayers and answers on paper for them to see and know the awesome power of God as they pray with faith for their children.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to know that when someone says they are praying for you that they REALLY are taking your request to the throne of God? How many times have we told someone we would pray for them to never do it or if we do remember to pray we do so halfheartedly? I want to be a woman of prayer.

Last weekend my mother and I went to a Be Still Get Real women’s seminar in Chattanooga. We had a wonderful time together and heard a very timely message. How often as women do we put on a show for our friends so they don’t know what a mess our lives really are? We hide some of the dark parts of our lives so they don’t know we don’t have a perfect life. When we put on the show for our friends then we are putting them in a position where they feel the pressure to live up to that lie and it goes on and on. We miss out on the opportunity to lift each other up and to see what God can do in our lives. The leaders of the conference also asked a poignant question about how much time it takes us to get ready each day. Then they asked how much time each day we are spending with our Heavenly Father. There was an overwhelming majority of women in the room admitting they spent more time primping than with the Father. It was good to see the honesty in the room instead of perpetuating the image of perfect women in perfect houses spending endless hours studying God’s word. I was encouraged to spend more time in prayer instead of embarrassed. That is just what we should be doing with each other…encouraging by being real.
Our children are watching us and learning from our example. I don’t want to teach them to have a life for show but to have a life that is real. A life that is humble and allows God to shine. One that shows the world we are a total mess without God and even a total mess with God while He is working in us. A life that is not pretending to be ripped from the pages of Better Homes & Gardens and a Beth Moore study, but one that glorifies God with all its bumps and bruises.

Isaiah 41:10 tells us, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” How can God help us if we are acting like we don’t need it? Our children are watching.