Two Pennies and a Message

God did the most awesome thing last night. This morning I had the opportunity to speak at First Priority at my former high school. Since I was asked to do this Monday night I started praying continuously for God to lay something to speak about on my heart. As the sun went down yesterday I still didn't feel what God wanted me to speak on, I stopped off at Walgreens on the way home and used cash (which I never do) and as I walked out, God finally answered my prayer (in His timing) when I opened my hand and saw two pennies. Yes, it does sound crazy, I know but keep reading it gets better. I had been given a very shiny penny and a dirty penny. As I stared at the two coins in my hand my eyes grew wide as the Lord began speaking and I listened. As I went home I told my parents about what God had spoken to me and my mom made it better, she gave me a filthy, chipped (broken) penny. With these two pennies God gave me the message I was to speak to the students this morning.

Think of this with me for a second. Jesus is the shiny, spotless penny. We are the broken, filthy penny. When Jesus died on the cross He covered our sins with His blood. Now think of that shiny penny covering that dirty, filthy, broken penny. You can't see the filthy anymore... THAT'S WHAT JESUS DOES TO US WITH OUR SINS!!!! 

"We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags." - Isaiah 64:6 (NLT)

We are like FILTHY rags! We are impure, unclean, infected, broken with sin and Jesus comes in and cleanses and purifies us! HE MAKES US LIKE HIM!! THIS IS THE GOSPEL!!!!! Is that not the most awesome thing?? There wasn't a whole lot of students in there but God allowed me to look at some of them and watch the expression on their faces change as they really just... got it. It was such a blessing to be able to speak there this morning and I pray that God allows me to have more opportunities in different places to speak before long. So that's what God gave me. Two pennies and a message, and wow wasn't it an awesome message:) 

May the Lord bless you richly!

I Have a Lot of Children

For those of you that know me you know that I work at a daycare, in fact some of you reading this may be the parents of the children that I keep every afternoon (please keep reading). When I say I have a lot of children I mean it. I didn't give birth to them, I have no legal right to them, I am not their mom, and in some situations I am not their teacher. If you bring your child to the daycare I work at odds are once I meet that child whether they are in my class, have left "graduated" from my class, eventually coming to my class, or are to never set foot in my class they are still mine while they are there. For most of them I have changed their diaper more than once, I have kissed more invisible "boo boo's" then I can count, I have rejoiced over counting (correctly) from 1 to 10, I have potty trained, cleaned up accidents, tied shoes, found socks, cleaned up spilt water, spilt milk and dried the tears caused by the spilling of the milk. On some occasions I have held children close and rocked them doing every thing I could to soothe them as they screamed and cried because they had a fever well above 101 degrees and their parents hadn't quite made it to the daycare yet. So parents please be aware when we call you to let you know that you child is extremely sick, there is someone (be it me or another teacher) who is holding your child close and comforting him or her until you get there, and quite often we get whatever they get but we would do it again because they are ours while they are at that daycare.

I can honestly not tell you how many times I have had to go back up to someone and let them know that I work at a daycare because I have went on and on about "my" kids and how they have; learned a color, learned to count from 1 to 10, learned to use the potty, told a crazy and funny story, learned to walk, learned to talk, and so on and so forth. I remember when I was on the baby hall and had my first, first steps moment with one of the kids (had another parent walked by they would have thought she was mine) I was so excited and went from room to room to room making sure every teacher saw that she was walking and (yes I did make sure they got just as excited before I walked away). I reacted the same to the two kids that did so afterwards as well. Not only did I get excited in the daycare, I stayed excited after I went home and proceeded to tell my family (in detail) about each child and their first steps.

There is one last thing that I want each parent reading this to be aware of, not only do I love your child tremendously, but I pray for your child AND your family. I pray that your child will be a mighty warrior for God and that they will serve Him all of their lives. I also pray for you (parents) that you will trust in God, that you will find strength and peace in Him, and that you will never be discouraged. I pray so much more than all of this over you and your families. When I walk into the classroom in the afternoons, before I ever wake the kids, I get on my knees and I pray; for my kids, my co-workers, the day and yes I pray for me too. When I sub for a morning teacher the first thing I do as I walk in and start preparing the room is start praying for the same things. Please never doubt that when you leave your children with me, they are loved, cared for, protected and prayed for. Things happen, your child might get bit by another child but it DOES NOT mean that we didn't do what we could to prevent that from happening. We are not perfect people but we do our best to take care of your child while they are with us. If you sit down and you think about it 9 times out of 10 your child is with me more than they are with you. PLEASE DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME, you work and I get it, sometimes you are off and you need that break and it's okay! I don't mind having your child but it is a fact that I see your child more than you do in a day, Monday-Friday. So, please find comfort in the fact that when you walk out that door headed towards work or wherever, and you leave your child with me, they are mine. I love them and will take care of them to the best of my ability until you come back.

So, now I am going to go and get ready for work. I am going to go and be with these kids whom I love so very much. I would ask that you would pray for me and my co-workers because while we love your kids, we also have many others. I have 9. It takes a lot of strength to care for 9 2-3 year olds. This is my life. God has put me where I am and while He may move me later in life, for now I am right where He wants me. I have A LOT of children and I love them all. =)

I'm so Excited!!!

Yep, you've probably guessed the reason for my excitement correctly. IT'S WEDNESDAY!!!!! Okay, part of my excitement I will admit is because we are half way through the work week and it has been a rough work week. However, the bigger (much BIGGER) reason is that I get to go to church tonight! If this is your first time reading my blog than you should probably know that I have two favorite days of the week every week, no matter what. Those days are Sunday, and Wednesday. I LOVE my church. I also LOVE my worship family (again if you are new, that's a BIG thing and there is a post to help you understand just how much I love each person in my worship family). I look forward to these days with excitement every week, I think if they took away one I would probably cry because that is one less day that I get to go to the house of the Lord and worship with the people of the Lord. So, tonight not only do I get to go worship God with my brothers and sisters in Christ, I get to go downstairs after the service and worship with my worship family.. so yeah, I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!! If you are not new you may be getting tired of reading this because I have been pretty repetitive in the last few weeks, and while I am kind of (not completely) sorry for my repetitiveness I am not sorry for the reasons that I keep repeating myself:) I have an AWESOME God, an AMAZING church, and a beautiful worship family! I want people to know! =D God has blessed me so much more than I ever thought He would, and far beyond what I deserve.

Don't you want the excitement I have? Find true love in Jesus:) That's all it really comes down to.
If you know me personally or even if you just kind of know me (some choir members, it's okay I don't know all of you either but I LOVE YOU JUST THE SAME!) and you want a "GOD IS BIGGER" bracelet (www.facebook.com/GODISBIGGERMOVEMENT) just find me and you can have one:) It's a good reminder.

To my worship family: I will see most of you tonight, and I absolutely CAN NOT wait to worship with you during practice! =D I love you all, and may the Lord bless you richly! =D

P.S. If you come in contact with me today (and if you work with me you will) please be aware that I am sorry for how annoyingly excited I am going to be throughout the day and also for how much more annoying I will get closer to time for church:) Well.... I'm only a little sorry =) PLEASE feel free to follow =D

Breakfast:)

I got to make breakfast for my family today. I will admit that this is something I enjoy doing when I am able and I think my parents and sister are more than happy to let me cook. For your viewing pleasure here is a picture of my breakfast masterpiece (plate):

As you can see I cooked bacon, biscuits and my special potatoes. I would tell you what all I put on my potatoes but than you might could make them and they would no longer be special. My family will tell you I am a good cook, but they will also tell you that I am a pain to clean up after. With the way I cook it really makes me wonder how hard it is to clean up after television cooks... I really feel bad for some of the people that are on clean up crew for cooks like Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, Paula Dean, and even the cast of The Chew. I think the clean up crew for the last one would have more sympathy from me simply because they are cleaning up after FOUR individuals who have cooked different things throughout the coarse of the show. 

So anyway, I am happy to announce that I had PERFECT scores on ALL of my week 2 assignments in my class, and I intend to do just as well this week. I am so happy that everything is going well in school and I praise God for His hand on everything. 

Well I guess you are all probably pretty hungry after looking at that picture so I will let you go and try to find bacon as good as that:) It's time for me to go and get ready for work/church. Tonight is our last night of Awesome August at Gardendale First Baptist Church. Siran Stacey the former Alabama football player is coming to speak. If you don't have a church home or even if you do you should come and visit my church for an AMAZING night of worshiping God, and hearing His word through our speaker. It's a blessing that you absolutely DO NOT want to miss. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE and may you be blessed with the most wonderful day ever in Jesus!!!! :)