Turning Our Okay Into Beautiful......

Sunday mornings are pretty much the same around my home. I'm the first one up and I get the pot of coffee going. I mix up the blueberry muffins and get them in the oven, then head to my computer for some quiet time. Then, I begin waking the rest of the family up and they head into the kitchen for breakfast. After breakfast, everyone begins getting ready for church.

On this particular Sunday, my 6 year old got herself dressed and then wanted to do her hair all by herself. My first thought was "this is not going to be good".  So, I let her take the brush and begin brushing her hair. After a few minutes, she was so proud of the front, but she looked perplexed as she tried to figure out how she was going to do the back of her hair. I was standing to the side of her, finishing my make-up. She looked up at me and said "Mama, would you brush the back of my hair?" Of course I said yes, and while she was playing with a little toy in front of her, I brushed the front too!
         
She wanted to do the whole thing by herself, and it would have turned out okay I suppose. But when she asked me for help, I took the "okay" of the situation and made it "beautiful.".  I couldn't help but think, this must be what God thinks of us many times.  I always set out to do things, usually on my own and in my own power. Those things usually turn out "okay", but just think how beautiful it would turn out if I would simply ask for His help at the beginning instead of in the middle or even at the end.

I was willing to do the whole thing for her. I was just standing and waiting for her to ask. That's all it took. She asked, and I did it.
 

"A leper came to him, begging on his knees, "If you want to, you can cleanse me." Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, I want to. Be clean." Then and there the leprosy was gone. - Mark 1:40-41

    

God is willing to take our "okay's" and make them Beautiful! All we have to do is ask!

Giving In When You Really Don't Want To.....

Just as a disclaimer....this is SO not about me......all the glory belongs to GOD!!

So this morning while driving over the Baytown bridge to get to my class, I was thinking about the parking situation. I knew I was going to have to park far away and walk. I was already dreading it, but I had my big coat with the hat and the gloves. As I was walking the long walk and freezing while I was totally dressed in winter wear...it hit me. There are thousands out there who will be sleeping in shelters tonight, but many who will be on the streets. I just kept thinking about them with every step I took until I got into the warm building.

As I was teaching my 2 classes, there was this constant "unhappiness" I felt. Even with my goofy jokes and the class responding in such a positive way, there was something bringing me down.

As I was walking back to my car and still freezing, I felt like I was supposed to do something. But what?? It's supposed to be like 27 degrees tonight...people need blankets. This was the thought going on in my head (I'm convinced it was God). So I felt God leading me to go to Wal Mart and buy a few blankets. I also had a crockpot full of taco soup that I felt like I was supposed to put in plastic containers and take to someone.

Even though I had this thought, I kept saying things like, "but I don't know where to find these people", it's so far over to Houston, what am I going to do with the kids while I do this?"...But with every excuse I tried to make, I just kept having different verses come to my head...."whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me" and "love your neighbor as yourself". Then the Brandon Heath song came into my head.."give me your eyes for just one second..."

So I went to Wal-Mart. I bought 2 blankets, 2 pillows and some plastic containers for my soup. I came home and made some pb&j sandwiches, and put them in a couple of bags along with some cheese & crackers and some pudding.

I called my dad and asked if Emma could stay with him for a few hours. Then I told my plan to Kendall and she wanted to go with me. I wasn't sure where to go, but I knew that I had always seen homeless guys on the benches in Herman Park by the zoo. So, that's where we headed. We parked and got out and started walking. The wind was blowing the water from the big fountain directly at us and we were laughing and freezing all at the same time.

We didn't find one person in that park! So, we went back to our car. We were not going home defeated. So, we took off down San Jacinto street and headed into downtown. There we saw him. A person covered by a make-shift blanket on the steps of an abandoned building. As we approached him, there was no place for me to stop, so we kept driving and looking for others. We finally felt like we were supposed to go back and give our things to this man.

I turned around and headed back to the place where we saw him. There was an Eye Center on the corner, so we parked there. We got out our soup, sandwiches, blanket and pillow and headed across the street.

"Hello?"....."Hellllooo?" "Excuse me".....I called out to him, and finally he pulled his covering away from his face and looked at me. "Hi! we have some food for you, can we leave it here?". He said yes and moved some things out of the way so we could put it down. Then we handed him the pillow and we spread the fleece blanket out over him. I asked him what his name was......Kevin. We asked him if we could pray for him later and he said yes. We told him to take care and that we would be praying for him. "Thank you" he said.

Then we left and ran across the street to our car. As we were getting back into our car, a guy who was standing by the metro pick-up said..."that was a real nice thing that yall just did".

Here is what I learned today. Always, always follow God in obedience. Even if it doesn't make sense to you and especially if it's out of your comfort zone.  I don't know what God will do with and through Kevin, but I'm praying for great things!! The man at the metro bus stop saw what we did and I hope that he is inspired to show some kindness to someone along the way.

Maybe we blessed Kevin tonight. I hope we did. But I can tell you this much....I was blessed beyond words. I got to spend precious, quality time with my daughter living out God's command and I will appreciate my bed, heater, fireplace, and refrigerator full of food a lot more tonight than I normally would. I take things for granted BIG TIME! Tonight, Kevin is sleeping on a hard concrete step. But I hope his stomach isn't growling tonight and he stays a little warmer with his new blanket. But more than anything....more than ANYTHING, I want him to have felt the love of Jesus tonight. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. I'm so glad that Kevin allowed me to show God's love to him tonight. I am truly blessed!