Blog Thoughts... And More! June 24, 2014
You
know, writing a blog is no joke! For weeks now it's been on my heart and
in my head to start one. As soon as the dream comes though, there are
so many questions- who will my audience be? What will I write about? Am I
even qualified? Then I have so many topics and intentions like bubbles
in my brain that the fizziness keeps me up at night. Not out of anxiety,
mind you, but anticipation! How cool would it be if this ACTUALLY
worked out? If my scatter-brained thoughts "amounted" to something and I
was able to bless/encourage/teach/exhort/prophecy LIFE into the people I
love? And as soon as I prepared to put pen to paper - because I roll old
school, despite advances in technology - I draw a blank. My husband
has done the hard part. The page is set up. We're playing with name
ideas and backgrounds. Now the time has come for content and what do I
do?
Stare. At a mostly white screen.
So
rather than cause a brain cramp, I decide the reasonable thing to do is
sleep on it. When I open my eyes this morning, I am still uninspired
(for this is a true story), and so I start my day as Katie, wife and
mom. I stop for a moment when I remember I haven't had my quiet time yet
and grab my phone. After getting distracted on Facebook for a minute or
two, I finally get a devotional app downloaded. I read the first one,
glean a reminder that change isn't always a bad thing and that through
it all God never changes, and prepare to try writing the FIRST blog
entry once again. I pause for a moment to pray, asking God what of all
the ideas I had that ran away I should go with first, and decide to tell
you the truth. Did you know, writing a blog is no joke?
A spark of inspiration ignites! Continue to speak the truth, whatever it is, and just be Katie.
You
see, the process I've shared with you just now is not limited to only
myself. Everyone has felt this before and walked through it at some
point in their lives. You're given a dream, an insight, or idea that
upon receiving it your spirit jumps in excitement! With a fleeting
memory, you recall that "With God, all things are possible" (Matt 19:26)
and set to work with the thinking and planning of it all. Here, though,
trouble comes. Doubts creep in. Questions arise- do you even know what
you're doing? What you're talking about? ARE YOU EVEN QUALIFIED???
Pastor
Chris has done an exceptional job or reminding his flock that "The
thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may
have life, and have it to the full." (Jn 10:10) Of course, the speaker
in the verse is Christ, but look at the promise. When you're facing
doubts about your dreams, remember "'I know that plans I have for you',
says the Lord,' plans to prosper and not harm to you. To give you a
future and a hope". (Jer 29:11) The future God's planned for you is the
fruition of the dreams He's given you to dream!
Phillipians
4:13 also speaks to this "I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me". You see, because God "formed my inward parts; [He] knit
me in my mother's womb" (Ps 139:13), I understand that God's had His
hand on me since my very beginning. He knows the dreams I have because
He GAVE them to me to have. As I walk in this truth, Christ strengthens
me, and I can carry on through the doubt and fear. I continue to walk
because I "trust in the Lord with all [my] heart and lean not on [my]
own understanding. [I] acknowledge Him in all [my] ways, and He makes
straight [my] paths" (Pr 3:5-6). I "Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight [my]self in the LORD; And He will give [me] the desires of [my] heart. Commit
[my] way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it." (Ps
37:3-5) I do these things because I am a Daughter of God, made with His fingerprint upon
my heart and His plan in mind for me. This plan communicates itself
through our dreams that we have for our lives. Now of course, someone
wanting to be a mob boss as an example is not desiring a God given dream
(duh). However, it could be that indeed, that man was created to establish
and lead a group of people to accomplish God's greater good, and Satan
just happened to get in there because this person DIDN'T trust in God's
truth and so now the dream is skewed. It can happen, but we use God's
truth as the plumb line for our hearts to mitigate any damage done. There's a reason why we must
"Guard [our] heart[s] above all else, for (MEANING BECAUSE) it
determines the course of your life." (Pr 4:23) Our hearts are where our dreams come from. Not our heads.
Let's take this dream, as an example. The dream that I
have for this blog. The whole reason why I started it with my husband,
Jon, and with the blessing of Grace Point church is because my heart is
for God's children. It would be very easy for me to start a 'slice of
life' kind of project where I'm open and honest about my achievements
and failures as a wife and a mom and how I found these great ideas that
really, I stole from other people and just put my spin on it to
encourage and inspire mothers to be everything they really could be.
Many other women do this already and do it well. There's not a need
there. But I'll tell you where there is a need- where does the whole
body of believers come together as a family and talk? In our nuclear
families, we used to have a dinner table where we ate at and talked
about our days and prayed with each other before going to bed. Where
does the body of Christ have that? We do have our small groups to be
sure, and they're AMAZING!!! But what if the questions someone has
cannot be answered in that group alone? We are all people, and after all,
there is a limit to how much a person knows at any given point in time.
When we're in the middle of fellowship, what time is there to tackle the
deep questions of our faith? And if we limit ourselves to only the same
group of people, how are we opening ourselves up to other opportunities
God wants to use in our lives to build us up?
The
Forum @ Grace Point is just that- a specified gathering place for
people to safely open up about the questions we have that aren't being
answered in the sermon series or Bible study. It's a tool to be used as
we mature spiritually to not only cultivate our younger siblings in
Christ, but to also find some sturdy, quality iron that we can be
sharpened by and sharpen in return. It's a place where we take the next
step in our resposibility to have our OWN walk with God and not just
rely on the 'high' of Sunday, but in conjunction with it solidify the
truth we've learned and share how we've walked in it. It's a place for
insights, suggestions, exhortations and encouragements that our family
can come together and talk, just like a real family should.
This
is my dream, and now, thank Jesus, it's finally coming true! What's
yours? Tell Jon and I about it below, there's no reason for the
conversation to end here. Also, feel free to subscribe so you can
receive email updates when new posts are added and leave your prayers
requests and praises in that section, too.
Thank
you so very much for spending this time with me! I hope you've been
lifted up, and I can't wait to receive the same from you!
Love in Christ,
~Katie Respaldiza
