Part 2
"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us."
Epicures (Greek Philosopher)
Wow, I can't believe how long it has taken me to get to part two, I guess I had some more learning to do in regards to this quote. At this very moment I am sitting in my mother's house, over looking the great pacific ocean waiting to hear the day start, other wise known as the sunrise.
Sat. I drove back to Southern CA. with my mother after the holiday's, to start preparing her for the move she will be making in the near future.
Just yesterday I was able to share the above quote with a good friend of mine who had called me back after I had left her a message asking for a little moral support.
My friend started the conversation with an apology for not calling me back, that is when I was able to share with her this beautiful quote."It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us." I told her it was more about the fact that I had someone to call then actually needing to talk to someone.
In the process of going through the boxes of my mom's life, my deceased father as well as my deceased grandmother, I thought for a brief moment I was going to be swallowed up by the grief that came flooding my way.
I knew better then to try to stuff my feelings, ignore my emotions or even talk myself out of them. So, I did what I tell others to do who are struggling, I picked up the phone and called a friend.
The burden of the boxes were lifted, the grief didn't seem to bite so much and I was able to continue on being the hands and feet my mother needed to complete this task.
I am looking forward to sharing more about the burden of the boxes with you in the next blog.
I am learning what it really means to carry each other's burdens and it is well worth it. Thank you all who have loved me and supported me through out the last year. 2009 Here we come.
Hope your New Year is going well, live, laugh and love like there is no tomorrow!!!!!
Happy New Year!
Part 1
"It is not so much our friends' help the helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us."
Epicures
"It is not so much our friends' help the helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us."
Epicures
Breaking down the walls!
I recently had the opportunity to be the guest speaker of a monthly celebration meeting for a local women’s recovery center. The women who I had been asked to share with were not your typical pastor’s wives gone bad drug addicts. Most of these women came from the streets, ex gang members, convicts and dealers were more like it. The majority of these women had been court ordered into the program because of the severity of their addiction, which almost cost them and their children their lives.
It’s one thing to choose to enter into a program but when one is forced by law to give up something that one deemed necessary to survive brings with it walls that are thick, high, and hard to break through. As I sat in the room amongst the ladies listening to them share their dates of entry into the program and the dates they gave up their addiction, from days to months, I prayed for the Lord to give me an opportunity to break down the walls and connect with these women immediately.
Right away it came to me, thank you God for answered prayers! As they introduced me, I walked up, greeted them with a smile and informed them that I had just returned home from prison five days ago. I then stayed silent for what seemed like an eternity to let it settle into those, who had, without words questioned my credibility, I saw it in many of their faces as they looked me over when I stepped up to the podium.
In my silence I could hear the walls coming down and feel the tension in the room come to a rest. The connection was instantaneous and I just entered into my role as a participant in their story that day as I shared how I ended up in prison myself. OK, mine was not court ordered and I choose when and where I go but I had just been in prison and that was all they needed to know at that moment to bring them to a place of trusting and connecting with me.
I spent the next thirty minutes sharing about my past and how God had turned it into a present. I shared the process of walking through the discovery of excuses, to explanations to purposeful living based on a past that use to hold me captive.
Though these women were from the streets and I was from the pew the one thing we so desperately had in common was our brokenness, by the time I left there I had once again witnessed the most precious, beautiful broken women in places where most people never look.
It’s one thing to choose to enter into a program but when one is forced by law to give up something that one deemed necessary to survive brings with it walls that are thick, high, and hard to break through. As I sat in the room amongst the ladies listening to them share their dates of entry into the program and the dates they gave up their addiction, from days to months, I prayed for the Lord to give me an opportunity to break down the walls and connect with these women immediately.
Right away it came to me, thank you God for answered prayers! As they introduced me, I walked up, greeted them with a smile and informed them that I had just returned home from prison five days ago. I then stayed silent for what seemed like an eternity to let it settle into those, who had, without words questioned my credibility, I saw it in many of their faces as they looked me over when I stepped up to the podium.
In my silence I could hear the walls coming down and feel the tension in the room come to a rest. The connection was instantaneous and I just entered into my role as a participant in their story that day as I shared how I ended up in prison myself. OK, mine was not court ordered and I choose when and where I go but I had just been in prison and that was all they needed to know at that moment to bring them to a place of trusting and connecting with me.
I spent the next thirty minutes sharing about my past and how God had turned it into a present. I shared the process of walking through the discovery of excuses, to explanations to purposeful living based on a past that use to hold me captive.
Though these women were from the streets and I was from the pew the one thing we so desperately had in common was our brokenness, by the time I left there I had once again witnessed the most precious, beautiful broken women in places where most people never look.
We are in this together!
Christmas card outreach for woman intmates....................................................................................
There is know doubt in my mind that the Lord has given me the most amazing group of friends. When I called out for help, an answer was received, not by one or two and not just from inside my own town, all over this nation fellow friends stepped up to the plate and said yes to helping make sure fellow sisters in Christ who are behind bars are not forgotten. There are those who joined us last night in filling out cards, greetings and praying. There are those who couldn't join me but dropped of stamps and cards and envelopes to boot. It has been an amazing out pour of love and willingness like I have never seen before. I am so thankful for all who have chosen to say yes when so many say no.
All who could not be there last night but responded with prayer and encouragment, thank you, it was felt. We have to continue to let those behind bars know that they are not left behind and that even though they may be locked up there is away to be free.
Please continue to pray for those sisters behind bars and their children left with out a mother at home. If you are interested in anyway shape or form in volunteering with the ministry, just send me a note, we have many opportunities for service.
I pray you all have an incredible day and I will keep you posted on the race...
Love
Cris
There is know doubt in my mind that the Lord has given me the most amazing group of friends. When I called out for help, an answer was received, not by one or two and not just from inside my own town, all over this nation fellow friends stepped up to the plate and said yes to helping make sure fellow sisters in Christ who are behind bars are not forgotten. There are those who joined us last night in filling out cards, greetings and praying. There are those who couldn't join me but dropped of stamps and cards and envelopes to boot. It has been an amazing out pour of love and willingness like I have never seen before. I am so thankful for all who have chosen to say yes when so many say no.
All who could not be there last night but responded with prayer and encouragment, thank you, it was felt. We have to continue to let those behind bars know that they are not left behind and that even though they may be locked up there is away to be free.
Please continue to pray for those sisters behind bars and their children left with out a mother at home. If you are interested in anyway shape or form in volunteering with the ministry, just send me a note, we have many opportunities for service.
I pray you all have an incredible day and I will keep you posted on the race...
Love
Cris
My Mission Statement/Purpose
My life purpose is to intentionally bring God pleasure in all areas of my life, first through my thoughts and then my actions. Next, to use my life experiences to serve him through the body of believers. I will dedicate my life to embracing, spreading and teaching the word of God to others, while focusing on reaching out to my community and beyond being a character witness for Jesus Christ, reaching out to the hurt and lost of our world. While remembering to stay connected to other believers, just as iron sharpens iron my faith will grow as I am sharing it with other believer and allowing them to share their faith with me.
My life purpose is to intentionally bring God pleasure in all areas of my life, first through my thoughts and then my actions. Next, to use my life experiences to serve him through the body of believers. I will dedicate my life to embracing, spreading and teaching the word of God to others, while focusing on reaching out to my community and beyond being a character witness for Jesus Christ, reaching out to the hurt and lost of our world. While remembering to stay connected to other believers, just as iron sharpens iron my faith will grow as I am sharing it with other believer and allowing them to share their faith with me.
Secrets not sugar, that is what makes you sick!
Proverbs 22:6 - Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.
Could it be possible, that after all these years, my 11-year-old son was finally interested in his own personal hygiene? I had been praying for this day to come, at last it was here, or so I thought.
Dinner had just ended and he asked if he could take another bath, a second one for him today, which would be a record. The only time my son ever asks to take a bath is when he is anxious about something, which brings on a headache and nausea.
My gratitude for his growth in the area of cleanliness quickly turned to a place of concern as I started to think about all the things that happened today and tried to recall if something happened that could have caused him to be anxious.
As I was walking through this mental process of recalling the day, my son came in my room and asked if we could talk. He proceeded to tell me that he thought he knew why he was getting headaches. I was right; it was not a matter of hygiene but rather anxiety. The bath has always had away of helping him to calm down.
I put on my best set of listening ears, looked him straight in the eyes and gave him my full attention. I could hear fear in his voice as he poured out his heart. He shared with me how he had tried to call me this morning to ask if he could put some sugar in his cereal. When I did not answer, he decided he would do it anyway, even though he knew that it was something I did not usually allow.
He looked down in shame as he finished confessing doing what he knew he should not have done and then looked back at me and asked if I would forgive him. Of course, I told him he was forgive before he even asked.
I quickly came to the realization that this was a great teaching moment and though the incident did not seem very important, the incident was extremely significant in the fact that I wanted him to know that he could always come to me. It was not about the sugar but rather the secret that was making him sick. I told him his conscience was working and that this was a good thing.
I was able to share with him that as he gets older he will find the temptations to be greater, the trials stronger and the falls even harder. We talked about the importance of confessing what we have done and how healing comes from that. A promise from our creator, “confess your sins to one another and you will be healed.”
In addition, I told him that from now on he could decide on sugar in his cereal. I want him to always remember that it was the secret not the sugar that had made him sick.
Could it be possible, that after all these years, my 11-year-old son was finally interested in his own personal hygiene? I had been praying for this day to come, at last it was here, or so I thought.
Dinner had just ended and he asked if he could take another bath, a second one for him today, which would be a record. The only time my son ever asks to take a bath is when he is anxious about something, which brings on a headache and nausea.
My gratitude for his growth in the area of cleanliness quickly turned to a place of concern as I started to think about all the things that happened today and tried to recall if something happened that could have caused him to be anxious.
As I was walking through this mental process of recalling the day, my son came in my room and asked if we could talk. He proceeded to tell me that he thought he knew why he was getting headaches. I was right; it was not a matter of hygiene but rather anxiety. The bath has always had away of helping him to calm down.
I put on my best set of listening ears, looked him straight in the eyes and gave him my full attention. I could hear fear in his voice as he poured out his heart. He shared with me how he had tried to call me this morning to ask if he could put some sugar in his cereal. When I did not answer, he decided he would do it anyway, even though he knew that it was something I did not usually allow.
He looked down in shame as he finished confessing doing what he knew he should not have done and then looked back at me and asked if I would forgive him. Of course, I told him he was forgive before he even asked.
I quickly came to the realization that this was a great teaching moment and though the incident did not seem very important, the incident was extremely significant in the fact that I wanted him to know that he could always come to me. It was not about the sugar but rather the secret that was making him sick. I told him his conscience was working and that this was a good thing.
I was able to share with him that as he gets older he will find the temptations to be greater, the trials stronger and the falls even harder. We talked about the importance of confessing what we have done and how healing comes from that. A promise from our creator, “confess your sins to one another and you will be healed.”
In addition, I told him that from now on he could decide on sugar in his cereal. I want him to always remember that it was the secret not the sugar that had made him sick.
Sisters, Not!!!!!!!!!!
I keep telling my daughter that the older she gets the better I look. Is that bad or what? OK, the truth is this, she will be 23 in June, I did not birth her, she came with the I do I did in 1993 when she was just 7 years old. I say that the stretch marks from her are all on my heart. You could say we have kind of grown up together. She has been one of the biggest encourages in this journey of healing and recovery for me.
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