Good Samaritan

Yesterday's WOL Quiet Time was on the subject of The Good Samaritan. Between that portion of Scripture & the lesson of Mary & Martha today I'm thinking that the people represented in thes lessons are not too different from people attending churches today.

While I've heard, read, & studied The Good Samaritan many times in my life it has just struck me differently this time. In that I'm asking myself, which person in this story am I? I mean come on, that's a fairly important question I should ask myself & I don't think I'm asking it often enough. I guess what gets me pondering is that the priest & the Levite who leave the injured man have what could be considered, when looked at in a certain light, "good excuses" They were temple leaders, they were not supposed to touch an unclean thing, the man could be dead, or could have died while being cared for. The Levite & Priest might have justified that they were being a good example, a good leader, by being very careful to obey the law. The man who did help had to hire medical care, maybe they thought they didn't have the finances, or that if they did help he could die anyway & then they've wasted God's money.

Now clearly these are nothing but excuses, yet I feel that it just all sounds a little familiar. It just leaves me thinking about those in need around me & what kind of compassion do I show, what kind of help do I give, how am going out of my way for others. I know that the church is failing in this area, because we don't even take care of those who choose to be missionaries. These men & women want to carry the Gospel to the mission field but often can't get started on their mission because they don't have the money to go. I went to a church in the past once where they raised all this money, thousands of dollars & then used to landscape the church. Meanwhile there were missionaries unable to share the Gospel & people dying & going to Hell. But hey, our church building looked pretty & when people walked or drove past they were impressed with us. The problem doesn't only lie with the churches, but with individuals, I spend a lot of money on Starbucks, imagine if I sent that to a missionary.

In the end our lack of empathy, I think, is due to pride. This Quiet Time really effected me & I'm trying to think of ways that I can be more like the Samaritan & less like the priest & the Levite. I think I will start with more prayer for others. What are some ways that you are a Good Samaritan?

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Cj's Dream

Cj told me today that he had a dream that we moved, he said, "We got a new house & it was really big & had lots of cool stuff in it. It had a very nice big dinosaur, a pool, a movie theater. And a gameroom; filled with all our DSs, an old Nintendo, that still worked & all the Nintendo games"

I said, "Wow! That's pretty amazing, was there anything else?"

Then his eyes get huge, "Yeah, there were TWO bathrooms!"

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Learning Who Jesus Is

Cj was so cute doing his Word of Life Quiet Time tonight. He learned about how Jesus raised someone from the dead
& it put him in a state of awe. He said, in just utter amazement, "Whoa!...How did He...Ooh yeah, well I guess Jesus IS VERY powerful." He said his prayer with such great meaning & emotion in his voice, "Jesus, thank you for being SO powerful."

I feel so grateful to have such a tool as this Quiet Time, to not only teach Cj the habit of daily time in the Word & in prayer, but also about who Jesus actually is. Our Pastor has been teaching about the life of Christ in Sunday School lately & he keeps saying how any problem or need you will ever face in life; the answer can be found in Jesus. And Cj, at this young age, is learning that! Jesus can handle anything we will ever face, because "Jesus IS VERY powerful."

We are told in Deuteronomy, really throughout the Bible, to teach our children from a young age about the stories & laws in the Bible which show us who God is, why we need Him, & how we find Him. Sadly in our busy lives of today it feels like it is so easy to lack in those teaching. I mean, we teach our kids their ABCs, Colors, or what sounds the animals make. And how do we do it? By singing little songs, playing games, going over it while we eat dinner, or at storytime before bed. This is just what God expects us to do to teach our children about Him. I like that the WOL Quiet Time for young kids help show parents how to teach the Word, at each age & learning level our child hits, & even as they grow to adulthood. Facing eternity, how much more important will it be that our kids know Jesus than whether or not they know how to moo like a cow or boo like a sheep?
www.wol.com

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How My Phone Is Getting Me Organized

So I'm still working my New Years Resolution to be more organized & since I recently got a new phone, a Sprint Evo 4g, I decided to search the ap store & see what kind of aps I could find that would help. After doing lots of reading about aps, some downloading, & some deleting I found a couple aps that are already making my life, no, not just my life, my whole family's life, much easier. Thought I would share these aps, which are websites with free companion aps actually....

www.cozi.com

This is an online family organizer. Can you say BRILLIANT!!! Are your like me & can't feel like a whole person without your hardcopy family organizer? Are you like me & have more than one child & a husband to keep track of? In my hard copy organizer I purposely research & buy one that will help me keep organized not only as a whole family but also as individuals. Well, with cozi.com it does all that for me!

Cozi, is an online calendar, really organizer is a better word for it, with a free ap available for Android or iPhone. The best thing is that this program is designed specifically for busy families so it comes with features like color-coding by person, email and/or text reminder or updates, & printable calendars. Cozi emails my kids reminders of events on their schedule & my husband a copy of what's going on for us all. I was able to print off a month-@-a-glance page which even had the cute picture I uploaded of my kids on it. There's a shopping list section so whenever I realize we have run out of something, & need to pick something up..I just open the ap on my phone & add it real quick. Even better, last night Jerrid called me & asked what we needed, rather than having to go over the list, I just got on my phone & told Cozi to email it to him. Since he has email on his phone, he was all set! There is also a to do list section. As with the shopping list, it has come in handy to be able to make notes to my to do list from my phone at any time. I downloaded the free screen-saver which plays a slide show of family pics with a reminder of what's on the calendar for that day in the corner. Since this is saved on a website & my phone I don't have to spend the time plugging in my phone to the computer to sync. If my phone or computer crashes, I don't lose everything bc its saved on a website which is available on any computer, anywhere.

I LOVE Cozi, it is quickly making my family's life run more smoothly. I definitely recommend it!!!

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Get Well Cards

I told Cj that he needed to make a get well card for Aunt Linda, who just had surgery. Since I've been sick, I asked Jerrid to help by finding a picture online for him to color. I heard Cj tell his Dad that to find the picture he wanted you have to type in the name of his favorite painter, Van Gogh. I feel like it turned out to be a pretty respectable little card.

Cheese

"Cj! I just reached into my pocket & look what I found!" and there was Jerrid holding up a slice of cheese.
Cj explained, "I thought you might get hungry at work sometime so I put it in there for later."
I think this is actually a great time for this next word.... Flabergasted (how do you even spell that word anyway?) Jerrid asked, "Why would I want to eat a slice of cheese...from my POCKET?!?"
Cj's simple answer, "What? It's wrapped in plastic."

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Blessings & Troubles

So last week our well pump quit. Had the guy out. It was unfixable. So we had to have a new one installed. Costly. Then a couple days after it was installed it quit again. Had the guy out he fixed it. The next day the dishwasher quit. This morning the furnace quit. Had another guy out fixed it, too. Tonight my dsl went out, again.

Part of me wants to say what else could break around here for goodness sake! But really things are pretty good round here. We have a great family. My husband has a job. We really love our new church. We have food to eat. Best of all I do have the LORD. Time to remember again what Grandpa used to sing...
"Let us have a little talk with Jesus , let us tell Him all about our troubles, He will hear our faintest cry & He will answer by & by"

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