Living life through generosity

Life is a gift from God, but how often do we wake up in the morning giving Thanks to Him.

From the first step out of bed in the morning to the moment we climb in to bed and lay our head down we should give thanks to God. Thank includes every moment of our day - the good and the challenging moments. 

If you find yourself having a hard time giving thanks to God during a difficult or challenging time, maybe you need to change your perspective on what is truly happening in your life.

This morning I asked Rob(by) to change his perspective on his ride on the school bus... see Rob(by) dreaddddddddssss riding the bus because he feels there are a couple of "jerks" on his bus. We have tried to help  him with each situation, but he still dreads the bus! So I told him maybe we aren't learning what God wants us to learn from this continuing challenge... so we talked and I asked him instead of seeing the guys as jerks, maybe Rob(by) needs to take a "higher road" and be the nice guy. To my surprise when I got my daily "I am home" phone call from Rob(by) he told me it worked! He didn't see the guys as jerks, but looked at them as a blessing from God. He changed his perspective from "dreading" the bus to, the ride home was another opportunity for God to use him to impact these boys lives. 

Changing your perspective means viewing your situation in God's seat... what does He want you to do, what does He want you to learn from your current situation? 

I pray that Rob(by) will be able to look at his bus challenges as more ways God can use him, and I pray what ever challenge you have in your life that you can see God working in your life. But most of all I pray you find time in your day to give Thanks to Him! I give Thanks to Him for each of you because of Him you are in my life and I know you have impacted my life :-)

Serving Him Faithfully,

Jeni

Gifts from God

Today a friend of mine shared with me an article of a young lady who tragically died this weekend from a pile up on an interstate... as I read the article I couldn't help notice but to see the joy in her sister's words as she talked about how sweet and giving her little sister was. Even at the end she donated all the organs they could save and she was able to give the gift of life to several people. Though her family is devastated by the loss of this beautiful young woman, they can see how God blessed them with her in their life!

Tonight on facebook I read the post of a mom who has a child with Autism... in her words she was asking for others to explain how they could feel blessed with having a child with Autism. She said she hated Autism, she feared for her child's future, she was scared of what her child would encounter at school... but even in her words, through her anger I read the love and joy she had for her son. Even though everyday is a challenge for this mom, in the end when she looks at her son she looks past the autism and sees how God blessed her with him!

Yesterday I saw a plea from a friend asking  "I know God has a plan. I believe that, however it is difficult to understand when He takes someone so young and you see the pain and sorrow that the family and friends are experiencing" In her plea she ended with a prayer asking God to help us all to understand.

It is amazing that in 3 stories of sadness each person saw God working in their life. I wish I could pull a verse from the bible that helps in time of grief, despair or sadness... but in all honest there is only one thing that can pull you from grief, sadness, despair, depression and that is God.

Even if your first instinct isn't to turn to God, He is there already! Even if you aren't calling out to Him for guidance, He is still guiding you. God is always there for you... and though your prayers might not be answered the way YOU asked, I want to remind you that God knows what is best for us and HE is answering your prayer in a way that is best for YOU!

I have been blessed to see God work in my life several times, but nothing like when I almost lost Samantha when she was born or when I almost died before being diagnosed with Celiac. I can look back now and remember moments in those crisis when God was guiding me and I didn't realize it. I can remember now exact times when He interceded when I wasn't making the right decisions for me. I thank God that He not only saved Samantha and gave me back my life, but that He has also given me a chance to recognize the work He has done in my life.

I pray for each of you that you don't have to wait until your crisis is over to see God working in your life, but that you can see Him lifting you, guiding you, loving you and caring for you each step of your path!

Serving Him Faithfully,
J

No strings attached...

Quick question... when you give something (time, money, etc.) do you judge the "success" of your giving based on how the receiver used it?

Example if you gave money to a man on the corner but later on you saw him with a bottle of booze in his hand will you think twice the next time you give money to a homeless person? 

Another example... if you spent your Saturday afternoon volunteering to help paint someones front porch because they couldn't do it themselves, but then the person didn't even say thank you would hesitate the next time someone asked you to volunteer?

I pray not!!

Sometimes our perspective is not right when we are giving of our time, our money or our possessions. That is because we tend to give with expectations, or as my dad would call it strings attached.

When you give with strings attached or you have a certain expectation you will be missing the big picture... you will be missing God working in your life. Maybe the money you gave to the homeless person was suppose to teach you a lesson of obedience or sacrifice, or maybe a neighbor saw your generosity of you painting the porch and that changed her heart of giving. 

We can't truly see God's plan in the work we do unless we first trust and serve Him unconditionally, which means having no expectations. 

I tell my kids I feel like I am watching a movie sometimes when I serve because I get a front seat to watch how God is impacting the lives of the people I am helping! 

My prayer is for each of you can join me in the front row of the movies and see God at work, because it is amazing to see Him changing lives, including mine!

Serving Him Faithfully,

J

Changing our mindset in giving...

We are to give to the one in need, the one who is weak, the one who is oppressed not because they  beg us to do so... and not because they promise to praise us or flood us with appreciation... and not because we expect immediate results. 
But we give because we love!


My father was a stickler when I was a kid... he always said you do something for someone there should be no strings attached! You do it to do it... if you are looking for a thank you don't do it then! It wasn't until I was older that I realized how important his words were.

What happened to our gift once given is between the receiver and God. It was ours to give, and our expectations and conditions stop there. 

Those words also shaped who I am...I am a woman that didn't think twice to offer for people to live in our house for over a year, I am the woman who has traveled to other countries on mission trips because God called me to do so, I am the woman who will send out prayer request on facebook and emails... I am a woman who hasn't seen myself as being generous all those times, but I have seen myself as just simply responding to God's calling. It hasn't always been natural for me to be "generous" and to be honest I can be easily generous to others, but I find myself not very generous with my time and patience with my own family.

I can see the same generosity in my children - praise God! They don't think twice about helping others, they don't have to be told to help someone - they just instinctively know to do it, they don't think twice about serving or donating their money to help others. I am proud of the grace, love, patience and kindness my kids show to others, but they too lack the same generosity at home with each other.

We give because God gave. We give as God gave. And we give as generously as God gave. And that requires great maturity and obedience on our part. (MacDonald, G.)

So when you take the time to evaluate how generous you are... make sure you look close to home too. It is easy to miss being generous with the ones you love. I know God is calling us to stop and look at generosity within our family!

I pray that God will put on your heart a new view of what generosity means in your life. Sometimes we get hung up that the word generosity means giving of $$$, but my prayer too is that you can push pass that view and see Jesus' example of generosity.


Being Bold in my Faith!
Jeni

Generosity

Becoming Bold in our Faith means that we continue to share our Faith with others - through our experiences and life lessons... and to do that I feel God has called us to continue to post on our Family Blog.
I hope you will continue to follow the blog and as you do, don't hesitate to send comments to us, ask questions, and we always appreciate prayers!

I love God's timing! At church we are currently studying a Devotional focused on generosity... no, no - it isn't about how much money you are tithing! Actually it is about becoming the mirror image of Jesus, the most generous person ever. Who else can say they gave up his/her life to save others??

Generosity is more than just giving money, its giving of your time, loving others unconditionally, giving up our comforts and letting go of what is convenience for us. If you are looking for a role model that portrays generosity you don't have to look any further than Jesus...

As we served in Austria, I couldn't help but remember the wise words a friend told me - our job for the two weeks was too show the refugees God's love through action and deed. What an opportunity for the kids to experience Generosity by giving time (giving up their winter break), stepping out of their comfort zone (and in to another country!) and then being completely flexible everyday to meet the needs of the missionaries and the refugees.

God is awesome for sending this devotional at this time... one week after we have been home! We are finally over our jet lag, but we are really missing the work being done at the Oasis. Our devotional time reminded us if we could go all the way to Austria to be generous we should easily do the same thing back here in our own backyard!

Thank you God for teaching us lessons in Austria that have made us new people who will be more generous in our lives!

Serving Him Faithfully,
Jeni

Getting back in to the swing of things... slowly

Getting back in to the swing of life... slowly, thanks to nasty jet lag - oh how I won't miss the day I don't wake up at 2 am because my body thinks it 9 am Austria time :-) I know it will take us all about a week to recoup from the jet lag, and hopefully by then our wits about us will be better and each one of us will post our final thoughts and reflection about the mission trip. But until then we wanted to send another thank you to all of you - we are truly blessed to have you  in our life! Thank you for your support, encouragement, and most of all prayers :-)

Serving Him Faithfully,
Jeni, Rob, Rob(by) and Samantha

Update from Monday...the day we were able to leave ;-)

Thank you God for not only providing a place to stay, but food for us to eat and new flights to take. Though Rob and I didn't sleep all night because we were afraid of missing our flight - which God must have been telling us something because our "wake-up" calls from the hotel didn't happen! They said they had a glitch in their system??? Not a problem because we both were wide awake and we got the kids up and out to the airport.

So our "short" one hour flight to Zurich has now taken us over 24 hours to take, but a sense of relief came over all of us once our plane took off and we were on our way to Zurich... but the excitement was short lived because Zurich airport was found to be not very family friendly... how can an airport only have 2 restaurants and one isn't a McDonalds??? Don't get me started that a medium size pizza cost $30??? Oye!

Then off onto our next flight, back to America... typically I can sleep on the flight back but this time I had one child on each side of me so no sleep for me, but I praise God that Sam was able to sleep a lot and Robby was in awe with all the movie and computer selections :-)

By the time we landed and found our way back home we couldn't help but be thankful to God for all that He provided us over the last 36 hours. We teased that we felt like refugees... we only had our clothes on our back! But we know we only had a very small glimpse into a refugees life for the one day... but it was also a blessing to see how God used that one day to help us reflect back on the lives of the people we have met over the last 2 weeks.

Update from Sunday...the day we were suppose to leave :-)

Still in Austria... mechanical problems on the plane! 2 out of the 3 computers shut down on the pilot??? Something you never want to hear before you are about to take off!! :-)

Praise God for all that he has provided for us in our delay... a place to stay, food to eat and friendships that started just a few months ago!!! Thank you Pat and Tom for being on FB yesterday so we could connect with someone to make sure our dogs were taken care of :-) We were so lost without our phones, but praise God for my computer and free internet. We are very blessed for all that he provided over the last 24 hours and for everything that he put in place that lead up to this day...