The Kirby Vacuum Man and the Lessons God Taught Us

Right now I can think of a whole lot of negative things to say about our Kirby vacuum sales man who ended up being a guest in our home for THREE HOURS! I was so frustrated last night about the whole event. I’m still not so sure what made me say yes to that demonstration, but alas I did and in walked a young man and his vacuum. A pretty neat vacuum I might add.The demonstration was supposed to take 20-30 minutes. He was still demonstrating after 45 minutes had past. and then an hour. He started to wrap it up at about an hour. But see,  his boss had dropped him off, and he couldn’t get a hold of him, so he decided to give the kids (whom he was wonderful with) a science lesson about dust mites. He had all the information right there and vacuumed away, and read to us all from his fact sheet and showed the kids photo’s of the dust mites, and showed them all the “dust mites” he had vacuumed up. The kids were fascinated. He even let them vacuum some up.

An hour and a half and still no boss. So the man started to figure up the price of the vacuum and such (you know how they do). My kids wanted me to read them a story. So I read them a little story from their Family Bible in Pictures. When I was finished he told me the price and I laughed. HAHAHA I’m sitting here in a house that needs a roof with my FOUR kids and 3k for a vacuum seems like one million dollars, and I told him that. He then showed me all the ways this vacuum would pay for itself yada yada, and two hours. I told him several times before this that I had somewhere to be, but the boss just wasn’t coming to get him. The kids wanted to play outside so we went out to the front yard and he ran races with them and we came back in for him to pack up his stuff. Still no boss. Soooooooooo, he showed the kids how the vacuum could make the best bubbles in the world, and the kids giggled and played, and he made bubbles all over the rug and they giggled. I was not so amused and was starting to feel trapped.

Once the kids were done with the bubbles I told him again that I had to walk down the road to deliver a book to a neighbor. We all went outside while he called his boss AGAIN. My boys decided that they were going to walk run to the neighbors house without me. He said that his boss was two minutes away, me aggravated said, “so are my kids” . So there we went me and the vacuum man running down the road to catch them, and he helped me wrangle them back to the yard. At this point my husband drove up, and I felt a bit of freedom. I left it to my husband to take care of what I saw as an “issue”, and I loaded the kids in the van and drove to deliver the book. When I came back he was still there. (three hours) so me and the kids drove around the neighborhood joking that we were hiding from the vacuum cleaner man. Finally the boss came and picked the man up, and he was on his way.

We joked and giggled about this man who had invaded our house for three hours (a little more) and we settled in for dinner and bible study. We finished our devotion and as each child prayed I was shocked how my older two each prayed for the vacuum man. (they knew his name) I couldn’t get the whole situation off of my mind. This morning during my morning study the Lord had me read a scripture that has always been close to my heart.

I immediately knew what opportunity I had missed, and why I couldn’t get this off of my mind. I remember when we bought our house not to long ago, and we prayed that ANYONE who entered our house would leave having been ministered to. The situation which brought this man into our home was odd, and I normally would have said no, but I said yes before I even thought about it. Maybe, I didn’t say yes, but God said yes. This kid Man needed to be ministered to, and the Lord opened MANY doors while he was here to do so. But, I’m sad to say that I allowed my own attitude and selfishness get in the way of my even seeing this opportunity in front of me. I can only hope that the Lord used some of the small things to touch his life, and I know that this family will pray for him daily. But, I learned one mega lesson about selfishness. I will never forget the vacuum cleaner man, and the lesson that the Lord taught me. I was no different than those he spoke of in Matthew. I was blinded.

Sometimes the Lord sends people our way in unexpected situations. It is my prayer that the Lord will help me to use each and every opportunity to minister to others. I pray that from now on every person that enters my home will leave feeling loved. I thank the Lord for laying this on my heart even though, believe me, this was a hard lesson for me.

Birds- Angry Birds Bible Lesson

As a part of our Birds Study, we decided to do a little Angry Birds lesson that I had seen over at The Home Teacher. This lesson was so much fun, and the kids enjoyed involving their Daddy. We pretty much used followed the script examples given on that blog.

Our oldest two kids did a bit of copy work to help them memorize our scripture for the night, while daddy helped Sammy say the scripture. I found these pages at Speech Room News.

“For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God”.

James 1:20

After the main portion of the lesson, each child drew an Angry bird picture.

After all of this we set up a real life game of Angry Birds. It was a blast.

Peace Maker vs. Peace Breaker

Today I sat down with the kids and did a lesson about being a peace maker. There has been a lot of bickering between everyone going on the past couple of days, and I really wanted to take a moment to focus on the issue, and create a visual for the kids. I had seen these poster used in school classrooms before, and adapted them to use with this lesson.

The first thing I did was gather the kids and I told them that there had been a problem in our family. I asked them if they could tell me what it was. Much to my surprise, the kids said, “Arguing”. I told them that was right and that I wanted to talk to them a bit about that.

I then took out my bible and Read them a few scriptures, and talked to them about what they meant.

• Proverbs 17:14- Stop arguing before contention starts
• Proverbs 20:3 – Any fool can start a quarrel
• Proverbs 10:12- Strife is stirred up by hatred
• 2 Timothy 2:23- Avoid foolish disputes
• 2 Timothy 2:24- We must not quarrel, but be a peace maker

We then talked about what happens when we are peace breakers by reading scripture, and talking about them.

• Mark 3:25- A house divided cannot stand
• Titus 3:9- Avoid the peace breaker (sent to room and will not participate)

We then talked about our scripter verse, and practiced it a bit.

• James 3:18

After we went to the word, we made our posters. I asked the kids first to name things that peace breakers do,  and wrote those on the posters. *Kind of funny, my three year old said, “hit, kick, spit, bite”. I guess he does listen to me. HA HA. Then they came up with things that peace makers do, and we wrote those down on the poster. Once we were done, we hung the posters on the fridge. All week we will practice our scripter, and focus on fixing this issue.

The kids cleverly asked if there were any brothers and sisters in the Bible who quarreled, and what happened to them. (they are used to this method of teaching) It just so happened that I had already planned to tell them the story of Cain and Able. We will go over several other stories as the week progresses, but this was the one for today.

Peace Breaker:

• Cain and Able
• Joseph and his brothers- Genesis 37:3-27, 45:24
• The Disciples- Mark 9:34, Luke 22:24
• Jacob and Esau Genesis 27:41-45, 33:5-11

Peace Maker:

• Abraham with Lot- 13:6-9
• Abigail – 1 Samuel 25:23-33

We always close in prayer.

There are many stories and scriptures in the Bible that are fitting for this lesson. I used the ones I felt god leading me to for my family. Should you decide to use this lesson, I encourage you to pray and choose the stories and scriptures that are best for your family.

Colossians- Living in 3D

I am continuing to study Colossians with Community Bible Studies. It’s amazing how much information is packed into a book of only four chapters. There are so many things I am learning from this book, but I don’t think I would ever have time to post it all, so I will continue to pick an choose. Let’s dig in.

Colossians 1:15 says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation.”  The English word image comes from the Greek word eikon, which means reflection.

When I first read the word reflection I immediately thought of a mirror. But a mirror is a one-dimensional image. But, God didn’t send just a reflection of himself, He sent Himself in flesh, He sent every part of himself.

Colossians 1:19 says, “God was pleased to have ALL of his fullness dwell in Him”.

Think about how many parents spend huge amounts of money on video equipment, so they can have the added dimensions of sound and motion when recording the development of their children. Those added dimensions give increased revelation of how wonderful the baby really is.

Jesus added sound and motion to our picture of God. Moreover, he even added flesh and bones. God became seeable, touchable—he became knowable in the person of Jesus Christ! Everything you and I need to know about God can be known because Jesus came to make him known.                            –Quote from CBS Bible Study Book-

As I go throughout life, am I being merely a reflection of Christ? It’s good to be a reflection of him right? Of coarse! But at some point we need to be more than just a reflection, we need to be 3D image of Christ to someone in need. (no we can never be Christ, that’s not what I’m saying) You can look at my life and know that things are different. We make different choices based on our faith, and we look different to the world. The hope is that we are being a reflection of Christ to those around us. But, a reflection is just a reflection. It’s one dimensional. At some point we need to be more.

Our walk with Christ needs to be 3D to those around us. A reflection is nice to look at and learn from, but a reflection doesn’t get down in the nitty gritty of life with a someone. A reflection doesn’t help you rebuild your house when a storm knocks it down, it doesn’t cry with you, or give you a blanket when you are cold. It doesn’t check on you when you have had surgery, or bring you food after you have a baby.

A reflection is not a bad thing. It is very encouraging to my walk with Christ to see reflections of how other believers live. To see, a reflection of how Christ has blessed them, and set them free from bondage. But, a person doesn’t become a reflection of Christ by simply being here. They become a reflection of Christ by becoming 3D to those around them. Including their families. When we begin to live differently, speak kinder, love deeper, reach out to the community, people will take notice, and you can minister to many people. Christ was a reflection of God, but he was also God in flesh, God in 3D.

I have so many thoughts on this, but I will end this with a challenge to you. Be an example of the Christ that lives in you, by being 3D in someone’s life this week.

                     

 

A Study in Colossians

I recently started going to a Community Bible Study group in my area, and we are studying Colossians. We are only one week in, and I have already gaining so much from studying this book. I have a lot of things to share with my readers about what Christ is doing in my life through this bible study, but I thought I would start with something I read last night. I am going to quote our study book. This was in regards to the Character of a Saint. (Colossians 1:2)

“The Greek word translated holy in the NIV is the word also used for saint. It is hagios and is used 229 times to describe ordinary people in the new testament. In classical Greek, hagios indicated a person who caused awe, amazement, respect. In the adjective form it means clean. In the Greek religion it was used of the most beautiful and sacred items in a temple-things not accessible for public use, reserved for the use of the gods.

Therefore, when Paul calls the Colossians holy, or saints, he is calling them vessels cleaned and set apart for God’s pleasure and personal use.”

What an amazing statement of a group of peoples lives. That they were thought of as holy and pleasing to the Lord. To think of my life as a vessel cleaned out, set apart, and reserved for God’s personal use, is amazing. “But, I could never live a life holy and pleasing….” That’s just it, Christ is what makes us presentable. Here’s another quote from the study that says it far better than I ever could.

Our holiness, is something that God gives us as a gift. God sees us as holy because of what Jesus did on the cross to pay for our sin. God looks at you and declares you to be a person who is clean, set apart, available, and useful..”

What Christ did for me overwhelms me. The thought he looks at me, a sinner, who fails daily, and says, “You are clean, You are useful!” is so amazing. As a mother it is easy to get caught up in the life of being a mother. We make ourselves available to our children, and so often forget to make ourselves available to God. I know for me, thinking that I am useful to him when I am covered in spit up, haven’t had time to shower, still have a sink full of dishes, and lost it and yelled at the kids, is very difficult. What could he possibly need me for? So I don’t make myself available for him to use me as he see’s fit because, well, I don’t see it.

Last night, after reading this, I started thinking about a few things that God had laid on my heart to do, that I still haven’t done. I keep telling myself that I need to prepare more, and grow more in Christ. I keep feeling like I am  not worthy, and thinking of people who are much better choices than me. Therefore, I haven’t done any of those things yet. So I began to pray about them, and asking God to help me with my insecurities. I want to make myself available to be used by him in anyway he sees fit.

 

I really love community Bible Studies. I would encourage you to see if there is one in your area, and get connected.

Pumpkin Gospel

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

This year we have been teaching the kids about what Halloween is really about. They have heard lot’s of different things, and opinions, and they were getting confused. They had heard that Halloween was the devil’s holiday, and then also heard that it wasn’t, so I really wanted to take the time this year and teach them.

We began by reading a book that my Dad had called, “Halloween is it for real?” This is an awesome book. It starts from the beginning of how Halloween really started, and takes them to “All Hallows Eve”, and back to how it is celebrated today. The book then talks about how we can use this holiday to share Jesus Christ with other’s.

The cover of the book we have looks different. It was given to my Dad in 1983, but it is the same author, so I assume it’s the same book.

After we read this book, we sat down as a family and talked about it. We answered any questions they had, and talked about the ways that our family can share the love of Jesus this year. Then we did the Pumpkin Gospel craft from 1+1+1=1. We really enjoyed teaching the kids about this holiday, and teaching them about ways they can share the love of Christ.