The Light in My Window

The Light in My Window

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

My Dining Room Table and Ministry

This morning brought a welcome change as I opened my window blinds and sunshine came pouring into the rooms of my home. Yesterday was one of those dark, cold, rainy, and windy January days when nobody wants to be outside.

But today, as the sun filled every corner of the room, as sunshine always does it illuminated dust and some crumbs on my dining room table.
I got a damp cloth and began wiping the table, and as I did, memory after memory flashed through my mind of years around that dining room table:

  • Countless family meals - from when our kids were at home, to just the two of us, to the years when we began squeezing in married children with their spouses and now children and babies.
  • The family devotions and planning and talking
  • The homework and the homeschooling and test-taking and paper-writing that took place there.
  • The craft projects and the scrapbooking that would fill the table and I would have to clear it all so we would have a place to eat.
  • The years in Illinois when our decorated table held a bounty of appetizers and special desserts for the Christmas Open House that we hosted for our church every year.
  • The many, many times church teenagers and college students gathered around the table for playing games and talking and eating pizza and tacos and sloppy joes.
  • The times of fellowship and refreshments enjoyed there when we invited church board members and Sunday School classes and church members to our home.
  • The times when we hosted evangelists, missionaries, and other pastors for meals and we would sit around the table for hours afterwards hearing their stories and learning from them. Some of these guests are now in heaven.
  • So many times of coffee and counseling and Bible studies and tears and laughter at our table

When we moved, my husband tried to talk me into giving up our table in favor of a smaller one that would fit better into the space at our apartment. I couldn't do it, and because we don't have the money to buy another table, we didn't pursue it. And now I know why it meant so much to me. It's not just a piece of furniture. It is the memories connected with it, and most notably, the ministry that took place around it.

As all these memories filled my mind, I found myself in tears when I recalled all the times of ministry that had happened around our dining room table. A lot of people don't understand the significance of that, or our sadness at not being in full-time ministry right now. And unless you have been called to serve the Lord vocationally and have yielded to that call and spent most of your married life doing nothing but ministry, it probably will seem foreign to you. Simply put, it is about doing what we were called to do. We are trusting the Lord that if it is His will that in His perfect time He will open another door of full-time ministry for us again. If not, we have determined that we will be content in serving in whatever ways He opens to us. Which leads me to this thought:

We can, and should, still serve the Lord no matter what our life situation is.

One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 2:10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." This verse really struck home while I was meditating on serving the Lord. A missionary speaker many years ago explained (and I have heard this same meaning expounded many times since that message) that the word "workmanship" means "masterpiece." Specifically, His "unique piece of poetry." Doesn't that make you understand this verse better? I have never forgotten that.

But the verse goes on to say that we were created to do good works, and God has prepared those ways for us to serve Him in eternity past. That means, friends, that good works and serving is not limited to "ministry."

I began thinking of the "good works" and serving that God has prepared for me, and that I can do right now - things that are just as important as full-time ministry. I want to remember not to lose sight of the everyday opportunities around me when searching for "big" ways to serve the Lord.

I can be a support and helper to my husband.
I can be an encourager and prayer warrior for our children.
I can be a role model of a Godly woman to our daughters and granddaughters.
I can share Scripture verses and the love of God in small kindnesses.
I can make someone's day better instead of harder.
I can teach and encourage through my avenue of writing.

I'm thankful for the years and opportunities of ministry around my dining room table. But as long as God leaves me here, He still has things for me to do. He does for you, too.

I think I will never look at my dining room table in the same way again.

Thoughtfully,
Kathi












Friday, January 13, 2017

New Year Planning

I know I'm a couple weeks late but....Happy New Year! I have been away from the blog longer than I hoped, but the last few weeks have been nothing short of crazy. I sincerely hope I never have to move 2 weeks before Christmas again! I do hope you had a wonderful and blessed Christmas with loved ones, celebrating the coming of our Savior. Our Christmas was quite different this year, having just moved and still being in the midst of unpacking and settling into a new home. This is the first year we have not been home for Christmas in almost 25 years. Being in the ministry meant we always had to be home for Christmas, and our children came to us. This year, we have one son who is too far away to come home for Christmas, and a daughter who just gave birth on December 12 to our newest grandchild (see my last post), so we were thankful and happy to be able to spend Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day at the home of our older son and his family. Four grandchildren between the ages of 6 months and 8 years made our Christmas busy and fun!

The week between Christmas and New Years I made a lot of progress getting settled in our new home. We finally have unpacked our last box (I think)! Besides unpacking and organizing I spent some special times with the Lord that week, praying about and considering my goals, Bible reading plan, and choosing my verse and word for 2017. I have come to relish the week between Christmas and New Years as one in which I can really do some preparation of my heart for the coming year.  For many years, I have prayerfully chosen a special verse of Scripture for the coming new year. I highlight it in my Bible and memorize it. I'm not one for New Years Resolutions, but I firmly believe in personal goal setting, because if we don't stop and take stock on a regular basis we will find ourselves drifting or becoming stagnant.

For my Bible reading plan this year I am doing a chronological reading plan. This takes you through the entire Bible in a year, but in the chronological order in which Biblical events took place. You can find a plan like this in many Bible apps and so far I am really enjoying it.

This is just the second year that I have chosen a special word for the year. In 2016 my word was "perspective." This proved to be an appropriate choice, because as I looked back at this past year, there were many times I had to remind myself that my perspective on things is very different than God's. When we view the events of our lives from our limited perspective and dwell on our own reasoning, we are setting ourselves up for problems. This is the "But I thought..." focus - the way I think things should be or should work out, and when they are not that way, we can become very distressed and discouraged. This is something that I know I will have to continue to work on.

My new word for 2017 is "contentment." I hate to think of the number of books I have read and lessons I have taught on the topic of contentment, because it is clear to me that I have a long way to go when it comes to being truly content with what God has allowed or given me. As I meditated on it, contentment ties into the verses I selected to be my 2017 verses. Last year my verse was short and sweet (1 Chron. 16:11). This year, it is more than one verse, and verses that I have already memorized and always treasured.

Psalm 37:3-5: "Trust in the Lord, and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."

Contentment comes into the picture here because if I am not actively choosing to be content with what God has done, what He has given me, and where he has placed me, then that means I am delighting in those other things that I am wanting or wishing for more than I am delighting in Him. His promise to give us the desires of our heart is not a "give us whatever we want" promise, or one that will make everything turn out perfectly. It means that if we truly have our delight in Him and make him our exceeding joy (Psalm 43:4) then His desires will become our own. I specifically included verse 3 because it reminds me to
  •  trust in the Lord - in the One who knows all and does everything out of love for me, for my good and His glory. We are in a position now more than ever where we have to just trust the Lord for all the unknowns.
  • do good - continue to do what is right according to His Word, even if I am misunderstood or mistreated.
  • dwell in the land and befriend, or cultivate, faithfulness. I need to just be faithful wherever he has put me and look for opportunities to serve and be a blessing (more about this in a future blog post).
How are you doing this second week of 2017? It isn't too late for a fresh start! May the Lord bless you in this coming year. Thanks for reading my blog! I hope to be a blessing and source of encouragement to you this year as I continue to write.

Kathi