What Can Brown Do For You?

I want to first say, that if you missed the Kick-Off event for Just Give Me Jesus Waco, I am sorry for you, friend. I do hope that you will consider going to the revival in September. Please get your MomAgenda out and write the date down. September 11-12, 2009. As I was there, I was astonished at how many young women were NOT there. There were a handful, but surely we can represent better than that. I know, I KNOW it is hard to do things like that during the week. I probably would not have gone had I not been invited many many many times by my MIL! SO, no sweat, but please pray about how you can serve in the upcoming months....as I would say in my sorority, glory days, "Get EXCITED, girls!!"

I have to tell you that I am a skeptic when it comes to hearing people "preach." Or "deliver a message". Whatever you want to call it. I want to be moved and touched and convicted every time. Maybe that is not fair, BUT it is what I want when I hear a sermon. Anne-Graham Lotz convicted me on Tuesday night. Sometimes, I feel sorry for people who have to follow in their parent's footsteps. Can you imagine being Billy Graham's children? The PRESSURE!! Don't feel sorry for her. She holds her own. The message was too too close to home.

I would not do her any justice to even try to paraphrase or summarize what she talked about. My words would totally botch it up. I can tell you what I heard from the message. She talked about how we don't always like the way God packages things in our lives. It's not the gift wrap with the pretty bows and paper. Sometimes, it is just an ugly brown package. And we don't like the way it looks. When all the while, the inside is awaiting us...and it is good.

Lost jobs, wounded relationships, abuse, poor health, death. Where is the good in it? And worst, how can we praise God for these "brown packages?" I think about the times in my life when I don't like what is handed to me. Especially because I for sure do not want to wait on what good will come out of it! How do I praise Him through the event? In spite of the event I am facing...can I still be a woman of God? Am I still that contagious infection of His love like I mentioned earlier? I am sad to say that my answer is truthfully NO. I throw out the brown package before I open it and see the wonderful gift inside.

My favorite part of the message was when she talked about how no one wanted to hear about my love for Jesus if my hair, house, dress, car, marriage, children....life was always perfect! People want to be able to relate to struggles! They want to see that your overcame the doom still loving The Savior! How often do we try to pretend our lives are perfect? For me, it is more often than I would like to admit!

I challenge you all to think of your brown package today. Think and pray on it. What is making you angry about your life? Are you bitter? Jealous? Did The Lord leave a brown package at your doorstep that you threw out? Go get that package and try to upwrap it...use it to His Glory. Thank Him for it. What came out of it? Praise Him.

Romans 5:3-5 "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. "

xoxo