Life, Kids, God...

For those of you with children, you totally get the chaos of life; wondering how you fit God and ministry into the midst of responsibilities as a parent. All the while, desiring to be a faithful follower of Jesus and a good parent at the same time. I know for me, there are so many moments when I have to stop and show myself...really put into my field of vision, my selfishness. Here I am wondering how I'm supposed to fit God and ministry into my life when all the while I'm suppose to be allowing God to be the center of my life and let everything else fit in accordingly. To top it all off I know, intellectually, that if I put God at the center of my life I will be able to be a better person in my dealings with every other person I come into contact with. So I find, that intellectually, I truly know the mindset I'm to have but practically speaking, it doesn't always flesh itself out in my life. Thank God for his grace, his mercy, and his reminders.

Ya...I took a picture of a picture...

First time out to eat!

For those of you who don't know, my son Malakai has a condition called Microtia/Atresia. Long story short, he doesn't have a right ear as well as no opening to the inner ear and no ear canal. Yesterday (monday) we had one of his regularly scheduled appointments to check how his hearing is progressing, have his bone conducting hearing aid tested to make sure it's still working properly, and to let us know how the audiologists think he's doing. While there, I was reminded of God's faithfulness. We were living in India for half of Malakai's pregnancy. There was never any hint that he would have a birth defect. In fact, we didn't find out until he was born. The months after he was born were foggy at best but one of the biggest ways we saw God's faithfulness was how he provided the hearing aid. We're talking a $6,000 hearing aid that we received at no cost to us. God has been faithful to us in so many ways. It's amazing that Malakai is actually ahead of his peers. He gets to go to a special pre-preschool program for hearing impaired and he's leading his 3 year old peers (he just turned 2 last august) in class. John 9:1-3 is the verse we've claimed over his life. It ends by saying, "neither this man nor his parents sinned...but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." (Jesus' words)

The reminder for me as a husband, father, and pastor...revolve my whole being around God, the Scriptures, and His glory being revealed through my life. "He works all things for the good (His idea of good), of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) Would we be encouraged as followers of Jesus; that as we simply put God at the center of our lives, we will find ourselves radically displaying God through the ministry of our lives.


~Chris~