We just spent a memorable, fun week with my family at Disney World. A wonderful gift from my parents that I am very thankful for. I shared several pictures on social media from the trip and God has put on my heart to tell you my real thoughts on Disney World, “the happiest, magical place on earth.”

A couple of years ago Matt and I took our oldest son when  it was just the three of us. When I got home from that trip I had this amazing amount of guilt that we would spend so much of our resources to vacation together when those resources could have been sent to the take the gospel to the unreached or serve the vulnerable. It’s a battle I still face in my mind and heart really every time I spend money on any luxury. Please know I am not saying its wrong to vacation…we just did it! It’s always the longings of the heart. What/Who am I chasing after? I battle all the time should we move to have a less mortgage so we can give more. I have to check my heart in the why am I spending money on whatever it may be from a $5 coffee drink to a house. I have to ask am I making that luxury an idol on my heart to satisfy me? Where am I laying up my treasures? Last year I had to turn from buying any article of clothing for a whole year because my heart attitude in the why I was buying something was all about me. No thing, no vacation, no person, no meal, nothing can quench the thirst in my soul except for Christ himself. And if we try to fill up on the things of this world we will be so distracted, so full that we won’t be hungry for the Bread of Life that alone satisfies the longings of our souls.

A trip to Disney World with your kids might be the epitome of the American Dream. Let me tell you though, dreams end and what’s only in Christ remains. For I have tasted and seen and there is something far better in Jesus. As I walked the streets in Disney World what I saw at times broke my heart. I saw so many parents yelling at their kids in the worst of ways and the Holy Spirit convicted me that I also do the same in different ways even at Disney World. You see special kinds of tantrums. You experience hot, crowded streets and long bus rides. Matt’s activity app said we walked about 10 miles average each day and our backs felt the effects of it. In the “Happiest place on earth” there is much brokenness. You see the effects of the fall of man when Adam and Eve listened to Satan in the garden.  God had told Adam and Eve if they ate of the tree in the garden “They would surely die.” God is always true to his Word. He always keeps His promises. And so after this first sin we see sickness, death, sorrow effect man. The wages of sin is death and we are all born under the curse of sin. God alone is holy and sin can not be in his presence and this first sin separated all of mankind from God.

The moment we are conceived we are sinners, born children of darkness. No one is born a child of God. Now each person is made by God, knit together in their mothers womb by God and known by God but no one is born his child. We are only adopted into Gods family by grace through faith in Christ alone. It is because of what Jesus did on that cross in Calvary 2,000 something years ago and rising from the dead that we may live when we turn to him in faith. While we were still sinners Christ died for us.

So as I walked the streets of Disney I thought about all of this as I looked at all the people God has created in his image, that he loves, that Christ paid the death penalty for drinking the cup of the wrath of God wondering if they had ever heard of his great love for them. I wondered if they had turned to Him or wondered if they were still filling the longings of their heart with things of this world, that can never satisfy and only lead to death. And I pray, Lord your Kingdom Come quickly.

For I have been to the happiest, places on earth and it’s not Disney World. The happiest places are the places you see the Light shining in the darkness. The places you see children who were once in darkness stepping into the Kingdom of God becoming children of Light. And there is no magic to it. It is the power of God bringing people into his eternal family. It’s reality. And there is nothing else that can hold a candle to it.

May you have a wonderful weekend worshipping our Risen, Lord and King!

~Lane

 

Also if you are unsure what the gospel is this 20 minute video from David Platt is very well worth a listen. It starts at about 30 second mark:) https://www.facebook.com/Radical.net/videos/1468852606556626/?hc_ref=ARS1s6rn_T9e1MzCK3afMvg_ChWmzNVVUL4esYHYH9LD8Bpwx91uvcBFAXHV7txLcFI

 

 

 

Hey friends~

Before I even write another word I must be upfront and honest.  I battle my own selfishness daily in motherhood. What happened in my house yesterday is nothing but ugly. I’m scarred to let you in this picture but I feel compelled to before I write more. So welcome to Sunday afternoon in my house.

How in the world can a house get so messy in two days is what is running through my mind? I don’t pick up for two days and now we can’t seem to see the floor. So I start my cleaning in a fit of rage. Going from room to room I pick up and put away while at the same time my one year old was in the process of literally emptying out baskets of toys all over the place(so really just doing what one year olds do). I let my husband get an earful that this is what I do everyday. I told him I was going crazy and how defeated I felt. I am not one to usually curse aloud but feeling that it was my right too I let out a word that I shouldn’t have. And that only made me feel worse. That’s what sin does. Sin enslaves you to shame. I then move into the kitchen that was now the clean room to find my child throwing everything out of his diaper bag. I tell him no. He doesn’t stop and so I only get louder and yell no again. Now he’s in tears and I feel like the worst mother on the planet.

I share all this with you because I’m in the trenches too. I fail daily and that is when I preach the gospel to myself. God’s grace is always greater when my heart wants to condemn me. Jesus took the wrath I deserve for my sin and it is finished. I am no longer condemned because of what Jesus did. And as a child of God I hate the sin that I still turn too because it keeps me from walking in the Spirit and in truth and reflecting his image to a dying world. I can’t walk in the Spirit if I’m choosing to walk in sin.  We experience freedom only in abiding in Christ and dying to self walking in his ways.

Wow so that was my intro to lay the ground work. I wanted to share the above because I’m in the trenches too.

Now to this post…

I shared this with a group of moms in my church fellowship last summer and it’s been on my heart to share it here. I keep seeing so many articles about what is wrong with todays kids. As a young mom they really aren’t encouraging at all.

We live in a world where we are constantly hearing about all that can go wrong and seeing how our peers are doing. We hear about moms who lose their child and they end up in a gorilla cage in the zoo or remember the child attacked by an alligator at Disney. Those moms are then attacked in the media. And then on the other hand  we can daily hear about being a helicopter mom or a lawn mower mom and how we need to let kids learn and be kids. We live in a world where we constantly read a new article on facebook about new dangers in the world…electric shock drowning, the toxicity of sunscreen, slides being covered with glass, a child swallowing a fidget spinner, the reality of human trafficking, the new drug of child pornography, children being shot and killed. This list goes on and on. As moms we are constantly being told things to fear and everything we need to do to help our child succeed. On tap of that we we read things posted about everything thats wrong with todays children blaming the parents.

Hear this: the fear of man is always a trap.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10). It is only in having a right view of God and who we are in Christ can we find rest. When our eyes are looking at Jesus the fears of this world fade and our thoughts are taken captive to Christ. For we can take heart in Christ for he has overcome the world. Yes, in this world we will have trouble but we rest in the truth that Jesus has overcome the world.

It is a daily battle field for my mind in this world but God continues to faithfully meet me in His Word. God transforms me and renews my thinking in His Word. God transforms my desires, my longings, my thoughts and my fears.

So Mama’s lets encourage each other and build each other up and pour into each others little ones like they are our own. Because they are. When you are in Christ we belong to each other in Christ(Romans 12). Let us rejoice, mourn, encourage, rebuke in love, and serve one another all for the glory of God. Lets not invoke fear of man or shame but encourage and build one another up in love. We need each other. Older women pour into and teach younger women in love and younger women listen. There is no room for judgement or condemnation only serving each other in love all for the glory of God.

Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge. We get lots of knowledge in our day of all the dangers in this world as our finger tips scroll through news feeds. We can’t apply anything we learn without first seeing that apart from Christ we cant do anything good. We must first remember and see we are sinners who deserve nothing but the full wrath of God. BUT God in his great love and mercy saved us while we were dead in transgressions. We are dead apart from Christ and without him we can’t do anything good.  Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit when you call on his name turning to him and you are sealed in Him. So when I think about walking in the fear of the Lord I think about surrendering in reverent worship and walking in full dependency on Jesus.

Wherever you are friend lean hard on Jesus. And when you feel you can’t go on lean harder on Jesus and don’t hesitate to reach out to sisters in Christ. For we belong to one another(Romans 12:5).

I can’t begin to get this motherhood thing right unless I first take each day walking as who I am a child myself…A child of God depending fully on Jesus and resting fully in the truth that Jesus is making ALL things new. And in the meanwhile I am Christ’s ambassador here in a dying world and that includes first being an ambassador to my kids.

~Lane