Without Love... my reminder for the night

(For the curious... the answer to where we were is on the post below this one!)  :o)

I had just settled happily onto the couch for the evening, after a late night getting the kids tucked into bed and many trips back upstairs to tend to their various "needs".  After only a few minutes rest, Seth called out, yet again, from his upstairs bedroom.  "Mo-om, I want to tell you something.  Can you come here please?" 

I have to admit, I'm thankful he wasn't close enough to hear my pitiful sigh as I paused wearily at the bottom of the staircase before ascending to his room.  I had been really looking forward to some time to myself.  Ahh, there was that great parenting resource book I've been reading... or I was thinking about writing a family update post on our blog... and I was eager to do a little more adoption reasearch too... so many things I had my heart set on doing in my precious free time tonight.  And now my time was getting cut even shorter.

As I picked my tired feet up the flight of old stairs, I could feel a little twinge in my heart.  It wasn't too strong or too loud... it was that still, small voice I knew well.  And it was quietly calling for an attitude change. 
"Mmm hmm", I inwardly noded, understanding God's reminder to me.  It was my love for my children that drove me to invest in those other things in the first place.  ... Still, I entered Seth's room with an agenda of getting things taken care of, and then getting back downstairs as quickly as I could...

Forty-five minutes later I stood in Seth's doorway, telling him that I loved him and wishing him sweet dreams.  My expression was softer, and so was my heart.  Oh, yes, it had taken time, quite a bit of time.  And now I wouldn't be able to do all those "super important" things tonight.... But that was ok.  I had spent forty-five minutes with a little boy who just needed some reassuring.  When I entered, his sweet, tender heart was concerned about something, and he was sad to the point of tears.  He was happy now, smiling and laying peacefully close to sleep.  How thankful I was that I hadn't simply yelled up the stairs for him to quiet down and go to bed, as I had selfishly wanted to, without even checking to see if he had a legitimate issue or if he was mearly stalling for more awake time.  

After all, what good are my great parenting books, and blogging about the four of us, and the desire to expand our family through adoption if I'm reacting selfishly and without putting my love for them into action right now? 

Hmmm.  Not much good, I guess.

I'm glad for the reminder.  



"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing. 
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

A New Thing...

God has been working out a new thing in our lives...

Hello friends,

Today we want to share with you the story about something the Lord has been creating in our lives for the past five years. If you want to skip over the details of our journey, just scroll down until the words are black again. If not, put your feet up, maybe grab a cup of coffee or some chocolate ;o) and keep reading as we tell you about how we came to this point...

(Steve will give his perspective in blue and mine will be in red.)

Around daybreak on a brisk October morning almost five years ago, we, along with our senior pastor and his wife, piled into a van (Steve had joined the church as a full time youth pastor the previous spring). We were headed to our conference's annual "family gathering" weekend. We chatted about small things and big things and enjoyed our ride together. We were looking forward to this weekend, as it was the first time we had attended the family gathering...

I never imagined something would ignite a spark and an interest inside me that weekend which would change the course of our future.

While we were at the family gathering we all had the opportunity to learn more about ministry initiatives our conference had been working on. One evening featured a progressive dinner, where we were encouraged to eat different courses of our meal in specified rooms. Each room focused on a different ministry. In the rooms we learned about ministry work in the Philippines and Ukraine, as well as an outreach for inner-city children, and our conference's church planting (starting new churches) focus. They were all great ministries, but the room featuring church planting attracted my attention.

In between programs that weekend we had the chance to visit with other people from all over the state. I had been encouraged to start making connections with other people in ministry and I was eager to do so. One of my many conversations that weekend stands out in my memory. I was talking with Mark, a man who I later discovered is the "coach" for church planters in the northern and central part of the state for our conference. During that conversation, Mark apparently saw something in me and encouraged me to think about church planting in the future. The idea of church planting was exciting and intriguing to me, but since we had just started at our church, the idea was filed away for some later time.

We had a wonderful weekend. When we got home, Steve casually brought up the idea of planting a church some time in the future. I was not only uninterested in the idea, I was very opposed. We had just purchased a home, I was expecting our first child, and I knew we both agreed that serving our present ministries was God's will for our life at that time. I didn't even want to think about (or talk about) what other things God might have in store for us in years to come!

I agreed that God wanted us to be where we were. I put the idea to rest and we continued to pour ourselves into youth ministry. Interestingly enough, and un-initiated by me, the topic of church planting continued to pop up in conversations I had with people at various events and locations. It seemed like everywhere I turned, people were approaching me about considering church planting in my future. From the things other people were saying, it seemed like God may have wired me to be involved in planting a church. However, the idea of church planting was still something I considered to be for "down the road".

The next time church planting came up was three years ago, when we were approached by some people about taking the lead pastor position in a new church plant in our state.

I had been very closed to the notion of church planting up until the summer Steve was approached about this particular possibility. Earlier that same summer I had a miscarriage. Through the pain of that event, God did a work in me and softened my heart toward many things. I saw clearly for the first time how my priorities were off. I had been clinging so tightly to the things of the world (like our home and living in such a nice little town) that I hadn't even been open to the possibility that God might bring us elsewhere at some point. I was comfortable and the things around me were familiar. And I was scared to be disrupted from that comfort and familiarity.

Ultimately, I came to the point of surrendering my own will and confessing honestly to the Lord and to Steve that I would go wherever God lead us. I wanted to go where He lead, and I knew I could be content and satisfied as long as I had Him. I wanted to serve with Steve and to be used mightily by the Lord to do great things for His glory. Wherever that might be.

This offer three years ago was the first time we considered the idea of church planting to be a real possibility in our lives. It was now more than just a neat idea... and we had a decision to make. It was something Nat and I prayed earnestly about for about the span of a month. At the end of that time, we were able to confidently say that taking this new position would have meant disobedience to God. The right thing for us to do was to stay where we were. God wasn't done with us there yet...

Following that decision, we were blessed to see God reward our obedience. We have experienced much joy and we've been humbled to see how the Lord graciously allowed our ministry to be fruitful. We have deeply enjoyed our time here and have grown in our affections toward the people in our church and community. We also believe our ministry has been maturing under godly leadership, guidance, and opportunities during our time here. We have often commented about how thankful we are to the Lord for allowing us to begin in ministry here, where we have felt so cared for by the church body.

Church planting didn't become a consideration again until last summer. At that time we were encouraged to attend a national assessment center for church planting hopefuls. The center is a four day, highly intensive, observation period where multiple assessors scrutinize personality traits, giftings, as well as the spiritual, emotional, and relational health of the assessees. Natalie and I prayerfully considered going to the assessment center and came to the conclusion that we should indeed go. In late March we went to Orlando, Florida for our assessment.

Often since Steve's introduction to the idea of church planting, we have commented that we believe God would work in our hearts individually so we would know his plans for our life and ultimately be on the same page about it. Interestingly, last summer we began to have hearts and minds aligned in regards to our desire to plant a church some day. That alignment and confidence in His plan has continued to increase as we attended the assessment center (and also since we've returned home).

The assessment center gives each candidate one of four recommendations including"Not Recommended", "Recommended with Strong Conditions", "Recommend with Some Conditions" and "Fully Recommended". We anxiously awaited the final day when we would find out if we were recommended to start a church.

I had been very sick off and on during this time, beginning about an hour before Steve and I were supposed to begin our flight to Florida. The nausea was so extreme by our last morning at assessment that I couldn't make it to the final meeting to discover our outcome. Steve left the hotel room that morning as I was curled up in a ball on the bed, clutching the garbage can beside me. Weary from the intensity of the week and the nausea that plagued me, I quietly prayed that God would affirm our desire to plant a church or else lead us clearly in another direction.

A few hours later Steve returned. As Steve knelt beside the bed where I laid, his expression was hard to discern. My eyes silently asked the question we had both been wondering all week.

"We were fully recommended," he said with a smile. Relief and happiness washed over me.

I still had many concerns about how this would all work out. We have so much yet to learn about how to start a new church, and so much would be out of my comfort zone. Yet, I was glad.

"I told you, my child, this is right. You don't have to be afraid. I am with you in this" another voice gently spoke to me. Although the voice wasn't audible, I knew it and trusted it...

...We were going to plant a church!

So, that was in March. In between then and now we have prayed and traveled, waited, prayed, and traveled some more, seeking to find the town where God would have us start a new ministry. After logging many miles and seeking wisdom from many godly friends, as well as listening to God's spirit in our own hearts, we have come to a decision we feel peace about. Lord willing, we will stay here through the school year and then at the end of May embark on this new adventure to plant a church. The town we have chosen is within a couple hours from here. We're still a little uncertain whether we will disclose the location on our blog or not, but if you happen to be interested right now, you can leave a note in the comment section or email us (snkrier@live.com) and we will let you know personally where we will be moving to!

Thanks for sticking with us through this story! Isn't it interesting how God works in our lives, preparing us for His purposes? And how sometimes He changes our hearts so that the very thing we were against or scared of becomes the thing we long to do?

We think so. ;o)

Accomplishing our purpose? One year blogging...

Earlier this week I happened to be looking at our first blog post and was a bit surprised to realize that we have been part of the blog world for one year already. It has been really fun to read about the journeys of many other bloggers, as well as to share ours. Seeing that first post of ours made me pause for a few moments to ponder if I have been accomplishing the purpose I set out to achieve here. I do hope to offer a little bit for everyone who stops by... updates on our family, pictures showing what Seth and Haddie are up to, as well as an occasional recipe or little family living tip we've learned along the way...

The biggest reason I wanted to create a blog, however, was to have another way to tell the world (or whoever is interested!) a little bit about our deepest passion and the cry of our hearts. We want to share about how Jesus Christ has changed our lives and has given us a new purpose for living. We long to praise His Name... and maybe, hopefully, point others a little closer to Him as we share our journey with you.

So, in the upcoming weeks and months we hope to continue our "40 Days of Faith" (see links on the left hand side of this bog if you missed our first 13 stories). Also, be sure to check us out a week from tomorrow as we share publicly for the first time some BIG NEWS about what God is doing in our family... something that has been in the works for FIVE YEARS! Hehe - we're excited!! ;o)

I'm going to leave you with the first picture I put on our blog. It's Seth and Haddie eating freshly picked apples outside of our house a year ago. Following that is a picture I took this morning of the two of them eating apple slices in our yard. They've changed a bit! ;o)

So, thank you for stopping by. We hope you have enjoyed this past year of "Like Potter's Clay", and we hope you stay with us to see what happens in the coming year!
Blessings to you all!

Sept. '08

Sept. '09

Joyful Ride

The fresh August wind was blowing through our open windows, swirling my hair around my face as we drove down the county road. I didn't mind though. It was such a beautiful day, we couldn't help but drive with the windows open.
The music from Seth's current favorite song poured out our speakers and we all grinned as he sang along. (To get a better taste of what our drive was like, click here and press the "play" button to listen to the song Seth loves when you finish reading this post!) :o)





The sun warmed our arms as they rested on the open windows, and we looked out at the lush green fields with keen awareness of God's majesty reflected in his creation.

Pausing from his singing, Seth belted out, "Hey mom, I love God!"

As soon as the sentence had left Seth's mouth, Haddie piped up joyfully, "I love God TOO!"

Steve and I immediately looked at each other with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts.

It was a beautiful day.

And this was a joyful ride.

chewing the cud

"God always gives his best

to those who leave

the choice with him."

~Jim Elliot

I was looking online for a certain Jim Elliot quote when I stumbled across this one.

It made me stop and think.

...hmmm, gotta chew on that one a little bit...

So often I want, want, want (specific things too, mind you).

And I often let God know what I'm wanting (like he doesn't know already).

And then I remind him again. And again.

...chewing, chewing...

Yep, that one's a good reminder.

When I trust God with my wants/needs he's faithful, and he probably even has a better plan in mind than I had!

Someone might need to remind me to chew on that one again next week! ;o)

Good Question...

Sometimes I come across a thought or idea that spurs me on to do something big....
Recently Steve told me about some neat things he was reading on the blog of Pastor Perry Noble, so I decided to check it out. I was really challenged and motivated, and I think that a lot of you would be too, if you read it. ... So, I wrote to Mr. Noble and asked permission to share his thoughts. (He said yes.)

Please read the following. He asks a really good question... it might even change your life.

We all have them…life changing moments, you know, the ones where the world seems to stand still and you come face to face with something that just about engulfs you…
It happened to me in August of 1999. I was having lunch with a friend/mentor of mine at Red Lobster (LOVE their garlic cheese biscuits!) I had been restless for about six months and I knew God was pushing me towards something…but I wasn’t sure what. AND…I didn’t want my restlessness to turn into rebellion by me trying to force something…so I began processing with him out loud…
And he asked me THIS question…

“What would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail?”

I knew the answer…I didn’t even have to think about it…it literally just flew out of my mouth, “I would plant a church.”
He looked at me dead in the eye and said, “then you are a coward if you don’t!”
SO…literally…at that moment I said “yes” to the call I knew God had placed on my life. I didn’t know the answers (still don’t), I didn’t know anything about strategy or structure, didn’t know how technology would play a part of the church, didn’t know how we were going to establish leadership…I didn’t know a LOT…
BUT…what I did know is that God had placed a DREAM inside of me to plant a church…and when Dale asked me the question I mentioned earlier it SHOOK me…and DROVE me to take a DIVE of faith.
SO…what about you…what would YOU be willing to attempt for God if you KNEW you could not fail?
If the answer isn’t, “what I am doing right now” then I would say you need to do some serious praying and rearranging.
You see…life is SHORT…our days are numbered…and God didn’t put us on this planet to screw around…but rather to MAKE A DIFFERENCE by USING what HE has given us to advance HIS Kingdom and MAKE HIM FAMOUS!
Too many of us are held captive by fear…but remember He is THE MOST HIGH GOD!!! Never let fear trump the potential God has placed in you!
Too many of us are held captive by the unknown…but remember HE KNOWS! Besides…if we have EVERY answer to every question then what He is comanding us to do would not require faith on our part…and where would the fun be in that?!?!?!
Too many of us are held captive by people who say “it” can’t be done…but if you will look at who is saying that “it” you will discover that they aren’t actually doing anything except for trying to hold back the people God is letting loose to do ministry.
Too many of us are held captive by critics…but if you will notice Jesus was criticized…and, if you are not experiencing some opposition then that means the enemy is pleased with you…not exactly the calling our lives should fulfill!!!
What would you be willing to attempt for God if you KNEW you could not fail?
You’ve GOT to beg Him for revelation on this…and when He gives you the Word…you’ve GOT to act. God doesn’t reveal Himself to us so that we can CONSIDER IT…but rather so that we will be CONSUMED by it and OBEY HIS VOICE!
BTW…if the thing that you would attempt scares you to death…if you have had sleepless nights thinking about it…if you KNOW that failure is a sure thing unless HE gets involved…then you should probably make a move…SOON! (Like…maybe even RIGHT NOW!!!)
When Dale asked me that question I told myself, “I’ve got nothing to lose…I am going to give this a shot…I don’t want to waste my life and then look back 20 years from now and begin asking ‘what if’ questions!” (AND…you don’t want that for yourself either!!!)
SO…what would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail? You’re not waiting on Him…He’s waiting on you…do you need to make a move, share Christ with someone, plant a church, change careers…WHAT IS IT that BURNS YOUR HEART and DRAWS YOU to DESPERATE DEPENDENCE ON HIM?
What would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail? Can you imagine what the world would be like if all of us allowed that question to drive the vision for our lives?
What about it?

No baby should experience this

Last night I had a dream about babies. It was a happy dream filled with chubby, cooing, content little ones. My mind must have created these pictures in my dreams because we have several friends who are either expecting or just had babies. I'm pretty sure I woke up smiling at the thought of these little darlings.
A short while later the smile faded as I read a blog post from the author, Tom Davis. He wrote about the urgent need for formula for malnourished babies in Ethiopia. My heart is wrenched by the thought of children and babies who starve to death as their mothers hold their tiny bodies and wish they had some bit of food or milk to give them.
No child (or parent, for that matter) should experience this atrocity. It might seem kind of sick, but I am including a picture of a baby on Tom's blog, followed by a photo of my chubby little Haddie to compare it to.
Babies like Haddie are so common in our country. For the most part, nourishment and health care are availiable. The same cannot be said of many countries around the world.

I don't write this to make anyone feel guilty or miserable. I do hope that others might have a desire to take action. Thinking about the dire needs of people around the world isn't comfortable... but then again, is comfort the supreme goal we should aspire to? For too many years I cared about situations like the babies in Ethiopia, but I always thought it was someone else's responsibility to act. God has changed my heart and has turned my focus away from myself. I realized that if I am aware, I am responsible to do something.
If the top photo or this information pulls at your heart strings, please go to Tom's Blog. Just click here http://tomdavis.typepad.com/tom_daviss_blog/ You may need to scroll down to the "May 4" posting. He has more information there and a way to make donations. If there is nothing you can do financially (or even if you can!) would you please stop what you are doing and pray for these children? Many lives are facing certain death today.
Thank you.