Tonight is family fun night and we are celebrating the girls doing well on their daily responsibilities with a movie night! We were doing some searching online for what movie to watch, and went the direction of more classic than new release. So we are going to watch Beauty and the Beast and eat pizza together!

While searching online we came across this clever rendition of “the cotton eyed joe”. Then Addie started teaching us a dance that they learned in school to “yankee doodle”. Then I put something together that I never thought of before. In the south we learn the “cotton eyed joe” and up here in the north they learn “yankee doodle”! Is that right? Any northerners learn the cotton eyed joe in school or learn square dancing like we did in Texas??

Here is some further information on the history of “cotton eyed joe” and “yankee doodle”.

While I was in college at Columbia International University, having the wonderful privilege of studying the Bible and learning how to teach, I came across a verse that has become my life verse. It is in the Old Testament, which fits me perfectly because I just love the Old Testament and find myself reading there more than anywhere else. There is just something about the narrative portions of Scripture where one has the opportunity to see the truth and realities of God fleshed out in the lives of the people in the OT, that I find fascinating. So here I was preparing a lesson to teach on the life of Ezra to second graders and I read something that grabbed my heart and made my blood run!! Ezra 7:10 and here is what it says (in the NAS translation) “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to practice it and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.” Now I may need to do some explaining if you are to understand what I love about this verse and how it is a life long challenge to me.

Ezra was a priest working in Israel during the days when the Israelite people were returning to their land after being in captivity in Babylon/Persia for 70 years. I have heard it explained that Ezra was there to rebuild the people as Nehemiah was to rebuild the wall and Zerubable was to rebuild the temple. Ezra read the laws of God to the people and instructed them in how God desires for them to live. He was a passionate convicted man, which you can glen from reading his book in the Bible. And I believe this one verse summed up his life.

He set it in his heart - He made a decision and made it his goal and purpose!

That he would: 1) Study the law of the Lord 2) Practice it and 3) teach it!

Notice the order: study, practice, teach. I was so encouraged and convicted that day when I first read it and I am still today. I want to set it in my own heart and make it my own goal and purpose to study God’s Word. To then seek to put those things into practice, to allow the Word of God and His Spirit to transform my life into something more like Himself and less like myself. And then as the Lord gives me the opportunities I want to share with others what He has been teaching me. If I skip any step then I am minimizing God’s work in my life and in others. I am standing in the way of what God truely wants to do and am left with something of myself, a pathetic replacement.

Next week I am teaching at Study & Share, our women’s Bible study at church, on prayer. So my challenge for myself this week is to follow Ezra’s example. I have been studying up on prayer and the specific topic I was asked to cover, and now I am going to put in the practice so that I might share with the ladies what He has taught me.

Are you teaching this week? I bet you are even if you do not realize it! Will you be leading your first Mpact (or small group) meeting? Are you teaching in Sunday School? Do you have kids at home that you long to see understand things of God? Will you have the chance to share with someone at work how the Lord is your strength and encouragement? Will there be teenagers hanging out at your house this weekend and you can never guess what they might ask you? I know the Lord will bring you an opportunity! He loves to have His word shared with others!! So join me in studying, practicing and teaching for God’s glory. May we be more like Him in the process!

…Good old Golden Rule Days!

Life has been very crazy here in the Moore family…but sometimes crazy is good. I have described it to several friends as the “perfect storm” of life coming together all at once…nothing of a tragic nature though, so we can be thankful for that!
One of the exciting things is that Addie returned to school to 2nd grade and Emma went to school for the first time in Kindergarten! It has been a great transition back to school schedule and seeing the excitement of the girls. Addie is well adjusted to a full day of school after making that step last year to 1st grade. Part of the excitement is that Emma gets to ride the bus home with Addie. Also, Emma is taking off in reading skills already.

Isabelle is not without her new things as she is back in pre-school twice a week and now is doing her speech therapy once a week and learning very quickly. She is saying many more words, and beginning to use some without being asked. Someone passed her in church on Sunday and said “Hi Isabelle” and she responded back “Hi” with a little wave! That hasn’t really happened before like that. A big help in our communication with her is that she is using “yes” and “no” very well. Sometimes she may be confused by the question and the default response is “yes”. One day when she wasn’t obeying in something continually, I asked her “do you need to have a spanking?” and she looked at me with bright eyes and said “yes”! I just laughed with her! She says “eease” more (which is Please) and other new words.
Below is a picture of her friend Sawyer taking her on another car date! Last year Sawyer had trouble getting her in the car, this time it appears that he’s having a tough time with the conversation! Click here for her last date last year.

And lastly, I have started another round of classes at Biblical Seminary. This trimester I have decided to try two classes. I am taking Missional Theology on campus and Greek 1 online. I commute once a week to the Philadelphia area and am able to carpool with another student from our area. I chose to do the online greek because I have taken 2 years of greek in my undergraduate work and have a familiarity with the material. Even with that familiarity it is a lot of work!
Despite the craziness and the loads of work, I am really enjoying the challenge of studies at Biblical Seminary. I chose this seminary because of their unique pursuit of training ministry leaders very practically to minister in the culture in which we live. In fact their mission is:

“To prepare missional leaders who incarnate the story of Jesus with humility and authenticity and who communicate the story with fidelity to Scripture, appreciation of the Christian tradition, and sensitivity to the needs and aspirations of postmodern culture.”

The school is taking much criticism these days from some alumni and others that have been afraid of the direction of the emerging church movement that the seminary is involved with. I find it very stimulating to study there even when things are said that I am uncomfortable with, it causes me to think more deeply about what I think and believe and why. The professor of my Missional Theology class, John Franke, has been one of the people that the critics are most critical of…all I know right now is that I have a lot of reading to get done before I see him in class today at 1:30!!! Better GO!

This morning we had the daunting task of putting together the Mpact (small) groups for our Student Ministry. These groups are the backbone of our ministry here at Calvary Church, we are a ministry of small groups not a ministry with small groups. So I found myself in the church board room with my three youngest children (running around and playing all over the room) trying to place leaders and teenagers into groups. It is a hard task I must say!! And why in the world do I choose to spend my time like this, much less drag my kids there to do it???? Because I love teenagers! It is such a great age and stage in a person’s life. In adolescence the individual is beginning to solidify who they are and who they desire to become. It is here that many set the course for their lives. It was true in my own life, in fact in one month in 1989 I met the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior and I met Brian who would become my husband. (Now not everyone meets their future mate while in adolescence, that would be the minority of experiences!)

I love the energy and enthusiasm of teenagers! I love to joke around with them and act like a teen myself sometimes. I love missions trips, retreats, sleep overs, and movie nights (but I must say I hate Lock Outs!!) I love sharing with them things I have learned about the Lord and amazing things I have found in His Word! I love seeing them grasp Christianity with both hands and make it their own. I love to watch them step out in faith and soar!

So I am excited and pumped about this new Mpact year! I will be helping eight leaders to lead four groups of Junior High girls. It is going to be crazy at times but if the Lord has anything to do with it, and by faith I believe He will, then it will matter for eternity! Because I am convinced that He loves teenagers even more than I can think or imagine!

I have been rolling around in my head the idea to do a weekly blog, and since both my first and last name begin with “M” I figured “M”onday was the day to do it.  I have not completely decided what this weekly blog will be.  Here are a few things I have considered:

- Thoughts and exhortations for those working with teenage girls (Over the last few years I have been helping high school girls lead Junior High small groups.  This comes out of the years I have lead groups on my own and worked with teens as a volunteer.  Brian and I started working with teenagers in 1993 so there are a lot of years of fun stuff to look back on and that I have learned from.)

- Things I have recently read that I found exciting and profound :)  Most of the time these will deal with Scripture passages.  I am a teacher at heart and one of my greatest joys is to share with others amazing things in God’s Word.  I am not coming at this thinking I am all that!  I just want to share what I have read and been encouraged by.

-  Thoughts on culture and their search for God.  People are searching they just don’t always know what for.

What I am not going to blog about:

-being a Mom (We share a lot about our family on this site so I figure I can do that at other times :)  Mondays will just be me sharing about life and ministry as a daughter of the King of the Universe

So check back next week for the first official Mandy’s Monday and give it a try.  Maybe it will be something worth reading

Yesterday was an exciting day for our family!!

Addie took the step of being baptized! For about a year and a half she has been asking us to be able to do this, but we wanted her to be able to express in her own words what it meant and why she was being baptized. So as we were making preparations for a baptism celebration, she spoke up and said that she would like to be involved. She went through the class, interview, testimony preparation, and the whole deal!

Click below to hear the audio of her testimony of faith in Jesus Christ and then below that to watch her be baptized with Mandy, Emma, and her friend Kyra standing by.

It is important to us as parents that we help her to understand her commitment to follow in the ways of Jesus as she grows older. As the years progress this will become more and more a faith that she has of her own, coming out of the heritage of the faith of her family. Please pray with us for Addie and our other children to love God with all their heart and to love others as God has loved us!

Every year we say we wish we could spend many many days in the Dallas area, and there are several reasons for this! We have some great treasured friendships there that we would love to spend a lengthy time with. It always seems we are there for less than 24 hours and get to see only a few. Someday it may be different. One of our treasured Dallas friends (whose friendship goes back to high school for both Brian and I) are the Risleys!! We stayed at their house is Euless and soaked up all we could of being together with them for such a short time. It was GREAT!

The Risley’s took us out on their boat and Brian got to ski. Addie really wanted to and started trying to get up when the weather turned stormy and we had to call it a day It would have been super to get to see her skiing…it will have to be another time!!

The girls enjoyed playing with Katie and even left her a scavenger hunt in the house to follow and have fun with to find treasures of pictures they had made her.

Dallas … to be continued on some other tour