Mandy’s Mondays - Learning about God on Black Friday

This Thanksgiving Brian and I decided to join the masses of individuals and families who woke at drastic hours in the morning, the day after Thanksgiving, to head to the stores to spend money on those great deals that were suppose to be happening - and mostly were!  Brian and I are not big shoppers, it is not like we decide to head to the mall to look around and hang out whenever we have free time.  But there is just something about Black Friday that we enjoy

Our babysitter arrived at 5:00 am and we were out the door by 5:30 with coffee travel mugs full and lots of anticipation for getting our shopping done and having fun doing it.   We were out until lunch time and the morning was really enjoyable.   There was the crazy long line at Circuit City where people were just waiting to get IN the store - we decided to not stop there!  We shopped around Old Navy, Children’s Place, and Kohl’s finding all sorts of fun things.  We took a break for Cinnabon and Starbucks and went in a few stores that were beyond our spending desires, just to look around.  I saw a group of ladies wearing black T-shirts that had simple white letters on the front that said “Friday” obviously this Black Friday shopping is a tradition for them.   It was a great morning and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

So what was it that I learned about the Lord on Black Friday?  I got to experience what I think He must feel in giving gifts just for the fun of it to His children!  I found myself seeing things all over the place that my children would love, and many of them I wanted to buy just to see the joy on their faces.  We bought a Dora doll for Isabelle and I think this thrilled me the most.  We had already planned to buy the older girls American Girl Dolls  and were not sure what to do for Isabelle.  When I saw the Dora doll I knew we did not need to think about it any longer.  Isabelle loves Dora!  And she know loves her Dora doll.  So while I was out shopping I got to thinking about how none of these gifts I was getting for my kids were they truly needing or could they not go with out, however I desired to give them to them for the sheer pleasure of my kids delight.  Is that what God does for us?  Does He give us things in our life just to see us in delight?  Does He receive pleasure from my joy?  I think He does!!  Now how cool is that?  I think it is pretty amazing!!

Then my second thought was do I show God my delight?  Do I do a good job of thanking Him for the gifts He gives, especially the ones that are not truly needed.  On Christmas evening Addie said to me “Mom, I could just never tell you how much in my heart I am thankful for my doll.”  And that made it all worth it, having joy in her delight!

So I am striving to be actively thanking God for His gifts and delighting in Him!!

2007 Year-In-Review

What happened with the Moore’s in 2007?  Check out our new Page, 2007 Year in review! And our Photo Memories  of 2007 Slideshow.

School Days, School Days…

…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!

A Momentus Day for Addie

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!

The Character of God being built up in us

Isn’t it ironic…as I sit down to write a post about the character qualities I am seeing God build in our children’s lives, two of them are fighting and hitting each other and have to take a time-out, apologize, forgive, etc. It is true that we ALL need time-outs every now and then AND that this is a process that takes time with lots of ups and downs!

Anyway, yesterday on the way to soccer practice we were talking about school ending soon and I asked Addie what qualities she sees in her teacher that she would like to have when she grows up. Addie answered, “Well, she has character, she reads fluently, and she teaches well. I want to be able to do that when I grow up. But I don’t know yet what I want to be when I grow up.” We assured her that she has lots of time to pursue whatever it is that God wants her to do to serve him with her talents and gifting. She said that her favorite part of first grade was being with her teacher, Mrs. Quinn.

Then on the way home from practice we got some Rita’s italian ice treats and Mandy told me the story that Addie told her earlier… One of her friends at school wanted Addie to bring extra treats in her lunch to give to the friend, but we had told Addie to either share the one or just give the one to the friend. Well her friend said “just get another one when your mom is not looking.” Addie responded saying that she wasn’t going to do that. Mandy told her that showed maturity to stand up for what is right. Then Addie said, “yeah, kinda like Elijah, or Elisha I can’t remember which one, when he stood up for God.”

It is so fun to see growth in your kids, and I am so thankful for the many people that have influenced them in positive ways…church children’s ministry workers, our friends, teachers, family members, and others. It takes a community to raise children who will live in the ways of the kingdom of God. Thanks to all you who help us.

Do you have any stories of people who have been a positive influence in your kids or in your life?

Faith of a Child

Last night we went to an Open House at Addie’s school.  It was great to get to see all the work she has been doing in school!  We got to look at a book she had made on geckos.  She had researched geckos, brainstormed, written sentences, typed and printed them, glued on pictures, made pages such as title page…dedication…about the author and even had it bound.  She was really excited about it and we loved seeing it!  But I must say the highlight of the evening was seeing her hero project that hung in the hallway.  Each student had written a few sentences describing their hero and drawn a picture to go along.  So who did Addie pick…  Addie picked God!!  There Brian and I stood in a public school hallway reading our daughter’s words about her hero who loves her and offers eternal life.  It brought tears to my eyes!!  You might wonder what you should draw for a picture of God.   Addie says a big light of course!

It is a thrill to watch our girls faith grow and develop!  Yesterday Emma collected a few missionary pictures at church and asked me if that was ok.  I told her yes but that they were to help people to remember to pray for them so it would be good to pray for the families she picked out.  When we got home she looked over the pictures over and over and then prayed for each one.

The faith of children is like a drink of bubbling fizzy cold coke.  It tastes oh so good and tickles your upper lip in the process.

Quick update

More time later today, just a note to say that things are going really well. We had a leaders meeting last night with the youth team to see what the “pulse” is and we are all very encouraged. We value your prayers intensely! God is dealing with our hearts and things in our lives. This morning’s message was “blessed are the meek” - pray for meekness to be built in us all.

Some think meekness is weakness or a deficient spirit, but it is truly great power under control. So as you are praying for meekness, pray for us to live a spirit controlled life. Galatians 5 is a good passage to read and pray for us all.

Pictures later, but Addie learned to ski yesterday in the Swiss Alps!!! she had a blast and woke up this morning asking me if we could go again. I told her “I wish we could, but what a privilege that we got to do it at all for a few hours.” She will have to tell about the face plant that she did in the 4 foot deep (at least) snow!
Emma is looking forward to going sledding on Wednesday with the teens. this isn’t your lancaster county sledding hill…we are talking 1.5 kilometer sledding hill!!!! wow!

Very memorable ministry and fun experiences for our family and the rest of the team.