A New Family Tradition

Two years ago I felt inspired to teach my kids how to celebrate the Lord. I’m talking about celebrating to a large degree, the way the Jewish people celebrate the Lord with several day festivals, special foods & dances. Jewish celebrations connect children and families to the story of God; they celebrate to remember God at work in their lives. Sounds seriously fun!! We could take one day as a family to celebrate and remember the Lord in a way that would be meaningful to each of us (from my 13 year old down to my 6 year old). Plus, I have an intense personality and that sounded intensely awesome! Turns out it’s fun to create your own family tradition from scratch. I put together a loose plan with several options and then we see how things go as the day progresses, not feeling the need to cram everything in! It’s a cozy day to enjoy God together.

I want it to be a true celebration: great food and dancing (hahaha), something my kids talk about with a sparkle in their eye and want to help plan! Spending time in worship and remembering what God did that year are a general focus of the day. It’s been important that I not get too serious about the whole thing. I try to give lots of choices. I want our kids to enjoy God in a way that makes sense to them and is actually fun (why did I feel like I needed to say that? Oh dear).

We normally start the day with “soaking”. Soaking is basically focusing your heart and mind on God. You enjoy His nearness. You meditate on His word. When we soak, we put on some worship music and we have fun/relax/get creative with the Lord. Honestly, I did have to lose a little religiousity to enjoy this with my kids but I’m telling you, kids have big hearts. When you tell them “we’re going to spend time with God while we’re building cool stuff with our legos! We can ask God for ideas, and come up with ideas together with God and then build things”, they engage in it! What looks just like play to us, childlike to us, can be powerful places of encounter. It creates a familiarity with God’s closeness and how He can meet us in the midst of anything. Yay God! For Mckenzie, my 11 year old, soaking might look like drawing a God-inspired picture in a sketchbook. There are obviously lots of ways to be creative. Even just reading the Bible or journaling. This year a new kids worship CD had come out with a DVD and lots of fun dancing. We gave it to the kids for Christmas and saved it for that day. The kids loved it and we had fun worshipping together. The year before we had Travis pull out his guitar and the kids picked songs they wanted to sing.

We’ve also had a lot of fun sitting around the table sipping hot cocoa and reading through some of our favorite Bible stories, marveling at how weird the stories are and how awesome God is. At some point in the afternoon we like to watch a Bible story movie.

New for us this year, we decided it could be fun to each put together a collaged canvas that would be a prophetic picture of our year. We put on some worship music, found a relaxing spot and we each asked God for one descriptive word for ourselves and a word for our family. With quiet worship music on, I laid out a poster and we asked God to show us pictures in our imaginations of what He wanted to do this year in our family. After about 10/15 minutes, we put all the family words into a cup, prayed over it and my husband, Travis, pulled one word out. Hold on to your panties: the word isn’t very intense, it’s “FUN”! “Fun” is God’s word for our year! It’s hard not to look forward to a year with that word hanging around!  Next, we tried to find pictures in magazines that represented the pictures drawn on the family poster during soaking. We each decorated our own small canvas with our personal word and other symbolic/meaningful pictures. The kids now have them up in their rooms. On the extra large canvas for our family we have the word “fun” in the middle surrounded by all the other words (not originally drawn from the cup) as well as meaningful pictures. It is far from perfect but perfect for us! I love this because it hangs in our kitchen all year, a reminder of the way God sees things and how He is at work in our family.

Abbie's word (9 yrs old): Brave

Peter's word (6 yrs old): BIG

Food can make a day special and this what we did: Breakfast and lunch we kept simple. I don’t remember breakfast but lunch was a slam-dunk favorite: mac n cheese. I know, fancy!! We had a hot chocolate bar. At dinner we went all out with cheese, meat and chocolate fondues. During dinner we talked through the year and made a list of the things we saw God do. This is so good for the heart. God is with us--in real, tangible ways. It was soo encouraging!!! 

I imagine as the kids grow, we’ll be able to include a few more things in our day. Here are some of my ideas we didn’t get to:

1. Picking a family memory verse for the year

2. Praying over the world map and seeing what God highlights for us to pray into.

3. Brainstormed/planned service & giving for the year.

4. Picking out Bible verse promises we can each pray over Emilie that year. (My daughter, Emilie, suffers from severe epilepsy and significant developmental delay. We pray continuously for her total healing and restoration).

5. Talking with God about family dreams & desires/deciding on some impossible things we can all pray about together.

There are many options and lots of room for creativity. I’m hoping to cover a few of those topics throughout the year on some of our family nights. We plan to purchase a family journal to write down our yearly remembrances, words, verses, etc. This will be precious in the future! I have the past 2 years’ info written down, we plan on transferring it. (Inwardly, I simultaneously laugh and cringe. I really think we’ll get to it!) I’m wondering if we should purchase one for each of the kids so they have a copy as they start their own families one day.

So there it is: something FUN to think about. It can be as simple or complex as you make it. Such sweet memories and a super encouraging way to start your year!

Whether or not this is your thing, may you be flooded with creativity in the ways you help your kids connect with God! Thank you Jesus that You LOVE showing up in our family life, You love opening Your world to us.

My Parenting Philosophy aka The Secret to Everything You Will Ever Need; A Letter to my Boy

My Sweet Joshua Jet,

I love you with all my heart. Even in your tinyness you have capture my heart in the biggest way possible. I want the world for you. I want you to feel the safest and most loved anyone has ever felt. I want you to have the most encouragement, fun, wisdom, treats, peace, and joy possible! I want you to have every single resource to enable you to dream without limits or impossibilities, and find all those dreams fulfilled. I want the world for you. Normally, this would be an impossible promise to guarantee, but luckily we don’t subscribe to ‘normal’. I promise these things to you and more beyond what you could ever ask for or imagine. Everything you’ll ever want or need is found in one thing: the ever-present, overwhelmingly loving and empowering, dripping-with-goodness Presence of God. His Presence in your life is literally all you will need. His presence is in the tangibly felt ooey gooey wrap around warmness of love. It’s in the “knowing that you know, that you know” even when you don’t feel it. God dreamt of you from the very beginning of eternity, awaiting your arrival. He formed you with intention in every detail. He knows you better than you could ever know yourself and everything he sees is beautiful! There is nothing you will lack that can’t be found in intimacy with Him. There is no question that he doesn’t have the answer to. There’s no loss too great, no sadness too deep, no anger too big that won’t find peace and refuge in His Presence. There is no craving too big that can’t be satisfied in Him. No need is too small for Him and no dream is too big. There is nothing in life so constant, so fulfilling, so joyful, so loving, so for you like Jesus’ presence. Sit with Him. Feel His liquid love surround you as you realize He has been there the whole time. Find yourself in His Presence. His Spirit never stops speaking about the amazing person He sees you to be. Spend time getting to know Jesus in the quiet place, and then go into the world and know He is still just as close in the day to day. Know that all things you see are being sustained by His supernatural loving presence. Know that you are fully sustained and empowered by that same presence. Test the limits of His goodness. Walk the edge of loving too extravagantly, of giving too much, of laughing too often and then jump in with both feet. Because the Father’s presence will always protect you, and His will for you is an open pasture. Let your choices not be informed by money, popularity, ‘reality’, or others, but by what Holy Spirit says is true. Because no matter what situation you find yourself in, this promise will always stand: “Seek first God’s kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well.” (Matt 6:33) Heal the sick, raise the dead, and displace demons. Bring restoration and love to people around you. Prophesy what God loves about them and the good things He intends for them. Your giftings are endless, and your anointings will change the world. But always root yourself in the most important thing in life: the outrageously kind, fiercely loving, all consuming Presence of Jesus. Because the meaning of life as I see it, my little one, was best summarized by Martin Luther: “Man's [purpose] is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.” As much as I try, I won’t have all the answers, I cant protect you from everything, and I wont be the perfect mama, but I promise I will always point you to the one who does, who can and who will. In intimacy with Jesus you will truly have everything you will ever need.

Love, 

Mama

I am a fearless child grower!

It’s amazing what God teaches us through our children- even from the beginning. A week after one of my closest friends passed away, my husband and I found out we were pregnant. God’s timing could not have been more perfect! In the midst of tragedy He brought LIFE, and announcing the baby brought so much joy and fresh hope to all of us. We were elated, and still are, as we are awaiting little Joshua Jet’s arrival in August.

Fighting in prayer alongside my friends and contending for our loved one’s life was a two month ordeal that left me clinging to God as I felt confused and fearful. I started to see worry manifest in my day to day as the baby was growing. At first, fear came to me with the lie that I might miscarry the baby. Fear is not from God and can only bring lies (John 10:10). But God is so faithful! As I came to him with my worries and fears, I clearly heard him say “You will carry this baby to full term.”

Important side note: God speaks to us so clearly! The Bible refers to Jesus as the Word, which means it’s in His nature to talk A LOT. (Maybe that’s where I get it from? ;)) In John 10 Jesus says that His sheep have the inherent ability to recognize His voice, and that He gives abundant, full life. All of that to say, God is always speaking, I can always tune in to what He is saying, and what he is saying is always going to give me abundant life. (Important side note ended.)

My worrying hit an all time high around the fifth or sixth month. By that time I was enjoying feeling the baby tumble and jumble inside of my belly. What an amazing experience! But one day, I barley noticed him moving at all. He wasn’t super active at his normal times and I started to panic. I called my midwife and she helped me calm down and suggested I sit for 20 minutes and only focus on feeling the baby move. So I sat in my car, cranked up some worship music and welcomed God’s presence into my fear-filled atmosphere. “God, what is going on in there? Is my baby ok?” I asked. I felt God speak to my heart saying “He is healthy and as happy as a clam. Remember what I told you at the beginning? You will carry this baby to full term!” As I let God’s words soak into my spirit, I felt His peace and perfect love overwhelm my fears. And of course I felt the baby nudging away at my tummy.

Through my little buddy, God has been teaching more about what it means to be completely dependent on Him. There are things I can do to help ensure my baby gets what he needs to be healthy such as taking vitamins, getting check ups, etc.. But for the most part, his growth and formation are out of my control. Growing Joshua has ingrained in my spirit my absolute need for God. I have to hear His truth daily to sustain my spirit. I have no other option than to rely fully on his abundant goodness and love for me. And most of all I must, must, must be aware of His overwhelming presence in my day to day life. That way, fearful thoughts and worry have no room in my mind, things get a whole lot less serious, and I get to enjoy and rest in the fullness of His joy! Because Jesus is with me, I am an only-hopes-for-the-best, fearless child grower! 

The Princes/Prostitute Situation

We moved to a place where there are lots of opportunities to be able to partner with God as our protector.   Really that's a Kingdom perspective spin on drive by's, prostitution, gangs, drugs and what not
s that have happened by our home in the last 4 years.

We sometimes get "flack" from others about how it's not safe to have our children in this neighborhood.  My simple response is that we are in the safest place because we are in His will. There are countless amounts of times where Jesus gave us dreams, sent people, and feelings on how to pray and be safe.  To these I will talk about later.

What we get to be a part of is teaching our kids to love people and see them how God sees them and to refrain from judgement and fear from people that obviously need a new touch from the Lord.  As hard as it is we are visually confronted with people doing drugs, drunk, yelling crazy things, mostly naked, etc and our kiddos see it.  We try to protect them with what we can but also it's such a great opportunity to be a teaching moment of love.  "How does God see this person?" "What do you think happened to them?" "Let's pray for them."

About 3 years ago the kids and I were weeding the extensive rock wall outside our home and battling the PNW blackberry vines that never seem to end, we heard some yelling.  I quickly sent the children in the fence and told Benji to call 911 as it seemed like it could escalate quickly.

It was a woman and a man outside our home and he was emptying her purse looking for her money that she owed him.  She was crying and obviously distraught.  I marched across the street and stared into the man's face and told him he needed to leave because I called the cops.  He looked at me and left ( I fully believe there was an angel standing behind me).  I started helping this poor lady (which was obviously a prostitute) pick up her purse and clean herself off.  I grabbed her arm and told her to look into my eyes and began prophesying over her who she is.  Jesus showed me how much of a princess she really is and how she deserves to be treated like one.  This kept going for a little and she was finally calm and the guy showed up again.  I chased him off and watched him walk three houses down from ours into his house.  Yep. This was my neighbor and I wasn't aware.  She left and I went back into our house.

The kids asked me what happened completely freaking out.  I told them there was a bad man that was trying to take away this princesses purse and take her money, but Jesus took care of him.  Perspective is everything.

The kids will still bring this up to us.  "Mom remember the princess and that guy?" We walked them through healing of fear and how God protects us and that your parents will as well.  Also, guess what? My kids are changing that woman's life by prophesying out loud that she is in fact a princess. Our words are crazy powerful especially when we partner with God's words over people and situations.

An update: The guy has recently sold his house and moved out of the neighborhood!!!!! I have not seen a prostitute by our house since.

Kids Can Hear from God in Dire Situations

So picture this . . .

My 4 year old Snow and I in a car in a foreign city, phone dies, and the address to the house we were staying at was on my phone.  I had two choices.  Pure and legit panic and scar my daughter for life with possible choice words fleeing from my very large mouth OR take a deep breathe and make this a learning moment.This time I chose the learning moment.  Key phrase "this time" hahah.

So I asked Snow to ask Jesus in a very rehearsed calm voice which way we should go.  In her sweet little tiny voice she said to turn left, then right, then go left.  So I did just that.

I thought I knew where I was going so I took matters in my own hands and took a left.  Wrong!!!! She piped up and said "Mom, Jesus said that wasn't the right way to go you were supposed to turn right."  Can we sing/say in an Oprah voice "Conviction?"

So she promptly told me which way to get back on track.  Within a few minutes we were home.

We laughed and thanked God for getting us there.

The take away: Kids are super powerful.  Sometimes they hear right and sometimes they don't.  Just like us.  We don't sweat the "mistakes" but cheer on that we tried.  Remember adults this is for us as well.  I've learned God just loves to take a dire situation and make it beautiful beyond our imagination.  This is a story we will remember always and what a great one to remind our kids of how powerful they are and that they can hear from the Creator of the Universe.

Blessings of sudden inspiration and creativity to you all in any situation.  May you notice them like an amazing pair of mom jeans.  hahaha
Abbi Rodes

Hearing from God for lost things and learning God is fun!

Hearing from God can be tricky as we are constantly learning His voice and because God loves relationships, He sometimes changes how He speaks to us.

We have learned more and more how much of a friend Jesus is to us.  He loves to play with us, help us find things, joke around, and be silly.  

Lost toys:
Sam was pretty good at losing his toys especially baseballs, soccer balls, and various items.  Notice I didn't say he still does it? Mostly because I'm trying to be prophetic and not curse him for the future. hahaha.  When he was about 5 he lost his baseball somewhere and we well, were tired of looking.  Benji (my husband) asked him to ask Jesus where it is.  He closed his sweet little eyes and stopped for a second, opened his eyes and took off toward the bushes.  Reached in and found the ball. BOOM! Legit hearing from the Lord. This launched a whole new way of parenting for us. Because really the question, "Do you remember where you had it last?" doesn't do any good.  If we knew where we had it last we wouldn't have lost the item. haha. Sometimes he finds it, sometimes he doesn't.  Sometimes he wants us to ask Jesus and sometimes he just wants us to find it because he was being lazy.  That is when another type of tool for parenting comes in ha.

Hide and Seek:
About a year ago my kids who were then, 7 and 4 were playing hide and seek.  Sam (7 year old) had a large advantage to finding hiding places through his years of wisdom from this so called game of hide and seek.  Snow (4 year old) was still at the stage where she was so excited she would tell you where she was hiding.  The challenge in front of us was how in the world this could work fairly.

Snow was spending an enormous amount of time looking for Sam and getting frustrated.  Sam, always winning was loving the game and Snow was kinda fed up.  Insert learning opportunity here.  In the middle of trying to find Sam, Snow came up to me crying and worn out from the game.  God gave me an idea . . . ask Jesus where Sam is.  She yelled out, "He's upstairs in the closet!" In about 3 seconds Sam was found.  This happened about 3 more times where Snow was hearing exactly from the Lord and we were so excited and proud of her.  Then Sam was angry.  "Mom, Snow is cheating!  She's asking Jesus where I am and Jesus is telling her!" Bahahahahaha.  Who would have ever thought that would be something a 7 year old would be angry about.

So we encouraged Sam to ask Jesus where to hide. hahaha. 

I'm learning more and more that as my kids have a conflict there is such a great opportunity to partner with hearing and listening to Jesus and what He is doing or saying.  I am still learning to do this myself and I super fail mostly until I get hit upside the head either by my friends or the Holy Spirit reminding me His perspective is always the right one.  His perspective is way better than what we can see in front of our eyes.

Abbi Rodes

Developing Hearing From God. The Fun Way.

When my son Sam was around 2.5-3 years old or as he called it "yittle" we started paying attention to what he said and asking him to ask Jesus what He thinks about things.

I've learned through epic failure that kids want to learn the fun way.  Not through serious matters but through fun little things and getting a good base down before we hit them with big things like "What does God say about us moving across the continent?" kinda stuff.

Once when Sam had acquired a beautiful shiny quarter and it was held in his hand with his chubby sweaty fingers for probably a good 10 minutes before the glowing gumball machine made it's way into his vision.  Funny how those things are always at the perfect height for little eyes ha.  We took full advantage of the situation.

Letting go of all the knowledge I have from the chemicals and dyes in the gum I gave in.  I asked Sam to ask Jesus what color the gum ball was going to be when it came out.  "Blue!" he yelled emphatically.  With a twist of the machine out came a blue gumball.  Immediately his mouth was full of wonderfully horrible blue saliva and his cheek was twice the size.  We were all shocked and excited so we asked him to try it again. "White!" he yelled! White is was.  Yep another gumball in the other cheek.  We decided to let him try one more time.  "Yellow!" Out came a shiny wonderfully chemically ridden gumball and straight into his mouth.  Despite the apparent choking hazard of three gumballs and a huge amount of colorful gumball juice in his mouth we all cheered.

We tried it one more time and he didn't get it right but we celebrated the success of listening and hearing God's voice.  Also Benji (my husband) got a gumball so win win.

It was so fun and thus begun the journey and adventures of Sam listening and hearing the voice of God through treats.

Abbi Rodes