Mary's Journey

Merry Christmas everyone! As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, I've been reflecting on that moment over 2000 years ago that our Savior came to us as a baby. I've gone to church my whole life, even though I haven't been a Christian my whole life, and have many memories of how the birth of Christ has been presented to me throughout my life. I can still remember my preschool Sunday School teacher telling us the story of Christmas on a flannel board with a little baby in a manger and all the other flannel "characters" in the Christmas story. As I got older, the story took on more meaning. I most certainly had a whole new respect for Mary after giving birth to my own children! Mary had no hospital, no monitors, no doctor and NO DRUGS! This past year I really reflected on the logistics of it all. Mary, a child herself, stands in the presence of God and is told that her virgin body will be with child. Imagine a teenager trying to tell her parents that today. "Mom, Dad, I'm pregnant, but really, I'm still a virgin. Seriously, it's okay, God told me I'm going to have His child." It sounds so absurd! I imagine, that most people didn't buy it when Joseph and Mary told people that all those years ago. If someone told me that, I'd wonder what drug they were high on. Mary's my idol! She trusted God and I'm sure that's why God chose her to give birth to His Son. My admiration for Joseph is no less. He could have easily walked away and gone on with life, but He didn't. God spoke to him too and Joseph's faith in God was stronger than any other outside influence.

Now I turn to the journey to Bethlehem. Mary traveled to Bethlehem on a donkey IN LABOR! I don't know about you, but when I was in labor, one of the last places I would want to be would be on a donkey! I can't imagine the pain she endured and the fear in her heart, remember, she was just a child herself. As if the pain wasn't enough, she had to give birth outside. Anyone who has ever been on a farm knows that it stinks! Not only does it stink, but it's not exactly sanitary. That cute little stable that is part of your Nativity Set at home is everything but the real stable where she gave birth. She gave birth in filth, where the animals lived. Really think about that....seriously think about the details and reality of that. That is how God chose for His one and only son to come into this world. God could have sent His son to be born in the finest facilities, to be raised like a King, to have everything at His disposal. However, what would that have accomplished? God came to save the poor, the broken, the lowest of society. There is no better way to reach those people than to live among them and love them. I imagine that's why the wealthy, the noble people had such a problem with Jesus. They thought they had it all together and God found favor in them for their riches. They couldn't be more wrong. What better way to teach them humility, gentleness, grace, patience, acceptance, kindness, than to come into the world as an innocent baby that would live among the poor.

Christ's birth and humble upbringing is why I love missions so much. It's what I loved about traveling to Guatemala and working among the poorest of people, the forgotten people. What better way to show them love than to invest in their lives. It's why I yearn to go to Africa. God love everyone, especially the poor, the marginalized, those seen as the lowest of society. It's God's call on me to reach them and love them the same way Christ lived and loved the lowest of society. What an incredible love He has for us!

Reaching Gilgal

Last week my incredibly awesome church celebrated "Vision Weekend." There are no words to describe what an amazing worship service we had. Our pastors shared all our church has accomplished this year, where God has lead us, where He continues to lead us and His constant faithfulness and blessings He's poured out on our church. Every second of that service was planned out perfectly, nothing left untouched, perfectly put together by the power of the Holy Spirit. I was moved to tears. If you would have told me a year ago what all God would accomplish that year at our church, I would have been very sceptical, but I have learned to NEVER doubt God! Several times during the service, my "Bestie" leaned over to me to say, "Can you believe this?" It's amazing how much God wants to do in our lives, IF we're just willing to let Him, to surrender to His plans instead of our plans. After the service, Bestie said to me, "What a difference a year makes." That statement is so true that it's an understatement!

One year ago, I was closing out a year that had been filled with change and disappointment. Then something amazing happened one year ago in November. That was the month we began to call CCV "home." That was the month Pastor Jeff preached a life changing sermon, "Divine Interruptions." It was then that God spoke so clearly to me that He was about to deliver me. He was going to move me beyond the uncomfortable changes He was making in my life and lead me to the "Promised Land." Now, here I stand, one year later, overwhelmed with joy for all God has accomplished in my life through the last year. Everything I had to go through, every battle I fought, my struggle to bring justice, my grasping on to God's promise for me, has now come full circle.

This reminds of the Children of Israel. After suffering in slavery in Egypt, God promised His children that He would lead them to a "Land of milk and honey," the Promised Land. It most certainly didn't come quickly or easily. They wandered in the desert for 40 years! When they finally entered the Promised Land, they came to a place called "Gilgal," meaning "circle" or "wheel." The Israelites had come full circle. God moved them from slavery to victory. God has moved me from "slavery" to victory. My slavery was a different kind of slavery though. My slavery was settling for comfortable, the mundane, in other words....boring. God used hurt and pain to move me towards change. That bold step of faith I made into change lead to PURE JOY! I too, like the Israelites, have come full circle, I have reached my Gilgal!

As I look ahead, only two weeks away from a new year, 2010, I'm so thankful for God's redemption and so excited to see what He has for me next. God has taught me a lot about embracing change. Change is God's way of growing me and molding me for good, to empower me to serve Him and live out His purpose for me in life. I am choosing not to settle, to believe that God is capable of doing what may seem impossible in the earthly realm. I'm believing God to work miracles in me just as He has at my church, because God can do more than I could ever imagine!

Swim Team Awards Banquet

Last weekend we enjoyed one of my favorite events of the holidays, the swim team's Annual Awards Banquet. This year the board decided to take all the work off of ourselves, THANK GOD, and hold it at a restaurant. The past few years we've held it in a banquet hall and all the board members had to do the setup and cleanup, at least we hired a caterer! We held the event at a local pizza place, and although it was louder, it was so much more relaxing for the board members. There are so many things I love about this event. Seeing the swimmers get awarded for all of their hard work brings joy to my soul. Many of these swimmers, including my daughter, swim 4-5 nights a week, 1 1/2 hours each night and travel near and far to compete in USA sanctioned swim meets. These are some incredibly disciplined kids! I also love interacting with all of the families. I see parents on the pool deck and there's always a little talking between events at meets, but I rarely get to socialize with the other parents and get to know what's going on in their lives. It's also a special time that I don't have to talk money with parents! (I'm the treasurer.) Makenna was awarded the "Persistence Award" for her hard work in the pool, her constant drive to do better and doing it all because she LOVES it! Years past, she's won the "Encouragement Award" for her encouragement to the other swimmers and her greatest award, "The Coach's Award" two years ago. That's the award of all awards for her overall hard work. We are so proud of her, proud to serve as board member for this swim club and proud that it's truly a family event with Kiley as Makenna's biggest (and LOUDEST) fan!

Makenna, Kiley & Alyssa with Coach Sharayah

Makenna wins the "Persistence Award" from Coaches Wade, Andrew & Sharayah

All the Board Members & Coaches

Thanksgiving isn't over yet.....time for the Stuters!

Thanksgiving didn't end with the Moore side of the family, Thanksgiving Day was spent with my side of the family. We packed the family into the car and braved the terrible traffic to travel to Wrightwood where my side of the family lives. We had a delicious meal at my parents' house, joined by my sister and her family. Over dinner, we laughed a lot as we shared stories from the past that have somehow grown into much bigger stories now. Of course, the infamous "coffee creamer" story from Thanksgiving several years ago was repeated over and over again. K and M had a great time playing with their cousins (both of which are about the same ages as my girls). The girls put on lots of shows, made up jokes and wrote stories. Everything they did HAD to have a very ATTENTIVE audience! My niece, Julia, performed her gymnastics skills, which eventually lead to memories of how I used to be able to "roll on my face." My niece later told us that the proper name for the trick is "The Scorpion." It was decided by all that I should attempt this very limber stunt again, thus began an hour long session of stretching. Jokes flew around that I wasn't allowed to perform until we verified that the paramedic that lives across the street was home. The big moment finally came that I had to perform, but after several attempts, I found I just wasn't as limber as I used to be, so I couldn't get the needed momentum to roll by body over. Julia, however, performed it perfectly and made us all cringe at her EXTREME flexibility.

My niece, Julia
My niece, Courtney & Makenna


My failed attempt at, "The Scorpion"

Crazy Moore Thanksgiving

With marriage comes the merging of families and since John has 3 siblings, that creates a lot of schedules to coordinate for holidays. When it comes to Thanksgiving, the Moores always celebrate the weekend before, which was today. We tend to be a crazy, fun-loving group with no shortage of laughter, food and some sort of injury each time we get together (however today we managed to escape injuries). There's always something crazy going on with the kids, due to the broad range of ages of the cousins. My nephew, Dustin is the oldest at 21 years old and my niece, Emily is the youngest at 2 years old with many more cousins of all ages in between.

The Christmas Costume Group

As with most holidays, we gathered at John's brother's house since it is ginormous and has an indoor and outdoor kitchen that can accommodate the mass amounts of food we prepare and devour. For the second year in a row, the turkey was cooked in the wood-burning pizza oven. Other regular food staples included grandpa Roger's home-made bread, cheese & crackers, baked potatoes dripping with butter, a fresh baked pizza from the pizza oven, a to-die-for dessert chocolate pizza also from the pizza oven and lots of wine. Needless to say, we ate well!

Ryely gives Kiley a piggy-back, while Kiley gives Collin a piggy-back.

Ryely with Kiley & Makenna.

We were all so happy that my nephew, Ryely, was able to fly home from college in Indiana to join us, it just wouldn't be the same without him. We were also thrilled to have John's Uncle John and Aunt Barbara join us from Northern California and my niece Piper's boyfriend, Jon. Yes, lots of Johns in this family. They got a taste of our craziness when half the family put on Christmas costumes and paraded around. They also joined in on a wide range of conversations including, spiders, morphing cockroaches, the amount of tissues it takes to kill a spider, Facebook quizzes, calculus, physics, public stupidity, who's the crazy aunt, Italian irons and mastering wine tasting. Yes, another Moore Thanksgiving has come and gone, but with Christmas just a month away, it won't be long for the craziness to begin again!

Go Away Flu!

Flu season is upon us and it chose to peek its sneaky head in our home. I already endured 2 kidney stones in just a 3 week period of time when just 3 days after passing the second stone, the flu hit and knocked me out for a good solid 9 days! John was it's next victim, but fortunately he had a much lighter version of it. Makenna was next with a real knock-out like mine. It probably didn't help that she competed in a swim meet the day before it hit her. To make matters worse, she competed in 2 long events, completely exhausting herself. Because of the weekend, she only missed 3 days of school, but unfortunately, one of them was the annual school Walk-And-Roll-A-Thon. :( For me, all this flu meant nearly 2 weeks stuck in the house! Now, I know I needed rest and some time to catch up on a few things at home, but God really knocked it to me. I spent 4 solid days in bed unable to do anything but sleep and catch up on everything on Tivo. Yes Lord, thank you for the rest. I then had lots of time to organize my office, do laundry, iron and everything else I needed to get done. I may have gone a little crazy while in confinement, but God reminded me that He's provided me with a home to live, a family to love and care for and friends that helped run the kids around. I am blessed!

Grace & Redemption

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Grace is a word I've used to define my life. By "grace," I mean God's unbelievable gift of forgiveness despite my unworthiness. It took me a long time to truly wrap my mind around God's grace. It wasn't until my early 30's that I completely let go of the guilt and shame I'd carried with me up until that point. Although I had been a Christian for awhile at that point, I hadn't released everything to Him. As much as I loved the Lord and had faith in Him, I was still holding onto several aspects of my life; I went with His Will only when it was my will and for some unexplainable reason, I just couldn't let go of that guilt and shame. Although the circumstances that caused that shame were so painful, I'd lived with that pain so long that it had become a part of me. It wasn't until the months following John's accident that I poured myself into prayer and scripture in a way I never had before. During that time, God convicted my heart so much that I slowly released my firm grasp on my guilt and shame. I AM a child of God and God loves me NO MATTER what. My sins died with Christ on that cross and I've been washed white as snow, as long as I'm willing to receive it. Wow! How sweet it is to rest in His grace!

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Ephesians 1:7

Around my mid 30's a new word started to define my life. That word is redemption. God's redemption didn't replace His grace, rather, it complimented it. As you see from the verse above in Ephesians, grace and redemption go hand-in-hand. I know God's redeeming love has always been with me, but around that time in my life, the circumstances of that period of my life gave redemption a whole new meaning to me. I was walking through another "growth spurt," in other words, I was going through a difficult time where God was molding me and growing my faith. Some of the things I had began to "expect" to always be there for me, were being moved around and even some were being completely removed from my life. I'm sure many of you can relate to how uncomfortable it is to be removed from your "comfort zone." That's when God's sweet redemption was poured out on me. Our God is a REDEEMER and whatever He takes from us is for our own good and He is ALWAYS faithful to redeem and ALWAYS gives back in great measure. In my case, I count everything I lost as well worth all He gave back to me because of my faith and obedience to His call on my life.

Now, back to my early 30's, as I accepted God's grace, I made a decision that marked me permanently......literally! I had the word "grace" tattooed on my abdomen. So, now the question lingers......do I now add the word "redeemed?"