Remember His Promises

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

When I was 15 God put on my heart the desire to serve Him full-time, I didn't know where and how or when. So in the years to follow, often I would wonder what He had in store for me. I felt like a little kid on a big road trip asking: 'Are we there yet?'.  Meanwhile I used my time to grow in His knowledge, perfecting my English, because I didn't know where I was going but English is the language spoken most everywhere in the world. There were times where I was very discouraged because I still didn't understand what the Lord had planned for me. Not knowing His complete plan was hard! I served within my home church, I helped in evangelism outreaches, I would spend my summers on mission trips often within Italy. The Lord used those years to mold me, to teach me more about Him, and to get me ready for what He had planned for the future, and He got me ready to meet my future husband too. Slowly but surely, He was also adding to that desire to serve Him. As I grew spiritually and served more, my gifts would show more too, my passion for both evangelism and discipling grew more.
This verse in Jeremiah was my encouragement, to remember always that He has a plan for each one of us and that He will bring it to completion. Every thing will happen at its own time for our good. As I look back I can see how the Lord has put the different pieces of puzzle of my life all together...and there are still many more pieces that I have yet to see put in place. Looking back to see what the Lord has already done in my life reminds me to remember His promises. He takes care of us, He has done it in the past and will still do it in the future. As I sit here in California wondering what His plans are for us, if we will ever go back to Italy and when, I realize that He has still more to reveal for our lives. He has already written all the pages of our lives but He reads to us only one page at the time. What does that do? It keeps us trusting in Him, it reminds us that we are limited in the hands of an amazing unlimited God.
I know that there are many people out there wondering like I do about what tomorrow holds, all I can say is that His plans are for welfare and not for evil, to give us a future and a hope. 
In the hard times, or when we wonder, the best thing to do is remember His promises!

What are you thankful for today?

This past weekend we went up to the mountains, precisely we were at Pine Mountain, CA. It was a good time to reconnect with God's creation and our family. We live in a city, on a main road, so we hear cars driving by all the time and sirens at every hour of the day...and night! We see a squirrel every now and then  and birds on the tree next to our window, but that's about it. Well, for three days we were blessed to be in the middle of nature. We slept with no sirens and woke up with chirping birds, we sat outside on the patio reading books, we played board games and watched Annie and The Pursuit of Happiness. We went on our very first family hike, saw the bottom of a waterfall, sat down and had lunch near a stream of water. Saw birds of every color and kind, with blue wings, red chest; we saw a deer eating a flower from a bush in somebody's garden. We saw squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits. I saw my very first skunk and a humming bird flew right up to my face! Later I found out that I was wearing red, so the joke of the day was that the poor bird thought I was a giant flower! We saw a clear full moon and a sky full of stars! We went around collecting pinecones. We played a thank you game where every morning we had to write down what we were thankful for in these days. On day one Hannah was thankful because she saw two rabbits and because she was in the forest.

 

It is nice to be able to be thankful for the little things, not for the iPad, or the Nintendo...but for the simple things that surround us.

I am so grateful that the Lord allowed us to have this time off and blessed us with three days up on the mountain to look at His creation without the distraction of our daily life and to be amazed by the beauty of everything out there. 

Sitting quietly with only the noises of chirping birds and a goat in distance, the wind blowing on my skin and the sun shining on my face I was in awe of God's amazing power. All these beautiful things He made, the care He has for every single little animal are a constant reminder that He has the same care for us also. What an amazing God we have!

I am thankful because this amazing God saved me and made it possible for me to sit here and praise Him! 

What an amazing God we have!

What are you thankful for today?

The Tale of the Frogs

"A man has joy in an apt answer, 

And how delightful is a timely word!"

Prov. 15:23

Of late I have been reading a book with some of the ladies leaving in our same apartment building, I found this illustration and I wanted to share it with you.

"A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump out of the pit with all of their might. The groups of frog kept telling them to stop because they were as good as dead.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died. The second frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. You see this frog was deaf, unable to hear what he others were saying. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift him up and help him make it though the day. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill him. Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path. The power of words....an encouraging word can go such a long way. May your words be a blessing to someone today."

- Author unknown

Italians know very well how to criticize but they usually don't say encouraging words...as an Italian I have been learning the task of having a gracious word on my mouth. I was attending a college class this past spring and we had to evaluate each other messages...I was so good at finding what they did wrong in their public speaking but I noticed I was struggling in trying to find what they did well. I had to start taking notes of the things they did best so that I encouraged at the end. 

It is so true that with our words we can encourage or tear someone down. I hope you take the challenge with me today to have an uplifting word today for those who will be on our path. :)

A reminder from Paul

"I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness-with good works. Let a woman learn quietly in with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet."

1 Timothy 2:8-13

Today in my quiet time I went over these verses and they were just a sweet reminder of what should be the focus of a godly woman. We should adorn ourselves with good works and not with things that this world offers us. It is not important how we look on the outside but much more how we are on the inside. We can be beautiful, have wonderful eyes, well done hair, wonderful clothing...but have not a heart that wants to live for God, ready to obey, ready to show love, mercy, grace...etc. 

Should we look trashy? Not at all, but our main focus should be becoming a better woman who pleases God, that knows Him more. Our goal should not be to catch the eye of any man but to get to see God saying "Good job, my dear!".

Teaching to Change Lives

My pastor once told me: “look at the Jordan river and at the Dead Sea, one has fresh water continually while the other has nasty smelly water. One receives water and gives it out and the other just receives and keeps it for itself. Which one would you like to be?”. This year I was reading the book "Teaching to change lives" by Dr. H. Hendricks and I gathered three important principles in teaching:

1. Always Be a Learner - to be able to teach others we should always be students ourselves. We need to have the attitude of not yet having arrived and wanting to know more. Schools have programs made purposely for teachers so that they can learn new material that comes out, new discoveries, and new ways of teaching. How much more should we as Christians, who are involved in teaching or discipling, always desire to learn more. The moment we have stopped learning we become like stagnant waters. We have no fresh intake and no fresh teaching for our hearers. 
2. Always Use Your Heart - “the greatest teachers... are the people who have great heart. They communicate as a total person and they communicate to the total person of their hearers” (pg 87) Speaking heart to heart is meeting the other person where he or she is, on their ground. As teachers, our desire should be not only to pass information brain to brain, but to see the teaching as it grasps the hearts of our students. This can be possible only if we teach from our hearts first.
3. Always Leave an Impact -  we want to see lives changed, this is our goal (or it should be). In order to teach this way we need to be involved in our students’ lives. We must be active with a purpose. The greatest example for us in this area was Jesus, as we read in Acts 1:1, He first did and then he taught the disciples. We see this played out in His teaching on prayer. He didn’t say “ I want to teach you about prayer” but He lived such a life that the disciples went to him asking to learn from his prayer life. He is the perfect example of a teacher who spent time with his “students” teaching them to love, to have faith, to be compassionate, etc. In the same way we need to be involved in our students lives, to the point of leaving an impact.

So what type of communicators do we want to be? If we want to give out fresh water we need to be always studying and learning more from the Word of God, but also those truths should be passed on from our hearts and right into our students hearts. Finally we should make sure we invest in our students with the purpose of enhancing the teaching and with the desire that it will hopefully bring a change.

I was really impacted this year by listening to H. Hendricks,  in his early years a great teacher decided to invest in his life and he became a great man and teacher. May we bless others today as we learn from God and pass that on to others.

A Bittersweet Providence

When our new mission asked us to move down to Sicily my heart was broken, I loved our ministry in the North, I loved my friends and church. After seeking God's direction we moved down. We packed our whole house, left what I still think it was the best house we have ever had, friends and a minstry that we loved and knew and took off on a 2 day moving journey. Once in Sicily we struggled finding a place to live. In a couple weeks Josh was leaving to go to the States for three months. On a nice Sunday potluck at church we were frightned by the noise of a car crashing into another car...that other car was ours!! In a few weeks I found myself houseless, carless, away from our known ministry and friends, my husband was leaving and I got to move back with my parents while waiting for his return. I felt like Job. I had only two things that I cared for and I was afraid the Lord would take even those away as He did for the rest.

Thankfully the three months went by, albeit very slowly and after visiting all the churches he had to visit Josh finally came back. 

That year a new book was released by John Piper "A sweet and bitter providence", Josh managed to get me the book. The book follows the story of Naomi and how when her husband and her kids died she was bitter. The Lord had taken from her everything. They left because of a famine, went to a foreign land and there both her husband and sons died. It seemed like circumstances were so bad to Naomi and if we would stop here it would seem as if it was the worst story in history. Yet the story has a twist and a lesson for us to learn.

God had a wonderful plan but His plan included sorrows. We all know the rest of the story...Ruth followed Naomi and helped her provide food for the two of them and then she got married to Boaz. Ruth's son, Naomi's grandson, was to become and ancestor of king David and ultimately an ancestor of the great King, Jesus Christ. Naomi would have never imagined that, in her mind, her life was done. 

In our life we may be going through a storm, we may feel like we have lost everything but the thing that we need to remember is that God has a perfect plan and that sometimes His plan includes sorrows. We need to remember that nothing happens by accident but that in all things God has perfect control. God orchestrates all things for the good of those who love Him. I would like to end with a quote from J. Piper

"When we believe in the sovereignty of God and that he loves to work mightily for those who trust Him, it gives a freedom and a courage that isn't abandoned in hard times."

Let's take courage in knowing that God doesn't forget us but is planning for our best!

June 2013

Well, I guess it has been a long time since my last post and many things have changed. We are no longer in Sicily, Italy, but instead we are in California living the life of a seminary family. In July we will have been here for one year. A year full of changes and challenges. 

We are grateful to the Lord for the way He took care of us, the way He provided the best teachers for our kids, for after school programs that we could only dream about, for my classes at the college, for being surrounded by other believers, for the provision of food, and my driver's license(!!)...there are so many blessings we are thankful for.

In a few weeks Hannah and Benedetta will be done with their first year of school in America and I am so proud of how well they have done and so amazed at how much they have grown. They have learned how to play piano and recorder, that God is One but in three persons, and what Pneumatology is. They have memorized a bunch of Scriptures in Awana and the books of the Old and New Testament, been at their first kid's concert, and had their first art display at CAL ARTS...YUP life in California has been busy, crazy and ... an adventure!

We miss our friends, and being able to share the Gospel with the Italians, we miss relatives back in Italy, and the smell of the fresh fruits and vegetables at the open market. We miss singing Italian songs and the noise of the granita trucks right under our building, mmmhhh we miss Italian pizza and all the potlucks with the church of Acireale...yes I could go on forever....

We are blessed to have a God that loves us and cares so much for us to the point of having a perfect plan. That plan is to make us more mature and to glean glory from our lives.

We have been growing a bunch as we learned to trust Him everyday and in everyday.

We have been on an amazing journey and  on these pages I want to share our adventure with you,our dear friends and family.