He is not surprised...

One thing that brings me peace is that nothing that happens to my family is a surprise to God.  When something comes our way that is unexpected and maybe even scary, I can take comfort in knowing that this circumstance did not sneak up on God.  He doesn't stop and say, "Oh, my...how did THAT happen..." 

He knew, when Jake accepted the day-job he currently has that it would cost us over $300 per month in Jake's gas bill alone.  He knew, when we were planning on using our tax money to buy a cheap used car with better gas mileage that we weren't going to get back even half of what we thought we would, so that idea was out the window.  He knew that Jake's jeep would break down on the way to work this morning.  He knew that it would cost us over $600 to fix it.  He knew that our kitchen sink would break and flood our kitchen and cause us to have to shut off the water to the kitchen area, causing dishes upon dishes to pile up b/c they can't be washed until the problem can be fixed.  (Which probably isn't too big of a project, but Jake is so busy between the children's ministry at Northstar, taking 3 classes in seminary and working 40+ hours a week, he isn't home often enough to fix it)

None of this came as a surprise to Him, and the outcome won't be a surprise either.

I say all this to myself more than to anyone else, because I needed a reminder of that today.  Not only is He all-knowing, He is all-sufficient.  I am not only to believe IN Him, but to simply BELIEVE Him.  The reason I can believe Him and trust Him to see us through all of this is because He has seen us through every "surprise" before.  Not once has He ever let us down, and He won't this time either.

Will it all turn out the way I hope?  Probably not.  But it will turn out the way He plans, if we simply allow Him control and turn our worrying and stress over to Him.  His shoulders are much bigger and can handle all of this much more easily than I can.

Honestly, even as I write this, my stomach is churning, trying to figure out how to pay for all of this.  I'm quite literally to the point of making myself sick, not only because of all the stuff that's been thrown at us, but because I'm openly admitting it to you.  That is very hard for me.  Sharing imperfections and problems isn't easy for me to do.  I would much rather keep it private, bottled up inside, and let people believe we live a charmed life, free of worry or debt or problems...admitting "worries" to someone, even my closest friends and family, is the hardest thing in the world for me.  I'd rather hide behind my nice little wall I've built up around myself for protection.  Admitting insecurities and problems that arise makes me feel a couple of things...perhaps a brief moment of, "Wow, it feels better to get this off my shoulders," and then the horrible feeling of, "Why on earth did I say anything to anyone, what are people going to think, are they going to look down on me, judge me, feel sorry for me....."  That's usually the feeling that wins out in the end, as I'm sure it will today once I hit "publish" and this is out there for you to read.

But, for some reason I felt the need to be real, at least for a moment.  I'm definitely not perfect, and I don't want anyone to get the idea that I think that.  I don't.  Believe me.  Reading in my quiet time today that God wants to be able to boast about me, that I should be the physical representation of His beauty...well, I feel so completely undeserving to even consider that.  But what an honor that would be, to have God boast of me, "Look at her!  Doesn't she look just like My Son?"  Wow.  What an honor that would be.

For now, though, I am simply going to hold onto the faith that He will see us through.  Always has, always will.

The simple things in life...

Today God used a young boy to show me just how blessed I truly am.  

Yesterday was not a good day, by any means.  Without going into details of my day, let's just say that if one more thing had gone wrong I would have quite literally gone off the deep end.  I was at my wits' end.  Everything that could go wrong did.  Murphy's law was the ruler of the day.  My Facebook post said something to the effect of "This day inhaled vigorously, but my God is good all the time."  I threw in that last part to remind myself that no matter how lousy of a day I was having, HE is faithful, when all else fails, HE will not.

That was yesterday.

Today, while I was volunteering at JD and Cora's school, I was put face-to-face with true sorrow.  Sometime ago JD came home from school and told me about a little boy who was in his class last year.  He asked if I remembered him and said, "He told me his mom is dying of cancer.  She's had it before, but it was in remission, now it's in stage 4."  My heart hurt for this little boy, and I wanted to do something for the family, but I didn't know how or what, and soon it was out of my mind.  
God placed him in my path today, so I asked him how his mom was doing.  His face went downcast as he said, "She's about to die.  She may already be dead right now and me not know it.  I don't know when she's going to pass on, but it's any time."  As I tried to hold back the tears I let him know that JD had told me about her having cancer and asked if there was anything my family could do.  He said, "Well, they don't like me talking about it but taxes are due now, and we may lose our house and I heard them talking about divorce."  That was it, the tears started pouring.  I told him we were praying for him and his family and for him to talk to JD if he needed a friend to talk to and to let JD know if there was anything we could do so he could tell me. 

Any one of those things is enough to break a grownup, much less a child...and then to pile them on top of each other, well, my heart broke.  Suddenly, my measly problems from yesterday didn't seem so big.  Suddenly, my pity party I was wanting to throw myself didn't hold much merit.  Suddenly.....

So, without names, I am asking you to please lift this family up in prayer.  Pray for peace and comfort for the mom, pray for peace for the rest of the family, but most importantly, pray that God would make His Son known to her in a mighty way and that she would come to know Him in a real and saving way before she steps into eternity.  

And while you are at it, remember to thank Him for your life, for the life of your family.  Thank Him for the simple blessings He brings each day.  "The LORD gives and the LORD takes away...my heart will choose to say, 'LORD, blessed be Your name.'"

A Jealous God

During my quiet time I have been going through a study by Beth Moore called "Breaking Free".  Today, I was reading in Exodus 20:4-5 (In the midst of the 10 Commandments) Exodus 20:5 says, "...for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..." Now, I definitely see how this could be a stumbling block for many.  As I read this I was reminded of a time I heard an interview with Oprah.  She was talking about a time when she was in church and this verse was read.  She said she immediately thought, why would I want to worship a God who is jealous of me?
Now, my instant reaction to her saying this was, "Wow, how conceited and full of yourself do you have to be to think that the God of the universe is jealous of you?"  But, as with many areas in the Bible, our English translations don't always say accurately what the original text meant.  The Hebrew and Greek languages have many many different words to describe different aspects of something.  (For example, we have one word for "love" and that can mean "I love ice cream" or "I love my husband".  Either way we use the same word...The Greek, however, translates many different forms of love.  Eros, for example, is erotic love.  Agape is the unconditional, self-sacrificing love...Our language looses a lot in translation.)
But, back to the jealous God and Oprah's question.  Why would we want to worship a god who is jealous of us?  I certainly wouldn't... But, the LORD God, the God of the universe, the Creator, is not jealous of you.  He owns the "cattle on a thousand hillsides" (Psalm 50:10).  He created everything, including you and me.  What Exodus 20:5 is saying is God is jealous FOR you.  He loves you so much, He wants what is best for you to such an extent, that He is jealous FOR you.  2 Corinthians 11:2 talks about a "godly jealousy".  Being jealous OF someone or something is a sin.  God cannot sin.  This "godly jealousy" is pure and holy. 
As a parent, I want what is best for my children.  I yearn for them to succeed, to thrive.  If I see them doing something that I know will harm them, will derail them from success, it angers me, it hurts me...I am not angry at them, per say, I am angry for them.  If, as parents, we react that way with our children, how much more does God, Who loves completely, fully and without fail, react that way when He sees us falling into the bondage of sin.  He sees we are on a path that will harm us, that will derail us from the blessings He has planned for us.  He is so in love with us He is jealous for us, wanting only what is best for our lives.
The rest of Exodus 20:4-5 talks about idols.  "Do not make an idol for yourself...do not bow down to them..."  Now, this is important.  God is not, in any way, jealous of other "gods".  (And, by the way, a god is anything we put in our lives above the LORD God.  You may not think you worship anything, but God has implanted in everyone an internal desire to worship.  If you are not worshiping the One True God, you are worshiping something...your job, the Wii or PS3, money...the list can go on and on)  The LORD knows that worshiping these things is not what is best for you and therefore it hurts Him, angers Him, to see you following them.  These things cannot save you, they cannot deliver you from despair, they hold no real glory.

Only God can save.  He knew you before you were born.  He knows every hair on your head.  He loved you so much He sent His only Son to the earth to die for you.  If you were the only person in the world, He still would have died for you.  There is nothing in your past, nothing in your present and nothing in your future He doesn't already know.  If there were anything too big for Him, His death would have been pointless...but it wasn't.  


Jesus died for you.  He died for me.  
He chose to do this because He desires to spend eternity with us, He desires to bless us, He desires to give us peace.  He has our best interest at heart.  Above all else He desires for us to know Him, to love Him, to believe in Him, to trust and worship Him and Him alone.  There are such bountiful blessings in store for those who do.

February 10

February 10, 2010... 3 years. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long. Time heals all wounds? I'm not so sure I believe that. Time maybe makes the wounds less pronounced, less in-your-face, but they don't go away, not completely.
It would be his 71st birthday at the end of this month. Instead, he is celebrating his 3 year birthday today. The eternal-side of of me wants to celebrate with him. The human-side, not so much.
I still dream about him almost every night. I guess it's my brain's way of dealing with him not being here. In my dreams he is alive and kicking, helping me some way or spending time with me like he used to do. I keep wondering when those dreams will stop. Maybe never.
There are still occasions where I almost pick up the phone to call him about one thing or another. It only lasts a second before reality kicks in and I think, "Hello, dummy...remember?" It's so weird the random things that trigger nostalgia.
He was a great daddy. The best. His love language was definitely gift-giving. He loved giving gifts. Valentine's Day was a favorite of his. He always had some fabulous piece of jewelry for my mom, my sister and me. If you'd ask him, he would say he hated that Karyn and I had our ears pierced, but he gave us some amazing earrings over the years. If he was going to buy something, it was going to be the best there was. He didn't skimp.
Anyone who had the honor and privilege of knowing him knows he took joy in giving to others. It was never something he would admit, it was just him.
Growing up, my favorite days were our days together. He took off one day a week from the pharmacy to just spend with me. During the school year, he would pick me up from school and we would go do whatever...go to the farm store, go to Sam's, just drive around..it didn't matter. Summertime meant we had the whole day. We would go to Branson for the day and ride every ride at Silver Dollar City 10 times each. He never complained as I drug him from ride to ride to ride.
He was the dad who bought his daughter and her friends tickets to go see Marky Mark, then suffered through the concert quietly, knowing how much joy it brought them. He was the dad who, when his daughter wanted to go see Warrent, Trixter and Firehouse in concert, took her without question, and then stuffed bubblegum in his ears to keep his eardrums from bursting. He was the dad who would get tickets 3rd row back at a major rock concert, where the speakers are so close they control your heartbeat, just to spend time with his daughter. He was the dad who, though he never tried, became one of my best friends. He was the dad who, even after all three of his children were grown, was still lovingly called daddy...because that's what he was.
Happy homecoming day, daddy!

Snow Day

We went up to Mt. Charleston sledding today with some families from Northstar. We had a blast! The snow was litterally above my knees in some areas! Too bad I was the one with the camera, you could have seen me attempting to walk through it and falling! It was hillarious!
I did get several really good pictures, though. If you'd like to see them, I loaded them from snapfish just below this post.

sledding 01\23\10 (219 photos), by Elaine Bridges

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

Welcome to 2010

Happy New Year!
Wow! Can you believe that we are in 2010? 2009 just flew by. So much has happened over the past year. God has blessed our family in so many ways. Over Christmas break we had our 2^nd anniversary of living in Vegas.

Northstar is growing; this year has brought several new families to our congregation. We have been trying different programs with the Children’s Church, trying to find just the right fit for our kids. We still haven’t found a set-up that works really well for our group. The biggest struggle is we have kindergarten through 5^th grade all together. Jake has just started a new series with them on the miracles of Jesus.

Jake has been busy this past year. He started a new job in November. During the week he now works at Vegas.com. He doesn’t have to travel to Miami anymore, but the company is in the south part of the valley, so he’s driving close to 62 miles round-trip each day. Paying for his gas is going to kill us...

He is still doing seminary in the evenings and on weekends, so free time is something that has become non-existent. Right now he is doing a Jan-Term, which means he is taking one class that starts and finishes in the month of January. In some ways it's nice, because he can get it over with, but it also means a lot of work. He's in class Mondays and Thursdays from 6-9:30 then Saturday mornings from 9-2:00.

He is excited about the new opportunities he has to be a life-witness to his new coworkers. There are two people in particular who have already approached him with questions about his beliefs. We know God has placed him in this job for a reason and we pray he will be open to God using him in a very real and life-changing way to the people in his office.

JD and Cora are doing quite well. JD made straight-A honor roll and Cora made A-B honor roll 1^st trimester. We are so proud of them both. They amaze me each day with their intelligence and spiritual growth. God has such great plans for their lives.

It is our family's heart-felt prayer that our lives be used as a living-offering, a true life of worship in 2010.

We would love to see mission teams come out and partner with us this year! We have some great opportunities for volunteers this year. If you are interested, please let us know so we can contact you with more information.

Please remember to keep us in your prayers this coming year. God has been revealing to us new seasons in our family’s life and ministry. Please join us in prayer as we seek to hear His will and obey.

I know I say this with every letter and post, but I truly mean it when I say, your prayers and partnership with our family are so important to us. We do not take for granted our prayer and ministry partners.