DYSMAS CONDUIT
FREE FOOD
(Isa 55:1)
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009
Question for the day: How do you define success?
What can we pray with YOU about today?
Good morning,
This is just a reminder that every day, while we are studying God’s Word to add to our website, someone from our ministry, Dysmas Conduit, is holding you up before the Lord in prayer. May He greatly bless you today as you pursue His will and He is glorified through you.
God’s blessings, our love,
George & Sidney Granger
Today’s Chapter in God’s Word
1 THESSALONIANS 5
Listen at
http://www.audiotreasure.com/webindex.htm
CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please pray for Mike and Sandy Brommer as they spread the Lord’s Seed and witness to His glory while on the road today. Please pray also that the Lord will lead them to Kingdom-profitable loads to carry, and that He grants them safe passage today from
THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR PASTOR BOB ALLMANN
Please remain in prayer concerning his continued healing and that he is upheld by the Spirit, becoming physically strong as he returns to serving the Lord… what he loves to do!
Please continue to pray for Billy Hamburg, whose doctors found 5 tumors in his bladder. He had surgery June 29th and the biopsy results showed a cancerous condition. He will be undergoing chemo & radiation treatments and will need the Lord’s Hand to overcome his anxiety as well as the cancer.
UPDATE:
After more testing, the doctors have found that, despite the number of tumors found in and around the bladder, that the cancer has NOT spread to any surrounding muscle tissue or organs. They are looking at completely removing the bladder and replacing it with a piece of intestine. WE PRAISE GOD AND GIVE HIM THE GLORY FOR THIS; WE ALSO PRAY THAT BILLY WILL RECOGNIZE THIS AS GOD WORKING IN HIS LIFE!!!!!!!!!
Please add my family to the prayer list. My dad Allan passed into eternity this morning after years of physical struggle. We all have a lot of memory to deal with, we just are never ready for the reality of this kind of thing in this place. Praise to our God! --Bill Hooper
Becky Duhamal is suffering from cancer, biopsies are being taken today. She has previously suffered from breast cancer; recently they have found spots on her lungs and brain. Please pray for this family. Thank you --Melissa Shorts
I’m asking for prayers for Joan Miller my mom who has to go through further testing because the doctor saw some spots on her liver and stomach. Pray for peace of mind and that the spots are nothing or that God heals them. --Ranee L . Tessin
Please lift my brother, Troy Wright, up in prayer.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY
November 19, 2009
I Don't Want to Raise
Successful Children
Lysa TerKeurst
"Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it."
Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
Devotion:
I don't want to raise successful children. That's a shocking thing to read, and a shocking thing for a mother to type. So, let me clarify.
I used to define success according to my child's report card. Good grades and academic achievement would surely equal a good child with great potential in this world. But then several of my children wound up being average students with average grades. Though we carted them off to tutors and spent many a late night at the kitchen table helping them, they remained average. And I remained concerned and frustrated.
One report card day I found myself facedown in the fibers of my carpet crying and wondering, "Where have I gone wrong as a mom?"
I dug into Scriptures. I begged God for wisdom and discernment. I prayed for God's perspective with each of my kids. Finally, one day it dawned on me - what if I simply chose to embrace the natural bent of each of my kids as God's way to protect them and keep them on the path toward His best plans for their lives?
What if my A student needs academic success to prepare her for God's plans while my average to below-average student needs to be steered away from a more academic future? What if my sports star kid needs that athletic excellence for his future assignments by God, but my benchwarmer kid is being protected from getting off course by her lack in this area?
And that's when it finally dawned on me. My job isn't to push success for my kids. My job as a parent is to recognize the unique way God created each child and point them to Jesus at every turn along their journey toward adulthood. Yes, I want my kids to learn and thrive and grow up educated, but it's not a flaw in me or them if they don't have straight A report cards and trophy cases full of sports medals.
Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it" (NIV).
I am challenged to ponder these words, "… in the way he should go." Are we training our kids that the "way he should go" is to chase worldly achievement or to chase God? Whatever they learn to chase as a child, they will chase as adults. Therefore, we must be challenged to honestly assess the way we are pointing them to go.
My daughter, Hope, is one of my average students. She has also warmed many a bench in the sports she's tried, and can always be found hiding on the back row of the stage during school concerts. Using the world's benchmarks for achievement, Hope wouldn't be seen as a child positioned for success. But God…
This past January, my 15 year old Hope, shocked me when she announced she wanted to go to
One of the first e-mails she sent me from
Now, don't get me wrong. I do expect Hope to return to her studies this fall, give 100% effort, and finish her high school career having done her very best. She will most likely then go to college. But she probably won't be delivering the valedictorian address or wearing the honors cords and medals. She'll be the one with a vision of a dying AIDS orphan pressing against her heart ready to chase God's plans to the ends of the earth.
So back to my original statement, I don't want to raise successful children. It's true, I don't. Though Hope's sister coming behind her is an A student and can always be found on the front row of school performances - we don't chase after success for her either. I trust God that she needs those things in her life for the plans He's unfolding in her life. We train with that bent in mind. But, we don't chase it. Just like Hope, we point her in the direction of God at every turn and pray like crazy.
I stand by what I said and I'll say it again, I don't want to raise successful children. Because--- raising God-honoring adults who will set the world on fire for Christ is just so much more rewarding.
Dear Lord, being a mom is a really tough job. Please help me, teach me and show me how to define success for my kids, in Jesus' Name, amen.
Application Steps:
Spend some time specifically praying for your kids today and ask the Lord how you can train them according to the way He created them.
Reflections:
What worries about my kids do I need to ask the Lord for His perspective?
How should I define success for my kids?
Power Verses:
2 John 1:4, "It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us." (NIV)
Matthew 19:14, "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'" (NIV)
…and…
TURNING POINT
Dr. David Jeremiah
How Can I Be Truly Forgiven?
Part 1
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Forgiveness is often a difficult concept,
especially if we've ever been deeply hurt by someone we love.
Most of us would agree that it's nearly impossible
to forgive someone who's not sorry for what they've done.
But when that person comes to you in brokenness,
completely devastated over the pain they've caused in your life –
now, that is the beginning of true forgiveness.
In this message, Dr. Jeremiah will show us that
our forgiveness from God happens in a very similar way.
Series: God, I Need Some Answers
VIEW OR LISTEN AT
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Turning_Point/
Please send your prayer requests to
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