Branded With Love

Hey blog people. My name is Carrie. I’m Jason’s wife and I’ll be taking over the blog on a weekly post to share my thoughts and take away from Sundays & life at Forefront. I’m new to this whole writing thing, but my hubby is helping me out. Here we go with installment numero dos…

• Definitely enjoyed the acoustic music that started off the service Sunday.  It was nice to change it up a bit.
• Watching little kids take their shoes off and throw them in the relief supplies for Haiti… man that was intense.
• We’re up to 30 women so far for the Women’s Retreat. Are you going? I’d love for you to come with us.
• I have been excited about this series through the book of James.  It’s neat to look through a whole chapter of scripture during service instead of just a verse here or there.

I have been thinking a lot about the scripture and the sermon Sunday.  What stuck out to me was the idea that we are all teachers all the time, whether we want to realize it or not.  As a kindergarten teacher myself, I know it isn’t always easy to be a teacher and teaching doesn’t always happen how you plan it.  There have been numerous lessons that I have planned to precision, but the teaching came when the lesson turned into TOTAL CHAOS.

It also made me think of our daughter, Chloe.  She is 19 months old and everyday she is learning new things.  Many times when she doesn’t do things the way we want her to, Jason is ready to drop the hammer, but I remind him that it is a teachable moment for her.  She is new to this following rules, respecting authority, not always getting it her way kind of life.  Many of us have been in this world 20, 30, 40+ years and we all of us still struggle with following rules, respecting authority, and/or not being selfish some of the time.  She has to learn all of that from her “teachers” and if we are still struggling with it, we can’t expect her to have mastered it in 19 months.

After the service Jason, Chloe and I attended the baptism of 2 teenagers.  It was awesome.  It made me think of something else I want to teach Chloe, I want to teach her that people coming to God is number one- and our plans are secondary.  We skipped our usual lunch plans, her nap time was put off, but she witnessed two people become Christians and I think that is awesome.  Although she doesn’t understand it yet, I want her to learn that we celebrate that life change and it is more important than anything else in our schedule.

At the baptism, James, our student minister said that the decision to follow Christ is the most important decision an individual makes.  It is more important than who they decide to marry, where they decide to go to college, what career they decide to pursue, or where they decide to live.  It is The Decision. So where did you go after church yesterday?

Did you race home to catch the football game?  Did you go to lunch like you always do?  
Thinking back to being teachers to those around us, I think about all the time we spend outside of Sunday morning and gel group time.  I don’t think those are the key “teachable moments” when we are teaching those around us.  I think a “teachable moment” occurred when you decided where to go after church. The baptism was announced and did that alter your plans at all or was it Sunday afternoon as usual?  I know we don’t have a building with a permanent place to baptize people.  I know the location was about 20 minutes away from Ocean Lakes High School.  But it’s worth it.  If this is the most important moment in someone’s life, and that someone is part of our church family, we should be willing to drive.  It is such a celebration and how awesome to celebrate that moment with people that will help you be accountable and support you as you grow and mature in your relationship with Christ.

It makes me think of Jason’s new car.  He went over a year without a car after giving his to someone who needed one- and so we finally decided to get one.  It’s nothing fancy, but it has that smell.  It has that new car smell.  When I got in for the first time I smelled that lovely smell and it made me think of how my car no longer has that smell.  It’s gone, it faded away over time.  I relate this new car smell to becoming a Christian.  When you made that decision to become a Christian and live for God, it was new and exciting, you were covered in the smell.  Everywhere you went people sensed it.  But as time went on, the “new scent” faded away.  Maybe that is why not more of us get pumped up and attend every baptism. You forgot what the brand new sensation felt like.  You forgot how exciting and amazing that life changing moment is.  Think back to when you became a Christian.
How did you feel in that moment?
How did it impact the rest of your life?
Did that feeling fade away?
How are you trying to revive it?

Until next time,
Carrie

My wife, Carrie, is going to take over the blog on a weekly post to share her thoughts and take away from Sundays & life at Forefront. Please be nice and show her a little love on her first installment. She’s a nervous and reluctant blogger. Enjoy.

Jason asked me if I would make some observations, jott down some notes, and share my thoughts from Sundays to give you “the other side.” I think this is good, even though it’s not really my thing. I’m a do’er- not a writer or communicator like this. I enjoy my time behind the scenes. Do’ers enjoy working and serving without needing recognition. In the Church (at large), it’s been labeled being a “worker bee.”

In the system of bees (I guess it’s time for a Discovery Channel lesson- hold on tight), worker bees get the short end of the stick in many people’s eyes. You see, the queen bee lives about 3-4 years, while worker bees live about 3 weeks in the summer or a couple months in the winter. The worker bees slave away for the queen and the hive and don’t get any of the glory, recognition, or pats on the back (or on the wings in their case). They just die. The thing of it is- they aren’t out for the medal ceremony, awards show, or nobel. They do it because it’s part of who they are. They are worker bees. Worker bees serve the hive. The overflow of their identity as worker bees demands that they serve. It moves them to do things. It’s part of their DNA.

As we listened today during the message, Jason talked about James Chapter 2 and pointed out this idea of faith and works. I like how James (the writer of the book) breaks the idea down for us to understand. We can believe in God, but even the demons believe. Belief isn’t enough for us according to God. Our faith becomes real when we begin to practice it. When we love, serve, share, do, give, extend a hand, open our homes, share our lives. It is at that point that our faith in God lives. The thing I get hung up on as a do’er is that I do so much of the things that I believe God would want me to do, that sometimes I just get in the do’er mode for the sake of doing. I forget the why and who. The why I serve and who I am serving.

That’s why I am excited for Forefront as we go through this series. I’m looking forward to the next three weeks. A couple other things that I walked away with today:

• I started to think about how excited James must have been when he started living for God. How come more Christians do not keep that excitement?
• The NeedtoBreathe song, “These Hard Times” was a good worship song. That was the first time I heard us sing it at Forefront and the band played it well.
• We have a ton of people volunteering at Forefront. I want to say thank you for the hard work you all put in. You expect to hear thanks from the staff, but I see it and you all are so wonderful.
• Praying for the women who are thinking about going on the Women’s Retreat in March. It is the 4th, 5th, and 6th of March. I would love to get to know you and worship/learn together. Email me or Lisa Gollihur if you are interested in going.
• I love my husband, but I do not claim him when he is in rap videos like this one today:

A special thanks to my hubby for helping me with the links and editing. I will talk to you all next week and if you ever have any questions, what to talk, etc. please contact me (Facebook or email).

Until next time,  Carrie

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Now I’ve been accused on numerous occasions about the idea of male/female stereotypes and playing into them in sermons, teaching moments, etc. When I’ve talked about men I’ve referenced NASCAR, Football, Grillin’ Out, and Building and/or Breaking Stuff (sometimes the building leads to breaking- a limb. Seriously, it happens). In bringing up Women, I’ve talked about things like Shopping, Gettin’ Your Hair Did’, Lifetime, Jon & Kate Plus 8 (RIP), Pedicures, and “Girl Talk.”

When did we get so PC and sensitive? Women can love Football and Men can go shopping- that’s fine and dandy. But, these concepts and stereotypes aren’t anything new, right? When was the last time you saw an NFL or ESPN commercial with all ladies in it cheering and spilling beer everywhere? Or better yet, name the last instance when the Lifetime Network showed a movie where the Dude was the hero, star, and protagonist and the lady was the dirt bag, killer or all around jerk?

Exactly. It’s like seeing a unicorn, finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or husband that loves to spoon and shares the covers. They don’t exist. In this new era of guys being metrosexual and girls wanting to “be one of the guys,” we’ve somehow been thrown for a loop…

“Does what I do define my sexuality or gender?”
“If I don’t like sports or grilling meat am I not a man?”
“If I’m not into pink girlie outfits and shopping, am I not a woman?”
“You can only be a man if you hunt, kill, and eat your food!”
“You’re a women if you get a mani/pedi and hair done every month!”

We’ve been sold a bill of goods. These things do not define you as a person- Male or Female. God lays out what it looks like to be a man or woman in the Bible. We see this in 1 Peter 3:1-7 and Ephesians 5:22-33. We see that the Man leads like Jesus would lead and the Woman follows the direction of her Godly spouse. That doesn’t mean He is better than Her. It’s what God designed and it’s a beautiful thing. It also lays out how the Husband is to treat his Wife with respect, love, and serve her (don’t hear too many men talking about how much they love serving their wives these days eh?).

With God laying out what defines us and not our culture, I think we can enjoy laughing, talking about, and looking at the “surface” stereotypes we see everyday concerning men and women. I think it’s perfectly fine to embrace some of these things. Let’s let men be men and women be women. Men, by design, are prone to conquer, overcome adventure, and get the girl. Women, on the other hand, tend to be more nurturing, thoughtful, and long to be taken care of. That’s why “Chick Flicks” are called just that. They deal with romance, love, corny lines that no guys say, and the guy always pursues and gets the girl.

So let’s remember WHO truly defines us. As long as you know that,  it’s alright to embrace or not embrace the stereotypes. I will continue to embrace it- because I cannot stand The Notebook, hate shopping, and refuse to wear pink (no matter how cool or hip it becomes).

Jason *over and out*