God brings about changes for my good so I can grow. Help me Lord to embrace the changes You send. Help me not get in Your way. I know I can trust You with all things. You do all things for my good. Thank You Lord Amen.

Surrendering To God

Forgive me Lord when I get in Your way.

I cling to memories and wish that they would stay.

Help me to open my hands and let go.

Help me to accept changes so I may grow.

Help me to be open to all You want to do.

Lord I give all of me to You.

The Brady Bunch

I can't believe it! God has taught me a little lesson from the Brady Bunch! You know the one on television where a man with all boys marries a woman with all girls and they form a family. I have watched that show for years and every now and then I will watch an episode. What God pointed out to me was in the beginning the boys didn't want things to change. They want everything to stay masculine. The girls were they same they didn't want things to change, they like their girlish life style. God showed me as long as they clung to their old ways, and didn't embrace change; the harder they made it on themselves and each other. Also He pointed out that once they did start working together and embracing the changes they became a beautiful family, well at least what they were meant to be. As they blended neither side could look back and say this family looks manly or girlish. neither side after a year looked anything like they did in their first episode. Change and growth had made them into something different. The boys were still boys and they girls still girls, they still had little spats but as a family unit they no longer look the same. Love, growth, change, sensitivity, understanding and the blending of the boys and girls made them into a real family. God has taught me through all of this that I must embrace change, let go of  the past, trust Him with the future. The church family I am in today from year to year wont look like it does today. Growth and change will see to that. To hang on to how my church family looks today and to try and keep it looking like that no matter how much I cherish the way it looks is wrong. It would be like a mother keeping her child from growing up. It would be as if she kept it so sheltered that its body grew but she didn't allow its mind to grow. I pray that over my life time where ever I go to church that at the end of each year I can see the changes God brings about. Changes produce growth, and growth is a wonderful sign of life. No changes to me represent stagnation and death. I want to be in a church family that is alive! Alive, growing, moving, changing, and have their being in Jesus! I am not part of the Brady Bunch. I am part of something more wonderful God's Family! I pray that as I give my all to Jesus that I will do my part in the church. (Working with others, embracing the changes, helping others, being sensitive to others, loving others, and more! What ever it takes to be the family that God wants us to be! Doing what ever it takes to be the kind of family member He wants me to be!)

Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile; Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. 1 Peter 3:8-12

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