My Heartbeat

What causes you to stop and reflect? To pause? To look at your life and ask yourself if you are on track?

Funny thing! God gently nudged me into this blog and one of the unexpected joys is the chance to take stock of my life and evaluate.

100 posts???

Yikes! Apparently I have A LOT to say :)

Feel sorry for Craig, just for a moment...and my kids, feel sorry for my kids too.

Perhaps it was mercy on my dear man, and my children,  that caused God to lead me to blog. Seriously! It is very possibly the reason!! I wish I were joking :)  I can completely overwhelm my family with my ideas, thoughts and dreams.

Anyway...

Welcome to my 100th post!!!

I asked you, my readers, for suggestions and I received some beautiful ideas! I will get to them, promise! This one topic resonated with my inner spirit and so here it goes.

What is my heartbeat right now? What consumes my thoughts and prayers these days?

I am hard-wired for relationship. Close connection to friends and family drives me.

I am also hard-wired to be a Mom. My friends teased me about this as we grew up together. They teased me lovingly. I was the girl voted most likely to have seven kids.

Not kidding.

They knew me. They were right!! I may have only given birth to three, but in my heart at this moment, I have at least seven children and some young adults whom I love intensely. My friends' kids are as likely to be lovingly parented by me as they are their own mothers.

God built me for this fierce love. Sometimes I am afraid I will overwhelm kids, my own and others. God has given me them to me to love, and I do.

As they maneuver the gauntlet of this world, my ponderings, prayers and desire linger on one thing, two if we are specific.

What is it that I desperately long for, for them?

I beg the Lord to teach my kids to "Love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength and with all their mind’; and, ‘Love their neighbor as themselves.’”

It's that simple.

That is my hearts cry for my precious kids.

This is what I ask for.

If they can do this, everything else will fall into place.

Everything!

They will thrive.
They will find their place in this world.
They will discover their passions and pursue them.
They will be challenged and content in their work.
They will be kind to people.
They will choose well if they wish to marry.
They will live a grand adventure even if it is a simple life.

Why is this so important? Because to love God and others is what they were made for. If they can do this well, it fulfills their purpose and gives them purpose. This is what they are created for. When we get right down to the basics, this is what it is all about.

To love God and to love others is my life verse and the prayer I have prayed over my babes since I first held them in my arms.

It was the prayer, hope, and dream that was urgently pressed on me as we launched our daughter this year and as we prepare to launch our sons.

It is the prayer I pray over those who God has grafted into our family. As we seek to love them as they are far from their parents and siblings, this is what we want for them.

My mother heart is consumed with this prayer for all "my kids." It is what I contemplate. These are the thoughts that run through my brain most days. It is what I physically ache for.

I thought this was a proper post as it is Mother's Day today.

I also thought it was appropriate for my 100th post because it reveals my heart.  This is my passion. This is what drives me.

Statistically speaking, our young adults are leaving the church. Eighty percent of those who graduate in our midst will no longer come through our doors by the time they are 29.

I cannot tell you how this breaks me.

Apparently we are missing the mark.

If I am living this call to "Love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength and with all my mind"; and, to "Love my neighbor as I love myself." Maybe I can fight that statistic. Maybe we can change it!

If we as a church, each individually, live out this directive well, we will meet needs. As love for God defines our every action, word and interaction, we will be relevant and live lives that draw them to God.  I want this for joy in your own life and impact on others.When we live this grand adventure, it is possible our young adults and others will look at us and say "that is the kind of relationship with God I want, that is the kind of life I want to live!"

This is my heartbeat for the church, for those we have been called to serve.  It is what I want for the young people growing up in church.

Dear one, put your heart, soul, strength and mind to this, you will never regret it!! Not for a moment!

Do you want to know what life is about? This is it!! And it is SO good!