Hey guys,
Just a quick note to let you know that I've been working on songwriting lately. I'm asking for you to pray that God shares a piece of His heart with me in this season and that I hear Him clearly. I want to make sure that I'm singing what He wants His people to hear. Thanks for your support.
Love,
Janice
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Rattlesnakes Really Are Better Than Butterflies
So, my youngest brother, Jaylon, came to visit EJ and me for a week, and the Lord had LOTS to show me. One thing that struck me in particular had to do with a souvenir from our zoo trip.
If there is any such thing as an animal connosieur, then Jaylon is it- especially when it comes to reptiles and amphibians. This guy, who is 10 years old, is the most fun kid to take to the zoo, because he educates YOU instead of the other way around. We enjoyed our zoo trip to say the least; and at the end of it, Jaylon decided he wanted a token by which to remember it.
If you know Jaylon (and I'm assuming you don't :-)), then you know that he not only loves reptiles, but he loves art. So, he chose a set of plastic butterflies to be painted from the souvenir shop as his reminder of our fun forever. It came with four colors- red, blue, yellow and green. As soon as we got home (exhausted and limping from the four hour/3.5 mile zoo path), he wanted to paint his butterflies. Well, I had been planning to take him to a pottery painting shop at the Factory (shout out to Third Coast Clay) ever since I discovered it a year before. I didn't want him to have a cheap version of what I knew he would enjoy just days before I had planned for it to happen. But since he didn't know that, he asked me more than ten times a day if he could paint those doggone butterflies.
And then I realized what God was showing me. Sometimes I get so anxious for the things that He's shown me I'm either good at or he has for me, and I want to prematurely force the way that is visible to me. Jaylon didn't trust me yet to take him to do something as cool as paint pottery. He only knew that his butterflies were right in front of him. I had to ask myself if I really trust God to do "cool" things designed especially for me in my life. These days, the Lord is encouraging me to be still and know that He is God. He says that I don't have to be anxious for ANYthing, because He has every good thing for me.
When Jaylon and I walked into the pottery painting shop, his eyes were bigger than I've ever seen them. There was one rattlesnakes left on the shelf just for him to paint. The number and shades of the available colors were many times more than were in his souvenir paint kit. His response once he realized this was why he couldn't paint the butterflies yet-"Man, now I'm salty cuz I was so impatient." Lol.
I don't want to miss or cheapen what God has for me, nor do I want to be "salty" when He shows me how impatient I've been in the wake of my TRUE blessings. What about you guys?
PS. His painted rattlesnake was pretty hot, by the way. That boy has vision!
If there is any such thing as an animal connosieur, then Jaylon is it- especially when it comes to reptiles and amphibians. This guy, who is 10 years old, is the most fun kid to take to the zoo, because he educates YOU instead of the other way around. We enjoyed our zoo trip to say the least; and at the end of it, Jaylon decided he wanted a token by which to remember it.
If you know Jaylon (and I'm assuming you don't :-)), then you know that he not only loves reptiles, but he loves art. So, he chose a set of plastic butterflies to be painted from the souvenir shop as his reminder of our fun forever. It came with four colors- red, blue, yellow and green. As soon as we got home (exhausted and limping from the four hour/3.5 mile zoo path), he wanted to paint his butterflies. Well, I had been planning to take him to a pottery painting shop at the Factory (shout out to Third Coast Clay) ever since I discovered it a year before. I didn't want him to have a cheap version of what I knew he would enjoy just days before I had planned for it to happen. But since he didn't know that, he asked me more than ten times a day if he could paint those doggone butterflies.
And then I realized what God was showing me. Sometimes I get so anxious for the things that He's shown me I'm either good at or he has for me, and I want to prematurely force the way that is visible to me. Jaylon didn't trust me yet to take him to do something as cool as paint pottery. He only knew that his butterflies were right in front of him. I had to ask myself if I really trust God to do "cool" things designed especially for me in my life. These days, the Lord is encouraging me to be still and know that He is God. He says that I don't have to be anxious for ANYthing, because He has every good thing for me.
When Jaylon and I walked into the pottery painting shop, his eyes were bigger than I've ever seen them. There was one rattlesnakes left on the shelf just for him to paint. The number and shades of the available colors were many times more than were in his souvenir paint kit. His response once he realized this was why he couldn't paint the butterflies yet-"Man, now I'm salty cuz I was so impatient." Lol.
I don't want to miss or cheapen what God has for me, nor do I want to be "salty" when He shows me how impatient I've been in the wake of my TRUE blessings. What about you guys?
PS. His painted rattlesnake was pretty hot, by the way. That boy has vision!
Unexpected Mission Field
Last month I went to the eighth grade graduation of my former students in the Bronx. I can't tell you how full my heart was. I've really missed those children over the last year, and I was so excited to be able to see them and congratulate them on moving on to high school.
I also saw some of the best teachers and administrators in the world, and I'm grateful to call them my friends. I have missed these people immensely. They're the people who are ministering to children and their families each and every day without so much as an ounce of the accolades that we as musicians in ministry get. I say this not to minimize this current chapter of my life that the Lord has planned, but I must say something about the lifelong dedication of educators, especially the ones I've witnessed in action at Middle School 331 (NYC Public schools not only name their schools, but they number them, too).
I can truly say that teaching middle school was just as important a training ground for ministry in my life as seminary was. Teaching taught me to be consistent, diligent and more patient than I might want to be in stressful situations.
So, anyway, if you think about it in the next couple of days, please send up a prayer for my friends working at MS 331 who are daily loving on the kids that many people have already deemed unworthy of attention and love. Pray that they'll be rejuvenated this summer in a way that will prepare them for more work in the fall. Pray that they'll have sweet moments with their loved ones, and that all they endeavor to do this summer will be easier than normal, to kind of balance out their year. :-)
And please pray for my sweet kids that don't really get a chance to escape some of the scariest horrors of our country because many of those horrors happen on their own block. Pray that they'll be safe, but not only that. Pray that they'll be enlightened to easier times, in order for them to have hope outside of what they've seen and see regularly.
Thanks so much.
I also saw some of the best teachers and administrators in the world, and I'm grateful to call them my friends. I have missed these people immensely. They're the people who are ministering to children and their families each and every day without so much as an ounce of the accolades that we as musicians in ministry get. I say this not to minimize this current chapter of my life that the Lord has planned, but I must say something about the lifelong dedication of educators, especially the ones I've witnessed in action at Middle School 331 (NYC Public schools not only name their schools, but they number them, too).
I can truly say that teaching middle school was just as important a training ground for ministry in my life as seminary was. Teaching taught me to be consistent, diligent and more patient than I might want to be in stressful situations.
So, anyway, if you think about it in the next couple of days, please send up a prayer for my friends working at MS 331 who are daily loving on the kids that many people have already deemed unworthy of attention and love. Pray that they'll be rejuvenated this summer in a way that will prepare them for more work in the fall. Pray that they'll have sweet moments with their loved ones, and that all they endeavor to do this summer will be easier than normal, to kind of balance out their year. :-)
And please pray for my sweet kids that don't really get a chance to escape some of the scariest horrors of our country because many of those horrors happen on their own block. Pray that they'll be safe, but not only that. Pray that they'll be enlightened to easier times, in order for them to have hope outside of what they've seen and see regularly.
Thanks so much.
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