Weary???

During the 3 summers I was in college, I worked at a summer camp called Epworth by the Sea.  It is a Christian camp run by the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.  It was an amazing experience, and I loved every second I was there.  Recently, someone asked all of the former staff members to write a short devotion for a devotion book they were compiling for this year's camp staff.  I finally wrote one yesterday (at the very last minute of course!)

As I have said before, we have just sold our house.  We moved last weekend, and the house closed on Tuesday.  We are now living with my parents.  In the past week (during the move), they boys and I made two day trips (each about 2.5 hours away) to visit with my college roomates who happened to be in Georgia that week.  This was a definite priority (even amidst the craziness) since the live in California, Idaho, and Louisiana.  Meanwhile, we are still looking at houses several times a week.  Yes, this is craziness.  Yes, this is exhausting.  Yes, this is wearisome.  And yet I know we are right where God wants us.  I hope hoping He will reveal His perfect plan very soon, but I also trust that His timing is perfect.

So, when I sat down yesterday to write the devotion, I had the camp staffers in mind.  I was trying to think of something I learned while working at camp that would encourage them.  Funny how God works.  What I wrote about was exactly something that I needed to hear God speak to me and remind me of during this time.  I need to know these things and be reminded of them day after day, especially during this crazy, exhausting season of our lives.  So, I just thought I would share:

Weary???

I look back over my three summers as part of the Epworth Leadership Team as some of the best summers of my life.  There is something wonderful about being in full time ministry all summer with a group of incredible people who become like family.  There is something just plain fun about goofing off, planning skits, and playing with kids all summer.  There is something amazing about watching God take a group of ordinary college students and using them to be a part of His work as He changes lives.  There is something special about spending the summer at beautiful Epworth and being in awe of God’s handiwork.  And, there is also something mind boggling about watching God work in your own life as He shapes, molds, and changes you as you minister to others.  I would go back in a heartbeat!

During my second summer at Epworth, one of my head counselors, Jeremy Gray, gave a devotion that had a huge impact on my life as a counselor and on my life as a Christian.  It was in the middle of the summer.  I was tired, weary, sleep-deprived.  Don’t get me wrong, I was having a blast and loving every minute, but I was just plain tired.  This particular morning, Jeremy shared a Scripture from Isaiah.  I was already familiar with these verses, but God, as He loves to do, blew me away with something new:

”Do you not know? Have you not heard!  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”                      (Isaish 40:28-29)

As Jeremy shared his thoughts on these verses, it dawned on me that God had called me to Epworth.  He had called me to pour into and to serve others.  And here, He was giving me His truth that even though I was tired and weary, HE was not.  Even though I was sleep deprived, He was not.  He never tires or grows weary, and since I have His power and His life at work in and through me, I can claim His energy and His strength as I continue to fulfill His calling to minister.  Also, it does not say that He strengthens the strong or the powerful.  It says that He strengthens the weary and the weak.

So, today, embrace that you are tired and weary.  Trust that He will give you strength and increase your power.  Know that His strength and energy never end.  Claim that His life is at work in and through you as you serve.  Pour, pour, pour and be filled by the God whose cup never runs dry.

Enjoy this time, LT 2013….there is no other time like this one!!

By:  Christina Cleveland Glendye (LT 2002, 2003, and 2004-HC)

First Steps

Some little boy took his first steps last night.  We were actually out looking at a house when Brooks decided to go for it.  (Too bad this house isn't going to work out.  How cool if he had done it in our future house!)  Gigi and our realtor, Holly, were there to witness this big event.  He was so proud of himself!!  Way to go, Brooks!

It is funny how different my two boys are.  Reives walked at 10 1/2 months, and Brooks walked at 14! You can tell alot about their personalities just from their walking timetables :)

Love these two boys to pieces!

Mother's Day 2013

14 Months

So, last Saturday, sweet Brooks turned 14 months old!  This is so hard to believe!  (I am taking a quick break from packing...since we move this weekend....to blog about this milestone, or else it may never happen.)  Brooks is still just the sweetest, little thing.  He is also still a BIG Mama's boy, which I just LOVE!  He is in a very clingy stage right now, but I can tell he is also becoming more and more independent...if that makes any sense.  He is great at entertaining himself, and he will play and play and play with his toys.  He LOVES books, and it is so cute to see him sit in a little chair with a stack of books and just turn the pages and look at them.  He also LOVES cars, trucks, and trains.  It is so cute that Reives will say that he wants "Brooksy" to play cars with him.  They have so much fun just pushing around their cars next to each other.  Brooks is starting to stand along some now, but as soon as he realizes what he is doing, he will grab onto something!  He is cruising like crazy, and I know it won't be long before he is walking all around.  He has gotten 3 of his one year molars this month, so he was a very picky eater for most of this month.  He seems to be getting less picky lately, but he is still much pickier than his big brother who will eat anything and everything!  Brooks's hair is getting thicker and has a little bit of curl in it.  It is cute to see those little baby curls.  Brooks is talking alot lately.  He has said all of this words, "mama," "dada," "hey," "bye bye," "book," "car," "go," "amen," "Bible," and he also does some of the animal sounds, "neigh," "moo," and "baa."  I love hearing these first words from my sweet boy!

Other things:

-Brooks still takes 2 naps most days, but if we have a busy morning, he does OK with just one.

-Brooks still drinks milk from his bottles and it has to be warmed still...PICKY!

-He tried out the sprinkler for the first time this month and was not a fan

-Knows the motions to a few songs and tries to do them with us: "Wheels on the Bus" "Itsy, Bitsy Spider", and "If Your Happy and You Know It."

-Is still a great napper/sleeper.....hasn't woken up in the middle of the night since October

-loves to play outside in the sandbox and on the swing

-favorite foods are crackers and any type of fruit

-refuses to let anyone feed him with a spoon/fork and refuses to feed himself (we just stick with finger foods for now)

Some 14 month pics:

 How we find Brooks after he wakes up (paci in mouth, Mama's cut up T-shirt in each hand)

 Happy 14 months, sweet Brooks!

 Serious face

Look at all of those teeth!

We love you, Brooks!

Moving and Faith

I have wanted to blog about this for quite sometime, but it all seems so difficult to put into words.  So, here is my feeble attempt....

The Surface Story
Currently, our family lives in Pooler (about 30 minutes outside of Savannah).  We attend church in Rincon (20 minutes from Pooler and 45 minutes or so from Savannah).  All of these time references are without traffic.  So, needless to say, we are on the road alot.  Our families are in Savannah, Trey works in Savannah, I go to Bible study in Savannah, all of our doctors are in Savannah, etc.  On the other hand, we LOVE our church family in Rincon, and most of our friends live there.  We are pretty involved in our church, so we are in Rincon a good bit as well.  Now that we have children, this situation is definitely not ideal.  Ideally, we would like to live/work/attend church/ etc. all within the same community.

Rewind to last fall.  After having 2 babies, Christina starts to feel a little weary of this current lifestyle.  She mentions it to Trey a few times, and brings up the possibility of moving to Savannah at some point.  Trey responds with something like, "There is no way we could sell our house right now.  We'd lose so much money.  Would be nice, but I don't think so."  So, Christina just sort of drops it and knows if God wants us to make a move, He'll show us when the time is right.  Later in the fall, the house next door sells very quickly and at a price comparable (per square foot) of what we paid for our house.  We started to think maybe we could sell our house at some point.

In late January, Trey all of sudden feels like God has given him a total peace that now is the time to sell our house.  There were a few other things that happened that played into this, but primarily he just kept saying he had a peace and wanted to talk to our realtor.  Holly, our realtor that we love, came over and thought we could sell our house for what we paid for it four years earlier.  She went over a few things we should do, but she didn't think we needed to do any major upgrades.  We spent February and March, fixing up our house, cleaning things out, going through stuff, and getting the house ready to list.  We listed our house at the end of March, and it sold in 2 1/2 weeks!

We are set to close on our house on May 20, and we have to be out by May 22.  We have been house hunting in Savannah like crazy, but we have not found what we are looking for yet.  So, things are a little up in the air as far as where to go from here, but we are moving in a few weeks!!!

So, there's the "surface story" of what has been going on in the Glendye Family over the past few months.  It sounds like such a great story, full of easy, concrete decisions, etc.  Ha...if only you could be inside of my head and heart!  So, here is my feeble attempt to get below the "surface".... (And this is the part that is really hard for me to put into words.)

Going Deeper
Faith. Everyone talks about walking by faith, living by faith, having faith.  Missionaries obviously have faith. Preachers have faith, and sometimes I think I forget that God wants "little 'ole me" to live a life of faith, too.  I have been through times in my life that have required greater faith than other times.  Times such as when I felt God calling me to do a ministry internship that required me to raise financial support right after graduating college.  Times like when I felt God calling me to quit my job to be a stay at home mom, trusting He would provide financially.  Times when we desperately wanted a baby, and just had to trust that God was in control and knew the perfect child for us.  Times just like this time now, where God has called (and we feel certain we are moving because of Him calling) us to pick up our family out of what is comfortable and move, trusting in His perfect plan for our us.

Faith is hard.  It is a constant battle of clinging to God's truth.  It is tuning out fear and embracing the unknown, simply because it is known to God.  It is trusting in a greater purpose and a higher calling.  It is exciting, yet frustrating, yet terrifying all at the same time.  Faith is taking one step at a time and clinging to each truth that God has revealed.

It just so happens that since September, I have been participating in a Bible Study (through BSF-Bible Study Fellowship) on Genesis.  The theme of this study is "Moving Faith Forward."  I KNOW that God placed me in this Bible Study "for such a time as this."  It is one thing to say, "I know God is in control," or, "God has a plan." But, when you have studied men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and when you have seen, firsthand, how God has worked in their lives, and when you realize that the same God that Sovereignly worked, intervened, and was 100% faithful to these great patriarchs is the same God that is actively and intimately working right now in your own life, you REALLY KNOW and can TRUST these things!!!  I cannot tell you how many times these last months, I have left my Wednesday morning Bible study truly blown away at how God works.  I am blown away by how God worked back then, and I am blown away by how He is working right now.  I have been a little sponge, taking in so many verses and phrases and constantly reminding myself of them.  I have to,  in order to have sanity during this crazy time of "uprooting" our family.  Phrases like, "When going through an uncertain time, God does not work by giving formulas, He wants our fellowship."  Even simple phrases like, "God is not off track" have been so encouraging.  I mean, I have said similar phrases for years.  But, when you look at someone like Joseph and how God gave him a vision when he was 17 and used each and every one of Joseph's awful circumstances to bring this vision to reality years later, you really KNOW that God is not off track.  He wasn't then, and He isn't now.  Verses such as, "May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us-yes, establish the work of our hands" (Psalm 90:17) have become my daily prayer for this "season of life."

Yes, what is ahead for us is very uncertain.  Houses, neighborhoods, schools, church.....they all weigh into this decision.  It is a bit overwhelming because Trey and I do not know what is the best house, neighborhood, school, or church for our family.  We truly don't know.  But, we rest in the fact that the decisions have already been made for us by the One who does know what is best.  We just have to wait, be patient, listen, and obey as He chooses to reveal His plan.  It is a constant struggle to remind myself that He is in control.  I mean, the unknown is scary, but I have to remember that it is not unknown to Him.

So, I praise God for this time.  I am thankful that He is drawing us closer to Himself.  I am thankful that He has exciting things and a perfect plan in store for our family.  I am thankful for God's promise that He always blesses obedience, and we can trust that whatever He has planned will bring forth a blessing.  I am thankful that God gives us faith to trust Him when we ask.  And, I am most thankful that I have a God that is 100% faithful in every situation!!!