We couldn’t take our phone with us and when I got back from white water rafting and picked up the phone, I felt “it” begin to happen.  I put the phone down, got on facebook to upload pictures and quickly got off.  I took my phone with me to Gatlinburg but shortly after arriving the battery died.  “It” went away.

What was “it”?  “It” was stress, the constant influx of information, whether meaningful or not, whether stressful or not, caused me stress.  “It” kept me from “them” – my family and when “it” was gone, I could enjoy “them”.

Technology is a wonderful thing, but I wonder how much stress it actually causes us that we don’t even realize on a day to day basis.

Tweet This Post

I was intrigued by all the similarities there were to Christian traditions, as well as the not so Christian traditions.

We got to see “true Cherokee dancers” today.  And I was really intrigued by what one of the guides shared about dancing.  In the Cherokee culture, dancing was not a social event, it wasn’t a casual thing, but a sacred thing.  It was used to ask the “Supreme Being” to bless them with something such as when they were going hunting or going into a battle and then it was  used to pay respects, give honor and thanksgiving to the “Supreme Being” for his blessings.

 my thoughts were – have we missed something?  Has dancing become such a casual thing that we have missed the true meaning and power of a sacred event.  I started thinking about when I remembered reading about dancing in the Bible.  Without having done any research and strictly from memory – I’m wondering if the Cherokee may be on to something…Just something to ponder for a while.

Tweet This Post

I kept watching, noticing the details of the trees and the cliffs.  The truth was there were trees growing up between the cracks in the rocks and I had a moment where I could hear those trees saying “Hey God, why do I get stuck over here in these hard rocks while those trees sitting 2 feet away get nice soft dirt.”

Yet, even in the rocks the trees didn’t just survive they thrived!  What if we lived like those trees…always growing toward the light, thriving in whatever conditions we find ourselves in not because it is where you want to be but because wherever you are there is provision for you.

Tweet This Post

I get up every morning and leave one family to go be with another family.  I have worked with a lot of people through the years.  Many of them were great people, some of them become great friends, but few ever became close enough to call family.

What makes family different from just a good friend.  Family is unshakable.  Families love each other, hurt each other, make mistakes, have huge successes, get mad at each other, say things they regret,  hurt for each other, and through it all families stay steady.

I have one of the greatest jobs in the world.  What makes it great isn’t the job, it is a lot about the people I work with.  They are part of my family.  They laugh with me, hand me tissue when I cry, shoot nerf guns at me when I have a bad attitude, cover for me when I need help, and love me regardless of it all.  We have days where we get on each other’s nerves.  Days where we don’t understand, don’t agree, don’t like being around each other, but those days are far fewer than you’d imagine and the truth is it never changes how we feel about each other.

I love the people I work with.  They are amazing and words just won’t do it justice.  They are my family!

Tweet This Post

Seems simple enough right?  We here it all the time.  “We serve a merciful God”, “God is gracious and full of mercy” 

Until recently I never thought much about how David went from the fields tending to sheep to leading a nation or how Moses went from  being a murderer to becoming Israel’s deliver.  I grew up in church so often those stories though very real have been tainted by rose colored glasses.  You don’t focus on the stupid stuff they did along the way.  You don’t focus on the mistakes they made,  you focus on the miracle that God used an unlikely source and made a great leader.

Recently, I started thinking about how gracious God has to be that He still choices the least likely to put in places of leadership.  If He wasn’t full of grace, He would have given up this idea long ago.  Unless you are willing to be gracious you gotta know the kind of people He picks are gonna mess up a lot,  yet He continues to choose those very people.

I’m glad He has been gracious and merciful to me.  He has given me more than I could have ever dreamed, allowed me to make mistakes, but spared me just in time.

Tweet This Post

Leadership Hurts!

I have always had a tremendous respect for leaders and what they have to go through, especially growing up in church and watching people come and go, but I never fully understood it.

Leadership hurts sometimes.  It hurts because it’s hard not to take it personally when someone gets mad, has to leave, or just quits.  It’s hard not to take it personally when people say things out of frustration and anger.  That’s just life in general, no one likes to be talked about, make people mad or feel abandoned.

The harder part of leadership for me, and the greater hurt that I have felt, had less to do with people hurting me, but the pain I felt as I realized some of my actions had hurt others.  The truth is I am far from perfect.  I have done a lot wrong in the last year and have a pretty good idea I will do a lot wrong in the years to come. I know that the mistakes I’ve made, have been mistakes that came from a good heart.  My motives and intentions were pure, but my methods were not always the best.  Regardless of how pure my intentions were, hurt is hurt and realizing that you have hurt someone God has entrusted  you to oversee is painful.  That hurts far more than the words of someone had has become offended for no apparent reason.

I don’t know that this part of leadership will ever change.  I just have a greater understanding of it now.

Tweet This Post

The first time I heard this and realized this the thought was overwhelming.  What have I done?  I don’t want to mess this up?  What am I going to do?  HELP!

When I finally got to HELP! a peace came over me.  That was the answer to all my questions.  My help comes from the Lord!  Realizing I’m in over my head shouldn’t be an overwhelming situation, it should be an exciting place to live.

If I’m not in over my head, then I am living in my own strength.  I am walking out my own path, living my own dream, accepting my own abilities as the limits of what my life can be.  When I begin to live life “in over my head” I begin to understand this isn’t about me, it’s about Him.  This is about me fulfilling the very purposes and plans He created me for.  If “I’m not in over my head” then I don’t need Him, and if I don’t need Him, then I have a problem.

Being in this place isn’t always easy, on the contrary, it is often scary and uncomfortable, but it now the only place I want to live.

Tweet This Post

Children’s Ministry is unique.  It has it’s own set of challenges that many people don’t understand, even people in ministry.  I was fortunate to have a senior pastor who not only lead Children’s Ministry at one point in his career but also had a wife, who happened to be a close friend of mine, who had lead it before me.  Both of them have been incredibly supportive and helpful.

One of the best decisions I have made during this first year is connecting with the children’s director at LifePoint Church, Tiffany.  We had talked several times and I had actually had the opportunity to watch her in action one Sunday at LifePoint before I came on staff.

A couple of months ago we finally decided to take time to meet for coffee and it was the most refreshing conversation I had in a long time.  We quickly agreed this needed to be a regular thing.  And I have to tell you, it’s one of my favorite days of the month now!

Everyone needs someone that can understand and share in their struggles and successes.  The greatest part of this relationship is that we are not in a competition with each other, we are on a journey together.  This isn’t about our individual churches being successful, it’s about how we can more effectively reach the children of our city.  I thank God for the amazing friend He has blessed me with.

Tweet This Post

Pastor Bryan and Jennifer both told me when I started “You need a hobby!”  I didn’t get it right away, but it was certainly one of the first lessons I learned.  As a teacher, I worked long hours.  I brought stuff home all the time.  I dreamed about kids, about teachers, about parents, about kids, about kids, about…kids all the time.  It was consuming, but church was my escape.  It was my hobby.  I sang on the worship team and when I was there, I was ALL there.  My mind was not on school, it was on worship!  Ministry was my passion and so when I was there, I was able to leave work (at least most of the time)!

When my work became my passion I began to realize there was no where I had that allowed me to turn it off.  I lived it, breathed it, slept it, dreamed it, talked about it and loved it.  But I had nothing that took my mind off of it.  It was my passion so turning it off seemed impossible but I quickly realized the absolute necessity of figuring out a way to turn it off.  Without an escape, a way to turn it off, burn out would be inevitable. 

I still haven’t found that perfect hobby but I have certainly found a few things that work for now.  I am looking for the perfect hobby, but for all you Dream Weavers out there knitting is not it!

Tweet This Post

Early on I had a close friend who happened to be one of my volunteers tell me “Helen, your team is a reflection of you!”  I knew exactly what he meant because I am married to a football coach.  I had watched as one coach could take a group of kids and have little to know success on the football field and then a year later a different coach take those same kids and make them chanmpions, and then watch a different coach the next year, with the same group of kids have a losing season.  The kids didn’t change, the leader did!  The kids can’t go where the coach doesn’t take them.

 See, I loved my job!  I loved it!  But Sunday morning, the time when a Children’s Director should be all about people, all about the kids, at the top of her game, I was all about stress.  I would find myself rushing around like I had lost my mind.  I wasn’t operating with any peace or joy.  I was simple reacting to whatever circumstances were thrown at me.

My reflection is still not everything I want it to be.  There is still a lot I have to work on, things I have to get better at, but as I make changes, I have seen those changes reflected in my team.  Sometimes the hardest things to hear turn out to be the greatest lessons.  If I didn’t like what I was seeing it was no one’s fault but my own, so only I could fix it!

Tweet This Post