Ruthie

Father, forgive us

As Christians, we have been given the greatest gift of love and forgiveness. So why do we have such a hard time forgiving others, especially other Christians? By letting hurt feelings get in the way a restored relationship, we let unforgiveness fester in our heart till its as black as a smokers lung. Sadly I am a perfect example of that, I absolutely despise being put down to make someone else look good, so when it happens, I find myself disliking whoever it was that made me feel inadequate and it's very hard for me to forgive them. Its easier to feel anger than hurt. For me anger is a way to keep from being hurt, someone says something mean, and my way of escaping hurt is to be mad. Anger coupled with hurt feelings sows the seeds of unforgiveness faster than you can uproot them. Forgiveness is a huge part of our lives. It is so important to God that He says if we don't forgive others He will not forgive us.

Matthew 6:14-15

14. For if you forgive men when they sin against you,

your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15. But if you do not forgive men their sins,

your Father will not forgive your sins.

We are so consumed with ourselves and how we feel that we can't see beyond our own hurt to understand the healing power of forgiveness. While on the cross Jesus cried "Father, forgive them." My prayer, "Father, forgive us." For our unforgiving hearts, and the pride that keeps us from seeing our desperate need. Forgiveness that flows as freely as the love of our Father. Forgiving others so we in turn can be forgiven. Father, forgive us.

How to survive while your mother is away

How does one survive while one's dear mother is away? I've had much experience at surviving without my darling mother, not because she is negletful but because as a pastor's wife she does a lot of visiting. At first, like all rookies, I make silly mistakes, thinking that I could handle mom leaving all by myself, failing to provide myself with shelter, and not keeping a stash of bribery tools around. I did, however, live through my mistakes, and here I am to tell about it! I claim no great knowledge, I have never been to college, I haven't even finished high school, but the topic on which I write needs no great knowledge, just a little common sense and a good dose of humor.

A few months ago my mother went to an International Student Convention with my father, leaving my younger siblings and I with a babysitter. My mother had been gone for ten days and was not scheduled to return for another week. How was I going to survive another seven days without her? My little sister Glory was having a bad say, well week really. After throwing her cereal on the floor, refusing to do any kind of school owrd, and staying in her PJ's most of the day, it was finally time fir a nap. Thinking that a nap was just what glory needed, I set off to find her and put her down for a good nap. "Glory," I called in a sweet voice, "Do you want to hear a story?" That got her coming quick, she loves hearing stories. Glory suddenly stopped walking toward me and started running in the opposite diresction. "Oh, flapper-snapps," I cried, for I realized that she had caught me in what I was trying to do. I started running after her and caught her in the living room. Diving for her feet, I executed an excellent dive-and-trip maneuver. While Glory was still recovering from the shock, I sat on her and pinned her to the floor. After retrieving the rope I always carry in my pocket, I tied her hands and feet. Now as you can imagine, Glory was not very happy about this, no matter, I carried her kicking and screaming to her room and plopped her on the nearest bed. I sang her a song, told her a story, covered her with a blanket, and as she slowly went to sleep, softly left the room. Which brings me to my first point, keeping a good head on your shoulders is the first rule of survival. If I had not kept my wits about me, trying to put Glory down for a nap could have had a very different, disastrous end. A wise person once taught me that what you can't accomplish by simply talking to kids, you can accomplish with gummy worms. When one is left in the car with seven wild children while your mother and father are visiting someone in a hospital can be a bad situation. But when one has gummy worms the children suddenly listen to everything you say, turning into perfect angels in seconds. My personal favorite survival tip, create a hideaway, a place only you know about. A sound-proofed storm shelter under your bed with cameras around the outside, providing you with the knowledge of who is approaching, is a great way to get away. If, however, a high-teck storm shelter is not available, a small tree house will do. Keeping food in your shelter is an excellent way to stay nourished during your long stays. If you are anything like me, you are most likely wondering, what are the most important things to do when my mother leaves? Well here they are, the two most important things to know for when your mother goes on a long trip. Read your Bible, this will aid you in staying close to God. Also, surround youself with family and friends who will help you through this difficult time. We all would like to think that we can handle anything and everything by ourselves, but we can't. Trusting God to take you safely through the hard times and surrounding yourself with people you love, are two things imperative to surviving the hard times ahead.

Heaven Bound

In english this year I've been writing alot, whether it's poems, essays, or certain types of paragraphs. Here is a poem I wrote a while ago while waiting in the dentists office for my name to be called.

Through the mist and haze I wander,
Is this to be my fate? I ponder,
Shall this be my bitter end?
To the depths will I be sent?

I stumble through the muck and mire,
Reaching, climbing ever higher,
Will this nightmare ever cease?
Would its hateful grasp release?

I then came to river wide,
How should I reach the other side?
Water rushing past me yells,
A taunt, a dare, to ford its swell.

Wait, there, a bridge is standing near,
And look, another, two bridges here,
These bridges two are different though,
A closer look will variance show.

Wide, is one, and so it read,
On a sign above the bridge ahead,
Another bridge, yet not the same,
Straight and Narrow, is its name.

By bridge called Wide, old bottles lay,
Crying of lives left in decay,
People deceived by drugs and sin,
Filling awhile, then caving in.

The bridge named Straight, yes Straight might be,
But lives are saved, this now I see,
It’s less traveled, than neighbor Wide,
And speaks of life by Savior’s side.

The question is clear, Wide or Straight,
This life depends on the choice I make,
Wide, with riches, yet death and pain,
Or narrow, service, yet so much gain.

Stepping to the bridge called Straight,
I entered through the narrow gate,
I know now what I have to do,
Lord this, my heart, I give to you.

Living, serving, this my call,
To the Lord I give my all,
Then through the mist a great light shone,
I heard a voice, “Child, welcome home.”

Happy New Year!

HAPPY

NEW

YEAR!!!!!!

2007

Here are some lovely pictures from the watchnight service we had at our house last night. It was a lot of fun ringing in the new year with friends and our extended family ( the wuffields ). Happy New Year!!!!!!!

My Amazing Parents

these are my amazing parents

My mom is the most beautiful person I know, and I'm not just saying
that because she is my mom, or because people tell me that I look like
her :) I'm amazed by how much patience she has, I love that she shows
love to people that are not always nice to her, something that I am forever
working on. She loves God with all her heart and is a living example of what
God's love is. I want to be just like my mom when I grow up.

My dad has an incredible walk with God, when I walk into the living room each
morning I see him either reading the Bible or on his knees praying, and the
mornings I see him sleeping, are the ones he was up at 3:00 a.m. praying.
He's also one of the most laid back people I know, when we go to convention, dad
will take us to the movies while the other sponsors are running around making
sure the girls heels are regulation height. I love his sense of humor and the way
he laughs.

God has blessed me with parents I dont deserve, they love me even when I
mess up and I've never heard them yell at each other or any of their children.
I am inspired to become a better Christian by watching how they live their lives. They prove that true love is possible and God's plan really is the best. I love them
both and thank God for making them my mom and dad.

Daddy, i can't reach

I went to a ladies fellowship thing last night to babysit annie's beautiful children, but ended up playing bunco because they needed another person to make the teams even. After we were done playing it was time for the speaker to get up and encourage us all. After a bit, sadly, I started to pay very little attention to the speaker, you know how it is when you really tired and a little old lady gets up at starts to speak in her soft little voice.
And right when I was about to give up all hope of getting anything out of the talk, she said something that for some reason made me think. " God will meet you where ever you are"
Usually I would have brushed it off as something you would say to someone who had really messed up their lives and needed a few spiratual words to get them back on track. But I realized that I had been trying to be, and do what I thought good Christians should do without ever getting anywhere. I have grown up in a Christian home, been saved since i was 3, and read my Bible pretty much every day for a long time. But most of the time I was just reading my Bible because I knew I had to, and praying long, empty prayers becuase I thought thats what good Christians did. I see people around me just saying the right things and praying the long, beautiful, yet completely empty prayers, and I had been thankful that I was not like that. Untill I realized that I could see through the mask not because I was so spiritual and did every thing right, but because I was just like them. Being a pastor's daughter, its almost like I'm expected to have it all together and for the longest time I thought I did. But now I see that all the things I was doing was just a pathetic attempt at being good enough, for my parents, my family, for the people watching me, and for God. Doing what I thought would get me close to God, I remember feeling like I was getting nothing out of my devotions thinking, mabye my devotion time is not long enough, mabye I have to read more. I thought I had to do more and be better for my relationship with God to get better. But thats me, trying to be good enough, me trying to reach God. "God will meet you where ever you are."

Psalms 16:2: O my soul, you have said to the Lord, you are my lord; my goodness extends not to you.

My goodness extends not to you, I cant be good enough for God, I will never be able to read my Bible or pray or say enough right things. Doing all that stuff is great and very important, but without the right heart I could pray till I'm blue in the face and get no where, because I can't reach God. My lack of enthusiasm for all I was doing was because I thought I had to be good enough before God would look down and decide that I had finally read my Bible enough, and I could now have a great relationship with Him. God will meet me where I am, I dont have to flounder around getting no where trying to reach God because on my own I will never get there. Ask and ye shall recieve, now I can get up in the morning and look forward to what God is going to teach me in my Bible reading. Because He is the one reaching down to me, I can't climb my way to Him.

praise - i think we all could do a little more of it

Psalm 8:9. O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

So often my prayers consist of things I want, here I am, talking to the Almighty God, Creator of the universe, and the first words out of my mouth are, "Dear God, If you could, I would like..."
That God would even consider listening to me is amazing, I'm one of countless others on this planet, yet if asked, God could pick my voice out of a crowd and proceed to tell you everything there is to know about me. That's my dad, my heavenly Father, the one and only God.
He has blessed me with so much, a thousand books could not hold everything God has done for me. After all this, more often than not, I can't even manage to squeak out a "thank you" before i proceed to bombard God with requests.
God should be getting much more praise than we give him. Its not the most natural thing in the world to start off our prayers, or anything for that matter, about someone else. The Lord's prayer begins, "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name." Not, "Our Father who art in Heaven, please help me get that ________" During my prayer time the past few nights I've realized how little my prayers consist of praise and thanks. I don't know about you, but its time I step out of the "me" box and start my prayers the way they should have a long time ago, with praise to my awesome God.