God is good all the time...here's why!

Remember to say a prayer for all of the parents sending their kids off to college in the coming days. I have a friend whose really struggling to hold it together.:cry:

 

Prayer for our young men and women going to college

It is time to let go,
to stand back and watch
as the young leave home
and go out into the world
on their own.

Bless them, O God,
in all their endeavors,
in their successes and failures.

Guard them from all harm and evil
and make them strong to resist temptation.

Lead them in Your paths
that they may be the builders of life
and not destroy Your creation.

Teach them Your ways of justice
that they may care for the well-being of all
and not for their needs alone.

Guide them in their search for truth
that they may praise You in all they do.

Let them trust the love of family
to support them in their time of need,
to care for their hopes and dreams,
and to love them, no matter what comes.

Amen.

Vienna Cobb Anderson


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kent

 

Kent, what a beautiful prayer for children as they "fly the nest" and go out into the world. It expresses so well my hopes and prayers for my children and grandchildren.

 

Thanks Kent. I'm passing that along to my friend. God bless her, she was able to sing "Find Your Wings" a few weeks ago in church. I don't know how she got through it other than by God's grace. I tried to prepare it for my son's graduation Sunday but chickened out. I couldn't READ the lines without crying, much less sing them.

 

Find Your Wings - what a blessing in this song

KDsGrandma - yes, sister, I thought Vienna Anderson penned a wonderful prayer.

mommy3 - I had not heard of this song until you mentioned it. It is terrific. I thought I would share it with the group.

Tonight I took my 12 yr old daughter to NRCA for her 7th grade orientation and thought back to when she first entered kindergarten and how time has just flown by.

I know she'll be graduating before I know it and I'll be thinking of this song.

Kent

Find Your Wings - Mark Harris - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knm492yxMfo

 

I've been going back over this thread and sharing with my son. Thanks for this post...again...I feel wrapped in His love right now

 

This song makes me cry. I sent my first to college last year and my baby this year.


She'll take the painting in the hallway,
The one she did in jr. high
And that old lamp up in the attic,
She'll need some light to study by.

She's had 18 years to get ready for this day
She should be past the tears, she cries some anyway

Oh oh letting go
There's nothing in the way now,
Oh letting go, there's room enough to fly
And even though, she's spent her whole life waiting,
It's never easy letting go.

Mother sits down at the table
So many things she'd like to do
Spend more time out in the garden
Now she can get those books read too.

She's had 18 years to get ready for this day
She should be past the tears, she cries some anyway.

Oh oh letting go
There's nothing in the way now,
Oh letting go, there's room enough to fly
And even though, she's spent her whole life waiting,
It's never easy letting go.

Oh oh letting go
There's nothing in the way now,
Oh letting go, there's room enough to fly
And even though, she's spent her whole life waiting,
It's never easy letting go.

 

Mine is not going away to college. He'll be living at home and commuting. I'm still struggling with some of the emotions. I guess it's just the life changing moments that make us emotional. I was talking about him last night and had to MAKE myself use the word "man" when refering to him. I guess he is now. I remember crying all the way to work he day he started kindergarten. Geez, I'm doing it now....silly mom.

 

This is an awesome poem about a child going off to kindergarten. It still makes me cry and my baby will be a sophomore this year!

I Trust You'll Treat Her Well

By Victor Buono

Dear World,

I bequeath to you today one little girl in a crispy dress with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long and a flash of light blond hair that bounces in the sun when she runs. I trust you'll treat her well.

She's slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning and skipping off down the street to her first day of school. And never again will she be completely mine. Prim and proud she'll wave her young and independent hand this morning and say "Goodbye" and walk with little lady steps to the schoolhouse.

Now she'll learn to stand in lines and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She'll learn to tune her ears for the sounds of school-bells and deadlines and she'll learn to giggle and gossip and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way when the little boy 'cross the aisle sticks out his tongue at her. And, now she'll learn to be jealous. And now she'll learn how it is to feel hurt inside.

And now she'll learn how not to cry.

No longer will she have time to sit on the front porch steps on a summer day and watch an ant scurry across the crack in the sidewalk. Nor will she have time to pop out of bed with the dawn and kiss lilac blooms in the morning dew. No, now she'll worry about those important things like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friend is whose. And the magic of books and learning will replace the magic of her blocks and dolls.

And now she'll find new heroes.

For five full years now I've been her sage and Santa Claus and pal and playmate and father and friend. Now she'll learn to share her worship with her teachers which is only right.

But, no longer will I be the smartest, greatest man in the whole world. Today when that school bell rings for the first time she'll learn what it means to be a member of the group with all its privileges and its disadvantages too.

She'll learn in time that proper young ladies do not laugh out loud or kiss dogs or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms or even watch ants scurry across cracks in sidewalks in the summer.

Today she'll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends. And I'll stand on the front porch and watch her start out on the long, lonely journey to becoming a woman.

So, world, I bequeath to you today one little girl in a crispy dress with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long…and a flash of light blond hair that bounces in the sun when she runs.

I trust you'll treat her well.

 

Michelle: beautiful post

- - - - - - -
Here's a great song by Bob Carlisle - Butterfly Kisses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgZftrobqlg

Compliments our current journey into the lives of our children that grow up much too fast.

Kent

 

Thanks sugar. It was a joke! :lol:

 

Whew...what a rough day I had yesterday.

The Devil and his demons were out in force yesterday; more so than usual, it seemed, but I got through it. Praise God!

The Devil knows his time is near and he's working overtime to throw God's children off balance, make them doubt, look over their shoulder to see if God is still there.

God's word says He'll never leave us nor forsake us.

Put on the whole armor of God each day.

Remember the words of the Apostle James - "Submit to God, resist the Devil, and he will flee from you."

Here's a great song by Jeremy Camp - I Still Believe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNqw2ssYXC8&mode=related&search=

Kent

 

Josh Brown's testimony -- after a near fatal heroin overdose.

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=478309


Day of Fire -- Cornerstone

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SV0Hr0jPJ2A

 

My father and I love this song. I surprised my father with this song, sung by my brother on my wedding day dance with my father. It took alot for him to not fall apart and got me choked up a lil bit.

 

ready2cyKing: enjoyed your post! Great testimony. I keep hearing a quote from his testimony: "Jesus will meet you wherever you are." Isn't that awesome. Jesus will come to YOU! All you have to do is invite Him!

Rostrawberry: a wedding is where I first heard Butterfly Kisses and I fell in love with it right then. If my daughter plays this at her wedding I'll be a basket case, I'm sure.

Kent

 

Kent, I heard a half hour long testimony from him on GMC one night and it really made me start thinking. People like him, covered in tattoos and piercings, addicted to drugs and playing in hard rock bands, is exactly the kind of people that Jesus would be reaching out to if He were on the earth today. I don't think we would find Him sitting on comfortable pews in our air conditioned churches. I think He would be out in the dirt in Gypsy villages in Romania. Or in the jungles in South America. Or in bars in America. Or on the streets, or in homeless shelters and orphanages anywhere in the world. I think the church body in America needs to wake up. We open our doors and invite the world to come in (after they clean up), but, instead we need to GO OUT of those doors and take Him (since we are His hands and feet) to them! That is why I said when I got back from Romania that we, the church body, really need to WAKE UP. The best church service I've ever attended was not in some million dollar state-of-the-art church. It was in the dirt and dung in one of the poorest neighborhoods I have ever seen, listening to a Romanian man put all he had into a message for some of Romania's outcasts.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=m36OWibR6nk

 

ready2cmyKing: shout it from the rooftops, Sister! You're doing a fine job!

- - - - - - - - - - -

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Matthew 25:31-45 KJV

- - - - - - - - - -

OPERATION INASMUCH, an idea that was given to me by another brother, is something I'm going to start up at my church.

I'm going to try to light a fire under everyone, to encourage them to get passionate for reaching the lost and those like you described from your mission trip.

The Youth from my church recently returned from a mission trip to Jacksonville, FL, where they set up and ran a day-camp for a week in an impoverished neighborhood.

This neighborhood was near a very large and beautiful church that has escalators that only go up about 10 or 11 steps! A cushy place, indeed.

But folks from this neighborhood said they've NEVER seen anyone from this church ministering in their neighborhood.

God's people have got to quit being spiritual couch potatoes and get their feet firmly planted on the streets of soul-winning.

A sister church in my area, who is very strong on missions, has a motto: Find those who need Jesus, Feed all on the Word, Until we are fully established in Christ.

Kent

 

Yup, not only you but the crowd will be in tears.... the words to the song is so true.

 

I still can't listen to that song without getting a lump in my throat.

 

Wow, that sounds like a wonderful idea you have Kent! I believe God sent me on that mission trip to open my eyes to what we have and are in this country, compared to other parts of the world, and I praise Him for it. Unfortunately, the church here seems to have been lulled to sleep because we have been so blessed. BUT, I believe God is starting something among His people. I know of a couple of new church plants that are very missions minded. They are targeting downtown Raleigh. Hey, we have homeless and needy (not to mention, lost) people right here, right under our noses! But, we would rather stick an invitation out on our churchyard sign inviting people to one of our "revivals" than to actually take to the streets and minister to the needy. The saddest part... if we would ever get off our pews and into the streets I believe we WOULD experience revival. I know going to Romania started one in my life!