Hello. I grew up traveling the world as a military brat. I ultimately felt God's pull to Oklahoma Christian University where I met my husband. We now have 3 beautiful children and have settled in Mustang, Oklahoma.I am a homeschooling mom and with 3 kiddos it is a full time job! I am daily encouraged by God's great patience and grace in my life. In my free time I enjoy reading and crafting.
Did you know that ostriches do not bury their head in the sand when they’re afraid? I discovered this fact while I was searching the inter-webs for this post. So if you also have believed the age-old lie that ostriches bury their heads in the sand, I’m sorry to say that you were wrong, and now you know better. And if you haven’t already had someone tell you “when you know better, you do better” then I must say congratulations!
I’ve seen someone type this phrase out online more times than I can count, and I have to say it rubs me the wrong way. First of all, it assumes that we all will have the same feelings or beliefs based on a set of information.
Secondly it assumes that the information presented is infallible. My friends, the only thing I’ve ever read that is 100% bulletproof, stands up against all opposition, and holds true in every scenario is the true word of God. But I digress. I didn’t sit down at my computer today to rant and rave about the catchphrase of the day. No, I sit here today to talk about one of my own shortcomings.
I (unlike an ostrich) find myself burying my head in the sand frequently these days. To say that I’ve become a proverbial basket case since I’ve had children would be a severe understatement. Our world today seems to be an ever-changing cocktail of worrisome information. We have access to more information than any generation before. It’s wonderful, right?! Uh, I beg to differ. Hopping on social media for a quick update on my friends and family unleashes Pandora’s box.
Oh, I’m not talking about the latest murder, carjacking, or robbery, although these things are certainly worrisome. No, I’m talking about things that burrow deep down into my heart and start my descent towards the sand. I may wake up with my head held high, but you can bet that by the end of the day my brain is buried away where it doesn’t have to contemplate the latest problems of my world.
Besides the endless mommy wars (which are a total drag–aren’t we past this?) I find myself facing a barrage of information or opinions which start me questioning my choices and the safety of my children. I mean, it seems like every day there’s a new car seat recommendation that I can’t keep up with. Then there’s the guilt over the fact that my grocery shopping is either done at a sprint or with four needy humans in tow that results in a lack of anything organic. Move on to the scare over vaccinations and I’m already starting to burrow. The other day a simple google search about the little cuties oranges turned up a blog discussion about fruit dyes. They’re dying our fruit?! I mean, can’t a momma catch a break???
Human trafficking.
Dirty politicians.
Police being murdered.
Late-term abortions.
ANY abortions!
I just can’t. I just can’t keep reading and thinking and worrying.
What happens if a vaccine hurts my child?
What happens if my children eat fruit that has been dyed?
What happens if we don’t do extended rear-facing and we have an accident? Could I ever forgive myself? I mean, I had read the information right?
Ah, Jonny Diaz! Bless you for being the hands and feet of Christ to me in this situation.
How in the world do I find myself in this place over and over again? I mean, I’m pretty sure if you do a search of my blog posts on here you’ll find that I reach this place pretty frequently. How fortunate for me that we serve a God full of grace, mercy, and forgiveness! How foolish I must look to be sticking my head in the sand day in and day out. Has the Lord not made it clear to me who has control of my life?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothes you-you of little faith? So do not worry saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:26-34
Do you ever get overwhelmed by the worries of this world?
What things make you want to bury your head in the sand?
Toni was born and raised in a small town in Oklahoma.She graduated from East Central University with a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Economics.After college, she returned to her hometown to marry her best friend, Charles.Toni is a stay at home mom to their three teens, two boys and a girl, whom God led them to homeschool.Her goal is to raise her children to love and serve the Lord.They live on a farm where they grow produce to sell at several farmers markets.She also plays the piano at church and teaches piano.
Hi! Born in the great state of Texas and raised in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, this Daughter of the Alamo/Georgia Peach is still adjusting to life in Razorback Nation! My husband and I live just outside of Little Rock, Arkansas with our two toddlers and two crazy pups. I’m a small business owner, chocolate aficionado, and travel lover with a 2pm coffee hour no matter what time zone I’m in!
Meet Sarah. Sarah was 12 years old when approached by a friendly, nice-looking lady at the mall in her affluent Atlanta neighborhood. The lady asked Sarah if her parents had ever looked into getting her into modeling. When Sarah said, “No,” the woman invited her to fill out a quick form with some basic information including her parents’ and siblings’ names and ages, their home address, and Sarah’s cell phone number. The woman asked if Sarah could follow her to her car where her camera was for a quick headshot to accompany the form. Once there, Sarah was raped by three different men. Afterwards, they told her they’d do the same thing to her siblings if Sarah told anyone what had happened. They let Sarah go, and she found her friends right as her mom came to pick her up. Sarah was too fearful to tell her mom what happened. The woman continues to contact Sarah by cell phone demanding meetings, or otherwise she’ll kidnap her siblings. Each time, Sarah goes to the meeting place to protect her siblings and is raped.
Meet Jon. Jon was born in Thailand, the fifth and youngest child of his parents. In Thailand’s culture, the youngest child supports the parents and older siblings financially once they are old enough. The quickest way to earn the money necessary to support so many adults is sex. Boy prostitutes don’t make as much money as girl prostitutes, so Jon’s parents put him through the appropriate sex-change surgeries as an infant to make him a girl. Jon is now 15 years old. He goes by Jonnie, and works the bars as a sex slave hoping one day an American businessman will like him enough to buy him from his pimp.
Meet Jai. Jai is a high school junior in Little Rock with a 4.0 GPA. Her family (mom and three sisters) lives off WIC, disability, and subsidized housing and healthcare. Her mom was diagnosed with cancer when Jai was 10. Jai works at Burger King after school and uses the money to help support her family. One of Jai’s teachers at school notices that Jai hasn’t signed up for any after-school programs which would look good on her college applications. When Jai explains to her teacher that she needs those after-school hours to work at Burger King to help provide for her family, her teacher tells Jai that she knows of a job Jai can do where she’ll earn three times as much and offers to take her there for an interview one day after school. Jai requests an afternoon off from work to go to the interview. At the interview, she is drugged, and afterwards a pimp watches as she is raped. When it’s over, the pimp tells Jai she got the job as one of his “favorites” and pays her three times as much as one shift at Burger King. If she comes back tomorrow, he’ll pay her even more. Jai goes to work for the pimp for a couple hours in the evening each day after attending her after-school programs. She hopes to save enough money to be able to work fewer shifts for him but continue to support her mom and sisters while she attends college in downtown Little Rock. When she arrives to work one day, she finds out she’s been sold to another pimp who operates out of another city. He takes her that same day, and she hasn’t seen or been in contact with her mother or sisters since.
Are you sick to your stomach? It never fails–each time I hear a testimony from a man or woman who has somehow managed to escape the bonds of slavery I become physically unwell. I think that’s a normal response. Don’t you? It is sickening after all…
These three young people I’ve introduced to you represent only one sector of human trafficking–sex. But there are child slaves harvesting cocoa pods in West Africa, adult men picking cotton in India, and women working off the debts of their grandfathers by sewing clothes in factories in Malaysia.
I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, and as a middle schooler my parents sensitively and assertively warned me of the model pick-up line being used at our mall to lure young girls into the shadows of the sex trade. Unfortunately, I’ve met women like Sarah who weren’t afforded the warning I was. They were just your regular girl next door who one day found themselves trapped.
Atlanta is well-known for being a human trafficking hub, and I’ve driven up and down the street most notorious for it more times than I can count. A college friend’s next door neighbor’s house, just north of the city, was busted as a brothel a few years ago. I’ve participated in the days to raise awareness for human trafficking, I’ve given money, I wear a red X on my purse, I buy fair trade goods, I’ve pushed myself about as close to the cause as I can while remaining emotionally functional. Human trafficking has never been an “across the ocean” issue to me. It’s always been a “next door” issue.
But a quick perusing of my home will show that although no one in my house is a slave, the effects of slavery are still present here in our food, clothes, and home goods. Furthermore, I’m not only realizing that the same warnings and education my parents had to do with me to keep me safe from this heinousness, I’m going to have to do with my own daughter, but also that the reality of slavery’s proximity has only grown closer in the last twenty years.
Human trafficking is dark, it’s heavy, and it’s scary. There are more slaves on the planet today than there have been in the history of mankind. Once you can fight through the nausea that reality evokes, you’ll find that there is some good news. There are a lot of us out there who are bent on seeing an end to it in this lifetime. We’re bent on bringing that number down from over 27 million to 0.
It seems like an incredibly overwhelming task. Eradicating slavery? 27 million people? A lot of people want to know: Where do we even start?
Partner up. There are organizations and ministries all across the globe striving each day to put an end to slavery, and they’d love your help in any way, shape, or form.
Will you extend your hand and partner up?
Being an Atlanta girl, the End It Movement holds a very special place in my heart. Check out their website for more information on human trafficking and how you can help bring an end to it.
I’d love for our CAGD readers/contributors to help lead the search for more resources on getting involved with ending human trafficking. Please comment below with the link to an organization you’re involved with whose purpose is to either raise awareness or rescue and rehabilitate the victims of slavery here and abroad.
We can’t keep viewing slavery as a “next door” issue. Changing that mindset is the first step in helping bring an end to it. Together we can make slavery a thing of the past. Together we can end it for good.
I am an Oklahoman by birth, a Texan by current living situation, but claim the world as my playground.I love to travel and hope to someday soon take our family on adventures to far off lands, where we can share God with others and experience all the wonders He has created.
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
My mother was one of eight children. She wanted a house full of children, but she was told she would never have any. Ten years into marriage she became sick and the same doctor who told her she would never have children informed her that she was pregnant!
Timing. God’s timing is so much better than ours will ever be.
Acts 17:26-27 (NIV – emphasis added)
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
When I read this verse, which is absolutely one of my favorites, I see God flipping through a Rolodex of time, and stopping at just the right moment for every single person, saying, “You, (insert your name here), will search for me best in this very century within this array of decades. The gifts I have blessed you with will reach the most people and do the most good in this very age!”
None of us randomly happened into this life. God has a plan!
2 Timothy 1:9 (NIV – emphasis added)
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV – emphasis added)
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Did you catch that? Well, I did bold it for added emphasis but before the beginning of time God had a plan of how He would not only rescue us from our sinful selves but had a plan for our lives as well!
My husband and I were talking about how in this crazy world we ended up together. It’s a long story but a fun one, you can read it here.
But what stuck out to us the most is the timing of it all. You see, my parents are about the same age as his grandparents on his mothers’ side. He was born early in his parents’ marriage and I was born somewhat later into my parents’ marriage. If I had been born earlier, we might never have crossed paths. Our children might very well not exist. Our lives would be completely different.
God has a plan.And even though His timing may frustrate our plans, we know that His plans have a far more lasting effect than we could ever imagine. From the beginning of time, God orchestrated each individual’s birth in my family and each individual’s birth in my husband’s family so that we would end up serving him together. (Now, please do not get me wrong, I am not a believer in “soul mates”, but I do believe God has a plan. And above all, his plan is much better than what we could ever plan ourselves.) If you stopped and read the story of how we came to be married, you would clearly see my husband was NEVER part of my plan.
Leaning into God’s will brought us together and it is amazing to praise God for the love He has brought about between us. I pray that we will instill a love of following God’s will into our children so that they too will impact this earth based on God’s plan and His perfect timing.
When you look back on your life, how do you see that God putting you in this very time has been impactful to those around you?
“I’ve got a fire in my eyes.” “Feeling solid…got my feet on the ground.” “I’m awake…alive.” “You ignite the Fire.” (Listen here: Fire in My Eyes by Fireflight)
Remember the phrase, spoken as a warning or accusation, often accompanied by narrowed eyes and pointing finger, “You’re playing with fire!” and “Don’t play with fire!”
I say, it depends on the fire.
There were definitely times in my past when I needed to heed that warning. The times right before I made poor decisions. Dating the wrong kind of guy. Flirting with rebellion. Saying something I shouldn’t.
What if we changed our thinking? From a negatively infused fire, to the positively infused Fire.
With some of us, there’s nothing anyone can say–once our mind is made up, we are going to do what we are going to do! But what if the influences we surrounded ourselves with gave us a different kind of spurring on. Instead of “Stop playing with fire,” what if people said, “Get the Fire in your eyes!”
Matthew 6:22 (NIV) says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”
I Samuel 16:7 (ESV) says, “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Too often, we focus on the outward appearance of a situation. We don’t look or speak into the heart of a person often enough.
Psalm 101 really kicks me in the butt–that guy has some serious fire. The Psalmist talks about the things that are opposite of integrity – and how he will ‘stand against’, ‘destroy’ not let them ‘cling’ to him. Despite his shortcomings, he made a decision to not set his sights on anything that is worthless (verse 3).
If we used Psalm 101 as a guide for our hearts, maybe it would change how we encourage people. To ignite them towards finding the one and only thing that can spark enough passion in their spirit to keep them focused on the things of real importance. Eternal things. A heart that’s in the right place with God leads to wise actions.
Whether in a situation of uncertainty or acting out of plain defiance, the circumstance does not dictate the action. The heart, the spirit does. When our heart is consumed by our holy Father’s all-consuming fire, our behaviors and actions reflect it. We think with an eternal perspective. We step out of our selfish, tainted perceptions and process circumstances with a conviction that is more than just our own.
We have a undistinguishable Fire in our eyes.
What does that mean? What can having the Fire in our eyes do?
It gives us courage.
It gives us passion.
It gives us fuel.
It gives us strength.
It gives us wisdom.
It gives us direction.
It gives us purpose.
It seeks to shine the light on truth. It seeks to extinguish lies, selfish ambition, and twisted misconceptions–all the things put in play by Satan, the Devourer.
With the fire of Christ fueling our soul and spirit and lighting up our eyes, there’s no stopping us! Enemies of Heaven, beware! “For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29). Where there is light, darkness cannot hide (1 John 1: 5-10, John 1:5, 8:12, 12:46, Jeremiah 23:24, Matthew 10:26, Mark 4:22).
How to get the Fire:
1. The first action is to believe.
Believe the words of the Bible, accept Christ as Savior, give Him authority over you, and invite the Holy Spirit into your life. (If this is where you are, any of the gals from this blog are standing by to help you through this exciting transition! Contact us!)
2. Ask God for some Fire!
“O Lord my God; light up my eyes.” (Psalm 13:3) “Keep on asking, and you will receive.” (Luke 11:9)
3. Read about the Fire. Listen to encouraging words that spark its flames.
“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” (Proverbs 16:1-3)
What to do with the Fire:
1. Watch and see what God will do.
“Wait on the Lord…” (Psalm 27:14) “But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD.” (Micah 7:7)
2. Be Obedient(Acts 5:29, 1 Peter 1:14).
When you sense a nudge (and it lines up with the words of the Bible), act on it. “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Matthew 10:20). “You know him [the Holy Spirit] because He abides with you, and will be in you.” (John 14:17) So “speak the truth in love,” (Ephesians 4:15), and be full of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
3. Find your own bible scriptures.
Search the Scriptures for those that ignite that deep, fiery passion inside you, so that come what may, you are equipped to meet any uncertainty.
The verses that put the Fire in my eyes:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” (Luke 4:18)
“Whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12)
and He will send the fire of the Holy Spirit
(John 14:26, Acts 1:1-5, Acts 2:2-4).
I can do anything the Lord gives me strength to do!
(Philippians 4:13)
I pray this over you:
“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great mightthat he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:15-23)
Do you want to re-stoke the ‘Fire in our eyes’ together?
I am an Oklahoman by birth, a Texan by current living situation, but claim the world as my playground.I love to travel and hope to someday soon take our family on adventures to far off lands, where we can share God with others and experience all the wonders He has created.
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
