{"id":37,"date":"2012-05-05T23:32:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T23:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/jars\/"},"modified":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","slug":"jars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/jars\/","title":{"rendered":"Jars."},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, little E caught the nasty virus Herpangina.  Sounds gross, doesn\u2019t it?  Google it.  Turns out it\u2019s running rampant in her school right now and yeah, there\u2019s nothing you can do except wait it out.  Ella\u2019s has manifested itself as a rash on her arms and legs, general crabbiness and a fever.  Thankfully, I have an amazing Mother who was still willing to take her for the weekend while I attended a women\u2019s conference at our church. Charlie, exercising her 4 year old will yet again, had three good days of swim lessons and then completely regressed and refused to get in the pool.  This wouldn\u2019t seem like such a big deal except that this is our second year of swim lessons and last year we spent close to $400 and all she did was stand on the edge of the pool and scream.  Very disheartening when you have a summer of Texas heat ahead of you and neither of your children likes getting in the water.  Period. To top it all off, this morning, when I went upstairs to check on Charlie, I found her curled up in the fetal position with a temperature of 101.  All of that effort to separate them and they both caught something.  Just the beginning of sibling germ-sharing, I\u2019m sure.  All of this makes for a pretty crappy week in my world. And yet, I was reminded this weekend how small I\u2019ve let myself become.  It\u2019s easy to feel like you\u2019re living in a bubble in the suburbs.  It can seem like an impenetrable fortress at times.  There\u2019s free parking.  Drive-through Starbucks on every corner.  Exemplary schools.  Mother\u2019s Day Out programs where your children are being taught about Jesus and attend chapel every Friday.  Attached garages (this was a big coup after living in the city).  4,000 square feet of house for what an 800 square foot condo costs in Chicago.  Convenience. So when my kids are sick and swim lessons are a disaster it can feel like the world is falling down around me.  In the greater picture of life, however, there is so much more, isn\u2019t there? If you are a Believer in Christ, as I am \u2013 the Alpha and the Omega, Lord of Lords, King of Kings \u2013 you know that at the end of this life there is Hope because you will spend eternity at the feet of your Father.  I know where my forever is but somehow I\u2019ve forgotten where my present is.  Who is this life about?  Is it really about me and my day-to-day struggles, or is it about that 6 year old girl in India spending her days as a child prostitute?  Is it about whether or not my kid gets into the preschool of my choice, or is it about those foster children who age out of foster care at 18 and have nowhere to go?  Is it about replacing the carpet in our downstairs with hardwoods or is it about that family in my town who can\u2019t pay their bills and have nothing to eat? I\u2019m pretty sure that God wanted more for us (and from us) while we are on this Earth.  I\u2019m pretty sure that we aren\u2019t called to prosper ourselves, but defend the fatherless.  And I\u2019m most definitely sure that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  So how I ended up in the place where I feel like I have nothing to offer is confusing to me.  If it\u2019s true that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, then why can\u2019t I believe that?  Why do I choose to live in this space of negativity and self-doubt and LIMITS, when God\u2019s power is LIMITLESS.  After a weekend of the powerful music of Natalie Grant<\/a> and the immense wisdom of Charlotte Gambill<\/a>, I am stopped in my tracks.  I am left wanting and wondering\u2026 Wanting to do so much more with my life and wondering if I can do it. Can I make a difference in people\u2019s lives?  Can I use the gifts that God has given me and change hearts?  Can I Dare To Be all that He has created me to be?  This was one story that really hit me hard this weekend: 2 Kings 4:1-7<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The Widow\u2019s Olive Oil<\/em><\/h5>\n

4 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, \u201cYour servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.\u201d 2 Elisha replied to her, \u201cHow can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?\u201d \u201cYour servant has nothing there at all,\u201d she said, \u201cexcept a small jar of olive oil.\u201d 3 Elisha said, \u201cGo around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don\u2019t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.\u201d 5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, \u201cBring me another one.\u201d But he replied, \u201cThere is not a jar left.\u201d Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, \u201cGo, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.\u201d I am an empty jar, constantly wanting to be filled, making life all about me: Why isn\u2019t that happening for me? Why don\u2019t I have what she has? Why hasn\u2019t my dream come true? Why haven\u2019t I been given those chances? When really, maybe it is my job to fill the jars of those I meet, to write about life and death and eternity and Christ and not worry so much about what I<\/em> haven\u2019t received but focus more on giving and filling and encouraging and letting God do His great work and TRUST that He sees the bigger picture.  And maybe, just maybe, in the end I will be blessed far more than I could ever imagine.  And then my life won\u2019t feel so small anymore.  No, it will feel as big as the sky, as deep as the ocean, and as wide as Heaven\u2019s Gate. What will you Dare to Be today?? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, little E caught the nasty virus Herpangina.  Sounds gross, doesn\u2019t it?  Google it.  Turns out it\u2019s running rampant in her school right now and yeah, there\u2019s nothing you can do except wait it out.  Ella\u2019s has manifested itself as a rash on her arms and legs, general crabbiness and a fever.  Thankfully, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}