Our guest blogger, Debbie, has been missing in action around here for almost a year now. 

Like many of us in 2020, she's been on an unexpected journey. But Debbie's journey was different than the journey most of us have been on over the past several months. Her journey included not only all that COVID brought to our world, her journey also included that dreaded "C" word--cancer.

We all know someone who has been on the cancer journey. Maybe, you've even traveled that road yourself. The greatest thing to know is that as Christian women, as women of God, we know that we do not travel that road alone! Not only do we not travel the road alone, but God also gives us unique opportunities to share the road with those who come behind us. Today, Debbie shares that road with us in the third of a 3-part series--4 Things I Learned From My Cancer Journey.

While passing each other at church, we exchange social niceties and generic smiles. During our workdays, we put on happy faces and interact professionally with both the kind and the difficult clients. When asked to serve, we obligingly give of our time, finances, and testimonies.
 
These scenarios make up a lot of our hours, days, and weeks. There’s nothing wrong with being tired after a long week and exchanging a smile and a “Fine, thank you,” with someone in the church hallway. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining a professional demeanor at work. There’s definitely nothing wrong with serving God with our available resources.

But sometimes, at the end of a long week, I find myself wondering if I’ve made any kind of a difference in my little circle of people.

Our oldest child will turn 24 in a couple of weeks, and our youngest turned 6 in January. To say that we have a huge age range in our family would be a big understatement.

I have been surprised to learn of how many families face this dynamic in our current culture.

Many people have asked questions about how we make it work, or what the challenges are that we face. These questions are often filled with a great deal of curiosity and wonder.

For us in Rossiterville, it is the norm and we can’t imagine our family any other way.

​We agree that the blessings far out way the challenges.

Let me share with you today a few of the blessings we have discovered along the way.

Our guest blogger, Debbie, has been missing in action around here for almost a year now. 

Like many of us in 2020, she's been on an unexpected journey. But Debbie's journey was different than the journey most of us have been on over the past several months. Her journey included not only all that COVID brought to our world, her journey also included that dreaded "C" word--cancer.

We all know someone who has been on the cancer journey. Maybe, you've even traveled that road yourself. The greatest thing to know is that as Christian women, as women of God, we know that we do not travel that road alone! Not only do we not travel the road alone, but God also gives us unique opportunities to share the road with those who come behind us. Today, Debbie shares that road with us in the first of a 3-part series--The Unexpected Journey.

​I grew up in the home of a pastor and have spent all my life in the church. I remember from an early age hearing my Sunday school teachers tell us that we needed to read our Bibles and pray every day! The song we sang told us that then we would “grow, grow, grow.”

These necessities—Bible reading and prayer—were taught and modeled in my home and in my church. But, the older I have gotten, the more I realize how vital they are, not to make me a better Christian, but, much more importantly, to enrich and deepen my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There are myriads of passages in Scripture that explain the need for these disciplines in our lives.

​It seems that this year through my personal Bible study and preaching I have heard that God is teaching me some practical things I need to learn and apply when it comes to my prayer life.

Culture is quickly sifting all around us. This question has crossed my mind frequently, “Will my kids be able to stand for truth in their generation?” How sad it would be to have invested years of training and prayer only to see the ground of their hearts surrendered to the devices of this world and its philosophy.

​To help gain wisdom and godly counsel, I began reading a book by Genesis apologists, Ken Ham entitled, Will They Stand: Preparing Kids to Face the Giants. It is packed full of wisdom from the Word of God as well as life examples from Dr. Ham’s childhood. 

​In the opening chapters, Ken Ham puts quite a bit of emphasis on his own upbringing. He references his parent’s character, love for the Word, and willingness to swim against culture even in the church. Ham acknowledges that his parent’s life choices aimed his life on a course of fearing God and standing on truth. ​

Have you ever been reading in one of the books of Kings or Chronicles and wondered what in the world was going on? Maybe like me, you get lost, at times, in the kings of the divided kingdoms and know that you need to spend more time setting all that straight in your mind.

But every so often, I find that even after being saved for more than thirty years and reading through the Bible several times, that same chapter, verse, or principle just jumps off the page and grabs me like never before! This, my friend, is the wonderful nature of the Living Word we have in our possession today.

​Paul said it this way in Romans 11:33: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” It is like digging for treasure every time we open God’s Word. Let’s look at one of these treasure passages I found recently in 2 Chronicles 20.