Another Long Night By Bill Huckaby

This post is courteous of Bill Huckaby. He is one of the kids that attend the DNOW weekend and wrote this note on Facebook the other day. I asked his permission to take this and post it on my blog. I thought what he wrote was very insightful for a 17 year old. It really spoke to me and I believe that we are to share what we feel God is telling us because we never know who needs to hear it at that point and time in their life. I hope you enjoy the read.

Since I posted the first one, I might as well post this one too.I went to Disciple Now at my church, which was a good move, but I didn’t think so at the time. I wasn’t really in the mood to hear the Spirit and it threw me off the whole time, making me notice all the little things that get to me. The theme was Inhabit, talking about being in the world but not of it. The examples were the story of Daniel and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

I’ve heard both stories more times than I can count, but after the weekend was over I thought of a Shane And Shane song I used to know called Burn Us Up. It’s about the latter three and their run in with a king commanding them to worship an idol. Of course the whole song is mostly them saying we would rather be thrown into the furnace than give in to idolatry.

They knew God could protect them from this sin and that he could save them this pain. What did they have to fear?

But then I hit this one line of the song that I knew but never really thought about. It’s the simple phrase “Even if you don’t”.

As soon as I heard that I stopped and thought about it (and listened to the song twice more for good measure). I knew the scripture mentioned it, but it was the verse I guess I always just whizzed over.

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

It made me think of how my prayers seem to go when I’m confronting God with my lack that fiery feeling. I keep saying things like “Give me some kinda sign, something I can’t miss, maybe even a run in with an angel”.

That was an actual prayer of mine once, and I see now that I’m in a similar slump as the bible characters. We all have our own set of temptations thrown at us that would appear to make our problems go away if we will just give in. I don't doubt that the Bible guys were slightly tempted, I mean it's a furnace, who wouldn't be scared?

But whats important about the example in the Bible. Is that they didn't give in, and neither should we. We have to be willing to go through trials in order to do anything worth mentioning. We have to have the faith to say “Even if you don’t make all the bad things go away, God, we’re STILL here to serve. We know that YOUR purpose will be done, and that all that matters. Because it’s not about us, it’s NEVER been about us, it’s always been about You.

"Jesus himself, while praying in the garden of Gethsemane before being taken away and crucified, said “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus was God, but also human, and he knew what was coming was going to hurt in ways we can’t even fathom, and he also knew that if the Father wanted, it could all go away. But Jesus didn’t come to earth for a vacation. He didn’t come for comfort. He came with a mission that and he was willing to go through the pain to accomplish it.

“Even if you don’t”

How often do we ask for help to make the bad things go away? “Take this person out of my life” or “make this go better”. Maybe we’re missing the point.

What if we said “God, you CAN fix this, it’s nothing before you, but I know that there may be a bigger reason for it. So I ask that if it’s possible, make things better, but even if you don’t, please let this work for the bigger picture, that I can’t see.”

Think about your life right now. Think of all your problems. We all know what God COULD do, but what about what he WANTS to do? I’m not saying we should purposefully put ourselves in blatantly bad situations, but maybe we shouldn’t freak out so bad about what’s going on now. God has kept the world under control for a long time now, I think He knows what He’s doing, and he obviously has some pretty big plans.

Try thinking about what awesome ways your little or large trials could be used later.

I get the feeling that if we started doing that, and stopped only looking after our own comforts, we would get a lot more done, and in a much better name: Jesus.

DNOW

Well, I can say that we survived another DNOW weekend. In all honesty, it was a fun weekend and well worth the time and energy it took to host the awesome group of girls that stayed with us. This year we had our 11th and 12th grade girls. There were five of them and the group leader Katy that stayed in our home. Just in case you may not know what DNOW is, it stands for Disciple Now and it is a weekend retreat for our youth. All the youth stay in host homes for the weekend and they spend time in small groups throughout the weekend, go to the church for a big group worship time and they also have a afternoon of recreation, paintball or bowling. As a host home we allow the kids stay in our home and we get to spend time with them and of course feed them good food all weekend. This is our second year being a host for this event and I always get such a big blessing out of opening our home to the youth. The schedule for the weekend is a little crazy. Friday night we provide dinner for the group leader staying with us, the kids arrive at our house on Friday evening at 7pm. Saturay we provide breakfast, lunch and dinner. They kids are in and out of the house all day on Saturday either going to church or to play paintball or bowl. Sunday morning we wrap it up by giving the breakfast and getting them all out the door for church. On Saturday afternoon while the youth girls were at their activies, Chris and Katie were running some errands and Bree was taking a nap. I decided to make some cupcakes for dessert for dinner that night. When Bree woke up I decided to let her taste test the cupcakes to make sure they were good. She didn't turn down the opportunity.

She downed the cupcake in about two mintues so I guess they turn out okay.

After snack she wanted to watch a movie, I thought it was cute how she was laid out on the couch zoned in on her movie.

Hannah, Lindsey and Sarah, back from bowling.

Group photo: Lindsey, Hannah, Adrienne, Chris, me, Katy, Sarah and Lauren. Katy was the group leader for the weekend. Chris he looks like what a guy would look like that just had a house full of teenage girls and two toddlers. LOL.

I thought this picture was cute. The girls stayed upstairs in our bonus room. They were playing a game and Katie and Bree wanted to see what they were doing, so instead of opening the door they were trying to look under it. I snapped this photo of them trying to see.

I'd have to say the most amazing thing that came out of this weekend so far is that one of our boys that is in our sunday school class got saved this weekend at DNOW. We have been praying for him and he decided to make the decision to accept Christ as his savior. When I saw him this morning at church I went up to him and gave him a big hug. At the end of our morning worship he went up to the front of the church to make his decision known and when he announced it all of the youth stood up and clapped for him. It was an awesome moment for me and I know for others. There is nothing more powerful then to see a prayer answered and to know that the Holy Spirit is there working in our lives.

Snow Day!

Thursday we started getting some ice and by Friday morning it had changed to snow. We got about 4 inches of snow and the girls got to stay home. We had a few activities to pass the time for the day

A few art projects are always a hit. Katie loves to paint so she was creating her own plates and cups. I told her Aunt Joy would be proud. Her first two colors she picked were blue and orange.

The finished job

Bree working hard on her cup

Her many finished projects

After they were done with their art projects they both wanted to go outside for a little while. Here they are all bundled up.

Bree was checking out all the icicles outside, she wasn't sure of them.

Katie loved the snow..she didn't want to come in. Bree was done after about five minutes. She kept saying it was too cold and I agreed. it was so windy that day.
The girls went back outside with Dad when he got home from work. You can see how much more snow we got from the morning to the evening.

Movie Night

Last night it was just me and the girls. Chris has basketball practices with his upward teams on Tuesday night, so on this night we normally have a girls night of some sort. Last night we had a some dinner, the put on our jammies, made a bed on the floor, popped some popcorn, sliced up some apples, and popped in a movie. Shrek was the agreed upon movie, and they both agreed without any fussing. That was a miracle within itself. Normally they both pick a different movie and one of them ends up unhappy. So we spent then evening munching on our snacks and watching our movie. It was good girl time and I enjoyed the down time with the girls. Just hanging out at the house.

Sick, Sick and More Sick

Our 2010 years hasn't started off so great. Since about the second week in January somone in our house has been sick. It started off with Bree, she was sick for about a week running 103.5 fever, really bad congestion and cough. Dr. said it was just a really bad sinus infection, so he gave her some amoxicillian and that did the trick. Two days after she was better, Chris started feeling bad. He started getting the same congestion. I kept telling him to go to the dr, but like most men they want to tough it out. Well, in the middle of the night last Thursday he woke up with his ears hurt really bad. I haven't seem him in that much pain in a long time. On Friday morning he did go to the doctor and he had ear infections in both ears and on ear got so bad that it actually ruptured his ear drum on Friday, so he has been in pain all weekend and still is not feeling great even today. He was at home with me on Friday resting and feeling pretty good because he drank about 1/2 bottle of Nyquil. Then if things couldn't get more crazy, i get a phone call around 3pm from Katie's daycare saying she is running a 103 fever. So I immediately jump on the phone to her ped and ask if they can call her in some amoxicillian because I just knew she has the same junk both Bree and Chris have had. The nurse actually wanted to see Katie and fit us in at 4pm on Friday. By the time we got there Katie's fever was up to 103.5. They checked her out and she actually had an ear infection, her first in 5 years and also had the sinus stuff to. Thankfully we were able to get the meds for her so she could take them all weekend and feel better. I am the only one left standing at this point and it is truely an answered prayer. I have prayed that God just put a wall of protection around me and not let me get this stuff, as I was having to take care of everyone else since they were going down one by one. Thankfully today Katie is back to normally and Chris is getting there. His ear is still hurting but hopefully it will heal quickly for him. Whew!!! What a year so far!

Misc Pics

Here are some misc pics that I haven't had a chance to blog about in the past couple of week.

This is what happens after being snowed in for five days....they literally tried to climb the walls.

The girls got some Christmas money and gift cards to Claire's so when we were finally able to get out of the house we went to the mall and let the girls spend their money. They picked out some goodies at Claire's and then wanted to spend the rest at Build A Bear

being silly at Claire's

Bree with her puppy dog "chris"

Katie with Christmas Tree Light...yes this what she named her reindeer

Bath time...scrub, scrub, scrub.

Gotta dress our new friends

Bree got a Dora hat, scarf and gloves...she would wear these around in the house for hours just sitting and watching Dora.


Katie got Hannah Montana wig for Christmas. They both love to put the wig on. These were from the other night. Momma even tried it on but no picture of that one.

Back to Reality

Christmas is over and the New Year has begun. We had to get back to reality. We had a nice visit with my parents as they were in for Christmas. The girls got a break from school to stay home while they were here and I got a week off from work for holiday so it was nice to have a break from all of our normal schedule stuff. But as nice as it was to have the break it was nice to get back in our routine. It seems things go much smoother when we have our routine and I actually like life that way. this week the girls went back to school, all our normal church activities picked back up and of course dance classes started back this week. The girls couldn't wait to go because they had new dance clothes to wear, thanks to nana and papaw.