Evenings With Victoria Botkin

As some of you may have noticed, Victoria Botkin (wife to Geoff Botkin and mother of Anna-Sophia and Elizabeth, plus 5 boys) is having an on-line discipleship course. Which is pretty exciting!

If that isn't exciting enough, some lucky people will be able to participate for FREE!

Jasmine Baucham of Joyfully Home is having one such giveaway!
Kelly of Generation Cedar is having another!
And Kim C of Life In A Shoe is having ANOTHER one!

Praying For His Wife

Well, for the few people who actually read this and don't know, I more than vaguely like someone. And if you know (or suspect) then DON'T SAY because I will become very grumpy, and no one likes it when Sam is grumpy.

But to get to the point, I've been trying to distract myself from this because, quite frankly, it is annoying. And one of the things I learnt that might help was from the Botkin sisters at Visionary Daughters, from their post How (Not) to Heat Your Veins and Fire Your Brains.

From their post:
1. Pray for the young men… and their future wives.

This really helps keep relationships in perspective and facilitates the right kind of sisterly interest in them. We need to look past this season of singleness and see the eternal perspective. We need to see the young men as more than “marriage material,” but as comrades and co-laborers in Christ’s Kingdom, and we need to pursue the kind of friendships that will outlast this season of “singleness” and continue into eternity.

So I decided to start praying for this boy's wife, that she would be virtuous, sweet, intelligent and the perfect helpmeet for boy. It didn't help much, but hey, I need all the help I can get with this sort of thing. And being the generous person I am, I thought I'd share this with you all. Except I didn't quite get around to it.

And then yesterday happened. (Cue Paul McCartney music... Yesterday, All my troubles seemed so far away, now it seems as though they're here to stay...) Sorry, where was I?

Yesterday, I became fairly certain that sad boy not only doesn't like me, but likes someone ELSE. Which obviously is not exactly fun for me. But I'm still praying - even for this specific girl, whether she turns out to be his wife or not. It's very hard, and I just plain DON'T LIKE IT.

I'd like to end on a hopeful or inspiring note, but I can't, so please all pray that I will persevere in my prayers to bless others regardless of the outcome.

Using Your Gifts

I've been thinking about how we as Christians are expected to use the gifts that God has given us. Mostly because of the comments I get when I sing.

You see, I used to be a singer in a famous children's choir. I've sung overseas, including at an audience for the Pope, for royalty, ambassadors, etc. And that was before my voice matured. Now I sing well.

And boy do I ever get comments. Both in the world and in the church, people who barely know me, who otherwise would never speak to me, will tell me what a beautiful voice I have and how I should be doing something with it.

This is kinda annoying. They heard me singing. Clearly I'm doing something with my voice.

But it's one thing to hear this at work, or other places in the world. I expect to be told that I should be releasing CDs and singing professionally (and presumably raking in the money) there. The world likes money, it likes fame.

But in the church?

I get told at least once a month that I should be part of the worship team. I was even ASKED to be part of the worship team - even though I'm not a member of JG (which is a requirement for such things). I said no, explaining that I was quite vain enough about my voice.

But seriously, why is it that the only way of "using a gift" is to do so in the most public possible manner?

God looks at the heart. He doesn't look at my voice the way people do. He considers it just as well used if I am singing to calm a crying child as if I am singing in front of thousands - and possibly singing for the child is far more important.

We need to focus on using our gifts the way God wants us to; not on "using" them in the most public manner possible.