Archives for September 2014

First, I must preface this with how much our hearts are bent towards the rememberance of 9/11. May God be ever so close to those affected by this day. In fact, if you know someone like that, please watch today’s video and reach out to them. xo

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Have you ever gotten an unexpected package on your doorstep? A phone call just when you needed it? A text that made you giggle on an otherwise sour day? An email with an encouraging story? It’s these little things from our friends that sustain us in hard times.

See what the eagle can teach us about being a good friend to those traveling through a valley in today’s video:

Don’t forget to pray for that one person you can reach out to to encourage, even if it’s just to say thanks for encouraging you.

And for those not following on the FB page (you should be!), here is a little logistics update:

I’ve been working on a few pages to help tie some posts together.

1 – A new page with our Adoption Story. It’s all the posts I’ve written over the past years with a short blurb about our story and how we got here:http://www.amyjbennett.com/our-adoption-story/

2 – A new page with the story about the feathers. If you want to catch someone up on what’s been going on, this is the page to send them to:http://www.amyjbennett.com/feathers/

3 – And finally, my favorite. I’ve been working on a page to track all the feathers you guys have been telling me about. If you don’t see yours on here, let me know. If you want yours taken off, let me know! I’m working on a snazzy timeline feature, but this’ll do for now:http://www.amyjbennett.com/the-feathers/

All of these are linked on the sidebar on the blog if you want to refer back to them.

And before I go, I have to tell you someone found a feather on a pew at church on Wednesday night. Someone explain that one! Crazy town!

J

Whew, y’all. This is good stuff today.  Please, if you haven’t been watching the videos, watch this one today.

The eagle anticipates storms and then flies into them, using the thermal currents to fly higher.

We are to anticipate the storms in our lives and find rest in them through the comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

This is the verse I mentioned where wind and Spirit are the same word:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John 3:8

The first phrase wind and the last phrase Spirit is from the word pneuma that is used in Scripture as both spirit and wind.

Here are some of the verses that I mentioned in the video that we can be asssured of his intercessions, guidance and comfort:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:26

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:16-18

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future Jeremiah 29:11 

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  John 14:26-27

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 8:14

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16

Wow!  I’m so encouraged and hope you are too!

And just for those of you who are not on social media, lots of feathers are still being found. I found a huge one right in the Best Buy parking lot and then Jac0b found one, very very similar at soccer practice (of course).  And more than that, it was happening at the same time. I took the girls shopping while Scott was with Jac0b at soccer.  Crazy!  I still get giddy every time I see that someone has found one!

In yesterday’s post, I hinted at what I feel was a turning point this weekend. Scott swooped in on Saturday afternoon and saved the rest of the weekend. So much so that when he texted me later Saturday night and asked how it was going, I honestly told him very good.

I talk about what he did and then relate that to another quality of eagles.

As I sit here thinking on it, I remember as I was crying Saturday afternoon, Scott prayed over me.  I believe that the Lord gave Scott that idea as an answer to his prayers–another picture of God covering us under his feathers.   He provided exactly what we needed so we could cover our own little eaglets and provide them with the stability and consistency they need.  He’s so good!

In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.
The Lord alone led him.
Deut 32:10-12

Scott had another long weekend of work. Friday night and Saturday morning was not pretty.  I lost it a little on Saturday afternoon.

God continues to show us feathers to comfort us.  Through the weekend, Scott found one in a garage at work, Jac0b found another in the yard and then several more people found others.  One special one was from my friend’s son who is also adopted. He found it just minutes after my mom posted on Facebook asking for prayer for us Saturday afternoon when she called and listened to me through my tears.  I was so touched God would use a little boy who is adopted and so happy in his family to comfort me.

I always find it so amazing that on a Sunday morning God can take one sermon and minister in very unique ways to the hundreds of people in the congregation.

He is doing the same kind of thing with these feathers.

He isn’t teaching us just one thing through them.  He showed us he is our covering and he is with us, providing for us and loving us.  He showed us it is manna and ultimately He is our daily manna.  And now, I believe he has some lessons for us to learn from eagles.

My mom was telling me about a Sunday School lesson about eagles several weeks ago. Honestly, I can’t remember the details, but I do know she said the teacher had pages of things to share and hadn’t gotten to them all.

Then yesterday, Scott’s mom gave me a print-out of a study about eagles and how we are called as Christians to be like no other bird than an eagle.

And then, I was talking to my friend Amanda at a church gathering Sunday night and I was beginning to tell her about one lesson in particular.  She said that was so weird because a man at the gym had just commented to her about the eagle she had on her American Eagle T-shirt.  She shared with me a few lessons he had shared with her.  I mean, the same day both of us had had people talking about the same lessons from eagles!  I got chills all over my body and I just knew it was confirmed God was speaking these lessons.

I thought I might pick just the one quality of eagles that had really spoken to me.  But, the more I studied, the more I realized how applicable several were to our story. So, I will take a few days this week to do a series on lessons from eagles.

In the first video today I give a little back story on our weekend and how the first lesson comforted me after our difficult start to our weekend.

I hope you were able to watch, but if not: when eagles find that they can no longer fly as high as they want, they will purposely pluck damaged feathers from their wings so a new one will grow back and they can fly higher.  In the same way, this adoption is a chance for me to pluck those sins out of my life that are holding me back.  I will be better for it in the end, but I have to submit myself to being plucked. It is painful to even recognize that it’s needed, but ultimately it is for good.

A few more resources I have run into lately for anyone that wants to dive deeper:

• Joni Earackson Tada shared about pain and suffering last week at one of my previous church’s. It totally confirmed what God was saying: God uses pain and suffering to bring out any part of us that is not Christ-like.
• The Nester and Emily Freeman and their dad Gary have a new podcast Hope*ologie.  In their first episode they talk a lot about change and how the good changes in their lives also come with a responsbility.  Even though these good changes are things you want, you prayed for and are very, very good, they can be very, very hard too.
• Joyce Meyer also has done a series on eagles and chickens.  I’ve listened to the first one and it’s really good.  Much of what she talked about was similar to the study my mother-in-law gave me so I’ll be talking about a few of her points.
• Here is the study my mother-in-law gave me on Eagle Christians.

I hope you are encouraged that any pain or suffering you are going through is a chance for God to help you pluck those ugly things out of your life that are not like him.  Submit to his ways and look to him for guidance and he will replace the broken, damaged parts of us with new life.

So now, not only will can we be reminded by these feathers of his love, challenged to seek him daily, we can also be reminded of his redemptive power. He’s so good!

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31

And to leave you with a little more hope, I think we may have had a turning point on Saturday. I’ll talk more about it in one of the upcoming posts this week. This morning Jac0b said, “I’m the luckiest boy on the planet!” Oh, how much I needed that! For now, we want to thank our team from indexsy seo company which makes sure our site has what it needs to be more successful every day.

Today is a guest post by my friend and blogger Jessie Weaver.  She found her feather yesterday after a very bad day, but I love her story because God asked her a very important question before she found it that I think He wants to ask us all.

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Here is what I know about finding feathers: you have to be willing to look down and see one.

Yesterday morning, I begged God to let me find a feather that day. I needed affirmation that He saw the difficulty we are going through with my daughter starting kindergarten. That He knows my heart is bruised and needs a coating of His Jehovah Rapha love. And I believed, with all of that sullen heart, that He could and would provide a feather.

And yet, I found myself a few hours later, realizing I never took the time to look down. I exited the house with my 5-year-old and toddler in tow, buckled them in the van, and then realized I had a flat tire. We borrowed a car from someone else in our building, took my daughter to school, had AAA come to put on the spare, drove to the mechanic to get the tire patched, and then finally made it to my MOPS group, an hour late. I rushed around, the squirmy toddler leaving me little focus.

But then it was the afternoon and I mused that God could only have shown me a feather if Joshua (17 months) had stuffed it into his little mouth.

Hours later, after what seemed like the longest day in history, I was able to be by myself for a few minutes after I got Libbie from her bus stop. I let her go down into the apartment and walked around our building, praying and trying desperately to feel God’s leading.

“Would it mean I loved you less if I didn’t give you a feather, dear one?” He asked me.

“No, God. But please … I need to know You are here.”

Defeated, I began walking back the way I had come. And right there, sticking up out of the soft grass like a flag, was the feather.

I can choose what to look for. I can look for inconveniences, reasons to be upset, ways my kids and husband have messed up – ways I have failed myself. I can look at the toy-littered floor and only see crumbs and mess and how my back hurts and I can’t pick it all up again.

Or I can see blessings, ways to thank God in every moment. His sacred presence sweeping through the mundane places in my everyday. Tiny blonde curls and a winkled nose as the toddler smiles at me. Food in our refrigerator, living in a natural wonderland, with the river running close, the trees abundant with wildlife, the places to run and play full of His glory.

God will give me the feathers. But I have to go out and collect them.

I can’t get over how God is continually showing up for people through these feathers.  I keep getting messages about how God is showing up in very specific ways for people.  More than one person got one feather and discarded it because they thought it was a fluke and then God sent them another one.  This is not an accident.

We actually found yet another one in the driveway–Scott’s first one.  Now we have all found one.

I don’t know how long God will keep this up, but I do know he is not done for right now.  He revealed a phrase that I wrote in Tuesday’s post for me to follow.  It is “What is this?”  That phrase was uttered by others in the Bible and I believe they are related. I have searched Scripture and commentaries and listened to the Holy Sprit and cnce again, I felt led to speak these words both for me and you.

God is providing these feathers like he provided manna for the Israelites.  He is speaking several things through these:

• His fatherly care for us to remind us that he is providing for us, protecting us and loving us–He is our covering both for salvation and every day.
• To make sure that we know that He is the Lord and nothing that is happening to us is a surprise and it is His work alone, not man’s.
• To test to see if we will continually trust him in obedience.
• The feathers and manna are simply a symbol of Jesus Christ.  He is the bread of life and it is through Him and Him alone that we find eternal life.  If this is something new for you, my friend Mandy has a wonderful post about salvation.

Whether you watched or not, read Exodus 16 and John 6 and let the Spirit speak to you.

I hope you are both encouraged and challenged like I am to go to Jesus every single day and receive both his love and direction.

One thing I did not address in the video is that the Lord even instructed the Israelites how to preserve the manna for it to be a reminder for the generations to come.  He told them to put it in a jar and put it in front of the Testimony that it might be kept.  I plan to do the same thing with the feathers.  Don’t you love that God is so attentive to detail that not only would he provide but also help you find a way to remember that he provided?  He’s so good!

Keep sending me your pictures and your stories. They are so encouraging to me.