Jules - 4/154 - as Jules is going

Toy Jail

February 5, 2018 by Jules Leave a Comment

I’m tired of being the manic mom who has to holler to get things picked up.

Yesterday I decided to print this saying as well as my own list of chores, glued an envelope and magnet to the back of the card-stock, and hung that and an empty plastic bag on the fridge before kicking off this new resource last night. After waaaaay too long asking them to clean up their random messes from the day I picked up a giant tub of stuff still left our. We’ve tried something similar before, but of course, follow through on my part is key. Now that they're a bit older, I'm hoping it will come easier to enforce.

You may or may not have a hard time guessing who the main culprit is [ehem, tiny] but needless to say, everyone had something in the bucket [even *cough* my hubs *cough*] I anticipated the festival of chores to begin today while I prepped food for the Super Bowl party but surprisingly there were at least 4 chores knocked out last night before bed earning back very specific desired items. This morning, a beautifully unexpected thing happened.

I watched my kids’ masterful, late-night plan unfold: all the girls were up as soon as they were allowed, did their morning chores, daily chores, made breakfast, and then started drawing new chores to earn back jailed items while the muffins baked. They worked together, helping one another accomplish chores, and celebrating with each other as each new thing was bailed out of the box. The boys woke and quickly did theirs chores with the encouragement from the girls that they could go early to the valley [church service] with their dad if they did. -news to dad, lol-

Though it’s hard to carry out and remember among the squabbles and basic routine of our days, kids are just tiny humans. We all need a commonality to keep us united. We need to stay focused on a common enemy, the mission at hand, to aid us in minimizing nonsensical arguing and laziness to take over. In our American churches we often forget our common enemy, and it's not other countries, the wrong political party, or those who sin differently than we do.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Cor. 10:3-5

The cure to our nonsensical squabbles and set in laziness is to refocus our energy. Unite with one another against the actual common enemy. There are bigger things to focus on, the eternal kingdom that actually matters. We've got to put on the full armor of God, forge a beautiful, masterful, late-night if need be, plan to take on what God has called us to. And no, that's a local cause, a single political agenda, or even a worldwide issue. The real goal we should be united under is the great commition Jesus gave us:

¹⁸Then Jesus came to [us]and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." -Matthew 28

#jesusjukedbymykids

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Jesus Juked by My Kids, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Seriving in Your Community {WITH Littles}

January 25, 2018 by Jules 1 Comment

YOU can serve in your community WITH your littles. They're not keeping you from serving and their not just in tow while you do so.

In some countries, having children is seen as "tying your feet". To be honest, I've felt that way on and off again. Structuring my day around their needs and the routines that help my children thrive occasionally feels like tying my own feet. I know God is at work in so much going on around me and I'd love to be apart of it, all of it. I feel like I'm missing out on blessing when I see God asking us to get to work where He's already working and I can't. I've even felt jealous of others and the serves they're able to do as a single or as a mom of older kids or even a mom of fewer kids. But here's the thing:

God HAS and is continuing to bless me right where I am.

In the this current season. With aaaaall these tiny humans I'm allowed to claim, even for a short time. God has blessed me with a husband after God's own heart. God has blessed me with home after home to raise my family and welcome others into. God has blessed me by abundantly meeting my needs. God has blessed me with friend upon friend, even if some are for a short season and others from a distance. Focusing on my blessings and learning to say no to good things in order to be apart of the Best things has taught me--> I can and Should be serving right where I am, with those placed in my life, when I see the opportunity, because God is bigger than self-pity, routine's, and excuses. I've also learned some practical ways to serve with my children and I'd love to share them with you to help untie your feet.

10 Practical Ways to Serve in Your Community with Your Children

Invite neighborhood children over to play consistently
I've totally laid younger children down for a nap while my older children and the neighbor friends played. My children are also getting to participate service to our King through hospitality.
Host a block party in your neighborhood
I've also put a child down for the night while carrying a baby monitor into my front yard to mingle for the rest of the block party. Depending on your neighborhood, over a holiday weekend, consistently on a specific weekend, or celebrate something fun one time a year might work for you.
Serve within your local Church
Most churches work hard to put on service events during a time that is family friendly. I've also learned that messing up my kids routine momentarily is well worth the rewards of living and serving in genuine community.
Make and deliver seasonal gifts to neighbor friends, delivery people, grocery store employees, civil servants
Letting kids come up with fun gifts and who they're give them to helps them be more aware of each person they naturally come in contact with on a daily basis and just how easy being missional in our living can be.
Donate food, clothes, and toys to a local drop off center
Having children help in decluttering, purging, whatever you want to call it can help them make it natural in their own lives. Being grateful for and generous with our belongings is good stewardship.
Host homeschool meet-ups, field trips, or parties
When we moved to this town we were told there were lots of other homeschoolers but we've had a hard time finding them. I guess they're all in their homes. lol SO, we created our own coop and simply started advertising it on Facebook. We meet up once a month for a simple party, field trip, or class of some kind.
Go to a rehab or retirement center and sing or dance, then stick around to chat with residence
The dance class my girls are in actually planned this and take the opportunity to have a mid-year presentation for the grandma's and grandpa's at the local rehabilitation center.
Create and host original events in your city park [or other neutral space in your community]
Our community is large in residence but small in things for those residents to do so we've had to get creative from Movie Night in the park to Water Day that included a giant slip-n-slide and huge water gun fight.
Clean up trash on the side of the [back, low-traffic] roads
This was actually an idea my kids' had while driving down the road after a storm so we grabbed random plastic bags out of the car and hopped to it.
Participate in and serve at as many community events as possible
This takes most of the prep work out of serving. Stay involved in community and or school events. Find places they need volunteer or just participants and have fun being a part.

Those are just 10 of the simple ways we've found that are fun to serve as a family in our community. Living Missionally [or being intentional to spread the love of Jesus as You are going] is simple but not always easy, if you don't know where to start.

PLEASE, by all means, share what you've learned works!

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Cool Ministries, Missional Living, Parenting, The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

Missional Living: When People Leave, Rewards Feel Scarce, and Things are Hard

January 8, 2018 by Jules 2 Comments

In Christianity, missional living is the adoption of the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message. Or at least that's what Wikipedia says.

I've talked some about what it looks likes to "live missionally" and even some practical tips for being missional in your community. As Facebook friends watch from afar, I'm sure it seems easy enough to #missionalliving to just about anything we do around here but today I wanted to share about when people leave, rewards feel scarce, and things are hard.

While Missional Living is simple, it's rarely if ever easy.

Starting off in a new town, community, and neighborhood is all together terrifying and exciting. Nearly 5 years ago we came to land where we are with a strong call on our lives to plant a church here. We did lots of research on the town, even visited other churches in the area to make sure we weren't doing what was already being done to spread the gospel, and then of course wrangled some other hopefuls in order to begin what we now call The Valley.

In our first year, we had typical pumps like staffing a nursery even though we were all so eager to take part in the services and meet new people, muster up creative ways to serve our community with little to no capital, find those to place in leadership with all the right motives, and even figure out how to branch out our ever growing small group. As that year pasted, we finished up some details on our meeting space and were beaming with pride right before a massive tornado took that space from us. The only affordable/available property in tiny but quickly expanding town. Even so, God showed up in a BIG way; providing us with an unexpected platform to share His gospel among the despair and for a bit, an influx in nickles and noses. People were yearning for the peace we had among the chaos.

Then, slowly, those nickles and noses faded. Due to misplaced faith, self-assurance returning, boredom, or even the lack of religiosity among us, people left our regular meetings to either better suited places or back to a state of being de-churched. I'm here to share the not-so-enticing side of church planting and missional living. Not to look for pity, to scare you away, or to say everyone's experience with this is the same but merely out of realness. When I google my experiences, no one else seems to have dealt with this and I have a hard time believing no one has, just that no one had share it yet.

Missional living articles will tell you how to share Christ as you are going. {HELLO- I am one of those, hence my blog name} Don't segregate yourself. Be involved with what you love, your passionate about, things you already enjoy and simply take Christ with you. A huge component of The Valley is the truth that The Church is not a building or a service we attend. The Church is the body of Christ, the believers who have made Him Lord, and live their lives accordingly. What most missional living articles will not tell you, is that so many of us have been religified, leaving us with no love, passion, enjoyment in anything that doesn't have a churchy purpose or title attached to it. We lack a life outside our churchy click. Even when we try to "share Christ as [we] are going", those we are among already know Christ; or at least think they do.

Missional living articles will tell you that leading someone to Christ takes masses of time. A true friendship takes an average of two years to develop. Reading someone the Roman Road in your first encounter will likely hinder that development. Sharing bits of the gospel as you develop is discipling. Allowing someone to belong before they behave is what Christ would have us do. What most missional living articles will not tell you, is that even after investing more than two years into a relationship, gradually sharing the gospel in applicable situations, allowing and encouraging someone to belong before they behave can still lead to them eventually claiming faith in Christ, all while running from you, spewing hatred about you and how you chose to lead them there. That the changed lives around you are slow and hard to count. That teaching adults biblical disciplines seems religious when they're coming from abusive-church backgrounds thus leading to immature believers.

Missional living articles will tell you that loving people on mutual ground is beneficial for everyone. That putting down the white-hero complex and admitting our need for aid from those outside our part of the church allows mutual respect to grown, aids relationship development, and benefits The Church as a whole. What most missional living articles will not tell you, is that some people will still feel like a project. No matter how hard you try to find giftings and ease your way into recruitment, we live in a consumerist world {at least as Americans} and people are very possibly looking for a church to meet their needs rather than sacrificing together for the furthering of His kingdom. People may choose to church-hop in the same manor that we store-hop looking for the best deals, only utilizing a store for parts. Caving to the pressure to offer services to keep someone will only result in them eventually leaving because no one/where can offer everything...oh, and because it's NOT about us.

Missional living articles will tell you how to live outside your home in order to love your neighbors. Be gracious with sinful lives. Be hospitable, with doors always open. What most missional living articles will not tell you, is what to do when people move away as quickly as they move in. When seasons change and neighborhood kids no longer want to play. They don't talk about people avoiding you out of their own self-shame because of their sinful lives. They don't tell you how to handle relationships that don't develop, even after two years.

Missional living articles will tell you being bi-vocational is one of the best routes for a pastor. It saves The Church money, allowing funds to be utilized in facilities, ministry, and missions. What most missional living articles will not tell you, is that while that is VERY true, finding the right vocation that allows enough time, income, and flexibility to still know your family, live where you're called to serve, and lead others in creative ministry to your community is beyond difficult therefore leaving certain areas of life to suffer.

Missional living articles will tell you is this way of doing ministry: living on mission for Christ, making everything you do no matter how big for small it seems, believing every relationship -new or old- is part of how Christ wants to use you in the every day to make much of Him. What most missional living articles will not tell you, is that doing such is hard, requires constant focus, yields little tangible [worldly] rewards. Living this way feels, at times, lonely as the rest of the christian world is counting their nickles and noses asking about yours...or lack there of. Living missionally feels that your meek, humble, quiet life is making no difference; especially compared to those creating huge non-profits, new ministries, innovative ways to change lives.

But God.

But God had called us all to different parts. I have to believe that in the Body of Christ, in some seasons, you can be a leg and others be an ear hair. All important. All loved. All utilized by Christ. Some of us will be called to wait upon God to "give us a child in our old age" while the rest of our lives we sat silent but steady. Some of us will begin to follow Christ in our last season and "die a martyr's death". Either way, we are loved and called to His purposes the same. Be encouraged today that no matter how pretty the insta-filter, everyone is trudging. Some seasons are sunnier than others.

What are we supposed to do when we are living out what the Bible says and things don't "fall into place"? What are supposed to do when you have to fight to serve a community?

Love Jesus. Seek Him and His will. Search for ways to do good and be love in His name. Pray for peace in what He continues to call you to and find contentment in His joy through the hard days. I wish I had better advise. Some days suck. Some weeks, months, years, "seasons" are super hard. Persevere.

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Missional Living, The DeChurched, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Shower Musings

December 22, 2017 by Jules Leave a Comment

I like showering first thing in the morning. When I can and it's not a hat-and-run kinda day. It wake me up. Soothes my soar bones. Gives me a quiet place to think. It's the only time of day I can go into the bathroom without a child following me because they too, are avoiding the have-tos of the day and fear I'll send them with their marching orders if they come to chat that early.

My head gurgles with all the things I shut off with nighttime tylonal the night before. What I need to accomplish. The issues I'm trying to form an opinion on. ALL the things I wish I were doing better. I often think, I need to write this out. If I could just get it "onto paper", I think I could sort through it, figure it out, or confess in hopes of encouraging another weary friend.

But alas, I get out of the shower and rush to the next thing, and the next, and the next. When rest time comes, for that brief 30 minutes when everyone is finally settled, my brain is worn thin and the last thing it wants to do is mull things over. So I sit, thumbing through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Filling my brain with more things to decompress. All the while this gift, this tiny space on the www, sits empty and my brain full.

Then there's the fear of sharing other people's stories alongside mine. The stories they haven't released the rights to. Balancing the tight-line of oozing my life into words while not oversharing the parts of other's lives that happen to be intertwined with mine. Squeezing out my momentary thoughts on things as they're being formed- based on my experiences, my encounters, my assumption of what's going on in other lives, my observations and accusations of intentions and motives-that's a scary thing to steward. It's a dangerous line. Often swaying and in need of correction on my part. I always stand in awe of other writers who are gutsy to share without fear of judgement or better yet, those who are wise enough to walk that like with grace and discretion.

I'm learning to honor my need for expression while also honoring those who's relationship seasons come, go, grow, and shrink.

Filed Under: The ones about the Rothacher Home

Dear Amy Wilson Carmichael,

November 20, 2017 by Jules Leave a Comment

Dear Amy Wilson Carmichael,

I recently purchased several books in the series Christian Heroes Then and Now for our homeschool library. They do an amazing job giving life to the history of those whom God has used in our long line of Christian heritage. I was so thankful to see the book about you, Ms Carmichael was the first that wound up in my 9-year-old daughter's hands.

You see, I have dreams of how God will use the tiny humans he's put under my charge. I want to equip them for the tasks He has by giving them tools, relationships, and opportunity. These true tales of how men and women, chasing after God's own heart, have accomplished unthinkable things for their Lord is where it's at. Not for their fame, but for the aid of those less fortunate, in search of justice, in the name of mercy, and to do nothing but further His kingdom.

Your love for studying the Word, for teaching it to others, and caring for children is just what my girl needed to flame the fires God has started in her heart. Thank you for braving new world and being an amazing example for girls and women for centuries after you by simply spreading God's love as you were going. Thank you for humbly disciplining us, Amma!

Sincerely, Julie Rothacher

P.S. My daughter also let me know today that, even as a mother of over 100 girls and more than 80 boys, YOU always found time to write everyday. Challenge accepted.