Happy Dependance Day

July 4, 2015 by Jules 2 Comments

God bless America?

How arrogant can we be? What makes us think we have some spacial relationship with Christ just because we live in America?

Don't hear me wrong, I enjoying being an American citizen. I am so grateful for many blessings God has granted me with through living in this nation. The opportunities that have arisen because of where I live are innumerable but ALL of those still fall under the authority of Christ. Not the country in which I live. God had a "chosen people" in which His grand plan of salvation would play out through but after Jesus fulfilled that on the cross, the road to eternal life was opened to Jews and Gentiles alike. No amount of favoritism existed.

It's worrisome when we pledge more allegiance to our countries flag than we do to our King. When we do so, we are no longer Christians {Christ-followers} we are Americans {American-followers}. These words are NOT synonymous. A nation in and of itself can not be "Christians" and we are slandering the name of Jesus by claiming that America is a Christian nation. We Need To STOP! America is NOT a Christian nation. We are a nation like any other with good intentions, searching for a truth to live for. C

Can I tell you, achieving the American Dream is NOT God's blessing on you "living for Him"?! A team of individuals starting a new nation because of persecution a gazillion years ago does not mean this entire nation is chasing after the heart of Christ. Tagging the name of God to wars, political fights, flags, and our standards is self-serving and leading other nations to really think anything they see coming out of America is Christian.

Did you know that because of insistence to be labeled a Christian nation, citizens from other nations HATE the name of Jesus? They are not getting a correct view of Jesus via American TV, the U.S. in the news, and a lot of ignorant people who happen to live in America but don't follow Christ. The problem isn't media. The problem is trying to force moral standards on a pagan nation.

Enjoy the freedom we have left here in America because the Bible is very clear that FREEDOM in Christ is eternal but that doesn't mean following Him will ever be easy. Hug an amazing soldier who fight for those rights for us and thank them but don't loose focus on THE one who fought for our rights to be adopted into the family of God. The confederate flag, the American flag, or even the man-made Christian flag do not deserve your allegiance. Stop chasing the wind for a purpose to get behind and look up. Christ is there, behind all that muck we are blasting at one anther. None of that muck is worth the fight. Christ and His illogical love for undeserving humankind is what's worth the fight!

Happy Dependance Day!

Please break free from the idea that the American dream will save you and become a bond-slave to Jesus, becoming completely dependent on His every provision and not disillusioned with independence that will send you to eternal separation from the One we all need. I mean, just think of what would happen if Christians reacted to real issues like we do the distracting fluff issues!

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Holidays, The DeChurched, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

Sickness and Sin

July 2, 2015 by Jules Leave a Comment

He cleaned her up after her second puking episode in this 2015 Puke-a-Palooza season. She looked up at him grossed out and sad to say, "Daddy, I hate that sickness is part of our world because of sin."

I don't do puke. Chop open the back of your head and gush with blood, I'm your girl but the smell of sickness is what I can't handle. My hubs has always been sweet enough to handle that nastiness but I'm sad I missed this beautiful recognition of how literally sin affects our daily lives.

The consequences of sin are all around us if we are willing to identify it. As Christ-followers, sometimes we like to pretend our 'silent' sins don't have any reactions in our world like those that are loud in the secular world. We somehow act as though gossip and unforgiveness are less harmful than homosexuality and idol worship. All those are self-serving perversions of God's original plan.

Sin is and will always be part of our world until all the nations have heard the gospel and Christ returns for His followers. It sucks but that's the truth. So what do we do with that?

Live.

We live in community with believers and non-believers in love while chasing after the heart of Jesus and eagerly awaiting his return that will end the madness that our sin started. God didn't ask us to hide, build walls, and protect ourselves.

I was taught growing up that you didn't hang out with "bad kids". You know, you might catch their sin. My prayer, as I surround my children with ALL those Christ died for, wither they have accepted that free gift yet or not, is that my children's lives are so overrun with the health of God's love that they don't catch too many sins. We're all gonna screw up and will never be sinless but if we are chasing hard after the heart of Jesus then we will totally sin less.

Are you scared of catching your own versions of the valley plague from doing life so closely with your local body of believers? Do you fear hanging out with non-Christians and catching their sin? What skewed view of God do we have that maybe needs to be realigned with the Bible so we can more fully love all those around us?

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Cleaning, Homemaker, Jesus Juked by My Kids, The DeChurched, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

Picking Up All Those “Good Intentions” Laying Around

May 27, 2015 by Jules 2 Comments

Embarrassment Post Alert:

If you're like me, you have lots of sweet, compassionate, Pinterest-worthy ideas for loving others.

One day I walked through the house picking up and realized what was lying around my house.

Yep, ideas. Great plans. Good intentions.

My house had become home to beautiful intentions. Stuffed full and cluttering my life. The literal clutter was evidence of my heart and what I was trying to fill it with. Desire to serve, ministries with larger visions and great causes, moments of convictions left in a pile of inactivity.

Fabric- a gesture of help to make curtains for the local CALL Mall keeping me "involved" with foster care even though I was dragging my feet with what our family has been called to do
Bras- shallow proof that I care about those being trafficked across boarders
Birthday gifts- fallen attempt to show I had thought about dear friends and family at some point
Bagged Ponytail- tradition that has grown lukewarm from initial convictions
Thank You Card- supposed thankfulness for a thoughtful mailcarrier
Blue Jeans- desire to participate over a year ago in the zero gigers movement
Snack Ingredients- plans to treat neighbor-friends for fast approaching summer

This embarrasses me. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm in good company. I have a slew of friends who keep me warm at night as we all chat about our good intentions but I think as Christians we need to steer away from the 2 common extremes: shame and apathy.

SHAME

We're all aware of what we are not calling "mom guilt". Living in a state of disgrace based on society's standards is not what God has called us to. Pinterest is ruining childhood and sanity of mother's across the world. It's not just a sin the housewives of the upper east side deal with, I see us all struggle with keeping up or worrying what others think about our life chooses every community. When we feel like we've failed someone and their expectations we settle on the extreme of Shame. Satan keeps us held hostage in the bondage of guilt and renders us useless.

APATHY

Once we've worked through our "mom guilt" we often run to the other extreme. We feel so overwhelmed and guilty that we go into denial. The "I could never live up to ____" may be true for now but that that is not where God wants us to live either. He has promised to equip us completely. Just because someone else does something better than us, different than we could have even thought to do, grander than we could hope doesn't mean we through in the towel and complain that someone is accomplishing something.

To the mom who make adorable lunches complete with personal notes- more power to ya!

To the mom who barely made the cut off with proof of income to qualify your kids for free lunches- I'm proud of ya!

To the Christian mom with convictions of service and love for your community, state, country, and beyond- YOU CAN DO IT! How do we accomplish these inclines our heart is getting? We don't sit down. We chant, "NOT ON OUR WATCH!"

There are beautiful things going on all around us in this unfathomable adventure Christ has empowered us to be apart of. Get up. Do something.

Loose the shame when you fall short and applaud when you kick apathy aside. Do something.

What are the somethings I'm going to do?

Ask mother-in-love for help finishing the curtains
Collect friend's bras, add them to my own, and MAIL THEM
Stick the birthday gifts in the mailbox with 2 stamps when I can't drag the 4 littles out and pray it gets there
Make an appointment to chop my own hair and MAIL the bagged ponytails
Stick leftover brownies in the mailbox with the sloppy Thank You Card and breath
MAIL the scraps I have
Make some ghetto snacks and love the neighbors with a smile

What are the somethings YOU are going to do?

Good intentions laying around
Pick them up off the ground
and DO SOMETHING

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Homemaker, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Live OUTSIDE Your Home

May 23, 2015 by Jules Leave a Comment

A major key to missional living for our homeschooling family of lots of littles is living OUTSIDE our home.

It could be super easy for our family to isolate ourselves by only attending the valley {our church plant} surrounding ourselves with Christians and then stay within the shelter of our home for the rest of the week, schooling, taking turns grocery shopping alone, pull in the garage and shut the door behind ourselves. BUT what fun would that be? We wouldn't be participating in the amazing adventure God has called us to be a part of. For us, being a visible presence in our neighborhood is a natural part of that adventure. But lets be honest...with four littles, if I don't set myself up for success, I'll never do it. Although spontaneous fun is usually best, sometimes just a few things could make the spontaneous a little more convenient. Here are some of the simple ways we've chosen to live missionally in our neighborhood:

Front Porch
We inherited a beautifully manicured lawn when we moved in 2 years ago. I immediately apologized to all the neighbor, explaining that I had a large family to feed and water and the plants wouldn't survive the neglect. As a result, I got friends to dig up nearly 1/2 of the front flowerbed and we extended our front porch for more optimal porch sitting {WITH neighbors}.

Furniture
As an addition to our amazing front porch, we've been slowly adding quality furniture as we found it wicked cheap. We would love to have optimal seating for who ever pops over.

Driveway
We want to keep everyone safe while they're playing outside so we always move our vehicles onto the road {sometimes blocking the driveway entrance} and that lets the kids have the entire driveway for chalk, riding toys, or just running. We keeps keys in a bowl so they're fast to find, kids know the routine so they stay near the house while we move them, and they know the boundaries.

Toys
We keep inexpensive toys specifically for outside readily available for the kids and their friends so hanging out with friends is quick and easy. We also have have multiple sizes of riding toys so we can share with friends.

Walks
Although we don't have a sidewalk on our side of the road, we do have an awesome sidewalk all the way up our road! Being out and about our neighborhood allows us to get to know neighbors even as simple as waving hi, getting to see who lives where, and letting them see and get to know us.

Cookouts
Having a spot set up with all the basics of a great cookout helps us be ready at the drop of the hat for a cook out with friends. We keep extra food in the deep freeze, cheap drinks in the mini fridge, picnic blanket ready, lawn chairs stacked in the corner, ice chest ready, and snacks in our hospitality desk.

Block Parties
Block parties are coming about a lot more natural these days. It was fun to hear that so many neighbors have been dreaming of doing "something Just like this for years" and God allowed us to start that for them. There are a thousand different themes you could do but just offering a potluck type dinner and a designated space is really all you need.

I hope this helps you think through living outside your home with a #missionalliving mentality! God has called us to love our neighbors and it doesn't have to be unnaturally hard.

Filed Under: as Jules is DIYing, Homemaker, The DeChurched, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Missional Living with Littles

May 7, 2015 by Jules Leave a Comment

My kids are much better about choosing action over good intentions!

They know there is a small window of time between the school bus dropping off neighbor-friends after school and evening activities each separate family has every night of the week but that doesn't stop them.

They understand that quality, meaningful, authentic time with their friends is better than the great intention of spending mass quantities of time with them somewhere down the road. The "it looks like it's about to rain", "I'm not sure if they're home", "they might not want to", "there's only __ amount of time" excuses just don't cut it in their God-given love for people.

I'm learning to put aside all my excuses and let them live in the moment, not wait for the perfectly planned playdate, greatly fashioned gift-wrapped treat, or ideal weather. Loving people should be natural. Loving is what we are called to do as we are living not a detailed ministry opportunity we suck all the life our of.

Love is dependability.

Love is bonfire-smoke-induced-tears.

Love is forgetting who's toys belongs to who.

Love is bandaging skinned knees from other homes.

Love is sale Easter candy oozing out of children as they laugh.

Love is hearing hurts from a once-stranger child under hushed shame.

Love is splintered bare-feet from racing flying actions figures in hand.

Love is stale hotdog buns with gobs of compensation ketchup.

Love is street ball with dog-slobber-coated basketballs.

Love is side-walk-chalk-covered-dresses.

Love is a guaranteed hug.

Love is availability.