The Cocoon

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force it's way through that little hole.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly, then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of it's life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

While the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into it's wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.



"Therefore I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong."

~ 2 Corinthians 12:10

What I Learned Today...

My heart has been so heavy the last few days. So many people are losing their jobs, homes and their life savings for retirement. i keep going back to the simple yet profound truth that "God is still on the throne!" Although this is black and white and should be so simple to remember, I am struggling. I was heading to my doctor today and was listening to Chuck Smith Sr. on Kwave. What a GREAT message he had for us. He was talking about troubles and hard times and how they are inevitable. God never promised us a life without trouble or pain. He does promise us that He is always with us. Pastor Chuck then went on to share how God is refereed to as "fire" several times in the bible. Fire as we know it can be so destructive, it can consume and destroy...leaving ashes behind. Fire on the other hand can also be a refiner. Look at what happens when gold is put in the fire and how when you heat it the impurities disappear leaving a pure gold behind. So, those are our choices....are we going to let the fire consume us and destroy us or are we going to let it refine us, transform us into something pure and beautiful? This is a questions that changed my outlook today. The devastation is still there, but my perspective has changed and I am looking for ways that this fire in our economy can refine me. Let us not forget though that we must hold each other in prayer during these times as sometimes there is pain during the refinement.

Church at Home

God is so amazing and He is generous with His blessings! On Saturday my girl didn't look well at all...she had glazed eyes, a fever and a cough. Bubbas was just getting a little better from being sick. Charlie was out of town at Rancho Community's Mens Retreat, with our old Pastor Mike Fabarez speaking!! Charlie had a life changing weekend...thank you Jesus! Anyway, I woke up Sunday morning and laid in bed thinking, Lord what should I do. Do I take all my kids sick and all and attempt church knowing the outcome to be stressful...my kids get a little cranky when they are not feeling well. When I was done praying I had clear direction to stay at home and create church with my family. I thought that my kids may not desire to do that but I went and gathered them all up to tell them we were staying home and asked them if they wanted to do church at home? Their response was one that I will never forget;

Alec immediately responded by saying "So, do you want me to prepare something, I can pick some verse based on what you want to talk about and we can memorize a verse." I said well what do you think we should focus on? Alec replied, "I think we should do it on respect."

Jake then responds, "Can we worship? I will find some songs to sing."

Bubbas just smiled, jumped up and down and displayed excitement as his brothers created the plan.

Samantha then stopped everyone in order to have their full attention and says "We need to do a craft or coloring, something about Jesus."



I literally sat in amazement and was so full of joy. So, on their way they went and in 45 minutes we were ready for church. We went in the living room and Alec brought his iPod with 3 songs that Jake and the boys picked. We sang to the Lord and were so blessed through our worship. We then prayed and prepared our hearts for the Word. Alec shared his verse on showing respect to God and what that means. I began then to share how we are to respect one another but that is only truly possible by having that respect for God first. Bubbas then wanted to share a verse with us and so he began to read. We talked and talked for over an hour and God and loving others. Throughout the conversations I had a few of my favorite questions;

Bubbas even asked "Should I ask the girl I want to marry if she loves God?" Jake asked "Can I be baptized, because I want to live for Jesus every day!"

We of course ended the morning with coloring! Alec went on the computer and printed out some pages to coloring of little children praying. Samantha set us all up with our own little coloring station. She was very organized!

We had a beautiful morning sharing with each other and worshiping the Lord. Sometimes we can't get to our family at church on a Sunday morning, but the Lord reminded me how when necessary you can create it in your home. Thank you Lord for your love! You are my life, my first love, my friend.

Ephesians 6: 5-8...5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.