Why I am going PINK for the month of OCTOBER

It's been 23 years since my mom died of breast cancer. She only lived for 11 months after she was diagnosed. If you've read my "Mother's Day" blog you know that she was only 44 years old. Too young to die. When I think of what she must have gone through the last few months of her life, it's quite sobering. Saying good bye to her kids, her husband, her friends, wow, she always seemed so composed.
My mom had the
"peace that passes all understanding".

I have never gone "PINK" before this is the first year that I feel compelled to spread "PINK". A simple reminder that there are women that are leaving their loves behind because of breast cancer. If going "PINK" puts a reminder in one women's mind to get a mammogram, encourages one person to give a donation to the Breast Cancer Research Fund or encourages someone to do the "Three Day Walk"....then going "PINK" for a month is the least I can do.

The women in our lives are very important...let's do all we can to make sure they are with us for a long, long time.

Patricia Joyce Wilkinson Shelton:
daughter, sister, wife, mother of 4, friend to many,
follower of Jesus Christ.

The Broken-Healed Heart

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

The heart is a fragile organ, it's soft, it's warm and it's easily broken, with one thoughtless move the flow of blood to the heart can be stopped forever. No wonder we refer to our emotional state as the "heart" of the matter. Our emotional state of mind is fragile, soft, warm and easily broken, and with one thoughtless move it can be stopped or damaged forever.

If we considered how our words and actions can stop the "heart" of a person, we might choose our words and actions more carefully. One thoughtless word, one careless action or one neglectful moment can stop that fragile, soft, warm "heart" from beating. The pain is real, the ache is indescribable.

Our broken heart can only be brought back to life by the creator of it. God. Only God can mend the broken heart, and He wants to mend it. He wants us to be whole, to have a soft, warm, and tender heart. A heart that is softened by love, love for people, all people the precious people that God puts in our path. Before the beginning of time God knew who we would affect and who would affect us. He also knew which of those people would stop, break or damage our "heart" but He made a way to put our heart back together. Each time we allow God to put our heart back together He adds a little something, He adds His power, the power we need to move forward, start over, create new, love more, forgive, restore and to give just a little more of that "broken-healed" heart to someone else. God makes our "broken-healed" heart bigger in order for us to give more of it away. When we give our "broken-healed" heart away, we give a little of ourselves but we also give a piece of the understanding we have of who our Lord and Savior is.

It's a beating heart slowed down by hurt, then we let God put it back together and when He does He always gives us a little extra to give to someone else. God's love always means more when it is given through the love of another person, there is a special bond between people that share in the Power that heals a broken heart.

Burning the Koran

I have something to say about this…typically I don’t comment on current affairs or the news I find them to be depressing and believe whole-heartedly that God is in control. And unless I am planning on taking a political stand of high exposure that might actually change the world I would much rather talk about something that actually matters in my circles of influence. But I do have something to say about this person’s approach.

If someone is going to call him or herself a Christian, a follower or an imitator of Christ they need to get familiar with what the Word of God says, the Bible is God’s words, and a manual (sorta speak) and instructions for us to live by. For anyone that has studied the Bible and is aware that Christ is God’s son, and the whole New Testament especially is our guide to live by.

It is stated CLEARLY, in the Bible that we are to love our enemies. If we are to love our enemy that means we are to love everyone, you are either friend or foe.

Matthew 5:43-44 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy, But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute yo

Luke 6:27 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

These verses are just a beginning to what God has to say about loving your enemy. I can’t find anywhere is the Bible that God tells us to take revenge or be hateful to anyone, but I do see this is scripture.

Romans 12:19 “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.”

So here is a message for the originator of this non-Christian, un-Godly idea, “READ your BIBLE or Don’t Call YOURSELF a CHRISTIAN” and for any of my friends that think that this is acceptable, READ YOUR BIBLE.

Just some off the top of my head thoughts.

My Three Words

Faith••••Teach••••People

Faith: Faith is something I use everyday, I rely very heavily on the fact that God has me in the palm of His hand. It has taken many years, but I truly believe that God has my best interest in mind. My faith in God leads me to trust that what His word, the Bible says is true, a love letter to me, it's hard to believe that the God of the universe wrote a love letter for me to have and read anytime I want to. In the Bible I can find the answers to any life questions I have, and where faith comes in, is I can't always see with my human eyes that God is with me, but I can feel in my heart that He has a plan and purpose for me and loves me just the way I am.

{God will not push His way into my life...I have to want Him to be a part of my life.}

Teach: I love to teach. I also love to study. I study...then I teach. It's fun to see if what I teach sticks, whether it's the babies at work, my own kids, a Bible study or my small group!

{There isn't anything more fulfilling than studying, teaching and watching.}

People: I really enjoy people, big people, little people and medium sized people. I spend my work day with toddling people, I spend my family time with big boys, little boys, and a variety of girls. I spend my free time with high school people and girlfriend people. Although, I do enjoy alone time~I am happiest when I am with people. I have made an attempt, (an attempt) to love people, based solely on the fact that God commanded me to.

{If God loved me so much that He gave His one and only son to die as a sacrifice for my sins, the least I can do is love people.}

I am learning to love all people, not just the people I consider acceptable or easy to get along with but everyone I meet. I do believe that each person I come in contact with is an opportunity that God has set up for me. I am not always successful at loving everyone I meet, it's a process. I'm a work in process!!

A Youth Leader?

“A student ministry, high school leader?” That's what I said when Jerry Hines, pastor of Woodside Student Ministries, first asked me to help out in his ministry four years ago. I had teenagers of my own, why would I want to spend my free time with more teenagers? I told him I would help out until he built up his team of leaders. Well, here I am. After numerous retreats, small group "get togethers", Project Radiates and hundreds of hours on buses, I can't imagine my life without the high school students of Woodside Bible Church.
As a parent and a high school leader I think I have an interesting perspective. Teenagers seem to get a bad rap in our society. They are considered selfish, impulsive, lazy, and rebellious and yes, some can be. Spending what could seem like endless hours with WSM students I am confident that teenagers can be selfless,caring, cautious, hardworking and surprisingly pliable. The students I have spent time with want to do what is right in the eyes of God and their parents. Do they always do the right thing, no, but who does?

The students of Woodside are a good representation of their schools and our neighborhoods. There are teens that take drugs, have been abused, have parents who are divorced or divorcing, are having sex, are failing school and have very little hope in their future. I have spoken to teens that have been in all of these situations and it's heart breaking. The difference between WSM students and the average teenager is Jesus Christ. When students begin to study God’s word and realize what Christ has done for them they gain the confidence they need to start making better choices. I have personally watched a teenage girl go from obnoxious and depressed to cheerful and respectful, because of her realization that Christ cared for her and that there are people on this earth that love and cared for her other than her parents. I've talked to a teenage boy that had so much hatred for the bullies at his school, that he wanted to kill them. After talking to him about making Godly choices and the hard choice to love his enemies, I witnessed the weight of the world being lifted and his attitude changed. He realized that God could help him love his enemies.

The point of this information is to encourage parents. Parents of young children, work diligently at keeping your kids in church. Instead of offering it as a choice, make it a regular and consistent priority in the life of your family. Hebrews 10:25 says: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” This applies to children as well as adults. When kids are in a church that meets their age appropriate needs, they will be far less likely to stop attending as they grow. A church that meets age appropriate needs becomes a church that also teaches age appropriate obedience, service to others, worship, humility and other important Biblical principles. I am not saying that keeping kids, especially teens, in church is easy but I do think that it makes a difference in the choices that they make. Proverbs 22:6 says: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Hope Community Church: East Detroit.

The beauty of living a life for God is that there is never a dull moment. Strangely enough followers of Christ have had a reputation for being boring, stuffy, mundane and dull and I do know a few people like that. But the God I serve has chosen to surround me with people that are fun, loving, creative and crazy in love with the children of God. Where was this proven: on the last week of Kids Camp for the "Hope Community" kids.

On Tuesday of "Citiweek" WSM students took over Kid's Camp for "Hope Community", they wrote skits, learned and sung songs, studied God's word, came up with crafts and loved on kids they had never met. All of this plus more to show God's love to people that may not know love.

On Wednesday of Citiweek we took 40 "Hope" kids, 10 staff and 16 Woodsiders to the Detroit Zoo. I have to admit the details were a little distracting for me, transportation, food, weather, budget and safety all were on my mind the weeks before our trip to Detroit. Then as if I was being spoken to directly by God this verse came to me....

Proverbs 16:3 "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

So I did just that, a few days before we left for Citiweek I sat at a picnic table at a park looking over and praying through the details of our upcoming trip. I prayed for each of the students in my group and committed each detail to God, even the silliest detail which I think was how I was going to get 50 "Happy Meals" from McDonald's to the zoo. Well, I can say with confidence that every single detail worked out perfectly, every student was wonderful, there was never a complaint or a bad attitude and each detail I had on a list was crossed off, not by me but by my detail driven God. The God of the universe, busy I'm sure, still took care of the details on a list that I wrote, right down to the silliest detail of getting 50 Happy Meals from McDonald's to the Zoo. Other precious lovers of God were used to help with these details, people that love the Lord so much that they would volunteer to spend hours right in the middle of their day to serve God by serving the people of Detroit. Amy for instance, who had just returned from vacation the day before drove from Oakland Twp. to Royal Oak volunteered to pick up 50 Happy Meals. Who would do that? Marlene and Sue volunteered to drive our students from Warren to Royal Oak so I could use the bus to pick up the "Hope" kids, and picked them up at the end of the day to.

Who would do that? Selfless lovers of God.

While at the zoo each WSM student was responsible for a couple of "Hope" kids, they took them to see the animals, carried them, talked to them, ate lunch with them, took pictures of them and it was nearly 90 degrees & raining for part of the day. Again, not one word of complaining and actually just the opposite, the WSM students amazed me at how kind and loving they were.

Emily, especially had her hands full she had 10 middle school students in her group. I decided to follow her group just as a back up, she didn't really need me, she did a wonderful job leading, playing, racing, and loving each of the kids in her group, all ten. Even at the end of the day when one of the girls was dragging her feet and was way behind the rest of the group Emily told her to hop on her back and she gave her a "piggy back" ride to catch up with the rest of the group.

Why would anyone do this? Well, from what I can see...because the love of Jesus pours out of the hearts of many people I know.

On Thursday the official last day of Kids Camp for "Hope Community" the WSM students took over again. This was kind of a surprise for us, we had been told we were going off site, but we stayed at the church and again pulled together with a skit, songs, and water play like none other. All of the kids walked a few houses down to a lot where we set up an industrial "slip and slide" which was loaned to us free of charge by another lover of God, and it was a huge hit. "Slip and Slide", water balloons, sidewalk chalk and squirt guns made for a fabulous end of summer party.

Why do the followers of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit have a reputation for being boring?

Freedom in Christ can be clearly witnessed watching kids...we have freedom to do what we want to and all we have to do is to implement the simple standards God has set for us. I have never read in scripture where it says we can't jump, dance, laugh or throw a water balloon.

Psalm 126:2 "Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, The LORD has done great things for them."

The love of Jesus was shared with the kids of Detroit during Citiweek.

Blessing's Door

Is it possible that God is blessing me beyond anything I have ever expected? YES. Just when God closes one door, (one I have been trying to go through for years)....HE opens different doors in the most unexpected beautiful places.

If we could see what God sees...we would see that HE has beautiful things planned for us. The key is...we have to be looking, listening and ready for God's plan to be revealed. We do this through obedience to HIM, even when we would rather live for ourself.