My resolutions for 2010, finally

I've been meaning to post my new year's resolutions for days now but have still be contemplating. I may have actually been procrastinating posting them being that when I do, there is a level of accountability. But here I am, a few days late, but taking the plunge.

In no specific order:

1. Drink more of that clear plain stuff people call water. I had always been the habit of drinking lots of water until having little ones around. Half the day will go by and I am just getting around to coffee, let alone water! So more water. I'm aiming for a full class with every meal.

2. Get this house organized from top to bottom. I think many people regard me as a fairly organized person but I feel quite the opposite lately. There are specific areas that I have never gotten under control for longer than a day. The typical course is that I ignore it and ignore it until I'm disgusted by it, clean it and tidy it but there is no working system in place so it falls into disorder quickly. I consider being organized more than just buying a bunch of bins and shoving stuff into them. They may be tidy and neat, but my idea of truly being organized is that at any time, I can desire an item and know exactly where to find it. I'm on the hunt for effective solutions to my specific problem areas and I'm sure I'll be sharing my discoveries with you later as I find them.

3. Read more Bible. I've always been a slower reader when it comes to the Bible. I like to take my time and digest and look up meanings and cross reference. I'm not planning on stopping that because that is how I take something away from my Bible time. For years I've set the goal of reading through my Bible in a year and have never made it... maybe once in college by accident through all the required reading but never in my personal devotions. I'm not setting that goal for 2010; I'm setting it for 2011. So I'm easing into getting more chapters read each day so that a year from now, it's a more attainable goal.

4. Cultivate better reactions to my daughters' misbehavior. Anger has no place in child rearing. Sighing and irritation are not ingredients to effective training of little ones. Yet so often I find myself falling into these habits. This article was very convicting to me and has been replaying in my head for a week or so.

5. I'm officially declaring myself the Smile Enforcer of the McCoy house hold. My job description is to make conscience deliberate efforts to produce as many smiles on each member of my family throughout the day. I'm a the text book definition of a "task oriented person"; a Martha not a Mary. My natural tendency is to be very focused on duties and not so much on relationships. By putting smiles on my mental "To Do List", I hope that they are elevated to their rightful priority.Our children will not remember if the pantry was alphabetized, if the dust bunnies were eliminated, if they could read by age 6, if dinner was gourmet, but they will remember if there was joy in our home. Even being perfect Christians and teaching them all the character we could would not mean nearly as much if we lacked joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength, right?!

And I haven't forgotten about my theme for 2010, "Waiting on the Lord". I just haven't had enough quiet moments to devote to a post about it!

Happy Thursday, everyone! It seems like it was just Sunday! Time is flying by faster than I can keep up. While holding Eden today, she laid her sleepy head on my chest and I closed my eyes to record the moment in my memory. She is almost 20 months old already. We're getting close to her 2nd birthday!! But she was just born! How can it be?!!

Why Christian College?

I read the following post (in blue) on Mrs. Fink's blog today and felt it was really worth reading. I'm including it on the bottom of this post, with her permission.

Before her excellent post, I'll just add a few of my own thoughts.

Seth and I in 2002 saying good bye as we left for Christmas break

I completely realize that not every Christian young person is called to the ministry. But hear me out: Bible college is not just for full time ministry workers. Whatever career a person earns a living at, I hope they still seek to be a minister for the Lord in some fashion. Many different career paths can be used in great ways to honor the Lord and increase His kingdom.

Us with Ray and Debbie Young, the co-president and his wife. She was my teacher one semester in a huge class but she always remembered my name. I *think* this is also 2002. I actually still have that shirt; just wore it on Sunday to church!

I know of a youth minister who has several sons. One of his sons did not feel led to be in full time ministry, and for a time the idea of Bible college seemed like a big waste of time since he didn't plan to work for a church on staff. He had leanings toward practicing law, and felt that he could do a lot of good as a Christian lawyer. And boy, don't we need more godly, Christian lawyers... and butchers, bakers, candlestick makers! Any secular field you can think of that is of noble origin can be a great place for a Christian to be a shining light in our dark world. (By "noble origin", I mean that no Christian bar tenders quite fit the bill!) Finally this young man made the commitment to go to a Christian college for one year, and give it his best while he was there. His reasons were:

1. To give God more time to work in his heart. This was his way of giving the Lord one more year to call him to preach if that was what God had in mind.

2. To please his parents.

Even is #2 had been his only reason, I think it would have been a good one.

He finished his year. He did not feel God calling him to preach but actually felt more sure than ever that law was the direction he should go. So he transferred to an appropriate school one year older than if he had go directly after high school.

While sitting in a huge class, the university professor began to blaspheme God, Christianity and Christians. The young man could hardly believe his ears. When the class discussion was opened, he respectfully stood in front of hundreds of students and declared that he was a Christian and didn't appreciate the untruthful slander the professor had just said. From that moment on, for the rest of his law school days, this guy was "marked". Everyone knew he was a Christian.

He later said that if it had not been for that year of Bible college, where his faith had been increased, he knows he would not have had the courage to stand up for his faith in that way. He would have done the easy thing of sitting quietly.

Bible college is not just for full time ministry workers. When our daughters are old enough, are we going to demand that they marry preachers or be Christian school teachers? Absolutely not. Our goal for them is to simply do whatever the Lord has in mind for them, whether it's be a missionary wife on a far away continent or be married to a godly business man... whatever it is that God wants for them, we want for them. We will be encouraging them to go to a Christian college because it's a great foundation as a young adult begins their life. Mrs. Fink's post to follow explains it so beautifully.

Also, I don't want anyone to think that I believe everyone should go the same Christian college that I attended. The issue should be a matter of serious prayer. My Sunday School class consists of 13 yr. old - 15 yr. old girls and something that I am constantly drilling into them is the importance of walking with God right now so that by the time they are of age to make important life choices such as what college, or what field to pursue, or who to marry, they are already used to hearing God's voice. You really don't want to wait until you are 17 or 18 yr.s old before experiencing first hand when the Lord speaks to your heart. Letting God direct your steps will never be regretted!



Lastly, I want to add that attending a conservative Christian college can be very hard. You're broke, you're tired, your room mate used all your toothpaste, you hate the food, and even more, you hate the rules. Can we all just accept that no matter where we go or do, there will be things we do not like. I am not exempt. Seth could tell you of the (unfortunately) many times I had a bad attitude about a rule I didn't understand or agree with or a teacher that was curt with me. (He however, NEVER bristled under authority one single time that I have witnessed, and I've known him a good long time now! Do you know how annoying it is when you have a rotten attitude and the person you are with all the time has a humble, submissive attitude? So often I could just stick my tongue out at him and say "Fine! You be a good Christian then!") Anyway... I'm just saying rules exist everywhere. Deal with it. It's almost funny (except that it's not really funny at all) to see people get so miffed at Bible college rules, leave school and then join the military. Um... there's no rules in the military? Every job you have, every school you attend, there will always be elements that get under your skin. It's nothing worth quitting over, or getting bitter over. Looking back now, I wish I would have seen the value of submitting with a better spirit. It's such a short season of life, after all.


Okay, enough ramblings from me. Here is Mrs. Julie Fink's post:


She Was So Glad


It was the winter of Sabrina's senior year when we took her with us up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My husband was preaching for our friend Dr. Noonan, and after the special event, we all climbed into his Suburban and enjoyed a leisure drive around the city.

Cities are such beautiful places at night, especially in December around the holidays.

I was sitting in the back seat with Sabrina, and as we passed by the secular college campus that sits smack in the middle of the city, Sabrina stared out the window with curiosity. I'm not sure she had ever really seen what goes on around secular college campuses ~ this was a new sight for her to absorb and consider.

After a few minutes of looking at the young people doing their thing up and down the streets of that campus, she laid her head on my lap and said, "I'm so glad that you and Dad sent me to a Christian College. I'm so thankful that you didn't send me to some place like this."

Sabrina really is such a grateful and tenderhearted girl, and when she said this, I just smiled at her and hugged her real tight. She and her sister are very precious to us, from the time they were very young girls, we had made the decision to do the best we could to provide what was right for them. And sending them to Christian College is something that we definitely knew was right for them.

The Bible reminds us of this in Psalm 1:1-2, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night."

The college years are filled with getting counsel, and standing and sitting with others. And if we expect our young people to be influenced in the right manner, it is important that we make sure that they are given the right kind of teaching and leading during this time.

Oh, I know what some of you are thinking. You know so and so and their faith made it fine in secular college. And I'm glad they did, but according to the Bible ~ they are the exception to the rule. And it has never been my desire to raise my children to live as an exception to God's rule.

God's Word makes it very clear that we are affected by the evil associations that we have, and I'm not going to encourage my children to believe that they are better than the teachings of God's Word. "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." I Corinthians 15:33

We live in a day and age where many Christian folks believe that they are above obeying God's Word. They seem to make it their goal to live in a way that challenges the truth of it, rather than live in a way that supports it.

I'm not going to live that way. And I'm not going to encourage anybody else to do it either.

A good Christian College is the place for a young person to go after high school. Not because it's a perfect place, because it's not. There are sinful people in every sector of society ~ even in the church. But just like the church, a good Christian College has been established for the purpose of strengthening the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of the young person that is preparing to serve God for the rest of his or her life ~ whether that be in full-time Christian service like my daughter Sabrina and her husband Jeremy are in, or full-time as lay people working in the world like me and her Dad did for so many of her growing up years.

We can never be prepared enough to fight our enemy the devil. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." I Peter 5:8

Sabrina was so glad . . . on that cold winter night as we drove through Milwaukee and she had the opportunity to witness a little bit of the secular college life . . . that her parents were nice enough to send her to a Bible believing Christian College for her to get her post high school education.

And you know what? Her parents are so glad that she was mature enough to appreciate it.

Just a reminder....

...of how very much God loves you.

He loves you (and me!) when we are unloveable. On our good days and our bad days. He loves us.

He loves you because He loves you. Period.

Ya know how 'cum I know?

The word "love" appears in the Bible 311 times. Here's a small sampling:

"...love covereth all sins." Prov. 10:12

"...his banner over me was love." Son of Solomon 2:4

"Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." Isaiah 38:17

"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and carried them all the days of old." Isaiah 63:9

"...Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love..." Jer. 31:3

"I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love:" Hosea 11:4

"I will heal their backslidding, I will love them freely..." Hosea 14:4

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love." John 15:9

"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which was given unto us." Romans 5:5

"But God commended his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nor height, not depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35 & 39

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith hi loved us," Eph. 2:4

"And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge..." Eph 3:19

"And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us," Eph. 5:2

"And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God,..." 2 Th 3:5

"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,..." 1 John 3:1 (couldn't help but sing the little tune to this verse as I typed!)

"...God is love." 1 John 4:8

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." I John 4: 9 & 10

"We love him because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19

Get the point? ;)

A decade in review

It literally just occurred to me that this "New Year" is sorta special... it's marks the last year of a decade!! Thanks to Capturing Life's Moments for pointing that out!



These past 9 yrs. have sure been wonderful and full of blessings! A trip down memory lane:



2000 - In Jan., as a barely 16 yr. old, I left California and went to Bible college in Northwest Indiana. I arrived in sandals and a sun dress in the middle of a blizzard and below zero temperatures. My kind friends thought of how unprepared I would surely be and brought along a hideously ugly over sized coat and a pair of too small boats. I loved them!! The run down old car they had borrowed to pick me up from the airport broke down in South Chicago. I was thrilled to be there. Although difficult and full of obstacles, for the most part, I loved college and was incredibly grateful to be there. Hyles Anderson College was an extremely good thing for me. This was also the year that I met Seth and we begin dating at the very end of the year. Can I get an "Amen!"??



2001 - One of these days I'll share the whole messy romance with you. For now, the timeline: Feb. 01, Seth and I break up. Dec. 01, we begin dating again. And haven't stopped since.



2002 - Class, class, class, chapel, class, work, sleep. Somewhere in there, drool over my boyfriend.



2003 - Seth and I get engaged. I begin one of the hardest tasks ever: student teaching. Somehow, me and the first graders survive.



2004 - College Graduation in May. Wonderful, relieved, ate at Cracker Barrel. So happy to see my home pastor and pastor's wife at my graduation. Married my beloved in June. Sunny day, so excited, just wanted to kiss my man! Moved to NY and began a new life in July. My mother is still not sure how managed to raise an assistant pastor's wife. It's downright bananas.



2005 - 5 months into my pregnancy with our first baby girl, Grace goes to Heaven in May. My second baby miscarried in Oct. on my 21st birthday. A very trying year.



2006 - A difficult pregnancy resulting in our beautiful, healthy Madison. Seth and I were completely thrilled to have her.



2007 - We enjoy our Maddie, and working with the youth group. For the first half of the year I bring Maddie to school with me to play while I teach. For second half, I leave her with my sister in law. I hated that (not that she wasn't in perfectly capable hands... there are few others I would have left her with for 15 hr.s a week.)



2008 - We welcome Eden Grace in our lives in May!!! She is a dream baby. I stop teaching and will never again leave my girls for that amount of time while they are this young, no matter how badly the school needs teachers.



2009 - We help remodel the church building, had a busy summer with youth group, and saw wonderful growth in the church! Our girls grew, and Seth and I are happier together than ever.



2010 - We are excited to see what God has for us!!

Savory meat such as I love...

That's what my father in law calls this. The old cook book my mother in law got the recipe from calls it "Chinese Baked Spareribs". I call it the best thing to do with poor little Babe the Pig and his ribs.



I don't think this picture captures the deliciousness of it all but here it is nonetheless.

This is a fabulous recipe because, beside from just being plain ol' yummy and easy, all the work (which isn't much) is done in advance. I love dinner recipes that I can do most of the hard labor in the morning or even the night before. This is one such recipe. All ya gotta do is slap the pan in the oven an hour and half before dinner. Easy peasie lemon squeesie!

Chinese Baked Spareribs:

3 lb.s boneless country style ribs

1/4 c. mustard

1/4 c. molasses

1/4 c. soy sauce

3 Tbs. vinegar

2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. hot sauce*

Place ribs in shallow baking dish. Combine ingredients, pour over ribs and chill for 3 hrs. or more, covered. Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hrs. Baste frequently**. Turn ribs once during baking. Remove cover for last 15 minutes. Serves 4.

* Notice that the hot sauce is TEASPOONS. Not tablespoons. I point that out because one time I didn't pay attention and we had us some smokin' hot ribs that night. I didn't mind but Seth had heart burn for a week.

**If you are lazy like me... or uh, just busy... and basting isn't your thing, just double the sauce and put the ribs is a rounded baking dish so that they are immersed in the sauce. Voila! No basting needed! I just about always do it this way. And Seth loves having lots of sauce to pour on the mashed potatoes, which in his mind MUST accompany these ribs. My brother in law has reportedly been addicted to this sauce at one point in his life and used it to cook everything from chicken thighs to Ramen noodles. This is "man food" at it's best.

This is a long standing favorite around here. They are simple and virtually impossible to mess up. Let me know if you try it!

Happy New Year!!!

Betcha never saw a snow man like this before?!

Can you believe it's 2010? Sounds so futuristic, doesn't it?

I've never been big on New Year's resolutions. This year however, I decided to choose one word to focus on. A word that is a goal, a prayer... a concept to concentrate on and try to improve in 2010. I had a hard time settling on just one word... several came to mind. I asked Seth for his input. He asked what words I had been considering, I told him, then asked what he thought I should pick. His answer was none of the words I'd been debating between. In fact, it's not one word- it's four. "Waiting on the Lord."

So waiting on the Lord is my theme this year. I'm still working on defining and developing exactly what that phrase entails. I'll get back to ya!

Meanwhile, today is the last day of Seth's Christmas break at school, which means it was my last day to sleep in. And the little rascals were as noisy as ever! *sigh* Oh well. After watching this video, I am reminded how blessed I am to have my two little human alarm clocks.

Happy New Year! God bless you in 2010!

What does it really mean to be a Christian?

Knowing that some people who come across my blog may not consider themselves "religious" or "a church go-er", I wanted to elaborate on the many references I make to the Lord, and Christianity in general. Maybe you're just popping in to see what the McCoy kiddos are up to. I have no desire to be "in your face" about Christianity or "shove my beliefs down your throat". If we were to turn the tables, and I were someone who didn't put much emphasis on faith and religion, I would probably be curious, or maybe even skeptical. Okay, I"d probably think I was a weirdo. So my goal with this post is to simply explain. Not to beat you over the head with Bible verses... not force anything on you. Just help you to understand why Christ and Christianity are so much apart of my blog, and my life.



The foundation of it all:



Christianity is not about a religion. It's about a person.



It isn't about what church you attend or what denomination you belong to. It isn't about what you do or don't do. It's ALL about Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross.



Most people I have met are familiar with Jesus... they know who He is, a little bit about His life on earth. They even know that He died on a cross. But I'm not sure most people know WHY. Why did Jesus come to earth in the first place? Why a virgin birth? Why a lowly life? And most importantly: Why did He die on the cross.



My way of thinking makes me consider the fact that He was the Son of God... having all the power of God. If I possessed all the power of God, I would have just killed the people trying to crucify me and force everyone to worship me. That's what makes sense to me. Why didn't Jesus do that? Why did He willing submit to the humiliating, horrific death on the cross?



Okay, I'm going to quote Bible verse now. I hope that doesn't scare anyone away.



"But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8



The answer to these "Why?" questions is that God loved us. Loved us so much He sent his Son to die on the cross and pay our penalty for sin.



What penalty for sin?



"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 3:23



A wage is something that you earn. You go to work and you earn a wage: money. In the case of our sin, our wage is death. What does it mean by "death"?



"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Rev. 20:14



The first death would obviously be our physical death. You know... our heart stops beating, they put you in a casket, ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that. But the "second death" is referring to hell, as we see in that last verse I quoted. That second death, or hell... is the more serious consequence. We are going to be dead a long time. Where we spend eternity is something we need to gravely consider.



Going back to Romans 3:23, we notice that there is gift mentioned. The gift of eternal life, or as we usually call it: Heaven. Heaven is a gift from God. He paid for this gift through Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus died on the cross.



Gifts are always free. I give someone a gift, it's theirs because I bought it and gave it to them. Not because they work for it, earn it or pay for it. Many religions and churches have gotten this one crucial point wrong. I'm not meaning to be critical of other faiths or religions... but the fact is that when a church puts a price tag on your salvation, whether it be church membership, baptism, tithing, lighting candles, or just simply being a good person, it is wrong. It's contrary to what we read all over the Bible. Those acts themselves are not wrong. I belong to a church, I've been baptised, I tithe, I love lighting scented candles and I try really hard to be a good person. But those deeds are not what I'm trusting in to get me to Heaven. There is no big scale somewhere with all your good deeds on one side and your bad deeds on the other and all you have to do is get the "good deed" side heavier than than the "bad deed" side. That's not how it works. If it was, we'd be back at WHY would Jesus have died on the cross??



"As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one." Romans 3:10



"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23



"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ even as we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Galatians 2:16

Jesus did all the work necessary for our entrance into Heaven. All that is left for us to do is accept Him. Place all our faith in Him and the finished work that He did on a cross on Calvary 2,000 years ago. How does one exactly go about "putting their faith in Jesus" or "accepting Christ as Savior"? Here's what God, in the Bible, said:

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Romans 10:9

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:13

Many times when a person becomes a Christian, meaning that they have accepted Jesus as Savior, we call it "getting saved". Or since trusting in Jesus for my salvation, I've referred to myself as a "saved person". These verses are where we get that terminology.

From these verses we see how we go about becoming a Christian. When I am sharing this with little children, I ask them "How do we 'call upon the name of the Lord'? Can we call Him on the phone? Can we write him a letter?" Of-course, they say "No! We pray!" So here is an example prayer for putting your faith in Jesus Christ. These are NOT magical words that we must say verbatim. It's just to give you an idea of what to say.

"Heavenly Father, I know that I am a sinner in need of salvation. I know I can't earn my own way to Heaven. I know that because of my sin, I deserve Hell. But You died on the cross so that I could be saved. Please forgive me of my sins and be my Saviour today. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen.

I tried to discuss this in a non-confrontational way while still be honest and truthful. Whether or not you have a relationship with Christ is between you and Him. If, however, you have additional questions or would like to talk about salvation more, please email me: kaytemccoy@yahoo.com I'd be happy to try to help you settle this matter in your heart.

The re-cap in case you are more confused than ever!

1. Everyone is a sinner. You, me, my pastor, George Bush, Barak Obama... we are all in the same boat. Sinners.

2. Sin has a penalty. The penalty for our sin is that we can not enter Heaven and are destined for Hell. There is nothing we can do to escape the consequence of our sin.

3. Jesus paid the penalty. He provided the way- the only way- for us to have eternal life. He desperately wants to save each and every one of us.

4. We must simply accept Jesus for salvation. Let the Lord know that you're putting your faith in Him. He is ready and waiting to receive you!