Is Your Window Cracked?

Oh, goodness!  This post was started back in 2010 while I was working on my Bachelor's of Business Finance...oh how I remember the evening like it was yesterday!

I had been working diligently on a paper (much like today).  The kids were outside playing in the back yard, and we didn't have a fence up yet, so while I worked in the office, I had the window open, ensuring I could count voices of my then 5 children playing back there (the sixth one was not old enough to play in the back, I'm sure he was sleeping in my room!)  So, life went on that day, everyone came in, ate supper, took baths, and got nestled into bed...except me.  I returned to the office so I could put the finishing touches on my paper.

I began to notice that little crawly and flying bugs were all over everything!  I was not simply grossed-out, I was frustrated!  I kept thinking, what is wrong with this house that all these bugs are in here!  I mean, sure they are little, but they are nasty!  I couldn't concentrate, I literally felt like they were crawling all over me, in my hair, up my legs, on  my arms, on my back.  I was itching and flinging at my hair too much to even pay attention to the task at hand!

So, I gave up, threw up my hands and went to take a shower and go to bed.  The next morning, I crept into the office to see what may have become of it overnight.  There were dead night bugs all over the place! 

Then, I felt a slight breeze...I had left the window cracked...oops.

God spoke gently to me that morning, because I had zoomed through the morning, not stopping to speak to Him.  He said to me, "See what waits at the window for you when you accidentally leave it cracked?"  Frustration, aggravation, and ultimately death.  Things that don't matter in the eternal scope of life. 

When I leave my heart cracked open for anything other than the things of God, that is what I receive. 

But when I start my day off with Him, seek Him through my day, and rely on Him for all the day will hold, He seals any cracks.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on what is

true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 

Philippians 4:8

I pray this encouraged you today, and maybe made you laugh a little.  When is the last time you left a window cracked?  :-)  Have a blessed day!

The LOVE Chapter...Verse by Verse

....He said....

"If I had the gift of prophecy,

and if I understood all of God's secret plans

and possessed all knowledge,

and if I had such faith
that I could move mountains,

but didn't love others,

I would be nothing."

(1 Cor 13:2)

....I heard....

"If I have the ability to explain verses in the Bible

 so it can be easily understood,

and an understanding of what God's plan is,

and gain knowledge through schooling and experience,

and exercise great faith to overcome any obstacle,

But do not love those around me,

Those words, understanding,

knowledge and faith will be for not;

because I would be nothing -

who would care what I have to say,

what my insight is, what 'my' faith could do."

(1 Corinthians 13:2 My Interpretation)

God gives prepares us for what He has us to walk through.  When we study God's word, He provides us exactly what we need:

He gives each of us an understanding of various verses so we may encourage/challenge others. 

He give each of us a small bit of insight to pieces of His will.

He provides us all with a multitude of life experiences to gain knowledge from.

He provides us all sufficient faith to endure those trials around us...

He does all this so we can later encourage others...  Don't waste it by not loving those around you.

Have a blessed day!

What is YOUR 'God-incidence'

Back in June, I felt God calling me to write a book with a compilation of the stories of how He has showed up through my journey thus far.  I have enlisted stories from a few close friends, but to be honest, I have been struggling with it. 

He opened my eyes this morning about why I have been struggling...I have tried to make it too 'NTense'!  I have been trying to account for every detail, every leading circumstance...my perfectionism was taking over rather than the simplicity of God being God and doing what He does!

My focus had been on good 'stories', looking back over the stories I have completed so far, there are so many 'God-incidences' in there, I am so amazed!  So, although I will use the story below as the introduction, I am going to focus more on the 'incidences' themselves and not the whole story in order to give all our readers the encouragement for their time of need.  This is a first step in our journey of sharing our stories with others!

If you have a 'God-incidence' you would like to be considered for the book, please email me at jennfripp@gmail.com I will look them over and let you know if your's is selected!  It doesn't have to be a chapter (like the intro below!)  A paragraph will be fine!  The more submitted the better to reveal how our God moves in our lives!!  Please forgive me for grammar,spelling, wording etc mistakes,..it hasn't been proofed yet!

God-incidences: Introduction:

My Journey Home

I enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1996, met my husband at my first duty station (Scott Air Force Base, IL) and got married in 1997. My initial job in the Air Force was an Air Traffic Controller. This career field required a strict medical status, even over the counter medications were monitored, and I had allergies. After a deployment to Taszár Air Base, Hungary, I came back to the states using a prescribed allergy medicine not yet approved by the flight surgeon and was subsequently disqualified from Air Traffic Control in 1999. My initial 4-year enlistment was over in July of 2000, so I had two options; ride out the rest of my time doing office work or cross-train into another career field.

While dating, Shane and I often discussed our mutual desires to have a Christian marriage and be ‘good, upstanding Christ-followers’, however; neither of us pursued Him. We did not go to church, read our Bible, pray together, and much less pray as individuals. That is a scary place to be…a sinner, saved by grace, yet blind and deaf to the One who has saved you because of your own unwillingness to walk with Him. This place is also a breeding ground for Satan to attack…and attack he did.

Since asking God what the best choice for me to make was not a priority in my life at the time, I took it upon myself to make the decision. In my wisdom and understanding of our then current life situation, I thought it best to ride out most of the time in my time then cross-train so I could re-enlist when my 4-year enlistment came to an end. This decision has proven to be one I regretted for years.

By early 2001, I had been trained for a new job, and headed back to Scott AFB. I found out shortly after two bits of great news! I had made the next pay grade…and we were expecting our first baby!!! She was due to be born November 25th, and we were ecstatic! My husband and I had an epiphany…our family was beginning and it was time to get our lives where they were meant to be, serving our Lord. So, we began attending church. And being promoted to the next pay grade meant I had to attend a supervisory course. While there…and newly pregnant, I was nauseated…a lot!

I will never forget sitting through those classes, trying to focus on what the instructor was saying, yet being completely distracted by those feelings that crept up from the pit of my stomach to the edge of my throat…and then wouldn’t go anywhere else! It was during those times I would hear my Lord so softly whisper, “I don’t want you here going through this class, I want you to be home preparing to be the mamma I have called you to be.” Even though my husband and I had begun attending church, I was still pretty sure that I knew how to run my life…so I blew those sweet whispers off and went on about my plan.

Midway through 2001, I re-enlisted in the Air Force for 6 more years. Since I had cross-trained into a career field that needed more people, I received a large monetary bonus for re-enlisting. My plan was moving ahead wonderfully….then September 11, 2001 came…

I had since graduated from my supervisory course and had begun my new job. Being pregnant, I was unable to do a whole lot of that job in the field, so I became good at the paperwork side. While sitting in the office in a secured building, someone came into the office proclaiming, did you hear that some bozo flew his aircraft into the World Trade Center? Just a few days before someone in our area had crashed their small Cessna aircraft into a house, and I came from the air traffic control field, so that was not real exciting news to me at first. However, when the same guy came back a little while later telling everyone to be ready because a second aircraft had hit, and it no longer appeared to be an accident.

I went home for lunch that day, pondering what had just happened. My husband was home and we talked a little bit about it, and then I heard that whisper again, “I want you to be home, raising your children, supporting your husband.” Again, I brushed that voice off.

For the next few weeks at work, one of the girls I worked with continually tried to talk me into getting out of the military. Even though I had just re-enlisted, I was still pregnant, and could get an honorable discharge. It is not the desire for the United States Military to have families completely separated, but because of the women’s movement, they can no longer force women out of the military when they are pregnant. But of course, the military receives all the blame when families are torn apart all over the world. I continually debated with her, assuring her that everything was going to work out fine. I had already made my plan, and it was playing out just right. There were timelines in the military when it comes to deployments and moving to different duty stations after you are reassigned, change jobs and have a baby. I was ‘safe’ for at least 2-3 years. That would see me through one-half of this re-enlistment, and, surely by then we would be having our second child, so everything would work out right according to my plan.

November 30, 2001, came and our beautiful baby girl came into this world. She was bright-eyed and ready to conquer the little world around her. We were so proud, and then I took an extra couple weeks off work so that I could be with her for her first two months. Being still a lot more, resting and caring for such a precious gift from the Lord gave me a lot of time to reflect. I began hearing God’s soft whispers more often now, and my heart began to feel much burden. It was a feeling I used to get as a child when I had disobeyed my parents and I knew the consequences were on the horizon. However, I didn’t think I had been disobedient, and didn’t see any consequences coming, so I chalked those feelings up to hormones…I had just had a baby!

January 2002, came very quickly. I had taken our new baby girl to visit my mom and dad when my husband called me from back home. “Hey honey, your boss called today…you got orders.” He said.

“You mean we have orders, right? Where are we going?” I replied.

“No, Jenn. You have orders…to Korea…alone.” He said solemnly.

“Well, there must be some mistake, I am still on maternity leave, and just recently changed jobs…there is some type of mistake. I will take care of it.” I hung up the phone, left Mom and Dad a note, packed up our stuff and headed back home. I was determined there was a mistake somewhere along the way, and it was my duty to go set someone straight!

My first call upon leaving Mom and Dad’s was to Linda, my new mentor from church and our babysitter when my maternity leave was up. I was so frustrated, yet determined to fix this situation, but I knew in my heart of hearts that I needed good godly counsel. When I spoke to her, she listened sweetly, and was full of compassion and understanding as I explained what was going on at that moment. I assured her I had no intention of going anywhere without my baby and my husband! And she assured me of only one thing, she would be faithful to pray, and she encouraged me to do the same.

I began a stretch of appointments and meetings with various personnel management people, and was sent from person to person, whether in an office or over the phone. Some were perplexed that I had orders, and others were very indifferent. It was during this time that I heard two memorable broadcasts on the radio. John MacArthur on his show “Grace to You”, and Jill Savage of “Hearts at Home” was on “Focus on the Family”.

John MacArthur, while speaking that day, was talking about discipleship. He urged newly growing Christians to begin reading their Bible, but not in the typical manner always heard. He recommended sitting down and reading the entire book of 1 John at one time. Then, he said to do it again, consecutively, for 30 days. This sounded like a challenge to me, so I took him up on it. I began to read 1 John, in its entirety, every day. Something amazing began to happen after about day 10. Although I was still having meetings and discussions with personnel offices about not going to Korea, I began to have an unspeakable peace in my heart. The ‘mommy guilt’ was diminishing, and something new was being placed there. It was not a desire to go to Korea without my baby and husband; it became a desire to do whatever God was calling me to do, and to do it well, without complaining or hesitation.

Then when I heard “Focus on the Family” and their interview with Jill Savage regarding her book, Professionalizing Motherhood, I knew without a doubt the Lord was speaking directly to me! I ordered the book and that interview that day. That material was going to Korea with me. The Lord showed me that day that His perfect will had to be altered and delayed, because I ignored Him. He didn’t want me to have to spend a year away from my baby and my husband, but now that had to come first. I was very hard-headed, and He had to get my attention off myself and onto Him. He assured me that He could take much better care of my baby than I could. He then gave me a revelation, was I willing to sacrifice a year of my life with my husband and baby for Him, or would I always try to put them first, before my Lord?

May of 2002 came very quickly, everything was packed, and off I flew across the pond to Osan Air Base, South Korea – my home for a year. And oh, how He grew me. It was a year I dreaded, yet a year I would never trade anything for. He showed me Who He was that year, how much He loved me, and how much He wanted me to be home with my family as the woman He desired me to be. Through that year I read my Bible, did Bible studies, attended the Hospitality House by Cadence International, and read and re-read Professionalizing Motherhood. I was determined to be the Mom He desired me to be.

I had no doubt the Lord still desired for me to be a stay-at-home Mom, but I could not see how this was going to work. While I was in Korea, my husband was recalled to Active Duty and sent to Spain for a couple months then back to Illinois. His recall was up a couple of months before I was scheduled to get home, then he would not have a job. I had re-enlisted for 6 years in 2001, therefore upon returning home from Korea, which would leave me with roughly 4 years left. None of this added up in my mind, so I assumed my Lord was intending for me to become a supermom in 2007 when my enlistment ended, and surely by then my husband would have a great job able to support us all. Wrong again!

I came home to visit around Christmas for a month, and returned to Korea pregnant with our second baby. Believe it or not, this did not come as a shock to me. The Lord worked a little cycle mojo in December that I took note of because I am usually very regular! As soon as I got home, I said to my husband, I am going to be pregnant before I go back, and there you go!

When I returned to Korea, most of the friends I had made were beginning to leave. This was bitter-sweet, and gave me even more time to study God’s Word and listen to Him speak. I kept hearing Him tell me the time had come to get out. Oh, how I argued! Financially and logistically, this simply did not make sense – yet I had no choice by to obey. I disobeyed before and look where it got me! My husband thought I was losing it a little, but he was in agreement with me, no job and all.

I returned home in May 2003, and my baby who was 5 months old when I left remembered me at 17 months old! That was confirmation from God that He was the one who causes all things to happen, and He would be beside us every step of our obedience. My first day back to work I returned to the personnel office and put in my paperwork to get out early since I was pregnant, and my husband still didn’t have a steady job. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous, but I knew way back in my heart that God would see us through.

June 30, 2003, my husband started a great job as a civil service member for the Federal Government, and my last day of work was August 18, 2003. Exactly one month later, we had our second child, a wonderfully happy baby boy!

I wish I could say I haven’t had to learn anything else the hard way, but that would just be a lie! I am still very stubborn, but am learning to hear and respond much quicker than I did back then. To this day, when I feel as though I am in a valley my mind returns to 1 John and the principles I studied within Professionalizing Motherhood. Those times in our lives when He speaks in such a clear manner remain with us for years to come, and anchor to look back on and hold to. That is how His Word and His people are for me, and I am so thankful for each one.

I hope and pray you enjoyed the intro, I would love to receive your feedback and your stories!
Have a blessed day!



Are You Setting Fires?

If you know me well, you know that I like to keep a relative schedule of events....nothing too strict, but a good guideline.  You will also know that I typically have so many fires in the iron that I am scattered brained and often running from one thing to the other...then back again because I have missed or forgotten something (Praise the Lord never a child though!)

Well, tomorrow morning for this wonderful July 4th holiday weekend, the kids and I are going to visit my sister-in-law in Alabama.  We have all been very excited about this trip, and for some reason the devil has not wanted it to happen!  There have been bumps all along the 'getting ready' time!  I have gotten rather used to his tactics, though, and simply dismiss them for his purpose and use them as a reason to praise my Lord!

Today was going to be a day full of getting ready, a trip to Wal-Mart, packing, taking care of storage building and church treasury issues, and of course, cleaning the house up so that it is somewhat tidy when we return, and then a little time by the pool so the boys could get some energy out (the girls are away at their Great-Aunt Patricia's)....yeah, right!

We made it to Wal-Mart...the kids ate food...and I have gotten most of the stuff packed...that's it!!!!  The truck immediately ran hot as we were leaving Wal-Mart this afternoon, thank the Lord my brother-in-law and father-in-law were still at work, so they tended to it for us, but by the time we got home, it was already 5pm!!!  (Did I mention we got off to a late start!)

As I just crawled into bed, I prayed to Him, thanking Him for keeping us safe, for Stephen not getting burned when he twisted the cap and the coolant spewed out like a geyser, for showing me the areas I lost my cool and promptly got to me so I could correct it, the precious time He is giving my girls to spend with a very special lady...then I began reading in my book again (in case you forgot or are new: Ablaze with His Glory by Del Fehsenfeld, Jr.).

Chapter six began with whose church are we building?  Are we promoting ourselves or Christ?  When we speak for Him are we dull and boring because we haven't been faithful to live out our daily walk with Him as our truest best friend, or are we vibrantly alive with seeing Him throughout our day and telling people about it, in turn witnessing their vibrancy's with Him?!  I had been starting to get a bit discouraged, wondering if I were blogging for the right reasons, but as soon as I read that, He spoke to me and affirmed what I am doing, like I said in my last post, Put Your Cards on the Table, I don't care if people like me, I strive to put what God lays on my heart on here.  It is ALL about Him, the only part I have is living it out and reporting about it!  What good is an incident that glorifies my Lord, if it isn't told?!  Anyway, after I read that, it got me so excited, I knew He wanted me to get back up out of bed and come share how incredibly excited I have been lately to see a special friend, Becca on her journey with Christ recently.

God has really renewed His Spirit within her, and she is busting all out of her comfort zone to show her love to Him when He calls her to do so!  I have been so amazed, and incredibly humbled to be able to be a part of it and to be close enough to see Him working in and through her!  She recently started a blog and talks about a lot of this (http://rbrhall-amazingrace.blogspot.com).

Be encouraged, when you are on fire for the Lord, you have absolutely NO IDEA who you are impacting for Him.  Do not hide it, do not be ashamed of Him!  Let your little light shine, when we get a good blow, fire catches and spreads!!!!  Don't quench it!! 

So, Are YOU on Fire?