Posts Tagged ‘church’

• Menu Plan April 29-May 5

  Date: 2012.04.28 | Category: meal plan | Response: 0

  What are we having for dinner this week?

  

  Sunday- grilled lemon dill salmon

  Monday- lasagna (from the freezer)

  Tuesday- orange beef

  Wednesday- gnocchi soup

  Thursday- creamy salsa chicken

  Friday- dinner with friends

  Saturday- dinner with pastoral search team and elders and church staff and our NEW PASTOR!

  I’m so sorry that I’ve been such a negligent blogger.  Something about having baby #3 and my husband coaching track and watching my nephews 2 days a week and blah blah blah…  Chris was asking me why I haven’t been posting lately and I laughed out loud.  Then I said “I haven’t had two moments to put a coherent thought together, more less write it down!”  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  You can always check our family photo website for the latest pictures.  Or, I have been randomly chatty on Facebook lately, so if you’d like to follow me there you might have better results!  You can see the soap that Kate bit, hear how JT did in his first week of bribing him to stay in his room during nap time, find out how much it costs to deliver a baby in Colorado, and see a cute picture of Kate and her fashion accessories.  Maybe I’ll get my act together and do a compilation post for you here.  Don’t hold your breath though.  I realized on Thursday night that I had experienced less than one hour of awake and child free time in the previous 48 hours.  Oof.

  In other news, we are so excited to meet our new pastor next weekend.  Chris served on the search team for about 10 months and walking through the process has been wonderful, but boy are we glad it’s finally wrapping up!  We are looking forward to the next season at our beloved church and are thrilled to have been part of the decision making process.

  And in other other news, James is 2 months old!  How the heck did that happen?

  

  

• A living testimony

  Date: 2010.09.23 | Category: faith, friends | Response: 0

  Last night was the launch of a new women’s ministry at my church.  I am super excited about this for several reasons-

  1. My girlfriend Tricia is the main speaker and organizer
  2. I LOVE my girlies and can’t get enough time with them
  3. I would love to develop relationships with more women at my church
  4. I need to get out for the evening and laugh and talk and eat dessert once in a while
  5. What a great way to invite pre-believers to a low key event where they can hear about Jesus and meet other women in a non-threatening way

  For this first meeting we needed a woman to give her testimony.  I volunteered.  I was chosen.  Now I knew this was coming up for at least 3 weeks.  I literally did not start thinking about it until the night before.  That’s how I deal with public speaking- I pretend that it’s not going to happen until the last moment possible!  Lucky for me I have given my testimony a few times in the past year, so I had it all in a Word doc and just needed to review it and tweak it a little bit for my audience.

  Last night as I was laying in bed it occurred to me that those of you out there in the world wide web might like to hear how God redeemed my life almost 20 years ago and some of the things He’s done with me since then.  So here it is- out there- for the whole world to see.  Me.  (and more importantly, God)

  Hi, my name is Melody Benschoter.  I’m married to Chris and have the two most adorable children in the world, JT who is 2 years old and Kate who is 7 months old.  I’ve been attending South Fellowship since we moved to Colorado 3 years ago.  Tonight I want to share my testimony of how God has redeemed my life and how He’s spoken to me over the years.

  My mom would tell you that even as a very young child I never seemed to get enough attention or affection, and I was the type of kid who always had to learn each lesson the hard way.  Although I grew up in a Christian home and I knew better, I began to look to boyfriends to find my approval and to get my fill of acceptance.  I became very rebellious- especially through middle and high school.  I became sexually active at 14, experimented with alcohol and drugs, cut school frequently, lied to my parents constantly, and generally did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to do it.  During my sophomore year in college my boyfriend of 2 1/2 years (and the guy I thought I would marry) broke up with me and moved in with my best friend.  At that point I was about as miserable and empty as possible.  As I was praying one night in desperation I heard God clearly say to me “You have chosen to fill your life with the wrong people and activities for all these years, and now you have nothing left.  You can either choose the same type of people to fill your life with again or you can choose ME.”  Starting that night I chose to cling to God and try things His way.  My sister had been urging me to attend a college bible study at our church and it just so happened that I was suddenly free on Wednesday nights.  On a whim I decided to go and found myself crying in a room full of casual acquaintances!  These girls welcomed me and were willing to walk with me on my new path and encourage me as I began my Christian faith.  Over those first few years I developed deep friendships and mentoring relationships that helped me find value in who I am in Christ and showed me that true joy can be found in Him.

  One of the things I started doing was praying and journaling my prayers.  I used these journals as a way to keep my prayer time focused- to prevent my mind from wandering- and to give me a way to look back and see how God was answering my prayers.  I was coming from a place of real bitterness and heartache, and I also recognized how foolish I had been for the first 19 years of my life.  One of the things I prayed for daily was that God would bless me with inner peace and wisdom.  I knew that God had honored Solomon’s prayers for wisdom and hoped that He would honor mine as well.  I also claimed Philippians 2:14-16 as my life verse.

  ¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

  I really liked the reminder to become someone who does things pleasantly… without complaining or arguing and that it would lead to me being a child of God who is blameless and pure!  I also loved the picture of shining like a star in the universe while holding out the word of life.  I felt that this was the person I should aspire to be in my new faith and prayed these verses for myself often.

  During this period I also spent some time thinking about who I wanted to be someday as a woman and as a wife.  I recognized that my old character was unhealthy and that I was not who I wanted to be.  I began to study what the bible had to say about Godly character and to pray over the characteristics that I wanted to embrace.  I also used scripture to develop a list of attributes I was looking for in my future husband.  I really thought and prayed a lot about this and came up with a list of about 20 character traits and values that were important for my husband to possess.  Now I need to say… because of the types of sin I was struggling with and the changes that I was trying to make in myself I didn’t date for quite some time after dedicating my life to Christ.  In fact when I met my husband I had been single for 10 years to the month.  Although I went on a handful of dates during those years, I was careful to avoid getting involved with any man who did not meet the criteria on my list or who I did not clearly feel God was bringing me to.  In fact after my first date with my future husband I told him that we should just be friends.  It was during this period of friendship that my eyes were opened to see that God was drawing me to him as my husband.  I pulled out that old piece of paper and was amazed to see that he met EVERY SINGLE CRITERIA that I had written over 9 years before.

  Speaking of my husband actually brings me to the second time that God clearly spoke to me.  I had been involved in a women’s bible study for 5 years when my mentor encouraged me to transfer to the young adult class.  I had reached a point in my life where most of my girl friends had gotten married and were having children and I was lonely for good female friends.  At the same time I was happy with the bible study I was attending and didn’t want to transfer to the other class for fear of looking like I was going just to meet guys.  My mentor really challenged me on my stubbornness and unwillingness to change, and after some prayer and consideration I agreed to try the other class.  When I transferred my membership, the leader of the new class asked me to join the leadership team.  I had been asked to join the leadership at my previous class 4 years in a row, and each year I declined because leadership meetings were held at 6:55am on Saturday mornings.  If you know me, you know I love to sleep.  So when the new class leader asked, I told her that I didn’t think I could do it, but that I would pray about it.  Now when I said I would pray about it, I have to admit, I didn’t really think it would change anything.  I had no intention of getting up so early every Saturday morning for the next year.  But when I prayed, God said yes.  I said no and God said yes again.  And again.  He and I really had it out for several days before I finally gave in to Him and agreed to do it.  I can remember telling my coworker that this was going to ruin my life.  And I meant it!  2 days later I showed up to my first meeting and met the rest of the leadership team.  There happened to be a young man there who I had heard quite a bit about from my sister who had wanted to set me up on a date with him the year before.  I had never met him, but I recognized his name and knew a lot about him through her and through a girlfriend of mine who was good friends with him.  Being on leadership threw us together quite a bit, and within a month we went out on a date.  Then I told him we should just be friends, and then I realized that he was the man I was going to marry!  I quickly told Chris that he could ask me out again and 3 months after that we were engaged.  I really believe that by obeying God’s call to that leadership team- which also built my leadership skills and taught me discipline and many other good things, God brought me to my husband.

  And that brings me to the third and final time God has clearly spoken to me.  I was raised in California and Chris and I lived about 20 minutes from the town where I grew up.  For our first anniversary Chris and I came out here to Highlands Ranch to visit my brother and sister in law.  One day in the car Chris said to me “Wouldn’t this be a great place to live?”  to which I replied “Absolutely not!”  A few days later we were flying home when I heard God say to me “If I asked you to move you wouldn’t go.”  I knew in my heart that that was true.  I loved my hometown- I had lived in the same zip code for my entire life until I married and Chris dragged me 20 minutes away.  My parents still live in the same house where they brought me home from the hospital.  I had never wanted to leave the Bay Area or my family and friends and never planned to.  God and I really wrestled with this over the course of several months before I finally told my husband what was going on.  At that point I still didn’t want to ever move, but I was finally able to tell God that if He ever called me someplace else, I would go.  Sure enough, about a year later my husband completed his Master’s degree and was looking for a new job.  We were also ready to start our family and knew that financially we were going to have to make some major changes to afford children.  After months of discussion we decided that he would send out resumes both in California and in Colorado.  And don’t you know the only job offer he got was here in Highlands Ranch!  I held out hope for a CA job and resisted committing to the move until 2 weeks before we put the house on the market (which left me scurrying to get things packed, let me tell you!).  But once the decision was made, I knew that I had to embrace it wholeheartedly.  I never looked back, but instead decided to make the best of the situation and love my new home.  And I do!  I can’t imagine how we would have made ends meet if we had stayed where we were.  But God provided my husband with a job he absolutely loves, and I am able to work one day a week and stay home with JT and Kate the rest of the time.  God has put us in a home that is far nicer and less expensive than what we had in California, has placed us in a wonderful church, and has given us the opportunity to grow closer to my brother and his family.  I wouldn’t trade where we are for anything.  But I do hope I never move again!

  I want to close by making sure that you know- I am by no means perfect in my prayer life.  God hasn’t spoken to me because I’m extra holy or prayerful. I want you to know that God can and will speak to us- it may be with a clear voice, or He may use someone else’s voice to speak into our lives.  Clarity has come to me through scripture and through my own conscience.  Being open to hearing Him is the key- even if you have to wrestle with Him before you find acceptance!

  Oh- and in case you’re wondering we had a great TIME (pun intended- our new name is It’s about Time… True, Meaningful, Inviting Encounters) last night!  We had about 35 women, a wonderful talk by Tricia, lots of yummy dessert, and plenty of TIME (pun intended again!) to talk and laugh and get to know each other.  What a blessing it is to live in community.  Come and join us in October!

  melody

  

• Simplicity

  Date: 2010.06.23 | Category: faith, saving money | Response: 2

  Simplicity is a word that’s being thrown around alot lately.  I seem to see it everywhere I look- on the covers of magazines and books, in the headlines, on the blogs.  I’ve traditionally been a “stuff” person.  I figure if some is good then more must be better, right?  But lately I’ve been thinking that maybe LESS really can be MORE.

  Three years ago Chris and I were richly blessed with the proceeds from the sale of our California house.  We used that money to buy a home that is much larger than anything we’d ever even dreamed of owning.  Our logic was that we have the money, we plan to have a house full of kids, we want to have rooms available for guests, and we want to be able to open up our home to our friends and family for gatherings and the like.  And we’ve done all of that with it.  We’ve housed family (including 4 people and a dog for 2 months!), missionaries, and friends.  We’re filling up those bedrooms one kid at a time.  We’ve hosted Christmas and Thanksgiving for 15+.  In the past 6 months we have had houseguests for a total of 4.5 months!

  On the other hand it’s just so much.  I can’t keep up with the housekeeping.  Chris can’t keep up with the yard.  We seem to be accumulating possessions by the truckload because “we have the space to store it”.  Sometimes I find myself reminiscing about the old days when we only had 1150 square feet to maintain.  It was so much more manageable.  And yet we crammed 20 in for bible study regularly.  We hosted big holiday meals.  We had overnight guests.  Neither of us grew up in a home with an extra bedroom or extra space.  We were cozy and we liked it that way.

  And it’s not just housing, it’s technology and possessions and activities and life.  It all seems so much more complicated than it has to be.

  I recently read Living with Less so your Family has More by one of my favorite authors, Jill Savage.  Her premise is that when we choose to live with less- less commitment, less possessions, less debt, less rat race we free up more time and energy and joy.  We have time to sit and connect with our spouse.  We have time to play with the kids.  We have time to do the things we love.  We have energy to do what is important to us because we’re not wasting it on other things.  This book really resonated deep within me.  I’m tired.  I feel pulled by a million good things and don’t know how to accomplish everything I want to do.  I want to invest in relationships rather than things.  To invest in the best rather than the good.

  I’m currently reading Radical by David Platt.  This book takes a hard look at Christianity in America today and challenges us to put aside the American dream for the sake of the gospel.  I was pretty skeptical when I opened this book.  I wasn’t sure that there is anything wrong with the American dream.  I wasn’t sure that there is anything wrong with today’s church model.  But I’ve changed my mind.  The problem with the American dream is that it values reliance on self when we are actually dependent on God.  The problem with today’s church is that it is focused inwardly when it should be focused outwardly.  Why is one preacher preaching to a room full of people who already know the gospel when there are so many in our world who have never heard it?  Why is it that missionaries are the exception rather than the norm when we have all received the Great Commission- “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)?  How many people have I personally reached with the gospel?  How many disciples have I made?  How is it that I can justify living in a 2800 square foot house with a closet full of clothes and a pantry full of food when there are so many living in extreme poverty?  How can I rest knowing that I sponsor one child through Compassion when there are thousands upon thousands more children in such great need?  How can I ignore the urgent physical needs of those in war torn countries?  In remote villages?  In populations devastated by disease and death?

  It’s one thing to simplify my life, my spending, and my calendar so that I’m more rested and feel more in control of my life.  It’s another thing entirely to simplify my life for the sake of spreading the gospel.  To spend less on me so that I can give more to those who truly need it.  To do without, not so that I can invest in retirement or my children’s college education but so that a child can eat today.  Or a village can have clean drinking water.  Or medicine.  Or shelter.  Or the hope of the gospel.  Yikes.

  This all is going to require some serious prayer.  Serious serious prayer.  I value your feedback.  Have you read Radical?  Has your heart been tugged for those who need Christ so desperately?  Has the church lost it’s way?  Are we really being obedient to Christ?

  melody

  

• Deep thoughts…

  Date: 2010.05.12 | Category: faith, parenting | Response: 0

  I’ve been feeling a deep discontent over the past few months.  Something is off in my spiritual life and I’m not sure what to do about it.  I’m active in my church and in a weekly bible study.  I love Jesus.  I’m trying to share that love of Jesus with my children.  And yet I can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing the big picture.  That God wants more from me – that I’m not living up to the potential that God has for me.  How do I balance being a wife, raising two small children, keeping a household running, and maintaining relationships with friends and family with the call Christ gives to all of His followers “²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”  Matthew 16″24-26

  I have more questions than answers.  How can I live up to all I’m called to be… a bride of Christ, a fisher of men, a wife of noble character, one who looks after widows and orphans, a good Samaritan, etc, etc.  How can I stop going TO church and instead BE the church?  What does that look like?  How can I trade the urgent for the important?  What should I let go of so that I can cling to what truly matters? 

  Look at what Philippians 2:1-18 says…

   ¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

   ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
   ⁶Who, being in very nature God,
        did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
   ⁷but made himself nothing,
        taking the very nature of a servant,
        being made in human likeness.
   ⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
        he humbled himself
        and became obedient to death—
           even death on a cross!
   ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
        and gave him the name that is above every name,
   ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
        in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
   ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
        to the glory of God the Father.

   ¹²Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

   ¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. ¹⁷But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. ¹⁸So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

  Raising children has shown me that if nothing else I am selfish and have all the wrong priorities.  I don’t want to be a servant!  I don’t want to be humble!  I want someone else to do the hard work.  The dirty jobs.  The boring stuff.  I want someone to notice that I emptied the dishwasher and paid the bills and spent 6 hours breastfeeding today.  I want my accolades and pat on the back!  But look what Philippians says- Jesus took the very nature of a servant.  He humbled Himself.  He became obedient.  And so should I.

  Years ago I claimed Philippians 2:14-16 as my life verse.  At the time I was battling my very nature.  As a new Christ follower I had some serious changes to make in my attitude and actions.  And yet 15 years later here I am again.  As I reread these words I see I still have so far to go.  I think that this discontent is God’s way of stirring up new change in me.  He’s showing me that I’ve become too comfortable in my skin.  In my faith.  I’m no longer stretching and growing, but like the Pharisees I’ve grown proud of leading a Sunday School class and reading my bible every night.  I don’t think God cares very much about that… I think he’s more concerned with my poor prayer life.  With the minimal effort I make to reach out to my neighbors who don’t know Him.  With the harsh words I speak to my husband.   

  So I’m working on it.  I’m trying to pray more and listen more.  I’ve been talking with friends about how they balance the demands of their lives with their faith.  I’ve been reading books and listening to sermons. 

  If you have any insight I’d love to hear it.  God is leading me… I just don’t know where we’re going.

  melody