Evinda Lepins

Nana Holds-from Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power…

It’s great to have this time with you. I truly cherish sharing these truths that keep coming to the surface of my heart as I walk through this season of parenting our grandson. Several times in a given week, I hear about this very situation and what seems to be happening more and more: Parents parenting their children’s children. I am convinced, now more than ever, that this is an opportunity of redemption for the generation! Grab your coffee and join me for our coffee break.
So Bryce wound up staying with Jene’ and her family the first couple of nights, though he did come home a couple of hours after Rodney and Cheryl left so we could talk, and he brought Jene’ with him and Bryden, too. The highlight of those moments came in the form of yet another revelation as I sat and truly listened to him, trying with all my might to bring my defenses down so I could truly hear him and keep my opinions and frustration to myself.
As he sat there on the couch and shared his frustration with the program he had been in for the previous eight months, I suddenly realized that the truth of God’s love for him had not made that twelve inch leap to his heart and having it literally crammed down his throat daily had only clogged the way to his heart and not opened it, really.
Little did I know that this particular analogy would come alive and begin to form the basis for our Transform Trench class! See, there is something good about each and every recovery program, and there’s no such thing as a perfect one, but I truly have come to learn with all my life experience and being a particularly interested bystander in others’ experiences, especially with my son and step son, that in order to be able to receive the truth of God’s love, the pipe has to be unclogged which takes getting to the root. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that His word doesn’t aid in that unclogging. I’m merely saying that if we were to combine the truths of His word with some other powerful exercises to remove the clog, wouldn’t His love be able to flow through easier, and thus free one from one’s hurt, habit and/or hang-up? Oh, so much to think about and I’m super excited as this concept swirls in my mind and resonates in my heart because I know that there were many clogs in the pipe leading to my heart before I was truly able to receive His love and thereby free the large pieces that blocked the truths of Christ.
Anyway, sitting there listening to him, I wasn’t thinking about all of this, but I did totally understand where he was at, as I was taken back to my days of being in the system in a foster home with foster parents that literally drug me up to the altar and said “you come to Jesus or you’re going back to McClaren Hall!”
What’s amazing is even though that definitely wasn’t His way, He still used it and here I am, all these years later, writing from my heart to yours for and with Him!
As frustrated as I was with Bryce, I was able to empathize with him without sacrificing my convictions and/or my boundaries.

He calls her Ja, Ja. Jene’!

And the beautiful thing that came out of that conversation was a picture that brings tears to my eyes as it comes to the surface of my heart. At the end of it, George asked Bryce and Jene’ to join us on the floor so we could pray, and there, we sat in a circle, joined hands and as George began to pray, he was stopped by his own sobs as tears ran down his face and he cried out to God for help in this situation.
Yes, friend, God uses all things, rights the wrongs and sets us on higher ground in the process!
Join me Monday for more
Evinda

Nana Holds!

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