Kenny Hibbard

It was so great to have my daughter at church and on the stage with me for a few minutes yesterday. We have so many new people at Team Church that have never met her or even knew we had a daughter. I feel it is important for our family and our church family to make sure Ellie stays apart of the fabric of our lives as best she can.   I appreciate the emails and comments about how cute she looked up on the stage.She takes after her mom!

More than the fact that she was so very very very cute yesterday…..I hope the teachable point was made.  There will be times in our family life cycle that things happen to us that are difficult and out of our control. What should we do?

• We quickly move from asking WHY to asking WHAT? What is God going to do to get me through this? What can I learn from this? What does God want me to do in this circumstance that will show my faith and His Glory?

I was thankful that Ellie was relatively calm on the stage. Her big brother did a great job talking with her and feeding her M&M’s.  I was thankful to the band and production crew who helped. You could not see it….but Ellie kept us all on our toes while waiting for her grand entrance each service. My wife was a nervous wreck…thinking Ellie may try to take off over the stage or head for the band area to try her hands at the drums!

Having a child with the issues that Ellie has is very tough to deal with….however, with the grace and power of God we have been able to make it and are learning everyday to count our blessings. I wish that Ellie and every other child would never have to live with what they do. However, we take comfort in knowing that God understands and one day Ellie will dance and laugh for eternity in Heaven like everyone else. Until then, we are blessed to have the opportunity to have her live at a place (The Howell Center) that gives her the hourly one on one care she needs and the Howell Center is only 15 minutes away from our house!

Thank you for sharing  a special moment with my daughter on the stage yesterday! I hope our story helps you in your time of challenge.

This week we are going to read the entire book of 1 Thessalonians!

1 Thessalonians 1

¹ This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

May God give you grace and peace.

² We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. ³ As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. ⁵ For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. ⁶ So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. ⁷ As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece—throughout both Macedonia and Achaia.

⁸ And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t need to tell them about it, ⁹ for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. ¹⁰ And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment.