New Blog Launch: What Does Jesus Have to Do with It?

Hello!  Guess what?  Today I launched a new blog called What Does Jesus Have to Do with It?  Integrating Your Life in Christ with Family, Friendships, and Work.  I'm so excited!!

You can find it here:  http://kellyefabian.com  Please check it out!  (The link was wrong when first posted, but it's right now.  Sorry!)

Please subscribe to that one by hitting the "Follow" button under my picture when you get there.  That way, you can get the posts by email!

The Good Shepherd

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me -- just as the Father knows me and I know the Father -- and I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.  I must bring them also.  They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life -- only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.  This command I received from my Father."  

-- Jesus
(John 10:14-18)

A Bold Texting Life

On Thursday nights, my 12-year old daughter goes to a church near our house with many of her friends for worship and teaching.  She looks forward to it each week and usually when she gets home, I hear stories of the fun she had running around the church and how she drank Mountain Dew.  I always ask her about the teaching and the worship and she is very positive about that too, but usually wants to talk more about the interactions with her friends.  Last night when she got home, I asked her how it went.  

She said, "I cried.  I mean, my insides were crying like a river."  Surprised, I said, "Really, how come?"  She explained that the teaching was about the crucifixion and that in the worship time, they sang the song "Jesus Paid It All."  "It just really hit me," she said.  Then, right there in the living room, she began singing in her sweet, little-girl voice:  "Jesus paid it all.  All to him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow."  She paused and smiled at me and then we sang together.  I was pretty sure my heart would burst.  But, just as quickly as she injected this life, she flitted off to do something in her room.  Good thing, I needed time to recover.  

A bit later, we sat in the living room and she was texting on her phone.  A lot.  Some anxiety rose up in me as I began thinking of several horror stories I'd heard recently about what a parent might find if she reads her kids' texts.  I asked her who she was texting.  "My friends."  "What are you texting about?"  "I don't remember what."  Hmmm.  When she went up to bed, I looked at her phone (I've been very clear that I will have unfettered access to her phone).  There it was; a (relatively) long text she'd written to five of her friends:

Tonight I was reminded that Jesus paid it all for us.  When I go to bed tonight, I will pray to thank God that he died to take away my sin and I will thank him for such good friends like you.

As if the singing in the living room had not been enough.  This is a bold texting life.