I often get asked, "Don't you get tired of being so involved in all these different activities? Especially since you are not getting paid to do all this work?". The honest answer is that I do have to be cautious of keeping everything balanced- God, Family, Friends, Serving, keeping my house up, keeping my family in sync, making sure my family has clean clothes etc...Truthfully I don't always do that (especially the laundry part...Unless it's towels I really dislike doing laundry. That's a whole different blog). However with that being said I always say, "I do get paid. I get paid in Jesus Dollars". It's a little joke I laugh at (and yes I do laugh at my own jokes because if not me than who's going to laugh, right?). But even though I laugh there is a lot of truth in that statement.
Last night, as most of you know, my Bakersfield Ronald McDonald House- Walk for Kids team (Kristi Brinar, Lacey Naven, Carmen Cano, Tammi Perez, Kelli Thomas & Betty Woods) and I had our very 1st charity bunco night fundraiser! It was an INCREDIBLE night! We raised close to $2000.00 for the BRMH. All of that money stays right here in our community. At the end of the evening after everything was cleaned up. I was sitting on the couch watching the season finale of Dancing with the Stars with a RJ's brownie in one hand and it got me thinking (brownies do that you know) ...God was in EVERY moment of this incredible night. And I mean EVERY moment! When we started planning this evening I was just hoping we could get 30 people to come. That would be stretching it. God said, "Watch this...let's double that!" We had just under 60 women sign up. I prayed and prayed that we would find a great location for our bunco night. Finally about a week before, I decided that I would just have to make my backyard work. God made it possible! I still can't beleive that I had that many people in my little backyard, but somehow God made it work and even made it feel like we had more than enough room! It was actually really nice. Then the weather started making a turn for the worse! As Lacey and I were on our way to pick up the food we were praying and asking God to keep the rain away. I had no idea what I would do if it rained!!! God said "Child do not worry... I will hold off the rain". As people were arriving I was thinking there's no way I'm going to be able to keep almost 60 women on my timeline. We ended up playing 3 rounds of bunco, handed out over 25 prizes during that time and miraculously finished 15 minutes earlier than I orignally had planned! I could go on and on but it was clear that God was in control! He made this evening better than I could have ever imagined! I guess it's my human nature to worry that it's not all going to work out. But you know what... it did. 
So as I finish up I want you to really think about what your are passionate about...what pulls at your heart strings? Are you at a place where you want to make a difference but just aren't sure where or how to get involved? Please send me an email. I can give you some suggestions or get you connected with some people who can get you started. I often say "God will open a door for us but we have to be willing to take that first step and walk through it." Even if you only have 1 hour a month to dedicate to serving others. Do what you can! You will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams. Or as I like to say, you will be paid in Jesus dollars.
Thank you to my MOPS girls that came out to support our charity bunco night!
Love always. Your sister in Christ,
Lynn Bradshaw
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