11 Apr My Journey with Orange: Part 5 – Not Just a Phase!

Posted at 16:36h in 2016, Once by lisa 0 Comments
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This is Part 5 in a series of posts about my journey with the Orange Strategy. You can find Parts 1-4 here:

So Much More than Just a Phase

In April of 2015, I was sitting in one of those folding chairs on the floor of the Infinite Energy Center getting ready for the Opening Session of  the Orange Conference. I was with my team and so excited to be there once again. I attend the Orange Conference each Spring and it truly is one of my favorite weeks of the year.

But last year’s conference was different. It was awesome, like every year before, but it had more meaning for me than any other conference I attended. You see, my youngest child would graduate from high school just 5 weeks after my return from the conference. I knew graduation was coming but I really hadn’t even thought about it until that night as I sat on the floor of the arena. Last year’s conference theme was “It’s Just a Phase, Don’t Miss It” and each main session opened with a video of a particular phase of a child’s life.

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Session #1 opened with the expectation and birth of a baby girl. And that is where it happened. As that first video played, I was flooded with emotion. I thought about the day I found out I was expecting my first child and traced each phase of my daughters’ lives all the way up to that moment as I sat there in the Infinite Energy Center reflecting on my parenting journey and how much I owed to the people at Orange for helping me raise my two children throughout the years.

I know that may sound a bit crazy. No one from Orange was actually a part of my life as I raised my daughters. No one from Orange even knew me or my two daughters, but what I experienced at last year’s conference helped me see how God used so much of what I learned from Orange, to help me raise my kiddos. I felt as though I had come full-circle and my heart was filled with gratitude. Orange helped me see early on, that the parenting journey is about so much more than surviving each phase. It is about embracing each phase and building a lasting relationship with your children as they grown into adults. It’s about showing them the heart of God and pointing them to Jesus. It’s about love and grace and forgiveness and trust and all of the beautiful, wonderful characteristics of our great God. It’s so much more than just a phase of life. It is a journey. And it’s priceless.

An Orange Thread

As I talked about in Part 1 of this series, my experience with Orange began at North Point Community Church in 1999. Reggie Joiner was the Director of Family Ministry at that time and I had just stepped into a relationship with Jesus. My daughters were 3 years old and 16 months and I was hungry. Hungry to learn about God, about His Word, and about how to best raise my girls to know and follow Jesus. My husband and I attended KidStuf each week with our daughters and I went to every parenting seminar North Point offered. I received my first Legacy Marble Jar at one of those seminars. You can read about that here. Those seminars and the lessons I learned at KidStuf each week shaped me. They taught me how to teach my girls about Jesus.

As time went on and I began to serve in Children’s Ministry, Orange was in front of me all the time and I found that in my attempts to partner with parents in our ministry, I learned more about parenting. With each new book that Orange released, each new initiative they launched, and each conference I attended, I learned how to help parents and how to best invest in kids… and every bit of what I learned, I applied to my own parenting practices.

I often feel as though there has been an “orange thread” woven through my life since I stepped foot into my first KidStuf back in 1999. I learned to say yes to the next generation and that there are 5 things every kid needs. I learned about how to connect my family to a wider circle, how to embrace each phase of a child’s life, how to play for keeps in my relationships, and how to follow God’s plan for parenting. Orange has influenced me as a parent, as a children’s ministry leader, and as a follower of Jesus.

Answered Prayers

As I sat in that arena last year and reflected on my parenting journey, I wondered if I had done enough. If I had gotten it “right.” My oldest daughter had spent two years away at college and I was getting ready to send my youngest off that August. Only God knew what their journey would look like and I hoped I had set them up well. I confess that even with all I’ve learned from Orange, I feel like I got it wrong more than I got it right. So, I did what I have done countless times in my parenting journey – I prayed. I sat in that arena and prayed for my children and their futures. I thanked God for resources like Orange and all that He taught me about parenting through them. I asked Him, as I had so many times before, to help my girls know and love Him with all their hearts and to desire Him above all else.

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I have had the privilege of seeing that prayer answered in both of my daughters. They are both women of faith who love Jesus and have a desire to help others know Him. They are both involved in leadership with ministries at their college campuses and are doing great things for God’s Kingdom. Their journeys look completely different and they both have different stories to tell, but at the center of both, I see and hear Jesus. I know none of this is because of me. I often think God helped my girls find Him in spite of me. 🙂 His grace on my life is immeasurable. And I am grateful.

I am grateful for a God that loves the two children I raised more than I do. I am grateful for the resources He put in my life to help me raise them and point them toward His Son. I am grateful for the “Orange thread” that brought me teaching, resources, lessons, and other adults who would invest in my children over the years. I’m grateful that Orange showed me how important it was to have those other adults be a part of my parenting journey. And most of all, I am grateful for Jesus who took hold of my life 16 years ago and helped me teach my kids about Him.

New Generations

My parenting journey is pretty much over. Yes, I will always be a mom to my two daughters, but my “parenting” moments are few and far between. There is, however, a whole generation of parents that are right where I was in 1999… looking for help in this thing called parenting and wondering how to best help their kids know, love, and serve God. I pray that I would be a resource to them as Orange has been to me. I hope that the ministry I get to lead is a place where parents feel they have a partner in the church and in me personally. I am hopeful that an Orange thread will be woven throughout countless families as we partner with them, serve them, and help them raise their children in faith and character.

Orange has been so much more than just a phase in my parenting. It’s been a framework that has shaped my parenting, my leadership, my service in ministry, and my own personal faith. Thanks Orange for all you have done for me throughout the years. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for the next generation of Orange parents and ministry leaders as we Think Orange, Lead Small, Play for Keeps, Parent Beyond Our Capacity, and embrace each Phase of life that God has for us.

See you at OC16!