Jackie's Journey "The Clock is Ticking"

Precious Princesses

 Are you a mother?  Do you hope to be a mom one day? There is no time to waste.  The few short formative years we have with our children calls for an imperative response.  C.S. Lewis said, ”Children are not a distraction from the more important work.  They are the most important work!” 

 After all is said and done, the legacy that matters will not be the assets we leave behind or the company that we have built, or the tidy house we leave…but what we have believed God to build into the life of our child.  Do they feel safe, seen and loved when in our presence? Do they sense the love of God in us?

 Our heritage is all that goes on after we are gone.  That should be a welcomed responsibility and priority that we embrace whole-heartedly; not a frustrating burden that is viewed through subverted thinking.  How connected to the heart of your child are you? 

 Do they think to tell Mom first when life gets sticky or do they run to their friends?  Cultivated relationships don’t just happen…they take time and nurturing.  Are you an intentional mother with your little prince and princess?  Are you intentional with yourself and your life patterns and with God in your time with him?

 We only have one shot at this “important work”…

 What would it take to make us mother’s that are violently driven toward the heart of God and His clear instruction book?  The vast majority of God’s will for our life and the life of our child has already been revealed in the Bible; not in what social media serves up or what other mothers are doing, but in mothers obsessed with a passion for God’s Word and His will for themselves and their children? 

 The clock is ticking…

 “Our greatest danger in life is in permitting the urgent things to crowd out the important.”  Charles E. Hummel

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Christmas Surrender!"

In The Princess Parable Series, “A Royal Christmas to Remember” our five princesses are faced with exercising their loyalty in ways that resonate with us as mom’s during this time of year. Christmas is a wonderful time to put our busy lives back into Scriptural perspective.  We celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…the One who gives us everything we need to live a godly life. (II Peter 1: 3) This year 2024 is closing down…how did you do in your surrender to Him this year?

 Genuine Christianity is an unconditional surrender to His Lordship.

 Years ago, while attending the University of Arizona, I was faced with confronting my true loyalties in one of the most challenging seasons of my life.  I was invited to join a highly respected national sorority.  I had a sense of acceptance and grew to love the girls and the accountability.  After a semester of pledging, we had a night of mild hazing that culminated in stepping, individually, behind a veil for the final step of repeating a “pledge of our loyalty” and unconditional allegiance to the group…

 A few months earlier, over Thanksgiving holiday, I had attended a church service and heard for the first time in my life that I could know the God of the universe in a personal way through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Now, standing behind that veiled curtain, listening to the call to Theta loyalty, I was profoundly struck with the words and realized I had already given my total allegiance to the beloved Savior that we celebrate next week!  When He walked into my life, everything changed…I had no more allegiance to give.

 Time has tested on life’s stage that unconditional surrender

I made to my loving Savior and Sovereign Lord, in those college days.

This time of year calls our attention to the things most important to us.

 Where do our loyalties lie…

Have you surrendered your life to His Lordship?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Evil?"

“First, we overlook evil

Then  we permit evil

Then  we legalize evil

  Then  we promote evil

   Then  we celebrate evil

Then we persecute those who still call it evil!”

 Woe to them who call evil good, and good evil.  Isa. 5:20a

 Life is simply a stewardship, not an ownership; a trust, not a gift.  With a gift you may do as you please, but with a trust you must give an account. Ephesians 2:10  One day we will be called upon to view evil, as God sees it!

 Wickedness in all its forms seems to dominate the culture on every level.  Instead of seeing trials and conflict serving as a continual process to personal growth, they are seen as an interruption to our walk because we refuse to view them through humility and His divine purpose.

 J.P. Phillips once wrote, “The real danger to professing Christians lies not in the more glaring and grosser evils but in the slow deterioration of vision, a slow death to daring courage and willingness to adventure.”  The adventure referred to here is in the context of our daring to stand alone against the throes of evil, in a world that is fraught with lies and deceit.

 Accepting truth with humility is a lost art!  Self-defense, self-esteem and rationalization are the resources used to confront conflict.  Our homes, children, communities…all of life is consumed by it.  Hence, evil takes control and prevails, with division, divorce and destruction. All in Satan’s plan to steal, kill and destroy us.

 Our challenge for our sake and the sake of our children, who are stepping into the print we leave behind, is to step up to the plate of maturity and receive “the meat” of His Word and respond to life’s situations from God’s point of view and act in harmony with it!

 In these days of uncertainty, “we renounce secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God.  On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

 God’s  Word calls Evil out…

 How often do you get in God’s Word?

 Is His Word dwelling richly in you?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Princess Puzzlement!"

Taking a look at the need we have in our bookstores (that are disappearing!) it is obvious that Biblical worldviews are sorely missing! Children’s books are not representing those of us who are intentional in presenting godly character, biblical values and eternal perspective.

Articulating a biblical worldview within our sphere of influence is what “The Princess Parables Series” is all about. They are written to strengthen the belief that God made our little princess special and designed her with destiny and purpose.

The mission of “The Princess Parables” is to introduce and encourage the disciplines necessary to step outside fantasy and into the magical realism and authenticity of a loving and accepting God who teaches finding contentment in serving others, not in serving oneself. Although written in fiction, each Princess story is based on fact. It teaches a specific character quality in the name of its Princess and takes the storyline from a Parable that was taught by the greatest teacher ever born.

 It has been specifically created to put a functional tool into the hands of young mothers (urban, suburban, rural, stay- at-home, teen moms, single moms and married moms, grandmoms, aunts, and teachers, each with a different lifestyle, but all who share a similar desire to be the very best power of influence they can be!

The passion to meet the need of every person desiring to cultivate what God has programmed into her child’s “Princess Potential” has been a huge source of motivation and it allows parents to nurture their little ones into genuine greatness.

The innocent imagination of a small child is a book yet to be written and images of truth, hope, loyalty, joy, grace, charity and faith are but a few of the myriad of opportunities lost when the exposure to truth is clouded and “synergized” with fantasy.

If you have a little princess…

Take a peek at The Princess Parable Series this week…

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Princess Perplexity!"

The original intent of this weekly blog was to encourage young moms to be all they could be for the benefit of their little princesses. It takes intentional planning, commitment and direction.

From their earliest memories our little girls are swamped with a princess course that introduces them to an unreal world filled with wizardry and lacking strong moral themes with eternal values. They are asked to define love and romance by standards that are not true to life or a representation of clearly defined biblical standards.

These little girls are needlessly exposed to the illusion of life and love  through the many Princes Charming’s and young squires that are so readily available to them in most story lines; however, the child is not exposed to the truth of genuine love. Children are caught in a quagmire of choices that offer only temporal values, but not eternal ones.

Their personal identification with a fantasy character is deceiving on many levels because the charge to discern the good and evil is often obscured by wrong motives and intentions on the part of the “hero” in the story line. Often the attitude of the leading character is questionable and the continual interjection of clairvoyance and magical fantasy is confounding.

The child is left to choose from bad and really bad, instead of from good and bad. Neither choice is particularly clear, but the medium being used (book, film, cartoon, etc.) is “thought” captivating and attention binding. Both of these goals are shortsighted and not fulfilling for the long term.

Living in a post-Christian era, we seek to carve out a more excellent and realistic milieu for our children, these little ones that are so literal and entrusted into our keeping for so short a time. Most Christian parents are seeking an alternative to the present prince and princess culture trend in books and films presently available. Their main reason…our worldview influences all areas of life!

Every exposure a child has (visual or auditory, etc.) is adding to their life experience and their worldview.

Presently, how would you describe your child’s worldview?

How would you describe your worldview?

The original intent of this weekly blog was to encourage young moms to be all they could be for the benefit of their little princesses. It takes intentional planning, commitment and direction.

From their earliest memories our little girls are swamped with a princess course that introduces them to an unreal world filled with wizardry and lacking strong moral themes with eternal values. They are asked to define love and romance by standards that are not true to life or a representation of clearly defined biblical standards.

These little girls are needlessly exposed to the illusion of life and love  through the many Princes Charming’s and young squires that are so readily available to them in most story lines; however, the child is not exposed to the truth of genuine love. Children are caught in a quagmire of choices that offer only temporal values, but not eternal ones.

Their personal identification with a fantasy character is deceiving on many levels because the charge to discern the good and evil is often obscured by wrong motives and intentions on the part of the “hero” in the story line. Often the attitude of the leading character is questionable and the continual interjection of clairvoyance and magical fantasy is confounding.

The child is left to choose from bad and really bad, instead of from good and bad. Neither choice is particularly clear, but the medium being used (book, film, cartoon, etc.) is “thought” captivating and attention binding. Both of these goals are shortsighted and not fulfilling for the long term.

Living in a post-Christian era, we seek to carve out a more excellent and realistic milieu for our children, these little ones that are so literal and entrusted into our keeping for so short a time. Most Christian parents are seeking an alternative to the present prince and princess culture trend in books and films presently available. Their main reason…our worldview influences all areas of life!

Every exposure a child has (visual or auditory, etc.) is adding to their life experience and their worldview.

Presently, how would you describe your child’s worldview?

How would you describe your worldview?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Storms May Come and Go...BUT!"

Do you ever feel like the bluster all around you is an indication of what the future holds?  The tornado is coming…what do I do?   There is no “stop” in the midst of the swirling tempest. At times, it seems like the downpour is all we can take.  We find  ourselves rushing into the wind, hopelessly grasping for some “relief”.  Sometimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees. 

 “Our God in heaven does whatever pleases Him. Psa. 115: 3  The storm that was sent to break us, is going to be the storm that God uses to make us!  When we come out of the storm, we won’t be the same person that walked into it.  That’s what the storm is all about!”

 “The river was  beating against the rocks in huge dashing waves.  The lightning was flashing; the thunder was roaring; the wind was blowing; but the little bird was asleep in the crevice of a rock, its head serenely tucked under its wing…sound asleep!  That is peace…to be  able to sleep in the storm!   In Christ, we are relaxed and at peace in the midst of the confusions, bewilderments, and perplexities of this life.  The storm rages, but our hearts are at rest.  We have found peace…at last.” Billy Graham

 My girls and I used to sing a song in the jungle when the rain was so fierce it came through the bark walls and half-way across our living room floor! The thunder was so loud our tin roof shook and the wind and lightning filled the whole Darien with light!  The river, eighteen feet from our front door, could rise 10 feet in a few hours!  We were on alert, in the event that the rivers rage would come over the bank and into our house…

 It was great comfort to lift our voices in song, as we cuddled together in the hammock that was hung from beam to beam in that little remote room. The “storms may  come and go but the peace of  God we will  know.” We were wet, but we were at peace.  God knew and directed the rain, the river and  our hearts when we surrendered our will to His.

 Maintaining the right focus makes all the difference.

 Stand up in the storm this week and in gratefulness,

Find peace by yielding to His will in your life…

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "A Divided Heart"

Sometimes, don’t you just wish you knew the future?  Just a little heads-up?  Life is so full of obstacles, decisions, and the unexpected, it would be nice to know a little ahead!  Shortly before God called my husband home, he texted me Psalm 86:11 with the note…”Prayer for our family this week”.  This was the verse…“Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart that I will fear your name (the beginning of wisdom).  I will praise you, Lord, my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me; You have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.”

 In a way, this was prophetic.

He left this earth for his heavenly home the following week!

Ralph had given me the verses I needed to begin to journey on… before he left!

 An undivided heart is one that uses difficult and impossible times to demonstrate our commitment to God and those HE has called us to serve.  This is called LOYALTY. Loyalty is the bonding of individuals in a long-term commitment of sacrificial support and defense. Infidelity or unfaithfulness is total betrayal to God and our designed purpose.

 Each of us has loyalties to certain people or things.  We are all loyal to something!  We are loyal to things on earth(family, friends, money, job…) or we are loyal to things in heaven (rewards, abstaining from sin, godly relationships, walking in holiness, faithful in our witness and service). Loyalty is one thing a leader cannot do without.

 All day long we are making decisions that tell us where our loyalty lies and to whom!  It reveals what our mind is focused on.  We are to make our decisions based on two things:

1 – Am I loyal to the authority responsible for me?

2 – Am I standing with those I am serving in their time of need and making them first, more successful than myself?

 I guess the question is: 

Do we doubt God’s sovereignty during adversity

or do we draw nearer to HIM?

Hence, my prayer for us this week…

“Relying on HIS faithfulness, give us an undivided heart”…

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "A Royal Easter Story"

“And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and appeared to many.”  Matt. 27:52-53

Yesterday was a Day of Celebration!  One of the simplest definitions of Easter is that we are living in a world which God has the last word!  A Royal Easter Story was written to bring the hearts and minds of little prince and princesses into focus on our heavenly King, who is selfless and reminds us to fix our eyes on the eternal, not the temporal.  This King sent His only Son who gave the ultimate sacrifice…His life for ours on the cross of Calvary! The book motivates us to honor Christ, who died for us and rose again on the third day, giving us the promise of eternal life.

 We are saved to serve selflessly.  A true prince or princess, whatever their age, must learn to lose their life serving others first…no, “me first” attitudes.  This holiday book is currently available on ThePrincessParable.com website, Amazon.com ChristianBooks.com, etc.

 Jeanna and I trust your Easter celebration spotlighted

the story of the Royal Prince, Jesus Christ,

who came to save us from our sin, self and separation from Him…and then…

rose again!! Our eternal HOPE.

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "OK...OK...I Surrender!"

This should be an interesting year for me…the Lord took my love and life partner on the 7th of this month …

the test of His Lordship in my life will be my next challenge…

What an incredible blessing to be able to jot down thoughts and rehearse what God continues to teach me through His Word and the people and events in my life.  Thank you to those of you who continue to follow my journey with the King.

On behalf of our family, we would like to extend our deepest gratitude

for the love and suppor that you have showered

upon us throughout this journey of temendous loss and hope.

 All any of us has to share with others is our weakness translated into a life message for the benefit of another.  At the Celebration of Life for my beloved husband, Ralph, so many communicated how his life had touched and influenced theirs. We both trust God has used our flaws to manifest His strength for your benefit.  Every weakness I have is an opportunity for God to show His strength in my life.

 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

II Cor. 12: 9-10

Jim Elliot, husband of Elizabeth Elliot, who was martyred at the hand of the Auca Indians, once said:

 “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” 

 Genuine Christianity is an unconditional surrender to His Lordship!

 While attending the University of Arizona I was invited to join Kappa Alpha Theta, a national sorority.  I had a sense of acceptance and grew to love the girls and the accountability.  After a semester of initiation, we had a night of mild hazing that culminated in stepping individually behind a veil for the final step of becoming a Theta.   As the pledge of loyalty was read and the words were spoken to me… I was asked to repeat them.   I instantly realized I had already pledged my loyalty to my new Savior, Jesus Christ. 

 A few months earlier, over the Thanksgiving holiday with my parents and sisters, I had attended a church service and had heard for the first time in my life that I could know God in a personal way through my total surrender to His Son, Jesus Christ.  Standing behind that curtain I was struck, profoundly, when I realized I had already given my total allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ that Thanksgiving weekend!   When He walked into my life everything changed, I had no more allegiance to give.

 Time has tested on life’s stage that unconditional surrender

 I made to my loving Savior and Sovereign Lord in those college days.

 What is your present commitment?

 When we talk about a total surrendering of our lives to the Lordship of Christ, we are talking about yielding all our rights and expectations! 

·      A dying to self and self-attitudes

·      A yielding of all entitlements and self-interest

 WHAT…WAIT A MINUTE!

 Don’t we run from the people and circumstances that call us into total commitment?  It is much easier to go with the flow as the secular, ungodly world dictates to us relativity, independence and “I have my rights!”   The world’s motto: “Strength only…show no weakness!”  The human struggle wants HIS power to do OUR will.  

 Is humility a position of strength or weakness, in your opinion?

 Humility is me… seeing the contrast between my spiritual condition (a sinner) and God’s holiness and then surrendering all to receive His grace to live Christ-like, not Jackie-like!  

 Phil. 3:10   Grace is doing His will with His power!  It is acknowledging His presence and His power to live the Christian life.  Victory is living in that truth! 

 Are you living in Victory?

 Have you surrendered your life to His Lordship?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "BROKEN HEARTS!"

“This past Wednesday was Valentine’s Day. The “heart” narrative and symbols of that day got me thinking.  We are told that it is totally acceptable to trust and follow our heart.  In fact, we are taught that our heart can decide what is right for us! A person will leave a church and say, ‘I did not feel right in my heart there’. A man may leave his wife and children for a younger woman saying, ‘My heart was not in my marriage any longer’”. (Letgdbetrue)

 What about the young couple who is confident of a life-partner because they are “following their hearts”? The phrase “I’m going to follow my heart” is used regularly to validate violations of moral, ethical and scriptural principles when decision-making.

 I recently listened to an audio, sent by my granddaughter, Alexandra Grace, that was so on point regarding the use of the word “heart”. How often do we hear the advice, “just follow your heart” when facing difficult decisions? Or “You can trust your heart”…

 This past week was Valentine’s Day. It seems appropriate to address issues of the heart.  This blog is taken from Proverbs 28: 26 and “heart” is used as a metonym for affections, inclinations and thoughts.

 “He that trusts in his own heart is a fool:

but he who walks wisely…will be delivered.”

 “Your heart is your internal set of desires and needs that affect your decision-making.  This is not your conscience.  This is your anti-conscience!  This is the set of passions that drives most men and women. God has spoken about our heart.   He said, ‘The heart is deceitfully wicked above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?’” Jer. 19:9 (letgodbetrue)

 The fact that our heart has an opinion and passion about everything and reacts instantly to what it wants, should be our first warning sign in decision-making.  “If you follow its direction, you are a fool! If you listen to your heart, you are a fool.  If you follow your heart, you are a fool.  If you make decisions even partially influenced by your heart, you are a fool.  You are submitting to the most deceitful, depraved and dangerous source of information on earth.”

 Now that we have stated the obvious…it is clear that 

we are our own worst enemy…

 What are we to do?

 At the fall of man in the garden, all affection for God, spiritual truth and wisdom died. Our desires became corrupted…no longer a desire to seek God, please God or obey God. We took on a new leader who is bent on destroying us; who came to do three things: steal, kill and destroy us.. (Jn. 8: 44)   Steal our joy, opportunity…; kill our bodies…; and destroy our relationships, vision and destiny.  He tells us our heart, which is led by feelings, lust and arrogance of our own thoughts, will lead us. We are fools to believe that plan, let alone follow it! “We do not have the right to our thoughts; but we do have a responsibility to right thoughts”! (Letgodbetrue)

 “True wisdom is learning to mistrust your heart, reject its voice, and make all decisions on the basis of absolute and objective truth.

 Where is the source for such fabulous decision making?

 In the inspired words of the living God recorded in the Bible! It is learning God’s words and training yourself to make decisions based on them that you can be wise and saved from the deceitful impulses of your depraved “heart”. (letgodbetrue) Fearing God and asking God to direct our footsteps according to His word is the beginning of wisdom. (Psa. 119: 133) This is the key to being delivered from the pitfalls and obstacles that clobber and confuse those who have chosen to “follow their heart” … “The degree of our wisdom is the degree to which we can crush our ‘heart’ to submit to the words of God in the Bible”! (letgodbetrue)

 How wise are you?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.