Busyness?

Just a few thoughts here. This has been a busy month. An incredibly busy month, which followed another very busy month, to be precise.

Let's reflect on busyness. While many may say that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness", (which is not exactly scriptural, but that's another post) I have decided that "Busyness is next to......well.......insanity."

Let me begin by showing you my datebook.

My husband looked at this page, and asked me if I realized how absolutely insane it is. My response to him was. "Try living this life Bucky!"

In the past couple of months, I have realized how out of control my life is getting/has gotten. I have to slow down. Really I do. I go on about 4 hours of sleep a night during the week, and crash when the weekend comes. This is not good for my body or for my family. Weekends should be a time of relaxing and enjoying family activities, not spent crashed in my bed from burnout. It has gotten to the point that I can't remember how to relax anymore. We went to Jacksonville last week, for some required testing for my husband's job, and I was still in such an "on" mode that I couldn't even relax and enjoy the jacuzzi tub.

What is wrong with me?

I began reflecting on some teaching by Joyce Meyer late last month. I used to watch her program all the time! A lot of what she said is stuck in my head, but nothing more than her teaching on busyness. She said, (and although this is a paraphrase I will put it in quotations. This is just the gist of what she said, I could never quote her word for word, so this is what I got out of it.. You can read an article on this from her here.)

"God never called us to be busy, he called us to be fruitful!"
and....another wonderful Joyce-ism....
"God called us to be human BEings, not human DOings."

So am I busy or fruitful? If I am brutally honest with myself, some of what I do is bearing fruit. Some of it is necessary for the function of my home and family. Some of it is flitter and fluff.

The first weekend of this month I attended a Women's Conference in Tifton GA with my church. We were blessed to hear Darlene Bishop preach, and guess what she talked about? Yep. Being busy.  She said that sometimes we get so busy doing the Kingdom's business that we forget who we are in business for.

Wow.

So.....I am not committing to anything new right now. I am finishing up all of my commitments for the month, and I am earnestly seeking God about what I need to do in the upcoming season. I was to be fruitful. I want to be vital in the Kingdom . I want to be productive without being CRAZY!

Am I alone in this? I think not. Somehow it seems to me that as a woman, if I am not busy, then I am perceived as lazy. (Especially as a stay at home mom, which is a specific calling on my life, not just a choice) But in my mind, if I stay busy, then I appear to be valuable. My question to myself is this: Who am I living my life for?

My answer is this. God first. My husband second. My child third. And everything and everybody else falls into place.

A Resurgence of Blogging....

I am amazed that blogging seems to be making a comeback! I have seen people begin blogging for the first time, and I am enjoying their excitement. I hope it is contagious, because lately I have been in a blogging funk! Life is crazy busy right now, and blogging seems like another thing on my to-do list. It used to be an escape....an outlet....a way to vent. Hopefully I can catch blog fever again and reinvent my blog. It is tired of being neglected.

I don't think it is just me though. I have seen several of the blogs I have followed for years go through the same thing. I have one blog that I follow that went on sort of a bloggy vacation, and I missed her terribly! (That is you Cassandra!!!!) One of my favorite blogs of all time is From Dhu Land With Love...., which started out as the Savannah Scrapbooking blog but when the store closed, it became a personal blog by my friend Jamie. (Disclaimer.....go to the bathroom and do not have food or drink in your mouth when you read her blog. You will either wet your pants or spew-or maybe both- if you don't. It is that funny. I promise.)

So what interests new people about blogging? What makes them trip into this cyber rambling world? I think people do it for many reasons. To voice an opinion. To connect with others. To vent. To create. To find like minded friends. To connect with family far away, and keep them up to date on their life. I blog for all of these reasons. I just gotta get back to it.

Happy blogging!

Words That Make A Difference

Last night, I asked my Bishop (in some churches this would be the senior pastor, or Doctor of Divinity) to write a couple of letters for people who are going on a spiritual renewal/retreat weekend. Our church is very busy these days, with exponential growth and getting ready to launch another facility on the other side of town, allowing us the auspicious  honor of duplicating ourselves in ministry, so everyone is busy to say the least. In a joking manner he asked me why I didn't just write the letters myself and let him sign them. He is a real NUT sometimes!

For some reason I felt it was the appropriate time to blabber on and I told him that my mom and I were discussing my Dad recently. She was asking me what I remembered about my Dad, and I told her that the main thing I remembered was that he never said the words "I love you" to me. He would say "Daddy loves you". Mom said that she felt it was the same thing, and I told her I didn't think it was. I wanted to hear it from him! I wanted to hear the words "I love you" come out of my Daddy's mouth, directed at ME.! 

Now, if you know my Bishop, you know "the look". It is the look that says "I hear what you are saying, that makes sense to me", but it also has a deeper side that makes me think he might be chewing on what I said a little bit more.

So I pondered this conversation this morning. I have always struggled with self esteem issues, and wonder more often than not if I have just made a complete fool of myself by something I said.  I began thinking of what I had told Bishop last night, and the enemy began playing with my self doubt and telling me how he "might" have taken it. In my mind, I could hear him saying "That girl is messed up! I just joked around with her and she got all philosophical on me and drug up all her past baggage". Either that, or "the look" was actually him saying "Ok, ok, would you shut up now so I can go get something to eat?"  Or worse yet, he zoned out and went to his happy place.

Now if you know my Bishop, or have ever even been near him, you know this is not the case. This man of God loves each and every person with a love that only comes from Jesus. He is compassionate, caring and the most humble man I have ever met. His words are always uplifting, edifying and encouraging.  It was my own self doubt and my own mind allowing me to think of him in any other manner.

So this morning, as I played over all of this in my mind, I began to pray about it. I began asking God was I wrong to want to hear "I love you" from my Dad? Was that a trivial thing that I had allowed to haunt me all these years? [side note: Dad walked out of my life when I was nine and died when I was 21]

God began showing me some things about this, and a lesson came from it for me. I had no power over the words that came out of my Dad's mouth, or over what I heard with my own ears. 

BUT.......

What if I only allowed others to tell me that God loves me? What if I took everything that Sunday School teachers and pastors have told me and that was as far as I went with it? I would be living the same life, with an emptiness of never hearing my Heavenly Father say "I love you" with my own ears.

The Word tells us that God speaks to us through His Holy Spirit. I have heard the audible voice of Almighty God once and I hear the quiet voice of His Holy Spirit almost constantly. The Bible says "Blessed is the man who listens to me" (Proverbs 8:34) and Jesus said "My sheep listen to my voice." (John 10:27). We need to remember that  "the word of God is living and active" (Hebrews 4:12) God also speaks to us through other people and through dreams and visions.

If we only allowed others to tell us that God loved us, we miss the boat entirely. We need to hear it from Him. 

Are we listening?  We need to earnestly seek God, and cry out to Him. We need to hear "I love you" from Him, and He wants to hear it from us as well.

Sometimes things come to me slowly and quietly, but this didn't. It was a booming voice in my Spirit, a passionate cry from my Heavenly Father saying to me "My precious daughter, I LOVE YOU!" 

And that made all the difference.

Dinner time!

We are a living paycheck to paycheck family. Sometimes, it seems that payday will NEVER come! I have a pretty good system of stocking the pantry and freezer, and we are always blessed to be able to share what we have with others. Because of my smart (read:obsessive) shopping and stocking up on sale items, for the months of November and December I purchased only fresh fruits, milk, bread, and the required "holiday food" items like turkey, dressing mix, cranberry sauce, baking needs, etc. This allowed us to stay on budget and still have everything we need.

January came, and because of all the holiday extras, money was extra tight. We have been eeking through, using what we have on hand, and I am planning a BIG stock up shopping trip this week. (Watch for the post on that adventure)

My coupon supply has dwindled, and I am eagerly combing through my stash, making my list and checking it twice for good sales and coupon pairings.


Tonight's dinner is pork chops from the freezer, macaroni and cheese (from the freezer, actually leftovers from a previous meal but it heats up well when you add some extra milk), canned green beans, and baked red potatoes and carrots, which are nestled in the oven with the pork chops.

 Here is my delima. My husband is a bread eater. We must have bread at every meal. I forgot to start the bread machine this afternoon, so we are officially dinner bread-less. What to do, oh what to do? Let me point out I am a HORRIBLE biscuit maker, and somehow cornbread doesn't really go with this meal in my opinion, so I decided to make popovers.

I first made popovers when we lived in Hawaii. Being 18 years old, working for minimum wage, married to an E-2 in the Navy, money was t-i-g-h-t. I found this recipe one night, a few days before payday, and since it did not call for everything I was out of (biscuit mix, shortening, baking powder, cornmeal, etc.) I decided to try it.

DELICIOUS!!!!!!

This easy recipe is my go to quick fix for breadless nights, (oh, the horror) and I decided to share the recipe with you!

Popovers
1 cup flour
1/2 teas salt ( I fixed the typo)
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients very well. Pour into generously greased muffin cups, filling 2/3 full. Bake at 425 about 30-40 minutes or until golden, toasty brown.

This always thrills kids when they bite into what they think is a traditional roll, and find it hollow and full of air!
If you are not serving these the minute they come out of the oven, you will need to cut a slit in the top of each popover to keep it from collapsing in on itself. (NOT attractive)

 

Popovers make for a happy hubby, which makes for a happy dinnertime at our house!

It's All About Me!

I was trying to think of some fascinating subject to blog about tonight, and I was coming up very short. My daughter came in and found me staring at a blank blog form and said "What's up Mom?" I told her I could not think of anything to write about. She looked at me and said "Well, why don't you write all about yourself? Like, a list of your favorite color and food and stuff?"

Well, I am sure that countless hordes of people lie awake every night wondering what my favorite salad dressing is, so I decided that I will make a list. It's all about me :)

Favorite food: chocolate
Favorite real food: cheese and Triscuits
Favorite color: red
Favorite outfit: dark straight leg jeans and my peach shirt
Favorite movie: Gone With The Wind
Favorite TV show: NCIS LA
Favorite vacation spot: mountains of north Georgia or Tennessee
Favortie vacation spot to dream about: a cruise to the Caribbean
Favorite hobby: scrapbooking
Favorite number: any one that can be evenly divided into rows or groups
Favorite cartoon character: Tinkerbell
Favorite restaurant: Bella's
Favorite store: Ross and World Market
Favorite animal: pandas and cats
Favorite thing to cook: anything that people enjoy eating
Favorite household chore: steam mopping
Favorite season: fall
Favorite holiday: Christmas
Favorite quality in a person: transparency
Favorite super hero: Batman
Favorite accessory: my silver hoop earrings
Favorite flower: Gerber daisy
Favorite actor: LL Cool J
Favorite actress: Marisky Hargitay
Favorite car to dream about owning: Dodge Challenger
Favorite book: The Bible
Favorite smell: new lipstick or a fresh box of crayons
Favorite secular song: My Baby Loves Me Just The Way That I Am
Favorite Christian song: Oh How He loves Us
Favorite Bible verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
Favorite place to dream of retiring: Washington State (Western)

Well now, I am sure you can all sleep a little easier tonight now that this knowledge is public. Have a great weekend!
P.S. My favorite salad dressing is Ranch :)

Update on "What Would You Do?

Remember my blog post from November entitled "What Would You Do" about my dear friend with Leukemia? Well, you can get a step by step retelling of the story to date by following my friend Stephanie on her blog here.
So trot on over and read her words, leave a comment and wish her all the very best on her journey! Then watch for her updates, and let's all encourage her as she WINS the fight against Leukemia!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 From our family to yours, HAPPY 2011!!!!

We wish you all peace, joy, happiness 

and God's abundant blessings!

2011

Yesterday at our church, our Bishop taught on some Commitments for 2011. While most everyone is thinking of whether or not to make/keep New Year Resolutions, I thought that most of these could apply not only to our church body but to everyone as well.

My friend Rebecca typed up her notes from Sunday and posted them in a note on Facebook. I asked permission to copy her notes here and she agreed. I think this is something we could ALL benefit from committing to!

Bishop's Notes--Eleven Commitments for 2011
1. We will add value to others.  This can be done through compliments, encouragement, and support.
2. We will not live in hypocrisy.  This means we will not try to force what we like or believe onto others and respect others for the things they enjoy.
3. We will refuse to live in offense.  By this, we will not put others down or talk about them negatively. If we are then that means we are not happy about ourselves or something that someone else has said to us so we try to take the attention off of ourselves and put it on someone else by talking about them.
4. We will embrace the positive and reject the negative.  Be happy!
5. We will refuse to be passive.  A passive person does not really care about being committed to anything and this is not how we should be.  Instead we should work hard to commit and give everything we have.
6. We will be committed to self control.  By using self control we will not lose our temper and keep our mouths closed when necessary.
7. We will be committed to compassion and not ignore when others need us.  We will not forget about others, how they feel, and what they need.  We will show compassion for everyone.
8. We will be a true representation of Christ.  We should be proud that we are the children of God and represent him as well.
9. We will be committed to challenging religion by kingdom and God.  Kingdom people work to see how the church can change the world.
10. We will be committed to a renewed mind.  A renewed mind does not just show up to church from time to time but instead is involved and at church.  Without a renewed mind we will be cut off from the abundance of God.  Remember you become what you think.
11. We will be characterized by the presence of God.  We want the presence of God and in order to get that we should approach him with clean hands, an open heart, and go after Him.  We should ask for His presence.

For those of you who would like to check out our church, please go to www.iwclive.com. We will be streaming live on the internet in about a month.

Merry Christmas!

I hope that all of you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! See you in 2011!

How is it possible?

How is it possible to be so busy and yet have so little to blog about???? In the mix of holiday concerts at school, parties and presents......it seems it is all running together.

Anyone else feel this way????

Goodness!

Has it really been two weeks? Time is sure flying by. A quick look at the calendar shows that December is over 1/3 of the way gone. Where did it go?

We have been busy! Marissa had tryouts for District Honor Band last week, and she made it! She is the only student that has EVER made it from her school. She will be competing again in February for the next level. We had our Christmas pictures made this past week, and they turned out great. I will post them here after Christmas. Don't wanna ruin the surprise :) Church activities are in full swing. Marissa's dance team party was last night, today we helped get the kids costumes ready for the church wide Christmas party tomorrow night, and tomorrow I teach my class again at 900. Church next, then home to a crockpot lunch and back to church at 600 for the evening of fun at our Christmas Party. Then Monday, Marissa has the party for the entire Fine Arts dept at church. This is the last week of school for us, and we are letting Marissa skip the after school tutorials this week. (Hey, with a 94 average, she can skip a few)

I have the house decorated, and Marissa made cookies tonight. I have all of our Christmas cards addressed, and will mail them Monday. I have all of the Box Tops for Education counted, bundled and totaled for our school's IPOD giveaway for the kid who brought in the most since September. Christmas shopping for Marissa is just about finished, and I know pretty much what I am getting for everyone else.

Still feeling very guilty about not going to the hospital to see my friend with leukemia. I have kept her kids some, and I text or facebook with her almost every day, but it isn't the same. Just seems time is slipping by way too fast. I just GOTTA go this coming week! I miss her smiling face!

Friday night we are going to a Christmas party at church for the PrimeTimers. Although we don't quite fit into the 50+ age group, they welcome us and we enjoy attending the events. Marissa's band concert at school is Thursday night. And oh yeah, I did complete several scrapbook layouts yesterday.  It is a busy time of year!

What Do You Do?

What do you do when one of your longtime and closest friends is diagnosed with Leukemia? I can tell you what I did. I cried. I got mad. Then I cried some more. I know it sounds silly, but that is what I did and I did a LOT of it and repeated the cycle several times.

I knew she was not feeling well, but when she went in to the hospital ER I thought it was cellulitis in her legs causing all the problems. Then she messaged me, saying her bloodwork was off and they were admitting her. Her white count was significantly elevated, leading me to think she had a very bad infection in her legs.

Then I got a text from her.
It was two words staring back at me from my phone screen.

It's leukemia.

I was shocked. How does this happen? She is healthy, strong, 35, a wife, a mother to two kids, a friend to many. She is active in our church and works full time. She just lost her mom to cancer 2 months ago. Her husband got hurt and was out of work for months, and she lost her job as well. They were both blessed with new jobs and were getting back on track with everything when BAM!

It's leukemia.

So now she is in the hospital, facing a month of intensive, continuous chemo treatments. Her world is upside down, and so is the world of so many who love her and are affected by this, only in a different way. I feel so helpless, and so angry. I like to compartmentalize things and sort them out into where they go, sort of a mental filing system. That is how I deal with things. This has no place to go. This has no compartment or file. It is so much emotion and so many questions all rolled up into two words.

It's leukemia.

And it really, really sucks.

Thankful!

This time of year, we hear a lot about being thankful and counting our blessings. Today I am composing......

Things I am thankful for......possibly updated as time goes on :)

• my salvation through Jesus Christ
• my faith in God
• my husband
• my daughter
• my extended family
• my church
• my friends
• my husband's job
• my health
• my car-no car payment
• my mentor at Church (Love you Joye!)
• our pets
• that my Mom is feeling better after her hospitalization
• my comfy bed
• Facebook-I have found so many long lost friends and family
• warm clothes
• plenty of food
• my daughter's fabulous school, her teachers and staff
• my volunteer position at the school
• Cracker Barrel therapy session with my best friend Brenda :)
• my scrapbooking, and the sense of accomplishment and the creative outlet it gives me
• flannel pajama pants that I steal from my hubby--oh so comfy and toasty

I am sure this list could go on forever, but this is what is on my mind right now. What are you most thankful for? Start making a lost....you may be surprised what comes to mind.

Really?

Last Thursday my husband, daughter and I went to the mall. My darling, thoughtful husband pulled up to the door and let me out, allowing me the opportunity to go into AC Moore and browse a few moments by myself while he and the girl child parked the car and hung out in the arcade. (Sweet bliss, I tell ya. Sweet bliss. Just me and my craft supplies.....ahhhhhh.........)

As I walked towards the store, I realized something. Since I was on the upper level of the mall, I could see the top spindles of the castle/winter wonderland/Santa picture taking/highly overpiced extortion area for all parents of small children on the lower level.

Wanna know a secret? I began silently complaining about the mall having decorations up so early. I mean my goodness, it is only.......wait........could it be???????

MID NOVEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy smokes, where did the time go? Wasn't it just 100 degrees? Is Thanksgiving really so close upon us? Yes Virginia, they were setting up for Santa just a few yards away....and yes, it really is the time for it.

Thanksgiving is just 10 days away.

I simply can't believe it. Are you prepared for the holidays that are so fast approaching?

I better start making my list and getting ready to cook!

Awakening 11/9/10 IWC Grand Opening week

Our church is having it's grand opening this week, and Marissa is so excited to finally be part of the Interpretive Dance Team, The Awakening.
The video is kind of dark in places, but she is on the right hand side, black shirt, second row. She is behind the young lady with the white shirt and the wide black belt.
WORSHIP AND ENJOY!

Things I Love, Right At This Moment

As a woman, I have the right and authority to change my mind on any given subject at any moment. This does not always gel well with my husband, however, it is the nature of the beast within me. I am woman. I am fickle.

However, at this given moment, there are several things in my life that I am really hyped-up-jacked-up-crazy- happy about. Inspired by the fabulous Jamie D., I am sharing them with you today. Now aren't you glad I got inspired to actually write something? Yes folks, the nail biting stress is over, I am BAAAACK! :)

Things I love as of this moment on 11/3/2010 in NO PARTICULAR ORDER!
1. Honey Nut Cheerios (Dry, no milk!)
This may be more than a like, it may be an obsession. I find myself happily munching on a bowl whenever I sit down at the computer or at my scrap table. I love the combination of sweet and salty, and that they are not messy and do not drop little crumbs or leave grease on my hands like chips or popcorn. Factor in the probable fiber content and reasonable calorie per serving, and you see why I am diggin' this as a snack. Think I'm nuts? Try it. Pretty soon you will be gobbling them by the handful like popcorn, with out the mess. My best friend Brenda eats them dry too, but she dips them in peanut butter. Sounds good to me, but messy and too time consuming. She actually makes little stacks of two cheerios with the peanut butter between them. Way too labor intensive. If I wanted to eat them that way, I would have to stir them into a big glob of peanut butter in a bowl and eat them with a spoon (which defeats the whole hand to mouth snack thing).

2. The Weather
Since the weather here is often labeled as bipolar, this in indeed an as-of-this-moment like. This morning it was around 50 degrees, with high today around 68. But this weekend? Oh yeah baby. Lows in the upper 30's and highs just over 60. Bring on fall! Us big girls like the cooler temps :) However, give it a few days, and we will probably be back into the upper 80s. Typical. Just when you think of breaking out a sweater, you will need your shorts again.

3. My Church
Have I mentioned my church lately? LOL-if you follow me on Facebook you know I never seem to shut up about it.  But guess what? I LOVE MY CHURCH! It is the first place that I have ever felt like I truly belong. The people there are very real. There is no back biting or dissension. It is peaceful, happy, and the truth of God is taught. The staff works very hard to deliver the Word of God and a whole heap of love to every single person.

4.My Family
Mom and PaPa are doing well, my sister's last procedure to help with her back pain went great, my nieces are happy and secure in their young adult lives, my husband is strong, helathy and working his hiney off, and my daughter is about at happy as she has ever been. She is growing, (2 inches in one year so far) doing well in school, secure in her friendships, happy on her dance team at church, and secure in who she is in Christ. My inlaws are doing well too.

5.My Cats
Loudmouth is doing really well. Her new food with the arthritis medicine in it is really helping. She is walking better and her coat is fuller. She looks happier and her eyes look brighter. Julio is Julio. Crazy, funny and lovable. Yesterday he was walking on the top of the door to the porch, balance beam style. NUT! Lil Bit is her sweet self. She is getting a lot more snuggly now since the weather cooled off :)

6. Scrapbooking.
Yep, I am slowly getting back into it. Yesterday I spent part of the day working with my good friend April and actually finished a page. (We also nearly finished off a large bag of M and M's.) I have another page almost done. Since I lost my mojo a while back, this feels good to get back into it. I wil post pics soon.

7. Halloween Is Over
Not to be a party pooper, but I do not like Halloween. Never have. However, the gate is now open on Thanksgiving planning, followed closely by CHRISTMAS which I really, really love!

8. Hot Tea.
Just about any kind. Add sugar or honey and lemon and I am feeling good all the way down to my toes. Can't make myself drink it in the summer, but as soon as there is a hint of cool in the air, oh yeah baby, it's on.....the kettle that is :)

So there you have it. I know your day, or perhaps even your week is complete now. You know where I stand.
HAPPY FALL!

Mistakes

Yesterday, the morning newspaper screamed this headline:
Police Charge Hodge Elementary PTA President With Theft
(You can read the entire article here) 
 
I saw the paper yesterday, and felt my stomach drop. Just reading the headline brought back a flood of memories from a few years back. I didn't really need to read the entire article to know what had happened, but I read it anyway. Then I reached for my phone and made a call.

See, a few years ago, the same thing happened. However, instead of it being Hodge Elementary, it was another school. And instead of it being an unknown face plastered on the TV and news while people raged and criticized and accused, it was one of my closest and dearest friends face in the mugshot.

It was a bad time. My friend was accused of taking a large sum of money from our school's PTA. Evidence was compiled, and people talked. We live in a small town, so any tiny tidbit of info is fodder for gossip. My friend lost her job within the school system, had to move her kids to another school, resigned from our community rec center where she had worked tirelessly for years and endured all of the stares and comments from busybodies. She lost a lot of friends, and her kids did too through no fault of their own. She went to trial, pled guilty, paid all of the money back and was sentenced to probation and community service. She has fulfilled all of her obligations to the community and judicial system.

Since then, she has remarried and her kids have grown up watching their Mom go through all of this and learning that you can hold your head up when you go through bad times. They also learned that people make mistakes and sometimes pay dearly for bad choices.


However, as much as people detest the idea that someone would take money that did not belong to them, especially from children, the question that most people ask is "why?" and then they usually follow it up with "I could never do that!"


Although I can't answer that in whole, and I do believe there is always another solution, I can tell you that sometimes we forget the human aspect of people.


What most people so not know about this situation is that my friend was a single mom of 2 kids with a deadbeat dad. She also took care of her elderly and ill mother.  In her mind, the money she took was only a loan, until she could pay it back. Over time however, the amount continued to grow.


My questions to those who say "I could never do that" are:
What would you do if you had no food for your kids?
What would you do if your kid's shoes had worn holes in the bottom or they had no coats for winter?
What would you do if your Mother needed to go to the doctor and you had no gas money to take her there? 
What if you could not pay your electric bill and it was about to be turned off, when the temperature is  below freezing?
What would you do it you had a flat tire, and the spare was bad too?

Most people would say they would go to a friend or a family member for help. But not everyone has that option. Many times, the family and friends are struggling right along with you, living paycheck to paycheck and robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

So back to yesterday. I shared this story with the people I work with at my daughter's school, as they read the headlines. After a few moments, my closest friend there (no connection to the friend who took the money years ago) looked at me with tears in her eyes and said "Thank you. Thank you for reminding me that we all make mistakes."

Later yesterday afternoon, another person came in, grabbed the newspaper, rolled it up and held it high above her head proudly proclaiming "This person needs to be put under the jail! This is simply  unforgivable!"


I looked over to my coworker, and our eyes met. Although nothing was said, I could hear her voice saying again "Thank you for reminding me that we all make mistakes."


In the first part of this blog I mentioned making a call. I called the friend who endured this drama a few years back. I told her how the newspaper had headlines of a story similar to hers, and that I was thinking of her. I finished our conversation by saying how thankful I was for how far we had come from where we used to be. Her simply reply, "I love you" was all that needed to be said.


As I stated before, I do not advocate theft or breaking the law in anyway. I do however, believe that we are all human and can never conclusively say what we will or will not do in a situation. We all struggle with things and we all make bad choices sometimes. I am just so thankful that when Jesus hung on the cross, He did not look at me and my sin in my life and say:


"This person should be put under the jail! This is simply unforgivable!"

I am so thankful that instead He chose to simply say "I love you".

We're home!

Oh goodness, I am so excited to share with you that last week, on 10-10-10, our church moved into our new facility. It has been a long awaited process, but we are so thrilled to be in our new home!

The building is simply beautiful. The hand painted murals on the walls are fabulous! The youth room is super cool, and the sanctuary is large enough to accommodate us for now, but not for long as we are already welcoming HUGE amounts of visitors and newcomers!

I wanted to share some picture with you from our opening day celebration!
For more info, go to www.iwcishere.com

This is our super cool new sign out front. It is very bright and is attracting a lot of attention!

 Our new Resource Center, which is built to hold 600-700 people in the sanctuary, has a large youth wing, big children's church, a cafe, a Fine Arts department (we have dance teams and a banner team plus an awesome praise team), offices for all the staff, several large classrooms and a beautiful bright and cheery nursery and preschool department with hand painted murals.

 This is the beginning of service, when the banner team performed.

 Here is a view from one side of the church, but it was taken before everyone got there. The place was packed! It was full of guests, visitors, church members, family, and tons and tons of LOVE!

This is our Bishop, Eddie Tomberlin.

Come visit us! You won't find another place like this!

Need a Good Laugh???

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I hate public speaking. Perhaps that is not a strong enough word. I detest public speaking. I abhor it. I shudder at the thought of it. Ok, you get the point.

Imagine the fear running through my veins like ice water downstream when I was asked to make a presentation on Boxtops For Education at our school's PTA meeting tonight. GULP!

I gathered my info, and-being technologically-impaired- with some humbling help of my daughter prepared a Power point presentation, complete with sound! (To be perfectly honest the media clerk and my daughter did most of it. I just giggled at the sound choices and made the really hard decisions like which version of "applause" we should use.)

I drafted friends and school staff members to be at tonight's meeting for moral support. I was so thankful they were there. I waited nervously for my turn to speak. I was about 3/4 of the way down the agenda so I thought I had plenty of time to gather myself and my thoughts until the PTA President decided that we had no old business and the new business had already been discussed so it was my turn!

I stood up. I walked towards the podium, papers clasped firmly in my hand. I held my head up, looking ahead and fighting the nearly debilitating urge to run out of the door and never come back. Things went well......

........until........

I tripped.

Right in front of everyone. I was not looking at the floor, and my feet got caught in the speaker wire running from the laptop to the electrical outlet.

It was not one of my finest moments.

But somehow, by the grace of God, I did not fall flat on my face. I was also thankful that I did not wear the skirt I had considered, for fear of getting the back of the skirt tucked up in my underwear somehow and showing my ample assets to the entire crowd.

Also by the grace of God, I made it to the podium and heard my voice say:

"And that was just my opening act!"

I think it was a successful presentation after that. The audience clapped and laughed at appropriate moments in my little talk, and I had several people tell me I did well. (What else could they say? "Great job, GRACE?????"

Thank you God for keeping us humble, for giving us a sense of humor, and for friends who will tell you that you did a great job while keeping a sincere straight face.

Be Still

A few months ago, my husband and I took our daughter to see The Karate Kid. You know, the new one, with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. We felt that for her to truly appreciate the film, she needed to see the original version, with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. (My husband also felt that she should endure the two sequels, which I thought was a bit harsh since neither of them was a particularly fantastic piece of cinematic work but I digress.)

Anyway, after nearly rolling on the floor laughing at the placement of the waistband of Daniel San's jeans in the 1984 version (were guy's waists really 6 inches higher then than they are now????) and practically having a nervous breakdown when I told her that Ralph Macchio was the Robert Pattinson of my day, her father deemed her ready to watch the new movie.

Off we went. Tickets and popcorn purchased. Diet Cokes the size of tubas in hand. Enough candy to feed a small country and turn all citizens into diabetics included. Into the theater we went.

Although the plot was fairly good, I just have to say I thought the original was better. (As it seems to be in most cases of remakes) But this post is not a movie review. Aren't you glad?

Partway through the movie, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan's version of Mr. Miyagi) tells Dre (the smaller and dreadlocked version of Daniel) that "being still and doing nothing are two very different things".

WOW!

That has resonated within for months.

Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10)

How often are we still? I think that especially as a woman, I equate sitting still and doing nothing with laziness. I often find myself multi-tasking to the extreme, loosing track of what I am intending to do by doing too many things at once. I do not understand how my husband and daughter can sit and watch TV for hours, while doing nothing. Just sitting. Staring. I simply can't do it. If I watch TV, it is generally something I have DVRed (is that a word?) so that I can fast forward commercials. I am usually also folding laundry, texting, and making lists of what else I need to do at the same time I watch the program. When I cook, I am also cleaning up the kitchen, loading and/or unloading the dishwasher, helping with homework and setting the table in between stirring pots or flipping meat. When I am online, I typically have three tabs open to do several things at once. Paying bills, balancing checkbooks, checking email, reading blogs, and Facebooking can all be done simultaneously at the click of a mouse. If I am on the phone, I am typically sorting papers or folding laundry or bagging up trash to take out at the same time. You get the picture.

So then what happens when it is time to read the Word or pray? It used to be a struggle. I would get so distracted. Prayer seemed a chore, and reading the Word was uninteresting and hard to understand. I could not understand how my women friends could sit and read the Word or pray for long periods of time. And to just sit and listen to God? To be still before Him? Yeah right. An alien concept to me.

So I prayed about it. While driving. With my cell phone in my cup holder in case it rang and my radio turned down and my eyes on the road. I asked God to make His Word alive to me. To show me how to pray with vigor and enthusiasm. To show me how to listen to Him. And He answered........"Be still."

That was it. Real revelation to me. I had to slow down, and realize that the God who made the Universe and saved me from Hell deserved my undivided attention. He is worthy of so much more that just of me stopping every other activity and coming into His presence with a clear and attentive mind. I wish I could tell you that as soon as I made the decision to approach Him like this it was an instant success, but that would be untrue. Although I tried, my mind drifted, I got sleepy or distracted as I read, and I got frustrated. I pressed on. I kept trying. And it got easier.

Now, although I do not do it as often as I would like or as often as I NEED to, I pray and read the Word much more often. I find myself praying outloud as I drive, with the radio off and the cell phone muted. I pray when I shower. I read the Word and Christian books daily. But every day, I make sure that I get still and quiet and I get still before my Father............

...........and I KNOW He is God.