Thank you, friend.

One thing I value most in close friendships is someone who loves God and His truth way more than they love me. Someone who will talk about tough things - and who isn't easily swayed by their emotion, (or mine), but who will speak His truth to me, with love that I'm confident in. Sometimes that's tough to find (and tough to be.)

But I love the challenge of someone loving Him and coming away with things to share because they spend time with Him.

Let me tell you about my friend Lindsay.

She's 17 years younger than me.

That might not be significant in the grand scheme of things, but when I'm looking for the things I mentioned above, just honestly, I don't go looking for it in people that are much younger than me.

But, through her, God has certainly shown me the foolishness of my ways.

I might be revealing my shallowness here, (and maybe the confession is where God is leading, ) but I tend to refer to kids her age as "the teens," or " a student" or "one of the girls/guys" -but in this case, God has left me feeling uncomfortably comfortable only calling her my friend. I'm supposed to be a mentor. Sometimes I'll enter into a conversation praying about what to bring to the table for her benefit, only to leave having heard from God instead for myself through her. It just messes with my paradigm of "how things are supposed to go." (Probably a great faulty paradigm FOR God to mess with in me.)

Recently, Jason & I have been praying about homeschooling, but feel the struggle with getting finances in order as well. We desire to honor God with both, and know that one doesn't have to sacrifice the other, but it's not an easy decision. And in general, I just like to know what to do, and move on it, one way or the other. At the same time, Lindsay's family has taken in a second foster child, whose time with them is limited, but they don't yet know how limited it will be. They don't take in a child without giving their hearts to the task, and child, completely. Lindsay is no exception. It would obviously be easier if they had even a clue for how to prepare their hearts for her time among them, but that's not a luxury they have at the moment.

So we shared thoughts, struggles, and emails back and forth this weekend. From that, Lindsay challenged us both with this poem, and it brings such glory to our God, that I wanted to share it.

Don’t Ask Me to Wait

Her family was facing
An important decision
The Lord God had given them
More than one vision
But which one to follow
They could not choose
They wanted to chase one
But neither to lose
Knowing He knew
They pleaded with Him
Praying He would reveal
His perfect plan for them
His seeming silence
Nearly tore her apart
In desperation she lifted
A prayer from her heart:

Tell me yes
Tell me no
I trust in Your plan, Lord
Just tell me how it will go
Tell me “Do it tomorrow”
Tell me “Do it next year”
Only speak to me, Lord
I need Your voice in my ear
I’m ready and willing
I’ll do what You say
I’m longing to follow
Just show me the way
I’m trusting in You
To make my paths straight
I have just one plea, Lord:
Don’t ask me to wait

She cared for this child
But for how long
She had no way to know
Still she tried to be strong
She loved her more
As day followed day
And prayed that for now
The child would stay
She knew it was coming
Though she knew not when
She begged Him to tell her
So she’d be ready then
His seeming silence
Nearly tore her apart
In desperation she lifted
A prayer from her heart:

Tell me yes
Tell me no
I trust in Your plan, Lord
Just tell me how it will go
Tell me “She’s going tomorrow”
Tell me “She’s going next year”
Only speak to me, Lord
I need Your voice in my ear
I’m ready and willing
I’ll accept what You say
I’m longing to follow
Just show me the way
I’m trusting in You
To make my paths straight
I have just one plea, Lord:
Don’t ask me to wait

The Lord smiled down
Knowing what they must learn
That answers don’t always
Come at every turn
In His great love
He reached down His hand
And gave their hearts peace
Though they did not understand
He was teaching them patience
Trust when they’re blind
In His perfect time
Is when they would find
He promised not to leave them
Alone in the dark
And whispered gently His answer
Into their hearts:

I won’t tell you “Yes”
I won’t tell you “No”
Just trust in my plan, Child
I know how it will go
Whether tomorrow
Or whether next year
I will speak to you, Child
When I want you to hear
I know you are willing
To do what I say
I know you will follow
When I show you the way
Keep trusting in me
I will make your paths straight
Here is my answer, Child:
I ask you to wait

Just in case anyone else out there struggles with waiting like us.......:-)

It's okay if there's only 20 lbs below your neck.

It looked so easy. There I am, helping Julia learn the simple childhood basics of a head stand.
"Okay, flip up your legs,.." "Yep, yep, now point your toes to the ceiling,...Good!! It's okay... I've got you! GOOD JOB! That's it girl! Good job!"

The only problem was coming down. She kept pulling her hair and hurting her head. I tried to explain how to bend her knees to come down slowly, but in the end, I just thought it would be easier to show her.

So now I sit at this keyboard, unable to turn my head to the left or the right, and cringing if I so much as sneeze.
The saddest part? Julia kept saying "It's okay mommy! I'll catch your legs!" -But I never even got my legs up in the air, let alone, down again.

It seemed easy in my head.

AIMAPALOOZA AGAIN!

Hey all! It's Workshop time again, and for all former AIMers, it's AIM-A-PALOOZA time again! If your going to be in Tulsa - please join us! And let us know you're coming at the Aim-a-palooza website: www.aimapalooza.blogspot.com

Please pass the message along to all you know that might be interested!

In case you need to feel smarter than someone today, let me be that person.

Words of personal wisdom from today....

A salt scrub after shaving your legs is NOT the same as a sugar scrub after shaving your legs....

Add that to my "don't test a curling iron's heat with your tongue just because your hands are full" list.

Yeah. Really.

Kid funnies

Eli's been really been praying a lot lately about a good friend at school who doesn't believe in God. One discussion led to Eli telling Jason:
"You know, some people say apes built the world."
Jason: "Yeah, but you know that's not true, right? We go see apes all the time at the zoo - and they don't build anything like that.
Eli: "Yeah. Apes are interesting. And we can read about them....
But they can't read about us!"

Somehow I thought that was the simplest refutation of evolution I'd ever heard.


Julia prayed tonight: "God, thank you for making my mom good at aiming for the trash. Please help me be as good as her one day. "

Tagged again-

Thank you VANESSA!

The Rules: Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, OR
Share the 5 top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list, OR
Share 5 things you never pictured being in your future when you were 25 years old.

Tag a minimum of 5, maximum of 10 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. The tagees have a choice of which they want to do.

I've shared random facts about myself before, but I like the "5 things you never pictured being in your future when you were 25" idea - and since that was only 7 years ago, I can mostly remember.....:-)

1. I never EVER dreamed of living in Oklahoma. It's still a little weird when I say it out loud. "Ok-la-hom-a." See what I mean? Even now I think I should have a pilgrim dress on when I say it.

2. I never thought I would raise my hands in worship. (Don't tell my grandparents.) :-)

3. I never thought I would have gone away on a weekend trip with girlfriends -and genuinely had the time of my life. I grew up generally enjoying friendships with guys more, just because they were less complicated. But I've got some friendships formed with ladies I adore -and who love God deeply, and I'm loving that change.

4. I never thought my kids and husband would bring me THIS much joy. I mean, you always hope, but then one day you look around at reality and realize just how good you have it, and know you were too stupid to have arranged it yourself, so you just thank God for His blessing - and try to honor them as such.

5. I never thought I'd write a blog. In fact, if you had suggested the possibility, the name alone would have made me think it was immature or goofy. :-)

I tag Lindsay, Wendy!!, Terry, Jill, and Cindy!

Bye bye Mario. Hello Little House on the Prairie.

A few nights ago, we packed up all the game systems in our house. Including the DS Eli just got for Christmas. It was a long time coming, really. But games have been Eli's FAVORITE thing to do. It's how we kept him drinking water when he was on the verge of being admitted to the hospital once. ("Drink 3 sips and you can play for 5 more minutes..." ) It's how we potty-trained him. (Yeah, he's gonna love that I shared this when he can read.) So you can understand, that when he loves something that much, I felt guilty taking it away. But limiting time, and limiting games, and trying different tactics wasn't enough. His mind just gravitates to it. And if he gravitates to it, he'll obsess over it. His game skills are far more honed than his people skills, and that's not what we're about.

Some incidents occurred that led to taking the games away, so he didn't complain at the time. The amazing thing? He hasn't complained since. We're only two days and counting -but I'm amazed. And relieved. And I think he is too.

We had been planning an indoor camp out night this weekend. This morning, Eli decided he wanted to ask his 2nd grade teacher to borrow her DVD Season 1 of Little House on the Prairie. (She's awesome - and has been reading it to them at school - which I LOVE her for!) She said yes - and so he came home saying "It will only take us 16 hours to watch the whole thing!" Well, we're not doing that, but the campout theme turned into a "Little House" theme. I had to run to get groceries, and when I came back - they'd built a little house in the living room - complete with loft and ladder. We had eggs and toast and sausage on tin plates, and ate by candlelight, and "Jack" (a wooden toy dog that was Jason's when he was little) guarded the house.

And Julia and Eli informed us that for the rest of the night, we were to be referred to as "Ma and Pa".

I could totally get used to this. :-)

All the bones we’ve thrown out…..

I can’t remember who first said it, or how often it was repeated, but I remember growing up with a conscientious conflict about reading anything that by an author with my religious background. And I remember having the feeling that if I did attempt such an unwise action, I should do so with suspicion and at the minimum be prepared to “eat the fish, but throw away the bones”.

I don’t carry the same conflict I grew up with, and I’ll admit, nowadays I may read authors within my faith with as much discernment as I do any author. God seemed to make it clear that His words were the standard by which we compare anything “new” that comes our way, and it’s infallibility over the centuries has been impressively consistent.

Recently, I picked up a book called “girl meets God”, by Lauren F. Winner.



If any book is completely out of my realm of experience or background, this one’s it. A memoir on her personal journey from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, the brand of Christianity she enters into is almost as foreign to me as the Judaism is. I find myself reading chapters on liturgy, lent, the Eucharist, Sabbath, and Sukkot. (Words about which I had already made up my mind, while ironically knowing little about.) But what I love is that she gives flesh and bones, and a real humanity to some of the traditions I grew up being suspicious of -and meaning to some of my own convictions & traditions that I didn’t know existed.

I may not subscribe to every conclusion she has – but I’m learning the value of not throwing out her conviction as “bones” for she has, in fact, enlightened some parts of my own beliefs that for a lack of understanding had formed more skeleton-like in me than I myself had ever realized. She opens her mind & heart, good and bad, flattering and unflattering, to the reader, about her journey – and I find myself highlighting and cheering at the end of each chapter. I have about 93 pages to go – and anticipate it like meeting a refreshing, genuine and honest friend who is both like me, and challenges me, while being entirely different.

I’ve included a sample below – and encourage you, if your needing an amazingly simple yet profound and encouraging read… this ones worth it.

“Holy Communion is another name, and there are good reasons to speak of taking communion. Those words remind us that we are not only drawing near to God, but that we are doing that most basic and social thing, we are eating together, we are drawing near to one another. This has been a long, slow lesson for me. I am just starting to learn that the people I take Communion with are the people who count.
I didn’t like most of the people at Clare College chapel. I loved my priest. And I loved Becky, my godmother; Anna; the ordinand sent over by her seminary to be our priest in training; and Helen and Olivia, two short haired eighteen-year-olds with lively minds and brassy giggles. . Other than those few, the people at chapel weren’t people I would have chosen to socialize with. They weren’t up to my standards. I didn’t think them clever enough, entertaining enough, whole enough. Mostly, at the Clare Chapel, I met broken people, needy people, people who were in church for a reason.
In fact, some people of the chapel repelled me. They were pale and pasty and watery drips of people, inarticulate and shy and nerdy and downright tedious. I had nothing to talk about with any of them, though Lord knows I tried, not even theology, a concept that seemed foreign to these students, students for whom everything about Jesus was perfectly clear-cut. “These are not,” I sniffed to Jo, “people I would ever invite to a dinner party.”
Jo, in her wisdom, didn’t point out the obvious fact that I was, indeed, having a dinner party with them every Sunday morning. She pretended to sympathize. She pretended to be every bit the snob that I was. She said whole days elapsed where she had to speak, hour after pastoral hour, to people she did not like very much or find terrible interesting. “There aren’t too many people around here like you,” she admitted conspiratorially, as though it were just us two charming and sophisticated Christians pitted against the rest of the sorry, benighted church. Then she sighed and said, “But I realized awhile back that if I built a church filled with my friends, it would be a rather small and homogenous church.” I blinked. “Dull, really,” said Jo.
So much for sympathy.
The day before I left Cambridge for good, I saw Paul and Gillian, two of the most annoying of the annoying Christians, on Clare bridge, and I hugged them. I said I would miss them. I thought I was lying, to be polite. But I wasn’t. I have missed them. I do. No one else I ever meet will have pledged to support me in my life of Christ, which is exactly what Paul and Gillian pledged at my baptism. My friends at Columbia, the friends I meet for drinks at trendy bards in the Village, the friends with whom I chat about post-structuralism and Derrida- those people didn’t witness my baptism. They didn’t cheer at my confirmation , they didn’t pray with me every Sunday for two years, they didn’t hand me Kleenex when I burst into inexplicable tears in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer. They aren’t my brothers and sisters in Christ. They are merely my friends.

For my best friend, Wendy.

Dear Wendy,
Thank you for your comment-pliment. (Haha!Some how that word seems like it should have come from your dad.) I've been feeling guilty about not blogging for about 3 weeks, (not consecutively, but all together) - so your encouragement (or discouragement?) inspires the approval addict in me, hence my post, just for you.

I am wondering, however, what it would take to do the same for you and get you to START a blog?

Well, from the last writing until now, we have been busy with having non-stop visits or traveling out of town ourselves, and catching up or regular life in between. I have some AWESOME books to blog about. I also have some funny stories to tell - but since I'm trying to think of one right now, I can't... :-)

So many of my funny stories are not really mine - but Eli's. 2nd grade continues to be a growing experience. Last week we had been talking about respecting authority at home, and so I challenged him to find unique ways to show respect to the people at school who were in authority over him, and to come home and tell me what he did. I encouraged him, then, each day afterwards to do not only the things he did the day before, but to add a new attempt each day to build on the others and I would be thinking of a reward for him. In my attempts to be very concrete and specific, I said I wanted his actions to be something that was obvious enough to those around him that they would notice a difference, even if I called his teacher to check on his behavior. He seemed to respond to this challenge, and reported something simple each day. I was excited!
It was ironic then, when a few days later, word made it back to us that he was driving his teacher nuts. When I finally checked on it, I found that my instructions had translated to him having a tally sheet on his desk to mark every time he said "yes ma'am" to his teacher, and that he'd told her that he needed to say this "two-hundred times" so his mom would give him a prize. And apparently, he made sure to check with her every time he said it, (just in case I called and asked.)

My next book will be called "Social Skills Suicide: How to set your child up for failure every time....".

Of Mice and Men

So a couple of weeks ago we had a mouse problem. Now, we usually get one or two when the weather gets cold every Fall - but they're usually caught quickly and it's over with.

Not so this year.

We had two mice, who were particularly comfortable living with us. They learned to 'glide' right over our glueboards. They avoided being seen for a few days - but eventually got a bit arrogant - even daring to saunter out right in front of us in the open - knowing we were too slow to catch them. Evidence was obvious that they had visited every room in our house.

Now for all the previous cute little furry mice who had innocently & mistakenly made their way into our home, we'd felt a slight big of disgust, and a slight bit of pity.
These two made us all mad. When mice begin to taunt humans ... it brings out a different side to us. Even the kids, who are usually unaware of our mice trappings - began to be more aware. (Especially because each one had taken their own turn at getting stuck on the annoying glue boards that seems to be placed more abundantly around the house. )

We eventually won and caught them both. No one felt pity. In fact - we all four celebrated when the last "snap" was heard. (Glue boards were old hat by that point.)

I hadn't realized how much this recent ordeal affected our kid's feelings about mice until Eli's teacher sent me this note about an assignment he had been given today:

Heather,

Eli wrote a story today while I was in a meeting. :-) It made me laugh! :-)

He was told a mouse is living in your desk at school at night. Please write the mouse a letter. Maybe I should of let him paint today. :-)

Mouse,

We are sorry. We hate cheese so we don't have any. A friend hates mice, so he put mouse traps in my desk and all around. Inside our cat eats mice. Our house smells bad. The desk is poison. The desk is made to kill mice. The desk is messy. I hate mice. I kill mice. Get out now or else!

Now, I don't think he's scarred for life, but....

PICS from Mountainview with AIM

Mom and Jules Dad and Eli

Dad and the kids
Jason, Steve, Kris, Julia and Eli (and an AMAZING view.)
Peace from Eli

Casualties by choice...

I'm blogging a little less, so please pardon my fewer posts - I've decided to not be "all or nothing" (wink wink) but in doing so I admit that inconsistency is something I'm consistent with, which for some reason in blog world, I feel extra guilty about!

Recently, Jason and I got to travel to the mountains of New Mexico. While there, Jason got to speak to the present AIM (Adventures in Missions) class - it was just such an amazing weekend. The lessons was transforming for me personally, as we worked through it, and just being around these kids as they let God invade their hearts on amazing and uncomfortable levels was inspiring. It's not easy, (I can say that since I have been there) - but it is worth every difficult moment - I'd never trade it for anything.

There were many highlights of the weekend, but the one that was most powerful came in between one of the classes, while the students had a simple assignment to just clear their minds and not think about anything for 10 minutes, then pray for 10 minutes, and then read a short passage they had been assigned from Matthew.

I climbed into the back of our Tahoe with the door open overlooking the field where many students scattered to find a quite place for themselves. The wind was blowing - quite a bit. Some sat curled by trees, others lay flat on their backs while still others lay face down on the ground.

It was eerily quiet, with just the sound of the wind despite the many people around. It hit me, (and that scene and moment are now frozen in my mind)...... this was reminiscent of civil war scenes I had seen on the history channel... of bodies strewn across a field. Except these bodies, in fact, were not the casualties of war, but the willing, self-sacrificial, and in a sense, suicidal, victors. Studying passages like "turn the other cheek", and "when asked to walk one mile, choose to walk two...",.... these kids laid themselves across a field to let God accomplish in them what their own strength and force of will can not.

Somewhere I read that in the end... they win.
Man's greatest victories have yet to compare to the eternal victory found in laying down your own life only to take up His. And what an unending victory we continue to discover that to be....

Tough as nails...

Have you ever tried to hang something up?

I'm notorious for taking shortcuts when it comes to hanging decorations, pictures, etc. I like the finished look of a decorated house, but I don't like to take a lot of time to make it happen right. So I use whatever nails, screws or thing-a-ma-bobs I have on hand to get the job done, rather than go shop for whatever I need that would hold best. I'm not an idiot - most of the time it works - but I admit that every now and then, I pick a screw that's too long or too skinny or a nail that is too short, and sure enough, the whole thing pulls out of the wall. It leaves a big hole (that I can't patch with toothpaste), and I now have to move whatever I was hanging down or up or over an inch to cover up the mess.

So Jason and I have been wrestling with understanding some concepts this week. (And it does relate, I promise.)

One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
And He said to him, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.And the second is like it, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40

All of the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

These two concepts - Loving God with all your heart, soul and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself, are the nail in the wall. Anything else we attempt to do for Him has to hang on that nail. You can make your own analogies as to whether or not your love is strong enough or adequate to hold. We could spend a lot of time there. But my wrestling today just centers on love being the crux of it all.

Everything else we would do, in the name of faith and belief and devotion to him, must be hung on love. Love for Him and love for others. I didn't say it. He did.

You wouldn't think that would trip us up, would you? For some of you, it doesn't. I've met you - and you get it. And I love what I learn from you as you shape me and bring me closer to Christ. But for some of us, it's a longer journey. This "love" He references is almost so simple, we could blow by the critical depth of getting what He's saying. In fact that only thing that may catch our eye is that He says it's most important, so we know we're supposed to pay attention. I know at times I've read this and thought "Yeah yeah, love. But what after that? What's the next thing we're supposed to do?"

But if I don't internalize that He has a purpose in me understanding that this "love" is most important... I will decorate my house and my church and my faith with tons of nice looking things that I think will please Him but that will eventually pull out of the wall and leave everyone standing in a pile of rubble.

It's sad, but if we're honest, there is much we can do in the name of faith that can be done from beginning to end without "hanging" on this love that Jesus mentions. ....I can come to church. ... I can serve..... I can defend a doctrine or belief.... I can write a check........I can study... I can pray....

We can eventually do all of those things without genuine love for Him and others.

Maybe they started from love, but just slipped into habit. Routine. "Something we do because it's "Right". But the "Right" nail will eventually pull out of the wall, along with all the other acts we hung on it. ......and we wonder why our faith crumbled with it.

All because we underestimated the importance of what "most important" meant when we pursued what we thought God wanted of us. Love seemed to be something we just took for granted would always be there. Something we thought was present in us and that we didn't have to think twice about.

But if He said it was most important ... it's worth thinking twice about. It's worth thinking daily about. In fact, by declaring the utmost importance of love... he not only didn't assume it's presence, but went out of His way to educate us and heighten our awareness to it.

Obviously, we wouldn't ever just pick up a picture and throw it on the wall, without first checking to see what we'd use to secure it there. Maybe that's what Jesus was saying about every single act we do each day. Check your love... make sure whatever your about to "hang up" is going to stick.

I got tagged again!

Well, Toni tagged me! (Thank you friend! I love those! I don't know why, except that it makes me feel like I'm not the last kid picked for the team!)

Here are the rules. 1)Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. (2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. (4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I got to sit on the front row at the Stephen Curtis Chapman concert this last week! I was so nervous about being on the front row - but it was awesome!

2. I've eaten ants too. (For those of you who were at Memorial tonight.) Lemon ants, (which we got to eat while in the Amazon in Ecuador) really are not that bad.

3. I've also ridden in a boat on a lake with piranah. (Jason actually swam in the lake.) I can't swim in general, so putting a non-ability to swim with piranah didn't seem a wise risk to take to me.

4. I imagined & shared for most of my life that I had briefly lived in Germany, despite being corrected by mom and eventually even my husband that we had only visited for about 2 weeks when I was 2 or 3.

5. I often can't remember my own age, let alone anyone elses. I can't remember dates well.

6. I love dogs. I grew up with two and since I didn't have siblings, I felt a special connection with them. Maybe in my own heart I'm the "dog whisperer."

7. I also used to visit this little monkey in the zoo in Ecuador almost weekly. I loved to take a little compact I had to him, let him hold it and look at himself in the mirror while trying to find the rest of his body behind the mirror with the other hand. A guard once let my mom and I in a cage to play with lion cubs. This tiny zoo was a real escape for me in such a huge and busy city.

8. I love fried rice. :-)

I tag: Cindy, Terry, Danna and Flee. :-)

"Everything" By Life House

My brother-in-law sent this to us. If you haven't seen it... take a minute to. It's powerful.

You can't tell me what to do....

My first random question of today:

Is it ethical to let your daughter change her stuffed kitty's name from "Whiskers" to "Nancy" for show and tell on "N" day if you are in a hurry? Eli told me it wasn't.

And what is it about us that doesn't like rules anyway?

Friday I had to have an ultrasound ... the only thing I had to do was not eat or drink anything after midnight. My appt. was at 9 am. Easy enough, I thought. Right. When told I could not eat or drink... suddenly it was all I thought about. I obsessed over it!
The irony? I was having the ultrasound because I haven't had much of an appetite for about a month!

And it's not just me! Tonight, at bedtime, Eli asks me to help him decide between two books.
"Should we read "The Runny Babbit" or "Where the Sidewalk Ends?" he asked.
"Oh honey, I don't care. You pick." I say.
"No - You pick. It's your choice mom, " he insists.
"Okay. How about 'The Runny Babbit'."
"No. I really want 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' this time." he says
"Well then why did you ask me?" I ask.
"Because I wanted you to help me make my decision."

Its funny - and I laugh, but I get it, too. If Jason asks me where I want to go eat... and I'll say I don't know. It's become an ongoing joke between us that if he makes a horrible suggestion... I'll react as if I knew all along where I wanted to go and we get there a lot more quickly.

So what is that about us that doesn't like being told what to do?

Jason shared a great message (I'm not being biased - honest) on Sunday about how biblically, peace is always associated with authority. But it's caused me to reflect more this week on our nature: though it seems most of us are pretty desperate for peace... we resist the sovereignty that brings it to us. Even knowing God has our best interest at heart (and has proved it more extensively than anyone else we have encountered)... we resist Him telling us what to do... or how to do it, sometimes. We want peace tied up and tossed at us with no strings attached... It's a silly thought, really. When our whims and desires run the show and make all our decisions... we run in circles like dogs chasing their tails. Thank goodness our God offers us direction and guidance away from such a fruitless pursuit.

"I will hear what God the Lord will say; For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones;
But let them not turn back to folly. " Psalm 85:8

He brings peace....so long as we don't stubbornly hear His words and decide we know better... or just simply don't want to be told what to do.

A hundred and one ways to sell 5 cheap chocolates for $10.00

School fundraisers are back in swing, and my kids are in on the action. We've always made them do this on their own, and honestly it's kind of fun for me to sit back and see who they work up the courage to approach. I rounded the corner at church the other night to see Terry Rush, our minister, ordering something from Eli. Since we've worked together for a few years, I knew that Terry generally didn't order from such things simply because of the great number of kids we have at church involved in so many different groups.
Surprised by his move... I asked him after Eli moved on what had made him change his mind. He laughed, and shared what Eli had said that changed his mind this time - you can read it on Terry's blog: http://terryrush.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-think-he-saw-me-coming.html

A little trip to the principal's office...

So, last week my son made a poor choice while on the playground that rightly resulted in him losing recess for a couple of days. Today was the last day of that punishment, and while missing recess, he had to sit in the principal's office.

So he decided to write a paper. Here is exactly what he wrote:

"Whats the purpois of this class? To play? No! To Succed? No!
It is to play and learn.
God wants us not to learn without break! Or play without learn! He wants both!
More then that, he wants us to prise him!
But we cant do any of them without God in our hearts! "


He was so proud and excited to show me that he had come up with all of that on his own. ("I did have to ask how to spell a couple of words though.")

Simple, and yet profound. It's amazing what we can find in our hearts when nothing is there to distract us!

Quotables from my kids

Well, I've not been feeling great this week. We're supposed to have a garage sale this weekend... and yet I'm once again out of energy... so I thought I'd sit down and catch up on some funnies from my kids this summer. It was inspired by one just tonight from Eli!

Jason was with the praise team tonight for practice, so in an effort to speed along bedtime I combined the kids rituals, and instead of each getting to read three books separately, they were allowed to pick one book each, and I would pick a bible story, and we would read them all together. As they were in the process of picking books, Jason came in and said "Hey guys! Can I read to you?" The kids went crazy with excitement - "Yea! Dad! You're awesome!! WE LOVE YOU DAD!!! WOO HOO!!"
I was still sitting on the floor, smiling, but Eli, being extra sensitive, didn't want to leave me out. "We love you too mom! I mean, YOU are great ... because you married a GREAT man!" Jason and I died laughing... at which point Eli realized it must have sounded funny... "I mean... you are great for other reasons too, like, uh..."
Eli quickly learned the symbol and meaning behind digging yourself into a hole. :-)

I've got some other quotables .. .in no particular order, from the summer. So even though I haven't been blogging... I've had you on my heart and all over in tiny scraps of 'scribbled on paper'....

*****
Jason: "We've got to try that DVD out to make sure it's repaired."
Julia: "Yeah... because we don't got any plugger-ins."

*****
(Julia, as we are in the frozen section at the grocery store one day..)
"Mom! We have to get some freezing dinners! We're all out of freezing dinners!"

*****
(Julia - on a Sunday morning)
"I know where we're going today!"
(Me)
"Really? where?"
(Julia)
"Church. You know how I know? (hands on her hips with a mysterious twinkle in her eye..) Because of the DRESS!"

*****
One morning we decided to go to Golden Corral together. It was about 10:45.
I told the kids to get ready to go, that we were going to eat breakfast together. Realizing the time, I said, "Well, we will actually be able to have breakfast and then lunch. I guess that's why they call it 'brunch'.
Julia said: "I think we should call it "re-breakfast." :-)

Later that same morning, after she'd finished her "re-breakfast," Julia stood at the table telling me she had to go to the bathroom, while Jason was paying the bill. I told her if she could wait just a few minutes, we'd be home. a few seconds later, I look over as she throws up all over the table. (A theme for us this month...)

After I get her cleaned up, and we're all just watching her to see if she's okay, she says:
"Well, I knew I needed to be in the bathroom, I just wasn't sure why yet. Now I know!"

Now THAT's what we call re-breakfast.
(I feel like that's something my dad would say....) :-)

****

After the kids dog piled me on the bed one evening, they both jumped up and I said "Hey! Thanks for the huggins!"

Eli : "Sure Mom... but I only gave you one."
Me: "Oh... sorry for the improper pluralization of the word."
Eli: "It's okay."

****
(You know your kids are enjoying science too much when....)

One morning we were reviewing by memory the ten commandments. We'd only studied 7 and the kids we're forgetting one of them. Finally Eli just guessed:
"Always remain in a symbiotic relationship with dolphins?"
How do you answer that? (Besides "NO!")

One evening, Eli was cold and shivering after stepping out of the shower. I hurriedly tried to reach for a towel to wrap around him. As I was grabbing for it, he said "Man. Aren't you glad we don't have to use echolocation?"
(The manner in which bats find their way around though blind by using sonar.") ummm... yeah.

****

As we were driving to a birthday party, Julia began to beg me to tell her what we got her friend for her birthday.

Julia: " Mom... please tell me what we got her."
Me: "You don't need to know."
Julia : "PLEASE? I promise I wont tell her."
Me: "Sweetie, you can just find out when she opens it!" (Julia had just recently blown a surprise on accident.)
Julia: "PLEASE... PLEASE!! I PROMISE you I won't tell her!" (her voice begging to regain trust again.)
Me: "Okay... we got her Jenga."
Julia: "Jenga. JENga. jenGA. Jeeennnngggaa......"
Julia: "MOM! Now that word is sticking over and over in my head! I wish you wouldn't have told me because now I'm afraid I'll forget to not tell her!"

****
Eli lost his first tooth, FINALLY. However, it took just long enough that he had already begun to question the existence of the tooth fairy. He kept testing us, and we kept avoiding. Finally, one night, I heard him telling his sister that the tooth fairy wasn't real. It was just moms and dads.

I pulled him aside into another room and asked him why he was saying that. He said he really wanted to know, because he just didn't think he believed that. As a parent, I've always felt a little conflicted about what to do when we hit this stage. I want him to enjoy childhood, but he's getting pretty smart , and I also want him to have full confidence that he can trust us. So I tested the waters to see what I could get away with...I told him if he really wanted to know, we could talk about it.

Me: "Eli - I will always do my best to tell you the truth about everything. If you don't believe in the tooth fairy, who do you think it is?
Eli: " You."
Me: "Eli, do I ever have any money lying around that I'd be able to leave under your pillow?
Eli: "Yes."
(Me... scrambling since the sarcastic adult humor diversion didn't work....") "Well, who else might it be?"
Eli: (eyes widening....) " A stranger?"
Me : "Now, do I ever let strangers in the house?"
Eli: "Well, no. And there's the whole alarm thing."
Me: "Yeah..."
Eli: (Eyes really wide.. very serious, and now whispering..) "I know... is it Santa?"

:-)

Okay...my unintentional summer sabbatical is almost over....

Thanks for the encouragement (?) to start blogging again. I had never really intended to stop!!... but the summer took a VERY busy turn! Anyway.... I kept a few things in mind and even jotted a few funny conversations with my kids to catch back up. So the summer summary....


1. We committed to working with the college group from Memorial for the summer. A highlight for us was 2 hours each Monday night spent with about 15 kids who wanted to study more on how to become leaders. It was challenging, encouraging and refreshing! What an amazing group... it encourages me for God's kingdom!


2.My husband's younger brother, Aaron moved from Ohio to live with us this summer before heading to AIM for the fall. - Wow. We've always loved him... but it was fun getting to know him all over again as an adult. He impressed and blessed us. And little did we know that God intended to use Aaron to address many of the hopes we had for the college group. It's amazing to watch our God work. He was a blessing to our family and this became a special summer because he was here. We seriously miss him already!

3. My husband's other brother, Jeremy, and his wife Jessica, and daughter Elizabeth, moved to Tulsa, and moved in with us until they bought a house.
How exciting to have them here! We are thrilled. God opened amazing doors for jobs and a house... making their transition quicker than I had ever dared to hope for. They lived with us for about a month.

With both brothers and family, the house was full and hopping with activity... but it was a special and unique time that I doubt will ever happen again....and I can honestly say I treasured every moment with them! Aaron's in Lubbock, and Jeremy & Jessica are now getting settled into their new home, but come this fall...we may get to have the whole family ( including Jason's youngest brother, sister in law and nieces, together for Thanksgiving. This will be a first that I can remember, so I'm thrilled at the possibility!

3. VACATION! The crazy summer was brought (nearly) to a close by a wonderful vacation in Destin, Florida.

We went with some dear friends... and it was wonderful! We sometimes ask our kids what the "highs" and "lows" of their day was... so I'll share a few of those for our vacation time....

LOWS:

Julia throwing up massively about 5 minutes before we left the house. Undeterred, we loaded the car and left. She continued to throw up about every hour, despite stopping in Russellville and then Conway for Rxs, (sorry we didn't call you Dusty...) until we finally stopped in Memphis, TN. At one point Eli was throwing up at the same time. Somehow I managed to keep the car completely clean. I was impressed with myself. That was probably a "HIGH" for me. :-) I'm a pro with baggies now....

Also, I got stung by a jellyfish. What's funny was that it was on the inside of my thigh, and it was painful enough that for a day I couldn't walk comfortably or gracefully.... My mother-in-law told Jason last night she heard you were supposed to "pee" on jellyfish stings to inactivate the poison. I'd say I wish I knew that then... but somehow I think I would've just put up with it anyway. :-)

HIGHS:

No phones or email for a week... no "to do" lists... no makeup or fixing my hair....

Homemade Strawberry shortcake almost every night, AFTER the kids went to bed!

Swimming every day... naps every day...

Going to beach, enjoying the view and the sounds, then, after getting hot and sandy, coming back and jumping into the cool clean pool to swim for another hour!

a spectacular lightening storm one night!

our kids enjoying each others' company so much that they wanted to have a "sleepover" together... even though they were already on vacation together!

Eli lost his first tooth!

We not only 'remained' friends through the week... we enjoyed and were thoroughly blessed by the whole time together!

Overall it was a wonderful time and a HUGE blessing... really the first "major" vacation that I can think of that we have ever taken - purely for the sake of relaxing, with no agendas. It makes me appreciate more why God called us to rest at times.

***

Well... I have in front of me a stack of 7 papers on which I have jotted notes or conversations to eventually blog... but I think I'll save those. The summer is not quite over.. we have a busy weekend , school begins next week ( and my baby is off to Kindergarten!), and then a garage sale to plan for next weekend... but after that, things should slow down. I'll save my cute stories for then... and won't take so long to get back!

I'll leave you with this Julia-ism: (with me while grocery shopping):

"Mom... we have to get some freezing dinners. We are all out of freezing dinners at home."