Happy Father's Day!

As I've looked through pictures the past few days, I've had lots of memories jogging around in my brain...picture that, "jogging"!! :)  My oldest daughter had a birthday this week, which always prompts my rummaging through my disheveled drawers of pictures to see and remember way back when...in this case 26 years of memories and thoughts.  And, of course, today is "Father's Day", the day we remember the men who God picked out to help bring us into this world, and some who "fathered" in other ways. 

And in this world of technology (which I love by the way) it's very easy to hear/see what others are saying about their "hero" Dad or "my best friend dad" and feel "less than" because we believe lies, basically!!  Although many earthly father's have exhibited love and care to their earthly children, they are all flawed, broken, sinful and have sin habits.  Here are some things I KNOW to be true:

1.  There is only ONE good and perfect Father and that is God.  No matter what you read or perceive about someone's earthly father, they are sinful and have sinned against their children in more ways than one...face it folks...this is TRUE, we know this!!  Don't believe that lie...believe the Gospel...ALL have sinned, none is righteous (save Jesus).

2.  We humans are very MAN centered...we honor earthly men and women and forget that IF they have been kind, loving and healed from the wounds they were dealt as children themselves so that they are ABLE to love with abandon, that is God's grace in their lives and ours!!   

3.  We, just as our first parents Adam and Eve, HIDE...all.the.time.  We hide what is wrong in our own hearts, we hide what goes on in our families (out of a sense of I don't know what, pride is my first thought, but figure that our by looking into your own heart).  Our motives seem to be pure, we praise our people (mom, dad, children, grandchildren, husband, wife, brother, whoever) because we LOVE them and want to honor them...and that's good!!  BUT, remember, the people are just people.  Don't ever forget WHY they are able to do anything that resembles good, because of God's grace...grace in them being born to parents who knew how to love and had knowledge and wisdom...or grace in God revealing truth to their hearts so they could learn how to love and care, or God's grace they were never seriously wounded by their people or if they were, God's grace enabling them to heal from those wounds and love you and others well.  God does all those things.  It is of Him that we live and move and have our being...let's not forget that!!

OUR lives and the lives of our family and friends are all of grace.

It all comes from Him.  

So on this day of honoring Father's, let's not forget the ONE Father, God our creator,
who has enabled any human Father who has done well and good, the grace to do so!!
The GIVER of our gifts is worthy of our praise and adoration!!

Happy Father's Day!!  From one blessed daughter!!

Father's Day early '90's

God told you to? Really?

A friend asked me one time, "Why do you write a blog?" and I don't think I really knew then.  But the answer to that question is

Because God told me to

That may sound strange to some but it's the truth.  This blogging/writing/calling journey began with my very first post.  It was God's idea for me to "come out of hiding", to be real and transparent about who I was and what He was showing me.  I would have just a soon left my suit of fig leaves in tact..it was cozy and comfortable and quite lovely in my opinion.  

Every time I sit down to write, this little voice inside my head whispers, "What are you doing?  You really believe THIS is something you are called to do? You're not a writer, really WHAT are.you.doing?"  So in an effort to silence THAT voice, I write.  I write because I want to be brave, courageous even.  You know, courage is not the absence of fear...it's the doing in spite of fear. 

"Fear Not for I am with you..."

How many hundreds of times does that phrase appear in the Bible....maybe it's not hundreds but you get the point.  I'm no Bible scholar, but I seem to remember some pretty big name people in the Old and New Testament being told to be courageous or not to fear, remember, guys like Moses, Gideon, Joshua, Joseph and Mary.  They were to be examples to us of how big God is...we make heroes out of the PEOPLE instead of looking to their God as the hero.  They were just fearing, frail humans like us who were given faith to believe in a God who would never leave them, who would fight for them and who heard their prayers and met the needs they had, no matter how difficult their situation looked.

As I write here, I don't want you to see ME...I want you to hear and see and come to know my Father, the lover of my soul, my friend and Shepherd.  My desire is for you to see HIM because I'm just like you, broken and frail and fearing...a real mess!!  I'm very thankful that my Father isn't ashamed of messy or broken...He's fine with it.  In fact, He LOVES making beauty out of ashes.  And the sooner we figure out how broken we really are, the sooner He can make all that mess something beautiful.

Ask the Spirit of Truth to show you where you're broken...you may even know already. 

That's a good thing...don't shy away from it. 

Embrace it!!  Admit it!!

Bring it into the light so the healing can begin. 

 

Jesus makes all things new!!

Take a listen!!



A Thankful Heart

It's Saturday morning and as I begin my day, I find this in my Facebook news feed.  I was (confession) beginning my day with Facebook, looking for this actually because I so easily forget and need to be reminded about WHO my Father is and Who I am in him.  But, per usual, there was a different plan for what I would see as I scrolled.  And it was PERFECT.  

As I read about what a mother does, I had several different thoughts, but most of them were thankfulness kinds of thoughts, and to tell you the truth, I struggle with my first thoughts being negative not positive, thankful thoughts.  As this is being revealed, I struggle to admit it to myself (although others most likely see/hear it anyway) because, let's be honest, who wants to come to the realization that they are "negative"...that's just not acceptable!  We're supposed to be positive and encouraging and uplifting and thankful all the time. Right?  Well, I'm a sinner, in case we've forgotten this about ourselves (I'm not alone here, right?) And the Spirit of Truth is working to reconcile and redeem every little thing about who we are so we can more fully reflect the heart of our Father.

As I scrolled through the article and pictures, my first thoughts were of my sweet Little E and how her momma comes for her and will, as time moves ever forward, continue to do so.  And then, how thankful I am for God's grace in providing the example of my own mother, who has done that with her children over the past 50 years. 

But the thing that stuck out most in my mind as I read wasn't about my daughters or my mother as much as it was about my Father, the one who is always there, no matter what I need.  Because he has no human limitations, He can be is whatever I need.  He is I AM...as he was to Moses, he is to me!! 

AND then, thoughts of God's intended purpose when he created women to reflect the glory of himself as a nurturer, a lover, a care giver, a mother.  I have been reminded lately that woman was the crowning glory of creation, not an after thought.  She was needful to help express fully the heart of God.  So often we think of God as a MAN (or at least I have), and come to the conclusion that men are superior and women are lower some how.  We hear teaching and misunderstand how God created Adam and Eve to bear his image as the full picture of ALL that God is.  One is not superior to the other, both are needed for a full reflection of God's glory to be seen in this earth.  Men as warrior, protector, provider (which God is all those) and women as, tender, loving, compassionate, nurturers (which God is all these as well). 

So, it is with a thankful heart I begin a long to-do list for this Saturday morning!!  Praising the One who does a "perfect" job at revealing just what our hearts need to see every.single.time (even when we don't perceive it, it is for our good)!!

Blessings on YOUR weekend!!

A Good Reminder...

        

The following was sent to me this morning by one of my co-workers.  Although God is not mentioned, I thought it was a really good explanation of being thankful for God’s grace all around us. 

 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the Father of lights

with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

Often we are too distracted to take note of little things and give thanks to the GIVER of all good things.  Maybe we don't see them as GIFTS at all.  Maybe we see the little things as annoyances and frustrations instead of seeing God's grace to us in giving us those things (or people) for our good?

In her book, One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp, challenges readers to take note, to the point of writing down, making a list of 1000 things, 1000 grace gifts that God points to as we walk through the short time we have on this earth.  Sometimes, the little things we find annoying or frustrating, if they were suddenly taken away, we would NOTICE and WISH they were still in our lives to annoy or frustrate us.  Or, it may be that we simply look right past all the beauty that God has put right in front of us, to encourage us, and cause us to worship Him in Thankfulness!!  Either way, this little forward hit home for me today, reminding me to BE THANKFUL!!  Enjoy!
 

Subject: Stuff of life......

Lisa Beamer on Good Morning America - If you remember, she's the wife of Todd Beamer who said 'Let's Roll!' and helped take down the plane over Pennsylvania that was heading for Washington , DC back on 9/11.

She said it's the little things that she misses most about Todd, such as hearing the garage door open as he came home, and her children running to meet him.

Lisa recalled this story:

I had a very special teacher in high school many years ago whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack.

About a week after his death, she shared some of her insight with a classroom of students.

As the late afternoon sunlight came streaming in through the classroom windows and the class was nearly over, she moved a few things aside on the edge of her desk and sat down there.

With a gentle look of reflection on her face, she paused and said, 'Class is over. I would like to share with all of you, a thought that is unrelated to class, but which I feel is very important.

Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate and give of ourselves. None of us knows when this fantastic experience will end.

It can be taken away at any moment.

Perhaps this is heaven's way of telling us that we should make the most out of every single day.

Her eyes, beginning to water, she went on, 'So I would like you all to make me a promise. From now on, on your way to school, or on your way home, find something beautiful to notice.

It doesn't have to be something you see, it could be a scent, perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of someone's house, or it could be the sound of the breeze slightly rustling the leaves in the trees, or the way the morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently to the ground. Please look for these things, and cherish them.

For, although it may sound trite to some, these things are the "stuff" of life - The little things we are put here on earth to enjoy... The things we often take for granted.

The class was completely quiet. We all picked up our books and filed out of the room silently. That afternoon, I noticed more things on my way home from school than I had that whole semester.

Every once in a while, I think of that teacher and remember what an impression she made on all of us, and I try to appreciate all of those things that sometimes we all overlook.

Take notice of something special you see on your lunch hour today. Go barefoot. Or walk on the beach at sunset. Stop off on the way home tonight to get a double dip ice cream cone. For as we get older, it is not the things we did that we often regret, but the things we didn't do.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Well, it happened, March 1st rolled around this year and lo and behold I TURNED 50!! 

 

Yes, you read correctly, I turned the BIG 5-0!!  Here's the funny thing about these numbers that keep going up up up...I don't FEEL any older, not in my head anyway.  Now, my children, as well as my body and my graying hair, will remind me from time to time that I am not as young as I used to be.  And I am totally "OK" with that.

In this age of seeking for eternal youth, exagerating the importance of the outward appearnace and "looking" younger on the outside, God has revealed a startling thing to my heart.  It's a lie AND it's not possible.  And there's something more ruminating in the recesses of my mind;

 I don't want to be a youngin' forever. 

There are so many pitfalls of youth that I'd just as soon not have to deal with or repeat.  But don't think for a minute that I don't have those moments from time to time where I see a picture of myself or my reflection in a mirror and don't contemplate the effects of the aging process, they are undeniable!  And I'm sure as I get further along, they will be even more obvious with more wrinkles, more gray hair, I'll probably lose my hearing (it's a family trait), my height will diminish and my weight will increase...just kind of goes with the territory.

I truly believe that age has little to do with who we are on the inside, except for the fact that we are growing wiser, hopefully, every year as God moves in our hearts, teaching and instructing.  I was priviledged to meet a beautiful, mature woman of 88 this weekend, the mother of a dear friend, who is just the cutest thing.  I didn't immediately think "Wow, she's old" but maybe that's because she's supposed to look older on the outside, we all are as time takes it's toll.  That's how God intended things to be, how he intended for an octogenarian to look.

I think what I'm attempting to communicate is that I've learned much over the past 50 years and I don't want to take that for granted, devalue the process of "aging".  I'm NOT the same on the inside and I'm not going to look the same on the outside.  I'm changing and growing and I'm not the same person I was when I was 25 or 30 or 35. I'm older and hopefully a little wiser.  I've had experiences that have molded me into the person I am at 50.  And as this life here on earth progresses, and the outward self looks older, I hope the inward self grows "older" as well.

Paul, in the letter he wrote to the church in Philippi tells them "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."   Of course, this is written to a group of believers but we can apply it to our lives as well.  God will finish what he started when we were born.  God is the giver of life!!  He formed me in my mother's womb, he gave me certain DNA and personality traits and is at work still as my body ages and as my mind and soul grow and learn and change. 

It's a wonderful thing, this aging process.  Instead of grumbling and complaining about it, let's embrace it!!  Let's recognize the truth in this process.  God has a plan and He is bringing it to completion, whatever that means for the outside me AND the inside me!!

What is a Friend?

In light of a conversation I had this week with a sweet young woman, I'm posting something I wrote a while back, April, to be exact.  I have no idea WHY I didn't publish it at that time, but here it is...

When I was growing up, in school and as a child, I didn't have what I would define as a "best friend".  As time passed, in college, still no "best friend".  No girls with whom I shared secrets and the deepest things in my heart.  I don't think I was the easiest person to get to know actually.  I think I may have been inapproachable at times.  On the outside, where everyone looks first, I seemed all put together.  But on the inside, where not many venture to go if you look "okay" on the outside (that means you're pretty or thin and don't seem to have many outward flaws) I was so very insecure. I had no idea who I really was and as a result I could not totally open my heart. I couldn't allow anyone to know what was really there, fear, doubt, insecurities...they would use it against me some how, I was sure.  I always desired that intimate friend, that soul mate but it never really materialized back then.  I'll never forget finally realizing at one point that my mother was the closest thing to a best friend I had.  But, as we all feel, there are just some things you don't want to share with your mother. :o)

What is it about opening our hearts, becoming vulnerable that presents us with a sense of having to protect ourselves, put up walls to keep people from finding out who we really are? What keeps us from being HONEST about our failures especially.  I know what it is, you do to...its FEAR!  Fear of REJECTION...thinking that IF someone knows what I really think and feel or what I've done or what's happened to me, they will not ACCEPT me.  They will pull away because I am such a failure, I won't measure up to what they think I am based on what they see on the outside.  Their IMAGE of me will be shattered.

Images are funny things, they're just that, an image...they are not the genuine article, they are just a reflection of PART of what something or someone really is.  There is no depth to an image, it's flat and empty and void of real meaning.

I'll never forget revealing a part of my fallenness to a friend.  Her response was not judgmental or harsh but a question "You don't really feel that way, do you"?  She was disappointed that I was revealing to her that I was a scoundrel, a sinner and capable of thinking and feeling some pretty rotten things.  But still, it was a rejection!  Her "image" of me was being destroyed by the truth of who I really was on the inside.  I purposely revealed these things because I felt she had built me up to be something I was not, at least apart of Christ.  She didn't seem understand that it wasn't ME that she was seeing but Christ at work in me.  We are dirty rotten scoundrels all, that should be understood.  Paul quotes from the Old Testament in Romans 3:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹ no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”

So how do we endeavor to achieve these heart relationships?  What does a good friend look like?  How do we become a good friend to another person and what do we seek in return? 

GRACE is the underpinning of being a friend.  

Are you, am I, being a true friend?

  Read the definition below and do a little self-examination.  This is good stuff!!

My true friends are the ones who love me deeply despite my flaws

but also have a clear view of those flaws.

They’re the ones who don’t shrink back from telling the truth

but who stir love, kindness and gentleness into those hard words.

They’re the ones who will give me grace and the benefit of the doubt on my bad days

but shut the lights and close the doors on extended pity parties.

They’re the ones committed to do life with me even when it’s messy,

but they bring Fantastic along for the ride.

They’re the ones who will celebrate my successes

and mourn my defeats right by my side.

And I do the same for them.





Its Finally Friday

Birthdays have always been a big deal at our house.  Breakfast in bed, enjoying a favorite dessert and time spent celebrating with family and friends! 

This week's Fill In the Blank Friday with Lauren is all about birthdays!

love cupcakes

1. The age I will be on my upcoming birthday is the big 5-0.  Can't believe I actually admitted that.

2.  The best birthday present ever would be someone to come into my house and declutter and organize every square inch, including my closet and clothing, replacing outdated things with fasionable replacements.  Not to excess, mind you, simple yet adequate!!

3.  My favorite birthday to date was this past year since I remember it the best.  I had dinner with my family received flowers at work and went to lunch with a special friend!

4.  Brithdays make me feel excited, special and loved!

5.  The worst birthday I ever had was my 40th. 

6.  When I was born things were very different from our "norm" today.  It's strange to me that I now remind myself of my Dad who used to frequently begin his sentenes with "Well, when I was a boy we didnt' have...".  So in the tradition of our family...when I was a little girl we didn't have air conditioning, we had to get up from the couch to change the television channel (we only got 3 channels so it didn't make that much difference) our phone was attached to the wall, we only talked to our friends voice to voice and only for 1/2 hour because someone else might try to call, we ate dinner at home every evening as a family, we played outside ALOT, we didn't take pictures of ourselves in front of the mirror in the bathroom, our ice came from an ice tray that we filled up and emptied by hand.  Technology is wonderful, but sometimes I miss "the good old days".

7.  So far my favorite age has been 38.  I remember that time in my life being very busy, but I had plenty of energy and seemed to be somewhat organized, at least that's how I remember it!  But you know, when you're pushin' fifty all that energy and pep seem to dissipate.  Thank goodness for caffeine.