Joyful Transformation

My mother is the youngest of ten children. Needless to say there were always a lot of Aunts, Uncles and Cousins around during the holidays. Well, actually they were around pretty much all of the time. One of my favorite Uncles was my Uncle Kelly. He loved to play practical jokes on me. His daughter Jennifer and I were the same age and we used to spend hours on end together when we were out of school. Uncle Kelly let us make a play house out of a corn crib. I don’t think he knew we would paint the inside black, but he was pretty patient with us. One year Jennifer and I decided we could build us a house in the back yard. There was some lumber out by the barn. We started working, but were soon stumped by something as simple as corners! Who knew about the whole post thing? I am sure Uncle Kelly did, but in his wisdom he kept the secret from us. He paid us to help haul hay when in actuality we were probably more of a hindrance than a help. But he never seemed to mind having us along. He used to run an excavating business and my Dad worked for him one summer. Well Jennifer and I decided to go to work with them (at the crack of dawn). That just wasn’t as much fun as we thought it would be, but he took us to this little restaurant to eat (since we had eaten the lunches our Moms packed for us around 9:30)....so it was worth it.

Back in those days Uncle Kelly was a BIG guy. He had served in the army during WWII and learned to love a cigar. After the years of not having enough to eat, he managed to pack on a few extra pounds when he returned home. In contrast his wife Aunt NiNi (nee-nee) was a tiny little woman….but she had a big voice and they argued…a lot!! I used to worry about the way the argued, but they loved each other, I guess they just showed it a little differently.

One of the places that all of my family was never at together was church. Oh we were all good old CofC, but my Uncle Kelly and one of my other Uncles left our church for one of the more conservative churches. {more conservative than the church of Christ seems to be a bit of a paradox, huh?} Sadly, we were not even allowed to visit each other’s churches in those days. At family reunions those uncles and cousins were never called on to lead prayer…sad, tragic, useless. But for the most part the family stayed united and many of those barriers have been broken down today.

My Uncle Kelly died last night. He has wasted away at a nursing home with failing health for a while now. I didn’t go see him like I should; as a matter of fact I think I only went to see him twice. I regret that. But I have so many wonderful memories of the happy fun-loving man from my youth. Death is inevitable you know. It is good to be a part of a family that puts God first. I can’t wait for that great reunion on the other side.

This was the last paragraph in a Heartlight I received this morning by Russ Lawson:

Of whom do you have special memories? Have you told that person lately?Sometimes you can't, they're gone to be with the Lord or you've just lost track of them. There are so many people in life that I remember with wonderful memories. There is no way I can tell them all how much they mean to me. So if I haven't told you, thank you for making my life special by just taking time to read this, love the Lord, and share your life with God's people.

AMEN!

I started the day yesterday with the resolve to be an encouragement to someone….I failed miserably. I was griping to one of the guys I work with and I said “I know I have the word b*tch written on my forehead, but….” The sad thing is he looked closely at my forehead!! Maybe I can do better with all of that today. I will TRY not to gripe about things I can’t change anyway! And if I am griping about things that I could change I am wasting time and breath, I should just be busy changing things!!

Last year I wrote about this day being the birthday of my best friend from my teenage years. In a years time nothing has changed. I haven’t seen or heard from her, but then again I have made no efforts either…none. Oh well, what is the saying “You have got to know when to fish and when to cut bait”? I think it is time to “cut bait”.

Last night I spent a wonderful evening with a truly great friend. We decided to celebrate the mutual month of our birth (before it was gone) by having dinner together. We had such a good time. It is great to spend time with people who have a common interest and can relate to where you are in life. It is sad that we seldom take the time to just get together and talk. I am going to do better at that too.

Friends come and friends go….but they are truly the icing on this cake of life, don’t you think?

We got a good baby report yesterday. All three hearts are strong and they are GROWING!! Diana can attest to that. Baby “B” is a bit of a show-off so you guessed it he is a boy! The other two were a bit shy and kept their legs tightly clenched together. The sonographer was of some foreign origin, I would guess Hungary or some such country as that. She was an expert at reading the sonogram, but this time Diana and I both were struggling to see what she was pointing out. Suddenly she exclaimed (read with an accent) “I see penis!” All-righty then!

I also forgot to tell you about the new Thanksgiving tradition at my Mom’s house. In honor of current traditions (football) and our respect for the Indians that came before us we started “bowling for Indians”. You simply line up the Indians and the one giraffe in this case and attempt to knock them over with the little yellow football without getting up off of the couch.


My brother Bruce is helping Matthew (supervising?) set up the men for the next shot while my Dad and Derek look on. David is on the couch loosening his arm for the next toss.....








{Perhaps an apropos game symbolizing our treatment of the ones whose land we took. Hey, but we said thanks, right?}
Please read that last part with the sarcastic brackets….No political statements are intended by this blogger……ever

Yesterday was my beautiful daughter’s birthday.  We celebrated at home with some Barbeque Pork Chops and her favorite, chocolate cake.  While it is good to spend time with extended family it is always good to have just “my bunch” there too.  It was just the perfect way to end a very good extended weekend.

My daughter has taught me much in life.  From the moment she entered this world she carved out a place in my heart.   She came into the world bringing joy and laughter.  She has never been accused of being a “copy” of her mom.  She challenges me by doing everything differently…..EVERYTHING!  I love her so much.  My life would not be complete without her in it!  (and today we get to go see the THREE babies again)

You know she continues to carve my heart.  I told you I had a response to Rick’s Cracked Hearts…I didn’t really know at the time that it would mesh with my daughter’s birthday, but it does.  You see, I think about many of the “cracks” in my own heart and know that many, many of them came after I became a mother.  It is easy to look back and see my mistakes, my shortcomings.  I can even see when I gave into things I said “I would NEVER do” in an effort to protect my children.  Some choices were wrong.  And each time a wrong was chosen, even if it was for the “right” reasons it chips out a little piece of my heart.  Now, my children also made some “wrong” choices.  Did I turn my back on them?  Of course not.  But again, a piece of my heart is chipped, broken, sometimes sliced in two.  

Rick says that through our brokenness we can better minister to others who are suffering.  I agree.  Nothing generates humility like repeatedly falling short.  However, there are times when we cannot minister while in the midst of brokenness.  When my children were hurting, no matter what the cause, I became the “mother-protector”.  If your child was suffering from the same thing at the same time, just keep them away from my child!  Now, I know that sounds harsh, but I think it is true.  At least I know it was for me.  I think we have to have some healing of our own cracks, before we can adequately minister to others with the same cracks.  But I do agree that only by looking at others through the eyes of brokenness will we truly become what God wants us to be.  

I thank God for the blessing of my children.  I know he has forgiven me for the times I have let him down.  And I praise him for helping me to grow through the experience.  Truly I understand his love and his LONGSUFFERING with me better because of being a Mom.    

I enjoyed changing my graphic to celebrate the holiday. I hope you got to see it. It is fun to get in there and figure out a little of the template "language". {although Keith made me feel as inadequate as I truly am when he said he could do the same in a couple of minutes...}

The holidays were a lot of fun. I managed to avoid that miserable "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" feeling. Chasing Matthew helped with that.

I have some thoughts brewing. One is my "reaction" to Rick's post on Cracked Hearts. Another is some thoughts on the fruits of the Spirit. Be back soon!!!

Hope you all had a marvelous Thanksgiving....and please tell me your Christmas lights are not on yet!!! Please??

Whenever two people meet there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.

William James

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for

• God's Love
• God's Mercy
• God's Grace

All the temporary gifts he has blessed my life with are so much more than I deserve. I pray that I will always have the humility to understand how unworthy I am and to truly treasure these amazing blessings. But I also pray that I will understand that without the three things mentioned above it would all be meaningless.

Thank you Lord.

My brother arrived home from Tucson last night. His flight arrived in Huntsville at 11:29 p.m. Being the good sister that I am I volunteered to pick him up {since there are no rental-car places open this late!}. I got in bed shortly before 1:00 a.m. Did I get up and go work out? Yep! When that clock went off at 4:46 I was in a DEEP sleep, but I snoozed it twice (I knew Terri would save me a bike) and then I got up. I had a great fear of staying too long at red lights. I think I did actually doze off once. I feel pretty good right now but I think I will fade quickly this afternoon.

I am anxious for this holiday to begin. I, like many of you, love Thanksgiving. I love the unpretentiousness of just getting together and eating too much and watching football. Not that many years ago we would have been out in the yard playing football instead of watching it. Now everyone’s back will go out or some such nonsense. We had lots of good games of touch football at my mother-in-laws over the years. I guess it is time for my children to pick up that tradition. Although….I can still play!!

TCS and I have decided that { } these squiggly brackets are to be our blogger symbol for sarcasm. Somehow sarcasm just does not translate that well, especially in comments. So if you place your thoughts inside of {these} brackets we will know that you mean the comment sarcastically. {Tommy and I are trying to figure out how to make it a default setting!} See how that works!

Did you notice I have been playing with my template? Mostly I just changed some colors. It took my over an hour to do what Keith and some of you other folks could do in 10 minutes, but hey! It is a learning experience. I really do like to get in there and figure this stuff out. I like the fact that my page is now unique and I did not have to re-do my counters and such. Keep checking, maybe I will add some more stuff!!

Do you have to keep a close watch on what you let into your thoughts? Is your brain under your control or are you under it’s? If you forget to feed yourself good things do you find that the cannibal that lives in your head will eat every good thought every good action that you might possess? Why does this happen? How do you “nip it in the bud”?

1. There are no strangers in the body of Christ
2. A storm is no respecter of persons (or incomes)
3. JD and family are truly warm, gracious and very welcoming.
4. No one understands my traveling alone to a place where I had never met anyone (I tried explaining that I KNEW the people..)
5. People are generous by nature
6. People everywhere donate clothing and shoes that should be thrown away!
7. Fresh water is a precious commodity
8. The church is much more attractive when it is out of the building, where it belongs.
9. No matter where you are women are territorial about “their” kitchens
10. 83 year old women have earned the right to be dogmatic (and most I have ever met are!)
11. You can get by without 95% of your “stuff”.
12. Some friendships can be formed “instantly” (I hope I get to see Julie again someday)
13. I really like organization but I do not like “red-tape”.
14. I do not like being out of control (big surprise there, huh?)
15. Hugs are sometimes the best thing you can give.
16. It is easy to lose focus of the “big” picture when doing specific jobs
17. People are unusually wary of anyone who offers them something for “free”.
18. Men can be more compassionate and more long winded than women
19. “Lazy Dog” is a very apropos expression (they lay in the sun ALL DAY)
20. One genuine “thank you” is both humbling and rewarding

**forgot the camera today, but you can get a better feel for things by checking out JD's pictures here**

It doesn't matter what size it is, when you have more than an inch "slack" in your waistline.....you feel thin! I LOVE this skirt!

Well my Tide lost, and I must say the better team won. Auburn looked awesome today. They had an answer for everything Alabama tried. It was not a lot of fun for me to watch, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Our coaches and players played with a lot of class. I am happy that my friend Jessica Bartlett got to celebrate a victory in her final home game as Auburn’s head majorette.

You know I couldn’t help but think today that no matter how much I wanted Alabama to win, no matter how much “positive thinking” I sent there way. No matter which lucky shirt I wore (or not as the case may be) I had absolutely no control over the outcome of the game. Life is like that too. There are some things, no matter how much we want them to happen, no matter how much energy we put into thinking positively, we have no control over the outcome. I think we will be happier in life when we accept that realization.

I was going to let it slip quietly by...For some reason they are not as much fun as they used to be.

But for my birthday I am doing many of my several things today!

1. I went to breakfast with my sweet husband
2. I am going to play tennis-that got cancelled!
3. I am going to pick up my grandson(sometime) after tennis
4. I will "try" to watch some football (if it upsets me, I just want watch.)

Thank you for your well wishes, here, by e-mail or electronic card or snail mail. You all make getting older a little more bearable....well most of you anyway.

Roll Tide

Don't tell your problems to people- 80 percent don't care; and the other 20 percent are glad you've got them.

Lou Holtz

What a great day. The weather is fabulous, if a little cold. The sky is such an amazing shade of blue; only God has that color of crayon in his box.

I arrived back at Central Church this morning after a stop at Wal-Mart for more supplies. In his sermon Sunday Gary Brantley talked about each of us doing small acts of service instead of only wanting to do the “big” stuff. I HATE to shop. Perhaps this is why I was allowed to offer this as an act of service. Today I didn’t mind so much. The work that needs to be done in Pascagoula and at the Central church building is largely “small stuff”. But with people pitching in and doing their part it is making a BIG difference.

Today it was my privilege to meet Julie, her husband Bill and their son Jacob from Kentucky. By the end of the day it felt like we were old friends. This is their second trip here and they know what they are doing. In my opinion one of the best things going on here is the bus ministry. No, the bus is not going out to bring people to the building, instead it is going door-to-door and delivering supplies to anyone who has a need. Julie took me under her wing and got me involved in loading this bus. Then when it was time to go back out into the community, I was able to go along. James from Tupelo was our driver. (I discovered that he and a buddy have a 50’s and 60’s act that travels to many places in Alabama.) Also on the bus was Stella. She is a member at Central. From what I understand she has been a volunteer daily. Today however was her first opportunity to go out on the bus. Did I mention Stella is 83! She could do laps around a lot of the people there. It was great for her to go out and call on her neighbors. She was able to offer more than help and an invitation to church. She was able to say, ”hey, I know what you are going through, I am living in a FEMA trailer too”.

The level of activity is so high that I did not even get a chance to talk to John until I was leaving this afternoon. That is truly how it should be. Here is a picture that John posted of me and a lady who received one of the coats I brought down. I feel a little like the UPS guy. I just delivered the stuff, why are you taking my picture? I don’t know who donated this lovely purple coat, but you brought this lady much joy.

I am looking forward to tomorrow, but finding it hard to believe it is time to go home already. I do feel like I will be coming back. Tomorrow I plan to take some pictures. Keep praying for the work that is going on here. The needs are still great.

I get several devotional items e-mailed to me each morning. To be honest some days I don't have time to read them all. But I like them being there when I do. This morning I didn't really want to read this lengthy one, so I sped read it....you know reading while you swiftly scroll down with your mouse. (I do this to blogs when they are more than 3 paragraphs long.... I should learn from this habit...) Anyway, as I skipped to the bottom this paragraph jumped out at me.


When a door in your life closes – no matter what kind of door – look for the window that God opens for you. There are limitless possibilities for what you can do with your life, no matter how useless you might feel. If you have a pulse, God has a purpose for you.

I am not sure my faith would let me believe this if I was surviving in Pascagoula today. But can you think of a more appropriate thought for me to start this day with? God is good.

Today was a great day. I didn’t sleep that well; I never do before a trip. I got up around 5:30 loaded my car (after I re-packed) and went by the office to finish up some work before I headed south. The storm last night brought in some of that cooler weather. Today was absolutely beautiful and cool. The highlight of the beauty of the day was driving back from Pascagoula to Mobile and seeing the most beautiful sunset in my rear view mirror. Then as it got darker I was driving into a huge, gorgeous harvest moon! Wow!!

I listened to C.S. Lewis’s the Great Divorce on the way down here. I really liked that book. The imagery and the applications were great. Then I got to hear an interview with Dale, Jr. on the re-run of Eli Gold’s show as well as an interview with Zippy, Tony Stewart’s crew chief on the Claire B. Lang show. Plenty of entertainment WITHOUT having to listen to country music! (However, I must report that my XM radio does NOT work in the Bankhead tunnel!)

The best part of the day was actually getting to Pascagoula and meeting JD and family. What a great work they have going on there. What an awesome need! It is hard to imagine the complete and utter devastation that exists in the area surrounding the church building. I was excited to see them call people who had requested the small heaters that I brought; and I was privileged to meet a lady who received a coat and several sweaters from Cullman Alabama.

John, Maggie and Claire took me on a tour of the most damaged areas. It is truly humbling to see so much devastation and to know that this is after 10 WEEKS of clean up. I can’t fathom how life will return to normal here anytime soon. And yet in the midst of the chaos, life goes on. Claire, John’s granddaughter was worried that she would be seen when we drove by her school because she had checked out early today. She is also CERTAIN that it will snow tomorrow. It is a good thing I brought those coats and blankets!! I truly enjoyed meeting John’s family. I got a brief introduction to his “baby boy” as I was leaving for the day. What a great family!

I am looking forward to going back tomorrow and seeing how I can help.

BTW, I faced one of my great fears today. Is it going somewhere with just a map and directions? NO! Going to check into a motel with just an Internet confirmation? NO! Traveling a long distance alone? NO! Oh it must be meeting people for the first time, unsure of how I will be received? NO!…. I have an unnatural fear of long and high bridges. If you have traveled in the Mobile/Pascagoula area you know that there are more roads over water than there are over land. I just asked God to take care of me and I drove off of what felt like the ends of the earth. As usual he took very good care of me.

See you all tomorrow (well, you know what I mean).

I am not really a good person. I try, but there are more “negatives” with me than good things. I am resentful and petty about work things. I look too quickly to things that are wrong. I find my compassion lacking at times and I find myself avoiding people if I am not in the mood to be “nice”. I am working on these things, but I have a long way to go.

But, I am trying to do something good this week. Ever since Katrina first hit the gulf region I have felt the need to get down there. However, I have always found excuses or even valid reasons not to go. Today I am going. My car is packed full of stuff I am taking down. As I mentioned before the generosity of my brothers and sisters at East Cullman amazes me. I am not doing this because I am a good person. I am doing this because I am blessed person, trying to live up to what Jesus has done for me.

The hand of God was with me last night. I arrived home and started unloading things from my Tahoe, (where I could take the seats out and get more stuff in there, in an organized way). About the time I had everything out the tornado alert started going off in the park across the water from me. We were under a tornado warning, and my part of the county was where the funnel clouds had been spotted. I park at the bottom and was carrying stuff in the basement. So, I was in the basement for the entire time of the tornado warning. Those of you who know me realize that otherwise I might have been out on the deck watching the wind!

If you get a chance, say a prayer for me today. I hope to arrive safely to unload my “loot” around 3:00 this afternoon. If I get a chance I will update you while I am there. I should be there through Friday afternoon.

I did not get a chance to delete my “country music” and yes, some of it HAS to go. I will leave a little Brooks & Dunn and Tim McGraw. I also did not get a chance to download a book nor did my CD’s arrive from Amazon. That’s OK though. I still have a couple of C.S. Lewis CD’s to go. Have a good Wednesday!

My sweet husband came through! I got my MP3 player with wireless car adapter!! Now if my books on CD don’t arrive today from Amazon I can download a book to keep me company driving to Pascagoula. He even loaded it up with music for me. I am going to have to delete a bunch of COUNTRY Crap!! But, it is great to have it usable from the get-go (who made up that word?)

I said last week that I strived on being busy and having deadlines and such. God is faithful, he delivered just exactly that! I went with my daughter to the Dr. yesterday which ended up taking about 4 ½ hours of my day. So, today I must get everything done for the rest of the week; nothing like a challenge to get my blood pumping. BTW everything is good with the babies. It is possible we will be able to tell what they are at our next visit on the 28th. If not they will be doing the detailed sonogram on the 13th of December. After the 1st of the year she will be going every week. Man, this is getting closer and closer! Diana has decided she has two boys and a girl. We will see if her “feeling” is right.

One of my gifts (?) is an over-abundant dose of sarcasm. I have discovered that this particular method of communication does not always translate well in the written word. This is one of the areas of my life I am working on, but I have had years of training and have almost perfected the art! I would just like to ask you to forgive me if I have said anything inappropriate or hurtful either on this site or as a comment to any of your sights. Sometimes when I go back and read comments I realize that my intended humor may not have translated very well.

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

Yes, I need to work on that.

Terri and I had a wonderful trip to Crossbridge yesterday. We always meet new people when we visit, and they all make us feel so welcomed. I am thinking seriously about kidnapping Gary Brantley and forcing him to minister at East Cullman. I truly enjoy his speaking style and content. Hearts were heavy there as they have suffered loss in their family. I love the way they embrace each other and lift each other up in prayer. And I am amazed at how our love for God makes us all family, I could feel there hurts and cry for them just as if I had always known them. Don’t you just love being part of the family of God?

Returning home to East Cullman last night was encouraging as well. My Tahoe was full of coats, diapers, laundry detergent and other items to take with me to Pascagoula this week. In addition a couple of ladies gave me checks and the leader of our benevolent committee told me that we had money in the budget for Katrina relief and wanted to send that with me as well. God is so good! I know someone is going to love the stuffed animals and the knitted hats that Terri has sent as well. My heart swells with joy when I experience people wanting to help others.

In other news, David’s trip to Japan has been postponed; Some DOD and other stuff that I could tell you more about, but then I would have to kill you. So, my timing is a little off with my trip. I prefer not to be gone when David is at home, but he insisted that I go on. I am grateful for his support, since I had already committed to being there. Oh, did I mention I am going to Pascagoula on Wednesday? I am going to the Central Church of Christ and working for a few days in whatever way that I can. I am ashamed that it has taken me this long to get away down there, but am anxious to go and do what I can.

My Crimson Tide didn’t fare so well this weekend. I told you a couple of weeks ago that I had taught Matthew to say “Roll Tide”. Well his word of the week is “I don’t know”. So I could just ask him what happened to the Tide in the 2nd half and he could say “I doe noooo” and that would sum up the situation.

I hate how much pleasure I took in the troubles of Kurt Busch. I have made no pretense of not liking him. I even talked about it last year. I just wish it didn’t bring me joy to see him brought down a notch or two!

Speaking of joy, I owe Khris a post from a tag, and Chris has given me a topic to write on that I will combine with the tag. You can see the results of that below.

Enjoy this rainy Monday.

I received the following tag from Khris:
Here's how it works. When you are tagged you must post 10 interesting and little known facts about yourself.

Chris’s request: List 25 things that make me happy (besides my purple hi-tops…aw man!)

Since I do not have a lengthy or even a short list of interesting things about me, perhaps it will be interesting and little known what makes me happy….however, I must start with a disclaimer. I don’t think anything can “make” me or anyone else happy. Happiness is a choice, more of an attitude that an event. I am very happy though and I can list moments of “joy” that help to make me the happy person that I am. Here goes….

1. My grandson
   a. The way he gets so excited when he sees his Mi-Mi
   b. The way he says “I don’t know”
   c. His constant activity
   d. I laugh out loud when he dances! So incrediblely cute!
2. The anticipation of triplets.
3. Family time with my kids and their families
4. Family time with my brothers and parents
5. Time spent intellectually sparring with my husband
6. Time spent taking a nap with my husband (OK taking a nap, period)
7. Walking outside barefooted in November
8. Leaves falling
9. Sunshine warming my skin
10. Feeling the wind blow
11. Moonlit nights, especially on the lake
12. Gorgeous sunsets
13. My dogs
14. Starting a good book
15. Finding out there is a sequel to one of my favorite books
16. Buying a book
17. Writing my thoughts
18. Going back and reading what I have written and thinking Wow, I wrote that!
19. Time spent with my girl-friends
20. Mexican Restaurants with a best friend
21. Playing tennis
22. Figuring out a problem through logic
23. Comments on my blog post
24. Worshipping God in song with others
25. Meeting brothers and sisters here on earth while looking forward to meeting them again in heaven!
    
    

I didn’t even get to beaches, boats and all that stuff. Life is good, find joy in ordinary moments!

There was a time when I was
in a hurry as you are
I was like you
There was a day when I just
had to tell my point of view
I was like you
Now I don't mean to make you frown
No, I just want you to slow down

Have you never been mellow?
Have you never tried
to find a comfort from inside you?
Olivia Newton John 1975


Sometimes, I feel like someone needs to “slow me down”. This morning I am tired. I hit the alarm and went back to sleep instead of working out and I slept until 7:15!! Still I feel tired. Maybe I am just trying to get too much done. Maybe I am just playing too much. I don’t know what it making me so tired, but I am tired of feeling tired!

Work is slow. Rates are up, people are thinking about the holidays, nobody really needs their friendly mortgage lender right now. You would think that would be a great time to catch up on everything…NOT! The less I have to do, the less I get done. I am a deadline worker. I work much better when under pressure. Have I “never been mellow?”

With my diminishing income and Christmas right around the corner I am resolving to make some changes. I love to buy people things they need or ever want, (I do NOT like buying someone something just to be buying something) but who says we have to do that ALL on December 25th. I want to change the way we “do” Christmas, but as of yet I don’t have a plan.

I must learn to give all things to God. I must learn to echo the words of David's prayer in Psalms 16 (The Message)

Day and night I'll stick with GOD;
I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.
I'm happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell--
that's not my destination!

Woo Hoo! (this line is NOT from the Message)

Happy Birthday to my wonderful friend Sharon!

Friends in this life come and go. You feel special indeed when you have a friend for over 15 years. Sharon is that sweet wonderful long time friend for me. While other relationships come and go, ours has only gotten better. She warms my heart and calms my soul. She can be counted on to stand by you and to stand up for you. We have shared many of lifes journeys together and now are learning to be Grandmas at the same time. I count it an honor and priveledge to call Sharon my friend, my sister. I love you girl!

It was quite the exciting weekend at my house. David’s back was getting better until we had a little commotion at our house Saturday night. I have told you about the quiet peaceful road we live on. Well at 1:00 Sunday morning cars were traveling this road and stopping in our driveway and on the side of our road beside our privacy fence. My dog Hooch was going nuts; his bark is much worse than his bite. David jumped up out of the bed to see what was going on. This helped put back into a relapse. Then somebody we all know (and some of us love) left a 10 lb free weight in the floor beside her chair. Unsuspecting back aching husband makes contact with said weight with his prominent middle toe. Said toe is now black, blue, purple and swollen and “that someone” we all know (and sometimes love) is serving more time in the doghouse with Hooch.

Despite his injuries David was ready to charge outside and tell these folks that they could not stay there. I however would not let him. I mean he couldn’t even outrun them if they decided to throw rocks at him. So instead we called the cops. In a record time of 45 minutes they showed up to break up the party. Now, I have no problem with people having a party at their house, but when they park and urinate in my driveway and disrupt my sleep…..they have got to go! I was back in the bed by 2:45 but David said the party was not completely disbursed until around 4:00. The officer came back to give David another report and yes, I slept through it.

I was thinking about the plusses and minuses of living where we do while downloading pictures from my camera. I had wanted to drive up to the mountains a couple of weeks ago, just to enjoy the beauty. But there is a lot of beauty right out my front door. I know that we all sometimes long for something special something a little out of the ordinary. But we miss many blessings and much beauty when we are always looking beyond where we are.

My little brother has started a blog! Check him out here!

In the attempt to try and keep the pleasure in my habits, I resolved on the way to play tennis last night that I was going to have fun and play hard! It is easy to slip into the tentative mode for me and just play trying not to get beat. But if I am going to spend my time doing something, I want to enjoy it fully. So, with this in mind, I went out and kicked a little “booty”. Our team beat the formerly unbeaten #1 team, and it was a lot of fun.

However, as in most things, choices made that involve enjoying one thing come at the expense of something else. Namely, time spent at home with my husband. When I arrived home at 10:30 he was not as excited about my win as I was. He is very patient with me, but at times cannot help but show his displeasure with my extra-curricular activities. (is that even right when you are not talking about school?) So, a taste of guilt clouded my otherwise enjoyable night of tennis. I will just leave Friday and Saturday free to focus totally on him.

My nugget today from The Screwtape Letters is to “just do it”. Wormwood is encouraged to keep his humans thinking and even writing about all of the good ideals they have and the works they ponder doing. The bottom line in being a successful “demon” is just to keep your human from actually “doing” anything. I just turned the CD player off at that point. Man, I can write up a storm! But what am I DOING!! My personal “demon” has had it pretty easy. I am resolving today to make his job a lot tougher; I am going to strap on my Nike’s and “Just Do It!” How about you!!

I am enjoying my C.S. Lewis books on CD. I finished Mere Christianity and started The Screwtape Letters. The problem with listening to a book versus reading one is taking note of a particular saying that you want to remember. I replayed this one part this morning 5 or 6 times, but still could not get it to stick in my mind enough to leave the car and transcribe (possibly this has something to do with the heavy English accent and vernacular). So I sat in my car after arriving at the office from the gym, sweat dripping, and played this part with pen in hand. I felt that it was important for me to remember.

Screwtape is explaining that it is not necessary to keep tempting Christians with new pleasures because; “Habit renders the pleasure of vanity & excitement and flippancy at once less pleasant and harder to forgo, (for that is what habit does to a pleasure)."

Hasn’t that happened to you? Something you found so much pleasure in not only loses a lot of its appeal, you find that you are no longer truly enjoying the experience. Yet at the same time you just can’t give it up. You cannot imagine life without the pleasure, you are sure without it you would be incomplete.

To think of this as a tool of Satan scares me and yet humbles me at the same time. I think I am in control of things. I am making choices, but what is influencing those choices? God is the only one who can create “pleasure”. Our abuse, overuse or even neglect is what makes pleasure sinful and a crutch to which we are addicted.

So the song that comes to my mind this morning is Chicago’s “Hard Habit to Break”. Maybe we should guard against making anything in life a “habit” (well except maybe the hard things we don’t like anyway like EXERCISE!!) To keep our minds and our hearts fresh and open to the things that the Spirit wants us to see, to know, and to experience we have got to get out of the ruts that habit create. We have got to be wiling to take a chance and see if we can fly. I do not think that God gave us pleasure in life and then asks us to give it all up. With our hearts and our minds turned to him, we must find the path that brings great joy where we will truly have an abundant life.

Football is a peculiar sport. You have 11 men (boys) on each team and yet often the outcome of any game is laid on the shoulders of one player. Our local high school made it to the play-offs this past weekend. The star quarterback who already has secured scholarships was unable to play. The team lost without the head of their offense. Many in the community were upset that he was not allowed to play. What was his offense? DUI; I applaud the coach for his stand. If anyone should be upset it is the other players who counted on this boy as a leader.

My Crimson Tide is sputtering along at 9-0. But since the injury to our razzle-dazzle receiver and punt returner Tyrone Prothro, the offense has fizzled. We have our quarterback Brody Croyle, who was credited with the failings of the offense last season when he went out with an injury. And while Pro was not in on every play and most of us didn’t see his loss as being devastating to the offense, it has been. Whether it is a matter of leadership, or just knowing that explosive possibility is there, without him the team is not as strong, not as complete.

This week the Tide’s center J.B. Closner went down with a broken leg. Talk about a player who is taken for granted by everyone but the quarterback. Suddenly Brody was not sure of his snaps. He almost mishandled several as they just were not relayed in the way he was used to. Even after the game was in hand the quarterback could not be replaced because you needed sure hands to offset any mis-snaps. I am sure the back up center will improve with practice this week, but Closner will be missed.

Church is much like this. Much as we like to think we can come and go as we please and things will go on the same without us, the “team” is not complete when we are not there. We may see our role as insignificant or unappreciated, but there is someone who is counting on us, someone depending on our smile or warm touch to help them through the week. We may not be the star. It may be that many will not notice if we are not there. But for any body or any team to be its strongest everyone has to participate, everyone has to be counted on.

I don’t like this analogy. I would rather think that I can come and go as I please.

My sweet husband is down in his back. I mean he can hardly get up out of the chair. This is bad enough to suffer through normally, but he is flying to Japan next Sunday (I know, his arms will get tired too!). You know there is nothing worse on your back than a long flight like that.

So if you have a moment, say a prayer for his swift recovery.

Thanks

I have been tagged by Chris Lockhart. In his response he gave a deep and profound thought from the sentence he pulled from his archives. Don’t look for great insight here.


The rules:
1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas…
5. Tag five people to do the same.
From July 19, 2004: The post related to the day before when Terri and I had traveled to Crossbridge Church of Christ in Birmingham. We had enjoyed a day of worship with Greg Miles, Gary Brantley and all of our other new friends at Crossbridge.

“This is truly a group of people who love God and effectively express that love and praise to Him during their time together. “

I don’t know that there is any greater meaning than what I wrote. The only subtext or hidden agenda I can think of is that they had something I was looking for. The sincerity of their praise, the unstructured and yet organized gathering made us both feel welcomed, loved, and right at home. The most memorable thing was the strong feeling of the presence of God during the time of worship. I know that this church is no more perfect than any of the rest of us are. But, they have a Spirit there that I love. I feel a return trip coming on!

So there you have it.

I would like to tag
Terri
Jenni
Mae
Khris
JettyBetty

If you have already done this for someone else don’t worry about it. I didn’t go back and read all of your archives to check. I know I have done this for somebody but I think I did it as a comment. This time it gave a little stretch room to find a better post or sentence just in case your sentence was something like “I was pooped!” Have fun!

I got a coupon in the mail for a discount on Good Housekeeping magazine. As I sat and looked at it last night I was thinking “some day I will enjoy a magazine like this”. Then it hit me….No I won’t! No matter how much I want to think that I will some day be the crafty, decorating, cooking, sewing and general domestic diva that I dreamed I would be, it probably is not going to happen. In a sense it was liberating to just let that go. Sure it would be nice to be the Mimi that the grandkids love to come to her house and eat, but it might be cool to have the Mimi who will grab a pizza and take you to the park too.

Terri spoke yesterday of readjusting dreams and plans to accept this reality of our lives. I think accepting ourselves where we are, with the strengths and weaknesses we have been given will liberate many of us from our own unrealistic goals and expectations. I am not suggesting that we quit growing and setting goals, I just think we need to revisit the purpose behind them from time to time. I mean really, why would I want to be the same kind of grandmother that my mom is? Don’t get me wrong, she is great; but she is not ME!

Perhaps the most important thing we can do in life is to be the best at being ourselves. Forgetting all the expectations of others and embracing the life we have been given in Christ. The most glorious thought of all is that it will continue beyond the boundaries of this earth. I am just praying I won’t be expected to fix that perfect casserole on the other side…..

Do you have an ugly side? No I am not talking about my HUGE hips or my squinty little eyes. I sometimes have an ugly, ugly problem of being petty, envious and resentful. How’s that for being real! I don’t like the way it makes me feel. I don’t like feeling that way. I have no reason or justification for feeling that way, and yet it rears its ugly head when I least expect it.

The good news is, I recognize it quickly for what it is. I don’t dwell in it and turn it into a big monster that I can’t conquer. Perhaps the Spirit living in me is helping me to grow up. I just wish He could take over completely where I wouldn’t slip into my moments of being the “beast”.

I love a new month; a clean piece of paper (or computer screen) an un-scribbled on calendar, the disappointments and failures of a previous month put to rest, written off as the past!

As I sit typing this morning there is an unusual sound outside my window. Oh my! The heavens have opened up and are pouring water on the earth! Oh yes, that is just rain. It has been so long I forgot all about it.

I was reviewing some of what I wrote last month. Just last Monday I was talking about being in a “funk”. Last night I was thinking how very content I was. I couldn’t put my finger on what had changed, but I think it is the weather. (and perhaps a little of this). With the cold snap, I snapped out of my weirdness. I accepted the place I am in life and truly counted my blessings. Sometimes I am afraid my moods are like the weather in Alabama, if I don’t like the one I am in, I can just wait a little while, it will change.

I must tell you that listening to the CS Lewis book on CD has been great for me. I expand my mind while driving and knowing that I am using this time for spiritual learning I am free to read “fun” stuff at home. Last night I reviewed 6 months of tennis magazines. I read the latest exploits of Stone Barrington over the weekend and I am ready to start a new book tonight!

In addition I am learning a lot from the book. Well, maybe I am not learning anything new, but I am being reminded of things I need to think about. Today’s poignant point for me is that Christianity is about men learning to imitate Christ; living their lives as He lived his. When the church or any other program emphasizes anything other than this they are getting away from Christianity. It is strange that I heard that this morning. Just yesterday I was having a conversation with my son that the whole purpose of the church’s meetings should be about edification and encouragement. It is a lot easier to “praise and worship” on your on. It is easier to get your mind in the right frame without distraction. But we need each other. We need someone to share our loads and to assure us that we are not the only ones who struggle. I think we also need to be assured that we are not the only ones trying. When I come to church services but fail to connect with anyone who is there I might as well stay home. If we are truly striving to be like Christ we cannot help but share with those around us. Maybe Christ living in you will be speaking to me when we meet. Maybe Christ living in me will talk to you. Either way we sure don’t want to limit the possibilities!