proper vessels ~

The vessel from which you drink, directly affects the enjoyment, and taste of what you drink...especially with diet coke, wine and coffee.

goals ~

Fisher has his first baseball game of the season tonight!!! Fisher's goal - home run; my goal - not to run along side Fisher to first base this year screaming RUN! (behind the fence of course).

'best-est' just works sometimes ~

One of my sweetest, best-est (I know that is not a word, but it just works sometimes) friends in the whole world is my friend Dana. We just “get” the same stuff. Laughter is an accessory to us, and though we can escape to deeper thinking, it is almost always accompanied by humor paving the way. Humorous scenario's seem to become mile markers and memorials in the history of our friendship...this is one of those memorials ~

Dana is a diabetic, and has been since she was 15 years old. As with most diabetics, when she was pregnant, she was “high risk,” but her pregnancy developed some more serious complications and so she had to be on bed rest most of the time. She did get out every once in a while but it was usually in a wheelchair.

Well, one Sunday, she was dropped off at the door of our church and as she was getting out of the car she chose to leave her middle finger in the door as she shut it. No other finger was a casualty of this happening… just the middle finger (how that is physically possible is beyond me) …she whimpered a bit and made her way into the church service. I was not present for any of this but I come into the scene later…

Sooooo… she is sitting in church waiting for the service to start, and she begins to feel the pain welling up in her finger…and upon further investigation she notices that it is rapidly becoming the size of a link of Jimmy Dean Sausage. Well either the sight of this or all the blood leaving her head and going to her finger cause her to feel a bit “queasy” and so she got up and headed to the kitchen area behind the sanctuary.

Here the scene turns quite dramatic…You see, during Dana’s pregnancy she was like a “rare and precious pearl” to all who knew her…it was difficult for her to get pregnant, and then to top it off with her diabetes and high risk pregnancy…she was like a walking emergency room…drama ensued everywhere she went…(I think she kind of liked it...shhh)

Well I innocently made my way to the kitchen to refill my coffee before the service started and this is the scene I find…(get ready)… Dana spread out on the long Kitchen table…lying there on her back, hands folded across her chest as if she is in a coffin. It was like a scene from ER, there were people moving 90 miles an hour grabbing ice and fanning her and yelling frantically... “Get help…get help”

If I had not have been concerned for her pregnancy, I probably would have laughed out loud…(that is just the way it is with us) it was quite the 911…so I rush over to her to see if she is like in labor??? or in a diabetic coma ??? or bleeding about the head and face???…and to my surprise and relief, she looks at me, whimpers, and holds up her swollen middle finger and says… “I slammed it in the car door…it really hurts”…I think I actually laughed out loud while others looked at me in disbelief. Trust me, my “inappropriate” laughter, was accompianed by a deep relief... it was just a finger 911 and not a baby 911…not a Dana 911

For the rest of the service she remained there on the kitchen table. With others checking on her periodically (me included), and to this day when I picture her 4’11 frame with her 8 month tummy and her swollen middle finger lying flat on her back on the table in the very middle of our little church kitchen I laugh…If only I had brought a camera…I am sure the visitors that day were quite confused.

Well, that finger of her's still has a mark under the nail and her beautiful daughter is now 6 years old…I guess the drama was merited, but hey, even merited drama can still be comical...at least when it comes to the two of us...thanks for the laughs, looking forward to many more mile markers...they make the journey much more fun!

familiar nets ~

Matthew 4:18 reads, “Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw… Peter…casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And He said, Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” My son’s name comes from this verse...He can tell you that he will become a fisher of men, “catching them for Jesus!”

When I consider this call, I think, wow, what an invitation right?But, then again, not really… I don’t think Christ was politely asking …he was, in his wonderful authoritative way, commanding… Scripture says Peter immediately left his net and followed…why did he respond so quickly? Remember this was his livelihood…probably all he knew…and he had never met this stranger calling him so boldly from the beach…he had no obvious reason to go and no reason to follow…but this was his call to service and Peter’s response illustrates how authoritative, direct and powerful Christ’s commanding invitation must have been!

So I think, what familiar places am I willing to leave the comforts of for something presently I know nothing about? Have I entered into His authoritative command on my life to come and be a part of all that he has prepared for me? (Eph 2:10) Peter did, and what an amazing journey he began, journeys where he walked on water, and witnessed the many miracles of Christ…a journey miles apart from the life of a fisherman in the Sea of Galilee. I don’t want to miss my journey and the “big stuff” waiting there...I pray that I am not still holding onto familiar nets in my own Sea of Galilee.

Peter’s journey was one full of a zealous love and heart for Christ and His ministry. He was so full of passion...he truly “got it”…even Christ tells him that in Matt. 16:17. After asking His disciples “who do you say that I am” Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” And Christ says to him… “Blessed are you Peter, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father in heaven.” He knew now who the seemingly bossy stranger calling him from the beach truly was and what that meant for him. When I think of my children, this is what I pray for them...that they understand what flesh and blood cannot “reveal,” but only the pricking of their hearts by their “Father in Heaven.”

I hope I don’t just get it once though, I hope to keep “getting it,” I want to continue in understanding who this maker is that pursues me with an unquenchable love? I don’t know that I “get it” all the time, but I have moments, days and perhaps seasons like Peter’s…when I say… “Wow…You are the Christ”…I hope to keep getting to know this authoritative companion who walks with me in life, but who also holds my future in his hand. I want to keep “getting it” more deeply.

But it is so comforting to read that Peter still had moments of weakness and confusion… Matthew 26:58 describes the zealous believer who had just proclaimed Him “the Christ” now, after Jesus’ arrest, following behind him “from a distance”…ouch…now he is lingering further away from this redeemer and following him “in secret.” “What happened to you Peter?”…I want ask as I read…and then I stop and think of my own life…as much as I think “I get it,” I know that I have areas of my life that I find myself, like Peter…following “from a distance”… areas that are hard for me to fully give up control. …Nets that are too familiar to just drop and walk away from for the unknown that awaits in following my savior totally and completely…so I stop and reconsider Peter and his denial and distant following…and begin to search myself and creep closer to the provider of all my needs and strive to follow more closely and more completely.

One of my favorite parts in scripture about Peter is found after Christ’s death resurrection…Acts 4:13 “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter…and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” Wow…what redemption…what restoration…what completion…He was fully living the call on his life…before he had been trailing his Lord at a distance, hoping not to be associated with this radical savior, and here we find him healing in the name of Christ and living in such a way that others were amazed and recognized him as “having been with Jesus.” Freed from the fear of association. I love the restoration and mercy this highlights for us all.

I too, want to try to drop my familiar nets…all of them…and respond quickly to the commands of Christ and his call on my life, leaving the familiar for the extraordinary, holding tight to the truth, striving to “get it” more deeply, giving over the areas that are “following at a distance” to the point that someday…hopefully…others recognize that I have been with Jesus. So for now…Lord…Show me the nets, help me to drop them and give met the courage to follow!

beth moore was my roommate ~

So, you know those questions you get asked from time to time..."If you could choose from anyone in the world...Who would you have over for dinner?...who would you want for your best friend?...etc."  Well, my answer is very easy and requires very little thought time...Beth Moore...

Every time I see her on a new teaching video, I actually get butterflies (weird, I know)..., and I find myself leaning in closer and closer to the screen to just get some clue, some hint as to how she does it. Like a kid would study Andre Johnson play football, I too, study how she teaches... like for example, last week she kept pulling little sticky notes off of a piece of paper  and moving them around.So, I got lost in thought about what was on all those sticky notes...a verse...a personal story... a joke??? What was it? I even said something out loud once without even realizing it to the woman next to me... I leaned over and said “what is she doing with the sticky notes?” and she said, “What sticky notes?”   ha...well...this is how it is with Beth and me, and I love it.

I am writing this because just last week on Tuesday night I had a funny dream about Beth. In my dream we were both on some kind of Ladies weekend retreat. And, somehow she was my roommate. Obviously, this makes no sense, but wow, this dream was so real. I don't remember much about the details of the dream, but I do remember that it was a blast...it was fun, funny and inspiring all at the same time. I woke up and told my husband that I had just met Beth Moore. He looked confused...but that's par for us ~ 

So, the funny thing is that yesterday, I got a text from a friend who works at Beth’s grandson’s preschool. She told me that Beth Moore had just dropped off her grandson...“BUTTERFLIES,” was all I could text back.  She responded by offering me a "chance" to see her at 2:30 when she came back up to pick him up.

But, 2:30 came and went, and my “chance” went with it. The way I see it, you cannot manufacture a dream...And a dream of mine is to meet her (ok...and like maybe have dinner with her...and like maybe be besties...).  And when I say meet her, I don't mean because of some synthetic chance that came from a tip in the form of a text from a friend who has her grandson in a local preschool. 

You see, for some reason, since my dream, I feel a bit differently about who she is and how much I admire her. I love the passion she has for women and scripture and her "man",  but something else hit me... I have complete, unwavering confidence that someday we will get that meeting, and it won’t be by chance. 

Because...Wow...We get to share eternity together! And I believe there we will get to talk at great length about all the things we love...about scripture, and history, and learning, and Jesus and the prophets, and prayer, and studying...and more studying..., and obeying, and "our men," and motherhood, and mostly women...precious women, women we teach, women we love and women we pray truth finds...OH...and I will finally learn what she does with all the stick notes ~ soooo....until then, I still hope with all my heart to run into her this side of Heaven, but if not, then, I will be content with simply bunking with her on a random retreat in my dream...it was a blast, after all!

effort counts for something, right? ~

I love making plans, lists, categorizing...so the idea of new years goals is heavenly..At the end of each year I set aside some time to "fine tune"...I divide my life up into categories and evaluate how I am doing in each of those areas...then I think of a few "un-overwhelming" ways to tweak those areas a bit in order to be moving forward in each...so as not to be stagnant. The way I see it, if I don't evaluate I'll never learn where I am stagnant, ya know...to some this list might seem overwhelming, but it is just a personal evaluation...I don't have a "paid-job" but this is the same kind of thing they do in the business world...right??? So, why not do a year end evaluation in my own private world...ya know! Anyway, most of the list involves "reading something" because I am an addicted learner, and I think that learning is the key to improving...knowing how. So that is really what most of the areas consist of...something to read rather than do...but my hope is that once I read, I will then "do" what I have learned. So having said that...T These are my "Goals for 2009!" As far as when I find the time to read all of this...usually in the a.m. between 5 - 7 or in the bed at night before going to sleep...I never read during the day...I can't find the time...oh, and just like with every list in my life...much will get pushed to the next list...2010...but hey, effort counts for something right?

2009 New Year Goals

Spiritual Goals –

Scripture memory ~ larger chunks (Beginning with Psalm 23, and Psalm 91)

Read He that is spiritual - Chafer

Read The Divine Conspiracy - Willard

Read The spirit of the disciplines - Willard

Physical Goals -

Vitamins – (Jeff sets them out for me every day, and I never take them.)

Brush teeth before bed - I know this one seems odd, but too many nights I just brush past the bathroom and b-line straight for the bed.

Skin care regiment - Hello...40 is not that far.

Personal Goals –

Read The Biography of George Muller

Read Through the gates of splendor - Elliot

Read Biography of Eric Lidell

(I would like to focus on amazing acts of others)

Watch College Football

Learn and understand photoshop and get a SLR Camera (I was motivated by the pictures we had taken in November - I don't want to go into business, just capture the great moments of life in my house as it happens...I thought...if she (the photographer can do this, I can do this...not always the case with everything, but worth a try)

Social Goals –

Keep up better with my girlfriends by initiating more phone calls - I get on auto pilot way too much...I can forget to look up!

Service Goals –

I want to make our support of Village Schools International in Tanzania more infused into our family through pictures,(one is shown above) and reading the ministry updates to the family.

Family Service projects

Marital Goals –

Re-read The Excellent Wife – Peace

Read The Love Dare

Continue bi-monthly date nights w/ sitter

Parenting Goals –

Read Raising Kids that turn out right – Kimmal

Re-read Being a Great mom raising great kids - Jaynes

Re-read Grace based parenting – Kimmal

Memorize our family blueprint and teach it to our children...infuse it into our home(I will list the blue print here)

Camping – do it (twice next year)

Scripture memory w/ kids

Daily devotionals with kids

Family meeting/devos - short and sweet - once a week!

Fantasy Goal -

meet and become good friends with Beth Moore