One Woman's Thoughts

Real Faith

2012-02-01T17:20:00.002-06:00

I ran across the picture today and it reminded me that sometimes, and quite often most times, having real Faith means to wait, to listen, to watch for God. I think we can get so caught up in how the world operates, (express lanes, fast food, microwaves, etc.) that we forget that all things do not come quickly.

In our spiritual walk sometimes things not coming quickly can be very discouraging, it can be hard, it can even be painful. It can even cause us to lose our way if we get caught up in waiting for answers that do not come. It's hard to remember that God's timing is not our timing. It's sometimes hard to remember that God has a plan even if we can't see it yet. But sometimes real faith, means waiting. Real faith means years of tears and wondering if God is really listening. But most of all, real faith means trust. It means trusting in God even when we see no answers. It means trusting that God has a plan even if we can't see it yet. It means trusting that God's timing is perfect.

This picture reminded me of that today. It's reminds that faith is more than just belief. It's trusting, waiting and fully expecting what we pray so desperately for. It's knowing that God's timing is perfect because He is GOD and I am NOT!

but those who hope in the Lord will renew
their strength. They will soar on wings like
eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Blessings!

A New Year

2012-01-01T00:56:00.005-06:00

Well, it is now 2012! I have been hearing a lot over the last few days about new year's resolution, changes people are going to make, things people are going to do differently, etc. And while I think it is always good to look toward the future, I think it's also good to remember where we've been. What things or people did God bless us with is 2011? What friendships grew stronger? What love grew deeper? What challenges did God lay before us? Did God call us to do things in 2011 that we didn't think we were prepared to do? If so, did we allow Him to use us even if we didn't think we had anything offer?

These are just some of questions we could ask ourselves about 2011. I am excited about the new year and what it holds. What opportunities God will lay before me, what challenges I will face, what things I will overcome and what things I will have to praise Him for in 2012. But I am also excited to see where I've been in 2011. To be reminded of the things I've overcome, the people in my life that I love dearly, the close friends I share life with, the tremendous blessings God has filled me with in the midst of sometimes terrible storms.

God is Good... Always! And whether I am looking at what God has brought me through or looking ahead to see where He will lead me next, I know that He will always be with me. I know that I will have faith through all circumstances. I know that I never stand alone.

May God bless each of you as move into 2012. May he fill you with the warmth and comfort of His love and may you remember what He has already done for you in 2011.

Blessings!

Being Thankful

2011-11-30T17:43:00.003-06:00

The last couple of years someone came up with the great idea on Facebook to post something you are thankful for every day during the month of November. I love the idea! I have participated in this the last 2 Novembers. This November however, as the end of November was approaching, I really began to think, "How thankful are we? Really..."

As I say that, I don't mean to take anything away from everyone posting things they are thankful for everyday. I LOVE the fact that so many do this. I love the way it makes me think everyday about things I am thankful for. But it also reminds of how many times I am thankful and yet don't acknowledge or praise God for His blessings.

There are so many things we take for granted every day. Things like water, food, shelter, clothing, even breathing. We tend to forget to thank God for these things. And I find that we sometimes sadly forget to thank God for the bigger thinks as well... when someone's surgery goes well, when that new job or promotion comes through, when a baby is born, etc. I know that we all pray and ask God for His direction, His strength, His courage, His ... fill in the blank; but when those things come to pass to do we always remember to "thank Him" for the outcome? Sometimes we get so caught up in our moment of need, that in the moment of relief or success we are so excited we forget to thank God.

So many things in our life, especially our spiritual life, have to be intentional. We live in a busy world, with lots of places to go, people to see and things to do. If we want to pray, we have to intentionally set aside time to pray. If we want to study God's word, we have to intentionally set aside time to study. And after this month of being thankful for something specific every day, I think it's time (for me at least) to start being intentional in my conversations with God to thank Him for something in my life every day. We are always thankful for the necessities... food, shelter, etc, and while those are wonderful things to be thankful for, I want to be more intentional in my thanks. I want to dig deep and find meaningful things to be thankful for. There is so much that goes on in our lives that we simply take for granted. I want to become more aware and learn to recognize those things daily so that I can be thankful to God daily instead of waiting until next November rolls around.

Even when days or times are tough, there is still so much to be thankful for. I think it's time I start acknowledging God more for those things, blessings and people that I am thankful for!

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks

in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you

in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Blessings!

Seeing As Jesus Sees

2011-11-05T19:15:00.007-05:00

I'm reading the book, "The Furious Longing of God" by Brennan Manning. I'm only about a third of the way into the book, but I read something a couple of days ago that I have continued to think about. He says... "The outstretched arms of Jesus exclude no one, neither the drunk in the doorway, the panhandler on the street, gays and lesbians in their isolation, the most selfish and ungrateful in their cocoons, the most unjust of employers and the most overweening of snobs. The love of Christ embraces all without exception."

While those are words that as a Christian should come as no surprise to us, why is it that we seem to look at people and make a determination about them based on what we first see. I think most of us when we see someone on the street, in a restaurant, in a grocery store and even in our churches base our first impression of someone on what we initially see. On whether they are dressed right, whether they look "proper", who they are with, and on and on. But how often do we look at someone and have our first impression be... Jesus loves them too!

After reading that a couple of days ago, I started "noticing" people when we went out to lunch. I looked around the room at all the different faces, all the different types of people, all the different races, all the different clothes and started trying to see each of them with the eyes of Jesus. I found myself wondering as I looked at their faces and their expressions, what was going on in their lives and reminding myself that Jesus loved them no matter what that might be.

We like to think we are always trying to imitate Jesus. And I think that most of the time we probably do a pretty good job. But when you think of the list of people described above, you probably don't think about those people actually being in our churches. But whether we realize it or not, they are already there. And those are the people who are coming to our churches to see if the people inside really are like Jesus. Do they walk the walk or do they just talk about it. And they are looking to see if we really will love them like Jesus loves them. And if we are supposed to be the representation of Christ, how are we going to show God's love to them if we don't see them as He sees them? How will they feel welcomed and loved by Christ if we are judging rather than loving?

The next time we look at some one who we think doesn't dress appropriately, I hope we remember that Jesus looks at them and says "they are beautiful no matter what they are wearing". When we look at someone whose lifestyle might not be what we would choose, I hope we remember that Jesus looks at them and says, "I love them even so". And when we see people, even in our churches, who may look or act differently than we think they should, I hope we remember that Jesus sees them and says, "I love you and I'm so glad you are here!"

I pray that we can all remember that Jesus excludes no one; we therefore, should not exclude anyone either. And I pray that we will see everyone through the eyes of Jesus and remember that He loves them, just as much as He loves us... no matter what.

Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
I John 4: 7-8

Blessings!

Watching For God

2011-07-14T09:45:00.008-05:00

Our latest sermon series at Highland Oaks was called Engage. While at first look it actually always makes me think of Captain Picard in "Star Trek the Next Generation" because that was the word he used when it was time to take off... :-) the sermon series was actually about engaging the people we come in contact with everyday; people from all walks of life. Our minister, Pat Bills, actually had a different person come in each week, all from a different journey in life and have a conversation with them about what they wanted "us" to know about them and their journey. It was a wonderful & enlightening series! You can actually check it out here if you'd like at hocc.org. By clicking on the Engage graphic you can watch the video of each sermon.

That series has caused me to want to be more aware of the people around me and their circumstances. I want to always be ready to Engage anyone. Whether it's with a smile, a kind word, a drink of water, whatever it is that God presents me with or asks me to do.

As you probably know, I work for Highland Oaks. This week while I had been thinking about the Engage series, I went out of our building to take the days mail to the mailbox. There was a lady sitting on the bench outside of our doors. I asked her if I could help her with something and she said "no, I'm just waiting on the food pantry to open". We then went on to have a wonderful conversation and she started asking me about our church. I gave her some general information and she asked me how long we had here at this location. She said "I have lived here for a long time and I have never noticed this building before this week". I told her God must have had a reason for her to see it now. She told me that she would love to come to church on Sunday but first she was going to have to see about her shoes because they weren't very comfortable. She was talking about her "Sunday" shoes. I told her she was great the way she was dressed and to come and not worry about her "shoes". She plans to come and I hope that I run into her again.

When I came back into the building as I walking to the elevator I saw this coming around the concourse through a stream of light. There was no one else in that area of the building except for me. After what had just happened with the lady outside I immediately thought, "that looks like the footprints of Jesus". It reminded me that no matter where we are or what we are doing, God is providing us with an opportunity. God is putting someone in our path. Not someone to preach to, or someone we need to convince to come to church, etc. Not that those are bad things, but sometimes God is putting someone in our path who just needs a smile, needs a drink of water, needs pleasant conversation and most of all needs love. Sometimes God puts people in our path so that we can touch them with the fingerprints and footprints of Him. I know that God had me go to the mailbox at that particular time for a reason. Because 9 times out of 10, I don't go to the mailbox. I take the mail when I leave. But that day, God had a purpose; and I was blessed because of it!

My prayer is that I will always be aware of the people that God puts in my path. I hope this lady comes to church on Sunday so that she can receive more of what God has to offer her. But that's not why I spoke to her. And if she doesn't come on Sunday, that's ok too. I did what God asked me to do in that moment. I'll let Him worry about the rest of it.

I pray that I will continue to see opportunities to be the fingerprints and footprints of God. And that I will be the kind voice, the drink of water, the smile that someone needs. May God be Praised!

Blessings!

Faith in Our Churches

2011-03-31T09:11:00.009-05:00

God is so big... isn't He?? I ask that as a question because sometimes I think in our churches we forget just how big God really is. In our personal lives there are times when God calls us to step out in faith such as loss of job, requiring us to move, asking us to change something we've always done, etc. And, in our personal lives, we generally just do it, because we have no choice. If God closes a door, we have to step out in faith as we open another one.

Why in our churches is it so much harder to step out faith? If God calls our churches to move in a different direction, why do we generally resist that move? Is it because we don't have faith that God knows what He's doing? Or is it because it's different than we've always done it. If God's calls us to move out into the community and serve others rather than staying inside among ourselves do we move? Or do we stay in where it's familiar and comfortable? Sometimes we think different is wrong; but sometimes different, is just different.

I have learned over the years that God does not call us to be comfortable. He calls us to be obedient. If we stay where we are comfortable, are we being disobedient to where God is leading? Are we trusting God? Or are we putting our trust in ourselves?

My advice if you are feeling very comfortable, is watch out. I have found that when you start feeling comfortable, God is about to move you... again.

In our staff devotional time on Monday morning we studied in Numbers 9 and the cloud covering the tabernacle. When the cloud moved, they moved. When the cloud stopped, they set up camp; maybe for a day, maybe for a few days, maybe longer. But always, they followed the cloud and where it was leading.

Do we as churches have the faith they had to just pick up and follow God at a moments notice? If we don't, we should. And back to my first comment, "God is so big... isn't He"? We all know how big God really is, so why is it so hard to follow Him when He's calling us to something different, something that might have to make us move our of comfort zone?

I am very thankful to be a part of a church that is not afraid to go where God is leading. I am very thankful to be a part of church that is not afraid to let God out the box and just dream about the places God can take us. A church that is ready to get up and move when the cloud moves. A church that is ready to do more than take a hop of faith, it's ready to leap. I heard one of the speakers this past week at the Tulsa Workshop (I believe it was Rick Atchley) say, "We all know where we are going, but it's the journey that makes it exciting!"

Is your journey going to be one of excitement or one of fear? Are you ready to let God out of the box and find out How Big God really is? I'm thankful to be a part of a church where the journey matters; the excitement never ends and the fear of letting God out of the box is gone!

For I know the plans I have for you, "declares the
LORD," plans to prosper you and not harm you,
plans to give you hope and future.

Blessings!

Perfect... Is What We Are Not...

2011-03-09T21:25:00.008-06:00

We've been talking a lot at church about being the type of people God calls us to be; being Jesus to our community; being Jesus to those we come in contact with. I don't mean preaching to people, I just mean being Jesus to them. But for some reason that sometimes seems hard for us to do. It's hard for us to just except people where they are, except them for who they are. Could it be because we don't know how to be honest with ourselves? We don't know how to be honest about our relationship with Jesus and what He's done for us; so we really don't know how to be real with other people? Could it be that we are so worried about what others think of us, that we use that worry to judge others? That we judge others based on who we think we should be (therefore who we think they should be) rather than who we really are?

There is a Casting Crowns song called "Stained Glass Masquerade". The first part of the chorus of the song has the following words:

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles that hide our pain

I think that sometimes, deep down we are hurting. Maybe hurting so deeply that we have no idea how to reach out to others. We pretend that everything is ok and put on our happy plastic faces because that's what we think we are supposed to do. We put walls around our weakness because we are supposed to always be strong. We can't let people see the real us because they might not like what they see. We have built up these walls not only around ourselves but around our churches. We can't reach people and show them Jesus because for those on the outside looking in, we all look perfect, we have it all together; because that's what church people do right? We don't want to looked flawed, we want to look perfect. What we don't realize is that by trying to "look" perfect, we are missing opportunities to show others what Jesus is really all about. We are missing opportunities to tell others how we make it through our imperfect lives. We are turning people away from us without us realizing it because they feel like they can never measure up to this perfection image that we've unrealistically created. We know we really are not perfect, we know we really don't have it all together, but what we do know is that because of Jesus that doesn't matter. Maybe if we quit trying to be so perfect and let down the walls around us, then those we come in contact with either personally or through our churches might see more of who and what Jesus is really all about.

The second part of the chorus says,

But the invitations open
To every heart that's been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

If we begin to realize that God's invitation to us is to just come; to come and let Him heal our brokenness, maybe we can stop trying to be perfect. And maybe then we won't see so many flaws in those around us because we will realize more of our own flaws. There was only one perfect person and he died hanging on a cross for us. I think it's time we stop living for perfection and start living for Jesus and who He's called us to be.

May we all be a blessing to those we come in contact with as we show our imperfections and may we all be Jesus to those around us. If we can do that, God will take care of the rest.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I
will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that
Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ sake,
I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions,
in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12: 9,10

Blessings!

Being Filled With God's Glory

2011-02-01T11:40:00.001-06:00

We sang a song this past Sunday in church by the Zoe Group called "Let Your Glory Fall". I love that song. At Highland Oaks we are trying to be more intentional about being out in "our front yard". We want to be more intentional about being available to our community and being a good neighbor. I love that we are moving in that direction. It is what God has called us to be as His people.

The first part of that song says...

Let your glory fall in this room,
Let it go forth from here to the nations.
Let your fragrance rest in this place,
As we gather to seek your face.

I have not been able to get those phrases out of my mind. As we sang that song, we sang it as a church. And while I am extremely thankful and grateful that is who we want to be as a church, I cannot help but look at it from a personal perspective. The phrase "let your fragance rest in this place"... I want that more than anything. I want the fragance of God to rest in me personally. If it's not already resting in me, it's going to hard for it to rest in us as a church. But when I/we are around others, is that the fragance they smell? Do they smell the fragrance of God? Do they smell the fragrance of hope, of peace, of compassion, of love? Or do they smell the stench of judgment, of anger, of hatred.

If we want to be churches where the fragrance of God rest, we first have to be people where the fragrance of God rest. We have to individuals where the fragrance of God rest. Only then will that fragrance of God not only rest with us and within our churches but it will go forth into the nations as we show the world and our communities what God smells like.

We have staff devotionals every Monday morning. A great blessing of working in a church! While Monday's are a drudgery for many people, I love Monday's because of our devotional time. This Monday, we started with the following quote from Parker Palmer, Leading from Within... And it again reminded me of our song from Sunday morning.

"A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what's going on inside him or herself, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good."

So before we can have the fragrance of God as a church, we first have the fragrance of God within ourselves. Oh how I want to smell like him! Our minister Pat Bills is fond of saying at the end of our devotional time, "let those thoughts frame your week". My prayer is that the fragrance of God will frame me and then our churches always!

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let your glory be over all the earth.
Psalm 57:5

Blessings!

Time...

2011-01-25T17:05:00.000-06:00

Time... It's one of those things that is really hard to get a handle on. It seems like there is never enough of it; and it moves so fast we wonder where it went and then we wish we had more of it or could get it back.

The Rolling Stones sing a song called "Time is on my Side". While this song is more about a girl than it is time, the title does make me think. Because time really isn't on our side. From the moment we are born, our days are numbered. There is no infinite amount of time here on earth. There is no guarantee of how much time we will have or if we even have the time of tomorrow. Yet, I know I do not always make the best use of my time.

When you are young it seems like you have all the time in world, but the older you get the more you realize that time is fleeting. And time is such a hard thing to handle. If you work a full time job, work at home raising children, go to school full time etc., there are not many hours in the day that are truly your own.

How do we use the time that we call our own? I know that I don't always use my time in the best ways. It's really easy when you are busy all day to get home and really want to do nothing. To do what I call "vegging out" so you can just empty your mind and your thoughts. While that is definitely ok to do, I think sometimes we let ourselves fall into a trap of feeling like we just don't have time to do anything once we get home. We don't have time for prayer, we don't have time for bible study or reading books, we don't have time for exercise... the list could go on and on.

While I think it's very important to take time out to just rest & be still, it's also important not to let rest or "vegging out" take us over. We always find the time to do the things we really want to do. So even those things we say we want to do but we don't have time for, we really do have time for if it's important to us.

We have to be intentional about most things in our life that are important to us. Prayer, study, reading, spending time with our families, those are all intentional things. Time is no different. If we want to make the most of or even a better use of our time, we have to be intentional. Time is fleeting; and the older we get, the faster it goes. And if we aren't careful, one day we are really going to look up and say "where did the time go". We are not guaranteed tomorrow and only God knows how much time we truly have. I plan to be more intentional about my time and the things that are important to me. I wonder what life would look like if I was more intentional about my time every day. I wonder what it would look like if I started framing my day with what God wanted me to use my time for instead of what I want to use my time for. I don't want to miss anything God has in store for me and my time, so I plan to be more intentional and find out!

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

Blessings!

Jesus is the Reason...

2010-12-01T19:17:00.015-06:00

There is a video on Youtube that is going viral everywhere. You may have seen it. It's a video of unsuspecting shoppers at a mall food court who are suddenly surrounded by people singing the Hallelujah Chorus!

In case you haven't seen it, take a look!

It's amazing to me how the joy of that song begins to cause almost everyone to stand up and to join in with the singing. It brings tears to my eyes to see the joy & amazement on everyone's faces. Even the ones who aren't singing are obviously filled with joy over what they are witnessing.

Isn't that just the way Jesus is... He's joyous, He's uplifting, He brings hope, He's contagious! There is just something about Jesus that makes you smile. Something else I think is really cool... there has to be many denominations in the room. But in those moments, no one was worried about where the person next to them went to church or what denomination they were. They were focused on singing and praising Jesus. Jesus was the reason for the joy in that room and it was simply amazing!

I don't know whether or not this was planned or just spontaneous, either way it should really give us something to think about.

How many times when we feel moved by the spirit do we act on it; how many times do we let that opportunity slip by only to realize later the blessing that we missed. This time of year more people are talking about Jesus and people are open to Jesus more than any other time of the year. I pray that I will not miss out on the opportunities that are brought before me; not only during this Christmas season but everyday. I pray that when I have the chance, I will have the courage to stand up; even if I stand alone. Because as we see in this video, if one person stands up, there will likely be more that follow. And that is just way cool in my opinion!

Jesus is the reason things happen. Jesus causes excitement! If we focus on being Jesus with skin on in this world, amazing things are going to happen! I'm excited I get the chance to be a part of it!

Blessings to you and your family this holiday season!

Sunday... It's the Greatest!! (or at least it should be)

2010-11-07T20:06:00.001-06:00

Sunday.... it's one of my absolute favorite days! I LOVE getting together with friends who are like family singing praises to God and worshiping together. And hearing a wonderful sermon from God's word is just icing on the cake. There is just nothing like it! It's what gets me through the rest of the week!

I ran across this cartoon today. I've had it for a while and can't remember where I got it. It makes me laugh; but it also makes me very sad. God intends for us to come together to worship Him, to be built up, to just enjoy being together for the common purpose of being in His presence. How sad is it that sometimes there are those who come together just wondering what there is to complain about today. And like the cartoon says, they complain so much "they can't remember what it is they are not supposed to like".

I know that we all have our days where we do not like something as well other days. One of the songs we sang might not be our favorite, we may not totally agree with something someone has said, etc. But when those types of things take our attention away from the reason we are really there, we miss out on so much. How much joy & blessings do we miss out on because we are so upset that the song that was just sung, was not one of "our" favorites? How much joy & blessings do we miss out on when we are worried about what others are doing or how something looks or "did you hear what he just said"?

If we go to our worship services without the express intent of worshiping our God and if we allow "things" to distract us, we miss out. God is calling each one of us into relationship with Him everyday, worship is a way we can share that joy with other Christians. It's our piece of heaven on earth. How sad when we waste that small piece of heaven by bickering, worrying or judging others unjustly.

We don't know what may be on someone's heart; or the reason they are worshiping the way they are. We don't know what heartaches someone may be feeling or how badly they just need to be in the presence of God and other Christians. I pray that we all go to worship with the sole purpose of worshiping God and building up those we love and building up those who just need to see Jesus with skin on. If we don't, we are going to miss out on some of the most precious gifts that God has to offer us. I pray that we all learn to come together and share and rejoice in our differences instead of criticizing others because they choose to worship differently from the way we do; or because their view on a particular "issue" is not exactly the same as ours. Different is not always bad or wrong... sometimes it's just different.

There are those around us who are hungry and thirsty for a relationship with God. It's sad to me that sometimes those of us that have that relationship, spend more time focusing on the "things" we don't like instead of the precious gift we have in our relationship with God and the freedom we have to worship Him. Sure, things are not perfect; but they never will be. We are people, and people are not perfect. Let's not miss the most awesome gift of worshiping God by being concerned over things that really do not matter. Jesus came to save the lost, that's what matters.

May we all remember to find joy even in the small things! And may we all cherish our time of worship with God's family. Our attitude about worship is a choice. I choose to worship with my whole heart and not miss out on anything that God has to offer!

Blessings!

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Psalm 100: 1-3

Pinball Machines....

2010-09-26T19:55:00.003-05:00

Pinball machines... kind of a weird title I know; kind of random. But random seems to be how my thoughts come to me sometimes. Or maybe not so random, because I always feel like God is laying something on my heart when it's time to write.

As I sat watching the Cowboy game today (by the way... Go Cowboys!!), the announcer made the comment on a running play that "Felix Jones bounced around for 10 yards". I randomly thought of a pinball machine when he said that. Again, maybe not so random; because that is truly how life sometimes feels.

Growing up we used to play a lot of pinball. Pinball used to be "the" game. A simple game with levers, small metal balls, flippers and lots of what I call "mushroom things" (I'm sure that's the technical term!) with rubber around them that would cause the ball to bounce all over the place. Sometimes as you pull the lever to release the ball it smoothly flows out of the shoot and begins a rhythm. Other times, it seems to shoot out like a cannon. And then it proceeds to bounce randomly from one side to the next and you never really know where it's headed.

Isn't that how life sometimes is... some days you wake up and seem to flow right into your day; and everything seems to fall into place. Other days you feel like you are shot out into the world through a cannon. Bouncing around from place to place never really knowing where you are going to end up. And like the pinball machine, just when you think things are about to slow down and you are headed to the end, something "flips" you right back out to where you did not really want to be!

I know that sometimes my life feels like that. Like I am bouncing around from place to place, from thing to thing, and from emotion to emotion. And sometimes just when I think I'm on the home stretch, Satan throws something else at me and throws me right back out into the bouncing around of the pinball machine in which I live.

While sometimes it may feel like Satan is winning the game, I have to remember that he is not winning; that he is not in control; that I am not in control; but that God who Is the Almighty God IS in control. I cannot allow things I cannot control to be in charge of me and how I'm going to live my life for God. The world is full of things that are going to bounce me around like a ball in a pinball machine. I could easily give up; but to give up is a choice. Just like to choose to believe in God and to believe that He is in control is a choice. I choose to believe in God; I choose to believe He is in control; and I choose to claim Him when life is bouncing me around. I've seen the end of the story... God wins!!

I ran across a saying this week; it had no name on it so I don't know whom to give credit but it said... Faith is doing the possible and letting God do the impossible! I just love that quote and I'm claiming it for me! No matter where life may bounce me around, I will work on the things that are possible and the impossible things I will leave to God. Because I choose to believe in God and because I choose to believe that God can do the impossible!

But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible".
Matthew 19:26

For nothing will be impossible with God!
Luke 1:37

Blessings!!

Thoughts on Faith...

2010-09-12T21:15:00.001-05:00

Faith.... it's one of the things I think comes to my mind the most. Do I have enough? Is it strong enough? Will it get me through when things are tough? I have learned that the answer to all of these questions is yes!! That doesn't mean that I sometimes still don't have doubts, that I sometimes don't still wonder if God is there? But it does mean, that even when I have doubts, I choose to trust in God; I choose to have faith no matter what circumstances might be.

My husband is fond of saying, "What about when there is no plan b? I have to just trust that God is in control." And he's right... Because sometimes, there is no plan b. Sometimes you have to make the choice to trust God. Sometimes you have to trust and have faith that God sees the bigger picture. And sometimes it's the hardest thing in the world to do. But having faith is a choice I choose to make. For me, there is no other choice.

I saw a quote on someone's facebook today and in researching it found it out it that it was a quote by Martin Luther King. "Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the staircase." I LOVE that quote! I can so relate to that quote. There is so much in my life I have no control over. Really I don't have control over anything. No matter how much or how hard I try to control circumstances, it is God who is in control. And because I believe that God is in control, I can take that first step onto the staircase. Even though I can't see the staircase or don't have any idea where the staircase is leading; I trust and have faith that God is there waiting on me. And because of that faith, I have peace that can only come from God; because peace is the presence of God.

I'll leave you with some of my favorite scriptures from Romans which we are studying in our Bible class right now.

The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26b

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31b

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:18

And my favorite... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Blessings to you as you take that first step onto the staircase!!

Come Expecting to Receive Something...

2010-06-13T21:44:00.001-05:00

That was the way our preacher, Pat Bills, started his sermon this morning. "Come expecting to receive something". That one phrase has had me thinking all day. You always think about going places... Church, a friends house, the grocery store, etc. Going to me implies I am in the driver's seat, I am in charge. But to say "come expecting to receive something" has an entirely different meaning.

To go means I make the decision to do it; to come means to be invited. Do we really think about God inviting us everyday? Do we really approach every day with the anticipation of receiving something from God? In our busy and hurried lives, I'm afraid we don't. I know I tend to be so busying doing, I don't think I listen hard enough to God's invitation. How much do we miss, by doing. What blessings would we receive if we would simply come with expectation?

We realize we need to spend more time in prayer, more time in the word, more time in general with God. But when we are so busy doing; and I don't mean doing for God, I just mean doing in general; I'm afraid we are missing His invitation to just come. His invitation to come and be still; His invitation to stop and smell the roses as the saying goes; His invitation to come and be still and know that He is God. How much more blessed would our lives be if we started every day expecting to receive something? The blessings I'm sure would be more than we could ever comprehend.

To "come expecting to receive something" is an intentional action. There are so many things we should be more intentional about, but for now, I'm going to try and start every day by answering God's invitation to "come expecting to receiving something". I can't wait to see where He leads me!

Blessings!

I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
Psalm 81:10

Anticipation and Excitement Are in the Air!!!

2010-05-02T16:57:00.003-05:00

I love surprises! I love the feeling of knowing that something good is coming! Things like a vacation you are anticipating, surprising someone else, getting together with friends or one of my favorites, Christmas! Things like that are just exciting to me.

Something else that has begun to excite me is God working among us. I know that may sound a little odd, because God is something that should excite us all the time. And while God does excite me all the time, lately it's different. There is something different in the air, there is a new anticipation and excitement lingering. The excitement of... I don't know what's coming, but I can't wait!

When our kids were growing up one of the most fun things for us to do as parents was to plan vacations and not tell our kids where we were going. They loved waking up in the car to discover where we were headed or not finding out until we boarded a plane where we were actually going. We did that several times and even did that when our kids were pretty much grown for the last vacation we took with just the 4 of us before my daughter got married. They were just as excited about it then as they were when they were younger. The anticipation of them not knowing where we were going but knowing it was going to be good, was almost as much fun as the trip itself... Almost! There was nothing quite like the ultimate destination!

That type of anticipation and excitement is what I'm feeling from God right now! At Highland Oaks Church of Christ where we go to church, God is up to something! There is something different in the air... good things are coming, you can just feel it! The spirit among us is changing, growing, evolving into what I believe God has called us to be. God is calling us out of our comfort zones, out of church, out of the box we've put Him in (as Pat so wonderfully put it this morning) and into our community like never before. The people are excited, the people are ready... the people are ready to let go and let God!

It reminds me of those surprise vacations we took with our kids.... except now, we are the kids waiting in anticipation of where God is leading us! We have no idea where we are headed, but we know that God is in control; so wherever it is... it's going to be amazing!

God is challenging us to stretch beyond ourselves, beyond what may be comfortable, beyond anything we could ask or imagine. God is challenging us to have faith in Him and just follow His lead. He's telling us to trust in Him completely. While the anticipation of where we are going is exciting, it's nothing compared to the destination! I can't wait to see where God takes us... I know it's going to be an amazing journey! I'm ready for the ride... I hope you'll join me!

With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more
than anything we can ask or imagine. To Him be glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Blessings!

The Power of Trusting in God

2010-04-04T15:30:00.001-05:00

During the past several years, we have really felt that through many prayers and tears God has been silent. We decided a while back that the only thing we could do, was to completely put our trust in God. To trust that God could see the big picture. To trust that God is there, even when we don't think that He is. To trust that God will work all things out for good. I'm not saying that at times we don't still struggle, but the thing we do differently is, we don't worry, we don't stress, we simple TRUST God.

This morning as I prepared for worship, I felt so strongly the whispers of Satan. Do you really trust God? Do you really trust Him? We'll see... he kept saying. I kept telling myself, that yes, even through the whispers of Satan... I still and will trust. Even in the darkest of times, when I think God isn't listening, when I think he doesn't hear me cry out... I trust.

We got in the car and headed to church. Something we do every week and something I do almost every day of the week since I work for the church we attend. I travel the same way every week to church and almost every day to work. This morning I noticed something, that I have never noticed in 4 years of driving this path, and yet it has always been there. At the last stop light before turning onto the street where our church is, right dead in the center of the median, was a tall, full, large tree. Actually, the tree wasn't tall as in towering but it was definitely a full sized tree. I travel that way almost everyday and have never noticed this tree before.

But this morning, I noticed it... it was if God was saying to me in that moment, I am here. What I noticed even more that they size and fullness of the tree was the trunk. The trunk of that tree almost seemed larger than that particular tree needed. It was a very round, very strong, very thick trunk. I sat through that light and stared a that trunk and all I could think about was God. Is was if God was saying to me in that moment, look at the trunk of this tree, and remember that I am here. I am stronger than Satan. I can withstand anything he throws at you. Do not forget that the victory is mine!

It was at that moment, that I knew... I really knew, I really DO completely trust in God. No matter what happens, I know that He is in charge. That no matter what Satan may throw my way, I will TRUST in God. God will ALWAYS be my dwelling place, He will be my refuge!

May the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ fill your lives today and always! Because... He is RISEN INDEED!!!

The LORD is my Rock, my fortress, and my deliverer;
my God is my Rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 18:2

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields it's fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
Psalm 1:3

Blessings!

In Honor of Jenny Ross Bizaillion

2010-02-24T21:05:00.004-06:00

This will not be a typical post. For the past almost 3 weeks, our dear friend, Jenny Ross Bizaillion was fighting for her life. In the words of her husband on Monday, February 22nd "Jenny Bizaillion. The most beautiful, wonderful friend, perfect mom, best wife a man could ever have. She loved more than I could comprehend. Jenny decided heaven was a better place than earth. Thank u for ur love, support, cries and memories."

Jenny was 31 years old. She went to the doctor a little over 2 weeks ago. She had been diagnosed with the flu and after several days of not getting any better and getting worse she was rushed to the ICU. Jenny's body fought hard and God gave us several miracles, but God decided Jenny had had enough.

But this isn't about Jenny's illness, this about who Jenny was and is. Jenny is a daughter of the King. Jenny's entire life was devoted to her loving husband David, her precious daughter Malaya, her parents Rick & Beverly and her brothers Josh & Jonathan and their families. But even more than that, Jenny was devoted to God. And if you knew Jenny's family, you would know that each one of them are devoted to each other, but even more completely devoted to God. This is about a family's trust in God. A family who refused to blame God for anything happening. A family whose example during a crisis showed there complete faith & trust in God.

Throughout the last 2+ weeks, not one of them ever blamed God for anything happening to Jenny. In fact, just the opposite. Of course there were questions of why and questions of not understanding, but through it all, through every victory and more importantly through every obstacle and heartache, God was praised! This is who the Ross's and the Bizaillion's are... faithful believers that God is always there. That no matter what, God is victorious, and through Jesus Christ we too are victorious. Death cannot take us!

We watched as a husband read lovingly to his sweet Jenny every day, every post on her facebook page and every post on her care page as he cried out to God for Jenny's life. We watched as a mother literally tried to breathe for her precious daughter as she cried out to God, we watched as a father stood over his family protecting them as he cried out to God; we watched as 2 brothers prayed over their sister while crying out to God. As Jenny's brother Josh says, not only were they crying out to God, God was crying with them. And through it all, through every circumstance, they praised God almighty!

We have known the Ross's for over 15 years. We watched their kids grow up. Their son Josh even performed our daughter Ashley's wedding ceremony. We have prayed over each others children for years. We love them dearly.

Jenny was what I would call an angel here on earth. She literally had the voice of an angel. I had the privilege of singing at a wedding with her many years ago. I still think about it to this day. Jenny's smile brightened a room as soon as she entered it. She just radiated God's love. Anyone who met Jenny, got to experience a little piece of God's love and compassion. She was Jesus with skin on to many people. Jenny loved her husband David and her daughter Malaya more than anything in this world. Her family was everything to her.

Jenny loved children. In fact when my daughter was in 6th grade Jenny led her and a group of kids from church at a church convention in chorus. She loved them so much that when she got married she had all of those kids sing a song together at her wedding. I know that Jenny has already gathered all the little children together have gone on to be with God. She has them gathered around her telling them stories and singing over them. And I can guarantee you she is telling them, "Look, do you see Him, do you see Jesus! Come on, let's go sit at His feet!"

Jenny wrote on her blog a couple of years ago that she longed for the day when Christians of all religious walks would unite together. Here is a quote from her blog...
"God began developing a passion in me the past 15 years about the unifying of Christians. I know it seems an impossible thing to happen especially when I read blogs and sorts that do nothing but divide Christians and throw hateful words back and forth to ANYONE that doesn't agree exactly the way one does. I pray we can become a body that can work in "the streets" together, that can do outreaches together, that can do mission trips together, that can do youth rallies together, that can truly be the hands and feet of Jesus TOGETHER. So there goes my naive, dreaming rant:) God is faithful and graceful! Festivals allow people to come together as a FULL body of Christ and not under a specific church name. I LOVE it!!"

While this would not be the way we would choose, Jenny, through her illness, united people of different faiths and walks all over the world. I, along with many others, were posting updates about Jenny on our facebook pages and people everywhere, people who didn't even know Jenny were touched by her story. People who didn't know Jenny got to know the loving person she was, the child of God she was and people were united. Over 10,000 people united over Jenny's care page. I know thousands more were checking facebook pages. Jenny's story touched the hearts of thousands. And many people who didn't know Jenny got to know her and in turn know God & experience God through her story. Jenny's dream became a reality. It is my prayer that Jenny's dream will continue and Christians all over the world will continue to unite and that we will continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus. After all, that is what God has called us to be.

Tomorrow there will not be a funeral; there will be a celebration of Jenny's life. Even though Jenny is gone and we will all miss her, there is much to celebrate. She has gone home to be with God! I am so thankful for the blood of Jesus. I am so thankful that He died, so that we could live! While Jenny is no longer here on this earth, she is alive and whole! And I am thankful for the promise that we will one day meet again.

We love you Jenny, but this is not goodbye... we will see you again! I pray that we all learn from you and your family and ALWAYS remember to give God the Glory in ALL things! Lord come quickly!

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning
or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Revelation 21:4

God is never gone....

2009-12-29T17:42:00.008-06:00

....Even though it sometimes feels like He is. Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever ask the question....God where are you? I know that sometimes I do. There are times in my life, when things just keep happening that I don't understand. I find myself asking, "God, where are you?"

You pray and you pray, sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks and sometimes even years and nothing seems to change. You go to church and sit in Bible classes where people talk about prayer and relying on God and they respond with all of the pat church responses and inside you want to scream and say "live my life, and then tell me how much all those pat answers mean to you." Have you ever been there? I have...sometimes I still am....

It's during those times that I think I sometimes forget that God never leaves us. I don't believe I ever lose faith, but I struggle sometimes with how strong my faith may be. I find solace during those times mostly in my worship to God, in singing praises to Him. I have prayed scriptures before and one of my most favorite things to do now is to pray songs during worship. I insert names or circumstances into songs during worship and those songs take on a whole new meaning. They comfort me in ways that nothing else can. But even though I feel God's comfort through my worship sometimes I still find myself asking, "God, where are you?"

I've been realizing lately that God has been trying to get through to me, that I'm not alone. Pat has preached several sermons lately that have brought that to my attention again, but still I seem to push it aside. I know He's there, but sometimes I just need to feel it in a more profound way.

While getting one of our bedrooms ready for our kids to stay in while they were here for Christmas, I ran across a note-card that I didn't even know I still had. It was a comment I had written down from Rob Bell when we saw him a few months ago. It says "God came into the world and screamed along side of us. The cross is God's way of saying, I know how you feel."

When I read that, I thought wow... all those times I am crying out or even screaming out to God where are you, He's right there screaming along side of me, saying to me I know how you feel. I know that in my darkest times, I am really not alone, that God is always there, but there is a different kind of comfort in thinking about God being there screaming out with you.

As we celebrated Christmas with our kids, family and friends, I thought about the love we all share. I am so thankful for the special times when all of our kids are here and we are together and it reminds me that God is always here. Even when we feel alone, even when it seems like He's not there or He's not listening, He's always there, crying with us and telling us He knows how we feel.

I'm sure there will still be times when I'm screaming out, and maybe even still asking the question "God, where are you?" But I pray that I will remember that I am not alone... that God is there... and that's He's screaming along with me reminding me that He knows how I feel.

I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief
Mark 19:24

Blessings!

Breath

2009-10-26T11:24:00.006-05:00

Breath is one of those things we typically take for granted. We wake up every morning breathing and sometimes even taking a deep breath before we get out of bed and we start our day. We never really think for a minute that another breath won't come. Breath is just one of those things we go through our day using, but never really thinking about. At least I didn't... until recently.

I recently watched a Rob Bell video on breath and I've been thinking about breath more often ever since. I love the scripture in Genesis 2 that says "then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Rob Bell talks about how every breath we take is God's breath. I know that God breathed life into us, but I had never thought about God literally being there in my every breath; or every breath I take being the breath of God.

Wow! To think about breath in those terms puts a whole new perspective on taking a breath. With every breath I take, God is there. Every breath I take is a breath from God.....is God's breath. With every deep breath I take in frustration or exhaustion, God is there, breathing new life into me. It has made me think about those everyday breaths in such a different way.

It also makes you think about what you are doing with every breath you take. Because with every breath you take you are breathing God's breath. How are we using the breath God is filling us with? Are we using it to speak kind words of love or are we using it to speak words of anger and condemnation? Are we using God's breath to build someone up or to tear someone down? Are we using God's breath to serve others or are we hoarding God's breath and keeping it only to ourselves.

Yesterday we were able to be a part of a trunk or treat event at local school. We were there helping faculty and parents of that school host a trunk or treat in their local neighborhood. We didn't do it in the name of our church, we did it in the name of God. What a blessing it was not only to those who were there for the candy, but what an even greater blessing it was to those of us who served. It's always such a great blessing to give to others. I would like to think that while we were being blessed by an opportunity to serve others, we were able to breathe at least a little bit of God's breath into the lives of the children and families we were able to serve.

There are many definitions of the word breath, but there were 2 that stood out to me. One is life; vitality. Another one is a trivial circumstance. It is interesting to me that one word can mean to completely different things. One means everything, the other is as if it doesn't matter. Breath matters, without breath there is no life. God is life! There is nothing trivial about it!

God created us to be living, breathing beings. If we aren't living and breathing for Him and being aware of His every breath in us, are we living life the way we were created to live it? My prayer is that I will look for more opportunities to use God's breath for others and not hold on to it for myself.

Praise the LORD
Praise God in his sanctuary
praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,

praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,

praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with the resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.

Psalm 150

Blessings!

Desire...

2009-09-28T17:30:00.002-05:00

Desire...it's one of those words that when you hear it, you're not quite sure where it's going. It can be something simple, something innocent or even something provocative. There are even numerous scriptures telling us to be careful of our desires.

But this weekend, something brought to mind an old youth group song. I hadn't thought about that song in a long time, but the words of that song I can still recite.

Lord my desire Is to be like you Say the things you say Do you things you do Let me hear your still voice Through all the other noise So I can be Just what you want me to be

When we think of the word desire, how often do we think of the word desire in this context? I admit, for me probably not often. When we think of desire, we generally think of wants. What we want or desire, what appeals to us. The world we live in is constantly telling us to go after whatever we desire, whatever we want. But how often are those desires and wants the same as the desires and wants that God has for us? How often do we even think about what God desires, or about what God's desire is for us?

Our desire should be the same as God's desire for our life. But if we aren't listening to God, how can we know what those desires are. Most of the time God's voice or desires are not going to hit us over the head. Most of the time His voice is a still, quiet voice. Which makes me think of a faint voice, something that's there, but you yourself have to be still and quiet to hear. Just because the voice isn't loud doesn't mean it's not powerful. The wind is generally pretty quiet, relatively speaking of course. But the wind is also one of the most powerful forces on this earth.

If we're not careful we can let ourselves get comfortable. And to me, comfortable is not a place to be with God. Comfortable may mean we've lost our fire. Comfortable may mean we are no longer searching. Comfortable may mean we don't want anything to change. We are happy just the way things are. For me, you cannot let your relationship with God get comfortable. You can take comfort in that relationship, but that relationship is always changing and growing and becoming more and more exciting. And to me that just doesn't sound like comfortable; it sounds like a wonderful adventure!

If our desire is to truly be like God, to say the things He says and do the things He does; and if we want to hear His voice through all the other noise, we have to spend time with God. We have to spend time in prayer, we have to spend time in the word, and we have to spend time in worship. We sometimes have to just be still and let the overwhelming presence of God surround us. Take comfort in the presence of God, but don't get so comfortable that you miss out on all the excitement, adventure and blessings God has in store for you if you just listen and become a part of what God desires for your life.

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you; your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
Isaiah 26:8

Be still, and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10a

Blessings!

After the Rush

2009-09-07T18:35:00.006-05:00

This weekend was a great weekend. Chris and I put about 550 miles on our bikes and the weather was perfect. Never a drop of rain, cool wind blowing, perfect riding weather.

I love the rides we take. While we have headsets so we can communicate with each other, there are also many times when we will ride for miles and never say a word. It's such a great time for reflection, a great time for enjoying the wonders of God and a great time for not only talking to God but for listening to God.

Today on the way home was no different. We were riding along just enjoying the quiet time with God and a thought struck me. We were riding on a 2 lane road and had several diesel trucks pass by us. That happens all the time but what struck me this time was what happened after they drove by. You would think that as they passed you would feel blown around. But today I noticed, it wasn't when they were driving by that I felt the rush of wind, it was actually after they passed by. It may always happen that way but I've never noticed it before. I asked Chris if he felt the same thing and he did.

As I thought about how weird that was, I began to think that sometimes God passes through my life in the same way. While there are times that He is obviously there, there are other times when I think he just blows right by; or at least seems too. I've learned that what I don't always realize is, it's not the moment God rushes by that he's trying to get my attention; sometimes, that initial rush is just a prelude to let me know that something else is coming. I wonder how many times I miss what God is really trying to show me. I wonder how many times God does something that seems to come out of nowhere and I'm so busy saying what was that, that I miss what comes after the initial rush.

I believe that sometimes God sends us those "what was that" type of moments to warn us that something greater is coming. We may not have any clue what it is, but God is trying to get our attention so we don't miss what comes after the rush. God is always working in our lives. And while we may not always understand what or why things happen, God is always working and I believe that sometimes what comes after the rush is the best part of what God has to offer. And I for one don't want to miss it!!

But those who hope in the LORD will renew
their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;
They will run and not grow weary, They will
walk on not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Blessings!!

New Beginnings

2009-08-16T13:15:00.005-05:00

New beginnings can be one of those times when we are all excited or scared to death; maybe even some of both. At this time of year there are lots of new beginnings going on. For some it's new teachers, for some maybe new schools like going into middle school, high school or even college. For others it may be new jobs, new homes. If you're a parent it may be beginning a new relationship with a child who is approaching adulthood and heading off to college for the first time.

Whatever your new beginnings, I believe they are what we make of them. You may be scared to death, but I believe the excitement and joy of a new beginning should be greater than the fear you may initially feel. While new beginnings are sometimes hard and the fear of the unknown may be great, there is so much excitement in knowing that God is getting ready to do something great. The anticipation of what is to come and how great it can be may sometimes be overwhelming, yet at the same time it can make you as giddy as a child anticipating Christmas morning.

We have dear friends who are sending kids off to college for the first time. And while it is initially a very hard thing to do, the excitement of new things to come, deeper friendships and adult relationships with those kids will soon abound. My daughter is also beginning her first year of teaching. She will be teaching 5th grade language arts at an intermediate school. She is nervous but so excited as well. She has such a love for children. Those children and their parents will be blessed to have her as a teacher. I told her she will be one of those teachers that all the kids want to have. :-)

At Highland Oaks we are also starting a New Beginning. Today was the first Sunday for our new preaching minister, Pat Bills & his wife Deborah. We have been praying for God to send just the right man (and family) to HOCC and as usual God knew just who to send. What a blessing it was today to witness the love Highland Oaks already has for Pat & Deborah and their boys. And what an even greater blessing it was to witness an elder from Pat's former church in Tennessse who was also here today, offer a blessing to Pat and his family and to Highland Oaks as they begin God's work here with us. What a wonderful display of Godly love and compassion in making their transition to Highland Oaks.

God was ever present in that auditorium today! The love for God and His people was overflowing. So while some beginnings may make you apprehensive, this beginning makes me eager with anticipation! Anticipation to see how God will use Pat in our community, to see how God uses Highland Oaks in our community and to see what wonderful doors God opens as we begin to follow His calling with renewed vigor and excitement.

Pat and Deborah are wonderful, loving and caring people. I look forward to working with them in God's kingdom and personally working with Pat at Highland Oaks. It's a new day, with renewed energy and hope in Jesus Christ and a day of new anticipation of where God is leading us. It going to be exciting and it's going to be awesome as only God can do it! And I can't wait!!

Some trust in chariots and some in horses. But we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 20:7

Blessings!

Holding Each Other Up

2009-07-27T20:17:00.003-05:00

A while back, I was reading in Exodus. I was reading about how Joshua defeated the Amalekites. The scripture talks about how Moses told to Joshua to fight while Moses stood on top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands to God, they were winning, but when he was tired and started lowing his hands, they started losing the battle. It goes on to stay that when he became too tired to continue holding up his hands, they sat a stone under him and then Aaron & Hur held up his hands, each on one side so that his hands remained steady until sunset and the battle was won.

As I read that sometime back, it reminded me of close friendships. And how when we think we can't stand any longer, or endure any more, good friends are there to support you and fight for you when you have no fight left in you.

I was reminded of that again today as our staff spoke words of encouragement and blessing upon a great leader and even greater friend Jon Mullican. Highland Oaks has gone through a battle over the last almost 14 months. We have faced many trials and challenges and I am thankful to say we are now on the upside of those battles and God is blessing our church family tremendously with a new student minister, Mark Hadley and a wonderful new preaching minister Pat Bills.

While blessings are flowing freely at this point in our church family, great trials have been endured to get us to this point. I was reminded today of Moses and the strength & suffering he had to endure during the battle with the Amalekites. During that time Moses continually looked up to God and continually raised his hands to God for the sake of those around him; for the sake of the battle.

I feel Jon Mullican has done the same thing for the Highland Oaks church family. Jon has stood in the line of fire for this family, Jon has endured much pain and personal sacrifice for the sake of this family. He has done it all willingly and with his hands raised high to God above. And when he couldn't hold his hands up any longer God sent those who love Jon to be there to help him. He has been a rock. Jon has been there every step of the way through the attacks that have been hurled at God's church and God's people. He has stood between us and the enemy and has continued to keep his hands lifted up to the one who could help him endure.

Some will never know the sacrifices that Jon & his family have endured for the sake of Christ. He would never tell you about them. But, Jon has shown us that the Lord truly is our banner. And that God will overcome when our hands are lifted to Him.

I am very grateful & blessed to be able to work with a man named Jon Mullican. I am even more blessed to call him friend. And I am grateful to have someone like Jon who is willing to stand up on the hill and lift his hands to the Lord to protect us and help us win the battle.

Blessings!

but those who hope in the Lord will renew
their strength. They will soar on wings like
eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31

And We Shall Be One in Christ!

2009-06-28T15:07:00.012-05:00

Today was an awesome day of worship! Not that every worship isn't awesome, but this one was even more special. We were finishing up our "One Another" series and we had a combined service with our Latino church Highland Oaks Iglesia de Cristo. It was absolutely wonderful!

We sang in both English and Spanish and even had the sermon in English and translated into Spanish. It really was a little taste of heaven. It was great to hear brothers and sisters from different backgrounds and different languages all praising the Lord as one. It really reminds us of how we are all one when we stand before the Lord.

We heard an amazing story about Sixto Rivera, our Latino minister and and his conversion to Christ in El Salvador. His father was converted 40 years ago by a man who was once a counselor in a kids camp in Louisiana. Long story short, the counselor left that camp and an impressionable young man behind to follow a calling to El Salvador 40 years ago. This man talked to Sixto's father about God and Sixto's father became a Christian. This father in turn taught his son Sixto to follow God. Now, 40 years later, Sixto has been reunited with the boy the counselor left behind in Louisiana when he went to El Salvador. And now they are going to be working together with Genesis Alliance in planting Latino churches all over America! As Sixto said, "God is Good!" To hear the entire amazing story, go to www.hocc.org . It should be available Monday or Tuesday.

Everything that happened today just reminds you, you never know where God is going to lead you. You never know how someone you touch, may in turn touch someone else, even in another country. And you surely never know what great and amazing things God can accomplish. God is everywhere and working in every situation.

Always be alert, you never know when God may you use to ultimately touch someone from another country. But don't think God has to only use you to connect with missions far away. Your mission field may be right outside your front door, it may be at the grocery store, it may be within your own family. Your life is a mission field...everywhere you go, everything you do, everything you say shows the world how God is (or may not be) working in your life. Use your life to live for God and show God to others. Be Jesus with skin on to the world around you and be amazed at how God will use even you!

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement
give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow
Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you,
in order to bring praise to God.

Romans 15:5-7

Blessings!

You Might Be Someone's Miracle

2009-05-08T10:32:00.002-05:00

This past Monday Chris and I were meeting for lunch, as we do pretty much every day. Monday was a little different though because I had driven a different car to work. Since I didn't drive my car I had forgotten my regular keys at home which also had the keys to my desk on them. At any rate, I needed to go home at lunch so I could get my keys so I decided to just pick Chris up at work rather than meet him. We went to a Barbeque place which is right by the High School.

I know all of that sounds rather pointless, but it's because of all of those things that something happened at lunch that day. You see, if I had not forgotten my keys at home, we would not have decided to eat at this Barbeque place, we would not have lost track of time and we would not have been there at the precise moment in which we needed to be.

When we are on the way to our truck someone approached us who had already approached someone else. We of course figured they were asking for money which of course they were to some extent. A woman came up and said she and her brother had a flat and had no money to their name. We were of course skeptical but then saw her brother rolling a tire towards us from across the street. They were not from this area so had no idea where anything was. When we saw the tire, Chris told them that all he could was to take them to a place to get their tire fixed, he didn't have any cash on him. We found out then that their car was parked at the high school across the street in the parking lot and had another flat tire on it. Two tires had blown on their car on the same side. So we took them back to their car to get the other flat tire and then took her to a local tire place while he stayed with their car. Did I mention that the tire place just "happened" to be a half a block down the street from the barbeque place we had lunch at?!?!

Once we got to the tire place Chris took their tires in while I sat in the truck with the lady and visited with her. She told me about the hard times they had been having and how thankful they were for us helping them. She said that a man earlier that day had stopped to pray with her, and now we had stopped to help them. She was really touched by his prayer and he told her afterwards "Get ready, you're going to have a miracle today!" She said they got back in their car and not 5 minutes later the tires blew out! She thought, "wow, that's not the miracle I was expecting".

About that time Chris came back with the tires, put them in the back of the truck and gave her the receipt in case they had any problems with the tires. At that point she realized that he had bought her 2 used tires because the old ones were too bad to use. She looked at the receipt and said, "The man that prayed with me today told me I was going to have a miracle today. You were my miracle!" She was so gracious and felt so bad that they had know money to help pay for them. We told them we were just paying forward. Someone 2 weeks ago had stopped to help us when our truck broke down while we were pulling our trailer home from a camping trip. It was truck drive who stopped and unhooked his load so he could pull us off the road. He told us we were his blessing that day, because someone had helped him a few weeks before when his truck broke down. We told this woman, that she was our blessings today.

I say all of that not to say what we did, but to say be aware of what's happening around you. Sometimes the weirdest things will get set in motion during your day that would normally never happen. Be aware when that happens. It just might be happening for a specific reason. It might be happening so you can be someone's miracle!

Do not forget to entertain strangers,
for by so doing some people
have entertained angels without knowing it.

Hebrews 13:2

Blessings!

The Hands and Feet of Jesus

2009-04-13T08:42:00.004-05:00

I have always been very involved in church work or church ministry. I love being a part of a vibrant church. We came to Highland Oaks a little over 3 years and I've been working full time at Highland Oaks for a little over a year and a half. I love my job without a doubt. I have worked at other churches but this is the first time I've done it full time. Full time work for a church is a little different. You get very busy and you can get caught up in feeling like your job is your ministry. Which I guess to a degree, it is. But if that is your only ministry, you are missing out.

Highland Oaks has begun to go out into the community lately. It's something a little new to Highland Oaks and I'm sure something a little scary for some. Highland Oaks hosted Hoops in the Highlands a few weeks ago and we were able to serve that group. My family was out of town, but I heard it was a tremendous blessing.

This past Saturday, Highland Oaks hosted an Easter Egg Hunt at a Mesquite school including a "cookie" walk, egg tosses, egg decorating, popcorn etc. I was blessed to be able to be a part of that event. It was Saturday afternoon, Chris had to work and couldn't go, so I was really kind of dreading going by myself. I even tried to talk myself out of it a couple of times, (ok, more than a couple!) but I kept feeling this nudging from God to go, even if I had to go by myself.

Well, I went...and it was amazing! It was so much fun getting to interact with the kids from that neighborhood. They were all so excited to see all of those eggs out there. We let them hunt eggs every 10 minutes and let 30 kids go at a time. After everyone had gone through once, we put out the rest of the eggs and let them go to town! We had over 8,000 eggs, yes eight thousand eggs, and we had about 300 kids! So you can imagine the excitement at the grocery bags full of eggs they all left with.

On my way home, I sat in the car and thanked God for giving me that nudge to go alone. I was truly blessed by that one hour, more than I have been in a long time. It reminded me what we as Christians are supposed to be all about. Yes, I love my job, and I wouldn't trade it for anything! But that Egg Hunt was what ministry and serving are all about! I can do all the great work for God possible inside that church building that needs to be done; and don't misunderstand me, it's work that needs and has to be done. But the work outside the church walls are what it's all about!

I had more fun Saturday than I've had in a long time serving God. That's what it means to be "The Hands and Feet of Jesus"! I pray that as a church, Highland Oaks is ready to do more of that kind of work. Not only will it bless those around us, but it will bless us more than we can possibly imagine! As the old Acappella song says, "You can't go to church cause the church is you"! So let's get that church outside more often!

Blessings!

Blocked Paths and Missed Opportunities with God

2009-02-08T14:46:00.005-06:00

This past Friday I was trying to get my oil changed. I went to a Walmart fairly close to our house. There were about 7 or 8 cars already in line so I decided to go to a different Walmart. I dropped my car off at the automotive center and went into Walmart. Within 5 minutes they were calling me to the automotive center. I went over there knowing there was no way they could have already finished. She told me that they don't have the oil change bays that you drive over and where they walk under the car. They have to drive your car up onto a ramp and my car sits too low to the ground to get it on the ramp. She said I could take it to another Walmart which happened to be the one I had already left!

I left and headed yet again to the other Walmart and passed a Kwiq Kar which is right by our house. I thought for a moment about stopping there, but they had a ton of cars in their parking lot so I drove on passed and went to the Walmart. When I got there, there were only 2 cars in line so I thought "this is great, in and out!" Wrong.......after he took all of my information, he said it will be at least an hour and a half! By this time, I was supposed to be leaving my house in an hour and a half. I told him never mind, I can't wait that long. I drove by the Kwik Kar one last time as I headed home and they had no one in line so I was able to stop and finally get my oil changed!

During this whole process, I felt kept feeling like I was continually being blocked at every path. After all, I was in a hurry and didn't have time to just stop and take care of it. That night as I sat thinking about my day, I thought of all the time I really ended up wasting driving around because I didn't want to just stop and the take the time to get it done. If I had just stayed at the first Walmart, the first time, I would have already been finished by the time I drove all over town and ended up back where I started. And I might add I was still no further along with the oil change that I was before this whole trek started.

How many times do we do that with God? We sense Him urging us to take a break, to spend a moment or two with Him, but we keep pressing on toward something else. We sense the need to pray, but we occupy our mind in some other way. We walk passed our Bible and catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of our eye and feel a soft prompting to stop and rest in God's word for a while, but in our busyness on to some where else we let that feeling pass. After all, we do have important things to do. How many times do we let other things block our path to God? Do we really think those things are more important than time spent with our Creator?

I know I am sometimes guilty of those very things. How sad must God be when he gives us every opportunity to stop and rest in Him, but we keep passing it up thinking a better time will come along. A more opportune time. How much time do we really waste while waiting on a more convenient time, a better place, etc? How much closer could I be to God if instead of waiting for or looking for the perfect place and time to spend with God, I just stopped and spent that time with Him every time He prompted me?

My guess is, (in fact I know!) my relationship with God and my life in general, would be dramatically changed for the better. It's always so easy to say I'll do that in just a little while, but then in a little while something else happens, or you become exhausted, or fill in the blank.....

For me, I think it's time I realize that the time is now. When God speaks I need to listen. When He gives me that gentle nudge, I need to be aware and act upon it. No more letting things block my path to God. When you stop and obey at the moment you sense God's presence and calling, you are extremely blessed. It's time to rest in God and be blessed.

Blessings!

Terry Rush...The Great Encourager

2009-01-06T08:09:00.006-06:00

Terry Rush, where do I begin. We had the privilege of meeting Terry over 10 years ago at our first Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop. (That continues to be a highlight of my year. I always get great hugs!) We had the privilege of getting to know Terry when we scheduled him to speak in Mesquite a few years later.

Terry was very instrumental in changing the way I thought about God and my walk with Him. He speaks from the heart and with great passion. God has greatly equipped Terry for ministry and not just in preaching. While Terry is one of the most dynamic preachers I know (I think he's much better than some other well known guys he thinks are better than him and I've told him so!) he is also one of the most encouraging people I have ever met. He does not say anything that is not of encouragement to someone. If you read his blog you know what I mean. God has gifted him with great encouragement and continues to put Terry into people's lives who need encouraging and who need God. He can tell you countless stories of things that have happened to him in random ways and random places and how God has used him to encourage those who are thirsty for God.

I don't say that to brag on Terry although I would, I say that to say that Terry is someone who allows God to use him every second of every day to bless others. Terry is truly God's vessel and God continues to give him more because Terry so faithfully uses what God has already given him.

Terry will be speaking at Highland Oaks Church of Christ in Dallas and Plano this coming Sunday, January 11th. Plano's service is at 9:00 a.m. Dallas' worship service is at 10:00 a.m. If you are in the area, I encourage you to come and be blessed by the word of God through His faithful servant Terry Rush. You will leave uplifted, encouraged beyond belief, blessed and forever changed by God's word as He speaks through Terry. And you will have a true friend for life. If you have never heard Terry, you won't want to miss this opportunity; and if you have heard Terry, well, you will for sure want to be here! Come and be blessed!

See you soon Friend!!

Blessings!

Faith...Do I Have Enough...

2008-12-29T15:38:00.001-06:00

I don't know about you, but I really struggle with faith. Not "my faith", but wondering if I really have enough faith and trust in God when things gets tough.

I really do have faith in God and faith in His promises, but when you are in the middle of a major struggle or crisis in your life, sometimes faith is hard. I have complete faith that God will answer prayers, but then I wonder, "Am I praying enough, am I praying the right things, when I wonder why things aren't happening does it mean my faith is not strong enough, when I think about the worst case scenario and what could happen, does that erase all the prayers I've prayed because I'm doubting the outcome, does it make me have to start over with my prayers, does it hinder the prayers I've already prayed?"

For me those are all really hard questions I struggle with in crisis. I know God is there and I know He has a plan, but is my faith or sometimes lack thereof a hindrance to what He is trying to accomplish or change? What if the outcome is different than what I am praying for, does that mean my faith wasn't strong enough?

Matthew 17 says, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed...nothing will be impossible for you." When you think of a mustard seed you think of something so small. I think surely my faith is at least as large as mustard seed. But how do we measure faith, is my faith as large as a mustard seed?

I know I have to trust that the God I serve is bigger than any crisis. I have to believe that my faith is strong enough. I know I have to have faith in God's promises. I do have complete faith in God. I do know that God is bigger than any crisis in my life. I do know that my God can accomplish anything. So why is it that those little shreds of doubt are always creeping in?

I will continue to pray the prayer of the boy's father in Luke 9, "I do believe; help me overcome my disbelief".

Blessings!

Christmas Funk (sort of) & 4 weeks of Randy Harris

2008-12-06T16:32:00.004-06:00

I love Christmas time!! I love the hustle and bustle, hearing Christmas music, the excitement of it all. I love that this is the one time of year when it generally seems to be "ok" to talk about Jesus. I'm going to try and be more aware of what's going on around me and of opportunities I might not otherwise have because of this season.

But this year is going to be different for us. For the last 15+ years (ever since both the kids could walk) every Christmas morning has been a wake up of Ashley in Jeremy climbing in bed with us all excited to get started with Christmas presents. This happened all the way up to last Christmas when they were 21 and 17!! I love it!! It's the one time of the year that I can get wrapped up with my kids and remember all the years of them growing up in that one moment.

This year will be a little different. Ashley is married so she won't be here when we all wake up Christmas morning. She will be spending Christmas morning with Warren, her new family, as it should be. Jeremy is now in college and although he will still be here, it won't be the same for him either without having Ashley here. We will still all be together on Christmas Day it will just be different.

Our family has always been big on traditions especially at Christmas, but last year was the end of one of those traditions. While it has sort of put me in a funk this year knowing Christmas is going to be different, I am really looking forward to starting some new traditions. I think one of them is going to be having Mexican food for our family Christmas meal on Christmas Day. Homemade enchiladas and homemade hot sauce... my mouth is watering already. One tradition we will continue is going to see one of the movies that comes out on Christmas Day. That's always fun! I look forward to having Warren become a part of our traditions and I look forward to seeing where God will lead us as we begin new chapters in our families lives.

On a different note, I am looking very forward to having Randy Harris as our guest preacher at Highland Oaks for the next four weeks. I love listening to Randy. He always challenges me. Our topic is going to be "Hope for the World". I know I will come out of the next 4 weeks challenged and in a different frame of mind. If you are in the area, I invite you to come and hear Randy the next 4 weeks. I know you will be blessed.

Blessings to you for a great holiday season!

Just for Fun!!!

2008-12-02T08:48:00.006-06:00

When you have an extra 5 minutes, check out this video on "The Evolution of Wedding Dance". It's a little long but worth watching til' the end! It's great!!

Blessings!!

Learning to be Thankful in Everything

2008-11-19T06:00:00.002-06:00

During the month of November we having been talking about Thanksgiving in All Things at Highland Oaks. Each week what we study in Bible class and what is brought to us from the pulpit challenges me. I am very thankful to God. But am I thankful in everything?

It's really easy to be thankful when things are going well; but what about when things aren't going well. What about when you pray and pray about a situation, but you don't "see" God working. Not that he's not working, but you can't see it. You continue to pray day after day, month after month, year after year and yet you don't see any answers. Do I thank God in those times?

It's easy to be thankful when things are going well. But when things aren't going so well and in fact are going down right horrible, it's a lot harder to be thankful. In those times it's a lot easier to be angry at God, it's easy to feel hurt and feel like God isn't listening. But it's really hard to be thankful. It's sometimes hard to find things in the midst of turmoil, trials and struggles to be thankful for.

We talked Sunday in class about how people have been thankful when they were in a situation in which there was nothing to be thankful for. People who were on their way to bury a stillborn child and wondering how in the world they were going to get through it. And then they looked outside to see the most beautiful sunset they had ever seen and knowing it was God telling them that He was with them. And later getting pictures in the mail from someone who had been looking at the exact same sunset and took pictures of it knowing that God had sent that sunset for the person who had lost their child. Lynn Anderson talked in the sermon about a man who as a child had lived on the streets with no parents, who was always in trouble. One day while he was getting ready to throw some type of fireworks into some people's houses just to see if they could catch them on fire he had one blow up in his hand and it made him permanently blind. He now thanks God everyday for his blindness because a Christian family took him in and showed him what God was all about. They loved and cared for him and put him through preaching school. He now preaches God word. So he says he thanks God everyday for his blindness. It was a powerful day.

We talked also about taking every situation and asking ourselves "How will God be glorified through this situation? How will God use this situation for good? How is He going to reveal Himself? " Let me tell you, when you are in the middle of a situation, it's not easy to ask yourself how God is going to be glorified through it, how will He use it for good or how is he going to reveal Himself. It's not easy when you are in the middle of a situation to find the ways you need to thank God. But I'm going to try. I'm going to try to look for and be aware of the things I need to be thankful for no matter how dark the moment may seem. I'm going to try and be aware of the sunset, or the leaves falling, or the cool breeze that God may send my way to remind me that He is right there; that He hasn't left me.

God tells us he will never leave us and he will never forsake us. Sometimes in the middle of turmoil we forget that. I'm going to try and remember He's always there... and Be Thankful.

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

Psalm 73:21-24

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances,
for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Blessings!

Noise

2008-11-01T15:13:00.005-05:00

Ive been sitting out on my front porch today reading. The weather is great! Sunny with a breeze blowing occasionally. It could be cooler for my taste but beautiful none the less. As I was sitting here reading in the quiet I heard some scratching noise from across the street. I looked over to see 2 squirrels chasing each other around the very large trunk of a tree. It was amazing to watch God's creatures just scampering around without a care in the world. I began to look around at all the beauty of God; just thinking about how amazing He and His creation are.

Then all of sudden our air conditioner kicked on behind me. It drowned out anything about God going on around me. I tried to look around and see the things of God around me, while I could still see everything, without being able to hear it, it just wasn't the same. All the noise seemed to somehow work really hard at covering up God. Then Chris came around with the weed eater and it was just one more noise added to the mix. I could still feel the breeze, but I couldn't hear anything from God any more.

I started typing this blog and after a little while the air conditioner kicked back off and I could once again hear a little better, but the weed eater was still in the background.

If I sit here a little longer the weed eater will eventually go back off too. Then I will once again be able to hear the sounds of God on this glorious day. But then after a while, there will be some other noise interrupting the beauty of God.

Isn't that so much how life is. There is always something to interrupt what God has put here for us to enjoy. Always something to interrupt our time with Him. There is always noise in our lives. How do we handle that noise is the question. Do we sit patiently and wait for the noise to die down, so that we can once again hear God and enjoy what He has planned for us? Do we let the noise distract us as we move on to something else missing what God has in store for us. Or do we let the noise completely drown out everything Godly around us instead of waiting for the noise to die down and waiting on God to reveal Himself to us.

I pray that in this world of noise, I can remember to not let the noise overtake me, but to continue to listen carefully for the sounds and voice of God to become more clear again.

Blessings!

A Father's Love

2008-10-23T07:45:00.002-05:00

A great friend sent me this link to an incredible video today. As you watch the story unfold, notice how the people are so oblivious to the sacrifice that has been made for them. They of course don't realize the sacrifice that was made.

Are we that oblivious to the sacrifice God made for us? Do we walk around unchanged? Or do we honor that sacrifice and make noticeable changes in our lives that honor Him. These people may not realize the gift they've received, but we know the gift that was given to us. How do we choose to honor that gift. Thoughts to ponder...

Have a blessed day!

Click here to watch the video "A Father's Love".

Who Do You Choose to Hang Around...

2008-10-18T22:19:00.006-05:00

The other day I found myself driving behind a trash truck. Driving behind a trash truck is not a very pleasant place to be. Even with your windows up sometimes the smell is just horrible. Something I noticed was how many little pieces of trash and junk flew out of that truck. Nothing very big, just little stuff flitting around. Most of it just sort of hits and flies on, but every once in a while something sticks to the windshield.

You know, life can sometimes be like following that trash truck depending on the things we do or the people we choose to hang around. Little bits of trash are flying all around us. How we live and how we react determine if any of it sticks to us; if we are changed by it. And I don't mean in a good way. If you're hanging around people all the time who are constantly throwing trash around, some of it is going to start sticking to you. Before you know it, you get caught up in the trash and suddenly you become something or someone you didn't want to become.

It's important that we choose Godly people to hang around. It's important to choose people who don't get caught up in the trash. It's important to look at things with the proper perspective. Because even in the best of situations some people can only see bad. No one is perfect. We all have days when we are tired of a situation or tired of someone's attitude or any number of things. But it's our perspective that decides how we will handle the situation. We can choose to trash everything we don't like or we can choose to see the good in it. We can choose to hang around people who are always doom and gloom or we can choose to hang around people who are striving to be the best they can be and trying to live their life the way God would want them to live it.

On that note, I love hanging out with our small group. We are not perfect. We have our times of griping just like anyone else does. But we always seem to bring things back to God. We try to see the good in the situation. We let people get things off their chest and we come back to why we are there. We are always there for each other. We laugh, we cry, we listen, we pray. We laugh a lot... we laugh a whole lot!!

I could not have chosen a better small group. In fact I didn't choose this one. God chose it for me. He knew exactly where we needed to be. It's like our whole group is soulmates. We are all within the same age group, we like a lot of the same things; 3 couples in our group were high school sweethearts and all 5 couples anniversaries are within a couple of weeks of each other! Pretty weird! And 3 years ago none of us knew each other! God is amazing!!

I say all of that to say, be aware of who God puts in your life. God can surround you with amazing friends if you pay attention. Satan can also surround you with people to bring you down. So if you find yourself getting caught behind that trash truck and you notice you are starting to smell a little like the trash, step back and make sure the people you are surrounding yourself with are the people God has chosen for you.

Blessings!

Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
1 Corinthians 15:33

The Sound of God

2008-10-09T07:07:00.003-05:00

The sound of God is not something you really think about; at least I hadn't until recently. I was reading in Genesis 3 and right after Eve has been deceived by the serpent it says,

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden."

We've all read those scriptures about a million times. Every time I've read it I've always thought about the verses that come after it where it says they were afraid because they were naked so they hid. But this time when I read it, what stuck out to me was "they heard the sound of the Lord". I started thinking, what is the "sound" of the Lord? The rest of that phrase says as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. That for me sounds like a great word picture of God. There is something so peaceful, so soothing, so calming about walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And as I thinking about walking in that type of setting, it immediately makes me think about God. When I'm walking in nature in the cool of the day is one of the times I feel the closest to God.

But what is the sound of Lord? Would I know it if I heard God walking beside me? I know we hear God in all types of ways. Through the music we listen to, through something a friend may say to us, through a sermon, etc. But Adam and Eve "heard God" walking in the garden.

Am I walking close enough to the Lord that I can actually hear Him when He's walking with me? What would it sound like to actually hear God walking with me? I know that God walks with us every day, but to think about actually hearing God puts things in a different perspective for me. We may not always hear God walking with us as Adam and Eve did, but He is still there. What are we subjecting him to as He walks with us. Would He be proud to walk along side of us? Or would he be embarrassed or ashamed?

As I walk through my life and begin to think more about God walking along side of me and more about what God sounds like when He walks with me, I hope that the places I choose to walk, will make Him proud to walk along beside me.

Blessings!

Called to be a Servant

2008-10-02T06:12:00.002-05:00

As I have mentioned recently, I feel God is calling me to new places in my life. A couple of weeks ago we sang the song "Make Me a Servant" in our Sunday morning worship. It's a song most all of us are familiar with. We sang a second verse to it that has really been on my mind. The verse is...

Open my hand Lord, and teach me to share
Open my heart Lord, and teach me to care
Service to others is service to You
So make me a servant Lord make me like you

That verse has really caused me to think about a lot of different things.

We are all taught as children to share. We have the me and mine syndrome and learn how to share with others. I think as adults we sometimes forget that; at least I sometimes do. We are so blessed in this life and while I do try to do what I can for others I sometimes get caught up in keeping things to myself and not always sharing what I have. It's not that I want to keep it for myself, it's that I sometimes don't want to take the time it sometimes takes to share. Sharing doesn't always mean sharing things, it means sharing of ourselves and of our time... Lord, teach me to share.

The next line open my heart Lord, and teach me to care. That really is bothersome to me. I have always thought of myself as a caring person. But if I am not reaching out to others and sharing what I have with them, does it mean that deep down I don't care? Does it mean that my heart is not open to God's people around me? Lord, teach me to care.

I so want to be more like God. Lord mold me into who you want me to be... Lord make me like you.

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter,
we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8

Blessings!

Letting God Control the Ride

2008-09-17T07:40:00.001-05:00

I had actually planned on blogging on something else this week, but on the ride in to work this morning (the weather has been great for riding by the way!!) lots of thoughts started popping into my head. So I figured God was leading me in a different direction today.

When riding a motorcycle you don't actually have to do as much work as you would think you would. And as I was riding in this morning a few things crossed my mind that I thought I would share. Arthritis runs in my family...not fun to look forward to. I don't have it per say, but I'm afraid it may be coming. When I ride the joints in my thumbs tend to start getting really stiff and even worse if I start gripping the handle bars too tightly.

When you ride a motorcycle, you really don't have to grip that tightly unless your pulling the bike up off the kick stand. And actually, if you grip it too tightly while your riding, it's actually harder to control. You have to learn to relax and let the bike do what it was meant to do. One of the hardest things to do on a bike is to go really slowly and I don't mean from the stand point of having a lead foot! If you are traveling through a busy area you have to obviously go much slower. Going really slowly is tough. If much harder to keep the bike upright when you are moving slowly. You don't want to keep starting and stopping so you travel with just the slightest acceleration to keep you moving.

But the bike isn't meant to travel that slowly. It's meant to take off. And once you are able to take off, the ride is much easier and much more enjoyable. You basically let the bike take control of the ride. It's meant to be upright and moving right along.

Isn't that how we sometimes are with God? We want to grip everything too tightly. We say we want to live for Him but we travel so slowly we are pretty much standing still. We won't loosen our grip on our lives and what we want. We don't just hop on, take off, let God take control and enjoy the ride.

God is meant to be in control of our lives, not us. I wonder how much more we could do... how much more I could do... if I let God be in control. God did not create us to grip too tightly, too move too slowly or to be in control of His plans for us.

He created us to relax our grip on this life, to not be afraid to move forward and to let Him have total control. I know this is an ongoing battle for most of us; but imagine the things God could accomplish through us if we would only sit back and let God take control the ride! What a ride that would be!

Enjoy the ride!!

Blessings!

Riding Bikes, Hanging Out With Friends & Communing With God

2008-09-03T22:30:00.001-05:00

We had a wonderful but busy weekend. We went to Abilene to see Moonlight & Magnolias on Friday night and had dinner Friday night and lunch on Saturday with Jeremy. We came home on Saturday, went to church on Sunday and then headed out Sunday afternoon on a bike trip with some friends to Longview and on to Jefferson on Monday. We had a great time!!

The weather was great and there is nothing better than riding, except riding with friends! We rode 360 miles this weekend! We had the best time. You would have thought we were all in high school the way we were laughing and carrying on in the lobby of the hotel; until 2:00 a.m. I might add. (The next day I didn't feel like I was in high school! I felt like the 40 something woman I am on only 5 hours of sleep!)

We stayed up just talking, playing spades and having some of the most wonderful pie I have ever eaten. If you ever head to Longview, go to "The Butcher Shop" and have some chocolate pie! You won't be sorry!!

There is nothing like riding a bike through the back roads of East Texas to make you really stop and appreciate God. When you are on your bike with the wind blowing all around you and driving through some of the most wonderful trees, you can't help but think of God and all He created. There is nothing like it in the world. It really gave me time to reflect on God and the priorities in my life.

I've been thinking about priorities for a while now. Mine have seemed to be way off lately, or maybe not so off. But I do think it's a time for refocusing. The priorities of the last 22 years have been my kids. Loving them, raising them and attending all of the events they were in was what we did and pretty much who we were. While I loved that time dearly and will miss those times, I realize that God is calling me in other ways. I have really been reflecting a lot on how I spend my time now and becoming aware that God is calling me to something different in my life. I'm not sure where is He leading, but I know that I need to be aware of His calling and pay attention to opportunities He may put before me.

I know that God wants to use me to make some kind of impact. And it doesn't have to big. It reminds me of the impact of skipping rocks on water. When you skip rocks, sometimes they just skip lightly across the water making impacts every time they hit. You can see all the splashes in the water and see all the impacts they make. But sometimes when you try to skip a rock it just plops in the water. And while it only makes a plop and doesn't skip across gracefully, it still makes an impact. There are still little ripples in the water from where it dropped in.

I think sometimes we get too bogged down in trying to do something big. Trying to make huge graceful skips across the water. When sometimes just a big plop in the water still has its impact.

I'm not going to try and make huge skips across the water. Someday I may and then again I may never make that big of an impact. But I hope I can always make at least a little ripple in the water. A little ripple that spreads through the rest of the water and touches something or someone. I don't ever want to leave the water still. Even a little ripple can make a difference.

Blessings!

Wedding Pictures...Sort of...

2008-08-29T09:24:00.002-05:00

Ok, I know, I'm retarded! I know some of you have already figured that one out. I've been saying I don't have any official wedding pictures yet and while I don't, I could have given you the link so you could go and look at them if you wanted too! (This link is set to expire September 15) I guess it's my "sometimers" disease kicking in. :)

At any rate, here is a link to the pictures if you would like to see them. The password is... she said in a whisper...062108aw

Have a great weekend!!

Blessings!

The Coolest Thing Happened Today...

2008-08-27T16:07:00.005-05:00

Ok, something very unexpected but very cool happened today. As most of you know, Jeremy is now at ACU. He's not one to call home that often. Last week I got a call from him after only a few days. I told him how excited I was to hear his ringtone and he said "Don't get too excited, I'm just calling for money." I just laughed and said of course. But it was still good to hear from him. I did talk to him this week to see how the first couple of days of classes went but he called me this morning around 10:15 which was unexpected because he was supposed to be in his Bible class.

When he called, he said, "hey I'm in my Bible class and I need you to hang on for a second". I'm thinking great, the professor already wants to talk to me about something! ha ha! Anyway, he asked me if I could hear and then said to listen. His Bible class teacher is Mike Cope and I hear Mike in the background saying "Ok, everybody ready? Hello, my name is Mike Cope and I will be teaching your child Bible on Monday, Wednesday and Friday during this semester. Some of you are probably still in mourning over your child being gone, some of are excited that they are finally gone and others are in between. I just wanted to let you know we are glad your child is here. We will be having small groups that will led by upper classmen." He went on to say a few more of the new school year type things and then said, ok, everybody ready to sing..

He had the kids sing to the parents on the phone "I love you with the love of the Lord". Of course it brought tears to my eyes! But I thought that was so cool! I know Jeremy actually sang because I could hear his voice. It just made my day! Jeremy then got on the phone and said, "Ok, we're starting class now, love you bye".

Ashley never had Mike Cope so I don't know if this is something he always does or not. But this mom thought it was pretty cool!

Blessings!

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da...Life Goes On

2008-08-23T14:14:00.003-05:00

Wow! It's been a long time. But so much has been going on in our lives since my last post. Ashley graduated from ACU in May, Jeremy graduated from high school in June, we took a 9 day family vacation to Disneyworld in June and 5 days later, Ashley & Warren got married! That was all in a span of about 7 weeks. The wedding was great and was like a homecoming of sorts. We got to see so many people we hadn't seen in a really long time. It was just great!! Sorry, I don't have pictures yet. I think that's the only event we actually forgot to take our own pictures! We had the camera, we were just so busy, it never crossed our minds! Once I get some back I'll try and share them.

This past weekend we took Jeremy to ACU to begin a new chapter in his life. He was so excited to be there. We moved him in on Saturday, and by noon on Sunday he was already telling us "just go to dinner on your own tonight because I've already made plans to hang out with a bunch of people on my hall." He left us in the dust quickly! But that's what you want! He was so excited to be there and it was great to see him already making friends and getting plugged in.

Now we are home in a quiet house beginning empty nest. Everyone says it's great and I know it will be. Not that it's not good now :) it's just different. It will be nice to go out riding on our motorcycles without having to get that phone call saying, "where are y'all, we are all about to be at the house to watch a movie". But at the same time, I'll also miss those times. But I know it's time to move forward and I know that God prepares us to do that. I'm actually looking forward to having some me time again. I've missed blogging and catching up since I started my new job. Not so new now, September 1st will be a year! So hard to believe! But hopefully now since there won't be all the activities to go to every week, (or sometimes every day!) I can begin to catch up on reading everyones blogs. I really miss getting to see what's going on and getting such wonderful insight from some of you. You are blessings in my life.

With all the changes going on my life, I have begun reflecting on the priorities in my life. I'm convinced that's a never ending battle. I plan to be back soon and post more on that. For now, blessings to you!

This Video Says it All

2008-05-22T15:53:00.004-05:00

I know I've been gone forever! A new job, a high school graduation, a college graduation and a wedding all the course of 6-7 weeks will do that to you. Once the wedding is over I hope to get back to blogging and reading my favorite blogs. I miss all of you terribly.

For now, I'm going to leave you with Jeremy's final performance in high school. Chris put it on God Tube so I'm just going to give you the link. This night was the spring concert and the seniors get to choose a solo to do if they wish. The really cool thing is he goes to a public school and his choir teachers gave him free reign to do whatever wanted. Jeremy completely designed and created his own thing to the Casting Crowns song "Set Me Free". It really says it all. I am so proud of him!!! I pray he will always use his gifts to the glory of God!

Blessings! I'll talk to you soon!

Just in case you can't see the video below or it's too small, here is the link to the website.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=d0781c90f8c46baab7e0

Being Thankful and Catching Up!

2007-12-13T06:11:00.000-06:00

Wow! It seems like forever since I've checked anyone's blog. I hope to try and catch up a little bit this weekend. I love my new job, but it doesn't leave much time for checking all my favorite blogs. I am on the computer pretty much all day. So once I get home, I rarely even go near the computer. It's amazing how a job changes "everything" in your life! But it's all good! :)

I guess first for some catching up. Wedding plans are going great. Everything is booked and now we are just working out details. Ashley is doing great and having finals this week before coming home for Christmas break. This Christmas is kind of bittersweet. It will be our last Christmas together as a family of four. Next year things will change; but we love Warren to death and he is a direct answer to prayer. So all the changes will be good! It will just be different. I'm actually looking forward to planning a Christmas meal and everything that goes with Christmas for our own expanding family! :)

I don't think I ever posted about this, but Jeremy got the lead in the musical again this year. They are doing "Oklahoma!" and he got the part of Curly. It will be January 10, 11 & 12 for anyone who might be in the area. Tickets won't be on sale until probably after school starts again in January. Needless to say, that is taking up a lot of his time right now. He continues to sing on the praise team at Highland Oaks and he is also leading worship for At the Cross Church of Christ, a small church just starting out.

In our Wednesday night class the last few weeks we have been talking about "The Art of Being Thankful". About how we are supposed to be thankful in "all" circumstances. Sometimes that can be really hard to do if you are in the middle of something that is not so good. Christopher has reminded us about being thankful for everything. For example, our breath as we take it. How often do we thank God for our breaths. As Christopher puts it, "Try not breathing for a couple of minutes and you will begin to become very thankful for those breaths."

We tend not to thank God for the obvious or just everyday things. And sometimes those are some of the things we should be most thankful for. One thing I have tried to start doing is to change my prayer life. Even when things during the day have maybe not gone as I would have hoped, I am trying in my prayer life to only pray in a thankful manner. As I pray, I try to turn every situation into something I can thank God for.

I can tell you, after doing that for a few weeks, it really starts to change your perspective about a lot of things. It's harder to complain, gripe, just be in a generally bad mood, when you are being thankful! Last night, we talked about the scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5 that says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I have continued to ponder over that one verse of scripture. God's will for us is that we pray and give thanks always. But the first part of that verse says Be Joyful Always. I am finding that if you pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances, being Joyful is what you are! Not something you have to work toward.

I pray that throughout this season of Peace and Joy that everyone will be able to be more thankful and experience the true Joy of living in Jesus Christ. Blessings!

What Path Are We Taking?

2007-10-19T07:03:00.000-05:00

Tim’s sermon this past Sunday has really gotten me to thinking. He preached on the Good Samaritan from the book of Luke. He was talking about how we pass people by without even thinking about what their needs may be. Something we probably all do to some extent.

While I was reading that scripture, it actually brought something else to the forefront of my mind; in the scripture it was talking about basically a stranger on the road and everyone was passing by. But what about when we do that to people we already know. I think it’s something we have probably all done if we think about it. I’m not proud of it, but I know I’ve done it. You see someone coming down the aisle toward you in the store that you really don’t want to see. So rather than stop and say hello and ask them how things are going, we quickly turn and begin to take another path. Maybe they are someone who is not the greatest friend, or someone who has said something unkind to us or about us. It could be any number of reasons. But the bottom line is its just excuses. Just like its just excuses even when they are strangers and as Tim said, “We walk right past them and leave them in the ditch.”

It’s bad enough when we walk past a stranger who truly might need some help or just a smile from someone to brighten their otherwise dismal day. But when we walk passed someone we know or turn and take another direction rather than communicate the compassion of Christ to them that is just as bad.

I don’t really know if either one is any worse than the other. What I do know is that neither one are pleasing to God. Jesus showed compassion to every person he ever came in contact with. How are we going to be Jesus with skin on to the world, if we won’t even look the world in the eye? Sometimes just having eye contact with someone can change the focus of their day. Imagine what a smile could do or even a compassionate spoken word. I believe that God puts people in our paths for a reason. How many lives would be changed if we continued on the path that God is leading us down rather than taking a detour when we see something coming up ahead that might not be exactly where we thought we needed to go? My prayer is that we don’t miss those opportunities by being too focused on ourselves to notice that there are people lying in the ditch just waiting for someone to notice them. My prayer is that we will bold enough to take the paths that God is leading us on.

Blessings

Are We too Crowded for God?

2007-10-05T16:05:00.000-05:00

My life of late feels kind of like walking a tight rope. I have been at my new job for over a month now. I love my job, but man do I miss "my time". I have been blessed beyond measure to not have to work a full time job for the past 21 years. And I also have a new respect for those who have no choice but to work. Even though I love my job and I am working mainly because I want to, adjusting to working is still a bit of a challenge.

I had gotten used to having my own time. Time to study God's word, time to read, time to just relax. And I know for those who have to work and have no choice, they probably want to call the "whambulance" right about now! :) But finding a balance between working, family, activities, relaxing and time with God has become a real challenge for me. By the time you get home it's time for dinner or time for church or time to go to one of your child's activities or time to go to a small group or just time to fall down and collapse!!

My life has gotten too crowded. We always make comments like when I just get done with this or that things will be better and slow down. The reality is, things rarely slow down. And since they don't slow down, are we going to just let life continue to crowd in on us more and more? The more crowded our lives become, the more we are crowding God right out of our lives. We get so busy and so tired that God becomes put on the back burner. Sometimes he's not even on the burner at all. How busy and how crowded are we going to let our lives get before we crowd God completely out? And the more we crowd God out, the more Satan begins to creep in.

Church, jobs, kids, family, etc... I know those are things we all juggle every day. But I know for me, I've got to stop making my time with God one of those things I juggle. The way I used to spend my time has changed. I've got to learn to deal with it. I've got to remember that as life starts crowding in on me, I've got to continue to give God room to push to the front. I can't crowd Him out. Because only when He gets placed back in His rightful position will things begin to feel less crowded in my life.

Blessings!! And have a great weekend!

Pelted by Rocks

2007-09-27T21:26:00.000-05:00

Every Monday morning we have a staff devotional. It is a great thing!! And a great way to start off the week. Monday of this week Tim was talking about something he had read in a book. The title has left me now (I've slept since then!) but it was about Spiritual self feeding. He talked about how people go to church and make comments like I'm not being fed. They blame church, preachers, whatever else they can think of because they don't feel like they are getting fed spiritually. The author goes on to say, what if we took that approach physically. He describes a man who just becomes weak, frail, eyes dark and sunken in, and one day his wife says, "What's wrong with you?" His response is, I'm waiting for someone to feed me! Of course, we all know what her response would be... well go feed your yourself!! Or in my case, You know where the kitchen is!! As humorous as that is, it's sad that people feel that way about being spiritually fed. If you don't physically feed yourself, you'll die. Why do we think that it's someone else's job to feed us spiritually? Because believe me, if we don't feed ourselves spiritually, we will die and even worse death.

Later that day, I met Chris for lunch. As you know, I ride my motorcycle most days to work so I also have to ride it if I leave for lunch. This particular day when I was headed back to the office I took the highway to get back a little faster. I don't take the highway often, but I did this particular day. That day I had a first on the bike. I got stuck in the path of a gravel truck!! With the way the traffic pattern was, I couldn't get around him for over a mile or two. Because the weather is warmer, I had on short sleeves. I began to getting pelted by tiny little rocks. It didn't leave any marks, but it did sting pretty good considering I traveled that way for about 2 miles! Even through my pants it was stinging!

It made me think about the devotional we had earlier that morning. If we aren't self feeding ourselves spiritually, what are we going to do when we are under attack? On the bike I could slump down a little and hide behind the windshield. If we aren't self feeding spiritually are we going to have a "shield" to hide under when Satan starts pelting us with rocks?

In our culture we don't seem to have any problems self feeding when it comes to physically feeding ourselves. In fact as a culture we do it so much, most of us are trying to cut back on the self feeding. What if we started to do the same thing spiritually? What if we were feeding ourselves so much spiritually we might need to cut back? Although I don't think we can ever feed ourselves enough spiritually, you get the point.

In this world of always cutting back on what we eat physically eat, I say where self feeding spiritually is concerned, let's line up at the buffet table and just go crazy!! Maybe we can soon become a nation of spiritual over eaters rather than physical over eaters!

Blessings!!

Taking a Breath...

2007-09-14T07:55:00.000-05:00

I have missed getting to read everyone's blogs over the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping to be able to catch up this weekend.

Well, I am 2 weeks into my new job at Highland Oaks and I love it! The people here are so great. Everyone is so friendly, so loving and so willing to help. After being a stay at home mom for the most part for the past 21 years, I couldn't have asked for a better place to work. I have pretty much settled into my routine and the day goes by so quickly. (I couldn't stand it if I was looking for something to do!) If I'm going to work, I'm glad that God chose for me to be here.

I am trying to ride my motorcycle to work now that the weather is starting to cool off. When I ride the motorcycle I take more of a back way to get here. I prefer not to be on the highway, especially during morning traffic. But last week it was so hot, I drove the truck and came out 635. What a mess. For those who don't live around here, 635 is the main highway in the Dallas area that loops all the way around several surrounding cities. They are doing some major construction through the part of 635 that I must travel to get to work. Apparently, most people in the Dallas area have never seen people working on highways, because they are continously gawking and causing traffic problems.

It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. There will be absolutely no traffic and as you pass someone working or even just work trucks sitting there, suddenly all traffic stops. You would think they working in the nude or something!! Mind you this isn't even in a lane. There are still 4 lanes open. This is going on in the median between both sides of the highway. Once you pass the trucks or workers, traffic picks up to normal speed, then suddenly... stop again as you pass another single truck with no one even in it.

I've decided that they need to put a dome or some kind of tent all down the median of 635 to cover all the construction so that no one will have anything to look at. I think it would drastically help the flow of traffic!!

As I think about that, it makes me think about our lives and what people see in us. When they see us, do we show them something different, something special, something Godly to make them slow down and take a second look at us? Or are we living our life as if we are covered with a tent? Not showing the world anything about whose we are and what they could also have if they choose a life in Christ. Are we living our lives in such a way that people are just blowing past us, not even noticing we are there? If we are, something is wrong. The way we live, the things we do and say, the way we act should always cause people to look at us differently. The norm lately has become so far from what we are or should be as Christians, that if people are not stopping to look and see what's different about us, then maybe we are living too close to the norm.

While I would love to cover up all the construction so I can blow right past it, if we cover ourselves up in the same way, no one is ever going to see the light that should be shining forth from us as we live a life that is different from this world. So, let's illuminate!! Have a great weekend!!

God's Abundant Blessings

2007-09-03T09:44:00.001-05:00

This week I begin a new chapter in my life. For the past 21 years, I have been a stay at home mom. I have subbed at the kid's schools while they were in elementary school, I have worked at a Tuesday/Thursday preschool and I have even been a church secretary from home. But as of this week, I am rejoining the full time work force.

I will tell you up front, this is not something I was planning to do. At least not right now. Jeremy is in his senior year of high school and Ashley is getting married (still sounds weird!!) this coming June. I was planning to start looking for a job after this school year ended so that I can help this kids pay for the college education. But it was not even lurking in the corners of my mind at this point. Sometimes, God just has other plans for you.

I began praying a couple of months ago that God would begin to open doors for me so that as this school year came to an end, I would have some leads or ideas about what God's plans were for me. Obviously His plans were for things to get moving faster than I had thought. His plans were not my plans. I had been emailing with one of the administrative assistants as Highland Oaks to see about reserving the church for Ashley's wedding. We emailed back and forth several times and out of the blue she asked me, "do you happened to be looking for a job, I'm not even sure what it is you do." That should have been my first clue. For someone to ask me if I was looking for a job when they weren't even sure what my job history was should have alerted me that God beginning to work. But like most of us, it takes a while before we begin to see it. I told her no, I wasn't really looking for a job. That I had planned to start looking for something after this school year, but I wasn't looking now. I did tell her about what my current job was and what I had done in the past. She let me know later they wanted me to send in a resume and ask me if I might be interested in full or part time. I said maybe part time, but I'm not looking for anything full time. As it turned out, the part time was in Plano. Since we drive a 4-door truck that gets about 10 to 11 miles to the gallon, that was just not feasible. They said they would probably talk to me anyway the next week.

Well, all of this took place the week before Ashley and I went to Vegas. I went to Vegas and got a call while I was there. They had seen my resume and wanted me to come in the day after we got back. I went in, and a day and half later they were offering me a job. I still tried to get out of it, I told them I couldn't work at all the month of June because Jeremy was graduating and Ashley was getting married. What place is going to allow you to be off for a whole month even if you aren't getting paid? I told them since Jeremy was still in school, there may be days I need off for things going on with him. I was really trying to do everything to keep from taking it. They told me all of that is fine, and we will give you an 11-month contract instead of a 12-month contract so you can take off the month of June! Wow!!!

I was stunned, I had to sit back and think about what I had been praying for, what they had been praying for and what God was intending for me to do with my life. Even though I had not planned on getting a job until after the wedding, we were wondering how we were going to pay for the wedding. My preschool job was not going to come anywhere close to covering that. This job was literally like manna from Heaven. It literally fell out of the sky and into my lap. I did not even know they were looking to hire someone, did not plan on going to work, especially never in my wildest imagination had I planned on working for HOCC. Yet there it was, like manna from Heaven. As if God had said, open your mouth wide and allow me to fill it. Now it was up to me to make the choice. I of course said yes. God's hand was too evident in everything about it for me to possibly think of saying no.

So as of this week I will begin the job of Administrative Assistant to the Connections Minister. The final word from God about this job came from the Connections minister's wife a few days later when he introduced me to her at church. Her first words to me were, "we have so been praying for you". If I hadn't wanted to admit it before, I had to admit it then. They had been praying for who God was going to use to fill that spot. My prayers had been a little different, but God blended our prayers for His purpose. I can look back over the journey of my life for the past 7 to 8 years. There were times when I questioned God and wondered where He was leading us, and why were we going through some of the things we were going through. As I look back over those experiences, I can see God's hand leading me to this time and this place. There is just no other answer to the chain of events that have been my life. God had a plan all along. I'm so glad He's in charge.

So I start this week. I'm extremely excited and of course a little nervous (maybe a lot!) as well. I went for orientation one day last week and they have made me feel so much more at ease. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is so welcoming, so encouraging and so loving. I cannot think of a better place to work than being surrounded by God's people, people who love God as much as you do. What a blessing this is going to be in my life! Thank you God for open doors and thank you for the eyes to see the opening!

Blessings!

A Fun and CrAzY Week!!

2007-08-27T07:44:00.000-05:00

Ashley and I got back from Vegas late this past Tuesday night. We had such a blast! It was great to just get to spend some time together. Especially since she is going to be getting married after graduation. That still sounds soooo weird! Speaking of the wedding, it's officially June 21st of next year, the first day of summer!

On the way to Vegas we had the Brazilian basketball team on the plane with us. One of the coaches was actually sitting next to me and the head coach was in front of me. The world basketball tournament was being held in Las Vegas this week. What's weird is as I was flipping channels last night I ran across the tournament on ESPN. The USA was playing Brazil and I saw the people I was sitting next to on the plane on TV. That was kind of weird!! I looked at Chris and said, "Hey, I sat by them on the plane!"

We saw Celine Dion on Sunday night. WOW!! She was absolutely amazing! Ashley has been waiting for years to see her and it was so exciting getting to watch her excitement! She still says it all feels like a dream.

This was the first Celine sign we saw after getting
off the monorail on the way to Caesar's Palace for the show.
She was soooo excited!!

This is on our way into see Celine!
Can you tell she's excited?!?!

We were only there for two nights so we did a LOT of walking around and seeing as much as we possibly could. The hotels are incredible. Each hotel is like it's own city. They have at least 2 sometimes 3 places to have shows or concerts. They have underground shopping, they have sections that are like malls with stores everywhere, multiple restaurants, food courts, wedding chapels, and that's all in one hotel. They are huge! We stayed in the MGM Grand Hotel and our one hotel had 3 different Starbucks in it! Which was of course great for Ashley! There was a huge Rainforest Cafe, a Lion Habitat inside the hotel and in the mall section there is a CBS Television City where you can go and watch possible upcoming TV shows and rate them. We did that before we left and that was pretty cool.

This is the MGM Grand where we stayed.

The lobby of the MGM Grand.

The Lion Habitat inside our hotel.

The pool at the MGM Grand. We were sure wishing
we had enough time to swim.

We saw the Blue Man Group on Monday night. They were incredible! It's amazing how a show can be so good and they never talk! It was a really fun show. That show was in the Venetian Hotel. Wow! What a gorgeous hotel. (We saw a lot of the hotels!)

Ashley after the Blue Man Group

Inside the Venetian Hotel. Yes, INSIDE!
Everything is done to look like you are walking
outside on the streets of Venice. Really Cool!

Another inside picture at the Venetian.
We didn't have time to ride the gondola's :(
There just weren't enough hours in the day!

We went to the New York New York Hotel. They have a roller coaster that starts inside the hotel and then goes outside. Ashley wanted to ride it so she had to do that one by herself. She had heard about it from a friend and she didn't think my motion sickness would be able to take it. :)

The New York New York Hotel with the roller coaster.

We HAD to go and see the Bellagio. It's gorgeous also. That is of course the hotel in all of the Oceans Movies (George Clooney, Matt Damon & Brad Pitt) where they stand outside of the hotel looking over the water fountains at the end of all the movies. :) They have amazing water shows there in their water fountains all done to music. It's really something to see.

The Fountain Show outside the Bellagio.

The "Oceans" spot outside the Bellagio, although the
fountains weren't going at the time.

They have an M&M World there which is 4 floors of everything M&M you can think of. It's pretty cool to see for the chocolate lover! Right next door to that there is a place called Everything Coca Cola, which is also pretty cool for the Coke lover! All in all we had a great time! And even though it was great to spend the time together, we missed getting to share things with the rest of the family. We plan to go back again with everyone. There is so much to see and do there is no way to see or do it all in two and a half days!

M&M World, obviously!

Every color of M&M's you can imagine.

After coming home, some things in my life changed. I had been planning on going to work full time after Jeremy got into college so that I could help the kids pay for their college loans. I've been working at the Dayschool for the past 13 years (with a break in the middle) which has been great, but not enough to help with their college. I ended up applying for a job at Dallas Christian that was part time this year thinking that next year it might work into something full time. They ended up offering me a full time position there and the very next morning, I had another job offer just drop in my lap. I was offered an administrative assistant position at Highland Oaks. A job I had not pursued and didn't even know was available. It literally came out of the blue and fell right into my lap. Needless to say it pays more than a school and with the timing of the wedding I don't have to worry as much about paying for that. This was definitely a God thing. I wasn't planning on going back to work full time yet because of the wedding and they are working with me to allow me to have off the whole month of June in preparation for the wedding! God is so good!!

So I start my new job there the Tuesday after labor day. I am actually very nervous. My life has been around 4 year olds for so long and it's been a long time since I've actually worked side by side with adults. But I am also looking forward to it. I will be working with a lot of great people!

Well, I hope everyone has a great week! School started around here today. I now have a senior in high school and a senior at ACU! It's going to be a busy year! I'm behind on my blog reading, so I'm going to try and catch up today. Blessings!

A Couple of Updates on Our Latest News

2007-08-15T17:22:00.000-05:00

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their kind wishes on this blog and through emails. It has really been a huge blessing for our family. (See previous post for more info on that)

Secondly, I thought I would add a couple of updates and pictures. We ended up taking a very quick trip to Abilene this past Sunday afternoon. She couldn't wait until she got home on Thursday and wanted us to come and see her. She had to work Sunday night and at noon on Monday so she couldn't come here. Of course we were delighted to go (except for spending the money on extra gas! but it was worth it!!) so we headed out Sunday afternoon after church and came back after a late breakfast on Monday morning. We didn't get there until around 6:00 p.m. so she came home to let us in and show us her ring!! Then she went back to work and didn't get home until about 11:30.

The ring is just beautiful!! I told her it looks so weird to see a ring on her finger!! She said, "I know, every time I look at my hand I say that's not my hand, it's my mom's!" It's all so surreal right now, but exciting none the less. When she got home from work Sunday night, she and I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. talking about Everything! When she comes home on Thursday, we are going to spend Friday and Saturday getting started on some things. The first thing we are doing on Friday is having lunch at the Cheesecake Factory to start making a list! Great place to make a list huh! ;)

They are planning on a June wedding! So that's only 10 months away and I know it will be here before we know it. The original date they picked turned out to be Jeremy's graduation day (June 7). I'm so glad we knew about that date early! They have another date picked out but we are waiting to make sure it's available. So I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, here are some more pics. Now that I've seen the ring, she lets me see all the pictures! :)

This is when she came in from work to her surprise!

The big question! He's so sweet, he actually got down on one knee.
What a guy!

As you can see, he was all dressed up. She didn't know it was
going to happen, so she came in straight from work!
She works in the sports department of the
Abilene Reporter News.

Obviously she said Yes!

Ashley calling everyone in her phone book!

The Ring!!

We are all so excited!!!

Thanks again for all the prayers and well wishes!! Once we get a confirmation on the date, I'll let you know. In the meantime, please say a prayer for Ashley and I for safe travel. We leave for Vegas on Sunday afternoon and we'll be back late Tuesday night. We see Celine on Sunday night! More about that next week!

Blessings!!

Our Newest Addition!! :)

2007-08-10T23:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, three post in one week. That must be some kind of record for me. I'm usually the once a week poster. But we have exciting news to share!! We are welcoming a new addition to our family! No, I am NOT pregnant! Praise the Lord! But we are adding a son to our family. Yes, Ashley got engaged tonight!!!! I don't quite know how that is possible; she is still just 4 years old! (actually 21! the years go by so fast!)

His name is Warren and he called us last night to ask for our blessing. Ashley and I are leaving in about a week to go to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion, (more on that when we get back!) so he wanted to ask her before we left. We couldn't be more excited! We have been praying all of our kids lives for the spouse they would one day marry. God has answered our prayer for Ashley in Warren. Warren is a strong Godly, Christian man and comes from a strong Christian family. He loves our daughter very much and has already taken extremely good care of her. He is very sweet, has a great sense of humor and fits into our family just perfectly. Ashley is in Abilene right now, so I haven't even gotten to see the ring!

Warren was so sweet, he went down to Abilene today and all of Ashley's friends knew what was going on. They were keeping her away from the house and helping Warren all day. He decorated her house with flowers and balloons and cooked her dinner. The first picture is the entry way in front of her front door where she walked in. The next picture is of the table. You may notice the mints on the corners of the place mat. They are from Abuelo's, the first place they had dinner. What a sweet guy!! I don't have a picture of them together yet because all of those have her ring in them and she doesn't want me to see it before she gets home to show me. Which isn't going to be until Thursday!! I don't know if I can stand it until then! :)

Warren is a youth minister in Clifton, TX and a graduate of ACU. Ashley graduates from ACU in May, and the wedding will be some time after that.

Kind of a side note, I just found out a couple of days ago that Warren's cousin's wife, Sara Glenn, grew up with her family in the Houston area and were really close friends with some good friends of ours, the Ross's. Small world!

We solicit your prayers for them as they begin a new walk in their personal and spiritual life. We told Warren we expected one thing from him beyond loving her with all of his heart. And that was to make sure that she, and our future grandchildren, as well as himself all get to heaven. If they focus everything on God, everything else will fall into place.

Thanks for sharing this special news with us! I'll keep you posted on a date!

Blessings! Have a great weekend!

Yikes!!! I've been tagged... causing 2 post in 1 week!!

2007-08-08T10:32:00.000-05:00

I know, two post in one week... what's the world coming to! Apparently it's come to a game of internet tag. Like my friend who tagged me, I'm not fond of being tagged. It's kind of like getting a Fwd, not one of my favorite things. But I decided to play along as well. It is a great way to get to know people a little bit better. So here goes...

The rules are... 1) I have to post eight random facts about myself, 2) I have to list these rules and 3) I have to tag eight other people.

And we're off...

1. My husband and I ride motorcycles. I own my own motorcycle. I love to ride. I would do it every day and ride every where if I could. But it gets kind of hard to buy groceries that way! I have been known to go to Walmart on my bike for just "a couple of things" and have to cram my backpack shut. I have actually carried about 35 lbs on my back! Yes, I weighed it when I got home. :) Chris fondly calls me a pack mule on those occasions!

2. I love to sing and I love music. I love praise music and I love classic rock. While Chris and I were in high school and newly married, we went to a concert just about every month. We have seen just about every group out there except for Led Zeplin. We even camped out behind Rainbow Tickets across from SMU over night to get tickets to see Heart. We were in high school at the time mind you and our parents knew we were there. What a different time that was! There is No Way I would let my kids do that now. Looking back, I think our parents were insane to let us!

3. I love to camp and I love to read. I love to sit out for hours by the fire and read or just be mesmorized by the fire. My 2 favorite fiction authors are Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. They both write Christian fiction dealing with spiritual warfare. Ted Dekker is very similar to Peretti. With our schedules we haven't been able to go camping in about a year. We hope to remedy that soon.

4. I tend to go on autopilot when I drive. I start heading a direction that is the way I always go and I sometimes end up not where I intended to go :) I think they may call that "sometimers disease". Sometimes you forget what you're doing and where you're going :)

5. When I was 5 or 6 years old, I got hit by a car trying to ride my bike across the street. (Which I wasn't suppose to be doing by the way.) It was a residential street so they weren't going very fast. The woman who hit me was more worried about the scratch on her car (I had a metal basket on the front of my bike!) than whether or not I was alright. So the mean streak in me was kind of glad I left a scratch. ;)

6. I have a weird (some would say psychotic) habit of scaring people. I have been known to hide out in my kids rooms in the dark, in their closets or under their covers and jump out at them and scare them to death. Chris tells me they are going to end up on Jerry Springer some day with a twitch. But they have caught on and are now passing on the tradition! :)

7. My first car was a beige Pacer. You remember the car, yes it looked like a bubble on wheels! But it did get me around! (here is a pic I found. It's not my car, but it is the same color!)

8. I married my high school sweetheart. We started dating when he was 14 and I was 15. Yes, I was a cradle robber. We dated all through high school and got married one year after Chris graduated while we were both 19. (We are 11 months apart. I turned 20 the month after we got married.) While we were both young, no we did not HAVE to get married. Our first child was born 4 years later and is now 21. We just recently celebrated our 25th anniversary.

Well, that was actually kind of fun thinking back on some of those things. Now, to follow the rules of tagging others, I tag Melanie (MommyWiggy), Shannon (Shannon's Scribbles), Danna (BandBMommy), Jenny (Malaya's Mommy), Terry (Chocolate Thunder), Tiersa (See Yourself as God sees you), Lynn (Lynn's Life) and Jana (Emma's Mommy). Maybe this will get a couple of you to update your blogs. :) Some of you lucked out because you've already been tagged!

Have fun and have a great rest of the week! And I'm with Neva, No Tag Backs!!!

Blessings!

So That in All Things God May Be Praised...

2007-08-06T10:10:00.000-05:00

As I was doing some Bible study recently, I was reading in 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 4:7-11, it says,

"The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

As I read through that scripture a lot of things crossed my mind. I am no bible scholar and I don't claim to know the full meaning behind scripture, but I know that certain scriptures hit me in certain ways. It talks about being clear minded so you can pray. It brings to mind how many times my mind seems to be a jumbled mess when I am trying to pray; and it makes it hard to focus. There are times when you need to pray in the midst of a mess, but I wonder how much better my prayer life would be if I intentionally tried to clear the clutter before I began to pray? Taking in deeps breathes and releasing the days events before I begin to talk to God. I also think praying out loud or at least out loud in a whisper seems to help me keep my mind clear to pray. It helps me to focus more on the thoughts at hand and keeps my mind from straying. If our mind is more clear when we are praying, how much more so will our mind be clear to hear God's response?

"Love each other deeply, for love covers over a multitude of sins." How much more forgiving and tolerant would we be of others, if we truly loved each other deeply. When you love someone deeply, whoever they are, it's very hard not to forgive them. Love does cover a multitude of sins.

Another verse says offer hospitality without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others. I think we can sometimes be very selfish when it comes to serving. Me included. I know there are times to say no, I'm not talking about that. And I know that we serve. But how many times, even when we do serve do we first think about how it's going to infringe upon my time. I would rather go and do this or that. Someone else will do that, I really don't want to do that today. Without ever giving a thought to the blessing that service might be to someone else. That we might be the only friendly, compassionate, God like face they see that day. I know that every time I forgo those thoughts and serve someone unselfishly, I am the one that usually feels the greater blessing. The person being served is usually always very grateful, but there is just something about the blessing we receive in return.

Everything we do should reflect the word of the God, should reflect Jesus living in us. If we live like that, we are the ones that will be blessed. Have a great week!

so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:11

The Glory of God....and twenty five years

2007-07-31T09:31:00.000-05:00

Jeremy got back from Honduras a few weeks ago. The picture on the header of my blog is a picture he took while he was in the air from the airplane. It's one of the most incredible pictures I've ever seen. When I look at that picture, it's like I'm looking at God in all of his brilliance. The clouds look like mountains, the sun shining through makes everything just illuminate, the sun overhead shines over the whole picture with a glowing brilliance. It reminds me of a song called "I See the Lord"

I see the Lord seated on the throne exalted,

and the train of His robe fills the temple with glory,

and the whole earth is filled with His glory.

When I look at that picture, that's what I see. It's like the train of His robe is filling the sky with His glory. God lives in us. When people look at us, do we look like the train of His robe has filled our temple with His glory? What would this world be like, if when people looked at us as Christians, they saw the glory of God illuminating through us with such brilliance? I dare say the world would be a much better place.

If God can make the sky light up with such brilliance, how much more brilliant is it going to be some day when we are truly standing surrounded by the train of His robe. It's going to be amazing! I can't wait!

(here is a larger picture. I had to shrink the header.)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord
seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train
of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs,
each with six wings: With two wings they covered their
faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two
they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty:
the whole earth is full of his glory."

Isaiah 6:1-3

*************************************************

Today is also mine and Chris' 25th wedding anniversary! Twenty five years goes by so fast. For our anniversary, our garage door springs broke. So we get to replace those at probably around $200. There is always something!

I am so blessed to married to my best friend. He is my partner in life and my spiritual partner. There is no one I would rather spend my life with. We have had lots of incredible journey's along the way. I can't wait to see what the next 25 years holds. You are my love and my life. I love you Chris! Happy Anniversary!

Going Through the Motions

2007-07-23T10:03:00.000-05:00

I generally feel like my life is going pretty good. I've got things pretty much together, I have a great family, I have great friends, I go to church regularly, I pretty much do all the right things. As I began my day yesterday, I realized that things weren't really what I had perceived them to be. They rarely are when you've got so many "I's" working for you. (or against you)

I got ready for church yesterday morning and I had a few extra minutes before leaving (a great feat in and of it self for me! because I'm not a morning person) so I opened my bible up to James and started to ready. I only had time to read for about 5 minutes before everyone was ready to go, but that 5 minutes was enough to bother me. There were a couple of phrases that seemed to just jump out and knock me back. "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." And then, "unstable in all he does". I left for church thinking, why did those phrases pop out at me? I've got things together.

We got to class and had another great lesson, by Jim Kirk. He has an incredible way of teaching and making you feel like your watching a movie. He brings the stories we are discussing to life in remarkable ways. By the end of his class, I felt even more like I was being convicted in my heart. A couple of things he said to close class were, "Only when we realize we need cleansing, can we be cleansed." "Only when we reach the end of "our" way, we will turn to God and accept His way." It really hit me and I started thinking, "am I really trying to do everything my way?"

Then, on to worship. I looked at the song selection in the bulletin and thought, wow... that's a great list of songs. We got into our worship time and after the call to worship, the next song was "Breathe". I was thinking, oh I really like that song and we haven't sung it in a while. But then our worship minister, Chad Higgins, had us stop and breathe in deeply. He asked us to thing about what we picture God's glory to be and breathe that in deeply and then exhale, to continue to breathe the Glory of God in deeply and exhale and after several times of doing this, we began singing the song "Breathe". The song convicted me like never before. The lyrics are...

This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence living in me

This is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word spoken to me

And I, I'm desperate for you
And I, I'm lost without you

The part about God being the air that I breathe, started to hit me. Do I really allow Him to be the air that I breathe? And when we reached the words, "I'm desperate for you, I'm lost without you" I realized just how desperate I was. I realized in that moment that I let myself get caught up in the motions of being a child of God. I had let my spiritual life become routine. I had not been breathing in the air that is God and I truly was desperate for Him. I realized that the words in James I had read earlier that morning where the beginning of my conviction that morning. Because I realized I did feel like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind and I felt unstable in all I did. When we start having so many I's in our language, we lose sight of the fact that "I" am nothing without "Him".

I want God to always be the air that I breathe. There is no other air that is more refreshing!

the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7

God is the air that I breathe! Blessings!

A Little Weekend Humor for Talking off Those Pounds!

2007-07-20T11:02:00.000-05:00

There seems to be several of us trying to take off some of those unwanted pounds. It can be very hard to do and very hard to stay focused on your goal. Obviously keeping God at the center is the first step. But for those days when you feel like screaming, click here for a little something to make you smile!

(it may take a few seconds to load)

Enjoy and have a great weekend!!

Looking to Ourselves for Change

2007-07-16T14:10:00.001-05:00

As I was driving down the road the other day, I passed a church that had an interesting statement on their marquee. I can't remember what it said exactly, or even the name of the church in which I saw it. But the implication of the comment has stuck with me and caused me to think.

It said something like... Change in me what I see in others that I think needs to be changed.
It's one of those statements you have to read over and over a few times to really let it sink in. I started thinking about the times I see someone doing something and think they shouldn't be doing it, or they shouldn't be acting that way, or why on earth would you do something like that.

How many times do we say things like that. It's so easy to see in others the changes we think they need to make in themselves. Maybe it's so easy to see those things, because God is trying to show us those are things we need to change about ourselves. We are so blind or maybe so arrogant that we don't seem to be able to see as easily the things we need to change in our own lives or with the way we act in certain situations. I bet if we really stepped back and looked at ourselves, we would see lots of things we need to change.

What if, every time we wanted to make a comment about something in someone else we thought they needed to change, we just didn't. And we took that thought and applied it to ourselves and our own lives. Do you think we would begin to see that there are lots of things in our own lives we need to be working on? That there really isn't time for us to worry about the things everyone else needs to change if we focus those thoughts inwardly and apply them to ourselves? My grandmother had a saying, "You need to clean out from under your own doorstep before you start worrying about someone else's." And I imagine that if we started looking inwardly first, and things started to change in us, we would see far less wrong with those around us.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,
if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with
the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy
complete by being like-minded, having the same love,
being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better
than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your
own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:1-4

Blessings! And have a great week!!

The Medina Children's Home and Avery Johnson

2007-07-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, June 30th, Chris and I were privileged to be a part of the annual benefit dinner benefiting the children of the Medina Children's Home. Avery Johnson was this year's guest speaker. He was awesome! But more on that later.

We were a part of the auction committee so we were there beginning at 9:30 at a.m. that day. It was a long day, but when you hear the stories of those children, it's all worth it! It is so cool to be a part of something that does so much for the kids at Medina. Between the silent auction and the live auction alone, $36,000 was raised for the children. (At the silent auction there was a really cool Pirates of the Caribbean Movie Poster with an inset autographed picture of Johnny Depp!! It went for way out of my price range...But Johnny Depp is another story!!:) That doesn't even include donations made that night, corporate donations and the 1300 seats that were sold!! It is truly amazing to see all of that go to these kids.

We have been privileged to help and attend for several years and it's always amazing to hear the stories of some of these kids and the struggles they have overcome. I cannot even imagine telling a child, "even God doesn't love you" as one girl who is now graduating from A&M was told by her mother before she arrived at Medina. It literally breaks your heart. And to see how far these kids have come because of a place like the Medina Children's Home is just amazing. Only a God who truly does love them very much could get them to where they are now. Praise God and praise God for the Medina Children's Home.

It was also a great privilege to hear Avery Johnson speak. Somehow, God graciously allowed us to sit at the 2nd table from the front! I don't know how that happened, but we are so grateful! What an incredible, Godly man Avery is. His story was amazing. He has overcome so many things to get to where he is and said that he realized, "If things don't change, things don't change". He gives God the credit and the praise for where he is in his life. I only wish he had more time to speak. Not only is his story very inspiring, he has such a gentle voice. He is known as "The Little General". But there is nothing little about him. He has a big heart, a big love for God and a big smile that can't help but make you smile also. A big thanks to Avery for giving his time to such a worthy cause.

May God continue to bless the Medina Children's Home and all the good work going on there.

Jesus said, "Let the little chidren come to me,
and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
Matthew 19:14

The Rain Continues...

2007-07-05T11:57:00.000-05:00

The rain continues here in this part of Texas, as I'm sure it does in most of your areas as well. I have never seen so much rain in my life. It is raining here pretty much every day and has been for about a month. There are sporadic times of sun, but mostly rain.

I was driving home the other day and the sun was shining. All of sudden as I got closer to home everything turned dark and down came another torrential downpour. It lasted about 5 minutes and then stopped, but then more rain came later that day. The 4th here was great though. A few showers in the morning and then what turned out to be a gorgeous day outside with a great breeze. Probably one of the coolest 4th of July's I've ever experienced. It was spent with dear friends which just made it that much better!

As we are in mid summer, I find myself so busy. I usually think summer is when things slow down. But this summer has been busier than most. The other hard thing about summer is we are out of our usual routines. For me, that makes it harder to keep my focus, stay up with my studying, etc. I find myself falling into old patterns that I'm trying to correct.

As I was getting out of my car the other day in yet another rainstorm, I began thinking about how much rain we've had. It is so unusual. And then I started thinking about how I've been getting out of good habits and thinking of the world and all the worldly things that go on. As I watched and thought about the rain, a thought struck me. It's almost like God is trying to clean up the world some with all of the rain. I know that's not really why the rain is here, but it did start me to thinking.

It rains and rains and just when you think it's not going to rain anymore, then it starts again. Almost like God saying, ok... things are looking better now, wait... no, there they go again. We need more washing out of the old habits.

It really made me think about my life and making sure my good habits stay good and don't get lost in my busyness. It was like God was telling me, I've gotten her cleaned up to start fresh, again, oh... maybe not... there she goes again.

Although I know that Jesus' blood continually cleanses us, I don't want to feel like I'm in a state of needing to be washed continually because my focus doesn't stay where it needs to be. And I'm not talking about huge things... I'm talking about just letting every day life get in the way and letting myself resort to old habits of putting reading the word at the end of the day if I'm not too tired, rather than starting the day with it; being grouchy at someone who cuts me off in traffic rather than thinking, wow... they could really be having a bad day today; etc.

I love the fact that God's grace and Jesus' blood continually wash over me and keep pure in His eyes. But I don't want to make him feel like, Ok... start the showers, here she goes again. I thank God for the rain this Earth so desperately needed, but I'm praying for spiritual blue skies for the rest of the summer!

(On a side note, Jeremy left this morning for a mission trip to Honduras with the Highland Oaks youth. Please keep him and his group in your prayers.)

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-22

Weekend Randomness... Evolution of Dance

2007-06-29T11:15:00.001-05:00

This is a great way to start off the weekend. The music alone brings back lots of memories. Enjoy and have a great weekend!!

And thanks for all the birthday wishes for Ashley! They were very sweet of you!

Twenty One years ago...

2007-06-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

Twenty-one years ago today, at 9:41 p.m., after 18 and a half long hours of labor, Ashley Elizabeth Moore came into this world. It seems like yesterday. I can still remember every detail of the morning, day and night in which it all began. That's right, she is now 21 years old! I cannot believe it!

She has been a great blessing in my life over the last 21 years. Of course there have been times I wanted to strangle her, but those times are so easily forgotten when you look back over cherished memories. We have so loved watching her grow over the years. From a tiny baby (7 lbs. 4 oz) to a precious little girl who loved choc milk, to a wonderful big sister, to a beautiful Godly, Christian woman. She has the most beautiful smile. Her smile can change your mood instantly. It can also melt your heart. It has been so amazing to watch God developer her into the woman she has become. And sometimes when I get a little cynical about things, she's always there to set me straight. It's amazing when you start learning from your children.

We had so much fun over the years watching her play soccer, then softball and basketball and finally volleyball. Which is still her favorite sport. I couldn't believe it when she graduated high school and now she is about to begin her senior year at ACU. Where does the time go? Cherish every moment you have with your children. Even when the days are sometimes not so good. Because one day you blink, and they are grown women, about to take on the world.

My life would not be the same without her in it. She is not only my daughter; she has become my best friend. I feel like I can tell her anything and she never judges me. I have made so many mistakes throughout her 21 years, but thank goodness for God's grace and mercy who has covered over a multitude of mistakes. I give God glory for everything she is and for everything she will become. She is truly His child. I am just so fortunate and so thankful that He allowed me to be her mom. I love you Ashley! May God continue to bless your life and continue to mold you into the woman He wants you to be and to become. Happy 21st Birthday!!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from over her 21 years... Enjoy!

For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you. Colossians 3:8,9

Her 1st ball game...with many more to come!

The morning Jeremy was born. This was around 3:00 a.m.

The night before middle school volleyball tryouts!

High School volleyball game. They went to the playoffs for the
1st time in 17 years! They ended up Area Champs and
Regional Quarterfinalist.

Senior Volleyball Picture

Senior Picture

Some things never change!!!!

Officially Twenty-One!!

Ashley & Jeremy

Ashley & Warren
We found fireworks on her 21st birthday
and celebrated with some really good friends!!
How cool is that!!

Blessings Everyone... Have a great week!!

Ok God...I'm Listening...

2007-06-17T14:42:00.000-05:00

I spent this past week in Abilene with Ashley. She was moving from an apartment to a house with 2 other girls for her senior year at ACU. I can't believe she's a senior! We had a great time together. In fact, I think it was our first actual "grown up" time together if that makes sense. I think we have crossed over to that adult relationship between mother and daughter. We didn't argue once and just had a really great time hanging out. And have I said before I miss having her home this summer?? :)

During the moving process, I think everything that could go wrong went wrong as far as utilities go. The electricity was suppose to be activated in their name on Monday last week. While Ashley and I were in the house on Monday, the electricity all of sudden went off. I saw someone walking around outside so I went out to talk to him. He was very reluctant to talk to me, but said he did not have an order for electricity to be turned on at that address. And of course he was there turning it off because the previous tenants had not paid the bill. (Normally, at least around here, they don't actually turn it off when someone moves. They just read the meter and change the name on the account.) We called the electric company and of course they had no record of anyone calling to have it turned on even though they had been called the previous Monday, a whole 7 days earlier. So, no electricity until Wednesday afternoon. We moved for 3 days in 95 degree weather with no air. What did we ever do without air conditioning! Fortunately, we had her apartment until Tuesday night so we slept there. And Tuesday night some dear friends who live in Abilene let us crash on their couch.

On Tuesday, the cable and internet was suppose to be hooked up. I called them on Monday evening to warn them we had no electricity and the person said, "Oh it's ok, they can still hook it up and that way it will be on when your electricity comes on". So they came out Tuesday and lo and behold, they are not allowed to leave equipment there with no electricity. Big Surprise! I told them about my call the previous day and he called his supervisor. They gave us the direct phone # to the supervisor and told us as soon as it gets turned on, to call him and they would try to send someone out. When the electricity finally came on Wednesday, I called and they had someone out within an hour an a half. So that was great! After he hooked everything up, he was explaining all the equipment and I asked him a question about the DVR (tivo) they were suppose to have..."Oh, you ordered a DVR? They didn't tell me that. This is just a regular cable box." Fortunately he was able to locate one quickly and came back out later that afternoon and switched the boxes out. Our best experience of the week with utilities!

Now with electricity on we began to wash clothes. I noticed after about 3 loads there didn't seem to be any hot water. I thought it going to be hard for 3 girls to shower every day if the hot water doesn't last any longer than that. We left a little while later and went to eat. Ashley had to work that night so I ran some errands. It had been about 4 hours since I had washed clothes when I finally got back. There was still no hot water. I told Ashley to call the landlord because the pilot light must out. They sent out a plumber the next day and guess what... you guessed it, the gas had been cut off because the previous tenant had not paid the gas bill either. After I headed home on Friday the gas company came out and turned on the gas but couldn't find the hot water heater to light the pilot light. And of course they didn't show up until around 8:00 p.m. so it was to late to get a plumber over there. So hopefully tomorrow they will finally have gas...and hot water!

Needless to say it was an interesting week where the utilities were concerned. As many of you know who have read previous posts, I tend to like to be in control. (no duhs here please :) I try really hard to let it go, but lately I have noticed myself having more trouble in that area. This week, it was like God was slapping me up beside my head, saying back off, you CAN'T be in control. I think I finally realized that on my drive home. I started replaying things from the week over in my head and it was like, Ok God, I'm Listening... finally. And as if to reiterate it, all the way home, things kept happening or I kept noticing things that were just one more subtle hint after another. I was flipping radio stations on the way home trying to stay awake. I don't usually listen to country but happened to stop for a few seconds on a country station. The song had just gotten to the chorus which said, "I'm living life in fast forward, I need to rewind real slow". I thought, how many times am I just rushing from one thing to the next and not enjoying things along the way?

Then, when I was about 30 minutes from home, the traffic suddenly came to a stop do to an accident. It was like God was saying, "I'm really not kidding, you aren't in charge". Don't you just love that God has a sense of humor! Fortunately it broke up in about 10 minutes and I continued on. Then I saw a billboard that had paper dolls cut out on it. I don't even know what it was advertising. I noticed that at the front there was one cut off from the rest of the group standing by itself. My thought was, I am cutting myself off from what God wants me connected to by continuing to take control of things I really can't control.

It's really kind of scary. It's obvious that I haven't given up control as much as I thought I had and that God is trying to get my attention. That's always a scary thing, because I know God is leading me somewhere and He wants me to just let Him lead. So once again I'm trying to turn that over to Him.

All in all, it was a great week! I got to spend the entire week with my daughter and that is always one of the great blessings in my life. She will be home on Thursday for a little over a week. I can't wait!

On a side note, Tim Spivey, our minister, is taking a few weeks off and we had the privilege of having Wade Hodges from the Garnett Church in Tulsa, OK speak today. It was great to get to hear him again. He had a great message on "Moving Up From the Back Row" taken from the passage about the Ethiopian Eunuch.

I hope everyone has a blessed week!

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. John 10:26-28

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. James 1:19-20

Weekend Randomness

2007-06-08T11:25:00.001-05:00

Here's a little humor to start off the weekend! Go ahead... ask your husband for anything!! :)

Keeping Your Focus

2007-06-04T11:10:00.000-05:00

The weather lately (in between the rain :) , has been great for motorcycle riding. Lots of sun and just great to be outdoors and feel the wind in your face. While I was riding the other day, I realized something that is very different from when I am driving in the truck (or the cage as another motorcycle friend likes to put it! :) It's my focus. It's almost completely different.

When I am driving in the truck, if I'm going to be gone for a while, I don't like to listen to the radio much. I love listening to music, but I have grown to love those times as quiet times. I like to reflect on things going on in our life. I sometimes use that time to pray specific prayers or just talk to God about everything going on. It is a quiet time and a restful time. I sometimes get so caught up in just thinking or contemplating that I sort of go on autopilot and sometimes either forget where I'm going or just end up some place different as I'm sure my family would love to attest to. :)

When I was on the motorcycle the other day, I realized that I don't do that on the motorcycle. When I'm on the motorcycle I am completely and totally focused on what's going on all around me. (Which is a very good thing if you have read the previous post about me being an idiot driver magnet!) Anticipating the moves of others and keeping my focus completely and totally on the bike and being safe. You sometimes get lost in the ride, but you never lose your focus.

It made me realize, if I can be that focused while riding, why is it so hard to stay focused on other things in my life? How is it that I can get so distracted while studying my bible, while praying, while doing any number of other things spiritual or otherwise? What if I was able to channel that type of focus into every aspect of my spiritual life?

If I were to focus my spiritual life in the same way that I focus while riding on the bike, wow, how much better life would be. Not that I necessarily feel like my spiritual life is in a bad place, but I know that I am way too easily distracted. What things do we all focus on? I'm sure it may be different for everyone. I'm going to try and be more intentional about making sure my spiritual life, is just as focused as my motorcycle riding. I can't wait for the ride God is ready is take me on!

But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign Lord; in you I take refuge - do not give me over to death. Psalm 141:8

Noticing Nature

2007-05-31T10:35:00.000-05:00

We went to Abilene this past weekend to spend some time with Ashley. She is taking a Maymester and has decided to stay in Abilene for the summer. I miss her not being home this summer so it was great to get to spend some time with her. While we were there, Ashley got to meet Jeremy's newest pet, Zeus. He has wanted one forever and now that he is older, I finally gave in. Ashley was not to happy to see him though! Especially since Jeremy was chasing her around to me him!

Ashley & Jeremy at Prairie Dog Town in Abilene.

Jeremy and his new pet, Zeus!
(And no, I have not held it! I've touched it, but not held it :)

While we were in Abilene we ate at a place called "Brick Oven Pizza". It's over by Hobby Lobby. Even though Ashley has been there for 3 years, it was the 1st time we had ever eaten there. It may be fairly new, I'm not sure. Anyway, the pizza was probably some of the best pizza I have ever eaten. If you're in Abilene, you should definitely check it out.

The weekend was great and the weather was beautiful in Abilene. Blue skies and sunshine the whole weekend. Completely opposite from what we heard the Dallas area had been over the weekend.

As much as I hate the 3 hours it takes to get to Abilene, I love the view during the drive. Most people think it's a really boring drive. And it probably is, there really isn't much to see on the way. But the closer you get to Abilene the more of God's country you get to see. Lot's of trees, less buildings and during the spring the wonderful beauty of the Texas Wildflowers lining the highway. I enjoy the scenery of the drive.

As we made our way back to Mesquite on Sunday afternoon it was getting dark and we were headed into rain. We hit some pretty heavy rain, but also some times of sun. What I noticed coming back were the clouds. They were really amazing. I have always been fascinated by clouds and their ability to do what they do. Some of the clouds were flat, some were huge with dark bottoms and you knew the rain could just drop at any minute and some were just huge, puffy, beautiful clouds. I've often wondered if those huge puffy clouds could hold us up. If we could just jump and bounce on them or lay down and get lost in the cushyness of them.

I remember as a child driving and looking at clouds or just laying in the yard looking at the clouds and discovering what images they looked like. Sometimes they looked like animals or dragons, sometimes like angels. I still enjoy looking for "things" in the clouds. How can anyone look at clouds and then believe there is no God? That's what I love about clouds and nature in general. God is everywhere! No one but God could make clouds just float around in the sky. Especially the ones with rain in the them, you know they must weigh an enormous amount.

The most beautiful thing was the sky underneath the clouds. It was so many different shades of bright blues it was just amazing! Like I said, God is everywhere in nature. The sad thing was, the closer we got to home and the closer we got to the city, those blues began to fade and were not as bright. Our cities have covered up some of the most beautiful things that God created. I think it's like that for us sometimes. It's really easy to be all caught up in God when we are surrounded by His beauty. But when we get "closer to the city" does our love for God fade as we get busy with all the "things" around us?

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life - in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. Philippians 2:14-16

May we all shine like the stars in the heavens.

Catching Up...

2007-05-22T00:13:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've blogged. The past 4 weeks have been extremely busy. I haven't had time to even read blogs, much less write one of my own. It has been really hard not having time to especially read blogs. I enjoy doing that so much. School is out now though and I hope to catch up on my reading and hopefully post a little more often.

Well, I'll catch you up on what we've been up to lately. It started about the 2nd week of April with Jeremy's prom. Yes, Jeremy is old enough to be going to prom. Soooo hard to believe! In fact, he is now officially a senior in high school! Ashley is now officially a senior at ACU! Where does the time go. Here are a couple of pictures from prom that night.

Ashley & Jeremy

Jeremy & Warren (Warren was standing on the down slope of a hill. He's not "that" much shorter than Jeremy :) Actually, he might be :)

Warren & Ashley

A couple of weeks after prom, Chris and I went with Jeremy's choir from high school (70 kids!!) on their choir trip for 5 days. We went to Branson and St. Louis. The trip was a lot of fun, the bus driver was a psycho (a story in and of itself :), but all in all a fun trip. Of course by the time we got back we were exhausted. We went non stop for 5 days from 7:30 in the morning until 11:00 at night. On the way back, a nine hour drive, we had 3 freshman girls sitting behind us, who did nothing but shriek and carry on for 9 solid hours! No joke, they NEVER slept for even 1 minute the entire 9 hours back. Believe me, I was so ready to get off of that bus :)

Then we had the opening of the new Highland Oaks auditorium which is just amazing! Jeremy's choir banquet was the next week (he was elected the new choir president for next year by the students and was also named a senior leader for next year by the faculty). The same week he also had 2 choir performances. In one of the performances he sang a solo of "Casting Crowns" Lifesong. He put together clips from the "Passion of the Christ" to be playing while he was singing. He did an amazing job! The next week was my 4 year old class's preschool graduation. Obviously, it's been a busy several weeks. It's been a good busy, but I'm sure glad it's summer!

Ashley is staying in Abilene this summer and working :( It's the first summer she hasn't been home for the whole summer so that is sad for me. That's always our time to hang out together. Although someone else is taking up a lot of her time now a days. You might have noticed the guy in the pictures from Jeremy's prom with him and Ashley. That is Ashley's boyfriend (yes I said it, boyfriend) Warren. He is a really sweet guy and we really like him a lot. He is the youth minister in Clifton, TX. He graduated last year from ACU and he and Ashley met working together at the Abilene newspaper. They started dating this past February. He spends a lot of time driving back and forth from Clifton to Abilene.

Summer is almost here and it promises to be busy as well, but with no school it will be a lot more manageable. Jeremy is going to Encounter at LCU the 1st of June, to Honduras the 1st of July, then to choir camp the very next week, the week after that will be Summer Bible Quest (VBS) at Highland Oaks, then at the end of July Chris and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and in August Ashley and I are going to see Celine Dion in Las Vegas!

Well, I guess that's about it. I had told several people after Jeremy's performance in Beauty and the Beast back in January I was going to try and post a video. I think we've finally figured it out. So I will close with a couple of videos from Beauty and the Beast and also his solo of "Lifesong". Have a great week!

P.S. Even though there is sometimes no picture on the YouTube screen, it still works. Just click on the YouTube image.

Observing Rudeness

2007-04-20T08:05:00.000-05:00

I remember when I was a child and even into early marriage, people in general seemed to be more friendly than they are now. When I was growing up, Everyone always waved and smiled when you passed them. It didn't matter if they knew you personally or not. If a car let you pass you waved. If someone was walking near you as you were going in or coming out of a door you held the door for them. You smiled at people as you made eye contact with them.

I learned that from my parents and we have hopefully passed that on to our own children. But I have noticed more and more in the last few years that you just don't see that kind of courteousness any more like we should. I first started noticing it in youth age children. The attitude seemed to be; you owe ME, so why would I do something nice for you. They would even just walk right off the curb and out in front of your car without even so much as a glance to acknowledge you are there. Then it got to where I noticed it just as much in people who were around my grandparent's age. Not the, you owe me attitude, but just the attitude of rudeness and not being friendly. I have had just as many older people walk right passed me when I have an armful trying to get out of the door as I have had younger people. When my children were young, people would walk right passed me while I was trying to hold open a door while getting two kids and a stroller through the door.

While I was out the other day I decided to make a mental note of the people around me and their reactions and responses. As I walked around through 3 or 4 different stores, I would try and make eye contact with people and smile at them. I always smile at people as I pass them, but I was more aware of it on this day. What I found out on that particular day was, only 3 or 4 people smiled back. And everyone one of those was a person who worked for the store in which I was in. Not one other person returned the smile.

It just amazes me that we seem to be, I guess so busy with ourselves, that we can't even offer common courtesies anymore. We can't offer or even return a smile. I'm sure some of it is because our world has changed. You could be a psycho for all they know these days. What's even more amazing to me, really the word is sad (even heartbreaking), is that I'm finding out that more and more of these rude people are probably Christians.

I have heard several people comment lately how Christians on a Sunday morning are the rudest customers, how Christians at a Sunday lunch are the worst tippers (or no tippers!), etc. I have personally been in some situations with Christians who I didn't know very well, but knew they were Christians, in which they were extremely rude to people around them. It's embarrassing.

So does this mean that there are probably more Christians in the world and we just don't realize it because they are being so rude to people? I pray that's not the case. Jesus was full of love and compassion for everyone! He touched those that no one else would touch. He smiled at people and made them feel loved. As His children, that's the type of Christian those around us should see. There's an old song that says, "They will know we are Christians by our love". Do people really know that we are Christians by our love? By the love and concern we show for others? By the smile we give strangers who pass by? By the simple courteousness of opening doors to help someone out?

I pray that we have not become so busy and so calloused that we forget WHOSE we are. And as HIS, we should always act more like Him. Especially when those around us are not. Because as His, we should be sanctified, set apart from the world. Blessings!

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:14-15

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know god, because God is Love. 1 John 4:7-8

Commercials Catching My Attention...

2007-04-13T07:54:00.000-05:00

There are two Dr. Pepper commercials that have caught my attention lately. One of them is the 23 flavor commercial of regular Dr. Pepper. The "I want it all and I want it now" slogan. I have seen that one a million times. But the other day I started thinking, what if we "wanted it all and wanted it now" when it came to Jesus?

I was watching that commercial thinking there is so much more to life than Dr. Pepper. But do I have that passion about the things that are important in my life, especially my spiritual life. While I do have that passion for my family and God, it really made me think. Does my walk with God really reflect that "I want it all and I want it now" mentality? Because in God I do have it all, and I have it now!

We have been talking in class on Wednesday nights about the spiritual wheel in our lives and the things that we need to work on. For a lot of us we are good with the prayer, bible time, compassion for others, etc. But we are lacking in the "telling the world" part of our wheel. If we were living the "I have it all and I have it now" slogan, maybe that part of our wheel wouldn't be so lopsided.

The other night I noticed the Diet Dr. Pepper commercial. I have just recently started seeing it more and though I have seen it several times, I noticed something for the first time... the reflection of the can in different scenes. They are shown enjoying a "diet" drink, but in the reflection it shows an ice cream cone, or a sundae, or something else yummy! I had never noticed that part before.

It made me wonder, what is our reflection as Christians like? I know a lot of people have only had minimal experience with church and Christians. And for some, minimal is all they want because of the rigidity, the lack of compassion and sometimes downright meanness they have experienced. The reflection they've seen coming from church and Christians is more of a dragon or something with horns. What if the reflection they always saw from us was one that made them feel like they were having that ice cream cone or that sundae? One that made them feel loved and accepted, like they were always getting the dessert in life rather than the brussel sprouts. What if the reflection they always saw in us was the reflection of Christ, full of mercy and compassion and never ending love?

Satan doesn't want that reflection showing and if we aren't careful he will turn our reflection into something we don't even recognize. I pray that in my life I will always show the reflection of Christ.

Blessings! Have a great weekend!

A Blessed Easter

2007-04-09T11:05:00.000-05:00

I love Easter and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. He is indeed Risen! What a wonderful Easter this has been.

We started our Easter this year with something we have never done before. This past Thursday, our small group participated in a Passover Celebration Meal together. It was an incredible experience. While we of course believe that Jesus has already risen, we shared a meal reflecting on the first passover... on the sanctification, the deliverance, redemption and the praise that Jesus has already come and how we look to every moment for the Messiah to return again and take us home.

Our meal consisted of Matzah (unleavened bread), Parsley (bitter herbs), Horseradish, Hard Boiled Egg, Cheroset (apple mixture) and Salt Water (representing tears). It was a very moving experience reflecting on that first passover night and their deliverance. We are planning to have a Passover Celebration Meal as an entire church next year once we are back the auditorium and out of the fellowship room. That should also be a wonderful experience.

Sunday morning at Highland Oaks we had 4 services beginning at 7:00 a.m. and the last one beginning at 11:30 a.m. Normally we have 2 services on Easter but to the remodeling and having services in the Fellowship Room, we had to expand it to 4 this year. We invited the community and also had brunch going on from 7:00 a.m. to 11:30. We had 2 Easter Hunts, one at 10:00 and one at 11:30 that the community was also invited to. As a congregation we brought 8,000 plastic Easter eggs filled with candy! There were children everywhere with Easter baskets full of eggs!

We ended the day with lunch with my family. Here is a picture of Ashley and Jeremy. I can't believe how mature they are looking. I'm not old enough to have kids that look that old! :)

Well, it was indeed a blessed day. May we continue to remember each day the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! He IS Risen... Lord Come Quickly!!

Sanjaya Anthem

2007-04-05T15:08:00.001-05:00

Ok, I'm ready to stop watching American Idol! But I won't...I'm too hooked! I was so disappointed to see Gina voted off last night. She wasn't the "best" of all the singers and wouldn't have won, but she was one of my favorites. I am soooo tired of Sanjaya coming back every week after the worst performance and some weeks not even being in the bottom three. I also heard yesterday that Howard Stern is asking his listeners to vote for Sanjaya just to screw up American Idol. It's ridiculous... and it's working!

Well, for those of you who are just as ready to see Sanjaya go as I am, here is a little Sanjaya humor for your weekend!

Blessings! And Happy Easter! Jesus is Risen!!

Preparing in Layers

2007-04-02T09:22:00.000-05:00

The weather the last few days has been great for motorcycle riding! But being prepared for the weather on a motorcycle is tricky. If the weather forecast is calling for great impending rain, I don't ride. I don't want to get caught out in the rain. But riding in the 70ish degree weather is awesome. The only thing is, it's very different than just being outside in the 70ish degree weather.

While the weather appears very warm while standing outside, riding on a motorcycle the air can become very cool when it's in the 70's. So when riding a motorcycle, you have to dress in layers to be prepared for the cool and able to peel off layers as the air warms up.

Walking out for the day in our Christian walk is much the same way when you think about it. If you aren't prepared, you can be in for some nasty "weather" even in your spiritual walk. Dressing in layers spiritually could mean a variety of things. Beginning your day with prayer, staying in the word, being ready to greet others with a smile, the list goes on and on.

In Ephesians 6, scripture tells us, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

Are we going out prepared and dressed in layers? Are we ready so that when Satan sends his arrows we have enough layers to keep him at bay? When someone needs our help and it's not the most convenient time for us, when someone cuts us off in traffic, when someone says something extremely hurtful to us, when we are just simply not having the best of days. Are we layered and prepared enough so that as Satan sends his arrows and peels us back, layer by layer, that we are still layered and prepared enough to stand?

We have the full armor of God for our layers of protection. But they only benefit us if we are intentional about making sure we are putting them on.

Have a great week! I'll be praying for you!

Experiencing Jesus

2007-03-26T09:21:00.000-05:00

We got back from the Tulsa Workshop on Sunday. We were there 4 days and it is both exciting and exhausting at the same time. But in a good way! :)

The singing was great! It was great to catch up with friends we haven't seen in a while! And it was great to hear some of the different speakers.

One of my favorite speakers this year was Bruce Marchiano. He played the role of Jesus in the movie Matthew. The movie was taken straight from the book of Matthew and the only words spoken were those that were actually spoken in the bible. We haven't seen the movie yet, but we bought the dvd. I'm excited to have the time to sit down and watch it. Bruce's story is one of the most amazing stories I have ever heard. The movie literally changed his life. Please forgive me as I tell some of it to you. I know I won't have all the details 100 % correct. It's so hard to remember everything exactly when you've been filled with so much. But I will try and do my best.

He talked about some of the specific things that happened while filming the movie. He said he wanted to be as accurate as possible in his portrayal of Jesus and he literally spent every day in constant prayer. He talked about how in one scene, he wanted to get a glimpse of what Jesus must have felt as he was about to speak to the crowd. He prayed and asked God to just give him a small glimpse of what he felt in those moments, what those people needed. He said for a fraction of a second, so much of a fraction that it wasn't even a second, he felt the most overwhelming sense of pain and sorrow. He was flooded with such deep and overwhelming emotion he literally collapsed on the ground and began weeping uncontrollably. The director thought he was literally going to have a breakdown. He said that he knew he only felt one billionth, billionth of what Jesus must have felt. And he said the sorrow was completely unbearable.

He talked about how they would film the scenes leading up to and of the cross. He had them literally beat him after instructing them to be sure and miss his vital organs, because he wanted it to look real. How he had to be strapped to the cross for about 8 to 10 hours a day while filming those scenes. He had a platform under his feet that would be moved out of the way while they filmed scenes and he would literally being hanging with his arms and feet strapped to the cross. How after hanging for so long, when they came to the scene where the nails were going to be nailed into his hands, how even though he knew it wasn't going to actually hit him, the wrenching pain and emotion that overcame him at the sound of the nail being hit was overwhelming. His story is something I will never forget.

Even though I know this was done for a movie and that it was only a minuscule glimpse of what Jesus must of went through. It will forever change me. Bruce says, he knows he only felt one billionth, billionth, of what Jesus must have felt. But his life is changed forever. I hope I'm there when Bruce gets to meet Jesus face to face one day. What a meeting that will be!

He is currently working on a movie about the book of John. I can't wait for that one also. Recordings of the workshop speakers are suppose to be available on podcast (mp3's) within the next couple of months on the workshop website. I encourage you to listen to his story. You will be blessed.

Please be in prayer for Rick Atchley. He was not able to speak at the workshop because his mother past away last Saturday.

I'll leave you with a quote I heard from Don McLaughlin... "Live in such a way that people want to join you on the way to God".

Blessings, Have a great week!

P.S. Next year's workshop is March 27-29, 2008. The theme is "Prayer ~ Our Declaration of Dependence". Mark you calendars now! :)

Idols

2007-03-19T10:35:00.000-05:00

This weekend I was watching an Elvis special (yes, I still love Elvis!) that I had recorded earlier in the week. He was such a great entertainer. I often wonder what he would look like today and would he still have all of those moves :) As I was thinking about that, I thought about how destroyed I was at the time over the cause of his death. Elvis using drugs, no way... it just didn't seem possible. Yet it was. And at that moment, although I still "loved" Elvis, my perfect image of him was shattered.

Watching that show made me think about all the people and things we basically set up as idols today. People we expect to have perfect images, when we know there is only ONE who can fit that bill. There are so many movie stars we "love", shows we "love", things we "love". While those things aren't necessarily bad in and of themselves, how often are we really placing those people, shows or things above everything else in our lives? Are we setting them up as earthly idols all around us?

I have to admit I am sometimes guilty of placing those things to high up on my list of priorities. It makes we wonder, where am I putting God on my list of priorities when other things get placed too close to the top of the list. Do I "love" those people or things more than I LOVE God? Anything we place before God can become an idol. And in this day and age, I think we (myself included) have to be extremely careful about how we prioritize our daily lives. There are so many things clamoring for our attention every day. If we aren't careful, God can get pushed to the bottom very quickly. He wants to be at the top of our to do list, not at the bottom. And he wants our spending time with Him to be something we want to do, not just something to check off the list.

For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
1 Chronicles 16:25

Well, this Thursday begins the Tulsa Workshop. I am so excited to get there. This will be our 11th year to attend and it just gets better every year. I still love going to the workshop. I love getting to hear all the great speakers, enjoying the wonderful worship, finding new music and catching up with dear friends who have moved away. We will miss some of them this year who aren't able to go, but it's going to be a great weekend!

Facing Choices

2007-03-13T10:53:00.000-05:00

Every day we face choices of one sort or another. It's what we do with those choices that determine who we are, our character, who or what we serve, etc. I have been reminded about choices lately with the emails that shows up in my spam folder. Our email system automatically puts most things that have all of those weird topics in a spam folder. So all you have to do is click into the spam box and then select all and delete without ever seeing the emails. I love it.

Here lately even the subject matter or the sender information has just about blinded me with it's content. It's really disturbing. These are not things I have solicited, they just show up. Even though I choose not to speak the things I see, my eyes still have to see it to delete it. It has really gotten me to thinking about easily Satan can penetrate our lives and thoughts, even when we don't solicit it.

For me, those types of emails are no temptation whatsoever. But for others, I know they are. And you have to make a choice in that one split second when you see it to either click delete or open. How many other areas of our lives is Satan throwing things in our path. Maybe the shows we watch, the books we read, the movies we see, etc. Satan can throw little things in that you never see coming. Even things like knowing you are getting back to much change, but not giving it back. Someone treats us badly and how do we respond? Do we respond back badly or do we show them Jesus. Everything Satan throws at us is not going to always be obvious. Some of it is little things we don't really thing about, but suddenly we are make a choice.

We make choices every day in our lives. The big choices we usually think and pray more about. You feel like you have time to contemplate those choices. But what about the choices we have to make in a split second? Are we living our lives in such a way that those choices will be easy to make? I'm not saying that every choice will be easy or even that we will always make the right choice, but I believe that how we make the little choices says a lot more about who we are and who or what we serve than the big choices do. We have time to think about and pray about the big ones, but the little ones tell us where are heart really is.

The choices we make when no one is looking are the most important choices we make. Because those are the choices that say who we really are and who or what we really serve. It's all about making choices. What kind of choices are we making?

"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:14-15

Blessings.

Pruning Reveals New Life

2007-03-07T08:30:00.000-06:00

I began a "little" spring yard work this past Saturday. I say little because there is still a long way to go. It turned out to be a little too cool to be in the yard all day even though the sun was shining bright. However, I did get the ferns and different greenery cut back and shaped. As I began cutting them back, I noticed that underneath some of them, they already had new leaves and branches beginning to grow up towards the top. I had to be careful not to cut away the new growth as well.

I started thinking about all the new growth that was waiting patiently to be exposed so that it could begin to really blossom and grow strong. It made me wonder... what do I have hidden under all of the old dead leaves and branches in myself. Do I already have new growth just sitting there, waiting patiently to be exposed so it can begin to flourish? It really makes me kind of sad to think that there are things waiting just under the surface. Waiting there for me to start cutting back and pruning myself and getting rid of the junk that has piled up over the last year.

So with the pruning of the greenery in my flowerbed, I'm going to begin a little personal pruning. Who knows what exciting things God has waiting for me just under the surface eager to be exposed and ready to grow into something wonderful. I hope to have new blooms showing up soon! Blessings!

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." John 15:1,2

A Very Special 17 Year Old

2007-03-02T10:55:00.000-06:00

Our schedule has been so crazy lately I haven't had time to read blogs or blog myself. I'm going to try and catch up today. But I couldn't let another day go by without posting this special blog. Last Saturday, February 24th, was Jeremy's 17th birthday! I cannot believe he is already 17. It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with him. I still remember the sonogram I had with him (they didn't do those when I was pregnant with Ashley unless they suspected twins or a problem). He was asleep and I remember exactly what his little face looked like on that sonogram. The great thing is, when I watch him sleep now, I can still see that face in the amazing 17 year old he has become.

I learned early on from a wonderful woman and teacher what and how important it is to give the blessing to our children. We started at a very early age telling Jeremy we knew that God was going to use him for great and special things in his life. We could tell at a very early age that he had a very special heart not only for God but for others and we knew that God would use him for amazing things. I know that ever parent probably feels that, so I hope I don't just sound like I'm bragging. I really feel God has called him to something more.

He has always been a leader of his youth group no matter where he was. We have been at Highland Oaks for a little over a year now and we still meet people who will say, "Oh, your Jeremy's parents. We just love him. He is such a remarkable young man." We try and always give God the glory for everything Jeremy is. We have made and continue to make great mistakes. And God continues to cover over those mistakes and makes wonderful things happen. He is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination so please don't hear me saying that. In fact, some days I tell him he may not make it to his next birthday! But there are definitely more good days than bad.

He has always had a heart for worship and that continues to grow. Within the first few weeks of us being at Highland Oaks he was asked to give a talk at the senior high retreat and he continues to be a leader there. He was just asked by the worship minister to be an apprentice and to work with him in a type of Worship Minister internship. God continues to bless him.

I would like to leave you with some Psalms that Jeremy wrote. As I said before, he is not perfect by any stretch. And some of the words below show great struggles he is or has faced, but they are amazing to me. At the time he wrote them, he was 16. At 16 & 17 he has more of a heart for God than I had when I was 30. Here they are...

_____________________________________________

Hear my cry, oh Lord. I cry out to the heavens when I feel the war inside of me. Your consuming fire takes hold of my body and burns away all my impurities, it cleanses me fully. I thank you, my god, for cleansing me. Showing me my wrongs and allowing me to bring them to you, for you to take them. My heart cries out for the ones who are suffering. It pains me like a needle to my nail. Lord take us now! So the newborn ones won't have time to fall and we won't disappoint you anymore. Hear my cry, oh Lord. Hear my cry...

"by the power of Christ in me..."

*********************

I praise you with all of my being, you have taken me out of the pit that I dug for myself and filled it with your forgiving spirit and grace. All I have is yours and all I need is you. You are life, you are joy, you are everything. You have filled me with your spirit and I am an overflowing cup, pouring out myself for you. Thank you Jesus.

Amen.

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Yahweh, Lord Jehovah, You are the only God and none other will come before you. The demons shriek when they hear your name. In a world of change, you are the one constant. I praise you, oh Lord, for being the Father, Spirit and Jesus. You, are inexhaustible and amazing!!

*********************

How many times will you forgive me, Oh Lord? How long until I am healed? You come into my heart like rushing waters. Flowing and filling every crack, every crevice. Covering every impurity with your healing rain. You are inexhaustible and my heart longs for more. I need your living water, your grace, your mercy. You paid such a high price Lord, for such a lowly sinner. Thank you, my God, my Lord, my Savior, my JESUS!

_____________________________________________

My prayer for you Jeremy as you continue to grow spiritually and in physical age, is that you will always allow God to continue to fill your spirit with such wonderful Psalms. God is not finished with you yet! He still has more amazing things to do through you as you continue to let Him flow through every crack and crevice. Always let Him guide your every path, your every step, your every word and action. You are an amazing son! I love you with all my heart. Happy 17th Birthday!!

Perfect Worship

2007-02-16T08:48:00.000-06:00

I have been thinking a lot about worship lately and so have a lot of other bloggers. Worship just seems to be on everyone's mind. I think maybe, at least for me, it's in part due to always striving to be closer to God. There is nothing that makes feel closer to God than my worship and praise to Him. We have such a wonderful worship at Highland Oaks and we will miss that this week since we are visiting Ashley in Abilene. Maybe that's why it is on my mind more this morning. I have long discovered that no matter where I am, my worship is what I make it. But there is nothing like being at your home congregation when it is a place where people really love Jesus and want nothing more than worship and praise Him. I am very blessed and very thankful for what we have. I know that is not always true for some people.

I was reminded this morning about an excerpt that was taken from Disciple's Prayer Life by T.W. Hunt. It has been saved on my computer for years and I haven't read it in probably at least 2 years. So when I thought about it this morning out of the clear blue, I figured it must be something I am suppose to share today. So here it is...

___________________________________________

Walking in Fellowship with God Today

You will need a big imagination for this, so stretch your mind. Imagine that the angel Gabriel appeared to you, and said to you, "you have been chosen for perfect worship. God has commanded that I take you to Heaven this morning so that you can never again mistake the nature of worship in spirit and truth. You will never forget the worship you offer to God today." Then Gabriel transports you into a realm of perfect glory, light and beauty. But he explains, "before you can enter the presence of the Lord, you must be utterly clean, so we have a special bath for mortals about to enter His Holy Presence. You will take a shower with a most unusual cleanser to do its work on you until you are totally clean."

But the shower proves to be more shocking than you could have anticipated — you find yourself under a shower of blood! Yet you dare not disobey — so you allow the blood to soak you thoroughly over your entire body. To your amazement, everywhere the blood touches suddenly turns glisteningly clean, clean in a way you never understood cleanness before. As you emerge, you realize for the first time in your life what "unblemished and spotless" means. Gabriel explains to you that you have been cleansed with the blood of Christ Himself.

Then Gabriel, gesturing toward a magnificent temple, tells you, "Now you are fit for the presence of the Lord. We will dress you now in robes fitting for those who enter the throne room of God." As you wonder at the glory and beauty of robes unlike anything on earth, he explains that you are being dressed in the robes of the righteousness of Christ. Fully dressed, you hear the Lord; you sense His yearning for your company. You step into the glory of perfect love with a joy that you wish would last forever.

Now try to imagine what you would say to Him in these circumstances!

This is what you have as your present possession. When you pray, you come into the presence of formidable holiness, washed in the blood of Jesus, dressed in His righteousness. You approach a yearning love and fellowship with a Holy God. Your worship must be valid—in spirit— and it must be real — in truth.

___________________________________________

As I was rereading that this morning, the word picture I got from this story is incredible. To literally be standing in a shower be washed with the blood of Jesus. To literally be pure and holy in the sight of Christ. We are so far removed from the actual day that Christ was crucified I think we sometimes forget the blood He shed for us. I want to think more about His blood and the way that it covers me. Because even though we may not have that literal shower, His blood continually covers us every moment of every day. I want to be more mindful of the sacrifice He made. As I worship, I want to be more mindful of His blood that covers me. If I am, my worship will never be the same.

Imagine...

2007-02-05T11:39:00.000-06:00

I was listening to the radio in the car the other day and the lyrics to one of the songs I heard has been bugging me ever since. We listen to the Mesquite Schools radio station KEOM most of the time since Jeremy is on the radio in the mornings. They play music from the 70's, which is usually always fun to listen to and to reminisce about. But that day, the song that came on really bugged me. The song was John Lennon's song, Imagine.

I have never been much of a John Lennon fan so I've never paid attention to the lyrics in his songs. Now I know why. The very first sentence in that song is "Imagine there's no Heaven, it's easy if you try". I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I then continued to listen to the rest of the lyrics. Pretty incredible... and not in a good way!

I understand that a lot of people think he was great and all about peace. While I'm for peace, his song is, in the words of my son, ridiculous. First of all, it is not easy in my mind to imagine there is no Heaven. To say there is no Heaven, is to say there is no God. If you just look up toward Heaven, to the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the rain falling, the (sometimes here in Texas) snow falling, the beauty of the sunrise and the sunset, the brilliant colors of the rainbow or the pink, purple, bluish color the sky gets when the sun is going down... how can you look at all of those marvelous things and say it's easy to imagine there is no Heaven, no God. Not to mention the birds, the trees, the flowers, the mountains, the oceans, the beautiful landscapes that surround the countryside at every turn and the breeze that blows so gently on a cool summer's day.

I don't know about you, but I cannot look at all these things and imagine there is no God. I look at these things and all I can imagine, is how great, awesome and magnificent God truly is. To live in John Lennon's world you are called to merely exist. No interaction with God's wonderful creation, no conflict ever - of any kind, just merely existing.

I don't want to just merely exist. I want to enjoy everything God has placed on this earth for us to enjoy. I don't mean the physical things, although those things are nice too, but I'm talking about the things of this world He created. The beautiful landscaping, the wondrous skies, the sunrises and sunsets, the wonderful animals, the oceans and all the wondrous creatures who live there and the way the breeze feels blowing in through your windows during Fall and early Spring. With all the amazing things He has done for us on Earth, I can't even imagine how magnificent Heaven will one day be. So... easy to imagine there is no heaven? Not for me! I can't wait to someday see Heaven in all it's glory and be able to enjoy it while sitting at the feet of Jesus. Now that's something to Imagine!

Missed Opportunities

2007-01-29T14:08:00.000-06:00

I was reading a friend's blog today and was made painfully aware of a missed opportunity yesterday. He was writing about how your bike makes for great conversation among strangers who are watching you. (He is a biker too! Although he prefers much faster bikes... we prefer to just cruise :)

His closing remarks were "If more people knew how great motorcycling really is, there would simply be more riders and fewer people who wished they were. If more people knew how great life in Jesus Christ really is, maybe there would be more followers and fewer who have no idea what they are missing!" As I was posting a comment to his blog, I began to realize I was blogging on his comment page, so I decided I would just post my thoughts.

I am almost embarrassed to even admit to this after my last post. I want so much to be "growing" on the vine, but I seem to continue missing opportunities God puts before me.

We were on our way to lunch yesterday after morning services, we came upon a homeless man at the stop light. I don't usually give anything to them and don't always even acknowledge them. I try not to be that way, but you hear all the stories about how so many of them are a scam. I have tried to just let God take care of all that and not judge their motives. That being said, I still don't stop that often. But there was something about this man's eyes that made me dig in my purse and give him the few dollars I had in there. He was very grateful, said thank you and God Bless You. I said your welcome and drove on through the light as it had just changed.

As I drove around the corner, I looked at Chris and said "why did I NOT just say God Bless You to that man?" He said, "I don't know, I don't do it either". I wanted to turn around and drive past him again just to say God Bless You, but there wasn't an easy way to get back to where we had come from. We began a discussion about why we don't say those words more often. Why is it so hard to say God Bless You to someone when it should be the most natural thing in the world to say. Especially from a Christian. Why does it make us (or at least me) feel so awkward when those words come out of my mouth.

It is so natural and easy for us to talk about the things we are passionate about. Does that me my passion for Christ is sorely lacking? It's a thought that literally scares me to death. If I feel so awkward to say God Bless You to someone, especially someone who seems to be in such need of God's blessings, what does that say about my faith?

I obviously have a lot more "growing" on the vine to do. I am ashamed of the simple opportunity I missed. If God can't trust me with something so simple, how will he ever trust me with greater opportunities in His kingdom.

I am thankful that God opened my eyes through a friend's blog to see what I missed that He had put before me. I pray that as I continue to work on my "growing" on the vine process, my eyes will be more focused on Jesus and His work around me.

Living Connected to the Vine

2007-01-26T09:21:00.000-06:00

We began a new topic a couple of weeks ago in our Wednesday night class called "Growing on the Vine". I liked the title but hadn't really pondered the title itself. This Wednesday night, the leader of the class asked each one of us why we had chosen this class. A lot of people said, "they liked the topic".

As I heard people say that, I started reading the topic over and over in my head and I started asking myself "What is growing on the vine?" While I know what it means to grow in Christ, I realized I had never really thought about actually growing on the vine. I have always thought about "clinging" to the vine, but not really about "growing" on the vine. While I do feel like I am always changing and growing in my spiritual walk, I had just not ever thought about "growing on the vine".

I love the word clinging because it gives me the mental picture of clinging onto Christ with everything I have. To me clinging means getting as close to something as you possibly can. I want to cling to Him and be as close to Him as possible. But the word growing has really caused me to constantly think about our topic over the last couple of days. As I began going over our handout from the night, I began to feel like I've been missing out by just "clinging" and possibly not "growing" as much as I can and missing out some of the blessings God has waiting for me.

While I still want to cling to Jesus as tightly as possible, I want to be more active about my growth spiritually in Christ. If all I am doing is clinging, I know I'm missing out on some growing opportunities. To grow means to flourish, to stand stall, to illuminate. I want to open myself up and while still clinging to Christ, I want to give Him the freedom to mold and shape me and to allow Him to "grow" me (pardon the grammar) into what and who He wants me to be. I want to illuminate Christ with everything I have and everything I do.

In order to continue to grow in Christ, to grow more spiritually and more intimately with Him, to look and smell more and more like Him, I need to cling to Him with a grip that allows me to actually grow to be more like Him. So while I still intend to cling, I want to give Christ the freedom to grow me into who He wants me to be. So that I will not only be connected to the vine, I will be growing WITH the vine.

As I was picking up some things in our office this morning, I found a piece a paper that I had written a quote on from someone. I don't remember now who I heard it from. I haven't seen it in years. It must haven fallen out of a book or something that had gotten moved. It fits perfectly with the direction I want my spiritual walk to take. I love it when God does that!! The quote says, "When the pupil is ready, the master will appear". I guess that pretty much sums up everything. I am ready! I can't wait to see what He is ready to show me!

A Most Exciting Week!!!

2007-01-19T11:32:00.000-06:00

The past 7 - 10 days have been some of the most exciting days ever around the Moore household! After a canceled show on Saturday night for an ice storm that never came... grrrr.... They finally got to finish the last night of Beauty and the Beast on Tuesday night. The musical was AMAZING!! Jeremy's portrayal of the Beast was of course in our humble opinion, even more amazing :) He was on cloud 9 and so were we. I didn't know that I could be even more proud of him than I already was, but he was truly amazing. He went from growling around like the Beast to singing in a Beast voice and then singing in his normal voice... I really don't know how he did it! It was great! The last night all of his friends (mostly girls) from his youth group were there so he really played it up. I think Saturday night was everyone's best night. We really hated to see it end. Although I won't miss the late night rehearsals.

Here are a "few" pictures from the musical. We took over 300 pictures!! Not all of him... we took pictures of the whole cast. But of course the biggest part were of him :)

This last picture is of Jeremy and his theater teacher/director for the musical.
She was just as proud of him as we were :)

I am sure there are more pictures here than anyone cares to see! But it was really hard narrowing down over 300 pictures :) If I can figure out how, I'm going to try and see if I can upload a very small clip of the musical later. We'll see.

For now our life can get back to some semblance of normal... at least for a while! It has truly been a blast and a blessing! I can't wait to see what they do next year!

Opening Night!!!!

2007-01-12T11:00:00.000-06:00

All I can say about opening night of "Beauty and the Beast" , is it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! This is one pretty proud family right now. We only got about 4 hours of sleep last night. Two of Jeremy's best friends from the cast spent the night and once everyone was home, we watched the entire musical again! (We recorded it :) It was so cool to watch them reacting to how the crowd reacted to them!

I will have more thoughts to post after the weekend is over. We have shows again tonight and tomorrow night. I will hate to see it all it end! Once it's over, I'll post some pictures. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might be coming. We are taking pictures every night. We took 130 last night!! So I'm sure I'll have plenty to choose from :)

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!! We sure are!!!!

A Week of Anxiety

2007-01-08T09:11:00.000-06:00

Well, the week is finally here. The production of Beauty & the Beast begins on Thursday night for three nights. We are soooo ready!! In more ways than one :) We are obviously anxious to see Jeremy in his role of the Beast. He has worked so hard and we are so proud of him. No one gives more than he does when he is involved in something. He always goes above and beyond. And to that end, he has become somewhat of Beast around the house the last week :) He won't tell us anything about the show. He never rehearses in front of us or anything. He always says, "you have to wait until the show!" So I know he's very proud of the work he is doing. But he is also stressing, big time.

They had rehearsal last night until almost 10:00 p.m. and with the 1st show beginning on Thursday night, they will be probably be rehearsing until at least 11:00 p.m. every night this week. He is exhausted, getting anxious and excited all rolled into one! So you can just imagine his stress level. He is the type that not only worries about his performance, but he is concerned about the whole show. He's as bad as the director in wanting to make sure the entire show is good.

It's kind of ironic that I have been praying for God to help me relinquish control in my life and now I am watching my son and feeling horrible that I have passed on that control tendency to him. He is really a lot like me in more ways than I like to admit. Because I sometimes see in him the things I know I need to change in my own life. God really does have a sense of humor. We are always trying to work on our kids and get them to be the best they can be and live the life God has called them to live and then God uses our own kids sometimes to open our eyes to ourselves. And what's not so funny, is when you don't like what you are seeing in them and realize that's what they are seeing in you. It's scary!!

We prayed with Jeremy last night and ask God to give him peace and comfort about the week ahead. I know with each day that grows closer to opening night, it's going to be harder and harder for him to continue to give up that control and leave it with God. As we continue to pray for peace for him this week, I covet your prayers for peace for him this week as well.

Blessings to everyone. I'll hopefully get some pictures posted at the end of the week.

And So It Begins...A New Year

2007-01-01T11:31:00.000-06:00

It's time to begin another new year. I cannot believe the year is now 2007! Wow!! Where does the time go? I have no idea, I just know it goes faster and faster every year. I still remember all the fear and panic of the world at the end of 1999 and what would Y2K bring as midnight hit and the year turned into 2000. That now seems like a lifetime ago as we begin 2007.

I have been thinking about the new year for the last couple of weeks and thinking about changes in the new year, resolutions, the things we all think about this time of year. About a week ago I came to a conclusion about how I wanted my new year to be or maybe not to be. And after hearing Tim's sermon yesterday, it just confirmed in my heart it was what I needed to do.

I have been thinking about all of the typical resolution type things, I need to eat healthier, I need to exercise more, I need to manage my time somehow in a better way. Basically the same types of things I think about each year. I began to think if I'm thinking about the same types of things each year, then obviously I'm not doing much to try and change these things in my life. These are really things I think about all through the year, so why do I think that because now it's January 1st, things are suddenly going to be different.

Everything in our lives basically boils down to our relationship with God, how He is working in our lives and more importantly the control we are willing to let go of to allow Him to work in our lives. So I have decided in my life to take a different approach to the new year. I'm sure I will still continue to try and eat healthier, exercise and all those type of things. But this year, my new year's resolution is to work on giving up control in every aspect of my life. Yes, I said every aspect, and even as I type the words it scares me to death. Being in control is my specialty, it's what I do best. At least that's what I like to tell myself. If it's what I did best, there would be no need to be typing these thoughts.

So, I'm working on giving up All control. I want this year to be different in that I allow God to do whatever it takes in me, to make me into more of the person He wants me to be. To actually allow Him to be the potter and for me to remain only the clay. To allow Him to shape and mold me after His will. It scares me to death, but I know it's what must take place if this new year is really going to be any different from the others.

I know that giving up the control is going to be harder than any other resolution I could make. But I also know that if I truly rely on Him to change and mold me and allow Him the freedom to do so, it will be the beginning of the Best of the rest of my life. And all of these other things will also fall into place as well.

Tim gave an awesome word picture in his sermon yesterday. He reminded us of how when we are children, we stand on the feet of our daddy's when we want to dance. We put our feet on theirs and then let them lead us around the room. That is the way I need to give up control of my life and give it over to God. I need to dance with God. To put my feet upon His feet and let Him lead. I may not know where I'm going, but He does. And if I continue to dance with God and keep my feet firmly resting upon His, He will lead me where He wants me to go.

So, I'm ready to dance! Have a very Joyous & Blessed New Year!!!

In the Blink of an Eye...

2006-12-27T11:02:00.000-06:00

Another Christmas has now come and gone. There is so much anticipation and excitement that builds up to that one special day and before you know it, it is over in the blink of an eye.

We had a great Christmas... Lots of family and great food!!! We go to my mom's house on Christmas Eve, so with that being on Sunday this year, I made all of my pies the day before. That turned out to be a great "new tradition" to start. Usually I am frantic the whole morning of Christmas Eve trying to prepare everything. I am the dessert maker, so I usually make 4 or 5 pies from scratch and it can be very time consuming. This year, doing it a day early was just the blessing I needed. With everything finished, we got up and went to church with all the stress of baking completely behind me. It made my worship so much sweeter and it was the greatest blessing of the day. With all the baking behind me, once we were home I got to relax the rest of the afternoon. It was great!! So from now on, it's the day before for me for baking... way less stress!!

I love Christmas morning and the excitement and anticipation of my kids getting their gifts. It truly is more blessed to give than receive. I love seeing the excitement on their faces. Even though my kids are now 16 and 20, they still get excited. Jeremy set his alarm for 7:00 a.m. so he could be sure to get up early. Ashley and I tried to convince him that 8:00 was early enough, but at 7:00 a.m. he was in her room practically carrying her to our room and telling us all to get up!! We all laid in our bed for about 30 minutes, but that was all he could stand. It was time for everyone to get up! The gift of the year was Ipods. I almost had Jeremy convinced everyone was sold out and I couldn't find them, so the wait to actually find out was killing him :)

The one thing I don't like about Christmas is how fast it is all over. There is so much joy and happiness at this time of year and within an hour, all the gifts are opened and another Christmas has come and gone.

I pray that though the season of Christmas is now past for another year, the spirit in which we live during this time will continue on. Not the stressful part that sometimes comes with it, but the joy and happiness, the love for our fellowman and the discussion everywhere of the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. As I said in an earlier post, Jesus is the reason for Every season. I pray that we and people everywhere will continue to celebrate Him each and every day.

Blessings to all!

God Knows...

2006-12-21T00:07:00.000-06:00

It always amazes me how God knows just what we need and when. He always does, I don't know why it continues to amaze me, but it does. I had just been thinking the last couple of days about how busy everything is trying to get ready for Christmas. I have been baking like crazy, wrapping like crazy and have now started thinking about the salsa and 4 or 5 pies I will be making on Saturday. I go to bed exhausted and I know that I am not giving God my best. In fact, I made a personal commitment tonight to quit letting the holiday activities consume me and give God more of my focus. As much as I love the holidays and Christmas time, I should not get so consumed that God gets my leftovers. Because to be honest, if I'm not careful, I don't even have leftovers to give Him.

As I said before, God always knows just what we need and when. As I have been thinking about how much I need to refocus, I received the following poem through an email ministry tonight and it really opened my eyes as to how out of focus I have become lately.

__________________________________

Quiet My Heart, Lord

Quiet my heart, Lord,
and show me a Christmas
as peaceful and calm as
an old cattle shed...

Slow down my pace, Lord,
and help me seek Jesus,
the Son of Your Love,
in a humble straw bed...

Steady my spirit, Lord,
call me from chaos
in simple surrender
to pray and rejoice...

Breakthrough the busy,
too-bright celebration,
and whisper your message.
"Be still...hear my voice..."

Be still and know that I am God..."
Psalm 46:10

--Author Unknown

__________________________________

Even though I love Christmas and all the excitement it brings, this poem spoke volumes to me about the need for me to be still. I need to seek the Lord in the middle of the chaos, slow down and listen to Him whispering my name.

As the busyness and fun of Christmas creeps in upon us, let's remember to Be Still and listen for God's voice. After all, He does know just what we need.

I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

Tis the Season

2006-12-13T11:09:00.000-06:00

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. I love the decorations, the music, the hustle and bustle and the joyous feeling that seems to be everywhere. I especially love the family traditions we have established with our family. My family is so important to me and I love the closeness our family shares.

But this time of year can also be very hectic. We have been so busy lately with choir concerts, school activities, my preschoolers program and Jeremy's daily rehearsals for the upcoming Beauty and the Beast musical. The busyness has caused me to think about a couple of things.

Most of the world celebrates the birth of Jesus at Christmas. If your like me though, the C of C world has not celebrated His birth at Christmas because no one really knows the exact day He was born. And we have sometimes done that to the extreme. At this stage of my life and hopefully much more mature stage of my life, the precise day of Jesus' birth is not my main concern. The fact that He Was born is! I am more concerned, actually very thankful, that at least at Christmas, the rest of the world is acknowledging Christ and talking about His birth. The "day" we celebrate His birth is not as important as making sure we "Are" celebrating His birth and more importantly, His resurrection.

We have sometimes been so concerned with not celebrating His birth on Christmas, that we don't celebrate it at all. We don't celebrate Jesus' birth on Christmas, but are we celebrating it at any other time? I have grown to believe that Christmas is an opportunity. People are more open to Christ at Christmas than perhaps at any other time of the year. We should be celebrating that opportunity. The fact that Jesus was born is reason to celebrate! What day we choose to do it is really irrelevant.

We get so busy with the Christmas rush, that I'm afraid those of us who are Christians may sometimes put Jesus on the back burner while the rest of the world is celebrating His birth. We should take Him off the back burner and get on fire with the rest of the world.

The world offers the saying, "Jesus is the reason for the season". Jesus is the reason for Every Season! So I say, Let's Celebrate!! And Merry Christmas to All!!

When Your Child Hurts

2006-12-04T09:02:00.000-06:00

There is really nothing worse than when your child is hurt or is struggling with something. It is such a helpless feeling. Your heart aches and breaks as you try and give advice and as you pray over them. Even though it may be nothing big, your heart aches as you watch them struggle and hopefully prevail victoriously.

I have made a lot of sacrifices for my children over the years, but I have never had to give the life of one of my children for the sake others. As my heart breaks over my own children's struggles, how much more must God's heart break when He watches us struggle. And how much more so when He sees us make the wrong choices. He gave up His Son for us, my sacrifices do not compare to that.

I think about how I would feel if I gave up my son or daughter for everyone else in the world and then watched them squander that gift as we so often do. I honestly don't know how God puts up with some of the "stuff" we do. He has given us so much more than we for sure deserve. I am so thankful that God's heart is not like mine would be if it were my child that had been given for others.

God's grace is so amazing and incomprehensible. When I think about how my heart aches as my children struggle, how much more must God's heart ache as He watches us struggle. I am so thankful for the grace of God and that His grace is more than I can imagine in this feeble mind. As God watches me struggle, I hope I make him proud with choices I make. And for the times I know I don't, I thank you God for the never ending grace and compassion you have for your children. I can hear you cheering me on in the same way I am cheering on my own children. Thank you!

Weekend Humor....Provided by Mike Cope and Randy Harris

2006-12-01T09:05:00.001-06:00

I was looking at Mike Cope's blog yesterday and found this. For those who saw it at Tulsa last year, it's a hilarious reminder. For those who haven't seen it yet, enjoy!!! Have a great weekend!!

Forced Silence

2006-11-24T10:52:00.000-06:00

This past week has been interesting. I had laryngitis for 3 days! I usually get it about once a year after a long cold or something, but this one came up out of the blue. One day around 5:00 I just suddenly had no voice. It stayed gone for 3 days. Ashley called me that night after I had lost my voice and said who is this when I answered the phone. I said this is your momma! And then she busted out laughing! She could hardly talk to me she was laughing so hard!

Although not having a voice for 3 days can be very hard, I feel like it was a good thing, because it caused me to reflect a little on myself. I began to ask myself after the 2nd day if maybe God was trying to tell me something. I began to realize that I don't always listen as much as I should. I need to listen more and talk less. After being forced to do that, I realized it was something I already knew, but now had no choice but to work on. So the forced silence was good.

It was also very interesting trying to teach ten 4 year olds with no voice on the day of their Thanksgiving Feast when they are already excited. After they realized I really couldn't talk above a forced whisper, it was one of the best days of school I've had! They were so quiet all day because they knew they had to listen extra hard to hear me. I even had one teacher stick her head in the door to see if we were in there. She said it was so quiet she didn't think we were in the room!

One other nice thing while I had no voice was that Jeremy had to actually stop and look me in the face when I was talking to him no matter how big of hurry he was in :) It frustrated him a little, but it was nice to have his undivided attention!

I have my voice back now. Well, I have A voice back. Not really my own yet. I have more of a man voice right now. I think I could have sang bass at church on Wednesday night. I was already singing an entire octave lower than every one else!

Being without a voice can be a major pain. But all in all, I really count it as a blessing. God opened my eyes to some things in myself I need to change. And for me that's always a good thing.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

The Rabbi's Dust

2006-11-16T17:43:00.000-06:00

Last night in our Wednesday night class we watched a video called "Dust" by Rob Bell at nooma.com . We were finishing up our series on "More of What I Need to Be..." It was the second time I have seen it. It's pretty amazing if you've never seen it.

In the video, he talks about what it means to be a disciple. He goes on to explain how in some cultures children begin preparing at age 5 to follow a particular Rabbi and learn from him. They go through intense training for years to become the best of the best. At one point he talked about being covered in the dust of your Rabbi. I must have missed that comment the first time I saw it, because I have not been able to stop thinking about that statement.

To be covered in the dust of our Rabbi. Wow!! That would mean we are so close to Him that even the particles of dust that fall off of Him cling to us. That is an amazing word picture for me. It reminds me of Psalm 63:8, "My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me. " We are to get as close to Him as possible. So close, we are covered in His dust.

Being His disciple means being His disciple in even the smallest every day decisions we make. Probably even more so in those decisions. Because sometimes it's in those every day decisions that we fall away. The simple decisions that we sometimes make without thinking. Those every day decisions where even the smallest decision can affect or impact the lives of others.

I will continue to think about that statement. I want to be covered in the dust of my Rabbi, so that even when I make those small every day decisions I will make them to the Glory of God. To be covered in the dust of my Rabbi..... hmmm.... something to think about.

2006-11-14T17:51:00.000-06:00

I'll Bet You've Never Witnessed This at a Baptism...

This kid was really eager to get baptized!!! Make sure you watch all the way 'till the end.

The Aroma's of Life

2006-11-10T08:03:00.000-06:00

As I lay in bed last night praying and thinking about my day, I began to remember some conversations and things that happened while Ashley and I were out. (She is home for the weekend! :)

For some reason, one of the things I remembered was all the different things we smelled throughout the day. She was looking at new perfumes that were out, we smelled some new hand lotions, we passed a cookie place with cookies baking. You could smell the Mexican food from the restaurant in the mall. She was talking about how she was wanting me to cook fried chicken this weekend (her favorite meal) and I thought about the way homemade fried chicken smells cooking. I made a comment about how I think homemade brownies baking is one of the best smells in the world. The list goes on.

As I lay there, I began to think about how we smell to the world and the fragrance we emit. I don't mean anything gross or the smells of perfume and such. But when people are around us, do they sense and smell the aroma of Jesus. I'm afraid that too many times that may not be the case. I know that most of us for the most part do our best to emit the aroma of Christ. But what about when we are frustrated in traffic or someone in front of us in line is taking longer than we think they should because we are in a hurry. Even maybe when we are frustrated with our families. Do we emit the aroma of Christ then? Or do they smell the pungent odor of Satan.

My prayer is that I will be more aware of the aroma I emit in my life. And that more and more, people will only smell the sweet smell of our savior. The aroma of Jesus Christ.

___________________________________

Please be in prayer for the Memorial Drive Church of Christ in Tulsa. A tragic shooting involving one of their members happened last night. Four people died. Please pray God's peace, love and compassion on all the families involved.

Oh God, Make Me a Better......

2006-11-03T10:38:00.000-06:00

I received an email which was a prayer entitled "Oh God, Make Me a Better Parent. I got it about 2 weeks ago. I left it in my inbox and it has really caused me to ponder some things. I think the number one thing is, Oh God, Make me a more spirit filled or spirit led Christian. Our life has been so busy lately. It seems like something different almost everyday. While a lot of these things are good things, I find myself being exhausted. Exhausted to the point, that I know my spiritual life is suffering.

Why is it that when things get crazy, it seems to be our spiritual life that suffers the most. Our bible studying gets put on the back burner, we sometimes don't contemplate the spiritual things. At least that's how it seems in my life. It is something I am desperately trying to change. I go to church on Sunday and Wednesday and get charged up by the great lessons I am hearing and vow to myself right then and there to take note of things I am going to start working on. And then I leave and seem to get right back into the rat race and find trouble prioritizing things. Does this happen to anyone else??

I am so seeking to have my life completely and spiritually centered on Christ. I know if I can somehow start to get even close to that, some of the "stuff" will probably take care of itself. I will leave you with the prayer of "Oh God, Make Me Be a Better a Parent". I know that in reading it, I can replace parent with many other things. Wife, daughter, friend, teacher, etc. I'm praying I can continue to ponder these things and put them into action in my life.

Have a blessed weekend!

________________________________________

OH GOD, MAKE ME A BETTER PARENT

Oh, God, make me a better parent.
Help me to understand my children,
to listen patiently to what they have to say
and to answer all their questions kindly.
Keep me from interrupting them,
talking back to them and contradicting them.
Make me as courteous to them
as I would have them be to me.

Give me the courage to confess my sins
against my children and to ask of them forgiveness,
when I know that I have done them wrong.

May I not vainly hurt the feelings of my children.
Forbid that I should laugh at their mistakes or
resort to shame and ridicule as punishment.

Let me not tempt a child to lie and steal.
So guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate
by all I say and do that honesty produces happiness.

Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me.
May I cease to nag;
and when I am out of sorts,
help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue.

Blind me to the little errors of my children
and help me to see the good things that they do.
Give me a ready word for honest praise.

Help me to treat my children as those of their own age,
but let me not exact on them the judgments
and convictions of adults.
Allow me not to rob them of the opportunity
to wait upon themselves,
to think, to choose, and to make decisions.

Forbid that I should ever punish them
for my self satisfaction.
May I grant them all of their wishes
that are reasonable
and have the courage always to withhold
a privilege that I know will do them harm.

Amen

-- Author Unknown

WOW!!!!

2006-10-30T09:21:00.000-06:00

All I can say after yesterday is WOW!! We feel soooo blessed to be a part of the Highland Oaks Church of Christ!! Yesterday was one of the most inspiring worship services I have ever been a part of. We began the first of October with an Imagine Campaign. It includes updating the auditorium (the sound is horrific) and building not only for members but for groups outside of Highland Oaks that use our building weekly. It includes the Genesis Alliance to train and equip Hispanic ministers to plant churches in the metroplex and beyond. It also includes planting the Way of Life Church of Christ in East Hollywood, California where gangs are very prevalent. And finally it includes the River of Life Youth Center, which when finished will also include a fully staffed community center so the kids in the neighborhood around the church will have a safe place to get together.

Yesterday was pledge Sunday for the campaign. Each family in the church is pledging what they can do over the next 3 years to further the work in God's kingdom. There were baskets placed around the podium and all around the auditorium. They started with the ministers, elders and their family coming up to the front. The leaders at H.O. believe in leading by example. They all placed there commitment pledges in the baskets first and then families went and placed their pledges in the baskets. It was so incredible to watch so many families put there trust in God and what can be done in His Kingdom.

I forgot to mention that all of this started 2 years ago when the elders and ministers began praying for God to lead them where He wanted them to go. Several months into praying, Highland Oaks received a 1 million dollar grant from Austin Street to plant churches! Part of that is being used to plant the Hispanic Churches and the East Hollywood Church with many more to come. Two years later the Imagine campaign was born. We are just very excited to be here and working for Glory of God's kingdom!

To top things off yesterday we got to be a part of the Highland Oaks Annual Family Carnival. Oh my goodness!! What an experience! There were literally thousands of people there and at the end of the day a trick or treat line that was actually 4 lines with all 4 lines going half way around the building! (If not for the 4 lines it probably would have lapped itself around the building!!) What a blessing is was to see those kids faces light up when they walked away with an Albertson's bag full of candy! KLTY was broadcasting from the carnival, there were over 20 rides, games, climbing things, bouncing things, funhouses, etc. There were cokes, cotton candy, popcorn, chili, hot dogs and pies galore! (On a side note, I entered a coconut and cherry pie. One of the them actually one 1st place! I'm not sure which yet. But that was kind of exciting! :) They even had a booth for people to be able to get immunizations and flu shots.

It was all quite overwhelming. But what a blessing it was to get to serve all of those people and touch their lives. It was truly an exciting and very blessed and inspired day! And a great start to what promises to be a great week! Have a good one!

End of the week updates...

2006-10-27T09:03:00.000-05:00

Things have been so busy lately I haven't had time to sit down and think about Thursday Thirteen's. So here is just a short update on some of what's been going on.

First of all, last night was my first "official" night of playing bunco with a group of ladies from Highland Oaks. I had never played before until a couple of months ago when they asked me to fill in for someone who couldn't be there. A couple of people had to drop out so now I'm officially a monthly bunco player. My kids think I'm now in an old lady group!! But it's really not! It is soooo much fun! And it's mindless which is kind of nice... it's hard to think after a long day with 4 years olds! More than playing, it's a great time of fellowship. We eat together first (of course! that's what us C of C er's do :) Then after we visit, we play with whatever time is left. Then we visit some more. It's just great! And I love getting to know these women. They are sooo much fun!

Chris has been gone all week in L.A. on business. I had to go to his office a couple of times and run some jobs for him with him on the phone telling me what to do. I am picking him up at the airport this afternoon... Yeah!!! A week seems like forever. I'll be glad when he's home.

Ashley went to New Orleans last weekend on a fall break campaign with Southern Hills. They completely gutted two houses that hadn't been touched since Hurricane Katrina. She had a great time and got to meet some new friends. They drive through the outer edge of Mesquite coming and going. They stopped about every 3 hours during the drive. We haven't seen her in about a month and coming back they were stopping somewhere in the metroplex for a break. Her driver was nice enough to stop in Mesquite off of I-20 for their break since we were here. It was great to see her. She of course asked if we could bring her a Starbuck's drink, which we did. And she gave us an Aunt Sally's Praline from New Orleans she had brought for us. At least a part of one. She had already eaten some of it. They are hard to resist!

She met a new friend named Whitney while on campaign. Whitney is Ashley's age and has a pacemaker. She started having trouble this past week and had to go home to the doctor in San Antonio yesterday to determine if she would need some type of surgery or not. She sees the doctor today and possibly could have surgery either Monday or Tuesday. Please be in prayer for her.

Ashley is still working at the Abilene Reporter Newspaper and she also doing some substitute teaching. That's hard to believe!! She did kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. Today she is subbing in a middle school math class! We'll see how that goes! Ashley stopped growing in height at about 5 ft. Maybe 5' 1"... so the some of the kids may be taller than she is. I'm anxious to hear from her this afternoon!

Jeremy is working fast and furious on Beauty and the Beast. They have rehearsal every day after school until around 6:00 or 6:30. That will soon become some Saturday's and after school every day until around 10:00 or 10:30. He keeps drugged up on vitamin C so hopefully he can stay healthy and not get run down. He is having a blast though!! You never hear him complain. He wouldn't have it any other way! Thanks so much for all the encouraging words everyone sent. I got emails or blog notes from over 30 people. I printed each one on different colors of paper and hung them all over the closet doors in his room. He couldn't believe all of the notes. You made him feel very special and loved. Thank you!!

We are working at the annual Highland Oaks Fall Carnival this Sunday afternoon. It's from 2:30 to 6:00. It's our first time to be there during the carnival and it seems to be a really big deal. KLTY broadcast their show live from the carnival. They have tons of food, rides, etc. Last year 8,000 people attended. This year they are expecting around 10,000! If you're in the area, stop by and say hello. We'll be there all day somewhere.

Lastly, I thought I'd post of couple of current pictures of Ashley and Jeremy. You might not recognize them if you saw them on the street. Especially Jeremy, he has matured so much over the last couple of years.

Anyway, I pray that everyone has blessed and wonderful weekend!

Love ya!

Just Randomness...

2006-10-20T10:21:00.000-05:00

For everyone who grew up loving Grease, this is just great!

http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/12925/greaserbabies.swf

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Open House

2006-10-18T10:36:00.000-05:00

We had our dayschool open house last night. It's one of those times I really sort of dread. I enjoy getting all their work together and decorating, but it's the getting back up there after a long day of school that is sometimes tough. Even though it made for a long day, it was so worth seeing the excitement on all of those kids faces as they paraded their parents around the room and showed them all of their work. Their were all so proud of themselves!

I am teaching 4 year olds this year and I am having a blast! We are doing a lot of cool things and I think all the kids pretty much think I'm crazy. I like to keep things fun and I'm really just a big kid at heart. I have a really good class and they are eager to learn. It's really been great!

It is such an exciting year, but also kind of sad. Please be in prayer for our dayschool. The elders will be deciding probably after the 1st of the year whether or not to keep the dayschool doors open at the end of this school year. This is my 15th year to be involved with the dayschool and I hate to see it close it doors. It has been a tremendous benefit to lots of children and has the potential to impact many more lives in a very positive way. Please pray for God's blessings upon us. Have a blessed week!

I am.... An Idiot Driver Magnet!!

2006-10-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

I jokingly told someone last week I might post about idiot drivers... well, the time has come and it is now. I really think I am an idiot driver magnet! I know, I know... those of you who have known me for quite a while know that I have a history of a very big lead foot! Some might even say a lead leg to go along with it! But I promise you, my driving habits have changed immensely since I started riding a motorcycle last October. Riding a motorcycle really does make you a better driver. I am more aware of everything going on around me (apparently for very good reason!) and believe it or not, I don't go over 5 miles over the speed limit anymore. (at least 98 percent of the time:)

But almost every time I am on the road someone around me is acting crazy!! It doesn't matter if I'm in our 4 door truck or on the motorcycle, it's like I'm a magnet for every idiot driver on the road. I kind of think I might have brought this on myself a few months ago after our Wednesday night class. We were talking about love, patience, compassion and the like and what we might need to work on in our own lives. I left thinking I need to be more compassionate to drivers around me and not call them names but ask God to bless them. I think that let the flood gates open.

Since then my driving life has gone wild. I have had people almost run me into the curb while on the motorcycle. Another lady watched me approaching and then pulled out right into my lane just as I got there and made me have to swerve around her. People are constantly pulling right in front of me where there is no room in the truck. The other day, someone cut across 3 lanes of traffic from the right directly in front of me to turn left. Last week I was stopped at a light on a very steep hill while on the motorcycle and watch in my mirror as the person behind me pulled up so close to me a person could barely walk through! Fortunately I can keep from rolling when starting on a hill. But the best one happened to me while I was sitting at the light last week, waiting to go into the mall parking lot. I was on the motorcycle completely stopped at the red light, waiting to cross the intersection to go into the mall. I saw a car coming up behind me in the mirror. I was reminded of the week before and the person pulling so close to me on the hill. I continued to watch as she slowed down but kept rolling. I kept thinking surely she is going to stop... I'm sitting right here. But no, she continued to roll closer and closer until she literally rolled into the back of my bike! Fortunately she was not going fast enough to do any damage and didn't knock me off the bike. But I swear, I think I must have a sign on my back that says "All Idiot Driver's Enter Here"!

I am trying very hard to show more compassion to other driver's, but Satan is making it extremely difficult! Does anyone else feel like an Idiot Driver Magnet??

Please keep me in your prayers as I venture out onto those crazy roads today :)