Louder Than the Voices

Do you remember how old you were the first time you were told never to pray for patience? I believe I was around 8, and I was at a Mother-Daughter banquet at our church. I have to laugh at this because at the time I thought, in all of my 8-year-old wisdom, that talking about patience at a Mother's Day celebration was pretty weird---Then I grew up and had a kid, I totally understand.  In fact, I started thinking about patience and my lack of it the day I found out I was pregnant. I can not even fathom the number of times in my life my mom would try to tell me that I had to be patient. Back to patience and being pregnant. I self-proclaimed that God tried to prepare me for motherhood by giving me morning sickness---7 out of 9 months, I had to learn that somebody else was getting ready to rule my life in the form of a 7 lb, 7 oz little bundle of joy, who by the way, turned 24 this week and that was what I THOUGHT my blog would be about. No, this ended up being the week, God decided t...

11  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. This is one of those weeks where lots of things happened in my life. I guess the biggest one was turning 49 on Tuesday. This was also one of those weeks I loved facebook. I had decided that anybody that took the time out of their day to think of me while telling me Happy Birthday, I would make sure I took the time to thank them back. As I did that, I thought of how I knew that person. There are a few of them that I have never actually met, including one niece, and one of Andrew's cousins, but I love being part of their online lives. There are a few of them that are my family, and I have known all my life, one particular cousin NEVER posts anything on facebook, so I felt very honored when she told me Happy Birthday. I was greeted by friends who I have known as long as I can remember, friends from different phases of my life, and friends that...

I am one of those millions of people who do not watch many sports most of time. However, when the Olympics come along, I am mesmerized. In the Summer games, it is gymnastics that totally takes my attention, and in the Winter games, it skating. I watch the other events but those two are just raised to another standard. I guess part of me has always wanted to be graceful and elegant,  okay, A LOT of me has always wanted to be graceful and elegant. Even as a kid, I was a klutz. As many times as I have fallen down in my life, it is a small miracle that I have never broken a bone. I was just reminded yesterday of tripping over my own feet in the parking lot of a hotel at Springfield. My less-than-a-month-old phone was the victim of that fall, right along with my ego. And, because of seeing awful things on facebook, and regrettably laughing, I now ALWAYS hope nobody got it on video tape. But back to focusing on the Olympians. I watch them and think about how all of their young lives ...

Looking at the last couple week's blog posts, I decided I need a week of "lightening up". If anyone else has had the week I have had, you need some lightheartedness as well. I have been on an emotional roller coaster. I downloaded this feelings chart and realized I hadn't spent much time in the Happy column, but plenty of time in the other three. So, time for an attitude adjustment!        Last Saturday morning, Robert was helping me move some things in the basement, There was a stack of boxes that needed moved. He, as well as I, believed each one of them would be heavy. He picked up one particular box, expecting it to be hard to lift, and it almost flew out of his hands. We had a good laugh but when he opened the box, it was empty. He said, and I quote, "Unbelievable! There that box was, sitting there looking all important, and there was nothing in it!" I immediately said, "There's a good lesson in that for the blog". I didn't ...

1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11 5  1-3  I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman. 4-8  But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed...

As I was getting around this morning and checking the news, I saw one of the headlines concerning Melania Trump's education. Apparently, she started college but then dropped out. Her bio says she graduated. It saddens me that people feel pressured into lying about who they are and where they come from. I am not going into anything political on this blog, it just got me to thinking about how I feel about this. A few years ago, my mom was asked to speak at a work function of mine. All of my coworkers were there and I knew, because the whole speech was to be about how our Weatherization crew had worked on her house, that some of my childhood would be brought to light. I was not ashamed of the things that happened, but I hated that they happened. I knew my mom, being who she is, would be very real. She was. One particular thing she told about was the fact that in the winter, we absolutely would not turn the heat up in or house, if we were the only ones there, we kept things warm enou...

So, since I took my little hiatus, I thought I would share what has happened in my walk with God. First off, the week I declared vacation, I was upset, and to be very honest, I was upset with God. It had been a very heart wrenching week for many people I know. Thing is, by the end of that weekend, it got so much worse. I found my self trapped in a spot where I didn't want to even speak to God and at the same time, I needed to cling to Him. By the morning of July 4th, our community was mourning the loss of two babies to a couple that everyone just cherishes, and two young men that, it seems everyone who knew them loved. Andrew and I had one of the young men in our youth group. He was always making people laugh, it was his gift, it was so unbelievable that he was gone and just 25. I made the statement on facebook that it was probably time I stood myself in a corner, because that was probably what God was thinking I needed, a good ole time-out. One of my best friends tex...