Lets Give Them Something to Talk About

I can hear it in the back of my mind with every sip of delicious coffee I take this morning.   My mom…   she is telling me about the woes of partially hydrogenated oil that is in my “Crème Brule Coffee Creamer”.   I have one of the coolest moms you could ever ask for.   She has seen her fair share of pain and friends with cancer.   Therefore, my mom has adopted a super healthy lifestyle.   So things that I would never have thought of before, such as partially hydrogenated oil, ring through my head from her telling me about them.   I haven’t had coffee creamer for a long time and I was actually looking for a pumpkin spice type, so I decided to splurge and get this special treat one time.   Every sip I take though, I feel guilty. Have you ever had something like that, something that you KNOW you shouldn’t be doing, everyone has always told you that you shouldn’t do it.   Like staying out past curfew when you were younger, or watching a show that you weren’t allowed to watch as a kid.  

Going to the dentist is never a fun experience.   But it gets even worse when you have a couple thousand dollars worth of work to do on your mouth.   As I was sitting in the chair, hearing the whizzing drill and feeling water shoot through my mouth, I was thinking.   (Thinking is what I had to do since Novocain doesn’t work very well on me.)   Sometimes our lives are like teeth.   We try our hardest to maintain it by ourselves.   We clean it and polish it.   We get it cleaned at church and ultimately, if we maintain it properly, there are no problems.   Inevitably though, we get a cavity.   YIKES!   Something that is causing our life to decay.   Something that is eating away at the good strong tooth.   With our teeth, we dread the words, “you need a filling” like it is someone telling us that we have to eat straight vinegar.   Finally, when you go to get that filling done, you get laid back in the chair and a needle is brought to your mouth and you feel pinching and moving near where

Swinging like a monkey from our play set as a young child, she looked more monkey than human.   My little sister got herself into some of the craziest situations.   One time, she pulled a TV on top of herself, another time she ate a bottle of super glue when my mom was trying to break a figurine that I had broken of my friends.   She tried to do gymnastics off the side of her bed and ripped a piece of her nose off.   She never let anything stand in the way of a good time.   She was probably around 5, (although according to her, her entire childhood happened between 6 or 7), when she was playing on the swing set.   Using it in ways “normal” kids wouldn’t.   She was hanging by one arm, climbing on this or that scurrying around like a little monkey, long hair flying this way or that.   She was down the hill playing with our neighbor friends and the next thing we were aware of, one of those neighbors came up and told my mom that she was hurt and my mom needed to get down there right then.

I had just sent my co-worker to lunch and was settling in at the front desk when she arrived.   She was around 5’4” skinny as a rail long brown hair pulled up into a tight pony tail.   Behind her scurried a woman of 50 or so, carrying a pumpkin seat and looking frightened.   As she walked down the hall I could hear her before I saw her.   She was telling her companion to hurry up, be sure to keep that baby quiet, and she was cussing every other word.   She came in, attitude oozing out of every pore, and informed me that she wanted a job.   At this time, I was working at a staffing agency as a manager of this office.   I started to explain our application process and she continually rolled her eyes.   We had an in depth application process, and she interrupted me with a “how long is this gonna take?” in a very perturbed voice.   After seeing how she was interacting with me and with her companion, I informed her that it took around an hour, but seeing her attitude I could tell her now

I heard a blood curdling scream from the other room, followed by the cries of my other child and then a smack.   I had been sitting at the computer, and leaned my head back closed my eyes, took a deep breath and went to encounter the argument head on.   Apparently my youngest daughter was playing with a stuffed giraffe that my oldest daughter sometimes sleeps with.   Amidst the crying and tears, I was able to formulate the events that took place.   My youngest daughter had gone to the toy room and gotten the giraffe (a green 16” giraffe with brown spots) out of the room and brought it into the other room.   Here, the older sister saw that the coveted giraffe was not in her room and grabbed it from her sister.   The younger one screamed and bit the older sister who then cried and hit the little sister.   As I took another cleansing breath I began dealing with the issue at hand.   It is very difficult to reason with a 2 and 3 year old and let alone a woman, so we ended up agreeing to do

Have you ever felt like Noah?   Have you ever felt like you were called to do something.   Noah was CALLED to build the ark.   He didn’t have to, but God had plans for him.   The Bible says in Genesis 6:9-12 that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of is time and he walked with God. Noah had three sons; Shem, Ham and Japheth.   Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.   God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.”   So here Noah is, surrounded by a bunch of people, that haven’t really seen rain before.   They are already evil and corrupt, they are already laughing at him from before, and God calls him to make this Ark…   God tells Noah to build a boat.   A BOAT!   And not a small boat either, a HUGE boat.   So his neighbors and friends are looking at him as a quack.   Do you think that Noah ever questioned God?   Do you think that he said, um, are you SURE God?   A boat God?   That is crazy

This song has been running through my head non-stop lately.   There is always a lot of gossip, a lot of talking a lot of interesting things that goes on in a church, and this is the song that I sing every time that I have been getting involved in it.   It is so easy to say, I know that song, and skip over reading the lyrics, but have you ever really read the lyrics? When the music fades And all is stripped away And I simply come Longing just to bring Something that's of worth That will bless your heart I'll bring You more than a song For a song in itself Is not what You have required You search much deeper within Through the ways things appear You're looking into my heart I'm coming back to the heart of worship And it's all about You All about You, Jesus I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it When it's all about You It's all about You Jesus King of endless worth No one could express How much You deserve Though I'm weak

There is a lot of talk about the “end of times”.   The end of times is near.   There was a crack pot who recently predicted it and now has changed his prediction to next month instead of may…    And the Mayan calendar has said that 2012 was going to be the time of destruction for a long time.   A lot of people that don’t follow that stuff are saying that the end of times is coming because of the massive earthquakes and natural disasters that have faced the world recently.   How it is 10 times higher than it has ever been.   There are a lot saying that the end is near due to the destruction of the world and the economies of the world.   Saying that this or that is the “mark of the beast”.   I was reading today in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:28 it is awesome.   It starts out- “Brothers we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.   We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus

A lot has been going on with me lately.   A lot with Christian people that I know.   It sucks!   It is like – why can’t Christians all just get along.   Why does God put one thing on one person’s heart and something else on someone else’s heart and they don’t mesh.   Aren’t we supposed to be a body?   Well, why is it that this body fights?   I think right now the body of Christ has quite a few health problems.   This is not just with the group of Christians that I know either.   The body of Christ is “one unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.   So it is with Christ.   For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one ‘Spirit to drink.’” 1 Corinthians 12: 12-13.   I think that the body of Christ is getting cancer.   There is a disease spreading through it that says that a lot of what the world looks to as normal, is right.   There are parts of the body

I have read devotions many mornings, just like this one, and thought- “so and so needs to read this and get convicted”.   Is that how devotions are supposed to wok?   Although certain devotions should speak to certain people’s hearts, it is important to remember that they need to speak to our hearts first and foremost.   We are the ones needing and desiring the quiet time with God.   We are the ones that need to be transformed.   It really brings to mind the song “Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord.” I think now a days, most people have heard and are in love with this song.   The lyrics are: Open the eyes of my heart Lord, Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you, I want to see you. Open the eyes of my heart Lord, Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you, I want to see you. To see You high and lifted up, Shining in the light of Your glory. Pour out Your power and love, As we sing holy, holy, holy….. When we do devotions, and spend time with God, it is a time that we are allowe

I remember once in high school and older college aged guy asking me, a freshman, out on a date.   I was like – really?   Although I was flattered, he was way too old for me!   I was a freshman in high school and he was a junior in college and we hadn’t ever met before.   It was awkward.   He said something to me thought that made me think- he said “what is age, it is just a bunch of numbers added up to mean nothing”.   Although I didn’t go out with him, and thought that he was really weird for being so old and hanging out at a high school (he was friends with the seniors who were freshmen when he was a senior in high school), it really has stuck with me. I heard someone say the other day that they were settled and too old to be called into ministry.   Ummmm… it doesn’t work that way.   First off, this person was around my age, so around the 30 mark, definitely not too old.   Secondly, Jesus’ ministry didn’t start until he was 30!!!!   Luke 3:23: “Now Jesus himself was about thirty yea

I remember once in high school and older college aged guy asking me, a freshman, out on a date.   I was like – really?   Although I was flattered, he was way too old for me!   I was a freshman in high school and he was a junior in college and we hadn’t ever met before.   It was awkward.   He said something to me thought that made me think- he said “what is age, it is just a bunch of numbers added up to mean nothing”.   Although I didn’t go out with him, and thought that he was really weird for being so old and hanging out at a high school (he was friends with the seniors who were freshmen when he was a senior in high school), it really has stuck with me. I heard someone say the other day that they were settled and too old to be called into ministry.   Ummmm… it doesn’t work that way.   First off, this person was around my age, so around the 30 mark, definitely not too old.   Secondly, Jesus’ ministry didn’t start until he was 30!!!!   Luke 3:23: “Now Jesus himself was about thirty yea

10 years ago tomorrow, something horribly devastating happened.   A plane flew into the World Trade Center in New York City, New York.   At first, no one knew if it was an accident, or an attack.   Minutes later, a second plane flew directly into the second World Trade Center.   I was a freshman in college who had been told all about the woes of missing class.   So, to class I went, and the professor told us, nothing else was going to happen.   We bowed our heads to pray, as was the practice at Asbury College, and when we looked up and looked at the TV, the pentagon was hit.   I don’t remember a whole lot about that day after that.   I remember hearing that a plane had gone down in Pittsburgh.   I immediately thought of my father who was working at the largest building down town on a top floor. My heart skipped about 30 beats as I ran to the nearest phone.   Trying to call home was no small feat, all the lines were busy, the whole nation was talking on the phones to each other.   I re

“You don’t know what you are missing”, I have heard that a lot of my life.   I didn’t know what I was missing when it came to TV shows that I wasn’t allowed to watch or when people told me about alcohol that I chose not to drink.   They told me this about sex and about drugs and about a lot of things.   I didn’t want to know what I was missing.   I had a good childhood, I didn’t feel deprived or chagrined of anything, but they were right, I didn’t know what I was missing.   I didn’t necessarily need to know a lot of the things that I was missing.   At that age and before marriage, I didn’t need to know about sex, drugs, alcohol.   There was a lot that I wasn’t exposed to growing up, and I am not saddened by that, but it did make me more curious about certain TV shows when I got older and moved out – like Friends (which I love) and the Simpsons (which I can now quote many of the episodes).   My parents were keeping me safe and keeping me from the bad that lies in wait in the world.   T

I was reading something yesterday that reminded me of the footprint in the sand poem.   It was about the Cherokee braves.   Their passage into man hood has their father take them into the forest and sit them on a stump in the middle of the forest.   They have to sit there with a blindfold on and not get off that stump for the entire night.   They are not allowed to yell for help or pull up the blindfold.   They are not allowed to talk about their experience on the stump.   If they make it through the entire night, they are considered a man.   They are able to stand up to their fears and show no weakness.   So put yourself in those shoes. You are all alone, you are in the middle of a forest with bugs, spiders, snakes, animals that might do you harm and you are not allowed to say or do anything.   You are not allowed to jump up when you feel the warm body of a snake run across your feet.   That has got to be scary.   They have to trust themselves enough to make it through the night.   E

I have all sorts of fun and crazy ideas- usually to start some kind of ministry or business or something to that effect.   Fortunately, I have a grounding block with my husband.   I haven’t always thought that he was a grounding block.   So many times I had looked at him as an obstacle that I had to overcome.   I have had some superbly crazy ideas, that may or may not have worked, but most likely gotten us pretty deep in debt.   When I chose to marry my husband, I knew what the Bible said in Genesis 2:24; “for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”   I decided that I was better than the Bible and re-wrote it in my own head for years and years.   Instead of it saying, “the two shall become one flesh”, I interpreted it as “the two shall become one brain…”   Therefore, what I said, HAD to be what he was thinking and HAD to be what he wanted because I wanted it.   It took me a few years to realize that his ideas were

Yesterday I was on the phone with someone and my kids were acting crazy.   Beyond crazy.   I would tell them no- they would do what I told them not to do then laugh hysterically.   While I was on the phone with this person they told me a quote that they had heard.   “I think God gives us children so that we will know how we make him feel.” At first I had to laugh, but then it makes you think, how DO we make God feel all the time.   He tells us not to do something, yet we do it anyway.   He tells us again, “don’t do that”, and we do it again.   He tells us AGAIN, not to do something, and we do it, yet again…   We don’t listen to Him, we don’t respect Him or His wishes, we just do what we want to do when we want to do it.   Usually when we are telling our children not to do something it is because it will mess up something that was just done or hurt them.   Like: don’t play with the vacuum cleaner hose- I just cleaned that floor and it will get dirty again; don’t scream in a closed are

Have you ever noticed that some habits are so easy to break while others are the hardest thing that you have had to do in a long time?   For me, the worse habit that I had was biting my nails.   I would bite them all day long every day if they were long enough.   I had done it since I was a little kid and that was what happened.   I just continued.   For a lot of people it is smoking and drinking or coffee or shopping and spending money, watching TV non-stop (guilty!).   These are the kind of habits that are hard for us to break.   Another habit that plagues me is the attention that I pay to drama.   I throw myself in the middle of it all the time!   The good habits are the ones that are so easy to break.   Like this blog.   I took a break from it for a week and it was so easy for me to say – nope, not getting back on there.   Just reading the Bible every day is easy to break.   Working out, walking, running, a lot of times, the best things for you and your body are the easiest habits