Lets Give Them Something to Talk About

This past week I have been reminded how my life used to be.   Full of DRAMA…   At least, I sure thought that it was.   I could make anything and everything dramatic, and I did.   If I didn’t like my job, it was a full out ordeal that EVERYONE had to know about.   If I didn’t like my friends or family, same thing…   If I was extremely busy, or at least what I thought was extremely busy before I had kids, I had to make a huge deal about it.   I guess life hasn’t changed all that much, but my outlook on life has changed and therefore, my life is changed.   Life is always going to throw curve balls at us.   ALWAYS!   There is no way around this idea, it is a truth.   Life isn’t necessarily easy but depending on how we look at it doesn’t have to be stressful and full of drama all the time.   I used to be so stressed out until I realized, guess what – the world doesn’t revolve around me…   A novel concept I assure you.   I used to believe that everything in the world would revolve a

Sitting in the car with my husband while getting the kids situated we witnessed a simple thing.   Two older gentlemen had been sharing a lunch at a fast food establishment, as they left the restaurant, the one gentleman pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, looked at it and then dropped it on the ground.   The second gentleman looked at him in horror.   The right look is worth 1000 words!   That second man chased down the paper, picked it up and deposited it into the trashcan, where it belongs.   I have no idea the relationship between the two men.   I have no idea what their life stories entail, but this made me think: There are two kinds of people in the world, those that don’t really care about what they leave behind and those that do.   How much easier is it to just toss something to the side that doesn’t seem important to us.   Ignore the reality of a situation.   That was just one piece of trash that man threw on the ground why would that matter?   But if everyone di

Car shopping is always interesting…   My minivan has 150k miles on it so we are looking into purchasing a new to us car.   You give the sales person a price and they always show you vehicles that are just a little above that price.   Then, somehow, you are looking at a new car that is on “sale” and way above our originally state price range.   Sigh…   How often do we do something like that in real life?   We have a plan, a course of values, and then we compromise a little bit, then a little more, and then a little more and soon, our values (or price range) are out the window.   We give a little with our morality, and then the next thing that we know; our original morals are out the window.   The world is like a car sales person, it is okay to do this, it is okay to do that…   For just a little more of this, you can be accepted here or there…   For just a little more compromise, you will get acceptance here or there….   Seeing how good sales people work, it amazes me (the ba

Duct Tape Fairy Wings…   That is right, I am reclaiming my title as the Duct Tape Diva!   It is funny how over board we end up going for birthday parties and celebrations.   The amount of money that people spend on weddings and parties, anniversaries and events that will only last a few hours.   I think I spent around 45 hours preparing my younger daughter’s birthday party and I will be on-course to do the same with my older daughter’s if I do what I am thinking.   What a first world problem.   Much of the rest of the world is just trying to make it to their next birthday and here I am, making a HUGE deal over my daughter’s 5 th .   Society has told us that so much is normal now.   A “cheap” wedding costs at least $10,000, although the average amount spent is ridiculously higher.   People spend so much on a short amount of pleasure.   Society gives us these norms, tells us our birthday parties have to be over the top, that girls’ night is a must and grabbing a drink or having s

Today I am doing something different.  Have you ever seen anyone perform "spoken word"?  Well, this was put on my heart this morning, it is to be read in the format of spoken word, rhytmatic and fun.  I hope you enjoy it. Have you ever stopped to wonder why God made the birds to fly. He made the grass green, And the air to be unseen He made the seasons all, Winter, summer, spring and fall He created each of us unique, Some to work and some to speak He gave us all something sweet, The nails pierced His son’s hands and feet For our sins Jesus suffered and bled A crow of thorns placed upon His head.   He was crucified so I can live, His love He did so freely give. Have you stopped to wonder why, For you, He did die? He said, you don’t have to be ideal, My perfection will live through you with zeal. So, why are we not sharing God’s news? Why are we allowing so many to have the blues? Why don’t we share His promise of a great tomorro

Imagine having nowhere to turn.   No one to look to and no one to go to and no one to turn to when things were rough. Recently a 13-year-old boy felt this way.   He was part of my niece’s class and had a terribly bad day.   He felt hopeless.   He took a gun.   He took the gun and put it to his head and pulled the trigger.   To our knowledge, he has not passed away yet.   We have heard that he passed and also that he did not pass, but is in a coma after surgery.    This past Sunday we heard a message of HOPE given by our Pastor at The Fields Church in Mattoon.   The message was of how Jesus makes hopeless situations and inserts hope into them.   During the sermon, our pastor held up a balloon.   That is our life.   We are hopeless without Christ.   Then, Christ breathes life into us and we inflate.   When we let Christ breathe into our lives, we are able to take the shape that He created us for.   We no longer sit there in a bag or on a shelf, but we become items of Joy.   When C