Wednesday, April 30, 2008

More Marbles

Why do two year olds gravitate toward massive mess makers - like baby powder???? Aagghh!

I sure hope EC does well at 4th grade camp. Since all three brothers have been sick this week with the nasties, I really, really want her to be completely healthy the whole time she's gone.

How can I continue to be amazed when God answers prayer, as if it was completely unexpected? I ought to know by now that He loves to answer our prayers exactly as we have prayed them, and it shouldn't surprise me when He answers. But it always does.

Any chance dust has health benefits that would make it silly to remove it?

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

No.

No. Thank you for thinking of me, though.
No. I don't think that will work.
No. I just don't think this is the right time for me to do that.
No. I'm really not interested.
No. Sounds like a great idea, though.
No. Not right now.
No. I just need to concentrate on home right now.
No. I hope you find the right person.
No.
No.
No.

Sorry. Just practicing.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Help Me, Doctor!

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

I'm completely inept at leading a medical mission team. I've never led any kind of team. Never been on a medical team. And here I am leading a medical team. What is God thinking?! I know He has called me to this mission. I have seen His hand at work. I have a completely staffed team with folks on the waiting list. The only space left is for a physician, which I don't have. And I've just been turned down by about the fifth doctor.

I've been trying to be so positive about it. There's got to be a really magnificent reason God is waiting so long to bring us a doctor. I did, just last week, receive an email from a lady I was about to email and ask for the exact information she sent me.

Or maybe I haven't heard Him right. Maybe I'm too frazzled to lead this team. Plain ol' inept.
I keep thinking of Pastor Mike's tried and true adage:

God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.

Oh boy, am I bankin' on that one.


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Dear Pope,

I've carried this newspaper clipping around in my Bible since Pope John Paul II visited St. Louis in 1999. Apparently, people were asked to send in a message to the Pope, and the only name attributed to this one is "Henlin." I thought it relevant with the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI and befitting for today, so thought I'd share.
For those in personal pain, will you remind them that Jesus never gave himself for our righteousness, but He gave himself for our sins. The first link between my soul and Jesus is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit, but my misery, not my standing, but my failings, not my riches, but my need. He came to visit His people not to admire their beauties, but to remove their deformities, not to reward their virtues, but to forgive their sins.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Close Up

Any guesses on what this is???





It's not a Beluga whale sticking its tongue out. But it is just as fascinating. This came after the spilled milk on the counter from which I gracefully rescued the library book from its sure demise and the spilled apple juice on the floor that my shoes are still sticking to no matter how many times I've cleaned it up, but before I discovered the empty (gallon-sized) jug of distilled water in the pantry. I was tipped off by the purple lid mysteriously lying on the kitchen floor. JD says he drank it (yuck!) and I don't see a drop of water anywhere and his clothes are dry. When I asked him where the rest of it went (granted, it was not a full jug), he just stuck his finger down his throat. So I'm apt to believe him. Ignorance is bliss. Perhaps a foreshadowing of his teenage years when I will find jugs of milk emptied without the use of a glass and returned to the fridge.
And that's just today...

Okay, somebody's got to ask what that's a picture of! Or at least make a good guess!

The Love Triangle

I've thought a lot about the Trinity lately. While I believe with my whole heart that when the Scripture says "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me," (Isaiah 46:9 among others) that it means there is ONE God. We understand Him as one who reveals Himself to us in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Kinda like I'm a mom, daughter, and wife. One me. Three representations.
I can see how others have difficulty reconciling some of the tough questions about the Trinity. I mean, the first whole-church committee meeting (that'd be the Council of Nicaea) lasted for an entire month just to make sure everybody was on the same page about the Trinity. And I agree whole-heartedly with their conclusion: God the Father and God the Son are of the same substance, co-existent, and co-eternal. They're ONE. Not merely one in purpose, but one in being.
Now, that leads me to my questions that I haven't resolved yet.
In praying for our Love. Loud. initiative, I'm reading the daily scriptures on our little tear-out sheet. Last Monday's included John 14:16-17:
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you
forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither
sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and
will be in you.

Why does Jesus have to ask the Father to give the Counselor? Couldn't He just as easily have said, "And you will have a Counselor...?" He was obviously confident in the result since he said he will give it. And why another Counselor? If Jesus and the Spirit are One, why another Counselor? Why not, "I'll be with you as the Counselor?"

But wait. I think the Spirit of Truth is opening my eyes a bit. Thinking of the whole of scripture (which is how all our beliefs should be arrived at - not merely personally pleasing verses, nor should our beliefs be discredited by unpleasing verses) Christ has always been our Mediator, our High Priest. He is the One who intercedes for us to the Father so it's perfectly understandable that He would ask for the Holy Spirit for us, knowing we would need the presence of a Counselor with us at all times, just as He Himself had been with the disciples as their Counselor (which, by the way, is one of the ways Jews defined "messiah"). Does that make them not one? Hmm...

In John Gill's Exposition of the Bible, he says there "is no inconsiderable proof of a trinity of persons in the Godhead." Take out that silly double negative and what he's saying is there is considerable proof of the Trinity. There's much more good stuff on that link, and my brain is hurting, and my kids are hungry. So that's enough for today. Need to turn this from a knowledge issue to a heart issue anyway. I'm interested in your thoughts on this. One way or another, the Spirit is with me and is in me. Cool. In and round. Comforting.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Marbles...at least the ones that aren't completely lost

Laundry is a curse of the devil. I shouldn't have to do laundry until the drawers are empty. Unfortunately, that means I have a Mt. Everest of blue jeans and dirty underwear in my closet. Guess I should rebuke the curse and pray for a miracle.

I have too many opinions and need to learn to leave some of them in my head. Although, what good is an opinion if it isn't voiced?

Sure wish I could lose this 10 extra pounds by flipping past "Get Ripped in 90 Days" for the eleventh time. I'm going to get it off by summer. We have a subdivision pool now, for cryin' out loud.

Who decides the "preparation time" on recipes anyway? I only try ones that say 15 mintues or less because that means I'll actually have something in the oven in about 45.

It's hilarious that I've got my kids eating brownies with spinach in them. And they now prefer the cheap Aldi mac and cheese if I put pureed squash in it. Cracks me up.

Nope. I don't think God would call me away from my family to do His work (see yesterday's post). I think the enemy tries to use the "good" things to keep me from focusing on the "great" things. He's like a mouse - he can get through the smallest holes and wreak havoc on families.

My friend Kelley is inspiring and I wish I could write like her. Her randoms are a hoot. I'll keep trying to learn from her and enjoy her blog.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!



Bugs. I've got a ton of them and I can't weed out the good ones from the perfect ones. I've got the Love. Loud. bug, the small group bug, the Honduras bug, the fight malaria bug (ok, so that was a real bug but we got rid of that one), the build an outreach center bug, the two year olds get it bug, the Financial Peace bug, and the prayer team bug.

And I've been asked to hold two leadership positions in two different organizations.

Now how am I supposed to know what God really wants me to do? And would God call me away from my family to do His work?

I really wish I had a bigger view of God. In his article titled "When You Have Two Good Choices" Dr. Pritchard says


It’s not about your decisions, and it’s not about your future, and it’s not even about you. It’s all about God. When we start from that perspective, we can make our decisions even in times of doubt and uncertainty, and we can sleep well at night knowing that our God will put all the pieces together in exactly the right way.


Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Tales of a fourth grade...something

I enrolled my kids in public school for the first time last week. They've adjusted very well from their homeschool environment to the jaws of government-run "socialization." I'll speak my mind about that later. It really has been great for them (and me) for lots of reasons. But the timing, oh my goodness. My 4th grader has already come home with
  • an eye witness account of three boys getting sent to the principal's office (shocked the bejeebies out of her!)
  • 4th grade camp packet
  • two requests for money
  • the permission slip to watch the "Growth and Development" video

Um. Yeah. Welcome to the world of public education! Seriously though, it's been a great exerience so far and the kids are loving going to school. I'm not getting anything more done at home because I took away JD and MG's playmates and my helpers. But I am free from the full weight of that responsibility. Refreshment is definitely what I need.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

The B Word

Since we're embarking on an awesome new capital initiative at church, I'm starting to get serious about the B word. However, I've decided that budget is a much better noun. It's the transitive verb I can't seem to accomplish. Stinkin' debit card! "Swiper! No swiping!"

Friday, April 4, 2008

Inaugural post

I'm so inspired by my fellow bloggers, I've decided to spend my spare 8 minutes a day diffusing my thoughts onto a keyboard. And for this first post, how better to utilize this space than by sharing a glimpse of the other 1,432 minutes.

I have four precious kiddos that keep me more than busy (precious is used here kind of like "bless his heart"). The youngest, JD, is two and a half. Um-hm. It's a good thing he's so cute. Otherwise I'm not sure he'd have a place to sleep tonight.

Let me recap.

JD is a scientist and loves to experiment with water, wherever he can find it. Sink. Puddles. Fridge door. Toilet. Cups. It's when they get all mixed together that I get a little freaked out. But when he discovered his bathroom step stool has a hinged lid and a cup was handy, he got the bright idea to fill up that little storage compartment with water. Not sure where the water came from. I'm really hoping it was the sink, because, of course, the step stool storage compartment isn't meant to hold water. By the time I found him the floor was flooded.

JD is also quite artistic. He has lots of different canvases: important papers, walls, hardwood floors, himself. And today his medium of choice was stamps - on the wall. Mind you we have a brand new house. Told ya it was a good thing he was cute.

JD is really into taking off dirty diapers. It's such a precious thing to find him bouncing on the sofa, diaperless.

JD is content in the bathtub. He's often with a brother in the tub and (ahem) supervised. But when biggest brother was doubled over with a stomach ache, I decided I better check out webMD to see if we were having an appendicitis attack. I should've known better. JD decided he was done with his bath and got his wet self out of the tub, dripped to his bedroom where he did the whole fling-the-clothes-out-of-the-drawer-until-I-find-my-favorite-jammies thing.

That's one of the four children.

And that's just today.