It's time for us to do something

We spent the last week in New Orleans with the group Operation Save America doing pro-life ministry. What an encouraging, inspiring, challenging week it was!  We spent time at 2 abortion mills standing for the truth and proclaiming Christ, peacefully and prayerfully.  Young people, old people, people from every stage, age and walk of life came together to proclaim Christ. During the times at the mills you could find spontaneous worship, prayer, praise, pleading with women and men, holding of signs, and the truth being preached.  Thankfully the mills shut down for the week!

We also spent time at a proposed Planned Parenthood site.  Fortunately,  it hasn't had any work done on it for over a month.  We spent time there reading the Word of God out loud.  By the end of the week, the entire word of God and been read aloud over the site!  Men and women and kids spent many hours there in the pouring rain and in the heat of the sun reading God's Word.  How powerful!  God's Word will not return void.

Teams were also sent to Shreveport and Baton Rouge as well as the City Hall in New Orleans, Canal Street and other places throughout the city.

   

Abortion is the holocaust of our day.  59 million children have lost their lives.  Countless women have died. Many women and families are wounded emotionally.

To see how many babies have died Click here

This was only a week out of our lives.  We didn't do much.  I could do so much more.  Others sacrifice daily.

It's Time for us to Do something!

Being around men and women and teens that are serving God with their whole heart is inspiring.  It is also challenging.

What can I do on a daily basis to help others around me? We only have a small amount of time on this earth. I want to spend my time here doing something eternal.  Something that will have an effect on others.  It can be small or it can be big, but let's Honor the Lord in our lives. Let's be salt that is shaken out of our comfortable salt shaker. Let's be light to those in the darkness.  Serving others, praying for others, helping others. You never know how they will affect you, and how you might affect eternity.

What will you do this week to make a difference?

To find out more about the group we went with click here.

Love of travel started young

I've been thinking about 2 things lately.

One, traveling. I absolutely love it. Don't make excuses. Go do it!

Two, preserving the stories of our history. Yes, names and genealogy are great! (My mom has done some excellent research in this area) But it's neat to have stories to go with the names.
So I'm thinking I may blog for a while about some family stories that I remember.

Back when I was just 19 years old, Larry and I moved from Texas to Seattle. We had only been married a year. I had never lived anywhere else but Texas. Now just imagine, this was back before cell phones and the internet. We had no idea what it would be like to live in Seattle. There was no way to research housing and apartment prices, costs of living, best areas to live in etc. We just packed up everything we had and loaded it into a small u haul trailer and headed out west.

Our little Nissan pulling the U-haul didn't even make it to Amarillo before the car overheated. We stopped for the night and in the morning it was cool enough to travel some more. We got into the middle of nowhere Colorado when our car finally said..nope can't do it anymore and it died. I sat there and cried and cried. Remember, no cell phones. We hadn't even made it half way to our destination yet. I was leaving behind everything and we were stuck in the middle of nowhere! Well, after some prayer and Larry's quick thinking, we flagged down a pick up truck going the same direction and asked him to hook our trailer onto his truck and we would follow him into town. With the extra weight off our vehicle, it started right up and off we went! I said to Larry, "Did you get their names?" Nope. They had all our worldly possessions and could have just taken off with them but thank the Lord they didn't. They pulled our trailer into town. Larry had some friend in town who "happened" to be wanting to sell their pick up truck. We needed a pick up truck! We swapped vehicles! Perfect!

Off we went again!
We got to see Yellowstone, Montana, Idaho. Absolutely gorgeous country! Amazing to see!

We made it to Seattle, found a hotel to stay in and the next day Larry went off to start his new job. Here I am, 19 years old, never been this far away from home and Larry sends me out to find a home for us. Now back in Texas, we had been paying $175 for a small home that we rented. I had no idea the costs of apartments in Seattle. We hadn't been able to research and find out. Well, I was in for a shock! They were very expensive! I was finally able to settle on an apartment for $500 a month (which today would be a bargain there!)
We got settled in and it was just the beginning of a lot of adventures for us. We made friends there, found a great church, saw lots of sights, drew closer to each other, closer to the Lord.

I'm thankful for our year in Seattle. It taught me that I can do whatever I set my mind to do. It taught me that Larry believed in me too! It taught me that there's a whole world out there just waiting to be explored and discovered.

Posted with Blogsy

Still learning

When I had kids I knew I would be teaching them a lot of things, but I never realized how much 

they would teach me!

I have 3 beautiful young adults now that have taught me many lessons along the way. 

Here's just a few:

Enjoy the moment

Don't worry about going to bed and getting enough sleep when you're having fun!

If you want to accomplish a goal - go for it!

You are never to young or old to start something new

It's good and healing to talk about things 

Stop and spend some time wading in the creek and catching minnows

Laugh and laugh some more

Spending time just chillin' is good

Learn something new and try it!

Getting hurt is part of life

Work hard

Be resourceful - you don't have to do everything the way everyone else does

Be yourself


I love the people my beautiful young adults are becoming.  They show me and teach me in so many ways.  I taught them for years and it's nice to have them shine their lives brightly so that others can see.

What things are you learning from your kids?

True connections

Here's a comment I hear more and more often when I see people face to face:  "Oh yea, I saw that on Facebook".

Everything's on Facebook now.  We feel like we are connecting with people because we post stuff and people like our statuses.  When we finally see someone what do we talk about because they already know everything that's going on in our lives from facebook.  They know what our dinner looked like, what our kids are doing, what our workout was like.  So is there even a need to get together?

That's a rhetorical question.

There's a scene in the movie "Wall-E"  where everyone is rolling around on little hover crafts (because people don't walk anymore in the future) and they all have a screen in front of them where they can talk to images of people.  Then one day one of the person's screens turns off and they look around and see that there are other actual living people out there!  And stars!  And a real living world out there!

I do enjoy the convenience of social media. It's a way we can communicate with lots of people at the same time.

But let's not forget the human element.

We need face to face contact with people.  That's the way God designed us.

We need interaction and real communication with each other. Not just "oh I saw that on Facebook".  But getting down to a deeper level with people.

Communication can be divided into five levels:

1. Level of acquaintance
2. Sharing of information
3. Sharing of ideas
4. Sharing of emotions
5. Gut level sharing

Social Media, texting, and email pretty much stays at level 2. How can we get past this and get to a deeper level of communication with people?

It's tough because it requires an element of vulnerability.  I don't like sharing my heart on my sleeve. 

But it's nice to be truly connected to people in a way that social media can't fulfill.

Some ideas on how to get past level 2:

Pick up the phone and talk to someone
Ask them more than "How are you?"- Ask how they felt about something
Talk about more than just the weather or facts...get down to opinions and emotions
Write a card or letter and snail mail it to them
Pray with someone

How have you connected with someone today?

The Magical String

I once read a story of a boy that had a magical ball of string.  An old witch gave the boy the string and said to him, "Do not touch it and time will pass normally. But if you wish time to pass more quickly, you have only to pull the thread a little way and an hour will pass like a second. But I warn you, once the thread has been pulled out, it cannot be pushed back in again."

So whenever he didn't wait to wait for something, he would pull a bit of the string and POOF!  time would pass.  He started by sitting in school one day and thought to himself, "Why wait for the day to be over?" He pulled a bit of the string and the day was over!  Then he started pulling the string for larger and larger amounts of time.  Graduating school-Poof!  Done with College-Poof!  Finding a wife-Poof!  Kids-Poof!

Before he knew it, he was at the end of his life and he greatly regretted wasting the string.  He realizes that without the mundane and without the hard times of life, we are just a shell of a person.  He robbed himself of life's richest moments and memories.

I don't have a magical ball of string.  I'm so thankful that I don't!  I would have pulled it far too many times by now.

But sometimes we are "pulling our string"  in other ways.

Can't wait till the weekend.

Won't summer get here?!

When will my baby walk, talk, **insert milestone here**?

Will this day never end!

When will my kids be grown?!

When will I lose this weight??

You get the idea.

My youngest son just turned 18.  Eighteen!!!!  When my kids were 2, 4, and 6 I thought this day would never get here!  I was so focused on the craziness of each day that some days I forgot to enjoy it.  To just sit and read and play.  To soak in every minute!

Time goes way to fast on it's own.  It's not bad to look forward to things in anticipation.  But you never know what God has for you today.  Don't be looking so far into the future that you forget to see what's in front of you.  What opportunities is God placing in front of me right now?  What people are near me now. Don't forget to enjoy the moment.  I look forward to this new chapter in my life!

I will try to not wish away the days.

You can read the full story of the ball of string here.

The toughest job

When you have kids, it often feels like your heart is walking around outside your body.  When they are happy, I am happy.  When they are sad, I am sad.  When they get good news, I feel the joy!  When they are hurt, I hurt too.

How do you handle your very heart outside of your body?  It's so vulnerable and helpless.  It could get squashed at any moment.  It's delicate and fragile.  Yet it's the strongest muscle in your body.

Even though my kids aren't "kids" at all anymore -- I can't believe they are all grown adults!  It still feels like my heart is split in three different directions.

It's weird.  When they are little, your heart is just out there from the get go.  You never knew you could love so much.  They  consume your every waking moment.  You teach and train, love and play.  Yet, they are there beside you.  Your heart is close to you.  

Then as they get older, they start doing their own thing.  I can feel the tug of my heart.  Leaving me. Growing. They are living their lives. They are making decisions and doing things.  Somethings I know.  Somethings I don't want to know.   But my heart!  It's still out there! I can't always "make it better now" with a kiss and a boo boo bear.

My heart has to learn to be ok with things.  My heart has to learn to trust in the One who entrusted them to me.

He has them.  He knows them.  He guides, directs.  I pray and worry and then pray some more.  He has control.  He can hold them, comfort them.

My heart is out there.  In three different places.  My heart is vulnerable.

But it's also multiplied!  I can feel joy 3 times over!  I'm so happy for my kids....ahem.....young adults.

They make my heart happy. Ultimately I trust in the Lord. He holds our hearts.  He keeps me in perfect peace.

Colossians 3:15 

" And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful."

What did you just say to me??

Ok so this getting older thing is tough.   I've never had any problems with my weight.  But now that I'm in my mid 40s it is really getting difficult!   My metabolism is.....dragging.....so.....slow!

I've been on a kick for about 4 months to watch what I eat.  Not dieting necessarily. But getting back to healthy foods.  I've also been making an effort to exercise.  I've been getting on the treadmill 2-3 times a week.  I've been hooping mostly every day.  I'm super trying!  My job has gotten a lot more stationary  & sedentary so I've tried to make up for that by walking at lunch etc.

It's tough but I feel like I've been making a go of it.   I haven't really lost any weight.  But I've maintained. Hopefully built some muscle up in the process.

I haven't felt great about myself.  But I've felt good about getting back in shape.

And then....

I was at a store the other day and I ran into a person (I wouldn't really say a friend-just an acquaintance).  I hadn't seen her in a long time. And we started chit chatting.

And then she says to me, " So when are you expecting?"

REALLY???

My youngest is almost 18 years old!!

Do I look THAT pooched out??

There are some things that you never EVER say to someone!  And this is on the top of the list!!  Why would this even come out of someone's mouth?  Don't they know the rules of human kind and womanhood??

Well, I just stood there and with a sarcastic voice said, "No, I'm just fat."

I didn't know what to say.

Now all this to say... I know I'm not overweight.  Just above what I'm comfortable with for my body.  I know it'll take some time to lose.  Probably a lot longer than it took to gain!

But people!  Let's watch our words with each other!  One little word can make some ones day or completely defeat them.  Her one little sentence set me back so much mentally and emotionally.

Our words have power.  God gave us the ability to encourage one another!  Let's find the good in people and build each other up!

Choose your words wisely!  You never know what others are going through.

Proverbs 16:24

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

P.S.  Children are a blessing! I'd be happy if I was pregnant--completely shocked-- but happy!  I think it's great to have lots of kids.  And this woman was probably excited about pregnancy --as she was expected a grand baby.  But still!  There are some things that you just don't ask people...wait till they tell you!