Fresh new day...same old AC

So I wake up today feeling much more rested and refreshed.  Sleeping on a soft flat surface is so much more desirable than being crunched in a van seat.  Not to mention there are no screaming teenagers, and no bumps to send my neck aching.  So I am rejoicing.  Even though there are mountains of laundry in my kitchen, our air conditioning has finally kicked the bucket (which is terrible news if you live in south MS), and I have three giant heads staring at me from the side of the bed.  I am rejoicing because I serve a great God.  I serve a God that can bind people together even though they are miles and miles and miles apart.  I serve a God who can mend the broken and stir the hearts of men.  I experienced some wonderful things during my time with the Tohono O'odham people this past week.  I am amazed that even though they go without or have so little they still praise God for their blessings.  Many of us would look at what they have and what they have been through and not be able to see how God has blessed them.  To me, they are a constant reminder that we should thank God for the little things and only rely on Him.  Thats hard for me to do in my culture of huge TV's and big bank accounts that go with even bigger debts.  It is so much easier to rely on the things that the world says I need.  Maybe I should just go live with the T.O. or maybe even the persecuted Chinese.   I would really be able to see God then. 

Dear anonymous

Your comment struck a chord with me.  But not a chord that made me feel all warm and happy on the inside.  Now granted, I have just gotten home from a 24 hr van ride from Az, so I am not in the greatest of moods but come on.  Suck it up??  A little rude don't you think?  I understand that with being in the military you have to expect to move and to do so often.  I wasn't saying I was against it.  I wasn't saying that God can not work in many different places.  But do you think that just because I am part of a military family that it automatically makes leaving friends and family easy?  I was merely commenting on the fact that my heart wasn't fully at peace with either choice.  So I do not believe it is your place to tell me to suck it up.  A more appropriate comment might have been..."wow, you really have  a lot going on.  It will all turn out for the best."  Now, that would have struck a chord that made me feel all warm inside.

Too much too much too much

Wow...so its been quite awhile hasn't it. I doubt anyone is still reading this. I am not even sure what I was talking about in the last post. But I know that a lot has happened. Things have been very busy since my wonderful husband has been home. It seems like this week is the first break we have had since his arrival. Lets see, we made a trip to Tn to visit family and also to pick up a bunch of furniture from my sister. She and her family are moving to London as missionaries and had to get rid of EVERYTHING they own. So we basically got a new house full of furniture. I am so thankful for Matt and Myra's generosity. You two have no idea what a blessing that was, even though it was painful for ya'll.

Anyway, after that we had Camp Create at our church. The only way I can describe it is that is a Vacation Bible School on 12 types of steroids. This years title was Meet the Weirdys and the theme was "there's a hero in everyone." So my role for the week was Paddler. I was a superhero who's powers included pin-point ping pong accuracy and flight.  I even have my own trading card...pretty crazy to be famous!  

So now that Camp Create is done Sean and I are preparing to head to Arizona for a week.  That should be an amazing time of seeing God work in peoples lives and how He is at work on the T.O. reservation.

But the real reason that pushed me to post today was the fact that so much is changing.  My sister is moving to London, and I don't think that I have processed that.  I read her blog today and cried through pretty much all of it.  Seeing as how I lived with them for 5 years.  Along with the fact that Sean and I are going to be (unless the Lord intervenes) relocating in December.  I am not ready for this.  I am not ready to leave this church, I am not ready to leave the friends that I have made here, and I am not ready to leave the security that I have here.  This is the first place that has truly been my home in many many years.  This is a place where I really do belong.  Its not that I don't want to go live in a really cool place like Hawaii or San Diego, its just that I have made a place here, a place where people love me and don't want me to leave.  But the fact is that either we move somewhere else or we stay here and Sean deploys again to Iraq.  I don't fully like either choice.  Not to mention the fact that I don't handle change well at all.

I remember the first time that my family moved from one house to another.  I ran from room to room crying because I was leaving the only home I had ever known.  Granted, we only moved to another neighborhood in the same area, but it was still traumatic.  Not to mention the fact that after that move my family fell apart.  So yeah, I don't handle change well.  And we are up for a LOT of big changes.

Do I look like Ace Ventura???

So ever since Sean and I have been living here in Gulfport we have kind of become the unofficial animal haven. First of all we have never had less than two dogs, at times there have been as many as 6 dogs and two cats in the house. Yes, crazy, I know...but its a gift or a curse depending on the day. Anyway, not only do we bring animals into our home by our own choosing, they seem to flock here on their own. There was one time when we came home from being out for the day and let the dogs out of the back yard, well after a few minutes we realized something didn't seem right. There was an extra creature running around. It was a small chocolate lab that had dug under our fence to come hang out. Yeah, its sad that it took us a little while to realize we had an extra, but oh well. Well, this past friday we had just arrived home from our trek to Tn (mind you, it was about 9:30 pm) and Sean saves a little Boston Terrier from being run over in front of our house. Of course the dog has no tags and no owner in sight. So we canvas the neighborhood for about an hour and finally give up. We had the dog for the majority of the next day until his owner finally saw our sign. The next incident took place today during the hours of 9:00 am to 3:30 pm. All morning long I kept hearing this weird noise down stairs and I thought it was the dogs getting into something. Well, I eventually go downstairs and I am doing something when all of a sudden I hear something clawing around frantically in the flu of the chimney. So I am kinda creeped out by it...just a little. But I can't just let it stay in there and die, I don't want it to suffer, so I finally work up the nerve to open the flew. So I get a basket to place under the hole and a towel to throw on top of my catch. When I get the flew open soot comes out, and then shoots out this little bird, who jets to the window. Well, at this point my dogs are spastic and I am screaming cause a freaky bird thing just flew in front of my face. So I grabbed the towel and caught the bird. I cleaned it up some with a wet paper towel and put him in the basket to rest. At dusk I set him in the basket outside in front of the chimney. His parents knew he was there and they kept circling. But what intrigues me the most is that God guides animals in need to people who will help them. Isn't He a cool God? Very.

To be or not to be...busy

As I sit and process the last few weeks there is a theme that keeps popping up. Busyness. Since my husband returned from the war we have been going 90 to nothing. We have been apart of major productions at the church, lead the youth group, attended our own small group, played in softball games, learned some killer moves in dance class, made a whirlwind trip to Tn, loaded and unloaded tons of furniture, and re-arranged the house, among a myriad of other things. We are tired...very tired. But we are happy. But here's the thing. As I was sitting in church this past sunday God was pressing upon my heart (through the songs we sang and verses we read) that busyness is not the answer. I know most of you already know that, but how many of us actually practice it. How many of us are still and know that He is God. How many of us practice stillness? Women, how many of us strive to the the proverbs 31 woman? She seems pretty stressed out to me. Although I am far from it, I have a desire to learn how to be still before the Creator, my Father and sustainer. In one of my classes in college, my professor gave us the assignment of going someplace quiet and just sitting before the Lord. No talking, no singing, no reading, just being with God. Its amazing what you will hear if you just listen. I desire to be known as a peaceful person. Not someone who is constantly scurrying around like an ant without purpose. I want to be able to sit back and enjoy some Rocky Road with Jesus (if you haven't done Tommy Nelson's "A life well lived" I highly recommend it). Not that working for the Lord isn't awesome, I mean, I work for the church and I love it. But what I am saying is that so often I find myself going this way and that and really God is just saying "STOP, I want to spend time with you. I want to hang out and hear about your day." So this is what I am going to resolve to do this week. I want to do only what God wants me to do. Not what I think I should be doing for him, but only that in which He leads. I believe that not only will I get to slow down and enjoy life more, but I will be more productive because I won't have so many irons in the fire. It's gonna be great!

not only needs

Everyone goes through Storms. Everyone...but everyone's storms are different. Some storms are worse than others, some storms blow over more quickly. But for the time that we are experiencing those storms we feel utterly out of control. Sometimes, we get angry, frustrated, depressed, and most of the time we wonder "why?" A lot of times we feel like God is causing us pain. Actually He doesn't cause the pain, but He greatly desires to use it. He wants to use it to get our attention and pull us back to Him. Recently I have been going through a storm. The past week has just been rough. So I was very frustrated and I was letting God know how frustrated I really was. I wanted Him to fix the situation and do my will. Anyway, so I was feeling sorry for myself and I was out running errands, so I decided to stop for lunch. I pulled into Chick-fil-a and placed my order for a chicken sandwich combo. I start around the corner and see a sign for their milk shakes. I LOVE milkshakes. And I think to myself, man, I have been craving one for weeks...I should have ordered one. So I get to the window and pay and the guy hands me my food and then proceeds to say "oh, we made an extra milkshake and its for you." I was floored. I pulled out of chick-fil-a in tears. God spoke to my heart in a time when I was in a small storm and said, "my darling, I want to care for not just your needs, but also your wants. I hear you my child and I love you. I know you, I know everything about you, from your favorite things to what hurts you the most. I am here even when you don't see how things are going to turn out. Trust me, my beautiful princess." Now some of you may be thinking, "you got all of that from a milk shake?" And the answer is sort of. See the thing is that I know my God. I know he loves me, even when I don't feel like He does. He wants to use my storm to pull me closer to Him. So the question we should ask is not "why is this happening" but "what". What is God going to do to redeem the situation. How is He going to make it beautiful. You see, thats what God is in the business of. He redeems things. Now that doesn't mean that we won't grieve, or hurt, but it will help us not to give the situation control. It will help you to remember that God is in control and that "I know that plans I have for you. Plans to prosper and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and future."

Dear Anonymous

A couple of days ago I made a post about my church's current sermon series. After that post I got an anonymous comment that only include and address to another blogger's site. The post that it led me to was from a man who says he is a Christian. The post was on, and I may be wrong, how sometimes Christianity or actually humans interpretation of the Bible can lead to spousal abuse. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that lots of people have taken the Bible and used it to support their own evil actions, but that was not what I was talking about. I was merely commenting on our culture and how it is going to take MEN standing up for their sister's in Christ and protecting them from the evils of the world. When I said that Adam's first sin was passivity I was not saying he should have been controlling Eve's every move, but that He didn't stand up and protect her from the enemy. Which is sadly still occurring today. But really, both people should be submissive to Christ first and all things will flow from that.