Learning to BEHOLD

I am half way through a bible study curriculum that my church offers.  It takes 3 years to complete, and goes through each book of the Bible, one week at a time.  For the past year and a half I have been studying the Old Testament and a people crying out for a deliverer, longing for a redeemer, begging for a king to save them. We have been studying people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 Tribes, Noah, King David, and Queen Esther.  Learning about the Laws, Feasts and Offerings God required of his people in Leviticus. We studied the Shema in Deuteronomy, read of prophets foretelling and warning them of their sin. Studied as God’s chosen people, over and over, and over again repeated the cycle of turning from God, being defeated, begging God for Mercy and then being restored to Him (sounds familiar). I understood a deeper meaning of the “kinsman redeemer” from the book of Ruth that forever deepened my view of Christ as MY personal Redeemer.  I learned about suffering from Job, pushed through completing the Psalms (in a week!), devoured Proverbs, personally related to Jonah, admired Daniel, and forced myself to finish Hosea…..to close the semester a few weeks ago with the book of Micah.   So far we have completed, week by week, the Pentateuch books (Genesis thru Deuteronomy), the Kingdom books (Joshua thru 2 Kings), the Post Exilic books (1 Chronicles thru Esther), the Poetical books (Job thru Song of Solomon), the Major Prophets (Isaiah thru Daniel), and just finished the Early Minor Prophets (Hosea thru Micah). 

Leave Evidence

I have naturally curly hair (like you can’t tell with the ever growing frizz always atop my head).  But, for those women reading this who have naturally straight hair, I’m going to let you in on a curly hair insider phenomenon known as “clingy curls“.  This is what happens when curly hair naturally sheds and wraps itself around everything you own.  Around fingers, arms, feet, cups, cell phones, the couch, kitchen chairs..you name it..the hairs just wrap around everything they touch and don’t fall to the ground, like most straight hair would.  It can be very irritating to me AND everyone who lives with me.  I leave little”presents” everywhere I sit.  I recently had a particularly irritating “clingy curls” morning.  My hair was everywhere…all over me, all over everything I tried to touch.  Standing in my kitchen making school lunches, I had a thought that made me laugh out loud:

“If anyone ever tried to link me to a crime, it would be sooo easy.  All they would need to do is just look down for a minute for the trail of curly hairs I would leave behind with all that DNA on it!“  I laughed at myself for a few seconds…then stopped dead in my tracks, as The Lord used the moment to illustrate an important Truth to me.  He whispered to my heart…. “Wherever you go, I want you to leave traces of ME behind.”

I Want To Be A Wife Like That!

The other day I saw an interview with Mitt Romney. He was talking about his wife and how much he loved her. It quickly went through their long history together.  Mr. Romney said something like "People sometimes ask me what I would do, if I had time to do anything I wanted.  My answer is always the same,  I would spend every minute of it with my wife.  I love her, she's my counselor, friend, wife and companion....I just want to spend time with Ann."

After watching the interview, I found myself thinking “I want to be a wife like THAT.”

Welcome Summer!

   I don't remember exactly what year the shift happened, but there was a time when I loathed the last day of school.  Back when the thought of entertaining two bored kids all day seemed like an unachievable feat. But those days are gone!  Somehow the school years filled with art, spelling bees, and scraped knees has been replaced with endless homework, state mandated tests that threaten your child's future, and mean girls.

Titus too!

 "The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed." Titus 2:3-5

I know what your thinking..."I HAVE TO DO THAT TOO!" I also feel the pressure to be what God asks of me.  From that unbelievable Proverbs 31:10-31 woman, to the instruction in Ephesians 5:22-24 about respecting our husbands...Titus 2 gives us MORE to live up to. It can feel impossible, unachievable, even as if we are setting ourselves up to fail! Again.

But look closer at these verses and I hope you will see what I see... that these verses aren't so much talking about being a godly wife or mother...but it's instruction on  how to be a godly female FRIEND. And girls we ALL need those!  The most amazing thing about this passage in Titus 2 is that these couple of verses are setting believing women up for a support system.  Could it be that this instruction is what we all need in order to live up to the other stuff? 

HALLELUJAH....give me some help!

The Secret

This past winter my husband's Grandmother (Margaret Smith) passed away.  As expected, it had been an emotionaly difficult week.  But also expected, it was a wonderful homecoming of family.

I first met Shannon's grandparents (Nana and Grandaddy) when I  began dating Shannon, when I was 17. Him and his dad were living with them in Bullard at the time, so anytime I was at Shannon's house, it was actually his grandparents's peach farm in Bullard. In fact, I actually saw them more than his parents.     At the memorial service this weekend, Shannon's brother Shay spoke about how loving, and accepting Nana was.  I witnessed that first hand as an outsider, spending time with this family.  She seemed to immediately love me, like I was an extension of her Grandson.  I soon took to calling them by their grandparent family names "Nana & Grandaddy".  There was no other name that suited them.  At that early point in knowing them, they instanty grafted me into the family and they became my grandparents too.

There is another woman living in my house!

There is another women living in my house.  This "other" women  is younger, skinner .....and very familiar. She looks like me, dresses like me, smells like me, acts like me....she even thinks like me.  Sometimes I catch a glimpse of her around the house and I recognize her big toes and that cute little butt.  She wears my shoes, raids my closet, picks through my makeup, wears my perfume, and has recently began taking hot baths after dinner!

Pleasing Prayers?

 In the mornings on the way to school, the kids and I always pray for each other, for their school day, family, friends, etc. It occurred to me this morning that my prayers are often filled with prayers for blessings and protection. Along the lines of "Protect Hayden and Caraline today Lord, watch over Shannon today while he drives to Dallas, bring him home safely...Bless my day and help me get back home safely..." You know what I mean...