Shawn Michaels, Hornswoggle and a Prayer

In an effort to encourage a love of reading and to take Dr. Seuss’s advice in that “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” we let Jayden pick out a book at the library and he chose the book, “Heartbreak & Triumph The Shawn Michaels Story”. In case you are like me and don’t know who Shawn Michaels is, he is a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler. This autobiography is 340 pages in length and Jayden has been reading it for at least a month now. Let me tell you it is really deep! Deep stuff like, “I didn’t wrestle all the time” and “We had our match. I hit Kevin with the kick to win.” See what I mean? Deep, deep stuff! Darryl and I are suffering through reading it with him at bed time, mostly Darryl (my hero). I finally had enough of the ego so when I read and pray at night with Jayden we read something else for my sanity.

The beginning of the book is encouraging in that it says:

To Jesus Christ, the lord of my life.

Thank you, my king, for loving me and saving me.

All that I am, and all that I hope to become, is meaningless apart from you.

To Rebecca, my Proverbs 31 virtuous wife.

No one person has impacted my life more than you, my love. God chose you for me before he laid the foundation of the earth. I’ve loved you from the moment I first laid eyes on you. I promise to lead, provide, and protect you all the days of my life.

I am honored to be your “Tender Warrior”.

And to Cameron. The moment I held you, my life was forever changed.

The innocence of your words have done more than anyone’s to inspire me to become a man of Godly character. I’ve known no greater joy than the day I became your father.

And to Cheyenne, my “Sugar Britches.”

“It’s a girl!” My eyes filled with tears and my heart was stolen forever. You now lead Daddy around by the finger – a sign of things to come, I’m told. As you grow to find the Lord’s plan and purpose for your life, know in your heart that all you will ever have to do is reach up and Daddy’s hand will be there.

To the three of you, my family. You are my life.

You are my reason for being: all I have, all I have ever hoped to have, all I have ever wanted, and all I will ever need. To have you is to have everything.

The words “I love you” will never truly describe your worth to me.

Thank you for loving me as I am, and thank you for making me whole.

Amazing Grace, how sweet it is that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I’m found,

Was blind but now…now I see…

Well we are on page 279, with 61 pages left and we are waiting for that moment of transformation, because for 279 pages it has been all about Shawn Michaels, wrestling, tearing up hotel rooms, ladders and cages, titles and curtain calls. I certainly don’t mean to sound judgmental, which I am and God is dealing with me on this, but let’s say I’ve been disappointed thus far. Disappointed that there hasn’t been more about how Jesus found Shawn. How Shawn’s life has changed since being redeemed from the hand of the enemy. But there are still 61 pages left, we hope to hear how the remarkable power of God transformed the heart and life of Shawn Michael.

In case you were wondering what Shawn Michaels looked like as a baby, here is his baby picture.

There is always non-stop action happening in our front room.

So as we finished reading last night and we said our evening prayers, which by the way included being able to find a rare WWE “Hornswoggle” wrestling figurine. We had already checked out Toys R Us and Wal-Mart with no success. Then we stopped by Big Lots on a tip for some long sleeve undershirts for $5 each and guess what? The God of Heaven above heard and answered our prayers and the little Irish person “Hornswoggle” came out of hiding. I wished you could have seen Jayden’s face when he found him, knowing that God heard our prayers and answered them! For a moment I thought I heard the Irish theme song “Hes De Ma” playing in the background, wait no! It was Hallelujah! Jayden and I were praising God! Not so much over a simple little toy, because we could have purchased him online, but that God cares about the little things in our lives, that he hears our voice, chose to answer this simple prayer and thus increased our faith a little more.

Jayden and Hornswoggle, the talk of the neighborhood.

So now the ring is complete, well almost.

Jesus said, "One's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possess." (Luke 12:15) How I pray that we will be "content with such things as [we] have. For we are grateful and thankful that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

He is faithful. He is true to life. He is my Father. Abba, Father!

You Don't Scare Me, I have a Tween with a Bad School Photo!

School Picture Day! The fuss of what to wear and fixing of the hair! I should have known when she stomped out of my room with a loud grunt that she was not going to be happy with the pictures when they came back. I am not even sure why I elected to purchase the pictures when my niece Katy and I both have expensive cameras and can take pictures. The only reason I can think of is future ammunition for wedding slide shows!

Seriously though the picture is not all that bad, I must confess that I don’t really like the look of any school photos. They don’t capture the personality and they use the same background when I was in school.

See the Fly Away Strand of Hair? It could be hard to miss.

What to do with a tween who is upset over their school photo? Show her really, really bad school photos! I was hoping to help her escape current photo demise by seeing more extreme hair emergencies captured in really bad photos! After all her demise was only a small piece of hair out of place. It wasn’t that she had tin metal all over her teeth. While the really bad class photos on the internet made her chuckle, the picture is still bad (in her opinion) and it is going to be forever memorialized in print in the yearbook!

Too bad I can’t stick my fingers in the picture and finger those few strands where they should be or better yet Photoshop it and send the yearbook people the fixed photo. Well that’s what momma’s do, try to make things better. So I pointed out that she should be more concerned about the unibrow that she inherited from her daddy than a piece of hair out of place. I know I fashioning her individuality, but you have to know the humor in our family. The unibrow has always been a source of comic relief. With that one of her besties, Mica was over, doing her best to make her feel better about the picture and was able to fill Darya in about plucking and waxing eyebrows. So out come the tools! Bring on the tweezers or as Darya called them the pluckers!

Next thing I hear are squeals and shrieks, I may have thought someone was being tortured if it had not been followed by laughter. So what’s a momma to do? Grab the camera! Sure enough Darya was being the recipient of Mica’s Beauty Salon!

Torturing Begins

Off with the eyebrows!

Later I went in to Darya’s room and reminded her that she is beautiful and that while her hair is out of place in the picture, the people will remember her more for who she is on the inside. I am not sure I convinced her of this truth though.

Mom's Photography Shop

Capturing the personality, something momma can do!

But looks really are superficial. God doesn’t care about what we look like on the outside, but how we look on the inside.

The list and items are endless and always changing to be accepted in this culture. It’s all about if you have the right cut, color and style. You are not fashionable unless you have Toms on your feet. You have to wear skinny jeans, which means you have to be the right size. You have to drive the right car, live in the right neighborhood, have the right cell phone, etc…

The Truth is...

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Prov. 31:30

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 1 Pet. 3:3-4

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Psalm 35:4

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Romans 15:7

A Life of Complexity...Oh, how We've evolved!

Dr. Ron Carlson with Christian Ministries has been a guest speaker at our church this week. The first lecture was on Evolution vs. Creation. Ding. Ding. Let the match begin! Guess which one requires more faith?

If you guessed Creation you are wrong. Evolution takes more faith to believe that something complex can be created out of nothing, out of chaos. It takes more faith to believe that we have evolved from monkeys, especially when there are still monkeys. If we evolved from monkeys would not all the monkeys be gone or evolved? One example of the definition of evolution which is “upward progression from chaos to complexity” is an F5 tornado ripping through a junk yard and after it passes it leaves a 747 jet completely constructed! That is impossible, we know to have a completed 747 jet, you need engineers, builders, welders, etc…a plan. So, for me, it does require more faith to believe in evolution than it does in creation. I believe in a Creator. You see there is a missing link in evolution. Charles Darwin said himself in his book “On the Origin of Species” or the real title, (which I refuse to type), Darwin said that if transitional fossils (intermediate stages of evolution) could not be found, than his theory would be fatally flawed. Darwin knew what was required to prove his theory and he was honest enough to state it. To this day not one transitional fossil has been found. Sure there is evidence of microevolution, which is adaptation within a species, but macroevolution development of one species to another remains unfounded and will. So that leaves us with, “In the beginning God created…” Gen 1:1

Next Dr.

Carlson spoke in regards to the second law of Thermodynamics or Entropy, which is a basic scientific law observed that all energy and matter is generating downwards from complexity and order to chaos and disorder; from life to death. I think we all agree with this one. In Bible times people lived hundreds of years, now our life expectancy is only decades. I know that some say that entropy is not disorder, just as the definition of evolution has been “redefined” so has entropy. However, one thing that has never changed is the Word of God and one person which is Jesus Christ; He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). In thousands of years, no one has found any error in the Word, even though the Bible was written by mere men; they were inspired by the Spirit of God. What I find amazing is that there are 66 books all written over a period of 1,060 years by more than 40 individual authors, from different cultural backgrounds over the same subject and yet there are no errors, no discrepancies. Yet their words sound like they came from the same source. So even though 10 people today couldn’t write on one controversial subject and agree, God picked 40 different people to write the Bible—and it stands the test of time.

To me none of this is foolishness; I believe it all to be true! As I watched my friend Tammi’s Nana Memorial Video and saw the images of the simplicity of life decades ago, I thought wow, here it is! I found were the law of evolution is true! Call Discover Magazine, National Geographic, call the media, because I have discovered where the law of evolution is true and it is not the size of the finch’s beaks! Here is one place we have gone from simplicity, from nothing, from chaos to complexity and order…it is my scrapbook room! It is my house! It is my life!

When I grew up I didn’t have a scrapbook room, how simple is that? Seriously we had one TV in the front room, we had maybe 7 channels on the TV, none of which were high definition, we had one phone number with a phone attached to the wall, and we didn’t have computers, internet and certainly no mobile phones. Life was simple. We ate most all of our meals at home around a table. When we gave cards, we bought them finished from the store. Now everyone room has a TV, sometimes two with close to 1,000 channels, plus DVR or TiVo. Most homes have at least one computer if not two or more with wireless internet. Telephones no more need wires into the wall, you can carry them any where you want. In fact, you don’t even have to hold them talk, they have hands free devices! Dinner? Well it is rare that a family sits around a table at a specific time each day and eats a home cooked meal. It is often drive-through, take-out or ordering in that fill our tummies. Finally, cards are elaborate, made at home with embellishments, brads, ribbons, stamps and with a scent to boot! My how our lives have become complex! Oh how we have evolved! All this technology and one would think life would be simpler, but I beg to differ. I so long for the simple life of yester-years, but leave my scrapbook room alone! One day I plan on creating in there! :O)

"Saw this on an email: "A cell phone that elders can work"

Some may say that the second law of entropy and evolution doesn’t apply here, but it total relates in my mind! After all, since the fall of man, it is estimated that we only use about 3% of our brain, so excuse me; but my mind is used up for the day.

Restaurant Ramblings - Rut-Row Style!

Pops on Route 66

We had high hopes as we traveled north to Arcadia to check out Pops. We arrived and put our name in and were told the wait would be about 40 minutes. Typically restaurants tell you longer than what the actual wait time is, so that you will be happy when they get you in earlier. Well, ONE HOUR later, I inquired how much longer the wait would be. Our name was the second from the top of the list with about 15 names below us that had already been marked off and obviously seated. If we weren’t so hungry and with high hopes we probably would have just left. We were seated shortly after my inquiry. The hostess who led us to our seats did not say one word to us as she tossed our menus on the table, boy we felt welcomed. Soon the waitress came and she spoke! Thankfully. Since we had waited an hour we already knew what we wanted to order.

The drinks arrived with soda pop dripping all over on the outside and needed a serious wipe down. Then the waitress couldn’t count and did not give us enough straws and didn’t come back until she had the food, not sure why we ordered the “bottomless drinks”. The kids had chicken strips and cheeseburger with French fries, of which they said, tasted bad. Have you ever had something fried in old grease? Well that is how their food tasted and arrived cold. Darryl and I ordered Buffalo Burgers in honor of all things native and after all it is in our culture. Not sure were they found those buffaloes but they were not the best we’ve had, don’t forget we’ve been to reservations! During our meal we had to swing our arms around our food to keep the gnats away.

The best part of the entire trip was seeing the large pop bottle, the red round barn and the controversial Welcome to Arcadia sign. If you don’t live in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area you are probably unaware of the “worse nightmare big o sign” that has hit all the news channels. Basically a sign company has put a “big o sign” (40 foot metal sign) up next to the historic red round barn that says “Welcome to Arcadia” and the Arcadia Historical Society is fightin’ mad! Why there are even town hall meetings happen!

Just in case you miss the Big O Sign they give you directions, it is "east of the round barn".

In case you're wondering...the outhouse is for display only.

Overall it was a "Rut-Row" experience, in case you don't know what a "Rut-Row" means it is what Scooby-Doo says when things don't go as planned...Rut-Row. Our recommendation is just go for pictures and to try a new soda pop flavor, that is if you can choose just one out of the 500 flavors they have. In our opinion it is definitely just an Oklahoma Route 66 icon, but at least we can now say we’ve been there done that…but probably won’t do it again.

Darya and Hannah, not sure what the big deal is about the sign?

Stop the Insanity, Go Organic and Show Love!

Is it possible to love something, but you can’t do it? Sure it is! Look at American Idol and those people who love to sing, it is their life calling, but they can not carry a tune. That is me! Not that singing is my calling at all, but I love to sing songs to my Father, but the difference between those that try out for American Idol and me, are I KNOW I CAN’T sing! And if you have sat near me at church you know I can’t sing too! So I can identify with Garth! No, not Garth Brooks, but Garth the Wolf that can not howl in the new movie Alpha and Omega. Jayden and I had a date and went to see this movie today.

The movie was very cute. It is the ultimate road trip where two wolves (Humphrey & Kate) try to get home after being taken by park rangers and dumped thousands of miles away from their home. They are from different social classes, the Alpha’s who would be the elites and the Omega’s who are the lower end. Through their road trip adventure they discover despite their differences they have a love for one another and together they bring two rival packs together and they live in peace. Pastor just preached on this issue and entitled it “Confronting a Killer” out of James 2:1-13, that killer being the sin of partiality. How the enemy divides believers in many ways. With God there is no partiality, He shows no personal favoritism to no man (Galatians 2:6).

Partiality is a problem. It is a problem in the church and outside of the church. Showing partiality gives a conflicting picture of what it means to be a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. I have actually had this conversation with another believer in the church about myself and our family experiencing partiality in and outside of the church because of our race. This person basically told me that I was over reacting, that I possibly couldn’t discern that others were being prejudice towards us; but anyone who has experienced judgment, prejudice and partiality on a regular basis, you know identifying it is as easy as seeing the nose on your face. Judgment is so evident and real even Hollywood can recreate it without words, it is the looks, the avoiding manner, the exclusion.

However, as believers we are to look at people through the eyes of God and not at their economic status, the color of their skin, the clothes they do or don’t wear, the size of their body, the list goes on and on. As believers we are to live supernaturally because of who lives within our hearts. The truth is we’re all sin-infected, our best efforts, our righteousness the Bible says are like filthy rags in comparison to God (Isaiah 64:6). God is not impressed with mere appearances or keeping rules, but He is concerned with our hearts. His desire if for us to love one another fervently with a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22), we are even to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44), no wonder God says when we have fervent love for one another it covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). After all God is love (I John 4: 8) and he fervently loves us and by and through His Son Jesus Christ a multitude of sins were covered. There is nothing any of us can do, be or say that would warrant His love, but in His glorious grace and unfathomable mercy, He showered His love on me and calls me daughter!

Back to the movie Alpha and Omega, the camp is in disarray because they haven’t had meat! A vegetarian wolf, which I prefer to think of her as the optimistic wolf declares that caribou is over rated and she brings berries! She convinces others to join her and soon they are chanting, “Stop the Insanity, Go Organic!” I echo her in that we should “Stop the Insanity and Show Love!” Then Garth the Wolf, the wolf who can’t howl is often called “Barf”, I can relate to Garth in many ways. When he attempted to howl it was such a horrific noise that birds dropped dead out of the sky! I have a similar effect when I attempt to sing, people fall out. If they sit in front of me once, they won’t do it ever again! Yet there is hope! Garth eventually learns to sing because he sings from his heart. I sing from my heart too but I still sound like a sick cat, but I have the hope one day when I reach my eternal home that my voice will be healed, I will sing perfectly in pitch and tone, until then I will continue to make a joyful NOISE.

Would you like some buttery flavored, chocolate covered crackers with that whine?

Warning: This post is obnoxiously nothing but rambling. I recommend reading it when you are trying to go to sleep, it should work better than counting sheep.

Woke up fighting allergies this morning and ending it fighting knee pain. So I took a day of sick leave and stayed home and worked. Cleaned out my emails, organized my work folders, attended a Health Literacy Webinar and finished it off with a Diabetes Education Workgroup conference call. So there you go, a day of sick leave…working. I know that is crazy, but that is how I roll. I have learned from experience that even if you are off work you might as well work, because it will just pile up and you will have more work later, which means you will stay late working. The only good thing about taking a day of sick leave and working is that you get to “see” your family, you can wear comfy clothes and put your knees up!

After AWANAs Jayden declared his injustice of the evening and that is that the girl AWANA class gets snacks and the boys don’t! That is SOOOO unfair! Which means when he gets home he gets a snack! He chose mom made chocolate covered butter flavored crackers. I know I am a gourmet creator! After all I am created in the likeness of my Father and I think He did an amazing job at creating this planet we live on! Let me share with you something I read the other day in Psalms, that has stuck with me all week and I just love! It’s about the voice of God. His voice is powerful! It is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, divides the flames of fire, shakes the wilderness and even makes the deer give birth (29:3-9)! Isn’t that amazing?

Don't mind our new family members in the frames in the background. They all look the same don't they?

Back to those buttery flavored, chocolate covered crackers, I became slightly distracted by even a greater creator! Since I am a mom with compassion, I have promised snacks for his next AWANA class. I had big dreams of making something really cool that would go along with the Fall weather, like the cute little acorns made out of donut holes, with a little peanut butter spread on the top with sprinkled pieces of peanuts and a broken pretzel for it’s stem. Then after I promised snacks (the week after Dr. Carlson comes), I realized that I will be in the hospital recovery from my knee surgery. Gee, I’m good! The good thing is I didn’t tell him what kind of snack, so as long as I deliver something, I should be good. Aren’t you glad that our Father in Heaven never breaks promises? Never over commits Himself? Never has to back paddle? I am!

Forrest Gump and I have this in common...

God has given us legs that need braces. Today, I have had my ump-teen visit with another Orthopedic Doctor. Guess what he said the same thing all the other docs have said about my knee. I think they have a conspiracy. Their plot is I need a total knee replacement, but I’m awfully young to need one, but there are no other options, they must rebuild me. On Monday, November 1, I will become the bionic woman!

Dr. Kirkpatrick spend time with me today as any good doctor would telling me the same things the others have, in fact he said, “If God intended us to have metal knees he would have given us metal knees. This knee won’t be as good as the knees God makes, but it will make you feel at least 85% better.” I think I like this doctor! Not because he tells me I will be feeling better, but because He knows my Creator!!

So here is an x-ray of both my knees, obviously the one with the hardware in it is the one getting replaced. I’m not sure if you can see but the space between the joints is different sizes. He said I basically have no cartridge remaining, what I do have left is floating around, basically bone on bone, bone spurs, severe arthritis, baker’s cyst and a worn out ACL. Since I have had two ACL reconstructions and I have no cartilage left, they only option I have other than to live with the pain is a total knee replacement.

Check out the Dr. Kirkpatrick's "Ipad"!

I left the office with a ton of emotions running through me, but mainly fear. Fear of the surgery, pain, anesthesia, blood clots, infection, the list rambled on and on in my head. Then I got a Holy Ghost slap! I started turning it over to God in prayer, knowing that my God did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7). That perfect love cast out all fear and I am perfectly loved! Before I was born…every day of my life was recorded in your book (Psalm 139:16). So I casted all my cares on Him, because He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7), once I got my focus straightened out, the peace of God flooded over me.

So back to Forrest, my brace-brother, I remind myself what his momma told him, “If God intended everybody to be the same, and he’d have given us all braces on our legs.” So I choose to rejoice in all things, even this.

Pimples, Plastic Golf Clubs and Other Man Mysteries

It’s Monday and I am going to share about our jammed packed weekend.

I’ve made it no secret that I am wimp. Oh, there are things that I am brave about don’t count me completely off, but getting hit by paint balls by kamikaze teenagers, is not one of the things I want to brave! Let me try and capsulate this weekend, if I can.

It all started with our Fall Youth Conference, in which we learned Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, just joking (JJK), but we did learn about relationships. That horizontal (those around us) relationships always disappoints. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you, we’ve all been disappointment at some point in our lives by another human; but a vertical relationship, that is upward with God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ never disappoints. All that we long for, all that we need, we’ll find it in Him. He alone satisfies, He alone fills, He alone is worthy of our passion. He should be our ONE magnificent obsession. Everything we seek outside of Him only disappoints, it is only a cheap substitute, empty and powerless. Only He can bring us undeniable joy, but if you want to bring me a little happiness, I like Coke Zero with dark chocolate, please.

Then Saturday after the conference everyone else headed out to put those relationship building skills to use by seeking and finding, then assassinating via paintballs! Darya and I won the lottery and got to stay with Lily, our youth pastor’s two year old daughter. Those that went paintballing may have thought their day was more dangerous, dirty and tiring than mine, but let me testify that half a day of Elmocizinig, cleaning up Spaghetti-O’s and holding plastic golf clubs can wear you plum out! It was a success though. No meltdowns. No injuries. No talkbalk. Just Elmo, Spaghetti-O’s and Golf, what more could this girl want? By the way, I was in bed by 8:00 pm!

At the Park with Lily

Darryl and Jayden went off to Red Rock Canyon for the weekend to do “MAN things”. You know like pitch tents, use the great outdoors and kick the dirt around. The big draw of the event? A man sized bonfire…as opposed to a woman sized. Here’s something I’ve been wondering about. What do men talk about at a “Man Bonfire”? So I begin my research. The first attendee I asked said, “Jesus. Nothing but Jesus.” The next attendee I asked said, “What’s said in the canyon, stays in the canyon.” A Ha! See there lies! We all know that Jesus doesn’t stay in the canyon! I knew it, just like fish stories are man bonfire stories, verified through research. Jayden, my little guy, even rappelled off a 50ft cliff and I have no pictures! I heard they even saw Bigfoot!

Carson declares indeed, "It IS a MAN bonfire!"

I want to say I am so grateful for my husband and for his determination to honor the Lord no matter what or where. He took the time to prepare and pray for the time the men spend together and brought forth a devotion about “Camping Too Close to Sin” and led out a time of letting the men share a little bit about themselves. Each day as I witness my God fearing and honoring husband living a real life dedicated to Christ  ~ day in and day out I am thankful. Grateful. Humbled. And I am challenged. Yes, challenged to be as real. Challenged to take on Hebrews 12:1-2. I want that type of devotion, I want to put on my spiritual blinders and focus straight ahead to the finish line, I want to strip off any unnecessary spiritual fat that is weighing me down and run the race set before me. I don’t want to loose sight of the goal. I want to overcome the things of this world, seeking Him fully and confidently knowing that He is the only thing I need.

To end the weekend, Darya woke up with a big red pimple positioned perfectly on the center of her nose! What is a mother to do? Hide her? Plaster it with make up? No! Call the Elders to pray over her! Yes, that’s it! JJK, I did my best to encourage her! I told her that she was perfectly made and that if anyone said anything to let me know and I would take care of them! JJK, again. I told her to tell them that she is suffering for Jesus! After all Jesus was familiar with suffering, shouldn’t we be? The Bible teaches us in 1 Peter not to think it anything strange when we come up against fiery trials, as some strange thing has happened, but to rejoice (4:12). Rejoice in pimple? Yes, in pimples. It is part of the spiritual refining process. Pimples humble us don’t they? And of course I have to throw in a little of Hebrews 2:14 that Jesus shared in our humanity, so it is possible He had to deal with pimples, I know He dealt with mockery. He did it willingly. He suffered more than we could imagine. He endured the cross. Pain. Shame. And He did for the joy that was set before Him. Us. The Children of God. Great is His love for me that I am called a child of God. I am His daughter!

Anything Battered & Deep Fried Can't Be All That Bad, Huh?

What do you think about Frogs? It is no surprise to anyone who knows me that frogs scare me to death! In fact, just recently I had a full fledged nightmare, woke up screaming and heart racing as if I was being chased in some horror flick by the villain, when in fact it was a big mastiff dog lying on top of me with a frog in his mouth and the frog was touching my face! Wait, I just had to shake the chills off again! I know you are probably thinking I am a wimp. True, but I think we took care of that fact right off the bat with my blog title! But here is a large, massive, symmetrical dog that was used by Caesar to fight alongside British soldiers and even with human gladiators and I’m worried about a little frog? Yes, absolutely yes! Spiders? No problem, but frogs gross me out, they are nasty, slimy, and they jump! Not to mention they have a sticky tongue that flips in and out with great speed! I John says that fear involves torment (4:18) and believe me, I was being tormented by that mastiff with a frog in his mouth!

Now to really confuse you, I have eaten frog legs! Only once though and only because they were on a buffet, which means I really did not order them. Plus, I was doing my best to face my fears, actually it was good old “you ain’t an Okie until you’ve tried frog legs” peer pressure. At that moment I seriously thought about changing states, but I figured anything battered and deep fried couldn’t be all that bad. To this day, I can’t believe I even sunk my teeth into a frog! Ewww. Truthfully it wasn’t that bad it did taste a lot like chicken and I can wear that badge of accomplishment! So I thought it would be fun to share that experience with the kids over our fall break.

Upon announcement that their dad and I were taking them to The Hungry Frog Restaurant for them to try frog legs, they begin to bend and twist in ways I didn’t know they could! For a moment I thought I might be able to take them to Vegas to star in a show! Jayden announced, “Mom, you are confusing me!” I asked, “Why?” He boldly stated, “Because you hate frogs!” I told him, “but these frogs are okay, because they were a special breed and fed only the best of flies and insects and therefore very tasty! Just for the record, I don’t see the difference between a frog and a toad; to me they are all basically the same creature.

It was a lot of fun! No, we didn’t make them eat real frog legs, but it was fun watching them think they were going to! They opted for the cow instead! In my research to keep my enemies closer I learned that some frogs emit toxins that can be used as natural painkillers and others have chemicals that have shown promise in fighting HIV! I think these frogs should be rounded up and protected somewhere, like a big green frog farm. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see medical science make some sort of breakthrough in fighting disease using frogs! If these frogs show promise; I say – breed them and let them live, but let them live far, far away from me.

I am so thankful that there is nothing too silly or crazy, that I can not cover in prayer. After all Exodus 8:8 says, “Entreat the Lord that He may take away the frogs from me”. I know it is crazy, that I fear frogs, when I serve the God who created them! After all, God does not give me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Tim 1:7) It also says there is no fear in love, that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18) and guess what? I am perfectly loved by my Father above, who in my weaknesses He is strong. The only FROG I like other than Kermit is the one I seen in Mardel’s that said “Fully Rely On God”…I think I will do that!

My computer has a grudge and I’m okay with that!

Today, I enjoyed the day off of work. I had great plans to get things done, top of my list get this blog up and going. That shouldn’t be too difficult of a task especially when you have a friend like Jordan Lewis. Who has her own beautiful blog, but today was a test. Not a blogging test, but a surprise test! Don’t you love those? Surprise! A test!! It was a test in contentment. I had beautifully designed and created a blog banner, picked out a background and arrived at Jordan’s place with coffee in hand, ready to bring it all together in one swooshing movement, kind of like the Nike swoosh…just do it! Not only did it not swiftly come together, but the blog background is still mocking me today.

Instead, we spend some sweet, sweet time together in prayer. Praying for needs of real people going through real life struggles. Praying to be useable instruments for God’s use and His glory. Praying for hearts to be encouraged this weekend. Praying…praying...praying, we prayed for many, many things all in the midst of the Disney channel playing softly in the background and a two year old with needs. Isn’t that amazing? It was to me! Being a mom of prayer takes exceptional focusing skills. Well let’s face it, being a mom takes skill!

After prayer, we discovered my computer has a grudge against me. Seriously, it does not want to allow my background to flow freely to the top of the page, for some reason, probably because it knows it bugs me, it decides the background should start about 1/3 of the way down and not at the top. So remember the test? Could I be content with a messed up looking blog or was I going to go to High Hill and back to fix it? Well, if you know me, I went to High Hill…but I didn’t fix it. Go ahead and laugh, I have. After all laughter is good medicine, no Forrest Gump did not say that it comes from the Living Word…”A merry heart does good, like medicine” (Proverbs 17:22)

Gee-whiz, when will I learn that it is not about perfection, but about direction? Well, here I go again, count me failed in the contentment test today, because I probably sat there a good two hours trying this and trying that to make that stinkin’ background begin at the top and not in the middle of the page. Jordan was smart, she started on something with purpose, with a final outcome and that was climbing Mt. Clothesemore. I finally quit focusing on the imperfection of my blog background and accepted the fact it is a lot like me, imperfect and it is going to be okay. Maybe one day God will send me an HTML Angel to help fix it, until then it shall remain and I will move forward blogging imperfectly. Knowing that it isn’t about perfection, but direction; afterall, it is functional and I did finally get some sweet time with my sister Jordan!