I heard talk show hosts on the radio ask each other, “what fantastic thing are you expecting in 2023?”
Instantly, my mind says…
(Delayed Publish: Written January 3, 2023)
What Fantastic Thing Are You Expecting In 2023?
It’s the start of a new year!
I heard talk show hosts on the radio ask each other, “what fantastic thing are you expecting in 2023?”
Instantly, my mind says, “obtaining property we can build our home on.”
Other things follow quickly: An exciting competition season for my two gymnasts (their first meet is Jan 13!), Christina’s graduation at the end of the year with her Bachelor’s from Embry, an edifying college year for Becky at PCC, Kimberly conquering her fear of tests, Jaquline turning 13 and getting her first debit card, Lucas learning to read, having chickens again, growing our own food again, getting a cover made for and publishing my CheyneAnne story, getting illustrations for the childrens’ books I’ve written… my mind just kept going with things I consider fantastic and am super excited for.
My prayer is that this year is one of spiritual growth for my children as we make fun memories.
I want my focus to be eternal rather than temporal.
I completed Kimberly’s journal just before Christmas and gave it to her. I hope that little book is full of treasures for her. I pray over each page I write that God will direct my mind and hands to pen just what will be important or reaching for the heart of the daughter I’m writing the journal for.
I am expecting miracles in our everyday lives. God always gives them. Fresh breath and lungs that work. Beautiful painted sunrises and sunsets. Have you ever thought of how much a miracle it is that we can see? I’m overwhelmed by the everyday miracles that grace our lives.
What fantastic thing am I expecting? Life. Full, abundant life as God has blessed us with! Love. Family. Enjoyable times. Memorable Moments. A careful listening heart with which to catch the amazing wonder of these miracles and enjoy them as they happen.
I’m praying for a heart of gratitude more than ever before. I plan to focus on being grateful. That should totally help my perspective!
WOW! Just wow, personal study and crazy writer’s brain thoughts on a recent Sunday School lesson!
Armor of God
August 31, 2022 (Timewarp from August 8, 2022)
At Sunday School yesterday, the study was on the Armor of God (Ephesians 6, if you want to check it out). When I was ten (approximate age of my class), I loved studying different cultures, their people, ways of life, weapons, costumes, you name it. This armor of God passage clicked for me because I had just been reading of how the armor of the Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, and Egyptians had invaded or defended and defeated greater numbers due to their armor – either a superior weapon, superior body armor, superior tools (like chariots), superior tactics (like phalanx).
It was pretty easy to get the first part; our enemies aren’t other people walking around even though we’re tricked into thinking so and shove all our energy into being mad instead of focusing on the real enemy. It was the rest about all the cool armor that glowed to life with my recent understanding:
With all your armor on, you will stand strong; only with your armor (through Jesus), will you stand.
(The Bible repeats this for emphasis!) Super neat! Only with this armor (all of it requires Jesus, like He’s the master Creator who designed all this stuff in the first place, you know!) can you stand tall in victory!
Having your loins girt about with truth…
(My thoughts, again) Having is one of those multi-tense verbs in Greek, meaning have, having, and has had, aka always having or continually having. Girt = girded, or strapped around. In the body armor symbolism, being “girt about” or “girded” was having a belt/sash/rope tied tightly around your clothing to keep it in place and as a holder for weapons. Most sheathes were looped or tied onto the belt. The truth is the Word of God. (My ten-year-old brain already got this from Sleeping Beauty as the Sword of Truth is the Word of God – the voice of Light with the power to defeat darkness.)
(Still my thoughts) This translates to: continually having the Word of God in your mind.
…and having the breastplate of righteousness…
(My Thoughts) Same sentence, so this is still in the cool multi-tense of Greek. A breastplate was a thick piece of padded armor covering the front and back – most types connected at the top of the shoulders, and covered both the front and back, sometimes the front was more heavily padded. The strongest of these deflected arrows! All of them lessened the impact of bodily attacks. The purpose is to protect vital organs, like the heart, lungs, stomach, etc.
…and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace…
(My thoughts again – remember, same sentence, same tense) Wow! The preparation of the gospel of peace is like when John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus! It is the telling of everyone without regard to our own life and safety! It is the understanding that the eternal is the most real and that this life is temporal; a vapor, the Bible says! “Shod” is an old word that means “covering the feet.” Our most common use today is when we say a horse is “shod” – his feet are protected! My feet are being protected so I can share the gospel to prepare others to come to love Jesus as I do!
…above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked.
(thoughts…) Oh my! This one! Just wow! First off: this is “above all” so primary! Our defense is primary (of course, so we can continue to be effective, a wounded soldier isn’t effective). Then: fiery darts can be translated to arrows, flaming arrows, projectile, etc. “Fiery darts” in the Roman era when Paul is writing were the most devastating weapons because they were usually arrows or spears with the ends coated in a pitch/tar mixture that was lit before tossing or shooting and did its job effectively by sticking into the target, spreading, and burning. Quench means “to put out.” Basically, this shield can smother any fiery dart and since elsewhere the Bible warns of the devil throwing “darts” at us, it means everything the devil could throw at us is extinguished! Translated in my brain I saw the shield of virtue (yes, I’m reverting to my ten-year-old brain again) that the evil dragon breathes fire on and not even the heat burns his hand!
…and take the helmet of salvation…
(again) Helmets were to protect the head and later, the neck, one of the most vulnerable points. I think of the helmet protecting the brain; keeping fiery darts from our minds – the place most unseen attacks start for me. Salvation is the only way. Jesus is our salvation so He is the only way. Putting on the helmet of salvation puts us under Jesus and therefore our mind is protected!
…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
(my crazy thoughts again!) Finally! A weapon! The sword of the spirit is the Word of God. That can’t be more plainly spelled out, can it? The only weapon we wield that can do any damage is the Word of God! Isn’t that cool? Jesus used scripture to combat the devil when He was being tempted in the wilderness, when the Pharisees tried to trick Him, in answering His disciples, and anytime someone questioned something He did (you know, like healing on the Sabbath). If that sword is the one Jesus chose to use, we should follow His example!
…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching with all perseverance and supplication for the saints.
Challenge accepted! (My thoughts again) Anyway, that translates to always having communication with Jesus and (prayer = talking, communicating) and asking everything (supplication = like begging or pleading) in the Spirit watching out with perseverance (perseverance = standing strong) and pleading or asking for every other brother (saints = followers of Jesus). So I took this / take this as a challenge from Jesus – He just told us this armor was so we can stand strong! Remember, “In this world, we will have trouble” but He has already overcome the world! Putting on all of His armor, which is tried and true, tested already for us, will enable us to stand strong and exterminate the attacks of the enemy!
This passage study is a little glimpse into my crazy writer’s brain that connects everything from cartoons to real life to old culture study to word origin and entomology. I use all of these things to analyze and interpret literature – including the Bible! When someone sends us a letter, we read it in his voice, so when I read the Bible, I read it as a letter from Jesus. The only way I know His voice is by reading and using the miracle of intelligence He gave us; I analyze and step into the time then and translate it to now. Crazy, I know, but still super cool!
Our weapons are a sweet total covering of armor for defense, a shield of ultimate defense (nothing gets through it!), and the best weapon ever made!
Learning the focus is on me: Dating Decisions Part 2
September 18, 2020
Dating Decisions – Part 2
My first realization when I started thinking logically about dating came from a series of Christian youth books by Robin Jones Gunn – even “Christian” dating was messy!
I don’t like messy anything. I like clean houses. I like clean living. I like open honest relationships. I hated how, even with people the protagonist wanted to have life-long relationships with, she lied! Or at the least bent the truth! In the books, she always ended up trying to correct those lies and asking for forgiveness, etc. because it was a Christian book trying to teach about doing life as a Christian in our carnal world (and Robin did a great job). I discovered that my idea of “date” was totally 1950s (or maybe even 1800s) and not relevant to the world I really lived in. I found Christian youth of my time (late 1990s) were trying to reinvent what they called “dating” by calling it “courtship.”
I wanted to be best friends. I wanted to get married to a man who was happy doing Pooh Bear’s “nothing” with me and enjoying it. I wanted someone who I was comfortable with. When I looked up the word “intimate” in my ancient dictionary, it said “to know and understand the deepest parts of the soul.” I wanted someone with whom I could be intimate.
The second big decision I made came about at a Christian summer camp where I was a junior counselor. First, a little backstory:
I started seriously working on myself as a preteen. I wanted to be a better sister. The song, “I Want to be Just Like You” by Philips, Craig, & Dean, was my inspiration. I cried so much when I first heard it because I realized my baby sisters and brothers looked up to me. I was actually walking my sleepy 1-year-old sister to get her to bed one night with WKCL on the radio. My mind twisted the lyrics so the he and him was they and them. “I want to be a holy example for their innocent eyes to see…” etc. I cried because I was not a “living Bible” in any sense and I wanted to be that positive role model. When baby Mary was born, I was years into the process of allowing God to change me into a better sister (which later helped me be a better mom).
I would get frustrated almost every time we moved with the hypocrisy and boys I met in youth groups who actively talked about things that shouldn’t be. I got more sexual garbage tossed my way from them than from male coworkers, my Daddy’s younger business associates who thought I was older, and the general guys I met in the feed store! I would approach the various youth leaders (we moved very often and I was always the new kid until I moved a few months later) to address the situation because I did not feel comfortable smacking truth at the various boys. When I started getting mostly, “they are just boys” reactions or laughter or “that’s actually a compliment” (he had tried to touch inappropriately and I moved away and instead he made comments I had to look up the meanings of later), I got seriously frustrated. I would throw my hands up mentally to God and say, “are there seriously any boys actually chasing after You in my generation?” Looking back, I think God just smiled, shook His head at my silly teenage prayers, and would allow me to read an awesome story or see or hear some young man acting out God’s love. It was usually right as we moved away, but always this little drop of encouragement that made me feel like I was not alone in my trying to be a Jesus-following-teenager.
*Side Note* (My girls are showing up to be way bolder than I was – Thank you, Jesus! – and they actually drop truth bombs when someone is doing or saying something inappropriate. That I think is awesome because it is a far better testimony than just stepping away and handing it off to an uncaring third party.)
BUT: my focus regarding dating was still carnal. I was looking at them. I was trying to find “the perfect guy” rather than focus on myself. Sure, I was working on being a better me with regard to siblings, parents, and general truth and study, but I had yet to apply it to all areas of my life. In our culture, we are constantly hit with “finding our soulmate” or “finding the one.” We are focusing on us finding a match. If we are leaving eternal salvation up to God, why not leave matchmaking up to God?
Fast forward to summer camp and I’m 16. Part of being a junior counselor was the requirement to attend 5am to 7am workshops (aka sermons/lectures/Bible studies). I’m listening to one of the camp counselors talk about how he and his wife didn’t start out God’s way and it was messy. His entire program was on not dating someone who wasn’t on equal spiritual footing (aka, DO NOT be unequally yoked to a nonbeliever). Of course, he and his wife ended their story as Christians working to rebuild and repair their marriage and family – but his eyes when he spoke of the wasted years fighting and trying to control each other and using their kids as weapons against each other and divorce and coming back together… those eyes solidified what became my second solid dating decision. I had already written it years before in a community youth group workshop to “list qualities you want in your future spouse,” but now it was not just a “what I want” it was a deal-maker or deal-breaker:
My husband will be a godly man who loves Jesus with all his heart.
And my third decision came at the same time:
I will present myself honestly in all my relationships and make sure any potential date knows I love Jesus and serve Him with my whole heart.
Ever feel overwhelemed by the busyness of life… especially around Christmas?
December
14, 2019
Choosing
to Rest
The busyness of life can overwhelm
us if we allow it.
Especially when your heart is
troubled.
Anybody relate?
This is the first Christmas season where all the kids have been shopping and I haven’t gone with any of them. My Daddy passed away one year ago the tenth. My little tradition of carefully penning the newest addition’s name in glitter glue on a silly felt stocking and adding it to our collection to hang was done by one the of girls this year. I almost found myself feeling unimportant and stressing out because I wanted to be there…
I’m standing on the floor beam and use my standard line when my gym girls are racing. On beam that means they end up wobbling and the exercise doesn’t look pretty when you are bouncing and wobbling. “…don’t race. If you feel wobbly…” I demonstrate so they will laugh and pay attention, doing one passé step and wobbling as I come down “…pause…” I stop with both feet firmly planted “…take a breath to steady you…” I take a deep breath “…and now go on.” I start doing the steps again without the wobble.
This works great for my excited littles at gym. Sometimes they race because they want to do more and more and more, but really they just need to focus on the task at hand. They need to control the landing of their foot on the beam so the direction is perfect and they land with confidence.
Don’t race. That one hit me; don’t we all race when we
feel wobbly (overwhelmed)?
Pause. REST IN JESUS!
Both feet firmly planted. In the Word – while I’m pausing, I’m resetting by “planting my feet firmly” in the Word.
Take a deep breath. Worship and pray.
Then you can go on without the
wobble. (Worry, feeling of drowning,
feeling of uselessness, etc)
Now we take our life and everything
whirling around us one step at a time, focusing on each day as it exists, allowing
God to control our steps, and we will walk with confidence!
Oversimplified? Maybe, but that mental picture that God gave
me as I was coaching certainly is helping me rest and enjoy this season instead
of feel “wobbly” with worry and feeling useless!
Thank you, Jesus for planting cool
visions in my head from sometimes the simplest of things… God uses the simple
to confound the wise!
I watched my little girl exude confidence for the first time in public. At our gymnastics show on Mother’s Day, my Jaquline performed her practiced routine with a cloud of confidence I’ve never seen in her before. She LOVES gymnastics. She feels beautiful and strong doing her routines. She stood up on the mat and told everyone she wants to be an Olympic Gymnast.
Wow.
So much for “maybe they’ll have fun”
– my thoughts when I was blessed to get them into classes.
For my family, discovering the sport of gymnastics has improved and amazed us. In brief, I answered an ad which I thought was part-time clerk help at a gymnastics facility; nope, was a coaching job and I am so totally in amazement that I get to work a dream job in a sport I always wanted to do but my family was unable to afford. From there, my girls (less Christina, who laughed and said “CAP is enough for me.” – oh, but she’s now a coach) joined classes. Kimberly came with strength and pushes to work her way up to the amazing skills she watches the team girls do. Becky and Jaquline had no interest in fitness before gymnastics but now are working out with determination. Jillian and Lucas have fun.
Jaquline’s new semester includes her
gymnastics classes, reading everything she loves (She graduated up from the Magic Treehouse books to A Little Princess,
The Secret Garden, and The Princess and the Swans the last couple of months!),
practicing gymnastics outside (no jumps
or flips – that’s mom’s rule, but I watch her do her floor routine from the
show over and over and over…), learning nutrition (what builds muscle? I need x
grams of protein before workout), and playing word games with her super
increasing vocabulary! Louis says he’ll
glance at the table after breakfast and everyone is sitting around doing work
except Jaquline. He’ll go looking and
she’s curled up in her bed with some fat book in front of her so he leaves her
until she comes out. She’s sometimes not
wanting to do regular schoolwork (it
seems every child goes through at least one “I don’t want to do school” phase),
but we aren’t worried because right now is a nutrition, fitness, grammar,
literature, and vocabulary focus semester.
A few more books in that level and she’ll either be scanning the library
for more like them or moving up a notch! (And
she thinks she’s “not doing schoolwork” by reading unabridged classics!)
Sometimes we all need a “break” from the ordinary (yes, mom and dad still ask, “did you finish your math, history, and science?”) and our focus shifts to what we find fun. Jaquline is doing math she doesn’t realize while planning her savings goals. She’s stepping into real history and culture with “Little Women” and “A Little Princess” (1860 – 1880 United States and 1800s English Empire, respectively). She’s learning science by watching Becky and Kimberly’s experiments, reading her nutrition books. She’s doing practical learning by watching how Dad prepares food and analyzing the nutrition in her meals (plus, math and science here too).
Although her semester finds her
trying to be stubborn and “skip regular lessons” this time around, we know
she’s still learning. God is working on
her heart now too – “Heidi” is a story of forgiveness, redemption, and return
to reliance on God. (Just one example…I LOVE the unabridged versions of
classics.)
Don’t be discouraged, parents! Even if they are “refusing” to learn, they
are learning anyway! Find something they
love that is natural learning and encourage that! They’ve got plenty more years to get
“lessons” on track… build relationship and understanding.
This doesn’t mean we as parents
aren’t constantly reminding her to “finish her math” or whatever lessons, it’s
just that we don’t fight over it! Life
has taught us that she will come back to “formal lessons” soon. We had a teen freak and slam forward in her
algebra once her sister below her was “catching up” – Jaquline did the same last
year when Jillian “graduated” into the same math book Jaquline was using. Our philosophy is never to alter one person’s
progress because of another’s lack; instead we encourage self-growth. Thankfully, human nature among our children
includes a fierce competitive spirit!
They will learn. They will
grow. Sometimes, though, a sidetrack on
a different path is needed. (Don’t you ever feel that way as an adult? –
I do!)
A birth story of our little angel (and a slideshow of proud siblings & family!)
February 22, 2019
The Story of Baby Thea
If you’ve been following my blog, you know I was growing my seventh little angel.
Today, I get to write the story of her arrival!
On February 19th, a beautiful Tuesday morning, my day started normally. During my 32 minute drive to work, the Baby started thinking there was not enough room and my body did the stretching contractions (Braxton-Hicks) that is very normal for me in the last month or two before birth. I didn’t think much of it, really. After my boss left for appointments, one of my office companions, Lily, a beautiful brown and white pittie belonging to my boss, started laying at my feet and wouldn’t let me go anywhere without her! This was a bit of a warning to me because Sheba (my Aussie mix) always does this to me when I’m in active labor. I left at one (normal time) to get to Christina and then my midwife appointment.
Christina had been babysitting, finished some errands at the college so she would be ready for the summer semester, caught the bus to 207 (the road I take into town), and was waiting for me. Along the way, my midwife texted to reschedule the appointment to Thursday and I laughed during my voice-text because I was very tired and that worked great for me. I added, “or when Baby is ready,” as a joke because my babies have all come on or after the due date. Everyone had been rooting for a February birth since the official “due date” was February 24th, and except for Lucas, my wee ones were between 9 and 13 days “overdue” so I usually ignored the due date and just gave a general month (in this case, I’d been saying March).
I got Christina, teased her about driving (she’s recently received her learner’s permit), and we headed home. Sheba was acting odd, I was starving; Louis had made lasagna Monday so I ate a huge plate and took a short nap.
When I got to gym with Becky (her class is on Tuesday, the others are all Wednesday), the contractions were still there, but, like I said, that is normal for me. It had been happening off and on already for about a week and a half, so I just went about work because they were easy to ignore. Some friends and I chatted about babies as I was leaving, and someone said, “you know about your body by now, right?” I laughed, “each is different, but I’m still thinking March.”
Wow, was I wrong.
As Becky texted Christina and Louis to tell them we were off & headed to pick up Christina at CAP, Becky said, “Mom, I can’t drive us home, but if the baby keeps contracting like that, maybe Christina can.”
We laughed. Part of the driving restrictions on a learner’s permit forbid night driving for the first few months; but we always teased Christina that she’d have to drive home in the dark if I was in labor.
Home, I was starved, but my belly felt full after four strawberries. I took a shower and crashed. I kept waking up every couple hours, but I’m a light sleeper so that’s also normal. Each time, though, I noticed contractions. I’d check my phone just to see what time it was. Midnight. 1:40. 2:30. 3:50. At almost 4, I realized I was sweating and I decided to wait for fifteen minutes (so the water softener cycle was finished) and take a shower. The next glance at my watch showed 4:19. I took a shower and the first contraction after the water hit was very strong. I felt movement inside me. “Wow, you sure you’re ready?” I asked. I was sure that was just a fluke and usually the warm water calms contractions down. When the next two made my legs feel like jelly, I got out of the shower and crawled back into bed. The phone said 4:35. I wasn’t about to wake anyone or call Misti for three oddly strong contractions.
I tried to sleep. I had about two hours before I had to get ready for work.
At somewhere before 6am, I tried getting ready for work. I had to stop and breathe through contractions that were easy to time and I felt the baby moving slowly down inside of me. I was about to wake Louis but ended up stretching through a contraction. We have a mind link, I think. Louis woke up as I was stretching. He goes into mega cleaning and question mode. This is his serious mode. He has been through it enough to know we were going to have a baby this morning – or at least today. He told me to call Misti, he woke the kids up to help clean (normally, we clean before bed, but they had been in a non-cleaning mood the previous night), and directed the house with efficiency. I was restless, so kept walking around in between. Christina and Becky didn’t want to get out of bed. I went into the barracks to find out why not.
“Mom! You can’t have the baby in here!” Christina shrieked, covering her head.
“So, get up please and help Daddy with cleaning. Y’all should have done that last night. Once you finish, you can go back to bed, but he’s really stressing about the house and people coming so please help.”
No answer. I could feel another contraction creeping up. “Okay, you have about 20 seconds before I get another contraction and…”
Christina bolted, “MOM! I’m up! I’ll help Dad! GET CONTRACTIONS OUT OF MY ROOM!”
Becky was up too. Kimberly was definitely awake. Mission accomplished. I went back to the kitchen table. My “leave” alarm reminded me to text or call my boss. 6am though, I figured I should just text – plus I didn’t want to talk to anyone at the moment.
Misti showed up (can’t remember if the house was clean, but based on the voices and giggling and a movie being on, I’d guess it was straightened). Mom was on the way, she told us she had to be at one of my brother’s promotions at 8am. The girls had turned on “The Two Towers” and as Louis walked by during the Uruk-hai production scene and he ordered, “Turn that off, you can see a real birth soon enough.” I can’t remember if the result was “Wild Kratts” or “Dumbo” but there was something far less messy on the tv a minute later. (I did hear one of the teenagers or preteens quip, “Mom will sound like an orc.” Louis and I laughed. We’re nerds.)
By 8:30, I was immune to the world. I heard Misti’s voice, smelled Louis (I was leaning on him), and faintly heard background voices. I was focused on this job.
8:42am and our little one came into the world, veiled. Misti took the bag off and the Baby screamed to test the limit of her lungs! (We didn’t know Baby was a “she” just yet!) Baby opened her eyes fully and stared up at me. Then she screamed to rattle the roof again. The dogs were barking. We discovered our Baby was Thea!
Welcome to our crazy world, Theadora Taliesyn Tart. You are loved and cherished!
Theadora (after her great-grandfather Melvin Theodore Pearson) means “gifted by God” and Taliesyn (feminine form of your grandfather’s favorite character from a Celtic legend) means, “one with the shining brow, one who sings wisdom.” And Daddy chose the nickname “Thea” because he likes it. (Your uncle texted that he’d call you “3T” – yes, Daddy searched for two “T” names we both liked!) I kept both names the same length, since that’s what we’ve done – all of the children’s names have the same number of letters in the first name and middle name. Theadora 8 letters, Taliesyn 8 letters – told you we are nerds.
Mom (Grandma Joanne in the pictures) came back with a shower of baby girl goodies! (And, yes, this is why she’s in such cute clothes once we managed to get them on her!)
Theadora, I pray you always feel the love of your family as you wiggle your way up to adulthood. I pray you feel the warmth and see the light of God’s love reflected in the faces of your sisters and brother, mother and father, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. We have accepted the honor of being your guides to lead you to Jesus, to raise you in love, and to give you room to find, develop, and follow the passion of life God has rooted within you. You are a daughter of God, a precious gift to us, and chosen to bring light through your smile.
Becky said I can’t post a baby story without her pictures! So here is a little slideshow:
Lucas kept trying to “pet” and “kiss” Baby Thea
Christina & Thea (oldest & youngest)
Lucas said “you are my love, Baby Thea!”
Grandma Joanne & Thea
Christina and Becky are already vying for who gets the baby
When you can’t fix it, it needs a “proper burial” – for electronics… but maybe for more than that.
November 8, 2018
Proper Burial
Rebeccah likes to tinker with stuff. She always has. Most of the time, she can fix electronics when we think they are broken.
If it is headed for the trash, she always gives it at least one try (and she likes seeing the “guts” of the item too).
Today it was the playstation 2 unit (for the 5th time). We bought it used in the first place and it had a short from day one. Rebeccah has fiddled with it four times successfully, but this morning, all of her efforts led to naught. She had it completely apart. Every breadboard, wire, connection, screw, etc. was separated in her ordered little piles. (Conclusion was “I have no clue what’s wrong with this thing!”)
So I’m trying to work on “Fibbing Fishermen” (#5, it will be out soon) in the Devonians series when I hear Kimberly show up:
Kimberly: “Becky, what are you doing?”
Rebeccah: “Putting it back together.”
Kimberly: “I thought it was really garbage this time?”
Rebeccah: “Yes, but when something dies, we should at least bury it in a proper casket.”
…
Seriously? For me, this was just apropos timing. We’ve closed a business, I’ve started a totally unexpected but awesome job, life is shifting into a strange limbo for us right now, and every time we turn around it appears something else is stealing something of value from us.
Bury it. Wrap it and every part of it back in the casket and hide it from sight. That so made me laugh.
Perhaps that’s what God wants us to do with these remaining bits of the past; bury them completely. Hide them away so we are fully open to what God has planned next!
For me, right now, it’s pretty awesome: my job is teaching children (I love this!) and I get to expose each of y’all to something I’ve always wanted to do (gymnastics) as a perk! Granted, we can’t live on this income alone; but it is something I can do very well. I’ve felt a peace about our life right now despite the fact that our insurance is due in 8 days and we are $1350 short, I can’t focus on that. All I can do it do my best and let God take care of the rest.
God will provide a way.
***NOTE*** You know what’s really funny? After Rebeccah put that Playstation 2 console back together for its “proper burial,” it now works. No short, no sticking CD tray, no dying. She and Lucas have been playing football for almost an hour now and no issues. Even though she couldn’t find the problem, just resetting everything back the way it was supposed to be fixed the problem. (It is almost time to go to work so, I’ll think about that more later!)
Energy resonates in the clear skies of the seasons changing to autumn.
October 31, 2018
Electric Season
It’s officially autumn.
To me, it never seems like autumn until the sky goes that gorgeous “sky blue,” gentle cooler breezes tousle our hair, and there is a crisp energizing feel in the air.
During these days, I remember the exhilaration I felt as a child when they first approached.
Our first “autumn” day we’d race outside, full of a new form of energy that totally required an outdoor escape. If there was a swingset in the yard, (sometimes just a rope with a stick at the bottom) we were trying to touch the sky with our feet! On our bikes, (we called them horses, since we loved horses but never had a real one) we would ride round and round the house, singing Sunday School songs at the top of our lungs. If I ever had to describe the feeling in one word, it would be “freedom.”
Today the gorgeous electric blue sky makes me think about how God arranges things in seasons in our lives. Sometimes, when a new season comes, it brings the exhilaration of freedom. I’ve felt it before and not understood why.
Life seems to say, “you are trapped more than before, why are you happy?”
But my heart answers with a song called “Happy” because one verse basically says: bring it on, I’m happy and nothing can change that!
I imagine myself telling life that sometimes.
Because I have my root of happiness in Jesus, His joy is my strength, and even if life wants to throw stuff at me and claim I’m worse off in this new season than I was before (usually it’s that I can’t see the positive just yet), I know God has me in His hands – and I choose to be filled with that freedom exhilaration that comes with this new season!
Whatever God has for us, I sense the excitement, and I choose to focus on joy! Let this next season begin!
