Liberty...Or Death

We have all learned in history class about Patrick Henry's stirring words, "Give me liberty or give me death," that propelled Virginia into the Revolutionary War. What you may not know is that Patrick Henry was a "nobody" just like you and me. He was an unsuccessful farmer and shopkeeper as well as a self-taught lawyer. But on March 23, 1775, he rose to address the Virginia legislative convention and gave a speech that inspired many in Virginia to fight for independence against the British oppression. Today, I would like to include the entire text of that speech. You see, the final line is not the only inspirational part of this speech.

Mr. President, it is natural to Man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past , I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation, the last arguments to which kings resort.

Sir, we have done everything that could be done to aver the storm which is coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending- if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon unto the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed with the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which is our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone, There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friend to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest, There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable- and let it come! I repeat, sir, let it come!

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, "Peace! Peace!"- but there is not peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

How soon we forget the lessons of 9/11/2001. Patrick Henry's historic speech is as relevant today as it was in 1775.

I Will Fight to the Death

Voltaire said, "I do not agree with a word you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it".

I have just returned from the National Convention of the Disabled American Veterans. I must admit that up until my husband became Commander of our local unit, all I knew was that the DAV truck would come and pick up stuff I didn't want and then sell it in a store in Memphis. But since then and since the convention, I have come to appreciate more what it means to be a veteran.

You see, I spent a week with men and women for whom the war never ended. They live minus limbs, with diabetes and heart failure, COPD, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, every single day since they were shipped home. And yet, to the man/woman, they were proud of their service to their country and glad to be alive. I am still in awe of these men and women who fought for our rights, whether they agreed with them or not.

They fought for the "right" to burn the very flag they fought for, to protest cuts to veteran's rights, to burn the president, their commander-in-chief from whom they took their orders, in effigy, the right to kill babies and disrespect the flag, the anthem, and any other patriotic tradition. Some even fought to the death for our right to disagree with one another, peacefully or violently. They fought and are proud to say they were in (WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Grenada, Afganistan, Operation Iraqui Freedom, or Operation Enduring Freedom) to protect all the rights not only that we enjoy, but that should be enjoyed the world over.

So I have decided for a while to change the focus of my blog to talk a little about what a wonderful, unappreciated country we live in. To talk of freedom, tradition, and yes, apathy.

I wonder if you had walked by the Sheridan in Denver, Colorado last week and seen and heard what I saw and heard, if the apathy we as a nation have developed would have continued. To quote a worn out cliche, "Freedom isn't free." A lesson I learned all to well last week.

In the Shadow of His Wings

The bird you see in the video (I use that term loosely since I just got the camera 9 months ago and have used it 3 times) is called a Killdeer and has become a "friend" of mine and Squirt's since we began walking on our road again. We pass him/her (with Killdeer you can't tell) about every other day and receive the same greeting you see here. The reason is that Killdeer lay their eggs in an indention in a gravel road or shoulder and then work tirelessly to protect them. They first will puff up (reminds me of Batty Koda in Fern Gully, "Puff up, puff up. They [humans] hate that you know.") and will actually walk towards you. If that doesn't work, they will fly a short distance and then act like they have a broken wing. The point is to get you to chase them away from their eggs, thereby protecting their young.

Seeing this small bird that is maybe 1/100th of my size protecting her/his children every day has made me think about all the references in the Bible to God protecting us under His wing. Psalm 17:18 states, Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings. Then there is Psalm36:7, How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. And finally, Psalm 57:1, Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, For my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by.

Just like the Killdeer lays eggs in the gravel, God has placed us on earth where we will suffer trials and temptation . However, just like the Killdeer eggs, God is willing to do whatever it takes to protect us if we will just let Him. The Killdeer is willing to sacrifice its life pretending to be hurt in order to lure predators away from the eggs/young and God sacrificed the life of His only Son so that we can be saved from the sin and temptations of this hard world we are born into.

I heard a story once about a farmer that raised free range chickens. One night, one of his corn fields caught fire and burned down completely. As the farmer walked the field the next morning to assess the damage, he found the body of a hen. He took the toe of his boot and kicked the body over and, to his surprise, about 6 chicks came running out from under the wings of the dead hen. The hen had given her life to protect her chicks "under the shadow of her wings."

That's what God has done for us. He has sacrificed His Son so that we, like the Killdeer eggs and the baby chicks, may be saved to live eternally. I praise God for the reminders in His creation of what He has done for us. I know I need reminding and if I will just look around at nature, I will find just the reminder I need that day. God wants to make absolutely sure that I feel safe and secure under "the shadow of His wings."

When God Ran

In view of my last post, I wanted to share this video with you to let you know that no matter how deep a sink hole you find yourself down, God can find you, because He is looking for you.

Stuck in a Hole

I have never actually seen a sinkhole, that is, until recently. We still had the old cistern that people once used to catch rain water to use for cooking, laundry, and drinking. It was covered by what looked like a table on our deck. Well, long story short, the cistern was made of metal instead of concrete and it rusted through apparently a while back. When we tried to weed the iris bed that surrounds our deck, the earth just collapsed. As we kept testing, we found that we had about a ten-foot round sink hole in our back yard caused by the water leaking out of the cistern underground. The main problem was that the cistern and surrounding area was about twelve feet deep. It was scary to say the least.

It took three dump truck loads of river sand to fill in the cistern and the surround area. About half of one load was needed to fill in the tracks left in the backyard by the front end loader. See, it was during our little rainy season where it was raining about every other day and at times we would get 2-3" at one time. That left us with the sand on the driveway and a front end loader digging holes in the back yard trying to keep from getting stuck in the mud, which, by the way, it did about three times.

In life, sometimes I become the victim of a sinkhole. I think I am doing fine and on solid ground, then, whoosh, I find myself at the bottom of a deep hole with no way out. It is strange how sin can just creep up on me like that. I think I am so close to God not even a piece of paper could get between me and Him. Then He, or someone He sends, confronts me about a sin I wasn't even aware of. Down the sinkhole I go.

I'm in too deep to get out by myself and I am in danger. Not too long ago, there was another house in the area that had a cistern that they were using for trash. The son lost a ball in the cistern, went after it, and was overcome by the methane gas. The father finds him in the cistern, goes after him, can't get out, and is also a victim of the methane. Two people died just because they couldn't get out. I will die if I don't get out. But it's too deep.

So I start to cry out for help. Along comes my Heavenly Father, hearing my cries for help and my pleas for forgiveness, and He comes to not only get out of the hole, but also fill up the hole so I don't fall in again. Sometimes that gets messy and we get stuck in the mud while we are filling up the hole, but we do eventually get it filled in.

I have just come up out of a sinkhole, both literally and figuratively. I have done what was necessary to correct the problem and am now desperately working to fill the whole. It is messy, but with God's help, I will fill in the whole no matter how painful things become.

Remember...great pride comes before a great fall. A lesson that is painfully learned.

What Tools Are You Using?

My husband and I have separate tool boxes. The reason is that most of the time, his tools never make it back into the box. His tools usually end up either left outside "somewhere" or on some unnamed shelf in his tool closet. Either way, when I wanted a simple screwdriver or hammer, I never could find it. So I went to WalMart to buy myself my own set of tools and I take them out and use them whenever I want because my tools go back in the bag so I can find them the next time I want them. Case in point, I "loaned" him my tape measure. It is pink so I thought that he would surely give it back to me. Nope, it is still lost. I finally shamed him into buying me another small tape measure.

This guy in the video also has an amazing set of tools. He is playing the piano with tennis balls. Personally, I would not attempt to play a piano at all, more or less, with tennis balls. You see, I don't have the tools. I can't juggle and I do not know how to play a piano. So I will leave this stunt up to him and do something else.

In all churches each member has their own toolbox full of gifts and talents. And we are all expected to use our own toolbox to serve in Christ's church, not someone else's. Even if I could lift my husband's toolbox, I could not use over half of what is in there because I don't know what it is or how to use it. It is the same with gifts and talents. We are all different and if we try to be someone other than God created us to be, we will be using tools that we just don't know how to use. Everyone needs to stick to their own toolbox.

Also in churches, we do not need to "guilt" someone into trying to use tools they are not meant to use. For example, "We really need a nursery worker and if you don't do it, we might have to close down the nursery to the 3 and 4 year olds and make them sit in the service." Or, "We really need a teacher in the 4th and 5th grade. I know you would be great at it and we can't find anyone else to do it." When we do that, we are not waiting for God to provide, we are forcing a new tool into the hands of someone who has a heart for service, an inability to say "no," and does not have any knowledge of how to use that tool effectively.

In Romans 12 Paul tells the Romans that there are many gifts but only one body. He says that if we are a head, we should not desire to be a foot. Or if we are a foot, we should not desire to be a head. See, a place for everyone and everyone in their place as predetermined by God when He formed them in the womb. And I feel it is no accident that the chapter on various gifts is followed by the greatest discourse on love in the Body of Christ that has ever been written.

Think with me just a minute. Is it really a loving thing to place a guilt trip on someone just to fill a position? Are we actually saying that we do not have enough faith that God will raise someone up to fill that position? Is it loving to place a person in the most uncomfortable place they have ever been and stand back saying, "Well, it will be good for him?" What kind of testimony is that to our faith that God will provide our every need according to His riches in glory?

As members of the body, let's allow everyone to be whoever God created him/her to be remembering there is no unemployment in God's church. If we wait on God, He will provide just the right person for that position and all will be well. If we don't, we will be like our juggler here minus the tennis balls and trying to use ping pong balls. Without using our own set of tools, we are worthless to the Body and committing a sin by doing something out of obligation instead of faith. After all, does Romans not say,"That which is without faith is sin?"

Please pray fervently about people to fill positions and allow a "no" to mean "I don't have that tool in my toolbox, so I can't help out the Body in this way." I know there are many times in my life where I have felt obligated to do something and all I made was a mess. Be loving...don't do that to some other member of the family of faith. As family, we are all suppose to think of others before our need to fill a position, aren't we?

Where Are You?

When my boys were small a game came out called "Where's Waldo." The point of the game was to find "Waldo" in this huge crowd of people. My boys were rather good at finding him, however, I always had to stare at the crowd for hours and hours before I could see him. In fact, I've been looking at this picture for a while and I can't see him in there either. He seems to be invisible.

You know, I am sometimes invisible when I am out in the world or at church. I was noticing my body language yesterday at church and I was sitting there with my arms folded signifying I did not want to be disturbed. When welcome came, I just shook hands with the people who came to me. I never left the pew.

I am five foot nothing and you put me in a crowd and I am here to tell you, I disappear. If you don't believe me, come with me to one of the mega churches in our area and see how many people run into/over me. And if I get separated from my group, they can't see me in that mass of people and I surely can't see them. I just don't stand out.

But I know someone who did stick out. Crowd or no crowd, Jesus stuck out wherever He went. The Bible tells us over and over how the crowds followed Him, bumping Him and pushing Him. Yet, one small dying woman, desperate to be healed, crawled her way through the crowds and was able to touch just the hem of his garment and was instantly healed. And he didn't ignore her even though she was lost in the crowd. He stopped and asked His disciples, "Who touched me?" The disciples were dumbfounded by the question and told him that the crowd was touching Him everywhere He turned (Man! What a grasp of the obvious!). The disciples were so earthly oriented, they could not see one small woman fighting her way through the crowd toward Jesus. But Jesus knew. When He asked, "Who touched me?" the woman knew that HE knew for He felt the power go out of Him, so she confessed what she had done. And you know what He told her? He didn't scold her for her struggle to get to Him. He didn't ostracize her for touching Him without permission. He looked at her with eyes full of love and told her, "Your faith has made you whole."

Are we willing to struggle through the crowds to find Jesus? We're willing to spend hours trying to "find Waldo" but are we willing to put in the time and effort to try to find Jesus? I have to confess that I do pretty go most days, but some days I give it what my mom used to call "a lick and a promise, " which means that I will deal with it quickly and then promise to come back to it later. Sadly, as a general rule, I don't keep that promise. And if enough of those kind of days are strung together, I once again find myself lost in the crowd unable to see Jesus. I, then, promise myself I won't do it again, knowing full well that I probably will.

You see, I can't stay faithful without Jesus' help. It doesn't matter how short I am or how invisible I am to the crowd. I have to struggle against that crowd and find my way to Jesus, even if that means crawling through a tightly packed crowd and just touching the hem of his garment. For you see, as Jesus told the woman, it is my faith that will make me whole and I can't be whole if I let "the crowd" overwhelm me and keep my from my Lord.

I think I'll quit trying to find "Waldo" and go read my Bible and find Jesus.

He died and rose again for a nobody like me and He would have done it if I was the only one on earth who needed forgiveness. Praise God for His love! Happy Easter!

Taking Over the World

I remember when my boys were younger and they loved to watch "The Animaniacs." Their favorite part of that series was a cartoon called "Pinky and the Brain." The beginning of each episode was Pinky (left) asking Brain (right), "What are we going to do tonight, Brain?" And his response was always, "The same thing we always do Pinky. Try and take over the world." They would then think up some hair-brained scheme that always blew up in their face.

We as Christians are suppose to do what Pinky and Brain failed to do, "Try and take over the world." However, when asked to go visit visitors to Sunday services or we have the opportunity to share Christ with someone we run into, we hide behind our fear that they will think we are weird (we are a "peculiar people," you know) or our own "shyness," "I just can't go up and talk to strangers.

I tend to be the second one. I will write all the cards you want and I will even make phone calls thanking people for attending on Sunday, but when it comes to evangelism, I hide behind my shyness. I really am shy around people. In a room full of people I don't know, I tend to go to a corner, sit, and say nothing. I even hate to attend a new Sunday School class by myself even though I know I need that close knit fellowship with other Christians.

I am in fact a peculiar Christian. Sometimes, even among other Christians, I don't quite fit in because I will make the effort to get to know my neighbors whether they are Christians or not. In the country, when your nearest neighbor is a fourth of a mile down the road, you need to know your neighbors in cases of emergency, you can call them to help you. But even in that circumstance, I let my husband "break the ice".

I have spoken before of how people will just up and talk to me about their problems. Now if they start the conversation, I am very comfortable continuing it. I guess I am just not an initiator. I have been deeply hurt by people that called themselves Christians and I have let it make me draw into a shell and not initiate conversations with anyone.

All of this shows a lack of faith on my part. I am not trusting God to either heal my hurts or give me strength to overcome my shyness. It hurts me when I think of how little I trust God to help me evangelize.

God commands me to spread His gospel message, "He said, 'All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commandments I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.'"

It is time for me to take a cue from Jesus as well as Pinky and the Brain. It's time for me to start trusting God and go out and "take over the world."

Puppets

In this video, the only guy that is real is the middle one. The rest are puppets completely controlled by Christopher (the guy in the middle). When I saw this for the first time, I thought of how easily we become puppets. We become the puppets of the media, politics, the economy, our bosses, and sometimes "the winds of various doctrines." We listen to someone and they seem to make sense and so we decided to continue listening and following their every move. I have even heard of Christians that will follow a preacher from church to church. I have never understood it, but I have heard of it.

Paul had the same problem in Corinth, "Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." The people of Corinth were arguing and bickering over who was right and who was wrong. A modern day parallel would be the arguing between denominations over points of doctrine or church government that really don't make any difference.

The only thing I am willing to "go to the wall" for is the Word of God in its entirety. I am not one to split hairs as long as we all agree that Christ is the only way to salvation. Now don't get me wrong. I am not a "name it and claim it" kind of Christian. However, only God knows if they are right or wrong and I am not going to cause division in the Body of Christ over it.

God tells the church that it must exist in unity, not uniformity. I think we should consider the impact on our Christian witness to non-believers when they see us publicly arguing with each other. I wouldn't want to be a part of that. Would you?

So be careful what you say both in public and private. You never know who is listening.

You Know You Are Old When...

Lately I have been feeling like a dinosaur that has been somehow transported into the 21st century without having been briefed on the language. I have to ask my granddaughter about text messaging shorthand like omg and thx.

I just read the blog of a friend and he used the expression "jump the shark." What shark and how am I going to jump over it? In fact, why would I want to jump over it? I looked up the meaning of the expression and it means that something has reached it's lowest point. It comes from the TV show "Happy Days" when Fonzi jumped a shark on water skis which was considered the lowest point in the show.

I don't even understand the commercials. The police department here is running a commercial about if you do the crime, you will do the time. They ask questions like "Are you slinging?" and "Are you strapped?" Again, had to go to the granddaughter to translate.

I even have trouble with some "Christian speak". You know, those words like "sanctified, righteous, justification, and Christ comeing to live in your heart." Those of us that are more mature Christians have had time to learn fully what these words mean, but I find myself having to explain to new Christians and those who wish to become Christians.

I fully realize that Isaiah 55: 11 says, "So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not retun to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." But it seems to me that when we present the gospel to the world today, we should use one of the newer translations that breaks down these "church words" into something they can understand.

Did you know that most newspapers are written at a 7th grade reading level? We are no longer a society of readers and as such, communication needs to become simpler and simpler. Hebrews 4:12 states, " For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edge sword and as far as the division of soul and spirit...able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." This book was written to Jews and uses an image that they would understand so that the gospel would be clear to them. Even Jesus used familiar imagery to make sure his audience understood what He had to tell them about God's kingdom.

Who are we to hang on to our "church talk" so that the world cannot understand what we are talking about? Nowdays, I simply share my salvation story and what Christ has done with me and for me. That seems to be something everyone I have talked to seems to understand; real world experiences that happened in the world and with the language they live with every day.

I'm not saying don't use the Word of God. All I am saying is to invest in one of the modern translations and when witnessing, use it. You may be surprised how quickly the lost come to understanding and desire salvation. All we need to do is speak their language.

Bitterness or Blessing

I have two friends that I have talked to in the past week that, though their situations are similar, their attitudes are very different. Both have husbands that are out of work. Both wives are out of work. Both have children. One has a five year old and the other has one that is 20+ that are living at home. Both are struggling financially. But most of all, both are Christians. One is a new Christian and the other is a "mature" Christian. That, however, is where the likenesses stop.

The older Christian has developed the root of bitterness talked about in Hebrew 12: 15, "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled." I have not minded letting her "vent" on me these past months, but there comes a time to count your blessings and move on. I understand her anger and some of her resentments, but Ephesians 4: 31 states," Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." For months, I have listened to this wonderful, kind Christian lady spew her anger and hateful words to me. There is no hint of forgiveness in any of them. Just resentment and anger. I love her with all my heart and she is my best friend, but honestly, I don't know how much more of this negativity I can take. At this moment, she seems to lack faith to carry her through these circumstances that the Bible says are "temporary."

On the other hand, my brand spanking new Christian friend at church has a whole different attitude. She sees blessings at every turn. She just got a job, but it doesn't start until August. Is she angry that it couldn't start earlier? No, she stands up in church and offers praise that God has provided a job. Is she angry with her husband because he can't find anything but minimum wage, part-time work? No, she is grateful there is food on the table. Is she angry when anyone offers her help. be it family or friend? No, she thanks God for providing for her and her family. She believes in the words of Jeremiah 29: 11ff, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an unexpected end. Then shall ye call upon Me and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." In a word, she is willing to "Let go and let God." This young lady that has been a Christian for less than a year, can find the faith to believe that God is going to take care of everything like He said in His word.

Sometimes we "mature" Christians need to take a lesson from the babes in Christ. We need to recapture the intensity of our faith instead of losing our first love or even worse, blaming Him for all that is happening.

I am in prayer for both my friends. One that she will regain her faith in God and the other that she will continue in the faith and comfort that she has found in her Heavenly Father that has said that He will hide us beneath His wings.

I understand now more than ever before that I am going to make a choice daily. Will I choose to be bitter about circumstances in my life that will soon pass away or will I begin and end each day praising God for all His blessings to me whether they are large or small? All believers make that same choice every day. I wonder what would happen to our testimony if we chose blessings? Even worse, what would happen to our testimony of Christ if we chose bitterness? It is definitely something to think about.

Enough Already!

I hope you are as tired of hearing about Nadya Suleiman as I am. The poor woman is just trying to get on with her life, take care of her children in two different places and what does she get? Her life under a microscope.

Did she show poor judgement? Who knows? Let's give the poor lady a chance to raise her children and see if she can really do it. The Bible says "I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens me." Not only that but she is not the first one to have multiple births by invitro fertilization and be unemployed. Jon and Kate Gosselin already had 2 children when they decided to have six more. At that time, neither one of them was working and they didn't get hate mail or social scrutiny. They got our support and a TV show!

Will the tax payers have to support her children? Probably, for a while at least. But Nadya is not the first woman to participate in WIC. My niece is currently an participate and no one is bad-mouthing her. Yes, she has one and Nadya has eight with three already receiving SSI, but what difference does that make? We are supporting all nine babies along with 2.4 million other children according to the census bureau. Why single her out?? And as a former teacher I can tell you there are families that have four or five children and are receiving SSI for all of them due to learning disabilities the most common of which is developmental delay. So why be angry with Nadya for doing the same thing? And out of the six she already has, she only has three that are receiving SSI, one of which is autistic. She is definitely not trying to "live off the system" or she would find a way to have all six on SSI.

Then there is the insanity these poor children have already suffered through. Since all the children are under seven, you know those hundreds of strangers with cameras chasing them everywhere has to be scary, in fact, probably terrifying. Society claims that its only concern is for the safety and health of these children. THEN LEAVE THEM ALONE ALREADY! How would you like being chased with a camera 24/7? How many of us could get the good parenting award if someone had been following us with a camera day and night? She and her children are just as human as the rest of us and all this attention cannot be good for them. Just stop, okay!

I told myself I was not going to wade in on the "Octomom" issue, but yesterday when I saw the damage caused by supposedly Christian people, cameramen as well as neighbors, to her LEASED home, I was outraged. The garage door was dented outward from the people trying to crowd into her garage to get a picture. There were so many people on her lawn, the grass was destroyed and the bricks on the walk were broken loose. Who has to fix that? Her or her landlord probably. How long do you think this landlord will be willing to continue the lease when he can see his property being destroyed? Probably not long. He has an investment to protect. Personally, I think every idiot that was on that lawn and in that garage should chip in and fix all the damage themselves. I was raised that if you break it, then you fix it!

I also would like to address all the other pro-life advocates about their anger. Nadya saw all those embryos as a LIFE. She did not want them to be destroyed for stem cell research. So she did the VERY unpopular thing and had all six implanted. Now it is time to decide which is more important: our pro-life stand or our pocket book. If it is our pro-life stance, then it is up to all of us to see that all those precious children receive everything that they need to grow up healthy and happy. She saved six lives! If she had pulled six drowning children out of the water she would be a hero! But she chose to save six little embryos by having them all implanted at once. America, it's time to choose. Are we pro-life or not?

Finally, Matthew 7:1-2 states, "Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you." (Amplified Bible) Christians, we need to stop judging, condemning, and criticizing Nadya and start loving her. John says that we can identify the followers of Christ by the way we love others. Jesus is our example and He loved the "unlovable." Well, Nadya Suleiman is at the moment, "unlovable." Let's show her that we Christians have not forgotten our calling and love her.

I don't agree with everything she has done. I agree that all this is a little, okay, a lot, over the edge. So what? She is a child of God and in my own small way I intend to try to give her and her children their "normal" life back. What about you? C'mon. ENOUGH ALREADY!

I Had No Idea That You Were a Trash Collector

I like to play cards so I own the "Hoyle Card Games" software for my computer so that I can play to my heart's content. I play hearts, spades, euchre, rummy, and canasta. I just LOVE to play cards.

Yesterday I was playing canasta and I picked up the discard pile. Jasper, one of my computerized card playing buddies, said, "I had no idea that you were a trash collector." Hmm. That could be an idea for a blog someday, so I wrote it down. The game continued and I picked up the discard pile again and Jasper's computerized partner, Elayne, says, "You look like your used to sorting through other people's trash." Okay, God, you don't have to tell me twice...well, maybe You do.

Before I became disabled, I spent a lot of time with what our society calls "trash." I spent seven years helping abused women try to make decisions on "what comes next" and educate them in the ways of abused men. Yes, some 75% of them went back to their abuser and society said, "Well, then, they deserve what they get." Do they really? No, they just didn't have enough time, education or money to make a different choice. Most of them had children and their abuser had told them that he would kill both her and her children if she ever left. Mothers, would you make the same decision knowing that a Protective Order is not worth the paper it is printed on and that the abuser would probably only do 30 days and then be out on the street looking for you? Oh, and he would be FURIOUS because you put him in jail. God convicted me that I had to offer what little I had to try and help them and their children despite what society thought.

After that, I taught rehabilitation courses and Bible studies in a women's medium security prison. These women had been convicted of everything from forgery and fraud to assault and involuntary manslaughter. Society thought that these "people" (they were not fellow human beings because of the magnitude of their sin) were getting what they deserved and were not capable of being rehabilitated. Well, the course I taught helped stop that revolving door. Inmates returning to prison went down from 85% to 60%. All because a small group of people thought that these "throw away" people were worth saving.

In both cases, I learned more than I could have ever taught them. At the shelter, I learned to be grateful for God's constant protection of me and my children in a similar situation. At the prison, every time we prayed the inmates would thank God for getting them up that morning. They taught me what it was to be truly grateful for life and all its possibilities.

You know, Jesus was in to "throw away" people. In fact, He spent so much time with them that some of the "sanctified" took offense. In Matthew 9 Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector, to be one of His disciples. Matthew then invited Jesus over for dinner. I think I'll let Matthew tell you the rest of the story, "Now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house that, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it they said to His disciples, ' Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'" Sound familiar?

Many of us prefer our "church friends" and want nothing to do with the sinners. They are scary, particularly now days. Believe me, since I became disabled, I totally understand. I still struggle with the fear of strangers because it would take nothing to seriously injure me. But is that what we are suppose to do? Play it safe?

Jesus gives us the answer in verse 12, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." Ouch!

Since I can no longer drive, I have to find other means to find those who may need the mercy that Christ offers. That is my prayer for this blog. That someone needing Christ's comfort and mercy may read it and realize they are not alone.

So to those who might say to you, "I had no idea you were a trash collector," you can say, "Yes, that is the job that Jesus gave me and I am proud to serve Him."

The Faith of a Child

Our family has always tried to have a dog since we had boys (yes, I know the president has girls and is getting them a dog). We have always gravitated to the kind of dog that is free. Pedigreed dogs are okay but why should I pay $300-$1200 for a puppy when there are so many great dogs that are free for the asking.

When my oldest son was five, we had a Golden retriever/Brittany spaniel mix called simply "Bob" because he was the only one in the litter that had the body of a golden retriever but the stump of a tail that belongs to the Brittany spaniel. He was a great bird dog, but it was never our intention to hunt him. He was just a pet for the boys. Because of his size, he really became our oldest son's dog (he would end up pushing our youngest son down when he wanted to be petted).
My oldest boy loved that dog with all his heart. Bob was HIS dog and he took care of him.

We kept Bob in a dog run in the backyard. Since he was obviously a bird dog, we kept the gate to the run locked. Well, one night the gate was left unlocked and someone stole Bob. We were devastated because my husband and I knew that someone was going to try to hunt Bob and when they saw that he was gun shy, they would probably shoot him.

For two weeks we spent every afternoon looking for Bob. We looked everywhere. Even up and down the river bottoms near our subdivision, but there was no sign of Bob. My husband and I were positive Bob was not coming back.

One night, after two weeks of checking to see if Bob might have come home on his own, I was putting my son to bed. We said our prayers and he turned that sweet face full of hope toward me and told me, "Mommy, I prayed and God is going to bring Bob home." My mother's heart broke as I tried to explain to a five-year-old that sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers the way we want Him to. But he was determined, "No mommy, God told me that He would bring Bob home."

After several minutes of argument, I just told him, "Well, we'll see" and left his room to cry at the heart break that I just knew was inevitable. After two weeks Bob had either been picked up by a good samaritan or was dead. The odds of him coming back were slim and none.

We quit searching for Bob and calling the animal shelter. But every day when we would get home from work/school, my son would run to the backyard looking for Bob in the still empty dog run. This went on for three days and my heart broke for my young son and the disappointment that was most surely coming. On the third night when I put him to bed, I was a little teary-eyed during our prayers because I had no idea how I was going to explain to my faith-filled son that Bob wasn't coming back. Seeing my tears, he patted my hand and said, "It will be okay, Mommy, God told me that Bob is coming back and I believe Him." I raced out of the room, squatted in the hallway with my back to the wall, crying my eyes out and chastising God for hurting my son." I stayed there a long time, I don't even how long it was, but when I got up, I purposed in my heart that I would make my son believe that there was no possibility that Bob was coming back.

The next morning was rushed so there was no time to talk to my son. My mind was divided between work and my son as I worried about what I would say to him when we got home and he found the dog run empty again. I tried many different approaches in my head as I worked because I didn't want him to be angry with God or think he wasn't important enough for God to listen to.

As we pulled into the driveway and I saw him start to look toward the dog run, I started with,"You know baby that God......." From the back seat I hear this squeal, "Mommy, Mommy, Bob is back! Bob is back!"

Before the car even came to a complete stop, my son was out of the car and racing to the backyard. I was in shock as I rounded the corner and, sure enough, Bob was back. In fact, he was back in the dog run with the gate closed and the lock locked! My son was jumping up and down screaming, *"See, mommy! See, mommy! I told you God would bring Bob back!"

I stood there with tears streaming down my face, tears of joy, relief, and shame. Shame because I, with my "mature" faith, could not believe that God could do something as simple as bring back a lost dog.

Jesus says in Mark 10:15 in the Amplified Bible, "Truly I tell you,whoever does not receive and accept and welcome the kingdom of God like a little child [does] positively shall not enter it at all." Isaiah 11:6 states, "And a child shall lead them."

I am still working on my jaded faith sprinkled with "reality." I sit here humbly crying because there are so many times that I pray about something, not believing God will really answer me and I am shocked and excited when He actually does. And when I lose the faith to believe, God reminds me of my five-year-old son who had the faith to believe that God cared enough about him to bring back his lost dog.



*For those of you who are wondering, we never found out how Bob got back. We do know that his coat was full of burrs so our assumption is that someone tried to hunt him and when the gun went off, Bob high-tailed it back home and a neighbor put him in the pen, although the neighbors all denied it. Or maybe the person who stole him brought him back. All I know is that God saw to it that he came home just to reward the faith of a five-year-old boy and teach his mother a lesson about faith.

Warning, Warning, Warning

In this age of litigation, warning labels have gotten a bit ridiculous. After a woman wins a million dollar lawsuit against McDonalds because her cup of coffee was not properly marked as hot, we have felt the need to warn against EVERYTHING.

For example, on a bottle of dog shampoo we find the warning, "Contents should not be fed to fish." On a baking pan, "Ovenware will get hot when used in oven (duh)." Or on a blanket, "Not to be used as protection from a tornado." I have been in a tornado and I'm here to tell you that anyone with any sense would know a blanket won't protect you if the whole HOUSE won't protect you. Another of my favorites is found on a three-pronged fishing hook, "Harmful if swallowed" (just ask any fish, he'll tell you). Or on a carpenter's drill, "Not intended for use as a dental drill." But the most ridiculous of all warning labels is found on a paint remover that heats up to 1,ooo degrees, "Do no use heat gun as a hair dryer." Now THAT would be some hairdo, I'm telling you what!

Other examples are found on the inside of a six-inch plastic bag, "Do not climb inside this bag and zip it up. Doing so will cause injury or death." Now no one I know could get more than a foot inside a six-inch bag. And finally, the award goes to a can of pepper spray that says, "May irritate eyes." Isn't that's what it is suppose to do??

I could go on forever about our silly notions about what others need to be warned about. We demand warnings that our coffee is hot, our ice is cold, our bags are plastic and could suffocate us (ever wonder if any of these people ever went to school?). It has gotten so totally ridiculous that many of us, me included, don't even look at the warnings that come with the things we buy. We flip past that page to the "some assembly required" pages not caring that whatever it is could hurt us. I mean, how many of us read all that paperwork on side effects and drug interactions that come with our prescriptions? I know I don't. I figure the doctor knows what else I am taking and he knows best. But we see in the news all the time people who have died from drug interactions. And still we don't want to know.

As God's people, He has also given us many warnings which, unlike some of the obvious things we warn each other about, need to be paid significant attention. For example, I Peter 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about , seeking whom he may devour. Also Hosea 9:10, "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved. Or Matthew 6:23, "But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." The Psalmist says in chapter 66 verse 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Having the Lord not hear me when I pray, that would be a tough one. But not as tough as Exodus 20:5, "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." We are living the results of that warning today. One of the biggest warnings comes in Revelation 3:3, "If therfore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." We need to be doing God's work as if tomorrow Christ will return because all these people who think they have figured out when the end of the earth as we know it will be are in for a rude awakening. No one on earth knows when He is coming...no one knows when the last opportunity to come to know Christ will be gone. Nobody.

I am as bad as anyone not to read the warning labels on things I buy or on prescriptions. But I better not find myself lacking when it comes to the many warnings God has given me in His Word. I have bearly scratched the surface of what God has warned us against.

Everything I need to know to live on this earth is in God's word. All I need to do is listen, Let's not make Him use another wilderness or a another donkey to warn us to stay away from sin.

We Never Did It That Way Before

Any pastor can tell you those are the seven deadliest words in any church. I, personally, feel like they are a death sentence not only in church, but in any endeavor of your life.

What if Noah had told God,"No one's ever built a boat before." Or Moses, "No one's ever parted a sea before." or Joshua, "No one's ever won a battle by just walking around before." Even in the New Testament you see places where great acts of faith would have never happened if they accepted this attitude. What if Mary and Martha told Jesus, "Well, you know, nobody has ever risen anyone from the dead before. Don't embarrass yourself trying." Or if Peter had said, "No- body's ever walked on water before. I think I'll stay in the boat like the other eleven."

The list goes on and on. David once he saw Goliath saying, "Oops, I never fought anyone that large before. Think I'll go back home." Or Esther saying, "No queen has ever approached the king unbidden without dying, I'm sorry all those Jews have to die, but I think I'll keep my Jewishness a secret and stay in the harem."

Off the top of my head, I only remember one time God allowed someone to say, "We've never done that before." That was the ten spies who said, "We've never fought giants before. We are as grasshoppers in their eyes. Let's just stay here where we know it is safe." That one cost the Israelites forty years in the wilderness.

God gives us many promises that should drive the "We-never-did-it-that-way-befores" away.
In 2 Kings 6:16 He says, "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." In Philippians 4: 13 He says, "I can do all thing through Christ which strengtheneth me." Finally, in Psalms 27: 14 God says, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

That last passage gives us the key to great and might things, "wait on the Lord." Whether or not we have ever done it before, if we wait on the Lord instead of running ahead of Him, making plans, then asking Him to bless them, we will be successful even though "We have never done it that way before." God is full of blessings and surprises just waiting for us to wait on Him.

If you still aren't sure, just ask Balaam. When was the last time a donkey spoke to you and saved your life? I bet that never happened before!

Make a Joyful Noise

I have been doing a lot of thinking about my Dad lately. Even though he passed away in 1992 he is still with me in lots of different ways. For example, I have his voice and his laugh. When Daddy laughed, you could hear it all over the church. His voice and his laughter just carried for miles. I have the same voice. When I was teaching, the teachers around me would make me shut my door because I was "disturbing" their class. You know, now that I mention it, I don't think I ever closed MY door. I hate closed doors. They are just so.....closed. I do remember a lot of door slamming all around me. Oh well, I knew MY kids could hear me if the whole hall could hear me.

I did not, however, inherit my daddy's singing voice. I have a fairly decent, though untrained, second soprano voice that is actually good enough to be allowed into a VOLUNTEER choir, though once when I was 15 and my voice was changing, I was actually asked to leave a "volunteer" choir, but that's another story for another time.

Daddy, on the other hand, had only two notes and both of them were wrong. That never stopped him though. When there was Men's Choir Sunday, Daddy was up there with the best of them. The best part was that you could hear him above all the other singers because Daddy was not afraid to sing as loud as he talked and laughed, much to my chagrin when I became a teenager. He would sing to the Lord just as loud as he yelled at the television while watching his favorite teams, the Cleveland Browns and anyone who played against the 49'ers.

Daddy used to say that God says ,"to make a joyful noise and he could make as much noise as anybody." You know, he was right. I look around on Sunday and I see so many people not singing. They just stand there instead of praising God with all their heart. It doesn't matter whether or not you can carry a tune in a bucket. What matters is that you SING.

Daddy proved to me that EVERYONE can sing. It may not be pretty, but we can sing and in doing so, we offer up praise to God for all He has given us.

You know, I think I could sing the praises of someone who sacrificed His only Son, His only Child, for me. And I wouldn't care if it was pretty, because it was necessary.

This Sunday let's try to "make a joyful noise" when we sing the choruses and hymns. I know it would make Daddy and all like him proud.

Snow Days

For once the weatherman got it right! Well, almost. He predicted the snow Saturday and Sunday, he just thought we were going to get 4-6 inches. Well.........we got 11 inches. Because of that swing and a miss, the schools and churches have been closed since Sunday and the community is suffering from cabin fever. Even the granddaughter that I home school got snow days because once you hit our county, the roads were covered with ice and it was too dangerous to bring her up from Memphis.

You know, snow is a funny thing (not funny ha,ha, but funny peculiar). It is beautiful to look at as the early morning sun hits the surface and you can see the pattern and drifts form by the wind. Truthfully, I had seen snow drifts before, but I had never seen the wind pattern on the top of the snow. City dwellers don't get to see much of that because the other houses block most of the wind. Out here Saturday afternoon through Sunday, it was every man for himself with white out conditions most of the night.

Snow is also great fun. We don't have much snow in these parts but I can remember back in the sixties when Memphis had 18 inches of snow. I remember snowball fights with my brothers and making a huge snowman with my mom and dad (okay, it probably wasn't huge, but it looked huge to me since I had never seen one). I even remember a 10 inch snow fall in the 80's when my boys and I went outside and built a snow man and had snow ball fights. I used to love to be out playing in the snow.

Now, since my bones have become fragile and I cost possibly $140,000 - $160,000 to fix if I mess up these artificial hips, I am actually afraid of the snow. One slip could land me in a wheelchair so now I have to content myself with watching my crazy yellow lab rolling snowballs down the hill and relishing in this new substance that actually changes depths. One time she was running and ended up up to her chest in snow. You should have seen her face! Undaunted, she just turned around and went back to sticking her nose in the snow until she made a snowball and then pushing it so she could watch it roll down the hill. What fun!

I realized as I watched her in the snow that snow is somewhat like Satan in my new perspective. It is beautiful, just like sin and Satan are. 2 Colossians 1:4 states, "for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Ezekiel 28: 12 calls him perfect in beauty. He is beautiful to look at. After all, we wouldn't be tempted if he came up in a red union suit with horns, a pointed tail and pitchfork. We'd know who he was and run the other way!

But Satan is a beautiful temptation. He is an angel of light and perfect in beauty, kind of like the snow. But under that light and sparkle and beauty, is hidden danger. There is ice beneath that snow and drifts that we can get into that we can't get out of. For example, the big snow I told you about when I was a kid. My youngest brother was just a toddler and literally got into a snow drift and could not get out. So the other four of us made this "chain of life" from shortest to tallest, and had to pull him out because he could not get out by himself. He had gotten in too deep.

There are many who have been deceived by the beauty, felt the danger beneath, and gotten in too deep in this world. It is the duty of the church to pull them out just like we did my little brother. We can't just freeze them out with "Well, he should have known better." If he knew better, he would have done better. He was tempted by the beauty of the temptation and then began to slide on the ice underneath. Just like the rest of us do every day. We may not get in over our heads, but we sure love to play in it.

Why not form a "chain of life" this week and present the gospel to some unbeliever you come in contact with. You never know who you might pull out of the snow.

Oh the Noise, Noise, Noise ......

I think right now I know a little bit about how the Grinch felt with all the noise that he didn't understand. Today we are getting our ducts (not to be confused with ducks) cleaned. And the noise is horrendous.

Here I sit with my granddaughter that I am supposed to be teaching and we can't even hear each other for all the noise. I knew I was in trouble when I saw this huge machine with an even bigger hose and another smaller machine on top of that. They went up in the attic to "clean up".

For about the first 15 minutes a dust storm was coming into my house from all the vents. It was so bad that we almost had to break out the flashlights, on low beam of course, to find each other. At this point one of the workmen calls down that it will get better "in a minute" (I want whatever timepiece this young man was using because somehow he was getting more that 24 hours in a day.).

After the "dust storm" the weather did begin to clear and all that was left was the insufferable noise of a metal brush rotating in a metal duct with the world's largest vacuum cleaner roaring with suction right above my head. I have to admit, the worst part of the whole thing was the interruption of my busy schedule.

I am sometimes that way with God. He will tell me, "that lady over there needs someone to talk to," or "that person really needs something to eat," and I whine about how busy I am.

But God will shame you into doing what He tells you if He has to. I was stopping by a fast food restaurant to get myself some dinner when a homeless man approached me and told me he needed $.85 to get something to eat. The amount struck me as a little odd since all the homeless people I knew would ask for a dollar or five dollars, but I was in a hurry as well as a little afraid of him because it was a bad part of town, so I told him the truth...I didn't have $.85 and entered the restaurant. I ordered what I wanted to eat to go because I had a pile of papers to grade that night sitting in my car. The cashier told me the total and I paid her in cash (this was before debit cards were accepted in fast food restaurants). She gave me my change and by now I bet you can guess how much it was. Exactly $.85.

I felt so ashamed of myself for not inviting the man to come in and have dinner with me. I felt ashamed of not being willing to give up that small amount of money to one of God's children.

I thanked the cashier quickly and practically ran out of the place to find the old man. He was almost to the sidewalk and I didn't know his name, so I shouted, "Hey, buddy!" How he heard me over the traffic or knew I was talking to him is still a mystery to me. But he did and turned around to find this crazy lady running down to him holding $.85 in her hand. I asked him if he still needed $.85 and he said, a little fearful of this wild-eyed woman running in heels with one hand outstretched , "Yes, ma'am." (He showed more respect to me than I did to him :( ).

I gave him the $.85 and he went straight in and bought something to eat while I stood there telling God how sorry I was that I ignored him. I would like to tell you I went back in and had dinner with him, but once he got his hamburger, he was gone and I couldn't find him.

It's a lesson I have never forgotten. Now I work very hard to realize that there are no chance meetings, only Divine appointments. If I am teaching a class and only one student shows up, it is always because that student needed some one-on-one time or wanted to talk about something that was private. While I could be grumbling about the lack of commitment of the other class members and call off class, I just can't because I know God orchestrates where we are and who we are with every hour of every day.

When you are having a busy day and you feel God nudging you to go out of your way to do something for him, don't say, "Not now, I don't have time." Don't make God shame you into doing His will because you know he could just get a rock to do it. I can tell you ignoring God is painful, like the noise of the duct cleaning. But just like the cleaning, doing what He asks is well worth it to be able to breath the sweet clean air of obedience. I try to keep all my Divine appointments these days. All because of a haggard old homeless man...or was he an angel sent to teach me? I'll never know this side of heaven.

The Backyard Wars

Yesterday was such a spring-like day that I started thinking about putting out the humming bird feeders. Now, I know it is not March yet, but I miss the pure excitement of the backyard wars.

My feeders all have at least four perches from which the hummingbirds can drink nectar. I have five feeders. So I should be able to feed at least 20 hummingbirds, right? Wrong! It seems that humming birds, like humans, can be very territorial. One humming bird will lay claim to one feeder and refuse to allow any other humming bird to have a drink, even though there is more than enough to go around. I have to refill my feeders every two days because I have so many humming birds, but that one little bird spends most of his/her time trying to unsuccessfully protect that one feeder. In fact I have heard them hit each other so hard that you would think they would crack their little noggins.

Isn't it silly how jealous one humming bird can be over a silly little feeder that, if left alone, will have enough to feed not only him, but three to five of his closest friends? There is enough to go around and the feeder is always full.

That is what jealousy looks like. When someone is in "love" but behaves jealously, we are just like the one "lord and master of the feeder" hummingbird. We surround the one we love and fight off anyone who might want to access that person for fear the other person will drink up all the sweet nectar of their love. We spend way to much effort fending off "invaders" instead of taking drink after drink of the love that is offered. That is why when God decided to talk about love, He decided to advise against jealousy. Because people don't know how to be jealous for one another like God is, we just know how to be jealous of someone.

Well, it is time to get back to cleaning the feeders since March is not far off. This year I am going to hang the feeders all in one group. The humming bird experts say that way there is so much activity that one bird can't take over a feeder. Hmmmm...Maybe that's what God wants us to do. To hang in groups so that no one feel isolated or left out. It also prevents jealousy because there is not enough energy or time to fight off everyone. Yeah, that's what I'll do, I'll make them all "groupies" so that no one gets "jealous."

Deer Hunting

Church was wonderful Sunday. None of the people came up repeatedly telling us they were sorry for our loss (maybe they read my blog). When we asked for prayer for our family we got a sort of collective "I am so sorry" and that was it. We were then allowed to enjoy the service and worship without carrying a burden of sorrow.

Things are better this week. It is a cloudy, rainy day which would depress most people, but the weather has been warm and all the frogs are "singing". My granddaughter from the city who lives with the bump, bump, bump of some one's "super woofer" either next door or traveling down the street, calls it noise, but I like to call it singing. If you sit and listen long enough, it is so soothing and relaxing it lets you forget for a time that there is anything wrong in the world.

You know, around here "deer hunting" takes on a whole new meaning. There are lots of meadows, ponds, harvested fields, and woods as you go down the road. Last year alone there were 120 "accidents" that involved a car and a deer (or two). The first year I lived here I was in the middle of town on a road bordered by two undeveloped pieces of land and I bagged my first deer with a 2000 gray Dodge Stratus, or rather he bagged me. The deer died, the deputy who came to make the report took it to process it, and it cost my insurance $3000 to fix my front end. The second deer that season, was a HUGE buck that came out of nowhere when I was about a mile from my house (they say most accidents happen within a mile of your home). Fortunately, this was not a head on collision. I swerved and he lost half his "rack" (horns for you city people) and I lost my passenger side rear view mirror. As I got out of my car to assess the damage, a neighbor pulled up to ask if I was all right. I told him yes and told him my "deer hunting" story. His response was, "I need to take you deer hunting." When I explained it was the gray car he replied," Then I need to take your car hunting." Such sympathy kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside doesn't it? By the way, that deer owes me. I saved his life by ruining his rack. And he never even said thank you or returned my rear view mirror!

So I was ready when my husband called last Tuesday to tell me he had hit a deer or rather the deer had hit him. He was about 5 or 6 miles down our road when a doe came out of the woods, jumped a fence and hit the passenger side of his gray truck (are we seeing a pattern here?). She bent the door so it wouldn't open and really messed up the back quarter panel. We figure the insurance is out about $2000 on this one. And the doe? I am afraid she got the worst end of her crash landing. She ran about as far as the meadow before she fell. The sheriff's deputy had to shoot her to keep her from lying there suffering.

One thing I have noticed with all these deer hunting all us humans is that it always happens suddenly. Most of the time, you never even see them coming and then there is the crash and the damage. Kind of the way our loss came to us last week- unexpected, sudden, and damaging. But God in His Word tells us part of the reason these things happen. Paul in writing the Corinthian church for the second time( I often wonder if they were slow learners) says in Chapter 1 verse 7, "So our hope for you is secure in the knowledge that you share the encouragement we receive, no less the sufferings we bear."

It seems to me that if there were no "bad things" that happened in our lives, then how would we recognize the good things? If we did not sin, how would we know the joy of salvation- a joy even the angels cannot feel. God does not "cause" the bad things to happen. Those are the product of either our own sin or a fallen world (yes, stuff happens). And He knows in advance that the bad things are going to happen. But Paul is saying that if nothing bad ever happens to you so that you can encourage someone else, then you have no hope. As bad as the bad things are, I think I would rather have the joy of being able to encourage someone and the security of hope.

So when the deer are hunting you, remember that it won't last forever (in "God's time" it is barely a blink of the eye), it will get "fixed" by God; you may not like how He fixes it, but He will fix it ; and you will be able to go on with your life with the hope that only God can give. So don't let the deer get you down, you'll be hunting them next November!

The Church Face

Well, today is better than yesterday. My heart is not as heavy and my soul not as downtrodden. I was even able to laugh at a totally ridiculous video someone sent us in the email. Smiles are always good, even when you are grieving.

What makes this grief so hard to work through is that we don't get to say goodbye. It's a life that is just over. It makes you think long and hard about how fragile this mortal life is.

God has been wonderful these past 28 hours. Every time I start to slip into that kind of contemplative depression that is so much a part of the grieving process, He brings to mind another piece of His word that comforts me. How do I know it is God? Because I have never memorized a single verse in my entire life I am ashamed to say. Yes, we had memory verses in Sunday School, but I stored them in short term memory just so I could say them that Sunday. You see, my mom was the Sunday School teacher.

However, I have spent many years learning about and teaching the Bible. I am finding that one thing scientists say is true. Every word you read, speak, or listen to is stored in the brain God created. Think of it like a giant computer with unlimited memory. I'm not saying to not memorize verses. I have been rereading Fahrenheit 451 and in it there is only one written Bible in the whole world and the main character has it. However, his professor friend tells him that if that Bible is destroyed (and it is) that there are people all over the country that have memorized one book of the Bible so that when the current society has destroyed itself, they can reconstruct the Bible one book at a time. Science fiction? Maybe not so much.

God had taken me today to a couple of verses that, until today, made little sense to me. James 1: 2,5 say,"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials...; If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally, and without reproach, and it will be given to him." Is God really asking me to go to church tomorrow and put on a happy face even though I feel broken inside? That's the way many Christians interpret that verse. But that is not what it means at all. It seems to me that it means feel your pain, experience your trial, but in all that don't forget what God has done and is doing in your life.

I feel joy that I have a loving Heavenly Father that cares about every little detail of my life. I feel joy that when I disappoint Him, I am still the apple of His eye. I feel joy, particularly now, that He comforts me and hides me beneath the shadow of His wing. I feel joy that He chose to save ME. Trust me, He could have made a MUCH better selection, but for whatever reason, He wanted me. He could have chosen a rock, but instead He wanted me.

That is what I feel that verse telling me right now. God is telling me NOT to put on my happy church face and NOT to say everything is fine when it is anything but fine. No, God is telling me to be who I am when I go to church tomorrow. If I feel a little standoffish, that's okay (I don't deal well with everyone saying the same, "I'm sorry for your loss." That's where the wisdom comes in. Sometimes all I need is for someone to give me a hug and say nothing.). If I feel like crying, that's okay. I have told many a person in the congregation that if you feel you have to apologize every time you cry during a service, then you are in the wrong church.

When I walk in the doors of church tomorrow, wherever I am in this painful journey, I will be the person God created me to be. There is nothing that we suffer that Christ has not already suffered and I know tomorrow, if no one in the whole building understands, He will. He has been there. done that, and got the tee shirt.

Lay Your Burdens Down

I have told you many times about my dogs. Now that all my children are grown and I am almost housebound, they have come to be like my children (don't worry Cesar, they are still dogs). Just like Cesar Millan says, I am learning a lot from my dogs. Today I have learned about burdens.

As I have told you before, my yellow lab has this "stick", at least that is what she thinks it is. It is about 6 feet long and a good 3 inches in diameter. To me, that qualifies as a log, but she seems insistent on playing fetch with her "stick". She can't even lift it unless she picks it up right in the middle. I have spent day after day watching her drag that stick around the hillside trying to carry it around. It is in fact funny to watch her try to carry that stick that is way too big for her to carry. Yet, she thinks she can handle it all alone.

Today my family is burdened. We have suffered a loss and it is painful to the very depths of our collective soul. It is at present a burden.

I have tried, just like my dog and her log, many time to carry my own burdens. I pull and tug and wear myself out, trying to handle the pain all by myself. For some reason, I seem to think I need to give God the day off and can handle this all by myself. Some days I will give the burden to God and then ashamed that I can't "handle it myself", I pick it back up and carry it a while longer. Today I couldn't do that, the burden was too heavy, too painful.

So as soon as I heard about our loss, I cried as the shock turned to acceptance, and then I went straight to God for comfort and help. The first verse He took me to was Matthew 11:28, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." It has only been a matter of hours since I was notified and already I feel weary from the burden continually pressing down on my very soul. I qualify for that one.

The next place God lead me to was Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." I know I need that. I need God to pick us up into His lap, wrap his loving arms around us, hugging us tightly, drying our tears, and saying, "There, there My children. you will probably never understand why this happened, but rest assured that I know why, I am still in control, and it will be all right."

Isn't God's Word wonderful? John 16: 20b states, "you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy." He is telling me that the heartache and grief I feel will not last forever, like it feels right now, but will someday end and He will return my joy. What a tremendous promise of hope for us, that this too shall end.

While not a day goes by that I am not grateful for the loving care of my Heavenly Father, today I am more deeply grateful than I have been in a long time. Grateful for not only His words of promise to me, but also the close relationship that we have cultivated over the years. I Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxieties on Him for He cares for you." Today, I am working on casting all my cares on Him because without Him, I couldn't make it through.

God's Representatives

Today, I would like to share a really unique kind of love, a love unlike any other I have ever experienced. The love I speak of is the love of a pastor (shepherd) for his congregation (flock). It is the most difficult type of love I have ever seen man struggle with. Here is a man or woman that is called by God and directed by God yet expected to serve at the "pleasure" of the congregation.

The denomination I belong to "votes" to accept or reject a pastor, therefore, he literally serves at the will and the whim of the congregation no matter how backslidden that congregation may be. Yet, this man is expected to also serve God first and foremost. Do you see the tension here? Add to all of this the fact that the pastor is a human being faced with all the faults and failures inherent in that condition and you can see how impossible his task is.

Yet pastors regularly visit the sick, witness to the lost, pray with the broken hearted, walk along side those that are going through difficult times (I know because a Minister of Music walked with me the two times my husband was hospitalized) and rejoice with those that are rejoicing. They are "on call" twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Many times their families will go a week or more without seeing them because they have left early to pray with someone before surgery and come home late after some church committee meeting. They also put in forty hours or more on the music that leads us to a state of worship or their sermons for Sunday in addition to all their other duties. I, personally, can't remember ever spending time with any member of a church staff without the phone ringing at least once every fifteen minutes ( sometimes once every five minutes) and people just "poking their head in to say hello, or ask a question." Yet, God gives the the patience to deal with all these interruptions and redeems the time so that they may carry out what HE has called them to do, lead the flock.

Pastors work ungodly hours for little or no pay because church's believe that the "rewards of full time ministry" should be compensation enough. The Bible states that " a workman is worth his hire" and we wouldn't hesitate to quote that scripture when asking for a yearly raise or bonus. Yet we hesitate to do the same thing for our church staff. All in all, pastoring a church must be a labor of love otherwise there would be no pastors and I haven't even mentioned the constant gossip, backbiting, feuding, lack of common respect, and criticism that is a large part of their daily diet.

The pastors I have known have somehow risen above all of these negatives to supernaturally love their people. In spite of working conditions that none of us would submit ourselves to, they find time to give a hug or a word of encouragement to all they meet. They even find time to offer Christ's love to strangers! And they love one and all unconditionally with the love of God!

Every month should be "Pastor Appreciation Month" and I believe that every person out there that has a pastor or teacher that has taken time out of an over packed schedule to talk to them or just to listen to them should start planning now a tangible way to show your appreciation. You don't have to spend a lot of money to show appreciation. We never have any trouble talking when we think something is wrong in the church so take that "talent" and use it to tell the pastor or church staff members in your life how much they mean to you. Let them know that you notice when he is tired from a busy week and offer to do some "secretarial" things for him. Offer to wash his car or take him out to a fast food restaurant for a quick bite. Take him to a coffee shop and buy him a cup of his favorite coffee or buy him a pound of a favorite coffee and present it to him as a token of your appreciation for all the hard, thankless work he puts in every day.

But the best present you can give him year round, is the permission to be human and to make mistakes. Pastors make the effort to love us not matter how unlovely we are. Now we need to take the opportunity to return that love no matter what mistakes or faults we may think exist in his life (How would you like to put your life under that microscope you look at the pastor's life through? Would you pass an inspection like that?) A simple "I love you" would probably shock the poor man/woman so badly you could be the first ones to the restaurant on Sunday!

Seriously, let's all make a concerted effort to start returning the love our pastors show every day. Like us, they, too, need to feel the love of fellow human beings. Do something today to show your pastor you love him/her. I KNOW they will appreciate it!

By the way, no, my husband is NOT a pastor and has never been a pastor. I am writing from the heart of one who has been loved, comforted, mentored and cared for by a Minister of Music and his loving wife for ten years. This is my tribute to their calling and their willingness to follow and trust in God. They have been my example and I hope one day to be as close to God and as willing to serve Him as they are.

Super Bowl?

I have been gone this week for two reasons. One was that I was homeschooling my teenage granddaughter Monday and Tuesday which is the bright spot in every week. The second is that I was busy making my house "Southern Living" perfect because we were having some friends and family over for the "Super Bowl". I was forced to do my spring cleaning and it's 23 degrees outside. Oh, well, at least it is done for this year and I can spend my spring tending to my flowers instead of my house.

What I have never understood is what makes the Super Bowl so super? Don't get me wrong. I have watched more super bowls than most women. My dad watched every one during his lifetime and what daddy watched we kids had to watch because it was too cold outside to play. So there we sat, watching the super bowl and listening to Daddy yell at the NFL team (this was so long ago that there was an AFL and a NFL with no NFC or AFC).

I thought I had "lucked out" when I married a man who just wasn't that in to football. For 30 years we didn't watch the super bowl, not even at church super bowl parties. Then came last year when a neighbor invited us to his super bowl party. We had a blast just socializing with the neighbors while the football game ran and demanded silence as the best of the best of the commercials aired.

That was that. He was hooked, not on the super bowl, but the party. His brother was suppose to host this year's "wing ding" but he had to cancel at the last minute so Phil brought the whole "kit and kaboodle" over to our house and invited the neighbors. Now all you women out there know what that means- MAJOR CLEANING. God forbid that one of those people find a dog or cat hair or a speck of dust under a bed or couch. Then there is the food that must be prepared. I must pause here and thank my loving husband. He went out and bought all the food so that I would not have to cook anything. Once again he became one of my best blessings.

The party began along with the football game. It was a good game, though I missed the best part because I was playing scrabble with the women and my step-nephew. But I could hear the whooping and hollering from the den and periodically we sent my grandson to check the score. I have never heard so much excitement over just another football game. And the disappointment the coach of the losing team felt and how he tried to get the media to focus on the "Cinderella" season his team had had.

Isn't that the way we tend to act with our significant other? I know I do. They work and work and strive for long periods of time to be loving, considerate, and caring, and all we see is the time they screw up (to quote the President). They may do a great job, say, picking up after themselves or straightening up the house, or keeping the dishes washed and the trash out, but you let them forget to carry out the trash one time and we are all over them for not doing their "job". You know, if the trash bothered us so much, why didn't we take it out?

What I am trying to say is don't let your relationship turn into a series of super bowls. Be sure to notice when he/she is helping out and going out of the way to be courteous and loving. And don't get "historical" over one mistake or slight. You see, relationships are like football seasons, they are composed of many "games" and many "wins" and some "losses". Don't boil all those "games" into one moment in time, one "super bowl", because relationships are made up of two humans that will definitely fail you multiple times. But what makes a romance is the season, not the super bowl.

Where did the enthusiasm go?

Well, the ice came but, as you can tell, there was no loss of power here (Praise God! I really mean that because I have an electric stove). But with the ice came about an inch of snow. Now, down south here, that is A LOT of snow. In fact, the lack of snow and ice is one of the reasons I live down south. With two artificial hips, it just isn't any fun anymore.

I have to tell you about Squirt when she went out this morning. Now we are talking about as 65-70 lb., 18-month-old "puppy" who has never seen snow. I couldn't go outside to experience this first hand, but I was watching from the picture window as my husband took her outside. She first had to smell the snow to try to identify what it was. When she raised her head, she had snow all over her muzzle. That's when she got excited. She began running back and forth at full tilt just like she was running ladders. Then she picked up her "stick" (6 ft. long, about 3 in. in circumference) and began running with it with the pure, unadulterated joy of one who has found something new and exciting,

I remember when I first came to know the Lord. I ran back and forth telling everyone about the wonderful new thing that had happened. I had the glow of a believer all over my face and no burden or obstacle was too much for me to handle. I lived in a state of perpetual joy and wonder at this new life God had given me.

Where has all the enthusiasm gone? I was 27 when I came to know the Lord and now I am soon to be 53 and I can tell you that the enthusiasm I had at 27 is not there. Oh, I still love the Lord and am constantly in His Word, but the joy seems to have worn off more than a little. I have allowed it to become a very comfortable (comfortable for me, not God) relationship. Where do I go to get it back?

In Revelation 2: 4-5a, it tells me that the church at Ephesus had the same problem and the Lord tells them, "Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works".
I need to go back to where I left it and start over from there (kind of like my car keys). The wonderful thing is that God allows "do overs". He allows me to go back to where I lost my enthusiasm and pick up from there the joy of my salvation. He loves me enough to allow me to repent of my sins and come back to Him.

This reminds me of a story I once heard a preacher tell. There was this older couple riding to town in their pick up truck. The wife was complaining, "We just aren't romantic anymore. We don't hold hands, you don't open doors for me, and most of all, we don't sit next to each other when we go to town anymore. Yep, I guess the romance is gone." The husband had patiently listened to his wife's complaints and with a thoughtful look replied, "Honey, who moved over?"

If we are feeling far away from God, all we have to do is move back over close to Him. He's always been there waiting for us to come back to our first love and to do the repenting we need to do to go back to doing the first things, just like we did when we were first saved. I think I going to go now and begin scooting back over towards God.