The truth about the Easter Bunny (and Santa too)

Hopefully this won't completely embarrass the beautiful young woman that God has blessed me with as a daughter, but this story shows so much of her heart - and so much of how I think we should come to God in gratitude.

When my daughter was about 6 or 7 we were getting ready for Easter. Her birthday is in April, so most years, Easter is close. Always a lot going on between home, birthday preparations and gifts, church preparations, Easter bunny gifts and whatever else craziness was happening in our life at the time.

Somehow, in all the rush, she realized that Mommy was really stressing out over things that had to be done, and put it together in her head that I was making the Easter bunny happen too. It wasn't something I didn't have to worry about. She asked me "Mommy, are you the Easter bunny?"

Stop, breathe, decide how to answer . . .

"Yes baby, I'm the Easter bunny. Does that make it less special for you?"

Her response will remain in my heart for the rest of my life.

"No Mom, it makes it more special, because its you and you do so much other stuff too."

Oh yes - I hugged that child. Big time.

That's how I feel about my Lord. Every little miracle, every thing of beauty I see - I know it comes from Him. I don't believe that in happenstance - I believe that God is especially fond of me (of all of us - see John 3:16) and that makes everything that much more special. Every laugh, every friend, every joy, even every tear, comes from His hand for me, His child. That makes me feel very loved.

Now the funny ending to the story.
After our little moment over the Easter bunny, she was walking away, then stopped - turned - looked at me and said:

"Santa Claus too?"

"Yes sweetie, Santa Claus too."

And with a heavy sigh and "I thought so" retreated to her room to process these revelations.

You know, we really don't need fairy tales, we just need to know who loves us.

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. Luke 10:21

Pray for the folks in OK

Ardmore, OKLAHOMA (BNO NEWS) -- At least 9 people have died after a large tornado devastated Long Grove in Oklahoma last night, Carter County Sheriff Ken Grace told BNO News on Wednesday.

Sheriff Grace told BNO News that at least 9 people were now confirmed to have died after the storm struck the city. Some reports say that sirens in Long Grove did not work, leaving the residents unprepared as an F5-tornado raged through the city.

"It's like a war zone down there, a war zone," the sheriff told BNO News. He said more than 50 people have been injured and that at least 81 people are missing at this time. Rescue workers are continuing the search for survivors and casualties, he added.

http://www.bnonews.com/news/105.html

A new look (for me at least) at an old parable

I figure when God wakes me up with a passage of the Bible in my mind, I would be well advised to get up, find it and read it. Particularly when it is completely out of the blue - no sermons, no reading, no nothing along the lines of this one.

What was it? The parable of the ten virgins, Matthew 25:1-13

"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep."At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' " 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Growing up in my Southern Baptist church, this was always about being ready for the Lord's return. Which in my head meant, I gotta be good, I gotta be ready, I gotta be something, or else Jesus is going to come back and I'm getting left. Well, I know that's not so, and it hit me reading this time, that that's not what God is telling me with this story right now.

See, before waking up in the morning with this parable in my head, I went to bed praying for my future. Some very specific prayers for direction, wants and needs.

Here's what God has spoken to my heart with this story.

Be ready for what's coming. Keep my oil jars full and my lamps clean.
Get prepared - have my house, my finances, my health, my work, and everything in my life that I can, in order. Then when the amazing opportunity, the amazing gift, the amazing future, that God has coming for me this year, arrives - I'm ready to walk right into it.

So, I'm listening and taking care of things that I've been procrastinating about. I'm going to be ready.

My Thanksgiving Top 10 List

Thinking about Thanksgiving and being thankful. I have so many things to be thankful for - little things, big things. Some things I'm thankful for are a good night's sleep, soft sheets, a beautiful sunrise, purple flowers and more, but here are . . .

the top ten things I'm thankful for

#10
Two home "disasters" that God used for good. Because of the apartment flood of '07, we were able to get new furniture. Because of the townhouse flood of '08, we were able to re-floor/carpet/tile and paint our townhouse. We now have a comfortable, beautiful home.

#9
My job. As frustrating as my work can be sometimes, I'm so thankful for the smart, creative people I have the pleasure of working with. And in this economic season, I'm so thankful to have a career in Internet marketing that is actually on an upswing.

#8
eMail, Facebook, Twitter and other online social networking tools. I've made so many new friends and reconnected with so many old friends through Facebook and Twitter. It's been wonderful.

The new friends I've made this year. Thanks for being part of my life.

The old friends I've reconnected with. Some of you have helped me through some really hard times the past couple of years, some of you have just been fun to laugh with again. A couple have been both. :-) All of you, I'm glad you're back.

#7
My health. I'm in much better health today than I was two years ago - physically and mentally. Good checkups this year are definitely a blessing when I hear about so many that struggle with physical challenges, sickness and disease.

#6
My bestest, best friends. I am fortunate to have a posse of "ya-yas" that I know I can count on. You've taken me to the emergency room, hugged me when I was crying, listened to my insanity, drank way too much wine with me, laughed until we cried, shared meals with me, shared my joys and my sorrows, loved my kid and at least one of you has always been available when I needed to talk. You have been a manifestation of God's grace in my life. You know who you are! I love you.

#5
My church and church family. I am so blessed to be part of a great church family. I get to sing with the worship team, do theater, laugh, fight, love and share life with this wonderful group of folks. I love dearly the group of folks that I do worship with each week.

#4
My brothers and their families. I have amazing big brothers and they both married wonderful women that I am proud to call sisters. No matter how old I get, my big brothers are still my big brothers - I love them so much. I love my nephews and nieces and only wish we could all be together more often.

#3
My parents. Mom and Dad have been my biggest fans and my most stalwart supporters throughout my life. I'm blessed to live close to them.

#2
That I was blessed with an absolutely amazing daughter. Smart, funny, thoughtful and beautiful. We are the real life Lorelai and Rory (mom and daughter from the TV show "Gilmore Girls") and life in our house is a ton of fun and full of love.

and the number one thing I'm thankful for?

#1
Jesus Christ. Having a relationship with the world's only perfect man is what keeps me sane. His love and grace sustains me.

Happy Thanksgiving.
Keep an attitude of thanks no matter what is happening in your life and you absolutely open yourself up for God to work miracles - I believe that completely.

Control is crazy.

Don's sermon at PICC brought this chick to her knees before the Most High God. That was the topic of the sermon, El Elyon - Most High God. (aside - PICC's updated website has Messages on Demand so if you're interested you can listen to the sermon here.)

So - during the sermon, I took some major body blows.

• Punch 1 - My greatest struggle is not being in control. ouch
• Punch 2 - Do I trust in God Most High, or am I going to do what I thing is best and convenient for me? oouuff
• KO punch - Every time I try to control my life, I am making myself "most high god." She's down for the count folks.

The worst part is, I've fought this fight before, yet here I am again dancing around the same ring. So, where does this need to try and control things come from? Pretty basically, fear. For me, fear of what the future holds for me. The fear masks itself as impatience sometimes - but when you get right down to it . . . and call it what it is . . . it's fear that God really isn't going to act on His promises for my life.

So - how to respond to fear? Not with trying to manipulate or control to make things work out MY way, but with understanding what God says about it.

2 Timothy 1:7 says (my paraphrase) God doesn't give me a spirit of fear; but a spirit of power, love and a clear mind.

The clear mind is an important cue - when I find myself going all "crazy girl" about things - I need to step back and realize where that's coming from, 'cause it 'sho 'nuff ain't coming from God's spirit!

It's coming out of a frightened little girl inside me, who isn't listening to her Abba Father.

It's been awhile - and another flood

Yep. Another inside the house flood. God works in some mysterious ways His wonders to perform. I came home from work on September 2 to find water spraying at high pressure out of my hot water heater's expansion tank. I don't know how long it had been going - but the result was having to replace all the carpet downstairs and the linoleum in the downstairs bathroom. Also living with blowers and dehumidifiers for a week and a half - and without hot water for almost a month. (Well, I've been single and celibate for almost 3 years now, maybe I needed the cold showers!) :-) Tonight, I'm sitting in my living room that is freshly painted - but the floor is only plywood and the toilet from the downstairs bathroom is still sitting out here next to the couch - very convenient!

The first miracle in all this? The downstairs of our house is getting completely upgraded with the insurance settlement. Tile, hardwood floors and new carpet; also freshly painted walls. It's going to be awesome.

God is great - Jevovah Jireh - God our provider.

The other major blessing in all this? I am learning, and Elizabeth is learning, to really TRUST.

God is Sovereign.

Really, really. (If you've seen Shrek 2000 times like me, you got that)

God has our best in His heart. I am a child of the King. Elizabeth has seen me trusting God through some of the most difficult times a family can go through. When she walked into "Flood, Part Deux" she found me, drenched, standing in the living room, saying over and over "all things work together for good, all things work together for good, all things work together for good. . . " Water was still spraying everywhere - we were trying to find someone to come cut the water off (neither of us had the physical strength or Lineman's plyers to do it) and I was kind of freaking out - but I was claiming, out loud, that God was going to use this for our good. And He has. Over the past years, I've gotten to a state of total dependence - it has NOT been an easy place to get to, but I have to say I'm glad I'm here.

Oh yeah, and another way God used this seeming "mess" - a friend and brother in Christ that needed construction work is taking care of all our repairs/redos. Another friend of ours said to me last Sunday, "I'd been praying for _____ to get some work, but I didn't mean it to be at your expense!"

I just say "Thanks be to God for your glorious grace"

. . . and my new wood floors. :-)

I gotta have more cowbell

One of the funniest Saturday Night Live skits ever is the Will Ferrell, Christopher Walken spoof of VH1's Behind the Music featuring Blue Oyster Cult. I read a post the other day from Copyblogger titled "The Secret to Captivating Content? More Cowbell!"


What I loved about the post was that it went a totally different direction than I thought from the title. Here's a short excerpt to explain.

Someone came up with the idea for this sketch simply because they paid closer attention to (Don’t Fear) The Reaper than most everyone else. It’s the same with copy… the copywriter who digs deeper into product research and the mindset of the prospect often finds the gem that others don’t see, which leads to a killer promotion.

My first thought was that the post would be about maximizing the cowbell - the attention grabbing noise. But it wasn't, it was totally about someone who paid closer attention to (Don’t Fear) The Reaper, heard the cowbell and saw the potential for a hilarious bit. Now, I'm not posting this on the wrong blog, I promise, I'm going somewhere with this.

The secret to a captivating faith is the same thing. More cowbell.

To me "more cowbell" means -

Not just skimming the Bible, but really reading, paying close attention and seeing something meant just for me.

Paying attention to people, to relationships, digging deeper into those I love and finding the hidden things to maximize in them. And also doing that for myself.

Jesus is the master of finding more cowbell in people. He saw the potential in Peter immediately.

And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter ). Matthew 1:42