We all need a little help sometimes. On Sunday evening, after a good bowl of home-made vegetable soup, we all sat down to watch old home movies. It was so much fun. A memory walk down over twenty-two years of our family life. We purchased our camera shortly after the birth of our first child. And like every Dad with a new gadget, my husband filmed everything Ashley, our first, did.
He documented on film her laughing, her crying, her crawling, her walking, and her eating out of the dog bowl....Yikes! (You could hear me scolding him in the background on that one!) We filmed Chad our youngest when he was able to participate in his first Easter egg hunt. We would ask, "do you see an egg?" and he would respond the same way everytime in his 2 year old delighted and oh so squeally voice "Yes, I doooo!" Adorable, at least to us.
But one of my very favorite memories that we relived Sunday night was when Ashley, who was about 3 and 1/2 years old, tried to teach her one year old sister how to play golf. Our own budding Tiger Woods first tried explaining directions on how to hit the golf ball. Next, she tried showing Molly by example. " See, you put your hand here and here. Then you swing at the ball. Look Molly!" She finally grabbed Molly's hands and put them on the club "Like this Molly". Attempts by the young student to remove her hands from the vice grip were thwarted handily by Ashley. Determined , Ash continued on. At last, the teacher was able to keep the bare tips of her young pupils fingers on the club and actually swung for her. Encourager that she was, she then said "that was great Molly!"
We all need a little help sometimes. There are times when we need some explanation. Other times we need to be shown by example. But sometimes, sometimes when we just can't do something by ourself, we need a fellow sojourner to grab us by the hand and swing for us!
Lord, I am thankful that when we need help, You are there. I praise you for your Word which instructs us, giving us directions and DIRECTION. I am overwhelmed by how over and over You show us by example how to live. How to love. So that all men will know that we are your disciples. And in those times when we keep trying to do life on our own, attempting failed swing after failed swing, you gently grab us by the hand and swing for us! I Praise You LORD!
John 13:34, 35: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Praise HIM!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Diligent Pursuit
Have you ever been on a long road trip when suddenly you looked up and noticed that there were no longer any other cars with your states' license plate on them? Where do all those cars that started out side by side with you on the highway go? When did they all exit? When did you become the lone car from your state en route towards your set destination?
I was thinking about that as I spoke with a student recently about his career plans. This young man, a senior in high school, with great theatrical talent, told me how others constantly remind him of how few people really "make it" in the theater. I agreed that those he had talked to were correct. Indeed, many of my students do dream of performing on stage or film and yet, historically only a few are living that dream. But I wanted him to focus on those who do "make it". What was different about them? Some would say it is luck. But most successful people, of any field, will tell you that what kept them on the road toward their destination was hard work. Diligence.
At just over the two week mark into 2008, I am finding that I need to be reminded of just how this "diligence" thing works. For I am quite sure that diligence doesn't mean "try hard for the first few days of the year and then coast". Nope. Diligence is defined as "constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken", "steady effort", "attentive care". Constant, earnest, steady, attentive. Not quick. Not temporary. Not rash. It is a life change that He seeks, not a momentary blink. It is a renewing and not a short term fix. It is a steady endurance of all that may come our way in order to reach our final destination. It is this constancy, earnestness, steadiness, and attentiveness that He is characterized by. So when Christ calls me to be diligent, He is calling me to follow on His road. For He himself, our Savior, traveled down a path that had a lot of exits available, none of which He took. Hebrews 12:2,3 finishes with "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. "
Lord, let me remember your own endurance of the cross when I grow weary on my sometimes long road.
Ezra 7:23 says:
"Whatever the God of heaven has prescribed, let it be done with diligence for the temple of the God of heaven..."
I was thinking about that as I spoke with a student recently about his career plans. This young man, a senior in high school, with great theatrical talent, told me how others constantly remind him of how few people really "make it" in the theater. I agreed that those he had talked to were correct. Indeed, many of my students do dream of performing on stage or film and yet, historically only a few are living that dream. But I wanted him to focus on those who do "make it". What was different about them? Some would say it is luck. But most successful people, of any field, will tell you that what kept them on the road toward their destination was hard work. Diligence.
At just over the two week mark into 2008, I am finding that I need to be reminded of just how this "diligence" thing works. For I am quite sure that diligence doesn't mean "try hard for the first few days of the year and then coast". Nope. Diligence is defined as "constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken", "steady effort", "attentive care". Constant, earnest, steady, attentive. Not quick. Not temporary. Not rash. It is a life change that He seeks, not a momentary blink. It is a renewing and not a short term fix. It is a steady endurance of all that may come our way in order to reach our final destination. It is this constancy, earnestness, steadiness, and attentiveness that He is characterized by. So when Christ calls me to be diligent, He is calling me to follow on His road. For He himself, our Savior, traveled down a path that had a lot of exits available, none of which He took. Hebrews 12:2,3 finishes with "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. "
Lord, let me remember your own endurance of the cross when I grow weary on my sometimes long road.
Ezra 7:23 says:
"Whatever the God of heaven has prescribed, let it be done with diligence for the temple of the God of heaven..."
Lord, I pray that whatever you prescribe along this long road, I will do it with diligence. For my body is Your temple, the temple of the God of heaven.
1 Timothy 4:15 reads:
"Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress."
Lord, I desire to give all my desires, dreams, and goals wholly to You, being diligent in my pursuits so that all will know I am Yours.
1 Timothy 4:15 reads:
"Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress."
Lord, I desire to give all my desires, dreams, and goals wholly to You, being diligent in my pursuits so that all will know I am Yours.
Oh Father, forgive me for so often taking the exit ramp instead of persevering down this road. Help me to stay on the path you have set before me. I await the day I arrive at my final destination, looking up into Your Devine presence. For the fullness of Your Glory awaits me! That is worth the long road!
Praise HIM!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Weather!
It's sleeting! Whoopee! Well, nothing is sticking, but boy you can hear it as it pelts down upon the street and sidewalk. And in the south, we are forever hopeful for an awakening to the big white stuff. Right this minute it sounds like there is a high-speed watermelon seed spitting contest going on right outside my window. You may not be familiar with that contest if you haven't spent a warm, sunny summer in little town, South Carolina. But take my word, it is one that is performed with pride at any number of our June, July, or August celebrations. It could happen at the Peach Festival, the Okra Strut, or even at the Annual Chitlin Strut (don't ask). I love this place. And right now, I'm loving the small slimmer of hope that the weather man has put out there for SNOW!
What a great God we have! That He, the creator of the universe, would take the time to give a bunch of middle aged grown ups and their kids, reason to run around outside in their jammies celebrating the momentary change in seasons! Ah, though it may last only an hour or two, it has filled our hearts with joy!
What a great God we have! That He, the creator of the universe, would take the time to give a bunch of middle aged grown ups and their kids, reason to run around outside in their jammies celebrating the momentary change in seasons! Ah, though it may last only an hour or two, it has filled our hearts with joy!
Acts 14:17
Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."
Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."
Praise HIM!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Question
Have you ever felt so deeply for someone who later rejected you? If you have, you probably know the constricted feeling in your throat, that awful tightness, that comes as you try to hold back tears when he or she calls after a long bout of silence. So, here is my question. Do you think that God Himself, who longs for a relationship with us all, gets that same choked up feeling when He is rejected by one that He created?
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
the transformation
Oh how much I would love to hug whoever came up with THE FOOD NETWORK concept! I think my husband and children would share that sentiment with me. Over the past 25 years of marriage I have cooked. Good, home cooked meals. But with very little variety in the dinner menu. Food Network changed all that! Do you watch any of the shows? My daughter Ashley and I were watching Rachael Ray in her 30 Minute Meals show last evening. We both commented on how much we admire how she conducts her show, which is really a lesson. She starts out by grabbing our attention and then grabs all the ingredients. Even the gathering of her ingredients from the fridge and shelf looks like fun, piling things all into her "garbage bowl" to carry it over to the counter. She then sets out with such intensity in heating the pan, dropping in some "EVOO", and dicing up the onions, garlic, or other vegetable. She grasps her knife with great zeal and begins to cut up a chicken breast, all the while telling us alternative ingredients we can use. It is this intensity and zeal that is so contagious. And always true to her shows name, a delicious meal is all plated and ready to eat in "just 30 minutes".
I think it is her attentiveness to her audience and their busy life that makes this show so successful. For although the purpose of the show may be to demonstrate how to change simple staples into a wonderful meal, the real beauty is that she has changed simple viewers into cooks. All this because she tells us we can and then shows us how. Replacing thoughts like "there is nothing to cook" with "there is something here I can put together". Substituting feelings of inadequacy at the stove top with knowledge of how to whip up a great dish in no time. That is empowerment! You just gotta love a gal like that.
What Rachael has managed to do for lowly kitchen slaves like me, our God has been doing since time began for all men. Transforming the lives of lowly sinners into people who live and serve and become ever more like HIM.
Philippians 3:21"who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."
Who replaces thoughts of "I'll never be good enough" with the truth that HE alone is good enough!
Romans 8:1-3"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering"
Who substitutes the wages of my filth and sin with the willing sacrifice of His precious atoning blood. Blood spilled for me. For us.
1 Peter 1: 18-19:"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."
You just gotta love a God like that!
Praise HIM!
I think it is her attentiveness to her audience and their busy life that makes this show so successful. For although the purpose of the show may be to demonstrate how to change simple staples into a wonderful meal, the real beauty is that she has changed simple viewers into cooks. All this because she tells us we can and then shows us how. Replacing thoughts like "there is nothing to cook" with "there is something here I can put together". Substituting feelings of inadequacy at the stove top with knowledge of how to whip up a great dish in no time. That is empowerment! You just gotta love a gal like that.
What Rachael has managed to do for lowly kitchen slaves like me, our God has been doing since time began for all men. Transforming the lives of lowly sinners into people who live and serve and become ever more like HIM.
Philippians 3:21"who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."
Who replaces thoughts of "I'll never be good enough" with the truth that HE alone is good enough!
Romans 8:1-3"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering"
Who substitutes the wages of my filth and sin with the willing sacrifice of His precious atoning blood. Blood spilled for me. For us.
1 Peter 1: 18-19:"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."
You just gotta love a God like that!
Praise HIM!
Monday, January 7, 2008
The Modem
Modem:–noun1.an electronic device that makes possible the transmission of data to or from a computer via telephone or other communication lines.
–verb 2.to send or receive information, data
To all you much more technologically savvy friends, you already knew this definition. I had heard the word tossed around several times never giving it much thought since my husband is my very own "go-to man" when it comes to anything techie. Typing I can do. Surfing I can do. But reconfiguring or rebooting or re-anything is way out of my area of expertise. And so, I didn't really understand a modem's use or it's importance. Until it stopped working. So now you know why I have been off-line the last several days. My husband has been out of town and I was home with a broken computer.
I cannot even count the number of times I attempted to connect to the internet. Last evening, after much long-distance coaxing from my husband, I even tried to unplug lines and re-start the computer. Then I finally gave up on the methods I had tried and I called for help. Did you know that the Time-Warner cable technical support team was just waiting for me to call? Emily, the precious tech, pronounced the diagnosis right over the phone! She thought the modem didn't work. She was right. The cable worked. The computer worked. But the little electronic device that transmits incoming and outgoing data had seen it's final day. Therefore, even with power, the internet was inaccessible. I only wish I had not waited for days to call.
I've experienced this before. Oh, not with the cable. But with my own faith walk. Maybe you have had these times yourself. Times when you desperately try over and over to reconnect. Furiously attempting to create a breakthrough. Knowing full well that there was a problem. But not wanting to give in to defeat. All the while slipping deeper and deeper into "the mud and mire". Allowing our heart to harden slowly, becoming less sensitive to His prompting. What I have learned, mostly the hard way, is that I should just give up. Call for help. Those of you who know our Savior know what I always re-discover. God Himself, the God of the universe, has been waiting for me to call. Waiting to lift me out and "set my feet" back on a rock, giving me a "firm place to stand". Waiting to transmit His forgiveness and mercy through my own little modem, a heart now ready to receive.
Oh gracious Father, forgive me when I am slow to call out to you. When I continually try to do it on my own. And yet, when I do cry out to You, You respond. Thank you for answering my call. Always.
Psalm 40:1-2, 17
"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."
17 "Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay."
Praise HIM!
–verb 2.to send or receive information, data
To all you much more technologically savvy friends, you already knew this definition. I had heard the word tossed around several times never giving it much thought since my husband is my very own "go-to man" when it comes to anything techie. Typing I can do. Surfing I can do. But reconfiguring or rebooting or re-anything is way out of my area of expertise. And so, I didn't really understand a modem's use or it's importance. Until it stopped working. So now you know why I have been off-line the last several days. My husband has been out of town and I was home with a broken computer.
I cannot even count the number of times I attempted to connect to the internet. Last evening, after much long-distance coaxing from my husband, I even tried to unplug lines and re-start the computer. Then I finally gave up on the methods I had tried and I called for help. Did you know that the Time-Warner cable technical support team was just waiting for me to call? Emily, the precious tech, pronounced the diagnosis right over the phone! She thought the modem didn't work. She was right. The cable worked. The computer worked. But the little electronic device that transmits incoming and outgoing data had seen it's final day. Therefore, even with power, the internet was inaccessible. I only wish I had not waited for days to call.
I've experienced this before. Oh, not with the cable. But with my own faith walk. Maybe you have had these times yourself. Times when you desperately try over and over to reconnect. Furiously attempting to create a breakthrough. Knowing full well that there was a problem. But not wanting to give in to defeat. All the while slipping deeper and deeper into "the mud and mire". Allowing our heart to harden slowly, becoming less sensitive to His prompting. What I have learned, mostly the hard way, is that I should just give up. Call for help. Those of you who know our Savior know what I always re-discover. God Himself, the God of the universe, has been waiting for me to call. Waiting to lift me out and "set my feet" back on a rock, giving me a "firm place to stand". Waiting to transmit His forgiveness and mercy through my own little modem, a heart now ready to receive.
Oh gracious Father, forgive me when I am slow to call out to you. When I continually try to do it on my own. And yet, when I do cry out to You, You respond. Thank you for answering my call. Always.
Psalm 40:1-2, 17
"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."
17 "Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay."
Praise HIM!
Computer issues
Our computer has been out. I'll post again this evening! Thanks to all my blogging friends who I have missed visiting!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Still
It still happens. Mornings that I awake to a sense of uncertainty. A vague uneasiness that wafts its way into my day. A cloud of self-doubt that hovers over me, encircling every thought. And as I kneeled on my floor earlier, I knew I must confess this return of insecurity. I didn't want the disquiet of my soul to be how I started this year.
I was taken back to a memory that was made just short of four years ago. It was a warm April afternoon and my Mom wanted to go out on the front porch. My father and I carried her and helped her into a small lawn chair. She had been diagnosed with lung cancer just two months earlier, leaving her frail and weak. As she sat on the chair, I sat on the step below, leaning my head against her knee. She gently scratched my head. I can still hear the crackling sound as my hair moved about on my scalp. The sun, peeking through the canopy of trees, poured it's warmth down on my head, increasing with the every touch of my mom's hands. I remember the profound sense that pounded in me "remember this Kim, don't let this memory go un-marked". It was such a time of uncertainty. I realized that this could be one of the last times that my Mom would be my Mom. That she would be mothering me. Comforting me. Touching me. Me, her little girl, sitting at her feet. No words were spoken. It was just the stillness of the moment. A peace permeated through the uncertainty as I sat there just being her child. It is a treasure I will always cherish.
And so as I knelt at the foot of the bed this morning, the Lord reminded me of the peace and certainty He offers. If I will just sit at His feet. In the stillness of the moment. Just being His child.
Psalm 46:10-11 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Praise HIM!
I was taken back to a memory that was made just short of four years ago. It was a warm April afternoon and my Mom wanted to go out on the front porch. My father and I carried her and helped her into a small lawn chair. She had been diagnosed with lung cancer just two months earlier, leaving her frail and weak. As she sat on the chair, I sat on the step below, leaning my head against her knee. She gently scratched my head. I can still hear the crackling sound as my hair moved about on my scalp. The sun, peeking through the canopy of trees, poured it's warmth down on my head, increasing with the every touch of my mom's hands. I remember the profound sense that pounded in me "remember this Kim, don't let this memory go un-marked". It was such a time of uncertainty. I realized that this could be one of the last times that my Mom would be my Mom. That she would be mothering me. Comforting me. Touching me. Me, her little girl, sitting at her feet. No words were spoken. It was just the stillness of the moment. A peace permeated through the uncertainty as I sat there just being her child. It is a treasure I will always cherish.
And so as I knelt at the foot of the bed this morning, the Lord reminded me of the peace and certainty He offers. If I will just sit at His feet. In the stillness of the moment. Just being His child.
Psalm 46:10-11 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Praise HIM!
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