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Waiting

Posted in WONDER, tagged anger, bitterness, GOD, I deserve, John Waller, patience, pity party, Psalm 27:14, Purpose, to be pleased, Waiting, while I wait on February 26, 2013| 2 Comments »

images-1 I HATE waiting!

Convinced that at some point in my life I must have prayed for patience, and God is now ~~cursing~~ blessing me with regular experiences that will test my patience, I now avoid praying for patience, like the plague!

Within our family there are members who are natural tools in God’s hands to do this in my life. ‘Someone’ regularly makes me wait to leave for school/work in the mornings. ‘Someone’ else makes me wait to return borrowed money. ‘Someone’ else makes me wait to return text messages. And ‘someone’ else makes me wait … for everything!

UGH!

Just recently I thought I would explode if I had to wait much longer for something deeply desired, something I felt I deserved, and yet all indicators were that my only guarantee was that I would need to continue waiting, and that there was a good chance that what I was waiting for might not ever be mine in this life.

Anger and bitterness started to really pervade my thoughts.

“But, I deserve this”

“But, I have followed the rules”

“But, but, but …”

As I was having my pity party I kept hearing in my heart, “what is your purpose in life, Carole? To please Me, or to be pleased by others?”

UGH!

How do I respond with “well to be pleased, of course” to one who sacrificed His Son … for me?

And so I was brought back to my purpose, to not just please, but to live for Christ. To love Him, and to love His creatures … even the ones who make me wait!

So, while I wait, through the seasons that might never end in this life,

“I will serve You
I will worship
I will not fade
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait
… though it’s not easy …”

“Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.”
Psalm 27:14

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Make-Up Sex and Other Questions Kids Ask About

Posted in WONDER, tagged Bruce and Esther Huffman, do you still have sex?, Happy Huffmans, Kids, make-up sex, mom and dad, Questions, Seth Myers, sex in the 80's on February 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Oh ya, you decided to read my post today based totally on the title, didn’t you?

Well, all you moms and dads of cute little children, who write the cute little things their kids say, all over social media … look out! Their questions and comments may just go where my kid’s have!

While driving in the van with my daughter, the radio was playing and, as often is the case, my daughter zeroed in on the useless information that they were sharing between songs.

The information was about an article written by psychologist Seth Myers, who wrote that make-up sex ignites similar brain neuron firing to that of cocaine to an addict (I know you are dying to read the whole thing, so here is the article that Mr. Myers wrote).

Before the next song could start the question was flowing from the lips of my daughter:

“Mom, did (notice the past tense) you and Dad have make-up sex?”

Immediately I thought to myself, “why, in heavens name did I think that having an open relationship (complete with ‘ask me anything’) with our kids was a good idea?”

Then I replied, I thought rather brilliantly (yet not too direct), “honey, I think everyone has had make-up sex.”

And I sighed a breath of thankfulness that our Q&A time of testing was over 🙂

… NOT!

She was just warming up!

The next question just about floored me (for so many reasons … none of which I will share here).

“Mom” she then said, face screwed up like she had just taken a bite of a lemon, “do you and Dad s t i l l (draw that one out) have sex?”

The palms started sweating!

My only response to my daughter was (with indignation), “You know that there are couples who are in their eighties who are still having sex?”

Her facial response was a mix of shock and disgust, which (finally) silenced her!

Watch this clip of the Happy Huffmans, aka Bruce and Esther, (they have become famous for their video of them utilizing technology, and their love story as well … worth checking out too) . And if you cannot watch the entire thing, start the video at 1:40 … although shocking to my daughter, I may have been right 😉

Love it!

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More than a MARGIN-al Difference

Posted in Guest Post, WONDER, tagged clock, contributing, double hockey sticks, Dr. Richard Swenson, emotional, financial, Margin, more than a marginal difference, physical, spiritual, why am I creating margin on February 24, 2013| 2 Comments »

Dave and Susie are the bloggers at Double Hockey Sticks. They write about marriage, conflict … life.

I love reading their posts, and I feel I am becoming quite acquainted with this pair.

It always intrigues me when I read a post that seems to be exactly what I had been pondering, and that is the case when I read Why I Am Creating Margin.

The concept of margin is something that my hubby introduced to me a few years back when his medical doctor introduced him to the book, Margin, by Richard Swenson.

Like the crisp, clean space around a piece of loose-leaf paper, margin in all areas of our lives is not just a helpful, but a healthy thing to save, to plan for, to protect. In our lives today, margin is not a common concept.

We live financially from paycheck to paycheck.

We live physically medicating our ailments rather than get the rest, the physical activity, the healthy eating that could prevent some of those problems in the first place.

We live emotionally … wait, no we do not live emotionally! We live medicated due to stress and worry and fear that something might happen that stops us from ‘contributing’ to society.

We live tied to the clock!

All of this, margin-less living, means that we need to live our lives in such a way as to keep the machine going. This hinders us from living the passion-filled lives … in our jobs, in our communities (school, church, recreation), in our relationships with those we love, that our Creator breathed life into us to live.

Give the blog of Dave and Susie a read, or take a peek at the website of Dr. Richard Swenson, and consider what the margin in your life looks like.

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Numero Uno … Even in the Wreckage

Posted in WONDER, tagged Chris Tomlin, Christ, Disappointment, discouragement, Hope, Isaiah 41:10, Jeremiah 29:11, Loneliness, loss, Matthew 28:20, never alone, Numero Uno, Proverbs 18:24, where is our hope, Whom Shall I Fear on February 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Why do I forget what I know?

Why do I overlook the obvious?

Why do I look for what I need in the wrong places?

Why do I look at all, when what I need is right in front of me?

“A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Proverbs 18:24

3cc4f3db908903d40e74834f0fc5823d When we experience disappointment, loss, loneliness, discouragement … and we all will … it is important to remember that we are never alone, and that all that this Earth and life offer (people and things) is dust in the light of what god offers.

We have all had hours, days, weeks, even years when it seems as though there is no hope at all in our life. The future, whether tomorrow of every tomorrow until our last breath, can appear to us to be void of any hope.

But we have it all wrong!

Our hope is not in ourselves or our abilities.

Our hope is not in our families.

Our hope is not in our job.

Our hope is in nothing but Christ.

He is always with us … “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20

He is always for us … “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

He is our strength … “I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

This song came on the radio one day, when hope seemed lost:

“You hear me when I call
You are my morning song
Though darkness fills the night
It can not hide the light
Whom shall I fear?”

Along with the fitting lyrics of that song, were the words I had written on My Loves page, Numero-Uno. It was a good reminder to me that my hope is not in anyone, but Christ.

The words of that page were written on a ‘good’ day, but they are true for every day!

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Working Among the Thorns

Posted in WONDER, tagged 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Creator, fester, greenhouse, long-stemmed roses, look above, pricks, roses, scratched hands, source of energy, the light, thorns on February 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

photo-3 In my work position I get to introduce students to various workplaces.

We work together, sharing the experience.

Lately the experience has been at a greenhouse, where we have deadheaded, pruned and attached bug packs to hydrangea plants and rose bushes.

On one day we were working in the greenhouse filled with short and long-stemmed roses. I could not wait to get into that greenhouse! I had driven by numerous times, wondering how delightful it must be in such an lush and warm environment. I had imagined the heady scent of thousands of blossoms, and colors to brighten even a gray, rainy Pacific Northwest day.

What I got were scratched hands.

The thorns were out to get me. They scratched the skin, they poked my flesh, they even left remnants into my epidermis to fester days later (see those bad boys in the photo to the right! Downright nasty!).

The thorns became my focus once I started through the rows of roses, getting scratched and pricked. I was grumbling under my breath, wincing with each sharp contact. Soon I was not considering the plants as roses at all, but just rows of thorns, and enemies as well.

Then, in irritation, I raised my head, to peer above the thorns …

photo-1

… and everything changed.

The thorns, the scrapes, the scratches, the punctured skin were all forgotten in a vision of beauty, glorious beauty.

Row on row of perfect white roses standing straight and tall, reaching for the heaven, as if that is what they were created to do …

And it hit me, that is what they were created to do … grow up towards the light, the source of energy for the rose.

And that is what we are created to do … grow and increase in energy by focusing on the light created by and through our Creator, Savior.

It is when our eyes drift away from our Creator that the thorns begin to prick and invade our days and our lives. God is the one who lifts our head, and shows us the beauty of the roses, despite a few thorns … and we all have thorns.

“He told me,

“My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your ~~weakness~~ thorn.”

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen.
I quit focusing on the ~~handicap~~ thorn and began appreciating the ~~gift~~ roses.
It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my ~~weakness~~ thorns.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

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Life Skills

Posted in WONDER, tagged fitness, Friendship, important, irritable, kindness, learn, Learning, life skills, lifeskills, living things, Love, one another, self respect on February 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

images Recently I was asked if I could share with another person what I do when teaching Life Skills to students, and I immediately became self-conscious and intimidated at the thought of having to put what I teach into words.

To teach Life Skills is daunting. There no, one, curriculum to utilize, because each student in a Life Skills class has such very different needs to be learned, comes from a unique cognitive and developmental stage, and has specific behavioral ‘triggers’ to be either avoided or sought. The result is a ‘curriculum’ pulled together from many sources, with extremely specific (and yet, general) goals, and the only expectation (on my part) can be that an allusive ‘something’ will have been learned, that will be useful in the present and/or future life of the student.

So, what are the most important life skills to be learned?

I have come up with an acronym for the word, Life Skills:

L – Learn

be willing to learn new things, every day
(“Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance” Proverbs 1:5)

I – Initiate

be willing and able to start a friendship, a conversation
(“Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” Hebrews 10:25)

F – Fitness

be willing to keep your body active
(“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” Romans 12:1)

E – Each Other

be willing to care for each other
(“Bear one another’s burdens” Galatians 6:2)

S – Speak

be willing to speak the right things to the right people
(“speaking the truth in love” Ephesians 4:15)

K – Kindness

be willing to follow the Golden Rule … do for others what you would love for them to do for you
(“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” Ephesians 4:22)

I – Irritation

be willing to learn how to control yourself when irritated
(“love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” 1 Corinthians 13:5-6)

L – Living things

be willing to have healthy respect for living things, from peers to dogs to spiders (but not mosquitoes 😉
(“And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” Genesis 1:25)

L – Love

be willing to love and be loved
(“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16)

S – Self Respect

be willing to offer respect to yourself … don’t call yourself names, or put yourself down
(“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” Psalm 139:13)

It is all still pretty general (yet specific), and it may not what works for all, but I am really hoping it is working for the students I get to work with.

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A Freewill Offering?

Posted in WONDER, tagged Exodus, free will, freewill, freewill offtering, gifts, Giving, Israelites, Money, Moses, Offering, resources, time, tithe on February 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

7ee97921ff712da3685331b1bc56d6a1 One day a verse was read and the words ‘freewill offering’ stood out to me like neon lights in the black of a night.

What is a freewill offering?

According to my research, it is what it says; a gift of money, time or resources that is given without being forced, without the receiver even knowing that it would be given.

So, if you stay late after work to help a customer, a student, a patient … you have given a freewill offering.

If you put cash in your ‘offering’ envelope, above and beyond your normal ‘tithe’ … you have given a freewill offering.

If you make your dinner, and double the recipe, and take it to the house of a neighbor … you have given a freewill offering.

But, the concept of there being a freewill offering also indicates that we are expected to give, without choice (free will), a certain amount first.

That means we are expected to give of our time, our money, our resources.

Expected giving …

That means that some part of our whole (our whole bank account, our whole waking hours, our whole life) is not, nor has ever been our own.

It is expected that we give to our governments (“So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” Matthew 22:21), and for those of us who are followers of Christ, we give to His work, in both (not one or the other) our time and our physical resources.

And after all that ‘expected’ giving, then we give from our own free will.

To do so as a group would mean that, like the Israelites whose “hearts were stirred” to give to the tabernacle (Exodus 35), we might need to be told to stop giving.

^“They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.” Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.” Exodus 36:3-7

Imagine if we lived in such a way that our freewill giving exceeded the needs!

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Knock, Knock …

Posted in WONDER, tagged door, GOD, god does not force himself in, I stand at the door and knock, initiating, joke, knit together, knock knock jokes, knocking, knocking at the door, open the door, Psalm 139:13, responding, Revelation 3:20 on February 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Knock knock. KnockKnockV
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say “banana”?

There was a stage of my son’s childhood when the above ‘knock, knock’ joke was told multiple times a day. It seemed there was no stopping him in his quest to share the giggles he would get by telling it (usually the giggles started as soon as he started to speak).

I think that what children like about knock, knock jokes is that they get to ask us a question that we have to respond to. They are initiating, providing an opportunity for us to respond. They know how we should respond, but we do not always follow through on fulfilling that expectation (after the millionth time we hear it).

It is easy to reach the point of apathy towards what is offered to us, over and over again. We hear it, we know how we ‘should’ respond, but we do not always follow through in responding in line with what is being offered.

As I was reading from Revelations recently, I was captured by the knocking.

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:20

God is the initiator here, He is at the door, knocking.

The door this speaks of is the door to our hearts … the hearts that He first knit together in our mother’s wombs (Psalm 139:13).

And He leaves it up to us to choose, of our own free will, whether or not to open the door, and let Him in.

I think that it is common that we open the door, only to close it again, leaving the Initiator at the doorstep, maybe even many times.

But, like that preschooler with a gem of a joke to tell us, He waits, and knocks again, and again, and again. His offer is always there. He does not leave His post, continually initiating the offer of his pearls, desperate for us to see the eternal value in what He has to give.

He takes the first step and knocks, but God does not force himself in.

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“Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels”

Posted in Guest Post, WONDER, tagged dangerous words, Diane Owens, Health, it's a new day, Just a few things to ponder, Kate Moss, overall health, super size, supermodel, weight, what defines me? on February 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

cropped-life-inspirational-advice-watch-me-people-favim-com-5658391 Today’s guest post is by a lady named Diane Owens, and her blog is called “It’s a New Day … a Journey of Health and Wellness.”

Diane spent the first year of blog writing asking a question each day for 365 days. I had been captivated by that concept, and have become a regular reader since. This year, as he blog name would indicate, she is focusing on improving her overall health.

The post I am featuring today, Just a Few Things to Ponder, is about her success so far. The part that captivated me is a Kate Moss (supermodel) quote that we have probably all heard, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”

I admit, I have heard it and read it, and only felt the guilt of those words … on my abs., my thighs, etc. Diane, though, had the insight to see those words as dangerous.

As a ‘lifer’ in regards to trying to attain, maintain, and re-attain a healthier body, as well as being a mother, and one who works in a high school, I fully understand the struggle of health and weight. I fully understand the difficulty of living in a ‘Super Size’ world with waif’s on the cover of every grocery store magazine.

Diane has to come the realization that, “I now know that my body does not define me….it is simply my home that needs to be nourished properly….so I am able to live a long life and accomplish all of those other things that DO define me.” May we all come to this realization!

Check her post out! She even ends off with a few questions … good questions for us all!

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Bad Noises and Bad Smells

Posted in WONDER, tagged Aging, bad noises, bad smells, Beast, farting, flatulence, gas, humor, keep beating, Marriage, Valentine's Day on February 15, 2013| 2 Comments »

My beast is a delightful creature (just don’t ask my hubby about her), and she delights and entertains the kids and I regularly.

images Something that has been happening more frequently as she gets older (hum, reminds me of someone else in the house who is getting older and having the same issue) is gas … flatulence … farting.

This has been shocking to our delicate, female, beasty … as well as to us.

For some members of the family this is great, because now that she is participating in this bodily function more frequently, it is more feasible to blame her when she didn’t create the aroma wafting around the room … if you know what I mean (“who did that”? would be responded to with “the dog”).

Not that long ago the beast was snoring near me, while I sat weaving a tale for my blog (snoring is also something new and more frequent as she is getting older). All of a sudden a familiar noise broke the silence … and it did not come from me! Immediately the beast awoke, head up, looking at me with that trying to blame someone else for your own sins, kinda look. When I returned her stare with ‘the look’ she then sniffed her lower extremities, causing a shocked look to appear on her furry face! She immediately got up and ran up the stairs as though fleeing from a killer. Seconds later, I had personal understanding of what she was running from!

We have not changed her food or her routine, and she just got a clean bill of health from the veterinarian. The only other excuse left is that she is aging, her digestive process is slowing down.

And that is aging, isn’t it? It is not just the slowing down of the digestive process either. Our reflexes slow, our eyesight changes, the elastic nature of our skin does not spring back into place, the healing process slows, memory slows (or, as I like to think of it, our memory takes mini holidays). The only thing that does not slow down is the rate of hair growth on my legs!

Our hearts slow down too.

In our 20’s, our heart can beat up to 180 and 200 beats per minute. But at 80, it is more like 145 beats per minute. Although our heart is the engine of our bodies, most of the reasons it slows as we age are related to the heart responding to the the slowdown, misuse, poor health of other body systems and parts. If our diet is too high in fat, we might get buildup in our arteries, forcing our heart to work harder to push the blood through the more narrow passages.

As yesterday was Valentine’s Day, there are many happy hearts. But some hearts are a little heavier than happier, maybe some awaken today to feeling like the heartbeat of love has slowed to a snails pace.

Keep beating! The process of maturing in marriage can be as stinky as a dog’s farts! But, the heart is the engine of marriage, and if it feels as though you are just responding to the slowdown in your relationship, remember it is still your responsibility, your job, to keep beating.

Bad noises and bad smells, that is the reality of real marriage … can we choose to keep beating even when the air is rancid? Or, like my beast, will the smell drive you away?

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