"I Need to Touch You!"

Our family loves a good movie and especially a true story.  This weekend we were in ABQ for the final soccer tournament of the season (they fought hard!) and with the games ending by 2:30 on Saturday, we neaded to the theater to see "The Blind Side".

When I was pregnant, I would cry at coffee commercials, sob at Hallmark commercials and had to give up watching any Movie of the Week special!  As I've aged, mostly from lack of hormones, I don't get quite so emotional.

I cried through this movie.

I became teary-eyed when I watched this young man walking down a street, homeless and abandoned.  I dabbed my eyes when he said he had never had a bed.  I cried at his joy over buying a new shirt and by the time he played football at Ole Miss I was weeping.  I was a blithering idiot watching the joy this family had found in opening their home and heart to someone.

This keeps going through my head:  I may not be able to change the world, but for one person I can change their world.

Where is God leading in all this?  I do not know.  I do know I'm being stretched in my preconceived ideas; challenged in my judgements and brought to repentence through His sweet Spirit.

A few weeks ago, I walked by a class at church and one of my little friends called to me in her sweet African accent, "Keeem!  Come here!  I need to touch you!"

Words from the mouth of a babe.

Who needs our touch today?  Whose world can we change?  Whose eternity can we impact?  Where is He leading and am I truly willing to go?

I am so struck by the thought that somewhere out there, someone needs us!  Someone needs a family.  Someone needs a friend.  Someone needs hope.  God's hope. 

Someone needs to touch us.

Father, my heart is broken for those who are alone.  Show me what to do.  Lead me where you want me to go.  Open doors, Father.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for my couch at this moment.  I can sit back, kick my feet up and use my son's computer to keep in touch.

I am thankful for technology.  Computers, phones, ipods - love all of it!

I am thankful for the Off Button on all this technology.  I love the quiet.  Especially in the afternoon when it's reading time.  No computers, music or tv's, just books and silence.

I am thankful for washing machines.  With all the laundry I do, I can't imagine doing it by hand and line-drying. 

I am thankful for the home friends are building and how God has proven Himself so large in their lives!

I am thankful for time to go to Oklahoma and visit friends and family.  And I'm praying those contractions Aunt Kelli were having today prove productive before I have to come back home!

I am thankful for babies.  That's sweet, gurgling, peeing, pooping, spitting bundles of joy that remind us how much God loves this world.

I am thankful for Thanksgiving - I love this Holiday!  My favorite season of the year!

I am thankful for all of those who read this blog and I pray blessings on their life today, In Jesus Name!

Thankful for America

I am so thankful for my country.

For years, I have taught different children's classes from the book "The Light and the Glory for Kids" which tells about the journey of the Puritans and their dream of a new country.  It's stuff most history books leave out yet its' documentation is straight from the pages of diaries, ship manifests and original documents from the time period.

Thanksgiving is truly a Christian holiday.  It was not a holiday to thank the Indians.  It was not a holiday to praise the harvest moon.

It was a feast to give thanks to the one True God who brought them through deep waters, famines and gave them food through new friends.

It is my favorite Holiday.

This past week we celebrated Veteran's Day.  Twenty plus folks from our church met and cheered for our veterans.  We had signs and our kids waved flags.  We shouted, "Thank You! as loud as we could and cheered our own Blue Star parents as they walked with pictures of their kids.

I was privileged to be able to stand with one of my little friends whose big brother is an Army Ranger.  Both my little friend and his brother are not native-born Americans - but they got here as soon as they could!

My Little Friend has been here in America almost one year.  I remember holding him the day after he arrived and thanking God that they call made it home safely.  He's a quiet little guy and seen so much in his little lifetime.   But our Country has once again proven a safe haven for those in need.

I am thankful that our Country, as great has it has been and holding still so much potential for future greatness, is still a safe haven.

I am thankful that we can stand on a street and wave our flags and shout Thank You to so many deserving Veterans!

I am thankful for those who have served and continue to serve!

So "Happy Thanksgiving!" everyone!  Don't forget why we are thankful and to whom All Praise and Thanksgiving is due!

A Better Place

It must be obvious from recent posts that I've been in a weird place.  God takes us through growing seasons;  different lessons to learn at different stages of life.

When I was probably 10 years I began having trouble sleeping.  My mind raced!  It was great for my creativity.  I would lay in bed and write stories and songs in my mind.  I would read late at night.  I can remember vividly seeming how many things I could think about at once.  I thought this was normal.

In college, I learned that not everyone's mind acts in this fashion!  In band, I found it fascinating that I could read music, my fingers play the notes and my mind be studying something else.  I used to keep a  study sheet on my music stand so I could review notes during band.  Again, I learned that not everyone could "multi-task" like this.

Coping skills have abounded in my life and years ago realized it was Adult ADD - not ADHD - there's not a hyper bone in my body - just in my mind!  I've taken medications off and on to help.  There are times of insomnia and a racing mind, but at least  I know I'm not crazy!  I once remember telling a doctor, "I don't want you to think I'm crazy.  I don't hear other voices in my head, just my own voice carrying on many conversations."

There are times I question God's design.  Sometimes I've felt worthless or ineffective and have struggled with this feeling of insignificance.  How can God use a defective tool?

Two very good friends who once shared an office with me have probably showed me the post patience!  When I'm wound up, I can sound like machine gun talking!    I become even more emphatic in my opinions (yes that is possible).  Thanks Girls!

Anyway, this is what I've struggled with lately.  Finding my own purposed beyond the obvious.

With my computer being on the outs (I'm using my daughter's!), I've resorted to hand-writing my journal.  In frustration I begin writing:

"A brilliant mind!  Yeah right.  Going all the time.  Brilliant like a diamond, a multi-facted object that reflects light at any angle. . ."  Here God began talking to me.

Yes.  A diamond.

Ever seen a raw diamond.  Pretty ugly.  They are born under extreme heat and pressure.  They may be buried deep in the earth or in some places, lay on top of the soil.  In the raw, they do not resemble anything precious.

It takes a master craftsman to take that ugly rock, put it under his knife and began to chisel away imperfections.  Sometimes the cuts are big and ugly - just get the gunk off.  Sometimes they are precise and tedious.  Painful?   But to be a piece of art, this diamond must be examined, turned, cut;  it must endure the Master's hand.  He alone sees the finished project in his mind's eye.  He alone knows what cuts are required to perfect his Master piece.

The facets are designed - they are purposeful.  They are numerous, flat aspects to the gemstone.  They reflect the light of in various directions, in different colors.  They make it sparkle!

I heard God telling me that morning: those facets which are my numerous thoughts are used by God for his reflection.  I am not a one-dimensional person.  I have many sides.  Numerous cuts.  Some by God.  Some by life's circumstances that God has taken and with his precision hand, cut and polished and worked into His design.

And, what's at the bottom of this diamond?  A point!  God has a point for me.  He will use my facets.  He will polish me.   Sometimes, He provides rest and let's me take a breather.  Other time, he puts me under his intense light and let's me Sparkle!

I'm staying in the Master's cutting table.  I hope you know what God has a design for you, too.  Nothing is by accident.  No pain is too great that he cannot take it and make a beautiful adornment.

Hmmmm. . .  maybe this explains my fascination with diamond jewelry!  Rings, solitaires, necklaces. 

Just maybe. . ..

Crossroads

Standing here at a Crossroads, wondering which way to go.  What is best for the family, where would God have us go?

Standing here at the Cross, looking for God's answers.

Shhhhh. . .

Our sermon this morning? 

Be still.  Know, "I am God."

Shhhhh. 

Listen to what He says.

Get quiet.  Sit down at His feet.

Years ago, God gave me the scripture, "and having done all, stand."  Just be still and let God do the battle.

Shhhhh..........