Black Friday

I went Christmas shopping with a friend yesterday, on the biggest shopping day of the year. We braced ourselves for the traffic, the crowds, and the long lines, but were surprised to find that it wasn't that bad at all. In fact, in one store the checkout people were waiting for us! The worst part was when we were ready to eat breakfast (it was actually close to lunchtime and we were very hungry) we found out why the stores were not too busy. The people were all at Cracker Barrel! No kidding, not a single parking space to be found. So we drove to Starbucks and settled for a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee that could put hair on your face! We got them to brew some Christmas Blend, since it's Christmas time and we didn't want any Thanksgiving Blend because that would ruin our Christmas spirit. After all, Thanksgiving is over and it's just not right to drink Thanksgiving Blend in those fun Christmasy red cups!
So, we drank all we could of the overpriced, way-too-strong Christmas Blend, then went to Dunkin' Donuts for dessert and another cup of coffee; not too strong, but not that great either.
At least the donuts made up for it. Oh, and quality time with a friend.

I've been busy and haven't blogged lately. Besides the daily wife and mother things, most of my time has been consumed with the launching of the 2009 women's ministry at Cedar Creek. Many women have jumped on board and are already involved in making next year happen. Meetings are taking place all over town. Bible studies are in the works, publicity materials are in the making, menus are being planned, prayers are going up, creativity is happening, and teams are formulating strategies to meet needs. It is so exciting to see so many women plugging in to service in the body of Christ!

I can't wait to see what God will do through women's ministry at Cedar Creek in 2009 and beyond. May we always watch for where He is moving and then join Him there!

Goodbye, Midnight

I've got the "blahs" today. Yesterday we had to have our sweet dog Midnight put down. She was not doing well for a couple days, so we took her to the vet and found out she had a tumor.
She was the best dog. So gentle and obedient. The house is very strange without her. We will miss her for awhile. We had a "routine", ya know?
The kids already want to know if we're going to get another dog. Mr. Soren and I aren't ready to go there yet. It would be hard to replace such a great dog as Midnight.

Sample E-devotion

Here's the daily devo I sent out today to the Wed. night ladies class. It's based on Calvin Miller's book, "Love: Cultivating Spirit-Given Character":


Day 2: The Purpose of God in My Life
Read Genesis 21:1-6

God's love is inseparable from His grace. The gifts that He gives us show His grace, and the grace that He gives us shows His love. See how you can't have one without the other? Because His very essence IS love, He is naturally full of grace toward us.
If we look at our passage in Genesis, we see that "The Lord was gracious to Sarah...and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised. Sarah became pregnant." Though it might have seemed like odd timing to Sarah (remember, she laughed at the notion of having a baby when she was older than most grandmothers, and even named her baby Isaac, meaning "laughter"!), as it turned out, God new the perfect time and the perfect way to show His love to her. Though God's promises sometimes seem dormant, they are never dead. Because He is love, His heart is compelled to give. Grace in its most basic meaning is "gift". Sarah held that sweet little Isaac and easily saw that God is love.
We thank God for His gifts when we say "grace". If we see a ballerina gifted with poise, balance, and interpretation, we say she is graceful. When we talk about the many blessings and gifts that God gives us, we say He is gracious.
So how are we to see the purpose of God in our lives? Scripture says we are His ambassadors. Our feet carry His message. Our hands reach out as His hands. Our minds hold His vision. Our hearts beat with His compassion, all in the name of love.
Sarah's story reminds us that our relationship with God is not one-way. He is not stationary on His throne merely listening to incoming requests, but otherwise uninvolved. He is in the middle of our lives, graciously giving His love. And our purpose in this life is to give Him glory by being the vessel through which He can show that "grace-love" to others. Now that's purpose!

Questions:
1. Do you know what God's purpose is for your life? Explain.

2. Do you show God's love to others? In what ways?

A New Study

Last night our Wed. night ladies class finished up our study entitled "You Matter More Than You Think". We had a great time learning about how all our efforts, big and small, make a difference in other people's lives, and the more we realize that, the more we will want to make that difference!
Next week we will begin a study, "Cultivating the Fruit of Love". But starting today, I'm sending all the ladies an e-devotion, with some thoughts and a couple questions to ponder and journal about. Then we will discuss some questions together on Wednesday. We've never done this format before, so I hope it works! I know that God can take any measly effort of ours and do His wonders with it, so I'm counting on that! I also have the blessing of a fun, accepting, forgiving, nurturing bunch of women to lead on Wednesdays. They are a joy and I learn much from being with them each week. They are gifts to me!

Beauty Instead of Ashes

Just got back from a women's conference here in Fort Wayne. Enjoyed some great worship (and I pray God did too!) led by all women--including a complete band! There were also some dancers expressing their adoration and praise to God through movement. Pretty cool.

We heard several keynote and workshop speakers.
The theme of the weekend was "Beauty Instead of Ashes", taken from Isaiah 61. I love the King James rendition of this passage:
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. Is. 61:3

You don't have to look very hard to find women who are struggling. So many are still trying to shake off the ashes; so many are mourning; so many are weighed down with a spirit of heaviness. Is there something God is asking us to do? Is there someone in your circle of influence that God wants to minister to and begin healing through something you might do or say? Are we open to being instruments through which God can offer beauty, joy, or praise to someone who is hurting? I pray I'm not too busy to encourage others along the way. Jesus was busy. Really busy. But He wasn't too busy to offer love to those mourning and in despair; those who were abused; those who were neglected; those in the grip of sin; those who were depressed or grieving. May we all be alert and aware of those around us who are hurting. We don't have to perform a miracle. He may simply be calling us to listen. Or to hug someone warmly. Or to offer a fresh perspective on a situation. Maybe someone desperately needs a sister to look intently at her and smile. There's a reason Jesus taught so often on the topic of love. It's kind of important. It defines our relationships. It affects how we feel about ourselves and others. It determines how we treat each other. It is sorely lacking in our world today. And sadly, it is lacking in the church.

Love God and love each other. That's what Jesus said is most important. He said it's God's number one priority for us. What blessings are we missing when we become too busy to love? Brush the ashes off a sister today. Pour a little oil of gladness on someone who's hurting. Do you know someone who's going through a really stressful time? Throw a blanket of praise around her. Allow God to use you to make a difference in someone else's life. They won't be the only one blessed. And He will be glorified. And isn't that why we're here?

My Favorite Place

The kids and I are heading to Michigan for my Grandma's 89th birthday. I love to go to my Grandma's house. It's my favorite place in all the world. Lots of family will be in and out all day Saturday, my aunt is going to have pots of soup simmering on the stove and some good bread to go with it, and of course there will be cake! Mmmmm. And lots of coffee...Warm fuzzies are floating all around me just thinking about the whole scene!

The Squirrel and the Power Guy

I was working on a lesson for my Wednesday night class today when there was a loud BOOM and the power went out. I thought, hmmm, that sounded like a transformer. Squirrel? I looked out the window and sure enough, there was a big, fat, although quite motionless squirrel hanging over the side of the transformer. Poor thing. Never even knew what hit him. I called the power company and within an hour or so, Mr. Power Guy was in my backyard with a very long stick, knocking Mr Squirrel to the ground, restoring power to my house. I thought,"Wow. Power restored. Problem fixed. That was easy." And an illustration was born. Funny thing, I had literally prayed a couple of hours earlier that God would send me ideas and illustrations as I prepared my lessons. So......
Sometimes we are in a "spiritual rut" for whatever reason... trials come, our emotions rule us, we've been offended and become bitter and unforgiving, circumstances rob us of our joy, the list is endless. Whatever the reason, Satan has come along and "knocked out our power". We may realize this, so then we begin struggling and striving to get back to where we were. We think the matter depends on us. Or that if we could change our circumstances, things would seem better and we would be happier and closer to God. Usually it's so much simpler. The Power Guy. He has that long arm that He uses to reach down and rescue when He hears there's a power outage. Don't misunderstand; He's well aware of any and all outages. He's just waiting for us to report ours. Then He loves nothing better than to knock that satanic squirrel off our situation and restore power to our being.
Crazy squirrel. He never saw it comin'. That Power Guy rocks.

I like Art Bush

It was a great day at Cedar Creek today. We had a wonderful time of worship and I enjoyed meeting and chatting with a visitor named Cherise from Hamilton. She loves CC and says she comes to worship with us when she needs a "shot in the arm". I wish she'd come for her shot every week--she is so sweet!
Art Bush was with us today, sharing the gift of his smooth voice with us. I always enjoy hearing him. He is so humble and the message of his music always comes through clearly, because he wants to bring glory to God and not himself. I love that about him. The only trouble today was, he didn't sing long enough!
He sang "I Can Only Imagine", while a very moving video played. It showed a man in a nursing home longing for his wife who had gone on to heaven. Then it showed him passing away and going on to join his wife. I was sitting by my Dad, and we lost Mom a couple years ago. I was thinking of how much he must want to go be with her, and how much I miss her too, yet how happy she must be there. We were both crying. I never quite know what to do for Dad at those times. I can't imagine losing my husband, and we've only been married half as long as Mom and Dad were. I guess the lessons are obvious. Love and cherish your loved ones while you can. And be grateful that this life is not all there is! Praise God for that!

A good day!

Hey everybody! (Actually, "hey, you two", because probably only Soren and maybe a friend or two will see this intoductory post) Welcome to my humble ablog. I am intrigued by this whole thing and though I don't lead a particularly extrordinary life and therefore have little to write about that anyone would be interested in, I have recently been thinking that it would be fun to just write for the sake of writing and get some of these thoughts out that swirl around in my head.
I had a wonderfully full day which included some of my favorite things....coffee; a trip to Anchor Room, our christian bookstore; lunch with an acquaintance-turned-friend; pie after lunch (with coffee); an evening at the Auburn Fair with my family and good friends, which included a hot apple dumpling ala mode and....coffee and some live country music. Lady Antebellum rocks!
God is very good to me and I am blessed!