Month: February 2014

A Valentine’s Day Celebration

Posted on by Wendy
There's more to Valentine's Day than hearts and flowers.
There’s more to Valentine’s Day than hearts and flowers.

Today is Valentine’s Day. Since I have a fourteen year old without a boyfriend, I’m keenly aware that it’s the world’s most romantic day in high school and she is single. (Her daddy is thrilled). Keep in mind, most of her friends are single too. In fact, four of her closest friends have planned a “Lonely Hearts Sleepover” at my house this evening.

I don’t know why there seems to be much less dating in high school these days. I place part of the blame on our friends at Disney. Their whole lives, these girls have had Ariel and Belle and Prince Charming. Let’s face it, Prince Charming is difficult to find as an adult, but in high school he’s awfully close to nonexistent. That, along with the fact that texting has completely replaced talking and boys and girls don’t know how to talk to each other anymore, in my mind, has created the perfect storm of non-dating, unrealistic expectations along with no communication.

Whatever the reasons, I am hosting five, delightful, single girls this evening. They have each agreed among themselves to bring chocolate, sour treats, salty snacks etc… They are each bringing a movie to watch and will likely stay up most of the night talking and laughing.

I wish I could make my daughter understand the importance of these evenings. She and her friends have forged together a little community that started back in middle school. Boys will come and go, but these friendships have the potential to be lifelong.

Some of my closest friendships were built in high school. Just a few months ago, I got together with some of these girls and talked about old times like they were yesterday. We laughed like the girls who will sleep in my basement tonight.

An internet search for the word love in the Bible turned up 551 times in the NIV version. There are so many different kinds of love. Romantic love is just one kind and the one that gets all of the press on Valentine’s Day. But, the love present in community is a beautiful thing on its own.

My daughter is too young yet to understand the life-sustaining support that community can offer. Friendship is one of God’s most beautiful gifts. Tonight, she will be making memories that she will probably be laughing about twenty years from now, even if she doesn’t know it at the moment.

She has a ton of Valentine’s Days ahead of her, but these high school years are short and friendships are special. So, we will order pizza, close the basement door and let the giggling begin. I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day and celebrate it in a way significant to you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

A Love Story

Posted on by Wendy
Like this flower, a happy ending can always brighten your day.
Like this flower, a happy ending can always brighten your day.

I got a text yesterday from one of my high school friends, inviting me to a graduation party for her daughter. I think I must have gasped audibly when I read it because the man sitting across the room from me looked up from his phone. This child who is graduating from high school is her baby.

Let me give you a little background here. This friend is a part of one of my favorite love stories. She and her husband dated all through high school. The winter after high school, they announced a very quick wedding. We were all kind of stunned. I was away at college and couldn’t quite fathom it all. This was the late eighties. We had choices.

They made theirs. They chose life. They chose love. The support they got from their families was overwhelming. Let me tell you, it was amazing. They moved into a tiny house behind her grandmother’s house. Her parents and siblings and his parents painted it inside and out. They put in carpet and furniture. They made it a home.

They both worked and she had to quit school. Her sister kept the baby during the day. It was hard work for them to keep it together, but they did. They moved into a bigger house. About five years later, they welcomed a second child and one year after that, their third.

For our twenty year class reunion, (It was really 18, but that’s another story.) they invited a bunch of us girls, to stay at their new home, that they had just built. It was a gorgeous house in the country complete with a pool and pool house. Again, their families had helped them build it with the many skills that they had from carpentry to laying tile.

Their story is one of my favorite love stories for so many reasons. Yes, it’s a story of a boy and a girl who made difficult choices and made a commitment to stand by each other, for better or worse. They went on to make a beautiful life together and beautiful children against impossible odds. But, it’s also a story of the possibilities of what can happen when families pull together and support each other. It’s a story of two families who chose life and love too, although it must have been a difficult choice for them as well.

We have so many choices to make during our lifetimes. We make good ones and we make bad ones. Sometimes encouraging and supporting loved ones in their choices are the most important ones we ever make. I was thrilled to attend the high school graduation celebration of my friend’s first child. He has gone on to finish college and has become a delightful young man.

Now, I have been invited to attend the graduation celebration of her youngest child who is also going on to college. I am moved to tears at the enormity of it all. The impossibility of this story just proves that with enough commitment and perseverance, love will find a way and it’s beautiful.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Savoring a Snow Day

Posted on by Wendy
Our neighborhood creek with snow.
Our neighborhood creek with snow.

 

We have been granted another snow day in Northeast Georgia. It’s not snowing. It’s sleet mixed with rain, but the state of Georgia got caught unprepared for winter weather a couple of weeks ago and motorists were stranded for days. The Peach State became the butt of late night television show jokes. Our leaders are erring on the side of caution.

This plan works out perfectly for me. I will likely have two to three glorious days with my babies at home with me. They are twelve and fourteen and have busy social lives of their own, so to have them home is always a blessing. Not to mention, my high school freshman will only have a few more years to live at home and have snow days. In no time, she will be off to college.

It seems like just yesterday that they were little and watching Dora the Explorer and now they are half-grown. This mama has enough sense to savor gifts from God like snow days. They are rare for us in the Deep South and that makes them precious.

I have chili in the crock pot. My son is telling me all about something he is building on Minecraft. My daughter is playing IT support on my new laptop. My hubby is working from home. The people I hold most dear are right here with me doing their own thing, but close. I’m thankful.

We will likely lose power sometime tonight or tomorrow, but we have candles, flashlights and Uno Cards. We have a pool table. We have plenty of bread and peanut butter, crackers and chips. Our kids still love family game night. We sometimes have to stop playing Scattergories, because our sides hurt so badly from laughing at each other and our ridiculous answers. We have each other.

Sure, boredom will likely set in at some point. We also are the proud owners of three dogs ranging from twenty pounds to a hundred twenty pounds. The floor will be a wet mess, but thankfully, cleaning up hardwood floors is easy.

The point is that we have a choice to see life’s curve balls as inconveniences or opportunities. What some consider hardship, we have the option to see as a blessing. I am choosing to see this snow day as a blessing.

Most older people will tell you that if they could have just one thing, they would choose more time. It’s the one thing that we don’t get more of. So, I’m savoring this time with my babies who aren’t babies anymore and I would love to encourage you to do the same.

You don’t have to have a snow day or kids at home, but savor the time with friends and family at every opportunity. It really is a gift from God.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

How Do You Deal With Change?

Posted on by Wendy
Change, like the seasons is inevitable. This bud will become a flower whether it wants to or not.
Change, like the seasons is inevitable. These buds will become flowers whether they want to or not.

I have never been a huge fan of change. I suppose lots of Southerners feel the same. We often take the, “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke attitude.” Sometimes it’s a good one. In my humble opinion, things like children saying “yes sir and yes ma’am,”and saying Grace at meals should never change.

Other things like technology, are bound to change whether I like it or not. My sweet husband bought me a new laptop for our anniversary. I told him that he should get a new laptop and let me keep mine, but he insisted that he wanted me to have the new one. I was so excited and fairly glowed, I’m sure, with his thoughtful gift.

A mere twenty-four hours later, I’m ready to kill him for his thoughtfulness. At this writing, I hate Windows 8. It’s busy. Icons pop up all over the place for no apparent reason. I have to sign into my computer every time I turn it on. (I guess Microsoft is concerned that my dog may read my unprotected blog.) My printer won’t work and I don’t have Windows Office pre-loaded. Thank you so much Mr. Gates.

My old laptop was three years old; ancient in our world of throw-away technology, but it was running my old friend Vista with no trouble at all.

I’ll bet you that in a month, I will love my new computer as well as its operating system and I simply won’t be able to believe that I could have lived without it. But, today I am frustrated!

Don’t we find most life changes frustrating and intimidating? Whether we are trying to eat healthier, give up smoking, start a new job, retire from a current job, have a baby, get married or (you fill in the blank here). Change is rarely easy, but it’s one of the few guarantees we have in life. Nothing ever stays exactly the same.

But, when you think about it, that really is a good thing. Our goal throughout our entire lives should be growth. If we are growing, we can’t be stagnant. We are perpetually in progress like the Camellia buds in my picture. Even in winter, when nature appears dormant, there is still internal activity going on.

And so it is with us too. Even when we have a sedentary period, we can still grow. Growth doesn’t always have to include action. It could include contemplation and reflection. Sometimes it requires some rest like the trees in winter, but growth should always continue.

We should strive to be more like Christ and answer our call to serve until we take our last breath. We should strive to grow, knowing that change is inevitable and trusting that God has a plan and that we are equipped with what we need to participate in that plan, whether we know it our not.

Keeping this in mind, I won’t toss my shiny new computer onto the floor. I will take some time to learn to love Windows 8, (picture me saying this through gritted teeth.) And most importantly, I’m going to try to learn to embrace change. Who’s with me? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

How Controlling Are You?

Posted on by Wendy
My mom was certainly surprised when she found this little guy in her pear tree!
My mom was certainly surprised when she found this little guy in her pear tree!

If I have learned anything at all from my time here on this planet, it’s to expect the unexpected. My parents have two little Papillons (translate super high strung, pups). When my mom let them outside one evening, they wouldn’t come back inside and kept barking at the pear tree. When Mama finally went to investigate, look what she discovered, an opossum!

There’s nothing rare about these creatures, but she was surprised to find one in the pear tree. She was so surprised that she snapped a picture.

When you think about it, life is often like that. Things happen to us all of the time that we aren’t expecting. The big question we have to ask ourselves is how we deal with them. That depends largely on how we look at life.

If we try to control everything around us by constantly planning every moment and holding on tightly with a white knuckled grip, we are likely to be very stressed most of the time. From the amount of anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications floating around out there, I suspect that a large portion of our population survives in that way.

At some point though, we have to ask ourselves, are we content to just survive or is there something more? Is the holding on tightly and worrying about everything good enough?

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite philosophers, Mr. Jimmy Buffet, has the line, “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from all this living, is that it wouldn’t change a thing if I let go.” Wise words to be sure.

I think one of the most difficult things to do as humans is to admit we are not in control and it’s probably even harder in the Western World. We get to control so much here, where we go to school, where we live, what career we want, who our spouses are, who our leaders are. We are big on choice and that’s a good thing, but it also gives us a false sense of our place in the universe.

All of the choices we have are a blessing, but they are also a weight we carry. It becomes very difficult to focus on the God who made us and who we are supposed to serve as we make so many choices to control everything around us. We don’t like surprises and walking with God is a path full of them.

When we depend on Him and not ourselves, things rarely turn out like we think they will or just like we planned. They turn out better because we are fulfilling His plan for us. The peace that we so desire that we can’t get from the pharmaceutical industry comes from letting go and letting God. It comes from placing all of our worries and our need to control at the foot of the cross. It comes from knowing that He has a plan and that it’s good and that we are loved unconditionally.

If we truly believe all of that, what more can we possibly need? What do you think about our obsessive need to control? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Long Dark Seasons

Posted on by Wendy
This picture almost makes you feel the warmth of the summer sun.
This picture almost makes you feel the warmth of the summer sun.

As I write this, it’s another gloomy, cloudy day here in Georgia. I purposely put my desk by a window because the sun energizes me to write, but it’s been a long, dark and dreary winter here. We have been hit with two Polar Vortexes. Who had even heard that term before this year?

We were recently hit by a snow and ice event and the rain has been almost constant since, honestly, I can’t remember when we haven’t had at least one day of rain per week. I did have a little chuckle this morning as I heard a New York forecaster explaining the fact that the snow they were getting would soon mix with sleet and they would have something very dangerous called black ice.

Hmmmm, our Northern neighbors can’t drive on black ice either? Who would have thought? It’s been a rough winter all the way around for the majority of our country. Thankfully,  Georgia’s little groundhog, Beau, did not see his shadow on Sunday and so, he predicts an early spring. That little fellow is 93% accurate, so we can keep our fingers crossed.

Sometimes we get stuck in a season of life that we feel like will never end, (like this winter). Sometimes a season can be particularly brutal and long, (like this winter). When we experience periods like this, it can be particularly hard to see a bright side.

But, I also think when we have long periods of darkness, we really appreciate the light when it comes. Perseverance and patience are two of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Maybe we can use this season to really sharpen those skills. Truthfully, we really don’t have much choice, so maybe we should embrace this season knowing it will eventually end.

God told Noah in Genesis 8:22 after the flood, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

In other words, the sun will always rise and summer will eventually come.

I do know this, when we are sitting on our porches in the summer and sipping sweet tea, there should be much less mosquitoes to bite us and less fleas to bite our dogs. We might look back in June and decide that the Polar Vortex wasn’t so bad after all.

What do you think? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

 

You’re Never Too Old for Wonder

Posted on by Wendy
I captured this guy in St. Augustine.
I captured this guy in St. Augustine.

My family went to visit my parents last Saturday to celebrate my mom’s birthday. When we returned late that afternoon, we had a message waiting on our voice mail. My neighbor from across the street, left an excited message that there was a crane or an egret walking around in her yard. She was so excited that she wanted to share it with us.

This is one of the many reasons I adore this woman. She’s a senior and she always seems to find the wonder in life. That bird had no business walking around in a yard in Northeast Georgia, but here he was and she was so surprised, she wanted to share.

What is it about the oldest and the youngest of humanity that allows them to get it? We seem to be born with a certain amount of wisdom that somehow gets lost around the age of ten and we don’t get it back until sometime in our sixties, if ever.

I’m talking about the ability to appreciate squirrels in backyard feeders and deer in the front yard. I’m talking about the ability to slow down and drink in the scenery. I totally get that deer are pests, but they really are quite majestic and squirrels are hilarious, running around and chasing each other. They are like real-life cartoons. They will actually fuss, if there’s a cat in the yard.

I read a book last summer by Margaret Feinberg, called Wonderstruck. I highly recommend it. This woman had lost passion in her life and she prayed that God would send her wonder and He delivered. It was a delightful read that had me praying for wonder myself.

We are surrounded by wonder everyday. If the earth’s atmosphere was just a tiny bit different, we couldn’t breathe. If the sun was a little closer, we would burn up, a little further away and we would freeze. If the moon were much closer, we would have floods. We don’t see the wonder in it because we don’t ever think about it. It really is amazing.

I think we have lost a lot of our feeling of the Divine presence because we spend so little time in nature these days. Maybe that’s why kids get it. They play outside and seniors take time for a walk or to sit in a porch swing.

Nature is full of wonder and when I sit outdoors in the quiet, I always feel God’s presence. I think I need to make more nature time and see what happens. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to share a glimpse of the wonder on my neighbor’s voice mail. I mean, if you get the chance to see something awesome, don’t you think you should pass it on?

I’d love to hear about how you seek wonder in your life and if you don’t, it’s time to start. Life is simply too short not to enjoy all of the many wonderful things that God has provided. Feel free to share.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Blessed Be…

Posted on by Wendy
At first glance, the Sermon on the Mount seems so simple, but it's a complex call to a life seeking God.
At first glance, the Sermon on the Mount seems so simple, but it’s a complex call to a life seeking God.

I recently revisited the Beattitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. You remember those, right, the blessed be sermon? It’s found in Matthew 5, if you want to check them out.  I always come away with something different when  I read them.

This time I read them in the NLT version. Scholars disagree whether this sermon was given to the masses or just the twelve disciples. Either way, the meaning is the same. It’s a call for us to act as well as a comfort for us, letting us know that God cares about our human suffering.

There are a total of nine listed blessings. Four are things that happen to us. The first one is “God blesses those who are poor in spirit and realize they need him, for the Kingdom of heaven is theirs.” Who among us hasn’t been poor in spirit? We are all broken. When we know we need God, the Kingdom of Heaven is ours.

The second is, “God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” We have all mourned the loss of someone dear. Jesus says, God understands our pain and we will be comforted.

The next five call us to action. “God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.” How are we doing with humility? We live in a very narcissistic world.

“God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” He doesn’t say, those who like for things to be righteous. He says those who hunger and thirst for it. That means we should do more than have a conversation with our friends when something is unjust. We need to have a deep desire, a hunger, to make things right.

“God blesses those who are merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.” How do we do with mercy? Are we merciful towards others in our lives or do we live for “pay back?”

“God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they shall see God.” How pure are our hearts? When we pray, is it like a shopping list of please help me get a,b, and c or is it with a heartfelt, “Lord please do your will, not mine.”? Tricky, right?

“God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called children of God.” Notice it doesn’t say those who like peace or like to live in peace? Who doesn’t like to live in peace? It doesn’t say those who are peaceable. It says those who work for peace. It’s active and it’s hard. Making peace is a full time job in the angry world we live in, but something we are called to do.

The last two go back to things that happen to us. “God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” Doing right gets more and more difficult. People are getting persecuted more and more often for things like praying before a sporting event. Jesus says, keep at it. The Kingdom of Heaven is yours.

Finally, “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you, because you are my followers.” He says to be happy a great reward awaits you in heaven. So, fellow Christians, we need to soldier on. God sees our struggle. He’s watching over us and He has a plan.

The sermon seems simple, but it’s a challenge to live a life that’s more than simply spiritual. It requires action too. I think it’s something to think about. What about you? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

 

Adversity Equals Opportunity

Posted on by Wendy
A little adversity doesn't seem to bother this guy a bit!
A little adversity doesn’t seem to bother this guy a bit!

I am a substitute teacher at a local elementary school. One of the teachers there always calls his tests, opportunities. He tells the kids not to think of them as tests, but as an opportunity to show him what they can do.

That got me to thinking about the tests in our adult lives. What if we were to see adversity in the world around us as a test and the test as an opportunity. What if adversity was just an opportunity to be a billboard for Jesus in a hurting world? Isn’t the best advertisement for Christianity the way in which we live?

Last week, I wrote a post about the Good Samaritans who came out of the woodwork to serve others during the snow storm that paralyzed the South. These people saw adversity as a chance to serve, and boy, did they serve! They may never know the outcome of the seeds that were planted due to their service.

There were Episcopal Churches that rang their bells and turned on their lights, welcoming weary, stranded travelers. If you could hear the church bells, the doors were open. Shelter was provided. What if some of those travelers had never even set foot in a church before? What kind of message do you think they received? Someone decided that adversity equaled opportunity.

We live in a fallen world. We are surrounded by adversity. There are house fires, floods, hurricanes, hunger, famine, poverty, and the list goes on.

What would happen if we all decided to look at adversity as a test, an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ? What if we decided to start in our own little corner of the world and then spread out? What would the world look like then?

Jesus said in Matthew 25:34-40 “When I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” Then the righteous ones said when did we do that? “Jesus replied, when you did these things for the least of my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”

I’m going to try to start seeing adversity as an opportunity to serve. Instead of wringing my hands and being sad about a tragedy or sharing it on Facebook, I’m going to try to help in some small way.

What do you think? Do you think adversity equals opportunity? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

You Already Have What You Need to Serve

Posted on by Wendy
This guy is doing what he's called to do, soak up the sun!
This guy is doing what he’s called to do, soak up the sun!

I have often heard people talking about having no idea of what God has called them to do and I have also heard people express the fear that if they draw closer to God and really listen, then He will call them to be a missionary in Africa. Most folks are not interested in doing that, so what do they do?

They keep God at an arm’s length. Sure, they will attend church on Sunday and maybe even Sunday school, but that’s as close as they are willing to get. Everyone remembers the Jonah story and if we are really honest with ourselves, no one wants to go to Ninevah. (It was located in what is now Iraq.) Still don’t want to go, right?

By the way, I feel the same way. I have no interest in doing missionary work abroad, but that’s because I haven’t been called to do that. Have you ever listened to missionaries talk about the work they do? Their eyes sparkle and come alive as they talk about living in huts and eating only rice. Why do you think they are so passionate about what they do?

Because, they are doing what they have been called to do. Most of us aren’t called to travel far and wide to spread the love of Jesus on a regular basis. Most of us are called to spread the Good News right where we are, where we work, where we live, where our children attend school. We have already been planted where we are supposed to be.

Think about it this way. What do apple trees produce? Apples, right? Does God ever call an apple tree to produce pears? No, because He personally designed it to produce apples. That’s what He wants it to produce.

The Bible tells us in Psalm 139, that we were “knit together in our mother’s womb.” The Knitter had a plan from the beginning. We already have what we need to answer our call to serve. We all have certain gifts and talents; when they are combined with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we have unique abilities to fulfill our calling. (our unique calling) You can find a list of them in 1 Corinthians 12.

No two people are the same, so no two people are called to serve in the exact same way, at the exact same place, at the exact same  time. That is part of God’s master plan.

Take a look around and see how you are already serving. You may be doing exactly what you are called to do. If you don’t think you are, pray for guidance. You are probably not that far from where you need to be, and if you are, you probably know that somewhere deep inside. He calls you to be uniquely you and no one else. He calls you to be passionate about Him.

The point is, fear not; draw closer to God. He will point you in the direction you need to go and it’s probably not Ninevah.  Don’t you want to find out?

Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day.

Wendy 🙂