QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Thank you God, for Daddy, and Mommy, and Sister, and Grandma, and Grandpa........and Toys R Us!"

Image taken from here.

YOUR VOICE

The voice of the Lord is over the waters: the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare,
And in His temple all cry, "Glory!" (Psalm 29:3-9 ESV)

Your voice is dangerous. It shakes the earth. It commands. It is full of Your glory and power. It is unstoppable. What can stand before Your voice and not bow or break to its power? Can mountains? Can trees? Can oceans? Can man?

I long for Your voice. Shake the wilderness from my heart and strip bare those places where I hide sin. When You are quiet-I am more than broken-I am lost. There is nothing I desire more than You, Your voice. And with Your people I join in crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy is MY Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come."

Your voice...that You would grant me the favor of hearing Your voice every single day of days You have ordered for me. Could You? Let me hear Your voice every day that I live?

I forgot to save the sight I got this image from. My apologies.

"HE'S COMING HOME!"

It is Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday. I am at work and weeping at my desk. The first thing I do each workday morning is check my email. Today I received an email--the subject line read, "He's coming home". It was from my friend who has a son doing his second tour in Iraq. He is a frontline soldier. He has seen the worst of things.

Just last week, I helped one of my co-workers out by booking his airfare online. He needed a return ticket because he was driving his son's truck to him. As I was booking the flight, my friend's son was on a plane, returning from Afghanistan. I have seen pictures of his bunker. I have heard stories from his dad. He has experienced hard things.

A couple months ago, Vicki Sue and I met our friend's girlfriend. She is a marine. She had just returned from a year in Iraq. We asked her questions and her answers amazed us. It was difficult to see this charming, beautiful woman and know that she had lived the life of a soldier and felt the death of war.

So, I am at my desk weeping because these are the soldiers that God had put on my heart to pray for. And they have come home (or will soon be) home safe. I am weeping for relief at their safety and weeping for the pain that others are feeling because their soldiers died doing their jobs.

Just a reminder...please be praying for the soldiers that you get asked to pray for. And for their families.

TANTE CORRIE

A few weeks ago I was searching for something to read. Now, I am reading 3 books at once and that always makes me feel happy. Anyhow, my friend Tracey lent me a book about one of my personal heroes, Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie and her family were imprisoned in WWII for hiding Jews in their home. Her book (later made into a movie) "The Hiding Place", chronicles her family's story. The book I am reading now, however, was written about her by her personal assistant of many years after Tante Corrie's death. Corrie continues to inspire from it's pages. Below is one of my favorite excerpts, in which Corrie is responding to someone's comment that it was her faith that must have carried her through her imprisonment:

"My faith? I don't know about that...My faith was so weak, so unstable. It was hard to have faith. When a person is in a safe environment, having faith is easier. But in that camp when I saw my own sister and thousands of others starve to death, where I was surrounded by men and women who had training in cruelty, then I do not think it was my faith that helped me through. No, it was Jesus! He who said, 'I am with you until the end of the world.' It was His eternal arms that carried me through. He was my certainty.

If I tell you that it was my faith, you might say if you have to go through suffering, 'I don't have Corrie ten Boom's faith.' But if I tell you it was Jesus, then you can trust that He who helped me through will do the same for you. I have always believed it, but now I know from my own experience that His light is stronger than the deepest darkness." (pg. 114)

To those who are going through difficult times,

who feel they are unsafe and unprotected, uncared for and forgotten.....

I pray that Jesus will be your certainty.

His light is stronger than the deepest darkness!

Image taken from here.

TWO TRUE TOO FUNNY STORIES

FUNNY STORY #1: I had dinner on Saturday with my friends, Pam and Randy. They told me this story and it still has me laughing. Randy's birthday is the beginning of December. A couple of years ago, Pam got him a Wayne Watson cd as part of his present. When he opened it he said, "Oh thanks, hon!" and went on to express his delight with this gift. Three weeks later, right before Christmas, Pam noticed the cd, still unopened, sitting on his dresser. She thought it would be a funny joke to wrap it and put it in his Christmas stocking. On Christmas morning, he opened it and said, "Wayne Watson! This is great. Thanks hon." Still unopened, Randy received the same cd in his Easter basket, as part of his Father's Day gift, and then again on his next birthday. It showed up in his stocking that Christmas too. He was puzzled and said, "Hey, wait a minute..." but the rest of his sentence was drowned by the uncontrollable laugher of his family. After he heard the whole story from his wife, he said he had wondered why all his kids would howl with laughter every time he opened a present!

FUNNY STORY #2: My friend Tracey is a girlie girl. We tease her about wearing high heeled sandals to the beach. She is married and has three sons. He-Man husband and boys. Hunter kind of men. And this weekend was the opening of deer hunting (gun) season in Michigan. She told me today that she found a shot gun cartridge in the dryer. Only at her house would you find ammo in the laundry probably mixed in with something that has lace on it. They bow hunt too. I guess finding an arrow in the dryer would be even funnier.

TGIF

dON'T yOU wISH tHAT lIFE hAD aN ESPCAPE bUTTON, jUST lIKE yOUR cOMPUTER? tODAY, i wOULD uSE tHAT bUTTON!

iNSTEAD, i lAUGHED aT tHIS qUOTE i fOUND oN rICHARD'S bLOG:

"I suppose I should tell you the honest truth."
I overheard that a few days ago between two coworkers.

aND i dECIDED tO dITTO hIPPIE aNGE'S fRIEND, v, oN mAKING aN aTTITUDE aDJUSTMENT:

Tomorrow = positive.

mARANATHA, mARANTHA!

Image taken from here

MUSIC WITHIN

I have owned 3 guitars in my lifetime. I always wanted to play an instrument but four kids in private school kept money limited. When my parents divorced, my mom bought me a second-hand guitar with the few bucks she scraped together.

Years later, I bought my second guitar...an Alverez, steel stringed acoustic. A year or so into music lessons, I had a teacher that specialized in classical guitar. He encouraged me to give it a try. He helped me pick out my classic guitar and a whole new world opened up for me.

My soul opened up to the beauty of the sounds and harmonies of the music I played. I learned to feel the emotions in music. I loved the feel of this guitar, which is held...no embraced...much differently than a steel string. It was with this guitar that I would play my own love songs to Jesus. If I close my eyes, I can still smell the wood.... Despite my love for music, my lessons, my hours of practice....I was only a mediocre musician. I am destined to be an appreciator of the gift rather than an owner of the gift.

My Alverez is somewhere in the mountains of South America. It was given to a tribe that had no instruments to use in their worship. My classic guitar now belongs to my daughter. She has the gift of music within.

Image taken from here.

REJOICING

Update: My co-worker, Eric, told me his daughter is now home from the hospital and doing better. Thanks to all who prayed for them!

QUOTE OF THE DAY!

"I took a shower and blew a soap bubble out of my nose but it got too big and popped in my eye. Now my eye itches."

Image taken from here

VOTERS-DO NOT DESPAIR!

If you are an unhappy voter like my friend Aaron, DO NOT DESPAIR! The winds of change...they are a' blowing! Tina, who recently agreed to manage my run for public office, has already gotten off to a great start!

My position on education? Yes!

On the economy? Absolutely!

On foreign affairs? Surely!

MAGIC

Last Thursday started the beginning of a few crappy days for me. But in the middle of that, I experienced some magic:

Magical moment 1: Saturday night, after working in the yard all day long, I asked my daughter if she wanted to make a bonfire. By the time we gathered our wood, it was dark out. I tried to light the fire but couldn't keep it lit. I couldn't find any lighter fluid and couldn't get the gas can open. What to do...what to do?? I looked around the house for something combustible...why not try......cooking oil? Ummm, all I had was olive oil. It didn't work too well. She looked at me and said, "We are such chicks. We just used olive oil to fuel a fire. " That cracked us both up. After mentally reviewing a few Survivor episodes, I finally did build a roaring fire. We laughed all night. Especially when I gave her this sage advice- "Ow...that was stupid...Never pick up a burning log!" More laughter. I administered first aid to myself using a bag of frozen spinach because we had no ice. We sat and watched the fire until only the embers were left, dancing their mystical glowing dance.

Magical moment 2: More yard work on Sunday. My daughter came out to help. We heard this tapping sound and I was sure it was a woodpecker. Sure enough, an hour later she spotted it in our tree. We quietly stood there for a long time, my arm draped over her shoulder, both of us looking up and just watching.


Magical moment 3: I am like a turtle when life gets crappy. I like to pull into my shell. You know, poke your head out a bit every once in awhile to see if it's "all clear"? I was spending some quiet time with God...reading Hebrews 12 when He reminded me to not grow weary, to shake off the things that were bothering me because I had come to what is unshakable! God communicating with me, teaching me, leading me, loving me, telling me just what I needed to hear....It is still such a wonder to me!

Image taken from here.

EMERGENCY PRAYER

My co-worker Eric's daughter has been in the hospital for 4 days in Intesive Care because an EEG is showing she is having a seizure every 10 seconds on the left side of her brain- if it doesnt get under control...its something she could die from.

Please be praying for Eric, his daughter, and the rest of his family.

I'M CURIOUS

Why do you blog?

When I first started to blog, it was because I wanted to be a voice for divorced people. I think that divorce is so commonplace these days, so accepted, that often we forget what a devestating thing it is to try and navigate through.

But over time I have found that blogging has become something more. Sometimes I share my musings, sometimes I share my prayers, sometimes I share my story. But what I now have is this community of people I care about.

For me, this "blog world" has opened doors to friendships I most likely would not have had. I have friends who are teaching me about their countries, their cultures, their languages, and their politics. I have friends who are consistently wise, some incredibly talented, and some of you make me laugh so hard. I have read a book or listened to music that I would not have known about if it were not for you. I have considered the many who daily live with war after one friend responded to my 911 post. I have learned that it is proper to site the source you get your Google images from (which I promise to faithfully do from this post on out). I have heard about your children and grandchildren and smiled at their pictures. I find delight in seeing a new face drop in. I have been challenged to love Jesus better by some.

This morning it hit me that I truly care about you. I pray for you. I wonder about you when you don't show up for awhile. I look forward to reading what you have to share.

I don't know why God has intersected our lives or how we may support or change each other down the road. But I do wonder....what about you? Why do you blog?

Image taken from here.

CONTEMPLATIVE

Short post today. Last night I came home to find out that one of my neighbors committed suicide. The neighbor next to him tried to commit suicide just a few weeks before. To feel alone and abandoned and hopeless, so much so that you have no hope.....

Please be praying for these two families.