Funny "God doesnt need email,face book,or cell phones to connect us."

Thursday evening I was checking in on my face book friends when up pops a message from my 23yr old daughter. We chatted for a few minutes until for some reason we were disconnected. Then my cell phone rang. It was Brooke she wanted to continue the conversation that had been interrupted. She described how she wanted to start a Bible study group with freshmen girls at our church. She was having difficulty connecting with the right person and finding the girls for the group. I encouraged her to email the student ministry assistant. I told her she could find the email address on the church web site contact list.
My husband and I went off to join our 11yr old at her fundraising spaghetti dinner for a summer mission trip. When we entered the dining room we were surprised it looked like all the tables were full. We went through the line to get our food and then headed to the bleacher seats. I noticed 3 seats had just emptied at a table so I asked if we could sit there. Shortly after we sat down two more people joined us and started a conversation with another family. As I listened into the conversation one mother was describing how her 14 yr old daughter did not feel comfortable in the big youth group gathering and really wished she could be a part of a smaller group for Bible study. The other mother agreed her daughter really would enjoy that also. I introduced myself and explained the desire of my 23yr old and asked if the moms would like my daughters’ phone number to start a plan for a Bible study. \
We were all amazed at how God had made the connections and appointments for these individuals to have their needs met. I left the spaghetti dinner with a true sense of blessing that God is not dependent on email, face book, web pages, or cell phones. I called Brooke from my cell phone excited to share the connection God had arranged and that she didn’t need to struggle through any more emailing etc. God had figured it out. Funny she said I tried to contact the student ministries assistant through the web site and something was wrong with the web site. We laughed together how amazing and how quickly and efficiently God had answered this simple request. It had been less than two hours from our conversation.

Two days in a chair

The last two days all I’ve done is sit in my chair. My head hurt, my muscles ached, my ears congested Kleenex box by my side and laptop open.Ive tried to think of something witty to write in my blog but my head is so foggy so I take a nap. Ive snooped around to see what others are doing on their blogs. I rarely am stopped by anything, but the last two days the combination of symptoms stopped me in my tracks. Thankfully all this hit while I am on my long stretch off work. My husband has done laundry, and kept the girls on track while Ive done nothing. I start my work week tomorrow with a Human resources class all day. Better to start with a class rather than a full 12hr night shift.

Baptism

Wednesday eve the 14yr old asked me to take her to see several of her friends get baptized. I was really tired and just wanted to collapse into a chair. I felt pretty lame I was so unmotivated to drive my daughter to a Wednesday night church service. I asked my husband to come so we could be together for the eve but he was busy in his office and didn’t want to interrupt his work. I felt crabby about going without him.
On the drive to the church my daughter announced “I was planning to get baptized myself this evening but I’m not going to do it now because I don’t feel well. My name is even in the program for tonight. I was surprised but commented “Dad would be sad to miss seeing you do something as important as baptism.” We arrived at the church and she ran off into the crowd of teens. I found a friend to sit with.
The service was amazing. 40 kids up on the platform sharing how they had made a decision to give their lives to Christ and be baptized was encouraging and inspiring. The youth pastor announced to the audience that if anyone in the group would like to be baptized tonight to just come forward. I had this flash of a thought that my daughter just might go ahead with being baptized even though her dad was not here to enjoy the moment.
One by one the kids entered the water and were immersed. It looked like the last of the kids had been baptized when I looked up and thought “who that is in the water.” It was my daughter. Just for a moment I was sad because her dad was not there. Then to my absolute surprise I looked to see who was in the water with her and it was my husband speaking the words. A_____ because of your profession of faith I baptize you. What a huge blessing. My daughter had not only decided to be baptized but she called her dad at home in his office and asked him to come to church and baptize her tonight. This moment was truly a blessing. I didn’t need a camera this is a moment I will remember for my whole life.

At the mall again...

No I do not go to the mall all the time but today I went on another journey to find the elusive 00 size jeans. Really the 11yr old wears a size 12 in girls but she is too cool to shop in the girls section. She wants to be in the teen section. My sweet husband joined us on the hunting trip. Bless him. We realized we had both forgot our cell phones again and I reminded him we better not loose each other like last time. So we embarrassed the 11yr old by holding hands in the mall. She complained “ Yesterday was valentines day why do you have to hold hands today Gross!” We parked the car and the adventure began. I no sooner got out of the car when I noticed a small child probably 4yrs old running through the cars. I saw no adult near and the little boy was headed for the traffic. My heart went into mommy panic mode. Not wanting to chase the child right into the traffic I used my mommy voice and commanded him to stop now. The boy stopped just for a moment long enough to realize he didn’t know me and turned to head into traffic again. So then my husband commanded the boy to stop. He again stopped and at that point we could see a man coming toward us about 2 rows over and appeared know this child. What a relief. It was hard for me to move on to jean shopping.
Once in the mall we started our search. After 3 stores we found an acceptably cool store that actually had size 12 girls jeans that fit perfectly. Success. Yea. We headed for the far end of the mall to buy socks at Sears. Near sears is the kiddy play area where parents can sit on a bench and let their small children climb and jump on soft renditions of fruit or something like that. We approached the escalator to go up. I could not even believe my eyes. At the bottom of the escalator toddles a 2yr old, again no adult in sight watching out for this little guy. I said to myself not again. I got on the escalator and sure enough the little guy got on about 4 steps behind me. Then he sat down. Oh my goodness again I went into panic mode afraid he would get his clothes or fingers caught as he arrived at the top. Where was this kid’s parent!!!!!!! Well I cannot throw stones I have lost each one of my 4 children at some time in their lives. So I coaxed the little one to stand up and took him by the hand and directly back down the escalator hoping some panicked parent would come running to retrieve this lost child. Again no parent, I guided him to the icecream stand and asked the girl at the register to call security. With that the little boy pulled his hand away and ran. I thought maybe he saw someone he recognized. I followed to be sure he found his family. I stood watching this child for at least 10 min hoping an adult would start yelling hey my kid is gone. No such luck. I started talking to another bystander confiding what had just happened and how upsetting this was. He asked a man sitting nearby is this your boy. The man said yes. He did not speak English. I asked the man to explain to the boys dad that his child had been all the way up the escalator and he was lucky someone returned him safely. The man seemed very uninterested and I left feeling like I never want to go to the mall again.

Valentines day week in review

Valentine’s Day morning
Roses and a pastry with strawberry cream cheese topping greeted me on the kitchen counter this morning. My husband doesn’t miss a chance to say I love you. What a Nice surprise after such a busy week. I started my work week last Friday night told to stay home from work because of not enough patients. At 2am the situation changed and I was called in to work. This was great except for some reason I had stayed up till 1 am watching a movie. I worked Sat, Sun, and Monday night, then slept Tuesday night. Wednesday I agreed to work till midnight, yes I stayed till 130am. I started my Wednesday morning with a leadership class downtown on accomplishing tasks. The patients kept coming in to the dept with no end in sight. Instead of meeting with my manager I worked to relieve other nurses so they could have a lunch break. I was ready to leave at 530pm when the charge nurse informed me they couldn’t reach a nurse who was scheduled to work extra on nights. I agreed to cover till 1am because at that time I would have been on the clock for 16hrs. It is against the law for me to work longer than 16 hrs. I kind of needed to rehearse what I had done this week because it all ran together and I was wondering why I was so tired. I am thankful for the work because there is not much construction work for my husband at this time.

Is it possible for me to quit feeling guilty and pulled in every direction?

Is it possible for me to quit feeling guilty and pulled in every direction? Yesterday afternoon I found myself trying to meet everyone’s “need”. One child wanted me to take her to the gym to work out. One wanted to go shopping for jeans. The dog wanted my attention and even though my husband was not requesting anything at the moment I somehow felt worried I needed to do something for him also. My heart was heavy thinking I would like to spend time with my grown daughter but didn’t know when. Then came in the creeping sadness of missing my second daughter who moved to N.C. to do what I’m so proud of her for doing and that’s being a wife and living her life. How could such a beautiful day be full of so much guilt? I’m still trying to learn I’m not going to make everyone in my world happy. I decided shopping was out of the question, my husband really didn’t need anything, my two grown daughters certainly were not needing me to worry about them at that moment and I made my way out the door to the gym to do myself a favor and grant one person their wish. As I walked on the treadmill I asked God to help me to quit feeling so guilty and inadequate. What came to my mind was the phrase “There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus”. So tonight I looked up the verse. The Message version Romans 8:1 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Today I didn’t carry all the burdens I was packing around yesterday. I remembered I don’t live under anyone’s condemnation not even my own.


Today I enjoyed a walk just before sunset. The colors in the sky were beautiful I don’t live under a black cloud.