3 Kinds of Kid

This morning at church I dropped my two boys off in the nursery for the sermon. As I left them playing happily, God spoke to me.

There are 3 kinds of kids in this world.


Child #1 is a kid who doesn't care that his parents has left them. They are independent, adventurous, and ready to take on whatever is coming. Its not that they don't need their parent, its that they trust their parent so completely that they believe wholeheartedly that if their Mommy chose to leave them somewhere then they must be safe. They get their hugs and kisses and then go play with the toys and the other children, happy as can be.



Child #2 is the less-adjusted child that screams at the top of his blessed lungs the entire time that their parent is absent. Usually this child is the visitor at church - he isn't familiar with the faces who are there to care for him. Sometimes they are people he knows but he'd rather be with his Daddy. This child cries so long and loud that you're pretty sure the preacher can even hear him. As soon as their parent returns and he is back in their arms, this child finds some peace and the storm calms to some whimpering.


Child #3 is the distracted one. For a moment, there is nothing in the world worse than the fact that Mommy or Daddy just left him in the nursery. But after about 3 or 4 minutes, he becomes preoccupied with the flashing lights or funny noises the toy given to him is making. He doesn't notice their absence at all until they re-appear and then he's ready to go back to them instantly.

In Romans (3:15-16) God talks about the church and makes it very clear that He favors extremes. He says "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!"

God does not want us to be distractable. He wants us to either be independent and trust the process and go and do what he wants us to do - or else cry and cling to him for dear life. Obviously the first is the preferable choice - but if you aren't in a place to just go do what He said to do, then cling for dear life because He wants us to be one or the other - not on the fence about it!

Place of Pain

Sometimes I feel like David (from the Bible). I do everything I can to do what I'm supposed to and even if I beat the giant, I've got other, bigger problems to deal with once that's over with. Its times that I get discouraged that I sit and read the Psalms. Today, Psalm 84 is what popped up on Google when I went looking for encouragement (funny how God uses things like Google!) Sometimes the old language throws off the meaning for me so I re-write it in the spirit of what he was getting at. I felt I should share today.


How beautiful is your home, Lord Almighty. My soul longs, even though I may be tired and weary, to be in your presence. My heart and my body cry out for the living God. Even something as insignificant as a sparrow has a place, a nest where she can protect her little babies - a place close to you, Lord Almighty, My King and my God.

Those who live in your house, they are blessed. They are always thanking you. Those who depend on you for their strength, they are also blessed. Their hearts are set on an adventure. As they walk through the place of great pain and crying, they transform it to a place of hope. The driest parts become lush pools of life. They continue to hold on to your strength, determined to make it until they reach God in the fullness of heaven. Listen to me pleading, Lord God, and hear me. Look on the things I have protecting me with favor, and give a shield to the ones you have chosen.

Its better to be with you for one day than live a thousand days apart from you. I'd rather be a slave doing the dirtiest jobs You have than live with those who don't know You. You are the light of the day and my protection at night. You give me favor and honor. You don't hold back any blessings from those who walk without fault.

Lord Almighty, blessed is anyone who puts their trust in You.



Did you catch that part about the valley of pain (Valley of Baca)? David says "As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools." He doesn't say that they just tough through the desert, or that God chooses to have mercy on their souls - it says THEY (as in the ones walking through it, the ones who turn to God for their strength) MAKE it a place of springs.

You -- not anyone else, not God, not your church leaders, not your spouse. YOU are the one who can make your place of greatest pain a place of life and hope.

Are you Listening?

It's loud in a concert. One of my favorite memories as a teenager was an OC Supertones concert at a local (to where I lived) college. It was so loud - as many concerts are - that when they took a break your head was pounding and your ears were ringing.

Sometimes life is so loud that when it finally takes a break all we're left with is the ringing in our ears.

Are you so used to the circumstances that you don't hear the change? Are you so accustomed to the headbanging, did you miss the stillness?

He is a still, small voice.

Alot of times people only think of that as "still" as in a pond -- He leads us beside still waters. But, I think there is depth to the dual meaning that we have in English -- He is still -- still there, still waiting, still talking softly.

Listen -- the change has come.

control issues

Funny, I think I have a theme emerging lately. :-)

Sunday evening brought about 8-9" of snow to cohutta, forcing us to stay home, call into work til about Wednesday. It was terribly dangerous on the roads. When Brent got stuck on the way home Sunday night, it wasn't til 5pm the next evening that a tow truck got there (because they were so backed up.) There were four wheel drive trucks that got stuck out in it.

In the midst of it all, both of our cars were at the shop needing repair. It made me furious that our station wagon, which the mechanic has had for a while now, wasn't yet fixed, and even more upset when they couldn't get to our Suzuki til Wednesday. Tuesday night I sat in my bed, stewing in a bad mood. The roads had been scraped - even my street itself. But, no one was free to / willing to get me to work wednesday.

At this moment God spoke with a gentle reprimand." I gave you 2 extra days with your kids and Brent. I kept your water and power on. I have provided. Now let go."

If you are like me, you want control of every aspect of your situation. You have your plan and if something interferes you get angry. It's time we learned that things are GOING to interfere because God has better plans than we do. The longer we fight it the less time we have to enjoy the process.

our rights

Every so often, I have what I call a train track jump. This analogy was given me by Craig Cooper (our apostle) in a prophecy. Basically it means something is moving or breaking in the spiritual and my prophetic sense feels it, but my natural mind hasn't caught up yet. Tonight I had such a jump. As I looked through the church weekly email, I read the blog that Jori (a dear friend) wrote about why bad things happen and got majorly hung up on her statement that "God doesn't owe us" any answers. (which I am taking grossly out of context).

On the one hand, the side I know to be majorly religious and the way I was raised agrees. I know man is undeserving and sinful and truly bad, God being all holy and all knowing doesn't have to do or explain anything to us, as we are the creation and He is Creator. On the more liberal, freedom breathing side I hear myself screaming that God chose us to be coheirs and by that very act agreed to treat us like Christ and so we should have the right to know His reasons. And somewhere deep inside I realize that this isnt really about knowing why some unborn children die, but it is more about trusting God to love me enough to say I am good enough for Him to give His reasons to and I am good enough for Him to want to answer my questions.
So.
I know that as a fact but there is a hiccup in my spirit that conflicts with other parts of me. My spirit states with confidence that I am chosen, I am different, I am special. My soul contradicts that I am not the favorite, I am no one interesting, that I am a waste of time (all pains I carry from childhood). When I write it all down i know that my spirit is right but doubts linger. Am I really special enough to be gifted? Am I really different enough to change lives?
The answer is obviously yes, I have the capacities to be special and gifted but the reason most people never fufil their destiny as different and special is that they cant get past their own daddy issues to realize that God does trust us with His plan, we can change the world and yes we are special enough to be different.

Our Plans vs His Plan

Monday morning, I'm on the way to work in 20 degree weather, the light dusting of snow on the ground, the ice still present on my windows as I'm flying down the highway. Now, if you are familiar with Cleveland Highway / Dalton Pike you will know the area that my husband and I refer to as "that long stretch of highway where you don't really know where you are." I'm in that 5 or 6 mile stretch and my car makes a light rattling noise and I cut the heat to listen to the noise. As I listen, I press the gas a bit harder to hear it better and the car quits. I start de-cellerating and my lights come on and the engine cuts off. I pull over to the curb, wait a minute and try to crank it up again. The engine won't turn over and now there's smoke. I sigh and flip on the emergency lights and call my boss -- I won't be at work for a while. Then I call Brent -- honey, the car quit. Then a nice cop pulls over and calls a tow truck for me... and I sit in my car for 45 minutes waiting for the tow.



Now if you know me well at all, you probably know that I am from Charleston, SC and I grew up on the coast of a barrier island and I TOTALLY don't tolerate the cold. Cold to me is about 55 and that's when you put on a sweater and give up on your errands, cuddle up in a blanket in front of a fireplace with hot cocoa. So imagine me (who would much rather be in a wetsuit, surfing on the atlantic) sitting in a car with no heat in the snow for 45 minutes. Yep, I was an unhappy camper.

It occured to me (or rather, God spoke) that I was being a total baby after the fact. As I thought about it a conversation my husband and I had came to mind. My husband told me several nights ago about a man he works with who prayed that a pallet they were moving would not topple over. A few moments later, it crashed to the ground and the man who had prayed started smiling and laughing. My husband could not help but ask what made him so happy. The man replied with possibly one of the deepest things I've heard said about this subject matter: "When I pray for something, and it is given, I know that God has allowed my way. But when I pray for something and it is not given to me, then I know that God is doing something bigger than I can see, and I am glad to know that God is working His own plan, and not mine."

Next time you find yourself sulking because things aren't going your way, think about this. God is doing something different -- and that's a good thing.

I remember one Christmas when I'd asked for all sorts of things as Brent pestered me for ideas. We like celebrating Christmas in our house -- in fact we probably over-do it. Something about growing up in modest families has driven Brent and I to really enjoy Christmas. We have many traditions, including some about the number of presents everyone has to have, the fact that one must be handmade, everyone has their own ornament every year, etc. I think its our little way of making up for all the corners we have usually cut all year long. This particular Christmas, I'd asked for a particular pair of snow boots. I had tried them on, and told him my size. I was thrilled when something the right size appeared under the tree. Christmas morning, when I opened that box I was terribly disapointed to find that it was a game, not the beautiful boots I'd hoped for. I went along through the remainder of the gifts, trying to be happy and not be so upset about something silly like snow boots that he proably couldn't afford. When we got to the last of it, at the very bottom of my stocking (which he'd insisted we would open last that year) was a gift card for the store with the exact amount of money needed for that particular pair of boots - so I could get them in the right color and size. I was ecstatic.

Sometimes God lets our cars break down in the snow and changes our plans totally because He is using His own plan. Sometimes, God says "yes" and it just happens differently than we think it will (like the snow boots). Either way, God loves us enough to have a better plan than we can come up with. My husband has a theory about tatoos that I find applies here: "When I was 10, I would have had a tatoo of the power rangers or mega man. Today, I realize that would be stupid and totally not what I want to have for the rest of my life. So when I think about getting a tatoo, I remind myself that in ten years, I probably will think whatever I like now is stupid and not what I want for the rest of my life."

Thank God that He has a plan for your life that is so much better than your own!!

Messes in our Lives

I have found over recent years being the working mother of toddlers that it can be very difficult keeping mess and clutter to a minimum.



Apparently its a common problem, because the above picture was one of the MANY on google's image results for "messy toy room."

The thing that came to my attention this afternoon as I made a to-do list in preperation for family and holiday festivities was that our homes are a good picture of our lives. There are very few who truly have a clean home. Even those with a home that appears clean has its junk drawer, clutter in the closet, and spidewebs under the couch. The fact is that a huge messy toy room or a dustball in the corner is really the same in God's view. Sin is the same - be it prevelant and consistent, or a once in a lifetime sort of thing. God is totally HOLY and we - however holy or unholy we lable ourselves or others - are totally not.

Its a hard thing to get a handle on so let me share a further illustration. Imagine with me that we have a large blender. You put several scoops of delicious chocolate ice cream in it, a splash of milk and you blend it up. Now take that amazing milkshake and throw the leg of a cockroach into it, and blend it up again. Pour a glass.


If you have enough shake to make 4 servings, you only have a 25% chance that you have that leg in your glass. And, realistically, if you have 25 sips in your glass, thats a 1% chance that your sip will contain that leg.

Are you gonna drink it?

Of course not.

This is possibly the best way I've ever heard to describe levels of holy. Its either holy or not holy. Cockroach or no cockroach. It doesn't matter to you how much of that bug is in your cup, or how little chance there is that you'll sip it, you aren't going to drink that shake.

Now; back to our messy house analogy.

What rooms of your house need cleaning? Is there a room that needs a major overhaul? Or is it a few odds and ends? Do you have a junk drawer so to speak? What kinds of things need to be resolved and taken care of? What kinds of things are big messes?

Time to do business. Let's stop just closing the door and pretending that mess isn't there. Let's take care of it.