I stepped onto the ranch one summer day, wearing my capri’s, closed toed shoes, and my ‘volunteer’ shirt.  Dressing to code, yet feeling way over dressed for the weather.  It was summer, it was hot, I wanted to be in board shorts, a swim suit top, and some flip flops. Even then I would have likely been too hot. 

I chatted with my favorite Monday greeter, and got my job assignment.  Clean the office. Perfect, there is an air conditioner in there.

A short walk up to the office, left my back soaked with sweat from the sun. 

After tidying up indoors, emptying trash cans, chatting with a friend, it was time to find the broom and sweep the stoop. (The stoop is how my Gram refers to the front porch, is that an east coast thing?)

I begin sweeping, and noticed something I wasn’t prepared for, something I didn’t expect to see…

Brown, Crunchy, fallen leaves. 

To my surprise, Fall had arrived, when I wasn’t even looking.

I was still basking in summer, wishing I were in the trough instead of on the stoop.

But season’s change. 

Whether we are prepared or not.

Sometimes after a long winter, we are anxiously awaiting Spring. 

When Spring arrives, and we get outdoors, we look forward to summer, water play, and prolific gardens (not mine, but yours perhaps).

After summer with the Fruit Loops, we look forward to the structure of the school year.

And once we quickly adjust to that neccessary routine, we begin planning for the ever precious Winter Break.

Do we look to the Season’s of life with the same grateful anticipation?

Do I bask in what the Lord has for me today, and look forward to the surprises He has for me tomorrow?

Today the hot sun, tomorrow the crunchy leaves under my feet…

Lord make me to appreciate the Seasons of life, to greet them with joy, and to let them pass with ease.

This is too funny not to share…

Man Rules­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 
           At LAST a guy has taken the time to write this down

Finally , the guys’ side of the story.
( I must admit, it’s pretty good.)
We always hear ‘ the rules ‘ From the female side.

Now here are the rules from the male side.

These are our rules!
Please note.. these are all numbered ‘1 ‘
ON PURPOSE

1.Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Come to us with a problem < B>only if you want help solving it..

1. 1. That’s what we do.
   Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

   1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
   In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days..

   1. If you think you’re fat, you probably are.
   Don’t ask us.

   1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the   other one

   1. You can either ask us to do something
   Or tell us how you want it done.
   Not both.
   If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself..

   1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials..

   1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

   1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
   Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

   1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
   We do that.

   1. If we ask what is wrong and you say ‘nothing,’ We will act like nothing’s wrong..
   We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle..

   1. If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, Expect an answer you don’t want to hear.
   1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine… Really .

   1. Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball or golf.

   1. You have enough clothes.

   1. You have too many shoes.

   1. I am in shape.   Round IS a shape!

   1. Thank you for reading this.
   Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;

   But did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping..

True Beauty is found in what is created, not in what is manufactured.

I recently visited Crater Lake.  Magnificent.

We visited the ranger in the information center, and watched a short video about how scientiest believe Crater Lake came to be.  The story begins with ‘billions of years ago…’ and in my Creationist mind, I immediately stopped listening. 

I explained to my children that while scientist have their theories, ultimately God created this for us, to marvel at the beauty of His creation.

I have that same feeling when I sit before a waterfall…

I thank God for this awesome setting He has created, and that I can see and appreciate the true beauty of His creation.

Recently, I began a struggle with my appearance.  Turns out it is not as easy to loose weight after baby number 4, in my thirties, as it was to loose weight after three babies born when I was in my twenties.

Spring Sprung, and so did the button on my cute capris!

It caused me to take a look at vanity in my life.  How much time and energy I was spending on a daily basis, wondering what to wear to make this ‘new body’  look cute…how to fix my hair so I only had one visible chin…

Then I was reminded…

“Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” Prvbs 31: 30

And that’s not all…

“Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upo us; yea, the works of our hands establish thou it” Psalm 90:17

I was spending time on my ‘outer beauty’ (if you can call it that) everyday…

Was I doing so at the expense of cultivating inner beauty, the beauty God intended to display through my life?

So I streamlined the morning ‘dressing’ routine.

I took all the clothes that didn’t fit out of the closet and tucked them away.

I chose a ’signature’ hairstyle, consisting of  long simple braid.

I realized my make up does not have to be perfectly applied, if my daughter wants her hair fixed or her doll dressed.

I am ready for the Lord’s work in minutes, spending less time agonizing over what I look like,

and more time focusing on cultivating TRUE BEAUTY.

Please note that this is not a campaign against make up, or short hair or any other vain imaginations that the enemy might be trying to plant. 

This is my simple testimony of the Lord has recently had to bring my heart back around to Him, to believing that who He created me to be is a vessel that displays is work in my life, and that is where True Beauty is seen to the Glory of God.

Find other Thankful Thursday Posts at http://womentakingastand.blogspot.com/

My sadly neglected blog…

I’m back…

But I don’t know how long I can stay…

I am busy about my house…

Spring Cleaning, Spring Planting, Sewing, back at the ranch volunteering and riding,Summer School projects, including Flat Travelers,

I find when I am truly engaged in all that my family needs, I have little time for my blog.

But I have tales to tell, and how I miss telling them here…

In all the churches, in all the years I have walked with the Lord, one common theme has crossed all denominational boundaries – the tithe.

In one way or another, every church provides an opportunity to give.  Some pass a basket, some have a box at the back, some talk about it every week, some talk about it once a month, some talk about it quarterly, or even yearly. 

Each Pastor that stands behind the pulpit has some encouraging word to say about tithing.

My personal favorite scripture that I believe is misused in regard to the tithe is found in Malchi

Mal 3:10 

“Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

The common theme, is that this means… tithe = financial blessing you can not contain.

A Pastor I sat under for years, a phenomenal teacher, whom I respected, took offereing every Sunday and every Sunday he would say that those who do not give, have not discovered the secret of  tithing. He would go on to request, ‘God Bless those who give’.

Many a Sunday I thought to myself, because I choose to put food on the table, rather than tithe, am I not worthy of God’s Blessing?

I hear the story over and over again, friends going hungry, loosing power and water, being evicted from their homes, and yet they are faithfullly tithing.  And there is a Pastor somewhere, directly or indirectly encouraging them to continue to so.

What a sad vicious cycle.  Pastors who are relying on tithers for their income, rather than relying on the Lord, and congregants trusting their leaders, and tithing to their own detriment. 

Is this what the Lord intended for either of these people groups?

After much study and prayer, my husband and I have reconciled this issue in our own hearts and minds.  Through the course of our studies we have waivered from questions like

 ”Do we give 10% of our gross income?

10% of our net income?

10% of our food (because in biblical times they were giving the first fruits, thats 10% of what they had to eat, so they were in fact eating, they were just sharing their food).

We entertained putting 10lbs of oats in the offereing basket as it went by,  Can you imagine the look on the ushers face?  

We have reconciled that we offer what we have to the Lord, whether it be monetary, food, clothing, and we give where He calls us to give.  We do not expect monetary gain, I believe the blessing Malachi speaks of is the Joy that comes from being a blessing to someone, and has little to do with economic status.

In 35 years of church life, my understanding has never been validated from the pulpit.

Until Now!

Saturday night I attended a service at my church, incidentally the wealthiest church in town. 

We are in a series entitled REAL HOPE, and the message was great!  Straight to the heart of the issues we struggle with when times are tough.  I took two pages of notes…I haven’t had that much to jot down in years! 

And then came the Family Meeting…preceeding the offering…topic…the building fund…the expansion plan… the update…the offering speech

And the synic in me thought ‘here goes, the pulling of the heart strings to give to the Lord’s work’.

But what I heard instead, was the single most refreshing sentence I have heard from the pulpit in years.   

“For those of you who have given so generously, thank you. 

 For those of you who CAN NOT give, that is okay, you are where the Lord has you”

I noted that the pastor didn’t say, those of you who don’t give, or those of you who have not discovered the secret of giving, he said those of you who CAN NOT Give. 

Thank you Lord, this dear Pastor understands that there are times in our lives when we can not give, and the Lord is not requiring us to, nor is He looking down upon us because we don’t, nor is He withholding blessing from us!

I hope he doesn’t get a bad wrap for being the Anti-tithe! 

He certainly isn’t against tithing, or giving, or opposed to an offering,.

He is afterall pastoring the wealthiest church in town.  But it isn’t because he has abused his postion, and convinced people to give when they shouldn’t.

God Bless those who CAN NOT give,

God bring peace to their hearts,

God provide for their needs,

God reward their good deeds.

Many years ago, we began a journey together on a ship called the ‘Oasis’.

The captain set the course, simple, straight forward, and we all got on board, with hundreds boarding the ship at various ports along the way. 

The beloved captain, took a fall, but the crew stood ready, to stay the course.

The first mate took the wheel, and we moved forward, together.

The crew became concerned, and came to the new captain, saying ‘I believe we are off course’.

The new captain assured them, ‘we are on course’.

But the ports we began to stop in, were not on the original course.  Some of the crew and passengers recognized the foreign ports and began to disembark, looking for new ships to get them back on course.

The new captain’s words continually assured the crew and passengers that he had not changed course.

And yet there was no denying the evidence, the ship had most certainly changed course.

Most of the crew and the majority of the passengers decided to disembark, some speaking to the captain first, some leaving quiet and confused, some feeling they had no voice at all. 

Eventually, the new captain himself recognized the change of course and set sail on his new craft, ‘the City Church’; taking a few remaining crew members and passengers; leaving the ‘Oasis’ to drift away.

Passengers and crew members of the ‘Oasis’ now scattered at various ports; as they work to get back on course, perhaps can’t help but grieve what was once a beautiful ship, setting sail on a simple course.

Over the last several months, perhaps years, so much has been said and done, but in the simplest of terms, the Silent Majority has spoken. 

“This was not the course we set sail on when we boarded the ‘Oasis’”

My Prayer for the Silent Majority

May God hear the voice of all who lost their home,

May he bring them into fellowship, especially at His throne.

May God hear the voice of those who left in tears

May He comfort their heart and quiet their fears.

May God hear the voice of those who left confused,

May he bring clarity, where His word was misused.

May God hear the voice of those who left betrayed,

May he bring restoration, To relationships frayed.

May God hear the voice of those who left offended,

May he bring confirmation, their rebuke be commended.

May God hear the voice of those who left mad,

May His righteousness remind them, anger isn’t always bad.

May God hear the voice of those who left defeated,

May He remind them, their gifts are needed.

May God hear the voice of those who left in pain,

May He mend their broken hearts, Their efforts were not in vain.

May God hear the voice of those who stayed behind,

May His promise be true for them, “Seek and you will find”

May God hear the voice of those who are misled,

May they be reminded, ‘for your sins, Jesus bled’.

May God quiet the voice, of those who’s words deceive

May He bring to mind the simple truth ‘in whom did you first believe’.

May God’s voice be heard, may truth resound,

May He comfort His people, to His heart may they be bound.

We made a trip over the mountains this past weekend.  I love the scenic drive. 

I love to see the rolling hills, the mountains, the rocks, and to think that God hand placed them all! 

One of the things I enjoy the most is the spontaneously occuring waterfalls, that seem to appear from no source at all and cascade down the rocks on the side of the road. 

When we were traveling to the valley, the water was splashing all down the rocks and onto the shoulder of the road.

When we were traveling back from the valley, the temperatures were quite low, and the waterfalls had frozen into beautiful icicles gleaming in the sun on the rocks.

I saw a turnout, and my husband pulled over so that I could take pictures. 

I love that the Lord uses nature to bless, to inspire and to teach.

These waterfalls are fascinating when the water is flowing.  Much like we can be when the Spirit of God is flowing through us.

The water is equally as intriguing when it is frozen still.  Much like we can be when we find ourselves feeling paralyzed by a trial, or an illness. 

Wether we are freely trickling over the rocks, or frozen by our circumstances, we can still be a witness to the Glory of God.

Do Not Settle for
Practicing behavior
In public
That you desire to exhibit
At home.

Instead,
Practice in private
Behavior you wish to exhibit
In Public.

Perspective.

A mental view or prospect.

The state of one’s ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship.

The faculty of seeing all the relevant data in a meaningful relationship.

At first glance these definitions seem the same. 

A view,

 an idea,

 data.

But look closely. 

A view,

Your View,

An accurate view.

Picture a mountain, with a layer of fog hovering half way up.  So that a person at the bottom, can not see the top, and likewise, a person on top the mountain, can not see the bottom.

Snow at the top, dirt at the bottom.

A person from the bottom of the mountain, says ‘there is no snow on the mountain’.

A person at the peak says,’the mountain is covered with snow’.

Both are speaking from their perspective, neither one is accurate.

What I love about knowing the Lord, is that His perspective is always accurate!

He can see the whole mountain – so to speak.

He can see our whole life, from birth to death.

He can see our whole day from wake to sleep.

He can see our whole trial, from conception, to lesson learned, to resolution.

Most of the time, we are caught somewhere above or below the fog, and our perspective is skewed.

Occasionally, the Gracious Lord, lifts the fog, and we see clearly, with accurate perspective.

I was granted this perspective recently and I wish I could keep it as close to my heart as it was at the moment He showed me.

I met a person whom I related to in a frightening way. 

 Before I met the Lord, I was crippled with fear, I exhibited numerous co-dependent behaviors, and settled readily into unhealthy relationships, I drank, for entertainment, and for coping with the life I chose to lead and yet on in which I found myself unfullfilled.  I did all this before the age of 22.  Then I surrendered my life to the Lord, and He began to transform the mess inside my heart and head.

Fifteen years later, I meet this person, who started down the same path I did in my teenage years.  We are both in our thirties now. 

 I am living for the Lord,  she is living for herself. 

What I see in her, is painful to look at, and I am temtped to judge.

She is lonely, judgemental, self-centered, materialistic, unfulfilled yet unadmittedly, searching for something, finding nothing, argumentative, competitive to a fault, an addict with many vices.

And then the Lord shows me, His perspective.

“This would be you, without Me.”

From His perspective, I am humbled again, ofcourse He is right. 

It grieves me to see where my choices would have taken me. Thank the Lord, He took hold of me when He did. 

I am grateful for His work in my life, and with empathy, I can pray that she would let Him work in hers.

Lord, let me keep perspective,

not a perspective,

not my perspective,

but Yours.

I used to work in the airline industry and Black Wednesday is all about waiting. 

Black Friday is all about waiting too!  You go shopping to these great DoorBuster sales, it takes you five minutes to find what you wanted or find out that they are already out of what you wanted because they put it in the sale ad to get in you in the store but they only had 3 on the shelf and there were 300 people in line ahead of you (you know it was exactly 300 because the first 300 people got a $25 gift card and when you watched the lady in front of you smile as she was handed her gift card, you thought to yourself ‘cool, $25 extra’ until you realized that the store employee who was handing out those cards to the first 300 people had walked away, and he isn’t coming back with more cards, the cards are gone!) 

After those fast and furious five minutes of hunting down your coveted item or items, the pass slows to a crawl when you see the length of the line.

This scenario started for me yesterday, at around 8:45am (not exactly the first 300 in early hour, but I wasn’t after any doorbuster deals)  I was casually looking through the ads, when I a few things caught my eye, and I realized they were priced for the 6 hour sale. 

My Dear Husband and all the kids were still tucked in bed, I had until 11am to get these items at a great price, so I through on my jeans, got some coffee to go, and hopped in the car for my 10-12 mile drive to the store of choice (I tell you the distance so that you know it took me about 20 minutes or so to arrive at the store, then I had to find parking, this time lapse becomes significant later in the story)

I entered to the store to find that it was so packed,  there were no carts left.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught the checkout line, it was right in front of me, where I entered at the far side of the store. The line was weaving up and down through 10 isles!  It was madness! I hadn’t seen lines like that since Tickle Me Elmo was the doorbuster item at Toys R Us. 

Nevertheless, a deal is a deal, I went to the parking lot, 3 stores down, found myself a cart and headed for the toy section.  I found my item, one left,  took a close look, and uuhhhgggg… this the is not the one on the list!  A quick look back at the sale ad, and I if I had looked closely at home, I would have known the one on sale was not THE ONE! 

I thought to myself “they win, I’m in the store, the sale price item is not what I want, but I might as well look around”

I found a replacement item, more perfect than I could ask for,  picked up a few other things and with only four things in my cart, (my cart that some poor soul who is juggling 23 things in two arms plus a purse and a coat is coveting) I head to the line. 

Now let me just give you a road map of the store.  The toy section is center back of the store. Standing in the toys, just to the left is the shoe section.  From there you go through the Athletic Shoe Dept (quite extensive) then the boys section, the mens section, and then finally the front of the store, with cards, and seasonal items.  The cards and seasonal items are the isles I saw the line weaving through.

Now back to the point…

I start navigating my way to the front corner of the store where I think the line is, and I am about half way there when I hear an announcement “Shoppers ready to get in line, please look for the balloon bouqet for the entrance, now in the shoe department”

‘Are you kidding me?’

Nope, the line is all the way at the back of the store.  This line is worse than when Tickle Me Elmo was the hot ticket item!!!!

I finally arrive at the entrance to the line, with an empty cup of coffee, and I am looking at my four items wondering, ‘are they worth it?’

I ask the balloon lady the dumbest question ever “If none of these items are the 6 hour sale items, will Customer Service hold them for me, and I’ll come back tonight?”

Anyone want to guess the answer “We can’t do that ma’am. Unless the girls at the desk have been told something different”

Now I am usually not a foolish person, but I determined in that moment that there was nothing wrong with asking this dumb question twice, so I headed up to Customer Service and uttered these embarrassing words again

“By any chance can you put this on hold for me, and I’ll come back tonight, none of it is the 6 hour sale price?”

Survey says…

“No Ma’am, we can’t hold anything, I’m Sorry”

I responded politely “I understand, I just have to determine if these things are worth standing in that line for hours”

To my surprise, the angel behind the counter offered another alternative, “do you just need to pay for your items, I can check you out right here”

My conscience got the best of me and I uttered uncontrollably “What about all those people in…”

When I heard myself, I stopped immediately, and said “That would be great!”

With my four items bagged, and a huge grin, I offered my cart to the poor soul walking in the door, giggled at the people in line, headed to the car, and was home within an hour.

I LOVE BLACK FRIDAY!