worshiping God in the cracker aisle…

It is true that God speaks when we LEAST expect it...

Today, I was in Wal-Mart – I had been in there about 45 minutes or so - wandering, looking, shopping. I was in the cracker/snacks aisle when I heard singing. There was young guy stocking the shelves (isn’t there always?), and he was singing “Blessed Be Your Name”. (You know it…the one by Matt Redman.)

As I progressed further down the aisle, I realized I had joined him (silently - well, almost!). I began to sing quietly - and not just to sing along but to purposely worship. I was worshiping God in the cracker aisle! I realized that I had been so intent on my shopping and things that I “needed” to do that I had not thought of God or His nearness to me all through the store. I realized that the simple singing of that young man had not only sounded sweet, but had literally brought me to a place of worship - forgetting my earthly distractions and focusing on God. And THAT was what I truly “needed” to do. (There goes that "Mary" vs. "Martha" thing again!)

I stayed on that aisle a little longer than necessary listening to the young man’s polite conversation with other shoppers. He eventually made it down to where I was standing, commented on my full cart and we talked for a moment. Then I shared with him how his singing had caused me to stop and actually worship God, too, and that it was exactly what I needed. He said “thank you”, and we went on doing what we needed to do.

But even as I continued on through the rest of my shopping, my spirit kept worshiping and being taught by the Holy Spirit Himself. (He can work anywhere – even in Wal-Mart!) Who would have thought that the mere singing of a worship song while working in Wal-Mart would help a passer-by to get her mind off herself and to kneel before the throne of God in worship? At first, I thought that it was a “sweet” thing that he was singing while he worked. Then I realized that it was a “mighty” thing! Mighty because spiritual battle had taken place and God had been worshiped – not only by him but by someone who witnessed him worshiping and was led to worship God as well. Mighty because worship unleashes the power of God. Mighty because worship takes us before the throne of the Almighty One, the Creator of all things, MY Savior and MY God.

I love that God spoke to me in a real and unexpected way today - and in Wal-Mart no less! It may sound like a trivial thing, but it was a very personal reminder of the unknown and uneplanned influence we have on everyone we come in contact with, and that small things in the hand of God are never small.

But I'm not the first to realize this. Someone far more wise than I said it this way, "If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person." (Do you know who said that? Fred Rogers. I just love "Mr. Rogers"!)

I must never forget that someone is being influenced by my actions ALL the time... (Have I been a good steward of my influence today?)

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Worship now. Here are the words…

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

Wyatt vs. PETA

Wyatt was watching the news with me the other day and we saw a story about PETA being upset about the "chicken dance". He just couldn't understand why anyone would have anything against the"chicken dance", so I tried to explain that PETA was a group that wanted people to treat animals well and that sometimes they go overboard with the things they get upset about.

So, Wyatt speaks up and says, "Well! If I knew where one of those PETA people lived, I would just go on their front porch and eat some pig!"

Gotta love that boy!

Mattea's 9th Birthday

Today (Easter) is Mattea's 9th birthday!

She's becoming such a beautiful young lady. I am so proud of her. She's cute, funny, a diligent worker, and I can't wait to see how God is planning to use her. I am thankful He has let me have her for this time...

She made her own cake this year, which is an ice cream cake. She saw it on "18 Kids and Counting" and wanted to make it for her birthday.

Here's the recipe:

24 ice cream sandwiches (2 boxes - we use the Wal-Mart brand)

1 large tub of whipped cream

chocolate syrup

caramel syrup

Heath toffe bits (find near chocolate chips)

Directions: Line bottom of 9x13 casserole dish with ice cream sanwiches. Cover with whipped cream. Swirl on chocolate syrup and caramel syrup (however much you like). Sprinkle on toffee bits. Add another layer of ice cream sandwiches, and everything else. Then add any decorations you like on top.

I love you, Ladybug!!

notes from margins of books

I recently pulled out a couple of books that I really like just to look through them and find a little encouragement. I kept finding notes that I had written in the margins as I had read the books. Just things that I had jotted down as God spoke to me as I read the books. It was good to read these insights again....

“Discipline places us before God- the transformation is God’s work.” (I didn't give credit to any other source, so I don't really know where it came from. I don’t know-but it sounds too deep and wise to be from me…)

"CHOICES- 1) learn to recognize that I have a choice (many times I don’t even think about the fact that I have a choice. I just “react” with my standard reaction rather than thinking and responding.)
2) make the RIGHT choice (take action- the right action)"

"When I am running on empty, barely making it through – the fuel light is on, staring at me with warning – I am not able to make it through even the minor struggles and challenges of the day with grace toward others. My supply is depleted so quickly because there is no abundance. I am operating on only fumes. This is when I am easily annoyed, have no patience toward others, and have no wisdom.”

"I find that I often pray for wisdom but seldom for joy… my family needs both!"

"Be prepared! Not only the motto of the Boy Scouts, but the theme of the "Bridesmaids" story in Matt 25:1-10. I have often prayed that God would do something great but I do not always stay “ready”. I find that often I am not prepared for the work I have prayed for God to do through me."

"I don’t want to merely be a "member" of the team- I want to be a "contributor". I don’t want to just wear the uniform and stand on the field – I want t make plays that bring victory to the team. I want to play my position to the best of my ability. I don’t have to receive the “Most Valuable Player” award. I really want the “Consistently Valuable Player” award. I want to be dependable- the one that can be counted on to come through every time."

a couple of things God taught me this week...

If you continually think, talk, and bemoan the negative things in your life, the easier it is for Satan to tempt you and convince you that things other than God are what you need to make you happy. When you think of God's blessings, you will put your trust in Him and all the joy you need will come from Him...

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:4-8

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The more I trust God, the more obedient I will be. My level of obedience reveals my level of trust. I must obey first and trust God for the outcome.

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." Psalm 36:4-6

taking down the Christmas decorations...

Well, it's time to take down the Christmas decorations. I've been dreading it ever since I put them up. I mean, I enjoyed looking at them and it's fun to have them up, but there's always that nagging thought in the back of my mind that there will come a day that they have to be taken down and put away. - not my favorite thing to do, if you know what I mean. BUT here's food for thought...

"No unwelcome tasks become any less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it."

Alexander McLaren

So... a few pics before I take them down...

OK! Here I go!!!

thinking about "Christmas"

I've been thinking about "Christmas" (not that surprising since it's December 22nd!)

But I guess what I've really been thinking about is the way I think about Christmas. I've been wondering... "How would I celebrate the arrival of God's Son to earth for the salvation of mankind if I wasn't surrounded by all the other stuff we call "Christmas"? I don't even want to call it Christmas right now because the word "Christmas" has so many other meanings than just the birth of Christ.

When I hear the word or say the word "Christmas", I rarely focus much on the meaning of what actually happened that night in Bethlehem. It usually means the birth of Christ PLUS food, friends, gifts, decorations, lights, etc. And when you're the mom those words mean more than just what they mean at first glance:
"Food" actually means extra grocery shopping and last minute dashes to the store for that one ingredient you forgot and then the extra cooking.
"Friends" means planning get-togethers, deciding on the food, buying the food, cooking the food, cleaning the house, cleaning the kids, enjoying the fun, and then cleaning up again.
"Gifts" means making a list of everyone you "should" buy for, trying to remember something they said they would like to have or come up with something on your own that you think they would like to have and then second-guessing yourself for at least a week wondering if you are right about it because you want to give a gift they will actually like and use, driving through all that "holiday" traffic, wandering around the mall with your mind going in circles, picking up and putting back 7 things before you decide you'll just take whatever is in your hand because you just realized you are running out of time and can't spend all your time on one gift, getting up at the crack of dawn at least once to make a Toys R Us run, standing in "holiday" lines at the register, "hiding" gifts in all kinds of places (and then finding one of those gifts 2 months later in some strange place that you forgot about!), buying wrapping paper and tape and bows and tissue paper and then standing at the dining room table for hours wrapping, receiving that one gift you have to pretend to love all the while wishing they hadn't wasted their money on that because in all honesty you know you'll never use it, etc. (BUT "Gifts" also means getting to see the looks on the faces of those you love and for whom you did get that "perfect" gift and then you forget all about the agony you went through to get to this point.)
"Decorations" means decoratING. It means making sure everything is cleaned up and just right before you begin and then climbing that rickety ladder up into the attic, trying not to fall off that same ladder as you bring down box after box of decorations, opening the boxes, seeing things you had forgotten about and smiling, trying to remember where you put "this thing" last year, taking down the "regular" decorations and putting them away to make room for the "Christmas" decorations, decorating the tree, hanging the wreaths, and all the while thinking, "I'm just going to take all this stuff down and have to put it back up in the attic in a few weeks!" And then cleaning up the new mess you made unpacking all that stuff.
"Lights" means spending at least an hour untangling all those tree lights and another hour trying to get all of them to work at the same time, putting up the lights on the outside of the house (in other words, watching and worrying and "directing" as your 13-year-old climbs around on the roof!), and (the good part) driving around as a family looking at other people's lights and decorations.

Is THIS what "celebrating" means?

I know my musings sound terribly "grinch-like", and there are many "good" things about the way we celebrate "Christmas". It's just that I personally spend WAY more time doing the things I don't enjoy and that won't last and that don't really remind me of the real meaning of what I am supposed to be celebrating than I do simply celebrating the birth of my Savior and enjoying and sharing the important and lasting things with the ones I love. And from what I have been hearing (more this year than ever before), most of my friends feel the same way.

So... back to my original question: "How would I celebrate the arrival of God's Son to earth for the salvation of mankind if I wasn't surrounded by all the other "stuff" we call Christmas?" If I could remove all the exterior "stuff" that I equate with celebrating Christmas, how would I celebrate God's ultimate gift of LOVE to me? - the night MY savior, God Himself in human form arrived as a little baby and set into motion the plan God had from before time began to save ME from my own sin? It's so crazy for me to think that God Himself, the Creator of all things - from a single-celled amoeba to literally billions of entire galaxies - MY Creator, would humble Himself to be born as a lowly human for the purpose of dying for me! I cannot even fathom that type of love... and that is what "Christmas" is really all about. It's about LOVE! It's about a kind of love that makes me cry just trying to get my mind around it. It's the love that made a way for me to know God. (I can KNOW GOD? that sounds so impossible - and yet it's unfathomably true - how amazing is this?!) And it is my Savior's birth (the one I am supposed to be celebrating) that made a way for me to know Him. The beauty is that He didn't have to come. It would have been totally fair for me to just die guilty and be separated from Him forever, but my Savior came... because He loves me - there's no other reason than that.

In all of my thinking and pondering, I guess my question comes down to this: How do I "celebrate" LOVE? Because ultimately that is what I am celebrating - a love that is beyond my comprehension. My conclusion? by "showing" love.

I can only celebrate love by showing love.

How do we show love for God? By obeying Him and by loving others. (see 1 John 4:7-12)

So, that is how I will celebrate. And I will celebrate it all year long - this isn't just a "Christmas" thing. God's love for me isn't just for this time of year and neither is mine for Him. I know that I must DO more loving of people. Not "must" in the obligatory sense, but "must" in the "I love God so much I just can't help myself" sense. I will deliberately seek ways to show love to others - that's how I will celebrate.