I love her....McKenna is her father and I wrapped up into one fantastic package of a little bit of the best of both of us and a giant helping of originality!
This weekend, she treated us to a fabulous rendition of a MAD TV skit, she had seen ONCE and managed to get it verbatim when she was relaying it to us. She is hilarious doing it! She had everyone in the room laughing. I didn't get her on tape doing it but here is the TV skit that she was copying. It's definitely worth the watch and then just imagine McKenna doing it. I'm giggling right now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkdcYlOn5M
Now....wasn't that worth it?!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Love, Honor, and Cherish....
As I dive into my relationship with Jeremy, I find myself even more aware of what I'm looking for in a future partner and what a solid Christian marriage should look like. A friend of mine gave me the name of this book to read....Lies at the Alter by Dr. Robin L. Smith. This is not a Christian based book, but it has a list of 275 questions you should ask and be asked of anyone that you feel you could have a future with to help you really get to the "meat" of who the other person is and whether or not there are some red flags that you should potentially pursue.
I haven't gotten to the questions yet, but in one of the first couple of chapters, something she said captivated me. "Do you know the definition of love, honor, and cherish?" She asks the people she's counseling to give meaning to each of those words. So I stopped and thought about it for a bit.
Take a minute and think about it for yourself...define those 3 words to yourself. Love. Honor. Cherish. I don't think there's any wrong answer, but it's definitely worth digging into yourself and thinking about.
Here are the definitions I came up with.
Love- To have complete and total devotion to him (my husband), no matter what the circumstances. To trust him to be the head and spiritual leader in our home.
Honor- To put him first and respect him in all areas, even if I don't always agree. (Notice I don't say I'll be a doormat or that he'll always get his way, but that I will respect his thoughts, ideas, actions, etc.)
Cherish- To hold him closer to me than any other human. To revere him as husband, lover, leader, and best friend.
So, friends, what are your definitions?
I haven't gotten to the questions yet, but in one of the first couple of chapters, something she said captivated me. "Do you know the definition of love, honor, and cherish?" She asks the people she's counseling to give meaning to each of those words. So I stopped and thought about it for a bit.
Take a minute and think about it for yourself...define those 3 words to yourself. Love. Honor. Cherish. I don't think there's any wrong answer, but it's definitely worth digging into yourself and thinking about.
Here are the definitions I came up with.
Love- To have complete and total devotion to him (my husband), no matter what the circumstances. To trust him to be the head and spiritual leader in our home.
Honor- To put him first and respect him in all areas, even if I don't always agree. (Notice I don't say I'll be a doormat or that he'll always get his way, but that I will respect his thoughts, ideas, actions, etc.)
Cherish- To hold him closer to me than any other human. To revere him as husband, lover, leader, and best friend.
So, friends, what are your definitions?
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Why Do We Need to be Salt?
I'm going to be doing something this summer I've never done before. Something that I'm nervous about, but something that I know God is directing me to do...I'm going to lead a Bible study. I'm going to take the Colossians Bible study that Laura wrote for SOWN and myself and 3 other women are going to dive in and do this 8-week study on a book that I hadn't really paid much attention to.
I decided to start this venture yesterday by preparing and so I picked up my Bible and proceeded to read the book of Colossians. What a spectacular book in the Bible! It's packed with so much wisdom and it took me a while to get through that little book because I kept looking up references and researching things and looking at verses in different translations! The reason I'm writing this is because, already, God has my heart directed towards a particular passage in Colossians; Colossians 4:5-6.
"5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsider, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." (NASB)
POWERFUL! The reason it struck me is because this isn't the first time that salt has been used as a reference. Look at Matthew 5:13.
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for any thing, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." (NASB)
As a Christian, I know the concept of being the "salt of the earth." But do I really understand and do I really LIVE it? Salt is a preservative. It was and is used to preserve meat. It also flavors. My job as "salt" is several fold. I should first be binding myself as a preservative in this lost and dying world. My job is take my love and example of Jesus and envelop people to help sustain them through good and bad times. I'm also supposed to "flavor" society; I can live Jesus out loud, His love shining through me. I can paint His brilliance on every canvas I come across. I can make people hungry for His Word and His peace.
I think, though, that I can also apply this more intimately in the lives of my children. My job is to help them grow in Christ Jesus. I'm the preservative that helps protects them from becoming rancid. I know that ultimately, the choice to follow is theirs, but I still need to be doing my job as salt to fuel that desire to learn more.
As far as my speech being seasoned with salt....I always need help with that. Especially when it comes to my children. God continues to work in me about that. It wasn't long ago that McKenna shared with me that I was different from before, a change that she liked. She sees the changes that God has brought about and I long for her to see more. It's a constant prayer of mine that what I say to my girls be palatable; easy to hear, easy to understand, easy to see the love.
How about you? How do you see being the "salt of the earth?"
I decided to start this venture yesterday by preparing and so I picked up my Bible and proceeded to read the book of Colossians. What a spectacular book in the Bible! It's packed with so much wisdom and it took me a while to get through that little book because I kept looking up references and researching things and looking at verses in different translations! The reason I'm writing this is because, already, God has my heart directed towards a particular passage in Colossians; Colossians 4:5-6.
"5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsider, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." (NASB)
POWERFUL! The reason it struck me is because this isn't the first time that salt has been used as a reference. Look at Matthew 5:13.
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for any thing, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." (NASB)
As a Christian, I know the concept of being the "salt of the earth." But do I really understand and do I really LIVE it? Salt is a preservative. It was and is used to preserve meat. It also flavors. My job as "salt" is several fold. I should first be binding myself as a preservative in this lost and dying world. My job is take my love and example of Jesus and envelop people to help sustain them through good and bad times. I'm also supposed to "flavor" society; I can live Jesus out loud, His love shining through me. I can paint His brilliance on every canvas I come across. I can make people hungry for His Word and His peace.
I think, though, that I can also apply this more intimately in the lives of my children. My job is to help them grow in Christ Jesus. I'm the preservative that helps protects them from becoming rancid. I know that ultimately, the choice to follow is theirs, but I still need to be doing my job as salt to fuel that desire to learn more.
As far as my speech being seasoned with salt....I always need help with that. Especially when it comes to my children. God continues to work in me about that. It wasn't long ago that McKenna shared with me that I was different from before, a change that she liked. She sees the changes that God has brought about and I long for her to see more. It's a constant prayer of mine that what I say to my girls be palatable; easy to hear, easy to understand, easy to see the love.
How about you? How do you see being the "salt of the earth?"
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Out Of My Comfort Zone
SOWN has been such a blessing to me. For those of you who don't know what SOWN is, it's a women's Bible study group that was founded by Laura Whitmore, my pastor's wife. She felt God leading her to write a Bible study and she's now done 3. SOWN isn't an acronym; it comes from the parable of the sower. SOWN's vision is to have Christ do a supernatural work in our lives by positioning ourselves in the Word. "This work will include seeing the Truths of the Word 'sown' into our lives, where they will become deeply rooted, eventually yielding a harvest that will profoundly affect those around us."
Doesn't that sound powerful? To have the Truth sown into the core of who we are so that everything we do is lived through Christ and the Truth He brought us?!
I wanted to do the Colossians Bible study with SOWN that Laura did in the fall. But everything stopped me....life, excuses. Really it was excuses, so I didn't sign up. The Philippians Bible study rolled around in February and I decided I would start. And then came the excuses....every Sunday for 3 weeks, I found some reason or another to not sign up and get the book. One day, after church on week 4 (the last week to pre-register), it was like God was literally saying to me, "Are you stupid? Are you not paying attention to what I'm telling you?" So, I walked out to the lobby and joined the class.
AND GOD DELIVERED.
I have grown through this study. I have learned things that I thought I already had a pretty good grasp of, only to be shown that I still had a lot of growing to do! I have never been more "in it" for God.
This last day of homework, Week 10-Day 5, had me doing so much reflection on where God has me, and I wanted to share with all of you.
"Today, I am wondering if you have found yourself smack dab in the middle of circumstances that you would have never, in a million years chosen for yourself. Anyone? To be sure, there are times, because of poor choices on our part, we end up in places we never anticipated going. I am talking about something different here. For whatever reason, God has taken you down a path you probably wouldn't have chosen for yourself. Could it be because there is something of eternal significance at stake?"
I grew up in an independent, fundamental Baptist church. It's all I've ever known. If it wasn't "hell, fire, and damnation" preaching, I didn't want it. I loved that my pastor shouted. I loved that he pounded his fist on the pulpit. I loved hearing the amens from the congregation.
And then God moved me. Literally. To another church. I went through my second divorce and I found a class that sounded good, one that I thought would help me work through the pain of a divorce. DivorceCare. It was offered at Cheyenne Hills, a non-denominational church; a good church, but nothing I was interested in. I just wanted the class! So I went through the 13-week course and God made some decisions for me that were so far out of my comfort zone, I was scared....seriously. I was asked to help teach the class and that meant coming to Cheyenne Hills. I wouldn't have chosen this for me. I love to teach and help people, but teaching a class with the stigma that I felt always surrounded me (being divorced twice, with a child from each of my husbands) had me worried. Teaching in a non-denominational church petrified me.
But I did it. I left a church where I had been for 8 years, where my growth had become stagnant, and where my Light had become dim, and He moved me to the most unlikely spot.
And I love it! Because of this move to a new church, God has given me such a heart for those who are hurting from a divorce or separation. He has used both Pastor Galen and Pastor Roger to help shape me as a strong Christian and to draw closer to God. He has used Laura to build my character and strength. He has used Brandi and Chris, my small group leaders at SOWN, to create friendships and lifelong Christian alliances. And I have NEVER looked back. God did it for a reason, and I'll never question how He works.
What about you? Has God sent you down a path where you thought, "WHOA!!! What are You doing?" but just trusted Him to help you see it through?
Doesn't that sound powerful? To have the Truth sown into the core of who we are so that everything we do is lived through Christ and the Truth He brought us?!
I wanted to do the Colossians Bible study with SOWN that Laura did in the fall. But everything stopped me....life, excuses. Really it was excuses, so I didn't sign up. The Philippians Bible study rolled around in February and I decided I would start. And then came the excuses....every Sunday for 3 weeks, I found some reason or another to not sign up and get the book. One day, after church on week 4 (the last week to pre-register), it was like God was literally saying to me, "Are you stupid? Are you not paying attention to what I'm telling you?" So, I walked out to the lobby and joined the class.
AND GOD DELIVERED.
I have grown through this study. I have learned things that I thought I already had a pretty good grasp of, only to be shown that I still had a lot of growing to do! I have never been more "in it" for God.
This last day of homework, Week 10-Day 5, had me doing so much reflection on where God has me, and I wanted to share with all of you.
"Today, I am wondering if you have found yourself smack dab in the middle of circumstances that you would have never, in a million years chosen for yourself. Anyone? To be sure, there are times, because of poor choices on our part, we end up in places we never anticipated going. I am talking about something different here. For whatever reason, God has taken you down a path you probably wouldn't have chosen for yourself. Could it be because there is something of eternal significance at stake?"
I grew up in an independent, fundamental Baptist church. It's all I've ever known. If it wasn't "hell, fire, and damnation" preaching, I didn't want it. I loved that my pastor shouted. I loved that he pounded his fist on the pulpit. I loved hearing the amens from the congregation.
And then God moved me. Literally. To another church. I went through my second divorce and I found a class that sounded good, one that I thought would help me work through the pain of a divorce. DivorceCare. It was offered at Cheyenne Hills, a non-denominational church; a good church, but nothing I was interested in. I just wanted the class! So I went through the 13-week course and God made some decisions for me that were so far out of my comfort zone, I was scared....seriously. I was asked to help teach the class and that meant coming to Cheyenne Hills. I wouldn't have chosen this for me. I love to teach and help people, but teaching a class with the stigma that I felt always surrounded me (being divorced twice, with a child from each of my husbands) had me worried. Teaching in a non-denominational church petrified me.
But I did it. I left a church where I had been for 8 years, where my growth had become stagnant, and where my Light had become dim, and He moved me to the most unlikely spot.
And I love it! Because of this move to a new church, God has given me such a heart for those who are hurting from a divorce or separation. He has used both Pastor Galen and Pastor Roger to help shape me as a strong Christian and to draw closer to God. He has used Laura to build my character and strength. He has used Brandi and Chris, my small group leaders at SOWN, to create friendships and lifelong Christian alliances. And I have NEVER looked back. God did it for a reason, and I'll never question how He works.
What about you? Has God sent you down a path where you thought, "WHOA!!! What are You doing?" but just trusted Him to help you see it through?
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