Author Archives: therealmimi

Don’t be afraid

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It takes someone outside of me to help me see behaviors and pinpoint thoughts/perceptions that aren’t healthy.  Whenever I spend time with my sis, I learn so much.  She is very perceptive and wise and is one of those friends for me who speaks truth into my heart and life.  I take it from her because I’m secure in her love.  She knows me and doesn’t judge me.

Sitting at my kitchen table a few mornings ago, somehow we began talking about connecting to people and trying to fill the need in our hearts to connect with stuff other than intimacy with God.  Jodi asked me what I was afraid of.  I hadn’t thought I was afraid of anything but as we sat there and I thought about it I realized I am afraid of being alone and lonely.  I’m having a hard time watching my old friends from our old church grow more closely together, even though that is wonderful and what’s supposed to happen, because I feel I’m drifting away from them.  I’m missing my college girls – and anticipating when my youngest also leaves – and realize they’ve been some of my closest friends all throughout their growing up years and now they are moving on, so to speak.  Continue reading →

Thought for the Day

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If I’m like a glow-in-the-dark star and the light of Jesus is what “charges” me up to glow, people won’t see the glow as much in broad daylight.  It’s when things get dark that the glow shows up.  Don’t run from or wish away tough times.  They’ll see what God’s doing in your life much more when things get dark.  Just stay close to Jesus and glow.

We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!  Romans 5:4 The Message

Did you know?

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Did you know…

  • That you’re free – free to just be the “you” God made you to be
  • You’re not responsible for the choices other people make, just your own
  • You don’t have to save everyone or fix their problems, only Jesus can do that
  • You don’t have to figure out how to get from point A to point B, you just trust God
  • You are loved more than you can possibly think of, dream up or imagine, even when you mess up
  • There’s no such thing as a perfect person (except for Jesus)
  • Everyone has some kind of dysfunction in their life and in their family, and that’s okay
  • God made you the way you are on purpose and He has good things for you to do, in whichever stage of life you find yourself right now
  • It’s okay to laugh and have fun when you worship and praise God
  • God gave everything to have you near, to have you walk with Him, talk with Him, love Him and be with Him forever.
  • God’s forgiveness and fresh start are available for you today and every day.
  • You can’t make God love you more by “being good.”  He just loves because He IS love.  So be still and be loved by Him.  Do good just to thank Him and help others know Him.
  • That anything good in me and you is from God, not from us
  • You connect with God differently than others, and that’s okay.  You may connect through music, through being outdoors, through journaling, through quiet times, through serving other people…whichever way you connect to Him is okay.
  • Guilt is not from God.  It helps us realize we need to change but God doesn’t want us to live under guilt.  He means for us to be FREE
  • You are FREE when you accept Jesus’ forgiveness and surrender to Him.  I’m talking truly free.
  • This day is God’s gift to you because He loves you.  He was watching you sleep and couldn’t wait for you to open your eyes and wake up.  He’s singing over You because He is so delighted in You, today, right now.  Take His hand and just wait and see all the beautiful things He will show you.

Today is good

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Today is beautiful.

Today I have more than I need; in fact, compared to many I live in luxury.

Today the sun warms my skin, a warm breeze tousles my hair, all under a canopy clear aqua-blue sky.

Today I am content.

Today I get to spend time with my sister from Arizona who I love.

Today my bills are paid and my car is running.

Today I’m healthy and well.

Today John and I are both employed.

Today, like yesterday and every day ahead of me, I have the incredible privilege of enjoying a close relationship with God.  He was waiting for me as I opened my eyes this morning – waiting to give me the gift of this day.

Today I’m exploring His gift as it unwinds.  I’ll miss beauty, blessings, and even God Himself if I’m all bound up in wondering about days ahead.

Jesus said to live in today…not yesterday and not tomorrow.  That’s good because I don’t know what’s coming tomorrow.  It’s actually a loving gift He gave us, to just dwell in the day we woke to, to enjoy it, to walk hand in hand through it with him and those around us, to be thankful and at peace.

So, I’m living in this day.

And today is good.

Jesus said, “What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”  Matthew 6:33-34 The Message

The joy of no plans

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My sister arrived today from Phoenix to visit for a few days.  I was able to take those days off of work and so now we can do whatever our little hearts desire.  We have no big set agenda and we love it that way.  Well, Five Guys is definitely going to happen somewhere in the mix.  We might take a walk or two or three, might sit by the lake and watch the sun reflect on the water while we visit, might eat some ice cream, might just drive around through the open countryside and listen to music, will most definitely have some good laughs and heart-to-hearts.

She’s not much of a shopper so I asked her if she would still enjoy walking around the downtown square of Noblesville sometime this weekend.  She asked me, “Will you be there?”  I said, “Well yeah!”  She said, “Then I want to do that.”

I love my sister.

Kaleidoscope

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When I surrendered, all my thoughts, dreams, plans, expectations, hopes and even some beliefs fell as if the surface they were resting on was suddenly yanked out from underneath.  The ground below was hard and they shattered.  So many pieces lay in piles all jumbled up. What a mess! They had seemed so valuable – something to be desired – but now all was broken.

Before I could reach a state of panic or overwhelming sadness, I felt Jesus’ strong hand on my shoulder, silently telling me to just be still.  He stepped past me crouching there in my disappointment and scooped up all the fragments and shards in His hands.  Then he got up and turned away from me for a while as I nursed my wounds from wayward pieces that had cut me.  He worked without speaking.  The silence became so complete it almost smothered me as I sat waiting.  I didn’t know what He was doing, He seems to enjoy secrecy sometimes.  He didn’t even want my help, if you can imagine that.  Continue reading →

Front and Center

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My cat Rocky laying right in front of the computer monitor, my youngest doing hand stands during commercials when we watch TV, the high school crossing guard waving his flourescent orange wands at me to stop, the ding of my phone notifying me I have a text message, my boss as he gives me a task at work – all want my attention.  For the moment, it’s as if each of them is saying “Hey!  Look at me, front and center here.”  We all need attention, some more than others.

God revealed to me (and it’s not the first time) ever so lovingly but firmly that I tend to seek too much attention for myself or be concerned that other people think well of me.  Facebook is one thing that makes this difficult.  It’s a treasure trove of attention:  people responding to things I say, to pictures I post, to jokes and videos I share.  People commenting about me or my life, interacting with me, giving me virtual pats on the back.  Even my blog brings me attention in a round about way.

When God showed me an ugly, childish attitude that was bubbling up this morning I was embarrassed and frustrated and it comes from being too preoccupied with myself.  Continue reading →

True Identity

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While talking with a friend of mine who just finished 16 rounds of chemo I realized she still has a long road ahead of her before she can come out of the cancer woods.  She has a double mastectomy and hysterectomy in her future along with radiation, then probably reconstructive surgery.  Just hearing about it was a little overwhelming for me, so I’m sure it’s daunting to her at times, too.  She seems so peaceful, though.  She’s thankful to be alive.  She’s thankful for a good prognosis and the way her cancer responded to the chemo.  She told me confidently that cancer can take her hair, take parts of her that give her some of her femininity, make her sick and more, but it can’t take her soul.  Cancer can’t steal who she really is.

As I reminisced briefly with her about my mastectomy 7 years ago I realized that I still feel some hurt over the surgery changing my body, which is still a little lopsided and unnatural.  She is right and I needed to be reminded that my identity doesn’t lie in my physical appearance or health, Continue reading →

In it for good

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I played piano for a beautiful wedding yesterday.  The bride and groom looked awfully young to me…and happy.  Just like so many of us, they’ve thought about this day for a long time and repeat the vows after the minister with smiles while looking intently into the other’s eyes.  Hopefully this moment will just be the start for them of committing to each other and keeping their promises.

I remember well looking into John’s eyes way back in 1988 as we gave our word to one another, our hearts saying “This is for life.  I’m in this no matter what.”  If God had shown us that day all that we’d encounter together as the years rolled by we’d have been overwhelmed.  I like to think we’d both still be game, but we’d certainly be less starry-eyed and looking a little more like deer in the headlights.

It’s probably good that in the wedding ceremony the minister doesn’t go into detail in the vows, Continue reading →

Refresher from Physics 101

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Krissy and I read a great devotional thought this morning written by Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, in the daily email devotional I get from Relevant Magazine. (I love Relevant by the way.)  He related Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion to our life of faith in this world.  It gave me some great “ponder fodder” or food for thought as I drove to work.

If you took Physics in school, you remember that the first law of motion basically says that an object, once moving, will keep moving unless some outside force encounters or impacts it.  Continue reading →