Author Archives: therealmimi

Thankful Thursday is back!

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My sister reminded me about Thankful Thursdays, something we used to do, and I think it needs to be resurrected!  The more I learn about and practice  thankfulness, the more valuable it reveals itself to be.

Thankfulness has the power to crowd out complaints, fear, distrust, worry, and more from the human heart.  When I thank God for something, I acknowledge that He’s the one who gives every thing to me.  When I thank Him for a tough lesson or hard time it walks me closer to acceptance and then peace in the midst of enduring and perservering.

So, what am I thankful for today? It would take too many pages to list it all.  Today I thank God for my coworkers. 

God has placed me in an office with many fun, smart, hard-working people (mostly women) and we make a good team.

Now that I’ve been there a year, I’m getting to know them better and realize some of my best friends are these that I spend 8 hours a day with.  What a blessing!  I know from experience that working with women can be not so fun, catty, and/or full of drama but it’s not that way among my little team at work.  That is definitely something to be thankful for!

So, thank you, God for the people you’ve introduced me to at the ENT office. Love them through me.  Hear their prayers and help them in the troubles and challenges many of them face.  Thank you!

She’s home!

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I knew it wasn’t going to be a very restful night for me. It’s not that I was worried, just waiting. My youngest was on her way home from spring break, traveling with her friend and her parents all the way home, straight through.

They weren’t due in until around six a.m. and so, in typical mom fashion, just about every two hours I turned over and checked the clock, said a prayer and tried to go back to sleep.  It was a long night!

When I heard the door shut just before 6, I jumped out of bed, grabbed my bathrobe and hurried to the kitchen to hug my girl. She’s home! Thank you, God.

It’s always been that way during my years as a mommy: if any of the girls were out I couldn’t sleep deeply until they were in the house. There’d be one thing on my mind ’til they came in: their safe return.  Moms out there, I’m sure you can relate! 

As I was thinking about this this morning while eating breakfast, I heard God tell me that is how eager, anxious, even desperate He is for all his kids to come home, to be in His house, in His arms.

Remember the story of the prodigal son? And how the father stood day after day looking down the road toward the horizon, hoping to see the silhouette of his rogue, wayward son coming back to him? 

What if all of us who are already “safe” at home with God shared his inextinguishable compassion and consuming desperation for our brothers and sisters still “out there” to come home?

I know whenever He hears one of them coming in, He runs to them to wrap them in a huge hug, His heart nearly bursting with joy as He smiles broadly, saying, “you’re home!”

God, stir in me a restlessness for those who aren’t home yet. Help me know how to call them, show then the way to You.

When he (the lost son) was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.   Luke 15:20 MSG

Sunday

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Today I’m thankful for:

  • Another sunny, warm day with blooming redbud, pear and crabapple trees, daffodils, tulips, birds at my bird feeder (and of course my nemesis, the chipmunk) and in the little birdhouse on the wooden post in the yard.
  • Last week during church we had the opportunity to write prayers or praises on pieces of paper and attach them to a cross on the platform.  Today a woman shared enthusiastically during the service that God answered that prayer she offered last week.
  • I got not one, but two hugs from Miss Esther today at church.  (A classy, lovely, elderly friend who always makes sure to give me a hug before she leaves each Sunday.)
  • Time to plant pansies and snapdragons in pots on my back porch and hang up a wind chime, with only the sound of the birds and the occasional car driving by out front.  My outdoor chairs are cleaned off and ready for some good quiet times this spring and summer and hopefully chatting with friends.
  • Eating tacos and snacks with the people in our life group, laughing and talking about our favorite grocery stores and food.
  • Spending a couple of hours with four little boys while the adults had Bible study and prayer.
  • Swinging them on the tire swing, tossing a Spiderman Ball and Flippy Flyer, whacking trees with stick swords, and running around the green grass in the warm evening breeze.
  • Getting snuggles from a 3 year old while watching “Bug’s Life” while the boys start to quiet and settle down.  I miss those kind of times when my girls were little.  I had forgotten how nice it was.
  • Eating some strawberries dipped in chocolate.
  • Enjoying the last couple of hours of the weekend before I will happily sink into my comfy bed and sleep.

Many of the good gifts God gave me today were unexpected and came in surprising ways.  What a good Sunday.

I’m a crackpot, you’re a crackpot

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A water bearer had two clay water pots hanging on rope from a pole that he carried across his shoulders each day down to the well and then up to his master’s house a couple of times a day.  One of the pots had a few cracks in it and so water dripped out with each step the old man took until that pot was only about half full by the time he reached the house.

Day by day he would carry the water this way and day by day arrive at the house having lost some of the water.  A fellow servant pointed it out to him one morning, saying “Don’t you see that one of your pots is broken and is causing you extra work?  It’s not of much use to you that way.  You could bring more water to the house if you replaced it.”

The water bearer smiled and said, “Come with me.”  He walked his friend down the path to the well and showed him that all along the sides of the path patches of colorful flowers had grown where the water dripped out every day.  “If there were no cracks in my pot there wouldn’t be these beautiful flowers, which I take up to my master’s house for his table.” (adapted from an old folk tale)

The Bible compares us to clay pots, saying that although we are imperfect we are still God’s chosen vessel for His life and light; our flaws and imperfections allow that light and glory to shine out so others can see.  Those cracks also help us remember that our life, strength and any goodness that shows from within us is from God.  It’s a miracle we don’t burst into a million dusty bits considering the brilliant, immense, holy, mighty, awesome Spirit of God is living in and through us.  Who are we to be allowed to carry such treasure??

I think of the words of the song “How He Loves” that say:

All of the sudden
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory…¹

God’s love and power, when shining through our frail humanity, will become the focal point if we accept who we are and that God loves us just the way we are, if we trust Him.

Have you ever read about some of the Bible “heroes” and after reading their stories realize that they sure had their cracks and flaws, too?  Some of them were deceitful, some were tricksters, cowards, braggarts, hotheads, and prone to make mistakes.  God loved and used them for good anyway.  His character and glory showed through their lives in spite of their not-so-great choices because ultimately they believed in Him and wanted to serve Him.  God showed through the cracks in those clay pot heroes and created good along the way.

It’s okay to be a crackpot.  It’s okay to have flaws and that’s a good thing because we all have them!  Every single person does.  Thankfully, our Master doesn’t throw away broken pots.  You may never see the flowers that grow up along the path behind you where water has leaked through the cracks of your weaknesses and mistakes.  You may never know the extent to which God brings good from your life, but be assured that He does bring good out of each day and moment of your life no matter what if you believe in Him, love Him, and live life surrendered to Him.

“For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.  We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”  II Corinthians 4:6-7  NLT

“…we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”  Romans 8:28  The Message

¹How He Loves by John Mark McMillan

Perfect but still in process

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I read a verse the other day that I’ve read many times before.  The end of it stuck out to me like it hadn’t before.  Here it is:

For by that one offering [Jesus’ death on the cross] he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. – Hebrews 10:14

Did you catch that?  He has made us perfect and yet we are being made holy, still in process.  How does that work? Continue reading →

True confessions

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Truth is…

I’ve seen that in many Facebook statuses of my younger friends.  They post something on a friend’s wall saying things like “truth is you’re my best friend and I’d be lost without you” or “truth is no one understands me like you do”, etc.

The Bible says confess to each other and you will be healed. (James 5:16)

So here goes:

Truth is I do not have it all together.

Some of you who know me may be thinking with a smirk on your face, “Tell me something I don’t already know!”

Truth is sometimes I don’t blog what’s in my heart and mind because I’m afraid it might discourage someone who goes to my church, Continue reading →

Oh, yes he can

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I’ve begun watching American Idol again after taking a couple of years’ break and am enjoying it.  It seems a little kinder than before and there are still plenty of good singers in America, yet undiscovered.  Last night John and I watched an episode in which the last contestant to audition, Ramiro Garcia, had a remarkable story:  he was born without ears.

His parents were told he would never speak or sing.  While baby pictures of him were shown, he explained how he underwent many surgeries to reconstruct ears for him, even creating ear canals.  The doctors found ear drums inside, so he had the mechanisms to hear!  We were curious to hear what he sounded like and were amazed to hear Continue reading →

I can’t fix it…and that is precisely the point

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My heart and mind have been ruminating all day about hope, faith, doubt, Jesus, God, despair, pain, disappointments, trust, and truth.  I’m a little weary inside tonight.

Already having a mini faith crisis of sorts lately, pondering truth and what I really, truly believe about God, Jesus, eternity and life and…when I try to solve these issues on my own I just find myself walking in circles, getting nowhere and feeling restless.

With all this filling my heart already, today I reached a tipping point.  A dear friend who has so much pressure in her life already shared some details with me of the latest tough news and troubling lack of answers and hopeful outcomes.  As I listened I felt so inept, incapable of helping her.  I was thinking I should say something about Jesus but we were at work at the front desk and it wasn’t the right time.  And for some reason I felt it would come across as ineffective or cliché, like offering to put a little Band-aid on a gaping wound, or bailing out a sinking boat with a teaspoon.

Then I felt guilty for feeling that way.  Maybe I hesitated, too, because I wasn’t confident at the moment of that hope myself.  Why was my heart hesitating? Continue reading →

I could use a Kirby hug

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I think I can find an illustration or lesson in just about anything: a song, a story, an experience, even a video game.  Hey, they’re there if you’re lookin’!

My daughter, Krissy, and I just finished playing a Wii game called “Kirby: Return to Dream Land.”  It is cute and hilarious at the same time.  As Kirbys, little round guys who can fly as well as suck up enemies and then take on their powers/traits, you travel through all different sorts of lands fighting enemies, gathering stars and treasures.  Of course if you bump into the enemies or they shoot you somehow your health goes down and if it gets really low, your little Kirby starts panting and looking sad, like he can hardly go another step.

The fantastic thing about playing with a friend, or with my girl, is that Continue reading →

Sunday Morning

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I was nice and warm and comfy when the alarm went off.  It took a few hits of the snooze and kicking myself in the rear to actually get out of those toasty covers and get dressed.  Goin’ to church today, like every Sunday, all my life.

Why do I go?  It’s more than just a good thing to do, or a habit.  There is something encouraging about spending time with the other people in my church community.

There is something really uplifting, healing and even fun about singing songs with other people about God and to God.  Music is one of my biggest loves so I especially like this part of church and always have.  Today we had a horn ensemble playing as special guests and during one particular song I could just picture Jesus in heaven being honored by a royal fanfare of thousands of angels playing trumpets.  I remembered He is King of kings and Lord of lords and is deserving of the best music we can make, the best praise we can muster.

There is something affirming and reassuring to hear someone give a story of how God has helped them or worked in their life.  Today two men offered stories.  One told how praising God constantly through fear and possible cancer diagnosis kept him steady and hopeful.  The other shared how in the midst of turmoil and breaking relationships God told him in many different ways not to give up, Continue reading →