Category Archives: Realizations & Ponderings

Self-explanatory

Modern-Day Psalm

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Being an emotional person who also relies on music heavily to connect with and communicate to God, I love the book of Psalms.  Many of them were written by David, who was called a man after God’s own heart.  You’d think that might mean that they only contain words of praise, thanks, and adulation but actually there is heartfelt, not so happy honesty there, too.  David doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to expressing how he really feels at the moment, even almost accusing God of turning his back on him, refusing to answer him, or abandoning him.  However, at the end of each one Continue reading →

When parenting teens, it helps to remember

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I so wish I could read my daughter’s mind.  She has always been open with me but there are times this last year or so when she shuts herself up tight, doesn’t want me to ask questions, doesn’t want to share her heart.  She doesn’t need help or advice, just wants me to leave her alone.  I get frustrated but I’ve learned to think back to the 16-year-old Mimi and try to remember how I felt about things, how I felt about my parents and my increasing independence, the things that were important to me, etc.  It really settles me down and results in patience.

We’re at an exciting crossroads for our family but right now.  If you could take a photo of our emotions it would look like this:  John is elated, Mimi is pretty hopeful, Kimmi and Kaitlin are happy for us and Krissy is sad, angry and withdrawn.  Rather than press her right now I’m just praying for her.  I remember when I was a teen, my dad told our family that he was going back into the pastorate and that probably meant we’d be moving sometime.  That news alone was enough to upset me.  I remember turning my head to look out the window as we all sat around the dinner table Continue reading →

A quick look back, then we face the dawn

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I believe in pressing forward and in living in this day but once in a while it’s good to take a quick look back to see how far we’ve come and remember what we learned.  A friend of mine said today that looking toward this new year is like throwing out a fishing line, we wait and watch to see what we’ll reel in, not knowing, but hoping.  I joked that it’s probably good we can’t see all that we’re going to “reel in” this coming year and that I’m glad Jesus is there to help us if we have to pull in something really heavy or menacing.  Today I’ve been thinking some about the lessons I caught in 2010.  Some of them were whoppers: Continue reading →

‘Tis the time to talk of new beginnings

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My youngest says I tweet too much but hey, that’s what twitter is for right?  And there are plenty of people who tweet more often than I do.  So I told her, “If you don’t want to read all my tweets then just don’t follow me anymore” to which she replied, “Okay, I won’t”.  Well, fine.  I follow several pastors and other bloggers that offer food for thought, encouraging words, and more.  I also follow people like Conan O’Brien and Jim Gaffigan, not quite as edifying but good for some laughs.  It’s fun.

One of the tweeters I follow is called “ChatBible” from the UK.  He tweeted today about new beginnings, which only seems fitting since it’s the start of the new year:  Noah (Gen 9) Ruth (Ruth 1) Peter (Jn 21) and Paul (Acts 9). Which brings most hope…& why? Continue reading →

2010 in stats just for fun

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The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 17,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 4 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 191 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 282 posts. There were 145 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 24mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was June 18th with 170 views. The most popular post that day was Fighter.

Where did they come from? Continue reading →

To Inifinity and Beyond

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Do you ever feel afraid when you think about going to heaven?  That’s a weird question, I know.  I woke this morning thinking not so much about heaven exactly, as about eternity, about what happens when we die, about what it could be like to be somewhere forever…and ever.  It may seem crazy to you but whenever I start thinking about that I begin to feel anxious.  I’m pretty sure it’s because it’s something my mind can’t grasp or understand.   After all, I have no frame of reference.  Everything in my life, and in this world, has a beginning and end.  I was conceived and began as a cluster of cells multiplying and growing (a pretty huge miracle in itself).  When my time has come, I will die and my heart will stop beating, my brain stop processing and thinking, and my physical body will give out.  Each day has a beginning (the sun comes up) and an end (the sun goes down and the moon and stars appear).  I wake and sleep.  There are physical boundaries to my home, my town, my country, and my world.  Once into space, however, it starts to become mind-boggling since there is no edge to the universe.  Where does it end, if it ends and if it does, what’s on the outside of it?  OH!  I tell myself to just stop thinking about it, to stop trying to comprehend how it could be.  The truth is, there is no way we can see the edge or end of the universe, and from what I’ve heard it keeps spreading, so infinity seems to be reality.

If you’re still reading this rambling post, bully for you!   Continue reading →

Pondering peace, love and other Christmas stuff

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I was quietly enjoying a breakfast burrito at McDonald’s and catching up on twitter on my phone this morning when all of a sudden I heard a woman’s angry voice shouting, “This is the worst service EVER!!  You suck!!”  Then someone else shouted “Merry Christmas!”  I didn’t see it happen but I’m assuming she stormed out after hurling that piece of her mind at the surprised workers behind the counter.  It’s true they were a little slow today and it was very busy there, but I’m not sure their less-than-speedy service warranted that attack.  My first thought was how mean and unfair it was for her to do that and that if I was that worker I would probably be fighting back tears.  I hate to get yelled at.  Now that I think about it, does anyone like getting yelled at?   My next thought was that she must be stressed-out or already worked up about something else to react so strongly.  And down deep, she must be hurting.  Hurt usually leads to anger.

The first few weeks of December when we had no money to buy presents and were anticipating a very simple Christmas, God gave me a little (emphasis on little) perspective of what it’s like for so many people every year.  There are lots of families who struggle to make ends meet and aren’t able to do much, if anything, in the gift buying and giving department.  You know, there is a lot of pressure from people’s expectations and TV commercials about buying stuff, buying stuff, and buying more stuff.  I hadn’t realized it as much until this year.  Often the first question in passing conversation is “Have you gotten your shopping done?”   Continue reading →

His Indescribable Gift

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3 days ’til Christmas…if you have children in your house I’m sure they have made you aware of this and are counting down the days and even hours until Christmas morning.  Many of them will be so excited to see the surprises waiting for them under the tree that they won’t be able to sleep the night before.  Gifts have been a big part of celebrating Christmas for centuries.

Did that start because of the gifts the wise men gave Jesus, Mary and Joseph when they finally arrived?  Did the tradition become more pronounced because of the original Saint Nicholas who gave anonymous gifts to needy people by dropping small bags of coins or other treasures down their chimneys?  It actually was started by God, the original and best gift giver of all time.  He offered His Son, out of love, and continues to give good gifts to his children.  He is the most generous, creative, and recklessly lavish giver.

Imagine your boss left gifts for you and all your co-workers – hefty cash bonuses for a year’s work well done.  Imagine that you hadn’t gotten the memo Continue reading →

Merry Madlib

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One of my favorite games is “Madlibs” – when you ask a friend or group of friends to give you various words that you plug into a story then read out loud.  The random and usually silly stuff they give can cause hilarious results.  Tonight we went to a family Christmas service at church and heard the leaders create a madlib with the Christmas story.   We ended up with Mary wrapping Baby Jesus in a shirt, then “pantsing” him, then the angels telling the shepherds to look for a unicycle laying in a banana boat and saying “Peace on earth and moms to men.”  The leaders pointed out that when we fill in the blanks of Christmas with random or silly things it can be fun but it loses its real meaning.

I love that illustration.  I started off this season being able to more easily fill the blanks with Jesus, reading the story in the Bible verse by verse, blogging, etc.  Mostly because there wasn’t really any way to fill them with shopping and spending.  I had a lot of peace, surprisingly so.  This week we were blessed by some generous people and were able to shop for family, ship packages, and even go out to dinner.  I quickly found myself getting back in that mindset of thinking what I wanted to buy or spend on and was losing my focus.  I was slipping back into “madlib” mode and filling the blanks with material and temporary stuff.  It usually makes me restless instead of peaceful.

There’s nothing wrong with buying presents for the people we love, and I’m still sooo thankful to those loving people for giving to us, but it’s a great reminder for me to keep things in perspective and fill my heart and thoughts with the real words from the best story/event ever:  angels, glory, baby, God, Jesus, Joseph, Mary, firstborn son, Bethlehem, shepherds, amazed, good news, peace to all men…Savior.

Who’s your Elizabeth?

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When Mary accepted the task given her by God and realized she was indeed pregnant, she hastily decided to make a trip to see her cousin Elizabeth.  She heard, as crazy as it sounded and improbable as it was, that Elizabeth herself was expecting a child!  Maybe part of the reason for her trip was to see if that impossible news was actually true.   If it was true, maybe that would help her accept that what was happening inside of her wasn’t just a dream or her imagination.  She had to also be thinking that getting away for a little while was a good idea.  It would give her time to figure out how she was going to break the news to Joseph.  Perhaps she and Elizabeth had a close relationship, so she felt comfortable choosing that home for her get away.

No sooner had she walked into the house but Elizabeth stood to her feet, Continue reading →