I just enjoyed a few days with my mom. She came over to visit since my girls are on spring break so I took two days off work. We saw a movie, shopped ’til we dropped (groceries and the mall), ate some M & M’s and ice cream, drank diet cokes & coffee, and just relaxed. My favorite part of the visit was when we had breakfast together at Bob Evans one morning, not because of the yummy omelet and pancake, but because of the heartfelt open conversation.
One of my mom’s famous lines when I was a teenager was “I’m your mom, so I can’t always be your friend.” In other words, “I’m laying down the law here whether you like me or not. We’re not gonna be buddies right now.” It was the right thing to do and I’ve told my girls that quite a few times myself. They just love it.
Thankfully that’s only true for a while. Once I got married and began my life with John the relationship changed a little. We were more friends than mom and daughter, though I still felt like her little girl. When I became a mom myself, all sorts of light bulbs went on in my head as I experienced the joys and trials of raising little ones. “Ohhhhh – now I see why she said that or did that.” As the years go by, I’ve become more and more comfortable just being my mom’s friend. The roles have changed. I’m not the self-centered teenager I used to be. I actually see that my mom has needs, has hurts, has things she wants and needs to talk about. She wants to share joys and answers to prayer and have me rejoice with her. It never occurred to me before when my mind was preoccupied with dating, doing my own thing, and arguing with her about curfews. I forgot that my mom and dad were people, too, not just parents. Imagine that!
As we sat and visited the other day, my eyes were opened a little bit more to the hurts my mom has trudged through and how God has ministered to her heart. Continue reading
Last week I got to fly and see my sister in Phoenix for free! Free doesn’t always mean easy or super convenient however. It was totally worth it, but the trip home was arduous, boring, frustrating, and long. My sis and I looked at the flights on the Internet and saw they were all full, however sometimes people sleep through their alarms or miss flights so there’s hope of getting on as a standby, especially if you’re early to the gate. It’s spring break and there were teens, kids, families, and college kids everywhere. I signed in and didn’t get on, I went to the next gate for the next flight and didn’t get on, I walked quickly to the next gate and signed in but it looked bleak so I left and went to the 4th gate/flight and signed in. I sat for a moment eating my cinnamon roll (hey, might as well eat something yummy while I wait right?). I thought I’d better visit the restroom before it got too close to boarding time but when in the restroom heard my name over the loud speaker, “Michele Klotz come to gate C4 to board your flight.” That was the 3rd flight I thought I missed! And it’s clear on the other end of this concourse!! I grabbed my two bags and big diet coke and started all-out sprinting, down the moving sidewalks, past slow-movers and standers, “excuse me, pardon me” I said breathlessly while silently praying God would help me not collapse before I got there. I made it, and presented my boarding pass while grasping the counter and bending over – my heart pounding. “I’m on a flight!” I thought as I happily made my way to a seat between two large people. When you fly standby and are the last on full flights, you get the squished-in the-middle seats. “That’s okay” I thought, “at least I’m outta here.” The flight was smooth and uneventful. As I walked out of the jet way into the airport I looked up at the departure signs for some idea of where to race next and try for a flight. Uh oh. 
Time away with my sister and her family, in sunny Arizona, was like the wonderful rush of “ahhhh” after a strenuous workout, when the endorphins kick in.
There was much conversation and diet coke (of course!), much laughter, watching movies, sitting in the sun, walking through beautifully manicured, landscaped southwestern neighborhoods with cactus and brilliant fuchsia bougainvillea vines growing everywhere, shopping at 
Ikea for the first time, tutoring my sis on facebook, driving around town in the little pick-up truck with my nephew Curtis, playing with their two sweet doggies, singing at the piano and visiting with my older nephew TJ, playing guitar hero, holding the snake, Vinnie (!) and just plain ol’ heart-warming love.
I sat down at the piano to play a little the afternoon he was home with us and he came into the room. He started singing a praise song I was playing, so I sang, too. 
Or think of yourself wearing black clothes in a moderately dark room. You could be covered in lint and “fuzzies” but none really show because of your dim surroundings. Walk into a bright spotlight, like the ones they use in a play, and suddenly every little speck, hair or particle is visible to everyone. Flaws and smudges you didn’t even realize were there are suddenly glaringly obvious.
I was talking to a good friend yesterday who is facing some big decisions in a bewildering situation. She is trying to trust and not be afraid, but doggone it, sometimes you’re just afraid. Even if you believe in God, fear can get a grip on your heart and cripple you. At one time in my life I was so anxious and afraid my very nerve endings felt on edge, like the tension was churning from within me out through every pore of my skin. I don’t know why, but our minds tend to always race to the worst conclusion or possibility when we begin letting fear creep in. Soon, the thing we’re afraid of looms over us and occupies all our thoughts and energy. It doesn’t have to be this way!
Yesterday afternoon I hopped into our gold mini-van with my three daughters and two of their friends. We headed happily down the road toward Ft. Wayne to see “Winter Jam” an annual concert event with 5-6 great Christian bands and a speaker. My girls and I have probably been to 4-5 Winter Jams in the past few years and love it every time. We had been looking forward to it for several months.
At least it was sunny out, even though still chilly. We waited, walked a few steps, waited some more, hoped and hoped as we got closer that before long the line would really start moving and we’d be finding our way to some seats and an awesome evening of music, shouting, standing and clapping, and fun.
A guy came out and started walking from the back of the line up toward where we stood. We heard him telling people something as he walked along. As he got closer we heard him talking about an extra music appearance at a local church following the concert and then he turned to us and said, “You’re not getting in. Sold out show.” After a moment of shock and disbelief, the line started breaking up as the people around us began to wander back to their cars, vans and church buses. We stood there for a moment looking at each other – “What?!” “No way!” 
Has your computer ever crashed? Have you ever had to completely format the hard drive and re-install everything, starting over? I’ve been through this ingratiating process a few times and while it’s aggravating enough to pull some hair and can be a big pain if you lose files or data, it is nice to have a fresh start. When the disk has been completely wiped clean and loaded up anew with the programs it runs so much better and more quickly. There aren’t all those downloaded, uploaded, accumulated files and programs that piled up over the last year or so. All the temp files that were dragging the system down are gone. Any spam or spy ware – gone! It’s clean and zippy – ready to go. You can almost hear your computer sigh a happy “ahhhhh.”
Along the Narrow Path 