One Year with God

DAY 12 0 : When I was five years old (that would have been 1968) I watched an episode of the old back and white television show Dark Shadows with my sister and my older cousins.  I can't remember what happened in the episode but I remember being terrified.  I had never even  heard of a vampire before that day - and not a day passed after that I didn't fear I was being stalked by one.   I'm not talking about being a little scared; I spent years being terrified because of that show. I was scared of the dark. I was scared of Dracula. I was scared of werewolves. I was scared of shadows.  I was just scared whenever the sun went down.  It wasn't reasonable, but it was real.  As a teenager I told myself it was insane to believe in vampires - and I didn't.  But I was convinced if I said I didn't out loud, one would get me as I slept. So I kept my confidence to myself and pulled the covers tightly around my neck. There was nothing logical about the way I felt. As a

DAY 119: I'm not going to lie; today was a tough day.  I generally pride myself on being able to manage a crisis,  but today, the crisis managed me. Try as I might, I could not control all the factors and it is still a crisis.  So, for this girl who loves "happy" there were tears.  Lots of tears.  Tears I rarely cry flooded until my head ached and I was actually thirsty.  I think I cried myself dehydrated. The real thirst I felt was for God to enter into my despair.  So rather than tell myself I was too distraught to spend time with God, I sat down to read his daily Word almost demanding that God meet me, help me, rescue me.  He did not disappoint. Today the scheduled scripture was the story of Hannah in the Old Testament.  She was a wife who was desperate to be a mother but God had withheld children. She was in a crisis she could not fix.  She was taunted for her bareness and even her husband did not understand her despair.  So she went to the house of God, to talk

DAY 118: I am really not good with details.  I move through life so fast that only the really big issues catch my attention.  Big, however, is in the eye of the beholder.  Some people might think it is big to remember where you left your children; and I do - eventually.  Or at least someone reminds me. Like the time I left my youngest son at church.  We got a call a half hour later asking if we were missing anything....or anyone.  I left the same child at a ice cream store on the way home from a family reunion in Oklahoma.  Thankfully, he is fast and we saw him chasing us down as we drove out of the parking lot.  Come to think of it... maybe it's that child and not me. No, the evidence supports I am the one with the problem.  I spent an hour one afternoon convinced my 8th grade son had been kidnapped because he wasn't in the pick-up line after school.  I searched everywhere, called everyone and was on my way to the police station when he finally called to remind me I had g

DAY 116:   Have you heard the one about the atheist who stumbles into a deep well and plummets a hundred feet before grasping a spindly root, stopping his fall? His grip grows weaker and weaker and he knows he won't be able to hold on much longer. In desperation he cries out, "Is anybody up there?" He looks up to the patch of sky at the top of the well when suddenly the clouds part and a beam of light shines down. A deep voice thunders from the light, "I, the Lord, am here. Let go of the root and I will save you. Just believe." The atheist thinks for a moment and then yells back, "Is there anybody else up there?" I guess you could say that the attitude of doubt is the definition of skepticism. If this were a true story, that attitude might have cost the unfortunate man his life. But there is a greater risk to skepticism:  embracing skepticism about what God says can cost eternal life . But it can also cost in how we live our lives now. Tha

DAY 115: I am blessed to have relationships with several college students.  It is a joy to be part of their lives at a time of so many opportunities.  It is also a HUGE responsibility to be sure that I am offering them sound advice and putting their focus where it should be - on God. So while having fun  with them (i.e., eating, shopping, movies...) is part of our relationship, telling them what they NEED to hear is what benefits them the most. Not long ago one "my girls" who recently graduated came back to town for a job fair. She is employed but isn't working in her chosen field- teaching.  God has been opening the doors in the past few weeks in that area and she has had to balance her current job with job interviews. As we talked she shared that she was afraid to tell her boss that she needed time off for interviews, even though they knew when they hired her that she hoped to find a teaching job when one came available. She was considering the merits of what she

DAY 114: Today the scriptures described the first recorded miracle of Jesus.  It was at an unlikely place, at an unlikely time, for an unlikely reason, using unlikely assistants.  Jesus, his mom, and his newly committed disciples were all guests at a wedding in Cana.  While the traditions of first century Jewish days-long weddings are foreign to me, weddings in any culture have some things in common.  There is a bride, a groom, guests, and STRESS! My oldest son was married in January. It was our first family wedding. The to-do lists were long. Venues had to be reserved, caterers engaged, invitations picked, photographers scheduled, and on and on and on.  No effort was spared to make THE day a special memorable event.  It's a big deal!  I shutter to imagine if after all the planning and all the expense things fell apart on the day of the wedding.  Let's say all the guests are sitting at the reception waiting for dinner to be served and the caterer fails to show up.  As the f

DAY 120: I have some girlfriends that I have known since my first year in college. We were inseparable back then and we have made a point of making time for each other through the seasons of life since.  At least once a year we carve out a three day weekend and meet somewhere.  It takes three days for the four of us to have time to share everything happening in our lives.  We talk kids, husbands, careers, heartaches, and joys.  We pray together, encourage one another, console when needed and laugh ALOT. There is one more thing that we do.  We share our best new discoveries with one another.  It might be a great mascara brand, a cool vacation spot, a miraculous wrinkle cream, or a life changing book.  Last time we met, I gave everyone a Magic Eraser sponge because it seriously works like magic.  I'm not kidding.  I can use it to get stains out of my carpet, clean my purse, get the scummy stuff off my shower floor or scour the burned mac and cheese from my skillet.  I love them so

DAY 112:  I don't have a lot of camping experience since my husband owns an RV dealership.  For the past two decades, when we go "camping" it is with a queen sized bed, air conditioning and a microwave.  But BEFORE we took our mini home with us on vacations I had a few occasions to tent camp. . Perhaps the most memorable trip was 25 years ago with three girlfriends.  We were all newly married and had no kids so we took a weekend girl trip to a nearby national forest area.  Our husbands suspected there might be trouble when they noticed that along with the Coleman lantern, cook-stove, and firewood was also a curling iron.   Yet even they could not have imagined we would need the fire department.  In an effort to stoke our campfire, I grabbed the can of lantern fuel and poured the liquid into a struggling flames.  Catching me off guard, those flames leaped up igniting the stream of fuel all the way to the can.  I threw it to the ground in a panic and in a matter of ju

DAY 111: A few years ago I was making the 6 hour drive home from Oklahoma City after a women's event.  I was tired and it was pouring down rain.  I pulled off the highway about two hours into the trip to get gas and grab coffee.  The rain hadn't let up and while my wipers could barely keep the flood off my windshield I got back on the road anxious to get home.  It was about an hour later before the weather finally let up.  I drove another 20 miles when I passed a sign that read: Oklahoma City 30 Miles.  In my exhaustion and with the visibility being hampered by the weather, I had gotten confused and drove about 75 miles in the wrong direction. I was headed back to where I had just left!  As soon as I saw the sign and understood the reality, I turned around.  With clear vision, I knew that road was not going to get me where I needed to be - home! That little road trip has served as a metaphor in my life for all the places I have needed to turn around and head in the right dire

DAY 110: As a young mom I took the plunge and splurged on a cell phone not long after they became a consumer staple.  Some of my friends had one and many did not - I'm that old.  It was a luxury some just could not justify.  I, of course, got one for the sake of my children.  With a cell phone with us at all times I would be able to get help in case of emergencies. You know what happened.  The definition of "emergency" quickly changed to include things like, "I just found the cutest pair of shoes and I need to call my friend immediately to tell her." It seemed every month I was having to increase my minute limit as my "need" for my phone increased.  In the day before unlimited minutes I was soon trapped by high phone bills and the lure of phone upgrades. I wish I could say that I have gotten my "addiction" under control, but now with unlimited talk and text, me and my iPhone are happy in our dysfunctional relationship.  What was bac

DAY 109: As the mom of four young adults (20-24yrs) I spend a good deal of time talking to them about the future.  While our three sons and one daughter are all very different, they have one big thing in common - they don't know what they want to be when they grow up.  Well, that is not entirely true; they all have some ideas, and they are starting to test the waters; but all of them wonder if they could really be what they hope. It takes a certain confidence to believe you can become something before you actually have the ability to achieve it. College is one way to gain that confidence. And all of our kids have gone that route in the hopes it will prepare them for.... something that will find worthwhile and fulfilling. That, however is not the only way to gain the kind of confidence needed. After reading today's scripture passages it seems there is another. Continuing in the book of Judges, Israel took another turn away from God , "So the Lord handed them over to