One Year with God

DAY 42 & 43:  I am going to take a wild guess and assume that if I tell you that sometimes life gets in the way of our well organized plans, you can relate.  Lately, it seems as if life has outright conspired to make sure that none of my well thought out plans materializes.  This winter was going to be the season that I finally finished the house updates that have been so desperately needed.  This winter was going to be the season when I got back to the book project I was working on.  This winter was going to be the season when I finally made my home office more of office and less home. Now let me tell you want this winter  has actually been like.  My newly settled empty nest was repopulated when our 20 year-old-son moved home from New York City.  Did I mention that he is very high maintenance?  The construction projects that were suppose to be completed by Thanksgiving weren't.  The last workman just loaded his tool belt and power...

-->      DAY 41:   I have tired many hobbies over the years, but have yet to find one that fits. My search began when I married a man with his own hobby.  Golf didn’t sound very leisurely to me, so as a newlywed I decided I’d learn to sew. That didn't turn out so well.  My first project was an outfit to wear to my husband's graduation.  I worked on it night and day for a week and was still stitching away with the event less than an hour away.  I whipped on the final button at the waist with just enough time to meet my new in-laws at the ceremony. Though I had gotten no sleep that night there was a spring in my step as I paraded my new frock across the crowded parking lot.  My head was held high with pride as the periwinkle taffeta swirled around my knees.  So high in fact, I didn’t notice the taffeta dropping to my ankles - and then the ground!  My pride evaporated as I grabbed it off the asphalt and shimmied back into m...

DAY 40: In the latest parental miscommunication with my kids, my son and I just couldn't seem to connect - literally.   Our son Bailey in his second year of college had been at home working on a class assignment.  Then, all too predictably, he got to class and realized he forgot to take his work.  I got one of those urgent texts:  MOM I NEED U While it is awesome to think I was needed, the text should have more accurately read: MOM I NEED U TO BAIL ME OUT.   Either way, I like coming to the rescue when I can.  So I answered:  WANT DO U NEED He asked if I would bring his homework and meet him on campus.  I WILL MEET U IN THE PARKING AREA IN FRONT OF THE STUDENT CENTER, he wrote.  I confirmed: OKAY I WILL MEET U IN THE CIRCLE DRIVE. Thankfully, we live only ten minutes from the campus, so I jumped in my car and headed that way.  As soon as I pulled up I text that I had arrived.  I AM WALKING THAT WAY.  He responded: - 1 MINUT...

DAY 39:   What will you be remembered for? You may not have an answer just yet, but if you are like me you have thought about the question.  I'm not a scientist or an inventor so my accomplishments will never be remembered in a textbook. I've been a good mom, but other than my kids, whom I successfully kept alive through teenage years, no one else remembers my parenting.  I hope I've been a good wife, but no one will put my name on a building for that. There are a few things I am thrilled to know won't be remembered.  I almost burned down a national forest once, but we have all tried to forget that.  I got three traffic tickets in three weeks, but since it was in three different counties those judges are unaware how pathetic that really is.  I threw up on a bus ride through the mountains of Mexico- with no way to clean it up. My home made skirt fell off in public at my husband's college graduation. Oh, and the pinnacle of my humiliations, I wet my pant...

DAY 38: A couple of years ago my husband staked me in some classes to learn the basics of stock trading.  With an eye toward eventual retirement, we felt we needed to be more strategic in trying to grow our little nest egg.  At first I was really enthusiastic about learning the ins and outs of options, day trading and long term investments.  The classes were very motivating. I had big dreams of big deals and retiring to the South of France. But when I got home and real life took over, it became clear that it would take some real effort  to make the kinds of trade maneuvers I had just learned. Effort and guts! I just wasn't ready. Unfortunately, I only had access to the tools, resources and coaching in our education package for one year.  You can guess what happened.  At the end of that year I had not made a single investment because I was afraid.  I was convinced I didn't know enough and would loose it all, so I did nothing.  Twelve month...

DAY 37:  Each day, to spend time with God, I have chosen to read a little in the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs; and invariably I find that God has something to show me in all of it. Proof again of His promise that if we will seek Him, we will find Him. What a delight to find Him there, in His Word, waiting for me. Today, as I read in Exodus how Moses met God on the mountain and began to receive the instructions for how the Tabernacle would be built, God reminded me that if I want to work with Him I need to remember He is the boss.  Instead of telling Him all my plans, it would be good to get His input.  So I said, Okay God, I understand. What is your plan? Next I moved to the New Testament. I read in Matthew the promises that Jesus would be coming again and it would be at an hour that I would not know or expect; He said, be ready and be about my business. Here at the end of the day, weary from quite a bit of His business, when I might have grumble...

DAY 36 :   I am somewhat of a political junkie.  I especially love elections years; I just can't get enough of the campaign news.  I follow the issues and the candidates closely.  Every four years all the hoopla leaves me with one regret when I watch the newest political-wanna-Be's on the stump:  I should have been a speech writer! I get so aggravated when I watch them fumble around to make their point but getting tripped up by trying to make everyone happy when what they ought to be doing is communicating the right message.  I get swept up into the grandeur of our American political process and the 24-hour news cycle that keeps it in my psyche every waking hour.  I may only be   an armchair pundit but I feel that I have a stake in the process that will yield our next crop of leaders.  After all, what happens if the wrong people get into power?  Hmmm, I guess we have all seen that happen in our lifetimes.  Which is why, whene...

DAY 35:  When historians look back on our generation, I think they will label us the "Preservative Generation."   Everything about who we are is about making things last longer than they should, or at least giving the appearance of making things last.  Our foods are filled with all kinds of things I can't even pronounce that allow them to have a longer shelf life than seems humanly possible.  From canned goods to eternal Twinkies, our food, at least from a longevity perspective, can go the distance. The same can be said for the billion dollar health and beauty industry. Perhaps at no time in human history has a man or woman looked so good for so long.  You can bet that Methuselah would have benefited from Botox and P90X.  Our cremes and injections and regimes and facial camouflage have surely made us the envy of all previous generations. But as they say, some things are only skin deep.  While we may eat food that looks good longer, the rea...

DAY 34:   Type A. Choleric. Lion. Label my personality whatever you want but for me it just means I am most at home when I have something to be in charge of.  I like having a vision for something and then putting in the work to see it come together.  I like making decisions. I like solving problems.  Sometimes I wind up solving problems that I also made, but it is all just part of the process. When I hear there is a need, my first instinct is always to volunteer.  I have to resist the urge to just say, "I'll do it," before I stop to think and pray.  My "I can do that" attitude has not always served me or my family well.  I have been known to put too much on my plate. So when I read today about how Moses was advised to step back and share the responsibilities, I embraced the message as perhaps God telling me to let go of some of the less critical things that others could do.  After all, that is what He was telling Moses. Out of Egypt for less...

DAY 33: Did you know that one of the most often quoted "scriptures" attributed to the Bible isn't in the Bible at all?  It is a commonly held belief that the saying, "God helps those who help themselves" comes from the Bible. It does not. In fact, pollster George Barna of The Barna Group reported that 75% of American teenagers said they believed that is was the central message of the Bible.  That's probably because we parents quote it every time we want our kids to do something for themselves for a change.  Or, it may be because most adults believe it comes from the Bible. Despite being of non-Biblical origin, the phrase was actually coined by English political theorist Algernon Sidney in the 1600s, the phrase topped a poll of the most widely known Bible verses. It would funny if it were not so sad.  Think about it.  Almost every American household has a Bible. (I'm embarrassed to say I have more than a dozen.)  Most Christians in free societies ...

DAY 32: I am the queen of short cuts.  If there is a faster way to do something I will find it.  If there is a shorter way to get someplace, I will take it.  I hop lines at the grocery store with zeal in an effort to get in the one moving the fastest.  Perhaps it is impatience; or maybe it is just being efficient, but getting from point A to point B as expeditiously as possible is practically a mission. My husband is the polar opposite.  For no reason at all he will take the longer route, get in the longer line, and never EVER skip steps when trying to accomplish anything.  He is never in a hurry and figures if doing something in 10 minutes is good, doing it in 30 must equal greatness. And when it comes to driving, he will always choose the meandering scenic route over the quickest one. I just don't understand the man!  More than once he has caught me mumbling under my breath about the time and effort he wastes via his trip planning. Today, as I ...

DAY 31: A good friend of mine always says, "If there is something you don't like doing, do it with someone you like and you will enjoy it because you're together."  I've called on that friend many times to be the "someone I like" to walk alongside me through challenging, difficult and less enjoyable tasks - as well as all the fun things we get to do together.  And in all those circumstances I can attest to the truth of her "do it with a friend" philosophy.  When you have someone by your side to lean on the journey is always better. Today, I saw two friends in scripture doing just that.  For all the times I have read this same passage in Matthew 20, I have NEVER noticed that friends were at the heart of the story. Jesus and His disciples were on the move again.  They were leaving the city of Jericho on their way to Jerusalem.  As they were leaving the city, a huge crowd followed them. Jesus and the crowd happened to pass by, not one, but...

DAY 30: It is really frustrating when someone says they will do something but never do it; odder still how easy it is to come to expect people NOT to do what they say.  This happens all too often in the context of our families.  Raising kids, this was a never ending battle. I never wanted my kids to feel that they lived in a hotel and that things would just magically get done for them.  I did not clean their rooms.  I did not pick up their laundry off the floor.  They were expected to handle their own messes.  They were also expected to help with the family messes, but I was never great at maintaining "THE CHORE CHART" like so many other moms I knew.  Life always seemed to interrupt my scheduling, so I adopted a more random system.  If something needed to be done, I would just ask my kids to do it. "Chase, can you pick up the trash the dogs drug out please?" "Hannah, we are out of towels so would you wash a load when you get home?" "Ba...

DAY 29: We are always stressing the importance of getting a good education to our kids.  When they were very young the most important thing they could do, we told them, was learn to make their letters.  "There is nothing you can't do in life if you learn your alphabet," I would say dramatically. Later, it was multiplication tables that promised to change their lives.  Then learning the presidents,  conjugating verbs, and the periodic table.  I admit, I never stressed algebra, because let's face it, even a kid knows you are never going to have to find "x" when when "y" is 40 and "z" is 12 billion. But other than that, I tried to impress upon my kids that what they invested now in their education would pay off in later life.  The choices they made during their school years, and now in college, have a direct impact on the rest of their lives. I call it the "Now & Then" principle: what you do now will make a big differenc...

DAY 28: One of the biggest objections I hear from those who refuse to surrender themselves to God has to do with all the suffering in the world.  You've probably heard it, too.  "If God is so loving then why do good people suffer?"  "If God is really in control, then why do bad things happen?" The answers the world offers are pretty simple: either God is not loving or God is not able to stop the bad. Today however, I heard God speak for Himself on the subject of why bad things happen to those who know Him and those who don't.   In Exodus 5-7 Moses and Aaron begin the process of carrying out God's plan.  As instructed, they went to Pharaoh and requested that he let the Israelite go. Pharaoh refused and retaliated by decreeing that the slaves would no longer be given straw to make the bricks required.  They would have to find their own straw but still meet the old quota of bricks.  The leaders of the Israelite complained to Moses that he wa...

DAY 27: There is an ongoing argument between our kids about who is the favorite child. When they were little ones such thoughts never crossed their minds. However, as they entered the teens years, the competition began. I find the whole thing utterly ridiculous and intensely annoying.  It goes without saying that we have never encouraged this debate but it rages on regardless of our efforts to stop it.  As you might suspect, the one who feels he has the strongest claim to superiority of our affections is  the first born.  Chase is three years older than his brother and four years older than his sister.  His logic is that we have loved him longest therefore we must love him best.  Conversely, it is the personal mission of both his siblings to knock him down a peg and in the process stake their own claim to favorite. Contributing to the competition was the addition of our adopted son during those teen years and he also feels that since he was chosen into ...