My Knight in Shining Armor

This is my favorite picture of my husband. It was taken a few years ago, while we were on vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia. He loves old ships and had such a good time looking around the docks at Jamestown. When I look at this picture, it makes me think of how fortunate I am to have so many good memories with him.
.
We played together on the playground in elementary school. I was the only guest (his age, anyway) at his 6th birthday party. Sometimes we were placed in the same classroom, sometimes we were not. It was probably easier for the teacher when we were not together.
.
In high school, we ate lunch together nearly every day. We stood together before school every morning, too. Our senior year, we even had the same gym class, and that's where the memory I wanted to share with you comes from.
.
Now, just so you know, our gym classes were rarely co-ed. Boys met on one side of the gym and girls on the other. A barrier was pulled across so that we were not distracted by the other class. But, one day in late spring, for some unknown reason, our gym teachers decided to merge the classes. I should probably state for the record as well, I hate running. I am unable to chew gum and walk at the same time, and running and breathing simultaneously is a skill I just do not have. Normally, our school required all of us to run 1 mile every year. This was usually scheduled in the fall or early spring when the weather was cool. I dreaded the mile run every single year I was in school. Somehow, though, I managed to get through it. That day in late spring however, the weather was unseasonably warm, the sun was blazing down, and I had last period gym class. I was completely unprepared for the phys. ed teachers to announce that we had a special guest (an army recruiter) and that we would be joining with the boys on a mile run that afternoon. I panicked. I tried hard to negotiate. Nothing worked and I soon found myself jogging at the back of the pack of slender and athletic teenagers. For a chubby chick in high school this was maximum humiliation. It was no surprise when the teachers began yelling at me halfway through to try harder. It was no surprise that I was so miserable I was trying desperately not to cry. What was a surprise was watching one of the guys turn around and run back towards me. My best friend slowed to a walk and put his arm around me and asked if I was okay. His teacher began to yell at him to run. The yelling was ignored. He linked his arm with mine and began to walk with me back to the gym, all the while telling me it was okay, not to worry about it and that I was probably not going to be recruited into the military any time soon. It was the first and only time I ever left a class without permission, his too.
.
I know that it might seem strange, but of all our shared high school memories, that is my favorite. He rescued me. Plain and simple. He saw that I was struggling. He saw that I was miserable. He saw that I was not doing well. But that's not why he led me off that field that day. He knew I was crumbling beneath the snickers and the snide comments of a few of the other teens. He knew that I wanted to be disappear. He knew I did not know how to get out of that situation, so he did it for me.
.
All these years later, he is still as just as awesome as he was that day.
.
I am so blessed!

Want this button?

Consider the Cross

Tonight I took part in a Good Friday service which was a joint venture between three area churches.
.
Our church features a wooden cross hung on the wall directly behind the pulpit. On Ash Wednesday, the cross was draped with purple, today it was changed to black and Sunday it will be covered in victorious white. I imagine our church is not uncommon in this observation.
.
As we prepared to go to this evening's service, I thought about the cross. A lot. Growing up, I always felt confused about Easter. Christmas was easy to revel in. Babies are blessings. Baby Jesus brought such joy to the world, God sent His son to save us from our sins! Rejoicing at Christmas seemed natural. Easter, for me at least, was harder. I remember, as a child, sitting in a service at Easter, and hearing the crucifixion account described very graphically. I was horrified. Somehow, up until that point, I had managed to trick myself into believing that Jesus, being the Son of God, was somehow exempt from feeling pain and suffering. That delusion ended dramatically that day.
.
For a very long time after that particular service, I alternated between feeling overwhelming guilt and shame when I thought about the cross or trying very hard to avoid dwelling on the subject altogether. I'm not proud of the way I felt, but I'm just being real. The guilt was terrible. I felt so ashamed of the fact my Savior had to go through such a horrible death for little, insignificant me, who despite all He did for me, still couldn't get her act together. Completely missing the fact, by the way, that there was nothing I could ever do to earn what Jesus did for me that day on Calvary. I got that He loved me, I was just missing the fact that He LOVES me!
.
It took time for me to grasp the fact that what He did for us was a gift. Gifts aren't earned - they are given. This gift wasn't given begrudgingly, or with strings attached. This gift was given with great love and unmeasurable grace.
.
Think of it this way. If I scraped together every available resource I had to buy someone I love a gift, would I want them to feel guilty every time they looked at it? No. Would I want them to feel unworthy? No. Would I want them to avoid the gift every time they thought about it? NO!
.
I would want them to take joy it that gift. I would want them cling to that gift. I would want them to think of my love for them every time they saw it, thought about it or used it. And if I, flawed as I am, feel that way, how much more so must Jesus feel that way about us?
.
I hope, as Easter quickly approaches, you take some time to consider His gift to us that day long ago on the cross.

Digital Camera Dilema

My camera has been dying a slow death ever since Christmas. The shutter speed gradually slowed to the point that unless I was talking pictures of still life bowls of fruit, it was basically useless. Last weekend, it refused to turn on at all and I was forced to admit that my trusty Vivitar Vivicam (with a whopping 5.1 mega pixels!) is not coming back to me.

.

So, as I do with any large (read:minuscule) decision, I obsess. I've been poring over endless reviews, window shopping online (or would that be windows shopping?) narrowing down the options, and trying to decide what features I really want. So far, I've decided that I want a camera that will make all of my photographs look like Ansel Adams, The Pioneer Woman and Anne Geddes rolled into one. Perfectly reasonable, no?

.

Here are the contenders thus far:

.

Nikon Coolpix - Good reviews. In my price range. Lots of bells and whistles.

.

Canon Powershot - Slightly better reviews than the Nikon. In my price range (but some models hover on the edge). Again, lots of bells and whistles.

.

Casio Exilim - Good reviews. In my price range (but the high speed one is not). Lots of different models with various options.

.

Hopefully, I'll have a decision made by Friday and I can wow everyone with my professional grade photos (I could barely even type that with a straight face) by this weekend!

Of Teenagers and Locusts

This morning it was a struggle to get out of bed.
.
Dark and rainy and chilly. Good sleeping weather. Really bad Monday morning weather.

.

For the record, the perfect weather for a Monday morning would look like something out of an early Disney feature film. Sun streaming through gracefully floating fluffy white clouds, gentle flute music wafting over green meadows full of technicolor wild flowers punctuated by the perpetually cheerful chirps of bluebirds sitting on my windowsill.

.

Not too much to ask for, right?

.

I didn't think so.

.

This morning was definitely a stereotypical Monday morning. I hit snooze A LOT. Stumbled out of bed and drowsily picked out clothes for the day. I went downstairs to find that my kids were ready for school and had prepared the "sign this" gauntlet for me. I often wonder what their teachers think of those signatures, most times I sign them without even turning the light on. The bus comes early, so after talking with them a bit, they got their things together (we are considering renting my daughter a pack mule for Monday mornings.) The bus came, goodbyes were bid, and I headed for the kitchen to get something for breakfast.

.

This verse came to mind as I surveyed the damage:

.
And the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail."

Exodus 10:12 NIV

.

I'm kidding. Kind of.

.

I think there may have been one wee surviving Oat O (yes, we buy store brands) in the bottom of the box. I think maybe the grocery store has been bumped up a bit in my list of priorities.

.

Have a Happy Monday!

Free to Be TV Free

As of this evening, our family is undergoing an experiment for spring and summer. Our television is now a free agent - no cables or dishes attached.

.

This was a decision that we had considered on and off for the past year. Two other friends took the plunge before us and had nothing but good things to say about the decision, so we consulted the kids and took a few days to consider it. Surprisingly, we were all in agreement.

.

I have to admit, I've been a bit nervous about the whole thing. While I'm definitely not a TV junkie, I've become quite accustomed to the constant chatter and passive entertainment and even if we were not watching anything in particular, the television was usually on in the background.

.

We are all hoping to accomplish more reading and spend more time outdoors, and just generally have less "junk" in our lives. I will try to keep you posted as the experiment goes on.

.

Here's hoping for a successful withdrawal from the television!

Oh, the Wonders of the Internet

While doing a bit of family tree research a few years ago, I managed to find some poetry written years ago by my great aunt. I thought that perhaps I would share one of her poems here. Enjoy!

On Trusting
How small, this heart of mine
How little does it trust
My God has said He made us all
And cares for us each day

My eyes can only see the ashes
Of all my golden dreams
My God can see beyond all his
For He has planned my way

And when my foolish tears are dry
And my soul again will look
I'll see my Loving Lord has been
building what He planned for me

And Oh! My heart leaps high with joy
For far more wonderful it is
Than any earth-bound dream I had
or even hoped to see

by Arlene Hearn Price

Outstanding Opportunity

You all know I've been dreaming big lately.
.
Looking forward to what God has in store for my life.
.
Exploring promises He has for me and all of His children.
.

This weekend, an opportunity have appeared on the horizon that I'm really excited about. There is simply nothing as exciting as possibilities. And everything is possible with God!

.

A few months ago, while searching for a new ladies' Bible study, I found Proverbs 31 Ministries. As I perused the wonderful resources on their website and subscribed to their daily devotional, I continued to click around on the site and discovered the She Speaks Conference quite by accident. This event is specifically for women in writing, speaking or leadership ministries - and it sounded thrilling. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think anything like this existed. My attending this conference will hinge on my ability to obtain a scholarship, however, as it is a few states away and would strain the family resources. It would be a tremendous opportunity to explore the Lord's plan for me and learn more about women's' writing and speaking ministries. That said, as I wrote earlier this weekend, I am working hard and being content to wait on God. While I certainly hope that I might be able to receive a scholarship, if I don't I will accept that it was simply not a part of the plan.

.

All in all, God's waiting room is a pretty awesome place to be, I think!