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Everyday Observations

August

Sundry

Right about now. At this stage of summer. I feel like I am in the movie Groundhog’s Day.

I have been studying the Psalms this past month or so, and I have actually been fairly consistent in doing that. I am studying a chapter until I sense that the Lord is done with it before I move on. I am on Psalm 8 and will probably be in the Psalms until I outlive my teeth, but, hey, it’s not a bad place to be! Here are some of my fave verses:

Psalm 4:4- …, when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.// I love to snuggle down in prayer, and I so treasure when I choose to be silent and He speaks.
Psalm 4:6- …, Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.// What a prayer!
Psalm 6:3- …, How long, O LORD, how long?// How many of us can ask Him that right this minute? And our queries would cover a multitude of issues. His masterpiece is alive because He can speak to me and you with that one verse and be addressing two totally different waits. Love that!

I really dug in on Psalm 5. Oh, my goodness. “Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing.” When do we sigh? Frustrated. Tired. At wit’s end. Exasperated. Don’t know what to do next. He is even attentive to our sighs. Love that! And “[i]n the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” Certainly this is the verse that challenges me to shake off slumber to start my day with Him, and then I love the picture of waiting in expectation. That could be a definition of faith. To wait in expectation. I want to wait with great expectation! I want to be more reverent (v. 7) and for Him to lead me in His righteousness (v. 8). The imagery of His Word allows us to see Him act on our behalf; I have been praying recently that the Lord would spread His protection over my family and that He would surround us with His favor as with a shield (v. 11-12).

I am loving my new tee (beauty from ashes); you can check it out and preview the new kids’ tees at http://www.wildolivetees.com/. Thank you to my dear friend Erika for introducing me!

Sacrifice = giving up something good for something better. Following Christ has a cost. He tells us that. If we are not sacrificing anything, we aren’t getting God’s best. And not even just sacrificing something to serve Him but rather sacrificing something to know Him. To love Him more. To just be more obedient. More submitted. What is He asking you to sacrifice to know Him more intimately? Do you believe that your sacrifice will make room for His best in your life?

NewSpring Church has moved to the Florence Civic Center. Sunday mornings @ 9:15 and 11:15. Would love to see your smiling face walking through the doors…

July

Tidbits

I have a new favorite verse, and I’m claiming it as my life verse forever and ever and ever: Psalm 66:16- “Come and listen all you who fear God; let me tell you what HE has done for me.”

I’m going to Kenya for Thanksgiving!

I am just recognizing that I have a god-complex where my children are concerned. In error, I believe that I am completely responsible for their happiness, their safety, and their health (spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical). That’s dangerous bidness right there, ’cause that faulty belief system will leave me carrying a mountain of guilt for any unpleasantness in their lives. That’s gonna be a hard one to give up, though, ’cause I feel like I should bear the weight of that responsibility. Repeat after me if you are feelin’ me at all on this one, “We do not need to be the gods of our children’s lives. He is perfectly able to do that Himself. We want them to know that He loves them more than we ever can. He’s got this thing. I do not!”

I don’t really dig having the body chemistry that attracts every biting insect known to man. I am a sight these days! Kenya Fear #74: MALARIA! Though I will be taking malaria meds before, during, and after we go.

How in the tarnation have I forgotten how much I love 10, 000 Maniacs, Otis Redding, James Taylor, Annie Lennox, Tracy Chapman, Rod Stewart, and George Strait? Shame on me!

I always carry a Ziploc bag of Sweet’N Low in my purse.

I recently learned a brilliant piece of information. Absolutely astonishing! If you sprinkle baby powder on your arms and legs after playing on the beach, the sand will easily brush off. COMPLETELY! This is one of those tidbits that just makes me happy, and I’ve already tried it at the beach. It’s the stuff!

I get spastically excited about buying school supplies – definintely brings out the nerd in me!

January

Facebook is a haunting ground…

For a girl like me. A girl who’s glad she’s different now. Facebook is a head-on collision of my past and my present, and that freaks me out. Honestly, there are people I was relieved that I would never see again in my life. I’m feeling robbed. I didn’t want to see them again NOT because of who they are but because of who I was. People with first-hand knowledge of what an idiot-psycho I was in college.

Mine is not a life without regrets. The incongruity of my past and present makes Facebook awkward and sometimes nauseating. There were great friends from that time – friends who “got” me – who might not get me at all now. I was a Saul. I made fun of people like me.

Just today I reconnected with a college friend (one I was glad to see), and I began to read a little on his blog. In a post about Facebook and nostalgia, he helped me pinpoint why I have this friendly disdain for FB. And I am going to totally rip off a quote from him that nailed it for me. Everything buried is not treasure.

True.

So why do I Facebook (not sure I dig that as a verb form)? It’s just like watching the scary movie through your fingers over your eyes. I can’t not Facebook.

It’s probably healthy for me in a torturous kinda way. Isn’t that what the New Year is about anyway? Healthy torture.

December

Purge

“I will write myself into well-being.” – Nancy Mair

I love that quote! I have it written in the front of one of my journals. It doesn’t exactly jive with where my healing comes from, but it does speak to the therapy of writing. Love it!!

November

An Orange State of Mind

I wrote this post last weekend on a road trip to Clemson, but time constraints and computer issues have delayed its posting. Here’s what was on my brain…

Orange!

Chris and I have brought our girls to their first Clemson experience. I sit here illuminated only by the light of the computer screen while my sweet fam is tuckered out in the two double beds of our hotel room (thank you, Starwood points).

I graduated from Clemson in 1995, and, for me, there is no other place like it. My first year there was the worst year of my entire life, and I tried my dead-level best to transfer to Wofford – all to no avail. I didn’t adapt well to being a minnow in an ocean, but it was good for me in some ways. It was awful for me in others, but I digress. Hundreds of poor choices aside, I came to love this place! As I drive through intersections and step in my own footsteps from those years and as I remember certain booths and sandwiches from favorite restaurants, I can easily slip back into her. For moments at the time I can walk in the past. This campus is my fountain of youth. My body instinctively hunches over under the burden of my brown suede bag and my calves burn in the car just remembering the hill to Clemson House. My hair grows inches by the minute and my stomach growls for pizza and Taco Bell. I stroll by buildings and hear thirteen year-old conversations and lectures. I see places, and detailed memories of mundane experiences roll on my screen. I never knew the clock on Tillman Hall is pointless; time doesn’t exist here.

I’m in an orange state of mind…

Chris says, “Go Dabo!”