Welcome!

I'm so glad you stopped by! What you will find here are musings from my own personal Bible study, quotes from authors whose work I respect and other random items I come across. I am a Christian woman, the wife of a pastor, and the mother of four teenagers/adults. My deepest desire in life is to live a life that points those around me to the cross of Jesus.



Monday, September 20, 2010

As adults, we like to think that we know more than the kids in our lives. When one becomes a parent, one quickly learns that God sometimes uses those precious gifts to teach us a thing or two!


My most recent "lesson-from-the-younger-set" came from two young ladies I've never met. My baby sister lives in San Antonio, Texas, and babysits two young girls each day while her oldest, my nephew, is at school. In other words, my sister is home each school day with three VERY GIRLY preschool/toddler aged girls! Being a "girly-girl" herself, my sister loves it. One of her young charges decided early on that all the girls were princesses and my sister was the queen - smart girl!

Got a phone call from my sister recently and she started with, "I knew you'd appreciate this." I settled in for a good story because that statement from my baby sister always means I'm about to giggle at the least or maybe get in a good belly laugh! She began - The kids were playing outside and the girls were playing princesses - of course! My nephew decided that he was only one prince and wasn't all that interested in dancing with any princesses so he was going to slay the dragon! The oldest of the young ladies got very perturbed with all of his "hi-ya"ing. She popped her hip out like we women can do, put her little fist on her waist, and told my nephew, "There's no fighting in princesses." He gave her a look and went back to his slaying. She told him again, "There's no fighting in princesses!" By this time I've got a visual of a little beauty in dress up clothes, looking ticked, scolding my nephew and I'm laughing hard!

The queen" - aka my baby sister - went on to tell me that she stepped in and explained that the prince needed to slay the dragon so it was safe to have the ball. This young lady was rather put out with his timing and still didn't think he needed to be fighting just then. In the midst of my laughter, I was struck with this thought - how often does my "Prince" go out to "slay the dragon" for me, only to get harped on by me because his timing wasn't ideal? We want our husband's to earn an income, keep the car running, take care of the mowing and shoveling, kill the bugs, unstop the toilets, take out the trash . . . whatever. Let's be honest, we all have jobs that we expect our Prince to handle for us!

What does our Prince Charming find when he comes home? His dragon may be long hours because the boss demands them. Or maybe it's inconvenient hours. (This would be the challenge in our home where hubby - a pastor - is never really "off the clock".) Maybe he has a nasty commute or there were computer problems and he wasn't able to get everything done that day. Whatever his "dragon", he went out there to contend with it for his "lady fair". He wants to know that we believe he can "slay" and "conquer" whatever is in front of him. Then he comes home. Does he find a loving "Princess" - or "Queen" if you prefer - who is grateful for the day he just put in? Or does he find someone looking and acting more like an ogre?!

Before any of the more "feminist" readers cry foul, let me assure you of a couple of things. I work outside the home and have crazy days as well. But my husband finds his sense of personal significance in doing well in his career, whereas it's just a job to me! When I attack him for that effort, I'm basically telling him that he needed to "slay the dragon" in a way that was more convenient for me.

I wish I could say that this is a lesson I learned years ago and I never blow it. Sadly, it's one I'm still learning. But I have committed - again - to making sure that hubby comes to a loving "lady fair" when he has slain each day's dragon!

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

You know a sermon is good when you keep mulling it over for more than a week!

Hubby's sermon a couple of Sunday's ago was focused on Gideon. Not the whole story of what he did, or how God used him; his sermon focused more on the intial contact - when God first called Gideon to act. Picture it - Gideon is hiding in a winepress to thresh his wheat. The winepress was either constructed with walls high enough to hide Gideon or was actually dug into the ground deeply enough for him not to be seen. How do I know this? Well, scripture says he was hiding. The Midianites were known for destroying or take the crops of the Jews. Gideon wanted to keep the grain he was threshing so he put himself in a place of hiding. Being so contained while threshing probably meant that Gideon was breathing in all the chaff and dealing with the irritation it almost certainly caused his eyes. Got the picture? Farmer scared so badly he's causing himself discomfort to keep the enemy from messing with him and his crops.

Enter, the Angel of the Lord who says, "Hail, Mighty Man of Valor" (in the King James anyway). Excuse me? Mr. Scaredy cat? A man of valour?! In the NIV, this is translated as "The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior." Again - are you kidding me?! None of us, if we had a chance to see Gideon in those circumstances, would have called him anything close to brave or warrior-like! But God didn't call Gideon that because of what Gideon was doing at that point in time. God knew Gideon COULD BE a Mighty Warrior. God chose to speak his plan for Gideon into Gideon's life.

So what about you? What identity have you been given that you'd rather get rid of? What "names" weigh you down? I know I've come up with a few that hurt me more than a little and, quite frankly, I'd like to be rid of them! So I'm choosing to seek God and his "name" for me. I'm spending time in his word and in prayer to see what he calls me so I can move forward in that new direction. Time to get the heck out of the winepress!