The Confessing Lunatic

Mother's Day was an awesome day! It started with breakfast in bed -- Jaden made me eggs, Jordan made toast with butter and copious amounts of blackberry jam, Caitlin poured a Diet Pepsi into a tall glass with crushed ice and Jordan placed everything on the tray with great artistic flare. I've taken a picture and if I get my act together and download the picture from the camera, I'll post it here. Worship was a treat...the message was different yet insightful. We learned a number of scriptures relating to the role of mothers in raising children while receiving items to plant -- soil, seeds, water and a vessel (cup). Then after a wonderful meal with Jim's parents and grandmother, we went to my parents house. It was wonderful just sitting having a conversation with my mom and dad. The kids were being noisy so we sent them home to watch TV. Then after a long nap, we watched the final episode of Amazing Race 14. Our favorite team won so that was the culmination of a great d...

1. When 50% (or more) of the people around you are the same height as you (that is if you're 5 ft tall)! 2. When you have salad offered to you at the breakfast buffet at your hotel. 3. There's no one speaking English or Spanish for that matter. :o) 4. The toilet not only has a bidet but a dryer in the toilet, too. Eek. 5. They do not use ice in your drink unless you specifically ask for it. 6. You look for Diet Coke and find "Coke Light" which tastes nothing like Diet Coke. Yuck. 7. The hotel has slippers in "lockers" where you can trade the slippers for your shoes. 8. All of the tops of the high-rises are painted green to simulate grass since there is none in the city. 9. Those same roof-tops are littered with plastic wash basins. 10. You open IE, go to Google.com and can't read a thing because it's all in a foreign lanugage!

I have been rather discouraged lately. Work has been incredibly difficult, my school work is suffering and I'm quite certain my kids don't know my name. They see the back of me as I walk out the door in the morning, the side of me as I sit at my computer to do school work, and the top of my head as they peek in on Saturday mornings as I sleep. Yesterday I had had enough...I came home and just sat on the bed and cried. Jim consoled me the best he could, he just sat and listened. So today I check my email while I'm listening to my Professor talk about the changes in the DOD 5000 series of instruction which covers the topics I'm learning in his class. I scanned through the email to find a message from my Uncle Larry entitled Encourage. I waited until after class to read his message out of respect, mind you. However, his message is just what I needed to read at the moment that I'm struggling to get from point A to point B with my sanity intact. At the bottom of ...

There are two songs that you've probably heard on the radio that I wanted to share here. Songs of redemption and utter submission. It's funny how God pricks your thoughts with things that come out of no where. Lately I have struggled with a numbness towards God and anything God-centered. It's not that I am angry or depressed; I just feel nothing. I want to feel. I want to cry. I want God. Have you had a similar experience lately? If so, read on... I was driving to work the other day I heard these two songs back to back. As I became familiar with the chorus of the first time I began to sing along. I was beginning to get just a sense of God's presence. Then another song came on that I had heard before so I continued to sing along. In no time I felt God. As I reflected through out the day on those songs I am once again reminded that God is not all about me. I am to be all about God. If I give no thought of God and His perfect will in my daily walk, I not only miss out...

If you desire intimate union with God you must be willing to pay the price for it. The price is small enough. In fact, it is not even a price at all: it only seems to be so with us. We find it difficult to give up our desire for things that can never satisfy us in order to purchase the One Good in Whom is all our joy - and in Whom, moreover, we get back everything else that we have renounced besides! The fact remains that contemplation will not be given to those who willfully remain at a distance from God, who confine their interior life to a few routine exercises of piety and a few external acts of worship and service performed as a matter of duty. Such people are careful to avoid sin. They respect God as a Master. But their heart does not belong to Him. - Thomas Merton – I am in a rare moment of silence. The time of prayerlessness has ended...or has it? This quote has stung me. Like a bee. What’s interesting about this quote is that this topic it is exactly what I was listeni...

We're studying 1 Thessalonians in Sunday School. Though I've read the book before, it wasn't until I was studying and then later teaching the first chapter that one verse hit me square between the eyes. Read this, "We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." Consider what Paul was saying: 1. Work produced by faith 2. Labor prompted by love 3. Endurance inspired by hope What is it that spurs us on in our Christian walk? What are our motivations for going to church or going the extra mile or even telling someone about Jesus? I confess...this scripture is a stark reminder to me that too often I am motivated by the wrong things in my work for the Lord. What is supposed to be a joy and privilege has become a mindless activity done because that is what I've always done. In 2009 I want to recapture the joy of my salvation, to begin a new work that is...

It's begun...Friday we met as a family to discuss what God led us to during our 40 days of prayer. We agreed on the name Crowley Family Fellowship, which espouses a number of things that we believe God has called us to. First, we are in the Crowley community. We live in Crowley, our children go to school in Crowley, we shop in Crowley, we love the people of Crowley. Second, we've always said we're a family. But this time around this family is committed to doing and seeing the family grow. We want others to join our family because we love God and we love people. We are called to love because of what God has done for us. Lastly, we are a fellowship. This part of the name comes from Acts 2:42 which says, "T hey devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." It doesn't say that they devoted themselves to fellowship but to THE fellowship. I am excited about what God has planned for us as our F...