A Trippin' Time

Over the weekend we went to visit my parents and had a wonderful time celebrating Dad's birthday. We had a family party Sunday and then we "did Chattanooga" on Monday. Dylan had a great time and was the life of the party. It was so wonderful to have Tim with us!

Lady-in-waiting

Waiting…it can be such a challenging thing. Not for you, though, God. Why is that? Is it because you know the outcome of each event? You see what has passed, what is, and what is to come, all at the same time. Kind of like a picture drawn on a series of transparency sheets. Looking down at all of them stacked in perfect order, you see the finished product. For us, we are stuck on a single page of that transparency looking at what sometimes in no way resembles its true form…waiting for the next page to come down and help us make sense of what is going on. God, you can look at a pregnant woman and yet see the child that she carries growing up, see the children that child will bear, and even see the elderly adult that child will become. You must wait like a baker who has meticulously and flawlessly prepared the ingredients for a delicious cake and is watching it rise to perfection in the oven. Knowing that in due time it will be ready to eat, admiring your superb culinary skills. How we as humans long for such assurance - You are to be admired for the strength in your confidence.
But we can’t see past the ingredients list; we often feel the mixing will never end; we await the pre-heating oven as if it will never come. And then when the baking begins, we are unsure if the timer will ever ding or if the cake will turn out right after all. But what about the times, God, when you know the outcome will be negative, or worse, tragic? How is your waiting then? Do you feel angst as each step nears the catastrophic completion? Does sorrow sweep over you knowing that suffering will be the picture seen once the transparencies are all lined up? If there’s one thing we know it’s that, as your children, your heartbreaks for us when we hurt.
There’s something else to consider, too. That there is a purpose and design in suffering. Because of your strength, you not only see the good but God you can take the terrible and make it worth while. Even in the tragic, there is order – so that what happens to us is not accidental or a product of chaos, but falls in to array, like the transparency sheets. The same strength that comes from your confidence of knowing good outcomes is also present in our bad times and can carry us through. Help me, God, as I wait on you. Weary and anxious, may I rest in the strength of your confidence – trusting that you know what’s coming, and that good or bad, you see it, know it, and have a plan for it.

Refreshment

Boy, have I been missing my blog! I have had NO time to write recently and it's funny how I feel so pent up. I guess this posting is as much for my benefit as for anyone else. Work has been such a stressful place for me this week and it has been very draining to deal with. I have sensed an oppressive presence here that has made for a challenging work environment. Each night I have left work, gone home, released the days anxieties, gone to bed, and prayed that the next day would have a better layout. But not so. It seems that each day just got more and more stressful and continued the draining process from the day before. Today all I can think of is "It's the weekend! It's the weekend!" Thoughts of sleep and relaxation are dancing through my mind and visions of me getting my hair done and a pedicure are in my head. I guess I am in major need of some refreshing :) So I pulled out my pocket calendar (that Mom gave me) to make a hair appt and there at the top of the month of July was a scripture verse. It amazes me how timely and poignant the scriptures can be! The verse said "The times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:19. Thank you, Lord, for the reminder I needed that while beauty shops can be beneficial for the body, it is time with the Lord that refreshes our souls. So, over the next week I hope to refresh my soul and myself.

Whenever I am feeling stressed or anxious, music (and prayer) is one of the ways I cope. I have found alot of solace in this song on our i-Pod by Jeremy Camp:

You spread out the skies over empty space
Said, let there be light
To a dark and formless world
Your light was born
You spread out your arms over empty hearts
Said, let there be light
To a dark and hopeless world
Your son was born...

What a wonderful maker
What a wonderful savior ...

No eye has fully seen how beautiful the cross
And we have only heard the faintest whispers
Of how great you are

That last part is exciting to me. To think that of all the glorious and wonderful things we have heard and know about God; they are only like a faint whisper of His full and true majesty. Wow!

Like father, like son

Dylan's imagination is growing with each passing day. Recently he has begun to imagine that he, too, has a job and has to drive a special car to work each day. Wonder where he gets that idea from??? He calls his dad's work vehicle the "Fire Gog car" and loves to take a turn sitting in it and "driving it" when Daddy brings it home on his lunch breaks. I guess this has the cool-factor equivalence to your dad driving his squad car home from work each day :) He wouldn't let me take the 2nd picture below until he had buckled his seatbelt. He is learning...safety first, Mom!!

Pictures from the fireworks show on the Arkansas River in Little Rock

America the Beautiful by Katharine Bates
3rd verse
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self
their country loved
And mercy more than life! America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

Happy Independence Day!

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774