Two of My Favorite Things

Tea Pots and Colored Pencils! The other day, I was sitting in the only chair in our house that fits a woman’s backside without ruining her hair, pondering this collection on the table beside me. Favorite chair, favorite place to meditate, a favorite book in my lap—it’s my quiet place to read or write or pray, and a good place to sip hot coffee or tea. I’m thinking the two items—teapots and pencils—represent me well.

The teapot, with a couple of dents in its side and missing a lid, is a lot like my life. Some days I get banged around a bit or even take a jarring hit, but on other days I am filled to the brim with good things that I can’t wait to pour into the cup of a friend or to offer a drink to someone who’s thirsty. 

I have dozens of teapots in our home—collected from antiques stores, gift shops, or passed down from other family members. Some of them remind me of pleasant trips with my husband, or children, or friends who have traveled with me through life. Some of the teapots came to me as lovely gifts from people that know me well. I handle them frequently, Teapots, like people, come in multitudes of shapes, designs, and sizes with interesting handles and spouts. Touching them, admiring them, filling them reminds me to be thankful for good friends and the warm conversation that flows back and forth when we are together. Filling a teapot with hot water and allowing the tea leaves to steep helps me slow down and wait—a life-pause that all of us need every day.

The colored pencils represent another part of my life. I use them to mark key words in my Bible. I read, I mark, I write. It might be something you want to do. For me, a red cross marks the name of Jesus, a purple triangle highlights God, a blue cloud encircles the Holy Spirit. Sometimes all three persons of the Godhead can be spotted in one verse. It is like finding a diamond among rubies. Yellow is for light and an open book in green pinpoints every time the Word of God is mentioned. Simple colored pencils separate one truth from another and helps me focus upon important topics and themes.

Then comes the writing—which I often do with colored pens on yellow tablets. It has been said that “writers think in colors—first come the colors, then come the words”. It simply means that we have to see before we can express. The brighter the light the clearer the concept, the wider the spectrum of color the greater understanding, the better the mixing and blending of words on a writer’s palette—a legal pad or a word processer—the more likely our efforts will produce a literary work of art.

What are your favorite things? Identifying them just might help you find your purpose in life or a new direction for just one blessed day. Find a comfortable chair, grab a book or pick up The Book, and sip tea from your favorite cup.  You may be just one “life-pause” away from basking in a brilliant, newly discovered, favorite shade of joyful pink or royal purple.

Randomly Speaking: The Real Meaning of Gay

Two of my first cousins are homosexual men. They were my closest cousins when I was growing up, sons of my favorite aunt and uncle—the family who lived on a farm, had cows, and chickens, tractors, barns, and a storm cellar full of canned fruits and vegetables. My aunt could fix a fried chicken dinner with corn-on-the-cob and biscuits faster than I can open a can of soup, and she always served dessert usually topped with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. As a poor kid from the suburbs of Dallas, I found their lifestyle totally fascinating and fun. My parents and I made the hour long drive to their house often on Sundays, and I usually spent at least one week with them during the summer.

I rode beside my uncle on the tractor, sat atop the ice-cream freezer as the boys turned the crank, and got to be first to taste the yummy mixture inside. We went to church on Sundays, and on weekdays we rode bikes all over town—which consisted of one store, a few houses filled with nice people and relatives, a graveyard with a wooden arbor, and one white-painted church with a steeple and a bell. One of our favorite things to do was push open the always-unlocked-doors of that Baptist house of worship, go inside, and “play church.”

My oldest cousin, who could play the piano, took over the music, much as he did on Sundays when he astounded the members with his Stamps Brother’s style and clear voice. The younger of the two got busy rearranging wilted flowers, straightening hymnals, and picking up loose papers. And I, quiet-natured-and-unassuming-as-always, (ahem) marched right up to the altar, stationed myself behind the pulpit, and preached!

Eventually, as time and chance happens to us all, we became adults. Our personality styles remained much the same, and we three cousins had to deal with God and the reality of our sin. Sins of pride, ambition, perfectionism, lying, unbelief, self-centeredness, all sorts of temptations, including the uncomfortable reality that two of the three called themselves “gay”—which, by the way, is an obvious misnomer! My cousins were far from gay, but were instead deeply troubled, maligned, kicked out of church, ostracized by extended family members and friends, and suffered various illnesses. The elder brother settled into a committed relationship with a co-worker; the younger moved in with a philanderer who not only introduced him to high-spirited Dallas night life, but also to the HIV virus that eventually developed into life-threatening AIDS.

As a growing Christian, I discovered that homosexuality is listed in the Bible in several places along with other sins. It is explained, defined, and condemned. But it is not singled out as the worse of sins, nor is it identified as a hopeless condition! I also knew that all sin and its resulting problems find their solution in Jesus.

Today there is a lot of history behind the three cousins. We have discussed our lives thoroughly, examined Scripture, and exchanged recorded sermons by preachers on both sides of the issue. Once I attended their church to hear a guest singer, but they would not attend mine nor pay attention to my biblical arguments. I have prayed, shown love, visited their apartments, exchanged letters, and eventually found peace in accepting the widening distance between us. Not one of us has changed our beliefs.

Unfortunately, being gay is not just a personal moral choice. Instead it strikes at the foundation of our faith, ignores two-thousand-years-old established truth, and challenges the basic freedoms of us all. Today, as I am writing, the Supreme Court of the United States is considering whether or not to change the meaning of marriage—the first and the basic institution that the Triune God instituted for the good of mankind.

What a frightening thought! Seems to me it is time for all of us to consider the troubled and broken relationships within families and among friends—even the most complicated ones. We may feel uncertain about what to do and think we are not well-equipped, but we can love without condition, react with kindness, show respect, speak words of truth, and pray.

In short, seems to me it is time for all of us to stop “playing church”!  

Angels on Deployment

In your darkest days, during fearful circumstances, as you fight your greatest battles, God is with you. He is Power behind the weak, Wisdom within the stupefied, the Captain of the army, the Blessed Controller of all circumstances. You can trust Him because His purpose is to “save all the humble of the earth.”May God bless you by these words from Ellie Kay, author of many books including “Heroes at Home.” She is a frequent speaker and encourager of those who support, love, and comfort our heroes on the battlefield. The words are excerpted from a talk she gave to a group of graduates from the Air Force Academy. Three Kay sons serve in the military.

Nothing would make me a prouder blogger than for my fans to pray for our military as they fight against terrorism on many different fronts. Remember them especially on Christmas. There are more things changed by prayer than this world dreams.

Angels on Deployment

This past weekend, I spoke to a large group of parents who have kids at the United States Air Force Academy. These “kids” will graduate as 2 LTs and lead our Air Force in the years to come. My WGFP (World’s Greatest Fighter Pilot) and I are the Presidents of this club, since we have a “firstie” there and we were giving advice to the “new” parents of “doolies.”  I encouraged them, “Don’t waste time worrying because there is nothing positive that can come from worry.  There’s a 95% chance that those things you are worried about will never happen. But even if it does, then you’ve worried twice.” 

I went on to say, “while they are at the Academy for four years, they aren’t deployed or in harm’s way.” The audience seemed to visibly relax at the thought of dumping worry as a toxic companion. Thinking of my Marine, I continued, “And when they finally do go into harm’s way, you still don’t have to worry because you can pray.” 

PewResearch.org published the statistic that said 78% of Americans indicate they pray daily or weekly. So it’s not really an outrageous or far-fetched idea to suggest prayer as a way of eliminating worry. I know that’s what I do, sometimes several times a day, for my military sons. 

On July 5 of this year my Marine wrote: “We went out on the 4th of July and got a literal taste of rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air. We had 40mm grenades going off, machineguns popping, an F-16 flew really low as a show of force to scare the Taliban away so we could load our birds. We gave them a good taste of American freedom.”  The complete story, with our Marine’s quotes was detailed on the Marines Official Website. 

http://www.hqmc.marines.mil/News/NewsArticleDisplay/tabid/3488/Article/167394/infantrymen-engage-taliban-insurgents-during-4th-of-july-weekend.aspx

Most moms might be scared spitless when they read that description of close calls and firefights. But this mom is one of those 78% that believes in the power of prayer. As a full time writer, I’m also very imaginative and visual, so as I read his words I actually saw his men in the field, with the rockets and bombs, but in my mind’s eye, I saw something absolutely amazing—I saw angels embedded with the unit. The next scene I imagined had the guys, in full battle dress, sitting on the helicopter, with all of them safely aboard. There was that lingering adrenaline from the firefight, but also a huge sense of relief that they were safe. As they sat in their seats and the helicopter raced to safety, I saw the same angels, sitting next to the men—wearing the same relief as their expressions. 

Once again, I’m in good company because 8 in 10 Americans, according to a recent AP poll, believe that angels intervene in our lives. I know they do and that’s why I pray and ask that they get sent on deployment with my Marine. 

What about you?  What do you do to gain victory over worry? Let me hear from you! 

And if you want our team to pray for your military member, just email us and we will get you covered. Thank you, my friends, for being Heroes at Home!

Message T's

“Take Care; Be Calm Message T Shirts are a big fad in Texas. Recently popular is one that reads: “Keep Calm and Carry On”. Not long after that shirt hit the market, spinoffs flooded stores and catalogs with assorted messages, one for every man, woman, and child in the state!  Keep Calm and Rock On, Keep Calm and Dance On, Keep Calm and Play Soccer. Christian Bookstores got in on the trend with Keep Calm and Pray On. Another store chose “Keep Korma and Curry On. One day while looking for the right T shirt for our college student facing finals, I spotted one that said “Freak Out and Run About.” Perfect! This is the way of fads. They burst on the scene with “good idea,” move quickly to “now that’s funny” and end up “down-right ridiculous!”

Little did I know that today’s theme shirt fad had its beginnings in the Bible. Well…at least I came across a verse that sounds like a fad T shirt. It was Isaiah who wrote: “Take Care and Be Calm” So how does it feel, Oh T-shirt-fad-follower, knowing that the idea began with the pen of Isaiah, and has been around longer than you’ve been alive! And, by-the-way, it may stay around for another generation or two. Because we all have something to say, and it’s just easier to sport a message a la T-shirt rather than try to find a soap-box.  While we do it for fun, the serious Old Testament prophet sent out the message as a warning. “Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands,” (7:4). Seems to me message is completely relevant today, because “hundreds of “smoldering firebrands” scorch the terrain all around us, and we must keep calm so we can carry on—with or without the shirt!

No amount of angst or anxiety can put out a fire. But calm steady steps, one at a time, keeping in step with the Holy Spirit will get you through the hot spots, around the parched ground, and into green pastures. Take Care! Be calm! And watch fear lose its grip! And, while you are wandering around outlet malls, trades days, and county fairs, if you happen to find a T shirt that reads: Be Calm and Write On, you might just get me one of those. Because I’m facing a deadline on an upcoming book called Unafraid, and frankly, I’m needing a bit more Calm!

“Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!” 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Unique, Just Like Everybody Else!

Seems to me, there’s not a man on earth like Jeremiah. Not then, not now, not ever. Of course the same could be said of every single one of us. We are all uniquely designed by our creator for His purposes—“just like everybody else.” Most of the time I am content just being myself. But there are occasions when I come across someone who is near-perfect. Then I wish I’d been cloned.

That how I feel about Jeremiah. First, he was a writer par-excellence, with words still in print after hundreds of years. He was a captivating speaker. When he spoke, he uttered only the words put in his mouth by the Holy Spirit. And he was totally uninhibited as he brought out his visual aids and donned costumes to make a point. He was also unashamed of emotion, (A man with feelings…now that’s an anomaly! But also a characteristic that makes his appealing, at least to a woman like me. I like the fact the he just didn’t seem to care what others thought, so he wept openly, often, without apology. His tears did not come from self-pity but out of concern for other people. Even when he was misunderstood, rejected, thrown into a pit, and put in jail, he kept right on serving God and caring for others. I admire him for his tenacity.

This list of Jeremiah’s qualities might tempt the most competent woman to envy. But that’s only part of the story. He was also “real”—sometimes weak, often tired, suffered bouts of depression, and was susceptible to a very common human flaw. Fear! When God commissioned him, first thing he did was offer an excuse laced with fear. “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” The words contradict themselves in that short sentence. For how can a person acknowledge the Lord as “sovereign” and then say “I cannot?” Doesn’t sovereign mean having all power, all authority? Doesn’t God’s sovereignty include providing for those He has called? With infinite patience God answered him, “Do not be afraid.” And with the imperative came a promise: “I am with you and will rescue you.”

The promise still stands and includes every fear-filled person from that day to this. “’I know the plans that I have for you,” Jeremiah wrote later, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Today as we respond to God’s call we may experience our own pangs of fear and doubt. We may offer excuses like Jeremiah’s or come up with some of our own. But whatever the excuse, whatever fear we face, God comes to us as he did to him dispensing large doses of truth and love. If we believe Him, we will grow in faith like Jeremiah did as he walked in step with God one day at a time for more than forty years.

This acrostic that I spotted on Facebook may help us overcome our fear and carry on.

F- E-A-R has two meanings:

Forget Everything And Run or

Face Everything And Rise.

The choice is yours.

                                    Zig Ziglar

What Women Want

Have you ever felt lonely? Maybe you have a circle of friends, a husband, a few kids, interesting work, perhaps even a ministry. But in a hubbub of activity, you still get that “lonesome feeling” that country music stars croon about. It happens to all of us at one time or another—because we’re human, because we’re women. What women want, what we really want and need, is somebody who knows all about us and loves us anyway. Somebody who accepts us--warts and all. A person or maybe two that we can connect with and talk to on a level deeper than news, weather, and sports.

Recently I got that lonesome feeling after a huge family Christmas celebration winded down. Our house had been literally bulging with people—three adult sons, one daughter-in-law, six grandkids, one girlfriend, two playful dachshunds, and a yellow lab. During jam-packed days between Christmas and New Year’s, we’d had mountain-top moments, tender moments, and a few moments of laugh-till-you-snort fun. I’d been blessed. But one evening soon after the family exodus, as I slipped between the sheets and turned up the electric blanket, that lonesome feeling hit me. Something was troubling me that I couldn’t talk about—not with my family anyway. After all they are mostly men and I didn’t think they’d understand. It involved one of my closest friends, a huge misunderstanding, a few hurtful words, lingering silence between us. I wondered if things would ever be right again. I decided to give her a call. She wasn’t at home. Or maybe she’d seen my number on caller ID and decided not to answer.

How can we women have a dozen things going great, and one thing that is not, keeps us awake at night? How can one relationship blunder cast a shadow over all our relationship blessings? Why do we mull it over and over until it becomes bigger than it has to be? I’m not sure what the answer is, but I do know what women want is smooth-sailing, warm-hearted relationships without storms. And I know that when we are tired, the enemy attacks and upside-down thoughts need turning right-side-up! That night, I looked toward my ceiling and said, “Lord, I need your peace and I need rest. I’m going to put this in your hands and go to sleep.” Almost immediately a verse from Hebrews came to my near-exhausted mind. The next day I located it in a translation that gives the full meaning of every word. I began to memorize them. “For God Himself has said, ‘I will not, in any way fail you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake, nor let you down, relax my hold on you, Assuredly not!’” (Heb. 13:5 Amp. Bible).

As the words found their place in my heart I decided, Now that’s what women want! It’s all we really need. One Friend--the Eternal Son of God—the Friend of Sinners—the One who never changes—no matter what!