Fight!! Sometimes we don't need to turn the other cheek.

Okay this midlife domestic goddess wants nothing more to than to turn back the clock to how it used to be.  When men were allowed to be men and women wanted to be treated like ladies.  Sometimes I think we have pushed so hard for our rights as women that we have made it really hard for the men in our lives to be the men that God intended them to be.  Then when you factor in that somewhere along the line we as a country seem to have forgotten what morals are we find ourselves spiraling down hill as our families fall apart.  Athletes are worshipped like gods and as parents we are having our hands tied as our children are allowed access to things like the morning after pill.  Why do we just sit by and let it happen?  Maybe it is time to follow the lead of Jesus and start tipping a few tables over.  It is time we stop turning the other check and fight for what is worth fighting for. 

Today I am blessed to share with you something that was written by a young man from my church.  He has hit the nail on the head and if we had more people with a heart like this we wouldn't be where we are as country.  Powerful words by a YOUNG MAN WHO IS BECOMING A LEADER. 

Fight by Austin Rocha.

Twelve teams meet on that cold January grass with fire in their eyes.

Four months later sixteen teams walk onto that court in search of a championship.

Meanwhile, two men enter the cage under the bright stadium lights to win that belt.

This is must be a fight?

A fight the media reveres, fans line up to see, and sponsors are throwing all their money at.

Could this be a fight or just a zeal?

A flight from what's real.

Those aren't fights, those are jobs but the world won't admit it.

We treat them like heroes here to save us all, but they are no more than athletes.

Can't you see they're just like you and me?

You know what, just forget it.

Truth is, we're running from the true fights that surround us.

The fights our inner warrior was born for.

Our government is closing down schools to open more prisons.

Does this not bother you any more?

There are children starving, widows crying, can't you see our society is dying?

We are growing desensitized, it's time that we realized,

all our problems start and end in broken homes.

Single mothers can't do this alone.

Why do so many ignore the wars in our family that are starving for soldiers?

Wake up!

A court shouldn't have to protect your children.

That's your responsibility, your duty, your fight.

Too many take the easy way out instead of doing what's right.

Marriages are failing because evil is prevailing.

Our world crumbles around us, so you escape to the smoke screen we call TV?

Give me a break!

Few want to give anymore, but every one is ready to take.

Don't be the generation integrity dies with.

Be the resistance! Be the revival!

This is survival!

Darkness can only prevail when the light refuses to shine.

Shine!

Arm yourself with virtue, with principle, and with honor.

This is our final stand.

Let us rise! Let us fight!

Fight!

Fight!

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.''

- Edmund Burke

that makes sense....NOT!

Oh so let me get this straight. My daughter could not have her ear pierced or her nose pierced without my consent until she was 18? Or she can not get a tattoo until she was 18 either. We think our kids are not old enough to carry a gun and serve our country until they are 18. 

We say they are not old enough to have an alcoholic drink until the age of 21. I guess because that is the golden age we think they are old enough to make smart choices with what is actually a drug. But we are very comfortable allowing young children access to a drug that would allow them to have sex, take a life, and live with the emotional trauma of sex at a young age and what emotional trauma that comes with choosing to take a life. 

We are going to make this morning after pill available to them so that we as parents and society don't have to deal with the real problem which is that we are too lazy to teach our children to respect their hearts and their bodies and wait to have sex. It makes total sense to me. NOT!!!!

Our country needs God so badly!!

Mary or Martha?

I have so many things that need to be done today and yet I find myself sitting with my coffee in hand.  It is not that I am being lazy.  I know there is yard work to be done today but it is something else.  Am I going to be a “Mary” or a “Martha” today? 

I guess I have just answered that question.  For a little bit longer the work can wait.  Lord I want nothing more than to climb into your arms and rest for a bit.  To bask in your love is what I need.  The yard will not go anywhere and I am thankful I have a yard to mow but it is YOU I need right now. 

I have found myself having to take a break in my typing so that I could spill my heart out to God.  I know He knows what is in there but to say it seems to give me strength and peace.  Oh if you could see me right now. I am a mess on the outside but God is doing something inside me that is beautiful.  In God’s perfect timing “from the inside out” by Hillsong comes on as I type this.  The words seem to sum it up…

Everlasting, your light will shine when all else fades

Never ending, your glory goes beyond all fame

And the cry of my heart is to bring you praise

From the inside out

Lord my soul cries out

As I sit in the quiet I found myself praying that I can “BASK” in your love.  Bask is not a word I use on a regular basis but I know you are speaking to me so I listen to my worship music and I BASK IN YOUR LOVE.  “Bask,” continues to pull at my heart and I am blown away with what God has shown me. 

bask [bɑːsk]vb (intr; usually foll by in)

1. To lie in or be exposed to pleasant warmth, esp that of the sun

2. To flourish or feel secure under some benevolent influence or favorable condition

All I need to do is change “Sun” to “SON” and that definition fits perfectly to what I need today… Lord today I need to lay back and BASK exposed to the pleasant warmth of the SON and flourish or feel secure under some (YOUR) benevolent influence or favorable condition.   

TODAY I CHOOSE TO BE A MARY.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”  “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

Beautiful Strangers Update #2

As I shared in my first post about these amazing women, they both gave their kidneys to total strangers.  Thanks to them two people now have the gift of life.   If you are just reading about these ladies for the first time please go back to my first post to get the whole story.

I got an email today on the condition of both the donor and the recipient.  (I have been asked not to share their names but, God knows who I am asking you to pray for)  The beautiful donor got to go  home today and she got flowers along with a note from the recipient.   It said, "you are my little angel".  She still has no idea who her kidney went to and it could be sometime before she gets to know.     The transplant coordinator said that the recipient would also be getting to go home soon, that things are looking great and I have to say this is the first time I have ever been happy to say someone is "peeing up a storm".

Please continue to pray for healing and GIVE PRAISE FOR HOW THINGS ARE GOING!!  

God's blessings to you. 

Beautiful Strangers

I am always starting up conversations with people when I am out. It is something my son teases me about but, I have learned over the last 40 plus years of my life that if we keep to ourselves we can miss out on some of the most amazing blessings.

The other day I was in the christian book store in my hometown.  While in line I met the most amazing lady. She told me she was buying a necklace for a friend.  I was humbled when she shared with me the story of her friend who was going to give her kidney to a total stranger on Friday the 24th.   I was stunned to hear this.  I would give my kidney to my children, a family member or a friend but the idea of giving my kidney to a total stranger (while I am still alive) blew my mind.  It was one of the most selfless acts I had ever heard of.  As this amazing women shared this story, she reached in and pulled out from under the collar of her shirt a necklace that was given to her several years ago. It was from a total stranger to whom she had donated one of her kidneys.  She lit up as she told me that person who was once a stranger was now her friend.  

Are you getting this?  They gave organs to total strangers. Not because they were organ donors on their drivers license but because they felt led to do it while they were alive.  Both of them choose to give a gift of life. I am overwhelmed with the love of these women and have not been able to stop thinking of them or praying for them.  

God gave me a glimpse into the lives of two amazing and godly women.  It is a look into a miracle.   I am not going to share their names because I want to protect their privacy.  I can however share an update on how she is doing from her surgery today:

 She is out of surgery and doing good.  The recipient is is also doing well.  

Please pray for fast recovery for both of them, that the body of the recipient 

will not reject the kidney and that the donor will not experience any problems in the future

as a result of donating her organ. 

I am humbled to be able to share such and amazing story with you and I hope you will continue to lift both of these ladies and the recipients up in prayer.   As I get updates I will keep you all posted.  

Life is short and God is sweet.  This midlife domestic goddess is full of heartfelt ramblings but this amazing story has rendered me almost speechless.  

Jesus had free will

Jesus had his own "free will" but He came to do the will of the Father.  We can see Jesus being tempted in his flesh just as we are tempted by the enemy.   In His free will He could have chosen the easy path but he choose his father's will.  "He choose the cross, no one forced him to" -Altar'd by Jennifer Kennedy Dean. 

John 10:17-18 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life-only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, But I lay it down on my own accord.  I have the authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.  This command I received from my Father. 

We too have free will, we can choose to do the will of God or not.  We can actively Choose to live by the spirit or by the flesh.  "He knew the crucifixion was the path to resurrection.  He surrendered to the crucifixion with His eyes on the promise of the resurrection.  When we surrender our flesh to His crucifixion, we join Him in his resurrection."-Altar'd by Jennifer Kennedy Dean.   As I said, it is our choice to do God's will or to do the will of our flesh.  Sometimes choosing to do the will of the Lord may seem hard to us but, we can hold on to this to always be true.... If we choose to do the will of our Father in heaven, He will ALWAYS PROVIDE FOR US HIS STRENGTH to do his will. 

So your will or His will?  I am learning to let go of my free will that comes from my flesh and do His that comes from the Spirit!!!   

Have a blessed day :)

Off Road Driving.

I live in the Pacific Northwest, and it is a common thing to see the big trucks with lift kits and jeeps that have been fitted with special seat belts. It is a beautiful place to live with lots of land that has not yet been touched by the development of homes and strip malls.

It is not uncommon to see a truck or jeep covered in mud from a day of off road driving because there are some great places to do that. I saw a jeep one day covered in mud. The doors were off and the driver also had mud all over himself. I remember laughing with my daughter about the jeep and the driver. We both made comments about how much fun that must have been.   

It must be the trill of adventure, that feeling of 

pushing yourself up a steep hill and then flying down the other side of the hill that makes people want to do that. How cool it must be to climb over rocks and fallen trees, like nothing can stop you. How much fun it must be to see the mud flying as you hit a mud pit at high speed. I can almost hear the sound water and mud make as they hit the tires.  Sometimes it is fun to play in the mud, to have the feeling of freedom to just get dirty, to laugh, and to enjoy the thrill of the ride.

Off road driving is fun. If it weren’t fun, people wouldn’t do it!  One summer my husband and I took his truck into the mountains of Idaho for a day hike into Hunt Lake. What a great day that was and my husband even came up with his talk that he was to give at church. In order to get to the trailhead we had to take a logging road up the mountain, and the road did not make for a smooth ride. One time we hit a bump that bounced my husband so hard he hit the key and turned the truck off. At first we didn’t realize what happened. In my stomach there was the “what now” feeling, we are in the mountains, no cell service and now the truck is broken-down. We had a good laugh when we realized that we were just fine and about how fun it was when we lifted out of our seats from that bump.  

In those roads the forest service comes along and makes “Kelly Humps” which are drainage ditches and at times they can get big enough to swallow a little car right up. What was to be a short drive to the trailhead became a bumpy and at times an uncomfortable ride. Our poor dog bounced all over the back of the truck that day and I was thankful that my husband was behind the wheel so I could sit and panic to myself about how narrow the road was and how steep the drop off was at times. When it comes to panic, I am good at it. Just ask my friend Guy--he’ll tell you how I am always FREAKING OUT!

We never found any mud pits that day, but the truck was dirty and it got a few marks from the tree branches. I had one of the best days ever with my husband as we bounced around in the truck, drove over a few small broken trees and carefully drove in and out of the large Kelly Humps. The beauty of the drive and the hike were the icing on the cake.

Off road driving can be a fun thing and I have to say I would love to take jeep at a high speed into a giant mud pit. Maybe someday I’ll do that. It is fun to play in the mud and get dirty.  Everyone of those men and women I have seen driving a car covered in mud looks so happy.

There is a different kind of off road driving that seems like fun, it gets us all dirty and at the time thrill of the ride is exhilarating. The problem is this kind of off road driving is done when we let sin take hold of the wheel and we just roll with it. Eventually sin takes us right down into the biggest Kelly Humps ever and then we are stuck in that giant pit with what seems like no way to get out.

Unlike the mud that flies from the tires of the trucks and jeeps that off road, it is shame, a feeling of unworthiness, and helplessness that is kicked up when we let sin drive us off road. We may find ourselves broken down, covered in the dirtiness of our sin, lost and alone. The “SIN” that drove there is not going to help us out of the pit or giant Kelly Hump it has left us in. As a matter of fact, it is going to stand on the side and kick dirt on us, laughing like the bully on the playground. If we look back it is often clear to us where we took a wrong turn and got off path but at the time it was hard to see when we are letting sin take the wheel.

It is when we find ourselves in this kind of off road driving we need to ask God to get in and take the wheel. Only God can carry us out of the mud pit of sin and shame. Think of His Holy Spirit as a powerful car wash. Let it wash you clean and when you give up your sin with a heart of repentance.  LET IT GO!!  When we leave a car wash we leave the dirt and grime from our car behind we must do the same with our sin and shame. If we don’t let God wash us clean and drive away fast without looking back, the sin will continue to hold onto us and slowly pull us back into a new form of shame that come from the guilt of never letting go. When we hang onto that guilt it is like saying that Jesus gave up his life in vain. Guilt is that mud that we seem to roll around in when God has already forgiven us. Guilt is not from God.

Who thinks that when God takes the wheel life is no longer going to be fun?  Thanks to God I have had some off the biggest thrills of my life and in the scary times it is he who keeps me safe. That day my husband and I hiked to Hunt Lake we were sweaty and dirty. I had mud on my legs and shoes, some scratches on my legs and arms, but I had joy in my heart and that was what mattered. Let God show you all he has to offer, play like a child, dance in mud puddles in the rain, get down and play in the mud but do it in the right kind of mud. Not the kind that comes from sin.

Let God take the wheel of your life, the road is going to be bumpy but you’ll always stay on the right road with God at the wheel.  Off road driving is for trucks and jeeps and someday I hope to really get dirty as I see the mud fly from the wheels of one of them as I am safely buckled in. In my day-to-day life I think I’ll keep my eyes focused on Jesus and let God take the wheel. Will I get off on to the wrong road from time to time?  Yes, I will because I am not perfect, but I refuse to live a life covered in sin and shame. No Kelly Hump is too big for our God!!!

The picture is of a women I know who just went "Off Road Driving" the correct way for her birthday!

Train wreck

As a new believer (11 years ago) I had fallen into a “train” of thought that began to derail me.  I had actually begun to question my salvation.   If you read my blog you know by now that this midlife domestic goddess is a “picture person” and in keeping in my normal fashion I have another analogy to get my point across.  God is like the “dispatcher” to our train (our life).   Any good dispatcher knows the layout of the tracks and what is coming down each section of tracks at all times.  Sometimes the dispatcher must send the train to a different track to keep it from hitting another train or to keep it from going the wrong direction.   It is the dispatcher who sees the whole picture and stay's in communication via radio with the engineer.

Here I was a new Christian and I had allowed a lie of the enemy to take hold of me.  I thought for sure God did not believe the sincerity of my repentance.  I would sit and pray that He would believe I was sorry.  I had myself convinced I would not make it to heaven.  One day I was sitting alone in my living room in a bit of a panic about my salvation.  I was like a train heading down a hill, picking up speed with no breaks and, heading right into a bend in the tracks that was going to completely derail me.

God the “dispatcher” knew it was time to change the track I was heading down before I derailed.  Before I knew it I was reaching for my phone to call a friend who seemed to have it all together with the Lord.  She wasn’t home but, her son was and God was going to use him to be the voice of the dispatcher.   He asked me if I was okay and I found myself telling this high school boy that I was struggling.  I wanted to believe that I was saved but I just couldn’t stop feeling I was not believable to God.  

It would be in that moment that God would use the words of my friend’s son who was very strongly grounded in his faith to keep me from derailing.  He would be the voice coming in loud and clear via the telephone (much like the radio).  He spoke to me about the lies of the enemy and shared scripture to confirm that I was God’s child and that I was saved by faith and not by works.  It was as if God switched the tracks at the right moment and my train was no longer speeding down hill out of control.  My train was now climbing up out of the valley of that lie!! I had gone from white knuckling it, to letting go and believing the truth in a 5 min conversation with that young man.   

Over the years I have seen others in that same place. Some of them very grounded in the Lord and yet some how their head and heart have gotten out of alignment and a lie of the enemy takes holds and tries to derail them. God can see the bigger picture and he will guide us down the right tracks of life.  Therefore, we must be wise engineers and listen to the directions of God our dispatcher at all times.  

“Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long.”  Psalm 25:4 & 5

God is in the house.  This week this mid-life domestic goddess finds her self in Dallas Texas at the National Christian Women in Media convention (www.cwima.org) When you say yes to God it takes you places you never thought you would go.  This stay at home mom is finding her true confidence in the Lord as she interacts with christian women from all over the nation in all kinds of media.  Out of my comfort zone yes but full plugged in to the confidence in the Lord.

I have learned so much this weekend and I can't wait to see what the day brings.  Yesterday I was seated at table with actress and author Ann Ault.  She is looking over my writing to for my book and giving me some suggestions.  I am blessed by her and I can not wait to get her book.  I would by it now but I have no room in my bag because I felt I needed to pack so many shoes.  (one can never have to many shoes)

This will be a weekend I will never forget.  To listen to such beautiful women in the Lord was amazing.  Sheila Walsh www.sheilawalsh.com , Ruth Grahamwww.ruthgrahamandfriends.org ,Thelma Wells www.thelmawells.com , Pat Smith www.treasureyou.org and many other amazing women of God had great things to share with  us.

This mid-life domestic Goddess is loving every minute of this and is even getting past the fact that I have to wear nylons.  Not exactly my normal style in my sporting event life.  God is good and I can't wait to see what he has planned today.

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Clean out the cushions!

Once again God is showing me that I can see him in the everyday things.  The things that we can all relate to no matter where we are in our walk with him.  Yesterday He showed me a “couch”.

Have you ever lifted the cushions off your couch?  If you have, you know that a lot of junk gets lost within the cushions.  Sometimes we can find a treasure in there.  Maybe some money or something we have been looking for and thought would never be found.  Most of what we find however is garbage.  Old food, paper and sometimes things we are not sure we even want to touch.   

I remember sitting on my friends couch one night with my daughter, our exchange student and my friend’s daughter.  We were all talking about how comfortable the couch was and how we could go to sleep.   As my exchange student ran her hand between the cushions to feel how thick they were she got the most surprised look on her face as she pulled out a steak knife.  Yep, I said a steak knife.  Tucked into those comfy cushions was something very harmful. 

We are a lot like those couch cushions.  We, over time can collect not just sin but we often stuff the pain from our past deep down in our hearts. Sometimes we may not even be aware we are carrying it.  Than again, maybe we know it is there just like we know there’s stuff in our couch cushions but; we avoid it.  As I sat on my couch God showed me that we all have to clean out the garbage we collect with in us.  We need to repent from our sins.  We need to ask God to show us if there is sin we don’t even no about.  God also wants to clean out any pain we are holding from our past and give us freedom from it.  Some us may be carrying things within us that can truly cause us harm. Much like the steak knife we found in the couch that night.

Psalms 51 is David’s prayer to God for forgiveness and cleansing.  We can all learn a lesson from David in this.  We all need to occasionally do some deep cleaning between the cushions.  Verses 1 and 2 are powerful and apply to us still today.  Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 

I hope as you read this you will want to do some deep cleaning not just between your couch cushions but within yourself also.  David goes on to pray in verse 10: Create in me a pure heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit with in me.  

It’s time to do some cleaning!!