ordinary = normal ?

when you think of ordinary does normal come to mind?  if you are ordinary do you have to be normal? 

Webster's dictionary defines ordinary as this:  of common quality, rank, or ability.  it goes on to define normal as: conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern.

i did not come out of a COOKIE CUTTER.  yes, i am common, so common that my quality, rank, or ability has not drawn attention or acclamation.  as a matter of fact, i have often been overlooked or found lost in the sea of humanity.  conforming to a type, standard or regular pattern though, has not been apart of my REPERTOIRE.  i have, actually, most of my life been labeled as WEIRD.  my key chain in junior high read, "Being Weird Just Isn't Enough".  do i feel that the label weird fits me?  no, but in those sensitive years of my life it brought about the attention my yearning soul needed.

i don't believe that normal and ordinary go hand in hand.  in the times of Jesus, normal was to go against Him.  normal was to listen to the high priest and obey all the rules and regulations.  he came to save the sinner, the sick, and those needing a Savior.  the normal ones didn't want him.  they didn't see their need for him.  their rules saved them, he wasn't the KING they wanted.  i am a sinner, my sin makes me sick, i have desperate need for a Savior.  i don't conform to the type, standard, or pattern this world lays out.  i am a common woman and the Lord has chosen to speak to me. 

are you in need of a Savior?  he will meet you no matter what you are labeled.

it's all in the name

i have heard it from many people that they have to uphold the family name.  they are in fear of wrongdoing, might it hard the family name.  "i have a name to honor!", they say. 

well, i have no such name.  i married into a family that had a name, but then i came.  "WHO is this girl?", they protested.  who am i? 

i was the chief of sinners, a wretch, a nobody by the world's standards.  BECAUSE of HIS blood, i am a new creation, robed in white, forgiven and set free, adopted, HIS child, I bear his HIS name. 

it's all about the blood, really!

one boy, one girl - friday

10th Anniversary Pic

i thought that i would start a little series about me and my hunny, titled "one boy, one girl". 

i saw my hunny for the first time at a high school basketball game.  i was in 8th grade, attending a high school basketball game with a friend, and totally new to this area.  we walked up the bleachers to where all the junior high students sat and there HE was.  HE was a vision.  i knew right then and there that HE was the ONE!  i went home that night from the basketball game, ran in my front door, and told my mom all about the boy i was going to marry. 

i "graduated" from the junior high i was attending and decided to go to the high school that my hunny attended.  by the time i arrived on the scene, he was already dating and VERY into another girl.  she was an EXTRAORDINARY girl, a bomb shell by high school standards.  i knew then that my hopes of every becoming Mrs. My Hunny would be next to impossible.  right then and there i determined in my heart to be the protector of his heart and to set him as a standard by which i would measure all the other guys i would date. 

how did you first meet your "hunny"?  was it love at first site?

that ONE room

as a girl growing up, we had a room in our house that was OFF LIMITS to everyone.  it was so unused that you could see the sweeper marks across the carpet, knowing exactly where that sweeper had gone.  NO, there was no plastic covering on the furniture, which kind of surprises me.  i can remember sitting on the two steps that led down to this room, thinking why are we not aloud in here.  as soon as my mom saw me NEAR the room, I was reminded of how this room was not to be entered. 

as my mind remembers this moment, I wonder if we don't have OFF LIMIT rooms ourselves.  are there areas in our lives that no one can enter, that the Lord can not have to control.  i have been studying about Adonai.  the study talked of how we can not now our God as the All-Sufficient One, El Shaddai, unless we bow our knee to Adonai, the Lord.  in bowing our knee to Adonai, we hand over everything. 

when I bowed my knee to Adonai, it was after I had come to know Him as Savior.  since coming to the Lord later in life, i came with a lot of baggage, sin baggage that is.  it was DIFFICULT for me to tell other believers about my struggles.  i didn't want them to think the wrong way about me.  so i set up an OFF LIMIT room in my heart, i kept it neat and tidy, and made it look like everything was GOOD in my life.  what happened was this facade of a neat and tidy life ended up being my downfall.  how can you conquer sin when you are not willing to admit that it is there?  how can you be victorious when you don't see the battle within?  the consequences for my sin could not be hidden, so I had to deal with my OFF LIMITS room.  That is when I bowed my knee to Adonai.  

life for me is different now, i have no OFF LIMIT rooms.   my weaknesses are God's strengths, my errors are God's grace in action.

do you have an OFF LIMITS room?  have you bowed your knee to Adonai?

Mr. Mom

do you remember that movie?  it centered around a dad who lost his job, his wife went back to work, and he stayed home to care for the children.  there is a scene in the movie where the dad (an advertising executive) is back at his former job doing a presentation trying to get his job back.  since he is the main caretaker, he has his children with him and one has to use the bathroom.  you watch as one of the babes is running around screaming with the toilet paper, the father has the littlest one up to the hand dryer trying to dry the babes rear, and the door is opened by a colleague. 

my two littles

a perfect transition into my morning the other day.  i have my two littlest in the bathroom with me.  one has taken the toilet paper and walked all over the bathroom with it.  they other has decided that playing in the underwear drawer would be fun, and putting some of those in mom's shower would be even better.  they are laughing with each other, enjoying the look of "the mess", and totally absorbed in fun.  i open up the curtain and what do you think i did?
              A.  scream at my littles, tell them to pick up their mess, and be overwhelmed all day.
              B.  laugh with them, enjoy the fact that they are littles, and help them pick up the mess.

if you picked A, you know me well.  i often respond to interruptions in my day that way.  i am a "ducks in a row" kind of person, especially when there are so many hands and feet to keep track of throughout the day. 

YESTERDAY, i didn't!  i decided that THIS IS THE DAY!  THAT THE LORD HAS MADE!  I WILL REJOICE!  AND BE GLAD IN IT!

i was glad.  glad for two littles that warm my heart with their antics, glad that they ARE  littles (it goes by so fast), and glad that we had a fun moment together.  when i think about this "interruption" through these kind of eyes, I realize that it really wasn't a bad thing.  it made me laugh, it warmed my heart, it reminded me of the joys of childhood.  in reality, the mess only took 2 minutes to clean up.  who doesnt' have 2 minutes to spare for 2 little cuties?

how do you respond to "interruptions"?

there once was a time...

...that i believed i was EXTRAORDINARY.  i was a mother of 5 children, homeschooling, preparing most of our meals from scratch, involved in numerous extracurricular activities, and preparing our family for baby #6.  i wore this EXTRAORDINARY life like a beauty queen's sash.  all of my accomplishments were written across that sash for everyone to read.  my heart was prideful.  my life might not have reflected that pride like the Tower of Babel builders but my heart screamed it to the Lord.

Babe #6

september 1st, 2009 my heart-sized Tower of Babel fell.  confusion set in as my 6th precious child came into this world with extreme colic.  not one of my 5 previous children had an issue with colic, we had difficult moments those first couple of weeks and then everything adjusted itself out.  i felt like a new mom all over again.  things that once made sense and had worked in the past, no longer applied to this situation.  all my SUPER ability as a mom came to a screeching halt.  my sash was removed torn off  for lack of ability and no longer being able to conform to the standards one must to wear such a sash.

the doctors told us it would last around 4 months.  OK, i thought, i can handle 4 months.  well, those 4 months were multiplied by 3.  my sleep - sleep what is sleep.  my mind - do i even have one?  my ability - what's a diaper?  where do I put it?

i found myself having out of body experiences all the time.  some WOMAN was using my mouth to talk scream and i did not recognize her.  i literally felt like i was watching this WOMAN ruin my family.  this WOMAN was harsh, she was easily angered, OH!, did she keep records of wrongs, and she was overwhelmed all the time.

finally, one beautiful spring afternoon, i caved.  i lay in my bed crying to GOD MOST HIGH.  i could not go on like this.  i was not a robot.  i was not going to scream one more time.  i cried out to HIM, "I NEED YOU!  HELP ME!  I CAN NOT DO THIS!  I WAS NOT MADE TO BEAR ALL OF THIS ALONE!  YOU TAKE CONTROL!"  and just as those last words fell from my tongue, a gentle breeze moved it's way through my bedroom window and enveloped me.  HE met me, HE comforted me, HE accepted me just as I was - my tattered rags and all.   this once proud beauty queen had turned into a ragged, threadbare mother of 6.

HE took that ragged, threadbare mother and gave her a new heart.  He ever so gently reminded her of where her mother's heart came from; His potter's hand.

Oh the joy of knowing Him.  If you find yourself in a difficult time - cry out to Jesus.  He will meet you and offer deliverance.  He did for me.

a sin knot

have you ever opened up your jewelery box and found your precious necklaces looking something like this?  you try pulling on the chains, but find the knot gets tighter.  you try pulling on the loops, but you end up making more knots.  the only way to solve the problem is to either throw all of these precious necklaces away, or sit down and gently pull each chain apart.  

i like to untangle knots.  i find it rather relaxing, perplexing, and mentally challenging.  i almost look for a necklace knot in my jewelery box, just not right before i have to go somewhere.  (me and my homophones!)

sin can become like this knot in our lives.  the harder WE try to pull it out of our lives the tighter the knot becomes.  even when we try a good self-help BOOK, the more tangled our knot becomes.  truly the only way to untangle this knot is by seeking out the Master Craftsman.  in His loving hands, through his gently ways can that knot begin to come apart and finally be released.  

i have had LOTS of sin knots in my life.  i have found that through each sin knot my Master Craftsman has slowly and gently and lovingly taking me through each untangling step.  it's not like when i was little and my mom would try and brush the knots out of my hair; i was left crying and holding my throbbing head.  OUCH!  it's different with the Master.  yes, there was pain, but when you are in the hands of the Master Craftsman you don't have to fear the fire.  desirable things come at the cost of pain sometimes, well all the times.  (6 babes later, i can attest to the pain.)  

back to sin, how do you master it, so it doesn't become a knot?