Archive for February, 2010

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Ash Wednesday Prayer

February 26, 2010

I know Ash Wednesday was actually last Wednesday but this weekend I saw a prayer at J’s office that they used on Ash Wednesday. It was  thought provoking for me and I wanted to share it with you as we reflect on Christ’s journey to the cross. 

Catch me in my anxious scurrying, God,

and hold me in the Lenten season:

hold my feet to the fire of Your grace

and make me attentive to my mortality

that I may begin to die now

to those things that keep me

from living with You

and with my neighbors on this earth;

to grudges and interferences,

to certainties that smother possibilities,

to my fascination with false securities,

to my addiction to sweatless dreams,

to my arrogant insistence on how it has to be;

to my corrosive fear of dying someday

which eats away the wonder of living this day,

and the adventure of losing my live

in order to find it in You.

Amen.

Examine me O God and know my heart, test me and discover my thoughts, and lead me in the way of everlasting. PS 139:23-24

I know this is from a book of prayer but I don’t know the author or the book. If I find out, I’ll add it to the post.

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The Mud Dance

February 24, 2010

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I So Beautiful

February 23, 2010

J has been a little too into the idea of being beautiful lately. The other day, I attempted to explain that it is more important to be beautiful on the inside than the outside. I explained in my best two-year old language what it looked like to be beautiful on the inside and then encouraged her to ask God right then to make her inside beautiful. This video was her attempt and is guaranteed to make you laugh…..

I also just HAVE TO add that I posted this video to my blog all by myself. With the help of no one. This included using windows movie maker which I have never even opened to write subtitles, saving it to some other format, posting it to YouTube and then taking the YouTube html and embedding it on my blog. I can’t tell you how shocked I am. You should be shocked too. This is like closing your eyes and shooting the apple off prince charming’s head on the first try without ever using a bow and arrow before. This will probably be the only video ever posted to my blog because there is no way I will ever be lucky enough to accomplish this again!

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Weekend Review

February 22, 2010

Kind of a normal weekend around here. I’m thankful for this.

 N with his team-mate at his game on Saturday:

He didn’t score any goals this week. He was severely disappointed. Even the fact that both Nane and Tim Abi were there to watch him couldn’t lift his spirits. We realize now that we were a little too enthusiastic about the goals last week and need to focus more on teaching him aspects of sportsmanship other than just scoring goals! Rookie parents.

Saturday night, we celebrated Valentine’s Day. Better late than never. Last week, we remembered it was Valentine’s Day when the greeter at the door at church wished us a Happy Valentine’s Day. He and his wife were both wearing red. I bet they had a Valentine’s Day breakfast together they left the house. We had intentions of celebrating. I had made the yummy cheese cake and J had something special hiding in the refrigerator that I had strict instructions not to open. We just temporarily forgot which day we were supposed to celebrate.

I sure wondered what could be in that bag and not going bad while it sat in the refridgerator all week!

Finally, on Saturday night, friends watched N and J and we had our celebration. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Matt and Liz! J surprised me by taking me to our favorite Turkish restaurant. Afterwards, he had a picnic packed and we went to a water wall where we had the goods that had been in the refridgerator all week. Cheese, crackers, chocolate and sparkly apple cider stuff in cute little plastic picnicy wine glasses. The mall security guard who gave us directions to the water wall said that it was just like a park in France. Now, he might have been pushing the envelope a little. I haven’t been to France in over 10 years but this one was pretty much pitch black and I decided to leave my purse in the car so as to not tempt anyone. The water wall was amazing though. Definitely worth the trip. Fun. And romantic. And we didn’t care one bit that we were a week late.

At the water wall:

My lousy, glad-I-didn’t-ruin-my-camera attempt at taking a picture of the water wall:

On Sunday, J was on call and had to work from 7 am on Sunday until 12 pm on Monday. We decided to surprise him by showing up at the hospital. It’s a long drive and was risky as he could have been answering a long call and we wouldn’t have gotten to see him. It turned out just perfect. The kids hid behind a couch in the lobby and jumped out at him when he walked around the corner. Even though he had to respond to several calls while we were there, we had fun eating at Mc Donalds and watching the train at the Children’s Hospital.

My favorite weekends are ones just like this one. The only thing that could have made it better would be if Baba hadn’t been on call.

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Waco’s Church Under the Bridge

February 19, 2010

I was thinking about something inspirational to post for today and found this on my friend, Leigh’s blog. Lately, I have been challenged in my thinking about how we can choose to live outwardly verses becoming too busy to have time for ministry. It is one thing to share at work or be a good influence among those who are lost who we come in contact with. It is entirely another to invite them into our homes and into our lives. Our mindset, many times, it to be a good influence when we can but when we are deciding who to invite into our home for dinner, we choose our dearest friends. Truth be told, I would much rather have dinner and hang out with those whom I have much in common with. This is where I’m currently being challenged. Doing what is less comfortable and less convient for ‘our lives are only a vapor that vanish after a little time.’ This news story on Church Under the Bridge  reminded me again of these thoughts and encouraged me to live more outwardly.

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Closest-to-the-Real-Thing Doughnuts

February 18, 2010

One thing we severely missed while living in Central Asia was doughnuts. I learned to duplicate many things that we were unable to buy but I never mastered the doughnut. This still bothers me. Who wants to be beat by a doughnut? Once on Mother’s Day, we happened to be in the capital city where there was a grossly overpriced Duncan Doughnuts. Justin surprised my mom and I with doughnuts and there’s never been a better Mother’s Day present for someone who was going to go into labor at any minute. Over time, we stopped indulging, even for special occasions, on the capital city’s Duncan Doughnuts when we learned that they didn’t have the concept down that day or two old doughnuts were no longer sellable doughnuts. At the price we would pay for them, you kinda wanted them to at least be made that day.

A recipe for doughnuts caught my eye the other day and it looked like it just might be the answer to my doughnut challenge. The Pioneer Woman has a cookbook and I like her descriptions because she explains in detail which helps me when cooking other things as well.

I gave her recipe a shot for Valentine’s weekend and it was a success. In my little world, it feels good to have finally mastered the doughnut. I also liked that you made the dough the night before and let it rise all night- less work in the morning. So, here it is if you want to give it a try. Thanks Pioneer Woman! Now, if I could have only duplicated Thai spring rolls with no Thai ingredients….

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Never Too Young to Shop at the Grand Bazar!

February 17, 2010

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Big Church

February 16, 2010

On Sunday night, we went to an international service at our church. There was a childcare mixup and the childcare workers mistakenly thought that N was supposed to go to the service with us. The best thing was to just take him with us to the service and sort it out later.  So, off to big church for his first time. No crayons or activity book, but more importantly, no preparation talk ahead of time. If we had planned ahead we would have practiced our whisper voice all week, talked about what would happen, explained the different parts of the service, etc. Nope. He got a couple minute, not well thought out, run down and in we went!

The first thing that made me laugh was when a very passionate guest got up for the opening prayer. I mean, this was a prayer with gusto. N leaned over in his not yet perfected whisper voice and asked, “Was that an angry prayer?”

When it was time for the offertory, the whisper voice was completely gone. “They’re taking everyone’s money now??!!??” 

The guest preacher had more gusto than the guy who led the opening prayer. Now N was even more curious. “Is he a bad guy? He’s being pretty mean.” No honey, that’s just passionate Baptist preaching at its finest.

He tried to imitate the preacher’s hand gestures for a while but it didn’t last long. They were too complicated. There was the point up and then point down move, the point to you and then to me, the vertical hand slice, the bible tap, the power punch, the finger shake, the arms open wide, and the heart touch. N gave up after the point to you and me move. The speed and precision of these  moves take years of practice to perfect.

Time for the closing prayer. More gusto. N leans over, pretty good whisper by now, “He’s definitely not praying for us.” a little later, mortified, “Mom, he just said BLOOD.” what COULD he be talking about??

Then, of course, the invitation. There’s a call for a hand raise and N’s is the first hand to shoot up. He likes this interactive stuff. We stuff his hand back down just in time for the second call for a raise of hands. Up again.

Well, we had a debrief afterwards and tried to straighten out the questions in his little mind. I’m glad he got to go. It was worth the laughs!

 

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First Soccer Game

February 15, 2010

N’s first soccer game was Saturday. I have to admit, I was nervous before the game. Nervous about another kid stealing the ball from N and N deciding to slug him. With a 4-year-old boy, anything was possible. I was crying within the first quarter. Not because of any of the scenarios I had imagined as possibilities before the game but because he had scored the first goal!

He scored one more before the game was over. But, that’s not what made me the proudest. I was even more proud when N was about to score a 3rd goal and the goalie (a girl) bent down to intercept the ball as his foot was about to kick. Images of a bloody nose flashed through my mind, I mean, I know how aggressive he is. I’ve seen it first hand with his little sister as the victim! Instead of finishing the kick, he backed off and let her pick up the ball. Shock. Relief. I think this soccer thing is gonna be  fun.

I was proud when N scored 2 goals. I was even more proud when he luckily decided to pause instead of smashing the goalie’s face in. But, the thing that made me proudest was watching 4-year-old sportsmanship. N fell down. A girl on his team turned back from the pack following the ball to help him up. A boy from the other team also helped him up. You could see the delight on his face that they had stopped to help him. After the game, instead of getting his snack, he wanted to go straight to the other team to thank the boy who had helped him up. He looked each kid in the face until he found the right one and then gave him a hug and told him thanks.

When the game was over, snacks were packed up and everyone started to disperse, N stood in the middle of the field looking at his coach. He wanted to know if they were going to play again. We let the coach break the news that he would have to wait until next Saturday. The countdown has begun. N is going to learn the days of the week or I’m gonna go crazy!

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Our Personal Legend

February 12, 2010

On our recent cruise, I read a book entitled The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It was about a shepherd boy’s adventures as he followed his dreams across the world in search of a hidden treasure. The book is an encouragement to all to find our personal calling, God’s blessing, the path He has ordained for us  to follow. This is the thing that fills us with enthusiasm. The thing we are most exited about doing, no matter how far out of reach or how far removed from our current life situation it may seem. 

“It is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Every one, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible, they are not afraid to dream, and to year for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend.” 

Coelho proposes that sadly, most people never follow their own personal legend. Over time, we come to forget the words of Ephesians 5:15 15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity. In his introduction, he gives 4 reasons why. The first, he says, is the phenomenon of being told by others that our legend or dream is impossible. Over time, our legend becomes so deeply covered by these lies that it actually becomes invisible. I am reminded of the statement Darla talked about in our Wednesday night WOW meeting a few weeks ago: “You must know who you are before you can know who you want to be.” Many times, we don’t even have a chance to hurdle any other obstacle to accomplishing our personal legend because it is to deeply buried to even be realized. 

If we are successful enough to clear the first hurdle and can identify our dream, we are soon faced with the second hurdle: love. The fear of hurting those around us actually hinders us from accomplishing this dream. The reality is that love should be a catalyst toward this dream not a hindrance. Those who are genuine in their love for us are willing to join us on the journey and along the way; many times our love will actually grow stronger. 

 The third hindrance is fear. Fear of failure, fear of opposition along the away, fear of sacrificing more than is generally acceptable and then not accomplishing our dream. We all too quickly forget that suffering is a necessary part of the journey. Suffering brings joy and each day becomes a challenge to fight the good fight. We have all been in the dreaded place in our life journey when we find that it is through suffering that we realize the greatest intimacy with Christ. 

The fourth obstacle is the fear of actually realizing the dream we have fought so hard for. Many become guilty of actually getting what they want. The reality is that when we believe we are worthy of our personal legend we realize that every second of the search is an encounter with God. It is in this moment that we become that vessel that He has always wanted us to be.

I am reminded once again that the God we serve indeed has a plan for each of us. It is all too easy to get caught up in the grind of everyday life and forget the longing of our hearts. When we emailed our friends to let them know we were moving home for Justin to attend Law school, we had more than one friend email us back to confess they knew in their hearts, they were not where God wanted them to be. Friends that we had pegged as extremely successful with lives that were on track.  But, their hearts said they had missed their calling. 

The good news? It’s never too late to turn toward our personal legend.  We can think like Job in verse 17:11 when he says , “My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart.” Or, choose  to claim the words of Jer. 29:11 “11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope”.

If there is anything missing, anything  you believe that God has asked you to do with your life, its never too late!  He longs for us to walk, out in the path He has ordained for each of us to follow. He longs to capture our whole hearts so that we can realize our Personal Legend.

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