Posts

Agawa Bay

Image
Sometimes there are moments that creep up really quietly, but then hit you with such a force, that you are undone and overwhelmed.  You never expected it to be that powerful, even if you may see it coming. Sometimes there is nothing that will prepare you for how your heart will respond. This very thing just happened.  Since the time that our boys were very little, we made it a point every August, to take a long summer camping trip to Canada. It was a given.  It's what we did. Every. Single. Year.  We didn't always have a lot of extra money and this was a way we could connect and spend time together outside of our normal hussle of life.  We would spend the days hiking, jumping off rocks into waterfalls, and exploring the beautiful land around us.  We would swim in the incredibly cold Lake Superior until we had no more feeling in our bodies. We would sit by campfires for hours telling stories. We would pack picnics and we would take a whole day finding ad...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just Words

6:30 AM:  I was woke up from a sound sleep by my phone vibrating.  It was my husband.  The early riser that he is, he had left for work over an hour earlier.  It was Saturday.  I was groggy and trying to shake sleepiness, still, I could tell by his voice he was upset.  I heard the words,"hollow tree", "splintered", "died".  I sat on the edge of the bed, in shock. Only 46 years old. It was too much to understand. There was a pause in my world while I let this sink in.  My husband had just lost one of the dearest people in his life.  I wept. My husband came home soon after and that afternoon we took a drive.  We shared moments of silence and moments of laughter remembering this amazing man and friend I always called "The Lumberjack".  This loss was going to leave a mark, a hole forever in our hearts.  I tried to picture his last minutes on the earth, imagine the scene and see them in my head just how I had been told the events ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Feathers

Image
 I was flipping through a random catalog the other day, while riding in the car with my husband.  In there, I spotted a silver necklace.  The charm on the chain was two half spheres lying one on top of the another.  When the top half of the sphere is lifted you can then see little- robin egg blue- beads inside.  You  had the option to order up to four beads which represents the "birds" in your "nest".  I said to my husband, "OH!  I need one of these with two little birds in the nest!" He sweetly replied, "Hunny, we don't have any birds left in our nest, so we will have to get you the empty one".  Sadly, he was right.  Or, almost. Raising my boys, somewhere in the back of my mind I knew this day would come.  After all, I had spent many hours teaching them how to become men.  How to handle money.  How to be great husbands. I taught them about character and integrity. I taught them about Jesus.  I told them how I pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Masterpiece

Fall is here!  Well, and pretty much over.  For those of us living far enough north to experience it, snow is on the way my friends.  This season brought our youth group once again to acts of service.  For the past several years we have raked the yards of the widows, elderly, injured, and pretty much any one in our church who cannot do it themselves.  This year we again had the opportunity to do the same.  I am so proud of them!  They showed up in the rain, in the cold, in the dark, in the frigid wind, whatever the conditions, with rakes in hand.  They came early and they stayed late.  All to bless others.  They are an amazing bunch of teens! I am not sure they see the big picture yet. As leaders, we schedule the yards and houses and dates and times, and pass the info down to the youth.  I don't know if they see it as just a chore to be done. Something that we "force" upon them.  Do they sigh when we aren't looking?  Do ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Pile

As Youth Pastors we are always looking for way to "show" students something tangible in the natural  that can reflect something that goes on in the spiritual.  For instance, if you have ever watched a cut on your hand heal over time, you can then visualize how over time, God can heal a wounded heart.  So, we recently had this great idea!  Mike, my amazing husband, has three horses.  This gives us access to manure ta-boot.  We decided to scoop up this manure and form it into two piles.  I then went to the dollar store and purchased toy sport cars, plastic diamonds, coins and paper money, anything that would represent real value and luxury in the real un-toy form.  I then buried those in each of the piles.  We divided the youth into two teams, which this night was all guys on both teams, and gave them the challenge to dig through the piles and see which team could come up with the most items of "value". Team one was all about it.  (I s...
1 comment
Read more

Footie Pajamas

Image
December 22nd.  Just three days left until Christmas and here I sit, drinking coffee with caramel macchiato creamer, thinking.  Reflecting really.  About the Christmas' past.  There is this warm fuzzy feeling that comes over me every year as this day approaches.  How come?  What is it that makes Christmas feel like a warm blanket wrapped around me on a cold rainy day? I remember Christmas as a little girl, in footie pajamas, my sleepy eyes filled with wonder.  The pile of gifts under a sad artificial tree of the 70's, with gobs of tinsel and those huge colored lights.  The doll that drinks and wets. The Easy Bake oven that made the horrible desserts I made my dad choke down. The Barbie phone that really rang!  Fun stuff.  I remember a Christmas that I had scarlet fever, it was horrible.  I had to wear sunglasses in the house because any source light caused searing pain.  But, even still, it was sort of fun to live out what se...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Over

This is it y'all!  In five weeks, I will embark on the beginning of something new to me.  The empty nest, or at least a partial empty nest.  Presently, I have two birds sqwaking and flapping and getting ready for flight.  One sadly....is about to leap.  I stand amazed as I look at how beautiful his wings are and still, it is really hard to get my head around the fact that "this is it"!  I will be giving him a hug goodbye and then praying that I have instilled in him something, anything, purposeful to take on into life.  I pray he hears God's voice as well as mine when he gets himself in a pickle.  Time will tell I suppose. Now what?  A new chapter? A new phase? I still have three years before the second bird flys off,  but this certainly is beginning to put things into perspective.  I am going to have a whole new....adventure?  Yeah, lets go with that.  I think this is as close to a do-over as one gets in life.  Whe...
Post a Comment
Read more