What is worship?

The day after Mother’s Day

Motherhood can be hard, but the joys that come with it are stronger. 

Joy’s strength can carry Struggle’s weight.  And win every time.

I think motherhood is so hard to describe sometimes. That’s why, today, I want to share words about motherhood from a mom and gifted writer, whom I admire, Lisa-Jo Baker, who writes in her blog to encourage women and moms to keep on being… being all that God created us to be.  

These words are an encouraging gift to me from God through her writing that I want to post this beautiful day-after-Mother’s-Day…and I hope it will bring simply joys to your mind of your mother and being a mother.

 

 

I am stretched and tired and fearful.
I am wild and brave and broken.
My closet has a sense of humor and clothes in every size…

I have rocked restless babes, cut baby curls, snipped fingernails and served a thousand thousand bowls of Cheerios.

I can build a blanket fort, pry splinters out of fingers, and sharp words out of young hearts.

I have lost it, yelled it, fought it, cried it and apologized it all before 9am.

I have fingerpainted, caffeinated, and run out of explanations for a line of why questions that stretches around the living room, out the front door and around the block...

I have been woken up, shaken up, thrown up, loved up, and shut up. I have never quite, completely, ever given up.

Love sleeps in my bed. Curiosity eats at my table. Delight runs laps around my back yard. Exhaustion is a faithful friend. But so is grace.

If I started tonight and counted backwards all the gifts of the past {thirteen} and a half years of two {kids} I would still be counting when their grandchildren were standing tippy toes with noses pressed against these smudged windows.

So I count dimples instead.

And piles of stray socks and jeans with knees missing and shoes that only fit for a few months and hair cuts and loose teeth and how many times I look at them and say with the disbelief of the proud, “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown!”

I am overwhelmed, infatuated, love struck and completely unhinged. Especially on the nights they bring in wild flowers and all the ever-loving mud in the world.

I am full and fulfilled.
I am older and comfortable in my skin.
I am about the work of raising tiny humans.
I am out of my mind and in my calling and desperate for five minutes alone and a lifetime together.

I see cherry blossom fireworks when two brothers enter school and friendship and new worlds together. Right there, just an outdoor, black top, basketball court away from me.

I want to stop time, tame my fears, bottle their dreams, live a hundred summers of dripping, sticky, caramel ice cream. And in between I hang onto my faith, my temper, and my sense of humor with my fingernails.

These are the good days, the glory days, the slow-as-molasses days. These are the fast years, the wonder years, the how-do-I-find-words years.

But we do. They usually start with “help” and end with “thank you” and the middle?

The middle is a thick layer of one syllable wonder sometimes whispered, often shouted, always answered.

The middle is me. The middle is you. The middle is just, “mom.”

 

 

Continuing to count

#1391  our son’s school soccer team coach who’s a Christ follower and his soon-to-be-bride

#1392  the unique and encouraging words coach gave to our son and each player on the team.  Way to go with your Hustle Award!

#1393  Psalm 119:38  “Fullfill your promise to your servant…”

#1394  the worker at Target who gave me a free drink just.because.

#1395  two hours that flew by just listening

#1396  hard eucharisteo…not knowing the right words to say…but God has reason for that?

#1397  encouraging someone to write

#1398  gift waited for…still waiting to see

#1399  baby birds in birdhouse beside the window now chirping and calling for their mama

#1400  the grand opening of the first roses

#1401  the smell of spring

#1402  spending time with Jesus outside on the porch for the first time this spring.

#1403  spending time with my mother, sister, children and family Mother’s Day weekend

#1404  hearing and watching mom play the organ.

#1405  my gifts…lantana, massage, tile, cards…and Cook Out milkshake!

#1406  our first peony in our yard that’s been passed on for generations in my husband’s family

#1407  my great-aunt’s 89th birthday

#1408  meeting a woman at church who’s 99 years young

Comfort is…

It’s Friday and that mean’s it’s the day to join in with others and write free-hand for five minutes.  Today’s word is COMFORT.

 

 

The house is quite except for the soft piano music playing from my computer and I‘m so comfortable on the big sofa seat.  Comfort feels safe.  Comfort is when you’re in…

…the arms of a mother who holds her baby…whether he or she’s a few months old or 13 year old or 30- something years old.

…the arms of the love of your life who holds you tight with unending love.

…the arms of a friend who draws you close and near to the heart and doesn’t let go.

…the arms of Jesus encompassing you inside and out.  He is the God of all comfort.

“All praise goes to God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort.”  2 Corinthians 1:3

Comfort can be found, lost, given, and received.  When found, comfort is a joy.  Comfort taken away, to get us out of our comfort zone, is when God does amazing things.  Comfort given fills the heart and comfort received is often just.when.we.need.it.

Comfort is a gift. 

 

Who are we?

Thank the Teacher for your teachers

This morning my daughter went outside in the rain to cut some flowers to take to her teachers at school.  It’s teacher appreciation at our school this week.  Oh how I appreciate our teachers and their dedication and hard work they pour out into our children’s lives, and unfortunately admit, I don’t thank them enough.   I shouldn’t be showing gratitude for them just this week in May but I should be all through the year. 

This past weekend a big group of kids and parents had the privilege to honor my daughter’s kindergarten teacher (from five years ago…how fast time goes) and we also had to sadly say “we’ll miss you”.  Our daughter has been participating in the Splash! program where the state curriculum has been taught almost entirely in the Spanish language the past five years…starting in this teacher’s class.  The program allows the teacher to come from another country and teach here in America for up to five years, and that time has quickly run out.  What a gift and blessing she has been to not only our daughter, but also our family!  We will miss her and her family terribly.  She has the gift of teaching and showed how love can be spoken in every language.  She loves teaching children and we know it.  In recent conversations she and I have had, I rejoice in her faith and we’re trusting God, or Dios, with His plans for her and her family.

To teach is a gift.  Teaching is the most valuable and important job needed.  If it weren’t for teachers, where would we be?  Teachers teach everything from ABC’s, to fractions, to the history of the world, physics, how to make new colors from red, blue and yellow, and where to place your fingers on a piano to learn how to play a song.

But just as important, if not more, they teach respect, kindness, and love for one another.  

The greatest teacher of all was Jesus.  In the Gospel books alone, Jesus is called or referred to as “Teacher” about 70 times!   His classroom, was mountainsides, lakesides, boats, synagogues.  His students were everyone who heard him in large gatherings and even one-on-one encounters with those whom he longed to learn about his love.

He taught people to count their blessings and to say “thank you” to his Father.  He taught not to add up the number of wrong-doings of others.  He reiterated the importance of telling the story of His truth to pass on to their children and grandchildren and put it into action.    He taught about money, forgiveness, respect, love, prayer, poverty, marriage, parenting and that He is the Savoir to name a few.   He also instructed the disciples to write down his teachings to pass on for generations to come so it will never disappear  .

I read this description of the Teacher that Jesus was and it’s too just.right. to re-word.

“As Teacher, He had none of the resources we have today – amplification, visuals, media, electronic aids.  Yet, in marvelous tribute to His teaching, we have a substantive record of His discourses and teaching.  Included in the account are 30 parables, where He painted word pictures so graphically that those who heard could never forget them. 

What He taught has never become outdated but is as timely and timeless as when His words resonated throughout Galilee.  All other learning and knowledge pale into insignificance compared to the eternal truths He imparted.”

100 Portraits of Christ by Henry Gariepy

 

Divine Teacher, I thank you for the teachers I’ve had in my life and for those in our children’s lives…educationally and especially, spiritually.  With this psalmist I pray, “Teach us Your ways, O Lord.  We want and need to walk in Your truth.” (Psalm 86:11)

 

Thanking the Teacher for these gifts:

#1373  our Splash teachers and honoring our first…

#1374  yellow finches at our bird feeder

#1375  100 students fasting and sleeping in cardboard boxes

#1376  the worker at Best Buy who donated large boxes for kids to sleep in

#1377  the student minister leaders

#1378  son standing up for his faith and serving heart

#1379  Ester

#1380  the donations ($12,000!) the kids collected for fasting and gave to World Vision

#1381  memories from our children’s kindergarten years in their school scrapbook albums

#1382  day shopping with mom

#1383  bright iris colors in a week of gray clouds and rain with more to come

#1384  mom at Splash night encouraging comment on blog

#1385  cleaning out inbox!

#1386  a very dusty dust rag…not on the furniture anymore!

#1387  all I learned from Tim Keller study “Living in a Pluralistic Society”

#1388  our 4th niece’s 1st birthday!

#1389  singing “Untitled Hymn” during worship at church

#1390  singing “You Revive Me” during worship at church

My son’s bravery

Joining in Five Minute Friday and today’s word is BRAVE.

The last time he ate was last night at 10pm and will be the last time until 6am Saturday morning.  Our 13 year-old son is fasting for 30…well 32… hours.  I think that’s a lot for a growing young guy who’s much taller than his mom, who can run like a horse (and sometimes smell like one too!), and who can eat 4 big servings at dinner and still eat more.

His bravery is growing big too.  Bravery of standing up for his faith in front of his teenage peers, in front of his teachers and coaches, in front of our community in Burlington, NC.  He and many teenagers from our church are joining in with this international event sponsored by World Vision in the 30 Hour Famine to raise awareness and money for starving children throughout the world.   

Our son had to choose though between fasting and joining in the event or going to a soccer tournament.  It was a hard decision.  It was hard not to make it for him as a mother.  But he needs to be making these life/faith decisions on his own to help him grow inside as he keeps growing outside.  The game was scheduled to be there in the morning and after 30 plus hours of no food and lack of sleep from trying to outside in a cardboard box, there wouldn’t be much energy to play. 

His heart keep calling him to participate.  In his heart the Spirit was (and always is) present.  He chose fasting.  He chose sacrifice.  He chose to fight hunger for others in need.  He chose bravery.  He chose to live out his first name…be courageous.   He had to tell his coach and his teammates and what a hard thing for him to do.  But he did.  And honestly, as his mother, the thought and worry crept into my mind of the possibility of his peers and others looking down on him for the choice he made.  But, as his mother, I’m even more pleased to see him want to serve and honor God.  That light of joy overcomes the shadow of worry. 

He felt joy and excitement and even a little nervous about this commitment.  And as he anticipated it, the next day we find out the soccer game was rescheduled for later in the day.  God is good.  He blesses those who are obedient.  God wants us to be like Ester, who stood up for her beliefs regardless of the potential cost.

Praying for the kids and the faithful adults who minister to them, to have a life-changing and life-giving experience today. 

 

(Yes, this was a little over 5-minutes but what a perfect word for today!)

Today’s promise