The Titus 2:4 Project

None of us is perfect.  We are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)  So if God is willing to forgive us...who are we to withhold forgiveness from each other?  A recent discussion with my ladies small group Bible study really got me thinking about this subject.  Forgiveness, just like love, is a decision - not an emotion.  Deciding to forgive someone for hurting you doesn't mean that the pain and heartache just blow away like a tumbleweed.  Some pains may take years to get rid of.  Deciding to forgive is more like trying to chop down a tree.  You can get rid of the biggest, most visible part, but after a while little stems start popping back up from the ground and you can keep mowing them over so you can't see it...but until you deal with the roots, it's never truly gone. God is the ultimate landscaper.  He knows how to deal with pesky roots so that the things we want to be rid of will be gone...forever....

Remember back, a few days ago, when I talked about my son that will be graduating...tomorrow!  Yesterday, as I was pulling out of the school parking lot after dropping my youngest son off, I passed Jake.  He was in his fancy new truck and gave me that two-fingers-off-the-steering wheel wave that says, "I'm so cool, I don't even have to use my whole hand to wave at you."  Maybe it's not so much a wave as an acknowledgment.  'Yeah, I see you.' It suddenly occurred to me: tomorrow will be the last time I ever get to pass my boy as he's pulling in to school!  I got choked up.  Tears threatened to spill down my cheeks.  But a deep yoga-style breath helped me maintain my composure. This morning, as I was talking with God, He told me to write a love letter to my son.  So I did. I told him how proud I was of him and how much I love him.  I told him I pray for him.  I told him, "I hope you never get too grown-up for your momma.  I'll...

Music speaks the language of the soul.  Victor Hugo once said that "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words, but on which it is impossible to remain silent."  Yep.  That about sums it up. Music is everywhere.  Our phones are like little juke boxes in our pockets.  I love my Pandora app.  It lets me choose stations to listen to based on a particular genre, artist or song.  You can give the song a 'thumbs up' and that song will play more frequently on your station, or you can give it a 'thumbs down' which will remove it from the station completely.  After a few 'ups and downs' your station becomes very customized to your liking.  It's brilliant!  My "Christian Contemporary Radio" station is just about perfected. My husband and son like country music (and so do I), but if you listen to the words, it would seem that all women have long tan legs, ripped-up, tight-fitting jeans, and we all dream of marrying a country boy ...

As we took our morning walk around our 10-acre pasture, my husband and I kept a keen eye to the ground in search of Black Walnut saplings that had sprung to life, taking their place among the grass and weeds.   It was nothing short of miraculous that even after cutting the grass so many times, some of the new saplings seemed to erupt from their seeds overnight.   We walked slowly, taking in the early morning beauty of the countryside, a bundle of red flags in hand that we would use to mark the saplings to save them from utter destruction at the careless hands of a teenager on a riding mower.   We would concentrate our efforts in the most obvious places, near other Black Walnut trees that had produced a bumper crop of walnuts last year that now littered the ground.   Occasionally though we would find a sapling in some obscure place; apparently the work of some rodent, probably a squirrel.   As we marked the trees, I was suddenly aware of the illustration...

Sometimes God whispers to us. Sometimes He shouts at us.  But usually, it's just a normal, conversational tone...like today. The weekend is over and it's back to the grind.  At my house, that means hubby heads to Chicago again for a couple of days.  I took our youngest to school and dropped him off.  When I returned, Randy was dressed and ready to go, sitting at the dining room table with his laptop already fired up, tapping away at the keyboard.  I served up his favorite: eggs and toast with a 'go-cup' of coffee. I'm a multi-tasker.  I recently learned that multi-tasking is a fallacy.  We can't really do more than one thing at a time effectively.  Maybe that's true...then I just do lots of different things, one after another with no stopping in between.  While the eggs were frying, and the bread was toasting, I unload the dishwasher.  Flip the eggs.  Butter the toast.  Load the dirty dishes.  Serve the breakfast....

This is Memorial Day.  A day set aside to honor and remember those who paid it all for our freedom.  While I believe many thanks are due to our veterans, today is about the men and women who didn't make it home.  It's a day to stand beside our veterans and honor their fallen comrades, and give our honor and respect to the families who have lost their loved one. As a Blue Star Mother, I had the duty, honor and privilege of presenting Gold Star banners to the mothers of fallen soldiers at the memorial service honoring their child.  It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  A Blue Star Mother is a mother of a soldier.  You have probably seen the banner hanging in someone's window, a red border around a field of white with a blue star representing each child that serves our country.  I've seen as many as five stars on one banner.  When you see a gold star, that means their soldier paid the ultimate price.  That's one gold...

I kicked the habit yesterday...for 14 hours anyway. I didn't mean to...but I accidentally left my phone at home when we left in the morning, and we didn't have time to turn around and get it.  It was a bit unnerving at first but since I was driving, I couldn't have used it much anyway.  My husband sat beside me playing solitaire on his phone while our 15-year-old was in the back seat scrolling through videos on some app that he likes.  Once we met up with our friends, I became a backseat passenger and almost missed my phone - but my friend and I enjoyed real, face-to-face conversation for the 48 mile ride to the MWXC race that my boys were racing in.  The races are always a fun day.  Hundreds of fans and racers tailgating in cornfields along a marked track where dirt bikes would zip by sending dust and mud flying through the air.  We typically set up our shade tents a few feet off the track where the boys can easily pit for gas and water....

Have you ever wanted something really badly?  I mean, you think about it, daydream about it, plan how to get it, work for it...and finally you get it!!  You celebrate!  You revel in it...and then, when the dust settles, you look around you and suddenly hear this question ringing out in your head:                                "Is this it?  Is this what all the fuss was about??  Seriously ?" It's hard to admit when that thing you wanted, whether it was a new home, a new job, an experience, a relationship...whatever, doesn't bring you the fulfillment that you thought it would.  Even harder when people are watching you, because to shrug your shoulders and walk away for lack of satisfaction, to them looks like failure.  And no one wants to look like a failure. Many years ago, as newlyweds, ...

Today is not my day. Not because things are going wrong...But because I'm dedicating this day to my husband, who has taken a vacation day to get things done around the homestead.  He's a hard working man - and while his job provides a means by which to live for our family, our homestead is a source of peace, comfort, escape and pride for him.  It's Memorial Day weekend and an old Army buddy and his wife are coming to stay the weekend with us.  So naturally, my husband wants to have things looking nice.  There's trash to burn, (we live in the country...don't judge) weeds to pull, grass to cut, flowers to water, metal to recycle, landscaping to finish, etc.  I'm certain that his mental "to do" list is a mile long and looks nothing like mine... "get the pool ready, sit by the pool, read a book."  Nope.  No rest for him until the work is done. (Which usually doesn't happen until 'dark-thirty'.) But to honor my husband as the hea...

Ok.  I admit it.  I thought I was doing fine.  I thought I could handle this with utmost grace and composure.  But now...I'm not so sure.  Graduation is just 9 days away.  Suddenly I feel a tightness in my throat and a weird pain in my heart (No, I'm not having a heart attack) that I hadn't experienced with the last five children I've watched grow up and graduate.  This time is different.  Very, very different. If you know me personally, you probably already understand why I'm feeling this way.  But for those of you who don't know, let me enlighten you.  My precious, ball-of-fire, amazingly talented, wild, opinionated, mouthy, smart, funny, lovable, hard-working, know-it-all, test-of-my-faith, son, Jacob is about to graduate!!  And this, my friends, is a BIG 'OL DEAL! It all began back in 2000 when he started kindergarten and the teacher insisted that he had ADHD.  All I knew is that I had a boy on my hands who freak...

Proverbs 4:23 is a serious warning about guarding your heart.  To get a feel for how important Solomon believed this was, you must start at verse 20 and read all the way through 27.  The 'heart' is not referring to the organ in your chest pumping blood throughout your body...it's the subconscious mind. Our being is made up of different parts, as referred to in the Bible:    1. the physical body - often referred to as our 'flesh'    2. the mind  - our conscious thoughts    3. the heart - our subconscious thoughts    4. the spirit - the Holy Spirit within us When God says to hide His words in our hearts - that means to dwell on them so much that they are tucked away in our subconscious mind, influencing everything we think, say or do.  That's the part of us that is influenced by the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the things we say to ourselves...that 'self-talk' that we play over and over in our head. How do...

Yesterday, as I was cutting the grass (as you'll find that I really do enjoy - just read my profile!), I had my headphones in my ears, and was listening to Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church out in California.  There's a cool app called One Place (can't remember who turned me on to it) that has a list of different ministries and you can listen to a large number of archived messages any time you wish.  What a great use of technology!  (You can get it too!) Anyway, Pastor Rick was preaching on having the courage to follow your calling.  I'm positive it was no mistake that I picked this message to listen to, since I had been praying in earnest for days, even weeks, about my calling...my purpose in life.  I eagerly listened to every word.  As God began to speak to my heart and show me the path I had been searching for, I couldn't wait to get started. Later that night, as I sat at my computer, creating the blog site, I was completely lost for a title...