such a time as this!

I'll be honest. I've been a bit disheartened by our nation's political state. I wasn't pumped about voting for McCain, though I was set on my choice as the candidate that was lined up more closely to my faith and political convictions... but now :) Wow. I'm pumped to vote for the ticket that includes Governor Sarah Palin.



Read my friend Rachel's blog. (link on the right) The following was my friend Natalie's comment:

"Hi Rachel, I just got chills reading your latest post. I was talking to God last night about Sarah Palin who I am excited about but at the same time, I have conflicting feelings about women in places of authority. As I prayed I clearly heard, "I have chosen her for such a time as this". Wow. Let us be in prayer for her and what the Lord has in store for her!"
August 31, 2008 2:30 PM


And as I know the faith of my friend Natalie and know the truth of my God's words, I am inspired and reminded that He is faithful, continually faithful. Sarah - name meaning princess, for such a time as this, will be in my prayers daily. Let us NOT become so consumed in our daily ongoings that we fail to pray for our nation as a whole. I'm guilty of doing exactly that. I'm also excited at the timing lining up with Beth Moore's latest study, Esther.

I don't doubt for one moment that our Lord didn't orchestrate this precisely.

Join me in praying and getting excited for our nation! Check out more on Governor Palin: http://gov.state.ak.us/index.html
Also, a unbiased biography at Wikipedia.
And her home church's website.

birthday love

Today was my birthday. I really like this day. I smile with satisfaction and thankfulness thinking on all that I have, how I've been carried and rescued and driven and called and blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. I feel like an heir today. I know my God is my King and I'm an heir. It's scary to say that out loud sometimes, to claim it.

• I slept until 9:30 this morning, and didn't feel one ounce of guilt. That's just pure goodness in Mommy/teacher world.
• Mom delivered my car back to me. Jimmy (step-dad) had gotten the battery replaced for me. Oh, the joys of not talking to the car people, all by myself.
• I spent the morning with my dear friend, fellow coach, mentor... gift of a friend (did I say that yet?), Jennifer. We did a necessary cheerleading outing, and it was good. We ate lunch and it was really good. She gave me a precious present and I felt super grateful. Wow, God.
• My phone stopped working last night. I could hear, but people couldn't hear me. Sort of comical. I went to Mom's to borrow her cell, so that I could make arrangements to get mine fixed and check in on my kiddos. I got to lick the bowl from the homemade chocolate icing for my cake. We'll be devouring that tomorrow when my brother comes to town.
• Phone was fixed. Man said my warranty would have run out on Monday. God's good. Free new phone is on the way.
• I had dinner at McDonald's with Belle, Christian and "Grandma & Grandpa," John's parents. That was really good. How far God's brought us.
• Got a phone call from a friend wishing me happy birthday. The best part was her exciting news of God's faithfulness and better-than-we-know-to-ask-for-goodness.
• Drove back home listening to my hilarious children. Belle: "Where are we anyways?" Christian: "Of course, McBee!" Belle: "What? We're still in that sleepy ole town?" shaking my head - oh those two. We were driving - we were not in McBee, and they are just funny.
• Listening to the same two "crazies" be super precious children of our God, singing "Savior He can move the mountains..." only I think Christian says "Safer, He can move the mountains..." I think there's some truth in there somewhere.
• Getting home, after a long yet sweet day, and having Belle lead me down the hall to her room. I opened my eyes to find a present wrapped with lots of tape, in typing paper, decorated by crayon with purple hearts. Inside, a painting she had done. And then her her arms around me, giving me a huge hug and smoocheroo, saying, "There's nothing like a big hug and lots of kisses on your birthday!" You're right Belle. nothing like it

Lord, I've messed up a whole heap of a lot in these 27 years of life, and You've presented yourself faithful. The author of creation, my King, the giver of sooo many gifts. I'll take it. I'll take whatever You have in store tomorrow. And with Your all-sufficient grace, humbly yet desperately I'll attempt to offer up something worthy of being called glory - Your glory, and my only chance of tasting what that means.

how good it is to be at His church!

I'm going to tell you what! I needed this morning. I needed to praise my Jesus and be blessed in the process. I needed a billion good words and received them. I needed to see some sweet friends that love and boy, I feel blessed by my sweet Lord for my precious church and all that it is. Listen, I know I could go deeper here, theologically speaking about the church... but you know, there are some days where you go and you come home and think, "wow. that was good." Simple as that. Thank you Lord! I can do this thing, because You are who You say You are.
Friends out there, I'm praising the Lord for you! Let's do this thing.
I hope within your week, perspective and wisdom shine bright. I'm praying for both!!!

"My ideas are always great ideas"

first off - I'm quoting something I giggled over that was spoken to my heart via the Lord.

A truck just drove out of my driveway, hauling my little-turned-big girl's kitchen set. You know the type, plastic and filled with more plastic foods, plates, the phone & coffee pot. It's gone. Gone in a flash. Belle came to me in her way too mature for her age, fashion, and said, "Mommy, I don't want the kitchen thing in my room anymore. I think we should give it away. I mean, I never play with it. Can we do it this weekend?" She relayed the info. over a month ago. My response was, "Are you sure??? You're not going to miss it???" She said, "I mean, I'm really too old for it now."
oh.
My baby is going into grade school this year - yikes. I love it. I love how she's growing, and she was right. Time for the little tykes or fisher price thingy to make room. She wanted her art table/writing area moved into her room. And who could blame her?
So... the thought of finding the time/energy/room in my Jeep, to load up the kitchen stuff and ship it to the local thrift store - well it remained an exhausting thought. The kids are with the grands today, so I thought, "Okay, I'll tackle this and bless my little girl with a surprise." As I packed up the plastic accessories, I was having a mental conversation with the Lord about quite a different and much more noteworthy issue, when the idea popped into my head: put the thing by the road! duh. Ooo, good idea. I dragged the bulky item, through the den, across the porch, scraped it down the driveway, and placed it purposefully aside the road. I went inside, scrawled a sign, which stated the obvious: "FREE!"; taped it, and returned inside to begin rearranging Belle's room. I'm going to tell you what, not 2 minutes passed before I heard a "beep beep" in my driveway. Outside was a sweet couple in a truck that asked if I was giving it away (perhaps the sign wasn't obvious enough - hehe). "Oh yes," I say and grabbed the bag of plastic goods to accompany the toy and they told me about the little granddaughter they had that was going to love it. Precious.
I went inside and said, "what a good idea." The whole process took like 5 mins and no sweat. All good things come from the Lord, so He's got all the credit. How fun. But here's what I'm learning a bit about. Unfortunately, I've been retaking this "class in faith."
Our God consistantly says, ASK ME.
(including myself) as a nation will ask our "besties" (0h I love speaking my cheerleader's language), hubbies, if we've got 'em; we'll ask Dr. Phil or somebody's blog, or we'll ask US Weekly or if we're intellectual, we'll ask Newsweek... or Fox News, or one of my personal faves - the mirror.

From Robert Whitlow's The Trial (good good fiction):
end of conversation, w/ two lawyers discussing God's hand in a major decision one character made... Don't skip it
"Mac sat back in his chair. "Interesting. Do you know the problem I have with what you've told me?"
"That it's too subjective."
"Right."
"That I could find a Bible verse to support any decision or plan that suited my fancy," David said.
Mac smiled. "Counselor, you're doing a good job anticipating the judge's response to your position."
"I can't deny the subjective componnent of receiving direction from God. However, even though we like to think we're completely rational, reason-oriented creatures, a lot of what we think and do is not based on objective assessment of facts and data. I've never been in love, but I don't expect it's a completely rational expreience."
Mac stared past David's shoulder at the bookcase behind him. "I have. It isn't."
"And I've been told there are levels of communication that only a man and woman who love each other can experience. It's the same between a Christian and Jesus. My personal relationship with the Lord is the doorway to communication with him."
"Every woman on the jury is eating out of your hand."
"Thanks," David said with a grin. "This communication thing involves risk, but I've decided to take my chances..."

I was reading this in Isaiah (7:9-12). King Ahaz, was stubborn - oh how similar are my ways.
"If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, "Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test."

MANY time I've heard, "stand firm in your faith," and thought in broad, sweeping terms, of "do not reject the fundamentals of what I believe." You know, do not reject my Lord completely and/or generally, continue to believe that He equals salvation. But one of the verses that I eluded to in a previous post from Habakkuk, reminded me on the precision of that truth and what that looks like on a Saturday in the life of me or you. In 2:4, the LORD says, "the righteous will live by his faithfulness." Full of faith. Full of assurance in the thing unseen and the promises sent via the heart. That is creditted as righteousness. Paul quotes this passage, and if he brought it up more than once, then let's do the same.
You are the Lord's babygirl. He LOVES you. HE wants you to seek Him. Let's not be like Ahaz, and say, "Nah. not about this." If you're seeking, full of faith, He says Himself that that equals righteousness. (undue, but righteousness nonetheless).
The Lord is full of some huge ideas about your marriage, your job, your children, ... that big plastic toy you don't want to have to take to the thrift store (just kidding - only sort of). Whatcha waitin for - ASK.

the handcuffs are out

2 of the 3 Florence-trip "to-dos" are off the list. 1) I needed to get new bags for my vacuum cleaner. (love my vacuum by the way - hate the fact that I will need to forever order bags online or travel 39 miles to fetch them) 2) I wanted to look for an awesome bathing suit which would enable me to focus on water-fun at Carowinds rather than the fact that my too small suit was riding up, oh and because this day of family amusement is going to cost the ole budget some money money, I wanted to find one for like $12 - which in my brain means less than $20. 3) I also wanted to go to Lifeway to get a new Bible study. To get to these objectives, one living in Cheraw, SC must get in one's car and use up a bunch of gas to get to Florence, which has things like a mall and a Lifeway, oh and find a place for my children, because I've tried on bathing suits with them before, and it's h-e-double l.

My mom had the kids for 2 & 1/2 hours... the clock was ticking.

So... to shorten up this tale in less than 30 mins- I find a top and bottom which don't transform me but fit the "I'm the mom of these two kids - I'm not perfect, but I'm pleasant and haven't given up on attempting to look decent - mold," ...by now, I'm in Sears, not because that's where one typically goes for a swimwear, but because it houses appliances like my vacuum and their bags - of course.

Still holding my tankini-top and skirt-like bottom, I get directions to the vacuums, and procede to look for the Electrolux Infinity bags. I cannot find any - Hoover, yes, Kenmore, yes, Electrolux, NO... uh - I pondered if it would break if I forced another brand bag into my lovely machine. Lady in black, with sears lanyard, called some dude over the intercom to help me. And 19-21 yr-old baby-faced "young man" comes over to help me. Okay. So, he finds my bags located oddly on another aisle altogether and in distinctly different packaging than ALLLLL the other choices I had read through. I am stoked. Cause, he just saved my day. and 1/3 of the reason for my trip. I beam and say, "awesome, can you ring all of this up for me?" And, of course, hand over my mommy suit top and bottom and the box of bags. gol (giggling out loud) He holds the bottoms as if I'd just handed him my dirty underwear and says "uhhhhh - I guess so." "Great," I say. He informs me that I'll have to get the ink tag thingy removed elsewhere. "Fine", I say. "That's on my way out." So. Super embarrassed boy totals my three items up, and I dig for my wallet. My purse is large. It takes a minute. I begin to pull out my contents because I KNOW it's in my purse and I drove an hour to arrive here. (I tell him that "I KNOW it's in here.") I take out the makeup pouch and planner and handcuffs....

HANDCUFFS!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA.... LOL OH my word!

I turn pink and die laughing and tell them that they are my son's toy. But I know he doesn't really believe me, and I conclude that the wallet is in my car. His face is bright red and ole babyface is trying not to laugh too obviously.

We both laugh my way out of Sears. Handcuffs! Seriously. oh.

I gave my items to girl with braces and black skinny jeans behind another customer service station and she gets confused by my requesting she hold my items while I retrieve my wallet from the car.

Well friends, :) I ran out of time for Lifeway.

But i shall be vacuuming shortly! (and perhaps if I get really really lucky, we'll have a decent shot of the fam at Carowinds with new suit included.)

2 out of 3 ain't too shabby

Raise your hand if you're reading from Habakkuk!

hehehe...usually I would say in my brain, "is that a book of the Bible??? -maybe. wait, no, I think that's the Hindu book, no no no silly that's the... uh." Seriously.
So, here's the deal.
I haven't the time to blog. But! when I do, I would love to mention some crazy wonderful things, I've learned from that book in the Bible. Many of you guys are likely way beyond the truths that just slapped me in the head this week.

And: I'm moving. Schools, that is. I have plucked up all of my belongings from McBee and Chesterfield and am plopping them at Long Middle School. That's right, I am now among the ranks of the Middle School teachers. I think this adventure will supply some humorous anecdotes at the very least.

And: I've concluded that there is nothing good on my 13 channels of television on a Monday evening. Well, except for American Gladiator but we missed that one tonight.

And now... for the question! What would your gladiator name be if you became one?
Mine would NOT be Helga. geez. Have you seen her????

You guys that write, keep on writing, cause, while, I'm not blogging, I am reading and am grateful for your words.
Love you guys!