The Little Purple Bike

Last week at church Pastor Paul taught about The Word Made Flesh.  He was teaching us that love is an action word, that we cannot just say we love Jesus we have to show that we love Jesus in the things we do; Jesus loved people and we need to love people as well!  During his sermon (you can watch it here if you would like: https://www.victory.com/watch/word-made-flesh) he used the story of the Good Samaritan to explain what really loving people looks like.  You know the story of Good Samaritan right?  If not here it is in Luke 10:25-37 (The Message Bible):

25Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"

26He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?"

27He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."

28"Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live."

29Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?"

30-32Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. 

33-35"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.' 

36"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?" 

37"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same."

 Pastor Paul shared a story about a young girl at the Tulsa Dream Center who was walking away from the toy giveaway with her mother.  Her mother was telling her the reason that they didn't have a bike for her was because she was too dark skinned and that is why they didn't give her a bike.  (My heart just broke, I immediately started to cry hearing the cruel words spoken to this innocent girl).  Pastor Paul said he had to intervene.  He walked up to the mom and the little girl and said, "Excuse me ma'am but your daughter is beautiful, her skin is just the right color and God loves her and you very much."  Turning to the little girl Pastor Paul told her, "In fact we do have a bike just for you."  Her excitement can only be imagined!  "YOU DO!", she said to Pastor Paul.  "Yes we do, that one right over there" and he pointed to a little purple bike.  "THE PURPLE ONE?", the little girl asked.  "Yes the purple one" replied Pastor Paul.  "PURPLE IS MY FAVORITE COLOR!" she exclaimed.  Right then, in that single, simple, beautiful moment I believe Pastor Paul was used by God to touch and change that little girl's life and hopefully her mother's life as well.

My heart has been touched by his message and this story all week.  In the hustle and bustle of life I find myself looking past people instead of looking at them to see if there is a need I can meet for them.  Pastor Paul said something I have heard before but it has resonated in my heart since he said it, "Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone."  So often we are kept from doing something because we feel we will have to do the same thing for everyone.  We don't bless one because the thought of having to bless everyone is so overwhelming.  But we miss out on the opportunity to be a blessing to one very important person and they miss the opportunity to be blessed by you or by me.  How sad to think of the missed opportunities we have all had to help, to stop and pray, to assist, to comfort, to simply make someone feel noticed.  So I am on alert for the one; the one person I can bless today, the one person I can love, the one person I can be a neighbor to, the one person I can love as I love myself.  Whether it is a little purple bike, holding the door open for someone, paying off their layaway (have you been hearing about those stories..so awesome!), or sharing a gift with someone, a meal, a prayer, my time, or encouragement; whatever it is I don't want to miss the opportunity to bless someone like the girl who got her little purple bike and the affirmation that God loves her just the way she is and so do other people!

Merry Christmas my friends!  And remember...Love God & Love People...that is what life is all about!

What Christmas Means to Me

This weekend in church as we sang Christmas carols and worshipped our Lord, I began to reflect on what Christmas really means to me.  I LOVE this time of year, I love the lights, the tree, the stockings, the gifts, the smell of scotch tape, the food, the fellowship, the merriment, the bell ringers at stores, the excitement of my kids, I love it all.  But most of all I love the fact that we are celebrating Jesus. 

"Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!"  As we sang this at church my eyes filled with tears which spilled down my cheeks.  What a privilege, what an honor, how exciting to be able to celebrate and adore the Lord of lords!  To think about all the responsibility placed on that little baby all those years ago in Bethlehem is astounding.  To think about Mary and Joseph not really grasping fully what they were apart of but knowing it was special nonetheless.  To think that when He entered the world that day, the entire world changed, our world changed.  To know that even as a baby, a toddler, a sweet boy, a teenager, a young man, a man fulfilling His purpose, He was thinking about you and thinking about me; about our lives, our redemption, our healing, our forgiveness, our purpose, our eternity.  We never escaped His vision, He was and still is ever fixed on us.

I feel sometimes I am like Mary and Joseph; I know I am a part of something spectacular, I know it has changed my life, given me purpose, healed me in all areas, given me peace, provided me joy, made me who I am but I still am unable to fully grasp all He is really capable of doing in my life.  Perhaps we are all like that; we know He is awesome, we know He is loving beyond compare, we know He is beginning and ending of all things but then when think of our own lives, our finite minds cannot truly grasp the sheer magnitude of His goodness applied to our everyday situations.  But it is; He is an intimate, relationship driven, personable Lord.  He wants our fellowship and to sit on the throne of our hearts.  Is there room for Him there?   Or have we filled our hearts up with other occupants, crowding Him out to the outer stables of our hearts?  Is He around our lives but not really IN our lives. 

Everyday we are given the chance, the opportunity to allow Him entrance into our lives.  In Revelations 3:20 it says, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends."  It is our choice to have Him a part of our lives or not, He is knocking...we just have to let Him in.  This is Christmas to me, letting Him in!  Answering the door to Him, sitting down with Him and having a meal together, talking together over good food, laughing at funny stories, spending time together.  Doesn't that sound like a beautiful Christmas celebration to you?  It does to me; it sounds like what we all want our Christmas' to be like and Jesus is wanting that Christmas experience with us each and every day.  As we wrap presents, catch flights, drive to grandparent's houses, cook turkeys, bake hams, and put together toys, let's remember to always open the door of our hearts to the gentle knocking of Him who we are celebrating to begin with. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday...I'm 36 years old today and I am so grateful for this wonderful life I have.  I don't believe I'm alone in having opportunities to work through frustrations and little petty annoyances but even those little things add up to make a beautiful life.

I just got back to work after having lunch with my dad, my step-mom, my mom, my husband, and my brother.  It was wonderful.  We celebrated together my birthday and told stories and laughed all together.  What a fun mix of people.  Tonight I am throwing myself a birthday party.  A ladies only event with some of favorite girls.  We are going to eat, play games, and fellowship together as we celebrate my special day.  I am super excited!!

Birthdays are a big deal.  We don't  have to make it a super lavish affair but I think birthdays should always be celebrated.  It is a time to be grateful for the life we have lived so far and to eagerly expect good things for the life left to live.  I never worry about growing older, I am thankful for each season as it comes and I relish experiencing all God is doing in my life right where I am at.  The incredible thing about serving God is that it never gets old.  It never gets stagnant if you put the effort, attention, and time into it that a relationship with the Creator of the universe deserves:)! 

So I relish the season I am in.  I try to learn what I need to learn in this season so I am prepared for the learning that is going to take place in the next one.  I try not to take for granted the blessing of right now while planning for future ahead of me.  I strive to listen to my kids, to make an eternal impact with them everyday in all their various situations.  I focus to learn from my husband, to prefer him above myself, to do my part to create the type of relationship He would be pleased with.  I work to be a blessing at my job, to answer the phone cheerfully, to keep my attitude right in tough situations, or just hectic ones, to facilitate peace, to bring joy, and to love the people God brings to my window everyday.  I cherish my family relationships they are critically important to me and I protect them vehemently.  I never want to be at strife with my family and although we seldom have issues, when they do come up I work hard to forgive quickly so that nothing comes between those relationships.  I love my friends, I have a small circle of friends outside my family and I truly love them and am grateful for them.  We all seem to accept each other where we are at and I find encouragement in their support of my growth as a person.

Thank you Lord for 36 years, thank you for every triumph, for every victory, for every healing, for every close call you protected me in, for every silent petition being heard and answered, for loving me, for saving me, for making my mess ups a message, for giving me blessings I don't deserve accept through you anyway.  Thank you for shaping me and making me more like who you want me to be everyday I let you do work in my life.  Thirty-six is going to be a great year, my best year yet, I thank God for it and for all the people He allows me to share it with, I am grateful.

My BFF's



The ladies...Lynn, Lisa, Me, Laurie, Cindi, Shana

This weekend we had our annual family ladies collectibles get together. We get together the first Saturday of December and having exchanged names, all the ladies on my mom's side of the family exchange gifts...things we collect for our Christmas decorating. This time of the year is so fun! We all look forward to it and have such a wonderful time together. We eat delicious food, exchange beautiful gifts, and fellowship together.

It is a wonderful gift to have family who are also your closest friends. Of course my husband is my best friend in the whole world but these women who I spent Saturday with are my best lady friends. Every girl needs girl friends and I only have a small circle of women who I consider my closest friends and most of them are my family. It is a blessing in life to know you have people who have a vested interest in your life regardless of what is going on because they love you because you are family. As I ponder the important things in life, the really important things, I can't think of one more important than family except my relationship with God. They are glue to my life helping me hold things together when things get loose. They are sure footing when everything else gets unstable. They are comic relief, safe places to tell secrets, constant prayer partners, truth tellers, encouragers, honest challengers...they are friends in the truest sense of the word.

Abby & Kate

Laurie (my mom) and Lynn (my aunt) are sisters and daughters of Roger and Lucy (my grandparents); with the home going of Lucy, they are the matriarchs of our family. Aunt Lynn has two girls, Shana and Lisa. My mom...has me:) and my uncle Larry gave us Cindi. We even have all our daughters, nieces, granddaughters, and cousins involved. I have Lauren and Abby, Lisa has Kate, and my brother gave us Madilyn and Emma. In all 3 generations are represented and before my grandma went home to the Lord, we had 4. How often does this happen I wonder as I sit in a room with some of my most favorite people in the world? How often do people set apart time with their family, focus on their family, make traditions that include generations? I hope it happens often, I hope more people than not get to experience the beauty of being in comfortable peace with family who are also your best friends.

But I don't think it happens nearly as often as it could. So many families are apart, either by physical distance or by emotional distance. So many are hurt and out of that hurt they hurt others. So many are broken, wounded, damaged, grieving, lost, or too busy. The attack on family is intense and has been for so long that the institution of family itself has been forced to reframe itself. Now books and TV movies are sold to show what the modern family looks like; one mommy or one daddy, two mommies or two daddies, step-moms, and step-dads, grandparents who are mommy and daddy, or foster parents, or adoptive parents, or aunts, or uncles, or older siblings, the list goes on and on. And while every single one of us deserves the white picket fence with a dog in the yard, dinner on the table, and homework done in the den...it just doesn't happen for everyone...for nearly anyone. So we hold on to the family system we have, we make it work with one mommy or one daddy, or however it looks and we make it work. And while we may deserve better, what we have can be incredible too and with a whole lot of work, prayer, and love what is built is a beautiful family.

Silly Cousins...Lisa, Cindi, Leanna, Shana

Lisa, Cindi, Leanna, Shana

In my family we don't have the perfect family stories either, we have all walked through hard things, fought for our families, some have lost the fight and we have divorce and heartaches in our pasts. We have hurts, redemptions, restorations, healings, and hard fought battles represented in our family. We have married folks, single folks, aunts, uncles, cousins, second & third cousins, great aunts, great uncles, grandparents, kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, mentors, confidants, we have it all. And in all the jumble of people that God has lovingly placed together in this family we have every type of personality represented, every opportunity to forgive, every reason to get upset, but we work hard to keep peace, to forgive, to not be offended, to love each other with extraordinary love. As I sat at Lisa's house the first Saturday of December in 2011 I realized again how incredibly blessed I really am...my favorite people are my family, they are my dearest friends, the people I want to spend my time with, and invest into. I am equally blessed to have friendships outside my family but these women are my family, my best friends. How exceedingly blessed am I to be apart of this family!




Abby and Cindi



Lisa and Kate & Leanna and Abby



Lynn and Laurie

Me and my sweet Abby

Me and my sweet girls: Abby and Lauren

Me and my nieces: Madilyn and Emma



Me and my mom, Laurie

Me and my mom



My mom and my girls

My mom and my nieces

Abby and Lauren

All the little girls: Kate, Abby, Emma & Madilyn

3rd Generation: Abby, Madilyn, Lauren, Emma & Kate

Lynn, Lisa and Kate

Shana, Lynn & Lisa

Kate and Shana

Living An Attitude of Gratitude

We all have much to be grateful for in our lives. Even those with hardships can be grateful in the midst of the storm if we choose to be so.

This weekend at church Pastor Paul Daugherty taught on letting Heaven Invade Our Praise. He had several amazing thoughts on this subject and I have reflected on what he taught throughout the weekend and throughout this morning.

To me, allowing God to invade my praise is always remembering I don't know where the person I am looking at is coming from: is her marriage falling apart, has he just lost his job, did she just get an argument with her parents, is he planning to run away, does she have a huge family party she is planning and she is running late, is he headed to an interview, is she packing for college, does she have 30 minutes before the baby wakes up and she is rushing to get home? We all are in different parts of our days when we encounter each other at the bank, in the grocery store aisle, at a stop light, or ordering lunch. What I am choosing to do each day is to remember that what you are going through is just as important as what I am going through and I determine in that moment to make what you are going through better, even if only for a minute. This is my gratitude for all He is in my life changing my attitude.

You know please and thank you are still important words. I work in a high school office and this year I have been working with the students who come to my office to sign in, sign out, call a parent, use a pencil, drop off a note, make a copy, etc. to use pleases and thank yous. You would be amazed how many times they don't, or maybe you wouldn't be surprised! I don't do what they need until they ask me nicely...isn't this something we all learned in Kindergarten but how quickly we all forget the person on the other end of what we have to do in that moment. They want the pencil, the copy, the phone call, the sign out sheet, they forget I am the one attached to making that happen for them and they skip over being polite to get what they need. I am determined NOT to do that in my life. I want to say please and thank you every time, even the times when they don't "deserve" it because that is clearly when they need it most. I have started making eye contact when I say thank you, so the person handing me my receipt, or my drink, or my groceries knows I recognize them and I am thankful for what they have done.

This time of the year is so magical. It is full of people being their best, giving their best but everyday is our opportunity to live a life full of gratitude for all we are blessed with. Even in the storms we are to praise God, in Psalms 34:1 (NLT) it says, " I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises." All times is all times, there isn't a day off, a situation that exempts us from praising Him and from that gratitude of what He has done, is doing, and is going to do from impacting all areas of our lives.

What Are You Pursuing?

So I went back to school a little over a year ago and it has been a challenge, a joy, a time consuming venture. I am so glad I have gone back but as I stayed up late last night finishing I was wondering if it is worth the lack of sleep and time away from my family, etc. The truth is...it is worth it.

I have known for a long time what I wanted to be when I grew up but I just haven't pursued it until now. I'm sure you can relate with life creeping in and squeezing out the things you know you should be doing. It isn't that what you are doing isn't fulfilling or wonderful or what you should be doing either it is just that it isn't what you know you could do to your fullest. There isn't anything better to me than being a mom to my daughters and a wife to my husband; it is the richest blessing of my life. But I don't think those will be diminished by my pursuing what I have wanted to do since I was a junior in high school. In fact it could make me better at those things. Living with unfulfilled expectations is a taxing experience on any person; resigning yourself to not reaching a goal or dream can be defeating. So even though the extra work and time is a huge commitment it is a step in making me more of who I believe God has created me to be. This can only be an enhancement to what I am currently doing, right? Right.

My husband and girls have been incredibly supportive as has my extended family and friends. I couldn't have continued had I not had their support. I am grateful for the opportunity to pursue this dream of mine; God is so good. In the Word we have a promise and I believe His Word is true and that anytime we obey Him and pursue what He has called us to do there is a grace for the process and blessing in the outcome. In Ephesians 3:20 (AMP), it says, "Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]". We all have to potential to be more than we are today, to pursue Him more, and to be transformed by obeying what He leads us to do.

What are you pursuing in your life? Is it a degree, a promotion, a healthier lifestyle, a better relationship with your family, with God? Whatever it is if it is you can do it if it is in obedience to what God has for your life. Don't give up! Don't quit!! Like Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty used to say, "Finish STRONG!"

I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet...

So we have been having earthquakes in Tulsa this week. Last night we had our 3rd one and it was earlier in the evening so Lauren my 14 year old felt it too. These occurrences are a little exciting and very strange. I can't wrap my brain around how people in other areas just get used to these earth tremors and to their dishes shimmying all over the place. But people do, just like we are used to tornado watches and warnings, or others are used to hurricanes, each part of the world respectively gets used to what the earth brings our way.

It did get me to thinking how fear can creep into our lives without us really knowing it. I was talking to a friend who has been set free from debilitating fear and her family was concerned these earthquakes would cause her to be fearful again. However she is fine and is resting in God's peace. How easily fear can come against us and how easily we allow it to take hold in our lives. It takes more effort to fight fear with faith then to succumb to being scared. Faith says that Jesus has our lives in His control and to rest in the fact that we are okay despite.

I admit I was pretty freaked out the first time I felt an earthquake rock my home while my babies slept in their beds. I was frantically thinking about what to do and because I didn't know what to do I didn't do anything but wake my husband up:)! As I stood smack dab in the middle of my living room, with my sleepy eyed husband, and rather excited dog, I felt fear try to sneak into my mind. But as quickly as the fear came it went as His peace that passes all understanding encompassed my life and my situation. Awww...thank you for peace Lord.

So while these shimmies and shakes are making big news in Tulsa, I find myself grateful for knowing my life is set on the Rock and that no matter what happens He is big enough to love and protect me and my family.