Lindenville Cafe

Have you noticed anything new around here? I am now a member of the Lindenville Cafe! This is a webring of blog sites by other Christian writers. The idea is that if you like my site, you may also like theirs. We have people from around the globe, all eager to share with you their thoughts and musings on life and God, through prose, poetry and more.

You may be wondering, "What's a webring?" Well, I found out just after being invited to join this one. :) A webring is a collection of similar sites connected. If you look at the lower right margin, you will now find a box holding a coffee cup and some links: list, prev, next. These links will help you travel through the ring. Currently, the Cafe has 11 sites. You can start here (or on any of the member sites) and by clicking "next" or "prev" can get to the next or previous sites in the ring. If you keep clicking, you will eventually circle back around to here. If you click "list" you will be taken to a directory where you'll see all the member sites and brief descriptions of their content or purpose.

Enjoy your ring surfing! Let me know what you think.

Imitators?

Do you ever wonder if God looks at our attempts of piety only to think: ‘Where did they get that?!” Ephesians 5:1 says: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children …” (NIV) He expects us to reflect His nature, His values, His behaviors and morals. We are to mirror His character. Children are natural imitators, but what about us? Are we reflecting our Father accurately?

Many have called Isabel my “mini me”. She has my sandy-blonde hair, my full lips and my pointy chin. We’re not sure where she got those curls or the brilliant blue eyes, but, for the most part, she is my clone. She possesses more than a few of my mannerisms.

The three of us – Ellie, Zach and I – were outside today. Zachary was sitting in Ellie’s big, old, plastic car. I was relaxing; reading a book. Isabel was trying to convince Zach to get out of the car so she could have it. As I listened, I heard nothing more than an echo of myself. “Zach, honey, you play with this instead?” A little later she leaned over right at his eye-level, “Me no like that, Zach. No, no. You don’t do that.” Her tone was identical to mine.

Sometimes, though, when she does something unusual, I wonder: “Is this a reflection of me, too?” Her afternoon snack one day consisted of a bowl of watermelon and cantaloupe. As I worked on cleaning the kitchen, Ellie found a bowl of half-eaten chocolate Chex Mix. She carefully sprinkled it over all her fruit, then exclaimed: “Ta-da! Mama, look!”

“Oh, is this your new recipe? Very nice.”

“Me call it ‘messy house’. You like it?”

Where did she get that? Is it a reflection of my creative culinary experiments or my dreadful housekeeping skills? No matter. The real question is: what does God think when He watches me? Am I portraying His character in a way that makes Him proud? Or is He wondering where did I get that?

The Apostle Paul gives us a ton of guidelines for righteous living. He lists several specific behaviors and temptations to avoid right here in Ephesians. Go back a bit. The whole section from 4:17 through the end of the book lists item after item. These are the things NOT to do. To sum up all that we must DO, Paul gives us these two verses:

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” -- Ephesians 5:1-2, NIV

The key to accurately imitating God is to “live a life of love”. If we do that effectively and completely, we will naturally match His character. In that one command we will find unity, peace, wisdom, compassion, charity … all that we need.

So, how are we doing? Does your life radiate God’s love? Are you reflecting all that He is? I know I fall far short, but I’m working on it. Let’s not be sad portrayals of our King. Rather, let us strive to reflect Him with precise clarity. May others see Him in us – in our mannerisms, our tone, our lives, our love.

He's not done with us.

We recently drove to North Carolina to celebrate our nephew’s first birthday. About forty minutes into the trip home, Zachary started fussing. I turned around to face the backseat. “What’s wrong, Zach?”

He threw up his arms in the sign for ‘finished’ and yelled, “Done!” Zachary had had enough and he wanted us to know so. Unfortunately, we still had ten hours to go before reaching home.

This trip was our third long venture since the end of May. Since getting our minivan, we’ve gone to Virginia Beach, Indiana and now North Carolina. In a couple weeks we will be embarking on yet another. This time to Kentucky and Tennessee.

Many have called us ‘brave’ traveling so far with such young tots. At thirteen and thirty-one months, our kids could spell disaster. They’re actually very good. They entertain themselves with books and games; toys and snacks. Of course, the dvd player helps significantly after the first few hours of novelty wear off. And, of course, there are the never-ending questions … “Are we there yet?” “We’re getting closer – right?” “Are we catching Grandma?” “Daddy, where we going? You driving?” “Mama’s turn drive yet?” It’s not always easy, but we survive.

The reason for all these trips does not stem from masochistic natures. Nor is it because we love spending hours upon hours trapped in the car. We do it because we must. With family in seven states, travel is a necessity. We tried flying – with disastrous results. So we drive pretty much everywhere.

Life is filled with things that we must do. We don’t always have a choice. There are many times I find myself throwing up my arms like Zachary. “I’m done!” I don’t want to deal anymore. I’m tired and certainly tired of the ‘have-to’s. Do you ever feel that way? Sure, you do. Everybody does. So, how do we get through it? The author of Hebrews tells us.

“…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” – Hebrews 12: 1-3

Even when we are “done”, we still have not faced even a portion of what Christ went through to grant us salvation. I’m not saying life is easy. It’s not! But it could be so much worse.

But don’t just remember the suffering of Christ. Remember, too, His power, His goodness and His love. All of these are at your disposal, if you have placed your faith in Him. If we keep our eyes on Him, we will not grow weary because we will constantly be facing His strength. We will be looking into the eyes of our Savior, recognizing all that He has done and all that He continues to do for, in and through us. We will not be saying “I’m done!” Instead we will say “Give me more!”

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” -- Hebrews 10:35-36

God has so much He wants to give us. It doesn’t stop at salvation. He wants to give us wisdom and strength, joy and faith and peace and love. He wants to give us life abundant. Life like we have never known. We will miss it all when we throw up our hands.

Fix your eyes on Jesus, my friend. Don’t just glance at Him. Fix your eyes! Get them focused so that you may see Him in all His wonder and glory. Don’t let them move away from His face. I want you to be blessed. I want you to receive all that He has promised! Get your eyes stuck and persevere. Run with me! God's not done with us yet.

Blow away your whine.

Isabel is a two-year-old. She is a girl. She is a human who, by biblical definition, possesses a sinful nature. All of these are reasons for the whine.

This house is filled with whine. Morning, noon and night Isabel can find a cause for whine. Either Zachary is touching her toys or eating her food. She doesn’t want to wear pink today (but will insist on it tomorrow) and detests the idea of a bath. She wants to watch TV or take a walk or anything other than what I have asked her to do. Yes, life with kids seems to be a daily battle of the whine.

Did you ever watch “Dharma & Greg”? I loved that show. When Rick and I were first married, we were frequently described as Dharma and Greg. Back then I was more hippie than preppy, and Rick was more structured than spontaneous. Over the years we’ve rubbed off on one another a bit. I’m still the free-spirit and he is still my practical discipline, but we’re not the extremes we once were.

One episode covered Dharma’s karmic birthday. Her family believed that every seven years the body regenerated itself and therefore required soul renewal. They celebrated, among other things, by confessing wrongs to those offended then putting it all in a bubble and blowing it away. This allegedly allowed them to start afresh without hindering their new cells with any baggage from the past. While completely heretical, the portrayal of it was quite funny. Void of all the hindu influences streaking Dharma’s story, there is something therapeutic about the process.

I’ve used this symbolism occasionally in reference to forgiveness. When I hold onto something, struggling to forgive and forget, I put it in a bubble and blow it away. Simply taking a deep breath can do wonders. Even for whining. But how do you teach a toddler to take a deep breath? I tried this morning.

We were under attack again. Turning off the TV didn’t help. Eye contact seemed to make it worse. The whole this-is-not-an-effective-way-to-get-what-you-want-speech didn’t work either. “Isabel, put your arms way up in the air. Way up high! Okay, now blow the whine away … Ah Whoooooooooooo!”

Like magic, the whine was gone. My daughter could once again talk like a normal person! As a bonus, Zach thought it was funny. It’s a win-win technique. At least for the moment. We’ll see if it works again tomorrow.

I am going to sing.

Few will deny that being a stay-at-home parent is a full-time job. Those who do, have never tried it. Sometimes I wonder why I ever try to do anything “productive” with two little ones. Oh, I’ve got the typical chores: grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning and all that. I am talking about the other stuff; bits of this and that above and beyond the normal every day tasks. These are the things that don’t necessarily have anything to do with home and family. They are also the things that seldom, if ever, get done with toddlers under foot.

This week I undertook one such adventure: becoming an eBay seller. I’ve been on eBay hundreds of times as buyer and a browser, but this week marked my first time as a seller. The process to get there was detailed. I had to trip through several steps of identification, payment verification and authenticity. Then came the joyful task of setting up my ad: figuring out how to post the pictures, write my sales pitch, researching prices and proper shipping charges … It went on and on. Had I tried to complete this venture during naptime, it probably would have taken me fifteen minutes. But I didn’t do that. Hindsight is a wonderful instrument of torture.

No, I decided to tackle this feat while my kids were awake. I juggled sippy cups, hungry tummies, stolen toys, “Mama, color with me!”, sibling rivalry, constant interruptions, “Can I help?”, boo-boos and a two-year-old trying to fit into the size-6-month butterfly costume I was presently trying to post for auction. In other words, it took me over an hour to complete. Toward the end of this frustrating journey I yelled out (yes, sometimes I yell …): “I am going INSANE!!”

Isabel quickly responded: “Mama, you singing? What you singing?”

I didn’t bother explaining to her the difference between “to sing” and “insane”. Instead, I took a deep breath and gave her a kiss. “Yes, honey. Let’s go upstairs and find something to sing.”

The rest of the day an old Petra song kept repeating in my head.

“I will celebrate; sing unto the Lord. I will sing to Him a new song.” *

I know it’s old – relatively. It’s from 1989. But I just couldn’t get it out of my head. It was as if God was telling me to change my song.

No, I wasn’t singing. Instead I was complaining. I was doing the exact opposite of singing.

“Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God.” -- Philippians 2:14 (NIV)

Really? Do EVERYTHING without complaining or arguing? It is a tough charge, isn’t it? Yet this is the command God has given us. Difficult or not, we need to do it.

Since this little episode – another “Ellie-story”, as my mother calls them – I’ve had a new tactic. Perhaps it will help you, too. Whenever negative thoughts creep in; whenever I get the urge to complain, I sing.

How many songs do we know? Millions! One will always come to mind. It doesn’t really matter what I sing. It can be the Beatles, Dixie Chicks or Jeremy Camp. Most often it is VeggieTales or Blues Clues, but it still works. It’s pretty hard to sing and continue being miserable. Snow White was right: a simple whistle can make life seem less like work. I can’t whistle, but I can sing! The effect is the same.

An added bonus: singing choruses and hymns can actually help with Scripture memorization! The more Scripture we commit to memory, the better equipped we will be for whatever comes our way. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, instead of complaining when faced with a challenge, we could spout off a dozen verses to combat the exact situation before us? It might just be something to sing about.

* Song lyrics by Carol Duvall, c. 1989.

So Literal

My mother always taught us to "say what you mean, and mean what you say." It was a family mantra. One I have repeated many times over throughout my life. Apparently, though, I've not been living up to this standard well.

Isabel was being pokey, as most two-year-olds are. Getting impatient, I told her to "hop to it!" She immediately started jumping around the room singing "Hop! Hop! Hop!" After rolling my eyes, I said, "Knock it off. We need to go!" She obeyed by hopping over to the TV and knocking on the screen.

A little later, she and I were cooking: Chicken Curry Salad -- one of Isabel's favorites. While I chopped the celery and onions, her job was to tear the cooked chicken into small pieces. She was doing great, but more went into her mouth than into the bowl. I laughed and told her, "Ellie, you gotta stop eating all the chicken!" Before I could catch her, she spit all of her half-chewed food into the bowl. Hooray for first-time obedience! Anyone want pasta for dinner?

So now I am very cautious of what and how I say things. Sometimes what should be clear is not quite so. My mother was right: we need to say what we mean and mean what we say. Otherwise confusion abounds and frustration grows. Yet another stimulus to give thanks God is so literal with us.

Someone recently told me that he doesn't "hold God to literalism often." How sad! Of all the books ever written, of all the words ever spoken, the Bible is undeniably the most important. To believe that we cannot accurately depict the truths written there is a tragedy!

God is a literal god. He is true to His word. Yes, Scripture contains parables and poetry. In those cases, we must interpret passages as poetry and parables. (Solomon's lover did not really have a goblet for a navel.) But there is no reason to over-think things. If God says He created the world in six days, He created the world in six days. If He says Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, you better believe He rose on the third day. If God tells us through His holy Word that Jesus death covered the price for all our sins and we can be adopted into God's family by grace through faith, it is true! Every word He speaks is true. He says what He means and means what He says. How wonderful! No guessing required. We don't need a special degree to understand His love. We just need to read, listen and obey. So, hop to it! :)

Ingratitude

I can’t remember the last time we slept through the night. An actual eight hours of sleep. I would prefer more, but would settle for that. In fact, I would be happy to get six straight hours! Last night we were able to catch maybe four, which is more than the average.

Zachary did sleep through the night once upon a time, but with his eczema and allergies, it just isn’t happening anymore. We’ve drugged him, slathered him with lotions, regulated his mealtimes and tried to let him cry it out. We’ve limited his naptimes and switched to 100% cotton clothes and jammies. We’ve got blackout curtains hung and both a humidifier and air purifier constantly running in his room. Even with all this, we are up at least four or five times every night to whisper in his ear, rock, cuddle and re-medicate.

Around 1AM this morning we lay in bed wide awake, once again. Through frustration I said something about not knowing how to pray any harder. I didn’t understand why God wasn’t answering our prayers; why Zachary still, at 13 months old, was not sleeping through the night.

Rick lovingly reminded me of a recent sermon on thankfulness. The speaker taught how we become accustomed to our blessings and stop thanking God for them. We are naturally discontented and should always remember how good God is to us; giving thanks for even the smallest blessings of everyday life. “Zachary’s condition is not life-threatening. We can praise God it isn’t worse. We can thank Him for our house and the strength He gives us to continue. We can thank Him for the doctors who are helping …”

Through tears I barked back: “I don’t want to be thankful!! I want sleep! I want to spend more time with you than I do sleeping on the couch with our son.”

There it is. Once again my sinful nature slaps me the face. I hate it when I literally hear this blackened heart screaming my true thoughts. Too often I convince myself those evil instincts aren’t there. As long as they don’t come out, I don’t need to deal with them – right? Wrong.

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” – Hebrews 4:12-13

God already knows what is in my heart. Once again I must crawl before His throne begging forgiveness. I must humbly ask Him to change my heart; to give me a position of constant gratitude. The smallest thing that He has given me is still more than I deserve. How dare I complain about a lack of sleep? I have so much more! And for all of those things – every one! – I must give thanks.

“Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.” -- Hebrews 4:16

Lord God, this is my time of need. I praise you for your mercy! I thank you for your goodness. Please help me to find your grace and help ...

It's official!

I am now officially published! Check out this month's issue of FaithWriters Magazine to see my article. I am so excited!! May God truly be exalted through my writing. My hope and prayer is to be a tool in His hands; that others He will use me to draw others unto Himself in a personal and life-changing fashion.