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28 years

Ron and I were married 28 years ago 12/31.

28 years. They have, with rare exception, been very good years. I could gush, but I won't.

They have not been perfect years. We are after all both human, but nonetheless, they have been very good years.

We met at church in early October, and I knew almost immediately that if he asked I'd marry him. But would he ask? He was twelve years older than I was. He was educated - Not only with a college degree (something I didn't have at the time), but with a masters AND he was also abd. He was a professional. He'd been in the marines during Viet Nam. He'd been a college professor. Who was I? What was I? What accomplishments did I have to show? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Yet, he saw something. He knew, as I knew that God has plans that often don't make human sense on the surface.

I have a blackberry

Blackberries are nice in a pinch. They really are. Have you tried existing on one for a week? Ok it wasn't even a week. It was days only days. Friday to Thursday. ACK it was a week.

Woefully insufficient. I'm not sure woefully will cut it here. Desperately, terribly, lamentably . . . well, surely you get the picture!

I was able to read my favorite blogs. I even responded to a couple. I was able to read personal email, but I couldn't get into my corporate email because I'd forgotten to log out before I'd shut the computer the last time I was online. *ahem* Haven't even tackled that bear yet and may just let it wait until Monday. Does it matter if it's turned into a brown bear or a grizzly?

Have you ever tried reading a really long and passionate thread on the baptistboard.com on a blackberry? Well, why do I care why someone is fighting for the rights of KJVO anyway? Not my fight. Why am I drawn to it like a moth to the proverbial flame?

Have you ever read a blog that is on a dark background in little bitty black font. *bleh* And just why do the comments take so long to come up anyway?

Or web pages? They take too long to load. It's all so inconvenient. There is no flash! What do you mean I can't see the page because it's in flash. Double *sigh*

But there I sat each day sloshing through iddy biddy page after page reading like my life depended on it. Ron just read the paper. ;)

New Traditions

The past couple of years, Ron and I have been trying to settle on new Christmas traditions. The kids are grown and gone. They may or may not come home. They may or may not all be home at the same time.

When they were little, we would have a light meal for Christmas Eve, go to the Candle Light Service, read the Christmas story and then open presents. Christmas morning, we'd do stockings and then everyone helped with the meal. We usually had all kinds of people over that had no place to go.

Christmas Eve with Blythe and Joe at their house.

This year we are at the beach with Brandon for a few days. My sister will be in for a couple of those too. Then Ron and I get a few by ourselves which will include our anniversary.

Very relaxing . . .

The Shepherds and the Angels

Luke 2

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

(TNIV)

My Heart is Not Broken Any More

It's Christmas Eve. Hallelujah! Time to focus on Jesus. Like every single day. No day is time to focus on me, but I had been. My heart was broken. The day that letter came and I had to come face to face with what my relationship with my parents really was and always had been.

God had been preparing me for that day for so long. First He sought me out and saved me. Then He gave me Ron to nurture me and help me know that people were honorable and faithful. Then slowly He helped me come face to face with my damage so that I was able to look the inevitable squarely in the eye - so that it wouldn't completely devastate me when I did.

What I realized in all of this is that God sustains. He allows you to get up in the morning and do your job no matter how crushing your insides feel. He allows you to put one foot in front of the other and walk from one place to the other. He allows you to smile and meet people even when you cry yourself to sleep at night. God is sufficient through all things even when your heart is broken.

This fall old passions began to return. I wanted to pull out crafting materials that had lain dormant and gotten dusty, I started to write again - not for lessons or web sites or school, but for me, to express myself as I'd not in ages. I got mad over injustices at school. I . . . well I'm doing all kinds of things that I haven't done in ages.

I'm not brokenhearted any more.

Wordle

I kept seeing a Wordle on T.C.'s blog and went to the link . . .

Click on it and it will take you to the large one which is much more stunning. It's a compilation of words from this blog.

Bella

I thought we had an order coming in from the bindery last Tuesday, but they were a no show. So I cataloged DVDs that I'd let stack up. I hate cataloging DVDs. Several of them looked interesting though, so I brought them home. I thought I'd write a critique of a few - some are good, some were NOT.

Bella was good, really good. It's by Lionsgate, a company that is generally trustworthy as far as putting a movie on the Media Center shelf. It is PG 13 so it's not for the very young.

It is not an overtly Christian movie. The main family are Spanish speaking so part of the movie is sub-titled. There is death, there is life. There is pig-headedness. There is forgiveness - forgiveness of others and forgiveness of self. There are some who cannot forgive or let go. This is a sanctity of life movie about decisions that are hard to make. Not all the decisions made were right. Some of the decisions were life changing and brutal. It was heart breaking at parts. The main family was loving and supportive. The husband adored his wife and children!

This is not a brilliant movie and it did drag at parts, but it was well worth the watch and may well be good to use with youth groups for a sanctity of life Sunday or with school groups for sex-ed lessons.

What happens to old or even not so old books?

Every year in the Media Center, I have to prune books. We have a large, beautiful space and even then there is not enough room to keep every book known to man. I'd like to, but the fact remains that some books become out dated, some books just don't get checked out. Some books are never checked out. How sad. I buy some books, process them, and there they sit for ages. They become yellow, dusty, pitiful from just sitting.

The used book sales area of the media center has grown - partly due to donations that we just don't need. (Would you like a Left Behind book? How about Joel Osteen?) BUT it's also partly due to this pruning that must also occur. One of my goals for this upcoming year is to try to read more of these books myself. Some of the books that come off the shelf are EXCELLENT! It's hard though - just to find the time found to buy and catalog them . . .



Visit our Media Center

Book Giveaway

I stumbled across this today in my daily search of blogs about Bibles, Books, and theology:

All of these books could be yours! Today, it is my pleasure to announce the first ever Kingdom People Christmas Giveaway.

For the next ten days (Dec. 15-25), you have the opportunity to register to win all ten of my favorite books this year. Plus, an ESV Study Bible. That’s $260 worth of books!

Check it out!

Pseudo Research and Closed Mindedness

One of my Jack of All Trades traits - I don't mind changing my mind when I'm proven wrong or when research shows it. Practicality has to come into play also.

I will admit, I do not understand this King James Version Only (KJVO) mind set or the research they use to back up that the King James Version (KJV) is God's inspired word to English speaking people. Tell me it might be your preference, although I think if they really gave one of the newer versions a chance, they'd lay the KJV down, but don't make up Pseudo Research to support an unsupportable stance.

Here's one that was posted on the Baptist Board this weekend:
Which Version is the Bible? by FLOYD NOLEN JONES, Th.D., Ph.D.

These papers are entered into with one thing in mind and one thing only: to prove that the KJV is the one and only approved word of God. Nothing will get in their way. If they tripped over a piece of research that showed that God fearing men, qualified linquists, expert researchers, etc. translated the exact same texts used in the KJV, it would NOT be enough, it would NEVER be enough. Minds are made up. Case is closed.

Another thing that bothers me is the need to tear down ALL modern versions. Now some are now worth the paper on which they are written. But to say that all men except those that translated the KJV had nefarious intentions or that God stopped working through tranlations with the KJV is just plain hard to swallow.

NKJV: Counterfeit Case in point. This one is rich. I think you would agree regardless of the side you take on this debate.

This is not going to be solved. It's not worth getting into. I do not see why both sides just don't let the other be - like the drinking debate. But for whatever reason they don't.

Scarves for Christmas

I finished the scarves!

I still have a few purses to complete. Now how many days are there . . . mmmmmm

I didn't know

I didn't know.

I didn't know the distance at which I'd kept God for so long.

I didn't know how I really didn't trust him.

I didn't know how much I feared that He'd betray me.

I didn't know.

I didn't know how much was colored by my childhood by anyone's childhood.

I didn't know that if you're raised around so much anger that you are angry too.

I didn't know that I had quit talking for fear it would be repeated.

I didn't know that I'd quit writing for fear it would be found.

I didn't know how much on earth is reflected spiritually.

I just didn't know.

I didn't know how long pain could be carried.

I didn't know how strongly He wanted my attention.

I didn't know how much hurt I could feel.

I didn't know how humbled I could be.

I didn't know how bad things really had been.

I didn't know I could feel.

I didn't know how much He loved me.

I didn't know how open I could be.

I didn't know how glorious things are.

I didn't know.

Now I do.

Praise God.

I didn't know.

Weddings & Mothers of the Groom

Weddings - Glorious events!

Well . . . ;)

My friend Tina is about to be the mother of the groom today. Odd event this for us old gals. The men have their sons and we moms mmmmm we are an extra on the stage. The old phrase about wearing beige and keeping your mouth shut is very true.

Tina has very much been in my prayers.

Exams are done

Exams are a glorious and frustrating time. Students who have struggled rise to the surface. Students who should do better, fail.

This year:

27% made A's.

17% made F's.

Only a couple of those F's were expected. Two of them were normally A students who didn't do a thing during study sessions. They must have thought that they knew so much that they just didn't have to work. Today, when I collected the tests and work, they had no work. Now, I'm a fairly good math student and I wrote the tests AND I couldn't have done all the problems with no work. What a great trick!

74% made 80 or above.

YES!

I'm pretty happy with that!

How much is too much help?

During study session today - after going over dozens of math problems, students broke into small groups to drill each other on vocabulary. One of the girls came up to me and asked to go make a copy of a copy of someone's vocab work.

Nope, I responded.

Why not, she asked (not especially nicely).

I just looked at her.

At this point I've explained a couple of hundred times the benefit of looking the words up, reading the definition, writing the definition down. Right now in this one class, one child's vocabulary is now a classroom set.

I'm noticing a trend. There are doers and those that wait for things to be done for them. Some of the doers gladly do for those that wait. When I tell a kid to look something up - That problem is in Chapter 2 - near the beginning. We talked about it, so I know once you find it, you'll remember it. Likely as not, another kid will jump in and tell the other how to do the problem. Even small things like What's the date/time? When I remind him or her that a calendar/clock is on the wall, inevitably someone will jump in and tell them.

I used to explain that they have figured this out, so their classmates can too. This hasn't worked. I'm trying a new strategy likened to exercising. If someone is asking a question and I don't directly answer, then I want their brain to exercise. If they jump in and answer, then their brain gets double exercise and the kid who doesn't know the skill still has none.

We'll see if this works.

TNIV

I broke down and bought one. I'd been putting it off because the last one I bought, the ESV, was a disappointment (although technically fine), and I just didn't want to spend any more money on another version just to be disappointed again. BUT a couple of guys on the BaptistBoard (T.C. and Rippon) kept insisting I wouldn't be, so off to the store I went.

With Matthew under my belt, I can safely say that so far I'm happy. I do wish I hadn't bought the Study Bible though. There is only so much - so many places the notes can go and with several of those already. . . . Well, maybe it's the time of day I read. I'm finding the notes more distracting than helpful.

But so far, I do like TNIV.

Through the Bible in a Year

There are many plans out there if you are interested:

One Year Bible Online

Nice Chart from the ELCA - Aside from their other polity

Now this one is from eword and has a variety of plans for a variety of versions. They range from Chronological to historical to old/new to new/old.

Bible Gateway has one, but it's not in a nice printable form. It does link to the chapters though in NIV.

This is just a start. There are tons of online supplies available to help you read through the Bible in a year.

The Gift

We went to Texas for the weekend to see Brandon. Whirlwind trip. He starred in Southcliff's Christmas program.

Divorced dad. Co-worker gives him a DVD of the Christmas program. Nothing good on TV so he watches it. In the meantime, he finds out that his children won't be coming home for Christmas. He thinks of Christmases past - better Christmases. He realizes he needs more, that he needs Jesus, and calls his co-worker to talk.

On a reflective note, my son is grown. He has finished seminary. He has waited patiently on a ministerial role. In this performance, he played not only a man, but a mature one at that. I realized watching him in this role how much I miss him - seeing him on a regular basis. He is a fine actor. He will be a fine youth minister.

The Rich Man in Hell

I can't let this go.

We've been studying parables. Typical LifeWay fashion - there was a worksheet with references and titles to match. Such a challenging lesson ;0. So, I picked about a dozen for us to look at more closely.

Most I picked at random. I picked the new wine in old wine skins just so the students would know that not everything is easy to interpret.

This one though, the rich man in hell. It's been bugging me. Every one I've mentioned it to, they remember the part about the rich man wanting Lazarus to place a drop of water on his tongue. They don't remember the part about the rich man asking Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers about what was in store for them if they didn't believe. Abraham's response? Why would they believe a dead man standing in front of them when they had the words of Moses and the prophets? You didn't believe!

Now the students, they said, "OH, I'd believe a dead guy if he came to tell me about hell!"

"Oh really?" I said, "The Bible clearly says you won't."

One of the counselors gets a remarkable picture in an email. I do wish I had the picture because it was absolutely awesome. Truck driver saved in a wreck. He drops off the road facing in the opposite direction on a sheer incline. He'd have surely died if he'd been facing the other direction, off just inches. It was miles down the cliff. The first response was, "If he didn't believe in God before, he'd have to now."

BUT he doesn't, does he? Because if the Holy Spirit is not working, no event, no person, no words are going to make a difference. The thing is that we don't know on who, at what place, at what time God is at work and our part, our obligation is just to be ready to share.