What an amatuer!

I have to say that both of my kids can crack me up. There is not a day that goes by that one of them doesn't make me laugh. Laughter is important and has kept me from going into a downward spiral when things seem too tough or difficult to deal with at that time. It is during those times, God uses my chlidren to keep me sane.

On Friday afternoon, Tommy and I drove by the Britt's and dropped off some invitations and mailing labels that I had printed for Jonathon & Nate's birthday party. Michelle had me put these in the mailbox since they were not home. Tommy put them in the mailbox and put up the mailbox flag. I told him that he needed to put the flag down or the mailman might take the invitations. So he reached over and put the flag down.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon, Tommy and I drove over to Michelle's before life groups. I told Tommy that Michelle said the mailman did, in fact, pick up the invitations. Now any of you who know Tommy well will understand that the following comment he makes about the mailman was said with very dramatic facial expressions and tones. Tommy said, "Oh my gosh...what an amatuer!" Of course, I laughed and then promptly went into mommy mode and told him that we do not make fun of people and that it was probably an honest mistake.

Michelle called me today (Monday) and said the mailman returned the invitations and the labels. When I told Tommy he just looked at me with his wide eyes and mouth dropped open in total disbelief.

I'm sure we've all had days when we wanted to tell someone who had made an obvious mistake and needed to be told the error of their ways that they were such an amatuer. When I start to feel that need to shell out some justice or correction to others, I try and ask myself some honest questions.

Is a response really necessary?

Will my response edify or encourage that other person?

Will it push them further away from me or keep them from doing what God wanted them to do?

Or worse yet does it keep them from seeing Christ in my life because I felt the need to correct the problem or right a wrong?

Generally, I look back and see this honkin' plank in my eye that I figure I better take care of before I start dishing out any response. As long as I am willing to wait and respond in God's timing, I can respond with grace. And as I learn to respond in that kind of love, people won't look at my life and say, 'What an amatuer!'

God has given me such treasures in my life...my husband and my boys. I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

In Love with the 80s!

I am unashamedly in love with the 80s! This is a great home made video on one of my favorite Relient K songs, In Love with the 80s!

strangely dim

Yesterday afternoon my oldest son, Bobby, calls to tell me that he has misplaced his (10-day old) ipod Touch that he bought with his own money. He was sure that it had fallen out of his pocket in the parking lot of a local restaurant. He was pretty upset with himself and the situation.

My heart just broke for him and this loss. As a mom, I wanted to make it right. My mind immediately went from feeling sad for his loss to feeling anger over the person who I just knew had taken something that was not theirs to take. We called Apple and got a case number so that if anyone tried to register it and use it then it would flag it in their system and the local authorities would be contacted. There were other steps we would have to take on our end to attempt to recover this loss.

Tommy and I were on our way to meet Bobby for dinner at Chik-Fil-A. Tommy and I prayed for Bobby that God would help us find the ipod and that Bobby would not be too sad for long. After dinner, Tommy expresses his sadness for his brother's loss and tries to offer encouragement to his big brother. Bobby responds in this way...'You know Tommy, this is just a thing, a material thing...it's here today and gone tomorrow. You cannot hold onto it too tightly.' WOW...did he just say that?

I took that moment to add this comment, 'You know boys when you compare this what Christ did on the cross everything else seems really small.' There was total silence in the van and if you know my family that is HUGE. I was reminded of a wonderful old song that goes like this, 'Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will growly strangely dim in the light of his Glory and Grace.'

By the way, God answered our prayers. We found his ipod Touch but I assure you that we found way more than that in the lessons we learned that day. And the things of earth will growly strangely dim in the light of his Glory and Grace.

facebook Frenzy

My latest addiction is facebook. There is such a fascination with getting reconnected with old friends and new friends. I am competitive so when I saw that my friend Josh Britt had more friends than I did...I was like 'No way!' So I found more friends and added more and more until I surpassed him. Yea me!

Well it seemed like a good idea except that now I have so many friends that I cannot keep up with all of them. I'm posting comments on my friend's wall, sending pieces of flair, chatting via the chat tool, adding pictures...and the list goes on. What I am NOT doing is really making any long-term, deep connections that I believe can only truly be done by spending alot of quality one-on-one, face time with one another.

So tonight I left facebook behind and went to connect with some women at my church. We are starting this First Friday Felllowship event that our Women's Ministry sponsors each month. You come just as you are to chat, play games, eat and craft. So I ran by and picked up my friend, Michelle, and off we went to the event. I had such a great time spending quality time with some wonderful ladies and I didn't have to send a friend request to make that connection.