June | 2011 | pieces and ponderings

Archive for June, 2011

Swimming in dangerous waters

Posted in Uncategorized on June 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I went down to our pool very early this morning. The gray between dark night and bright day surrounded me. It was still and quiet…peaceful. I’m not usually at the pool at five a.m. I don’t swim laps at daybreak. But, this morning when I awoke I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to turn off the water that I had turned on the night before…good feelings never accompany this realization.

I made my way in my pajamas and robe to the outdoor faucet and twisted the knob counter-clockwise until there was no more water pouring into the pool. Then I just stood for a little while, listening to the quiet…quiet is nice. The quiet was interrupted by a “Plop!” sound of something entering the water. I turned and saw a very happy little frog diving down to the depths of our pool. He was doing one of the things that he was made to do. He swam down and then up and down and up. He swam up to the side of the pool and I almost thought he might hop out and wrap a towel around his froggy waist, but he stopped on the side of the pool…he couldn’t get out. So he began swimming again. I think he was enjoying himself.

I watched that frog swimming…it looked very graceful…very natural…and I thought, “You are swimming in some dangerous waters.” Now the water in our pool isn’t dangerous to the people that swim in it in the hot summer sun, but to little amphibians it is deadly after a while. The chlorine in the pool will kill the frogs. They don’t seem to realize that because we find frogs there often…some are rescued…some…well, it’s too late.

The pool looked wonderful to me this morning…and I guess to the frog also. It looked peaceful, serene, refreshing. But for the little frog a danger lurked that he just didn’t know. It was a warning to me…that I need to watch where I go…watch what I do…watch what I see, what I listen to, what I read. What may seem harmless in appearance may carry with it a hidden danger.

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Discovery

Posted in Meditations on June 13, 2011| 2 Comments »

I’ve recently made a discovery…a discovery about my coffee pot. I love my coffee pot (not “love,” “love” but you know what I mean)…mainly because I love coffee and my coffee pot makes coffee for me when the water is put in it and the filter with the coffee is put in it and the button is clicked to the “on” position where the little green light lights up in all its greenness. I love seeing the little green light come on because I know that means that coffee will soon be ‘a brewing.

I don’t have a fancy coffee pot…just a $35 coffee pot bought around 7 years ago. I love this coffee pot because it doesn’t leak water out the back like the two coffee pots that I purchased before it did, which I had to return, which is always a hassle…a hassle that occurred when I had not had my morning coffee because my coffee pot didn’t work…which makes it a worse hassle because I’m spoiled.

Anyway, I love my coffee pot when friends are coming over and I make a pot of coffee for us. I love my coffee pot when I make coffee for my older children, who enjoy a good cup of coffee like their momma. I love my coffee pot when I make coffee just for myself on quiet mornings.

And though I love my coffee pot and have many happy coffee memories, my coffee pot is flawed…the actual machine part doesn’t have a flaw, the carafe has the flaw. The lip on the carafe, where you pour out the delicious brew held within, is crooked…it’s not straight…you have to hold it just right or coffee spills all over the place. For 7 years I’ve had to hold the pot just right when pouring, so that the coffee actually makes it into my awaiting cup. For 7 years I’ve watched as other people, who don’t know about my flawed coffee carafe, began to pour a cup of coffee only to have it flood onto the counter or floor because I forgot to warn them.

Here’s where the discovery part comes in…last week as I was holding my coffee pot after washing it, I realized that the flaw is not a result of misshapen glass, as I have thought all of these years. The flaw is that the plastic handle wasn’t placed correctly on the glass carafe…it’s not directly opposite the lip of the glassware. THAT is why the person attempting to pour coffee from the pot has to hold it at a bit of an angle so there is no spillage. This was an “aha” moment for me. I now understand my coffee pot so much better. I now understand its flaw.

The interesting thing about me and my flawed coffee pot is that I’ve never really wanted to replace it. I accept my coffee pot with its flaw and I’ve made the adjustment necessary to use it. I’ve made that adjustment most every day for several years now. As you can tell, I’m even fond of my flawed coffee pot; I don’t want to replace it.

Sometimes, I just don’t like replacing things. Even more…a lot of times…I don’t want to be replaced. I can struggle with a fear of being replaced…and this fear can and does spring up in all sorts of places.

Yesterday I heard a message by pastor/author John Ortberg, entitled, “The Me I Want to Be.” What he had to say was so thought-provoking that I went and bought his book of the same title…well almost the same title…”the me I want to be…becoming God’s best version of you.”

I leafed through the book this morning, and I noticed a quote on the back of the book’s cover: “God wants to redeem you, not exchange you.” God wants to redeem me…not replace me? That’s when I was reminded of my coffee pot…the flawed one…the one I don’t want to replace. When my flaws glare at me in the face, I tend to think that my replacement is the best solution. But God isn’t about replacing as much as He is redeeming. And He is all about redeeming…just ask His Son.

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Why I love “Despicable Me”…the movie

Posted in Meditations on June 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Last summer, on a warm July afternoon, my husband and I went to a matinee with children, numbers 2– 5, to see the movie, “DespicableMe.” I’ve watched it several times since. It tells the story of Gru, a villain, who wants to commit the crime of the century…stealing the moon. To achieve this dastardly dead, he adopts three orphans to help him acquire a shrink ray…which is totally necessary if you want to steal the moon, because you need to shrink it first.

So here’s why I love this movie:

It has unicorns in it. Well, it has a stuffed, toy unicorn that belongs to the youngest orphan. She loves her toy unicorn, which gets destroyed, but then is replaced…and she sings about unicorns.
I love the unicorn song…a simple song…one that will get stuck in your head. It always makes me smile…we sing it a lot in our house. “Unicorns I love them, unicorns I love them….”
The rest of the music is cool too…yes, I have the soundtrack.
There’s a great bedtime story at the end.
There’s a huge heart change in Gru when he allows himself to love the three orphans.
It has minions…cute minions, not mean, evil minions. They are yellow and wear little overalls and speak unintelligible gibberish, but it’s cute gibberish…and they are funny. I’m assuming that Gru somehow created these little minions…they work for him.
(And this is one of the biggest reasons I love this movie) Gru, the creator of the minions, calls them each by name…always…throughout the whole movie. These minions all look alike…well, there’s the one-eyed variety and the two-eyed variety, but other than that they look alike. Even though they look alike, their maker knows them by name. I LOVE that part!! Gru seems to have a relationship with each one of his minions!

That reminds me of my Heavenly Father and that’s why I’m thinking about “Despicable Me” early in the morning. I read a verse in my Bible today, in John 16 (verse 27) that tells me that God the Father loves me, which reminded me that He knows my name…I’m that important to Him. I have to be reminded of that a lot…that I’m important to Him…and it seems that God uses some creative ways to do just that…even high-definition, animated cartoons on a big screen…or a little screen, whichever the case may be.

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No good thing withheld

Posted in Meditations on June 10, 2011| 3 Comments »

This morning I read Psalm 84 in my Bible. Verse 11 is a special verse to me…it reminds me of a special friend. It reads this way in the New King James version, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

I remember when my friend was facing an extremely difficult time in her life. In the midst of pain and hardship, she looked at me and said, “If God is withholding this from me then it’s because it’s not what is best for me.” My friend truly believed what this verse says, that no good thing will He withhold. In other words, if God is withholding…then for right now, it’s not good for me…it’s not His best.

God is a sun and shield, a light and protector. He does give grace and glory. And no good thing is He going to withhold if I am choosing to follow Him. He wants the best for His children.

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Shoes

Posted in Etc. on June 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I sit in my quiet living room this morning…before children numbers two through five are awake for the day. I drink in the stillness of the morning…I love morning stillness. Child number one is already up and gone, traveling back to his college town to visit friends. I sit drinking my coffee, looking at the shoes scattered around the living room rug. Three pairs of sneakers and two pairs of flip-flops (one of them mine…they don’t hurt my feet…see earlier post) lay there, devoid of the active feet they belong to…unable to move on their own. Now as the momma of the house, I am very capable of being bothered by shoes not placed in their proper putting-away-places, even when they are my own…but not this morning.

Maybe it was because I had just said good-byes to my first-born, but as I look at those shoes scattered about, I see the lives they represent…my younger boys who are not as young as they used to be. I see the getting-too-small-knock-off-crocs that my youngest recently told me need replacing…I think of his smile and his laughter and how he makes me laugh all the time. The imitation crocs were shed close to his worn-looking Pumas, the ones he’s wearing to basketball camp, where he is discovering muscles sore from stretching and exercising…welcome to big guy work-outs…where basketball is taking on a whole new meaning.

In close proximity, to child number five’s footwear, lay child number four’s…the new flip-flops recently purchased because last year’s don’t fit too well anymore. He has Pumas adorning the floor also…topped with smelly athletic socks from yesterday’s workouts and practices. He’s about to be in his second year of high school…really? But just yesterday or just a few yesterdays ago, he was bailing off the spray-painted-purple bike (see earlier post). Now he’s taller than me and consumes much of the grocery budget all by himself.

And over by the footstool lay the cross-trainers of child number three…he owns the largest sized shoes in the house…yes, bigger than dad’s by a good bit. He’s a senior in high school now…really?? Another senior year??…with more pictures of his growing up years to find for the yearbook. How did this happen so fast??

This morning there are shoes scattered all over my living room rug…but I don’t mind…REALLY!!

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Serious business

Posted in Meditations on June 7, 2011| 1 Comment »

My father has spent most of his life involved in business of some sort, whether it was managing part of a family manufacturing plant, or managing someone else’s company or owning his own business, business was his chosen occupation. When I was very young, my father was also involved in the local government of the small town we lived in; serving on the city council and then as mayor for several years. My father always had a lot of meetings to attend and work to do and it seemed to me that all of those meetings and all of that work was serious stuff…serious business.

I’ve been reading about another kind of business as I read through the book of Joshua in the Bible…serious business…very serious business…and very costly business. The last couple of days, I’ve been reading in Joshua chapters 7 and 8. This is right after Joshua had led the Israelites to defeat the city ofJerichoin an amazing victory; verse 27 of Joshua chapter 6 reads, “So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.”

God was keeping His promise of delivering the Promised Land to His children…everything was in their favor…nothing could stop them…or could it? Here comes the serious part. When the Israelite army moved on to attack the next enemy, the smaller city of Ai, Joshua thought that surely a smaller number of troops would be required. After the miraculous and stunning victory atJericho, the Israelite army was routed by the smaller army of Ai. The fighting men of Ai chased the Israelites from their city and killed 36 of them…and “the hearts of the people melted and became like water.” (Joshua 7:5)

What had happened? What went wrong? What was God doing anyway? When Joshua prayed to God to find out what was going on, he received a startling revelation: Israelhad sinned.

Someone in the camp had disobeyed the LORD’s command in regard to the plunder gathered in the battle ofJericho. God had told them that everything within the city ofJerichowas to go into the treasury of the Lord. Someone had disagreed with this command and had decided to take a few things for himself. A man named Achan would be found out to be the culprit and the consequences would be severe…for him…and for his family. They would all die for Achan’s disobedience.

Those were such severe consequences…maybe seemingly too extreme. What was the big deal anyway? I don’t know. I was just reminded in reading this account in Scripture that sin is serious business….really serious. I don’t have to understand everything about why God’s commands are what they are…He is God and I am not. I just need to recognize that God’s principles and His ways are holy and going against them may have consequences that I don’t get to choose…and those consequences may be extremely painful for me and for those around me…those I love.

I’m very thankful for God’s mercy and His grace and His forgiveness that covers my sin. I’m thankful for His knowledge that understands me through and through and His compassion that is new for me every day of my life. But, sin is still an affront to Him and as I make choices every day…today…I need to remember that sin is serious business.

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Oreos

Posted in Things about me on June 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

My love affair with Oreos began when I was very young; I think I was under the age of four. I loved eating them with milk and strawberries. I remember one time when my dad brought home a flat of fresh strawberries, which I called “Oh boys” because every time my father brought them home, my mom said, “Oh boy!” So that’s why I thought the delicious little red berries were known as “oh boys.” Anyway, I remember that day because I ate those strawberries in a bowl with milk covering them and Oreos crumbled on top…heavenly. That wonderful dish doesn’t look the most appealing to adults because the milk turns all chocolaty and the Oreos get mushy, but I’m telling you…it’s good!

When “Oh boys,” I mean strawberries weren’t available, Oreos were just fine by themselves, even better with milk.

I also remember well the day I shared Oreos with my first-born. He was about 15 months old when I put him in his high chair and gave him one of the cream-stuffed chocolate delights with his sippy cup of milk. I taught him how you can twist the sandwich cookie apart and eat the creamy filling first, though it is perfectly fine to just eat it as it comes, crunching through the dark black cookie crust, which is my favorite part, and then finding the sweet white cream. It is the perfect balance of cookie and cream.

Oreos are still a part of my family’s life all these years later. For the last few years, when summer arrives, we buy the big 10-package mega box at Sam’s…perfect for snacking during breaks from swimming. My kids know that summer is officially here when the huge Oreo box appears in the pantry. Today I was the one who fetched the Oreo snack as three of my boys were calling out Marco Polo in the pool. Ahhh…summer! Ahhh…Oreos!

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me and Bryan D.

Posted in Family and friends on June 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Bryan D. is my main man, my husband, my best friend, my lover, my encourager, my helper, my leader, my soul mate. He is a part of me and me of him…we are truly one.

In so many ways, he is my strength. He challenges me by his undaunted devotion to his God, his wife and his family. He encourages me to do things I never thought possible. He listens to me well, even when I go on and on about the same subject again and again. He doesn’t seem to get tired of me. He’s always glad to see me and flashes a wide grin whenever we meet again after a time apart, no matter how short a time it’s been. He knows me and that is an incredible gift…to have someone know you inside and out, sometimes better than I know myself.

He speaks truth into my life, into my heart, and into my head. I can get so caught up in thoughts that are not true, and Bryan D. calmly reminds me of that which is true and helps me recognize the irrational feelings and misperceptions and fears in my head. He tells me that I’m his ministry, his calling; that God gave me to him to take care of…and he does that very well. One of his goals in life is to celebrate our 75^th wedding anniversary. Now how long we live is pretty much out of our control, but it melts me like butter on warm toast to hear him say that…he wants to be around me for that long…that’s incredible.

We’ve grown up together, not that we knew each other as children. I met Bryan Darling when I was 19 and he was 21. But we’ve been growing together since our first meeting; we’ve done most of our living on this planet together. We’ve been given a family together. We’ve faced hardships together. We’ve celebrated much joy together. We have failed together and we’ve succeeded together.

My relationship with Bryan D. is what I dreamed of when I was a little girl, though I could never have put words to my dreams. I remember when I was 14 hoping that when I was grown and married many years, that my husband would still want to hold my hand…and Bryan D. is the most marvelous hand-holder. He is a gift from God and he is mine and I am his and I am blessed for that.

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By faith

Posted in Meditations on June 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

I have a friend who is re-entering the work force after years of being a stay-at-home mom…after years of homeschooling her children…that’s a big change both for her and for her family. I have a relative who is back at home after years of working outside the home. She is looking for a job, but so far none have come her way. I have a daughter who will be heading off to college in the fall…away from home…away from me. I’ve been thinking about all of this stuff…the staying-at-home, leaving-the-home, working-at-home, working-away-from-home stuff that probably surrounds many of us. And while all of this stuff is swirling around in my head, I’ve still been reading in the book of Joshua in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Yesterday, I read about the battle of Jericho. Do you remember that song, “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho”? The words to the chorus go like this:

“Joshua fit the battle of Jericho

Jericho Jericho;

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho

And the walls came tumbling down. ”

The chorus part is the main part I remember and as a child I did wonder (I still wonder) why Joshua “fit” the battle and didn’t “fight” it. Anyway…I was reading in Joshua chapter 6 about God’s unique battle plan for Israel’s attack on the city of Jericho, which was surrounded by great walls. It was a strange plan, to say the least. I don’t think this particular battle plan has ever been used since in times of war, at least I’ve never heard of it. But it was God’s battle plan, so Joshua thought it was the best plan to go with. I think he was right.

The children of Israel were to march around the fortified city of Jericho once a day, with the armed fighter men (my boys always said “fighter men” when they were little) leading the way, followed by seven priests carrying trumpets and then the rest of the people. As they marched, the priests would blow their ram horn trumpets. Other than the sound of those trumpets, no sound was to be made by the people…no talking was allowed. (All those people and no talking…that was the first miracle right there.)

The people would rise early in the morning and assemble and march in silence as ram horn trumpets blew…once around the city and then back to their camp…strange, to say the least. The people of Jericho who surely gathered on the top of those walls to watch, had to wonder what in the world was going on.

Then the 7^th day came. Things were to be done differently on this day. This was the day that God would bring those walls tumbling down. On this day, the 7^th day, the people were to march around the city 7 times, while the trumpets blew and then at the signal blast from the trumpets, the people were to shout. It was that shout that would bring the walls down and the city to her knees.

Joshua did as he was told, the fighter men did what they were told, the priests blowing trumpets did what they were told, the rest of the people of Israel did what they were told…and the walls came tumbling down…just like that. Most impressive. Most miraculous.

After reading the story in Joshua 6, I then read a verse in the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 30: “By faith, the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.” By faith…the people marched. I wonder if those people who were marching, one step at a time, realized that they were doing this big work of faith? I wonder if maybe they just thought about the next step they were to take?

I think that maybe faith is more about taking the next step in our lives, trusting God’s ideas more than our own, than about huge leaps. Oh, I do think that there are times for huge leaps of faith, but more common…like everyday common are little steps of faith. Those are the kinds I’m watching my friend and her family take right now…daily steps of faith, trying to follow God’s leading. Those are the kinds my relative is taking right now…waiting for God to provide for her needs on a daily basis. That’s the kind my daughter is making as she prepares for a new school in the fall. That’s the kind I’m supposed to be taking too…daily little steps…doing the next thing that God directs me to do, trusting Him with all of the outcomes.

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Bike Ride

Posted in Family and friends on June 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I just watched our two middle sons tear down the driveway on their bikes, the 6 foot 3 inch older brother leading the way with the 5 foot 9 inch brother in hot pursuit. As their mom, I enjoyed watching them set off on their adventure. The older brother (child number 3) has decided that he wants to do some bike riding this summer. So he has begun getting up earlier than his summertime-sleeping-in siblings to begin his ride before the day gets too hot. This morning, however, younger brother (child number 4), was also up and dressed and ready to follow older brother wherever he went on his biking trek. Older brother wasn’t thrilled with this development, but the mom (me) thought it okay and he had to agree.

So younger brother fixed a water bottle to take and dusted the spider webs out of a bike helmet so he could tag along. (Older siblings don’t always like the tagging along thing that younger siblings love to do…younger siblings seem to love it). And they began their journey…older brother moving swiftly and younger brother peddling like crazy to keep up…all of this down our sloped driveway, with speeds mounting. The mom began praying that the older brother wouldn’t harm the tag-along younger brother and that they would not do any stupid or dangerous stunts as they turned onto the county road at the end of the sloped driveway.

I watched their backs as they disappeared down the hill and I remembered when the younger brother first learned to ride a bike without training wheels; it was the first day that older brother went to kindergarten.

On that day, even though older brother was child number three, it was still hard for the mom (me) to let her young five-year-old go. I was weepy that morning after having taken child number 3 to his new school. I returned home with younger brother, child number 4, and wondered what we would do to fill the hours before child number three returned home, along with children, numbers one and two.

I didn’t have to wonder for long, because child number 4, younger brother, was adamant that he wanted to ride his bike (the little bicycle spray-painted purple so no one could tell it was his older sister’s pink bike)…AND child number 4 wanted to ride his bike WITHOUT any training wheels. Child number 4 is a very focused and determined person and after a bit of discussion, I began taking the training wheels off the spray-painted purple bike.

The problem with child number 4 trying to ride his bike without the training wheels was that child number 4 could not touch the ground with his feet when he was seated upon the bike. The hand-me-down bike was still a bit big for child number 4. It had worked with the training wheels because the training wheels held the bike up for number 4 to sit upon. (I think that I forgot to mention that at this time child number 4 was three-and-a-half-years old, but a very determined three-and-a-half-year old none the less.)

So I pushed the bike without the training wheels out of our garage and out onto the driveway with child number 4 walking alongside me. He mounted the bike and I began to push him gently as he began to pedal…and then I let go of the bike, which determined child number 4 was balancing and pedaling along. As I watched him pedaling hard and actually riding the bike, without the training wheels, I began to wonder, “What’s going to happen when it’s time to stop the bike? He can’t touch the ground…he’ll fall over.” But child number 4 was way ahead of me in his thought process and when he reached the end of our driveway…he didn’t stop the bike…he just bailed. He jumped right off the bike and the bike kept on going for a couple of feet and then fell over.

I gasped when I saw him jump off the bike…but he landed on his little three-and-a-half-year-old feet wearing a huge grin on his cute little face. He did it! He had ridden the bicycle without any training wheels! He had challenged the purple-spray-painted-hand-me-down bike and he had won! He looked at me, with that big grin on his face, and announced, “Again!”

And so that’s how the morning of child number 3’s first day of kindergarten went for me (the mom) and child number 4. He would climb up on the bike that was too big for him as I held it still and then he would take off with a gentle push from me…ride the length of the driveway and then leap to the ground as the bike kept right on going. What a way to ride! What a great memory for this mom…AND by the way…the two middle brothers did make it safely back from their first long-distance bike ride together.