Loving Old

I am still thinking about the Sermon from Sunday morning.  While I know there were great truths about Jesus being the Son of God, I am stuck thinking about the love.  My pastor talked about how as the world grows further away from God, love will dry up.  He mentioned that while we live in the word, it is easy to be jaded, cautious and untrusting.  He said that love will get harder the older we get because experience will teach us to be weary of being hurt or disappointed.

WOW, this totally changes my plans for old age!  I was already prepared to be that loud mouth old lady who says whatever she wants whenever she wants.  I want to “call them like I see them,” but it occurred to me that, this approach may not be the most loving.  My husband and I constantly remind each other that GOD calls us to love one another.  We think God may have also called us to ride in separate cars to church on Sunday, because there is less arguing that way!  Better yet, if every Sunday can be like this passed Sunday, when I was quiet before church, there was a remarkable difference in our love on the way to church! LOL.  For those of you who know me well, know that me being quiet for long is almost an impossibility.  After all, I love to hear myself talk, and I love to read myself blog too!  LOL

The incredible impact of what Pastor David preached about on Sunday is sitting in my heart and relating to all the wild things going on in our country.  I think that the Occupy Wall street people might proclaim that they are seeking peace and love, but I ask are they really?  Love is one of those words that is loaded far deeper than people really invest in it these days.  If we take our love and compare it to God’s standards, then it may be that we never truly love.  There is a whole chapter devoted to love in the New Testament.  In actuality, the whole Bible is about love, but in 1 Corinthians, there is a great definition for love.  

Our world today is so caught up in political correctness, but that means nothing if you do not have love.  Think about it, why would we need political correctness if we were all treating each other with love.  It is almost laughable that we have to legislate equality.  I saw a report earlier on a group that made their bake sale prices reflect affirmative action.  After watching the report, I thought what was meant to do good really only made the divide between race greater.  After all, if we are going to give a discount to one group shouldn’t it be to all groups?  What if you went to Macy’s and the prices were structured to reflect that the group you belong to absolutely never got a sale, I think it would hack you off after awhile.  God help you if you complained, you would be vilified.  Then in turn it is likely that resentment would form toward the sale group.

Now, let’s take this back to love.  Is there anyone who doesn’t love love?  Is there anyone who doesn’t want to share love, or feel love?  Love can give you wings, it can give you strength, and love can give you life.  I mean that literally, if you know Jesus Christ.  When the Bible says, “…That the greatest of these is love,” this is more profound than we allow it to be.  This is one of those “Churchy” verses, every one says it, everyone knows it, but how many of us live it every day?

Everyone has someone around that is hard to love.  Usually they are part of your family.  Just writing this, I can bring to mind a few that I find difficult to love.  There are two categories for me:  someone who has hurt me in some way, and then the type who drives me crazy with their crazy beliefs or lack of belief. (Let’s face it, I can almost not carry on a conversation with someone who is what I will politely call a raging liberal democrat.)  The thing about it is God calls me to love them anyway.  

How do you love a raging liberal democrat?  Or even more importantly how do you love that person who hurt you?  I think for me, I just have to tell myself over and over again, that God calls me to love.  Love means everyone, all the time, and then I have to hit my knees and pray really hard until I can love.

I guess I will change my old age plans and be the loud mouth old lady who is full of love and laughter.  I think I will redefine old from grumpy old to old and loving.  Although it sounds like a cliché, couldn’t we all use a little more love in our lives?

That is my mindset now tell me yours!

No Pinterest

I have received over the past two weeks invitations to the website: Pinterest.  Many of my friends have discussed how addicting it is, and how fun it is.  Today, I tried the website for the first time, and I believe it is the cause of a minor identity crisis.  This is when I suddenly realized, I am no ordinary woman.

You see the concept is simple.  Create a bulletin board.  Select various themes and then “pin” things to them that you want to try.  The boards can be about anything examples, cooking, arts and crafts, and sewing ideas.  Pintrest gives you a few default board titles, to help get you started.  The board that started this minor identity crisis was called “Things I love.”

Immediately I was screaming on the inside uh…ok….hmmmm…. what do I love?  Wait, oh my gosh, I don’t love anything!  Social Crisis!  I was acutely aware, that no one was going to care or want to “follow” a board on my love for chips and queso.  I confess, I missed the day in school when they taught girly! 

Confession 1:

I have never owned a hot glue gun.  I have seen it used once or twice by my mother-in-law, but I have never really done anything with hot glue. I have no “craft closet” in my house.  When I go to Hobby Lobby it is to buy something that is already made, or to fill a list for work or my daughter’s school.  I have never looked at ribbon and said I can make this into a beautiful bow.  Nor have I ever been on the scrapbook aisle and thought how fun it would be to cut and paste. 

Confession 2:

Sewing is not my thing.  What makes this statement so incredibly funny is that I work at an embroidery company!  However, I am not allowed to touch the machines.  I know just enough to make me dangerous should I ever get behind a regular sewing machine.  The only thing I have actually sewn is our Christmas stockings.  They are quite possibly are the saddest looking little stockings, but they are special.  My mother-in-law spent a whole afternoon showing me how to use the little sewing machine that I have never visited since.

Confession 3:

My cooking is simple, and my menu the same.  I cook the same things over and over.  I try new things, but nothing has ever made the long term cut.  I bake, but again it is chocolate chip cookies, or cake from a box.  You will not find me slaving in the kitchen over some exotic dish.  All good things can be bought pre-made! 

All of this is to say, that I have NO PINTEREST!  This website has given me a complex.  I actually spent time trying to think of hobby things I really like to do.  This is what I came up with:

I like to eat chips and queso.

I like to listen music.

I like blogging/writing.

I like funny.

I don’t know if these things can be “pinned” but there all I got and I am sticking with them.

For now, I end my blog with this conclusion, while I have no passion for any particular "womanly" hobby, I do love my family and my friends.  That love and their company must keep me content, and that is better than any silly hobby!

Dang toilet paper is expensive!

Lately life seems like it has me saying things like this.  It is as if all the sudden I have turned into one of my parents, walking up hill in a snowstorm to school because it made for a great lesson!  Literally, I was in the grocery store, and I had to buy toilet paper, and my usual brand, Scott tissue, price had increased almost $2.00.  I screamed on the inside, “What the heck!”  After all, this is paper that I will literally be flushing away after one use, and it costs more than my bath soap.  At least I get multiple uses from my bath soap, but don’t even get me started on how expensive soap is these days!

I guess I am in somewhat of a cantankerous mood because my house is in disarray.  Yes, it would be easy to laugh this off and say, what has changed?  I have never been an excellent housekeeper.  I will settle, yes settle, for being an ok housekeeper.  Over Labor Day, we had a pipe in our home break, and thus started a trickle down effect of things we are now doing to fix our house.  While there is still a hole in the wall and some missing carpet, the toys are off the floor for now.  Shoes on the other hand, have a way of creeping around.  While they have a proper home in a closet or shoe basket, they some how end up all over the place.

I tell you all of this to say that this chaos has wreaked havoc in my life.  I admit that I feel a little out of control and, inadequately prepared for almost everything.  This only confirms my current conclusions of Proverbs 31.  (I don’t know if you have read it, but it is a synopsis of what a Godly wife/woman should be.)  Frankly, I think the woman described here, was either an over achiever, and or taking speed.  I look at the list of noble character traits and find myself feeling like these are impossible to accomplish, and even more impossible with a happy heart.  I think, if I had lived back in those times, a trip to the well would have been interesting.  In my current state of mind, going to the well with a kid strapped in a papoose and water jug on my head would have only resulted in some major complaining.  The well would have been the modern day coffee shop or nail place.  It would be filled with women sharing the things that women share, or gossiping.  I can just hear it, “Did you see Miranda, there were dirty dishes in her hut, and even more shame, her bed unmade!”  While I admit that I have some real work to do in my interpretation and opinion of Proverbs 31, I know God has a reason for it.  At some point, I will find joy in mopping my floors and making my bed.  

It always strikes me as funny the way God works in life.  I am in a bible study about the Life of David.  It is called Anointed, Transformed, and Redeemed it is written by three amazing Christian women: Kay Arthur, Beth Moore, and Priscilla Shirer.  This week’s lesson was about going through disappointments.  Beth Moore gave many examples of situations when you expect something good, and then you get something bad.  I admit that with all this chaos, I felt lucky as I read the lesson.  I feel lucky, because lets face it in the middle of the chaos, I still have a roof over my head, food in my fridge, and a job.  God is choosing each “stressful” situation to teach me something, and prepare me for His plans for me.  While, I admit, that accepting God’s plan as oppose to my own is a hard pill to swallow, but it is ALWAYS for the best.  My house is suddenly like a metaphor, what God chooses to fix first is not necessarily where I would start!

Beth Moore wrote something that was so profound to me.  She wrote this:

 “If we only understood that any part of us crucified in doing His will becomes a hotbed of resurrection power.  Where we die to self, the Spirit of Christ is raised in us.”

While, I have heard and read verses that discuss this very subject, I don’t think they ever really sunk in.  This time the big bad word OBEDIENCE came to mind.  If I submit in obedience to God/ His will, then I am capable, prepared, and able to do anything.  WOW!  What an awesome thought!  If I am obedient, then my heart will find joy in the things that myself and the world are telling me is no fun.  Obedience is a scary word, I am not sure that anything in my life has been done obediently.  I think that God is telling me that he is going to work on this with me.  If I am being honest, the thought of working on obedience scares me!  Obedience is foreign to me!  I will have to trust God and see where this takes me.  I will let you know after I mop my floors and make my bed just how I am feeling!

This is my mindset; feel free to share yours with me!