My Brain is a Workin'

I know my verses, are you memorizing any scripture?
If so please leave your verse in the comment section,
if not list your favorite verse in the comments.

LOVE WINS!

"Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them." 1 John 2:7-11


Rob Bell's new book came out this week and has been surrounded by a bunch of controversy- I will have to read it before I make a judgement call but his title got me thinking...

LOVE WINS.

It does.
"Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13:8a

Today I am trusting God that love will win in my household,
among my children,
among my siblings,
among my husband and I,
among the Wana tribe,
among my small group on Tuesday,
our youth group on Wednesday.

Love wins.
It always has,
always will.
I've seen it,
I've tasted it.
I've fought it- I've surrendered to it.

...and even still I struggle with it...

I am trusting God for this in some very specific areas of my life right now.
TRUSTING

Thank you Lord for Your love poured out on me.
Thank you Lord for the love I see trickling through relationships
I thank You in advance for the outpouring of love among those dearest to my heart.
I thank you Lord for being LOVE.

So what about you- are choosing to let love win?
How have you seen love win?

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Fly Greg Home Initiative

So last week at church our pastor challenged us to be the church.
If we saw a need to do something to meet it.
You can go here to listen to his message and I suggest you do- it's good stuff!

So the next day while walking with a long time friend we got talking about her son and daughter-in-law and new baby on the way. It got my brain gears a turnin' and I wrote this note on FB:


"I am seeing a need and making steps to meet it.

A friend of mine is due to have her second baby at the end of April.
Her husband recently had to move to LA for work and will not be able to fly home for the birth or even soon after.
So I am trying to raise $350 to fly him home about mid-May.

Southwest has tickets for $139 each way.

If you can donate even $1 it will help. Please let me know, this young family has been a blessing in our lives and I would love to help them as they make this distance sacrifice.

Message me here and I can share more of their beautiful story.

mail any donations to:

(I listed my address on FB, you can e-mail me to get my address vintagesheet(at)yahoo(dot)com

and you'll just have to trust me with the money- any overage will be given to them for food or baby items.

Love you all- let's be the church."

So I've started this Fly Greg Home initiative
hope you will pray and then perhaps give.

Ruth

Every Tuesday morning I gather with 6 other women and we study God's Word together. This particular group started meeting this last Fall when we met at my house to study the book of Esther. Earlier this year we dug into the story of another amazing women of Bible: Ruth. (link to the study we did)


With our last week of study behind us I thought I'd share a thing or two I've learned along the way.


I learned that Ruth was an amazing women.

Widowed and childless she opted to travel with her mother-in-law back to her husband's homeland, a place she was an outsider, a foreigner.

She worked hard in the fields to provide for her mother-in-law and didn't complain and although her people were enemies of the Israelites she was known as a "women of noble character." In the Hebrew Bible to book of Ruth follows directly after the book of Proverbs, more precisely following up the description of a "virtuous women". See Proverbs 31:10-31


I also learned that cooking with a group of women is worth far more than rubies or coral.

Each week during this study we cooked together and ate together. The study itself had recipes and so each week we each volunteered to bring a different item and then when we met the magic came alive!

Of course we have our babies with us.

And some of us tend to gravitate more toward the stove, while others the coffee pot!

After our hardwork and kitchen fellowship we sat down to discuss our weeks study while the meal baked and then we dug in!

Speaking of digging in I had no idea the treasures I'd find in the the book of Ruth.

I had a great Aunt Ruth. She died recently but she was an amazing women. When my father was growing up she helped my grandmother raise her brood of 5. I never saw my Aunt Ruth beyond sitting in her chair, afghan on her lap and a quilt square in her hand; but I heard about her. My dad shares stories of her cooking and cleaning, doing laundry and wiping dirty faces. She was a hard worker and a worker for someone elses benefit, someone elses legacy; yet somehw she was remembered, she did in deed leave a legacy to be remembered.

See the Ruth in the Bible worked hard, got married and had a son; but not a son to carry on her new husbands name but a son to carry on the name and legacy of her dead husband of her mother-in-law. A son who would be the great-grandfather of King David and a son from who's legacy came Jesus the Christ.

It really made me think about why I do what I do?

Is it for my glory?

For my legacy?

Sure I want it all to be for the glory of God, but I'm a fairly self-centered person and often have my own interests in mind.

So after studying this book of Ruth I have a new found desire to not only work hard but also to find joy in working for the betterment, for lack of a better term, of another's legacy.

Whether it be the legacy of our youth group,

my friend,

my neighbor

or my children's children.

Lord may I work with all my might as if working for you.

Back posting in the garden.

I've posted a recent sewing project, check out my sewing journey Thus Far.

I've gone back to posting on my seperate blogs. Something in my brain likes it that way. So check out my latest post on my garden. Tis the season for all this dirt in Florida!

Parenting Teens

Part of my job ends up being advice giving, and advice beyond what color bridesmaids dresses to wear or what veil to pair with the dress.
Especially when blended families come in and middle to high school age girls are required to wear a dress for a wedding.

While wearing a dress to some girls seems like a dream come true, to others it is a nightmare.

That is where I find advice giving and be at it's highest.

So based on an experience last night I've compiled a few tips I have on raising teenagers, and please by no means do I claim to "get" this whole parenting thing.

- let them vent, and by let I mean keep your mouth shut and don't argue back and by vent I mean say things that are completely crazy, make no sense and can be mean - teenagers are not in their right mind at times and I've learned if I've done a somewhat decent job at apologizing and taking responsibility for my own actions they will eventually come around and do the same, eventually

- take responsibility for your own actions, as a parent if I curse- catch my behavior, apologize, express the challenge of making good choices and move on. If we yell or gossip, lie or say something not nice- same thing: take responsibility for our own actions as parents. Perfect people, no- and our kids know that above anyone else what we struggle with, well that is if we live real and authentic in front of them.

- love them. It's sometimes the hardest thing to do but when they pull an attitude, say mean things about others, themselves, their situation or us: just love them, trust me loving and patience with them will pay off because as soon as their hormones get back into some sort of balance you'll recognize the child you once knew.

-Be there #1 fan, be on their team.

-Pick your battles. Is it worth a huge family argument to have a certain haircut? or wear a certain style of clothing? or a question I ask brides at work: "You have to decide if it's worth it to argue over what dress they wear. In 20 years will it even matter?""

-Love them how they are. For who they are. It may be different than you but it's them and embrace that, learn from that and above all enjoy that! We all are unique and learning to love and enjoy that uniqueness is part of life with others and life with the ones we call our children, even if they are hormonal teenagers who know everything, know you know nothing and all the while eat your food, use your gas and trample dirt all over your floors.

So there it is a few tips I have on parenting these people we call teens.I am by no means a parenting expert nor does my name sit on a top 10 parent list.
But I love my kids. Tons.
I have a 17 year old who I think enjoys my company and a 15 year old who recently named his father and I as the two people he loves and trusts the most in this world (parents of elementary kids may not get this but as a parent of a teen it speaks massive volumes to my heart)

So enjoy your teen, one day they'll be gone and you'll miss them.
I promise.

Letting Go

"I'm letting go of the life I've planned for me (and my kids).
I'm loosing control of my destiny"

Those are the words to a song I've heard played on the local Christian radio station.
I like the song, it's message is good and I sing the words like I mean them and believe them, BUT, yes there is always a big but in there, and no we're not talking about the big butts that come from eating too many Magic Cookie Bars; no the but I am referring to is the thought of do I really believe those lyrics.
Do I live my days like one who is not in control of her destiny, or that of her children?

Having teenagers is like no other experience in the parenting journey, then again what part of parenting is NOT fresh, new and full of challenges? I have the privilege of having a newborn in the house reminding me of those challenges.
Anyway... back to my teenagers and the reason for this post.

My boys are different, cut from the same cloth but somehow very different.
Very.
Yet somehow in my head I have/had a similar plan for their lives.
A plan I think we all have for our children, a plan perhaps we've been brainwashed into thinking is the way to go.

I have always planned and imagined my boys leaving home, moving into a dorm room and completing 4 years of college at a university in New England; OK so I learned to waiver on the New England part, but the rest, well it's just what I thought was the right thing to do, the best thing.

As Vaughan's senior year approaches and as the days tick by reminding me he will soon be the father of a 4, then 5 then 6 month old I am reminded that his dorms days are no more; as if they actually were in existence- oh to be in my head; and that a 4 year university in New England or anywhere else may not be the best choice for him.
Perhaps not the best plan.

I've come up with an alternate plan in my head but I dare not even type it, because, well quite frankly I am holding it with an open hand for "I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own [nor that of his mother']; it is not for man [or his mom] to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23 parenthesis mine.

So today I am lying on the threshing floor at the feet of my Redeemer trusting He knows best, I am letting go.

Oh but I have 2 children.
Justin is my free spirit, my musician, my march to a different beat kind of kid.

School to him gets in the way of writing and playing music.
If I do not stay on top of him every week in his schoolwork something happens; I'm not sure exactly what, because it varies week to week, but somehow, someway he forgets or misses some bit of very important news.

So recently when I mentioned to Steve that it will take a lot of work keeping Justin's GPA high enough for the FL Bright Future Scholarship, he replied with a "I'm not sure if Justin really intends on going to college".
OK- stop right there.
I know this fact but it hit me- he's right. What am I fussing about?
Sure I'd like to see a music degree for Justin- but after high school he'll be free to do what he wants, and if college is not what he wants, why make him go. Why rag on him about going? It's as if somewhere in my being I just think he has to go to college.
I guess I have fallen prey to what the world says.

For Justin I find myself again lying on the threshing room floor trusting that "A man's steps are directed by the Lord. How can anyone understand his own way." Proverbs 20:24
For Justin, I will still help him succeed in high school but the rest of it-- I'm letting go.

So perhaps you needed a reminder to let things go from the hand and minds of your human agenda into the plan of an Almighty God.

"The Lord works out everything for his own ends." Proverbs 16:4a

DATE NIGHT!!!

Date night this last week consisted of going to a local fair in the empty lots near where I work.
We spent and hour there and rode 2 rides.
Hear me again 2 rides!
We bought tickets to ride 3 rides but I could only handle two.
First was the ferris wheel and second was some ride we laid on our stomachs like we were flying birds.
While they were both fun the ferris wheel was more of an adrenaline rush than I ever remember and the second ride- well as cool as it was- it just did me in with the repetitive around and around and around....

After our hour we didn't know what to do so we shopped around for another hour then realizing it was 8:38pm and getting late- lol, we headed home to be with our kids :)

So what was your last date night like?