Thursday ADD and near death moments....

Here are just a few reasons why I have not accomplished many things on my to do list today.....

1. I almost died! True story!!! I was driving along minding my own business...(with my new clutch by the way...that is AMAZING...who knew a car was supposed to drive that way) and this soccer mom in an extra long car came streaking out of nowhere right in front of me. I had to slam on my brakes and I missed t-boning her car with in an inch. She kept on driving and probably didn't even notice all 28 years of my life flash in front of her. After my near death experience... I realized the importance of life and felt that I needed to buy some donuts to celebrate my new lease on life. 

2. A small office altercation caused me to feel the need to drive 30 minutes away to purchase construction paper for our Mother's Day Out program. It seemed like an immediate necessity at the time... because what are children going to do with out construction paper? I could be hindering their fine motor skill development. So my co-worker and I set out to Arlington to make the purchase...because all school supply purchases should be made with two people present...one person can not handle it all by themselves. While we were there we decided to take a detour to my favorite restaurant Matts! I love Matts....there will be other blog posts about Matts. All in all this little field trip was three hours long. 

3.While on our way home from Cedar Hill....we traveled behind a flat bed truck that had a deer head rolling around the back of it. It was not a "hey this head would be perfect to mount and hang by the fireplace" type of deer head.... it was a "hey I found this on the side of the road and I can use the antlers for something cool like a pen rest or back scratcher" kind of deer head. I had to follow this guy for a while because the sunlight was not at the right angle for my low grade phone camera to take a quality picture.  Note attached picture. Only in Waxahachie would this be normal. 

4. So after all of my afternoon excitement I decide it is finally time to get to work. I had huge plans. Things that needed to be written....emails that needed to be returned....pictures of deer heads in back of pick up trucks to be printed. So I sat down at my computer...put on some tunes that would inspire me to write, email, and print...then I smelled something strange. It was a musty odor that was really gross. I kinda noticed the smell yesterday but I really didn't pay too much attention to it. All of a sudden I had to turn into a smell detective. I had one thing on my mind....to find the odd smell. I walked all around the office..first smelling myself to make sure it wasn't me...then all around the office my nose went. I smelled the carpet..fine. I smelled the chairs...fine. I looked in the trash...fine. Then it was to the plants. BINGO! One of our plants was putting off a nasty smell! I took the plant downstairs to our basement...set it in the sink... and took the baskets apart to find the core of the problem. Apparently my co worker was pouring whatever was in her cup at the end of the day into our plant...which caused this fungusy, moldy, nasty smell. I preformed some surgery...and flushed out the plant....and hopefully with it staying in the basement sink for a bit things will smell better. 

So now I sit....ready to work....after I post this blog!

Exodus 14:14

I love the Bible! I love the fact that we can study God's word for  years and years and yet there are scriptures that take our breath away and hit us like a ton of bricks. 

From time to time I like to focus on a certain scripture for a long period of time...and I would like to share the scripture that I am focusing on until further notice...

Exodus 14:14 (NLT)

The Lord Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm. 

Exodus 14:14 (NIV)

The Lord will fight for you. You only need to stay still. 

But my favorite version you can find in the message...

God will fight the battle for you. And you? You keep your mouths shut!

I need to spend a little more time with my mouth shut and my mind open. 

hot cocoa, a mop, and a fire alarm.......

Here is a glimpse into my Sunday morning.......

7:00 am I wake up and have a strong craving for hot cocoa since it was twelve degrees below zero in my house. 

7:10 am I stay in bed under my heating blanket trying to decide whether i am going make hot cocoa with the powder mix and water in the microwave or if I would channel my inner Martha Stewart and make it on the stove top with milk and extra ingredients. 

7:20 am I actually get my Martha self out of bed and start on my Cocoa making task....because after all I am an over achiever and water and powder was just not going to cut it. 

*** Side note: please remember that I also need to get ready for Church and I have to be there at 8 am.......fully dressed and ready for a four hour marathon of smiles and worship***

7:30 am Pot is on the stove, and at this moment I decide that I want to bless others at church by bringing them Hot Cocoa.....Martha Style......so i fill it up with milk and cocoa mix....heat it up and stir away with a huge "look at me....and how domestic I am becoming" smile on my face.  

7:40 am  It is at this time that I realize.... I am not ready to leave yet and this hot cocoa is not going to be so hot if I pour it into cups..... so in my infinite cooking wisdom.... I decide to add some chocolate syrup and marshmallows to the already full pot and turn the heat down to low... and get myself ready to go. 

7:50 am I am putting the finishing touches on my Sunday Best......and I think "maybe I should check on my hot cocoa and see if the marshmallows melted" 

7:50 and 4 seconds: I meet my cat Norm in the hallway and he has a worried look on his face which concerns me because Norm only has two looks (I am hungry, and I just did something that could cause you to yell at me) never once have seen the worry look before. I walk into my kitchen to see something that will change my life forever. 

7:50 and 10 seconds: Upon entering my kitchen, I was welcomed with bubbling hot cocoa spewing all over my floor, ceiling, stove top, and myself.... followed by the chorus of the fire alarm going off in my hallway... and the scent of not only failure, but burnt hot cocoa and marshmallows.  Martha would be very upset..... 

7:51 am: I pull myself together and turn into a cocoa cleaning beast.... as if I were saving a life with my bare hands. I turn off the stove, throw my charred pot into the sink with running water, beat my fire alarm with a broom, and run to get the mop. 

7:52 am: I run back into the kitchen to find Norm sampling some of the cocoa failure on the floor... I am a little worried and yet kind of curious if he likes it or not...... I kick Norm away from his tasting and mop up the rest of the cocoa failure off of the floor. 

7:55 am: I pull myself together (by that I mean... I try to get the charred cocoa smell out of my hair and clothes) to get ready to smile and worship. 

8:00 am: Purse in hand and smile on my face, I head for the door.... only to be greeted with a pile of puke the size of my head from Norm who must now be lactose intolerant or my cocoa failure must not have been as good as he once thought. 

All of that in less than an hour..........

I learned three things from that experience:

1. Martha Steward would not attempt to do something so adventurous that early in the morning....so I should not attempt to do so either. Best to stick with microwave and mediocre cocoa. 

2. Low on my stove is code word for high.... therefore much like small children.... and cats..... my stove should never be left unattended. 

3. Contrary to popular belief and children's books.... cats and milk don't always mix and could result in giant messes that need to be picked up while you are wearing heels and a smile.    

Stand by me?

I am preparing for Youth Bible Study tonight. (If you are wondering I work best under pressure... and last minute planning allows the Holy Spirit to work through you until the last possible moment).  I really want to talk about living a risk taking faith. Living a life that is out of the box, against the flow, and out of the ordinary. God is so good because I am also taking time to study Philippians a little bit each day and I came across Philippians 1:27-30. 

Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a  manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing side by side, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. Don't be intimidated in anyway by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it. 

Two things jumped out to me in this scripture: 

1. We need to "Conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. 

2. We need to stand side by side and fight together for faith

Wow! That hit me between the eyes! I am a youth minister and have been for ten years now and I really feel as though I use my profession as my get out of jail free card...my free pass to faith... the spoon fed answer to the question "am I doing something to further God's kingdom". I have to admit that I hide behind my profession because I don't set my faith expectations very high. 

I can't hide behind my name tag anymore. It is time to conduct myself in a manner worthy of the Gospel.... beyond teaching the youth about Jesus.....  beyond Wednesdays and Sundays...... beyond my comfort zone. 

I am on the quest to be a Godly Woman... and more importantly to understand what that means. I want to be somebody who people are ready to stand next to and fight the faith with me. I want my whole life to embody the Gospel. Not in a way that threatens others or intimidates others... but in a way that encourages others to stand by me. Side by side for the same purpose. 

Honestly I have not been living a life that completely gives me citizenship to heaven. I need to remember that my words, my actions, and my life should be a mirror to heaven. It should reflect my Creator. 

I know that all of us fall short. But I don't want that to be my excuse. 

It is time to jump out of my little box and into line standing next to my friends and mentors who encourage my faith each step of the way and I want to be able to hold out my hand that others can grasp to stand next to me in a faith that changes lives.

That is my prayer............... and just so happens to be the Youth Bible Study for tonight! God is so so good!!!

My First Blog

I am random. There are no other words to describe my very existence. I am a random person. I have continuous random thoughts. There are moments in my life when all I can do is just sit back and admit that I am random.  I am sure there is something chemically imbalanced in my brain that causes me to be random... but I have grown to accept the fact that I live my life in random God filled moments. 

So part of my randomness is to start a blog. A blog of random thoughts, findings, and situations in my life that I feel the need to share. I apologize in advance for giving you even a small glimpse of what goes on in my head, and for the fact that if you start reading this blog.. you too may have to admit all of your random tendencies. 

My 10 year high school reunion just happened two weeks ago. Although I didn't go (total other random story) I have really spent the past couple of weeks reflecting on my life and what has happened over the past ten years. If you would have told me that I would be where I am in my life right now ten years ago...I wouldn't believe you. My life has been a complete journey full of ups and downs and wrong turns. A decade has passed and all of the goals and plans I had ten years ago are no where near any kinds of goals or plans I have right now. 

In fact I am finding at this turning point in my life that I am completely goal-less. I really don't have any goals...and I am wondering if that is a bad thing. For the past six months I have had to live my life in small God moments. I had to take each day as it came and for what God had planned. I leaned on that lifestyle for a while now and I am at a crossroads now. Do I continue to live my life in small God moments...go where the wind takes me with no plans or goals.....or do I create some goals. Do I go on a soul searching mission to figure out where I want to be in the next ten years? 

I am a planner. I plan everything... even to what I am going to eat and wear for the day. It was quite a process giving God my day and allowing him to guide me and I don't want to give that up... but I also don't want to live with any regrets  because I didn't have any goals. Do I set a goal not to have a goal? Do I set mini goals that I can attain easily? Do I set a major goal that I work towards? 

I love what Matthew 5:5 says from the Message:

You are blessed when you're content with just who you are-no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

My prayer is that I find a way to be content with who I am ... no more, no less.... Goals or no goals.