Help! I've been kidnapped by kids released from school

Summer is upon us.

I have evidence of that all about my house.

The kids have cleaned out their lockers. Tall stacks of weary and worn notebooks and half used pencils await my unorganized approach as to what to do with all this stuff.

And since the kids have no more homework, they have taken to busy themselves with things that make me tired already. Here is a glimpse of yesterday:

Brooke: Mom can I make a banana smoothie with ice cream in the blender or would you rather me just have an ice cream bar from the fridge?

Me: (Recognizing her brilliance for phrasing this question the way she did and not wanting to deal with the mess of a nine year old's approach to using the blender...) I'd rather you have an ice cream bar.

Ashley: Mom, would it hurt worse if a knife fell from the sky and hit your stomach or your arm?

Me: Hunh?

Ashley: Would it hurt worse if a knife fell from the sky and hit your stomach or your arm?

Me: If knives start falling from the sky, we are going to have worse problems than trying to strategically make them strike us in the most less hurtful places. (Yes, I confused even myself with that one... can you have a "most less hurtful place?")

Art: Brooke, please take your ice cream bar wrapper out of the toilet and throw it in the trashcan.

Me: Mark, honey, you made a mess in the kitchen that you will need to clean up. You got rice and something else all over the floor. What are all these little things?

Mark: Oh, uhhhhhh, well, uhhhhh, those are the toe nails you have to cut off the chicken feet before you cook them.

Me: OH MY STARS, OH MY STARS, MARK!!!! I JUST TOUCHED THOSE THINGS!!! Please get them up and throw them away in the bottom of the trash can... not the top... the very, very, very, bottom.... GAG!!!

Brooke: La, la, la, gross, gross, gross, la, la, la (she's singing while dripping toilet water from her ice cream wrapper through the house.) La, la, la.... TADA! (and on top of the chicken toe nails it goes.)

Me: Mark... Brooke... did you wash your hands?

Mark and Brooke: Hunh? Mom, it's fine we're going swimming.

Me: (Note to self... add extra chlorine to the pool.) You might want to consult Ashley about the condition of things falling from the sky first.

And it's only the first day of summer y'all.

Have mercy.

She Speaks 2008

If you are going to the She Speaks 2008 conference... here are some details just for you.

If you are not coming to She Speaks, I could still use your help with detail numbers one and four.

Detail number one:

Every year at She Speaks, the P31 team walks in to some hip, upbeat song to kick off the conference. While no one has yet mistaken us for contestants on "So you think you can Dance," we do have a lot of fun with this opening number.

I'm thinking several of you are great music minds.

You know... people who can recall the exact song title, group that sang it, what the album cover looked like, and the color of legwarmers the back up dancers wore. Yeah they can bring all that to mind while humming the exact tune of the chorus lines.

Do you know people like this?

Does this describe you?

I need your help.

I need a song. And a dance. But not like a flipping over onto your head break dance, dance. Just a fun, wave your hands in the air, get your blood pumping, walk in kind of dance.

But let's start with a song first. Any suggestions?

Detail number two:

If you are coming to She Speaks and you are a blogger, be sure to link to the Mr. Linky system below. I thought it would be fun for attendees to spend some time hopping around to each other's blogs before the conference.

Detail number three:

Big Mama is featuring business casual ideas on her Fashion Friday blog post this week.

Dress code for She Speaks is business casual. This does not mean you have to pull out your most high and tortuous heals to wear. Take it from someone who wound up with numb toes last year, you will do your fair share of walking. So, pack sensible shoes. You will thank me.

And check out Big Mama's suggestions. She will have some good ideas to help us look cute. And really when you gather that much estrogen under one roof, cute is fun.

Detail number four:

Our executive director, LeAnn, has had some strange things happen to her this week. A snake greeted her in her driveway the other night and then today at lunch she bit into her perfect looking apple only to discover it was completely rotten inside. We teased her that she better not start dressing in fig leaves.

Seriously, we have a sold out crowd of over 500 women coming to this year's conference. We know God has some amazing things in store for us all. So, we need people praying. And then praying some more. Thank you so much!

Detail number five:

Lisa over at Simply His Blogger has some great insights and interviews to help you prepare for She Speaks. Plus she also has a blog roll going of people who will be attending this year. Check her out.

And lastly, Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer is asking for your suggestions today regarding bloggy etiquette. You may want to head over there and post a comment... because really I think I have the most etiquette savvy readers around--- y'all are great.

And by the way, Sharon Sloan wants to know how many of us will be wearing the Denim duster from TJ Maxx that I mentioned my friend Meredith helped me buy. You know the $24.99 one that officially became my speaking uniform this spring. She's trying to figure out if we are going to have a Denim Duster reunion or just leave them all at home.

And technically that's 3 details crammed into detail number 5 but y'all are so nice, I can do that sort of thing.

Big Enough...

Good day friends! It's a Holly day today...

A few months ago when Lysa and I were running together, she prayed several powerful words that I will never forget. As soon as we finished our run I immediately headed inside to write them down.

While we were praying for a friend facing an extremely heartbreaking situation, she asked God to..."be big enough for our friend to handle the circumstances of today, yet small enough to be tender."

Big enough...yet small enough...

A simple thought, yet profound too.

And no one but God can do this.

Big enough to carry, protect, and guide us through our day, yet small enough to embrace, surround, and comfort us.

Each day holds endless unpredictable moments. Some of these moments are favorable as we find ourselves going about our normal routine. And then sometimes in an instant we find ourselves facing adverse scenarios which knock us off kilter.

But regardless of what we will face, we can completely rely on the one true constant in our lives...Jesus.

My prayer for you today is that you will see and experience that He is big enough for whatever you will encounter, yet small enough to personally envelop you with His love.

Holly~
(aka Lysa's assistant, running partner, and friend)

You are invited to dinner

Dinner at the TerKeurst's is always a hoot for one reason or another. Tonight the boys are cooking. They thought it'd be fun to invite you to be our guest.

The menu you ask?

We'll let's just say it is something that will knock you off your feet.


They'll start with a big pot of broth and add in some okra. Oh yes ma'am, I love okra.

Oh... but then you add a can of Sardines with added tomato sauce. This makes me pause. Those things stink. Seriously.

And now for Jackson's secret ingredient. Oh my stars!!!

CHICKEN FEET. Oh sisters o'mine. I almost passed out. I don't like feet of the human variety... have mercy. To see some poor chicken's feet floating in a pot I owned almost did me in. I gag even now.

But our newest teenager Ashley was quite impressed with her brother's culinary skills. Anyone want to join her? I'll be here with my specialty... which by the way, makes my boys gag.

Full

I'm pausing right now.

Tears are softly sliding down my cheeks.

Art is watching a taped sporting event. I'm glad I don't know the outcome of that game... I'd be so tempted to taunt him with possibilities of me accidentally spilling the beans.

The boys are home with friends in tow. Deep voices escape their rooms with bursts of laughter. Boys quietly turning into men are playing video games tonight.

Hope is asleep in one of my bedroom chairs. Her breathing is steady. Her curls falling haphazardly around her beautiful face. Her pink polished toes are sticking out from the blanket wrapped about her. When did her feet grow big enough to wear my shoes?

Little Brooke is snuggled close on my bed with me. She was so frustrated because she wanted to swim with big sis, Ashley, and friends. But I kept her inside with me. I'm glad I did. We snuggled and giggled and watched a movie together. She lasted 4 minutes into the movie before her eyes closed and sweet dreams became her entertainment.

And Ashley, now done with swimming, is flitting about the house with 4 great friends. The clock will strike midnight soon and it will officially be the day she turns 13 years old.

I want so desperately to freeze this moment. To drink in every sound, every sight, every delightful evidence of life. So many things to be thankful for.

I've had thousands of these every day life minutes but tonight is different.

I remembered to pause. To acknowledge what I've been blessed with. I didn't rush the kids off to bed so I could have my time.

I sat and soaked in the moment.

And with every tear that spilled out, I felt more and more full.

Maybe this is the true secret to contentment. Not reaching back for what was lost in my yesterdays. And not reaching for what I hope will be in my tomorrow. But living fully with what is right in front of me. And truly seeing the gift of this moment.

On this memorial day weekend, there is so much that each of us can pause and remember and be thankful for. And to everyone who has ever served in the armed forces to protect the freedom we have, I pause and thank God for you as well.

FYI... On Tuesday I'll announce the Suzanne Eller book giveaway winners.

Deep Grief

Sometimes when we lose things it causes a temporary panic that rises and falls in a mini-tidal wave fashion. Like earlier this year when I lost my camera with all our ski pictures on it. The panic escalated, crested with some hand wringing and mind racing, and then slowly ebbed away.

But sometimes a loss cuts into your heart so viciously that it forever redefines who you are and how you think. It's what I call deep grief.

The kind that strains against everything you've ever believed. So much so you wonder how the promises that seemed so real on those thin Bible pages yesterday, could possibly ever stand up under the weight of this enormous sadness today.

I once stood at the side of a casket too small to accept. Pink roses draped everywhere. And I watched my mom as she laid across the casket refusing to let go. How could she let go? Part of her heart laid within, so quiet and so still.

I stood paralyzed and stunned. Just days ago we were laughing and doing everyday things and assuming that all of our lives stretched before us in spans of many, many years. And then suddenly it all stopped.

In the flurry of funeral plans and memorial services we all operated on automatic. People were everywhere. Soft chatter filled in the gaps that our stunned silence could not. And enough food was brought in to feed the whole neighborhood.

But eventually people went back to their own lives. The soft chatter dissipated. The food stopped coming. And we were forced to carry on. Only we had deep grief wrapped about us that made our throats feel strangled and our feet stuck in mud.

I remember I tried to go to McDonalds to order a happy meal. But I couldn't. I sat in the drive-thru with the speaker spouting words at me I couldn't process. She kept asking if she could take my order.

Yeah I had an order. Take away my bloodshot eyes. Take away my desire to hurt the doctors that couldn't save my sister. Take away my anger toward God. And then take away my guilt for being the one that lived. I'll take all that with no onions and extra ketchup please.

I drove away sobbing. How dare they offer happy meals. No one should be happy today. Or tomorrow. Or next year.

This is the reality of deep grief. Even when you love God and believe in His promises. Even when you know without a doubt that you will see your loved one again. Even when you know hope is still there.

It takes time.

It takes wading through an ocean of tears.

It takes finding a possession of your loved one that you thought was lost and realizing God did that just to comfort you. It takes discovering one day that the sun still shines. It takes being caught off guard when you catch yourself smiling only to realize it's okay.

It takes prayer. It takes making the decision to stop asking for answers and start asking for perspective. It takes telling people to please not avoid saying her name- you want to hear it, over and over and over again.

Then one day you take off the blanket of deep grief. You fold it neatly and tuck it away. You no longer hate it or resist it. For underneath it wondrous things have happened. Things that could have only come about when Divine hope intersect with a broken world.

And finally you can see years stretching before you once again. You look up, blow a kiss, wipe a tear and find it's still possible to dance.

May we all keep the family of Steven Curtis and Marybeth Chapman in our prayers for all the time it will take to discover their dance again.

Marriage can sometimes be stinkin' hard

Happy Thursday to you my bloggy friend.

And a special welcome to the Proverbs 31 Devotion Readers who have popped over for a visit. I am so glad you have come to my blog today and not my house.

Otherwise I would have to ask that you please excuse the towels on the floor, the crumbs on my counter tops, the pile sitting by the front door that has needed to be toted to the Goodwill for over a week now, and of course the unpacked suitcase you could possibly trip over. I haven't quite gotten to these things since my trip last weekend.


If you'd like to leave a comment for me to read, just click on the word "comments" below and follow the steps in the box that pops up.


I love reading what y'all write in the comments. Seriously, it encourages the mess out of me.


Today's post is is about making the choice to lose a battle with my husband in order to win the victory of a great marriage.


Marriage can sometimes be stinkin' hard.


Think about it. You have two people who basically want what they want, when they want it. You join them together in one flower covered ceremony. Then the two shall become one and live happily ever after. Sounds like the perfect recipe for some good old fashioned friction.


Take for example the great TerKeurst microwave debate of 1995.

We moved into a new home with a new kitchen and new appliances. Except for the microwave from the early 1970's. Technically it was a Radarange that my husband had a great affinity for.

His motto: If it ain't broke, don't replace it.

My motto: If you have to stand beside it and count the seconds your food is in said machine because the turn dial timer no longer works, it is technically broken.

But since the food would still get hot, we hoisted the five hundred pound albatross of a hand-me-down microwave onto my new kitchen counter and called it a day. Never mind that your hair would curl if you stood too close. Oh I kid. Kinda.

Anyhow, there came the day that we forgot to tell the baby sitter about the whole "stand beside it and count down the seconds yourself because the timer is broken" thing.

She put a biscuit into the radarange and walked off. For a long time. Finally the smell of a charred pile of ashes reminded her of the little snack that no longer was.

I have never been so happy over one little cremated biscuit in all my life.

The radarange would have to be replaced. It smelled so horrible that you literally had to hold your breath when turning it on lest you die an instantaneous smelly death.

But this did not deter man cub o'mine. No siree. He just carried it out to the garage, placed it on a yellow little tykes table, plugged it in and we were back in the radarange business.

So let me make sure you get the full picture here.

To heat up food one would have to walk outside... place the plate of food inside the stinky machine... run far away lest the smell kill you dead... all the while counting the seconds of the food heating session... then run back to the radarange to hit the stop button... and finally retrieve your food.

Food that you had to fan before heading back inside lest you carry the smell of a dead biscuit with you.

With every fiber of my being I wanted to go to the joy called Walmart and get me a new $99 microwave. One with a digital timer. A digital timer y'all!

But Art liked the "outside radarange run and stink" arrangement.

I'm not sure which Sunday school lesson interfered with my desire to spite my husband. But I'm suspecting it had something to do with love being patient.

So, I pulled out a frying pan and chose to heat my leftovers on the stove top. And that's how I discovered the utter bliss of a fried biscuit.

You have never tasted anything so heavenly southern in all your life than a day old biscuit, cut in half, buttered, and then fried buttered sides down.

Thank you stinky radarange.

Thank you 1996 for being the year of the great radarange meltdown that let me finally spend $99 on a digital timer with a microwave attached.

And thank you Jesus for a husband that is money conscious enough to make sure me and my children have always had a roof over our heads and food on a table.

Even if it did stink really badly for one year.

Part Two- Your Teens: Making their faith their own

Once again we have Suzanne Eller joining us today. If you missed yesterday's post, click here. If you'd like to visit Suzanne's blog for teens, click here.

And we'll be giving away several copies of Suzanne's book, Making It Real, whose faith is it anyway?- so be sure to leave your name in your comments. We'll be announcing the winners on Friday.

Here's Suzie...

Yesterday we talked about one faithbuster: Living by Feelings. Let’s look at three more faithbusters that can cause detours in a teen’s faith walk.

· Living on Borrowed Convictions

Many teens have a check and balance system in place. If they stray too far, a talk with mom or the youth pastor draws them back into the safety zone. A teen may believe in God and accept the Bible as truth, but are those beliefs his or her own? Does your teen’s convictions come from sermons, your example, or their Christian upbringing?

These are all good things, but borrowed convictions aren't enough when a teen leaves home and is flying solo and is challenged over their principles or convictions. They can rehash what their pastor said or what mom or dad believes, but the key question here is: what does your teen believe?

Make It Real:

We need to encourage our teens’ faith walk. We are a society that believes in education. We talk about college from the time that our children can read. We look at potential universities and careers and create savings accounts to invest in them academically, but is our student’s faith encouraged in the same way?

If a teen were to ask a question about physics or algebra, we’d work to help them find answers, especially if they are struggling. But if a teen expresses doubt or questions their faith, a parent may see that as a threat or fear that their teen is walking away from God.

Many times they are asking questions because they want to know God or to be able to clarify what they believe in spite of cultural assumptions about Christianity. Or maybe they've made mistakes and they are wondering where God is in the midst of that. Mom and dad, God is big enough for our teens’ questions!

Share resources (great books, magazines, etc.) but also to be open to listen to their doubts or questions. (Listen all the way to the end.) If you don’t know the answer, don’t pretend that you do, but let your teen know that you are willing to dig deeper and search Scripture so that your understanding is enhanced as well.

Understand, that as they carve out their convictions, their faith may not look like yours.

Today, a lot of teens express their faith best out of the pew. That’s not dismissing the importance of church, but this generation wants to express faith in service. They want to travel to Mexico and build houses for those in need, or help the homeless. They also don’t focus on the external. They don’t believe that God cares as much about what they wear as what is in their heart.

· Confusing Faith with Tradition

Confusing faith with tradition is our next faithbuster. It’s the one my children had to sort through. But as they did, it transformed their relationship with God.

A tradition is something that you do by habit or custom. If you have Christmas at your house every year or unwrap gifts on Christmas Eve only, that’s a family tradition or custom. For many teens, church is tradition. They grew up watching Veggie Tales and singing “I Love My Lips” along with Larry the Cucumber.

I recently sat with a group of teens who were going through the book, Making it Real, in their discipleship small group. I shared this verse with them:

I’m after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings. (Hos. 6:6)

I explained that going to church on Sunday is an amazing freedom. It’s a temple where like-minded believers freely come to worship God. It’s a house of prayer. It’s a place of healing. It’s a place where you can study God’s Word together. It’s a community of believers. But Jesus lives inside of each of us and we are a temple.

What does God want? For us to know him and to love him. When you worship God on a daily basis you offer him love that lasts rather than religion. You grasp his healing power when you ask God to move in when you feel broken. You add to your faith when you get alone with him and search his Word.

By making God more than a habit, you learn what it means to call yourself Christian. No one can strip your faith away because it’s deeper than rituals or habit.

Make It Real:

Faith is confusing for some teens. Is it going to church three times a week? Is it the way I look? Is it being “good”? Is it being a “hater” because your convictions collide with cultural views? Is it reading my Bible every day? Is it making sure my room is clean (after all, cleanliness is next to godliness, right?) or hanging with the right people or listening to the right music? Simplify it for your teen. Faith is a vital and personal relationship with a Creator who knows them and loves them and desires the same in return.

Our teens get so many confusing messages about faith. It’s vital that we don’t add to the complexity. Do we see our teens like God sees them, as a work in progress, an individual that He loves and is directing into destiny? Do we take the pressure off of a teen and encourage them to explore a “just me and God” relationship instead of a to-do list that makes them look good on the outside, but hollow within?

· Making Faith a Group Activity

The physical building we call church isn't the only place that your teen will find God. He’s available to them outside those four walls. Spending daily time with God is where a teen gets to know God one-on-one. Faith becomes a group activity when a teen (or adult) avoid one-on-ones with God or wait for the music to tell them when and how to respond to him.

Make It Real:

Does your teen have a place that they can get alone and study or pray? A place where little brothers won’t interrupt, or where they can journal for a few minutes each day? (A lot of teens may struggle with praying, but are very comfortable with expressing their thoughts to God in a journal. It’s praying, but just in a different way.)

Encourage that private time. I love the scripture found in Matthew 6:8 where Jesus says that God knows what we need before we even ask. Encourage your teen with this scripture. He or she may not know what to say to God, but it doesn't matter. He already knows and He’s listening. It takes the pressure off.

If your teen is spending alone time with God, don’t regulate it. That makes it a duty (pleasing you) rather than personal. Can you imagine going to see a friend and checking your watch and saying, “I have to spend 15 minutes with you today. It’s on my mom’s to-do list.” I tell teens to simply make it a meeting with their Creator—every day—and not to sweat what they should say, or how long they are there, but rather to begin to connect with Him daily.

I love it when a teen runs up and says, “I was going to read a few Scriptures and talk to God for a few minutes and I looked up and a whole hour had gone by.” It’s not the amount of time, but the fact that they are learning the beauty and joy of spending time with God.

From Suzie: I’ll try to check in throughout the day if you have questions. Thank you to Lysa for allowing me to share my love for teens with you today and yesterday on her wonderful blog! I’ll be on the Harvest Show on Friday talking about this very topic. I hope you tune in.

And remember to leave your name in your comments as we'll be giving several of my books away. We'll announce the winners this Friday.

Blessings, Suzie Eller

Your Teens: Making Their Faith Their Own

Today we have another special guest, Suzanne Eller. She is the author of "Making it Real- Whose Faith is it Anyway?" She also has a great blog for teens called "Real Teen Faith."

And she has offered to give away some FREE COPIES of her book. Be sure to leave your name in your comment so we'll know who you are if you are chosen.

Now without further ado... here's Suzanne:

Real Quote: "I miss the time when I was a little girl and I just believed. Now it’s filled with explanations and doubt and trying to get rid of the doubt. For some reason, a long time ago, it stopped being simple. I just want it to be about me and God."
--Amanda W., Age 17

Your teen might be asking tough questions, like: Why can’t I feel God? What do I really believe? Where is God when things fall apart? If they are asking these questions, they are not alone.

Even the disciples—guys called to hard core ministry—wrestled with these uncertainties. They saw miracles happen right in front of them. They encountered religious people acting anything but godly. They were persecuted for their beliefs. The longer they spent time with Jesus the more they grasped real-life answers and also stumbled onto more questions.

It’s no different today for a believing teen. What your teen hears from his pastor may be vastly different than what they hear from unbelieving friends. They live out their convictions in a world that does not always understand them. In the midst of this complexity, they have to sort out what is truth and what is hype.

Many parents believe that going to church is enough, but can we ignore recent studies that show that college age students and twenty-somethings often leave their Christian faith behind once they leave the nest, in spite of strong levels of spiritual activity during their teen years? Church involvement alone doesn’t often translate into an active, vibrant relationship with God after you leave the nest.

Rather than just creating really great church kids, our prayer can be to encourage a life-long relationship with Christ that will stand on its own.

While you cannot force a relationship with God (defeats the purpose of intimacy), you can help your teen by understanding four things that confuse the issue of faith for your son or daughter.

Today, we’ll explore the first of four faithbusters that get in the way of your teen making his faith his own.

Faithbuster #1 - Living by feelings

Living your faith life by feelings happens when God is only as great or as small as the last experience. A teen experiences God and they swoosh up. They make a mistake and plummet.

They don’t worship God in service or in their daily life because they feel unworthy. When faith is all about feelings, it’s easy to nose dive. The real danger is that when a teen no longer “feels” God, they might be temped to turn to what feels good at the moment.

Let your teen know that God is bigger than our feelings. Ephesians 1:19 (New Living) says, “I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.”

When a teen places her trust in feelings, she learns to believe in her emotions or circumstances rather than scriptural truth. Even when a teen is doing everything “right”, sometimes they’ll have to deal with feelings. Maybe a best friend moves away or the family goes through hard times. God’s love for the teen remains firm. He’s on the scene and he will walk with your teen through the tough times.

Maybe he messed up. Perhaps everybody knows that he made a mistake. If he allows opinion or shame to keep him from worshiping God, then he’s made God as small as his feelings. Help your teens grasp that they have the freedom to worship Christ because he’s the only one who can put a person back on track.

He can be honest with God, find forgiveness, and search for answers that help him make a better choice next time. Living out their faith in this way helps them discover that real-life Christianity is more about God than about our feelings or emotions.

MAKE IT REAL: Is your teen struggling to define his or her faith? Pray for them. Live out your faith in front of them – not with words, but with your own journey of intimacy with God as you spend time with him, as you let God shape your life. They hear so many confusing messages about what they should do, or should be, or what they aren’t doing.

Whether you know it or not, they are listening to the unspoken sermons of your life.

Thanks Suzanne. Great insight and advice! Join us tomorrow as we talk about 3 more faithbusters. Don't forget to leave a comment in order to register to win a copy of Suzanne's book.

Before sending my child to college

My son Jackson is finishing his junior year of high school this month. Next year at this time we'll be getting him ready to venture off to college. Part of me is very excited for him, but another part of me feels cautious as well.

I feel that we've done a good job getting him ready for adulthood. But there's one area we need to do a little more. I think after reading this guest post today from Dr. Frank Turek, you'll see what I mean...

Part 1: Intellectual Predators
By Dr. Frank Turek , co-author of I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
Founder and President of www.CrossExamined.org

“Dad, I’m not sure I believe in God anymore.”

My friend never thought he would hear those words. After all, he’s a well-known pastor with a large church and an international ministry. Yet, after just one year of college, his own daughter doubted nearly everything he tried to instill in her for eighteen years. “I now realize that I did not do a good job showing her why Christianity is true,” he told me. “Now, it might be too late.”

He’s not the only parent or pastor who’s failed to provide sound answers to young people. There are plenty of examples:

Julie, a pastor’s daughter, became an agnostic at UNC Chapel Hill.

Steve, son of a famous Christian, renounced biblical morality at Elon.

John, a high school worker for Campus Crusade, became an atheist after reading a Richard Dawkins' book on atheism.

In fact, the problem is at epidemic levels — 75% of young adults raised in a Christian home leave the church after they leave the home. Think about that — on average, three out of every four kids attending your youth group won’t be attending any church a few years from now.

Why are they leaving? Some think church is irrelevant. Others, out on their own for the first time, are attracted by all the world has to offer and put God on the back burner. Yet many leave because they’ve come to doubt Christianity. In fact, intellectual skepticism is a major reason cited by those who have left.

We can lay the blame for much of this on ourselves — that is, on the church. While there are notable exceptions, many American churches over-emphasize emotion and ignore the biblical commands to develop the mind (1 Pet 3:15, 2 Cor. 10:5).

In other words, we’re doing a great job performing for our youth with skits, bands and videos, but a terrible job informing them with logic, truth, and a Christian worldview. We’ve failed to recognize that what we win them with we win them to. If we win them with emotion, we win them to emotion.

Intellectual Predators on Campus: In 2007, two Jewish researchers conducted a survey to discover the degree to which College faculty are anti-Semitic. To their surprise, they found very little anti-Semitism among professors. Instead, they found professors harbor a distinct anti-Christian bias, particularly toward evangelical students.

The survey showed that:

· The most disliked students by college professors are evangelical Christians. More than half (53%) of all college professors view evangelical students unfavorably. Mormons are next at 33 percent, followed by Muslims at 22 percent. Jewish students have the lowest unfavorable ratings—only three percent.

· College professors are five times more likely to identify themselves as atheists than the general public.

· College professors are more than twice as likely to identify themselves as liberal than the general public.

One former professor summed up the climate on campus well when he warned parents that “we professors are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.” He said that we professors “arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own.”

This is the environment into which intellectually unarmed Christian students are sent. Are your kids ready? Do you want to know how you can get them ready?

Visit our website www.CrossExamined.org and check back here at Lysa’s blog this week for Part 2.

And pray I did

Two weeks ago Ashley told me she wanted to quit gymnastics.

There were several factors playing into this.

She has had a hard time battling back from the shoulder injury that caused her to miss her big final meet for this season. Her best friend and team mate decided to transition to competitive cheerleading. And turning 13 this month, she is becoming increasingly aware of the social opportunities she sometimes has to miss because of her strict training schedule.

To be honest when she told me she wanted to quit, a part of me was happy.

Gymnastics is time consuming and expensive. Not to mention what it does to this mother's heart when I see her miss a connection and fly off a piece of equipment knowing the landing will hurt.

But a part of me was sad too.

She has always had the goal in mind of shooting for a college scholarship. It's been something she's talked about since she was little. Plus, unlike her mama, she is a great athlete that needs a lot of physical activity.

I've always told Ashley that to stay in gymnastics she had to want it for herself and that I would never push her. But I also believe that sometimes kids do no have the maturity to make decisions that will affect them down the road so as parents we do have to help navigate them.

It is a balancing act, is it not?

So, when she informed Art and me that she was ready to quit, we told her this could not be a snap decision and that she would not be allowed to jump right into cheerleading with her best friend. We would require her to take six months off from doing any sport to regroup. We also told her that she needed to pray about this decision before she quit and that we would be praying as well.

And pray I did.

I prayed that God would give me wisdom to see His perfect plan for this decision.

Two days later, we were out at a restaurant eating dinner. Across the room we spotted a girl that used to be at Ashley's gym. She had graduated and gotten a full scholarship to Michigan State University. When she saw us, she came over to our table to say hi and ask about Ashley.

We told her of Ashley's struggles right now with gymnastics.

Then the idea popped into my head to ask her if she would take Ashley out to dinner one day and talk with her. Not to talk her into staying with gymnastics but to talk to her about coming back from an injury, and making the decision to stick with it even when your friends quit. I also wanted her to be honest with Ashley about the sacrifices she made sticking with it all the way through college and whether or not those sacrifices were worth it.

Two days later, Ashley came home from meeting with the collegiate gymnast with a fresh vision and renewed commitment. Not only does she not want to quit but she wants to one day go to Michigan State.

Who knows what the future holds. But isn't it a beautiful lesson on the power of prayer?

I had specifically asked God to give me wisdom to know how to help Ashley navigate this decision and then we run into the very person who she needed to talk with.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

Bit by the decorating on a budget bug

It seems that several of us have been bit by the decorating on a budget bug this week. So, I thought it would be fun to do a little more show and tell. Be advised, I am no expert.

I am an amateur and a deal finder. Some of my ideas may go against every good and qualified decorator's advice. However, I do have fun finding cheap things and putting them to good use in a fun way.

And I figure since the Bible clearly says that the Proverbs 31 woman made coverings for her bed this is all quite Biblical... somehow.

A great starting place when seeking to decorate a space is to pick an object to serve as your color palette. It can be a piece of fabric, a rug, or even a floral arrangement.

Here is an arrangement that I used for the color palette for most of the downstairs of my home. I love the earthy tones mixed with splashes of red. I also love the interesting texture and pattern of the feathers.

I heart chunky accessory groupings. I got these three pieces for a great deal from Steinmart. I obviously like stores that end in the word "mart." Again, look at the floral arrangement in the photo above that serves as my color palette. Having those colors as my guide makes it easier to pick out accessories that work.

I also love to put things in my home that tell a story about my loved ones. My husband is an avid outdoorsman. I am prissy and can't understand his burning desire for dangerous adventure. But it is part of who he is and since I love him, I've decided to embrace things he likes.

It took some prayer ladies... just FYI.

Here we have one of his trophy mounts. Right beside it, I placed enlarged black and white photos of Art on one of his expeditions. The cool black distressed frames are straight from Walmart.

These pictures tell quite a story and I've grown to love seeing him telling all people of the testosterone variety his tales while standing in this part of our home.

Here's another thing that tells a story. In our den we have two handcrafted tables from the Adirondack Mountains. A friend of ours works at a family camp that we go to each year. He makes these tables and sells them to help support his family.

Not only are they beautiful but they are wonderfully unique with a story about where we spend part of our summer each year.

I've learned to not be afraid to add something a little funky here and there in my home. I got this chandelier at Lowes. It was the cheapest option.

So, to add a little spunk, I replaced the standard white shades with these red ones. Then in a crazy mess of hot glue and black craft feathers... wallah... Don't ask me how many times I burned myself and sent a red lamp shade flying across the room.

Remember the beauty of the unexpected. Things don't have to be matchy-matchy. My budget has never allowed me to walk into an expensive furniture store show case room and buy a complete set of furniture. I've collected pieces from here and there over the past 16 years. Part of the fun of decorating is finding things that look uniquely you.

In my dining room, I have quite the unexpected collection of furniture... but I love it. Remember the color palette from above to understand how all this works together. I found my china cabinet for a steal in the scratch and dent section of a discount furniture store. Because the piece is painted to look distressed, I couldn't find anything about this piece that looked damaged.

I found the black and brown woven chairs at a tent sale for $25 each. I love how unexpected they look at a traditional dining room table. At the end of each table I placed a pair of fabric covered chairs to give the set some bulk and again to tie in colors from my color palette.

And the wicker plate chargers? Walmart!

Lastly, don't sweat the small stuff... we all have unsightly stains on our carpets or crayon marks down the hall way... or piles that still need to be put up somewhere, sometime.

Sigh... will my work ever be done?

Happy decorating. Remember, wait for a good deal... collect things that look uniquely you over time... have fun... and post pictures for us to see when you complete a project.

The Light at the End of the Junk Pile

A couple of you asked yesterday where did I keep the things for my bedroom that I'd been collecting since last July. I wish I had a fabulous answer of great storage possibilities. But as you can see from the "before" photo above, I do not have such answer. I had an unsightly pile in my bedroom.


This photo was taken last Christmas. If you look closely in the upper right hand corner of the picture, you will see my Walmart bags with the curtain rods sticking out of the top of the bags.

Also, mixed in this photo you will see our ski clothes plastic bin... an Easter basket... a summer beach bag... a basket of Christmas cards from the 2006 holiday season...bags containing gifts for the 2007 Christmas season... and a craft project I somehow tricked myself into thinking I'd have time for.

Like I said yesterday, my bedroom had become a catch all of stuff.

And do you know what I learned from getting my bedroom all cleaned out and prettified?

Stuff is a stealer.

Having all that stuff in my room stole space that could be used for a bedroom that functions well and looks beautiful. It stole my peace of mind. It stole a feeling of serenity when I walked into my bedroom. It stole the proper use of the room to be a haven for my husband and myself.

Had I any idea what I was allowing that stuff collecting to take from me, I would have cleared it out a long time ago. Sadly, I just walked over and around that junk and kind of became numb to it.

The rest of my house looked tidy and neat. No one but my husband and I knew all the junk was there. When guests came over, I just shut the door to my bedroom and the little messy secret was hidden.

But this room should actually have been top priority to me. This is where Art and I spend the majority of our time alone together. This is where we talk about each other's days and make our big life decisions. This is where we relax after putting the kids to bed. This is where we watch movies, read, laugh and love. This is where we retreat. And sadly, this had become a junk room.

But not any longer.

I have seen the light of how invigorating it can be to get the stuff cleaned out and the surroundings put in an orderly fashion that looks beautiful. I love it. Yesterday I found myself drawn to sit in the over sized chairs and soak in the order of the room.

I once heard it said, "Organization invigorates, disorder drains." I couldn't agree more!

Is there a space in your home where you are allowing stuff to steal the beautiful possibilities for that room? Write a comment below. Make the commitment to do something about it.

Take it from this naturally disorganized woman who has seen the light at the end of the junk pile- you'll be so glad you did.

Look What I Found At the Walmart!

*** Updated with Pictures ****

Oh do I have something fun to share today! This is a project I have been working on, saving for, and if I'm really honest putting off dealing with since last July.

It all started when I took Jackson to get his driver's license last summer. The line was in one word- obnoxious. Seriously. I signed him in, found out about the 2 hours wait and devised a plan.

"Honey, you sit here and listen for your name. I'm going to run next door to the SUPER WALMART... love that store from the bottom of my heart. When you see that your number is getting close to coming up on that screen, call me on my cell and I'll scoot right back over here. "

Well, when I walked into the Walmart and knew I had close to 2 hours to kill, I started to meander in parts of the store that I usually don't have time for. Y'all I think that a fancy smancy designer person has been hired by the corporate Wally World. Because what I found made my heart beat fast.

I almost started moon walking straight down the aisle.

Now, I hate to leave you hanging... really I do. But I've got to get the kids to school. I don't think it would look too good to sign them into the school office late with the excuse that I was blogging.

However, I will back--- with pictures--- in just a few minutes!

I'm back and I have one thing to say before getting to my big Walmart find... today some people that I love very much got on the last good nerve that I had in my body. I even made them eggs today people. Homemade eggs with frozen baked biscuits. Don't ask what other kind of eggs are there rather than homemade. Remember I've used up my last good nerve today. Sorry... I had to get that off my chest.

Okay... back to what I found!!!

Stuff to decorate my bedroom. Beautiful, expensive looking, but really inexpensive bedroom decor. I'm telling you the minute I saw it my heart started singing. So, since last July I have been slowly collecting things, buying things, and waiting.

Now, without further ado, I present to you- The bedroom by Walmart...

All of the bedding, pillows, curtains and curtain rods are all from Walmart. Can you believe it???

The scrollie thing above the window had to be purchased to cover up some oopsie holes in the wall from another one of my brainstorm projects gone bad. I found those on clearance at Kirklands.

The lamps I got buy one get one free at Hobby Lobby.

This table I got at a junk store for $25. The chairs I found at an outlet store with no air conditioning. The salesman was overheated that day and gave me the chairs at a steal of a deal. The pillows are from Walmart.

I'll spare you the painful details of how many bags of junk that had to be cleared from my bedroom. Sad to say, my room seems to have been dubbed the catch all room for quite some time now.

Not any longer! When Art came home he was shocked. And when I told him most everything came from Walmart he was thrilled.

Dear Fancy Smancy Designer Person on staff at Walmart:

Thank you for making pretty stuff that people can afford. If you want to pay me for my advertising, I would love to talk. Really, you could send me some stuff to give to my bloggy friends and everyone would be very pleased. Then you could have many more women doing the moon walk in the aisles of your store and the world would be such a happy place.

Have your people call my people.

The Cutting Edge

*** Updated with Photos... see below!

I love being on the cutting edge of knowing something that I haven't heard others talking about yet. It just gives me this sense of smartness. It doesn't happen very often.

But when it does, I just can't help but to bust out in some serious dance moves.

Ones that could rival Michael Jackson. (Not that I support him at all but I do remember loving his dance moves when I was a teen.) You know the little hand swoopie thing from Thriller... oh yes ma'am. Great moves that with just the right head bobbing send teenagers into an embarrassment tizzy that just brings great joy to a mom approaching her 39th year of life.

Too bad I lost my glove with the fingers cut off. But I bet I could still find a shiny jacket with some chains draped from the bottom. Can't you just picture it all. What a joy to have grown up in the 80's.

Okay so back to my cutting edge knowledge...

What do you call the hair that is cut shorter around the forehead which frames the face?

Bangs?

Oh, that is so old school my friend. No, no, no...

Bangs are now called Fringe.

I love that!

"Miss Hairdresser, my fringe is just a little long and needs to be trimmed. Because I am in an 80's kind of mood. And well in the 80's we sure did know how to do fringe well. I mean using the right hair spray, I could get my fringe in a full and upright position."

Lysa and friend circa 1988

Now that photo gives a new meaning to the word Thriller does it not. Who told us our fringe looked good like that? Have mercy.

Speaking of have mercy hair do's... you gals and your requests for photos of the highlights that saved my life. Well, here you go...

This was me yesterday in the early hours of morning sitting down to have my sweet stylist, Dawn, cover over the highlights with brown... glorious, glorious brown. It was either do that or pull out a brown sharpie and color each blond strand myself.

Now I'm back to my plain old brown haired self.

And it's a thriller, thriller yeah!

That really is a horrible song that I don't like at all. But the words are appropriate for what I faced Friday morning ya'll:

"Darkness Falls Across The Land
The Midnight Hour Is Close At Hand
Creatures Crawl In Search Of Blood
To Terrorize Ya'lls Neighborhood"

Oh yes, we are talking BLOOD... did you see that word blood? Oh and I gag again! But in keeping with the 80's theme I'll say, "Gag me with a spoon."

It was a tick. And yes, I've already googled all the symptoms of Lime's disease and Rocky Mt. Spotted Fever and all of the other delightful gifts this kind of creature can bestow on a human. Especially ones with large, colorful, inviting hair do's.

And the winner of my "The Bathtub is Overflowing But I Feel Drained" book...

Cheri from Please Pass the Salt. Her guess was wrong but her poem hilarious!

May your Mother's Day be filled with only delightful creatures that don't bite.

How My Highlights Saved My Life

So, hello.

I promise we really are going to have a special guest coming our way soon to talk about Apologetics in an everyday person way. I talked with him this week and I would have been able to get it together to post today but then I went and got my hair highlighted.

Now my brain can't produce a deep thought to save my life. All thoughts are of the surface variety.

My girls think my highlighted hair is the best thing I've ever done. I believe one of them said I look like a teenager. Seeing as someone at a recent speaking event guessed my age somewhere between 45 and 50, being called a teenager is like a healing balm to my shallow ego.

My son Mark said, "Oh you did something to your hair. It looks good." I explained that I had gotten some highlights put in it and I was still trying to decide if I liked it or not. I told him sometimes I'll walk past a mirror and think, "cute." But then five minutes later I'll find myself staring in the mirror thinking, "oh, dear."

He was then quick to add that he really didn't like it at all but didn't want to hurt my feelings. Coming from a boy wearing jeans with red and white paint designs down the side of one leg, I highly regard his fashion and hair advice.

I think the thing that is tripping me up is that I'm a rule follower. And well, earlier this week I talked to Shari Braendel... color expert and fashionista extraordinaire. I thought she would be so excited that I was actually stepping out into the highlighted world of women's hair. But no, no, no.

She told me that I am the color type "clear" and of all six color types only the clear should stay away from highlights. But I'd already made the appointment. So, I then had a crises in my little rule following heart.

In my book it was against the rules to cancel the appointment for the next day. But then it was also against the rules to go ahead and have my hair highlighted because I'm a "clear." Which obviously only applies to my coloring and not the state of my brain.

I showed up at the appointment and the sweetest hairdresser in the world named Dawn patiently discussed my options... she is the bomb and cuts most of the Proverbs girls' hair now. Anyhow, she encouraged me to try it and if I didn't like it, we could fix it.

And here we are with highlighted hair.

So, this morning I sit down in my nice little air conditioned house... which by the way doesn't have any live plants in it because I'm good at killing things that are green. No live plants... did you get that detail. That means no trees, no ferns, no live anything that can hide creatures okay? And I'm all thinking about my highlights and my blog post and I'm running my fingers through my hair and what to my wandering fingers should appear???!!!!???

I can't even type it without gagging.

I'm serious, I'm gagging right now.

Oh my stars, I can't even say it or write it.

So, that's where you come in... finish this story in a sentence or two and I'll pick one of you to win a copy of my book "The Bathtub is Overflowing But I Feel Drained... how to defeat mommy stress."

And you'll be happy to know that I wrote that book back when "clear" described my thoughts not my color scheme.

Happy Mother's Day weekend sweet friends.

The Great Bathroom Embarrassment of 2008

Just a little note to self:

If I ever decide to build another home, I will not put the downstairs 1/2 bath right next to the front door. If I am tempted to repeat this situation that exists in my current home, I hope to recall the great entry way embarrassment of 2008.

Yes, the time I lost track of time and decided it no big deal to go potty with the bathroom door wide open. Just as I sat down, the boys came home from school with a friend in tow.

And I couldn't just quietly shut the bathroom door, oh no ma'am. I had to scream so that all eyes headed straight for my precarious position. And then I proceeded to hop forward still in a seated position to try and slam the door.

This of course gave my son Mark the brilliant idea to cap off my little escapade using a handy dandy mechanism he'd been saving for just the right moment. As I walked back into the kitchen hoping for magical words to erase said embarrassment, he had his device ready to go.

The minute I sat down on my usual chair a sound reverberated through the kitchen for all to hear. The battery powered whoopee cushion caused great hysteria to ensue.

But all was not lost. The boys were not interested in the cookies that bathroom flashing flatulence woman had made. So, I spent the better part of the afternoon eating yummy treats and designing a new home... complete with bathroom doors that automatically shut when one gets near the toilet.

And with that I closed my mouth

A special hello to those checking out my blog from the Proverbs 31 Devotion. Today's post is about wisdom based parenting. Not that I am claiming to be a wise parent. Just every now and then, God grants me just enough wisdom to handle a certain situation. Today's example is about me learning to admit when my child is actually right. If you'd like to leave a comment, click on the word "comments" below.

Last weekend at the beach I was officially the sunscreen dictator.

You know the drill: "Okay kids. We have pasty white skin. We have a bright sunny day. We have deceptively mild temperatures that will make us think we can stay out all day and not get burned. But don't be fooled young grasshoppers. That sun that feels so blissfully safe will blister the fool out of you. So lather up! Lather up! Lather up good!"

Basically it was an invitation for my teenagers to apply the least amount of the lowest SPF available.

Like any good mom I kicked into the second part of the drill after a few hours in the sun: "Time to reapply. Oh, I think you are getting red. Oh you might really want to coat that area extra well. I'm serious I think you need to use a higher SPF. Okay, but if you burn, I don't want to hear about it. I'm not kidding, I think you are going to be sorry. Not a peep when you have to sit out the rest of the trip soaking in aloe inside. Not a word...okay? Did I mention I think you are getting burned?"

And that was basically an invitation for the teenagers to tell me that something funny was going on with my sunglasses as they were absolutely positive they were most certainly not getting burned.

Let's just say there is a reason I am called Mom and they are not. Later that afternoon the third part of the drill happened while digging the aloe out of the bottom of my suitcase. "One day you'll learn that I actually do know what I'm talking about. When I say you need sunscreen- when I say you are getting burned- when I say you'll be soaking in aloe the rest of our time here- you should listen."

It would have sufficed for me to simply stop there. Point made. The consequences were speaking so loudly that I really didn't have to say another thing.

But with each complaint about how painful a sunburn is, I just couldn't stop myself. I just had to play that "You should have listened to your mama" record again and again and again. Finally, Hope stopped me when she quietly said, "Mom, I've learned my lesson. Please stop saying how you were right and I was wrong. I mean, just think how you would feel if someone followed you around for a whole day reminding you of your obvious mistake."

It stopped me dead in my self righteous tracks. Sometimes the wisest choice a parent can make is to stop talking and really listen. She was right. I wouldn't want someone reminding me all day of my mistakes. I carefully took her sunburned body into my arms and apologized.

And then I handed her the sunscreen with an SPF of 30... and we both smiled. Well, okay, she rolled her eyes. But inside I know she was smiling.

Still Holding Hands

The other day driving back from the beach an amazing sunset stretched before us. I quickly pulled out my camera and started clicking away. The way the night descends on earth is nothing short of an artistic masterpiece.

For me, it was like a love letter from the Lord. Though no words flashed across the sky, there was clearly a message in this beauty.

My mind was drawn back to many years. Fifteen and half years ago to be exact... December 5, 1992. A young couple stood at the alter having no clue what the vows they nervously repeated meant. "To have and to hold from this day forward"... it was just what the pastor said so they repeated it back in a clueless kind of way.

They felt in love. A giddy kind of electric current drew them together. They liked what they got from each other. It just felt right.

Little did they know that you don't feel your way into real love. You choose your way into real love.

I should look at the verses of 1 Corinthians 13 and realize it is not a wish list of how I hope Art will treat me. Rather it is a list of choices I must make of how I will treat him.

Instead of reading it... "Your love should be kind and patient and not keep a record of wrongs."

I must make the choice instead to say... "I am making the choice that my love will be kind. My love will be patient. And I will choose not to keep a record of wrongs."

Sometimes I wish I could go back and talk to my bride self. I would tell her to especially listen to the words of the prayer that Art's Dad prayed over us. There were many threads of wisdom with which a couple could weave together a banner to place before them... to be a reminder of the sacred vows and promises being made.

In one part of the prayer Mr. TerKeurst said, "And then when the sun is setting and the years have gone by, may this couple be found then as now standing together, still hand in hand, still thanking God for each other."

Something about that sunset love letter from God the other night made my breath catch in my throat. For I suddenly remembered that wedding day prayer. And I must admit I felt convicted.

Somehow in the craziness of life's schedule, I couldn't remember the last time we just took time to hold hands and talk about us. Not our teenager's choices, or the broken down car, or why there are so many weeds this year, or how did your meeting go today, or did you return that video back to the store... not that kind of conversation. No, I mean the kind of conversation that seems harder and harder to find time for in the midst of life.

The kind of conversation that we are overdue for is the kind you remember and treasure and hold on to. For another day will surely come where these conversations will be the sweetest of all our memories. The day when the sun sets on our lives and one of us will lay the other in the arms of Jesus...may it be so with no regrets.

A Mom's Conversation with the Lord

A few weeks ago, Ashley injured her shoulder while gearing up for her largest gymnastics meet of the season. If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that Ashley loves gymnastics and has spent a year preparing for level 8 competitions. She's had an amazing time with gymnastics over the past 10 years winning several state titles and progressing to each next level with great excitement.

But this year has been an uphill battle.

She's had to push through many hard times to get to the ultimate level 8 meet: Regionals. She finally qualified with her last event at her state meet. That same state meet that she competed even though she was sick and her mother was protesting.

Finally, with one last glorious flip, she made it! There were cheers all around and much joy as we all looked ahead to this goal she'd been talking about for a year.



She had great practices the week after states. Things seemed to be clicking along like she'd planned. But with one slip off the bar and a pretty bad landing, her shoulder was injured.

And no amount of rehab could get her ready in time. So, with tears and great disappointment, she had to scratch from the meet.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I know in the great scheme of life, this is such a small thing. But in Ashley's world, it is big. Therefore, it led me to have one of those conversations with the Lord that I'm sure many moms have had at one time or another. If your child has ever had to walk through the yuck of disappointment, maybe you can relate.

The Mom: Lord, I have to tell you it is a hard thing for a mother to watch her child work so hard for something only to have her dreams dashed by an injury.

The Lord: Do the words of Job 17:11 express the way you are feeling? "My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart."

The Mom: Lord, you could make her better. You could strengthen her shoulder and make her well enough to compete. Lord don't you see her tears? If seeing her sadness breaks my heart, I know it must break your heart too. It is hard for me to understand when I know that you could fix this in an instant.

The Lord: Recall the beauty of trusting the only One who can see what is and what is to come. Remember my words in Nahum 1:7... "The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him."

The Mom: I do trust you Lord. But for all that work to end like this is so hard. It just seems so pointless.

The Lord: Oh, nothing I do is pointless. Nothing you go through is pointless. This lesson will work good for her now and it will work good for her in the future. You only think you know what is best for her. But I have such a grand plan and purpose in all this. Proverbs 19:20-21... "Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."

The Mom: Show me how.

Isaiah 55:8-9... You don't have to have answers Lysa. You just need to trust. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

The Mom: At least tell me how to comfort her.

The Lord: I have put a gift right in front of you. Michelle offered her beach house to you. Take her up on that offer. You will be so blessed in this time away. As you walk through this experience of trusting me, your confidence in me and Ashley's confidence in me will grow stronger still. Jeremiah 17:7... "blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him."

The Mom: But what about the desires of her heart Lord?

The Lord: I am the only one who even knows the full scope of those desires Lysa. Your job isn't to figure out how to make her desires come to pass. Your job is to simply teach her to trust me and make wise choices. Psalm 37: 3-4... "Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

So, we packed up on the spur of the moment last week and headed to the Beach.

A glorious weekend of fun, sun, and connection with the Lord and each other awaited us. Here are Holly, Hillary, Me, Hope, Nancy, Ashley, and Brooke...

The weather was perfect...

Holly got in the ocean and swam with Brooke! Now that is a good friend for ya'!

Daddy even let Ashley put his hair in a Mohawk.

What a great Daddy!

Many reminders of just how Big and Mighty and Glorious our God is were at the Beach. And in the end, I asked Ashley where she would have rather spent her weekend- at her competition or at the Beach?

Without hesitation she replied, "At the Beach!"

Thank you Lord. While I may not understand your ways- I do trust them.

Oh Do I Have a Treat for You!!!

Sunny Top of the Morning To You...

We have sun.

We have salty water.

We have junk food.

We have no running shoes.

We have a bathing suit cover up.

We have sun screen.

We have girls and girl friends and time to be silly before the boys arrive.

Oh yes ma'am, a good recipe for some serious fun.

I'll try to post some photos this weekend.

Oh and we have a winner!!!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:154
Timestamp: 2008-05-02 11:52:55 UTC

Mocha with Linda is the winner of the $20 Starbucks certificate. Congrats!!!

Okay... now here is the treat I have for you...

Sometime next week, we'll have a special guest joining us. He is an Apologetics expert who teaches people how to defend their faith in no nonsense simple ways. Ways that make sense to the average person.

He is such a fascinating person to talk with!!! By the end of our time together you will feel so smart and equipped to talk truth.

He now has a ministry taking these truths into college campuses around the country!

So, stay tuned. You never know what might pop up on this little blog o' mine.

A Cure for Pasty White Skin

You gals have simply blown me away with your attention to my title dilemma. Your excitement over this project has lit a little fire in me to really get moving on this project. I'm praying through each of your posts and suggestions... and yes I've read through them all several times. I really want to get this title right.

I'll post the winner of the coffee gift certificate tomorrow... as long as I have Internet service. I'm taking my girls on a fun little last minute get away this weekend. If you don't see a post from me tomorrow, just know that I will be back on Sunday. Hopefully with a cure to my pasty white winter skin. Smiles!

And while I am excited about catching a few rays... that's not the real reason we're headed somewhere sunny. We're doing this get away because Ashley had to scratch from her big Regional Gymnastics meet this weekend.

Scratching from the biggest meet of the season was a hard decision that we let her make. Her shoulder still does not have full range of motion. Watching her handle the ups and downs of this competition season with such maturity has made me realize you don't have to win to be a champion.

Though she tried with all her might to come back this time, the continued pain in her shoulder made her realize the realities of that catchy rock song, "You can't always get what you want... no you can't always get what you waaaant."

Who sang that? Was it Mick Jagger? Cindy Lauper? Barry Manelow? Obviously, I'm no music expert. I don't even think I spelled their names right. But I don't want to use google right now because those little shiny things scare me. What are those?

Anyhow, speaking of music experts I have two words from this week's American Idol, "Um Paula?" I'm not going to jump into a diatribe about the whats and the whys I just had to say those two words.

And I must say I'm sad to see Brooke White go.

Brooke, if you read this, have your people call us. I have a little girl named Ashley who has a great perspective on carrying on after you've been scratched. We still love you in our house. And I would totally buy your record... or CD... or download... or whatever cool people do these days with music.

Happy Thursday Everybody!