Turning Over Tables

Several have asked if I could change the colors of this blog to make it easier to read. So, I will try and play with that later on to see what I can come up with. I was going to blog yesterday, but was glad I waited.

I received a phone call on Friday afternoon while tring to have a Mom & Adam day in Sioux Falls. He was off school, I was needing a day away from the computer so off we went. The phone call had me so angry that I was "turning over tables kind of mad".

I have to be careful on how I blog this, but the issue at hand had to deal with a long history of lies in a Pharisiaic sort of nature. One thing that can make me very angry, very fast is being lied to (over & over) by someone who claims to be as John Wesley put it, "Striving on to perfection". And so .... I felt a bit like Jesus tossing over few tables and pointing fingers at the Pharisees . Jesus was a bit miffed .... see Matthew 21:12-17.

I have calmed down some, am still miffed, but at least the smoke has diminished. Sometimes, I just want to take off the gloves and fight you know? and then again sometimes it just makes me tired. I want to be gracefilled, I want to forgive and forget ...... and on the other hand ... I want to stand up and say "This kind of behavior is wrong, don't you see, why can't you see?"

I am prayerful today, prayerful for this situation, prayerful for the person ......... but will keep moving forward believing with all my heart that God intends for shepherds hearts and gracefilled lives rather than Pharisiac jargon.

With many thoughts today ........ I'm pressing on.

Lori

Deep From The Inner Corners

It has been an exhausting and emotional week for me. One of our JUMYs Design Team youth has just experienced the death of her Father. I would ask for prayers for Mandi, her little brother Jonah, and her Mom Beth in the weeks ahead. Mandi is a wonderful girl who blesses my life in so many ways. A young woman with a bubbling personality that often has me laughing and crying at the same time. At her Dad's funeral this past Thursday, she wrote a poem about her Dad that came deep from the inner corners of her soul. And so, she has me in tears again but for different reasons.

My Mom died when I was just 9yrs. old. Losing a parent is something that is forever imprinted on your heart. I'm sure it is similar for a parent losing a child. Mandi touched on the fact that her Dad would not be with her on earth when she graduates highschool in two years, would not walk her down the aisle at her wedding, would not hold her babies and be their Grandfather ........ and then, her Jesus shined through. She talked about the fact that although her Dad would not be here in physical form for all of those things, she knew that he carried her through all those events in her life from heavens view. What a wonderful thought of expectant hope. I am so proud of her and so blessed by her words.

I received an email from another friend this week who lost her sister, another email from a friend in the death of her Mom, and after I arrived home last night from being gone my husband informed me we have a wake to attend this evening for a family friend.

I leave you today with two thoughts. The first comes from words from my Grandmother's funeral several years back. My Aunt and I have often said we also want those words read at our funerals, I don't know were the words came from, but they are good words. Here they are:

"Death is not the extinguishing of the light - it is the putting out of the lamp; because the dawn has come."

And the second thought comes from words of scripture that Mandi's little brother Jonah picked out for his Dad's funeral.

"Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father's home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there." John 14:1-4

In God's Abundant Grace .......

Lori