Tag: God

Mom

Today, June 20 is my Mom’s birthday.  She’s…well, let’s just say that when you look at her, you won’t believe she has a daughter that’s 39 (which is me)!!  She looks great!!!   And a quick Happy Birthday shout-out to her twin sister, my Aunt Sharon!

 My mom and I have had the typical relationship that you’d find with most mothers & daughters; the kind where we didn’t always agree or didn’t quite see eye-to-eye on everything.  But the one thing I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older…I’m a lot more like her than I’ll probably ever want to admit! 🙂

 I can say that I owe my music ability to my mom.  I tried the sports thing, which would’ve been pleasing to my dad, but I let my sister handle the athletic ability in the family.  I have a picture of my mom & me sitting at a piano in my grandmother’s house. I’m not sure of my age in the picture, but I would guess I was age 4 or 5.  My mom started me out with piano lessons from the 1st grade and I took them through my 6th grade year.  In 6th grade, I joined the band and have been forever known as the band nerd.  Music has been a part of my life ever since then and that all came from my mom. 

 She is the most talented pianist that I have ever seen or heard!  She used to partner with us during my band years for the solo portion of the solo and ensemble competition.  I had the privilege of practicing with my accompanist any time I wanted.  The others often practiced with her for the first time at the competition.  But she’s such a great player that she could sit down at any piano and read the music for the first time and sound wonderful.  If that player didn’t win, it certainly wasn’t because of her!!

 Aside from her incredible piano talent, she can also sing.  She and my dad used to be in the choir in college and also toured with their church on choir trips.  I, however, did not inherit the singing gene like I did the music gene.  Oh well, it’s still fun to listen to her sing harmony when I stand next to her in church.

 My mom is smart and beautiful.  I know I don’t say it very often and probably don’t show it as much as I should, but I love her very much.  God blessed me with an incredible woman for a mother.  My husband and I recently went through a tragedy; one my mother had never experienced.  But that didn’t stop her…she made herself available to me for whatever I needed to cope with the loss we suffered.  I’ve felt a lot closer to her since all of that happened.  I might even refer to my mom as a Super Woman!

 Mom, I hope you have a wonderful birthday today!!  Sorry I can’t spend it with you in person, but I’ll see you in a few weeks.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!  I love you!!!

 Here are some pictures of us throughout the years…

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Resolution #3: Authentically Me

How well do you receive compliments that others give you? For example, when someone compliments your dress, do you say “Thank you” or just smile and walk away? Taking compliments on our material things like clothing and shoes can be easy. But what about when someone compliments you on something physical, like your eyes, your smile, or your beauty…how well do you receive those compliments?

For me, when others compliment my new dress or shoes or a scarf, I’m very quick to say “Thank you.” But when it comes to the other stuff, the compliments are harder to take. Not because I don’t believe they’re authentic or genuine in their compliment, because I know they are. It has more to do with me not feeling confident enough in myself to think someone would notice or even compliment me on a physical attribute of myself.

That’s exactly what this resolution is about…celebrating your uniqueness and esteeming and encouraging the distinctions you admire in others.

While it may be a lot easier to encourage and lift up those around us with words, we have to start with ourselves first for it all to have meaning. In Galatians 5:14 it’s a command by God that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves. If we look in the mirror every morning in disgust at ourselves, how can we tell others how beautiful they are?

One reason we can and do it consistently is we put more value in others and the beauty and the gifts they have than on our own. While it’s easier to do, it’s also wrong. God created each one of us in His image and with gifts and talents that no one else has. We may have traits and personalities that mirror our parents, but God made each of us unique.

There is no one in the entire world that is exactly like me. I’m one-of-a-kind. I’m unique. And it makes me feel special to know that when God thought of me, He gave me the gifts I have, the talents I have and qualities that make me unique; He also hand-crafted me in His image.

In this chapter of the book, the author says to “take time to uncover and reconnect with these things that truly describe you: your gifts, talents, passions, eccentricities, dislikes, weaknesses, interests and uniqueness—in their rawest, most unspoiled form.”

In order to do that—to find our passions and talents and weaknesses in “their rawest and most unspoiled form”—we have to take a good, hard look at the real us. Not the version of ourselves that attends church each week with a fake smile and happiness so that no one can see we’re hurting deeply inside or we’re wounded from a comment said recently or even years before. We have to take that hurting person deep inside of us and remind her of the authentic and true person she is…the one God created her to be.

When I think about what makes me unique, I have to sit and really think about it. Not because I don’t see myself as unique, but because it takes time to strip away the different layers I’ve put on to hide the real me. We sometimes think that if others see the real us, they won’t really like what they see and they’ll go find other friends. So we put on a different characteristic layer that we see someone else has and make it our own. Then, we find another characteristic layer from another person and add it on. Before we know it, we don’t even recognize our own true self because we’ve hidden her away in a deep, dark closet.

The first step in this journey to finding the authentic you, according to the book, is to enlist the help of a few close friends. I took this first step challenge and enlisted some of my friends. I was very particular in who I asked for this part because I wanted to ask those that had not only known me for a long time, but have seen in me in the rawest of forms. Sometimes friends that have known us for short amounts of time haven’t been around to truly see us through ugly situations. Everyone sees you when we’re happy, but how many of your friends have seen you through a tragedy, a loss, a break-up, or a really messy situation? How many of your friends have seen you when you’re in a bad mood, when you’re having a bad day or when you’ve lost your temper right in front of them? Those are the friends I wanted to ask…the ones that have seen me and been around me on my good days, my bad days and my really ugly and messy days…the days I hope they’ve forgotten about!!

This first step of enlisting friends meant asking them a question: “From your perspective, can you tell me what makes me unique?” I told them they could be brutally honest with me and to not hold anything back. In order to travel this journey, we have to ask the hard questions and be prepared for the answers we receive. I was really kind of surprised by some of the answers I received back. Here are some of the responses I received:

1. Considerate and mindful of everyone I’m around
2. Compassionate; has a good heart and genuine concern for people
3. Friendly to everyone; takes others under my wing for guidance; helping them along their journey to draw closer to God; loyal and trustworthy; mentor
4. Completely loyal and faithful to my church; fully supportive of my husband in his service to the church
5. Crafty, organized, good friend, smart

The responses that really surprised me and caught me a little off guard:

1. I live my faith
2. Gentle optimism, meaning a gentle strength that shows I have total faith in my Heavenly Father to work all things out for my benefit; that I may not always see the glass as half full, but that I see the glass in my Father’s hand
3. Genuine, which by definition means sincere, authentic, free from hypocrisy and true

And the one constructive response I received back:

1. Because of my personality and being a rule follower, sometimes I put the rules above people, but when given more information about the situation, I always come around

We never really know the person that others see in us until we ask. Sometimes we’re afraid to ask because we don’t want to hear the bad stuff; my constructive response from above…hard to read, but definitely true. But, the good thing about it is it doesn’t have to stay that way. While it may be hard to ask questions to find out how others truly see you, it’s what you do with the new information that will matter the most.

The second step in the journey is to take these responses that I received and pinpoint ways that I have either neglected these traits or celebrate them by becoming intentional in honoring my uniqueness going forward. I don’t have to be haughty or arrogant about it. I just need to continue to be myself. I can take the time to really focus and harness these unique qualities and use them for reaching others and telling them about my Heavenly Father. You know…the one that created me in His image!!!

I resolve to accept and celebrate my uniqueness and will esteem and encourage the distinctions I admire in others.

Mother’s Day

Seeing that the day has already passed, it seems a little late to be writing a blog on Mother’s Day. However, not knowing exactly how I was going to get through this day this year, I thought it best to wait and write about it afterwards, which brings me to right now.

In the last few years, I never ever looked forward to Mother’s Day. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother and to have a special day to honor her is always nice. But for me, personally, it wasn’t a day I ever looked forward to.

As I’ve gotten older and my desire to have children and be a mom has increased, seeing a day that is designated to celebrate Mom’s just made me sad for something I didn’t already have.

This year was going to be different. When I found out in late February that I was pregnant, I was so excited that I was finally going to get to celebrate Mother’s Day. I would be about 15-16 weeks when the date rolled around. But as I soon learned, it wasn’t going to happen quite as I had originally envisioned. As many of you know, we had a miscarriage in April and lost our baby at 7 weeks and 1 day.

Up until the actual holiday day, I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to handle it. I found myself to be quite emotional in the days leading up to Mother’s Day. Just the thought of the day or the mention of the day would send me into uncontrollable tears. But, as I am still in mourning over our loss, it’s okay that I cry.

Every Mother’s Day in church, they always have all the moms stand to be recognized, to be prayed over or to be given flowers. When I arrived, I still hadn’t decided how I was going to react and if I was going to stand with the rest of the moms.

But then I realized something, that although my child isn’t physically present with me, it doesn’t diminish the truth that God did bless me and my husband with a child earlier this year. It doesn’t diminish the truth that we are still parents, even though our child is already in heaven. I have nothing to be ashamed of to stand proudly with the other moms and celebrate this day.

So I stood with the rest of them and accepted the prayer that was spoken over all the moms. Then our Pastor’s wife spoke about our sphere of influence. She told us that whether we have children or not, we are all aunts, sisters, leaders and friends. She said we need to look around us to those that we’re around at work, at home, at school, at church or wherever we may be and be a strong influence for those we encounter; to guide those around us, to show them God’s way and to be a light to the dark places around us.

I know that God is going to bless us with children again, when His timing is right. Until then, I’m going to take this lesson and do my best to influence those around me in a positive way. As a wise friend recently told me, I’m also going to let God be in the driver’s seat and give Him complete control over my life. By doing that, I can sit back and enjoy the ride!

Resolution #1: Contentment

I’ve just recently started reading a book that I had tried to start many months ago. It’s called “The Resolution for Women”. If you’ve seen the movie Courageous, then you’re probably familiar with The Resolution. The movie focuses on the desire of men to live up to the example of what a godly man/husband/father is in the Bible. If you haven’t seen it yet, I don’t want to ruin it for you, except to say that you definitely need to see it. I thought it was the best movie that Sherwood Baptist Church has made so far.

Anyway, the producers of the movie wrote a book to go along with the movie called “The Resolution”. Many men in our church have gone through or are currently working through the bible study class, my husband being one of them. The producers also wanted a companion book for women to go along with the men’s book, so they asked one of my favorite authors, Priscilla Shirer, to write the women’s book. Honestly, I bought the book only because it was written by her. Here’s another plug, if you’ve never read one of her books or listened to her speak; I promise you, you will NOT be disappointed! I heard her at a women’s conference in Dallas a few years ago. I hadn’t heard of her before that, but I was completely blown away! She is now one of my absolute favorite godly women to listen to and to read.

Back to my book…it contains 13 different resolutions to help us (women) live “committed to what matters most.” I’ve decided that as I read each resolution section, I’m going to write a blog about it, for several reasons. First, it will keep me committed to reading the book on a regular basis, sort of like an accountability partner, if you will. Second, it will keep me accountable (there’s that fun word again) to really living out each resolution in my life; to purposefully live out each resolution and live it with passion and conviction.

With that being said (you know, I really do dislike that transitional statement…oh well), here’s to my blog on Resolution #1.

Resolution #1 says, “I do solemnly resolve to embrace my current season of life and will maximize my time in it. I will resist the urge to hurry through or circumvent any portion of my journey but will live with a spirit of contentment.”

Let me start by saying, “OUCH!!!” You know, I think that’s why I put the book down the last time I tried to start it. Contentment. Such an easy word really, but to put it into practice in your life,…not easy at all. Well, not for me anyway.

Being content in my life right now, means that I need to be happy about each part of my life in this season. I should appreciate that it’s only me and my husband; that we have the freedom to go anywhere, at any time, with anyone without the obligation of either leaving children at home with a babysitter or not going anywhere at all. I should also appreciate that I have other family members living with us right now; family that my husband and I can bless and sow into while they are with us. I should appreciate that I have the freedom to be involved in the women’s ministry at my church; to teach a bible study class each week; and to worship God with the talent and ability He gave me in the piano and the trumpet. I should appreciate that I have the ability to get up early, early in the morning ( 5:15 AM class, yep, early) and workout with my friends and take care of my health.

To me, fulfilling this first resolution to live my life in contentment means that not only should I appreciate all of the areas I listed above, but that I WILL.

I resolve to be content in the current season of my life and live it to the fullest. Only God knows what lies ahead, so I WILL be content and passionate with my life so that I can be fully prepared for what God has in store for me and my family.