Being anything or anyone different than God had in mind when He created you, the real you.
*Yawn…
Kill pride. Be you.
James 4.6 The Message: “It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”
Jeremiah 1.5 The Message: “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations— that’s what I had in mind for you.”
Headline: Day 7: Colorado wildfire – High Park Fire near Fort Collins now 52,068 acres, 15 percent containment, more than 118 structures destroyed, 1 dead
It is a wildfire. It is burning on over 52,000 acres. It jumped a highway overnight. It is about 15% contained. It is just a few miles from where Heaven Fest will be in 43 days. One of our radio partners (Grace FM) is off air because their tower is right in the middle of it.
I live an hour away and we have ash and smoke – a reminder to pray for relief.
Yet another gorgeous day to celebrate your birth. Just like the day you were born.
Here you came, born to us on the heels of your sister Stephanie (maybe you two were actually meant to be twins), to your madly-in-love parents and big sister Tara and a summer of good music and splashing with my baby girls in the wading pool and this fab hot-pink and white striped, ruffled-plunge swimsuit and finally feeling like adult, a real woman-wife-and-mommy. You had no idea your birth brought all of that, did you?
This year on each child’s birthday, I have been re-reading all the things I have written since I started this blog. From 2007 to the present, you have been one of my favorite topics. And as I read, I love how you have grown and how God has blessed you and how you remain true to your calling and God’s plan for your lives. It is beautiful.
Check out these glimpses of your birthday-blogs over the past 5 years. {click on the year-number for links to old posts}
I was enthralled with the now-defunct picnik.com site and learned I could plaster words onto to photographs. So for your birthday, I tried to paint your picture with my word-blessings, how I see you.
I wrote last year (waxing rather poetically): “Dessy, Dessa, Tre-Tre, Dessy-Pooh-Pie – all names for the exotic, dark haired beauty who arrived just days before a most lovely summer in 1983. You were christened and accessorized in a wardrobe of sunshine-yellow and an earlier, milder form of Jeanie-green to set you apart, I suppose, from the lots-of-pink we already had in the family. You were baby-girl-number-three (thus, Tre) and I knew from the first moment I had alone with you, something very different, quite extraordinary and alluring lay there in my arms. The eyes, even at birth, showed an intensity of spirit; yet there seemed to reside in you, even as a tiny bundle, a quiescent repose, a knowing restfulness.”
“Deep calls to deep…even at three, your main topic of conversation was “And the Bible says…” and your love for God and for His word have been the hallmark of all the days of your life so far. How pleasing it is to me to see how strong that remains in you. You are woman who is to be admired. You have my awe and respect.”
And the Lord gave me a song to sing over you, too.
“We were in Wilmore, Kentucky…on Dessa’s birthday, gathering information and learning from people who have managed to keep a festival going for 40 years now. I got to watch watch Tredessa in action interviewing people much older and I was so impressed at her ease and ability to draw the most important information from them. She is soft-spoken and gentle, easy to talk to (and talk, they did), but she has the ability to harness millions of bits of data, opinion, strategy (both good and bad, both successful and disastrous) and infuse it into a leadership team of nearly 100 people who will make Heaven Fest all God has ordained it to be.”
And I wrote you 26 wishes for your 26th birthday and I LOVED re-reading those. My fav was #22. Hahahaha! You still really are!
I was praying for your Jim-from-the-office, your Mr Darcy, your Boaz.
2007 Every single June 13 since 1983, I see the beauty of the day
“You have chosen to live your life poured out based on the Living Word of God (Jesus) for Him and for others. Tredessa, you have great favor with both God and man. i know this because I am looking out the back door – the sun has burst forth, the chimes are singing in the breeze, yesterday’s raindrops are sparkling like confetti, the flowers are vibrant and the grass is lush. The heavens are apparently celebrating your birthday, too!”
I love you very, very much, o middlest of daughters. You are a treasure and treasure-keeper, a good daughter and family-builder. The tight fit between Stephanie and Rocky in the birth order has made you a glue of love for us all.
Happy birthday. Happy life. Happy insurance (*wink, wink*) and soooooo many more to come. Your mommy loves you, beautiful girl.
Godly parents who raised me well. They are still alive and kicking and doing Kingdom work, after 50 years of marriage and raising 5 kids and 15 grandkids and 4 great-grandchildren. More to come!…
The most amazing and loving husband – Dave. He has spent all our years pressing in to know me and love me. His love covers me. His touch heals me.
My children: Tara, so passionate and her beloved, Dave the powerful, watchful; Stephanie, so sensitive and her gentle and strong Tristan; Mighty Tredessa, out loving the world for Jesus Christ; Rocky, my amazing son and his beauty, Jovan; Stormie my baby, true and real. AND my grandchildren: Gavin and Guini and Gemma, Hunter and the baby girl to be…You’re the reason I was born.
The friends who have stayed true when I wasn’t worth their effort and who refused to be swayed by my hopelessness, but pushed me back into the light – you know who you are.
Home – not the walls and roof, but the safe place where hearts meet, where the laughter rises and the love grows…I have a home!…
Heritage – all the people before -who influenced all the people before -who influenced all the people who would influence me. I come from the good, the bad and the ugly, but also the rich in spirit. It is the gift that my grandparents and parents passed on to me – coming from insurmountable odds – to give me the sweet life I have not deserved, but so enjoyed. It is siblings who are worthy of my greatest admiration. I have gold to pass on.
A Savior, and how I have needed one – He walks with me and He talks with me…
My treasure has no value on the open market. My treasure is in the faces of the people I love, the letters with their kind words, the pictures small hands have painted for me. My riches aren’t even the thoughtful and loving gifts my family bestowed upon me on Christmas morning (though they divined my true needs, my heart’s desires in the most carefully attentive way), but the time they sanctified, the hours they set apart to spend with me. My fortune is in the minutes I collect from the people I am most passionate about – this is the true measure of my wealth.
Gavin holding Tuppy-thePuppy and Hunter corraling Steve. Steve Holt, the dog.
Have added a son-in-law and a couple of granddaughters (not to mention the granddogs) and lots of living. The treasure is increased.
Sometimes I read myself and think: wow, that’s good! :) Come on,“My fortune is in the minutes I collect from the people I am most passionate about” ??? That is hilariously zealous, people! Oughta be on Pinterest or something.
A song we actually sang in church in the 70s – it was fairly lightweight, but song leaders loved it because they could add all sort of weird verses to it. The main pattern was this
The joy of the Lo-o-ord is my strength!
The joy of the Lo-o-ord is my strength!
The joy of the Lo-o-ord is my strength!
O, the joy of the Lord is my strength!
Can you imagine the fun you can have with that syntax?
Verse 2, everybody now:
If you want joy you can jump for it [make the whole congregation jump here]
If you want joy you can jump for it!
If you want joy you can jump for it!
O, the joy of the Lord is my strength!
Then they came up with these clever, congregation-engaging verses: “If you want joy you can spin for it,” whereupon people with vertigo went down for the count.
My personal favorite was the verse, “If you want joy you can laugh for it,” followed by a verse where, to the tune of the song, we all, young and old alike. were heard singing:
Ha, haha, haha, haha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
There must have been 10-12 embarrassing verses. You can imagine the glory.
Not sure why that popped into my brain? Maybe because the JOY of the LORD is my strength! So I have to pretty much live on a joy-quest. And I do love me some Habakkuk who painted that picture of what life and joy-robbing circumstances really are like sometimes (3:17-18 NKJV):
Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will *joy in the God of my salvation.
And that word *JOY is gil, #1523 in the Strong’s, and it means to joy, rejoice, be glad, be joyful and contains, according to my study Bible’s notes (Jack Hayford’s Spirit-Filled Life Bible) the suggestion of “dancing for joy” or “leaping for joy,” since the verb originally meant “to spin around with intense emotion.”
Kind of dispels the notion that “inner joy” is just this calm, serene, ever-present half smile of knowing, doesn’t it? Joy seems a bit more raucous, active, participatory. It is us, in the face of the toughest circumstances dancing and leaping and praising God and making joy happen.
No blossoms on the tree which is supposed to provide sustenance for us? I will joy…
No fruit? After all my hard work? I will joy!
My intense labor over the olives is a great, big fail? I will joy!
My entire field has no food and dang, I am hungry…yet, I will rejoice…I will joy in the God of my salvation.
So it turns out that silly song wasn’t that far off the mark. If you want joy – you can jump for it! Or leap or spin around with intense emotion. A song of my life.
In between arranged mountain rock lined edges, containing a mini-suburban woodland, small solar lamps begin to light up. I don’t have fireflies in Colorado, so these are my prize.
The temperature is this perfect 70 degrees after the loveliest of days. The cover is on the pool and I am hidden under lush Aspen with baby-blue skies above as the sun sets. The orange glow faded to pale pink and the light is losing its’ strength, softening by the minute.
The stock and carnations in the nearby pots are aromatic, but like always, nothing perfumes the air quite the purple petunia. Not a bug in sight.
I love Colorado. Could it be any better?
{Sandy-the-Dog does not appreciate eveningtide and is waiting to be back inside}
Then suddenly, Dave flips a switch and twinkle lights everywhere and backlit shrubbery sing the reply ~ YES! So pretty!
It wasn’t an actual skateboard, nor was it “cake.”
But anyway.
Gavin, the skater, just turned 9. He wanted something made with Rice Krispie Treats. So we took a really easy, tasty route.
I used about 48 pre-made Rice Krispie Treats. Dave picked up a real skateboard with metal trucks at Target to use as a stand. I wrapped it with platic wrap and sort of smooshed the treats up together on the board, trimming the ends to follow the shape of the board.
Then I smoothed Wilton’s melting candy over the whole thing. While it cooled, I melted some of the red and piped/traced Gavin’s name over a template I had made, which I covered with wax paper. I popped his name in the fridge to cool. In retrospect, perhaps I should have used a mini spatula to smooth it out, but it is a casual cake.
Just before the chocolate covering was totally set, I placed Gav’s name on the board and Dave piped sort of a sunburst design on it. Peeled the letters off the wax paper and placed them on the chocolate-candy-coated board. 20 minutes in the fridge and voila!
Gavin told me he ate A LOT of Rice Krispie Treats. A lot.
We had a lovely time at the park, Gavin and his little sister and all the rest of us!
