Category Archives: 1 Christ is All

Jesus loves me, this I know. This category is about Jesus, the Living Word, my prayers to Him, my worship of Him, His relentless pursuit of my heart and His invitation to me to come to Him in Sabbath, my Savior, my Rest.

‘Bout Birthin’ Babies

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

I will soon go a doula-ing (doula is Greek and means “a woman who serves”) for Stef and Wrex when Sawyer Joell is born.  I’m not really a doula, I just get to play one with people I adore (Carol Ann is soon to do the same thing with Emma of Gospel Journey fame!).

“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies, Miss Scarlett…”

Actually, I do.  I got to attend birthing class with the Phipps a few weeks back and recently checked out a few birthing books from the library.  It is bringing back the memories, omygoodness!  Because, you know, I had a few babies back in the day.  And I was really good at it, if I do say so myself.  Now-how will I be in this role?  I am hoping not to faint or require constant fanning or smelling salts.  I hope I don’t get too empathetic with Stef and start crying out to God for mercy in a loud voice.  I just don’t think that will help.

The book.

Meanwhile I have been studying and researching and brushing up on my birthing knowledge.  I have enlisted prayer support and continue to madly write in the litle journal I will leave with Stef and Wrex for Sawyer to enjoy someday.  In it is advice on labor and delivery and some sound wisdom on raising kids.  I have included lists of things I want to remember while at the hospital and signs to look for as labor progresses.  There are make-you-sniffle baby quotes and prayers for Sawyer.  I have given baby girl the inside scoop on who her parents really are and shared favorite scripture passages.

 

In short, I am hand-writing an entire book just for the occasion of the birth of Sawyer Joell Phipps.

It is good stuff!  And yes…none of it is original, but I have collected it over the years and I am writing it in the book, so it is mine!

 

O Sawyer?  Where are youoooo?

Now, truth to tell, we had actually sort of cleared our calendars for today seeing 8.9.10 as a wondrous day for a birth.  But we know God has this thing all planned out and are just anxious for Him to let us in on His perfect plan.  He seems to have us on a need-to-know basis for the moment.  But we are ready, I tell ya!

 

Thoughts on the threat of C-Section during Labor

I do come across some very thought-provoking information these days.  For instance, an article about the negative hormonal effect on a woman when she is laboring and is told “If you don’t start progressing/dilating/efacing (or whatever her shortcoming) soon, we’re going to have to do a C-Section” and how that actually is detrimental to her labor and begins to inhibit the process was explained thus:

If a man was told that he had to get an erection and ejaculate within a certain time or he’d be castrated, do you think it would be easy? To make it easier, perhaps he could have an IV put into his arm, be kept in one position, have straps placed around his penis, and be told not to move. He could be checked every few minutes; the sheet could be lifted to see if any “progress” had been made.

– Nancy Wainer Cohen & Lois J. Estner, Silent Knife, Bergin & Garvey, 1983

Hahhahahahha!

Certainly gives you something to think about. ;p

PREVIOUSLY…click here.

HEAVEN Fest 2010 ~ It was crazy wonderful!

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

Kari Jobe (one of my all-time favorites) leading worship at main stage near the end of the night, mixed with scenes from the day.  This is just 4 minutes of over a week of cool stuff, because as soon as volunteers set foot on the property, the miracles and love started flowing!  THANKS FOR THIS VIDEO, GREG “HD” VERSPOHL!  Love ya!  Seriously!

Photos soon!

There are so many great ones I just can’t decide! 

www.heavenfest.com

The Crushing

1 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Think

So I plopped a small flax seed plant, more as an herb addition than anything,  into a bare spot a couple of months ago.  Obviously I cannot get enough flax seed to actually harvest and use, but the blue flowers are delicate and very pretty and I wanted to see how how this mega-healthy seed grew.

I mean, come on.  This seed is high in Omega-3 Fatty Acids and helps fight cancer, diabetes, heart disease and a myriad of other things that ail us.

So, after the bloom, a very small, maybe pea-size, pod appears.  It drys and slightly browns.  I stop by and help myself to a pod or two while gardening.  I pinch and crush it open, whereupon the chaff disintegrates in my hand and amongst it I find plump, life-giving seeds.

  

As I place the little sphere in my hand, I realize it is, really, a very delicate little covering, this outer husk.  It surrounds the true fruit of the plant, but can be crushed in a second, obliterated with hardly any thought or effort at all.  And then it looks like an unusable mess in the palm of your hand – like who would ever even take the time to try to retrieve the revitalizing seed once protected and nurtured?  The crushing.  And now what?

  

Some days I am in too much of a hurry and waste it, but today, I realized, the slightest breeze, my soft breath blown on the mess of the crushed husk is all it took to reveal: 10 perfectly shiny, healthy life-giving flax seeds.  And the sheer density of the life-potential within them keeps them there during the wind-storm of my breath.  The crushing hurt the shell, but the crushing couldn’t take away the future of these tiny seeds.  The pod-destroying blow didn’t negate the purpose for which they were created and it couldn’t stop the seeds’ destiny.

“The harvest is past,
the summer has ended,
and we are not saved.”
Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
I mourn, and horror grips me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
for the wound of my people?  Jeremiah 8.20-22

Two realizations on an early summer morning…

1.

Same with us.  God breathes in our direction on the most painful places, the most damaging situations, the most vanquished moment of our lives. My carefully fashioned defenses are obliterated.  And?  He breathes.  And the force of His breath reveals – all has not been lost.  The true thing remains.  All I am and all He created me to be, the legacy I have to leave…there still as the chaff floats away on the breeze of His command.

Isaiah 53.5   But he was pierced for our transgressions,  he was crushed for our iniquities;  the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,  and by his wounds we are healed.

2.

And we can do that for others.  We can be the agent of grace who looks at how the enemy has tried to hurt some one irreparably, tried to destroy the hope and the future plans God has for them and we can breathe life.  What the enemy means for harm, that thing that has cut so deep a person cannot even see the way out, we can walk in as an Ambassador for Christ and the blow away the mess, dust off the area, bind up the brokenhearted, bandage the wounds and tell them, “See?  You were born to be a beautiful planting of the Lord.  The devil may have taken some stuff, but he couldn’t take your purpose.  All is well.  You are not destroyed.  Be at peace.”

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.  Isaiah 61.1-3

Since I so need it, this cleansing breeze, I must so sow it.

Family Frolic, Merriment and Conviviality~

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

We have just emerged intact from our very own, 

annual, familial  FEU de JOIE

Father’s Day 2010, Dave and his family.

“Celebrate the little things in life, appreciate tomorrow, love your neighbor…never condemn yourself to a life without cause to celebrate and be thankful for what you have. Never forget the people you love and love them when you have an occasion to do so. Celebrate their life and celebrate yours.”  ~Unknown

Feu de joie, a French term meaning “fire of joy,” is actually a gun salute, described as “a running of the guns” as they are fired on occasions of public rejoicing and celebration.  It can also reference a large bonfire being lit as a token of national joy.

But we have just navigated our way through our very own rapid-fire of joy and celebration.  For during a 12 week period between Dave’s birthday (March 23) and Father’s Day (3rd Sunday in June), we do a whole lotta shaking!  There are 9 family birthdays during that time…no wait!  Amelie was born a few days after Dave’s birthday, so now 10!  This is immediate right-here-local family, people!  Plus, there was a HF fundraiser, a big baby shower or two, the aforementioned birth of a new grandbebe, some travel among us, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a couple of theater productions for the patriarch, a holiday, tax-day and some end-of-the-school-year plays and programs.  Oh.  And cakes.

I think I feel a summer cold coming on.  A little worn out, but whew! Still, mostly intact.


  

Jubilate

  

Oh, how Averi loves her little Flintstone-esque car; Gemma said of her big sister, “Guini is so nice.”  Hunter is a great big-cousin to the girls!

“That it will never come again

is what makes it so sweet.” 

~Emily Dickinson

 

Dave with original 5, and with the 6 grandbebes.  On Father’s Day.

 

Make merry

 

 Scenes from good times: Jovan and Aunt Dessa with baby Amelie.  Gemma and the cone.

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

Dave with grandbebes, left-right: Hunter (5), Amelie Belle (almost 3 months), Gemma (3), Guinivere (almost 5), Averi (2), and Gavin (7)

Celebrate ~ a LIST of reasons:

Birthdays, anniversaries, firsts, promotions, making the yellow light, getting the good parking spot, your husband’s first novel getting published (buy here!), a moist spring, summer arriving, a full moon in an azure-blue sky, the first sip of amazing morning coffee, a grandbebe tying his own shoes and riding without training wheels, tomatoes ripening on the vine, and a new granddaughter.  Also, achievement and success, failures we made it through together, a good movie, really green freshly-cut grass (that deserves an ice cream cone at the very least), a completed project, an upcoming festival, finding out some one is praying for you, healing for dad and brothers in light of heart junk, first teeth, first lost teeth, seeds that sprout, weeds that pull out easily.  Moms.  Dads.  Brothers, sisters, neices, nephews and grandbebes.  Aunts and Uncles and family in the faith.  Growing love and re-ignited passion.  Good times.  And even hard times with people who won’t leave. 

For these and many other reasons, throw a party.  It can be filled with lavish decor and a seemingly endless buffet of tempting tidbits, or as simple as a blanket on the grass with milk and cookies as the stars come out to dance.  Find your reason.

Can you over-do on celebrating?

I guess that remains to be seen.  On our deathbeds, when total clarity and perspective comes to us, we may realize that some of the extra fancy cakes or over-the-top decor wasn’t themost important thing, but I doubt I will ever regret using every possible chance I could to show the people I love the most their great worth to me by planning, scheming and finding ways to celebrate their lives and existance.  And if it should disrupt “normality,” or be a little taxing, so be it.  I’d rather know I did it because I loved them.  And not regret missed chances to say so.

  

My family always complains that when I take pictures, I never count and give them warning.  See left.  Well, when I FINALLY did a one-two-three count, this is what I got (see right).  Improvement?  Not sure.  My photographic philosophy: just snap away and hope for the best.

“Love your life and prove it.” ~You may quote me on this, actually

Nehemiah 12:43 (New Living Translation)

  Many sacrifices were offered on that joyous day, for God had given the people cause for great joy. The women and children also participated in the celebration, and the joy of the people of Jerusalem could be heard far away.

I would say our neighbors, based on what has been “heard far away” would think we have!…Jeanie

 

.

Happy Birthday, DP, extraordinary s-i-l

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

Happy Birthday, to our very own Captain Picard

 


  

Mood music for reading about Dave!

Dave Powers?  Oh, we adore him!

If you could dream the perfect man for a daughter you love, if you could order up qualities you’d want your daughter and the children they’d have to enjoy their whole lives through and a personality that was made to bless and challenge and delight the whole family, if you could choose a man of character and one with as much wit as wisdom, if God would have just written across the sky, “Oh yes.  I created him to be in your family,” the choice could not be more perfect than Dave Powers.

[Picard, Data and Worf are attacked and pursued by Kolaran natives]
Picard: I think it’s time to try some unsafe velocities.

 

Dave Powers.  I still remember the first time I heard your name.  It echoed around in the halls of my heart along with a spark, me wondering, “Would Tara ever be interested in a guy like him?…”  {WOULD SHE EVER!!! was the answer!} Before ever even meeting you, before ever even laying eyes on you, your name just sort of plopped into my mind and if wishing you’d love Tara could have had anything to do with it, then no wonder it happened.  I still love that you were born the very day Dad was proposing to me.  As you said yesterday, in the way only you can, “God was hookin’ a sister up!”  He was.  He was looking down the road, knowing what we’d need.

For I am of the persuasion that the children we get are as much used by God to form us and train us as we are in their lives,  And you, son-of-my-heart, are a shining example of it.  You are courageous and bold and have invited to me to go places I never would have gone, didn’t even think I wanted to go and sometimes have been crazy-uncomfortable.  Most of it, I wouldn’t trade.  Some of it I am waiting for the day I can say, “Oh we can laugh about that now…”  Haha. 

I wouldn’t trade you for anything, though, Dave and since the day I met you and for the months we spent getting to know you before you and Tara met and then after, I always knew you were meant for greatness and that I would one day say, “I knew Dave Powers when…”  I just didn’t know I’d get to hang out near the path you are walking so closely.  You were born to make an impact and you are blowing up the universe.  You were born to terrorize the devil and you annihilating his strongholds.  {throwing in some DP-talk there}

[In the attempt to find an alternative exit, Picard intends to blast with a shuttle through the inner shuttle bay doors and fly through the Scimitar]
Data: Do you think this is a wise course of action, sir?
Picard: We’re about to find out, Data

I love you fiercly.  I chose that word very purposefully.

&

I believe in you to inifinity and beyond.

Picard: Captain’s personal log, supplemental. We’re heading toward Federation space at maximum warp. The crew has responded with the dedication I’ve come to expect of them. And like a thousand other commanders on a thousand other battlefields, I wait for the dawn…

I’d stand to the death with you.  Because you have done that with me.

 

You are such a great daddy to our little Hunter Magoo!

Praetor Shinzon: Were we Picards always warriors?
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I think of myself as an explorer.
Praetor Shinzon: Well… were we always explorers?
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I was the first Picard to leave our solar system. It… caused quite a stir in the family. But… I’d spent my youth…
Praetor Shinzon: …looking up at the stars, dreaming about what was up there; about…
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: …new worlds…

And for all your giftings, for the strong anointing on your life, for your natural abiliies and Holy Spirit-empowered insight and works, for the sensitivity you have with people and your way with words, because you can capture a conversation with one or with hundreds, though you have a voice that does not quit and the power of God rides into a room on it, and you can lead and protect and empower thousands of people, and even because I  believe God is calling you to not only bring the Church together in unity, but He is making a way for you to impact governments and jurisdictions, and because I will never ever forget 2 years ago when He told me He would not let your foot slip –  for these and many other reason, I know you are a great man, destined for amazing opportunities.

But I am most thankful and love you best for loving my daughter, for raising Hunter to be what God has called him to and for joining this imperfect family and calling us your own.  When you’re just “ours,” it is lovely.

Happy Birthday, Dave…Love, mom

photos by www.lilacphotography.com

Lt. Tasha Yar: Captain, so far we’ve obeyed every order, no matter how far-fetched it might have seemed. But if we’re to risk the safety of the ship and crew,  I think we have to ask you for an explanation.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I understand your concerns, Lieutenant; and I know that if I were in your position, I would be doing the same thing – looking for answers. But you’re not gonna find any, because I don’t have any to give you.

I know it is difficult for you to understand, but we have to take the ship into the very center of the phenomenon and create a static warp shell. Now this will put the ship at risk.

Quite frankly, we may not survive. But I want you to believe that I am doing this for a greater purpose, and that what is at stake here, is more than any of you can possibly imagine.

I know you have your doubts about me, about each other, about this ship. All I can say is that although we have only been together for a short time, I know that you are the finest crew in the fleet; and I would trust each of you with my life.

So, I am asking you for a leap of faith – and to trust me.

NOTE TO HF LEADERSHIP:  You can trust him, his heart.  I do.

Happy Birthday, Stephanie

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

It is your birthday, dazzling daughter~

Really?  Is it possible that exactly 28 years ago today you were born?  That 28 years ago this morning I awoke to the certainty of my baby arriving on. this. day. even though you weren’t due for at least 5 weeks and the whole sha-bang had been started on a ridiculous carnival ride where I taunted the operator for it being too tame and he, in turn, decided to show me how rough it could be and our course was set?  Oh…I was young and stupid.  Can you imagine, Stephanie?  Can you forgive me from jolting you from the safe place too early?  I was only 22, naive, untested, and very ill-equipped in my mind – and yet, God was about to place the most fragile, tiny amazing head-full-of-hair, cutie-patootie ever in my arms.  He trusted me. With you!  I am still awed.

I want you to be remembered as the girls who sang their songs for Jesus Christ

Who were willing to lay down their lives, And do His will no matter what the price

 

We celebrated both Tara and Stephanie’s birthdays just a few days ago…a picture of Steph by Stormie

You’ll be singing for the deaf man who will hear about salvation through your song

You’ll be singing for the blind man who will see the light in you and come along.

So, here you came: this itty-bitty thing with underdeveloped lungs and not an nth of fat under your skin.  You arrived to a smashingly handsome and proud daddy and a big sister who’d just turned three and you were her utter delight and joy.  She took to that role like bees to my flowers and referred to you as “my baby,” when she told people about anything you’d done or happy she was.  During your extra-long 12-day stay in the hospital, we sewed and prepared and cushioned and made-ready.  I wanted everything to be perfect when you came home.  And even though they’d told me in the middle of the night, after you were born, to expect a 3-month stay in the hospital, 12 days later, we wrapped your 4 1/2 pound sweet self up and brought you to the charcoal-colored house on Armstrong Street in Kokomo.  We brought you home praising God, grateful that He heard our prayers.

“For this child I prayed and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him.”  1 Samuel 1, an amazing chapter!

His.

And back when baby dedications were more personal, before the designated days of them, our home church allowed me the honor of singing to both you and Tara as we dedicated you to the Lord, His to use and live in and work through all the days of your lives.  And we stood there, young and naive and full of hope for our two little girls and this tiny, tiny little thing we called Stephanie May (May for the beautiful month in which you came), and I sang Evie’s song, Live for Jesus over you.

Live for Jesus, that’s what matters

And when other houses crumble, ours is strong.

Live for Jesus, that’s what matters

That they’ll see the light in you and come along.

And whether God honored my prophetic words over your tiny self that day, or whether I had just unknowingly tapped into His heart for you already, you became, along with your sister, such a songstress.  You started singing so early, I can hardly remember when or how.  You started singing as a baby and you sang your way right into the funny, delightful little girl you became.  You sang first thing in the morning and you sang while the rest of the household was going to sleep.  You sang silly and you sang well.

Well, I know you’re not the only girls who can sing His melody

But He’s chosen you to bless you

And to bring you into all that you can be

And you never self-promoted.  So when your song would go public, people were wowed (Remember high school?  His eye is on the Sparrow!?).  I can remember hearing you sing in your room and hitting those Mariah-highs and have heard you level those Kim Walker lows now and I have still never heard enough of your song. 

I laugh now because I can actually remember, when you were supposed to be taking a nap as a youngster telling you, “Stephanie, quit singing-go to sleep,” because you’d sing ’til the cows came home if we’d let you.  Well, I take that back.  Don’t quit.  Never stop singing, Stephanie.  You are dazzling and deep.  You are gifted and you are Miriam – singing the song of triumph.  Your voice was meant to proclaim: in your face, devil!  Your lungs were healed to give power to proclaim enemy defeat.  So sing, Miriam, sing!

And sweet Stephanie?

Live for Jesus, that’s what matters

And when other houses crumble yours is strong

Live for Jesus, that’s what matters

That they’ll see the light in you and come along!

 

The family legend is true. 

When you were 3 you’d fall asleep in the middle of singing a song and when you’d start to wake up, you’d pick that song up exactly in the place you’d left off.  You are full of song.  You are song.  And I love you.  Happy Birthday, Steph.

Love, Mom

SONG:  Live for Jesus was an Evie Tornquist song waaaaaay back in the day.  I adapted the actual lyrics for my purposes in singing it for the dedication in 1982.

Brokenhearted

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think

Monday April 26 – brother, Joe (age 49), has pacemaker updated/replaced/rebooted…whatever.

Monday May 3 – dad (who is as healthy as a horse at 71, or so we thought), has a heart attack and emergency surgery.  Two stints put in place and he is recovering nicely.

Saturday May 15 – early morning.  Brother Tim is airlifted to Missoula from Butte, MT (he just turned 47) having a heart attack.  Two stints have been put in place and he is recovering in ICU.

The Mayo Clinic’s 5 Tips for Keeping Your Heart Healthy (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-disease-prevention/wo00041):

1/  Don’t smoke or use tobacco products.

2/ Get active for 30-60 minutes every single day of the week.

3/ Eat well.  Cut the crap and put in the good.

4/ Get your weight under control.  Keep it there.

5/ Get regular health screenings, especially cholesteral and blood pressure.

Pray for my brother, Tim (the funny one), today, will you?  The kid is trim and fit as far as we all knew.  His and my dad’s heart attacks have been an absolutely unexpected “surprise”…in a bad way!

  

LEFT: Tim was 11, maybe, and I was 14 or 15; MIDDLE – “The Three Heart Guys”…Dad in his heavier days with Joe (who took 10 years getting all the way through college) and Tim; RIGHT: Tim and his wife, Julie, recently.

Guard your heart.

But before even getting the phone call this sunny/gorgeous/sweet morning, my heart was full/tender because people I love are going through things that hurt, because relational stuff takes effort and sometimes things just seem hard.  So, word to the wise: guard your heart, both the physical one and the one from which everything in your life and world flow…

Proverbs 4.23

“Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”  AMP

 

“Above all else,  guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  NIV

 

A Girl’s Best Friend

1 Christ is All, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

Gentle rain falling throughout the night left these sparkling diamonds for me in the early morning walk through the green garden.

The daylilies will soon be bountiful with blossoms.

I’m RICH!

 

Have you ever had a thought and even though you knew down deep inside it wasn’t true, you also had a lot of evidence to support the fact that it is true?  Sometimes an enemy lie or a loss or a self-defeating prophecy echoes through your head.  It’s funny to us on the SNL movie “Stuart Saves His Family,” when he has to repeat the mantra “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggonnit, people like me, ” because we know that in reality he is hearing, “I’m going to die penniless and homeless. I am still 25 pounds overweight.  No one will ever love me.”  Stinkin; thinkin’. 

And it is all pathetically untrue, for Stuart and for us.  But we have those accusations that pierce.

Mine today was: everyone leaves you eventually.  Nobody stays.

Then, playing a CD Tara gave me as one of my Mother’s Day presents (Hidden in My Heart ~ A Lullaby Journey Through Scripture, www.scripture-lullabies.com), this song broke through, and it is lovely and it is true.  I know this.

I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU

“…For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you,’ so we may boldly say: ‘The LORD is my helper; I will not fear.  What can man do to me?…'”  Hebrews 13.5 NKJV

When your sky is cold and lonely and your heart is filled with fear
I will wrap my arms around you, know that I am here
And I will keep you safe and sound through the darkness that surrounds

{}

I will never leave you
Nor forsake you
Know that I am with you
You will never be alone.

{}

When your way is bright and glowing and your soul knows no despair
Can you hear Me singing with you?  In your triumph I will share
For I am watching over you and I rejoice in all you do

{}

So remember, never doubt this
Hold it tightly to your heart
I’m forever always with you
I will be right where you are

I will never leave you.

Hidden in my Heart, click here

To the people who made me a mom

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think

Dear Tara Jean & Stephanie May,

Tredessa Christine, Rocker-Bo,

& Stormie Dae~

My munchkins.  My babies, mon bebes.  My adorable children.  My little brood. My life.  My joy.  My call.  My all.  My destiny.  My heritage.  My quiver-full.  My laughter and fun.  My hopes for the future.  My dreams and the fulfillment of them. 

My daughters and son – you are mine (at least on loan from heaven) and I am so pleased with you. You are my boast.  I am so grateful to God for the human beings He knit together inside my womb and how you were exactly what I needed and beyond all I ever hoped for. 

I wasn’t a good babysitter as a teen ~ gagged at diapering, thought I ‘d die if I ever had to clean up vomit.  I didn’t see myself as a good mommy candidate, but my ultra-fruitful ability to get pregnant from across the room changed everything and your birth, the physical act of your freshly created selves moving from my womb into my arms turned out to be, without fail in each of you, another miraculous act of God’s healing for my heart.  For each time He blessed me me with a child, my love capacity was increased in a way I did not think was humanly possible.  He trusted me.  And entrusted me with you, each of you…

“when — naked, soaked in sweat and blood, and a heart thumping from a marathon — you are squeezing onto your bosom ‘the whole universe wrapped in harmony with your soul’ and realize that this is the tiny body of your own baby. Mytyr, Mana, Mater, Muter, Madre, Mother, Mamma, you are the circle of life; heaven and earth pass through you.” (Eleftheria Mantzouka)

So on Mother’s Day, a day set aside to honor our mothers (and mine is so honorable), I want to thank you for making me a mom.  I want to bless you and tell you how much I love you and how grateful I am for the opportunity to find something of the redeeming grace of God in my life because of you.  There are things I have learned that I could not have any other way.  And I am humbled that He allowed me to know Him better and understand His amazing love by getting to be a mom.  I love you all.  I love the ones you have joined with as one who have become mine.  I love the babies you are rewarding me with in  my old age.  You are the children whom God has graciously given me, His servant.  Oh I am blessed.

And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”  Genesis 33:5 ESV

So, my ones, my Tara, my Stephanie, my Tredessa, my Rocky and my Stormie~ I bless you and love you and thank God for you.

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace (Num. 6:24-26).

My prayer

So for the privilege of being their mom, I pray for my familia~ Dave, Tara and Hunter; Steph, Tris, Gavin, Guini and Gemma; Tredessa and her future husband and children;  Rocky, Jovan, Averi and Amelie Belle; Stormie and her future husband and children,  I bring them under your authority and covering, even as I come under your authority and covering. I cover my children and grandchildren with your blood – their spirit, soul and body, their heart, mind and will. I ask your Spirit to restore them in you, renew them in you.  Smile on the ones You gave me, Father. 

I bring the life and the work of Jesus over my family, my children and grandchildren and over all we are, the good, the bad and the times we haven’t understood one another;  the right things I did and the awful mistakes I made.  For You are enough for it all, Lord, and I thank you.   Bless the fruit of my womb.  And show me how to be the mom they need now, the one You created me to be because of Your great love for them… 

I love you, my kiddos.  You make my Mother’s Day happy.

Happy Mother’s Day To Tara, Stephanie and Jovan, too: three of the most amazing mommies I have ever known.  And to my friends and family who are mommies.  If I know you and like you, I also love the kind of mom you are.  Otherwise-I wouldn’t like you at all.  So: Good job!  Happy Day!