Our firstborn daughter married the man of her dreams 11 years and two fantastic sons ago. They are still acting like newlyweds and spreading the love around! In fact, in two days, they’ll be putting on a concert, Decades, featuring love songs from the 1940s – right on up through the present. Deets can be found at dtp.eventbrite.com. And there will be food.*
A sample…
Happy Anniversary, Dave and Tara. Thank-you for the 2 outrageously cute grand-boys, the love you are living and all the joy yet to be! So lucky God gave you to us! How can we ever thank Him enough?
Hunter and Malakai after the candy store (taken by Aunt Stormie)
Happy 8th Anniversary, Rocky & Jovan!
Almost exactly one year ago, you lost so much in the floods that ravaged Colorado and you have been hard at work, tearing out, throwing away, cleaning up and re-building. And the number 8 in the Bible signifies new life, the old is passed away, new beginnings {all things are made new} and wow – that is SO right on for you two! God is just doing new-wonderful things in your life!
The 3 little women with their beautiful mama
So glad Jovan started crushing on you when she was only 14, Rocky. So glad you fell for the woman she became. Thank-you for the three extraodinarily stunning little grand-girlies you have shared with us. So much life and love yet to experience and you’re doing it well!
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September is such a lovely month, isn’t it? Lovely and love-filled!
Happy Birthday to Rocky Rhoades, who turned 29 on September the 29th
My son – I am so pleased with you.
I have told you the story of your birth so many times, haven’t I? You arrived early and the doctor had told me not to leave town in case that happened, but I left town and I was so stressed out because I don’t like to get caught breaking the rules. And Tara just reminded me the other night how stressed she was, too, as a 5-year old, because we started on our trip, got halfway there, went home, and then decided to go anyway…and barely walked into the grandparent’s house before it was time for me to zoom right on over to the hospital. Well, I mean, I had planned to make it home so the doctor wouldn’t be any-the-wiser, but you were like, NOW! ~which is so still you. :)
And I have told you that you surprised me beyond anything I could have imagined. I could not believe I got the boy, THE boy I secretly hoped for even though in reality I was totally FINE with having a girl. I already had 3 girls, one more made such sense for balance and symmetry. Omygoodness – the words, “You have a boy” sent me into delirious happiness.
You looked directly at me, your eyes blinked in slow-motion and it knocked the breath from my body. I was dizzy in love, unable to even think about sleep that night, all night, as an oxytocin and dopamine cocktail surged through my veins as if it were coming directly through the IV drip. I had a boy…my very own baby boy!
And you may not realize it, but every time I ever see you, even now, I am thinking the same thing: THAT is MY boy!
I am so proud of you, Rock, not only for the man you are, but for the man you are becoming more and more everyday. This whole flood thing has been a devastation in some ways and an aggravation, for certain, in the life of your family, your ministry. There was loss that probably feels overwhelming and unbearable (as $40-50,000 plus time and effort and re-building will be). I know you look forward to getting your wife and baby girls back home, safe and sound. And then you’ll look and see the possibly long-haul ahead for replacing all the instruments and computers and sound equipment and the studio you’d spent time assembling ~ lots of time and money and hard work ahead.
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For …this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God.. . 2 Corinthians 6.10-12
But it will come back to you. The things you have sown will take root and grow. And I have watched you and Jovan these past few years grow in grace and grow in giving and giving selflessly and giving big and making the conscious decision to live a life of giving and whenever it has been in your power to do so, you have given away anything and everything you could.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows…whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6.7-8
And God isn’t unaware. He’ll see to it that the seeds of kindness and giving that you have already sown will grow and flourish and you’ll reap all that you have sown. Even when you didn’t know you’d need it – you were planting, you were dropping the seeds of compassion and kindness and generosity into the ground – and what you couldn’t see was that God wasn’t surprised by this thing that happened to your house, your home and belongings and He was smiling, I just know it, because He knew you were already doing what needed done – before it needed done. God knew you were planting for a harvest of big-time reaping, financially!
“The Lord then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.'” Genesis 7.1
For Noah, for all mankind, the flood was a line in the sand. It was a before and after. It was : things used to be like that, then there was the flood, and now they are like this. The flood was an ending AND a beginning. Things were lost in the flood, but the promises of God are found there, too. Not just for an ark builder for thousands of years ago, but for a worshiper/songwriter right now, in Frederick, CO – man who leads his family and wants to write songs that literally bring healing.
Of course certain things had to die and float away for a dream, a calling, a vision like that. But it is all just so you’ll never forget that the LORD is the promise-keeper and you didn’t do it by yourself, because you couldn’t have. How many times have you told me, since you were 18 or 19, “God won’t share His glory.” You have pointed out highly celebrated, gifted musicians and singers and recognized the call of God on their lives, but watched as they held it for themselves. That is not the standard you are living by and this flood is just a yes and amen to deep-down determinations you have already made to give God all, everything that is His and His alone – you have already said it. The flood is a checkpoint – do you mean it, Rock-man? And I know you do and I know the healing songs are going to pour out from here, like flood waters for the glory of the LORD.
But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord just as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2.14
Do you know what I think?
I believe, and I actually know this to be true because I have known you every second of these 29 years+ and you have made me cry and worry and laugh like nobody’s business and also so very proud because you are forthright and honest and talented and thoughtful and honoring and you love your mommy. So this is what I think:
No one is more beautiful or handsome than my boy, my Rocky ~ from the inside out.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38
This is the post-flood promise of God! On the occasion of your 29th birthday. It is coming back to you, all of it and more! I love you!
NOTE: Rocky and Jovan got flooded out during the Colorado rains in September. I have written a little about it here and here. You can learn more about helping them re-build {HERE}!
Here are my {humble and extremely astute, hahahaha!} observations on what happens when a lot of rain comes quickly…
Nothing profound or scientific here. Just my thoughts running downstream…
You may be praying for it (in arid, semi-desert areas, we often do), but it shows up in the night while you are totally unprepared, sleeping, minding your own business.
Rocky and Jovan had no warning, when at 3 am, their electricity was out and within 20 minutes they watched water rise from the second step to just a couple of feet from their main level, reaching nearly 6 feet high in their basement. They couldn’t drive out of their cul-de-sac because the street was already rushing and deep, but had to pack quickly for three baby girls. It can be sudden. It was in this case.
It rips your belongings from their places and they just float away.
The next day, Rocky went to his house and everything downstairs was just floating around on its side: furnace, hot water heater, washer, dryer, computers, musical recording equipment and sound systems. All of Rocky’s guitars and instruments (the ones he learned to worship on), were soaked and floating or submersed. Material things float away in a flood, in an abundance of rain.
It fills the creeks, the rivers, bursts through dams, flows down it’s normal contained path in ever-rising power then through streets and places that cannot contain it.
It gets dangerous. It shows up where we were glad to have it and where we weren’t. But it is the nature of abundance. It’s everywhere. It rains on the just and on the unjust, in good ways and in ways that we were not expecting and don’t know how to handle.
Everybody wants to claim they got more of it than some one else.
I don’t want to say too much about this for fear I’ll end up totally snarky. So let me just say, if you lost anything at all, if you are now faced with mold growing where the basement flooded and your childhood keepsakes are gone – it is a loss. It is horrible. And I hope you have some one in your life who will acknowledge that and let you say why the loss affected you and how sad you feel. I really do. But there were people whose houses stayed completely dry who acted like they had been banished to a completely undeveloped third world country because a road half a mile away couldn’t be transversed for 24-48 hours. Keep perspective and get into gratefulness. Maybe the next big tragedy will be all about you – won’t that be nice? There! See? I got into snarkiness. I cannot be trusted.
Some people will lose a lot and then be recompensed with piles of pious platitudes.
Mourn with those who mourn. Maybe what they lost didn’t mean anything to you, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t mean anything to them. They are tired. They have a lot of work ahead. When they say, “Oh-I just found out I lost {some, silly, ridiculous, sentimental, inconsequential thing} in the flood,” we should commiserate, we should sympathize, and maybe if we know what that is like, we should empathize. For how long? Until they are done. My conjecture is that if we’d stop and mourn with those who are mourning, their mourning would turn into dancing a whole lot sooner. Sometimes what is lost isn’t recognized right away anyway, in the shocking aftermath of a new normal, of material loss. Encourage, literally give them some of your courage. Listen, let them tell you why that {silly, ridiculous, sentimental, inconsequential thing} meant something. But refrain, pleeeeeease, from pious-sounding-cliches and especially from a “knowing look” that God sent this hard thing to work something in their lives that you totally knew they needed. Because you will not want that coming back on you!
The rushing water brings a cleansing, but cleansing strips away things we didn’t count on, too.
It is a heavenly do-over. Now what will we do with it? It’s a chance to right wrongs, fresh slate, build better, travel lighter, haul away the concentrated, contaminated mud for good.
But in the cleansing – I have one friend who lost everything including her home in Lyons. There is nothing for her to even go back to, her home and those who lived near – all gone. The land will be cleared and maybe eventually that will seem fine, safer for the future, but right now – it represents many families, people who have nowhere to call “home.”
So? A fresh slate can be good, it is also very empty – much work to do!
If the water gets stuck in one spot, it will become stagnant.
There is so much contamination throughout our state now, as the rain has ceased and the rushing has subsided and is sitting still. I have read about the revivals of old, Azusa, the Welsh Revival. Powerful moves of God flowing through and changing the landscape, were eventually dammed up, “named”, coined phrases were assigned to them for categorizing the flow of the Holy Spirit. The rains can be administrated and basically contained…to death. Choose life from this wet mess!
The bug population will suddenly be crazy after it happens.
Because even where the rains have made the grass and trees greener than ever in our state at this time of year, when the good stuff is increased, the annoying stuff {fatigue sets in, bickering, backbiting, distrust, unrest, eye-rolling, offense} increases around it, too. Be aware. Be wary. Be on guard. They seek to destroy the green-life we are enjoying.
See? Nothing profound or scientific. Just a bunch of thoughts rattling around, things I see.
The Bible says where the river flows everything will live. This will eventually probably be one of the most beautiful autumns Colorado has ever seen {both in the natural and because it is bringing people together to do good for one another}. It will take time to rebuild, to get “back to normal,” to regain what was lost. But even now, are we not seeing clearly the great grace and love of God, His heart poured out in love towards us, His great grace at work through His people. He is good. We know this now. But – in the looking back someday, how amazed we will really be, I am sure of it!
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Zumba, baby!
Meanwhile, the amazing Tammy Brown (the outrageously gorgeous woman married to the ineffable Lewis “Proxy” Brown, yes THAT Tammy) is doing a fitness-fundraiser {how fun is that?} to help Rocky and Jovan as they work to recover their losses! It’s a ZUMBA-thing! You should ALL come! Seriously! THIS kind of abundance – it’s a love-rain!
Thanks to so many who are helping so many others and especially those who are loving on my familia.
