Could It Be Today?

I was driving home last night when this song came on the radio. I was surprised by how much it moved me. All of a sudden tears filled my eyes and my heart felt tight with emotion. My life has been going so well lately. There are so many blessings and genuine joy, but I know that nothing will compare to THAT DAY!



Two friends of mine are suffering right now. One is grieving loss and one is grieving unfulfilled dreams. I know the hurt they are going through right now and I'm so thankful that this is not it.

I can't wait.
I can't wait to live the way we were made to live.
I can't wait to worship Him face to face.
I can't wait to live a life without pain, suffering, fear, or shame.
I can't wait to love people unselfishly and with pure love.
I can't wait to experience real joy and see real beauty.
I can't wait for every knee to bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

My heart breaks lately when I think of my friends and family and neighbors who don't know Jesus. It hurts inside so much. I can see their faces. During my run today, I looked at each house and wondered, "Do they know Him?"

It makes me wish I had the talent for helping people see Him, to inspire them to want Him. I wish I could do or say something to express to my loved ones that don't know Him, how much they need Him, how empty life is without Him, and how important it is to give their lives to Him.

I understand doubt. I understand confusion over religion. But I know Jesus. He's the answer to everything.

And someday I'm going to see Him face to face!
There will be a day when He comes back and I can't wait for that day!

Looking forward and upward~
Could it be today?

By the way, I read this beautiful post today and wanted to encourage you to stop by and read it, too.

Love,

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People Do Live Here!

We had this house built five years ago, but I just now got family pictures on the wall. There is something about me and pictures!

I had a long list of home project dreams in my mind when we moved in here, but real life happened, and five years later you can finally tell that people actually live here. Besides the mess, that is! : )

I just love seeing the people I love up there on the wall. I find myself stopping to stare at them often throughout the day, and Prince Charming's favorite game is to have me walk him by each picture while he "talks" to them and laughs at them.

As much as I'm loving the new pictures, I've found I have a decorating dilemma. I think I need to do something about all of the empty space above the pictures. Do any of you have ideas or suggestions? King Charming thought maybe I should stencil something scrolly and the word "Family."

I know that among my readers are some crafty, clever, Martha Stewarts, with Pottery Barn taste. What would you do? Would you just leave it alone?

Oh yeah...

Remember when I couldn't decide which picture to buy from my photographer? Well....

I didn't settle on one. I bought small copies of each one for his scrapbook and two 8 x 10s for the walls. It is really your fault you know. You all were no help at all! Ha Ha. Plus, I thought the comments about hat vs. no hat made a lot of sense, so I HAD to get both. : ) Plus, my lovely photographer spoils me and gives me way too good of deals for her talent. I'm so, so, so grateful.

Maybe in another 5 years, I'll actually get to something else on the "to-do" list. Maybe paint? I'll definitely need your help with that one!

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"She Speaks Conference" Contest Entry

I'll never forget the Women's Retreat I went to in May of 2005. I was Mom to two precious little girls, five months pregnant with our third baby, and full of dreams for the future.

The speaker spent a lot of time talking about dreams that weekend, and ended one session by sending us out for quiet time to ask God if He shared our dreams.

Finding a quiet spot by myself, I brainstormed a list of dreams, lifting them to Him, and asking Him if He shared those dreams with me. I wrote about 20 things and have forgotten most or them, but I can close my eyes and still three of them written out:

- I want a son

- I want to write a book someday

- I want to have an effective ministry

I said, "Amen", put the list in my Bible, excited about what God would do with those dreams, and finished up the retreat. I literally drove down from the mountain top to my own deepest valley.

Two days later, I went into my five month ultrasound appointment, excited to see the baby boy I'd asked God for. Instead, we saw a silent heartbeat. Our baby boy was gone. As readers of my blog, you know that three more miscarriages and two failed adoption attempts followed that loss.

This is what God decided to do with my dreams?

It wasn't an easy process, but four years later, I've seen Him do miraculous things. Great healing things. And He has taken my dreams and refined them, making them new, and promising me He will fulfill them in His way, and in His time. I now know that He does share my dreams. He's the one who gave them to me. I trust Him to bring them about in a way I can't imagine yet. His way will produce fruit and make that effective ministry I dream about. I'm still excited to see what He will do with my dreams.

He's already begun to bring the beauty out of the ashes:

-Today, I have a beautiful, healthy seven-month-old son.

-Today, I've written a book. It is not the novel I dreamt of writing. After my second miscarriage, I was in the shower and stepped out with an outline for a book on healing after pregnancy loss. I started writing it then, and continued writing it after the next two miscarriages. I didn't know how it would ever come together to be a whole book, but it did. The whole thing was a gift from God. Every word of it was something He gave me. I'd feel compelled to write, write it down, and then go months unable to write any more. Eventually, it was finished and God took all those pieces and made it a whole. Now I'm not sure what He wants to do with it. Was it just for me? Or does He have plans to use it to help other hurting women and families? I don't know.

- Today, I've been able to minister to women around me in a way I never could have without tasting hurt myself. He's opened doors through my church for writing and teaching, and I'm hoping for more open doors in the future.

One of the ways I'm trusting Him is with the timing of the rest. I'm content right now to be a mom and a housewife. I truly love what I do and where I'm at, and I don't want to be in a hurry to move forward. But I also long to be trained for women's ministry. I long to see my book helping others if it is meant to. I want so much to learn how to be an effective speaker and teacher.

I know I can learn those things at the "She Speaks Conference" put on by Proverbs 31 Ministries in Charlotte, NC. God did miraculous things to get me there two years ago. I learned more in that one weekend than I can ever put in words, and it inspired me to finish the book that was just an outline at the time. I really believe that I am supposed to go back there again someday. There was so much more to learn than I could fit into one weekend. I don't know if this is the year or not, but I know that if I'm right, if God wants me there again, He'll make a way. It will take another miracle from Him to get me there. : )

A cross-country airplane ticket, three days in a hotel, and the conference fees are definitely not in the budget. When I saw that Proverbs 31 Ministries was hosting a blog contest to win a scholarship to this year's conference, I knew I wanted to try, to put this in the Lord's hands again and wait and see what He is going to do. If I win the chance to go, I'll praise Him for the gift. If He says "no" or "not yet," I'm determined to wait for His timing, His open doors, and His equipping me for what He's got for me to do.

I've tried on my own to push open doors, or try to make things happen, and it has been the wrong timing. The people pleaser and achiever in me has had a hard lesson to learn of being at peace with where I'm at right now, not needing anyone's approval other than God's, and the patience to wait. He's changing me, teaching me, molding me, and I have sooooo far to go. I feel and see my inadequacies and sometimes I'm afraid, and amazed to think I could do any of this anyway. I'm so thankful that He'll make me ready for whatever He gives me to do. He'll provide the training and equipping I need. I'm hoping the She Speaks Conference is in those plans. : ) For the first time, though, I truly am content in the waiting. I'm not in a hurry. I was afraid to enter this contest and try to do things according to my timeline again, but I prayed a lot about it, and waited to the last possible moment to enter, but I felt like I had God's OK to try.

If you have an opportunity to go to this conference, I can not encourage you enough to take that opportunity. It was a life changing weekend, and I'm so excited to go back!

Thank you to the judges from P31 who stopped by my blog and considered me for this scholarship. Your ministry inspires me so much.

Love,

Thank you to everyone who is stopping by to congratulate me. It means so much to me. I just wrote about winning here. You are all in my prayers. I hope I get to meet you this summer. : )

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Remember Me?

My name is Becky.

I'm the girl who used to write fascinating mildly interesting regular posts on this here blog.

No~ I did not perish in a tragic steam cleaner accident.

Spring Break happened, that's what! : )

My girls are home from school this week for Spring Break, and we've been happily busy. I've been interrupted every time I've gone to do a blog post.

I feel like I need to take a small blogging break to enjoy face time with my kiddos not "talk to Mommy through her laptop screen" time.

Dear readers~ thank you for your patience. I'll be back soon!

Love,

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Common Sense Ain't So Common

Or at least I can say it isn't one of my strong suits. : )

I did something really stupid today, and I'm so thankful I didn't burn my face off. You know that steam mop I've been lusting after wanting? Well, I finally got one! It's actually a steam cleaner that comes with a mop attachment, and I'm having so much fun blasting germs and making my sink shiny. Mopping my floor is so easy now! But I digress....

Today, while I was cleaning my bathroom, I thought I needed to add some more water. So without thinking, I just unscrewed the cap on the boiler to add some more water. BAD IDEA!!!!

KABOOM~ The cap exploded off while I got sprayed full on in the face with a burst of steam. My hair, face, shirt, and arms were all soaked with water. Guess I needed a facial. : )

It really shook me up to think how quickly I could do something dumb and be really hurt. I've been walking around all day praying, "Thank you Lord that I didn't get burned."

I'm a pretty smart gal~ book smart, not street smart. My fourth grade teacher used to lovingly refer to me as her absent minded professor.

Goodnight from a very thankful to still have a face,

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Ah...I'm so in love...

This morning I woke up feeling so yucky...I have a cold and wanted so much to crawl back into bed.

As I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I opened up my laptop and found the greatest surprise. While I was sleeping last night, King Charming got a hold of my laptop and made a few adjustments. Instead of the picture of my kids that is usually there, my desktop background now has a rose and the words "I love you." As my sleepy brain figured out the change, Windows Media Player popped up and started playing "our song".

I was shocked!
And moved to tears.

Flowers...a love song...and the day had barely begun.
I'm so thankful to be loved like this. And so thankful he doesn't mind waking up to me in sweats and the most recent round of spit up all over my shirt. Thank you Lord for making me wait for this man.

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Seven Sounds So Old

It doesn't seem possible that seven years have gone by since I became a mother. Wow. When they tell you that you'll blink and they'll be grown-up, I believe them.


My princess has grown up into such a sweet, smart, beautiful little girl. I'm so thankful to be her Mommy. (She even still calls me that most of the time. How long will that last???)

I've just been so sentimental lately, enjoying my kids, and thanking God for them. I guess seven just sounds so much older to me than six did. Sigh.

On her special day, she woke up and found a new bike waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. This bike is so cool because it is a Bronco bike, blue and orange just like her favorite football team. Go Broncos!


Later that day, I got to deliver these cupcakes to school:

Knowing her as well as you all do by now, you had to know they needed to be black and white and spotted, right? These are Dalmatian cupcakes with a surprise cream cheese and chocolate chip spot in the middle. And of course, my little dog lover had to have napkins that said, "Wipe Your Paws" on them. Would you expect anything else? Hee Hee.

You other moms out there will know what I mean when I say, I was so proud of her when I went to school. She was so cute and excited and happy~ just glowing with joy. She stands out in a crowd to me. I had to wonder, "Does the rest of the world notice how special she is?" (Talk about a biased mother, huh?)

I don't know why I took this picture. I just thought she looked sweet in her hair bow.



She stood at the end of the lunch line with her teacher and passed out the cupcakes to her classmates.


I think she was happy~ Or high on sugar.


That night she invited two of her buddies to go out to dinner with us to her restaurant of choice. This year she chose Red Robin.




They did a great job of making her feel special. Especially when they delivered her ice cream sunday.

It was a great birthday. I still can't believe she is seven, but seven sounds so much younger than EIGHT, so I'll just enjoy my little girl while I can.



Happy Birthday Sweetheart! Your Mama loves you more than I can put in words.

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The God Who Sees

I've got quite a few blog posts planned~ We've had an exciting week with Oldest Princess turning 7 and finishing up her basketball season. I'll get to it soon, I promise! I know Grandma is anxiously awaiting video of Prince Charming and his latest tricks, too. I've even got that coming Grandma. Hold your horses!

In the mean time, I just finished writing my devotion for the week and thought I'd cross post it here. Love you all!

Today's devotion was inspired by my own personal Bible study. I'm following a plan for reading the Bible in a year in chronological order. I love it. It is so interesting to read the Word in the order the events were happening in history. I highly recommend it. Here's a link to the same plan that you can customize for yourself.

From the Word:
Click and read Genesis 16

Key Verse:
Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”
-Genesis 16:13 (NLT)

During my reading recently, I read about Hagar. God promised Abraham he would be the father of countless descendants. While waiting for the fulfillment of that promise, his wife, Sarah, decided to take matters into her own hands and offered her husband her servant, Hagar, to provide his heir.

(Note: Taking matters into our own hands is a topic I'll have to tackle in another devotion. Bad Idea! Ha ha)

What stuck with me after the reading was how hard life was for Hagar. She must have felt so alone, and of so little value. She was property, to be given to an old man for sex without her consent. How insignificant she must have felt!

This is an overused analogy, but it always amazes me when I'm in an airplane and look down at the ground. People become smaller and smaller and more and more insignificant the higher the airplane goes. Looking out that airplane window, I can relate to the feelings of the agnostic. Why would God care about me, someone so small in the sea of humanity?

But the Word tells us that God is intimately aware of us. He knows our name. He cares about our circumstances. We are known! We are seen! He knows even the number of hairs on our heads.

In today's reading, Hagar says, "You are the God who sees me!" Isn't that an amazing thing to consider? The God who is big enough to create the universe, and small enough that His fingerprints are seen in the tiniest of cells, saw Hagar, an insignificant servant girl with a rough life. He also sees you and me.

What a comfort to be KNOWN and SEEN. I join Hagar at being amazed by this truth.

Personal Application:
Do a study on the names of God. You can do a Google search or check out one of the many book on that subject. His names give insight into His character. Worship Him for who He is! Thank Him that in the midst of your everyday life, in the midst of the joys and sorrows, you are seen by the One who loves you. Trust him today and rest in knowing that you are not alone.

More of God's Word

1. You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day. -Psalm 139:15-16 (The Message)

2. Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? -Psalm 113:5-6 (NIV)

3. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. - Matthew 10:30 (NIV)


Love,

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One of Those Weeks

Do you ever feel like you are in slow motion while the rest of the world is in hyper-speed? I'm there now!

It has just been a crazy busy week, and I've felt like a chicken with its head cut off, running in circles accomplishing nothing. I've actually done a lot this week, it just can't be measured or seen. There is no product to show for myself. Just a lot of unfinished started projects. All I wanted to do was get my kitchen cleaned up. I've been trying all week, and it still isn't done. Man! And now the lovely Daylight Saving Time change is about to steal an hour away from me.

I give up! I'm going to bed with a good book and maybe the kitchen will be clean tomorrow, but then again, maybe not!

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Is Our President a Fraud? What Would Happen if He is?

I have been fascinated by the controversy over whether or not President Obama is even eligible to be president. I'm really surprised by how little the mainstream media is covering this.

My fascination lies in the question of "What do we do if he isn't?" Can you imagine the uproar and possible riots from his supporters if it is found that he is NOT eligible to be our president? And then, who would be? Would Hillary Clinton stand back and allow Joe Biden to become the president? She could claim she would have won the democratic nomination if it had been a race between her and Biden. Or would the Republican party claim the whole election was a sham and we need to do it again? What a constitutional crisis this would become! Unfortunately, I see this whole thing as a "lose-lose" situation. Having a president usurp the office and defy the constitution is not good. The result of ousting him could be devastating to our nation. The only "win" scenario would be him proving he is eligible and this becoming a non-issue. But it appears he is unwilling to do this.

Our founding fathers stated that the president must be a natural born citizen in order to protect from conflict of interest or allegiance to another country while leading our nation. Currently, President Obama has refused to produce a vault copy of his birth certificate validating that he truly is a natural born citizen even though his own grandmother claims she was present at his birth in Kenya.

If I understand it correctly, the problem is the Constitution states a president must be a natural born citizen, but there are no directions on what to do if a president is found to be ineligible AFTER he is already in office. Would this be an impeachment issue? I'm hoping you American government experts out there can fill me in on this one. Many lawsuits have been filed asking the courts to require him to prove that he is a natural born citizen of the U.S., but most have been thrown out because the courts say they do not have standing, even though they are voters and taxpayers. It appears that the courts do not want to be involved in deciding this issue.

But an interesting twist has come up recently. There is a new lawsuit that is coming from current and retired members of the military demanding that Obama proves that he is eligible to be their Commander in Chief. If anyone has "standing," I would think it would be a person who would be required to put their life on the line or to take the life of others in order to follow the orders of the president. If anyone needs to have confidence in our president and his right to be president, it is our military, right?

Here are a few links to articles World Net Daily has reported on this issue:

Soldier doubts eligibility, defies president's orders


Major general says president's eligibility needs proof


More military officers demand eligibility proof


U.S. solider gagged on prez's eligibility


Senator: Eligibility is up to the voters


I'm so curious to hear what you all think about this issue. Obama supporters, would it bother you if he was proven ineligible? Would you still want him to serve as president if it was proven he deceived our nation? What about you non-Obama supporters? Why do you think the media isn't covering this? Do you see it as a non-issue or an important one? Anyone else as fascinated by this as me? I have so much to learn about our government and how it works. I'm afraid this lesson might not be so fun to watch unfold.

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Decision Made

Wow...you all are passionate about dogs...one way or the other. : )

Well, I think we've come up with a solution that will make all you commenters happy-

We're getting a dog!

But NOT YET!

: ) See~ I'm such a people pleaser. Those of you who said, "Don't Do It!!!" won and those of you who begged on the princess' behalf won, too. Nobody can be mad at me. Ha Ha!

King Charming and I talked about it and we've decided we will get a dog next summer when Oldest Princess is one year older and Prince Charming is walking. He spends so much of his day laying on the floor playing, I think waiting is a good idea. Adding a baby to the family is enough change for this year. The baby of the canine variety will have to wait until next year.

King Charming did request that we choose a "manly" dog. He said, "I won't be outside walking some sissy dog!" The image of him outside walking a poodle, Yorkie, or Bichon Frise makes me laugh! : )

Thank you so much for all of your advice, wisdom, and passion! I really enjoyed reading all of your comments and someday I'll show them to Oldest Princess so she can see how so many of you went to bat for her. Grandpa, you will be her hero!

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