October 1 - Random Thoughts to Keep the Blog Alive

Limping the blog along to see another day, I just realized I haven’t posted anything since September 6. I didn’t even celebrate the beginning of Autumn here at the ol’ Sweet Tea place. I did celebrate the beginning of Autumn, but I somehow neglected to write about it here. Life has been busy. Busy, I say.

So, it being the first of October and all, I think I’ll do a little ‘here I am, I still intend to blog in this space’ post in bullet points. Kind of like a status report, but without the creativity.

• Fall/Autumn has begun. I am happy about 
• this. The leaves have started turning, something pumpkinish was baking in the grocery store bakery when I visited there this morning, and oh....it smelled GOOD, temperature is beginning to cool outside, Christmas music is playing at Walmart (grr! ack! stop it already!!!), the scarecrow family is out by my front porch. I like. 
• As I type I’m sipping a cup of afternoon coffee with homemade pumpkin spice creamer and contemplating whether tonight would be a good night to bake a pumpkin pie or whether my waist line would be more appreciative if I were to wait until I had a less caloric dinner planned. 
• Dinner, did I mention dinner? Drizzly, gray, chilly day today, so I have a pot of ham and bean soup simmering on the stove. I’m quite excited about it. The children will be less so, but they just don’t know a good thing when it’s sitting there in a bowl in front of them. I also have yeast rolls rising. They will be pleased about that. My mother will probably think I’m cheating, but the little yeast rolls are from the freezer section of our local Kroger. I may not have mixed and rolled them, but they are rising on my counter and these little lovelies taste better than any I’d make from scratch. And Drew thinks they’re homemade and even posts about them on Facebook when I bake them, so, shhhhhh. Oh, and fried okra is on the menu for tonight, too. Just because fried okra is probably one of the best things ever. But that’s why I think pumpkin pie will have to wait.
• Speaking of the grocery store, I am all kinds of excited to have finally discovered Aldi. I was complaining recently about how much we’ve been spending on groceries now that my boys have inexplicably grown taller than me and are no longer eating like little boys but can clean out the pantry like nobody’s business. Several friends mentioned trying Aldi. I thought, “I shop pretty smart at my usual store, I don’t know how it could really be any cheaper, but so many people have suggested it, it’s worth a try.” Wowza. Was it ever. Of course, I still have to go to Kroger for certain things (yeast rolls anyone?), but it sure has helped to split up my shopping. If you have an Aldi near you, try it. I’m a fan.
• On to reading. I haven’t updated my reading list in a while because I have been reading this super long book that is taking me FOREVER to finish. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Good night, but this is a long book. Drew had to read it as “recommended reading” for that Army class he took last spring which had him away from home for 4 months, and he said I should read it so we can also watch the movie (second half of which is being released this month) and discuss. So I am. Slowly. Did I mention it is LONG? Interesting and I’m aware that it is Ayn Rand’s definitive work which spells out her worldview, which I do not endorse. She does a nice job of showing how dangerous a socialistic view of government/economy is, though, but I don’t agree with all of her premises. The eery thing is that as I’m reading along I find that her more socialistic characters (who are NOT the heroes of the book, but are the VILLAINS) sound eerily like our current president. I’m talking like word-for-word quotes almost. Creepy when I was reading one character’s rant about how an innovative industrialist who sweated and struggled for years to invent a new, stronger, cheaper to develop kind of metal didn’t invent that on his own. Sounded just like our president’s now infamous “you didn’t build that” speech. Anywho. I will be glad when this election is over. It’s going to be a nasty few more weeks, I’m thinking, and I have no confidence I’ll like the outcome. I’ve been doing lots of thinking, and I know who I’m voting for, and I think I can do it with confidence, seeing as I don’t trust our current president AT ALL. I can say I’m super glad my hope isn’t in government, and I wish we evangelicals hadn’t gotten ourselves into the position where most people think that we believe that it is. But that is probably another whole blog post.
• Speaking of worldviews and politics, I had an interesting demonstration the other day that there are fundamentally different and opposing worldviews working in our culture today. Someone on Facebook posted a picture of Paul Ryan with scare quotes of all the things we'll 'lose' if he and Mitt Romney are elected. The thing is, I'm sure this person is confident that all those things she listed there would make us 'dummies' sit up, take notice and say, "Hey! I didn't know that! What was I thinking, thinking I might vote for him?" But the thing is, all those things on the list that were supposed to scare me to the other side were things I believe in and are things that make me more inclined to vote for the guy rather than less. It just hit me solidly in the face with how vastly different my worldview is from someone who would post that. We do not see things at all in the same way, and it's not really a matter of information or lack of it, but a difference in how we view the world and what we believe is important and right altogether. And that is why I'm not at all convinced that Facebook is a useful tool for political discourse. Too hard to have a real discussion of the real issues in that forum, I'm finding. But that, too, is probably better left to a whole other post.
• Back to speaking of reading, I’m wanting to hurry up and finish reading that long thing so I can get started on the book I just purchased for my NOOK, The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler. Really looking forward to reading it.
• Busy. Did I mention how busy we’ve been? My oldest son has entered the crazy world of high school marching band. He’s an 8th grader, but had the opportunity to march with the high school band this Fall. He likes it a lot, even though it means LONG practices and LOTS of contest Saturdays. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching him bloom this year and find his niche. My middle boy is playing football. He likes it. I think. He’s also started playing trombone in the middle school band. Is it wrong for me to hope band wins out? I am trying to like football, really I am. I do enjoy seeing my boy enjoy it. So between football and band, family dinner has become a rarity this fall, but we’re making it happen as often as we can. And little sister gets to go along to all these practices for the ride. The other day when we got to see the band compete, as they marched onto the field and began playing, she moaned, loudly, “Aw, they ALWAYS play this song!” Yep. Every. Single. Day. Over. And. Over. Once October is done, life will settle back down to some semblance of normal again, we think.
• Alrighty, then. That’s probably enough for this post. 

Discipline, Love and the Gospel for Life

Hebrews 12:6

“6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

James 4:17

“17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Romans 8:29

“29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Matthew 22:37-40

“37 And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”

As I grow in grace in my walk with the Lord, I am beginning to understand that I have not properly understood Hebrews 12:6 and the word ‘discipline’ as it pertains to the Christian who is trusting in Jesus alone for salvation. In other words, as my understanding of the gospel is deepening beyond the gospel being just the ‘A,B,C of becoming a Christian, to understanding that the gospel is necessary for all of life - the sanctification of the believer - beyond that initial entry point of understanding, I am beginning to see that my understanding of discipline has been more rooted in law than it is in grace, thinking that discipline means punishment and legalistic rules rather than what it really is, which is instruction in godliness and spiritual growth. How freeing it is to begin to see it in that way - instruction in godliness and spiritual growth. He instructs us because He loves us. We are not left alone. Can you grasp how awesome that is?

You see, finally I am coming to grab hold of the understanding that there really is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He was bruised for my transgressions. The punishment for my sin was paid on the cross. Hallelujah, and amen. So, when I encounter trials, I ought not to view them as punishment for some sin. What I ought to be asking, in trial and in blessing and everything in between is, what is God teaching me in this? What am I to learn from this to grow in godliness? How is God conforming me to the likeness of His Son in this? Do you see how different that is from cowering and thinking I’m being punished or, even worse, thinking I can earn reward or favor for some supposed good I think I've done, when the ebbs and flows of life come along? Better to rest in Christ and know that I am secure in His work of atonement on the cross and am being saved to be conformed to His likeness for His glory - and that I am loved, not just tolerated, but really and truly loved, with an everlasting, covenant love, not on the basis of anything I have done, but all on the basis of what Jesus has done! I can trust myself to Him completely.

So, as I’m growing in grace, I’m beginning to realize a bit what chastisement can look like in a life that has been submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I had something happen recently that led me to something of a small personal crisis. The details don’t matter, and it wasn’t a big, major thing, but there was something I I knew I needed to do that I did not want to do (James 4:17), because the doing of it demanded I deal with the idol of pride in my heart.  It was something I could have left undone, no one needed to be the wiser, in fact, no one would have known anything about it. But I knew. And God knows. 

As I wrestled with what was the right thing to do overnight, I found all kinds of justifications about how no one would even know, it’s not even that big of a deal, you know the way our minds work when we’re seeking to preserve our precious pride, right? Well, as God has allowed me to have a conscience steeped in His word because He’s given me a desire and love for reading and studying it - and a desire to obey it - scripture kept coming to my mind, and I kept thinking, “How can I sing on Sunday in the choir, how can I go about my business training up my children, how can I even pray when I know that to neglect this supposedly little thing I am effectively not loving my neighbor as myself? How can I  leave this thing undone and walk away from it, knowing it’s the right thing to do?” So, I prayed for wisdom. And you know the funny thing? Even as I prayed it, I knew, knew, that I was fooling myself to not just admit right then that I knew what the right thing was to do. Now I just needed to be obedient and do it.

So, with tears I decided to do the thing I knew I needed to do. And I’m at peace, and able to leave it with my Heavenly Father.

Now, the incredible, amazing thing about God's grace is that I was no less saved, no less loved, and had no less favor with God when I was wrestling with what I knew I needed to do but didn't want to do than I was and did when I quit wrestling and surrendered it. But I do have great confidence, joy, and peace in the fact that I am His, because He would not leave me alone while I was wrestling with that issue of pride and selfishness. Scripture kept coming to mind confirming what I knew I needed to do. I don’t want to be a hypocrite and say that I love the Lord my God with all my heart yet let an unconfessed, unrepentant, but recognized idol sit in disgusting prominence in my heart. It is because I am saved and forgiven and have God’s favor that as He grows me in grace He will not leave me alone in that kind of sin, no matter how insignificant I may try to believe it to be, and He is ever making my conscience more sensitive to the idols that tempt me, and teaching me that I am free from the dominion of sin - I no longer have to be ruled by it, yet I learn to obey because He already loves me, not so that I can earn His love. That kind of discipline is loving and kind and gracious. And I am amazed beyond words that He loves me that much.

And how cool is it that while I was already working on this post, I found this one from Tim Challies in my reader? And later today I read this and rejoiced. God is good all the time.

Refuge

Isaiah 26:3-4

“3 You keep him in perfect peace 

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you.

4 Trust in the Lord forever,

for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

I was listening to a song the other day that talked about how God is our refuge in times of fear and trouble and I realized that it has very personal meaning to me. I began thinking specifically about certain times of trouble and how God has been my refuge in them, but then I began looking back over the course of my life, and I realized how much deeper the concept of refuge actually is. It is not just in times of fear and trial that I need His refuge, it is always. 

I don't attempt to claim a 'favorite verse' per se, because I think sometimes we can tend to pull out favorite or well-known verses and mangle them out of context, but I do try to marinate my thinking in the whole counsel of His word rather than grabbing a few favorite verses and repeating them like a kind of mantra. However, there are still passages I find myself returning to often at different stages of life, and those verses from Isaiah that I quoted at the beginning of this post are true, and I find myself pondering them often. But something you have to keep in mind is that these verses are not a blanket promise that the one who keeps his or her mind on God and trusts Him will never face trials or that nothing ‘bad’ will ever happen.  Another passage I find myself returning to ponder often is Philippians 4:6-7, “6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  There is hope in His peace. And when I say ‘peace,’ I mean so much more than simply ‘calm in the storm.’ I can testify to that peace and its depth. He has given me a story of His faithfulness and grace to tell for His glory, and I’m grateful. 

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while or know me in real life know that I’m married to Drew and we have three children, two boys ages 13 and 11, and a little girl age 6. What you may not know about us is that we also have 4 children we did not get to meet this side of heaven because of miscarriages. I try not to bring that up too often because that is not something I want to unduly burden others with and, though it is a big part of my husband’s and my life, we don’t need to make it the defining thing about us or dwell in depths of emotion over it more than we should.

 I say that, though, to say that as I listened to that song I mentioned, the first thing I thought about was how true it is that God was my refuge during those difficult times when I lost 4 babies. I thought about how I’ve been allowed to learn from James 1:2-3 “2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness,” that there is joy in having persevered because I know that the faith to persevere was a gift from Jesus because I know how wretched my heart would be on its own, that only He could grant me the faith to persevere and demonstrate that that faith is real. 

I thought about the second miscarriage, when I had already been working before it happened to memorize Psalm 34, and how during some of the most difficult moments I literally cried out Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth,” through wracking sobs and breaking heart, and once again experienced that peace that passes all understanding as He continued to grant the faith to persevere and trust Him, though I didn’t understand the whys. 

And I remembered the third one, when we found out just days after learning I was expecting that Drew had been tasked to go to Iraq for the Army for six months. How I feared the timing of his departure, knowing my history and that we weren’t guaranteed we’d never face another miscarriage. I remembered how I learned in that time that though I feared, Jesus was with me, even when what I had feared did, indeed, happen and I lost that baby just days after Drew left for Iraq. Yet God surrounded us with a church family who prayed for us and helped me with childcare while I went for test after test after test which yielded no answers. 

And the fourth, when I learned, yet again, that I could sing, I could praise, even when my heart was sad, and I could say, “The Lord gave and the Lord took away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Before that last pregnancy, I had the opportunity to co-lead a little women’s Bible study through the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews we learn about our great High Priest, Jesus, and that He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25), and if He knows the days of my life before ever there was one of them (Psalm 139), then surely He was interceding for me, His child, on that day too.  And I remember that in all things, the good and the bad, the things I've listed here and so many others I could list besides, God is good, all the time, and He has always, always, always been so kind to grant me the faith to persevere and to trust Him, that faith that comes from God alone through faith in Christ Jesus alone.

As I was flooded with these memories of God’s faithfulness and what He has taught me through these things, I was struck by the realization that not only do I need the kind of peace He has abundantly showered upon me during trials, but I need, so much more than that, the peace He has given me with Himself in the forgiveness of sin. The reason I press on to make this my own is because Christ Jesus has made me His own (Phil 3:12). Because here is where I am brought to my knees in wonder, when I look back over my life and ponder the grace that allowed Him to save me and to make me His own, to be amazed at the fact that He would look with favor upon me, wretched sinner that I am, and have mercy and grace to save me to be His own, reconciled to Him in faith.

See, as a five-year-old, God allowed me to express a childlike faith and profess faith in Jesus. I do not know how much I could have possibly understood at that age. As I’ve grown in faith, I realize I couldn’t have understood much. But God, who is rich in mercy, took that childlike faith He granted and grew it until I did understand about repentance and was able to place my full trust in Him in a mature faith. I look back at the girl I was in high school and college, who had such an immature faith and such a huge pride that if you’d asked me if I were a good person, I would have proudly said, “Yes,” knowing that any good was only there because of what Jesus had done for me, but not having much understanding, even then, of just how wretched my sin really was. But now I see it, my wretched, sinful self, and I know that God, in His mercy, grew me in faith to recognize and repent and trust that what Jesus did on the cross really was for me. He took my sin and took the wrath I deserved and has counted me righteous. He took that childlike faith of the five-year-old and held me, guarded my heart and mind, and kept me from straying in spite of my immaturity, and will continue to hold me to the end. 

And, my friends, now I plead with you to consider Jesus. Examine your heart. Have you repented and placed your trust in Jesus alone? That is the peace that passes all understanding which guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That is why we can count it all joy when we encounter various trials, because He is. He is glorious, He is merciful, He is loving. And He, in mercy, reached down and saved this sinner so that in trial and in sunshine I can sing His praise. Halleluljah! What a Savior!

More Church Signs of the Times

I’m probably going to be accused of not having a sense of humor. Just warning you up front before I write this post. I do have a sense of humor. I laugh a lot, in fact. But I’ve been doing some thinking and there is a time and a place in which it’s good and proper and right to be funny, and other times....not so much.

I wrote a post recently about appalling church sign finds and the little game we play in our family to spot and collect them. Here are a couple more we’ve seen since that post, and then I have something to say.

“Are you at the center of God’s worship?”

I think this is the worst one I’ve seen yet....ever. I don’t even know what they are trying to say here. Face value it is blasphemous and appalling. I can’t even think of a way to take this that is good. I better not be at the center of any worship. I better be worshiping God first, foremost and only. Are they trying to say that worshiping God should be the center of my life? If so, they mangled it. Somehow, though, in our self-actualization and contemplative naval-gazing, self-absorbed, demand and expect and think you deserve your best life now culture, I suspect it’s as bad as it looks face value. Truly terrible.

“Be friends with Jesus. Use Faith-Book, the Bible.”

As we were driving along a highway we drive quite often close to home, I happened to see the other side of the ‘cold butter’ sign I drive by and mentioned in the first church sign post. This is what was on the back. Sad to say, in comparison, the cold butter sign is better. Wowza. Thinking about this one since I saw it yesterday is what got me pondering what I want to say in the rest of this post and for which some people will probably think I have no sense of humor. So be it.

We live in a culture that increasingly shakes its collective fist in the face of God. In a time when the church desperately needs to be a prophetic voice in the midst of a Romans 1 culture of spiritual blindness, we laugh ourselves into irrelevance. The seeker-driven, best life now, felt-needs focus of the church is a foolish mess. If it makes me a complete idiot to say I believe that, then so be it. We wonder why our churches are so filled with false converts that studies show large percentages of our youth are leaving the faith, yet we scream foul and pitch fits when our culture rails and gnashes their teeth and threatens to boycott when the Bible-influenced Christian beliefs of a Chick-fil-A president are gently stated in answer to a question. Why should our culture take us seriously when we don’t even seem to take the faith seriously? “Be friends with Jesus. Use Faith-Book.” Really??? 

I grew up in a solid, Bible-believing church. It was one of the better ones in the SBC, by all accounts. And yet, as I was listening to Todd Friel the other day on a ‘Witness Wednesday’ episode where he shared some encounters he had talking with random college students as he visited their campus and compassionately struck up conversations with them, I put my head on my kitchen counter and wept. In that episode, he ran across a couple of Christian kids who, though sincere, couldn’t articulate the gospel when he said, “Say I’m not a Christian. Why should I be a Christian?” The best one kid had to offer was along the lines of, well, Jesus has made my life so much better; I see what it’s done for me to be a Christian. When Todd came back and said that his life is fulfilled and he’s happy already, why would he need Jesus, the kid didn’t have a good answer. Todd gently then suggested that what the kid had forgotten to mention was that he’s a sinner and needs a Savior. Repentance is what was missing. And the reason I wept at my kitchen counter while listening is because I realized that had Todd run across me as a college kid, I would have answered exactly the same way that kid had, and I would have been just as confused about how to properly explain the gospel. And it’s really so simple once we get over our self-esteem and self-centeredness and realize that the gospel message is not that we can have our best life now. The gospel message is that we are wretched sinners who have broken God’s law and cannot earn His forgiveness no matter what we do. But God, who is rich in mercy, demonstrated His love to us while we were yet sinners and Jesus died for us, took the wrath which we deserve as He died on that cross. And now God commands that we repent and put our trust in the One He sent, namely Jesus Christ the Lord. 

I loved Jesus, wanted to follow Him and put my trust in Him, live for Him, as a college student. But I don’t think the gospel message was spelled out for me in such a consistent way as I hear Todd Friel teach it on the Wretched Radio podcasts I listen to now. I am so thankful to my loving Savior for pointing me over the years as I’ve grown in the direction of good preachers who consistently preach the gospel soundly, biblically, rightly, and that by hearing it preached well I have come to understand and repent and fully trust in Christ alone, and that the faith God graciously allowed me to express as a child has been realized through the sound preaching of His word. I am saved by His grace alone. 

Repentance is what is missing from so much of our ‘gospel’ proclamation in so much of our evangelical preaching today. We teach a message of having our felt-needs met, having better lives, fixing our self-esteem (loving ourselves better), and though repentance is mentioned, it isn’t often enough and strongly enough stressed and fully explained why we need to repent and from what. Had someone asked me back then if I was a good person, I would have proudly said, “Yes.” I didn’t fully comprehend until much later how wretched I really am. The righteouness in which I am growing is due to the work of the Holy Spirit in me through Jesus Christ my Lord, not because I’m good enough in myself to get there on my own.

I’ve been listening to Alistair Begg preaching through the book of Amos recently. He said this in the podcast I was listening to yesterday, and it struck me in light of my thinking about these things, “Religion without repentance leaves men and women in a perilous place. It affirms them in their rebellion, and it is a very large part of much of the proclamation in our western world today.” And later in the same message he said this, “Repentant-less religion eats out the soul of our society.”

So, back to the church sign nonsense. I know that a cutesy phrase on a church sign probably isn’t the whole of the message that church teaches. But I think that we better be much more careful of the message we are sending to those who drive by and see it. That church sign is a public face of our church. If we’re so casual and silly about our Savior on the sign, are we really going to be sober-minded about Him in our preaching and teaching and what we’re passing on to our children? Sure, I can laugh about funny things, but I don’t think the Church’s face to the world is a funny thing. Our culture is more and more antagonistic to the truth claims of Christianity. We need to be about the business of teaching the gospel well - especially within the church to our children so that we and they can be salt and light by knowing and understanding and sharing the faith outside the church.  Instead of trying so hard to be ‘cool’ and trying so hard to get them to ‘like us’ because we aren’t really all that different, let’s focus on knowing and teaching the gospel well. That’s what our fist-shaking culture needs from us. Not another ‘Reclaim America’ type of rally (I have a whole other post brewing on that subject, just so you know), but a church that is in awe of our Holy God and who would fear to trivialize Jesus, who should be most precious to us indeed. Have we read Revelation?? The vision John saw of the risen Lord Jesus Christ would never have allowed him to say such trivial things about Jesus as we cutely put on our church signs. Jesus is the Friend of Sinners, but He isn’t our buddy and boyfriend. He is the Friend who is closer than a brother, but we must never forget that He is the Lamb who was slain and to whom all the Redeemed will forever sing Worthy is the Lamb for all all eternity.

Could we please rethink the cutesy, silly, irreverant and sometimes outright blasphemous church signs (not to mention the posters/t-shirts/cups/junk we see in Christian stores and on Facebook and e-mail chains that are usually followed by ‘like and post if you love Jesus’)? For the love of a world that is dying and going to hell, can we not be more serious about what we present to the world? For the love of the Savior who died to redeem sinners and make us free from sin, could we please be more careful with how we represent Him before the mockers? Is that really a laughing matter?

Our Long Night Last Night

We had a long night last night. After repeatedly telling Rachel day after day after day to stop hugging the dog, he doesn’t like it, I know you love him but the best way to show him you love him is not to hug him when he doesn’t like it, Roscoe finally had enough of her ‘love’ and snapped and bit her in the lip last night around 6PM. I’m so thankful Drew was home and that he is super calm in a crisis, because I saw all that blood and went into panicked momma mode. Drew got her cleaned up, then calmly looked at me and said, “I think we need to take her to the doctor, you know, make sure we get it cleaned well enough.” Trying not to panic the 6-year-old. “Getting my keys,” I said.

If I ever am tempted to complain about the hospital at Ft. Knox again, I’m going to stop myself. The ER staff were wonderful - kind, compassionate, professional, and reassuring to the 6-year-old and her momma. They let us sit in a private waiting room so we weren’t out with the contagious people and, as the man who checked us in said, “So she doesn’t have people staring. She’s probably self-conscious enough already.” They got us back pretty quickly, and as scared as Rachel was, she amazed me by how brave she acted through the whole ordeal. The attending doctor looked at her lip and said that the dog took a little chunk out of her top lip and there wasn’t a way to stitch it, so she had another doctor come in for second opinion and they agreed to call the plastic surgeon at Kosair Children’s Hopsital in Louisville. As soon as she said, “It’s not really too bad, but she is going to scar, but let’s call the plastic surgeon and see if we can minimize it,” I started crying. I’d been holding it back, but I just looked at my beautiful little girl trying so hard to be brave and cried.

While waiting, I got a text from Rachel’s best little friend’s mom telling me that they just found out they are moving to Indiana, so they won’t get to be in class together this year after all. Her little friend’s heart is breaking, could they get together this week to say their good-byes? I didn’t have the heart to tell Rachel her friend is moving away with what she was going through right then. I’ll have to tell her this morning, though, and I’m dreading it. A lot.

After the call to the plastic surgeon, we were told that the best course of action was to transfer us to Kosair. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was to put my little baby girl into that hospital van and tell her I was going to get my car and follow. Drew was home with the boys, so I had to drive behind rather than in the van with her. She was scared, but she nodded bravely. My heart broke during that whole long drive to Louisville until I met her in the hallway at Kosair.

While waiting, my phone battery died, so I wasn’t able to text or call Drew with updates. Had I known we were going to be driving to Louisville I would have charged it that afternoon. Lesson learned, always charge phone once it gets to half power, because you just don’t know what the day will hold.

After a long wait and several different doctors and nurses looking at her lip and sending pictures to the head plastic surgeon on call, the decision was made to send us home with some special cream and bandages and we will be calling this morning to make an appointment for her to see the plastic surgeon on Tuesday, per last night’s instructions. 

Because my parents read this, I want to reassure you and let you to know it doesn’t really look as bad as it sounds as I wrote this. The worst is right on her lip and she is doing fine this morning, but I think she’s finally learned why we’ve been so adamant about leaving the stupid dog alone.

You all probably know how much I hate driving. Well, with my phone dead, my GPS picked this, the worst night ever, at midnight in downtown Louisville on streets I’ve never driven in my life before, to decide not to work. I got turned around and spent an anxious 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get to the interstate, but finally found the signs that got me there. Then I drove home through the construction and really, really, really dark roads with no phone and a very tired kiddo in the back seat. That was scary. The good thing is, at that time of night, there isn’t much traffic out there and we got home at 1:30 AM. 

One thing that really broke my heart was when she wanted to know what she looked like with the bandage on her lip, so I took a picture with my phone before it died and showed her. She said, “Everyone is going to hate me. They’re going to laugh at me. Don’t put that on Facebook, Mommy! Get rid of it!” I assured her that we all love her no matter what, no one is going to laugh, we’re all just sorry it happened to her, and of course I wouldn’t post that to Facebook. How sad is it that she sees me on Facebook so often she would worry about that? So, no, I’m not sharing pictures here. Conviction from the mouth of my 6-year-old. Lots of things needing to change around here.

As I drove along behind the hospital van last night, I kept pleading with God to help her not to be afraid, and thanking Him for His mercy, because it could have been so much worse. He has my little girl in His hand, and I’m grateful.

God is good. All the time.

Church Sign and Bumper Sticker Theology

It’s become a fun little game in our family whenever we’re driving anywhere to look for and notice church signs and/or bumper stickers....the more abominable the better to add to our growing collection of wretchedness. Some leave us scratching our heads wondering what, exactly, is meant, some leave us sad and/or disgusted by the triteness or abominable theology, and a few leave us saying, “Okay, that was pithy,” or, “Yeah, that was pretty good.”  In an effort to limp my blog along another day and share the joy, I’ve compiled a few of our most recent finds to share. If I comment, my comments are in purple italics. Some probably need no comment as they could stand alone in their wretchedness. My opinion, for what it’s worth: I think when we try to be too cutesy with our church sign/bumper sticker/T-shirt theology, it makes us seem silly and dumbs down the majesty and beauty and seriousness and importance of our message. Y'all know, I hope, that I love to laugh and I'm not against funny things. But Christians ought not to be silly about the faith. It doesn’t really make us more culture-sensitive, it just makes us silly. Like I said, my opinion.....So, having said that, enjoy. Or not.....

“Cold church is like cold butter...It doesn’t spread well.” 

What does this mean? No AC during the church meeting this summer? (That was snark, if you missed it). Yeah, yeah, I guess I understand what’s meant, but sounds goofy and makes you wonder who they're lecturing.

“America is free. So is salvation.” 

Urg. On a lot of levels. Just, urg.

“Jesus died for Myspace in Heaven.”

Yes, ‘myspace’ was one word. Blurg. In an effort to be trendy, it’s just dumb. Does anyone even use Myspace anymore? I don’t know, but the sign is dumb, dumb, dumb. Myspace, Facebook, social networks basically feed our inner narcissist, and yes, I see the hypocrisy of that comment seeing as I’ve been as guilty as anyone else about my overuse of Facebook and I recognize the temptation to get too hung up on caring too much what other people think of me that it feeds. So let’s just baptize that insidious self-centeredness with this silly sentiment on a church sign. Worshipping Jesus isn’t all about me! We are too prone to that kind of thinking. Getting off the soapbox now.....

“Laughter is music for the soul.” 

Kind of apathetic about this one. Not bad, I guess, just not sure what it means, exactly.

“Come inside. We’re prayer conditioned.” 

Doh!!!! I can’t even read this one without hearing it in a cheesy, mocking tone in my head. In fact, we have a friend from our Florida days who I just picture saying this in that cheesy, mocking voice. He was really good at it. Think Brian Regan if you’ve ever seen his stand-up comedy routine. I hear it in his voice, snarkily, in my head.

“Be ye fishers of men. U catch them, He will clean them.”

Urg. Face palm. And yes, it was ‘U’, not ‘you.’ Even my inner grammar nerd was tweaked, thanks a lot.

“Beth Moore, ‘Free’ simulcast.” 

Yikes.

“God reigns, the Son shines.”

We actually had to miss our turn off the highway just so we could turn around in the parking lot to see this one. Worth it? Punny, punny, punny....

“People are lonely because they build walls not bridges.”

Barf. Psycho babble AND guilt right there. If I had been feeling lonely but had NOT been building walls, not so sure I’d feel welcomed there, I’m sayin’. 

“The Ten Commandments are not ten suggestions.”

Yeah.....

“Lost? Free directions in the Bible.”

Sigh.....

Then there was the one my husband saw and told me about and we actually called in to a radio show, but now we think he remembered it wrongly. He originally told me it was, "You need sin screen for the Sonshine," which made no sense, but which I didn't question because we've seen so many horrible ones and that's the one we called in. Later he remembered it as, "You need Sonscreen for sin burn," equally wretched but makes more sense in a goofy church sign kind of way. I asked him which it really was, and he honestly doesn't remember, maybe he saw both. Maybe. Nothing much surprises me anymore where evanjellyfishism is concerned.


These next ones aren’t church signs, but they fit here somehow, too:

Saw this sign on a roadside Fireworks Tent before July 4th: “Church Fund Raiser,” and my husband and I started laughing so hard, and I don’t even know why it was so funny. It just seems like an odd thing for a church to sell for a fundraiser. 

And I saw this today, (In case you can't see it well, it says, "It's the God in me."):

Not exactly sure what it means, but it’s got a New Agey, Oprahific kinda feel that made my eyes cross and I just had to take a picture. Shudder.

And now I’ll end with the few church signs we’ve seen recently that weren’t abominable or wretched or puke-cutesy:

Any sign that simply listed the service times, we liked a lot. Simple, informative, good stuff.

“We love because He first loved us.”

Nice. Biblical, even. (1 John 4:19)

“Jesus is King of Kings.”

Truth.

“Hebrews 13:15-16.”  

Of course, then I had to look it up to see what it says: ‘ Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” 

“No man ever spoke like this man. John 7:46.” 

I liked this one best of all the church signs we’ve seen recently.

And there you have it. Happy Tuesday, y’all.

Thankful Thursday

I seem to have forgotten that I have a blog, and that I enjoy writing it, and that I enjoy reading other blogs. Or maybe it’s just been summer. And a HOT one at that.

Seeing as it’s Thursday, how about I write a Thankful Thursday post to remind myself that I have a blog and enjoy writing here?

I’m thankful for pomeganates. What an interesting and delicious and beautiful fruit it is.  My mom taught me how to cut and eat one last Thanksgiving, and I’ve been searching the grocery store ever since in the hopes they might some day have them in our produce section. Yesterday they did! I was tempted to do a dance of joy right there in the store. My boys were excited to see the pomegranates come home, too. They LOVE them. Here’s some pictures of my pomegranate fun: 

Such a pretty fruit, don't you think?

All those yummy little jewels!

I’m also thankful for air conditioning. It’s been over 100 degrees here several days during the past few weeks. Whew. Our upstairs AC unit, on what was supposedly the hottest day of the year, decided to quit blowing cold air. It got HOT, HOT, HOT upstairs. I’m thankful we have two units and the downstairs is cool. We’ve been calling for a week now and finally have an appointment tomorrow to have the upstairs fixed. Long story, not going to complain here, though. I’m just thankful we have any AC at all. In a world where there is so much poverty, I really feel selfish complaining when we have one working unit in the house. That’s an inconvenience, not a crisis.

I’m thankful for the ministry of Truth for Life, Grace to You, and Wretched Radio. The teaching I hear daily from these resources has been precious to me. I really appreciate the instruction I’m receiving in the gospel, and words just can’t express how thankful I am for the impact it’s having on my own life and on how I’m growing in teaching my children. 

I’m thankful for an app I found for my iPhone called Run5K. It was an 8 week program that helped me to learn to go from a non-runner to being, well, more of a jogger than I ever have been in my life. I finished the program, heat and hilly neighborhood notwithstanding, and I’m trying to get into better shape. All this hilly running is even helping me to strengthen the muscles that are helping my knee to not hurt quite as much as it has for the past 3 years. Nice. Now if I could just see some of the weight come down. You’d think with all this jogging I’d lose a few pounds, wouldn’t you? But I’m thankful to be feeling healthier, and to have reached a goal I’ve never been able to reach before - being able to run (slow, but more than I've ever done before) for exercise outside. My husband likes to run, and he’s really patient and slows his pace to run with me once in a while and is very encouraging in my effort to learn to do this hard thing.

Most of all, I’m thankful for the gospel and that God delights to save sinners, of whom I am a most wretched one who is most grateful and joyful to be saved by His grace. I am thankful that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and He ever intecedes for His people. 

Romans 5:8

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Lasting Encouragement

Hebrews 10:24-25

“24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” 

Romans 12:15

“15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

Philippians 2:4

“4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

This morning I was cleaning out that drawer we have where we stuff things when we don’t know what else to do with them or are too lazy to take the time to find a better home for them. I know I am not the only person who has a drawer (several) like that, am I? Anyway, most of what I found in there went straight to the trash bin, having stayed in the drawer long enough to outlive its urgency or even my remembrance of why it went in the drawer as opposed to the trash bin in the first place. 

Near the bottom of the drawer, however, I came across a stack of cards that caused me to pause, take them up, sit down, and read and remember, with a few (just a few) tears as well. These were cards that had been sent after the last miscarriage, that fourth and final one. Upstairs in the very bottom of my night stand, there are three bound stacks of cards that I’ve kept, but somehow, with this last one, because we were in the midst of getting ready to move and I was so tired, so very tired, this little stack didn’t make it to my little safe place and had ended up here in the junk drawer, waiting the time I’d find them again and remember.

And what that made me think today is this: How thankful I am for the caring friends who took the time to send a card or a note, even when they really didn’t know what to say. How thankful I am for the Body of Christ, who encourage each other, who weep with each other when we weep and rejoice with each other when we rejoice. How thankful I am that our gracious God puts the lonely in families - and isn’t that what the Body of Christ is for those who believe and trust in Jesus - a family? How thankful I am for each card and the scripture included, which encouraged me at a difficult time and stirred me up to the good work of trusting my Savior, even when I was hurting so. Because what each of those cards and the messages written in them had in common was that each of those friends encouraged me in the Lord - pointing always to Jesus, the Savior of my soul.

Even our realtor here, who is also a sister in Christ, sent a note of encouragement after Drew had to call and tell her that we no longer needed that extra bedroom in the house, was there anyway to go back to the drawing board? So, what I’m thinking about today as I remember my caring friends is how good it is to send a card, say a prayer, make a phone call or even a visit when someone comes to mind. Those friends, sisters in Christ, who sent cards, or called on the phone even when they had no words but just called to let me know they cared, helped in that way to encourage and helped me (and Drew) to bear a heavy burden. So, I’m hoping that my providential stumbling across those examples of sweet encouragement will help me to remember next time I think about sending a card or offering encouragement to not merely think about it, but to do it. Because the encouragement offered goes beyond just that moment, but lasts for years, as my little tucked away bundles of cards can attest. 

Radically Reading

I have something I’ve been thinking about a great deal, and I’m not sure how to make sure I say this in a right manner. It is hard to know how not to come across pridefully, and I’ll confess to you that I struggle with that sometimes. But there really isn’t any room for pride when we’re talking about God’s incredible grace, is there? 

First of all, this is a post that is aimed at professing believers in Jesus Christ. Here it is, and please hear from me, not legalism that would have you check a box to do a duty, but a concerned and caring friend, okay? What I’ve been pondering is how much I wish my brothers and sisters in Christ could learn what a blessing it is to read and study God’s word. How much I wish that instead of crying and pleading and looking in Christian book after Christian book and from speaker after speaker and source after source for a ‘deeper’ sense of belonging to Christ or more, more, more in our experience of worship that instead we would feast on the word of God and find satisfaction in knowing Him and in the grace of a steady, daily growing in sanctification as we fill our minds with His word and begin to grow in discernment as the Holy Spirit uses His word to transform our hearts and minds and lives to the image of Christ, as we learn to obey His word. This is not wispy mystical stuff, and it doesn’t, poof, just happen to us after we really, really pray hard for it.  It does take effort and commitment, though, and it really is a work of God in our hearts. We can't obey His word if we don't know what it says. We can't recognize when error is being taught if we don't know the truth. I say this is a post for professing believers, because I don’t want to be misunderstood here. What I pray for you, my friends who may read this post, is that God in His mercy and grace would open your heart so that you may have ears to hear, eyes to see, faith to believe and obey His word and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God. 

When I read the book Radical, I remember thinking that of all the things David Platt has at the end of the book as part of the radical experiment, I was surprised by ‘read the Bible all the way through.’ I was surprised that this has come to be considered ‘radical.’ That grieves me, I’m sad to say. Is it really so radical for a Christian to read God’s word all the way through once, not to mention that one could even do it, say, consistently? Don’t we want to know it and learn to obey it? Isn’t one evidence of a saved person that they have a growing hunger and thirst for God’s word and for His righteousness? Have you ever read Psalm 119 and pondered whether that kind of zeal resides in your heart? Have you ever wondered why a quick little devotional thought or verse for the day not read in context doesn’t seem to change your life? I am not saying I’ve arrived at some super spiritual height and I’m not saying there isn’t much room for growth in my life because that's not it.  I am just a wife and mom who desires to love and obey Jesus, but I want to worship and love the Jesus who is, not some Jesus from my, or anyone else's, imagination. What  I am saying is that there ought to be an ongoing and growing hunger for God’s word in a believer’s life, yes? That’s not radical, is it? 

It’s so tempting to make excuses about time and not being able to read the Bible all the way through prayerfully, and I have to tell you that one of the things that just hurts when I hear it is when a mom or dad laughs about not having time to read the Bible through, and others all say knowingly, “You have kids.”  I know that the challenges of parenting small children can change when and how we have time to read the Bible, but please don’t let that be an excuse. I say that, not as a judgmental legalist, but as someone who has seen the fruit of time spent in God’s word, reading it and thinking on it, and who truly desires the same for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I can testify and really want to encourage you that if you ever start reading the Bible through, making it a daily habit to spend time with God through prayer and the reading of His word, you really will begin to see your thinking become more biblical. God is extremely kind in this. When reading and understanding the Bible becomes very important to you, it’s really amazing the gradual growth you’ll see when you look back. I don’t say this because I came to this because I’m so smart to have figured this out on my own. No, humbly, gratefully, I tell you that I know that it is only because God my Redeemer put a hunger in my heart for His word that I am so thankful for, and I can’t imagine not reading it often now. I am extremely thankful for the godly influences along the way in my life who have encouraged me the way I hope to be encouraging you in this post.

And, yes, I have kids, too, busy ones. And they were even younger when our pastor in Indiana first challenged us to read the Bible through and the fire was lit in my own heart.  And how I needed God’s word filling my mind and training my thinking then, during one of the hardest years of my life. How I need it today, too.

I remember how excited I was when I read the Bible all the way through and for the first time really read for myself all those Bible stories I thought I knew frontwards and backwards after years and years of Sunday School, and I read them in the context of the whole redemptive plan of God and how my heart began to rejoice as I saw those stories, not as isolated moral lessons, but as a great tapestry of God’s grace. 

And now I pass the encouragement on to you, my friends. Spend time reading the whole Bible with an eye to see what God has told us about Himself. We in this country are so blessed to have access to the Bible in abundance. What wealth we have! Let us not squander it by letting that Bible sit unread on the shelf while we replace actually reading the Bible ourselves with chasing after what other people say about the Bible. Let us not dishonor the God who created us and redeemed us to Himself by neglecting, or worse by lauging away our neglect of, the Word He has graciously given us. May I encourage you to spend more time reading the Bible itself before reading another book about the Bible? It is so very worth the time spent. 

Saturday Morning Laughs

I love all of my children, and I’m so thankful I get to be their mom. They all are gifts from God, and I’m thankful. They all also have taught me much about how sinful my own heart is and how impatient and selfish I actually am, which does wonders for helping me learn to ponder the amazing grace of the gospel and our amazing and loving Savior. Having to share day in and day out with people in your home for whom you are responsible to teach the gospel in a real and daily way really can expose your heart as you take seriously the Word of God.  I’m thankful for this, too.

Something else my children have done, though, is to teach me to laugh more, even when they don’t mean to be teaching me anything.

There are days I’m convinced we just needed our third child. She’s six-years-old, intense, creative, and funny, and she just makes me see life differently, in a good way most of the time. All my kids are intense, by the way. We are an intense kind of people in this home. My husband’s favorite phrase is, “Lighten up, Beck.” That’s why I’m so glad for the laughter, too. 

Which brings me to this morning. I almost never sleep in. I am not a night owl, and am pretty much an ‘early to bed, early to rise’ kind of girl. Most weekdays I’m up at 5AM. That’s just how I am. I do my best work in the morning. And now that I'm 40+, I also seem to have developed an annoyingly persistent habit of waking up in the wee hours of the morning with my brain on full tilt, but that's another post.

Anyway, we slept in today, and it was nice. Sometime along the way this morning I heard my daughter wake up and begin playing in her room before I drifted back into that nice, sleeping in kind of doze. A little later we heard her whimpering just outside our door, and we asked her what was wrong. She came in, tears on her cheeks, and said, “I’m hungry for breakfast.” To which we said, “But why are you crying? You know we’ll get you breakfast, right?” And she said, “But I was hungry, and you were still sleeping, and I was hungry, and I thought now you were nocturnal.You were still sleeping.”

And I started laughing. And yes, I was laughing at her, not with her, because she wasn’t laughing. Forgive me, but I laughed and laughed while her little tears kept flowing until she finally grinned that sheepish little grin she has sometimes. That was just funny. Y’all, I looked at the clock and it was only 8AM.

Such sluggards we are. Sluggards who got up at 8AM and gave our little early bird some breakfast so she wouldn’t continue to think we’d somehow become nocturnal.

I’m still laughing......

Don't Mess With the Sauce!

Dear Chef Boyardee People:

I have happily used your pizza sauce for YEARS because I like it. A lot. It brings back happy memories of my childhood and pizzas made at home in bygone years, and I’ve been pleased to share those memories by bringing them forward and baking pizzas with your delicious sauce for my own children. We pretty much all agree that when we are craving homemade pizza, it is the sauce we are remembering fondly.

However, imagine my dismay when shopping at my local grocery store this week and there were no cans of delicious Chef Boyardee pizza sauce on the shelf where until a few days ago it happily was always to be found. Not to be deterred, I opted to buy the Chef Boyardee Pizza Maker kit, because I knew the sauce is contained in that box. All seemed well and good until I went to make my pizzas tonight, a joyous Friday tradition in the Sweet Tea household. When I opened the can of “Pizza Maker Sauce”, the name of which probably should have clued me in, I realized it didn’t smell exactly right. I thought, “No, surely they didn’t....” and proceeded to swipe a taste on my finger from the lid. 

You did. You went and changed my sauce.

Why, I ask you, did you take something that has been providing deliciousness for years, and go about changing it? And you know what? I don’t like the new flavor nearly as well. It doesn’t have that special something that was in the old sauce, and has a new something that I just really don't like.

Why go about changing a good thing? Do you remember the “New Coke” debacle? I do. Didn't turn out so well, and when they brought back "Coke Classic," it still wasn't the same Coca-Cola we had known and loved, but apparently they thought we were too dumb to notice, and now my kids have no idea what once was. Well, now I find myself unwittingly in the midst of a pizza sauce debacle, and I am sad. I am letting you know that there is now nothing to prevent me from leaving your trusted brand and embarking on a journey to find a new favorite elsewhere. Sadly, my Chef Boyardee sauce seems to be going the way of so many other old favorite items that have left us for the land of “new and improved” which is usually none of the sort.

I will eat my pizza tonight with some sadness and nostalgia for what was, and hope that perhaps this sauce change is a fluke or something. 

If it is not, then I am sad to say that I see no reason to continue what has been a happy friendship for so many years. 

Sadly,

Rebekah

Chief pizza maker and cook in the Sweet Tea household