Sometimes I wish news stories didn’t come with video footage.

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Ever have one of those days when you cannot believe how blessed you are?

Today my man let me sleep til 9:00.  (Well, my inner alarm woke me up at 5-something, but I went on back to bed.)

We had a laaaazy morning lounging, then cleaning, then Christmas shopping for cousins.

{As a caveat: There was a situation in there and some frustration in the Target aisles.  Blessed but not perfect.}

I made some sugar cookie dough with the youngest just now.  My man is making a fire.  We are going to wrap presents and use our cookie cutters and decorate with icing.

Carols are playing and twinkle lights are lit and we get to spend time together as a family.

My cup definitely runneth over this evening!

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I keep waiting for inspiration to strike, but that does not seem like it will happen.

So writing for writing’s sake:

The shower in our bathroom is funky.  So everyone is taking a shower in the main bath these days. This shower, for reasons I do not understand, produces much more steam.  When you open the bathroom door, the hallway smoke detector goes off.  So that’s awesome.

My youngest and I were sick this week and it’s still kicking my tail.  But a lot of that is probably from caffeine withdrawal.  Couldn’t stomach the coffee and now I’m not sure how to function.  I don’t know why I’m thinking about keeping this up.  Coffee and I were made for each other.

Speaking of illness, I’m so grateful for the team I get to be a part of.  They whisked in and whisked away almost every little detail for our outreach.  Plus they just love on me.  I don’t like feeling like I’m not contributing, but that will make it even more about the One Who came, huh?

I cannot stop thinking about this $38 CC cream.  I just barely knew about BB cream, now my thoughts are consumed with CC cream.  I tried it at one of those Ulta Beauty stores.  Well, that’s a brilliant sales tactic because now I feel like I cannot live without it.

Feelings are not facts.  Feelings are not facts.

Last night I played Army Guy Nerf War with the boys.  I got in the danger zone to give Caleb some bullets and he started telling me about how that wasn’t right.  Caden goes, “He just doesn’t understand playing with girls.  I do.  I play with them at recess all the time.”

I’m certainly glad he’s getting an education.

Hope you’re having a good week!

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God is so good.

At the risk of giving you whiplash as I record emotional states, I will share the ways He always helps me get my mind off myself and onto Him and others.

Last night my husband got done with a work meeting earlier than we thought and we met him at a Quik Trip and headed downtown together for the Lighting of the City Tree festivities.  The lines were long and we only got in some face painting, but I was grateful the whole time.  The boys’ joy at the lights, watching Dan carry Caleb on his back, listening to different conversations from the crowd surrounding us.

Then after we dropped Dan off at his truck in the QT parking lot, we noticed a man on the sidewalk hunched down. Being night time, the boys and I didn’t stop.  But we prayed and asked God to help him on the frigid night.  We asked for his physical needs to be met, but also his spiritual needs.

When we’d been home for about ten minutes and Dan still hadn’t shown up, I called to make sure his truck hadn’t gotten funky or something.  He said he’d be there soon and explain when he got home.

He told us how another man had shown up near the first man we’d seen hunched over.  Dan had sat in his truck praying without staring and asking what God would have him do.  Then the second man walked up to his truck window and asked if he had anything to eat.  Dan got out, went into Quick Trip, and got them sandwiches and Gatorade and granola bars.  He also prayed over them out loud.

As he relayed the story to us, the boys and I smiled at each other in delight at how God had answered our prayers. With their Daddy.  (I love this man.)  As we prayed before bed, we asked for them and anyone else who doesn’t have a warm place to lay their head at night.

I thought of our Savior and His first night on Planet Earth.

I thought of all the people on the street this winter who could go to a shelter, but who also have had bad things happen to them there.  So they choose a park bench.

I thought of the stories some of my seniors told me yesterday.  Though they have a warm home, they have medical issues or family stuff or persistent pain.

I thought of how self-indulgent writing can be for me.  And yet, maybe it can speak to others.

My Word this morning was Psalm 30.  In particular:

For His anger lasts only a moment,

But His favor lasts a lifetime;

Weeping may remain for a night,

But rejoicing comes in the morning.

It always comes, doesn’t it?  It comes through a friend needing my help with carpool this morning, making me grateful to serve and not always being the one needing carpool help.  It comes through three sweet, sweet boys in the back of the car giggling over Santa Duck and asking good questions about life.  It comes through getting to hang with my boy today and read and see friends and serve my family.

Life is hard.

But isn’t that what this season is about?  That the One Who made it all beautiful chose to step into the mess we made of it and relate.  He can relate.  He totally gets me.  Yes, He responded perfectly every single time.  And I rarely do. Especially initially.  But He can relate.  He can say “I know” with perfect authenticity and yet without any enabling.

He can tilt my chin up and your chin up and two men’s chins up once again and help us fix our eyes on Him.

He really does get it.

And He really does transcend it.

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Well, at this point I am writing completely out of obedience.

I do not feel inspired.  I don’t want to be open with people.

I truly want to take a 3 month nap.

I don’t know much, but I know He is faithful.  I know I need to do the next right thing.  Today, aside from a couple of classes and parenting and all the dishes, that means some details for the outreach, prepping Hosea chapter 9 for group tomorrow, and writing because I said I would and, darn it all, I think He wants me to.

If I could sum up the experiential lessons from the past few weeks they would be from Inside Out:

1.  Self protection is sin.  And repentance is setting down my defensive style of relating and trusting Him

2.  Nothing will bring me more pain than choosing to live life honestly (I so wanna perform right now.  Or run away.  Or both.)

3.  The above is hard but I am not the only one who struggles with it.  But I will share it because if I don’t I feel like I’m gonna explode.

I honestly wish He would let me write some nice blog posts and then let me off the hook in actually living them out.

That does not seem to be the way He says this thing is gonna go down.

So.  In order to stave off hibernation mode, I will be writing.  It will not be good.  But I will process, delete, re-write and share.  Because until I know what to do next, I will do the next thing.

Ever been here?

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