What if...you only saw your child once or twice a year?

My daughter Kelly (see photo above!) came home to Michigan this week to visit from her home in Ft. Lauderdale. The last time I saw my daughter was at Christmas; needless to say I had a hard time letting go when I grabbed and hugged her as she walked through the door at the airport terminal. Hopefully that also helps explain the lateness of this post, and myriad emails I've sent asking people to understand a delay in my work schedule this week on freelance endeavors. My baby girl is home, and everything else has taken a back seat to spending time with her.

When our children are little we don't often think of the fact that we are raising them to be adults and self-sufficient enough to make their way in the world. Sometimes we don't take into consideration that their world will end up being so far away from our own! I'm so grateful for how communication has evolved through the years. When I was a teenager, there was that corded phone that we would drag as far as we could into closets, or around a corner in order to have a private conversation. Long distance calls were mostly out of the question though; too expensive. The plus side was that everyone became good letter writers, and there are beautifully handwritten letters to lovingly store away. Still, though, I'm so grateful for the relatively inexpensive cell phones that let me talk to my daughter most days, and email that can travel through space in just a moment's time. Frequent communication certainly helps us feel closer.

But there's nothing like being together in person, having conversations face to face, and the joy of wrapping a loved one in your arms. So until next Wednesday, I'm a little bit absent from my online world of friends. But I am so totally present right now in my life with my daughter. Wishing you all a warm hug from a child today; your own or a treasured borrowed one!

What if ... we could be a fruit?

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I am learning how to have more fun in my life so lets have a little fun here as I myself need to have a lot more fun in my life and not be so serious always.

If you could be any fruit, an apple, peach, pear, plum, watermelon, honeydew, cantelope, banana, pineapple, rasberries, strawberries, blueberries etc., what would you want to be and why?

My initial thought was I would want to be an apple so I would always be the apple of God's eye but I don't really care much for the taste of most sweet apples as I prefer the sour apples but wouldn't want to be thought of as one of those sour apples.

With summer here, two of my most favorite fruits to eat are rasberries and watermelon. I have fond memories of picking rasberries every summer as a child in our back yard but I think If I were to pick one it would be a watermelon since they are so filling and also help quench your thirst on hot summer days.

What would you want to be?

What if..We Paid Attention to Our Needs?

I just went through three weeks of insomnia. There was nothing stressful or spiritually upsetting in my life. My body just decided it was going to be stubborn and not function properly. (For any of you who have had bouts of sleep deprivation, you know how frustrating this is!!)
A little proactive investigating on my part led me to a homeopathic doctor who was able to pinpoint a specific hormone that was completely depleted, which was causing my insomnia. I was ever so grateful to learn that there was something actually wrong and I wasn't crazy!!
During my three weeks of non-existence, it forced me to focus on God for help and wisdom to get to the bottom of what was wrong. There are some lessons I have had to learn through this and wanted to share those with you.

1. Don't ignore your body. Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women today. Why? Because they ignore the signs. Women are known to focus on everyone and everything else EXCEPT themselves.

2. Keep in mind that your body, mind and spirit (physical,mental and spiritual) must be in balance in order for you to function optimally for God. If one area is off balance, the others are affected as well. Take action to get yourself back in balance.

3. Rest. Recognize when your body, mind or spirit is weary and force yourself to rest. If you don't, you'll be miserable and everyone else will know how miserable you are too!!

Live Out Loud Ladies!!

www.lynnjarrett.com

What If...I loved Him the way I love him?

We sent our children off to their grandmother's until Sunday. Ah, 5 days alone with my husband.

Grammy picked up the kids on Tuesday at 11:00. My husband came home to kiss them goodbye and decided to spend the afternoon alone with me. We went to lunch and came home for an afternoon nap. It was wonderful.

I awoke about 3:00 PM in time to make it to work at 4:00. As I worked, I was thinking of our wonderful afternoon. Then a floral deliveryman came into the showroom with a bouquet of beautiful, long-stemmed roses.

"Are you Randee?", he asked.

I opened the card to find the note: You're too good to be true. I can't take my eyes off of you. I blushed. It was an good afternoon.

My husband is an easy man to love. He personifies the strength that I so desperately admire. He is a man of truth choosing never to allow things to simmer but get them out in the open immediately. This can be unsettling to some but for me it's quite refreshing. Something that I've always admired him for. He lives in the present. He is full of gratitude and appreciation. He is hilariously funny.

He is easy to love.

Lately, I have been contemplating God as Lover. I've been pondering just how much energy and effort I put into "loving" my husband. I wondered...

What if I loved my Lover like I love my lover?

How would that look? Feel?

If God established marriage as the ultimate "love" relationship, then why NOT begin seeing my God as my Lover?

What if...I honor the independence declaration of 1863?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thomas Jefferson

I thought it would be easy to create a post in honor of Independence Day, to speak of honor, sacrifice, courage and freedom. But as I searched through articles and quotes pertaining to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and our subsequent celebrations of the event, I kept being brought back to the fact that not all of us were free. In actuality it took almost 90 more years until Americans of color were granted independence.

Words from a speech by Frederick Douglass on an Independence Day in 1841 reminded me of this:
"The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn."

As an American, today I honor and recognize the founding fathers who sacrified and fought for an independent and self-governing nation. Today, also as an American, I feel called to recognize another declaration of independence, one that finally gave African-Americans reason to rejoice and celebrate.

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, do hereby declare that on the first day of January, eighteen-sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States, shall then become and be forever free.

...And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

...And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
A proclamation by the President of the United States, 1 January 1863

What if…forgiveness were all we had to offer?

Norka wrote this post but is having technical difficulty posting.

READ THIS COMPELLING PIECE.

Recently we invited our entire congregation to read “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust” by Immaculee Ilibagiza. It is the memoir of a college girl who survived the Rwandan genocide – the internal conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis in 1994.

Immaculee survived huddled in a small bathroom with seven other women for 91 days. If the trauma of that experience were not enough, Immaculee heard the killers chanting her name. They had already massacred her family and they knew that she was alive.

Machetes in hand and blood-thirsty they vowed to wipe all Tutsis from the face of the earth. Believing that they could, the killers went on a rampage throughout the country butchering any Tutsi or Tutsi supporter. It is estimated that close to a million people were murdered. Undoubtedly, the forces of evil were working overtime.

Ironically, all this occurred while the world stood by watching - clueless. If you’ve seen the movie: Hotel Rwanda you know exactly what I mean. That movie is another real-life depiction of the same genocide Immaculee survived.

To survive Immaculee retrieved into herself and held on to her faith. She used the memorization of Bible texts and prayer to keep her emotionally and psychologically sane – during the whole ordeal.
In spite of this there were times when she was overpowered with doubt and fear. She states in her book: “I realized that my battle to survive this war would have to be fought inside of me. Everything strong and good in me – my faith, hope, and courage – was vulnerable to the dark energy. If I lost my faith, I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive. I could rely on God to help me fight.”

But Immaculee’s survival is, to me, not even the greatest triumph of this amazing story. After the war Immaculee goes the extra mile and confronts the suspected killers of her family. They indeed confess all the gruesome details. Then Immaculee does something totally mind-boggling: she forgives them – to their faces. When asked why she would do such a thing, she states: “Forgiveness is all I have to offer”

Perhaps very few of us would ever experience even a quarter of what Immaculee went through in our full lifetimes. But we’ve all been hurt by people, and we all struggle with forgiveness. What if forgiveness where our only choice – the only thing we would choose to offer?

To watch video clips & read more about Immaculee click below:

4 Real Women International - First Annual "Survivors" Awards Benefit Gala (January 2008)

What if ... we lived every day in the moment?

Our lives are too often spent thinking about our past and what we could have done differently or it is spent thinking about our future and what we want our life to look like rather then living in the moment.

I have spent many a years in the past but luckily I have learned to not dwell on my mistakes any more but chalk it up to a valuable learning experiences.

What I have yet to learn though is not worry about what tomorrow will look like. Too many of my days and my thoughts are focused on tomorrow rather then fully appreciate and enjoy each moment as it comes.

A great reminder of this is Matthew 6:34:

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own."

Let us learn to live in the moment so we do not miss out on the blessings each day with our families and friends nor miss those divine appointments that come our way because we will be living in the present.