You Can Still Wear Cute Shoes!

I am looking forward to going through this new book (You Can Still Wear Cute Shoes and other Great Advice from an Unlikely Preacher's Wife) with our staff wives. It is written by Lisa McKay of "A Preacher's Wife" blog fame.

I am always quick to share what a blessing it is to be called together with my husband to serve as pastors, but there are some unique things about being pastors that one just can't understand unless you've been called to walk that road. That's why it's always good when the staff wives get together; we can be a safe place for one another and we can celebrate and commiserate together. I know this book will spur some great conversations among us!

If you are interested in giving this book to a pastor's wife that you know, you can go the LifeWay Website or Amazon.com to purchase it. You can also enter a pastor's wife you know to win a giveaway by visiting HERE.

Oh, and now that we staff wives have been given permission to wear cute shoes, we are open to shopping with you fashionistas out there who have undoubtedly seen the state of our foot apparel. :-)

Marriage Book Resources

Since I mentioned a few posts back that I would list some of my favorite marriage books that I've read through the years, I thought I'd better follow through! I have a tendency to get side-tracked; can you tell?

Anyway, today I will share three books (besides the previously mentioned For Women Only book by Shaunti Feldman) that I greatly benefited from.

The first is Love and Respect. David and I were blessed to hear Dr. Emerson Eggerichs and his wife speak at a pastor's conference soon after his book came out. I think it was one of the best marriage teachings I have ever heard. We bought the book right then, and truth be told, we both read it in a couple of days. Both of us felt that we learned things we didn't know before that would definitely help our marriage be better. I don't know of anyone who's read the book that hasn't thought it was a book to help new habits be born. Sometimes we just have to learn a new way to communicate. I love that he shares a word picture that is easy to relate to: men hear through blue (male) earphones and women through pink (female) earphones. Sounds fundamental, doesn't it? However, when you read this book, I think you'll agree that we, as women, overlook this very real fact most of the time. I found out that I was doing and saying some things that came across to Dave as disrespectful even though that wasn't what was necessarily in my heart. And I was surprised at how small some of the things seemed to me, and yet, they were very hurtful to him because he has an innate need for respect. Women respecting men is counter-cultural in our society right now, but I know that I am commanded in the Word to respect my husband, so it benefits me to learn how to better do this.

Another book, Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas, was also a very informative read for me. The subtitle says it all, "What if God's primary intent for your marriage isn't to make you happy . . . but holy? And what if your relationship isn't as much about you and your spouse as it is about you and God? Wow, now that really flies in the face of what we're told about marriage today. If we're not happy (so the secular notion goes), then surely God is not glorified, so it's okay if we get out. Now, I'm not saying that if a woman is in an abusive situation that she should continue to stay, but there are lots of Christian marriages ending for non-scriptural reasons.

A third book is called His Needs, Her Needs (subtitle: Building an Affair Proof Marriage) by Willard F. Harley. I haven't read this for a few years, but I remember thinking that it was a good book.

In speaking of all three of the above books, I realized that I don't have a copy of any of them in my home at the moment because they have all been lent out at some point to someone, and I don't for the life of me remember who has them. If you are reading this and remember that you have a copy of one of these books, feel free to let it "fly away home." But, just as quickly as the books might find their way back into my house, I know they'll be gone again soon because I have a hard time keeping books to myself!

I pray for my marriage continually, and I hope that you are praying for your marriage as well. I remember the saying that "the biggest detriment to a 'great' marriage is a 'good' marriage." I think that's true. I pray that you are not stuck in a good marriage, but that you will be able to experience a great marriage. Nothing worth having comes without much work, sacrifice, and perseverance. Keep praying; keep believing; keep working and learning. A Christ-centered, growing marriage can bring glory to God, and even though my marriage isn't perfect (and never will be because two imperfect people are in it), we continue to choose to put the Lord first in our individual lives and to look out for the other's interests. I pray our lives and our marriage bring honor to the One who continues to mold and fill us.

The Hiding Place

"You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word...Hold me up, and I will be safe..." Psalm 119:114,117

In my 8th grade English class, we are just finishing The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. This is a powerful book about one Christian family from Holland who dared to risk their lives to harbor Jews during the Nazi reign of terror that had invaded their country. If you have areas of your life where you are struggling with forgiveness or with being grateful, this book will speak to your heart. Each time I read through the book, I am struck again by the miraculous journey that Corrie takes from hatred to forgiveness. She endured and witnessed such horrendous things, and her natural responses mirrored what most of ours would be. However, she is contrasted throughout the book with her sister, Betsie, who is able to keep God's perspective through all of the betrayal, punishment, torture, disease, and deadly circumstances. Corrie lost both her father and her sister, Betsie, while they were in the concentration camps. Corrie is eventually released because a clerk mistakenly recorded her number, 66730, on a list of women to be freed, instead of on the list of women her age to be executed.

She went on to establish a home in a vast estate in Holland for people who had either been held in concentration camps or hidden in attics, farmhouses, crawl spaces or back closets for two, three, or even four years. The 56-room home and land was donated to Corrie's work by a woman whose five sons worked with the resistance. Corrie also turned her family's home in Haarlem into a healing place for the Dutch men who had signed on with the Nazi's and betrayed their own countrymen; she saw the anguish they suffered because of their participation in persecuting their own. Corrie then began traveling to speak to groups about the power of God to save and to help heal their raw and broken hearts, and she found the greatest need to be in Germany itself. She helped to turn a former concentration camp into a place of healing for people who had been part of the atrocities committed against humanity. Churches in Germany stepped up and began to minister to their fellow countrymen. Those in the church helped to take away rolls and rolls of barbed wire; they painted the pale gray block buildings the green of new life in spring. They placed window boxes with flowers along the fronts of the buildings. The place of death and torture was redeemed to be a place of hope and healing. The name of Jesus was lifted up as thousands turned to Him in need of forgiveness and healing. Others needed the power of God to be able to forgive and move on with their lives. Corrie was God's instrument of grace, and she lived out her remaining years (until she was 91) sharing God's love all over the globe.

I have a Modesto Bee newspaper article from 1974 which details Corrie's visit to Turlock. She spoke in churches and at the War Memorial building for youth groups in the area. My sister-in-law heard her speak and saved the article all these years. What a treasure to share with my students!

Corrie liked to use props when she spoke, and one of those was a piece of material she called the "crown." She would begin by holding up what appeared to be nothing more than rough blue cloth with tangled knots of gold thread hanging from it. She would then recite this poem by the American hymnist Grant Colfaz Tullar:

"My Life Is Like a Weaving

My life is like a weaving
between my God and me.
I do not choose the colors
He works so steadily.
Sometimes He weaves sorrow
and I in foolish pride
forget he sees the upper,
and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent
and the shuttles cease to fly
will God unroll the canvas
and explain the reason why
the dark threads are as needful
in the skillful weaver's hand
as the threads of gold and silver
in the pattern He has planned.

Corrie would then triumphantly flip the cloth over to show her audience what God sees: a golden crown on a field of blue! That is what the believer will eventually see of God's plan in heaven, Corrie insisted." (pages 239-240)

That reminds me of a line from an old Carol King song (yes, I know all her songs of old!) that says,
"My life has been a tapestry
Of rich and royal hue."

I'm sure we've heard the analogy before, but it is good to remember that in this life we see only the back side of the cloth. There are knots every where and colors that cross over one another in no particular order, but when we look at the other side, we see what all the mess makes possible - a beautiful tapestry, rich in color and texture. We must strive to remember that our earthly view is not God's eternal view.

There are dark threads in my life, and in the lives of every person I know, that I see no good reason for, but God sees the finished product. And you know what? It's beautiful! We must hold on and believe. We must ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to sustain us. We must surrender to the working of that dark thread through our lives, often into the very core of our hearts, in order for the picture on the other side to be complete.

Anyway, I'm not always so serious in my posts, but my focus has been on this novel and what it is speaking to me personally. If you get a chance, read the book or get the movie. It will strengthen your faith and teach you that love triumphs over all.

I believe that God is calling me and our church to a greater love for Him, for each other, and for those yet to know Him. This book has further stirred that conviction in my heart. I am asking you to step out in faith to follow Him in that path. True love will cost us something, but the returns will be eternal.

Time Article- Mother Teresa

I read an article in the newspaper this morning that mentioned Mother Teresa, and it said that letters and journal entries that she had written were being published in a new book that was coming out. It gave an example of her writing and said that she had spent almost 50 years without sensing the presence of God. This was enough information to intrigue me, and then I received our Time Magazine in the mail today, and who should be on the front cover? Mother Teresa, of course! The headline reads, "The Secret Life of Mother Teresa," and the secondary headline reads, "Newly published letters reveal a beloved icon's 50-year crisis of faith."

I quickly turned to the article (you can read it here) and realized that there were so many interesting thoughts that I couldn't read it without a pen to underline portions of it, so I put it aside until this evening. As soon as the I had some free time, I sat on our living room sofa and read the entire seven page article. I did underline portions of it because I found it powerful. I mean, how many people in the world don't know about Mother Teresa? She was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, she started the "Missionaries of Charity" organization serving the poorest of the poor in India, and her death in 1997 was a world news-making event with world leaders from over 50 nations in attendance at her funeral! Quickly there was talk of making her a saint, and so far she has been beatified; the next step is canonization. The Time article had a subtitle that read, "A decade after Mother Teresa's death, her secret letters show that she spent almost 50 years without sensing the presence of God in her life. What does her experience teach us about the value of doubt?"

Doubt - that's a word that Christians don't want to place on themselves because they know the verse in James that says,"the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind." James 1:6 We good Christians never doubt that the Lord is with us, do we? The word, doubt, means: "a feeling of uncertainty about the truth, reality, or nature of something; to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe; to distrust." With that definition, I know I have had times of doubt. What about you?

In speaking of the "dark night" of Mother Teresa's soul, the author of the book said, "[Mother] Teresa found ways, starting in the early 1960's, to live with it and abandoned neither her belief nor her work. [The author] produced the book as proof of the faith-filled perseverance that he sees as her most spiritually heroic act.

The Lord has brought the term, perseverance, to my attention many times lately. Have you ever been sensitive to something, and the Lord keeps bringing it to your attention because He's telling you something? Well, Mother Teresa's life exemplifies perseverance. Mother Teresa had asked that her notes, journals, and letters be destroyed, but the church overruled her wishes. And I believe that perhaps God will speak just as powerfully through her notes of doubt and her life of perseverance in the face of that doubt.

Mother Teresa told a Reverend in 1979 that "Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me - the silence and the emptiness is so great - that I look and do not see, -Listen and do not hear." Oh my friend, have you ever been there? Have you ever shown up at church and smiled your Sunday smile, all the while thinking that Jesus has great love for others, but as for you, well.....you are not seeing and not hearing, and you're wondering if any of it is even true? There have been times when this has been true of me. I'm sure some of my journal entries arn't too far off from this letter of Mother Teresa's which says, "Please pray specially for me that I may not spoil His work and that Our Lord may show Himself -for there is such terrible darkness within me, as if everything was dead." I personally have had times of such terrible darkness of the soul that I've not even been able to pray. I have had to ask Dave to pray over me because I can't even form the thoughts or words to pray, and even if I could, I question whether it even makes any difference. Have you ever felt like that?

Towards the end of the article, there is this quote from James Martin of Jesuit Magazine: "Everything she's [Mother Teresa's] experiencing," he says, "is what average believers experience in their spiritual lives writ large. I have known scores of people who have felt abandoned by God and had doubts about God's existence. And this book expresses that in such a stunning way but shows her full of complete trust at the same time." He takes a breath. "Who would have thought that the person who was considered the most faithful woman in the world struggled like that with her faith?" he asks. "And who would have thought that the one thought to be the most ardent of believers could be a saint to the skeptics?" Martin has long used Teresa as an example to parishioners of self-emptying love. Now, he says, he will use her extraordinary faith in the face of overwhelming silence to illustrate how doubt is a natural part of everyone's life, be it an average believer's or a world-famous saint's."

So, perseverance is what Mother Teresa's life exemplifies, and that's what the Lord is teaching me in many ways. "Keeping on" is of great value to God and His kingdom. Those who don't follow Jesus should wonder how Christ-followers keep going in the face of struggle, illness, doubt, financial issues, etc... I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am to keep on keeping on, even when it's not fun or glamorous, even when others don't understand or approve, even when my reputation takes a hit, and even when I don't believe it! God sometimes works best through those moments when we've said we can't go on.

I currently have many quotes that I use in my classroom from Mother Teresa, so I know I will be interested in reading this book. I encourage you to please check out the article and let me know what you think. Does the article encourage you and your faith, or make you question? Do you identify with anything Mother Teresa went through, or can you not understand the "dark night of the soul?" Let me know your thoughts.

Book Title and Burned Biscuits

There's been a couple of comments on Mary's blog about the title to the book, Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture. It seems that perhaps some people might be put off from reading the book because of the title. Most comments, including mine, mention that perhaps it is the term, "postmodern," that is the cause of some confusion or ambiguity. I mentioned in an earlier blog that Mary does a good job of defining the term in her book, but I'm wondering, "What thoughts come to your mind when your read that title?" Does it seem like a book you would be interested in? Why or why not? I just thought it might be interesting to read what some of you are thinking.

Also, feel free to ask any questions you might have for me. You can always check on my profile and email me if you feel that you wouldn't want to leave your question in a comment.

Tonight, David and I went with my sister and her husband to the Westside Theatre in Newman to see the bluegrass musical group, Burned Biscuits. I know the name is weird, but the group is very talented, and they had some really cool t-shirts for sale. (I didn't buy one, however.) There was also an opening band called Scott Gates and the Pacific Ocean Bluegrass, and they had a nine year old girl who played the mandolin and sang (yes, that's right.....9 years old!), and she was great. It was worth going just to see such talent in that little girl. For me, bluegrass is fine in small doses, so although the talent was great, tonight was just enough to tide me over for a while. :-)

Authentic Parenting-Part 4

Hello everyone!


If you'd like to read an excerpt from the book, click here.

To purchase, click here. I think you'll find that it is a pretty quick and thought-provoking read, so you'll want to underline as you go along. I thought I'd give you glimpse into a couple of the thoughts that I underlined while reading:

Page 42- "So through the jumble of parenting in a shifting culture, cling to Jesus' simple truth. Seek His kingdom. Trust. Dare not to be anxious. Point your children to the life of Christ residing dynamically within you."

Page 53- "A friend of mine has a dear son named Jacob who lives with a brain injury. The few times I've seen him, I have met pieces of Jesus. (Gena here: that is just a GREAT sentence!) He understands the gospel in a simple way yet more profoundly than I ever will. [His mother, Jeanne,] shares stories about him on her blog....."The most remarkable thing about Jacob now is his faith, which radiates from him with such intensity one can only wonder what fellowship he shared with his Father during those months of darkness.....I sensed God speaking to my heart and asking me what I wanted most for my children. I answered, "That when they stand in Your presence, You will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." God reminded me how Jacob's faith touches so many. It was as though he said, "Jacob is my good and faithful servant. I'm satisfied in him. I want you to be too." As parents we aspire to great things for our kids. Jacob taught me to keep my eye on the one most important goal."
[Author Mary DeMuth again] That's what bothers me about all the pontificating. It's as if we've lost Jesus in the midst of our very intellectual discussions about postmodernity. We've divorced ourselves from modern tradition, from Scriptural authenticity. But instead of being anchored, we float around discussing paradigms and community and mystery. We use lots of really smart words to define Christianity. We make it appealing to thinkers while Jacob flings his arms heavenward and simply adores his Saviour.

Page 192- If I were to summarize the way most of us parent our children, I would have to say this: We primarily parent-and dare I say live our lives-to reduce pain and increase properity. We protect our children from the radical call of Christ because, to be honest,truly following after His kingdom messes with our plans. It's difficult. Painful.....But as Bonhoffer says, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

Page 211 - To worship God is a profoundly countercultural task because it deals a decisive blow to our selfishness.

Page 214 - So much pressure exists for parents to produce perfect children that we unwittingly pressure our children to follow harder after rules than after Jesus.

Meet Mary and read her crazy blog here.

Authentic Parenting-Part 3

As promised, today I'm sharing an interview with Mary DeMuth.




Mary, aren’t there already a bazillion parenting books out there? Why did you feel the need to write this book?

Yes, I do believe there are a bazillion. I always struggle when I write a parenting book because I feel so darned small and weak. I don’t parent perfectly. But, we did live through two and half years in France, the hotbed of hyper-postmodernity. We had to learn how to parent our kids in that culture. It occurred to me that the things we learned would be helpful to American parents too.

Briefly, what does the term postmodern mean, and why should it matter to us as parents?

Postmodernism is the waiting room between what used to be a modern worldview and what will be. According to several postmodern scholars, we’re in a shift right now, leaving modern ideas behind, but what we are shifting to is not yet fully defined.

Postmoderns believe that rationalism and/or more education doesn’t necessarily create a better society. They typically don’t embrace the notion of absolute truth, though they reach for the transcendent. They are skeptical, and often question whether science is something to be embraced or feared.

The question for parents is how will we mine the current worldview, even as it shifts? What in it can we embrace as biblical? What is not biblical? What I’ve seen in the church is a fearful adherence to what is familiar. So we cling to modern ideas, even though they may not be biblical and shun postmodern ideas even when they might be biblical. Our children will meet this shifting worldview no matter what our opinion of it is.

How can we as parents help our children prepare for the world outside their door?

Become a conversational parent. Talk to your kids. Listen. Share your story.
Dare to believe that God has much to teach you through your kids. Be humble enough to learn from them.
Create a haven for your kids, an oasis in your home that protects, supports, and gives kids space to be themselves. Take seriously the mandate that you are responsible for the soul-nurturing of your children.
Teach your children to joyfully engage their world, while holding tightly to Jesus’ hand. Teaching this comes primarily from modeling it in your own life. Do you engage your neighbors? Are you more interested in God’s kingdom than your own?
Admit your failures openly with your children, showing how much you need Jesus to live your daily life.

You are the first to admit that being authentic might require a parent to apologize after an angry outburst. I know I've had to do that a time or two. Are you saying that authentic parents don’t always have it all together as some would like to think?

Yep! We are all frail, needy humans. If we present ourselves as perfect parents, never failing, always doing this correctly, we show our children we have no need of Jesus. We also set up a standard of perfection—that to be a Christian, one has to be perfect. This can lead to our children creating elaborate facades or hiding behind masks. I’d rather have my children see that even mommies make mistakes. Even mommies need Jesus every single day.

You talk about the twin values of engagement and purity. What do you mean by that?

Many parents subconsciously believe that true parenting means protection at any cost. We received a lot of flak for putting our children in French schools because the atmosphere there wasn’t exactly nurturing. Believe me, the decision was excruciating. But through it all, I realized that Jesus calls us all to be engaged in the culture we live in, yet not to be stained by it. That’s the beauty of engagement and purity.

Abraham understood this. After God told him to leave everything and venture to a new place, he obeyed: “From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD” (Genesis 12:8). Oswald Chambers elaborates: “Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abraham pitched his tent between the two.” As parents journeying alongside our children through a postmodern world, this concept of pitching our tent between communion with God and engagement in the world should encourage us.

I have my own struggles with postmodernism, but what bugs you about postmodernism?

I happen to believe in absolute truth, so that’s a problem! But more than that, I worry that all our rambling about it, trying to discern what it is, has caused us to rely more heavily on our own intellectual pursuit of God than our heart. When I get caught up in that, I remind myself of my friend Jeanne’s son Jacob, whose heart after Jesus takes my breath away. Living with a brain injury, Jacob throws off pretense as he worships God, arms vaulted to the sky in unashamed heart worship. That’s the kind of believer I want to be. That’s the kind of heart I want. I love this verse: “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). For me, for my children, that’s my prayer, that we’d be simply and purely devoted to Jesus no matter what worldview we find ourselves in.

Thanks, Mary, for your thoughtful answers and your time.

Authentic Parenting-Part 2

After reading the book, Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture - Practical Help for Shaping Your Children's Hearts, Minds, and Souls, I am encouraged and challenged in how David and I are raising our children. I am encouraged because we have lived honestly before our children and have shared openly about our faults and failures as individuals and as parents. In fact, just yesterday I had to tell my son that I haven't parented a 15 year old boy before, so perhaps he could tell me how I might do a better job. (AND I didn't say that in a sarcastic voice, it was sincere! ;-) We had a good visit, and he told me that he needs me to tell him what to do one time and set a time limit for it, and then not to bug him again. Good advice, right? So, I learned from my child, and that's one of the themes from Mary's book - children and parents must listen to one another, be honest and open-hearted with one another, and learn from one another. In other words, we need to have a CONVERSATIONAL APPROACH to life because that will serve our children best as they leave our home and venture out into a postmodern world.

I was also challenged reading this book because I was shown that I have often mistaken protection for parenting. This is such an easy thing to do, and I (and Dave) have done this with the best of intentions. Like many parents, we want our children to know the truth of Jesus, but we haven't allowed them in many situations where they've had to rely on that Truth. I want my children to absolutely love the Lord Jesus with their whole hearts, and to know their need of Him, but I've unwittingly put up barriers to that by my protection of them that was mostly motivated by fear. I don't think I'm alone in not fully trusting God with my children. We say that we've given our children back to the Lord, but we try to control so much of their lives that we are showing them (and the world) that we don't trust Him with our children.

Another thought: the term "postmodern" is thrown around a lot these days, and Mary does a good job of defining what that means. I appreciated her definitions and examples of modernity and postmodernity. She accurately points out that because our culture is shifting (not our need for Jesus or the absolute truth of His word) "and most of postmodern thought is a reaction against modernity, we're (parents) are better off if we simply try to follow Jesus in the midst of the change as we love our children." (page 26) Isn't that how we all desire to live? We want to "engage as a family in people's lives in such a way that beckons them to Jesus Christ without sacrificing our family to the world system." (page 28) Mary tells us how we can better do that.

I thought today I'd share from the back cover of the book. It says:

Tired of trite answers about family life? So are your kids.

Your children are growing up in a world that's different from the one you knew as a child. In this postmodern culture,people are discovering and living out truth in radically new ways. Mary DeMuth highlights the pitfalls of this new worldview and demonstrates how you can use its strengths to enhance your relationships with your children and prepare them to genuinely live out and effectively communicate the good news of Jesus Christ.

With her own imperfect family life as an example, Mary reveals the helpfulness of...
-engaging your kids in conversations instead of issuing ultimatums
-seeing your children's behaviors as windows into your own spiritual life
-coaching your children instead of lecturing them
-modeling the transparent, authentic lifestyle you want for your kids
-demonstrating a life of thankfulness, creativity, and service


Find out how you can use this new way of thinking to cooperate with God's work in your family and in the world.

Gena here again: Tomorrow I'll post an interview with Mary that I think you'll enjoy. Remember, we're all on this journey together, and we need to learn and grow together. I cannot be all that God designed me to be without you, and neither can my family be all that God designed us to be without your family. I am honored to be a part of God's family along with you.

Blessings to you all!

Authentic Parenting

I'm reading a book right now called Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture, and I find that the author's words and premise resonate within my spirit as a Christian parent. I asked to be a part of the blog tour for this book, so I will be posting more about it as the week goes on. If you are interested in the book or the author, visit Mary's helpful and fun website here.

You can check out the other blogs participating on the Authentic Parenting Tour this week. For a complete listing of the blogs participating in the six week tour, visit here.
Almost Hypergraphic
AskMeanMom.com
Audra Marie
Blogging for Writers
Camy’s Loft Coming Home
Edgewise
FreshBrewedWriter
Good Word Editing
Heather in Madrid
Lexical Light
Mother Inferior
Pattie’s Place
Portrait of a Writer...Interrupted
Seedlings in Stone
Spaghettipie
Spoiled for the Ordinary
They Hang Like Paper Lanterns
Writer...Interrupted


If you are interested in purchasing the book, you can click here.

Please check back this week to learn more about my thoughts on this book. I look forward to sharing with you what I am learning and thinking.

Books on My Nightstand

Well, I thought I should clean my room today, VBS being over and all, so I came in here to find a place to start. Cleaning off my glider rocker (a depository for clothes that have been worn, but aren't quite ready for the laundry basket) was quick and easy. However, my nightstand looks overwhelming at the moment.

I thought I'd give you a glimpse at the books on my nightstand that I am currently (or would like to be) reading:
Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado
Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness by Jerry Cook (I've read this book at least five times.)
A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (adolescent literature, 2001 Newbery Medal winner)
Scale Down by Danna Demetre
Selected Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (for school)
Moments with the Savior by Ken Gire
3 Cooking Light Magazines (why did I subscribe? :-)
2 Lands' End catalogs
Better Homes and Garden magazine
Teaching k-8 magazine
Creative Home magazine
I keep thinking I'll have time to look through the magazines and catalogs, but that never seems to happen!

Yes, VBS is over as of last night, and I had a great time helping out. It is always a busy week, but I tell you what.....seeing little ones worship with their whole hearts and with such joy on their faces is a priceless treasure! I was blessed to be a part of it. I thank Pastor Leon and Sherri Fox and the whole VBS team for all of their hard work and sacrifice to make such a memorable time for our little ones. You guys are great!