Not the sharpest crayon in the box

This blog is going to be more of a praise today! I am just so thankful that God covers us in ALL THINGS. Even the things that we are unaware of. Although I try my darndest to use all the marbles I have left up in my brain, sometimes I forget that I am not the sharpest crayon in the box. Here was the situation where God totally covered me and filled in for my absent brain cells to which I am so grateful!
You see, last night I realized that my pharmacy made a mistake. While trying to save me & my insurance company some money they sent me the generic drug after I specifically requested over the phone and then sent in a payment for the brand name. Now please understand, I am not a brand name drug snob, but when it comes to maintaining a seizure disorder, the rule of thumb is you don’t mess with what is working! Especially when the consequences of learning that the generic prescription DOESN’T work like the name brand, comes at a pretty steep price. If I were to have a breakthrough seizure, even a mild one, I could injure my kids, myself, crash the car while driving and possible injure whoever was inside my car or whoever I hit with the car, or just plain scare my kids to death! The results of a seizure also means my driving privileges would be legally suspended (on my driving record) for 3 YEARS. As you can guess this means a break in insurance coverage which is spendy. In WA you are not legally suspended and it is more a system of ‘scouts honor’ to not drive for 6 months following a seizure. Not saying that I don’t see the validity in this law, but it just makes those of us who are honest and for the most part very controlled with our seizures punished with those that are not.
After ordering the drug I miraculously found another supply of my meds that I didn’t see before ordering. It was a pretty sizable amount too (1 ½ month supply). So when the new bottle arrived I just put it up and didn’t think twice about it. Didn’t even inspect it, quite honestly. A couple weeks later we ordered some more prescriptions that we didn’t have to pay for since there was a $50 credit on my account? I called and they didn’t really give me a definitive reason why there was a credit. I told myself that I would need to check on it soon but with all the things on my plate, I just forgot. I mentioned to my Dr about the insurance wanting me to try the generic and he explained that it was taking a risk. Although chemically it is the same, the bonding agents can be different which affect absorption, chemical reaction, effectiveness of the delicate balance (I know maybe too much info). I sent in my new script and looked up my account on-line where I spotted the differences between the new prescriptions and the last one filled on my account. I then looked at the bottles and sure enough was the generic name and the the pills were a little but different. However, not different enough to spot when I am half awake taking my meds so PRAISE GOD!. I am just so thankful that God let me in on the secret stash in the back of the cabinet and provided me ample time to figure out this mistake so I didn’t have to figure it out after having a seizure! God is so good!

Conversion/confessions of a pessimist

Isn't it fascinating, the differences in personalities and how the Lord fits all of us imperfect folks together. Usually, when 2 people marry, one will be the person with a huge world-view…... A person who has no trouble seeing God as limitless and therefore has amazing vision and plans for what the Lord can do. Sometimes this also includes the amazing ability to sit at the Lords feet long enough to hear HOW He wants these plans to unfold! Fortunately this personality also must include a filter. Folks like this are usually paired up with someone that is more of a down to earth type who sees things on a smaller scale in a ‘realistic’ but limited perspective. Praise God for the filter that takes the limited ‘world-view advice’ and brings this perspective to the Lord’s feet. Not to limit the Lord, but to figure out IF there is any wisdom to be found or if it is just a device that the enemy is utilizing in order to steal from God’s limitless abilities to work through us!
Most of you who really know John and I can pretty much figure out 'who is who' in this scenario. If you don’t well then just keep reading!
Although I would love to be the one who has the limitless world view, I am not one of those folks and usually play things pretty safe. It is a blast to ‘live vicariously’ through the dreamers, contribute to the dream and get that amazing awestruck glimpse of what the Lord can do with ‘no inhibitions’. When the rubber meets the road though, and when it is time to act of those limitless plans………. When my ‘faith in theory’ is put to the test to see if it is real or just a façade……… My flesh likes to play the role of a, for lack of a better term, party~pooper!
I know in my head, that a plan so huge could only be of the Lord, BUT yet it is so easy, to allow ME to creep in and spoil the whole thing! To slip into my flesh and put on the brakes to thwart something awesome God might have planned! I am the first person to bring limitations back into the picture. Somehow, in my flesh, I feel the need to inform the Lord, that there might be things He has not yet considered that may stand in the way of these ‘grandiose, bigger than life itself’ plans.
This realization made me contemplate how many times I have missed out on something pretty amazing due to the fact that I was too short sighted. In doing so, I settled for what is ordinary rather than the extr-ordinary! How many occasions, due to pride, selfishness, comfort or just a narrow world view, God’s plans just really didn’t fit into my personal reality. Instead of turning to the Lord, and pleading with Him to mold me, by broadening my world-view to fit His plan, instead I have cheapened His plan in order to force it to fit my reality/comfort. Meaning, that there were many times my comfort level & lack of obedience, put God’s plans in a box! However, the cool thing is that through this whole move, I have seen the Lord bigger than I have ever seen Him before. I watched Him ‘move mountains’ to get us here which in turn, makes me more open to broadening my world view to whatever He wants to do next. Without our pre-conceived boundaries, we have no need to limited God to fit Him into our circumstances.
Many times we don’t want God to be limitless because it may cost us something.
Romans 12: 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Phil 2: 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
I am sure you are all a bit curious about what got me into pondering all this and it was something totally simplistic. It was almost like God gave me a glimpse of a before and after scenario. I was listening to our pastor’s wife the other day share a pretty amazing event that God had placed on her heart. How she wasn’t certain on the particulars of where, when and how but that, in His timing, she was suppose to put it together. She was talking about some pretty awesome limitless possibilities that God could use to reach out to the community, which is always very exciting, since this is what we came here to do! For once in my life, the Lord allowed me to see HIS limitlessness in the concept, where as so often my flesh would take over and run amuck. Usually the flesh gets precedence first to run amuck and THEN I turn to the Lord and allow Him to change my heart. Must have been the Holy Spirit to help me put on the mind of Christ! I found that instead of thinking about why they could never work it made me think of how awesome if at the Lord’s leading we could put those plans into action! Just a small victory for the Lord that was pretty neat to give Him the Glory for!

Pictures.....

Here is a cute little snake that made its home in the knot of a tree! Michaela spotted him in our walk through the Nature preserve.











This is a winter picture in Manatee park. I think it was a bit chilly around low 60's or so, hence the pants!






















Same tree just a little bit more hamming it up there!





























Here is a Christmas picture at church
























Another Christmas picture.





























We went to the beach yesterday and there was quite a bit of seaweed in the water. Ben was coming out of the water looking like the seamonster in the old scooby doo cartoons or better yet, like his uncle Dan!










































He thought he looked like Chewbacca from starwars, hence the big grin!










































The girls found it to be rather fun to put 'boots' on with sand!









































Michaela was pretty proud of her boots too!

Hope you all are well! We are enjoying the winter months here, however it is getting aweful crowded. Many others are comeing to enjoy our weather here as too so even on days you wouldn't think places would be crowded they are jammed packed like it is the weekend. That is all for now! Hope you all are not getting too much into the winter blues!

Thinking outside the box

Since we have moved to Florida I have heard from several of you, that you maybe have had that same ‘inkling’ of God calling you out. Maybe you are not certain of the game-plan, but just prayerfully watching and waiting for God to reveal it to you. Ready to do the ‘next thing’ in whatever His plans are for you! I just wanted to take the time to share with you that this is a very exciting thing and I am glad some of you have taken the time to share this awesome blessing with us so we can be praying for you. If you are not getting this inkling quite yet, I hope that by my writing this you would be stirred to consider a small challenge. I want to encourage you that, you can do this in your own Jerusalem, wherever that may be at the moment! Being taught under Steve in CCTC, has equipped us ALL so very well that you can only get so ‘well fed’, before needing to act upon it and bless others. I shared in one of my original journals/blog from last year……….. when we first felt God tugging and He was going to move us, out biggest problem there in Tri-cities was contentment & complacency…….. Simply put, that amongst the awesome BOLD teaching, wonderful accountability & great fellowship that we experienced in TC, we got very comfortable in where God was using us. We were ‘giving out’ and serving but not beyond areas that were, honestly, out of our comfort zones. It was easy to do as we have always done, simply because we lacked the ability to think ‘outside of the box’ in many ways. We had niches where God was using us because these were the areas we ‘allowed Him’ to use us. Beyond this, was too far fetched and shamefully absent. To be honest, we put God in a box by allowing our comfort to me more important than the possibilities of what He could have done with us.In the loneliness of being ‘sequestered’ from everything I knew from TC, many of which were awesome, edifying and wonderful things, it is amazing how much God has revealed to me to begin thinking outside my comfort zone……… When it is no longer convenient to consult with a GODLY friend and down play how God would never tell me to do ________ because it would interfere with _________ or use the excuse that I am just not equipped to do__________. Well, then it is just between God and you. There are things God is calling me to do here, that I would have never even considered doing in TC. I had my ‘things’, my schedules were pretty set, the goals were very clear and there really was ‘no time’ for thinking outside the box back home. God forbid if I had begun prayerfully considered thinking this way and I am sure something shiney could have come alongside and distracted me since it is always Satans plan to keep us from having a true impact in the lives of others. When there is no one to argue with, but the Lord, and we 'get out of ourselves' long enough to find out where God wants us, that is the point where God can do show us what he can do with a lump of dirt. YOU TOO can experience the same thing we have experienced, without the need to move at all. Ask the Lord to reveal to you, if you are even open to thinking outside of your comfort zone. Sequester yourself from whatever talks you out of doing what is not comfortable or logical. Ask the Lord what distracts you from thinking outside of your comfort zone? I pray that some of you do get sent out of ‘the nest’ and go on to do some pretty awesome things with God’s leading. However, to those of you who are not being called out I challenge you to also be prayerful in the same manner. Until God sends you elsewhere don’t make the same mistake I made. Think outside the box and make an impact there in your Jerusalem while you still can! Evaluate your time spent? Are you spending time on what is eternally valuable? Are you investing in more than the everyday mundane or asking God to help you invest in the eternally valuable, beyond what you could ordinarily imagine? GOD BLESS ALL!

God is good.....

How many of you are aware that God really does have a sense of humor? Well, those of you who know 'how I tick' will have a good chuckle at this one. I have explained, in general terms, a little bit about how the cultural norms of the east coast differ from those of the west coast. Let me explain one of these cultural norms to you that has been a but difficult to get used to.

WHen I first met John's folks a week before we were to wed I found it odd that when they greeted me it was with a full on hug and a slight kiss in the cheek. I found it a little uncomfortable, but because we were about to be family, I thought that maybe they were just really excited for their son and were embracing me into the family????? After all, his brother did not embrace me with this same enthusiasm. After living on this coastline for over half a year now, I have learned that this kind of greeting is a cultural norm. It really doesn't matter if you are meeting someone for the first time or not either, the initial greeting is the same. Big hug and slight kiss on the cheek. Am I crazy or is this weird? Many of you know how much of a 'touchy~feely' person I am so, I guess you could say this was an area of uncomfort that God wants me to 'grow into'? For the most part I really just try not to tense up and show my discomfort with this quite intimate level of "hi how are ya doing". In my initail attempts to cope with people wanting to touch and kiss me as a greeting I would instead try to 'cut them off at the pass' by extending out my hand as if to shake hands. However, some very sweet 'touchy~feely folks' just used that guesture not as a "respect the imaginary space bubble", but now have used my hand shake to 'pull me in' and hug me even closer. In my effort to compensate for my lack of wanting to be touched I have learned that not accepting this greeting can be insulting as well. This means I have no other choice BUT to 'get over it'.

Seriously though..................At many times along this, so far, pretty short season here to where we are, I'll be the first person to admit that I have questioned the title of this blog (God is good). While in my head I know undoubtably, that is so true, the 'rubber meets the road' when that head knowledge has been put to the test. I can now see where, in my many times of doubt I have failed to show the truth in this statement. As I admit this, I can sincerely say that I sit back and am AWE of the audacity of this kind of doubt. A realization of a lack of growth in this area is undoubtably disappointing....... I am in AWE that my God still loves me despite how futile my faith can be when circumstances are trying. In every step of the journey, God has truely been faithful. It is not what I know to be true that has changed however it is more of what my expectations were as a result of this move has not been as monumental as I had hoped. In reflecting upon this fact........ I have determined in this journey, to no longer get caught up or 'lost' in the mundane schedule of everyday life. Since there has been no distractions here in Florida, all we have been doing is finding a sence of normalcy in our routine. A rather mundane routine that consists of school & church and an occasional outing to explore the area. Without the common bonds of having kids around my children's ages and other couples around our general age it is rather lonely. So it is easier to get caught up in normalcy than to admit how hard this new 'normal', is.

I remember the end of last February, when we first knew the prompting of the Lord and how we were make some sort of sence out of this upcoming journey. Being that it is coming up on this time of year again it brings me to a level of reflection of what God had in store for us. During this short time we all spent a lot of time praying for answers & clear direction. God was ever so faithful to answer these prayers as we earnestly set forth to lay aside our worries and remember that His plan was so much better than any that we could accomplish on our own. I suppose after arriving here I figured my "role" in this journey would automatically become clear. I was praying about how to serve at church but wasn't reaching too far outside my comfort zone. I guess I figured His will for reaching the folks in the area that we were suppose to meet, would just fall conveniently into our laps. I hadn't spent much time praying for it to 'fall', just waiting. Well, God spanked me! He reminded me of that, once held devotion of last February. An undivided effort to seeking Him, asking for answers/confirmation and direction for His unfolding plan. Needless to say, even in the spankings God is good and He is faithful to not let me get too content with my mundane life. If you could be praying, I am looking into investing some time getting plugged into our community by volunteering on John's days off. This would mean that John would school the kids while I am out which he had agreed to do! The Lord has been tugging at my heart in one specific area, but because it would be rather stressful place to get involved, John is very reluctant. Please pray I will hear where God wants me to go and that we will both have peace about it. Love and miss you all!

Some funny T~shirts

Just thought I would share some funny shirts that John's work likes to print out! They are rather funny to police officers but not all could appreciate this demented sort of humor as we do! BTW on each of these shirts it says pretty clearly LEE COUNTY GUN RANGE which is why most of them have targets on them.

Once John gets his own gun, not department issue, I can practice at the range and wear one of these shirts! He He!

John has one shirt from Benton county that is now mine because he ordered it too small. Last time I wore it to church one of the older gentleman there told me "I have never seen a family so bold to ADVERTISE the establishment of a jail". Of course I have never really thought twice about it...... I am glad John's other shirts from the other facilities he has worked are either too small or too worn out to wear.

Anywho, if there is anyone who wants one of these John gets a discount so let me know if you want us to send you one. These ones are being sent home to my father, brother and Sharon (John's former boss). Anyone else? HUGS!

Learning opportunities & blessings this holiday season

Praise! This year, for Christmas I thought it would be much harder than it really was. I was actually dreading this season because friends and family are what seem to give more of a distinct meaning to these special dates that lie on the calendar. These ‘stationary figures’ trigger our desires to celebrate in certain ways that are familiar and become family traditions. Although we know somewhere in the back of our minds that these figures have nothing to do with the real meaning of Jesus’s birth, rarely do we have the opportunity to ‘prove’ that we understand it. Since I knew that these stationary figures in my life were no longer there to keep the ‘spirit of the Holiday’ the same as usual, this was hard to accept. This meant that my comfortable, stationary role, all planned out within this holiday chaos was about to become an unknown without any kind of familiarity. GREAT, many of you know how much I love to embrace change! UGH! This is probably why I get so many opportunities for a ‘do-over’? Try once AGAIN to embrace some sort of change, with a heart that is no longer bent on what I am used to. Re-occurring theme in my life! Instead of dread, I had to ask the Lord to change my focus so that I could embrace change with the attitude that these are new opportunities and exciting things that God wants for me and my family.
I guess you could say this year was different in the fact that I realized something pretty simple, but imperative. We had the opportunity to change head knowledge into heart application, due to our circumstances. Sometimes, due to all the hub-bub of familiarities and chaos during Christmas, the simplicity of gratefulness and celebration of our saviors birth can easily be lost. The obligations of family pictures, gatherings of friends and family, school plays, work parties, ect. can take the simplicity of the celebration and turn it into an overblown production of obligations. All Jesus cares about is the simplicity of a relationship with Him and remembering to celebration the gift of His son to us. With or without familiarities, Jesus’s birth is still the real meaning behind this date! Christmas is not about traditions or everybody in the family being present and accounted for, but a deeper reverence for what the Lord has done for us and our desire to grow closer to Him everyday. In being so out of my element this year, I also realized that I had to ask the Lord to make me “feel like” celebrating Christmas because there was such a huge temptation to let the Grinch take over! Since I wasn’t able to cling to traditions and familiarities, I instead had the opportunity to cling to the Lord instead. Can we all say DUH? As usual, God is faithful to meet us where we are at and then bless our socks off when we stop concentrating on what we do not have and shift our focus on the true blessing of having Him in our lives.

The weekend before Christmas, John took some time off & Sarah offered to babysit the kiddos while we did our Christmas shopping. SO the kids had a fun day of playing with their big sister and we got all of the items on our shopping list taken care of.
Christmas day, John was working, but we were invited over to Chris & Donna’s house (pastor and his wife) for Christmas dinner. John did join us once he got off. We all had a nice time of fellowship, spending the day with friends and eating Christmas dinner with our church family. Unfortunately, due to our fun time of spending Christmas away from home, we missed out on family phone calls but because of the time difference we still got the opportunity to chat a small amount.
On the 26th, the kids woke us up at around 7am to celebrate Christmas. Tons of fun and grateful kiddos were so excited to see what was hiding under that tree. After inspecting their new toys and fun stuff we hooked up the newest family toy. The Wii. There were quite a few hours of play before getting ready for the family function later that afternoon. We were ever so fortunate to be invited to a holiday dinner at Sarah & Matt’s house in Naples. I guess it is a family tradition that both sides of their family’s come together for a combined dinner the day after Christmas at their home. We were privileged to get to be apart of this gathering and meet all the members of their families. (On Matt’s side: his parents, grandma, sister & friend of the family Lisa were there and on Sarah’s side: her parents, Aunt Julie and brother Jared were there). We were a bit nervous about being ‘the odd man out’ in the mix of both families; however, we were made to feel very welcomed and were warmly received by all. Even though our kids were the only ones there, they also seemed to have a lot of fun chatting with all the adults and pretty much talking everyone’s ears off who would listen. The kids were also terribly spoiled rotten by their sister & her parents. I was shocked that Sarah’s parents seemed pretty excited at the chance to Christmas shop for our kids and see their eyes light as they played with their new & unexpected gifts. After I got Ben’s Batman toys out of their package, John & Sarah’s brother, Jared couldn’t get outside fast enough to play with Ben and show him how his new toys worked. It was quite funny watching those big boys play with the toys and revert back to childhood! It was quite nice to feel as if God had taken the huge gap that was filled by our family & friends from back home and replaced it with HIS designed plan for us. God is very good! There were also a lot of pictures taken at Sarah’s, so once I get some sent to me I will post them for you all to see! Hope you all had a nice Christmas full of blessings and family memories!