Devotions

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise

By Lisa B on February 15, 2010

{think Gomer Pyle when you read the title because that’s how I sound}

I’ve mentioned here before that I am the Techie Girl over at She Seeks (a division of Proverbs 31 Ministries targeting 18-29 year old women). Now, I have to tell you, I love my P31 peeps to death, but really I had no idea why God has me working on a site targeting this age group. I’m so not in that age range any more, and really? I don’t feel like I have anything to offer up but my techie skills.

But last week I sent an email to Lisa W. who is the team leader of She Seeks and we started talking about Valentine’s Day. Yeah, I know it’s over, but I’m still talking about it. I’m talking about it over at She Seeks today.

That makes me nervous and feels really funny. This is the first time I’ve officially written something for someone else that will be somewhere else other than the ramblings of this blog. Years ago when I made the statement on this blog that I am a writer, I don’t think I even dreamed of writing for another site like this.

I remember what it was like when I was in that age group. Even though I’m older, I’m still getting good stuff through the devotions over there and I think you will too.

Go check it out. If it sucks, I give you complete permission to lie to me

PS. Duck so didn’t listen to me. He brought home a dozen red roses for me and a red rose for Doodle. He says he never agreed to the deal I thought he had — I realized I was just talking and he never said one way or another. I love you Duck but you’re hard-headed

| Filed Under: Blessings, Bloggin', Devotions, Holidays, Personal

Sex Ed on the way to Chick-fil-a

By Lisa B on May 5, 2009

Warning: This post may contain some language not suitable for young eyes or old hearts. Please don’t judge me. Had I thought ahead, I would have asked advice before I got sucked into this conversation. I had done pretty good {until now} avoiding answering many of these questions.

Me: Where did all these people come from and why are they in front of me turning left?

Doodle: God made them.

Me: Well, He didn’t have to put them all right here in front of me.

Doodle: He didn’t put them all here. He put them in the hospital.

Me: You know not all babies are born in the hospital.

Doodle: Oh I know! On Airbender, Katara helped deliver a baby and {some other character} made a hut and {miscellaneous details about the cartoon that I forget} but he probably would have fainted if he’d seen Katara cutting her stomach open and moving around the intestines to pull the baby out.

{Side note: whenever we’ve talked about when Doodle was born, we’ve told her that the doctor had to cut my stomach open and get her out. As the story progressed and Duck shared that he was a little faint feeling when he saw the insides of me that he never should have seen … I had to explain to Doodle that those were my intestines most likely moved out of the way so the doctor could get to her.}

Me: Not all babies are born like that.

Doodle: So does God just make them and put them in the stomachs?

Me: Um, no. It takes a man and a woman to make a baby.

Doodle: So what? The man and woman just make a baby and then she eats it?

Me: Um, no. A woman has a part in her body called a uterus and that’s actually where the baby grows — not in the stomach.

{Doodle’s looking at me with a surprised look.}

Me: Well, it’s close to the stomach. So it’s just easier to say stomach a lot of times.

Doodle: So it looks like you’ve eaten a ton of popcorn?

Me: Yeah, something like that.

Doodle: How are they born?

Me: Um, well, you actually have two holes down there. You know, where your pee comes out? Well, there’s another hole and that’s how most of them come out. Technically the other hole is called a v8g1n8 (8′s for a’s and 1 for i’s – trying to cut down on nasty auto comments).

Doodle: How’s the baby get up there?

Me: Um {notice a pattern here?}, well, inside the uterus there are eggs.

Doodle {jaw dropped, eyes wide}: I didn’t know women laid eggs.

Me: Um, well, it’s not like a woman is going to lay eggs in a nest like a chicken.

Doodle: or a bird. So what’s the man got to do with it?

Me: Um, well, he’s got what are technically called sp3rm. That has little tails and they swim to the egg and fertilize it. Then the egg/baby starts growing in the uterus.

Doodle: What about the cord? Isn’t that how the baby gets fed?

Me: Yes, the cord develops and kind of hooks into the uterus to get food from the mommy and pass it along to the baby.

Doodle: How does the sp3rm get to the egg?

Me: Um, well, God gave a husband and a wife the gift of sex. That’s so they can have a family. Have you heard that word before?

Doodle: Yeah, on George Lopez. They said they found out their 16-year-old daughter was having sex.

Me {my turned to be totally shocked and looking up how to block that show from ever being on our tvs again}: Um, well, you know that thing that boys have that you call a “peter.”

Doodle: or a weiner?

Me: Yeah, that. Um, well, that’s technically called a p3n1s. A man puts his p3n1s with the woman’s v8g1n8 and that’s what sex is.

Doodle: Yuck! You mean they put them together? I’m in no hurry to grow up!

Me: That’s great!

*** Hours later ***

Doodle: I can’t believe I used to be an egg! Why do parents wait so long to tell kids how they were made?

Me: Because it’s kind of a sensitive subject — one that we just don’t talk about until you’re old enough to understand it.

————–

I so totally can’t even believe I wrote this out. Duck said I should blog about it because one day Doodle would appreciate reading it. I’m not so sure. I think she’ll be totally embarrassed, but it’s here. At least I’ll remember. Or at least I’ll remember as much as I remember when I wrote this out — it’s not exactly the way the conversation went but you get the jist. I’ve been really good at avoiding her questions until today. I know she’ll have more and I pray God gives me the wisdom to teach her well.

I honestly don’t remember when or where I learned. See, they say around these parts that the boys and girls were separated in 5th grade. I was in 5th grade in West Virginia, and we were considerably behind academically. I’m sure this probably includes this education as well. We moved here when I was in 6th grade and I don’t remember education until Health class in 9th grade.

Knowing that this is coming up in the next year (Doodle’s finishing up 4th grade right now), I did want to have the conversation with her — I just didn’t have a clue how to have it. In the car on the way to Chick-fil-a is so NOT how I thought it would happen though. If any of you have any tips or resources on a Godly way to share this message with kids, I’d greatly appreciate the references.

God knows I’m scared to death I’ve already scarred her for life as it is. I don’t want to mess her up worse!

| Filed Under: Devotions, Family, Health

Equipping the Called

By Lisa B on March 4, 2008

I’m going on memory here, which is flawed most of the time There’s a quote I keep coming across here and there. I’m not sure who originated it, but I know Lysa TerKeurst shares it a lot — so she may be the one who came up with it.

God does not call the equipped. He equips the called.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately — especially when I start feeling like a failure at so many things. Then our Sunday School lesson (have I mentioned I think we’ve found a church? YAY!) this past week was on living a confident life — not a self-confident life, but a God-confident life.

⁹ who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, — 2 Timothy 1:9 (NKJV)

I felt better knowing that God did not call me to write because I have a journalism degree (I don’t) or because I got straight A’s in English class (I didn’t). I also remember a time in my journey of being a Christian when I learned why we have books in the Bible written by different people.

Each of us have our own very different (yet often similar) experiences. It’s entirely possible for each of us to look at the same situation very differently — to pick out different details to share. Even though Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote about the same things, they each shared different aspects of what they saw and heard. Did you know Luke was a physician? That he shared more about physical healing than the others? That’s where his interests and knowledge were. Those miracles Jesus performed stood out to Luke more because of his knowledge.

My writing is going to be filtered by my interests and knowledge as well. Here you’ll read about my experiences as a woman, a wife, a mother, a softball player, a biker mama and the list goes on. I used to look at other writers as “competition” but really when we are all called to write, God’s grace will equip us to write about the things only we can write about.

I’m so glad I don’t have to do it through self-confidence because I have confidence in God. I’m going to be pulling on more of that God-confidence this weekend. My motorcycle riding class starts this Friday! Hopefully I’ll have some good stories to share next week.

| Filed Under: Devotions, Motorcycle, Writing

Dizzy From Spinning My Wheels

By Lisa B on February 29, 2008

I know y’all have at one time or another spun around in a circle until you fell on your bee-hind dizzy. That’s how I have felt for awhile now — except I feel like I’ve been spinning for several months.

I am a writer. I determined (almost a full year ago) God was calling me to write — not to work on a business from home or making money (at least not to focus on those things), but just to write. Take care of my family, my house, myself and just write.

Here’s the thing. I am a Fact Finder. I found that term when I took a Kolbe test. Here’s a quote from the website explaining what a Fact Finder does:

Fact Finder Action Mode is based on the instinctive need to probe. Fact Finder behavior relates to the way we gather information. Fact Finder drive is most oriented to activities that encompass defining, calculating, formalizing, and researching.

This is me to a capital “T”. I will literally research something to death. Since I decided “I am a Writer” … I have been on a journey of researching everything there is to writing, publishing, marketing, etc. — all to the extreme point that I have not been writing. See the irony?

When I took that test, the action mode I scored the lowest in was Follow Through — implementation specifically. I know so much stuff. There are things floating in my head that I could spout out to you if you asked me — yet I have not had the Follow Through to actually write it all down.

I have been dizzy, still trying to figure out what God wants me to be when I grow up. But I had a very enlightening conversation with my friend Lori yesterday as she colored my hair (that’s another post in itself). She reminded me that we are all going through seasons in our life. God is constantly working on us. His timing is not our own. I’m not magically going to decide one day “I am a Writer” and it’s miraculously all going to happen. I’m not going to have publishers knocking down my door to get my story. I’m not going to have people holding me accountable for writing either. I need self-discipline and patience. Those seem to be the two hardest things in the world for me.

So, feeling better that I don’t have to have it all done today, I got up early this morning for my devotion time. I began reading Marybeth Whalen‘s For the Write Reason and I got confirmation from God. The first chapter is something Lysa TerKeurst shared in her book What Happens When Women Walk in Faith. The following sentences really touched me:

But even in this seemingly ineffective time of pruning and trials, God was preparing me for a season to come. This was not a waste of time. This “getting ready” period was an important part of fulfilling my calling.

I am so thankful God can use all I’ve done in the past year to get me ready. I’m thankful He’s preparing me for whatever is to come. I’m thankful I can stop feeling like I’ve been totally wasting my time. The knowledge is in my head now. I just need Him to show me how to get it out so that it can bless others. I’m also thankful for people like Lysa. I love how transparent and real she is — and to share all she’s been through and how God’s used her. All of the P31 women seem like real women I can relate to — not the “got it all together” woman I think of when I think of the Proverbs 31 woman. My prayer is God will still use me even though I go off on rabbit trails when He had me on the path I needed to go.

| Filed Under: Blessings, Books, Devotions, Personal, Writing

“Do you have a death wish?”

By Lisa B on February 6, 2008

I’d recently shared with a school mom about my motorcycle. She looked at me like I’d grown a third eye in my forehead and asked, “do you have a death wish?”

My immediate answer to her then wasn’t all that smooth. I grinned and said, “yeah, I do. I know I’m going to Heaven, so why wait?”

I’ve actually gotten this question from quite a few people since I’ve started talking about riding motorcycles. But before you get too concerned, know that I do not have a death wish — I got over having a death wish about 5 years ago.

Through a series of every day events that all of us have to deal with, I let the devil get in my head. I started believing his lies and even started telling some to myself. I’ve seen it called negative self-talk or negative soul-talk because this kind of talk goes down to your soul.

I was at the point of believing I screw up everything I touch and would be better off dead. I started rationalizing it with I know I’m saved and I’m going to Heaven and I’d be having a glorious time there with Jesus and couldn’t mess anything up.�

At the point where I was really carrying around a death wish with me, I was going to church and playing the part. No one knew how I felt inside. I was driving a pickup truck 70mph down the highway, crying my eyes out — ready to go.

God impressed on my heart as real as if He were sitting in the seat next to me — It’s not your time Lisa. I’m not finished with you yet.�

Here I am 5 years later and God is still working on me! I’m thankful He didn’t give up on me and that He’s allowed me to experience many wonderful things in the past 5 years. I’ve seen Doodle grow to be a smart, beautiful little lady. She says she believes in Jesus and shares that with her friends (at the age of 8 now). Duck and I have grown much closer in our marriage. I still screw up. Cry. Then I get over it when Duck hugs me and tells me he still loves me even if he’s out of clean underwear. I would’ve missed out on 2 family reunions as well. Some people don’t have family like I do — which is probably a good thing, but I love them all anyway

It’s not just my family that I would’ve missed out on. This time last year I thought I wanted to become a Biblical Counselor. Through just that 1 wish, I began talk with Heather online. She had many questions about God, Jesus, and church. I did my best to answer them — most of the time using Christianese — but praying all the way.

Heather had been touched by a testimony given at her son’s Upward Basketball game. When she told me about it, I made her promise me she’d go to visit that church the next Sunday. The only problem? She was going out with friends that Saturday night. I knew in my heart that she shouldn’t go with her friends, but I couldn’t explain it to her. I continued to pray for her and I specifically asked God to wake her up and get her to that church.

Later that Sunday afternoon when we were chatting online, she recounted the night’s details and how she’d gotten home at 5 am that Sunday morning. As she fell into bed, she figured she’d apologize to me (no big deal) and go to church next Sunday. She woke up at 8:15 am and could not go back to sleep. She tried everything from switching to her kids’ beds to the couch. Nothing worked. She was wide awake. She figured she might as well go to church since she was up. She had a hard time believing it when I told her I had prayed for a wake-up call

After arm wrestling with God (which is exactly what Heather called it) on February 15th,� she accepted Jesus and gave herself to God. This past month she’s felt the call into youth ministry at her church (the same one she visited last year). And I decided Biblical Counseling was not for me right now. I really hate to think I might have missed out on knowing Heather, talking with her, and seeing how God’s used her this past year.

You see, I don’t need to ride a Harley to have a death wish. I was ready to use an ol’ beat up pickup truck. Perhaps my friend should be asking her other friends if they have a death wish. I am still humbled at all that God’s let me be a part of over the past 5 years. It’s been all Him. Because I had a death wish. God got me over it.

| Filed Under: Blessings, Church, Devotions, Family, Motorcycle, Personal

Potty Prayers: A Mother’s Saving Grace

By Lisa B on January 16, 2008

Lysa TerKeurst has stirred up some creative juices with her blog post “A Chance for You to Get Published.” If you have an article you would like to submit for consideration, hop over there and leave a comment. Here’s my article (never been published). Please leave me a comment sharing your thoughts on it — good, bad or indifferent

Potty Prayers: A Mother’s Saving Grace

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. � Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV)

�I have got so much to do. I have got to go to 4 ball games this week. My daughter has gymnastics and dance. The house is a mess. We eat fast food every night. My husband is working late. I’m trying to do this work from home stuff to help with the bills, but everything is driving me crazy!� I confided in my Children�s Pastor.

�How’s your quiet time?� He snickered because he knew the answer.

�You’re kidding right? Quiet time is non-existent for me.� I was on the verge of tears. Yet another thing to add to my ever-growing to do list?

As he walked out of the office, I wondered if he’d given up on me. I figured I was a hopeless case. When he came back, he handed me this little booklet called �Open Windows.�

Yeah right! This is not going to help me! It’s going to take a lot more than this little book. I need to be reading my Bible at least an hour every morning; spend another hour in prayer; be at church every time the door is open … �Um…what’s this?� was all I could verbalize.

�Will you promise me you’ll read one devotion a day? I’ll be checking in with you every time I see you to make sure you’ve kept up with it.� He was serious.

�I guess I can do that. It’s a small book. Yeah, I’ll read one a day.�

As I left the church, I struggled with more of the same thoughts. I need more help than this little book can give. Things are out of control. When am I going to even get 2 minutes to read this? When I got home, I thought of the perfect place for this little book (moms will appreciate this) � the bathroom! One thing I know, I will go to the bathroom every day. It’s literally the only peace and quiet I get sometimes, but at least it would give me time to read that one devotion.

�Have you been reading 1 devotion a day?� The Children’s Pastor said even before hello.

�Yes, I have.� I would tell him, although I didn’t see that it was doing any good! I was still running all over the place and stressed beyond measure.

I began to notice a change in me around the 3-week mark. Suddenly, one devotion wasn’t enough � I had to read more! There were days when I would read ahead 3-4 days just because I could not get enough of God’s Word!

My circumstances did not change. I still had all those things to do, all those pressures of running a home. I changed on the inside. My attitude � my view of my circumstances changed and I was calmer inside. Only then could I look at what I needed to eliminate from my schedule. Only then could I see I had unreasonable expectations of myself � instead of looking to God for who I am and His purpose for me.

Through my potty prayers and reading time, I learned a very valuable lesson. God has told us His Word will not return empty and it will not. No matter where you read it � as long as you read a little bit each day � you will be blessed beyond measure!