Counting Gifts and Giggles

This blog update is a simple effort to keep counting the gifts (and giggles) God keeps sending our way whether our circumstances seem like fun and sun or gloom and doom.

I am the type of person who has a hard time with the "Be still" part of "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). So, it has been helpful for me over the years to set aside a quiet place in my home to be used primarily for meeting with the Lord in Bible study and prayer. Of course, I try to pray throughout the day wherever I am, but having a special spot for my daily focused quiet time really benefits me. I try to pick a spot in a location I pass by frequently that is cozy and inviting. So, I am thrilled with my new prayer chair which beckons me throughout the day (Gift #535).  It is so comfortable and peaceful with storage compartments underneath for stashing journals, concordances, books, and other resources.   Christ followers, what helps you to "be still" before the Lord?

What a gift it is to realize that He meets with us wherever we decide to meet with Him.  He is always available to us (Gift #536), so why can we not make ourselves always available to Him?  Why should we ever make Him wait for us or box Him into a convenient appointment slot on our calendar?  Let us be consumed by His presence moment by moment, relishing in the awesome wonder of His presence.

This "prayer chair" arrived via Fed Ex in bulky pieces before a busy weekend of hosting guests on short notice when I was nervous about the unexpected cost to feed and accommodate them all that weekend, especially since most of them were on restricted diets requiring expensive organic, gluten-free groceries.   When I laid out all the parts for my husband to assemble I noticed that three screw holes had been stripped so that the top portion would not fasten to the base. It would not even lay over the base except in a skewed position.

Broken base to prayer chair

So I contacted the selling agents, and they offered to either replace it after I shipped it back (not an easy task for such a large item) or give us a 25% credit.  My handy husband was able to fix it using drywall anchors, so we took the 25% credit which almost exactly offset the cost of extra groceries I bought that day for our last minute guests.  That little incident reminded me that when we are faithful to do what God calls us to do (in this case, offering hospitality) and even when we aren't, He is ALWAYS faithful to provide what we need to fulfill that calling. (Gift #537)

This epic winter has been long, cold, colorless (gray, brown, white landscapes), and dreary leaving me stuck indoors (due to weather or sickness) and feeling depressed from the lack of sunshine.  My dear husband watched the kids for me this past Sunday evening so I could enjoy a much needed fun girls night out (Gift #538).  I prayed our conversation would please the Lord and minister to each other's needs as it is too easy to become distracted by petty worldly concerns in such settings.  We had our most uplifting and most Christ honoring conversation yet that night, which was exactly what my heart needed (Gift #539).

To further minister to my spring starved soul, my husband painted an accent wall aqua while I was gone so that I could come home to soothing burst of spring color in a primary location (the breakfast nook) in our nest.  What a blessing that he chose to paint that wall at the moment it would meet both a need and a desire (Gift #540).

For the first time since last fall, we have had a full week of pleasant weather.  The temperature has been in the high 70s and low 80s.  The sun has been shining brightly with a cool breeze to make it even more pleasant (Gift #541).
  

So I soaked in the sunshine along the river trail that runs behind our house. That trail leads to a beautiful lake and is one of the best perks of living here. The neighborhood access to it is only two houses down from ours.  When no one else was around me on the river trail, I may have giggled and splashed through mud puddles while quietly telling those puddles, "Na-na na-na boo-boo! Spring will evaporate you!" on that gorgeous 78 degree sunshine day. Yes, I am 40...going on 4. Welcome home, beloved Springtime.

 

When I started Runkeeper during my biking exercise on April 2, it must have had a satellite skip because it added in 2.6 miles to my total distance causing my average pace to seem unreasonably fast, especially for the rugged terrain and hairpin turns along this trail. At the lake, a young guy blew by me, but I caught up to him about 30 seconds later on the trail's biggest hill. Just as I reached him, Runkeeper blurted out, "Total distance: 7 miles; average pace: 2 minutes, 20 seconds". Then he looked at me in disbelief and gave up trying to compete. I guess that was Runkeeper's belated April Fool's joke.  Oh how I needed that bit of humor (Gift #542) after feeling so discouraged after the last bike ride in which someone yelled expletives at me for no good reason at all.  I can only imagine what hardships she must be facing to be so angry and ugly on such a gorgeous day.

The perspective my right-brained daughter brings to my life is a blessing.  As much as a I love the spring, increasing humidity is a like a plague for my naturally wavy, frizzy hair.  Humidity makes it big and frizzy which was at least a benefit during the 80s and early 90s.  Since high school, I have spent countless hours and dollars trying to straighten and smooth my locks (in vain) only to damage it further with kinks always sticking out somewhere.  Yet my daughter likes to play with my hair which is quite relaxing for me.  The other day while brushing my hair, she said, "I love playing with your hair, Mom, because it is so big and bouncy."  So while my hair may not seem like a gift to me, it is a gift to her (Gift #543)!

 

I quoted my daughter on Facebook in an effort to encourage other curly headed women.  One friend said that she knew a woman whose hair was searched by the TSA before a recent flight since she could have been hiding "something" in there.  Oh my!  So I posted a high school pic of me with my 80s hair and asked her if they would have searched me.

Then, our home router security software would not let me access my Facebook page from my laptop, so I joked that my 80s hair must have been flagged as obscene or offensive.  :-)  If you can't change it, at least derive humor from it.

I had to laugh yesterday while doing warm-up exercises for my upper back.  Ironically, I was doing an exercise called "Band Pull Aparts" when my band literally pulled apart into two separate pieces. It was like Mrs. Piggle Wiggle had become my new trainer.

I'll close with a few bits of inspiration that have sustained me this week:

Our tears are unconscious language that flow out of emotions too overwhelming for human words.  They invite God's comforting Spirit into our hearts.  When we hold back tears, it's like putting a prison bar in front of our hearts keeping God's healing out, but when we let them flow, He notices and responds with tender loving-kindness (Gift #544).

You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.Are they not in Your book?  (Psalm 56:8)

 "A teardrop on earth summons the King of heaven (see Psalm 6:8)....the Lord takes notes of our inner friction when hard times are oiled by tears. He turns those situations into moments of tenderness; He never forgets the crises in our lives where tears were shed."    (Charles Swindoll writing about Psalm 56:8)

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My favorite meme of the week: 

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Having faithful writers remind me what my priorities should be is a gift for such words help me get back on track (Gift #545)

"The best use of time is to freely love.
The best way to love is to spend time.
The best time to love is always right now."
(Ann Voskamp reflecting on Ephesians 5:16)

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Exhausted from too many sleepless nights and too much over committing, I mumbled to myself while pondering another ministry opportunity, "Could God really be calling me to this when I already have too much on my plate? If so, what should I give up?" The 9-year-old overheard my mutterings and spoke to me in a serious tone and with great authority, "You better do what God tells you to do!" 
So I am thankful for a daughter who listens to what I preach and though she may not respond in obedience at that time, she sermonizes the same words back to me when I need them most (Gift #546).

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What a gift it is to know our kids' teachers are reinforcing what we teach at home instead of confusing them with conflicting messages (Gift #547).
  
One morning last week, our kids exchanged grumpy words as siblings are prone to do in the early AM before school.  Before eating breakfast, my daughter, "Father, please help us to remember Proverbs 15:1 ('A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger') when we speak."

So I thought, "Wow, I've been using that verse with them for years, but they never seemed to get it. Wait...that could not have come from me because they don't listen to me. She must have heard that verse recently at school."

So I asked, and she did confirm that it is a verse her PE class is memorizing this week. It's frustrating when our kids seem to listen to everyone else except us. Of course that could be because their teachers, who are only around them a few hours each day, are consistent with what they teach while they see their parents fail to practice what they preach 24/7.   It may be that she remembered the verse more easily because she had already heard it so many times at home.  Whatever the case, church, school, and extracurricular teachers need to know how strongly they influence our children for good or for bad.

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I am thankful for friends who encourage and inspire me to pray in faith! (Gift #548)

"There is a vast difference between prayer in faith and faith in prayer. Faith in prayer is very common. Prayer in faith is so uncommon that the Lord questions if He will find any of it on earth when He comes back." (Corrie Ten Boom speaking on Luke 18:8)