Forced Silence

This past week has been interesting. I had laryngitis for 3 days! I usually get it about once a year after a long cold or something, but this one came up out of the blue. One day around 5:00 I just suddenly had no voice. It stayed gone for 3 days. Ashley called me that night after I had lost my voice and said who is this when I answered the phone. I said this is your momma! And then she busted out laughing! She could hardly talk to me she was laughing so hard!

Although not having a voice for 3 days can be very hard, I feel like it was a good thing, because it caused me to reflect a little on myself. I began to ask myself after the 2nd day if maybe God was trying to tell me something. I began to realize that I don't always listen as much as I should. I need to listen more and talk less. After being forced to do that, I realized it was something I already knew, but now had no choice but to work on. So the forced silence was good.

It was also very interesting trying to teach ten 4 year olds with no voice on the day of their Thanksgiving Feast when they are already excited. After they realized I really couldn't talk above a forced whisper, it was one of the best days of school I've had! They were so quiet all day because they knew they had to listen extra hard to hear me. I even had one teacher stick her head in the door to see if we were in there. She said it was so quiet she didn't think we were in the room!

One other nice thing while I had no voice was that Jeremy had to actually stop and look me in the face when I was talking to him no matter how big of hurry he was in :) It frustrated him a little, but it was nice to have his undivided attention!

I have my voice back now. Well, I have A voice back. Not really my own yet. I have more of a man voice right now. I think I could have sang bass at church on Wednesday night. I was already singing an entire octave lower than every one else!

Being without a voice can be a major pain. But all in all, I really count it as a blessing. God opened my eyes to some things in myself I need to change. And for me that's always a good thing.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

The Rabbi's Dust

Last night in our Wednesday night class we watched a video called "Dust" by Rob Bell at nooma.com . We were finishing up our series on "More of What I Need to Be..." It was the second time I have seen it. It's pretty amazing if you've never seen it.

In the video, he talks about what it means to be a disciple. He goes on to explain how in some cultures children begin preparing at age 5 to follow a particular Rabbi and learn from him. They go through intense training for years to become the best of the best. At one point he talked about being covered in the dust of your Rabbi. I must have missed that comment the first time I saw it, because I have not been able to stop thinking about that statement.

To be covered in the dust of our Rabbi. Wow!! That would mean we are so close to Him that even the particles of dust that fall off of Him cling to us. That is an amazing word picture for me. It reminds me of Psalm 63:8, "My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me. " We are to get as close to Him as possible. So close, we are covered in His dust.

Being His disciple means being His disciple in even the smallest every day decisions we make. Probably even more so in those decisions. Because sometimes it's in those every day decisions that we fall away. The simple decisions that we sometimes make without thinking. Those every day decisions where even the smallest decision can affect or impact the lives of others.

I will continue to think about that statement. I want to be covered in the dust of my Rabbi, so that even when I make those small every day decisions I will make them to the Glory of God. To be covered in the dust of my Rabbi..... hmmm.... something to think about.

I'll Bet You've Never Witnessed This at a Baptism...

This kid was really eager to get baptized!!! Make sure you watch all the way 'till the end.

The Aroma's of Life

As I lay in bed last night praying and thinking about my day, I began to remember some conversations and things that happened while Ashley and I were out. (She is home for the weekend! :)

For some reason, one of the things I remembered was all the different things we smelled throughout the day. She was looking at new perfumes that were out, we smelled some new hand lotions, we passed a cookie place with cookies baking. You could smell the Mexican food from the restaurant in the mall. She was talking about how she was wanting me to cook fried chicken this weekend (her favorite meal) and I thought about the way homemade fried chicken smells cooking. I made a comment about how I think homemade brownies baking is one of the best smells in the world. The list goes on.

As I lay there, I began to think about how we smell to the world and the fragrance we emit. I don't mean anything gross or the smells of perfume and such. But when people are around us, do they sense and smell the aroma of Jesus. I'm afraid that too many times that may not be the case. I know that most of us for the most part do our best to emit the aroma of Christ. But what about when we are frustrated in traffic or someone in front of us in line is taking longer than we think they should because we are in a hurry. Even maybe when we are frustrated with our families. Do we emit the aroma of Christ then? Or do they smell the pungent odor of Satan.

My prayer is that I will be more aware of the aroma I emit in my life. And that more and more, people will only smell the sweet smell of our savior. The aroma of Jesus Christ.

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Please be in prayer for the Memorial Drive Church of Christ in Tulsa. A tragic shooting involving one of their members happened last night. Four people died. Please pray God's peace, love and compassion on all the families involved.

Oh God, Make Me a Better......

I received an email which was a prayer entitled "Oh God, Make Me a Better Parent. I got it about 2 weeks ago. I left it in my inbox and it has really caused me to ponder some things. I think the number one thing is, Oh God, Make me a more spirit filled or spirit led Christian. Our life has been so busy lately. It seems like something different almost everyday. While a lot of these things are good things, I find myself being exhausted. Exhausted to the point, that I know my spiritual life is suffering.

Why is it that when things get crazy, it seems to be our spiritual life that suffers the most. Our bible studying gets put on the back burner, we sometimes don't contemplate the spiritual things. At least that's how it seems in my life. It is something I am desperately trying to change. I go to church on Sunday and Wednesday and get charged up by the great lessons I am hearing and vow to myself right then and there to take note of things I am going to start working on. And then I leave and seem to get right back into the rat race and find trouble prioritizing things. Does this happen to anyone else??

I am so seeking to have my life completely and spiritually centered on Christ. I know if I can somehow start to get even close to that, some of the "stuff" will probably take care of itself. I will leave you with the prayer of "Oh God, Make Me Be a Better a Parent". I know that in reading it, I can replace parent with many other things. Wife, daughter, friend, teacher, etc. I'm praying I can continue to ponder these things and put them into action in my life.

Have a blessed weekend!

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OH GOD, MAKE ME A BETTER PARENT

Oh, God, make me a better parent.
Help me to understand my children,
to listen patiently to what they have to say
and to answer all their questions kindly.
Keep me from interrupting them,
talking back to them and contradicting them.
Make me as courteous to them
as I would have them be to me.

Give me the courage to confess my sins
against my children and to ask of them forgiveness,
when I know that I have done them wrong.

May I not vainly hurt the feelings of my children.
Forbid that I should laugh at their mistakes or
resort to shame and ridicule as punishment.

Let me not tempt a child to lie and steal.
So guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate
by all I say and do that honesty produces happiness.

Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me.
May I cease to nag;
and when I am out of sorts,
help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue.

Blind me to the little errors of my children
and help me to see the good things that they do.
Give me a ready word for honest praise.

Help me to treat my children as those of their own age,
but let me not exact on them the judgments
and convictions of adults.
Allow me not to rob them of the opportunity
to wait upon themselves,
to think, to choose, and to make decisions.

Forbid that I should ever punish them
for my self satisfaction.
May I grant them all of their wishes
that are reasonable
and have the courage always to withhold
a privilege that I know will do them harm.

Amen

-- Author Unknown