For Mariah

To my sweet princess


I know that sometimes when you look at yourself you see faults.
You see things that you have done wrong.
You see the places where you have failed.
The times that you got off on to a bumpy road.

But I want you to know what I see when I look at you.
I see the beauty of the King.
I see the handiwork of the creator of the universe .
I see unlimited possibilities
With unrivaled passion for life and all that it holds.
I see a zeal for nature
And all that is naturally good and pure.
I see a light that began as a small flicker
But has grown into a flame of unimaginable power and worth.

You see, my dear, when I look at you I see not only
The young woman that I love so dearly,
I see the daughter of the King.
I see one who holds the secrets of the universe inside of her.
I see one who has been called from the ancient of days
To do things that she has only yet to imagine.

My sweet, when you look in the mirror
I pray that you will see who I see,
Who God sees…

A sweet princess just beginning to come into her own.

You are joy unspeakable in my life.
You are treasure that my heart cannot contain.
You are a gift for which there could be no adequate price tag.

I know that you hear the Father calling to you.
You hear Him in the trees of the field and the
Animals of the earth.

Open your ears, my princess.
Hear all that He has to say.
And then run.
Run with wild abandon
And be all that He created you to be.

Friends!

I love it when people come to visit! It is so fun!! And I am usually in massive need of a nap when they go home! This week we had some friends and their kids come to stay with us. They also have 6 people in their family~ so doing the math that would tell you that we had 12 people in the house all week...and amazingly enough no one died, there were no major arguements...and much fun was had by all.

There was some hot-tubbing, smores, trips to the zoo and the Dr. Pepper museum. Even a trip out to the location of the Branch Davidian compound!

Now they've gone home and time has come to do some laundry and get the house back to normal!! :)

For my husband

So, every once in a while something strikes me and I am reminded of how much I really do love my husband.

Today as I was doing the dishes, I threw in a cd laying on the counter. It was a Garth Brooks cd. On that cd is the song Lonesome Dove. This song always reminds me of Brent, and the way he stepped in in my life during a time when things were not so good~ and some how seemed to be the weight that brought my life into balance. He used to tell me that he did not want to be my hero. He did not want to be the white knight who came riding in to make everything better. Well~ truth be told there was no way that any person could have made my life better. It was totally going to take Jesus. But the awesome thing about Jesus is that HE uses people~ average, everyday people~ to do extra-ordinary things in the lives of others.

So the lyrics go like this~

She was a girl on a wagon train
Headed west across the plains
The train got lost in a summer storm
They couldn't move west and they couldn't go home
Then she saw him ridin' through the rain
He took charge of the wagons and he saved the train
And she looked down and her heart was gone
The train went west but she stayed on
In Lonesome Dove

So, obviously I was never part of a wagon train...but you get the idea. And every now and then, when things are as they should be...and my mind is cleared of all the garbage of the world, I think about the day that I met my husband. I think of the way that he came in to my life. I think of how it felt like even though my world was still spinning around in circles, once I took his hand...we could stand in the middle of all of that and it seemed to somehow start to slow down. Things were starting to make sense. Like being with the man who God had intended for me to be with might just make life make a little more sense.

Like maybe God had made a man just for me, and maybe HE had made me just for someone specific~ and when we came together as one~ maybe all of my dreams really could come true.

So, Brent...today I want to tell you that I love you. That I am for you. Not just today, but every day. That your presence in my life blesses me, always. That you still make me make sense. I want you to know that I still grateful for the day when I saw you riding through the rain, even more grateful for the moment that I realized you had my heart, I don't ever want it back. I love you. I love you for all of your quirks, and for all of mine that you seem to adore. You are my knight~even though you didn't have to be.

What do you do when...

Your daughter's best friend starts complaining the minute she gets to your house to spend the night and does not stop???

Your son says an inappropriate word at an inconvenient moment~ but the context in which he uses it makes you giggle???

It rains so much that your fave poochers make you sneeze???

You are so tired that all you want to do is sleep all day???

Your husband tries to convince you that getting in the hot tub in a rain storm is a good idea???

The house needs to be cleaned but you would rather do almost anything but clean it???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My only answer for any of this...

get out my favorite book, crawl into bed...snuggle up into the covers and arrange all of the pillows for maximum comfort and read said favorite book until all of the rest of these things cease to be a concern!

Sodom and Gomorrah

SO...Melissa has decided to read through the whole Bible. She is fascinated by the fact that I have read the whole thing and so she is on a mission to get through it herself. She is to chapter 19 in Genesis so far. As she was reading this morning, I heard her say "Oh that's just nasty!" I could not wait to hear what it was that she thought was nasty...and I did not have to wait long.

She came scurrying across the room and flopped her Bible down on my desk. Serious as can be she read me the following verse~

Gen. 19:5 {They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."} When she finished reading that she turned to me with a disgusted look on her face and she said, "I had no idea that the Bible was so nasty!"

After a little giggle on my part I explained to her that there are lots of nasty things that happened in Bible times...we talked about it for a while and as she walked back to the chair to read some more she said, "Well, I can't even imagine what else I am going to find in here!!"

I can't wait for her to discover what I have known all along...no matter how many books you read in your lifetime, the Bible is the very best one EVER!!