Mighty to Save

“The LORD your God is with you,

he is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17

Sneak Peek

Just wanted to give you a heads up on who Raul and I will be this Halloween.

What's Your Strongest Part?

God exhorts us to love Him with ALL 3 parts: body, mind, soul. In my life, these parts have not ALL dominanted. The runt of the litter is my mind; the more dominating part is my soul. I'm so grateful God created us with 3 parts that have the capacity to love Him. 'Cause my mind hasn't always had my back; and I swear, at times, it has a mind of its own! But I've always been able to rely on my soul. I love God SO MUCH there, that the overflow has sustained the other parts when they were weak. Do you have a dominating part that loves God? Which part is it?

Seeing God's Love

thank you, Arturo

My Mother by DJ Palacios

My Mother by DJ Palacios
My Mother has green eyes.
My Mother has blond hair.
My Mother is pretty when she puts lipstick on.
My Mothers likes for me to help her clean up my room.
I like it best when Mother cooks mac & cheese.
I don't like it when my Mother cooks spinach.
When I'm good, she is very happy.
I always feel very special when my Mother tucks me into Bed.

LEVERAGE THE BEVERAGE

As a guest (again) at a local hospital, something dawned on me when the nurse came in to serve me water. Here I am, watching TV, typing on my laptop, SO engrossed in both, that I missed "It." ALL OUR LIVES we get served beverages at drive-thru's, restaurants, hospitals, resorts, airplanes, stadiums, Starbucks. Yet here I sat, a God-follower, missing the opportunity to serve my nurse God's love while she served me water. BUSTED! So for the rest of the day, I turned off the TV and tried to foster an environment where I could engage with the hospital staff serving me. No spiritual fireworks went off, but this felt like a step in a better direction. Tomorrow, when they send me home, I'm taking this "Leverage the Beverage" lesson with me and applying it more often!

The Banana Simile

Life's like a banana.
The banana, in its entirety, is like your life.
The peel is like your sinful skin ('cause it gets easily browned, bruised, rotted and can even attract bugs)
But the fruit inside? Oh, man, that's like Jesus!

All my life I've spent peeling away at things.
Actually, I've never reached a point where there wasn't anything to peel. But what's encouraging is that the more I peel, the more The Fruit is revealed. And the more The Fruit is revealed, the more encouraged I am to keep peelin' away! Because I KNOW He is there and He IS within my reach and I BELIEVE that the best part is yet to come. And I don't mind waiting for the best.

Sunday Worship

Man, I've got to go to bed. Here's one final thought before I do:
Yesterday, when I got home from church, I asked DJ how his children's church was. Here's what he said, coupled with what I heard: "Mommy, blah blah....worship....blah, blah, blah....we worshipped...blah blah blah blah blah..." My heart and my mind were so mezmerized on the word "worship" coming out of this 5-year old, that I didn't hear anything else. You may be asking, "Does DJ actually know what worship is?" Yes. In his 5-year old mind, in his little corner of the world, he knows what worship is. I hope we know what it is in ours. If you haven't worshipped lately, go to the dictionary and look up the definition. Then go to God and ask Him to help you do it this week. Good night!

To: YOU

Today, YOU will make a difference in the world just by being YOU. Close YOUR eyes, picture YOU in YOUR mind. The bible says God knew YOU before YOU were born. He had a plan for YOUR life. If YOU were to die today, nobody else would fill in to be YOU. And YOU are not a clone, YOU are not a carbon-copy, YOU are not a fake, YOU are not a mistake. There is nobody else like YOU, there's never been another YOU, there never will be. YOU have to be YOU to make YOUR difference in this world. Don't hope someone else will; don't think someone else can. Now stand YOUR butt up, roll YOUR shoulders back, tilt YOUR head higher, and before YOU walk away from YOUR computer to be YOU for the rest of this day, ask God to give YOU the confidence to do it. Then go out there and make YOUR difference...
YOU'RE the only one who can. : )

My Jewish Friend

Today, I went with Allen and Debby to visit Temple Beth Emet. I LOVE learning about other beliefs and cultures. Our tour guide, Zohar, offered both. She is from Israel and has only been in the States for a few years. She let me ask a bazillion questions about her faith, her country and even recent hate crimes against a couple local temples. I was so grateful for her acceptance of my inquisitiveness and to bridge something between her temple and my church. When we talked religion and politics, she was straight-up but respectful. This spoke volumes to me. Ya know...for a host of reasons like security-concerns & "I'm too busy," Zohar could have rejected our request to visit. But she didn't. And someday, I hope I can return the gesture.

The World is not a Stage

"Be especially careful when you are trying to be good

so that you don't make a performance out of it.

It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding...

...When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks.

Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively.
That is the way your God,

who conceived you in love,

working behind the scenes,

helps you out."

-Matthew 6, The Message

Apple and Me

I'm not an Apple groupie nor do I subscribe to the notion that we should be. But I'm also on a mission to find GREAT customer service. Today, I found it...with Apple. We all know what happened to my first iPhone; but something else happened to my second iPhone. I dropped it on its head & the on/off button got jammed up inside. I couldn't turn it on anymore. MeeGee suggested I take it to the Apple store. He (being an Apple groupie) even went as far as predicting they'd replace my busted one (at no charge). Shah! Right! As if! He was right. I walked in to this store, went up to their customer service station (neatly coined as the Genius Bar), where an Apple "genius" assisted me. The next few moments were ethereal, celestial and almost mystical: the genius gave me a brand new iPhone at no charge!!! Y0! HERE YE, HEAR ME...if you are into things like environment, collaboration, potential or right-thinking, you've got to visit an Apple store. It is an experience worth experiencing; it's an experience worth duplicating...wherever you are leading.

Panera Bread Ramblings

My lungs are acting up again. Thankfully, after 25 years of dealing w/ them, I can tell this time isn't serious. Just annoying--as soon as I bring it up in the toilet (too big to just use a tissue) my bronchi fill up again & I'm back at the toilet. AGH! So today I wasn't in the mood for difficult people & I just wanted to accomplish the mandatory and go home. I went to our impt. mtg. at Panera Bread. [Sidenote: we were probably Panera's biggest client today as our bill included snacks, beverages and lunch for 10 people over a span of 4 hours!] Mid-meeting, a Panera Bread associate came to our section to clear our trays. It was then that pitiful-hacking me asked the assoc. if he could refill my coffee. In front of everyone, he informed me that they don't do that and that I could help myself to the coffee. Whatever. A little later, I walked up to their cashier counter and asked (ironically) the same associate if he could please give me a cup of water. He informed me that I could help myself to water at their soda station. Maybe this guy was a punk. Maybe I'm just sick and being a baby. Maybe you could help me decipher.

I Can Touch the Pedals!

Oh happy day! Andy can finally reach the pedals on his Fisher Price Action Sounds Trike. Poor kid was "Fred-Flintstoning" it for awhile, but now, his stubby little feet can touch the pedals and go! He thinks he's all that & proved that by challenging me to a race today when we went out to get the mail. (yes, I let him win)
In life, it's so cool when we move from "I-think-I-can" to "I-just-did!"
What's a recent example of this in your life?

Celebrate Recovery, Brazilian Style!

I was so honored when I was asked to speak at the Celebrate Recovery Conference at the First Brazilian Baptist Church. The conference leadHer, Denise Prado, recruited me & I must say, she ran this conference with such spirit & excellence! So when I got there, you can imagine my reaction when Denise "mentioned" one minor detail: the entire conference was in Portuguese! What? Portu-what? For the first time (in my little speaking career) I would have a translator. Denise and Pastor Almeida gave me a quick tutorial on how to do so, but you know this had me sweating fat-bullets (so glad I wore dual-layering and extra deodorant)! But there was something in the air at this church and something in the hearts of these Brazilians that overwhelmed me with gratitude & joy. You know, the bible says, "...there before me was a great multitude...from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb." I got a taste of this when I experienced God at the Brazilian church on Friday and the same God at my English church on Saturday. But I can't WAIT to get to Heaven and experience it everyday forever!

A Busy Day for Struggling

What an unusual day. I either spoke to or heard from 10 people who are struggling. A heavy cloud has descended on people around me. It makes me sad. If you are one of them, I'm praying for you. If you are not one of them, will you pray for them? Thanks.

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."

2 corinthians 4:8

Choose to Terminate II

As soon as the suggestion for an abortion left the doctor's mouth, the room and the doctor in it froze while my mind and heart went into a frenzy. The room wasn't spinning, I was. I know my response time was only a minute, at most, but I felt like I looked at the doctor for days. I know what I thought, "You just gave me the responsibility to chose life or death for another." I know what I felt - the movement of something in my womb that was more than just myself. And I know what I blurted out, "I know it's risky, but I have faith." Hardly an eloquent response! For a word-junkie like me, you anticipate these moments where you can deliver some lofty proclamation. But I stood there, desperately clinging to my faith like a little girl clinging to her daddy's pantleg. I could not see this life within me; I could not see the risky future; I could not see the God who my faith was for. But that's not what faith is. We don't see our faith with our eyes; we feel it with our hearts. This is Andy. He's three. He's my second boy... ...and my reminder that faith believes what the eyes can't see.

Choose to Terminate I

In July 2004, I went to the doctor. They drew blood and did, indeed, confirm that I was pregnant. Then, they took me back to the room for a consultation. The doctor and I discussed the problems I had encountered with my first pregnancy. A few bouts of pneumonia had caused 16 days in the hospital; which contributed to fetal complications; which led to a c-section at only 29 weeks; which caused DJ to spend 3 weeks in the NICU. So after rehashing this, the doctor looked at me and said, "You are high risk....your pneumonia's have not been diagnosed, treated, or cured. You can choose to terminate this pregnancy. We can schedule it for this week..."
I will continue the rest of this story tomorrow...

Shhh, its a birthday secret

OK, so here's the dealio: There's 2 kinds of peeps in this world: Those who LOVE to celebrate their birthdays (that's me) and those who don't. And they say you typically marry your opposite. So guess which one Raul is? Exactly! He does not like making a big bruh-ha-ha over his birthday. So with great respect for that, I thought I'd just post a little, (tiny) blurb here to just (briefly) mention to a few (local) people that it's RAUL'S BIRTHDAY TODAY!! Tee hee hee....

My Fav Mags

I love magazines. For working out, it helps the time pass. For reading-comprehension struggles, the pictures really DO help. For trends, culture, buzz and variety, they're got it all (in current form). And they're cheaper than most books. Here are my Top 5 Fav Mags:

1. Biblezine

2. Reader's Digest

3. In Style

4. Leadership Journal

5. Newsweek