Thoughtful Thursday...

Tuesday night was the 2nd week of the community group/Bible study that Jeremy and I have been asked to lead.  We are still at that stage where we feel nervous and excited...along with other emotions.

I keep remembering the verse that says "in our weakness, He becomes strong" and I hope and pray that God can use us in this ministry of leading a small group and sharing Jesus with others.

We studied part of John chapter 4 this week...the story of the woman at the well!

I thought that my husband did a really good job of sharing some thought provoking things and we had really good discussion.  We were super grateful to all who showed up and participated. 

I thought I would share with you a couple of things that I have been thinking about since then.

And hey, don't you just love a Bible study that gives you something to think about throughout the week? I know I do.

       

                                  

First of all, it was pretty scandalous that Jesus was even speaking with this Samaritan woman.  He being a Jew and her a Samaritan. Add to that the social norms of the day, where women and men didn't usually speak.  Especially when they were strangers.

Secondly, and this is HUGE, he engaged with her in conversation and accepted her just as she was.  He already knew her whole story but she didn't know that He knew.

Can you imagine how she felt, when, near the end of the conversation, He reveals that He knows all about her 5 husbands and her loose lifestyle?  And then, as she thinks back, she realizes that He spoke to her with such love and acceptance even WHILE knowing what sort of a person she was.  Amazing!!

Another point to notice is that He met her where she was!  She was just going about her daily business. Going to the well to draw water.  And there was Jesus. 

Doesn't Jesus do that with all of us?  He meets us where we are.  Even when we are not necessarily looking for Him.  Isn't that just awesome?  He meets us in our imperfections and our sins and our weaknesses and our failings.  Right there at the "well", He is waiting to engage with us and to talk with us. To answer our questions and listen to our hearts.

Also, notice that He did not give her a list of things that she should change or do differently.  Neither at the beginning nor the end of the conversation.  He simply answered the questions that she was asking, treated her with respect and love, and revealed to her who He was.  The Messiah!

But He didn't introduce Himself as such.  Wouldn't we think that maybe if you were as important as Jesus was, that He would approach a conversation with the words "Hey, there, woman!  I am the Messiah.  Now...listen to what I say and hang on to every word because you are in the presence of the greatest man you will ever meet!"

Totally not Jesus' style.  And I love that about Him!

After her encounter with Jesus, she was SO excited to tell everyone in her town about Him and how He had "told her everything she had ever done". 

Our challenge for the week was to show unconditional acceptance to someone in our lives.  That someone could be a person close to us who we are struggling with or maybe a stranger who we would have a tendency to judge, but instead we choose to extend unconditional acceptance. 

I am anxious to see how God will use this challenge in my life this week!

Because, as my Dad reminded me lately, the only TRUE kind of love is the kind that loves unconditionally.

You could also say it like this: 

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." -- Thomas Merton

And I will leave you with 2 quotes that have been meaningful to me:

Pin It Now!

Now that's awkward...

Turning the ordinary into the awkward...
one episode at a time!

Awkward...channeling your inner Buddah in the back seat of the pickup.

He was also making the "Hmmm" sounds to go along with it.

Meditation at it's finest.  How could you not feel inner peace while

sandwiched between your two siblings in the back seat?

Awkward...The Barbie Threesome.

Isn't it clear to the black haired beauty in the

purple dress that curly haired Ken and Miss

Blondie are going hot and heavy and aren't

too interested in a third party coming on the scene?

Double awkwardness...the expression on

my son's face.  Maybe all that kissing was

getting to him!

Awkward...Delivering firewood in the rain.

By the time we got done with our 5th drop-off,

the back of my sweatshirt was soaked, I was

freezing, my jeans were wet, and I was trying

to keep from complaining too much.

Jeremy said something like "Your attitude

determines your altitude" and I was controlled

enough not to throw a bundle of firewood at him.

We stopped at Menards and I bought a $3.99

raincoat. Well, I think the word "coat" would be

a bit of a stretch.  It was a "one size fits all" and I

am pretty sure 3 of me could have fit inside of it.

My sweatshirt was hanging up to dry in the truck.

I just kind of felt like something THIS awkward

deserved its own full length picture.  I got a lot

of looks, but I'm pretty sure that they weren't

along the lines of "Wow! She's hot!"

Although Jeremy, bless his heart, did say that I

should label this post "RCH", which apparently

should stand for "Rain Coat Hottie"

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Awkward...Me spotting a cute little

red squirrel out by the bird feeder and excitedly

saying "Hey, there's a squirrel at the feeder!!"

My intention was for the kids to come and watch

that cute little guy with me.  One problem: a lot of

people in my family (say, maybe all of them but me)

prefer to kill squirrels instead of watching them.

Jeremy grabs the gun and I go into full panic

mode...clapping my hands and yelling out the

kitchen window at the squirrel

"Run, squirrel.  RUN!!!"

Thankfully, he did.

I don't care that the rest of the family missed out on

a spectacular Memorial Day kill.

I saved that little guys life.

Next time, I'll just watch him in silence.

Awkward...Shopping at Wal-Mart and noticing a fellow shopper

standing by the cantelopes, picking them up one by one, and

sniffing them right by the part where the stem used to be.

That was awkward enough. But, just as I was walking

past him, a fellow shopper (I never could figure out if he was

with guy #1 or just was so curious he HAD to walk up to

him and ask) came up to Mr. Cantelope Sniffer and said

something like "What the heck are you doing?"

I couldn't help myself. I had to get involved.

I said "I was wondering the same thing myself. I saw

you sniffing the cantelopes too."

Mr. Cantelope Sniffer proceeded to explain to me

that this is the way that you can tell if a cantelope is

ripe. And then, right there in the Wal-Mart produce

section, with Guy #2 and my daughter looking on, he

MADE me sniff not one, but two cantelopes.  And sure

enough, you CAN tell a different in the smell between the

ripe and non-ripe ones.

I asked him if this also works on watermelons, but alas,

apparently not. 

The level of excitement he exhibited as he was explaining

to me the wonder that is cantelope sniffing could certainly

earn him the "awkwardness of the week" award.

If only there was such a thing!

Pin It Now!

The "Awww" Factor

Jeremy has been struggling with an {undisclosed} medical issue for the past week or so.  It has been quite painful and our whole family knew about the issue and the effects it was having on him.

Thursday evening after we got home, Jeremy was lying on the couch resting.  Nikki came up to me and said "Mom.  How do you write 'I like Daddy cuz his belly hurts'?"

I said "Nikki, don't you mean that you want to write 'I like Daddy and I feel sad that his belly hurts'?"

But she insisted that the wording she has chosen was EXACTLY what she wanted to write in her little love note to Daddy.

No logic could dissuade her, so I decided to just go with it.

I wrote her phrase of choice on a sticky note and she lay down on the kitchen floor to copy it out for her Dad.

(My sparkly high heels were what she was clomping around in just before she started her project. She said she needed to take them off so she could lay down better.)

She finished it up and drew little rainbows in the corners and then proudly presented her note to her Daddy.  It made my heart go "Aww..."

Jeremy properly thanked her and hugged her and added this note to his collection on his dresser.

Don't tell me that doesn't make you go "Aww" too!

Pin It Now!

What We Wore...

On Thursday we had rain of epic porportions.  According to my Mom and their trusty rain guage, we got 2 1/2 inches of rain in one day.  We talked with the kids about the flood of Noah's Day and we imagined what it might be like if it rained for 40 days and 40 nights like it did today.

Kendall had ideas for how he would escape the flood once it covered our house roof.  He wondered why he couldn't just swim?

(And swim and swim and swim, without food.  For, like, months. Yup, can't see why that wouldn't work out, buddy!)

After school Kendall wondered if he could go outside if he put on his rubber boots and grabbed my umbrella. 

I granted permission, although I had not said anything about figuring out a way to turn the umbrella inside out so that it was a "rain catcher."  Nope. That one he thought of all.by.himself.  Smart boy, that one!  We're thinking Harvard.

Yesterday...Nicole changed into this "short dress" before we were ready to leave for town.  I was still wearing something resembling workout/yoga pants and a t-shirt and she thought it wasn't fair that I could wear that.

I assured her that I was going to be changing my clothing and she wondered if "I could wear a short dress too?"  We decided to dub this Friday as "short dress day."  Although I am not certainly that everyone else in our town got the memo.

As much as she says she doesn't like me sometimes and wishes I wasn't her Mom...she sure likes when we dress alike. She is always making comments about how we are "both wearing blue" or "I have white shoes just like you, Mom" or "Wow! We both look like crap today."  (I may or may not have fabricated that last one.)

So, being the obliging Mother that I am...

(Do not fail to notice her nail polish. I just painted her toenails and she is showing them off to everybody these days.)

...I put on a "short dress".  With capri tights. And a black shrug.

When she saw I was wearing a shrug, she went to her room and guess what?  She came back with a little sweater on.  Which, I must say, I thought went quite nicely with her dress.  I was impressed.  We see "Project Runway" in her future. 

This dress is very special to me because it was given to me by a dear friend!  Whenever I wear it, I think of her and I feel all warm and fuzzy.  Thank you, Lisa!

You know how people always write where they got their clothing?  I honestly have NO idea how they remember where they purchased a particular piece of clothing!

My line-up would look something like this:

Dress (gifted from my friend Lisa), Shoes (no clue), belt (did I even buy that?), shrug (my friend Morgan's thrift store), Necklace (no idea), Earrings (somewhere cheap), and tights (a store on Amazon). 

Maybe I am in some sort of a memory-loss-momentary-high-clothing-purchasing-induced state or maybe I just buy WAY too much stuff, but most of what I own I am pretty sure just saw me at the store, thought it would look good on me, followed me home and hung itself in my closet. (Not in a suicidal way)

My 4 year old photographer apparently needs some training on "how not to make the photo blurry" but after 3 tries, I gave up. 

I will admit, we were a TAD over-dressed for our Wal-Mart and auto parts store run, but I told Nikki that maybe people will think we were going to a wedding afterwards.

Yeah, right.  At lunchtime on a Friday!?

Whatever. It could happen.

My 4 year old believed me.

And that's all that matters.

(We did garner some looks/stares and we also did get a compliment from the man at the auto parts store.  He said that we looked really pretty.  I chose to focus the compliment on Nikki, because otherwise, that would have just been awkward. 

He asked Nikki if he boyfriend told her she looked pretty and when she giggled and said she didn't have one, he said "Good. Because you can't have a boyfriend till you're 40."  She countered with "No, when I'm 10" so I figure if we end up somewhere in the middle of those two numbers, we'll be doing fine.)

Pin It Now!

5 minutes on "Opportunity"

Today I am linking up with Gypsy Mama...a great blogger who I discovered (and came to love) a while ago.

The challenge is to write for 5 minutes...unedited and uninhibited.

The topic of the day is "Opportunity"

We'll see how this turns out...

And...

GO

Every day is FULL of them.

Opportunities, that is.  It is up to us what we do with them.

The word opportunity can evoke feelings of hope and feelings of joy.  We have a chance.

But when we blow an opportunity, it can leave us feeling depressed and guilty and worthless.

I wouldn't even know how to count the number of opportunites that present themselves to us each and every day.

Opportunites to be kind or to be unkind.

Opportunities to listen.  Opportunities to speak.

We have the option each day as to what we will do with the opportunities that come our way.

It can be a sobering thought when you realize how much opportunity is squandered.

Our words and our actions are SO powerful and can affect others so strongly...whether for good or for bad.

The word "opportunity" reminds me a lot of the word "choice".  I think that they are somewhat synonymous.

The good news is...when you have "blown in" and have completely missed or botched an opportunity, there is always a new day.

We don't need to live with regret for what we missed, but we should look ahead to what is coming.  Wallowing in the past and wishing things were different never really helped anyone.  We need to move on and thank God that every day brings new opportunities with it.

So whether you feel like you totally knocked it out of the park today or if you feel like you have totally blown it...remember that opportunites are like raindrops.

They fall on the deserving and the undeserving and they come around often.  We just need to open our hearts and our minds and let the possibilities wash over us.

DONE

Pin It Now!

What I'm Reading...

I have decided to try my hand at starting a new blog.

I am tired of the name "Appalolly" and people wondering what the heck it stands for. Just to satisfy your curiousity, it has absolutely no meaning in my life.  It is the name of a riding stable in our area (think horses and lots of poo and dusty trails) and I only picked the name 6 1/2 years ago because I figured no one else would be using it.

I also have some ideas for my new blog.  Fun ideas. New ideas.  I would say "creative ideas" but like most of us out there, I steal a lot of my ideas from other people and just call them my own.  Its OK.  You're allowed to do that.  Well, unless you're not. And then you might end up in jail.

I thought that I might do some book reviews...as I love books and love to read.  I am usually reading at least one book, sometimes more.

The latest book I read was "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana De Rosnay.  Apparently, this book has also been made into a movie which, despite its French subtitles, my friend Roxanne said is really good and she and her husband both liked it.

First of all, the picture on the front of the book was very confusing to me and I never could figure out how it fit into the story.  Just for what that is worth. In case you find yourself, like me, trying to reconcile the cover picture with anything you read into the book!

The book is written from two different people's perspectives.  One is a little Jewish girl whose family is deported from Paris during the "round-ups" that happened in the time of Hitler.  The other perspective is that of a 40 something American journalist who is living in Paris at in the early 21st century. 

She is assigned to research the 60th anniversary of a particular round-up that occured.  As she delves into this story that she had previously knew nothing about, she becomes more and more intrigued and saddened by what she learns.

As is prone to happen in books, the life of the little girl and the life of the American journalist collide when she discovers that this little girl used to live in the apartment that she and her husband are in the process of renovating.

She sets out on a search to find out what happened to this girl and her family and to find this little girl (who would now be a 70 year old woman). 

In the process, she discovers what is important to her in life and she discovers a lot about herself. 

The book loses some of its "umph" about 1/2 way through, when it is written only from the American journalist's (Julia's) perspective and the chapters written by the little girl are no longer part of the story.

I didn't really identify with the obsession this woman had with this Jewish family.  She was willing to drop everything else in her life to pursue this, even going so far as to borrow money from her boss, divorce and move away from her husband (this one was probably coming anyway, since there were issues with them from the very beginning of the book, plus he asked her to abort the child she finally had become pregnant with after years of trying to have a 2nd child), and take a flying trip to Italy to meet the son of the little Jewish girl.

Bottom line:  I would say that the book is well written over all.  It does give you a lot of historical information about what happened in France during World War II and it wheted my appetite for learning more about that time period. It can be very hard to read in places.  There is a lot of sadness. The book does make you think. The characters are likeable and the book is a reasonably short read. 

Read this: Especially if you have an interest in the Holocaust and the World War II era. 

*** on Audrey's rating scale of 1-5 stars

Pin It Now!