Random PSA.. the more you know....

Ever had a moment where you can't remember what you were going to say? Like, for instance, one time I could not remember Steve Yzerman's (used to play and captain for the Detroit Red Wings..that's hockey for all my Florida friends) name. I literally blanked. Which is odd seeing that we were engaged once (in my mind) for a short period of time when I was 13. I stammered and stuttered and could not say the name. It was at 4 in the morning when I shot up out of nowhere in bed and shouted "STEVE YZERMAN!!!" As you can imagine my husband got the scare of his life and did not appreciate my "torretts syndrome" moment as I affectionately call them. It seems that I find myself having these moments of "clarity" more often as I get older.
My daughter Skye(7) tends to favor me in a lot of ways. She seems to have picked up this charachter trait of mine, but on a "softer" level. Take for instance the time she announced to everyone on our row in the airplane, that Martin Luther King Jr. was a good man and some mean white people killed him.. and that was not nice and she thinks that people should not hate people because of their skin color. Or the time in the grocery store when she decided to ask a woman about the red blotches on her face and asked if she could look at it closer because it was (and I quote) "an interesting pattern". Ah, yes.. she has moments of "clarity" and voices it. So, last night while our friends and their boys were over, and we were all outside playing Skye announced some facts to all of us while swinging on her swing. "If you are on a boat you should make sure you wear the right life jacket. Too small of a life jacket and you will drown. Too big of a life jacket and it will go over your head and you will drown. If the jacket is just right you will float and not drown." After the information was shared with us....quite randomly... I promise you I saw the star and heard the music play from those PSA's that random actors do. You probobly have even seem some parady's like the one's the actors from the office did a while back. Such as, "People say that you should enjoy all jelly beans.. DON'T the black ones taste disgusting." Cue the star and music and words on the screen reading THE MORE YOU KNOW. Funny stuff. I am laughing now recounting it. But in my quiet time this morning I began wondering how often does God try to speak to us in random moments and we just discount them as funny or uncofortable "thoughts". I can think of a time even in the last week where I am thinking I chose to ignore what God was speaking to me because in my mind I already had another plan and was executing it in MY timing. It's a shame really that I can be so caught up in my own agenda that the voice of GOD can be confused with just a "silly thought." I prayed about it this morning and then came across a beautiful quote:

It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men-CSLewis

So so true. It is important to remain in a state of worship at all times. It is not easy, and it takes some concious thought. But I am going to try and impliment this even more in my life. I am ging to take the next 30 days and journal and pray then come back and maybe even along the way share with you about it. I encourage you to do the same. Take moments ON PURPOSE to focus on your WORSHIP of God. That means in ALL things. In the way you speak to your children, husband, co-workers, friends. In the way you drive.. or what you do while driving. In the time you are all by yourself. In the times you are stressed. In ALL things. I am curious to see what will come of this and am excited to see it change me.

Funny, who knew my daughters random boat safety tips would be what God used to speak to me.



<3
heather

a childs prayer...

I was just tucking my children into bed and was praying with them when my oldest; Skye, who is 7 prayed this:

Dear God,
Thank you for the beautiful people of Japan. I am so sad about the tsunami and all of the people who were swept away. I am sad that they were not saved. I am sad for the people who got hurt and have scars. But God, thank you for their scars because that means they were not swept away and they can be saved.

amen.


I was so moved by these simple, honest, true words of a child that I HAD to share.
God, THANK YOU for our scars.


<3
Heather

copy cat ....

When I was first starting out on this "mommyhood" journey I was all about hanging out with as many new mommies I could. I even started a Mom's Bible Study and had 4 friends who had just had babies too join. It was fun getting together talking about changing diapers, sleep deprivation and so on. Then a couple months in talk turned to weight gain, weight loss, whose child was hitting what milestone etc. It kind of became this let's see whose baby can drool better and be the first to cut teeth, sit up and walk...(which is funny because as all of us now "long time mommies" know.. when they learn to walk they can run away from you ... not good LOL) I began catching myself being nervous about bringing Skye to the group.. she was almost six months old and had not sit up on her own yet. What was WRONG with my child. Did I need to enroll her in some sort of support group to teach her proper posture and encourage her to be just like the other babies.. no NOT just like them.. BETTER.. It really was pathetic. Here is my poor almost 6 month old daughter just doing her "baby thing" and I was her paranoid mother.. already. ugh. So then the day Skye turned 6 months old.. literally the day..June 25.. I take a pregnancy test and BINGO it is positive. I was ecstatic! I remember thinking.. well I can not believe that I am going to have another baby... this is AWESOME! It got me thinking, well that was pretty much all there was to do once the puking for three months commenced.. I started thinking about how ridiculous I had been and that I just needed to chill out and let the milestones come as they should... naturally.
I think in my relationship with God I have been guilty of attempting to reach "milestones" at the same "pace" as other Christians. I think I have compared myself to others and found myself lacking miserably and have even been guilty of faking it to appear that I was just as "good" as them. All in the attempt to be what I was "supposed" to be.. or where I was "supposed" to be at in my walk. It has been one insight I gleaned through losing Caedmen, that life is too short to worry about what others do or think. It is what God thinks and what God calls you to do that is important.. more than that.. it IS what is supposed to be. There is a line between being influenced,encouraged and in being pressured or compete with. I think in women we do this more. We see another woman who has one or more kids than us, she seems dressed nicely all the time, her husband has a great job, her kids are all adorable and even her dog is well behaved. We put pressure on ourselves to BE that. To emulate THAT. But in the word we are told to imitate God... not people..

EPHESIANS 5: 1-2 (The Message)
“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”

I think the heart of this message is that our father LOVES us. Our Daddy... LOVED us extravagantly... the way we are.. the way he made us. He gave each of us a uniqueness and has called us for a purpose. If all we do is try to be like other people than we are robbing ourselves of the LOVE of the Father. We are replacing that LOVE with the longing for "acceptance" by a person. That will always let us down and make us feel not worth anything. But if we imitate GOD and LOVE like Him we are walking in what he has called us to do and we can let go of all the hangups and comparisons and be FREE in Christ.