Slurpees, winners, and hugs.

I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?

How 'bout the bad news. (Because then we can end strong.)

The bad news is that most of you did not win Megan's awesome book.

Sad faces all around.

But the good news is that Wednesday, May 23rd is FREE SLURPEE DAY at 7-Eleven!

Whaaat? Yay! 

Let's talk about your favorite flavor.

Mine, hands down, is cola. That brown frozen goodness is only second to gummy cola bottles. Who's with me?  

Frowns turned upside-down because you know you want a slurpee.

I'll be honest. The dye stresses me out and my kids will choose the brightest color possible. But for one day, I'll push down the anxiety and let them smile big.

And now for the really good news if your name is Melissa or Alyssa:

You won a book!! AND you can get a free slurpee. How good is today?

Email me with your info and I'll be sending you your special prize as soon as I can.

And finally, for each of you who have taken the time to stand with me, personally email me, or comment on my last post - for those of you who are also unwilling to compromise for the sake of God's word, thank you. I'm even more inspired and strengthened by your convictions and your strength.  When we publicly stand together, we are all made a bit stronger. And for that, I'm so grateful and joy-filled.

It's such a privilege to be in the living, breathing, powerful body of believers with you all. You deserve way more than a slurpee.

Hugs.

Fifty Shades of Compromise

There's this book. Maybe you've heard about it.

It's called Fifty Shades of Grey. It is the newest bandwagon fiction trilogy on the market.

At my local club wherehouse store last week, I saw stacks and stacks. There must have been 100 copies, showing how prepared a major store wants to be for the landslide of buyers they're expecting.

I heard it talked about on morning news. I heard it mentioned on the radio. It's being discussed in womens' chatter all over town. I've heard it's even all over Instagram. Movie rights are already arranged. And why all the fuss?

Because it's racy. Very, very racy. I'd use the "p" word, but I'd rather avoid hits on my blog from those who are seeking such material online. It's not surprising to me, at all, that a book of this nature exists. Naughty books have been on the market for centuries. Sin, in it's various forms in our culture, is not surprirsing to me.

But I was surprised to hear that some Christians, women who are daughters of the King of Kings, are reading it.

I'm not going to belabor the point, or go into what exactly this book is all about. Honestly, I don't want to know the details. I was tempted to flip through it at the wherehouse store, but I stopped myself. I remembered such things are not for me, for God's people. That is not to say that I'm not all for steaminess in my own bedroom, with my own husband. In fact, God is all for it too. But He is not all for me reading about other people's sexual affairs for entertainment, fiction or otherwise.

You can gather it's general content from the buzz. Amazon's summary for the first book in the Fifty Shades triology ends with this telling statement:

"Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever."

I don't doubt that it's true. Christians should ask themselves if the content of erotic fiction is what they want to obsess over, be possessed with, and have etched in their memories. Because the Bible is pretty clear on this kind of thing. Ephesians chapter 5 says:

 ^"Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 

Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret."

(vv.3-12, NLT) 

I don't take God's words here lightly. As Christians, we are set apart and we are to live our lives worthy of our calling, which means those lives should look different from the lives of those who are not following Jesus. One of my good friends shared that her Christian friend recommended the book to her. Full of grace, her answer was, "No, I'm not going to read it, and I don't think you should be either."

I so admire my friend's courage. She is an example to us all. Like her, if you call yourself a woman of God, if you are seeking to align yourself with His values and His priorities in this world, if you have any witness whatsoever with non-Christians (which you undoubtedly do), don't read it. Just don't. Such things have no place among God's people.

And if you're feeling brave like my friend, in grace and love, hold your sisters in Christ accountable too.

{Philippians 4:8 print found here by blossom & vine}

For a more thorough review of the 50 Shades series from a Christian perspective,
check out Erin's excellent post here.

In response to some comments, I wrote a follow up post with some clarifications here.

Grace on a Thursday: in Megan's words (with a Giveaway!)

Well.

This is a special Thursday indeed. Megan is a unique guest-poster. For one, she is an awesome girl whom I know and serve with at church. For two, she is a legit author, people. The other day, I was at Barnes and Noble, browsing the Christianity section, and my eyes landed on her book. Yep. It's there. Because she is the real deal. She wrote a book about her journey as a single, Christian woman called A Year of Blind Dates: a single girl's search for "the one".

So after I got over my tinge of envy that she has a book at Barnes and Noble (!), I asked her if she'd share her heart with you guys. I was so honored that she said YES.

I know some of you find yourself in her same shoes. And I know that some of you know and love women who are single and may need some encouragement. Well Megan has generously offered to give away TWO signed copies of her book!

To be entered, just leave a comment below. You get an extra entry for being a follower of my blog, and if you FB or tweet this giveaway (leave an additional comment for each entry). The giveaway will run through Sunday and I'll choose and announce the two winners on Monday. Awesome opportunity, right? You know how excited I get about books.

Okay, now stop thinking about wanting to win, and soak up this girl's wisdom. You're going to be blessed. Thank you so much, Megan, for sharing your heart (and your books!) with us.

*     *     *

Grace in the waiting

A few years ago I had the privilege of hearing Donald Miller speak at Mariner’s Church in Irvine. At this event, he talked about waiting. Waiting on the Lord to do something specific in your life. Something you’ve prayed for. Longed for. That thing you so deeply desire and yet, it’s still not yours. For me it is marriage and motherhood.

It is my deep desire, but at 34, my ring finger remains bare.

We all know waiting is hard and painful, but it can also be a time of conflict in our heart. A time when we just do not understand what God is doing. We know we should trust Him, but we struggle to do so. Don (I’d like to think we’d be on a first name basis) expressed how conflict (and waiting) is present over and over in the Bible, starting in Genesis 2 before The Fall. The start of conflict was not when Eve tasted the apple; the first conflict was actually Adam’s desire of wanting a helpmate and not finding a suitable one.

Then The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper who is right for him.
Genesis 2:18 

God says it, so he does it, right?

Well…yes. But, in His own time. Instead of immediately creating woman, God creates all the animals, brings them to Adam and asks him to name them. This, I am sure, took a very long time. Not days, or weeks, but most likely years and years.

Instead of Adam sitting idle, aimlessly waiting for this helpmate, God gave Adam something to do. This job, this very important job, was God’s grace in the midst of Adam’s waiting. As a result of Adam’s new title as CNG (Chief Name Giver), Adam was obeying God and making an impact. I’m confident during this name game Adam found joy and contentment, but as a human I imagine he was conflicted as he kept looking for a suitable helpmate and coming up short.

Was he always wondering if the next animal God put in his path would be The One? Was he hoping (like I am) that it would not be much longer before he had a companion?

The man gave names to all the tame animals, to the birds in the sky, and to all the wild animals. But Adam did not find a suitable helper that was right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to sleep very deeply and…used the rib from the man to make a woman, and then he brought the woman to man.
Genesis 2:20, 22

Eventually, in his own perfect time, God delivered.

“Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh” Adam says to describe Eve. Someone so perfect for him that she is made from him and one with him. I’d like to believe this is more than Adam could have ever imagined for himself. In the end he received a double dose of grace in the gift of naming animals and the gift of a suitable helpmate.

This passage in Genesis challenges me to look at my time of waiting, my season of “naming animals”, from a different perspective. As I wait, I want to see the wonderful things God as given me. From my career as a teacher, to becoming an Aunt, to climbing the Great Wall of China and publishing a book, the list is abundant. It’s rich. It’s a gift.

It is His grace in the midst of waiting.

The Two Types of Mothers (a.k.a. My Annual Dilemma)

This past weekend, I realized there are two types of moms on Mother's Day.

Type 1: The woman who wants to choose how to celebrate it and navigate the whole day.

Type 2: The woman who'd rather have everything planned out for her, even though the activities may not be her first choice.

Problem is that I have a hard time deciding which one I am, and that means I always end up a little disappointed. I didn't realize it until this year, but I can think back and see how this dilemma has become a yearly tradition. This year, I faced it when my husband said, "Honey, you get to choose whatever you want us all to do for Mother's Day!" But a small voice in the back of my head thought, "Wait, does that mean you didn't plan anything for me?"

Well, it depends on how you look at it, what type you are above. And while having something planned out for me sounded nice, I also liked the idea of calling all the shots and making everyone follow along without complaint. See? Issues. (Maybe my type is the "grass-is-always-greener" type, which is particularly NOT awesome for husbands.)

But since my husband was offering me the choice, I decided to take a strong Type 1 stance and force myself to think through what I would really want. If everyone could comply with my wishes, what would I choose to do?

And it was so weird. I didn't really know. Which is probably why this type has never really appealed to me.

That's what being a mom does. It erases that part of your brain where you know what you like, and replaces it with a brain that thinks of what everyone else likes first. And over time, that space in your brain which contains information on that which YOU enjoy gets so buried that it takes some serious mental work to dig it up.

All this mental work just to uncover my simple preferences meant I needed to write about this. And, as usual, my own difficultly in not only remembering what I like but also executing that agenda without weird, inappropriate guilt made me push even harder through the discomfort. I don't like being bad at stuff.

And guess what? It was a wonderful day. Here are some glimpses.

(I didn't make any of this food! So amazing.)

Miss blue toes is the one who made me a mother, nearly 10 years ago.

And this guy made it all possible.

He blessed me a lot.

The kid sticking the Baskin Robbins spoon up to the camera blesses me with his silliness.

I'm so thankful to be the mom of this family.

So for this year, anyway, I claimed Type 1. It worked out. I did things I like. Church, pedicures, board games, waffles, and having Mexican food with my mama. Not too shabby, right?  

What about you? If you had a choice, what Type would you be?

Grace on a Thursday: Blog? What blog?

Um, have you noticed that I haven't posted since last Thursday?

Sista, I need some big, generous grace today for not being around here much. Not reading much, interacting much....all things I want to do, but things that I've had to put on the back burner for a time. That always happens to me this time of year. Every extracurricular activity has it's end of the year carnival/project/class play/award ceremony/field trip/banquet. We've been doing lots of those.

And to top it off, BOTH my kids' birthdays are within the next 4 weekends. So April/May sorta kills me. It is all great and super fun. Just busy with stuff that can't really be skipped. You know what I mean? I skip a lot of stuff we get invited to for the sake of simplifying our schedules on a regular basis. But this time of year is full of un-skippable stuff. Right?

So this poor little blog has been seriously neglected. I wanted to thank you for sticking around, though. I really loved the conversation that got started up by this post, on honoring a Sabbath day. Really great comments and input from you all. You inspire me, seriously. You encourage and exhort me in the ways of the Word, and I love that. No, I need that.

So in my blog-absence, here's a bit of what I've been up to.

A couple fun projects to keep myself sane, since I haven't been writing (which is my first choice of ways to stay sane).

A neighbor was getting rid of this amazing 5-panel wooden folding screen with chippy paint. Um. Yes please. I asked for it and he promptly carried it into my garage. Free. Awesome. Cannot wait to paint it.

Thrifted happiness.
New drapes for my bedroom.($20)
Cast iron wedge pan. ($2)
Frames for wrapping with fabric. (3 for $16)
Harajuku skinny jeans for my girl. ($1.50)

Lengthening my new drapes with a little teal chenille I had on hand. (I like the sound of that.)

More May-Sanity-Preservation: Starbucks Frappuccino 1/2 price happy hour is going on right now. I may have wandered for 15 minutes in a pet store, listening to all the locations in my house that could accommodate a hamster cage, just so I could get to Starbucks after happy hour started. If the cost of this drink starts with a $1, I'm in. My girl had to try the new chocolate cookie Frap too.

And like I said, we've been doing a lot of end-of-the-year business.

Awana award ceremony with my silly guy.

Closing performance of Annie with my little grubby pretend orphan.

Grammy and Papa in town to see their little orphan too, and then take her to get a strawberry Nutella crepe afterwards.

Chaperoning the first grade field trip to an aquarium. On a big bus. Three kids to a bench. 1 hour ride. Whoa. That's love.

I think he thought this giant taxidermied penguin looked tough.

Fish faces. This guy is so sweet. He also knows really a lot of details about the weapons each Star Wars character owns. I do, now, too. Because that was a long ride.

The trip reminded me how much I love to hang out with this precious guy, one on one, and really appreciate how amazing he is. (It also reminded me that I am old and have motion issues.)


Look at his birthday invites. I absolutely could not resist this print-it-yourself mini comic book download I found on etsy here. She inserts your image, personalizes them however you want, and then you print, cut, and assemble. So perfect for my young jedi!!

So I've been doing a lot of this. Capturing my babies in their sweet moments of glory. Planning for their special days. Listening to all their desires and dreams for their celebrations. And appreciating the gifts they are to me. Precious, precious gifts from God.  

So no deep spiritual analysis here today. Just living my life, loving on my babes, trying to maintain my house and laundry in light of the busyness, and feeling thankful for each of you and the ways in which you model faith, love, and Godly living to me.

Hopefully, I'll get to write more soon. Hugs.

Grace on a Thursday: I'm still listening

I listen to Pandora a lot. Do you? It's a website with free music where you create your own "stations" based on what kind of music you like. When I first started getting on the Pandora train, I remember exclaiming, "OH my gosh, it can totally read my mind!" Because once it knows what kind of music you want to hear (let's say I create a Mumford and Sons station), it guesses really well and plays all kinds of other awesome music based on my preferences. Somehow, Pandora knows what I like.

But after about 45 minutes, it does this annoying thing. Suddenly the music stops. My room is silent. I have to walk over to my computer, and invariably, the screen says, "We don't want to be playing music to an empty room. Are you still listening?" I have to click "Yes, I'm still listening," and the music starts back up again.

Today I'm asking God to be more like Pandora.

Because sometimes I treat His voice a little like background music. Just a happy presence as a backdrop in my day. I'm trotting along, getting my stuff done, and sometimes I find I just don't really "hear" Him. I get so familiar with Him - too familiar - that I stop listening to His exact words, the ones being whispered to me all through the day: Love her. Say no. Accept yourself, because I do. Stop and listen to him. I really love you. She needs encouragement. I forgive you, try to forgive yourself. Great job with that. 

All His words of direction and encouragement....I let it become white noise.   

Until something goes awry. I get frustrated. I yell. I feel discouraged. My plans get messed up. Someone hurts my feelings. Whatever. But regardless, I notice the music has stopped. No more background happiness. He hasn't stopped speaking to me, mind you. The noise of my own muddled heart has drowned Him out.

At that moment, when I realized what I've neglected, I want a button to click. To reset my heart. I wish I had a screen where God is asking, "Are you still listening?" and I could click, "Yes, I am now," And our connection would get reestablished just like that.

It's not exactly as easy as clicking a button. For me, it takes a little more effort than that to wipe away the heart clutter and hear His voice again. But under grace, He always gives me a second chance to tune in.

I love the line in the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," the prayer actually, that says, "Tune my heart to sing Thy grace." It's my prayer too. God is singing His grace over me, all day long. His wisdom and His affirmation. If only I could keep my heart tuned in, to sing along all day....If only!

But He loves me anyway. He speaks anyway. Oh the grace that He keeps speaking, even when I allow the noise in my heart to drown Him out.

Lord, help me to stay in tune with your voice, and your songs of grace.
The best I can, I'm still listening. 

MOPS and potato-leek soup

This morning, it's official.

Thanks to a speaker cancellation and the invitation by a friend, I'm speaking to women for the first time. I've wondered if this was something God would have in store for me for a while. And perhaps because I've wondered, that meant He was preparing me for it inside.

So, I'm really excited and I wanted to share that with you. My heart breaks for women, particularly those of us who are overburdened and struggling to live the abundant life that Jesus talks about. Which, I think, equals nearly all of us.

I also wanted to say that I know many groups are beginning to line up their speaker calendars for the fall MOPS session. If you have an opening and are in the Southern California area, I'd love to come share my heart to the women in your group. I have a special love for MOPS, and attended for 7 years. I'd recommend that ministry to any and all mothers with young kids. It helped me get through a lot in those early years, and gave me what I needed most: encouragement.

And on another completely unrelated note, I also had to share a recipe I made this week for potato leek soup! It was so shockingly simple and cheap and healthy! So you need to try it. On the kid meter, it ranked about a "I'll tolerate it and eat most of it." Which is fine by me.

You need:

3T butter

6 large leeks

1.5 lbs potatoes (I used red), peeled, and cut into 1/2" cubes

4 C (1 box) chicken stock

2 T flour

1/4 C white wine

salt, pepper

1/4 C chopped parsley

Now, have you used leeks before? They are special because a lot of dirt gets down into the stalks. They need a lot of rinsing. Slice off the end of the root, and throw that away. Then, slice the leek into discs, using all the white and light green part. Throw away the dark green leafy part. Then take all those discs and submerge them in a bowl of water, and mix them around with your hands a little to get the dirt out of the circles.

While you're doing that, melt the butter in a heavy pot. When the leeks are clean, put those in the pot too.

Cook the leeks down for about 10 minutes, stirring every so often.

Sprinkle with the flour and cook for 1-2 more minutes.

Add the wine and stir, and then slowly add the stock, stirring the whole time.

Keep stirring once in a while until the mixture is bubbly, thickened and boiling.

Add the potatoes and simmer for 20 min until they are soft.

Then, take a potato masher and gently mash up all of the large chunks. You COULD just keep doing this until you had the desired consistency. But I then used an immersion (or stick) blender for about 10-15 seconds to make the consistency of mine a little more uniform.

Season the whole thing with salt, pepper, and add the chopped parsley, reserving some for sprinkling on the tops of the bowls when served. DONE. Easy, right?? And soooo good.

Here is my dinner, complete with iced coffee. Because I needed to get my MOPS talk writing ON!

Have a good day, friends.

{and let me know if you try the soup!!}