Sweet Tea and Popsicles

I was putting sand in the sandbox outside and the neighbor girl who is 12 came over to play with my daughter.  I used to think it was a bit odd that she would come over and ask to play with my girly (who is 5), but after a while, with some close supervision, I realized that when you are a girl and bored you will hang out with anyone and that it is ok. 

As I was making sweet tea for her, my mind drifted to the wonderful time I had with my bible study ladies that morning.  The topic was Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem and how it relates to our own walls that need to be rebuilt.  The idea of our ministry needing to start in our own areas of influence and work its way out became one of the themes we discussed.

 I have a “show me” friend in this group who is always asking “What does this look like?”  This was what I was thinking over when a stray thought came to me, well, I say stray but I think I mean “direct to my heart” thought.   Popsicles.  Oh, Lord, not the popsicles again. 

So now I have to digress for a moment to bring you up to speed in my popsicle dilemma.  My children are so good at giving our popsicles to the neighbor kids.  In fact they will just hand them out to anyone who asks for one.  It was becoming an everyday occurrence that just got to me one day when I went out to the garage and saw 12 children eating popsicles and not one of them were mine.  I felt like my children and I were being taken advantage of.

I really struggled with this one as I really felt like the Lord was calling me to minister to the children in the neighborhood and their parents in a real and practical way.  After much thought I decided that I hadn’t a clue as to what to do.  I like the kids being around the house so that I can find them when I need them, but I also want to be a blessing to those kids who live around me.  So if I had to give out popsicles then I was all for it, until it became a bit over whelming the sheer amount I was giving out.

  The issue for me was how to minister to the neighbors but not be taken advantage of or allow my children to be. It was also, how can I spread the gospel to the children and make it a “fruitful” act.

Back to the moment of sweet tea.  I was pouring the sweet tea for my dear daughter and her friend that is when it hit me.  The issue at hand was  not being taken advantage of or even whether or not I speak the Gospel to these children.  The issue is that I am to love these children with the Love of God.  The words I speak to them need to be seasoned with grace.  The giving of popsicles needs to be one of kindness. 

God has given me a little piece of wall to work on right here on my little corner lot and it is to show my children and those around us who Jesus is by how I interact with them.  It means that I need to be outside more often and put aside some of my personal desires, but I am positive that checking email, catching up on a show or even cleaning up my house is nothing compared to the seeds that will be planted by my simply being there with the children. 

So, now I will be the popsicle house, the sprinkler house, the cry if you had a bad day house, the water balloon, sandbox or whatever you need this house to be house.  I am not having a Bible study every Wednesday on my lawn, I may at some point who knows.  I do know that today, I am handing out popsicles and sweet tea.

So, here is my challenge to you.  What practical ministry (or way to show God’s love) is staring at you right now.  You know, the one that you pass every day and feel a faint tug that you should do something purposeful about.  What are you going to do about it?

Clean out the Cache

“You know, this would go much faster if you would clean out your cache once in a while.”  These were the words I received from my husband as he was working on my computer.  My response was, “My what?” He was telling me that my computer was running slow because of all of the unnecessary files in my cache.  There were files that I didn’t need or use that were still in my computer memory that were clogging it up and keeping my computer from running as it was intended to.  The worst part was that I had no idea that they were there. 

My computer issue mirrored life a bit.   We have a lot of things that are in our memory cache whether we are aware of them or not.  These are the things that drag us down or keep us so busy that we don’t have time for the tasks that are in front of us.  I am not saying they all need to be deleted, some just need to be filed away into the right spot.  Going through all of this can be an overwhelming task but if done on a regular basis, it will allow us to keep doing what we were purposed to do.  As with my computer, this process takes time.

What do these files in our lives contain?  These include past failures, successes, other people’s successes and failure, and don’t forget the Shouldof’s and Couldov’s.  They contain hurts and happiness (that we wish we had again).  They also hold hopes and ways of achieving goals.  They are not always a negative thing, they are often full of information we needed at a time that we keep holding on to just because we don’t recognize it as being there and that it is guiding our lives.

We all have a lot of stuff going on in the background of our lives that affect what is on the screen.   This leads me to two questons that I need to ask myself on a regular basis, "Am I working as I was intended to" and if not, “Am I willing to clean out the cache?”

Dance

            I love to watch my daughter dance.  Picture if you will a little 5 year old girl stretching out her arms, hands extended, fingers pointed with large movements twirling around the room. She is always dancing. Whether she has an audience or not she loves to dance and puts everything she has into her dances.   She is not concerned about making mistakes or looking silly, she just wants to express herself through her dancing. 

I love the simplicity she shows in those moments.  Her little voice saying “I can’t help it Mommy, I just have to dance.”  It just warms my heart.

  I think about how often I long for that kind of simplicity and then make a plan to achieve it that is beyond any semblance of simplicity.  To liken it to a dance, I have to watch the video/teacher, make sure that I have everything in the right place and positioned correctly.  I have to make sure that the music I am dancing to matches the dance I am doing.  I get so caught up in details that I forget to just enjoy the moment. 

Just like in dancing, there is some practice and preparation that has to be done sometimes in orderfor everything to come together.  To be honest, I don't really have much of a problem with that part of life.  I need to work on just "dancing because 'I just have to'"  So today, I am committing myself to just dance just for a little while.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me!  I am now officially 39.  Oh how that number scares me.  I don’t know why, but it does.  I think I am finally hitting what I always thought of as the “old age”.  I know that is just not true, but old beliefs tend to hang around even when they are proven wrong.

            So here I am on my Birthday and I have started a list of 39 things I want to accomplish before turning 40.  I am not going to go into all of them, but I will say that it starts with actually getting on and writing in the blog that I set up a year or so ago.  I promised a good friend that I would start even though I have many concerns about doing so.  Mostly things like, “what if no one reads it?” “What if I write something stupid and reveal that I am not really all that smart?”  “What things of substance do I really have to say anyway?”  These are the things that I lose sleep over!

My friend reminded me that we are all in the process of growing and that I am not expected to be perfect.  Another friend reminded me that everything I do should be for an audience of One and, well, that pretty much put all of the concerns into perspective for me.  I want this blog to be a source of encouragement and enrichment to the readers, but more than that, I want to Glorify God.  I am far from perfect or even together, but I do love the Lord and want to share that with others.  I do hope that you will journey with me and we can navigate this crazy world together.

So what does all this have to do with my Birthday?  Well, this is my present to myself.  I am moving beyond the idea stage, putting away my excuses, facing my fear and moving forward.  Who knows what will come of it, but I am glad to be doing it.