It's been forever

I used to be so good at keeping this thing updated, I don't know what happened.
I can't believe we're already into November!  Where did the year go!?!  
I began my yearly "month of thankfulness" on Facebook yesterday.  As I'm doing I think, "Why is this just a once-a-year thing?" I said it today on FB and I'll say it again, I am so thankful God's faithfulness to me is not reliant on my faithfulness to Him.


Speaking of being grateful, I am really excited to see the fruition of a long-time dream;  I have started my own photography business.  I had my first official session a couple of weeks ago and have had several other sessions scheduled because of that one.  It feels SO amazing to be doing something that I absolutely love!  I know there is much to learn and things I will continue to develop with time, but getting here is awesome!   My website is a real work-in-progress, but it's up and running.


Halloween was good.  The kids' school parties were fun (Though helping prepare for and execute 2 parties was exhausting).  We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with some friends and everyone really raked in the candy.

JD and BFF, Cade

We're really fortunate JD has made some really good friends with families we love and trust.  I always remember growing up it seemed like all the "cute boys" were friends...maybe it's just inherent because JD has 3-4 best friends and the group of them are some of the "cutest" boys in the school, lol.  Poor girls, they don't stand a chance!

Jungle Soldier

My handsome soldier

Cora and Hailey

 Cora was Wicked Witch of the EAST...Pre-house-dropped-on-my-head phase ;)

My beautiful Wicked Witch

My Wicked Witch and Soldier

Our Trick-or-Treating Group

My sweet little boy

Last night as I was going into the kids' rooms to tell them goodnight JD reached for me and said, "I need love."  I hesitated only a second, thinking of the things I needed to do.  I quickly came to my senses.  He won't ask for "love" forever, probably not even for much longer, so I pushed my busy mind aside and crawled into bed beside him.
As I lay there I started thinking of how his birthday is Tuesday.  He will be 10.  10 years old!  Double-digits!  Where did a decade go!?!?  As we cuddled I started mulling over a blog.  I would start very similarly to what I did here...I would talk about the 42 hours of labor, the c-section, seeing him for the 1st time...I would muse over my sweet boy, how fast he's growing up, what a great person he is turning out to be...you know, the usual "bragging mom" stuff.  I lay there pondering and then I was interrupted because he stole my phone.  As I tried tickling him to get it back he started yelling something, but I couldn't understand him because his face was buried in his pillow. And then it happened---He pooted.  Loudly.  Right on me!  He proceeded to laugh hysterically and say, "I tried to warn you!".

Yep, he may still be my sweet little boy, but he is definitely his father's son!

He Rocks!

Well, in honor of Father's Day I'm writing a post about the best dad in the world.  Now, in the past I have written posts about my own daddy, who was, indeed, the best daddy I could have every asked for, but I am going to honor someone else this time.
God truly blessed me when He placed Jake in my life.  As I look back it seems strange in this day and age to have started dating your future spouse when you were 15 and 13.  My son is about to turn 10.  Thinking he could possibly meet his future spouse in 3 years freaks me out just a little, I have to admit.  But, I realize the chances of that are slim.  The LORD set Jake and I aside for each other from the beginning, though.  I am convinced that no one else on this earth could possibly be the right fit for either of us.

I thank God daily for placing Jake in my life.  HE continues to mold him into His image.  Jake is a man of the utmost faith, integrity and respect. He is not only the spiritual head of our household but shepherds our church as well.  Many of you know he is a bi-vocational pastor; this means he holds down a full-time job outside of the church so we can pay the bills and so I can be a full-time mom.
The sacrifices he has made for our family are beyond words, but he never complains.  Often times he is up well into the wee hours of the night finishing up things for the church or work so he can spend his evenings with the family.  He puts the kids and me 2nd only to Christ. 

Those who know him know what I'm talking about. 

He is such a people-person.  He wants nothing more than to see  the world come to Christ.  If he could spend every waking hour sharing the love of Christ with others, that's what he'd do.  I don't know if he realizes that he already does that, just by the way he lives his life!  He is such an inspiration to me, such an incredible example for our kids and for our church.  He is a true man of God.

Though he will be embarrassed when he reads this post, I just don't tell him often enough how much I appreciate all he does for our family.  JD and Cora were blessed with the best daddy they could have!  I was blessed with a best friend, leader, lover, provider.....Truly the other half that makes me whole.
I'm reminded of the song, "God Gave Me You" by Dave Barnes.
"God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
For when I think I’ve lost my way
There are no words here left to say, it’s true
God gave me you"


All my love, God truly gave me you!

An Incurable Condition

I was listening to a short broadcast today about a little baby named Joseph.  Joseph needed a tracheotomy, but the hospital he was at would not give him one.  The reason?  He had an incurable condition.  They were going to remove his ventilator and send him home to die.  He would eventually die anyway, so he was deemed unworthy of saving.
(They asked to be transferred.  He did eventually get transferred to a hospital in St Louis, where he received the trache, was able to come off the vent and was able to go home, alive.)
But what struck me as I was listening to this is that we all have an "incurable condition".  We are all going to die do to this condition.  The condition?  Sin.  There isn't a single person on earth born without it.  Our sentence?  Death.  But thanks truly be to God He didn't deem us unworthy of saving!  He loved us so much He sent His Son to die in our place. 
There is a catch, however.  You have to accept this gift.  Jesus wants nothing more than offer you life eternal.  But the choice is yours.   To accept this gift of life, you just have to ask.  Admit your incurable condition: sin, and ask Jesus to forgive you of those sins and come into your life and save you. Turn your death sentence into eternal life.

She gets it...

So there are some new things to share with you about our ministry here in Las Vegas.... but I'll get to those in a different post.  This post is for Cora.  Of course, she would be embarrassed if she knew I was posting this, but that's okay.  Sometimes moms have to share how proud they are of their kids.
As most of you know, someone tried to blow my jeep up 2 weeks ago.  We don't know why.  We're hoping and assuming it was just a random act of violence and had nothing to do with our family.  Either way, it shook me to the core.  What got me the most is that I park directly under Cora's bedroom window.  Had it actually blown up....well, I can't even process all of that.
God took care of us, however.  He had a very strong wind blowing that night and the fire went out just before hitting the gas tank.  The jeep had to be repaired, of course, but nothing too major and no one was harmed. 
Why do things like this happen?  Why do horrible things happen to seemingly good people? ....
People asked how the kids were handling it.  Did we tell them? Yes.  Were they scared or upset?  I don't think so.  Etc. Etc. Etc.  JD thought it was cool when the CSI showed up, put up crime scene tape and took DNA from us to compare it to any they found on the vehicle. 
We also got all sorts of people asking, "So you have any enemies?" or "How did THAT happen?"  One man stopped me in the car line while I was dropping Cora off at school.  He apparently has a Commander just like ours and was wondering what happened to the side of ours.  I told him and then dropped Cora off and left.  Well, it turns out he was the photographer there to take school pictures that day.  When Cora got home she told me that when she went in to take her picture he recognized her and started talking to her.  She told him about our church and what we believe.
I really wasn't sure how Cora was feeling about the whole "car blowing up" situation until we went to pick it up from the body shop on Friday.  Cora and I were standing there waiting on the man to bring us the papers to sign.  Cora was looking at the area where the burns had been then looked up at me.
"Mom?" 
"Yes?"
"I'm kinda glad this happened to the jeep."
"You are?  Why" 
"Because, if it hadn't happened I would have never gotten to tell that man about our church and about God."  "Well, God even uses bad things for His good."
"I know."
 I don't think I have ever been more proud, more excited, more humbled as a mom than at that moment.  She gets it.   She gets what it's all about...Why we're here in Las Vegas instead of in Arkansas with our family.  God has a plan for us.  God has a plan for Cora!  Even in the tough times, even in the scary or unknown, He is there, working.  He sometimes allows bad things to happen so that He can show His power and His glory through them....
Even through an 8 year old little girl....with more wisdom than many adults.

The Meaning Behind the Words

How many times have you heard a song on the radio, even sing along with it, but if someone were to ask you what the words were, you really don't have any idea?  I think this happens more often than we realize.  We do this in church as well.  We sing along with the choir or worship team, but don't really pay attention to what we're singing, we don't listen to the meaning behind the words.
I have to admit, I am guilty of this.  I get into a rut.  I hear the same few songs over and over and because I "know them so well" I don't really let them sink in, I just sing the songs.  I think most of us can say we're guilty of that at some point or another.
My daughter, however, is a different story.  Our car radio is permanently tuned to SOS (one of our local Christian radio stations, similar to KLRC, for those of you in AR).  I love listening to my kids in the back seat, singing along with the songs.  Their voices are so pure, so sweet.  What I love even more, however, are the conversations that are sprung from these songs.
Cora listens to everything.  Whether you think she's paying attention or not, she is.  She tunes in, even when you don't want her to, and asks questions when she doesn't understand.  This can be a good thing and a bad thing at times.  It is a great thing when it come to the music we listen to.
Anytime a song comes on the radio, it never fails she will ask, "What do they mean when they say.....?"  This leads to a great conversation about God's love, about forgiveness, about praise--whatever the case may be.  I have to admit I often have to bring my head out of my own little world and actually start paying attention to the song so I can answer her. 
Today she wanted to know what was meant by the phrase "7 times 70 times".  We had a great discussion about forgiveness. 
But all these questions lately really made me stop and think, these people wrote these songs for a reason---and I am EXTREMELY thankful our radio station is tuned to SOS and not some secular station, where I might have to explain things she really doesn't need to know.  

"If you're not going to mean it, don't sing it." I remember hearing this at church several times throughout my life.  But, oh, to have the faith and curiosity of a child!  To want to understand the meaning behind the words, to search out the answer, to use these songs to strengthen your praise to the Father.  Not to just sing along with the radio or the worship team, but to truly stop and reflect on why they are being sung!   When we sing "praise and worship" songs at church, are we really praising and worshiping?

I have a few things to say on hymns as well....but we'll save that for another day.  Until next time....

My daddy

So, it's become tradition now for me to dedicate a post to my daddy on this, the anniversary of his home-going.
4 years.  It still sometimes doesn't seem real to me, like it is some horrible nightmare from which I will eventually awaken.  But, it's not.  He accomplished what he needed to in this life and God called him home very early in the morning, February 10, 2007.
Daddy didn't have an easy life.  He drank lye water when he was 3, which should have killed him, but it didn't.  What it did do is cause him to spend the better part of the next 10 years in Arkansas Children's Hospital.  No one ever thought he would survive, and if he did he wouldn't amount to much.  He surprised everyone when he graduated from high school, shocked people when he went on to college, amazed people when he went on to become a Pharmaceutical doctor.
During college he developed a bleeding ulcer.  They thought that would take him.  The early 90's brought on a rare case of pneumonia that put him in ICU for a month.  They even pronounced him clinically dead at one point.  God had more plans for him.
Daddy lived his life to serve.  If there was a need he saw, he would do his best to meet it.  He never let his family, immediate or extended, go for want.  His family was the most important thing to him; Not just my mom and brother and sister and me, but his parents, his brothers and sister and their children.
He was the proudest grandaddy you could ever meet.  I remember when my first niece, Brittnee, was born... He could not have been more proud.  He grew a beard then, because a grandaddy should have a beard.  My mom hated that beard, but he didn't care.  It was for Brit.  He would drive from Rogers to Little Rock to kidnap her every chance he got.  He let her get away with everything!
He loved each of his grand kids just as much.  Alyssa, Haleigh, Kennon, Melanie, Jared, JD and Cora.  He loved you all more than you could ever know.  He was proud of each of you.  He treasured the moments you would spend with him.  He loved to do things with you that would defy your parents (throwing Alyssa and Haleigh into the pool with your pjs on after your parents told you you couldn't go swimming), rocking you to sleep when you were babies (or rocking himself to sleep while you stayed wide awake in his arms...I have several pictures of that!)  Watching him with JD and Cora was a delight of mine.  JD thought Grandaddy hung the moon.  I think all of the grand kids did. 

He really was a man of few words.  Up until the last year of his life, he always had a hard time expressing his love verbally, but he loved to give gifts!  Valentine's Day was a favorite for him. He would buy amazing jewelry for my mom and sister and me, and if he was going to purchase something, it was going to be the best.  I remember every year my sister and I calling each other on Valentine's Day to compare our jewelry.  "Did you get the amazing earrings!??!!?  Aren't the sapphires gorgeous!??!?!"  etc. etc. etc.

I still dream about him almost every night.  I still occasionally try to pick up the phone and call him to tell him about something or ask him a medical-related question.  I don't know if that will ever go away.  I still cry sometimes, just break out into tears at random moments.  I still hope he would be proud of me.

Cora asked me a few months back if her grandaddy thought about her.  That was a hard question for me.  No one knows for sure what Heaven will be like.  I, however, very much believe our loved ones there aren't "looking down on us"  they aren't "our guardian angels" (I'll address that in a moment).  It's hard to think about with our human minds, but those who are in Heaven are focused on Jesus, not on earth.  But, how do you say that to a little girl without hurting her?  God gave me the answer.
"Cora, what I do know is that the Bible says when a person accepts Jesus as his or her personal Savior, all of Heaven rejoices.  That means I know for sure that Grandaddy was rejoicing when you and JD accepted Jesus and he looks forward to the day when we will join him there."

Now, I do want to briefly address the whole "guardian angel" thing.  Do I believe in guardian angels?  Well, yes and no.  I do believe God sends angels to protect us, I haven't found anywhere in the Bible where it says we each have a specific angel that is "ours".  Maybe it's there, but I haven't seen it.  However, those who have gone on before us do not become angels.  Angels are a completely separate creation from humans.  You do not want to be an angel!
As humans, we have the choice to accept Jesus as our personal Savior.  We were given that second chance.  We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but God sent His Son to die for US...for you, for me!  He didn't do that for angels.  When Lucifer, the director of all angels, chose to rebel against God, he was immediately kicked out of Heaven, along with all the angels who chose his side.  They weren't given a second chance.  Jesus didn't leave Heaven to die for them.
The Bible says we were made in the image of God, it does not say that about angels.  My daddy isn't an angel.  He is a child of God who gets to spend eternity worshiping his Savior! 

Happy homecoming day, daddy!  I love you past Heaven!

Warning: This blog may offend you

"I don't go to church because it's full of hypocrites." ...I've heard variations of this statement for years; decades, really.  It is a primary "excuse" for so many people to not attend church.  

The thing is, the reason churches are "full of hypocrites" is because churches are full of humans.  People.  You and me.  Every single one of us has been hypocritical at some point in our lives, several points, in fact.

There is no such thing as "the perfect church".  If there were, it would no longer be perfect once you or I showed up because we're not perfect.  But, you can't use this as a reason to keep away from church.  It's just another lie the Father of Lies has given for us to remain closed off and distant from others, and from God.  The Bible is very clear about corporate worship.  The New Testament lays out the Church being formed.  

Now, somewhat understandably, this excuse is used by those who have not found the real Jesus, who have not come to know Him, love Him and serve Him.  They have not experienced the love of Christ, so gathering with His church doesn't seem necessary.

What really bothers me are people who say they are followers of Christ, who call themselves by His name, yet will not attend church because of His people.  I've heard from more than one person that they "don't have a problem with God, just with God's people".  Now, I have a real problem with that!  

If I said to you, "I really like you, but I can't stand your kids." How would that make you feel?  How would you react?  Would you want to be around me?  Would you think I actually did care about you?  No!  You would defend your children.  Even if your kids are unruly, even if they don't always listen to you or do what they know is right, you still love them, they are still your children, a part of you, in fact.  If someone insults your family, they are insulting you.  Those "believers" who insult God's children are insulting God.  They do have a problem with God. They are, in fact, being the very hypocrite they claim to hate so much.

Now, please understand, hear my heart.  I am not defending the hypocrisy that goes on within the church.  I am not condoning sin or double-standards for those who call themselves Christians.  This is not my intent whatsoever.  However, as a believer, if I see something in the church that is wrong, I should try to help change it, address the issue, work with others to resolve it.  I shouldn't turn my back on those who are my brothers and sisters in Christ.  Would I turn my back on my sister, Karyn, or my brother, Bryon, because they were doing something they shouldn't be doing? Never!  They are my family and I love them, and as such I would try to figure out a way to help them, to work with them through the trial.  

Our relationship with the church should be no different.

Being a believer is dirty work.  You've got to get down in the trenches.  Sometimes you may be called to be on latrine duty.  But, that's what we have to do to be molded into the image of Christ, and to help others do the same.  I can't imagine going through life without the support system of my church family.  God placed these people in my life to minister to me, to pray with me, to teach me...and for me, hopefully, to do the same for them.

Unfortunately, many of us have become too lazy, too complacent to care enough about getting in there and actually working.  We'd rather just quit.  We are not called to be quitters.  "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17)  Roll up your sleeves, jump down into the muck, help those who are stuck in it, and come out on the other side a beautiful representation of the love of Christ!