Sabbath Rest

Sometimes (many times!) somebody else says it better than I ever could!  From Lysa TerKeurst in today's daily devotional reading from Proverbs 31 ministries:

May 16, 2013 Space to Exhale Lysa TerKeurst "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord." Isaiah 58:13-14a (NIV) Rest. That sounds so good, but it's really difficult for a girl like me. Even when my physical body is at rest, my mind rarely is. I feel like I'm always juggling balls in my brain. Kids' needs. Home demands. Work projects. The to-do lists never stop. Yet the Bible makes it very clear that we are to honor the Sabbath day and pursue rest. Literally we are to hit the pause button on life once a week and guard our need to rest. Guard it fiercely. Guard it intentionally. Guard it even if our schedules beg us to do otherwise. But why? There are honest, personal reasons we need to observe the Sabbath that will be unique for each person. There are private conversations we need to have with God. We all need to pause, to sit with God, and ask Him to reveal some things to us. And when I consider our key verse Isaiah 58:13-14a, something occurs to me—it's not just a day for me to give to God. It's a day God established for me. He wants to give me something if only I'll slow down enough to receive it. "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD." The Sabbath isn't merely a time to be observed; it's a time to be preserved. It's a time to rediscover our joy in the Lord. I need this. I want to be a preserver of this day—one who is determined to protect this day of personal preservation and rediscover the delight of God. The observer remembers to rest. The preserver rests to remember—to remember that it's all about God. The observer remembers to rest and pause on the Sabbath day in order to follow a rule. The preserver does more than follow a rule. She follows God's desire and embraces His purpose in the rest. She spends one day a week letting the fresh wind of God's rest blow through her, cleaning out all she's been taking in during the week with a purifying soul exhale. It's all about pausing and connecting with God without the distracting chaos of our everyday routines. For one day a week, we step out of the fray and let God direct our day according to His rhythm, not ours. God's rhythm preserves a space in us to hear His voice, reveals the places we're off track, and prevents us from being filled with unnecessary clutter. Quiet rest allows us to see the places where we're going our own way, the areas where we're more self-pleasing than God-pleasing, the idle words that need to be reined in. During the down time, we can deal with the mental clutter and focus on the ways of God. The Sabbath makes this possible. Taking one day for rest gives my soul the freedom it so desperately needs. Freedom to breathe. Space to breathe. Inhaling and exhaling in a gentle rhythm set by God. Dear Lord, space to breathe, this is what I need today. Thank You for showing me how important it is to create a place for freedom and rest. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Related Resources: For more encouragement and practical advice on creating a place to exhale in the midst of raw emotions check out Lysa TerKeurst's book Unglued. The accompanying Unglued Bible study will help you understand what the Bible says about better ways to react. To order your copy, click here. When you purchase resources through Proverbs 31 Ministries, you touch eternity because your purchase supports the many areas of hope-giving ministry we provide at no cost. We wish we could, but we simply can't compete with prices offered by huge online warehouses. Therefore, we are extremely grateful for each and every purchase you make with us. Thank you! Reflect and Respond: Take a moment to think about your own practices for rest and reflection on the Sabbath. What can you do to hit "pause" and spend some time with the Lord this week? It could be taking a break from your to-do list, committing to spend some time journaling, etc. Power Verses: Hebrews 4:9-10, "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his." (NIV) Psalm 62:1, "Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him." (NIV) Copyright © 2013 Proverbs 31 Ministries, All rights reserved.  Sign up to receive daily devotions on http://www.proverbs31.org/

Good Stock

My daughter OG tracked down these old pictures of each of her grandfathers, sized them, printed them, and put them inside old-fashioned, "Downton Abbey-style" frames for her sister EV's birthday.

Have you ever seen anything so adorable?!

"Ten Things Every Mom Needs to Know"

A Different Kind of Joy on Mother's Day

Mother's Day is often a very pensive day for me.  Besides the usual dwelling on how grateful I am for a family who loves me in spite of my many, many failings and flaws... and how thankful I am that it is easy to love them in spite of theirs...

I am also very aware that there are many who--though they love and appreciate their own mothers on this day--also become painfully and acutely aware on this day of the fact that they themselves are not mothers.  Some are alone and lonely, wanting desperately to be wives and mothers, but not having yet walked down that path.  Some are walking through the aching pain of infertility, desperately aware of their empty wombs and their hearts that have motherly love to give, without object.  I know that today is sometimes hard for these sweet friends.

I'm also aware of a set of dear friends for whom Mother's Day holds a very special and different meaning. These are my friends who have opened their hearts and homes to a new child through adoption.  Some of these dear women had birth children of their own before they adopted, and some did not.  Either way, they found room in their lives to love another as their own.  These children are so much theirs, that the fact that they're adopted has long ago ceased to be something anyone even remembers!

These women--these families--inspire me and challenge me and sometimes even convict  me.  I admire them, and I appreciate them, and I love them.  Aren't they beautiful?!

 

 

 

 

How Very "Downton Abbey"

Today, I dined in style for Mother's Day!  I was awakened by the sound of my sweet husband and eldest daughter EV carrying in a tray of delicious loveliness this morning.

"We don't have one of those cool Downton Abbey leg trays..." iivo lamented.  Oh, I do feel so very served-in-style nonetheless!  Here's all that's left of my whole wheat buttermilk scone topped with mock Devonshire cream and a fresh strawberry.  Yum!

Thank you, thank you, my sweet ones, who make motherhood so rich and wonderful!  It is a privilege and a joy to share life with you for this brief, beautiful season, and it is an honor to be your mom.

And, a few minutes later, my youngest wandered in with a gift bag and a shy face.

Me: "Oh, honey, these are great!  Where did you get them?"

EL: "I made them."

"You made them?!  Where did you get the idea?"

"On the Internet. That's what was on the counter that day..."  (I had come in to find salt all over the clean kitchen counter. She must have recovered well, because I had no idea!). "It's just Epsom salt, sea salt, lavender oil, and coconut oil."

"We don't have any lavender oil, do we?"

"EV did!"

Oh, such sweet thoughtfulness.  I can't wait for my first aromatherapy bath!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

"Whoa! You moisturize!"

Today, in what could undoubtedly be viewed as a totally banal post, I share with you my favorite new moisturizer--and by "new" I mean, "I've been using this for the past year and it works so well!"

Drum roll, please!

Yes, it is a jar of organic coconut oil from Trader Joe's.  I began using this as a moisturizer last year about a month after my daughter EV did.  She has lots of food sensitivities and allergies to beauty products, so she had decided to dispense with conventional (read: chemical-laden) moisturizers in favor of this relatively cheap, all-natural solution.  Inwardly, I smiled at my "weird, granola" daughter and never thought anything more of it.

Then, one day, I saw her give a high-five to a friend of ours, Ben.  (You  may know him as the wonderful lead singer of The Last Bison.  If not, give a listen!  But I digress...)

Just as their hands met in the high-five, Ben exclaimed, "Whoa!  You moisturize!"  (Really, I am not making this stuff up!)  EV works with her hands a lot...in dishwater, in the garden...and she uses no moisturizer save that coconut oil.  I figured that if it gave her skin that warranted a, "Whoa, you moisturize!" it must be working!  I switched over that day and haven't looked back.

It is really wonderful just out of the shower!  A small fingerful rubbed into liquid between my palms and then rubbed onto my skin makes a wonderful body oil.  I use it on my face.  I use it on my lips.  It's wonderful stuff.  Just figured I'd share...

Whacks and Hacks

Okay, so I've been out of commission--at least in the blogging sense--for the past month.  I have been severely depleted in my ability to even complete the basic tasks required in the bare-bones base of my life obligations.  It has been a little scary, actually.

This month has been the month of three--yes, THREE--unexpected blows to the head.  I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that the first resulted in a coup injury, which is when an object in motion strikes the stationary skull--in this case, my skull, with an empty plastic milk crate falling a distance of 3 feet and whacking a corner on the top of my head near the front forehead hairline.  I saw a blinding light and lost my breath and, immediately, a bunch of tears began running down my face (though I wasn't actually actively crying that I know of).

Needless to say, it was extremely painful and it was frightening.  I had a small knot on my head, which I thought was good because I'd seen little kids whack their heads on the driveway or playground or something like that and get a huge knot on their heads like a horn.  I reasoned that my small knot must be a smaller deal.  Not so, apparently.  When the knot doesn't move outward, ostensibly it moves inward, creating further pressure on the already angry brain.  Anyway, I didn't know this at the time and just moved on with life, taking four ibuprofen every four hours to control the terrible headache that wouldn't go away.

It wasn't until three days later, when the humongous bruise (from the deflected blow of the crate onto my arm from my head) began to show that I realized just how hard I must have hit my head.  That, in combination with the lingering headache and concerns about taking so much ibuprofen every day for days (!), sent me to my chiropractor for an appointment.  After an adjustment my headache was better, so I moved on with life, thankful that I hadn't done more serious damage.

Hmmm.  I said I wouldn't bore you with details.  Sorry.  To make a long story short, a couple of days later I whacked my head again, this time in a contrecoup injury, which is when the skull in motion strikes a stationary object--in this instance, the front of my skull-in-motion striking the rear door of the van while trying to load some things into it.

(NOTE: It seems that I am the last in our family to know that our back van door--normally electronic and raising itself just fine, thank you very much--has gotten tired and old and has stopped raising itself all the way when asked to do so by the little magic button.  I pushed said button, picked up the stuff, and leaned into the back of the van to load it as I've done a million times before, whacking the front of my head--hard!--about an inch over from the previous spot.)

After this whack, I began to be tired a lot and to have trouble focusing and thinking clearly,  In other words, my brain was slow and not working right.  Every bit of mental processing took about twice as long as usual.  Another trip to the chiropractor revealed that I had a concussion.  I was told to take it easy and rest.  (Yeah right!  I have a family to take care of and students to teach and piano lessons to give, and, and...)  I was told not to tax my eyes with reading or computer screen time.  (Yeah right!  I have about 20 stories around 25 pages each to read and grade...)  I was told to stop in the middle of each day and completely rest my eyes and brain for at least 20 minutes.  (Um.  Excuse me?  You want me to do what?  For how long?)

I tried my best to comply with these restrictions, but it's been tough.  Slowly, my brain was starting to work right again, when I whacked my head yet a third time.  (I know, I know.  Someone please remove the sign from my back so I can stop this string of silliness.)  It was the van door again.  Having learned of her finicky refusal to rise all the way electronically, I had turned her to manual mode and been raising her, manually, all the way with my own two little hands.  This had been my practice for a couple of weeks, so I can only assume that I did do this this time, too, and that Little Miss Lazy Van Door has decided that she won't stay all the way up even when manually raised to that position, because this third time I whacked my head on the way out of the back of the van, on the back of my head.  Again, a contrecoup injury, but this time with the skull-in-motion hitting the stationary object in a different direction, resulting in a different motion-inside-the-skull for the little brain being bounced around in there.

My little angry brain declared an all-out timeout.  (I was not really able to process much very well, though I did still understand things and could respond to them if you gave me enough time.)  I took the day off from work and went to bed to "rest my eyes and brain" around 11:30 in the morning.  I awakened five hours later, around 4:30 in the afternoon.  I couldn't believe it!  I had slept as hard as any overnight sleep, in the middle of the day, for FIVE HOURS!  I was sure that I would never be able to sleep that night, but I went to bed around 9:00 pm, very tired, and slept all night long just fine.

After that I have been gradually improving, feeling less tired and less "slow" as the days go by.  Last weekend, almost two weeks ago now, I contracted some sort of sickness involving a terrible cough that has lasted, without improvement, the entire time.  The coughing gives me a headache, too, so between the two, I sort of have just become accustomed to some mild pain in my head most of the time.

Today I will head to the doctor, at the behest of my family and students, who have declared that it is time for me to go get checked out with the lingering cough.  I guess they're tired of being hacked at!

And by now, if you've read this, I'm sure you're tired of hearing about the ins-and-outs of my whacks and hacks.  I just wanted to get it down, for posterity's sake.  (As if they'll care!)

And that is all.  Except to say that football players--long teased stereotypically as athletically and physically gifted but academically lacking--may be neither "dumb" nor "slow"--any of them--but simply suffering the effects of repeated, perpetual concussions.  Scary thought.

 

 

This is love...

Today is Valentine's Day.  We are celebrating around here... celebrating LOVE.  It isn't difficult to find lots of things to rejoice in when you're looking for them.  For the past week, since the Valentine's Day mantle went up, we've enjoyed a quiet, daily reminder to ponder the many facets, and types, of love.

  
No matter which holiday season we're enjoying, the Cross always stays there on the left... first on the mantle, and first in our hearts.
 

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (NIV)


"...as a sacrifice to take away our sins." (NLT)

"...to die in our place to take away our sins." (NCV)

So we are always, first and foremost, remembering His great sacrifice for us.

Today and every day. 

But we're also celebrating each other today.
 
My eldest daughter--unbeknownst to me--stayed up last night after I'd gone to bed, preparing a breakfast casserole for this morning.  She arose early and prepared everything.  When I rounded the corner to report to family gathering, I was greeted with the sights and sounds of celebration... classical music, delicious aroma, flickering candles, a holiday table...




I am so thankful for children who are often thoughtful and self-sacrificing.  It isn't easy to rise early, and stay up late, to serve those around you.  Thank you, my sweet EV, for this gift to our family today.

I'm also so thankful for a faithful husband... for the promises made those many years ago--and kept.  Daily kept... through all the joy and through all the junk.  I am not always an easy person to live with.  And this man, this wonderful man, loves me well in the midst of everything I bring... the good, the bad, and the ugly...

"When I saw this, it reminded me of you," he said.  "I thought you'd like it."

Love and cherish, the bag says.  And he does.

I found the one my heart loves.  Song of Solomon 3:4.

And I have.
  


The gift bag contained matching mr. and mrs. mugs... 


...a thank you journal-- he writing in the black side, she writing in the white side...

...two halves of the same journal...

...two halves of one flesh...

I am keenly aware today of my many friends whose husbands haven't stayed true... whose wives have chosen to walk away...  It is the deepest of pains, because it is the deepest of violations, broken covenant. 

On this day, I rejoice that I was raised in the home of covenant keepers... that my parents are still married, after nearly fifty years... that my husband's parents stayed together--through thick and thin--"until death do us part." 

I rejoice that my children are being raised by parents who are committed to the promises they made.  That they are being raised by a mother and a father who have promised to stay together... promised to love each other... promised to love them... no matter what.  It is a rare thing in a society where over half of marriages fail.  I am grateful for the faithful love of a committed man.

Today, we also all celebrate our wonderful friends... those rare few who love us unconditionally, through all the muck, and extend us real grace.  You are a priceless treasure.  Today, especially, we recognize and honor you.  Thank you.

Twin Day!

 

Ubneielvalbe!

I promised this post--about the amazing power of the human brain to decipher and read things--to my students.  Many of them haven't seen it before, and it really is an astonishing thing!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.  Cnosdier the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid!  

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are; the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.  The rset cna be a taotl mses and you can siltl raed it whotuit a pboerlm.  

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. 

Azanmig huh?  Yaeh, and yuo awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

7H15 M3554G3
53RV35 7O PR0V3
H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N
D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5--
1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5!
1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG
17 WA5 H4RD, BU7
N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3,
Y0UR M1ND 1S
R34D1NG 17
4U70M471C4LLY
W17H0U7 3V3N
7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.
B3 PROUD! 0NLY
C3R741N P30PL3 C4N
R3AD 7H15.

Goodbye R.P.E.!!

Hooray!  Today it is OFF with this evil contraption:

...and ON with the next one:

And here's to completely corrected jaw-alignment issues without surgery!

Non-birthday Cheesecake

On a lunch date this week with my sweet daughter:

She: "You know how PT tried to give up sugar this year, too?"
(Editor's note: Our family has given up soda together as a family goal this year.  My son decided to also cut way back on sugar, only allowing himself a sweet treat on a special occasion like a birthday.)

Me: "Yeah..."

She: "Well, I think he's having a hard time because we're not all doing it, too, and so there's always something yummy around."

Me: "Yeah..."

She: "So, I'm planning to give up sugar, too, for Lent, so that it'll be easier for him and he won't be doing it alone."

Me: "You know that means you'll be in the middle of giving up sugar during your birthday celebration, right?"
(Editor's note: She had already asked me to make her a cheesecake for her birthday.)

She: "Yep.  That's why we're here... so I can have my birthday cheesecake now!"

I told that story to our server while my daughter was up at the cheesecake counter, choosing her flavor.

She had gone to the bathroom when he returned to find out her choice.

"Plain.  The other stuff ruins it," I told him she had said.

When he brought it to her, this is what we saw:

I was so surprised and thrilled that he chose to decorate for her piece-of-birthday-cheesecake-not-on-her-birthday!  I had not even thought of that fun idea, so it was a neat surprise for both of us!

The heavens declare the glory of God!

Can you imagine waking up to this view every morning?

Me, neither, but my dear friend Tim sends out a lovely daily Scripture verse (beautiful words!) accompanied by whatever pictures he took that day on his morning walk.

Can you imagine this as your daily morning walk?!

 

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
    In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
⁵  It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens
    and makes its circuit to the other;
    nothing is deprived of its warmth.

Psalm 19:1-6 (NIV)