HEART'S CRY

Listening to the news the last few days has not been an exercise in self-improvement!  In fact, listening to it for too long weakens my resolve and does not build faith!  Where fear is-faith isn't.  It is a fearful time but when hasn't there been a fearful time?  I can't imagine those pioneers without fear.  Or the pilgrims or the missionaries who traveled to unknown lands.  Pastors who courageously began churches during the great depression.  Presidents, teachers, moms and dads and service men and women who have face fear with faith.   So we must!  Faith:  Believing without seeing.  Knowing that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do.  God's attribute of unchanging is an incredible foundation to stand on!  The world changes.   We must recover our faith!  Faith built upon the truth.  Faith in God.  Faith in our families.  Faith in our neighborhoods and communiti...

Seems like forever since Taylor, my son's friend came in our lives.  He's part of the family.  I love nights like tonight when they come home from conditioning-"Hi Mom!"-starving and bouncing around eating us out of house and home.   I watched out the window as they piled into a pickup and down the street to go shoot trap.  When they invited my youngest and he very smartly followed them out-I couldn't take my eyes off...even though they were a little teary.  The two bigger guys blind to the influence they have on Caleb. Soon they are back.  Ready for video games.  Grab a few more slices of pizza.  Open and shut the fridge and back down to the "troll hole."  My youngest has the games, controllers and the "skills" so he is right in the middle of it all.   Right now they are playing and by the sounds of it-my youngest is teaching them a thing or two. Every few minutes laughter and jokes reverberate up the stairs to where I'm w...

Writing is  release.  Writing journals, list, ideas, letters.... You get the picture.  Of course I never sent the countless letters that I wrote because they got lost before I could find the stamps to mail them away to you.  I transpose letters and get things all mixed up when I write.  I write in jerky and confusing sentences and without precision.  But I write because I want to!  I write because I have so much in my heart and mind that  needs out and set free.  Put on paper.  Typed on a blog or an email.  I want to connect with you.  I want you to know that I think about you.  I want to know you and want to be known by you. I write because I want to.  I want to be real.  Be known.  To not live my life hidden from reality but grasping for it with everything I have.  I write because I want to.  Knowing that your time is precious and your life is full of responsibilities and thin...

Following isn't so simple!   I'm like my old dog Buster who would race out ahead of me while we walked.  He would dart here and there until we would put him back on his leash and then he would look at me with sad and chagrined eyes.   He didn't meet a stranger and most people in our town knew Buster.  He adored his boys and wanted to please but staying with us when we walked was just difficult. Oreo will (for the most part) walk right with me.  I'm sure I look stupid when I turn in circles to look for him and he is standing by my feet!  He will explore when he can but keeps his eyes on me, ready to run back with a snap of my fingers.   I love how responsive he is to my voice and my slightest actions.  The wag of his tail melts my heart! When he walks around the house with me mowing the yard-it melts my heart! I can't imagine how God must feel walking with me!   Darting around, snooping in things that are not my busine...

I stood with my fellow trainees waiting for the children to come out of the bus at the Royal Family Kids Camp.  Balloons, music and everyone was ready to announce the names of the kids.  Counselors held signs for each of their two campers.  The excitement was palpable.  As each child came off the bus we cheered to their name and watched their faces as they met their counselors.  First time campers such as the seven year old that this story is about took tentative steps.   He had read the letter from his counselor and was holding their picture close as he stepped down from the bus to the waiting crowd.  Clutching the letter to his chest with a piece of his new t-shirt he met the person that would walk with him throughout the week. I watched him at supper and then at the first chapel that night.  The deer in the headlight look was still in his tiny face as he sat very near his new counselor and the camp Grandpa.   My sleep was fi...

I'm home from a week at a Directors training with Royal Family Kids which is a camp for abused and neglected children!  They experience and see a real family in action and have the opportunity to feel God's love!  My training began Saturday night with an intensive curriculum based on the most recent brain research and evidence based practice.  Sunday afternoon we were taught by a social worker who had her Doctorate and is a professor at college with a heart from God for children and who co directed the camp we were at.    We trained intensively but what we experienced was truly from God.  The camp is set up from beginning to end with such intentionality and love.  I want to share my own experience today and then tomorrow will share what I saw. I had the honor of meeting and spending countless hours with Wayne and Diane Tesch who are the founders of Royal Family as well as four of their amazing people and 16 director trainees from Colorado, Ohio, Br...

  Where am I?  Am I lost?  Or have I just lost it! Andy Stanley reminds us in his book, The Principle of the Path, that we have to know where we are.  What path we are on.  To strip away all of the self-deception and lies and mask and self-perceptions and self-righteousness. (My paraphrase!)       We cannot get on a new path if we will not leave the one we are on!!!     This is true in so many area of my life.  I walk along knowing that the path I'm on is not the one I'm supposed to take but having a sense of settling and apathy.     Like Eyore walking down a path.  I can hear him now.  "Oh well.  Guess I'm on the wrong path.  Oh well.  Guess I'll just have to keep walking.  Nobody cares." Sometimes we've gone so far down the path that we are on that we know that we can't just back up!  That part of our life is gone so we think we have to keep going on the same road...