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Archive for March, 2007

Sleep, day six The Sunday Morning Bubble Disaster

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

It is good to rest through sleep because:

If you don't, you will have increased anxiety and breathlessness causing sleep apnea meaning you won't even be able to sleep (a vicious cycle)
Without it, your memory will be impaired and your cognitive performance weakened
It is anti-aging. When you sleep, your body is resting, repairing and regenerating itself from the stress of life.
After 3 sleepless days, you will start to hallucinate and lab rats forced to stay awake continuously die.
A lack of sleep nightly (even an hour less than you should be getting) makes you prone to disease, weight gain and body aches and pains.
You can hear the sound of God's words while you are in a deep sleep! (Daniel 10.9)
Consistent, peace-filled sleep repairs muscles and other tissue and replaces dead cells. It also gives your brain a chance to organize and archive important memories.
Most people think they can get by with very little sleep, but studies say you may be cutting your life short by taxing your immune system and may be living a joyless life because your attention span is so impaired.

I am a changing woman. I plan to sleep a lot more the second half of my life. I don't even feel the need to spin it like, "Yeah, tomorrow I'll be organizing and archiving my important memories pretty much all morning." No, I am able to just say, "I need a nap. See ya." Ahhh – this is good. I hope I'll never fall into the trap of trying to prove something all the time again.

It has taken me months to "get" this and I am still learning. But God has relentlessly pursued me in it. Just 2 days after I "discovered" Psalm 127, He sent out one more clear reminder.

It was a Sunday morning (8.13.06) and I was getting ready to go to church. My first beautiful grandchild, 3 year old Gavin, was at our house and full of spirit and energy, as always. He had gotten ahold of a gallon container of bubbles and we were "discussing" whether or not now, just before leaving for church, was a good time to open the bubbles. We were not seeing eye, exactly, so he was disappointed when I said to put the bubble bottle back where he got it. For some reason he thought his little arms could toss it and suddenly the ceramic-tiled floor was covered with bubbles and poor little Gav was right in the middle of it. It was like a cartoon scene as his little feet began to try to run out of the puddle, but weren't going anywhere…but not funny as he crashed to the floor on his back. He is fast, so before I could get to him, he was up and trying again and a second crash. All the excitement got the dog going and soon we had a Brady-bunch like moment of chaos with our mutt trying to run through the bubbles and spending a lot of time running in place, but then dragging the thick, slippery substance all over the kitchen floor and the family room carpet. It was bad.

By necessity, I needed to stay home and get this cleaned up before anyone actually cracked their head open. I was feeling a little sorry for myself because it was such hard work and I was just making my decision to learn from Jesus Christ how to rest. But I got to it. Some cartoons or something had been on TV when everyone left, so the TV was still going, but I couldn't even hear it as I sopped up and washed out towels. When the floor seemed as clean as it was going to get, I threw everything into the washer and as I came out of the laundry room with one last towel to dry the area, the volume of the TV suddenly seemed louder and I hear some guy saying, "I usually don't read whole chapters when I preach, but I think I will today" – and words now so very familiar to my ears began to fill the air: "Psalm 127, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it…For so God gives His beloved sleep…" He read the whole thing, some preacher named Bayless Conley out of California.

OK. I get it. I am not home because of bubbles. i am home so I won't forget.

I have renounced my workaholic, activity obbessed, Type-A, driven, Messiah-complex, POed (performance-oriented), controlling and manipulative, aggressive, competitive, prideful, striving, stressed out, burned out, self-destructive, disobediant, restless and sinful ways. No matter how hard I worked, it wasn't working. It was all vanity. But I will have to watch carefully not to go back. I was a good hard-working church girl who needed a Savior and got one. Occasionally, when I start creeping back towards too much work and activity and not enough resting in the Lord and being wholly devoted to Him, I find myself getting back into trying to impress God and perform for His approval rather than love Him from a pure heart. Those are miserable days, full of defensiveness and striving. Rest is better. Sleep is divine. A nap is a glimpse of heaven.

All you who are weary and heavy laden, Jesus will give you rest…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: I am only dust, after all…

Posted in Grandkids, Memories/Melancholy, Photos of the Fam, Sleep/Sabbath Rest, Stuff I actually think | 1 Comment »

Sleep, day five (I discover Psalm 127!)

Friday, March 30th, 2007

What a summer I had last year. I had lost or damaged so many things: relationships, direction, sense of who God actually created me to be, confidence, income, health, peace of mind. My ministry was gone and my marriage was wounded. The only thing firmly in place was my pride, but God was chipping away at it. Who will I be, I wondered, if You take that away from me?

8.11.06 and the 1-2-3 punch. I sat at the kitchen table with my Bible. The only scriptures I could recall about rest were the commands to keep the Sabbath, a commandment I not only broke regularly, but felt great pride in doing (or at least could revel in my martyrdom over). The only scriptures about sleep in my rememberance were the ones like, "…the stouthearted were plundered, having sunk into their sleep," and when David said he would "not give sleep or slumber" to his eyes. Even Proverbs taunted me with, "A little sleep, a little slumber…so poverty shall come on you," right after calling me a "sluggard," and telling me to "consider the ways of the ant," hard workers, all of them.

So after the revelation I received the night before, I prayed, God, please show me if this is Your word to me right now. Could it be true that all You are asking of me at this time is to sleep, get rest, become renewed? Is Your yoke really that easy? Is Your burden really light? Could You teach even me to cast aside my need to be and to do and could You actually give me rest? (Matthew 11.28-30, please read, dare to believe).

God gives His beloved sleep. That thought popped into my mind right after I prayed. I had heard it somewhere (probably a few thousand times…I am a slow hearer). God gives His beloved sleep. Simple, plain. To the point. With some trepidation I searched my concordance. There it was: Psalm 127, a Song of Solomon (the wisest of men).

Unless the LORD builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

Unless the LORD guards the city,

The watchman stays awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early,

To sit up late,

To eat the bread of sorrows;

For so He gives His beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one's youth.

Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;

They shall not be ashamed,

But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

I read it. I read it aloud. I wrote it out, word for word. I thought about it. I looked at each phrase independantly and interdependantly. I meditated on it. I thought it through. I spent an hour and a half grasping this wonderful news: God gives sleep. He was ok with me getting sleep. I didn't have to do it all. I didn't have to make sure every single thing got done. I finally realized that "unless the LORD builds " it…it is futile. "Unless the LORD guards" everything, the watchman (me, usually) is in big trouble. The light dawned that I was living in the vanity of rising early and staying up late and worrying my head off over everything (the bread of sorrows/anxiety). God had actually given me permission to sleep.

God gave me, one of His "beloveds", sleep. I wasn't quite sure what it meant or how I would do it and I knew I was really too busy to do it, but I also knew this was a moment in time I could receive and be changed or ignore and spend the rest of my life regretting. An hour and a half of scripture meditation…I got up to start the dishwasher.

The phone rang just as I got up. My firstborn (see photo), Tara was calling. I thought maybe I would tell her what God had been showing me through His Word, but I wasn't quite ready to come forward (it was the sin of my pride being exposed, after all). She wasn't waiting to hear from me anyway. She came directly to her point. She said, "Mom, I have been reading the Word and I feel that God told me to call you and tell you this-" and you are probably not surprised to hear that Tara read Psalm 127 to me…every word of it, stressing, "God gives His beloved sleep." That was one of those moments, even now as I write it, I am in awe that the God of the universe had time to make sure I was hearing His plan, His will, His heart towards me. It is so humbling.

Later that evening, I pulled out an article about resting in the providence of God that Mary Jean Powers (Get the Word Out! Intensives and a co-grandparent – we share Hunter through Dave and Tara) had given to me to read a couple of months earlier. I had read it at least twice. I thought I would check it out again since it was about the Sabbath and I had a newly-increased motivation in learning to keep it, obey it. You are sharp enough to have guessed what I found - I hadn't even noticed the paragraph about Ps. 127 before or the beautiful statement made by the article's author: "God knows that His creatures need restoration by rest, and so He not only commands but even invites us to get it."

God wasn't being redundant with me. He knows how slow I am to hear and learn sometimes. I mean, this whole thing is in His Word, so actually, since the first grade, it has been there for me to read and receive. How many times had I run the other way? My husband Dave and God only know.

Two days later, God would issue another reminder as I wrestled with whether or not I would press in to accept this newfound freedom. I'll tell you about that tomorrow (Sleep, day six). But until then, I want to tell you that I know from experience that the loss of sleep from over-work and anxiety and pressure is overcome by calling on the Lord who calls you His "beloved one."

Think about what you are willing to give up to receive what God is willing to give you…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me." Ps. 3.4-5 Even during the most hectic and disconcerting times in my life, I can sleep in peace knowing God will sustain me and has the whole world in His hands…

Posted in Memories/Melancholy, Mi familia, Photos of the Fam, Sleep/Sabbath Rest, Stuff I actually think | 1 Comment »

Sleep, day four (Even Elijah needed a nap)

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

8.10.06 So I am minding my own business (and my own busy-ness), wondering why God won't give me direction for my future; I'm physically run-down, emotionally weakened and I am innocently pondering the events of the day: how Hunter couldn't hear from us, receive from us, needed nothing from us until he could get sleep. Just sleep.

I was on my patio as the sun was disappearing behind the mountains and the Old Testament prophet, Elijah, came to my mind.

1 Kings 17 – 21 In partial summary, Elijah was a power-house. He had the favor of God and walked in great authority. God used Elijah to tell King Ahab that a drought so severe was coming there wouldn't even be dew. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had encouraged the worship of Baal and killed God's prophets; God was not pleased. Calling down this type of heavenly curse must wear you out because God made Elijah take some r & r, sending him to the brook Cherith where the ravens fed him morning and night and he drank water from the brook. Elijah got the restoration he needed there and the brook dried up. That was when he got his next instruction: to go to a widow at Zarephath, where he was not only part of a miracle of provision for her (her oil and flour did not run out until the drought was over because of Elijah), but when her son died later, Elijah prayed and God revived him.

Elijah was the guy who set up the public "testing" between Yahweh and Baal with the building of the 2 altars. Ahab had called him a "troubler of Israel," and Elijah put it back in Ahab's court by saying that the king was the troubler by allowing the worship of false gods. God proved Himself like Elijah said He would by showing up in fire on a water-drenched altar while Baal did not show up despite the hours of prayer and self-mutilation of the false god's prophets. God showed up! He honored his prophet! But when Elijah became the target of Jezebel's rage after he ordered the deaths of her priests, he ran in fear. He ran in fatigue. He ran in exhaustion. Elijah ended up under a tree taking a long nap, wishing he could die. That is tired! I actually get that.

When Elijah was awakened by an angel and told to eat, he found a freshly baked cake and a container of water by is head. He ate it and then went back to sleep. The angel woke him up again and told him he needed his strength so he should get up and eat again. THAT food and THAT rest prepared him for the next 40 days of a tough journey. But it was after THAT food and THAT rest that he got his next instruction from God and went to a cave where God spoke clearly and decisvely to him. The study notes in my Bible say of 1 Kings 19.11,12 "The Lord did not reveal Himself to Elijah in the spectacular ways by which He had shown Himself to Moses. To this discouraged, despondent old prophet, God responds in gentleness." God did speak to him again, not in a great strong wind, or in an earthquake or even in a fire. God spoke in a "still small voice," or a "delicate whispering voice." Had Elijah not been quieted by a time of rest, had he remained in the endless, noisy cycle of boldly prophesying and working hard at it, he may have missed it – the very thing he needed most.

So here I am on my patio staining bricks on a hot summer night, remembering Hunter's cries, pondering the prophet Elijah and it was becoming clear: I need sleep. I am so tired. I cannot find peace or comfort of any kind until I get sleep. There is nothing anyone can offer me that will help me in any way until I get rest. And, God is not going to give me my next directions until, through rest, I am in a better frame of mind.

This began echoing through my mind. I even dreamed about it. I was going to need proof that this was true and by the next day I was ready to find out, but for the moment, fireworks were going off in the sky of my heart like I was being granted some divine permission to indulge myself in something that was good for me – that God might still be pleased if if I wasn't running myself ragged. Could this be true? What if I am not on my watch at every second – will the world cease to revolve correctly (sadly, I would find,I had somewhat of a God-complex)?

You may be thinking, "Good grief, of course sleep is from God. Of course He wants you to live a rested life. I have no trouble sleeping and not feeling guilt about it." Wonderful! I wish you'd clued me in (though I probably wouldn't have understood, anyway). But some of you are so tired you can barely read this. You are holding your world together together for all you are worth. You are pleasing everyone and getting everything done and you dare not skip a beat or disaster will strike. Rest is not a state of mind, it is a place in which you can live. Think about these:

Hebrews 4.1,11 "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest,…be diligent to enter that rest…"
"When you lie down, you will not be afraid; you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet," Proverbs 3.24.

On day 5, I will tell you what I found in black and white right there in the Bible about sleep and how God was trying to make sure I heard it fully, and actually had been for some time.

Deliver us from from striving & our self-reliant pride, Lord. Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Working for the Kingdom of God does not exempt me from His commands concerning the Sabbath and keeping it holy. It is pride to defy it.

Posted in Memories/Melancholy, Sleep/Sabbath Rest, Stuff I actually think | 1 Comment »

Sleep, day three (Hunter & the Prophet Elijah)

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

So where were we? I had lost title, position, most of my marbles and any inkling of what God had in mind for my life. I was madly volunteering for anything anyone would let me do, cleaning obsessively, weeding my yard (and maybe even a little of the neighbor's), helping Rocky & Jovan with their upcoming nuptials and basically over-doing everything I could put my hand to. I was up before the sun and didn't, or should I say, "refused," to stop until well after dark. No leisurely lunches with my daughters for me, no playing in the pool with the grandkids. I was suddenly "not working," and all I knew was, if Jesus returns today, He will not find me sleeping ("work…for the night is coming…")!

During this time, my vision was blurred, I was chronically swollen, my body ached everywhere it is possible to ache, my joints were locked up. I didn't feel well – ever. This "time off" thing wasn't working. Amidst all the activity, I kept praying, asking: what next? I wanted to know how God planned to use me, where I would next get to serve Him. I cried about this a lot, but the heavens remained silent. I was miserable and broken and now even God had no use for me. Couldn't He see that I was a hard worker for the Kingdom? Didn't he understand that I would sacrifice pretty much everything to work for Him? Hadn't I proven this? I couldn't comprehend the communication cut-off.

8.10.06 It was a very hot summer day; the Walgreens sign in town said 104 degrees. My daughter Tara called. She and her husband, Dave, were bringing my adorable almost-2-year-old grandson Hunter to the house for a swim. When they walked in the door a few minutes later, daddy carrying Hunter, the little guy seemed in a bit of a daze. He had fallen asleep in the car and his face was pink from the sun, complete with car-seat sleep-creases.

As they prepared for the swim, daddy set Hunter down to prepare a water bottle to take outside. Hunter teetered and his body started to tremble. He grabbed the legs of a kitchen stool and started to cry, but it wasn't like any cry I had ever heard from him. His face was red, agonized; a sorrowful, deep groaning-almost-scream came from within the depths of his little body.

Hunter had our attention immediately: mine, mommy's and daddy's. I offered to scoop him up. The cry poured out, he shook his head. No. Do you want a drink? Water? No. Do you want lemonade? No. Do you want some pop? No. Do you want mommy? Do you want daddy? All we wanted in that split-second was to bring Hunter comfort, but nothing we were offering seemed to fill the bill. We could not comfort him. Hunter could not be comforted.

I know I am the grandma and everything, but Hunter, even at 20 months, was an unusually good-natured toddler. He wasn't throwing a fit; he wasn't trying to get his way. As it happened, they'd just had a really busy, on-the-go day and he'd missed his nap. They figured a refreshing swim and then a nice nap would be the ticket. Unfortunately, he fell asleep in the car those few minutes before and he was past the point of exhaustion – his trembling body a true sign of that. He needed rest right now, more specifically sleep. Until that happened, there was nothing else that could happen.

God was about to show me some things concerning sleep…

That evening as the sun was setting and I was out on the patio staining some bricks (yes, staining bricks), I was remembering Hunter's gut-wrenching and pathetic cries and how badly he was needing that nap. I thought about how he could not be soothed because he was so tired and that nothing I had offered would or could comfort him.

Immediately, out of the blue, I began to remember the story of Elijah. This was a power-man out of the Old Testament if ever there were one. He was bold and walked in the favor of God raising the dead and declaring miracles and ticking off government leaders. God backed him with so much authority that he could even change the weather. But as I was sweating away staining my bricks and pondering Hunter's gut-wrenching cry earlier in the day, God reminded me that even Elijah needed a nap.

Sleep, day two (I hadn’t slept for almost 10 years)

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

I had one of those sort of everything-in-your-life-changes-and-you-weren't-expecting-it crisis events last summer, which I will not go into right now, but suffice it to say, I suddenly had "time on my hands" to relax, get some things done around the house and catch up on projects if I wanted to. Everyone I knew, especially my family – my kids and husband and my mom – kept telling me God was giving me the "opportunity" for some much-needed rest.

But I didn't rest. I couldn't. Especially since I suddenly wasn't working at a paid position, I felt it was very important not to be lazy. For whatever reason (a type-A dad? our culture? guilt?), the scriptures in the Bible about laziness and the sluggard blink as neon signs in my head. When I "consider the ant…" I see that those little boogers just don't stop. My value for years had been wrapped up in how much I could accomplish, how busy I was. I couldn't remember a conversation with anyone important in my life that wasn't about how much we were doing, but how much we weren't getting done. I had been on an out-of-control roller coaster performer in my professional life and even when given a pause, could not change the pace.

So, when this "time" became "available" to me, I filled it like the mad-woman, restless, Type-A maniac that I was and worked harder than ever cleaning, mopping, washing walls, scrubbing floors. By hour 12 or 13 in the day, I would be so sore I could barely move, but I didn't want God or anyone else to catch me being lazy. My "time off" was killing me! The thing is, I hear people, especially women, talk about getting an extra day and they fill it with garage cleaning or some other big project and would never think about doing something restorative, using the day to rest or "sleep in." So I know I am not alone. When did you last sleep, really sleep, and wake up completely refreshed and restored without feeling guilty about it? How many years have you been rest-less?

Our local Safeway has a used book table to raise funds for a non-profit group. One morning by chance, I picked up a book, Margins: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial & Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives. by Richard Swenson, MD. Here is what I saw as I leafed through it that made me wonder if there might be another way to live and convinced me to pay the 50 cents for it…

"We must have some room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. No one has time to listen, let alone love God. Our children lay wounded on the ground, run over by our high-speed good intentions. Is God now pro-exhaustion? Doesn't He lead people beside still waters anymore?

Something has been stolen from us that we can't quite name. Who plundered those wide-open spaces of the past, and how can we get them back? There are no fallow lands for our emotions to lie down and rest in. We miss them more than we suspect."

My body was breaking down. New physical symptoms of unhealthiness were cropping up weekly, one thing affecting another. My marriage and all valuable relationships were badly damaged, starving to death in the wake of my obssesive activity level. I wished I could be Mary in my relationship with God, but I could only understand Martha – somebody has to do the work! But God in His grace was about to shine a light to expose my pride and sin against the Sabbath and also give me the gift of sleep – a gift I could have had earlier and one you get to have, too.

Go ahead and yawn…imagine real rest, a blessing from God if ever there was one, Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Perhaps I'll take a nap today…

Posted in Health, Sleep/Sabbath Rest, Stuff I actually think | No Comments »

Sleep, day one

Monday, March 26th, 2007

Are you rested or restless?

I was once a TYPE-A personality, I have been told. I just thought that I was a really great multi-tasker who was highly productive. I was rewarded for being a retail manager who could get more done in less time, using less people, making more money. I needed very little sleep and didn't take breaks and was proud of 16-hours days and working 7-days-a-week and was able to "persuade" those who worked with me/for me to do the same. Not only did I break the 4th commandment regularly, I did it with pride – sure that my world wouldn't keep spinning if ever I wasn't controlling it.

I did not know a crash was coming. I did not know I was living deeply in sin. I knew the Bible taught on rest, and that Jesus had promised rest for the weary, but I had decided that rest was just a state of mind, that if you could get your mind into a state of calm and rest, that was all you could hope for in these crazy days we live in. I didn't know about the depth of the need for sleep and that God doesn't think you're lazy if you sleep and that the scriptures have so much to say about it.

Now we must determine: are YOU a TYPE-A personality, or living like one? Take the test below

You are commonly characterized as "driven"
You have a strong sense of time urgency
you experience free-floating hostility
you control others
you are agressive
you possess competitiveness, a need to win
you have a tendency toward self-destruction, self-loathing
you're a hardworking, multi-tasker
you out-produce others around you with similiar jobs (even as parent, etc)
prone to cardio-vascular disease, you experience chest pain
your friends and family joke that you are a workaholic, you just think you're highly productive and committed
you score high in every category on spiritual gifts tests
you are commonly heard asking, "Do I have to do it myself?" because no one else (absolutely no one else) can do it as well as you
having a day off stresses you out
you ache everywhere, but won't let on
it is all just a house of cards and could crash at any time, but you are making sure that doesn't happen

If you can answer yes to 4 or 5 of these, you are slowly, but surely wearing yourself totally out. If you answered yes to 6 or more you are a raging, driven, TYPE-A, work and pain-addicted, adrenalin-junkie commandment-breaker.

"TYPE-As…do have a problem with work addiction. They do not notice the lack of balance in their lives, for they are too pre-occupied with leading our national charge toward production, expanse, and success.

TYPE-As…refuse to rest; to them it is an enemy. Also, those around them are made to feel weak if they desire a pause. Consequently, life is full-speed ahead. they work hard, they play hard and they even Sabbath hard." from Margins

I am getting ready to tell you why it is not only OK to rest and sleep for rest, but God commands it. Who wants to argue with God? Not me…anymore.

Blessings…be at rest, Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God…" Hebrews 4.9

Posted in God's Word, Health, Sleep/Sabbath Rest, Stuff I actually think | 1 Comment »

Happy Birthday, Dave

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Happy birthday to you, my sweet husband. Thanks for choosing me to share your life.

Thanks to the young girl who gave birth to you and to the family who stepped in to raise you and make sure you were in the right place at the right time so we could meet and create this life. It may have been a day of mixed emotions for some, the day you were born; there might have been pain, feelings of loss, who knows?

But today, we celebrate you, all of us: me (the wife who loves you so), our 5 grown children, the extra 3 wonderfuls that have come by marriage, these three (almost 4) incredible grandkids. We have no reservation in raucously celebrating your life!

I love you, babe. Happy Birthday! Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: visit www.daverhoades.com see what he's thinking these days

Posted in Memories/Melancholy, Mi familia, My most unforgettable people, Photos of the Fam, Stuff I actually think | 3 Comments »

Truisms you can live by

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

Algebra I my freshman year of high school (I think they now teach the same course to 4th graders): on exam day our paunchy teacher with the unruly hair, whose name escapes me now would say, "Don't let your eyes wander. Some one may step on them." And I could visualize that happening and it didn't seem like something I would like to experience and so I never did let my eyes wander.

Certain axioms are just good to remember. I've gathered a few for you:

Keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.
Coffee…chocolate…men…some things are just better rich.
Don't treat me any different than you would the queen. Please.
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, I may not follow. Don't walk beside me, either. Just leave me the heck alone! (Claire Martin)

And finally:

"From the cradle to the grave, underwear comes first!" (Michael Fry)

Did I miss any important ones? Be blessed! Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Get wisdom! It is the principle thing.

Posted in Stuff I actually think | 2 Comments »

Bad drivers with Jesus stickers…Grrrrrr….

Tuesday, March 6th, 2007

A driver did the right thing by stopping at a school crosswalk even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman behind him went balistic pounding on the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed the chance to drive through the intersection behind him.

Still in mid-rant, she heard a tap-tap-tap on her window and looked into the face of a very serious policeman. The officer ordered her to exit the car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, photographed, fingerprinted and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a guard approached and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "Ma'am, I'm awfully sorry for this mistake. You see, as I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn and cussing a blue streak, I noticed the What-would-Jesus-do license-plate holder, the 'Follow me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk and the 'My boss is a Jewsish carpenter' sticker in your back window. Naturally I assumed the car had been stolen."

This is just one of those e-mail-circulated stories, but it has a good moral. You can't be a good witness for Christ and an idiot at the same time. Please, don't even try.

Blessings and safe driving! Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Do not be rude. Go the extra mile to adapt. Let the other car in. Be kind. Say "please" and "thank-you." Be careful not to offend. What would He do, anyway?

Posted in Stuff I actually think | No Comments »

Life is precious

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

Last week was a rough week for our family. Jovan's (our beautiful new daughter-by-marriage) grandma passed away rather suddenly on Monday. It was Jovan's first day at her new job and she was going through orientation when she found out, so she had to press on and subdue her thoughts and emotions. It made it hard. "Grandma DiPerna" was in her 80's. Her life was long and she has left a growing family of loving, incredible children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Though her star has burned out and the night sky will never seem the same, her legacy remains.

The same day, Dave's nephew, Troy, was murdered in Las Vegas. Who can explain or find justification for the violent death of a 41-year-young man? A small-town fireman is in jail for first-degree murder. Lives are turned upside down. It cannot be undone.

On Friday, our little Stormiekins was in a car accident. She is sore, bruised, but intact. And as a mom, you cry in gratefulness and as a release because of how much worse it could have been and when you weigh everything, the cost of repairs and restoration and insurance and physical pain all the rest – it is not too much for my little girl to be OK.