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Archive for July, 2007

Holy Day

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

Work 6 days, rest 1…work 6 days, rest 1…work 6, rest 1…work 6, rest 1…

What is so stinking hard about that? Why is this the commandment we not only break regularly, but with great pride? "Oh, I am so swamped…I am soooo busy…I have this going and that going and - and - and…" And we are defeated and tired and broken down and lost in fatigue wondering where our spark has gone? There has to be more than this to life, right? Weren't we created for something more?

Here's how everybody knows when you haven't been keeping the Sabbath holy and making every effort to enter the rest God has for you…that's right – it is a GIFT! (see Hebrews 4). When:

you're crabby
you're habitually tired, worn out, fatigued
you have no joy, but deep frown lines
you are too important to be able to take a day off from work
you are restless, you allow no one around you any rest, either
you are burned out, stressed out
you can't breathe
you're unhumanly tired, but cannot sleep
you have general flu-like achiness all over, you swell up
your heart beats rapidly and you feel nervous
you feel like everything is about to blow up in your face
your mind is dull, even when you are working, you cannot seem to do it well, so you keep at it around-the-clock, 24/7 trying and trying and trying to no avail

Everybody knows. I do because, well, you know, it takes one to know one. I know for myself that when I move away from this gift of rest from God, from this invitation to keep one day of the week separate and holy and peaceful and restful, I fall right back into my striving, workaholism ways making me and everyone around me miserable. The more time I put into work, the less I get accomplished.

At the Sabbath rest intensive I attended recently (www.getthewordout.cc) Mary Jean gave us a list about what Sabbath, a day set apart to the Lord, a day to keep holy, really is. I want to share some that hit me between the eyes here. She said it is more than the absence of work. A Sabbath…

…gives us permission to stop

…frees us from the need to be finished

…gives us time to remember

…is comfort

…is time in God's Presence

…allows the mind to rest in the heart, helps us surrender to quality time

…is being still and knowing

…makes me uniquely poised for God's Presence

…is a time to play

…is a time to pay attention

…is prayerful thankfulness instead of prayerful petition

…is an acknowledgement that we have enough

…makes me unflinchingly useless – nothing will get done or be checked off my list; no goal will be accomplished, nothing will be measured

…is time to ask the right questions: Lord, are your really first in my life? Am I seeing You? Am I hearing You?

…is time to relax without guilt

…is about trust – turning over to God all the things I am holding on to so tightly

…is a day to which all other days have no claim

…is a day to STOP doing what you ought to do

…is for ceasing from the necessary and embracing that which gives life

…doesn't let the future have power over our present

…is for spending time producing nothing but adrenaline, laughter and memories

…is a day God meant to fuss over us with, not us over it!

…is Father's gift to indulge us, bless us, heal us

Oh, my goodness – how would the Church look different if we would accept and receive and repent and obey in this one area alone? How would I look different, more like the woman God saw when He created me? How healed would our bodies and minds be? Would sleeping hard from playing hard bring the sweet sleep of our youth back? Would our brain chemicals get renewed and would we quit turning to food and pain pills and other chemical solutions for what ails us?

Work 6, rest 1…What is so hard about that and why do each of us believe we are the only person to whom that does not apply?…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Remember Him. Remember the Sabbath He made for me. Keep it holy. Get a life, get a healed life. Work 6 – no more than 6, then rest 1. Period. Trust Him. (That just made me think of an old Keith Green song, "Doing our best, pray that it's blessed, and then don't worry-He'll take care of the rest!")

Posted in Sleep/Sabbath Rest, Songs I am singing, Stuff I actually think | 1 Comment »

Guinivere Eden is 2 years old today!

Monday, July 30th, 2007

If you can imagine cheeks that are softer and squishier than the Pillsbury dough-boy's tummy…

If you've ever touched spun angel's hair or encountered liquid blue eyes…

If you have heard the highest, liltiest voice in the world ask, "How's your day?" Or answer a most delightful and engaging, "Yes!" to any number of questions (which I keep asking just so I can hear this beautiful sound over and over)…

If you've watched a bundle of ruffles and lace running daintily behind big brother, Gavin, and cousin, Hunter, and yet have the least possible interest in anything they are up to…

If you've seen a giggling, happy girl who has caught some one "misbehaving" suddenly stop in her tracks, furrow her brow, point her finger and with great authority declare, "No! Time out!"…then surely you have met Guinivere.

Guini is our 3rd grandchild (3rd time IS a charm!), but was our first granddaughter, full of goodness and grace and girly above all. "NO! Let go!" is how she interprets my favorite Matt Redman song, "Oh, no, You never let go." Guini makes the whole family smile.

Happy birthday, my little Guini-muggins, our sweet princess. You really are our own family royalty and we, mere pawns, are thrilled when you are passing by on important kingdom business but stop to hug and cuddle for a moment and pat us on the back and let us know you love us.

You're two, now, princess. Take advantage of it!

Love, Nonna

NOTE TO SELF: Learn to say "yes" like Guini does – a lot more and with her unabashed enthusiasm!

Posted in Grandkids, Mi familia, Photos of the Fam, Stuff I actually think | 6 Comments »

Faith for my future…

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

Busy week. Finally read my daughter's blog from Monday and I loved it. I told her these are not only words of encouragement, but of faith. Check it out here: http://www.tarapowers.wordpress.com

Believe me, she has seen the good, the bad and the ugly. She honored us greatly by choosing to remember the great treasure of life.

I hope everyone who reads this has some one who will look into their life and believe everything about them that God believes. Blessings, Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Gift some one with words that will bless, encourage and ignite hope! Watch for the opportunity…

Posted in Mi familia, Stuff I actually think | No Comments »

And the winner is…

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

When I was a kid, growing up in a pastor's home, we had really funny ideas about Sunday. One was that it was "the Sabbath," sometimes called a "day of rest," and the other that it was to be set apart and be really different from other days of the week.

The reason both ideas were so odd is that for a pastoral family who had Sunday School and worship services and Sunday night church, too, to call Sundays a "day of rest" was not really very accurate. It was truly a work day for my parents and my mom, who cooked the most elaborate meal of the week on Sundays, spent most of the precious few "off" hours she had that day on the couch with her feet elevated and a cold washcloth on her forehead trying to get past a headache. But by golly – if anyone asked, it was our day of rest. Ha!

The other part – the setting the day apart as different was really a good goal, but I just knew it made us the strangest people on the block. Our attempt at making the Sabbath holy was achieved through, of course, lots of church attendance and perhaps Sunday dinner with parishoners. It meant that I could not open the big, fat, juicy Sunday newspaper (I was a fanatic about newspapers) because we just didn't read them on Sundays. We didn't watch television until after Sunday night service, if at all and we didn't shop on Sundays. If we didn't have something we needed, we just didn't get it.

I have come to understand that Sabbath rest is from God FOR me. I now know – it is not a suggestion in case I feel I can fit it in, but it is a commandment. I get that you work 6 days and then you rest one (just like God did!). It doesn't have to be a Sunday (my daughter, Tara, takes hers on Thursdays), but it has to be every 6 days. Period. And I know from personal experience that if you think you're too busy, if you believe that the world will crash if you take a day of complete rest, if you walk in disobedience to this one thing after you know better – you will crash. You will suffer the consequences and so will the people you love the most.

I attended an awesome Get the Word Out! intensive (www.getthewordout.cc) on Sabbath rest last Saturday. I invited people I love to come. Most of them were too busy. And in the ensuing week as we have talked, I see the weight they carry and the exhaustion in their faces and the weariness they dare not believe you can live without. They are limping towards their vacations with great hope that it will be enough to get them through. But here is a revolutionary concept concerning your days: work 6, rest 1…work 6, rest 1…work 6, rest 1…Mary Jean taught that (The GWO speaker/teacher) and asked to ponder, if we did that – work 6, rest 1, would that 2 week vacation we take be so desperate and wearing on us, or would we actually get to go in to it in really good shape – perhaps enjoying it and getting revitalized instead of having to use it to recuperate from life? We should all consider it.

And the winner is? The person committing to rest (God's gift), regularly, as prescribed by their Creator…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Rediscover restorative, creative, fun activities; indulge unabashedly and freely!

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

My Lover…

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

My lover is…the best of ten thousand men…and I desire him very much. -Song of Songs 5.10,16

Love is love's reward. -John Dryden

Love is not to be trifled with. -French Proverb

Love is a many splendored thing. -Paul Francis Webster

Love makes the world go 'round. -French song

Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. -Franklin P. Jones

Love is blind. -Chaucer

Love is the only game that isn't called on account of darkness. -Annonymous

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. -H. L. Menken

Love is all you need. -The Beatles

Love is my lover, my husband, my friend, my strength. Love is my Dave. And who am I to have had such love for 26 years? I am blessed above all. In these times, when we see all around us the ravages of life ripping to shreds families and lovers, long-time marriages and friends, when we understand that not much in life will support and nurture and cover safely precious, tender love and commitment, we are graced and blessed and must continue to declare with more conviction than ever – I am yours, you are mine, we are Christ's. I love you and you love me and we are going to, by faith, finish even stronger than we started, and baby, that is STRONG!

Happy anniversary, Dave…Jeanie

Pictured: a co-worker had just dumped about 6 bags of rice down my dress.

NOTE TO DAVE: Remember when we first got married and you were at DJ at KHRT radio in Minot? And remember how I'd give you lists of songs to play when you went in and you'd play them and say, "This is for my sweet wife" and things like that over and over and you continuously regaled your listeners with stories about how I was making hundreds of homemade meatballs for dinner that night and that kind of stuff? And remember how instructors at school would say, "If you talk about your wife one more time I think I will throw up-it's sickening!"? Well, if you don't lighten up at your new blog, people are gonna start saying that again.

Posted in Memories/Melancholy, My most unforgettable people, Stuff I actually think | 5 Comments »

The Girls

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

Guini will be 2 in a few days. Gemma is almost 2 months. We started with 2 rough-and-tumble grandsons and now we get to enjoy the "girly" thing. Guini thinks she is "running with the boys" as she chases after them with her hands up near her shoulders, flopping daintily as she takes the tiniest strides in her summer sandals.

Granddaughters are wonderful, amen?…Jeanie

Posted in Grandkids, Mi familia, Photos of the Fam, Stuff I actually think | 5 Comments »

New Blogger: Will Blog for Food

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

My husband, Dave, is finally blogging. Check this one out. Maybe you have to know him, but it cracked me up!?!

Posted in Mi familia, Stuff I actually think | No Comments »

You Never Let Go, My Song of the Year

Monday, July 16th, 2007

The song of the year for me has been Matt Redman's "Never Let Go." I was in the middle of a free-fall emotional, physical and spiritual crash last summer the first time I heard Rocky lead it the Sunday Whitewater kicked off at Northern Hills Christian Church last July. I couldn't even sing it. Though many around me were singing with strong conviction, pain-pregnant tears streamed down my face and I could only listen and try to grasp on to the hope of the Psalm 23-based lyrics.

By the time the song reached and boldly declared this refrain, "I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on – There will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes – still I will praise You, still I will praise You!", I wasn't sure if I could actually see that light, but I knew that nothing – not one circumstance, not the loss and pain I was feeling – would stop me from praising God and giving Him my worship.

I thought, "If this is all I can do, worship Him through these less than ideal days, then that is what I will do."

Many times in the ensuing year, I have joined those aforementioned voices, belting out the great hope: "I will fear no evil for my God is with me, and if my God is with me, whom then shall I fear?" Yes, that Matt Redman definitely wrote the song for that time, for my life.

I didn't realize it until last week when Rocky led that song again at church (it has been awhile), but I was really needing that reminder and the words washed over me and made me amazed, once again, at the goodness of the Lord who just absolutely, never – He just refuses – to let go of me.

"Even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life

I won't look back, I know You are near…

Oh, no, You never let go through the calm and through the storm

Oh, no, You never let go in every high and every low

Oh no, You never let go – You never let of me…"

Still I will praise Him!…Jeanie

NOTE: Hear the song here. This youtube video is a collage of slides some one put together to Matt Redman's recording. They're OK. Personally, I'm just closing my eyes to listen to the words of hope, healing, assurance and promise. By the end I may have my hands raised to heaven and be laughing with joy, who knows? "I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on…"

NOTE TO SELF: Hold on.

Posted in Songs I am singing, Stuff I actually think, Worship | 5 Comments »

Act Your Stage

Monday, July 16th, 2007

Rob Kelly, a preaching pastor at my local church, and my incredible son-in-law, Dave, preached "tag-team style" yesterday and it was an awesome message with incredible response from hungry hearts and people thirsting for something real.

The main text was from 1 John 2.12-14 which addresses believers according to the stages or levels of their spiritual growth rather than their ages. This epistle was written to believers who were being polarized by false teachers who substituted "intellectual pursuits for faith and exalted speculation above the basic tenants of the gospel."* John vigorously exposed the heresy and, on a strong love foundtion, confirmed the true faith of all believers - in the varied stages of faith in which they found themselves. Check out the passage from The Message:

I remind you, my dear children: Your sins are forgiven in Jesus' Name.

You veterans were in on the ground floor and know the One who started all this; You newcomers have won a big vistory over the evil one.

And a second reminder, dear children:You know the Father from personal experience.

You veterans know the One who started it all; And you newcomers – such vitality and strength! God's Word is steady in you. Your fellowship with God enables you to gain victory over the evil one.

I love the young Christian's passion and energy to go after God. I hope a young Christian can see the veteran in me and still want to come this way.

We're in this together, whatever your stage or mine…Jeanie

NOTE: Thanks to Rob for saying that we have to be a HOUSE OF PRAYER and a PEOPLE OF THE WORD. That is a vision we can run with until Jesus returns! And – thanks to my son, Dave, for showing people how to get into the Word so the Word can get into them. You're salty. You make people thirsty.

NOTE: *from The Spirit-Filled Life Study Bible, Jack Hayford

NOTE TO SELF: God, let Your Word be steady in me, steady and strong.

Posted in God's Word, Stuff I actually think | 1 Comment »

Modern Day Technology can be just Downright Ornery!

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

When Rocky & Jovan announced their pregnancy the week of Father's Day, brother-in-law Tristan got busy and put together a Conan-O'Brien-esque photo compilation of what their child could look like using various mix & match features from both of their faces. You can see Jovan's eyes and hair with Rocky's eyebrows and nose, Rocky's teeth in Jovan's smile.

Now – Rocky and Jovan are, and I don't think I believe this just because they are my kids, really just gorgeous people. They are good-looking on their own, but put them together and they are just beautiful squared!

This can't be a true representation of my upcoming 5th grandchild, surely? As long as he/she's beautiful on the inside…

Looking forward to grandchild #5, Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Don't let Tristan get his hands on any current pictures of me that he might "age" or something so I'll "know what is in my future"…EEKS!

Posted in Mi familia, Photos of the Fam, Stuff I actually think | 5 Comments »