Archive for October, 2008

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Happy Birthday, Jovanie!

Friday, October 31st, 2008

See Jovan’s posts from last year here and here.

 

Happy 22nd Birthday, Jovan Marie Rhoades!  Happy birthday, o daughter who joined us later than the rest, by a covenant vow to the one son.  Happy day, Jovanie, careful and attentive mommy, devoted Rocky-lover.  Happy day and life to your gentle heart and creative spirit.  Thank-you for that world-lighting smile and for the easy laugh you share.  Thank-you for choosing our family.  Thank-you for knowing you were born to be a Rhoades and joining the ranks of the chattering as if you’d always been here.

Though from the time we met, it was always obvious you were sweet-spirited and kind, respectful and honoring (and loved Rocky like crazy!), who could have known what an amazing woman you would become?  Who could have divined that the same radiant girl who captured my son’s heart by her beauty, both inside and out, would also be such an amazing wife – watching over Rocky, staying close to him, living the adventure that is life with him?  And could we possibly have fathomed  what a loving, fully-devoted, and thoroughly enchanted-by-her-baby mother you would be?  You are doing it right, with Averi, Jovan!  You were born for this!

 

So, I wanted to give you these gifts, not wrapped in glittery paper or festooned with deliriously happy bows (although that imagery does make one think of you), but rather a snapshot of the things I am believing God for in your life, the prayers of my heart for you.  These are the gifts I pray you will open and receive on your birthday for the coming year:

  • I pray that you will go after understanding, wisdom and spiritual insight with all your might.  It is easy after, having been the baby of your growing-up family and then being the youngest in ours (your married-in-to family), to sort of let “the big kids” take charge and  maybe, at times, walk all over you.  And it is true, they are a couple of steps ahead in life and they have some things to share, but God has placed important things in your hands.  He has called you to a place of responsibility as a wife and a mommy and there is no one else who can take that place.  So get wisdom, sweet daughter!  I pray God will pour it out on you as you pursue Him for it! 
  • Fearlessness in the battle.  There is an enemy, Jovan.  He will fight you for your family.  But to be forewarned is to be for-armed.  God looked through all eternity and knew He could trust you for this job.  You are gentle, yes.  You are careful not to run over people’s toes.  But I also see the warrior spirit in you – absolutely aware at every turn where the battle lines are drawn.  I pray for God to be your to be your shield of protection and your deliverer.  I pray He will give you the needed courage at the right times and that you will have no fear – because you are not alone!
  • The joy of the Lord for the strength you need.  I am praying for an outpouring of an abundance of clear, sparkling, life-giving rain to wash over your heart and mind.  I pray you will be known as one who laughs right our loud in the face of danger!  I pray that you will have everything Jesus promised in the area of joy: complete joy, and a full measure of His joy.  I pray you get so much joy – it will splash on everyone else! (Ps 28.7; Ps 4.7; Jn 18.11; Jn 16.24; Jn 17.13)
  • A double-dose of continued creativity.  You are becoming such a “virtuous woman” in the Proverbs 31 sense.  I admire that in you.  I love that you are sewing things for Averi and constantly looking for ways to create beauty and comfort in your home.  I see how energized you are in the creation process and I am praying more of that for you!
  • The ability to receive the love admiration that surrounds you.  You are likeable.  You are loveable.  You are some one people want to be around.  You are accepted.  There is nothing wrong with you.  You are the person God created you to be – He did not make a mistake.  And?  You are alive and you are well because of His hand on your life, His call in your heart.  It is OK for you to be thankful about that, to unabashedly enjoy living.  So enjoy it!  Receive all the love that surrounds you, my sweet girl.  Breathe it in!  Grab it with both hands, free of guilt or trepidation.  Live and love!

Happy Birthday, Jovan.  I love you with my whole heart.  You are worth so much to me.

We are blessed to call you one of our own…Mom

NOTE TO SELF:  Investigate-are there any pictures of Jovan without Rocky and Averi in them?  Anywhere??? 

pictured – ALL with her life loves: Jovan with her cherry cheesecake at the family celebration a few days ago; Jovan and fam in a farm field a few weeks ago; Jovan at a big pasta night a month ago;  and Jovan where you will often find her – on the floor playing with Averi.

“…this daughter-in-law, who loves you so much, why she is worth more to you than seven sons!” Ruth 4.15 The Message

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Posted in Celebrations & Festive Events, JESUS, Lover of My Soul, Mi Familia, My Most Unforgettable People, Stuff I Actually Think | 5 Comments »

Scary!

Friday, October 31st, 2008

It is plum frightening to think how much I’d be missing if I weren’t a grandma!!!

Pictured – the grandbabies at the church HarvestFest tonight:  Gavin as Darth Vadar, Hunter as a farmer who takes care of animals, Guini as Princess Leia,  Gemma as an Ewok and Averi is a strawberry!  Kudos to their wonderful mommies (those are my girls!!) for creating all of these costumes for their kids.  Who knew they’d be so talented?  Well, me actually!

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If thou taketh not a Sabbath…

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

…the Lord will giveth thee one.

Three weeks with no Sabbath rest and today the Lord has graced me with one.  I have a horrid sore throat and runny nose.  I couldn’t breathe all night and I am achy all over.  AND I am missing “grandbaby day.”

But today, I rest.  It IS grace.

I should truly know better!…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Make every effort to enter that rest - before the sickies!

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Deserving

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

“The party we elect will be the party we deserve.”  Luke Bodley heard it elsewhere and shared it with me at our staff meeting the other day.

Meanwhile-the presidential candidate roast a couple of weeks ago was hilarious, McCain zinging Obama, and Obama zing-a-linging right back.  They got some good jabs in there.  Watch Obama-the-Comedian above - I COULD NOT GET THE McCAIN ONE TO LOAD!!!  But see the link below.  Wish we could all, as a nation, laugh together more!  What a difference that could make.  (McCain 5:41; Obama 6:00 minutes)

Political memory.  In 3rd grade, I participated in my first-ever “Vote-for-President-at-school” election (Nixon-Humphrey).  I wondered then why the president couldn’t be one of the parties and the vice-president from the other party?  I thought it seemed like it would force them to come to terms with their disagreements and hash things out, say like a family does with sibling problems or like you have to do at work with your co-workers.  What other job says: let’s start over from scratch and throw out everything (good AND bad) we have for something totally new, unseasoned, untried…maybe even unqualified?   That is just as bad as as leaving some one in place who is not living up to the job. 

No, in life: in parenting, marriage, schools and communities, we give a little, we take a little.  It is push and pull, back and forth, but we all, by necessity, have to work together.

“America – love it or fix it”…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Next time, get that mail-in ballot thing sent in!!!  I’ll be standing in line on Election Day.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/17/obama.mccain.dinner.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

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An October Sunset

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Pictured, left to right: Averi, 8 months; Hunter, 4; Guini, 3; Gemma (in Gavin’s grasp), 1; Gavin, 5

O God, thank-You for these, my amazing five!  They’re the reason I was born!  They are my heritage-the gift You have given me.  The eternal things I place in them are the legacy I will leave. 

I pray Your Word will always be in their mouths.  I pray that Gavin and Guini, Hunter and Gemma and Averi will grow up hiding Your Word in their hearts and will choose, even now, to serve You and You alone.  I pray these five, my little amazings, will seek You for wisdom and will receive knowledge and understanding from Your heart for their lives.  May their worship rise to You.  May their song reach Your ears and bring You joy.

Thank-you for the gift of them, Lord.  I will tell my grandbabies of Your faithfulness.  I will declare Your great works to this generation.  I am watching for the spiritual harvest, Lord.  Because I am sowing to the Spirit – I am watching for the harvest…

I am so honored God has brought me this incredibly noisy, full and increasing heritage.  He is making all my dreams come true…Gavin, Guinivere, Hunter, Gemma and Averi’s “Nonna”

NOTE TO SELF:  I have earned the gray hair and grandma wrinkles-even if I don’t yet wish to avail myself of them.

 

“Enjoy the good life…everyday of your life.  And enjoy your grandchildren…”  Psalm 128.6 The Message

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nakedpastor’s No-Policy Policy

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Edited for space from nakedpastor’s blog on October 23rd:

“I refuse to concoct plans for people’s lives. I refuse to concoct a plan for the life of my church. I realize I’m going against the flow, like a salmon swimming up an impossible gush of watery onslaughts. But I just won’t do it. So fire me!

I used to do it. I used to pray and wait and then articulate the vision and set out a one, three and five year plan with great gusto and with leadership and congregational support and fanfare. But I have stopped because I believe it destroys, in a violently sinister way, the lives of people and the life of a community. It’s presumptuous and cruel and inhumane. I have been on the receiving end of this visionary kind of program and I will no longer have any part of it. I realize how tantalizing, how dizzyingly intoxicating visionary thinking and purpose-driven living can be. It tastes good, but it’s poison…

…One…woman visited me earlier today and says that she can smell someone’s plan for her life way down the road and avoids it like the plague because she sees it as soul-destroying. I think that is radically rebellious but radically healthy.  Another salmon.”

I used to be paid to be the person telling everyone in the local church what God’s plan was for their lives.  When you can talk the spiritual lingo, it doesn’t take much to heap burdensome loads on people’s backs.  Being a Pharisee is the easiest thing in the world.  If some one wasn’t participating, at least I could get them feeling really guilty about it.  Yep.  That was my “job.”

I am on the other end now, church-wise.  And I am pondering nakedpastor’s comment, “…it destroys, in a violently sinister way, the lives of people and the life of a community…” and thinking about what we lose when we try to fit a big bunch of talented, gifted, hurting and whole people into a one-year plan – let alone a 5-year program.  Don’t we miss out on something by not allowing the whole kit-and-caboodle to grow and interact, to become and add on to in an organic, natural way?  What if something extraordinary is about to happen, but we are so closely following the “plan” we miss it?

Structure and order are my life.  But I am wondering, in even my own ministry: how much is too much?  When is my soul destroyed by living in a plan God actually never had for me?

I hate being trendy in church, but I also fall prey to every Willow Creek-Saddleback-Catalyst-John Maxwell-Hillsong-Church marketing sucks-Relevant-We’re not like other churches (but we really are)-Church Planting 101-Purpose Driven-Mars Hill-Rob Bell-Try to be hip like Blue like Jazz river-of-thought.  And so do lots of churches and ministries.  

A friend of mine was recently invited to an exciting “all-new and improved” church plant.  She accidentally went to the wrong school where another church was meeting.  But the following week, when she got to the right school (right down the street) of the church she had actually been invited to, the signage was the same, the claims were the same, they sang the same songs and even the pastors and their wives (carefully selected as planter-types) looked kinda the same.  Why?  Because even church planting has been stripped down to a science, a checklist of what to do and when and how.

Are we destroying the people in our care?  Are we more of an organization than a living, breathing organism?  Are we missing the incredible potential of the church to be the multi-faceted, brilliantly dazzling glory of God on earth by all doing the same things, one church to the next, putting people into the same molds?

What if?…Jeanie (I love the Bride, love the church, but I am recovering from churchaholism)

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Top Ten Election Predictions

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

I ripped this off from a currently-circulating e-mail forward (20%) and added my own (80%).  I am grateful to have my legal citizenship in this great country.  I thank God that I live in a place where I enjoy the right and the privilege of voting, but this world is not my home.  I am part of the Kingdom of God and am really just an alien passing through.  :)   Each presidential election seems to increase fear in our hearts, on both sides of the political fence, but I am hanging on for that “peace that passes understanding.”

Top Ten Truths No Matter WHO Wins this Election:

10.  God is FOR us.  (If God is for me, who can be against me?)

9.  Jesus LOVES me, this I know. (This may be the simplest and most amazing truth ever)

8.  The Holy Spirit will continue to LEAD, GUIDE, and DIRECT our lives.

7.  God is thinking about us and has good plans for our lives (Jer. 29.11).

6.  When I call on the Lord, He will hear me and answer me – telling me the things I need to know (Jer. 33.3).

5.  The heart of the king (and the president) is in God’s hands and God can turn it whichever way He desires  (Prov. 21.1).

4.  This generation will declare the mighty works of the Lord to the next and there will be no end to the increase of HIS Kingdom and HIS government (Psalm 71.18, Isaiah 9.7)!

3.  I will praise Him.   The reason I live is to worship Him. (These are words from my two “life songs.”  This is my commitment, my declaration – He IS the theme of my song, wherever I may lodge, whoever is president.  Psalm 119)

2.  The Word of God will STILL be true.

And the #1 thing that will still be true regardless of how this election turns out?

God will remain faithful.  Because He is.

Stay in peace, my friends, for He is with us always…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Pray for the nation.

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Posted in JESUS, Lover of My Soul, Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think | 3 Comments »

Exasperated

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Don’t ask.  Really.  You shouldn’t.  OK, then.  Fine.  I’ll tell you.

It has just been one of those [fill in the blank] kind of days, you know???  First [fill in the blank] happened.  And that was on top of [fill in the blank] which just exacerbated [fill in the blank], if you know what I mean.

Then [fill in the blank] didn’t cooperate with me.

Then [fill in the blank] let me down.

Then, I started feeling [fill in the blank] for myself.

Oh, but, there was more [fill in the blank] than you can believe.  Oh yes.  My computer [fill in the blank].  AND I had a [fill in the blank] blog problem.  Like who needs all this [fill in the blank]?!?

Plus, I, alone, was responsible for [fill in the blank] and [fill in the blank] AND [fill in the blank]!  I mean, what the [fill in the blank]?

Do I look like I have [fill in the blank] written on my forehead?

It would be better for everyone if they didn’t mention [fill in the blank]ing hormonal [fill in the blank].  Really.  Much safer!

So, anyway, I am stuck [fill in the blank]ing and I will continue to [fill in the blank], but I won’t be [fill in the blank].

So, just excuse me for [fill(ing) in the blank]!

Some things are better left unsaid…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  I feel better already-just leaving some things blank.

NOTE TO FRIENDS:  All prayer greatly appreciated.

P.S. A few weeks ago we were all laughing at the 30+-year-old “Jesus is My Friend” contemporary Christian video, thinking we are so much cooler these days.  David Crowder has a bit of fun with it and thus:

The Smile of the day comes from Joel-the-bass-player’s blog:  http://joelfrederick.blogspot.com/2008/10/jesus-is-my-friend.html

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Think Pink

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  It is a serious topic.  My Grandma had both breasts “radically” removed just a year before she died in 1971 at the age of 59.  But I have had a lot of friends send me funny reminders to have my “mammies-grammied” these past few weeks!  Humor helps.

 We’ve come a long way, baby.  So-laugh.  But be wise, too.

 

How to Train for the Dreaded Mammogram:

  

Ah, memories…here and here

UPDATE 10.24.08 – I had Stormie give me the “censor box” so I could go back to my PG-13 rating. :)

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Posted in Stuff I Actually Think | 8 Comments »

Wind

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Threatened by a forecast of freezing rain turning to snow, we are actually hosting a magnificent and sunny day fully lighting the multi-faceted palette and texture of fall.  Fluttering madly in the autumn breeze and dancing to the tune of the wind chime, the once-emerald leaves of the Aspen clump are becoming more golden by the hour.  The burning bushes are flaming as scarlet as they can be and potted flower heads are bowing in reverance to the power of the season as it blows by, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes as a roar.

Psalm 65.9  The Message
O, visit the earth – ask her to join the dance!
…fill the God-river with living water.  Paint the wheatfields golden.
Creation was made for this!
Drench the plowed fields, soak the dirt clods with rainfall…
Set the hills to dancing! dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
a drape of flax across the valleys!
Let them shout and shout and shout!  Oh, let them sing and sing!

 

 I am singing my head off to You, O Lord, and trying to sing as loud as the trees which are clapping their hands and the bushes which are dancing (the twist) for your pleasure.  You have made all of creation so holy, so set apart for Your glory.  Can I live my life as free, as abandoned? 

God and all He has created are glorious!…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  See His glory.

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Posted in Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, JESUS, Lover of My Soul, Stuff I Actually Think | 2 Comments »

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