Bad hair days and crooked tiaras...ALL righted by God's grace!!

Every year at this time people around the globe are preparing to welcome in the new year.  With fireworks and confetti we will say goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011. For some reason this year I am acutely aware of the  goodbyes that have already been said in 2010.  In April I said goodbye to one of my dearest friends as she lost a 3 year battle with melanoma.  A few months earlier I had said goodbye to another friend who succumbed to liver cancer. This year I have watched as my friends have said goodbye to their  spouse, mother, father, grandparent and most devastating of all -their child.  Some friends said their goodbyes to "what could have been" as they watched their marriage fall apart and their home seem to disintegrate before their very eyes.  Many said goodbye to jobs they loved and have found themselves struggling to make ends meet.  What about you?  To whom or what have you had to say goodbye?  We hear of "fond ...

Recently in looking through some old photos I came across a picture from Christmas morning 1971.  A laugh burst from my lips as I looked at that little girl standing in front of the family's aluminum tree adorned with glass balls and gold garland.  This particular year Dolly Parton was an up and coming country star and deciding it would be great to look like her I requested a cowgirl outfit and a platinum blonde wig.  In the photo it is evident from the smile on my face  that I was  happy about the gifts from that Christmas morning. I have a  vivid memory of  the gifts from that Christmas, however, if I look back over my 45 years I can hardly remember any of the gifts that I have received.  Those gifts that elicited such anticipation and excitement soon either became common place, worn out or  broken and were ultimately discarded. How thankful I am for the gift that is always n...

As a child my family always had an artificial tree at Christmas.  This was also the case for one of my best friends, Bill, but on one particular Christmas he decided to put an end to the artificial tree tradition at his home. Certain that his parents would not be on board with the idea, he decided it would be best to implement his plan while they were out of town.  He and I set out, with saws in hand, to find the perfect Christmas tree for their home.  Many of the trees we were looking at just seemed too small to make the cut.  We looked and debated and were finally confident that we had found not only the perfect size tree, but a perfectly shaped one as well.  Upon arriving at his house we began to attempt to maneuver the tree  so that it would fit through the door. It soon became apparent that although the tree we had chosen appeared to be perfect it was in fact gigantic and there was no way that the tree would make it insi...

One  night after arriving home from work I was curled up in a chair in my bedroom reading with my little dog in my lap.  Suddenly she turned up her nose and began aggressively sniffing the air.  At first I thought nothing of it and then the odor hit me -it smelled like 3 wet dogs were running loose in my house!!  Turning around I saw my husband and realized that the odor was coming from him!!  I screeched, "What in the world is that smell?" My husband, Marshall,  a residential contractor, had been working at a job and had developed an affection for the home owners Blue Heeler, Lucky.  He would often spend time playing with the dog before he came home.  If my husband's odor was any indication, that day  Lucky must have been particularly smelly.   Unfortunately, my dear husband's olfactory senses must have been dulled because he indicated that he didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. It was beyond me how som...

Recently while attending a client event party at a conference, the sponsor distributed feathered masks to the participants.  The Mardi Gras style masks made me and others around me almost unrecognizable.  In our everyday lives we don't walk around with sequined feathered masks, but we do often wear masks to cover up the 'real' us-to hide what we are feeling. We go around so afraid of being rejected, made fun of or thought of in a negative light that the mask is our means of protection.  We want to disguise ourselves so that the world will like us.  We want to paint the picture that we choose to let the world see. Several years ago I came across a poem by Lee Ezell which spoke truth of me.  I want to share it with you.  See if you see yourself in the words penned here. The Paint Brush I keep my Paint Brush with me, wherever I may go, in case I need to cover up, so the Real Me doesn't show. I'm so afraid to show you Me , afraid of what you'll do; yo...

"They must be rich!"  Those were the words my friend's 6 year old daughter exclaimed as she looked at a house covered in bright Christmas lights.  I couldn't help but remember that story as I prepared this week's blog post.  My friend and her family are blessed with a large beautiful home in the country.  Each day as she drives her girls to school they pass a house that is in great disrepair.  This particular time they were driving by the house at night and what they saw was an unbelievable number of colored Christmas lights adorning the house and  illuminating the night.  As the child looked at the house she gasped with wonder, "Look, Mommy!! I wish we lived in a house like that !! They must be rich!" Of course, my friend turned this into a teaching moment, but it  is a teaching moment for us too this Thanksgiving. We look at the way people around us are blessed and often fail to recognize how God has blessed us.  I am reminded of ...

In my previous  attempts to find a hobby that I could have a passion for and also excel at (besides shopping) I find that I have a accumulated a vast array of  "equipment".  With each new endeavor I would dive in with everything that I had-even if it meant purchasing everything associated with that particular activity.   For instance, one year I decided to take up tennis- I bought the racket and the cute outfits and took lessons.  Another time I took up bowling-I purchased a flashy bowling ball and bag and joined a bowling league.  Later I took a cake decorating class- I acquired the nice cake pans, all the decorating tips a professional cake decorator could ask for and a cute apron.  I have tried photography-investing in a nice camera that is now obsolete.  My most recent endeavor was several years ago when I took golf lessons.  Confident that it was my destiny to become the female Tiger Woods, I dove in whole hearted-investing i...

I had tried it once before and described the experience as the closest that I ever came to dying, yet here I was doing it again- riding the Tower of Terror at Disney World!!  In this ride the park goer is seated  in a large elevator car and makes several free falls in an elevator shaft. Confident that the belt across my lap was hardly sufficient to keep me in my seat and thus from what appeared to be obvious death, I began to tightly grip the the small handles on my right and left.  As I finally walked off the ride my throat was sore from screaming and my  palms and knuckles were hurting from holding on so tightly!!   Rubbing my hands to help them recover from the death grip that I had while on the ride  my mind went back to something else.  How different my grip had been  from that of the baby  I had seen in my office a few days earlier.  As I talked to him he took his little hand and grabbed my pinkie fing...

The day had finally arrived.  After 4 years of college and 2 years of graduate school-I was about to start my first job as an audiologist.  Brand new job, brand new beginnings, brand new outfit and brand new briefcase.  As I pulled into the parking lot a few minutes early and walked into the building -my stride had to be different.  This was the day I had anticipated.  To ensure that I had it pulled together I decided to stop in the hall bathroom and check my hair one last time.  As I gazed at myself in the mirror-the hair was looking especially nice and with the new outfit and bag I thought I was "lookin' good"!! As I attempted to leave the bathroom I realized that I could not get the door open.  The lock had somehow stuck.  After a number of failed attempts of gently turning the knob and twisting the small lock I began to panic.  It was obvious the door was not going to open.  I sat down on the lid of the toilet with my new brief ca...

As a "girly girl"  I am attracted to trendy clothes, cute shoes, sparkles,pearls,  animal prints and Volkswagen Beetles!  I don't know what it is exactly about the VW Beetle (specifically the green ones) that grabs my attention. Perhaps it is the retro look that causes me to look twice.  I love everything about it including the cute and quirky  bud vase on the dash of each one.  Whenever I see a Beetle I always peer inside to see what is stuck in the bud vase.  Many use the dash vase to hold a fun pen or a small American flag.  Most often it is used for its intended purpose-a bud vase which holds brightly colored flowers. Recently I parked my car beside a Beetle and glanced inside to check out the vase.  It held 2 flowers that I am certain at one point had been beautiful and vibrant in color, however they were now extremely faded.  Their vibrant hue had washed into something that barely resembled their f...

There it was right in front of me..."chicken of God". I was in our church's worship center at Wednesday night choir rehearsal looking at the words of the song that we were about to sing projected on the back wall.  That is when I saw it..."chicken of God".  Surely that couldn't be right.  I mean in all my 45 years in church I have absolutely no recollection of any song, hymn or praise and worship music, that contained the word "chicken" even in it. It seemed obvious that our worship minister or one of the tech team simply entered the words incorrectly into the computer.  The thing that got me was that no one else around me even seemed aware of this mistake.  With a sense of pride in my astute observation I leaned over to point out the error to my choir buddy, Cindy.  That is when I realized that I didn't say "chicken of God" instead it said "children of God"!! Those more mature than myself had warned me that it would hap...

A few weeks ago, my friend, Stephenie gave me one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received for my birthday-a pinata!.  (I can hear you saying "A pinata?  Are you kidding me?") Yes, a pinata!  She had tied it to the outside awning at our office.  After being given a small bat I began to take aim.  I flailed and swung at the boot pinata with all my might and suddenly it broke open and the contents began to spill to the ground.  It was full of all type of Reese's candy.  It was a chocoholics greatest fantasy.   Upon more careful inspection I began to see that it was not only chocolate that fell to the ground, but also folded and rolled up pieces of paper.  I took the broken pinata and all my goodies inside and began to unfold and unroll the paper.  Every one of them contained a note of encouragement from a fellow co-worker.  I cried as I went through the notes.  Each one was very special to me.  After some...

What little girl doesn't dream of being a princess with the beautiful sparkling tiaras.  Put a tiara on us and we feel special,,,truly regal.  As a young child I can remember being in a competition at a carnival our school had each fall.  A representative from each class was chosen and the overall winner was given a trophy and a tiara.  When I didn't win the contest, my Daddy, understanding my disappointment made me a beautiful crown.  I felt special and beautiful even though the tiara was constructed of cardboard and aluminum foil.  That was 39 years ago and I can still remember the feeling of being a princess.  As far as I was concerned I was royalty.  Something else happened about a year later.  I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and asked that He come live in my heart.  That day I became a child of God.  The King of Kings.  That made me a princess.("Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heir...