We are less than a week into the New Year.  Have you already made and broken any resolutions?  Haha!  I start my diet over again every day.  How about you?

Resolutions are challenging because they pretty much require a change of behavior, thinking, or habit.  Change.  <shudder>   Some people just can’t handle any change.  Take, for instance, my dear daughter Amanda.

For those of you who aren’t aware, we are currently in the midst of a Michigan snowstorm.  Yesterday, the grocery store was full of frantic people who were loading up on groceries and toilet paper so they could go home and hibernate while the snowstorm dropped six to ten inches today.  Ted and I walked into the grocery store yesterday to get our weekly groceries, and then walked out empty handed.  We weren’t going to be part of that chaos.  Today, we went back to do our shopping and the crowds had died down and the shelves had been restocked.  However, there were many items that were sold out after yesterday’s frenzy.  Part of my shopping list was Amanda’s list of groceries of which I shop for each week for her.  Four of her items were not available and I had to substitute other brands.  <horrors!>  Substitutions I made included a different flavor of Capri Sun that she drinks every day, a different brand of potato chips from her usual preferred, and a different brand of bread from what I got her last time.  Now most of you might think, “So what?”  Oh, no no no.  Not Amanda.  When we got home from shopping, I immediately explained to Amanda the shortages at the store and prepared her for the changes in her food supply that she will have to adjust to this week.  I could read distress on her face as her whole body tensed up a bit and she kept sighing heavily.

The sermon at church touched on this subject somewhat today.  Pastor Blythe preached about how the Christian life is an adventure.  Even Jesus, as a young boy, took risks by following His Father’s will.  For three days Jesus’ parents lost track of their son because he had gone back to Jerusalem, where they had departed from, to teach in the temple.  Jesus took a risk, changed it up, and did something different.

I don’t know about you and if you have any resolutions to keep.  But why not try to step out a little more boldly in your faith this year?  Make a change!  Try a new Bible study class.  Stand up for your Christian beliefs.  Talk to your neighbor about Jesus.  Help with a Sunday school class.

We have a mission and a ministry to share the Good News!

And Amanda:  Splurge and take a new adventure by drinking a new flavor of Capri Sun!  Try a different kind of potato chip!  Go all out and eat some chip dip even!

Be bold – change it up – make it a new year of risks and challenges!

And for those of you who were in church and saw it this morning – here’s the video that Pastor included that had us all laughing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dTyWQ6gHtQ

You can even take the lid off your coffee 😀

Just Laurel

Please forgive me for not writing in such a long time.  I am sure we can all give the excuse of being busy with the holidays.  But before the year ends, I thought I should at least speak about Christmas while at the same time, catch your attention with the hope that my blogs shall come more frequently in the New Year.  🙂

Christmas.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  And even with all the decorations, shopping, baking, school programs, and even Santa Claus, we all know that it began with the birth of the Christ Child.  CHRISTmas. 

At church this past Sunday, Don had the children gathered around him for the weekly Sunday Children’s message at the front of the church.  (His messages are heard by the rest of the congregation at the same time – little do they know they are getting a lesson, too!)  Don talked about Christmas and presents.  He was asking the children if they were familiar with the classic, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” as he helped them remember the story.  For those of you who don’t know, the Grinch steals all the presents and decorations from the residents of Whoville on Christmas Eve, assuming they will wake up and find Christmas gone thereby sparing the Grinch from hearing their happy Christmas celebrations.  As the children listened intently to Don, he was at the part of the story where the people of Whoville wake up on Christmas morning without any signs of Christmas and, “What?” he asked them, “Do they do?”

There was a young girl with curly brown hair and a cute little dress who knew the answer and with all the confidence and enthusiasm of a young child, she popped up and shouted with glee, “THEY SANG WITHOUT ANY PRESENTS!” 

Bravo, dear child! 

And that, folks, can stand alone as the simple explanation of the joy of Christmas.  We give gifts because the Magi gave gifts to the baby Jesus.  But it’s not the presents or the decorations or the fancy holiday food.  It is the joy of God’s son coming to earth to live among men … to become our Savior.  Joy to the world, the Lord has come!  O holy night!  The first Noel!  Go tell it on the mountain!

That girl’s shout of “THEY SANG WITHOUT ANY PRESENTS!” gave me a smile that wouldn’t quit.  It was said so simply, so joyfully, so purely.  The people of Whoville, in the story of the Grinch, came together, hand in hand, and sang for joy that is was Christmas morning.  That’s all they needed.  You can take away the presents and all the frilly fancy stuff of Christmas, and we can still rejoice about that little baby boy. 

I pray you all had a joyful Christmas full of love and family and friends. 

And may you keep singing for joy, even when there aren’t any presents.  God’s gift to us, His Son, is all we need.

Just Laurel

Are you all as busy as I am with the holiday season?  It’s all so fun:  shopping and decorating and baking and all of that good stuff!  But I had a little ‘moment’ today that I thought I’d share.

I had gotten off of work relatively early for a change today and was running errands – a quick stop at a few stores as well as the post office.  At one of my stops, I swiftly parked and then grabbed up my car keys, cell phone, and purse.  With a free hand I pulled on the lever to open my car door and as I turned to stick my legs out the door and make a quick dash through the cold air to the store … ugh! … oomph … I was stuck!

Folks, it is hard to get out of your vehicle with your seatbelt securely fastened!

I quickly sat back, restrained in my seat as I already was, and just giggled.

It made me think 🙂

So many times we are anxious to make a change, to get somewhere, to start anew, to change things up a bit, to give up an old bad habit, or to simply start over.  For any of those things to take place, you have to give up the old ways … let go of the past!  Ha ha.  It’s the first big step – letting go and unfastening yourself from the person, place, or thing that you want to change but are so scared to give up.

You’ll never win the race if you keep your shoes stuck in the running block.

Just something to think about … especially with the New Year fast approaching and everyone already thinking of turning over new leafs or making new positive changes.

Don’t forget to let go of the old stuff.

And don’t forget to unbuckle your seatbelt!

I hope you are all having a holly jolly Christmas Season … think of it as a big birthday celebration 🙂

Just Laurel

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

thankful

adjective

Definition of THANKFUL

experiencing pleasure, satisfaction, or delight <we were thankful that someone else was footing the bill for the lavish wedding banquet>

Synonyms:  blissful, chuffed [British], delighted, gratified, happy, joyful, joyous, pleased, satisfied, thankful, tickled

Related Words:  beaming, blithe, blithesome, buoyant, cheerful, cheery, gay, gladsome, lighthearted, sunny, upbeat; gleeful, jocund, jolly, jovial, laughing, merry, mirthful, smiling; beatific, ecstatic, elated, enraptured, entranced, euphoric, exhilarated, intoxicated, rapturous, rhapsodic (also rhapsodical); exuberant, exultant, jubilant, rapt, rejoicing, thrilled; hopeful, optimistic, rosy, sanguine

 

When my daughters were young and in elementary school I often drove them to school in the morning.  Down the street from us lived several other little girls who often hitched a ride as they walked past our house and noticed I was pulling out of the drive.  I didn’t mind the extra passengers.  Many times they clambered into my van at the end of the school day for a ride home as well.  At the end of one school day, I was at the school standing and talking with the other mothers outside the school doors.  Lindsey, wild-haired and bright-eyed, ran up to me and the following conversation ensued:

 

Lindsay:  Can I have a ride?

Me:  Can I have a ride what?

Lindsay:  Can I have a ride in your van? (spoken with a grin and some puzzlement)

Me:  Can I have a ride in my van what?

Lindsay:  Can I have a ride in your van to my house?  (with mild confused frustration)

Me:  Can I have a ride in my van to your house what?  (as the crowd of curious little girls around us started to giggle softly)

Lindsay:  (with growing exasperation)  Can I have a ride … when you drive home … in your van … can you give me a ride home?

Another little girl nearby:  Lindsay!  Can I have a ride please?

Lindsay:  (the light bulb went on) Oh!  Can I have a ride home please?  (with a big smile added for punctuation)

 

All of us have so many things to be thankful for – and more than we even realize or acknowledge.  Whether it’s a ride to a destination, food, safe travels, healing, friendships, family, or even basic clothes and shelter – we all have plenty of reasons to say thank you.  Sometimes we ask others for something (Can I have a ride?  Or Can you please do me a favor?) And many times we pray for something (Dear God please heal my friend.  Or God please give me direction.)  There’s also all those things that we just take for granted and should be saying thank you for (like beautiful weather, money to pay the bills, a good night’s sleep).

For whatever reason Thanksgiving is celebrated – whether as a recognition of the pilgrims and their first big harvest of food in the new land or because a president declared it an official holiday – it is good to give thanks.  And although we should be saying thank you daily for all our blessings, I think it is nice to have one special day to gather together and say a very big thank you with family, friends, and food.

 

Happy Thanksgiving and

 

Please pass the gravy 🙂

 

Just laurel

 

Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

 

Excuses, excuses.

You will surely agree with me when I say that life gets too busy sometimes … or a lot of the time.  Some days it feels like we are always running from one thing to the next:  Get gas in the car, take the kids to school, go to work, stop at the store, make dinner, get kids to practice, attend the meeting at church, etc.  In our hurried frenzy, I am afraid that we often times forget about, well, we forget about the forgotten ones.

At the surgical center where I work, we offer transportation to patients who don’t have anyone to drive them to have eye surgery.  That really makes me sad.  Many of the elderly patients have no friends or family to take them to have their eyes fixed.  I wonder if anyone ever visits them.

I also have a friend around my age that has succumbed to early Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home.  My friend Clara and I try to visit her when we can.  It’s not important to us if she knows who we are – we just feel it is important to visit her.  I wonder how many people actually visit her.

And this subject hits close to home for me personally.  It has been wonderful how Amanda has found some independence with living in her own apartment.  But, she is alone most afternoons.  I try to stop by almost every day when I can.  There are so many people who know Amanda, but hardly anyone takes the time to stop by and visit her.

I ran across these verses today about how Jesus was being questioned by the Pharisees about healing and taking care of people’s needs on the Sabbath.  Old Jewish law said that you had to rest on the Sabbath.

Matthew 12:9-12 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? “He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

I’ll bet those old Pharisees just wanted one day off each week and so they insisted on not serving needy people on the Sabbath.  It was too much work for them.  Excuses, excuses.

So how much are we all like those lazy Pharisees who are so busy with our own royal business to not take time to help the forgotten ones?  Isn’t lonely old Grandpa Jones, widow Bertha, or handicapped Liza more valuable than another trip to the store or fifteen minutes of a video game?  Oh –wait – we are also tired, too.  Right?  There are so many forgotten ones out there who are also tired – tired of being alone.   Tired of feeling like nobody cares.

With the holiday season upon us, I ask for all of you to not forget the forgotten.  Do you know how welcome a visit is to those alone?  Do you know how just fifteen minutes of time can show a person that someone cares?  Is there an aged relative or neighbor who would welcome a visit from you?  Do you know of a lonely somebody who is aching for someone to care?

How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!

just Laurel

Many many years ago when I was working in Detroit (and before we had kids) I had a co-worker who once asked me for a ride to work.  She lived in the same city as I did on the south side of Detroit and her car had broken down.  She gave me her address and I assured her that I would get her the next morning.  As dawn peeked over the horizon, I pulled up in front of the address she had given me and went to the front door.  I knocked softly.  As the door opened, I was suddenly afraid I had knocked on the wrong door.  This young lady at the door was still in her pajamas and not at all ready to go to work.  She had different hair and a different face than my co-worker.  Dang it – I must have got her address wrong.  “Hi,” the girl said in a familiar voice, “I must have over slept.  I will get someone else to take me to work – thanks anyways, Laurel.”  She said.  Oh my.  It WAS her.  I just didn’t recognize her without her hair done and make-up on.

I recalled that story this morning as I was on my way out the door to the gym.  It would be silly to shower before working up a sweat – but I hesitated before going out the door without some make-up on!  What if I saw someone I knew and didn’t have my make-up on?  Oh come on girls – we’ve all been there.  We have all made that dash to the grocery store with our bare faces on – hoping not to run into anyone we know.

It made me think 🙂

There are certainly times when we have to put on a different “face.”  We put on a brave face for our children during scary circumstances, we put on a happy face when we have to try and enjoy an unfavorable situation, and there’s also the poker face and the straight face.  But when we wear those different faces we are still recognized as our selves.  Now a major make-up paint job that totally changes your looks is one thing – but has your behavior ever made you unrecognizable?  How about that time you lost your temper and went into a screaming rage?  Or the time you drank too much and were obnoxiously drunk and belligerent?  Or that time you were hanging with the wrong people and you were trying to show off?

Many times when Ted and I are getting ready to go someplace I will tell him to wait just a minute while I finish drying my hair and putting on my make-up.  He will reply, “You don’t need make­-up, you have natural beauty.”  Thanks honey!  But he really needs to just put on his glasses!  There’s nothing wrong with enhancing what you have and looking your best.  But I want people to always see ME and I hope ‘me’ is someone that pleases God.  Quote Shakespeare:  “To thine own self be true”.  Go William Shakespeare!  I couldn’t play a different role all the time and be a different person based on the company I keep.  Some people live like that all the time – there’s Joe at work, Joe with his friends, and then Joe on Sundays at church.  Although I must admit, there are times I am more Christ-like than others which means there are times I am NOT very Christ-like.  I better work on that.  🙂

I don’t want God to be looking for me some day and not recognizing me.

just Laurel

Matthew 10:32-33  Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

Do you like a sauna?  I find it is like cilantro – people either like to eat cilantro or they don’t.  Or dark chocolate – you either love it or you are strictly a milk chocolate person.  People who I have asked about a sauna either love sitting in that wooden sweat box or they absolutely don’t.

Well, I like a sauna.

Today, in keeping with my commitment to visit the gym at least three days a week, I went there to work out for the third time this week.  Like anything, the hard part is just getting there.  Once I got started, however, it felt good.  My reward today was a visit to the sauna when I was done.  Wrapped in a towel, I stepped in and sat on the top shelf with my legs stretched out on the wooden bench in front of me while leaning against the wall.  Ahhhhh.  Ohhhhh.  It was hot.  Duh.  Of course it was hot!  But I heard that a proper sauna sit should be about fifteen minutes.  So I closed my eyes and breathed slowly.  It took a few minutes of adjusting and relaxing, but pretty soon my body felt like it was melting and the sweat started.  Oh yeah.  I felt like I was in a crock pot – but I liked it.  It felt like every pore in my body was opening up and all the dirty sweat was pouring out.  I have read that sweating like that does indeed purge your body of some toxins.  But the extreme heat also increases your circulation and gives you a rosy glow.

I made it the full fifteen minutes.  As I got up to leave I took a close look at the thermometer on the wall and it said about 180 degrees Fahrenheit.   Holy cow!  … or beef!  That’s more than the internal temperature that I cook my meatloaf to!  Now I know what a meatloaf feels like!  As I went to the shower to rinse off, I found that the parts of my body that I kept wrapped in the towel were actually more pale and protected from the heat than the flushed parts of my exposed skin.  It was like my towel acted like the foil and protected parts of me from browning in the oven.

It made me think  🙂

If extreme sweating in a sauna acts to cleanse and purge a body from dirt and toxins, it would be awesome if we could get rid of all the spiritual dirt and sin that way too!  Have God put us in the hot box and force us to come clean.  But I guess that would be too much like running the car through the car wash and we really need to feel sorry for our sins and misdeeds.  Sometimes, just ‘fessing up and admitting our wrongs is the hardest part.  A genuine and true heart that asks for forgiveness is all God wants to offer us forgiveness – and we are washed white as snow.  No sweat necessary.

So I also read that a session in the sauna where you have your whole body sweating can actually have you producing up to four cups of sweated sweat.  Of course one must be diligent about rehydrating.  But, doggone it, if I was in there slow cooking like a meatloaf or pork roast, why can’t that puddle of sweat be part rendered FAT?

Just Laurel

Psalm 51:2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

How embarrassing.  I have not blogged since October and here it is the second full week of November already.  Life has been so awfully busy and with the Holiday season upon us, I shudder to think of how much busier it can get.

Besides my job, taking care of things at home, and taking a certain daughter to doctor’s appointments, I have taken on a gym membership.  I am trying to get there at least three days a week.  This aging body is craving attention and I am doing it for me.  Most of the other stuff I do is for someone or something else.  So gym time is my time.

The gym I go to is brand new so everyone is a new member.  And boy oh boy do members come in all shapes, sizes, and ages!  As I gaze at the menagerie of different people working out on various machines, I can only smile and think “Way to go!”  There are so many out of shape, overweight, and not so fit people who are brave enough to work out the best they can to try and attain a better physique and health.

It made me think 🙂

Nobody is perfect.  Most of us are hoping and trying to be smarter, thinner, more creative, more thoughtful , more organized, happier, maybe more sober, or more faithful.  You can fill in your own blank – I wish I was more ___________.  And we are never going to reach perfection – that will only happen in heaven and I don’t plan on going there any too soon.  Life is really all about becoming the best we can be.  We go to school to learn more.  We may take classes or practice to be better artists, cooks, parents, or Christians.  I think once we give up on becoming better at anything, well then we’ve pretty much given up on living.  Oh sometimes, we have to keep starting over.  If I fail to get to the gym a few times, I probably will stop for a couple of weeks before I boot my butt back there.  Alcoholics can fall off the wagon.  But as long as we keep reaching higher – for something better – as long as we can get back in the saddle again and keep reaching for that higher standard.

I was reading from Matthew, chapter 5 today about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Talk about higher standards and becoming more Christ-like!  None of us will ever become the perfect Christian.  But that’s okay as long as we keep trying.  We are to be “the salt of the earth” and to “let our light shine.”  I can do that.  It didn’t say we had to pour out and cover everything with our saltiness – people aren’t going to like that!  But if we can sprinkle humanity with a bit of the flavor of Jesus’ love and grace … give them a taste.  And we are to shine – not blind people with the good news of Jesus.

So I am going to try and keep going to the gym at least three days a week.  I am just going to keep trying – just like I will keep trying to be a better Christian.    I know that some days my progress is miniscule, but at least I have some higher standards to reach for.  Can’t blame a girl for trying.

I hope I can blog for you more often, too.

From the very wise German Reformer, Martin Luther:  “How soon not now, becomes never.”

Just Laurel