God's Word for Today

Friday, August 29, 2014

Never get a haircut from a blind woman with hello kitty tattoo

Ever since I was a little girl I have had a significant fear of conflict. I once witnessed an argument between my parents and my dad left afterwards. I translated that to mean that if you fight with your husband then they walk out on you and never come back. In reality my dad actually did walk out on us. However I feel certain it was not a result of that one argument that I witnessed as a child.
It took me many years to make the connection between what I had witnessed as a child and my fear of conflict in all areas of my life. As a grown woman who has successfully maneuvered over thirty plus years of marriage I can state that I still shy away from conflict, but I no longer feel that a marital spat will end my marriage.
Regretfully the scars of my experience have translated to a hesitation to enter into situations where I think there may be some conflict involved. My stomach begins to hurt and I have an automatic flight response. I want to avoid any forms of conflict.
The other truth in life is that there will always be some kind of conflict. That is just a hard and true fact of life.
Some conflict is easy to overcome, some conflict is is necessary and then some conflict is just silly and unnecessary.
I had to put on my big girl panties this morning and bite the bullet and deal with the silly and unnecessary.
I am an easy going kind of girl, I don’t go in for all the latest styles or fashion. I am in to comfort, into easy, I may run a brush through my hair and on occasion a flat iron. So the state of my hair has never been a major concern for me. However as I was gazing upon the result of this latest haircut I was NOT happy. Now this in itself is saying a lot, like I said I am very easy going. But I was looking at my hair wondering if the young woman with the hello kitty tattoo on her wrist was actually looking at my hair as she was hacking away at it. Was she using scissors or a chainsaw? Then I began to wonder about the wisdom of actually allowing someone with a hello kitty tattoo to cut ones hair!
What to do next I thought. I needed a bit of reinforcement. You see I had never had a situation like this before. How does one deal with a bad haircut? I sought comfort and a resolution from my facebook peep’s, they would know what to do!
Thank you facebook for bolstering my position. Yes, I did have a right to not to look like I had been hacked away at with a chainsaw by a blind woman with a hello kitty tattoo! But now what?
You see I know what to do! The grown up portion of my brain realizes that I will not crumble into a puddle if I ask for someone else to fix my hair. It’s my hair right!
I don’t want this person to loose their job, but this is just not work’n for me!
So I now enter the putting on of my grown up panties portion of the morning. I had to call the salon and ask who was working today. Alas the blind woman with the tattoo will be there as I have the manager fix my hair. This revelation is causing me a huge source of discomfort. But I am going to be re-reminding me that I did put on my big girl panties this morning and it is my hair and I paid good money to have it cut and….and…..and……
So in the grand scheme of things the state of my hair is non-existent when placed in it’s proper context of World Peace, Ebola and Beheadings.
But I am hoping for acceptable results this afternoon and that the blind woman with the hello kitty tattoo won’t come after me with her chainsaw!
Blessings
R

Friday, August 15, 2014

Dryer Lint, Broken Dishes and the Promise of Peace

Some days my brain and thought process works just fine, like today. I was able to follow through with several projects and actually get them completed. 

Other days, if feels like my brain is stuffed with an enormous wad of hormonally soaked cotton. I teeter on bursting into tears over not being able to remember to remove the dryer lint from the lint trap or resisting the urge to break all my dinner plates by smashing them against the kitchen floor. 

Toss into the mix a mouthy teenage daughter and by the end of the day the administration of a medicinal cocktail is a requirement not a luxury!

The other side effect of all of this is that my tolerance for complications is almost non existent. Case in point, now that the girlchild had gradated high school the next logical step is collage. However, almost everything about the process of getting her enrolled into college has been an exercise complications, errors and a big fat waste of time and energy. None of which we had anything to do with. 

To start with the IRS lost our tax returns, this mean that all of the financial aid hoops we had to jump though are null and void. Secondly, given the fact that it was the IRS's fault that they lost our returns, it is completely up to us to solve the problem. I mean why would one expect the agency to actually fix a problem they caused and resolve it to our satisfaction. Funny, they had no problem cashing out check! Next in line to get derailed was the girl child's HOPE scholarship. She worked her tiny little behind off to make the honer role so she is totally eligible, but the high school made an error and she was listed as ineligible for the scholarship. This is HUGE! So now we have two strikes against the process and classes have not even started.

My divining rod for complications is nearly bent to the breaking point. We are working with the powers that be at both the collage, the IRS and her High School to try and get this all resolved to our satisfaction.

During all these complications I find that I cling to the very small things that I can control. I feel fairly certain that on most days I can successfully manage to get a few rows added to a prayer shawl project. I can successfully feed my family a tasty dinner, I can enjoy the hummingbirds that visit my garden. 

I think the best example, all this CRAP, the moments of testing are moments where my life is like my cast iron skillet. Seasoning comes from daily use, from simmering and searing off and massaging more  and more seasoning into the molecules of the cooking surface. After many years of being tested by fire the result is a beautiful shinny black cooking surface. That surface did not happen over night. It took years of use and years of testing by fire.

All of these trials have another byproduct, difficulties draw me closer to God and His word.

In this life I will have trouble, that's a reality as well as a biblical truth. How I maneuver through it is up to me!


John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Each day my dryer lint trap gets cleaned out and my kitchen 
dishes make through another day is a good day in my book!

So, for today I am just wading through the trouble waiting for the peace.
Prayers that I don't bean someone in the head with said 
seasoned cast iron skillet are greatly appreciated as well!

Blessings
R






Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Almost a year since....

I’ve been thinking about updating my blog for about forever, however the desire, the energy, the actually words to share seemed to disappear.

It’s only August and it feels like about ten years has passed. Sometimes things pile up on ya, when life tosses a whole pile of stuff at your door and you sit back and wonder why does life have  to be so hard at times.
The reality, my life is no more or less difficult than anyone else's.

My mom died in January. It was very unexpected and it was defiantly not the way we expected to begin the new year.

My daughter graduated from high school in May, again, I’m not the only mom dealing with shifting roles, growing pains and learning how to parent a child that wants to be a grown-up, but in reality is still a child in my mind.

Hormonally, I am on the downward spiral and find that the ebbing of my natural female function to be difficult. The emotional ups and downs are at times very difficult to maneuver through. Focusing on the reality that this too shall pass in no great comfort for me.

I know this all sound like a great whopping mess of debbie downer theology. But for now it’s my reality.
Being the mature woman I am, coming at this from the perspective Paul, I can’t truthfully say I am rejoicing in my suffering, but I can say that I am at least taking stock of certain aspects of my life. I know that life is full of mountain top experiences. I also know that the real fruit is grown in the valleys of life. I know this to be true in my own life. All the really true and valuable lessons I have learned have been hard won and awarded through great pain and suffering.

The other unchangeable fact, I know what to do when life turns ugly….God’s word is the beauty!

When grief comes, I know that Joy comes in the morning.

When children grow up I focus on the blessings of Ecclesiastes and know that for everything thing there is a time and a place. We want our children to grow up. That's our goal from the time they are born, however the reality of all that hard work seems cold comfort at the prospect of her one day leaving my home and going out on her own. I want her to stay safely under the protection of my wings.

So it’s a mixed bag of emotional bits and pieces. Some days they all fall into place, other days I am whacking away with a sledge hammer trying to get a round peg to fit in a square whole and find no logic or wisdom in the process. 

My accountability sisters hold me together, my husband is a rock and God’s Word is the truth!
So we shall see if takes me another year to make an appearance on the blog-o-sphere.

I hope not!

Blessings to whom ever reads this!

R

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