Response to basketball and holy ground

This is a a response form my friend Butch Ferguson, who will soon have his own blog up and running. I liked it so thought you'd enjoy it too. He has a great sense of humor and a heart for God. His wife and my good friend Mandy will have a blog soon, too!

"Thanks for sharing your heart and your mission for God, even if He has you on short-term ground. Thanks for being obedient. Sometimes I am blinded to God's message and wonder if I would have been as discerning as Moses. If it were me confronted with a burning bush, I probably would have yelled, "fire", then try to stomp it out with my size 11 desert sandel. I may have even called for one of the faithful followers bring me a goats bladder of water to try to douse the fire. Either way, I would have snuffed out my opportunity to hear God. I'm ignorant that way. That's why I pray, almost daily, to have God keep me grounded and know that He is God. " Butch

Basketball and Holy Ground

No, I am not worshipping basketball! I'm just learning some things in the thick of basketball season.

We are a basketball family. And I am so thankful that God truly has given me the ability to enjoy this sport. I love watching my sons play and Scott coach. Maybe it all started went I went to the ACC tournie many years ago while I was pregnant with Zachary...

BUT - things have gotten over the top around here. Along with coaching Zach's team, Scott is an age commissioner for the community league. And right now we're in the tournament. This means there are games every night and all day sat and sun for about 10 days. So he has to be there.

Okay, okay, but THEN - there's more. We're using the Union Academy gym and Scott is in charge of opening and closing this gym every time it's being used. Not great, but okay, God we can handle this... but THEN - here's the tough part, Scott was out of town last week, not available to open and close the gym, so who do you think got to do that most nights? That's right, me.

So I have been praying every second because let me assure you this is not what I want to be doing. I have gotten busy. I'm preparing talks, writing book proposals, editing devotionals, trying to work out at the gym and keeping up with the rest of our lives.

And an amazing thing has happened. I have seen God's supernatural grace just land in me and He given me a gracious attitude. Most of the time:)

As I've been praying about it, the Holy Spirit brought to my mind Exodus 3:5 "... for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." This is where Moses stops to investigate the burning bush and then God speaks to Moses and tells him his calling.

We all have holy ground in our lives, a place made holy because God shows up. Moses was being a shepherd, pasturing the flocks, when God changed the common to holy. I think about how Moses could have just passed by that burning bush and really missed out on a lifetime of knowing God more intimately.

We have that same opportunity to see the holy ground right where we are. For me the holy ground in my life right now is basketball. I want to see God in this. I want to see his grace transforming me and breaking me free from any other strongholds in my life.

The sin tendency I have to fight against is anger and resentment and withdrawal from Scott. I really don't want to do that. Scott knows this has been too much, neither one of anticipated how demanding the schedule would be, he's not going to do it again next year, so why make all of us miserable? I don't want to punish Scott with my bad attitude, and I don't want to prove that I am right about this being too much. It is what it is... how will I let God in? How will I let God use this to make me more like Him? How will I trust Him in this? How will I partner with God to love Scott in this? I'm choosing God.

Deuteronomy 10: 20, 21: "'You shall fear the Lord our God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. He is your praise and He is your God...'"

Thankful for friends who seek God

Today I am feeling so thankful for friends who love and follow God.

Today Scott was feeling disgruntled and tired and grumpy and frustrated, mostly about some work stuff. I was gone this morning, and by the time I got home Scott had changed. He was at peace. I could just tell immediately. I asked him what was different. He said he just lost focus for a bit - and he remembered to put his eyes on the Lord, and it's going to be okay.

A friend just called to give me an update on something she had asked me to pray about. She was having a really bad attitude about a situation, and she was really frustrated and just vented some yesterday and asked for prayer.

And then this morning she did something incredible - instead of hanging on to that crummy attitude, instead of choosing to sin, she humbled herself this morning and fell on her face and told God she was just desperate for HIm. She knew that she needed to change her attitude but He was going to have to come through - and boy did He. The situation she was involved in had a good outcome and i could just hear in her voice the joy she found in obeying God!

Then the other friends who inpsired me are the Whalens. Marybeth's blog- see sidebar- is one of my favorites because some days it's about her every day life - which is very different from mine, and other days it's about more weighty matters.

The day that really stood out to me was "About paying off our college loan" on 2/14. her husband Curt blogs sometimes and she's got a link that day to his comments about their debt. It just moved me to tears because of their faithfulness to God. They could have taken an easier way out probably, they could have said this obedience is too hard - but they didn't. Step by step they have been faithful in paying off their debt.

So thank you my dear friends for your faithful example of following the Lord, of pressing into Him, knowing that He is the source of all we need and all we want to be. These friends are an example to me of Phillipians 4: 8,9: "Finally brethren, whaever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."

Happy Valentine's Day!

No, this is not my own dog in such an undignified pose, but it looks remarkably like jenna. It just cracked me up that someone would go to such lengths for v-day!

Today I want to remind you that you are infinitely loved by God. Here's some verses to really soak in and really, really, meditate on how much God loves you now and forevr!

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God, and such we are. 1John 3:1

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the other people... but becaused the Lord loved you. Deut. 7:7

The Lord has loved you with an everlasting love jeremiah 31:3

"Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands" Isaiah 49:16

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" John 3:17

Nothing can separate us from God's love! Romans 8:38-39

Big Butts

There's always a Tyler story. This past Sunday as we were getting ready for church, Tyler told me about this tv commercial he saw. He told me that there was a lady in a dress and she was asking the man if her butt looked big in that dress.

I saw this as an opportunity to teach tyler the ways of women. I said to him, "Tyler if a lady ever says that to you in your lifetime, the correct is always no. Just say no."

And then with a little smile, he said to me, "like I shouldn't tell you your butt looks big in those pants because it does."

so there. sigh. and yes, my butt is big:) A few weekends ago I went away with my good friend Karen - who is maybe a size two, by the way - and we agreed that one of the biggest differences about being in your forties as opposed to earlier years is that everything shows up - if you eat a cookie, it shows up; if you don't drink enough water, it shows up on your face, etc...

So I've worked out several times this week. Leigh's blog - see my sidebar has a good blog about weight - she said call overeating what it is - sin! It's a good one if you want to check it out.

I'll post a photo here of karen. We went away to the mountains just the two of us. What fun. We've known each other since college days - 25 years. We loaded the car with enough stuff for two weeks, just in case we got snowed in, which unfortunately we didn't. We turned a 3 1/2 hour drive into a 7 hour drive by stopping to shop along the way. We sat by the fire, read mags, watched movies, ate cookies and nachos, and talked and laughed. We both actually did some writing - see her on my sidebar, Karen Rinehart, author of Bus Stop Mommies column. Life is good when you have a good and old friend.

No footholds

Yesterday afternoon it felt like Satan had set up camp in my house. By late afternoon, the seven year old was crying in his room where he was having a timeout; the twelve year old was teary and more dramatic than he normally is; and I wanted to cry!

I thought for a little bit about what on earth had gotten us to that point, and soon I remembered that it was plain and simple spiritual attack. I am speaking this Sunday and it seems each time the enemy (i'm going to call him stupid like chris nole in california does) finds a new way to create some chaos in my life.

So I just said no, stupid is not getting a foothold in this house. Not in our thoughts, not in our emotions, not in our actions. So I gathered the boys around, we held hands, and I prayed for God to be our warrior, to surround us and Scott with a hedge of protection, and to fight off stupid.

So then we pressed on and went about our business - homework, laundry, dinner. Things didn't turn around immediately - but eventually they did! Scott got home from a three day trip earlier than I expected - thank you Lord! and we had a sit down family dinner.

Then Scott got out old videos because he's getting ready to convert them to dvd. We gathered around and watched videos of times when the boys were little and it just tickled us all! We were laughing and giggling and our hearts were transformed!

God really answered that prayer. Thank you, Lord.

Snow Day

We got real snow in Charlotte! About two inches. It was so pretty. Since I grew up in south Florida, snow is still a big, big thrill to me! The kids got to stay home from school and the best part was that Scott was off work, too. Thank you, God! Tyler and the dogs immediately went out to play in the snow. It was fun to see all the neighborhood kids having snow ball fights and building snowmen.

One of the best parts of the day was just sitting on the couch and catching up with my husband. What a wonderful man I am married to. It is such a huge blessing in my life to be married to someone who is my best friend, who shares the same goals and priorities, someone who loves God and loves me and the boys.

One of the things we've been talking about some over the past year is Scott's love of coaching and working with young people in basketball. He is just so good at it and has such a passion for it. He is one of the commissioners for our community league and he helps coach at Zach's school. He loves doing that, but sometimes he wonders about going back to teaching and coaching. We were both teachers for many years so we know that along with some great days of feeling like you're really having an impact on young people, you have just as many ordinary days where you think what am I doing? Maybe God has gifted him this way to raise up our two sons, and just to do the other stuff part time.

And the other thing is he loves being a pilot and he has an awesome job with a great company. So we're just praying and he said he's just being still and waiting to hear from God.
psalm 46:10 Be still and know....

As for me and my dreams - I really want to continue to speak more, to write another book - hopefully I'll hear back from Harvest House soon about some book ideas. When I am writing and speaking for God, there's just a sense of rightness that feels better than anything else i've ever done.

So it was fun just to catch up with Scott and to talk about our dreams and to pray. We took the new truck out in the snow later and went out to dinner. There was not a soul on the roads! I love the way the South shuts down for a little snow. To Scott who's from Minnesota it's pretty funny.