Bring It On!

            Flu season strikes again, and because of that I am temporarily out of my mind. I find myself struggling with the fears and “what if?” scenarios that tend to keep me up at night, staring at the ceiling, wondering if my kids will be all right or if I should just keep them in seclusion until sometime in April.

          This is nothing new for me. It happens every single year around this time. I am a fearful person by nature, and my kids are extra-vulnerable to the flu virus which is new every year and not covered by their medication. This is not a good combination. But there’s one more problem: I wrote a book about trusting the Lord. If anyone should know better than to worry, it should be me, right? Haven’t I learned the lessons that I myself am trying to teach to others? So why am I still struggling with the same old thing? I thought I was cured! Am I just a big hypocrite?

            This problem bothered me so much that I went to a friend of mine for counsel. She suggested that I pray for verses that would offer comfort and guidance for this specific situation. I did that, and what God showed me was 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

            Wow. So I guess I am not perfect, and that’s probably not shocking to anyone. But I am just the kind of person that God wants to use to demonstrate His awesome grace, power and strength. How much grace is evident when a perfect person is behaving perfectly? None. Is it easy to see God’s handiwork in the life of someone who has never struggled or overcome any obstacles? No. God uses the weak to demonstrate His strength because it is so much more obvious that it is Him at work in our lives, and not just us using our own strength. Take it from me, the weakest of all when it comes to certain things like worry and lack of trust. Why do you think God has assigned me to the specific area of “Trust Ministry?” Because it is my biggest struggle! (I see what you’re doing here, God.)

            We all have struggles that we never seem to overcome—those old thorns in the flesh, so to speak. But consider the fact that maybe this is the very area where God wants to use you to minister to others someday. The only people who can truly understand others’ struggles are those who have “been there”.

            So what do I say to flu season, or any other fear that threatens to distract me from the ministry to which God has called me? I say, “BRING IT ON!”

 

Not that we have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at our goal, but we press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us. (Phil 3:12, emphasis/edits mine)

 

Being a REAL woman isn't always glamorous

This past weekend, my husband, kids and I traveled north to the family cabin, which is on a small, remote northern Minneosta lake. I didn't bring my makeup kit since I was supposed to be "roughing it." I failed to remember that Bart and I were going back home that Saturday night for a wedding, and we were going straight from the cabin to the wedding, and I wouldn't have time to stop at home to shower or make myself pretty. At least I had a dress along.
After checking the mirror, I noticed a rather ugly, black hair sticking straight out of my chin. Of course I didn't have my tweezers (they are in my makeup bag). I asked my sister-in-law, "Do you have any tweezers...please!?" She did not. I had no scissors, no nail clippers. What was I going to do? I was already going to the wedding without washing my hair. The last thing I wanted to do was go with a huge black hair sticking out of my chin.
I harnessed some of my back-to-the-basics spirit and made do with what I could find in the kitchen drawers. There was a pair of grilling tongs in the utensil drawer. Would they work? They were so big, and the hair was so small. But I tried it. And...it worked! I pulled that hair out and went on to try a few more while I had the tongs out. They don't put tips like that in Glamour magazine.

Woman's Best Friend

Ahh, Kulta... what can I say? It's been a tough two months. For someone like me, who never liked dogs, you sure turned me into quite a dog-lover; a one-dog-lover, that is. Only you. In my need to "fix" things when life gets a bit too difficult, I called your mother's owner yesterday, trying to see if I could purchase another one of her offspring. Hey, if I can't have you, I can at least try to get the next best thing, right? Unfortunately, she was hit by a logging truck two years ago. That's Minnesota for you. You ended up with Lyme disease and your mom was hit by a logging truck. Remind me why I live here again? If I believed in cloning, I would have you cloned in a second. But, then again, a two-headed version of you wouldn't quite come close to the real thing, so maybe I'll just stick to my convictions on that one. All I can say is, we gave it our best shot. I guess I never really meant it when I said I would never stick my hand in a dog's mouth, huh? For a while I was popping ten pills a day into your mouth. I did it all out of love, Kulta. I wish I could say I'll see you again soon, but since you're a dog, I'll just have to say... you were the best and we'll miss you forever. Bye, girl.

It took me a year to write this!

This better be good, right? Well it won't be. It took me FOREVER to create a google account and get into my blog again. What a pain! Well, I better post a picture to make this even worth looking at! I am pretty annoyed. Ok, I just tried to add pictures to this post and it didn't work! AHH! Nothing is going my way. I hate my blog! Have a nice day.

Really Exciting Untrue Story

I have not had much to write about lately...for many reasons, so I have not added any new posts (not having internet access for 2 months didn't help). But then I had a dream that this really awesome thing happened and I couldn't wait to write about it on my blog. Finally, something worth writing about! But then it turned out to be a dream! I was so disappointed. But, I have decided to write about it anyway.
One day I was at my mom's house in Ohio for some reason, and on the front porch there was a deer! Then the deer put on a helmet and got onto a motor bike and was doing pop-a-wheelies all over the yard. It was so awesome! I know there was more, but I forgot most of it because I didn't have internet access for so long.
The End.

Happy 1st Birthday, Ethan

Ethan,
Today is your first birthday. It wasn't exactly how I had planned to spend it, 12 months ago when you were born. I worried so needlessly about the fact that you were born on a holiday. I didn't want you to have to share your birthday with anything. I worried that you'd never get to have your birthday party on your actual birthday. Now we won't even have a party for you each year so I worried about that for nothing. I would give anything to have you here and have to celebrate your birthday on the 5th or the 6th, but that wasn't God's plan for you.
I am so proud of how you fought so hard while you were here and how you went through your last few weeks without complaining. I know it must not have been that comfortable for you. I can't wait until the day that I get to see you again and maybe hold you (who knows if you'll still be a baby or a grown up when I see you again). I hope you will remember me. If many years pass before I get to see you, please don't forget me, ok? I love you so much. You will always be my precious baby boy.
Love, Mommy

WARNING! For Women Only!

If you are a man I am telling you now not to read any further. If you do, you cannot blame me or think that I am inappropriate, because I TOLD YOU SO ahead of time. There. With that said, here is my little story.
I had been having severe cramps for three days and it is nowhere near time for my period to start (men...there is still time to back out). So, I made an appointment with my OB/GYN for Thursday. Then, before I left, Andrew's hem/onc doctor from the U of M called and said they need more blood drawn, so I needed to go to the lab. I was like, "That's good, because I'm on my way to the clinic right now!" Good timing. So, I took Andrew to my gynecologist appointment. I was concerned that it was endometriosis, because I read about it in a medical book and it sounded like what I had. My doctor did a pelvic exam and felt all around and said, "If that was endometriosis, you would be screaming right now. " So, I guess that's not what it was. I was still lying down when Andrew came over and lifted up my paper sheet thing and said, "Mommy, let me see your hole." I was mortified. The doctor looked at me like, "What?" I was like, "I don't know where he's coming up with this!" He must know that everyone has a "hole" for going to the bathroom. AHH! So anyway, we left and went to the lab and Andrew's lab order fax had not come in so we had to come back the next day. On Friday, I showed up at the registration desk and the girl there remembered us from the previous day. She said, "oh, you're back again?" And Andy went up to her and said, "Mommy have a hole." Thank you, Andy. I am now humiliated. I told her that he came to my gynecologist appoinment the day before and that he was NEVER going to one again.