Good Weekend

Reasons I had a good weekend...

LSU baseball game/date night with the hubs Friday night....

Beautiful warm weather Saturday afternoon for bubbles and sidewalk chalk with the munchkin.... (after a family lunch at Voodoo BBQ)

Chaperoned the TWIRP dance at school Saturday night... I *heart* my kiddos

(Me and D'Shea)

(Kelli, me, Jenna)

(Me with Will-- good grief, I'm short)

And then today- grocery shopping, nap, church tonight!

Good weekend? GREAT weekend!

Perspective

I had these verses underlined in my Bible....

"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy." Colossians 1:17-18

and this note written next to them....

"Sometimes God's truth wrecks our view of ourselves and puts things back in proper perspective... Where HE is first and we stay out of His way!"

Um... Yeah... How's that for perspective?

Prayers!

One of my favorite parts of my day is second hour (my off hour) when I get to go visit our Community Based classroom. I LOVE THOSE KIDS!! And the teachers! :)

One of my favorites, Alyssa, is having a super important, MAJOR back surgery Friday. Alyssa is the most absolutely precious 17 year old who has lived with cerebral palsy her whole life. Her surgery is going to be extremely difficult, but it should help her SO much in the long run! Please join me in praying for this precious girl as she has her surgery tomorrow! May God give her and her family peace and may He heal her quickly!!

Alyssa and her brother, Brandon, at CHS Prom last year

Alyssa and Carlee at Prom

Lys dancing with Corey

Lys dancing with Brandon

This week...

This week was a long one...

Loss. Grief. Frustration. Watching "my" kids deal with emotions and make decisions I wish they'd never have to make. (Try listening to three 18 year olds try to decide what's appropriate to wear to a wake for one of their friends... NOT easy.) Questions. "Why does God...?"

This week was a challenging one...

(See above paragraph, plus...) Trying to be His light. Trying to point to His peace. Relying on Him for strength. Relying on Him for the words to say, or to know when to keep my mouth shut.

This week was full of decisions....

Go on as normal? Change plans? Talk? Stay quiet? Some decisions were well made. Others.... well, lets just say I wish I had a do-over.

This week was full GOOD...

Parker. "My" kids trusting Christ to be their strength. Pretty (no, gorgeous!) weather. The zoo. First crawfish of the year! First flip-flop day of the year. Learning new things about myself and about Him.

This week, I was....

Blessed. Challenged. Extremely emotional. (I mean, who cries watching Wizards of Waverly Place??) Tired. Strengthened. Sinus-y. Filled with His peace. Filled with His joy. Frustrated. Relieved. Loved. Blessed.

This week....

Addendum: HOPE

So after I blogged about HOPE yesterday, I went to church, where we sang this song:

There is nothing like Your love
No exchange for all You gave
To be welcomed into life
So I can know the love that saves

Now forever to belong
To walk with You for all my days
Theres no greater love than this
You are the Author and the Way

This is the sound of the redeemed
Rising up to praise the King
Our HOPE is in You
This is the sound of the redeemed
Rising up to praise the King

Singing glorious glorious One You have saved us
Honor and Power and Praise to the Savior.
You are the Answer; You are the Answer

You come with power come with fire
As we lift Your name on high
And join with all the saints to sing
In bringing Honor to the King.

OUR HOPE IS IN YOU!!! YOU ARE THE ANSWER!! Wow. What power in those words. So even though today was a tough day, and there will be more to come, my HOPE is in HIM!

HOPE

For the past two and a half months, I've been wearing a hot pink "Live-Strong" style bracelet that simply bears the word "HOPE." In the inside of the bracelet, the name of a sweet, beautiful 18 year old girl serves as a reminder of a tragic accident, a journey to recovery, and a startlingly painful loss.

In early December, our school and community reeled at the tragic news that one of our senior cheerleaders had been devastatingly injured in a car accident. Together, the community rallied in prayer, fundraisers for the family, and the overwhelming HOPE that God would do a miracle. And it seemed that He was. As thousands of visitors read updates on a CaringBridge site, we rejoiced as it seemed God was slowly, yet surely making Kelsey whole.

On February 26, He did just that. He made her whole. Just not how we thought He would. So now, as our community mourns the loss of this beautiful young woman, we search for God's purpose in all of this.

I may not understand why God chose to take Kelsey, after it seemed like she was doing so well, but I know one thing... He is in control. Through the last two and a half months, God has done a work in our community that truly only HE could have done. Now, as we stand questioning the circumstances, I am praying that we would not question His faithfulness to us.

Kelsey is whole. In fact, she is far more perfect and beautiful now than she ever was on this side of Heaven. So I'm keeping the hot pink bracelet on my wrist as a reminder to keep that Hope. Hope that God will use this tragedy to draw others to Himself. Hope that I would be His light in this dark time. Hope that we would see that He is still GOOD and His mercy endures.

As Steven Curtis Chapman says in his song "Beauty Will Rise"....

But buried deep beneath all our broken dreams

We have this HOPE

Out of these ashes beauty will rise

And we will dance among the ruins

We will see Him with our own eyes

Out of this darkness new light will shine

And we'll know the joy is coming in the morning...

Beauty will rise!

Things I'm learning lately....

1. He is ENOUGH, period. I have found myself becoming disappointed with people rather easily lately. No one person in particular, just various situations in life. God REALLY convicted me in this area because the problem wasn't that people were necessarily doing things (or NOT doing things, in some cases) to spite me or anything like that. It was that I was relying too much on PEOPLE, and not enough on GOD. By design, PEOPLE are not created to be "enough" in my life. But HE is. I need to focus more on HIM, and less on my expectations and desires of others. Chances are, I was falling short in most of those situations as well.

2. He is not limited by my feeble mind. Another area I've been super convicted lately is not trusting God to work fully in all situations. Well, let me be a bit more specific. I trust Him with things. I believe that He has the power to change any human life. I just sort of put boundaries on what I expect him to be able to do. AND THAT'S SO WRONG. Sometimes, God chooses to work in a situation by having us accept it for exactly what it is, not changing anything about it. Sometimes, He changes tiny details and circumstances in ways that affect bigger things. And sometimes, He TOTALLY steps in and changes things completely around. Any way He chooses to work-- it's for His glory. Who am I to tell Him (or others) how I think He is going to work??? Because I'm probably going to be wrong! I'm probably underestimating Him.

3. Community is a BEAUTIFUL thing. I've had the greatest joy watching the community I am from rally behind several of its own lately. This is one picture of community. An actual physical, demographic community. But it's also a totally perfect picture of a Godly, Biblical community. Stepping in and taking care of your own. No matter the cost. No matter the labor. No matter the reason. Love.

4. I am totally doing what God called me to do. For a while, I secretly struggled with the desire to be a stay-at-home-mom. Not even because I had this burning passion or desire to stay at home with Parker because I thought that was God's plan for our family. But for totally selfish reasons- some big reasons like "Well, all of my friends get to stay at home with their kids and I'm jealous." or "I'm missing out on SO much that I could be doing with Parker." or even ridiculous little things like "I could do more sewing/scrapbooking/napping/blogging/crafting/playdates/etc." I also found myself feeling inadequate up next to some of the women I know who ARE stay at home moms. BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT GOD CALLED ME TO DO! Believe me, if God calls me to stay at home and raise my child (and other children if He chooses to bless us with them), I will totally, wholeheartedly be thankful and gladly transition in to that role. BUT- right now, He has called me to love on some absolutely AMAZING high school students in a public school setting, and I LOVE IT. Sure, some days are super tough and I want to pull my hair out and cry and yell, etc., but for the most part, what I do is a tremendous blessing. My kids are the best- I love them as though they were family. I get to invest in their lives. And hopefully, in the process, I get to be a reflection of Christ, even if I can't BLATANTLY share Christ with them. It truly is the best job in the world.

More later.... this is probably a lot to digest considering my last few posts have been so skimpy/frivolous/non-informational. Ha!