In the movie, “Steel Magnolias” Shelby Lynn said, “Daddy always said that an ounce of pretension is worth a pound of manure”. I try to stick by that quote in all things in my life–so even here in the blog I am going to be honest with the things that God is doing in and with my life.

You know in the bible when it says there will be all kind of seasons in your life–I am the reason those bible verses were written. 🙂 In some aspects it just feels like my life has no balance. It is beyond frustrating. Then I remember Jeremiah 31:3 that says “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” There are seasons–that I am so thankful for—that God uses His loving kindness to draw me back into Him.

I loved the Bible Verse Psalm 34:5 “Those who look to Him are radiant”. In my mid 20’s this verse was just written all over my life. I have always struggled with self image problems, but (other than maybe my wedding day) I have NEVER felt more beautiful than in that period in my life. I had 2 ladies in my life that were constantly praying this verse over me. I was in a cooking class/bible study in addition to being in the Beth Moore Bible Study “Jesus the One and Only”. God’s word was saturated into every aspect of my life. I was single, teaching 1st grade and I had so much time to be with Jesus. I loved it. There is no wonder that Hunter fell in love with me — 🙂 — during this time because I literally was RADIANT. I used every spare second memorizing bible verses, reading His word, praying, and just seeking Him. Now even though my life is so much more fast paced, I cherish the time I used when I was single to seek after Him. I lean on so many of the things I learned back then in my every day life. I often wonder who I would be today without that season of my life!

I saw the same radiance coming from a Chinese student that was baptized on Sunday. He said “I just wanted to turn towards the face of Jesus, and live a holy life”. It was exactly what had been on my heart all week. Maybe that is what being truly Radiant is: looking at Him, following Him even though it’s a sacrifice, and wanting to be more like Him.

Hebrews 12:2 says “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.” I know when we keep our eyes on him we are radiant.

What are you doing this week to put on radiance? I got out my trusty “Jesus the One and Only” bible study and I am gleaning through the words I read, highlighted, underlined, prayed over, and memorized. I am praying for a fresh radiance to be on me this week! I also got a new lip gloss–so that might help too! 🙂

A few years ago when I taught 1st grade, I had an autistic student. Hunter and I were “just friends” (as I like to call it—he calls it year one of dating) and Hunter loved to hear all the crazy stories about my day with this student. In addition to being autistic, this kid was mean. He cussed at everyone, including me, everyday. Finally we called in behavior specialist. She said it would help him if I wore physical signs on my body that stood for desired behaviors.

I walked around the school like a clown with all these signs on my body.

In addition to his bizarre behavior problems he also had a thing for rubbing/patting my behind when he needed something. (All first graders kind of do this—it’s a height thing). I had to wear 2 signs on my hips that had a stop sign on it and an arrow that pointed up to my face.

I seriously would have graduated this boy to 2nd grade if he had looked up and talked to me. He was so focused in what he wanted that he couldn’t take his eyes and mind off of it for even a second to look at me in the face.

We are a “heads down, plow through it” kind of people.

But what would happen in our lives if we just stopped the plowing. Exodus 33:11 says, “And God to Moses face to face, as neighbors speak to one another.”

Before this “face to face” time, Moses seriously put energy and obedience into physically seeking God. He went to the tent and set apart time to be with God. He understood that to be a leader, he had to know God’s heart in an intimate way. Obedience comes along with discipleship in many ways.

This week I have spoken to God in a fresh way. I have realized the greatness of who God is. I have seen His face. I seriously wanted to be where He was. I wanted to spend time alone with Him, and I wanted to know this kind of God intimately.

Psalm 145 says:

I lift you high in praise, my God, O my King! and I’ll bless your name into eternity. Generation after generation stands in awe of your work; Each one tells stories of your mighty acts. Your marvelous doings are headline news; I could write a book full of the details of your greatness.

Could we possible be missing the face of this kind of God because we are consumed in other things?

I’ve always, always been a fan of David in the Bible.  He’s from the old testament and his life so matches up with my own life.  He had such a desire to live a God filled life.  From a young age, he was chosen to do mighty things–both real physical things as well as mighty spiritual things.  You know the story where David killed a giant, but as he grew older David struggled to keep a balance in his life.

Seriously does this sound familiar to you?

It’s my life.  As a teacher, I know that I have the capability to do mighty things physically  for children everyday.  I can change reading levels, increase math scores, create writers that will make us all laugh some day, put fun in the life of a child who thought school was “not fun”.  But I get so stressed so easily with RTI, and AIP, and IEP, and DRA, and TLI, and ESL, and IDEA, and 504, and of course the BIG BM–Benchmark.  It is easy to get stressed out by all of those things, but when I do–it’s my kids that suffer because they do not get my full attention and focus.

I have gone through so many things in my life that I know God plans to use for His Kingdom.  But so many times my spiritual life is hampered by my lack of faith in Him.  In turn I know there are girls and women that I could be helping or edifying in some way but I can’t help them because my own balance is off.

Like I said, David didn’t always have good balance in his life, but in Psalm 16 David is in a really good place and I just love it.  In these verses he just knows how good God is.  When my life is off balance, I desire this kind of relationship.    Oh my, I love it when my heart is this way.  Here are some snip-its from Psalm 16.

I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
Without you, nothing makes sense. 

Day and night I’ll stick with God;
I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.

I’m happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.

Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
I’m on the right way.

It is so weird because there are days where I am happy from the inside out.  I am sure we all have these days where everything is right in the world.  But, do you ever have days when balance and happiness is that last thing you possess?  I have lots of great days, but there are days–when I am depressed, when I am stressed out, when I am not happy about the person God made me to be, not happy with Hunter, or my friends, or my family, or my job–just basically a grumpy person.  Honestly on days when I am feeling that way David’s song about how he’s happy from the inside out just seems like the biggest crock to me.

I have to constantly be reminded of how I need balance in my life–for my own personal good–and because I know that I affect the lives of other people.  In those moments where I want what David had in Psalm 16, but I am SO far away from it–I read this verse.

It’s from 1 John 3:1.  What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. With God in me the world might not even recognize me, because it has no idea who He is or what He’s up to.

What do you do when you know what you want, but you seem so far away from it?

Was my last blog post really 2 months ago?  Seems like yesterday.  Honestly!

Well after my last blog post in July (!) I rested a little and got ready for teaching 3rd grade.  At the first of August, Candy and I were D-O-N-E waiting on the floors to dry after their famous last coat of wax….so we broke into the school a day before we were supposed to!  Yikes.  Criminals, we know!

I spent all of August getting ready for my new students.  That is ALWAYS such an exciting time.  Open House was amazing.  I had all my parents show up except for two, and one of those parents were out of town.

For the past 25 years, I have either been attending school or getting ready for school and I have always had “THE FIRST DAY JITTERS”.  So, the night before school started, I felt sick–but brushed it off.  I kept getting more and more sick to my stomach to the point of just being balled up on the bed when Hunter got home from church.  So off we went to the ER–YES I SPENT THE NIGHT BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED IN THE ER, all night!!!!

To catch you all up on life since the night in the ER–I’m going to do the bulleted version!

• Turns out I was having a gallbladder attack and my gallbladder was diseased and full of gallbladder stones.

• I met with my family doctor and then the surgeon, and they both said it would have to be removed ASAP.  My surgeon said to be prepared for open surgery because my GB was so diseased.  Sad, sad, sad day for me!

• I begged my doctor to do all he could do to keep from opening me up because the recovery time is SO long.  I reminded him that teachers can’t really miss school, especially in August and September.

• I had the surgery on September 2nd.  When he started the laproscopic surgery he found a large hernia behind my belly button that had been developing for years that he repaired.

• Then he got to the gallbladder.  My liver had completely wrapped around my gallbladder like a pig in a blanket.  He said he had NEVER seen anything like it.  So, it was a tough surgery with just the gallbladder, not even counting the hernia.

• He said all during surgery he kept thinking he was going to have to do the open surgery.  Lucky for me, I reminded him like sixteen times I did not want that done.  HA!!!  The whole surgery was done laproscopically.  YAY.  Big time happy.

• Here’s a picture of what the liver/gallbladder combo is supposed to look like with the gallbladder just kinda hanging out under the liver.

• 

• There goes planning to go back to work a couple of days after surgery.

• It’s been almost two weeks now.  Last night, Hunter said my healing progress was like a D+.  I whined, and he said “ok it’s like a C-“.

• I can’t wear real pants because of the sutures healing the hernia, and the stitches on the outside.  I can’t sit down because of the same thing.  I can’t stand because I get tired and my stomach hurts from standing, so basically my only option is laying down or reclining.  Yikes.

• I’ve never been more ready to go back to work.  I am planning to go back on Thursday so I will teach for two days and then I will have two days off for the weekend!  On Thursday it’ll be two full weeks since the surgery.

Well, that’s about it on catching you up.

There have been some really great things about the surgery, well besides seeing again how great my husband is at taking care of me, mainly just one.  I have been able to pray for my children like crazy.  Literally at reading time, I pray for them.  During math time, I am praying they supernaturally learn how to be great rounders.  Plus I am just praying that they know and understand how much God loves them.  Man, I have had some amazing times during the last two weeks praying for my co-workers and my students.

I have learned that I have a problem with trying to control my life.  I am learning to loosen up my grip.  That life will go on without me in the classroom.  Life will go one with the dishes in the sink.  Life will go on even if I can’t control it.

It’s been a hard lesson.  Anyone have any tips on how to give up control???

I mean a day that just starts out rough and then gets worse?  A day when your hairs a mess and your clothes are not ironed (which in my mom’s eyes is pretty much the cardinal sin).

Well it is summer, and one can hardly have a bad day in the summer–well teachers anyway.  But hard days are sure to come.

I hate when I have bad days people will say “well the bible says count it all joy when you have trials”…so I am going to stay FAR away from that little scripture!

I have a message bible that I read when I am NEEDING a word from God after a hard day. These are some of my favorite scriptures from Psalm 16. Verse 8 is really my favorite. The message says it this way “Day and Night I’ll stick with God. I’ve got a good thing going, and I am not letting GO!” NIV says it like this “I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Ok here are the verses:

1-2 Keep me safe, O God, I’ve run for dear life to you.

I say to God, “Be my Lord!”

Without you, nothing makes sense.

5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only.

And now I find I’m your choice!

You set me up with a house and yard.

And then you made me your heir!

7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake

is confirmed by my sleeping heart.

Day and night I’ll stick with God;

I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.

9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,

and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.

You canceled my ticket to hell—

that’s not my destination!

11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,

all radiant from the shining of your face.

Ever since you took my hand,

So on Kelly’s Korner this week, she is doing a Show Us Your Single Boys post.  So I am nominating our friend Sam!

He was a groomsman at our wedding.

An award winning sports editor for a newspaper.

And just a great guy!

I could go on and on about Sam–but I thought that I would do something better!  Here is a link to his BLOG.  Yes, girls he is a blogger!

http://samjpierce.wordpress.com

Have fun checking out our friend Sam!  🙂

Just kidding!

My friend Kendall does make some pretty amazing cakes–including a yummy cake for me this year.  We have always joked around that she should start her own business.  One of our friends said it could be called “Kake’s by Kendall”.  I vomited in my mouth, then said “NO!   I hate when people arrange real spellings to match their name for a business.”

My other hatred–when I taught 1st grade I had to have the lesson on “gas company spelling vs. how you really spell the word”  UGH!

Back to Kendall.  We grew up together in church.  Our lives changed, and I went to college.  Then she went to college.  At the end of her college career, we started praying for each other and meeting to pray about specific needs.  Time passed again, she went to Thailand in the spring and beginning of summer.  While she was gone, Hunter and I started going to Central Baptist–where she went to church.  She came home right before our wedding.  Now we all go to church together and Hunter and Kendall work together in the college ministry.  Pretty amazing when you think about the big picture.

Kendall is not only a tastey cake maker–but she is an awesome photographer.  We had her shoot some pictures of the grandkids for my mom and dad for Christmas.   Between a baby, a toddler, and a five year old–it was quite the hard to get them all in one picture.  🙂 Here are a few of our favs!

Here are a few others that she has done that I love:

I love, love, love this girl.  If you are in Jonesboro and you are needing a great photographer–there is none better than Kendall Moss.  🙂

If you want to see more of her stuff just go here:  http://www.facebook.com/kendall.moss

This weekend I went with my parents to Heber Springs, which is where my parents spend their weekends in the summer.  It was a fun and eventful weekend and I am so glad I was able to go with my parents.   My mom had planned a little weekend for her family, so her mother, sister, brother and his wife, etc.

I didn’t snap one picture.  Mostly because it was 100+ degrees.  My mom and dad are so cute in their RV, I wish I would have!  They recently bought a boat, so not only are they RV people, they are also boaters.  How cute is that?  These are somethings we did via google images, since I didn’t take any real pictures!

It all looks fun huh?  It was a great weekend with my parents, but boy was it hot!  🙂

On Kelly’s Korner, she is doing proposal stories.  I am so excited to share my story!

Ha ha ha!  No, it did NOT happen like this.  Thank the Lord.  I would’ve died in my seat!

A few weeks ago on Kelly’s Korner I shared how Hunter and I met.  You can read that post here.

Ok, so onto proposal night!  It happened on February 14, 2008—Valentine’s Day and Hunter’s Birthday.  Hunter hates that his birthday is on Valentine’s Day because his birthday is trumped by the day of love!  🙂 I had graduate class that night so Hunter and I were going celebrate both Valentine’s Day and his birthday later in the week–on separate nights of course!

We drove to the house and I noticed lights on in the house.  I am terrible at turning out lights, so I just figured I forgot to turn a light off.  I walk into the house and this is what I saw.  Take. my. breathe. away.

There was a little foot washing station, where he washed one foot.  Then he sweetly proposed.  I was shocked–not thinking at all that he would propose on his birthday.  I of course said y-e-s!!!!  Unfortunately the other foot never got the rub down–ha!  Fortunately, I got to marry my best friend and a man that makes me more and more happy as the days go by!

It was one of my sweetest memories.

Lots of our friends got to see the ring before he proposed and participate in the proposal!  He said he carried the ring around in his pocket for about a week before he proposed and showed it to everyone he saw.  🙂

Did you get to see it before me??

Hello friends.  Sorry it’s been a while–I’ve been in complete summer mode which basically means doing a little house work, sleeping in, and going to eat lunch with my husband every day!  It’s a hard knock life, huh?

Here’s a little cartoon on insecurities–if my only insecurity was my height, I’d be a happy woman.  HA!

I mentioned this earlier in my blog, but in claiming God’s power over my life, I am writing about it again.  There is something powerful in claiming where we are.

This has been one of the most insecure years of my life.  I think it is because we are going through so many changes–good ones, but changes in our lives.  2 years ago Hunter and I got married–and let me just say that is an adjustment in itself.  Also 2 years ago we started going to Central Baptist Church–a church that I wholeheartedly love!  But again there was a fair amount of changes with moving to Central.  Also, I started teaching a new grade at a new school.  I felt like I was constantly having to prove myself to the staff at the school and a whole set of parents that knew nothing of me or my teaching. I had a parent tell me that I was the worst teacher that their child has ever had…it was a sad, sad day.  Fast forward nine months later and the parent L-O-V-E-S me to the point of maybe an obsession.  HA.

There have been other things in my life  that have caused insecurities but at the root of it I have to remember that being insecure is just as bad as someone that is over secure in who they are.  Both behaviors take away from God’s power in our lives.

All of that to say that things they are a changin’!  I am claiming good things for my life and I am desiring for insecurity to NO longer have a foot hold on my life.  Because there is power in admitting where you are, I doubt God and have insecurities in areas in my life probably 20 times a day.  A good friend told me that I needed to read through 1 John noting all the times confidence in Christ is listed–I’ll save this for another blog.

I found some verses that I would like to share with you about what God is doing in our lives.  I want to get such a hold on this insecurity because GOD is doing such amazing things in our lives that I don’t want to miss out on one tiny part of it.  I am not kidding.  Hunter and I are about to enter one of the most exciting times in our lives.  No we are not pregnant.  I know Mimi (Hunter’s grandmother) is thinking that.  (Hey Mimi, I promise you will not found out over the blog!  Love ya!)

Ok, on the exciting verses!  These verses claim that there is something new inside of me and it was put there so that I could praise God.

The verses are from Isaiah 43:19-21.  God says:

I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’
Because I provided water in the desert,
rivers through the sun-baked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
the people I made especially for myself,
a people custom-made to praise me.

Don’t you just love when God does something brand new in your life?  There is nothing that makes me more excited than that!

What is the brand new thing that is happening in you?