HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

In honor of all who have mothered, are mothering, and who have been mothered, I quote Stasi Eldredge in her book-let, You Are Captivating:

"I briefly want to speak to all women here - not just mothers in the traditional sense of the word. As powerful as the role of mother is, the word mother is much more powerful when used as a verb instead of a noun. Now, not all women are mothers, but as image bearers of God, all women are uniquely called to mother.

As daughters of Eve, all women are gifted to help others in our lives become more of who they truely are - to encourage, nurture, and mother them toward their true selves. In doing this, women partner with Christ in the vital mission of bringing forth life. And all women are life-givers.

The impact on a life that has been seen and called out is dramatic and eternal. The nurturing of life is a high and holy calling and as a woman, it is yours. Yes, it has many shapes and myriad faces. Yes, men are called to this as well. But this calling makes up part of the very fiber of a woman's soul.

You can mother other people's children. In truth, our world needs you to. My friend Lori's house was the center of activity while her girls were still in school. Their friends loved to hang out at her house. She offered them life. She counseled them. She encouraged them. She mothered them with love and strength. She also baked them fabulous treats. She has played and continues to play a major role in many young women's lives, impacting them for good; calling them forth to become who they are meant to be.

We mother each other when we offer our concern, our care, our comfort. We mother each other when we see a need and rise to meet it, whether the need is a sweater for a friend who is chilly, a meal to a struggling family, or a listening ear to a friend who is hurting.

All women are called to mother. And all women are called to give birth. Women give birth to all kinds of things: to books, to churches, or to ministries. To ideas, to creative expressions, to movements. We birth life in others by inviting them into deeper realms of healing, to deeper walks with God, to deeper intimacy with Jesus. A woman is not less of a woman because she is not a wife or has not physically borne a child. The heart and life of a woman is much more vast than that. All women are made in the image of God in that we bring forth life. When we offer our tender and strong feminine hearts to the world and to those we love, we cannot help but mother them."

Happy Mother's Day to all women. May we continue to rise up and answer the call to bring God's healing to this world. Enjoy the day!

~Jen

random thoughts....

Good morning!

I've been tossing around some random thoughts in my brain for the past couple of days (I'm actually amazed, and slightly embarassed, frankly, at the spacious area in which the tossing took place! Hmmm....)

Anywho. Where was I?

Right. Random thoughts. Here we go...

1. I'm pretty much convinced that my heavenly job, for the rest of days, will include changing toilet paper rolls. I will walk through heaven's pearly gates, fall on my face in worship of the Great I AM and hug the neck of my precious Jesus. I am then assuming the next thing I will do is go to the washroom (I wonder how long the trip to heaven will have been? You might as well try - you don't know when you'll get another chance to go...) Anyway. I am assuming that I will walk into the heavenly stalls... and have to change the toilet paper roll. Why, you ask? Because no matter where I go, including but not limited to exotic tropical islands and random public bathrooms, I ALWAYS encounter the empty roll. Not only do I encounter the empty roll, I also encounter the full one.
Sitting.
right.
next.
to.
the empty one.

Why? Why? Whyyyyyyyyy? Why the hate? Where's the justice??

I mean, really. How hard can it be?? You are already just sitting - you don't have anything extremely urgent and difficult to do (ok, unless you happened to partake of my husband's chili, and that's just another post altogether...) How difficult to take the old one off the holder, and put the new one on? I had just raged discussed this with a friend of mine before going on a road trip over the weekend. Sure enough, stopping at a Rite Aid in Elmer, NJ (I know - where's Elmer, NJ??), I acquire the 2 ft. long "this is meant to embarass you" keyholder from the pharmacist to unlock the washroom and step inside to face....the empty roll. And the full one.
Sitting.
right.
next.
to.
the empty one.
This is how I know I'll be changing tp rolls for the rest of eternity.

2. My husband and I make and sell soap and other lovely assundries as a side business. In the shower this morning, I noticed that we have no less than 13 assorted bars of soap in our little shower stall, 15 if you're counting the loofahs.

Having just re-read that, I am now weirded out. Hold on.....

........waiting.....

... Ok, I'm back. Had to add another bar of soap. I mean, how disturbing to have an odd number of soaps. Weird. I mean, that would make me a freak.

Or something.

3. I love Tulip Poplar trees. They defiantly bloom these beautiful flowers that look like they should have grown on a stalk. Kind of like they are rebelling against the tree code and florists all at the same time. Those rebels. And they're all over my back yard.

4. I went to the store yesterday to buy some strappy tanks. Because I brutally burned my chest and arms by sitting outside for .... oh, I don't know.... 3 hours. That's insane. I remember back in the day when I would coat myself in baby oil and lay out. all. day. and not get burned. Maybe whatshisname Al Gore is right. Anyway. Off I go to Kohls to find shirts that will not peel the nerves right off of my skin. Guess what lovlieness I discovered?? I am finally back down to a size large t-shirt. In a strappy tank. Does it not get any better?? I celebrated by buying two of them. And then I got all full of myself and went to try on bathing suits. And then I realized I had done a very bad thing to my newly minted self-confidence and went back the strappy tanks. One day at a time, girlfriend. One day at a time.

5. I am becoming addicted to this blog thing. I LOVE reading about other women's lives, how they parent, how they love the Lord, what new things they are learning. And I realized that, as I read of other's healing and growing, I gather bits of healing and wisdom for myself.
That being said, it is now 12:45 and I now have little time to do the things that should be getting done while I'm blogging. Off to the world of responsibility, dishes, laundry, groceries and ..... strappy tanks!

Have a lovely day, ya'll!

Mother's Day Giveaway!

Wow - I might have a chance to enter the new technological age.
I might be the only one left who still relies on CD's (at least I'm not still with the 8-tracks!) 5 Minutes for Moms is having a Mother's Day giveaway - check it out and see if you can beat me out of the ipod they're giving away.... :0)

This is where the miscellaneous part comes in...

Ok, so my daughter calls me out on the back deck last night from the backyard where she was playing. "I have a surprise for you!" She walks away from the stairs and heads toward the middle of the yard and says "It will only work here." She holds out from behind her back a FULL bunch of freshly picked dandelion puff balls. "I got these for you to make all kinds of wishes!" she says, all proud-like, and then proceeded to blow all those weed-bearing seeds from the puff ball over the empty patch of non-grass that the dog's pee has created. As she's doing this, she's asking me to make wishes.

Decision point: stop the weed propagation madness, or jump in along with her. Decision made.

"I wish for healthy growth!" I tell her. "Good," she says. "Another wish"
And on we went. "I wish to see you get married" "I wish for you to be happy" and then finally, "I wish for you to get inside and wash up for dinner."

Grow, dandelions, grow. I dare you.

Upstairs, I am folding laundry. As I fold a pair of my shorts, Katie asks me if those are Jeff's (DH). "Nope, their mine."
"Oh. 'Cuz their really big"

*sigh*

Life is glamourous, yesindeed.

I spoke to a dear childhood friend this morning, who happens to be Jewish. She is telling me about a family situation and then tells me she had to have a "come to Jesus" meeting with this person.

That struck me as the funniest thing - that, and she always gets her Christmas cards out before I do!
Come to Jesus - oh, that I pray she would!

I love the smell of hyacinth. I planted them in my front garden (which has grown, in spite of my "care"...), and I plucked one the other morning after walking Katie to the bus stop. It's in a vase portable enough to carry with me throughout the house. Love. It.
Thought I'd throw in some information you may not have known about the lovely hyacinth:
*Hyacinths are sometimes associated with rebirth. Coincidence that they bloom around Easter? I think not.
*The prophet Mohammad is reported to have said “If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one and buy hyacinths, for they would feed my soul.” Well, said, well said.

Perhaps this blog is not so miscellaneous after all.

...ok. It probably is.

Have a great weekend!

Thirteen Things about YOUR NAME 1…. It's Jennifer 2. Middle name is your basic Lee, not Leigh, or anything else remotely feminine. Thanks, mom and dad. 3. I think one time I read that Jennifer meant "white wave." Hmmm... yeah, I got nothing on that one. 4. I think Jennifer actually means "loves ice cream and walks along the beach" 5. The Alpha and Omega knew my name before I was born, even before this apparently highly popular name was invented. 6. It is of Welsh origin, and its meaning is "fair one" - meaning, I don't cheat in Monopoly. 7. Some call me Jen 8. I can generally tell someone who has known me since childhood, or is friends with my parents, by which name they call me. 9. That would be "Jenny" 10. I once had the nickname "Pokey" 11. I tend to have a dysfunctional relationship with the clock. 12. My name in high school Spanish class was "Juanita" (pronounced by my teacher as waaaaaah-knee-ta). Would rather have gone with plain, masculinely-spelled Lee, thankyouverymuch. 13. Apparently, it seems as if Jennifer took an exreme nose-dive in popularity between 2004 and 2005 in BC Canada. What gives??

Selfish grief?

Ok, so here I sit, drenched in news coverage about VTech - I am dismayed, shocked, almost numb to reality that one person, so delusional and angry to the extreme, has the ability to dole out such huge portions of grief and fear. The news media is encircling Blacksburg, VA. There were four different candlelight vigils held in four different locations in the DC Metro area, all with news coverage. It is front cover material for People Magazine, breaking news on every channel, headlined on every area newspaper.

And rightly so.

This is tragic. 33 lives violently taken for no reason (and yes, I included the gunman on purpose. The darkness and pain that must have surrounded and invaded him is shameful and inconceivable. He was still a member of God's creation. I am angry on his behalf for the spiritual havoc that was waged on him. I feel for his family. They have lost, too). Unexpected. Hugely unfair. So much pain. So much fear. Unbelievable. Wrong on so many levels.

And yet...

Written in smaller print on an online news web page http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169833/ is information about four bomb attacks that occurred in Baghdad today - 183 killed so far. 183. In one day. That is horrific. 183 names. 183 stories. 183 birthdays that will not be celebrated. 183 smiles that will not be seen again, save photos and memories. And yet, after reading that information, I am not as moved, as shocked, as numb and horrified about this tragedy as I am about the one at Virginia Tech.

Are we ...ok. Am I ....so numb to the constant strife in that land...that I cease to mourn for the lives so violently taken there? Why do the 33 Virginia Tech students and faculty hold all the intensity of grief, and these 183 ... 183 ..people get a mere passing glance by me? They are all innocent victims (except the perpetrators). A mother with her small children, attending to some errand in the city, instantly sabotaged. Terrified. Loss and fear. A father with his son. Suddenly thrown into a war zone not of their making.

Why are we not as moved by their stories? Why did I not see their stories on headlines and news magazines? Obviously, Virginia Tech is local, and Baghdad is not. However...

However... Dear Lord ~ please keep my heart from hardening to the chaos and calamity that surround areas outside of my comfort zone and stomping grounds. May my heart grieve violence against any of your children. The woman with her small children? You know their names. You knew their hopes and dreams. You knew what they had for breakfast. You knew the details of a conversation held between a father and son moments before their world was shattered. Your heart broke for them, too. You hold their tears in the same hands that hold ours here in Virginia. Please don't let me think that my tears are more deserving or significant than theirs. Open my eyes. Widen my heart's horizons to include those I cannot see, those I do not know by name. Please don't let me grow numb to another's suffering.

God, please let my heart beat to Your rhythm, let my eyes see as You see. God, would You please show me the path of compassion and softness. Help me to trust in Your sovereignty, Your justice, Your Truth.

I lift those of Your children who are suffering and struggling under the weight of grief and loss up to You. Isaiah 53:3 tells us that Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. It takes someone who has experienced that depth of grief to be able to know how to comfort someone else in mourning. Who better to know than You? God, we cling to the promise that you will bring beauty from the ashes, and joy from broken hearts. Come, Lord Jesus, and heal our land. And specifically, please heal me, too. I am in need of Your touch. Amen.

Isaiah 61:2-3
The LORD has sent me to comfort those who mourn, especially in Jerusalem. He sent me to give them flowers in place of their sorrow, olive oil in place of tears, and joyous praise in place of broken hearts.