My Day

I had a great day today! My very favorite thing about my job is being out of the office and actually talking face to face with my clients. I was able to do that ALL day today. It was awesome. AND I got to do that while enjoying the company of another sales rep. Normally, we reps work individually, but today the boss had asked us to go out together, so I was teamed up with Shelly, and we had a very fun and productive time together.

After work I had to take Maren to gymnastics. She went into her class for an hour, and I sat outside, enjoyed the weather and read my new Max Lucado book (referenced in yesterday's post). I cannot tell you how much this book is ministering to me. I really, REALLY like it, and don't just like it, but it's helping me. As my friend Debbie Ballard says, "God knows what we need, when we need it..." I too have found that to be true. What a personal God.

We came home, had dinner (leftovers, and/or whatever we could find to eat) visited with Tom and Darla (Denny's sister and brother-in-law). The kids and Denny went swimming, then we jumped on the trampoline, and then took the kids to DQ for some ice cream. Though that sounds like alot, it was all actually a very relaxing and fun time!

Today's Sunday School Class

Today, I shared with our Sunday School class about how my attitude has been less than stellar at work lately. I do pretty good, unless I’m just OVERWHELMINGLY busy, and in those moments, I don’t do so well. I ran across this book by Max Lucado titled “Every Day Deserves a Chance”…and it’s about how to enjoy even the not so enjoyable days! I bought the book solely for chapter 3. Chapter 3 talks about our attitudes and it starts out like this…

Excerpts from the diary of a dog:

8am Oh boy, dog food…,my favorite!
9:30am oh boy, a car ride, my favorite!
9:40am oh boy, a walk, my favorite!
10:30am oh boy, another car ride…my favorite!
12pm oh boy, the kids…my favorite! (and it goes on and on)

Then it has this…Excerpts from the diary of a cat:

Day 283 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat while I’m forced to eat dry cereal. I’m sustained by the hope of escape and the mild satisfaction I derive from ruining a few pieces of furniture. Tomorrow, I may eat another house plant. I attempted to kill my captors this morning by weaving through their walking feet. Nearly succeeded. Must try this strategy at the top of the stairs…(and it goes on)

The day of a dog. The day of a cat. One content, the other conniving. One at peace, the other at war. One grateful, the other grumpy. SAME HOUSE. SAME CIRCUMSTANCES. SAME MASTER. Yet two entirely different attitudes. Which diary reads more like yours?

Anyway, we talked about this in SS, and we shared some struggles, and spoke of the verse “this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” BE GLAD IN IT. BE GLAD IN IT. BE GLAD IN IT. Not when it gets over. Not when it’s passed. BUT IN IT!

I cracked up when I got home and saw that our cat, Emma, was all nestled up beside this scripture. It topped off our SS class perfectly, and so I had to share it with you all. It’s as if Emma’s saying, “I’m trying to be better…look, I’m getting as close to scripture as I can get….”

I too am trying to be better. Thank God his mercies are new every morning.

Unfailing Love

There is a song that has totally resonated with me today. In fact, I've had it on "repeat" all day long in my car. It's called "unfailing love". I LOVE IT! It's on Chris Tomlin's "Arriving" CD. Though this is an extremely popular CD, I'd never heard it until today. (By the way, Mom, since I know you read this, I should tell you that I've got your Chris Tomlin CD, but I didn't take it...Denny did. Oh yeah, and I also have your Janet Paschal CD...I really like it too! And while I'm confessing, we also have a couple of your DVD movies, but I'm not sure which one's)

Anyway, if you get a chance to listen to that CD or song...it's a good one!

My Devotion this Morning...

After writing the post about Joshua’s devotion yesterday, I thought my own devotion this morning was very interesting…very timely. I love how God seemingly, often, orchestrates my quiet time.

I’ve been reading through a series of devotions that Michael Card has written from the book of Job. If you’ve ever struggled with how a faithful God could allow those terrible things to happen to Job, then you too would probably benefit from these devotions.

Is it possible that God’s best show of faithfulness is not based on his provision…but his presence? Below is my devotion today…written by Michael Card and published in “A Daily Walk in the Word”

THE FACE OF FAITHFULNESS
Who is God for you? What should His faithfulness look like? Is He the predictable, theological Entity, frozen on the throne? Or could He possibly, unimaginably, be the God we meet in Job, the God we see in Jesus, who descends from the throne room where He has been dealing with the accusations of Satan. He shows up, having been moved there by Jobs’ tears and ours.

Who is Jesus for you? How is faithfulness written on His face? Is He merely the caricature of man-made Christianity, or might He be the very image of the God whose disturbing faithfulness to us looks like Incarnation? Could it be that He came not to wave the magic wand and make the cancer go away, but to enter into our sufferings? Could it possibly be true that the best show of His faithfulness is not the healing or the unexpected financial help, but the unthinkable thruth that God has chosen to be with us through it all? Could it be that the miracle is not His provision, but His presence? (I love that...)

Ask yourself, how did God speak of His faithfulness? What are the words He most often used in both the Old and New testaments to describe what it would look like? Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you (Deut. 31:6; Hebrew 13:5). The dwelling of God is with men and women, and he will live with them (Rev. 21:3; Exodus 25:8).

But still, author Walter Brueggemann was right when he wrote, “He is not the God we would have chosen.” But neither could we have dreamed up nor imagined such a God; a God, the immediacy of whose presence is incarnate in us by His indwelling Spirit. A God who is committed to completing this act of indwelling us, of living in and through us. It is His deepest desire. It is the greatest of all His wordless miracles and yet we are unsatisfied with Him and want more. He is not the God any of us would have chosen but, as Brueggemann marvelously concludes, He is the God who has chosen us…

Dat Boy O Mine

This weekend we decided to buy all of our kids devotional books. We had a family devotion book, but because the age range is so wide between our children, it wasn't always suitable for each of their varying ages.

So, we bought Will one that I think was just called "Grace", and is a composition of various writers. We bought Maren one called "Chick Chat", and we bought Joshua one for pre-schoolers.

Last night I read Josh's to him...the title of this particular day's devotion was called "satisfied", and it was all about being satisfied with what you have. As soon as we were done he excitedly exclaimed, "read another one, read another one." I said "no, I told you before we started that we would only read one each day." to which he again replied, "read another one, read another one." I thought to myself, this is good, I can now relate the devotion to his current behavior, and that he should be satisfied that we read just one. Let me just tell you, that did not sink in at all, as he continued to repeatedly say, "read another one!" So, I read another one.

I just thought it was kind of humorous that his first devotion was on being "satisfied", and he seemingly didn't even catch a glimpse of what it was talking about...however, I'm very excited that he's excited about me reading them to him!

Upcoming Ministry Events

In case you're just sitting around looking for something to pray for...here are some upcoming events that either the praise team or myself are involved in...(I really would appreciate your prayers..)

**Saturday, May 12th....Marshall Baptist Church Mother Daughter Banquet (just me)

**Sunday, May 27th...Global Day of Prayer...Community Service....courthouse lawn 2pm (PT)

**Saturday, July 14th, 6pm...Kirk Talley Concert...Millcreek Park (just me for now)

**Saturday, July 28th...Downtown Marshall...(PT)

More Blogs!! (I'm so excited!)

Hey Blogging Buddies!!!

I have found a couple more blogs that you might be interested in. One is the Living Proof Ministry Blog (Beth Moore). The other is Travis Cottrell's blog...Travis often leads worship for Beth. Anyway, I'm adding those to my side bar...scroll down and you'll find them on the left.

Love you.

Country Girl

Our daughter LOVES country music...if you're someone who's known me for a while, you will know that I LOVE that!! It makes me proud! Even though our praise team doesn't do country music, it's probably my first musical love. I've always liked the fact that the people are real...especially the "old time" country music singers. Yeah, I know all the jokes, "you know what you get when you play a country music song backwards? ya get your house back, your wife back, your truck back...yadayadayada".

One of the groups that Maren and I are excited about is "Emerson Drive". If you haven't heard them yet, they're worth a listen. If you click here it will take you to their website, and in the upper left corner you can listen to their current hit single titled "moments". I've actually only heard two of their songs, but I really like both of them.

We were in Nashville last weekend for Easter, and that particular group was at the Opry along with alot of other great talent...we strongly considered going, but it was going to cost approximately $200 for all of us to go, so we opted out, and watched it "live" on GAC.

By the way, while we were in Nashville I would swear that I ran into Mindy Haws coming out of the bathroom at a movie theatre. We passed each other SOOO quickly that by the time my brain processed the "hey, I think that was Mindy" thought, she was long gone! For those of you who know Mindy, but may have lost track of her, you can find out about her here. She's almost as successful as I am...ra ha ha. Check out her website, and you'll see why I'm laughing about that. And for those of you who have NO idea who I'm talking about...Mindy is someone we grew up with.

Easter Sunday we attended services at Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville. That was awesome. Since I'm up front every Sunday, it was nice to just go and attend. The worship was kind of like a rock concert...complete with fog and lots of lights.

However, there's no place like home, and since I've been gone two Sundays, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's services...

Who Am I?

Who am I and what did you do with Missy? I say that because I have read three books already this year. Normally I don't read three books in an entire year! Reading has grown on me. I used to HATE to read! Everytime I would sit down to read I always felt like I could be doing something else. So, I'm not sure what's up with the sudden reading of books, and I can't promise that I'll read anymore this year, but here's what I've read so far.

"Communicating for a Change" by Andy Stanley. This book is basically about how to prepare and deliver a message. Andy's primary point is that you should just have ONE point, and drive that one point home. I haven't quite wrapped my arms completely around how to do that yet, but I do agree with what he has to say.

"How To Succeed at Being Yourself" by Joyce Meyer. This book was a God send for me. For the past year I've been thinking, I don't want to be a "cookie cutter" Christian....I want to be me. And I want to be all that God wants ME to be. I don't want to compare myself to another, I just want to be free to be me. Joyce (we're on a first name basis) tackles this very well. AND for more info on authenticity, go here, I love what our good bud Jeffrey Noel wrote about this subject.

"Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. I read this book while we were in Florida. Which we're back now, by the way, and we had an awesome trip! Anyway, this book cracked me up. not because it was funny, but because I literally would be reading one paragraph and thinking, "I hate this book", and then the next paragraph I would be crying. It was the strangest thing. Now that I'm done with it, I can tell you that I really liked it. The book was extremely thought provoking for me, and I can see where it would especially speak to people who are unsure about the Christian faith.

Quiet Time

After years of knowing God, I’m still amazed at how He meets me during my quiet time. Sometimes it may be major, and sometimes it’s just very simple. For instance, we’re in Florida right now, woo hoo!! (I'm sure Denny will have more on Florida on his blog) Anyway, as we traveled to Florida, I found myself being very quiet, very reflective. As we spent the first day outside by the water, I still found myself being very quiet and reflective. As I walked by the ocean, I remember just thinking, “Lord, You’re amazing”. The fact that you created this…amazing. (I think that every time I walk by the ocean).

While the family was getting ready to go to dinner, I sat out on the balcony, and opened up the Word of God. I was just thinking about how quiet I’d been when I opened my Bible to Psalm 65, and that’s where God met me as I read this Psalm of David which says, “Silence is praise to you Zion dwelling God. And also obedience. You hear the prayer in it all. We all arrive at your doorstep sooner or later, loaded with guilt, Our sins too much for us. But you get rid of them once and for all. Blessed are the chosen! Blessed the guest at home in your place! We expect our fill of good things in your house, your heavenly manse. All your salvation wonders are on display in your trophy room. Earth-Tamer, Ocean-Pourer, Mountain-Maker, Hill-Dresser, Muzzler of sea storm and wave crash of mobs in noisy riot…far and wide they’ll come to a stop, they’ll stare in awe, in wonder. Dawn and dusk take turns calling, “Come and worship.”

Father, dawn and dusk do indeed take turns calling “come and worship”…in my silence, I worship you, as I reflect, I reflect upon you, as I gaze at your creation, I stand amazed by you.

(photo by Denny)