Matters of the Heart

I've been out of the office and on the road the past two days, which has given me much time to "think". That can be a dangerous thing. :-)

I have had something on my heart for a little while now, and I can't shake it. That's how the Lord seems to work with me. It's not a new thing for Him to do. In fact, yesterday, as I was driving, I was recalling that He has dealt with me this way since I was in high school. He has called me to intercessory prayer, and He will call some "thing" or some "one" to my mind, and I pray for them until He says we're done.

You would think I'd be use to it by now, but every time He does it I tend to go into a mode of trying to understand what He's doing. Trying to reason it out. And when I can't reason it out, I either have to process it or I can repress it. So today as I was driving I was thinking, "I'm just going to repress this." Ha. "I'm going to make it go away." But, as soon as I thought that I knew it wasn't the right choice.

When I got home tonight I read my friend Mollie's status on Facebook, and I understood it completely because it was exactly where my brain had parked itself today as I pondered my current matter of the heart. Mollie's status said this,

"Matters of the heart cannot be reasoned away. They can only be repressed or processed."

Thanks for the confirmation Jesus.

We can choose to repress it. Would that ever be the best choice?

I'm sure every situation is different, but I know for me, God doesn't lay something on my heart for me to say, "uh, I'd rather not take the time and deal with that."

And typically, to be honest, I'm never able to "reason" it away.

My only healthy choice is to go before the Lord and ask Him to help me "process" it. One step at a time. Not trying to get ahead of Him, not falling behind, but attempting to stay stride for stride with Him.

"don't be afraid, and don't worry: Haven't I always kept you informed, told you what was going on?" Isaiah 44:8 The Message

Where I've Been, What I'm Doing, How God is Speaking To Me

Holy Cow I haven't blogged since March 17th?!?! That seems like a long time.

Last weekend I had the privilege of leading worship at a women's conference in Buckhannon, West Virginia. I met some of the nicest ladies there. I felt very much like I was with family. Funny how the Holy Spirit does that...binds us together. I'm thankful for how God showed up in our midst.

This weekend we have had four days off. I'm thankful for that as well :-) It has been good to have an opportunity to catch my breath, and spend time with the family.

Yesterday, I was reading the Word when a scripture in John 18 caught my attention. Let me set the stage...the soldiers were coming to arrest Jesus. While doing so, Peter decided to fight for him, and he swung his sword and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers. Jesus tells Peter, "Put your sword away, shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"

Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me? Sometimes God places us in situations that are difficult, and He does so for a reason. Often times our reaction is to fight our way out, when we should be trusting God to WORK THINGS OUT. When we try to bring things to closure prematurely most often it ends up in us sinning. Kinda like when Abraham wasn't getting his son in the time he thought he should so he had one with his maidservant.

Do we trust God enough to let Him work our our situations? Do I?

Lord whatever it is you're working out in my current situation or situations, I want you to complete it. I don't want to try to force my hand, or defend myself, or fight my way out. I want YOU to finish the work so that I may be mature and complete not lacking in anything. (James 1:4)

How do they do that?

okay, so there's this Chinese restaurant that I eat at every once in a while in Terre Haute. I'm probably there once a month. But not consistently. I might go once a month for three months, and then not go back for three months. That's why what I'm about to tell you impresses me so much.

Typically I eat at this restaurant by myself. And it's always the same waitress. As she escorts me to a table she says, "would you like to see a menu?"

I say "no".

She says, "would you like chicken and broccoli?"

"yes" I reply

waitress: "egg drop soup?"

me: "yep"

waitress: "egg roll?"

me: "yep"

she amazes me because she ALWAYS remembers what I order even when I haven't been in there for a while! That's impressive!

Which leads me to my next story, today I went to a different Chinese restaurant. I went there a couple of weeks ago with my friend Cathy, but today, I walked in by myself. I ordered, paid, and then grabbed a table. Then, Denny came in and did the same. So I was sitting at the table with Denny when the Chinese woman who took my order at the counter hollers out, "Missy..."

I looked at Denny and said, "Did she just call my name?"

Denny: "yep"

"Amazing". I replied

At this Chinese restaurant, you order at a counter and they take your name to call you when your food is ready. I had given her my name two weeks ago. And that's the ONLY time I had given her my name. She did not ask me today. I paid with cash, so she didn't see my name anywhere. How on Earth did she remember my name when she had only heard it one other time. Bizarre.

I wondered for a moment if maybe she just calls every female Missy. Ha. But when I picked up my food she had my name written on the ticket.

How do they do that?? I want to do that. I'm horrible at remembering names. And I know it's not just me they remember, 'cause I've dined with other people at the first Chinese restaurant that I mentioned and she knew what they like to eat too.

I think I'm going to have to ask them how they do that.

How To Put Groceries Away

by Missy Milbourn (ha)


I used to HATE putting groceries away. Abhor it. Detest it.

I didn't mind so much shopping for them, just putting them away drove me crazy.

Until...

I came up with this great idea. Picture a light bulb going off beside my head.

Now, the kids are involved. Every child has a "post". Will typically takes that pantry. Maren, the refrigerator, and Josh the snack cabinet.

I stand on one side of the kitchen next to all the groceries, and after I pull the item out of the bag, I then THROW it to the person at their post.

We've put groceries away this way for probably two years now, and so far I can only recall having one accident where someone dropped something and it broke. oops. (We all got in trouble by Dad).

So now, I throw everything except for what might break like eggs, or spaghetti sauce and such. (at least when Denny is looking I don't throw it.) ha.

And that, my friends, is how we put groceries away. You should try it. It makes it much more fun.

Stay tuned for more deep conversations right here.

Good Times

I had lunch today with my friend Cathy. I, seriously, wish we would have kept count of how many times we’ve had lunch together through the years. As we were standing in line at the Chinese restaurant I told her that I think I’ve had lunch with her more times than I’ve had lunch with my husband. She agreed.
We’ve worked together for 17 years at WTHI, and for three or four years prior to that at WTWO. We’ve probably had lunch a minimum of twice a week, darn near every week.

She went to Florida with me, several years ago, when I sang at a Garth Brooks Fan Club meeting. At least that’s what I thought I was singing at. Come to find out, Garth Brooks doesn’t have an “official” fan club. So, I’m not sure what it was that I sang at…but Cathy was there, and so were a hundred or so other people. And hey, we had a fun trip to Florida.

She also went with me to California when I felt God calling me to witness to our boss at the corporate offices. That was an interesting trip. I don’t think I’ve ever told that story here on the blog. That might be one for a later date. I was referring to my boss in California when I wrote this devotion.

Let’s see, what else have we done together? Together we wound up in the Hillary Clinton motorcade when Hilary came to Terre Haute. Cathy and I were right there with her, first face to face, and then in the motorcade. We thoroughly enjoyed waving to the people as we passed by. I’m so thankful that Cathy taught me how to give a parade wave.

She went with me on the strangest sales call I’ve ever made. Some lady who owns a business asked me to meet with her at her house. I wasn’t going to go alone, so I took Cathy for protection. What was I thinking? She only stands 5’3”. And she doesn’t carry a gun. The sales call that I felt was going to be strange, got even more strange as the lady asked us to listen to a radio ad that she had made. She wanted us to listen to see if we could use the same audio for her TV ad. That’s not the strange part. The strange part was the only place she had a player to play it on was in her bedroom. So, we went to her bedroom. Now, in hindsight I realize just how ridiculous that was. I don’t think I’d make that same decision again, but for whatever reason we said, “okay”.

We walked into her bedroom and her bed was up on a platform with 1970’s shag carpet all around it. She played the radio ad for us, and it was THE WORST AD I’VE EVER HEARD. The lady, who was my potential client, was standing face to face with me, talking to me, and my dear friend Cathy was standing behind her busting a gut laughing, but obviously she couldn’t make any noise or the client would know she was laughing at her. You know like those times when you’re in church and the person sitting next to you does something funny, and you’re trying not to laugh because church is quiet and to laugh would be very distracting, but it’s taking every muscle in your body to hold it back? That’s what Cathy was doing behind this gal’s back.

So, I’m looking face to face at my client, with Cathy standing in the background about to burst at the seams with laughter, and I HAD TO KEEP A STRAIGHT FACE. I thought, “if we make it out of this place without getting hurt, I’m gonna hurt her.”

When we finally made it back out to my car, we sat down, backed out of the driveway, and then exploded with laughter. I’ll never forget Cathy saying, “it is calls like that that KEEP me in this business.”

One time, before she got married, she had a boyfriend and they came over for New Year’s Eve. She hadn’t been dating him for very long, so I didn’t know much about him. After eating, we were traveling back to our house. As we passed the cemetery, I decided to tell them about the legend of the Gypsy. Those of you who live in this area know the legend that I’m talking about. How they say that because this one particular gypsy was buried in this cemetery, Marshall will never have a destructive tornado. (don’t worry Christian friends, I put my hope in God, not the gypsy). So anyway, I shared the “legend”, and afterward I guess I thought that the story needed a theme song, so I started singing “Gypsies, tramps and thieves” over and over again. When we got to our house Cathy pulled me aside and said, “would you STOP! HE IS A GYPSY.” That was his heritage. LOLOLOLOL. He never came back.

Picture me laughing.

Sorry Cathy, he wasn’t right for you anyway.

Ahhh…I’m not sure what made me take this trip down memory lane. Oh yeah, it was thinking about how many times we’ve had lunch together.

Good times.