Nice to be "Off"

Vacation. I love it.

We've been on vacation since July 2nd, and I have SOOOO enjoyed it. We actually did a "staycation" this year. In January, we made a commitment to ourselves to pay off some debt, so when it came time to plan a vacation, we went back and forth on what to do, and decided to stick with our commitment, and we stayed home. That was just one of the reasons.

Another reason that I looked forward to a "staycation" was I didn't want to think. I didn't want to think about where we were going, how to get there, what we had to take with us etc, etc. Our family has had a really busy life the past 9 months and I felt that we simply needed "down" time.

I started feeling myself slip into the "off" mode about a week or two prior to vacation. For instance, e-mails that I would normally answer, didn't get answered unless they demanded a response. Sorry.

The only thing that I was not looking forward to about staying home was, I didn't want to cook. But God took care of that. On Friday, July 2nd, we had a check in our mail for $400. We figured since the timing of the money came exactly at the timing of the vacation, God was wanting us to have a little extra cash to enjoy extra "vacation" things. So we ate $400 worth of food and gained 300 pounds. ha.

We cleared our schedules of all responsibilities, including worship leading. We commited ourselves to nothing, and only did things we wanted to do. We joked about our house being a condo and our pool being the beach, and we did what we would do if we were at the beach. We swam every day, read books, soaked up some sun, ate out, went to the movies, ate out, went to a theme park, ate out, went shopping, ate out....you get the drift. Now that I think about it, I haven't done my hair since July 3rd. Poor Denny.

Anyway, all that to say, I have thoroughly enjoyed my family. I have thoroughly enjoyed turning "off". Escaping. Resting. Playing. Only doing what we wanted, when we wanted. I pray that if you need rest, that God will grant you rest as well.

Tomorrow....back to real life.

A Lesson From the Ants???

As I arrived home from work yesterday, I was on my cell phone, so instead of going immediately into the house, I stood out in my driveway in order to finish my phone conversation in peace, avoiding the excited barking dog inside my home.

It wasn't long before my eight year old was running up to me freaking out because there were ants in our dining room. A lot of ants in the dining room.

I walked in the house to find an almost perfect line of ants scurrying back and forth from our front door through our dining room and into our kitchen. Yuk. We had bad storms here yesterday, so my guess is that they were taking cover in our home. As gross as it was, it was truly a site to see, so I called each child into look at them!

I looked for some bug spray to get rid of them, but I couldn't find any. Thankfully, not long after, Denny came home and finished up ridding our house of ants.

Leave it to our God to make a "lesson" out of this.

I woke up this morning, opened up my Bible and chuckled as I read this passage of scripture:

"Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and be wise! Even though they have no prince, governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? I want you to learn this lesson: A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest...and poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber." Proverbs 6:6-11 NLT

This doesn't mean that we can't take time for rest. Rest is GOOD. But it is a reminder that hard work is also GOOD. And we shouldn't have to have someone standing over our shoulder telling us to work hard. Take a lesson from the ants. They know that there is work to be done in order to live well.

I enjoyed sharing this passage with each family member as they woke up this morning. And simply because of the timing of it, they all took it well too. :)

This Boy...

This boy wants to write songs with his Mama.

He has been BEGGING me.

We wrote a song together this past summer when Josh was just seven. He had been asking me to write with him, so one evening we finally did it. He was so cute. He wanted to write about God. So I said, "okay, write down what you want to say about God, or to God."

After thinking for a minute, he looked up at me with a somewhat defeated look and said, "I don't know what to say."

I said, "Well, how 'bout that be your first line...'Lord I don't know what to say.'"

He got a big grin on his face and said, "okay!"

And we were off to writing our first song. I was totally AMAZED at how into it he was. He wasn't just concerned about the lyrics, but also about the structure of the song. He would say things like, "I think we need to sing the chorus twice here." I didn't even know he knew what a "verse" or a "chorus" was...but he did.

First we wrote the words, and then we put it to music. Even musically he had an idea of where he wanted the song to go, and I tried my best to honor where he was taking it.

We ended up recording the song, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. The style, to me, sounded very high school musical-ish. Which is quite fitting for his age. If you'd like to hear it I'd be happy to e-mail it to you. Just drop me a line at melissa.milbourn@gmail.com

I tried getting him to sing the whole thing, but he was too shy. So I sang the verses by myself and he joins me on the chorus. I pray that he overcomes his fear because he is an awesome singer. Would you join me in that prayer?

My spring has been really busy, but life should be settling down a little bit over the summer. And I'm really looking forward to writing with Josh and further discovering just how God has gifted him. The only thing I dread is he is very bossy. Ha.

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)