25 New Questions

My friend, Mary, tagged me on Facebook with these 25 questions, so I thought I'd play along and answer them too!

1.1.21. ONE OF YOUR SCARS, HOW DID YOU GET IT? Uh, shaving my legs? Maybe? Not sure. Can’t really think of any scars. Just emotional ones. Ha.

2. DO YOU SNORE, GRIND YOUR TEETH, OR TALK IN YOUR SLEEP? I don’t know, I’m asleep. "Denny?" Denny says “no”.

3. WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? Primarily Worship Music. My favorite recordings are live worship services. Though I love a variety of styles of music. If I’m not listening to worship music, I’m typically listening to country music. But I'm havin' a hankerin' for some Gladys Knight right now.

4. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW? “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not be in want” ha.

5. WHAT DO YOU MISS? Knots Landing. Ha. I don’t know, what do I miss? Hmmm…missed stopping at that red light today. Tee hee

6. DO YOU GET CLAUSTROPHOBIC? Yes, actually, I do. And then I go into a panic attack and it’s all downhill after that.

7. THE LAST THING TO MAKE YOU CRY? An e-mail I typed to some friends this week

8. IF YOU COULD EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE? McDonalds Fish Fillet

9. FAVORITE COLOR OF ALL TIME? pink

10. SAY A NUMBER FROM ONE TO A HUNDRED: 55

11. FAVORITE QUOTE? Can I put a scripture? “call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things, things that you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3

12. FAVORITE PLACE? Home

13. MET ANYONE FAMOUS? Yep. Spent a couple weekends hangin' out with Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor from the Young and Restless) I’ve met Barbara, Louise and Irlene Mandrell. Rupert from Survivor. Had a brief conversation with Beth Moore (Bible teacher) one time. Travis Cottrell. Lisa Whelchel (facts of life)…

14. FIRST JOB? First real job? Was a teller at a bank.

15. DO YOU THINK EVERYONE OUT THERE HAS A SOULMATE? Hmmm…don’t know.

16. HAVE YOU EVER HAD SURGERY? no

17. WHAT DO YOU GET COMPLIMENTED ABOUT MOST? Hmmm…don’t know.

18. ARE YOU A JEALOUS PERSON? Not typically, but it sneaks up on me every once in a while, and I have to nip it.

19. WHAT ARE YOUR NICKNAMES? Well since my given name is Melissa, I’d have to say my most popular nickname is Missy. Quite a few relatives call me Missy Jo, My Grandma nicknamed me Greta , friends at work call me “donk” and others call me “Miss-I”.

20. IF YOU HAD A SUPER POWER WHAT WOULD IT BE? I had to ask my 8 year old what he thought. We decided it would be to fly.

21. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? Since I work at a CBS Affiliate I should name all CBS Shows. Ha. I do like the amazing race (and many other CBS shows). But to be honest, I’m in a season of life that is busy enough that I don’t do “appointment” TV. The only TV show that I ever really watch fairly routinely is Anderson Cooper 360.

22. WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH YOUR ENEMIES? Love them

23. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Don’t really have a favorite ice cream flavor. I do like butterscotch Sundaes.

24. FAVORITE SEASON? Let me just name my least favorite - winter

25. WHAT’S ONE THING YOU’RE WORKING ON? A new CD

Let me know if you play along and answer the questions too. I'd like to read your answers!

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