... "His cross to bear..."

I grew up in an Irish Catholic family... attended Catholic school until I was in junior high school... I even taught my first year as the pioneer teacher for a new Catholic middle school in Great Bend, Kansas....

...I have spent many Lent-en seasons participating in the "stations of the cross."  Back in my childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood I will admit it was a "going through the motions" experience for me.

I had the privilege of spending my morning walking with Jesus.... at Shrine of Christ's Passion in St. John, Indiana

http://www.shrineofchristspassion.org/

It is a walk through the last supper, garden of Gethsemane, and stations of the cross with life sized bronze statues of Jesus, the Messiah.

Wow, what a power full expression of Jesus last days on this earth... His sorrow, His fear, how He joyfully took the cross, how He conquered the grave, how He washed away our sin with His blood...

I have spend a morning at the Shrine each Lent for the past two years.  My 6 year-old requested a stop there one scorching June afternoon after dropping his brother off at church camp, and my parents, devout Catholics spent an afternoon there with our family last fall.

The SCP has amazing landscaping, differing from season to season.  Last year Lent and Easter were early, the snow just having melted when I made my novice journey there.... in the mid-day summer sun the grasses seemed ablaze... in the fall God's vegetation prepared to slumber as the wind ripped through the trails.... and this spring, the time of year I remember the Easter season being as a child, the hyacinths, and daffodils were in bloom... the tulips are thinking about it, but will wait a few weeks... the lamb's ears growing their "fuzz."

This Easter season as Holy Week begins I challenge you to take some time to prepare your heart for Easter...

...to reflect on what that week was like for our Messiah as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey for the Jewish holiday of Passover (prophesied in the book of Zechariah), while people threw palm branches on the road in front of him. (Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021:1-11&version=NLT

...how Jesus broke bread with his friends, the disciples on Maundy Thursday at the Last Supper.
(Matthew 26:17;  Matthew 26:16-18; Mark 14:12;  Mark 14:11-13; Luke 22:7 ; Luke 22:6-8)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26:17&version=NLT

...how He felt when He was nailed to the cross and asked the Lord to forgive us.... "for we know not what we do." (Luke 23:34)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+23:34&version=NLT

I feel BLESSED to be redeemed by Jesus of Nazareth, the Emmanuel, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords ......


Photos Courtesy of SVK, thanks!!!

"our new addition..."

It has been requested that I introduce our new addition... in early February we adopted two lab/boarder collie puppies.

We have always been dog people....our old faithful companion of 8 years, Max (affectionately know as Max-er the Moose) left this world while we were in Kansas for fall break at the end of October.  Max was a 130 lb. Labrador and truly our boys best friend.  He had a "sweet tooth" for cat food and would scour the subdivision, carrying home the dishes of feline kibble and enjoying them in the comfort of his own yard.  When the snow would melt from a long Indiana winter I would find dozens of pet dishes.  Max's guilty pleasure became his demise .... death by cat food. He asphyxiated on it.  It was a blessing, he had developed a leg cyst and we would have had to put him down this winter.  The boys took it hard, that their faithful companion had passed while we where gone, leaving the neighbors to feed & water him.

I think I took it the hardest of all.  This is the first school year in 7 with kiddos in school full time & Max kept me company.  The boys started working on us in early December.  My kindergartner said, "I've never gotten to experience puppy ownership Mom."  Max was 2 years-old when our youngest was born.  We had finally relented, agreeing to get a puppy in mid-June after we return form a family adventure to Yellow Stone.....


Fast forward to late January.  Indiana winters are tough on this Kansas sunflower.  The weather man reported that we had 11 minutes of sunshine in January.  There just isn't a break from the cloudy monochromatic scape.  So in late January I mentioned that I was feeling lonesome and had contacted a friend about their labra-doodle.  My husband, the problem solver, began researching dogs, but the price tag for a labra-doodle made the Kansas farm boy in him choke.


He contacted a veterinarian friend that consults on livestock nutrition about breed that are not too big, don't shed too much, yada yada..... our friend recommended an adoption.  In less than one week we went from browsing for a puppy to adopt in June to bringing home two.  Yes, two puppies.  They are brothers.  The black one is very bright & resembles a boarder collie in manner.  The black & white spotted one in mirror image of our old Max-ers personality and mannerisms... very much an affectionate Labrador.


My oldest selected the black pup and named him Slim Chance after the "Hank the Cowdog" series of books he has read this winter.  My youngest selected Mudge, the spotted Labrador with one blue eye & one brown eye.  Mudged is named after the canine character in Cynthia Rylant's series about a boy and his big dog.


They are each other's playmate: wrestling, nibbling on each other, kenneling up in the same crate at night. They ride with me to take the boys to school & pick them up in the afternoon.  They are my running buddies and tag-a-long with me many afternoons.


I needed to stop at Halmark to get a birthday card and I had the pups with me.  I had just taken them running, chowed a McDonald's cheeseburger and didn't want to drive them all the way home.  So I left them in the car, what harm could they possibly encounter?


When I returned to the car Mudge was in the driver's seat being the "look out."  When I opened the car door, Slim was on the floor and had shredded the bag & burger wrapper to bits... he has a sweet tooth for ketchup.  There were empty ketchup packets in the bag.  Slim had punctured them a dozen or so times with his incisors and sucked all the ketchup out.  I just had to chuckle, getting mad wouldn't do any good.

This had me thinking about the need for the companionship of a pet... the longing of our soul.
In Genesis Moses tells us the word of the Lord and what he said about animals.


Genesis 1:25 (New Living Translation)  ²⁵"God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals .... And God saw that it was good."

Pets give humans responsibility, needing to be feed & cared for... in return they give us their un-divided love.  Pets are good for the soul, they fill our lives with giggles over their 
un-human inhibitions.  We have providence over them in this world ... just as the Lord has divine providence over us.  The Lord is our governor, meeting our needs of this world... even the need for companionship.


I am so thankful that my boys are having the chance to grow up as dog owners... to govern over their pups well being, and being payed back in endless wags & kisses.

""...my two sons..."

A friend gave this toast at his son's baptism dinner...


"a toast .... to our sons.... may their mothers be gorgeous & their fathers rich!"



This has me thinking about my two sons, so different... uniquely created, but both the treasures of my heart.  Let me share a bit of my boys with you (& their father thinks their mother is gorgeous... & we are rich in blessings, not so rich in the bank account...)


My 9 year-old is his Grandpa's grandson.  Maybe the Lord knew I would spend all of my adult life far from the home of my youth & would need glimpses of my Dad.  He has a new found guilty pleasure.... sunflower seeds.  Those of you who intimately know my Dad know he loves sunflower seeds & peppermints.  My boys have given him a father's day care package many years containing these plus root beer if we are in Kansas to deliver it.  My son & my Dad are both left handed, but golf, shoot a gun & basketball with their right.... my son & Dad (& myself too) are spelling challenged, but hardworking enough to conquer the deficit.  My son is a talker.... he never knows a stranger.... he could talk the leg off a snake, same with my Dad.  My oldest son is an animal lover, sneaking his puppy into his bed.... my dad spends hours with his small herd of cattle, feeding them, hauling water to quench their thirst, even naming some (Salt, Pepper, Dinner, Buttercup).


My oldest has been an evangelist from early on... I got a call from his kindergarten teacher 3 years ago telling me about an argument that happened at his table during craft time .... my son was adamant in boasting that, "Jesus is hands down the best super hero.... no one else has conquered the grave!"  


My younger son is most like his uncle, my husbands brother.  A tow headed boy with an unbelievable curiosity & brain for all things scientific & historical.  His uncle told my husbands Granny at age 4 that he was concerned for the conflict in the Falkan Islands.... my son wanted to discuss the motive and fall of the Nazi's during a recent production of the "Sound of Music."  His uncle built an Internet modem back in the mid-1980's.... my son gathered earthworms escaping the rise in the water table at the city park yesterday after a massive rain storm.  He had swaddled them in his sock (off his foot of course).  He wanted to build a habitat for them.  "Earthworms are aerodynamic mom." He told me yesterday, explaining their shape & how them move and tunnel.  I think we are going to empty a 2-liter after school to make the  worm friendly eco-system.  If we layer soil & sand we can witness the tunneling; this should make for an interesting spring science experiment.  

My youngest son is scientific.  He has to have data, facts, proof.  A recent National Geographic explained remains of pottery from Israel that say "House of David" on them had been discovered; proving archaeologically the existence of King David, from whose lineage Jesus was born.  My son thought this was awesome, proof of our Savior... His lineage prophesied  in the book of Isaiah... proof that the Old & New Testament are fact.


My first daffodil bloomed yesterday.  My youngest picked it, going against my cardinal rule that all my pretty flowers stay in my yard.  He put it in a mason jar, filled it to the 3 ounce line with water & wanted to measure how much water it would drink up.  This morning the water level had dropped.  He marked off the water level with a marker and then commented that it could be evaporation or the flower's consumption changing the water level.

This has me thinking about us as humans & how we drink in the "living water."  As a Christian I believe in the word of God... I know it in my heart to be truth.  The author of the book of Hebrews (author unknown, but was a second generation believer) tells us:


Hebrews 11:1 " Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."


My oldest son has been certain of what he can not see since he could walk & talk... reciting the story of King David's battle against Goliath at age two by heart.  My youngest son is certain as well, but he uses God's word, the living water, to cement that certainty.  


As believers we need to be like the daffodil my youngest picked yesterday and intentionally drink in the living water.... on a daily basis.  It will quench our thirst, it will give us sustenance, it will give us hope to keep on.... keeping on.

"...you ain't that big..."

I had a different topic in mind for today, but I nearly tripped over this topic placed in my path....

I was a state medalist sprinter. I actually come from a long-ish line of runners.  My dad was a state medalist, my bother too, now my younger cousins are state medalist too.

I used to enjoy runner.  The speed, the thrill.  As a teenager I would often run down the dirt road 2 miles south of our house & back.  It always cracked me up when a neighboring farmer would pull up beside me in his truck and ask if I needed a ride home.  NO, I would tell them and explain that I was actually running intentionally.


My senior year of high school I had a track coach who was far from positive, and he was over weight... and could've used a little running himself.  He would yell and holler and belittle... and I vowed never to run again until I wanted to... not when someone else was yelling at me to.

I started running again in 2010.... my motivation rather unique.  Last spring/summer I was 35 years-old, sort of at mid-life-crisis age and a cousin 1 year older had been diagnosed with melanoma.  She was training for a marathon at the time of diagnonis.  Sarah kept training and ran the St. Louis Marathon last spring.  What an inspiration.  I realized I had to get off my tush and tap into that God given talent the Lord had blessed me with ..... and run.  I was somewhat lazy with my running in the spring, tappered off too much when the kids where home in the summer... then in July, Sarah lost her battle with skin cancer & went to be with the Lord.  She had been such a spunky wife, mother of two, successful business woman.... I realized I needed to live each day to the fullest, starting right then.


So I joined a new gym, hired a babysitter & Aug.1 I started running again (why a gym you ask, Indiana humidity sucks, & sucks worse when you are sucking wind). 


I had a little set back last month.  I was up to 6 mile runs, averaging 6.5 miles an hour, then I developed plantar fasciitis... arch & heel pain that gets worse the more you run.  So I took a break in March and cut my running down from 20-30 miles per week to 5 miles. I bought new shoes and an arch brace, per my sister-physical-therapists suggestion.... and now I am back at it.


Today I am running on the treadmill at the gym.  After 3 miles I slowed it down to try to run 2 miles backwards.  The kindergartners I help with PE do it, something about being good for your motor skills... I have just read that it tricks your muscles.  An older gentleman who is a retired farmer was on the treadmill next to me... we have become buddies during the last 8 months.  He asks, "What're you runnin' backwards for?"  I explain that it tricks the muscles, yada yada and he responds, "You're not that big."


I just laughed and was taken back to those days as a teen when the farmers would stop to give me a lift during my runs.  Back then today's comment would have crushed me, but I am over 17 years older and wiser, tough skinned maybe....


I have grown into my own skin and realize that I am wonderfully made.  The Psalmist says,  "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalms 139:13-16


I am so thankfully for each day the Lord has given me... so thankfully that he knit me together for His specific purpose... thankful that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. No I may not be as big in size as the farmer was teasing about today, but I am BIG in spirit created by a loving God, filled with His spirit day by day!!!

"don't grow up too fast, please..."

My oldest son just attended his first sleepover, one of his buddies turned nine this week. He was so excited, packing a rucksack of "gear" (pocketknife, canteen, I made sure the BB gun & bow & arrows stayed home). Selecting a gift, he headed straight for the outdoor section of ALCO, selecting a mature dart board. They stayed up late into the night, past 12 as best as he could recollect, turning the movie off as him buddies had drifted into slumber.

Secretly my nine year old still has his baby blankie, affectionately dubbed "Mo" when he was 13 months old. The rule is he can still have it as long as it stays in his bed.  Last year for his first trip to church camp we cut a small 3"x3" off of Mo to tuck into his pillow case .... "just in case he needed it."

Packing his rucksack he shared that he was leaving Mo at home. He thought he could make it through the night without it. My first born is growing up, half of his life spent under our roof has elapsed.

I am proud of him for making the decision independently. My husband used threaten to kidnap it, fearful that Mo would tag along to college someday.

This has me thinking about how our Heavenly Father witnesses our growing up......

The Palmist tells us in Psalm 90:12 "Teach us the brevity of life, so we may grow in wisdom."

I know my son will continue to grow up. I can pray for him & pray that the Lord will guide me in teaching him the truth of Jesus, pray for the man the Lod will shape him to be.... But for now I need to savor these childhood years & hope the don't slip away too rapidly.

This morning I was looking for my 9 year old. I found him playing Geo Tracks, setting up tracks and tinkering with toy trains, the hobby of a little boy.... the Lord must have heard my "wish" and gave me a direct answer to prayer

"you can't choose your family..."

Happy birthday to you..... my little sister is having a birthday today.  I teaser her and tell her "she is my favorite sister," but she is my only sister.  You no what they say, "you don't get to choose your family", and I am so thankful for that.  As a kid I did some pretty rotten things being the 5 years older bossy sister.  As a grown up I have had moments of building "false selves," & my sister has been the one to call me on it.  She has kept me accountable.  Even as a little girl she was a person of integrity.  Once we had a babysitter who invited a friend over while we were in her care.  The friend tossed a pillow to our sitter & broke a ceramic vase.  She concocted this story that would make my mom think it was an accident without revealing she had a friend at our house. When my mom arrived home the lie was told, but my sister who was maybe five at the time yelled out, "that's not the true, Mom that's not the TRUE!" 


I feel so fortunate to have a sister who is honest & lives her life with integrity.  I don't know that I have always followed her lead, but she loves me anyway.  I feel lucky in a way that you can't exactly choose your family, you're sort of stuck with them in a way.  My sister is stuck with me.


I am reminded of one of my favorite books of the Old Testament.  In Ruth 1 Ruth's husband & father-in-law have die.  Her mother-in-law encouraged Ruth to go back to her parents.  Ruth tells Naomi, "Wherever you go, I will go." Ruth 1:16   Ruth chose to be stuck with Naomi.  No the real importance of this choice is that from Ruth comes the lineage of Jesus the Messiah.  Without Ruth's choice our world would have been with out a Savior.


I am so blessed to have my sister in my life & today I thank the Lord for the blessing she is to me.

"...these are a few of my favorite things..."

"Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string... these are a few of my favorite things..."


Yesterday I joined my boys as their Christian school took in the dress rehearsal of "The Sound of Music" at the local Christian high School.


My flesh was filled with goosebumps throughout the production... once again transported back to my childhood.


The Catholic school I attended in Colby, KS celebrated it's 25th anniversary the same year "Sound of Music" had been released for 25 years.  For our school program we performed many songs from this timeless musical.... "My Favorite Things", "So Long, Farewell"  I feel really blessed to know these songs by heart.  It was fun to listen to my kindergartner pick up on the plot & predict the VonTrapps plan to trick the Nazi's & escape.  My boys devour history and this helped give them a first hand account of how the Austrians felt about the invasion sweeping Europe during WWII.


After the VonTrapps escape they seek refuge in Maria's former convent, the nuns concealing them in the gardens .... the VonTrapps look to the mountains and decide they are their best route to escape safely.


"I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the maker of the heavens & earth."  Psalm 121:1-3


Like the VonTrapps I need to look around and be aware of the creation around me.... discover & appreciate my favorite things... 


blue robin's eggs in the nest in my yard, green moss that grows on the north side of my home, yellow forsythia that blooms in early spring... the smell of our puppies paws, the color of the sunrise, the Gibbous moon that lingered all morning out in Kansas on spring break... the taste of my morning coffee, the touch of my son's hand on mine while watching the play yesterday....


All of these where a creation of the Lord's, it is my job to lift my eyes and give them notice.... my job to raise my son's to marvel in this beautiful creation.