Pecked to death by a flock of ducks......

I have kids, lots of kids.  I am the very proud mother of 5 young men in various ages and stages of development, but the majority are teenagers.  Things have changed since I was a teenager in more ways than I could have imagined they would.  We now live in a world of computers and smart phones, internet, facebook and twitter, and the ability to be connected in ways that are sometimes, just plain crazy.  I would have loved to have that as a teenager!  I wanted to take just a minute and write a little note to teenagers and children everywhere.  It's my blog, I can do that......

Dear teenagers everywhere,
We are your parents. We love you. We want the very best for you in every aspect of your life.  However, that does not mean that we are your bank, your taxi, your maid or your cook.  We are your parents.  It's not our obligation to give you computers, phones, cars, game systems, or money whenever you want it for whatever you want it for.  It's not our job to drive you and your friends all over town whenever and wherever you want and pay you way at the same time.  It's not our job to clean up after you, to do all your laundry, to do all the housework, to cook all your meals while you do only what you want to do. 
It is our job as parents to raise you, to teach you, to prepare you for life on your own.  It is our job to make sure you have food to eat, a roof over your head and clothes on your back.  It's not our job to make sure it's steak every night, a 10,000 sq ft mansion or designer clothes.  If you want that, go get a job and buy your own steak, your own 200$ jeans and get your education that allows you to get the kind of job that buys you that mansion.  That's not our job. 

You are loved, never doubt that.  Never doubt that, if I could, I would want to give you all these things and more, but I can't and if I could, I wouldn't.  Why? Simply because you are loved.  It is in the struggle that we grow and learn.  We have all heard the story of what happens if you open a chrysalis for a butterfly.  The wings don't mature and they can't fly.  It's my job to be sure you can fly.  Sometimes that means not giving you the things you want and think you deserve.  Life is hard and you will never succeed if you are handicapped by having everything handed to you.  If I could keep the house in perfect condition, fix you gourmet meals every night and make your life run perfectly I still wouldn't.  Why? Because it would not be fair to you.  It is by learning to take responsibility for the home you live in and the family you are part of  that you are prepared for life as an adult.  That doesn't mean that you are thrown to the wolves and left to fend for yourself at all times, but as you grow, more and more will be expected of you.  That is the way it is. 
So the next time you want something and you don't get it remember this; it's because you are loved.  It would be easier to just hand over what you want and stop the barrage of  of asking.  Sometimes it's a little like being pecked to death by a flock of ducks.  You are just as dead, it just takes longer and is much more tedious.  But to give in would, in the long run, handicap you and you are too loved for me to allow that to happen.  Sometimes you don't get what you want simply because we cannot afford it. Life is not perfect for us parents either, it's not perfect or easy, but that doesn't effect our love for you. There will be times when, because of that love, I will surprise you with money or that fancy pair of shoes you want or funds for that trip to the movies with your buds, but one thing must be understood.  Those times will come more often if they are not expected.  Oh, and gratitude is an awesome attitude and you will be surprised at how it can move the heart of a parent.

The bottom line is this: we will not be here forever.  If you reach adulthood and are a responsible member of society, able to provide for yourself and the family God gives you, then we have been a success.  If getting to that place means that you don't like me and don't understand me, then so be it.  My heart is always for you. I will always believe in you. I will always be proud of you. I will never, and I mean NEVER stop loving you and, if all this means you grow up and want limited contact with me, my heart will be broken, but at least I will have done the job God entrusted to me. One day, when you are a parent you will understand, you will love, and you will do the same.  It's hard, but it's the job of a parent.

Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor

How far away is Roswell New Mexico??

This has been an interesting week.  It's only Wednesday and I have already driven for 9 hours over 2 days, spent those days closed up in the car with 5 boys, 6 if you count J, had dinner at Charlotte motor speedway, toured the Billy Graham library, toured the country's largest private home, and then quit my job.  No teenager was hurt in the making of this road trip and no one needs to start me a legal defense fund.......... yet.

You learn a lot about people when you road trip with them.  Now you would think, since it's my own kids that I'm talking about I would know the pretty well by now.  However, I am convinced that when a child turns 13 aliens sneak into your house during the night and take over their body.  The creature that slinks from the bedroom in the morning bares little resemblance to the sweet child you tucked into bed.  Their brains no longer function as they should and their language needs a translation dictionary to be understood.  I am convinced these aliens actually communicate by rolling their eyes as your child will suddenly become very skilled at it.  Given that 3 of my 5 boys are currently possessed by these intergalactic invaders and 1, while no longer officially a teenager, has not yet completed the exorcism process, you can imagine there is a lot to learn.

I try to look at any time forced to spend in close quarters with my offspring as research, studying the creatures in the wild, in their natural habitat.  It is fascinating to see how they interact with each other, not as they meet at a common water hole, but as they meet over the nearest electronic device.  I am convinced that what we see as a common cell phone is actually their powerful energy source.  Think about it, have you ever seen one without it in their hands???  It would seem that when sleeping is the only time you see one without a phone in their hands.  In crisis situations, a computer will act as the same source of power for them, but the portability of the phone allows them to easily roam around spreading their surliness.

Do I sound bitter? I'm not. I'm frustrated, but not bitter.  I love my children, all my children, even those who are currently serving as a host to the brain sucking parasite known as adolescence.  It's a difficult time of life, as I'm sure we can all remember.  We can learn a lesson from our kids as they struggle through it.  I find there are ways I can really identify with them.  No, I do not suddenly has an insane desire for Mt Dew, or strange music, or Ramen noodles.  What I do understand is the feeling of being trapped between two worlds, no longer a kid, not yet an adult.  I mean this in a spiritual sense.  I am not what I once was, but I'm not yet what I will be.  I haven't arrived, but I have already left.

The Lord continues to work on me, changing me and bringing me more into line with what He desires for me to be, but I still struggle with my carnal nature.  I think Paul said it best in Romans 7:15
¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 

It's as if I, too, have a parasitic visitor inside messing with my head.  I have seen the struggles my kids have had as they moved in that gray area of half adult/ half kid and I see those same struggles mirrored in my own life as I make the transition from living in the flesh to living by the spirit.  

The Lord is gracious to me in those times of struggle.  He understands our frailty, our human-ness, our tendency to mess things up.  He is the ever patient parent, leading us on that path to maturity that seems to take so much longer for some than for others! (don't judge! I'm getting there!)  Just like with our natural development, I believe one sign of maturity is the willingness to admit we don't know everything, we don't have all the answers, and we become willing to be taught.  That is my desire this week, a teachable heart, a spirit ready for instruction.  

Where are you in your walk?  Are you still in the know-it-all stage or have you moved into being more willing to listen than to talk?  Pride is the hallmark of so many teenagers today.  Is there spiritual pride in your heart?  Are you willing to allow the Lord to use whomever He desires to instruct you?  

This week I'm asking the Lord for a spiritual growth spurt!  I'm asking Him to take me beyond my spiritual teenage years once and for all and move me into a new level of maturity with Him.  Will you join me?  


I don't know about you, but my body is too old to withstand the rigors of the teenage lifestyle!  I need my sleep, my veggies, my peace and quiet.  So until next time, I'll be here, being a mom and keeping my eyes peeled for UFOs.  I've still got one at home under the age of 13 and I'm holding out hope the little green men don't find him too soon! 


Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor

The day I was brought low by an Easter egg.

It's the week after Easter and I have survived another 8 hour drive closed up in the car with all my kids, my husband and the dog.  I won't admit which one smelled worse, that's another story entirely.  It was a quick trip. We went down on Friday and came back on Sunday night, but it was worth it to be able to spend the holiday with family.  Scamp had a blast running wild with his cousins and participating in the annual Easter egg hunt.  This is an event that is taken seriously around my folks house.  My dad always buys plastic eggs and fills them full of money, lots of money.  I think the total this year was around 70$.  That's an egg hunt I want in on! lol  Unfortunately he cuts it off at age 12.  After that you get moved up to the big kid hunt.  That's where he takes one egg, we all chip in to fill it and one lucky grandkid makes off with about 25$.  This year it was my beautiful niece who bested all the boys and made off with the loot.  Scamp didn't care, he was having too much fun with his haul.  He was excited about his money, about his candy and also about the hard boiled colored eggs he had made with his dad the night before.  That's our tradition. 

The problem is, since we left later that same day, Scamp wanted to take all his treasures home with him.  One week later I discovered, the hard way, what happens to hard boiled eggs that roll under the back seat out of sight and sit in the heat for seven long, hot days.  My poor car now smells as if I have been transporting a dead body!  I think next year we'll jut stay home! lol

As I sit and ponder this adventure into the world of stankiness I was struck by what an enormous impact can be made by something relatively small, something as small as a simple, blue Easter egg. 

I am also reminded of another story I heard this weekend from J.  It seems a local Royal Ranger outpost wanted to have some t-shirts printed up for their boys.  The scripture reference they wanted on there was 1Corinthians 11:1 -"Follow me, as I also follow Christ", but there was just a bit of a mix-up at the printers.  When they picked the shirts up, they discovered the reference said 1 Corinthians 1:11 and that reads just a little differently; "for it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you"

It's a little thing, the colon, but look what a difference it can make.  By moving it over only one little spot everything is changed.  Now look at your own life, your own walk.  What little things are you letting change what should be in your life?  Is there an attitude left unchecked?  Is there an offense you are harboring in your heart that you would just as soon not deal with?  Are you entertaining a thought, an idea that's not good for you? Are you allowing music, or tv shows or movies to influence you in ways that aren't the best?  These things seem like little things, no big deal, right?  Wrong!  So many times it's the little things that eventually cause the greatest damage?  Have you ever seen a termite?  See how tiny they are.  Now look at the damage done by so small a bug.  When they attack a weight bearing wall they can bring a house down and you wouldn't know there was a problem until it was too late. 

Take some time today to look for the little things in your life that may have escaped your notice.  I'm asking the Lord to shine his light and show me the things that seem small but have a big impact on my life and then I'm asking Him to give me the strength to deal with them by His grace. 

As for the rest of my day, I'll be here enjoying this wonderful spring weather, gazing on my lovely flowers, sipping and iced coffee and trying to get the stench of rotten eggs out of my nostrils.  I think I'll be fine unless the cops come looking for the source of the dead body smell in the back of my car.  If that happens, things could get dicey.  I'm just saying........

Till next time!
Soaked in His blessings!
Spokenfor

Don't Jump!!!

I have stepped out recently, no, I don't mean I'm stepping out on J, I mean I'm trying something new.  I come from a long line of women who sew.  Both my grandmothers were incredible seamstresses, making suits and quilts and any number of wonderful creations.  Me, not so much.  I can sew a button on if I have to, and I have even been known to fix a drooping hem, but that's about as far as it goes.  I once made curtains and pillows and covered the cushions of an entire set of outdoor furniture using only my trusty glue gun.  I have decided a glue gun is to a woman what duct tape is to a guy.  Give me enough time and an outlet and I can fix almost anything! lol  Despite my ingenuity with my outdoor decor, I have never taken the time or patience to learn to actually sew.  Recently, though, a dear friend of mine at church started a quilting class.  Something prompted me to sign up so I dragged my butt into gear and my sewing machine out of the closet and went to my first class.  I am hooked!  I loved it!  It's so much fun seeing something come together like that.  Despite the attention to detail needed I am finding it a great outlet for the creativity the Lord has plunked down in my soul.

There are quite a few things I like to put my hands to whenever I get the chance.  You might find me doing needlework, or crochet, or candle making, or even a little painting.  I am really hoping someone decides to teach a class in pottery.  I've always wanted to learn how to do that!  There's something quieting about working with your hands, something so fulfilling to see something spring to life beneath your hands.  No wonder the Lord loves to create!  It's fun!

Anyone who reads my ramblings on a regular basis should know that there is another side to my musings.  You see, I was having some trouble with my quilt block the other day.  I was trying to sew it without using pins to hold it in place before running the seams.  The fabric kept slipping around and making it very difficult to complete the project cleanly.  That made me think. (I hate it when that happens!)   How difficult would it be if a potter were trying to form something on the wheel, but it kept jumping off?  It's a funny image, but that is exactly what we do the the Lord so many times.  We find ourselves on his wheel with the water of the spirit running over us to soften our hearts and as soon as he starts to mold, to form, to work with us, we jump right off the wheel while it's still in motion.  The Lord is faithful, he grabs a spatula, scrapes us up off the floor where we've gone splat, puts us back on the wheel and starts all over again.

How long do you think it will take for the finished product to be usable if we continue to jump off the wheel time and time again?  I know I am guilty of taking that flying leap more times than I would like to admit to.  My other favorite thing to do is to try to mold myself into what I think should be.  How weird would it be if the potter was working his lump of clay and suddenly the lump gave a little grunt and out popped a handle or a spout?  I have to admit the image makes me giggle just a little bit.  Now, we all know that is impossible, but it is what we attempt to do to ourselves.  How many times have we tried to inform the Lord how we should look or just what needed to be changed about ourselves?

There is nothing the clay can do to hurry along the needed changes or to make any of these changes for itself.  Such it is with our own hearts.  The work is the Lord's, not ours.  Sure, we have our part. Our part is to remain on the wheel, to remain in His hands.  It's our job to be open to Him and the work He is doing in our lives and in our hearts. Our job, our focus, should be to stay in and to strengthen our relationship with him.  It is through that relationship that we are changed.  It says in

 2 Cor. 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

When you read the above passage you can see the way we are changed is by beholding the glory of the Lord.  That is when we are changed by the Spirit of the Lord. This speaks to relationship.  It is by spending time with him, beholding him, if you will, that we are changed from glory to glory.  It is not by working at it or exercising self control or willing it to happen. It is simply by resting in Him, by spending time with Him that we are changed.

Philippians 2:13 tells us:
for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Notice whose doing the work here?  It is God who works in you.  If we allow Him (that's our part in the equation, the allowing part)   to work in our hearts He will make the necessary changes there.  That doesn't mean that we then don't have to walk them out.  I tried and tried to quit smoking to no avail. Then I quit, not smoking, I quit trying to quit!  I stopped trying to do something in my own power that I was unable to do within myself.  I started praying about it, submitting my heart to Him and, one day, He did the work.  I knew the moment it was done and I simply walked up to a trash can and threw away my pack and my lighter and I have been smoke free since.  This didn't happen in the middle of a great and mighty revival service at church. It didn't happen after I fasted and prayed and spent a month crying out to Him. Nope, I was simply sitting in the grocery store parking lot talking to Him about it and BOOM! It was done.  I'm not saying I didn't have to decide to walk it out. I had to make the decision not to buy any more, to not give in to the cravings.  The difference that time was I had submitted it to Him and I was walking in His strength.  He had done the work in me to cause me to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.  It was not accomplished by my struggling against it, the work was done as I simply spent time with Him.  I stayed on the wheel and the potter did His work. 

So this week my goal is to act more like a big ol lump of clay!  I will attempt to remain on his wheel no matter how fast it spins.  I will remind myself of the times I jumped off that wheel only to go splat on the floor. 

I don't know what's going on in your life, but I have a feeling you are probably on His wheel too, most of us are.  I pray that when you start to get dizzy and the world starts to spin and you are feeling Him molding you, forming you, creating you to be what you were meant to be, that you stay put!  Stop trying to will yourself into His image and get to beholding your way into it.  Spend time with Him, rest in Him.  Relaxing into Him is the best way to stay out of His way and let Him work! 

Till next time, I'll be here, beholding, creating, giving my glue gun a work out and trying to stay put on His wheel.  So, the next time someone calls you a dizzy blonde, look them straight in the eye, smile and say "Why thank you very much!"

Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor

Eye-liner, Cyndi Lauper and strained peaches

This is another entry in the chronicles of the ridiculousness that is sometimes my life.  I burned myself the other day.  While this statement, on the surface, doesn't seem to drip with the ridiculousness that you've all come to expect from me, let me further explain.  I burned myself on the outside corner of my eye, right where my lashes end and my upper and lower lids meet.  Again, that may not sound all that strange to some, but such are the people I run with.  It was the manner in which I created said burnt that was different.  I blame my eyeliner, well, my eyeliner with a little help from my lighter.

I was in a hurry to get ready to go somewhere (who knows where!) and I was slapping on some make-up.  Ladies, you know what I mean by that, men, just turn away and go about your business.  When I tried to apply my charcoal grey eyeliner I found it was hard as a rock and refused to leave so much as a smudge on my, as yet unadorned, eyes.  So I did what any red blooded American woman who had grown up in the 80's would do.  I set it on fire to soften it.  Just about any lady who came of age in the decade of big hair, leg warmers, scrunchies and black eye liner would know,(and some men as well, it was the 80's after all!). It was the perfect way to melt your liner pencil just enough to make it go on smoothly.  The trick was to time it just right so it was still soft, but not so hot that you burned yourself.  Well, it seems that 25 years later, I have lost my touch.  To make matters worse, it was still so soft it stuck to the skin and kept burning as I jumped around the bathroom half dressed and shouted things I'm glad no one was home to hear!

It was not to be my last foray into the land of eye liner Hades.

A week later, I was, once again, hurry to get somewhere and was, once again, slapping on some make-up.  I found a lovely soft, raisin colored, eye liner that I had not worn in a very long time.  It was lodged in the back of the drawer in the bathroom.  After the debacle of the last time I had tried to apply eye make-up in a hurry, I was glad to see this old friend that I remembered was so easy to put on.  I outlined my peepers, added a little mascara and was out the door.  It wasn't until later that afternoon that I noticed my eyes were a little itchy.  By early evening, they were weepy and starting to swell.  By bedtime they were burning and weepy and itchy and pretty swollen.  The next morning, they were swollen shut!  It seems my lovely, old, raisin colored eye liner was contaminated!  It has been almost a week now and most of the swelling is down, the itching has mostly stopped and the weepiness has abated.  My friend is in the trash bin and I have sworn off all types of eye make-up for anytime in the near future!

You know I can't leave it here. Nope!  I feel like one of those tv hawkers..... "but wait! there's more!! order now and you'll get the other side of the story!!!"

I learned what happens when you return to your old ways, you can get burned.  Stay with me, I've moved on from eye make-up and I'm talking about life in general now, more specifically, life with the Lord.  As we walk with him we are embarked on a journey of discovery, a journey of adventure. It is a journey of fresh discoveries of both ourselves and of Him.  We do not have to stay stagnated in the same place.  What worked for me 25 years ago is no longer the best thing for me, in life and in make up! Just because something worked for your life 10 years ago doesn't mean the Lord wants you to stay there.  The word says  in Is 43:19

Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying throw out all the things you learned of God from years past. Goodness, no!  I'm saying be open to the new things as well.  Look at it this way, there's nothing wrong with baby food. I have nothing against strained peaches and pureed bananas, but I don't want to eat it now!  Give me a nice juicy rib-eye or a yummy, sweet chocolate donut.  I don't want to go back to baby food at this point in my life. I've moved on to something different, something more suited for where I am at this point in my life.  I still have the ability to return to the smashed veggies of the past should the need arrive, (dear Lord, please don't ever let the need arrive!!!!)  but just because it worked so well for me once doesn't mean I need to stay there.  


So it is in life.  Some of the old ways were good ways, and while we will forever retain the ability to walk in those old ways, isn't it exciting to be allowed to walk in the new things the Lord is doing?  The Lord is never stagnant, He never changes, but also is never stagnant.  We serve a multifaceted God we can never fully understand in His entirety.  If we will allow Him to, He will continually show us new sides of His nature, new depths of His character, new aspects of His personality.  Don't get stuck in the old ways so much that you miss other sides of Himself the Lord wants to show you.  


So this week, my goal will be to look forward, to move forward, to journey into the unknown!  I challenge you to join me on the adventure of a life time.  I'll be moving into the fresh, newness that is my Lord. I may be moving a little slowly, though, the swelling isn't quite gone and I don't see so well!  Maybe I need a spiritual seeing eye dog, or at least one who can sniff out when eye liner has gone bad.  I think I saw that on the discovery channel;  When good make-up goes bad, part 3.  


Till next time I'll be here, itching, swelling, but looking fabulous!  Now has anybody seen my legwarmers and my Cyndi Lauper tape????


Spokenfor

Sisters, Starbucks and Playground Games

I am sitting in Starbucks.  I know that a big surprise to those who know me (insert sarcasm here).  It's a common hangout for me whenever I feel the urge to put pen to paper fingers to keyboard.  I am always surprised at how much I can learn about any number of people just by sitting quietly in here and listening to what is going on around me.  For instance, I now know the guy behind me is getting ready to place a large order for some sort of equipment and the two ladies across from me are having trouble with their grown children.  The lady by the door is spilling her guts about her marriage woes to someone on the phone and the two in the corner are gossiping about "that really conservative church over there in that metal building where all the women wear long skirts with their hair in a bun and there ain't nary a drop of make-up among the bunch of them!"

I am amazed on a regular basis how if you give an American a cup of coffee and a lap top they consider themselves in their own little private world with no one else around them.  It's just like most guys when they get in a car.  They think they are invisible to the world around them.  Have you ever just taken time to watch guys in the car in a traffic jam on the interstate?  It can be quite entertaining!

I was pondering this sad state of affairs over my vanilla latte and I came to a conclusion.  It's merely a symptom of today's society.  We all go along so disconnected with each other we have become almost unaware of anyone not directly in our scope of influence.  This wasn't always the case.  In years past, it took community to survive. People got together to raise a barn, to harvest a crop, to build a church, to celebrate a wedding, a birth, a life departed.  People just plain got together.  Now, in this information age where you can find out just about anything you could ever want to know about a person with a click of a button, we, so many times, find ourselves disconnected. 

It's like this, I could know J's birthday, anniversary date, his social security number, where he banks, where he shops, what he drives, even what he has for lunch every day, but if I don't know that it's a Wyoming sunset that moves his heart, that he dreams of owning his own business, that he has a passion for his work with the boys in Royal Rangers, the other means nothing.  If I can't know his heart, I don't know him.  It's very difficult to know someone's heart without spending face to face time with them. 

The fact is, we need each other, we need community.  You see things differently than I do. I can learn from you and you from me, but not if we never take time to learn the other person's heart.   The word says in Hebrews 10:24 -25, and I'm paraphrasing here, but look it up yourself if you don't believe me!   Don't give up meeting together as some are suggesting, but gather together to encourage one another in good works of the Lord. 

Life can be difficult, it can be hard and stressful and down right messy, but it's always a little easier with help.  I have been very blessed to have wonderful friends in my life and my life is enriched by these relationships.  Think of it this way, life is a great big game of red rover, if you have no one to lock arms with, you're in big trouble! lol  Don't find yourself on the playground of your life with no one to come along side and lock arms with you when the enemy comes rushing at you.  Not only that, but it's a little easier to dodge the fiery dodgeballs darts of the enemy when someone has your back. 

All this community stuff takes a little effort on your part, it takes being vulnerable with yourself and others.  It takes opening up your heart and your life and allowing others in.  It can be scary, but it is well worth it.  The playground can be a dangerous place, don't try to walk it alone. 

So this week I challenge you to look around and take inventory of your friend's list, and I don't mean the one on facebook.  I mean the one etched on your heart.  Do you have someone in your life you can be open and honest with?  Are you hiding your heart behind a superficial, business polite approach to any and all who dare to come close?  Ask the Lord to bring that person into your life that laughs at the same people  jokes that you do, that is walking the same way you are, that sees life enough of the way you do that you are compatible, but not so much so that it gets boring, someone you can share your heart with.  J is my best friend, but I find I need other women in my life as well.  He's not exactly the one I turn to when I need to bemoan the rapid approach of menopause, or the great new place I found to get my nails done, or to brainstorm ideas to make walking this "mom thing" a little easier.  I need other women.

So go open up!  Take a chance, find a friend, be a friend! Reach out and up and be wonderfully surprised by what happens.  Your life will be enriched in ways you could never have known.  Meanwhile, I'll be here hanging out with my crew, my posse, my girls, my swap meet (SWAP, sisters with a purpose). 

Just remember, when you hear that old song;  red rover, red rover, send someone right over, lock arms with your sisters, hold you head up high and say " ok life, bring it!"

Till next time, I'm
Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor

The Battle of Cinder Block Hill Circa 1983

Don't you just love friends, really good friends that you can share anything with and they don't look at you like you had three heads?  I have been blessed to have a couple of those in my life.  For me they are a rare breed because, usually, I do have three heads at any given time and it's difficult to find someone who can be temporary blind at will.  I was sitting with one such friend recently and the subject turned to our childhoods and the adventures we had back then.  I shared a story with her and I wanted to share here with my on-line friends......

When I was a young teen, my church rented a campground every year up in the north Georgia mountains and we had camp.  I have some really fond memories of those camps, and some not so fond memories, but that's for another time, probably with a good therapist.   It was not a fancy sort of place.  The "cabins" we slept in were, in actuality, long, narrow cinder block buildings with a few mesh covered windows that allowed for zero air movement.  After standing in the August heat in Georgia they were transformed into ovens in which we slowly cooked ourselves every night. 

The showers and bathrooms were also cinder block.  They were one big building divided down the middle by, yet another, cinder block wall, but this wall didn't actually go all the way up to the ceiling.  It stopped a couple of feet short so we could hear everything that went on over on the boys side and they could hear us.  One evening, we were getting ready for bed and the boys were all yelling stuff over at us and we were harassing them back.  All the girls finally finished up and left to go to their cabins except for me.  The boys didn't realize I was there and could still hear them.  I listened as they plotted a water balloon raid on both the girls cabins that night.  I didn't start to get worried until their counselor came in and I was shocked to learn he was in on it.  I stayed and listened like a good spy and heard all the details.

I was so excited! We finally had one up on the boys and could beat them at their own game, or so I thought.  I ran to one of the girls cabins and told them what I had heard.  I explained they needed to shut the shutters on their windows to keep the water balloons out.  There was more hole than mesh on those windows and their beds were right by the windows so they were going to be in mortal danger from boy propelled missiles of water!  I stood there in total disbelief when not one of the believed me.  (I think it may have had something to do with the giant spiders I had managed to slip under a couple of pillows earlier in the week)  I then ran to my own cabin and was met with the same lack of faith there.  Never the less, I went around myself and closed all the shutters while being yelled at and fussed at the whole time by those residing with me in my little cinder block oven. 

Just about the time I settled into bed I heard the first balloon hit the side of the building.  We sat, hot, but dry and listened as they boys relentlessly pummeled our cabin to no avail.  The other cabin was not so lucky.  By the time they figured our I had been telling the truth, it was too late.  Their beds were soaked and so were they!  If only they had listened to the word of the Lord what I had told them!

We laughed, my friend and I, as I retold this story and others about the times I had at the camp in Taccoa GA.  Later, as I thought back on it, my brain did it's own little tilty thing again and I saw it all in a different light.  How important is it to position ourselves in such a place so the Lord can reveal to us the plans of the enemy?  Sometimes, if we are in the right place at the right time, the Lord will pull back the veil and we will see what the devil has in mind for us or for a loved one.  What better way to thwart that than to know in advance what's coming?  This happens if we allow the Lord to guide us, to put us where he wants us, and if we have our ears attuned to hear what we need to. 

Make no mistake about it, we are in a war and our enemy is not throwing water balloons.  He's armed with fiery darts and he doesn't hesitate to shoot them at the beloved of God. (that's us, in case you were wondering....)   How successful would a military campaign be if you knew in advance every move your opponent was planning to make?  So it is that sometimes the Lord lets us see the direction the darts are going to come from so we can get our shields of faith up and ready to defend ourselves and even, when directed by the Lord, what direction to go on the offensive in.  Can you imagine the surprise of those boys if I had been able to convince the girls I wasn't trying to play a joke on them and we had responded with water balloons of our own? 

There's no discharge from the Lord's army and there is no administrative duties either. I know, I admit I have asked for a desk job before!  My goal this week is going to be to try to allow myself to be positioned by the Holy Spirit so when he reveals things I am in the place to hear it.  I don't want to let my guard down and get smacked in the back of the head with a spiritual water balloon because I'm not where I need to be.  Where are you today?  Are you listening hard to the Spirit of the Lord concerning how to proceed in this war we call life?   Do you hear him when the word comes to close up your shutters because there's shelling coming and you need to call in God's napomb?  So stay close, listen up and let the Lord guide you. 

Until next time I'll be here, shinning my shield, collect balloons and planning a revenge many years in the making! 

Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor