Our Gatlinburg Getaway 2004! 

Our precious children pose for a group photo! 

Gatlinburg Getaway

This past weekend Scott, Luke, and I headed to Gatlinburg with three other couples and their children. These are friends that we have known over ten years, since college-- the guys were in the same fraternity as Scott and their friendships were formed when they pledged together! All of them were also groomsmen in our wedding. There was a total of six kids between all of us ranging in age from seven months to four years!

We were in a wonderful four-bedroom condo, and we had a great time together! Luke did such a good job on the trip up and back and remained on his same eating and sleeping schedule even amidst all the excitement and chaos. He also officially pulled up to a standing position. It seems like he is going to be ready to take off walking soon! It was so fun to watch him interact with the older kids. It is hard to realize and to accept that he is a big boy, too, now.

We stayed up very late each night-- after the kids went to bed. The boys played RISK-- yuck!-- while the girls chatted and caught up on the day-to-day happenings in our stay-at-home lives. It appears that the women of my generation are still in hot pursuit of happiness and finding real meaning and purpose in their lives. I remain amazed that almost every girl I know is struggling in this area. Everything centered around the usual... how motherhood was going-- how to get rid of pacifiers, potty training advice, being exhausted, etc; how housework was going-- the benefits of a maid, time management and organization; how our mental/emotional lives were going; how parenthood had affected our marriages-- for better and for worse... Depression over not losing baby weight yet and having a hard time exercising; Being at the burn-out point because husbands don't help out enough with the kids; Emptiness due to no longer having hobbies or interests or anything activities just for themselves; Frustration over "trying to keep up with the Jones's"; Stress and anxiety over not having enough money from month to month.

There was a good bit of sharing and confession time-- good therapy for all of us! And after everything was said and done, we all agreed that we are very blessed to have such wonderful husbands and children. Our better halves actually volunteered to watch the kids on Saturday while all of us hit the outlet malls and had lunch! We had a great time together leisurely strolling from store to store with no time table or children vying for our attention.

Another trait of our generation has been to allow our schedules to become so busy that we don't make time to nurture these close friendships. We have good intentions, but seldom follow through on them. We think about calling, but don't. We plan to make plans, but put it off for later. We want to get together, but we worry about the kids and their schedules. Thus, we end up with many acquaintances, and few close relationships in our lives because we simply don't make those friends a priority in our lives.

So, spending time with these couples reminded Scott and I of how important these relationships are-- these are the people whose children will grow up with Luke. How fun to be able to share our lives together-- the good and bad-- over the next decades. We have already shared so much-- dating, engagements, graduations, marriages, children, first jobs and homes-- and we still have so much to look forward to!

Jesus had a circle of 12-- including his most intimate friends Peter, James, and John. He evidently realized the importance of surrounding Himself with close relationships during His time here. Yes, He touched the lives of thousands while on earth, but it was His friendships with His disciples that must have been impacted the most. Think of the things they must have experienced together-- events not recorded for us in Scripture. How about the trips they made together, the nights they stayed up late talking and laughing, the nights they spent sharing their fears and anxieties, the moments they cried together, the moments they rejoiced together.... That is what life in Christ is all about... sharing our time here with others.

I will treasure the moments from this past weekend-- listening to the kids yell and scream and cry and run around together. Seeing our husbands having so much fun playing their boring board game and hearing them laugh like teenagers again over the silliest of things. Playing Baby Einstein DVDs again and again. Shopping for food at the local supercenter and cooking meals together. Rounding up all the kids and trying to get a group photo of them before someone had a melt down. Observing those priceless parenthood moments and being amazed that we are "all grown up" now with children of our own. Those care-free college days are truly a thing of the past, but what a wonderful present we are all having now.

We were also very blessed to end the weekend on Sunday night back in Nashville with the amazing couples in our small group. We were having our annual Thanksgiving meal together. How wonderful to think back upon the three years we have spent getting to know these couples and all the things we have already shared with them.

Thank you for wonderful Christian friends, Father. May we be iron sharpening iron in each other's lives. May we challenge each other to be more like You in our marriages as husbands and wives and as parents.

Chicken Little Luke! 

A "Text Book" Tragedy

I am so glad that the election is over-- and that my guy won! I do have empathy for those who wanted Kerry to win--- I am sure it is sad and disappointing for them.... I hope God's hand was at work. It does seem like a miracle! At first EVERYONE-- even the Bush camp-- thought Kerry was going to win. Blame it on bad exit polling-- but, maybe a higher power intervened. There were millions of people praying that God would help guide the election. I choose to believe that He did. I saw a story on CBN that reported a million Christians in India had gathered to pray for America and our election! That was so humbling to me and made me ponder how much our country impacts the rest of the world. I honestly had never even thought about the Christians in India before-- and I had no idea there were over 1 million of them! God is good! You can check out the story here-- http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/041102b.asp

Anyway-- enough of politics! Our world has been good, but my family has had quite a bit to deal with lately. I won't go into all the details of who and why online, but someone in our family is getting a divorce. There are many causes/reasons/excuses that could be given on both sides... but the bottom line is that the couple never truly had God as a part of their marriage. After a year of misery, loneliness, and no communication, there was just nothing left to hold the marriage together. Blame is hard to assign in situations like these... It is such a tragedy and just so sad.

This is the second major divorce that Scott and I have witnessed up close since we were married-- his parents divorced going on five years ago after close to 30 years of marriage. Oddly enough, the situations are very similar-- both were pretty much "text-book" examples of divorce. Communication starts to fade, each stops sharing his/her hopes, fears, and dreams-- even the little day-to-day things that form the bond of a healthy relationship. Pretty soon, so much time has gone by, and there is so much water under the bridge, resentment starts to build. There is no longer an intimate bond and the couple becomes more like roommates than loving life partners. At some point, one of them begins to look outside the marriage for encouragement and affection-- and simply someone to share his/her heart with again... This all leads to the end of the marriage and the beginning of a new relationship with someone else-- that they think will bring them happiness. Perhaps it is sometimes easier to just run away and start all over again with someone new than it is to stick it out and try to make things work. Unfortunately, God doesn't seem to share that opinion-- and that is why it is so sad when one member of the marriage wants to work things out and the other has already checked out-- and maybe has already "checked in" with someone new.

In His gracious mercy, God does offer life-- even after divorce! And I am praying that this will be the case for those in our family. The saddest effect still remains the eternal scar it leaves on the entire family-- the relationships that are severed and forever altered, the photos that have to be taken down and hidden away, the awkward explanations that have to be invented to offer the children who don't understand the change, the financial and material dealings that have to be squabbled over and settled, the family vacations that have to be modified and will never be the same..... It is clear to see why God hates divorce.

Scott and I have at least benefited from seeing the complete devastation that divorce brings to a family. We are desperately trying not to take our marriage for granted and to keep the lines of communication flowing. And although I still consider Scott to be my best friend, I admit that things have changed in our marriage since Luke arrived. It just isn't as easy to make time for each other and to be as emotionally and physically available to each other as it used to be. But, the upside is that we are a new family now-- the three of us-- and we are learning that life with our precious son is yet another thing that is bringing us closer together-- and what fun we are having in the process of watching him grow up right in front of our eyes each day! Today we were checking out at Kroger. We had a very friendly Mexican man who was bagging our groceries. He said "Hola!" to Luke. When we were leaving, I told Luke, "Say, Good-Bye!"-- which usually doesn't elicit much of response beyond a smile, but this time he raised his right hand and waved!! It was SO great! It was the first time he has done that! I will always remember it! He has also started crawling all over now and claps his hands. He is learning so fast!

We are blessed. I pray that above all things we never lose sight of the One who continues to bless us and guide us. Teach us Lord, to wait upon You so that You will renew our strength daily.

I will post a better photo of Luke in his chicken suit

as soon as we get it back from the photographer!

Our Chicken Little!

We had such a fun time with Luke on his first Halloween!

Halloween, Hezekiah, and Healing

We had a GREAT first Halloween with Luke this weekend! He was a chicken, and of course he was adorable! We stayed at home until 6:30 handing out the 10 pounds of candy I had bought! Our neighborhood is a trick-o-treater's dream. We have tons of kids that come by. Everyone is out on their front porch having a good time and enjoying the fun of it all. After we had almost given all the candy away, we headed to a small gathering some of our friends were having-- a pot of chili, 8 adorable kids, and more trick-or-treating! Even though Luke didn't actually collect any candy, he still had fun watching all the other kids. It was crazy to think that next year he will be able to walk up to the doors all by himself and that he will more than likely LOVE candy by then-- at least if he takes after me!

I was on the praise team yesterday, too-- all three services. Hm-m-m-m--- a coincidence that it was Halloween?! Were they trying to tell me something?! It is so easy to be spoiled by singing with my ZOE folk, and it is sometimes hard to fully appreciate singing with other praise team formations, but the group we had yesterday was really good, and the services went really well. So-- it was a LONG day, but a good one.

The sermon was another lesson out of Isaiah-- chapter 38, Hezekiah's prayer. Hezekiah was dying, he cried out to God, and He extended his life by 15 more years. Rubel had such an amazing sermon about why God chooses to heal some, yet others he doesn't.

He made one of the BEST analogies I have ever heard along those lines. He said that if we never experienced any heartache or pain, we would be so arrogant-- our hearts would be completely cold toward God-- we would think we were God. It is out of those painful times that we are reminded of just how much we need Him, and we are most receptive to reestablishing our relationship with Him.
To illustrate this point, he reminded us that the only place it never "rains" and where there is continual sun is a DESERT-- a dried-up wasteland. That is how we would be spiritually, too, if we always got the "happy ending." We would have no "roots."

The topic was particularly relevant also, because Rubel announced publicly for the first time that his wife Myra has breast cancer. Rumors had been flying for weeks-- Myra is a private person and only a handful of people were told initially. They did not catch the cancer early. She had surgery 6 weeks ago and has begun chemotherapy which will be followed by radiation. My mom also had breast cancer a few years back, and although she is doing fine now, it is still a tough place to be in.

It was a great sermon--- very powerful. You can hear it at http://www.rubelshelly.com/content.asp?ListSG=316 or read it at http://www.rubelshelly.com/content.asp?CID=18632

Excerpt from Rubel's sermon (Isaiah 38) :

When people who know the Lord get sick or face a life crisis of any sort, we do what Hezekiah did. We pray. Sometimes we pray like pagans and barter with God. “God, if you will do this or that,” we beg, “then I will stop what I’ve been doing and start doing something else!” Pagan prayer – and much that passes for Christian, I fear – is like a giant roulette wheel at a gambling casino. You want to get well. Or you are desperate to pay bills. Or you are scared you are going to die. So you wish hard, close your eyes, and spin the wheel. If you are lucky, you get what you want!

Authentic prayers of faith are different. We go to the Lord and do what is normal and right. We ask his help. We throw ourselves on his mercy. But we do so with the caveat, “Not my will, but yours, be done!” That is terribly risky, for we sometimes discover that God doesn’t want the things we want. Sometimes he prefers that we learn to be content with what we have than to have all our cares banished. So Christians pray for health, deliverance, and long life; we more often remain ill, continue to struggle, and eventually all go to the grave. That isn’t injustice. It isn’t failure on God’s part. It is faith lived in the real world. When we get a Hezekiah-deliverance answer to our prayers, our duty is to tell of God’s faithfulness to our children and to sing his praise in the key of gratitude; when we get a Jesus-in-Gethsemane answer, our duty is to bear witness of God’s Easter-faithfulness to our children and to sing his praise in the key of hope.

God hears and responds to the prayers of his people. “But how can you say that God ‘hears’ and ‘responds to’ our prayers if you admit that we don’t always get the deliverance for which we pray?” someone objects. “Suffering is always a bad thing!” The only real answer I can give that question is in the form of an illustration rather than an explanation.

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him . . . (Hebrews 5:7-9)

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I feel so amazingly blessed to be able to sit at his feet each week and listen to his take on Scripture. I love being a part of the Family of God at Woodmont Hills!