And Away We Goooooooo (Almost)

Jun29

T minus three and counting until we head off on our Incredible Journey. Morgan is already packed. The boys don’t return from their Orlando Outreach until tomorrow, at which point there will be a mound of laundry to do before they can pack. And I’ve got a couple of full hampers myself. It’ll get done. That’s the beauty of not having to catch a plane.

My posts in the month of July are likely to be spotty, but I’d love for you to join me on our journey. I will be posting pics whenever I can. We’re excited to see so much of America. I’ve been to most of the states we’ll be seeing, but I haven’t seen most of the sites. I’m looking forward to sharing this experience with my family–and with you.

Have you ever taken a trip like this before? Tell me where you’ve been and what you liked best about it. I’d love to hear!

Thankful today for:

411. GPS

412. cleaning-out-the-fridge meals

413. for my mother-in-law, who will be holding down the fort

414. for my sister-in-law, who is coming to help her

415. for my nephew wanting to spend time with his younger cousins

416. still being able to enjoy lunch outside in the last week of June! Amazing.

417. all the old friends I’m going to get to see. So excited!

418. God’s grand creation

419. a week of outreach for my boys

Which Wolf Wins?

Jun26

We’ve been dog sitting for the past week. Zoey is the same dog who came to swim with Berkeley back in the spring. Now, her family has gone on vacation, and we, along with two other families, are taking one-week stints watching her.

The first place she went has an older dog who really didn’t appreciate Zoey’s company very much. She got growled at a lot there. We have a big black lab that outweighs her by 56 pounds. But they’ve had a lot of fun together.

The next family she’s going to today has a young spaniel much more her size. I’m sure the romping with be epic. I’m also sure she won’t know what to do with herself once her family is back next week.

But looking at the two dogs at my house reminds me of the story of the black and white wolves. Apparently, the Cherokee Indians have a story about a time when there was a terrible argument between two adults, and an old wiseman was asked to mediate. With all the children gathered around to see what he’d say, the old man told this story:

Inside of everyone lives a black wolf and a white wolf. The black wolf is filled with fear, anger, envy, jealousy, greed and arrogance. The white wolf is filled with peace, love, hope, courage, humility, compassion and faith. They battle constantly. The obvious question to the children was this one:

Which wolf wins?

The old man’s answer? The one we feed.

We choose, every minute of every day, which wolf we’re going to let win in our hearts. Will we give in to anger and jealousy, fear, greed, arrogance? Or will we be filled with peace, love, hope? Those sound a lot like the fruit of the Spirit, don’t they?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22,23).

If we live by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).

The principle is simple, but not easy: stop feeding the black wolf.

Thankful today for:

399. a week-long play date for my dog

400. this opportunity for outreach to their community for my boys

401. a cleaned off desk

402. a great husband who will run to the store at 9:00 at night to buy milk because we’re out

403. a significant time of prayer last night for the outreach this week

404. less than a week left before we leave

405. a new look to my living room

406. God watering my new little rose bush

407. the near completion of our landscaping project

408. friends returning home safely

409. the promise of heaven

410. that we don’t have squeaky toys in the house for our pets!

 

Hello, My Name Is _________

Jun22

When David and I started having children, honestly, we didn’t think too long and hard about their names. We picked what we liked, then looked through the baby names books to be sure they didn’t mean something weird. We also didn’t tell people what we chose, because we didn’t want the “Oh, that’s an interesting name” response. We feel good about what we chose: their names mean justice, gift of God and bright, shining sea (or German for morning).

I know that some people agonize over their children’s names, wanting the names to reflect what will be true about them in their life. If only we could determine our children’s futures by their names. I would have named my first-born Rich. Just kidding.

People in earlier times carried names from generation to generation: surnames, middle names, last names, maiden names, nick names. What a child is named is with them forever (unless they go to court and pay to have it changed).

Whereas the names we give our children may not always fit them, there is One whose name fits Him to perfection: Jesus.

There is power in the name of Jesus that can’t be denied. An old song I used to sing as a youth goes like this:

At the name of Jesus, at the name of Jesus, we have the victory!

At the name of Jesus, at the name of Jesus, Satan will have to flee.

Tell me who can stand before us when we call on His great name.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, we have the victory!

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

There’s is another song popular today, sung by Natalie Grant. Listen to it here, and have a blessed day.

Thankful today for

393. wonderful worship songs

394. new plants

395. coffee drinks

396. crispy apples

397. the opportunity both my boys have to participate in a local outreach with their youth group next week

398. the anticipation of a much quieter week next week 🙂

Man Can Make His Plans

Jun20

So, we have all these great plans in place for our summer odyssey across the United States. The impetus is seeing my 94-year-old great aunt in California while we still can. Then my niece decided to get married in July in Washington state. So, while we’re in the area, we decided to head on up there for that great event. Then, since we were up there, we decided to head home via the northern route to see some friends we hadn’t seen in a really long time because they live in faraway states. We threw in some national parks (The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore) and the San Diego Zoo, while we also “in the area.” (That’s one BIG area, I’m thinkin’.) David determined it was something like 8,000 miles. But Justin will be heading off to college in just a few years, so we figure this might be our last chance to take a family trip like this. It’s all about making memories.

It’s exciting. It’s exhausting. It’s fun. And we pray it all goes smoothly. (Look for my blog posts along the way.)

There’s a statement I’ve heard that always amuses me: Man makes his plans, and God laughs.

The Bible says it another way: “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

We leave in 12 days. I can hear God’s chuckle now.

Thankful today for:

384. a nice van

385. Berkeley being beyond the puppy stage

386. chick flicks with friends

387. prescription sunglasses

388. a cooler June so far

389. the grocery shopping being done

390. breakfast

391. coupons

392. rootbeer


Dear Dad

Jun17

My dad is no longer with us, but I thought I would write him a letter on Father’s Day. Ever since I had kids of my own, my Father’s Day focus has been on my kids’ dad rather than my own, and there’s just something not quite right about that. So even though he’s not here to read it, I wanted to tell him a few things.

Dear Dad,

I can imagine what it was like for you, having 3 kids in 4 years–and another one 7 years later. We pretty much had to be your focus. But I know that you loved to drive your Porsche, and you loved to fly, and you loved to sail, and you loved to take pictures. You were an ardent Cal football fan, and you transferred that love to your kids. I remember being at the Big Game, when the Stanford band ran out on the field before the final whistle and Cal had the ball and there were something like three or four laterals and finally a touchdown by the Bears! That was so exciting! I’m glad I got to be there with you for that one.

Remember when you took me camping with Paul and the Boy Scouts? Luckily we had our pop-up camper, and I didn’t have to sleep in a tent. I go camping with my family now. I bet it started with you.

The smell of pine trees still brings back memories of our Lake Tahoe vacations. Those were such great times with Grandma and Grandpa Allan. I loved that house we rented. Thanks for planning those, and our week on Balboa Island. That is still one of my very favorite places. And one of the best childhood memories I have is our trip to British Columbia. We’re hoping to give our kids great memories like that on our trip across the country this summer.

Remember when you told your friend that I was a good driver and he could trust me to go on a little drive in his Corvette? I appreciated your confidence in me. It was so fun to drive that hot car down Shepherd Canyon Road.

We had fun at the Warriors games you took me to several birthdays when I was in college. I’m not a big basketball fan, but the Warriors are still my favorite team. If they’d quit being perennial celler dwellers, I could get a little more fired up about them.

Remember going to A’s games? I stay up way too late even now watching them from the east coast. Let’s go, Oakland!

I’m pretty sure I got my love of writing from you. Of course, our styles are vastly different: you’re technical, I’m . . . not. But you read my articles in the magazine, and you told me what you thought. I hope you were proud of me.

I remember once when you told someone I was a good singer. That meant a lot.

I remember that you used to like to hunt. That’s something I didn’t get from you.

When I was preparing to buy my first car, I called you for advice. Your love of automobiles runs in my blood a little bit. You suggested I get something practical. I got a convertible instead.

When David called you to ask for my hand in marriage, you gave him advice about marriage. Yours lasted nearly 50 years, so I guess you knew something, right? By the way, thanks for giving him your permission.

I’m sorry that life’s pressures got to be so hard for you in your later years. Job challenges, health challenges. I don’t think you knew how to handle them very well. I wish I had talked to you more about the peace you could find in Jesus. I wish that heart attack hadn’t taken you so suddenly.

Well, I’ll wrap this up for now, but I just wanted to say thanks for being my dad. I have some good memories. I wish you were still here to make more.

See you in heaven.

Love,

Stephanie (aka Blondie)

Thankful today for:

375. my dad

376. my children’s dad

377. fresh paint on my living room walls

378. my kids being old enough to help with the painting

379. choices

380. breakfast

381. a nearby grocery store

382. new marriages

383. old marriages like mine