Sunday, June 16, 2013

A loving Father

This morning at the end of worship Pastor Morgan prayed for a couple and he said to the lady that she was missing a "nearness" with God.  That she felt distant from God because of the actions and model set before her by her own earthly father.  As I listened and watch this woman begin to weep it hit me like a flood on this Father's Day why I so easily trust my God.  Why I so freely take Him at His word.  
So many women have deep rooted trust issues with God because they've not seen that in their Daddy.  They've not seen him come through again & again for them.

I trust because I've seen that in a father.  I've had the best example of a loving father a girl could ever dream of.  A father who has loved me through thick & thin.  Been my biggest hero & my biggest encourager.  My biggest fan & strengthening challenger.   My loving rebuker yet standing with arms of grace.  Grace... Underserved & unearned.
  
My trust in my gracious heavenly Father this turbulent, stormy year came so naturally because I had that modeled in my earthly father from as early as I can remember.  And he's never stopped.  
My daddy's love never gives up on me.  How much more does the heavenly Father love us and pour out his blessings on us? (Matthew 7)

We went on to sing the words to My Chains Are Gone, "The Lord has promised good to me.  His word my hope secures.  He will my shield & fortress be as long as life endures..." I reflected on singing those very words at my Papaw's funeral with my daddy a few short years ago.  Little did I know on this Father's day several years later he may be singing with my baby boy.  

The other day in the store Ryder asked about his other great grandfathers.  I reminded him Grandaddy, Papaw and Papa were in heaven.  He smiled and asked how we could get them a Father's Day card.  :)   After a few minutes he relented that being with Gibson would be a good Father's Day for them. 

Yes it would.




Monday, June 10, 2013

Get IN the party.

What did we do all weekend?!?  That is the question as I survey my house on Monday mornings.  Our weekends seem to be a blur of a mess after all that.  There are piles & piles of laundry & dishes all around and the kids are asking to go to the pool because it's now summer and that's what they expect everyday I guess.  We had a weekend of nothing and everything.  There was nothing really ON our calendar but I think those are the weekends that fill my needy heart the most.  After a long church day, staying up unexpectedly last night talking with girlfriends till the wee hours of the morning left me a sleepy momma this morning, but it also made me a happy one.  Because in the midst of the chaos around me this morning I'm better off.  I'm better because of those around me who help me to grow, encourage me to step out in what I'm walking through and challenge me to see the important things IN life.

I've been hard on myself lately because as I try to grow my business I just don't have time to blog ABOUT the parties I do because I'm usually working on the next one.  And I know that's really the way to grow in what I do.  So I usually just throw out an instagram and hope people like what I do and pass it along.  I was telling Daniel last week while we were setting up a party... I just don't know how all these party bloggers do it... telling him all the crazy pictures I see and the set ups they do.  I went on to tell him how many of them are paid by companies to style or rather "stage" parties.  Meaning... it's not a real party.  It's a FAKE party set up to give you ideas of how to use the products.  All well-intended and a good idea really.  But again, it's not a REAL party.  They are paid & receive unlimited resources to create an imaginative party for you.  I'd rather be in on the REAL thing, wouldn't you?  The real mess of it all.  The real problems of having a party are hard to deal with.  You set up a party in the middle of the life happening around you.  It's not just a pretty dessert table, set up on a lonely wall with a beautiful backdrop that looks unachievable & untouchable.
At the graduation party I set up last week the first guests started arriving and no one was touching the milk & cookies table.  They were all just standing looking at it...  Finally I said to some of them- "GET IN THERE... EAT SOME COOKIES!  DRINK SOME MILK"  A few minutes later a guy came over with an almost empty mason jar of milk and said, "Man, I'm lactose intolerant but that was delicious!!!" I laughed and his wife rolled her eyes and ate another cookie.

See that's why I wanna be IN on the party.  I want to enjoy the time & ones around me.  Last night as the moms I was with were talking about the pressures of life and feeling the need to just "checkout" sometimes one of my wise friends said that recently she read a devotional reminding her that God's resources to us are unlimited.  His GRACE is unlimited to us.  She said she saw it as an ocean.  Many times we walk over and scoop up what we need for the day and walk through our day carrying it as it seeps through our tired fingers until in runs out.  It runs out.  Then we explode.  On our kids or our husbands or our already worn down house.  But what we should be doing is realizing there is an ocean to dip from constantly.  His unlimited resources.  So when I feel like I can't stay IN the party... I can't keep up.  I CAN keep dipping into HIS resources.