Lining Up My Ducks

I have many quirks. I’ve been called a quack. That’s alright as I do have ducks I need to get lined up. By looking at the plans laid out for me in October, this will be busy month.

My word for the day each day – FOCUS.

I had many plans for the blog. I wanted to participate in many different blog events, but just not able to do so at this time. I need to withdraw for a short season to prepare and focus for the upcoming events.

I’ll covet and cherish your prayers over the next four weeks. My scheduled return date—October 29, 2008. Please feel free to send emails or follow me on Twitter. I’d love to hear from you.

God Bless You!

Engrafted by His Grace--

Circumbendibus Rambling

Do you know what circumbendibus means?

Come on! I confess I didn’t either until I put the word “ramble” in the online thesaurus. According to Dictionary.com it’s a noun that means “a round about way.” Rambling is used as a verb above. So the title has a subject and a predicate which makes it a complete sentence.

Okay! I’ll stop and put the English teacher back in her school box.

I wanted to share a few things today. (Three point post) I have no one to talk to right now and I have not used up my 50,000 words yet, so the best I can do is type them out and share them with whom ever chooses to stop by and visit. If you do, please be so kind to edit my post and leave a comment (not really on the editing part-thank you, just kidding).

First – Jury Duty. Do you know that it is our civic duty to report to jury duty when summoned? Some people try to scam their way out of it. I confess I have every year until my youngest passed the age for excuse on the affidavit. So I prayed (getting real spiritual) I asked the Lord the reason for my summons. Well I went and I don’t know the reason.

This day was a simple little day except I had to be up early. No problem. I do that anyway. The challenge for me was to be presentable for public view at such an early hour. Well I try my best to look nice. I took Beth Moore’s advice on makeup (all the Siesta’s know about this one) and purchased Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation. It works great! I spent two hours one night at the Estee Lauder counter while my son was at football practice and spent $200. Needless to say my hubs went into a state of shock, but nothing a little mouth to mouth didn’t fix.

Anyhow, I got off track – hence the reason for the title above so you cant say I didn’t warn you. I worked up a plan for being presentable so early. My hairdresser gave me some wonderful tips a few days ago as I went in for my every other monthly ridding of split ends. She suggested I wash my hair at night. When I wake up to dampen it with root lifter and roll with the Velcro rollers.

So off to Sally’s Beauty supply I went. (Dear if you’re reading this, I splurged some more, but I kept it under $200 and it’s all for the sake of beauty—don’t you love me? [He sometimes reads my blog ya’ll so say hi to him.]) I saw some rollers you can sleep in—or so the package reads. I thought (now I think that’s where my problem began) that if I could sleep in the rollers, my fine, straight hair would be curly. I’d wake up looking beautiful and be able to be primped quickly. I took home my new rollers (and chemicals). Took my shower last night, put on all the chemicals and rolled my hair with these sleep in them at night curlers. I fluffed up my pillows, pulled back the covers, cozied myself into my favorite position and---it didn’t work for me. So, no matter which way I laid my head it was uncomfortable.

So I thought again (see where I keep digging myself into a hole here? [Rhetorical you really don’t have to answer!]) Well, I’m not following Gina’s (my hairdresser) advice the way she said, so I better do what she said. So up I go to remove these rollers. As I start to remove them, my hair gets tangled in them. Then glancing down at the directions I read, “Avoid contact with hair from other sections.” I confess I only glanced at the directions. I saw that statement, but it did not tell me WHY so I ignored it figuring it is just like those “I Agree” buttons on the internet when downloading software. Just click and move on.

As I was undoing my ideal do, my hair got tangled. Now I just had it trimmed up a few days ago and now I’m pulling and tugging and breaking my hair. I think I have to go back for another trimming. Well I got caught in a bind and I was ready to cry. I go to my teen age son ready for him to use a pocket knife if necessary (that’s how desperate I was at that point). But he was gentle and caring with my hair and got the remaining curler out with minimal damage. [He’ll make some woman a good husband someday! Way later day okay?] I go on to bed with the other plan in mind.

First thing when I woke this morning, I redid the chemicals and used the Velcro rollers like Gina told me. An hour later when I removed them, I had volume and loose waves on my long layers. But it was humid this morning and by the time I arrived at the court house, I had straight flat hair. The plan didn’t work. Bummer.

Second Point – Freedom of Speech. I just have to share. When I realized that I was juror number 38 and my chances were very slim for being selected as a juror for this trial, as they chose 6 out of the first 12 not excused from the jury pool. (Being last has its advantages.) Well the defense attorney said that he wanted to get to know our viewpoints on various issues as he realized that we have different circumstances that shape our views. He said that we could be free to say whatever we wanted without hesitation as we could not be arrested for sharing our points of views.

His first question was on what we thought about our right to remain silent or why a defendant may want to exercise his right. I couldn’t resist exercising my freedom to speak and forgo my right to remain silent, so I raised my number. When he called my number, I stated, “Perhaps a defendant may not want to testify as attorneys have a way of twisting words with a person. If the defendant is not able to articulate himself well, it may be better than facing the attorneys.” He quickly moved onto another question. I raised my hand on almost all of them, but didn’t get chosen to freely express my views. Perhaps I was too free as with my thoughts as I may have tainted the jury pool.

Another questions was, “Do you think a defendant may be guilty just by his presence in court?”

Again, I raised my number. I stated, “Well from my perception, prosecuting attorneys wont bring a case to court unless they know that they have enough evidence to win. “

Defense attorney, “Do you think you would be able to listen to the facts and make a decision on facts?”

Me, “yes.”

Then he quickly turned the questioning to how many defendants are falsely accused. I see that point too, but never was picked again to answer another question. And ultimately released from serving as a juror in this trial. (Was it my number or my opinions?)

Third Point – Good citizenship. – (Okay I see this is really long so I’ll get to my point). I home school and Texas requires we teach our home students good citizenship. So I explained what jury duty means to my 11 year old son. When I had lunch with him, he wanted to go see the trial. Being a public trial, I cleared our regularly scheduled school for a spontaneous field trip. I took my son to witness a trial proceeding. Once we entered and took our seats, we observed the prosecution’s witness on the stand. It took two hours for the prosecution and the defense and the prosecution’s rebuttal on this one witness. I whispered who was who and what they were doing. He got the whole lay out figured out. Chase begged me to leave after the first witness as they still have 5 more witnesses to go. We left.

When we got inside the vehicle, Chase told me, “Mom, I never want to do anything wrong to get arrested. I don’t want to HAVE to sit in the court room that long. That guy can’t leave, but we can.”

That's a lesson you can't learn from a lecture.

Now there’s wisdom from such a young child.

I feel better now; I’ve used 1,433 1469 words according to the word count at the bottom of my word document. I hope you made it all the way through. If not, please leave me a comment anyway. I love to hear from all of you!!

Engrafted by His Grace--

Work and Fight

Nehemiah 4:15-17 (HCSB)

15 When our enemies realized that we knew their scheme and that God had frustrated it, every one of us returned to his own work on the wall. 16 From that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers supported all the people of Judah, 17 who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried the loads worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.

The Lord called Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem with a group of people to rebuild the wall that was destroyed when taken captive by the Babylonians. The enemies of Judah schemed to kill them and stop the work of rebuilding the wall. Since they are enemies of Judah, they’re also enemies of the Lord. The Lord’s plans always prevail and thus the Lord frustrated their schemes of the enemy. The Jews who lived near the enemy camp overheard the plans and reported them to Nehemiah. Nehemiah’s response:

"Don't be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes." (Nehemiah 4:14 HCSB)

He encouraged the people to press on with the call of God on their lives. They had a vision. A purpose from God.

I know that I know that the Lord put a call on my life. Each day as I press forward toward the preparation, the enemy frustrates me. I confess I’ve been complacent on spiritual warfare. But this is no time to be complacent. We have an enemy who would like nothing more than to thwart the plans of the Lord. I cannot cower to these schemes.

How do I know it’s the enemy? As I press on toward the call, I am more easily distracted with little things. Sickness set in last week. Unexpected little fires needed to be put out. Needless to say I didn’t realize it until after I ran to put them out, if I left them alone those fires would have lacked the fuel to burn and gone out on their own. I learned that not all fires have to but doused, as it must have fuel to burn.

Then I read Nehemiah 4:15-17 last week in the chronological reading. It struck me like a bolt of lightning. I must work with one hand and fight with the other. Now I was reminded that our weapons are not weapons of this world. The fight is in the spirit.

The first step in fighting in the spirit is walking in obedience to the Lord. (2 Cor. 10:3-6; James 4:7)

Next, put on the full armor of God to stand your ground. (Eph. 6:10-20)

We’re in a spiritual battle, but the Lord has equipped us to win! Let’s stay in His word, walk in His ways by being obedient, and fight the good fight of faith.

Now I must be about what the Lord has called me to do. Love & blessings in Christ to you all!

Engrafted by His Grace--

My Angel

The other night I took a good dose of night-time, make ya sleep good, wake up feeling well medicine to relieve my aching head and congested chest. After about three hours of not feeling anything slumber, I woke to the sound of my office door opening. My office is off the master bedroom which you must enter to reach it. I heard the chair roll across the concrete floor and my keys rattle on the desk. I open my eyes to look across the room. Just a hint of the outside light sneaking through the cracks in the blinds is not enough to see. Not having x-ray vision, I saw no one.

I called out in to the dark, “Who's there?” Suddenly the noise stopped. Nothing moved, except my accelerating heart beat. Again, “Who's there?” No response. Silence.

Stuck to my bed not wanting to confront any fears I tried to analyze the situation. I quickly played through the files in my mind on what to do in emergency situations. My cell phone was on the office desk. That’s not an option.

Sitting up on my elbows I called out, “Stephen!” I rationalized my adult son came home late from work and is looking for something in my office trying not to wake me up.

No response.

Then in my angrier, authoritative tone I screamed, “STEPHEN!”

Immediately I heard, “Whaaaaaaaaatt?” Having the mother echolocation abilities, I identified immediately he was not in the office, but awake in his room. If he were sleeping, I would not have heard any type of response. A train crashing into our home would not inhibit his sleeping abilities.

So I hollered out, still sitting up on my elbows on my bed, “Come here!”

In an UNusual adult teen response, he came at once. His adult size frame could take on who ever was inside my office. Not something I could do in my partially, over the counter medically induced coma state. He stepped in and turned on the light momentarily blinding me. Pointing to the office door, I exhaled the words, “Someone’s in the office!”

He jumped, turned, and pushed open the doors the rest of the way. I explained, “I heard the chair move across the floor and my car keys were moved.” He flipped on the light and…

Laughed!

Yes, he laughed. His laughter caused the tension I was unaware I held in my neck and shoulders leave my already aching body.

He said, “It’s Angel. She jumped upon the chair causing it to roll. Then she jumped on your desk pushing your keys over. She’s just laying down here.”

Angel. My Angel. Nocturnal creature—my cat.

Stephen turned to me and asked, “Why are you sweating?”

“Uh, I’m sick. I must have a fever.” I’m thinking, hormonal night sweats. But boy you better not even mention fear. He knew it though.

Conceding, I continued, “Thanks responding to this damsel in distress. You’re a hero!”

Our mind has an ability to perceive something that is not real causing great fear. Now grant it, if this situation were a real intruder in my home, fear would have been the proper response to react defensively. But most situations that cause fear are false perceptions that detract us from our purpose. Perhaps that’s why we’re told in God’s word to not fear. Whatever trials or situations we face, we have God’s power by the Holy Spirit to enable us to persevere.

2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Engrafted by His Grace--

Drive-in Church

Tired of the same old way of doing church? Then what do you think of a drive-in church? Here's a news clip of one in Daytona Beach, Florida. Please leave a comment about what you think.




Engrafted by His Grace--