Celebrating Our Graduate

Celebrating our Graduate as a Family

 This past Saturday, June 7, 2014, we graduated our 4th of five children from our homeschool, another milestone reached for him and for his dad and me.

5 of My Gifts from God

That's my boy!

 Exuberant and loving, Kipp is a joy in our home.  I am blessed he won’t be leaving us just yet.  He has elected to pursue his associate’s degree in computer science at the community college before continuing at a 4-year institution, if the Lord allows.  There is joy in the journey.

At his graduation ceremony, the president of our state homeschool group was also watching her youngest child of nine graduate. She noted that though people often comment that this is a bittersweet time, she disagreed.  

“It’s just sweet,” she professed.  

I’m not sure any transition is ‘just sweet’ for me, but there is a sense of that sweetness in the respite of accomplishment, of completion.  There is a sweetness in watching the little ones we brought into the world now prepared, albeit never fully, to take on that world themselves.  There is sweetness in remembering, because it is the sweetness of the memories that remains.  

Our Fine Young Men

Yet how easily tears flow these days as each transition not only brings its own twinge of trauma, but also a re-visitation of all transition traumas past.  So…sweet yes, but it is a sweetness that exposes both weakness and strength, tenderness, with all its facets, yet energetic vitality for what’s ahead.  There is joy in the journey, even in transitions.

         So as you celebrate your own transitions, whether they be graduations, or weddings, or something else, I encourage you to cherish them.  Bask in the moments, because they pass so quickly.  They are gifts from God.  Let go of the lies that rob you of your sweetness, and treasure the preciousness of your life.  Even in transition one can relish and delight in the joy of the journey.

Transitions Make Memories

 To you my special family:  I love you guys.  You are all and each special blessings to me from God.  And I will thank Him all the days of my life for you.  Go forth.  Be a blessing and be blessed.     Love, Mom

A Son's Wedding - A Mother's Transition

It has been a whirlwind weekend for our family.  We headed off last Thursday to join my son and prepare for his wedding on Saturday, on my birthday.  

Family came from all parts and we had a wonderful family reunion after the rehearsal on Friday.  

Then came the big event on Saturday.  It was beautiful and lots of tears were shed by Mom, (that's me).  

My Children were all in the wedding, the groom in the middle.

Of course they were happy tears, sort of.  I didn't think this would be as difficult as it is.   After all, isn't this what we get them ready for - to go off on their own, live their own lives, start their own families?

Really it isn't that I am not happy for the bride and groom.  I am.  They love each other and they bring out the best in each other.  What is difficult are these transitions.  It is like you are leaving behind one life and beginning another.  Transitions are difficult.  You know an era has passed.  That's a hard thing on a personal level for me.  Even happy transitions are hard things for some of us.

And so, though I should be rejoicing, and I am, I am also struggling with the emotional tumult of transition.  I feel bad for my family because I am sure I am a bit salty right now.  But salt brings flavor and salt preserves; so perhaps I'm adding something good with my internal wrestling match as it flavors their lives.

I am spending extra time with the Lord lamenting the emotions that accompany transition.  I am not complaining.  There isn't anything to complain about.  Look at this beautiful couple!  It is a wonderful thing, marriage.  

I am confessing, confessing that I want to be as joyful as I know I should be, but I am not there yet.  I am thanking, thanking God for the beautiful bride He has given my son, and the wonderful family He has blessed us with.  I am praising, praising God for who He is and how He works all these things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  I am just resting, dwelling in His presence so that my lament will turn to praise and thanksgiving and contentment and joy.   

Buck and Anna Dunn, married May 11, 2013 

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

 Thank you to those who have passed along awards to my blog.  I appreciate you and will get to the responses eventually.  And thanks for coming by and celebrating this joyous time with me too. 

Reflecting On the A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge:  Reflections:  

A to Z Reflections

The A to Z Challenge really started for me back a few month in preparation for April. I began tracking the A to Z challenge website and gaining tips and tricks for how to prepare, as well as how to get and give the most in the challenge.  And I did learn oodles from that daily check in.  I practiced daily what I was learning, like visiting blogs of those on the list and prewriting some of the A to Z entries.  Both of these were huge helps.  In fact, if I participate next year, and right now I think I will, I’ll start even earlier and try to not only get most prewritten but also pre-posted, which I did not do until we got very close to the kick-off.  

Starting off in April wasn’t too tough.  I was able to get a week’s worth of pre-posts ready to go, and so the daily 5 new blog visits and revisiting those who became blogging friends or those blogs that really intrigued me or those that were kind enough to stop by my blog was not initially too difficult.  However, as I began to fall behind on the rest of life, running to catch up, and as I didn’t have a week in advance ready anymore, if even a day, and as the revisits mounted up, well the CHALLENGE of the event began to challenge me.  

I imagine I am not much different than others in this regard.  At that point I not only had to catch up some days with life outside of the blogosphere, I started to feel like I had to catch up with life in blogland as well, because I am fanatical about keeping my commitments, and I made a commitment to visit as well as write my own entry.  So by golly, I was going to do it!

In spite of the stress in the second half, what a joy it has been connecting with the  like-minded, coming to understand the not-so-like-minded, visiting places and people from around the world, being inspired by the young, the old, and the simply inspiring, and so much more that many of us would never have been exposed to.  It has been a truly growing experience.  Not only writing everyday in this way, but also connecting in a way that is, well, out of this world in more ways than one, I have found myself very deeply contemplative on some points and prayerful for new people.  The fun, the inspiration, the challenge, have all been a healthy stretch.  

I am very grateful that God laid it on Arlee’s heart to get this off the ground those few years back.  It is incredible how many people’s lives around the world A to Z has touched and how it has connected so many of us in such a good way.  Recently I was listening to a speaker who was addressing the current state of our information age that we know so many things that in reality are trivial and unnecessary to our daily lives, and yet we don’t know what is happening in our neighbors lives.  True and sad.  Yet this challenge brought lives together in an explosion of discovery.  Perhaps some of it was trivial and unnecessary, but I have to say I do feel like it did add to the quality of my life, my personal development, and my relationships across the spectrum of this world and the cyber-world.  Thank you Arlee and thank you to all of you who have connected with me through this A-Z adventure.  

A to Z Challenge Reflections

A to Z Challenge: V is for View

A to Z Challenge:  V is for the View from Inside

It occurs to me that all of us have a view from inside from which we look out, which no one else can see.  As I reach out to you, you see a certain part of me as you look out from the inside of you.  Both of us have different views from which we look.  What you see may be what you get but it is far from what you may perceive to be there.  No one but you and God can get inside of you.

I foolishly operate in the world assuming others come at it knowing and understanding the same things I do though perhaps choosing to think differently.  The fact is there is no one, not one person in the whole wide world that has the same view from inside that I have or that you have.  Even if we had the same experiences, the same home, the same everything, our interaction with those things would have impacted the view from inside differently, like the way we see an elephant in the center of the room differently depending on the perspective of where we stand.  We all have our own view from inside.

 That said, that view of and from inside is affected by a belief system, a worldview which influences our view from inside and our interaction with the world.  Most of us don’t live congruent lives with our belief systems.  We might say we are Christians, but we do things that are inconsistent with how God calls us to live.  We may say we are atheists, evolutionists, Muslims, Hindus, Pagans, nothing at all, but whatever we claim, we live in such a way that borrows from other worldviews to some degree, and we respond to the world in disharmony with our stated beliefs without even thinking about it most of the time.  

Why is that?  If we truly believe what we say we believe, why are our lives and our worldviews not consistent?  For some it may just be a matter of it isn’t important.  It doesn’t matter.  Yet shouldn’t it?  Can we live at peace with ourselves or with others, can we know ourselves, can we grow, thrive, think about the big questions, if we are incongruous with our belief system, with what we hold as truth?  More questions abound.

Since we are the only one who can enter our own land of inside, we are the only ones who can clean it up.  Others outside can give us tips, can tell us what worked for them, but ultimately they can only direct.  They cannot come inside.  There is One Who can join us in our land to know us fully and better than we know ourselves.  There is One Who can help us solve problems we can’t solve ourselves, Who can enter in and clean up with a sweeping wind that clears away the debris.  There is only One Who can enter with omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence to have a desirable, purifying, enhancing impact on our land inside to help us improve the view.  

Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.  2 Timothy 1:13-14 (NASB)

I am glad I have let Him in to walk with me and be the King of my land.  With Him here, it is becoming a better place to be all the time.  I am learning how to live more congruently with who I am.  I believe what I believe because I believe it is truth.  It isn’t blind faith, but it IS faith, faith that is supported by concrete evidence, faith that is consistent, and faith that is congruent with the character of God.  Even if my life may not be totally aligned with who I want to be or should be, God doesn’t have that issue.  He is congruous even if I don’t always understand Him.  How can I, finite being that I am, fully understand God in His fullness?  I am not omni anything!  But I can walk with Him Who is the light, for He lives!  He clears up the view from inside, and I hope into inside as well.

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”  John 8:12 (NASB) 

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14 

A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge: Say Thank You

A to Z Challenge:  T is for Thankfulness.  

Image Source

Back at ‘G’ I chose the word gratitude.  It is worth repeating the sentiment again here as thankfulness or thanksgiving.  Maintaining an attitude of thankfulness, looking for ways to say thank you, to let those in our lives know that we appreciate them, can lift us up like little else.  Here are some ideas to say thank you to some of those in your life.

•   When you wake up, thank God that you did and for the day ahead.

•   Put a thank you note in your husband’s or child’s computer case, or notebook or lunch letting them know something you appreciate about them.

• Look for someone who you meet at the grocery store, in the bank, at the gym, who needs a lift and find something that they do that you can thank them for.  

• Notice that special someone who always goes the extra mile, and thank them as you let them know you notice and appreciate them.

• Send a note to someone who has influenced you to thank them for the particular impact they have had.

• Look for a service member or policeman, and thank them for their service and sacrifice.

• Recognize those who are smiling throughout your day by thanking them for their smile. 

• Text a friend or a child or a sibling to thank them for something they have said or done that you appreciate.

• Thank a blogger for something particular they have written that has blessed you.

•   At the end of the day, thank your family members for the little things you don’t usually notice.

• Thank God for another day of life, and if you did all this thanking, no doubt it was a day you appreciate a bit more than usual.

Life throws some tough turns our way.  Even in the midst of tremendous tribulation, thankfully counting blessings can provide strength and salve so deeply needed.  Thankfulness is a treasure we can all possess, and it is a multiplying treasure as we spread it around. 

In Everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  

                                       1 Thessalonians 5:18

A to Z Challenge

Thank you, Arlee Bird, again, for this terrific A to Z Challenge.

Titus 2 Tuesday

Growing Home

A to Z Challenge: N is for Noah

A to Z Challenge:  N is for NOAH showing at Sight and Sound Theater 

About 17 1/2 years ago we went to our first production at the Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster, PA, an amazing musical production of Noah.  My oldest daughter was 2 1/2 years old; so she doesn’t remember much of that production, but I do remember that it was quite spectacular.  

Since that time, the Sight and Sound Theater has produced a number of amazing Biblical performances. We have seen a few; last fall we attended a showing of Jonah which was also phenomenal.  These folks know how to move you back in time, stir your emotions, and give you an experience you will not soon forget.  The sets are incredible; the music and the singers keep the audience enthralled, and the story is timeless. 

So when I heard NOAH was back after all these years, I had to get tickets.  The show runs from March to November 2013.  I bought tickets last November for the show on March 29th.  Many of the dates are already sold out because it will only be running for the one season.  The show did not disappoint.  

If you are unfamiliar with the story of NOAH in the Bible, you can read about it in Genesis chapters 6 through 8.  The story is about God saving Noah and his family and anyone who would join them from coming judgment on the world for sin and rebellion.  Noah has loved God and appreciated God’s blessings as he sought to be faithful in his relationship with God.  God directs Noah to do something that has never been done before in an area that seems to make no sense at the time.  God directs Noah to build an Ark.  This large boat would then be used to transport 2 of every kind of animal on the earth along with Noah and his family in order that they would survive a coming worldwide flood.  Sounds incredible even to Noah, but he is faithful as he has always been to believe God, and God is faithful to His promises.

During the show you are transported into the ark with dozens of live and animatronic animals.  You get a glimpse of what life might have been like cooped up in a limited space with your family and smelly animals for a lengthy period.  The range of emotions that they would have encountered, extreme sorrow at the loss of mankind, great appreciation for being saved, frustration, exhaustion, impatience, well you get the idea.  It is all in there.

I would encourage anyone who wants to see a performance of Biblical proportions to consider checking out the Sight and Sound Theater’s show list.  People travel from all over the country to see one of these productions.  They have a second theater in Branson, Missouri which is now showing Joseph.

A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge: J is for Just

A to Z Challenge:  J is for Just

Image Source

“I just cannot believe it.”  I fumed.  “I cannot believe they are doing this after all we do for them.  Here they are in our house all the time, and they have the nerve to...”  And so my thought process continued for days.  I seemed to be just stuck in my anger and couldn’t break out of it.

Some friends of ours, who were regulars in our home, had asked us to pay for something of theirs that was damaged while they were visiting us.  The reason I was angry was that they were responsible for the damage.  It just happened at our house.  I just couldn’t get it off my heart or out of my mind.  And so I seethed and prayed.

“Lord, will you please just help me with this anger.  Lord I can’t get over their selfish demand.  I am really struggling with this.  Help me Lord.”  And so my prayer went for several days.

As I was stopped at a red light while out driving, the sunlight warming my arm as it rested on the door out the open window, I was still stewing and praying over my little vexation.  All of a sudden, I felt as if a hand touched my arm, and the Lord ‘spoke’ in my spirit.  

“Will you just let this go?!  Haven’t you been forgiven so much more than $20?  Don’t you see your own pride and self-righteousness and your own selfishness in your indignation?  Just get out of your own way.  Just forgive and let it go!”

I immediately felt free of the anger and filled with remorse over my own selfish, prideful attitude.  I cried with joy and appreciation for the forgiveness I have received which I was taking for granted, moved that God would so vividly impress on my heart the truth that I needed to embrace.  I could now get out of my own way and just let it go. 

Wouldn’t we all be much better off if we just let grace wash over those offenses in which we feel justified in being offended?  If we would then learn to just let those things go and forgive by God’s grace, we would just have so much more peace and contentment.  

I think just about anyone could agree that we just get just too offended by just too many perceived injustices.  Just let 'em go and move on.  They just don’t matter enough to rob you of your joy.  

Just sayin.’

A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge: G is for Gratitude

A to Z Challenge:  G is for Gratitude

Image source

The power of gratitude cannot be understated.  It promotes well-being in all areas of one's personal life:  physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual.  It will help one face those most difficult of circumstances, and it makes the joys of life all the more joyous.  The positive effects of a thankful heart permeate to the very depths of who we are reaching out to impact our sleep, our health, our grades, and our approach to life in general.  

Our relationships will be stronger if we learn to appreciate as a way of life.  Forgiveness comes easier and grace flows in both directions more fluidly when gratitude is the river on which we sail.  Though slumps do come, they are overcome more quickly and with greater success when one is cultivating gratefulness. The sun shines brighter and life is just downright better with an attitude of gratitude. 

There are a number of studies which investigated the power of gratitude, all objectively verifying measurable positive reverberations from taking positive steps toward changing ones thinking and developing a more grateful attitude.  Here are a few of the suggestions.

1.  Count your blessings.  Don’t just think about or even just speak about what you have to be grateful for.  Write down 5 things a day and watch your attitude change and your health improve.  

2.  When you catch yourself complaining, stop.  Examine where that complaint is coming from.  Pull out the weed of complaining and find the flower of what you can be thankful for to plant in its place.  (Remember the old saying:  For every cloud, there is a silver lining.)  Be aware of your thinking and learn how to put off the destructive and put on the healthful.

3.  Find someone to help.  No I don’t mean to help you; I mean find someone you can help.  The act of giving of oneself has the added benefit of growing gratefulness for what you have.

In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  

                                     1 Thessalonians 5:18

Here is an anonymous poem on gratitude found in many places:

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire.

If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something,

for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.

During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations,

because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge,

because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes.

They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary,

because it means you’ve made a difference.

It’s easy to be thankful for the good things.

A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who

are also thankful for the setbacks.

Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.

Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,

and they can become your blessings.

~Author Unknown 

I wish you, today, a day filled with many things for which you are thankful.  

A to Z Challenge:  G

A to Z Challenge: F is for the Freedom of Discipline

A to Z Challenge: F is for the Freedom of Discipline

Picture source

To some freedom and discipline will seem like a mismatch, but I hope you will think again.  Any musician, athlete, performer knows the freedom that comes with the discipline of their craft.  The reason they have the freedom to be excellent in their ability, to do what they are able to do with joy, is because they have taken the time to employ discipline in their learning.  If they had not done so, they would be free to play well.

Discipline is training, practice, immersion in the facets of and obedience to the rules of a system of learning of an activity or of life in general.  Without it, we never develop depth or expertise in a particular area of interest.  We will always be limited and lack the freedom that comes with  knowing something fully.

• Discipline as a life skill helps us develop healthy habits and resist those which lead to addictions.  Again the avenue to freedom is discipline.

• Any employer will tell you how liberating it is for them to have an employee they can count on to arrive on time, get the job done as expected, trust to finish what he has set out to accomplish.  These are all marks of discipline.  

• A child who has been disciplined, has manners, can interact more freely and comfortably with those of all ages.

The Christian life is no different.  However, many of us who call ourselves Christian have become lazy in the spiritual disciplines of the faith.  Without practicing these disciplines, we become flabby and ineffective just as one does in any area of life that requires discipline.  What are these disciplines?  

• Spending time in the Word of God - including reading, memorizing, and meditating on the Word

• Prayer - spending time with God both alone and corporately with other members of the faith

• Worship - which would include church attendance as well as the state in which we live our lives

• Evangelism - sharing our faith as ambassadors for the kingdom of God

• Service - having a servant’s heart to be the hands and feet of Christ within our community and to the world

• Stewardship - realizing everything we have belongs to God, the earth, what we own, our relationships, all belong to God and so we should care for it as such and be willing to give back to Him at least the portion He lays on our hearts to give

• Fasting refraining in some way from something to more fully focus on Christ, the direction of the Holy Spirit, and a life of holiness and selflessness

• Surrender - putting the Lord’s calling on our lives in all areas above our own desires, in fact making His good pleasure the main desire of our hearts knowing that His good pleasure is really meant for our good as well

• Fellowship - meeting with others in the faith involves being with like-minded people at play, in study, in worship, for encouragement, for accountability, and more

• Gratitude - giving thanks in everything and in every circumstance as a practice of life.  This discipline would turn our lives upside down and get rid of the need for a number of medications

There are more but how many of us even practice these regularly.  If we who call ourselves Christian would practice these disciplines, oh the freedom and joy we would unleash.  Could it be that we do not see a vibrant impact of the Christian church today because the world does not see the freedom we have in Christ without the discipline of the faith practiced among its members?

... On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 

1 Timothy 4:7 

Three good books on Spiritual Discipline:

Christian Disciplines: Building Strong Christian Character by Oswald Chambers 

Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard Foster

The Disciplines of the Christian Life by Eric Liddell 

A to Z Challenge

I Will Praise Him in This Storm

I will praise Him in this storm, for He is my refuge and my strength, a very present help in trouble.  God is sovereign.  Whom shall I fear?  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.  To whom else shall I turn?  There is great joy and comfort in the Lord.  In Him alone will I seek my treasure.  He is my Rock and my salvation.  In the midst of any storm, I am safe in the cleft of the Rock.

A Storm over Liberty

And what does the Lord require of me?

“He has told you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justice, to love kindness,

And to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah 6:8

We can rejoice in the God of our salvation and know that whatever He determines, He does to fulfill kingdom purposes.  If we align ourselves with His kingdom purposes, then whatever happens, we can look to Him for the answers and for the questions.  Lord, what do you want me to learn in this storm?  Lord, where do you want me, us to go from here?  What’s next Lord? 

As we seek Him, His wisdom, His knowledge, we can then get excited about the answers and direction He provides.  No matter what is happening in the world around us or in our own little microcosm of that world, He is with us.  He is leading.  He is in control.  Yes, we can praise Him in this storm as we walk humbly with our God and greet Him with gratitude.

Part of my devotional this morning was Isaiah 12:

Isaiah 12

  

Thanksgiving Expressed 

Then you will say on that day,
“I will give thanks to You, O Lord;
For although You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away,
And You comfort me.

“Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For the Lord God is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.”

Therefore you will joyously draw water
From the springs of salvation.

And in that day you will say,
“Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples;
Make them remember that His name is exalted.”

Praise the Lord in song, for He has done excellent things;
Let this be known throughout the earth.

Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

The Lord knew I would read this today. The Lord knew I would need this today.  The Lord knows His plans, and they are far above mine.  I will praise Him in this storm.

"