Unlimited Love

I haven't posted since Sunday. Oh well. And I was going to try to post more this week. Maybe I really don't have that many important things to say. :D

InDeed just keeps me going every day. I love that it gives me exactly what I need to see, read and hear at just the right time. 

So today was also titled "Unlimited Love"; I'm not very original. I have a quote to share with you.

"God doesn't just love us; He loves us infinitely. When He forgives, He forgives completely. When He saves, He saves thoroughly. When He makes a covenant with us, it's a forever covenant. The eternal, infinite God does not express His core attributes in temporary, partial ways. He is an extreme God with an extreme love. That's good for us to know, because we question His love often. Things don't work out as we planned, and we wonder if God loves us. He doesn't give us what we asked for, so we speculate that He might be withholding His affection. When we harbor such thoughts, we are underestimating God. We are applying our finite experience to an infinite being. The result is a distorted view.  God lavishes love on us that is unlimited, amazing and free."

This really struck my heart. I love the words used - completely, thoroughly, infinitely, forever, eternal, extreme. How often do I underestimate God? How often do I harbor these shallow thoughts? I want to say not very often; but closer to the truth is quite often. I'm not very happy about it and I truly struggle with it. Perhaps as I read the Word this year and really seek God I will learn to trust Him more and more.  His amazing love will be in every view of everything I see. And even when circumstances don't meet my "agenda" I must realize that God sees the bigger picture. I get so caught up in the trivial that I miss the whole. God is complete. He is thorough. He is infinite. He is forever. He is eternal. He is extreme. My prayer is that my finite mind will start to grasp the greatness of God!

It's Sunday again. It's one of those Sunday's that I feel like I have lived before. Jackie is here hanging out with us. Dane and all his friends are in the basement hanging out. Lots of laughter and lots of noise and lots of food consumed. Seems like yesterday when they were all in high school. Now they are all grown up and usually scattered in many directions. I've missed them! I like it when they are all here. 

I got to talk and see my mom today on Skype. I really like Skype. They were freezing because it's 67 there instead of the 85 that it was yesterday. Oh well, it was only 35 here today. Wish I was in Florida!!! Maybe Spring will be here soon. 

I'm glad today was Sunday. I really like to go to church. I like being able to cook breakfast for the masses. I like being able to worship. And I like to hear what Jeff has to say. I am thankful that we have a place that we can be a part of the physical body of Christ. I am thankful for LCC. God is such a great provider. 

Last Sunday DeWayne and I went to his grandpa's house and got all the old photo albums. I have spent the whole week scanning pictures of the Whitlock and Payne families. I will use some of these pictures on the Whitlock Memories Page.  I think I have scanned a picture of Denise on every horse she has ever owned. :D  DeWayne's grandpa had the best smile; even as a young man. His grandma had the most beautiful brown eyes that crinkled when she smiled. I miss both of them. I know DeWayne and our kids do too. 

I'm hoping that I get more time to post this week. I've been falling behind on posting almost every day. More later...

Let Spring Break Begin

Evan is home for a whole week because her Spring Break started today! Yay! So it's time to do laundry and catch up on everything! Dane was home for supper and then had to go back to Cape to work tomorrow. (He came home last night for doctor and dentist appointments today.)

Book Group was so fun. We met at Darla's house. She is so funny. She had gone online and looked at how book groups "usually" proceed. We picked who's house would be next - mine. We picked how we would choose our next book - by birthdate. We picked who would facilitate - the hostess. Julie got to pick the next book because her birthday is in January. We are going to read The Rain: A Story of Noah and the Ark. After all the "business" was taken of we started talking about The Shack. We all were in agreement about this being a very moving book. I liked hearing everyone else's take on how the author portrayed God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I would recommend it to any and everyone. We all gave it a thumbs up. :D

I have piles and piles of laundry to do this weekend! Maybe I will be finished before Monday!

Is it Wednesday already? Unbelievable! What's even more unbelievable is the fact that there are only 3 more days left in this month. Wasn't it just yesterday that I couldn't believe that January was already over? February was quite an eventful month. (2 no school days, 1 sick day, 2 funeral days, Dane being gone, and Evan thinking her appendix needed to come out.) After having the last week of January off because of snow, it doesn't feel like I worked much more in February. :D Oh, well. I have a feeling that March may drag by! 

Back to that Evan thing. She called me yesterday afternoon to inform me that the campus health nurse thought she needed to go to the emergency room because she thought her appendix was going to burst. After blood work, poking and prodding, and a ct scan. She has a few small cysts on her left ovary. So good strong pain killers and anti-inflamatory drugs in hand and she's doing GREAT! The good side was that her ER doctor was a real hottie. (This made Evan and her friends very happy.) She will be home Friday for Spring Break. We get to hang out together Monday. 

Tomorrow night is Book Club Night, FINALLY! I am so excited. I feel very scholarly.:D I've never been in a book club. I've read hundreds of books and I have never gotten together with a group to discuss any of them just for fun. I've read books and taught lessons out of them with discussion included. But this is the first time that I have been in a group where we all read the same book at our own pace. I'll let you know how it goes. In case you forgot; we are discussing The Shack. I've been going back through it and looking at the notes that I took while I read it. The book is really good. I think that it is worth your time to read. I'm anxious to see what we pick to read for the next time. I have a few ideas. I hope the others bring ideas too. 

I'm liking the DirecTV thing. We have DVR. I never knew how wonderful it could be to record something and have it be right on the TV and just be able play it back. Better than a VCR (I don't have to hunt for any tapes-just scroll through the list.) I highly recommend it. 

DeWayne and I went to his grandpa's and brought home all the old photo albums. I have been sorting pictures again. This time they are Whitlock ones. I have been scanning them too. It's fun to look at his family. Some of the pictures are of his grandpa as a child in the early 1900's   (@1915 or so) There are many, many pictures from the 70's. Funny, funny! I will be sharing some of them on the Whitlock Memory page. 

The Whitlock Memory page just keeps growing and growing. I scan and upload pictures all the time. It will probably never be "finished". I love working on it though. 

No more for tonight. Probably no more until Friday!

What a wonderful Friday afternoon. I only had to work for 3 1/2 hours today. We had the afternoon off. Yay! I cleaned my computer lab this morning. The tables and the computers were yucky. Dust, fingerprints, and goo. What a great combination! Everything is sparkling fresh now. Of course,  they'll be grubby again in no time! 

Dane will join the grownups today. He's buying a new truck. He's very excited. Of course, when he receives his payment book (do they even do that anymore?) he might not be so excited. He's been driving the Tracker since his senior year of high school (2004). So he's ready for a new car. It seems he's been around the world in that tracker. 

The school board meeting didn't go as we, the West Side teachers, were wanting it to Tuesday evening. I was not able to attend because of the funeral visitation but our whole staff went in unison to ask for Scott back as our principal. Several of our staff worked on a presentation for the board; presenting facts and data as to why younger children need a male role model in a leadership position. The board pretty much laughed in our faces. So if you read this and your child goes to Harrisburg to school, find a school board member and ask them about their decisions and whether they are for the children or for their personal agenda! We as the staff had taken the high road and kept a positive spin on how we approached this difficult situation. We were under the "Pollyanna" assumption that good does prevail if you are nice. NOT!!! So the gloves are off. Four school board positions are up for reelection this spring and I am encouraging you to vote! It's time for a change. A small side note: Todd Fort is also up for reelection and he was very humble and sorry about this. He voted in our favor in this issue and was outnumbered. I don't usually get involved in politics or seriously backing candidates but this is an issue that is close to my heart. I work with children. I love these children. I work for a principal who also loves these children and cares deeply for them. He is what every child who does not have a father figure in their home needs to see everyday!

The Bible tells me not to be anxious about anything. And this was what my InDeed devotion just happened to be about this morning. God is so Great that he put this in front of me just when I needed to see it! I love it when that happens.

"Anxiety comes from strain, and strain is caused by too compete a dependence on ourselves." Thomas Merton

Isaiah 43:2

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned.

So right now, while I am feeling defeated by people who seem very evil, I must remember that God is with me. I must depend on Him and not on my own strength. He has all power to take care of this problem. We (I) must let Him!

Sweet Aroma

I finished Exodus and started Leviticus this morning. In the first three chapters, I read the phrase "sweet aroma to the Lord" six times. Each sacrifice and the directions of how to offer that sacrifice ended with this phrase. (I thought Exodus was full of details - Whoa - Leviticus is the winner on details!) The sweet aroma phrase made me really think. We don't have to do animal sacrifices anymore (thank you Jesus!) but is what I am doing bringing a sweet aroma before God? That led me to think about the garbage dump and even our trash cans. Sometimes the smell is so disgustingly bad that you have to hold your breath.  Am I a sweet aroma or am I a disgusting smell? I know sometimes my actions and my words take my own breath away and not in a good way but because they wreak! 

Ephesians 5:1-2

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

1 Samuel 15:22

But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

So to obey I am to do as asked and an offering is something given to God as an act of worship. Obedience and offerings bring me in to a closer relationship with God. I see the offerings as what I do because I am walking in obedience. Not because I HAVE to but because out of my desire to please God I WANT to. Okay, I'm talking in circles and the rings are getting tighter. :D

Dane is home! They finished up yesterday and he drove home last night. He has the rest of the week off. He doesn't have to go back to work until Monday. We have a lot of catching up to do. I'm glad that he's home and he was safe on his job. I'm also glad that most of the people in Missouri have power again.

Thankful List:

1. Dane's home

2. heat for the winter and air conditioning for the summer

3. doctors and nurses

4. WBVN the Christian radio station I listen to

5. Evan's home too

Off to spend the day with my kids. YeeHaw!!!

Quiet Sunday

It's a quiet day again. They seem to be the norm. Evan just left to go back to school. DeWayne is at work (working a fill-in 2nd shift) and Dane is still in Missouri. It's not going to be a quiet week though, DeWayne's grandpa passed away early Saturday morning so there will be a lot of activity this week. 

Grandpa Hal was a good man who worked hard all his life. He would have been 97 on his birthday in May. Everyone in Raleigh knew him because he was the Raleigh road commissioner and also because he was related to almost everyone. :D  I will miss his smile the most. It always reached his eyes. 

Tuesday I will drive down to get Dane unless they finish up in Hayti first. He is very ready to be home and sleep in his own bed!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Happy 28th Anniversary of mine and DeWayne's first date!!! Our first date was on a Saturday too. Evan came home for the weekend to go to see "Sabrina Fair" with us in Marion. We went shopping in Carbondale and Marion before the play. DeWayne LOVES to shop! Not really, he's just a good sport! I found a few things at Old Navy and GAP. I also found two really good books at Barnes & Noble (big surprise).

I finished The Year of Living Biblically. I liked it and it made me laugh but I was a little disappointed that he didn't seem to make a permanent change. He skirted "relationship" with God but he didn't get any closer. It made me sad for him that he might not ever know Jesus and eternal life. Maybe his Bible reading will continue to sink in to him. Maybe just the right person will send him an email explaining more to him. I can only pray for that. I did buy A.J. Jacobs first book - The Know-it All. This book is a retelling about how he read the encyclopedia from A to Z. It's probably really funny too. I'll keep you posted.

More good stuff this week in INDEED:

"What does it really mean to love God?

Not theology - ask a Sadducee

Not work - ask a Pharisee

Not emotions - ask a Zealot

So how do I love God? I lie at His feet and tell Him I am His. I seek to honor Him in all I do. I want to be like Him. I crave His fellowship. I pray His desires. I am consumed with His ways, His works, and His will. The theology, the works, and the feeling will come. They are good but only after devotion. Love always comes first."  2-13-09

1 John 4:19

We love Him because He first loved us.

"God doesn't accept me because of the way I am, He accepts me because of the way Jesus is. And what He asks of me is that I carry a cross that no one else sees. No one else realizes how much effort it may take for me to be kind to others, to extend hospitality or simply to do the right thing. My need keeps me close to the cross. Even though we commit the most heinous of sins, His desire is that we will suffer and repent. He is such a mystery to me, but I am compelled to keep looking, keep listening, keep struggling, keep confessing what I see in myself and keep rejoicing in what I see in Him. God is much more interested in what we choose to struggle with than what we choose to live with. It's the struggle with our sin that keeps us dependent on His forgiveness, not the things that we decided to accept and move on with." 2-14-09

I love cooking breakfast on Sunday mornings for the kids. It is probably one of the highest points of my week, every week. This morning we cooked over 10 dozen eggs, several pounds of bacon and 5 loaves of bread for french toast. It was so good. We fed a whole lot of people, not just transportation kids. Breakfast is so good everyone wants to eat! DeWayne got to help today. I love it when he's there. He washes the dishes for us!

Thankful List:

1. Little Chapel Church

2. Beautiful sunshine

3. clean drinking water

4. whoever invented pizza

5. books

I better finish up for now, it's getting really long. :D