What Girls Get Wrong

Things always happen at the “worst” possible time. Ten days before Christmas, I got sick with the worst cold I’ve had in years (I’m just a few days over the aftermath). Seven days before Christmas, a new cat happened to pop into my life. A very young, very ravenous, very energetic, very curious, very messy male cat. I still had shopping to do, deadlines to meet, and projects to finish. One night, exhausted, having spent the day scrambling to get what I could done with my limited energy and time, the cat made a new mess for me to clean up, despite my best efforts to minimize the amount of messes he could make. I almost had a meltdown. I was so tired, so done, and struggling with the loss I’d sustained near Christmas years earlier. All I could ask was why was all of this happening all at once? At the worst possible time? The story of Joseph and Mary looks like a case of bad timing one right after another. Mary gets pregnant right before getting marri...

I've been thinking again about how much God loves us. His love is so strong, so pure, He's willing to watch us suffer. Let me explain what I mean. When things happen to us which are painful, we tend to beg and pray that God will resolve the problem quickly, or make it go away. The situation will be really difficult.  Someone we love will be dying.  We'll be down to our last ten dollars, our last rent money.  We'll be struggling with a health issue. We'll be in agony over it, and we let our human perspective blind us. We begin to doubt God, that He is good, that He cares about us or our situation. But the amazing thing, if we take the time to consider, is that God never stopped loving us, or caring about what we're going through.  The Bible is full of verses declaring His love for us. God loved us so much: 1. He sent Jesus to die for us ( John 3:16 ; 1 John 3:16 ).* 2. He calls us who have accepted Christ's sacrifice and Lordship His child...

"You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You." ~ Isaiah 26:3, NKJV This verse has been running through my head a lot the past couple of weeks. When my heart has been anything but peaceful as I watch the health of two of my three cats slowly fail. Letting go of them, who I love so much, have had for so long, it hurts. And besides that, there have been other things going on in my life which tear at my heart and fill my mind with doubt and fear. Chances are, fear and doubt are plaguing you too. Maybe you're watching a parent or a grandparent's health fail. Maybe your parents are going through a divorce. Maybe you're going through a divorce. Maybe you're struggling with school or work or illness. Maybe what's bothering you is something else. I think about when Isaiah penned this verse, under the inspiration of God. He started his ministry in the same year King Uzziah died (Isaiah 6:1). He lived throug...

It's almost Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A., and while I don't want to do some cheesy post to tie in with it (I think giving thanks is something we should talk about all year long), I did just want to say that I'm thankful for all of you. I'm thankful that you take the time to read my musings. I'm thankful that you ask questions. I'm thankful when you point out something you disagree with (let's face it, I'm no where near perfect). Some of you I know personally. Some of you I don't know very well. Some of you are my closest friends. Some of you I've never met. But if we had a few minutes, where we could sit and talk together, before we left, there's a few things I'd want you to know. That I pray you realize through the craziness of the season ahead of us, and all year long. So as we rush into Thanksgiving, and into Christmas, please...remember... You are a beautiful woman. Your worth isn't in what you wear. What you lo...

Okay, let's talk about another Disney movie! As I've mentioned before , I love Disney movies. I don't care that technically I'm an adult (although I know some people who would argue whether reaching a certain age makes you an adult or not). I plan on watching Disney movies until I'm ninety, and probably beyond that. So another movie I really love is Mulan (by the way, this is one of the few Disney movies where the good guys get most of the awesome lines). I just think it's so funny. Mushu is probably the best character (well, okay, little cricket dude Cri-Kee is pretty awesome too). And I adore Mulan's grandmother. Although she's not in it much, Grandmother Fa adds so much to the movie. Without her and Mushu, it'd be pretty dull. In fact, she gets to say most of my favorite lines (yay Grandma!). One such line is from the scene where Grandmother Fa and Mulan's mother, Fa Li, are waiting for Mulan to arrive in town to get ready to meet t...

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,   and he will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV There’s a whole lot of things I don’t get. Like math. I’m pretty good at it, but when it comes to stuff like sine, cosine, and tangent, my mind just shuts down like a stubborn child (for some reason, even the creepy little rhyme “Oscar had a hold on Arthur” or whatever it was didn’t exactly make it any easier). I also don’t get why my grandmother died of colon cancer when I was thirteen. Or why some of my friends suffer with health issues when they try so desperately to eat right and take care of themselves. Or why I couldn’t have some of the opportunities I so desperately wanted. Or why… Or why… The good thing is, we don’t need to. God’s plans are so much better than our own. And even though He closes one door that we wanted to run through, He always opens another ...

“Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” ~ Acts 17:10-11 NKJV Any of you who know me personally probably think I’m a person who can be trusted, who knows what she’s talking about. But I’ll warn you right now, don’t believe a word I say. Without checking it against what God says first, of course. I think we can learn a thing or two from those people in Berea. They listened eagerly to Paul and Silas, but instead of letting it go in one ear and out the other, they actually took the time and went back to the Scriptures to make sure those guys were getting it right. Because, let’s face it, we’re all human. We all make mistakes. It’s too easy to just let pastors and teachers and other peo...

Time for a Sunny Saga! Sunny: cheeky little bird If you read this post , you probably remember I have two pet birds. Today I'm going to tell you a little more about Sunny. Sunny is quite spunky. We found him one day inside the fence of the pool, crawling along on the stones and trying to eat grass seeds (by the way, stones are worthless for keeping weeds down). After a futile search for his owner, my parents let us keep him. He eventually became my bird and my responsibility (eventually my other bird came into the picture, but that wasn't until later). That was about sixteen years ago. He's still hopping along, being a regular nuisance. And since cockatiels can live to be thirty, he promises to be a pain-in-the-tail-feathers for quite a bit more (think carefully before you get a bird from the parrot family). The average age is fifteen years, so technically he's already pushing it. But for being an old dude, he's still rather sprightly. I take both birds ...

I have pet birds. Cockatiels, to be precise. And if you happen to have any sort of pet, bird or otherwise, you know it can be a love-hate relationship at times. Don't be fooled, he's not as innocent as he looks. Birds are flighty. The smallest little thing (such as leaning back in a creaky chair) can send them swirling around the room. Birds are noisy. They'll chatter and shriek and squawk no matter how you plead, beg, threaten (just kidding, or am I?) or otherwise talk to or not talk to them. Birds need constant care and attention. They squawk and shriek for you to notice them, feed them, talk to them, just to be in the same room as them. Birds aren't very smart. Mine flew away from me once just because I was wearing nail polish (ahhhhh! attack of the killer colored finger nails!!!). Time and time again, when I have them out of their cages to play, I have to bring them back to their play-stand after a frightened flight around the room, repeatedly having to say ...