Give It Regardless

Regardless whether you voted for him or not, 
have honor and call him President Obama. 


Regardless whether your teacher is your favorite, 
have honor and call them Mrs. ____ or Mr._________.

Regardless whether they are younger or older than you, 

have honor and call them Pastor ______. 

(1 Timothy 5:17 Those who deal with affairs of the church are worthy of double honor, especially those who preach and teach.) 

Regardless of your like or dislike of your parents right now, 
have honor and answer with Yes/No Ma'am and Yes/No Sir.
(Ephesians 6:2 Children are to give honor, value and dignity to their parents and God promises to bless you.)


I have a righteous anger that overcomes me when people have a lack of honor for those who have been placed in certain positions. 


Respect is earned, but honor is to be freely given. 

Bummer Mom Moment

If you know me well, you know that my childrens 
birthdays are exciting to me for more than 
just the fact that they are turning another year older. 


I LOVE their birthday parties. 
It's two of the highlights of my year. 
I start months in advance getting stuff together. 
I buy doodads and stash them for goody bags. 
I google party ideas to go along with the theme. 
It's a fun shin-dig ... if I do say so myself. 


I think I make it such a big deal, 
because throughout the year, 
my kids share Mom and Dad with so many. 
So, when their birthday comes around, 
we make the focus solely on Autumn or Easton. 
They invite their big brothers & big sisters, 
their grandparents, their friends, aunts & uncles, 
pastoral staff ... You name it, they are there. 
And A & E are the center of attention. 


I knew when we were making the move in ministry this summer, that we would be away from blood family and created family for Eastons birthday this year. 


I knew that we would only be in South Carolina 
for six weeks when Eastons birthday rolled around. And I guess I ignored it all till this week. Six weeks is hardly enough time to learn Eastons teachers names, let alone the kids in his class. 


So, Cory and I decided to invite a few of Eastons buddies that we do know to a local party place. And then have them come swimming. 
Good idea, right? 


Yes. 
Except as I was buying all 6, yes 6, 
of the party favors today I had a small meltdown. 


I'm gonna miss the hype. 
I'm gonna miss the prep.
I'm gonna miss the family. 
I'm gonna miss the hoopla. 
I'm even gonna miss the clean up. 
A messy house is a sign that a good time has been had. 


(Granted, my kids probably don't care about 
their parties near as much as I do.           
It's probably more of a big deal to me than it is to them. 

And I have no doubt that we're gonna have 

a bang up party with our small crew this year. )

But for today, 
I'm having a Bummer Mom Moment. 


You ever have one of those?

Morning Memories

The start of our daughters 5th grade year 

has stirred up a ton of emotions for me. 

She's double digits now. 

She has only one year of elementary school left.

I'm getting, um, older.

As I was thinking back over my own school years, 

a few things stuck out to me. 

One memory is the drive to school each morning. 

My mom, as far back as I remember, 

did the same thing every day 
on our drive to school. 

Rain or shine. 

Good mood or bad mood. 

Running late or on time. 

Slowly or rushed.

My mom knew the power of her words. 

And she knew the power of The Word. 

Each morning on our drive to school 
my mom spoke this over me.

Sometimes as a prayer. 

Sometimes as a declaration. 

And sometimes as a plea. 

"Lord, give Joy the Helmet of Salvation. 

Place on her the Breastplate of Righteousness. 

Wrap her with the Belt of Truth. 

Shod her with the Sandals of Peace.

Protect her with the Shield of Faith.

Let her boldly carry the Sword of the Spirit."

Some days the in between words changed. 

Some days the prayer was longer. 
Some days shorter. 

But every day I had the Armor of God 
prayed over me. 

I can only attest that part of who I am today 
is because I had a praying mom. 

As Autumn enters into the world of public school, 

I pray she is covered from head to toe. 

From her inmost to her utmost. 

And I pray I will be as determined 
to see my children succeed, 

as my mom was to see me succeed.

To stand, when all else fails, 
and to know they are protected. 
Because they are covered. 

On The Sidelines

I'm used to 2 am texts, counseling over relationships, 
accountability for guarding a heart,  input on a questionable clothing,  
tears when someone has slipped, rejoicing when someone triumphed, 
door step coffees, guilted into ultimate frisbee, and so on and so on. 


And right now none of that is happening. 


Although it may seem like a complaint, it's really not. 
It's just a new journey.

Some days it kind of feels like being on the sidelines. 

Not yet playing in the game. 

Like being a new coach who's just been 
brought in from a whole other team. 

And I've got to watch a few game tapes and go to a couple 

big games in order to know the players well. 

In order to know their strengths. To know their weaknesses. 

To watch their wins. To watch their losses. 

This all takes 

Effort. 

Energy. 

Consistency. 

Determination. 

Grace. 

And Time.

So as bad as I sometimes want to jump feet first, 

it takes sitting on the sidelines for just a little while. 

As we start this new journey we covet your prayers. 

We want to coach to the best of our ability. 

And we have no doubt we will see this team win! 

Absent Much?

End of Homeschool Year.
Celebrating 10th Birthdays.
Student Internship.
Summer Camps.

Oh, yeah.
And packing up our house in Florida.
So we could move to South Carolina.

That's why I've been absent from my blog.

But I'm back.
And I can't wait to take you on our journey with us.
We'll also walk down some Memory Lanes.
It's gonna be fun.
I can almost guarantee it. Almost!

My Top 5 Five - Armed and Dangerous

This past week, I headed to Nashville for a Pastors Wives (PW) retreat. Leading and Loving It outdid themselves. 
I wanted to share a few of my favorite moments of the week.


#1 Hugs from Lori. 
Seriously, she's a good hugger. 
And she's an even better friend. 

#2 Small Groups
Lisa Hughes emailed a few weeks ago & asked if I'd lead a small group. I had no idea what that meant when I agreed!  The L&LI team had separated our tables into ministry roles.At the end of each teaching session, I had the privilege to speak life into and provoke conversation with 9 other student/children PW's. Can I tell you that they spoke just as much into me. These ladies love the Lord, their husbands, and their students. 


#3  Mission Impossible.
L&LI  went all "Amazing Race" on us. 
They had the clues, the checkpoints, Top Secret manilla folders. 
We were running around 11 blocks of
downtown Nashville hollering at people on the street to 
help us find Dolly Pardons star .... what's Nashville's 
famous candy (GooGoo's)? where's Riverside Park?
They even had us learning a line dance & 
perform it at the park in order to get our next clue! 
We all had our matching shirts on. 
I swear people thought we were really on Amazing Race. 
They were snapping pics. 
It was hilarious. And exhausting! 

#4 Worship
Brandi Wilson had some of her team come lead us PW's in worship. If you're in ministry, you know you often have one eye open during worship. There's various reasons for this, but nonetheless, it's hard to fully engage. Can I tell you that from the first beat, I was gone. I was lost in worship. I didn't have kids. I didn't have responsibilities. I just had me & my Jesus. Kate Carlson & Trish Davis did a beautiful job of leading us to the throne. I think there was a small angelic chorus in that room - as many times the music would stop and the voices continued to sing. It was like heaven opened up for just a moment. My heart was full. My tears flowed. And my spirit was refreshed. 


#5 Community
I went to this retreat knowing 3 people in real life. 
Lori, Brandi and Steph. 
But amazingly, that small barrier didn't change a thing. There's a common bond, a tie that binds, an instant connection with PW's. We all are working for the same thing. We all have similar struggles. We all have husbands who have given their life for the call. And, We all know that the great reward is so worth the small sacrifice. 

Cake Fight

One of my small group girls refers to a 
cat and snake fight as a "Cake Fight". 
Clever, right!? 
When she told the joke, I didn't laugh ... 
Until this weekend!


I had never seen such a thing. 
We were going to walk out the garage 
and noticed a cat on our porch. 
Then we noticed the evil, slithery, 
nasty black thing it was staring down. 


The "Cake Fight" was on.

This cat did not back down 
even with us staring at it and snapping pictures. 
It had it's mind made up. 
And it wasn't leaving until it conquered that snake.


Funny thing is ... we don't have a cat. 
And we don't know whose cat this is. 
But I'm debating putting milk out for it every afternoon. 
My little neighborhood snake wrangler.