A Day Scheduled Without a Second to Loose is Already Lost

I received an unexpected phone call from a friend of a friend.  This sweet young thing was a new mommy that had only been back to work for 5 days before she found herself needing a back up babysitter.  I hesitated for a verrrrry long time.  I wondered if I could home school my kids with a baby by my side.  I eeked out a little bit when I thought of all the laundry I was going to try and catch up on.  I hemmed and hawed as I knew I had to make some calls, create a weekly menu, and set up a new chore chart for the kiddos.  Then I laughed.  Goodness gracious.  This poor woman needed to work and had to find someone she trusted to watch her most precious joy and here I was stressing my laundry!
(Please note: I freaked out before  I prayed about it.) After taking it to the Lord it was an easy choice to say yes.  This is where it gets good.  Really good.  I began to do what I do best.  I planned.  I planned like a genius.  I was going to wake up at 5:00, spend 30 minutes with Jesus, spend, 15 minutes making myself presentable, then spend the next 45 cleaning up dog fur and toys.  aka "baby proofing"  When that Mama showed up at 6:30 I was going to have two smiling children, a calm house, breakfast almost ready, and she was going to fall in love with me and give me laud and honor as a Mommy to be looked up to.  Ahhhhhh....it was a lovely dream.  At 5:00 my hubby wanted to cuddle.  At 5:13 my daughter woke up with a tummy ache.  And the rest is history.  At this point their is noting left to do but Praise Jesus!
My messed up schedule was both a literal and figurative wake up call.
A DAY SCHEDULED WITHOUT A SECOND TO LOOSE IS ALREADY LOST
No fun, no love, no relationship building was planned into my day.  Do you know why?  Because most of the time that stuff only comes in the unplanned parts of life.  If you are like me in anyway you know.  You get to the end of the day to find that everything got "done" but nothing got "accomplished."  My dear friends, control is only an illusion.  And we waste our lives trying to gain it.  My prayer for myself and you is that we may never miss the "wake up calls" and that we would learn the art of letting go of perfection before life itself has slipped us by.
Have a fabulous day today,
{B}

If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it. Matthew 10:39

You Can Only Live Now

Rascal Flatts has a song that gets me every time.  Every time.  "I spent the morning at an old friend's grave, Flowers and Amazing Grace, He was a good man, He spent his whole life spinnin' his wheels, Never knowin' how the real thing feels, He never took a chance or took the time to dance."  Its not their most popular song and I don't think it ever got any radio time. Can't say I'd wanna hear it driving to work in the morning. It's Wednesday, I'm minding my own business and them Wham! A song about death.  Yet somehow when it comes on my CD I can't seem to hit the button to make it stop.  I cry.  Every time.  And I smile.  Every time. Because it reminds me of my friend Laura.  Can I be honest?  She had the BEST FUNERAL I've ever been to.  Laura was young.  She was the opposite of the R.F. song.  SHE LIVED.  Their wasn't a moment you could spend in her presence when she wasn't also in your presence.  You get me?  She lived in the NOW.  Her goodbye party was an extension of her life.  She loved her some Jesus and never seemed to forget that she belonged to Him.  That we all belonged to Him.  People were important to her.  Whomever it was.  I'm beginning to ramble but the point of today is to live NOW.  Yesterday is gone.  Even if you are dealing today with the choices of yesterday you still can't change yesterday.  And guess what?  Tomorrow is no guarantee.  You may not be able to apologize tomorrow, or say "I love you" tomorrow, or spend longer on goodbye hugs tomorrow, or pray with them tomorrow, or share you heart tomorrow, or...

So...soak in today.  right now.  every moment is just that, a moment, then another comes.  Enjoy the video and let it wash over you. God has a plan but the only part you can play in it is right...now...ok, now...aaeeehhhh, now...wait for it...now... ;)

Faith is Tenacious

I cannot hear the word "tenacious"  without thinking of the band Tenacious D.  And I thought of Tenacious D while watching my daughter play at the park.  They could have provided the perfect underscore as she was attempting to balance on the middle junction of a toy where three arms from separate rocking horses joined together.  The whole thing was wiggling atop giant springs and my sweet four year old had just witnessed much bigger kids falling off that middle junction as it jolted every which way.  Yet there she was; crawling onto it and keeping fairly good balance.  When her older, and constantly competitive, brother told her she was too little and would fall off she calmly looked him in the eyes and thrust her arms out from her sides to keep her balance.  It was a moment of pride for me when I realized that my adorable miss thing had some major tenacity.  
Our faith should be this way.  It should have the courage to crawl up on top of that obstacle no matter how it wiggles or tries to throw us off.  Faith should have the tenacity to simply stick out its arms for balance when the world says "you can't." Our faith follows the Lord.  The King.  The Most High.  Joshua and Caleb had this type of faith to say "I don't care what the odds look like.  God said to go into the land so let's go!"  
So how 'bout it?  Are you going to camp out in the wilderness in fear or go into the land God has set for you?  Are you going to listen to the naysayers or stick your hands out for balance when life tries to throw you?  
My prayer today is for a tenacious faith to become the legacy I leave and the legacy of my family to come.

2 Timothy 1:5
"I am calling up memories of your sincere and unqualified faith (the leaning of your entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), [a Faith] that first lived permanently in [the heart of] your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am [fully] persuaded, [dwells] in you also."

Check HERE to catch the story of Joshua and Caleb.

PS A great book for this type of topic is "For the Love" by Jen Hatmaker