Kamikaze Birds

It had been a nice weekend getaway but Mike had to leave early for work. He said goodbye, jumped in the car, and headed in to town. The drive would take a couple of hours so he decided to use the “free time” as preparation for the day. He had two whole hours of much needed refocus and prayer time ahead. Not bad for a start to the morning.
Ten minutes into his drive and prayer Mike heard a huge “THWOP!” and pulled the car over to see what had happened. There in his grill was a gnarled mess of feathers.
“Stupid bird,” Mike said. Not the most pleasant thing to deal with. He pulled it out with much disgust and got back on his way.
Once in the car he got back to praying and tried to refocus on his objective for the morning. He knew he needed this quiet time with God. Like many of us, there were many things going on in his life that he wanted to check in with God about.
Not ten minutes went by and there was another “THWOP!” at the front of the car. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Mike thought. He got out again, pulled the junk from his grill and got back in his car but before he started to drive he had one thing to say to the Adversary making use of this trouble.
“You know what? I could hit every bird between here and Olympia and I'm still going to do this!”

I think I feel like that with life. Things seem to be going well, life is hard but good, and I’m trying to keep focused on God and my relationship with Him when out of nowhere comes an idiot bird kamikaze style. It’s messy, damaging, distracting, and just plain annoying. I get back on the road, try to recover the best I can and along comes another mess.
Keeping my relationship with God current is so important. It's what helps me handle those messes. 2 Timothy 1:6 tells us to, “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in [us]…. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” A friend sent that verse to me and it’s stuck with me ever since.
Curly in the movie City Slickers said something else that stuck with me. He asked the guy who was lost in life what his One Thing was. What is the one thing you would think of first in a life or death moment? What or who do you run to in a time of crisis? That’s your One Thing, the most important thing in your life. I have to work at making God my “One Thing.” What’s yours?
I need to remember, like Mike did, that I have to be determined in my focus. There is nothing more important, nor steadying, than keeping my relationship with God healthy and strong. I even have to be ready to fight off the distractions before they come my way. I’m not just working on my defense by spending time with God, replenishing my soul. I’m working on my offense, too. I can only be a worthy opponent when God is close to my side. I pray I can remember that when the next kamikaze comes my way.

Movie stuff - ugh.

Movie Meme, courtesy of JR.
(Jenny made me do it!!)
1. One movie that made you laugh - Grumpier Old Men
2. One movie that made you cry - Awakenings
3. One movie you loved when you were a child - Star Wars... the first three, which are really the last three... AAAAHHH!
4. One movie you’ve seen more than once - The Count of Monte Cristo
5. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it - Undercover Brother
6. One movie you hated - Unforgiven
7. One movie that scared you - that scary movie we watched after Snow White or Tron at the drive-in theatre that we were supposed to be sleeping in the back of the station wagon while mom and dad watched it.
8. One movie that bored you - Wag the Dog, although the "This is nothing" line is now a part of Scott's and my daily reassuring of each other.
9. One movie that made you happy - Dan In Real Life
10. One movie that made you miserable - Anchorman (sorry honey)
11. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see - Braveheart - the ending
12. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with - as if anyone could ever be what my hubby is to me... :D
13. The last movie you saw - Batman Begins - THE COOLEST STEALTH SEEN!!!
14. The next movie you hope to see - anything without my kids.
15. Your favorite movie - Oh so many to choose from!!

God & Parenting

I have had so many conversations lately with moms who are worried about how good a mom they are and I couldn’t help feeling the same way. Some days I feel like I should be fired!! Then God gave me something wonderful to let me know that Scott and I, in doing our best with God’s help, are giving our children just what they need. I hope their actions below can inspire you as they have me.

Kayla and Scott were out on a date a couple nights ago and while they were sitting at the table for dinner Scott noticed that she was staring at someone. She was trying hard to look away and then they would catch her eyes again. Scott let her ponder for a while and then asked what she was doing. Kayla replied that she was trying not to stare at a little girl but that it was very hard. Scott told her to look once more and then tell him what she saw.
She did just that and then told him about how she couldn’t tell if the girl had legs or not. Scott asked if she was in a special chair. “Yes,” Kayla replied.
“And does she have a lot of people around her?”
“Yes.”
Scott then spent some time explaining that she may not have legs and that she appeared to have other special qualities making it so that she needed help from friends and family.
They went back to eating and once again, Scott noticed how pensive and observant Kayla had become.
“What are you thinking about now?” Scott asked.
“I wish that I could be her and she could be me so that she could have legs to run and play, like me.”
Fighting through the tears, Scott told her that was the greatest thing he had heard in a long, long time.

Then came Colton’s redeeming moments (hahaha). The first was when we were finishing up by the campfire and all but Scott were going in the house. Scott looked up and whined, “But I’m gonna be all alone.”
Colton turned and replied in a matter-of-fact way, “No, you won’t, Dad. God and Jesus will be right there with you.”
The second was when Scott and he were outside playing and came across a bird that had been attacked by another animal and it was just lying on the ground. They watched it for a while to see if it would recover but it did not move so Scott went to get something so he could put it somewhere else.
As Scott turned to leave, Colton declared that he was going to stay with the bird. Perplexed, Scott asked why he didn’t want to come with him. “Because I want to comfort him so he’s not alone.”

Needless to say, I didn’t feel like such a bad parent after hearing those things. God knows what I’m good at and he can fill in the gaps. I just need to keep bringing my kids and myself to him in prayer. And I need to chill out… they are KIDS, after all. Don’t we wish we could be them some days?

The Wild Goose

Something to ponder. I love the idea of the Holy Spirit as a Wild Goose. Click the link above (the title) to challenge your perspectives.