Are you that one adult?

I was reading my Young Life Relationships magazine yesterday and there was a startling comment.
"I read a statistic that adolescents need five adults in their life to help shape the character and make it through these tough years." - Tracee Lee Cobb, Area director Young Life and WyldLife, Lee's Summit, MO.

Wow! Can you imagine having five adults being a positive influence on you when you were a teenager? I can only think of two or three that really helped me: my English teacher, Mrs. Terrell; my Ag teacher, Mr. Gentry; my dad.

These days though, I think it is much harder for teenagers to have adults being a positive influence. I know so many kids who do not five adults influencing them.

Tracee Lee Cobb went on to say that students need five adults, but maybe only have one. She is honored to get to be one of the five.

That really resonated with me. I have strived over the last 4 or 5 years to get to know some kids and then be a positive influence on them. God has been my guide.

A kid is on my mind. These are some of the things I have done in that situation:
Call them.
Text them.
Go to the high school and stalk them before school to make sure they are ok.
Write them letters.
Listen to them talk.
Sit and talk with them.

Sometimes I already know these kids and sometimes I hardly know them at all. My poor daughters have received multiple text messages from kids saying, "Hey, your mom just texted me. What the heck?" My daughters are used to it now and just explain that, "She does that sometimes when someone is on her mind!"

Some of these kids I have gotten to know really well. I have seen kids rise out of their not-so-great backgrounds and bloom into young responsible adults. I have seen kids from good families, take the next step toward college or training so they have a secure future. I have seen them laugh and seen them cry. I have read scripture, while they have released ballons in memory of a lost loved one. I have fed them. I have loved them.

I am so thankful to God for allowing me to help these kids. I came from a home with lots of problems like, anger, selfishness, meanness, lack of a Godly influence. God has helped me take those experiences and use them to help someone else. Praise God!

Will you be one adult that helps a teenager? I hope so. 

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who  have been called according to his purpose.   

Am I Faithful? Do I REALLY Believe?

I want to write.

I want it to be easy.

I feel called to tell my story

and yet I cannot seem to get the words on paper.

I believe that God can do

beyond, beyond and way past, way past.

Or do I?

Why do I hesitate?

Do I really believe God can get my story

out of me and on paper?

Now, I wonder.

If I believe, why do I wait?

What am I waiting for?

Stepping out in faith.

Taking that step and seeing if it will pan out.

Can I do it?

Do I really believe?

Do I really have faith

God can make it happen?

I must surrender my will to his.

The quilting turned out.

I really did not have a lot to do with that.

I found passion in quilting.

God provided.

Trust. Believe.

God turned nothing into something more than once.

Sit and write.

Wait and see what God can do with this.

Proverbs 3:3

Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart. 

Old and New

School started again today.

Some things will remain the same.

Another year of school pictures.

Football games.

Studying for tests.

Projects that require scrap booking supplies.

Semester exams.

Exemptions.

Basketball games.

Some things will be new.

Driving to school.

Eating lunch off campus.

SAT test.

ACT test.

College applications and resumes.

Dorm requests.

College visits.

Can we enjoy the old?
Be in the moment?

What about the anticipation of the new?

Will it be scary or exhilarating?

Will we rise to the occasion

or fall to our knees in frustration?

Will we behold God in those moments? 



Genesis 1-3:17

Reading the Bible today, several things caught my attention in Genesis.

Genesis 1:2
...the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

It made me think of clouds, fog, or mist over the water. That is not right though. Clouds, fog and mist were not created yet (v 6). So what does that mean "the Spirit of God"? I cannot come up with a visual. Calmness? A feeling instead of a physical trait? Love? Fullness? Anticipation? I do not have an answer. God was there though, hovering over the waters.

Genesis 1:5
And there was evening and there was morning - the first day.

I discovered this passage a year of so ago. Evening came before morning. I always thought day came before night, but I am wrong. If the Bible says that evening came first, how does that change my thinking? Maybe this explains my fascination with sunsets. The sun is so vivid in the evening. It is the beginning of the day. Sunset, darkness, and then sunrise.

Sunset is the beginning of the day. Night falls. Rest ensues. The sun rises, brightness fills the world. The rush begins. The morning is the end. By switching this around it means we are rested at the end of the day, morning. Is this so we can do God's work? The light is there pushing us forward, begging for us to get started.

Genesis 2:7
...and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.

The breath of life. God breathing into Adam. Not like resuscitation because that is breathing into the mouth, but breathing into the nostrils. Like an oxygen mask? Was the air cold or warm? Did Adam immediately come alive or did it take a moment?

I looked up the phrase and it only occurs in Genesis (5 times) and once in Revelations.
God breathed life into the animals and man. When God brought the flood, he planned for all animals on earth to perish. The animal pairs came to the ark and everything on land died. In Revelations, the breath of life enters and they ascend to heaven.

I like the phrase, breath of life. God-given to the animals and man. Breath to live.

Take a Moment

I read my devotion today.

It was written by Lysa TerKeurst.

It is about how we let life slip by because don't take a moment.

She takes a moment every day with her husband.

They selects a tie for him to wear that day.

He goes to the bathroom and puts on the tie.

He comes back and she fixes his collar.

Everyday they have this small seemingly inconsequential moment.

She said, "it is like a spot of glue evertightening the bond between us".

It made me think.

Do I have a moment everyday with Quentin?

It did not take take long for me to identify it.

Every morning Quentin gets up at 5:15 am.

He goes in the bathroom and gets ready for work.

At 5:30 he comes out and we share a goodbye kiss.

It is a moment.

But as I thought about it more, I wondered

is that the most that we share every day?

I went to my hard drive to look for pictures for this posting.

How sad is that? I could not find one picture of us from 2011.

What does that say?

I have lots of pictures with the girls.

I have lots of pictures with my friends.

I have LOTS of pictures of quilts.

The time slips by and we simply let it.

Quentin has been gone on a backpacking trip this week.

When he returns I am going to take a picture with him.

I am going to make sure that the 5:30 am moment

is not the only moment we share each day.

I am going to make more moments.

They say that life is what happens while you are making plans.
Well for me it is what happens while I am busy
with my kids and making quilts.

Do you have a moment?
Is that enough?
How will you take that moment and make a life out of it?

Brenda's Quilt

My husband has a good friend at work.

Every winter they go ice fishing in the mountainous lakes of Colorado.

They sleep in a cabin overlooking Pikes Peak.

They hike to the lake and drill holes for fishing.

They sit in the sun and try to catch their limit of trout.

It is a good time for some good friends.

Jimmy who lives in Colorado and hosts the Texas fisherman

is married to Brenda.

She is battling cancer.

It has been a long battle.

It started with the dreaded breast cancer.

Treated, in remission, life goes on.

But it has been a struggle.

In the years since she was first diagnosed,

she has gotten and fought cancer many times. 

Several years ago, I made her a quilt.

I made it out of flannels (thank you Kay!).

I used a pattern I had never used before.

I wanted it to be soft.

I wanted it to be a comfort to her during her treatments.

I wanted to help in some way.

Isn't that just how it is?

Someone struggles, but how can we really help them?

Pray. Call. Pray. Make a quilt.