Blood

Payment was made by God to God.
Not to Satan.
But by God's love
To God's justice.

~Dr Liam Goligher, Sr Pastor, 10th Presby

like Bumpa*

Unkie: I eat like my dad when we do stuff like that.
E: You put ketchup on dim sum?

*In discussions about whether the kids should start calling their Filipino grandmother "Lola" instead of "Wawa", which was "Lola-but-I-can't-get-the-'L'-yet", we reminded the girls that they used to call Grandpa "Bumpa" for the same reason.  They found that hilarious, much like the "Uncle Oreo" bit they know about difficult names.

a word from Mom (needed it!)

Lord, thank you for being a God who goes before us and lives within us.
That means, whatever we may face,
we have nothing to fear and everything to hope for in you.
You provide peace to calm our hearts,
wisdom to guide our steps,
and your hand is holding ours all the way.
We trust what you will do
and where you will take us with you.
Amen.

(found on Fair Hope Notes)

Trust God & Do Good

Many of us spend far too much time trying to figure out how we can get blessings for ourselves. People sometimes spend their entire lives trying to accomplish what they think is important, never trusting God or letting Him lead them. In the end, this leaves them depressed and unfulfilled.

Psalm 37:3 says, "Trust, in the Lord and do good, ." God didn't create us to worry about helping ourselves all the time. He wants us to sow good seed by reaching out to help others. And doing good brings great satisfaction because it feels great to make a difference. It also opens the door for God to bless you in a greater way.

You need to trust God to bring the right blessings into your life. While you're waiting for His perfect timing, get busy helping others. You'll actually feel relieved when you aren't thinking about yourself all the time.

Trust God and get busy doing the good things you know to do. He'll faithfully bless you and meet your needs.

Prayer Starter: God, I don't want to live a selfish, self-centered life. I trust You to bring the right blessings into my life while I'm busy doing good for everyone You've placed in my life.

source:
Day 364 of Joyce Meyer: Promises for Your Everyday Life - a Daily Devotional

Relax. God's got this.

source: Nathaniel Knows' FB page

My inital response was,
"Pbbbbbt.
"Sigh.
"Good thing we serve a big God!"

But my friend J's perceptive perspective took it to another level:
"See all of the ways in the bottom picture that are provided to get over the obstacles?! He has it!"

Good thing.

10 books

I've been challenged by Liz to identify "10 books that have stayed with you in some way". The instructions are, "Don't take more than a few minutes, and don't think too hard. They don't have to be the 'right' books or works of great literature, just ones that have affected you in some way."

Like many of my voracious-reader friends, I am listing several multi-volume series in my 10.

• Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery (8 books)
• Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis (7 books)
• Zion Chronicles/Zion Covenant by Bodie Thoene (11 books)
• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
• Harry Potter by JK Rowling (7 books)
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards (Thanks, Mrs S!)
• Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
• in Death series by JD Robb (48 books and counting)
• and, of course, The Bible (66 books)

These are the off-the-top-of-my-head.  It wouldn't be a stretch to list a dozen in a dozen categories, from mysteries, to biographies, to set-your-head, to kid lit, to YA, to humor, to classics... one of the problems of this list is it's skewed by what I've seen on others' lists!

Guess who?

Cow-loving friend, via phone: Guess who's on the cover of TV Guide this week?
Middle Frog: I'm going with Matt Bomer.


(For once, I didn't call him Bryce Larkin!  But he will always be Bryce Larkin to me.)
Cow-loving friend: Of COURSE you're going with Matt Bomer.
Middle Frog: Is it Zach Levi?

Cow-loving friend: You get one more guess.
Middle Frog: Scott Bakula?

It was Scott Bakula.  (Oh boy.)  Looking forward to seeing him on NCIS: New Orleans in the fall. 

energy & inspiration!

found on FB.

Anticipation

Good morning,  LORD!  We are excited to see what surprises you have in store for us!
~ Big Frog's Wednesday prayer buddy

What if we invest in our people & they leave?
What if you don't and they stay?

O! Say!

Orioles 60th anniversary - laser light show - honoring franchise legends
video from mlb.com

Fly!

Thanks to Maria next door for the find!

And your parents, what do they think?

On moving three states away:

cousin: So we'll hope your parents make the trip down to visit, Middle Frog.  What about your parents, Big Frog?

Big Frog: <beat> My dad's weird.

<crickets chirping>

cousin: I think any of us could say that about our own dads.

STAR system

STAR system on ehow

It's not called babysitting when they're your own kids.

I remember building stuff with my dad, and him chaperoning field trips, and us sharing Whatchamacallit candy bars.


I agree with this video (It's an ad, but with a good point.); we need more smart dads represented in the media.  Involved parenting changes our future, to be sure, but it more importantly changes our now.

Daily affirmations in oft-used places

How a password changed my life

I agree, but do I "Like" it?

We are blessed with such great friends who pray with and for us, even when (especially when) we can't share much information except that a need exists. 

We held a pretty big life change under wraps until we could tell my parents face-to-face, and in the intervening weeks we hinted around that change was afoot but not what it was.

Now that we finally can tell people (one-to-one at least, we're still not entirely out of radio silence... but ask me in person!), the most common response has been, "How do you feel about it?", with a strong undercurrent of "I'm with you.  I support you.  I stand by your decisions and will take whatever side of the discussion you want me to take."

To that end, I think, FB needs a "empathy "button.  It's better than a "like" button.  You click "empathy" when you like something or agree with someone or laugh along with them.  You click "empathy" when someone posts something you agree with and dislike alongside them.  You click "empathy" when prayer is needed.  When a friend is hurting.  When there is injustice. 

I'd hammer out danger

I'd hammer out a warning

I'd hammer out love between 

my brothers and my sisters

All over this land.

We are so blessed by our pray-ers.  Thank you.

Our children's ministry director, under whom I've taught 2nd/3rd long enough that my first crop of 3rd graders are college juniors, asked me to send a list of requests for the kids to pray with us in junior worship.  I told her to tell the kids that I believe they are not the church of the future, they are the church now. 

Fear whispers lies. Live free!

(I am talking to myself. I am the one who needs this message.)

Keenly observant

I'm the church terp, so I face the congregation during worship.  Today after worship, one of my friends (whose wonderfully enthusiastic daughter is in my Sunday School class) came up to me and asked, "Do you know you have an eyeball on your dress?"

Yes, yes, I do.  I was #vandaleyes-ed by my delightfully creative niece.  The last time I wore this dress, she noticed that I'd lost a jewel.  Fortunately she remembered that I always have emergency googly eyes in my purse. Thank you, Anne Wheaton!

My niece is awesome.

HOOH!

My dashboard lights blinked out on me today.  THAT was disconcerting.  And it was just the dashboard lights -- the radio's lights and the odometer LCD, both on the dimmer were just fine.  But I called my mechanic friend to see if he knew what fuse needed to be replaced and he said he'd take a look.  It wasn't a fuse.  He said the whole dome of the dash would have to be taken apart to see what was wrong.  Bummer.  How expensive/time consuming would that be?

Well, we hadn't talked for awhile so we chewed the fat for about 20 min (lots of changes in both our families), and I suddenly looked over to discover that my dash lights were back on!  Entirely of their own accord.  My car healed itself.  (Amazing self-healing machine, HOOH!)

I told my friend he should add that to his resume, that he laid hands on cars to heal them.

Know your audience

Looking at a dumpling menu which includes one filled with "pork and scallions".

ESL friend: What are scallions?
me: They're related to green onions...
...Do you have onion grass, chives, growing in your yard?...
...In the VeggieTales Daniel & the Lions Den?  They're the guys who go "Dunn-dunn-dunn..." (moving shoulders back and forth, as in "Oh No, what we gonna do").
ESL friend: Thank you!  Now I know what you're talking about!