Please keep the country of Honduras in your prayers. They are suffering unimaginable loss due to sever flooding. Unless you have seen, you don't know the condition of their NORMAL life, making disaster that much more disastrous.

Chills

I am in awe. Shocked, amazed, humbled, joyful, and sooo FULL of praise.

It should be no surprise at this point that I love my children. I don't even have to know them. For example, today, on the way to chapel, I saw the most precious little girl with curly red hair, yellow sunglasses, and a blue backpack with pink polka dots on it. I could have picked her up with a hug and a kiss right then and there. (Obviously I didn't, though). It should also be no surprise that some of my FAVORITE babies reside at David Lipscomb Elementary School. And just to drive home the point, I have a very special place in my heart for a little miss Keylahni. I've written about her before. Well, I got wind that Keylahni didn't come back to Lipscomb and I was heart broken. I even almost wrote about it yesterday but never got around to it. I was sick, worrying about where she was, if she was ok, etc, etc. I brought it the Father's feet, asking Him to consume her and hold her hand wherever she was as I was being eaten up inside with guilt and a broken heart.

Today, one of my good friends, Erin, calls me. Erin and I worked together at the elementary school, and she just graduated from Lipscomb University with an Art Education degree. The last we spoke, she was desperately seeking a job, considering they are so hard to come by right now. Not only that, but Art education is a very specific field and not very flexible. So, anyways, I see the call from her and am a little surprised because we haven't spoken that recently but via facebook she told me she wanted to update me on her job...

Guess which little girl walked into her classroom yesterday.

"For nothing is impossible with God." Luke 1.37

"A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world-and might even be more difficult to save."

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The Latest Pair

These are for a little girl! Don't forget about the offer :)

My Near Death Experience. But Really.

Mom, you can go ahead and stop reading...

Saturday's have easily become my absolute favorite days. Maybe, and most likely, because it's the one day I can sleep in and think of anything but school. This saturday was no different. My friend Alex cooked some delicious chocolate chip (!!) pancakes for us, and we decided it would be a good day for rock climbing. At The Underground, a coffee shop close to Harding, they have rock climbing inside. Granted, this is a nice alternative when the weather is bad, etc, but it was just not legit enough for us women yesterday. So, we decided to go to Riverside and climb on some REAL rocks.

Let me begin by saying that "rocks" is the understatement of the year. These were boulders. These were cliffs. Much like what the picture shows except the river below us was more brownish with more water. Next, I will say that it has rained a lot here lately. And where there is vegetation and rocks, there is moss. SO. We were climbing on wet, mossy, slippery, boulders. It was aweeeesome. I have never had such a workout as I stretched my leg an almost unfathomable length to the huge boulder next to me, only keeping myself from falling by sticking my hand in a little crevice and my foot on a tiny ledge. We did this many times, laughing and talking and walking. We found a lizard, whom we named Barrett, and his close friend, Barrett Junior, the tree frog. Alex, the far more adventurous one, always led the way. Which was secretly wonderful for me and Bethany so that she could find out how NOT to climb :) Jk, Alex...but really. At one point we came upon a small ledge overlooking the small Red River below. Imagine, if you will, what Pride's Rock looks like in The Lion King. Although the boulder was not even close to that size, it was much like that, with smaller boulders, thin trees, and wet grass below.

Obviously we climbed down the boulder, hoping to get a closer look at whatever was over the small ledge. I had already slipped just walking a few times, and this was no exception. It was a tough climb down, but we made it. If you haven't realized the slight danger we were putting ourselves in, let me also add in now that we began to discuss that dying then would mean we would get to Heaven sooner. I was following Alex, with Bethany behind me, and in the middle of talking about Heaven, my foot slipped..
It's hard to actually recall what happened since it happened so fast and since my life was in danger, but the next thing I know I am looking down at the river with nothing keeping me from it but a thin tree that somehow, literally by the grace of God, I fell on. I still don't know how it didn't break. When I realized what had happened and that I was alive, I remember saying something about my foot, when really, the only thing that was hurting was my elbow because it hyper-extended. I think I cried, but mostly, I didn't know how I was going to get back up. I sat there for a minute, heart racing, legs dangling, recalling what happened and the thought, as I was falling, that I was about to die. Or at least be severely injured. Somehow, someway, Little Alex and Bethany pulled me back up and I sat, as far away from the edge as I could get, and started shaking uncontrollably.

There is no reason that I should have landed on that tree. I have a few cuts, and my muscles are killing me, but other than that, I am completely fine. As I was getting myself up and as I sat there shaking, I could only repeat: "Abba...Abba..." He saved me. He's not done with me yet.

Plank

"'Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.'" Matthew 7:1-5

I was humbled this morning. This passage immediately popped into my head as I caught myself doing exactly what it tells me not to do. I think it is so easy to let myself off the hook (caught myself doing that too) by applauding myself in not blatantly judging. i.e. I do not hate black people. I don't even slightly dislike them. Yay, I get a cookie. To me, that's an excuse. But what about the people who look or act differently? Again, I think that's an easy way out I have given myself. I have grown up with the idea of treating "weird people" just like any other person. An even more dangerous situation, I feel, is when those of us who wear the name "Christian" begin placing ourselves on levels. When someone starts talking badly about another person, I am immediately turned off and think it's not right. But what about when I start doing that? Neither time is right, neither time is profitable to anyone, but when I want to say something, do I offset the wrong by thinking that "I just need to get it out?" How is that any different? It's not. I'm the one with the plank.
So, today, I am figuratively laying at the feet of Jesus, desperate and quiet at the sinful state I am in. But I am also joyful and full of hope, knowing that His grace is sufficient. That His power is made PERFECT in weakness.

"When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And, in fact, He shows much more of Himself to some people that to others-not because He has favorites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one."
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

If you have time, although I feel you should really read the whole book, you can check out the whole chapter from which I got this quote. "The Three Personal God." It is towards the bottom.