May I Have Your Attention, Please?!

It has come to my attention that I'm not very good at sitting still.  


This is not a surprise to some of you.


In my defense, I do have eight children in the house, seven of whom are being homeschooled to some degree.   If I don't keep moving, I sometimes fall asleep...and then I'm just a ridiculously easy target!


Plus, I have quite a few churchy things I'm involved in.  I'm a pastor's wife.  It's an occupational hazard.  


And would you like to hear something really (not) funny?  In my unedited early draft of this post, I actually ran down a list of some of the things that keep me busy.  If you're a wife, a mom, a homeschooler, or an active church member, you already know exactly the kinds of things that were on that list.  


And in reading it, I realized what a status symbol busyness has become.

• Here are all the things I'm juggling!  
• What are you doing?  
• I'm busy; are you busy?  
• My kids are taking underwater basket weaving classes and learning Elvish as a second language...what are your kids involved in?  
• Let me check my calendar!

When did it all come to this?!


Granted, I have only been blogging for four days, but I would imagine that you're already tired of hearing about my broken foot.  

Trust me...so am I.  But one of the many wonderful things about serving God is that He delights in teaching us His wonderful truths through unexpected means.  Sometimes He allows us to sort of live a parable.


So, I find myself in a highly unusual situation.  I am being made to "lie down in green pastures...beside quiet waters."  (Psalm 23:2)  This isn't a position I find at all natural.  And, if I may be perfectly honest, I have had a real problem with it!  I would rather do the laundry myself than wonder if it's being done the way I would do it; I would rather forage to find the perfect snack than have to decide what I want and then send someone to fetch it; I would rather be going to Zumba at the YMCA than sitting here trying to figure out how to reach my computer cord without calling my husband to help me!


And, for the moment, let's not even think about considering the possibility that I might not have had to have yesterday's surgery if I'd been better about resting.  Most likely, I would have needed the titanium screw anyway.  Almost certainly.  Probably.


And when I reached a point of real frustration this afternoon...when I was just plain tired of sitting and bossing people around (and who'd have thought I could EVER get tired of THAT?!), a verse of scripture popped right into my head!


I just love it when that happens...even when I hate it.


The verse was Psalm 46:10a:  Be still, and know that I am God.


Well.


I responded to this Word by taking a nap so I wouldn't have to think about it.  But when I woke up, it was still there...AND it had brought friends!  


Psalm 37:7 says, "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him."


Exodus 14:14 is the awesome reminder that "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." 


Well, alrighty then.  What am I supposed to do with this?


Let me be clear...I'm not saying that God broke my foot so that He could put me into a season of rest so that He could have my less-divided attention.  But can He use my brokenness to do just that?  Yes...He can.  He does it all the time.  Whether it's my foot or my heart, He can take the painful circumstances of life and turn them into something that can be used for His glory.  It's up to me to let Him do it, though.  And it starts with my being quiet enough to hear that still, small voice calling me to sit at His feet and listen.


I can either go through this and have nothing to show for it but a piece of permanent body hardware...or I can go through it in a way that deepens my walk with Him.  Gee...I don't know.  Seems pretty clear to me!


So in this evening's hours of stillness (such as it is with eight kids in the house), I have committed to let God use these weeks of relative motionlessness to refine me.  Beth Moore, one of my favorite Bible teachers, has said that it's impossible to do 10,000 things to the glory of God.  I think He and I are going to spend some time whittling together during the next several weeks.


Blessings!
Missy


A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.  Proverbs 14:30

Two Days...Two Anniversaries (Part 2)

First, I would like to offer an apology if this post is...well...more disjointed and nonsensical than usual.  I had outpatient surgery this morning to put a titanium screw into my broken foot, and I'm writing under the handicap of residual sedation and Tylenol 3.  Sorry!  Or have fun with it!  Whichever!


But this actually serves as a case in point.  Seventeen years ago today, my Best Buddy and one true love vowed to stick it out with me in sickness and in health...and recently we have really given that vow a workout!  But I'm not going to use this space to recount our recent deluge of sicknesses, infections, surgeries, really stupid accidents, and (dare I say it?) middle-age complaints.  That's a story for another time!


I'm here today to testify to God's sovereign orchestration of the greatest gift He has ever given me aside from my salvation:  my marriage.

He's adorable.  I look like I might have napped in that hair.  And those clothes.

(Also pictured: my crutches!)

One of my favorite scenes from a movie ever is the scene from When Harry Met Sally when a cute little old couple tells the story of how they had grown up in the same neighborhood but never met (never met!) until they both happened to be staying at the same hotel, far away from home.  I had always liked that scene, but when I met Sweet Jimmy B, I found that I had lived the same experience!


We grew up in the same area...I was often in the little grocery store his parents owned...my best friend dated a classmate of his...but we never met.  (Never met!)


It was only after many years (and a whole lot of stories for another time) that I found myself teaching English to a very gifted high school student who became a trusted babysitter for my daughter Krystal.  As Lisa Bennett and I grew to be friends, she told me that she thought I should really meet her Uncle Jim.  Well, I have uncles, and no offense to them personally, I just wasn't at all interested in meeting anyone's Uncle Jim. 


However, it turns out that when God has a plan, He will see it through!  (What a shocker!)  And one Sunday, I was enjoying lunch after church with a friend of mine who had attended school with Lisa's uncle...and who, I must say, did NOT think he would be a good choice for me!  But as we sat in Dairy Queen, two young men walked in.  And Kelli leaned over to me, pointed to a tall, dark, handsome stranger, and said, "That's Jim Bennett."


Well...he didn't look anything like any of my uncles!  He didn't even have a comb-over!  So after lunch, I went home, and I called Lisa to tell her that she could give her Uncle Jim my phone number.  She did...he called...and on November 27, 1993, we went out on a blind date that neither one of us wanted to see end!


Now, some folks thought we were crazy...and some folks were probably right.  Some folks thought our marriage was doomed to failure because of our "hasty courtship."  Some folks, not wanting to be obviously confrontational, simply said, "I guess time will tell!"  But, undaunted, we were married less than three months later.   

He looks exactly the same.  But look at my hair!  I'm sensing a theme.

In fact, on the second day of our marriage, while on our honeymoon (and I use that term kind of loosely), we celebrated the three-month anniversary of our first date.


Crazy?  Perhaps.  But as I've said many times...when you meet the one God has chosen for you, it seems a little silly to wait around for some socially-expected period of time.  When you know, you just know!  We've often joked (sort of) that we should have just eloped and come home married from our first date!


So, Sweet Jimmy B...Uncle Jim...I just want to say here what you already know.  You are the one.  You are my best good friend.  You are the whole world to me!  I love you like crazy.  Happy, happy anniversary!


And would you mind fetching me my ice pack?


Blessings, all!
Missy

Two are better than one,

because they have a good return for their labor:

If either of them falls down,

one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help him up.

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one keep warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Two Days...Two Anniversaries!

I know this doesn't look like your typical anniversary picture.  That's because today's not your typical anniversary!  (Silly!)

On February 24, 2009, we adopted our daughter Mercy and our son Sam.  This picture shows us with the judge right after the ceremony.  In the picture with us are our eight birth children, one son-in-law, one granddaughter, and a sweet little guy who has since become our grandson through adoption!

You know...I really wish I had been keeping a diary of our adoption journey as it unfolded, because it was like a cruise to the Bahamas that ended up being a rocket ride to the moon.  We landed in a totally different place than we had thought we were heading...and it was a white-knuckle, stomach-churning trip sometimes!  But do you want to know something crazy?  (Oh, you know you do!)  God knew what He was doing all along!  No question...no doubt about it...not a moment's hesitation in that statement.  We thought we knew all sorts of stuff that God ended up sanding off and wearing away until we finally conformed to His will on this matter.

The entire story of how we ended up in a courtroom on this date, two years ago, is a looong testament to God's sovereignty, our stubbornness, and God's long-suffering patience.  And let's not forget His willingness to choose to bless us, even when we aren't always willing participants in His plans from the get-go.  

I can assure you that this is a story I will probably tell in one form or another many times, because it's one of my favorites!  And I just LOVE a good story!

However, today is not that day.  Blah, blah, blah...I broke my foot three weeks ago...yadda, yadda, yadda...surgery tomorrow.  So tonight I want to spend a little quiet time with my Best Buddy.  But I just couldn't let the day pass without thanking God in this little piece of the blog world for allowing me to join Him in raising these two precious children for Him!

Miss Mercy at her adoption party!

Yeah...I don't know what this face is about, but this is Sam!

Tomorrow...anniversary #2, which is actually anniversary #1.  Confused?  Join the club...and check out tomorrow's installment!

Blessings!

Missy

In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.  Ephesians 1:5-6

...A Very Good Place to Start

It took me a looong time to finally decide to start a blog.  


I love to write...I love writing little things on Facebook to make my friends smile...but I just sort of feel like blogging has been done to death.  I mean, who isn't blogging?


But then I realized that, like everything else, this isn't something I need to do to please (or displease) other people...and this isn't something I should do only if I think I can find a niche in the blog-world that hasn't already been filled (which I'm thinking is pretty impossible at this point).


God has given me the gift of gab, and I need to be a good steward of my time and talents by using what He has given me.  Even if I don't really know what purpose it could possibly serve.  He knows.


All this to say...what you are reading here (or not, I guess) has been a long time coming.


I had fun finding a name for my blog...I had a blast laying out my layout...I even had a remarkably easy time of writing my bio...but sitting down to actually write my first post has taken me DAYS!  Why, you may ask?  Go ahead...ask.  OK, I'll tell you.  I'm really at a loss as to what my focus should be!  


I'm a Bible-believing, fundamentalist, conservative Christian.  You know...seven days of creation, the inerrancy of Scripture, the bodily resurrection of Jesus...all of it.  But when you read that in print, I really, really don't think that gives you a very three-dimensional picture of me.  I'm also a homeschooler.  I have 11 children!  I'm the wife of a Baptist pastor.  But I don't think any of that, in isolation, really does it either.  I have arrived at this point in my life after spending way, way too long chasing after sin and poor choices, leaving a path of destruction in my wake...but thank God, I'm not just the sum total of the mistakes I made before I allowed Him to really get ahold of me.  


So where am I supposed to even start to write about 42 years of trial and error, obedience and faithlessness, heartbreak and hilarity?  That's my question!  And it has taken me days and days to realize that I just don't have an answer.  And maybe that's really fine.  Maybe I just need to do what I used to make my creative writing students do:  Start writing and see what it turns into.  Maybe I'll find a cohesive focus...or maybe this will prove to be simply a collage of the happenings of our day-to-day life, held together by my desire to see God glorified by it all in the end.  


I just love to travel, so I guess I'm going to treat this like an extreme vacation to a yet-to-be-determined destination.  


Blessings!
Missy


"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11