Word on the Street

Can I just start out by saying that WOW, I'm tired. It definitely has been a long second week of summer, but it has been a really good one! It feels like I have been going none stop since last Sunday morning. Oh, wait...I feel like that because it's true! We definitely stayed busy this week! It consisted of Vacation Bible School (IE sitting behind a computer for many hours, counting and recounting people, "sorting" trash, sitting behind a computer for a few more hours, being dunked 101 times in a dunking booth, cleaning and organizing the supply closet, answering a lot of dumb questions...I could go on, but I'll spare you!) My week also consisted of getting ready for kidz kamp next week, making fun of and messing with Shelton, watching small child play softball, eating in almost every restaurant in Milan, taking almost 8 hours to get home because my car was overheating, learning some new things, laughing a whole lot, enjoying the time I had with people who mean a whole lot to me and the best of all...Dying my hair pink and turquoise! Yes, I have very colorful hair for a few weeks! :) The week was capped off by throwing a lingerie shower for the best friend and simply having fun with the girls...I wasn't lying about it being a long week!

Over the past week there has been many GREAT moments and many random, but funny memories made! Even though it was a crazy busy and long week, it was really good and I walked away with a little different thinking... If I were to be honest I would say that VBS week is usually one of my least favorite weeks of the summer. It is not because of the 1,001 kids running around or the crazy teachers getting on my last nerve, but it's usually because of the curriculum. You see, while Bible college was great, it also brought out a few tendencies in me that get in the way from time to time. Bible college pretty much taught me to pick everything apart. While this is a good thing, I tend to take it to the extreme. I tend to critic each piece of curriculum I come in contact with and find it hard to like something unless I or someone I work with has written it. Over the years I have found that VBS curriculum stinks. I pretty much thought it was all stupid and very shallow. I have this thinking that the only reason Southern Baptists do VBS is for the numbers and not for the evangelism/discipleship, but that's a totally different story...

Anyway, I walked into this VBS with the same attitude towards the curriculum, but WOW, I was wrong! The VBS that we used was called

"Inside Out and Upside Down on Main Street Where Jesus Makes a Difference Everyday."

Each day there was a skit that involved three different actors, Hedi Claire- Super Slueth Extrodinar who came to main street to investigate because she heard people were being turned inside out and upside down. Then there was Justin Time the streets bus driver and Chef Pierre the owner of the Brown Bag Bistro. These two characters helped point Hedi towards Jesus and showed Hedi that they were different and people were changed because of Jesus. In the midst of her investigations she learned a certain lesson each day which was reinforced with a parable during the Bible teaching time. Hedi (and the kids) learned about a certain topic each day. The topic or word was known as "the word on the street."

The word's on the street were gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, grace and faithfulness. While I knew all of these words and how they applied to my life, it did not stop God from teaching me a new lesson. It was kind of funny how with each day the word would come up over and over again. IE on Monday the word on the street was gratitude. Around 6:40am while getting ready to head to the church my hair was halfway straightened and the power went out. Yeah, at that moment it was a little difficult to show gratitude and be thankful! While the words were made known each and everyday, they were not fully made known to me until I began my trek back home on Friday.

It had been a long week, I was tired and I had 101 things to do when I got home. I left Milan around 3:30 pretty excited that I would make it home before 8. Ha! The drive was going great. It was so good to be in the peace and quiet and just think that I never even turned my radio on! I was about 72 miles from and I noticed that a light on my dashboard came on. I checked out all my gauges and discovered that my car was overheating. I pulled over at the next gas station I found and slightly began to panic. I was in the middle of nowhere 72 miles from home at this sketchy gas station with no lights that was closing and it was getting dark outside! Yeah, it was a load of fun! As I sat in my car watching the smoke bellow out from under my hood I was furious wondering why in the world this was happening to me because I was exhausted and I just wanted to get home. While having a not so nice convo with God one word came to mind...Gratitude. This was just a minor bump in the road because I had so much more to be grateful for. I soon turned from frustrated to panic as the smoke kept on pouring out so I did what most girls would do in a moment of panic, I called my dad. I fully expected him to be loving and tell me that everything was OK...Wrong! (Sorry dad!) He pretty much told me that he would get there when he got there and my only option was to sit and twiddle my thumbs...NOT what I wanted to hear. The word compassion came into play here...I'm pretty sure at some point I sent Niki a text that went something like "I think my dad is the one who needs to hear the compassion lesson from Tuesday!" Just keepin' it real. So after I was not so nice to him I had to apologize for my reaction and ask forgiveness for what I had done. He graciously forgave me and showed me grace by coming and saving the day. At the end of the day he was faithful to his "daddy duties"... :)

Each word on the street was clearly portrayed to me in the 3-4 hour debacle that I found myself in. Coincidence? I think not! At the end of the day when I finally made it home and in my own bed :) God opened my eyes to something. Many times in life I encounter a situation or a person or even VBS curriculum and think "This (or they) have nothing for me..." I think God just laughs at that. So many times we put God in a box and tell Him how and with what He can speak to us with and through. I never thought that a simple word for each day would effect my week so much in so many ways. I guess that's just God using ordinary things to teach extrodinary lessons... A heart to heart by way of long johns...

I don't know about you, but I sure am glad that I serve a God who is bigger than any box I can put Him in. I think it's time to put our boxes away and simply let God be God. Who's with me?

Summer Time Check...

I would say that it has been an uneventful first week of summer, but well, that would be a lie! It's been a busy week of sorting, finding, shopping, constructing, painting, organizing, planning and just doing stuff to make Vacation Bible School happen this week. It's been a week of doing a whole lot of things that I haven't done in a few years and a week of doing things that I said I would never do again! (IE crawling under pews and sitting in the floor painting!) Yeah, God has a sense of humor! Anyway, it's also been a week of firsts such as taking 60ish kids to the movies (which is nothing new) and not actually watching the movie myself. Yep, we took the kids to the movies on Wednesday night for KAOSS and Niki and I sat in the foyer with my laptop and her notebook working on VBS....Only in Milan! :)

Over the past week we have had several moments each day where "I feel the need to twitter/facebook that" or "wow, maybe I should blog about that!" has come out of someone's mouth! Yeah, there has been that many entertaining moments...If you only knew! I could go on for days about "adventures" with good ole Shelton such as crawling under pews (Then crawling under them again because he do the wire right!) or getting locked IN the church then

getting lock out of the church or cruising in the mini-van and stealing park benches.... Or I could talk about buying 1,600 CapriSuns (Pic to the right!) at Sam's or being attacked by bugs after 8:3o pm multiple nights at the Allen's kitchen table :) or about how I've been to Wal-Mart more in the past week then I have been in the past 2 months or about the weird, crazy or down right stupid stuff that some people say and do or about the many moments where we've just laughed cause that's just the best option! I could go on, but there is one moment that I'm pretty sure most of you know about now...

I have been coming to Milan for seven-ish years now and I'm pretty sure every time I have come to town I have stayed with Niki and her family. I'm also pretty sure that I have slept in almost every room of the house...Even the play room! While which bed I sleep in changes, one thing never does. The bed battle. One of my first summers in Milan my brother and a friend came to visit me and stayed at Niki's house while they were here. One night the kids decided to take some fake bugs and hide them in their bed. Well, this simple act became something not so simple anymore! The boys retaliated with the bugs and some how I was thrown into the mix. On multiple occasions I have gone to crawl in the bed and have found many different things in it. Most of the time it is frogs because I am well...terrified of them! True story. Anyway, they have gone as far as drawing a frog and putting it in my bed because they could not find one of their plastic ones! Over the years I have retaliated a little, but nothing to write home about. Well, that's all about to change!

You see, most of the "attacks" happen the first night I am here because they have had time to go into the room and plant something before I get here. So, Monday night when I got here I checked my bed out before getting into it and all was clear. The next day I got up and worked pretty much all day on VBS and then went to small child's softball game followed by dinner then a quick trip to Wal-Mart with Niki for some more VBS stuff. It was late when I finally headed towards the bed and I was straight up exhausted. I got ready for bed, set my laptop on the end of the bed and opened it up so I could have a little bit of light when I turned the big light off. After turning the light off I walked over to the bed pulled the sheet back just a little bit, shut my computer and climbed in the bed. Mere seconds after putting my legs under the cover I felt something. I then felt a whole bunch of somethings and immediately threw the covers back. I jumped and caused some of the "objects" move. I felt like I was being attacked by a million bugs! I quickly jumped straight out of the bed to turn the light on. When I returned to the bed this is what I saw.

There were 4 frogs 4 lizards, 4 spiders, 1 millipede, 1 scorpion, 1 bat and a roach in my bed. I'm pretty sure I hard a heart attack. There are not enough words to describe what when through my mind when I felt the creatures in my bed! Yes, it straight up scared me! I fully understand that they are just plastic creatures, but when it's late and dark in the room and you're tired, they can give you a nice fright.

After my heart stopped beating out of my chest I took a picture, posted it on Facebook and laid in the bed until I could fall asleep. The next morning I opted not to say anything because I didn't want the kids to know that it scared me. The first thing out of Niki's mouth when I saw her was "I promise I had no idea!" I laughed it off and finished getting ready. Niki proceeded to hold an interrogation and discovered that it wasn't the kids who did it...It was just one of them, small child. My sweet little favorite 8 year old had gotten me and gotten me good. Apparently she had been collecting the critters and no one knew about them. While we were at Wal-Mart she snuck into my room, pulled back the covers, planted the critters and then made the bed back up all by herself without anyone ever knowing. Sneaky.

I never had the chance to talk to her that morning, but I officially declared war! Later that evening I went to pick her, her brother and their two friends up for church. When she climbed in the car I told her we needed to have a little conversation. On the way to the church she told me how she did it and my only response was "This means war." The funny thing is that I learned later that night that she had asked Niki a week or so before how wars began. Niki told her a few ways war began and that was the end of the conversation. Niki asked her later if she remembered that conversation and small child replied with something like "Yes, I think I know how they are started now!" I retaliated a few nights later with a rubber snake in her bed, but it did not phase her at all. As a matter of fact it ended back up in my bed later that night.... It's time to step up my game. War. It's on.

So what did the first week of summer teach me? Never to trust an 8 year old! Ha! I have learned many things, but one thing sticks out with this whole critters in the bed thing... It scared me so bad that my heart was beating 90 to nothing. Seriously. A lot of times when people get scared like that they make a statement like "At least I know my heart works!" Well, my heart works...But does it really work? They say that being scared "checks" your heart to make sure it's working right. A physical heart check if you will. What if we were to have a spiritual heart check...How would your heart check out? Is it good? Is it in the right place? Is it filled with things that please God? Is it spiritually healthy? Wow... That kind of hurts me.

Psalm 139:23-24 says "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way."

Heart check. Are the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart pleasing to Him? Would my heart and the things of it check out "good" with Him? The first week of summer I had my physical heart checked. I think I'll spend the second week of summer checking out my spiritual heart... Join me?

PS...if you have any good ideas on how to get an 8 year old back without scarring her for life let me know! :)