The many faces of your life.

College girl.

Little girl    

Working girl in Miami

You see these pictures?  They are all me.  They are all taken from different aspects of my life.  I could add middle school, high school, college worker, camper, youth group.  The funny thing is the only face my kids know is that of me as mom.  Sometimes I get down about that.  I wonder what is next for me.  What will I be when I am no longer the care giver of these precious blessings that God has given me. 

It will come soon enough I keep reminding myself.  There will be many more faces of me.  

It has made me way more conscious of others I will say.   

As you meet someone for the first time I want you to remember something.  The person you meet today does not define who that person is.  You might meet someone who has had a hard life or a recent death or is even so down on their luck they are homeless.  You don't know why or what got them to this point just that they are.  Be kind.  You could be the turning point, the light that this person needs to start a new chapter, a new phase.  

God has blessed me with the different chapters that make up my life.  I pray that there are many more good chapters, but I am not so naive to think that there might still be hard ones ahead.  Everyone knows that a good book has twists and turns, ups and downs, thus is life.  All I'm asking is that when you go out into the world do not be a negative plot twist, a villain if you will.  Be the happy triumphant music cue, and do so often.  This world is filled with dark and negative stand out be a light.  

Discipline and bullying.

You are always way more knowledgable about a topic when you aren't actually dealing with it yourself.  I remember being an unmarried just out of college woman that was convinced exactly how I would be when I was a wife and mother.  I would see these other examples and critique what they were doing and how very wrong I thought it was.

I can remember vividly listening to a 7 or 8 year old following their mother around Target saying Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom and thinking why on earth doesn't that evil woman just answer this precious treasure?!

I am not above telling you that I was an idiot.

I had no idea that the poor woman had probably heard her beautiful angel beg for something so many times that she was well past the "I'm going to lose it" phase and was doing everything she possibly could to not embarrass herself in Target by calling down hellfire on her spawns head.

I was wrong.  I get it.  I do want to say something though.

There is a difference between discipline and bullying.

A parent must discipline their child into correct acceptable behavior that will not get them beaten up later in life.

Discipline: the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

I can go into a long tangent on this but the short story is...

If you yell at your child to get what you want what have you taught your child?  Yell to get what you want.

If you sit down and explain to your child what you expect and then do not waiver from that expectation what have you taught your child?  You are in charge and you are to be respected.

Now granted.  Even the best behaved children are going to have bad days, good night there are days that I want to pitch a fit in the middle of Target but discipline your child...do not bully them.

Monica Moore Brown

And then one day, I'll cross the river,
I'll fight life's final war with pain;
And then, as death gives way to victory,
I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

They sang this song Easter morning at my church.  I have sung this song my entire life, but had never noticed the lyrics to the other verses as much as I did Easter morning.  You see I lost a friend on Easter eve.  A wonderful, beautiful friend to the horrible disease of cancer.  She had no warning.  No time to say goodbye.  She went in on Monday because of what she thought was a sinus infection.  No pain.  No signs, and by Saturday she was gone.

It is so senseless.  She is so young.  She has two boys, a senior and a freshman.  She has a daughter that is in the 5th grade.  They were her life.  She has blessed this world with 3 excellent human beings that are a beautiful light in this dark world.  They are kind, they are generous, they are good.  She has intentionally raised her children and because of her love they are a blessing to the planet.

The world lost a beautiful being on Saturday, April 4th.  Heaven gained a fantastic addition.  When things like this happen in this world I can lose sight of the ultimate goal.  I am saddened by the hopelessness and the bad things that seem to scream from every turn.

I am thankful for this song during this time of mourning because I know the lyrics are true.  I will see my friend again, and because Christ lives I have nothing to fear.