brenda’s thoughts, watch out I’m Christian

This is the creek I walk down to and along beside,

where otters swim and turtles hide,

where I go to sit cross legged on the edge

and sometimes dangle my feet in

would you please pray for me,

I knew this would be a long hard month

and it is

I know God is in control

I trust him to manage it all

pray I find some peace

We have a new puppy at our house, a Bassett hound. He is just the cutest thing. When the kids were little we had a Bassett hound mix so they hold a special place in our hearts. My cat, Fred, sits like a vulture on the top of the furniture looking down at him with eyes big as nickels and not saying a word. I’ll have to post a pic, and then you’ll fall in love too. He’s all of 7 weeks and just as helpless as babe. He follows you every where, nipping at your toes when he wants to play and whimpering when he’s lonely. my daughter and her …boyfriend/fiancé bought him for breeding purposes and to see what its like to raise a small ….animal. I figure I’ll end up taking care of him and that’s ok. He’ll be a great canoeing companion some day.

I did have an awesome Sunday morning. I spent Saturday night in a national forest all alone. It was so cool, so peaceful, so quiet, and so relaxing. I was sure that if I got away from people I could get away from sin, from my own sin but guess what? Your sin goes everywhere with you. You can’t run away from it, you can’t hide from it. You can, however be free of it by asking forgiveness of God then asking God to release you from it.

So Sunday morning I’m deep in the woods fixing my morning coffee, chilling out, enjoying the beauty of nature and listening to Ravi Zachariah preach on the radio. I remember as I was driving down the gravel road out of the woods I could hear the individual crunching of each rock and piece of gravel under my tires. There is something very calming about slowing down that much while driving through the woods. I always think of the poem by Robert Frost, “the woods are lovely dark and deep but I have miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep…”

I know I’ll get in trouble for this but I can’t help it….. My son shaved today for the first time. I’m so proud and so happy and…. well emotional. I’m a MOM. This is one of those times when I wish we had a dad we could both turn to for guidance. Apparently I’m not supposed to make a big deal about it. Boys are so hard to gage. My daughter loves it when I gush. She gets mad if I don’t. Men and women are very different creatures for sure. Hey, at least I didn’t cry!

I’m in the middle of ‘fine tuning’ my teaching skills, teachers have to go back to school periodically. So I’m at a local college daily, which is cool. When I originally went to college there were pay phones in the buildings on campus now there are internet linked computers in the halls for checking email or whatever.

The professors are the same and the students are the same, even we teachers want to fall asleep in class or talk in the back of the room when we should be listening to the professor.

It’s pretty cool to be back in school because there are so many new teaching techniques and new terminology and deeper understandings. Leave to a teacher to think “school is cool”!

Ok now, I’m having fun and now I’ve got some favorite youtube sites of my own

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHlGvnH3jQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRayKxgePQI&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqK1lp-WPPQ&mode=related&search=

I’ll add more as I find them.

Have you checked out this ‘youtube’ thing? My son goes there and finds the most peculiar and sometimes awful stuff.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xiMoKAybo1A

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fVsS2mlJPEw

I went there today after hearing about Hillary Clinton’s promotional stunt on the news.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LClOHUFUC5g 

I watched several of the replies then switched over and watched the Mitt Romney promotional stunt.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=c70pGVmh5IE

Then I watched several of those replies. First I have to say that as a mom and an elementary school teacher I was extremely impressed with their (young adults) ability to articulate in such an intelligent and self assured manner. And you gotta respect their passion regardless of their political stance. I was, however, disappointed that the only use of the word Christian was in the negatively used phrase “right wing, Christian fanatics”.

I did notice, and this is only after a cursory search of the sites, that the responses to Hillarie’s question were… amusing but disrespectful, while the responses to Mitt’s question were not just respectful but enlightening.

I have to ask the question, “What was Hillary thinking when she asked her question?” Did she mean to make a joke out of our democratic system? That doesn’t seem very Presidential. (Not that I would ever vote for her, ever.)

So often I’m just wading in the shallows cause I don’t want the work associated with a deeper relationship with God. I mean, seriously, you have to pray all the time, read the Bible all the time and not just read the Bible you got to study some particular subject. That’s work! And some days I’d rather be out just hanging out with friends, laughing and cutting up over stupid stuff instead of at home all alone reading and studying and praying. Wouldn’t you?

Not to mention people make fun of you when they know you’re serious about God or they don’t want to be around you anymore. It’s a lot of, “Here comes Brenda better watch out, she don’t like that kind of stuff. Ha, ha, ha, ha.” Or “I don’t need someone who makes me feel guilty. No one’s perfect. God still loves me anyway.”

Still God says, “Get out of the shallows so you can dig deep.”

Isaiah 55: 3-4, in the Message, calls the shallows ‘cotton candy’ and says, “…fill yourself only with the finest…life-giving, life-nourishing words.”

“I’m trying”, I say. I have to admit that the shallows are frustrating. You’re not just going in circles but you know you’re going in circles and you know you could stop. But its up to you.

“I’m trying”, I still say.