It's amazing! It seems that more than just my immediate family is taking a gander at my blog! So to all of you...all two of you...thanks! I have found this to be quite cathartic, writing my inner thoughts. Therefore, I want to encourage you to write a blog even if you never have before. The site might be hard to navigate...it has been for this old girl...but it is a wonderful way to express yourself. Much better than dying your hair black or having a tattoo of a dove inked on your abdomen(it will start looking like a hawk in a few years!).

Keep in mind that the chances of you winning a Pulitzer Prize are slim. So, write with abandon!

One of the wonderful by-products of being a blogger is that you get to read the blogs of other folks. And, if you are lucky, you might find some common ground with an incredible person.

One of my incredible persons is a new friend, Lacey. I mentioned her several weeks ago. She had been on my heart for several days so I sent her a message to see how she was. Lacey is in that terrible place where the reality of her sweet sister's death has come crashing down on her. These endless waves of grief have left her exhausted, profoundly sad and full of questions.

So dear readers, I am going to ask you to pray for this sister in Christ. I realize that you don't know her but I feel compelled to ask you to join me in bringing her to the Father. Who knows...maybe some day I will be able to share with you how God answered our prayers for Lacey.

Thank you...

What an emotion filled week this has been. I am having a very hard time trying to keep up with the onslaught of news that is either wonderful or terrible.

We have a daughter, pregnant with her second baby (good news), but that baby is trying to make a premature arrival (bad news). My father has made it to 92 with relatively few major health concerns (good news) but has been on a steady decline in the past few weeks (bad news). A very special woman that I have been in Bible Study with for several years bravely fought breast cancer two years ago (good news), however, she has just gotten word that her cancer is back, this time in her lungs (bad news). A group of excited seniors from a Christian school in town went on a long anticipated ski trip (good news) and on their second day there, one of the students died tragically in a skiing accident (bad news).

It is times like these when I wonder if perhaps God has taken a little vacation. It is times like these when I feel the joy sucked right out of me. And I am having the hardest time figuring out what "the joy of the Lord" really is. So, for anyone who is reading this I am asking you to answer these questions...what does "the joy of the Lord" mean? Can you tell me when you have experienced pure joy in the middle of junk?

I've added a new link...the thoughts of a young woman named Lacey who is experiencing fresh grief and fresh grace. Another Christ-follower who is in the thick of it and still able to say that God is good.

I have discovered that I am an extremely slow processor, which doesn’t fit with my seemingly spontaneous personality! However, in recent years I have come to understand this about myself and have quit feeling shameful about it. So, as I think about scripture and God's principles for living, I find myself continuing to chew them over and over. (I should have been a cow!) Please forgive me if my train of thought jumps off the track periodically. I blame it on A.D.D. and getting old!

In a conversation with a good friend, I wondered aloud if I were anywhere near being who God had intended me to be when I was in his mind before the foundations of the earth. My friend challenged me to pray and think about that. I have been and this is where I have landed thus far.

As I have reviewed my journey with Christ, I have pondered how one grows and deepens their walk with the Lord. When I first came to Christ my spiritual depth measured no more than a raindrop. Over the years, as I have given myself to Christ, prayed, read and studied His Word, a deepening has occurred. From raindrop to small puddle. Hopefully, each day my puddle expands as I “struggle well with life.” Each time I worship the Trinity, each time I am moved by faith, I am being deepened. This deepening, however, is not without much mystery and trepidation.

Its funny how we actually do believe that we can find life on our own. But the irony is we end up going to someone or something to find it because we know it isn't found in ourselves. The problem with that is whatever we think we have found ends up only temporarily satisfying us. So, we have to keep searching. Some look their whole lives only to come to the end of life with the realization they were looking in all the wrong places.

My story would begin as so many do. Crazy home life...abusive parent...surrounded by sadness and tension. But that's not the meat of my story. Life began for me a second time when I accepted Christ, August 7, 1967. Since then my life has been peppered with blessings and burdens, just like every other woman. However, were it not for grace I can only imagine where I'd be.

God has a sense of humor and chose a wonderful husband for me 31 years ago, who I thought was going to play professional baseball but felt the call of ministry and became a pastor instead! A shocking turn of events for an avid baseball fan. And this man I married is no ordinary garden variety husband. He's a man with vision, patience and loyalty which is why he has pastored the same church for almost 30 years. Did I mention that we were both six when he started!

Thirty years in one place means that we have seen every type of hurt there is. And we have also experienced hurt ourselves... kids struggling with painful issues, a diagnosis of breast cancer, the death of loved ones and the list could go on. Again, those situations are not the meat of my story. Jesus Christ is! I believe that if a private investigator were to examine my life he would see the fingerprints of Jesus everywhere!

I floundered for many years wondering what God's plan was for me. "Flounder" is a wonderfully descriptive word isn't it? Can you envision a fish flipping around on dry land trying to figure out how to breathe in a world he wasn't designed for? That was me.