Candles

I wrote this late last summer/early fall . I had forgotten that I had it! I thought I would share it, in hopes that it encourages someone else.

A candle can represent several things.
The scent can mask unpleasant odors; or we burn it just for the pleasant smell. That smell can be soothing, relaxing, or serve a particular purpose. It can even provoke memories from our past.
The light from the candle from the candle can have purpose; also. It can create a romantic atmosphere, for one. It can be useful in a storm. When the electricity goes out; the candle gives light.
The light given by the candle can represent Christ.; the light in the darkness. The storm creates darkness, that darkness can be symbolic of life without Christ. We light the candle to illuminate the darkness. Once we touch the match to the wick; the darkness is pierced by that light. In the same way, Christ pierces the darkness of our lives in the midst of the storm.

Jesus is the way, the truth,and the life, and the LIGHT!

The Lie That Grew (and Grew)

Annie came out front while I was mowing the yard.( I had told her earlier she could not be out front since she had left the scooter in front of the neighbor's house and it went missing for a bit. )
Thinking she was looking for an excuse to be in front,I sent her back in. A short time later, she reappeared with Rachel. I could see by their faces something was up, so I shut off the mower.
"Mom, Annie needs to tell you something." Annie whispered to Rachel that she wanted Rachel to tell me. They whispered back and forth a bit and finally Rachel said Annie was swinging on her swing, fell off and a nail poked her in the lip. I looked from Annie to Rachel, trying to discern from Rachel's face whether this could be true.
I told Annie to show me where this nail was, then told Rachel that IF I found a nail, Dad was going to have to talk to the neighbors behind us. (our neighbors have been building a shed. I found several nails near the fence,but back in an area Annie will not usually go, for fear of spiders)
I followed Annie to the back yard and we stopped at the edge of the patio."Show me where you found the nail" I said.
" Well, it was by the clothesline." she replied. I knew it likely wasn't there, but I made a show of looking anyway.
"Annie" I began"There is no way you fell off the swing and bumped your lip on a nail by the clothesline."
It was obvious to me that Annie was lying, but how to get her to admit it and see the importance of telling the truth was going to be difficult.
Trying to be patient, I began again." Annie, if I have to go talk to the neighbors about throwing nails over the fence,and find out that you lied to me, you are going to be in BIG trouble, so you had better tell me where the nail is."
Annie decided that she had thrown it in the grass. "So, If I mow the backyard, I can run over the nail,and it will get thrown up by the lawnmower,and it could hit someone's eye." Annie thought for a moment and quipped" Well, It was over by the ladder,and ..." I had to interrupt." I did not see a single nail over by your ladder. You are not telling me the truth.Now tell me the truth!"
Annie tried again."Well, I threw it away." "Oh," I said, so if I check the garbage can am I going to find it?" Annie thought for a moment."You see, it went BEHIND the Garbage can."

I told her I was going to check. "Well..." (By now, I am thinking that word has become Annie's favorite out of all the words in her vast vocabulary.)"you won't see it,because it went behind that big air thing"(the water heater)
I told her that was funny, I didn't think she could have thrown it that far. Annie tried again."Well, it went into the mouse hole" I informed her that there was no mouse hole.
By this time, Annie's responses were coming slower, I could see that she was really trying to think of something that might make her story believable.
She thought a moment more,and spoke again." You won't see it down there,because I threw it really high and it went into a mouse hole way up there."
She pointed to the rafters above the washer and dryer.

Rachel had been watching the entire time,and finally couldn't stand it anymore. Trying not to laugh, she said" That's a good one Annie!"
Annie stood for a minute,and then laughed,as if she was just kidding the whole time. She waltzed off to play, as if nothing had happened.
That is the lie that grew and grew .The only truth we could discern was that she had indeed fallen off the swingset, but apparently had decided the nail idea was a bit more of an exciting story.

The ( Could Have Been) National Lampoon Camping Trip

It all started out innocently enough. Our oldest daughter, Laura wanted to go camping for her birthday. So, plans were made to go to Little Grass Valley, her favorite place to camp.

As soon as Dick got off work, we loaded up the gear and the dog and headed up the hill. Thus began what we fully expected to be a fun family camping trip. Little did we know, it would be a weekend we would not soon forget.
As we pulled into Little Beaver; loop A was much more full than we expected, even for a July weekend. Fortunately, we found one of our favorite spots was available; so we wasted no time setting up camp.
As we did so, we noticed we had two extra children hanging around. Our neighbor’s children; (naturally curious and not naturally shy), decided to make their presence known.
Quickly realizing that they had no plans to go back to their camp, and noticing that mom had no interest in telling them to come back; I tried to politely send them on their way.
After a couple of attempts; their mother got the hint and called them back to their camp.
Thinking that was the end of that, we went on about fixing dinner and getting ready for the next day.
As darkness began to fall; we made sure to lock all our ice chests and other food items in the car, to discourage any bears from invading our camp.
Noticing that our neighbors had not put their ice chests away; Dick went over to talk to the neighbors, thinking maybe they were unaware of the bear threat.
As luck would have it, we found out they were “clampers” and this was their annual weekend gathering at Little Grass Valley. They always chose Little Beaver, and chose loop A, they told us, because that was the best campground at the resort.
“Oh, Hooray” we thought. “This is going to be an interesting weekend.” (E Clampus Vitus has a reputation for some wild partying.) We tried to think positively, but none of us was having much success.

As the conversation went on; Dick asked; “You are going to put your food away, right?”
“We know” the man replied. “But, are you going to put it away?” Dick asked again. “We know” the man answered again.
It didn’t take long to figure out that they were not going to lock up their food. All we could do was pray (literally!) and hope the bears decided not to be hungry that night.
We went to bed, unsure of whether we could or should sleep that night.

I woke up a while later to a rather unpleasant smell. “Oh, great, the bear has pooped right next to my side of the tent!” I thought.
Since I was not about to go out and look, I tried to ignore the smell and went back to sleep. A bit later; I felt a little body lying on top of me. Half asleep, I absently reached up to pat the body. I realized quickly, that it was our youngest, Chloe, and she was naked.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “ I just wanted to snuggle with you, mom.” Came the reply. I looked at the alarm clock and noted the time; 2:00 a.m. “AT two o’clock in the morning?”

“Where are your pajamas?” I asked Chloe. “I was hot, so I took them off!”
“Go get your pajamas back on and get back in bed” I ordered, suddenly wide awake..
As Chloe got up to go back to her sleeping bag, I thought maybe I should turn on the flashlight so she could see where she was going. As I did so, I suddenly realized that what I thought was the bear’s bodily waste I smelled, was not the bear after all; but Chloe.
“Don’t get back in that sleeping bag!” I exclaimed. Chloe stood there, waiting to see what she should do next.. I yelled at Dick to get up and help me. I began tossing soiled clothes and bedding out of the tent. Dick took over that job and I began trying to clean Chloe enough until I could bathe her properly.
“Do we have to go home?” she asked. “Not now, but we may have to go home tomorrow” I replied. Chloe began to cry “I didn’t mean to! I couldn’t help it!” Realizing the poor girl thought it was her fault, and that she was in trouble, I tried to reassure her that neither was the case, but that we couldn’t stay if she was sick. By this time, Laura was awake, vocalizing her opinion about her sister ruining HER birthday camping trip.

“Go back to sleep and mind your own business!” I snapped. Laura reluctantly laid back down and kept quiet. I apologized, and informed Laura that it was not her sister’s fault. Accidents happen.. We got things cleaned up as best we could and tried to go back to sleep.
A short time later, we woke again, to the neighbor’s dog and our dog’s barking and the neighbors shouting. The bear had decided to visit and their dog had treed the bear. The girls wanted to see. Dick firmly told the girls to stay put.. We waited, hoping the neighbors would call off their dog, the bear would leave, and we could go back to sleep.
It was not to be. The two men in the camp decided to stay up, since quiet time ended in only two more hours. Suffice it to say they were NOT quiet, and I think I even yelled at them that people were trying to SLEEP! Obviously, it was a wasted effort.

We did finally manage to get an hour or two of sleep. Chloe informed us after the short sleep we all had that she was just fine, could we please stay one more night?
Since there had been no other incidents that could be mistaken for the bear, we agreed that we could stay another night. Fortunately, I had a plastic zipper bag from a bedspread I had recently bought. We put all the soiled items in the bag, and set it away from the tent.
In the meantime, our dog had made herself comfortable on Chloe’s egg crate foam. After wrestling with the dog; I managed to get her off of it and haul it to the dumpster. I could feel the pitiful brown eyes following me to the dumpster. I could imagine what Callie’s opinion of me was at that moment.
(later, both the dog and Chloe got a bath in the lake!)

The plan for the day, as per Laura’s request was fishing, and then Italian Sausages and roasted bell peppers for dinner, to be followed by opening presents, easy enough. ( or so I thought) We packed up our lunch, scratched the dog goodbye and headed out for a day of fishing on the lake, putting the events of the night and early morning behind us.

After a successful fishing expedition, we returned to camp, our mouths watering at the thought of sausage and peppers for dinner.

Dick offered to start the camp stove and barbeque for me, but where were the matches?
I informed him that they were right next to the camp stove, where we usually kept them. I walked over to show him. The matches were not there. Dick happened to look down, and pointed. Every match in the box (it had been full to start) had been lit and thrown on the ground. Dick voiced the thought that maybe our girls had been playing with the matches. I reminded him that we had been gone all day, so that was not possible.

Reluctantly, Dick asked our neighbor woman if we could borrow some matches. Her children followed us back and informed us that they had lit our matches, and tried to light our stove.
I could not believe what I was hearing. “We took your dog for a walk, too!” the little girl informed me. “And, we fed her some hot dogs! “the girl’s brother chimed in. “You shouldn’t have done that” I scolded. I looked at their mother, hoping for some input, but she had her nose in a book and was obviously unconcerned.

When the children asked why they should not have done that, I tried maintain my calm and explain that the dog could have bit someone, and we would have been in trouble. “But she is a nice dog!” they added, as if I was being told something new. “It doesn’t matter, she is NOT your dog, you should NEVER take someone else’ dog for a walk without asking! You also should not play with matches, you could have been hurt!” “Oh,” was all they said, obviously not getting the point I was trying to make.

Frustrated with the children and their mother’s lack of guidance, I tried to remain calm.
I told them they needed to go back to their camp, that we were going to be eating. “Oh, what are you having for dinner?” the children asked. “Sausage and peppers” I grumbled. “Can we eat with you? “ “NO!” Laura exclaimed, before I could get the words out.
She had been quiet for the most part, but she had taken all she could. “NO, you can’t, and you need to go back to your camp!” Laura shouted at them.

I tried to smooth things over a bit, but the two children did not understand. I finally had to firmly tell them that it was not okay to play with matches. It was not okay to take a strange dog for a walk, and it was not polite to ask if you could eat dinner with someone, now please go back to your camp.

Mom must have gotten the hint, finally, because she timidly told them to come back.
We ate dinner in peace, and after dinner, Laura was able to open her presents. I could feel the eyes of the two children next door watching Laura as she opened her gifts. I felt a twinge of sympathy for them. They were obviously lonely and needed a mother’s attention.

That evening, Dick went next door again, to inquire if the neighbors were going to put their food away. “Yeah, we just wanted to give our kids some excitement” was their reply. Dick couldn’t resist “Well, you did. Your dog treed the bear on the side of the tent that your kids were sleeping on!” “ What would you have done if the bear fell out of the tree?” No reply. Dick continued on “You gave your kids some excitement, alright, along with everyone else!”
“Yeah, guess we should lock up our food tonight” they finally managed. Satisfied, we began to get ready for bed.

Everyone went to bed, and if the bear came through, either everyone was too tired (including the dogs) to notice, or the bear couldn’t find anything worthwhile to stick around for.
So the camping trip ended, but Laura made it clear that not only did she never want to go camping for her birthday again; she especially never wanted to camp at Little Grass Valley for her birthday again.
We did find out later that the camp had decided to move the “Clampers” to another campground farther down the road from then on. Little Beaver is too popular and there had been too many complaints from other campers. Still, even that could not convince Laura to go to Little Grass Valley on or near her birthday from then on.
Thus ended the camping expedition that (could have been) something from National Lampoon’s vacation.
As I said, some names have been changed, mainly to protect ME from the wrath of my children and any perceived humiliation on their part.

Food for thought

Earlier this month, Rachel was able to go to the School of Healing at Bethel in Redding. (lucky girl!) She shared something with me that really made me think, so I thought I would share it with you.

Some of you know(and some of you have been or are yourselves) we did foster care for awhile.
Oftentimes, foster children will stuff more food in their mouths than they can eat, looking like a chipmunk. Sometimes they will take the food from the table and run off with it, worried that that is all they will get. Other times,they will sneak food into their rooms,hide it under the bed, etc.
As a foster parent, we just have to reassure them they will be able to eat when they want,and there will be enough. It sometimes takes awhile,but they usually figure it out after a bit.
One of the speakers was (is) himself a foster parent. He used the above as an analogy. He shared that often times; we are like that with God. God gives us something,and we will take it, run with it, afraid there won't be a "next time", or enough. We also sometimes hide it, afraid we won't get anything else.

What we need to realize is that God's gifts are always there for us. God will always make sure there is enough,if we will just stop hoarding it, or try to use it as quickly as possible, afraid there isn't going to be anymore. We are often like some of those foster children who didn't get enough to eat in their homes,and have a hard time understanding that there IS enough in this home, and there will ALWAYS be enough.

For me;this was a big eye opener. I had honestly never thought about God's gifts in that perspective. Now, I just have to remember there IS enough, WILL be enough,and I don't have to hoard the gift, or stuff it in my mouth, afraid that I won't get anything else.
Wow! It is something I am going to work on!

Costco reciepts

We made our way through the main aisle of Costco, with the usual stops one needs to make with a 5 year old who wants to sample anything available.
We finally made it over to the deli section to pick the meat and bread we wanted for our sandwiches.

Content with our selection; we made our way to the front registers to pay for our items. Dick ordered a couple of hot dog combos while there,and paid for our items.
In his haste, he nearly forgot to take the reciept with him to the snack bar. I handed him the reciept, unaware of the fact that there were two reciepts.
After he put all the goodies on his hot dogs, we headed for the door.
Dick handed the door man the reciept in the box. The man looked at the reciept. "Where is your reciept?" the doorman asked. He continued " This one is for the hot dogs and drinks,and it LOOKS like you have some meat, cheese and bread in this box." I felt a big "DUH" coming on at the word "LOOKS" but kept my mouth shut.
Dick looked at me and said "YOU gave me the wrong reciept." I couldn't help but reply in defense "Don't blame me!" "I didn't know there were two reciepts!"

Grumbling that the snack bar had probably thrown away the reciept, and without any suggestions from the doorman, Dick started off on a seemingly wild goose chase.
Annie and I stayed behind with the food we had paid for, but not having the reciept to prove it, we waited; one patiently, the other NOT so patiently.
(patient is an adjective that would NOT correctly describe the noun known as Annie.)

I watched as Dick first went to the snack bar, then over to the customer service desk. From there; I could not see where he went. I began to wonder if Costco was going to keep my hubby as proof of purchase.

After what seemed an eternity; he came back with a computer printout of our proof of purchase.
I felt by then that Annie and I should have been bestowed with some sort of an award for our PATIENCE or at least my creativity in trying to keep Annie occupied and out of trouble during the wait.

We once again made our way to the door; with Dick's irritation written all over his face. The doorman meekly thanked us,and we left, on our not so merry way.
By the time we made it to the car, Dick's irritation had subsided,and he happily ate his late lunch of hot dogs,while I ate a late lunch consisting of my cinnamon roll from Cinnabon. (and,yes, I enjoyed every bite!)

A Child's View of the Fog

About a year or so ago, I was talking with one of my assistants in my tiny tots class.It had been foggy, and thus the subject of our conversation. On our way out to the church,Annie(being only 4 at the time,although she is 5 now and still wants me to "LOOKAT!" ) was saying "mom, look at me!" I patiently tried to explain that I needed to pay attention to my driving,as it was foggy.
She quipped "I'll watch the fog for you, my eyes work better than yours!" I laughed, ableit a bit chagrined. After a couple of minutes, she reminded me that she was still watching the fog for me. I laughed again,and told her she cracks me up! I thought I might have to pull over, for laughing,but did fine.
I thought Annie's quote was funny, but read on, because my friend's daughter had a quote that takes the cake!
The mom told me that as they were getting into the car to leave for church; her daughter(who was 6 ) looked around and asked ;" Mommy; why is there dog breath outside?"
Kids are just too funny!
I am so glad I get to do the job I get to do! It is never boring,and kids just come up with great stuff!

George "The KIller" Tiller

I heard that George "The Killer" Tiller was murdered today. (I am NOT the one who gave him that moniker) He was shot while in church.
First, I cannot fathom how someone who murders babies( he was one who did Partial Birth abortions) can sit in a church with a clear conscience.
Don't get me wrong,I am NOT condoning his murder, it was wrong, as much as what George Tiller was doing. Murdering an abortion doctor isn't the answer.
I wish the case against him could have been successful and he would have been sitting in prison or at least stripped of his medical license, instead of mocking God(I feel) by sitting in church with innocent blood on his hands.
I wonder though,how much longer he would have been able to continue killing innocent children without God's judgement eventually catching up with him.
I wonder how he felt standing in front of his creator, knowing he snuffed out so many of the lives his creator created?(I know, that doesn't sound grammatically correct. but I want it that way)
I don't think I would have been able to look God in the eye.

Did it ever cross his mind that these babies are God' s creation? Did he Ever once feel any guilt?I am sure he felt no compassion.
In a strange way, I am not so surprised that George Tiller was killed. I hope he hears the cries of the babies he killed for the rest of eternity. That may be the wrong attitude, but that is how I feel. I have never had an abortion myself, but I have been affected by the choice someone I know made to abort, and it broke my heart that she made that choice. I have no compassion for the doctors who perform these abortions, it is all about money. Not about compassion.
Maybe I should feel some compassion for the doctors and clinic operators, but right now, I do not. I only feel compassion for these innocents.,and only that some of them are so decieved, they sincerely believe they are helping women.
I suppose maybe I might feel a bit of compassion for The KIller Tiller, but only in that he had to stand before God knowing he grieved our creator deeply.