Author: Mommakisses

Mommy Moments

| Mommakisses

Yep… had one of those today… Oh, it was fun for a bit. Baby A took an early (and LONG – yay!) nap. I was apparently in need of a make-over… Or so 5 year old S thought… and 2 year old K was quick to join in.

This means, they were using kleenex wraps on my feet, plastic lipstick on my lips, a dirty sock to put blush on my cheeks and forehead… They then moved to using a plastic brush and tweezers in my hair (and in the hands of the two year old none the less!), and then…

I’m not really sure how they were discovered, but S and K found my make-up brushes. This, of course, lead to the discovery of my make-up. I, however, had it under control, and told K that was not to be used. I even told S to put the lipstick back where she found it… AND THEN…

Then the phone rang. And I got just a little distracted… This is what I found when I got off the phone:

For the record, she’s crying because she DOESN’T want her picture taken… go figure!

The Bride Collector

| Mommakisses

He’s BAAACCCKKK… YES!!! I love when Ted Dekker has a new book coming out… and he’s on a role right now! I’m having some trouble keeping up (hush… I’m sure having five kids has nothing to do with this…) with his books and any other reading I want to do… sigh…

However, when I was (ok, so it was everyone who follows Dekker and his management on twitter, but who’s counting?) offered the chance to read and review his newest thriller (before it is released April 13, 2010), I jumped at the chance!

The Bride Collector is about an FBI agent, a mental patient and the serial killer that brought them together. No, I am not kidding. The cast of characters is wide and fun… I mean, where else are you going to get Sherlock Holmes, Casanova and God all in one book? This book is true to Dekker thriller fashion… which has it’s upsides and it’s down. What??? I know, but it’s true… while I like Dekker thrillers, they always leave me a bit disappointed.

And this one, though not the worst by FAR, still has a… I don’t know… disappointing is not really the right way to describe my feelings. It comes down to this… I understand where Dekker is going, and the point he is trying to get across. I don’t really feel he fully pulls it off. He can tell a tale without a doubt. His fantasies are wonderful! The only thriller I’ve not been at least a little disappointed with was Blink (No, I don’t mean Blink of an Eye, but that is another subject to be dealt with at a later time).

So, here’s my thought, if you are just looking for a fun, summer day at the beach read or if you already like Dekker‘s work… this is a good choice. If you are looking for a love story full of action, friction and all things to make your heart sing… this is a good book for you. If you are looking to understand all that is Dekker and why anyone would want to read his tales… you want Black.

And by all means… Dive Deep!

The Truth in Television

| Mommakisses

I have been doing lots of reading this week… working on a review of Ted Dekker‘s upcoming novel, so I have not been watching much T.V. Tonight, I took some time for a little couch time with my hubby. What I didn’t expect was to stumble across blatant truth in the form of an odd little show.

Last fall there was an intriguing add for a new show… so I tivo-ed it. Flash Forward was a rather interesting concept, has had some fun little twist and turns, and some turns I really wasn’t thrilled with… However, I’ve hung with it, mostly because I tend to REALLY want to finish something once I start… Basically, show is about how the whole world fell asleep (had a black out) at the same time for a little over two minutes at the same time, and everyone had a vision of what they would be doing in 6 months. Then they all woke up and tried to begin to deal with the craziness of their new lives.

Tonight I turned it on, and was messing around on my laptop when TRUTH reached up and slapped me across the head in the form of a scene between two FBI agents. Both are obsessed with their vision (or lack there of) of the future. The man didn’t see anything, and has since learned he will be murdered a month before the visions took place for everyone else. The second is a woman who saw herself having an ultra sound and learning she was carrying a little girl.

The first time I got a little smack, the female FBI agent is in a fertility clinic speaking with a dr. who is trying to encourage her to wait. She replies with the story of her vision, and these words, “I want THAT baby. Not a different baby two years from now…”

The next scene we see her in, she and her friend are talking about being ready to be a mom, and how much she wanted THIS child. The man said something about how THIS child doesn’t even exist yet. She looked him straight in the face and said, “Yes, she does. I know she does. She is out there making her way toward me. I have spent almost every waking moment thinking about who she is going to be. I can’t wait to meet her.” What??? This child, who hasn’t even been conceived yet, and they are saying the child ALREADY exists???

Now, as a woman who has 5 kids, had 5 miscarriages, and carried a total of 13 babies (there was a set of twins for sure and two possible sets) I get what she’s saying. Pregnancy is so different for a man and a woman. For a man, pregnancy becomes real when he can SEE his wife’s belly grow, and FEEL the tiny kicks that ripple across her skin. The baby becomes real when he HEARS the child’s first scream in the delivery room. But for a woman… for her, the baby is real when the little strip she pees on turns positive. That moment, with that breath, she is totally in love with her child. Her world has been flipped upside down. For the man, his world is rocked a little… For her, the world will never be the same.

The thing that shocks me is that they admitted the child who has not been conceived is still a person. How different that is from most things on T.V. where we are told it’s not a baby until it has been born… until then it’s just some tissue for the mother to do with whatever she wants. And yet, here’s a show saying this as-yet-not-conceived child WANTS to live – has places to go and people to see. Wow.

Breaking hearts

| Mommakisses

Let my heart break with the things that break your heart Lord is one of my favorite prayers… almost a cry of the heart. Not to obtain some kind of falsified glory, rather because it draws you deeper into the heartbeat of God… But it is a heavy load… one which we truly can not stand under the weight of. Jesus once asked James and John (Mark 10:38) if they could drink the cup He drinks.

He prefaced that question with, “You don’t know what you are asking.” I’m sure he would say the same thing today… You want your heart to break with what breaks my heart? Really? Do you have any idea of the things you will see? The things you will have to deal with? Have you seen the way people treat each other? The molestation of a young child? The abuse of a spouse? The poverty of a third world country? The loss of a child? Or, as a friend traveling abroad just saw, the sight of a child playing on a rooftop with nothing to stop her if she fell, because her house was a tent behind her on that same rooftop. Yes, it happens.

We’ve all seen pictures. We’ve all hear the stories. And we all go on with our lives. But have our lives been changed? Altered at all by the plight of another? Have you ever cried with a grieving mother? Comforted a scared child? The horrors of this world run deep. The scars they leave are tender no matter how long ago they were “healed.”

Can we drink His cup… I think not, as even a drop is too much for us to handle. Or as my friend said, “We can’t but He can. But it is a bitter, bitter cup.” It is with knowing how little understanding of what we are asking, that we still ask, “Lord, let our hearts break with what breaks your heart.” For deep down we know if He breaks our hearts, it will be His compassion flowing from the wound.

Big Enough

| Mommakisses

How big is your god? Mine is Big Enough. He’s big enough to cover my sins. He’s big enough to heal a broken heart. He’s big enough to help with finances. He’s big enough to teach lessons. He’s big enough to move the mountains that stand in your way. He’s big enough to frustrate the plans of those who mean evil.

What does this mean in the real world? It means He can heal an unborn child, or a very sick child, when the drs say no way. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve been walking in the middle of the Grand Canyon, and not fallen.

And yet, there are times when it gets dark. When it’s so very hard to see Him anywhere. When things feel so out of control and there’s just no way for anything good to happen. I know that darkness of the soul. I know that pain. Life is messy, and any clean up is an impossible job. Impossible. Unable to be done, performed, effected. Incapable of being true. Not to be done or endured, with any degree of reason or propriety. Utterly impracticable. Hopelessly unsuitable.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try

That’s a lyric from a song by Kutless, “What Faith Can Do.” See, when it’s so dark you can not see, faith is a light turned on. It may only be a match light, in all of that darkness, but it’s a light. It’s hope. It’s a breath of fresh air. Why?

Because God is Big Enough.

Working on a Mitzvot

| Mommakisses

What’s a mitzvot? Our pastor has issued our church a challenge and defines mitzvot as a task one voluntarily undertakes in order to experience a spiritual change. He is encouraging each person to undertake this challenge.

So, technically, we have been discussing this for several years. This past year, T has been working with others to really make this happen. This year will see ink to our dreams, a God given challenge we walk together. Our hearts beat with God’s heart for the parentless children of this world. Somehow, some way we want to be able to wrap our arms around each one as we do each of our own children.

I know, not physically possible.

Then this idea began to grow in T’s mind… I’m a little slower to catch the vision… but I do catch it. Oh, the places this could go… God is big enough…

Now go check out the fruit of all that has been going on…

God in a Box

| Mommakisses

I have all these thoughts tumbling around in my brain… and hope I can make something out of them. If not, well, maybe I can mess with your head a little 😉 Here goes:

God is not one to fit in a box. You can not draw a line around Him and say this is God and this is how He does things. He is simply too big for that. He is a God of creativity… look at the world around you… is every flower blue? Is every sun set orange? Is every fish gray? Or every leaf straight? Or every snowflake the same?

He doesn’t even do the same thing the same way… like with Moses getting water out of the rock… one time he is supposed strike the rock (Exodus 17:3-7), but the next time he gets in trouble for striking the rock (Numbers 20:7-12). What??? Yep. The first time God told him to strike the rock, the second time He said to speak to the rock, only Moses struck it twice, and was not allowed to take the people he had been leading into the promised land.

I was reading about the Tabernacle (Exodus 26:1-27:21). Have you read about it? No, I mean REALLY read it? The detail that God put in there is amazing. What material, how long, how many curtains, what colors… amazing! This is the same God who orchestrated your life… with the same, or MORE details!

Here’s another thought… there are two views of God… 1)  He gives you a life, and like an iPhone map, it has point A and point B and a line connecting them, then He just watches. There’s no one talking to you. If you want to see a closer picture, you have to work for it… there is no communication. Or, in my opinion, a better view is 2) He is more like my GPS in that there is a point A and point B, but you never see both points. You get one step at a time, and once that step is made, then you get instructions for your next step. Should you stray from the path set before you, you get a “recalculating” and another path is set before you, one that will still get you to the end destination. Isn’t that what He did with Moses? He recalculated, the people got to go in, but for his lack of trust, Moses did not. OUCH.

Recording artist Francesca Battistelli (along with co-writer Jeff Pardo) puts it this way in her song “Unpredictable” :

Help me see that I’m small
That I can’t know it all
‘Cause You’re so unpredictable

Can’t wrap my mind around You
Can’t put You in a box
Can’t keep You safely contained
You’re gonna move the way
You wanna move today
Just let me follow along

What box have you tried to pack God in? I can guaranty it’s not big enough. Maybe, just maybe, if you let Him out, He will blow your mind. Matthew 7:11 says, He will give good gifts to those who ask… is the box you have Him keeping you from asking? Or is it keeping Him from fully answering? Maybe, if you let Him out of the box, you would, as the Psalm says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Follow along and get a taste of something truly good!

New Hope for Haiti

| Mommakisses

New Hope Academy (our kids’ school) was asked to sing in a song that will benefit Haiti. That means 200 students were bused to a local recording studio where they spent 2 hours singing the same lines over and over… along with a few minor word changes here and there.

I understand the song will be available on iTunes. I’ll let you know more as I do. I am so proud our kids have been able to take part in this act of giving from Music City, USA to the people of Haiti.

Here’s one of the pictures J’s teacher sent… plus some video that ran on our news today:

WKRN’s video

WSMV’s news story

Here’s WSMV’s video, and you can see S a couple of times… well, her ear in a close up of a boy, and on the front row… you can also see her in the picture below.