Heart To Heart

Just want to check in and report that orange spray tan DOES EVENTUALLY fade.  When last we 'talked', I had just tried my first spray tan because my whiteness can be scary on many levels.  Okay - my first premise might be a bit imaginary but - I think cellulite looks better with a tan on it.  There.  I said it. The orange glow was only present on my hands and feet - the rest of me was reasonable.  I scrubbed my hands in a variety of creative ways to some success of fade.  But, my feet....oh my feet.  After our flight landed in Maui I took off my shoes, whipped out my flip flops from my backpack, and rolled up my pants that can magically turn into capris.  Oh my stars.  I discovered there is an advantage to fog.  My feet looked orange in GP, but in the Hawaiian sun light they looked just crazy.  Dennis' parting comment (in between laughing episodes) was to point out the stripes (which were below the leopard-like spots on the back of...

There are many things in life that don't go the way the directions suggest they will. In preparation for a break time we are looking forward to, I decided to try spray tanning.  The white of my legs could scare small children and it seemed like an easy fix.  A fix that lots of people take advantage of.  You know, all those Olympic ice skaters and such.  I can do this. I didn't want to have a real person.....spray me.  Somehow asking them to close their eyes didn't seem wise.  So the answer was this automated spraying deal.  It talks to you from the moment you step in the room.  Let me describe how this goes down... You are directed to put protective lotion on your hands and feet - which I did liberally.  Then you step into the time travel machine and wave your hand to indicate to the machine that you are ready.  There are numbers on the floor.  You can see those numbers clearly when the time machine isn't filled with fog but o...

I want to be like Mother Teresa - today I am not so much. But you know what encourages me?  Scriptures that have words like, "line upon line, precept upon precept"...  or ..."His mercies are new every morning , great is His faithfulness"....   Scriptures that give permission for process.  It's really not about perfection, it's about the journey. Romans 14:4 - Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. "For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway."   ~Mother Teresa

This week will mark our 39th anniversary.  Yep, crazy. Things about our "us"-ness that makes me smile... A couple of weeks ago Dennis decided to teach about truths found in the song, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".  That's fine.  They were good truths brought out of the FIVE verses of the "Hark"song.  He wanted me to sing the entire song at the end of the sermon.  I have a thing about Christmas carols and Easter songs....I always mess them up when I play them.  It's a psych thing, I'm sure, but it's what happens.  I almost made it through the song.  It was the last verse that got me, and my hands basically played the chords to another song while I sang the final "Hark" verse.  He closed in prayer and turned around and started laughing at/with me.  He knows I give it my best shot but sometimes... I smile cuz he eats whatever I cook - for the most part.  He does get super excited when we get invited to eat at someone else...

I think I'll send this picture out as our Christmas photo card this year.  It's a white elephant I got at a white elephant gift exchange this last week.  I.love.it.  It was one of those gift exchanges where you can steal what someone else has (unless it's been stolen 2 times previously - in which case the gift is frozen and no longer available to steal. [Yes, sing "Let It Go" right now!]  NOTHING says Merry Christmas like a party where you get to steal a gift that you REALLY wanted that someone else has!) In this case, my friend ( Mark Swanburg ) who opened this literal white elephant was more than glad to let me have it.  I loved that someone ( Andy Frye ) brought it in the first place - plus - I really like elephants so it was a win for me!   Sometimes our anticipation of something being great turns out to be less than great.  I prayed four years for a live camel to be a part of our living nativity scene at the church.  When it...

Is. 54:13 - All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace. I think that the picture of all the parents, grandparents and mentors standing in the front of the church today with kids of all ages to sing, "You Make Me Brave" and "Never Let Go", will stay in my heart for a very long time.  It opened up heaven over us in a way that will impact the eternity of someone. To hear those who have already walked farther down the journey sing, "Great is Thy Faithfulness" - with such strength - over the generations shook something in the Kingdom of darkness today. Of this I am sure. The thing that the enemy wants to steal the very most is our faith.  Young - old - he wants to steal our faith - kill our faith - destroy our faith.  Our joy?  Yep.  Our body?  Sure.  Our marriage?  Yes.  But most of all OUR FAITH. We must see his strategy and refuse to fall for it.  PUSH BACK. The scripture at the top of th...

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding..... We've been losing teeth in the Webber family lately.  ( We're talking about the little Webbers right now! )  There's such joy in the baby teeth coming out - and the new, bigger, permanent teeth moving into their spaces. Change and loss doesn't always bring joy and excitement and tooth fairy feelings. But we can KNOW that His plans for us are for good and not for evil - to give us a future and a hope. Loss often makes way for what's new and more powerful .   So.... Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding...      We hand our baby teeth to the "tooth fairy" hoping to get SOMETHING tucked under our pillow in return.  The tooth fairy is a flea compared to the Magnificience of our God.  Hand God what's gripped in your hand.  There's something powerful coming.