God's best for me is not perfect...

I saw this on Facebook recently and instantly my heart said, "YES!"  That's it exactly.  My cousin, Pam, so aptly commented, "God's plan looks way more adventurous and definitely NOT boring! It sure is exciting watching how HE gets me out of those pits!! "

It's only taken me 58 years to come to the realization that God's BEST for me is not PERFECT.  And by perfect, I mean flawless, without defect, without shortcomings, foolproof, impeccable.  Or maybe it's just that God's definition of perfect is different from mine.  

I've known this in theory, but why can't my heart line up with my mind on this issue?  I've read James 1 (even memorized it!) where it says trials and testing make us perfect (mature, complete--God's definition of "perfect").  We all want life without problems, complications, worries, tests!!  But God, in His wisdom, knows that those are the very things that grow us up--make us perfect.  (Which, by the way, is a great example in parenting for us!)

God's best for me isn't going to look perfect (without defect)...but it will bring about perfection (completion, maturity), if I let it.

A Beautiful Mess Happy Handmade Home by Elsie Larson & Emma Chapman

Who hasn't perused the blog, A Beautiful Mess?  Even this grandmother has!  These young women, Elsie Larson & Emma Chapman, sisters...have created their own business by creating beautiful things.  They even created A Beautiful Mess photo app--the #1 selling photo app.  Well, now they've created an inspiring book with some of their best ideas.  Think Pinterest in a book.

The book is filled with wonderful photography of their two homes and the creative ways they've been inspired to make their homes their own.  Throughout the book, you are encouraged to be creative in your own home and not to care if an idea is too trendy or overused.  You are to make your home your own and a place you want to come home to.

Some of my favorite ideas are hand-painted lettering on plates and mugs--and even a wall!  They take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.  It's pretty obvious these girls like color!  It's everywhere and done in such a fun way.  There are ideas for decorating for parties, dinners, and outdoor fun.  You won't go wrong purchasing this book!

I'd give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
I received this book for free from BLOGGING FOR BOOKS for this review.

The Twin-Thing

Phil & Andy

Most days, I don't even think about being married to a twin...unless I'm around their mother who loves to talk about them or...they're together.  And we've been together quite a bit lately. They also just celebrated their 64th birthday yesterday.  So the twin-thing has been on my mind.

The Dietz family met last month at a campground in Oklahoma for a few days.  It was the first time in about eight years we'd all been together.  Our kids don't even think about their dad and his twin's idiosyncrasies.  They've grown up with it.  Oh, we might laugh occasionally when we're together and Andy & Phil really get going.  They do so many things just alike.  But it's normal to us...we've watched it for many years.  It's not until there's a new member in the family that it stands out again.  So this reunion was no exception.  Our daughter-in-law, Shanna, hadn't been around Phil. And Zach & Shanna's kids had never seen him.  Dax is three-years-old and we could tell he was a little confused with Phil being there.  He still knew his "Pot" and would stare at Phil and walk around him cautiously.  Of course, Andy & Phil tested him quite a bit.  Gus, on the other hand, who just turned two, couldn't really tell the difference.  He was easily confused.  He went to both indiscriminately and was perfectly content with either.

It's always fun to see the twin-thing through fresh eyes.  Shanna just sat and observed Andy & Phil and laughed behind her hand throughout most of the reunion.  She'd never seen them in action.  She couldn't believe they had the same hand motions, the same voice, the same humor.  She would laugh telling me things she had observed.  And they feed off of each other.  It's just funny seeing one of them times two!

I remember when our first granddaughter met Phil.  She was only two and was a little confused.  But she quickly figured them out.  She had always called Andy "Pops."  When she learned Phil was an uncle, she began calling him "Uncle Pops."  Since Dax calls Andy "Pot," Shanna was trying to get him to call Phil "Pan."  Ha!

It's always interesting seeing the twin-thing through new eyes.  Happy birthday, Andy & Phil!

Hiding in the baggage...

How did Saul go from hiding in the baggage when Samuel was pronouncing him as king...to building himself a monument after the battle with Amalek?  That was the question I was asking God yesterday as I did a lot of driving.  

You see, I'm teaching these stories to children on Wednesday nights.  The first week, I taught about Israel asking for a king and rejecting God as their king.  God gave them what they asked for and gave them Saul as king.  But Saul didn't think very highly of himself.  He told Samuel that he was from the least tribe of Israel and the least of his tribe.  And then he hid in the baggage when Samuel had called all of Israel together to choose the next king.  (Samuel & Saul already knew what the outcome would be even though Samuel was apparently drawing lots to find the next king.)  When Samuel drew Saul's straw, he was nowhere to be found, so Samuel prayed and asked God where he was and God told them to look in the baggage.

I'm not sure this was meant to be a metaphor, but what a great metaphor!  Saul was hiding in the baggage.  And I believe his baggage was insecurity and inadequacy.   

I wanted to find the reason Saul went from hiding in the baggage to raising a monument in his own honor.  It appears he went from one extreme to the other--feeling like a nobody to thinking he was someone pretty important!  I think I found the answer from Saul's own words in I Samuel 15:24, "I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice."  

Saul feared men.  He wanted to please them.  He was a people-pleaser instead of a God-pleaser.  Because he was an insecure man and felt inadequate (his baggage), it was easy for him to listen to the voices of other men.  He needed their approval.  

And in that process...he disobeyed God.  And Samuel told him that rebellion was like witchcraft and stubbornness was like idolatry.  Because Saul had rejected God's word and disobeyed, God rejected Saul as king.

Baggage is an easy place to hide.  But when you hide behind your baggage instead of coming out into the open and dealing with it, it becomes an easy place to fear man, disobey God, rebel, and become stubborn.  The end result seems to be building a monument unto yourself.  Idolatry.

God desires altars where we worship Him...not monuments where we worship ourselves.

Out of control

Recently, someone told me of a person whose life was spinning out of control and they were trying to control everything around them.  They needed to feel they were in control of something!

I'm wondering if that's exactly what's going on around us.  Our world is spinning out of control, so we have the same need--to control something.  

Just something to examine.

"Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives."  
Galatians 5:25

My '64 Chevy

When I turned 16, my mom and dad bought me a '64 Chevy.  A standard.  I'd only driven a standard one other time in my life.  When I was 15, I'd gone to visit my cousin, Pat.  She lived in a small town and her mom gave me the keys to her standard and told us to go get the mail at the post office.  She showed me the gears and sent us on our way.  Pat & I figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't going to be able to keep the car going if I stopped completely.  So I slowed down as much as I could and Pat jumped out at the corner and I circled back around to pick her up.  The problem was, I had to stop when I came back around to wait on her.  When she came out, I was stopped at an incline.  I worked for probably 10 minutes trying to get the clutch and gas going just right to make it up that hill.  Little did we know that a group of high school boys were across the street watching the whole thing!  When I finally made it up that hill, they began hooting and hollering and cheering for me--while Pat ducked down in her seat.  She had to live there after all.  So I didn't have a good track record with a standard.

But dad gave me the keys and told me and my girlfriends who were there for my birthday to go out and learn how to drive it---on my own!  Dad did show me the gears--an "H" shaped gear shift on the steering column.  My friends and I went out on the back roads of Pampa and hopped all over the place.  I may have ground the gears a few times, too.  I'd already gotten my drivers license that day, so I went to bed feeling pretty proud of myself---a license and a blue car on my 16th birthday!

The next week, I was taking my car to school and was on my way home.  I had to stop at a stop light on the main street of town...next to a policeman.  I knew I was in trouble!  I began praying, "Please God...let me get this clutch thing right!!  Don't let me embarrass myself in front of this policeman!"  But I did the old hip-hop thing...bounced 3 or 4 times...BIG bounces...right in front of the policeman.  I wondered if they gave tickets for that kind of thing.  I just didn't know.  I finally got my car going and glanced over at the policeman.  He had his head back doing a belly laugh.  At least I didn't get a ticket.

I loved that '64 Chevy.  

The Hippy Generation

The Hippy Generation--from the mid '60's through the early 70's.  It was a tumultuous time...it was a rebellious time.  Young people were tired of the establishment and began rebelling against the norm.  There were sit-ins on government lawns protesting the Vietnam war to sit-ins on the school lawns protesting bad school lunches.  It seemed young people were fed up with everything and making demands for change.  Everything was groovy and far-out and young people wanted peace, not war.  A flower child was on every corner and Hare Krishna's were handing out flowers at the airports.  Things were stirred up, to put it simply.

The church was even affected by the Hippy movement.  There was a musical that came out in the early 70's that our church youth performed.  I remember each girl had a hot pink dress that was a few inches above the knee and had scalloped edges--as close to a mini-skirt as our moms who made them would allow.  The guys had flowerd-y shirts with a big collar and bell-bottomed pants.  And we sang songs that had never been a part of our church culture.  Our music minister rented lights for our performance--which our church had never seen.  Because I wasn't a rebel, I was very nervous (and yet excited) about our first performance for the church.  We didn't know how the church, as a whole, would respond.  It was edgy for a Texas panhandle church...and it smacked of change.  We performed and I remember one family walked out.  The church nominally received the musical, but we heard lots of low grumbling for months afterwards.  But if you'd asked the youth, they would have said they felt deliriously successful!  It was a great move forward in change.

So...it's hard for me to understand that generation having problems with change in the Church today.  The hippy generation is now about 58-68 years old.  And those are the low grumblers I hear in the Church now.  What happened?  They championed change when they were young.  They were willing to rebel to get it.  And now when another generation wants to elicit some changes to move the church forward, they are the ones dragging their feet.

I just don't get it.