Sweet Peace

I am sitting down at the computer tonight with my mind full of many varied thoughts. I could go a million directions with them. I am looking forward to sharing with you (and rubbing it in to Kayla!) about the awesome fellowship I relished over the weekend with dear old friends. Some pics of Youth Challenge, and some pics from our day at the Creation Museum. But that will have to come over the next couple of days. Tonight, I'm going to cheat and steal the writing of someone else to communicate with my readers! The writer is snoring upstairs, but I have checked with him, and he doesn't mind. I'm taking from my hubby's blog, and I hope you'll enjoy. Peace, my friends....

Peace! Peace? Peace.
"I have found that in our life, with its ups and downs (emotionally, physically, spiritually, etc), there are different punctuation marks in our times of peace, or different types of peace we have. There are the highs of life, when all is working well, where family and friendships are good. These are times when peace is an exclamation point on a great day or week or month. These are times when favor is bestowed upon you, seemingly out of nowhere. People love you, life is grand, and success lays out the red carpet. I enjoy these times because they are so few. Their effect, however is felt and remembered for years. Aaahh . . . . Peace!

Then there are the parts of life's timeline where we wonder where and what peace is. When nothing seems to go right. When we wonder if being a colossal failure at everything is just our lot in life. When we wonder, "Could this be all there is? Am I really this weak and stupid?" These are the times of conflict when we are tempted to believe God doesn't care. These are the times when we feel "out of favor" with our Creator. These times are hard to pull out of. The question mark looms over us . . . Peace? We can almost hear our Enemy's laughter.

Finally, if we are faithful in our highs and lows, through them we come to a deeper knowledge of who God is. If we continue to get up when we fall, to still obey when we struggle, we will have survived the mental tests and realize what God-given peace actually is. This is a peace that rests in the knowledge of who God is, not what He does. This peace finds where joy is in any situation, good or bad. This peace is a plain statement. Nothing affects its place. Nothing moves its meaning. This peace remains a straight line, as unchanging as God Himself, because it is sent from God Himself. This peace is the best kind, because God is happiest when we can look up through the smoke of spiteful circumstance and still trust. We can look up when have been blessed with success beyond our wildest dreams and trust him WITH IT. This peace says "God is enough", regardless. In this time we now know what true peace is. It is peace . . . period . . . Peace.

This timeline is part of our process. God leads us to and through each phase, building us as we go, leading us to what he wants us to become. It does take time, but the time it takes is really different for each person, and God ordains it. He knows all and plans all. Sometimes I become frustrated when I am not "learning" fast enough, compared to others. But I have come to realize that God is leading each of us individually, at his pace.

Yes, the great warriors of the Kingdom are those who train their focus to remain on God's will in any time. However, God uses everyone, and surprisingly enough, the weak are his first choice. Take heart in whatever part of your life you are. As the saying goes, "Know Him, Know Peace. No Him, No Peace."

Peace."

I AIN'T NO SUPER-WOMAN

From all accounts, the previous generation(s) of women did things pretty differently than we do today. There were different expectations placed on them from the outside and even maybe from within themselves. For one thing, I think many of the day-to-day aspects of life--struggles and triumph--went without a lot of discussion and examination. People in general just didn't "get it all out" like we do nowadays. Our generation talks about everything, leaving no stone unturned in our efforts toward self-help and discovery. In many ways, I'm very glad that this area has changed. There is a lot more freedom of expression and respect for transparency. Sometimes, though, I wonder if we maybe "get out" a little too much. I feel almost like the effort to be honest and transparent can begin to sound contrived, thus making it counterproductive. I also wonder how far we should go in our efforts to let the truth be known about others' pre-conceived notions. FOR EXAMPLE, I was talking before in another post about my struggles with laundry, and disciplined housekeeping, etc. I really meant everything that I had to say. There were responses from several of you saying that you identify in areas of your own with this issue. I guess we can just all pat each other on the back and say "you're not alone" in this! Let's face it, the condition in which you would find my home if you came unannounced, would be VERY different than if you came invited. (truth be told, there would be days, that I would turn out the light and hide behide the drapes if I saw you coming!) But I know and have known some women that it doesn't bother them one bit, mess or no. They're just glad to have you pop in or come over by invitation, no matter what the condition of the house is! In some ways, I envy them in that. But I have digressed.

I was sharing with Julia on the phone how I know that many of the ladies I go to church with have the wrong idea about me. I mean, I do my best to "have it all together" when I go to church on Sunday morning. We "clean up real good" before heading off to the church house! We strive to do our best in our musical offerings, and in anything else that we may be part of. We expect the same from our children. And a couple of weeks ago, I had Lauren's hair in two french braids. NO BIG DEAL!! RIGHT?!? I actually had a lady say to me, that not only do I do all this music, and have four kids cleaned and ready for church, but I even do french braids! Her words: "you really are little Miss Betty Home-maker!" HA!

I guess somehow from her perspective that must be the truth. But from the standard I hold myself to, I am FAR from it. Derek thought he coined the phrase, "I'm a closet perfectionist" meaning that I hold myself to an impossibly high standard inwardly that I never meet outwardly. Yesterday I saw a book "Confessions of Closet Perfectionist", so I guess he missed his chance to gain any capital from his idea!

For all the rambling, I guess my point is this: do I have any responsibility to merge the conception of me with the reality of me? Or is it truly that we all just have different standards of what we consider "outstanding" and "perfection"? If we held everyone else to the same standard by which we judge ourselves, how would we view them? I think the lady at church must just be holding me up to her idea of "super-mom". Because in my own book, and by my own standard, I ain't no super-mom, super-woman, or super-wife. And to prove it, I'm even gonna leave that bad grammar unchecked and un-corrected! :)