pOsTiNg...

It really puts grit in my craw when this site doesn't post instantaneously!!!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr........

Sand and Stone . . .

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the "sand": Today my best friend slapped me in the face.

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a "stone": "Today my best friend saved my life".

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "after I hurt you, you wrote in the "sand" and now, you write on a "stone", why?"

The friend replied, "When someone hurts us we should write it down in "sand", where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away.

But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in "stone" where no wind can ever erase it."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, (5) does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, (6) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

How much does change cost?

Hello there, did you miss me?

Well…Frank and I were scouring the idle lanes of Route 66 on our way to Lake Havasu City in Arizona. We celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary!

Believe me when I say, it doesn’t feel like 10 years have passed since we were wed on the beautiful, lush lawn in front of Thornton Winery in Temecula, California. In fact, the only real signs that 10 years have passed are the extra weight and a few more crows feet on our faces!

In our hearts, we are still truly, madly, deeply in love. In our minds, we are still likeminded, soul mates, if you will. In our souls…”what? You ask…” In our souls, we are connected and committed to the same direction…to follow Christ and honor Him with our lives. Now, I can honestly say we do not do that consistently, 24/7…we often fail miserably. However, the beauty is that it never seems to be exactly at the same time…by God’s grace, we are there encouraging each other…cheering each other on in this Christian life to please God and serve Him with all that we are (of which, God has given to us).

Well…I thought it appropriate to mention the “soul” aspect as that is what Pastor Keith will speak to again on Wednesday night (er, um, tonight!).

And, I saw this picture on someone’s blog (sorry, cannot find the location now…so, I cannot give proper credit…but I post it nonetheless). It is something I have been pondering and dwelling upon in my heart since our vacation away to the desert with Bill & Debbie.

On Monday nights, we are meeting with leadership and going through a “discovery” study of relationships among the church body and how the Trinity is the perfect role model for how our relationships with each other are supposed to be.

I keep thinking this thing, “being Christ costs us everything…” And, since He paid the ultimate price to secure our salvation, why shouldn’t it cost us everything to be Him? So many avenues of thought to pursue as a result of this…but I think I will let the statement lie for awhile and come back to it later.

What do you think?

What did Paul mean when he wrote in Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Lord Stanley's Cup

Way uber cool! The 2007 Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks visited CHOC today! Frank got to record their voices for Radio Lollipop & I got to snap a few photo-ops!

Frank's 2nd cousin, Henry Richard (Pocket Richard)'s name appears 11 times on the Stanley Cup. Super...super cool!

WAY COOL! Dogledanji!!!

-Mary

hOw To TeLl If YoUr FeEt StInK (;o))

This makes me laugh EVERYtime I look at it.

Knock..Knock..Knock...

Is this thing working???

Grr...I have posted two blog entries since June 1, 2007 and they ARE NOT SHOWING UP!

System Difficulties

Wow...after all that time spent...it looks like my latest blog entry didn't post. Grr...maybe posting this one will "push" that one through to reveal my verbose craftiness.

Hm, I definitely like Indian Cuisine. Samosas are yummy with the hotter than fire & brimstone mint sauce. And, I like the tofu & spinach babyfood likened stuff...and the orange colored chicken cubes.

But, I hate with a sick passion, borderlining obsession, curry.

Did I mention I LOVE Indian Cuisine? One of the props of working at CHOC and getting lunch everyday. (The downside is the added 25 lbs on my downside!) ;o)

I crack myself up.

Okay...here goes the testing moment...I'm going to push "publish post" and see what happens.

Dogledanji!

(P.S. Pismo is officially 2 months and 6 days from now).

(Why isn't Sarah Jones going? It won't be the same without her!!! Sarah, I miss you!)

The Watch...

When I was a about 3-4 years of age, my father was in the Air Force and stationed on the island of Crete in Greece. To my mother’s delight, all of us were able to go “over-seas” with my dad and live near the base. In fact, we lived in a part mobile home/part house set up in a mobile home park walking distance to the Mediterranean. Previous owners had built onto a mobile home adding much needed living room space, a kitchen and I’m sure some other rooms which I don’t recall at the moment.

I slept in the wall! As a child, you don’t really care where you sleep, as long as mom is close and someone leaves a light on to keep at bay those hairy monsters lurking in the shadows. Actually, my bed was built into the wall of the mobile home. It was quite cozy. I’m sure I would hate it now…needing lots of space and places to put my “things.” But to a small child, it was a secret alcove to which I could retire and dream of sunny days and kittens (bunnies had yet to head my list as favorite pet).

Most of my memories on the Island of Crete are quite fantastic and filled with seashore visits, maids’ villages, braying donkeys, lots of family picnics and a silver metallic Christmas tree that changed colors due to a lit color wheel (hey, it was the late 60’s) shining on the tree.

I was a happy, carefree child full of curiosity and many playmates. I often trotted down the street to play with other children or bug the nice neighbor lady who always had some cookies or cake freshly baked and iced. I was an impish, tow-headed girl with tom-boy tendencies.

On one such occasion, I was several “houses” down the street playing with a little girl a few years older than me. She had a beautiful, brand new watch that I desperately wanted to hold and wear. Her bargain was I could wear it if I agreed to be locked up in the storage shed in her back yard. Perhaps she thought I would dance away and take her beloved watch with me? Perhaps she was a mean-spirited child trying to scare me? Or, perhaps it was the silly logic of small children who think this method best for securing the ownership of a possession and trundle off to become preoccupied with another playmate or plaything, forgetting the possession and the child wearing it in the shed.

I was locked in the storage shed and promptly forgotten. As I was wearing the watch, I could tell you exactly how long I was locked in the storage shed: 40 minutes. To you and me now, that is not even a sufficient lunch break. However, to a 4-year old, it was a millennium. And, what accentuated the imprisonment was the barely heard call of my mother heralding me home.

My mother was going to walk to the base for some grocery items and I was appointed to accompany her. I was left to play where I willed until I heard her summons, meaning my playtime was up and my new adventure escorting her to the store was at hand. I was strictly instructed to come home when I heard her call.

Now, lest you think my mother negligent in discovering my predicament, let me assure you, this was not a first time offense of not heeding her call. Often, I’d be so busy playing I wouldn’t hear her call or would hear it and choose to ignore her. Only once did I ignore my father’s call.
My mother chose not to discover my whereabouts as she thought I was pulling another of my childish acts of poor hearing or outright disobedience.

As her calls faded away, huge crocodile tears began to stain my pudgy cheeks.

When her calls stopped, cries of abandonment and anguished despair escalated from mild whimpers to shrill panicked shrieks and screams.

I had been left behind!
I was forgotten.
I was unsearched for.
I was willfully maligned and abandoned.
I was alone. In the dark. With a stupid, big deal, brand new watch to keep me company.
The one thing I wanted, brought me no comfort nor satisfaction.
The one thing I wanted, brought me silence, solitude and a dark, damp, storage shed.
The one thing I wanted did not bring me joy and left me alone, scared.

I wonder how many of you are sitting in a dark, damp, storage shed possessively holding that “one thing” you believe will bring you satisfaction?

Needless to say, I’m not in the shed. Eventually, a utility man and the mom of the despicable girl heard my pleas for release and freed me from my watch prison. I flung the watch aside and ran, with all my newly acquired energy, home.

I eagerly discarded the thing which, only a short hour before, I was willing to risk imprisonment to have and hold. “Ah,” you must be musing, “such a silly child.”

As children of the Creator of the Universe, we act repeatedly in similar silly fashion. Though our Father knows exactly where we are at all times, He doesn’t enforce His desire for a right relationship with us upon us. He gently, persistently calls to us. He invites us to drop that worldly distraction and abide in Him. He patiently waits…woos…nudges…calls…and He never gives up.

I’m so thankful He never gives up on me! Aren’t you?

So, the watch wasn’t bad. It was my desire for the watch which was the problem.

What or whom do you desire today?