A conversation with my big guy

God gave me a little confirmation that this more simple life we are purposely choosing is the right direction.  Saturday night Braden and I participated in a little work at the church to pay off a future trip to camp.  On the way from Panera, where we picked up donated bread and pastries to wrap and sell at the church, we passed by my old high school.  I told him that was the place his Daddy and I fell in love.  He wasn't so interested in that.  Then we passed the soccer fields and I told him how much I loved gym class.  That by the time high school rolls around, most girls don't like gym.  By then they are wearing makeup, and worrying a lot about how they look so they don't like getting sweaty at school.  Then I told him that I just wasn't one of those girls.  If the sprinklers were on during class, no one was stopping me and my friend Christen from playing in them.  We would hit the tennis balls over the fence on purpose so we could go get them while the water was watering the fields.  Often we would go back to class with hair drenched.  We had so much fun.

 

I think this story struck a chord in my big guy who isn't a huge fan of school so far, but loves gym class and recess.  He said to me,

 

"That's the kind of girl I want to marry.  One who loves to have fun and doesn't care so much about the way she looks."

 

I said, "Babe, if you look for a girl who loves Jesus first, likes to have fun and doesn't care so much how she looks, that will be a good one to marry."

 

Then I told him that if he could only look for that one, the one God has already picked out, and not waste his time chasing after other girls that just look pretty, like most boys do in high school, he will certainly find her sooner than later.  He was all for that.

 

These are the moments I'm afraid I would miss if we were running ragged with our schedule and I was too stressed out being late for something less important.  I so need these moments of just hanging out together and chatting.  I just can't schedule these kinds of talks.  These little tiny lessons come in short bursts for us.  I have to have time to recognize them and put a plug in.

 

I didn't think I'd be talking about girls to my son at 8 years old, but if I can touch on it and move on, maybe something will stick or come back to him later.  Oh, I hope so, Lord. 

God spoke to me through Trace Adkins

Ok, ok, I know this sounds bizarre.  But I was raised not to believe in coincidences, and I do not.  God gave me the coolest Mother's Day gift yesterday and I'm still beaming and basking in it, hoping this feeling of His love will just last and last. 

Mother's Day was a really fun day.  It started with my kid's giving me gifts in bed.  Braden made me a necklace out of a wine cork which I proudly wore to church that morning.  (not coloring in the lines that day!)  Ty hurried in with his tissue paper wrapped gift that I have been smelling all week.  As he hands it to me excitedly, he shouts,

"Its a candle!"

As I unwrapped the very strong smelling pillar candle he pushed it to my nose and urged,

"No, Mom, SMELL it!"

His primitive four-year-old handwriting wrote "I love you, Tyler."  Its tough for a four year old to write, and on the rough round surface of a candle??  He's awesome!  I also got a gift certificate for more bootcamp classes which I'm really thankful for.  I love sweating it out with those girls!

We went to church and then on to my Mom's house for a huge lunch with lots of family.  It was a great time.  Later that evening my sis, my Mom and I went to see the movie "Mom's Night Out."  I laughed so hard and had to grab Mom's arm more than a few times.  Some of the scenes could have been shot at my house.  I knew exactly where the mom was hiding when the husband came home from out of town finding the house looking like a tornado had swept through.  As he slowly comes up the stairs looking for his wife, I turned to Mom and said,

"She's in the closet."

Then as he starts to see candy wrappers on the floor leading to the closet I say to Mom,

"She ate the whole box, I just know it."

The husband opens the door to the closet and the wife is sitting on the floor with the box of chocolates.  She turns to him and says pitifully,

"I ate the whole box."

Yep, its like they had cameras in my house.  Eeeks!

But back to my gift.  At some point in the movie, the mom and Trace Adkins character is sitting on a bench and she is pouring out her heart about how she is a failure as a mom, a wife, and a friend.  How she never feels she is "enough."  To which Trace Adkins character (a rough necked, tattooed, motorcycle guy in leather) tells her how his Mama always told him that no matter how far you fall, how far you run, Jesus is always standing there with his arms open wide.  How Jesus loves us no matter what we do.  He loves us because he made us.  And who we are is exactly enough.

It was like God was talking directly to me.  Especially with the fatherly, deep voice of Trace Adkins.  I sat and cried like a baby in that movie theater.  Gracious.  I need to listen to that speech once a week for the rest of my life.

I drove home after the movie with the windows down and praise music blaring, just beaming.  I felt like God gave me the best gift for Mother's Day.  He opened his arms wide and hugged me and told me I was enough.  Just like I am.  And he had not made a mistake making me the Mom of my two boys and the wife of my husband.  I was exactly who they needed.  Crazy, closet, chocolate-covered moments and all.

I just thank you Lord, for no coincidences.  Help me never to miss the daily miracles you perform in my life.  Thank you for speaking to me yesterday.  What an amazing love you have for your children.  Help me to see myself the way you do.   I thank you for the good days and the bad days.  And I thank you for walking with me through both.

Mama Stone

My Mama Stone grew up with thirteen brothers and sisters.  My Mama Stone raised three girls on her own while her husband did tour after tour in the Navy and Coast Guard.  My Mama Stone has suffered the loss of a daughter and a granddaughter too soon.  My Mama Stone loves Jesus with all her heart. 

 

This incredible woman is a prayer warrior, a forgiver, a survivor and a fighter.  Glaucoma is taking her sight and Parkinson's is taking her mobility.  But still, she walks the driveway most days and sits on the porch with her Bible every day.  She prays for her family and friends and is the most ferocious stationary bike rider I've ever seen.  She loves to hug on her grandchildren and give them candy.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

 

Last night I went to check on she and Big Daddy (my grandfather) and sat with her for a short while on her front porch.  She told me that God had been leading her to read Psalm 119 that day.  So she pulled her Bible in her lap and followed along with her finger as she read and I listened.  I looked over and noticed that her Bible was upside down.  I didn't say a word, just smiled, because I knew she was "reading" from memory. 

 

I sat and listened as she told me how she was no good at witnessing to people.  She tried to tell her mama about a Jesus moment she had one time and her mama asked her if she was a Jehovah's Witness.  Country people back then didn't talk a lot about their faith.  We laughed. 

 

I learn a lot from this dear lady who is always in perpetual movement that she can't control.  She has never stopped "taking her exercises" since she was diagnosed with Parkinson's years ago.  She never gave up on her husband who didn't accept Jesus as his savior until my Mom was an adult.  Even when his presence in the home, when the girls were young, made things much more difficult for her, there was no talk of leaving him.  No divorce.  People who grew up during the depression didn't throw things out and get new, they fixed the things that had.  Jesus walked very close to my Mama Stone back then, as he does now.  I'm so thankful for her faith, her living witness and her candy.

 

Iris Ilma Parrish Stone.

 

What an amazing lady.