I Can Pray….

                   And, So Can You….Let’s Do… 

 

As I sit here in my office, warming myself with a hot cup of tea and some soft music, I wait and I pray.

My children are growing to that stage where life is a constant challenge of “they are still young enough to need parental guidance (do you ever really outgrow that stage?)” to” they are getting old enough to make some of their own decisions.”

Daughter came in from school, threw in a load of laundry to wash, joined us in our bedroom for a time of sharing and laughter and of doing those private mother-ladder-daughter things which make a bond grow firm and tight and real.  I enjoy the relationship Ian and I have with Madison.  It was not one which came easy, but rather was one forged over time and up and down many hills.  I cherish the lilting laughter which rings from her as she pokes fun at our ways while sharing her heart.

Ours is a relationship built strong on the back of never giving up on one-another.  Mother/daughter both have changed a great deal over the past several years, and for the better, as God would provide.

When your daughter sits at your Poppy-made make-up table, using the last of your eyeliner, looks at you and says, “Mama, one reason I love you so much is that you never gave up on me, even when I knew you would have liked to, even when you were exhausted, even when others would have and did.”

I believe her.

My daughter is not perfect. Nor is her mother.  She is a mosaic of many beautiful and un-beautiful decisions in her life.  But, as God is my Holy witness, I would call her heart one of the greatest seeking hearts I know.  What she wants is to find a way in this hard world to live a tender life.  When you have a tender heart in a world which is hard and non-tender, you struggle. 

I realize that now.

I realize, now, that to mother her means to grow in her the ability to be strong.  There is only one thing a mother can do in that environment and with that hope…and, it is to pray.

So, I do.

I have always prayed for my children.  Always.  But, now it is different.  Now I pray with great surrender.  I finally understand that if I truly want my children to be who God intended, I cannot hoard them to myself like a hungry person in a famine.  I must surrender them wholly.

Surrender them to God.

And, so as I sit in my chair, listening to my music and wondering when my boys who spent the night at a friends house will be in, I pray.

I hate it when my children spend the night over at their friends homes.  Agreed.  That does not sound very friendly or faithful of me, but it is the truth.  I long for the days where a night over to a friend’s home meant parents monitoring the whole evening, pizza being eaten, bedtime being midnight in sleeping bags on the floor with a parent sleeping on the couch.  No matter which family they stayed with, I knew both parents, their cell phone numbers, their morals and their standards.  Most, were God-fearing, loving families who guarded my children as if they were precious treasures.

Now, a night over to a friend’s home means a night at a home where I might only know the parent’s from what others tell me or a shared sports experience.  While I still do the “standard” phone call to parents and checking out of where the parent lives.  I still check to see if the parents will be home and if they will be there all night.  I check out their views on alcohol, drugs and sex.   It’s different.

My boys will be eighteen in May.  18.  E I G H T E E N.

An age where everything you hoped to have taught them is being put to the test on a daily basis and in challenging ways you never imagined. 

The impact of that radiates on my heart in a way which I can only express in one way.

Prayer.

We have an open home where our Young-McKenzie family theme is, “better the ugly truth than a pretty lie.”

My children know that my number one non-negotiable is to lie to me.  True gut is a sacred phrase and a way of life at “112”.

As a result, I know things about them which I am proud of, which I am grateful for and even some of which has caused me to lose sleep at night and strands of hair on my brow.

They are good children.  I claim that goodness.  I repeat that goodness to them.

Often.

Because, I realize that it is a journey we are on in this life.  And, no one decision defines the man.  But, it can impact a life.

If you ask my children, they will tell you, “Mama prays that whatever we do is caught.”  I know this because I do and they have experienced it over and over again.  I pray that the good they do is “caught”….the times of sharing and caring and loving and kindness be caught and reflected and imprinted on their hearts so that they know they are doing what is good and right and can follow in that path.

Likewise, I also pray if they are in a situation where they could be at risk of making poor decisions, that they get caught…and, caught tightly. 

NEVER will I stop as long as I breathe….praying that their hearts are not this worlds, but are HIS.

I will never stop because I know that the only real and true and faithful thing I can do to love my children is to love them through prayer.  It is a mother’s journey and one of the greatest ways God has to make Himself real to a mother.

A child’s life is the humble lesson God teaches their mother.

A child’s life is God’s way of reminding a mother of who is in control, and that it is not her.

Surrender is what I have learned from the lives of my children.  Just as I could not determine when they were going to come into this world, I cannot determine how they will live while they walk on this world.  But, what I can do is surrender them in prayer to Him…

For them…

For Madison

For Kenton

For Johnson

And, as I wrote over a year ago, for your child.

If your child has ever crossed paths with mine, and I am aware of them, they are on my “list” of children from whom I pray.  That list is growing….I had to get a new book.

I used to pray for them by name, but am having to blanket them in prayer to get them all covered…

And, I ask that you do the same for mine.

Prayer is a parent’s greatest gift to give their children and to their children’s friends.  Prayer and the knowledge of the person to Whom we pray.

I believe this….there is no greater thing we can be doing….

Than to

PRAY.

Join me.

Blessings,

Lesa

Five Minute Friday: AGAIN

Again

There are places my mind goes to in the early morning, even when time is short and the day’s tasks are long.    Memory lanes, school trips, dancing the “peppermint twist” with my daddy.  People who have long since taken the stairway to the golden gates are with me and bring to heart fond joy and sweet laughter.  Grandmother Frances laughing in the beach water, Granny Perry wiping her hands off on her crisp, white apron as she hands me a homemade corndog.  My Papaw Perry is there kidding me for having a boyfriend when I am only a Kindergartner and Papa Millstead letting me sit on his lap as he rocks slowly in his green, metal lawn rocking chair.  My Aunt Linda brushing my long, brown hair and my Aunt Annie calling my code-name, “Sunkist” over the microphone of her harvest intercom.  Sweetness all wrapped up in yellow and blue memories take over me at times and always, it seems, when I need them the most.  Little gifts of memory-love which I draw from in today’s present to remind me that our lives do matter to those who would follow in our footsteps.   I pause to think of who do I take time to touch with these joy-moments?   So, I walk through my day, pausing, and causing my heart to beat faster and my heart to grow warmer as I take the moment to pause and to touch, to share a laugh and to offer a lap.  I use my technology to send love notes and my pen to ink well wishes.  I wrap my arms around a child and my heart around a husband.  And, I remember the gift of my memories, my senses all pulled into the tender reflections of people who walked before me and beside me and carried me along until all I have of them are the reflections of their spirits which greet me each morning.  I move on with my day with a smile and know that tomorrow, the sweet visits will return, again.

You Know You Are A Novice Hunter When…

Your husband asks you if you wouldlike to go hunting today to check out a new site and you say sure…anytime after  10 am works for me!

Your husband carefully and tenderly gives you all his best hunting gear to wear, including his $250 hunting underwear and you have to add your signature pink “gator” around your neck.

The only hunting boots you have to wear are rain boots with pink, yellow and green flowers on them.

You get all your gear ready and head to your Volvo SUV and don’t realize until your sweet hunting husband laughingly says, “Baby, I think it’s best we take the truck…what do you think?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There you go…I am a novice hunter, wife to a very successful Big Game Hunter….I mean Cinnamon Black Bear, European mounted Elk, Turkey fan and beard, 8.5 Lbs Largemouth Bass, 10 and 12 point deer on our office wall hunting- husband.

 

 

And yet, he was very tenderly patient and kind as we traipsed at least 1,000 miles in the zero degree weather up MOUNTAINS, down ravines, through rivers  and in what seemed circles for no less than 12 hours today.  Okay, so it was only 3.5 hours, but all the rest I write is the truth…True Gut (which in our home is cause for penalty of death if you are lying….literally, you lying, you dying if you say True Gut and it ain't true).

There are Ten (10) Rules I learned today.  I am told there are hundreds more….Jeeezzzz

Rule Number 1:  The first thing you pack is toilet paper

Rule Number 2:   Never hunt without a current, valid license…NEVER

Rule Number 3:   Take water, a compass, your weapon and ammunition in that order

Rule Number 4:   Always consider that your weapon may have some recoil a/k/a “kick” for we novices.  I learned the hard way today, but that’s okay.  I am now a certified, true Huntswoman and have the fat lip to prove it

Rule Number 5:  Eat and go potty BEFORE you start out on a cold day…trust me on this one

Rule Number 6:  The best spots to hunt deer typically are where you find fresh “buck rub” and the more “deer trails” you find in one area, generally the better chance you have of finding deer (we saw ten)

Rule Number 7:   You MAY take photos only on non-serious day hunts a/k/a the first time you go out with your hunting husband

Rule Number 8:   You are only allowed to ask “How far to the truck?” one time per hunt

Rule Number 9:   You are allowed to make your husband proud when you hit the walnut target he sets out for you with his 357 Magnum and then hit it again with his 22 Rifle

Rule Number 10:  You must remember that your husband is never lost, he is only scouting a new area

So, it has to be obvious to even the very skilled hunter, I am officially no longer a “novice’ hunter….I have graduated to “novice once-removed” and I am told that to be any good at all (me being a girl and all of that) that I will have to go many, many, many more times and to many other states and even into other countries.  I am also told that until I drop at least $1,000 at Cabelas and another $500 at Bass Pro Shop (during one hunting season), that I have not even begun the journey to Huntress.

And, finally, my husband, on the way home,  said, “Baby, they’ll be no pink camo for you until all the above are met and until you field dress your first deer.”

THAT was the best news I had heard all day…..”dressing” a deer I am sure to be good at.  I know Macy’s and Kohls and Sacks will be as excited as I am.

That is what “dressing a deer means, isn’t it?” I ask my husband, who very wickedly laughs at me and says, “Sure baby, that is exactly what it means”.

Stay tuned for Huntress Lessons Numbered 11 through 20.

Blessings and Happy Hunting,

 

Lesa and Ian, Hunted (I mean huntress) and Hunter

 

 

If It’s Monday, It’s Mama........

D is for Quadruple D’s” (Yea, you read me right)

Sweet Madison,

As you know, this is week four of 2013 “If It’s Monday, It’s Mama” blog and thus, the week for “D”.  This year begins our fourth year of writing our blog…and, people are starting to ask me where I get my ideas each week.  The obvious is that I blog on things going on in your and my life (thus, the frank discussions about life), but ultimately, whatever I write comes from God or from someone God is using to grow me and through me, you.  This week is no exception. 

I Decided this week to solicit the assistance of my Facebook friends in giving me some “D” words to use for this blog and several were kind enough to share.  I appreciate those friends/family members….and their “D-words”…..all of them!  Yes, uh huh, I really do! 

From them, I received things such as: DING-DONG, DELICIOUS , DUMMY, DANDY, DIPSTICK, DORK....Determination, Destined, Darling, Devine, dainty, deploy, deceit, decoy, delectable, desirable, deliver, Daughter, dedicated, dependable, dear, divine, and if she is anything like my girl d-hardheaded, d-stubborn, etc. Dainty, divine, despair, devilish, dependable, daughter, danger/dangerous, destiny, dufus, damned, deranged, dear, daffy duck, dandy, dipstick, distinguished, delicious! Dork.

Which just goes to prove that I have family/friends with a sense of humor and a sense of what matters in lifeJ.  

All of these “D” words are frankly probably applicable to you and me and all of us if truth were told, at some point in our lives.  

While trying to figure out how to use all of these “D”-words from my family/friends, I ran across a video of a sermon from Southland Christian Church which says about the “D’s” in our live and I put it here so you can be blessed as was I. 

The gist of the minister’s lesson is this: 

“Your DECISIONS determine your DESTINATION; Your DESTINATION determines your DIRECTION; and your DIRECTION determines your DISTANCE” (THUS, the four D’s)

Decision

Destination

Direction

Distance 

Jon Weece, Lead Follower (a/k/a Senior Pastor at Southland Christian Church) brings to home the lesson of the “Ds” in a way which is powerful and true and more importantly… 

Godly 

And, it is likely that if you follow his instruction, which is really God’s instruction through Jon, you will likely become friends with all of the other “D” words mentioned above from my family/friends. 

So, this is your homework for this week of “D’s” 

Go…listen and more importantly apply his lesson to us from HIM   

You may have to put this in your address bar, but Do it!  And, Don’t DELAY!  You will be blessed, I promise. 

Go watch it NOW before you continue on in this blog: 

Ready, set, Go…..:) 

www.southland.org/assets/videos/walk-this-way-map-your-route.mp4 or if this does not work, try http://southlandchristian.org/series/walk-this-way/  or, if that does not work, Google Southland Christian Church and go to "walk this way - map your route".  You will be glad you did.
 

DIDN’T you love it?? 

Now, wipe away your tears and keep reading… 

We have a Father in heaven who understands how DIFFICULT it is to walk in this journey of life we are on….and, who does not want us to walk it alone…but with HIM and with the others whom He places in our lives to help us make it through, our “DIUS AMICUS”. (try Latin translations) 

But he requires of us….to DECIDE to choose the old path…the good way….Jeremiah 6:16 and it is there we will find “rest for our souls”…

Thus saith the Lord: “Stand ye in the highways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. 

Madison…..DETERMINE in your heart that you will DELIVER your DEDICATED and DAINTY and DESIRABLE heart unto HIM….your heavenly DADDY, the DIVINE DAD of ALL who chose to seek Him with all of their hearts.  DEPLOY your feet onto the path which leads his DIRECTION.  Yes, you will run into some Ding-dong, delectable, dipstick, dorks on that path (for aren’t we all at some point in our lives?), but you will also meet some DEPENDABLE, DEAR and DEVINE people on your way who will make a Devilish, Deranged, Dufus and Damned life more bearable in that they walk with you and for you and loving you with each step you take, always headed toward your heavenly DESTINY….

Those DIUS AMICUS who God places DIRECTLY into our lives to help us on our journey.

Dancette’ yourself (indent HIM on your heart and soul), in a DIAPHANOUS (transparent) and DEVOTED way which is DURUS (enduring) and you will be the DELECTATIO (Delight) of HIS life…

And, in that DELIGHT, you will find all you need to not only have a good life, a DESIRABLE life, a DECENT life, but you will have a

DAUGHTER of the KING kind of life…

And, “DAUGHTER on loan from God of mine”,

THERE is no more DESIRABLE life than being HIS and letting him “lift you high” in surrendering your life, your heart, your ALL to Him, your Heavenly DAD. 

Blessings,

ILYAOYMC,

Mama