Great Quotes from Leaf

Life has felt overwhelming this week, as we’ve had some big decisions coming down the pike that I can articulate more later… but this explains my blogging absence!

Last week I had my first opportunity to coach for a development process offered by our company called Leadership Evaluation And Formation. It was fine fare for the soul, and I learned at least as much as I contributed! Here are some of my favorite quotes from the week, most of them spoken by Bruce Edstrom who joined us for the week. (You may remember hearing his name before—he was one of our coaches for our own experience of LEAF last May.)

“There are two rules in life. You don’t get to create reality, only enter it. You don’t get to decide who you are, only discover who He made you to be.”

“I am sobered by the depth of my depravity; I am awed by the depth of His redemption”

“To be truly present with a person, you must learn to hear beyond the static in your own heart.”

“Every night, you surrender to sleep. God requires that everyday we become “dead”, releasing control of our breathing, our mental activity, our consciousness. And so in our spiritual life. Do you know what you must release in order to be at rest? You will not learn to rest until you are able to name it.”

“Coping mechanisms" are simply ways that people deceive themselves.”

“The undisturbed heart lives life as it should to stay away from life as it is.”

“Relief is not rest.” Relief is escape from what is true. Rest is lived in the midst of what is true.”

“You move into brokenness when you will do anything to be set free. Do you want to be free more than you want to be successful? More than you want to be liked? More than you want to be safe? More than you want to belong? More than you want to win?”

“The pre-requisite for a good counselor is, do they know the part of them that hates God? Do they believe there is no goodness in them apart from Christ? What you offer someone is dictated by the roads you’ve traveled with God in your own heart. A counselor who knows this part of them can offer true understanding, true compassion, true grace.”

“Let your sin surprise you. The sin that you’ve hunted down won’t change you. You will change when the Healer becomes more important than getting rid of your leprosy. I hope you begin to see your leprosy so clearly that you give up trying to reform. The best thing you can do is side with the Father against your old man.”

Next time I’ll share a few of my personal take-aways, which I am still processing!

Happy Birthday Kathryn!

Today Kathryn is 7 years old! We celebrated her birthday last weekend because I will be leaving this weekend, but she had her first ever slumber-birthday-party--the "Sleeping Stars" party. She invited 3 friends, and we had several "star" activities... searching for 'stars' with flashlights, keeping balloon asteroids from hitting the earth, and the "star dance."





















































The flashlights seemed to be the biggest hit.













Here is the long-anticipated "Star Dance." All I have to say is that K knows her one move down pat :) And surely this is the only birthday dance announced in 3 languages... in another version, K's Finnish friend Amanda added a 4th!



We're so delighted He gave us our sweet Kathryn, 7 years ago!

To Be Like a Tulip

"In all of creation, identity is a challenge only for humans. A tulip knows exactly what it is. It is never tempted by false ways of being. Nor does it face complicated decisions in the process of becoming. So it is with dogs, rocks, trees, stars, amoebas, electrons, and all other things. All give glory to God by being exactly what they are. Humans however, encounter a more challenging existence. We think. We consider options. We decide. We act. Simple being is tremendously difficult to achieve and fully authentic being is extremely rare."

--David Benner

Cookies for a Cause, or You Go Kathryn!

Kathryn is my project girl. She is forever imagining ideas for very involved ordeals, sketching out plans and envisioning wild possibilities. This is a wonderful trait, though the mommy who has to approve and enact the plans at times grows weary in the implementation. SO, my growing application is to help K FOCUS, pick ONE thing that we can pour our energies into, and carry it through to completion. In other words, dream all you want kid, but mommy can only handle so much!

Below is the fruit of this semester's "project." In homeschool we studied about water quality and the impact of poor nutrition and disease among societies that do not have access to clean water. We learned about an organization called Water is Basic, whose mission statement is: "to empower the local leadership of Southern Sudan to bring the gift of clean water to their own people." In Sudan, over 70% of the population have no access to safe water. As of last week, WIB has completed the drilling for 138 wells in local villages!

So, in conjunction with our last homeschool co-op day, K arranged a bake sale. We baked 3 different types of cookies (this is about my max!), and invited other families to bake. We calculated that if we sold everything we baked, we would earn about $50 USD. But people gave over and above that, and we were able to raise about $150.

K's favorite part of the project was (not the baking... perhaps next time we will not choose a baking project), but being in charge at the sale table, answering questions about the project, and taking the money for the donation box. I didn't remember to take pictures until we were almost sold out, but there was a mountain of cookies!










































You go girl!

K tells me that she wants to take over my blog, and post all her ideas here, especially the ones mommy says we can't possibly make happen ourselves. Maybe YOU can! :)

Creative Stirrings

Many of you have heard me talk about our experience at LEAD last year. One of the ‘tools’ you are given is a unique “old man” name and “new man” name. In other words, when you are living in your own strength apart from His work in you, your flesh has a particular stamp that looks like “_____.” And, when you are living in dependence upon Him and His life in you, your unique imprint looks like “_____.” It becomes a hallmark of warning to watch out for your selfish pursuits and a visionary calling towards becoming all He has made you to be.

One of the adjectives in my new name is CREATIVE. During our time at LEAD, I agreed with this adjective, but I certainly didn’t feel like it was manifesting itself, or even that I had seen it coming out, in a long while. 3 babies in less than 3 years? 3 countries in less than 3 years? Stress of overseas life? Sickness? When I put it like that, it feels like, well, duh.

This last week I have been encouraged to see creative stirrings arising in me that have not so much been conscious choices as they have been my after-the-fact observations about something that has bubbled out unaware.

1. During last week in homeschool, we made a color wheel. I remembered doing this project in elementary school, and upon second thought, I realized this is the only art project I remember doing in elementary school. I remember what the elderly man who taught us looked like, the path from our class to the art room, and exactly how he taught us to complete it. As I recalled these details I wondered, why do I remember this particular project with such detail? As we mixed paint and color, I was almost giddy with enjoyment. It wasn’t about painting a masterpiece, it was simple fascination with color. A lovely spring limey green; a deep wine purple; a fireburst of sunshine orange. Ecstatic over color.

2. Another ‘incident’ happened on the way to a friends’ house. The spring blossoms are EVERYWHERE. I don’t remember them being so prolific in other springs here. As I walked along the bush-lined paths with a warm wind wafting sweet smells, I was overtaken with joy. Though I tell my own children not to pick the flowers unless they have already fallen to the ground, I began spontaneously gathering a bouquet to take to my friend. (Why did He make them to smell so fabulous? He didn’t have to do that, you know, and we never would have known what we were missing!) Like a school girl skipping along picking wild flowers to give to her mother, I gathered another bouquet on the way home for myself.

3. On Saturday night, I was feeling stressed. Jim told me he would put the girls to bed, and I sat down to play the piano. Jim bought this piano as a Christmas gift in Dec. 2006, and it has gotten precious little play. I enjoy the piano, but I’m not very good at it, and so it often feels like too much work to be enjoyable. But this time when I sat down, instead of playing one of the half-dozen songs I still have memorized from high school, I started to learn a new song I’ve always loved. The softly rippling harmony in the chords echoed out from my very own soul.

Even the language in this post feels a little silly and exposed. But He is a creative God of expressive color, spring blossoms, & harmonic melodies. The creative expressions we find within are a stamp of His own nature within us, and as they bubble out, it is about showcasing His own beautiful works.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship (His “poemia”; His creative expression!) created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Psalms 92:4-5 For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done; I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands. How great are Your works, O LORD!