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The Maiden Monthly Muster of 2020 and Grace & Truth Link Up

January 30, 2020 by Lauren 26 Comments

Does anyone else feel like January has been 87 days long?  I think I’ve lived many lives since New Year’s Eve!

 

Family

My Baylor Bears played in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, so we spent January 1st hanging, working a jigsaw puzzle and watching with my parents and my PawPaw.  We would soon learn that we are losing our beloved coach to the NFL, but word has it that His replacement brings a lot to the table.  Now I have to wait until August to find out!  Baylor basketball is coming in HOT (men’s team #1 and women’s #2), but alas, I don’t dig hoops.

 

Allie’s choir served as the chorus for her high school’s theater production of Mary Poppins, so we are fighting against with the urge to speak primarily in a British accent.  And others are struggling as they hear it!  Allie also attended LIVE weekend – a discipleship retreat for teens at our church.  We had 240 plus teenagers attend!   The worship, preaching, fellowship and small group time make it the best weekend of her year.

 

While she was doing that, Chuck and I escaped with the help of our parents to try to relax from the weight of family issues and recent tragedies.  Oh, and we celebrated 21 years of loving and supporting each other.  I can’t begin to explain how grateful I am that Chuck chose me and continues to choose me every day.  There is no one I prefer in the good times and we keep holding each other up through the bad.  Thank you, Lord.

 

Friends

I had the blessing of helping some great friends with medical appointments.  I took one to the hospital for hip replacement surgery and sat with her granddaughter for the duration.  The next day I went with a childhood friend to an MRI appointment.  Then I got to take a meal to a recovering mentor.  I know most of us – myself included – have a hard time asking for help.  I often feel like it’s an imposition.  But I can honestly say, it is such an honor for me to be asked to support a friend.  So don’t deprive me (or your friends) of an honor by trying to do the thing all by yourself.

 

Every week I get to meet with a group of women who refer to themselves as “life group misfits”.  We’ve all had trouble fitting into and maintaining a place in traditional church life groups.  But we found each other and call ourselves “Lady Friends”.  That name brings me almost as much joy as being in the presence of these precious, funny and real women.  And I finally had enough flex in my daytime schedule to squeeze in lunch with another lovely.  We had so much to catch up on that she brought a list of things to make sure we covered!  I loved it.  She made me feel like a celebrity being interviewed on a talk show!  Then the two of us and our husbands double dated the next night.  We planned to eat a progressive dinner, going to three different restaurants for appetizer, entree and dessert.  Well, it was Saturday night in a Dallas suburb  so we should have known wait times would slow us down.  We only made it two places, but had fun in the process.

 

Entertainment

When I could steal a few moments alone to read, I devoured Why I Hate Green Beans:  And Other Confessions about Relationships, Reality TV, and How we See Ourselves by Lincee Ray.  This felt like laughing and relating with a girlfriend.  And last I checked it was free on Kindle!  Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families:  The Five Love Languages for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities by Gary Chapman was a little disappointing.  I learned so much from his original Love Language book, so it seemed like a good idea to read this with a young mom I’m mentoring.  We found it, quite frankly, lame.  But it gave me one really good idea.  So there’s that.  And I finally came back to and finished Rosemary:  The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson.

 

We caved into some FOMO and subscribed to Disney+.  Our first show?  High School Musical the Musical the Series.  We loved it.  Clunkiest name for a series ever, but we pushed through.  And having all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse videos available for Shelby on demand is both a good and a bad thing.  During the Christmas hiatus, I enjoyed catching old episodes of Wings, but now all our regularly scheduled programs are back in full force.  Plus, it’s awards show season.  Something I kind of like (as long as I can fast forward through the boring parts), and my husband kinda hates.  Even though we didn’t watch any of the Grammy’s, we watched Gayle King’s Grammy Special!

 

We only went to the movies one day this month, but made up for it by watching two in a row.  Knives Out is a fantastically fun Clue-style who done it with lots of twists and surprises.  Just Mercy wrenched my heart, opened my eyes, and called me to do better.  I highly recommend both. And I added a couple more podcasts to my earbuds.  After hearing at least 10 people rave about Dolly Parton’s America, I am now 4 episodes in.  So good.  I have never really been a Dolly fan, but she is pretty fascinating.  I also downloaded Showmance:  The Glee Recap Edition.  I loved the show (the first two seasons anyway), but the jury is still out on the pod. 

 

My husband and I still carry heavy burdens of grief and struggle for on-going things in our families.  We humbly ask you to continue to bring us and our loved ones before the throne of our Heavenly Father.  Your prayers mean so much.

 

Thanks for looking over my January with me.  What did you do in yours?

 

Featured Post

Today the featured post from last week’s link up is from Laura Thomas.  She shares a touching story from her own life to illustrate God’s faithfulness to us.  You will be so encouraged if you click over and read.

Now for The Featured Post

Treasures From the Sea:  Family Miracle, Faithful God

by Laura Thomas

 

Now for this week’s link-up! Let’s bless and encourage one another in our walk with the Lord.

Grace & Truth : A Weekly Christian Link UpGrace & Truth exists to point people to Jesus! We hope this link-up will be a source of encouragement every week. If you’re a blogger, we hope you’ll use this space as a way to meet new friends within the Christian blogging community. If you’re a reader, we hope that you’ll encounter new bloggers that love Jesus as much as you do! Most of all, we hope you’ll meet Jesus here.

Join us each Friday for the Grace and Truth Link-Up!

To receive a weekly reminder of when the link-up goes live subscribe to laurensparks.net in the right hand column of this page.

 

 

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Heather Hart & Valerie Riese

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Grace&Truth-Rules2

1.)  Following your hosts via their blog and social media channels is not mandatory, but appreciated!

To receive a weekly reminder of when the link-up goes live subscribe to laurensparks.net in the right hand column of this page.

2.) Leave 1-2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. Please do not link DIY, Crafts, Recipes, etc. We will delete these links. We also reserve the right to remove articles that don’t align with the theme or are deemed by the hostesses to be inappropriate.

3.) Visit 1-2 other links and leave a meaningful comment! We want to encourage community among us, so please don’t link and run!

4.) We sort all links randomly – feel free to link as early or as late as you’d like. The playing field is even!

Featured Post Requirements

5.) Grab a button or link back to encourage new linkers. It is not mandatory, but it is required to be featured.

6.) Each host will choose one link to emphasize and promote via their social media channels next week.


Grab a Badge and Link Back to this Post.

 

And now, let’s link up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Beware: Manure Happens

October 10, 2019 by Lauren 24 Comments

I think it’s possible that my high school single handedly kept white shoe polish on store shelves in Waco, Texas in the early 90’s.  How often the windows of our cars were covered in messages and crudely drawn pics was directly correlated to our level of popularity.  One Friday afternoon I got in on the fun by decorating the trucks of the boy I was “dating” (the quotes denote loosely used terminology) and his best friend.  The next day I parked my car in the high school parking lot and rode a yellow dog to a track meet.  Upon returning to the school late that night, I saw what appeared to be mud all over my car.  As I climbed off the bus with my friends, one of them said, “I don’t think that’s mud.”

 

The boy I was “dating” (yes, still with the quotes) and his best friend recruited a little brother and searched pastures until they found an adequate supply of manure to fill a kitchen trash bag.  They brought it up to the school and used I’m-not-sure-what to smear it all over the outside of my car.  It was disgusting, it reeked and I couldn’t even see through the windshield to drive it somewhere to wash.  A few friends – really good ones, I might add – helped me scrape enough off the windshield to see to drive a few blocks to a house much closer than mine to hose off the mess.  The boys’ moms, who both adored me, were horrified to learn what they had done and demanded they apologize to me.  I’m not so sure that punishment fit the crime.

 

I hope you haven’t lost your last meal because I do have a point in reliving this prank:  Spiritual blindness.  God’s word gives us many reasons we are to be in community with other believers.  The older (and hopefully wiser) I get, the more I think we need one another desperately to combat spiritual blindness.  What is spiritual blindness?  Compellingtruth.org defines it as a condition of being “unable to see God or understand His message.”  Although this definitely applies to non-believers, it also applies to believers in certain situations.  Paul Tripp in his book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands:  People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change, says it “is the condition of every sinner…Yet few will realize its impact on the way they view themselves, God, others, and their situations.  They are like those described in Romans 1, who think they are wise when really they are fools.  They assume they think well when the thinking of their heart is actually foolish and futile.”

 

Spiritual blindness can be deceptive.  When blinded to the inappropriateness of our thoughts or reactions to a situation, we are also usually blinded to our blindness.  Was that clear as mud?  Or manure?  As John wrote to the church in Laodicea, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, BLIND [emphasis mine] and naked”  Revelation 3:17  We need to do life with others who are following hard after Jesus.  And not “yes men”.  Friends who will gently nudge us when we are heading in the wrong direction.

 

On that long ago evening when I looked at my car after a long and tiring day under the cover of night, I saw mud.  But a friend who didn’t have as much to loose warned me of a much darker and smellier situation. 

We all need friends who will tell us when we stink!

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I am so grateful for the times when a loved one has spoken a little truth or told me a story from her life that turned on a light bulb for me.  My human nature can override the righteousness of God before it even registers with me.

 

If you don’t have trusted Christ-followers in your life, I would plead with you to find ways to get involved in your local Bible-believing church and meet people.  And if the friendships already exist, get real.  Openly share your heart with one or two who have proven reliable.  Ask them to keep you accountable to “walk in a manner worthy…” Colossians 1:10 NASB  It’s risky to be vulnerable, but obedience to God demands it.  And it’s worth it.  A friend who can spot your poo and then stick around to help clean it up is a priceless treasure.

 

Sharing is caring! If you liked this post, do me the huge honor of sharing it to your favorite social media accounts. And if you want to make sure you don’t miss anything, subscribe!

 

And look up these great writers I link up with every week:

InstaEncouragements, Literacy Musing Mondays, Hello…Monday,

Dream Team link up, The Good. The Random. The Fun.

BloggerClubUK, Tea and Word Tuesday, Purposeful Faith,

GraceFull Tuesday Link-Up, Different Dream,

Let’s Have Coffee, Welcome Wednesday, Recharge Wednesday,

Worth Beyond Rubies, #TellHisStory Link Up, Porch Stories,

Encouraging Word Wednesday, Tune In Thursday,

Stories of Hope, Moments of Hope, IHeart Verse Link Party,

A Blogging Good Time, Fresh Market Friday, Feature Friday Time,

Friendship Friday Blog Hop, Faith on Fire, Traffic Jam Weekend,

Faith ‘n Friends, Dancing with Jesus, Grace & Truth, Booknificent

 

Lastly, my posts may contain affiliate links. If you purchase anything from one of these links, I will receive a few pennies to help offset the cost of this website at no additional charge to you. Thank you in advance for your help.

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About Me

I love Jesus, my husband and caffeine. The order of these can change depending on how tired I am. When my two daughters, stepson, and 4 grandchildren get to be too much, I practice yoga. God graciously allows me to share our adventures, victories and flub-ups from my laptop. May He be glorified here.
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