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Farewell to February…and Grace and Truth Link Up

February 28, 2020 by Lauren 32 Comments

Photo by madeleine ragsdale on Unsplash

Our shortest month is one day longer this year, but it still flew by for me.  Some real stuff happened in the midst of the red and pink, the hearts and flowers.  We dabbled in a little of that.  I gave my beloved some candy and a card and he reciprocated with a card and some roses.  We didn’t do anything special, but even staying in is better when he’s with me.

 

I had an MRI of one foot to get a diagnosis of achilles tendonosis in both.  The doctor prescribed cushier shoes and heel lift inserts as well as changing my exercise to biking or swimming to stay off my feet as much as possible.  I’m trying to be very compliant as I pray for the best.  I tweaked my lower back as well, so I’m feeling about a hundred years old right now.  Soft violin music and prayers appreciated.

 

I had a day date with my younger sister to see Little Women.  If it’s long gone from your theater, make yourself a reminder to watch it at home as soon as it becomes available.  Seeing this beautiful adaptation of a sister story with my sister made it all the more perfect.  I also enjoyed a couple of lunch dates with girlfriends – always a treat.  And the socializing peaked with a trip to a gorgeous ranch in Round Top, Texas with two long time friends and one brand new!  We slept late, stayed in our pajamas, read, scrapbooked (Not me.  No talent for that here.  My kids will have to search through my Facebook account to piece together their childhood.), and watched movies.  I can’t remember a time when I’ve done so little.  And it was much needed.

 

In addition to my usual yoga classes, I got to teach a couple of indoor cycling classes this month.  I also attended a funeral after a family near and dear to us unexpectedly lost their husband and father.

 

Shelby won a gold medal in the State Special Olympics Bowling Tournament.  She loves to ramp bowl and due to a lack of volunteers, I got to assist her this year!  Then the very next day, she attended Tim Tebow’s Night to Shine special needs prom.  It makes me cry every year to see the lengths all these local churches go to so that my girl and others like her experience a special, magical night.  And it means all the more to me that my best friend and her whole family volunteered at the same event in Alabama.  We experience it together, but apart.

 

Thanks to a generous gift from her Nana and Papa, Allie started voice lessons.  Her instructor holds a doctoral degree in music and sang with the London opera before moving to Texas.  What a blessing for her to pour into Allie.  Our girl also keeps busy as a member of Hope Squad – an organization of students selected by their peers working to prevent teen suicide.  And now she has been invited to help build a student worship team at church.  Yay!

 

Two of my people celebrate birthdays in February.  Allie turned 15 on the 23rd.  She hosted a small sleepover with some girls from church and as this is published is still trying to get her school friends together for a “hang”.  Chuck turned…a little older than 15 on the 22nd, and for the past 15 years has been birthday overshadowed by a pretty blonde.  We did, however take him out to eat and I made a batch of his favorite cookies.

 

To entertain ourselves we tried two new network TV shows.  I would skip Indebted if I were you.  As a youth I loved The Nanny and Wings, so I wanted to see these stars, but the show is pretty dumb and poorly acted.  We will continue to watch Zooey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which is weird but fun.  And we finally started the Mandalorian and season 3 of The Crown.  We have finished neither but remain optimistic about both.

 

I would love to hear the highlights of your month.  And as always, I love you, I thank you, and I hope March treats you well.

 

And now for this week’s featured post!

Responding to Your Teenager’s Attitude by Angie Johnson of keepingthetiethatbinds.com.  

Although don’t necessarily think I have “earned” my children’s respect, God certainly demands it.  So I couldn’t resist piggy-backing on this post since I wrote about the same types of issues just last week with this post.  Hope over and give Angie’s take a once over.

 

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 Up

Grace & 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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She Loves

February 8, 2019 by Lauren 41 Comments

Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash

With Valentine’s Day around the bend, my mind went down a love rabbit hole today.  When my sweetie and I got married, 20 years ago now, his ex-wife gave us a copy of The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  Kinda thoughtful/ kinda awkward/ a little weird.  I can really go any way on it, but I knew it was a good book.  I read it and self-diagnosed my love language as “Receiving Gifts”.  If you haven’t read the book, this means I feel most loved when I’m getting presents.  As a Christian, I always felt a little awkward about this.  It sounds selfish right?  “It is more blessed to give than to receive”, right?  But in this instance (and maybe only this one), Kanye said it best.  “I ain’t sayin’ she a gold digger.”  Or something along those lines that I’m not cool enough to pull off.  For me, it was really the idea that someone thought about me when I wasn’t even with them that made me feel special.  The gift could be nothing more extravagant than a card or my favorite candy bar.

 

I explained the 5 different languages to my husband and he immediately assumed that the way he feels most loved is through physical touch.  I’m not sure that’s true.  Most guys probably think their love language is physical touch – if you know what I mean.  But this category is a lot more about non-sexual touch than it is sexual.  I decided to look this book up online today (I no longer have it) because I started to feel like my initial assessment of myself had changed.  And did you know there is now a quiz you can take?  Check it out at 5lovelanguages.com.  Sure enough, the test showed I most appreciate “Words of Affirmation” with “Receiving Gifts” a close second.  So basically I am a walking, breathing example of those t-shirts that say, “Buy me something nice and tell me I’m pretty.”  Good grief.  But in all seriousness, I do think it is interesting to learn more about how we receive love messages and I think I’m going to get my husband to take the quiz.

 

The Five Love Languages book made me think of the Sandi Patty song, “Love in Any Language”.  If you are unfamiliar with it, here are the lyrics to the chorus:

Love in any language

Straight from the heart

Pulls us all together

Never apart

And once we learn to speak it

All the world will hear

Love in any language

Fluently spoken here

 

That’s a message the world needs to hear right now.  At which point my mind made a right turn to the words of Priscilla Shirer I read this morning in her book Awaken:  90 Days with the God Who Speaks.  “Pray that He would make you sensitive enough, discerning enough, and interested in other people enough to sense when He is moving you into position to be a caring solution to their needs.”  That sounds like love to me.

 

When all is said and all is done, I hope that what I said was Love.  And what I did was Love.  

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Heavenly Father, I know I get it wrong so much of the time, but mold me and refine me so that the first thing others see in my actions is Your Love; and the first thing others hear from my lips is Your Love.  If I never accomplish anything else, may it be said of me, “She loves.”  Amen.  

 

At the end of the rabbit hole, I want to wish you a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

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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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