Cliff Ogres

This has been a rough week. Another school year has started and it's already taking a toll on my body. Right now, my job is the giant in my life that wants to rob me of my energy. Having a job is a necessity. Many bills lay on the desk waiting to be paid. My husband's salary alone doesn't cut it. Just like so many families now, two incomes are desperately needed.

This sign reminds me of my life right. I stand close to the edge of a cliff. The cliff ogres in my life threaten to knock me down. But you know what?

I love my job. I love working with our high school kids. I absolutely love it when they give me a big old bear hug. I enjoy it when the light bulb is turned on for them and they finally 'get it.' As an aide, I see things that teachers can't. I sit with the kids, I'm a part of them. I can intervene on their behalf if I need to.

Giants in our lives are not a bad thing. Not at all. I've been sharing parts of, The Dream Giver, lately. Today's reading slapped me in the face and woke me up and it comes right from the Bible:

"Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out." 1


"That you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth." 2


"That My name may be declared in all the earth." 3


"That you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's sons the mighty things I have done in Egypt...that you may know that I am the Lord." 4



"I will gain honor over Pharoah. Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord." 5



"That all the people's of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty." 6

Without the giants (cliff ogres) in our lives, how would we ever grow in our faith? Aren't our giants most usually the source of our testimony? Giants show the world how big and powerful and good our God is.

Giants seek to shake us off. Well, just maybe off is where we should be. I'm done for now. More will follow. I absolutely love this book!

Praying we all become giant slayers for God's glory.
"Shout! For the LORD has given you the city!" 7

1 - Exodus 6:7
2 - Exodus 9:14
3 - Exodus 9:16
4 - Exodus 10:2
5 - Exodus 14:17-18
6 - Joshua 4:24
7 - Joshua 6:16

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Pull it Out, Dust it Off!

It takes a great deal of faith to strap ourselves into our vehicles and take off. No matter whether in light traffic or heavy - everything depends on each driver doing what they are supposed to do. If one thing is out of order, it causes chaos, confusion, and maybe even a loss of life.

Some people, like my brand new driving son, gets very irritated in traffic. I constantly remind him that he can't possibly go faster than the cars ahead of him. But you know - it keeps his speed down. And last week he got a speeding ticket. Obviously he was on a road with little traffic and got a very heavy foot.

We travel on some country roads that are pretty narrow when two cars are beside each other. My husband doesn't slow down. He'll keep his same speed and get close to the ditch when passing. He has great faith in his own driving. (I don't trust his driving near as much as he does;)

I, on the other hand, slow way down and then get over, but not too close to the ditch. After driving all these years, I know my limitations.

Okay, so I'm rambling. What all this reminds me of is our walk with God. Each of us hopefully is listening to God and walking in the direction He desires for us. You know, our ways collide. We intersect and parallel each other. Sometimes we get to walk along beside or pass going the other way. We need to be able to step out in faith that God gives us to keep going even if we're scared. If the light is clearly GREEN, we need to step out of our comfort zone and do what He has for us to do. That's not easy sometimes. Especially when it's not a real clear green, like when the sun is glaring on the traffic light and we're not quite sure what to do. You know what I mean?

God gave us a very easy definition of faith: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Heb. 11:1 NIV)

What has God put in us to do? What is the fire that is burning hot inside? Just like I wrote the other day, we need to catch hold of our dream, dust it off, and run with it. A friend commented, "But what is my dream?" It's that thing that makes you keep on going in spite of being scared. It's what God has been training us for. And just because we're scared, it doesn't mean it's not what God wants us to do. To get a good inkling of what the OT men of faith went through, we can read our Bible or even read out of a Children's Bible storybook for a quick summary. They had their times of fear and unbelief. How could they not? They were scared but they didn't let that fear stop them.

Now is the time for us to move ahead with what God has called us to do. We must walk in faith. We also need to watch the traffic signs. If the light is RED, maybe it's time to stop and get on our knees and see what God has to say.

Some of you may already achieved your dream. Maybe God will say it's time for a whole new dream. Feel the knees shake? Life is always changing. We need to keep up.

Pull it out. Dust it off. Dare to dream again if you aren't. So many have shared with me that they need to dream again. Now is the time.

Pull out the dream that's hidden deep inside you. Dust off the cobwebs. Ask God what's next. Then listen and He will tell you.

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More to Life than being a Passenger!

Mari and I bought the book, The Dream Giver, by Bruce Wilkinson when we were together for the FW conference. She's read it before and highly recommended it. We got through maybe half and then she sent it home with me so we could finish on the phone.

Sometimes our dreams are lost under a big pile of responsibility. We think it's too late once we're married and kids have come and gone - pursuing their own dreams for their lives.

Why wallow in the everyday mundane? Why can't we reach inside ourselves and pull that hidden dream out, dust it off, and go forward with it?

This person that the author writes about is called, Ordinary. He can be any of us or all of us.

First Ordinary embraces his big dream.
Then he leaves his comfort zone.
Alas, of course there has to be villains - the border bullies.

Right now, I'm being bombarded by my border bully. Believe me, it's no fun. SOoooo... I'm going to move forward anyway. One of my dreams right now is to actually finish a writing project. Wow! Isn't that a novel thought?

The FW conference really helped me embrace my dream again. And last night I logged onto the Nano site and one article suggested reading through your Nano project like someone else wrote it. I guess that's a good idea. I don't even remember lots of what I wrote. And so much was just to get the words in. That part scares me.

So that is my goal for today:

Finish this blog
and read through my Nano.

You know, God gave us all a dream to follow. Let's help each other to grab hold of our dreams and move forward. Oh, I heard a great quote from Amelia Earhart -- "There's more to life than being a passenger." I like that. Instead of being in one of those cars at an amusement park - you know - the ones little kids think they're driving but actually they are on a track and can't possibly veer off it -I want to drive a REAL car with God as my GPS, telling me which way to turn.

Come on, let's don't just be a passenger today.

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Plethora of Internet Providers

We have a problem. Ten years ago it wouldn't have been. Maybe ten. I don't know. Seems like we've had internet forever and it's hard to imagine not having it. We are so very dependent on our Google searches and our favorite online Bibles.

I was even at a church service one day around Chicago when the pastor opened up his laptop, set it on the podium, and there was his notes and his Bible - I hope that's all he was doing anyway:) Yes, I'm sure it was. And when the sermon was done, the laptop lid was closed and he put it under his arm like he would his Bible and walked off.

But you know what? I said we have a problem. And 'we' is me. My family and I, WE, have a problem. We live in the country where there are very limited signals for us to pick up internet. Well, I guess we could always go back to dial up but (choke, choke) we won't go there. I mean, really. Ugh:( Except at one time we were very happy to have a local dial up number and honestly, that wasn't all that long ago. But I digress.

We used DTN Speednet until we couldn't anymore. Our trees grew too tall and blocked our signal. Once (I'm digressing again) we tried to cut a tree down (my husband, son, and I) I would never advise that. If Jim hadn't told Nik and I to let go of the rope, I'm not sure we would be around right now. And I probably shouldn't mention how we knocked out everyone's power in a ten mile radius. Umm... no. Probably not. My husband doesn't mess up often but that was a BIG OOPS:)

And then we went to Skyway. It goes through the phone lines! Can you believe it? I won't mention how slow it is in case a Skyway employee read this and cuts us off before we're ready to change. Okay. We are looking.

We're looking at Verizon. They have a tiny little black thingamajig that you plug into a computer and it creates a hot spot for laptops or whatever. BUT it's limited usage and our son is itching to be able to play his XBox Live again.

We're also looking at CCAOnline. It's a local internet and very good but we can't get their signal. Jim would have to erect a huge tower in our yard.

We LOVE living in the country but sometimes it's a major pain. There's a host of services but we are limited. But you know what? We have a place where EVERYONE is welcome. No one is turned away. All can switch with no early termination fee.

Okay, I am honest. I'm going to Biblegateway.com to share scripture with you. LOL. I can't help it. It's fast. It's easy. It's AWESOME! Hold on.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)

Whoever - that means whoever you are. Doesn't matter who. And we ALWAYS have a good signal when we connect to our Father in Heaven. Jesus did go to a mountaintop a few times to pray but it wasn't to pick up a better signal. We can pray wherever we are, whatever we are doing and HE listens to us and speaks to us. We have to listen. We need to stop downloading information from all over the place and pick up HIS voice.

And as we grow closer to God, we want to live for Him. And we have great hope of a better future because of this:

"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2 NIV)

I'm so very glad we don't have to go searching for the right internet connection to pick up our Daddy's voice. And we don't have to erect a 40' tower either. He's always always here for us. I think I'll just rest in that thought right now.

No plugging into the wall so the battery isn't drained. Just go ahead and talk. Gonna stop writing and let us both do some talking to THE ONE that loves us more than anything even loved us enough to die for us.

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