Amazed For All The Wrong Reasons

I am amazed sometimes at how people can chronologically age but their maturity and concern for others seems to have gotten stuck in neutral somewhere back in their teen years.

How can she call herself a parent and yet choose to flat out ignore the damage her choices have on her kids? By her own admission she chooses to be completely self-focused without regard for the unnecessary burdens her words place on their shoulders.

Amazed, for all the wrong reasons, you tried to explain to her how unfair and harmful it was to them and all she could say was, "I don't care. They should know. It's my house and I'll say whatever I want to them."

They walk around spouting comments that they couldn't have dreamed up in their wildest imaginations, with information they shouldn't be privy to EVER, and it's easy to conclude exactly what's being said inside those four walls.

She can't handle the pressures that life deals sometimes, doesn't want to actually take on the responsibility that she should because it would require too much effort, so she chooses to lay those pressures at the feet of her children so that they can be sucked into her adult world. What happened to the premise that parents are supposed to PROTECT their children, not treat them as one of their friends or confidantes? You know, friends... those adult people whom you CAN and SHOULD vent to when things get tough?

Who is the adult here, anyway? Are you raising your kids or are they raising you?

What happened to parents letting their children lead child-like lives and shielding them from all the CRAP that will eventually land at their doorstep anyway as they get older?

Oh, but wait... that would mean that she would have to get past herself and realize that they are her children, not her sounding boards.

Bring The Rain

I'm lying (laying? always get confused about the usage of these two words) here in bed against a heating pad because I am so whacked that even though I'm on birth control pills to control my out of control hormones, my insides have found a way to dominate the stickin' synthetic hormones and ravage my lower half with intense cramps and nausea. I must have the strongest hormones known to man or would that be women?

Anyway, that's not the point of my blog, I just had to rant about it and MY blog seemed like the perfect place.

So, I'm outside yesterday enjoying the beautiful sunshine and cloudless blue skies while laying (oh, there's that word again) on the trampoline. I've got my iPod on and it's just shuffling through different worship songs. On comes MercyMe's Bring The Rain, and it made me cry and smile all at the same time.

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You
Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I am Yours regardless of
The dark clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
By suffering Your destiny
So tell me what's a little rain
So I pray...

Is my life just one big rain cloud right now? Absolutely not. Are there circumstances that I would rather be past and not have to deal with? Absolutely. I personally know people whose lives hold so much more pain than mine and bigger issues than mine. But my life is still mine and I do feel the blows dealt by it even if they don't compare to what others are feeling right now. Is that a selfish perspective? No, just real. Other people's lives give me perspective and I'm thankful that God cares enough to adjust my perspective when I'm too self-focused, but I've been on both sides of the perspective teeter-totter, so I'm capable of both viewpoints.

Back on point... this song was exactly what I needed to hear yesterday. Can circumstances possibly change who I forever am in You? That one stirred me to my soul. And that's when the tears fell. It was like Jesus was right there next to me, looking up at the sky, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and in the midst of it all He asks me, "Can your circumstances possibly change who you forever are in Me?" No, they can't. I can temporarily let them affect my emotions and even challenge my faith, but today's circumstances and tomorrow's problems won't ever change who I am in Jesus.

So with one simple line from a shuffled iPod song, my perspective was changed, even if my circumstances weren't.

Jesus... bring the rain!

February Foots

Tomorrow is the first day of February. What the heck happened to January? I swear [only sometimes] it feels like with each year that passes, the days get shorter. Even my kids keep talking about how it feels like time just flies by. Kids aren't supposed to notice that! Kids are always trying to speed up life, to get to their next birthday without pause for the year of life they have to leave behind to get there. But not my kids. Their noticing time. What does that mean?

Speaking of February, I get to change the page on my Christmas Gift calendar, which means I get to enjoy a new picture of my kids for a new month... hence the title of this blog: February Foots. My February pic is all about the kids' foots (the Coppedge ism for feet). It makes me smile when I see it. Any picture that Coli has taken of me and my family makes me smile because I know it was taken with love. (lub lub my friend!)

February 1st... not sure I'm ready to change months just yet, but I guess I don't really a have a choice, do I? Time marches on whether we like it or not!

dirty Laundry

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

The problem is sometimes I'm unwilling to put my stinky garments in His hamper to be washed. I have favorite sins, like favorite shirts, that I'm resistant to take off. Sometimes, I just wear my sin day in and day out, and the idea of confessing it and asking for grace doesn't even cross my mind. It's like He has a pile of clean clothes ready to go, but I walk right past them.

I read this paragraph from a devotion this morning, and these words resonated with me. It made me wonder how many times I sin [in small ways] and yet never consider asking for forgiveness, for cleansing... to be laundered. It's obvious when I sin in big ways, those that don't go by unnoticed by others. But what about those times when no one sees me or when the infraction is so minute that it even flies by my sin radar?

Laughing

Everyone's gotta laugh at least once each day... preferably more... but sometimes the day itself just zaps that opportunity. (or is it me that's truly responsible? hmmm, that's another Oprah)

So, this is what made me laugh - OUT LOUD - today:



Cadbury Eyebrows from Nils-Petter Lovgren on Vimeo.