Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

  As this year quickly comes to an end and a new year begins, I've thought about some of the interesting experiences I've had as I've aged. See if any of these ring true for you, as well. I've experienced a world with no internet and a world where you can live stream anything to anyone. I've lived in multiple decades and two centuries. I've battled neighbors for use of the party-line telephone and used a smart phone anywhere I want, other than under the support beam in my house and in Yellowstone National Park. I've lived through the same clothing trend 3 different times in the last forty-some-odd years. I've watched television in black and white on a massive set that passes as furniture in a living room and owned a television flat enough to pass for a picture.  I've experienced the only dishwasher being me and lived with the convenience of having a dishwasher in my house. I've experienced the time when owning a computer meant paying thousands

  As our family has grown, we've begun to decide which traditions stay, evolve, and disappear as our children age. One of our Christmas traditions was the Christmas stocking. When we visited my parents,vee didn't want to take all our gifts, so our children would open their Christmas stocking on Christmas Day. Another tradition was reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve and the Nativity story out of Luke 2. The stocking tradition has stayed, along with reading Luke 2. As my kids have aged, we now do a Christmas jam session where we worship together as a family. As our family grows, the jam session gets bigger. But the greatest tradition we have kept is remembering the meaning of Christmas. The world is broken and lonely. God didn't want us or the world to stay that way, so Jesus came to this earth as a baby. That was the beginning. On Easter, we will celebrate the second part. Jesus gave His life so that loneliness and fear is not your future. He is. As we reach

  As we prepare for Christmas, everyone has begun the shopping craze to get the perfect gift. One Christmas, I realized how overwhelmed my children were with gifts. They opened one, then threw it to the side to see if the next was better. That was when I changed my giving. I began to buy three gifts. When they complained, I told them that Jesus only got three gifts, and it was His birthday. That usually ended the complaints. However, I started getting caught up in the season. I started giving three boxes, but I would pack the box with goodies. My technicality was that it was one outfit from shoes to shirt. As my children got older and their wants got more expensive, I simplified my giving again and moved on to fun stuff in stockings. We would travel to my parents when my children were young and didn't want to bring all their gifts, so we would open gifts early and only open the stocking on Christmas. It has become a tradition. With the down-sizing and the stocking tradition, I rea

  If you haven't noticed, there is a lot of sickness going around. Because of my job working with small children, I try to take everything from Vitamin C to elderberry, just to stay above the stuff spread in all the preschools I visit. But occasionally, the icky stuff sneaks up on me. This last week, I blocked sneezes, snot, and runny noses, but at one point, I was hit with a cough I had not seen coming from a little one. I was mid-speaking, so I knew I may fall victim to whatever that child had. By late afternoon, I had started feeling bad. By night, fever had set, and I knew I was out. I missed a day of work but felt better the next day. As I drove my route providing therapy to my kiddos, a receptionist looked closely at me and asked if I was okay. I thought, "I know I was sick, but do I look that bad?" I mentioned being sick and told her I was much better. As I got to my car, I looked in my rearview mirror and discovered the problem. I had switched makeup foundation, n

  First observation: why is it that when you smell something awful, you want others to experience it too? "Oh, that's horrible. Smell this." I had a smell experience this last week. I came home from work with a horrible potty-type smell filtrating my home. The first thought that entered my mind was that my dog had some major indigestion issues. After blaming him for his gaseous odors, I thoroughly sprayed Febreeze and opened windows. After letting my poochy potty, I realized the smell hadn't lessoned. My next guess was that my youngest son had decided to use the downstairs bathroom. I also thought that he needed some serious Pepto Bismol. After realizing he wasn't in the restroom, nor had he used it recently, I realized the mystery continued. And anyone who knows me knows I love a mystery. I began the sniffer walk through my home. Was it a dead mouse that my kitty had brought as a surprise gift? I ended my search in my kitchen. At first, I thought maybe my husba