Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

  We celebrated the home coming of one of the longest-attending members of our church. I've been to funerals that were extremely sad, and I've found that I'm an empathetic cryer. I attended a funeral with a friend. I didn't know the deceased, but as we walked by the casket at the end of the funeral, I messy cried. As I heard and saw the family crying, I couldn't help it. I've been asked to sing in a lot of funerals. This empathetic crying has made it difficult to sing. A few years ago, I mentioned to a couple of friends about my messy crying and worried about losing my composure during the song. The husband had shoulder surgery the day before and was on some really strong pain killers. As I sat behind the piano and looked out at the crowd, he smiled extremely big in his painkiller-induced state and gave me a very visible thumbs up sign. At that point, I struggled not to laugh. Crying was forgotten. I say all of this because this weekend, I was preparing for cry...

  I know I'm going to date myself, but do you remember the old theme song for Toyz R Us? It went a little something like this, "I don't want to grow up. I'm a Toyz R Us kid..." As a kid, the meaning never really registered. The other day, I watched a video on Facebook. A little, maybe four or five-year-old, girl began to cry. Her mother asked what was wrong and she stated that she was upset because she didn't want to become an adult. It was hard. She said she wanted to go back to being a baby when she had no worries. Everyone fed her and took care of her needs. It was easy. I had never related to a five -year-old as much as at that moment. When you're a child, your biggest fears are monsters and time-outs. Then I began to think about adulthood. It really doesn't change that much. For most adults, the greatest fears are dealing with the monsters of this world and fear of being alone- separated from our loved ones . Don't get me wrong. As an introver...

  I'm always a fan of a good musical, as long as it has a decent plot and good songs. One of the musicals that always made me laugh was Enchanted . It's the moment when fantasy meets reality, and life becomes a musical. As we cleaned up church after a potluck, I started dancing and singing about putting away salt and pepper shakers. That's when several of us laughed and said that it's always more fun when you make life a musical. What would your theme song be if your life was a musical? Would the theme be chaos, hurt, or sadness? Would your life be full of joy and laughter? Here's the wonderful thing. You get to write the music! Sometimes I find myself dwelling on things that do nothing but make me anxious and stressed. This is where I rewrite the melody going through my head. There's actually something Biblical about this.  Philippians 4: 8  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whate...

 I want to thank everyone for the well-wishes this past week. If you didn't see my post, I had to put my dog down due to cancer. Some may say that he's just a dog, but there is this thing that happens with women when their children leave the nest. They begin the struggle to find purpose. I've spent over twenty-something years caring for these tiny human beings that eat my food, leave little dirty handprints on my white clothing, and snuggle late at night. Everything is tinged with the reflection of motherhood. When these tiny humans leave the home, the reflection of motherhood is still there, but the recipient is not. For some, grandparenting fills the gap, but for others, there is a gap between lavishing love on grandchildren and the empty nest. I had stumbled into that gap when this goofy, long-legged canine crossed my path. As my goofy, long-legged oldest son went off to college, the canine stepped in. All of my other babies grew up and went in different directions, but ...