Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

I have a question for you.  How many of you have ever locked yourself out of your house?  My family decided to go out to a restaurant after church, and I chose to stay home and rest.  I stopped off at the local supermarket, bought a light lunch, and drove home.  As I pulled into my driveway, a thought occurred to me.  I didn't have a key to get into my own home.  Just that morning, I remembered my key sitting on the table, but instead of turning back and getting it, I thought I would just use one of the kid's keys or my husband's key.  As I sat alone in my car, I realized that had been a bad decision because now I was locked out!  I didn't have the garage door opener in my car.  My spare key was loaned out, so I knew I would have to break into my house.   I have a lock pick kit that I bought myself for Christmas when I was feeling all spyish.  It works great to get into my kids' rooms when they lock me out.  Sadly, that sa...

Challenge: Can you spot the hidden item of clothing in the picture?  Neither could my son.  Why is it that 30 minutes before your child needs to be somewhere they suddenly realize they can't find something?  I even ask them the night before to get all of their stuff ready.  They respond, "I will."  And then, like clockwork, I hear, "I can't find my pants, or my belt, or my band shirt, or my shoes..."  You can fill in the blank with whatever your child can't find.  This causes you to spend the next crucial minutes with one eye on the clock and the other frantically playing hide and seek with whatever your child swears they had ready last night.   In case you didn't see it, my son's black belt is partially hidden behind my cat.  My cat can find it better than my son!  But, I have to say, it does make me feel valuable knowing my children still sometimes need me as they grow older.   Have you ever thought how valuable God is?...

I would like to talk about a subject very near and dear to me in this blog.  Raging hormones.  I f any of you have ever experienced a perpetual burning from the inside out, a walking zombie-like state due to lack of sleep, and an observation that you are totally over-dramatizing situations in your life, then you too may be perimenopausal.  This was a new word that my doctor taught me on my last visit.  I knew that I was getting older.  My children are all almost fully grown, but it never really occurred to me how fast time flies until I heard that dreadful word.  I am a very cold-natured person.  I carry a grandma sweater with me everywhere I go. So when I tell you that I thought I would internally combust from some unknown heat source inside of me, I knew something was going on.  They really frown on you stripping down to your underwear at your job, so I had to do the next best thing and stick cold soda cans on my neck.  Then came the emo...

So today, I greeted every car that entered our church parking lot while wearing green hair and a cow costume.   You may ask why would you do this?  The children of our church are raising money for missions, and my husband and I had a challenge going.  If the girls won, Kyle would greet people for Sunday school dressed like a cow (Pastor Cow...heehee).  If the boys won, I would wear the costume.  Needless to say, you can see the loser of this challenge.  It was a fun way to welcome people to church.  My ladies' book study group started a new book, The Pleasure of His Company, by Dutch Sheets.  In the same way, I invited and welcomed people to church, God is inviting you to come into His presence.  Just imagine, the One who created the universe with only spoken words wants to spend time with you!   I wanted to share a little of what we covered over the first five chapters.  In Chapter one, Dutch mentions that when God requests the...

As we celebrate Labor Day, I realize how much I really needed a break.  If you're anything like me, you get so accustomed to being busy that it becomes really easy to find yourself in a state of exhaustion, frustration, and sometimes craziness.  You don't even realize you've reached that point until one of your children talks back to you, or someone asks you to do something.  This is when you reach that breaking point.  You're face takes on the image of my dog.  I call this the "What did you just say" face.  I think my children call this the "mom just lost it" face.  A couple of weeks ago, I reached that point.  I'm not much different than most women these days.  I work full-time.  I parent four children.  I also work as a part-time children's pastor, youth pastor, worship leader, Sunday school teacher, and anything else our church needs.  I love doing this for God and for our wonderful church.  However, there are mome...

My daughters are obsessed with this Fitbit craze. You can count your steps, watch your sleep pattern, and check your texts simultaneously.  I love the concept, just not the price. So against my daughters judgement, I bought a Fitbit fake.  I thought, "What could be so different?"  Plus, I saved one hundred dollars, so it had to be a winner.  I synced my phone to this activity tracker.  It didn't even come with a cool name.  Immediately, I noticed that it was tracking my steps (to the refrigerator).  I wore it through the day as I watched my life become more fit.  Once it was nighttime, I was really excited because I was hoping to track my sleep patterns.  I wanted to prove to my husband that his snoring was totally interfering with my sleep.  I put on my watch after a couple of hours of recharging and hopped into bed.  At about three in the morning, I heard this loud piercing sound that was identical to a tornado siren!  I...

Have your children ever made the comment that you love their sibling more than them?  When I ask why they would think that, I usually get the response that it is because I did something nice for one of them.  As a parent, you respond that you always love them equally, and I do.  But sometimes I am pleased with one more than the others.  Why?  If one of my children takes the time to do the dishes, laundry, cook dinner, and take out the trash without me asking, the first thing I'm going to do is think what do they want.  The next thing is that I am going to be delightfully pleased that they cared enough for me and our family to be faithful and helpful.   I will want to honor that child for their faithfulness.  Maybe I'll buy them an ice cream sundae or spend some time with them watching their favorite movie.  Did this mean I didn't love my other children?  No.  It just means that I want to honor kindness.  God is like this....