Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

You have the opportunity to change anything around you.   This can be either positive or negative.  I think everyone on the planet has heard, "If your friends jump off a bridge, would you?"  As parents, we say this to try to get our children to stop following crowd mentality and think for themselves.  This can work beautifully unless certain circumstances happen.  These circumstances are in play today.   1) When a person feels insecure and unaccepted, they isolate and become hermits or they give up their values they've held in order to fit in.   This leaves them feeling even worse about themselves, although most in this category would never let on how they really feel. 2) When a person feels threatened, they go into something called, "fight or flight."  This happened during caveman times.  In order to survive, a caveman would have a rush of adrenal chemicals flush his system to tell him to fight the saber-tooth tiger or run from the dino...

This weekend, my husband and I were able to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of some dear friends, the Zaragozas.  This couple knew each other for only two weeks before getting married.   In today's world, that would spell disaster.  Let's face if your child showed up with someone they met only two weeks before and said they were getting married, you would probably hide your child until the urge for spontaneous marriage passed.  This marriage, however, beat the odds.  If anything, it shattered the odds.  They are the parents of ten biological children and one adopted child.  This is also an enigma.  I can honestly say that most arguments my husband and I have are about how we raise our children.  I have four children, so they had a lot of opportunities for differences with ten children. However, this couple are not only as in love today as they were the day they were married, but also have left a legacy of Godliness, love, and priori...

Quarantine has had a big drawback for me.  I couldn't go to my gym, so I've become a little lazy in exercising.   My husband is trying to get fit, so he has been very good at walking.  He invited me to go for a walk with him on a beautiful trail by the White River near where we live.  I'm not sure why I accepted, but alas, I did.  Keep in mind that this is the same trail almost 2 years ago where I ran a 5K race.   That race was what started my whole blogging experience.  In 3 weeks, I went from a non-runner to winning second place in my age division, so when I took off on this trail 2 years later, I thought this would be no big deal.   What I failed to remember is that 2 months of not setting foot on a treadmill makes one rather slow and out of shape.  My husband and his friend started the trail chatting the whole way.  I wanted to start with a flourish, so I started speed-walking.  It wasn't that goofy arm-swinging speed-walk, b...

As you may see, I am dressed as Belle from a certain Disney movie. I know you are wondering why, right?  When my husband and I felt God leading us into ministry, we told God that we would do whatever He asked us to if it meant people could hear the Gospel.  Because it is Mother's Day, this made me reflect on ministry through my almost-adult children's eyes.  I've had my kids walk into the living room only to see me painting a life-sized baby giraffe for a mission's banquet.  They watched my husband preach a sermon on Thanksgiving for children's missions dressed as a turkey.  I have staged mini-soap operas, musicals, and fake reality shows for Christmas programs.  My children have watched my husband and I dress up as Superheroes, clowns, cowboys, soldiers in the army, and a slew of characters from the Bible for VBS.   There was even a point where my husband and I dressed in teased hair/mullets, and muck boots to retell the story of Samson and Delilah...

My daughter has recently started a job at...well, you can tell where from the photo.  She showed a pin that they asked their employees to wear and asked, "what does this mean?"  I informed her that essential means things we cannot live without.  That brought up the question, "Can we live without fast food? "  For most of America, the answer would be a resounding no.  The first week of quarantine, I woke early and made breakfast every morning, lunch, and a nice dinner.  Now, after what feels like the 400th day of quarantine, I tell my kids to pour a bowl of cereal, scavenge through the refrigerator for lunch, and force myself to  make dinner.  Is fast food essential.  No, but it is necessary for my mental and emotional well-fare.  Fast food seems essential.   I know someone who works at one of the big home improvement stores.  He mentioned that the community feels that home improvement stores are essential because they are p...

I've noticed a side effect of being quarantined in my home with tasty goodness in the form of snacks and a closed gym.  Instead of the "freshman fifteen" (the weight college students put on in their first year), I have the quarantine ten.  I didn't even realize the problem because, let's face it, I have been living in yoga pants for over a month.  But as I tried to squeeze into a pair of summer shorts, I realized that I had one too many Hostess cupcakes.  In a push to get in better shape, I decided to join my husband and son on a trek down a local trail.   It wasn't going to be hard because I had just ran the trail in a 5K only 2 years before.  Ha ha.  I did not take into account the fact that they had just graded the path right before a big rain.  The path was a mix of mud and sporadic stretches of a kitty litter type of gravel.  My oldest 6'8" son is built like a giraffe, so I blinked and he was so far ahead that I could barely see him....

I've noticed that one type of store has been thriving during the quarantine...home improvement stores.   Lowe's and Home Depot have been crowded even more than Walmart.  Why? You may ask.  It's really quite simple.  How many times have you wanted to do odd jobs around your house or asked your spouse to do them, but there never seemed to be enough time.  Guess what?  There is more than enough time now, so I sent my husband off to start fixing things around my house.  There's only so much Netflix a person can watch.  We decided to tackle the flower beds in front of our house and build some pot gardens.  Before you ask, no we are not raising pot!!  We are raising vegetables in pots.  Here's the catch.  I am known for my black thumb of death.   I have managed to kill aloe plants that have probably been in existence since the dinosaurs, succulents that need very little water, and air plants that need no water.  How can ...