Real Life Reflections

Andrew Peterson’s Counting Stars

Our car isn't working properly. Some times it starts just fine, but more often than not, it takes a number of attempts before the engine turns over. We have to get it in the shop for a little maintenance, so it will once again run smoothly - exactly the way its makers intended it to run. Our summer, as usual, has been very busy. Our typical Monday night dates have taken a back seat to the demands of life. The other day, I looked at my husband and introduced myself. It had been that long since we'd had any time alone together (you can imagine my relief when I found out that the man standing in my kitchen was, indeed, my husband. Whew!). Yesterday morning, Marc (said husband), said to me, "the car needs maintenance, so we have to put it in the shop. It's an inconvenience, but we have to do it." He then likened marriage maintenance to car maintenance - just as there's never a good time to be one car down, there's never a good time to drop everything and spend...

So many things to blog about these days! How's a girl to choose? I could go with the light-hearted, nostalgic theme or a deeper, faith-centered one (I've plenty of those lately). I think I'll try something a little different - a collage. A series of "blog-ettes." I'll shoot for 3 (2 faith, 1 nostalgic): Faith Blog-ette #1 Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of catching up with a friend of mine with whom I had spent all my formative years - from kindergarten through senior high. Somehow during the course of the two plus hours we had together, we touched on the untouchable: religion and politics (did I just hear you gasp?). No worries though, it didn't get down and dirty, and I daresay we parted as friends. She did, however, touch a sore spot. She had moved out of our home state about ten years ago. What she didn't realize before her move was the political/religious make-up of the area into which she chose to settle: conservative, right-wing, republica...

If you've lived long enough (let's say a day or two), you've learned that the people around you - your family, friends, co-workers - don't always (or even often) fulfill your expectations of them. Your idea of what love looks like is different from theirs. This reality hit me hard this past weekend. The hurt and disappointment I felt in my heart was so powerful that it affected me physically. It was in this state of emotional and physical tumult when I went to church on Sunday morning where we sang a song that changed everything. The line that packed the punch? I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves us. Regret: We generally think of a regret as something we wish we had done or had not done, but regrets are all inclusive. We can regret actions someone else has taken or perhaps, as it was in this instance, actions someone hasn't taken. Regret doesn't assume responsibility in any way. It merely bemoans the fact of an ev...

Perhaps you've heard of the "Boundaries" book series: Boundaries in Marriage , Boundaries with Children , and simply Boundaries . I read the Boundaries book on parenting years ago. I can highly recommend it. As far as I know though, Cloud and Townsend have not yet written a book on boundaries in prayer. Hmmmm. Wonder why that would be. Is it possible that there are no boundaries in prayer? According to Henri Nouwen (one of my favorite authors on prayer), there aren't. I read that little tidbit in my morning reading yesterday. An hour or so later, I checked my email to find that a friend had forwarded to me a devotional thought-for-the-day on the same topic. I John 5: “14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” The key to answered prayer seems to lie in the words, "if we ask an...

Take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. Deut 1:8 I don't know about you, but I'd really like that verse to read something like, "Here you go. Walk in and enjoy. It's all yours." I'd like to sit here and wait for God to plop something in my lap. I don't want to "take" anything. To take means I have to be proactive. Capture, grab, seize, grasp, and snatch are just a few of the synonyms for "take" according to dictionary.com. I like being the background person - the person behind the person, the mom. I like to take care of the one who is in the lime light whether the "lime light" refers to homework, soccer, cheer-leading, youth group, or business administration. It's comfortable here. No one is staring at me. I don't like people staring at me with expectation. I quit softball after a season or two in grade school because standing at bat, knowing that everyone had their eyes set on me was mo...

I witnessed a hug the other day. Big deal, right? People see other people hug all the time. Yeah, but this was a hug that melted my heart. We attended a graduation party in honor of our nephew. It was held under a pavilion. There was quite a spread of food, and each table was loaded with decorations and favors (very nicely done, Ange!). Obviously a lot of work . . . a lot of love was poured into this party. As the evening wound down, many of us hung around to help clean up. That's the un-fun part of a party. The un-fun part of this party became even more un-fun when, in an attempt to dump a drum of trash into a plastic trash bag, wet, gooey, smelley garbage ended up on the concrete floor of the pavilion. It was rank and disgusting, but my sister-in-law (the afore mentioned "Ange.") cleaned up without complaint. When the graduate meandered by shortly thereafter, I jokingly told him, in a scolding voice, that he had better get down on his knees in gratitude for all his moth...