Blue Like Tidy-Bowl Cleaner, Kool-Aid, and Heaven:
Thoughts on Home, Family, and God from the middle of Suburbia!I used to be a closet perfectionist, which means that you could come to my house any time during the week and find my closets clean. And the floors. And the toilets.
During those days, the color of Tidy-bowl as it swirled in beautiful blue around the toilets was my idea of entertainment. I shared the joy of my shining bowl with my friend Mr. Clean. He always smiled at that. As a matter of fact, he always smiled.
I discovered one thing about a super clean house, and that’s the fact it makes people uncomfortable. People are worried about taking off their shoes when they come inside. They fret about the toys the kids bring out to play with. No matter how much I told them now to worry, their hands twisted on their laps as they perched on my recently vacuumed sofa afraid to lean back on the plumped and perfect throw pillows.
The day God called me out of my comfort zone, I had no idea how far I would stray. It all started when my pastor asked me to consider helping to launch a crisis pregnancy center. My first response was a firm “no, thank you.” I had my hands full of raising kids, writing articles, and . . . cleaning. I was sure I couldn’t fit in one more thing into my schedule. God thought otherwise.
The next morning as I prayed about Pastor’s request I felt God giving me a firm, “Yes.” Sure, I had everything under control in my life, but God wasn’t concerned about how content I was. As I prayed, I felt Him expanding my vision to consider others in my community whose lives could be helped, whose hearts needed hope.
After I started volunteering my time and energy my perfect house didn’t remain so perfect. Instead of scrubbing the tub until it shined, I volunteered my time training volunteers and remodeling our new center. My kids didn’t keep up their room as well either because they were working along side me, folding baby blankets and stacking diapers. But you know what? The more I served God and saw Him working in lives, the less concerned I was about a dust-free existence. In fact, it felt good to get my hands dirty for a good cause.
In the years since then, God has called me to other things—leading abstinence programs, mentoring young moms, writing books. And I’m actually comfortable if the floor only gets swept once a week or the mail stacks up for two.
Through it all, I discovered God cares more about people than possessions, transformation rather than sanitation. I have a feeling that God was up to some closet cleaning of His own. For He dug into the recesses of my heart, dusted off talents I’d long forgotten about, and showed me the true Joy that can be found through service to others.
And you know what? I’ve never been happier. Except for my relationship with Mr. Clean—I’ve told him I’m more concerned about my Savor’s smile.
Labels: abstinence programs, cleaning house, crisis preganancy center, god, mentoring, parenting, writing
Blue Like Tidy-Bowl Cleaner, Kool-Aid, and Heaven:
Thoughts on Home, Family, and God from the middle of Suburbia!
Though I grew up in church, the Bible and I weren’t properly introduced until I was already a young mom with three kids. I had aspirations of becoming a writer, so I set my alarm clock early to start writing before my kids woke up. This worked, well, for about a week until I started feeling guilty. That was because I often complained about not having time to read my Bible and pray, yet I had made the time to write.
So the next day when my alarm went off, I decided to read my Bible first. Five minutes should be enough time, I figured.
Amazingly, though my motivation was to ease my conscience, God began to speak. Five minutes turned into fifteen, and soon my little date with the Good Book became a romance with my Maker.
I got myself a journal, and I started jotting down all the Scripture verses that really stood out to me. Sometimes I added my thoughts. Other times written prayers.
I added some devotional books to my morning time, and wow … I found some good stuff. Before I knew it, my morning writing time had been replaced. I grew to need my time with God. Just me and Him and a cup of java. God spoke. I listened. And my heart was transformed.
Twelve years later, I now long for my morning solitude. I get downright crabby when, for some reason or another, I miss out on those moments with my God. And you know what? That’s okay. It’s okay to be jealous of my time with God. It’s okay to be needy. (I learned that from my one of my Bible readings somewhere along the line.)
How come we, as people, hesitate to take time for what we need most of all? Sometimes when I’m at church, I wonder if I’m the only one who is so needy, and so in love at the same time? I have to admit I’m discouraged when I see people in Sunday school class looking in the front of their Bibles to figure out where Hebrews can be found. I try to share my passion for my morning moments, only to receive comments like ‘I’m not a morning person’ or ‘Well, your kids are bigger now.’ Both are true, sort of. But they have little to do with what the Word of God now means to me.
One Scripture verse that has made it into my journal more than once, and is highlighted in bright yellow, is Acts 4:13: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
To sum it up, that’s what my morning quiet time means to me. I’ve been with Jesus, and I’d like to think it gives me more courage and wisdom than if I’d not spent time in His Word. But more than what I get out of it, it’s just the fact I’ve BEEN WITH JESUS. Like a teen girl who just had a first date with the most handsome and popular guy at school, I get that giddy, overwhelmed, undeserved feeling every time OUR time comes to an end. And that’s something I hope I never outgrow.
Labels: bible, courage, devotional books, god, scripture, transformation, wisdome, writing
Guest Blogger...Cara Putnam
I really should be writing. Finishing that last sprint to the end of my current manuscript. I only have 3500 words to go, but this blog post has been running through my mind for days, so I’m going to stop and write it.
Deep breath.
Here goes. This is another one of those gut-level honest posts.
I’ve experienced a little grief when one set of grandparents died and when a uncle died. We also lost our dog (and first child in many senses) very unexpectedly a couple months ago. All of those were big losses.
But I’m learning that the death of a child through a miscarriage falls into a whole other plain…and very few people understand. Unless you’ve had one, most people don’t get it (with rare exceptions).
My family doesn’t understand. My friends don’t understand. Even my husband struggles to understand.
To each of them, it is a loss – a real loss – but a one-time loss.
It couldn’t be farther from that for me. Each month I am reminded that I’m not pregnant. Then there are the times that my son or daughter will say something innocent that reminds me again that we’re waiting for a baby. Or that they still think the baby will arrive someday. Or I’ll pick up my son and think I shouldn’t be able to do that because I should be nine months pregnant.
There’s the count-down of what a normal pregnancy looks like. The dates that you anticipated after the baby was born. And the one I dread, almost fear, the due date. That one’s barreling at me, and it’s easy to feel like everyone else has forgotten while I’m curled up in a fetal position wondering how I will survive.
I’m not prone to depression, but there are days that I truly struggle to find the positive in life.
Now don’t get me wrong. Life is still good. God is still good.
But there is also real pain. And if you know someone who has experienced a miscarriage, please remember that the pain doesn’t end – in fact in some ways it builds.
So pray for them. Ask how they are really doing. Because you may be the only one who cares enough to remember and ask.
Here is a great resource for women and families who have experienced a miscarriage.
http://www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk/ma2006/information/leaflets/hiddengrief.pdfLabels: death, empay, hope pregnancy center, loss, miscarriage, prayer, writing
Interview with Gina Conroy
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Here's is an excerpt of an interview with Gina Conroy at
Mom2Mom ConnectionGina has contributed to my blog on a regular basis (just last week infact)!
Help for Praying Moms: Gina Conroy With Mother’s Day coming soon, I want to highlight some special moms who reach out to encourage those of us deep in the trenches.
Gina Conroy is an author and mom of four who has a heart for using her gift of writing to build up her peers. According to her website, Gina grew up in a New York Italian family where she says “there was never a lack of drama, love and interesting dialogue.”
At the age of 15, she went to a Wayne Cochran retreat and gave her life to the Lord. She graduated with honor from Oral Roberts University with a degree in Communication Arts. Gina is founder of Writer…Interrupted and writes about her experiences trying to balance it all at Portrait of a Writer…Interrupted. She’s the co-author of Anytime Prayers for Everyday Moms and has also contributed to Reach for Your Dreams Graduate.
Welcome, Gina! Why do you feel it’s important for mothers to pray?
Believe it or not, praying is not an easy thing for me to do. I’m not talking about the quick prayers we moms mutter consistently under our breaths every day. I’m talking about the more concentrated and thoughtful prayers, specific to each child. I’ve always known it’s important to do, but knowing and doing are two different things.
When I wrote Anytime Prayers for Everyday Moms, God met a need in my own life through my own prayers. The topics I was assigned to write about were exactly what I was going through. My prayers flowed naturally from me and ministered to me.read the rest of the interview here:
http://mom2momconnection.com/2007/05/02/help-for-praying-moms-gina-conroy/Labels: gina conroy, interview, mother's day, mothering, prayer, writing
Guest Blogger...Cara Putnam
Saturday I accomplished a life-long goal.
My husband and I joined more than 30,000 of our closest friends (not!) and ran the Indianapolis mini-marathon. It was an amazing accomplishment to run 13.1 miles. Especially considering three months ago I’d taken a break from running.
I don’t think I fully understand what I learned through this experience yet. But I can share a few things with you.
1) I didn’t run 13.1 miles without starting small. The training regime had us start at 3 miles, and then we slowly ramped up. Before I thought I’d be ready, I was running 7 and 8 miles. And after a few of those, 9 didn’t seem so far. I never ran further than 9.5 miles, but once I hit 10 miles, I knew I could finish, because…
2) I can do anything for thirty minutes. You’ve probably heard the saying: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do we do anything in life? A piece at a time. Break it into measurable units, and we can do just about anything.
3) It helps so much to have a partner. I helped Eric stay at a steady pace for the first few miles. Then he helped keep me going when it started to hurt. I wouldn’t stop, because I refused to slow him down and make him choose between waiting for me and running ahead.
4) Discipline. Discipline. Discipline. I had to train on days I didn’t want to. I had to run when it would have been more fun to wax my legs (ugh!).
These principles cross over to other areas of our lies. Are you a parent? Feel like this is one of those stages you’re not sure you’ll survive. Yes, you will because you can do anything for a season. We just have to determine to do it.
Is one of your dreams to write a book? Then make the time. Sit in a chair and do it. As Nike says: Just do it. Even as I approached the starting line, I wondered if I was crazy. But I had to try. And it was the same way the first time I sat down to write. Who did I think I was to think I could write a book? But day after day, word after word, page after page, I wrote one book. Then a second. And now I have two books that are contracted that I have to write. And my first book releases in October. But if I hadn’t put my behind in the chair, I never would have had anything to sell. And my dreams would still be nothing more than dreams.
But don’t try it alone. Ask God to bring people alongside you to help and encourage you. Whether it’s as a parent, homeschooler, writer, or anything else, we can do it so much better when we don’t feel alone.
So dust off that list of dreams that’s lingering in the closet. Which one are you ready to tackle? As for me, I’m looking for another mini-marathon because I have a time to beat.
Labels: discipline, marathon, parenting, running, writing
My Life Unscripted...
Coming soon to a store near you …
My Life, Unscripted. In it I've shared more about my messed up teen years than I ever thought I would. In fact stories I SWORE to never tell will soon be in print!
Yet, years ago, after I dedicated my life to Christ, I prayed He would redeem those years and bring some good out of them. This book is that redemption in print! It's a dream come true.
So what do you dream about? Check out this quote I found:
"God never simply buries our dead and broken dreams because He'd be burying our hearts along with our dreams. One of two positive things will happen. Either the dream will become fertilizer for something even better, or the Lord will give me the gumption and oomph to bring my dream to fruition. I can't lose either way!" ~Noni Joy Tari
To put in bluntly, the crap (excuse my French!) from my teen years became fertilizer for something better. Believe me, it took a lot of gumption and guts to bring this dream to fruition, but if it can help one teen to choose a better path for her life it's ALL worth it!
Labels: dreams, prayers, redemption, teen years, writing
Dream List...
Did you get your Focus on the Family Magazine in the mail today?
I did, and I was very excited. My article Parents in a Digital World is in there.
I remember in 1994 attending my first writer's conference and thinking ... "Some day I'd love to be published in Focus on the Family." It was a big dream. Today, I saw it come true!
And the article talks about Internet dangers. Boy, I sure wish I knew about
www.Shoutlife.com when I wrote it. I would have recommended it! (You can check out my profile at:
www.shoutlife.com/triciagoyerI'm very excited because I've been able to write more articles for them for future issues, too. But it makes me think ... what is something YOU'D like to see an article about?
Or, if you're a writer, what publication is on your "dream list"?
Labels: focus on the family, magazine articles, publishing, shoutlife, writing
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