I met a women at the nail salon the other day and she looked exhausted! I thought I was tired…while I was there trying to relax she began sharing that this was the first time in a year that she had gotten a pedicure. She just did not have the time anymore. I thought to myself…”girl, you need to find the time because it’s important!”

I smiled at her and looked down at her toes. She was getting them done French!

Well well…this brings me to a short interjection right here...

Ladies, bear with me for a little bit….”If you choose to do french on your toes (not my favorite by any means) please, please make sure your toe nails are cut very short! There is nothing uglier than trying to paint your toes with a white line on the already long nail!!! Ugh!!!

Definition of a Pedicure?
“A pedicure is a way to improve the appearance of the feet and their nails.”
Definition of a French Pedicure? “tacky” from the ruthipedia encyclopedia (its my opinion and I'm not saying not to do it...it might look ok on you but just keep your toes short when you do).

Anyway back to my story….
I asked her why she was so tired? I’m thinking well probably cause you are my age and you now wake up tired and all your body aches from sleeping til 6:30AM. Also, your hormones are out of wack and your thyroid gland is acting up again making you sleepy, cranky, losing your hair, dryness of skin, the list goes on and on and on and on……nope! She said she had just had a baby a few months ago and my mouth fell open! She laughed!!! She is 49 years old and just had her first child. I congratulated her as soon as I could remove the shock from my face. No wonder she was so tired!

I am so happy that I had my children young…I was 22 when Andrea was born. I loved being a Mom! It was chaotic, exhausting, stressful but what the heck..we were young!

I love that I can come home and spend a quiet nice evening with my husband and just sit on the sofa and watch TV together without any interruptions….
I love that if we want to go out to eat…it’s just the two of us
I love that on Saturday mornings we get up leisurely …sit out by the pool and drink a cup of coffee quietly…
I love that we are sometimes both tired at the same time…
I love that we can go see a movie by ourselves
I love that we can go dancing by ourselves
I love that we can travel by ourselves...

If we had chosen to wait and have children later in life…we would not be able to do any of these things.

All in all I am so glad we had our kiddos at a young age. I’m sure everyone has a different story and scenario that works for them but for us….this works.

I cannot imagine doing the mommy thing at the age of 49…..I do however love the Grand-mother thing at this age…its totally different.

I think it’s awesome that this poor tired women finally had her little man! There is nothing more wonderful that being a mother and I’m glad she did it at her age….it works for her and her husband I’m sure.

Something interesting about marriage....if only couples would just hang on through the years of child raising, years of finding themselves as well as getting through their desire to being prosperous in a career etc.. So many marriages end during this difficult time...with the husband always working to make a better life for his family...the wife also working hard either at a job or at home trying to keep her family happy and fulfilled. Paying all the bills...getting the kids in the right schools, dealing with teachers, grades, homework. Having the kids enrolled in everything from t-ball to soccer to volleyball. Then of course all the music classes and dance classes. Then throw in all the church activities to keep them well rounded and worry that they get saved at an early age so that the "Word of God does not come back void" then God forbid they get sick or have a high fever...Your whole life is about your kids and their wellbeing and this is how it should be. Unfortunately this is when someone bails out....If only young couples can get through this without giving up on the marriage then I think they will come out of those difficult years and enter into a phase in their marriage where they are finally on the same page at the same time.....its worth the wait!!

My pastor preached a few weeks ago about staying in your lane….I loved that sermon because it can be applied to so many areas in our lives…..When it came to raising our children and when to have them I think we stayed in our lane….now we are in the grandparent’s lane and loving every minute of it!

We are in our lane together now.....

Ruth

Sin Bounces?

Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
(I share these wise words from my husband):

Colossians 3:13, like in many other verses, God commands us to forgive each other. It goes to the extreme to say that if we want our sins forgiven we must forgive those who sin against us, so forgiveness is the Key.

I believe that if we want to destroy sin we have to forgive, let me explain...
Do you remember as a child playing with one of those high density rubber balls? I think it was call “a super ball", and it will bounce from wall to wall and it seemed to go on forever, well sin is like that… it will keep on bouncing from person to person.

When I learned to play soccer as a boy one of the hardest techniques to learn was to be able to stop the ball with your chest and drop it at your feet, it's called "kill the ball".

Imagine a large soccer ball traveling 50 yards at 20 miles/hr. and you have to stop it with your chest, well the first few times it bounced far and out of control and it caused a bit of pain but I learned that by softening my chest at the moment of impact the ball would not bounce and will drop at my feet.
This then was not as painful… I had learned to "kill the ball".

When a person sins against us and if we don't forgive right away that sin will bounce back immediately to the person who sins against us in a form of an insult or retaliation from our response or we might retaliate and take it out on the next person that crosses our path even sometimes a loved one. (the sin keeps bouncing).

Let me give you an example:

Someone at work, at a store or (my favorite) on the road in this Houston traffic, insults you, treats you bad or cuts in front of you as he expresses with his hand you are #1, in other words sins against you…

When this happens you retaliate. Most likely if it's your boss you will react with the next person that crosses your way, or sometimes you will come home and bounce all that sin on your wife and kids for no reason at all. The sin that began with that one incident has now bounced back on several people….

My point? Forgiveness will soften the blow (Kill the blow and bounce it off your chest to the floor) this will stop the sin from bouncing from one to another in other words "kill the sin". Let the sin that others bounce to you fall on your soft chest (answer in kind or immediately forgive) and let it fall to the floor. In essence killing the sin and therefore not allowing that sin to bounce on and on to others.

Jesus, as He died on the cross gave us the best example of all; He took the sin of this world, my sin and your sin and forgave us, He destroy our sin and it fell at the feet of the cross to be wash away by his blood. "He killed our sin".

FORGIVE.

Harold Galdamez

why Re-Charge?

When the world and all that surrounds it...people, people, people....get to be too much what do you do?

Well, I'm so glad to know that there is a place for us...

Chuch Swindoll says:

Optimism, courage, and faithfulness feed on high morale. The ability to push on, alone if necessary, requires clear vision. In order for goals to be reached, there has to be a stirring up from within . . . a spark that lights the fire of hope, telling us to "Get at it" when our minds are just about to convince us with "Aw, what's the use?" It's called motivation.

Christians should have no difficulty identifying with soldiers in the field or athletes in a game. Our ability to accomplish what is expected of us is directly linked to our morale and vision. What we need is a charge of renewal. God understands that. His people have been that way since the beginning.

For Abraham, the place of renewal was Bethel, where he "built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD" (Gen. 12:8). For Moses and the Israelites, it was the tabernacle in the wilderness, where God's glory rested. For the Twelve, it was their frequent meetings with Jesus.

All of us need such times and places of renewal, when our morale and vision are reignited and our spiritual batteries are recharged . . .
when the Spirit of God can do His masterful work of motivation. When that occurs, a burst of new energy returns and we're back on our feet, winning a second-half victory on the same turf that had earlier spelled defeat.
You may need your inner battery recharged.

We cannot deliver the goods if our heart is heavier than the load.

What do you do when things have gotten to you? This weekend...I'm spending time with my Grandkids and just loving on them....forgetting all the hard things in life and just enjoying them, watching them and playing with them. They are so perfect and God gave us this gift for such times as these when we need to re-charge. When I look at them I see hope, I see purity, I see joyfulness, I see God! It renews my faith in people....

What's your outlet?

Turn the other cheek?

We did see the Passion of the Christ on Saturday eve before Easter last week!

Again, I sat there sobbing through the scenes....I felt the pain of Mary as a mother... I felt the pain of my Saviour as he gave the upmost so that I could be saved.

I saw time and time again as he turned the other cheek....He could have smacked all those pharisees to smitherines with just a nod. But he took all the abuse, all the spitting, all the name calling, all the unbelief and stayed focused on what he was here to do. Wow!!!! I'm in awe! Can we do this? Aren't we supposed to be more like him everyday?

Then why do we bolt the moment something becomes difficult? I know that I've done that many times thinking it was best...

So many say...the Lord told me to do this... The Lord lead me here.. the Lord gave me this job..The Lord told me this was to be my spouse.... and then the moment we face a bad look, a bad comment towards us, a person that does not like us, a difficult personality to deal with, we start changing our tune. So does this mean that God makes lots of mistakes? Or are we people of no discernment? Are we people that cannot truly know what God's will is for our life or are we just weak?

Lord I don't want to be weak when things get tough! I want to get through them. I will not be moved by a bad look, by a bad comment towards me, I want to stay focused on where you have lead me. In my job, in my relationships, in my church.

He turned the other cheek for us.....why can't we?

Jesus the Christ or Bunny?

This Sunday is Easter...this is the single most important holy - day for all Christians. Every year I take this time to reflect...I will take the time to see "The Passion of the Christ" again because its so close to what happened. My heart breaks when I think of His sacrifice just for me...

I know that its popular to do the "Easter-Bunny" thing and I really struggle with this in our churches. I see the billboards and the flyers announcing this great event but why do we have to water down the death of our Christ? Why do we have to make it popular by inviting the masses to come to an egg hunt? I don't know why, because for one the pull really comes from the Holy Spirit anyway and not some program or event. This is not about casting any judgements on any group of believers or their churches really that's not my intention at all. Its just me being a bit melancholy about the true meaning of Easter.

Let's take some time this weekend to just reflect on exactly what our Lord did for humanity as his blood was shed for us on Calvary...