Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I just want to bless you!!!

Last week we took the youngest children to Bay Beach in Green Bay............nice inexpensive amusement park. I even checked the weather,,scattered shower in the a.m., then hot , humid and storms in the evening. PERFECT!!! I had a picnic lunch packed and off we went. Have any of you traveled for more than 2 hours with hot, anxious children???????? Are we there yet? How much longer? Can we stop at the next exit? On and on and on and onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!
I explained to the kids (nicely at first) that we wanted to enjoy the day with them and have some fun and Bless them!!!
WELLLLL!! after what seemed like forever we arrived. It was really hot and CROWDED. There were 3 bus loads of children's camps with the same idea we had! well, we were on perhaps 3 rides and it was getting overcast. Against my better judgement, I agreed to go on the ferris wheel with Nathan(our youngest). I really, I mean REALLY do not like heights but I thought "how bad could it be"???? Dumb question, huh???
When the ferris wheel was stopped at the very top with you guessed it stuck there swaying in the wind because a storm kicked up.......with lightning and pouring rain I ALMOST laughed at the irony of it all.but I was almost crying from fear. they stopped the ferris wheel and had everybody get off, but they said they had to balance the load so we kept getting bypassed and were always stuck on the very top! It was NOT a fun ride!!!! YESSSSSSSSSS! we were the very last to get off. possibly because Nathan screamed "let us OFF, you jerks"!
Free at last we were free at LAST!!! We ran to the car and even tho' it was 90 we were soaked and freezing! we decided to drive around till the rain stopped and grab a bite to eat..... until we were stuck in town because of the FLASH FLOODING in the streets! we finally got on our way home and could barely see the road to drive......and all the way home the fighting started AGAIN! I held out my hands to the kids and said "we just want to bless you". I heard myself say it and as i did , I thought... that's exactly how God feels. I whine and grumble about everything and all the while God wants to bless me. Yikes!
I felt convicted for not receiving God's blessings cuz i was too busy complaining!
I'm sorry , Lord and am ready to be blessed to be a blessing! Thank-You!!!! (for being soooooooooo patient with me)

redeemed!

Life is BUSY!!!! I help take care of my 91 year old mom, as do my daughters when not in school or ballet. My life consists of running children to ballet, work, my mom's, sports for my son, shopping, cleaning, cooking...etc. etc. I have been given the responsibility of walking the dog and making sure he's fed lately, too!
One particular day,I had cleaned, taken the dog out and was tired! The dog "MAX", escaped when someone opened the door (apparently he felt he needed to get more exercise). WELL, I called that dog, chased him , tried bribing him and he would just look at me, stop for a second, (and i'm sure he was laughing at me) and keep running. This wasn't the first time he took himself for a walk but it was the longest! To add to this our neighbor complained about our "vicious" dog, (he is afraid of his own shadow)..... and this was after they had told me they loved it when Max visited, because their dog got exercise then!
After a couple of hours, Max came home.......................................
Now comes my excuse... I HAD HAD IT!! Anyone ever feel like that???? i told my children Max was done here! The very next day i had my son drop him off at a humane society. My daughter especially felt bad, but I WAS DONE!!! That was that, right???? NOT! After a peaceful quiet day (with no barking or chasing) i went to bed. After a couple hours I woke up and try as I
would I could not get back to sleep. And I love to sleep. toward morning I started to drift off , and I heard a voice (in my heart) yell at me..........What about you Laurie... I redeemed you, you sinner! All i had been thinking about that night was Max and hoping he was o.k., a good family would get him .... well I knew what the Lord was telling me to do.
Talk about confusing my family! I told my husband what had happened and he told me to go buy him back............. that's what being redeemed is ..to be bought back. That's what Jesus did for us... by going to the cross and dying for us HE paid the price for our sin debt, and REDEEMED us from eternal death. our job is to believe it!
So I went to the humane society and paid his debt............I bought my little sinner back and had to pay for his shot, liscence, medicine...(poor thing had an ear infection) new collar, and to top it off I gave him a shampoo and shave AND a new toy. I really felt guilty! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..................$$$$$$300.00 dollars later we bought our sinner back and cleaned him up. we even got a tag with his name on it. He had an IDENTITY!!! I believe He knew what had transpired!!! he even acted like he was "all that". Atfer this, i was sitting in my chair, and he jumped on my lap and leaned against me (he was saying "thank you" i just know it) and he is not a lap dog. he's BIG!!!
I wish I could say he is now a perfect dog.....he still runs away now and again, still barks and is annoying but he knows he belongs. Wish I could say i'm perfect cuz i've been redeemed but as you can tell from my story I'm still in process, too.............me and Max!!!!