Category Archives: Kathy

Bible Study, Kathy, Musings

Bible – what did you learn this week?

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We are drawing to a close of our study of Romans in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). I could study Romans over and over again without fully exhausting all of its depth and riches. My work on the current lesson, however, came to an abrupt halt with this question:

What has the Bible taught you in the past week?

This is not a difficult question. I have been in BSF for years and years. I grew up in the church. I’ve been a Christian since I was a kindergartner. This is not a theological or doctrine oriented question. Why, then, did I sit there for minutes, starring at the blank spot on the page and finally move on, leaving just a question mark?

I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

What did you learn THIS WEEK? Not lately or this year or once, in college, when you went on an awesome retreat.

My week was full of many challenging, thought provoking activities. Our Small Group continues its study of marriage with the Love and Respect series. This week we looked at practical ways to apply what we’ve been learning. On Sunday the pastor preached an excellent sermon on forgiveness and healing. On Monday I gave the devotional and led the prayer time for my Moms In Touch group. The kids and I have been faithful to do our Proverbs study (even adding in a daily Psalm this week). I’ve read the Bible on my own several days this week.

Why did I find myself leaving this BSF question blank?

It hurts (in a convicting, challenging, heart penetrating sort of way) to think that my time in the Word this week hasn’t taught me anything. That the church activities and prayer groups have come and gone and I walked away without any new Biblical truth or insight.

* If I read my Bible and check off that box but learn nothing new about God’s character or His plan and will for my life, what good was that little check mark?

* If I do my BSF lesson but complete it in a quick and shallow way, how is God going to transform my life, renew my mind and make me more like Him?

* If I study Proverbs with my children but don’t pray for the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and new understanding of these passages that are becoming more familiar, how does this profit me (or the children)?

* If I skip along through life, walking just behind the Lord, and never reach out and hold His hand, how will I know which way to go? How will I stay standing when the cracks in the path threaten to trip me? How will I navigate the darkness? How will I climb out of the pit (despair, loneliness, worry, worldliness, sin)?

I’m afraid I am a lazy person. I don’t want to work hard. I don’t want to struggle or wrestle through difficulties. I like checking off boxes and moving on to the next thing. This approach, however, is going to leave me with lots of blanks in my BSF lesson. And, more importantly, is going to rob me of the incredible riches of a full life in Jesus Christ.

We read Proverbs 2 today in school. One piece in particular struck me:

…and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

A treasure is valuable and worth finding. Searching for it costs time and energy and effort and WORK. Finding it can change your life!!

What has the Bible taught you this past week?

Kathy

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P365 – Days 118 & 119 (Friends)

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Friendship -

A good friend climbs into the swing with you, enjoys the sunshine, and knows how to smile pretty for the camera.

elise and sarah

A loyal friend helps you hold on during life’s twists and turns and knows sometimes you need a little extra ‘leg support’ during the bumpy ride.

criss cross legs

Good friends are there when you need someone to lean on.

couch time

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:

If one falls down, his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Kathy

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Too tired to blog? Sleep Blogging.

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I do most of my blogging late at night. The kids are in bed, the house is quiet and I have time to think and write. Since we moved the chairs around in the family room my ‘computer chair’ is now Cream Puff (the incredibly comfortable, leather recliner we bought from some friends). If I’m not careful I find myself drifting asleep while sitting at the computer, in the middle of typing. This, my friends, is not good.

There is a phrase for this phenomenon: blog sleeping or maybe even sleep blogging. It’s similar to sleep walking and sleep talking although potentially MUCH more embarrassing. When you walk or talk in your sleep, who sees or hears you? Your family (if they happen to wake). If you’re in college then perhaps the number is greater – roommates or other people in the dorm.

If you sleep blog, however, there is the potential for LOTS of people to witness it (I mean, there are 10′s of people who frequent this blog on a semi-regular basis). Not to mention the fact that the blog would be forever held in the cyber world.

Taking all of this into consideration, although I started a blog last night, loaded pictures, and even tried to be somewhat thoughtful, I couldn’t publish it. I was sleep blogging. I would type some and then recline into the plush depths of Cream Puff and fall asleep. I was afraid that I would wake in the morning, go to read the blog and find that all I had posted was blogging gibberish.

That would certainly elicit a few comments!

So, I had to face Joshua (“No blog this morning, Mom???”) and Tim. They are the early risers in the family and my faithful blog readers. Here’s the e-mail Tim sent me. Sigh.

Imagine my shock when I found no new blog on our website this morning. What could possibly have happened?

Abduction by space aliens?
No, I remember you were in bed when I left.
Power failure?
No, my alarm went off (curse it to the fiery inferno) just as I was getting back to sleep from my allergy attack.
Broke both hands at the wrists?
No, you would have woken me up to take you to the emergency room.

The mind boggles … I’m sure you’ll have a good answer for your outraged readers. :) Tim

The pressure, folks, the pressure.

Kathy

*Edited to add picture

blogging

I was obviously missing my coffee last night when I was sleep blogging. A little caffeine can really perk up a blog.

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Events, Kathy

Thinking Blogger Award

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I’ve been Tagged!

My kids play Freeze Tag, Bible Tag, and one (new to me) called Candle Tag where you freeze in place and then slowly melt to the ground. Tag is a great game – it can be played in small or large spaces, it lets kids run off some of their never ending energy, and even has a built in rest time where you can catch your breath (my kind of game). Of course, the game can be rather discouraging for those who are not fast runners (that would be me). Depending on the mercy of the group playing, you could potentially be stuck “It” for the entire game, never catching any one, until you finally run home crying (hypothetically speaking).

This tag, however, is of a different sort!

Back in February of this year Ilker Yoldas created a new sort of tag. It’s a blog tag (of course) and comes with an award. Very cool!

Dorothy has tagged me for this lovely award. Dorothy lives in England and lets me come on field trips with her (via her blog). She writes in such a real voice that I often find myself laughing and nodding at the same time as I read her posts.

When you are “tagged” with the Thinking Blog Award, you pick five blogs that make you think and “tag” them. They then go on to pick five, and they pick five friends, and so on. I love the idea of sharing favorite blogs and connecting people. I am honored that Dorothy and Yvonne both tagged me. Yvonne (another one of Dorothy’s five picks) has an amazing blog full of challenge, insight and spiritual depth.

Here a list of rules to share with the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.

The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post (the original post on the award) so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

It’s hard to choose five blogs (just five??) that make me think but here they are:

1. Amy from In Pursuit of Proverbs 31 is a blog I’ve recently discovered. She wrote a post about decluttering the house that was powerful and convicting. The deciding factor on whether to keep or toss things — scripture! Amy has a wonderful testimony. Read and enjoy.

2. Edited to change – the blog I had chosen has since been closed. The blogger is a homeschooling mom of five awesome kiddos, and good friend. She is working on developing a new blog but I’m unsure of whether she wishes me to share the link.

3. One of my college roommates began blogging last March. The delight I took in reading Rachel’s blog was one of the thing that encouraged me to pick up the blogging baton on our Duckabush Blog. I loved hearing about her life and thoughts on parenting, God and housecleaning (not necessarily in that order). She recently wrote a post on how to survive those crazy days with a new baby in the house and it brought back such a rush of memories I almost needed a nap right then and there. :)

4. Emily in FL, a SHS e-mail loop friend, has a wonderful family blog. She is working on a very lengthy series on friendship that is both challenging and practical. Emily definitely captures “Life” on her blog, “Life in Pictures.”

5. Tina, a dear friend serving with New Tribes Mission in Thailand, has a brand new blog. I love reading anything Tina writes because she is truly a woman after God’s own heart and I knew her “when.” When she was an ordinary person (not a lofty missionary :) ), when she lived down the road from us, and when she was a mom just like the rest of us. Watching their family be called into the ministry and follow God’s leading (over years of labor and faithfulness) has been a huge blessing in my life.

Whew. It took me all evening (it seemed) to come up with this list. I hope you grab a cup of coffee, maybe some chocolate, and find some new treasures.

Kathy

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P365 – Day 103 (I’ve fallen…)

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We had our Women’s Retreat this past weekend (as Tim already mentioned in his awesome Saturday Blog). I took exactly TWO pictures all day Friday and NONE on Saturday. My goodness, if Tim hadn’t covered for me on Saturday I would have actually had a lapse in my Project 365. Yikes! We wouldn’t want that to happen.

One of the pictures from Friday is of me and a sweet friend, Beckie. I posted a blog about Beckie WAY back at the beginning of my Project 365 adventure. She makes another appearance in today’s post. So the picture is from Friday (keeping up with the Project 365) but the story of this blog is from today (clear as mud?).

I just got off the phone with Beckie. She was checking to make sure I was safe and sound and in one piece. You see, in a moment of utter grace and poise, I fell backwards in the church parking lot this afternoon and fell and conked my head.

Yes, it was a priceless moment that should have been captured on film, but thankfully WAS NOT!! I was in the parking lot visiting with Beckie and some other friends. I was standing up against the curb and started to take a step back. As soon as I did so, I felt the edge of the curb and knew there was no way I could lift my feet up and over it or stop myself from falling. I didn’t have time to shift around and stop the motion in action. There wasn’t anything to grab on to so DOWN I went.

Ouch! I landed first on my bottom (ah, nice cushion there) and then banged my head hard on the sidewalk. I was thankful I didn’t fall the other way – hate to crack teeth or bang noses.

Everyone was terribly solicitous. They helped me into Beckie’s car and made me sit down and rest. They looked at my pupils and gave me instructions about concussions and the dangers of falling asleep. It was quite an impressive crowd – the worship pastor was there, the youth pastor came by, two of the church secretaries hurried to help (one being the wife of the junior high/Small group pastor) and the AWANA director.

Here’s a sample of the conversation Beckie and I had:

Beckie: Kathy, are you all right? Oh my goodness, you really hit the ground hard.

Kathy: Yes, I heard it too.

Okay, I think I would have had me sit down for a little bit at that point as well. “Kathy, we are very glad you heard the noise of your own head smashing the sidewalk, how about you rest for a few minutes before driving your children around town.”

beckie and kathy

Beckie and I at the Women’s Retreat, Friday night.

I took the ice they graciously provided and then declared myself well enough to drive home. I was a little shaky/sore but not dizzy or light headed feeling. I got in the car and immediately burst into tears.

What is that all about??? Am I too proud or self-contained to cry in front of other people? Perhaps. Maybe I was afraid they would cosset me too much and I wouldn’t be able to stop crying. The poor children, they were awfully worried to see me crying.

Rachel: Mom, you don’t ever cry. How come you don’t cry more? Are you okay?

Daniel: Mom, it makes me scared and worried when you get hurt.

Thankfully I have a hugely blessed life and am most often happy and cheerful and healthy. It shakes everyone up (including me) to have Mom (Rock and Stable Force/Manager of the Family) fall down.

kathy at the retreat

She looks poised and confident but this gal is one good push from falling flat on her backside.

By the time I got home, the tears had stopped and I was feeling better (although still very tender in the noggin). One of the women called me 10 minutes later, checking to be sure I was okay. Wasn’t that kind.

It reminds me how much we have been loved and cared for by the people of our church. When Daniel had his appendix out last year we were thoroughly covered in prayer, blessed with meals, and visited by many members of our church family. Daniel got so many gifts that I think some of the other children wondered if they couldn’t do without their appendixes (appendices?) as well.

I am thankful for friends and for a hard head that keeps me safe.

I’ll close with a piece of Tim’s prayer this evening:

“Thank You, Lord, that Kathy is so hard headed she survived her fall this afternoon.”

Kathy

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