September 2007

I’ve always been amazed at how fast life moves on. Wasn’t it only yesterday that we had a huge pile of sand in our driveway and wheel-barreled it to the back yard to build a big sandbox for our boys? They had years of fun in that thing, building cities, assigning “real estate” and watching it all disappear in a flood (by way of the garden hose). Around that same time (my sister tells me it was 17 years ago) we bought her pool and installed it in our yard along with the sandbox. Today the pool has come down.

It’s weird to see it in pieces all over the yard. I’m the resident picture taker and haven’t done any of the tearing down. But then the battery died on the camera and I dropped the battery on my toe getting it out of the camera, so I’m sitting here writing this post with ice on my toe instead of helping. It’s not broken, but I’m sure I’ll have a wonderful bruise, unless the ice does the trick.

Looking back, I remember all the fun times the kids had in the pool. They spent a lot of time there with the neighborhood kids during the summer. Those neighborhood kids are grown now – the youngest went off to college this fall. Time moves on. And since no one was really using the pool – I swam in it once this year and it got used a few other times – four in all, it was not worth keeping.

Looking forward, I envision grass where the pool used to be and afternoons of badminton or croquet. And eventually, perhaps we’ll just turn the yard into something of beauty where the squirrels and bunnies and birds already play – when our cats aren’t outside to torment them. :) But make it more eye appealing.

Someday, if God wills, grandchildren will enjoy our backyard, and perhaps we’ll have new games for them to enjoy – to fuel their imagination. Maybe a smaller sandbox or pool. One can never tell.

In the meantime, it will be a relief to not have the upkeep. My guys would like to replace it with a hot tub…but we’ll see. I’m thinking I’d rather have a bathtub jacuzzi that I can enjoy inside.

Maybe later I’ll add some pictures of our escapade. For now, the battery that decided to land on my toe is charging. And I do have more pictures to take… :)

With the Labor Day holiday, my husband took the week off work to work. Hmm…that is a bit of irony, isn’t it? But there are so many projects waiting to be done, sometimes vacation is the only time to do them, yes? So he’s been busy. He’s been prepping his 1966 Mustang for painting. Hopefully, he’ll be done soon.

For me, I’ve been getting ready for the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference coming up in two weeks in Dallas. It’s one of the highlights of my year, and I get to take my youngest son, Ryan, with me again. (The picture to the right is of Ryan and me at the Awards Banquet at the conference last year when I won first place in the Genesis Contest for Romantic Suspense.)

Part of the prep is finishing my current book, which I’m trying to add words to as I rewrite. I think it’s a good story – and I hope it makes it to print someday. Of course, part of my reason for going to the conference is to pitch this work.

But writing is only part of what I do, as taking care of my home and family come first. And then there is that desire to procrastinate…so I baked oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, coconut, and dried fruit mixed in. They turned out rather well. :)

When the cookies were done, I sat down to tweak my story. I hadn’t gotten very far, was struggling with the heroine’s POV when the phone rang. My mom called, which is nothing unusual, until she asked me if I’d like to drive her to the hospital. The doctor had told her to go to emergency due to an abnormal EKG. My mom has had heart issues in the past, so this naturally scared me.

I sensed the need to ask several prayer loops for prayer before I left, so I dashed off some emails and went to pick her up. We (Mom, Dad, and me) spent four hours in emergency, which considering how busy they were wasn’t bad. They repeated the same tests she’d had at the doctor’s office. Turned out to be nothing to worry about, for which we are very grateful! Her follow-up cardiologist appointment today confirmed that there are no problems. Apparently, the primary doctor didn’t know how to read an EKG that involved a pacemaker. I’ve got to say though, the whole thing turned out a LOT better than I expected. God does do exceedingly, abundantly above what we could ask or imagine!

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about that subject lately – about God’s ability to do far more than we can ask or imagine. That’s hard for me to fathom because I can imagine a lot! I pondered this on a recent walk to the park, a newly discovered delightful place to pray. I’ve come to realize how little I know how to pray, how to ask for what’s best. I know what I want, but is it really what’s best for me, for my family? God tells us to ask in faith, to ask consistently, to pray about everything, to ask that our joy may be full, to be persistent and not give up, and to thank Him for His answers. So I do.

And I try to leave my concerns and anxieties with Him. But I’m at a place right now where a desire is so strong that I go from begging Him to grant it, to fear that He won’t (and I don’t want to go through that rejection again), to trust that He knows best. I want Him to surprise me with whatever He has planned. To let Him choose, until the next time the desire hits me strong, and I fear opening my email lest I see a rejection on my project.

I would love to attend this year’s conference, contract in hand. A friend suggested what a great thing that would be. I definitely agree! To have the story of my heart sell would be so awesome. But I wish I didn’t want it so much.

In the meantime, I did some fun research for the other book, the one I’m pitching at the conference. My heroine was drinking a mocha frappuccino, and I had never had one. It sounded good! So I googled frappuccino recipes and found one that was pretty good. Actually, the whole site looks like it has a lot of fun recipes. Check it out here.

Next I want to try their Cappuccino Muffins too. Don’t they look good?

Oh, and one last thing – I now have the ability to upload pictures to my website! (In case you hadn’t noticed!) At least in a limited way. Check out this month’s Spotlight with Mindy Starns Clark to see the ones I’ve added there as well. I can’t upload them from my camera to my Gallery page yet, but…one thing at a time. :)

Now back to rewriting…or procrastinating… :)

When God makes a promise, He keeps it. We need not worry that He will somehow renege on His word. But there were times in the Old Testament when His promises to people involved waiting. And sometimes the promise involved action on the part of the one receiving the promise. For instance:

Abraham – God promised Abraham an heir, one born of his own flesh. Abraham believed God, but then tried to figure out a way to help God fulfill that promise. His relationship with Hagar produced an heir, but not the heir of promise. Eventually, after years of waiting, God kept His word and Isaac was born.

But the promise didn’t end there. In Isaac, Abraham’s seed, God would one day bring salvation to the world. Thousands of years later He brought it to pass in Jesus Christ, but at the time, all Abraham knew was that Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to him. That is, until the day God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on an altar.

Of course, from reading Genesis, we know that Abraham obeyed God and God spared Isaac. Hebrews tells us that Abraham reasoned that if he did end up killing his son, God would raise him from the dead because He knew God well enough to know He wouldn’t go back on His word. But the point is, the promise was all of God, yet it cost Abraham every ounce of faith he had.

David – When David was about fifteen years old, God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint him to one day be Israel’s king. It was God’s promise to David. Heady stuff for such a young man, to know he would one day inherit the crown. But first, God put him through 15 years of trials, living the life of a fugitive, on the run from King Saul, who still held the power. When he finally ascended the throne after Saul’s death, it was not with ease. Only his home tribe of Judah accepted his rule. The other eleven tribes fought against him for seven more years.

The promise was a kingdom. But David had to fight and trust to build it – and wait on God every step of the way.

Noah – God promised Noah safety and deliverance from the coming world destruction. But Noah had to build an ark according to exact specifications before God would fulfill the promise. Anyone who would join Noah was welcome, and he preached to friends, neighbors, and family for years while the ship building progressed. In the end, it cost Noah everything and everyone he’d ever known, minus the seven people in his immediate family who joined him. Faith let him walk into the finished ark and helped him start the world all over again.

God promised these men an heir, a kingdom, and deliverance. They all learned patience as they waited, and they all exercised sacrifice, determination, and obedience in the process. Theirs was not a stagnant faith, but a trust that did as God asked. In the end they were greatly rewarded.

God always keeps His promises. But He may require our patience and trust to see them come to fruition.