Women in the Word @Exemplify

I anticipated April for many reasons. Only one, of which, was the flip flops and t-shirts. There is something else, though...

As many of you know, I just love the Exemplify Online team. I have written for Exemplify's Devotional Channel for several months (I am bad with time, so probably longer). This is the channel that I always write about, but there are several other channels to meet every need imaginable, such as a Family, Marriage, Singles, and a Ministry channel.

This month has brought a new relationship, as I was invited to join the Exemplify Magazine team. This ministry has a thirst and hunger for glorifying the King. It ministers to me much more than I contribute to it, and I am thrilled to be a part of it.

While this month's column was a testimony/introduction to my presence on the team, the April theme of the magazine is worship, and that is exactly what it does. It worships His name.

Without further delay...

I can’t really explain how it happened, but somewhere along the way I lost my life.

It was not the same scenario as losing my keys, or setting down my tea cup and forgetting where I put it. I do things like that all of the time. I did not forget the location of my life. I just lost it.

When this lost life began, it could be said that I was off to a good start. My family encouraged me to know the Lord, and the church body knew every move that I made. In fact, I was in church every time the key turned.

In response, it became irresistible for me to know something else. Rebellion was a sash that I wore as if I had won its pageant.

To read more, click here and visit April's issue of Exemplify Magazine.

Looking Beyond Strife and Toward Life In The Lord {at Exemplify}

Today I am headed to a Beth Moore event with some ladies from my church. As you can imagine I am pretty excited. I got my mani/pedi. I shopped for some new clothes. It is like a mini-vacation for me. Most importantly, I got a new pen so I can write with the speed of light.

This means that I will be blogging from the road, tomorrow. I love blogging from the road. It feels like I am a foreign correspondent.

Today I am over at Exemplify. This is kind of a sad post because it will be my last post as a regular devotional channel writer. I am going to be writing for Exemplify's online magazine starting in April. If you have not had a chance to read the magazine, it is a must for any real Christian woman.

So the teaser for my last devotional post goes something like this,

...This makes me think of the spider that lives outside my kitchen window. He impressively weaves the web of his home across one corner. As I do dishes, I see his new conquests and wonder if I should tear His operation down, just to save the life of one more, unwanted by both of us.

The temptation that must exist in that net! They come one after the last, straight in peril’s way, each one demonstrating the first act of realized captivity, flight.

Intuitively, we fight the predator in this way. When I am bound in the net, I fight with everything in me. The net seduces my fleshly rights. The more that I fight, the quicker my feet slip through the gaps, and the rope wraps itself in knots around my limbs...

To read more, click here and go to Exemplify's Devotional Channel.

"This Time I Will Praise The Lord"...at Exemplify

Leah was unloved. Jacob, her husband did not love her. He loved her sister, Rachel.

Leah was the one who was picked last for the dodge ball team, the one who went to prom alone when the boy that she wanted did not notice her. She did not get married because someone asked her father for her hand; she got married because the custom dictated that the oldest married first. During the seven years that Jacob waited for Rachel, no one wanted to look in Leah’s lovely eyes and call her wife.

She could not see the eyes that pushed past her quiet facade, though. They were the same eyes that saw her tears when she was left alone after polite intimate interludes. These eyes saw the desire of a wife for her husband and the distress of an empty bed. No one on this earth could see what these eyes saw. They had the heart of a Father...

To read more click here and go to Exemplify's Devotional Channel. You will find me there, today!

They Found No Cancer...at Exemplify

The nurses told me how to get on the MRI table. This is one of those times that I wish I was good with directions. They were kind enough to help me through the process. I ended up face down with my right breast secured, surprisingly like a mammogram, by the clamp that had appeared through the hole in the table.

As awkward as all of it might seem, it had become a norm to me. I just wanted this day to be over. I would have stood on my head to get the answer to this question that had already consumed two months of our life…is it cancer?

To read more, click here, and join me at Exemplify's Devotional Channel...

True Beginnings at Exemplify

...Christmas is the beginning of the story, or at least a good second beginning. It is the story of God sent in human form to be our Savior.

The heralding of this event is similar to what we do during this entire season. The prophets and John the Baptist were sent to prepare the way of the Lord. At Exemplify we have been heralding in the birth of Christ the entire month of December. It is exciting that Jesus came to us as a baby, poor and homeless. What a reason to celebrate when this one birth is weighed in the eternal balance!

John cried out, concerning this beginning, to accomplish two things: prepare the way of the Lord, and make His paths straight. Do you think our call is any different? Jesus walks with us down this path every day of our lives. This got me thinking about the path that I have prepared.

To read more, click here and go to Exemplify's Devotional Channel...

P.S. I am starting my holiday shopping today. Starting?! How is everyone else doing on that?

Hey, Look Where You're Going!...at Exemplify

I remember sitting down one night several years back. I was on the floor beside my bed, facing the window, and came before God in prayer. The tone was completely serious as I asked Him for the answer to two questions. I wanted to know if I should go forward with an accountability partnership with Susie, and if I should go out on a date with Ralph.

With all the humility that I could muster (not much), I pleaded for an answer to my question while reminding God that I was on a very specific timeline. In fact, I told Him that I needed to act as soon as we were finished talking and, on that note, I appreciated His full attention and participation.

By the end of that three minute conversation, I felt God telling me that Susie was a no, and Ralph was a yes. Two months later, I found out that I had my signals crossed. Susie was a yes for many years, and Ralph should have been a no from the get-go...

To read the rest, join me over at Exemplify's Devotional Channel.

Talking Christmas Traditions with Exemplify

As promised, I am participating in Christmas Traditions on Exemplify’s Family Channel. Thanks to Andrea who is our host. She also hosts Caffeinated Randomness on her blog (yes ladies, it is back on!) Under Grace and Over Coffee. She is funny, Canadian and has the cutest little dog. Enough said, thanks to Andrea.

It seems as though this holiday season is going to be one big holiday. Who can argue with that? It starts with giving thanks and ends with the best birthday, ever! I can honestly say that my husband and I are not fully formed when it comes to family tradition, though. It seems that each year brings a new circumstance, and new geography.

More than not, we get Thanksgiving alone together. This has made it into something unique. This year hubby made breakfast, and because of this it is my favorite breakfast. We sat down and read scripture after breakfast and prayed thanksgivings.

Ever prayer, every word all comes back to the same thing when you give thanks. The only reason that I have to be thankful is my death and new life in Christ. I don’t deserve it, and that is why I am thankful. Every gift and blessing comes from Him, alone. Can I get a witness?

So, we started the day with that on our lips.

AND, while I am on it…how wonderful to sit over breakfast with the man who God declares as mine! And, pray? Be still my heart. There is nothing more handsome than that.

Then, I cooked a special but non-Thanksgiving sort of meal. Mind you, Thanksgiving is tomorrow for us. My in-laws are officially coming in, so we delayed it. You guessed it, your week last week is my week this week.

Last night, I made the bread and cornbread for the dressings which I will make today. I also made the pie crusts, and did the obligatory jello salad. After I started making my own cranberry sauce last year, I could not get enough. I love to watch them pop out of their little skins…perhaps, an analogy for Thanksgiving dinner. So, I did that last night, also. Oh, and the turkey is brining its little heart out.

Today I do pies, dressing (I am a firm believer that it is better the second day), a casserole and the turkey stock…and clean…and finish decorating…and…and…peace, Lord!

A tradition that I will incorporate into our meal, tomorrow, is the Thanksgiving list. It is a list of no less than five things this year that one is thankful for. It is to be shared over dessert, because you don’t need as many hands for that course. We did this growing up a few times and the answers are fun and surprising.

Back to last week. After cooking, the Christmas tree went up. This is a tradition from my childhood. I don’t know why, but it gives a family activity, and slight movement post-gorge. AND, this is where our Christmas traditions begin.

And ends.

We spend the holidays with so much family that we have not had a chance to form our own traditions. I can tell you some of the things that I grew up with, but this exercise has made me think hard on this. It is time we took Christmas over. I will get back to you on this.

I used to love going to church on Christmas Eve and then coming home to unwrap the presents. We did gifts on the Eve and stockings on Christmas morning. Before we unwrapped the gifts, we read the story of the birth of Christ. I have a video of this from an awkward teenage year. I am wearing a hat, inside (much like Debbie Gibson I am sure). I had leggings tucked into my socks, and of course, a pair of Keds. Oh, why do we put things on tape?

One day I will post a picture of my old hair (It was big, Texas style). I show the pictures to my high school girls discipleship group as an ice breaker every year. They actually showed up at my house once after they had spent hours trying to imitate it. It was hysterical.

The next tradition is the holiday meal. It happened at 2ish on Christmas. Most of the time we just felt like rolling out of our chairs and napping on the floor after dinner; but, somehow, we usually made it to a couch or bed. I think of my mother…working in the kitchen all of those years. Sorry, mom. I understand that today and tomorrow I will understand it even more.

It’s worth it, though? Don’t you think?

Christmas pics are coming soon!

Top Ten Christmas Music Pics With Exemplify

Exemplify is kicking off Christmas festivities, today, with the sharing of your favorite Christmas tunes. Kristen, my frieditor (friend/editor/boss), does not just like Christmas in the same way that she does not just like all of her writers or cupcakes. When she likes something it is kind of like us loving something a lot. So, hop over and join in the Christmas fun.

This has been so much fun. I would not search all of this out on my own, but I have enjoyed spending way to much time on it.

In no order, my ten that I could put a finger on…

Hail, Hail To The Newborn King (I think that is the title. We had SO much fun singing this in the praise team last Christmas. I hope that we do it again this Christmas.) – Selah

Jingle Bells by Easter Bloc (This is how you rock a Christmas song.)

Silent Night by Baby Washington (They do it old school. Nice.)

White Christmas by the Drifters (Again, old school.)

White Christmas by Bing Crosby (A favorite. I watch White Christmas, the movie, multiple times during the holiday season. In fact, we watched it/listened to it while we put up Christmas decorations this week.)

Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano (This gives Christmas a little spice. I like it, a lot.)

Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer by Gene Autry (Has anyone really done it better?)

Carol of the Bells by anyone really. I have the Roger Wagner Chorale. (It says fancy Christmas to me.)

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Tony Bennett (My husband sings this all Christmas long.)

Baby It’s Cold Outside by Dean Martin and whatever woman that is singing with him, at the time, because there are several versions. (What a flirty little Christmas jingle!)

Thanks, Kristen! I look forward to sharing Christmas traditions on Thursday on Exemplify’s family channel.

What are your favorite Christmas tunes?

You Are Out of Your Mind...Over at Exemplify

Offering testimony is not a task for the weak. The nature of God is unruly and dynamic. He does not give us polite courting tales, like, “I met God in church and we just decided to go out”. Instead, God does not leave one stone unturned as His Spirit claims what was His from creation, His beloved...

I am on the move, again, but you can come with me. To read the rest of this post, click here and head over to Exemplify’s Devotional Channel.