Sticks and Stones...Words that Hurt

  Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me!

 I remember chanting these words as a child. Often as a response when a friend or sibling was hurt by someone's unthoughtfulness. But they do hurt! Those words. Often they catch you off guard during a moment when you least expect it.

Let's face it girls...Most of us will never have our prebaby bodies back! Never! The stretchmarks and the leftover baby bulge will forever be a part of the woman that you have become! The medal you wear...you have earned! So...wear it proud!

This 48 year old body has carried nine beautiful babies! I can honestly say I have cherished each 9 month journey that I took! In my head I am still that petite 100lb woman who chose to take this journey. My 5'3 frame of a body just hasn't got the message!

I have carefully tried not to ever compare myself to any photoshopped image on a page or screen. Mostly for my daughters...and for my own well being. However, Once you cross that compare line it's very difficult to reverse the damage that has been done. Walking this road will leave you frustrated and feeling defeated.

I do however think I have failed in the area of taking care of me. Thirty years of working on the inside but neglecting the outerpart. Exercise is very important...especially when you are a mom. Me...My time and energy is very limited. My energy reserves are very depleted. But that is all about to change!

Ladies....there is one rule you never break! NEVER NEVER NEVER ask a woman when they are due! Especially if you don't even know they are expecting! If you don't even know them personally!  I have had this happen a few times ...some from perfect strangers. I have a very meek and mild personality. I usually  laugh it off while dying on the inside. However, as this southern girl has aged that has all changed. Life has shown me that I don't have to always be quiet or polite when others fail at respect or common courtesy.

Today it happened again!  My first response was...Excuse me? She said it again....the girl at the check out counter in the Christian bookstore. "When are you due?" As I stood there feeling embarrassed and  very angry that someone that I didn't even know had just invaded my world. These words flew.

"I am not expecting"
"That was very rude"
"No 48 year old woman should be having a baby"
"I never thought I would leave crying from a Christian Book store"

all she could say was sorry...Is sorry enough?

Enough for the humiliation and embarrassment that I felt?
Enough for the tears that fell upon my face?
Enough for the way I allowed these words to tear at the woman that I am?
Enough for the way I allowed my insecurity to overwhelm and devour the woman that God says I am?

Me...I'm OK. I guess I should send her a thank you note for the motivation she gave me today. I can allow this to overwhelm me or I can take a good long look in the mirror and make some changes.

I think I'll take the changes....Changes for the good!

If you need me....I'll be that 48 year old pregnant looking lady walking the track!

My Father...He did it again

Be careful what you pray.
Out of my desire to know His heart and know Him completely I asked....

When you ask God to take you deeper... He will.
He will reach into those deepest places of your heart and pull out all the dark rotted matter that rest upon your soul.
He will take you on a journey like no-other.
He will take you to a place that leads straight to His heart...the pure one.
He will mold and fill those empty spaces that keep you from fully knowing Him...knowing Him completely.
He...your Father will show you an unconditional love that no man(human) can ever show.

Yes my God...my very own heart surgeon has done it again. He dug deep and pulled me close to His heart. He reached in and took another piece that I have been hanging on too. Tearing away that dark rotted matter. The things that keep Him from fully having my heart. The things that steal the joy. The peace. The freedom.

Freedom in knowing Him completely.

There is nothing more beautiful than the moment when my Father pulls me close to His heart and says rest. Stay a while. I've got this. Trust me. Lay it at my feet.

and leave it here.

The real beauty of laying it down and finally finding the rest in knowing Him.

 .....and all I did was ask Him to take me deeper!

The dance.....with my Father!

There is something so sweet and beautiful about watching a young bride as she dances with her father on her special day. Soon our very own daughter will be lovingly embraced by the love of my life. I look forward to watching this sweet moment. I must admit this is the part that gets me everytime. A little jealous I guess. But nonetheless a very sweet moment that I get lost in. Usually fighting back the tears.

My own dad passed away when I was thirteen. At the time of my wedding we didn't even have music or dancing at our reception. This was probably a wise move that saved me a lot of emotional heartache.  Although my sweet step-dad would have more than filled the void that rest in my soul, had I thought to include this into the ceremony.

Many of you may think I'm crazy....maybe I am! I really am not much into visions...however I think God does work at times in this area. Sometimes He has to get our attention in ways we least expect it. Even times that we least expect. Caution in this area is always wise.

A few weeks ago I received a sweet gift that was so unexpected. It caught me off guard! That's just how  our heavenly Father works. The funny thing is, I can't even remember the worship song that was being played. While standing in church my heart was grasped by my Father. As He took my hand He began to swirl me around and smile with the biggest smile I have ever seen. I remember dancing and  laughing as  He...My Father....gave me the sweetest most unexpected gift....My daddy daughter dance! With tears in my eyes I felt His great love fill a void that I had forgotten was there. A dance that I will never forget! Me a beautiful bride dancing with her father. Thirty years later but in the most perfect time.

I am so amazed at how my Father knows me so well. He knows those deepest places in my soul. The ones no one ever sees. In His time He fills. He heals. He loves. He smiles. He dances with his girl! He fills those broken places that only He can. How amazing is that?!  Me....I just had to be that willing vessel. The empty one with those broken places.

Dear young mother....there will be days!

Here I am 30 years into this marriage and mothering thing and I still don't have a clue! I sometimes wonder if I was even paying attention in class. Was I listening to all those wise words of wisdom from wives and mothers who have walked before me? Was I listening to the countless messages brought before me as I sat in the pew? Was I listening to His still small voice when He said..."I've got this!"? Did or do I trust Him? After all that I know....Would I do it all again? If I could go back and warn that young mother.....What would I say?

Dear young mother....
There will be days when your breath is all you have. Why? Because you have poured every once of your being into the world that surrounds you.
There will be days when serving such selfish people will seem like a waste. But hang on! It's not!
There will be days when you feel invisible...God sees you!
There will be days when you ask..."There has to be something more...right?".....There is!
There will be days when all you want is 5 minutes of quiet to sustain you....it will come.
There will be days when that man you married will become a man you may not like or know....Love him anyway! He does love you!
There will be days when your grown children will pull and tug on you as though they are 5. It's because of that unconditional love you have poured into them. You will always be their biggest fan!
There will be days when you beg God for a change....He will! In His time!
There will be days when you are just so overwhelmed that even your breath is fighting against you! Lean into Him!
 There will be days when after wishing they would just give you a few moments of quiet that they may not speak to you for days....This dear mother is heart breaking but you will get through it!
There will be days when waiting up just to hear them come in becomes your night-time routine...they may not come in and it will be hard! Know that God is working!

Dear young mother....I'm sure there will be many hard days and long ones too! Days wondering if all you have poured into them has even made an impact....It has! You may not see it now but God does have a plan!

Dear young mother if I could tell you anything of value to help you walk this road ahead, it would be one word...Jesus! It's at His name that everything changes. Everything becomes new. Everything becomes right! I may not have all the right answers at the moment but I know the man who does. He has been my life sustaining voice during this whole journey. My rock! He has carried me through the good times and the bad. He is the reason I am on this journey of motherhood. A ministry that I was chosen to do. Many days I feel so inadequate . Are you sure God I am the best person for this job? Every time the answer is YES!

Let's face it dear mother....Life is hard! It's not going to be all that you thought it would be. It's not always going to be what you would have liked.  That's the mystery of Life! The unknown! If someone had told me about all the hard days ahead ,Would I have still continued? I can honestly say YES!!!!! Yes, because all the good that God has done outweighs all those hard days. The hard days have molded me into the woman that God meant for me to be. I don't always like that woman! She could always do better. But God loves her! He trust her with the life she has been given. He thinks she is the best woman for the job!

So dear mother you have been warned! Are you listening? That fairy tale life you thought you should have, it doesn't even compare to the one God is writing! So go now and snuggle with those babies....they grow quickly! Go and love the man you have been given...he will grow old! All those chores and bills that consume your time....it will be there later! Go and do life and keep doing life!

Because if I could....I would do it all again!

Burlap Table Runner giveaway...

For the past several weeks I have been giving away bits of things from our 7 Southern Sisters shop. If you hop on over to our Facebook page you too can join in on the fun! On Wednesday 12/18 I'm giving away one of our custom Burlap Table runners. All you have to do is comment on the giveaway post on our Facebook page with your number choice of 1-1500. If you don't use Facebook just email me with your number choice at 7southernsisters@gmail.com. Have fun and Merry Christmas!

Take me home country roads....Got WiFi?

Oh the age of the world wide web! Our lives have been consumed with this mind altering addiction....searching for an entertainment that disconnects us from the real world and with those we love.

This past weekend, at our little retreat in the middle of nowhere, our family spent some precious time celebrating an early Thanksgiving with my side of the family. My sister and her family are weeks away from returning home, after spending the past six months on furlough. I had already had the phone...and Internet...cut off for the winter. So NO WiFi was to be had...except at my mom's house which was 3 miles away. Cell signals are nonexistent also! I guess you can imagine how this environment effects those...teenagers...who get the shakes if they even loose a cell signal. To be honest ...it was really nice to have every one's attention without them distracted by an electronic world! We all had to actually converse with one another! That's such an old fashioned way to live...isn't it?

What I wasn't aware of was that our kids had been asking to go to grandma's house, so that they could get on the Internet. Often they had joked about just walking to her house. However the back country roads in the middle of nowhere didn't make this a safe option.That's the sad reality of our world now! I know too much!  So, they have never attempted it. That was until this past weekend. Yes, two young ladies walking alone on the back country roads in the middle of nowhere. Neither of them were familiar enough with the area. With all that was going on I had no clue they were even gone until an hour later. We always take walks but rarely go past a certain point, which is about a mile down the road. They were gone much longer than they should have, so we sent one of the older kids to look for them. Reality hit when they returned without them. We were about two hours from dark and this was not funny. Now we have no less than 5 cars out driving all the back roads looking for them. After an hour of searching I made the dreaded 911 call. There is something so surreal about this whole experience. My mind going to places from real news stories I have only read about. The enemy tormenting me with the what ifs. None of this even making sense! Standing there giving the officer a description of our daughter was sucking the life out of me. Moments later hearing him request a canine search brought a fear that no mother should ever have to experience. How can 2 girls get so lost that even 5 adults driving around for an hour not be able to find them? Not to mention once the word got out, others in this small community joined in on the search. My heart jumped every time a car returned back to our house. But frustration came when the back seats were empty. Well,45 minutes after the 911 call, within moments of the officers leaving to join the search, a sight I longed to see came around the corner....OUR GIRLS HAD BEEN FOUND!!!!!!!! With tears in her eyes, our daughter was afraid we were mad. Mad doesn't even cover the feelings deep within my soul! The reality was .....they were lost. They took a left when they should have gone right. All for the pursuit of a WiFi signal!

Life is a lot like that! We set our hearts on something and tune all advise out. In the pursuit of our own selfish ambitions we forgo all counsel and wisdom from our elders. We go our own path with no knowledge of the journey ahead. We go left when we should have gone right. In the end...the wake of our choices touch the lives of those that love us the most. The ones who never stop loving us or doing all that they can to bring us back home.

Our lost sheep are home now. Safe from the fears of their family. Today I am counting the grace and mercy of the God I serve. I am thankful. I will never know why this all transpired. Why our girls came home safe and so many others don't ? I'm not even sure I want to go to the place of the what ifs.

If you are searching for WiFi today and find him.....Tell that dude he needs to permanently go away! He is destroying lives in ways we never even dreamed of. This generation of young people don't even know how to converse. They are escaping to a world where real people don't exist. We are loosing people to an addiction that causes them do things that makes no sense! Taking risk they never even dreamed of. A control that pulls them in a direction away from accountability of those that love them. Actions that prey on the fears of mother's like me.

With knowledge comes accountability...for the traveled path that's left behind.

What are you searching for today?

I will not talk I will not talk I will not talk....

You may be surprised about this because I was a shy kid for most of my adolescent years.Yes...I was one of those kids who had the lovely experience of writing a page full of sentences because of my lack of self control. Do kids have to do that anymore?The punishment that made your hands hurt like you had been shoveling dirt all day. Not that I have ever shoveled dirt all day. The repeat motion that was suppose to instill in your brain that talking was not a good thing and you shouldn't do it. Especially when the teacher was talking!

 Yesterday as I was working on a few orders from my Etsy Shop I had these lovely flashbacks from elementary school. It's amazing how the repeat motion of something does change your perspective of any situation. I hated writing sentences! As I painted all 64 utensil holders....Joy Joy Joy,Thankful Thankful Thankful, My whole mood changed! Did you know that keeping a gratitude list will make you 25% happier? When you're focused on the good things in life...How can you worry or feel afraid?

In this month of Thankfulness...really it should be year long....I am giving away a few things from our 7 Southern Sisters Shop. Head on over to our Facebook page and join the fun. Don't forget to"Like" our page. This week I'm giving away a set of Christmas Utensil holders. In fact I'm choosing 2 winners this week! That makes your chances even greater! Have fun and think of something to be thankful for today!

The best part... Today I will be reminded again, all 64 times, as I sew them together! Reminded to be thankful in ALL things and to take GREAT joy in ALL that I have and do! My goal today is to be HAPPY HAPPY  HAPPY !