Today is the last day of the my first year of motherhood. A year ago tonight Curtis and I went to the hospital to have our little guy. What a wonderful baby boy we brought home with us. I’m getting ready to go buy his birthday present. Everything for the party is ready. Curt’s family is on their way into town. My mom is in Detroit for her conference, but she and my dad will be with us in time for the party. All that’s left is to enjoy my boy and our company. It will be a little hard to let him out of my arms tomorrow, but mama’s gotta share. The blog will probably be a little quiet for the next few days. I may not have much time to moderate the comments, but we’ll be back to normal next week.

The Lord gave Colossians 1:24-29 to our ministry director to pray over Beth for the event in Detroit. We’d love for you join us in praying these verses over her:

Now Beth rejoices in what was suffered for these precious women, and she fills up in her flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. She has become its servant by the commission God gave her to present to them the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. She proclaims him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that she may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end she labors, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in her.

Have a wonderful weekend, sistas!

Many thanks to Rich Kalonick for this video!

Click here to visit the event recap page.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

I just got through posting a new devotion about the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet at the Pharisee’s house. It got me thinking about my own life. I have been both the Pharisee and the sinful woman. When I was a teenager I had a list of things I was told not to do and didn’t do. Of course, there were plenty of things on God’s list that I was plowing right through, but in my immature tunnel vision I focused on the “big things” that would make me look good and pure in everyone else’s eyes. And then after several years of pridefully, loudly, publicly swearing I would never do such-and-such, the Lord (graciously) allowed my will power to fail me. And I had to take a hard look at the depths of my own sinfulness. I learned that given the right circumstance, my flesh is capable of absolutely anything.

Almost ten years after that particular struggle, my profound grief over the fall has been eclipsed by grief over my self-righteousness and pride. I was given four years at my high school to flaunt the love and grace of Christ, to show Christ in me – the hope of glory. Instead, what I flaunted before many of my classmates was will-worship, arrogance, and hypocrisy. My heart breaks when I think about things said, thought, and even prayed during that time. But God was merciful not to leave me as I was. I’m so thankful that there is hope for both the Pharisee and the sinful woman. As my mom says in today’s devotion, He can take the broken cistern in that 17-year-old Pharisee’s heart, and in that 18-year-old sinful woman’s heart – both of whom He deeply and gloriously forgave – and create a wellspring of love for Him.

OK, you guys have given me speaking material for MONTHS. Or at least once a month. You are the funniest things. I have a hard work week well under way but I jumped on line to see if you were engaging in the echo: Please More Spirit! I am happy to see that you are fully engaged. Your acronyms were hilarious.

Our dear Star, I join so many of your sisters in saying how sorry I am for such a tragic and complicated loss. I was just floored. We extend our love and compassion to you in the bonds of Christ Jesus. My Beloved Ones, I paused just a moment before I mentioned Star’s prayer need because I am afraid to raise the expectation that I will always (or even often) be able to articulate specific responses on this blog. I will have to try really hard to keep this blog what it primarily is (a fun and personal way of connecting) in order to keep up with it. I think most of us can imagine that something like this blog could become all consuming and keep us from getting to the things God has called us to absolutely prioritize. I want to write a personal letter every time I see a personal need among your comments but I have to resist it or this will become a ravenous beast I can’t feed. I have to keep in mind that we really do have a prayer board at LPM and every single one of those requests DO get lifted up before the Throne of Grace. HOWEVER, I simply could not overlook Star’s need today. Please know that whether or not I mention something painful you wrote in your comments, I did hear it, feel it, and process it before the Lord Jesus. Know that I care so, so much whether or not you ever see such concern articulated. I dearly love you.

PS. Yes, Midol really works.

Since some of you Sistas brought up the subject of PMS (after all, we are sistas and if sistas have anything at all, it’s hormones), I feel compelled to tell you what I told a group recently. If you want to live those fretful days of evil principalities with any measure of victory, if, when the day of evil comes, you indeed want to stand, you have to get in your head that PMS means Please More Spirit! Need a reference? OK, how about John 3:34 – “for God gives the Spirit without limit”? (It’s a good thing.) Need another? Luke 11:13 – “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” You know how furious we get when one of our loved ones makes the merest suggestion that maybe we’re a little hormonal? Like those times when waking up to an open bag of Fritos on the coffee table and a water ring left from a sweating glass of soda seem perfectly legitimate grounds for divorce? If, while we’re denying the remotest chance we could have PMS, we start looking for the nearest thing we could throw at them, we might want to see these words flashing in red florescent lights across the marque of our minds: Please More Spirit! Please More Spirit! This morning Keith drew my attention to a darling 12 year old girl at church with that look on her face and said, “I hope her parents are really keeping an eye on her. She really seems sullen.” “Honey,” I said, “All 12 year old girls are sullen. They are a hormone waiting to wreak havoc.” How could he have forgotten? Between his three women – Amanda, Melissa, and me – his skin was in jeopardy the greater part of any given month. But don’t think he wasn’t the kind to invite trouble. He’d say stuff like, “I’m so sorry, Baby. That zit really looks like it hurts.” Where’s me a lamp?? Good thing we have God. That’s all I’m saying. And good thing for THEM we have God. Next time around, remember two very important things:
1. Pray “Please More Spirit!”
2. Take Your Midol.

Don’t you find it hauntingly interesting that all of us girls were hit so hard by her death? I stood in front of the television last night and wanted to bawl. Then, this morning I honestly felt a heaviness of spirit about it as I looked over the newspaper. I was moved when I opened the blog and Amanda had already written on it. I thought, “Like mother, like daughter. She can’t get it off her mind either.” We are both really sensitive, I reasoned. Then, I watched all of you react to it and dialogued with my staff about their own responses. Do you know what I think? I think it’s possible that, as different as we may kid ourselves into thinking that we are, her tragedy tapped into something hidden in all of us. She hit a major nerve in the feminine system. Anna Nicole Smith publicly fought and lost the same battle of insecurity that you and I privately fight. Had we had money, access, and opportunity, no telling what lengths we might have traveled to feel a little better about our broken selves.

Untreated by Jesus, the true Lover of our souls, we will be insatiably self-destructive and utterly impossible to make happy. My friend’s mom used to say, “Sometimes we’re happy and we don’t even know it.” Life is hard. Danged hard. If we each know (really know!) again today that we have a perfect Savior who loves us perfectly in all our imperfections and that nothing can take Him from us, AND if we have a few fellow sojourners (sistas!)to encourage us in Him along the way, as challenged as we may be, we are the happiest people in this cold, hard world. Let’s spread a smile across our face and show it. Sooner than later, somebody’s going to ask us to share the hope that is in us.

Anna Nicole Smith Dead

My heart is grieving over this woman. I see a soul who ended up taking every destructive road in her life and I wonder what went wrong early on.

We do not have to succumb to the turmoil and insanity of this life. There is one, Jesus Christ, who offers hope for the self-destructive starlet, for the drug addict, for the sexually broken, for the abused, for the impoverished, for the person grieving the loss of a child, and for the lonely. No one is beyond His reach.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:1-3

Um, I accidentally just rejected like 15 comments with no way to recover them. Ladies, I’m really sorry. This is what happens when I don’t have my tea in the morning! Going to remedy that now…

I’m selecting 12 Weekly Word Devotions for a little project we’re doing at LPM. If you’ve been reading our devos for a while and have a couple favorites, will you let me know which ones they are?