One year ago today the LPM Blog was born! On that first day I posted a welcome message and some pictures from our staff Christmas party. It was fascinating material. Were any of you reading during those early days? It has been a blast getting to fellowship with you in blogworld since then.
I mistakenly told my mom and sister that it is a tradition to post 100 things about yourself on your blog’s birthday. I think it’s actually something you do on your 100th post. Oops! I’m blaming it on my cold medicine. We had already made the list when I realized my mistake (and thank goodness we couldn’t come up with more than 30 things), so here it is!
30 Things About LPM and the Moore Family
LPM
*It was founded in 1994 with a one thousand dollar donation that Beth didn’t know what to do with.
*One donation check several years ago was made out to “Living Fruits Ministry.” We never cashed it because we loved it so much.
*A core group of the staff has been together since the days of monthly prayer breakfasts at Beth’s house twenty years ago. They have been through untold hair seasons with one another and are likely still married today because of one another’s encouragement to press on.
*Beth had to give up teaching a Christian aerobics class in order to write Bible studies, a sacrifice she often recounts and sometimes while doing a grapevine left then right, step forward, leap back. She says she’s never kicked the habit of writing aerobic routines in her head when she hears a cool Christian contemporary song.
*Beth’s personal assistant and our senior statesman, Susan Kirby, used to be a caterer, a gift she now utilizes to pick up good to-go food. Sadly, we only have about five restaurants near the ministry but, thankfully, four of them are Mexican food.
*The entire staff also considers Susan Kirby to be our resident authority on everything from recipes to home repairs to Christmas decorations to marriage restorations. Hers is the most sought-after advice in the ministry.
*Everyone on the staff is kind and sweet to each other until we play Bunko (no, we don’t bet) then everyone’s sin nature surfaces alarmingly. We had to give up playing “Spoons” because a utensil shortage once caused us to have to also use knives, to which many nearly lost appendages.
*One of us who will remain unnamed has the strangest sneezes in the free world and they always come in rapid succession of a minimum of eight. Every staff member within ear-shot observes a moment of smiling silence until they pass.
*Diane, our resource department manager, cut off all her eye lashes with an eyelash curler several years ago. As she helplessly watched them fall in the sink, she reports to having said aloud only one word: “Y’all.” Diane says that she does not know whether she was talking to all her eyelashes or to all of her good friends at Living Proof that would care that she lost them.
*Kimberly Meyer, one of our most beloved staff members, did not fully grasp the concept of preferring others when she served at Beth’s product table for the first time at Women of Faith several years ago. The irony of her shameful bias toward Beth was that it was untested. She’d not yet heard a single other speaker on the program. The first woman who walked up to the product table got the full brunt of it. With the enthusiasm of an entire cheerleading squad, Kimberly pointed both fingers at her and blurted out, “Who’s your favorite?” The unsuspecting woman, wide-eyed with surprise, blurted out with equal exuberance, “Patsy Clairmont!” A fact we still celebrate to this day.
*Every single one of the staff members who has gotten pregnant after coming to work here has had a boy. We now have five of them. Not a pink ruffle in the mix. Something suspicious is lurking in the office drinking water.
*Beth and ministry director, Sabrina, ride to Bible study together every Tuesday and worship so loud to Kirk Franklin songs that the whole car shakes.
*The whole ministry staff loves nothing better than a big, corporate praise dance. Uh, come to think of it, we haven’t let loose like that since Melissa came on board. She needs time to grow into it. A lot of time.
The Moore Family
*Most nights that we are all together, we sit on the edge of the bath-tub, fully clothed, and soak our feet in hot bath water.
*On special occasions, we put bath confetti in the water. And afterwards if there was good conversation, we talk about what a great “soaking” it was.
*While we soak our feet in the hot bath water, we drink our “comforts,” which is short for “comfort drink,” which is short for homemade hot cocoa (with real whipped cream).
*Mom and Dad have authored about fifty “sweet-Beanie” songs and can manipulate any song ever written into a “sweet-Beanie” song.
*We eat Jimmy Dean sausage almost every morning for breakfast. It is a small, dainty meal.
*Jackson’s feet often smell just like the feet of a grown man, and he thinks it is downright hilarious for anyone to smell them and gag.
*Beanie (the dog) is fed her medication in a mound of Easy Cheese (which Mom and Dad inexplicably call “cheese-meats”).
*Beth has a phobia of non-fried foods. The revelation recently came to full disclosure last week when she was shocked and awed that the fish in her fish tacos was grilled rather than fried. She even eats fried pickles. Disgusting.
*We love petit fours more than almost any other dessert creation. Wedding cake is a very close second.
*Amanda was the resident evangelist to the pets in our family, leading them to the Lord by holding their paws together in prayer.
*Melissa has the uncanny ability to order the worst and most random thing on any menu. If there is one bad entrée on an otherwise wonderful menu, she will pick it out.
*When Mom goes to work out, she says that she is going to “pump some iron” in order to “meet her fitness goals.”
*Keith has been known to entertain Beth, Amanda, and Melissa on a bad day by doing ballet across the hard-wood floor in his cowboy boots. His pirouette is fascinating.
*Melissa’s first car was a much-desired 1969 Z28 Camaro in midnight blue with white racing stripes. She got it for her 16th birthday from her daddy. He took her out on the road to teach her how to drive it, gave her a little while to practice the four-speed, then said, “Now, try again and quit driving like a girl.” They still share a great love for muscle cars.
*Melissa’s proudest moment for Amanda was the day she got a report card with a “needs improvement” in conduct.
*All Moore’s look to Melissa for fashion advice. There is still distant hope that her advice for Keith will one day be taken. She likes to remind her mother that if her father were indeed both handsome and cool, he’d be dangerous. Better for him to just be handsome.
*Dad brought a live armadillo to mom’s window the night before he proposed. We’re not sure why. Perhaps to test her commitment.
Happy blog-a-versary, Siestas!
Congratulations on 1 year! I have been reading for some time now but haven’t commented…you have so many comments!! I don’t know how you keep up with them all. However, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that I am another blogger out here that is blessed by this ministry that you started a year ago. You are all so encouraging and so FUN! You bring a smile to my face.
Thank You!
Carrie
4chicksandahunter.blogspot.com
I sat at my desk this morning and thought “I really need a soul pick me up” and immediately I thought of my faithful LPM Blog. What a treat!! Happy blog-a-versary and I’m looking forward to many more joyful years to come.
I am blogging today because as fellow Christian Siestas I know that you can relate.
This morning while driving home from dropping the kids off at school I had a moment. I was listening to Christian radio and O Holy Night came on. All of a sudden my soul felt like it was crying out. In that moment I found myself feeling so homesick for Heaven. I longed deep in my soul to just be there with Christ, on my knees, arms up high praising Him. The longing was so intense I just wept. I just wanted to be with my Father. In that moment nothing in this world that I could think of even compared, not my husband, my children, my house. Nothing. Because, it isn’t really suppose to. Only Christ.
I believe in moments God gives us glimpses of what it will be like in Heaven. Just a tiny glimps, otherwise, we would die from His holiness.
This is the very heart of Christmas. The most precious gift I can ever conceive of.
I pray that the world will be overtaken by His gift this Christmas.
I would love to hear others comments on this. Are you homesick too?
Tabitha
OH Happy Day! I love you all, you goofy girls! I don’t get to visit every day and don’t always get to read all the comments every visit, but I’m unfailingly blessed whenever I do drop by. Keep up the good work, Siestas!
GREAT! ‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY AND THIS PROVIDED THE LAUGHTER.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY SIESTAS FROM MISS DEE
I can’t begin to tell you how much this blog means to me. You all have offered support, laughter, love and kindness. Just to know that there are women who are willing to share their stories to help another sister gives me chills. I have laughed and cried with all of you and above all the love for Jesus is beyond compare. Thank you all for being part of my live. Beth, you have helped me through alot of stuff through the Bible studies and your live converence. THank you, Thank you,
Becky
Thanks to all of you ! It has been a wonderful, fun year sharing with the Moore family.
See you in San Diego !
Merry Christmas !
a west tx siesta !
That was great!! I LOVE our blog and I am encouraged right when I need it by you Siestas!!!
Happy Blogaversary!!! I’m happy to be part of the celebration. Praise the Lord for Amanda starting this blog!
Happy Blog-a-versery to Y’All TOO!
I must tell you this blog is the most fun and I am so blessed to be a part of it.
Thanks for taking the time to be personal here and allowing us a place to respond. I am so grateful and so blessed.
As for the 30 things… Laughing my head off. I may adopt the soaking our feet in a hot tub tradition, if my girls can stand it. We all ravish hot chocolate, but we call ours “Snowman Soup”… It is rich and soothing all at the same time. It is a Bentham Christmas Eve Tradition to drink Snowman Soup and watch It’s A Wonde- rful Life after communion at Church. However, this year, I had a showdown with the enemy over the foothold he had in our finances and at the beginning of the summer I sold all 400 of our DVDs. The revelation came while I was fasting – seriously eating fruits and vegetables and drinking only water while I was out buying the two newest DVDs on the Wal Mart rack. Every payday this was my ritual to buy at least two new DVDs. My friends laughingly called me the video store and I regularly loaned them out. Two summers ago my daughters literally spent their entire summer either on a trip or in front of the television watching movie after movie. So… this year, there is no Wonderful Life to watch.
I tried to hang onto those little DVDs that we would watch as a family but I clearly heard God tell me “I did not say just the ones you can part with, I said… All of them.”
I sold them in parts. First the ones I cared nothing about keeping at all – I still had some in the original packaging. Next the ones that I had watched only once since buying them. Then all the horribly male movies when my husband wasn’t looking. He often would see my stacks ready to go to market and fish out his favorites for one last run in the DVD player. Then, as my flesh warred against my Spirit, there it was… the movies I loved to watch waiting in plastic Wal Mart sacks to be sold … I could hardly bare it until I delivered them up. It was the most freeing experience of my life. I remember telling my friend on the phone while I waited for the bookstore to make me an offer, “I have no idea what God is up to… but I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”
The most interesting things was how each time I went to sell a bundle of videos the number was fewer but the value was higher. My last trip included all of my “Jesus” videos, classics and contemporaries alike. I didn’t want to sell them, but I distinctly heard this rattling in my head, “I’m not in the video, your just rationalizing your stuff.”
So, I took them in. All tolled, I sold the whole lot for around $600 and was quite shocked that I got that sort of price for used videos – some very well used.
I don’t even know what started this rambling. Oh, and by the way, this experience has allowed me to examine what’s important and I continue to view movies, but in a good steward kind of way. I now rent them from a “Colo-RED” box that features only new releases at the grocery store for $1 a night. This way I see only those movies I want to see, and I am being a good steward. Which, with the price of gas that is quite a feat!
Anywho… I am rambling along…
Blessings,
Michelle
P. S. I wanted to write to any siestas from the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, I am a member of Pastor Brady’s previous church and we are praying for you all… God Bless!
Beth- I LOVED the song! Absolutely precious! Especially with the glasses 😎
The list cracked me up too-my youngest has stinky feet too!
Happy Blog-a-versary Siestas!
I LOVED This!
1. Fried pickles are not disgusting – they are one of the best inventions ever.
2. So are petit fours – yum!
3. Love how you “soak”.
4. I wish Beth was my aerobics instructor. I would probably work out a lot more. 🙂
Merry Christmas!
Wow how fun, I felt like having some hot cocoa while I read this as to celebrate with ya’ll. Beth, the amarillo was an ‘initiation’ or conversion of sorts when you didn’t run, you became a real “Texan” ;0)
Love all my blog siestas and are so grateful to God for this and ya’ll.
I’m so thankful for this blog and for Beth, her family and her ministry. I have been reading this blog since the start and occasionally post and am amazed at how I feel so included and “a part of” this beautiful friendship community. Beth, your ministry has made such a difference in my life. Even though I do not know you, I feel as though we’ve been friends my entire life.
Anne in MO
I am laughing so hard I can barely write….What a perfect way to celebrate the first blog-a-versary…..Thank You for the laughter, tears, encouragement, and so much for. luv ya bunches!!!!
Your blog has been such a blessing a blessing to me and I have really grown from your bible studies it has open up my mind in ways I never thought of before. Thank you Beth that God has bless you with the gift of teaching his word.
Merry Christmas.marina
Happy Happy Happy Blog-a-versary! You all have been a huge blessing to me! 🙂
Merry Christmas!
D
Beth are those your real glasses??
I love them. You just went up a notch on my favorite teacher scale!!!
Happy Blog-a-versary! I absolutely love this blog, it is truly a wonderful blessing to me. You girls
are so much fun! Luv ya! Merry Christmas! Jolinda
Happy Blog-a-versary! I have LOVED reading this blog. It has provided me with so much encouragement and laughter 🙂
I check this thing almost every day…especially for encouragement. And today I am especially encouraged to know that “y’all” are just about as nuts as my family. It just warms my heart. Merry Christmas!
Amy7634, how fun that you were our first comment ever! Email me at [email protected]. Bethie wants to send you something fun!
LPM Gang,
I have laughed, cried, laughed, listened, laughed, and LOVED while reading this blog!!!!!!
My top fav’s:
1. Beth clutching feminine hygiene products while having a conversation with a man who was blessed by one of her books.
2. The robin in the mirror.
3. Keith’s King Ranch Chicken and the dead mouse in his boot.
4. ANY pictures of Jackson – he is just sunshine on a screen!!!
5. Community, shared life – the example of Amanda and Melissa who are just as crazy for Jesus as Beth and the rest of us. IT MUST RUN IN THE FAMILY.
Now I feel the need to praise dance!
Thanks for a great, blessed year!!!!!!
Oh how I love my darling Beth!
And her whole clan!
God has given each of us an indescribly precious gift, when He gave us Beth as a teacher and friend.
Praise God for Beth and praise God for this blog!
Happy Blogaversary!
Happy Blogaversary to ya’ll! This is one of my favorite post ever.
HAPPY BLOG-A-VERSARY!!! Where has all the time gone??? I don’t know what I’d do w/o all of you!! I’m so blessed to have met so many of you at the Deeper Still Event in Nashville!!!! And Beth…..I just love those glasses 🙂
Beth, AJ, Melissa and all you LPL Girls:
OUR Blog-a-versary – how sweet!!! Thank you for your dedication and faithfulness to keep us up and running. It was fun to hear stories about some of your staff. They are so precious to me. I have written to y’all and gotten some sweet correspondence from Nancy Mattingly and such great help when ordering products. I know you are proud of your girls, Beth!
And Beth – your song was great – you really can carry a tune! Are you an alto? I bet you were some more aerobics teacher – all that energy!!! Your classes were probably tough!
I’m proud of Keith’s ballet. It’s hard being the “lone gender” in a household. I have all boys – I aggravate them by “whispering” when they are watching those deer-hunting shows because everyone on the TV “whispers” and it cracks me up. I’ll go in the den and whisper very loudly “what do y’all want for supper?” They love it – I know they do…
May God Bless you EVERY ONE. Thank you for all you do.
Merry Christmas!
Jan Morton
Georgia Siesta
I SO enjoy reading your posts! I check in everyday and am disappointed when I find there isn’t one 🙂 I’m not from Texas, but I just have to say “Ya’ll have such a neat & precious family!” This post brought many smiles to my face & a good ole’ belly laugh too. Thank you!
Merry Christmas Moores!!! This was quite comical, I enjoyed it! Life is so stinkin’ funny. You’ll appreciate that I recently went out with my husband and 3 children to deliver goodies around my neighborhood in the name of my precious Jesus when I took an unfortunate “spill”. I was busy looking backward telling my kids to pick their feet up high as they walked because it was dark and they could trip over a cord or … BAM! There I was, spralled out in my neighbors yard with cookies all over the place! Tripped right over a stupid stump. I was so embarrassed but fortunately, not hurt. I had even made the cutest mice out of maraschino cherries with stems, have you seen them? Precious. And there they lay with mud all over their little faces. It was too dark to find them all, wonder what my neighbor thought the next day? Well, happy anniversary, I have only blogged with y’all since February and only got my “name” a couple of weeks ago but I have loved you for years. Have a great Christmas, no arguing Amanda! Love, Lisa
OMgosh! I can’t believe ya’ll play “Spoons” too! Our family has broken a kitchen table, 2 chairs & had the police called for “disturbance.” while playing! I’m sure the neighbors thought someone was being killed w/all the bodies flying around! LOL
Have a Merry CHRISTmas!
I haven’t been here the whole year but I’ve been here ever since I found it several months ago! I just love this blog and it is such a blessing to us! Thank you to all the Moores for sharing with us! I just love you all!
Michelle
Waco, TX
Daddy helped our oldest daughter purchase a 1976 Chevy pickup. They worked together, painting (it’s blue), putting soccer ball tips on the door locks and hubcaps. His name is Wally, and Diana was the “coolest girl” when she showed up at the service stations! We still have Wally — he’s in storage beside our house — and I remember fondly those bonding times that my husband and daughter shared. Happy blog-a-versary!
Regarding K. Moore’s “BALLET”… My brother-in-law served 3 times in Viet Nam & other places in the world – in Special Forces. My husband’s boss, an avid hunter, fisherman, etc., had heard of bro-in-law Harv, but had never met him. As it was, a business meeting was scheduled in Atlanta & my husband invited ‘brother Harv’ for the meal to follow. Well, when my husband’s boss met ‘brother Harv’, & much ‘oohing’, & ‘aahing’ had subsided, the announcement was uttered by the boss… “uh, He’s a R-E-A-L MAN”. Laughing, my husband’s quick witted reply popped out – “What does that make me, S-Y-N-T-H-E-T-I-C MAN?!?!”
Both my MANLY husband & my bro-in-law are over 6′, and I can tell you, REAL MEN ARE NOT AFRAID OF DOING BALLET IN THEIR BOOTS! In fact, it takes a REAL MAN, a man who knows who he is, to perform ballet in his boots, his socks, or in ballet slippers – that is, if ballet slippers come in size 13’s!
On another note, our 1st & only grand daughter was born yesterday – on LPM’s “Blog-a-versary!”
“S-y-n-t-h-e-t-i-c Man” and I are beyond ourselves.
Lori in florida here!! I have been here since day one, I read a lot and post a little. I just love you all. And I am so excited that I will be seeing Beth live for the first time in March, at her Jacksonville, fl trip. I am going alone, and driving 3 hours but I am gonna see her.
By the way how long did it take your staffers eyelashes to grow back, I am never going to use an eyelash curler now
Happy Blog-a-versary to the Moores and the staff at Living Fruits.
And…Merry Christmas to all of you as well as all my Siestas.
Remember, Jesus was born into a culture, a society looking for Messiah..so many missed Him. We are born into that culture when we are born again..keep looking for Messiah, He is coming.
Annette
Happy Blog-a-versary!!! What an awesome ministry. Haven’t been here since the beginning but where would I be without you all.
Thanks so much for a year’s worth of encouragement and laughter! Siestaville has truly been a bright spot in 2007 for me. I love you all!
Can’t believe it’s been a whole year. It is great to see how “normal” things are in Texas with your family and LP. It gives me hope that my wacky family is ok! Ha, I only get Mexican 1x a week! You are SO lucky.
Merry Christmas! Love Debbie, South Carolina
Instead of buzzing around doing housework while my three-year old daughter bathed, I soaked my feet! It was sooo fun– a great soaking! Do you mind if we adopt this Moore tradition?
Happy Blog-A-Versary! 🙂
That was hilarious!
Ahhh Beth, How I love you and your family. I remember the first time I saw the name Beth Moore. I have always had a love for the Tabernacle and I was at a conference that had a whole “warehouse” of ministries present offering their services and resources. I passed this one venue called the Sunday School Board and saw a Bible study about the Tabernacle. I had to get it. Beth Moore just happened to be the author. I loved it. Then little by little I started hearing the name Beth Moore and because I loved her study I took notice. And the rest is history. Tomorrow will be my last session of the “revised” A Woman’s Heart” and it has been such a blessing again. To God be the glory!!!!
It’s been a year already?? I so look forward to every new post – it’s like unwrapping a present! Here is to many “Moore” blog-a-versaries!
Beth, I totally dig your glasses in the video! Love you guys!
Thanks for sharing so much
on your blog. You always
bring a lift to my spirit
and a smile to my face!!
Really glad you are here.
Happy Blog-a -versary!!
If you only knew how much this blog has blessed and helped me!!! Sometimes I feel overwhelmed in life and prayer, His Word and this blog are blessings to me!! Thank you for your openness and sharing about your lives! May God bless you all! Merry Christmas!
Oh AJ, Beth & Melissa, it’s me again…I forgot have y’all heard the 12 year old boy from Houston talking about the baby calf? If not I’ll try to paste the link: http://www.polarshark.com/2007/11/wisdom-of-12-year-old.html … probably won’t work that way. Google “wisdom of a 12 year old” and it’s the 2nd one down on polar shark. If you can’t post this entry AJ, that’s ok, y’all just check out this little boy. Houston sure does turn out some good stuff! 🙂
Lisa
Thanks so much for this wonderful place. I am silent most of the time but I do check everyday for new post. It is like Christmas everyday because I never know what the post are going to bring…..a giggle, a tear, a correction, a God smile…….whatever the menu holds, it is always perfect and just what I needed for that day. Thanks a million and then some!
That was a lot of fun. I have really enjoyed reading this blog. One question: when Beth hears “Foreverandever Etc” by the David Crowder Band, is she inspired to create an aerobics routine? That song just makes me want to move!
Wow, its been a year already? This blog is my daily dose of sanity in an otherwise crazy day.(Lets you know how crazy my world is,huh) I loved your song Beth but I loved the picture of all you Moore’s sitting on the side of the tub sipping cocoa with confetti floating around. Merry Christmas to you all and to my siestas everywhere. God has blessed my life through you all.
I am sorry that I missed much of the last year. I am a new reader!
I look forward to the next year of adventure with you!
Tanya
Mom to 4 little women!
Happy BLOGaversary!! (OK, one day late) I can’t believe it’s been a year already! I started reading your blog in February after the conference in Detroit, MI. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been provoked to laughter, tears, personal reflection and prayer by reading the blog.
I know that you always say how much of a blessing it has been to you gals and the ministry. However, I just wanted to take a moment to say “THANK YOU” for being such a blessing to me and for being such willing servants.
May we have many happy returns!!