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.

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?

My mom should be on her way to Bible study right now. She and Sabrina, our ministry director, are probably in the car together singing praise music at the top of their lungs. I’m in the same boat with some of you who live too far away from Houston – I SO WISH I COULD BE THERE!

Someone posed an interesting question today under the celebrity look-alike post. Which saints or fellow members of the body of Christ would you choose to “look like”?

I’ll leave my answer in a comment and I’ll look for yours there, too. Not that you were going to, but you can’t say Beth!

Well, I’m off to the post office to mail out my son’s first birthday party invitations (sniff, sniff).

Happy Monday, everyone! I thought I would give a little update on my Five Pounds. I’ve been going to my aerobics classes, eating Lean Cuisines for lunch and sometimes dinner, and cutting out the fast food except for my once-a-week Chick-fil-a. For better or worse, I don’t own a scale, but I think the five pounds are gone or are pretty close to being gone. My clothes fit right again, but what’s better than that is I don’t feel guilty about my eating habits. Sweet freedom!

Yesterday I had some french fries and – I won’t lie – they were very, very, very delicious. My mouth was elated. But this morning I woke up with a stomach ache and I realized it was because I had eaten fried food for the first time in a while. I think my system is happier not having to deal with that and my mind is happier knowing I’m not being mastered by food. It’s a win-win situation!

Thankfully, my husband is doing this with me. We take turns being tempted by McDonald’s, but the other talks some sense into the weaker brother or sister. Then we do a fist-bump and congratulate ourselves on resisting. Curtis has definitely lost his five pounds. I know some of you were hoping to see his picture, but he wants to wait until April, which is when his Biggest Loser contest at work is over.

So yesterday I went to the Lean Cuisine web site to see if there are any good meals I’ve been missing out on. (Here’s my hit list: chicken carbonara, sesame chicken, spaghetti and meatballs, roasted garlic chicken pizza, and the southwest style chicken panini.) Let me just say that Lean Cuisine has got it goin’ on. You can send motivational e-cards to your friends dealing with their five pounds. Check this one out.

Is that perfect, or what?

I thought I’d share a visual aid that my mom used at Tuesday night Bible study and in Seattle this weekend. Any guesses as to the application?

I must say, I’ve never looked at my mother and thought of Paris Hilton. She has been mistaken for Judith Light a time or two, which is funny because when I did my celebrity look-alike collage it gave me the one and only Tony Danza! (Don’t get the connection? Think Who’s the Boss.) I’ve always admired Avril Lavigne’s hair, so way to go on that one, Mom! She’ll be posting another visual aid for your amusement in the next couple of days. If you were in Seattle I’m sure you know what it is.

The blog and the blog readers have been going strong for a month and a half now. I’m so happy that my mom has been able to write so much and that you have participated in this with us. I was going through the comments and looking at some of your blogs when I came upon this lovely web wonder. Isn’t it cool? I was immediately inspired to get a makeover for our LPM blog. We currently have a standard blogspot template. I think Bethie deserves a little upgrade for her hard work! So thank you, BooMama, for mentoring us in looking our bloggity-best. The ball is already rolling, but I’m not sure how long it will take to present you with the finished product. I hope it’s not too long because I’m beyond excited!