Hey, Darling Things!

It’s late afternoon on Friday and we’ll close up the ministry in just a little while for a three-day weekend. I thought I’d say hi before I pulled out of the driveway because I’ve come to love you so much and, like many times during the course of a ministry week, you are on my mind. One way you can tell when people are truly getting close is an unexplainable interest in the utterly trivial and otherwise unbearably mundane. (An interest in the trivial alone doesn’t cut it. Celebrity gossip would qualify for that. To legitimately become intimate friends you must also care, for instance, that it looks as though she might be using a different hair product or could that be a new pair of shoes she’s got on today?) Hence this post. But it may be one-sided, of course. Maybe I’m just perceiving that we’re close. But in hopes that it’s a two-way relationship, below are a few random things from the average life of your own Siesta Mama. In response I’d love to know one completely random thing from your life right now.

1. Keith and I went grocery shopping together a couple of nights ago. He was pushing the basket. He asked me to please walk down the paper aisle and grab a 12-pack of toilet tissue then, as I walked back toward him, proceeded to take off almost running so I’d have to chase him through the store with it. Can you spell M-A-T-U-R-E? And don’t think I’m just referring to him because I was laughing so hard I almost needed to use some of it. The person at check-out asked us how long we’d been married because we were still so amused by one another when we got there and because I was hitting him in the arm with my fist (a well-known flirting technique). Imagine her surprise when we answered 30 and a half years. By the way, we’re really in love right now. I’m so glad I let him live through last year.

2. If perhaps you heard that Geli, our birddog, has been so sick that she nearly died, it is the absolute truth but she’s finally getting better. She was in the fanciest animal hospital in Houston for a solid week, much to Keith’s dismay on multiple levels. The diagnosis? Somewhere along the way she ate something dead and got food poisoning from it. It caused a bacterial infection that went through her digestive system and into her lungs. Of course, Keith and I thought that carnivores like most humans and canines were supposed to eat stuff that was already dead instead of eating it while it’s still alive and kicking but we are now better educated. Geli has a penchant for eating inappropriate things. A month ago we had to take her to the vet for eating a live frog. We informed them what had happened to which they replied, “That can’t be it. She must have a stomach ailment of some kind.” They took x-rays and, lo and behold, her stomach ailment had four legs and four feet. Perhaps that is why she then turned to carrion from which she indeed derived a very expensive stomach ailment.

3. I will list this one among the random though it is neither trivial nor mundane. I am leaving early in the morning for the wedding of our LPL praise-team drummer, Kevin and his beautiful bride-to-be, Ashley. He is the one who proposed on stage at an LPL in June. (Pittsburg) Our whole team will be there and we are super excited! Perhaps this seems to have come awfully fast in your estimation but, I assure you, it could not come fast enough for the two of them. From the moment I saw them lock eyes, I suggested we move ahead with the date. They are terribly smitten.

Oh, mercy! It’s already time for me to be downstairs saying goodbye to my dear coworkers for a long weekend and locking this sweet place up! I know you must feel so cheated that I can’t keep going! Before I sign off, how about a little news from the sublime category?

1. To the great glory of my faithful God, I finished the book on women’s insecurity and have even been through the editing process and, except for a few finishing touches, it is ready to be type-set and sent off for print. THANK YOU, LORD!!! I will tell you more about it later but the release date is February 2nd. I have never had anything besides Breaking Free and When Godly People Do Ungodly Things get to me like this one. God turned me every way but loose on this project.

2. Our Houston Tuesday night Bible study starts the day after Labor Day! We can hardly wait to be reunited with our home girls! We miss them like crazy all summer long. Picture them from every age, background and denomination. In fact, they are a cross section of this community in so many ways. They are so incredibly dear to me. We are going to share a lecture series on the Book of Revelation. We just thought we’d do something light for a change.

OK, I’m late! I better go! Have a fabulous weekend, Girls! I pray that God does something really wonderful to bring you Sabbath rest this Labor Day. I love you!

Good morning, fellow Scripture-memory nerds! It’s the first day of September and we in the great Gulf Coast have survived yet ANOTHER scorcher! Hottest summer on record in Houston. I LOVE SEPTEMBER. Come, Fall! Please come quickly!

I am deeply grateful for the many invitations you’ve given us for praise over what God has been accomplishing in your lives. In particular, we were tremendously encouraged that the Holy Spirit overtook cold and awkward technology and met with many of you at the simulcast. We took much time in Monday staff prayer to boast in our God. We always rest assured any time something that complicated gets accomplished that God alone could have done it. He gets every ounce of praise. He could not have given us a better on-site host group than the one we had in Green Bay. I knew they would be warm and engaged but I didn’t know if they would be loud enough to lead the rest of the groups effectively in participation. That on-site group is absolutely critical to the experience. They exceeded every expectation I had. We went crazy over them.

You know, I have no memory of actually living there. We were transferred with the Army back to Arkansas when I was only two and that’s where I grew up so I understandably associate the piney woods with my upbringing more than any other place. My older brothers and sisters remember Green Bay very well and have told me many things about our family’s time there in the last several days. I came away from Wisconsin so incredibly honored to call it my birth state. I also came away from Wisconsin with a lot of cheese. You should see my refrigerator. By the way, I was crowned with cheese (you might have seen my crown at the end), which even I thought was probably appropriate. Queen of Cheese indeed. In my personality. In my enchilada. I love y’all so much. Smiling so hard that my morning face is getting a good stretch.

OK, now for our verses! I am continuing on with my portion from last time in Psalm 145:8-12. It is a very wordy five-verse segment and I just don’t have the memory work mastered yet. Too busy these last few weeks. So, I am going to do what I recommend you do. I’m going to hold up and get my last verses down before I add another set to them. If I don’t, I’ll get discouraged and overwhelmed and that’s the graveyard of all Scripture memory work. We want each verse to make it all the way to the marrow, not just sit on top of our skulls.

Now, how about yours? Name, city, and verse! We’re getting closer and closer to our celebration! Hang in there and keep sharpening that Sword!

I am so honored to be among those who journey with you as we “go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion.” (Ps. 84:7) You are a dearly loved part of ministry at Living Proof. I send you tons of affection from all who grace these doors. Every person who labors here knows to say the word “Siesta” with joy and esteem.

Hey, You Darling Things! I hope you are so blessed in the presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ this fine day. We have missed you while we’ve been gone and, boy oh boy, have we EVER hit the ground running! It’s simulcast time and, because of God’s graciousness through YOU and our wonderful Siesta Scholarship fund, we have some great giveaways. We are going to do our regular 10-ticket giveaway for the on-site location in Green Bay but we at LPM would also love to support the Houston and surrounding area simulcast sites.

Look several paragraphs below and see if any of these locations work for you and, if so, NOTE WHO TO CONTACT next to it. You are only contacting us directly at LPM if you need a scholarship to the on-site location in Green Bay. Otherwise you are contacting the church itself then their folks are getting the numbers to us and we’re covering those costs.

Some of you have asked a very good question: why are ticket prices different from location to location? The churches pay a flat fee to CCN, the simulcast company, then they charge what they must to cover their costs. Some churches simply have bigger women’s ministry budgets and can charge much less but, I assure you, all those locations are doing what they can to keep the costs as low as possible. Many of them just don’t have an extra dime in these hard financial times.

By the way, I can’t remember ever explaining ticket sales and maybe this is the perfect time: I would give anything if ministry opportunities like these didn’t cost a single cent but, unfortunately, they are very expensive. You cannot imagine all the equipment and personnel involved. This you can know, however. Your Siesta Mama is not putting one penny in her little pocket from any speaking engagement. I donate all speaking honorariums to the work of ministry whether here or elsewhere. When our numbers began growing so unexpectedly and (for this season) we could no longer get our groups in church auditoriums, we deliberated very hard over whether to offer big events like LPL for free or ticket them. We made the difficult choice to have them ticketed because, otherwise, I (or someone else on the team) would be stuck with having to ask for money numerous times at the event in order to cover the costs. You’ll find it both ways out there in the event world.

It’s just two different philosophies and neither of them are perfect but I simply felt more comfortable ticketing up front. I don’t like the choices any better than you do but they are a fact of life. A sense of God’s approval or disapproval is what I’ve sought over matters as murky as these and I am certain that this has been His way for us to operate for now. He knows our hearts and our ministry desires and that we would do anything we possible could to get a person in the door who really wants to be there.

NOW, for the ticket giveaways!!

10 Tickets available for the ON SITE location in GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN. Call Susan or Kimberly at Living Proof Ministries at 1-888-700-1999.

10 Tickets available for Memorial Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas. (6901 Fairmont Parkway, 77505) – Call the church directly at 281-998-9051 and tell them you desire one of the Living Proof scholarships. Your contact name is Steve if you happen to get someone who is unfamiliar with what you’re talking about.

10 Tickets available for Kingwood United Methodist Church in Humble, Texas. (1799 Woodland Hills Drive, 77339) – Call the church directly at 281-358-2137. Right now I don’t have a contact name for this one but simply tell them you need to speak with someone about this weekend’s simulcast. They’ll put you in touch with the right person. Then tell that person that you’d like to claim a Living Proof scholarship if one is still available.

10 Tickets available for Crosby Church of AFOB in Crosby, Texas. (5725 Highway 90, 77532) – Call the church directly at 281-328-1310 and tell them you desire one of the Living Proof Scholarships. Your contact name is Tiffany.

20 Tickets available at Houston’s First Baptist Church (it’s my home church, Siestas! I’m compelled to give a double portion!). (7401 Katy Freeway, 77024) Call 713-681-8000 and ask for the women’s ministry office then tell them you desire one of the Living Proof Scholarships. (By the way, many of our LPM staff members will be there at the event this weekend including our own Siesta blog master, my dearest Amanda.)

We’re so pumped! We hope so much these giveaways are big blessings to you!

OK, now for the question, my beloved Siestas!! This question is directed to ANYONE ATTENDING THE LPL SIMULCAST THIS WEEKEND regardless of location. Since most of our audience will not be on site where we can see faces and perceive conditions of lives and hearts, I could use your help imagining who’s on the other side of that camera. Would you mind giving me the following 3 pieces of information in a comment?

Your age? (Even the decade is great)

Single or married?

What is the biggest issue in your life right now? Please, please, please answer in only a few brief sentences so I can read each one of them.

So that I can readily distinguish your answers from the rest of the comments, would you please start your comment with the word “Attending”? That would really help. You can’t imagine how your answers will add to my preparation of heart, soul, and message.

We so desire to serve you, Siestas. We want so much to honor God here at Living Proof Ministries. May He be highly exalted and may He show Himself mighty to you this day.

I surely do love you.

PS. I just found this comment from Tracy, one of our Siestas, and I felt like it needed to be posted here so those of you in their area would more likely see it. Thank you so much, FBC Jacksonville, NC!!

Tracy L. wrote:

Our church is offering 10 scholarship tickets too.

First Baptist Jacksonville, NC
1925 Gum Branch Road
Jacksonville, NC
910.455.2700

Call and ask for Juanita and tell her you are interested in a scholarship ticket for this weekend.

Tracy L.
Richlands, NC

Good Monday morning, my beloved Siestas!

I am at the Houston Airport (IAH) with my man and we are waiting to get on a flight to Denver where we’ll then connect to Wyoming and join the Jones. We’ve got a slight maintenance delay and I’m a bit concerned about our layover. One thing I can tell you for sure. A life of airports will remind you over and over just how little control a folk has over most circumstances!

I am hoping some of you guys from North Dakota get on here today because I have to tell you something. Not only did I totally LOVE you and LOVE studying God’s Word with you, you guys gave $10,000 dollars to the poor through Samaritan’s Purse. Did you hear what I said???? $10,000! They were absolutely FLOORED. For crying out loud, WE were absolutely floored. I’ve never posted the charitable giving before but I had to this time. You need to know that you 4200 women outgave groups over twice your size. Please don’t misunderstand me to imply the least negative thing about a single one of our wonderful groups. We don’t ever measure our groups like that. People can only give what they can give and some areas of the country are suffering financially much more than others. At the same time, I just had to let you know how generous you were. Organizations like Samaritan’s Purse really get hit by financial crises like the one we’re experiencing so this was a huge help to them. They’ll turn that money into provision for the poor as soon as possible. Thank you so much, ladies! Thank you so much!

I love all you guys like crazy. You won’t waste a prayer on our family right now. At the top of our needs is a loved one with a health issue. That’s all I feel free to say right now but I cannot express how much we’d appreciate your prayers for healing. As much as I know it would be in love, please try not to get into conjecture in your comments on who or what it might be because it will inevitably lead to rumors. If about 5000 of you would say just one general prayer each, we’d feel blessed beyond measure. We would know that, no matter what, the heart of God was moved by the copious prayers of the saints. Thank you, Sisters. We pray for you, too.

Talk to you soon! And I will give you a general update on that situation before long, too.

Honored to be your servant,
Beth

UPDATE: Our flight was cancelled so we had to go down to baggage claim, reclaim our bags, go back through ticketing, get new seats and get booked on another flight five hours later. And we don’t have a car at the airport so we, two equally hyperactive adults, are just sitting tight. Yes, Michelle offered to come get us but I’m not letting her go to that much trouble. Just so happens we’re in IAH’s only small terminal and the lone one that doesn’t allow you to take the train to any of the hopping ones. Thankfully, a sparrow is loose in the terminal and is perched about five feet from Keith and me so we’re momentarily spared from perishing of unmitigated boredom. Because of the economy, most of the kiosks are closed so shopping is out of the question but there is a Rosetta Stone vending machine that keeps calling our names. Keith and I are thinking of learning Swahili while we’re here. I’ll keep you posted.

FURTHER UPDATE:

Nilikula – I ate
Nimekula – I have eaten
Ninakula – I am eating
Nitakula – I will eat

Hey, my dear Scripture memory partners! It is very early in the morning and I am so happy to be all the way up in Fargo, North Dakota at a Living Proof Live. God brought us over 4300 people to this small city last night. Listen to this: over 300 of them were walk ups! More than we’ve ever had before. A few hundred of them just decided yesterday to come to the Fargodome and simply walked right up to the door and bought a ticket. We were astounded. We feel absolutely sure that a number of these darling women have never been to an event of this kind before. We are tremendously blessed. Last night toward the latter part of the session we were hit by one of the craziest storms I can remember at a Living Proof Live and had to ask them to stay for 30 more minutes, SO to tell you that we had some praise and worship last night is an understatement. I am so happy that Scripture records several places in which God’s voice sounded like thunder. We think there was a war in the heavenlies last night.

I need to have my face in my lesson for today so I don’t get to tarry here. I just wanted to make sure you were taken care of and that your Scripture memory post was up for the 15th. My thoughts most recently have been on the many people – children and young adults most disturbingly – who are chronically ill. If God does not intervene, terminally ill. I have wept a number of times recently for people I’ve never met and also bawled in my pillow for several I love. Life can be so incredibly brutal. I am focusing this time in my memory work on God’s great compassion and His care for all He has made.

Psalms 145:8-12 (NIV)
The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made. All You have made will praise You, O Lord; Your saints will extol You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might,so that all men may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.

If you have Travis’s CD called “Found,” you have a musical version of the psalm this portion is taken from. The song straight out of Psalm 145 is called “Forevermore” and if it doesn’t lead you to the Throne, I need to come take your pulse.

I love you so much, Siestas. Let’s hear your Scriptures! Because I’m in conference today then on two flights home, it make take a while to get in all your comments but , rest assured, they will finally make it on here! Amanda’s going to try to get to a place with Internet and help out. (Amanda reminded me that this is the first time one of our memory days has fallen on a Saturday while I was in conference. God is an excellent event planner!)

Verse, cities, and first names, Sweet Things!

Good day, my brilliant and beautiful Siestas! I am in a SIESTA MOOD! I wish we could go back and forth on here all day long. To God’s great glory and sustaining grace, I am slowly climbing out of a HUGE pile of work and can see some sun shining through a very dense forest. This sanguine is looking for a P-A-R-T-Y but it’s a tad premature and I better not jump the gun. The good news is, I only have one more chapter to write for the book on women and insecurity and, Girlfriend, to tell you my soul has profited from the process is a vast understatement. GOD HAS BEEN IN MY BUSINESS. The only two things that have ever gotten this far under my own skin were Breaking Free and When Godly People Do Ungodly Things.

Anyway, that’s another post for another time. Let me try to get back on theme here. I am writing today to ask you two questions:

1. Does anybody need a Siesta scholarship ticket to the Fargo, North Dakota Living Proof Live this weekend? We have ten tickets we’re dying to give away so, if you want to go but don’t have the money for a ticket, call LPM toll free at 1-888-700-1999 and ask for Susan or Kimberly. They’ll get you fixed up right away! By the way, North Dakota girls, I cannot WAIT to get my hands on you. We could not be happier to come your way.

2. I am going through the five stages of grief over the discontinuance of my world’s FAVORITE INK PEN. I only learned the bad news yesterday so I’m early in the process. I have cherished my slender Fine Point Blue Ink Forays for years and have gone through no less than several hundred of them. I have persevered through numerous plastic quills leaking under the air pressure on planes and have proudly worn their ink all over my hands, forearms, and face. I even glanced at the rear view mirror in my car last week on my way home from work and had a big blue spot of ink on the end of my nose. I jotted Michelle a text (yes, at a stop light and with my seat belt on) and asked her if she just happened to notice the huge navy splotch on the tip of my generous nose and she responded, “No, Ma’am, I have been too busy watching your teeth.” (That is because Kay Arthur told all of us at Deeper Still that, as you get older, your teeth collapse forward – she used that very word “collapse” – and you can get all manner of stuff caught in them. I was so disturbed that I put Michelle on watch like a bird dog on point and still could hardly sleep that night.)

Anyway, how did I get off on all that??? I’m simply trying to tell you that my favorite ink pen – the very pen I’ve been obsessed with for my entire recent ministry life – is vanishing from the face of God’s green earth. Why, I ask you? WHY???? (That’s not really the question though.)

SO, I am on the lookout for a new kind. I want it to write WELL. Slide on the page. Dance on every line. Don’t tease with me here, Siestas. I’m raw. I need to hear from you. Anybody out there in Siestaville discovered your own ultimate ink pen? Start talking.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Michelle just walked into my office with the TOP SIX SIESTA PENS for me to test drive. She researched your responses and went straight to Office Max. I will let you know my selection soon! I’m so nervous. This is big.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT UPDATE: TESTING IN PROGRESS

Hey, Scripture Memory Buddies!

Every single month my anticipation of our January celebration doubles! Just picture all those hugs and high fives! Has this been a great support group, or what? Although I know I would have still memorized Scripture because my poor obsessive mind spins out of control without it, I cannot imagine that I would have memorized the same amount over the course of this year. Accountability and COMMUNITY are beautiful things. Of all the activities we’ve gotten to do on our LPM blog, honestly, this is one of my favorites. I hope you’re getting plenty of opportunities to put your memory verses to practice. Just in case you haven’t found them all that practical, you ought to try mine from our last segment. It was on the tongue. Let me simply say that, for some unknown reason, my verse came to my mind about 25 times a day.

I’m also excited about the selection God has impressed on my heart for this round.

“I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills His purpose for me.” Psalm 57:2 NIV

Here’s what God is using that verse to say to me right now: When I’m in a really hard and hurtful situation, somehow the present difficulty of it overrides my conscious thought that God is going to use it in my life and then through my life. Not one time in my entire tenure on this planet has He ever failed to turn around and use the hardship for good. NOT ONCE. Not when I gave Him enough time and cooperation. Yet, in the midst of it, I often can only hang onto Him for dear life while we ride the wave to shore and then stand there in the aftershock and look like I’ve just been on the spin cycle of a washing machine. Afterward, when He invariably turns it into some kind of maturity, intimacy, insight or ministry, I think, “Why didn’t I just trust Him for that at the time??? Why did I have to take it so personally and injuriously?” I want to learn to CONSISTENTLY claim the victory right there in the worst of the pain or crisis. At the very moment that I’m crying out to God Most High for help, as the psalmist says, I want to proclaim that He’s smack in the middle of fulfilling His purpose for me. Challenging stuff.

But that’s one of the things that keeps us so interested and engaged with Christ. We can never get this thing conquered.

I am so honored to take this journey with you. He is everything, Sweet Thing. He is absolutely EVERYTHING! Savor His Presence today.

OK, let’s hear your first name, city, verse and translation!

I love you,

Beth

Good Monday morning, my favorite blog community on earth!

Soon you’ll be hearing from Curtis with some insights from your comments on Friday’s post. I’ve been out of town most of the weekend so I haven’t seen them yet but the Moores and Joneses had lunch together yesterday and they said the responses were terrific and some of them pretty eye-opening. You invest continually in the workings of this ministry whether or not you realize it. You equip us constantly to serve the Body of Christ in relevant ways and we are so grateful.

Until you hear from CJ, here’s something that’s been on my mind this weekend based on a wild thing God did on Friday. I awakened that morning with a pressing on my heart to send a certain new friend flowers for absolutely no occasion except that I couldn’t get her out of my mind. The fact that I could even have that clear impression on Friday is in itself a wonder because I was preparing five – count them, FIVE – messages for the Life Today taping we did in Dallas-Fort Worth this weekend. I was also in a tailspin getting all the appropriate wardrobe packed. It made much more sense to wait until Monday to make arrangements for flowers, only I couldn’t let it go.

Come to find out that the flowers came to my new friend on her only child’s birthday, a son she’d raised to young adulthood then lost in a tragic accident. She’d been feeling literally sick at heart with grief as the day approached and had tried not to tell anybody. What’s more, instead of just sending a random bouquet of flowers like I normally would, this time I requested something very specific that just happened to hold extreme significance to my new friend. It was the exact kind of flower and color that her husband sent her for years before his equally untimely death. (No, it wasn’t your basic red.) Needless to say, Blonder-Than-She-Pays-to-Be had absolutely no idea. I sat bug-eyed when I read her response concerning all the things I “could not have known” and marveled over how Christ has gone out of His way to show her His enormous and exquisite love. In fact, He’s chasing her as hard as anybody I’ve ever known. My heart is so tender that He would allow me to be one small part of how He is showing His great affection and tender care to someone.

He is not only a God of the big things. Perhaps what astonishes us most in each of our private journeys with Him is that He is a God of the smallest, most intimate details. A God who does things with personal significance only He and we could have known. So, let’s boast in that very dimension of our God today. Give a one-paragraph story of how He went out of His way and far beyond coincidence to show You His love…OR, used you in some detailed way to demonstrate His love to someone else.

He is SO WORTHY.

My Darling Baby Girl, Happy Birthday!

We miss you so much today! I have you know that Colin Fitzpatrick is the only man on earth I’d love and trust enough to move you off indefinitely without a small fight, especially on your birthday in a family where birthdays are king. Not only do all the Moores and Joneses miss you today, all your coworkers feel like confetti with no place to blow. You are the only one on our staff so far away that we don’t get to observe an official LPM annual celebration lunch. But, we’re all grown-ups here so call us the epitome of flexibility and understanding, as long as you rest assured we’re feeling the absence of your infectious and delightfully fun self.

I’ve already sent your wrap-able gifts and they should arrive right on time today so this is a minuscule ring-box of words to set beside them. Just a few things from the last 24 hours of life as we know it that I think might make you smile on your birthday:

A. Annabeth was dressed so cute at church yesterday that I honestly could not bear it. And when I asked your sister where she’d gotten that plaid skirt with suspenders and a white blouse in such a small size, she said “Her Aunt Melissa sent this to her!” Score, Child. Score. You’ve still got it. And I’m relieved since you are missing your two chief shopping cohorts.

B. Jackson was riding in the car with me from church to lunch yesterday like he usually does, but on this occasion he said something for the very first time: “Bibby, turn that up!” It was a praise CD. A monumental moment in a life, if you ask me. When I turned up the volume, I glanced in the rear view mirror and saw those little wheels rolling in his head and his big blue eyes cut over to the side, brows drawn down, trying to figure out whether or not he knew that Tomlin song. He’s starting to sing along with all sorts of different songs and guess who he requests most of all? David Crowder. Isn’t that a kick? You ought to hear him say his name. So precious you can’t stand it. And, by the way, he’s outgrown his shoes AGAIN. His feet are huge. (Jackson’s, not David Crowder’s. I don’t know if David has big feet or not. I’ll glance at them in January at Passion.)

C. We sang “Before the Throne of God Above” yesterday in the worship service. Knowing how much you love it, I could hardly get the words to come out of my mouth. I kept thinking of the lyrics in reference to the genuine trial by fire you’ve had this year with health issues attacking that little frame. Persevere, my sweet, sweet Child. I pray with all my heart that this is only a season and that God is going to bring you out of it twice the warrior that entered it. Please hasten to the finish, Lord Jesus. Restore Your young servant completely and bear such a harvest that she will one day look back on it as a gift in disguise from Your faithful hand.

Just in case you’ve forgotten any of the words:

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea:
A great High Priest, whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands,
My name is written on his heart;
I know that while in heaven he stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.

Because a sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise the One,
Risen Son of God!

Behold him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I am,
The King of glory and of grace!

One in himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased by his blood
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God
With Christ, my Savior and my God

D. Abigail walked the aisle yesterday with her Mommy and Daddy and gave her heart to Jesus. She came up to me just before the service began and said, “Miss Beth, guess what I’m doing today??” And the rest is history. We had the sweetest baptisms yesterday and, all the while, I watched her and her Daddy elbowing each other with anticipation. You would have loved it. I was about to laugh and sob at the same time. I had a feeling she was on the verge of making this decision. You know what a people watcher I am. Last week we took the Lord’s Supper and Abigail was sitting right in front of me. She stared at that tray so hard when it passed her by that she nearly bored a hole in it. I knew something was up. She will stand in that same baptistery where you and your sister were immersed and right at about the same age. Is there anything like growing up in one church? Would we trade those folks in our section for anything on earth??

E. Mr. Parker finally squeaked up the coyote that’s eaten both of their beloved cats and one of their neighbor’s cats in the last few days. The rabbits are so scared of it that they’re nestling right up next to the houses. Geli stares at one out our front windows constantly. Don’t tell me you don’t miss Texas. Where on earth but here would that happen in a suburban neighborhood?

F. Dad and I made homemade buttermilk pancakes and bacon for supper last night. Yep, from a real live recipe with fresh buttermilk and eggs and baking powder and…well, I don’t remember now…just stuff. No mix, is what I’m getting at. It was so good! Dad even told me not to tell him again that I wasn’t a good cook. I’d dang well proved otherwise. How about that? OK, well, I might as well strut my stuff and share the recipe. I got it off the internet and it wasn’t attributed to anybody. I guess there’s no copyright on pancakes.

Beth’s Best Buttermilk Pancakes
(Oh, that made me so happy. It’s a lie though. They’re not mine.)

Makes nine 6-inch pancakes
The key to fluffy pancakes is not to over-mix the batter; it should not be beaten smooth. If serving these pancakes with bacon, reserve half a teaspoon of bacon drippings to grease the griddle instead of butter.

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3 cups buttermilk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for griddle

1. Heat griddle to 375°. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons butter; whisk to combine. Batter should have small to medium lumps.

2. Heat oven to 175°. Test griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If water bounces and spatters off griddle, it is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush remaining 1/2 teaspoon of butter or reserved bacon fat onto griddle. Wipe off excess.

3. Using a 4-ounce ladle, about 1/2 cup, pour pancake batter, in pools 2 inches away from one other. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.

4. Repeat with remaining batter, keeping finished pancakes on a heatproof plate in oven. Serve warm.

G. Dad’s getting new glasses. These are not from Walgreen’s. I helped him pick them out, praise You, Lord. These should actually sit straight on his nose and we will no longer have to tilt our heads to look him in the eye. He is too handsome for $11 spectacles.

H. (This is Amanda now. I get one letter.)

For my sister on her 27th birthday…

Today we will eat cupcakes in your honor.

And be sad you’re not here to share.

We hope you’ll spend the day doing everything that’s fun and nothing that isn’t. Maybe some home redecorating? Fort building?

Don’t stay home. Grab your car keys and go somewhere fun!

I’m thankful for the day you made me a big sister. I was just about Jackson’s age.

Hopefully I was better at holding you than this.

We’re all wild about you, Melissa! We love you more than we could ever say! Have the happiest birthday ever.
Love,
Your family

If it weren’t Scripture memory day, I wouldn’t have posted this fast after yesterday’s entry for anything on earth. If you didn’t get a chance to read Melissa’s post “Oh, Yes, Jesus Loves Me,” enter your memory verse here but be sure and go back and read the previous one. It was true ministry in every sense of the word. Thank you, Lis.

OK, Scripture Memory Team! Well, as it turns out for all of us, we really did need these verses this year, didn’t we? I’ve had a season I wasn’t expecting, packed with many challenges, concerns, and fears but, praise His glorious Name, it’s also been packed with a whole lot of Jesus. And that’s what I want, Girlfriend. More than anything on earth. Perhaps you’ll be able to tell from my selection this time that I am, once again, working on something in particular. I’m not just looking to memorize, Sister. I’m looking to change. Scripture memory alone will just make you arrogant. Lapping up those Scriptures like they are the only spring in your desert will make you different.

I’m doing two in tandem:

“I have resolved that my mouth will not sin.” Psalm 17:3b NIV

“Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Psalm 141:3 NIV

I love you. Stay with it, Siestas!