I confess I’ve had to try really hard to stay away from Twitter. It sounds fun, but I need another thing to distract me on the computer like I need a slap in the face. So at this point I’m staying away.

Curt has a Twitter account that he uses to follow a handful of well-known pastors, speakers, and authors. One night when I was staying up too late just so I could enjoy my time off from mom duty, I snuggled up next to him and read the page over his shoulder. No one really likes that, so eventually he just handed me the computer. I went back and read a few days’ worth of tweets from these men.

Each one’s voice – their unique perspective and tone – came out loud and clear through their Twitter updates. Each one spoke of and pointed to Christ, but they could not have been more different. They lined up on the page in such a way that they could be easily compared. None was like the other, but it seemed to me that their voices together made a whole. Curtis has always read and listened to a wide range of teachers. If he only listened to one of those teachers all the time, he would risk becoming lopsided.

First Corinthians 12 tells us that the body of Christ is made up of different parts. We have very different functions and giftings, but we work together to bring glory to God. We need each other in order to be whole.

Seeing Curt’s Twitter page was a great reminder that I shouldn’t just get comfortable in one classroom and refuse to learn from any other teacher. I think it’s normal to find a teacher that we really identify with and who particularly gets us excited about the Word. But we will miss a blessing – and perhaps and arm and a leg – if we don’t let ourselves hear the other doctrinally sound Christian voices, all with remarkably different pitches, out there.

Hey Siestas!

Oh my word. It seems like it’s been a lifetime since I’ve talked to you girls. I wish I had tons of stuff to catch you all up on but I really don’t because all I do is read. Well, I go to class as well, but mostly I read. And I coffee shop hop. And you are thinking to yourself, “What is coffee shop hopping?” Let me briefly explain this phenomenon, though those of you in school will doubtless know of what I speak. It goes like this: In the morning one spends two to three hours at coffee shop number one. In the afternoon one spends two to three hours at coffee shop number two. And if it is a really crazy day, one spends as many evening hours as needed at coffee shop number three. Now yesterday was a three stop coffee shop hop day. [Say that ten times fast.] I was feeling a little defeated before the day began with all I had to do but it ended up being a delightful day. In the end, I realized I had found sketches of beauty in my mundane schedule. It went something like this:

Stop number one: Early in the morning I was at a modest little breakfast place ironically called “Sweet Melissa’s” getting my sacred first cup of coffee for the day. Sitting right next to me was a guy about my age with his grandfather who was so clearly ecstatic about going out on the town for breakfast. You could see it all over his face and not to mention he was dressed for an outlandish soiree at Gatsby’s mansion. As I gazed down at my book I pondered their sweet conversation. It didn’t take long for tears to well up in my eyes and make their way on to my page because I knew in my heart that this brief breakfast hour was the hour that one bow tie-clad man had been looking forward to all week long.

Stop number two: Mid-afternoon I made my way to San Francisco coffee and I noticed a Mom in her mid-thirties sitting at a table with her six-year-old son; she with coffee in hand and he with hot chocolate. I was amazed by their whole conversation. She was asking him all about his day at school. Questions about his new teacher and the students in his class. At times he would talk too loudly, stutter, or mispronounce various words but she never interrupted him or corrected him. Not even once. She just listened to him. Didn’t even look up from him or care about the rest of us in the room. They sat at that little table just talking and communicating for a solid hour. It was stunning. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like it. I don’t know why it hit me so hard but I thought to myself, “I want to be like her when I grow up. She’s just cool.”

Stop number three: My third and final stop was at Starbucks. What can I say? I save the best for last. I was sitting in the corner of the store where I could not really see anyone else except a long line of people in my side view. A few minutes into my study I heard the Barista announce, “Hey pretty lady! Sit down, sit down…I’ll bring you some coffee!” I was kind of annoyed with the Barista thinking to myself, “Since when do the Baristas at Starbucks wait on tables when there are ten people waiting in line for their coffee?” So, I turned around to see who this woman was who was getting all this special attention, and to my surprise she was at least ninety years old. Then I watched in awe as this twenty-year-old Barista with spiky black hair and more piercings than I could count walk away from his counter where he had at least ten beverages to make put his arms gently around this frail woman. About twenty minutes later I saw them say good-bye to one another with beaming smiles and genuine affection. These two folks had very little in common yet it was clear they had formed a unique friendship.

I know these seem like small and silly gestures but in a world where it feels like people are too busy to interact with one another, these little things speak volumes to me. Sometimes I ponder the evil in us and among us and I wonder in my heart how the Lord does not look down from His holy hill and utterly destroy us all. Do you ever think that? Maybe it’s just me. Well, anyway…the point here is that other times I watch folks open their hearts and love other people, even complete strangers, and I think to myself, “Maybe these are reasons He doesn’t.” I don’t know. What I do know is that these three seemingly mundane interactions deposited a dose of hope in my heart. I just sat there in my chair at the end of the day and sipped those moments like one sips a hot Pumpkin Spice Latte with extra Whipped Cream. And let me tell you, they warmed this cold and cynical soul of mine.

Can you remember a time when you were touched by a simple human interaction? It doesn’t have to be newsworthy.

Love Triumphs,
Melissa

Lately God has really been bringing that first part of Hebrews 11:6 back to my mind in living, breathing color like on a cartoon strip of a newspaper. You probably know the verse by heart even if you don’t know exactly where it lives: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Don’t dismiss it or yawn past it with over-familiarity because it encompasses the single most important concept of our existence. On most mornings as I meet with God in the quiet before dawn, I say some form of these words: “Lord, I want so much to please you…” Recently, I’ve found myself in a season where I’m having to put very deliberate, focused trust in God in order not to be overcome by a few obstacles and invitations to fear. It’s not a bad place to be. It’s just a very intense place to be. Those seasons never fail to become the most memorable markers on my path with Christ. A few days ago when I was saying those same words to Him (“I want so much to please You, Lord”), I felt like He spoke back. These very clear and unsolicited thoughts formed like a pencil sketch on the wall of my mind: “Beth, you keep telling Me that you want to please Me and I esteem that. It is seeing you exercise your faith with great courage and against emotions and odds that pleases Me most. You’ve had a little break in some areas lately. What do you say we get back to that walk again?”

I’ve even been saying my Five Statement Pledge of Faith again. I bet a few of you could finish these sentences with me:

God is who…

God can…

I am…

I can…

God’s Word is…

I’m…

Nope. Not a bad place to be at all. Just intense. For some of you in Siestaville, really intense. Much more intense than what I’m going through. I want Him and the sense of His presence more than anything in this whole world. I’ve tasted it and there’s nothing in life like it. Many of you feel that same way. This many decades into a journey with Christ, I’ve concluded that the paths where our faith is stretched beyond our circumstances, our emotions, and natural conclusions are the ones where we receive the most vivid divine disclosures. These are the experiences that shape the paragraphs of our life stories. These are what keep us from being the snoozers and reward-losers in the Body of Christ. These are our hikes up the mountain where Jesus is transfigured before us. I am convinced that, in seasons that call for a powerful outbreak of faith, victory is never accidental. We make up our minds to believe God. To make no choice at all is to choose defeat. Fear. Intimidation. Constant psychological warfare.

SO, my verses this time around in our Scripture memory challenge are centered on faith because I find myself there again. I’m not feeling whiny because this is the place the Word jumps off the page for me and my prayer time passes before I’m finished. This is the place I grow. Every other place is where I simply maintain. Don’t get me wrong. Maintaining is not a bad thing as long as we can swing on the Vine to the other side of the road when we get an opportunity to land in a growth spurt. I’m choosing several verses this time because they’re each familiar enough to me to be fairly easy to memorize. I know them by concept and paraphrase. Now I want to know them word for word. If you want, choose just one of them and let it build up your sweet faith. Maybe you’ve forgotten lately that you are a warrior. He is so worthy of this, Sister.

Of Abraham, Romans 4:20-21 NIV says…

“He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.”

(By the way, when I recite that one to God, I’ll probably often take it personally and use a “she” for me instead of a “he” for Abraham. After all, his faith walk is over and mine is still very much in flux.)

And one more. It’s a really short portion but it shoots a straight shot and I love it. It’s Isaiah 7:9b NIV…

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”

No kidding. Let’s get back up, Girls. Remember, faithfulness is never passive. It is the active filling of every gap with faith.

You are so loved here. We are honored to take this journey with you.
I love you.

Siestas, I’m coming to you today to ask you for prayer. Your sisters at LPM and our families, as well as our dear friends the Cottrells, are feeling the heat of the spiritual battle being waged around us. We are going through a time of spiritual warfare and could really use your prayers.

The enemy has largely been targeting our physical health. Everyone goes through seasons of hardship, but what’s cluing us into the fact that this is a spiritual matter is that the same equation is being used over and over with different variables.

For lack of a better word, he is threatening us. Serious things keep threatening to occur, but don’t fully pan out (for which we are thankful). For example, this morning Annabeth came down with a raging case of what turned out to be hives. She’s going to be fine, but the back of her head was swelling and we really thought we had an emergency on our hands. I could spout off at least six other situations where something harmful has threatened to occur, but has turned out to be relatively minor.

A few weeks ago I heard a sermon from Dr. David Jeremiah on the radio (I believe it was “Slaying the Giant of Temptation – Part 1”). He said that Christian leaders feel the heat of the battle through spiritual warfare, but they also get the best view to see the enemy’s defeat. I just love that. I called my mom immediately and quoted it to her. Not only will we see him defeated in this time of warfare, but we also get to see him defeated on a daily basis as women open up their Bibles and let the Word of God change their lives. Ladies, we would not trade that for anything. It is an incredible privilege to get to see God at work in you. We are so blessed.

I will leave you with these verses from our Bible study last night. I have not been able to get the lesson off my mind. He is so worthy, Siestas! Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Revelation 5:6-14

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!” The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

It’s Sunday evening and the sun is just beginning to set. All afternoon I’ve felt waves of appreciation for my pastor, Gregg Matte. Until five years ago, I’d never had a shepherd who was younger than me, let alone one that is YEARS younger than me. I didn’t dread it. I’m not that ridiculous. I just wondered what it would be like. Pastor Gregg pretty quickly won my respect but, over the course of these five years, he accomplished something substantially bigger. He won my heart. I love him. And, maybe more importantly, I just plain like him.

I was just standing in the kitchen, stirring up some chili when I thought how it would be a shame to let this day end without telling him how grateful I am for him. It’s not pastor appreciation day or anything. Or at least I don’t think it is. It’s just a spontaneous wave of thanks and sometimes those are the best kind to relay. I thought maybe a few of you might feel the same way about your pastor right about now. Often we find ourselves on the same page around here in Siestaville so I decided to make it public and pitch the opportunity out here for anyone who wants to participate. Maybe a pastor or two might hop on here and grab some much needed encouragement. Like me, you may have a long list of things you love about your pastor but, for the sake of readability, let’s limit ourselves to five. So, here goes mine.

Dear Pastor Gregg,

Here are five things I really like about you:
1. You never, ever disrespect your congregation by showing up unprepared. We always get all the lesson we can possibly handle in such a limited period of time.

2. You are not afraid of trying something entirely new. You were already great at what you were doing in college ministry before you came to serve us in Houston but you wanted to follow that cloudy pillar of God’s glory and be willing to do something totally out of the box. You’ve been doing that ever since. Bravo. That takes guts.

3. You are a true worshipper. You fully participate in the song portion of our services instead of tapping your foot impatiently until you can get on the platform. Your personal practice of worship is very apparent in your public life.

4. You are hilarious. I’m one of those folks who believes people can be Godly and funny all at the same time. You are proof of that. Honestly, you made me laugh so hard at the end of today’s service I could hardly stand up. I will remember your rendition of “even the rocks cry out” for many years to come. I LOVE THAT YOU DID THAT. AND NOT ONCE BUT TWICE. We could perform a duet some day if you want to.

5. You are married to the most wonderful pastor’s wife on the planet. Kelly, I am crazy about you.

Thank you for loving me and my family, Pastor Gregg, odd as we may be. I just wanted to tell you today that we love you, too.

It’s fall, y’all. Splendid, wonderful, beautiful fall. It doesn’t really look like fall in Houston until December, but that doesn’t matter too much. The important thing is that the thermostat no longer looks like summer.

Tonight Curtis and I are dropping the kids off with my mom and going on a quick dinner date. Then we’ll pick up Jackson and take him to see a local high school homecoming football game. I imagine it will be a windy night and all the ribbons hanging from the homecoming mums will be blowing around, making that clinking sound as the plastic trinkets knock into each other.

Some of you have no idea what I’m talking about. Here in Texas, it’s a tradition to give your homecoming date a mum or a garter to wear to school and to the game. The mum is a huge, fake flower with ribbons all around it. The ribbons are in the school’s colors and they have sparkly letters and little trinkets like footballs and whistles attached. The mums are meant to be pinned on the girl’s shirt and the garter (which is much smaller than the mum) is worn on the guy’s arm.

Not all mums are created equal. You have your single mum, which I personally think is the best size, as well as double and triple mums – status mums, if you will. Who knows? Maybe now there are quadruple mums. I’ll be able to tell you after tonight. One year my mum was as wide as I was and I just carried it on a hanger. I’m laughing out loud at that memory right this second. Oftentimes there will be a small stuffed animal in the middle of the mum. There are even mums with Christmas lights.

Are you amazed? Shocked? Awed? I found a silly article and video from a Dallas news station that will help you visualize this phenomenon. Here’s the link. You’ll find the video halfway down the page. By the way, I think I spotted some quadruples!

Nothing says fall in Texas like a homecoming football game. What about your neck of the woods? Are there any fall traditions unique to where you live?

Forgive.

It’s time to let it go.

That thing’s gonna eat you alive.

Wasting time.

Taking too much energy.

Emphatically, deliberately, bull-headedly – put every weighty ounce of it in the ready hands of God and let Him deal with it.

AND DEAL HE WILL.

Every time you’re tempted to pick it back up again, thank Him out loud that He’s busy handling it and that, once the battle is won in the heavenlies, you’ll see it evidenced on Earth. Prepare to become that evidence.

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Matthew 6:9-14

He forces the point for our own sakes. Otherwise, what on earth would ever motivate us to forgive what seems unforgivable? He is the immortal, invisible Only Wise God. Trust Him with it.

Forgive.

Or maybe it’s just me.

I love you guys so much. Let’s do the brave thing.

PS. I had not yet had a chance to read the comments from the previous blog post (Deeper Still video) because I’ve been so busy with Tuesday night Bible study. I just read them and wait till you see an excerpt I found from one of you and how it goes with this one. You even said that you knew it didn’t have anything to do with that post but you just had to write it. SO WILD. Girlfriend, God prompted you to make the comment so I’d see it and add it to this one. Here goes:

I have been holding onto unforgiveness toward my dad for leaving me as a little girl, and for continuing to hurt me into my present adulthood. I have fake-forgiven him, held onto it with one hand and to my First Love with the other. And let me tell you, the poison that my divided heart has let into my life is unreal…

NO MORE! PRAISE YOU, LORD! THE KING OF KINGS!!

Pretty powerful, huh? SO, anybody else ever “fake forgiven”? It’s time we did the real thing.

Deeper Still – Orlando from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

Before church

After church

Curtis and I marveled at how much Annabeth changed during our two weeks in Wyoming. This picture was taken on the day she started sitting up. She was using her hands but could sit for a long time.

Exactly one week later, when she happened to be wearing the same outfit, she was sitting with no hands. This is such a fun stage! I’m enjoying our last bit of time before she becomes mobile.

This was Annabeth’s first time in a restaurant high chair.

One night after my parents arrived, we had dinner on the deck at Signal Mountain Lodge. After that we walked down to Jackson Lake.

Jackson is embracing his big brother role a little more these days.

This is a picture of one of the cookouts we attended by the river.

Curtis and Annabeth challenged Jackson and his friend in a race.

Annabeth did not enjoy being a track star.

Here’s Baby Girl’s first time in a playground swing. I did not bring her enough cool-weather clothes, so I frequently resorted to pajamas.

One morning our whole family attended a breakfast cookout up on a mountain. Dad and I and joined the trail riders on horseback while Mom and Curtis brought the kids up in a car. We had hot chocolate, eggs, bacon, and pancakes. It was so much fun.

Jackson and his daddy played hide and seek in the town square. Here’s Jackson counting.

Here he is hiding.

A view of the Tetons from near our place.

Mt. Moran might be my favorite.

A deer in the river by our cabin.

The Sleeping Indian. Can you see him?

One day we visited Jenny Lake. You do not want to miss it if you ever visit Jackson Hole.

We took a shuttle boat across the lake to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point.

Looking up at the mountain from the boat.

Here’s what we hiked to see.

We – mainly Jackson – got soaked on the boat ride back. The water was freezing! Jackson has always loved being splashed with cold water (seriously), so he had a great time. People around us were even trying to take pictures of him because he was so funny.

The pictures you are about to see are from The Greatest Day of Jackson’s Life.

We went to Snow King and did the alpine slide.

The slide was really fun, but I only did it once because the ski lift to the top of it scared me to death. Curt says it isn’t as freaky when there’s snow below you. The Moores aren’t skiers, so I wouldn’t really know.

Then Curtis and I went temporarily insane and let Jackson do the bungee trampoline. You are seeing the highlight of his three-year-old life.

Everyone within a mile heard him squealing.

After that, we had lunch at the Saddle Rock Family Saloon.

The only beer they served was root beer. Oh my word, it was the best ever!

Jackson capped the day off with a horse ride. This is Blizzard, the most chilled out horse known to man. Jackson looked like a baby on top of that big ole animal.

That concludes the Greatest Day of Jackson’s Life.

Here’s a bad picture of some elk in the valley.

This is our favorite pizza place. No visit is complete without it.

It’s our tradition to take a picture on this huge stump before we leave. Right after this, some very sad Joneses got in the car and drove to the airport. Sad, sad, sad.

Thanks for sharing our pictures!

For everyone going to Deeper Still in Orlando this weekend, have an awesome time with Jesus!