My Word for 2013 is....

My friend, Kris, is so dear to me.  We get to spend time each week together at the Homeless Outreach, try to do lunch once a month, and chat when we can.  Recently she shared on her blog her word for 2013.  It made me think about having such a word.  What would choosing one word to add to living my daily life look like.  Could I do it? Do I want to do it?  But in the pit of my stomach, I was challenged.  Challenged to pray, seek, and think about a word...my word for 2013.  A word that would call me to action, to service, to gratitude, to give, to share, to contemplate over, to meditate on, to be a noun, to be an action verb. You see my word is LOVE.  

Love...an encompassing word.  So much to be said for it, about it, the lack of it.  It is also a word we take for granted and throw around for everything.  I had a friend say to me one time it really upset him when someone would say, I love McDonald's french fries.  For him using the word LOVE had such a deep, close to his soul meaning for him, it truly upsets him to see people throw the word around like yesterday's laundry.

So how will this word impact my life in 2013?  Will it make a difference to others in my community, my family, my friends, my world?  

In 1 Corinthians 13 we have the Love verses.  Many times this scripture is used in weddings but what if I read this everyday.  What if I truly apply the words to my life?  

Love is Patient....I'm not always a patient person.  

Love is Kind.....I'm  not always a kind person.

Love does not envy....Sometimes I envy others or my perception of what I think there life is like.

Love does not Boast....I come from a loud and proud family.

Love is not Proud....More layers for God to peel away.

Love is not Self-Seeking....Life cannot be just about me.

Love is not Rude....Ok, I've been working on this one for years.  Still working on it

Love is not easily angered....Loving people who do not love others angers me.

Love keeps no record of Wrong Doings....I don't, well most of the time

Love does not Delight in Evil....I got this one!

Love rejoices with Truth....The truth will set us free.

Love Protects....Even when we think it hasn't

Love Trusts.... Without trust we can have nothing else.

Love Hopes....Hope for a world of love.

Love Perseveres....Love is more than french fries.

Love NEVER Fails....We fail as humans but Love does not fail.

Whew, this is just one verse that speaks about Love.

There's the great commandment: LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul; LOVE your neighbor as yourself.

Loving God sometimes seems to be the simple and easy thing to do.  But when we look at the LOVE he has for us....I'm not sure we can even really begin to fathom it.

A verse that has become the biggest "poster" verse is John 3:16

For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him will not perish but have everlasting life.

God Loves Me. I am to Love Him.

God Loves You.  I am to Love you.

God Loves his creation and created us for his glory.  We are to love one another.

So what will 2013 look like for me?  I'm not sure but I hope, pray and cling to Love.

On this day, December 31, 2012.  I'm thankful for the love I have.  The love of a husband for the past 28 years of my life.  The love of a son for 21 years.  The love of my parents and brother for 43 years. The love of family, friends.  Some who I have spent a lifetime with, some who I have only known in 2012.  I've learned that Love comes in all shapes and sizes. 

 It crosses all socio-economic barriers, if we will allow it too.

I look forward and I'm a bit scared of where love may take me in the next year.  

What do I need to find a fresh love for?

Who do I need to share love with?

What barriers are up that do not allow me to love?

LOVE....4 letters that I pray will change my life and yours in 2013 and beyond.

Without Love I am nothing.

No title, the page is blank

The blank page...




I'm not sure where to begin during this Advent season, so I stare at the blank page.  It isn't because I have nothing to write about -  it's the task of taking all that swirls around in my head and put it to paper.

I look forward each year to Advent.  I enjoy the season of Hope, Joy, Peace and Love.  I long to read and study during the season.  To rejuvenate. To see where life has taken me from the past year's Advent and wonder where the next will lead.



But a blank page, really?

 Yes.


 My mind races over the joys of the past 12 months. The hope, peace and love that's been there.
 Along with the despair, struggles, anger, sorrow, and frustration.

Among it all, I hold to the One who gives me hope, joy, peace and love...



But for now the page is blank...Merry Christmas.

What is normal?

The pains of normal or not being normal, everyone has them.

I look back over my life and some of my relationships with family and friends have been "normal" while others, well.........not so much.  But what does this really mean and how do we adapt to whatever "our normal" is?

I've learned over the past three years that Bennett going off to college brought a different type of normalcy to the house than when he joined the Air Force. When a child goes off to college most of us know they will be coming home a few times a semester, parents go and visit their kids at school, you meet their new friends, you still get to do their laundry. When a child joins the military everyone has to learn a new normal.  This isn't bad it just something new to learn. The longest we have gone without seeing Bennett is 7 months and that was a surprise to us because we actually thought it was going to be a little more than a year before we saw him again. When your child is in the service they have so much to adapt to, so much to make their own normal....meeting new people, then maybe saying goodbye quicker than hoped, moving to new places, leaving behind what they know and have been comfortable with, they are independent and now do their own laundry! Everyone in the family has to find new ways to make all of our schedules work so we carve out that special calling time on Sunday evening. This is our new normal.

Others face different types of normal....a passing of a loved one, a divorce, a loss of a job, a bad grade, a new church, the list could go on for miles.

How we cope, grow, and press on, is different for each of us in search of our normal.  I've learned that no one is "normal" and sometimes the Norman Rockwell picture just explodes or is enough to make you want to puke. Everyone must find their path.  Their way to stay connected to those they love or things they love to do in spite of the ever changing world around them.

My mom recently shared with me she has come to terms that her remaining years on earth will not be as she had pictured as a young woman.  She is excepting her normal.  This for her means my family will not be living close by and Sunday dinners with all the family are not a common theme for us. She isn't alone in wishing families still lived close by and shared weekly meals together but she had to understand her normal is a few special dinners a year.

A friend who lost her spouse said, I just had to learn how to be me without him right here with me. She isn't alone in having lost a loved one but she had to find her new normal.

Another friend's son is heading into the teenage years. Gone is the normal cuddle time it is replaced by the tempermental, hormonal teenager.  Ah, the new normal for a few years.

A long distance relationship is not the same as when you leave in the same city.
 Both can have normalcy - it is their own.

During this Advent season I am reflecting on the birth of Christ, the life of Christ, the death and resurrection of Christ.  None of it was "normal".


So the next time someone says to me - that's just not normal.  I think I will respond, What is normal?