Trust

Trust it is a big thing for me. I have been married to a man for 31 years who's yen for adventure has kept me in a big trust mode for years. When he proposed he was majoring in Police Science at college. I remember having a conversation with God going something like this, "Can I handle being married to someone who puts their life on the line?" I can remember going through senerio's in my mind...what if. God was very clear though and told me this was the man for me. I remember thinking okay, I will just have to trust you on this one God. Little did I know this would be a life long journey. Turns out Dan decided to change his major after we were engaged, because he heard the FBI was hiring bussiness majors. I though whee,I had to trust and God has changed his direction, I can handle this. Dan even ended up working as a bussiness man, after he finished school. It seemed God was really cutting me a break. By the time I was having my third child, my husband decided to go through the local police acadamny just for fun, and to volunteer with the local sheriffs department. Hello God, this is Cindy here, I have three small children...what are we doing ? Again I heard trust me, don't worry. Dan had a blast taken down the bad guys, stand offs with drug dealers, meth houses, even making a few citizens arrest in his bussiness suit. (The day he stopped a robber coming out of a liquor store, and a church family witnessed it. 20 years later and those boys still remember it!) Soon the demands of life and a family, led him to set this adventure aside. Then one day the man comes home, with the three small kids intow, with a vidio clip of him bungy jumping. All I could think of was "What if he had gone splat in front of the kids?" God speaking "Cindy, you can do this, trust Me." As the years went by my son was begining to take the spot light in the adventure field. I can remember at Mc Dee's one day some mom freaking out, who's baby is that on top of the playtoy!!! Yikes, there was no slowing this boy down. He crawled at 5 months, ran at 7 months, and always was over developed in his large moter skills. Father bought son a motercycle at 8. Father and son rode motercycles, at least they were dirt bikes. Oh I forgot to mention when I met Dan he just had a motercycle accident slamming into the side of a car at 50 miles and hour. He was a little messed up. Clue, Cindy big clue! Then the sports began, and I prayed my son through highschool football,snowboarding, skateboarding... There were injuries through out childhood, but not many considering. When he was just out of highschool, he and his friends climbed all the volcanic peaks in the Pacific Northwest. I remember they did Mt. Baker and Hood in about 6 hours each. They would jog up the mountain and snowboard down. Oiy Vay! Now at the age of 26 my son is working for his second summer for an organization called Outward Bound. He takes young teenagers on extreeme adventures in the North Cascades. They go mountaineering,sea kayacking, and rock climbing. Today I found out he will be leading a group up Mt. Raineer. He has climbed Raineer three times, but only summited once. This is the first crew from this organization to do this. So here I go again, a summer of trust. I think I am past Trust 101 though, don't you think?

Things that are caught

Years ago I was asking a new friend of mine who was known to have a gift in intersession and prayer to teach me how to really pray and intercede. She said something’s are better caught than taught. She explained to me that I would learn better by spending time with her in prayer, learning by experience and example, much more than she would ever be able to teach or explain with words. She was right, after going to the throne room with her just a few times, I gain great insight and experience that mere words could never have conveyed. I have noticed over the years that in life many things are better "caught than taught". When the Bible tells us our lives are like a living epistle, it is so true. I think parenting and the best kind of teaching come through observation. My beloved Italian momma who died of cancer 18 years ago this spring still impacts my life in many ways by the life she led as my mom. As a teenager, the last thing I wanted to do back in the day was be like my mom. She drove me crazy in so many ways. For instance she was this super obsessive clean freak. Actually I must have driven her crazy. I was one major slob. To this day the only reason I keep a fairly clean house is not because of her nagging. That never made a single dent on my conscious, oophs! What got me finally was living on my own, after only a few weeks of glorious slobville, I found I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t enjoy my messiness because after having lived in her home I couldn’t stand living in filth. Those were her words ;>) I couldn’t believe myself when I began to get all bothered about a clean house. And so the saga continued. My daughters too are messy and I drove them nuts trying to teach them how to keep a fairly neat bedroom. It didn’t work. But I knew one day if I just kept up my end of the deal by example they to would catch the clean thing. Sure enough my daughter Megan’s first quarter away at collage my diligent example paid off. She found herself one day scrubbing down her apartment going on this major cleaning binge , when she realized in the middle of her obsession, she had become her mother!!!!!!!!! We both had a good laugh over that. I was outwardly sympathetic, but inwardly my heart was shouting halleluiah!!! Well 18 years after my mother’s death, I still live a life impacted by her example. As I enter this new stage of grandmother hood, I think of her often and find myself mimicking her ways with my own daughter. Enjoying all the love and support I can lavish on her without overwhelming her. Letting her find her way, but when she asks, I am there with hands wide open. I felt the need this Mother's Day to pay a tribute to my mom. I am still very much gleaning from all her examples that were caught not taught by the life she led and the love she gave so freely. Thanks Mom!

The Last Prom

With the on set of my youngest child’s adulthood looming in my face. I find myself saying this is the last this, and the last that, quite a bit these days. We hosted an “after prom party” last night till 4:00am in the morning. Dan and I are so exhausted we can barely function today. It makes it just a little easier having to acknowledge all these "lasts" as we find it a tad bit more difficult keeping up with all the activities of a teenager ;>) My daughter looked so beautiful, and she had such a great time with her friends, it was definitely all worth it. I got all sentimental by pulling up some of Jenna’s first high school dance pictures. You see Jenna went to her first dance freshman year, with the same boy that took her to her last dance senior year. The comparison pictures are so sweet to look at, and have brought back such memories of what was and what is, and oh dear what is to come!
Enjoy!
Cindy

Night Visions

Last year I took some classes that my church offered in learning some basic principals in Biblically based dream interpretation. It has been a fascinating journey. I have learned and watched in wonder how God really does speak to individuals and to churches from this less than conventionally thought mode of communication with His people. I have seen God preparing a church for great change, by revealing His thoughts and plans too many individuals before it happened. It started with a dream that God gave me that was so strong in indicating change that was coming specifically for this church. Then people who knew I had taken these classes would come to me with their dreams. It was crazy because God was revealing to them one by one different aspects and parts of His new plan for this church. I must admit it took me several weeks to piece it all together, but one day I believe God spoke to me, not out loud mind you, that would have really freaked me out :>) what was exactly going to happen. I called two individuals who did know, and told them what I had learned. Dead on. This was about 3 months before the church was told about a pastoral change that would have great impact on them all. The amazing thing was, as those dreamers kept sharing their dreams with me, I could see God was preparing them with specific points of preparation, before they even knew they would need it. It was a fascinating learning process for me. To see the heart of God unfold on behalf of His people, to see this particular way God uses to love us and care for us. I am defiantly paying more attention these days to what He says in visions of the night.

Job 33:14-16 God always answers, one way or another, even when people don't recognize his presence.
"In a dream, for instance, a vision at night, when men and women are deep in sleep, fast asleep in their beds--
God opens their ears and impresses them with warnings