Knows Your Name

When we were young so long ago, two decades now, he used to sing to me.  He would sing one song and one song only.  His buddies told him he sounded just like the guy who sang it on the television.  I thought he sounded even better.  His singing voice still sends chills down my spine all these years later... 

The words of the theme song to the popular TV show really do have deep truths...

"Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got

 taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot

 wouldn't you like to get away? (HECK YA! after taking care of the kids for two days while he is outta town)

 Sometimes you wanna go

 Where everybody knows your name

 And they're always glad you came

 You wanna be where you can see

 Your troubles are all the same

 You wanna go where everybody knows your name"

(insert dododododoo-doo)

And tonight he is really living out those words that he sang so sweetly to me so many moons ago...

He is in Boston on business and went to "Cheers"  

I couldn't help but smile when he sent me the pic:

And as I hummed the song and thought of the words, I was reminded of a truth that my God knows me by name.  

"...Do not fear for I have redeemed you;  I have summoned you by name;  you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;  and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;  the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the LORD your God, the holy one of Israel."  (Isaiah 43)

My God knows who I am, He knows my name...and He is with me through the carpool line which lets just be honest can feel like walking through fire or passing through sweeping, raging waters...It is scary! Yet very reassuring knowing He is with me while I am dodging mini-vans being operated by crazy moms on cell phones and jacked up on caffeine.  

But in all seriousness, He is with me and knows my name. 

Which brings me to my next point...Now please keep in mind that I am not a biblical scholar and will never ever claim to understand commentary or translation but I thought it was very interesting that as I read on God is calling out His people...reassuring to "draw out His sons and daughters from the ends of the earth"...and then it reads:

"everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

He knows my name but has called me by His name.  

I have a new name in Christ.  Which is His name.    

I am not my own, I am His...Let His name be glorified in the hustle and bustle and when I am worn thin. When the kids are bickering and I am drowning, He is there bringing me up for air.  When I am feeling burnt out, He assures me that I will not be burned up...

 And as I'm making my way in the world today (feeling used up and spent),

 taking everything I've got  (I can always go right to the feet of Jesus)

 I can take a break from all my worries...because it sure does help a lot! 

 I would like to get away

 and I can go to Him who called me by my name

 and I think that He's always glad I came...

 

(insert dododododoodoo)

Five Minute Friday: She

On Fridays a bunch of brave writers gather here to all spend 5 collective minutes writing on a single prompt.

Here’s how it all got started, back story, details and all. The short version is:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. (On your blog or in the comments).
2. Link back here and invite others to join in {you can grab the button code in my blog footer}.
3. Go leave some comment props for the five minute artist who linked up before you.

It’s a great way to catch your breath at the end of a long week.

- See more at: http://lisajobaker.com/2013/09/five-minute-friday-she/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thegypsymama+%28thegypsymama%29#sthash.T5EbxBIm.dpuf

She:

Go

She's got a way about her, don't know what it is...or so Billy Joel thought...

I want to be her, the she in that song.

I wonder if every woman does?

The longing to be cherished.  To be loved and not just typically but atypically...

To be needed...yearned for...

To turn someone around...and have them not know how we do it.

And in the ordinary, mundane everyday life to be thought of as extraordinary.

I may not be.  Probably never will be in the eyes of another human...

But there is a God and He is a God who sees me.

And in His eyes, through the sacrifice of His beloved Son who bore all my shame, He sees me as just that.

Extraordinary...with a way about her...

And He sees my potential...What I was designed for...To do His will, making known the extraordinary in the ordinary.  Living out His purpose in a way that He would have...All for His glory!!

Stop

Five Minute Friday: Mercy

Mercy

One of my Grandma's favorite sayings was, "Well Lord have mercy..."  Whenever something was shocking or surprising to her, she would say those four words with her southern Kentucky drawl.

And when times are tough, when I don't feel the grace of God I say those words, pray them out to Him...

"Lord have mercy..."  sometimes it's in the form of , "help me Jesus"  when the kids are on my last nerve or the clock ticks too fast or when I'm at the end of my rope.

But that's what Jesus is...mercy...Our saving grace...and it doesn't matter if the situation is large or small, He grants us mercy whenever we cry out for it...

Today I'm saying it.

"Lord have mercy"  on my children while they are at school...on my husband at work...on me as I go about my day.  Because we all need it so...

Where Feet May Fail

Almost exactly two years ago to the day I posted this...it was a Wednesday, August 31, 2011...Joe and I had made a pact to wake up before the littles.  It's not poetic or charming, but it was where we were in this short life and worth re-posting because God is so BIG and we are so small...

Here it is:

"LOOK AT ME"

Today I rolled out of bed early. 

I promised him that I would and it was all my bright idea.  To wake up before the crack of dawn together and seek Him out. 

I didn't even hear the alarm but instead woke to the yellow glaring light he had flicked on in the bathroom. 

How I am NOT a morning person.  It takes everything in me to get out of bed at a normal hour and I think to myself how this is insane but stand firm on my word and plant my feet on the cream plush carpet almost begrudgingly and arise. 

I stumble down the creaky stairway and find him sitting there, looking at his phone and almost roll my eyes until I come closer and realize that he is reading scripture on it.

He tells me how he woke up, right before the alarm went off, from a dream.

In the dream, he tells me, there was a hand reaching out and water all around him, and he was fearful but the man behind the hand urged him and spoke with great authority...

 "Don't look left or right...LOOK AT ME!"

And Joe stood there on the water, afraid but looking straight ahead...

and then he awoke...moments before the alarm...

out of a dead sleep he arose with a sense of urgency...

He immediately thought of the story in Matthew of Peter walking on the water. 

And that's what he was reading on his phone when I almost rolled my eyes at him.

He reads it for me...

Matthew 14:26-32 (NIV)

26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
   29 “Come,” he said.
   Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.“You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.

And as I let the words (this bread of life) in...a chill runs through my veins and out my skin, goosebumps all over...

We woke early to seek and He speaks...

And we are listening with ears perked out because He has shown up BIG...

And I don't doubt now...

My faith has been increased...

I know we can walk on water, if we look to Him, not to the wind or the storms of life, not left or right but straight on ahead to Him...

I am encouraged, we both are!  Our eyes are straight ahead...

But the question isn't:

"Will we walk on water?"

He has assured us that we will, if we look to Him...not left, not right...

and He has enabled us this morning in the early hours of the day as the children still dream fast asleep to do just that... look to HIM...

The question is:

"Will we get out of the boat?"

And tonight, September 1, 2013, I ask the same question... 

"Will we trust in our Savior to lead us out onto the water where feet may fail and fear surrounds?" 

Last week we sang a song at church that we had never heard.  It was beautiful and moving.  People were wiping their eyes and sniffling around me, I didn't think much of it because typically, I cry during worship, I'm a mess, don't judge, I'm not afraid to admit it, anyway...The next day, Joe called me from work (which isn't very frequent...yes he loves me, but apparently doesn't have lots of time for chit-chat...or he knows I will keep him on the phone for much too long but I knew it was important) and he starts to say, "I can't stop thinking about that song we sang last night at church, and I didn't sing the words because I was afraid to..."  I tried to recap the worship set and thought that I remembered but wasn't quite sure since I had lost half of my body weight in tears...but thankfully a sweet soul had posted a link to the song on FB, and I was able to make the connection...  

And tonight we sang it again at church...

It is both beautiful and courageous...

And really does make you think before you sing...

Check it out..I hope it ministers to you as much as it did to us!

God is so good and His love endures forever!! 

May we all trust in Him to give us the faith to step out where our trust is without borders!!  

Sacred Moments

Almost three years have passed since my Grandma passed...

The dull churning of my insides has eased and moments turn to hours that change into days...weeks...months...years...

But the empty pit deep down and tucked away sometimes rears it's face and sadness graces my being, wishing she was here.

She lived two doors down... a skip, a hop, a jump away...

If I was feeling lonely or that middle-child-syndrome was flaring up hard, I would race there...my bags packed for the night looking forward to the warmth from my precious grandma's house that always made me feel at home.  Her house was small and her surroundings quite meager but I couldn't have felt more safe any place else.

We sipped on tea from her corning-ware and my ears were filled with stories of her childhood and marriage and any other thing that could be talked about.  My Gram, she liked to talk.  And I loved to listen to her southern drawl as she fiddled with her collar bone, reaching for a necklace that wasn't there but telling stories that made me feel like I was back home with her down in her Kentucky blue.

We would sit and chat in that tiny kitchen where she cooked literally thousands of meals,,,

There was something almost sacred about that space.  I can remember watching her time the dinner.  The pressure cooker's high pitched whistle and the humid, hot air.  Soup beans, corn bread, salmon patties and tomato gravy waiting to smother warm biscuits right out of the oven.  Fresh green beans from the humble garden behind her garage that were snapped and broken on the front porch in her metal bowl while the cars sped by fast down Grange Road.

I still envision her sitting there and tend to look, even now, when I walk by or drive passed.

Oh how I miss her.

And tonight my uncle, who now lives there in that blue trimmed house where my daddy grew up, he brought me a cherished gift.

He brought me over one of her cups, and a couple other pieces of her dinnerware...

And my eyes took in the familiar white dishes with pea-green daisies.

Rushing thoughts flood as moments, remembered...

And how thankful and grateful I am for each memory.

How quickly this life may pass.

But how lavishly we can live in remembering these sacred moments that words cannot contain.  Because death may snatch our loved ones...young or old...but their memories will live on telling stories untold...

I Am "THAT" Mom

So I am THAT mom...

Ayla lost her second tooth the other day and was so very excited.  With her two front bottom teeth missing, she smiled big at me after I picked her up from day camp.  She shared, in detail (oh my goodness it took a few minutes), exactly how it happened in the Meijer bathroom with her cousin directing her to "twist, twist, twist" until the tiny tooth made it's way from her gums to her hands...yes I know, it all seems very unsanitary, the whole thing, but I have to put that out of my mind so that my blood pressure remains normal.

So anyhoo...she brings the cherished ivory prize home in a dixie cup.  I put it in the cup holder of my sweet white-mini-van-that-sucks-all-of-the-cool-right-out-of-me and drove us home.  And the prized-possession stays there overnight because, oops, I forgot!  We forgot, all of us!  And that was Friday.  Ayla didn't seem to mind or remember that night or Saturday night either, when she spent the night at Gaga's (can you blame her, she has a new pool?  With fountains!!).  So I don't recall what happened on Sunday but the tooth spent the night AGAIN in the dixie cup in the cupholder...

So yesterday, she remembers about her tooth and how she forgot to put it under her pillow and I panic as my heart starts racing because frankly I don't recall even seeing it in our two month old van that was spic and span for like a minute or two after I vowed to keep it perfect, and totally fell off of that band wagon...But thank our Father in Heaven, it was there!  We retrieve the dixie cup and Ayla finds her special tooth pillow and tucks it tight under hers and goes to sleep without a fight and dreaming of tooth fairy dust...

Mind you, Joe and I took up walking/running in the mornings before the kids wake up, like two whole days in a row...So, in my defense, all that was on my mind was the 6:30 am alarm as I climbed up the stairs Monday night.  And this morning, as we tip-toed around tying our shoes and setting our playlists...Ayla (who has been sleeping in until at least 9 am the WHOLE summer) whimpers in a very tired and confused morning voice,

"She didn't come, my tooth is still here!"

And my heart sinks as my stomach ties into an ugly bow...

I forgot!  I totally and completely felt like I ruined her childhood, right then and there!  Now I must admit that the tooth fairy has forgotten Jonah and Micah, on more than one occasion as well and I felt really horrible but they are so easy to divert and fool.  And the drama, oh the DRAMA, is just not nearly as noticeable with those boys, ever!  But Ayla, on the other hand, NEVER misses a beat and has the memory of an elephant.  I tried to explain that the tooth fairy may have forgotten because we didn't leave out the tooth on the first official night of the loss...

And she cried, and cried... She said the tooth fairy forgot her and was never coming back.

Oh the guilt.  I am THAT mom...

So tonight we left a big sign on her door.  She asked for tooth fairy dust (thank you cousin Janie for telling her all about the tooth fairy dust that you experienced after losing a tooth).

And tonight the tooth fairy will make an appearance.  Her and her "Bare Escentuals: Gold Mineral Veil" will have to do...

Ayla after her first tooth loss

Smile and Nod

I am sitting on my back porch watching the lightening show in the sky.  The rain pours and pounces, changing directions swiftly and fiercely making it's mark.  I feel like a child again as each one of my three...'not-so-littles'...make their way to me.  Concern and anguish grace each face as bright light flashes across the sky.  Hands and arms reach over to me grasping for comfort and reassurance.  My 12 year old is worried mostly about the beating his new bike in the driveway may be taking but the younger two are afraid that they may be struck and hurt.  I try to explain and cradle them each in my embrace for this cherished moment that they actually want and need me in.  And even though the thunder roars I have to be the rock...the grown mama... and I can't let on that the storm scares the living daylights out of me as well.  It may not be my bike in the driveway but my umbrella and patio furniture are out back and my house could blow down and crush us all with these unseasonable winds in an instant flat...But no, I just smile and hold tight and tell them that everything will be fine.  

Lately this has been my motto....Just like the little penguins from the movie "Madagascar" 

...'Just smile and nod boys, smile and nod'

Because isn't that what we end up doing so much of the time as parents?  When the waters are raging and the storms are beating...We have to hold it altogether and pretend like "it's all good"...

We have to be strong for them when the thunderstorms of life pounce on us and beat us down.  When the ones closest to us are sick and hurting...when we don't have the answers to the hard questions...when their little hearts have been beat up and broken and ours are bleeding even more for the pain they are going through.

We long to protect them from any extra anxiety or fear.  So we take it on ourselves.  

But so much of the time those burdens that we carry to protect can be too heavy to hold.  

And as the lightening strikes and the thunder rolls, I am reminded that I have a Father in heaven who loves my 'not-so-little ones' even more than I do...

Will you join me tonight in handing over your burdens that you are carrying, as I do mine. to the Creator of this magnificent creation...

1 Peter 5:6-7
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

because he cares for you....

And because of that you and I can truly,

"smile and nod!"