Friday, December 28, 2012

My Statement


The name of my first book is God Has Better Things to do Than My Laundry.  I clarify that it’s my first book so that you won’t think that I am an expert by any stretch of the imagination.  This body of work is far from what The Notebook was to Nicholas Sparks.  As you will notice the first word in the title of my book is God.  It seems that there is some confusion by people that I have never met and maybe even by some I have as to what this book is about.

I am here to clarify for you.  This book is about our lives, my life to be more specific about it, although perhaps there are those that can identify with what I write about.  Perhaps you have been where I have; you have experienced much of the same things that I have.  I happen to be a Christian.  I believe in the Father and I believe in the Son.  I believe that Jesus came down and died on a cross for me and not just for me but for you also.  I believe it even though I cannot see it, but I have to challenge you to look at the faces of your children and the sunset on a warm summer day and try to explain it any other way.  My belief in God is talked about in my book.  God is a headliner in the title of my book.  God made the mere possibility of the book a thought in my head and He is the one who made it possible. 

I do not claim to be a professional.  I do not even claim to be good.  I write not for the fame of those who have come before me but because to not write seems an impossibility.  Because if I don’t write I will never get to say all I have to say.  Because If I don’t write no one will know necessarily how much I love my family and how very much I love my God.  As has been established I am not a public speaker.  I’m not one to witness to the masses on a stage or even to a classroom, but I will type my thoughts and express myself with words on a page.

If you are expecting a Bible study you won’t find it on the pages of my book.  If you are expecting a work of great fiction or for me to not talk about God you will be severely disappointed in my book.  My book is not even something I wanted to share with the public at large.  It was an idea, a dream, a little something that maybe I might attempt someday.  That someday happened and while I am thankful for the opportunities that God has presented me with, I am at a loss as to handle people who don’t get it.  Maybe because I don’t get it, I don’t get the plan, I haven’t been filled in as it were to what God has planned with all of this and why on earth He would choose me to carry this out.  I only know that I am trying very hard to be obedient whether I “get it” or not. 

The thing is although this book is about me, the project really isn't.  This isn't about me, it’s about God.  It’s about His plan, His timing, His work, His will for me.  Whatever that looks like, that’s it.  There is no clear end in the book because it’s ongoing.  This work He is doing is ongoing.  My life as it were continues and has continued even in times when I thought for sure that it wouldn't and couldn't and shouldn't.  It has and it will until God deems it differently.  Until then I will continue to write what He gives me to put on a page.  I will type out the stories of our family and I will watch as it all unfolds as words on a page.

You don’t have to read it.  You don’t even have to like it.  But if you cannot type out the name of God I can only hope that maybe something will speak to you in the message He has given me to convey.  If not then I am sorry you chose a book with the first word of the title being God.  I don’t understand your thinking.  But I am a believer and I will never apologize to anyone for whom or what I am.  Take it or leave it, I am who I am and I won’t apologize to anyone for that either.  Why should I?  I am the daughter of a King and He doesn't make mistakes.

Monday, December 24, 2012

It's NOT the end of the world, but what about Christmas?


According to the Mayan calendar I shouldn't be typing on my computer today.  The end of the world should have happened on December 21, 2012.  The speculation surrounding that date has been made into movies, some were scared to send their children to school.   Meanwhile, the schools here were canceled due to weather and a lack of power at one of the schools.  We didn't rejoice, in fact my teenagers were pretty distraught.  They had hoped to finish up their final exams that day.  That day may go down in history as the first day that my children were NOT excited about a snow day.

I have to ask the question:  Were you concerned?  In our house we made jokes.  I also informed my children that if Jesus did decide to come back on that day I was ready.  I operate under what I know to be fact.  The Bible says that no man knows when the coming will be.  The Mayans were not told before the Son.  That’s a fact.  The Mayans probably got tired of calendar making and instead started working on something else.  I have no idea what happened, maybe they thought it would be funny to mess with a future generation they wouldn't be around to see, and just stopped. 

It wasn't the end of the world but is it the end of Christmas as we know it?  All over the world people are finishing their Christmas shopping and wrapping in preparation for the big day.  We count gifts and make sure that we have enough for everyone; we think to be sure we haven’t left anyone out.  We get together with family and some members don’t even speak to each other.  Some go into debt in an effort to provide their children with the best possible Christmas and for what?  What does Christmas mean?  I hear people asking for specific gifts.  “Johnny wants a pair of jeans but they must come from the Buckle because otherwise he won’t wear them.”  “Sally wants Ugg boots.”  “Fred wants a flat screen TV.”  Seriously, I have to ask myself what happened to Christmas? 

In a manger thousands of years ago a Savior was born with no crib for a bed.  He was wrapped in swaddling cloths and placed in a manger.  No heat, no air conditioning, no Pampers, no layette, no hospital staff, no sterile conditions did our Savior have for a beginning.  No He was born in a barn with farm animals and the smell of well…farm animals.  Do you get it?  Did Mary have a baby shower?  Did the mother of our Savior, a teenage girl, get the things she would need to care for a newborn?  No.  She was visited by three Wise Men who brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  What was she supposed to do with that?  They rejoiced.  They celebrated the birth of the Son of God. 

What are we celebrating?  We get together with our families and we exchange gifts and sometimes we don’t exchange words.  We don’t even see them the rest of the year.  We make no effort.  We buy them gifts and send them on their way and think that covers us for the rest of the year.  Is this of God?  Is this what God intended for us to do in celebration of the greatest gift known to mankind?  I hardly think so.  I am not saying we shouldn't get together with our families.  I am not even saying we shouldn't exchange gifts.  What I am saying is this:  Can we do those things and remember the purpose?  Can we do those things and remember why we celebrate in the first place?  Or have we become so commercialized that we can’t even remember why? 

I don’t want to go through the motions.  I don’t want to get so wrapped up in the things of this world that I have forgotten who gave them to me to begin with.  I don’t want to forget the true meaning of Christmas.  I want to REJOICE for our Savior was born.  In ALL things rejoice.