The Battle is Not Yours

While dancing down the road this morning to some lively music (exercise has to be fun or I'm not in), I sang along to the words, "the battle is not yours, God said it's mine..."

I've been meditating on the life of David lately, the King who went down in history as a man after God's own heart. His fame began on a battlefield with his astonishment at the audacity of Goliath to mock the army of the Living God. He came along as a "nobody" and left the battlefield as a "somebody." Not because he thought he was tough stuff, but his faith was in a God who's tough stuff. He knew that if God's on your side, you're going to win.

Then it occurred to me that I'm in trouble if I enter any battle in my own strength. I don't need gizmos and widgets, degrees, endorsements or my own well thought-out justification. What I need is the presence of God. Only then is the outcome certain.

Selah.

Two Sizes Bigger

My heart is two sizes bigger. Last month when our family all gathered for a weekend of laughter and love, I was surprised with happy news when Addison came out dressed in this shirt: If you can't read it, it says, "I'm the Big Sister."

I was momentarily confused, as I knew that our son and his wife had brought the shirt when they came and we had known for 2 months that they are expecting their first baby in March. So when I read the shirt, I was thinking, "they must not have had a "cousins" shirt." They laughed at me and said, "No, the shirt is correct, Mom". And immediately my heart grew another size bigger.

Joy. Thanksgiving. So much to be thankful for. I had to wait to share until Uncommon Blonde had announced it.

Now our little pumpkin will have company.
2011 already holds so much promise, my heart is growing every day.

Walking on Sunshine

October gave us an absolutely beautiful weekend for Parent's weekend festivities at FSU. I don't attend many football games, so it was a fun experience to do the whole football scene on Saturday, made even sweeter by a win.


Enjoyed the grand tour of Cupcake's new home away from home. Very traditional Southern manor and quite lovely and full of life.

Some of her new sisters. I'm learning a new language... they call Big Sisters just "Bigs" now. And the girl on the left is her "grand big." Fun.

Of course, the best part was just hugging and hanging out with our girl! It's good for a mom's heart to see your heart's delight doing well.

Do you Hear What I Hear?

The joyous cheers from Chile echoed around the world this week as the miners were rescued from the tons of rock that entrapped them for months, half a mile underground. In August, when the earth caved in on them, it was sound that was used to determine there were survivors. Tap, tap, tap.... and then the responding tap, tap, tap. How sweet the sound of life.

In my studies of Neurolinguistics, I've not been surprised to learn that sound is especially important to me since I am an auditory (and kinisthetic) learner. I've often told people that I'm bilingual; music is my first language and English is my second. For the record, did you know that our DNA is actually a musical coding? That each of us vibrates at a certain frequency and that even the stones in the earth are vibrating? No, this is not some weird philosophy I've bought into, this is science (and art and music).

The word personality has its origin in the Latin word per which means "passes through" and sonant which means "sound." Sound passes through you - your life is a song! You have a unique sound that is meant to be heard in the earth. No one else has the same message you have. Your voice is important.

I give a lot of attention to the need for innovation in business, sales and marketing and have come to the conclusion that so much creativity is squelched by our inability to recognize our own unique gifts and the important contribution we can make. We each have dreams that we discount and bright ideas that we dismiss. The greatest waste of natural resources is in the failure to develop human potential.

You could be on the very edge of breakthrough if you pause in the midst of the noise and listen. (easier siad than done, right?) Give ear to your own originality. What if you decide to act on just a fraction of the ideas you have? Creativity is part of our inheritance, regardless of whether we've recognized it. I'm certain that most of us have treasure that is yet to be discovered. What if we drill down and recover that which has been buried within each of us? The best is yet to come.

These thoughts were inspired by a message that Ray Hughes gave at the Aglow International Conference in San Jose, CA. This You Tube video of an older message in a different place is an hour and 10 minutes, but I promise, if you watch it. you will love every minute and thank me for telling you about it. (It inspired me to fly to Califfirnia for more!)A fascinating teaching on SOUND. Profound.

All the Trees of the Field Clapped Their Hands

The Econfina Creek is a gem of Northwest Florida and it's only a few miles from us. I really enjoy the day canoe trip that is available through the nearby canoe livery- they'll pick you up at the end and transport you back to your car for a reasonable fee.

On a recent weekend, I mentioned to Builderman that I missed doing that this year and we should go. The creek is spring-fed so the clear water is ice cold and refreshing on a hot day. After some discussion, he determined that the all-day trip was more than he was in the mood for and that we would create a shorter trip ourselves. After all, he knows those woods quite well, being the adventurer that he is, so off we went.

It was a beautiful day and it was a good thing I was in the hands of a capable guide. The portion of the river we were on and had not been cleared of downed trees and it took skillful steering and actually hauling the canoe across several obstacles. The reward was we didn't see anyone else for hours. The sound of the wind in the trees accompanied us. We saw a kingfisher (bird) that that was quite beautiful as we quietly made our way.

A change of pace brings refreshing. This past week, the weather changed and we welcomed fall. I'm thankful the sun kissed us for our last day of summer...and all the trees of the field clapped their hands for us.