Listening

So today is day 2 of the mini vacation. I have found a new favorite spot beside the pool. I can sit here for a little while until the sun makes its way over the house. I sat out here for about 2 hours last night. It is quite relaxing.

This morning I finished reading James 1. This section was all about listening and doing. I think this section really speaks to what I've been neglecting, a careful and consistent reading of the scriptures. I have often been the doer. That is easy for me. I like to see results so doing is a good thing. But the listening is harder. Like most, I don't like to hear that I am wrong and sometimes scriptures admonish me.

What about the anger part? I admit that I am slower to anger, but still not slow to anger. Unfortunately, my "anger" comes out in tears and anxiety instead of raging words, although that has been known to happen too. Verse 20 says "for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." If you are successful in this area. would you share with me how you do it? Share how you are able to let the anger go. I would again love to hear from you!

Putting Things in Context

Today is Day 1 of the mini vacation. We are staying at my mom and dad's house and I am trying to treat it like a house we rented for the week to get away from it all. Of course, AJ's not here and Jeff has to work so it is only a little like a vacation. But I plan to enjoy some downtime.

This past weekend my friend Tricia brought a short "blurb" in a magazine to my attention. It once again reminded me that we really need to watch what we read and make sure that we check facts to see that what we are being "fed" is the correct information. The gist of the blurb was two simple sentences that fell under the title of, "When tragedy happens, is it from God?" The article said that James 1:17 says every good gift is from God. The writer concludes that since this is the case, bad things never come from God. What follows is my letter to the editor of this magazine about the blurb. I haven't sent it yet as I would love to discuss this further to be sure that I too am not taking things out of context.

“When tragedy happens, is it from God?”

First, the statement is taken completely out of context. This section of James 1 is about trials and temptations. The discussion of trials is found in verses 2-12. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1: 2-4) From here James discusses briefly how to ask for wisdom and why those who face trials should feel blessed. The section on trials ends with: “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him,” (James 1:12). No where in here is the verse about all good gifts coming from God.

The next section speaks to temptation. A reading of 13 -15 reveals that God does not tempt. According to the passage, temptation is a result of desire. Desire can then give birth to sin and sin to death. That is what is said directly before the passage quoted in the blurb. Verses 16 -18, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.” So while the writer wants us to consider verse 17 when thinking of trials, the context is given in terms of temptation. The fastest way to discredit your statements are to give facts out of context.

Second, let’s consider verse 17 by itself, as the writer did. The summation of the verse from the blurb says that “every good gift comes from God.” While this is a true statement, the conclusion of “Therefore, if it is not good it can’t be from God” is flawed logic. Following that train of thought I could say “Germs causes illness, therefore if it is not a germ it cannot cause illness.” The first part of the statement is correct. Germs do in fact cause illness. However, taking it to the next statement causes it to be incorrect. We all know that illness may be caused by more than just germs. Similarly, God does in fact give every good gift however, the verse does not PROVE that bad things do not come from God.

Proof that God can and has caused bad things can be found throughout the bible: Job, Jeremiah, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Great Flood, etc. I believe, that while it is a great comfort to think that bad things can’t come from a loving God, it just is not backed up by the bible. We are His children and can therefore be rebuked and even punished by Him as is the case by our earthly parents. And in the same way, it is done in a spirit of love by a God who wants to see us learn and be our very best selves.

Please read James 1: 2 -18 and tell me if you agree with these statements. This has opened several discussions for our family about being careful how we use scripture, understanding that we have to be sure to check claims written about scripture, and the importance of God's discipline in our lives. So comment away!

Crazy Days

You know that saying "Is the glass half full or half empty?" That's what I've been asking myself about my day. I was trying to see it half-full. I had a really good morning, and then a few things happened that felt like road blocks. Then it was good again. Then it kinda slumped a little. Ever have one of those? If you had to classify that kind of day, what would you say? Would you say it was a good day or a bad day? Or would you average it out and say it was just an OK day? I'm going to say it was a good day. Even though I want to complain, I'm going to focus on the positive aspects. Yep. It was a very good day.

The positive thing that happened had to do with my new venture. Next year, I am branching out and teaching science classes on my own. AND, for the first time I will charge for these services. It is a scary feeling. I put all my info on a website and passed it around to a few people I know. Then you wait and see how many people actually look at the website. Those sweet people passed it on and today my website has 195 hits. So let's subtract 25 from me checking it out and still my home page has had 170 hits. YAY!! Here is a link to it if you want to check it out. And if YOU know of anyone who has 5th - 12th grade home schooled students who need a science class, send them the link. I am in Apopka and would love to see that number go even higher. Even better, I'd love to start getting some sign ups.

http://web.me.com/jeffhaig/EPIC_Science/Welcome.html

OK so here is the random part of my day. On our way back from Alex's speech therapy class I saw another new business up on 436. It was for a self service dog wash. That struck me as funny. I mean why would I drive somewhere and pay someone else to let ME wash my own dog? No offense to anyone and if you've used it, let me know what the benefits are. I am really curious. Then two minutes later I saw a mobile groomer. Now THAT is a service I'd pay for.

Have a great week.

Pastavino's MMM MMM Good!

So we were supposed to meet my parents and brother tonight for dinner but my mom was ill and my dad was checking to see if my brother wanted to head to his place for the evening. So we took Autumn to her sleepover and decided to go out to eat at little place called Pastavinos.

I am no restaurant critic but let me tell you it was delicious. We had calamari to begin with and it was so tender it practically melted in your mouth. Usually calamari needs marinara but this time it had a great flavor that just a touch of marinara did the trick. It was fried to a beautiful golden brown and was crisp but not greasy.

For our main course, Jeff and Alex both ordered Stromboli and Paige and I split a steak and cheese white pizza. WOW was it delicious. What made it so good? The fresh bread. The crust was so tasty and crisp. The steak was not dried out and the sauce on the pizza... YUM- MEE! Again, not greasy at all. What a great meal.

On our way out, we were given a breakfast menu as they trying a new market and are promoting their new menu. The owner, Don, was at his computer in the lobby area (cleverly hidden behind a painting) and he was researching donuts and how much to charge for fresh, handmade donuts in this area. He also asked us whether we thought there should be a bakery up near Park Ave. or back toward Rock Springs. We got to talking about his other restaurant Nicky D's up closer to where we live. He asked for our names and even gave us a container of handmade cinnamon rolls to try tomorrow morning.

THAT my friends, is how you run a business. I was impressed with his friendly manner and his accessibility. Maybe they don't have the space for an office area in the back but having him up front is GENIUS. I was also impressed that he cares enough to find out how his customers like his food and their opinions on things like, where to put a bakery.

Finally, I was impressed by his entrepreneurial spirit. He had a bakery in Eustis and it didn't fly. So instead of packing it in, he opened a restaurant here in Apopka. Pastavinos has been in business since 1994. Pretty good in a time when chain restaurants are driving out the mom and pop establishments.

What a great experience we had tonight. I highly recommend you check them out if you haven't been. If you haven't been in a while, go back. I know we will be headed here more often. Thanks Don and staff for making our dinner a real pleasure!

Pastavinos. On the corner of Rock Springs Road and Kelly Park Road. Rock Springs is no longer under construction and it is now a nice four lane road! Hope you visit real soon!

Please don't diminish those who serve...

Today we had a sermon about the church being like the body. Many parts, all working together for the good of the whole. Some people are better with children, some with youth, some with adults, some with the elderly. Some are better at teaching, nurturing, leading, building, funding. And where one would go, another would never follow. So let that other go elsewhere. Go where they are needed. Go where they are called. God created each of us uniquely, with different skills, talents, temperaments, interests. I believe His hope is that we use those SOMEWHERE.

Haiti NEEDS our help. If you are called to help over there, then do so. If you are called to help in the local homeless shelter, then do so.

My opinion... Go where God leads you. Help there. If we would all just do THAT, what an amazing world this would be. Instead, we concern ourselves with what everyone else is doing. We question whether what we are doing is the RIGHT thing.

-Do I give that homeless guy the dollar in my console? He may buy liquor or drugs, not food.

-Do I give to that charity? What if they are misappropriating funds?

-If I send this stuff overseas, will it get to who needs it?

I don't think God is so concerned about that. I do not believe when I get to heaven and stand for my accounting, I will hear, "Well Fran, you did ok. You gave $124,389.26 away to people who needed you. However, unfortunately $1234 was given to homeless people who bought drugs so that doesn't count. $24000 was given to charities that squandered your money. Well sorry, you don't qualify for the $100,000 club so you only get a mediocre mansion. What? That money was given to XYZ charity? Oh well that charity is less than deserving in my book so off you go. Now your house is overlooking the golden streets. No upgraded view for you."

I am not a preacher, I am a teacher. I am not rich woman, I am able bodied and strong enough to work and serve. I am not comfortable with adults, I love children and youth. That is who I am. And so help me, if GOD calls me to Haiti, then it means I go to Haiti.

The only thing I hope I gain from serving is to stand before the Lord on my day and hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Dinner for a year....

Hello all. It has been awhile and this will be short and sweet. I am a college student again and I am finding it hard to concentrate. I always try to do ONE MORE THING before I start working on my classes. For example: updating my blog. LOL. Oh well. I promise I will keep it short.

This Haiti thing is really bugging me. I am just so sad to see what is happening over there. I hope I can go when they allow people to come in to rebuild. We will see though. On the upside though, our church really came through. We asked for items to make health kits for UMCOR, a Methodist organization that helps out when disaster strikes and in areas that need help year round. So they donated enough items (or gave cash to purchase extra items) that we made 204 health kits. YAY. Our Mission Possible Kids put them together last night with the help of our amazing youth. If you all are reading this.... WAY TO GO!!!

I saw this report today about a woman who made a year's worth of dinner menus for her family. Jeff and I are going to try to take this on. Maybe we'll be done with it by fall. So if you have any GREAT recipes, let me know. I'm not doing 365 different meals. But dinner can get boring so if you have ideas, let me know. I'd especially like regional recipes, you know from all over the country. Different ethnic food would be good too. We don't do really spicy though. Just FYI.

Hope you will respond. Gotta eat and get back to school work. AHHHH....

Lessons from the Past

In my internet travels, I happened upon a website that reminded me of a girl I knew in high school. When I was a sophomore, she was a freshman. She was on course to be one of the most popular girls in school. That summer she was hanging out with all the right people, going to all the right places, she tried out and made the JV cheerleading squad, she was beautiful and more than all else, she was the sweetest girl. It seemed everyone loved her.

Her name was Jennifer Iverson and 19 years ago this past October, she died after being hit by a car. Her death had a profound impact on my life. She spent a week in the hospital before her death. I remember that week being filled with rumors about her condition. No one, it seemed, had any real answers about how she was until we got word that she was gone. She was 13 years old. Her funeral was held at a large church in Windemere and it was packed. The number of lives that she had touched in her brief life was astounding. But today, I could find nothing about the accident except her obituary in the Orlando Sentinel archives. It wasn't a time of extreme media coverage and it was before the internet. Never the less, I was sad.

So I pulled out old pictures. I remember that I had one of her. I didn't find it. And I can't remember what she looked like anymore. As I was looking, I found pictures of my own children. My daughter is the same age Jenny was at her death. I felt a connection to Jenny's mom that I have never felt before. Every picture I get of Autumn from here on out is more than Jenny's mom has of her. Lord, let me understand the privilege that is mine as Autumn's mother. Let me never forget the reality that I am blessed.

I don't know what ever happened to Jenny's parents. I found her sister Krissy on Facebook. I wanted to send a friend request but I didn't. I know Krissy doesn't remember me. I never even went to Jenny's house. I met her parents for the first time after her death.

In my search, I found an article that Krissy contributed to in 1994. She said, " After my family and I lost my sister, I think it brought us closer to God. He allowed us to turn our mourning into joy. When you're here on Earth, we all have a lot of struggles and hard times, but they make us stronger. I look at it as a race; they only made it to the finish line before you did." A testament to their faith. I don't know where they are, but I am thinking about them and praying for them tonight. My reflection has made me appreciate my kids a little more today. Thank you God for Jenny, for her impact on my life and thank you for bringing her to mind today.