Both of us happen to think that sending flowers to the funeral home and decorating graves is somewhat wasteful. We do it for other people, but when we die, we don’t want people to feel like they have to spend their money on flowers. Don’t get me wrong, we have nothing against flowers. We like them. It just seems silly for people to buy us flowers when we are not there to enjoy them. Our bodies may very well be lying there, but we will not be.

^{1 Corinthians 5:8} Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

“At home with the Lord. ” Can you imagine what that would be like? We would be seeing things that are much more enjoyable than flowers. Think about it: Gates of pearl, streets of gold, walls of jewels. The building materials there are things we think of as precious and valuable here. But really that is not the most valuable thing about about being in Heaven. Can you imagine seeing God in all His glory and splendor? Seeing the hands that took the nails on the cross? The mere thought of that makes flowers pale in comparison.

So anyway, while we were in the car Mark was saying that if he went first he knew I might want to visit his grave occasionally. He said, “Don’t worry about putting flowers on it a few time a year, for special occasions or anything. Just stop on your way home to have a burger and think of me. “

I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing at that one. That is how my dear husband thinks he will be best remembered. Slabs of beef, fried or flame broiled, in a bun. Don’t forget the ketchup!

A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.~ Proverbs 15:13

The year began with a little carry-over of last year. Mark and I  had decided to get in better shape. To help him out, he got new jogging shoes. There is a walking/jogging trail near our home. We would go there (in the freezing cold) to jog and walk. He over did it one day. So he took a few days off. We went to a museum and he did not have a good time. His knee really hurt. Finally after it was still hurting for two weeks, he went to the doctor.  (Keep in mind during this time his dad was having knee replacement. Mark was taking him to the doctor and hospital. He stayed in the hospital the night before his own doctor’s appointment) The doctor thought it was tears in his cartilage causing him pain. He had to go for an X-ray and another test. Turns out he did cartilage damage, but in the doctor’s own words, “That’s not what is actually causing the pain when he walks. He has a fracture.” Egads!! Did not see that coming. Surgery was needed to repair the damage. A few days after the surgery he passed out as a lingering effect of the anesthesia. Guess who had to catch him? That would be me. It was quite scary. I thought for a moment he died. Two months of missed work. I had to pump gas one day. (first time in my life I had to do that)

So that was mid-to late January, February, and early March. Shortly after he healed, he resigned from youth ministry at our church. Seeing as how we lived in the house owned by the church, a house hunt began. Let’s just say we have seen some really seedy looking neighborhoods.

Late March we were going to head out for a little shopping one night. Before we got on the highway, Mark called his parents to check on them. They had JUST tried to call us. Their house was on fire. Faulty wiring had sparked in the wall. They stayed with Mark’s sister while their house was being rebuilt. During that time, we had “church” services in her living room.

In late April a tornado unlike any I remember in my lifetime hit the southeast. We had to spend much of the day hunkered down. During that time we very fortunate. Many people lost their lives, their homes, or other possessions. The only real loss we had was food from the fridge. No power for about a week. Our town’s water department could not pump the water out to people. Our family can survive without power, but lack of water? We hit the road looking for a hotel. We found one about three hours away. It was the last room they had. The boys weren’t thrilled about being ALL in one room. They kept asking why the hotel didn’t have an indoor pool.  Samuel looked on the sign to the place next to us and said, “They have an indoor pool. Why didn’t we stay there?” Hmph! All the times I told him how important it is to read and now the one thing I would like for him NOT to notice, he does.

Finally in May we found the perfect house. We moved out in the boonies. It is very quiet. We live on a one lane, gravelly type road. When I say this house is perfect, I mean the cabinets in the kitchen are even low. I don’t have to climb to get things.

As we were moving, my mother came to help watch the boys while we moved stuff. She was having problems getting around. Her leg had a swollen place on it. Well, in June she was hospitalized for blood clots. No one could understand what was causing her blood to clot. I had earlier in the year found some good coupons for Osteo BIflex. Turns out if you have a blood clotting disorder, you are not supposed to take that stuff. So, for six months I have felt very guilty that I caused her problems.

October and November: Mark’s mother had to go out of state for doctor’s appointments and a brain surgery. Mark and his aunt are the main ones who had to take her. Going out of state means long car rides and overnight hotel stays. Which can get a little interesting with a brain surgery patient.

Now on to December: Turns out my mother has cancer. THAT is what was causing her blood to clot. She had surgery to remove part of her colon and small intestine. We went to see her after her surgery. Samuel passed out from seeing her with all the needles and tubes coming out of her. I had planned to stay with her a few days at the hospital. After the passing out, I almost went home instead. The boys were really forward to having a “guys’ weekend” complete with eating microwave popcorn and NOT making their beds. So I stayed. Somewhere around midnight, my mother went to sleep. I sat down and started a blog. It is still in my drafts. During her sleep, she had a heart attack. Before I even picked up the nurse call button, they had come busting in. She was actually on the cardiovascular unit of the hospital. That is probably what saved her life. They were there quickly and had her revived in just a very short matter of time.

She had to be moved into the CVICU. My family could not have asked for better nurses. The treatment that my mother has received has been top notch. Even after getting out of the ICU she has had nurses and CNAs that have treated her wonderfully.

Her doctor talked to me a good bit. We really don’t have a strong family history of cancer. He asked about her stress level. He actually told me that stress causes cancer. Wow. That was an eye-opener for me. I always seem to be stressing over something. Usually it is things that don’t really matter.  For example, on the way home from the hospital, Mark apologized for not folding towels and placing the pillows on the bed “the right way” (aka MY way).

So I am starting 2012 with a totally different attitude than I normally would. I don’t have any goals of how I am going to change the world, or even just change my  world.  I am determined to be kinder. Mark was amazed that I was talking to strangers at the hospital. He says I am a snob. I’m really not. I generally don’t talk to people I don’t know because, well not knowing them kind of makes it harder to care about them. I don’t say “Hi how are you?” unless I am actually listening to the answer. But I have spoken to strangers, hugged strangers, and prayed for people that I don’t know and will probably never meet. Since being home, I have made it a point to not get worked up over towels on the floor or toothpaste squeezed from the middle. Those things don’t matter. You want to know what I think does matter? Telling the people you love how much you love them. Being there when someone needs you. That’s what is important.

Fast forward about an hour. Another lady who works at the hospital came in and started talking VERY loudly to a friend who had come in for something. Then a lady came in with four or five kids. All small kids. From a baby that she was carrying up to a five or six year old. I noticed them as they walked by, then not again. All of a sudden, the lady who worked at the hospital (the one who came in talking to her friend) starts yelling at the kids. She said they were NOT to climb on the chairs in the waiting room and they needed to behave if they were going to be there. She then goes back to talking to her friend, very loudly and obnoxiously again. To be fair, I was looking at my book, not the kids. I don’t know what they were doing. All I  do know is that they were not making noise. Obnoxious lady is telling her friend, “Look at that little boy. He is just daring me to say something else.”

I had still not heard a sound from them, other than the baby cooing. So I looked up from my book. The little boy (maybe 18 months or two years old) is sitting there, just smiling at the mean lady.  I watched for a few minutes and the kids were really good. They did fidget a bit, but they are all little kids. They seemed to be sweet children. I think the lady just had a problem with their race. (they were the only non-white family in the waiting room) By this point, other children had been in/ were in the waiting room. Some good, some not so good. So why did she have to embarrass these kids? Why did she continue to talk so loud to her equally loud and obnoxious friend who had a phone that kept ringing with a loud, obnoxious ring tone. She said she did not know how to silence her phone. I really wanted to say something. I wanted to tell her that they were being much more annoying to the other people in the waiting room than that group of children. I wanted to tell her to get her  butt back to her desk so she would not keep people waiting that needed her services. I wanted to say that she was presenting herself in an ugly, racist light. But I didn’t. I am a chicken. Really, what is the worst thing she would have done to me? Body slammed me in a room full of people? Not likely. Talked mean to me? She had already done that to a bunch of kids. The lived through it. I’m pretty sure I could too.

That bit of chickening made me feel bad. It still makes me feel bad almost a week later. It reminds of something that most Christians I know (myself included) are guilty of. We chicken out of sharing the gospel with others. Why do we do that? Jesus commanded us to go and teach: Matthew 28:¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Why is it that we shy away from and chicken out of what we are commanded to do? What do we really think is going to happen if we share the gospel? Here in the US, really not much is going to happen. Sure, someone might make fun of you. You might get a reputation as being a religious nut. So, what is so bad about that? Wouldn’t we rather  please God than man? That is the way it should be anyway.  We should want to do the things that please God. We should be telling others about God’s grace and mercy.  I pray that we, the scaredy-cat Christians have the boldness we need to bring God’s message into a dying world.

Scientist. I am always telling Nathaniel that if he wants to be a scientist, he is going to have to learn math and  learn more than the average person. As he gets older he is beginning to see that to progress in his scientific studies (and actually understand what he is reading) he has to know his math. It is not enough to know a particular formula, you need to understand what the formula is saying and how to solve it.

Chef. Sometimes Benjamin says he wants to be a chef. That is great. How he thinks he can get away with being a chef and not knowing how to do math is beyond me. Converting recipes from the metric system is not easy if you do not know what the metric system is . Doubling or tripling a recipe is going to take much less time than mixing one batch right after another. If you do not understand basic math how do you know how much food to prepare in proportion to the number of people you are serving? (These are actually things that apply not only to pros, but home-cooks as well)

Cashier This is something we see on a pretty regular basis. Cashier punches a wrong button on the register and then goes berserk trying to figure out how much customer actually owes. Sometimes the mistake is made after the total is figured up and the customer is paying. Then the cashier panics not knowing how much change the customer is supposed to receive. Some businesses are very strict on their cashiers. A drawer that comes up not matching the total sales can result in probation or even job loss.

Deli clerk People who get meat from a deli often ask for a specific amount. As a matter of fact I asked for 6 ounces of Canadian Bacon once at the Publix Deli.  Their scale measures in hundredths of a pound. I learned this that day. The lady behind the counter looked at me strange when I asked. She sliced one very small piece and placed it on the scale. “Are you sure you only want 6 ounces? Look, this is .06 by itself.”  Six ounces is a little under half a pound so I just asked for a half-pound. (It is .375, in case you are wondering) So now I ask for easy amounts for them to slice.

Seamstress If you are planning to make your own clothes, you need to know how much fabric and accessories are needed. Along the same lines would be making quilts. Quilt making requires careful planning. You need to know how much of each type of fabric is needed for your quilt pattern. The size of the quilt also affects the required amount of fabric.

Order Receiver Say your job is to be sure that orders are received for your place of business. Say they are big orders. It would be easier and take less time to say “Eight rows of boxes each stacked  four high. 32,”  rather than counting out 32 individual boxes.

There are many other ways we could talk about using math in our everyday lives such as balancing our checkbooks, planning a budget, etc.. but for brevity’s sake I’ll think this will have to suffice. I think it is safe to say that math is all around us. We need it to live our lives as productive citizens.

Often I have thought that some of the more “out there” laws are proof of humankind’s depravity. I always thought that God should not have to tell us not to touch dead bodies. That is gross. God should not have to tell us NOT to sacrifice our children to idols. That is heinous. There are many sickening,  demented, perverted and just plain WRONG things listed in the Old Testament Law. I think is is easy to get bogged down in some of these and wonder how people could be so evil.

When you really start to think about it, though, why is it just the big things we get amazed about being told not to do. (Or do as in washing ourselves after touching something unclean.) God has poured out countless blessings to us, and yet we repay Him with telling lies,  coveting, and hating people of different cultures. We justify ourselves with thinking that our coveting is ambition, our dislike of foreigners is somehow their fault (they need to act more American or go home) or thinking we only tell “little white lies“. We commit adultery because our spouse “isn’t treating me like he/she should”. We take advantage of those who are weaker than ourselves because it is a dog eat dog world.

How far we fall from what God deserves!! We fall short of what He requires. We are totally, completely, and wholly depraved. From our earliest days, we want what is wrong. We do what is wrong. I have never had to teach my children to lie. I have never taught them to hurt one another, steal, or hate. I clearly remember the first time Benjamin really shocked me with his behavior. He was the most beautiful blue-eyed angel of a baby. His temperament matched his look.  He was calm, sweet, and precious. Then, one day, Nathaniel was playing cars in the living room floor. Benjamin was walking by. He toddled right up to Nathaniel… and kicked him right in the head!!!!! After which he took off running. It was such a surprise to me because he had never done anything like that. He had not been taught: Kick someone when they are lying down. He just did it.

We are like that, too. We do what is wrong, the opposite of good. God gave His very detailed law, to show us that very fact. He is showing us how depraved we are. We would be in such a desperate state if He left it there. Fortunately for us, He made a way for us to be justified.  He sent Jesus to pay for our sinfulness. Without our Savior, we would be doomed. Titus 2: ¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

       ******** DISCLAIMER: In case you are not  familiar, someone, somewhere, decided that homeschooling and denim skirts go hand in hand. It’s almost like it is a uniform of sorts. Personally, I feel if we were to have a uniform it would need to consist of a T-shirt that I have. It is red with a big white outline of a stop sign on the front that says “Please STOP talking” But I don’t make the rules. ************

Even in my dream I remember looking at him and thinking, “Excuse me? Has fitting in EVER been high on my priority list?” I woke up right after that. It made me start thinking about some of the things throughout my life that go against the flow. I can remember in elementary school missing two words on spelling tests. They were on different tests, but both in first grade. Color and airplane were the words. I spelled them: colour and aeroplane. Some of my favorite childhood books, such as Paddington and Winnie the Pooh, were British. Personally I think I should have gotten bonus points for being able to spell them in a different language (English, as opposed to American, ha-ha) but alas, I do not make the rules. Once in high school a friend asked me what I watched the night before on TV. It was not the day after The Wonder Years or Quantum Leap so I said I didn’t watch TV the night before, which is what I normally answered when she asked.  She said, “Gah! You never watch anything! You are so weird!” Same girl asked me another time who was my favorite singer. I said Michael Crawford. She said she had never heard of him. She then asked me if he was related to Cindy. I asked  her Cindy who. Friend looked at me as if I had worms crawling out of my head. (Keep in mind I was a teen in the ’90s. Cindy Crawford was only the biggest supermodel the world had ever seen.) My senior year, another friend and I started bringing our lunches in plastic cartoon character lunchboxes. People made fun of us. Still, she kept bring Herself the Elf and I kept bring Beauty and the Beast. You know what happened? Other people eventually started bringing kiddie lunchboxes, too. Not the whole school, mind you, but some people.

I think my whole life God has shaped me into a non-conformist. As Christians, we are not supposed to follow along with the world. We are to be different. ^{(Romans 12: 2} Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.) Going along with the world and worldly things is not our calling. Sometimes what may be popular could also be the very things that God wants us to avoid. Look at the world of entertainment. Some of the most popular video games, songs, books, movies, TV shows, magazines, videos, etc, are very ungodly. They glorify things such as fornication, demon activity, sorcery, witchcraft, drug usage, foul language, cross dressing and so forth. Add disobedience to parents and you have the plot to most of what is considered “Young adult” or “Teen” entertainment. When we are entertaining ourselves with things that we know are are ungodly we are like the people in Romans 1:³²Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Wow. That is some strong language to think about. There are songs I used to like. But after listening to them through a filter of being God-approved, I can not seem to enjoy them anymore, such as the Pina Colada Song.  The tune may be catchy, but the lyrics are about two married people who are tired of each other. They each decide to meet someone through an ad in the paper.  In the end, they wind up meeting their new lovers in a bar, only to discover each other. Granted, compared to a lot of music, that may be very tame. It is still not something that I would grow closer to God by listening to, so it is out of my song world.

Another way we are to be different is in how we talk. Ephesians 5:⁴Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. We need to watch what we say. Our words have immense power.  This verse is not something we should only practice in church, although more and more churches need to be reminded of it. We should remember not to have filthiness, foolishness, or crude joking in our mouths at any time. This includes the internet. I am shocked by some of the things that people will put as a facebook status. I have a friend on there who is an atheist. He is not the one who puts things that make me wish I had bleach for my brain. As a matter of fact, I recently “unfriended” a popular preacher because he has been putting some  comments that were just a little too far “out there”  to be in good taste. Christian friends, we need to watch what we say. You never know who might  be looking, but we do know who IS  looking. God. Psalm 139 ⁷Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? ⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! ⁹If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,¹⁰even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

I could go on about other ways we might lower our standards to fit in. But in the end, do we really want just fit in? Do we really want to be like other people? I don’t. I want to be special. I want to be the me that God made me to be. I do not want to concern myself with worldly preoccupations. The kinds of things I want to be thinking about are listed in Philippians 4:⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Let me leave you with what could be an anthem for all of us non-conformists.

It chronicles the struggles that people who hoard undergo as they are faced with the prospect of cleaning up their house and getting rid of things.  That show is somewhat of a train-wreck to me. It is depressing, gross, and sometimes just plain weird. Yet I seem to be drawn to it. Netflix has the whole series on instant watch. I have been watching the early episodes that I missed when they first aired. My family chooses to find other things to do.

You may be wondering what John MacArthur has to do with anything hoarding related. I have recently been reading his book The Vanishing Conscience. It is not a new book, but it is a very good read. If you do not have it, you can probably get it fairly cheap somewhere. The whole point of the book is sin and more specifically, our reaction to our own sinfulness. The fist chapter, entitled Whatever Happened to Sin? takes a good hard look at psychology and the damage done to our society by making everyone out to be victims of something rather than sinners.

Perhaps the most prevalent means of  of escaping blame is by classifying every human failing as some kind of disease. Drunkards and drug addicts can check into clinics for treatment of their “chemical dependencies” . Children who habitually defy authority can escape condemnation by being labeled “hyperactive” or having ADD (attention deficiency disorder) Gluttons are no longer blameworthy; they suffer from an “eating disorder”. Even the man who throws away his family’s livelihood to pay for prostitutes is supposed to be an object of compassionate understanding; he is “addicted to sex”.

We as a society seem to blame everything on anything but our own sinfulness. It isn’t MY fault. I can’t help it. On Hoarders, many of the people are labled as OCD. I always thought of OCD as leaning more to the direction of perfectionism, but hey, what do I know? They are told by counselors, “It’s not your fault. Something made you this way. Don’t feel bad.” The something that made them this way could be anything: an unhappy childhood, a happy childhood that ended with the death of a parent, being poor, my kids all grew up and moved away so now I have stuff everywhere to take their place. The list goes on and on. They never man up (or woman up) and say, “I buy too much. I never get rid of the stuff I don’t need/use/want. I leave garbage lying around. I do not like to clean my bathrooms. I have no reason to keep going on this way” Of course they don’t say something like that! That would mean they have to take responsibility for their own actions. Nobody wants to that.

But what about us? The non-hoarders. Do we confess our sinfulness as sin? If we are prone to “road rage” do we blame it on ourselves? Of course not. We blame our furiousness and rudeness on other cars. They are to blame for the obscenities/lewd gestures/horn-honkings thrown at them. ( Ephesians 4:²⁶ BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷ and do not give the devil an opportunity.) I have to confess about loss of patience… frequently. Perhaps I lost patience with my precious children or husband, or maybe it was some stranger in Wal-Mart. (Going to Wal-Mart is probably not a good thing for trying to uh, avoid thoughts that I might feel sorry about later. ) The bad thing about having to face a lack of patience is when you really look at it in depth. See, 1 Corinthians 13:⁴  says: Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant. If you stop right there it is bad enough. Do I not LOVE my family? Of course I do!! According to that verse I should be patient if I love them.  When you look at 1 John 4 we can see ⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love it becomes  clear that love is pretty high on God’s priority list. See, love is not just mushy-gushy romantical feelings. It’s not just that affection we feel toward our children. It is so much more. If you read that verse from 1 Corinthians in its context you will discover:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Wow. See number six? Does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. That verse has taken away many a TV show, movie, book, and song from my liking. Now, as I try to watch Hoarders  I don’t think about the people as being idiots. I think of them as being unrepentant sinners. I can’t watch that. So, Pastor MacArthur, my husband probably likes you even more now. He always hated that show, anyway.

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

I heard he sang a good song
I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him
To listen for a while
And there he was this young boy
A stranger to my eyes

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

I felt all flushed with fever
Embarassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters
And read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish
But he just kept right on

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

He sang as if he knew me
In all my dark despair
And then he looked right through me
As if I wasn’t there
And he just kept on singing
Singing clear and strong

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me

He was strumming my pain
Yeah, he was singing my life
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly
With his song

I had my own little “killing me softly” moment recently. Mark posted a link to a blog written by Jim Elliff on his Facebook page. Mark left for work shortly after posting the link. I saw it and clicked on it. Never in my life have I felt more like someone could read my very thoughts than this. I do not know Jim Elliff. I have never spoken to him. However, he posted some of the very same thoughts I have had recently. It was almost scary how much he and I are on the same wavelength on this subject. This particular writing is titled The Negotiables.  It talks about things in church that we do in certain ways, but they really don’t matter. For instance our meeting times. Almost every church I know of meets at the same time, on the same days. Here are some of Jim’s words about that:

Remember that the early church did not have Sundays as a day off until Constantine in the early 300s. They had to meet early in the morning before work or late in the evening after work, even on Sundays. If this day gets eaten up in commercial enterprise as the years go on, Christians are not going to miss out. We certainly can meet in the evening like our ancient forebears did during the greatest years of church expansion. Right?

This really hit home for me. My husband works a swing shift. He is not always able to be at church during the times we are having service due to being at work or having just gotten home at 6:00 am after a 12-hour shift. Do you have any idea how much it pains a  preacher who loves God’s  word to have to miss church? It is a lot. Other people I know have jobs where they work some or all of Sunday, or they have to work late on Saturday night and can’t make it on Sunday morning.

He goes on to mention how having bulletins, with everything for the service laid out can be a hindrance.  We can get so consumed by having a pattern (ex- sing X number of songs, pause for announcements, sing, have prayer, sing, take offering, preach, leave) that rather than letting the Spirit be our guide, we let our habits be our guide.  He even mentions having more than person share the message. That is what you see in the book of Acts. Actually, if you want to get technical, that is the way Jesus worshiped. Luke 4:16-22

He even mentions how we take offerings. Maybe have discreet boxes where it is easier to give without being noticed. Matthew 6:2-4 He mentions taking the Lord’s Supper in a different way. I really think we lose a lot of meaning by using a stale cracker and a tiny cup of juice. He talks about how we could do Sunday School in a different way. Why do we meet in sanctuaries, seated  neatly in our rows of pews? Why does singing always come before the message?

Let me clarify something, lest anyone think I am saying all churches that follow the typical model are of the devil. I do not necessarily think having a model of worship is a bad thing. I think that being so firm in our models is bad. i think that if we take liberty away from worship, we are treading in dangerous waters. For closing, I will share more of Mr. Elliff’s thoughts:

Though we love what the Reformation restored to us, we are more shaped by the Reformation structure and pattern than by the early church’s liberty and flexibility. The forms of the Reformation served well in that culture. They were new and fresh and within biblical boundaries. But must we be Reformation-like today? Yes, when it comes to the doctrines of God, man, salvation, etc., because the Reformation returned us to the Bible. But likely not when it comes to external forms. We must use our freedoms and rejoice in that liberty.

Interesting looking chap, eh? I said, “Wow, that is very creative Samuel.”

He went gave me a big hug and trotted back out telling Benjamin, “I knew she would love it!” He then decided to draw the Mona Lisa

and their baby

Each time he came in he was a little more proud of his artistic creativity. He was giggling over the Mrs. having a large head and small body. Then he was laughing over the baby having such a small head and large body. It made me think of something I saw on TV a few years ago that stuck with me.  Barry Manilow was being interviewed by someone (Larry King, I think). The interviewer asked Barry why he thought so many Jewish people from Brooklyn have made it so successfully in the entertainment industry.  Mr. Manilow’s answer stuck with me.  He said when you grew up there you knew you were loved. You weren’t afraid to take chances because you knew you’d always have people at home that loved you whom you could go back to if things weren’t going so well. He said his family always believed in him and encouraged him. I want my kids to feel the same way. I want them to always know that even if it seems like the whole world is against them, they are loved. I want to raise them in a way that they are not ashamed of who they are. Mostly I want to raise them in a way that pleases God. My prayer for them is 2 Peter 3:18~But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

I have learned from reading on the internet the thing to do is to break your purchase down from one big purchase into smaller ones. That makes for less out of pocket spending.  Here was my plan. I was going to Walgreen’s. They have a system called Register Rewards. You buy certain items, a coupon for a certain amount that can be applied toward your next purchase prints out. My first purchase was planned:

Method Hand Soap price:$2.99 /$2.00 Register Rewards

Flossers $2.00/$2.00 Register Rewards

4 Reach Crystal Clean Toothbrushes 3@.99, 1@$1.59, 2 coupons for $1.00 off =$2.56/$4.00 Register Rewards

Total=$8.15/$8.00 Register Rewards

Next purchase:

Palmolove Dish Detergent 5@ $1.00 each/ $1.00 Register Reward

Osteo Bi-Flex $9.99, coupon $6.00 off/$1.00 Register Reward

6 chocolate bars@.49 each, .75 off

Using the $8.00 Register Rewards from above total =$3.43

Grand Total= $11.58 out of pocket for what would have $22.17 in one purchase.

When I got there I first realized I have no idea where anything is in Walgreen’s.  Shopping is much more pleasant when you know where what you are looking for can be found. So I start slowly making my way down the aisles. Chocolate was right by the shopping baskets, easy find. Hand soap, aisle one-once again, easy find. A few aisles over I find dental care. No Crystal Clean toothbrushes. I asked a sales associate. She said she can give me a rain check for the sale price, but not the Register Rewards. Bummer. So I am trying to figure out how to reconfigure my purchases to get the most bang for my buck. I finally settle on replacing the toothbrushes with a Schick Quattro razor that is on sale for $8.99. It has $3.00 in Register Rewards AND I happen to have a coupon for $3.00 off in my purse. So I get to the register. I ring up my first purchase. $12.10. More than I had wanted to spend, but I am getting my son’s first razor. My Register Rewards start printing. $2.00, $2.00, nothing. Huh?! I asked the cashier. She looked at the sale paper. She called her manager. The manager said we can return the item or opt for a rebate via snail mail. HMPH! I chose snail mail. Next purchase. One of the bottles of dish detergent came open and leaked. I was paying for the detergent and Osteo Bi-Flex.  With the coupon and Register Rewards it totaled $6.19. I go to hand her my debit card, and it is not there. I look through my coupons, nothing. I look in my purse, nothing. Mark was there and whipped his card out to the rescue. So them I hand over the chocolate and the coupon, and the last two Register Rewards. My total was .43 on that. Handed her a $1.00 and got change from it. I finally found my card. Dummy me had put it in the wrong holder in my wallet. So for a total of $18.72 we got what would have been $54.24 without sales and coupons. (although $15.72 for all that WOULD have been more impressive) Not quite as impressive as the folks who get a year’s supply of something for under a buck, but not too shabby.