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Your Mom gave you life–save a life in her name!

April 26, 2010 in Across Our World, Mom Matters with 0 Comments

Moms Golden Rule: I’d venture to say that in your lifetime, you’ve heard your mom remind you of the golden rule at least a dozen times. Do what I say, not what I do. Oh! Wait… I mean the other Golden Rule: Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.

Here’s your chance to prove to your mom she raised you right!

Do unto others as your momma would want!

Bless her by blessing these abandoned special needs children.

Consider a $10 contribution in your mom’s name to the Emergency Equipment Fund as part of Sarah’s Covenant Homes in India. In return, Sarah’s Covenant Homes will send her a picture of one of their children (you can even choose the child) holding a decorated paper flower with a personalized special thank you message for your mom.

The photo will be emailed on Mother’s Day, along with a note to let the recipient know that in her honor (or in memory of his/her loved one), a donation was made to help equip homes for abandoned children with special needs in India with emergency medical equipment.

Sarah’s Covenant Homes, India: Your Mom gave you life–save a life in her name!.

This link sends you to the SCH blogsite. Be sure to click on DONATE on the right side of the page. While you’re there read some of the inspiring stories of how this ministry has helped so many ill children that would have otherwise been neglected without Sarah’s Covenant Homes and share it with your Mom.

Your Mom gave you life ~ help save a life in her honor.

Keep Lovin’ Moms!

P.S. Grandmas & Aunties & Sisters would all be honored to receive such a gift as well!

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Idol Gives Change…

April 23, 2010 in Across Our Street, Mom Matters, PopCulture with 1 Comment

Have you ever played the High/Low Game at dinner? Each family member shares what their best “high” point of the day was, as well as their worst “low” point, while enjoying the delicious pot roast you whipped up (or scarfing down McDonald’s in the car on the way to soccer practice). It’s a great way to bring the family together after a long day apart. And some of the answers might surprise you!

Yesterday I shared my Low Point of Idol Gives Back which aired on Wednesday evening. I told you the shock I received when I realized my little boy was watching a scantily clad Fergie shakin’ what her momma gave her and then some. I want my boys to grow up seeing women as beautiful, priceless, worthy of respect, not objects to obtain for their own entertainment. This incident just reminded me that I need to continue to guard their hearts by more closely guarding what their eyes see.

Now that I’ve gotten over the shock, I’d like to share with you my High Point of Idol Gives Back.

High Point: Carrie Underwood performing “Change”

Here are a few of the lyrics, but please watch the video. The entire song & Carrie’s performance are truly moving.

~~~~~

Don’t listen to them when they say

You’re just a fool

Just a fool

To believe you can change the world

Oh the smallest thing can make all the difference

Love is alive

Don’t listen to ‘em when they say

You’re just a fool

Just a fool

To believe you can change the world

~~~~~

I hope that this encourages you as well, to keep believing, keep working, keep striving to make a difference in your realm of influence. But also I hope you’re willing to look foolish for the sake of embracing people who seem unlovable & forgotten by the world’s standards. Jesus did just that. For the sake of the unlovable & forgotten (you & me), He looked foolish and became like us, even sacrificing His very life for ours. We’re in good company. Now, who you calling foolish?

Keep Lovin’ Moms!

P.S. Thanks American Idol for raising millions of dollars to make a difference in the world. Next year though, I think we can all do without the booty-shakin! :)

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Idol Gives Back…Can I Get a Refund?

April 22, 2010 in Across Our Table, Mom Matters with 1 Comment

Idol Gives Back… but some of what they gave me tonight I want to return.

Does an ‘Idol’ really give back? No. However,  the machine of American Idol is using its platform of mega-proportions to do some good in the world.

I only watched bits & pieces of AI last night in between cleaning up from a frozen pizza dinner, chatting with my SILs, and putting the kids to bed. And I even folded a load of laundry during the show so I wouldn’t feel too guilty about sitting still.

I saw two parts that impacted me.

I’ll share the first one today. The second, more positive one, I’ll share tomorrow.

Low Point: The Black Eyes Peas  performance

I saw all of three seconds of it. Unfortunately my 8-year-old son, Bernie, saw more than I did. The TV was on in the sunroom and when I walked in, he was sitting 2 feet from the screen, with a shocked look on his face. I walked in & saw what he saw.

He saw Fergie shakin’ what her momma gave her for all the world to see. No she wasn’t naked, but she was dressed provocatively… on purpose. {Let me just say that those four words “dressed provocatively on purpose” have never been written about me and never will be! LOL}

But I’m not slamming Fergie. I actually enjoy some of her music. And when I do get around to it, the music has a great beat for working out. Not a lot of lyrical quality, but hey. The beat. It’s all about the beat. I won’t, however, be shakin’ what my momma gave me for the world to see. ‘Cuz I think my momma gave me a little too much for shakin’!

Last night I saw BEP’s music in a whole other light…. through my son’s eyes. My innocent, vulnerable, impressionable 8 year old’s eyes. And I was embarrassed for him. I get that Bernie & his little brother Benny are gonna see ‘things’ as they are growing up, because society practically throws it in your face.

But you better believe I’m gonna limit the exposure as much as possible as LONG as I can. At least that’s what I thought before last night. Well, I still believe that, but I wasn’t prepared to explain why women put themselves on display sometimes. Heck, I’m not even sure I know the answer. What do you think?

I want my boys to grow up respecting women. And women, let’s respect ourselves.

You may call me an overprotective mom. {no, seriously, go ahead call me that} If my husband & I don’t protect them, who will?

Thank you!

Tomorrow I’ll share how one segment of Idol Gives Back truly touched me & blessed me. Can anybody guess which part???

Keep Lovin’ Moms!

ps. No, their names are not Bernie & Benny.

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Across Our Table

April 21, 2010 in Across My Heart, Across Our Table, Mom Matters with 0 Comments

Photo Courtesy of All of Olive

I think this book will be WELL worth the read for us Moms, looking to raise balanced, well-adjusted, compassionate, visionary kids, much like the one in this picture! :) Follow the link to download the PDF file of Chapter One, to read at your leisure.   Let me know what you think. The “Orange Parent” scenario is hilarious and so relatable!!!!

Link to Chapter One of Parenting Beyond Your Capacity

ParentingBeyondYourCapacityChapterOne

It’s set to release in June 2010.

Keep Lovin’ Moms!

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What moves you to get off your butt and do something?

April 20, 2010 in Mom Matters, VIsion with 0 Comments

What moves you to get off your butt

& do something?

For some disciplined people little things move them to change.

Can you feel my jealous sarcasm already oozing from the screen? Yeah, you know the ones that get on the scale, have gained  1.43 pounds, who suddenly realize they better make a change before it gets any worse!? and then DO IT!!!! This might even be you! I congratulate you  in a confused, envious, what planet were you birthed on, sort of way. :)

That’s not me, in case you didn’t guess. And anyone who knows me would tell you the same (if they had the guts!).

I’m the one that steps on the scale & questions the integrity of the machine. If it says I gained a pound… even 20 pounds, I try to reason it away, “That stupid scale! I knew I should’ve bought a digital one, ‘cuz this one has a mind of its own!” I’m the delusional one that tries on jeans and thinks, “I just know they are making clothes sizes smaller to fit skinny girls with no hips. The cut of the jeans is made for a 12 year old’s body! Darn America’s obsession with a size 2!!!!”  Okay, you get my point. Enough about my self-induced delusions!

What moves YOU to change? Catastrophes? Like Hurricane Katrina or more recently the earthquake in Haiti? To be honest I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t do much to help in these tragedies. I prayed for the people & the volunteers, but it didn’t cause me to make a change or to give in the way that it did many others who sacrificed their time & resources to help.

A few weeks ago, though, something clicked for me, and it wasn’t my mouse. I started researching (keyword: started) topics I’m interested in. I’m interested in all sorts of things like scrapbooking, making money, coming up with lame jokes, cooking, music, movies, planning events, and books. At the moment my favorite fiction books are The Twilight Saga. I know, I know I hear the groans! Can’t help it, it’s an addiction really…

Okay, back to my point. My answer to what moves me is this: Passion. Passion Moves Me. In any form, it stirs my soul when passion is involved, (which actually would explain my Twilight obsession). So, I started researching topics I’m passionate about, not just interested in. That research led me to articles, books, websites, videos of injustice that, in my head I knew was happening, but my heart hadn’t connected. Yet.  I got to a point where my stomach felt sickened and quite frankly I was pissed (yeah, i said it) that I’ve cornered myself into this little bubble of my comfortable life.

Let me stop here & say I really do love my stay-at-home mom life, my family, and I do my best not to take anything for granted. But educating myself on what’s happening in my both my town & across the world brought my life into perspective. I needed to change!!! Not wanted to. I needed to be moved out of my complacency. My heart began to soften & look outward. I need to challenge this Comfortable American Mom {CAM} to do more. I challenge you as well. Here’s the knowledge you NEED to have.

Photo Courtesy of Dan Fellner, www.FellnerTravelInfo.com

We can be a passionate voice for those who can’t speak for themselves – the orphaned children who have been stripped of their families due to the AIDS pandemic in Swaziland.

Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS anywhere in the world.

If you are a 15-year-old Swazi, your chance of reaching 30 years old is only 6%.

I read  that by the year 2020, if the death rate continues to soar, there will be

NO ADULTS LEFT in SWAZILAND!!!!

***

We can be a passionate voice for the young women who are being sold, SOLD! into sex trafficking.

In Moldova, a small country in Europe…

There are more than 250 brothels in Chisinau, the capital city.

One of the greatest targets for sex-trafficking are girls

who leave the orphanages.

There are 30,000 women who have literally disappeared in Moldova,

many of them believed to have been captured for the sex trade industry.

Yeah, it’s an industry funded on the

repeated rape

& brutality

of women.

I will be talking about them a lot in this blog. It’s not pretty. It’s ugly. It’s despicable.

Before knowing all this, we could have easily turned aside… NOT NOW!

With knowledge comes a responsibility to make change.

When change comes, chains are broken, and joy abounds!!!!


So this week, go about your days with this new knowledge. IF you let these words & truths pierce your heart, you’ll find yourself thinking about them through this week in some random way. Please take time to pray for these orphans & slaves. And think about how you can get off your butt & do something. And I mean that in the nicest way.

Keep Lovin’ Moms!

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Bloggish? Huh?

April 18, 2010 in Mom Matters, VIsion with 1 Comment

Do you speak Bloggish?


The language of blogging is definitely foreign to me. Not really the writing part. I’ve been journaling for years sometimes with a keyboard but mostly with a pen & paper. It’s the techy part of blogging that feels like a foreign language! Really, I’m supposed to know what  it means to put an RSS feeder on my dashboard (not the car kind) or register a domain name? That kind of mumbo-jumbo has been what’s held me back for a while now from taking the leap in blogdome.

I began to think of avenues in which I could use my voice, my knowledge, as small as it might be. I knew if I could get over the fear of the Bloggish language, blogging could be a lifeline of communicating the needs, within my sphere of influence. Out of this is born the blog, but also a movement.

The Moms4Change Movement.

Four areas of passionate change is what I’ll be encouraging you through.

1. Across Our Hearts - it all starts here, y’all. If my heart doesn’t change, neither will my actions.

2. Across Our Table – from our hearts to our dining table, let your active compassion stir your family as well. Ever seen a kid who humbly serves? I have, and let me tell you, it’s amazing!

3. Across Our Street - as you & your family’s hearts begin to serve each other, your eyes will be opened to real needs that you can meet in your neighborhoods & local schools.

4. Across Our World – this is the movement. A wave of changed hearts, serving one another in communities, begins to flow to other communities, reaching as far as we can to make a difference in someone who’s hope for their very life has been shattered.

Okay, Moms! I know many of you are creating change for your community & world. I wanna hear about it!

You are an inspiration!

Please take a minute or two to tell us what you’re doing.

Let’s spread hope and tangible CHANGE across our hearts to across our world!

Keep Lovin’ Moms!

ps. I’m conquering my fear of Bloggish & it feels wonderful!!! It’s not impossible, after all!

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An Orphan Spirit, Part One

April 15, 2010 in Across My Heart, Across Our Table, Mom Matters with 8 Comments

I’ll admit right off that this is a difficult post for me to write. I’m having to dig up some deep emotions

that took root in my heart when I was just a little girl.

What brought this to the forefront is a live streaming webcast of a Colorado Pastor’s sermon I listened to this past Sunday. The crux of his message was answering the question, “Why do people feel like they don’t belong?” This sermon could have went any number of ways and most of us would relate in some fashion or another. His first answer to that question hit me like a ton of bricks. The Orphan Spirit.

The Orphan Spirit is one of the leading reasons people feel like they don’t belong or  ’fit’. I don’t believe it’s literally a ‘spirit’, but a type of individual who struggles as if they were orphaned. There are kids that grew up literally without parents, and are the definition of orphan. Of course, we readily see why an orphan would feel haunted with the thought that they don’t belong or aren’t wanted, after facing the ultimate rejection by the very people who birthed them.

But there’s another kind of orphan, those with the Orphan Spirit. These kids may have had parents physically present at one point, but absent emotionally, never really connecting with their kids. I think it would shock us all if we knew how many kids’ parents never said “I love you”.

I can imagine both sides of this Orphan Spirit. One I don’t have to imagine.

You see, when I was 5 or 6 (details aren’t clear), my birth father (whom I’ll refer to as Steele) & mother divorced because of their volatile and violent relationship. My mother did her best to take care of me and my older brother, while trying to keep food on the table, after Steele left. He left her and us with nothing. He took everything, including the heart of his little girl who could not figure out why on earth Daddy would forget all about her. He never called. He never contacted me. All the birthdays & holidays came & went without anything. Honestly, as far as I knew, he could be dead. And to help myself cope with it, I often pretended he was dead.

Most of what I knew of him could be found on my birth certificate.

Today, as I’m writing this, is Steele’s birthday. It brought up some emotions in me that I thought I’d dealt with. The truth is at my core I’ve always had a fear that everyone else in my life that said they cared would eventually leave too – my mom, my husband, my friends. This has been the deep struggle of my life – that I’m not worth anyone’s time.

I know what it’s like to be rejected by a person that helped give you life. There are many children, like me, who’ve had one or more parents walk away and never look back. We spend our lives overcoming that “Orphan Spirit” of fear & abandonment. Moms ~ maybe you know exactly what I’m talking about. This could be your story. You now are a parent who feels so much love for your child you could never imagine doing to them what was done to you.

Yeah, I know that as a kid I couldn’t have seen all that was going on in my parent’s marriage or the real reason Steele left. But that’s just it, kids don’t know. So what do they do? They think it’s because they did something wrong. They weren’t good enough. They didn’t love Daddy/Mommy enough. They were in the way. They spend their life trying to measure up.

I like to end my posts on a positive note… and I will. This is Part One of the post. In Part Two I share the redemptive side of the story. No, Steele never came back to make our family complete. This redemption story is so much bigger than that…

An Orphan Spirit, Part Two

 

Keep lovin’ Moms!

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Jesus in Disguise

April 12, 2010 in Across My Heart, Across Our Street, Across Our Table, Across Our World, Mom Matters with 8 Comments

Who do you surround yourself with?

Matthew 25:40 says, ‘And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Jesus surrounded Himself with ‘the least of these’. He gave them hope, He esteemed them highly, He even HUNG OUT with them – the beggars, the drunkards, the prostitutes, the tax collectors! But he didn’t just hang out with them, He served them!

Who is the ‘least of these’ in your life? He didn’t have to find out their life history to see if they deserved his time & efforts. No, he just served them as if they were kings.

So did Mother Teresa.

“The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved — they are Jesus in disguise… Through the poor people I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus. Every AIDS victim is Jesus in a pitiful disguise; Jesus is in everyone… [AIDS sufferers are] children of God [who] have been created for greater things.”

This was startling to me. What a revelation of truth.

That filthy mess of a man dressed in ragged clothing that stands on the side of the exit ramp, holding a sign “WILL WORK FOR FOOD”. He is Jesus in disguise.

That little 10-year-old Swazi girl who has lost her entire family to AIDS, who has no one to care for her, who has little hope of living past her 30th birthday, she is Jesus in disguise.

Let’s bring this closer to home.

Your beautiful newborn baby girl, fresh from heaven, is Jesus in disguise. Serve her with joy.

Your teenage son’s friend who hangs around WAY too much & could be a much better influence on your son, is Jesus in disguise. Serve him with kindness.

That little old lady, who can barely see over the steering wheel, driving 38 miles per hour in a 55mph speed zone, is Jesus in disguise. Serve her with patience.

Serve your baby girl, that teenage boy, that little old white-haired lady with fresh eyes today. They just might be – no – they ARE Jesus in disguise. Serve them with joy, patience, and love. Jesus will thank you!

Look for Jesus today. He’s all around you!

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