New Blog

I have been thinking about getting a bit more serious about writing my blogs. I desire to bring creativity into my heart so much, and I believe that writing is one of the tools that will do that. I've decided, though, that I'm going to change blog programs, and I've got my own site! Beyond Relevance will house my blogs. If you follow me here, please click the link and follow me there!! If you DON'T follow me here, please click on the link and follow me there! ;-) It is a work in progress, and some of blogs here will show up there - only rewritten a bit.

See you at Beyond Relevance!

Terri

They Will Know We are Christians by Our Love

Warning: The following contains a not so nice post. I'm ranting, if you will. Please do not read if you are uncomfortable with cynicism or criticism.

You were warned.

I have just about had it with Christians - and I am one. And by that I mean that I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, he is the Son of God, he died and was victorious over death and by that sacrifice and miracle, I am a Daughter of the KING. I believe that. For most of my life, I have been very busy in 'ministry'. I've been a Sunday School teacher, a VBS director, youth leader, worship leader, worship team member, I wrote curriculum for nearly everything. I loved being involved. For years, though, I'd look around and wonder why we really weren't making much of a difference in our world.

And then I stepped out of my bubble - my nice little church bubble where all the people were Christians and were members of my church, and all my friends were Christians, too. I liked that climate controlled bubble, and I've got to admit that some days I long for that comfort and that kinship. It can wear on a soul to be on the outside, because being out here nearly brings me to tears every day.

Because out here the masks are off and the smiles are gone.

Years ago,  I announced through an ad in the local paper that I was a Christian mom seeking to provide day care for children in my home. I ran that ad for over a month, and it went unanswered. I was a bit surprised that when I took the word 'Christian' out of my ad the next month, I had more calls than I knew what to do with. I didn't understand that back then, but I have a very good idea now.

The world is skeptical of Christians. And rightfully so.

I have seen a lot of ugly stuff in my job as a child welfare worker. I knew I would when I first started, but I've been a bit surprised at the type of ugly I have seen. When I first started my job and I needed to find a home for a child, I would hope that a Christian home could be found. I had this idea that a hurting, abused, unloved child could experience the love of Jesus in a Christian home. And here's the ugly: I haven't found that to be true.

What I have found to be true is that these hurting, abused, unloved children become targets and projects. And they get to learn how they just don't measure up to our Christian expectations. They get to learn what is just not acceptable in the climate controlled bubble - The Can'ts if you will.  Because, you see, many of us Christians get in to a rut, I think. We dress up so that we can fit in that perfect climate controlled bubble. We get our masks on, wear the perfect costumes. But we don't show love.

Quite frankly, Christians, it's time we step up and act like our Savior. We don't need a degree in Greek or Hermanuetical studies to get that. It is time to put down our building tools, Church. We don't need bigger, fancier, hipper stuff. We don't need programs and committees. We really don't need to have one more Bible study on the shelf to buy or one more meeting at the church to go to. We've had all that stuff and we still can't show the world Jesus.

Each one of us needs a mirror - the lighted, magnified make up mirrors that show every pore, blemish and wart.

We have not allowed the Holy Spririt to reign in us. We have not allowed the love of God to indwell in us. I think it's time that we get our noses out of our little rule books and we certainly need to quit slapping people around with our expectations. The world gets what we don't believe in. We tell them all the time.

Seriously. Have we ever thought of giving water to a thirsty person for the sake of quenching his thirst?

In John's account of the Gospel, Jesus said that the whole world will know that we are his disciples by the love we show each other. Church, I have come to the conclusion that there might be a whole world full of Christians. I just don't think there are very many disciples.

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, 
I  would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 
If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, 
I would be nothing. 
If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; 
but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind. 
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. 
It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. 


But love will last forever! 
Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, 
and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 
But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. 
But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, 
but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. 
 All that I know now is partial and incomplete, 
but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

---Saint Paul, from the Bible

Creativity

Since last summer, I have made a strong effort to regain my creative side. I can't even explain how dry my soul felt for a while. I kind of think I know how trees must feel in the winter. 

Stuck.
Cold.
Dry.

I like that I've been able to create some crafts and sewing projects. It's been so fun, and I've got to tell you that I am starting to feel life inside of me.

It's growing.
And dreaming.
And budding.

I can hardly wait until the blooms!

Boy.

It is hot. And we turned in to whimps. We finally put in our window air conditioner yesterday. I'm not so sure I like it...although I really do love that I'm not sitting and sweating. That's always nice. For years we didn't have an air conditioner! I felt all 'Mother Earth' gardening, preserving all the food and putting up with the heat. Gosh, I remember times that I would pack up the kids to go for a ride in the air conditioned car just to have a break from the heat.

For the most part, though, I really don't like the house all closed up and the sounds of the air conditioner and fans running. I LOVE feeling the breeze in the house. Today though? There's no breeze. Thank you, God for giving someone the ability to develop Freon.

I've been re-organizing my craft room. I've got more to sew, and I couldn't even turn around in there. I took everything off the shelves, scrubbed them down, organized the fabric and crafting accessories I have and basically got ready for round 2 of quilt making! (As soon as my 'walking foot' comes, I'll be quilting!) I am really impressed that I am able to get all that stuff in such a small little room. I thought about scaling down the volume of my craft materials. I did that many years ago, and it took YEARS to recover. We wouldn't want to go through that again...it was traumatizing.

But it is getting organized, which always makes me feel good. I wish I had learned how to maintain during my projects...like putting away items as I am done with them, throwing away scraps of fabric as they are snipped, etc. I just don't think it's in my genes. Well, it might be in the gene pool, but I must have swam far away!

Have a great week!

A Quilt Top is Made!!

Despite the heat, I have been able complete the quilt top that I started last weekend. I'm so excited!! I fudged on the couple of pieces that I cut wrong, but I couldn't see paying extra for more fabric....so, mistakes and all, here's my first attempt at a quilt. I kind of figured out the pattern as I was going, which is just my way, I suppose.

I don't think the colors show really well. The oranges look kind of peachie in this photo, and the turquoise is light...I like the quilt in person. The colors are really bright.

I will be purchasing the back and the batting this week and then I will hopefully start the quilting process!! We'll see how that goes. I've never done anything like this before. I'm going to use my machine, which is probably cheating, but I can't even imagine trying to quilt this by hand in this heat.

I will keep you posted on my progress!

A Lost Blue Denim Jumper and Building Mountains

Years ago, I borrowed a cute pregnant jumper from my friend Diana. It was the early 90s, and we were both homeschooling moms, so if you guessed that it was a denim jumper, you would be correct. What I especially liked about it was that it had enough room to accommodate a growing belly, but wasn't one of those tent dresses that was so popular. Seriously. Some of those pregnant dresses were like wearing actual tents! So, anyway, this was an unassuming denim jumper that I just loved and wore a lot while I was pregnant with Jordan.

The jumper found its way to the back of my closet during the last month of my pregnancy because as accommodating as it was for my growing belly, Jordan grew so much that this sweet jumper just couldn't keep up and a pretty, soft pink jumper of the tent variety soon took its place. Some months after Jordan was born, Diana found out she was pregnant, so she called asking if I could return the jumper.

Thinking I could just go to my closet and pull it out, I told her I would bring it right over. (She lived across the street.) It wasn't there. I was mortified!! The only thing that I could think of is that the jumper had been mistakenly placed in my give away box and would have made it to Goodwill. Shoot.

I called Diana, and apologized profusely, telling her I would buy her a new jumper. She stopped me in mid-sentence and said a phrase that has had staying power in my life. "You are more important to me than a silly jumper."

Talk about a relationship builder! This sounds so cliche', but that phrase was implanted in my mind that day and has often come to the fore front when dealing with broken antique plates, chairs or ruined ceilings. I have to admit, though, I have often fought the urge to throw out the phrase, " I can't have anything nice!" (and have on many occasions). The times I have said, "You are more important to me than _______", were the times that relationships were strengthened. I remember just how loved and important I felt that day, and I know that the impact that phrase has had when I have remembered to say it has been positive.

Our words are so powerful that they can build or destroy. When I am irritated, it's especially important that I take pause and choose my words carefully. I really want to build mountains - I don't want to strip mine my relationships.

I did find that blue jumper. Funny thing. It was in the back of Terry's closet. Go figure.

On to Another Project!

I have wanted to make a quilt for a long time, but recently I found some fabric that I just loved. It's so whimsical and a bit retro!! I bought a bunch of fabric without really knowing what I was doing. I didn't have a pattern, have never quilted, but thought, "Eh...what's the worst that can happen?" No one would really have to know; unless I blogged about it. So, if I fail, there will be a chance of laughter. 

I will keep you posted on the progress of the quilt. So far, I have the top almost done. I believe I want to add some borders. I have it in my mind, and have even dreamt about how I would create this quilt. So, we'll see how it works.

It all started when I saw this wheel of fabric sitting on the fabric store's shelves. Perfect for what had been twirling around in my mind the last few weeks!! I sewed these strips together. There were enough in each wheel to get three blocks of strips sewn! I bought two wheels so I would have enough to have six rectangles of stripes! Very cute idea. Very cute.

Here I have one rectangle block put together. They measure about 15 1/2 inches wide and, well...somewhere around two feet or so long. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to lay it all out. I had Alyssa and Kimi sitting in the living room watching a movie while I was placing blocks all around the living room floor! Fun Times!!

I bought several packages of these pieces of fabrics. I think they're something similar to fat quarters, but I'm not sure. I still take offense to the name of the fat quarters. Really? They can't help it!

And here is one strip done. I will show you the other strips later. They are actually all stacked under this top one. This will no doubt be a busy quilt, but I like it. I'm looking forward to seeing it done! I am also looking forward to sharing my end product with you!!

Be blessed!