ENCOURAGED IN HEART

I’ve seen rainbows before, but never a double rainbow.  That is, before this week…

Watching 650 kids, bow their heads in collective prayer this week at vacation bible school (VBS)…

and knowing that 55 of them, gave their lives into the hands of the Rainbow Maker, God…that’s a double rainbow kinda week to me.

My friend Laura was in Europe this week with her mother, on a very special trip.  Laura’s not the kind of mom to just jet off and go to another country and leave her hubby and sons behind.  When we realized her trip was the same week that we had VBS, it was just another reminder to how detailed God’s love is for Laura, her husband Chris, who is a very involved and caring father, and their two sons, Will and Nathaniel…who Jake and Cal ADORE (me too!)!

God works out the details, we just need the faith to live it out.

This week, I saw and experienced a double portion of God’s love.  Not just in my life.  God sent another friend, Katy, a mother of six, across country to collect her seventh child and be with the birth mother, who is also the birth mother of her sixth child.  This woman is currently a drug addict and scared.  God sent Katy to be with her and love this woman, who is so very important to God…just as important as my friend Laura…just as important as you and me.

What am I saying?

God loves you and me.  He doesn’t play favorites.  He is well able to manage the world’s day-to-day operations and goes out of His way to show His detailed love for you and me.  But if we’re stuck looking down or too caught up in the hurriedness of the day, we’ll miss the double rainbow that He paints just for us.  That’s what it feels like when you feel love this personal and so attentively, like a double portion of love.  Sure, there are some areas where I don’t see my “double rainbow” yet, but my hope is in the Creator of the rainbow, not the rainbow itself.  And my Creator has a fabulously perfect track record, to paint one at just the right time, His time…not mine.

After seeing Katy’s emailed pictures of her new baby son, Josiah, and thinking about his birth mother…I can’t get this song out of my mind…How He Loves Us by David Crowder Band.

Oh how he loves us…from the healthy suburbanite mother to the drug addict mother to this crazy Jersey girl who takes pictures of double rainbows at stop lights.  His detailed love is everywhere.  Keep your eyes looking up, God could be painting yours today. 

Question:  What do you get when you drink a Starbucks VIA Iced Coffee with dinner?

Answer:  Me, blogging at 11:00 pm…(If you want an iced coffee coupon, click here!)

First of all, those suckers are G-O-O-D!  Second of all, they have caffeine, and I’m currently feeling the effects.  I’d like to take this opportunity to blame the high levels of caffeination for sponsoring this post and randomness…after talking to some friends, it seems that I’ve been negligent in posting updates.  So here are some random, and overdue updates.  That and, I need some advice.  The advice part first…

Bride Stacey’s wedding is right around the corner…41 days until the big day!  You picked the bridesmaid dress, counseled in the undergarment department and now I haven’t the foggiest idea of what kind of bling to wear.  The dress is actually mocha colored and the body…well, I think it’s more than safe to say that I’m not at 4% body fat people.

Simple earrings…chandelier…hoops…pearls…diamonds…rhinestones – I dunno.  Do you?

And as for the undergarments, I just gotta go there.  I hooked myself up, spanx you very much.  That is, after glistening getting into em’, I’m now a proud owner.  Spanx is good stuff, literally.

But the more difficult part was finding how to keep the girls, “high and lifted up” – if ya catch my drift.  After trying many options, I found the one.  It is more like the rubix cube of bras, or the Transformers of lingerie, but this one, a Lily of France Extreme Options has a spin wheel to accompany it.  It promises 62 WAYS TO WOW!  And I thought I was a hard worker…

I don’t need 62 Ways to Wow, I just need 1 Way so there’s no Whoops.

I bought both the slogan and the bra.

Never. Never in my life have I seem an undergarment work so hard and promise so much.  The spin wheel, really? Really. I needed it.  The pictures too.

Moving on…

Weight Watchers is going awesome!  I’ve been able to stay under my goal weight and enter into my third week of maintenance.  Once successfully at my sixth week of maintenance, I become a “Lifetime Member” which is required to be employed for them.  I’ve not yet heard back from Weight Watchers about my employment inquiry, but will keep ya posted!

Last randomness to report is that while our current home remains on the market, our dirt sweet dirt is turning into our home sweet home.  We’ve broken ground,

and started laying the foundation!

Woo-hoo!

Well, I think we’re all updated with the floating randomness in my brain as well as running low on caffeine so I think it’s time to lay my own foundation…to bed!  No more randomness, just some sleep! Night! 

I just can’t make this stuff up…it’s time for a belly laugh!   Not only do I face chin hairs in route to the grocery store, I face honesty in the grocery store!

While I was checking out, my cashier couldn’t get one of my coupons to scan, so she called for a manager.  Feeling the pressure of being “the one to hold up the line”, I looked over to the dude in line next to me and said, “I’m so sorry for making you wait, my coupon’s not scanning.”

Looking as serious as a heart attack, Mr. Patience declared, “Really, that’s okay.  If I go home now, I’ll just get yelled at.  Take your time.”

Gulp.

Feeling a little awkward, I asked, “Umm, do you want me to rip another coupon?”

And that’s when the cashier, Mr. Patience and I all started cracking up!

On the way home, as I applied a little honesty in my own personal check out lane.  I scanned myself to realize that the dude behind me could have very well been the Finkster on a less than stellar Steph day.  I am in no way judging that dude’s wife, okay?  And, just in case, keep me posted if you hear about a cute firefighter, that is wearing some version of West Virginia University attire, standing and declaring such things behind you in the grocery, or more appropriately, Home Depot checkout lane, okay?  And, I’ll do the same for you!

What’s one of your best check out stories?!?