The Book Stack

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Back in the day,  I was the one who read.  All. The. Time.

Those Summer Reading Clubs at the Library?  Encouraging kids to read six books over the summer?

Pfft.  I read six books the first week.

I got excited about a book that was really good.

To this day, I can still remember the sorrow I felt when I finished reading Heidi in second grade...not because it was a sad story but because it was over.  I remember the awe with which I finished A Wrinkle in Time in the 7th grade, the amazement at the end of Ben Hur in the tenth grade.  I remember the gratitude I felt...not to mention complete shock...when my sister handed me a copy of The Return of the King after happening to make a trip into town the afternoon after I finished The Two Towers ...she'd heard my lament at the cliffhanger ending.  Then there was the marathon reading session I did whilst down with a respiratory virus at college to finish a borrowed set of The Chronicles of Narnia and wondered where C.S. Lewis had been all my life....and prompted me to purchase the whole set of his Space Trilogy when I happened upon it in a bookstore shortly afterward.

Oh, yes, so many good books.

I remember my grandmother lamenting in her later years that she didn't have the patience to read anymore, and it made her sad.

I'll never be like that, I thought.  Reading is too rewarding.

But.  Y'all.  There are only 24 hours in a day.

And, just for grins, I took a picture of the Books Waiting to Be Read.

Sixteen books in that stack.  And there are a couple of others that I know of that were elsewhere and aren't in the stack. 

Some of them have been there for more than a year.  More than two years....And there are a couple of others that I've had for a long time and just haven't been able to get myself to get interested in them...recommendations from a friend or some such thing...and I've about decided it's to donate them to the library.

I actually have read a bit in a few of those books; the top book is the current study in our ladies' group at church and I'm probably two thirds through. But I never thought I'd have a stack of unread books.

I haven't kept track of the books I have read this year; maybe I should.  Kinda like I keep track of the yardage in/yardage out on the sewing blog.

Part of my problem is I like re-reading old favorites.  I've probably read The Lord of the Rings at least 15 times since that first agonizing trip through Middle Earth in 1977.   Brother Cadfael and I are well acquainted...and you know I've revisited Narnia over and over.  So sometimes, the reading time is spent in familiar territory.

But there is a wealth of wisdom, challenge and instruction in that stack.

I need to be more intentional about my reading.

Among other things...

Revisting Joshua

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So, my friend Suzanne, who was my BSF Teaching Leader ages and ages ago, posted an invitation to a day retreat at which she was teaching.

It's hosted by a local church, at a camp on Lake Guntersville. I've actually been there once before..it was where our Girls Ministry Leaders had a retreat the weekend after The Princess's wedding...back in 2011.

I wrote a blog post about my experience that weekend.

And...here's the kicker: Suzanne's going to be teaching from the book of Joshua.

I saw that and thought, oh, I should go.  I mean, Joshua.  Suzanne.  Lovely venue.

But, other than Suzanne, whom I haven't really seen in years, I probably won't know a soul.

So I waffled.  My Sweet Babboo has a Royal Ranger event that day, so he's not going to be around.

Joshua.  God has had me in Joshua for a reason.  I don't think it's a coincidence.

And how many times have I written about my need to intentionally go outside of my comfort zone?  Out of what's familiar?

So....I signed up.

Kinda planning to sit in the back and just...listen.  To see what it is that I need to make sure to get.

Because the nice thing about going to something like this...I am anonymous.  I have no responsibilities.  

Just to listen and learn.

One of those days...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Yeah, even the cat is looking skeptical at this point.

Some days you get out of bed and tackle the day.

And some days, you trip over your own feet and smack into the door before you can even open it.

Ice pack, please.

Some days, you look in the mirror and think, that'll do.

And some days, you look in the mirror and think, oy, I'm overdue for a haircut.

Some days,  the flu shot is over and done.

And some days, you wonder why your arm aches and then you remember...oh, yeah. Flu shot.

Some days you  whip up a  fantastic meal that the family loves.

And some days you forget about the pot on the stove with the costly beef roast and the hard-to-come-by noodles...and find yourself wondering who's burning stuff outside...guess the stove  wasn't turned down as low as I thought...

Maybe two -thirds of the pot was salvageable.  With a slightly smokey flavor.  Of course, it's for my Sweet Baboo's birthday dinner.  Need to plan some hearty sides, I think.

Gonna take me a minute to get the pan clean, though.

And then...some days you scroll down face book and see lots of fun things.

And some days, friends post links to pages that each request prayer for a different youngster in end stage cancer.

Kinda puts things in perspective.

Lord, I thank you that I had a door to run into.  That I have the opportunity to get that immunization that will hopefully ward off nastiness.  That I have a Sweet Babboo to cook dinner for, and kids who will come and sit at the table with us.  That I have pans to cook in and hot water to clean them.  That I have friends who care about folks.  That I have a real bed to sleep in tonight.  Let me never forget to thank you for all my blessings.  And be the Comforter and the Healer to those who are desperately in need of both tonight.  Amen. 

Is this my idea...or...

That bracelet was a craft project during one of our Teen Girls Sleepovers...probably 5 or 6 years ago.  'Amats' is the Hebrew word for 'Courage'.

In sitting down and trying to figure out what's holding me back...you know, you get asked that question at almost all big conferences at some point...I've had to question my courage.

And I come down to this...if I knew, absolutely knew, that I had a word and direction from God, I could go after it with everything.

But I have been wrong so many times.

See, I kinda had the idea that if something occurred to me,  from out of the blue, so to speak, not as a product of my own reasoning ( or maybe as a product of some particularly non-typically brilliant reasoning) I figured it had to be God.  And I'd go tearing off that way...only to run into a brick wall.

Now, I understand timing and all, and I know Joseph's Words all seemed in direct contrast to everything that happened in his life until Pharoah pulled him out of jail, but those times are not of that nature. 

I got it wrong.

So I'm a little gun shy now.

And when a random idea related to something I feel I have a promise on landed in my brain this morning, I didn't jump up and  do it.

Because I am tired of running into walls.  I'm tired of offering my dreams up to a chorus of crickets...or, worse yet, outright disdain.  I'm tired of sending Ishmaels out...because it seemed like a good idea. 


Gideon said to God, " If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised -- look I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.  If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said."  And that is what happened.  Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew -- a bowl full of water.

Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me.  Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece.  This time make the fleece dray and the ground covered with dew."  That night God did so.  Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.  (Judges 6:36-40, NIV84)

Gideon gets a lot of flak for that. 'Putting out a fleece' has even entered the vernacular...and is rather disparaged.  But,  Gideon had a whole army to convince; I don't think the fleece was to convince himself; he knew he had had a word.  I think it was to convince the rest of the tribes that he had really heard a word.

If God will confirm a word to the people who need to hear it, who need to believe, I don't think it's out of line to ask Him to confirm a word that might be Him...or might be my own problem-solving  brain at work.

So, I'm asking for confirmation.  If that idea was a God- idea, I'll follow through.  If it wasn't...well, either there is another door down the road a bit...or maybe I've got the whole thing wrong and NONE of it was God...just my imagination.  God knows what I need. 

It's not a lack of faith in God...it's a lack of faith in my ability to wait for His voice and not go following my own.  I need a landmark so I know it really is Him.

I'll let you know if anything comes of it. ;-)