This week is Bible Conference at Bob Jones University, and I’m excited that we got to go spend yesterday there.  This school is not perfect, of course, but it has been greatly used to prepare young people to serve God in whatever capacity He has for them.

When I was in high school, I had the privilege of visiting BJU for their Thanksgiving festivities.  What I saw and heard in the classrooms, the chapel, and from the students, truly impacted my heart.  I loved it.  However, I had my own plans – I was going to a “Christian” nursing school near home.  I’d had that all in place for years!  It was a great plan, too, or so I thought!

After visiting BJU, I came home and made my official first visit to the nursing school where I’d hoped to attend.  I stayed on campus for a weekend and was aghast at what I experienced.  Showing me the Prayer room at the end of the dormitory hall, my roommates assured me that, “No one ever uses this room!”  While I was listening to a professor give a lecture, my ears stung as he punctuated his sentences with profanity.  I’ll never forget getting into my car and crying all the way home.  If there was ever a “shut door” this was certainly one!  There was no doubt in my heart that this was not the school the Lord wanted me to attend.  Visiting this place after going to BJU, I had something to compare it to, and this was surely lacking!

I won’t go into the details, but the Lord did open up the door for me to go to Bob Jones University in His perfect timing.  It was a blessing, beyond my understanding to sit under the instruction of truly godly men and women.  It was there that the Lord continued to open my heart to all that He had for me in the future.  “In all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct your steps.” Proverbs 3:6

I see now how important it was to visit the school I was hoping to attend.  If you have a young person preparing for college, take them and let them stay on campus to get a taste of what it would be like to be a student.  Pray for the Lord to direct them and open their eyes to His will.  It’s a first important step in launching out on their own. 

With love,

What’s going on in the parsonage?  Well, I have a new hobby that could take over my life!  It’s Pinterest!  Wow!  What great ideas are on there!  I really do have to discipline myself only get on there at the end of the day after all the important stuff is done, because there are just so many great ideas to look at! 

I especially love the crafty things.  The idea of taking a something simple and turning it into something spectacular is invigorating to me!  Last year I found this post on How Does She and was inspired to redesign simple t-shirts into a ruffled top.  Here was a $2 plain V-necked top from Target that I changed in a matter of about an hour (maybe a little less!)  If you love the ruffled look you see everywhere, you need to make one of these! 

I’m just getting into creating my boards on Pinterest, but if you’re on there you can check out the fun things I’ve found. Are you on Pinterest?  What’s your best advice you could give someone like me who is just beginning?  What is your favorite kind of boards to pin to? Baking?  Decorating?  Clever sayings?  Tell me!  I’m pinterested! =)

From my parsonage windows,

“Eat the rainbow!”  That was the advice from the dietitian at our ladies’ fellowship in February.  When you look down at your plate, it should be very colorful.  Those colors tell you you’re eating nutritious foods.  Green broccoli, yellow corn, red tomatoes, orange peppers, purple cabbage – each colorful food adds some other good thing into your diet!  If you look down and see white chicken, white potatoes and rice, the very lack of pigment will tell you need to add some other foods to your meal!

That simple piece of advice has helped me even with breakfast.  Don’t just eat one fruit – eat a yogurt and add strawberries and blueberries in it.  Drink a glass of orange juice.  For lunch, add a tomato, lettuce and avocado to your tortilla wrap.  Throw in a handful of grapes for dessert and look at the rainbow you’ve created!

So, freshen up your plate by making it as colorful as the rainbow!

Hope you’ll be in church Sunday!  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.  Hebrews 10:25

Be refreshed,

It was a normal Sunday for us.  It consisted of:

• Rising at 6:00 (for me – my husband was up before me; who knows what time? )
• Leaving the house at 8:25 to be at the church for 8:30 pre-service prayer meeting
• Head to Sunday school
• Morning service
• Teacher’s meeting after service
• Lunch at home
• Blogging for Monday’s post
• Nap – Always on Sunday! =)
• Head to church at 6:15 to practice special music for evening service
• 6:30 evening service
• 8:00 Business meeting
• Fellowship with folks after service.  Talk, laugh, encourage, be encouraged…
• 8:45 arrive home

Allison was home for this Sunday.  When we entered the door Sunday evening she looked at us and said, “No wonder you’re tired!”  We looked at each other bewildered.  Sure, we’re tired at the end of a Sunday, but aren’t most people our age after a full day?  We were no more tired this Sunday evening than any other time – as a matter of fact, we probably had more energy than previous weeks!

As I’ve thought about her comment, I’ve been reminded of the truth that God equips you for whatever He has called you to do.  When others shake their heads and wonder “how you do that!” it’s because they haven’t been called to do that ministry, job or task, and therefore don’t have the grace and enablement from the Lord to do it as you do.

Ministry is busy and it can be tiring, but God’s grace is abundant, as my husband preached about last week.  He energizes us at times when we are weak.  He gives wisdom when we cry out for it.  He takes our burden when we pray and give it to Him. 

Those inside the parsonage are grateful for the prayers of God’s people!  Praying church members are another means that keep us moving forward in the ministry to which the Lord has called us! Thank you, to all of you that uphold us before the Throne of Grace!

When God calls, He equips and enables.  Remind yourself of that for whatever the Lord has called you to do today.  Through Him, you can do all things! 

From my parsonage windows,

Headaches.  Migrane headaches.  They can cause a person to literally bang their head against the wall, not see straight nor think straight, feel miserable all over, want no light shining in the room or in their eyes, and/or cry out for some kind of relief.  Well, that’s the story of my wife Tuesday and last night.

Computers.  Broken down computers. They can cause headaches, especially when they refuse to work properly or just flat out crash.  Well, that’s the story of my wife’s computer.  It’s in the shop due to a nasty trojan that treated the virus protection like a jello wall of enforcement. 

RefreshHer.  “Coming into the pits for a can of Sunoco fuel and a track bar adjustment” (For those who are lost right now, this is NASCAR lingo).  I sent Denise to bed after coming home from prayer meeting (that’s the fuel), and I’ve taken up the duty of posting on her blog in her place (track bar adjustment).

Now, headaches and computers fit into the category of “the stuff of life.”  You are probably thinking of many other things that relate to that subject right now.  Question—How do you stay “refreshed” in the midst of “the stuff of life”?  Well, you need “fuel” that comes only from the daily intake of the Word of God.  Just as the 88 or 14 or 48 can’t stay on the race track without it, you can’t stay on track in the stuff of life without the Word.  The Word is your necessary companion.  The Word is life; the Word is Christ.  He wants to continually refresh you.

No need to explain a “track bar adjustment,” but suffice it to say that it has to do with the handling of the car by the driver in the corners of the race track.  How do you handle the “stuff of life”?  Only through the adjustments that comes through the Word of God.

What does the Bible have to say about headaches and computers crashing?  2 Corinthians 5 reminds us that this earthly body is groaning “earnestly to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” (5:2). There have been many times when Denise has said, “The pain is so bad, I wish I could go to Heaven.”  It is hard for Denise to think during a severe headache, but she is often reminded that there is coming a day when “absent from the body, present with the Lord” (5:8) will be for her—no headaches forever!!!  Groaning now; glory forever (4:16-18)!!!  As for computers, they are temporal (4:16-18), and therefore, will crash.  Only God is eternal.  The Word is the “adjustment” we need in the stuff of life.

Headaches.  Computers.  The stuff of life.  You need refreshment?  Don’t just read the Bible; meet with the Author.  Come into the pits.  Not for a quick splash of fuel, but for a “full tank” of His presence.  Then you’ll be ready for the stuff of life.

Dale
(Taking care of some of the stuff of life for my sweet wife and . . . looking forward to another season of racing.)