An Unlikely Hero - Part 2

You can read in Judges 2:1-3 the account I mentioned yesterday, of how God warned the Israelites that He was going to leave some of their enemies unconquered and why. He also warns them that they will be "thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you." In Joshua, He adds the enemy will be "pricks in your eyes". So they had been fully warned of the consequences of messing with the false gods of their neighbors.

Now, leading up to the time of Gideon, there had already been at least 4 times of a falling away from God's law and way, to a following of false gods, to persecution from the enemy by God's hand, to calling on God and a deliverer being sent. The first deliverer was Caleb's nephew/son-in-law, Othniel. The 2nd was Ehud, the 3rd Shamgar - who had just one verse in Judges. Then Deborah. 

Ohhhhh, Deborah! What a feisty little woman of God! And when the Bible refers to them as deliverers and judges, the word is used to mean as a leader in the sense of a president or king, just like Moses & Joshua had been. Israel's first woman leader...I love it!

So, Gideon becomes the 5th judge and deliverer, at least of those mentioned in the Book of Judges. Judges 6:1 says the people were doing evil in the sight of the Lord, so He delivered them up to the Midianites.

 Ever feel like everything you do just slips through your fingers, you have nothing to show for all your hard work, and it looks like God has washed His hands of you? Might want to check your life, make sure you're not doing "evil in the site of the Lord." And evil can mean so many different things but basically is anything against the will, plan, and ways of God. 

There is also a devil at work, so that's not always the reason, but here's one good way to tell which it is for you: check and see if you have peace. If there's peace in the middle of your storm, God's right there with you and you're exactly where you're meant to be. If you can't find any peace, no matter what you do, how hard you pray, then maybe He is withholding peace to get your attention.

So anyway, Gideon. For seven years the Midianites have been oppressing the Israelites and they start crying out to God for help. They didn't even get rid of their false gods first, so there goes the theory you have to clean yourself up before you approach God. They were in the middle of their sin, asking God for help, and He responded. But the first thing He had Gideon do as their deliverer was to tear down the altar of Baal in the middle of the city and rebuild HIS altar. Talk about a loud statement!

I've skipped ahead! First, though, where does God find this future hero? Hiding out in a whine press so he can secretly thrash wheat, to keep it from falling into the Midianites' hands. And when the Lord (or the Angel of the Lord) addresses him in his hiding place, He says to Gideon "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." (I really wish they used exclamation points in KJV!) 

So Gideon is hiding from the enemy and God calls him a man of valour...a MIGHTY man of valour! He should have looked around and said, "Who, ME?!" 

(The dictionary does not recognize that spelling of "valor" but that's how the KJV spells it - I'm going to switch to the current spelling because that red squiggly line messes with my English OCD!)

The first thing Gideon responds with is, Where is the Lord?! He has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of our enemies! (paraphrased☺) He conveniently leaves out the part where Israel forsook God first! What surprises me is the angel totally ignores that omission as well. He doesn't point out their sin, their serving false gods, thus negating God's promise of protection. He basically says, I am sending YOU to fix that!


Okay, I'm all fired up and can't wrap this up today, so come back again tomorrow for part 3! ☺

Social...not so much.

A few days ago I woke up with a heavy heart. My 10 year old son is not doing well in school right now, socially. It's been going on for just over a year and really started affecting his grades. I can handle that; it just tears me up to see him so miserable.

We take so many things for granted, like, my child with make friends easily and always feel loved and socially acceptable. But that doesn't happen naturally for everyone, including him. He is the type that hangs in the background, unsure of himself and how he fits in, unable to speak up and take the first small step to making a stranger a friend. Small talk with his peers does not come easy to him. He is his father's son.


So, after dealing with the grades aspect, and pushing him to make just one good friend, I thought we were good. But I started noticing some ongoing problems, compounded by his ever changing emotional state (thank you, puberty!). I feel like I finally got to the bottom of the problem this week when he had a mini breakdown and admitted just how bad it is at school for him every day.

Hiding at recess, crying because no one wants to play with him, sitting alone at free time...just typing those words makes me want to bawl.

I'm still peeling away at the layers to this situation, talking with his teacher, his sister/confidant, and my most valuable ally, my Heavenly Father.

 I'm not sure how much of this is, for lack of a better phrasing, in his head. I think he has serious insecurity issues. On top of that, I think he's not at the same level of maturity as most boys his age, and so they don't know how to respond to his attempts at humor and fitting in. What's funny to him makes his classmates scratch their heads in confusion. I've seen it with my own eyes and his teacher confirmed that this week when I spoke to her.

It seems so easy to me. Walk in, make eye contact, smile, say hi. How's it going? What did you do this weekend? Do you like Star Wars/cake/riding bikes? But what comes so easy to most of us is like walking into a nest of hornets for him. He'd rather die. And at the tender age of 10, he already expects the negative. Weird looks, walking off, solitude.

But I serve a faithful, love God who controls the wind, the rain, the spin of the earth, the cycle of seasons...the One Who created all, is in all, and by Whom all exists. The One that formed the spirit in man...He's able to strengthen, to change perception, to increase courage. He's been made aware of the problem and we're working on it together. Meaning, I'm stressing, repenting for stressing, putting it back in His hands. Then repeat.

Please, if you know him, don't try to talk with him about it. Just pray. I want God to intervene and I plan to knock on His door until He answers.

An Unlikely Hero - Part 1

I decided to read my Bible through in one year again but this time chronologically. And of course I'm already two books behind! I like to stop and study things out and the next thing you know I somewhere in Galatians ☺

But I'm finally in the story telling books - my faves. Joshua, Judges, and so on. This week I started the story of Gideon, who just baffles me. He was SO not your hero type material. Hiding out in a whine press to thrash wheat, in order to hide it from the enemy. For seven years the Midianites had been coming in every harvest season and stealing the Israelites' crops and livestock. And for seven years they had gotten away with it because God allowed them to do so. 

Why? Because they kept going back to the false gods and pagan worship of their neighbors. Also something God allowed. He told them, I'm not going to let you conquer and get rid of ALL your enemies. Instead, I'm going to leave some around to prove you, test you, see what's in your heart...whether you will follow Me or go whoring after pagan gods. 

So, of course they chased after false gods, God got mad and quit protecting them from their enemies, their enemies beat the snot out of them, and they cried out to God. And every single time, He answered and sent a deliverer.

I get upset about this unending cycle, then I remember...we haven't changed much in 3,000 years, have we?! God is the ultimate parent, always forgiving, always allowing an amount of pain to teach His children an important lesson, but always ready with mercy, forgiveness, and deliverance. What a great Father!

Tomorrow I'll get back to Gideon, an unlikely hero.

Spring Break

The kids had their Spring Break last week and I had such great plans but ended up with one of those head colds that knocked me back a few days.
Then I got slammed with a UTI just two days ago, so this has been a week of unhealthiness. But I can't complain, since it's not the norm, thank God!


We did get to the lake one day with the kids, which has sand...sort of. Dirt & sand mixture, but the kids loved it, built sandcastles, caught salamanders, and made them prisoners in the castles, lol.

Here is the week in photos:

 She was my mostly willing model for bubbles

I love these things! What in the world are they called?!

Old fashioned catching of creepy crawly things. Hello, Spring!

Had to throw in a pic of my windchime from Folly Beach :)

Salamanders and Sandcastles

I have a lot of Ben because he loves the camera, lol

A lot of reading on Spring Break...for us both :)

BFFs

Changes

So many things are changing around me, it seems. My children are getting older by the minute. I am getting older by the second...NOT fun. I sobbed my eyes out on my 35th birthday last month because I realized, not only am I getting older, my parents are aging too. I'm one of the lucky ones who will see their parents again in Heaven, but still...I can't even think about the day they're not here for me on earth.

Enough of that!

Spring has sprung, a very welcome change. And I had to change to a new, different brand computer to keep up with all things photography. It's been a challenge to get everything switched over and I'm still not done. Just as I sit down, a cappuccino & some background noise via the tv at the ready, I realize the program I need is on the other laptop. That finicky, "maybe I"ll start, maybe I won't" laptop. For some reason that really stresses me out right now!

So, I'm trying to adapt better to the changes I don't love. I really don't like that I'm looking a lot older in the mirror than I feel in my body. And I REALLY don't love that I feel older in my body that my mind thinks I should. Vacation really brought that home, in some ways, when I realized my body loved and NEEDED my own bed. I no longer adapt well to other mattresses or sleeping arrangements. Coincidentally, I no longer want to give camping a try. ☺

Plus, all those teeny boppers and college aged girls in their bikinis...well, that didn't help, lol.

So, I'm dealing with all those pesky changes.

Last Sunday we decided to spend the afternoon doing something outdoors with the kids. This is a peek into our nature filled family outing:

Maternity

In December I did my first maternity shoot. I admit, everything I had planned to do went right out the window once I arrived. My nerves got the best of me and I couldn't remember a thing I wanted to do! I learned a valuable lesson in planning ahead and writing things down. Which has nothing to do with the fact I turned 35 six weeks later ☺.

But the mommy to be was super sweet and allowed me to keep shooting until I found my groove. She had the really cool idea of shooting in the lobby of a hotel in downtown Chattanooga and I was curious and excited about trying something so out of the box for me. Here are some of my favorite shots from that day:

The back lighting made this almost useless but I loved the silhouette

5 months...

That's how long it's been since I promised to keep my blog updated! I'm slapping my own hand right now and hanging my head in shame...

Here's my quick recap:

Chad was unemployed for just 6 weeks, thank God, and now works for Amazon (can you say "discount!"). It, and God, are getting the bills paid but barely, so he is still planning to go back to school this fall. We figured it up and he can go to school to be a physical therapist assistant and bring home almost the same amount, thanks to the G.I. Bill. It is NOT going to be easy. I already dread how hard it could get. But, we've faced tougher situations and somehow God always provided.

So, for now, that's the plan. I'm still praying God sends a really awesome job that doesn't keep literally running all day long, something that brings home a little more money...without college. He said I have not because I ask not, so there it is!

Photography business is still going. We got really busy for a while and I lost some of the joy of shooting and editing. But right around my birthday (ugh, not going there), I picked up my camera and fell in love all over again. It's now my "4th child", but not I'm telling who slipped a notch ☺ I'll start posting some pictures of each session we do, some of my faves, since they are not always the client's favorites. And Louise told me I post too many on Facebook. I don't think that's possible, but she's not the boss of my blog so I'll put them here instead. I totally hope she is reading this right now!

We've been working out, getting ready for D Day, also known as Beth & Clifton's wedding...so excited! My mom thinks I'm living vicariously through Beth for the wedding of my dreams, but I just like weddings, period. They are fun, romantic, and feel like a celebration of life & love. I have great respect for the institution of marriage that God set forth and I believe it deserves an entire day of celebration and honor. And food. Lots and lots of FOOD.

My 2nd to youngest sister got married last week, I've helped plan two separate wedding/bridal showers for Beth, plus February is the month of birthdays in our family, so it's been crazy busy. But I've missed writing so I'm coming back. I hope.

This is me getting my feet wet again. Pray God keeps a fire burning in my fingers! And happy Tuesday.

Clay & Melissa with Mom & Dad ~ married