Palm Sunday

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. A rather obvious fact.

We did not go to church. I missed that and was feeling a bit down about it. But Ken decided to invite the neighbors over for lunch "spur of the moment" so I didn't have much time to focus on my thoughts while I prepared the meal and what not.
Afterwards as I was cleaning up and entertaining the kids I was listening in on my husband's conversation. Somehow he turned it to spiritual things and church and what not: he makes it seem so natural and I think it is for him, I just haven't figured out how he does it! And the conversation with the neighbor was an eye-opener for me.
Our neighbor talked about how "church people" are always soliciting you: from the moment you walk into church they are coming up to you and acting all "buddy-buddy" but really they just want to solicit you to join the church or give in the offering or be involved in some other way.
Interestingly, despite and maybe because of growing up in the church Ken feels pretty much the same way. He wants to go and listen to a good sermon and what not, but he doesn't really want people coming over and shaking his hand and acting all friendly. It makes him wonder what they really want.

So there I sat and still sit, trying to organize my thoughts. All of my life I have been taught to be "friendly" and to "reach out" to new people who come to church. But because we didn't go to church yesterday our neighbor was sitting at our table and Ken was planting seeds for future conversations. Our neighbor would certainly not go to church of his own volition.
It makes me wonder if I am alone and just incredibly naive when it comes to "the world" and how people really view "church people" or if perhaps there are many Christians out there who with the best of intentions are actually running people away from church by being too friendly when there is not friendship basis there. Always I have heard and taught friendship evangelism, but most of the times I have seen it put into practice it has been very purposeful as far as people going out and meeting people so that they could form relationships and "evangelize". Very rarely have I gotten to see the real thing where someone had a simple conversation about God with someone that they were already friends with.
This is one of the things that I love the most about my husband: he is very good at sharing what he believes in a manner which communicates with the men he is around. However, I know that most Christians would turn over in their gravy if they heard him refer to God or Jesus during his conversations. But he is presenting the Truth to people who would not otherwise be willing to listen and he doesn't choose his words so that he can "reach his target audience"; no, he uses the language that they talk in every day about everything else. It isn't pretty or refined and there are many Christians who would find it insulting or sacrilegious. 

I find that I have much to learn from this husband of mine. My witnessing skills are sadly lacking. I still tremble with uncertainty and fear to have a purposeful conversation about Jesus with someone that is not saved. But, I have also been amazingly surprised to have the conversation turn to spiritual things without my even trying to make it do so.
To be honest, I never had "non-Christian" friends before I married Ken. And I know that there are people who are concerned that I have "fallen away" from the faith because I don't do many of the things that are expected of "good Christians" at this point in my life. Thankfully God knows the heart. And I am rejoicing and reveling in my progress at learning to be friends with people who don't know Jesus personally. For the first time in my life I feel like I am actually really being a light in this world. I'm not so surrounded and insulated by other Christians that you can't distinguish my light from theirs or that I don't have to come into personal contact with the worldly masses. I think I'm actually being a real Christian; not just so spiritually-minded that I am of no earthly good.

I do look forward to going to church more regularly again. I do miss it. But for now I will be content with learning to be a Christian in the situation God has me in. And I rejoice in being able to shine my little light in a little corner of the world and perhaps actually make a real difference in somebody's eternal life!

Puppy woes

About six weeks ago we got a new puppy: Maggie. This is something we've talked about off and on for a while because Max is 14 and for a lab that is very old. We had another dog for a while, but he didn't do well with the kids. He was very jealous and an attention hound so we gave him to some friends who were better equipped to meet his neediness. But with two little munchkins we felt it would be better to get a new dog before Max passed, so here we are.
I do not have a lot of experience with puppies. Or with animals in general. I'm pretty open to trying stuff, but in this particular instance my expectations were apparently not at all in line with reality. I couldn't quite understand why everyone was so amazed that I would take on a puppy with two little kids too. Truth be told, Samson, the other dog we had had was housebroken in less than a week. Obviously that is rather fast and I knew that. I just didn't really understand how unusual that is. Maggie is still not completely housebroken. After about three weeks with almost no sign of improvement and rescuing my children from various puddles and spending my days mopping up and disinfecting or changing little clothes and giving extra baths and what not all I had about had my fill. Particularly because we don't have a fenced yard here, so when I do let her out I have to be there the whole time so that she doesn't go too far. Very time consuming. And awkward when she's made a mess in the house and needs to be put out but you have a little boy who thinks that that puddle looks like the best spot to play in!
I had a few meltdowns. We came very close to getting rid of the puppy. I succumbed and tried again. And again. And again. And again. It was very wearing. Particularly when you could see that she was getting it and then she would just totally backslide for a few days and it would be worse than ever! She nearly didn't survive that!
However, on Monday this week she was harassing Max, as she likes to do, and he was dancing around trying to get away from her and accidentally stepped on her! One broken leg later we now have a puppy that is MUCH more attentive and suddenly seems to have grasped the housbreaking concept! There are still accidents, but comparatively speaking few and far between! Yeah!
I am so very, incredibly thankful!
It also does warm my heart when I hear that little "thonk, thonk, thonk" behind me wherever I go, occasionally accompanied by whimpering if she gets a little careless. It is hard to resist that attachment when it is obviously so important to her.
Ken has commented several times how it reminds him about the story of the shepherd having to break the leg of one of his lambs so that the lamb will pay attention to him. Well, this little girl is definitely paying much closer attention to us now! And it makes me wonder if there are any areas where God is "breaking my leg" to get my attention. Definitely something to ponder on over the next few days.

Dawn of a New Era

Or so we hope.

Ken has been encouraging me to start blogging again and I am hoping that I will be able to do so. We did just get a new office computer which is significantly lighter than our previous laptop (to say nothing of the fact that the screen doesn't fall over every time you pick it up) so hopefully that will help me to achieve this goal.

I do miss blogging. Not because I have anything so important to say or because I have so many readers. I just enjoy writing. It helps me to process my thoughts. Which I am having trouble doing tonight as my mind is shutting down.

Just wanted to say "I'm back!"

Hopefully.