He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

I don't know if anyone has ever used this phrase before but I hope not so that I can "coin" it.  Say it with me......sacred spaces.  Here is what this means to me. Claire and I have been talking about some of her school assignments.  For her bible class (which she loves) she needed to interview someone older about their life and how faith factored in.  We listed off all of the possible people she could interview (couldn't be family and had to be over 40) and the list was long.  She is blessed beyond measure to have so many spiritual rocks and influences to call upon.  Somewhere close to midnight the other night, we decided that my friend Ms. Arlene would be a great person to talk to for this assignment.  Claire hasn't spent time with her before, but I have and Ms. Arlene knows Claire through me.  Unfortunately life got in the way and it has been a year or so since we regularly met to visit.  Today after church, I called her and asked if we...

We are home.  This was not the view we had as we finished the last leg of the long journey.....because it was pouring rain instead but I like this photo of sunset......it speaks to the ending of something.  We left Virginia at 9am, and watched fighter jets and military helicopters take off and land at the air port until our flight left.  We laid over in Atlanta, and I charged my Ipad just enough to finish the novel I had been reading for months and months when I had a chance.  It is Nicole Baart's book: The Beautiful Daughters.  People.  Read this book.  It is so, so good!  I rushed to the bathroom and then to the airport bookstore before our connecting flight boarded because I am now reading again for pleasure!  I chose a book, gobbled down the airport lunch that Roger and I shared, and boarded the next plane. I felt eager to get home today because it was the "go home" day.  Had we planned to stay longer, I would have been happy to...

Today, Roger and I spent time in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.  We are here for a few days on a get-away.....and expenses paid trip once we sat through the time share pitch this afternoon.....and boy, do they make it hard to say no!  (We did, tho) We toured historical buildings from the 1700s, hearing stories of the history of the colonial days, the tensions between Europe and settlers, stories that were happy and funny and tragic and humbling...... In this room of the Governor's Palace, which is the Ball Room, we learned this.  "The minuet sets the social order", said the tour guide......and we could imagine the violin, the flute, the harpsicord, the organ, and the beautiful lords and ladies waiting to dance......The minuet was the first song of the ball....so that everyone could know who the most important couple in the room was....and second to dance the minuet, was the second most important and so on and so forth.......and while it was romantic to imagine th...

Precious has an assignment for tomorrow, in kindergarten.  This month, for "show and share" the students are asked to read a book out loud to the rest of the class.  Honestly, when I saw the note about this a few weeks ago, my heart dropped to my stomach.......Precious has to read a book out loud?  Precious hates to read and she has severe anxiety.....and.....are you kidding me?   In Kindergarten?  Maybe for a typical child this would be mildly stressful but challenging in a good way.  Maybe it is a good test of her ability to handle nerves and performance.......but for my child it is a nightmare.  Courageously, she chose a book last week and we have been reading together daily, practicing the hard words......reading is really hard for Precious.  In and of itself, this breaks my heart.  I love words.  I love poetry and lyrics of songs and I love stories and I love novels.  It makes my heart ache that she cannot share the magic of w...

This morning, we said Good-Bye and Thank you to our lead teaching pastor, Ray Tilstra.  He retired.....today.....after he preached his last sermon as a full-time pastor of a church.  42 years, he has pastored churches, done weddings and funerals and counselling and educating hundreds and hundreds of people.  I'm sure there were many times when he had to put his job before the needs of his family....but today they were all there in the front rows, smiling and holding him up as he gave his last words to our congregation. Pastoring a church has to be one of the hardest assignment God gives.  Constant criticism, constant spiritual battle, constant life and death choices.....never getting to just punch the clock and go home and forget about the job....I would not choose that career for any of my children.  God would have to call and call hard to cause me to send them down that hard road.......and if He calls any of them, I will support it.  Both Pastor Ray's ...

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jeung.  Your daughter, Grace (Hechoon) just got dressed up and left our home with her friend Juwon.  Juwon's host dad has a cool muscle car that he polished up and he will take the girls to their senior prom.  Mr. and Mrs. Jeung........your daughter looks so beautiful!  I am sorry I didn't take good photos before they left.  They got ready at Juwon's and then stopped here to put dresses on and spray hair.  It's really cold out and the photos cannot let you hear their squeals of frigid horror.  These two sweet girls will go to their senior prom, then to the after-prom party, then come here to sleep awhile, and then maybe wake up to sit in the hot tub that we just got filled and is heating.  These are sweet, smart, courageous girls who are going to prom in a venue on the other side of the world from their home, their family, their culture.  The food will not be Korean, the music either....and neither has a boy who will take ...

Lately, I find the Lord showing me examples of the upside down and inside out gospel.....the last becomes first, the greatest least, etc.  It started with Palm Sunday where the preacher in Minneapolis talked about this.  Jesus was to be "King of the Jews" but he washed the disciples feet.....and many more examples.  This morning, my devotion said something else about the upside down gospel......we think the great is great but really, in God's economy.......the "least of these" are His most precious and cherished....... Claire came in to talk tonight after dance, after work, after a long day at school.  She told me about her bible exam and the content of the Beatitudes......blessed are the meek, the poor in spirit, etc.  She originally wanted to go on a great mission trip this summer, but the more we discuss it, the more it seems that God wants her to mission and serve right here at home.....learning about local missions and ministry.  I promised her I wo...

22 years ago, on a Wednesday similar to today, on April 6 an important chapter in my story began.  I left nursing school class at noon and skipped the afternoon courses so that I could go home and try on everything I owned, hoping to find a nice outfit.  I was going on a date with a "nice guy" and I didn't have anything to wear.  I was so nervous.  I raided my mom's closet of dressy clothes and found something "nice".  A peach blazer, and dressy slacks and flats.  I didn't even really remember what he looked like because it was a "set-up" date from friends of ours......I had seen him a few times in the steak house and lounge where I waitressed and bar-tended every weekend to pay for room and board and nursing school.  The friends set us up and we set a date for Wednesday because I worked every weekend.   He pulled up to the curb in a very clean and shiny white Thunderbird and my heart skipped a beat when he got out of the car, came to the...

Part 2......with my love for 14 year old boys....... Somewhere between Friday night and Saturday morning, around 4am......I woke up because my dog, Lexi, charged the door barking viciously......I heard a surprise squeak and yelp from some nervous boys.....then a door closed downstairs and then.....silence.  I smiled to myself.  My guard dog, Lexi, the German Shepherd knows EVERYTHING That happens here from the moment I go to sleep, to the moment I get out of bed. 8am Saturday morning I realized that all of my sleep-over boys were long gone......quietly departed early in the day.  Isaac got up later and I asked him, "did you guys sneak out at 3am?"  He cleared his throat, squeaked a bit and said "yeah". They snuck out.  Of MY house.....at 3am.....not because they needed anything.  Claire had offered to drive them at 10:30pm.....but just to see if they could do it.  They did it.  half biked, half ran......more than 2 miles....to Walmart at 3a...

There are several things I love about 14 year old boys...... 1.  They give really good hugs. 2  They laugh about really dumb things. 3.  They understand the rule  when they sleep over at my house.  If I hear them after midnight, I will come down and give them a lesson, with proper terminology, about what to expect on their wedding night.  Trust me when I say that they all make sure I never, ever have to go downstairs after midnight. 4.  They squeak when they talk, they squeak when they laugh, they squeak....... 5.  I can take down leftover cake and pasta and oreo fluff salad and chex mix and chips......at 10:30pm, after they get here after a movie, and they will think I'm the best mom ever.  I love being able to use up leftovers! 6.  They are still mostly little boys and yet they smell and act like man-cubs. 7.  They don't take life too seriously yet. 8.  They beg my 16 year old to take them to Walmart at 3a...