It's Finally Coming!

I have till Friday to get things in order around here.


I have been waiting all summer for this...for Friday, August 8th, 2008.


My name is Sarah, and I am an Olympic Lovin' Fool.


I am. I can hardly contain myself. This is my favorite favorite favorite.


And this is my next favorite. Oh, who am I kidding. I love it all. Even the press announcers.


My boys are too little to remember the last Olympics (which means they don't remember mommy sitting in front of the TV for hours at a time)...this time...they will. I've been trying to explain to them what the Olympics is and represents...the best of the best. I'm not sure they get it yet...but after 2 weeks of endless TV coverage and cereal *wink* for supper...I'm sure they will :)


There. Now you know. If I am absent from blog world next week, it is only because I am doing my basic American duty...Supporting Team USA from my couch (while eating cereal.) CAN'T WAIT!


*image from google images

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I AM Nosy...

During my extensive (one year of community college) higher education experience, I took an interviewing class. Now, 12 years later, I would like to share with you my vast skills learned in this class, by interviewing my little bro about...me. Clever, I know. (by the way, I clarified some stuff in orange, just for you :)


Little background info for you. Little bro, Jay, was born when I was eleven. We have a bond. He is going to be starting his 2nd year at a popular University...only about 15 minutes from me. Lucky, lucky him. :)


This is what I sent to him: Dear Jay...here goes...Feel free to be honest...my readers will love it :)

Q - Who’s your favorite sister?

(Jay) Haha nice try with this one I don’t have a favorite sister I love you all the same and thankful that I do have you all. I have learned so many different things from all of you that have helped me so far in my short life and I know I will continue to learn for a long time.

Q - What’s it like to have me for a sister?


(Jay) Well...... really its like having a second mom;), but don’t worry mom still takes the cake on being the most nosy and checks up the most! I’ll admit I really like having you as a sister so don’t you be going no where. I believe we are similar in our thoughts and how we act on some situations and we both have the same kind of humor which is always fun especially when Jordan is around. (Jordan is our sister Lindsey's husband. He's a youth pastor. It's essential we give him a hard time...youth pastor's love that sorta stuff ;)


Q - What’s my best quality?


(Jay) That’s a tough one if I had to choose something which I rather not because you do have many cuz really look who your flesh and blood with...ME Jay is the answer we were looking for. I would have to say the way you put others before yourself whether it is your family, friends, or your town you always care about how others are doing and if there okay and then yourself.


Q- What’s my most annoying quality?:)


(Jay) Well that’s not too hard.......kidding it’s so hard I can barely think of something. The one thing maybe would be how nosy you are about some things that I have going on because I know you will play 20 questions till you find out what you want to, and there is really no stopping you!!!!! (I am practicing on Jay for when my own boys are teenagers...just think how nosy I'll be then!)


Q - Do I seem cool? Do I seem YOUNGER than 30? (Yes, extremely would be a good answer)


(Jay) Haha yeah really for an oooooollllllddddd sister you are;) haha I am just playing you really don’t seem old at all cuz come on you went to Batman really late at night your cool don’t even worry and I’ll make sure you don’t become uncool promise. (phew!)


Q- How do you feel when I call you every time I drive by your apartment when going to Wal-Mart? (his apartment happens to be on the way to Wal-Mart :)


(Jay) Well it’s fine cuz sometimes you pick me up and we go together, but when I’m not home and at work then you call and you leave a voice mail and we all know that voice mails just really get on my nerves cuz how long it takes to get to them but other than that it’s fine that you call me when your driving by.


Q - Do you read my blog? How often? :)


(Jay) Yes I do read your blog prolly not as often as I should but I do read it just to stay caught up on what’s all going on at your household even though I am kept updated by a certain sister of mine most the time;)


Q - Do I need to pay you more when you babysit ? ;) Have I scared you away from wanting 3 children?


(Jay) No you don’t need to pay me more at all really you don’t have to pay me cuz I do enjoy watching them. As for scaring me away no not at all someday I will have 3 kids maybe a little more but I love those three to death and am so glad they are around. I’m not saying they are easy all the time and sometimes it does look like a tornado just went through where they have been but I wouldn’t change any of that cuz I think they maybe have influenced me into wanting kids more.


Q - What have you learned from me? The good, the bad, the ugly.


(Jay) Wow what to say on this one I have learned so much over my life time from you. Such as putting others first before yourself and how making that small first step to get to know someone is all you need to do to be able to share the word. I also learned that you can’t solve a broken relationship by ignoring the person till they fill with guilt as you did with Dad even though I shared that same anger at what was going on , but everything that I have learned has helped make me the person I am today and help me as in the future.


Q - Does it make you feel bad that Odie loves me more than you? (Jay got Odie when he was 11 and our parents divorced. When Jay went to college last year Odie came to live with us)


(Jay)No it doesn’t because really he still loves me more since I was his first care-giver. I fed him and gave him a place to sleep for a much longer time so I know that he might pretend to like you his true feelings are all aimed toward his favorite person ME!!!!
(this is called de-ni-al)


Q - What do you wanna be when you grow up?


(Jay)I want to be a good Husband and Father that my wife loves and kids look up to I want to be a good friend I want to be a good uncle to my nephews and Nieces to come. I want to walk down the right path and really that is what I wanna be.


*sigh* Who knew I'd learn so much about my little bro by asking him questions about me?!?

Maybe I should make my dad my next interview...m-a-y-b-e.

Jay - Thanks SO MUCH, little bro! Hope you know how proud I am of the young man you have become. Life still has lots of tough choices ahead, and I trust that your faith in Jesus will keep you grounded and "walking down the right path."

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Smallness...

I like small.

Small towns, small churches, small cars and believe it or not, I love small houses. I like the intimacy of it. The cuteness...

It's just part of who I am.

It was three years ago this month that my husband accepted the call to pastor his first church. Small town, small church...we couldn't have been more excited. We knew that God had made us small-lovin' people, and we knew He had prepared us for this place...and were praying that He had prepared them for us!

About six months into my role as Pastor's wife, a group of ladies from my church and I went to bigger-town for a Ladies State Meeting (or something like that.) It was held at a rather large church that also runs a Christian school. It was my first "outing" with them as their Pastor's wife and I felt like an idiot to say the least. Not only was I one of the youngest Pastor's wives, (and not wearing panty-hose) I was the newbie. It got even better when they made all the pastor's wives stand up front to introduce ourselves and then have the ladies pray over us.

Before they prayed, the Pastor's wife of the large church said something that struck me that day. She said something to the affect that they were so happy to have each of us there and that no matter how small our church was, our ministry was just as important as the large churches.

And I thought to myself, "hmmm...I had never thought it wasn't until right now."

I've thought a lot about her words over the past few years. I know her intentions were most likely to encourage us smaller pastor's wives that our ministry was significant. What I wonder though...is it the small churches who struggle with their significance or is it the big churches who struggle to see the importance of the small church?

My husband gets a magazine in the mail called Leadership. It's for pastors...but I will pretty much read anything in magazine form :) Yesterday, as I flipped through the latest issue, I found an amazing article.

A man named David Gibbons started a multi-ethnic mega church in California in the early 90's. It is still there, and thriving. In it's bigness though, he found something lacking. This pastor talks about his journey to his new ministry which is planting smaller churches, from 30-300 people each. He talks of the benefits of the smaller church, but admits to now having to help support his family with other outside jobs. He says, "I'm a better pastor because I have other occupations. My jobs change; my calling remains the same."

God used this little article to so encourage and affirm our little ministry yesterday. To think that this man, David Gibbons, had what many see to be the successful church, and yet decided to go make smaller ones...it really blew me away.

All size churches that are preaching the gospel are important...and all sized ministries are equally important. When I look at Jesus, there is no doubt in my mind that He would have gone upon that cross for the sins of just a few...

I am amazed at what God is doing here...in the small things. And I'm praying today, that I never lose sight of that.

Bigger is not always better...for oh-so-many areas. Just reminding myself of that today.

Happy Monday Bloggy friends!

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Too Old for This...

Dear big huge zit on my chin,

Please kindly go away. You must be mistaken. I am no longer a teenager. I am a 30 year old wife and mother to three...and I am tired of you.

The truth hurts sometimes...but I will not be sad to see you go...hopefully you are planning on leaving soon.

Thank you kindly,


Sarah

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Moochers...

Oh Sitemeter...why do I miss you so? and it's only been a few minutes since we said goodbye. *shedding a little tear*

On with life.

We are off to the lake today. Clear Lake to be exact...and it is not at all clear.

We have a group of friends here in tiny-town. They have (grown-up) toys (campers, boats, snowmobiles, jet skis.) We do not.

They invite us to go along and play...with their toys.

That may make us moochers. *smile* So be it.

Happy Saturday!


PS - know of any other good stat counters other than sitemeter?!? I'm feeling withdrawl already... ;)

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Deep & Shallow...

This post is two parts which may seem to not go together at all...unless you know me...and then you will find it completely normal because this is me...deep and shallow all at the same time :)...ooh, I feel another blog name coming on...


Anyways, FIRST:

Do you ever feel like life is going by so fast that you can't...keep...up?


I'm there. Yesterday I even wished I had a remote for life that had a pause button...so I could stop everyone else around me and "catch up" before pushing play again.


It's all good stuff. It just sometimes seems like I'm not enjoying it (enough) because of time crunches. I have lots of ministry stuff to get organized before everything kicks off again for fall...cramming all kinds of family fun into the last couple weeks of summer, and well, there's the house...which needs to be in some semblance of order to even find anything.


Interesting...as I typed these out, I had sort of a revelation. One: "Seriously, this is what I need to push pause over?!?" HA! It all of a sudden doesn't look so bad...totally do-able! Two: Who has become first in the busyness? *sigh*


Over and over and over I do it. Get distracted by tasks I need to accomplish, and place them in first place. It makes no sense...for I can tell you endlessly that this does not work...and yet I do it. The one and only person I should be running to first, Jesus, I instead remove from first place...set aside and replace with tasks, and then proceed to bash my head against a brick wall in frustration because all of a sudden I can't juggle all that's going on around me.


Hmmm...not too hard to figure out why frustration sets in. Today I'm going to stop trying harder...and start praying harder that this pattern STOPS!


I am so thankful that my heavenly father does not get annoyed with me...because I am seriously annoyed with me :)


And the shallow...(wink.wink.)

Last night as I was minding my own business (sort of) and reading blogs, I came across this post by my bloggy friend Kelly at Love Well (which, is not shallow...at all.) She happened to mention a list for the Starbucks stores that were closing...and I may have experienced my very first anxiety attack...ok, not really, but close.

I live in tiny-town. I have to go to bigger-town to get Starbucks. If they leave bigger-town...there is nowhere else to GO!

I found the list here. It is real.

And I held my breath....

and my 3 Starbucks locations are not on the list.

Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww.

Which reminds me...no, don't worry, I won't even begin to tell you my sad, sad, really sad story of how there were NO GOOD CLOTHING STORES around here when I was a teenager...then I got married and moved away and they FINALLY got a GAP...two in fact...and when I moved back....BOTH CLOSED. *sigh* Hard times my bloggy friends...hard times. But Starbucks...still here. Amen.

*smiles*

Happy Friday!!!

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Famousness...

Something has been rolling around in my mind for quite awhile now. And yesterdays post just fueled the fire for me :)



I've been thinking about the idea of celebrity. What is it that really makes someone a celebrity? It really just boils down to a celebrity being someone (with a little Charisma) that many, many people see or hear from or about all the time. Once someone becomes well known, it lifts them into this other realm of "famousness" :)

It even happens in the blogging world. When I started blogging I had no idea that within this community were sub-divisions...and among the Christian Mommy Neighborhood, there are some big-dogs...that everyone knows/reads/has on their blogroll. Who knew?!?


For the record: I'm not intending to talk Hollywood here. They of course have plenty of them...good and bad...and truthfully, it's the world, how else should they act?

What I've been thinking of lately is Christian Celebrities. Granted, generally we Christians don't like to call them that...sounds worldly ya know...but really...we treat our Christian Celebrities very similar to the way the world treats regular celebrities. And the more I think about that...the odder it seems to me.

When I start to think about it...as Christians we've probably got as many (or more) celebrities than the world does...hmmmm.



I should clarify: I am not blaming the Christian Celebrity. Whatever they have accomplished to bring them to that next level was undoubtedly great. They may have hit albums, huge blogs, write really inspiring books, Bible studies, or be an inspirational speaker, all using gifts God has given them. What I am questioning is our reaction to them.



It's one thing to admire and respect...but does it go further? Do we treat them differently than we treat regular people?



What is it in me that seeks to exalt one person over another based on celebrity or what they've accomplished? That's the heart of my thoughts, and the more I examine it the more I don't like what I see.



This past December Ben and I went to a Casting Crowns concert (they're one of my fav's.) Mark Hall, the lead singer, did a fantastic job of just being a regular person. No Hype. Just there to use the gift God had given and it was an incredible time of worship.



I left that night pondering how he did that. Because when he walked on stage that night, he had an arena full of people who would probably crawl over the person in front of them if it meant having a chance to chat with him.



Pride is a constant battle for me...in many areas. Pride can happen in the "little bitty" for sure. I have trouble even imagining what it must be like for the Christians that we have made into our own celebrities...with those of us always telling them how wonderful they are...paying money to go see them.



My own personal realm of influence is fairly small...which as I examine my heart today, is for obvious reasons :) and if I'm struggling with pride, I no-doubt believe those with much bigger areas of influence struggle with it too.

Your thoughts? (if you can understand my ramblings, that is ;)

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