Tuesday, March 16, 2010

turn, turn, turn...

The Byrds shared, with the world, Ecclesiastes 3.

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

What an incredible reminder of how up and down, and back and forth our lives are. But at the same time, a beautiful reminder that the God who made us, who chose us, and loves us more than we can imagine, never changes. He doesn't have seasons. We can have times where we laugh, cry, hate, and dance all at once, but our Lord remains the same. A Constant; an absolute Truth. I like being reminded of that.
My time right now is just a season, and Lord willing, at some point in time, something will change. We are all in different places right now...Danielle studying, getting ready to graduate/job hunting, Kitty working super hard in the middle of nursing school, Aly working and wanting to finish school, Amanda working and toying with the idea of continuing grad school, and me, working and trying to figure out where I need to go and what I need to be doing with this life.
I was reminded on Monday that God has a great plan for all of us. That He is making us all into who He wants us to be, to go where He wants us to go. That is refreshing to hear. Feeling stuck, burnt out, and having no direction seems to fall to the wayside when I hear that. Remembering that I am here, in this season, because the Almighty has me here, wrapped in a love that I will never comprehend, is a relief. Why am I fretting over this? His timing is perfect, He is perfect, and my own selfishness is what gets in the way. Knowing that He never changes, that He has a plan for me, and that He is making me into who He wants me to be is beautiful.
Psalm 51:12..."Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."
One more thing...I read this today. It was a great reminder that even though there are times when I don't "feel" like Jesus loves me or that I love Him, or times when I doubt or that I don't trust Him, He never changes His affection for me. My heart is deceiving, and left alone, it ruins me...but Jesus has given me hope.

1 John 3:21-24
"21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

egd

Thursday, March 4, 2010

long time no read...

This is blow up doll, Wayne. He lived with us for a while, he posed with us, and he attended our holiday festivities. He was viciously stabbed and deflated a while ago, but he is slowly healing, and might be back to his old self soon. He now stands guard at our front door to ward off the un-welcomed ones. He's a nice guy.

So, life is busy for us all. It has been a long time since we have written, so here is a brief update on the going ons of the Poplar 5...

Dan has been dutifully and relentlessly studying for her boards that are coming up. Along with being in school with clinicals, she is still working a bit at the Loft. It's unbelievable how hard she works, it wears me out. I will be thrilled for her come May when she graduates.

Kitty, meow, has been at the grindstone as well, studying night and day, day and night. One of her favorite study spots is the 'bucks of course. And of course she saw Doc there with his "lady friend." Kitty always seems to attract the neighbors. I don't think I've seen Bert up close, ever, but Kitty is consistently telling us of her awkward, weird conversations with him.

Mans has been working her tail off, as well. Nannying from the wee hours of the morning till early evening on most days, then working in the Mound on other days. Exhausted everyday, she still is willing to stay up, watch a movie, and have a nice glass of wine with us. She's been helping out in Jr. High small groups all year on Sundays, and has started coming on Wednesday's too! It's great having her around, and she pays such sweet attention to the girls.

Aly has been working at the church, studying and hanging out with kids. She's always on the move and sometimes we don't know where she is. She got 2 new pairs of glasses and contacts are on the way! Mabel has been running strong, and lately has been decorated with tissue paper and toilet paper...of course when Aly gives kids a ride anywhere, they find some thing in her car to hang out the window or decorate the visor with. She has gotten to play with the babies recently, and is going to CALIFORNIA to visit all her family this semester. I am so excited for her.

I have been busy working as well. It seems most of my time these days is spent in the office, working on calendars, mail outs, e-mails, phone calls, etc. etc. etc. But, I will say that this week has been a good one for contact. I love writing notes to encourage the girls. I think letter writing is a dying art. What feels better than coming home from a hard day and rummaging through the mail and finding a letter with your name chicken scratched on the outside by a long lost pal? Ok, so a lot of things might feel better, but you get the point. ANYWAY, I wrote a few of my girls a note last night with a verse that I thought might encourage them specifically. After breakfast this morning, as I dropped them at school, I handed each of them their letters. One of the girls has been struggling with having horrible friends and feeling like a horrible person. I told her in the note that my prayer for her was that she would know who Jesus was, that He came to save the sick, and not the healthy, or the "good" people. On my way home, I got a text from her telling me "thank you" for the note. She also said that she didn't know if she loved Jesus, but she wanted to! Joy of my heart! Oh, my insignificant wretched self can be used by the Almighty to help someone see who Jesus is! I cannot even begin to explain the longing and heartache I have had for this girl who is so hopeless and downtrodden, and for her to see that Jesus is hope and joy and want to love Him is the only thing that matters in this job, this life.
Our Spirit is on the move in our church, in our families, and in our kids. I want to see more.

egd