Crazy Quilts (my comforter)

It is so natural to comfort our babies isn't it? We are made for it.

My kids told me,once upon a time, that mommies (in all fairness dads can comfort too, but they were talking to me the mommy) so mommies are supposed to be squishy contrary to popular health and beauty tips of our time. I seem to be better able to oblige my children's opinion, than the other, even though I do try from time to time to swing to the health and beauty side of things and dwell there.

So all that said, what do these quilts have to do with it? Don't you just love a warm, comfy quilt to cover up with? Follow my line of thought if you will...which may take a couple rabbit trails...

Have you lived enough life to find it has some, shall we say, crazy moments? Perhaps even whole seasons of what seems crazy? Some of you are ok with that word crazy but some of you are kind of scolding me in a protective kind of way, like "don't confess craziness!!!" Which to others probably seems a bit crazy...

I am not sure how else to put it in just a word. It is when the unexpected completely disrupts our life. The life we thought we had some measure of control over. Oh, the life we were comfortable with. It might be a simple thing like an annoying head cold. Or a low tire on a cold, rushed morning.

It might also be big. Huge in fact. Something where your whole life has to rearrange. An ongoing illness in someone we love. A new person enters (or leaves) the household. Depending on the age and condition of the person the change could be a major or minor heart affecting adjustment. There could be conflict in small war like proportion to work through.

Maybe attempting to fit too many things- even good things- into my life. Things I normally like. (I like chocolate but one candy bar is more than enough in a day...hmm...in a week...What if I eat too many of those smooth delicious chocolate bars in one day...let's just say it would get ugly...)So too many things crowding my chance of doing any of them well.

One of my kids may get sick and just need mommy time and lots of it. So I am on hand to comfort them. Hold them. Pray over them. Read to them. And do whatever is needed to get them well.

Or trees might fall on the house in a storm (real life here). As a result work needs to get done. Which means lots of work getting done on said house when I am home. Which means lots of people most of whom I don't know and some of whom I do, are here. Thank God it is able to be fixed! Thank God it is not as severe as a hurricane leaving nothing but rubble.

  But for some reason having others here is so uncomfortable to me...yet does my discomfort mean it is bad or wrong? No. Change, even good change, is not always comfortable. We do need some things need to be unchangeable...That is how God is. Unchanging. But you know how else He is? He is the Comforter. The One who states He will never leave us, forget, abandon or desert us Hebrews 13:5. 

Jesus tells us:

John16:13 Amplified ...And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—

John 16:7-14 Amplified ...However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].

  Another from Isaiah 66:13 a Amplified says...
                                                     As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you;
 Matthew 23:37 b Amplified...
... as a mother fowl gathers her brood under her wing...
That is another picture of how God is toward us.


Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4



It can be those crazy pieces, dark pieces, happy pieces, frayed edge pieces that God puts together and makes us like a crazy quilt or comforter that He uses to cover and comfort others when they are experiencing crazy times we have had Him comfort us in.

Itsy Bitsy Spider (spider mafia)

Running in to the room, my granddaughter breathlessly informed me "there is a spider in my room" Oh wait...that's right. She said a BIG spider in her room. This probably makes it on the list of things I least like to hear. Hmmm...yes I was stalling as I wondered just how big BIG might be. Is it just big to her being a little girl? I also wondered just where in the room of toys, furniture and clothing it may have gone in the moments since she left the room and I was mid ponder.

Growing up I had a horrible fear of spiders. There was no natural experience that made it happen. It just seemed to always be part of me. For as long as possible I had my mom, dad or brothers, not sisters, kill any spider that was in my living space.  I had this sneaking suspicion that if I killed a spider, one of its spider family members would come back to get me. Kind of like a spider mafia. I didn't think through, apparently, that if a spider brother, uncle or close associate would come take revenge on me, they would also seek revenge on the one who killed the original spider for me. Or was I too scared to care? Frankly my childhood experience with spiders in my section of Midwest Indiana, was primarily with the smaller version, with one banana spider thrown in (in a silverware drawer!!!) mixed with a great number of Daddy-Long-Legs. I used to both shudder and be amazed as my grandpa worked in his garden, fearlessly allowing Daddy-Long-Legs crawl all over his back and hat.

Then I entered my early twenties. Some huge changes took place. First I became a "new creature in Christ" putting off my old life and exchanging it for the new life Jesus bought for me on the cross. This meant I began taking seriously how to live like a new person according to what the Bible says. It plainly says "God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind." I think encountering a lion or a bear or even a mean dog would cause fear to rise up in me but they just were not part of my everyday life. Spiders however, were a becoming a frequent part making not fearing very challenging living in Florida for a while then near woodsy areas in the Midwest.

The Bible talks about renewing our minds and thinking on things that are true and worthy. Scripture says "Behold I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions (where is that other s word- spiders!?!) and over all the power of the enemy (Oh! It fits in the little word all) and nothing shall by any means hurt you" Well I can tell you when this finally began to bear real fruit. It was when I had my kids. Have you ever noticed how we can lay aside our terror even if we might still feel it, in fierce protection of our children?

I did not want my kids growing up afraid. So I adopted a pray and spray tactic. I would pray in the Spirit quietly but with conviction then tell the spider it has all of outdoors to live in and did not belong in my home. Then I would spray for all I was worth because much as I hate the pesticide I even more hate the feel of the squishy crunch under the shoe, sandal or magazine I may be using to smash it good and dead. Here in the Midwest we have wolf spiders and I lie not when I tell you in our early years of taking back the land (or rather our house) from the spiders, some were the size of small rodents. I am not even sure they were not some kind of a mutant mouse with long legs (kidding but they were way too big and bigger than my childhood memories absolutely)

They were known to make grown men cringe (NOT my husband who is frequently called upon as my resident spider warrior).  Alas it was me, grandma and not grandpa or daddy on hand for the spider this day.
"Where was it?" 
"It went under my bed"
No, no, no, no not under the bed of all places! Where the floor is nearly carpeted with children's books read and dropped at nap time! The bed she has to take a nap in a few short minutes from now...
"Ok, really, did you see it go under there?"
"YES it's a big spider"
"Well remember we are bigger than the spider. It is probably afraid of us and hiding."
She repeats this thought out loud as I gingerly pull one overlapping book at at time out from under the bed. I finally get to a point where I am not willing to extend my arm any further under the bed which means I must move the bed to continue my reluctant spider hunt.
"There it is! There it is!"
I don't have my glasses on.
"Where?!?"
"In the corner! It's scared of us right Grandma? We are bigger than the spider."
Ah yes. There it is and it is a moderately big one in fact. Ugly. And with a quick jab of a flip flop surprisingly dead! Well I gave it a few more slaps of the sandal for good measure and with a suppressed shudder bundled it up in toilet paper to flush it away. Of course she needed to see it I suppose to be sure it was dead and gone.
"Oooh that's icky."
And gone.

Gentler Ways (and crabby days)

It has been so long since I actually posted something on this blog it is like I have been MIA. (for you non military term people that is Missing In Action. Well probably you don't have to be militarily related to know that)...and I have been in action mode so missing from the blog world for a while.

So today is a day of full out crabbiness. My hair is clean but not yet controlled so adding to my- ok I will just say it- discontent knowing full well the Bible tells me Godliness with contentment is GREAT GAIN..And I do believe contentment is cultivated to some extent. Like I must choose it sometimes and choose to not be ruled by my feelings and circumstances. Not because I am emotionless but I choose what to do with those emotions. I choose to not become a madwoman with a spray bottle when the dog is caught laying on the couch leaving dog hair like a blanket on the cushions...(apologies to those who love their dogs more than I seem to be able to) though in that case I was on the brink of madwoman-ness.

And because today is a day wrought with poor attitudes to be fought back (a losing battle on so many fronts already and it is just 10:00 am) I need to pull some tools out of my Tool Chest (aka previous life experiences).


So here is one that after raising 8 children for, lo these 30 plus years, had been laid, not quite to rest, but just hasn't been needed so often...I call it: STAYING BY THE Stuff .

Staying By The Stuff is a concept drawn from the telling of one of the escapades of that shepherd, worshipper, warrior, anointed king, who was not yet serving as king, David. Coming back to their city exhausted, he and his men discovered it had been raided, burned and their women and children taken captive. Determined to rescue them and to meet out vengeance on the ones who had plundered them, some of the soldiers were staying behind at camp "by the stuff" keeping watch over it while the rest went with David to get the families back. Having recovered ALL, David, the men, the women, the children and the spoils came back victorious. David made a statute or ordinance that those who "stayed by the stuff" shared equally with those who served at the point of battle and the spoils of that battle.
2 Samuel 30

For me in my life, that meant when I tended to the home front with the kids and our business while my husband made mission trips or different ministry ventures, God would still credit me with the same reward.

So what is going on today that has required me to make use of that particular tool? First there was a one day women's retreat so near by I could have walked to it if I had to but I decided to not go because our church youth group was having a 2 day trip to the Dream Center in Chicago.


After seeing Mat Barnett at a conference, and then his wife at another and hearing of the founding of and work of the LA Dream Center, then Joyce Meyers Dream Center in Missouri, a Dream Center is something I think our NW Indiana area needs (Gary in particular) so I wanted to see it for myself and serve and plus my daughter was one of the youth going. So I opted out of the retreat only to have health issues keep me from going to the Chicago D.C. last night and then due to an emergency with one of our agents at work, needed to "stay by the stuff" here which essentially means I was needed to watch one of my granddaughters while her daddy went to the office today. I also planned to see my daughter off by going to the monthly church fellowship breakfast with her, my husband, and granddaughter before she left with the group from the church only to realize I just was not going to make it on time to do even that.

Sometimes we think LAYING DOWN OUR LIVES is all about going out and doing the stuff of ministry when really it is laying our lives down for others to go out and do the stuff. And while going to the Dream Center may be a dream for me, it is not necessarily my primary call (well at this time anyway). So I guess in a way my crabbiness is kind of a big girls tantrum now that I look at it all written out. Tantrums as we know are never pleasant and are a decided mark of immaturity in the midst of wanting my own way and not getting it. WOW...now that I have just managed to give myself a therapy session for free...Needless to say, I am embarrassed and accordingly repentant.. To those who have been unhappy recipients of my disappointment fall out, I am so sorry.

In the meantime I have found some ways to not continue in crabbiness even though my hair is still a mess. I had a tickle play session with my granddaughter. We ate. We marched and raced down the hall. And now she is "doing my hair" which very possibly even though she is 2 and 1/2 may be an improvement but also may be an indicator of how desperate it looked. Now we are counting marbles and no they are not the ones I lost raising children... And of course I have been blogging...a two hour off and on process now. And now have read Green Eggs and Ham before naps. (her nap not mine)

Can I just say a few more things here? I don't think the only thing we can do as women is care for children. On the flip side of that though, I don't think we should underestimate the
extreme value of caring for them. Babies do NOT raise themselves. We can look at blogs of dire conditions of orphanages where the children are not truly cared for. Not well fed. Not PLAYED with. Not taught. Not cleaned. They barely grow if they do manage to live.

I recognize I have talents and gifts to use in other ways and with adults, but I hope I never think caring for a child is a waste of my time instead of the loving, nurturing life building thing it is. So often those who need a dream center are the recipients of broken choices, unstable homes, men or women who needed strong foundations laid and the understanding of the value God places on them. My staying home "by the stuff" as it were, in many cases is a preventative to the need for places like the Dream Center.

I also recognize in scripture and through history on in to today's world the important contributions women have made that do not have to do with staying home with children only. There are seasons to life though and we do not live them all at one time. They are distinct with transition from one to the next continuous. And though I am home today not out doing, I can tell you the gifts, talents and callings are still there to be used. They did not disappear. In fact I believe they became enhanced by living life according to the seasons as God ran them in my life and developed me as His daughter more fully..