Bring Your Peace Into our Violence....

The title for this entry is from a line in Michael W. Smith's "Welcome To Our World." I love this song...but especially the rich words. "Fragile finger sent to heal us, Tender brow prepared for thorn, tiny heart whose blood will save us, Unto us is born. So wrap our injured flesh around You, Breathe our air and walk our sod, Rob our sin and make us holy, Perfect Son of God. Perfect Son of God. Welcome to our World."

These are words I know by heart now, and sometimes in the midst of the crazy busyness of this season, I find myself closing my eyes and praying the words, "Bring your peace into our violence, bid our hungry souls be filled. Word now breaking Heaven's silence, Welcome to our world." And I feel the Savior's love, reminding me that He is indeed "God with us."

Today was a typical December 16th day...I'll let you in on the busy life of the Buntings...up by 7am (I know that's ridiculously late for many of you!) But that's after staying up 'til midnight in order to spend quality time with my husband, who doesn't get home from work until usually 9pm or later. Shower, dressed and then waking the girlies up for a 9am ballet curtain call...feed 3 kiddos, make coffee, clean up, help dress, then do hair and stage makeup for the older two in the show, medicate the sick littlest one. Kiss hubby goodbye. Out the door by 8:45, heading to ballet performance at a local elementary. Finish there by 10:45, pack up kids, costumes, and all the extras...home by 11:30. Vacuum up mess left from breakfast. Get lunch for everyone. Clean up. School for older two...Spelling, English, Handwriting, History, Bible, and Reading. Skipping math today, as we already put in 2 hours for ballet/music. End by 3pm. Kids cleanup school mess then off for free time, I take a nap, fighting a sore throat and killer headache. Awake to begin dinner. Make a mess making "Best Ever Potato Soup." Hubby home at 5:30...dinner, then he runs out the door after packing up his keyboard for Young Adult Care Group at Millersville. Girls and I clean up dinner. I scrub down shower, shower curtain, and sink, trying out a new natural cleaner my mom ordered. By 7 I realize two videos are due back at Redbox. Pack everyone up and run to Turkey Hill, which will not accept my videos in the machine because, "Inventory is Full." Great. So we run to the grocery store where there's another Redbox. Successfully Return video, realize we need a few groceries, spend the next hour+ at store. Home by 8:30. Unload groceries and kids. Kids help put away groceries. Kids sent to get jammies and brush teeth. I put laundry in dryer. Kids in bed by 9. I clean up rest of dinner dishes and realize I'm really glad I took that nap, as I'm normally draggin by 9. Then I make hubby's favorite sweet tea, and get the brilliant idea to blog. Now it's 9:41. The dryer just buzzed. Now I'll fold the Laundry, wrap some presents, and wait for my love to come home by 10:30 or so from Young Adults. Tomorrow's our 15th Anniversary...he works til 9pm. We'll try for a day-late celebration. Sure am glad we went away in July.

How I need God's grace in all the days...that pretty much look like this one did. "Bring Your peace into our violence..."

Riches I Heed Not

Today was a bit of a banner day for "light and momentary troubles." Although lately I've been waking up with some unspoken gnawing worry, today there have been actual faces to my uneasiness. My husband's job has become increasingly unstable. We've watched the pay slowly slip over the last several months, while his hours remain at an all-time high. The economy and the car industry...hmm. This is the baseline of my anxiousness. But then there are the surprises. Today my mom called to let me know my dad believed he had a blood clot or two in his thigh and they were admitting him to the hospital. I am still waiting to hear back from her on what the doppler test showed. But initial words like "This looks big, this doesn't look good..." from the doctor don't exactly build my hope. Then of course while I'm on the phone with my mom, the girls run to inform me that our bunny is on the loose for the 5th time this month. (We may end up having some baby bunnies soon.) And then the icing for me was going to deposit the paycheck tonight and seeing the low $$ number on the receipt. How did our account get so low so quickly...? Oh, I guess the job's lower pay, met with a few unexpected car repair costs and some Christmas shopping collided pretty quickly. I was tempted to cry right then, sitting in the bank parking lot. But, I knew "I've been here before..." Not that all the exact variables have been in place exactly as they felt at that moment, but these troubles are nothing new.

The better part of the day was about twenty minutes ago when I logged on to our church blog, read a recent post by one of our pastors on the prosperity movement, and listened to John Piper speak about why believing God wants his children to have wealth is simply not biblical. My heart swelled with reassurance that the road to heaven we are on is filled with many trials, and I must take up my cross daily in order to live out the salvation Christ has purchased at such a premium cost. I am not to heed the riches of this life, for they are passing away. My life is hidden with God in Christ, and so what I see is not what I get! Thank goodness God rescued me tonight from the downward slope of fretting and having sinful anxiety. I know God will continue to provide in all things...and that His ways are not our ways. Somehow I know my heart is back where it needs to be...looking up to God, and not looking around at the momentary troubles. "I lift my eyes to the hills from where my help comes from. My help comes from the Lord, Maker of Heaven and Earth."

I Love Fall

What a gorgeous day! I absolutely love living in our neighborhood this time of year. I have to disagree with my husband; summer is not better! I love the lack of humidity, cooler temps, and the phenomenal display of color our Creator paints on the trees this time of year. Scented candles, apples, pumpkin bread, sweaters, ahhhh...I love it! I even like yard work better this time of year. I much prefer raking to weeding. Much prefer the vibrant golds, reds, and oranges around me to the mostly greens of summer. To prove my point, I will post some pictures taken about this time last year. It hasn't quite reached this level of color yet this fall, but I think we're on the brink of it. Enjoy!

Older is Better

Last night Keith and I returned from a four-day 15th anniversary trip to the Smokies. OK, for those of you who know we were married in December, you might be thinking, "Isn't it a bit early to be celebrating?" NO WAY!! We knew December would be risky weather to travel to the mountains, and after seeing the road we had to push our poor little minivan up, we knew July was the right choice!!

WE HAD A BLAST!! I highly recommend at least 15 years of marriage to really enjoy yourselves on a getaway. The time is sweeter because you've been through soooooo much together, because you never get that many days in a row without children once they start coming, and because you are amazed at the things you can still do in your mid-thirties!! Older is just better; which is great news for those of us who see time railroading across our foreheads! Oh how I enjoyed this special time with my best friend and sweetheart. We enjoyed our cabin immensely, which had a killer view of the mountains (thus the incredibly steep road!), had a hilarious adventure tubing down a "calm" river (I'm glad we picked the "relaxed route"), and topped it off with a 5 mile hike that ended in a near-death experience with a wild bear. What else can I say? We are wild and adventurous thirty-somethings. Seriously, compared to our actual honeymoon when we were 21 and 22, this trip was an extreme adventure!! So I guess we just keep surprising ourselves with living in the moment and taking every opportunity to create great memories together.

Keith looked at me as if I had two heads the morning I said, "Why don't we go tubing?" His eyebrows went up and he said, "Really? Are you sure about that?" Only later did I see why he asked that. I was expecting the lazy river at the pool area-kind of tubing. Later, when I couldn't control my speed and flipped my tube and almost seriously injured my leg, I saw why he'd asked if I was sure. For a split second, as the current carried me under and I couldn't get my head above water, I had the split-second thought, "This is it, I'm going to die on our 15th anniversary trip. What a time to go." But God let me live, and I'm so thankful.

We had so much time to just talk, one of our favorite things to do with each other. We didn't solve any major world issues or figure out the next 20 years of our lives, but we connected and remembered again why there's nobody else in the world we'd rather be with 24hrs., 7 days a week, than each other!

Killing the Fear

Yesterday our whole family of 5 completed our church one-mile cross-country race. And folks, I dooooo mean Cross-Country. Those hills are killer. This is no small accomplishment for us! Just a short illstration here: up until about 3 pm, 1 hour before race time, our middle daughter was complaining that she no longer wanted to do the run. We swayed back and forth ourselves on whether to go or not, being that we'd had a very busy weekend already and were expecting company that night...just 2 hours after the race. Finally, Keith said "Let's just do it!" (Thanks Nike.) And we did. Ironically, Kara, our middle daughter finished before the rest of us...coming in 71st. Kendall (age 6)was next at 85th , Keith at 86th (He of course ran with her to spur her on), Keaton at 95th, and me at 103rd. I only jogged probably the first 1/8th of a mile or so...basically until we started going uphill! But here's the thing friends...I was killing fear of man with each step...swinging my arms to make the hills, sweating and looking like the unfit middle-age-mom that I am in front of hundreds of church people: this is premium offense to kill all worry about "What will people think?" As I look back on the pictures of me doing the race, I have mixed feelings. Proud of myself (in a humble way, of course!) for doing it and not wimping out, slight tinges of embarassment at how my body looks as I exercise, and yet, presiding over it all, the knowledge that the Lord is the "lifter of my head" and was spurring me on in this. So this morning, I took my three-loops around my new "course" at home, walking, jogging, and feeling better than I did yesterday. And I think to myself..."hmmm...maybe next year at this time, I could actually JOG the mile instead of mostly walking it!" And I think I just might.

Praying for What I Already Had...

I have been challenged to make my words fewer and more to the point. So here goes. For years, I have been asking God for joy. I wanted to be defined by joy, radiate joy, leave a legacy of joy...you get the idea. Then today during my quiet time, it struck me that....I Already Have JOY! Because joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit living in me. But like a weak muscle that needs toning and workouts, my joy muscle is weak. I don't exercise it as I should. I exalt the problem surrounding me instead of Christ. I exalt myself by wallowing in worry or sadness or some other ungodly mindset. Yet if I would lift up my eyes to the Savior who reigns over all of life's circumstances, I would be "flexing" my joy muscle. How I do that is by faith, choosing to believe God at His Word...to fulfill His promises to never leave or forsake me. And I had the chance to "flex" joy yesterday when my husband and I discussed the very real possibility of a pay cut and/or job loss due to the downward-spiraling retail world. Though it was a fight, I fought, and thank God for His grace to do so. The very thing I've been praying for has been right in front of me all the time. I simply need to exercise it. What are you praying for that may already be right in front of you? What is God saying to you?

Winter Updates!

Just updating what the last 6 weeks or so have held for us...Christmas...that's my brother Neal (single!) with the girls, Sled-riding fun at Buchanan Park on MLK Day, and Kendall's b-day, this past weekend. Enjoy!

Fullness--journal entry Oct. 31st

These are my exact words from my journal on October 31...right about the time I stopped blogging three months ago! So, if all I do is copy done the last three months or so of journal entries...it will be something! Here goes:

Last day of October...I can't believe how it's flown by. Help me today to have strength, Lord. To teach the girls and get the house ready for mom and dad's visit. "My times are in your hand." Psalm 31:15. I know your plans are good, even if difficult. Strenthen me to serve. "Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord." This is my prayer. Help me to press on to know you...against any obstacle...whether good times or difficult, plentiful and lacking times, changes in our schedule, visitors, health, whatever...may I press on to know you more. Help me to choose to do what is pleasing to you, not what pleases me. Thank you that there is no condemnation for those who bear your Son's name. Bless you, God!
Lord, help my understanding. I know that you alone are the ultimate prize, ultimate joy, and that Heaven is about finally being united with you. But here on earth, there is no one person, no one relationship that even comes close to what you are...How is it that You, simply and perfectly You, with none of the gifts that you give, are that completely fulfulling? I know, I have experienced this "fullness" of you, and yet I cannot understand it.
Perhaps You are helping me even right now to understand better. Your glory is displayed through many means and venues which we, as mankind, can understand: benefits of provision, salvation, sustaining power, a sense of love and well-being. And it all points to You. If these gifts, which are the most beautiful, lasting precious things we will ever know on earth are simply the Effects that fall from Your greatness, how great must the Source be? You are unfathomable to our human, fleshly minds. Our eyes must be quickened by the Holy Spirit to even see a glimpse of how glorious You must be. Would you kill all appetite for sin, that I might hunger and be filled with Christ? I have seen proof of You doing this over and over again over the years of my life. I have faith for it and I worship you today. You are beautiful and glorious beyound what I can know in my flesh. Awaken my spirit to comprehend even a taste of your greatness.