Ant Invasion

Weird story: So, the weirdest thing ever was discovered on July 4th morning. Overnight, we were blessed with an invasion of ants. And a colony had invaded our bathroom and set up house in, of all places, our clear towel rack! We thought they had tunneled through the stupid built in rack holders the genius builders of the 80’s thought was so very clever. And we fumigated and got all but the few and queen surrounding the eggs in the center of the towel rack. This morning, however, there were more in the towel rack and I looked up and they were coming in through the fan as I had killed them on the outside of the house where they were getting in and thus prevented their escape. So, now they are all dead but that was so strange and immediate.

Application: I can’t help but associate that infestation with the infestation of sin. Sin sneaks in little by little by digging the hole and accumulating in unseen, unnoticed spaces of our lives. And when we least expect it and our defenses are down, we are overrun with our complacency and then have to deal with it.

Lesson learned: protect and be defensive, prepared with prayer and armed with sin-killer, a relationship with Jesus.😄 ❤

A Beautiful Soul

Not giving her name, I am paying honor to a beautiful, strong woman who has been broken but who rises from brokenness to new life. Her story inspires me. She had a dad and stepmoms who were cruel and abusive. She ended up in the foster system and was in many houses until she ran away and lived on the street. She met a guy and they moved in together, just to be robbed and beat up in a home invasion. He left her alone, without even checking in on her and she was alone again. He married and she aurvived and one year later he was divorced (with one kid) and they met up later and ended up married because of her big heart and desperation for love and family. They had kids and later she reunited with her dad who did not like her husband. They cheated on each other and were in and out of love for years and ended up divorced- his second, her first. She moved far away with the kids to start over. He followed her. She was divorced and done but he was the Father so allowed it. He dated many many women. She moved to another city for a job and he followed and found more women there, always loving her in a twisted way but she was still done. He remarried a horrible professional wife who demanded he not see his kids or pay child support. He cheated and his professional wife kicked him out and stole his money. He was homeless and penniless so she took him in. He helped pay rent and things were better. But the professional wife was struggling with the house she had taken from her last victim and she had enough of him so told him to leave so she could try to move on. He went back to the controlling professional wife and my story woman went on to find love and start over with a man who loved her for her big heart and love her through her brokenness. And this story inspires me because this man got his just desserts, new life can happen at any age, children are innocent in our crazy decision making and need to be considered and protected, sometimes scars can hold us together until God gets in to recreate them into something stronger, and because the best part is that she became a Christian and is saved now. We all have pasts, I have told mine in pieces- one day I will write a book that few will believe as true it is so wild- because we all have a past. But take time to learn people’s story because something may be gleaned from everyone for we each are unique and have unique stories only we can tell. And it may inspire someone else and share a new passion that can broaden your mind’s vision or maybe even stir a passion within you. A beautiful soul is worth more than all the gold in the world.

Movie- Inspired Thought about Stories

I was watching a strange story, The Curious Life of Benjamin Button, or something like that. It had bad parts, but it was thought- provoking. Of course, being a mom I can never watch a whole movie start to finish so I see them in parts (which is the suckiest part of being a mom lol). Anyway, it struck me that life has way more meaning than was presented but that all life matters, everyone matters, everyone has a story. Some are inspiring and beautiful throughout and some are just in moments, but everyone has a story to tell. And what a shame some people wait until life is nearly spent to take the time to tell someone the story, and they may be unable or unwilling by then to listen. So, I am purposed to continue living my life out loud and proclaiming my story from the rooftops as I go. And I hope my story can inspire my children and anyone who hears it. I will be raw and real, “warts and all” as thr British beautifully put it. And please write or tell someone your story. God purposed it as He purposed you and you are beautiful, as is your story.❤

The Story of Her Heart

A mature woman of God once told me her story. She was a patient of mine, a regular, a real sweetheart. She told me of her heart’s song, the story of her love life. It goes something like this (but without her charming demonstrative flare- you’ll have to imagine it). She was married to a man who was horrible to her for years and was miserable and wanting desperately to be loved and held and treasured by a man. She happened to meet a man she had been friends with a long time but they realized they loved each other. The bad thing was that he was also in a miserable marriage also to a horrible woman. They, for 9 months of bliss together, justified their love because their marriages and spouses were so horrible and they felt so good and whole in each other’s arms and company, it seemed like destiny, they were soul mates in every sense of the word, perfect for each other. It was a perfect fit. Well, the man was being kicked out of his living arrangement and decided to go back to his wife to survive (she would not leave her kids so stayed in the house married technically- divorce being a bad thing back then), leaving her high and dry, not looking back, throwing her away like garbage. She ended up heart broken and almost died of her broken heart, so great was the loss and the betrayal. She yearned for him and mourned him for 9 full months, the amount of time they were together. And I was moved to tears as she still teared up speaking of it, such a sad story, such a broken women before me even telling the story to me so passionately, so empathetic was I to her pain, I felt it equisitely. Then she changed her demeanor entirely and began again. This beautiful old woman told me that the story didn’t end there. She said that she felt alone and friendless after that and decided she would not waste the rest of her life depressed until she died, so she started praying and reading her Bible. A new friend helped her to rebuild her heart a little at a time and she became a strong woman of faith and character and she said Jesus restored and forgave her entirely and He can do the same for anyone. I thanked this beautiful woman for sharing her heart story with me and hugged her. It is not every day you meet someone so willing to share their intimate struggles and testimony. (She gave me permission to share this, by the way.) I think if we all showed people how Jesus changed us and humble ourselves enough to be vulnerable to the listeners and tell it like it is, warts and all, we would help win souls to Jesus for salvation and eternal life with Him in heaven. Jesus has saved us all who are saved and someone may need to hear your heart story to be saved. Never be too proud to tell it. Or rather, be more proud of Jesus and how incredibly He saved you from it that what it might look like that you were imperfect enough to need salvation in the first place. ❤