Blessed be Your name

"Blessed be Your name when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's all as it should be, blessed be Your name..."


Walking hand in hand down town with a man I am still madly in love with, having a romantic dinner together, laughing until we cry, sharing dessert from the middle of the table like people who are in love do, walking along the lake, being cold and having his arms around me, then going to pick up two boys with sticky faces from being spoiled at Grandma's house. The boys hug me and kiss me. Their grandma hugs me and kisses me. My dad puts his arm around me and I feel safe, secure and loved. Lord, blessed be Your name.





"Blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place, though I walk through the wilderness, blessed be your name..."

My friend Wayne just suffered a terrible fall from the roof of a church and is in a coma. He has a 5 year old and 6 year old. He will never walk again. When he wakes up, we do not know who he will be, what he will remember, what is in store for his life. His wife balances a life at his bedside while also driving an hour away to see her children and tell them what she can about their daddy's condition. What will normal be for them...and when? Still Lord, blessed be Your name.



"Blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful, where the streams of abundance flow. Blessed be your name."

I believe I'm doing just as I am supposed to be doing. When my heart hurts, I turn it to praise and serve a God who has never failed me. As I prepare for this garage sale that raises money for the foster care organization we're working with, sure there are tender spots. I want to be a foster parent already. I want to be working with those babies who are hurting. But I must wait on the system. And as I wait, my garage is filling up by the truck load, friends are calling to help, and my heart is swollen with love by people who care about the hiccup in our next adventure. They're there in the ups and downs, willing to join in on what God is doing in my heart. Some people only find 1 or 2 good friends in a lifetime, and I have more than I can count using a calculator!! Lord, blessed be YOUR name.



"Blessed be your name on a road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering. Blessed be your name."

Lord, I praise you because I am currently not in a position of suffering, yet I am aware that it is all around me. It is only in a relationship with you, in our most desperate of hours, that we both praise you for all you have done for us and will continue to do, and are also humbled at your feet because you are the only one who can save us from our circumstance. It is such a complex dependence I have come to have on you, with the bottom line being: You will never leave me, nor I you. Be with Wayne's wife and family as they are in the desert place. They will praise you for whatever comes of this, but they need you to hold them through it. Give them flowers in the valley that they can hold onto during this long, long walk. Hold them closer than you've ever held them before. And give them the indescribable peace, that can only come from a loving God, that you've extended to me so many times before. I am comforted by knowing they have you now. Lord, blessed be your name.

You give and take away,
You give and take away,
My heart will choose to say,
"Lord blessed be your name!"

My kids are funnier than your kids...

So, while always trying to be the best mom on the planet and making the wisest choices for my nearly 4 and 6 year old, I allowed them to watch part of Michael Jackson's memorial service on TV with me. They had all kinds of questions. I answered them perfectly, of course, because I am a perfect mom with all of the perfect answers. I didn't realize how much I really liked the good parts of Michael until after he passed. Throughout the week I had sat with the boys and we you tubed some of the old Jackson 5 videos. He really was cute before the world got the best of him...
One morning last week this discussion was heard in my home:
Blake: "Mom, I was watching Tom and Jerry at Grandmas" (let me pause here and talk about Tom and Jerry. In this short cartoon upon which I was raised, this cute little mouse and angry cat proceed to kill each other about 30 times per episode and there is no memorial. Not a one. They just get right back up and are ready to kill each other again, always with a smile. Why was this an appropriate thing for us to watch as children? I need to talk to grandma. Now back to the story.) "Jerry put Tom in a box and THEN he put the LID on it! (His eyes are huge. He can't wait to tell me the rest. Tyler is staring at Blake. Silent, puzzled.) And THEN Jerry takes a saw and cuts the box in HALF!"
Oh dear. How am I going to fix this one? This is not okay that he's watching this, and this is especially not okay that he's repeating it in story form to whoever wants to listen. I'm going to be the mom who gets the phone calls from other moms saying, "My son can't play with your son because he talks about such devilish things." But just as I start to come up with a plan, a word from Tyler: (I added his lisp for effect.)
"Blake...wath that bockth the thame bockth that Michael Jackthon wath put in?"
Blake lowers his head and looks up at his brother with one eyebrow raised. "No Ty. Tom was in a birthday box. Michael Jackson's box was a TOTALLY different kind of box."
That was a good enough answer for Ty, as he continued to play with his cars. What did I do? I left the room and laughed my head off because sometimes, that's all you can do. I will face the issue about what kind of "Bokth" Michael Jackson was put in later.