Count Your Blessings

Come join me today at Midweek Motivation... and remember to Count Your Blessings.

Just checkin' in/Describe Yourself

Well, I've returned from the Women's Conference I spoke at this weekend... which was awesome by the way. The theme for the retreat was "With All Your Heart" and the ladies were wonderful. I really enjoyed being with them.

I touched down at home just long enough to unpack, repack and leave for Michigan. I am speaking in Grand Rapids tonight and Kalamazoo tomorrow night for Epilepsy Advocate LIVE Events. Pray that the Lord will touch someone's heart through Spencer's story.

I have lots to share, but just a few minutes. I hope to post tonight. If not, join me tomorrow for Midweek Motivation at Writer Interrupted.

By the way... thanks to everyone who joined in for Then Sings My Soul this past Saturday. I love listening to all of your songs! One of my favorites this week was David Crowder by Tania at Faith Prints. I hear this song on the radio all the time, but this was the first time I truly listened to all the words, and the video really spoke to me. In the middle of all of my busyness, angels are singing "Holy, Holy, Holy" all the time. Oh that we would join with them.

Another that I really loved was Andrea's pick at Mommy Snacks. It was so powerful to see the words people used to describe themselves after being changed by God. We are certainly not who we once were. What two words would you use to describe yourself before and after Christ?

Blessings to you!
Amy

Then Sings My Soul Saturdays - Saving the World

I'm out of town speaking at a Women's conference this weekend, so I am posting "Then Sings My Soul" a little early. Have a great weekend!
My husband has a saying.  It is "After Jesus on the cross... all the rest is just the details." He is a big picture person. I am a detail person. We complement each other well, even though we drive each other crazy at times. 

I must say though, when it comes to this particular issue, "saving the world" I agree with him. We can argue all day long about specific points in the Bible that we won't know the real meaning of until we meet Jesus face to face in Heaven. 

But to me, everything is really all about a man dying on the cross saving the world.

This song makes me want to dance too :-)

Random Thoughts for the Day

I have several random things to share with you today. Nothing deep or profound, but maybe at least interesting.

1. Let me direct you to the new button on my side bar for Epilepsy Advocate. My friend Carol's husband Alan made it for me. If you would like to get the word out about a great support site for those living with epilepsy, please copy the code and add it to your side bar. It doesn't hurt that the adorable boy pictured is none other than my little miracle Spencer. You could also just add it to your sidebar to remind yourself to please lift him up in prayer.

2. I received an email about a new movie coming out from Sherwood Pictures and Provident Films. These are the people who made Facing The Giants from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. It is called Fireproof and is coming out this fall. Kirk Cameron will star in this film. Go here to see more info. We need to support great family friendly, faith based movies like these.

3. Go here if you would like to see the interview Spencer and I did along with Jennifer Arnold from Canine Assistants for Voice of America. You can read the article or click on listen on MP3 at the top and get to hear my lovely southern drawl. I've been told it is melodious :)

4. I've been tagged by Andrea at Mommy Snacks and by Jenifer at By His Grace to list 7 Random Facts about me and 5 interesting things including 5 things I was doing 10 years ago, 5 things on my to do list, 5 of my favorite snacks, 5 things I would do if I were a billionaire, and 5 bad habits. I promise I will do these tags before the weekend. I just need to think about them a little more. It's one of the things on my to do list... so I only have to list 4 more.

5. I have to tell you that last night I skipped the Ladie's Spring Event at my church where Esther Burroughs was the speaker and By Design was singing. My friend Deanna sings with By Design, and I had never heard Esther Burroughs before, so I was kind of bummed. But let me tell you why I skipped it. I went to dinner with Greg Grunberg and some other Epilepsy Advocates. It was really cool. And no... he didn't read my mind... at least I don't think he did. Although he did know exactly what I meant when we had a discussion about our children and epilepsy. That is kind of like reading my mind :) He and his wife are living it too (their son Jake has epilepsy) and they can totally relate.

And I am bummed that we have to wait until September to see more new Heroes episodes. But... LOST (which Grunberg was cast as the pilot when the series aired in 2004) will return tomorrow night... as will I.

Now if I could just manage dinner with Matthew Fox (whom I have loved since Party of Five) I would be so happy.

Take Care of Yourself First

I'm pretty sure I have a four year old that is wise beyond her years. You may remember this post about being confident. Sometimes the comments she makes during our conversations seem to be straight from the mouth of God to my ears. Talk about God speaking to you through other people. I've decided He uses Mary Lyndsey to speak to me and teach me things quite often.

Recently , we were riding in the van to pick up Spencer from school. I was listening to the radio and Mary Lyndsey was watching a DVD. She took her headphones off and said to me,

"Mom, turn off the radio, I need to ask you something."

"What is it Mary Lyndsey?"

"Do you have to complete your own mission before you help someone else?"

"What? What movie are you watching? What mission are you are talking about?"

(You learn to never answer a question for a four year old when you don't know what the source of the question is. It just might come back to bite you.)

"I'm watching Gigi. But that's not what my question is about. I want to know if you have to help yourself before you can help someone else."

She clearly had something on her mind, but I didn't know what, so I probed further.

"What are you talking about Mary Lyndsey? Why are you asking the question?"

(Great mom trick by the way... answering a question with a question)

"When we were on the plane to Chicago and to Washington, that lady said you had to help yourself first before you could help somebody else."

Now it was clear. She was thinking about what the flight attendant had said about the oxygen masks on the plane.

"Oh yes Mary Lyndsey, if something happened on the plane and you needed oxygen, you would want to put on your own mask first and then help the person next to you put on their mask."

I didn't want to go into too much detail as she has only flown twice and discussing plane crashes and loss of cabin pressure didn't seem like a good thing to do with a four year old.

"So do you have to always help yourself first with everything?" I wasn't quite sure how to respond so I made up some answer that seemed good at the moment and satisfied her.

The more I thought on her question though, I began to feel like I got the message. We do have to take care of ourselves first before we can help or take care of others. As a mom who is busy and seems to burn my candle at both ends quite often... I burn out quickly. At those times I lose sight of my first calling. After God, it is my family. I can't take good care of them if I'm not taking good care of me. Taking good care of me requires putting on my oxygen mask first to breath in the fresh air, the breath of life I receive when I spend time with Him and in His Word.

I found this quote in an article by Mankyu Oh and found it quite interesting.

"Several years ago a Canadian missionary to Korea translated "spirit" into Korean as "the breath of God," based on John 20:22. I was very excited to see this translation, since I had been reading about ancient ideas on breath at the time. I had also noticed Ellen G. White's emphasis on breath, stressing the benefit of deep breathing for our life and health. Led to do a study of the idea of breath and breathing in the Bible, I was surprised to find how strong a motif it was-running right through Scripture.I found that breath was an essential element in the definition of humankind. More than anything else, Scripture paints the picture of human beings as "breathing" creatures. Humans began with the breathing of the Creator, with breath from God. "The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7).So we can think of a living being as "a living breath." Man became a living breath when he received the breath of life from God. We become weak when the breath of life in us becomes weak. We become fresh and strong when the breath of life in us becomes fresh and strong. We become spiritual, so to speak, when the breath in us becomes spiritual. Where can we go to get a fresh breath of life? The apostle Paul says in his second epistle to Timothy (3:16, 17): "All Scripture is God-breathed . . . so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." The Bible is a reservoir of God's life-giving breath. When I open the Holy Bible I imagine that I am going to the seashore of life-giving breath. I picture myself standing before an ocean of breath, and deeply inhaling the fresh breath of life from the Scriptures."

This is exactly what I am talking about. Take time to put on your oxygen mask and breathe in the Word of God. If you do this first, you won't run out of breath before you complete all of your other task and you will be able to take care of the others in your life so much better.

Punctuation

Some of you have had the quiz below on your site recently. I decided to take it to find out what it said about me... and I am a Comma.

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to. (But with so many competing interests, your friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.) You excel in: Inspiring people You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

I'd say this little quiz is fairly accurate... only I don't know what it says about a question mark, so I don't know if I get along best with them. If you are a question mark, please let me know so that we can see if we get along :)

Now even though this quiz says I am a comma, I sometimes feel more like an ellipsis. What, some of you may ask, is an ellipsis? It's OK to admit it if you don't know. I didn't know what it was until my friend Carol who has been graciously editing some of my writing referred to it. I didn't tell her (although now she knows if she is reading this) but I didn't know what she was referring to the first time she told me "I took the ellipsis out because you didn't need it."

I guess I didn't pay that much attention in English class. I didn't know the "official" name for those three little dots. I had to go look it up. Oh... now I get it. If you have read any of my writing... you will find... I am quite fond of the ellipsis. When I looked it up... this is what I found... and this.

Well, apparently I use it quite often. I've decided the reason is because I am quite frequently

omitting something

having an unfinished thought

or trailing off...

I most often use it because I am pausing. Usually to clean up a mess, referee a fight, answer the phone and doorbell at the same time or multi tasking a variety of other things.

And if you all do know what an ellipsis is and I am the only idiot in the blogosphere that didn't... don't tell me. Let me remain blissfully unaware.

I hope I have inspired you today... at least that's what the "blog things" quiz tells me I excel in.

Pictures from Chicago

Just wanted to share some pictures from our Chicago trip this past week. For those of you who have been asking... we will hopefully receive our dog this summer in July. We have to attend a two week training camp at Canine Assistants. We are really excited!


The dog in the pictures is Carly. She belongs to one of the trainers. They have several dogs that travel for their publicity events. We will meet the dog that will be selected for us when we attend training. They match the dogs with you based on personality.

Here is a link to one of the articles that was published. I hope to have a video link from the press conference up soon. We are still so overwhelmed and grateful for this news.

Thank you to those who have continued to lift Spencer up in prayer. We have been almost 4 weeks without a seizure!

I'll be back later!

Amy