This...on Monday

Semi-regularly I'll be posting in these categories. Got something for me to consider? Send me a note!


This is what's inspiring me now: 


This blog: Kisses from Kate
Oh. My. Goodness. This girl felt a call from God on her life at 16 when she took her first mission trip and then an even bigger call at 18. She's now mom to 13 girls in Africa, where she's founded a missions organization and has written a book, all while homeschooling her babies. The stories she tells on her blog are truly inspiring. Want proof of miracles? Just talk to a missionary, or read Kisses from Kate. This will move you! 


This woman: Molly Barker
First, she founded an amazing not-for-profit organization that makes me want to be a middle school girl again -- but only for a moment! Girls on the Run is the best thing to happen to girls ages 8-12 EVER! Hands down. This curriculum includes everything from handling peer pressure and bullying to building a girl's self esteem and from emotional health to community service. After 24 sessions, the girls complete a 5k. The entire program is built around physical activity, and the culmination proves that ANY girl can run/walk/skip a 5k. 


But right now, Molly Barker is inspiring me for another reason -- her armpit hair. I thought my leg hair was atrocious until I read about her random search at the airport while wearing a tank top. She's one reason I am fasting from my razor, but she's given up so much more. Read about it on her blog. 




This man: Dan Denney
Where to start? My husband has been through SO MUCH this last year, but has his faith wavered? Not a bit. In fact, it's grown and led me to explore my faith in greater depths. He's faced many health problems (still is) and has grown closer to God through it all. He never loses focus on what's most important, and when I want to give up on or quit, he encourages me to stay the course. When I am questioning my own capabilities, talents, gifts, creations or work, he lifts me up with compliments and praise. When I need prayer, he's right on it. When the kids need him, he goes above and beyond. Every time. Despite the constant pain he's been in for the last year. He's amazing. But he doesn't have a blog, so I can't link you to him. I get to keep him all to myself...for now anyway!


This video: The Wayseers Manifesto 
Anything with "manifesto" in it scares me a little, but I invested nine minutes in this when I stumbled across it namely because in the first couple minutes I was thinking about my daughter. She doesn't "fit in." She's not easily pliable to the "establishment's" rules. While so many parents struggle to help their children succeed at school, we rarely ask why must they? Does it make them a failure? There's a lot of innuendo in this script, not to mention vague ideas and propaganda, but there are also some valid points. People, individually and collectively, should stand for something. Breaking the rules of society: not always a bad thing. I found this thought-provoking. 


This photo:

My daughter Abby has wanted a blog for as long as I can remember. We finally decided with lots of oversight, she can have one. We required her to develop a theme and a name. She came up with the name "Artistic Abby" to go with her theme that can encompass writing, artwork, fashion and music. But I was struggling with how I could bring her blog title to life. I showed her what I did to mine above, essentially writing on our chalk wall all the "mom rules" I could think of that I want for my kids and myself. She loved it, and I suggested she use the chalkboard wall to do something for her blog. She immediately got to work and in 10 minutes had finished this. 10 stinking minutes. Can I say I'm jealous of my daughter? I fret and fret over these things. And then I discover only after I've erased the wall for my blog header that my words run into each other in such a way that it says "Never Be you" in the middle. (Go check it and see...I'm too lazy to redo that right now!) So Abby just cranks this little creation out like nothing! If this is impressive to you as it is to me -- her most biased mom -- wait until we have it launched. Her writing is amazing! Maybe someday I can go to work for her!



This story: Holliday the new leader of the Cardinals? 
Dan gets the credit for this. He read it to me while I was washing dishes after church -- awesome story! I love the part about the 10-12 Cardinals getting together with their ultimate playbook -- the Bible. Excited to see where the Cardinals will go with the spiritual leadership of Mike Matheny and Matt Holiday in 2012. I'm not just talking about a win-lose record here but souls won for Christ. It won't be long, folks, and baseball season will be here. I can almost smell the hot dogs and peanuts!


Praying for you to have an inspired week!
{Amy}

My big hairy distraction

The hair on my legs is very long. And suddenly, I'm more aware of it. More aware even then when my daughter was braiding it (haha! just kidding!) I mean stroking my leg absentmindedly during our Bible reading one night a week ago. 

A four-inch section on my leg from my skirt to my boot is exposed. My leg is very white; my hair, very black and extraordinarily wild. It sticks straight out and/or up, unlike the tame hair on my husband's legs and despite all the lotion I rub in a downward fashion over it every morning. I'm sitting in a room with 200 chairs, nearly every one of them filled. Except the one on either side of me. "Do they see my hairy legs?" I suddenly wondered. "Is the glare of my pasty skin making my legs shine like a beacon in the night sky?" 

The truth is I don't want anyone to sit next to me. Because then I may have that awkward break in a conversation where eyes divert. Then they might notice my extra long leg hair, definitely not to be confused with a couple days' worth of stubble. There would be an immediate shocked facial reaction to the scene just above my boots.  And we'd both feel all weird; the conversation would get uncoordinated. I would blush, which is embarrassing because the bright red tone grows from my neck up to my face -- the warm, tingly sensation making me all-too aware of how I'm yet again standing out like a neon, flashing sign in the middle of Athens (which doesn't even have a stoplight or billboard). 

I am by nature a hairy person. The hair on my head is rather thick, even if fine, and at the moment, longer than usual. Still, I had NO idea how hair can heighten the senses. Until I had them growing on my legs for the first time in 23 years. Three weeks into my shaving fast, I became "aware." A tingling sensation strikes every time I'm showering and the water runs down and over those tiny course hairs. My husband finds this amusing, as he encounters no such heightened feeling related to his leg hair. 

By now, you're probably wondering why the heck I'm not shaving. And no, I'm not touching my razor at all. Just be glad it's not tank top season! There are a few reasons actually. I began subscribing to Girls on the Run Founder Molly Barker's blog at mollybarker.com when I heard about her Naked Face Project. She's given up all beauty rituals, tools and products. That means no hair coloring, pedicures, makeup, shaving, etc. Other women nationwide are joining her, and she's blogging about her 60-day adventure. There are no agendas, no judgments or criticisms. It's just an experiment. Since I don't color my hair (yet!) or get mani/pedis. And while I realize this sounds horrible, I couldn't -- at least not right now -- give up makeup. But I wanted to stand in solidarity with the intent of the project -- to examine these routines, rituals and values. Giving up a razor was something I felt could do. 

Little did I know that my winter weight gain wouldn't easily peel off, leaving me unable to fit comfortably into most of my pants. That and the unseasonably warm weather has meant my elastic-banded skirts are a real viable option. That's probably not a bad thing, since it's making it more "real." (Read about Molly's armpit flash on her blog -- it's hysterical!) 

Shortly after I started going without a razor, something else occurred to me. In other cultures, there are no razors, Oil of Olay, Covergirl or Mary Kay. And the women are without a doubt beautiful and desired by men -- hair and all. 

So why do we put so much emphasis on silky, smooth legs? 

I'm not adequately equipped to answer that question anymore than I can explain why super models weigh 26 percent less than the average woman. These are big questions, and I think the real problem isn't that we don't have an answer but that we fail to inquire. We simply grab a razor, cover our grays, put on mascara and straighten our hair without examining what, or who, motivates us to do so. In fact, when I checked into my hotel room for this conference, I was hit by a moment of panic when I realized I'd forgotten my razor. Despite having gone five weeks without shaving, so ingrained is this ritual. Do we simply accept the propaganda of magazine advertisements and billboards as to the standard of beauty and products we need to buy to achieve it? Just wondering. 

As I tug at my skirt to cover as many straggly hairs as possible, I ask myself if I believe these things really make me more desirable. Or do they simply make me more comfortable in my society? And is that like peer pressure or is it really just a cultural norm that's not so bad? But it's not a conversation I want to have right now with a perfect stranger. So when they dim the lights in the ballroom just as someone heads down my aisle to grab one of the empty seats, I whisper a "Thank you, God" prayer for a darkened conference room. 

What are your thoughts on this experiment? The reason we do these things? How it affects young girls? Or boys? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please comment below and let's get a conversation started!

By the way, here's what my legs looked like in the workout pants I brought with me to the hotel. I was the only female in the gym, but I fit right in with the guys!

Can you humble yourself?

In Matthew 18:4, Jesus tells his disciples that unless they change and become like little children, they won't enter the kingdom. In verse 4, "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."


"This child" Jesus refers to must have been something else! There are days I wonder what the Lord would say if he were in our living room, witnessing the bickering and physical warfare my children sometimes partake it for no other reason but to annoy the other. Did he happen to see the package of Oreos under my daughter's bed? Surely one who is the greatest in heaven isn't sneaking unhealthy snacks to her room in the middle of the night, right? My own mental image of "this child," is a darling little girl -- lovely and clean, probably with curly hair and dimples. She would have no dirt under her nails and a matching ensemble, clutching a fluffy teddy bear in her hands and answering Jesus' questions with a "yes, sir" and "no, sir."


A few years back, a missionary my husband and I supported and stayed with on mission trips to Mexico was in Illinois for a visit. We were so excited when we found out we could have her to our home for dinner. The menu was carefully prepared, and we were all in our Sunday best with high hopes that she'd share some of her amazing stories of miracles in the desolate villages in remote mountains of Mexico. We gently warned/threatened our children to be on their best behavior.


It was as if they could sense the anxiety and elevated expectations for the evening, and when we all sat to eat, they really let loose! They were both preschool age, and potty talk was quite the rage. And Garnet, with three children and grandmother of her own and a mother/grandmother figure to dozens, didn't bat an eye. She dismissed their behavior as nothing more than normal childhood dinner musings.


We were mortified! Luckily we let her wisdom be our guide and let it go.


Because as I reflect on this passage and story today, it occurs to me that Jesus doesn't say who "acts like a child." He says whoever "humbles" himself like a child. You see, children in all their innocence don't know better. They simply are who they are with no worries and most importantly, no pride. They don't compare or compete when they are young; there is no popularity contest. That simplicity of not having the greater context of societal rules or the hurdle of living up to others' expectations is what makes children humble. They didn't put Garnet, not anyone else for that matter, on a pedestal. To them, everyone is equal and acting what's in your heart or on your mind was all they knew.


Humility. Such a difficult concept for grownups and yet Jesus doesn't just suggest it; he demands it. If we want the gift of eternal life, we must strip ourselves of arrogance and pride and become like the "least of these." I don't mean children. But to be truly humble, we must serve those considered the most lowly. After all, that's how our heavenly father came to this earth. Why should we expect anything less of ourselves in our daily walk?