Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Fugitive Emissions...and April 1st Verse

Well, Happy April Fool's Day.  Huh?  What would be the appropriate greeting for this day?  Maybe it's just 'gotcha!'  And don't we all LOVE being gotten.  Or not.

We really aren't big "April Fooler's" around here (I'm sure the boys would get a kick out of it if we were and I've already heard them "April Fooling" each other this morning); growing up we did our share of filling the sugar bowl with salt and vice versa, swapping the salt & pepper, etc.  Pretty tame stuff, I admit.  These days I guess I don't have the creativity (or energy) to put into coming up with any big stunts.  And, to be perfectly honest, I don't really want anything extra to clean up either.

I was stumped for a verse this time so I went back to the March 6th post on the Living Proof blog.  Beth had us all post a scripture to encourage us in strength, power and victory and the comments are a treasure trove of potential memory verses.  I came across several that I liked, but chose this one.  2 Cor 2:14 (NASB), "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place."

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I have found myself being slightly attitudinally-challenged lately.  Yes, that's an official self-diagnosis.  I know (from some of my past experience being attitudinally-challenged) that one powerful prescription for that malady is thankfulness.  So what better than a verse that just starts right out with a big ole "thanks be to God"?  A little reminder of our triumph in Christ - always - isn't a bad thing either.

Jack had to take some training down at one of the plants a year or so ago and came home with a new phrase that we all found amusing - because we're sophisticated like that.  The phrase is "fugitive emissions" - emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and various other unintended or irregular releases of gases.  (Thanks, Wikipedia...you said it so much more eloquently than I ever could have.)

We've all smelled it.  You're driving near a refinery and all of a sudden...whoa, what died?!  Well, there you have it...fugitive emissions.  Needless to say, with three boys in the house, this phrase has become a favorite.  For obvious reasons that shall remained unstated.  Boy howdy, could our house use some aromatic assistance from time to time....

I actually can't think of much that would be better than being a walking diffuser of HIM wherever I go.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Spring has Sprung...and Verse 6

Well, so far this daylight savings time thing is eating my lunch...  Here it is 10:30 and no one has had breakfast yet.  (And The Staff is off this week so no breakfast in bed for me.)  Oh, well, we'll just eat in a little bit and call it an early lunch.

I've got some exciting stuff planned for spring break, including but not necessarily limited to, the following:
  • The office closet floor needs to be unearthed from a couple of weeks ago when I told Sam to push a bunch of stuff in there to get it out of the way.
  • The parts of the desk that I can see are covered with dust.  Aha!  There's a reason to not clear off the desktop.
  • Weeds.  Everywhere.  Although according to Jack, a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place.  Is it still the sin of pride if your pride is what actually makes you finally weed your flowerbeds?
  • I've never completed the room-switching-over-process from a few weeks ago.  We got Sam moved into Michael's room, but never fully got Michael moved into Josh's room, meaning Michael's clothes are in various places all over the upstairs, which is challenging since he is the boy who actually likes to wear clean clothes everyday.
Whew, I don't know about you, but I don't think I can stand much more excitement.  I'd better be careful or someone will video all this mayhem and call it "Moms Gone Wild: Spring Break".

Well, let me share my verse and get on with it.  I'm memorizing Phil. 3:12b (NASB), "I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus."  Bob Mumford used this verse in The Agape Road in talking about becoming a Father-pleaser.  God had a THAT in mind for each one of us when he formed us, called us, and laid hold of us.  Made me think of that scene from City Slickers...you know, the ONE thing.  Don't remember it?  Why not?  It's only a 20 year old movie.  What can I say?  I don't get out enough....  I'll work on getting some more current movie references.  In the meantime, you have a THAT...a destiny and purpose that you are called to fulfill.

And on a similar note, we had this prophet dude in church yesterday who talked a lot about God the Father and intimacy with the Father, which is exactly what The Agape Road is about.  I think it's so cool when God repeats in church what we did in class.  It's like He's saying, "Can you hear Me now?"

Y'all have a great Spring Break.  Can't wait to see your verses.

Andrea