Hot Steam

Today, as I was ironing my husbands shirt for the first time since I started growing his son, the fact that I grew up smacked me in the face like a blast of hot steam.

I love my life. It is all that I dreamed it would be as a little girl, except for that short period of time when I thought I wanted a career, HA! It's nothing like that. I love looking back and seeing how the Lord has worked everything out. Out of chaos comes a beautiful picture. I remember a school assembly we had in middle school. An artist came and painted while we watched. It was amazing. Millions of dots of color that made no sense at all. Then suddenly the face of Jesus was staring at us, thorny crown and all.

My ten year high school reunion is this year. Two of my friends from childhood, whom I love dearly, have lost a parent. People I know, grew-up with, played barbies with, ran around their neighborhoods in our swimsuits at midnight. These ladies, who I would do anything for even if we hadn't seen each other in 20 years, have felt the devastating loss of a parent. My heart breaks at the thought. I called my Mom this morning and cried. Poor Momma, she was at work and took a break just to take my call. The Lord knew I needed to talk to her, she isn't usually able to answer my calls when she is at work.

I'm just wondering what happened to the little girl with a perm like Annie. One minute I was staring in the mirror practicing for my cooking show and the next minute my kids are screaming for dinner. No time to banter with the camera today folks, these kids want food!

It's just an odd nostalgic kind of day. The rain, the sun, the rain, the sun. Makes for a moody me I guess. That and this boy! Seems this pregnancy is much more emotional.

Thanks for sticking with me on this little therapy session. It helps.

~And So That's What She Did.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

By the way I found this wikipedia definition of nostalgia interesting.

The term nostalgia describes a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.^[1] The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning "homecoming", a Homericword, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning "pain, ache". It was described as a medical condition, a form of melancholy, in the Early Modern period, and became an important trope in Romanticism.^[1]

Convicted: Hospitality and Compassion

Oh Mercy have I ever been convicted lately. I just finished being hostess for two months to my sister-in-law. And I tell you what, I spent the first quarter of her stay being hospitable and the middle half of it being hostile and the last quarter finally returning to hospitable. I found that being hostile not only made me unhappy and hurt her, but my children were picking up on it and not treating her with the respect that an Aunt should receive.  It reminded me of a quote given to me in a homemade book of quotes at my baby shower for Emy.

"Of all the haunting moments of motherhood few rank with hearing your own words come out of your daughter's mouth." Victoria Secunda.

So I thought to myself , self: I really need to treat her with more kindness and respect.

I got out my bible and I searched out two words: Hospitality and Compassion. I used the topic search in the back of my bible and there were a few verses that jumped out at me. I'd like to share these with you. . . so here they are. . .

The first verse wasn't actually one of the verses listed in the topic search but as I was reading a bit more of the chapter for context I came across this and stopped cold.

Romans 12:8b He that giveth let him do it with simplicity.

For the most part of her visit I had been giving and then nit-picking how she used what I had given. Give and then wonder why she was taking. Basically I had this irrational fear that she was going to take advantage of our kindness and no matter how many times she said thank you or how much she appreciated our help I kept my guard up and stayed on defense.

The next verse that struck me was:

1 Peter 4:9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. (emphasis added)

Oh the grudging! It hurts. It really does.

Then it was on to Compassion.

Hebrews 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also one body.

Romans 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

There were many more verses but the point that came across to me in the simplest form is feel others pain. Here my own family member was struggling, looking for a job, and I was being a sarcastic, begrudging, belittling twit.

So my next step was to apologize. Which I did profusely and my kind-hearted Sister-In-Law forgave me. So now all is well and we enjoyed the remainder of her stay. Somehow just reading how the Lord wanted me to react and treat her was all that I needed. So instead of "How dare she drink the last of the juice" it was "Here let me top you off, I'll just have some water."

Well that's all for now, I need to get this soap box back to the rental company before they close.

~And So That's What She Did.