Golden Bowl

Whenever the girls and I are going to travel somewhere I give them an approximate time of departure. Leah is usually out in the van anywhere from ten to twenty minutes before time, just sitting and waiting. She's a lot like her momma, trying to find any alone time (with her own noise) she can. Rachel gets out there a few minutes before time, then I come out with all my stuff. We wait a little while for Hannah, who usually is hurrying out the door with her shoes in one hand and a jacket or extra shirt, purse, and make up bag in the other so she can finish getting ready on the way. After all the doors are closed and we're heading down the driveway the power of the aroma hits me.

I started really thinking about it the other day. The aroma thing gets its start earlier in the day with three different scents of body mousse in the bath. Add to that three different kinds of deodorant, flavors of toothpaste, and lip gloss. Then comes the lotion, different scents, of course, and then the biggest hit of all: three different perfumes. Quite a bit of the different perfumes, might I add. Sometimes that is even added after the doors are closed on the van.

I keep ibuprofen in the vehicle.

I really like having girls that sometimes shower a couple of times a day and want to smell nice. I think that's a really good thing. When I think about it, it makes me smile.

Back in the fall, one of our students' truck wasn't working and his parents were out of town. They asked if I could pick him up from football practice and take him to his house to clean up and then to Open House at the high school. Hannah and I went to get him at the field house and as soon as he got into the van I smiled. He had that familiar locker room smell that I hadn't smelled in several years. Locker room smell isn't a bad smell to me. I immediately went back in my heart to when the boys were playing sports and how I missed that. It was a good thing. Made me smile.

The other day I read a verse in Revelation 5 that said, "And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." I couldn't get that out of my mind. These golden bowls presented to the Lamb of God were full of the sweet scent of our prayers for our husbands, our children, our families, our church, our soldiers. Then my mind kept going and I started thinking that maybe when they pour it out He won't smell anything from me. Or not enough from me. Some days may be more than others, depending on the need.

Oh, sweet, sweet Jesus. I want to be so intimate with You that one bowl is not enough. To enter into Your Holiest place so often that the elders are scrambling for more golden bowls. My heart hurts at the thought that a bowl might be emptied at Your feet and You smell nothing from me. I want so bad for You to get a whiff of all the different scents from the prayers that come together and smell so beautiful. I'm desperate to hear from You that I've done a good thing. I so want to make You smile.

Uncle Arnold

A couple of weeks ago my Uncle Arnold called Michael to see if there was water in our horse trough because he wanted to come that Sunday to be baptized. We know he knew the Lord for years but he is at a point in his life that he wants to know he's done what he's supposed to do. This man has buried two of his children and his wife. Through those times I knew he had a strength that had to come from the Lord. He, like the rest of us, has a past he's not proud of. But he's trying. Really trying. When he first crawled into the tub, he started to sit down and baptize himself! Michael told him that was his job, so he stood up and held his nose. So cute.

Probably the sweetest thing for me was when I looked over past the men's shoulders, I saw my Uncle C.W.'s blue eyes. I knew out of all his brothers, this would have brought C.W. the most joy. He was rejoicing in heaven with the angels. I know he was.



So cute.

Ladies' Holiday Dinner

Allie handing out tickets for door prizes.




Leah and Rachel practicing their "red carpet" walk one of many times.




Lisa, Michelle, and Sue


The first year we were here I sort of introduced the ladies of the cowboy church to the Ladies' Holiday Dinner. The first time I ever saw one was at University Heights Baptist Church in Stillwater. The ladies up there knew how to decorate a table! I was only able to attend one when we lived there because Kyle was always playing ball on the Saturday of the event. I did, however, help one lady buy the fixin's for her table. I'm embarrassed to say she had to explain to me what a plate charger was.

So I decided our ladies here would probably enjoy this type of event. The first one we had I decorated the tables and we had 18 women. They all enjoyed it so much. The next year we had several tables that others decorated then the next year even more. Last year Brandi Dillard took over and we packed that little triple wide. They had so much fun and started talking that night about how they could do their tables the next year. This year we were in our new building and probably had 250 people or more by the time you counted the sweet men who came to serve us. Brandi and Jack and her mom Sharon went the extra mile to make sure everyone was blessed.

One of my sweetest memories of that night was seeing the excitement of Cheryl as she showed me her table. She used the theme of the Fruit of the Spirit. She had been taking notes in Bible study on Monday nights and she was so excited. She even had little coloring sheets of the fruit with crayons as a fun gift. It was sweet because she is a brand new christian and her joy was contagious.

Another sweet memory was looking over and seeing the men of our church praying before they came to make sure we had our glasses full and plates of yummy food in front of us. And of course hearing Randy, my cousin, tell us about the God-given potential we have in us and encourage us to see ourselves as God sees us. It was a sweet, sweet night.