I'm sorry I didn't get this updated last week.  It was a rough week for me.  Our family was under attack in a big way.  We were in some spiritual warfare.  It is still going on, but I've sharpened my weapons and seem to be making progress!  My family belongs to the Most High God and the enemy may not have them!
Here I am... I will not quit!

My poor husband.  He's the offensive line coach for the high school team and they have been losing in an embarrassingly bad way.  He has been coaching there for 19 years and he thought last year was, by far, the worst year he's had there.  Come to find out this year is ten times worse!  I'm afraid it is going to be a long season.

As I go through my week things happen that I want to share with you and, when I sit down in front of my computer, I forget what most of them were.

I do remember one thing that I wanted to share.  I got an email from a man who was writing his views on the Trinity.  I wasn't sure how to take it.  It gave the appearance of being a mass mailing yet it could have been an individual's reaction to the Trinity page I have at the Clarion Call.

I wrote a short response to determine which it was and my email came back as the return address on it was invalid.

That proved something to me.  The enemy is trying very hard to deny the existence of the Trinity.  I'd say that right there is proof that the Trinity exists! The letter from the man was well written and he had some good, yet weak, points in his arguments.  I wonder.  If someone doesn't believe that Jesus is who He said He is, which is God... the I Am (Jo 18:16), the Good Shepherd Jo 10:11), Living Water (Jo 4:14), had God's glory (Jo 17:5), etc. etc. etc. are they are truly saved?  I don't know. 

The weather is finally cooling off here.  I think I will be finishing up painting our barn.  I have to do the trim on the 16' tall side.  That's not going to be fun.  Because of our neighbor's bushes the base of the ladder has to be close to the base of our barn.  I'm not real steady on tall ladders and ones that are nearly vertical are even worse!

Then I have to finish painting the front, decorative side.  When I get it done I will take some pictures and put them online so you can see what I've been talking about all these months. 

Link to the 10/6/03 Bible study.

Oh boy did God give me an eye opener last week!  Many times I wonder why things happen to me.  Many times I gripe and complain about things that are happening.  I think of how unfair it is that I seem to be held to a higher standard that others by God.  I don't think it is fair that I often have a burden that is 80% when others get by only bearing 20%.

God reminded me of my giving myself to Him as a human sacrifice (Rom 12:1).  I gave myself to Him for Him to use.  He wanted to know why I keep complaining about how He uses me if I gave myself to Him to use.  Very good question!!!  What I do and don't do is between God and me.  What other people do and don't do is between God and them.  It isn't my place to complain.  I either do or don't want God to use me.  It is as simple as that.  I've got to drop the "Woe is Me" attitude!  I have to remind myself that I have to have an "It's Not About Me" attitude!

The football season drags on.  My husband's team lost another game by an embarrassing amount.  I am sorry to say that I did something I shouldn't have done.  I called a man a bad name.  He was proclaiming out loud in the bleachers that the coaches were losing the games for the kids.Most of these coaches have been at that high school for almost 20 years.  The teams under them usually always made it to the playoffs.  The years they didn't (up until last year) they were so close that it was probably a matter of less than ten points over the season that kept them from winning enough games to qualify for the playoffs.These coaches are all respected by their peers at the other high schools.

The man in the bleachers was uninformed and speaking like a fool.  He lied about playing football for those same coaches and he spouted untruths.  At the games I sit with the daughters of the head coach.  They and I tried to reason with this man.  Our premise was that if he wanted to be able to voice opinions about the methods of the coaches then he would have to donate his time and become a coach.The man continued to speak foolish things.  I should have shut my mouth and walked away, but I didn't.  I told him to shut his mouth and go spend many hours of his time and help coach.  When he continued to speak foolish words I called him a name and walked away in anger.

Why do I let people like that get to me?  Probably because my husband spends so much time coaching football that it becomes an attack on our entire family.  These people are attacking the one thing into which my husband pours most of his energy, thought, and passion.  As a result, they are saying that all the times I was a "football widow" and had to be the single parent because my husband was unavailable were all in vain.  Plus, I know my husband is a good coach.  I've heard it from enough knowledgeable people to know it for a fact.I guess I need to remember that what kind of a coach my husband is will not be affected by the nonsensical comments offered by armchair coaches.

By the way, God has forgiven me.  He doesn't even remember that I did it (Heb 8:12).  As I am typing the story for you He is probably scratching His head and saying, "You did???"  Wait, does that mean I need to ask forgiveness again now that I reminded Him?
Just kidding!! 

Have you ever had a waiter shake your hand and tell you how glad he was to meet you?  I had that happen yesterday.My husband and I went to dinner.  We kind of joked around a little with the waiter.  Anyway, when the meal was done and as I was leaving he grasped my hand, looked me in the eyes, and told me he was very glad to meet me.It wasn't like he was happy with the tip I left.  I had left a gift card and some cash, so he didn't even know if I left any tip at all.  Can you guess what made him do that?It was Jesus.  He wasn't glad to meet me, he was glad to meet Jesus.  He felt the love of the Lord through me.

I know that's what it was because of another interesting encounter I had.  When I got served with the papers from the second lawsuit regarding my son's car accident (if you missed it, the brief story is here), the man serving the papers became sympathetic and took the time to review the time period we had in which to reply to the summons.  He wished us luck as he left.Normally someone serving papers just verifies your identity, hands over the papers, and gets away as quickly as possible.  This man looked like he was upset we were being sued!  He saw Jesus in me!!

No, my face doesn't glow in the dark.  I'm not oozing with hyper-spirituality either.  I've been spending more time with the Lord and He must be sticking to me.  We are meant to be vessels carrying around the Holy Spirit.  When we speak our words are to be the words God has already chosen for us to say.  Our facial expressions and body language are to convey love toward our fellow-man.  (2Cor 4:6-7)  The things that God has to say are the things that will make a difference. 

 When I called the man in the bleachers a name I didn't change him or his attitudes.  If I had spoken what God wanted me to say then that man would have some meat to mentally chew.  (Unfortunately I don't know what God wanted me to say.  I wasn't listening to anything but my own anger and frustration.)

Will you look at that?  We've already had three Bible studies and we haven't even made it to the official Bible study!

A long time ago I saw a collapsible fire box at an RV show that could be used for a campfire or a BBQ.  We didn't buy it because it cost more money than we were willing to pay.

Ever since then we have wished we had bought it.  The more vacations we take in our camper the more times we've wished we had one.  For the past couple of years I've been looking for it.  I've looked on the Internet and found lesser quality items.  We've been to some sportsmen shows, RV shows, and other places looking for it.

Sunday we went to an RV show that advertised that it had lots of accessories.  There it was!!  We found it!  Yay!  I already made room for it in the basement storage area of the camper.  I think my husband and I are going to go camping during Christmas break.  That will probably be the first time we use it.  If you are interested they have a web page:  www.pit2go.com.  If you can find it at a trade show it is a little cheaper.

Our camper has a long, deep storage area that you access from the back under the door.  It has a long plastic bin that slides in and out.  It is called a basement compartment.  That makes my camper three stories tall!

There is the basement, then there is the regular area where the dinette, kitchen, and bathroom are, and there is the bed up on the area that hangs over our truck.  That's the upstairs.  See, three stories!  Tee hee!

Link to the 10/13/03 Bible study.

I did what I didn't want to do.  I got out of shape after I worked so hard getting into shape riding my bicycle.  I rode my bike almost every day for a few weeks before we went on vacation to get in shape for our vacation.  I was determined to continue to get in even better shape by continuing to ride my bike.  This morning was the first time I rode it since coming home from my vacation in August.  Whew!  I lost everything I had gained, muscle-wise, that is.  I'm starting all over.

The bad thing about riding around here is that we are in kind of a densely populated rural area.  Some of the nearby neighborhoods are populated by some unsavory characters.  The streets are not all paved well.  There are few sidewalks so I am not only watching out for cars, but for pedestrians as well.  There are a lot of loose dogs.  The worst thing of all (for my poor muscles) is that this is a hilly area.  There are some flat areas, but mostly there are hills.

I am going to ride, though.  I'm also going to walk my dogs more.  They like to get out and it works a few different muscles than when I ride my bike.  The bad thing is that they get hard to control when they think one of the dogs barking at them is going to get out.  We've had to deal with loose dogs every now and then.I am going to ride my bike... I am, I am, I am.
(I'm telling you so I have to be accountable.)
I am, I am, I am, I am.....

I didn't get into any fights Friday night.  There weren't any unkind people sitting near us this time.  The bad news is that the team lost again.  The good news is that they scored more in that game than they did the first five games.  We were actually given multiple opportunities to cheer them on because they were gaining ground.

My husband was having a hard time after the game.  That made me have a hard time.  Maybe I'm being selfish and not being an understanding wife, but it hurts me when my husband shows more emotion over losing a football game than he has ever shown for me, his wife, or for his family.  It is something I have learned to live with, but it isn't something that I will ever learn how to like.

It's pretty sad how society has molded men into macho beings.  There are acceptable times for men to get emotional and it is usually over sports of some kind.  Have you ever seen men pat each other on the behinds for encouragement or out of friendship other than on the football field?  Have you ever seen a group of men run toward each other and give each other a giant group hug other than at a sporting event?  Extreme emotion is acceptable in society if it is directly related to winning and losing it seems.  Sad.  Very sad.

Just when I thought the weather was cooling off we got a heat wave!  The daytime temperatures have been zooming up past 100!  I want to know how the trees know when it is time to drop their leaves when the weather stays warm.  If it gets cold and then warms back up do they change their minds and try to hang on to the leaves?That leads to another question.  Where is a tree's mind?  LOL!

Last Thursday I volunteered my time at the high school.  The Consumer Law class conducts mock job interviews for the students.  They invite in people from businesses who interview the students as if it were a real job interview. My husband used to teach one of the classes and I had been volunteering to be an interviewer for the past number of years.  This year the teacher who used to run the interviews got an administration job.  The teacher who took over asked me if I'd help since I'd been there before.

 It started out as I would mail and fax out the letters to the interviewers.  Then I ended up directing the mock interviews.  I was in charge of assigning students to interviewers.

Glory hallelujah, God was there!  To keep the story short, He made sure I sent certain students to certain interviewers.  I got feedback that showed me that God was actually the one in charge of assigning students to interviewers.  It was wonderful! I kept commenting to the interviewers that God was there and that God was in charge.  They gave me very strange looks.  I don't care.  He was using them and they didn't even know it!!  Yippee!  My God is GOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!

Link to the 10/20/03 Bible study.

I just realized that the alignment on last week's Bible study was messed up.  There have been some rather strange things happening here at the Clarion Call.  The enemy is trying to make things look bad, maybe so people don't stay long.  I don't know.  All I know is that it is fine when I finish it and when I go back to look later something has happened to it.

Satan sometimes must get frustrated and ends up making tiny feeble attempts to annoy us.  What a goof!  Sometimes I wonder why he bothers.  Hasn't he read the end of the Bible?

Last week my youngest son had his wisdom teeth pulled.  The oral surgeon gave him a prescription for pain pills.  I dropped my son off at home and went to the pharmacy.

Our normal pharmacy we've used for the past 25 years is in the local grocery store that is part of the grocery workers' strike.  I've been honoring their strike because I've felt led to honor it.  I don't necessarily agree with it, but I believe God wants me to not cross the picket line.

There is a Rite Aid store a mile farther down the road.  I've never had occasion to go in that store but, since they honor our prescription insurance program, I took my son's prescription there.

It is a large pharmacy.  They must have had eight or more people working there.  I dropped off the prescription and was told to come back in six hours!  At our other pharmacy I had never had more than a 45 minute wait and, if I sat and waited instead of shopping, they usually hurried it up.

I told the woman that my son was in pain and I needed the prescription immediately.  She told me they were very busy and it would be hours before it would be ready.

I had two choices at that point.  I could have taken the prescription back and crossed the picket line to go to our other pharmacy or I could put it in God's hands.  I chose to put it in God's hands.  I told the woman I would wait for it.  She warned me again that it would take hours and I told her where I would stand to wait.  I walked a few steps away and leaned against some boxed Christmas trees.  (They had no chairs or benches.  I guess they wanted to discourage people from waiting.)

I began to pray that God would cause the pharmacists to look favorably upon that prescription.  I went through some waves of doubt and confusion.  "What if they get it done and hang it with all the others not knowing I'm standing here?  How will I know when it is done?  What will I do when my back starts to hurt from just standing?  I don't want to walk around because then they will forget I am here.  Maybe I am being foolish to wait.  Maybe I should get the prescription and leave.  I'm going to feel like an idiot a couple of hours from now if I am still standing here."

One of the pharmacists looked up and asked me what the name was on the prescription.  I told her and she said, "It's done.  Go get into the pick-up line and it will be ready when you get to the front."

I was out of there in 25 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why did I decide to wait for the prescription?  I don't know.  Did God assure me that He would push it on through?  No.  Then why?  I just had a feeling.  I'm going to say that I'm progressing along the lines of hearing that "still, small voice" of God's and that I heard it that morning in my spirit.  I didn't have the promise, but I felt an assurance that God was with me.

Link to the 10/28/03 Bible study.