Releasing the Cray

Today I rode. #ride31days

I was so tired.  Exhausted really...  

I needed a break. 

I needed some quiet... some joy. 

And my horse was high as a kite flying on crack cocaine. 

And I wasn't strong enough for the cray. 

So I rode...

And I circled. 

Somewhat begrudgingly. 

And somewhat apprehensive and fearful that my horse would rear it's cray cray head. 

And through the circles, the crazy simmered. 

As we circled, she calmed. 

And then we stopped... and my sweet horse fell asleep in the sunshine. 

From crazy to peaceful. 

And I realized that so much is missed because we forgot the simple things. 

We forget the circles. 

We forget that by circling we can find our strength...

We can find our peace...

Because our joy comes from above...

And our rest comes through the little things. 

Simplicity. 

Circles. 

Head Lice, Dog Poo, & Weird Puppets

So can we just talk about my day yesterday?

I woke up to a screaming cat and my coffee maker that wasn't pre-set.  Whatevs, I'll be fine.

I haven't slept.  One rottenweiler barked ALL NIGHT.  And the other couldn't hold his... well poo.  Lawsy all the poo.  But he is old.  I'll still love him, right?

I went to leave and as my sweet little angel girl and I were praying for our day and our friends and family, here comes the sheriff.  I was mortified.  I am the next of kin to so many.  

"What had happened," I thought!

I took an extremely irritated sigh of relief as I received a subpoena for information... that doesn't exist... for a simple court case... that was over weeks ago.  And I tried to regroup.  But I just couldn't.  My irritation level was about an 11.  Exactly.  One.  Higher.  Than normal.  

As I went about my day, it was one thing after another.  

Little things that kept stacking up.  

And then the call... My little girl has head lice.  I leave to pick her up and suddenly we are now battling fever AND head lice.  

Y'all.  The bugs.  All things washed and sprayed and I gave my child a flea bath.

And then the icing on the cake...  I, too, have head lice.  Let the head scratching begin.  

My hair is two feet long and fine and breakable.  Using the dang tiny flea comb was like entering the seventh realm of hell.  

I just couldn't take it all.  

All the little things.  And I'll be honest.  I wasn't feeling very full of Jesus.  

But I must write.  It's #write31days.  And it's raw.  And here I am.  

And I do love Jesus.  I just don't want to read about him.  Or pray.  

So I try to just cry a little.  And let the Holy Spirit take over.  

And keep it simple.  

I circle around my sweet Jesus.  

Jesus loves me this I know,

For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong,

They are week and He is strong.

Nothing happened with weird puppets, but it sounded good at the time.  What's up with them????  Where does one go to take a weird picture of puppets!  Creepy.  I guess it could be worse than head lice.  I could be surrounded by weird puppets.  

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what do your pictures say about you? 

Y'all, one thousand words is a good bit.  I'm long winded, and I've never posted more than about 800 words in a blog!!   This statement is oh so true!  How much we see and feel and think from a mere picture.  

Remember my vanity meter yesterday?  Were you brave enough to look through your photos and rate a few?  How'd they stack up?

This vanity thing goes way past pictures.  Yesterday we talked about coming before your king unedited.  I dare you to take it further... go before your family, and friends, and co-workers, and complete strangers... UNEDITED.  

THIS is the true way to lay yourself in front of the world as a beautifully broken soul.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  Psalm 139:14

BBs, you can crop and edit all you want, but that doesn't change who you are.  That doesn't change the fact that Christ died FOR YOU even though he knows who you are.  He died for you wrinkles and flaws and bad hair and bad attitude and selfishness.  

And I bet if we all went on a mission to post real selfies.  REAL ones.  Like hair is a mess and clothes don't match kinda selfies that peeps would love us just the same.  

I bet if we took pictures of our kids throwing tantrums and what dinner REALLY looked like, peeps would love us just the same.

If we took pictures of our messed up life and broken daily mess and spilt coffee and burnt bisquits and unorganized house that peeps would love us just the same.

Maybe even more...

Because that love would be unedited.  

Unfiltered.  

Just like Christ's.

Be realz, BBs!

Spiritual Selfie

So this week, I'm circling around vanity.  It seems like such a harsh word... VANITY.  We think, "no, that's not me."  But peeps, we live in an insanely "me" focused world.  I'm gonna start off with the ole selfie...

Y'all, I have to confess.  I have a love/hate relationship with selfies.  

On one hand, they are fun.  It's fun to see a friend and be able to take a picture with them.  Remember the days of turning the camera around and hoping that the selfie picture would come out?  And you would't know for days.  Unless it was a Polaroid.  Then you'd have to shake, shake, shake until the picture was clear.  

On the other hand, they can get a little bit too much.  I think about this when I take one.  It takes a ton of pictures and perfect angles to make a good one.  And then the editing.  I end up wondering WHY I even attempted it in the first place.  Usually it's just to show my husband my new bangs and it ends up a disaster.  

Then I have peeps that make gorgeous ones and I love them.  And I never even think, "Wow, she just took a picture of herself."  (Like I do about some peeps).  

Then there are peeps that post them constantly.  And I wonder about the selfie addicted peeps.  How much time to they take doing this?  And I wonder what's on their camera roll...

So what is on your camera roll?

I stopped and took a second to check on my photo vanity.  I'm going back to the last ten, and laying it out there for you guys!  Here's to honesty!!  Here we go...

Number 10... I picture of me one my horse.  Vanity level... 7

Number 9... Cat drinking champagne.  Vanity level... 2

Number 8...Horse's leg (I had to send it to the vet).  Vanity level... 1

Number 7... Jerome and I at our wedding.  Vanity level... 4ish  (It's a cute picture and I just wanted to look at it.  

Number 6... Cat in a mailbox.  Vanity level... 2

Number 5... All my "gig" purses.  It was so ungig-like.  And I just took the pic for me.  Sooooo vanity level... 3

Number 4...Jerome and me playing a show in Nashville.  Vanity level... 5

Number 3... Clouds as we came into Birmingham.  Vanity level... 6ish (I knew it would get retweeted, so there's that)

Number 2... A Johnny Cash quote.  Vanity level... 2

Number 1... One of my kiddos getting a horse.  Vanity level... 2

Ok, so not that bad.  But that's just a few days of pics.  There ain't no telling how vain I'd be if I looked through the whole camera roll.  Eeeeek.  Not sure I wanna go there...

What about you?  What do your last ten pictures say about you?

The problem with these edited and cropped pictures with an over produced focal point, is that it has led us down a path of seeing the world in tunnel vision.  We see a person's apprearance from a selfie.  We see a persons life from social media.  We see our child's life or our meal through a 5" phone screen.  We can now clean up our memories with a push of a button.  

But what if we could turn that screen shot around and take a spiritual selfie?  

No filter.

No cropping.

No enhancement.  

Peeps, God does not edit and crop and touch up and filter our heart when we are standing in front of Him.  We can hope for that as we walk around our world with blinders on, but it's just not true.  

In 1 Samuel, the Lord tells Samuel (when looking for David... the next king), "The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."  (From 1 Samuel 16:7)

Y'all, even thousands of years ago, peeps were judging by appearance.  Now right here in 2015, we have raised a generation that judges.  We see someone's life on social media and say/think it's fake or wish it was ours.  Or we see their life on social media and think they are vain.  It really can end up a teeny tiny (or SUPER big) vanity contest.  

When it comes down to it, we live in a vain society.  We spend about 8 MILLION on cosmetics a year in the U.S.  I'm not saying don't get your hair done and trash the mascara.  I'm saying stop and think before you do anything.  

Take a spiritual selfie...

Why are you taking that picture?  Really?  Why?  

Why are you saying what you're saying?  Really?  Does it need to be said...Why?

Why are wearing what you are wearing?  Really?  Deep down... Why?

Quit cropping and editing, because what really matters is your sweet Father.  And He ain't got no time for all that.  

Photo Bomb

So this week, BBs, I'm tackling our vanity.  Now please understand that I may say things this week that you don't wanna hear.  And I don't want to face it either, but we are SO susceptible to vanity!  Jenny and I even wrote about it in one of our first blogs!  In the blogs, Picture Perfect and Picture Pefekt, we talked about being an original masterpiece of God.  But BBs, this can SO circle down the wrong path if we don't think before we act.

This is just another topic that I've been circling around this month, and this is going to be this week's BB journey!

Why do you dress up on Sunday or even on a random Tuesday?

Why do you put on make up?

Why do you dye your hair?

Why do you take selfies or any picture?

Why do you do any thing that you do?

Why do you say anything that you say?

So often we think we are doing such good in the world.  We think our actions are so harmless.  When we step a couple of sashays back, we don't quite have the right intentions.  Our focus on impressing others with our looks or words or confidence or humor.

Are we pleasing God with our actions?  Or ourselves?  

Are we taking time to take capture those thoughts and hash out with God all of the WHY's and motives behind things we do?

It can be as simple as...

Taking a picture.

A prayer.

An outfit.

A seemingly meaningful gesture.

It can be so little, but when they start adding up with not-so-pure intentions, it leads to a circle of vanity.  We are, in fact, living in a more material world.  Madonna was right!  HA!

Now there's nothing wrong with being confident in Christ... or being bold... or being beautiful, but are we stopping to take an inventory?  Are we taking accountability?  Or are we just a walking photo bomb.

"Christians, no less than others, are conditioned and shaped by the culture of which they are apart."

-J. I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness

“Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out...”  

-C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters  (conversation between two demons)

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  Colossians 3:2

The sneaky snake would like nothing more than to take these little daily gestures and twist and build them up around you until you are in a circle of vanity. 

So get ready!  This week, it's time for a spiritual selfie!!  

Until tomorrow!

XOXO,

Anna

Don't Be A Bunny... Cause Snakes Can't Wear Shoes

I spend my days working hard.  I take care of my kiddos and I run through life with my hair blowing in the wind.  I feel like most of my time is running from here and there as fast as my feet can hop.  And grocery shopping.  Why does it seem I can never get enough groceries to feed the fam??  I even have a garden of my very own that is filled to the brim with big, gorgeous veges and it just does NOT seem to be enough to go around.  

Work and play and caring for my family is always on the agenda... but there's also something else.  Something greater.  I am just always waiting to have to run.  I'm always listening for that someone chasing me in the woods when I'm running or that thing that will startle me that will leap out of the bushes.  I'm always waiting and anticipating.  I can almost feel the hair bristle on the back of my neck because things have just been too quiet and too easy.  I gotta be ready to run...

So BBs, do you ever sit around and wait for the other shoe to drop?  It's yet another negative circular pattern that is SO hard to capture and give to God.  The struggle is real peeps!

Here are just a few of the ways that I prevent the ripple effect of nerves that run through my body and stop the crazy from surfacing when I feel like that shoe is going to hit the flo like a platform stiletto on hardwood. (Now mind you, I'm not telling you to do these things... this is my circus and my monkeys).

I change ring tones and text tones constantly.  The quieter the better.  Once upon a time every phone call and text was the possibility of a shoe dropping.

I watch for behavioral patterns in people around me.  I have quite the accurate cray barometer.

I plan.  I have a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C.  I also have a plan A, B, and C for each of those plans in case they don't go as planned.  #truestory

I can hear conversations a mile away.  Now this girl can't hear my bass playing out of a speaker two feet away, but I can tell you what people 50 feet away are saying. 

I'm always one step ahead.

"Things are going too well..."

"What if..."

"I'd try something new, but..."

"They are about to unleash the monkeys, I have to prepare..."

Sound familiar?  And we circle right on back to those little demony minions that belong to the ole no leg dumb dumb.   And do you know what those little demons want me to believe?  That I need to run.  I need to be afraid if things are going ok.  I need to be ready... be on guard... put up my defenses.  But do you know what that does NOT do for us?  Leave room for peace.

Here's what we have to understand...

First, go back and read those two paragraphs.  It's about a bunny, y'all!  NOT a person.  Repeat after me... "I... AM... NOT... A... BUNNY."

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 

Now read it like this:  For the Spirit God gave ME does not make ME timid, but gives power, love and self-discipline.  

Okay, now on to my second point...  Let's be logical.  Snakes have no legs.  So quit allowing snakey creatures to drop shoes.  Now repeat after me... "SNAKES...AIN'T...GOT...NO...LEGS...SO THEY CAN'T DROP SHOES!!"

Again... For the Spirit God gave ME does not make ME timid, but gives power, love and self-discipline.  

Here's the thing, BBs.  We live in a yuckers world, so we are going to be faced with obstacles and shoes dropping and fear and temptation.  BUT our God has already overcome the world, so we can live boldly and without fear.  

I know that I sho don't want to trust the temptations of a sneaky snake that can't even appreciate a good pair of Ferragamos.  So circle in the truth of confidence when it's raining shoes.  And then pick them up, put them on, and sashay like a supermodel... all while laughing at the attempts of the ole no leg fool that tried to throw them, because you were made to be bold.  

For the spirit God gave YOU does not make you timid, but gives YOU power and love and self-discipline.  

So the moral of the story is... don't be a bunny, 'cause snakes can't wear shoes.  

Until tomorrow, BBs!

XOXO!

Are you spreading stinky stanky... or honey?

Yesterday, I talked about how the sneaky snake, satan, was trying to trip me up.  Old no legs had a lot of cute attempts up his sleeves, but they failed... a few tears later of course.  

Well it got me to thinkin' about spiritual warfare.  Now growing up, I had a unique Baptist household that we actually talked about this kinda stuff.  Not blatantly, but i did grow up at least having an understanding of the battles unseen, and a huge appreciation for the power of prayer.  Now I'm Bapticostal, so I'm all up in that spiritual train wreck.

The thing is... my mind was always blown by it all, so I focused more on the spiritual warfare around me and the peeps close to me and within my church... but that's where it stopped.  My pea brain couldn't wrap my head around much more than that.  

Something clicked yesterday; however, when I wrote out God's soothing words to me.  

Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

His words healed my heart with goodness and sweetness and gentleness, that human words couldn't have expressed...

Or could they have??

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 ESV

This verse makes me think of Mary spilling the oil on Jesus's feet.  Can you imagine the aroma that filled that room?  Think of a smell that you love... the smell of freshly baked bread, the smell of rain, the smell of jasmine, or if you are at our house... the smell of the barn.  Imagine the warmth you feel when that smell surrounds you.

This is what we are to be BBs to others... sweet to their souls and healing to their bones!

BBs, we have the Holy Spirit IN us.  

We have the power of God IN us.

SOOOOO... we have these sweet, sweet words in our heart for others. We need to be aware of the battles around us and when we see one forming, we must be willing to cover our sisters and brothers in Christ AND those perishing with gracious words like a honeycomb! 

In my case yesterday, I couldn't have given any sweet words to the person that lashed out at us, BUT I can give those sweet words right up on up to my Jesus... through prayer and petition.  And slayed that snake from afar.

BBs, we are called to be a sweet fragrance.  We are supposed to be the sweet aroma of Christ throughout our BB worlds.  Nobody wants a stinky stank BB lingering around, so look out for the spiritual warfare around you and shower that hot mess, that satan tries to stir up, with honey!