ODDS AND ENDS

Depending on where you are in life—buying pencils and notebooks and new backpacks and writing checks for lunch tickets or writing really big checks for college tuition or perhaps watching your grandchildren get on the bus for that first day of school, mid August heralds the end of summer and reminds me that time passes.

Since I have become a Mom, all time is related to my children.

“A few years ago,” I’ll say and then stop my story to correct myself. “No, let’s see, Lauren wasn’t born yet, so it was about 20 years ago…..”

Or “That was the summer the kids went to camp in Oklahoma.”

Or “Was that before or after Jordan started skateboarding?”

I’ve always loved fall when the leaves explode in color and the air feels crisp with change. When Autumn comes, I am like a kid on the first day of school opening my spiral notebook to a blank page. My world is full of possibilities.

A friend of my daughter’s is already thinking about growing old and worrying about settling for a mundane life!

Probably from the outside in, the life of a middle aged married woman living in a small town appears mundane and even boring, but that is the great thing about God! When we follow Him and live where He leads, life is always an adventure.

When I was younger, I would fill any blank page with doodles and scribbles drawing cats and hats and sometimes cats in hats. Trees with apples and stick figures morphed to more sophisticated drawings as I got older and the doodles were less pictures and more swirls and curlicues’ and embellishments of my name and the name of my latest crush. And along with the doodles I scribbled words of the life I dreamed of filling the page with the overflow of my heart.

I am so glad that God didn’t give me those long ago scribbled words and dreams but instead knew my heart and filled my heart with His dreams so that my life has turned into a dream come true.

His word tells us that He will give us the desires of our heart when we delight ourselves in Him and that is the key to Him taking our dreams and replacing them with the dream He dreams for us. I dream way too small!

I dreamed of a home and hearth and husband because I was so desperate to be loved. First He drew me to Him with cords of love, saved me and made me whole, loving me with an everlasting love and when the thoughts of hearth and home and husband were less important to me, He poured out blessing upon blessing in the form of a Godly husband and three wonderful children!

So as Summer fades and Autumn steals in, my heart turns to new dreams He has given.

I am busy writing again and just signed up for the American Christian Fiction Writers conference in September. I will admit, I’m a little nervous. I am a writer but the dramatizations, blogging, essays and devotionals have been my forte, but God has given me a story and so my heart turns toward fiction.

I have become a fuser of glass and kiln formed glass sets my world on fire with color and light. It began as a hobby but I am often asked if I will sell pieces and teach classes, so I may be selling at some craft shows this fall to support my habit—I mean, hobby! I see so many spiritual lessons in the work of glass, but that will be another blog topic!

I continue to lead worship at St. Francis Community Church but God is filling our church with talented teenagers who sing and play so we are practicing together as schedules allow and I am excited to see what God will do!

Finally, we are almost sold out of the Ashes to Beauty books and will be revising that book and looking for a new publisher. I will be in Dallas in November with the ladies of Heritage Church at the Richardson Women’s Club, teaching and performing and I am seeking God for what He would do with my ministry there. I love to share the Living Word with women so that they “see” Jesus in a new and fresh way. Several years ago the Lord spoke to my heart and said I am a dramatist and writer so these things are not just what I do—they are who I am in Him!

Mundane? Boring? I think not!

So who are you? And what dreams are you dreaming? Have you given your life to Him and let Him fill the pages with His dreams for you? Are you willing to lay down what you think you want and instead trust Him that what He wants for you is the best? Do you consider the Christ following life to be mundane and boring and much too “good” to be any fun or are you willing to follow hard after Him on the great adventure?

This fall as the children leave for school and begin anew, renew your commitment to the God life. Ask Him to draw your heart to Him and let Him lead. I promise you, it will be a dream come true!

Blessings,

Kim