Ten More Things I Love About Autumn

Since I love this season so much, I thought I'd indulge myself with an additional 10 Things list to celebrate the season. The photo at left is that of a little guy who stands proudly in front of our house. Thank you in advance for bearing with me on this little journey through my love for Autumn.

1. The crisp blue of an October sky
2. S'mores (duh - I can't believe I forgot this on my first list!)
3. The sound of rustling leaves
4. Wishing both parents Happy Birthday (Dad on October5 and Mom on October31)
5. Adopting my fall "look" (hair color, wardrobe, and of course, shoes and boots)
6. Making "cool weather" dinners like homemade soup or chili and cornbread
7. Perusing cookbooks and recipe magazines for new slow cooker recipes
8. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner and inviting over friends who don't have family close by
9. Pumpkin Spice latte at Sweet Bay
10. Sipping hot tea from a favorite mug before bed (made more enticing by a molasses cookie or piece of gingerbread!)

Thank You, Lord, for the ability to see, hear,
taste, smell, and feel the passing of each season.
Thank You for Your presence in so many of the
things and people we walk by everyday with
little or nothing more than a passing glance.
Open our eyes to see Your hand and our ears
to hear Your voice. Tune our hearts to Yours
as we take the time to stop, look, listen ...
and be thankful. Amen.

If My People ...

I don't typically delve into political matters in this arena, but tonight I am making an exception. The following is a posting that I made to my facebook page earlier this evening. I am listing it here for the reading pleasure of those who may not have facebook profiles and thusly who don't have access to this article in that arena.

This piece will speak for itself. With no further ado ...

TEN DAYS & COUNTING ... THOUGHTS ON ELECTION 2008
In ten days, our country will elect a new President. The media is saturated with polls and opinions, name-calling and mudslinging as never before. The campaigns have been marred by character attacks, veiled threats, blatant lies, and attempts to conceal the truth at levels unprecedented in our nation's history. Are we listening?

In record numbers, leaders of nations who are hell-bent on destroying the God-given freedoms our forefathers established as our foundation are endorsing a US presidential candidate. Regimes whose declared mission is to unravel the very fabric of America (stained with the blood of hundreds of thousands of men and women throughout our history) - these same regimes are watching like ravenous wolves, drooling over the possibility of a certain man being elected as our next President. Are we paying attention?

The liberal policies regarding everything from abortion to taxation to our military presence in the world that used to be veiled, tip-toed around and NEVER openly admitted are now laid on the table boldly and freely, as we have been slowly desensitized to their origin and the path they will lead us down as a nation. Are we watching?

This is the time to watch, to listen, to pay close attention to what is happening in our country. Don't be distracted or deceived. Shake off the slumbering spirit that has infiltrated our nation. Open your eyes and ears and see and hear what is going on, what the Lord is saying and doing.

Voting is a three-step process:

1. BE INFORMED. This is your civic responsibility. Know the candidates and their positions on all the issues, not just the ones getting the most media attention. Do your homework. Don't overlook your local and state candidates and issues. This is where representative government starts - at the local level.

2. PRAY. If you are not sure who to vote for, pray for direction. Once you have settled in your heart how to vote, pray for the candidate and his/her family, for protection and divine guidance. Pray for deception to be exposed, lies revealed and for truth and justice to be the order of the day.

3. VOTE. Don't be swayed by polls and opinions that your candidate is either too far behind or too far ahead for your vote to count. EVERY VOTE MATTERS!! It has been said that evil can only prosper when good men sit and do nothing.

You have one vote, one chance to let your voice be heard. Use it. Use it wisely. Use it with humility and gratitude for the freedom to do so. Use it with reverence and a sense of responsibility. Use it prayerfully and solemnly. Use it well. You can't take it back.

"If my people, which are called by my name,
shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways;
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14

October Sunday

I have a confession to make. I played hooky from church today. And I had an accomplice.

First, an explanation. I'm entering into my busy season at work, which will involve long hours and a lot of travel, and my first trip is this week. In preparation for this trip I have already been keeping later than usual hours doing my admin thing, as well as recruiting and training an enrollment team that will be traveling with us. For you who may not know, I work as the Group Services Manager for an insurance broker, and one of the services we offer our larger group clients is benefits enrollment. This means that once a year we take a team out to each location of a given company and provide information and the opportunity for their employees to make changes to their insurance benefits.

Back to my confession. Knowing that we have barely seen other this past week, and also knowing that I will be even busier and traveling starting this week, David and I took today for a much needed time to reconnect and spend the day together. We went out to breakfast, then strolled around Home Depot for nearly an hour-and-a-half, doing a little shopping and little dreaming. We like to dream together about "one day when we build our dream house, this is what we want in it." David dreams big. It's one of the things I love about him. We dream big together, both in life and in ministry.

After Home Depot, we did some home projects we had been putting off. We hung decorative shelves in the living room, he mowed the back yard, and I re-potted some houseplants. The rest of the day was spent just relaxing, then finally eating dinner and watching television together.

Church relationships are a wonderful thing and when cultivated, they become a vital part of our Christian experience. Corporate worship is not something either of us take lightly either, as we both know well the importance and the power of unity that is the result of gathering together with fellow believers.

But today was more about cultivating our relationship. We recognize that no matter what we do for the Kingdom, our marriage is the most important investment of time and energy we can make. Our partnership in this thing called life is what fuels us for stepping out and pressing on to fulfill our destiny - his, mine and ours.

Years from now, we may not remember the events of today, but we will never lose the benefit of the time we spent together one Sunday in October.

Teach us, Dear Lord, to savor each moment,
to live it to its fullest potential.
Thank You for the moments that make up our years.
Thank You for the people who make up our lives.
Amen.

Be Still

It's Wednesday evening, and I am floating somewhere between being tired and being restless. Part of me is ready to call it a day and turn in early, and another part of me can't shake the feeling that this day is not yet ready to let me go. What to do? Well, write, of course.

Tonight there are no deep thoughts, no clever anecdotes - just a simple entry into this online log of my life. The temperature outside is dropping courtesy of a cold front that moved in this afternoon, a welcome break from the warmer than normal temps we have had lately. I love the cooler air. Apparently so does Sheba, because she tends to want to spend much more time outside when it's cooler than when it's hotter outside. In fact, she's out there right now.

Inside, David is watching television and I am spending a little time with the computer, sending out this little "hello" to whomever might be periodically glancing this direction.

So to you, my dear reader, whomever and wherever you are, may the peace that passes all understanding rest on you tonight. May the grace of our Father cover you and His love beckon you to come and sit with Him for a little while. He misses you.

"Be still and know that I am God."
Psalm 46:10

Moments, Critters & Bling

The River Fort Smith is an outreach church I have mentioned before. I am honored to serve alongside a team of gifted individuals from a variety of backgrounds, with a host of talents and giftings. The core leadership of this group happens to be all women. These are my co-laborers, my sisters, my friends.

Every fall, we go an a weekend getaway, a retreat, to help us refresh and refocus. This year, for the first time, we went with no agenda to follow, no schedule to keep, no other ministry to visit or conference to attend. We spent the weekend at Big Cedar, a lodge just south of Branson, Missouri. When I started packing, the first thing I packed was my fuzzy pink slippers, followed by my pajamas. This weekend was all about resting, relaxing, and hanging with the girls. We stayed up till the wee hours of the morning talking, lingered over the breakfast table talking, and enjoyed browsing the gift shops, wandering the grounds at the lodge, and stopping for a picnic lunch on the way home, talking the entire time.

We did have one little run-in with nature on the last evening. We had set out a lovely candlelight dinner on the patio of our first-floor condo and were just sitting down to eat. Wendy, out of the corner of her eye, saw movement, and assuming it to be the cat she had seen earlier, started to lean down to pet the kitty, only to discover to her horror that the kitty had a stripe down its back! She promptly went to doing her best to stifle a scream, and not wanting to alarm the creature for obvious reasons, Kim and Lisa froze in their seats while the little critter quite casually made his way under our table and around Wendy's feet. Being the one in the best position to try to lure the little fellow away from the open door to the condo, I grabbed a piece of bread off the table and tried to get his attention with it in a futile attempt to lure him away from the table and back into the grass. He was not interested.

Wendy quickly went from stifling a scream to praying that this critter be gone in Jesus' name, and after about a minute of wandering around the patio, he did leave. We took the opportunity to create an assembly line, passing everything from the patio to the dining room table as we hastily moved the party inside and closed the door, leaving our dear Mr. LePew to fend for himself. What could have been a very unpleasant experience, fortunately turned into nothing more than a funny story, which Lisa told her husband, Mike (our drummer) on the phone. His tongue-in-cheek reply about being a part of "this stinkin' ministry" generated a roomful of laughter, which is what these moments are all about.

The next day at a gift shop on the way home, we found a stuffed skunk, which Kim could not resist purchasing as a souvenir from our trip. Our new mascot, Pepe, joined us for a creek side picnic lunch and was welcomed with open arms.

As a sidenote, we also found at this same gift shop a "design-your-own necklace" area, where we found charms that read "Daughter" and "Destiny." The women's conferences we conduct are called "Daughters of Destiny", and we were unable to pass up this opportunity to create the first Daughter of Destiny bling as we all purchased matching necklaces. God has a way of reminding us who we are when we are least expecting it.

Here is a video from our trip. Since this was a casual weekend with little or no primping, we promised each other no pictures of each other. What you see here is rather a little bit of what we saw while we spent time enjoying one another's company. We actually did manage to get a few things accomplished, by the way. All that talking really did pay off. Enjoy the video, and be reminded that simple things can bring great joy and simple moments can last a lifetime.

Hugs,
Rachael

10 Things I Love About Autumn

It's early October, and these are the first days of my absolute favorite season of the year - Autumn. I'm not sure exactly when I decided that Autumn was superior in my mind to every other season, but it was probably somewhere between ice-covered power lines and a peeling sunburn. Regardless of when or why, I love this time of year more than any other, so I thought I'd compile another 10 Things list in honor of the cool and cozy days ahead. Here are ten of my favorite things about Autumn.

(1) Fall candle scents like Pumpkin Pie Spice & Mulled Cider.
(2) The breathtaking eyeful of color when the leaves turn after the first cold snap.
(3) The smell that a wood-burning fireplace causes to linger throughout the neighborhood.
(4) Camping in the Ozarks.
(5) Decorating the house (inside and out) with pumpkins, fall flowers, colored leaves, & pine cones.
(6) The anticipation of visiting family and friends for the coming holidays.
(7) Hayrides.
(8) Having an excuse to listen to Christmas music in preparation for rehearsals for holiday festivities.
(9) The crisp coolness in the air that inspires the trade of capris and sandles for sweaters and boots.
(10) Curling up for a nap under a cozy blanket and near an open window.

Seasons change. To the cynic, they are a reminder that time continues marching on at its own pace, whether we like it or not, and all we can do is hold on for dear life. But to the thankful heart, seasons inspire hope - that tomorrow is a new day filled with promise and wonder. They also remind us to savor every moment, nurture every relationship, welcome each new day.

Teach me, Lord, to embrace every passing season

as a precious gift, thankful for lessons learned,

laughter shared and moments cherished.

Teach me to live every moment to its fullest potential.

Amen.