Just Making Excuses

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Lynn

no-excusesI thought I’d heard everything.  I was wrong.  Yet another Hollywood couple bites the dust but instead of calling it what it really is, Gwyneth calls it a “conscious uncoupling“.  Ahhhh…so that’s what the politically correct term for divorce is now.  I learn something new everyday.

Then there’s the sudden about-face at the World Vision headquarters.  First they’re okay with hiring gays and then they’re not.  Huh?  For an organization that claims to be founded on Biblical principles why did they even wade into this kind of controversy in the first place?  Oh, I know why…money!  Call it what it is.  Being pro-gay is big business right now.  However, when the backlash from their biggest supporters…conservative Christians… threatened the financial bottom-line of the organization they had no choice but to overturn the decision.  They would have lost more money than they would have gained.  It was a simple business decision not a return to Biblical principles.

I wish people would just be open and honest.  Call it what it is.  When a marriage falls apart it’s because two people have given up on their relationship.  It’s a tragedy.  It’s a heart-wrenching decision that will have life-long ramifications not only for the couple but for their children and other family members.  Don’t make light of tragedy or make up every excuse in the world to lessen the impact.  It’s divorce!

It’s this callous approach to ending what is supposed to be a life-long commitment to one another that is causing young people to abandon marriage entirely.  More and more young adults including Christian young adults are saying “No” to marriage and “Yes” to living together.  Why?   It’s easier to leave when there is no formal covenant made.  They can just walk away from relationships.  It’s the easy way out.

Are you kidding me?  It is just another excuse to turn their back on God.  Talk about a “conscious uncoupling”!  Call it what it is.

When another “Christian” organization bows to societal pressure to abandon it’s principles to make sure its “bottom-line” is stable, we should cry out in indignation.  It is a “conscious uncoupling” of a different sort.  I wonder how many other organizations who once claimed to be founded on Biblical principles will “consciously uncouple” from obeying God’s Word so they will be more politically correct (and more financially stable) in society?

Let’s face it.  We’re just making excuses.  Call it what it is.  It’s SIN.

Don’t sugar coat the word: SIN.

One day we will all be called to answer for our SIN.

We won’t be able to make up excuses then.

John 9:31 “We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.”

Here is another great article on the topic: http://mikeblackaby.com/2014/03/27/conscious-uncoupling/  Well said, Mike!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My Current Work in Progress

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Lynn

567532_14597581-prn01_lzI came into this blog hop a little late.  Seems like I’ve been doing things a little late for quite some time now.  I’ve been behind “the 8 ball” for most of this past year and that’s why I just had to add my two cents to this blog hop organized by some amazing writers from InScribe.

I don’t have a current work in progress…I AM the work in progress!

This past year I’ve learned that there is so much more to being a writer than actually writing.  Did I actually say that?  It’s true.  In 2010 and the three years that followed, all I thought about was writing and publishing my Wounded Trilogy books.  I was so all consumed with that project I forgot I had a family who needed my attention more than my novel needed another edit.  I forgot that I needed to eat and get much needed sleep…instead of the unhealthy snacks I munched on while I tap tapped on the keyboard in the wee hours of the morning, causing my son much grief because my office was right next to his bedroom.  If I didn’t sleep, he didn’t either.  Sorry Brett.  I forgot that I had a life away from a computer.

I stopped volunteering.  I stopped going to Bible Studies.  I stopped being productive in anything else except what I was accomplishing on my manuscripts.  I loved what I was doing but at what cost?

So this past year, I have made a concerted effort to NOT take on another book project.  I blog.  It’s fun, it’s rewarding and though at times time-consuming, I’m on my own deadline and I write when I can (and not in the middle of the night) and I try not to create pressure upon myself to meet certain deadlines.  It’s been wonderful to write about what I’m truly passionate about: my faith and my family!

This past year:

I’ve hugged on my grandbabies…a lot!

I’ve spent quality time going on shopping trips and lunch dates with my children.

I’ve talked to my husband and not laced every conversation with wanting his input on another plot line or character development for another one of my stories.  I’ve enjoyed our being empty nesters and going away on trips together and going “media free” and not being guilty about not connecting and marketing every day on social media.

I’ve gone back to teaching Junior High, and spending time with students who challenge me and bless me every single day in the classroom.

So, I AM my current work in progress.  Oh, I still write, but I’m not making it the priority this year.  I have to keep working on this current project (me) a little longer.

 

 

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There is a time for everything…

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Lynn

I talked to a young Mom recently who shared that she would love to be able to sit down and write books like I have done but her life is way too hectic and frazzled with raising preschoolers.  I sensed that she was feeling weary and perhaps a little envious of the fact that I was able to write whereas she spent her days picking up toys, changing diapers and folding mountains of laundry.  I smiled at her and commented, “There are seasons in everyone’s life.  You are right in the middle of a very active and no doubt tiring season of parenting preschoolers.  They need you.  It is more important for you right now to embrace this season because it flies by so quickly and then your children are in school, then they are teenagers, and then they are married.  Enjoy this season because it will be over far too quickly…trust me…I know.”

I remember vaguely those preschool years, helping my kids tie their own shoe laces, or watching them learn how to master the fine art of drinking from a sipping cup and having Cheerios and raisins stomped into my carpet on a regular basis.  I remember the trials of potty training and yes, the mountains of laundry.  Now I have a married daughter, and two young adults who do not live at home…they don’t need my constant supervision now.  They don’t run to me for hugs, or plant strawberry breath kisses on my cheek.  That particular remembered pleasure for me is now reserved for my grandbabies!

It’s not that I miss my season with my own preschoolers, I don’t.  I embraced it for all it was worth because a brilliant older woman in my church said the very same thing to me when I was a young Mom, words I now found I was repeating to this young woman: “There is a time for everything.”

My son is engaged to be married.  I remember vividly his giggling and baby laughter, the way his dimples stole my heart the first time I held him.  Now he towers over me, “Awwww, Mom!  You’re embarrassing me!” he complains when I force a hug from him as he heads out the door after one of his short visits.  His fiancee watches him squirm in my arms and good-naturedly teases him as he bends down to give me a quick hug.  I would love to hang on to him but I reluctantly let him go, “…there is a time to embrace and a time to refrain”.

My youngest daughter has always balked at my nagging at her to keep her room tidy.  “I don’t like it neat and tidy, Mom!  I like my room this way!  I feel comfortable!  Besides, I’m the one who has to live in it, Mom.  Close the door if you don’t like to see the mess.”  Nagging at her never worked.  Now when she has lived away from home the past year, I find her neat and tidy but empty room disconcerting.  I miss the mess.  Don’t let her hear me say that though!  I close her door and think to myself, I wish I had remembered when she lived at home that “…there is a time to be silent and a time to speak”.  

My daughter will be celebrating a “milestone” birthday in April.  Where did those thirty years go?  I remember the excitement of planning her wedding day.  I remember dress shopping and decorating and attending bridal showers with her.  I remember the deluge of rain that fell in cascades from the sky on her wedding day.  The ‘great flood of 2005’ they called it here in Cochrane, but still it didn’t dampen the excitement of the day.  She glided down the aisle on the arm of her father and his voice broke with emotion when asked, “Who gives this woman to be wed?”  I knew before he spoke the words: “Her mother and I”, that years of memories must have washed over him in that instant, drenching him with emotion more so than any deluge of rain could.  I think the most courageous thing a loving father will ever do in his life is let go of his daughter’s hand on her wedding day and place it in the hands of another man.

But it was his season to let go…

There is indeed a time for everything as I hug on my two adorable grandbabies!  Seasons come and go, but enjoy each one.  Don’t hurry through the one you’re in and certainly don’t wish for the next one.  It will come…

… far too quickly!

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