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On a lighter note...

my new favorite bumper sticker of all time...

ARE MY HOT FLASHES CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING?

Are you LOVING WELL?

It's been a long time...for that one person out there who reads this.
This weekend, I attended a mini-ladies' retreat. It was called Loving Well, and featured my favorite...BETH MOORE. It was fabulous and I highly recommend using this "retreat in a box" at your congregation. If you've done a Beth Moore study before, you know that some of them can be very deep and actually exhausting (in a good way). This is refreshing, exciting, very eye-opening and quite insightful.
I wanted to share a few of the ideas from the thirteen pages of notes I'm taking home with me!

1. In this age of cell phones, pagers, beepers, blackberries, email, fax machines, and instant messaging, we have never been more in touch and we have never been so lonely. We communicate well on a verbal level but communicate so rarely on a heart level.
2. We will never learn to love well without letting God love us.
3. God uses the difficult (mean-spirited, critical, selfish) people in our life to work out the selfishness in us. Those who test us and are our enemies have been chosen for us. That person was put in my life to bring me gain. To bring out the worst in me. To bring it UP and OUT!
4. In 1 John, we read that God is love. Love is not just a feeling or an emotion to God. "It is not relegated to circumstance" and it is not changed by hurt or disappointment. I am a woman. Period. That is not changeable. I may have surgery, bleach my hair, get a tan, but I am still a woman. It's just who I am. Love is who God is. LOVE IS PART OF GOD'S "GOD-NESS.
5. "Perfect love refers to love that is mature, not pampered by anxiety or insecurity." Our society (women in particular) is fraught with anxiety and insecurity. Those are "the outgrowth of unbelief" and they are "rooted in pride."
6. We sometimes feel that God is so challenged to love us. We are testy. We are like foes to him. But God rejoices over you. He sings over you with joy. He wants us to love others that way, beyond what is humanly possible for us. Human love, even at its best, is self-seeking. We still hope to get something out of it. It's not real love until we love someone who doesn't love us. We must love BECAUSE we are loved, not SO WE WILL be loved. We can love anyone through anything because we are loved by God's perfect love. We will never be more Christ-like than when we love people who do not love us.
7. Read Phil. 1:9-10. There is no biblical mandate to love blindly. God calls us to a love that knows and is smart. We must "ask God to give us insight into" the brokenness of those who test us so that "we can learn to have compassion on them." That was HUGE for me.
8. Our hanging onto past hurts and wrongs is what makes us go through it and relive the hurt over and over again. We must sacrifice our "rights" and grudges and lay them down at the altar. We must choose to forgive.
9. Some of us are attracted to testy people. If you're married to a testy person, (1) pray like a maniac. You are one flesh. No one has the capacity to pray for your own flesh the way you do. (2) Pray that God will make you loving and that you will not return testiness for testiness. God can change lives! YOU DO NOT HAVE THE ONE MARRIAGE THAT GOD CANNOT TRANSFORM, BECAUSE HIS SPECIALITY IS RAISING THE DEAD.
10. If we only love who we want to love and those who are easy to love, we are just like the rest of the world. Loving our enemies is what sets us apart.
11. Read Isaiah 58:6-12. Loving others (even strangers) relieves us of the burden of self-absorption. If we work toward healing and if we break strongholds, but never pour ourselves into others, we will never be completely healed. We must keep dipping into his loving well so that we can pour it out onto others. Empty ourselves so he can fill us up.
12. Read Rev. 19:5-7. The original word for that word GLAD is a word that means ecstatic joy. Not just joy but when joy gets physical: to exalt, rejoice with exuberance, show joy by leaping and dancing. THAT's how glad.

Like several times before, these notes are as much for me as anything else. And like I said previously, I took down 13 pages of notes. I am going home, not only with notes, though. I am going home with a commission to help someone who cannot help me and to love people who do not love me back.

Trust and Gratitude

Trust and Gratitude
By Henri J.M. Nouwen

Choose life, then, so that you and your children may live in the love of Yahweh your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him; for in this your life consists. Deuteronomy 30:19-20

A life of faith is a life of gratitude--it means a life in which I am willing to experience my complete dependence upon God and to praise and thank him unceasingly for the gift of being. A truly eucharistic life means always saying thanks to God, always praising God, and always being more surprised by the abundance of God's goodness and love. How can such a life not also be a joyful life? It is the truly converted life in which God has become the center of all. There gratitude is joy and joy is gratitude and everything becomes a surprising sign of God's presence.

Whenever Jesus says to the people he has healed: "Your faith has saved you," he is saying that they have found new life because they have surrendered in complete trust to the love of God revealed in him. Trusting in the unconditional love of God: that is the way to which Jesus calls us. The more firmly we grasp this, the more readily we will be able to perceive why there is so much suspicion, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, violence, and discord in the world. Jesus himself interprets this by comparing God's love to the light. He says:

. . . though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown up; but whoever does the truth comes out into the light, so that what he is doing may plainly appear as done in God.

Jesus sees the evil in this world as a lack of trust in God's love. He makes us see that we persistently fall back on ourselves, rely more on ourselves than on God, and are inclined more to the love of self than to love of God. So we remain in the darkness. If we walk in the light, then we are enabled to acknowledge in joy and gratitude that everything good, beautiful, and true comes from God and is offered to us in love.

Our Prayer, O God, you are not far from any of us, since it is in you that we live, and move, and exist. You, who have overlooked the times of ignorance, let everyone everywhere be told that they must now repent (Acts 17:27-28, 30).

Source: Henri J.M. Nouwen, Show me the way (Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992).

Voice of Truth

Shame on me for never before listening closely to the words of this Casting Crowns song.

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win! You'll never win!"
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand

But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy you'll never win! You'll never win!"
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them lookin' down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

BETH MOORE ROCKS!

I'm doing Beth Moore's Believing God right now and it is so amazing. I leave each week refreshed and exhausted at the same time. It's so much to take in. Some thoughts from today's DVD.

• Psalm 77:12-14 - I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. (Emphasis mine. Performs with an "s" on the end. CURRENTLY performing.
• Habakkuk 3:2 - LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known...
• Romans 4:18 - Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
• Judges 6:12-13 - When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about?" At least Gideon had the guts to ask.
• Psalm 74:9-22 - We are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. How long will the enemy mock you, O God? Will the foe revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them! But you, O God, are my king from of old; you bring salvation upon the earth. It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert. It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever flowing rivers. The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter. Remember how the enemy has mocked you, O LORD, how foolish people have reviled your name. Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts; do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever. Have regard for your covenant, because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land. Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace; may the poor and needy praise your name. Rise up, O God, and defend your cause.
• With the right heart, we CAN request the fulfillment of any promise in the entire Word of God. (In other words, we can use his word, like a lawyer, to set a precedence for something we are requesting.) For example, in Exodus 33, MOSES SIMPLY ASKED! We are greatly helped, however, by understanding that God has not obligated Himself to fulfill every promise from Genesis to Revelation to every believer throughout history.
• ...more of us are probably caught in the cycle of unbelief. In other words, we believe little because we've seen little, and we've seen little because we believe little.
• God's NEW covenant prioritizes work on our HEART over external work. See Hebrews 10:13-18, and 2 Corinthians 3:6 and 4:7. Ephesians 3:20 - his work is now IN us. God prioritizes your internal over your external. If you ask him to move that mountain and you are believing for that and he says no, it is because he is prioritizing and saying yes to something more important. That way, we're freed up. Our character is not at stake. He KNOWS and we know he prioritized FOR us.
• John 15:7. If we are using the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith, we will see more YES answers than Nos. Think like HIM by letting his word abide in you.
• Mark 9:14-24. Do not argue matters of faith with a pharisee. You will talk intellectualism and overlook the wondrous!
• Every time you grasp a new concept about God, try thinking, He's this...and more! Every time you ask God for something, try asking but then saying, "Come, God, and BE HUGE!"
• Authentic Biblical freedom feels the wind of the Spirit while standing steadfastly on the rock of Truth.
• Luke 18:8 - ...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
• Proverbs 2:1-12 - My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men.

Bell

Hey - anyone read Velvet Elvis? (Rob Bell)

New prayer request

Keith Boyer. As I type, he has been in surgery for over nine hours, and will be for at least three more. He is having long-awaited kidney and liver transplants, after suffering major infections from bad seafood.
Keith is the youth minister where I go to church, Northwest Tampa. http://www.tampachurch.org/
Keith's care page is http://www.carepages.com/UpdateListing?seed=647&ClusterNodeID=jb03&tlcx1=tgh&tlcx2=1715476.
The last update I received was about seven hours into surgery and all was well so far. Please pray for Keith, his wife Tonia, and his children David, Casey, Ashley and Alyssa.

BE THE PARENT

Okay, so I read too much. This is the latest and greatest, though. Go out there and get a copy or borrow one from the library if you're like me. (It's an easy read. I read it in one day.) It's called BE THE PARENT (Seven choices you can make to raise great kids) and it's written by Kendra Smiley. It has several really specific suggestions that I can't believe I never thought about before.

I started typing a few highlights for my own memory as much as anything but it was taking forever. So, I'm going to buy my own copy and do a lot of underlining. Go buy your own, too. :)

Please pray for Mark

Mark is a third-grader at T&Ts new school. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and has had a hard six years: five-pound kidney tumor, lung tumor, MDS in his bone marrow, and, just this past November, leukemia. He has been in the hospital THIS TIME since December 18, and it's been touch-and-go. (He actually essentially coded once last week.) Please pray for Mark and his family. What a trial. God bless our children. Read his story and sign the guestbook. http://www.caringbridge.org/fl/mark/

The New Format

If you haven't heard of NOOMA yet or still haven't seen any of the DVDs, you are totally missing you. Ingenious. Thought-provoking. Informative. Emotional. I can't think of enough words to get your attention. From their website: "We can get anything we want, from anywhere in the world, whenever we want it. That's how it is and that's how we want it to be. Still, our lives aren't any different than other generations before us. Our time is. We want spiritual direction, but it has to be real for us and available when we need it. We want a new format for getting Christian perspectives. NOOMA is the new format. It's short films with communicators that really speak to us. Compact, portable, and concise. Each NOOMA touches on issues that we care about, that we want to talk about, and it comes in a way that fits our world. It's a format that's there for us when we need it, as we need it, how we need it."
Go at once to www.nooma.com!

Today

We wish you a Merry Christmas!
We wish you a Merry Christmas!
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
and a Happy New Year!

Much love from the Flatt Family

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Look at all the gifts. And this is not even all the ones from Granna & Darlin, Will & Mel, Mama & Granddaddy, Nee-nee & Chris, and Dan & GG. Can you say THREE SETS OF GRANDPARENTS?! Way fun.

SO WHAT IF SHE THROWS LIKE A GIRL?!

Okay, you have to watch the previous post first. Reagan is not yet four. Now, watch this one. She's such a girl. A somewhat-athletic one, but a girl all the same.

Check out the future football player

Sorry it's so dark. This was last night and, yes, they're wearing shorts. (The only reason he has a shirt on is because of the blasted mosquitos.) This is his favorite pastime. Check out the second catch. LOL Also, can you see the white lines on the grass? Scott painted yardlines in the backyard for Reagan's football birthday party.

help

Does anyone know how to upload my own videos on here?

#4

I know it's a month away but...IT'S ONLY A MONTH AWAY.
No, not Christmas. For some reason, I'm really NOT in the spirit this year.
REAGAN'S FOURTH BIRTHDAY.
FOUR!
A month from tomorrow.
I'm not ready. I swear I was in labor just a few days ago.
Please tell me I'm not the only psycho mom out there who's going to cry that day because he doesn't need "pappies" anymore and because he didn't want a "baby" birthday party. He wanted all of Tyler's friends to come play football with him. And because he doesn't want to wear longalls and jon-jons and saddle oxfords anymore. And because he calls me "Mom" most of the time, instead of Mommy. And because he doesn't say "yight" [light] and "yeft" [left]and "heh-yo"[hello] anymore.

It's just that it's going by so fast. Granted, some days don't go by fast enough (those days when T&T say Reagan's being "a trial and a tribulation to the whole valley" LOL) but overall, it's going by way too fast.
T&T were younger than Reagan is now when I became Mommy. Now they're NINE-AND-A-HALF! She lost her lisp ("pep-thee" [Pepsi] and "THEE what happenth!" [see what happens!]) He doesn't say ele-phan-unt or "arial" cookies [Oreo] anymore. What happened?! I didn't enjoy them enough and now it's gone.

It's going by with another one now, too.

I guess we'll just do what T&T suggest: quit having fun. They say, "If time flies when you're having fun, let's just not have any fun."

Firsts

Tyler and Taylor's first piano recital...

And Reagan's first dentist appt.

Not huge things but I'm not really a dog person and having two pictures of three dogs as the first thing you three people see on my blog just didn't fit me.

The Spring Willow Court Zoo

This is the zoo that was my house last week during dog-sitting. (Among other exciting moments in their stay was the moment the piano teacher brought me her shoe after she stepped in poo with which one of the dogs christened the living room. LOL)

MY CRAZY CHILD

On top of selling Kelly's Kids sale items, putting together two baskets for a school auction tomorrow and trying to pick up since being out of town, we are dog-sitting two of our dog-cousins. Reagan is going to end up killing this little one. I found him in here today trying to coax her out of her crate.

IS THERE A BAH-HUMBUG equivalent for HALLOWEEN?

We ended up having fun but it's pretty bad when you have to spank a child to get him to have his picture made.