Irrestible Revolution

God has really been dealing with my heart. Isn't it amazing how He can bombard you from all sides when He has a message specifically just for you. My specific message for the last couple of weeks has been the message of LOVE. It all started when I read a post (FaceBook) from a friend of mine. She simply said that she was enjoying a book her daughter had left with her to give to her sister. Instead of passing the book along promptly, my friend decided to read it first. I asked my friend the name of the book. "Irrestible Revolution" was her reply. I decided to go to my favorite book source, Amazon, and read the reviews for that book. The reviews were mixed but mostly positive and stated that it was controversial and life changing, for some past readers. Well of course I had to have the book! After reading it, I agree on all accounts.....controversial in that the author states that we must love our neighbor as ourselves in a radical way. Radical because we should give away and share everything that we have. I will let you read the book to see how Shaine Claiborne (author) thinks we should actually achieve this biblical command. I did not agree with all of the author's points of view, but most of them were straight from the bible and very hard to disagree with. This alone, reading a book that calls you to action, was not all God needed me to hear. I also began a bible study on I, II, and III John about the same time that I was reading the other book. This bible study was just a left over part of an inductive bible study that a group of friends and I did last summer. Guess what people? In case you have never read the books of John (I had, but obviously not closely enough) this section of the bible speaks clearly, concisely, and almost totally about how we should love our brothers in Christ and even those who are not Christians. So, needless to say, I have vowed to listen to God's screaming voice and work on becoming a person who LOVES with all that I have and all that I am. You would think I already knew this. The title of my blog is "Love Required". Thanks for the reminder God:)

Time In A Bottle

As Rocky and I celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary, we just today put our oldest son on an airplane headed to Ft. Bragg N.C. for his first official assignment in the United States Army, our second son moved into his newly purchased home, and we took our daughter to college for her sophomore year. Wow - where did the years go? It is times like this that I wish for "Time In A Bottle". I would use it to drive the boys to one more soccer practice or one more ballet lesson for Sarah Rose. Maybe even one more homework session around the kitchen table as I called out spelling words and checked over the math problems. I would love to make the tears of one more booboo fade away with a kiss and a hug and be awakened in the middle of the night to a tap on the arm with someone asking to sleep with us because they were scared.
I know, even as tears roll down my cheeks, that this was suppose to happen. We have diligently trained our children to be productive, happy, self-reliant adults who search for God's will in their lives and follow it closely. We prayed that this day would come. Why does the time slip past so quickly and without warning your last moment of childhood treasures are gone never to return except in a faded memory? Someone should have warned us........ Well, maybe they did and we just didn't listen closely enough.