Giddy Grown Girl and My Sweet Lord!

DISCLAIMER: This post was written last night while I was at work, so it's over 24 hours old. We got perhaps 1/2" of snow.

So its 3:22 AM CST, I am at my job and should sleep while I can….but guess what!

Tennessee is calling for somewhere between 1-4” of snow! Woop-woop! I know….to many of you this would be more like “big woop! That is a wimpy snowfall, Lisa! And you would probably be correct! Global warming, doncha know! (BTW; “doncha” is Southern for “don’t you”, just in case you were confused!)

Growing up in Tennessee, we had many coveted days off due to snow! Early in the morning my sisters and I, along with neighborhood friends, got out the ole sleds and spent the day sliding down and walking back up our street, having the times of our lives!

However, the last few years it seems like each snow system manages to “turn” just before it gets to us, resulting in few, if any, snow days. Furthermore, Nashville drivers have little no clue how to drive in even a “dusting” of snow!

There is not even a flake falling here; yet nearly ALL the counties all across middle Tennessee (approximately 89 counties) have already closed school for today, in addition to many private schools, day cares, etc. Our school, Christ Presbyterian Academy has not decided. The way our school operates is that we all have to get up at our usual 6 am, have breakfast, get completely ready, and then if we have accumulated 30 feet by then, they may cancel school! JK! Seriously, because we do not have buses running to and from our school, our administration does not worry as much about buses tackling back roads! Never mind the multitude of teenage drivers driving to school! THAT is frightening even on a clear day—you know, when you can “see forever” yet miss those tail lights staring you in the face….or that 8-sided object called a “stop sign”…or that 18-wheeler coming right at you!

I am a child at heart! I completely, totally, wholly, utterly LOVE snow…the beauty, the quietness, the cleanness, the tranquility and serenity it affords. Not to mention the sleds, snow men and women, snowball fights….and if I am totally blessed a trip to the mountains to ski!!!! “Giddy” is the perfect description of this 54-year old child!

I love the idea/possibility of snow (though usually in around here we believe the Kroger grocery chain pays the weather men to predict it regardless so everyone will shop, and so when I arrive there will not be a grocery cart to be had! Trying to get a silly grocery cart or basket is like being in the middle of a mosh pit, for Pete’s sake! SERIOUSLY! However, should there be another Y2K type scare, I assure you folks around here will not be hungry or thirsty.

Now what does this have to do with my sweet Lord! Well, He does allow the snow to fall!

Seriously, though, I picked up a copy of The Message//Remix Bible at a used book store recently. In preparation to write a study on Isaiah to teach, I want to read the Bible up to the book of Isaiah more like a story. In The Message//Remix, Eugene Peterson has included chapter and verse numbers in the margin (not in the original version of The Message). Reading it in this transliteration in modern-day language makes it more palatable to some. There are parts I do not care for—to me some of it borderlines on sarcasm. However, I am reading Genesis for the umpteenth time, and it is already amazing how many questions have come to mind, and how many new things I am seeing for the first time or being reminded of! (I have the biggest smile on my face writing this as I call to those things to mind!) I LOVE THE LORD SO MUCH!

I have had a book idea in the back of my mind for a few years. I will not tell you much (you might run with the idea!)… it has to do with God’s promises and our responsibility to/for those promises. Some people tend to think that when God makes a promise, we just have to believe, sit back on our haunches and wait for it to transpire…with no responsibility from us to receive that/those blessings. My friend, it normally does not work that way. Not saying it NEVER happens; in my own experience God, having given me a free will and the ability to make choices, requires certain things from me in order to receive His best and abundant blessings for me.

Now that I have preached a sermon (and “preaching” is not even one of my Spiritual Gifts—teaching is, but the only time I am a good preacher is when my children/husband push my buttons one too many times! THEN, let me tell you, I can DO some preachin’.

So, I leave you this day with a few promises of God from the first few chapters of Genesis (oh, and, BTW, please pray for snow so I can go home, sleep and spend time with my family! No prayer of the believer’s heart is insignificant to God, and does not He say He wants to give us the desires of our hearts? I DESIRE SNOW!)

I digress….

Gen.6-8 ff is the story of Noah. God acknowledges Noah as a righteous man and spares only the life of him, his family and 2 of all living creatures before He flooded the earth and destroyed everything living, including all of humanity.

Gen. 8: 20-22: “Noah built an altar to GOD. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt-offerings on the altar. GOD smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, “I’ll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I’ll never again kill off everything living as I’ve just done. For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never stop.” (The Message//Remix)

Gen. 9: 2-7: (God talking to Noah about the living creatures): “All living creatures are yours for food; just as I have given you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don’t eat that. But your own lifeblood I will avenge; I will avenge it against both animals and other humans. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans let his blood be shed. Because God made humans in his image reflecting God’s very nature you’re here to bear fruit, reproduce, lavish life on the Earth, live bountifully.’ (The Message//Remix)

Immediately following that, God makes His covenant with Noah, including his children who would come after him, along with everything else that came out of the ship with him.

Gen. 12:1-3: God was speaking to Abram: “God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your fathers for a land that I will show you. I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous, you’ll be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you’ those who curse you I’ll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.” (The Message//Remix)

(Side personal note to Lynnette: please take special note of Gen. 12:8 and 13:12 about a tent).

Gen. 15:1: “After all these things, this word of GOD came to Abram in a vision: ‘Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand.’”… (v. 5) …”Look at the sky. Count the starts. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram.” (The Message/Remix)

In Gen. 19 God had warned Lot to gather his wife, sons and their husbands-to-be and leave BEFORE He rained down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was slow to respond and his sons-in-law thought it rubbish and did not leave. However, in Gen. 19:29 we see that God followed through with His promise to spare Lot, his wife and daughters; they did fulfill their responsibility to leave. We know how the story progressed with Lot’s wife making a deadly choice by disobeying God’s order to not look back and was turned into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26). (The Message//Remix)

God’s great and precious promises are given unto us! (2 Peter 1: 4-11) They are freely offered to us and given to us IF we will take our responsibility seriously!

Choose obedience, P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Something Happens), receive His promise, and pay it forward!

Much love,

Lolli

PLEASE PRAY FOR SNOW! (You know, when God wanted to really impress a thought upon His people, He stated it 3 times! They knew He really meant it! I have only asked twice, OK! Yet, PLEASE PRAY FOR SNOW! Ok! There it is! 3 times…and I have always heard ‘3rd time’s a charm!”)

Have any good snow stories? If so, please leave a comment telling me about it!

I leave you with some photos of my home and all around my home AND some of my precious first-born, Janna, who is now the mother of 2 girls. Her 4-year old looks exactly like her! These were back in the days when we actually had measurable snowfall!