Birthdays are good days!

Happy 76th to my mother-in-love, Maggie! We celebrated this weekend with 60+ family members and friends ~ just like one big family reunion! Some of these folks I haven't seen in 3 years or more...want to know what the heck of it is? Most of us live within Nashville or, at most, 90-miles apart! Glad it was a celebratory reunion as opposed to a sad occasion. I have been blessed to be a part of this family for 30 years...many of these folks have been born since I married into the Syler family. Hope you enjoy the photos, unprofessional though they are...and may I please ask you to continue praying for our Haitian friends and all those left inHaiti to try and determine a new "normal".

Many thanks, blessings and much love!


The birthday cake

The birthday lady/queen for a day, Maggie,
and her hubby Clay

Clay and his sis, Faye

Rodney and 1st cousins

Cousins watching DVD of Heather (the girl)
getting her 1000th career point in basketball

Justin--have you ever seen a happier face!

Rodney's oldest brother, Kerry, and his family
with Maggie and Clay

Steve and Joanne

Cousins with Maggie and Clay

Kurt

Rodney and his Mom

Aunt Dorothy and Sandra

Cousins--can you pick out Rodney's 4 siblings?

Cousins--the Suddarths

Megan and Kurt

Cute cousins!

Robin

Uncle Jake and his Family

Benj and his cousins

Rodney's brother, Rick, and his wife Sally

Rodney's brother, Craig, and his daughter, Shaynee

My husband and my son

Craig, Kurt and Justin (father and son)

Cousins again!

I'm a little teacup!

(This was shared with me recently and the person did not know exactly the original source of the story! I want to share it with you as a blessing and a reminder of just how precious you are to your Creator!)

There was a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a beautiful antique store to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially teacups.

Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't understand. I have not always been a teacup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "Don't do that. I don't like it! Let me alone," but he only smiled, and gently said, "Not yet."

Then WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was made to suit himself and then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!" I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, "Not yet."

When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on he shelf, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! "Ah, this is much better," I thought.

But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. "Oh, please, stop it, stop, I cried." He only shook his head and said, "Not yet."

Then suddenly he puts me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up. Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, "What's he going to do to me next?"

An hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself." And I did. I said, "That's not me. That couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!"

Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember. I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

The moral of this story is this: God knows what He's doing for each of us. He is the potter, and we are His clay. He will mold us and make us and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to "stink" try this.

Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter.

Heavy Hearted for Haiti!

Many of you know that, each summer, our family goes on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic to construct a church for our dear friend, Moises, who is a Haitian pastor serving in the DR (please see the video below that Jeff Rogers with GO Ministries did within the past couple of days to allow us to see the progress being made). Moises, along with Romano and Wilby, are just 3 of our Haitian friends serving in the DR. They all have family still in Haiti; Wilby has a son, Calvin, that he has not been able to contact to assure that he is alive. Wilby and Romano are cousins; all 3 of these men are pastors, serving Haitians living in the DR. For those of you who do not know, there is long-standing violent animosity between Dominicans and Haitians, who share the island of Hispaniola. Yet, the Dominicans are helping the suffering of Haiti even as I write this. As my heart is so very heavy today, and longs to be in Haiti helping with rescue and recovery, I ask you to pray at 9 AM CST daily for the people of Haiti. Please watch the video of the church construction for Moise AND the other video update showing Jeff and Wilby talking about the state of things. Also, please consider texting from your cell the word "Haiti" to 90999 and $10 will be added to your cell phone bill and the funds will go to Haiti relief through the American Red Cross! Very easy to do; yet the impact is so far reaching. Last I heard this morning, over $2 million has already been raised this way! That's huge for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere that has now virtually been totally destroyed! Be blessed today!

Pastor Moise Jean, our friend and

the pastor our church supports

Below is Vicky Rogers (friend and missionary with GO Ministries,

and our friend/pastor/soccer coach Romano, Haitian, living in the DR.

Wilby, below left, is a Haitian pastor in the DR and cousin

to Romano. Wilby does not know if his son in Haiti is alive.

Below is Romano and our Dominican son, Amaury, and his

beautiful wife, Catherine, also a missionary with GO Ministries

Wilby (below) at his wedding

Romano (right) and I'm not sure who is on the left

Wilby and Lisa's wedding: Romano behind Wilby; Jeff

Rogers (missionary with GO Ministries and Vicky's husband)

top right

Romano (below) showing his pearly whites! Please pray for

these friends, who have committed their lives to serving the

Lord in ministry in the DR.

God of all Creation

Please go here to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti! This is through G.O.Ministries in Louisville, Ky., the group we have been doing missions with in the Dominican Republic specifically with a Haitian pastor, Moises, for years. My heart is breaking for these precious people living in the poorest country in the western hemisphere ~ average annual salary is between $200-$400! Evil runs rampant through gang control and the practice of Voo-Doo! Lord, please have mercy! Won't you please join me in prayer for this country of people who have been destroyed....most especially for our friends, Moises, Romano and Wilby, as they continue to know nothing about the well-being of their families in Haiti! Also, please pray that, if I am to go and help with relief, the Lord will clearly show me and will provide the necessary funding for me to get there and back. In my heart I want to go hours ago; but God (my 2 favorite words), in His infinite mercy and in His perfect way, will provide the people, the funding, the aide needed to try and help the Haitians rebuild. May His name be lifted and glorified throughout the process and may Jesus become Lord of them all!

For the past 3 days I have awakened to these words in my head:

"Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee; how great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee; how great Thou art, how great Thou art!"

As I tried out my new camera while working, I sat in awe of our Creator! Vivid colors everywhere, beauty undefiled, character...

"Oh, Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder; consider all the worlds Thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder; Thou power throughout the Universe displayed"

Please ponder and enjoy...

(I lightened them up on an editing program, but they seem darker here...so sorry!)

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!

Plan B

Please pre-order my pastor, Pete Wilson's, book, Plan B on Amazon now! His sermon series by this title was incredible, and this book is sure to be, as well!

(Re)solution

Resolutions! Do you make them, then break them…or are you among the select few who actually make and keep them? I have good intentions each year when I state my New Year’s resolution(s). However, I sit on my good intentions (literally and figuratively) most of the year! In the vain of intentions, I have (re)directed my focus this year to this year’s (re)solutions ~ that is, solutions to goals, rather than resolute in intentions (“resolute” meaning unyielding, definite, unwavering). The list below is not exhaustive; merely an initial sense of direction for my year. Perhaps my motto would sound something along the lines of “Let the solutions begin in 2010!”

The prefix re- usually means again; so the implication is that the “thing” has been done before. Most of my (re)solutions, then, are a (re)creation, a (re)igniting, a (re)forming or a
(re)claiming of past characteristics, desires, or goals. I covet your prayers that I will be able to attain these lofty goals, not to perfection…but that I will be persistent in my efforts.

My greatest desire is to (re)acquaint myself with God my Father, Jesus my Savior and the Holy Spirit my Comforter and to (re)capture the anticipatory joy that accompanies a bride in preparation for her wedding~ “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” (Is. 62:5)

I will make a concerted effort to (re)align myself with all the precepts of God by increasingly (re)calling, (re)claiming, and (re)citing Scripture. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”. (Heb. 4:12); “You have commanded Your precepts to be kept diligently.”(Ps. 119:4) I will also (re)commit to
(re)ading God’s Word each day before I read anything else! (I need serious prayer on this one, as I often turn on my computer first thing in the morning!) The (re)ality is that starting my day in the Word of God (re)charges me and makes the day run more smoothly! The truth is, often that time gets (re)allotted to other things (as in the aforementioned computer, television, sleep or a combination thereof!) “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3: 22-23)


I will (re)cognize God’s mercies, blessings, and gifts; and to speak thanksgiving to Him for His abundant blessings before any prayers of intercession are voiced. Long ago I learned an acronym for effective praying: A.C.T.S. : First, Adoration of the Lord, simply acknowledging who He is; Confession of sins of commission and omission; Thanksgiving for the abundance of blessings He has bestowed for that day, and Supplication for personal needs and for the needs of our family, our friends, our country, our church. Note that supplication comes last (Jesus first; Others second, You last = JOY!), and more time is spent in adoring and thanking Him for who He is and all He does! May I be (re)lentless in acknowledging privately and publicly my loyalty to and love for Jesus!

I need to (re)allocate scheduled time to be creative! The Lord has gifted me with a penchant towards the fine arts. When the creative juices flow, I (re)alize that my propensity is to find other things that I deem more necessary to complete~ things like cleaning, washing clothes, cooking, paying bills, blah, blah, blah…so I tend to (re)consider priorities and move on. Heretofore I will (re)asses the “could’ve, should’ve, oughtas” and (re)channel the appropriate amount of time (re)gularly to play my newly tuned piano (thanks, honey!), do more watercolor painting and scrapbooking, and writing~ all to the honor and glory of the One who fashioned me in that way.

As I write, I (re)call these words by Karen and Richard Carpenter :

We've only just begun to live,
White lace and promises A kiss for luck and we're on our way.
And yes, we've just begun.

Before the rising sun we fly,
So many roads to choose We start our walking and learn to run.
And yes, we've just begun.

Sharing horizons that are new to us, Watching the signs along the way,
Talking it over just the two of us, Working together day to day together.

And when the evening comes we smile,
So much of life ahead We'll find a place where there's room to grow,
And yes, we've just begun.

…to be continued…
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."