FOCUS, PEOPLE, FOCUS!!

That has been my mantra this past week.  Hubby has been out of town this week on this annual trail ride.  He always loves going and I don't blame him.  It's a fun time with good friends in the beautiful Texas hill country.  I'm lucky that my hubby does not travel much with his job so I am happy that he gets to enjoy his time with his buddies.

But I'm always happy to have him back home.  During this annual trip I'm reminded of how hard it must be to be a single mother in this world.  A single mom trying hard to raise her kiddos right, keep her job going, making sure there's food in the fridge, the homework's done, everyone's made it to their various, extracurricular activities and are still bathed and in bed at a decent hour.

And it's super hard to run a household in the morning when the only morning person in your happy little family is out of town.  I stink at being a morning person.  And my kiddos are not morning people either.  Our mornings this week started out with me, kindly, lovingly waking up the kids.  "Wake up angel.  Time to get dressed and ready for school".  Then ten minutes go by with no movement.  "Sweetiepies.  Please wake up.  Time to get dressed.  I don't want us to be late for school."  Ten more minutes pass and then all my niceness starts exiting my body.  "KATIE AND ROBBY.  You need to get up, out of the bed and get a MOVE on it!"

This past Thursday, as I was putting things in the car, thinking we're about 2 minutes from leaving the house, I see my precious son in his shirt, boxer shorts, one sock on, one sock off, hair totally disheveled, teeth unbrushed, laying on the floor, untouched breakfast still at the table, playing army in his imaginary lego world.  

I lost it.

"ROBBY, YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS TO GET DRESSED AND MEET ME IN THE CAR.  PUT THE LEGOS DOWN NOW AND FOCUS."

It was like someone had lit a match under his bottom and he was moving!  He got dressed so fast, ran his fingers through his hair, gave his teeth a quick, millisecond brush and made it to the car with his breakfast in tow.

We made it to school on time that morning and even managed to share some smiles and happy laughs before my little peeps exited the vehicle.  That morning got me thinking though.  I wonder if God sometimes looks down from His heavenly throne above at all of us rushing around all the time, here and there, like busy little ants.  Is He upstairs with the angels saying, "COURTNEY TAYLOR.  Quit freaking out, stressing out about all these insignificant things!  FOCUS."  Does He mumble under His breath like I do?  "If I've told you once, I've told you 100 times.  Every single morning, it's like this!  You kids have got to start doing your part!"  I'm wondering if my Father in Heaven has uttered these same, exact words that I utter to my kiddos on a regular basis. 

If any of you are like me, I have a daily "to-do" list a mile long.  A friend of mine whom I used to work for, in his day-planner at the same time every morning, he had handwritten "Thank You Jesus".  I have always loved that.  It's perfect for the "non-morning" people like me.  When I've slept past my alarm and I'm rushing out the door, driving to work like a wild maniac, still getting dressed and putting on makeup as I'm driving, I'm screeching into my parking space, running to get to my desk.  I can open up my planner and see "Thank You Jesus" as the very first "to-do".

So where is your attention today?  What is your focus?  Today in all of your busyness, please take just a minute to FOCUS on God  Focus on Him.  Zoom in on Him as if you were a high-powered camera lens.  Focus in on all His beauty and goodness and just say "THANK YOU".

I know I will.  And yes, please, I'd love a refill on my coffee.

By The Seat of My Pants

SCAREDITY CAT.  That’s what I was when I was little.  Always afraid to go too fast, go too far.  Always worried that I would get hurt or break something – either a rule or a bone!  And what if I wasn’t good at it??  Yikes!  So in order to avoid participating, I stayed on the sidelines.  I made up every excuse in the book of why I wasn’t out there.  Oh I’m not feeling well.  Oh I think my ski boot is broken, etc. etc. etc. 

Not sure why I was nervous or scared.  Nothing had ever happened to me before.  And I was always amazed and slightly envious of my little sister who went through life at mock speed.  Liz was always flying.  Flying by on a horse, Flying past me down a mountain or flying behind a boat waterskiing.  I loved that she wasn’t afraid of anything.

I hated being afraid.  And I hate that my “scaredity cat” genes might have been passed along to one of my kiddos.  I hate it because I know I missed out on a lot of fun by being “chicken”.  By being afraid for no good reason!  And I don’t want these precious children of mine to miss out on anything.  Not one single thing.

So this summer, the kids and I decided this would be a summer of “Oh, What The Heck!”  We made that our motto and agreed that Summer 2012, we wouldn’t be nervous or scared or worried about anything.  We’d try new things and not think about or fret about the “what if’s”.  A summer filled with lots of new, fun sports, new activities, new adventures and lots of choices.  How will we react to new situations and new circumstances? 

Our bible study met today and we discussed choices.  We talked about making good, Godly choices in life and how hard that is to do in today’s world.  I know I have such a hard time making Mom/Wife choices; it must be so hard to do it as an 11-year-old girl.  We talked about “reaping what you sow” and how each and every decision we make today has consequences and repercussions.  We discussed where we want to be as a person in twenty years and how every choice we make today needs to take us closer to that person.

These precious middle school girls are starting to have to think about choices and consequences.  These sweet, pure, innocent girls will have to start standing up for what is right in front of their peers.  They will have to be brave and courageous in a tough world full of pressures.  God didn’t promise that this life would be an easy life but He did promise that He is always there for us.  He sent his only son, Jesus, to face this tough world.  I can’t think of anyone more brave or courageous. 

In Bob Goff’s book, Love Does, he reminds me that often our smart phones mistype LIVE for LOVE and LOVE for LIVE at times.  Which one did you mean to type?  And what if you want to do both at the same time?  Isn’t that what God wants us to do?  Doesn’t He want us to go out and joyfully live this fabulous life?  Doesn’t He want us to love this fabulous life that He gave to us?  Do we have to choose?  Can’t we do both?    

With the recent events in my life, I’ve been thinking about my life and the choices I’ve made in the past.  I’m ashamed of some of the things I’ve done to people.  I didn’t treat them right or fairly.  I’m ashamed of the way I acted when I was younger.  I’ve acted inappropriately and talked inappropriately at times.  I’m not proud of that.

But I am proud of the person I’m becoming.  I am proud of the choices I’m making today that are preparing me for a beautiful tomorrow.  Because of precious Jesus, I have been cleansed.  He died for our sins and washed all of the inappropriateness, the wrongs, and the ugly talk away!  Because of Him, I am made new and I am so, so grateful for this good news.

So since it’s still 100 degrees outside and we’ve got one more weekend to swim at the pool before it closes for the year, I’ve decided to continue with our “Oh, What The Heck!” theme and carry it through the rest of 2012.  Will you join me?  Help me to honor and glorify God by living boldly!  Join me in honoring God by living and loving vibrantly!  Choose to let your light shine brightly and join me in glorifying God by living and loving courageously!

We aren’t promised another day so let’s live it with joy and excitement!  Were there things on your “to-do” list from the summer that just didn’t get done?  What is on your “bucket list”?  Let’s choose to boldly honor and glorify God by tackling some of these and crossing them off the list.  My list might look a little insignificant but if anything were to happen, I believe these would be the times most remembered and would be time well spent.  A few items on my list include:  more sports with the kids, biking with the kids, nature trails, more picnic lunches, more horseback rides, date night with the kids individually, more date nights with the hubby, time spent with my parents and my sister, time spent with my in-laws, time with my friends.

So here’s what I’m choosing to do… I’m getting off the sideline.  I’m diving in and I’m joyfully participating.  I’m going to enjoy this great life I’ve been given.  I’m going to fly by the seat of my pants, mock speed with my hair on fire.  Now's who's buckling up beside me? 

Give and Take.

Wow!  Another amazing weekend full of fun and busyness, family and friends.  And lots of football!  I’ve been watching football for as long as I can remember and you would think that I would have learned or could be able to see the various “holding” calls or penalties but I’m always having to lean over to the guy next to me to ask, “what was that call for?” or “why were we penalized 5 yards?”

And watching the Texans/Dolphins game today, I was struggling with who to root for – my Texans home team or the young rookie (former Aggie) Dolphin quarterback.  Ryan Tannehill was on the field, playing tough.  One play that I remember, Tannehill was sacked and lost a few yards but then the very next play, he makes it up by throwing a long, perfectly executed pass for a nice gain.  Give and Take.  That’s how the game went today.

And I’m finding that is how life goes sometimes.  I’ve had a pretty emotional week.  My sweet 4-year-old friend had an important surgery to remove the cancerous tumor from his body.  His surgery began early on Thursday morning and finished up early Friday morning. It was a long and grueling 18+ hour surgery but and we sure rejoiced Friday knowing that that awful mass was out of his body!  God gave us a long, long day filled with anxiousness and emotion and then He took away the tumor!  Praise God for He is so so good. 

On Saturday, God gave us a beautiful, cool, breezy day in Texas .  We were up at the farm and everything just looked so green and lovely.  Honestly, a little like an Instagram photo that had been all doctored up.  God gave us a new baby calf.  God sent a red cardinal to fly past me (as He does every time I drive down County Road 274) to remind me of my amazing Grandfather whose favorite bird was the cardinal.  God gave me time to spend with my parents, my daughter, my sister and my niece. 

And then on Saturday early evening, God took away my dear friend, Tom Robinson. 

Tom was a man who RADIATED love, joy and goodness.  He gave the best hugs and made you feel as if you were the most amazing person in the entire world.  He treated me like a little sister.  And I adored my big brother. 

Tom managed to put together the picture-perfect family by not being picture-perfect.  And I mean this is a good way.  Tom was real.  He was genuine.  There was nothing fake about him.  What you saw was what you got.  And it was such a good thing. 

Tom and his beautiful wife, Cathy, have been role-models for me.  As parents, as friends, as Christians.  They always have a smile to share and always carry happy hearts.  The children they raised are equally as lovely.  Two good, loving Christian children who both recently became engaged and are both making wedding plans. 

Tom loved his family and his friends.  And Tom loved flying airplanes.  His daughter recently asked him “how the wedding fund was” to which he replied, “I’m flying it!”  Tom sold his plane and was taking it for one last spin before he turned it over to the new owner when his plane crashed during takeoff early Saturday evening.  I remember when we were all together at their lakehouse earlier this summer, I asked Cathy, “aren’t you a nervous wreck when he leaves to fly those planes” and she told me “No, I’m not because he’s doing what he loves.”

Tom loved all of the “toys” at the lakehouse.  The boat, the jet skis, that super cool plane that lands on water, etc  We were teasing about it all and how his lakehouse was the ultimate “adult” summer camp and he jokingly said “Yep, I really think I’m living the dream.”  How amazing is that?  He was alright.  He was living the dream and he loved sharing it with everyone else.  God gave Tom that amazing life.  But as fun and cool and awesome his life on Earth was, I have to believe God took it away so that He could give Tom something even more amazing in Heaven.  I know Tom is up there, right this very minute, throwing the biggest party with his bestie, Jay.  and I'm betting Tom, the ultimate entertainer, probably had styros made that read "Jesus Juice".

God gave me Tom Robinson to know, to love, to show me how to be a friend.  To show me how to raise a family.  God gave me a friendship that I’ll never forget.  Cherished, precious memories that can never be taken away. 

Rest in peace, sweet Tom.  

xoxox