Brave Lady

That's my Beka! She was determined to play basketball this year even with her extreme deficit of skills. She's stuck to it and last night was her first game playing as number 24 for the junior varsity Walton Lady Braves. For the first two periods she had the deer-in-the-headlights look about her and even suffered from a severe verbal lashing from her coach (that was so hard for me to take!!!!). She got her act together, took a girl down to the ground in a fight for the ball (while I was cheering her eagerly on with shouts of "Fight, Beka, Fight!") and she has a bruised hand to show it, and in the final period of the game her desperate struggles to get the ball to a teammate resulted in her just shooting for the basket where the ball bounced off the rim and surprised us all by making it in! Two points! WooHoo! After the game was when she made me the proudest. I asked her about the very public and very rough "correction" by her coach and these were her words...."Mama, I messed up, I deserved it, he had every right to get on me, and I needed it." That, my dear readers, is my brave lady!

Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy. Tonight we are on the road to Chipley.

Oh, and the Lady Braves defeated the Freeport Bulldogs 28-12!!!!

Nothing Stays the Same....Ch - Ch- Changes

Ann will apprecitate that blast from the past song phrase! Yes, it's true nothing stays the same. Little changes around our house seemingly come every day. One is that as of this year trick-or-treating became a relic of history that we won't get to revisit until the day we have grandchildren and that's a maybe. It was a little sad. No costumes. No candy. Sigh. We no longer shop for children's shoes. Sigh. We've all learned how fickle some friendships are...those we thought would last a lifetime have seemingly faded. Sigh. BUT God has brought other people into our lives that are tremendous blessings and have taught me that some things, even friendships, are seasonal and that I should appreciate them and cultivate them while I have the time. My heart doesn't stay the same either. God keeps working on it chipping away at all my insecurities, failings, and unconfessed and unreleased sin. How thankful I am. This morning I had my heart hurt severely by someone I love and I spent the morning weeping and weeping. I drug myself to our Beth Moore study and God spoke volumes to me during the session. Beth had written this study years ago, but I felt as if today it was just for me. God showed me that time and time again I will be hurt and I will be rejected and time and time again I will hurt and I will reject others and Him. But He will never reject me and He will never hurt me. His love for me will never fail. So I guess I just proved my title wrong....God never changes. He is the same today, yesterday, and forever. Amen!

Tall and a Half!

I'm stealing the title from our nephew who gave these words as the measurements for his little sister when he was using his new tape measure. It reminded me of my own girl. The other night she curled up in her daddy's lap - well, as much curling as someone her height could do. I didn't think the recliner could handle both of them. It was a precious picture. The years are fleeting. I can remember when we first brought her home from the hospital. I had major complications and so did she during the birthing process and on the day we came home we first had to make a pit stop at the pharmacy for our meds. Johnmark proudly and protectively carried her around in one hand. One hand! She was that little. On that day I don't think either of us expected her to grow up as healthy and tall as she is today. What a blessing! What a miracle! I have a picture of her and her daddy when she was about a week old. He's holding her in the recliner and she's wearing her familiar defiant look even at that age. The same look that was on her face the other night as her daddy held her again, but this time with both hands, both arms and both legs. That's our girl!

Little brother hasn't hit his growth spurt just yet, but he is full of tenderness and compassion. He idolizes his father and every writing assignment he is given usually ends up being about his daddy. He wrote the other day that his dad is his number one person to go to for advice especially since his dad is also his pastor and, I quote, "a great man of God". Too precious! Of course, I had to ask where I fell into the scheme of things and I fall in at number two. A slight blow to mom's ego. Dad may be his advisor, but mama is his confidant. Lately, his daddy has felt a little left out because he's discovered that our little man comes to mama to inform her of things of the heart. Score one for mom!!!

BRRR!!! Baby, it's cold outside!

I shivered through both my classes today because I wasn't dressed appropriately for our first real cold front of the season. I love it! It's been overcast and drizzly and cold all day...my favorite kind of weather. As of a few minutes ago all mid-terms are finished as are my papers. I went by the library earlier for a weekend of filling my head with nonsense and fluff (don't know how much reading I'll get in because of not having my "church" stuff done - bulletin, powerpoint and lessons for my Sunday night kids and the fact that we're going to the peanut pageant in dothan tomorrow). I feel like a burden has fallen off my shoulders even though I'm a little nervous about the grades. We are definitely taking Monday off, unless a tragedy strikes, and going to pick out a painting at Lifeway for the wall over the wood stove and just generally goofing off. This will be special because we're using some of our gift money from pastor appreciation day and this is something we'll always be able to keep and remember.
We're also skipping school next Friday to go with the senior adults on a little field trip to Lumpkin, Georgia. WooHoo! No school!
This upcoming week should be a little easier...I hope!

Neglect, Neglect, Neglect

I'm stealing a few moments from my oh-so-crazy week to blog just a little. It has been 2 months since I last posted and there is no way to fill in all the blanks. I've been a blogger adulterer and cheated with Facebook for a while. Now I'm in repentance, asking your forgiveness, and wanting to come back to the blog world. Y'all the pasture is not always greener on the other side. I hate Facebook. It is such a thief of time and is not the outlet that this blog is. It is a cheap thrill and I'm sorry I was tempted. This is so much more fun and just so much more me.
Anyway, we're hitting the busy, busy, busy time of year and I'm not quite sure how we are going to manage. School is a pest right now for all of us and unfortunately we are viewing it as a necessary evil. We're in the middle of mid-terms and term papers and I really should be studying and writing papers, but my mind just flat refuses. There are simply not enough hours and days in this week to get all accomplished that is on our "must do" list. Sigh! But I still wouldn't trade my life for any other. I just told somebody on the phone that every Saturday is booked from this weekend until the end of November and then I had to correct that and extend it through December. We get a little bit of a break in a few weekends as Johnmark and I head off to the Florida Baptist Pastor's Conference and the Florida Baptist Convention in Pensacola. Those most wonderful in-laws of mine are coming to take care of the children and John will be filling the pulpit. We're all looking forward to that. Rebeka starts the basketball season mid-November. My parents, sister, and granny will be here for Thanksgiving. I'm so looking forward to spending time with them that isn't rushed and full of other things like our last visits have been. Then it is the hectic Christmas season and finals. But then here's the kicker...two entire weeks of alone time as "us four and no more". Aaaahhh!, Sweet relief! Woo Hooo, the Brown family is on vacation and we havent't been able to say that in a couple years! Hopefully and prayerfully we will come back renewed, reenergized, and ready to get in the trenches and go back to work for the Lord and this loving church that we have been blessed with. (Side note: Sunday the church honored Johnmark and me for Pastor's Appreciation Day. It was humbling and honoring and full of love. They made a banner, gave us gifts, the children sang, kind words were spoken and we were reminded once again of how extremely blessed we are!)

God is good....all the time!

There's soooooooooo much to catch up on so I'll try to stay very brief or just post blogs more. We have had one of the most amazing summers ever! I told Johnmark the other day that if I lived another 80 years (doubtful) that I would never be able to understand God's goodness or His blessings for someone as undeserving as I am. This past year He has just poured out upon us and I stand in awe and amazed. Yes, His grace is truly amazing! Things are just happening to us and for us that can only be labeled as "God stories" (a term we heard this past week). It's just one of those WOW moments. Many years ago after going through a very difficult time in my life the tears just dried up and after a while it became a little more than weird; it became downright scary. I became a more hardened, critical person. Recently, the tears are back. Not just ones of sorrow or out of frustration or even pain. They are just tears of emotion, feeling, humbleness. Just this morning a dear lady and I were sharing our recent God stories before service and tears sprang up. This time I didn't try to hide them, I just let them flow. (Side note: my pappy was this way for as long as I can remember and someone once told me that after looking into his face and being in his presence was like being with an angel. He loved Jesus that much and got so emotional. He was like the weeping prophet. So maybe there's hope for me yet!).
I have been humbled and broken and am rediscovering God's love, mercy, compassion and grace. It is an awesome time!

Here's a brief "catch-up": went to the youth evangelism conference in Orlando last week. AWESOME! Tony Nolan, Jeff Hessinger, Building 429...what could be better! Evangelism workshop in Pensacola. Children's outing to Graceville/Dothan. Learning how to "Share Jesus without Fear". Registered for school (and my hubby held my hand all the way & it was good that he did too!). Start school tomorrow. Have 2 classes with said hubby on Fridays - y'all pray! One is on personal evangelism and the other is old testament (plus 3 others I'm doing without him). Did y'all catch the evangelism theme that has cropped up in one week alone? Oh, yeah, God has me under conviction in a big way and He's not being subtle about it in the least. Even had lunch with Johnmark's friend and his wife - missionaries. Go, figure!

I can't wait to see what God has in store for us this week!

Home Improvement

These are the latest updates to the house. Formal living, children's bath, dining, kitchen and the man cave (den).
We still have some touching up to do and still need to put the wood burning stove in the living room. We have everything for it except the replacement glass and the mantle Johnmark will build.
The yard is coming along.....slowly. Exterior house just needs some sprucing up and a good cleaning and the front porch has to be finished. But we're so excited we've come this far. Y'all are welcome to visit anytime!