Clarity With Charity

Ahhhh!  Memorial Day weekend.  It marks the official beginning of summer with hot dogs sizzling on the barbeque (anyone else only love hot dogs with striped grilling lines?), trips to the beach and if you are old school, the fashion world’s blessing to wear white!  I love my white jeans, wearing them makes me feel like a lady…turning 30 didn’t make me feel like a real grown up.  However, making it through a whole day with white denim does.  (Secret:  I carry a Tide Pen)  (Fact:  Tide Pen should hire me as their spokeswomen, because on white denim days I use it at least 5 times)

Its so easy in the midst of dashing to the mall for Memorial Day sales, trying not to stain my white pants, to forget the profound significance of this holiday.

This significance has become much more profound to me in the past decade.  Growing up, I didn’t know very many people connected to the military.  I heard about military sacrifice, but it was only an idea to me not a reality.

My brother joining the National Guard made it reality.  Knowing my brother was in politically unstable regions of the world made it a reality.  Meeting many military wives and hearing about their everyday lives made it a reality. Hearing about separation, loss, carrying and raising babies without their husband nearby, waiting by the computer or phone hoping for a good internet connection to just hear their husband’s voice, made it a reality.

It has always been reality that for hundreds of years, men and women have risked their safety, sanity and endured unthinkable pain and separation to protect…ME…..to defend… YOU!  They have done it for faces they love and they have done it for faces they will never see.

Their sacrifice is freedom’s reality.  I celebrate each and every man and women that has and is serving in the United States of America Armed Forces .  I know the reality is you will never and can never hear it enough, but Thank – You!

And a special thank you to one of my heroes, my brother, and his amazing wife for her sacrifice.

Who are your military heroes?  Take a moment to tell us about them and thank them here!

I love the worldview of three year olds.  Recently, I was on a plane with a three year old behind me. There was the typical toddler question of “why?” repeated about 100 times in our flight to her patient Momma. The child also had a question near the end of the flight which made me laugh out loud. The flight attendant got on the loudspeaker to announce the arrival of our flight into the city and after she finished the little girl said, “Mommy why didn’t she call my name?” Her mother stifled a giggle and tried to explain that the flight attendant didn’t know her name.  However the little girl kept persisting, “but momma I want her to say my name, why won’t she call my name?” I thought about how when you are three, it seems only normal that the flight attendant should know your name and announce it to everyone.  Because when you are three you are surrounded by people who seem to revolve their lives around you.  Your pre-school teacher, your parents, your older siblings and especially your grandparents give you attention and unlimited goldfish crackers and hopefully lots of hugs, kisses and bed time stories. This little girl believed with her whole heart that the whole world should know and pronounce her name because I would guess she has been loved and protected well by her parents.  She feels known and safe and has a healthy dose of confidence that her’s is a name worth announcing over the loudspeaker.

Total Childlike Confidence!!!

What happens to that childlike confidence that we are likeable and important through the years?  If a child just made up a dance 5 minutes ago, they want to show you.  If they are drawing a picture and you wonder aloud if they are drawing an elephant,  but they know it is a mountain they will tell you what it is, a mountain.  They aren’t embarrassed that you couldn’t guess what their picture was, they are just happy to share the experience with you. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is about Jesus’ interaction with children found in Luke 18:15-17 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them.  But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Reading this passage always gives my heart a little shock, “what!  I have to be like a child to enter the Kingdom of God!”  But I’m smarter than a kid, I have more degrees, job experience, and money why do I have to be like them…then Boom! (that’s the sound of conviction mixed with some revelation in my heart)  I have to be like them because they don’t have those things I often use to define me, they don’t have degrees or a car or a job or a mortgage, they are just themselves.  They wake up everyday to being a kid and they are a kid, and they live like a kid naturally without prompting. What makes a child, child like?:  Here are a few of my ideas and thoughts, I would love to hear yours, –           A child is good at expressing their need. –          A child is honest about how they feel. –          A child is unrestrained and free –          A child laughs a lot. –          A child is dependent. Sometimes,  I try to make myself worthy of inheriting the Kingdom.  I feel bad and guilty because I look at my life and see all the areas I am lacking in.  I think, “I really should memorize more scripture, pray longer or volunteer some more.”  Then I begin to pray and my mind wanders, I read facebook statuses of friends who seem to solve the hunger problems of a city over their lunch break (when all I did during my lunch break, was solve my hunger problem).   Yet it is not my lack of good time management or completion of projects that could keep me from inheriting the Kingdom of God, it is my lack of childlikeness.  Craziness!!!!!!!!!!! So this leads me to the questions I have been asking myself and I would love to hear your thoughts If I came to God everyday, and I was dependent upon Him, if I shared with Him what I needed and felt with no filter.  If I was free with Him and laughed, often with Him – What would that look like? –  How would that change my relationship with Him? –  Why would that help me inherit the Kingdom of God?

Wooohooo!!!!!!

Its name is “Clarity with Charity.”

I have spent months, growing, carrying, and nurturing the dream to write and to share a message that is deeply in my heart.

So Welcome!

Like most new parents holding their first born…all I can think is, “This is awesome, but WOW was that hard!”

And of course the scary wonderful part about birth is….the adventure has just begun.

So glad to have you along for the journey!